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lame, and is neither fo free nor full, as we would defire of God. But the reality of our forgiveness, that it is real and fincere, though imperfect (Matth. xviii. ult.), for which we can appeal to God.

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2. It denotes our forgiving to go before the forgiveness here afked of God for ourselves, Luke xi. 4. Forgive us our fins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. : And this is a demonftrative proof, that the forgiveness the faints here ask for themselves is only the pardon of the guilt of fatherly anger, and the manifeftation of pardon, and not the pardon of the guilt of eternal wrath, which concerns their state. For till this laft be obtained, one cannot fincerely forgive others,, Matth. xviii. 32. 33. Then his Lord, after he had called him, faid unto him, O thou wicked fervant, I forgave thee all that debt, becaufe thou defiredft me: Shouldft not thou also have had compaffion on thy fellow-fervant, even as I had pity on thee? No man can fincerely forgive his brother who does not fo love him; and none can love his brother, but he who loves God; and none loves God, but he who is forgiven of God, Luke vii. 47. Her fins, which are many, are forgiven; for he loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the fame loveth little.

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Fourthly, What encouragement can one draw from his for giving others, to hope that God will give the forgiveness des fired?

1. When we find that we who are fuch evil and malignant creatures, fo hateful and ready to hate one another, are bý the power of God's grace enabled to forgive thofe who have injured us, we have ground to hope that the most gracious God will forgive the injury against himself even to those who are under the guilt of eternal wrath, it being eafier for him to forgive a talent, than for us to forgive a mite.

2. From our difpofition to forgive, we may confirm our confidence in God as our God, and therefore firmly believe that our feet fhall be washed, where our whole body has been washed before.

'I fhall conclude with fome inferences.

Inf. 1. Beware of fin, as ye would be of contracting a debtwhich ye are unable to pay; and make füre your intereft in the great Cautioner, in time, left ye be arrested ere ye are a- !

ware.

2. See your debts, and mourn over them, and apply to the blood of Chrift for the pardon of them all, your imputed, your inherent, and your actual fins

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3. Pretend not to pay your debt by your good hearts, works,

mourning, repentance, &c. but betake yourselves to free grace for forgiveness. If ever ye obtain pardon, it will be in the way of free grace.

4. An unforgiving, irreconcileable difpofition, and revengeful fpirit, unfits men for praying. Forgive, if ye would be forgiven. And fo it unfits for other duties, and particularly for the Lord's fupper, the feal of forgivenefs.

Lafily, Come to God through Chrift for pardon. He is a forgiving God. Why does he teach us to pray for pardon to qurielves and others, but that there is a fulness of mercy tor Pardon wich him?

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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

HIS is the fecond of those petitions which concern our

T fouls, and it relates to temptation, for warding off that

great evil, as the former for the enjoyment of a great good, the pardon of fin. Thus all that we are to feek for our perfonal, fpiritual good, is deliverance from fin, from the guilt of it, petition 5. and from the power of it, petition 6. For thefe being obtained, the foul is happy, fince nothing can hurt us but fin.

In difcourfing from this fubject, I fhail fhew,

I. The connection of this petition with the former, in the particle and.

II. The petition itself.

III Apply.

I. I am to fhew the connection of this petition with the former, in the particle and. This teaches us, that,

1. No man can with a good confcience fue to God for pardon, nor will he obtain it, who is not refolved to fight against fia in time coming, and to beware of it, Pfal. lxvi. 18. There are two things frightful to a penitent, the guilt of paft fin, and the power of fin for the future. He is equally concerned for jullification and fanctification. They who feparate them, act hypocritically, and therefore cannot come fpeed at the throne of grace. They are unreasonable, in that they would be faved from death, and yet lie under the power of the difeafe. Unchriftian, in that they would make Chrift the minifter of fin, and his pardon a fconce for a finful life. 4 B

VOL. III.

2. A pardoned finner is not paft danger. He is in a fickly country; and though he be recovered, he is in danger of a relapfe. He is fill in the field of battle; and though he is cured of one wound, he will be fair to get another, if the Lord do not fhield him. Therefore he is to pray, Forgive our debts; And lead us not into temptation, &c. Nay Satan will be most apt to bait the pardoned finner, Acts xiii. 8.

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fin,

II. Let us confider the petition itself, in which we pray, "That God would either keep us from being tempted to f "or inpport and deliver us when we are tempted." It confifts of two parts.

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I. The firft is for preventing grace, Lead us not into temptation.

II. The fecond is for affifting grace, But deliver us from

evil.

The FIRST is for preventing grace, Lead us not into temptation. Here I am to fhew,

1. What is meant by temptation.

2. What by leading us into temptation.

3. What is the import of this part of the petition.

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FIRST, What is meant by temptation? In general, it is a trial made on a man to see what is in him, and what he will do; and fo the matter it is defigned to bring forth may be good as well as evil, Thus God did tempt Abraham * Ġan.

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*The author, in his manufcript treatife on Genefis, of which feveral extracts have been already given, thus renders and comments on these words: "The Ged himself; he tried, Abraham, i, e. The true God, and no other, the God who had made him the promise of Ifaac, and fulfilled it, who had promised to eftablish the covenant with him, and had declared, that in him only, Abraham fhould be called a feed; even he tried Abraham, and tried him exquifitely, by calling him to facrifice that his fon, thereby difcovering him, and, as it were, opening him out like a banner difplayed to public view, whereby his mof firm faith in God, and abfolute refignation unto him, were laid open to the view of all, to whofe knowledge this his trial might at any time come. The word by which the trial is exprefed, doth never, fo far as I have obferved, fignity to entice unto fin. Neither was the thing fin, which Abraham was by the trial carried to the very point of accomplishing of: fince he had thereto the call of God, who was abfolute Lord of the life of Ifaac, as of all other men; and might veft whom he would, with authority to take it away, as he has vefted magiftrates in other cafes. But the matter was fo fufpiciouslike, that the infinitely-holy Author of the trial is, by the facred penman, indicated in the ftrongest terms, for to cut off all Tufpicion dclufion in the cafe. He tells us, it was the GOD, ie the true

xxii. 1. But ordinarily it is taken in an evil fenfe; and fo it is here meant of temptation to fin, which is the plying of a nan with fome engine or other to draw him into fin. So in tempta tion four things are to be confidered.

1. The party tempted, or liable to temptation.

2. The parties tempting, the black inftruments of tempta

tion.

3. The bait wherewith the hook of temptation is busked. 4. The mifchievous defign.

First, The party tempted, or liable to temptation, viz. ourfelves and others, who live in this world of pits and faares, Cant. iv. 8. Those who are in the upper houfe are beyond the reach of temptation; no hifling ferpent is there; they are not within bow-fhot of Satan. But here he rangeth up and down, 1 Pet. v. 8. here he has the length of his chain. Adam in paradife was tempted †, and the fecond Adam too;

God; and that word is in effect doubled, q. d. the true God, even the true God. And after all there is an emphatical stop after it, the GOD; he, &c. So that, with good reason, the force of that term is, with Junias and Tremellius, thus expreffed, GOD himself, to the exclufion of all other. Moreover, that term looks backward, qd. the fame who had made fo great promises with reference to Ifaac; all which were hereby threatened to be quite overthrown and buried in oblivion. The word, he tried, is alfo emphatically pointed, to fhew it to have been a molt exquifite trial, far furpaffing all that Abraham had met with before. Niffab, he tried. 'Tis of the form Pihel, hand doth not clearly appear to be used in Kal at all. It notes an attempt or effay, as David had not tried, viz, to go with Saul's armour, Sam. xvii. 39.; whether more full, as God tried Ifrael, Jud. iii. 1. and the queen of Sheba did Solomon, 1 Kings x. 1.; or more flight, as the delicate woman had not tried the fole of her foat, to fet it on the earth, Deut. xxviii. 56.; made by fume means, as by the nations, Jud. iii. 1. by hard questions, 1 Kings x. 1.; for difcovering and laying open the object to view, as God tried the people, whether they would go in his law or not, Exod. xvi. 4. and Hezekiah, for to know all in his heart, 2 Chron. xxxii. 31.; even as a banner displayed is fet forth to view, for 'tis akin to Nafa, to lift up, and to Nafas, whence Nes, a banner or ftandard. It differs from Bahban, to prove, as an action incomplete from itfelf as completed: Nif fab importing only the difcovering or laying open of the object; Bahthan not only that, but also the judgement formed upon the difcovery 3.made. Hence Pial. xcv. 9. Your fathers tried me: they proved me, &c. From all, which, the formal notion of Nifah appears to be to stry."

The temptation and feduction of our firft parents is july confidcred as the devil's mafter-piece, and a moft glaring demontiration

the one able to have stood, the other one who could not fall. What wonder then that he attack us, in whom he has bofomfriends!

of that infernal fpirit's implacable malice and defperate hatred a gainst God and his innocent creatures. It was at the fame time at tended with the most interesting confequences to the guilty pair, and their defcendents. It may not therefore be improper to give here fe veral particulars relating to this remarkable event, selected from the author's notes on part of the fecond and third chapters of Gene fis. As the effay on this book was written poflerior to this Illuftra tion, and as thefe remarks contain many striking and important things concerning the grand temptation, and the effects thereof, it was judged expedient to infert them here, though not the most proper place, rather than omit them altogether, as they were not adverted to when the difcourfes on the fall of our firft parents, and on the firft fin in particular, vol. 1. were printing. And it is prefumed, their getting a place in this work will not only be a valuable addition toit, but of no small advantage to the reader, as the extracts undoubtedly contain feveral obfervations new and uncommon, and which appear to have efcaped the notice of former commentators, all: tending to fhew the evil and horrid nature of fin, and the riches of fovereign grace in the falvation of ruined man, difcovered to him immediately after his fatal tranfgreffion; as well as they afford no mean specimen of the author's learning and fkill in facred criticifm.

"Gen. ii. 25. Now they two were, naked. Here begins the history of the fall of man, and this fhould have been the beginning of the third chapter. Though the divifion into verfes is of divine authoris ty, the divifion into chapters is not fo.- -The man, and his quife: They were naked, not only in presence of one another, but feparately. where-ever they were.But they would not bave been afhamed of them Jelves, notwithflanding of their nakedness. The manner of expref fion bears, that fo it was during the happy ftate they were in, but that it lafted not, that was foon over and now is gone. The distinctive in thefe words is emphatical; q. d. But they would NOT, have, &c. i. e. they would not at all, in the least, have been, &c. Bojch is to be ashamed. If therefore it were used in Pib. it would be to frame, act. as the root in Kal is neuter. Here 'tis in Hithp. the relative of Pib. and therefore fignifies formally to shame one's felf. 'Tis no where else used in this form, which is here purpofely chofen, not only to intimate that our fhame arifeth from a certain fecret motion within our own breafts; but alto and chiefly, in oppofition to Satan's endeavouring to fame them, on the account of their nakedness, which will appear by the fequel.

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Gen. iii. 1. And the Serpent, was fubtil from every, wild beast of the field; which Jehovah God, had made: i. e. And the old ferpent the devil, was fubtil, nicely obferving, and artfully improving, what might make for his mifchievous delign again mankind;, and in his attack he argued fubtilly, from the ftate and cafe of the as.Id beafts 3.

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