Entring in they hinder as our Lord Censuring the great Rabbies and Masters of the Jewish Law speaks concerning the Key of Knowledg Luke 11. 52. I will therefore first lay down several Arguments that the true Elevation of this Prayer in its Exposition must be as it is the Prayer of the Kingdom and accordingly I will Aime to give it when I have first Established this main Position by these Proofs of it Argum. 1 The first Argument I draw from the express and plain Words of the Prayer Thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth Now taking the Words according to the plain Sence of them and as we generally understand them it is evident this Prayer Teaches us to rise to the utmost of our desires that the Will of God may be done And seeing there can be no higher Example of its being done then the doing of it as it is done in Heaven we therefore pray it may be done on Earth as it is in Heauen now the same Holiness Zeal and Spirituallity or Heavenly design must move us to pray that the Name of God should be Sanctified to the same height that we pray His Will should be done unto And that utmost is that it may be on Earth as it is in Heaven Sanctified And if we are Taught to pray that the Will of God may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and by Analogy and proportion that his Name may be Sanctified on Earth as it is in Heaven our Lord hath by Admirable Wisdom set the Kingdom of God between these Two Petitions even the Petition that His Kingdom may come between those Two Petitions that undeniably ought to be prayed to the height viz. the Name Sanstified as in Heaven so on Earth and the Will done as in Heaven and so on Earth that what otherwise we might doubt of whether His Kingdom ought to be prayed to come on Earth as it is in Heaven Because we are ready to think that its only to be in Heaven might be ascertain'd to us That we ought to pray for the Kingdom coming even on Earth as it is in Heaven and that we should not be able to wrench out what is so Rivetted into the midst And the very Analogy and Proportion of Heavenly Affection to the Glory of God equally looks to all if there be a possibility They may All be now to shew that They may All be even the Kingdom coming on Earth as in Heaven as well as the Name Sanctified on Earth as in Heaven and the Will done on Earth as in Heaven of which we make no doubt we ought so to pray the Prayer hath so placed that the most to be doubted of in the middle that we may pray for all together and alike Again there is such a concatenation of the things they cannot be divided For the Will of God is that His Name should be Vniversally Sanctified as innumerable Scriptures testify If then His Will be done on Earth as in Heaven His Name must be Sactified on Earth as it is in Heaven seeing that it is so Supream a manifestation of His Will that His Will cannot be done if that be not done and if His Will be so done on Earth as in Heaven His Kingdom must so come For what is a Kingdom but that he who hath the Kingdom should have His Name Highest most Celebrated Honoured and Ador'd which is the Sanctifing the Name of God when it is set at Infinite heights and distances above all other Names and this in Christ who hath a Name above all other Names to the glory of God the Father and that he should have His Will obeyed when ever therefore the Will of God is obeyed the Name of God is so Sanctified on Earth as it is in Heaven His Kingdom must needs come on Earth as it is in Heaven and so His Kingdom will come when ever that is thus when one is the other is also when one is not the other cannot be the things are perfectly convertible and turn on the same Poles when one is all are together with it and if so much as one be not It is certain neither of the other can be But that we may know both the Time when each of the other may be and shall be and that we may also know the Grand Expedient or mighty Instrument when each of the other shall be effected The Kingdom coming is set in the midst of each when the Kingdom comes the other Two shall be For that Kingdom shall certainly effect and bring the other Two to pass viz. the Name shall be so sanctified and the VVill so done But these things are impossible to come to pass according to the Experience of so many Thousand Years that the World hath already had or to be hoped for or expected without Bowing the Heavens Rending the Heavens the Heavens coming down as it were to the Earth in such Glorious Manifestations as the Kingdom of Christ is describ'd to appear in And if these so Fundamental Points of Glory and Happiness in that Kingdom be established how great will be the Consequences There shall certainly be the constant Table of the Kingdom in the Bread of Life and the most abundant Sufficiency of All Things the State of Reconciliation betwixt God and Man betwixt Man and Man betwixt Man and the whole Creation betwixt the lower Creatures and themselves and throughout the whole Frame of the Creation of God All things in Heaven and Earth being Reconciled in him even in him and then most certainly there will be no more Leading into Temptation but a perfect Deliverance from Evil For the Cause of all the Indigencies of that Life that is to be supported by that Epiousious or Supersubstantial Bread according to the Day of all the Anger of God and the Mutual Enmities in the World and of the Curse upon the Creation is That the Will of God is not done on Earth as it is in Heaven and his Name sanctified and because the present State is not the State of the Kingdom of Christ But then shall it be Acknowledg'd with Hallelujahs That the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory is his throughout Eternity of Ages Seal'd with an Unchangable and everlasting Amen Now I would appeal to any one whether our Lord Teaching his Disciples then and successively in All Ages to pray that the Will of God may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and that All Things that must in Necessary Consequence fall out together should come to pass also whenever his Will is so done whether I say our Lord would Teach so to pray if he had not known it was the Will of God Things should be so or if there were not a promise of God for such a Kingdom of Christ wherein All these Things should be so as a Ground of Faith they should be so And because God hath so promis'd and resolv'd they should be so and that he will yet be enquir'd of by
And thus far I have Argued upon a simple Consideration of the Words in Themselves But if we look upon them as involv'd with the Foregoing and Following Petitions the Enforcement is much stronger For the Connexion may be Three manner of ways understood and in which soever of those ways it be understood the Argument will be very forcible 1. Let these Three Petitions stand equally as Petitions And if it be a Rule of Prayer for the Enlargement of the Glory of God that his Glory should be the Fullness of the Earth or as in Heaven and upon Earth Then there is the Force of a Petition Taught by Christ infallibly according to Faith according to Promise according to the Will of God and under the Mediation of Christ and therefore That must be Answer'd For there is the same Rule of Proportion that if we ought to desire the Will of God may be done and His Name sanctified as in Heaven and upon Earth we ought also to Pray His Kingdom may come as in Heaven and upon Earth 2. Take the Petitions in Connexion And if that Petition Thy Will be done as in Heaven and on Earth be Heard it cannot be otherwise the Kingdom of God must be as in Heaven and on Earth For his Will done is his Kingdom and so proportionably His Name must be sanctified When one is the other cannot but be If any one is not the other cannot either of Them be 3. Indeed the Kingdom placed in the middle is as the Great Instrument by which the other Two are effected the Center about which they turn That his Name may be sanctified and his Will done as in Heaven and on Earth His Kingdom must come as in Heaven and on Earth For what Reason can be given seeing it is so highly pleasing and acceptable to God and so due from all his Creatures if it be but in the Nature of the Thing possible that his Name should be sanctified and his Will done as in Heaven and on Earth that it should not in so long a Time either besore or especially since this Prayer taught by our Lord have come to pass but that in his wife Dispose and Determination the Time of his Glorious and Illustrious Kingdom as in Heaven and on Earth was not yet come When therefore the Mystery of God shall be finish'd in the Days of the Seventh Angel and He shall Sound it shall be proclaim'd that the Kingdoms of this World are beeome the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ That he hath taken to him his Great Power and Reigns when there shall be the Voice of many VVaters and of mighty Thunderings saying The Lord God Omnipotent Reigns Then shall be the Kingdom and Appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ And it shall be a Kingdom as in Heaven and on Earth a Kingdom of God and of the Lamb Revel 19. I come therefore to the Third Petition Thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth For so are the Words exactly translated And it seems not unworthy Notice That when in the Address to God we say Our Father which art in Heaven The Word in the Greek is in the Plural Number who art in the Heavens But when we pray Thy Will be done as in Heaven and on Earth the word Heaven is in the singular Number and so in the Revelation c. 21. a single New Heaven John saw Now these words are generally understood as if they had been thus Form'd Thy Will be done on Earth according to the Exemplar of its being done in Heaven but in both Matthew and Luke they are fram'd by way of parallel Let thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth So that in strictest holding to the words the Prayer is for a parallel State as in Heaven and upon Earth I dare not deny but if there were not Another Admirable Sense given us by Scripture concerning them That Sense of the Exemplarity of the Will of God being done on Earth as in Heaven were very clear and good But when this Contexture is such as to Favour Another Sense most viz. of the Parallellism and that Scripture offers such a Parallellism to us Undoubtedly the Parallelism is rather to be chosen When therefore as I have already Argued this Prayer is so Founded that this Petition shalI certainly be Answer'd And that it must be Answered in a State on some Earth and that it cannot be otherwise Answered and that there is so great Countenance of a Parallellism as in Heaven and upon Earth we have nothing more necessary now to do than to search Scripture for the full settling of this Paralellism By Three Gradations therefore we may take this Paralellism 1. By considering those Scriptures that Represent Heaven and Earth in such a Parallel The Apostle Peter says VVe according to his promise look for New Heavens and a New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness where the Parallel lies in the Heaven and Earth expresly nam'd in both being New and Righteousness dwelling in both Ep. 2. c. 3. 13. Again the Apostle Ephes 1. 10. speaking of that very Time of the Kingdom of Christ in its Glorious Appearance when he shall appear the Second Time without Sin unto Salvation He calls it the Oeconomy the Fullness of Time Now at this Time saith the Apostle God would Recollect All as into One Head in Christ even in Christ All things in Heaven and Earth Here are All things in Heaven and Earth Here are All Things in Heaven and in Earth in a parallel in Christ even in Christ In a Scripture of a very like Constitution with this Col. 1 20. the Apostle speaks of God Reconciling All Things in Heaven and Earth by him even by him Here again are All Things in Heaven and Earth in a parallel Reconcil'd by him to God even by him As if the Apostle in both places had said Take notice I say it Twice over In him In him By him By him are All Things in Heaven and Earth Gathered under one Head and Reconcil'd Lastly In a Psalm Prophetick of the Last Turning the Captivity of the people of God as in a paralellism betwixt Heaven and Earth it is said Truth shall spring out of the Earth and Righteousness shall Look down from Heaven Psal 85. 11. How now can Things be more fix'd and settled for the Doing the VVill of God as in Heaven and on Earth than that there should be a New Heaven and a New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell That All Things in Heaven and Earth should be Reconcil'd by Christ to God and that Truth should spring out of the Earth and Righteousness look down from Heaven When things are thus it cannot be otherwise then but that what hath never yet been in this Old Earth but in Christ Alone should be viz. That the Will of God should be done as in Heaven and upon Earth 2. The Scripture gives Account of the Dead in Christ or of Those who Sleep by Jesus that God
must therefore be cast back into some space most fit for them within that Kingdom of Christ that is in a State of Acquisition And what fitter Time is there than when the Christian Empire began in Constantine until that great Ravage the Turks as a Gog Magog made in the World In Answer hereunto Answ 1 I cannot understand how the Apostle's express Words of the Son 's delivering up of the Kingdom to God even the Father can be expounded of changing a Kingdom of Acquisition for a Kingdom of Fruition much less how the Son 's being Himself subject can be interpreted into such a Kingdom of Fruition It is very plain the Son who delivers up and who is subject must be the Son of Man who Receiv'd the Kingdom from the Hand of the Ancient of Days For the Eternal Word can neither Receive a Kingdom nor Deliver it up Nor would God be more All in All so much as to Oeconomy or Dispensation for the Eternal Words Delivery up of a Kingdom to Him who is One with Him The Kingdom therefore the Eternal Word ever had the Father ever had unitedly with Him If he should deliver up a Kingdom to the Father he would still have it equally with the Father because the Father and He as the Eternal Word are One. There can be no Receiving nor Delivering up of a Kingdom betwixt the Father and the Eternal Word There can be no so much as Representation of God and the Father more or less All in All for any Kingdom the Eternal Word hath or Delivers up of a Kingdom The Kingdom therefore delivered up that God may be All in All must be the Kingdom of the Son of Man which as in Oeconomy or Representation is made so supreme though indeed to the Glory of God the Father that the Glory of God seems not to stand Alone in Glory but is pleas'd to Allow Full Glory to and not to out-shine the Kingdom of the Humane Nature of Christ or of the Man Christ Jesus Answ 2 There is no possible Fitting Any Part of Time that hath yet been to the Description Given of the Thousand Years by the Spirit of God Revel 20. But it must needs be yet to come for this Great and most Apparent Reason There hath been no Time yet wherein Sathan could be said to be so Bound as not to deceive the Nations any more What Time hath there yet been in which besides all Unholy Practices he hath not Deceiv'd with Paganism with Mahometanism and Antichristianism These Thousand Years must therefore be proper and peculiar to a Kingdom of Christ yet to come and that therefore must be to the Kingdom design'd by Christ in this Prayer Answ 3 The parallel State of the Will of God done in the New Heaven and in the New Earth as in the Kingdom of Eternity can have no place in this Prayer because it can indeed have no place at all in that Eternal State Arg. 1 Because the Apostle stiles the Time of the Delivery up of the Kingdom most Signally and Eminently The End And he distinguishes it from that End when Christ shall come with which also concurs the Resurrection of His his Reign and so Kingdom till Death the Last Enemy shall be subdued and then the Kingdom is Delivered up Seeing then the End it self is after the Coming of Christ and after the Resurrection the End it self must be an End to that Last State For the Coming of Christ and the Rising of his Saints is an End to this World and to the State of it so it cannot be the End of this State but of that After-State of the Reign of Christ and whatever consists with that And that we shall find to be the State of the New Heaven and of the New Earth For Arg. 2 The New Heaven and New Earth must needs be the World to come whereof saith the Apostle we speak which is put into subjection to Christ and it is put into subjection to Him at his coming when He Reigns and hath All Things put under Him If then there so comes an End when this Kingdom shall be deliver'd up by the Great Ruler of it Christ what Reason is there to believe that That World it self is then to take End at and with that End It is certain it must have End or be deliver'd up For the Son shall be subject It can be his World therefore no longer his Heaven and Earth no longer Arg. 3 If then the State of God's Kingdom even the Father shall be such that it will bear no such Heaven nor Earth then it is certain They must have End when All is deliver'd up But God being All in All No New Heaven nor New Earth can be born for either They must Enjoy God or be Enjoyed by God and by his Saints Their Natures are such that they cannot enjoy God being not Creatures of Understanding or Will To be therefore and not to enjoy God takes off from God being All in All For then would there be Creatures of an Eternal Duration even when God is All and They in no Capacity to enjoy him If it should be said They do enjoy him in their way I Answer That is High enough for an Oeconomical State but not for this of Eternity If it be said That God may enjoy them and his Saints may enjoy them and praise him for them and they Declare his Glory I Answer This also is Allowable to the Oeconomical but not to the Eternal State God is the only Enjoyable in that State to himself and to his Saints and He Enjoys his Saints only in the Communication of Himself to Them No less than This can be understood by God being All in All He must be The Alone to be Enjoyed and He must be Enjoyed Argum. 4 There is but One Place of Scripture that gives Account of Things after the Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ and that is Revel 20. It plainly gives Account of the State after that Kingdom because it gives an Account of Things after the Expiration of the Thousand Years when Sathan is Loosed And the Thousand Years are said to be the Reign of Christ with his Saints So it must be the Thousand Years Kingdrm of Christ Now the utmost End of that State is a Great White Throne and One sate upon it from whose Face Heaven and Earth fled away and there was not Place Found for them Now from hence several Arguments Arise Assuring us There are no Heaven and Earth except the Heaven of Divine Presence after the utmost End of All. 1. There appears an Emblematical Introduction to the Utter Blaâ—ching and Annihilation of All Being but God and his Saints on one side and the Lake of the Second Death with its Dead on the other 2. Because the Lake receives All the Dead with Death it self we are Assured it is that very End when the Kingdom is deliver'd up and the Son becomes Subject All being subdued to him For here the Last
what we call strictly Debts or are Reall and Substantial Wrongs Who comes up to Forgive as They desire to be Forgiven of God That All should be Blotted out and Forgiven as if it had never been And that it is so Perfectly Taken away by Forgiveness that tho it be Sought for it cannot be Found And not only so but the Offending and Indebted Person Received into Especial Favour According to the State of Things now even to those we Account Good Men this Petition were rather an Imprecation than a Petition If we should endeavour to Qualify the Petition as It seems to suspend Gods Forgiveness upon ours with the Sence in our Degree and with Sincerity tho not to Perfection Even as we are Commanded to be Merciful as God is Merciful I do Acknowledg It may give some Satisfaction as to the Time being and till that great Reformation of All Things even that of Restitution Or else we were All most Miserable But seeing there is a State much Higher both of our Pardon from God and Forgiveness to one another And that I have so often Asserted and it cannot but be yeilded That this Prayer that Jesus Christ hath Taught must Reach to the very Heighth of Things in every Part of it And it is to be Expounded according to the whole Word of God Let us therefore inquire by the Second Particular for that much Higher State of Gods Forgiveness and of the Saints Forgiveness one of anothor wherein these Things shall be Convertible and Turn Round upon one another we shall Forgive one another to that Perfection that Gods Forgiveness Reserving to it only the difference between a Finite and an Infinite Forgiver and Reserving to Gods Forgiveness also the Exemplariness and also the Efficiency of our Forgiving and Gods Forgiveness shall be according to the Forgiveness the full Forgiveness of the Saints Forgiveness one of another That is the Gâ—ory and perfection of Gods Forgiveness shall be seen in our Perfection of Forgiveing one another as in this Mirror and Reflection And therefore the Petition is so Framed on purpose to Leade us to that State of the Kingdom For that very End the Lower and the Lesser Thing the Copy and the Reflection is given as the Measure of the Higher and the Greater and the Original For if that be so Glorious as to be made as it were the Exemplar and Original how much more Glorious is that Exemplar and Original it self And that the Reflection and Mirror of Gods Forgiveness viz. our Forgivness of one another is so Dark now It assuers there shall and must be a Time that the Original shall be more Glorious in the Manifestation of it self that the Mirror and Reflection may be more Glorious And because it shall be so Glorious therefore the Manifestation of the Original shall be more Glorious also First All which I will Represent in these Two Particulars 1. The State of the Saints shall be a State of the most perfect Purity from all Remaining Stains of Sin in Regard of the Fulness of Divine Pardon and Forgiveness Then to the Height of all Understanding Their Sins shall be Blotted out when these Times of New Life and Restitution shall come from the Presence of the Lord and They shall be Presented before the Eyes of His Glory without Fault Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing Their Robes being washed White in the Blood of the Lamb and being Arrayed in Linen White and Clean and Cloathed in Change of Raiment all which express the Righteousness of the Saints That State therefore Commensurate hereunto is inwardly full of all Joy and Peace in Righteousness and outwardly of all Glory and Happiness when the effects of Righteousness shall be Peace and Assurance for ever 2. That this may be There cannot be any thing upon the Breasts of Saints Remaining one towards another that shall Recall or give any Remembrances of their former Transgressions or Mutual Resentments one towards another For this must need be a Shade and Cloud upon that Glorious and Happy State altogether both Unbeseeming and Unsuitable to it For the Infinite Riches of Grace in the Pardon of Sin through the Blood and Redemption of Christ so fully set out in Glory Operates both as an Exemplar to which the Saints are Conformed in Relation to one another and by way of Sweetest Efficient Attempering them in Highest Love to and Vnion one with another and that Sence they have of the Full Absolute Forgiveness Love to and Vnion one with another is an Inward Pledg and Experiment of the Power of Forgiveness in God and of the High Nature of it So that the Sainte have Knowledg of Divine Forgiveness in themselves by their own Forgiveness One of Another And therefore Christ was pleased so to put it Forgive us as we Forgive 3. As a further Lustre of that State As the Angels shall be Full of Love and the Amnesty and Acts of Supream Grace shall take all our Former sins out of their Remembrances So the very Enmity of the Creatures towards us and among themselves of the Wolf and of the Lamb of the Lyon and of the Kid of the Child and of the Asp shall be Reconciled and the Antipathies and Offensiveness of their Natures and all Obnoxiousness Cancell'd And Dust alone shall be the Serpents Meat For as the God of Peace and Order will Reconcile All Things in Heaven and Earth by Christ even by Christ to Himself So will He Reconcile them All one to another Yea the very Elements and most Insensible Creatures the Heavens shall Hear the Earth and the Earth all that is upon it and the Stones of the Field shall be in the Covenant and League of Amity that shall not be Violated Infringed or Dissolved And all this we Pray for in the Highest Sence of this Prayer which must needs therefore be because these are the Highest Expressions of Scripture concerning this Forgivenesi so Universal And therefore they must be within the Prayer the Great Mediator hath Taught And therefore It must needs be the Prayer of the Kingdom when there shall be no Hurting nor Destroying in all the Holy Mountain of God For Knowledg of God and of Christ shall Cover the Earth as the Waters do the Sea Let us now move on to the Sixth Petition Lead us not into Temptation And here again I Premise I Derogate nothing from the Holy Wise Serious and Spiritual Discourses upon the General Sence of the Words Lead us not into Temptation But seeing the Fundamental Rule I have laid Down in t he Expounding this Prayer is that it takes in the Whole Sence of Scripture so far as it can Fall into Prayer and especially the Highest Sence of it whatever we can find to be the Highest Sence of Scripture Concerning Freedom from Temptation must needs be also the Highest Sence of this Petition Now the Highest Freedom from Temptation the Scripture declares to us must lie in the Considering the things wherein the
far from being Able to Grant such Things that they cannot in the least understand Them No more in the main is any Power Able below His whose is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory to bring forth these Petitions in their Complement 2. In regard that He whose is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory will Take to Himself his Great Power and Reign These Petitions are well Grounded and well Address'd to him For seeing the Things are so high that though the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory are always God's yet These Petitions have not yet been Answered nor these Great Things come into Effect The Petitions would not be well Grounded if there were not a Time He would thus Take to himself his Great Power and Reign For if the World continued never so long and that the Kingdom and Power and Glory were in all the Right of them Gods yet these Things Pray'd for would for all that never be fullfill'd So that they must have been either laid lower or have been in vain As therefore as Scripture hath fully declar'd there is a Time God will Take to Himself his Great Power and Reign so these very Petitions are fram'd to such an Altitude to such a Supreme Pitch And because they close with this as an Argument That God's is the Kingdom and the Power and Glory and that for Ever and Ever They become a certain Assurance That these Petitions are well Grounded and well Address'd and that though they do not Appear so yet in Regard of their being Fullfill'd yet that they shall Appear so at the Time of the Kingdom and of God's taking to Himself the Power and the Glory And that certainly there shall be such a Time wherein the Kingdom of God shall be and All These Things Fullfill'd in it 2. As These Things cannot be till the Kingdom be so on the other side the Kingdom cannot be till these Things are A Kingdom and a Power and a Glory God always hath But this Kingdom cannot Appear nor the Power and the Glory be seen to be God's till his Name be Sanctified his Will done as in Heaven and upon Earth Till he shews his Grace to his Servants in giving them the Supersubstantial Bread according to the Day or in a Perpetuity Till he Reconciles All to Himself in Heaven and Earth by Him even by Him and till he sets wholly free from Temptation and Delivers from Evil all the Subjects of his Kingdom And All these are the Coming of his Kingdom 3. Therefore by the way of so Close a Conjunction and Union of these Two our Saviour declares this Prayer to be the Prayer of the Kingdom And that as the Kingdom is the Great Sense Mind and Spirit of this Prayer so that it can never be aright prayed nor is heard so as to be Answer'd till this Kingdom come So that the Kingdom shall certainly come in Answer to this Prayer and in Answer to every Petition of it Every Thing in it shall be done because God's is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for Ever and Ever 2. This Doxology is most immediately Linck'd with that Last Petition Deliverance from Evil to shew both the Inconsistency of the Divine Kingdom in its Glory and Coming with a State of Evil even of the Evil of Affliction Pain and Misery So that it is the Last Enemy subdued by the Divine Kingdom that is the Divine Kingdom Alone can subdue it and only when it Appears and not before But when it Appears it shall be perfectly remov'd And our Lord takes the Advantage at that very Time and in that Order to press and follow home the whole by the Argumentative Doxology For thine is the Kingdom And therefore Thou art Able and wilt Deliver from Evil by that Kingdom and Power which is thy own and at the Appearance of thy own Glory 3. Under the Doxology conveyed by way of Argument This is to be Acknowledg'd That a constant Offering up to God in a way of Praise and Adoration this Confession That His is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory is most due to Him from us in all our Prayers and Supplications to him But yet the highest Sense of this Doxology is proper to the Kingdom and Argues the Prayer to be the Prayer of the Kingdom For seeing our Lord hath put this Doxology into our Mouths That His is the Kingdom and yet at the same Time Teaches us to pray Thy Kingdom come It signifies plainly and necessarily That it hath not yet so come as to Appear to be His And that His is the Power and yet at the same Time Taught us to pray Thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth in the same plain manner he signifies The Power does not yet Appear to be his For wherein is Power seen but in the having the Will of Him done who hath that Power And that his is the Glory and yet at the same Time Teaches us to pray Sanctified or Glorified by Thy Name This shews very manifestly the Glory is not His as it shall be By All This it Arises clearly to our Notice That Our Lord hath in putting this Doxology into our Mouths put a Prophecy into our Mouths That the Time is coming according to the Measures Given us in his Word of Prophecy when the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory shall in full and highest Sense be Ascrib'd to God and as at a very present Time in that fullest Sense So that this Doxology of the Prayer Leads us to that Revel 4. 11. Thou art worthy Oh Lord to Receive Glory and Honour and Power For thou hast created All Things and for thy pleasure they are and were created And c. 5. 13. And every Creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea heard I saying Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever c. 11. 17. We give Thee Thanks Oh Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy Great Power and hast Reigned and the Nations were Angry as at a thing not done before c. 15. 3. Great and marvellous are thy Works Lord God Almighty Just and True are thy ways Oh King of Saints Who shall not Fear thee Oh Lord and Glorifie thy Name For thou only art Holy For All Nations shall come and Worship before thee For thy Judgments are made manifest c. 19. 5. Hallelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God For True and Righteous are his Judgments And a Voice came out of the Throne Praise Our God All ye his Servants and ye that Fear Him both Small and Great And I heard as it were the Voice of a Great Multitude and as the Voice of many Waters and as the Voice of mighty Thunderings saying Hallelujah For the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth When
these Great Doxologies come into their High and Lofty and Solemn Sounds then shall this Doxology be both fully understood and fullfill'd and not before And therefore it shews this Prayer to be the Prayer of the Kingdom The Seal of this Prayer both as to the Sincerity and Reality of our own Desires and of our Faith and Hope in God's Gracious Answer and Giving Effect to our Prayers is common to All Prayers and yet most peculiar to this Prayer as the Comprehensionary Prayer of all Prayers And it is Amen which hath the Force not only of So be It as in other Prayers but of So It is or So It shall be even in this Prayer Taught by an Infallible Master of Prayer who calls himself the Amen And so was and is Able to set with highest Efficacy the Amen to his own Prayer And he will most certainly bring All Things to pass according to it even as he is the Amen the Faithful Witness the Beginning or mighty Principle as of the First so of the New Creation of God And therefore every Petition of it shall be Answer'd to even every Iota Heaven and Earth shall pass but not one Iota of this Prayer shall pass away till All be fullfilled And as it thus looks back to the whole Prayer and every Iota of it so it particularly respects the Doxology We therefore find as in Harmony with it in Two Great Doxologies this Word Amen set as in Capital Letters and in most exalted Accents Revel 5. 14. When Every Creature in Heaven and Earth had said Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be to Him that sits on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever The Four Living Creatures in the most solemn manner said Amen And c. 19. 4. Where there had been a Voice of much People in Heaven Saying Allelujah c. The Four and Twenty Elders and the Four Living Creature Pronounced again in most Sollemn manner Amen Allelujah And indeed Amen is a Word most Proper and Peculiar to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ when All Prophecy even the whole Mystery of God as He hath Spoken by all the Prophets shall be Finished and when All Prayers of Saints Comprehended in this Prayer which is beyond what we can Aske or Think but as the Spirit helping our Infirmities with Groans that are not to be Vttered makes Intercession for us shall be Fully Answered and Fulfilled So that though Amen be a Common Obsignation of all Prayer yet it hath a much higher Sence in this Prayer which Communicates it to All Prayer Flowing from and Returning into it self and even the highest Sence of the Amen to this Prayer is as it is the Prayer of the Kingdom and is Fulfilled in the Doxologies of the Kingdom and of the Power and of the Glory which that Kingdom shall Produce So that even this however Common Amen of All Prayer Expounded into its Full Sence as set to this Prayer is also a Proof to us This Prayer is the Prayer of the Kingdom a Prayer with a Supream Amen Peculiar to it Object If any should say why is it then together with the Doxology wholy Omitted in the Gospel of St. Luke and then Especially when Jesus Christ the Messiah the Prince Taught His Disciples to Pray as John the Fore-Runner Taught his Disciples and where also if any where He Commands the use of it as a Form Answ I can understand no Reason but according to what hath been already Intimated That Our Lord might shew He did in neither Place Intend a Rigid Form and least of All where it might be most Collected from His Words He did Intend a Form as in the Evangelist Luke yet here the Prayer Arises least to a Form being without the Doxology or the Amen And that therefore we might be engaged upon that Rule of Praying after the manner of this Prayer as it is Expounded to us in the whole Word of God And Especially in the Word as it is most peculiarly the Word of the Kingdom And particularly according to the manner of this Prayer as given before by our Lord according to the Evangelist Matthew where we have the Doxology and the Amen And therefore to make Formal Repetition of the Prayer as in Luke without the Doxology and Amen as in Matthew is a Gross Offence against that Precept of our Lords in Matthew Pray after this manner Extending to the Doxology and Conclusion as much as to any part of the Prayer and is by Consequence to be joyned to it in Luke where the Repetition of it is so Given as to make both One Let us now make a Review upon the whole Prayer and behold the Order of it as It is the Prayer of the Kingdom And First Our Father Who is now in the Heavens will Rend and Bow the Heavens And they shall open to Him as He Descends in Jesus Christ the only Begotten Son and Receives his whole Adoption made Conformable to the Image of his Son in His Saints of the First Resurrection who put on Incorruption and the Saints Living Remaining Changed And the Creatures also waiting for the Manifestation of the Son of God are Delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the Glorious Liberty of the Son of God And so He Appears the Father of Heaven and Earth as the Father of Christ of whom the Whole Family of Heaven and Earth is Called So the Whole Creation is Filled with His Glory which is the Sanctification or Glorification of His Name by Himself Immediately even together with this Appearance of His Kindom comes in the Universal Holiness of Jehovah Written on the Forheads of His Servants Serving Him which is His Will done by His Saints in the New Heaven above and the New Earth below and His Enemies Crouching Down at the Foot-Stool of His Feet Hereupon follows the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the Eating and Drinking at His Table in His Kingdom that is the Full Communion with Christ the Bread of Life the Super-Substantial Bread in a Constant Uninterrupted Yesterday and to Day the same For ever At this Supper as so Great a Festival for it There is an Universal Reconciliation of God by Christ and of all the Saints one with another and of the whole Restored Creation even those Parts which seem'd most at Enmity which is the Universal Forgiveness as we are Forgiven and a Perfect State of Righteousness and Peace in the New Jerusalem that there can be no New Offences under our Great Melchisedeck King of Righteousness King of Peace And the Serpent and his Seed at the Foot-Stool of Christ Eat Dust and cannot so much as Repast upon Temptation For there shall be none And at the same Time the whole Curse is Remooved So that Sorrow and Sihgthing Flee away and are Remembred no more nor come into Mind This Universal State of Glory Flows from the Universal Dominion and Kingdom of God and therefore it is Thundered out with Everlasting Hallelujahs The
Water of Life in His Kingdom Can it then be that in so Great an Institution of Prayer Comprehensive as I have said of all the Gospell and Word of the Kingdom so far as it can Fall into Prayer That a Petition for Bread should miss that Supream Bread of the Kingdom somuch Discoursed in His Word So promised in His Kingdom so Represented in the Supper of His Kingdom We may be Assured It cannot be And that therefore this Bread must be of a Higher Importance than Natural Bread Argum. 2 Especially Our Lord sets a severe Brand in the Exposition or discourse after as upon the Heads of this Prayer upon too Earnest Care and Seeking viz. by Prayer as one way What we shall Eat and Drinck c. and Recommends to our Principal Desires and Prayers the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of it as what should be in our Eye And assures us that our Father Knoweth the need we have of Other Things and will give them in Course as a Surplusage to those Greater Things Not that we are Forbidden to Pray for them at all but that they should be the Lowest of our Prayers And therefore They cannot be the Principal of such a Petition as This is Our Lord also severely Reproves those who Sought Him because they Eat even of His Miraculous Loaves and were Filled and directs them Better then to Labour for the Meat that Perisheth setting before them as was said that which Endureth to Eternal Life How then can it be that this Bread that perisheth should take up One though it be but One Petition in this Prayer and it not have a Higher Sence and Meaning in a Higher Spirited Bread then our daily Natural Bread Certainly it cannot Be. Argum. 3 Our Lord made choice of such a Word in the Language wherein He gave this Prayer viz. that which Two Inspired Writers Uniformly give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which most nearly nextly and naturally signifies Super-Essential or Super-Substantial and it Poses and even Crucifies Learned Men when they cannot Acquiesc in that Sence The very Enquiry therefore after the Sence of a Word no where else used and the so Ready Offer of Super-Essentiality Super-Substantiality must needs perswade us Our Lord intended the Bread that came down from Heaven Especially by this Super-Essential Bread Argum. 4 Those Expressions Our Bread Bread for to Day or that is according to the Day and daily or successive Bread from Day to Day as some understand that Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altho they carry Notions of great Moderation to all things in this World a diligence in calling and Justice in Eating our own Bread yet they Offer us a much Higher Sence in that Super-Essential Bread as that which is much more truely our own Bread That better part then much serving about the Bread of this World which shall never be taken from us but Endures to Everlasting Life This is indeed our own Bread And it is indeed Bread of a certain Succession and Sufficiency as certain as Duration it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yesterday and to Day without a Tomorrw the Same for Ever Bread of every Day Sufficient to it and of a certain Succession in Fullest Truest Sence What They Ignorantly Carnally Prayed for Lord evermore give us this Bread It is Evermore given it is unto Eternal Life He that Eats of it shall never Die And together with it is given to the Saints The Living The Remaining Saints on the New Earth a Sufficiency of all outward Enjoyments according to the Day without any Labour or Toyl distracting their Enjoyment of God and in a certain Succession without any Care or Solicitude or taking Thought for To morrow But how can the State of this World Quietly submit to a Dependency upon Providence according to the Prayer or find the Just Temper betwixt that Providence for To morrow we look upon as our Duty and the Care and Immoderate Thoughts for To morrow our Lord forbids This World is too Poor and Indigent and the Course of things too Broken and Disorderly to Trust till Tomorrow without Anxieties Except we had a better Faith than the very most of Saints have here Nor can this Bread be called Epiousious Super-Substantial or Essential or so much as in a kindly Natural Course of Succession without something Parallel to the Sweat of the Brow Or so much as Ours Since besides all other Reasons that may be given which make it too apt to be the Mammon of Vurighteousness It is very often that while it is in our Mouth the Body for which it is and it Perish together So that this Petition in its Just Elevation of Sence can never be Answered but in the Kingdom of Christ which assures us It is the Prayer of the Kingdom Although it is indeed our Duty and it ought to be our constant Prayer to come as near as we can to the State herein Imported But we are too much Gentiles in this Regard not only caring Inordinately but Inordinately Enjoying the World more than can Consist with the delay of the Kingdom of Christ and His Patience for it And as it were to shew we are yet in the Gentiles Times our very Word to express Splendor of Condition and Affluence is taken from Them even that Word we Rate our selves so much by Gentile is taken from the Gentiles By which I intend not to diminish any thing from True Honour Worth or Accomplishment Distinction of Families or Persons but make a Full Allowance of Honour and Reverence to whomsoever due But I cannot but observe how Ominous a Word we use to express these Things But to sum up All concerning this Petition Seeing the Word we translate Daily hath not so much as any Air Sound or Breath of Daily in it and that the fairest Sense is Super-Essential Super-Substantial and that Jesus Christ is Alone that Bread even that Living Bread on which Angels and Saints are continually Repasted and in Regard of which Manna the Type was call'd Angels Food and for which They now stoop down to the Churches Table What Reason is there to understand this Petition in its highest Elevation to be for the Table of the Kingdom and the Bread so convenient to Immortal Beings which the Innumerable Company of Angels together with the Saints in the New Jerusalem eat of as of the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God and drink of as of the Chrystal River Running through the Holy City even the Fruit of his Redemption which is indeed in the Beginnings of it participated here below but is then as a Passover fullfill d and that Fruit of the Vine drunk New in that so exalted Participation of the Great Marriage-Supper of the Lamb in his Kingdom And of this Enjoyment the Saints below have their just proportion so that they shall never die The Leaves of the Tree of Life are for the Healing of them and the Fruit for sufficient Food and They drink of the Water of