first parents there had not beene originall sinne to corrupt us But O my soule take heed remember the seed of the woman was not yet promised and thon mayst hereby see what God is to us withont Christ even a consuming fire and what he is thorough Christ a fire still but to comfort not to consume for he having payd the ransome of our sinnes it is now as just with God to forgive sins as it was before to punish sinners and we are now in the state St. Paul speaks off Forgiving one another even as God for Christ â—sus sake hath forgiven us So that God requires no more of us then what he hath performed to us Or may we not be bold to say He therefore requires it of us that he may be able to performe it to us and let it not bee taken as impiously spoken that God should not bee able to forgive us unlesse wee forgive others seeing there is a pious sence in which perhaps wee may bee bold to say He is not For is it not sayd of Christ that among his owne people he could doe no miracles he seemed not to want will but to want power He could not doe them yet we must conceive this want of power was not in respect of himselfe but in respect of them they wanted faith and were uncapable And as in them want of fayth seemed to take away power from him that is omnipotent so in us want of charity seemes to take away mercy from him that is all love For doth not Christ tell us of a King who forgave his servant many debts but when the servant would not forgive his fellow hee came upon him againe for the same debts notwithstanding his former forgivenesse Not that the King went backe from his mercy but that the servant went forward in his cruelty He wanted charity and was uncapable For Gods mercy indeed can never enter where mans cruelty keepes possession and it is impossible a pardon should be sealed to him in whom hardnesse of heart suffers not the seale to make impression But is there not a difference here betweene the condition and the petition For in the petition we pray to God to forgive our debts but in the condition we offer God to forgive our debtors and why is this difference Indeed in both must be understood both yet in each of them there seemes a speciall adressment to each of them For it followes with God that if hee forgive the sinne hee is presently withall reconciled to the sinner but it followes not with men for they oftentimes can be content to forgive the offence when yet they cannot finde in their hearts to bee friends with the offendour as it is the voyce of the world to say I will forgive him but I shall never forget him where by not forgetting they meane not loving and truly if they love not truly they forgive not But seeing our trespasses are of two sorts some committed against God and some committed against our neighbour It may bee here demanded in praying to God to forgive our trespasses what it is wee meane For if only the trespasses committed against God what shall then become of the trespasses committed against our neighbour and if in our prayer we meane them also it may then bee doubted what God hath to doe to forgive trespasses committed against others and not against himselfe Certainely in our prayer we meane both and therefore it remaines onely to resolve the doubt which none but prophane persons would offer to make Indeed if thou coulst finde any thing which were a trespasse against thy neighbour and were not also a trespasse against God thy doubt might bee thought something which now is nothing seeing there is no trespasse against thy neighbour which is not first and greatest a trespasse against God For if a man steale it is a trespasse against his neighbour but it is first a trespasse against God because God forbids it If a man commit a murder it is a trespasse against his neighbour but it is first a trespasse against God because God forbids it but this seemes not to remove the doubt For did not Cain commit a trespasse against Abel when hee murthered him yet God had not then forbidden murther Did not Rachel commit a trespasse against Lahan when shee stole his Idolls yet God had not then forbidden stealing Indeed these things were not yet forbidden by the pofitive lawes of God written in Tables of stone but they were notwithstanding forbidden by the naturall lawes of God written in the Tables of our hearts But this doth not yet remove the doubt neyther For seeing there is some trespasse committed against the neighbour it must needs belong to him to forgive his part and not to God to forgive all Surely the neighbours part in regard of Gods part is scarce worth reckoning and therefore David though he had taken from Vrias both his wife and his life two as great trespasses against a neighbour as could be yet hee sayth to God Tibi Tibi soli peccavi Against thee against thee onely have I sinned as if his trespasses against Vrias were not worth the speaking off Yet God is contented to allow the neighbour his part also and therefore Christ teacheth us If our neighbour have ought against us to goe first and be reconciled to him before wee come to offer at the Altar as if else hee might put in a caveat and stoppe our petition and so indeed hee may Wee must therefore use all earnest entreaties offer all possible satisfaction make all humble submission to procure our attonement but if all our endeavours cannot prevaile if our ability be so small that wee cannot satisfie or their hearts be so hardned that they will not bee satisfied it is then Gods prerogative to take the matter into his owne hands For vengeance is his and he will repay and The Lord is King sayth the Pfalme the earth may be glad and glad indeed we may be all that the Lord is King and will judge the earth for if men should bee our judges and our hope of forgivenesse should stand in the breasts of men alas poore wretches what man of us all should goe to Heaven for what care they how many goe to hell so they may bee revenged and have their wills which David knew well and therefore when after a great sinne God offered him his choyce of punishments Eyther famine or pestilence or to flee three daies before his enemies though hee seemed in a great straight yet he quickely resolved of his choyce Let me fall saith hee into the hands of God for his mercies are great and let me not fall into the hands of men And therefore Christ out of this prerogative of God sayd unto the thiefe upon the Crosse This day thou shalt bee with mee in Paradise hee stands not to examine his trespasses to his neighbour hee takes upon him to answere them himselfe and tells
purchased the name for us and bestowed it upon us It is true God offred himselfe to the Iewes that he would be their Father and they should be his sonnes but it was with relation and presupposition of receiving Christ whom because they rejected they never went further then their Father Abraham Neither indeed to our understanding had God power in himselfe to communicate his Name of Father to us but onely in Christ seeing Christ had in him the whole interest of his Father as being his onely Sonne And now in making Essayes upon the Petitions following if I shall seeme unto any and thereupon be blamed that I am not constant in any one certaine eyther explication or application of them he may know that these petitions have something like in our understanding as the Planets have amongst themselves which alter their forces and even their natures according to the diversity of their Aspects And if he complaine for want of order he may also know that though Art useth method yet meditation useth none but receiving her Company as they come makes use of them in Troope and not in Files God finished the world in sixe daies and Christ finished this Prayer in sixe Petitions that so the workes which God formed for man and the words which Christ framed for man may may have a correspondence But is not here a fault at first Is it not presumption to come to God with so many suits at once and thinke to speed in them all were it not modesty to doe as David did for hee made but one Petition Vnum Petii a Domino One thing have I asked of the Lord and Christ himselfe in another place told Martha as much Vnumest necessarium One thing is needfull so that eyther there he comes short in his account or here he makes more a doe then needs for if but one thing be necessary One Petition might well enough have served most of all it may seeme strange in Christ who ever used rather substraction then multiplication as of ten Commandements hee made but two and now that of one Petition he should make sixe But O my soule Be it farre from thee to have such thoughts to raise such scandall For the Commandements are duties and duties are burthens and in abridging them hee performes his promise Come unto me and I will ease you and well hee might abridge them to us who hath indeed perform'd them for us but the Petitions are graces and the more Graces the more grace the more Graces we receive from God the more grace we are in with God and Christ will not onely substract burthens but as well also multiply graces although in truth these sixe Petitions are all in effect but one Petition that having called God Our Father we here desire to be his Children but we must observe a difference in being Gods Children and being children of men for here we are children first and afterwards we doe our duties but there we doe at least some duties first and afterwards we are children as it is said As many as received him to them he gave power to be the sonnes of God And indeed though Christ dilate it to us here in sixe Petitions for our understanding yet presently after the delivery of them he seemes to reduce them againe to One petition where he sayth How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Ghost to them that desire him for to desire the Holy Ghost is all in effect that wee desire in these sixe Petitions which therefore some would have to be seaven that so they may answere to the seven spirits which St. Iohn speakes of to represent the Holy Ghost Indeed the three last are properly bare ly petitions but the three first are as Christ said of Iohn Baptist that he was a Prophet and more then a Prophet so these are petitions more then petitions for they are both Hallelujahs and Hosannaes For we glorifie God by the first that he is our Father By the second that he is our King by the third thathe is our Master and they are petitions also the first that we may be his obedient Children the second that wee may be his loy all subjects the third that we may be his dutifull servants And from these three first grows a confidence unto us of obtaining the three last which therfore seeme subordinate to them that asa Father he will give to us his children bread and sustenance and as a King he will grant to us his subjects a pardon of our trespasses as a master he will not lay upon us his servants greater burdens then we can beare But may not this Paraphrase be opposde hath not this Prayer a correspondence rather with the fall of Angels and doth it not make a resemblance of our condition to theirs but that they were cast downe all at once and we here fall downe by degrees for at every petition wee take a fall At the first we seeme to set out in a high hand and as though we needed nothing in our owne behalfe we aske all for God In the second we fall to asking for our selves but yet no lesse then a Kingdome In the third we are glad of the condition to be servants In the fourth we fall to the state of plaine beggars In the fift we fall yet lower and come to be in debt In the last we fall to the lowest to be in prison and that under satan And now we are fallen as low as the Angels that fell or rather so much lower as we are under them This indeed is the progresse of our condition in our selves but Christ our Redcemer who having put out the hand writing that was against us and fastned it to his crosse descended into hell to set open the prison dores to let us out He hath put another nature into these petitions and made them to resemble rather the sixe daies of creation as David said Create in me O God a cleane heart which is but this very prayer in a lesser volume For as every day in the Creation had particular workes so every petition in this Prayer hath particular graces and as it is said that God made all things at once yet the making of each creature is ascribed to some peculiar day so this prayer is the supplication of the whole body of the Church and of every Member therof yet each petition seemes to have some speciall relatiou to some peculiar Member For the first petition may not unfitly bee thought the prayer of Angels the second the prayer of the Saints departed the third the Prayer of the Faithfull living the fourth the prayer of all creatures the fifth the praier of penitent sinners the sixth the prayer of Infants And now having thought these petitions to be for such most proper let us conforme our selves accordingly to them when we say Hallowed be thy Name let us lift up the voyces
enough for God to strike but one string It is said where two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant their requests and we cannot make three unlesse to our thoughts and actions we joyn our words therfore Dauid saith As well the Singers as the Players on Instruments shall praise thee that is boâ—h our tongus and our hands meaning both our words and deeds for onely these two appeare to men the other which is the Heart appeares onely to God and this not unfitly may be called Gods Consort when the still sound of the Heart by holy thoughts and the shrill sound of the tongue by godly words and the lowd sound of the Hands by pious workes doe all joyne and are gathered together to make a Musick Wherefore O my soule since thou hast so often said O Lord open our lips and our mouths shall shew forth thy Praise Let others thinke it sufficient to thinke their Prayers but doe thou keepe company with David and say my lips shall speake thy Praise and my mouth shall entreate of thy word and therefore to be sure he would not be mistaken he distinguisheth them and saith O God my Heart is prepared so is also my Tongue I will sing and give praise But above all the Example of Christ is peremptorie for it who so commonly used words in praying that his very words are often recorded and that not praying in publike where some misconceive that words are onely necessary but even in private and praying by himselfe alone And now O Lord since thou hast framed us a Prayer of which we are assured that thou art pleased with the hearing it granâ— unto us that we may be delighted with the saying it that our Zeale towards it like true love which groweth by the enjoying may encrease by the practising that the oftner we say it the more we may love it and the more we love it the oftner we may say it that whilst more meditation breeds more knowledg and more knowledge more love more love may bring forth more delight and more delight more meditation And whether our hearts bâ—e endyting a good matter or whether our tongues be the Penne of a ready writer whether our spirits cry to thee in silence or whether our mouthes deliver a vocall message Vouchsafe O Lord to send unto us as a token of thy gracious acceptance the sweet blessing of a stedfast faith least fayling in hope we faile of our hope and least doubtfully praying we be certainely denied for as much as what our fayth presents not thy mercy entertaines not and as thou art infinitely trusty being absolutely trusted so dost thou certainly faile being once suspected and as â—elying on thy goodnesse thou art better then ouâ—â—ope so mistrusting thy kindnesse thou art worse then our feare In delivering to us this patterne of praying Thou teachest us first of all To whom to pray Considering that as the marke is the shooters levell so the hearer is the speakers marke and that Prayers offred to a wrong power are the greatâ—st wrong that can bee offred to the right Power so farre from procuring blessings that they are the next way to draw downe curses If there were any power in Heaven or in Earth that could challenge a share with thee thy Iustice I know is of too just a measure to take all to thy selfe and if there were any that could stand us instead besides thy selfe alone thy wisedome I am sure is too infinite to have it hidden from thee and thy kindnesse too gracious to keepe it hidden from us and therefore seeing thou tellest us but of one I assure my selfe there is no more and seeing thou takest it all to thy selfe alone to thee alone will I give it all In thee only is my confidence reposed from thee onely is my happinesse expected and therfore to thee onely shall my vowes be payd and my prayers be directed When David saith Whom have I in Heaven but thee and I require nonâ—in in Earth besides thee Doe we thinke he speakes it as though hee meant to be singular by himselfe and that none else should say it but he or doth he not speake it rather in the person of all the faithfull and though there be in it a private zeale of himselfe yet is there in it also a publike Rule for us all and lest he should bee thought to obtrude it to us upon his bare word he remembers himselfe and in another place gives this reason For thou hâ—arest prayer therefore to thee shall all flesh come Thou hearest prayer as able to heare it and thou hearest prayer as willing to heare it Not onely of us not onely heere not onely now but of all persons in all places at all times and all at once which no power can doe but onely his power who is Omnipotent God which is all power which no love will doe but onely his love whose love is his will God who is all love Thou hast poasted me over to no Deputy for the hearing it neither requirest that I should bring a spokesman for the presenting it but hast commanded me to come my selfe and to come to thee thy selfe I cannot therefore recâ—on the doing it presumption but duty the not doing it humility but injurie and account the Publicanes behaviour to be recorded as well for our example as for our learning who though he thought himselfe unworthy to lift up his eies to heaven yet hee thought himselfe worthy enough to lift up his voice to God and though the Pharisee were blamed for presenting his workes yet the Publicane was not blamed for presenting his prayers himselfe to God It is the glory of Princes to have titles to expresse their greatnesse but it is thy glory O God to have a title to expresse thy love and therefore thou hast given thy selfe a name respecting more the subject then the Prince and least it should bee too bigge for us thou hast made it too little for thy selfe Thou wouldst not say King of glory least as beggers we should be out of countenance at thy Majesty nor Lord of Hosts least as enemies we should tremble at thy power nor Iudge of the world least as guilty we should feare thy sentence but thou callest thy selfe our Father the lowest name that humility could descend unto and yet the highest that love could aspire unto to give us as being thy children as well courage to aske as assurance to speed â—nd to read us a lesson as well of boldnesse to approach to thee as in approaching to thee of reverence The deere bargaines wherewith thou hast purchased this name are evident tokens of the deere account wherein thou holdest it and it is an easie labour to finde how much thou dost make of man if we doe but looke how much thou didst labour to make man for there went more to Faciamus hominem then to the making of all the world
of our hearts as if we were now jovning with the Angels in singing their Halleluiah When we say Thy Kingdome come let us raise our thoughts as now offering to set our hands to the petition of the Saints in heaven When we say Thy will bee done Let us fixe our minds wholly as in the solemnity of dedicating our selves to God with all the faithfull upon earth When we say Give us this day our daily bread let us humble our selves as being in state of other creatures and are glad to joyne with them in their common suite When we say Forgive us our trespasses let us thinke our selves enrolled in the company of penitents and as the greatest sinners chosen spokes-men to present their supplication And when we say Lead us not into temptation let us acknowledge our selves in the number and weakenesse of little children and are glad to joyne with them in crying for helpe that the Angell of infants which alwaies beholds the face of God may be imployed by him to worke our deliverance And thus we shall not only goe on the right way in making our petitions but we shall have company also to bee affistants in preferring our petitions And doth not such orderly ranking of the petitions shew Christ to have beene a most skilfull Herauld in spirituall matters seeing they all take their places according to the worth and dignity of the speakers In the first place are the Angels that as at the fall of the first Adam Angels were set at the Entrance of Paradice to keep us out so at the comming of the second Adam Angels are set here at the entrance into Heaven to let us in As therefore this Petition is as the Porter to let in all the other petitions So holy Reverence must bee porter at our mouthes to let in thispetition For when it is said Hallowed be thy Name may it not justly be thought the prayer of Angels of whom it is said that they say and sing continually Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath not onely say it as their prayer but sing it as their Psaâ—me and chief Delight David did well in offring God to build a Temple to his Name but by whom was Gods Temple built Not by David a man of blood but bâ— Salomon a Prince of Peace so it is well done of us to say Hallowed bee thy Name but by whom doe wee say it must bee Hallowed Not by us Non vox hominem sonat for how should wee Hallow his Name who have prophaned his Image It is a worke for Angels fit only for them to Hallow his Name who have kept â—oly their owne Nature for without a nature of holynesse his Name can never bee truly hallowed And if wee understand it of our selves will it not proove a worke of supererogation seeing wee desire to doe more then is commanded for the Commandement is onely Not to take his Name in vaine and heere wee desire It may be hallowed Unlesse it bee that the commandements being Negative they get something by Christs resolving them into Affirmatives Or is it to shew how much the Law is improoved by the Gospell seeing it is no more in the Gospells phrase to hallow Gods Name then it was in the Lawes not to take it in vaine But what if God have no Name at all then indeed the Commandement will be easily kept but the Petition will bee hardly granted The Name is but a shadow of the Nature as therfore a Body which were Infinite could have no shadow the shadow not beginning but where the Body endeth so a Nature which is Incomprehensible can have no Name the Name being not possible to be given but where the Nature is comprehended But though God have no Name or no knowne Name to expresse him yet hee is not without Name to distinguish him And what is then his Name wee desire may bee Hallowed his Name of Essence or his Name in Relation his Name as it is in himselfe or his Name as it is to us Not his Name of Essence for how can we hallow that until we know it and how can we know it untill the riddle be expounded seeing we know him now but in Aenigmate but his Name in relation as it is to us his Name of Father that is it which seemes most fitly to be here intended For when we say Our Father doth not God by the Prophet Malachie seeme to interrupt us and say If I bee your Father where is my honour for to Hallow him as a Father and as an Heavenly Father Is to honour him to feare him to love him to obey him to reverence him and to adore him But what should be the cause that in the three latter petitions we seeme to be altogether for our selves as appeares by our saying Give us Forgive us Deliver us but in the three former there is no mention of Vs at all as though we were no parties to them Is it not that we are or ought to be more jealous of Gods honour then carefull of our owne benefits and therefore when we say Hallowed be thy Name we dare not say Of us least we should make God a Musicke of too few voices And when we say Thy Kingdome come we dare not say to us least we should assigne his Kingdome too small a Territory And when we say Thy will be done we dare not say by us least we should stint God in the number of his servants But we say Hallowed be thy Name and stoppe there that so no mouth may be stopped from hallowing it we say Thy Kingdome come but Name not whither that so it may be intended to come every whither we say Thy will be done in earth but tell not by whom in earth that so it may be done by all in earth By Hallowing Gods Name we meane not to make it holy for it is holynesse it selfe Nor to make it more holy for it is infinitenesse it selfe Nor to keepe it holy for it is eternity it selfe but to joyne with the heavens in declaring his glory and with the firmament in shewing his handy-worke as then onely hallowing his Name when we name him onely holy and therein consisting our worke of sanctifying him when in him we acknowledge our workes to be sanctifyed To hallow the place wherein it pleased God to stand Moses put off the â—hooes from his feet to hallow the day whereon it pleased him to rest the Iewes put off the workes of their hands and to hallow the Name which he vouchsafed to take we must put off from our tongues all unreverent discourses and from our lives all prophane conversation And as Gods Name is Vnguentum Effusum hath many dispersions in our understanding so our hallowing it must have Linguas dispertitas Cloven tongues to convay it to his hearing his Name of Father must be hallowed by love of Lord by obedience of judge by uprightnesse of almighty by feare and of everlasting by constancy But is there no