FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US
CONSIDER first, that in this fifth petition, our Lord has furnished us with a daily remedy for those many evils into which we daily fall. " We all offend in many things," James, iii, 2, and not a day passes, in which we are not contracting fresh debts to our great Master, either by omission or commission, in thought, word, or deed. Therefore we ought daily to sue for a discharge, and to call for mercy and forgiveness, with a truly penitent heart; and this is the design of this petition of the Lord's Prayer, which when recited with fervour, readily obtains the remission of those daily debts, and reinstates us in the good graces of our master. These lesser faults into which We daily fall, if neglected and suffered to grow and multiply upon us, are of worse consequence to our souls than we can well imagine; the water that comes into the ship by small chinks, if not daily pumped out, may in time, increase in such manner as to sink the vessel. That the like may never happen to our souls, we must be daily repenting for these daily sins, and offering up daily for them the sacrifice of
