the stain and take away the power of sin to re-imprint the Image of God that was defaced by sin to rescue the heart from the love of sin and consequently from the power of sin to transmit into the Soul new Principles new Affections new Wills Psalm 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power As he came with Light to rectifie the Understanding so he came with Righteousness to rectifie the Will The strength of a King rests in the Love and Will of his People when Christ conquers the Will from the Love and Submission to sin he conquers Man from the Dominion and Kingdom of sin 3. And as thus by Light he conquered the Kingdom of Darkness and by Righteousness the Kingdom of Sin so he comes with Life also and conquers us from the Kingdom of Death When our Saviour died he entred into the Chambers of Death and conquered this King of Terrors took away the malignity and sting of it by taking away Sin the sting of Death healed these bitter waters by his own passing through them and by his Resurrection triumphed over the power of death for us by the vertue of that Resurrection delivering our Souls from the second death and our Bodies from the first death and giving us a most infallible assurance of a final victory over death by an assured and blessed Resurrection Thus Death is swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15.54 2. And as Christ hath purchased him a People by Victory so his Regal Office is considerable in the Government of this people that he hath so acquired He hath given them a Law to Live by the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which makes them free from the Law of sin and of death Rom. 8.2 The Law of God vindicated from the false glosses which the corruption of men had in succession of time put upon it a Law sweetned and strengthned and actuated by the Love of God wrought in the Soul a Law though of the highest Perfection and Purity yet accompanied with the Grace and Assistance of Christ to Enable us to perform it in some measure and accompanied with the Merits of Christ to pardon and the Righteousness of Christ to cover our defects in our performance of it He hath given them a new heart and this Law of his written in this heart He hath given them of his own Spirit a Spirit of Life to Quicken them and of Power to Enable them to Obey And because notwithstanding this conquest of Christ of a People to himself they are still beset with Enemies that would reduce them to their former bondage he watcheth over them and in them by his Grace wasting and weakning and resisting their corruptions by new supplyes and influences from him quickning their hearts by renewed derivations of Life and Spirit from him which otherwise would sink and die under the weight of their own Earth encountering Temptations that like Foggs and Vapours arise out of our own flesh or like storms or snares are raised or placed by the Devil against us either by diverting them or by giving sufficient Grace to oppose them These and the like administrations doth our Saviour use which though they are secret and not easily discerned by us and though they are ordered without any noise or appearance yet they are works of greater Power and of greater Concernment and of equal reality with all the visible administrations of things in this world which are more obvious to our sense and are the effects of that invisible Government of Christ and of that Promise of his Behold I am with you alway even unto the end of the World Matth. 28.20 This is that Kingdom of God within them Luk. 17.21 consisting in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 casting down Imaginations and every high thing that Exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 3. As in his Government so his Regal Office is Evidenced in his Judgment And this Judgment of his being one of the Acts or Administrations of this Kingdom is oftentimes called the Kingdom of God His Judgment of Absolution and Reward to his Subjects and his Judgment of Condemnation and Destruction to the Rebels and Enemies of his Kingdom 2. And as we have the consideration of the King of this Kingdom and consequently of his Subjects Revel 15.3 Just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints So the various Administrations of this Kingdome are frequently called the Kingdome of God and the Mysteries of the Kingdome Matth. 13.11 24 31 44 45 47. Matth. 25.1 14 c. And as the Administrations of this Kingdom are often called the Kingdom so are the Instruments of this administration 1. The Word or Gospel of the Kingdome which must be preached through the whole World Matt. 24.14 and is therefore committed to the ministration of an Angel to dispence it to all Nations Revel 14.6 That great Engin which though seemingly weak and dispensed by weak and despicable Men God hath chosen to confound the things that are mighty 1 Cor. 1.27 to pull down strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 to gather his Elect for the perfecting of the body of Christ the fulness of him that filleth all in all and therefore this publication of the Gospel is oftentimes called the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 3.2 The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Luk. 10.9 The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you and if a Man consider the Mighty and Strange Effects that this everlasting Gospel hath had in the World for these many Hundred Years notwithstanding the many disadvantages upon which it entred and hath continued in the World we may well say that it is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 the Rod of his strength sent out of Sion Psal 110.2 that the Message of a Crucified Christ published by poor despised men to a World that never saw him or if they did saw no beauty or comliness in him to a World full of prejudicies against him prepossessed with an opinion of their own Wisdom with Religions extremely opposite traduced to them from their Ancestors of which Men are naturally tenacious that this Message of Christ not with a promise of Glory or Riches in this World but with a plain prediction of poverty scorns persecutions and Death to those that entertain it and with a promise of future Life that they never saw nor can see till they see this no more should conquer Millions of Souls to the profession and Love of Christ and to an austere self-denying despised Life here doth evidence and convince that there is the strength and Wisdom of God that is ingaged in this wonderful yet most positively predicted conquest of the World 2. The work of the Spirit of God preparing and pre-disposing the Heart to the receiving of the Gospel of the Kingdom convincing the Heart of that Sin and that Death
come before thee and beg thee to pardon my Sins assuredly trusting that thou that hast created in me a mind of Mercy and Forgiveness unto others wilt shew thy self a God of Mercy and Pardon unto me 6. Forgive us for we forgive It is true our Pardon of others deserves not thy Mercy nor can it make thee a debtor unto us but Bountiful Lord thou hast been pleased in Christ in whom all thy Promises are Yea and Amen by thine own free Promise to engage thy self unto thy creature Psal 18.25 That with the merciful thou wilt shew thy self merciful Matt. 5.7 That the merciful shall obtain Mercy Mat. 6.14 That if we forgive men their Trespasses thou wilt forgive us and these Promises of thine freely and undeservedly made by thee I lay before thee when I beg my Pardon in Jesus Christ thereby to strengthen my Soul in thy Goodness in the free remission of all my Sins To conclude In this Petition the Soul breathes out such thoughts as these O Lord I confess before thee I am a sinful creature I have a sinful and polluted Nature a Body of sin and death and this sinful Nature sends forth through all my Thoughts Words and Actions foul and filthy streams in every moment of my Life and if thou shouldest pass by all the sins of my Nature and Life unto this day and shouldest call me to an account for my errors since I last begged my Pardon there were guilt enough left to press me down to the lowest Hell And this guilt of the least of any of my sins as it is more than I am able to answer so it is more than I am able to expiate there is no escaping but by thy free Pardon and that Pardon I beg of thee in the Name and Righteousness and Promise of thy Son who knew all thy mind and taught me to seek my Pardon as often as to seek my daily bread And in confidence only of that free Mercy of thine I beseech thee pardon me and as I beg the Pardon of my sins in general so in special I beg the Pardon of those Sins which I committed since thy last act of remission granted and manifested and ratified unto me this or that neglect of my Duty to thee or my neighbour this or that sinful proud unclean vain Thought which hath stained my Soul and grieved thy Spirit and polluted or weakned my Conscience this or that uncharitable or malicious or unseemly or vain Word this or that unjust or unbecoming or unchristian or ungodly Action every one of these leaves a spot in my Soul which nothing but the Blood of Christ and thy Free Grace can take away It leaves a Disease a Weakness a Wound in my Soul which nothing but thy Free Spirit can heal and recover And though I know that my greatest mercy to others cannot merit mercy from thee because that mercy is but my duty and a duty mingled in the performance of it with many of my own imperfections which stand in need of thy mercy to pardon it and that little good that is in it is not my own but the work of thy Grace as free as thy Pardon yet it is an evidence to me that thou wilt be merciful unto me in that thou hast contrary to my own nature wrought a merciful temper in my heart to others the same mind that was in thy Son and therefore I am humbly confident that thou hast given me that Spirit of thy Son and consequently the relation and priviledge of a Son that in as much as thou hast given me a heart to pardon others thou wilt make good thy Promise of Mercy and Pardon unto me I make mention of my remission of others not as the merit of thy forgiving of me but thereby to strengthen my Faith and to lay hold of thy Promise made in and by thy Son that if we forgive Men their offences thou wilt also forgive us And this I beg not to make room for new offences by pardoning the old nor to continue in sin that Grace may abound but with a resolution to forsake my sins as well as to confess them and not turn again to folly strengthen me so with thy Grace that as thou hast now cleansed my Soul from my past sins and spots so I may keep my self from mine Iniquity that I may live more to thy Honour that I may walk with more Vigilance that I may every day find my account less and thy Spirit and Grace more and more effectual in me to conform me to the Will and Example of thy Son in all Holiness and Blamelessness of mind and life and to that end Lead us not into Temptation c. This Petition directs us to pray for 1 Preventing Mercy Lead us not into Temptation 2 Delivering Mercy but deliver us from Evil. Keep us from falling into Evil but if we fall into it deliver us from it The Former part wherein is considerable 1. What is meant by Temptation 2. What to lead into Temptation Temptation may be understood 1 for an Active Solicitation unto Evil of Sin this is done either by the Devil thus our Saviour was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil Matt. 4.1 And therefore he is often called the Tempter who being a Spirit is by the advantage of his Nature and by the permission of God able to mingle himself so with our Souls and faculties that he can immediately solicite unto Evil. Thus he mingled himself with the Spirits of the Prophets of Ahab and became a lying Spirit in their Mouths 1 Kings 22.21 Thus he mingled himself with the Spirit of Judas tempting him to betray Christ Luke 22.7 with the spirit of Ananias Act. 5.3 Why hath Satan filled thy Heart or it is done by Evil Men either by their Counsels Perswasions or Examples or by our own corrupt hearts James 1.14 Every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lusts and inticed Our corrupt and sinful flesh breathes and evaporates into our Souls those ill and filthy vapors which infect and disorder and seduce it from God the Law of our Members bringing us into captivity to the Law of sin Rom. 7.23 2. For that Objective Temptation or the Object from whence occasionally Temptation ariseth And thus almost every Object of our sense is a Temptation not that there is any proper active motion or action of the Object to perswade to sin but the corruption of our sensual Nature meeting with such an Object acts amiss upon it and so it becomes a Temptation to sin and especially if the Object be such as bears a disproportion to our enjoyment of it The beauty of the Apple was a Temptation to Eve the wedge of Gold and the Babylonish Garment to Achan Naboths Vineyard to Ahab Bathsheba to David yet in these the Objects were innocent and had in themselves no active solicitation to Evil but because they were seemingly good yet prohibited corrupted
more than ten thousand talents Yet blessed Lord give us leave to lay hold upon thy Promise which thou haft freely made and to strengthen our hearts in this that that God that hath commanded us to forgive our repenting Brother will not deny a Pardon to his repenting Children and that God that hath been pleased to promise forgiveness to us upon our forgiveness of others is a God of Truth and Faithfulness as well as a Father of Mercies and though our forgiveness of our Brother cannot in any proportion deserve our God's forgiveness of us yet when the God of Truth hath freely ingaged himself by his Word to forgive us if we forgive he will never break it and he that hath raised in our hearts by his Grace this Merciful temper and disposition towards others hath thereby given us a pledge of his Mercy and Goodness unto us in Pardoning all our offences And lead us not into Temptation And because we are weak and frail Creatures subject to be overcome with every Temptation to depart from our duty to thee and we hourly converse with all varieties of Temptations Temptations from the World Temptations from Satan the Prince of this World and which is the worst of all Temptations from our own sinful hearts corrupt natures unruly affections and without thy continual Grace Preventing or Assisting us the least of all these our Enemies and Temptations are able to over-match us And because we are obnoxious to Temptations in all our actions in all our conditions in all our wants and in all our enjoyments in our lawful actions we are subject to the Temptation of Immoderation and Excess in our religious actions to Formality and Vain-Glory in our Prosperity to Pride and Forgetfulness of thee in Adversity to Murmuring and Discontent and Accusing of thy Providence under Injuries to Vindictiveness and immoderate Anger under Comforts and Enjoyments to Security and Abatement of our Love to thee and setting up our hopes and our rest upon the present World in our Knowledge to vain and impertinent Curiosity Pride and Self-conceit in cases of Wants to unlawful Means for our supplies in case of Abundance to Luxury Intemperance and Contempt of others in Sickness to Impatience in Health to Presumption and Forgetfulness of our latter ends in our Callings either to Negligence Unfaithfulness and Idleness on the one hand or to overmuch Solicitousness and vexation on the other hand If we are in Company we are in danger to be misguided by evil Perswasions or Examples from others if we are alone we are apt to be corrupted by the evil suggestions of our own corrupt hearts or of that evil one that watcheth all opportunities either to seduce or mischief us And since all our ways are before thee and thou knowest the snares that are in them and how to prevent them or to prevent us from them or to preserve us against them we beseech thee by thy Providence preserve us from all those Temptations which thou knowest to be too strong for us and by thy Grace preserve us from being overcome by those Temptations that unavoidably occur in all our actions and conditions Grant us the Spirit of Watchfulness and Sobriety the Spirit of Moderation and Humility the Spirit of Patience and Wisdom the Spirit of Faith and Dependance and the Spirit of the Love and Fear of thy Majesty that may support us against all those Temptations unto any sin that may occur in the course and passages of our Lives that though thy Providence should permit us to fall into Temptation we may not fall under it but by thy Grace be delivered from the evil of it But deliver us from Evil. Deliver us therefore we pray thee from Evil of all kinds and natures from the Evil of Sin and from the evil of Suffering from such Evils as may befal our Souls either to disturb and discompose them or to defile and corrupt them from the Evils that may befal our Bodies by Casualties or Diseases from the Evils that may befal our Estates by Losses and Calamities from the Evils that may befal our good Names by Calumnies and Slanders from the Evil that may befal our Relations in any kind from Publique Evils to the Church or State wherein we live from Private Evils to our selves or others For thine is the Kingdome And though in this short Prayer we have been bold to ask of thee many large and ample Benefits and Mercies which if we look upon our selves only seem too great for us to ask yet they are not too great for thee to give for thou art the great King and Soveraign Lord of all the World in comparison of whom all the Kings of the Earth are but small inconsiderable things and yet even their Honour is much advanced by Beneficence and Bounty all which nevertheless is but a drop in comparison of that Ocean of Goodness and Bounty and Beneficence that resides in and hourly flows from Thee the great Monarch of the whole World Thy Subjects are all of thy own making and all the good that is in them or enjoyed by them is derived from thee to them The Strength and Glory and Beauty and Excellence of thy Kingdom is not derived from thy Subjects but from thy Self to them And therefore though my Petitions be great they are fit to be such because directed to the Mighty Creator and King and Monarch of the whole Universe the Root and Fountain of all Being and Goodness The Power And as thou art the Great Soveraign of all the World and art invested with the Supream Authority so thou art the great Creator of all things and art invested with Infinite Power and All-Sufficiency And as thou hast the Supream Authority so thou hast Boundless Power to grant and effect what we have asked As thou art the Great and Glorious King of Heaven and Earth and the Father of all Mankind we have reason to be confident in thy Goodness and Beneficence And as thou art the Almighty Creator we have assurance of thy Power to give us whatsoever thy Wisdom and Goodness doth move thee to bestowe And therefore upon both accounts we have reason to be confident in the obtaining of what we ask in this Prayer from the great Lord of all things that is Abundant in Goodness and All-sufficient in Power And the Glory And although thy Infinite All-sufficiency and Glory can receive no increase from thy Creatures yet give us leave with Humility to press Thee ever with this argument also Thou hast been pleased to declare unto us That thy Glory is thy great end of all thy Works and art pleased to set the greatest value that may be upon thy own Glory and art pleased to command thy Creatures to Glorifie Thee and dost accept that small Tribute of Praise and Thanksgiving and Glorifying of thy Name from thy Creatures in good part Thou hast the Glory of our Dependance upon Thee which we testifie by invoking thy Great Name thou wilt have the Glory of thy Goodness thy Power thy Bounty in granting these our Petitions and Requests and the Glory of our Praises and Thanksgivings for thy Bounty and Goodness in accepting and answering them which though it cannot benefit Thee yet it is all thy poor Creatures can return unto Thee and thou hast declared thy self well pleased with it Psal 50.32 He that offereth Praise glorifieth Thee Amen Blessed Lord therefore be it according to these our Petitions and Desires and so much the rather because these our Requests are not the product of our own Imaginations and weak Judgments but that Son of thine who best knew thy Will and what thou wouldest grant hath taught us thus to Ask and commanded us thus to thus to Pray Luk. 11.2 When ye pray say Our Father c. FINIS
Displeasure be not a necessary consequence of that Sin and if it be may not he inflict the issues of that wrath of his when and in what measure he pleaseth and if he may what security can this Temptation give against it hath it an Arm of Omnipotence to secure me against the power of him that is Omnipotent and if it cannot what Compensation or amends can it make me to countervail the Damage of his Wrath or the very Danger of it Can the Pleasure or Contentment of the Sin do it alas the Pleasure will pass away in it may be a Life a Day a moment but the Guilt and Torment continues to Eternity Motives to Watchfulness In reference to the Good and Evil ANGELS AS we see Plants in a Nursery when they come to a due growth are Transplanted into Orchards and those that are unuseful are pulled up and cast into the Fire or as we see Boys in a Free-School such as are undisciplineable are after some years of probation sent away to Mechanical Imployments and those that are Ingenious and Diligent are Transplanted to the Universities So among the Children of Men in this Life those that are Vitious and Incorrigible are by Death rooted out and cast into a suitable Condition and those that are Vessels fit for their Masters use Towardly Plants are by Death Transplanted into another Region a Garden of Happiness and Comfort And possibly as by continuance of time they received Improvement and Perfection here So in that other Region they add to their Degrees of Perfection and are promoted to further Accessions and Degrees and Stations of Happiness and Glory till they come to the state of Spirits of just Men made perfect Could we see the Invisible Regiment of the World by the subordinate Government of Good and Evil Angels as once Elisha's servant saw the Fiery Chariots and Horsmen in the Mount it would give us another kind of representation of things than now they appear to us We have just reason to believe that there are infinite numbers of Spirits of both kinds that have their passings to and fro and Negotiations as well among themselves as among the Children of Men and as Ravens Kites and other unclean Birds haunt Carrion and as Vermine haunt after Putrefaction and are busie about it or as disorderly debauched Companions and Ruffians ever haunt out and hang upon a dissolute and foolish Heir till they have sucked out all his Substance and Wealth So the Impure and corrupted Angels haunt and flock about a Man given over to Vice till they have wholly corrupted and putrified his Soul and those Good Men whom they cannot win over to them they pursue with as much Malice and Envy as is possible and though they cannot come within them yet as far as they can they raise up External Mischiefs against them watch opportunities to insnare or blemish them though the Vigilancy of a better Guard and their own Prudence and Circumspection do for the most part disappoint and prevent them Besides the displeasure of the great God there be some Considerations even in reference to these Good and Evil Angels to make Good Men very Watchful that they fall not into presumptuous or foul Sins 1. It cannot chuse but be a Grief to the Good Angels Luk. 15.10 to be present and Spectators of the Enormities of those Matth. 18.10 for whose Preservation they are imployed 2. It must in all probability work in them a nauseousness and retiring themselves from such Offenders at least till they have renewed and washed themselves by Repentance and made their Peace with God in Christ For there is no greater Antipathy than between these Pure and Chast Spirits and any Sin or Foulness 3. It cannot chuse but be a most grateful Spectacle to these Envious and Malignant Evil Spirits who upon the discovery of such a fall of a Good Man call their impure Company together and make pastime about such an object as Boys do about a Drunken Man and upbraid the Sacred and Pure Angels Look here is your Pious Man your Professor Come see in what a condition he is and what he is about 4. It lays open such a Man to the Power and Malice of those envious Spirits they have gotten him within their Territories and Dominions and unless God in great Mercy restrain them renders a Good Man obnoxious to their Mischief And as the contagion and noysomness of Sin drives away the Pure and Holy Spirits so it attracts and draws together those Impure and Malignant Spirits as the smell of Carrion doth Birds and Beasts of prey It concerns us therefore to be very vigilant against all Sin and if through Inadvertence Infirmity or Temptation we fall into it to be diligent to make our Peace and wash our selves as soon as we can in the Blood of Christ and Water of Repentance OF THE MODERATION OF THE AFFECTIONS Phil. 4.5 Let your Moderation be known unto all Men. MOderation is that Grace or Vertue whereby a Man governs his sensual Appetite his Passions and Affections his Words and Actions from all Excess and Exorbitancy It refers 1. To the sensual Appetite 2. To the Passions of the Mind 3. To Speech and Words 4. To the Actions of our Life 1. Moderation in the sensual Appetite and this is properly Temperance which is a Prudent Restraint of our Appetite from all Excess in Eating Drinking and those other inclinations that gratifie our senses And certainly this becomes us not only as Christians but as Reasonable Creatures for the sensual Appetite and those inclinations that tend to the gratification of our External senses are in a great measure the same in Men and in Brutes and they are in the due order and use Good and Convenient for both we cannot live without them But Almighty God hath given to Mankind a Higher and a Nobler Nature namely Understanding and Reason which in the right posture and constitution of the Humane Nature is to Govern Guide Moderate and Order that inferiour Faculty that is common to the Brutes as well as to Man And that Man that keeps not this Regiment and Superintendency of his Nobler Faculty degrades himself into the condition of a Brute and indeed into somewhat worse for even the Instincts of Brutes do for the most part regulate their sensual Appetite from Excess and Immoderation But because this belongs to that distinct vertue of Temperance I forbear further Instances herein 2. Moderation of our Passions and Affections and these are here principally intended namely Love Hatred or Anger Joy Grief Hope Fear and those other mixt or derivative Passions that arise in Man upon the presentment of their several Objects And although the Passions of the Mind considered simply in themselves are a part of our Nature and not Evil but when duely regulated and ordered are of excellent Use to us yet if they once become unruly mis-placed or over-acted they occasion the greatest troubles in the World both to the
that will but come in and enter into Covenant with God in Christ Jer. 31.34 I will forgive their iniquity and will remember their sin no more And although this one Sacrifice of Christ offered up once for all is a full satisfaction for all the sins of his Elect to the end of the World yet the same eternal Contract that made it so did likewise appoint certain Means actually to apply it And make it effectual to us of Faith to lay hold upon it And in as much as notwithstanding our giving up our Names to Christ many renewed daily sins are committed by us our Lord teacheth us to resort daily to this Sacrifice this Magazine of Mercy this Fountain opened to wash for sin and for uncleanness thence to fetch new applications of this one Sacrifice for our renewed offence and to beg our Pardon as often as we beg our Bread So then 1. We have the true Original of Forgiveness the Free Love of God which gave Christ as the Sacrifice for Sin and accepted that Sacrifice as the price of our Pardon So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting Life John 3.16 2. We have the Meritorious Cause of it that Sacrifice of Christ whereby Pardon is impetrated for as many as lay hold upon it 3. The Act which that Eternal Counsel appointed to be the Means of the actual Application of it to the Soul receiving of the Pardon thus offered To as many as received him to them c. Joh. 1.12 For as we live and move and have our Being by God and his Will and Providence yet the same Will of his hath appointed the means whereby that Will of his is accomplished our daily Bread and the use of it So although from God we have our Pardon yet the same Will of his hath appointed Faith in Christ to be the instrument of an Actual or Effectual Application of it and the Efficacy of Faith as an instrument for that purpose depends likewise upon the same Will of God which hath so appointed When the Israelites were bitten with fiery Serpents in the Wilderness God commanded Moses to erect a brazen Serpent for their cure Numb 21.8 But although the Divine Will had annexed a power of healing unto that Serpent instrumentally yet the same Will appointed the actual application of that power to the looking upon that Serpent Every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live So though by the Eternal Will of God a Pardon is obtained by the Death of Christ yet the same Will of his hath appointed Faith in Christ the means of the receiving of that Pardon and yet this very means is not in our own power but it is the Gift of God John 6.44 No man can come unto me except the Father draw him 4. The renewed Exercise of that Act upon occasions of sin committed or renewed Prayer for Pardon which as it doth most naturally flow from the sense of sin and of a Pardon impetrated by Christ so by the Divine Institution it is required to apply that Pardon actually to the Soul and it is a high Mercy of God to grant it for the asking and an argument of a proud unbelieving heart to think to have it without it and whensoever the Spirit and the Word of God hath wrought in a man a belief of and in the Sacrifice of Christ the same Spirit doth work in the heart a desire of it which is nothing else but the Prayer of the Mind for it maketh intercession according to the Will of God Rom. 8.27 And herein we therefore see two things 1. Our Duty Our sins are many and daily even after we have given up our Names to Christ If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves 1 Joh. 1.8 And though meritoriously Christ hath satisfied for those very sins yet we are to have often recourse to this Sacrifice to fetch our cure and our cleansing in the actual application of this Sacrifice unto us Had a man been bitten by a fiery Serpent he might look upon the brazen Serpent and live and had he been bitten again he must have looked again or else he had died it is so with us only here is the odds the man that had been once cured if bitten again might perchance not have looked again upon the Serpent and so have died but it is otherwise here the same principle of Life that abiding seed 1 John 3.8 that did at first make him to seek and sue to Christ for his first actual Pardon will after a fall a renewed sin send the Soul to this Fountain for a new act of application of that cleansing and pardoning he cannot commit sin that is lye in it without recourse to God for Pardon because his Seed abideth in him 1 Joh. 2.8 2. Our Priviledge If any man sin we have an Advocate 1 John 2.1 an Advocate that knows the mind of our Judge and out of that knowledge hath taught us as often as we beg our Bread to beg our Pardon and that with assurance that we shall be heard if we do it in Faith and Sincerity 1 John 1.9 He is faithful and just to forgive It is the Proclamation of his Name Exod. 34.7 Forgiving iniquity transgression and sin It is his promise Jer. 31.34 Jer. 33.8 I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more Even to a revolting and backsliding creature upon true repentance Isa 56.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Jer. 3.12 Return thou backsliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord and will not keep anger for ever only acknowledge thine iniquity Christ came into the World to restore in Man the lost Image of God And when Peter asked him Matt. 18.21 How oft shall my Brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times Jesus said unto him I say not unto thee till seven times but till seventy times seven times And surely that Mercy that Christ required in a poor mortal Man is infinitely fuller in the merciful God who delights in Mercy and Forgiveness Only remember 1. To take heed of Presumptuous Sins Premeditated Sins Sins against knowledge and against convictions Sins with a presupposition of Pardon Deut. 29.19 That shall bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart The Lord will not spare him These though they cannot exceed the Mercy of God to pardon them they many times shut and seal up the Soul against Pardon hardning the heart to a great difficulty if not a final impossibility of Repentance and by that means the Soul is disabled with any comfortable ground or assurance to beg Pardon without the great Mercy
forgave you If God should require obedience to any command though I saw no reason for it yet the Love of God would constrain me to reason thus Though I see no reason of this command yet when I consider who it is that commands it even the Infinite and Merciful God to whom I owe my self and all I hope for I see reason enough for me to obey though I see not the reason why God should command But in this injunction of Forgiving my Enemy I see a most just and proportionable reason of my Obedience I owed unto God a most Infinite Love and Obedience to the uttermost possibility of my Being for from him I had it and when I broke that Allegiance I owed unto him an Infinite Debt of Guilt and Punishment and with this guilt I likewise contracted an innate enmity against that God to whom I owed so vast a debt of Duty and of Guilt this very God freely without my seeking when I hated him sent me his Son with a free Pardon of all this Infinite Guilt and commanded me to shew Mercy to my offending brother the offence that I committed was against an Infinite Obligation of the creature to his Creator the offence that my Brother commits as against me is only against some petty relation we are otherwise both equals God freely forgave me when there was nothing to enjoyn or inforce or deserve or so much as to seek it and is it not reasonable that I should forgive my brother that it may be seeks my Pardon but if he doth not our common Lord and Master enjoyns it 2. Consequently upon the former the not observing of this Duty doth most Justly and Reasonably deserve that I should not be heard in this Petition If I can so boldly and unthankfully encounter a Command of God standing upon such just and reasonable grounds with what face I can expect a Pardon from him at my request when I refuse to Pardon my Brother at his command 3. Consequently also the pardon of my Brother is no Meritorious cause for God to pardon me the Breach of any command is a meritorious cause of Punishment but the Observation of one duty cannot deserve the Pardon of the violation of another God requires me to forgive my Brother and when I have done so I have done but my duty and no not deserve my Pardon and therefore when I say forgive me for I forgave others I make not the Pardon I ask the wages for the Pardon I gave for as my Brothers offence against me holds not proportion with my offence against God so neither doth my Pardon of him hold proportion with Gods Pardon to me 4. Nor consequently is my Pardon of others the measure of that Pardon I beg of God The offences committed by my brother against me are not in truth so much offences committed against me as against God for it is therefore an injury to me because done against that law that he hath interposed between him and me and so though I am concerned yet in truth the foundation of my concernment is that Law that God hath set between him and me and were it possible to suppose no such Law it were impossible to conceive any injury to be done from one man to another So then my Pardon of him is but of slender concernment of my own the chiefest interest is Gods Again my offence against God is against an Infinite Obligation and against an Infinite Person but my brothers offence against me as it relates to me is but of finite relation or obligation and against a finite Person and therefore the measure of the thing forgiven by me is too short and too narrow to fit and sute with that whereof I beg my Pardon Again my Pardon to my Brother is with a great deal of corruption superciliousness pride grudging aversness expostulations secret risings of my Heart against him O! But such a Pardon will not serve my turn I beg a Pardon at the hands of the God of Mercy and Perfection a full a perfect Pardon Measure not out O Lord thy Pardon to me according to my Pardon to my Brother the thing I pardon holds not proportion with the offence which I have committed against thee his is but a finite offence against me a finite Creature mine is an infinite Offence gainst an infinite Obligation and against an Infinite God the Pardon that I give is mingled with ruggedness with revenge with remembrance of the thing I forgive but the Pardon I beg of thee is an abundant Pardon Isa 55.7 A blotting out and an everlasting forgetting of my Sins Isa 43.25 Such a Pardon as leaves not behind it the tincture of my former guilt that though my Sins were as scarlet they may be as white as snow Isa 1.18 But 5. Forgive us for we forgive By our Union with Christ we partake of his Priviledge of being the Sons of God so that as a Father hath tenderness towards his child and is apt and ready upon his submission to Pardon him so there is the same and a far greater readiness in him to forgive I said I will confess my Transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the Iniquity of my Sin As soon as he had but a resolution to beg his Pardon God prevents his Petition by granting that Pardon which he intended to ask And as by this Union with Christ we partake of his Priviledge so we partake of his Spirit and that Spirit is a Merciful Spirit ready to Pardon an Enemy even before he ask it This was the command he gave us and this was the Pattern he left us who when he was reviled reviled not again 1 Pet. 2.21 23. but prayed for those that sought his Life Luk. 23.34 Father Forgive them for they know not what they do And therefore this Conformity unto the Mind of Christ is an Evidence unto a Man of his Participation of him and that God heareth him as a Father heareth his Child and by this means Faith is strengthened and the Soul argues thus in this Petition O Lord I am guilty in my self of many Sins but yet if I am found in thy Son thou wilt look upon me with the same tenderness that a Father looks upon his child and wilt be more ready to forgive me than I can be to ask it I find thy Son was Merciful and ready to forgive even his Enemies and I thank thy good Grace I find in my self the same mind that my Saviour bore a mind ready to forgive the injuries that were offered him and this disposition I have not from my self nor my own spirit for that spirit lusteth after envy but surely it comes from that meek and gentle Spirit that is in thy Son and upon this I do believe I am in some measure united to him and as I do partake of his Spirit so I doubt not but I partake of that relation of his even the relation of a Son unto thee and in that relation I