and for a pretence made long Prayers Matth. 23.14 yet certain it is that it was not their long Prayers that he condemns but their Pretence and Hypocrisie Thus much I thought fit to observe from the Context Our Saviour having thus cautioned his Disciples against the Sins of the Pharisees and Heathens in their Prayers comes in the Words I have read to instruct them how to pray After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father c. Some taking advantage from these Words deny this to be used as a Prayer it self but only as a Model and Platform to direct us how to pray But if we consult not only the practice of the Church of Christ in all Ages but the Scripture it self we shall find it to be both the one and the other for it is our Saviour's express Injunction Luke 11.2 When ye pray say and what should they say but the Words immediately following Our Father which art in Heaven c One Evangelist says Pray after this manner the other saith When ye pray say from both which compared together it is easie to collect that it is both a Pattern for us to form our Prayers by and that it is a Prayer it self which our Saviour in condescention to our Infirmities hath framed for us putting Words into our Mouths to beg of God those Blessings which through his most prevalent Intercession shall not be denied us And indeed of all Prayers this is the most absolute and comprehensive containing in it not so many Words as Petitions for there is not any one thing that we can pray for according to the Will of God but it is summarily couch'd in this And yet this Comprehensiveness which is the admirable Excellency of this Prayer hath been the only Reason why some of late have scrupled and refused to use it because they cannot pierce through all that is signified by these substantial Expressions they think they should take God's Name in vain in uttering that before him which they do not understand the utmost extent of But if they did but consider their own Prayers the same doubts would still remain When they pray that God's Name may be glorified can they comprehend in that short time while they are uttering those Words the infinite Latitude of that Request Is it unlawful at the close of our Prayers to desire that God would give us all good things which we have not mentioned before him And yet who of us can conceive how large an extent that Request may have May we not say Amen and Seal up our Prayers with a So be it though while we are speaking it we cannot presently recollect all that hath been mentioned before God in Prayer And for any to say that the Lord's Prayer is a Morsel too big for their Mouths as some have done I have always accounted it a most unworthy and unsavory Speech Certainly Christ thought it not too big for his Disciples whose Capacities at that time were possibly none of the largest as appears in many instances particularly in the Nature of Christ's Kingdom which he taught them to pray that it might come which they thought to be Temporal and Earthly And those who refuse the use of the Lord's Prayer as too big for them would yet think themselves much wronged if we should but suspect them as ignorant in that and in many other points of Christian Doctrine as the Disciples were when our Saviour instructed them thus to pray It being therefore as I hope clear and evident that we may often pray in these Words and that we must always pray after this manner let us now proceed to consider the Prayer it self in which there are these Four parts First The Preface or Introduction to it Secondly The Petitions or Requests we present to God in which the greatest part of it consists Thirdly the Doxology or Praise-giving for Praise is a necessary part of Prayer Fourthly The Conclusion or Ratification of all in the Sealing Particle Amen I shall speak somewhat of these briefly in the general and then more particularly of each as my Text directs me First For the Introduction or Preface unto the Prayer and that is contained in these Words Our Father which art in Heaven This is used as a preparative to Prayer And what greater inducement can there be to dispose us into a holy awe and reverence of God than to set before us the Greatness and Glory of that Majesty before whom we prostrate our selves And therefore we find that the Saints in Scripture in all their approaches to the Throne of Grace were wont in the beginning of their Prayers to affect and over-awe their Hearts with the humble mention of God's Glorious Attributes Thus Solomon 1 Kings 8.23 O Lord God of Israel there is no God like unto thee in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath who keepest Covenant and Mercy with thy Servants Thus Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20.6 O Lord God of our Fathers art not thou God in Heaven and rulest not thou over all the Kingdoms of the Heathens and in thy Hand is there not Power and Might So Hezekiah 2 King 19.15 O Lord God of Israel who dwellest between the Cherubims thou art God even thou alone who hast made Heaven and Earth And so the Prophet Jerem. 32.17 Ah Lord God behold thou hast made the Heaven and the Earth by thy great Power and stretched-out Arm and there is nothing too hard for thee The great the mighty God the Lord of Hosts is his Name great in Counsel and mighty in Working And thus our Saviour himself Matth. 11.25 I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth And so the Apostle Acts 4.24 Lord thou art God that hast made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is And thus to consider seriously of and reverently to express the infinitely Glorious Attributes of God is an excellent means to compose us into a holy fear and awe of God such as becomes vile Dust and Ashes to be affected with when it stands in the presence of its great Lord and Creator Only here let us remember that we dwell not so long upon the Titles and Attributes of God nor run so much out into Preface as to forget our errand unto him Secondly Next after the Preface we have the Petitions following in their order Of these some reckon six others seven but which soever we take the matter is not great They may all be reduced under two General Heads First Such as respect God's Glory Secondly Such as respect our selves and others The Three first respect God's Glory and the Three or Four last our own Good and that either Temporal or Spiritual Temporal in begging at God's Hands our daily Bread Spiritual in desiring both the Pardon of and Deliverance from Sin And here again we may observe the admirable Order and Method of this Prayer in that our Saviour hath placed the Petition which refers to our Temporal Good as it were in the very midst
require your humble Veneration Secondly The Scripture is suited to every Capacity It is as it is commonly exprest a Ford wherein a Lamb may wade and an Elephant swim and herein is the infinite Wisdom of God seen in wreathing together plain Truths with obscure that he might gain the more Credit to his Word by the one instructing the ignorance of the weakest by the other puzling and confounding the understanding of the wisest This also adds a Beauty and Ornament to the Scripture As the Beauty of the World is set off by a gracefull variety of Hills and Valleys so is it in the Scripture There are sublime Truths that the most aspiring reason of Man cannot over-top and there are more plain and easie Truths in which the weakest Capacity may converse with Delight and Satisfaction No Man is offended with his Garden for having a shady thicket in it no more should we be offended with the word of God that among so many fair and open Walks we here and there meet with a Thicket that the Eye of Humane Reason cannot look through Thirdly Those Truths that are absolutely necessary to Salvation are as plainly without either Obscurity or Ambiguity recorded in the Scripture as if they were as the Mahumetans think concerning their Alcoran written with Ink made of Light there 's the necessity of Faith in Jesus Christ of repentance for dead works of an holy and mortified Life so clearly set down that scarce have there any been found so impudent as to raise Controversies about them and is it not peevish to quarrel at the word for being obscure in those things which if thou hast used thy utmost Diligence to understand the ignorance of them shall not at all prejudice thy Salvation Bless God rather that he hath so clearly revealed the necessary and practical Duties of a Christian Life that those are not involved in any mystical or obscure Intimations but thou mayst without doubt or dispute know what is of absolute necessity to be either believed or practised in order to Salvation Be assured of this that what with all thy Labour and Diligence thou canst not understand thou needest not and what is needful is plain and obvious and thou mayest easily understand it Fourthly the Scripture is obscure but hath not God offered us sufficient helps for the unfolding of it Have you not the promise of his Spirit to illuminate you 1 Cor. 2.10 God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God Have we not his Minister whose Office it is to instruct us and lead us into the inmost Sence of the Scriptures Nay have we not the Scripture it self which is the best interpreter of its own meaning usually if it speak more darkly in one place it speaks the same truth more clearly in another Now compare Scripture with Scripture you will find it holds a Light unto its self The oftner you read and the more you ponder on those passages that are abstruse the more you will find them clear up to your understanding So that neither is this any reasonable discourgement from studying the Holy Scriptures Eighthly Others may say they are doubtful because they see many of those who have been most Conversant in the Scripture how they have been perverted and carried aside into damnable Errors and yet still have pleaded Scripture for the defence of them I answer True the Devil hath in these our days busied himself to bring a reproach upon Scripture through the whimsies and giddiness of those who have pretended most acquaintance in it But let not this be any discouragement for this ariseth not directly from the influence the Scripture hath on them which is the rule of truth only but from the pride and self conceit of a few Notionists who wrest it to their own Perdition And though they boast much of Scripture to countenance their Opinions yet Scripture misunderstood and misapplyed is not Scripture Indeed there is no other way to discern truth from Error but only by the Scripture rightly understood and there is no way rightly to understand it but diligently to search it But to say that therefore we must not read the Scripture because some wrest it to their own Destruction is alike reasonable as to say that therefore we must not Eat nor Drink because that some eat to Glutony and others drink to Giddiness and Madness The Apostle St. Peter tells us Epist 1 Chap. 3. v. 16. that in St. Paul's Epistles there were some things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Sriptures to their own destruction Shall we therefore conclude that neither his Epistle nor any other of the Scriptures should be read by us because that in some instead of Nourishment they have occasioned onely Wind Flatulency and ill humours If this had been his purpose it had certainly been very easie for him to have said Because they are hard to be understood and many wrest them to their own destruction therefore beware that you read them not But in stead of this he draws another inference verse 17. Ye therefore beloved beware least ye also being led away with the Errors of the Wicked fall from your own stedfastness but grow in grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ He saith not beware that you read them not but beware how you read them This is the true Apostolical Caution which tends not to drive us from the Scriptures but to make us more studious and inquisitive in them least we also be perverted by the cunning craftiness of Men who lie in wait to deceive And this the Primitive Parents thought the best and surest means to preserve their People from Error and Seduction It were almost endless to recite to you those many passages wherein they do most Pathetically exhort all of all Ranks and Conditions of each Sex of all Ages to a diligent perusal of the Holy Scriptures And so far were they from taking it up in a Language unknown to the Vulgar or debarring the Laity from Reading it that the Translations of it into the common Tongue of each Country were Numerous and their Exhortations scarce more vehement and earnest in any thing than that the People would employ their time and thoughts in revolving them It is therefore a most certain sign that that Church hath false wares to put off which is of nothing more careful than to darken the Shop And assuredly the wresting the Scriptures by some who read them cannot occasion the Destruction of more than that damnable Idolatry and those damnable Heresies have done which have been brought into and are generally owned and practised by the Church of Rome through the not reading of them Thus you see as it was in Josiah's time how much dust and Rubbish this Book of the Law lies under I have endeavoured to remove it And shall now proceed to those Arguments that
be every way perfect perfect in the full Number of its Subjects and every Subject perfect in his entire and compleat Reward his Soul made for ever Blessed in the Beatifical Vision of God and his Body made unconceivably Glorious by the redundancy of that Glory that fills his Soul and both shall remain for ever with the Lord. And thus you see what the Kingdom of God is both universal and peculiar the Kingdom of his Power and the Kingdom of his Grace and that as it is Militant here on Earth both Visible and Invisible and as it is Triumphant in Heaven The next thing in order is to shew how this Kingdom of God is said to come This Word come implies that we pray for a Kingdom that is yet in its Progress and hath not yet attained the highest pitch of that perfection which is expected and desired for that which is yet to come is not as yet arrived to that State in which it is to be And therefore we do not so properly pray that the Vniversal Kingdom of God should come for his Dominion over the Creatures is actually the same and shall be so for ever But more especially we pray that the peculiar Kingdom of God should come and that as to both parts of it Militant and Triumphant Now this peculiar Kingdom is said to come in Three respects First In respect of the means of Grace and Salvation for where these are rightly dispensed I mean the Holy Word and Sacraments there is the Kingdom of God begun and erected and therefore we find it called the Word of the Kingdom Matth. 13.19 Secondly In respect of the Efficacy of those means when all ready and cordial Obedience is yielded to the Laws of God then doth this Kingdom come and the Glory of it is advanced and increased Thirdly In respect of Perfection and so it comes when the Graces of the Saints are strengthned and increased when the Souls of the Godly departing this Life are received into Heaven and when the whole Number of them shall have their perfect Consummation and Bliss in the Glorification both of Soul and Body after the General Re-surrection And thus we have seen how the Kingdom of God may come In the next place we must enquire what it is we pray for when we say Thy Kingdom come I Answer There are various Things lie couch'd under this Petition as First We pray that God would be pleased to Plant his Church where it is not according to his Promise giving all the Nations of the World to his Son for his Inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession That the dark Places and Corners of the Earth that are yet the Habitations of Cruelty may be illustrated with the Glorious Light of the Gospel shining into them That God would reveal his Son to those poor wretched People that sit in Darkness and in the Region of the Shadow of Death and would rescue them from their Blind Superstitions and Idolatries and from the Power of the Devil who strongly works in the Children of Disobedience and would translate them into the Kingdom of his dear Son especially that he would remove the Veil from the Heart of the Jew upon whom a sad Judicial Hardness hath long lain that they at length may be brought into the Unity and Fulness of Christ's Body We pray that all the World both Jews and Gentiles may be gathered into one Sheep-fold under Christ Jesus the great Pastor and Shepherd of Souls so that as God is one so his Name and Service may be one throughout all the Earth And thus we pray that Christ's Kingdom may come in respect of the means of Grace and Salvation Secondly This Petition Thy Kingdom come intimates our earnest desire that the Church of Christ where they are planted may be increased in the Members of the Faithful That those who are as yet Enemies to the Name and Profession of Christ may be brought into the Visible Church and that those in it who are yet Strangers to a powerful Work of Grace may by the effectual Operation of the Holy Ghost be brought in to be Members of the Invisible Church And thus we pray that God's Kingdom may come in respect of the Efficacy of the means of Grace Thirdly We pray that all the Church of Christ throughout the World may be kept from ruine that they may not be over-run with Superstition or Idolatry That God would not in his Wrath remove his Candlestick from them as he hath in his Righteous Judgment done from other Churches which were once Glorious and Splendid We pray likewise that God would make up all Breaches and compose all Differences and silence all Controversies and cut off all those who trouble the Peace and rend the Unity of the Church breaking it into Factions and Schisms which are the most fatal Symptoms and Portenders of God's withdrawing himself and carrying away his Gospel and giving of it to another People who will better bring forth the Fruits of it which are Peace Meekness and Love And if in any thing Christians be diversly minded that God would be pleased to reveal it unto them and that whereunto they have attained they may walk by the same Rule and mind the same Things And thus we pray that Christ's Kingdom may come in respect of its perfection and entireness Fourthly It intimates our humble Requests to God that his Ordinances may be purely and powerfully dispensed Hence as I noted before the Word is called the Word of the Kingdom Matth. 13.19 that is the Word whereby we are brought into the Kingdom of Christ here on Earth and fitted for his Triumphant Kingdom in Heaven It is the means of our New Birth the Seed of our Spiritual Life And as a Kingdom cannot be well established or governed without good Laws so for the Government of his Kingdom Christ hath established Laws which are contained in the Records of the Holy Scriptures And as his Word is the Law so his Sacraments are the Seals of his Kingdom for so every believing Partaker God doth under his Seal confirm the grant of Heaven and Eternal Salvation And therefore in this Petition we pray also that God would give his Church able Ministers of the New Testament that may know how rightly to divide the Word of Truth and to give every one his Portion in due season And that he would be pleased to accompany the outward Administration of his Ordinances with the inward Operations of his Spirit which alone can make them effectual to turn Men from Darkness to Light and to bring them from the Power of Satan unto God That the whole Number of God's Elect may in his due time be brought in by the means which he hath appointed and sanctified for their Conversion and Salvation These are the chief and principal things that we beg of God for the Church Militant when we say Thy Kingdom come viz. that it may attain a perfection of Extent
as I suppose the words may well be interpreted I have already Glorified my Mercy which is my Name in thy Incarnation and Mission and I will also Glorifie my Justice in thy Passion and Crucifixion by the one declaring how Gracious I am in providing a Saviour for the ruin'd World by the other how Just and Holy I am in exacting a full and compleat satisfaction for the Sins and Transgressions of the World Now we may both add unto and diminish from this Declarative Glory of God We rob God of his Glory when we interpose between his Attributes and the Manifestation of them unto others We hereby wrong and injure his Repute and Esteem in the World and although we cannot pluck off any of his Attributes from him For if thou sinnest what dost thou against God Job 35.6 yet we obstruct the shining of them upon others As in an Eclipse of the Sun the Moon doth not darken the Sun but only darkens us and hinders the Light which still is the same in it self from breaking out upon the lower World So wicked Men by their sins though they cannot deprive God of the Brightness of his Glory yet they impede the Emanations and out-flowings of his Glory and hinder others from admiring and adoring of it as they ought Now the ways whereby God useth to express and declare his Glory are various First He doth it by his works Psal 19.1 The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work For they manifest to the World the Attributes and Perfections of their great Creator even his Wisdom Power and Goodness Some of God's Works are his Footsteps and some are his Images The Image of God is seen in rational and intellectual Creatures and by considering the Wisdom Vnderstanding and mental Faculties that God hath endowed them with we may come to apprehend some faint shadows and resemblances of the infinite Wisdom and Knowledge of the Original Cause of them since whatsoever is in them must needs be in a far more Eminent degree in the Author and Maker of them But all God's Works carry quaedam vistigia Dei some Prints and Footsteps of God stampt upon them whereby although they do not all shew his likeness yet they shew his Power and Wisdom in framing them Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and God-head But he especially Glorifies himself in the Extraordinary Miraculous Works of his hands whether in a way of Mercy or in a way of Judgment Exod. 15.11 Who is like unto thee O Lord Glorious in Holiness fearful in Praises doing Wonders Psal 85.9 Surely his Salvation is nigh them that fear him that Glory may dwell in our Land That is God by his wonderful deliverances of his Church and People establisheth his Glory to dwell among them Secondly God declares his exceeding and infinite Glory by his Word For therein he hath given us the most clear and lively representations of himself And those Attributes which his Works could never have discovered to us he hath manifested by his revealed Will. This is that Table on which he hath drawn his most resembling Image this is that Glass wherein We beholding the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3.18 and it consists of two parts the Law and the Gospel the one discovers to us the Glory of God's Justice the other the Glory of his Mercy and both of them are Glories 2 Cor. 3.9 For if the Ministration of Condemnation which is the Law be Glory much more doth the Ministration of Righteousness which is the Gospel exceed in Glory Thirdly The most clear manifestation of the Glory of God was made in Christ who was the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person Heb. 1.3 in him Heaven was brought down to Earth the infinite comprehended the invisible made conspicuous And all the Miracle both of Grace and Glory reconciled to our very Senses In him all the Attributes of the Divine Nature are so interwoven with the infirmities of the Humane that if I may so speak God in him studied to exhibit to us a person like our selves to give us some advantage for our apprehensions to conceive of his infinite Perfections In him Omnipotence became weak Eternity Mortal Innocence it self guilty God Man the Creator a Creature the Maker of all it s own Workmanship Life it self in him underwent the sentence of Death And all these strange and impossible Truths as for other ends so for this that we might have some clearer hints and discoveries of the infinite Glories of God which in their full brightness would only dazle and confound us and were discernable by us only thus tempered and obscured And therefore the Apostle calls him God manifested in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 Certainly God in Flesh must needs be rather veiled and hidden than manifested But although to himself he was obscured yet to us he was manifested because if the Glory of the Deity had not been thus clouded and allayed it had not been manifested For that Light which when tempered makes us see will strike us blind when too Glorious As we may safer direct our Eyes towards the Sun when it is under an Eclipse than when it shines with uncheck'd Rays Hence St. John speaking of Christ in the mean Estate of his Humiliation saith of him St. John 1.9 We beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Thus now you have seen what the Essential and Declarative Glories of God are let us now consider why this Attribute should so eminently be ascribed unto God Thine is the Glory Now there may be three Reasons given of it First Because all that is Excellent and Glorious in the Creatures is to be found in God and that either formally or eminently Is Grace or Holiness Wisdom or Strength Duration Justice or Mercy any Excellency in those Creatures to which they are Attributed they are all in God Formally and infinitely more Glorious and with infinite more Perfections than they are in the Creatures For Created Beings have but their limitted and stinted proportions of these Qualifications but God is infinitely Holy infinitely Wise infinitely Just and infinitely Merciful these things are in him without allays or mixtures from their contraries He is Holy without any mixture of Sin Wise without any mixture of Folly Just without any mixture of Iniquity Merciful without mixture of Cruelty Yea these are all in him without any bounds set them by his Nature and Capacity for they are his Nature and therefore as infinite and as unbounded as it Again Those Excellencies that are in the Creatures and cannot formally agree with the Divine Essence yet they are all in him Eminently Are any Creatures Excellent for the Beauty and Symmetry of their parts for Light for
What is the Vniversal Kingdom or Church of God A. It is a Company of true Believers who have Eternal and Invisible Communion with God by his Spirit and their Faith Q. What observe you of both A. Its Mixture and Imperfection for in the Visible Church there is a great Mixture of Persons the Bad with the Good in the Invisible there is a great Mixture in Persons of Evil with Good and Sin with Grace Q. You have formerly told us that the Church of Christ in its Progress is the Church Militant either Visible or Invisible and that the Church of Christ in its Consummation is the Church Triumphant What is this Church Triumphant A. The general Assembly of such glorious Angels as never fell and such glorified Saints as are raised from their Fall Q. What is that Kingdom which in this Petition we pray may come A. Not the Universal Kingdom of God which is the VVorld for his Dominion therein is always the same but onely the peculiar Kingdom which is his Church and more especially that part of it which is Militant on Earth Q. In what Respects may God's Kingdom be said to come A. In Three 1. First In respect of the Means of Grace and Salvation which are the VVord and Sacraments for where these are dispersed there God's Kingdom is erected 2. Secondly In respect of the Efficacy of this Means in the Conversion of Sinners whereby they are brought into the Invisible Kingdom of Christ 3. Thirdly In respect of the Perfection of this Kingdom for then God's Kingdom comes when the Saint's Graves are increased when their Souls are received into Heaven and when both Souls and Bodies are consummated in Glory Q. What do we pray for when we say Thy Kingdom come A. 1. First That God should plant his Church where it is not That all the Kingdoms of the Earth may become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ 2. Secondly That his Ordinances may be purely and powerfully administred his word truly preached which is the Law of his Kingdom and his Sacraments duely dispens'd which are the Seals of it 3. Thirdly That God would send into his Church able and faithfull Ministers to be faithfull Stewards of the Mysteries of the Gospel 4. Fourthly That the Ministery of the Word may be successfull to the Conversion of those that hear it 5. Fifthly That all the Churches of Christ may be kept from Errour Schism Superstition and Idolatry and that true Doctrine and due Discipline may be continued in them to the End of the World Q. But may we not pray also for the Church Triumphant in Heaven A. We may for the fulfilling of what is promised 1. First That the Number of them may be compleated 2. Secondly That their Persons may be compleated That the Bodies of those Saints which now sleep in the Dust may be raised united to their Souls and both made Eternally glorious in the Kingdom of Heaven Q. Is not this praying for the Dead so justly condemned of Popish Superstition A. No for we pray not for another State as the Papists do when they pray for Souls to be delivered out of Purgatory but we pray for the Perfection of the same State in which the Souls of the Faithful already are we pray not for their Release out of Torments but for a joyfull Resurrection which both they and we expect and whatsoever may be the Object of our Faith and Hope may well be the Subject of our Prayers Q. Which is the third Petition A. Thy VVill be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Q. How is the Will of God distinguisht A. Into the Will of his Purpose or the Will of his Precept or into his secret and revealed Will. Q. What is the Will of God's Purpose A. His Eternal Counsels and Decrees whereby he hath fore-ordained whatsoever comes to pass Q. What is the Will of Gods Precept A. His holy Laws contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament wherein he hath revealed to us the Duties we ought to perform for the obtaining of Eternal Life Q. How do these two Wills differ A. 1. First In that there are many things which God wills by his VVill of Purpose that he hath not willed by his VVill of Precept For God commands nothing but what is Holy yet he purposeth to permit many things that are Evil. 2. Secondly In that we may effectually resist his Will of Precept so as to hinder the Accomplishment of it as we do whensoever we sin but we cannot resist the Will of God's Purpose though many times to endeavour it is our indispensible Duty Q. Ought not the Will of the Creature to be conformed to the Will of God in all things A. Yes to the Will of his Precept for that alone is the Rule of our Obedience But in all things to conform to the Will of his Purpose may involve us in the greatest Guilt Acts 2.23 Being delivered by the determinate Counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain Q. Is there not then a manifest repugnance between God's Will of Purpose and of Precept A. No for the Object of God's VVill of Purpose is Event but of his VVill of Precept Duty and it is no contradiction for God to will or permit that to be which he hath willed or commanded us not to do Q. Which of these do we pray may be done A. VVe especially and absolutely pray that the VVill of God's Precept may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Q. What considerations may excite us to be earnest in this Request A. First because there is a great reluctancy in our corrupt Nature against the holy VVill of God therefore we ought earnestly to pray that he by his Grace would subdue it Secondly because the Glory of God is deeply concern'd in doing his Will for by this we own his Sovereignty and our Subjection to his Laws and Kingdom Thirdly because our own Interest is deeply concern'd in it for it is onely by doing his Will we can inherit the Promises Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments Q. Ought we not absolutely to pray that God's Will of Purpose may be done A. No And that because many things are brought to pass by this Will which we ought to pray against as Temporal Evils and the Permission of Sin Q. How then do the Saints in Scripture pray for the Accomplishment of this Will of God as in 1 Sam. 3.18 And Samuel told him every whit and hid nothing from him and he said It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 2 Sam. 15.26 But if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him Acts 21.14 And when he would not be perswaded we ceased saying The Will of the Lord be done And our Saviour Luke 22.42 Saying Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless