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you cannot but fee that this Petition is either for our Good or our Hurt, as we are Qualified to use it. May not this Part of the Lord's Prayer ferve for an Inftance, that generally we mind not what we fay when we use the Words? For if we go over the reft of the Petitions as carelefly and negligently as we say this, it is probable that for the most part we regard not the Sense of the Prayer, and are no more affected with the feveral Petitions of it, than if we had been learned to fay them in an unknown Tongue:

Let us not, I beseech you, go about to excuse our selves before God, as if there was no living in the World without Contention, Strife, and Debate, and Animofities, because the Occafions of these Things are fo often multiplied upon us, but rather reflect upon our abufing thofe Words of this daily Prayer against our felves, defiring of God to forgive us the Mockery. Our Lord very well knew that our Life, and the Business thereof, would adminifter frequént Matter of Debate, and hard Words, and bitter Thoughts, and therefore he has provided us a daily Remedy against this Mischief of Conversation, viz. that Prayer, wherein we pray for daily Forgiveness, as well as for our daily Bread, and for the former upon no less Condition, than that God fees, we have on our Parts None in the World, but whom

we

we With well to, and to whom we are ready to do Good. But one Thing more: If For giving of Wrongs be neceffary for our being Forgiven of God, what then fhall we fay of those, that do Wrongs and Injuries to their Neighbours? Is it not a grofs Abuse of God's Majefty and Patience for that Man to defire God to Forgive him, as he Forgives the Injuries he has received from others, who is Noxious and Injurious himfelf? Whoever ufes the Petition may well be fuppofed a Perfon that provokes and hurts no Body, and to be one, who exercifes himself to have always a Confcience void of Offence towards all Men. Certainly if I fay this Prayer, I do in effect fay, Forgive me my Trepaffes, as I am careful not to trefpafs against my Brother; For this is fomething lefs, than to Forgive his Trefpaffes against my self.

To conclude: Has another Man affronted or wrong'd me? I do my self a greater Injury by not Forgiving him, than he has done me by the Offence. Again, I do my felf more harm by not Forgiving him, than it is poffible for me to do him, fince 'tis another Man's Fault in this cafe that occafionally hinders my being Forgiven of God, as it does, if I fuffer it to breed in me Rancorous and Evil Thoughts against him. But because he hath defpifed me, fhall I

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be reveng❜d on him through my own Sides? If he has done me Wrong, he has hurt his own Soul; fhall I deftroy mine too by shutting up the Mercies of God against my self? What a Madness is that!

Let us therefore carry this Petition in our Hearts wherever we go; that it may be prefent, as prefent with us, as if it were engraven upon all Places, where we have any Affairs and Bufinefs, as if it were graven upon the Palms of our Hands, or we wore it on our Garments.

Let this Petition be our daily Ejaculation whenever we are in danger of being tempted to Anger and Ill-Will; and when we are fo tempted, let us remember that we have then an Occafion of Praying effectually for God's Pardon in thefe Words, Forgive us our Trefpaffes, as we Forgive them that trefpafs against us.

SER

SERMON IX.

The Seventh Sermon on the LORD's PRAYER.

MATTH. VI. xiii.

And Lead us not into Temptation, but Deliver us from Evil.

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every good Christian be able to give an exact Account of the Reason of the Expreffion in this Petition, or not, I am yet satisfied, that we all mean this sense of the Petition, that we may by the Grace of God be preferved from falling into Sin for the future: And this I doubt not is the Principal Meaning of the Words, that is, As in the former Petition we beseech God to forgive us our Trefpaffes, So in this we are to teftify our Sincerity in afking Fogiveness of Sins paft, by expreffing as Earneft a Defire, that for the Time to come we may be more careful to Preferve Innocence and a good Confcience, than forQ2. merly

merly we have been. And the Reason, why

this Defire is by our Words, And lead as

Lord expreffed in thefe not into Temptation,

but deliver us from Evil, feems to be twofold

Firft, To Admonifh us, that we, even the Beft of us, are in Danger of falling into the fame Sins that we have Once, much more that we have Often been guilty of, and that because there are feveral Temptations to them, which in the Courfe of our Life we fhall furely meet with, and therefore that none of us are to be fecure, but to ftand upon our Guard, and to look well to our felves, that we be not overcome.

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2ly. To Admonish us alfo,that those Temptations are not fo flight and inconfiderable, that we can without God's Grace ftand against them, that they are not fo eafie to be avoided, but we have need of the Grace of his Providence to keep us out of their Way, and if we encounter them, that they are not fo eafie to be refifted, but we have need of the Grace of his Holy Spirit to fortify our Refolution to withstand them, and to get the better of them; This is true more or lefs of every Chriftian. One Man indeed by his Temper and Calling, and by Reafon of other Circumftances, is not in the Way of fo many Temptations, as another Man meets withal: And fome Men are by

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