offered our neighbour God wronging man injuring the one by ungracious sinning the other by unjust dealing The neglect of religious duties ushers in trespasses against God the want of civillized morality makes me to trespasse man and whilest we trample underfoot the two great Commandements of the Law viz. Love God above all the greatest the second like to that thy neighbour like thy self we break a gap open by which we come to commit grievous trespasses against God and man In a word my inner man is a God trespasser my outward it is the man trespasser and as man is visible so the the trespasse against man is commonly discernible and as God is invisible so my trespasse against God more commonly is covert and this is that makes one so sore fret at the other we so little fear and yet here is but one name for two to note out sins nature that it is a trespasse aggravated for that against God which how insufferable is this soul trespassing God since a bodily wrong there is this adoe to make us put it up O! man it is the nature of him Note oft to offend his God and make it a matter of nought but if injured by his like to make it a matter of moment And so much as God must be ingaged to forgive all or he a trifle all his sinfull trespasses as he the terrene trespasse against him And thus I go on having done with the explication of the words * Trespasses and trespasse ambiguous To give you the Sense and meaning of this fifth Petition it 's this If a man would have his sins committed against God forgiven him he must not nick on the score the ill turns his neighbour doth him God will have us even on earth or else he will be at oddes with us in Heaven The truth is he will not be friends with us till we shake hands one with another my sinfull debt runs on to God and increases if the wrong my neighbour hath done me be not blotted out of my debt-book * Memory I will therefore forgive man The Avowry that I may be forgiven of God and release my just cause of grievance against my neighbour lest whilest I work my private spleen I procure Gods endlesse wrath He that for an halfpenny would have a broken head A review of the point in hand I had rather be master of his wealth than wit There are a sort as much overseen who say they care not what come of it they will be revenged they get costs and damage but soon may count their gains A miserable gains when the recovery of their damage divulges there 's a writ of enquiry sent exforo Coeli for God to be satisfied in strict point of justice for all their trespasses committed against him I will cresse out my debt-book The Avowry and tean in pieces my processe lest my toe strict calling to account every idle word and prosecuting frivolous suits in Law debar me of tho benefit of the Gospell I mean the forgivenesse of my sins Having sented the Sense let us go collect the points of Doctrine deducible from this fift petition The Division will direct us the readiest way to do this which prayes us for our furtherance in so good a work to take notice of these two 1. The materia or matter which we pray for it is Gods forgiving us our trespasses against him 2. The modus or manner to be forgiven as we forgive others that trespasse against us This is it we first pray for that God our Father would forgive us our trespasses 1. The party we supplicate is God the Father 2. The Delinquents or offenders craved forgivenesse for are us 3. That we would were forgiven us are by nature trespasses Which for Plurality are many Propriety ours Now few yet set fasts nor some mans but every mans as in speciall this mans so in common all mens And as all are interessed so all in too many too many are all our sins and trespasses But come let us cast a glance at him to whom we pray for forgivenesse of sins The party supplicated to forgive sins is God this leads us by the hand to see this for the truth of God That it is God can forgive us our sins and trespasses Doct. a plain Doctrine yet pleasant yet not more pleasant than prositable who hath this power if not God Christ would never have advised us to pray to God for forgivenesse if he could not have forgiven us He that made me so good when nought now I am nought no doubt can make me good And as when I had little God gave me much so now I owe much he it is can remitit to a little remission of sins is an article of my Creed Though the Papists have rased the second Commandement out of the * ten Cómandements Decalogue we are not very kinde but we 'l fall foully out if they offer like violence to this article of remission I will confesse the faith The Avowry and maintain this for truth that it is only God can forgive us our sins and trespasses As he so only he which what power then he hath left to the Church I will defer the decision of that so much quered I mean our absolution to a case of conscience * But the case could not gain an imprimatur The * Offenders delinquents craved forgivenesse for are us not us here but us all wheresoever whosoever This us is an universall and reaches from Dan to Beersheba It predicates of all people and proclaims every singular sould is a sinner you must not doubt of this Doct. since the Law hath concluded all under sin we are all such sinfull trespassers against God that if we come to be tryed by the law we shall be fore't to cry out to the * Christ judge for the benefit of our * Gospell book We read Gen. 5.6 that the imaginations of our hearts are continually evill and as after a stone be cast into a pond Simil. one bubble begets another and so circular bubbles till all be set with beastly bubbles so ever since that infernall originall sin was hurl'd by Adams hand into mans heart our hearts have risen up with bubbles of beastly vices and they have not left to spread till they have wholly overspread all this pond the heart Look as a fountain whose springs ever cast up an incessantly so it is with the heart its springs are opened will never be shut But what springs up waters of Mera * Evill thoughts brackish unsavory and unwholsom till heal'd by the Lord. You 'l scarce beleeve what a corrupt fountain is the heart of of man but turn to Mat. 15.19 there you may see what springs out of it Out of the heart cometh evill thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false witnesse blasphemies Here are seven springs and not one wholesome one among them all here are
to all advantages and goes out like a * As if all over harnest a capo pe Curasier when as bare of Armour as the * Other Horsmen have on no harnesse Crabats who have on no harnesse This is the vice makes us trust too much to our strength and conceit we are able to conquer when not to keep it makes us adventure on once * Upon sin more and when it is past to presse on again and play a game at hazard for heaven and stake soul though sure to lose it This is the vice which swears we shall enjoy an everlasting inheritance though we want the * Faith and good works evidence and get in good time to heaven though we be running to hell the quite contrary way They say the knight of the Sun walks and vaults as if a Prince and mighty potentate when hath not so much money as to discharge the three penny ordinary And thus presumption carries a high sayle in a low winde and speaks in buffe when a begger makes shew of what not Being full cousin to the adverb Quasi may chance to look like a wise man that 's all is a fool whose fond head if we be led by it our whole bodies and souls will fare the worse for it This is it hath made me resolve upon it The Avowry to be earnest with my God to give me more grace than to be sway'd by this gracelesse one Presumption which fool if I follow in his folly sure I am to be led into Temptation The second Vice I am her forewarned of is Ignorance Ignorances Character This imp is the off-spring of the old world who were manying and giving in marriage being ignorant what would betide them till drowned in the floud Behold the sea-wreck is fast fested in our main Continent The blinde byard discerns not what commit and therefore considers not what to come That naturall to whom the Gospell is a riddle and the Law one of its light acquaintance This is the vice is a proficient in Temporals a dolt in Spirituals and the very vice which makes men merry when there is no cause for it hope well when at deaths door and doubt nought when nought but danger This is that one makes us mistake our master and to serve in stead of the true God the god of this world our bellies as if made to eat and end our backs as if true happinesse did consist in soft raiment Our lusts as if my mind to me a Kingdome it is this vice and none but this makes me take quid pro quo falshood for truth shadowes for substances and what now for all to come while I harbour this harlotary vice I cannot but commit the evill of sin yet this is the vice leaves me not so much wit as to dread the evill of punishment This is it hath made me resolve upon it * The Avowry to beg of God to bestow upon me saving knowledge able to expell out of my soul dammable Ignorance which if left in the heart behinde it is impossible to deliver us from Evill The Contemplation O how do I see in the Idea of my enlightned understanding how my standing guilty of sin petitions to have me punished Had this punishment been bodily sensen of pain my pains and griefs had been more senfible than they are Now as yet that my body scapes let me not conceit all 's exempt from punishment nor yet while God spares * The body part that part doth acquit the whole O poor soul shalt thou live in me and there be no more love in me to thee let me be sensible of a something goes beyond sense and bear it in mind there 's soul punishment as hereafcer in hell so here on earth There 's a net set Temptation and soul 's led into Temptation an evill one Sin and it 's to be feared soul will be delivered up to evill How is my soul catcht in * Actuall evill that tortured by * Temptation this it hath faln soul and fared full ill * Evill intrapt and stript My sin occasioned my insnaring and to go still on in sin that 's my judgement To be guilty of sin causes my summons still to run on This my punishment which the lesse man mindes the more is his misery and the sooner he suffers and suffers and doth it not astonish The world is grown carelesse of that we ought to have the greatest care Who is he doth care for souls ill fare we sin yet doe not dream to go on in sin is to go down to execution That we are sinfull men all grant This we pray against is falling again into sin The first fals out by natures fault that we are sinners The last fals out by Gods judgement That still we walk in the counsell of the ungodly When I consider of this me thinks I see How misetable is man by Adam How miserable his sin commit hath made him For Adams sin man 's to be arraigned for a felon For mans own sinfull works it is God who suffers man to be led into that strong hold Temptation and delivered up to evill Hels pains is the fruit of all sins * That is to be led into temptation This the effect of mans foregoing sin for which first Adam was to be blamed for which second my self and none else living nor yet doth God enforce man to sin but mans originall sin frees God for delivering man from actuall Evill O the thought of this strikes like a dagger to the heart and may make the best of us have bleeding souls and consciences To meditate on it God's not tyed to relieve us to deliver us when I know what already I am guilty of drawes down a doom to sin the sense of my bad deserts shall bring me every day to my knees and make me beg of God as for my self so for all our Lords leige people that he would not lead us into Temptation but deliver us from Evill The Reasons ANd now if you do well consider all the waies I was to walk thorow I nothing doubt but you will grant I have made as much hast as did the Israelites in their passage through the Red sea The Preface is past The third part of our Lords Prayer the Petitions perused the Reasons next suceed of which not much yet a few words with your leaves upon which give me leave to descant in short then discourse at large as it were first to run division after to end with plain song The last clause in the third * In earth as it is in heaven petition may so you please be read at end of every of the first three petitions And these three Reasons may likewise satisfie for that superplus And do as much service to every of these three last petitions And thus Christ * By in earth as it is in heaven before hath set us down a platform for
The Avowry I am resolved by the help of my God to raise up my spirituall fortifications lest sinfull lust in his march make an havock and as he is entred in so utterly overthrow all in this isle of man 3. Case The third Case How may I be sure of it I have stood out and resisted the evill of Temptation Three waies 1. If thou flie from it thy departure doth depose thou hast got the better our gallants say to stand to it is manlike the gracious they say to betake thee to thy heels and run from harm catching by temptation is Saint-like and that thou maist count such counsell no disgrace this is given in charge by Generall Paul 1 Cor. 6.18 Flee fornication A Saint-like retreat from fin makes me a Soveraign over all the unruly passions of my soul 2. Thou shalt be sure thou hast triumpht by causing thy temptation to give ground and by laying load on it and cudgelling it with Scriptum est or sio dixit Dominus 3. Resistit qui non consentit he resists who never consents who if so weak he cannot run from the temptation or it so strong he cannot force it in the field to flye yet know 't good Christian thy stand out against it saith thou hast quit thy self like a man and let it be as a cordiall to comfort thy wounded conscience And now to comprise all in a line I am resolved either my self to depart from the evill of Temptation The Avowry with the Collect. or else by the aid of my God to make it depart and in haste from me or however by Gods good assistance not to assent but to stand out in the day of triall We stand need of two graces The Graces two to put up this petition Timidity Prospicacity Timidity or a religious fear Prospicacity or a quick divine foresight Timidity to walk on warily Prospicacity to look to our waies Timidity which doubts the danger Prospicacity which spies it out when we have faln into it It is Timidity sees nought yet fears all It is Prospicacity sees all that occasions all the fear I am resolved to pray my God to give me those two Graces The Avowry with the Collect. both to fear and to cast an eye all over and all to prevent I be not led into Temptation but delivered from Evill Timidicies Character The first Grace given here in Commendum is Timidity which what is it but a godly fear let this grace though no Anabaptist be again Christned and thus cal'd Godly fear this godly fear is no coward yet recoyles no dastand yet dare not wil not on without mature deliberation like the Ram it runs back to give the bigger blow and for a time staies the sooner to stint the war This is the Grace bids fear the worst though it hope the best and forecasts what may happen and weighs the end ere got half way This Grace bids us hold and not be too bold to beware what perill may ensue if we accept of the proster and if such be our works seriously to consider what will be the end of those things It is this godly fear keeps back Gods childe from laying hands on the Devils * Mat. 4. All this wil I give thee Donative and makes him doubt to take lest he lose by getting and shun the greeny shade since sometimes it hath sheltred a poysonous snake yea forbear to taste of the fruit so pleasant to the sight since that sense may be deceived and the purchase be Edens Apple O sins proffers are more pleasant than profitable and seem to content when kill they allure but delude Now this it is hath made me resolve upon it whatsoever pleasing dalliance The Avowry sin motions to my soul to beg of God this Grace Godly Fear for fear I be undone by being led into Temptation Prospicacity or a quick divine foresight is the grace I stand need of Prospicatities Character to be delivered from evill I mean not from the evill of sin but evill of punishment that I fell into or ever I foresaw the other this grace inables me to foresee that I fall not into it I stand in need then of this Grace not so much to discover the income as the end of evill evill hath overtaken all of us and actual evill foresight is out of use and hath no part of imployment about preventing actuated evill already past and committed That then which this grace serves to inform us poor captive Samsons of it is this what wages we shall have payed for grinding in the Philistims common mill of Evill the work was sin and the wages must be death * Sin and Death both these this grace spies the one nigh hand the other a life time off This grace is the eye of the soul and lets us see though a farre off Dives in torments as Dives did Lazarus in Abrahams bosome It eyes as what hath hapned so what is hasting on it stands upon the tower of Jehoram and is the watch man discovers deaths approach Gods wrath and Tophet prepared of old lo the one forewarns and fore armes which strengthens me by the power of my God to take the main pillar of the Philistims * Sin house in my armes and endevour to pull it down before my dying and all lest I fall into the same condemnation though this grace cannot undoe what done yet this foresight sets me to work to take the water-work of * Sin Mera lest my soul be drowned in the deluge of damnation as the Egyptians bodies were in the Red Sea And now since this grace is of this use to discover what harm approaching and by this discovery is able to strengthen our hands to prevent a new supply from joyning with the train-band of sin This is it hath made me resolve upon it to petition the * God King for supply of this grace The Avowry which is of an heavenly force and able to deliver us from evill Two Vices are here prohibited The Vices two Presumption Ignorance Presumption which fears nought Their Parallel Ignorance which knowes nought Presumption as forward as wise Ignorance as blinde as forward It 's that first hath more heart than wit This second more will than can The one leads us on to be intrapt in the Ambush Temptation The other delivers us up into the main battle Evill It is this hath made me resolve upon it The Avowry to beg of God to free me from presumption and ignorance and for this cause in chief that I be not led into Temptation but delivered from Evill Presumptions Character This Vice Pesumption is of an higher spirit than wit comes out like a Worthy but proves a weakling it fears nought though hath no defence and thinks it can bear off all the blowes of Temptation when the blast of an evill thought is able to blow it over a Vice lays us open
warned the Jewes to have a care of this when said to them Think not to say within your selves here 's provision taken against an open assault and a small skirmish O that this care were had over our bodies and sould then we might play at foiles and not receive so many disgracefull vinnies The Avowry I am resolved to have an eye all over and to stand upon my guard * Head to the foot a capo pe since required to take heed to the least harm carching in the incounter Now see what it is we pray for Deliverance from evill I will not divide Deliverance from Evill since Evill without Deliverance delivers us up to death Let us tye these two a good and a bad together and though the wolves guts being placed nigh the sheeps tharmes fret them all to pirces yet it 's my hopes this Innocent shal have the better of that Malefactor and that the nigher Deliverance makes his approach the suddenner downfall will betide Evill Let us team then these two together as Samson did his foxes to burn up the land of the Philistims But to save from spoil the * Soul land of israel 1. I mean let us treat upon Deliverance and Evill conjunctim our Deliverance from Evill 2. Then upon Evill all alone First these two Devill and sin are comprehended under this one only word Evill from which we pray for Deliverance to deliver us from Evill and what to deliver and us and from these thus named This sewes us Note the Devill and sin are our worst of enemies that abroad this at home that without doors this within doors that the prince of the aire this which we heir from Adam and earths in us and dwels in us in our bodies in our souls These two seek the destruction of our souls and bodies Whoso hears the cry of the Crocodile immediately he is a dead body O fear not him can kill the body but these can kill both body and soul Let me count of these for foes who are of force to be my undoing the undoing of all me and for ever Secondly what worse enemies than these which are alwaies at oddes with us Earthly enemies are not ever in action take sometimes truce with us the truth is these two never take truce no not a minute a moment Devill his daily journey is to compasse the earth and all to make us hellish proselytes Sin like the Sun is in continuall motion like the fountain ever bubling Hence saith our Saviour Why do thoughts arise and you shall see what arise and turn to Mar. 7.21 Streams of waters of Mara and amin and so many able to drown the Israel of God as the Red sea all the host of the Egyptians Thirdly it is the Devill and sin seek to destroy unum unitatem not only this or that person but the species Hist the whole kinde and posterity of Adam Nero wisht all Rome had but one head that so with one blow he might be their utter overthrow what he wisht these have wrought even all our overthrowes The Mirandillian Butchery the Parisian Mattens the Sicilian Evensong fall all far short of that these two have complotted acted against Adam and all us his off-spring And honce issues out my ill conceit against the Devill and sin Yea their hate to our kinde The Collect their continuall hate which stretches out its limits beyond this life to deprive us of a life everlastign this foul fact of these two hath made me resolve upon it to repair to those three to the trine Unity or Trinity in unity all to put up to them this petition Lord lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evill Let us now go take notice from what we desire deliverance it is from Evill By which word Evill you have heard is meant the Devill and Sin this is their style nones else That I note is Note nought is more evill than the Devill and Sin 1. For antiquity sio fuit a principie ever since Devill was a Devill and sin sin these have been evill 2. For spite or malice know you not devill makes God out of love with us and sin us out of love with Gods Law 3. For Complots the Devils device to harm Job and sins insinuation to bring Ananias to his end reveal they are horrible evill 4. The Devils Epithites the evill spirit the unclean spirit Mat. 12. and sins effect By one man came sin and by sin death make me give them this title Evill and deservedly I am resolved The Avowry since this they are to beware yea to watch and ward over my heat lest my heart admit of acquaintance with these two foul fiends the Devill and sin The Cases of Conseience now next come in and they be three The first whereof is this I. Case after what manner doth Lust and Concupiscence temps us to fin or intice or draw us on from serving God to become the servants of sin This is the hardest thing in the world to discover and therefore much pains must be taken to compleat an answer satisfactory Such a serious subject as this is slighting of it is unseemly and the Orator should be as ill thought of Hist as Alexander thought of Cherillus who gave him money to hold his peace 1. It is and for this cause that I am resolved first to demonstrate how lust effects this feat by a simile 2. To make the point more perspicuous I purpose God willing to describe lusts sick daies march through the heart of man and all to captivate poor foul and take the Man prisoner and lead him into that strong hold call'd Temptation First this may be made appear by a Simile drawn from flowers how lust or concupiscence entices or draws man on to sin You know there passes from flowers a subtle vapour which the sense of smelling drawes in and which drawes away the sense with delight after it So lust which sprung up in the Garden of Eden after Eve had finned from it as from a flower passes a subtle vapour of evill thoughts And as the sent of the flower goes on by the organ of smell into the brain so a sent of lusts even evill thoughts are carryed by that organ the common sense into the heart And as the delightfull smell makes us in love with the subtle vapour so the pleasures of lusts make us affect the vapours of evill which come from lust Nor are those evill vapours a few but full many apparent by those already quoted words of Christ Luk. 24. Why do thoughts arise in your hearts These are infectious vapours and more dangerous to the soul than fenny mists to the body if not scattered and blown a way by Gods Spirit they poyson soul and cast understanding will and memory the souls publick Notary into Feaver sits This is it hath made me resolve upon it The Avowry to beg of the good gardiner God
grant of the fift petition to keep us from prison spoke of Mat. 5. This is the argument and with such a good nature as our good God it will work The third pair is the third Petition 3. Pair and the third Reason Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from evill This is the third petition concerns us for thine is the glory that 's our Reason to perswade Gods subsigning How well are these matcht * Intimated in the sixt Petition fear of captivity and * Intimated in the last Reason ensured triumph shame and confusion of face and all honour and laud and praise we weaklings who stand in jeopardy and that worthy who by relieving the distrest enlarges his glory Their Embleme is the Forlorn hope The sixt Petition and the last Reasons Embleme and their down-bearing Generall come to relieve them or if you like it not The three hundred Lappers by all like-i lihood destinated to dye and Gideon their noble Captain by the help of whom they did escape and conquer The first is the Semblance of the evill likely to betide us imported in this last petition The other of our God and his renown and glory Our state we stand in is very dangerous This is the argument used tol gain Gods grant of the sixt Petition Thy renowned glory shall yet be made more glorious by our deliverance yea to thee for the deliverance of us shall be given all honour laud and glory This is the argument and with such a good nature as our good God it will work Again cast your eyes upon the three last Petitions and these three Reasons for now that I have cul'd them out by couples I mean to put them into a file of four And to make up my first file The three last Petitionsand the Reasons put into a file of four I must go place together the first of the last three Petitions and the three Reasons Then the second and the three over once more Then the third and the three the third time The first file These are of it The first is this Petition Give us this day our daily Bread The second is the first Reason For thine is the Kingdome The third is the second Reason the Power The fourth is the third Reason and Glory Their discourse 1. The Petition prayes God to supply wants bodily 2. The Reasons second the suit and avouch there is cause To give what we aske Since we are in * Poverty indigency and thou hast it for a Kingdome and canst it for of Power and gettest by it the Glory These three Reasons are the three men at Armes which cry of on our Generalissimo God to subsigne what prayed for in the Petition The effect of the discourse There is hopes of an happy issue of the suite for bodily necessaries since these are met for the good of us And it 's said When two or three be gathered together God will be in the midst of them to hear them The second file These are of it The second of the last three Petitions and these three Reasons reranged here are all our old souldiers all I say save one which is this Petition Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us Second third and fourth are the three Reasons For thine is the Kingdome For thine is the Power For thine is the Glory Their discourse The Petition prayes God to forgive us our sins and trespasses The Reasons second the suit and vow there is Reason for God to doe what we desire Since we stand need of thy forgivenesse who hast enough for a Kingdome canst forgive for of power gettest by forgiving the Glory These three Reasons are the three men at Armes which cry on our Generalissimo God to subsign what prayed for in the Petition The effect of their discouse There is hopes of an happy issue of the suit for remission of sin since these three are met for the good of us And it 's said When two or three be gathered together God will be in the midst of them to consider of their suit The third file These are of it The third of the last three Petitions and it is the last of all the Petitions The three Reasons come in as incessantly weary to make up this broken file Here 's all our old souldiers all save one which is this Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from evill The other three are the three Reasons have been twice in action By name Kingdome Power Glory Their discourse The Petition prayes God not to lead us into Temptation but deliver us from Evill The Reasons second the suite and vows there is reason for it Let us not be delivered captive up to the world flesh or Devill Since thou hast enow to rescue for a Kingdome sull canst deliver for of Power and since the lesse thou lettest us be led into Temptation the more is thy renown and Glory These are the three men at armes which cry on our Generalissimo God to subsign what prayed for in the Petition The effect of the discourse There is hopes of an happy issue out of all our Temptations and a free deliverance from them since these three are met together for the good of us And it is said where two or three be gathered together God wil be in the midst of them to sign their Petitions The third thing to be done is to take into consideration the perpetuity of Gods Kingdome Power Glory intimated in the word Ever yea it is this Ever hath set me this task truthis Iwant eyes to look back and view the beginning or ending of any one of these * Kingdome Power Glory three And yet we are cal'd on to cast an eye back upon both their beginning and ending and to look at those three as farre as our sight is able to reach and that a Parte ante Parte post And first a parte ante fuit ab initio Pegnum Potestas Gloria Thy Kingdome Power and Glory have been from the beginning what can I compare these to and not impair their perpetuity They are of standing with the Trinity of their year before the Heavens were saith God I was and then these were thy Kingdome Power Glory We have matcht them with him owns them and they are his and with him were from all eternity Gods Kingdome is from everlasting Dan. 3. His power is of no lesse length for that named the strength of his arm And Manasses prayer proclaims his glory hath been and forever A gradation And thus he had a Kingdome or the world was laid or its foundation and power or he shewed his power in casting down from heaven the proud Luciferian fry and Glory or ever an Angell could tune his voice to sing a Gloria patri or an Hallelujah Ask the daies of old they will tell you these three are their elder brothers and as they are thus anciently descended