our Strength, and by his Grace make all Temptations vincible by us, fo that we may not be furprized by the Suddennefs, or fink under the Number, or be vanquished by the Greatness of them, and thereby contract farther Guilt. This is a Petition moft proper to be made to him, whofe Dominion and Providence is over all Things, who knows what we are able to bear, and is able to proportion our Trials accordingly, and to whom we are to ascribe the Praise, if we do ftand in the Time of Temptation.

To take the Meaning of thefe Clauses of the Lord's Prayer in fhort.

We do here profefs to ask thefe Things of God, because they are Requests fit to be offered to God only, that is, to our Heavenly Father, whofe is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, who, because he is our Father, is Ready to grant thefe Requests, and because he is our Heavenly Father, is Able to grant them, and of whom, and at whofe Hands, because he is both, it is most fit and proper for us to request these Things.

The Sum of all is this.

1. It is the Senfe of God's Sovereignty and Power, and that Glory which is due to him from his Creatures, which must make us ask thefe Things earnestly.

2. It is the Sense of thefe Things which is the best Means of making our Prayers effectual

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fectual and prevalent with God; for he that fubmits himself to the Authority of God, and trufts in his Power, and receives his Bleffing's with Gratitude and Praise, and all this accounting God to be a Father, that is, kind and gracious to his Creatures, may be fure that his Prayers will never miss of Acceptance and Reward; and when they prevail for that, they prevail for the Effect of our Requeft.

I have now done with the Explication of the Lord's Prayer.

But it is at laft very fit for you and me to confider, what our Lord hath annexed to one of the Petitions of this Prayer, in the two following Verfes. For if ye forgive Men their Trefpaffes, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not Men their Trefpaffes, neither will your Father forgive your Trefpaffes. Which you fee directly belongs to one of the Petitions of this Prayer, viz. Forgive us our Debts, as we forgive our Debtors. The Repetition of this Matter, and of this only, argues the great Weight of it. Let me therefore,

1. Put you in mind that this is the only Petition which our Saviour takes exprefs Notice of, by repeating that which belongs to it; and therefore we may be fure this is a Petition, where every particular Person is extraordinarily concerned to have it granted;

nay,

nay, generally Men are defirous to be forgiven, who do not much regard the Effect of the other Petitions, and methinks I needed not to have taken any Pains, tho' I did fo, to convince any Man how much it ftands him in hand to obtain God's Pardon.

2. It is farther obfervable, that this is the only Petition in the Lord's Prayer, to which there is a Condition exprefly belonging when we use it. I think you muft needs take notice that there is a Promife on our Parts implied in them all, without which we cannot be faid to ask fincerely; as for Inftance, in the laft Petition, when we pray, Lead us not into Temptation, we do in effect promife that we will not lead our felves into it; and in the fourth, Give us this Day our daily Bread, the Meaning of this Petition implies, that we will honeftly endeavour to get the Neceflities of Life, and fo in the reft. But now in this Petition the Condition is plainly expreffed, and we plainly and exprefly tie our felves to it; we defire to be forgiven only as we forgive others.

3. This Condition is not only fully expreffed in the Prayer, and expreffed in that Petition only, but, befides that, it is also repeated immediately after the Prayer. And, 4. It is not only barely repeated, but urged two Ways.

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1. By

1. By affirming the Efficacy of the Requeft, if the Condition be fulfilled. If ye forgive Men their Trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

2. By denying that the Request will at all avail, if the Condition be not fulfilled. But if ye forgive not Men their Trefpaffes, neither will your Father forgive your Tref passes.

5. That our Saviour doth particularly apply the Confideration of God's being our Father to the enforcing both of the Request, and of the Condition belonging to it. To the Requeft, that 'tis our Father whom we ask Forgiveness of, and therefore is not willing to deny it, if we be qualified for Pardon. And to the Condition, that tho' he is our Father, yet he will not pardon if we do not forgive from our Hearts. To which may be added alfo, that our Tranfgreffions are faid to be against the Father, that is, our heavenly Father, and therefore more aggravated than those we must forgive, which are committed by one Sinner against another.

6. I obferve, that this is the only Quali fication of a good Chriftian, to which the Promife of Pardon is particularly annexed, and without which a Man cannot have rea• fonable Hopes of God's Pardon. From whence these two Things are farther remarkable.

1. That

1. That where there is this Divine Temper of Mind, of Readiness to forgive, as we defire God fhould forgive us, that is, speedily, univerfally, fincerely, and fo as to love us, and do us Good, not according to the usual Way of Forgiveness, which may be as well called Revenge, when Men forbear fome Kind of Revenge, but it may be use another, or at least will not do Good against Evil, where, I fay, the former is, there all other Christian Graces are fuppofed to be, all other Qualifications for Pardon whatsoever. Which you have no reason to wonder at, if you confider this Kind of Forgiveness, viz. which is as fincere and full as that which we defire of God, to be even the hardest Part of Chriftianity, and in the profeffing of which Men are moft willing to deceive themselves, in not forgiving when they fay they do fo. Now when the hardest is done for God's Sake, and for the Sake of our own Souls, it cannot but be prefumed that the reft which he requires will be done alfo. But when I fay, this is the hardeft, I fpeak comparatively to other Duties; but, in it self, I thewed you by plain Arguments it was not fo hard, as angry and malicious Men make it to be.

This I obferve from the peculiar Promife of Pardon to us if we forgive, which you. cannot fhew concerning any other Virtue $ A

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