and a holy, childlike security, that he will provide you sufficiently in his time, and in his way. Ye come surely for your own bread, "Therefore take no thought which your Father hath allotted you: for your life what ye shall eat, nor what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. He who hath given you life and a body will also provide for them. He provides even for the fowls, and for the grass of the field: will not your Father then, who know eth what ye need, provide what is needful for you?" See Mat. vi. 25-34. "He who hath given you" the greater, yea, even "his own Son," will he deny you the less," and not freely give you all things with him?” Rom. viii. 32. "Cast then all your care upon him, for be careth for you," 1 Peter v. 7.

3. Make use nevertheless of the means, which he hath appointed and commanded you to use, in order to sustain you by them, to wit, a suitable carefulness, diligent labour, and a judicious contrivance, and do not neglect his gifts by your carelessness. No godly person ought to afford an occasion of reproaching sincere Christians with slothfulness and negligence. No man ought to be more diligent in an honest calling than a Christian: not that he may live by it, for he must live from his Father's hand; but because it is his Father's will to sustain him by his diligence, and he is therefore bound to work in obedience to his Father: "Them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread," saith Paul, 2 Thess. iii. 12.

4. Be content with your daily bread. To crave with vehement desires an abundance is unbecoming and unprofitable: ye will indeed We must with have no more than your Father hath allotted you: Paul "learn in whatsoever state we are, there with to be content," Philip. iv. 11. He saith, Heb. xiii. 5. "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have ; for he hath said I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." As we should pray against "poverty," so we may indeed pray also against "riches," and desire of God only "the bread that is convenient for us," with Agur Prov xxx. 8. Ye have liberty to seek only your daily bread of your Father, and not an abundance: "Having food and raiment, let us therewith be content," according to 1 Tim. vi. 8, Let the men of this world, who have their portion in this life, pant after much; but do not ye, who have obtained a better and more noble portion of your Father, and who expect still more.

5. When your Father gives you bread, endeavour to pause a while, and observe by what ways and means he hath furnished you

with it; whence it hath come to you; who hath laboured at it; how it hath been brought to you; how the little that ye obtain sufficeth you; and all frequently without any exertion of your own. How many wonderful ways of God's good hand toward you would ye not see in this, and admire and rejoice in it, saying with Hagar, Gen. xvi. 13. "Have I here also looked after him that seeth me?"

6. Make also a good use of your daily bread, when your Father gives it you, tasting his fatherly kindness and his sweet love in it. Ye should also "taste and see" in it "that the Lord is good," Psalm xxxiv. 8. Ye ought also to praise him on account of it, and to acknowledge with your heart, and mouth, and actions, that he is the only fountain of all good, that it may be to him, as it is of and through him: "When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God," saith Moses, Deut. viii. 10. Be also charitable to them, who are in want, especially when the Lord blesseth you more than others. See how this is enjoined on you, Prov. iii. 9, 10. Eccl. xi. 42. Isaiah lviii. 7. Gal. vi. 10. Heb. xiii. 16. Ye pray that not only yourselves, but others also may have their daily bread, and the Father will honour you, by making you his hand to give others their daily bread.

Do the wicked boast of their abundance and have ye but little? Well, "a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches ·· of many wicked," as David speaks with truth. Psalm xxxvii. 16. He hath it from his Father in his love with his Son. When the wicked shall be stripped of all that he hath at present, and shall be reduced to the greatest want, then "shall ye not hunger any more, nor thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on you, nor any heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed you, and shall lead you unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes." Amen.

THE

FIFTH PETITION

EXPLAINED.

LI. LORD'S DAY.

Matt. vi. 12. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our

debtors.

Q. 126. Which is the fifth petition?

A. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; that is; be pleased for the sake of Christ's blood, not to impute to us poor sinners, our transgressions, nor that depravity which always cleaves to us; even as we feel this evidence of thy grace in us, that it is our firm resolution from the heart, to forgive our neighbour.

"CURSED

URSED is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee," saith the Lord to Adam, because he had sinned against him, Gen. iii. 17, 18. This curse continues even until the present day, to the sorrow of his posterity, since they have inherited their father's sin: yea, it is also increased by unfruitful seasons. God sometimes denies rain, at other times he sends too great an

abundance of it; he makes the heaven like iron, and the earth like brass; he sends mildew and blasting; he commands his great army, the locust, the cankerworm, the caterpillar and the palmerworm to eat up all things, and when he even seems to bless the fruits of the earth, he then still sends sometimes the enemies, who rob and take all away. Doth he permit the owner to gather it, he breaks the staff of his bread, so that although he eat, he is not satisfied. And what is the cause of all this, but his sins? Cain was cursed on account of his sins, and not only himself, but also his ground: "When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength," saith the Lord, Gen. iv. 11, 12. Yea, he threatens his priests on account of their sins, "that he would send a curse on them, and curse their blessings yea, he had cursed them already, because they did not lay the commandment to heart," Mal. ii, 1, 2, 3. We might say, he will spare his children: for their transgression is pardoned, their iniquity is forgiven; but they return still too often to folly, and therefore the Lord will also chastise them often with scarceness. On this account Abraham was obliged to go to Egypt, Gen. xii. 10. Isaac to Gerar, Gen. xxvi. 1, and Jacob to send with anxiety his sons to Egypt, Gen. xlii. and xliii. How often were the Israelites visited with famine! and the children of God are still frequently forced to complain, that their bread is not blessed to them. What shall they do it will be said, they must pray to their Father: but their sins are bars to them, and "they hide his face from them, so that he doth not hear," Isaiah lix. 2. Their iniquities must be taken away. But how? shall it be done only by conversion? no; for that doth not take away the guilt of sins. They must therefore first endeavour to seek the forgiveness of their sins of their Father: "When the Lord God had formed grasshoppers, and they would have wholly eaten up the grass of the land, Amos said, O Lord, forgive, I beseech thee; by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small," Amos vii. 1, 2.

The Lord Jesus teacheth us this in the petition before us. He had taught his children to pray for their daily bread, in the fourth petition but how could their Father give them their bread, while their sins remained upon them? The Saviour willing to provide against this, teaches them to pray for the forgiveness of their sins, in the fifth petition, as a mean of hallowing their Father's name. We have shown before, that they were obliged to pray in the first petition, that the name of God might be hallowed, and that the following petitions serve as means to obtain that end: which means are either prayers for that which is good, to wit, spiritual good, in

the second and third petition, and bodily, in the fourth petition; ar prayers against evil, to wit, that which is past in the fifth petition, and that which is to come, in the sixth petition.

We must now learn to pray for the forgiveness of our debts, which is first proposed in these words,

I. “Forgive us our debts;" and then further paraphrased for explanation.

II. "As we forgive our debtors."

I. By our "debts we must understand here our "sins," com mitted against God, as appears from Luke xi. 4, for in that passage these debts are called sins. Thus also the instructor explains our debts by "all our transgressions, and that depravity, which always cleaves to us." The reason is, (a) because they leave us debtors to fulfil our duty: "It is our duty to do that which is commanded Therefore when we sin, us," as the Saviour saith, Luke xvii. 10. we remain debtors to do all that. (b) Sins render us guilty of dishonouring God by breaking and violating his law, and therefore subject us to debt in this respect. Sinners are debtors thus, as Jesus speaks of the suffering Galileans, and the citizens of Jerusalem, who were punished, Luke xviii. 1-4. Sins are also debts that deserve punishment, inasmuch as they oblige us to undergo the punishment, appointed by the justice of God, for the recompence of sins: "The judgment was by one offence to condemnation," saith Paul, Rom.

vi. 16.

These debts are not one, or a few, but many. We have original and actual debts, debts of thought, word and deed, against the firs; and second' table of the law. Yea, "who can understand our er yours?" Psalm xix. 12. Whoever will examine himself in the light of God by his law, will find himself covered with the debts of his sins, and must cry out with truth, "Our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens,” Ezra ix. 16.

We acknowledge this not only in general, but we say with respect to ourselves "our" debts. By which (a) each individual ac knowledges with regard to himself, that he himself and not another hath acted abominably, and sinned against the Lord. The sinner, while he is not yet affected with a sense of his sins, will like Adam, lay the blame of his sins upon another, and "cover his transgressions, by hiding his iniquities in his bosom." as Job speaks, Job xxxi. 33. But the children of God will see, and confess with shame, that they themselves are guilty: "I acknowledge my transgressions, and my," and not Batheheba's, "sins, are ever before me," said