{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Then as to the daily prayer which the Lord Himself taught,\r\nand which is therefore called the Lord's prayer, it obliterates\r\nindeed the sins of the day, when day by day we say, \"Forgive\r\nus our debts,\" and when we not only say but act out that\r\nwhich follows, \"as we forgive our debtors;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_950_950\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_950_950\">[950]</a> but we utter\r\nthis petition because sins have been committed, and not that\r\nthey may be. For by it our Saviour designed to teach us\r\nthat, however righteously we live in this life of infirmity and\r\ndarkness, we still commit sins for the remission of which we<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_468\">[Pg 468]</a></span>\r\nought to pray, while we must pardon those who sin against\r\nus that we ourselves also may be pardoned. The Lord then\r\ndid not utter the words, \"If ye forgive men their trespasses,\r\nyour Father will also forgive you your trespasses,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_951_951\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_951_951\">[951]</a> in order\r\nthat we might contract from this petition such confidence as\r\nshould enable us to sin securely from day to day, either putting\r\nourselves above the fear of human laws, or craftily deceiving\r\nmen concerning our conduct, but in order that we\r\nmight thus learn not to suppose that we are without sins,\r\neven though we should be free from crimes; as also God\r\nadmonished the priests of the old law to this same effect\r\nregarding their sacrifices, which He commanded them to offer\r\nfirst for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people.\r\nFor even the very words of so great a Master and Lord are to\r\nbe intently considered. For He does not say, If ye forgive\r\nmen their sins, your Father will also forgive you your sins, no\r\nmatter of what sort they be, but He says, your sins; for it\r\nwas a daily prayer He was teaching, and it was certainly to\r\ndisciples already justified He was speaking. What, then,\r\ndoes He mean by \"your sins,\" but those sins from which not\r\neven you who are justified and sanctified can be free? While,\r\nthen, those who seek occasion from this petition to indulge in\r\nhabitual sin maintain that the Lord meant to include great\r\nsins, because He did not say, He will forgive you your small\r\nsins, but \"your sins,\" we, on the other hand, taking into\r\naccount the character of the persons He was addressing, cannot\r\nsee our way to interpret the expression \"your sins\" of\r\nanything but small sins, because such persons are no longer\r\nguilty of great sins. Nevertheless not even great sins themselves—sins\r\nfrom which we must flee with a total reformation\r\nof life—are forgiven to those who pray, unless they observe\r\nthe appended precept, \"as ye also forgive your debtors.\" For\r\nif the very small sins which attach even to the life of the\r\nrighteous be not remitted without that condition, how much\r\nfurther from obtaining indulgence shall those be who are involved\r\nin many great crimes, if, while they cease from perpetrating\r\nsuch enormities, they still inexorably refuse to remit\r\nany debt incurred to themselves, since the Lord says, \"But if<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_469\">[Pg 469]</a></span>\r\nye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father\r\nforgive your trespasses?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_952_952\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_952_952\">[952]</a> For this is the purport of the saying\r\nof the Apostle James also, \"He shall have judgment without\r\nmercy that hath showed no mercy.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_953_953\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_953_953\">[953]</a> For we should\r\nremember that servant whose debt of ten thousand talents his\r\nlord cancelled, but afterwards ordered him to pay up, because\r\nthe servant himself had no pity for his fellow-servant who\r\nowed him an hundred pence.<a id=\"FNanchor_954_954\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_954_954\">[954]</a> The words which the Apostle\r\nJames subjoins, \"And mercy rejoiceth against judgment,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_955_955\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_955_955\">[955]</a>\r\nfind their application among those who are the children of the\r\npromise and vessels of mercy. For even those righteous men,\r\nwho have lived with such holiness that they receive into\r\nthe eternal habitations others also who have won their friendship\r\nwith the mammon of unrighteousness,<a id=\"FNanchor_956_956\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_956_956\">[956]</a> became such only\r\nthrough the merciful deliverance of Him who justifies the\r\nungodly, imputing to him a reward according to grace, not\r\naccording to debt. For among this number is the apostle,\r\nwho says, \"I obtained mercy to be faithful.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_957_957\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_957_957\">[957]</a></p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-FIRST.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-737"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"ae1f76fc7eb267f244d9157fbf9cae9ddf0cd964e5adc21c45ab75892a98c5c3","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"MAT","chapter":6,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Matt. vi. 14","verse":14,"verse_end":14}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_951_951","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_951_951","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_951_951\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_951_951\"><span class=\"label\">[951]</span></a> Matt. vi. 14.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_951_951","text_sha256":"fb3de357c1b18f6123ec50d1466ba56c86ef2d16d9ca06fb4ab1c7d739369996","verified":false,"work_id":null}