gressions bind us over to punishment in the prison of hell. But Mary was forgiven, and this man was forgiven. The surety took their debts upon himself, and answered for them, Mary loved much; which love casts out legal fear, and removes the bondage of the law: and this man was loosed, or made free, from the bondage and the demands of the law. His surety appeared in his name, as the son of man; in his nature, the Word was made flesh; in his shoes, to answer for his brother's debts; in his law-place, he was made under the law; a debtor in his room; made sin for us, who knew no sin; and he magnified the law, and made it honourable. He glorified his Father upon earth; he bore our sins in his own. body on the tree; he made an atonement for us, and removed the iniquity in one day; blotted out our transgressions as a cloud, and as a thick cloud our sins; and God is well pleased for his righteousness sake, and says he will remember our sins no more; and, when they are sought for, they shall not be found, for there shall be none; "For I will pardon those that I reserve." For, "This is the covenant that I will make with them," saith the Lord: "I will put my laws in their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." So that, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sins, Heb. x. 16-18; for against such there is no law. And sin is not to be imputed to the surety, and, after satisfaction made, be again

imputed to the debtor: this would be terrible proceedings among men; and far be it from God that he should do wickedly, Job xxxiv. 12; and from the Judge of all the earth that he should do wrong, Gen. xviii. 25. Nevertheless, he was delivered to the tormentors,

"Till he should pay all that was due unto him." All that was due unto his lord, who had loosed him, and forgiven him the debt. That the elect, as well as others, are debtors to God by the law, has been proved; for every man, by nature, is a debtor to do the whole law, Gal. v. 3; and that a pardoned sinner is loosed from that obligation, has been proved also: because he doth not work for life, therefore the reward is reckoned to him of grace, not of debt. Yet we are debtors still. If Christ delivers me from the legal yoke, he tells me to take his yoke upon me. If I am loosed from the bondage of the law, yet bound in the bundle of life to the Lord, 1 Sam. xxv. 29; whose bonds I must not break, nor cast his cords from me, Psal. ii. 3. If I am delivered from the covenant of works, I am under the covenant of grace; and, though redeemed from under the law of Moses, yet I am under the law of faith, and receive grace for obedience to that law, Rom. i. 5; and by this law I am still a debtor; and much is due to the ever-blessed surety; for, as Paul says to Philemon, "Albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides." If Philemon owed Paul his own

self, because he was the instrument of his conversion; what may Christ claim, who redeemed us from everlasting death; and says we are not our own, we are bought with a price, and therefore must glorify him in our bodies and souls, which are his?

"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, Rom. viii. 12-14. Here the apostle brings in the saints debtors, not to the law in the members; for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die, but debtors to the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus; to mortify the deeds of the body by the Spirit, and to be led by him, as the sons of God.

The saints are debtors also to their neighbours in the flesh, to do good unto all men; that is, temporal good; and to hold forth the word of life, or tell what God hath done for us, if opportunity offers; or to give a reason of our hope, if they ask a reason of it. "I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise; so that, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also."

We are likewise debtors to those from whom we received the word of the Lord, or from whom it sounded out to us: "It hath pleased them of

Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily, and their debtors they are: for if the gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things."

We are debtors also unto all brethren in the faith by the ties of the brotherly covenant; and are bound to love one another, as Christ hath loved us. "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law," Rom. xiii. 8. "Owe no man any thing;" owe him no grudge; and, if you can help it, owe him no money, for, "The borrower is servant to the lender," Prov. xxii. 7. Be not ye the Servants of men. But the debt of love, let that stand; that is always owing, and always due.

Thus we are debtors, by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, to live after the Spirit, to mortify the deeds of the body by the Spirit, and to be led by him. We are debtors to the wise, and to the unwise; debtors to minister carnal things to them of whom we have reaped spiritual things; and debtors to all saints, to love them for Christ's sake. These things Christ, by the law of faith, requires; and they are due unto him; and, when done, they are done unto him. Whatsoever good a man doeth, it is done to the Lord, and not to man, for of the Lord he shall receive the reward. Whatever is done to the least of Christ's brethren,

is done unto him; and whatsoever is not done for his sake, or in his name, or to his brethren, is not done unto him. These debts of love and forgiveness the Saviour was discoursing upon when he made application by this parable: "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother; but, if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And, if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church; but, if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." Separate him from communion and fellowship, and deal with him as you would with an heathen; yet remember he is called a brother. So they dealt with the incestuous person, till God inclined them to forgive, and receive him. upon his repentance. "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven." Then begins the parable which is an application of the doctrine.

And, according to the above account, both these fellow-servants had done wrong. He that owed his fellow-servant the hundred pence had done his brother wrong; he had not paid the debt of love, but had failed in a hundred instances; and it was his duty to have returned, and confessed