Chapter VII.—The Sixth Clause.

It was suitable that, after contemplating the liberality of God,49    In the former petition, “Give us this day our daily bread.” we should likewise address His clemency.  For what will aliments50    Such as “daily bread.”profit us, if we are really consigned to them, as it were a bull destined for a victim?51    That is, if we are just to be fed and fattened by them in body, as a bull which is destined for sacrifice is, and then, like him, slain—handed over to death? The Lord knew Himself to be the only guiltless One, and so He teaches that we beg “to have our debts remitted us.” A petition for pardon is a full confession; because he who begs for pardon fully admits his guilt. Thus, too, penitence is demonstrated acceptable to God who desires it rather than the death of the sinner.52    Ex. xviii. 23, 32; xxxiii. 11. Moreover, debt is, in the Scriptures, a figure of guilt; because it is equally due to the sentence of judgment, and is exacted by it: nor does it evade the justice of exaction, unless the exaction be remitted, just as the lord remitted to that slave in the parable his debt;53    Matt. xviii. 21–35. for hither does the scope of the whole parable tend. For the fact withal, that the same servant, after liberated by his lord, does not equally spare his own debtor; and, being on that account impeached before his lord, is made over to the tormentor to pay the uttermost farthing—that is, every guilt, however small: corresponds with our profession that “we also remit to our debtors;” indeed elsewhere, too, in conformity with this Form of Prayer, He saith, “Remit, and it shall be remitted you.”54    Luke vi. 37. And when Peter had put the question whether remission were to be granted to a brother seven times, “Nay,” saith He, “seventy-seven times;”55    Matt. xviii. 21–22. in order to remould the Law for the better; because in Genesis vengeance was assigned “seven times” in the case of Cain, but in that of Lamech “seventy-seven times.”56    Gen. iv. 15, 24.

CAPUT VII.

Consequens erat, ut observata Dei liberalitate, etiam clementiam ejus precaremur; quid enim alimenta proderunt, si illi reputamur revera quasi taurus ad victimam? Sciebat Dominus se solum sine delicto esse . Docet itaque petamus DIMITTI NOBIS DEBITA NOSTRA. Exomologesis est, petitio veniae; quia qui petit veniam, delictum confitetur. Sic et poenitentia demonstratur acceptabilis Deo, quia vult eam, quam mortem peccatoris (Ezech. XXXIII, 11). Debitum autem in Scripturis delicti figura est , quod perinde judicio debeatur, et ab eo exigatur, nec 1163A evadat justitiam exactionis, nisi donetur exactio, sicut illi servo dominus debitum remisit (Matth., V, 25). Huc enim spectat exemplum parabolae totius. Nam et quod idem servus a domino liberatus, non perinde parcit debitori suo, ac propterea delatus penes dominum tortori delegatur ad solvendum novissimum quadrantem, id est, modicum usque delictum, eo competit, quod remittere nos quoque profitemur debitoribus nostris. Jam et alibi ex specie orationis: Remittite, inquit, et remittetur vobis (Luc, VI, 37). Et cum interrogasset Petrus si septies remittendum esset fratri: Imo, inquit, septuagies septies (Matth., XVIII, 22), ut legem in melius reformaret, quod in Genesi de Cain septies, de Lamech autem septuagies septies ultio reputata est (Gen., IV, 24).