many malicious powerfull and politick And like the sons of Zerviah too mighty for us unlesse that hee who commandeth us to fight fight in us and for us wee cannot be victorious Secondly when hee is called to battell let him not bee a coward for hee hath more then good company his God for a Captaine watching over him his Redeemer his elder brother fighting for him the holy Ghost his comforter fighting in him his fellow brethren standing on his one hand and all the Angels of heaven on the other and who would not fight with so good company No no my brethren let us lift up our faint hearts and strengthen our weake knees though the conflict be hard the conquest is honourable for God will shortly tread Sathan under our feet through Jesus Christ out Lord. Amen LECTIO 20. Lead us not into temptation c. ACcording to the tenor of of our first proposed method wee have already spoken unto you of the first three things that were remarkable in this Petition to wit of our calling temptation of our enemies the world the devill and the flesh And thirdly of our fellow souldiers Jesus Christ in the dayes of his flesh our fellow brethren now Saints in heaven and our fellow brethren here militant on earth It resteth now that wee consider and ponder aright the fourth and last thing remarkable in them to wit who is our Leader and it is God for to him and to him alone it is that we put up supplication and say Lead us not into temptation Now in handling of this point three things are chiefly remarkable First who it is that is our Leader and why it is that hee is so called Secondly how it is that hee leads us into temptation And thirdly whilst hee leads us into temptation whether hee be guilty of sinne or no The first thing observable is Who is our leader I answer God and that very God who being one in essence is three in persons the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost God the Father is our leader and therefore hee is called the Lord of Hosts God the Sonne is our leader and therefore tooke upon him our flesh that in it hee being first a souldier might thereafter become our leader Finally God the holy Ghost is now by deputation become our leader and therefore it is written That as many as are led by the Spirit are the Sonnes of God God the Father is our leader and for that cause is stiled the Lord of Hosts Dominus exercituum this is his name for ever and this is his memoriall unto all ages Of all the titles that God hath in scripture there is not one so often used by God himselfe as this For shall wee looke but upon two Prophets Isayah and Ieremiah and in them alone this title is attributed to God above an hundred thirty times It is not a title then likely to bee looked upon but with deepe and due consideration let us then looke upon it Our leader God is called the Lord of hostes in these respects first in respect of the generall frame of all his creatures who being viewed and considered in a masse together are nothing else but a pitched field and a battell set in aray fighting for the honour of God and the obedience that is due unto him For in the heaven of heavens there is an host of blessed Angels covering their faces and bowing their knees before his Throne singing a deepe Halleluiah and casting their crownes downe at his feet And this company is called an host for Luke 2. whilst they appeared to the sheepheards at the birth of Christ it is written of them There was a multitude of Angels and an heavenly host praising God and saying Glory be to God on high and to men on earth peace and goodwill Let us from that place looke a little lower and behold the starry firmament that is above our heads and there wee shall finde that hee is the Lord of hosts also for there the Sunne moone and Starres are his souldiers they fight for him and against his enemies as it is cleare out of the history of Ioshuah and Iudges and of these the Prophet Isayah saith 45.12 speaking of God I even I have stretched out the heavens and their host I have commanded but let us come a little lower and looke to the cattle that walke and the creeping things that move on the face of the earth and all of these are both the host and army of God fighting for his obedience and treading under foot those that rise up against him as is cleare from the dust and ashes of Egypt fighting against Pharo Againe if wee shall withdraw our eyes from the unreasonable creature to man who is indued with reason What I pray you are all the battells armies conflicts and skirmishes of nation against nation of kingdome against kingdome of country against country of people against people but the armies and battells of the Lord the rods of his indignation and the staffe of his wrath punishing the land because of the sinnes of them that dwell therein and man by the sword of man for his iniquity for the sword of a stranger is the revenger of the quarrell of Gods covenant Thirdly will wee looke on these our native and domesticke armies of flesh that are in these our mortall bodies I meane the ague the webbe in the eye the paine in the tooth the consumption of the lungs the shortnesse of the breath the stone in the reines the tympany of the belly and the gout in the feet what are all these but the armies of God and host of the Almighty fighting in man against man because man hath fought against God who was his leader Last of all hee is Lord of hosts also in a spirituall sense for he is our Captaine and leader in our spirituall warfare against the devill the world and the lusts of our owne flesh For it is by him and by his grace alone that wee have either courage to encounter strength to stand fast or patience to persevere unto the end And as in this hee is our leader and Captaine so doth he also hold the reines of our enemies chariots it was hee that made the wheeles of Pharoes chariots to fall off It was he that threw the stone at the fore-head of Goliah It was hee that smote the Philistines with the jawbone of an Asse It was hee that thrust the dart through Achabs brigandine and it was he alone that put a bridle in the lips of Zenacharih and a hooke in his nostrels and finally it is hee and hee alone who for our sakes by death hath destroyed him who hath the power of death that is the devill and hath put into our mouth that tryumphant song of victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Blessed be God the Father through Iesus Christ our Lord in all these things we are more then Conquerers because our leader hath
in Essence although distinguished in Persons in the world nothing but union the heavens giving light the clouds giving raine the fire giving heate the windes giving breath and refreshment after the world what shall bee but union Gather my Saints together from the foure Corners of the world that there may bee but one shepheard and one sheepfold and that may be over all and in all yet because this doth not satisfie the question let us see where in our union with Christ doth consist I answere our union with him standeth manifest in foure things 1. We have an union with him which giveth us love 2. By his union wee have Sympathie 3. By his union we have influence 4. By his union wee have a share and fellowship in riches I have said that by his union we have love as the husband hath with the wife wee have sympathie as the members have with the head we have influence and sappe as the Branches have from the root finally and we have a share in riches three wayes an union in his Essence an union in his Office and an union in his vertues In his essence for he that was God became man that man might become the sonne of God In his office for in him wee are made to the Father Kings Priests and Prophets In his vertues for hee of God was made to us wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption But that the words may be a little more cleare let me tell you that the word Our looks with a threefold aspect for our eyes are sometimes exercised per visionem reflexam sometimes per visionem collateralem and sometimes per visionem transcendentem Our reflected looke beholdeth our selves and therefore wee say Ours by application for it is but a cold and miserable comfort to say ours when we have no private application like Thomas The collaterall looke lookes on our brethren either à dextris in the sonnes of Gods love dealing with them in faith hope and charity or à sinistris in the children of disobedience pulling them out of the fire or heaping coales of fire on their heads The transcendent look lookes on God himselfe who in Christ Iesus is become our father and wee his sonnes Whilst wee looke to the words with a reflected contemplation we are taught humility for we make great reckoning of our parentage if it hath pleased God to distinguish us in any degree from beyond our brethren Oh but how foolish is our rejoycing for there is nothing in nature that respecteth greatnesse but man not our bitth not our sife not our sicknesse not our death not our grave nothing in grace respects greatnesse but man not the preaching of the Word for wee all doe heare not our effectuall calling for there are the things that are not preferred to the things that are not our administration of the Sacraments for by water we are baptized and by a sacramentall bread wee are fed nothing in glory for if this be a true position that we must reape according to that which wee have sowne then he who soweth sparingly shall reape sparingly and hee who soweth in plenty shall reape in joy 2. Whilst we looke on our brethren visione collaterali if they bee of the houshold of faith I meane the Church and the members therof see that thou rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weepe with them that mourne and remember thē that are in bonds as if we our selves were afflicted in the body but especially and above al to mourne for the divisions of Ioseph If they bee from without brethren I meane by nature and not by grace let us pity their misery with patience waite for their returne and in sincerity pray for their cōversion for howsoever it be not as yet seene to the world that God is become their father in Christ Iesus yet how soon it may be we know not for the time is at hand wherin all Israel must be Israel Whilst we thinke therefore that wee stand let us take heed that we fall not and let us pray for their restitution for we know not when wee our selves shall also be tempted 3 Lastly whilst we look on the words with a transcendent speculation let us know aright from whom by whom we have the liberty of this prerogative viz. in Christ Jesus And let us labour to become his fellow brethren that God may be our father in him for having him wee have all things and without him wee have nothing for all things are ours whilst wee are Christs for Christ is Gods I have heard talking of fraternity the rejoycing of the begging Friers is vaine they are fratres mendicantes the rejoycing of the Jesuites is vaine they are Fratres societatis Iesu an arrogant fraternity the rejoycing of the Chymeck or judiciall Astrologues is vaine they are Fratres roseae-crucis a foolish fraternity for they evanish in the vanity of their imaginations No no there is no fraternity in the world answerable to a Christian fraternity wherein God doth become our father for so wee have hope against all the feares of the naturall man such as want sicknesse death judgement hell and Sathan Which art in Heaven Having spoke of our familiarity and assured welcome that God is a father and of our interest in him and by him to the world to the Church and to our selves Let us now see what dwelling places hee hath Heaven For understanding hereof learne to know that man may be described by many things and God but by a few Forma figura tocus stirps nomen patria tempus are incident to the description of man but not to the description of God hee hath no form nor figure for he is invisible place cannot circūscribe him for hee is infinite progenie he hath not for he is not begotten nor time cannot measure him for hee is eternall onely by two things is he knowne to us by his name and by his habitation by his name he is our father by his habitation he is in heaven But let us remarke yet further I pray you Our Redeemer pointing out unto us his father in termes of familiarity and appropriation before that hee tell us where his habitation is he telleth us his essence and what he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee was hee is and hee is to come before time in time after time yesterday to day and for ever he was to Abraham before Abraham was I was he is to Moses I am that I am hee is to come Iohn in the Revelation Behold I come quickly Vse Is hee the selfe same without alteration or shadow of change yea and that three manner of wayes Objectively subjectively and effectively Objectively in his word for heaven and earth shall passe away but one jot of his word shall not fall to the ground Subjectively in his operation making governing and judging the world Effectively in his mercie yesterday to the fathers to day to our selves
of prime honour to the subject of name for it is said Hallowed be thy name For understanding whereof let us remember that the Pronoune thy is possessive and pointeth out to us the chiefe and prime person to whose name honour and glory do chiefly and most duely belong For though there bee many names or rather many things named in heaven in earth and under the earth yet is there not any name to which honour and glory doth of debt and duty belong but onely to the name of God and that in three respects First because by him is named all the family that is either in heaven or on earth Secondly because by his sufferings and victorious triumphs over his adversaries he hath obtained a name farre above all other not onely that is in this world but also in that which is to come Thirdly because there is no other name by the which we can bee saved but by the name of Jesus Christ the just Now then since by the Pronounce thine is understood the name of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost the whole Trinity whose actions ad extra as they are undivided so their honour quoad nos should bee undivided also For as their essence is one and their majesty coeternall so should their glory bee coequall according to that which is written My honour is mine and my glory I will not give to another Let him bee ashamed that in any wise doth ascribe that which is due to God either to Angell or Saint departed The distinctions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be no shelter of their errour wee reverence their memory wee blesse God in behalfe of them and wee wish from God the consummation of their glory but to beleeve in them to call upon them or to bow before their images or to adore their relicts as wee have no warrant for it so let us abhorre to doe it lest it be enquired of us Who hath required these things at your hands Esai 1.12 They have already entered in their Masters joy Requiescant in pace Let us labour to follow their example and let us sigh for their consummation as they crie for our addition for they cannot bee perfect in full perfection without us Amen LECTIO 5. Thy kingdome come IN handling of this Petition I will observe the order proposed in the last first I will looke on the reference of the words both with the preceding and subsequent petitions and then on the matter comprised and contained in them The site and posture of this Petition is worthy of remarke first because of the reference it hath with the preceding petition And secondly because of that reference it hath with those petitions which succeed The dependance it hath with the former Petitions is That in the last petition wee craved that Gods name might be hallowed that is to say that the Majestie and holinesse which is in himselfe and is Himselfe for whatsoever is in God is God that Justice Mercy and power that is in his workes that truth righteousnesse and equity which is in his word may not only be knowne and manifested to man but also received honored and obeyed by man in such manner as is fit and due to so great a Majestie and so dread a name So now in this Petition hee sheweth us the way how to doe it Namely by submitting our selves as members of his Kingdome to his supreme Soveraignty for then chiefely and ever till then is the name of God duely honored by man when man by his due and lawfull obedience testifieth himselfe to bee a subject in his Kingdome and a member of his incorporation Againe as this is the reference it hath with the precedent Petition So hath it also a necessary dependance with that which immediately succeedeth For in the words next following we crave that Gods will may be done But it is certaine no man can doe Gods will but hee who is a member of his Kingdome Nor can any man keepe the law of God but by his grace Iohn 3.24 Psalme 119.32 For though our workes should be accomplished from the beginning of the world yet are they all but abomination in the presence of God till our persons be first acceptable unto him in Christ Jesus 1. Cor. 13.3 here then is the true reason of this position he that would either hallow or honor the name of God or desire to performe his will must have a care first to be devised and made a member of his Kingdome for the name of God can never bee truly honored nor his will truly obeyed by any but those who are true members of his Kingdome But it may bee enquired cannot a wicked man doe the will of God I answere that a wicked man may doe the thing that is good as Ioab may give good counsell Iudas may remember the poore A Hypoerite like Achab may be humbled A vicious man may cite and speake Scripture but all is abhomination for two causes First their persons are not acceptable they have no portion in David nor inheritance in Iesse Secondly whatsoever they doe they doe it not in that sincerity nor right intention towards the honor of God as doth become but what they doe is in hypocrisie to be seen of men and to procure honor and glory to themselves and for this cause God casteth backe the dust of their sacrifices in their faces and manifesteth their wickednesse both to men and Angells Then O man if thou dost desire that the name of God may be hallowed and honored by thee Or desirest that his will bee done in thee or by thee Labour then I pray thee that thou maist be made a member of his Kingdome for as many as are called by the Spirit of God are the sons of God and if the Spirit of him that raised JESVS from the dead doth dwell in our mortall bodies our mortall bodies shall then also be raised by it But if this incorporation shall bee wanting though we should give our bodies to be burnt in the fire yet shall it not availe us For as we live strangers from the life of God strangers shall wee likewise die and rising strangers to his Grace we shall be thrust out as strangers from his Glory to the suffering of that worme that dyeth not and of that fire that never is extinguished Now let us come to the words and consider what is contained in them I finde in them three things a Subject an Attribute and a Copulation The Subject is a Kingdome the Attribute is a comming and the word of Copulation Thy. Kingdome For understanding of this we must know that there is a threefold Kingdome Of man of Sathan and of God The Kingdome of man is that preheminency and soveraignty which God in his wisedome hath established amongst men giving to some authority to command and to others a commandement to obey and that for shunning of confusion and disorder amongst
meaning of the words to bee Let them that are not yet called bee brought within the compasse of thy covenant and the bosome of thy Church that as wee beleeve so they may beleeve also and as thy will is done by us so it may bee done by them Both of these opinions are not only tolerable but also laudable For we are bound by religion not only to subdue the lusts of our flesh and to live after the Spirit but also wee are bound in charity to begge of God that all such as appertaine to his election may be in due time called justified and glorified That so there may be but one shepheard and one sheepfold and God may bee over all and in all blessed for ever But if I may speak it without the prejudice of so great lights Howsoever both these Petitions be requisite for the Christian yet doe not I thinke that either of them be here meant But with Chrysostome I doe thinke that this Petition differs nothing from that precept of the Apostles Collos 3.1 If yee bee risen with Iesus Christ seeke those things that are above By earth then I understand men that are on earth and by heaven the Angels of God and the Spirits of good and just men departed So that the meaning of the petition is Since it hath pleased thee O Father who dwellest in Heaven to make thy name knowne to us and be called upon of us And seeing thou hast honored us by the making us members of thy true Church and thy Kingdome of grace here on earth O let thy Spirit of Grace dwel so powerfully and plentifully in us that as thy holy Angells and glorified Saints doe thy will in heaven So we that are but weake and sinfull men may captivate our wils to thy obedience here on earth Well then by Earth wee must understand not only earthly men but also the place where Even on earth and while we live in it But let us remarke the word for it is generall Our Saviour teaching us the person the time and the place of Gods obedience saith not Thy will be done in the field in the city in the sea or in the dry land but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per universum terrarum orbem Through all the whole world And as David sayes in his 97. Psalme Make thy way knowne on earth and thy saving health to all Nations The persons then by whom he will have Gods will done are men who are of the earth and to the earth returne again And the place where in the earth and whilst wee live in it For unlesse wee doe the will of God here wee shall not enter into our Masters joy hereafter In the second roome wee must looke to the patterne and it is called heaven by the which as I told you already Augustine and Chrysostome do understand the holy Angells of God and the glorified Spirits of men These are said to bee in heaven But by these alone the word is not only understood For as there are more heavens then one so are they more that do the will of God in heaven then those blessed Spirits alone I say there are more heavens then one and it is cleere For it is said in the preface of this prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plurall number and it is knowne and manifest in nature For this expansum or void wherein are the fowles is called a heaven and they the fowles of the heaven Againe these seaven subordinate spheares in the which the seaven Planets doe raigne are called heaven also Againe that place wherein are the fixed Starres is called a heaven also And finally that place of felicity which is above all of these is called heaven and the third heaven and the heaven of heavens and the Paradise of God Now as all of these are furnished with their severall host and inhabitants So is the will of God done in all of these by their severall host and inhabitants For in the lower heavens which we call our firmament the will of God is done by the fowles of the ayre and by the treasures of windes raine snow haile and the thunder In the second heaven the will of God is done by the Sunne the Moone and the Starres In the third heaven also the will of God is done by the holy Angells who have kept their originall integrity and by the congregation of the first born who rest from their labours and have entred into their Masters joy The words then are cleere By earth is meant man made of earth returning to the earth and living on the earth By heaven is meant all the host and inhabitants of the whole heavens of God whether they be the first second or third heaven But chiefly the third Now the resemblance and parallel of the obedience is remarkable As it is in Heaven For it may be enquired how doe the Angells and Saints departed obey the will of God in heaven I answere they obey it five manner of wayes Speedily Cheerfully Fully sincerely constantly and perfectly Speedily and without delay cheerfully and without murmuring fully and without omission sincerely without dissimulation constātly without wearying and perfectly without halting Now is it possible for man so to doe Gods will No certainly wee cannot doe it speedily for like Lot we linger to goe out of Sodome We cannot doe it cheerfully for like Israel wee grudge and murmur in the way to our rest We cannot doe it fully for the good that wee would doe we doe not c. We doe it not sincerely and without dissimulation for although wee honour him with our mouthes our hearts are farre from him We doe it not constantly and without wearying for to day we are fervent and to morrow wee are lukewarme neither hot nor cold Neither doe we it perfectly for we know but in a part and see but in a part and our perfection is laid up for us in the life to come But why doe we then pray for it since wee cannot attaine to it I answere though we cannot attaine to it yet wee should strive after it For there is a time comming wherein we shall obtaine and attaine to that perfection wee aime at And that is our last moment and day of our dissolution Like Israel compassing Jericho And Sampson groaning under his blindnesse Vse Now the use of all this When God made man he made him conforme to his patterne for he made him like to himselfe and to his owne Image When God commanded to build him a Tabernacle he gave a patterne to it in the mount and never a pinne was in the Tabernacle but what was commanded So it is here when Christ Jesus desireth us to doe Gods will he writeth to us a copy doe it in earth as it is done in heaven Not that we are able to attaine to it but that we must strive after it Let us looke but to a naturall Parent Hee calleth upon
As we are weake in judgement to understand so are we weake in power how to mannage not only the things that are of God but also the things that are of men That wee cannot mannage the things that are of God it is cleere out of this example David and Israel did purpose to bring up Gods Arke out of the house of Abinadab in a new cart 1. Chronicles 15.13 But because they thought themselves able enough to follow that businesse without Gods direction Looke to Perez Vzzah by the way Looke also to Israel fighting against Benjamin And as it is in things concerning God so is it in things concerning us for howsoever we have understanding to know what they are yet we want wisedome to mannage them aright Looke to Israel who did sow much and reaped little who did eate and were not filled who earned wages but could never get a purse to keepe them in And in a word except wee get both judgement to discerne of the creature aright and power to make a right use of it Wee may say concerning the first our counsells are caryed headlong for wee meete with darknesse in the day And for the second we may justly say with Peter Wee have fished all the night and yet have caught nothing In the last roome whilest wee are commanded to goe to God and to say to him Give Wee are taught to know how to use the creatures aright and that three manner of wayes First by travell secondly by prayer thirdly by charity By travell because man must eate his bread in the sweate of his brow In his innocency he was ordained to delve in the garden of God When hee fell the earth was accursed for his sake And let him travell as he liketh yet in the sweat of his brow hee shall eate his bread and in the use of a lawfull calling he hath only reason to expect an answerable blessing I say secondly hee must pray for let him toile never so much except he pray he shall not speed For it is written Nisi Iehovah frustra and these two are surely knit together labour and prayer For as sighing without expectation and expectation without sighing as prayer in a tempest without toiling and toile without prayer and as in a Sermon information of the understanding without working on the affections and travell on the affections without information of the minde is all in vaine So also in things temporall neither will our travell alone nor our prayer alone serve our necessities but travell and prayer conjoyned together make up the worke of our reliefe Thirdly it teacheth us how to commiserate others in their necessities For there are many who like Nabal cannot yeeld to David or like to the rich glutton cannot pity Lazarus or like a Iezebel feeding foure hundred false Prophets and yet can suffer Eliah to starve But in this O man thou art deceived For thou canst not get it till thou say to God Give And when hee giveth it thee it is to this end amongst many that thou maiest not refuse him who saith to thee Give nor that thou hide not thy eyes against thy owne flesh For a cuppe of cold water shall not want a reward Adde to these our owne use in sobriety neither pampering our bodies to surfeit like the rich glutton nor disrespecting them by nigardice but using them in sobriety For the belly is for meate and meate for the belly but God will destroy them both Vse Now having spoken a little concerning the person of whom wee crave these things and the reasons thereof make wee some few uses thereupon which are foure First it serves to confute the common opinion of Chance Secondly of merit Thirdly it treades downe our pride And fourthly it rebuketh our distrust and dispaire I say first it confuteth chance For howsoever the greater part of the world bee ignorant of the wayes of the most high and attribute either their prosperity or adversity to chance or fortune yet let the Christian know that this proceeds from the ignorance that is in them For there is neither chance nor fortune in the world but that God who by the word of his power made the world by the word of his providence governeth it and by the word of his good pleasure shall ruine it hee dwelleth in the heavens and doth upon the earth whatsoever hee will that man may know that he it is who woundeth and bindeth up againe who killeth and maketh alive and who having exalted bringeth down againe to the dust and to the dung hill and that beside him there is no God even besides him who is the God of Jacob and the holy One of Israel Secondly it confutes merit for who art thou O man that darest bee bold to bragge of thy merit canst thou by thy merit or the power thereof make one haire of thy head white or blacke canst thou make the Sunne to shine or the raine to fall upon the earth to give her increase No thou canst not How much lesse art thou able to pay a ransome for thy owne soule No no alas thou canst not It may be thou saist that thou art rich and increased with goods c. but Lord open thy eyes to see thy pouerty and nakednesse and with a temptation the Lord give the issue to beare it I say thirdly that this word serveth to tread downe our pride for of all the creatures of the world man is borne the weakest and the most wretched Other creatures fall no sooner from the belly of their damme but they can goe eate and are covered Man is borne weak wretched unable to walke unable to eate and unable to cloath himselfe And when he hath gotten all that hee can possesse under the Sunne what hath hee but what he borroweth He borroweth food from the earth clothes from the beasts riches out of the Mynes of the earth wine and oyle from the trees And yet hee is proud as though all were his owne But foole that thou art why art thou so miscaryed Naked thou camest into the world and naked thou shalt returne againe If thou have therefore food and rayment waxe not proud for it is but a borrowed spoile thou art proud of and if God shall strippe thee naked of them thou shalt know that all was but vanity and that it is a foolish thing for man to rejoyce in any thing but in this that his name is written in the booke of life Last of all it rebukes with a moderate griefe for the want of the things of this life We are to day strong to morrow weake to day beautifull to morrow deformed to day honourable to morrow despised to day rich and to morrow poore And in all these our estates no further changed then our minds are As long as the Halcyan dayes of our ease and prosperity do last we over-joy our joyes and we say with David Our estate shall never bee moved But if God change our portion our minde is straight
AN EXPOSITION OF THE Lords Prayer DELIVERED IN two and twenty Lectures At the Church of Lieth in SCOTLAND By Mr WILLIAM WISCHART Parson of Restalrigg LONDON Printed by M. FLESHER for NICOLAS BOURNE at the South entrance of the Royall Exchange 1633. TO THE RIGHT Honorable GEORGE Lord GOURDON sonne and heire to the Lord Marquis of Huntley one of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Councell in the Kingdome of Scotland and chiefe Captaine of the Company of men at armes entertained there by the most Christian King MY LORD AS I love not those rheumatique pens which are alwayes scribling on the Presse for in the multitude of words there must bee much folly no more do l approve those adust complexions from whom no intreaty can wrest any drop of refreshment to the fleece of Gedion for if the one shall bee beaten for the unnecessarie wasting of his masters goods the other certainly shall bee whipt with many stripes for that hee hath hid his masters talent in the earth and not returned his owne unto him with advantage The consideratiō hereof hath made mee the least amongst the thousands of Levi to adventure this small peece to the publique view and censure of the present time a hazard I confesse much greater then I can well sustaine for Ioseph cannot goe to Dothan but hee must bee stript and sold to a Medianite Sampson cannot project a wedlock at Timnagh but hee must bee flouted by a Philistine David cannot congratulate Hanon but his legates must bee dismissed with beards halfe shaved and garments cut to their buttockes yea the very Sonne of God shall not cast out an uncleane spirit but Calumny shall say it was by Beelzebub the Prince of devils What wonder then if these few drops of inke leaping straight from my penne to the publique Theater of the world bee both greedily viewed and roundly censured for amids the beames of so pregnant a light and in the throng of so many learned writings already spred abroad on this subject to see a silly David acoast the Philistine of Gath may justly seeme to deserve the rebuke of Eliah I know thy hautines the pride of thy heart But to this supposed reproch let me answer with David What have I done is there not a cause or rather let mee say with Iesus Christ the true Sonne and heire of David If I have said evill beare witnesse of it but if I have spoken truth why do yee smite mee The God whom I serve in the Ministery of his Gospell doth well know my conscience also beareth me witnesse that as in teaching these few sermons I did not affect popularity nor praise of men but his honour who hath honoured mee with his service and the good of that people over whom hee put mee in charge so now when they shall be published to the eyes of all having before beene delivered but to the eares of a few I am neither ambitious of vulgar applause as being no Camelion to feed on such an aire nor do I much regard the frivolous checks of all that goe by for Falsus honor juvat mendax infamia terret Quem nisi mendosum mendacem Therefore whilst I desire to do some service to the Church of God and to contribute my mite to his treasure or my goates skin to the furniture of his Tabernacle I have presumed to present it to your honour my good Lord not onely to begge Patronage from your greatnes but also that by it I may in some measure render due honour unto you for your goodnesse as one not of their number who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ready to prate of every thing but able to speake right of nothing No my Lord I know and do fully acknowledge that as there are none more truly learned so there is none more sincerely affected to the truth of God and maintenance thereof Let venemous detracting tongues wound as they list wisedome shall be justified of all her children for you have made it apparent to the world by your losse sustained at home and abroad for the testimony of the truth that you have accounted the reproach of Iesus Christ to bee greater riches then all the perishing treasures of Egypt And if there were no more yet the honourable project happy successe of that late expedition imposed by your Prince accepted and accomplished by your Lordship against the locusts of Rome raging in our Northerne quarters It hath clearly instanced to the world that whilst some of deeper profession like Meroz durst not come to the helpe of the Lord against the mighties of the earth you like another Iael did put your left hand to the naile and your right hand to the workmans hammer you have smitten Sisera you have smitten him once and he hath not risen againe Accept then my good Lord this poore handfull of water unworthy I confesse of such a Persian Potentate yet accept in it not what plenty should offer but what my penury can afford The theam is holy and may serve for vesture to a Prince if it had been wrought in Bezaleels loome yet take it howsoever as an evidence of the love and respect I owe you pardon but the weaknesse and the worke is rewarded and my earnest desire praier to God shall bee for your Lordship that your projects may continue holy your actions honourable your house and estate prosperous your death comfortable and your salvation sure in him who hath loved us and given himselfe for us a sacrifice without spot or blemish our Lord Iesus Christ in whom I am and shall alwayes endeavour to remaine Your Lordships servant in the truth W. WISCHART A Table of the Lectures in this booke Lect.  Pag. 1 Our Father which art 1 2 17 3 In Heaven 29 4 Hallowed bee thy Name 56 5 Thy Kingdome come 84 6 110 7 Thy will 133 8 Be done 157 9 In earth as it is in heaven 174 10 Give us this day our daily bread 200 11 225 12 249 13 276 14 And forgive us our trespasses 301 15 325 16 351 17 As wee forgive them that trespasse against us 376 18 And lead us not into temptation 401 19 427 20 455 21 But deliver us from evill 481 22 For thine is the Kingdome the power and the glory for ever and ever Amen 511 FINIS LECTVRES upon the Lords PRAYER LECT 1. MAT. 6. v. 9 10 11 12. Our Father which art in heaven IT may perhaps seeme strange that in the middest of so cleare and manifest a light and to the view of so learned and judicious a people I should be bold to represent a taske of so homely and domestique a straine for I know that there is not one amongst you who hath not all this Prayer by heart yet wisedome I know is justified of her childrē Let the truth therfore beget my Apologie and you shall finde that my travels will not be intended in vaine To speake the truth then there bee foure things
upon the Sunne in his strength doe usually call for a vessell ful of water wherein they may boldly behold his Image without dazeling of their eyes so we cannot fully know how God is our father unlesse wee looke on our earthly fathers and from them draw some weake resemblance of the expression so farre as a finite creature may expresse an infinite Creatour To understand this amongst the sons of men there bee three sorts of fathers naturall civill and ecclesiastique A naturall father is he of whom wee have our naturall being from whose loynes wee are powred out like milke and of whose substance we are crowded together like Cheese The civill fathers are those Magistrates whom God hath set in place and preferment above us and of those it is said Honour thy father and thy mother The Ecclesiasticke fathers are the Ministers and Preachers of the word by whom as being the Instruments of Gods worke the life of God is begotten in our soules and of this sort it is that the Apostle sayes Though you have many fathers yet I have begotten you to bee the sonnes of God by the Gospell Now all of these wayes God is our father our naturall father by creation our civill father by providence and sustentation our spirituall and ecclesiasticke father by adoption God from the beginning of time hath beene the father of mankinde but the nearer it drew to the fulnesse of time he became the nearer and the dearer father unto us He was Adams father was knowne to him by his name Gnaliion The most high a comfort answerable to Adams fall He was Abrahams father and knowne to him by his name El-shaddai The all-sufficient and this was a corroborative against Abrahams doubting Hee was Moses father and knowne to him by his name Iehovah which signified a being for in his time hee begun to give a being to his promises made to Abraham Isaac and Iaco◠under this name he was knowne to the Iudges Kings and Prophets of Israel but when the fulnesse of time came God sent his owne Son made of a woman and made under the law and to him hee is made knowne by the name of a Father This is my beloved Sonne and in him our Father also his by nature ours by adoption as it is written Because you are sonnes God hath sent the spirit of his Sonne in your hearts whereby you cry Abba Father And againe To as many as come to him hee gave this prerogative to bee called the sonnes of the living God The knowledge of this that God is our father teacheth us foure things affection faith obedience and true understanding First affection for now I pray not to a severe Iudge nor to a cruell Tyrant nor to a mercilesse stranger but by the contrary to my kind and gracious father who knoweth my neede before I aske and prevents my suite by his favour for he meeteth me kisseth me clotheth me and killeth the fat Calfe for me Secondly faith for what will a kinde father refuse to his begging child The Prophet Isay telleth us 49.15 Although our father that begot us should forget us and our mother should not remember us as the fruit of her wombe yet I will not forget thee for I have graven thee on the palmes of my hands and thy vowes are alwayes in my sight Let us therfore goe boldly to the Throne of grace we shall surely bee heard in that which wee feare for as Ambrose telleth us Dum ex malo servo factus sum filius praedicare quid acceperim fides est non arrogantia non est superbia sed devotio Thirdly obedience For whilst hee sheweth himselfe our mercifull father hee tyeth us to be dutifull children else even then when wee call him father if wee doe not intend a filiall obedience in stead of a father we provoke him to become our Iudge as sitters in the chaire of the scorner for it is written If I be your father where is my honour and if I be your master where is my feare for there is mercy with me onely that I may be feared Fourthly true understanding of two things 1. To whom wee should direct our prayers 2. In whose name To whom not to Angels in heaven nor to Saints departed nor to any Image of wood or stone whatsoever but to him who being the father of eternity is become our father in time and whilst wee doe invoke him it should not bee by the intercession of any Angel or Saint departed or in the name or accompt of our owne merit but onely in the name of Iesus and for his merits sake who not knowing sinne was made sinne for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him LECT 2. Our Father which art in heaven IN our last Sermon wee looked on the person upon whō wee call in that reference wherein wee call him Father We come now to see by what reason we call him Our That wee may understand this the better know this I pray you that our Redeemer Christ Iesus comming into the world not for himselfe nor for his owne sake but for us and ours who were by our sinnes estranged from him hee hath taken our burden upon him that by his super-abundant satisfaction our ransome might be fully satisfied and by the blood of his Crosse all things might be reconciled againe to the Father even all things in heaven and in earth But because there is nothing done by God in time which was not preordained to bee done before time That Christ Iesus should bee our head in time could never have beene duely accomplished unlesse before time he had beene preordained to be our head and we the fellow members of his body Now as in the fulnesse of time he came in our flesh to be our head so here by his example he teacheth us how to carry our selves as dutifull and decent members of his body The truth of this is cleare out of all these Petitions which Christ hath registred to us in his Word before hee suffered in Iohn 17. when hee suffered when hee rose againe and ascended In this hee was our true high Priest carrying our names into the holy place and there preparing a place for us that where he is there we may be also The Vnion therefore of the which he was ordained to be the head before all time made him carefull in time to recollect and gather together the lost and straying members of his incorporatiō and by his example teacheth us not onely to adhere to him by faith as our head but also by love to adhere to others as members of one body But thou wilt say to mee O man where in doth this Vnion consist or how shall I know if I have part in this Vnion For answer hereto let mee tell thee O man What was before the world but Vnion what is in the world but Vnion what shall bee after the world but Vnion Before the world nothing but Vnion one God
let the Kings of the earth assemble themselves together yet hee that dwelleth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorne and hee that is powerfull above all gods shall have them in derision The knowledge hereof is of great use for the troubles of the righteous are many and unlesse that God was both willing and able to deliver them they of all men in the world should bee the most miserable But blessed be God through Jesus Christ our Lord hee to whom wee runne for helpe is both kinde to acknowledge us for his and powerfull to deliver us It was the knowledge hereof that made Abraham strong in the faith hee knew that hee who had promised was able to performe It was this that wrought Nebuchadnezars cōversion it was this that was the ground of the three Childrens constancy it was this on the which Iohn the Baptist built his rebuke from this St. Paul did beate downe the vaine glory of the Gentile against the Jew and finally it was this upon which the same Apostle built his perseverāce I know whom I have beleeved and that hee is able to keepe that which I have concreded unto him Blessed is the man that in the time of need can build himselfe and the assurance of his deliverance on these two foundations the unchangeable love of God and his unresistible power surely that man hath built himselfe upon a rocke against which the gates of hell cannot prevaile But woe be to him who draweth neere unto God doubteth in any of these points surely that mans glory shall bee shaken and his best refuge shall prove but a broken reed or a house built on the sand whose fall shall be both great and irrecoverable The second that wee remarke from the words is How wee should pray And that is with a distance for God is in the heavens and we are upon the earth It is fitting therefore that our words should be few I have many times told you from this place that the children and sonnes of men doe impede and hinder the successe of their prayers so as when we aske we receive not when we seeke wee finde not and when we knocke it is not opened unto us But the fault is not with God it is alwaies with us for sometimes wee doe erre in the matter of our prayers preferring the things of this life to those of the life to come sometimes in the manner of our prayer begging pardon when our crying sins prevaile Sometimes in the time of prayer whilst we call upon him in the time of our calamitie whom we forget in the day of our prosperitie But chiefely we impede the successe of our prayers and hinder their due correspondence when our approaches are void of due consideration and distance It is wonderfull to see what respect distāce is observed amongst the sons of me whē we enter into the courts of Princes wee come no sooner within the Presence chamber but straight we are uncovered and give wee present a petition or supplication it is done with a bended knee and reason too for true Majestie requireth true distance There is a distance observed betwixt the noble and ignoble betwixt the father and sonne betwixt the master and servant betwixt the rich and poore and betwixt the wise man and the foole And shall there be no distance kept betwixt God and man God a mighty strong immortall and eternall Essence Man a poore miserable weake and corruptible creature O man wouldst thou have thy prayer heard come never in the presence of that dreadfull Majestie but with feare and trembling for he is in the Heaven and thou art but on earth yea a worme of the earth The Heavens are not pure enough in his presence and hee hath found no stedfastnesse in his very Angels How much more abominable art thou before him whose Tabernacle is in the dust whose dwelling is destroyed before the moath and the worme and who continually drinketh up iniquity like water but out upon the lourde and abominable misregard of this time It is long ere we can be awaked to come to this house of prayer our pinnes and dressings are so many And when wee come oh with what unreverence doe wee present our selves before that dreadfull Majestie In a moment without consideration wee clappe downe upon our knees wee mumble out some weak faint-hearted miscaryed thoughts before him we are no sooner set thus on work whē straight our eyes are gazing on our neighbors our hearts carried captive with the vanities and cares of the time so that in effect we turn the house of prayer to a den of theevs Alas my brethren these things ought not to be so we doe not learn this at our fellow Brethren Abraham David Gedion and the Virgin Mary We did not learne this at Christ himselfe for in the daies of his flesh he offered up strong cryes and supplications wee doe not learne this at the holy Angels who stand before him nor at those crowned Kings who cast their Crownes at his feet No no all of these acknowledge their unworthinesse and pondering the same with his incomparable glory they lick the dust before him But wee out of the senselesse stupidity of our soules have said wee are rich and increased with goods and that we doe stand in need of nothing notwithstanding that wee bee altogether poore wretched naked and blinde The Lord open our eyes to see the true distance that is betwixt the heaven and the earth and in the due consideration thereof to carry our selves answerably For when wee shall bee truly better then wee are is it shall be our best to think least of our selves and more of him and to give him his due honor in our greatest abasement The third and last thing is how we should live and carry our selves before him when we have prayed and this also is very worthy of our remark it is our custome for the most part in the sense of our sinne to runne to God and to cry for mercy But wee can no sooner say Lord forgive us our sinnes when straight with the dogge wee returne to the vomit of our iniquities and with the sowe to the puddle of our transgressions and what else is this I pray you but a scorning of God and in effect a begging of his leave to sinne against him what a prayer is this Doth the schoole man pardon the ignorance of his scholler that he may afresh returne and play the trowant or doth the Master of a family winke at the deboarding of his servant that he may of new play the wagge No sure it is to another purpose that they manifest their mercy wilt thou O man be angry with thy contempt and shall not hee who chastiseth the Nations correct No no deceive not thy selfe he whom thou callest thy father and whose habitation thou dost confesse to be in heaven shall laugh thy project to scorne for he desireth not thy sacrifices nor thy burnt
offerings he abhorreth thy solemne feasts and thy new Moones All that he requireth of thee is a new borne creature for a broken and contrite heart the Lord never despised Wouldest thou then have thy prayer to bee heard I pray thee take heed to whom thou praiest if thou invokest thy Father that is in heaven let thy conversation be with him also in heaven and remember that counsell given by the Apostle to the Colossians If you bee risen with Iesus Christ seeke those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father But thou wilt say to me O man how shall I seek those things that are above since they are unsearchable the eye hath not seene them the care hath not heard them and the minde of man cannot understand them I may answere with the Apostle in that same place Though thy hand be short that thou canst not reach to them yet thy heart and the desires thereof are not so Set thy affections saith the Apostle upon them But for the more particular information I will teach thee how to attaine unto them If thou wouldest seeke thy Father that is in heaven and in seeking finde him then bee carefull of three things Seeke him where hee may be found seeke him how hee may be found and seeke him whilst he may be found It is a lamentable pity to see the toile and travaile of men in this time for they weary themselves in searching and seeking out the heavens the ayre the sea the earth and when they have found them the more that they know of them the greater fooles they become As it is written Rom. 1. O but that industrious search that hath the promise of satisfaction and true content is only to seeke God and his Heavenly kingdome To the atchievement whereof wee must first seeke him where he may bee found and where is that I pray you Gregory in his moralls lib. 16. cap. 15. telleth us In Sinu matris Ecclesiae Not in St. Dennis in France not in St. Iaques or Compostella in Spaine not in St. Patricks Purgatory in Ireland nor at the holy Grave in Jerusalem No no if at any time he was found there made manifest unto them hee hath now withdrawue his presence to the Heavens And out upon their folly that weary themselves in seeking him by such sublunary Pilgrimages I may and will bee bold justly to say what the Angells said to Mary Magdalen Why seekest thou the living amongst the dead But if thou wouldest seeke him seek him in his Church in the ministery of his word in the participation of his Sacraments and in the sweet Quire of the praises and prayers of his Saints And surely if thou findest him not there in the smell of his garments thou shalt never finde him in the fulnesse of his glory For it shall be with all of us as it was with the two Disciples going to Emaus whilst hee talked with them and opened unto them the Scriptures their hearts did burne within them by the way It shall bee so I say with thee O man if thou gettest not thy heart inflamed with a sparke of his love in the way when thou hearest his word it is a fearefull testimony that thou shalt not bee satisfied with the fulnesse of his joy in the life to come For it is the sweet smelling relish of those drops that we get in his word that maketh us to follow after him and with our heart to pant and pray till wee see him in Sion that is invisible 2 As wee must seeke him where hee may bee found so wee must also seeke him whilst he may be found For there is a time appointed for all things under the Sunne A due time wherein if we seeke we shall finde and a preposterous time wherein although we knocke it shall not be opened unto us This precious time is to day for to day wee must heare his voice This is the acceptable time this is the day of our visitation Remember Esau the Foolish virgius and the Spouse in the Canticles 3. Lastly let us seeke him how he may be found and as for this know that though he be sought of many yet hee is found but of a few because that they seeke him not after this fashion For hee that would finde God must seeke foure manner of wayes saith Augustine 1. Caste unice for himselfe and his owne sake seeking nothing but in him and for him knowing that the fashion of this world perisheth 2. Verè sine hypocrisi truly and without dissimulation For if wee draw neere him with our mouthes when our hearts are farre from him he will cast backe the dust of our sacrifices upon our faces and make open our nakednesse in the sight of our enemies 3. Fervidè cum zelo For the Kingdome of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it perforce and if our prayers want audience it is because they want heart 4. Perseverantèr continuo For it had been better for us never to have knowne the way of truth then after that wee have knowne it that we should looke backe with Lots Wife or desire a returne with Israel to the Flesh-pots of Aegypt And now Brethren I hope I have made the first part of this prayer cleere unto you in some condition For in it I have shewed you the love of the inviter God who is become Our Father I have shewed you the communion and fellowship of your society they are all our owne Brethren and Sisters yea fellow members with us of that mysticall body whereof Jesus Christ is the Glorious head Thirdly I have shewed you the Glory of the habitation to which wee are invited it is the heaven of heavens wherein he dwelleth that is al-sufficient What now resteth but as those parts have beene severally touched and in them you instructed So now for conclusion we binde them up againe and learne you in a composed frame to say aright Our Father which art in Heaven And to the effect you may doe so and bee heard in so doing let mee request you for Gods sake to follow his counsell who hath directed you thus to pray Whensoever thou commest before God to intreat him as thy Father which is in heaven learn to deny thy selfe and to follow him Deny thy selfe for thou art altogether unsufficient and follow after him for in him doth all fulnesse dwell Thou art insufficient in a threefold respect 1. In respect of Judgement to resolve aright 2. In respect of wisedome to mannage aright 3. And in respect of power to bring to passe In respect of Judgement for we are blinde and know not the things of God In respect of wisedome to mannage for with David and Israel wee are in bringing up the Arke and therefore many times our Vzzah perisheth In regard of power to bring to passe things that are spirituall wee can neither will nor performe For Paul may plant and Apollos water but God
giveth the increase And as we must deny our selves so we must also follow him because of his sufficiency for hee is all-sufficient in his mercy in his wisedome in his power and in his truth In mercy for where our sinne abounded his mercy hath superabounded In wisedome for hee hath so wisely reconciled his mercy to his Justice that hee is satisfied and wee saved In his power for he dwelleth in the heavens and doth on the earth whatsoever hee willeth In his truth for heaven and earth shall passe away but one jot of his word falleth not to the ground If we seeke him he will bee found of us but if we forsake him he wil forsake us too LECT 4. Hallowed bee thy name AFter the Preface wee come in order to looke to the Petitions which are six whereof three have a reference to God and three unto man and his humane weakenesse In handling of these Petitions this shall God willing be the path wherein wee shall walke Wee will first looke to the order of the Petition and see in what distance it standeth with the rest And then wee will look upon the matter conteined in the Petition and see wherin it doth concerne us The order of this Petition is cleere and easie for if these three Petitions which concerne God bee justly preferred to those which concerne man then of necessity that Petition which doth most truly point out Gods honor unto us should first have place and that is this For it doth most lively represent unto us the care of Gods glory To it therefore precedency is duly given Now that this may be a little more cleere I shall labour to give you the evidence thereof both from the commandement of God and the practise of his Saints Shall we looke to the commandement of God it is more then manifest for amongst those ten Commandements which hee gave to Israel the first foure which concerne himselfe are prefixed to those other sixe which concerne but us And amongst these foure that which doth most eminently and evidently set forth his Glory hath both preheminency and precedency of place Answerable unto this is that direction of Christs Matthew 6.33 Seeke first the Kingdome of God and the righteousnesse thereof and the things of this life shall be cast unto you As God by the authoritie of his word doth require this of us So also at all times it hath beene the practise of his Saints in whom the Spirit of God hath dwelt powerfully ever to preferre the Glory of God to all things in this life yea to their owne life it selfe Looke to the practise of Moses Exodus 32. And of Paul that elect vessell of Mercy Rom. 9.3 Both of them in a burning zeale to the honor of God did wish themselves to bee thrust out from God that in their overthrow his honor might bee the more manifested Let me yet adde to this another consideration of the order and we shall see that it is not without reason that this Petition hath the precedency For in it I finde a wonderfull strain of the wisedom of our Redeemer Christ Jesus In the preface and entry of this prayer he hath led us to direct our Petitions in the termes of affection in the termes of faith and in the termes of feare In the termes of affection whilst we call God a Father In the termes of faith whilst we call him our Father and by faith make him to be ours in Christ Jesus And in the termes of feare whilst we acknowledge his power in heaven and in earth And then being to order our Petitions either according to the riches of Gods mercy or to the depth of our misery The first thing that we are desired to crave of God is a heart that can be desirous of his Glory For it is impossible that wee should at any time walke in the obedience of the succeeding Petitions unlesse that our hearts be first inflamed with the zeale of Gods glory For if wee consider aright who is hee that can ingeniously say let thy Kingdome come or thy will be done on earth unlesse he bee first enamored with the love of Gods glory Or who is hee that can content himselfe with his Daily bread or hunger and thirst for the Pardon of his sinnes or strive and wrestle against Temptation who hath not his heart inflamed with the sparkes of the Glory of God surely amongst the sons of men there shall not bee found one no not one For we are here In via non in patria Viatores non cōprehensores And therefore it is impossible for us to desire the reparation of the lost image of God in us or to make a right use of the things of this naturall life unlesse God illuminate our eyes and inflame us with the love of his glory who dwells in glory and hath cloathed himselfe with glory inaccessable which no flesh can conceive and live That the Jewes should have had a chiefe care of this glory it was well demonstrated unto them in the motto of their High Priests that was on their frontlets Sanctitas Iehovae The High-priest was glorious every way in the lower hemne of his garment hee had a fringe interlaced with bells and pomegranats of gold in his brestplate he had the Vrim and the Thummim on his shoulders hee had two Onix stones but on his forehead as one consecrated to the service of God hee had engraven Holinesse to the Lord. Wherein hee did both confesse and petition confesse that God was holy and holinesse it selfe and petition him that he would make him holy as he was who had called him and as the Jewe was thus instructed so also are we who are Gentiles not left without instruction For I must say here of this petition what Paul spoke of faith hope and charity in preferring of charity to the other two hee giveth a reason Those two shall evanish but charity shall convey us to the Kingdome of heaven So fareth it with this petition the rest shall all so evanish Thy kingdome come shall cease whē it cōmeth to us by death Thy will be done in earth shall cease when wee shall rest from our labours and our workes shall follow us Give us this day our daily bread shall cease when wee shall eate of the bread of life Forgive us our sinnes shall cease when wee shall enter into our Masters joy Lead us not into temptation shall cease when God shall tread death sinne and sathan under our feete Thus an end of all these petitions shall come only this one shall have no end at all but shall be like to him to whom it is here ascribed for hee in himselfe is A and Ω the first and the last so shall his honour and glory bee also like unto him a new song hee shall put into our mouth and a deepe Hallelujah in the secret of our hearts wherein the heavens and the earth and the hoasts thereof shall onely resound the praise the
power and the glory of God for whom and by whom all things were made to him bee glory for ever Amen Now after the order let us come to the words of the Petition It hath three things considerable in it First a subject secondly an attribute thirdly and a word of copulation tying the Attribute unto the Subject The Subject is Gods name the Attribute is in the word Hallowed The tye of copulation is Thy To speake somewhat more fully of this purpose it shall not be amisse to follow the order either of the civill or common law both of them referre the whole body or bulke of of their law to these three Ad Personas Res Actiones Iustin lib. 1. Instit titulo 2. in fine Lancelot institut Iure Canon lib. 1. Titus 3. in fine Pardon mee a little to invert their order and it shall serve for the better illustration of our matter In handling of this petition three things are to be cōsidered some things some actions some persons in peculiar The thing proposed is Gods name The action concerning it is the fanctifying or hallowing thereof The peculiar person whose name should be sanctified is Gods name beyond all other name or things in heaven in earth or under the earth Let us now come to the Subject of this Petition Gods name For understanding hereof know that names of things are the notes and demonstrations of the true beeing of them and serve to represent unto our understanding the true knowledge of the things themselves by the assistance of voice and aire This made Aristotle in his book of interpretation to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is cleare by the denomination of all the creatures of God for as the folly of a foole is knowne in nothing more then in denominating of things amisse so is the wisdome of man knowne in nothing more then in the true denomination of things presented before him This being the sole and absolute difference betwixt them that as a thing doth give essence to the name so the name giveth a declaration of the thing Res est nominis ratio nomen est rei signū But lest in stead of playing the divine I should seeme to play the Philosopher let mee shew you that names are of three sorts First some givē to the creatures by man Secondly some given to man by God Thirdly some given and ascribed by God to himselfe I say first some names were given to Gods creatures by Adam for it is written As Adam called every living creature so was the name thereof This was a part of that image of God imprinted in Adam in the beginning that as the Parent the Master and Conquerour of all Gods creatures he imposed names unto them yet was not this his soveraignty absolute but subordinate for though the name was Adams yet the workemanship was Gods God made the creatures Adam onely was the godfather unto them and therefore wee see that Adam who gave a name to every creature yet did not assume a name to himselfe hee named the creatures but God named him and called him Adam Secondly I say that as man gave names to the creatures so God giveth a name to man as is evident not onely in that which he gave to Adam and Evah his chiefe creatures but also in those which hee hath sometimes given to men before they came from their mothers belly as to Cyrus Iosiah Iohn the Baptist and to Iesus Christ and in those names which hee did change from a naturall to a spirituall signification as Abram to Abraham Sarai to Sarah Iacob to Israel and Ieconiah to Coniah shewing us that as our parent our Master and our Conqueror he both gives and changes names unto us at his pleasure Thirdly I say God taketh a name to himselfe for since names are but the signification of things that are and of that which they are none can give a name to God because none doth know what hee is for he is infinite and wee finite he is incomprehensible and all our judgement may bee comprized within a spanne onely he himselfe who hath his beeing of himselfe and giveth a beeing to all things that are can of himselfe and by himselfe declare what hee is and make his name knowne unto man according to that which is written No man hath seene the Father at any time save the Sonne who is in the bosome of the Father neither hath any man knowne the Father save the Son and hee to whom the Sonne reveales him And now this being spoken in generall concerning names it rests that wee looke in particular to the name of God And if any shall aske the meaning thereof I answer that three things are signified by it his essence his workes and his word for the name of God is two wayes taken in Scripture First essentially secondly with relation Essentially it is taken for himselfe as in the 20. Psal The name of the God of Iacob defend thee that is to say the God of Iacob defend thee And againe 10. Ro. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved that is whosoever shall call on the Lord relatively the name of God in Scripture is three wayes taken for his attributes his workes and his words For his attributes of justice or of mercy looke to Pharaoh I will get my selfe a name of him The second relation of it is to his word and the truth thereof and of this it is said that Ierusalem was the place which hee had chosen for his name for as the Law was given from Sinai so the grace of the Gospell went first out from Ierusalem And lastly his name is relative to his workes for so is it written God is knowne in Israell and in Iudah hee hath manifested his name Vse Now having in some measure delineated unto you him that is invisible not as he is knowne of us but as he manifesteth himselfe unto us in his attributes his word and his workes let us stay a little and draw from thence some comfort to our owne soules which surely is here in great measure to bee found for whilst wee looke on the manner of the revelation how God hath made himselfe known to us by his name who is hee that cannot nor will not infinitely rejoyce therein For it is true indeed that many times and in divers manners God made himselfe knowne to the world of old yet all were but clouds in respect of our light all was darknesse in respect of our day and all were but shadows in respect of that sweet Sun-shine that hath now appeared unto us in Jesus Christ his Sonne in whom hee hath made his name fully knowne and to whom in our flesh hee hath given a name farre above every name that is named that at the name of Jesus made manifest in our flesh every knee should bow both of things that are in heaven and in earth But thou wilt inquire of me O man Did not God make himselfe
knowne by his name to Adam to Moses to Abraham Isaack Iacob and the Prophets And by these his names point out to them the fulnesse of his grace in Jesus Christ I answer thee It is true indeed but the differēce of the revelatiō is great for God in the manifesting of his name unto us hath now done it more neerly more cleerely more fully and more familiarly First more neerly for what is neerer to us then our nature which he did assume hee became flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone yea like unto us in all things sinne onely excepted that wee might bee made to God in him flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone in a spirituall regeneration Secondly more clearely for they saw but darkly and under a veile but wee have seene him in the prime and strength of his light for it is written All these things were but shadowes of things to come but the body was Christ Iesus Galat. 2. Thirdly more fully for he hath kept back no part of the counsell of the Father from us which was necessary to our salvation Fourthly more familiarly for what could be more familiar then to have the Sonne of God walking in our flesh amongst us thirty three yeares and an halfe And what greater familiarity then to make both Jew and Gentile who were estranged from God to bee one in himselfe Let us therefore boldly looke upon him in the revelation of his name and learne in every thing in heaven or in earth on the which we set our eyes to reverence this great and mighty name the Lord our God This being spoken concer-cerning the subject of the petition the Attribute now followeth in order to bee considered and it is laid before us in a word of sanctification or hallowing Hallowed bee thy name For understanding hereof wee will first looke what it is to hallow or sanctifie Secondly in whose power it lyeth to sanctifie Thirdly how Gods name is hallowed or can be sanctified of us First to hallow or to sanctifie any thing is to vindicate the same from any absurd or profane use to its owne holy and proper end and therefore to hallow Gods name is to vindicate it from all abuse whatsoever and to attribute to it the due honour and glory thereof But let this be made a little more cleare Secondly God sometimes halloweth man sometimes halloweth and God and man both do sometimes hallow God hallowed man by creation making him to his image God halloweth man by regeneration in the day of his new birth and God shall totally and finally hallow man in the day of his totall and finall redemption so that whatsoever God halloweth it is positively hallowed Man halloweth God not by making him blessed for what can a finite creature adde to the felicity of the great and infinite Creator Man therfore halloweth Gods name but declaratively when hee confesseth to the honour and glory of God that hee hath nothing but that which hee hath received and when hee giveth praise unto him for the same So that the hallowing and sanctification of God to man in respect of mans to him back againe is as the cause to the effect or as Gods election knowledge love to us from eternity causeth our election knowledge love of God back againe in time Finally there be some things that God and man both halloweth and these are persons times places i. his Ministers his Sabbaths and his Churches for these God hath hallowed and consecrated to himselfe Man halloweth them by observing and keeping them holy without prophanation and sanctifying himselfe in them and by them To speake then in a word Gods name is hallowed two wayes notionally and practically Notionally when wee acknowledge him aright and in the thoughts of our heart do yeeld unto him that due reverence which becommeth the creatures to give to the Creator Practically when in the tenour of our lives we do rightly acknowledge the truth of his word the riches of his mercy the equity of his justice and the majestie of his workes Vse Now that wee may make use of this Petition let us call to minde a little what hath beene said that under the name of God was understood his essence his word and his worke his essence we cannot hallow for wee can adde nothing to that which is infinite neither can we declare it sufficiently for here wee know but in a part and see but in a part Gods name is honoured in his word First when it is reverenced Secondly when it is trusted Thirdly when it is obeyed First when it is reverenced not as the word of man but as the word of God for this cause the Apostle St Paul at Corinth preached not in the vaine inticing eloquence of humane wisdome lest the crosse of Christ should be of no effect Secondly when it is trusted for want of this trust the old world was drowned and Moses debarred the land of Canaan and mockers in the last time shall receive a judgement that lingers not Thirdly when it is obeyed and men walke worthy of the calling wherunto they are called The wāt of this made Eli his house desolate and Shilo a mockingstocke The want of this made the sword to stay on the house of David surely the want of this shall one day beare witnesse against the children of this generation One thing resteth to honour God in his workes and this sort of sanctification is threefold according to the threefold estate of his creatures for some of them wee contemplate onely some of them wee acquire with toyle and much travell and some of them wee use with freedome and true liberty Wee contemplate the Sunne the Moone and the starres all made for the glory of God and the praise of his name we possesse the earth the seas with toyle difficulty and paine wee use with liberty and freedome our meate our drinke and our apparell In the first wee honour God if from the excellencie of the creature wee looke up to the admirable glory of the Creatour In the second we honour God whilst we care for them not with a thornie but a sober care 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the last wee honour God whilst wee sanctifie their use by the word by prayer and by sobriety But shall not man honour God in the words of his mouth also Yes surely but because hee who honoureth God in his heart doth also honor him with his mouth è contra by the one wee shall easily judge of the other For this it is that the wicked man is reproved Psalme 50. And that Christ commandeth Sathan to be silent speaking out of a possessed man for hee knew that his name would be dishonoured whilst it was named out of the mouth of the father of lyes let our speech therefore bee powdered with salt Now onely resteth the word of appropriation Thy which is set as a band and tye knitting the Attribute
art thou hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I did forbid thee Thirdly a worke of conviction Cursed bee thou for thou hast not continued to obey the things written in the Law Fourthly a worke of contrition making thee to water thy couch with teares and to goe out weepe bitterly Fifthly a worke of consolation Goe thy way home thy sins are forgiven thee Sixthly a worke of adoption whilst by his spirit hee cryes in thee Abba father Seaventhly and lastly a worke of confirmation and perseverance whilst hee keepes thee by the power of his spirit through faith to eternall salvation What do we here pray for this that Gods Kingdome may come and why so because wee can never goe to it except it do first come to us for such as is his eternall knowledge his eternall love his eternall election such is the dispensation of those his graces in time and their remuneration in glory after all time what is then thy duty Oh man herken and I will tell thee Since God hath made his Kingdome ready for thee make thou thy selfe ready for it I say hee hath made his kingdome ready Omnia enim sunt parata All things are ready Matt. 22. Paratae sunt nuptiae the marriage is ready Parata est coena his supper is ready Paratum est cubiculum his marriage chamber is ready Paratum est cubile his bed is ready Paratum est regnum and his Kingdome is ready Now are all things on his part ready and thou art not ready Then woe bee unto thee that ever thou wast borne for Gods sake then dresse and trimme thy selfe in time and say Paratum est cormeum My heart is ready Psalm 57.7 and learn with the spirit in the Revelation to say The day of the Lambes marriage is come and his bride hath made herselfe ready Blessed is the man who in that expectation can so say surely hee shall not want his reward and it shall be said to him Come ye blessed of my Father possesse the Kingdome prepared for yon And when you are come in it shall be cheerfully said to you eate and drinke my friends make merry my well beloved And now having spoken concerning the matter and manner of the Petition it resteth that wee speake concerning the copulation of the one with the other Thy This word is very well inserted here for as none can truly say Our Father but hee who is borne of God and is a fellow member of Christs body so none can desire Gods Kingdome to come but hee who is a member thereof and a fellow heire annexed thereto by Christ Jesus yet the words would be well remarked for Meum and Tuum hath made all the world adoe Man whilst hee keeped the Image of God might have justly said of all the world it is meum but when he fell he could say nothing but turning over the right to God say it is tuum man being begotten againe to the hope of glory in Christ Jesus may justly say to and of all the world it is meum jure adrem but not jure in re for hee oweth all things yet possesseth nothing Looke to Christ to his Apostles and to all his Saints Hebr. 11. What shall wee doe then but since by mastery our Kingdome is taken from us looke for one to come and sigh in our selves saying to God Adveniat regnum tuum Meum tuum cost Abel and Naboth their lives But God would not have it so in Christs Kingdome for there is no Kingdome but his and to him alone wee must justly say Thy Kingdome come Vse What right then hath the Pope to enthrone or dethrone Kings since hee is no universall King himselfe Neither in the matter of power for his breath is not his owne nor in the matter of Grace For hee cannot renew nor redeeme his brothers soule it is a price too great for him to pay nor in the matter of glory for he is the child of perdition hee is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hee goes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly why strugle men for soveraignty and can never be contented since the earth is the Lords and all Kingdomes are his Let us seeke the Kingdome of God and our necessities shall bee cast to us Thirdly and last of all let us beware how wee utter this prayer for it appertaineth not unto the wicked but to the godly not to the wicked for if God should take him at his word his condemnation should come upon him at unawares Perversum est enim optare ut veniat quem times ne veniat Augustine Psalm 97. dicere veniat regnum tuum cum times ne exaudiaris Aug. Psalm 147. It is onely the child of God who as the Hart brayeth for the well-springs of water can truly thirst after God and say I desire to be dissolved And again Come Lord Iesus come quickly Revel 22. LECT 7. Thy will AS in the former Petitions so in this also wee will first looke to the reason why it is so placed and next to the matter of the Petition The placing of it is remarkable both in respect of the Preface as also of the preceding Petitions When wee looke to the Preface this followeth exceeding well upon it For there is propounded to us that Summum bonum and chiefe good which the Sonnes of men doe aime at God himselfe knowen by faith communicated by love and expected by hope of consummation to the which wee can never attaine but by doing his will For the Kingdome and inheritance of God is not given to rebells nor disobedients but to Sonnes and obeyers For none shall enter into the Kingdome of God but they that know the will of their Master and doe it And as it hath this reference with the preface viz a reference of instruction So when you looke upon it in the reference it carieth with the preceding Petitions you shall finde the reference and relation demonstrative For as God in all things and above all things he hath care of his owne honour and the glory of his name For it is written My Glory I will not give to another Againe as he is the suprem soveraign of heaven and earth c. Having therein a Kingdome of power of grace and of glory So here wee have the evident demonstration of our confidence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For hee subjoynes this as a touchstone to try whether ourzeale to his honor or our thirst for the righteousnesse and approach of his kingdome be true and sincere or not And by this to see whether wee doe his will or not Desiring us thereby because of the flattery wherewith we flatter our selves in the use of that common proverbe Ad Deum omnes ire volunt post Deum pauci to try and examine our selves whether wee bee truely of that number or not who can say Thy Kingdome come For it is not the hearers but the doers of the law shall bee justified Vse Now from
for there wee shall bee exchanged into his image c. Thus the truth stands cleere That the naturall man as a naturall man and before hee bee renewed by grace can and may will both naturall good and a morall good But to will a spirituall good in that measure as that it may bee acceptable to God hee neither can nor may For howsoever he may preach distribute the Sacraments give almes pray and meditate yet are these not acceptable For the naturall man knoweth not the things that are of God 1. Cor. 2. Hee is dead in his sins and trespasses Ephes 2. Hee hath not the sonne of God and therefore can have no life in him 1. Iohn 5.12 Hee hath not the spirit of God in him and therefore cannot be the child of God Rom. 8.14 And finally although his workes were finished from the foundation of the world yet is hee but a stranger from the life of God For till his person bee first acceptable in Jesus Christ his workes shall never be approved Last of all a Sathan hath a will and as man hath a will so God also hath a will And to him chiefly and above all yea most truly and most properly is the liberty of will ascribed For hee willeth that which is good and that most freely most solely most absolutely and most perfectly because continually Gods will then yea and his revealed will being holy righteous and just in it selfe and of it selfe is that only which wee crave in this Petition But thou wilt perhaps aske me may I not say my will be done No no for as God is primumens primum agens so is he also Liberrimumens Liberrimum agens Hee is the first essence and the first agent and hee is the freest essence and freest agent that ever was No creature in heaven or in earth hath either a being action or will but that which is duely and truely subordinated to his Essence action or will Wouldest thou then crave a reason why thou must not intermixe thy will with Gods will The reasons are these 1. As thou art a naturall man there is great enmity betwixt thy will and Gods will The Apostle tells us this Rom. 8. The wisedome of the naturall man is enmity with God Hee saith not only that it is an enemy to it but enmity it selfe Now we know that it is more to be enmity then to bee an enemy for an enemy may bee reconciled but enmity never 2. It is not good that wee say my will bee done For if we get our will wee would many times will the things which would tend to our destruction Thus the children of Israel willed and desired Quailes in the wildernesse and they got their will but not their well For when their meat was in their mouth it came out at their nostrels 3. If wee got all our will wee should many times sinne against God willing the things which hee willeth not and nilling the things which he willeth Thus did Israel will their returne to Aegypt against the will of God leading them to the land of their rest And thus they would have a King and got one in Gods anger Thus I may say boldly that mans will should not bee sought but Gods For mans will differeth more from the will of God then the heaven differeth from the earth For it is mans will to live in wealth and prosperity but God willeth it not knowing that want is better for us For when wealth maketh mans wit to waver and prosperitie maketh him to misknow God want maketh him wise and with the prodigall child reclaimeth him from his errour Secondly wee would alwayes live at randome and be free from the Crosse but God willeth it not for hee knoweth that without the yoake we are but wilde heifers But when the Crosse is on our backe it will teach us to keepe his law Finally wee desire to live long and see many dayes God willeth it not And therefore cutteth off the thred of our life sometimes in the morning sometimes in the noone-tide and sometimes in the evening of our dayes And by so doing preventeth the growth of sinne in us Sometimes shutteth our eyes from seeing the evil that is to come and sometimes draweth us away from the love of the world that wee may bee invested with our Masters joy Thus by all these palpable documents hee cleerely teacheth thee to submit thy will to his and both in wealth and in want to say Not my will but thy will be done And truely till this time come and till thougrow up to this measure of grace A Scholler thou may be in the Schoole of grace but a perfect man in Christ Jesus thou art not For he that would be his Disciple must deny himselfe and take up his Crosse and follow him dayly The totall summe then of this part of the Petition is this O Lord since by nature we are created to thy image and since in that estate of our integrity we were sufficiently enabled to doe thy will But now since by our fall wee are so debilitated weakned as that we can neither know thy will nor doe it Wee runne to thee in the secret and sincerity of our soules And we begge of thee that by the grace of thy spirit thou wouldest so reenable us and strengthen us againe that thy will may not only bee done by us but also upon us That is to say that we may not onely doe that which thou commandest us in thy word but also patiently beare whatsoever crosse or calamity thou shalt bee pleased to exercise us with And so having ended the first part of the Petition wee come to the second The first part was materiall the last is formall Formatur we craved that Gods will might be done in us and upon us For manner we crave that his will may be done in earth as it is in Heaven To come then to the consideration hereof Whilst our Redeemer prescribeth unto us the matter of Gods obedience he prescribeth it in two subordinate periods of consideration 1. In the place thereof 2. In the patterne thereof The place hee will have it done on earth The patterne As it is in heaven We will first looke to the place of this obedience And it is earth By earth many divers men have meant many things diversly Tertullian by earth said our body was meant and by heaven our Soule Because our bodies are of the earth and earthly and our Soules a spirituall and celestiall substance And the ordinary glosse following Tertulltan writing on this place by the earth have understood the flesh and by the Heaven the spirit So that they make the meaning of the words to bee Let the flesh and the lusts thereof be subdued to the Spirit and the good motions of the same Cyprian by earth understands the unregenerate and such as doe not know God and by Heaven just men to whom God is knowne and by whom he is obeyed And he makes the
wee know this to be the defect and weaknesse of our children that hardly or seldome can they bee brought to put on their apparell or say their prayers till first they get the promise of their breakfast it is so with us in the way to heaven all the promises of God concerning our felicity there which in themselves are so large and infinite that neither hath the eye seene them or the eare heard them or can the minde of man understand them Yet all of them of what quality or number soever they bee can never lead a man to the earnest pursuit of those things that are eternall unlesse hee get a palpable possession of those things that are temporall But as David said This is our death I saysecondly he hath done it for a demonstration of the riches of his mercy towards us letting us see that hee will passe by many of our infirmities and overlooke many of our weakenesses ere hee want us So pretious a thing in the eyes of the Lord is the Soule of a man that hee will give much for it ere hee want it looke to the Father looke to the Sonne to the Holy Ghost looke to the elect angels to the Saints departed to the senselesse creatures and looke to sathan himselfe and all shall teach you that nothing on earth is so pretious as the soule of man And if our soules and the redemption of them bee a matter of so great excellencie doe you thinke that God will want it for a meale of meat no no farre bee it from us to thinke so for will hee that feeds the fowles of the aire and clothes the lillies in the field be forgetfull of us No surely a haire of our head shall not fall to the ground but by his providence and if any shall fall it is not for want of his favour but for the weaknesse of our faith I say thirdly it is done to shew us the true refuge unto the which we should all leane in the day of our want whether bodily or spirituall and that is onely to God For will wee looke to the things of this earth in the day of our bodily want from whom shall we seeke them but from God for it is hee that heareth the heaven and maketh the heaven to heare the earth and the earth to heare the come and the come to heare Israel If hee heare thee all shall heare thee but if hee stop his eare all shall bee deafe and dumbe to thee For the eyes of all things do wait and depend on him While he openeth his hand they are filled with his blessing But if hee over-cloud his countenance they are sore affraid and perish Now this being the reason of the coherence I come to the Petition wherein six things are remarkable First what we crave Bread Secondly of whom wee crave it of God for wee say Give Thirdly to whom wee crave it and it it not in the singular number to mee or to thee but in the plurall number Vnto Vs Fourthly what a bread it is that we crave a Daily bread not a dainty bread Fifthly whose bread is it that we crave not our neighbours bread but our owne Our And sixtly for what time it is that wee crave it not for the morrow but for to day Give us this day our daily bread Whilst I looke on the thing that is petitioned Bread It is requisite that I search what is meant and understood by it The Ancients and Fathers of the Church have thought diversly of it Tertullian lib. de Orat. Cap. 6. will have by this bread Christ himselfe to bee meant and saith that there is nothing can have a more orderly progresse then that after we have sought the honor of Gods name the advancement of his Kingdome and the obedience of his will to seeke also the bread of life by the which wee may bee enabled to do those things And this is Christ himselfe saith hee for of him it is written I am the bread of life Ioh. 6. Athanasius lib. De humana natura suscepta Tom. 1. doth by the word bread understand the Holy Ghost and for proofe thereof bringeth the words of this very Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our daily bread for hee saith God hath taught us in this present time to seeke that bread for our entertainment whose first fruits shall preserve our soule in life to the life to come Augustine writing of the sermon of Christ in the mountaine Tom. 4. lib. 2. cap. 7. pag. 349. by bread doth understand the bread of the Sacrament or else the bread of Gods word by the which our soules are kept in life to the obedience of his statutes But with reverence let me say that Tertullians opinion meaning by bread Christ cannot stand with the due order of this prayer for then it were tautologick for that was sought in the petition Thy Kingdome come Againe Athanasius his interpretation cannot bee received whilst by bread hee meaneth the holy Ghost for of him wee receive but the first fruits in this life But of this bread we many times receive both satiety and surfeit Last of all I cannot subscribe to Augustine in this his opinion nor to the Rhemists his followers who by bread here understand the bread of the Sacrament for if it were so I see no reason wherefore they should debarre the laicks from eating thereof one licenciating the use thereof to the Priests whilst God calleth it our bread and our daily bread and alloweth to us both the use and the daily use thereof It resteth then that the truth bee cleared and so it shall by taking the words literally and under the name of bread by understanding bakers bread yet not so strictly but that figuratively also under it we may cōprehend all things requisite for the maintenance of this our naturall life such as are strength of body by nourishment health by Physick warmnesse by apparell sufficiencie and correspondencie to our labours and finally all the meanes and helpes that leads to these things as Christian magistracie peace in the land and seasonable weather So that Ambrose looking on the large extent of the word bread sayeth of this Petition Haec postulatio maxima est corum quae petuntur For since as man cannot live without bread so his bread cannot quicken him except he have a stomack to disgest and when his stomack is able hee cannot get it unlesse the earth afford it and the earth doth not afford it except it be laboured and it cannot bee laboured except there bee peace amongst men and in the very time of peace mens travels cannot be profitable unlesse God send both the first and the latter raine Therefore saith hee in this one word of bread many things are couched yea all things that are requisite for the entertainment of our life The meaning of the words being thus interpreted let us make some use of them Their use is twofold Vse For the word serves first for rebuke and
with never so meane a portion of estate it is a wonder to see how farre hee that hath dispiseth him that wanteth as if either wee had procured that of our selves which wee have or that they were not of our mould that want But foole why should thou bee so miscarried All the power that thou hast cannot make a white haire of thy head blacke nor a graine of seed that thou castest in the ground to grow up againe nor thy clothes to keepe thee warme or thy meat to feed thee except God adde a stasse to thy bread Why shouldest thou bee proud then or why shouldest thou misknow thy neighbour knowest thou not that a short time can make thee equall with the poorest begger that goeth abroad Iob in one day was rich in posterity ere Even he had not one to pisse against the wall the Sunne at his rising saw him rich in Asses Oxen and Sheepe ere night he had none of them In the morning hee was strong and vigorous in his health ere night hee scraped his sores with a potchard In the morning hee had a wife to lye in his bosome ere the noone-tide in the day shee is turned to a rocke of offence Curse God and dye God bee mercifull to us how uncertaine and transitory are the things of this life Why should wee either bee proud and overjoy in them or niggards or sparers of them not lending to the necessities of the poore The Lord teach us humility and commiseration that our soules may be safe in the day of our Lord Jesus Now in the fourth place wee have set downe to us a word of conscience whilst wee call it Our bread For in so doing wee crave of God that hee would so accompany our travels with his blessing that wee walking and travelling in our calling for our necessities may have rather to be helpefull unto others then burthenable to any But here there would a doubt seeme to arise wee have confessed already that we are indigent and have no power of our selves to procure any reliefe of our necessities unlesse it bee given us from above how is it then since wee have nothing but what wee receive of God that we should be bold to rejoyce and call it Our I answere it is no vaine rejoycing to call that which God giveth us Ours For the blessings of God communicated to us are ours in three respects first as they are given to us in Christ Secondly as they are acquired by us in our lawfull calling Thirdly as they are sanctified to our use by the Word and Prayer I say first they are Ours as wee are in Christ for if wee bee living and true members of the mysticall body of Jesus Christ then all the things in the world are ours for it is written All things are ours whilst wee are Christs for Christ is Gods Get once a gripe of Christ by faith and thou may boldly call the world and all that is in it thine It is true indeed many men in the world have a better gripe of the world then the Christian Looke to the Apostles Yet none had so good a right to it for though they wanted the use yet they had the onely title And though they possesse nothing yet had they true title to all things Secondly the creatures of God are ours and we acquire them in our lawfull calling not robbing not spoiling nor deceitfully or trecherously living on the sweat of another mans brow and eating the bread of violence Prov. 14. Thinkest thou O man or woman that there is no more required of thee but that thou shouldest rise in the morning and having washed thy hands sit downe to thy dinner and from thy dinner to thy supper and from thy supper to thy bed No no this life is too easie to bee honest Thou must eate thy bread in the sweat of thy brow Art thou a Magistrate goe to the bench exercise there justice and judgment defend the innocent and relieve the widdow and fatherlesse Art thou a Mariner get thee to the helme and travell through the deepe Art thou a Minister get thee to thy booke reade meditate and pray and look to whatsoever calling God hath called thee to that therein thou bee exercised or else cover thy table as well as ever the rich gluttō did It shal be turned to a snare and thy prayer to sin except thou can say that this bread is my bread being won in a lawfull calling and procured by the sweat of my brow Thirdly it cannot be called thine except thou hast sanctified it by the word and prayer The children of Israel had a table prepared for them in the wildernesse but for want of this grace of sanctification it turned to their ruine for whilst the meat was in their mouth it came out at their nostrels and they perished in the wildernesse having fat bodies and leane soules It was not so in the dayes of our saviour Christ Jesus in the dayes of his flesh hee had five thousand people to feed with five loaves and two fishes but hee lifting up his eyes to his father did not onely procure satisfaction to the eater but also superabundance Thus then the creatures of God are justly called ours when wee get any right to them in Jesus Christ Secondly when wee eate them in the sweat of our brow And thirdly when they are sanctified to our use by the word and by prayer Vse Hence wee have these lessons to learne first Labour O man to be ingrafted in Jesus Christ for all things in heaven and earth are his and submitting themselves to him acknowledge him their onely Lord. It is hee by whom the Sunne giveth his radiation light It is hee that covers the earth with fertility and plenty It is he that commands the windes and they blow he speakes to them peace againe and they are hushed and still It is hee lastly who sayeth to raging waves of the sea here shall ye come and go no further and behold they obey him with feare Since reines of all things are in his hands and the dispensation thereof in his power labour thou to get a gripe of him by faith and nothing shall be defective to thee it may be that he can sometimes out thee short of these things that he gave thee house wife children prosperity or health what matters it of all these give him his will therein and let it bee seene to the world that thou art in him by thy patience I will promise thee in the name of the living God Hee shall either restore thy captivity seaven fold or else hee will give thee something better then all the world even himselfe It is a pitty to see so carefull as the men of the world are to get the things of this world and so carelesse as they are to get him without whom they can never have true title nor right to the world or to any thing in it Can a house stand without the
sole title and precinct of his endowment but also the title and sole reciprocation hee craves of us and that both in the matter of his obedience and of our content and desires In the matter of our obedience hee will have it to day To day if you will heare his voice harden not your hearts And of our desires Give us this day our daily bread and reasō good it is that it should speake so for by so saying first hee pares the covetous mans nailes Secondly hee bindeth up the prodigalls hands and cutteth downe the Epicures vaine hope I say First by this word hee pares the covetous mans nailes for hee will pare them himselfe hee lets them grow that hee may scrape and scratch and gather together without satisfaction of desire without wearying in travell He riseth early in the morning and goeth late to bed at night and all the day long eates the bread of sorrow as if his belly was like his heart triangular and uncapable of satisfaction but foole that he is what is this he doth knoweth hee not that wee are but here to day and away to morrow for All flesh is grasse Care not therefore for the morrow but let the morrow care for it selfe for this day hath enough of its owne griefe Et magno apparatu breve iter vitae non instruitur sed oneratur Secondly God by this word bindes up the prodigals hands for it is the desire of many men in the world to have God giving them not one peece this day and another peece to morrow as we stand in need of it but wee will have al our portion together as the prodigall child said Father give mee my portion that befalls mee and when hee got it you know what became of it God therefore being wiser then wee will not cast all our patrimony in our lap together but like a wise father will give us our estate but peece peece and will see how we imploy the little hee lendeth us that hee may make us Lords over much and wee may every day honour him in the suit and request of his supply Lastly hee cutteth the vaine hope of the Epicure who like an atheist makes covenant with death and an agreement with hell and saith with the whore in the Revelation I am a Queene and shall see no mourning To this man God cries here as hee cryed to the rich man in the Gospell saying Foole this night they shall take thy soule from thee so here hee cryes to the Epicure This day thou shalt dye and shalt not see the morrow by one dayes disease I will beat that soule of thine out of her cittadell Watch therefore and pray for yee know not at what houre the theefe will come One day is too long to dwell in the tents of Kedar but in the presence of the Auncient of dayes there is fulnesse of joy and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore LECTIO 14. And forgive us our trespasses IN handling of this Petition wee have two things to consider the coherence or dependence of this Petition with the former and next the tenour and force of the Petition it selfe The coherence is evident in the conjunctive particle and. For whilst in the last petition Our Redeemer Christ Jesus teacheth us to begge of him things meete for the maintenance of this our naturall life hee packed up the Petition in some few words of necessitie so here knowing that man is too much addicted to set his heart and fixe his affections upon the earth and the things thereof in a snatch as it were hee recals us againe to the consideration of the soule and teacheth us to hunger and thirst for righteousnesse and the life and well being of the soule For what shall it availe a man if hee winne the whole world and lose his owne soule In a word by the conjoyning and tying of this petition to the former I can resemble our Saviour to nothing better then to a wise and skilfull Pylot who seeing his company sicke and weary with continuall stormes at sea when he knoweth hee is neere any land letteth his sick and faint hearted company go on shore to refresh themselves to get the aire of the land to take in new victuals and provision to serve the necessitie of their succeeding voyage but if hee finde them to begin to be enamored with love of the land and the pleasures thereof straight wayes hee sendeth a boat on shoare reclaimes them frō the surfet of their pleasures telling them that if any amongst them would bee at home at his owne Countrie hee must come aboard againe for it is not the dallying with the pleasures of a strange country that will bring him home to his owne soyle It is even so with our Saviour in these words for in the first three Petitions wee were set to sea and commanded to saile home to heaven for whilst man honours Gods name advanceth Gods kingdome and doth Gods will what is hee doing but sailing through a stormy sea to a good harbour and a quiet haven of rest now because while men have lanched out to the sea of the world and are sailing homeward many crosse windes and boisterous stormes hinder them by the way Christ like a discreete and mercifull pylot and master of our ship in the last Petition giveth us this day our daily bread sets us on shoare and lets us play a while in the free aire and refresheth us with the pleasures of nature giving us leave to satiate and satisfie our selves with such provision as the necessity of this our naturall life required at our hands but knowing very well the nature of man that when hee getteth leave to play with the world hee will take a large inch to the ell and that in stead of satisfying his necessitie hee will inebriate and surfet himselfe therefore in this Petition And forgive us our trespasses hee shootes a boat after them and calls them to come home and to come aboard againe for feare that by playing too long with the world and the pleasures of the shoore they lose the opportunity of their voiage homeward for as the wisdome of the world is foolishnesse with God so the love of the world is enmity with God and whosoever is a friend of the worlds is an enemie of God Iames 4. vers 4. And this I take to bee the reason of the coherence of this Petition to the former Vse Let us now looke upon this tye and particle of conjunction that wee may learne something from it The uses and observations which arise here-from are these First it teacheth how to use the things of this world Man since the fall of the first Adam hath brought nothing into the world with him but an uncircumcised heart and a body of sinne dwelling in his flesh and from thence as from a bitter roote of corruption floweth nothing in all his conversation but fearfull and rebellious transgressions amongst the which
livest now and what reason had God to bring them from afarre and take their life from them and to give thee liberty to use them but his mercy and not thy merit his favour not thy deserving that the sense hereof may teach thee that his grace is every way his grace though thy sin be out of measure sinfull Adde hereunto that as prepremeditation is requisite before their use so sobriety in their use for it becomes us not to sit downe and glut with them as if wee had nothing to do but to fill our bellies and satisfie our desires No no meat is ordained for the belly and the belly for meat but God will destroy them both And he that hungers but for the food that perisheth may satisfie himselfe for a while but in the end hee shall both hunger and thirst and shall not bee satisfied at all This was the advertisement that our Master Christ Jesus gave to his Disciples Take not care for your belly what you shall eate or for your back what you shall put on for your heavenly Father knoweth whereof ye stand in need before you aske and he will not suffer you to want the thing without the which you cannot serve him Use then the things of this life soberly for thou hast more thē thou broughtest into the world with thee thou hast more then thou usest well and thou hast more then thou canst take out of the world If thou get therefore food and raiment learne therewith to be content Thirdly before thou rise from the table examine thy selfe and see wherein thou hast made thy selfe unworthy of the succeeding use of his creatures by the abuse of those which thou hast received For I will assure thee when man is full hee waxeth wanton and the plenty of his table maketh him oftentimes fall into those sinnes which the hungry heart falleth not into Is was not in the time of Noahs sobriety that his nakednesse was discovered but in the time of his excesse It was not in the time of Lots sobriety that hee fell into incest but in his excesse It was not in the time of Ammons fasting that hee fell before Absolon but in the time of his feasting When God therefore hath filled our bellies with good things let us not rise without due examination of our owne hearts to see wherein wee have sinned Let us with Iob sacrifice every morning after our festivities for it may bee that the fulnesse of our cups hath made us blaspheme our God as it was with Israel they sate downe to eate and to drinke and rose up to play and they felt the wrath of God upō thē in the fatnes of their bodies in the leannesse of their soules Since therefore God hath coupled these things together let no man put them asunder but let all flesh in trembling examine himselfe and when hee hath said Give us this day our daily bread let him withall adde And forgive us our trespasses Now I feare I spend too much time in the description of the dependance and coherence of this petition with the former and of the uses arising therefrom It resteth now that wee come to the Petition it selfe In which two things are remarkable a supplication and a covenant or condition by which the supplication is sealed first the supplication is Forgive us our trespasses the condition sealing the covenant is As wee forgive them that trespasse against us We must return to the supplication it selfe in which five things do subordinately offer themselves to our consideration First what wee are by nature sinners Gods debters Secondly what wee aske concerning our naturall estate in sinne and that is pardon and forgivenesse Thirdly from whom it is that wee aske this pardon and it is neither from Angels in heaven nor man on earth but from God our Father in Jesus Christ whose habitation is in heaven and who hath given us in his Sonne the hope of the same inheritance Fourthly wee have to consider the interest wee have unto this sinne that wee crave to be pardoned and it is Ours Fiftly and lastly wee must consider the extent of this our supplication and it reacheth not onely to our selves alone but also to all our brethren and fellow-members of the mysticall body of Jesus Christ and therefore wee say not Forgive mee but forgive us and this I thinke is the true and lively anatomy and opening up of the first part of the Petition the other wee shall weigh and examine when we come to it The first thing considerable here is our estate condition by nature which is two waies expressed first in the essence thereof next in the denominatiō the one privatly couched in the bosome of the other the other publique manifesting the death of mans misery the essēce of his misery is that hee is a sinner The true title indigitatiō of that his estate in sin is that it maketh him to be Gods debter But to return our estate by nature is not essentially set downe here but by way of denomination for here Matthew saith Forgive us our debts while St Luke saith in his 11. Chap. Forgive us our sinnes Now to returne to the consideration of this our naturall estate it is here set downe two wayes first by denomination and then by confession It is denominated a debt it is confessed whilst wee begge pardon for it The denomination is a debt many titles and names of signification are given to sinne in Scripture Sometimes it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and here it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All of these words important enough to signifie and expresse the depth of that misery into the which man by sinne hath fallen Yet none doth more truly expresse his misery then this that by sinne hee is become Gods debtor but thou wilt say O man How comes it to passe that by sinne man is made Gods debter seeing God neither requireth sinne of man nor is sinne a debt due to God But to answer this I would have thee to know that there are divers sorts of debts which man oweth there is a naturall debt which man oweth there is a spirituall debt and there is a civill debt which hee oweth The naturall debt is that which hee oweth to death and shall pay it will hee nill hee for wee came all of us into the world but upon this condition that wee shall goe out of it againe for dust wee are and to dust wee must returne for it is appointed for all men once to dye and after death judgement shall come Our earth must returne to earth and our spirit to God that gave it Finally this earthly house of our tabernacle must bee dissolved c. And this is called the first death which is nothing else but a separation of
it unto you The world and the children of men when they pardon their pardons are faulty three wayes they are not totall but partiall not free but constrained neither finall but for a time not totall for if they can forgive one fault another is impardonable not free and voluntary but forced and constrained either by reason of the importunity of friends or hope in expectation of gaine not finall for though they forgive for a time yet their wrath and desire of revenge is renued with any occasion whatsoever It is not so with our God for what he easeth of that he forgiveth when hee forgiveth hee forgiveth ingenuously that is freely fully finally freely without any merit or occasion on our part fully for hee forgiveth both the sinne and the punishment thereof And finally for hee forgiveth us both in this life and that which is to come What hath man then wherein hee can rejoyce nothing but in the mercy and free favour of God for as St Bernard duely and truly acknowledgeth Meritum meum est miseratio Domin so may all the sonnes of Adam cry out and say Not unto us O Lord not unto us and with the Apostle St Paul O the deepnesse of the riches both of the wisedome and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his wayes and his judgements past finding out LECTIO 16. And forgive us our trespasses HAving already handled of the word debt and the word forgive that which remaines of the text offereth it selse to our consideration for though the gleanings of Ephratus bee better then the vintage of Abiezer yet must the gleanings have their owne roome also and every one in their owne order must be considered which in number are three 1. for whom it is that wee put up this supplication of pardon the word is plurall not singular Vs 2. The reason why we poure out our supplications in this plurall signification and it is because it is wee not I that have sinned alone nor thou only nor any other alone but all of us and therefore in a communicative appropriation wee call them ours Thirdly it is to be considered of whom and from whose hands it is that we are bold to begge this our release and pardon If in any of these particulars wee can make any further point of instruction to result by the grace of God it shall be made knowne unto you The first thing then wee have to speake of this day is the persons for whom and in whose favour this petition and supplication is formed It is cleare and evident out of the words themselves that the petition is not made for mee alone nor for thee alone nor for any man or woman in the world alone but in common thou for mee and I thee and every one of us for our selves and each of us for our neighbours as for our selves for as Omnis orainata charitas incipit â seipso sic etiam omnis regulata charitas terminatur in socio wee have reason then to looke first on our selves with the eyes of pitty and from our selves with the eyes of cōmiseration on our neighbours knowing them to bee men of the like infirmity to which wee our selves are subject Remember brethren that God in his word hath taught us two severall sorts of communicative contemplation the one pointing at our selves from the consideration of our brethren the other pointing at our brethren from the consideration of our selves the pitty that wee owe to our selves from the consideration of our brethren is recommended to us in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Galathians Brethren if any man bee fallen amongst you of infirmity restore such a one in the spirit of meeknesse considering your selves lest you also be tempted The pitty that wee owe to our brethren from consideration of our selves is mentioned in many parts of the law wherein we are commanded not to hide our eyes from the necessities of any stranger because wee our selves were sometimes strangers in the land of Israel it is so here with us God will have us to remember and pray for our necessities not in our owne name alone but also in the name of our brethren and fellow members Vse In handling of the words the order is remarkable and next to the order the communion and fellowship that is couched up in the bosome of that order First I will looke upon the order which is very remarkable for hee is teaching his disciples to pray for the pardon and remission of sinnes but hee will have them first to looke on themselves and their owne necessities and from themselves not onely to consider but also to commiserate the necessities of their brethren this is the path and the true straine in the which God walkes for our God is the God of order and not of confusion And for cleering hereof that order is first and originally established in God himselfe and then from him a shadow of that order which is in him is derived to his creatures I say first order is positively and cheefly established in God himselfe for hee who is one in essence is distinguished in three persons the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost who being individually one in themselves by vertue of their individuall essence yet are distinguished by order of personall existence the Father being in respect of order distinguished and preferred to the Sonne and the Father and the Sonne both to the holy Ghost Now from this chiefe and prime distinction of order which is amongst the persons of the blessed Trinity there is made manifest amongst the creatures a shadow of this order also and that in five severall points of contemplation First in the frame of the heavens and earth Secondly in the civill societies of men on earth viz. Commonwealths Thirdly in the spirituall societies of men his Church Fourthly in the homebred and domesticke families of men And last of all in the private carriages of man in his life and conversation I say that God hath established order in the frame and combination of heaven and earth together for there hee hath placed light and darknesse that for the day this for the night there hee hath set the Sunne and the Moone that by the heat of his influence to exhale this by her moisture to water and refresh there hath hee placed the clouds the bottels of raine wherewith in due season hee watereth Gedions fleece there hath hee placed the wardrobe and storehouse of the tempests of snow haile and winde and all for the use of man and those other sublunary creatures that live and move on the face of the earth that in thē all of thē the footsteps of the order of the God of order may be seen acknowledged next to this celestiall order subordination of the Spheares and Celestiall bodies behold hee hath fixed an order and subordination also amongst the sonnes of men in their secular and civill conversation and commercement for there hee hath placed
but overcoming evil with goodnes may bee perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect Now this being spoken concerning the persons for whom we offer up this our supplication we must come consider the reason wherfore we must pray so and the reason is because our sins are ours Our Take heed I pray you to this my brethren The reason why wee crave pardon of our sinnes is because sinnes are ours and besides these nothing else in the world is ours I have said that sinne is truly ours This shall serve for the doctrinall part And that nothing in the world is ours besides sinne this shall serve for the morall part First then sinne is truely ours in three respects first in respect of patrimony secondly in respect of practise thirdly in respect of purchase In respect of patrimony The sinnes of our first parents Adam and Eve are ours In respect of practice our actuall sinnes are ours In respect of purchase the sinnes of our neighbours are made ours The sinnes of our first parents are ours for they not onely sinned for themselves but for us also they before us wee in them and after them Do wee not impute the bitternesse of the streame to the fountaine the rottennes of the branch to the root yes surely so is it with us hee was the root wee are the branches he the fountaine we the streames and to expresse this more clearly let me aske you that are acquainted with the art of numbers if that any figure in the first place doth signifie any more but it selfe onely yet by the addition of a cypher 1.2.3 or 4 multiplyeth the signification from ten to hundreds from hundreds to thousands and from thousands to millions It is even so with us Adam Eve sinned and being considered in their own place sinned alone for thēselves but being considered with our addition as being in their loines wee as cyphers have multiplied their burthen they as figures have made us significative they then have not sinned alone but we also in them and with thē their sins are not theirs alone but ours also by copartnership Secondly sin is ours by practise for as our first parents sinned and by their sinne made sinne ours originally so wee also by walking in the footsteps of our fathers and sinning after their examples have made that which was ours by descent from our fathers to be ours actually for as by one man sinne entred into the world and by sinne death so death hath universally runne over all men in respect that in one man all men have sinned yea further because wee have actually built up the sepulchers of our fathers therefore tribulation and anguish is upon the soule of every man that doth evill to the Jew first and also to the Grecian Lastly I say sin is ours by purchase by drawing on us the guilt and punishment of ours neighbours sinne And now thou shalt enquire of mee how a man can bee guilty of his neighbours sinne I answer it may bee done five manner of wayes 1. By connivence 2. By negligence 3. By assent 4. By example 5. By provocation By connivence winking at other mens faults when wee should reprove them to this effect it is written Levit. 19. Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbours sinne lest thou beare sinne for him By negligence in not correcting such for sin as are under our authority This was the sinne of Eli in sparing his sonnes and this is the threatning of Ezechiah in case of silence at the sinnes of his people Ezec. 3. By assent Thus Aaron was guilty of Idolatry when he assented to make the golden calfe By example thus Ieroboam is marked that hee made Israel to sinne And David that hee made the name of God to bee ill spoken of amongst the Gentiles Last of all by provocation this was the sinne of Lots daughters to their incestuous father and Baalams sinne to Israel with the daughters of Moab This then being the doctrinall part shewing how sinnes are ours the morall part succeedeth in which we must cleare this That nothing is so really ours as sinne That wee may the better understand this we must know that there is no creature on earth so naked and indigent as man for naked hee was borne and naked shall he returne againe and hee hath no peculiar or proper thing in the world that hee can justly call his but sinne and infirmity To prove this let us take a survey of all the things in the world Is wealth ours No for riches are painfully gotten carefully kept and wofully lost and yet when we have most adoe with them like an eagle shee takes her wings and flies away so swiftly as she cannot bee recovered and though they bide with us till the end of our dayes yet then they take their leave and wee reserve nothing saving a wounded conscience for the abuse of them Is beauty ours No surely let but a dayes sicknesse take thee by thy hand and loe thou shalt find nothing but age wrinkles the lineaments of death the characters of deformity which shall make thee affraid of thy selfe Is honor thine no surely it vanisheth as the morning cloud as the smoake of a chimney is liker to nothing then our Sun dyalls which point out the houres so long as the Sunne shineth but if a cloud shall intervene serve for nothing but are a dimme statue Is strength thine No let God but write one line of toleration and put it in the hand of thine and straight like Beltazzer thy knees shall beat one against another And with Iob thou shalt scrape thy sores with a potsherd on the dunghill Finally is that breath that wee draw into our nostrels ours no surely it is but sucked up and borrowed from the next aire If God lend thee power thou canst both exhale and evaporate it but if he say not Amen it shall choake thee in the passage Or is this body that thou bearest about thee thine No surely it is of the dust and to the dust it shall returne againe Pittifull wretched man that thou art what is thine nothing but sin and a wounded conscience for sin these are ours by patrimony by practice and by purchase of the which we can never be freed till we put off and change our patrimony practise and purchase Our patrimony by shewing our selves heires not to the first Adam but to the second Our practise by walking no more after the flesh but after the spirit for if wee walke after the flesh we shall dye but if wee walke after the spirit wee shall live Our purchase whilst wee crucifie our selves to the world and the world to us that the life of Jesus may bee made manifest in our mortall bodies and whilst wee forget the things that are behind us c. and account all things as dirt and dung to us in respect of the advantage that wee have in the crosse of Jesus Christ The
What is thy mercy in respect of mine but a moat in respect of a mountaine a sparke in respect of a fire a drop in respect of the Ocean and nothing in respect of that which is more then all things So that if thou wouldst have mee who am infinite invisible eternall and incorruptible opening to thee the rich treasures of my incomprehensible and unsearchable mercies it first must bee thy care who art a finite corruptible and worme-eaten creature to extend the bowels of thy compassion and to bee mercifull to thy fellow brethren else how shall I forgive thee thy thousand Talents if thou forgive not the hundreth pence owing to thee Matth. 18 well then the proposition is plurall and indefinite comprehending all sexes and conditions of men Vse Since it is that the commandement is so strict in severity and so large in extent whence comes it that we obey not When Naaman in disobedience to the Prophet went home and his leprosie cleaving to him hee was re-advised by his servants and following their counsels obtained a sweet and desired purgation from his disease When Balaam the false prophet had twice smitten his Asse unjustly at the third time his rebuke made him wise When the Centurion invited Christ to heale his daughter in protestation of his unworthinesse hee confessed that when hee said to this servant goe hee goeth and to this come and hee cometh Now I say since all these have found obedience how is it that our Redeemer Christ Jesus commanding us to forgive our brethren can never finde obedience O what a rebellious thing is man and how deafe are the passions and purturbations of his heart Whilst Jesus Christ walked in our flesh hee spake to the windes and they were still to the seas and they were calme and to the devills themselves and they were dispossessed When hee was upon the crosse hee cryed with a loud voyce when hee gave up the ghost and loe the Sunne was darkened the Moone refused to shew her light the rocks were rent asunder the graves opened the dead arose and the vale of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottome when hee rose the third day the earth shooke trembled the stone was removed from the doore of the grave and the Angels of God came and ministred to him when hee ascended on high he led according to his promise captivity captive hee gave gifts to men and sent the Comforter to the world to convince the world of sinne of righteousnesse and of judgement and yet behold notwithstanding all this royall power and super-eminent Majestie by the which hee was acknowledged to bee the Sonne of God in the estate of his humility Now when hee is exalted to the Throne of his glory and sits at the right hand of the Majestie of God the Father behold hee calls and wee will not come hee stretches out his armes and wee refuse to bee imbraced hee commands and wee disobey hee requires that as wee would bee forgiven wee should forgive and wee refuse the grace of the covenant because of the condition But what shall I say to thee O man I will say with St Augustine by way of interrogation Sub imperio Christi mare audit tu surdus es Have the windes and seas obeyed him and art thou deafe to his commandements It had beene better for thee that thou hadst never beene borne for if under the Law of Moses hee that sinned under the mouth of two or three witnesses suffered death of how much a greater judgement shall we be found worthy if wee despise him that speakes from heaven and neglect so great a salvation It were better for us brethren to run another course to do as the disciples did in the 8. of Matthew the 20. when the storme of the sea waxed violent in such measure that the ship was almost covered with waves the disciples ranne to Christ and awoke him saying Master helpe us for wee perish The danger for the time was theirs they were in perill of drowning but the spirituall morality is ours Wee are all in the world a turbulent and tempestuous sea Christ hath severed us from the world by his ship his Church while wee are in the world though not of the world wee shall not want stormes and tempests ready to overflow us Christ Jesus is our skipper and sits at the helme so long as hee a wakes and watches over us by his providence wee are safe and secure but if hee fall asleepe and seeme but to winke at our perturbations eminent passions wee perish except wee awake him Whensoever thou findest therefore the tempest of thy naturall and corrupt passions as of avarice lust or revenge arise within thee as thy tempest ariseth so let alwayes the steeres-man arise or else the storme will grow so proud that none can heare what thou sayest Mercy was the last legacie that thy Saviour bequeathed to thee upon the crosse Father forgive them they know not what they doe And what O man wilt thou not labour to bee perfect as thy Father who is in heaven is perfect It is not with thy conscience as with the day A redde evening prognosticateth a faire day but if the evening of thy life bee red or dyed with discoloured blood the morning of thy next life when thou shalt rise to judgement shall looke pale and lowre upon thee nor shall any sound but of judgement and horrour awake thee arise thou that lay downe a stranger to mercy and subjugate thy selfe as a slave to judgement for as thou hast hated peace so shall it bee farre from thee and as thou hast loved a curse it shall draw neere unto thee like water it shall be poured out on thy head and like oyle it shall drinke up the moisture of thy bones LECTIO 18. And lead us not into temptation IN handling of this Petition two things are chiefly remarkable the introduction and the Petition it selfe The introduction is in the word And The petition hath two parts the first containes a deprecation the second a supplication the deprecation is in these words And lead us not c. the Supplication in these words But deliver us c. In the handling of these I will first looke on the word or particle of introduction which is conjunctive And by this particle this Petition is tyed to both these precedent Petitions which concerneth man and his necessities whether bodily or spirituall And first it is remarkable that by this particle the Petition is tyed to that wherein wee represented to God our bodily necessities for whilst wee said Give us this day our daily bread wee confesse three things to God the first was that wee had our life on him for in him and in him alone wee live wee move and have our beeing The second was that wee had the meanes of him and him alone by which that life was maintained in us for unlesse hee of his mercy should send a blessing
on our travels all should bee in vaine For wee may eate and not be satisfied wee may cover our makednesse and not be warme wee may sow much and reape little we may earne wages and put them in a bottomlesse bagge except hee open his hand and fill us with his blessing for then and no otherwise are wee satisfied And thirdly whilst wee begged of God the meanes of our satisfaction so also wee begged them of him in a moderate manner and measure not to give us over-little lest wee should for want steale and Gods name should bee dishonoured by our practice Nor yet over-much lest by reason of our plenty wee should waxe wanton forget the rocke from whence wee were hewen and so in our presumptions perish say Who is the Lord Now having begged these things in that Petition this Petition is duely conjoyned unto it by this particle of conjunction And for since it is certaine that man is a weake and fraile creature in the day of his want ready to runne an ill course and in the day of his prosperity ready to grow proud and mis-know God there can nothing bee better said then Lead us not into temptation that is to say since Sathan is ready at all times in all places and by all occasions to tempt us to sinne Lord watch thou over us by thy grace and good spirit that in the day of our want wee sinne not against thee by despaire and in the day of our wealth and abundance wee sinne not against thee by presumption but learne in whatsoever state wee bee therewith to be content for naked wee came into the world and naked we shall returne againe Again by the same cōjunctive particle And this Petition is duly tyed to that wherein wee begged of God the remission and pardon of our sinnes and that for three severall causes or respects first to teach us to avoid security Secondly to teach us the truth of Gods covenant and thirdly to teach us to submit our selves to the condition of the covenant It teacheth us to beware of security for after the remission of sinne temptation followeth and hee is a great foole who having once gotten the victory over sinne cries to himselfe a perpetuall and permanent peace yes furely for the estate of the servant is not above his master Whilst Sathan dealt with our head Christ Jesus in tempting him though hee mightily declared himselfe to bee the Sonne of God by resisting and repelling his temptations yet in the end it is said that Sathan left him but for a season If then this hath beene the lot and portion of the head what shall become of us that are members If hee dealt so with the greene tree what shall become of us who are withered branches And finally if this hath beene the portion of him who was the cedar of Lebanon what shall become of us who are poore bushes of Isop at the foot of the wall No no O man deceive not thy selfe and after the foile of a sinne over which it may please God in his mercy to give thee victory and peace of conscience in the blood of Jesus dost thou thinke that Sathan can bee so cowardly that after one foile hee dare no more to assault thee No be sure of this so long as the strong man keepes the hold all things are in peace but if with Iacob thou shalt labour to returne to the land of thy nativity Laban shall pursue thee and unlesse the God of thy fathers make his fall upon him hee will not onely kill thee but also the mother upon the young ones For though for a while hee seeme to leave his habitation yet if thou do not watch over the house of thy soule hee shall returne and bring with him seaven other spirits worse then himselfe and the last estate of thy soule shall be worse then the first Secondly it serves to teach us the truth of Gods covenant under which we have not onely cause of joy and spirituall rejoycing but also reason to serve the Lord in feare and walke before him in trembling For the covenant of mercy that God maketh with man in the blood of Christ hath two parts the first carryeth a promise of the remission of our sinnes the second a promise that hee will write his law in our hearts Now this is that new covenant which God promiseth to make with us under the Gospell of which the Apostle Paul writing to the Hebrews tells us that the tenor thereof is not formed according to the tenor of a carnall commandement but according to the power and law of an endlesse life For to what use I pray you shall the remission of our by-gone sinnes serve us if when we are once washed and cleansed wee shall straight with the dogge returne to our vomit or with the sowe to the puddle of our transgressions againe It is well added by the wisedome of God for mans instruction to say no sooner Forgive us our sinnes then straight way to subjoyne And lead us not into temptation for by this meanes wee get the covenant of God made sure and perfect to us whilst hee first sealeth in us the oblituration of the old hand writing of sinne that was against us and in the next roome writeth his law in our hearts and captivateth our affections to his obedience Lastly by the addition of this Petition to the immediately former we were taught to serve the Lord in feare for if this be our misery that our enemies are watchfull and malicious omitting no occasion of snares and temptations that can entrap and if this bee our infirmity and weaknesse that of our selves wee cannot stand one moment in the grace received why should wee not serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce before him in all trembling For as this is the comforr of comforts for a Christian to heare this said to him Sonne bee of good comfort thy sinnes bee forgiven thee So let this bee the square by which hee ruleth and squareth his future obedience Sinne no more lest a worse thing befall thee Thus having cleared to you the dependence of this Petition with that Give us this day our daily bread and with that also Forgive us our sinnes It resteth now that wee consider the words of the Petition it selfe and first those which are deprecatory and then those that are supplicatory First Lead us not into temptation and then But deliver us from evill Lead us not into temptation For the better understanding of the words wee must remember that they are metaphoricall and propounded unto us by way of a figurative translation for in them God teacheth his Church to put up her supplications to God Now wee must understand that although the Church bee but one in her selfe as her God head and husband is one yet is shee alwayes proposed to us under the shadow of two severall considerations For sometimes shee is considered as in heaven and sometimes as shee is on earth that part
of the Church which is in heaven is in patria in her country That part which is on earth is but in via upon the way when wee enter into heaven wee are comprehenseres whilst wee are on earth wee are but viatores they that are in heaven are called the triumphant Church they that are on earth the militant Now by both of these it is cleare that the Church here on earth hath much adoe for will you looke upon her as a pilgrim she hath enough to doe with all her wits to keepe the right way for though the way bee patent enough yet because it is thorny wee had need of a guide to lead us in it that when wee fall and stumble hee may lift us up againe For this Iacob confessed Few and evill have beene the dayes of my pilgrimage Again will we looke upon the Church here on earth as upon an army for so Iob confessed Iob 7. Mans life is a warfare on earth There we have need of a head and a leader too for unlesse there bee Captaines over hundreds and over thousands it is impossible that we can either fight in order or report a due victory and there shall nothing bee heard in our campe but confusion and the voice of him that is overcome so that howsoever the metaphor standeth it is cleare that wee are by nature weake and fraile creatures subject to many wandrings and many assaults under and against the which wee can neither stand nor prevaile unlesse our Leader and Captaine bee with us and in his power make us victorious The metaphor therefore serving equally to present unto us both our pilgrimage and our warfare I would rather lay hold on the last and shew you what are the references of our spirituall warfare in which wee stand seeing the matter is so clearly displayed and pointed out to us elsewhere for in the Epistle to the Ephesians the Apostle telleth us that wee must not onely fight against flesh and blood but also against principalities and powers and spirituall wickednesse and the Prince of darknesse and the god that ruleth powerfully in in the children of disobedience That wee may therefore hold still the allegory of our warfare and from thence attaine to the scope and meaning of these words let us now looke upon them both and see how the one keepeth correspondence with che other In a carnall and bodily warfare wee know that three things are chiefly remarkable 1. The fight 2. The enemies 3. The Captaines charge All of these wee shall finde here set downe unto us in these few words as in a mappe our spirituall warfare for never did any Generall on earth decipher better the severall periods of a pitched battell then our Redeemer Christ Jesus doth here wisely both set us in order of battell and providently tell us both how to fight and how to retire And that this may bee cleare looke to the words in which hee foundeth to us our alarum and commandeth us fight for as it is in the earthly combate so is it in the spirituall in it wee have five things considerable 1. The fight it selfe temptation 2. The enemies and these are all those who have a part in this temptation 3. The souldiers and these are wee who are the children and servants of God 4. The Captaine God our Father who is in heaven 5. And last of all what is his charge hee must bee our leader All of these packed up from their severall places make up to us this maine charge Lead us not into temptation Wee will returne now to the first thing considerable in the words and that is our fight proposed to us in the word Temptation For the better understanding whereof wee must know that as there is Multiplex pugnandi genus so there is Multiplex tentandigenus For Aliter pugnatur in schola aliter in praetio wee fight one way in the fencing schoole another way in the field Whilst wee are in the fencing schoole our master fighteth against us his strokes are soft and for our instruction But when wee come to the field our enemie fighteth against us his strokes are furious desperate and his end is to destroy us We have need then to watch over our selves guard our selves well lest by our negligence security we fall and cannot rise againe Yet to make the word more cleare wee must labour to distinguish tempters in their severall sorts and from thence know what temptation is truly and what is the nature thereof For understanding of which wee must know that there are three sorts of tempters God man sathan God tempteth man man tempteth man man tempteth God sathan tempteth man also God tempteth man and his temptations are but tryalls of man not that it is requisite for God to trie what is in man for he knoweth already what is in mans heart his mouth workes and wayes But when God tryeth and tempteth a man it is to make man knowne to himselfe to those with whom hee lives in the world Thus he tryed and tempted Abrahams faith Iobs patience Davids love Peters perseverance and Pauls sincerity Abrahams faith in offering up of Isaaek Iobs patience by his multiplyed afflictions Davids love in Absolous persecution Peters perseverance by a damosell and Pauls sincerity by a buffer of Sathan Now as God tempteth man not for that he is ignorant of what is in man but that he may make him know himselfe that his graces in man may be knowne to the world as the Apostle writing to the Corinthiās telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they who are approved may bee knowne so also in the second place man tempteth God and as God tempteth man and is free of sinne so man when hee tempteth God is never void of it for whilst man tempteth and tryeth God it is a faithlesse and distrustfull tryall hee maketh of Gods power So Israel tempted God sinfully in the wildernesse whilst by tenne severall tēptations they forced God to make knowne unto them his omnipotencie and all-sufficient power Can God prepare a table to us in the wildernesse or can hee give flesh to the thousands of Israel to eate Thirdly man tempteth man and that diversly for there is a temptation and a tryall whereby man tempteth man approved of in Scripture and there is a temptation whereby man tempteth man condemned and dis-allowed in Scripture Of the first sort of temptations and tryalls are those which man useth for clearing of controversies As Salomon tryed the harlot by her unnaturalnesse to the child which shee claimed Or then for trying or examining the knowledge and grace of God in man so ministers are bound in duty to try their flocks masters their servants parents their children in the progresse and growth of Christianity Lastly Sathan is a tempter and that a chiefe and maine one For as all his temptations are to evill so are they all sinfull and that in two respects both in respect of
will not suffer mee to paint them out to the life yea I know how many large volumes have beene published already on this subject by worthy and learned men only by the by as it were and in so farre as the vvords here shall offer us occasion I will point at them and from their weake considerations speake some words of comfort and instruction to your soules It is certaine that the chiefe and arch enemy of mans salvation is Sathan the devill who hath beene a lyer to man and a murtherer of man from the beginning But because he is a spirit therefore invisible that man cannot know him whilst hee fights with him he suborneth two souldiers against man the world from without man the flesh the lusts thereof within man that man having fightings within terrors without may fall and never rise againe But that I may make you senfible of these his assaults and temptations know that whilst I speak of the world I do not understand this great and majesticke frame of the world composed of these foure elements fire aire earth and water for by these man is not tempted all and every one of these Sathan hath imployed to punish man for sin but by none of these hath hee at any time tempted man for sinne But by the world I understand the children of disobedience and wicked ones that are in the vvorld and that not simply or absolutely as they are flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones but conditionally and as they are either cloathed with prosperity and wealth or else as they are stripped naked in the day of their want and misery And that the wicked of the world are called of God the world it is cleare out of that prayer of our Saviour Christ whilst hee saith I pray not for the world but for those whom thou hast given mee out of the world Now these as they stand either invested or cloathed with prosperity or stripped naked with calamity and want do prove a stumbling blocke and snare or temptation to the children of God For in the day of their prosperity by their carnall joy wherewith they are overjoyed in their pleasures by their carnall security whereby they cry peace to themselves when God mindeth them no peace and by their proud trampling upon the weake and despising of them that want what do they but invite us to runne with them in the excesse of their riot and by their temporall felicities labour to draw away if it were possible the very elect of God from the search and purchase of that felicity which is immortall and undefiled Againe in the day of their adversity what do they but cry to us with Iobs wife Curse God and die With Iehoram I will wait no longer on the Lords leisure And with Israel in the wildernesse Would God wee had dyed by the flesh pots of Egypt But brethren vvith these things let us not be moved let neither the prosperity of the vvicked draw thee to a carnall rejoycing or love of the vvorld for the prosperity of the vvicked is but like cracking of thornes under a pot nor let the calamity of the godly vvho suffer justly for their sinnes dravv thee to apostacie and back-sliding from the faith for it is better to suffer affliction with the children of God then to enjoy the perishing pleasures of sinne for a season Heb. 11. And it is more honourable for us to imbrace the Crosse of Jesus Christ then all the treasures of a corrupt and perishing Egypt Againe Sathan in the second place hireth our flesh to fight against us and here by the word flesh I do not understand this body of ours alone which is composed of flesh blood but also that naturall corruption which we have drawne from the loynes of our first parents who have infected us both soule and body and dwelling in us fighteth desperately and maliciously against us This corruption the Scripture expresseth by many names and titles as The old man The old Adam The naturall man The law of our members and The lusts of the flesh which fight against the soule Thus wee see that the flesh is also our enemy and so much the more odious by how much it is traiterous For of it wee may say what David said in Psalm 41. My familiar friend whom I trusted and hee that lay in my bosome and did eate bread with mee hath lifted up his heele against mee To this Iudas who betrayeth us wee may justly say It were good for thee thou hadst never bin borne To this Dalilah wee may say If thou hadst not plowed with my heyfer thou couldst not have read my riddle To this wife of Iob wee may say Thou speakest like a foolish woman And lastly to this unadvised counseller wee may justly say Get thee behinde mee Sathan for thou knowest not the things that are of God but the things that are of man Now wouldst thou know O man why thou shouldst so encounter thy flesh I answer because it is thy deadly enemy and that in three respects In respect of malice of power and policy In respect of malice for it is written In mee that is in my flesh there dwelieth no good Rom. 7.18 Now that wherein there is no good must of necessity bee exceedingly malicious and fully replenished with evill Tucaro saith a Father cunctis virtutibus denudata es ideo diceris caro a carendo quia cares omni bono And would you have a true anatomy of the flesh looke to St Paul Rom. 3. Her eyes are full of adultery her throat an open sepulcher her mouth the mouth of deceit the poyson of aspes is under her lips her feet are swift to shed blood destruction and calamity are in her wayes and the way of the Lord shee hath not knowne Secondly the flesh is a powerfull enemy both in respect of the unregenerate and also in respect of the regenerate In the unregenerate it is a mighty King in the regenerate it is a cruell tyrant In the unregenerate I say it is a mighty king for as a King in his kingdome swayes the scepter enacteth lawes forceth obedience and subdueth rebells So is it in the unregenerate man sinne beareth dominion giveth a law to the members and leadeth all the affections captive to disobedience And from this it is that the Apostle exhorteth us not to suffer sinne to raigne in our mortall bodies And as the flesh is a King in the unregenerate so in the regenerate it is a cruell tyrant for howsoever by the grace of God in Jesus Christ wee are set free from the law of Sinne and of death yet so long as wee dwell in the body it dwelleth in us and both tormenteth us with the torture of a wounded conscience for sinne past with continuall molestation to sinne in time to come So that the best of Gods Saints have deeply sighed and groaned under the yoke and bondage thereof David could say I dwell too long in
loved us with a love unspeakable in Jesus Christ In this manner then is God the Father our leader yet not hee alone as hee is the Father this his authority hee hath given and derived from him to his Son our Redeemer according as it is written All power is given mee both in heaven and in earth And that we may know more perfectly how our Redeemer Jesus is become our leader look I pray you on the severall parts periods of his Commandement authority given unto him in our flesh and for our sake for it was either preordained before time prosecuted in time or shall be perfected after all time when time shall be no more Before time he was preordained to be our leader for it is not only written that in him it hath pleased the Father before the foundatioÌ„s of the world were laid to chuse us to be heires of glory But also it was told by the Apostle St Peter that of all his sufferings nothing did befall him but that which was preordained to befall him by the secret counsell and eternall purpose of God Hee was also sent in time to be our leader and that in many severall points of accomplishment for first hee is promised secondly prefigured thirdly that the prefiguration might bee made relative to the promise the promise is reiterated fourthly lest man should have fainted under the expectation of the promise hee is sent in the fulnesse of time First hee was promised to bee our leader and Captaine in Paradise I will put an emnity betwixt thy seed and the seed of the woman he shall bruise thy head but thou shalt bruise his heele Secondly as hee was promised so hee was as also prefigured to bee our Captaine And though by many prefigurations yet by none more lively then by those of Phares and Zares Ishmael and Isaack Iacob and Esau Of all which it may bee truly said The elder shall serve the yonger Thirdly as hee was prefigured so also was the prefiguration strengthened by a new promise for to this effect was it said The branch of David the stemme of lesse the sonne of a virgin and the Emanuel of God promised under the Law by the Prophets Fourthly lest the fainting hearts of men should have perished under the weight of their expectation in the fulnesse of time hee was sent in our flesh first to play the part of a souldier in himselfe and then to become a leader and Captaine to us That in the dayes of his flesh hee was a souldier it is cleare for it is written Hee offered up strong cryes and supplications and was heard in that which hee feared That in his ascentioÌ„ he became our Captaine it is sure also for it is written Hee led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men Finally that in the end of time hee shall bee our Captaine and leader it is manifest also in that which is written When hee had suâ—dued all things under his feet then hee shall give up the kingdome to his Father that the Father may be all in all Thus both the Father and the Sonne are our leaders Now as this relation is founded in the person of the Father and from him derived unto the Sonne So also from them both by way of Economy it is derived unto the Holy Ghost for it is written Rom. 8. So many as are lead by the Spirit of God are the Sonnes of God And againe It is expedient that I goe from you to the Father for unlesse I goe to the Father the Comforter shall not come to you But when I shall send the Comforter from the Father unto you hee shall lead you in all truth and comfort you in all your adversities But that his authority and government may bee the better felt of us learne I pray you to know that the alligory of his government is fitting to command mans obedience either as hee is a pilgrim or as hee is a souldier for whether hee lead us as pilgrims in an unknowne way or as weake souldiers in our hard conflict his operations to us and in us are threefold For he leadeth us Monendo movendo removende that is to say he forewarneth us hee incourageth us and hee removeth something from us If wee looke on our selves as pilgrims and so hee first forewarneth us of the difficulties of the way for it is written Strait and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there bee that enter in thereat Againe Through manifold tribulations we must enter into the Kingdome of God And as hee forewarneth us so also hee leadeth us by moving us for hee not onely calleth upon us Come unto mee all yee that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you But also when wee fall hee lifteth us up againe and whom hee loveth hee loveth to the end and whom hee once taketh by the hand none can take them out againe Finally hee removeth the impediments of our journey out of the way for howsoever he suffer us to be tempted for a while yet with the temptation hee giveth us the issue that wee may beare it Againe if wee looke on our selves as souldiers in 〈◊〉 Christian warfare hee useth the same operations in us He first forewarneth us of our danger whosoever would live godlily must suffer persecution for the testimony of Jesus Hee incourageth us also to the fight In the world ye shall have trouble but in mee yee shall have peace Bee yee therefore of good comfort for I have overcome the world Finally hee removeth our adversaries from us for howsoever for our triall and exercise he suffer us to bee hardly assaulted for a while yet in the end hee treadeth Sathan under foot and crowneth our soules not onely with victory but also with salvation Vse Now then seeing God the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost are our leaders both in our pilgrimage and spirituall conflict it should both humble and comfort us humble us in that wee cannot walke without a guide Noah was stronger then wee but when hee forgot his guide he fell Sampson was stronger then wee but when hee forsooke his guide hee fell Salomon was wiser then wee but when hee forsooke his guide he fell David was holier then wee but forsaking his guide hee fell Peter was more stedfast then wee and yet forsaking his guide hee fell Israel was a people elected and chosen beyond and before us but because they forgot the guide of their youth therefore they were left to themselves to do the things that were not convenient and received such recompence of their errour as was meet It becommeth all of us therefore whilst wee thinke that wee stand to take heed that wee fall not And to say to God as the Eunuch said to Philip How can I understand without a guide Send out therefore O Lord the light of thy truth and let thy good spirit lead us into the land of thy righteousnesse Againe as this should humble us so
beene heard according to their cry How many in sicknesse have called for helpe how many in poverty have called for support and how many in exile have called for deliverance and yet have not obtained it Looke to David himselfe and to his expostulation Psalm 22. I have called vnto thee by day but thou heardest not and I poured out my plants before thee in the night season and yet I have no audience Last of all how many of the Sonnes and Saints of God having fallen into temptation and snares of the devill have cryed unto God for ease release and deliverance to their wounded conscience and have not obtained it Let David witnesse in his 51. Psalm Whilst hee cryeth Restore me O Lord to the joy of thy salvation and take not thy free spirit from mee And let the Apostle Paul also beare witnesse whilst being buffeted by the angel of sathan he cryed thrice unto the Lord that the spirit of temptation might depart frō him yet behold hee received no answer but this My grace is sufficyent for thee Now I say if in all these man may pray and not be heard accordingly if under the body and burthen of both temporall and spirituall calamities hee sigh and groane and yet cannot be heard in that which he feareth wherefore and to what end I pray you is it that man should plead in these words of Petition or why should they bee tyed to this forme and platforme of prayer To this it is that our Master and Saviour Jesus Christ giveth an answer in this word For c. for in so saying hee strengtheneth and stayeth the weake hearts and feeble knees of his servants against all feare and infidelity whatsoever by leading them to the consideration of the might power and glory of him to whom wee pray So that his meaning is whilst he saith For c. poore and weake creature that thou art wouldst thou draw neere to God faint not though at the first thou obtaine not the victory possesse thy soule in patience hold fast that which thou hast received continue constant in prayer for hee is a great and mighty God whom thou supplicatest and hee is both willing and able to keep that which thou hast cōcredited unto him though hee winke at spirituall or temporall desertions for a while yet bee sure hee will come at last and salvation under his wings and a mighty deliverance under his right hand For never King on earth had either such power to vindicate or affection to pitty or commiserate his subjects as God hath to the deliverance of his Saints For hee is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and his and his onely are all kingdomes all power and glory for ever Now this being the meaning of the illative particle For it resteth that wee make use of it Vse I see man is a weake creature weake in all things for he is weak in knowledge in obedience and in suffering But especially weake in faith I say hee is weake in knowledge for hee knoweth not the things of God neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned weake in obedience for the good that hee would do that he doth not and the evill that he would not do that he is led captive to doe In suffering for the bread and water of affliction are hard for him to digest and who is hee who will gladly deny himselfe and take up his crosse and follow Jesus But wee are chiefly and above all weake in faith for even then when God hath made us in his light to see light and when hee hath in some measure captivated our affections unto his obedience when hee hath sanctified our crosse and given us some measure of patience under it and finally when hee hath led us by the hand unto the throne of grace and there by the power of his spirit hath taught us to poure out our desires before him with sighs which cannot bee expressed unlesse in an instant and at the first cry wee bee heard in that which wee feare and get out petitions answered with a sutable correspondence O how weary are wee how faint and how doubt wee of the love and mercy of our God towards us yet here is the love of God made manifest that though our sinne bee out of measure sinfull yet his grace is a rich grace and hee multiplyeth unto us grace upon grace insomuch that hee will not onely call upon us to come unto him in the day of our trouble that hee may deliver us but when wee cannot come hee will draw us and when wee are come hee wil teach us both how and what to pray and finally when wee begin to doubt and fall to despaire hee underpropeth our weake faith by the arguments of his love his power and his glory It is our part therfore whē we addres our selves to God by prayer to make these his peculiar instructions not onely the significations of our desires and trenchmen our hearts best wishes but also by their confident and faithfull evaporations to make them arguments to our selves of our audience for as the prayer of faith availeth much if it be fervēt so the faint-hearted lewk-warme desires of men reap nothing at Gods hands unlesse perhaps it make him cast back the dust of their facrifices into their faces and turne their prayer into sin And thus much I have spoken for the word of inference here used For. Wee must come now and looke on the tenor of the words wherein our Saviour and Redeemer comforteth and stayeth our weake faith and strengthen eith us in our prayers both from doubting and despaire The arguments hee draweth out for our incouragement are two The first is drawne from that anthority and supreme soveraignty which hee hath not onely over man but also over heaven earth and hell and all the hosts and inhabitants thereof The second is drawn from the true titles dignity or attributes of that kingdome and these are three A powerfull a glorious and an eternall everlasting kingdome But let us return to the first argument of faith and incouragement to confidence in our prayer which is taken from Gods kingdome For by this meanes hee maketh a direct reciproeation betwixt this conclusion and the second Petition of this prayer and withall a direct opposition betwixt this conclusion and the last Petition In the second Petition he taught us to seeke the advancement of his kingdome in these words Let thy kingdome come In these words hee letteth us see that hee will seeke nothing of us by way of obedience but that which hee will enable us to do Therefore he ascribeth to himselfe a supreme soveraignty over all the world and a kingdome more eminent then all those which are amongst the sonnes of men to teach us that as kings do not impose lawes upon their subjects to bee snares unto them of rebellion and disobedience but rather statutes easie for observance just in their exaction and safe
or permanency Hence it is that by way of eminent excellency above the creature hee hath made amongst many his other attributes himselfe known to us by his eternity an attribute so absolutely proper to him that it cannot properly be attributed to any creature beside him It is true indeed the decrees of God are truly called eternall in their act but not if wee consider them in their execution for howsoever they were decreed from all eternity yet they are finite in respect of time for in time they receive their accomplishment The soules of men are truly called eternall yet not properly for howsoever they be eternall essences induring for ever yet had they a beginning in time for till God breathed in mās nostrels man was not a living soule The Sacrament of Circumcision was called the eternall covenant Exod. 17. yet it is but catachrestically termed so for properly it was not so it had a beginning in the dayes of Abraham Nothing then can be properly called eternall but God himselfe in respect of his eternall essence and the blood of the Sonne of God in respect of the eternall value thereof God in respect of his eternall essence trinity of persons is from everlasting to everlasting for this is his name I am that I am The value also of the blood of the Son of God is eternall though not in respect of the incarnation yet in respect of the operation thereof for by the blood of that immaculate lambe slaine before the foundations of the world in time wee have received peace attonement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and after all time a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conformity vnto his image and establishment in the grace wherein we stand But thou wilt enquire if God onely bee truly and properly eternall how is eternity according to his kingdome and that his kingdome is for ever and ever The answer is easie whatsoever is in God is God and his attributes are like unto himselfe for as hee is in himselfe eternall so is his kingdome his power and glory The consideration of these things serves us for a manifold use First our God is eternall and so is his love to wards us Who shall separate us from the love of God shall tribulation or anguish famine or nakednesse c. No in all these things wee are more then conquerers Secondly the vertue of the death of Jesus is eternall Who shall lay any thing then to the charge of Gods chosen It is God that justifies who shall condemne It is Iesus Christ who hath died for us and now in the heavens makes intercession for us at the right hand of the Majesty Thirdly God is eternall and his kingdome is for ever what need wee then to feare what man can doe unto us they can but kill the body but Let us feare him who can cast both soule and body in hell fire where the worme dyes not and the fire goes not out Fourthly our God is eternall and his kingdome for ever and ever Why should wee then seeke the things of this life that perish No no it becomes us not to set our eyes on things that are seene and are temporall but on those things that are not seenand are eternall Finally since our God is eternall his kingdome endureth for ever why should we weary or murmur under the rod of our visitation for all the afflictions of this present time are not worthy of the glory to be revealed for our afflictions are but light and endure for a moment but it is an eternall weight of glory passing in excellency that is laid up for us who are kept by the power of his Sonne through faith to eternall salvation Amen THis is the last gaspe and breath of this prayer many such ejaculations have the servats of God breathed in the last period of their extremities Iacob said O Lord I have waited for thy salvation Old Father Simeon could say Now let thy servant depart in peace The righteous say in the 8. to the Romans That they having received the first fruits of the spirit do sigh in themselves waiting for the adoption and redemption of their mortall bodies and the soules of the Saints under the Altar in the Revelation can say O Lord how long Our Saviour Christ Jesus in place of all these things teacheth us to say Amen And for understanding hereof let us first learne what it is or how it must be said As to the first Amen is a word taken in Scripture three manner of waies nominally adverbially and verbally Nominally it signifies to us Jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity for it is thus written Revel 3.14 These things saith Amen the faithfull and the true witnesse Neither this alone but what is more it gives a reality to what hee hath spoken or promised for it is written his promises are not yea and nay but yea and Amen Adverbially it is a word of earnest asseveration for so useth our Saviour Verily verily I say unto you whose primitive is Amen Amen dico vobis Verbally and so it is equivalent to so be it whether it be in the matter of thank esgiving of praise or of prayer In the matter of thanksgiving 1. Cor. 14.16 That Amen may be said In the matter of praise Psal 41.13 Blessed bee the Lord from everlasting to everlasting Amen and Amen In the matter of prayer and then it hath a double use for then it is vel signaculum consensus nostri vel votum desiderly nostri To all of the former Petitions it is not only signaculum consonsus nostri but also votum desiderij nostri for in these we do not onely acknowledge that our Father dwells in heaven that his name must bee hallowed that his kingdome must come that his will must be done in earth as it is in heaven but withall it is votum desiderij nostri our earnest desire Give us this day our daily bread Forgive us our sinnes Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from all evill And in all of these wee are taught not onely to assent but also to desire to assent and acknowledge the glory power and soveraignty of his dread essence to desire and begge from his all-sufficiency the support of our infirmity that his strength may be knowne in our weaknesse and his power may be made manifest in our infirmity Thus then knowing that all things are of him and by him and for him what rests but that in respect of his all-sufficiencie and eternall kingdome power and glory wee should draw neare unto him begge of him that he who is only able may keep us that we fall not and that he would present us without spot or blemish before the presence of his glory with joy who is God only wise immortall and invisible in whose presence is the fulnesse of all joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore Amen God of his infinite mercy and goodnesse make us all carefull of his glory whilst wee are in this life that in the day of Christs appearance we may be made partakers of that eternall glory which is laid up for us in the heavens and purchased to us by his blessed merits Amen FINIS