SERMON XVI.

MATT. VI. 14.

For if ye forgive Men their Trefpaffes, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Ver. 15. But if ye forgive not Men their Tref paffes, neither will your Father forgive your Trefpaffes.

The First Sermon on this Text.

HE firft Word For fhews the Dependance

TH

of thefe Words on the preceding Petitions; and the subject Matter here handled, doth eafily direct us to what Part of them they do refer: Namely, to that Petition, Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors. It was not to be expected that our Saviour would interrupt the Prayer fo long, as to account for any Petition that might feem difagreeable to the prejudicate Opinions of his Hearers. But now the Prayer being ended, he thought fit to clear that Petition, or rather the Condition annexed to that Petition, which fufpends the Forgiveness of our Sins upon our forgiving others who have trefpaffed against us; that being the only Thing, which feemed to want Explication in the whole Prayer.

And

And indeed it must be confeffed to be dignus vindice nodus, to be a Difficulty worth the clearing, and that it was not fit to be left to Interpreters, but worthy of a Solution from our Saviour himself. For it was pretty obvious, not only for fuch uncharitable People as the Scribes and Pharifees, whofe moral Doctrine our Saviour was all this while correcting, but for others too to be offended at this Petition; as if God's infinite Bounty and Goodness and Mercy to us were to be measured out by our scanty Bounty, Goodnefs and Mercy to one another. This therefore might have looked like a loose and less accurate Expreffion; but our Lord thought fit deliberately to repeat the fame again, and to affert that the Charity to forgive our Enemies is a neceffary Difpofition to qualify us for this Prayer, and a neceffary Condition to the Grant of it: And the Particle As, which occafioned the chief Doubt, he explained better in these Words of my Text. For if ye forgive Men their Trefpaffes, &c. q. d. Do not wonder that I annex this Condition to your asking Pardon of God, that ye should pardon one another; it is not that I expect or require fuch Mercy in you as is in God Almighty, but one of an inferiour Degree, at an infinite Distance, yet some way fuited or proportioned to it.

In fpeaking to the Words, I fhall

I. Explain the merciful Temper and Difpofition which is required in us.

II. Confider the Promife of Reward annexed to it, that it shall be attended with a Pardon from God.

III. Confider

III. Confider the Threatning to the contrary Temper and Difpofition, that without it no Par don is to be obtained.

I. As to the First, the merciful Temper and Difpofition required here in the Text, and in many other Places of the New Teftament, with regard to those who have injured us; we are not to imagine that it is to be carried fo far as if it left no Room for a juft Reparation of Injuries. Some deluded Enthufiafts indeed have fo far mistaken our Saviour's Doctrine, as to cut off the Office of Judges and Magiftrates, and to prohibit or prevent all, both publick and private Reparation: Which would occafion all manner of Disorder and Confufion in the World. That I may then more diftinctly confider this Matter, I fhall both negatively and pofitively lay down what appears to me to be the true Scripture Notion of Forgiveness.

;

1. That it never was defigned to encourage, but to prevent Injuries, appears both from the Reasonableness of the Thing, and from the Approbation of the Magiftrate's Office in Holy Scripture: (a) For the Magiftrate is described as a Person that is not to bear the Sword in vain but is to be the Minifter of God, a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doth Evil. And therefore what is here faid, has no Relation at all to the Magiftrate's Office, any further than to prohibit his making Ufe of his Power out of private Pique and Refentment.

(a) Rom. xiii. 4.

2. For the fame Reafon this Doctrine of Forgiveness doth not restrain private Perfons, when they are injured, from making Ufe of the Laws, Judges, and Magiftrates, to do themselves Right, after they have first in vain tried what other pacificatory Methods are in their Power. There are indeed many Things with relation to Lawfuits, in which this Christian Doctrine interposes, either to prevent them, or to make an End of them in an amicable Way; but if that cannot be done, the last Resort is ftill to the public Juftice, not to private Revenge. To explain myself a little clearer on this Head, I fhall inftance in fome things, in which this Christian Doctrine of Forgiveness regulates our Conduct as to our feeking Reparation by Law. (1) First then, there are many leffer Injuries, which it will teach us to wink at, without giving ourselves or our Neighbours the Trouble of a Law-fuit about them. A Man is justly reckoned litigious, who for every Trifle that occurrs, for every oldQuarrel that had been formerly laid afleep, for every Neglect or Want of Civility and good Manners, prefently gives Way to his Refentments, and drives Things to Extremities, which had better been connived at, and covered with a Cloak of Charity. There is no Man but will confefs it had been much wifer, (for Example,) in Haman to have overlooked or defpifed Mordecai's Stiffness, who would not bow to him in the Gate, than to have drove it to that height of Resentment, which he did, against Mordecai and all his Countrymen. And our Saviour hath determined, that as to feveral fmall Injuries, we had better run the Hazard of a second Injury than revenge the first, for that is the true Meaning of his Precepts of

turning

turning the other Cheek, and parting with the Cloak as well as the Coat, and going two Miles instead of one. (2.) This Doctrine of forgiving of Injuries, will teach us, if the Injury is ever fo great, before we have recourfe to Law and Magiftrates, to try all other amicable Methods of Agreement, and Accommodation. Our Saviour lays down a Method in the 18th Chap. of this Gofpel, which has in it divers amicable Steps towards Reconciliation, before he would permit Chriftians to implead one another before Heathen Magiftrates. For first, he advises the difcourfing the Matter with the Party himself. If. thy Brother fhall trespass against thee, go and tell him his Fault between thee and him alone: If he fhall hear thee, thou hast gained thy Brother. How much better a Step is this, than the Way which is commonly taken, not of arguing civilly with him. alone, but of expofing him to all others? The next Step our Saviour advifes is a Conference with our Adverfary in the prefence of one or two Witneffes, who it is fuppofed may affift towards making up of the Difference. But if he will not hear thee, fays he, then take with thee one or two more, that in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses every Word may be established. This is another excellent Step towards Peace, the Interpofition of Friends, who are commonly more free from the Byafs of Prejudice and Enmity, which is a great Obftruction to the Parties their difcerning the Truth, or complying with it when it is difcerned. A third step our Saviour prescribed before he allowed them to go to Law before the Magiftrates, who at that time were Heathens, was to tell it to the Church, that is, as St Chryfoftom interprets it,

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