the man after God's heart," Psalm li. 3. And hear him say on another occasion, 2 Sam. xxiv. 17, "Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house." (b) When we say our debts, we then also acknowledge, that we have rendered ourselves guilty of the sins of others; by which we do therefore confess, that we have been authors, abettors and imitators of the sins of others, and that we are therefore the more abominable. (c) We also declare that we ourselves are bound to satisfy the justice of God by suffering the righteous punishment of sin, and we do thus condemn ourselves with the church, who pronounced a wo upon herself, Lam. v. 16. "The crown is fallen from our head; wo unto us that we have sinned." (d) And since the children of God appear before him every day with this petition, therefore they confess, as the instructor saith, their depravity which always cleaves to them, and declare that their hearts are evil and abominable through their inbred corruption, as David, when he confesseth his sins, mentions his inherent corruption, saying, Psalm li. 5," Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." The children of God, contemplating their debts in this manner, are greatly distressed on account of them. But whither shall they go? shall they hide themselves with Adam, cry out with Cain, My transgression is too great to be forgiven; or with Judas, flee to the halter? no, they are too desirous to be saved, and to obtain forgiveness. Shall they then hurry to a priest, confess their sins to him, and seek forgiveness of him? No, they know that vain is the help of man: this would avail them as little, as it did Judas, that he went to the chief priests. They know, as well as the Pharisees, that "none can forgive sins, but God alone," Mark ii. 7. Like David they know that "they have sinned against God only," Psalm li. 4. And therefore they seek forgiveness of him only, who is their Father. But do they wish that the Father should forgive their debts, and not those of others? no: but they desire that he would forgive the debts of others also, with whom they unite themselves, and whom they bring with themselves to the Father, that he may show kindness to them also. They know by experience how bitter their sins are to them; they regard from brotherly affection the distress of others as their own, and therefore they beseech their Father that he VOL. II. This is agreeable to the Dutch translation. would forgive their debts also, as Moses prayed thus for Israei, Exod. xxxii. 32. Numb. xiv. 19, The Greek word aphes, "forgive," which we find here, and from which the word aphesis, "forgiveness," is derived, is supposed by some to denote the complete forgiveness of sins under the New Testament, since the death of Christ, in opposition to paresis, which word they think, intimates a less, an imperfect forgiveness, and a passing of sins by, with an upbraiding of the sinner on account of them. But this opinion is without any foundation; inasmuch as believers prayed even before the death of Christ for forgiveness, with the word aphesis, and therefore also obtained it; for the Saviour forgave believers thus even in the days of his flesh, as we see, Matt. ix. 2. Luke vii 47, 48. We observe briefly concerning the forgiveness of sins, for which believers pray here, that it consists in "a not imputing of sins to them for the sake of Christ's blood," as the instructor speaks, whereby God dischargeth and acquits his believing debtors of their guilt, and gives them a right to life; and so forgiveness of sins is the same with justification: "Even as David describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered: blessed is the man to whom the Lord doth not impute sin," Rom iv. 6-8, from Psalm xxxii. 1, 2. But as we have treated largely enough on justification, upon the twentythird and twenty fourth Lord's days, we deem it unnecessary to repeat here what we have said there. But since justification takes place only once, and is perfect, as we have taught on the twenty-third Lord's day, therefore it appears strange, that the Lord Jesus requires that believers, who have God for their Father, and are already justified, should notwithstanding pray daily for the forgiveness of their sins. The Antinomians also say that believers of the New Testament ought not to pray that their sins may be forgiven, because Christ hath now satisfied, and that their sins being once forgiven, they have no more sins, and therefore they need not mourn for their sins any longer, nor pray that they may be forgiven. With respect to Christ's command, that they must still pray, "Father, forgive us our debts," they think that they can evade that, by saying that this petition speaks only of By these the author intends the Cocceians, who represent the condition of the believers under the Old Testament as more servile, gloomy and disconsolate, than Christians in general have considered it. the application, that is, of the assurance, that their sins are forgiven: but according to them, he is no believer, who hath no assurance, and he would therefore pray absurdly for that which he hath already. The difficulty therefore still remains, how the daily praying of believers can consist with the perfect forgiveness of sins. To say that they deprecate only the temporal punishment of sins, when they entreat that their sins may be forgiven them, cannot wholly remove the difficulty. We rather say that believers pray in the full sense of the words, according to the explanation of the instructor, "that God would for the sake of Christ's blood, not impute to them their transgressions, and the depravity which always cleaves to them." For when God justifieth them perfectly at the first, he doth then indeed forgive their past and present sins, but not their future sins, except so far, that he engages that he will not punish them in future, but will forgive them upon their humiliation, and continued exercise of faith, as we have shown on the twenty-third Lord's day. For sins cannot properly be forgiven, before they are committed: we find also that God forgives the sins of his children every day. See this not only in this petition, but also Numb. xiv. 19, 20. Rev. xxii. 11. And he forgives them particularly upon their daily humiliation, as David shows by his example, Psalm xxxii 3-5. In order to understand this matter rightly, we must observe, (a) that justification in the true sense of the word is either that of the ungodly, whereby God justifieth the elect sinner upon his first act of faith, of which Paul saith, Rom. iv. 5, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." And in this manner was the publican justified, Luke xviii. 13, 14. Or justification is that of the righteous, by which he receives continually a new forgiveness of his daily sins upon his renewed exercise of faith. David often sought this justi fication in the xxxii. li. cxxx. and cxliii. Psalms. (b) Faith is also to justification, which faith an elect sinner exerciseth first of all, when he begins to seek and to embrace Christ, that he may be justified by God through him; or faith is from justification, by which the believer, who is justified, and who hath thus a right to life, to all the benefits of the covenant of grace, and to all the merits of Christ, exercises faith continually upon God in Christ, that he may actually obtain all that to which he hath a right, and thus also the continual forgiveness of his sins. See with respect to this what hath been said on the seventh Lord's day. (c) But in order to remove the difficulty entirely, we observe that God justifieth the ungodly as a judge upon a faith, which is to justification: but he justifies the righteous as a father, upon a faith, which is from justification, as David remarks, saying, Psalm ciii. 12, 13, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." See this also, Isaiah lxiv 8, 9. And believers also say here in this sense, and therefore properly, "Father, forgive us our debts." By which they do therefore pray that God would not punish them, on account of their daily wickedness, that he would grant them to enjoy anew the benefits of the covenant of grace, that he would assure their souls of his favour, and cause his face, which is turned away from them, to shine on them again. See how David prays for all this, Psalm li. Which doth not therefore by any means militate against the perfection of their first justification. Jesus requires that they should pray, that their debts may be forgiven, (a) because he knows how intolerable their debts are to them. Hear how David complains, Psalm xxxviii. 3, 4, "There is no rest in my bones, because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy burthen they are become too heavy for me." (d) Nothing is dearer and sweeter to them than the forgiveness of their sins. "David pronounces the man blessed, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered," Psalm xxxii. 1, 2. (c) "Their Father only can forgive sins." Even the Pharisees knew this, Mark ii. 7: Yea, he will forgive them; for with him there is forgiveness, (d) They must pray for bread: but the Father cannot give them bread with a blessing, as long as their sins are not forgiven. This hath been shown before. (e) They pray that they may do the will of God: but in order to this, they must have forgiveness: for we cannot serve God, with a guilty conscience, "we must do it without fear," Luke i. 74. And he grants forgiveness for this end: "There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared," saith David, Psalm cxxx. 4. (f) Forgiveness promotes the kingdom of God, and they must pray that his kingdom may come; for "the kingdom of God is also righteousness, peace, and joy through the Holy Ghost." Rom. xiv. 17. (g) The Father's name is also hallowed by the forgiveness of sins, and all the petitions must serve this end. See Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. Isaiah v. 16. Micha vii. 18. II. The Lord Jesus requires that they should paraphase this petition in order to explain it, with the words, " as we forgive our debtors." Those who are indebted to us in money, are not our debtors in the sense of the text: for to forgive debts of money without necessity would be prodigality; but by our debtors are meant here those who injure us by words or actions in our body, honour or goods. One man is, according to the second table of the law, obliged to love, honour, help, and be faithful to another. When therefore we do not show these things to our neighbour, but injure him, then we become debtors to him, to retrieve his health, honour and goods, and we deserve his vengeance, on account of the injuries, which we do to bini. are To forgive such a debtor is not to revenge the wrong that he hath done to us, and to be kind to him, as our brother, as far as we able, and to put away from us all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour and evilspeaking, with all malice; and to be kind, and tenderhearted to him, and thus to forgive him, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven his children," Eph. iv. 31, 32. It is true, a Christian may seek compensation for the damage that he hath sustained, with regard to his health, honour and property: but only when his It is also unlawful person, honour and prosperity are in danger. for him to seek his right with malicious bitterness, and a desire of revenge. that he may afflict his debtor: he may do it only to mainAnd if we can deliver ourselves withtain the justice of his cause. out exposing our neighbour to shame, loss or pain, we ought to do it, and be goodwilled and kind to our neighbour, that we may convince him of his evil doings with meekness, and "heap coals of fire on his head," according to the injunction of the Saviour and his Rom. xii. 18-21. apostle, Matt. v. 44-48. The Saviour teacheth us to do and say this. in order to explain our petition, that we may importune the Father to forgive our debts, when he connects our petition with our doing by the words, "as we." We do not assert with these words, that the Father forgives in the selfsame manner in which we forgive; for God forgives as a judge and father, but we as private persons, who are obliged to one another as neighbours: God forgives on account of the satisfaction of his justice by his Son, but we without a satisfaction: when God forgives, he delivers us from eternal punishment, but we do not deliver our neighbour from the judgment of God: although we forgive our neighbour, God still retains his right with respect to them who injure us. Neither do we use these words, "as we forgive our debtors," to denote the meritorious cause, for which we wish that God would forgive our debts; for it doth not become a person, who prays for the forgiveness of his debts, to speak of his merits: he declares that he is wholly guilty, that he deserves hell and damnation. But we must consider this appendix, as "the evidence of God's grace, |