A practical exposition of the Lord's-Prayer

5. After this Reckoning there is Execution. A Bankrupt, that cannot satisfy his Creditor, is cast into Prison: So God hath his Prison for impenitent, disobedient, and obstinate Sinners: 1 Pet. 3. 19. He went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison. It is a dismal Prison, where poor captive Prisoners are held in Chains of Darkness, that is, under the Horrors of their own despairing Fears, looking for the Judgment of the Lord, when they shall be cast into this Prison, and no getting out again, until they have paid the utmost Farthing, Luke 12. 50. And that will never be, as to the Sinner; He is (as it were) always satisfying, and can never be said to have satisfied the Justice of God.

Thus you see how Sin is a Debt, and what correspondence there is between them; the Obligation of Punishment that ariseth from Sin. But now it differeth from all other Debts.

1. No Debt to Man can be so great as our Debt to God, both for number and weight. Mat. 18. 24. compared with Vers. 28. You shall see there the Parable of the Lord, forgiving ten thousand Talents; and the Servant goes and takes his Brother by the Throat, and requireth from him a Debt of an hundred Pence. Mark, Offences done to God are greater than Offences done to us; for there's as much Difference and Disproportion, as between an hundred and ten thousand. And then the Debt of the Fellow-Servant was but Pence, an hundred Pence; but the Debt due to the Lord, that was Talents; and a Talent is reckoned to be one hundred eighty seven Pounds, ten Shillings. Our Sins against God are more and more heavy, than any which our Brethren can commit against us. Pence, Talents; one hundred, and ten thousand: there's the Difference and Disproportion. O that we had a due sense of what it is to sin against God, against an Infinite Majesty! To strike a private Person, is not so much as to strike an Officer of Justice; and that's not so much as to strike the supreme Magistrate. What is it to sin against God? and how often do we? All our Imaginations are only evil, and that continually; and therefore all our Sins against God, will arise to a vast and heavy Debt, because of the Infiniteness of the Object against whom Sin is committed.