teach us First To admire his Infinite Condescension and our own unspeakable Privilege and Dignity 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God Indeed for God to be a Father by Creation and Providence though it be a Mercy yet is no Privilege for in that Sence he is Parens Rerum the common Parent of all things yea the Father of Devils themselves and of those Wretches who are as wicked and shall be as miserable as Devils But that God should be thy Father by Regeneration and Adoption that he should make thee his Son through his only begotten Son that he should rake up such dirt and filth as thou art and lay it in his Bosom that he should take Aliens and Strangers near unto himself and Adopt Enemies and Rebels into his Family Register their Names in the Book of Life make them Heirs of Glory Co-heirs with Jesus Christ his Eternal Son as the Apostle admiringly recounts it Rom. 8.17 This is both Mercy and Miracle together Secondly It should teach us to walk worthy of this High and Honourable Relation into which we are taken and to demean our selves as Children ought to do in all Holy Obedience to his Commands with Fear and Reverence to his Authority and an Humble Submission to his Will This God Challengeth at our hands as being our Father Mal. 1.6 If I be a Father where is mine Honour and 1 Pet. 1.17 If we call on the Father pass the time of your sojourning here in fear And likewise by giving thee leave to Style him by this Name of Father he puts thee in remembrance that thou shouldst endeavour by a Holy Life and Conversation to be like thy Father and so approve it to thine own Conscience and to all others that thou art indeed a Child a Son of God Thirdly Is God thy Father this then may give us abundance of assurance that we shall receive at his hands what we ask if it be good for us and if it be not we have no reason to complain that we are not heard unless he should turn our Prayers into Curses And this very Consideration seems to be the reason why our Saviour chooseth this among all God's Titles and Attributes to prefix before this Prayer and indeed it is the most proper Name by which we can Style God in our Prayers unto him for this Name of Father emboldens Faith and is as a Pledge and Pawn before hand that our requests shall be heard and granted and therefore our Saviour for the Confirmation of our Faith argues very strongly from this very Title of Father Matth. 7.9 10 11. What Man is there of you whom if his Son ask him for Bread will he give him a Stone or if he ask a Fish will he give him a Serpent If ye then being evil know how to give good things when your Children ask them how much more shall my Father give good things to them that ask him Indeed it is a most encouraging Argument for if the Bowels of an Earthly Parent who yet many times is humorous and whose tenderest Mercies are but Cruelties in respect of God If his Compassions will not suffer his Children to be defeated in their reasonable and necessary requests how much less will God who is Love and Goodness it self and who hath inspired all Parental Affections into other Fathers suffer his Children to return ashamed when they beg of him those things which are most agreeable to his Will and to their Wants What dost thou then O Christian complaining of thy Wants and sighing under thy Burthens Is not God thy Father Go and boldly lay open thy Case unto him his Bowels will certainly rowl and yern towards thee Is it Spiritual Blessings thou wantest spread thy requests before him for as he is thy Father so he is the God of all Grace and will give unto thee of his fullness for God loves that his Children should be like him Or is it Temporal Mercies thou wantest why he is thy Father and he is the Father of Mercies and the God of all Comfort And why shouldst thou go so dejected and disconsolate who hast a Father so able and so willing to relieve and supply thee only beware that thou askest not Stones for Bread nor Scorpions for Fish and then ask what thou wilt for thy good and thou shalt receive it Fourthly Is God thy Father This then may encourage us against Despair under the sense of our manifold sins against God and departures from him For he will certainly receive us upon our repentance and returning to him This very apprehension was that which wrought upon the Prodigal Luke 15.8 I will arise and go to my Father The Consideration of our own guilt and vileness without the Consideration of God's infinite Mercy tends only to widen the breach between him and us for those that are altogether hopeless will sin the more implacably and bitterly against God like those the Prophet mentions Jerem. 2.25 That said there was no hope and therefore they would persist in their wickedness But now to consider that God is our Father and that though we have cast off the Duty and Obedience of Children yet upon our Submission he will bid us welcom and instate us again in his Favour this to the ingenious Spirit of a Christian is a sweet and powerful motive to reduce him from his wandering and straying for it will work both upon his shame and upon his hope Upon his shame that ever he should offend so Gracious a Father and upon his hope that those offences shall be forgiven him through that very Mercy that he hath abused Thus we read Jerem. 3.4 5. Wilt thou not henceforth cry unto me My Father thou art the Guide of my youth Will he reserve his Anger for ever will he keep it unto the end Noting that when we plead with God under the winning Name of Father his Anger cannot long last but his Bowels of Mercy will at last overcome the sentiments of his Wrath and Justice And thus much concerning the endearing Title of Father which our Saviour directs us to use in our Prayers unto God Secondly The next thing observable is the Particle Our Our Father which notes to us that God is not only the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ but he is the Father of all Men. He is the Father of all by Creation and Providence And therefore we have the Interrogation Mal. 2.10 Have we not all one Father Hath not one God Created us But he is especially the Father of the Faithful by Regeneration and Adoption who are born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God John 1.13 This therefore should teach us First To esteem one another as Brethren Outward respects the Grandeur and Earthly Priviledges and Advantages of the World make no disparity in God's Love to us or in our Relation to
and centre of it it being encompassed round about with Petitions for Heavenly and Spiritual Blessings And this may intimate to us that we are only to bait at the World in our Passage and Journey to Heaven that we ought to begin with Spirituals and end with Spirituals but only to take up and refresh our selves a little with our daily Bread in our way Thirdly In the Doxology or Praise there are Four things contained First God's Sovereignty Thine is the Kingdom Secondly God's Omnipotency And the Power Thirdly God's Excellency And the Glory Fourthly The Eternity and Unchangableness of them and of all God's other Attributes noted to us in that Expression For ever Fourthly and Lastly Here is the ratifying Particle Amen added as a Seal to the whole Prayer and it importeth a desire to have that confirmed or granted which we have prayed for And thus Benaiah when he had received Instructions from David concerning the establishing of Solomon in the Kingdom answereth thereto Amen and explains it 1 Kings 1.36 The Lord God of my Lord the King say so too So that when we add this Word Amen at the end and close of our Prayers it is as much as if we had said the Lord God say so too or the Lord grant these Requests For the proper signification of Amen is so be it or so it is or so it shall be the former notes our Desires the latter our confidence and assurance of being heard Now of all these Four parts of which this Prayer is composed I shall speak in their order First therefore Let us consider the Preface in these Words Our Father which art in Heaven And here God is described by two of his most eminent Attributes his Grace and Glory his Goodness and his Greatness by the one in that he is stiled Our Father by the other in that he is said to be in Heaven And both these are most sweetly tempered together to beget in us a Holy Mixture of Filial Boldness and aweful Reverence which are so necessary to the sanctifying of God's Name in all our Addresses to him We are commanded to come to the Throne of Grace with boldness Heb. 4.16 and yet to serve God acceptably with reverence and with fear Heb. 12.28 Yea and indeed the very calling of it a Throne of Grace intimates both these Affections at once It is a Throne and therefore requires Awe and Reverence but it is a Throne of Grace too and therefore permits holy Freedom and Confidence And so we find all along in the Prayers of the Saints how they mix the consideration of God's Mercy and his Majesty together in the very Prefaces and Preparations to their Prayers So Neh. 1.5 Lord God of Heaven the great and terrible God that keepeth Covenant and Mercy for them that love him So Dan. 9.4 O Lord the great and dreadful God keeping Covenant and Mercy for them that love him Now this excellent mixture of aweful and encouraging Attributes will keep us from both the Extreams of Despair on the one Hand and of Presumption on the other He is our Father and this may correct the despairing Fear which might otherwise seize us upon the consideration of his Majesty and Glory And he is likewise infinitely Glorious a God whose Throne is in the highest Heavens and the Earth his Foot-stool And this may correct the presumptuous irreverence which else the consideration of God as our Father might perhaps embolden us unto Now here I shall first speak of the Relation of God unto us as a Father and then of the Place of his Glory and Residence in Heaven and of both but briefly for I must not dwell upon every particular First To begin with the Relation of God to us as a Father Now God is a Father Three ways First God is a Father by Eternal Generation Secondly By Temporal Creation and Providence Thirdly By Spiritual Regeneration and Adoption First God is a Father by Eternal Generation having by an inconceivable and ineffable way begotten his Son God Co-equal Co-eternal with himself and therefore called The only begotten Son of God Joh. 3.16 Thus God is a Father only to our Lord Jesus Christ according to his Divine Nature And whensoever this Title Father is given to God with relation to the Eternal Sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ it denotes only the First Person in the ever Blessed Trinity who is therefore chiefly and especially called the Father Secondly God is a Father by Temporal Creation as he gives a Being and Existence to his Creatures creating those whom he made Rational after his own Image and Similitude And therefore God is said to be a Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 And the Angels are called the Sons of God Job 1.6 There was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And so Adam upon the account of his Creation is called the Son of God Luke 3.38 where the Evangelist runs up the Genealogy of Mankind till it terminates in God Who was the Son of Adam who was the Son of God Thirdly God is said to be a Father by Spiritual Regeneration and Adoption and so all true Believers are said to be the Sons of God and to be born of God John 1.12 13. To as many as received him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God even to as many as believed on his Name which were born not of the will of Man but of God So Rom. 8.17 we are said to receive the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father For the Spirit it self witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Children of God Now in these two last Significations this Expression Our Father which art in Heaven is to be understood and so they denote not any one particular Person of the Blessed Trinity but it is a relative Attribute belonging equally to all the Three Persons God is the Father of all Men by Creation and Providence and he is especially the Father of the Faithful by Regeneration and Adoption Now as these Actions of Creation Regeneration and Adoption are common to the whole Trinity so likewise is the Title of Father God the first Person in the Blessed Trinity is indeed Eminently called the Father but not in respect of us but in respect of Christ his only begotten Son from all Eternity In respect of us the whole Trinity is our Father which is in Heaven both Father Son and Holy Ghost and in praying to our Father we pray to them all joyntly for Christ the Second Person in the Trinity is expresly called the Father Isa 9.6 Vnto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and his Name shall be called Wonderful Councellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father And we are said to be born of the Spirit John 3.5 Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit Now that God should be pleased to take this into his Glorious Style even to be called Our Father it may
Righteousness through whom alone Pardon of our sins is to be obtained Sixthly and lastly We pray that we may be brought over to close with the Lord Jesus Christ by a lively Faith that his Righteousness thereby may be made ours and we by that Righteousness may obtain Pardon of our sins and an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified For though Pardon be procured by the Death of Christ yet the Application of it to the Soul is only by Faith uniting us unto him and making us one with him For all that Christ hath either done or suffered for the Redemption of the World would be altogether in vain as to our particular benefit and advantage were it not that Faith entitles us unto it and makes that satisfaction which he hath given to Divine Justice to be Mystically our Act as it was Personally his And thus I have considered the Petition it self Forgive us our Debts I now proceed to the Condition or Plea annexed As we forgive our Debtors And here we have First the Act Forgive Secondly The Object Debtors Thirdly The limitation of this Object our Debtors Fourthly The proportion or resemblance in the Particle as As we forgive our Debtors I shall begin with the Object Debtors As all Men stand indebted to God in a Two-fold Debt a Debt of Obedience and a Debt of Punishment So one Man may be a Debtor to another two ways either by owing to him a Debt of Duty or else a Debt of Satisfaction First Some Men stand indebted to others in a Debt of Duty And indeed I might well have said this Debt is reciprocal between Man and Man Thus Children owe Parents Reverence and Obedience and Parents their Children Provision and Education Subjects owe their Magistrates Honour and Tribute and Magistrates owe their Subjects Justice and Protection Servants owe their Masters Fear Diligence and Faithfulness and Masters owe their Servants Maintenance and Encouragement And generally all Men owe one another Love Respect and Kindness Now these Debts cannot balance one another that as much as is left unpaid me by any person so much again I may refuse to pay him If a Father pay not his Debt to his Child or a Magistrate to his Subject or a Master to his Servants they are not hereby acquitted of their Obligations but still Duty Obedience and Faithfulness is required from Inferiours to their Superiours And so on the contrary Love Protection and Maintenance is required from Superiours to their Inferiours although peccant as long as the Relation shall continue between them And the reason is because we are bound to these Duties not only by the Obligations that mutual Offices lay upon us but by God's express Will and Command and the performance of the Relations that is betwixt us And therefore though it be Lawful for two Persons that owe one another an equal Debt of Money or other such like things to cross out one Debt by the other and so discount it betweem them Yet it is not so where the Duties that God requires are the Debts they owe to each other for although others may fail in the performance of what belongs to their part yet thou oughtest not to fail in thine for thus to be even with Men is to run in Debt with God and to make him thy Creditor who will certainly be thy Revenger And from hence it appears that this is not the Debt that we are to forgive our Debtors for we have no power to release them from their Obligation to Duty whilst the Relation between us continues no more than we have to rescind the Laws of God and of Nature Secondly Some Men may stand indebted to others in a Debt of Satisfaction as they owe them reparation on good grounds for wrongs and injuries done against them and this is the Debt which we are to forgive others Now as wrongs and injuries are of divers sorts so many divers ways may others become Debtors to us And they are chiefly these Six that follow First By wronging us in our persons either by unjust Violence or by unjust Restraints Thus the Persecuting Jews were Debtors to the Apostles and Disciples of Christ for often Scourging and Imprisonieg them Secondly By wronging us in our Place and Dignity and in the Office to which by God's Providence we are called And so also those that vilifie the persons and detract from the Authority of those that are set over them become their Debtors Thus Aaron and Miriam were Debtors unto Moses for traducing the Authority that God had committed unto him Numb 12.2 Thirdly By wronging us in our Friends and Relations either by corrupting them Thus Sechem became a Debtor to Jacob and his Sons for violating his Daughter and their Sister Or else by destroying them So Herod to the Bethlemitish Mothers by murdering their Children Fourthly By wronging us in our Right and Title with-holding from us what is our due Fifthly In our Possessions when either by Force or Fraud they take from us what of Right belongs to us Sixthly And lastly in our Reputation and good Name unjustly defaming us for those Crimes which only their Malice hath invented and published against us To all these wrongs we are subject God permitting the wickedness of Men a large scope to vent it self and affording us a large field to Exercise our meekness and forgiving temper in each of these But withal if those who in any of these or any other particulars do wrong their Brethren are by the Sentence of our Saviour here pronounced Debtors this should teach them to look upon themselves as obliged to make satisfaction according to the utmost of their Power and Ability Thou therefore who art Conscious to thy self of wronging any either in their Persons or Dignities or Relations or Rights or Possessions or Reputations Though it be thy Duty to confess it before God and humble thy self to him for it begging Mercy and Pardon at his hands Yet this is not enough for by one single offence thou hast contracted a double Debt thou standest indebted to the Justice of God for the Violation of his Law But this is not all but thou standest in Debt unto Man likewise by injuries done against him and both thy Creditors must be satisfied God by the Righteousness of Christ through thy Faith and Repentance and Man by an Acknowledgment Reparation and Restitution The Apostle hath commanded us Rom. 13.8 To owe no Man any thing but to love one another And indeed Satisfaction for Wrongs is a necessary part of Repentance for he that truly Repents doth really and from his heart wish that the Wrong had never been done and therefore will be sure to do his utmost to annihilate the fault by giving the abused Party a compensation fully answerable to the injury and to the utmost of his Ability restore him into the same or a better Condition than that in which he was before he received the Wrong Therefore First Art thou Conscious to thy self that
into the filth and pollution of it for the future Of the Pardon of Sin I have already largely treated in the foregoing Petition The Deliverance from Evil which we here pray for is by preventing it for the future And whereas we are taught by our Saviour to beg this of God our Heavenly Father we may observe that it is only the Almighty Power of God that can keep us from Sin and that will appear if we consider either our Enemies or our selves First Consider the mighty Advantages that our great Enemy the Devil hath against us As he is a Spirit he is both powerful and subtile and both these are whetted by his great Malice against us long experience also for above five thousand years hath made him very politick in dealing with Souls and carrying on his own designs and interest He knows our temper our passions and our inclinations and can chuse and cull out those Objects which shall infallibly strike and affect us he waits those Mollia tempora fandi those easie hours of whispering his suggestions to us when we are most facile and compliant when we are most easily wrought upon and made soft to his hands by some foregoing circumstances And if after all this he despairs to prevail upon us as a Devil he can quickly shift his shape and transform himself into an Angel of Light and engage our very Consciences unto evil he can disguise his Temptations into impulses of the Holy Spirit perswade us that what he prompts us to is our Duty head his fiery Darts with Scripture Sentences wrap up his Poison in the leaves of the Bible and wound our Souls by our Consciences and certainly this Devil of Light is now gone abroad into the World with all that Power of Deceivableness he can and we cannot but with sad and bleeding Hearts observe his too general prevalency and success And besides all this he is continually present with us follows us up and down where ever we go and is always at our Elbow to prompt us to Evil and at our Right Hand to oppose us in that which is Good Hell hath Emissaries enough to afford every Man a Friend for his Attendant and these critically observe every glance of thine Eyes every flash of thy Passions and are presently ready to apply suitable Temptations unto thee and to strike thee in that part of thy Soul which is softest and most yielding And as the Syrians that were sent by Benhadad to the King of Israel to intercede for him watched every Word that should fall from his Mouth that they might lay hold of it to obtain farther Favour from him So these Spies of Hell do watch every kind Word and every kind look of thine towards Sin and want no skill to improve them to obtain yet greater matters from thee Now if God did not appear to deliver us from these subtle Wiles and Methods of the Devil how soon would he make Fools of the wisest and most experienced Christians Secondly Consider the mighty Dis-advantages that we lie under to oppose the Temptations of the Devil which though they be many and great yet I shall name but two which may be found even in the best of Men. First Our inadvertency and heedlessness through which we are often surprized into Sin and captivated by the cunning craftiness of our Enemies which lie in wait to deceive How seldom is it that we stand upon our Guard or if we do that we are compleatly armed Sometimes our Shield sometimes our Helmets sometimes our Sword of the Spirit is wanting How seldom is it that we attend all the Motions of the Enemy Indeed a Christian should look round about him for he is every where beset and encompassed about with Enemies and whilst he is vigilant to ward one part the Devil falsifies his thrust and wounds him in another but if he cannot wound on the Right Hand by Presumption he will try what he can do on the Left by Despair if he cannot prevail by his Temptations to cause us to neglect and cast off Holy Duties he will Tempt us to Pride our selves in the well performing of them if he cannot make us fall he will Tempt us to be high-minded because we stand and so make our very standing the occasion of our woful downfall and because we are apt to think our selves better than others he will Tempt us to be supercilious Despisers and Contemners of others Now O Christian it is a very hard matter and thou wilt find it so thus to turn thee about to every Assault and that Man had need to have his Spiritual Senses well exercised that shall be able dextrously to do it Now when so great circumspection is scarce sufficient for our security how can they possibly escape without fearful Wounds and Gashes in their Consciences who are supinely negligent of their Souls and mind not which way their Thoughts their Passions their Affections encline and so give the Devil a Handle to turn their Souls by which way he will Certainly if we do not buckle our Spiritual Armour close to us but suffer the joynts of it by our heedlessness to lie open the Devil may easily wound us wheresoever and in whatsoever part he pleaseth And truly if through this inadvertency and want of circumspection Adam in the State of Innocency and the State of Uprightness fell when the Devil had no immediate access or admission into the inward Faculties and Powers of his Soul yet if Satan who was but a young unpractised and unexperienced Devil could prevail with him by his Wiles to ruine himself and to betray the great Trust which God had deposited in his Hands for all his Posterity How much greater may we think is his Advantage over us into whom he may insinuate himself and his Temptations and when we are busie about other things strike and wound us at unawares Secondly Besides this inadvertency the Devil hath another grand Advantage to lead us into Evil and that is because we are naturally prone and enclined of our selves to those very Sins to which he Tempts us It is very hard for that place to escape that hath Enemies without and Traytors within So stands the case with us we are not only beleaguer'd but betrayed there are in our Hearts multitudes of Lusts that hold intelligence with the Devil and espouse his Cause yea there is no one Sin how vile and profligate soever but it may find Partisans in our base and wicked Hearts wherein are the Seeds and Principles of all Impieties and therefore as things of a like Nature presently concorporate as we see one drop of Water diffuseth it self and runs into another so Temptations to Sin meeting with a sinful Nature are presently entertained and as it were embodyed together for whilst we pursue what Satan Tempts us unto we do but pursue what our own Natural Lusts and Corruptions inclin'd unto before waiting only for an opportunity of being called forth into Act. And therefore
makes to God ought to be ratified with an Amen sent from our very hearts which if we sincerely and affectionately perform we have abundant assurance that what is confirmed by so many suffrages on Earth shall likewise be confirmed by our Father which is in Heaven And how beautiful how becoming would this be when the whole Church shall thus conspire together in their Requests St. Jerome tells us It was the custom in his days to close up every Prayer with such an unanimous consent that their Amens rung and echoed in the Church and sounded like the fall of Waters or the noise of Thunder This would be a Testimony of our hearty consent to the things we Pray for And if any two that shall agree upon Earth touching any thing that they shall ask they shall have it granted them as our Saviour hath promised Matth. 18.19 then certainly the joynt Prayers of a whole multitude of Christians must needs have a kind of Omnipotency in them and be able to do any thing with God And thus I have with God's Assistance given you a brief Exposition of this most excellent Prayer of our Saviour The Lord Sanctifie it unto you and make it a means to help you to Pray with more understanding with stronger Faith and with greater Fervency The End of the Larger Exposition A Catechistical EXPOSITION OF THE Lord's Prayer By way of QUESTION and ANSWER By the Right Reverend Father in God EZEKIEL Lord Bishop of Derry by which he examined the Youth each Lord's-Day during the whole Time he preached upon the Lord's Prayer Quest IS the Lords Prayer a Form of Prayer or onely a Pattern for Prayer Answ It is both That it is to be used as a Form appears Luke 11.2 When ye pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. That it is a Pattern Matt. 6.9 After this Manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven c. Q. What are the Parts of this Prayer A. They are Four 1. The Preface or Introduction 2. The Petitions and Requests 3. The Doxology or Praise-giving 4. The Conclusion and Ratification Q. What is the Preface to this Prayer A. Our Father which art in Heaven Q. What observe you from it A. That in the Beginning of our Prayers we ought seriously to consider and reverently to express the glorious Attributes of God as an excellent Means to compose us into an Holy Fear of his Divine Majesty Q. How many are the Petitions contained in this Prayer A. Six Whereof the three first respect God's Glory and the three last our own Good Q. What learn you from this Order and Method A. That we ought first to seek God's Glory before any Interests and Concerns of our own Q. How are those Petitions divided which immediately concern the Glory of God A. In the first of them we pray that God may be glorified in the other two for the Means whereby he is glorified Q. How divide you those Petitions which concern our own good A. One relates to our Temporal the other two to our Spiritual good Q. What observe you from placing the Petition for our Temporal good in the Midst of this Prayer A. That we are onely to bait at the World in our Passage to Heaven and onely refresh our selves with our daily Bread in our Way and Journey thither Q. What are the Petitions which relate to our Spiritual good A. They are two One whereby we beg the Pardon of our Sins the other whereby we beg Deliverance from them Q. What ascribe you to God in the Doxology A. Four of his most glorious Attributes 1. First His Sovereignty Thine is the Kingdom 2. Secondly His Omnipotence And the Power 3. Thirdly His Excellency And the Glory 4. Fourthly The Eternity and Unchangeableness of all these They are Thine for ever Q. What signifies that Particle Amen at the End of this Prayer A. It signifies two Things So be it Which notes our Desire for the obtaining of what we ask So it shall be Which notes our Assurance of being heard Q. What is the Preface to the Lord's Prayer A. Our Father which art in Heaven Q. What doth this teach us A. That in our Entrance into Prayer we should seriously consider both the Mercy of God as he is our Father and likewise his Majesty as he is in Heaven That the one may beget in us Filial Boldness and the other awfull Reverence and by the mixture of both we may be kept from Despair and Presumption Q. In what Respects may God be stiled Father A. In three especially 1. First in respect of the Eternal Generation of his Son And so this Title is proper onely to the first Person of the Trinity 2. In respect of Creation and Providence and so he is the Father of all Mal. 2.10 Have we not all one Father Hath not one God created us 3. In respect of Regeneration and Adoption And so he is the onely Father of the Faithfull John 1.12.13 But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believed on his Name Which were born not of Blood nor of the VVill of Flesh nor of the VVill of Man but of God Rom. 8.15 16. For ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to Fear But ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God Q. In what Respects do we call God Father in this Prayer A. In the two last As he hath created us and doth preserve us and as he hath regenerated and adopted us Q. When ye stile God the Father do ye mean onely God the Father the first Person of the Trinity A. No. For God the first Person is eminently called the Father not in respect of us but in respect of Christ In respect of us the whole Trinity both Father Son and Holy Ghost is our Father which is in Heaven Isaiah 9.6 For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the Government shall be upon his Shoulder and his Name shall be called Wonderfull Counsellour The Mighty God The Everlasting Father The Prince of Peace John 3.5 Jesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Q. What is implied in this Particle Our Our Father A. That God is the Father of all Men He is the Father of the VVicked by Creation and Providence but especially of the Godly by Regeneration and Adoption Q. Is it proper in our secret Prayers to say Our Father A. It is For so we find Dan. 9.17 Now therefore O our God hear the Prayer of thy Servant and his Supplications and cause thy Face to shine upon thy Sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's Sake Q. What learn we by stiling God our Father A. First to esteem one another as Brethren
or Diseases will What are your Bodies but Cloggs to your Spirit and Prisons to your Souls And certainly those Enemies are not very formidable who when they most think to hurt you only knock off your Clogg or break open your Prison and let your Souls escape to their desired liberty Secondly Our Saviour answers that though they can Kill the body when God permits them yet they cannot so much as touch it without his permission And this he doth in the words of my Text by shewing how punctual and particular God's providence is even over the smallest and those that seem the most trifling occurrences of the World a Sparrow whose price is but mean two of them valued at a Farthing which some make to be the tenth part of a Roman penny and was certainly one of their least Coins whose life therefore is but contemptible and whose flight seems but giddy and at random yet it falls not to the ground neither lights any where without your Father His all-wise providence hath before appointed what bough it shall pitch on what grains it shall pick up where it shall lodge and where it shall build on what it shall live and when it shall die And if your Fathers providence be so Critical about the small concernments even of Sparrows fear not ye for you are of more value than many Sparrows yea of more value than many Men. Our Saviour adds The very hairs of your head are all numbred God keeps an account even of that stringy Excrement He knows how many fall off and the precise number of those that remain and no wonder that he knows the number of our Sins which are far more Hence we learn that God governs the meanest the most inconsiderable and contemptible Occurrences in the World by an exact and particular Providence Do you see thousand little Motes and Atomes wandring up and down in a Sun-beam It is God that so peoples it and he guides their innumerable and irregular strayings Not a Dust flies in a beaten Road but God raiseth it conducts its uncertain motion and by his particular care conveys it to the certain place he had before appointed for it nor shall the most fierce and tempestuous wind hurry it any farther And if God's care and providence reacheth thus to these minute things which are but as it were the circumstances of Nature and little accessaries to the World certainly Man who is the head and Lord of it for whose sake and service other Creatures were formed may very well be confident that God exerciseth an especial and most accurate providence over him and his affairs By this you see what the subject is intended to treat of even the over-ruling and all disposing providence of God not a Sparrow not a hair of your heads falls to the ground without your Father But before I proceed farther I must take notice of two things in the words First That our Saviour speaking here of the providence of God ascribes to him the name of our Father God hath many names and titles attributed unto him in the Scriptures as Father Lord Creator Redeemer Judge King and God But God is a word that denotes his Essence Lord is a title of his Dominion Creator marks out his omnipotence Redeemer commends his Love Judge is a name of fear and astonishment and King is a title of Royal Majesty But this indearing name of Father signifies unto us his providence for from him as from a Father do we expect and receive guidance and government Secondly Whereas nothing comes to pass without our Heavenly Father this may be understood three ways without his permission without his ordination and concurrence without his over-ruling and directing it to his own ends First No evil comes to pass without his permissive providence Secondly No good comes to pass without his ordaining and concurring providence Thirdly Nothing whether good or evil comes to pass without the over-ruling Providence of our Father guiding and directing it to his own ends But concerning this distinction of permissive concurring and over ruling Providence I shall have occasion to speak more hereafter My work at present shall be First To describe unto you what the providence of God is in the general notion thereof Secondly To prove that all affairs and occurrences in the World are guided and governed by Divine Providence Thirdly To answer some puzling questions and doubts concerning the Providence of God and some objections that may be made against it First Let us see what providence is Take it in this description Providence is an Act of God whereby according to his eternal and most wise Counsel he preserves and governs all things and directs them all to their ends but chiefly to his own glory This providence consisteth in two things Preservation and Government of his Creatures First One remarkable Act of the Providence of God is the preservation of his Creatures in their beings He preserves them First In their species and kind by the constant succession of them one after another so that though the individuals of them are mortal and perish yet the species or kind is immortal There is no kind of Creature that was at first made by God but it still continueth to this very day and shall so do to the end of the World And truly it is the wonderful Providence of God thus to perpetuate the Creation that whereas we see an inbred enmity in some sorts of Creatures against others yet his Wisdom so sways their mutual antipathies that none of them shall ever prevail to a total Extirpation and Destruction of the other Secondly He preserves them likewise by his providence in their individual and particular beings while they have a room to fill up and an Office to discharge in the Universe Each Fly and Worm as well as Man who is but the greater Worm of the two hath a work to do in the World and till that be finish'd God sustains its being Nor shall the weakest Creature be destroyed within the prefixed time that God hath set to its duration There are none of us here alive this day but have abundant cause thankfully to acknowledge the powerful and merciful providence of God in preserving us in and rescuing us from many dangers and deaths to which we stood exposed It is only his Visitation that hath hitherto preserved our Spirits and to his never sailing providence we owe it that such frail and feeble Creatures who are liable to be crush'd before the Moth liable to so many diseases and accidents have yet a name among the Living and have not yet failed from off the face of the Earth Secondly As God preserves so he governs all things by his providence and this Government consists in two things Direction of the Creatures actions and distribution of rewards and punishments according to the Actions of his rational Creatures First God by his governing providence directs all the Actions of his Creatures yea and by the secret but efficacious