thou also have had compaffion on thy fellow-fervant, even as I had pity on thee? Coloff. 3. 13. Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, even as Chrift forgave you. If God fhould 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 fee no reafon of this Command, yet when I confider who it is that commands it, even the Infinite and Merciful God, to whom I owe my felf and all I hope for, I fee reafon enough for me to obey, though I fee not the reafon why God fhould command. But in this injunction of Forgiving my Enemy, I fee a moft juft and proportionable reason of my Obedience: I owed unto God a moft Infinite Love and Obedience to the uttermoft poffibility 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 likewife contracted an innate enmity againft that God to whom I owed fo vaft a debt of Duty and of Guilt: this very God freely, without my feeking, when I hated him, fent me his Son with a free Pardon of all this Infinite Guilt, and commanded me to fhew 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 fome petty relation; we are otherwife both equals. God freely forgave me, when there was nothing to enjoyn, or inforce, or deserve, or fo much as to feek it; and is it not reafonable that I fhould forgive my Brother, that it may be feeks my Pardon? but if he doth not, our common Lord and Mafter enjoyns it.

2. Confequently upon the former, The not obferving of this Duty, doth moft Juftly and Reasonably deferve that I fhould not be heard in this Petition. If I can fo boldly and unthankfully encounter a Command of God standing upon fuch juft and reasonable grounds, With what face can I expect a Pardon from him at my request, when I refufe to Pardon my Brother at his command?

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515 3. Confequently alfo the Pardon of my Brother is no Meritorious Caufe for God to Pardon me: the Breach of any Command is a Meritorious Caufe of Punishment; but the Obfervation of one Duty cannot deferve the Pardon of the Violation of another: God requires me to forgive my Brother, and when I have done fo, I have done but my Duty, and do not deferve my Pardon; and therefore when I fay, Forgive me, for I forgave others, I make not the Pardon I ask, the wages for the Pardon gave; for as my Brother's Offence against me holds not proportion with my Offence against God; fo neither doth my Pardon of him hold proportion with God's. Pardon to me.

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4. Nor confequently is my Pardon of others the meafure of that Pardon I beg of God: The Offences committed by my Brother against me,are not in truth fo much Offences committed against me, as against God; for it is therefore an injury to me, because done against that Law that he hath interpofed between him and me; and fo though I am concerned, yet in the Foundation of my concernment, is that Law that God hath fet between him and me; and were it poffible to fuppofe no fuch Law, it were impoffible to conceive any Injury to be done from one Man to another. So then my Pardon of him is but of flender concernment of my own, the chiefeft Intereft is God's. Again, My Offence against God is against an Infinite Obligation, and against an Infinite Perfon; but my Brother's Offence against me, as it relates to me, is but of finite Relation or Obligation, and against a finite Perfon; and therefore the measure of the thing forgiven by me is too fhort and too narrow to fit and fuit with that whereof I beg my Pardon. Again, My Pardon to my Brother is with a great deal of Corruption, Supercilioufnefs, Pride, Grudging, Aversenefs, Expoftulations, fecret Rifings of my Heart against him: O! But such a Pardon will not ferve 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 Bro

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ther, the thing I pardon holds not proportion with the Offence which I bave committed against thee: this is but a finite Offence against me, a finite Creature; mine is an infinite Offence against 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, Ifaiah 55.7. A Blotting out, and an everlasting forgetting of my Sins, Ifaiah 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, Isaiah 1. 18. But,

5. Forgive,us, for we forgive. By our Union with Chrift, we partake of his Priviledge of being the Sons of God; fo that as a Father hath tenderness towards his Child, and is apt and ready, upon his fubmiffion, to Pardon him, fo there is the fame, and a far greater readinefs in him to forgive; I faid, I will confefs my Tranfgreffions unto the Lord, and thou forgaveft the Iniquity of my Sin. As foon as he had but a refolution to beg his Pardon, God prevents his Petition by granting that Pardon which he intended to ask. And as by this Union with Chrift we partake of his Priviledge, fo 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 fought his Life, Luke. 23. 34. Father, Forgive them, for they know not what they do. And therefore this Conformity unto the Mind of Chrift, 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 ftrengthened; and the Soul argues thus in this Petition; "O Lord, I am guilty in ແ my felf of many Sins ; but yet, if I am found in thy "Son, thou wilt look upon me with the fame 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 E"nemies; and I thank thy good Grace, I find in my

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felf the fame mind that my Saviour bore, a mind ready to forgive the Injuries that were offered him; and this difpofition I have not from my felf, nor my own Spirit, for that Spirit lufteth after Envy; but furely it comes from that meek and gentle Spirit that is in thy Son; and upon this I do believe I am in fome 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

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I come before thee, and beg thee to pardon my Sins, "affuredly trufting, that thou that haft created in me a "mind of Mercy and Forgiveness unto others, wilt fhew 6c thy felf a God of Mercy and Pardon unto me.

6. Forgive us, for we forgive: It is true, our Par"don of others deferves not thy Mercy, nor can it make "thee a debtor unto us; but, Bountiful Lord, thou haft "been pleased in Chrift, in whom all thy Promises are "Yea and Amen, by thine own free Promise, to engage "thy felf unto thy Creature, Pfalm 18. 25. That with "the Merciful thou will fhew thy felf Merciful. Matth. 5. 7. That the Merciful fhall obtain Mercy. Matth. 6. 14. That if we forgive Men their Trefpaffes, thou "wilt forgive us: and thefe Promifes of thine, freely "and undefervedly'made by thee, I lay before thee, when "I beg my Pardon in Jefus Chrift, thereby to ftrengthen my Soul in thy Goodness, in the free remiffion of all my Sins.

To conclude, In this Petition the Soul breathes out fuch Thoughts as thefe: " O Lord, I confefs before thee I am a finful creature; I have a finful and polluted Nature, a Body of Sin and Death; and this finful Nature fends "forth through all my Thoughts, Words, and Actions, "foul and filthy Streams in every moment of my Life; "and if thou fhouldeft pafs by all the fins of my Nature "and Life unto this day, and fhouldeft call me to an ac"count for my Errors fince I laft begged my Pardon, "there were guilt enough left to prefs me down to the "loweft Hell; And this guilt of the leaft of any of my

fins, 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 "feek my Pardon as often as to feek 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 fins in general, fo in fpecial I beg the Pardon of "thofe Sins which I committed fince thy laft act of re"miffion granted, and manifefted, and ratified unto me: this or that neglect of my Duty to thee or my Neighbour; this or that finful, proud, unclean, vain "Thought, which hath stained my Soul, and grieved thy "Spirit, and polluted or weakned my Confcience; this

or that uncharitable, or malicious, or unfeemly or vain "Word; this or that unjuft, or unbecoming, or unchri"ftian, or ungodly Action; every one of thefe leaves a fpot in my Soul, which nothing but the Blood of Chrift " and thy Free Grace can take away; It leaves a Disease, or 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 is an evidence to me, that "thou wilt be merciful unto me, in that thou haft, contrary to my own nature, wrought a merciful temper "in my Heart to others; the fame mind that was in thy Son; and therefore I am humbly confident that "thou haft given me that Spirit of thy Son, and confe"quently the relation and privilege of a Son; that, in

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as much as thou haft given me a heart to pardon others, "thou wilt make good thy Promife of Mercy and Pardon "unto me. I make mention of my remiffion of others, not as the merit of thy forgiving of me, but thereby to ftrengthen my Faith, and to lay hold of thy Promise

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