The Fountain of Life Opened

Here I shall first open the nature of this duty, and show you what a forgiving spirit is; and then the excellency of it: how well it becomes all that call themselves Christians.

Here I shall first open the nature of this duty, and shew you what a forgiving spirit is; and then the excellency of it: how well it becomes all that call themselves Christians.

First, Let us enquire what this Christian forgiveness is. And §1that the nature of it may the better appear, I shall show you both what it is not, and what it is.

First, Let us enquire what this Christian forgiveness is. And §1that the nature of it may the better appear, I shall shew you both what it is not, and what it is.

First, It consists not in a stoical insensibility of wrongs and injuries. God hath not made men as insensible stupid blocks, that have no sense or feeling of what is done to them. Nor hath he made a Law inconsistent with their very natures that are to be governed by it. But allows us a tender sense of natural evils, though he will not allow us to revenge them by moral evils. Nay, the more deep and tender our resentments of wrongs and injuries are, the more excellent is our forgiveness of them: so that a forgiving spirit doth not exclude sense of injuries, but the sense of injuries graces the forgiveness of them.

First, It consists not in a stoical insensibility of wrongs and injuries. God hath not made men as insensible stupid blocks, that have no sence or feeling of what is done to them. Nor hath he made a Law inconsistent with their very natures that are to be governed by it. But allows us a tender sense of natural evils, though he will not allow us to revenge them by moral evils. Nay, the more deep and tender our resentments of wrongs and injuries are, the more excellent is our forgiveness of them: so that a forgiving spirit doth not exclude sense of injuries, but the sense of injuries graces the forgiveness of them.