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
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
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
a Discerner of the Thoughts and intents of the Heart doth strictly prohibit and condemn these callow unfledg'd motions of our Hearts to be Concupiscence the sad effects of Original sin and the fruitful cause of all actual And therefore if we would be delivered from evil we have very great cause first to pray that we be not led into Temptation For some Temptations do almost so inseparably follow one upon another that this will be our best security against those secret desires and wouldings and first smatterings and rudiments of wickedness which else the compliance of our corrupt hearts with Satan's Temptations will certainly betray us unto Hence it is that when God in Scripture frequently dehorts us from sin he extends the prohibition to all Temptations and Occasions of sinning Yea those things which in themselves considered may be lawfully and innocently done by us yet because they may prove Snares and Temptations to us we must as carefully refrain from them as we earnestly desire to keep our selves far from sin And therefore it sufficeth not the Wise Man to command If sinners entice consent thou not Prov. 1.10 but that thou mayest be sure not to consent thou must order thy Actions and Converse so as that thou mayest not be enticed by them in the 15. verse says he Walk not thou in the way with them refrain thy feet from their path And so we have the same Counsel given us by him in another Chapter that we may not be inveagled by the allurements of a strange Woman be sure to avoid all occasions thereof Prov. 5.8 Remove thy way far from her come not near the door of her House And again Prov. 4.14 15. Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil Men avoid it pass not by it turn from it pass away Here is earnestness even to a tautology as some may prophanely think but Sacred Writ can admit of no such thing But there are so many expressions heaped up signifying the same thing only to denote how great the necessity of avoiding Temptations and Occasions to evil is to those who desire to avoid the sin We have treacherous and deceitful hearts within us that have often betrayed us when we have trusted them And I beseech you call to mind when you have emboldned your selves to venture upon Temptations and sinful Occasions being confident and fully resolved not to yield to them Have you not often been surprized and led away Captive contrary to your Hopes contrary to your Intentions contrary to your Resolutions contrary to the vain Confidences with which you were before possess'd Methinks former experience should make you cautious never again to trust those hearts with such opportunities and advantages for wickedness since they have been so often already treacherous and deceitful to us Venture them not therefore upon Temptations for what security have you that a sinful heart will not sin yea and betray you to commit those great abominations which possibly you cannot now think of without horrour and shivering And thus much I thought fit to note to you from the connexion of this part of the Petition with the former Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil. In the words themselves we have two things chiefly considerable The thing that we pray against and the Person to whom we pray That which we pray against is Evil that we may be delivered from it The Person to whom we pray is God our Heavenly Father That which we pray against is Evil. Some limit this word Evil only unto Satan making the sence to be deliver us from the Evil one founding this Interpretation upon that Article that is joyned with the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this is not always descretive but sometimes indefinite as for instance Matth. 12.35 and many other places And therefore considering the Comprehensiveness of this Prayer we ought to allow the Word a large extent and to comprehend under it First Satan whose proper Style and Epithete it is to be called the Evil one and so we find this black Title given him in Scripture Matth. 13.19 The wicked one cometh and snatcheth away that which was sown And 1 John 2.13 19. You have overcome the wicked one He is the wicked one eminently and singularly He is the chief Author of Evil his Temptations are all unto Evil his delight is only in Evil he is the Father of all those that do Evil. And therefore this is the most proper and significant Character of the Devil But yet it is also ascribed unto Men according to their resemblance of him Secondly All other Evils are here meant whether they be of sin or sorrow whether they be Transgressions or Punishments and that either Temporal punishments in those Judgments which God inflicts upon sinners here or Eternal Judgments such as he hath threatned to inflict upon them hereafter From all these we pray to be delivered but the greatest of all these is Sin For First It is greatest in the Nature of it as being the only thing that is contrary to the greatest Good even God for in all other things else in the World there is something of Good even as much as derived and participated of God And so the very Devils themselves have a Metaphysical Goodness in them as they are Creatures and have received their Beings and Powers from God who is the Author of nothing that is Evil. But Sin hath not the least ray or footsteps of Goodness in it but is only defect and irregularity And that alone which as his Soul always hates so his Hands never made Secondly It is the greatest Evil in the Effects and Consequences of it It once turn'd Glorious Angels into hideous Devils and tumbled them down from Heaven to Hell filled the World with Woes and Plagues brought Death and Diseases and a vast and endless sum of Miseries into it it torments and terrifies the Conscience kindles Hell-flames exposes the Soul to the eternal and direful revenges of the great God and is so perfectly and only Evil that the worst of things here were they free from the Contagion of Sin would be excellent and amiable To pray therefore against the Evil of Sin is to pray against all other Evils whatsoever for the Devil the Evil One cannot hurt us but by Sin And no other Evil can befall us but for Sin God inflicting them as the due Guerdon and Reward of our Transgressions Sin therefore being the chief and Principal Evil and all others but retainers to it I shall at present speak only of God's delivering us from Sin Now as there are Two things in Sin which make it so exceeding Evil the Guilt of it whereby it Damns and the Filth of it whereby it Pollutes the Soul so God hath Two ways to deliver us from it First By removing the Guilt already contracted which he doth in justifying and pardoning the Sinner Secondly By preventing us from falling