The Fifty-first Lord’s Day

51 The Fifty-first Lord’s Day
On the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer
Forgive us our debts, etc.
The following two Petitions address the removing of spiritual evil, or sin. And sin is removed in two ways. Either, 1. By forgiveness of sin that has been committed; or 2. By preservation from sin, so that it is not committed. The first is the substance of the fifth Petition; the second is the substance of the sixth and last Petition. In the fifth, the Petition is proposed, and then afterwards it is confirmed. In the Petition, because sins are chiefly considered as to their adjoined guilt, they are therefore, under that notion by a metaphor or simile,1 marked out to us and declared when they are called debts. The reason for the simile or metaphor is because by law and justice, we are bound to God, to give him our entire obedience; and for an omission of any part or point of this whole or entire obedience, we were bound to undergo the punishment or penalty of the curse of the law. Sins are therefore called debts; 1. Because they lack that obedience which we owed to God; and 2. Because they brought with them an obligation to undergo those punishments.
Now forgiveness is sought for both these debts; that is, for the removal of our guiltiness that we contracted by our sins; and by consequence, we seek justification and adoption. The argument whereby this petition is enforced is by this Syllogism: is taken partly from the place of like things — because from our forgiveness and mercy to others, we must expect the forgiveness and mercy of God — and partly from the place of unlikeness, or from the less to the more. If we, who scarcely have a drop or small resemblance of that mercy that is in God, yet forgive men their offenses whereby they have offended us, then much more will God, out of his infinite mercy, forgive us our offenses that we have done against him — but the first is true, and therefore the latter also. This argument is thus expounded in Luke 11:4.2 This petition has its dependence from all the foregoing, as a means whereby a way is made to obtain them; because by forgiving us our sins of his mercy, God removes the hindrance of his grace and blessing, whereby other things are obtained. And so he gives us all good things that we want or desire. It is expressly coupled to the next foregoing petition by the conjunction and, which was not used in the former petitions. This is because the three former petitions were so nearly aligned, that of themselves they depended one upon another by a natural connexion and consequence. And the fourth petition depended upon the last of the other three by this kind of connexion: that the well-being of the whole person, to better exercise its duties and actions well, has depended on the well-being of a very necessary and essential part of itself. But this petition and that fourth petition are of far different kinds. They do not have so direct and immediate a connexion in the nature of the things that they are required to be coupled together by such a grammatical conjunction, and.
Doctrine 1. Our sins are the heaviest of all evils. 
1 Simile – A figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds.
2 Luke 11:4 And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one." 
This is hence gathered, in that we are taught to pray for the removal of this evil absolutely, and of no other.1
Reason 1 . Because they are most opposite to the chief good; that is, to the image and holiness of God, as they may be partaken of by us to our felicity;2 and so in some way they are opposite to God himself, whose will as much as it lay in us, we have violated.
Reason 2 . Because they spoil us of our greatest perfection.
Reason 3. Because they beget to us the greatest miseries.
Use. Of Direction: that having a right estimation of our sins, we may all the more abhor them, and all other evil that comes by them.
Doctrine 2 . Sins bring with them an obligation of the greatest debt. 
It is hence gathered, that they are here called debts.
Reason 1. Because the Law of God binds sinners to suffer pains, and not common ones, but from the wrath and curse of God.
Reason 2. Because this debt is such that we can never be able to satisfy God for it. For whatever sinners do, it augments rather than diminishes the nature or account of the debt.
Reason 3 . Because the justice of God exacting so rigorous a discharge of this debt for sinners, is still upon them, and is as it were perpetually threatening condemnation to them in the own consciences.
Use . Of Admonition: that neither by a mad kind of secureness, nor by a secure and careless madness, we neglect these debts that are so heavy; but we go about this by all means, so that we may be set free from them.
Doctrine 3. The mercy of God in Christ is sufficient to forgive and remit all our debts. This is hence gathered, in that we are here taught to this end: to fly to the forgiving mercy of God. 
Reason 1. Because God is not only a just Judge, but also a merciful Father, as is in the preface of this prayer. 
Reason 2. Because God, according to his infinite wisdom, has so ordered things in Christ that he can with safety to his justice, and of his free mercy, forgive us our sins. 
Reason 3. Because this mercy being infinite, far surpasses our sins, though in themselves they are horrible.
Use . Of Exhortation: that with all our hearts we fly to this mercy, and rest in it, and on it.
Doctrine 4. Remission of sins requires a confession of them, and repentance or a change of mind and amendment, together with faith.
This follows from the nature of the petition. 
Reason 1. Because none can earnestly desire the blotting out of his sins unless he both confesses, and also hates and detests them.
1 Evil is used in Scripture to denote “bad things.” This is saying that the worst of bad things is sin. 2 State of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.
Reason 2. Because otherwise he can by no means rightly magnify the mercy of God to which he flies; but rather he goes about prostituting it, and making it a Pander or Bawd1 to his sins. Reason 3. Because without these, none is fit to receive comfort from the mercy of God in the remission of his sins.
Use . Of Reproof: against those who presume on the mercy of God, though they never seriously repent of their sins in this way, nor can be brought to confess or acknowledge their cruel dispositions to men.
Doctrine 5. Mercy and love to our brethren, is a sign of the mercy and love of God to ourselves.
From these words, As we forgive our debtors. 
Reason 1. Because the mercy and love of God shed abroad in our hearts, begets mercy in us to our brethren, just as heat begets heat.
Reason 2 . Because this mercy and love towards men, for its conformity and suitableness to it, is a special condition for obtaining the mercy of God; and so it is declared to be tied to it, Matthew 6:14, If you forgive men their trespasses, your Father also that is in Heaven will forgive you.
Reason 3. Because this forgiving of all injuries and wrongs done to us by others, is taken from the special and free mercy of God communicated to us; and this grace is the effect of God’s mercy in forgiving us our sins.
Use. Of Admonition: that we do not deceive ourselves and promise to ourselves the mercy of God, while we nourish in our own hearts hatred and rancour against our brethren. 1 A Pander is a pimp, someone who solicits sexual favours for another; a Bawd is a harlot or prostitute.