us unto it; and makes that satisfaction, which he hath given to divine justice, to be mystically our act, as it was personally

his.

And thus I have considered the Petition itself, Forgive us our debts.

(2) I now proceed to the Condition or Plea annexed: as we forgive our debtors.

And here we have,

The act forgive.

The object: debtors.

The limitation of this object: OUR debtors.

The proportion or resemblance, in the particle as: As we forgive our debtors.

[1] I shall begin with the object: debtors.

be a

As all men stand indebted to God in a twofold debt; a Debt of Obedience, and a Debt of Punishment: so one man may debtor to another two ways; either by owing to him a Debt of Duty, or else a Debt of Satisfaction.

1st. Some men stand indebted to others in a Debt of Duty. And, indeed, I might well have said, this debt is reciprocal between man and man. Thus children owe parents reverence and obedience; and parents their children, provision and education. Subjects owe their magistrates honour and tribute; and magistrates owe their subjects justice and protection. Servants owe their masters fear, diligence, and faithfulness; and masters owe their servants maintenance and encouragement. And, generally, all men owe one another, love, respect, and kind

ness.

Now these debts cannot balance one another: that as much as is left unpaid me by any person; so much again I may refuse to pay him. If a father pay not his debt to his child, or a magistrate to his subject, or a master to his servants, they are not hereby acquitted of their obligations; but, still, duty, obedience, and faithfulness is required from inferiors to their superiors. And so, on the contrary, love, protection, and maintenance. is required from superiors to their inferiors, although peccant, as long as the relation shall continue between them. And the reason is, because we are bound to these duties, not only by the obligations that mutual offices lay upon us, but by God's express will and command, and the performance of the relation that is betwixt us. And, therefore, though it be lawful for two persons, that owe one another an equal debt of money, or other

such like things, to cross out one debt by the other, and so discount it between them; yet it is not so, where the duties that God requires are the debts they owe to each other: for, although others may fail in the performance of what belongs to their part, yet thou oughtest not to fail in thine; for, thus to be even with men is to run in debt with God, and to make him thy creditor who will certainly be thy revenger.

And from hence it appears, that this is not the debt, that we are to forgive our debtors, for we have no power to release them from their obligation to duty, whilst the relation between us continues, no more than we have to rescind the laws of God and of nature.

2dly. Some men may stand indebted to others in a Debt of Satisfaction; as they owe them reparation, on good grounds, for wrongs and injuries done against them: and this is the debt, which we are to forgive others.

Now, as wrongs and injuries are of divers sorts, so many divers ways may others become debtors to us.

And they are chiefly these Six that follow.

(1st) By wronging us in our persons, either by unjust violence, or by unjust restraints. Thus the persecuting Jews were debtors to the apostles and disciples of Christ, for often scourging and imprisoning them.

(2dly) By wronging us in our place and dignity; and in the office, to which, by God's Providence, we are called. And so also those, that vilify the persons, and detract from the authority of those that are set over them, become their debtors. Thus Aaron and Miriam were debtors unto Moses, for traducing the authority that God had committed unto him: Num. xii. 2.

(3dly) By wronging us in our friends and relations, either by corrupting them :-thus Sechem became a debtor to Jacob and his sons, for violating his daughter and their sister: or else by destroying them :-so Herod, to the Bethlemitish mothers, by murdering their children.

(4thly) By wronging us in our right and title; withholding from us what is our due.

(5thly) In our possessions; when, either by force or fraud, they take from us what of right belongs to us.

(6thly) In our reputation and good name; unjustly defaming us for those crimes, which only their malice hath invented and published against us.

To all these wrongs we are subject; God permitting the

wickedness of men a large scope to vent itself, and affording us a large field to exercise our meekness and forgiving temper in each of these.

But, withal, if those, who, in any of these, or any other particulars do wrong their brethren, are, by the sentence of our Saviour, here pronounced Debtors, this should teach them to look upon themselves as obliged to make satisfaction, according to the utmost of their power and ability.

Thou, therefore, who art conscious to thyself of wronging any, either in their persons, or dignities, or relations, or rights, or possessions, or reputations; though it be thy duty to confess it before God, and humble thyself to him for it, begging mercy and pardon at his hands: yet this is not enough; for, by one single offence, thou hast contracted a double debt. Thou standest indebted to the justice of God, for the violation of his law: but this is not all; but thou standest in debt unto man likewise, by injuries done against him. And both thy creditors must be satisfied: God, by the righteousness of Christ, through thy faith and repentance; and man, by an acknowledgment, reparation, and restitution. The Apostle hath commanded us: Rom. xiii. 8. to owe no man any thing, but to love one another. And, indeed, satisfaction for wrongs is a necessary part of repentance: for he, that truly repents, doth really and from his heart wish that the wrong had never been done; and therefore will be sure to do his utmost to annihilate the fault, by giving the abused party a compensation fully answerable to the injury, and to the utmost of his ability restore him into the same or a better condition than that in which he was before he received the wrong.

Therefore,

[1st] Art thou conscious to thyself, that thou hast wronged any man in his credit and reputation, either by raising or divulging false and slanderous reports?

Know, that thou art his Debtor; and justice obligeth thee to make him satisfaction for that injury, by wiping away those aspersions, and licking away the dirt with the same tongue with which thou didst bespatter him: for, if thou sufferest the same reports to run on which thou hast set on foot, all, that shall relate them after thee, multiply thy guilt; and all the numerous offspring of lies, which, through a certain itch that men have of speaking ill, will be soon propagated, shall all be

charged upon thee; for, of them all, thou and the Devil art the Father.

[2dly] Art thou conscious thou hast wronged thy superiors, as Magistrates, Ministers, Parents, or Masters, in that authority and power that God hath given them over thee, by any disobedient demeanour towards them?

Know, that thou art their Debtor; and it lies upon thy conscience to give them due satisfaction: which because it cannot be done by recalling the offences past, it must be done by an humble acknowledgment to them; desiring their pardon, and promising and endeavouring more ready submission for the future. So was the case of Aaron and Miriam, when they had affronted Moses, and were convinced of the wrong they had done him: Aaron makes his humble acknowledgment and begs forgiveness: Num. xii. 11. Alas! my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. And so the Prodigal, when he returned to his father, confessed his disobedience: Luke xv. 21. Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: which, though it be a parable, yet teacheth us real and literal duties in parallel cases.

[3dly] Art thou conscious to thyself, that thou hast wronged any one in their right; either in withholding or taking from them, what, in law and equity, belonged to them?

Thou art their Debtor; and, as such, art bound to make them satisfaction, by making them a full and plenary restitution and that, though the thing, wherein thou hast wronged them, be great or small, more or less; yea, though it should seemingly tend to the loss of thy credit to acknowledge such a wrong, or visibly tend to thy impoverishing and undoing to restore it. Nor is it enough, when thy conscience checks thee for it, that thou confess the sin to God, and prayest for pardon at his hands: but it behoveth thee to render unto man what is his, and what thou unjustly keepest from him; whether it be his, by thy promise and engagement, or by his former title and possession. As thou lovest thy soul, and hopest for pardon and salvation, thou must make restitution. And the reason is, because, as long as thou detainest it, so long thou continuest in the commission of the same sin; for an unjust detainure and possession is a continued and prolonged theft. And, certainly, our repentance, be it what it will, can never be true and sincere,

while we continue in the sin we seem to repent of: and, this repentance not being true, pardon shall never be granted thee; but, as thou remainest a debtor to man, so thy debt to God remains uncancelled; and, though men may not sue thee to recover their right, because this sin sometimes is so secretly carried on that it may not come to their knowledge, yet divine justice will sue thee for it, and pursue thee to eternal condemnation.

But, you may say, "What if those, whom we have wronged, be since dead: how can any restitution be made to them, or any recompence. reach them?"

I answer: In this case, thou art bound to find out their children or relations, in whom they still live; and to whom, it is to be supposed, that, which thou hast detained, should have descended and to restore it unto them; with ample satisfaction, likewise, for all the prejudice they have sustained, in the mean time, for want of it. But, in case none can be found to whom of right it may belong, then God's right takes place, as he is the Universal Proprietor of all things: and thou oughtest, besides what thou art obliged to give of thine own, to bestow it in works. of charity and piety, which may promote his glory; still bewailing, that thou hast so long deferred the restitution of it to the immediate owners, till thou hast made thyself now incapable of doing it.

This, perhaps, will seem a very hard lesson to many; and, doubtless, it is so to a world so full of rapine and injustice: but I cannot, I dare not make God's commands lighter nor easier, than he hath made them. And let this seem as hard as it will, yet this is the Rule of Christianity: this is the inflexible law of justice; and, without observing it, you keep yourselves from all hopes of obtaining pardon by continuing in your sin, which is utterly inconsistent with repentance, and without repentance there can be no remission nor salvation.

And thus much for the word Debtors, and what it intimates to us; namely, that we are bound to make satisfaction for all the wrongs and injuries we have done to any others.

[2] But, then, as there lies this debt on the part of the debtor, so doth there likewise one great and important duty on the part of the creditor: and that is, Forgiveness: as we forgive our debtors.

Now all pardon and forgiveness, is a removing of the liable