Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

3

pre

what is the Benefit, which thou canst tend to be the Author of to him, to those innumerable Bleffings which God hath conferred upon thy felf? Did not he give thee thy Being? Does not he daily preferve thee? Has he not given his only Son to die for thee, and promised thee an everlasting Reward in the Kingdom of Heaven? Are not thefe Benefits infinitely beyond any Thing, or all thofe Things put together, for which thou mayft pretend to deferve well of thy Neighbour, if they were ten thoufand times greater than they are? And therefore thou defireft of God to forgive thee greater Sins and Trefpaffes, which thou haft committed against God, than thou canft forgive another. To this Purpose it is obfervable, Matth. 18. 23, 24. and fo on in the Parable there of the Lord who reckon'd with his Servants, that he forgave a Servant Ten Thousand Talents, when the fame Servant would not forgive his Fellow, Servant an Hundred Pence. Whereas there was a double Obligation upon that Servant to forgive, one, the Example of his Lord, the other, the great Difparity of the Debt, Ten Thoufand Talents on the one fide, but an Hundred Pence on the other. O thou wick ed Servant, I forgave thee all that Debt, because thou defiredft me: Shouldft not thou alfo have had Compaffion on thy Fellow Servant, even as I had Pity on thee, and forgi

ven him a smaller Debt? And his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the Tormentors, till he should pay all that was due to him. So likewife, fays our Saviour, fhall my beavenly Father do also to you, if ye from your Hearts forgive not every one his Brother their Trefpaffes,

But after all, thro' the Corruption of our Natures, this fo reasonable a Duty, to which we are led by God's Example, to most Men proves difficult, and they are hardly perfuaded to it. And therefore to faften the Obligation thereto upon our Minds the more fenfibly, our Lord hath engaged us to ask Forgiveness of God as we forgive others, which is not fo to be understood as if there were no other Conditions of Forgiveness to be Performed by us but this. For there are many others, even Repentance of all our known Sins, with forfaking of the fame, and the Performance of all Duties, that we have omitted. But this is therefore particularly named, because it may well be prefumed, that he who from his Heart forgiveth Injuries done to himself, hath attained to fo great a Victory over his Lufts and Paffions, that he will not ftand with his Saviour for any other Duty required of him. As other Qualifications for Forgivenefs from God may well be fuppofed to be present where this is not wanting. P.4

And

And thus I have fhewn you how ftrongly we are obliged our felves to Forgiveness by defiring God to forgive us, and withal, that there is no juft reafon to think this fo hard as most Men make it.

It remains that I fhew you How we ought. to forgive an Enemy. For this Petition directs us to that. For we must forgive as we defire to be forgiven.

But before I enter upon the Particulars to this Purpose, I must premise fomething concerning the Difference between the Nature of God's forgiving us and Our forgiving of others. When we are faid to forgive one that hath wrong'd us, the Meaning that we have conquer'd all Ill-will against him, and that our fretful and angry Paffions are allayed, and that whereas we are apt to be unfatisfied without Revenge, and making the Wrong-doer feel our Refent ments of the Injury, why, we have quell'd all Tumults of Paffion and revengeful Defire against him, and with him well. But now when God forgives us, his Forgiveness doth not confift in the fuppreffing of fuch Emotions of Paffion, for he hath none of those troublesome Refentments, and Affections that belong to our Nature. When he is faid to hate the Wicked, and to be angry with them, we are not to understand those Sayings, as if he were affected as Men are, and apt to be tranfported with Defire of Revenge.

[ocr errors]

Revenge. He hates a wicked Man after fuch a manner, as a virtuous and honeft Man may be faid to hate a Villain, from whom yet he never received any Injury in his own Perfon all his Life. That is, God's Anger towards wicked Men proceedeth not from any Selfishness, which is the Ground of our Wrath, and Defire of Revenge, when we are Perfonally affronted or injured, but is grounded upon the infinite Goodness and Holiness of his Nature, which cannot endure any thing that is contrary to it. And therefore indeed God's Forgiveness is only a forbearing to punish a Perfon, whom he fees qualified for Pardon; whereas Ours confifts in giving over to resent an Injury to our own Perfons, to resent it, I fay, in that degree as to hate the Perfon, or to wish the hardest Event should befal him for our Sakes, or for the Satisfaction of any revengeful Defire in us. And therefore it is that the Duty of forgiving Injuries, which in this Petition we Profess the Performance of, is very well confiftent with the Punishment of all Crimes that are dangerous to Society, by Courts of Justice, because this is neceffary for the common Good, and may be profecuted without Selfish Anger against any Perfon, or defiring the leaft Ill to befal him merely upon our Own Account.

This being premifed, I now proceed to fhew in what Particulars the Example of God, and our uning of this Petition, do direct us to forgive other Men the Offences they have committed against us. Now,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

First of all; We defire to be forgiven All the Sins that we have been guilty of, We would not have God enter into Judgment with us for any of them, much lefs for the Greatest of all. And therefore if we forgive, as we defire to be forgiven, it is very plain that we must also forgive all,even the Greateft Wrongs that are done to us by our Neighbour, without referving Ill-will to his Perton upon the Account of any, tho' the greatest Affront and Injury that we ever received from him. But alas! how contra ry is our Practice to our Prayers? We have much ado, and 'tis not without much strugling with our felves that we can fettle our Paffions, that we can clear our felves of fpiteful and malicious Thoughts, when we have received a very Small and Inconfiderable Wrong. What Hurt is done us in comparifon, if when we are in Health and at Eafe, when we are under no Straits, and in no Distress, when we live in Plenty, and in good Security, what great Hurt, I fay, is done us by a difgraceful Word, by a fpite ful Infinuation, a bafe Reflection? How many Blessings have we about us to yield us good Comfort, which contribute incom

parably

« AnteriorContinuar »