those above-mentioned we surcease from more particular designation Four brethren visiting one Pambus discoursed of some special duty wherein they had exercised themselves One had been much in fasting another had so slighted the world that he had nothing of it nor in it a third professed he had studied that eminent grace of charity the fourth had lived two and twenty years in obeying the will of another to whom Pambus gave the crown of superexcellent commendation in regard he had quitted his own will and served anothers whereas his companions had chosen what their own wills had beheld as delectable and though we sacrifice our selves by giving our bodies to be burned yet obedience is more acceptable with him with whem we have to do and more performable shall his will be to us if we reflect that he wills only what is profitable and all his will is profitable for us in that he wills them to us It is to be adverted that God wills only good let none therefore be harsh it is by accident if he wills ill the means that leads to glory be more lucidly discovered and most pathetically press'd Samuel wept for Saul and David harped for him though both knew God had left him It is a scandalous practice of some to wish either the means or tendencies towards hell or to presume at first Gods final determination and accordingly with delight wisheth not to say prayeth ill for their brethren It is the will of God that all Israel be saved let it not be thy will to have any Edomite damned left thou curse thy self He wills moreover the doing of his will by thy self also be not an hypocrite exclude not thy self from this service for it is not let thy will be done by these or these or by him but let thy will be done that every where throughout the earth Errour may be eradicated and Vertue planted and in worshipping of his Name Earth may not be different from Heaven which cannot be if thy own soul be not by thy self weeded from vice and his will performed to thy power It is Storied of religious Borgia of Guant that he said the furious Dog in hunting would be commanded from the Hare at the command or hollow of the Hunt-man yet man would not abandone his lusts his sinfull projects his fleshly and hellish designs at the voice call yea thunder of God But let it not be so with thee beating up thy soul to that degree of conformity that the very whisperings of Gods Spirit may command practice and be obeyed without recoyling that God may as it were wonder at thy servency as Christ did once at a womans humility with an O man great is thy obedience Yet in applying this Petition to our selves it is good to remember his advice who propofeth this three-sold rule in and about the will of God that his will if we be particular be done 1. With a si vis as the leper Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean Moses prayed for entrance into Candan but finding it not to be the will of God he desisted from that suite 2. There must be a sicut vis a deliverance any way he will David desired to behold both the Ark and its habitation but if it were otherwise determined in the Council of God he was content 3. There is a quando vis when he will he hath called upon thee and thy Fathers house oft but his offers and his invitations have been oft rejected and Iosephs brethren flighting the anguish of his soul when they told him made Ioseph unknown to them untill the second time they went down to Egypt Wait upon the good pleasure of God therefore There were two wayes in the opinion of Poets and Philosophers in which all men walked and was thus figured â— one leading to bliss the other to sorrow the one was called the way of vertue the other of vice Christianity in its Law shews the disparity betwixt a licentious and a regular life neither is there any other path for happinesse and glory then obedience obedience obedience Wait then upon God and the God of peace that brought again our Lord Iesus from the dead shall in his own good time make you perfect in every good work to do his will Thy will be done on Earth c. THE will is the souls hand for applying to its self such things as appear useful helpful and convenient but heavenly things as most necessary must be reached unto yea violently attracted left as disobedient to Law it be stigmatized as rebellion and restrained in its other attempts all other designs saving those of piety which have the promises of both Earth and Heaven proving abortive in themselves and destructive to the brain wherein they are bred for prevention whereof we must have the earth qualified with obedience by good will and our selves upon earth to have heavenly wills that we may glorifie God in the lowest earth as he is in the highest Heavens betwixt which that there be an holy conformity pray that his will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven On Earth a real limitation and properly a boundiary unto all supplications for all Saints yet of so large an extension as includes all that are afar off upon the Sea and signifies that of David God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us Selah That thy way may be known upon earth thy saving health among all Nations On Earth as it is in Heaven hath received different and various senses from the Ancients by Heaven some understanding the Saints and godly by Earth the sinner and unbeliever making the Petition this Let thy will be done by the wicked of the world as truly as sincerely as it is by the righteous and religious Again by Heaven is understood the Spirit and by Earth the flesh or body of man which is a servant to the law of sin and then the Petition signifieth this Let all the members of my body wherein sin dwells be made by thy power as easily induced to the obedience of thy will as is my spirit by which I serve the Law of God Further by Heaven may be understood the Church and by Earth the unbaptized multitude and then the Petition speaks Let all Atheists Iews Turks do thy will as it is done in the Congregations of those professing thy Name Two Fathers will have us by Earth to understand our enemies and that here we pray against their earthly-mindednesse which being removed they and we may live in heavenly concord confirming this position from the Apostles their not being called earth but the salt of the earth yea Non abhorret it is not absurd to understand saith one by Heaven our Lord Jesus Christ and by Earth the Church who as a wife is desired to be like the Spouse her Husband in
and sincerely 1. Conjunctly All the glorified number unites in this one thing of giving honour power and glory to the Lord because of all his wondrous works and such who desire to be of that Quire must to that Hymn in joynt devotion giveâ—n their Amen Israel must joyn with Egypt and Assyria avoiding neither because he is a Iew but beholding the Spirit of God breathing upon them must celebrate with them as Brethren though formerly aliens and with binding resolution each precede another by affection and in imitation of that glorified number though probably before different in opinion combine in this judgment to practise and do the will of the Lord for ever saying to dividing principles Abide here with the Asse and I will go yonder and worship c. 2. Continually Their eternal Sabbath is spent with unwearied ceasing in their serious attending his Throne we ought to be earnest and with David keep the way of his statutes unto the end i. e. sine impedimento incedam giving defiance unto the keenest temptation I shall gracefully persevere and imitably walk in the road and path of thy Commandments observing them in all my undertakings not putting on the royal apparel of Faith Righteousness and Obedience for the Throne or Temple but make them my daily garment yea my night-cloaths for at midnight will I arise and give thanks unto thee 3. Sincerely There is in Heavenly Saints a concord betwixt heart and harp being like the Sun transparent every cavity within them exceeding the Christal in purity evidenceth no disingenuity but perfect harmony in love in voice in desire in moving and in doing Abfuit ergo as true disciples of Christ let us hate dissimulation or willing to feign but let us do as well as sing I love the Lord otherwise as the devils we may speak much truth and with the reprobat do much good but neither being hearty it is not our own and the sooner shall we be accursed if we call out the Truth the Truth and not walk accordingly Not to separat what God hath joyned together both Saints and Angels in Heaven do the will of our Father joyfully humbly 1. Ioyfully Great content have they to be employed and great satisfaction have they all in doing the will and work of God Hail thou art highly favoured said Gabriel be it according to thy word said Mary to be sorrowing with the covetous young man for the sale of lust and discharging of thy sin or passionat or carelesse as was Pharaoh and Pontius Pilate is to contradict the spirit of God prompting thee to pray after this manner Thy will be done 2. Humbly Christ is represented to the Divine sitting at the right hand of the Father but the Angels and Saints about the Throne and sometimes falling down before it and then are men obedient when the precept not being delayed is heard by the ear saying Now the tongue saying arise the feet run and the hands saying all that thou commandest we will do That his will be done Reader in thy soul and in thy body in the heaven of thy soul and in the earth of thy flesh that as the Angels who are spirits thou spiritualized may live and do on earth his will as it is in Heaven The Popish Franciscus being demanded who was to be judged truly obedient ordered the exhuming of a dead body who would not be discontent how ever placed nor puft up though throned nor clamorous if dispised nor beautifull though gorgeously arrayed Such is the obedient doing giving suffering where word or providence gives order without wresting it or strutting it before the Lord. This word As either the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Germain Al 's importing similitude here denots a likenesse only not an equality we by it desiring amidst such encumbrances as the soul groans under to live inculpat as inoffensively as the Angels but to reach them in the large extent of perpetual conformity is a task beyond mortality for during our abode in houses of clay Ignorance malice weaknesse wantonnesse and wickednesse will affect us yet as children we may regard our copy and scorn luxury and all exorbitancy and lay aside superfluity of naughtinesse being perswaded that albeit the Character of our lives and actions be unproportioned we shall at length write fair and draw good Text Hand when in heaven we come to be perfect men in Christ Iesus For however obedience be here mixed with frailty and imperfection yet as a tender son endeavouring to execute his fathers will is approven so is it with God he requiring and blessing the will or desire for doing when the work it self may be defective so that though we arrive not at the perfection of the first or second Adam in doing Gods will which is to be found in the holy Angels yet we may acquire in obedience the perfection of Zacharias and Elizabeth which consists in the sincerity of our service We cannot and do not the will of God with the Angels speedily for like Lot we linger to go out of Sodom nor cheerfully for like Israel we murmure in the way nor fully for the good we would do we do not nor sincerely for our hearts are far from him nor perfectly for we know but in part and see but in part yet we are to strive after all this there being a time to come wherein all shall be obtained though now with Israel we compasse Iericho and with Sampson groan under blindnesse at length the siedge shall be ended in conquest and we revenged upon all Philistines that tormented us and all that we do shall be very good Therefore study for an enlarged soul that largely the will of the Lord be done for it is thy will not our own not every where but on earth not every way but as it is in Heaven that is doing it out of love and affection And so pray ye From all this we infer these four particulars 1. A necessity of doing Men came not into the world to stand idle or gaze about but to work and though sin and Satan put many to miserable drudgery it is still sloath except the work of God be done The heathen beheld and scorn'd the consumption of time in the inutile pursuits of the ordering plaiting and curling of hair of some phantasticks in his time and how with us such vanities are priveledged to inhabit the souls of too many is scandalously evident the saying of the prophecie of this book this prayer being kept neither in memory nor manners neither in heard nor heart c. 2. Timidity for failing The vitiousnesse of the age in spending the greatest part if not all time upon things â—innical ought to creat a fear both for our selves and others having for the doing of this will a patent not for one minut yet filling two times so nearly placed that there is
it is placed after all the Petitions that concern God insinuating that his work and glory is first to be done and then we may cause lay the cloath and put on bread We find that in times of Famine there have fallen showres of Wheat for the refreshing of the hunger-bitten and here we are directed without a prodigy to respect Heaven and not the Fields for Grain or the Mill for Meal but both sexes to imitate the vertuous woman and bring their food from afar For so pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread From the naked face of which words we discover a Law commanding care for and abstinence while we are in the body 1. Our care for the body For beauty proportion strength the body is so stately and curious a structure that it were impiety against nature to suffer or design delapidation the least hair whereof being allowed a place in Gods Note Book we may conclude its bowels to be more intensly regarded It is the souls Cabinet therefore not to be broke Christ died for it and therefore it is not to be slighted the earth is to conceal it and therefore is not to be strip'd yea Heaven is ordained for it and therefore it is to be honoured The soul indeed is to be the main not our only care but the body hath here Gods Image and shall if we be wise walk up and down in his inheritance above As Ioseph by faith gave charge to bury his bones we by the same grace may give charge concerning our bodies and order to set on bread The charge against shedding the blood of man is from this Argument For in the image of God made he man that image being in the blood tanquam in copula in the body tanquam in organo in the soul tanquam in proprio subjecto in its proper place the vital spirits are carried by the blood and upon them also depend all the senses and upon the senses depends the rational soul in which the image of God principally resides now take away bread the blood fails and by that the spirits fail and by them the senses fail and by that the soubremoves and by that the image of God We offer this to the consideration of the malicious who shedding the blood of man desaceth that goodly workmanship for whose preservation he is bound to pray it not being preceptive give me but give us our daily bread For quid est conservare humanitatem what other is the preservation of humanity then the loving of man because he is a man and the same that we our selves are and who doth it not dispoyls himself of the appellation man as not worthy to be so termed The superstitious also rivetting this request upon his own thoughts will be self-condemned his cutting tearing whipping and lashing himself making him Fellon de se in a sort a self-murtherer in renting the back or torturing the skin of that belly he prayes for c. The covetous also must not plead immunity from the mulct appended unto the breach of this Divine Law of cherishing the body as the fruit of his prayer for in his fordid baseness withdrawing from the flesh what God hath sent it and keeping from the belly its just modicum which it craves yet to his own annihilation it remains empty he in the mean time cramming even to nauseating the hollow bowels of a wooden box makes him culpable of self-hostility and impeding him in his spiritual traffick his cash but serves him to buy damnation For quid prodest what is the profit of concealed hoards and who knows not that by doing good and shewing mercy men shall find mercy and reap good but what shall he gather who is merciless to his own self It is good and comely for one to eat and drink yea deck his house and to enjoy the good of all his labour which God hath given him in neglecting whereof he becomes guilty of Idolatry in St. Pauls meaning and of Adultery in the sense of an holy Interpreter and abundantes temporalium inopes aeternorum being rich in this world is yet poor and yet more poor when it is considered he hath no treasure in Heaven If any object that we are not to take thought what we shall eat and the required zeal in the duty of prayer will certainly suffer intermission in enlarging upon dayly bread It is to be adverted that there is no repugnancy between give us bread and take no thought what ye shall eat c. The latter condemning distrustsulnesse and â—infull distraction not a prudential foresight of competent provision for Parents are to lay up for Children and a Master must provide for his Family and a man for himself 2. Our abstinence while in the body Abstinence in the judgment of the Orator did much conduce for conciliating People and Prince but in our Saviours Doctrine it is the sole medium for keeping Heaven and earth in concord so clearly that the great Amphiaraus who in life was accounted a great Prophet and after his death a reputed god among the Grecians advised their Priests before their consulting at the Altar to abstain one day from bread and three from wine Plato made his greatest seasts to consist in Salt Olives Chease and Herbs and he was called the Divine The Egyptians tyed their Kings by Law to a certain portion of wine and meat and they were accounted Sacred Yea bread water and salt velut exquisitis obsoniis as great delicats did the Persians give to their Children And we read that Martha after our Saviours Ascension did neither eat flesh nor drink wine untill she saw him whom her soul loved above BREAD the poorest boon that nature can ask and the least a Father can deny and yet the only great thing we are to entreat for Our Lord restraining the Petitioners hungering for luxurious fare and conjuring against riches delicates and gaudy Raiment the Pedissequae or handmaids of which are Wrath Intemperance Anger Arrogancy Injustice Pride and every evil work Becoming by joyning dinner to supper and drowning the body with drink oppressing the belly with meat a ludibrious spectacle to their own attendants who must convey the vomited carcase to a dormitory out of which its possible the besotted cometh more surious then before sleep procuring neither health nor ease to the ininflamed body All which courses to prevent or temptations to avoid we are only directed to pray for our dayly bread as Agur prayed for his convenient food unto which prayer it is thought our Saviour hath reference in wording this Petition and dissect food convenient or open dayly bread in our practice we shall find sobriety to be hominis prima medicina the chief Physician of man as one Father calls it and the Mother of health as another and so good for soul and body
other fond reformations aimed at in this Age rich Amen was reduced to a beggerly So be it when yet there was as great difference betwixt them as between the garments of Tamar the harlot whom Iudah defiled and the Virgin-like apparel of Tamar the Princess whom Ammon ravished It is the only Hebrew word in this Prayer and not interpreted by our Saviour nor the Evangelist nec Graecus interpres neither durst the Latine nor Greek Interpreters translate it lest it should be contemned by being made naked since no Language can express its full sense whereof almost all Nations as they say Jesus Christ though Originally Greek and Hebrew sayes Amen as sufficiently understood Is is an oath that what you pray for is your hearts desire it is a wish that what you pray for may be your portion it is your assent that what you hear prayed for it your judgment and therefore in Amen we wish swear believe that the Prayer for forgiving sins of deliverance from evil of giving daily bread is from the power and goodness of your Father and that the Kingdom of his glory and grace is to be advanced by the same power and when by it you are brought to do his will you resolve to hallow his Name in the first and give him the glory in all for ever through Christ who is the Amen and therefore when you pray mind Heaven with Moses let all the people with you say Amen And I say To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven c. HAving viewed at a distance the out-works and general form of Prayer it is now seasonable to enter in and behold the special rule of Prayer and the several parts of that called the Lords Prayer unto which the unseasonable and cloudy weather that may be both felt and seen in the Firmament of our Church urgeth our meditation having visibly as once in Egypt in it showres of hail and fire mingled with the hail hence prudentially we are enforced both to make more haste to it and carry longer in it It is called the Lords Prayer because by our Lord composed in this expression After this manner pray ye and by him also imposed in this Precept when ye pray say Our Father c. and to difference it from the Prayers of other holy men as of Moses David Asaph Heman from which it is as really diversifi'd as a week day from the Sabbath for though the Spirit of God made both yet the Holy Ghost hath eminently sanctified and commanded us in Prayer to remember it in this Mandat When ye pray say Our Father c. We have by our Saviour a living and new way a new Command it was thought also by his inscrutable wisdom fit to give us a new Prayer as new Wine for our new Bottles Pray after this manner As the Temple of old so this Gospel-structure consists of three parts 1. a porch or gate which may be called Beautiful in the words of the Preface Our Father which art in Heaven 2. A holy place consisting of the several Petitions in the Body of the Prayer as Hallowed by thy Name Thy Kingdom come c. In which the lights of the Lamps lead us orderly from one Petition to another from wherein his Kingdom is concerned to that in which our obeying the Laws of that Kingdom is related in Thy will be done by which we see the Table of the Shew our necessary bread whence we go forward to the brazen Altar whereon we lay our sin-offering in Forgive us our debts c. and having sanctified our selves as Priests we ascend to the third Part the Holy of Holies For thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory for ever at the end of which or rather the head we have the glory of the Lord in a cloud in this word Amen filling it self and the whole house with the light thereof Of the Preface then next of the Petitions and lastly of the Conclusion let us treat CHAP. I. Our Father which art in Heaven IN these words we have goodness Our Father next greatness which art in Heaven They are the head of the Christians Prayer and like that of the Spouse it is as the most fine Gold and weighs thus much that we should be so circumspect in our walking and living upon earth as to be accounted worthy to posses our Parents Inheritance in Heaven unto whom we pray whence ariseth those duties of lifting up of the heart of the voice of the soul of the eyes unto God They have also in them the Person we pray unto Father the relation we pray under Our Father the place we pray unto which art in Heaven all ushering-in the several Petitions Our Saviour more boni Oratoris as an Orator here patterns and becomes a Patron unto goodly Prefaces whereby our Petitions are proposed with greater gracefulness and sweetness and what shall more readily procure affection than Praise and Praise is placed upon the Porch of this Prayer in that our Lord will have us begin to beg no otherwayes then by calling the great God our Father insinuating praise and love which rule had the Gadarens observed they had not so prophanely besought Christ his Son to have departed from their coasts To have our Prayers quadrat and conform to this holy Preface We shall discover 1. What lyeth couched under this Name Father 2. What reasons might induce our Saviour to give him that Name 3. The special excellencies by which most eminently he merits that Name In beholding the first both thee and I Reader are to behold What astonisheth Angels What makes the Heavens to wonder and the Earth to tremble which flesh cannot express And I said A great Preacher dare no utter yet dare not be silent The Lord grant that I may speak and you may hear this great thing viz. Gods giving himself to the Earth and we our selves to Heaven Both which is granted to be done in these words Our Father which art in Heaven Our Father c. THis Name Father is as the Angels name Secret and wonderful yet with Moses we shall view its back-parts And first of all we may perceive the whole Trinity in nature For the Lord God is a Father God the Son is a Father God the holy Ghost is a Father Or without errour we may understand the first person of the Deity in order sometime called the Father of Rain of Iesus Christ and again the Father of Grace the first having in it some vestigia of his power the second being the express image of his person the third the similitude of his nature and holiness And to him we may cry as to the first person with David Be merciful unto me O God be merciful unto me and also in the same phrase Father We may call to
affaires and they take up a great deal of time against our own wills that this must be done against the spring that this is fit for such a countrey and this is suitable for such a coast gives us no time to study the will of God As fishers have several baits for different fishes so the world hath variety of snares for its multitude of traders Demonaae when questioned if the world had a soul then if it was round With indignation answered you are very carefull about the world yet about your filthiness contracted in the world you are carelesse Here this man is settling his heir there that man bewailing his poor crop he casting up his accounts and a fourth is preparing for a forreign plantation because of all which there is such a bumming in the ears of man that with the maniest the sound of the words carrying the sense of the will of God hath not admittance into that gate of the soul the ear which if it had we should not be so far embased about the drudgery of this pelf but write with a holy man for direction and instruction about sub jugating our wills to the will of God and what we ought to do therefore It is desired on earth though to our sorrow we know it will never be there exactly done suppose our hearts for once holy ground yet the Rod of Moses I mean the Law when cast thereon becomes a Serpent and we are scarce able to endure the sight of the just holy and good commandment sin by it taking occasion to work in us all manner of concupiscence sed hic inter in ex parte oramus we pray for some measure of obedience here that we may be perfected in all obedience hereafter God crowning in heaven with perfection our sincere service performed on earth though through weaknesse imperfecte clamemus igitur in Coelum we therefore list up our voices to Heaven because under it there is nothing but labour sorrow vanity and vexation The earth hath its heats and colds according to the cloudiness of the air or distance of the Sun obedience likewise hath her colds and heats her workings and faintings her runings and stumblings and sometimes a great intermission of her spiritual pulse On earth Faith hath her distrusts Hope her doubts Charity her damps there this opinion raiseth Choler that doctrine provoketh Rancour he caufeth offence by an ill example these are scandalled through supposed mistakes whereby the Earth that is the best of its inhabitants is but a bad copy yea indeed no copy at all hence our Lord teacheth that not Earth but Heaven be the rule for doing our Fathers will Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven THE rule of our obedience is now before us and the mould in which all actions are to be cast for Heavens that is for Gods plaudit As it is in Heaven is a Doctrine of comparing qualities not substances it respects neither Earth nor Heaven Physically but Morally pressing a conformity in the inhabitants of either to the will of the Lord of both and grand Master of each It is also a doctrine of holinesse among Spirits that the souls of the righteous here Militant may in vertue and well-doing totally resign themselves in imitation of the Spirits Triumphant for the will of God that they may be found without fault before the Throne of God That their conversation may be in Heaven by contemplating the things which are not seen here and affecting the things that are only there by working all things according to the Angels Samplar Yea even to follow God himself it being not unlawful per divina ire vestigia to walk as Christ himself walked The word is singular Heaven not Heavens as in the Preface excluding all but the very in-side of Heaven the interior parts of the Heaven of Heavens there being there exactness in opposition to Earths crookedness and stateliness against its baseness 1. Exactness Examples are to be eminent and as far as possible contrived above the censure of ordinary operators in things wherein honour is concern'd but in things divine wherein are couched the most pressing interests of the souls eternity patterns ought not to have so much as an umbrage or shadow of sensuality which not being sound on earth a David will trip a Iacob will halt and a Noah lye uncovered we are to eye Heaven for acquiring of righteousness and ture holiness 2. Stateliness How slovenly so to speak do we handle the mysteries of God Is not a trembling hand a glazy eye a blubred face commended in the approaches of the devout to the greatest pledges of their salvation and yet in these addresses not only faith but their love to God is then more sublimely to be acted that it may be felt heard and understood so that the highest raptures and most ravishing transportations like high Steeples are not without their Cob-webs whereas in Heaven the divine beams of glory shining upon the faces and hearts of the Elect both heats their souls and beautifies their exercise to that degree that with redoubled acclamations of ineffable joy they stand before their Saviours Throne and go about their Masters errant in a Royal Majestick and Authoritative deportment These are so well known to be in Heaven that good men do not only mistrust others but fear themselves pray against themselves ask forgivenesse both in and for their most religious undertakings which must cede to the performance of those Sainted above they being incapable of pollution laxation or heâ—itation through the spiritualizing of all their faculties In this Prayer there are two sicuts two as-es one is As we forgive our debters forgive us in which Earth draws a pattern from Heaven to follow sets it a copy to write a pardon by the other is this Petion As thy will is done in Heaven let it be done in Earth in which Heaven is recommended as worthy for imitation of Earth and sets before it a picture for Earth to draw the lively features of exact and acceptable duties For note in Heaven there are three whom we must imitate and follow viz. Christ Angels and the Saints glorified Behold Christ as man and as when upon earth it was meat to do his Fathers will for himself giving us in that consideration an example to prevent sin and as God a remedy against it from which it is deducible that our eyes feet hands and tongue are to be observant observers of the whole Law and will of God as Christ was we making his life our book our glass our rule our way his present residence in Heaven and work there is the Churches salvation in general thy soul Reader and that other mans in particular for it is the will of the Father that none of these little ones perish hence Christ becomes their Advocat that they all may
God in this Prayer come now to be considered and when discovered it will appear so peculiar his due that in comparison of him we are to call no man Father on earth for one is our Father which is in heaven because all things and beings are of him He is called the Father of glory of light of mercy and he is so in respect of Christ whom from eternity he begat and also in respect of his creatures upon whom he hath impressed his image though in different colours sometimes the image of his foot-steps as in irrational or insensible Creatures and thus he is the Father of the Dew sometimes the image of his Knowledge Reason and Understanding and thus he is the Father of Men and Angels yea eye the plenitude of his power and he may justly be called both Father and Mother to all created beings their Father as begetting them by his omnipotency and their Mother as continually conserving nourshing and bringing them forth by his providence but because of holinesse and sanctity is he especially called the Father of Saints and blessed Spirits which in this Prayer is principally to be regarded It properly signifieth the natural parent of the male-kind some say when it speaks of a man it signifies a defender of children but when of God it denotes a preserver of all There are that will have it to be derived from their procuring Fathers getting or procuring children to themselves However it be men are called Fathers 1. By Nature 2. By Favour Our natural parents give us 1. a being 2. a well-being and both of these in a more excellent way are bestowed by God upon believers If you eye our being we have it principally from him having it neither wholly solely eternally essentially but by him have we an eye an ear a limb an hair but of his begetting a toe a nail but of his making It was he that kept warm in the womb our tender bodies and when ignorant of ourselves was he fashioning and joyning all our members which other fathers neither knew how to do nor could do Iohn the Baptist respected because rejoiced at the salutation of his Lords Mother for his sake who gave him life though otherwise he was ignorant of any life he had so Iacob fought and strove in the womb resolving even there to conquer whileas yet Rebekah thought of nothing less then government and dominion Compare him with earthly parents and you may perceive a wide and a vast difference for 1. We have not our being wholly from them grant that by them the principles for a body is begotten yet without him it will be no birth a lame birth or a dead birth he must give the Embrio the breath or life or then he hath not a living soul. I know that inter sanctos patres there are some that debate about the animation of the Insant yet that is pious O Anima mea O my soul if thou would have God to love thee behold thy nativity for by the Trinity was thou made in the likeness of God a gift which he gave no other creature c. As he gave the red earth a spirit at first and called it Adam so is it still it being the soul that makes us men i. e. to rule and reign in our selves and over our selves when this is well all is well and when this languisheth all fadeth so that our all depends upon it and yet all our earthly fathers wit cannot procure it for us Adam did naturally beget and Evah bare a Cain yet the man is acknowledged to be from the Lord and untill we know that natural causes can of themselves produce more excellent effects than themselves are we must hold that not the body begets but that God infuseth the soul and in respect of that is absolute Father and is called a Potter in regard of the body also so little have we from our parents 2. Neither have we our being solely from them Did not the Sun give heat the Air breath water refresh and meat nourish we should for all that other Fathers can do be stifled in the womb where blood was appointed by him to be our food and the same decreed to become milk for our meat the flax ordered to procure linnen for our clouts the sheep wool for our coats the hills wood for our cradles and the valleys corn for our bellies and the earth veins of silver for our dowries without which even Iobs daughters might live as the Muses unfortunatly single 3. Neither have we our being ever by them The mother for a time may play with her smiling spradling infant and Isaac sport with his fair Rebekah yet both at last shall say of the same delightful objects Bury my dead out of my sight and then the Father in Heaven keeps them better then the truff unto which the father on earth commits them No sooner doth the babies soul take its farewel of flesh then Angels secures it from devils seats it in Paradise by Gods command the earth as a second womb retaining the more gross part until the birth of the resurrection by another sentence neither of which can be performed by the most indulgent parent There are that will have death have his name from division yet it cannot separate us from this Father in Heaven others from parting as cutting man in two parts yet no part of us is out of our Lords protection though both parts be out of our sorrowful parents care and tuition It is the thought of an Ancient that it gets its name from biting that being brought in by sin when man was bitten by the old Serpent yet this Father knocks out his teeth that death feeds not upon us Some will have it named from its bitterness but this Father so composeth this Dose that we are not killed by death Some fetcheth it from having our arrears payed us our life being a warfare death payeth and dischargeth all that is owing us and so to be dead is to be exonerated from further duty yet it doth not this for we stand continually before the face of this heavenly Father out of the danger of hells assaults and resting in peace ac securus diem resurrectionis expecting an assured resurrection being every way guarded and protected of God and continually praising of him and dwelling in his house for ever 4. Neither have we our being always with them Our Fathers may love us yet cannot help us they may be capable to help us yet at a great distance from us we may be exposed to the dangers of plague pestilence and Famine and they afford no relief it is only he in Heaven that can do good and deliver us out of danger Seek no place therefore was a full rule but the God of and in all places thy self being a Temple unto him and where thou stands there is thy
age and upon an Altar made him swear irreconciliable enmity and hatred to the Romanes which fastned so much upon him that being demanded concerning the end of the Carthaginian War with Rome made no reply but struck the ground and made a dust denoting thundering-war untill either Rome or Carthage were levelled which happened accordingly What ever Heathens did to wed themselves to contention though even among them such courses were condemned by the most refined yet for Christians to betroth their issue unto hellish debates is not only a scandal in this present age to our adversaries but a reproach to our selves being dedicated to God by our Baptism and by it vowed charity to the body of Christ upon earth which vow ought to be observed if we expect to enjoy the benefits conveyed mystically to us in that blessed Sacrament Hast thou an enemy in point of opinion or practice love him doth he curse thee bless him doth he hate thee do him good and pray for him though he despitefully use you and what is that pray for him but that God would give them repentance and bring them out of the snare of the devil by which alone we evidence that as the elect of God we have put on bowels of mercy A Temple said that Heathen Phocion is not to lack an Altar nor the humane nature to be without compassion which indeed beautifies and maketh fragrant all our other endowments 2. From our Gods universality good meaning or intention His Sun shines his rain falls his corn grows equally on good and bad just and unjust his fish is taken in the net as well of the churl as of the liberal his water cools the reprobate as well as sleep refresheth him who is upright and though God do as sometimes he makes a difference yet every one who is even holy ought not by and by to execrate such whom they suggest to be in evil courses since the prayers of a dying Stephen may be so prevalent as to prove instrumental in snatching a persecuting Saul both from the counsel and doctrine of the Pharisees And to cause the soul to take wing for the practice of this Doctrine of Charity consider 1. The certainty we have of Gods willing all men to be saved What meant providence to move Pilats hand for this inscription upon the Cross in Latine Greek and the Hebrew Tongue IESVS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE IEWS but to cause all of these Nations read and be assured that unto all of them there was a Iesus a Saviour even Christ the Lord then dying for them and afterward to be believed upon by them His endowing his Apostles with the gift of Tongues was but to learn every man that heard the wonderful works of God to believe in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth and in Jesus Christ his only Son is as clear as the fire the Spirit came down in Why then should dust and ashes cross the purpose and good will of God in endeavouring a blasphemous opposition by and wishing him ill unto whom God hath sent Ambassadors beseeching him to be reconciled to God Put up O man thy desire for the same end and be not surly for thou knows not but that thy prayer may prosper Ac primum noverimus know this that nothing is more profitable then love and nothing more hurtfull or unprofitable then to malign sedulously therefore study a good opinion a placid mind and benign affection toward all men There is no sinner ordinarily so perverse but hath so much of the Image of God that under the greatest conflicts with revealed wrath we may without sin both shed tears and offer up prayers for him as Samuel did for Saul yea nature it self teacheth us to love our friends and grace commands us to bless our foes and we see children either have or study to have some property of their father and let this be aimed at to imitate our Father rather in doing good then in uttering curses for that is his strange work and beseeching good for them since we behold God hath good thoughts towards them 2. The uncertainty of our being first placed In the Register of Gods future purposes one may be intended his daily bread before another be remitted of his debts one possibly is to be brought within the body of his Kingdom before another have his heart screwed up to become pliant to his Law and Will since therefore thou knows not where thy action is enrolled nor when it shall be called observe the proposed rule and pray for all men of which thy self is ever to be understood one Abraham did earnestly desire and sollicitously beg a son by Sarah and had one yet before his birth he had a son of Hagar this in providence being to precede was to come out first And so it may fare with thee in thy pressing suits The words Our Father leads us to the consideration of a great mystery of our faith an Article of our Belief the communion of Saints making us pray for them that hears us not and leads our eyes to behold as many objects as there are letters to give nos we or our being making us look 1. visione reflexiva upon our selves nos alwayes includes me and noster supposeth meum Our speaketh alwayes mine and give us our bread intimats thou art hungry 2. Visione collaterali side-wayes and that both to the right hand upon our brethren by grace and to the left hand upon our brethren by nature compassion working for both 3. Visione recta ascendente to behold directly God himself From my Author I infer he that looks not to the other two shall never beholds this last Prayer shewing love to God which is shown purely by demonstrating love to men and though in the contrary passion he deceive himself yet he cannot delude his Maker none being admitted into his house but whom he finds charitably qualified that being the place where men must live together before they enter they must pray together And none knowing who shall first enter let us call Our Father 3. The probability of the souls being the more enlarged As the bigger the Star the greater is the shine so the broader the soul be the more beaming is the glory and the better service the better wages They that be wise shall shine as the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever holding forth degrees of glory for a reward to them whose lives are more eminently holy which is in no one thing more elucide then in charitable praying for that Petition whose rise is necessity doth not so sweetly relish with our God as that doth whose basis or foundation is love and charity Yea hâ—c est Christianorum bonitas it is the beauty glory and splendor or Christianity to walk as Christ walked in relation to enemies persesecuters and
they will have to be signified the brightness of misdom which is Iesus Christ and by heat which is from the Sun they would have love understood which is the Holy Ghost to detect the vanity of such conceits as issuing from Anaxagoras were a vain dispute but certain it is that man was made and the Christian is taught to have his eyes his desires his affections where Christ is at the right hand of God and was begotten and born of the Spirit to love admire and behold the Son Therefore Schools and Colledges where Arts and Principles of knowledge are taught ought to be recommended to the eare of providence that from them by means of Professors and Benefactors as from a Nursery may be removed such plants as may in the garden of God which is his Church refresh his people with their shade and fruit for it was esteemed the saddest persecution when Iulian the Apostat Emperour to impede the Kingdom of the Gospel ordered that no Galilean so he termed believers should be trained up in letters or learning alledging that heathens were killed with their own feathers meaning the pungency of Christian Doctors Arguments That the knowledge of God being spread the longing after Heaven may be discerned that the things present being accounted as nothing there may be earnestness for those which are to come a principle arising from a conscience purged from sin and a soul purified from the earth as St. Pauls was when he groaned to be cloathed upon resteth in the bosome of this Petition Moreover the subjection of all souls unto his will Law and Goverment is intreated for here in Thy Kingdom come the petitioner as the mother of Siserah is panting and asking why is his Chariot so long in coming that deliverance from this present evil world might be hastned that all whether high or low rich or poor old and young might rejoyce together blessing the Lord in the beauty of holinesse For 1 They live in fear of themselves and therefore cry Thy Kingdom come Iob was not in trouble yet he feared they know they cannot think one good thought nor do one good act upon certainty of sins lying at the door and of temptations being within the house distrusting of the strength of age and experimentally apprehending a disease surmising through despondency some cross to attaque them and lastly beholding the severity of God upon them which fall more grace knowledge and a more clear sense of their own salvation is frequently in their mouth that no temptation may surprize them or cause them deviat from truth and holiness Sometimes Curiosity again Vanity too oft Obscenity will affault and the thoughts of the soul here heat the heart there blow it and anone disturb it and by and by scatter and again confound it then rack it and afterwards binds it consequently defile it and corrupt it from which the coming of this Kingdom doth secure it by giving them the gifts of sobriety and of a sound mind purity of speech and sincerity of grace which they would alwayes possesse but that Satan by his frequent and sudden temptations doth hinder them In the croud of cares and fears arising from wars tumults and as they say from wives children and families from sin and natural srailty a soul though strong may be broken crushed and wounded by which that precept recorded to have been given by the Guardian Pastor or Angel among many to that holy ancient Hermes St. Pauls Disciple is good viz. to believe and fear in regard the last without sthe first creats gulfs of despondency issuing from the turbulent sea of perplexity entanglements and doubts for the Spirits overwhelming his nuncius iniquitatis or evil genius like Iobs messengers interrupting mans beloved retirements for Halcyon and serene tranquility in heavenly meditation more frequently with corrodeing and mournful intelligence tending to bitterness and wo then his nuncius aequitatis or good Angel cometh like Ioabs informers Ahimaaz-like with accustomed good tidings nourishing the soul or ravishing the ear with the melodious report of benevolent providence whence it is that even the great judgment-day for the elects sake is hastned and the Kingdom of God every wsy desired 2. They live in love of others and therefore cry Thy Kingdom come With St. Paul they have a desire and their prayer to God is that all Israel may be saved by letting the sound of the everlasting Gospel be heard unto all that dwell upon the earth and to every Nation Tongue and people that Israel and Iudah that is Iew and Gentile may become one and unite in the hand of him who is the arm of the Lord revealed For if we love the Lord we shall obey his Law and love man for this is to enjoy good and to be thought worthy of infinit good things this is the crown of vertue the foundation of Religion and the Kingdom of God there being great and precious promises of the enlarging of the Kingdom of Christ by the accession thereto of the multitude of the Gentiles by revealing the Doctrine of saith the light whereof detecting the unprofitableness of those various modes and forms of worship used by Infidels the not doing whereof indicats one almost that is scarce half a Christian that in its full latitude oblidging us to lay aside passion and self and signifie to the world our desire of Gods removing the dark cloud of atheism or errour and bring all to that due way of worshipping the Father in his Christ by discovering to all the beauty and order of his Kingdom Let us reason a little on Gods behalf and beholding the equity and justice of this duty set our selves to its performance Contemplat upon Gods authority over us and we shall learn submission reflect upon our cumbersome lusts our rigid adversaries our rueful passions our woful calamities our oppressing Task-masters our seducing Teachers our eager disputes our multiplied opinions our divided interests and our probably irreconciliable divisions to pass by the subtilty of the Devil in all we shall be forced not only to pray Thy Kingdom come but with hatred and sorrow acknowledge that other lords besides thee have had dominion over us to save us therefore and to confound them Let thy Kingdom come Our creation possession and future expectation makes discernable the infinit distance betwixt those powers whom we obey and God whom we ought to obey who not only hath authority over us but exerciseth the same in so gentle ample and so affectionat manner that reason should induce us to forsake those intricat labyrinths inconsolat services and filthy undertakings in which and wherein our lusts and hellish masters have and do so deeply engage us and make us swear allegiance devouting our selves unto the Crown of Heaven the Laws whereof being comfortable just good and holy A crook-back was not under the Law to approach to offer bread before the
his Preacher and offers up his Prayer Christianity hath its Armour to fight against and overcome the world a true Microscope discovering its blemishes and deformities a Teliscop or prospect approximating Heaven and its glory so near to the eye that the carrion carcase of earths circle irritats the Spirit to have it removed augurating or foreseeing some pestiferous scent arising therefrom may endanger its spiritual health and dead nay damn the soule That being a sure rule of one that never can the spiritual war be upheld if the lusts of the world be not subdued nor the mind contemplat God which meditats on fleshly pleasures the devil by them as by Tubes of Pipes conveying pride to the soul as to Evah envy as to Cain covetousness as to Achab all which is openly renounced and proclaimed against in our receiving the press-money of sacred Baptism It was asked what was piety or who was the pious man It was answered he who worshipped the gods not as a man would himself but as the gods had appointed in their Laws If this was the judgment of Heathens how darest thou in hypocisie take the words of his Covenant or this prayer in thy mouth since God will not only never shake hands with him who hath a lie interwoven in his robes of praise but revenge himself upon all who worship him not in spirit and truth Pretenders to holinesse and simulated services operat for nothing more then inlarging the vails of reserved wrath heating and thickning the same whereby their evacuation must be more formidable and the worshippers more inexcusable that they are judged out of their own mouth God only hearing doers of his will Knowledge being only as light to direct practice and a good disposition salt to season it and free profession is as wine to quicken it yet all without practice are but instruments to destroy it Let his will therefore be done On earth for it must be done there or no where there being no work or labour in the grave whereunto we tend work his will while it is day for the night cometh wherein no man can Reflect but upon natures frailty and how ruinous the edifice of the body is in the sudden dissolutions Fate hath made in others and we shall be enforced to regulate our selves to that Law of working in this our day Philemon died in a laugh Anacreon with one grain of grape therefore the Moralist adviseth that our life be but a learning to live and that spent in teaching to die there being so many pricles about the Rose of our beloved life that our hands bleed as soon as it is felt making the hardiest to cry tempting us to its embrace as did the flowry Aspect of that delectable valley the inchanted Ass in the Fable miserable man in the Mythology but no sooner in it but with furies worse then dogs is poor man set upon and men acting as devils causes the good man to sigh out his day being crossed in his highest enterprise principally from his own weakness and inadvertency every day and next from the asperity or wickedness of others each day grinding him as under the nether-milstone through sorrow enraging him again so high that from the praecipice of passionate resolves he invokes disaster more sad then did Aristarchus who yet starved himself to death to ease the pain of the Dropsie which yet might take more time and procure better preparation by filling the soul with more voluminous contemplation for exact removeal then had Baebeius Pamphilus who died even while asking a boy what it was of the Clock Death in Capital Letters being written in the front of each day and hour which having not so much as one syllable to protract the pronouncing more then day ought every day to expunge the speculation of futurity and conclude there is none to follow yea scarce that we behold since as the above-mentioned Ass we are each day suffering the Strappado of cares and griefs by which it becometh scarce a day because uncomfortable and wearisome suggesting as well as hastning thoughts of departure and dissolution What one sayes of sins remission may be said of times course and motion Now the wicked ceaseth from his vain conversation beholding the path of piety as more eligible that he gain eternal life Now he avoids the fault that he may never feel the smart nunc praeveniat he cometh before the face of God with confession that he may never be separated from him by damnation He doth it now that is while on earth or never On earth it is to be done there because it is only disputed there Disobedience indeed begun in Heaven but it found no entertainment and will never be again admitted Of hell it is said he that is obstinat filthy or unjust let him be unjust still because they must still suffer the will of God as in heaven the pure meek and just Saints are doing the will of God but earth is regnum mixtum hath in it some that obey many that deny and numbers that boggle demurr upon and dispute against or by a carnal neutrality stand in aequilibrio ready to perform Gods will or any other that policy shall account most efficacious for their carnal purposes like that prophane Souldier somewhere who had on one side of his Shield an Image for God upon the other for the Devil with this device if the one will not take me the other will There are three things upon earth that dispute against God and defie his will these are natures pravity the Devils tyranny and the variety of mens affairs 1. Natural pravity this will have us do our own will It was born with us bred with us and went to school with us which makes us lath to deny it any thing If it say as Tamar what wilt thou give me How loath are we to deny it a kid from the flock though God discharge it willing our Sanctification A Child will do much to keep his Bird though it pick him and a man will do more to preserve his will though it sting him 2. The Devils tyranny for he will have us to do his will Heaven he is secluded from and hells inhabitants he is sure of therefore his hopes his feats his threats and arguments against the will of God are in done and urged upon earth And it is evident the will of God is not alwayes done hence therefore this illation is congruous enough that the will of Satan is How soon was Adam wooed to embrace hells doctrine dethrone God and destroy himself for he was not deceived And if Iudas get content he will deliver Jesus into his enemies hands as soon as Satan fills or enters into his heart Neither left he there but is yet so busie so cumbersome so deluding that we are in many places called upon to hear the word of the Lord. 3. The variety of mens
To these we might add a third viz Gods goodnesse to the body At the giving of the Law he gave man six dayes to work for its upholding and at the ordering of prayer you see he allowes one Petition for the same end the Ravens brought Elisha bread and flesh to eat and the brook did afford him water in a drought here lest natural strength should sail and the body languish by immoderat fasting we are advised to pray for all these in this one word bread notwithstanding our attendance about Heavenly doctrine To these three might be added a fourth that is our charity to all in the body We say not Me but Vs and Our bread which phrase is as wide as the sea and as large as the earth and commands us to pray for bread to all in the flesh or in the Lord our glory and honour not consisting in our wealth strength youth beauty nor in nothing of the worlds product but he that gloryeth let him glory in this that he knoweth and seeketh after God and releaseth his poor servants laying up in them a good foundation against the time to come For charity is omnium Artium quaestuosissima the most enriching trade delivering us from the power of death providing us oyl for our lamps fitting us for the great wedding and building for us everlasting habitations And in this case the words of Pius the second Pope may be applied to an officious Chambersain hindering true information of affairs Knowest thou not I have the Papacy for others rather then for my self Let the Reader put in Wealth Riches Power Honour in place of Papacy and he may learn his duty Prepare your appetites for receiving as God shall direct us to distribute this bread in our old method by shewing first the matter and next the order of this Petition the former we lay before you in four pieces 1. The thing asked that is bread 2. The manner it is askad by and that is imperative give us 3. What kind of bread we ask and that is our own our bread 4. The time wherein we ask this our own bread which is this day If there remain any fragments we shall gather them together putting them in the basket of the word dayly which shewes the extension how long we would have this bread given us which is dayly or day by day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bread so called from its fitnesse for us it being fit as a staff for an old man or from its perfectnesse as having all other things under the crust thereof so eminently that it is conceived the Roman word Panis is from the Greek word Pan as if it had every thing in it or all things understood by it it may be deduced from the word Pascendo as if it alone sed men or were his proper because chief food Our Saxon Ancestors called it Brood the Germains now Brot whence probably comes now the word Bread and all from the Greek Brotus that is Meat in a most emphatick sense all meats yea the least of meats being generally unwholesome if not loathsome without bread so that bread by interpretation is all things necessary for the being or well-being of man and a sufficiency of them in that which is most necessary and most excellent which is BREAD and here dayly to be demanded and having it to conclude we have sufficiency of food Ordo petitionum cogit me saith a great Cardinal the method of the Prayer enforceth me by bread to understand not that of the body but of the soul as the Gospel and the Sacraments c. to which sense many of the Ancients do adhere and many Romish Interpreters but he erred not that undestood it de utroque of them both But to the Cardinals ordo I oppose a Jesuites existimatio existimamus nihilominus for all that saith he we conclude that here we are to understand corporal or bodily bread It is observed that where bread hath a mystical signification there is added some word to discover its mytaphysick sense as the bread of God bread from Heaven bread of life c. which insorceth a spiritual sense but as it stands here there is no circumstance insringing its literal interpretation all things divine or spiritual being couched in the other Petitions thy Kingdom come and thy will be done and yet in a remote sense soul-bread may be an orthodox glasse relating to Christ and the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist but in its proximat signification we shall understand it vulgarly for the ordinary staff of life with the consent of reformed Interpreters Take then Reader thy bill and for bread and in bread and with bread write down meat drink raiment strong house wholsome air upright friends good neighbours honest servants dutiful children and a vertuous wife understand also prudent Magistrates wise Counsellours a fruitful Soyl and a peaceable Countrey for all these are good and profitable to men for these the best of men have prayed and these also hath God promised to his people The Pilgrim may have bread in his Budget yet perish on the top of Snowy Mountains the Mariner his Bisket and his Bottle yet be swallowed up by insulting waves the diseased may have the learned'st Medicinal receipts yet be Bedrid None of which things being congruously reducible to the other Petitions they relating immediatly to God ought in equity if not in necessity to be brought to this Petition as their proper continent All of them being necessary for life comfortable for life helpers to a godly life and enjoyed and prayed for by the godly in this life 1. Necessary for life This is so natural a truth that though the Scripture shew'd not famine to be a Judgment we were able by the light of Nature to read punishment in the looks of the very bruit Bread is called the staff of life and that is sometimes broke implying by its breaking either the want of all corn provision or withdrawing from the grain its natural strength and vigour whereby it having nourishment men â—aint for it is bread that strengthens mans heart Consult man in his highest attainments and the miseries in which he is envalp'd maketh his condition deplorable and to individuat the same in prayer would make devotion and his other affairs incompatible wherefore by an holy Synecdoche we here have part for the whole God our Father knowing how to apply our sense of desiring bread to the present or soreseen exigence we are or shall be under The Sea-man senseth it calm winds the eye of providence discerns a necessity of baiting a leak The Traveller means it good accommodation the Father graciously adds liberation from Robbers one may want sleep in a soft and another cannot get it in a hard bed thus mans calamities cumulat themselves and multiplied against him he is taught to encounter all prevent all to pray against all
be had I say must for that which by some Interpreters is called panem quotidianum dayly bread super-substantialem or heavenly bread or victum alimentarium our nourishing bread is translated by some panem necessitatis the bread of our necessity there being such inseparable connexion betwixt bread and life especially in wholesome constitutions that without the first the latter should expire and David's let my soul live and it shall praise thee when reduced to this prayer may be expounded give me bread and I will blesse thee Trees plants rooted in the earth must have nourishment from the same for their upholding their enlarging so our bodies being earthy must have from thence competency of nourishment or they perish were it but bread and water hence God is said to water the hills from his chambers that he may bring forth food out of the earth Cyrus that great King when demanded what he would have dressed for dinner replyed Bread for I hope said he to sup at a River deferring the deliciousness of water in quenching his thirst by the hopes of future tasting Great temperance in a heathen yet heighten'd when we consider his custome was never to dine or sup untill by some exercise he was brought to a gentle sweat And that Fathers advice was also sound who advising a fitness for continual fasting for God recommends the accustoming of a mans self paucis non gloriosis i. e. neither unto many nor luscious dishes And indeed it is noted as a crime in the rich glutton that he fared deliciously every day which is discharged in this phrase dayly bread things necessary God accounting only profitable superfluities not relieving but destroying nature and reason also in so grosse a way that rioting and drunkennesse the usher of chambering and wantonnesse makes them not to appear so much men quam feras belluas as Boars and Bulls 5. Because but by him we have no heart to eat our own bread The earth by its primeve and first blessing of sertility bringeth forth fruits and by a natural appetite in man some of these fruits must be received yet there are Misers whose hearts grudge their own craving stomack to that degree that their tongue is disposed to curse their hand for conveying a morsel to their own mouth which is not only vanity but an evil disease There is a man saith Solomon to whom God hath given riches that is artificial as store of Coyn and Wealth that is natural riches as abundance of Wine c. and Honour that is put him in an honourable estate so that he wanteth nothing that is pertaining to a pleasant life yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof because the churl himself will not suffering his belly his body the fruit of his body his children the walls of the house that containeth his body and the companion of his body his wife to want that which God sent to them but diverted to a by end I mean to fill his eye or ear thereby giving all occasion to curse and cursed he is for God abhorreth him This is magna miseria an inexpressible misery the Nabal cruciating and vexing himself nimia parcitate by his sordid detaining from his own soul in selfishnesse what he ought to give it to be mute of the Laws of Justice Prudence and Religion which commands sustentation of himself to himself having this alwayes like the sting of the Scorpion biting him to death that he painfully gathers up wealth by wayes none knoweth how that they may be spent by he knoweth not whom Was it not base in the Cardinal Angeloctus by secret wayes to enter his Stable and from the Manger to steal the allowed Provender from his own Horses until the Groom after watching gave him Stock-fish-oyl anointing his shoulders with the Strapado apprehending him at first to have been a forraign thief What heaps of Authors can shew the Readers that the sordid covetousness of the Emperour Mauricius cast himself his children and his wife into the barbarous hands of the Usurper Phocas their murtherer and Phocas again upon the same selfish account to be parted limb from limb by Heraclius Though I dare not say the last was undeserved yet I close that these and all such as these were poorer then the poor and they being poor in the judgment of one rich both in grace and honour who being rich are not bountiful to the indigent nor helpful to the maimed nor pitiful to the oppressed How superlatively miserable is that Dives who withholds not only from these but from his own loins their proper aliment Diogenes asking something from such a wretch and perceiving him to Fall into a brown study and suggesting denial he called O homo O man I am asking thee for some bread not commanding thee ad sepulchrum to a sepulchre To this man may all such men be compared the sight of their own food or their childrens coats frighting them like Executioners â—ll which to prevent in our selves we say Give us bread give us our bread that is our own bread that is in this sense a heart a hand a power a will to eat enjoy a sufficiency of those good things thy bounty in our labours hath bequeathed for thy glory our own comfort credit and content that we our selves not strangers may possesse our wealth It was sordid in Lewis the eleventh French King to imploy his Barbour Oliver in Embassy through covetousnesse and was like to prove satal to that Stateless State-officer notwithstanding of National agreements for immunity he having been like to be wash'd I cannot say trim'd but for his heels in the River Guant And the rich City Florence for sending Merchants Ambassadours to Rome when besiedged by Charles the fifth who being found to have Gold Threed for sale to save charge was put to greater charge when their Ambassadours were-rejected with scorn and sent home with shame this is registrated to be as a monitor to all that high and low be excited in their several ranks to understand this Petition as desiring an enlarged soul for the splendid honourable as well as gracious and proportionable elargition of their goods otherwise another shall be their Almoner and because their Cash wants a Master it shall elect one to it self who of thy money and by thy wealth shall eat his own bread and be thankful to God be blessed by the poor in the interim thou have neither praise nor comfort but shame and grief with men and in thy self and a vomiting up before God through remorse or sting of Conscience what ever thou hast greedily devoured It would be discovered when our bread is our own since it is that we here call for and may be so called 1. When by our industry and labour we procure it having it by us prepared by and in the exercise of our Calling 2. When by piety and devotion
the Neuter hurts and dangers it may be sensed the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being sometime demonstrative pointing at a special one and other times indefinit for any one and in such a summary as our Lord here intended we may comprehend its meaning to be deliverance from all evil in the bulk and Satan as the chief A Spanish Gentleman and noctivagant or a night-walker rising in his sleep through excessive heat intending to wash in the River was met by one pretending the same businesse but tempted him to cast himself from a high bridge into a very deep place into which the tempter was already vapouring the Dons seet no sooner touched the water then he awoke and calling upon the other for help was frustrat perceiving it an evil spirit after prayer to God shifted as he could avoided the danger and guarded for the future against such extravagancies and the Devils going about to devour hath made the Religious of old urgent and vigilant to escape captivity and we in this age have no reason to be too secure though upon beds of Down From evil that is hell the place of evil in Heaven all is good on earth there is some good but in hell no good Iudas is said to go to his own place that â—is to which he was adjudged his merits worthily casting him from the Apostolat of which in and by his hypocrisie he only keep'd possession from which place worse then that wherein he died which yet as is said was so stinking that men were forced to stop their noses through unwholesome scents we beg here freedom from our Father setting him viz. Our Father in the preface in opposition to that evil one here begging his good against the others evil opposing person to person things to things a Father to a Foe Behold this evil through the prospect of Scriptural threats and exhortation and an evil example and an evil death is easily perceptible all the Law and Prophets by a Father is summed up in this viz to eschew evil and do good but Drunkards Blasphemers Idolaters Iews Turks seeking still to debauch there is strength to resist their solicitations violence their frauds and their enticements here prayed for that though men accept favour from such which yet ought not to be done saith some yet certainly no kindnesse ought to lure us unto encouraging them in unholy performances There is a people near unto Armenia called the Curdi whose Barbarous cruelty especially to Christians hath circumcised their country and made it be called terra Diaboli Devils land and it is to be lamented that so much of the European continent or indeed so many of its Islands may be thought to be governed by the same Soveraign yet how prevalent soever that Fiend be to prevent the spreading of his dominion as well as restricting the exorbitancies thereof yea for repelling its force and nullifying its being we pray in deliverance from evil Not only this but a peaceable departure and removeal is here beseeched the death of the uncircumcised or to die by the hands of a stranger being a curse yea not to die the common death of all men or a mans own death being both sad and dangerous is by all men except inconsiderat deprecated under the notion of evil fire water and sudden death being comprehended therein in the judgement of a learned Interpreter A Scholler quarrelling with one of his companions over night in the night in his sleep entered the others Chamber and slew him returning still asleep into his own bed declaring next day he dreamed he had slain his Comrade Here was temptation and evil both done and suffered yet such Reader as may befall both me and thee which should make us pray against evil whether in its causes or in its occasions whether for our selves or others It not being deliver me but Vs from evil without which charity neque multa neque magna the doing many things the doing great things being not good things availeth nothing but let it be still remembred that the greatest Evil viz. the evil of sin is to be guarded against sicknesse poverty death having no such bitter influences on the Conscience or on the Soul as transgression hath for how pleasant soever it seem to flesh it shall be toylsome burdensome and tormenting we read even of sowre honey such is sin of heavy sand but evil is heavier for that will rest at Earths Center but the other presse to Hells bottomlesse bottom therefore most to be prayed against and feared upon our Earth that from it by the power of our Father in Heaven we may be delivered and made watchful against it I say watchful for to pray against evil yet study to do evil is bold impiety and shall end in mischief It is 〈◊〉 â—he Iesuits have a Law secluding women from their Colledges and if any through the Porters inadvertence enter the dust upon which she trod is to be gathered and extruded the gates lest they be defiled to preserve chastity is good and to fear evil is happy but to avoid sin the Heart more then the Earth is to be heeded and the soul of man rather then the sole of the shoe is to be respected and praying rather then such fooling is to be used as a proper antidot and remedy against sin or evil But deliver us from evill THE pernicious consequences of sin and evil are so numerous that nature it self prompts natural men to endeavour an escape but freedom from the tincture and stain of vice is more earnestly pressed by the spiritually intelligent yea in fear or in case of sloath the Doctrine is feelingly urged upon all Saints by the Lord of glory in many Scriptures particularly in this Petition deliver us from evil that is from the Devil the Author and prompter to evil being old in wickednesse so skilfull in allurements that man with his carnal weapons cannot defeat him in his invisible assaults and therefore cry for deliverance which Petition that we may learn let us examine into the extent of the word deliver and next the use thereof It is as broad as evil as long as the day it is not à tali vel tali deliverance from this or that evil as Peter from drowning Sampson from thirsting but absolutely from all from any evil whether of temporal spiritual or of eternal concernment The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying two things 1. That we be preserved from falling into evil next that we be liberat out of the evil wherein we have fallen he trusted in God said the Jews let him deliver him and this deliverance our Father doth command four wayes 1. By renewing our natures through grace he washeth us by the blood of his Son which purgeth us from our innate pollution delivers us from the evil of a defiled soul hard heart dead