sin “seventy times seven,” thou shouldest forgive him; but if he shall sin seventy times and eight, it should then be lawful for thee not to forgive? Nay I am bold to say, that if he should even sin seventy-eight times, thou must forgive. Yea, as I have said, if he shall sin seventy- eight times, forgive. And if he sin a hundred times, forgive. And why need I say, so and so often? In one word,2775 as often as he shall sin, forgive him. Have I then taken upon me to overpass the measure of my Lord? He fixed the limit of forgiveness in the number seventy- seven; shall I presume to overleap this limit? It is not so, I have not presumed to go at all beyond. I have heard the Lord Himself speaking in His Apostle where there is no measure or number fixed. For He says, “Forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, as God in Christ hath forgiven you.” 2776 Here you have the rule. If Christ have forgiven thee thy sins “seventy times and seven” only, if He have pardoned up to this point, and refused 364 to pardon beyond it; then do thou also fix this limit, and be loth to forgive beyond it. But if Christ hath found thousands of sins upon sins, and hath yet forgiven all; withdraw not then thy mercy, but ask the forgiveness of that large number. For it was not without a meaning that the Lord said “seventy times seven;” forasmuch as there is no trespass whatever which thou oughtest not to forgive. See this servant in the parable, who being a debtor was found to have a debtor, owed ten thousand talents. And I suppose that ten thousand talents are at least ten thousand sins. For I will not say how but one talent will include all sins. But how much did the other servant owe him? He owed a hundred denarii. Now is not this more than “seventy and seven”? And yet the Lord was wroth, because he did not forgive him. For not only is a hundred more than “seventy-seven;” but a hundred denarii, perhaps are a thousand” asses.” But what was this to ten thousand talents? 4. And so let us be ready to forgive all the trespasses which are committed against us, if we desire to be forgiven. For if we consider our sins, and reckon up what we do in deed, what by the eye, what by the ear, what by thought, what by numberless movements; I know not whether we so much as sleep without a talent. And therefore do we daily beg, daily knock at the ears of God by prayer, daily prostrate ourselves and say, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”2777 What debts of thine? All, or a certain part? Thou wilt answer, All. So then do thou with thy debtor. This then is the rule thou layest down, this the condition thou speakest of; this the covenant and agreement thou dost mention when thou prayest, saying, “Forgive us, as we forgive our debtors.” 5. What then, Brethren, is the meaning of “seventy times seven”? Hear, for it is a great mystery, a wonderful sacrament. When the Lord was baptized, the Evangelist St. Luke has in that place commemorated His generations in the regular order, series, and line in which 2775 Vid. Serm. lxiv. (cxiv. Ben.) 1. 2776 Col. iii. 13; Eph. iv. 32. 2777 Matt. vi. 12. 764 On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xvii. 21, ‘How oft shall my brother sin…