of adoption and be a beleever that he know God in Christ being converted having repented Rom. 10.14 and is in that state of grace that he can call God Father Secondly Prou. 19 2 Ioh. 4.22 he must be indued with competent knowledge of those things which are required in an acceptable prayer A Catalogue whereof here followeth The discussing of all which or of most of them you shall finde scattered in this Tract as the Text of the Lords Prayer doth minister occasion 1 Prayer is to bee made to God onely Requisites in prayer 2 In prayer God is to be represented to the minde as an incomprehensible Spirit Majesty and Deity therefore without the use of any Image conceiving also to be omnipotent and gracious able and willing to reward them that come unto him 3 Prayer is to bee made to God in the name of Christ Iesus our onely Mediatour and Advocate 4. The matter of all Petitions must be lawfull according to Gods will warranted by precept president or promise 5 A man must pray with understanding he himself knowing what he doth aske 6 Prayer must bee made with a sincere and holy intention of the heart intending it as an holy worship of God as well as a meanes to procure good to a mans selfe from God 7 Prayer must be made with a sense of what we want and with a sensible desire of that which we pray for 8 In prayer there must be a diligent and in endeavour a constant attention first to God keeping the heart lift up towards him as also to the things uttered in prayer that the minde be upon them Likewise that hee attend and take heed to himselfe with what disposition and affection he doe pray He should looke to himselfe that his spirits be composed and his thoughts gathered in and as much as may bee kept in from wandring and distraction This is to be watchfull in prayer 9 There must bee an holy earnestnesse and fervency and importunatenesse in prayer more or lesse according as the matter of prayer doth more or lesse concerne Gods glory and mans good 10 Prayer must bee made with holy devotion and religious adoration expressed in humble and reverent gestures and carrying of the body beseeming the greatnesse and holinesse of God to whom wee pray 11 In prayer a man must propound a right end to himselfe namely that hee may of Gods free grace obtaine the thing desired that therewith he might honour God and doe him more service but not for vaine glory to be seene of men not for charmes not that hee may have wherewithall to spend upon his lusts nor yet to merit thereby as Hypocrites Wizards prophane persons and some Papists doe 12 Prayer must be void of superstition whether in respect of place or number as in needlesse and vaine repetitions upon Beades as Papists doe or any other waies 13 He that prayeth aright must pray in faith he must beleeve that God doth heare him and that for Christs sake he wil grant him all the petitions which he hath thus endeavoured to make according to his will waiting confidently untill God do fulfill them Lastly unto petitions must be joyned praise and thanksgiving This generall preparation must be alwaies readie through an habitual knowledge of those things which are required in an acceptable prayer A particular and immediate preparation is this When a man intendeth to pray he must sequester himselfe from all other businesse and thoughts that he may apply himselfe to meditation Wherein he entreth into consideration of what he is going about what is required in prayer how things stand betweene God and him what his sinnes are that are then to bee repented confessed and prayed against and how they are and may be aggravated also what speciall graces and good things he is now to pray for what evils to pray against likewise he is to consider what favours God hath shewed him what good things he hath bestowed upon him for which he is to praise God give him thanks also hee must consider the grounds and warrant which he hath to approach to the throne of grace in prayer These things prosecuted and well digested a man shall be much the fitter to pray To what prayers particular preparation belongeth Prayers are either continued or onely ejaculatory uttered in a secret and sudden lifting up of the desire to God Immediate and speciall preparation belongeth onely to continued prayer A mans occasions allow him sometimes more time sometimes lesse and he is better disposed to meditation at one time then at another he may accordingly be longer or shorter in preparation But in every continued and set prayer there must be at least this preparation A man must take himselfe off from all other businesse and thoughts and in that instant consider and set before the eye of his faith the majestie holinesse all-sufficiencie and goodnesse of God and so with an heart humble in the sense of his owne unworthinesse but lift up to God in hope of his mercie he is to powre out the desires of his soule unto him in the name of Christ Iesus according unto the requisites of prayer before mentioned Pray after this manner In that the Lord doth here exhort to the right manner of prayer and not to the dutie it selfe it was because he tooke it for a thing granted by all men that they must pray for not the Pharises onely but the heathen did pray wherefore it must bee granted of all that Doct. 3 It is the dutie of all men to pray There were never any but if they held there was a God they held also that he was to be prayed unto Aske seeke knocke saith Christ Mat. 7.7 Pray without ceassing in every thing give thanks 1. Thessal 5.17 18. In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made knowne unto God Phil. 4.6 Reason 1 For prayer is a most holy honorable service and a chiefe worship of God wherein man doth homage unto the Lord and doth glorifie him Psal â—0 23 For in prayer the Lord is acknowledged to be God to be good gracious merciful omnipotent omniscient Vnto whom any man prayeth in him he beleeveth on him hee trusteth In confession of sinne Gods law is acknowledged to bee holy and God to be just In praying aright in the name of Christ by the Spirit the distinction of persoÌ„s is acknowledged These and many other things concerning God are really professed in making requests and are particularly expressed to the honour of Gods name in praises and thanksgiving Prayer is very beneficiall unto Reason 2 man for it is a remedie against all evill and a meane to procure all good As for evill of punishment as paine povertie and the like Ion. 3.8.10 either it doth prevent it as in the case of the Ninivites or removeth it Psal 107. They cry to the Lord in their trouble and he saveth them out of their
three things obseruable in all prayers First the person to whom onely we must pray concerning whom this is the rule That person onely who is God and Lord of heaven and earth is to be prayed unto thus much you learne both in the invocation in the beginning and in the forme of praise in the end of the Lords Prayer The second thing to be observed is what wee must aske the rule thereof is whatsoever may lawfully be asked may without wresting bee referred to one of the sixe petitions If they can referre their request to any petition they may be bold to make it It shall bee needfull therefore to observe the particulars under every petition both what is prayed for and what is prayed against the most whereof shall appeare in the handling of each severall petition to which I doe send you And when you have learned what you may lawfully pray ye may be longer or shorter in any one petition as your present need or the particular occasion doth require which libertie may bee obserued in those prayers of the Apostles which are recorded for our use in the holy Scriptures The third thing to be observed is with what disposition of heart and affection we must pray Which is fully expressed and implyed in that word Amen which requireth that prayer bee made with understanding in truth in fervencie and in faith as will manifestly appeare when wee come to treate of that word Here yet some question may be made touching the order here set down whether it must be precisely kept I answer in the generall it must that is Gods glory must be first in our aime but touching the particular manner of expressing it that is left to the libertie of him that prayeth whether hee begin with praise or with confession of sinnes and asking forgivenesse thereby making way to the other petitions with more confidence There is no rule to be given hereof because we see the Apostles after they were taught this forme did take this libertie Our Father c. Here beginneth the patterne of prayer which because Christ Iesus our Lord gave it to his Disciples is therefore called the Lords Prayer It consisteth of two parts The first is an expressing of a mans desire unto God The second is a manifestation of the assent and right disposition of his heart in putting up the aforesaid desires in the word Amen which though it be but one word yet is full of excellent matter The first part doth branch it selfe into three members 1 Invocation upon God Our Father which art in heaven 2 Petition Hallowed by thy Name Thy kingdome come c. 3 A forme of praise and thanâ—es containing reasons why the former petitions should be made unto God For thine is kingdome power and glory for ever Invocation or calling upon God is here taken in the proper and strictest sense not for the whole exercise of prayer but for appellation in which a man calleth upon him whom hee would have to heare him This invocation consisteth of a description of God who onely is to be called upon in prayer He is described by two arguments First by the relation that is betweene him and his elect in Christ Our Father Secondly by a signe of his soveraigntie and majestie that is by his being in heaven which is the Court of his majestie the place from whence hee sheweth his infinite power goodnesse and glory Which art in heaven The description of God by these two arguments the one arguing his graciousnesse and readinesse of will the other arguing his greatnesse fulnesse of power to helpe all that come unto him is placed of purpose in the very entrance into prayer to strengthen the petitioners faith that hee need not doubtingly say as he did If thou wilt thou canst helpe me Mat 8.2 For he is his father therefore will do whatsoever in his holy wisedome he judgeth fit to be done Neither need he say as that other If thou canst doe any thing helpe us Mark 9.22 For his God and father in the heavens is almighty and can doe whatsoever he pleaseth Psal 115.3 and would have to be done This description of God to whom prayer is made by his relation to them that are to pray consisteth of the appropriating possessive particle Our and of that gracious title of God Father In this one description two things are signified both the condition of them that pray and of him that is prayed unto These words as they looke toward the persons who may pray they intimate a double condition First that they have a right and interest in God they can call him theirs for they are the children of God Secondly Our importeth that common interest and fatherhood in God which the rest of the faithfull have in him from which there groweth a communion of one Christian with another so that they become brethren These two qualities therefore faith in God and love to our brethren are here required in every one that is qualified for prayer Our is not onely here a note of the joyning together of many in prayer when one man is the mouth of the rest because this forme of words is to be uttered by one in the closet Mat. 6.6 as well as by many in publike but it noteth that relation and respect of God to them which is common unto their brethren 2 King 19.19 Thus Hezekiah useth it saying O Lord our God I beseech thee c. Daniel praying alone Dan. 9.17.18 faith Now therefore O our God heare the prayer of thy servant Not but that when we would expresse our particular faith and dependance upon God Mat. 26.39 Ier. 3.19 1 Cor. 4.18 we may say My Father or My God But our Saviour maketh choise of this forme of speech because it is full of instruction and is best agreeing to all sorts of prayer both in private as well as publike Thus we see what this description of God intimateth as it looketh towards those that pray As it looketh towards him to whom prayer is made he is first called Father Father spoken of God is a word of relation to Christ the second person in Trinity Psal 2.7 Ioh. 1.14 and so is proper to the first person in Trinity Secondly in relation to the creature in a more common respect to all as he is the Author of their being and subsisting in nature thus all * Deut. 32.6 three persons are called Father God is also a Father in a speciall respect to his elect in Christ as he is the Author of their spirituall being and subsisting in state of grace * 1 Ioh. 5. â— Isa 9 6. Ioh 3.5 Thus in speciall sort the three persons are and may be called Father by all beleevers And as I conceive in this place this word Father directeth us to God the Father God the Sonne and God the holy Ghost yet so as it pointeth in an order to that person in the Deity
humblenesse and submission of minde or griefe and contrition of heart for sinne or fervency or joy hope and confidence in God or the like The knees are bowed and the body prostrate to shew humble submission a sad countenance and teares serve to shew contrition lifting up eyes and hands expresse the lifting up the heart to God in the heavens in hope and confidence of a gracious hearing Salomon stretched out his hands to expresse his earnestnesse and fervency and the publican smote his breast and would not looke up to heaven that hee might signifie his sorrow and the sense of his unworthinesse In publique prayers a man must use such gestures as are prescribed by lawfull authority or if none bee prescribed such as are in common use in the particular Church in which hee doth live they being free from superstition The not observing this rule is the mother and nurse of much variance and sometimes of schismes in the Church of God In private prayer alone every man may use such gestures as his heart doth prompt unto him provided alwayes that they bee decent and beseeming the holy presence of God and the holy action in hand such as may stirre up and continue right affections in him and may also serve to expresse the right disposition of his heart when he prayeth If a man sit giving of thanks at his meat or at other times when hee prayeth being disabled that hee cannot kneele or stand up then for that sitting is not a gesture of reverence it is convenient that with iâ— hee expresse reverence and devotion in some other gesture or meanes such as is in use and may bee joyned with sitting I will end the answer to this case about gesture in prayer with these cautions That no man please himselfe in his greatest bodily devotion Cautions concerningâ— gestures in prayer when it is severed from inward truth and devotion of the heart as if God were well pleased with it for that is grosse hypocrisie When a man is disabled that hee cannot kneele or lift up his hands or performe other acts of holy reverence in prayer this must not discourage him nor yet breed a scruple in him whether hee may pray or whether his prayer shall be accepted for as I said gestures are not of the essence of prayer and it is truth in the inward parts which God loveth and accepteth And when a gesture cannot bee used but with paine to the body or to the endangering of health or distraction of the minde in prayer God requireth it not for gestures are then to be used when they do further Mat. 12.7 and not hinder the heart and spirit in Gods service And in this case God preferreth mercy before sacrifice The case touching the place of prayer Fiftly the consideration of Gods heavenly majesty and specialty of glorious residence in heaven doth teach us that prayer may bee made to God in all places all places here below are alike distant from heaven and God can heare as well in one place as in another Wherefore our Saviour breaking downe the partition wall which stood betweene Iew and Gentile saith Iohn 4.21.23 Neither in Ierusalem nor in that Mount as if they should bee more holy places than other should men worship the Father but the houre cometh and now is that the true worshippers should namely in all places worship him in spirit and in truth According to that of the Apostle I will that men pray every where 1 Tim. 2.8 lifting up pure hands without wrath or doubting But is not the Church a better place to pray in Quest and is not God more present there than elsewere and are not private prayers which are made there more acceptable to God than if they were made in other places I answere Answ Papists and popishly affected say so but without good ground But to resolve this case difference must be put between publique prayers and private In the time of the Gospell in the primitive Church while it was under cruell persecution any place agreed upon by the Ministers and people to assemble in for Gods publique worship was a publique place though it were a chamber in a private mans house for for a long time Christians had no other Churches Tertul. Apol cap 39. but common houses But when the Church was at peace houses were built of purpose and dedicated to God for his publique worship which therefore both in borrowed and in proper speech were well called Temples houses of God or Churches Places publique or private are in themselves alike holy and alike fit for prayer respectively namely the publique place for publique and the private place for private prayer For since the death of Christ all religious difference of place is taken away And Gods presence is not tied to one place more than to another Yet because Churches are set apart for Gods service in that respect they are to bee had in speciall esteeme and reverence so as to be wel and sufficiently maintained and repaired and kept comely with all such outward beautie and ornaments as are beseeming the pure worship of God Also they are to be resorted unto by all sorts diligently at times appointed for the publicke worship of God where all are to behave themselves reverently before the Lord And out of the case of necessitie these Churches are to bee imployed onely for religious uses Touching esteeme of Churches a meane must be kept betweene two extreames wee must not prophane them with Atheists nor yet superstitiously idolize them with the Papists When men are not necessarily hindered Churches are to be frequented where publicke prayers may be best made and are like to bee best heard not because the place it selfe hath more holinesse than any other but because God hath in special sort placed his name in those his holy ordinances which there are performed and is there present Mat. 18.20 according to his promise in speciall sort all the while that the congregation and people of God with whom we joyne in the Church are in the act of performance thereof The Apostle had the Church in such esteeme that from the holinesse thereof he endeavoureth to convince the Corinthians of the greater sinne 1. Cor. 11.22 saying Despise ye the Church of God but by Church he meaneth not the place of assembling but the congregation assembled Also it is better to pray in the assembly of the Church because there we have the helpe of the Minister and the examples of others devotions besides that there is an uniting of the desires of many unto God who delighteth in the joynt prayer of many in such assemblies As for private prayer private places not the publicke are fittest for them Therefore our Saviour warned his disciples that they should not like the Pharises make their private prayers in publicke places Mat 6.5.6 as in the Synagogues or corners of the streets but in private as in the closet c. If
can heare the one as well as the other How farre forth then is a man to use a voyce in prayer Quest Voyce is not of the essence of prayer Answ The case of using a voyce or no voyce in prayer therefore it is not alwayes needfull to be used as in short ejaculations and when a man is speechlesse or when he cannot bee so private that he may conveniently do it or when a man findeth that hee can keepe his minde alike earnestly attentive and rightly affected in prayer without voyce But a voyce is needfull both in publicke and private when a man is the mouth of others that joyne with him in prayer And when a man prayeth alone it is also fit and usefull For God hath made the tongue an apt instrument to expresse the meaning of the heart and with it also we ought to serve and glorifie God And voyce is a good helpe in prayer For a mans owne voyce is heard of himselfe and is reciprocall upon a mans selfe and serveth both to keepe the heart and thoughts from scattering keeping the heart more close to the present businesse and causing him the sooner to take himselfe in the manner and to checke himselfe when his thoughts do stragle As also the voyce serveth to stirre up to continue and to inflame the spirit and affections of him that prayeth But use speech in private prayer with these cautions Cautions touching using of voice in private prayer First you must not thinke that God heareth prayers the sooner or the rather because of speech Secondly that you do it not to be heard of men that it might bee knowne that you pray in private as well as in publicke Thirdly you are not to speak aloud in private prayer to the offence of those who are so neare that they cannot but heare you yet cannot joyne with you in your prayer This Doctrine yeeldeth also Vse 5 unto beleevers plenty of al heavenly comforts Our Father is in heaven therefore hee can heare in every place we need not tyre our selves in going on pilgrimage to any place to seek him for if we can but enter into our hearts lift them up to heaven we shall finde him He also knoweth all things which we need Mat. 6.32 1. Sam. 14. It is not hard for him to helpe with little or no earthly power He is wisedome and knoweth perfectly what is best and when it is best to helpe his children Many parents would do their children good but either want wisedome know not how or want power and are not able But God is both able and knoweth how and he will do his children good for his love to them is more than naturall it is an heavenly therefore an infinite and everlasting love He hath promised never to leave us now his truth is an heavenly perfect truth it cannot be falsified It is not hardnesse of our hearts nor multitude or greatnesse of our sinnes can hinder our happinesse if we will not wilfully reject his grace through our unbeleefe if we will repaire to him and repose our trust in him For as the Apostle saith Rom. 11.23 He is able to graft in againe the hard hearted Iews he can pardon ten thousand talents as wel as one peny and can as easily say Mat. 9.2.5 All sinnes are forgiven as to say Rise and walke Mic. 7.18.19 We can say Our Father is an heavenly Father and who is a God like our God that pardoneth iniquity transgression and sinne that subdueth all our iniquities and will cast all our sinnes into the depth of the sea It is not with God as with man man cannot helpe all his children at once God can be they never so many and never so farre distant Earthly parents may be drawn drie when they have given portions and inheritances to many they have none for the rest as Isaac when he had blessed Iacob Gen. 27.36.38 he had no such blessing for Esau so that hee cryed Hast thou but one blessing O my father God hath mansions and a kingdome for every one of his Ioh. 14.2 his custome is not that one sonne or that sonnes onely should inherit his kingdome but both sonnes and daughters do all of them inherit for our Father is an heavenly Father Also this consideration of the heavenly majestie and power of God added to the consideration of his fatherhood doth give us assurance of hope that we shall have all the petitions which we aske according to his will For as he is almightie hee can do whatsoever he is willing to do as he is a Father Lastly is our Father an heavenly Father then wee can assure our selves that hereafter we shall in our measure partake of his heaven and of his holines and of his glory For after death when we awake we shall bee received into heaven where we shall ever be with the Lord and be filled with his likenesse Psal 17.15 and hee who now by his heavenly wisedome doth guide us with his counsell shall receive us into glorie where we shall see him as he is and ever remaine in his presence where are pleasures for evermore For as we have borne the image of the earthy 1. Cor. 15.49 wee shall also beare the image of the heavenly Of this we need not doubt for our Father is heavenly therefore the children must needs be heavenly Thus much of the Invocation and calling upon him to whom onely prayer may bee made The petitions follow The petitions do contain the matter of all lawfull requests They may be divided differently according unto such different respects as may be conceived of them First if wee respect the number there are sixe distinct petitions and no more I confesse Divines of good antiquity have reckoned seven making two of the last others of no lesse authority have not regarded the number at all Some of the ancient and most of the orthodox later Writers have reckoned but six and as I thinke upon good ground All agree in the five first all the question is about the sixth whether it bee one or two Now because the subject of both sentences in that petition is all one scil sanctification and the conjunction but knitteth Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evill together into one sentence it is more than probable that is but one petition But whether there be six or seven it is no matter of our faith and doth not deserve any heat of disputation to decide the controversie Secondly if we respect the different persons whom the matter of the petitions concern they are thus divided the three first concerne God only for we say Thy Name thy kingdome thy will c. The three last concern man for wee say Our bread our sinnes lead us not deliver us Thirdly if wee respect that which ought to bee the chiefe end of every mans desire and the meanes to compasse the said end they have this order and are
therefore they pray unto him The meaning of these words may bee thus expressed O Lord God which art King of kings and rulest over all we have none either in heaven or in earth to whom we may make our requests but thee for thine is the kingdome it belongeth to thy place of soveraigntie to provide for thy name and honour by advancing thy kingdome by causing thy will to bee done and by preserving and receiving into favour and by giving grace to thy people Thou Lord art able to fulfill all this that we have asked and we do yeeld thee as is most due the glory of thy soveraigntie and power and if thou shalt please to grant these our requests as thou shalt therein deserve so we shall bee readie to give unto thee all glory everlasting wherefore wee are bold to aske and to expect the granting of them For thine c. In the entrance into prayer Christ taught his disciples to represent God to their thoughts under such titles and names whereby they might confirme their faith in prayer and here in the close and end of prayer he doth wish them to presse and urge God from consideration of his soveraigntie power and glory from whence they may encourage themselves by good reasons both to aske and looke for what they have asked whereby we learne The Lord would have his children Doct. 1 have good ground and reason for the petitions they aske of him and would have them uttered unto him in their prayers Thus did Jacob when he prayed to bee delivered out of the hands of his brother Esau saying Gen 32.9.10.11.12 O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isack the Lord which saidst unto mee Returne into thy country and to thy kindred and J will deale well with thee I am not worthy of the least of al the mercies which thou hast shewed unto thy servant Deliuer me I pray thee from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau for I feare him lest hee will come and smite me and the mother with the children And thou saidst I will surely doe thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea In this prayer Iacob gathereth reasons from the covenant between God and his fathers from Gods commandement and his obedience therto from his acknowledgement of Gods mercie and his owne unworthinesse from the relation he had to God being his servant from the condition of his adversary he being his inraged brother Esau from the extream danger hee and his wives and children were in lastly from a promise that God had made to him in respect of his posterity which could not be fulfilled if Esau should have destroyed Jacob and all his children Vpon all these reasons hee doth ground that petition Deliver me I pray thee from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau In like manner Salomon confirmeth his faith in the beginning of his prayer 1 King 8.23.24.25.26 And it is ordinary with David throughout the Psalmes Reas 1 Though God need no reasons either to informe him of their need or to move him to supply their need for he knoweth every mans case better then himselfe and is more readily inclined of himselfe to helpe then any man can be ready to aske yet he doth delight that his children should yeeld reasons of their requests because therein they shew proof of their knowledge faith confidence and other graces which is much pleasing to their Father Reasons in prayer doth much Reas 2 confirme faith in us and stir up good affection in prayer For when a man can assure himselfe he hath good warrant to aske and to hope to obtaine hee can breake through all the discouragements which the divell or a mans owne heart can cast in to hinder him Hereby all praying without Vse 1 understanding be the intention of the heart never so good must be judged to be faultie for hee that knoweth not what hee asketh can never give reasons why he asketh Vse 2 This reproveth all rash and inconsiderate entrances and proceedings in prayers which is when men are led therein onely by custome or present sense of necessities but never exercise their faith in uttering any reasons of their requests Hence it is that they are so weake in faith and so cold in devotion and heartlesse in their prayers because they doe not establish their faith and put life to their affections by uttering of apt reasons of their present petitions Vse 3 Whosoever therfore would make a prayer in faith and fervencie must follow our Saviours direction the examples of godly in Scripture who have gone before us in giving reasons of their requests For it doth please God to heare his children reason it out with him Wherefore hee doth sometimes of set purpose seeme not to heare but rather seemeth to deny his children that pray unto him because hee would have them answer all doubts and resist all impediments and be more importunate with him in giving reasons why they should be heard Thus the Lord dealt with the woman of Canaan first he seemed not to heare her then when he heard he seemed to deny her suite and yeelded a reason of his deniall Mat. 15.25 28. yet all this was but to make triall of her faith which when she shewed by her importunate continuance of her suit and wise answering of Christs objection saying Truth Lord yet the dogs do eate of the crums which fall from their masters table shee thereupon received of him a commendation of her faith saying O woman great is thy faith and withall obtained her request even to the full for he said Be it unto thee even as thou wilt Reasons of our petitions may be taken from Gods nature from his promise from our capablenesse to have our prayers granted either because wee are in Christ and are his servants and doe pray in his name or they may bee taken from our need of helpe or from that experience wee have had of helpe in time past or from the thanks and glory that we doe give and will give if it shall please the Lord to grant our requests If from these such like grounds out of Scripture we shall wisely make choise of reasons befitting our present occasions and shall use them understandingly not so much to informe or perswade God what hee should give as to inform and perswade our selves how to aske we shall be much holpen in our praying and God will bee well pleased with our prayers The reason of the asking the aforesaid petitions is set downe in a forme of praise and thanksgiving from which wee may observe Christians must in their prayers Doct. 2 as well offer praise unto God as make requests Wee must as well giue him glory and thanks as pray to him to give us grace or any other good thing Thus saith David Thine O Lord is greatnesse and the power and the glory and the victory and the majestie Thine is the kingdome O
Answ and these they have uncertainely without a blessing with them They have them but as fruits of his common goodnesse providence Psal 36.6 Psal 145.9 God knowing what imployments he hath for them amongst men and not as fruits of his speciall love promise and mercy God giveth them oft-times in wrath with a curse Tit. 1.15 they are impure unto them they make leane soules increasing their sin Psal 92.7 fatting them but it is to the slaughter it is that they may bee destroyed for ever whereas on the contrary all that pray aright shall in the best time have what is best for them with Gods blessing as a token of his speciall love unto them Vse 1 It is therefore a great fault in all those that shall under any pretence omit and neglect prayer then which fault I know none more common For except it be when all other helpes faile and they bee in a desperate extremitie who in comparison seeketh unto God by prayer When they be sicke to the Physitian or to the Surgeon onely but not to God by prayer yea some runne to Witches and Wizards to charmes to the divell to any thing rather then unto God If they be in want then they betake them to their friends to their hands to their wits yea to câ—asening and shifting but never looke up to God and the like in all other cases The same course they take for their soules If the comming to Church and formall hearing the word receiving the Sacraments and the prayers of others will save them they will not alwaies be wanting in these externall devotions but as for prayer any more then a little lip-labour which indeed is no prayer they are meere strangers to it Causes why men call not upon God This neglect of prayer commeth from prophanenesse and pride of heart from confidence in the creature and from selfe-dependance which causeth them to be unwilling to come into the presence of the holy God or to be beholding to him For this cause God in justice casteth them into want They have not Iam. 4.2 because they aske not or if he give unto them without asking he giveth it with a curse it is impure unto them Tit. 1.15 as before you heard There are some so prophane that they omit prayer in contempt and with deriding all which conscionably performe it But as for those which have got into the scorners chaire and have made themselves unworthy the pearle of a reproof I leave them to the considerations following They carry in their faces the very brand of an Atheist for it is his guise not to pray himselfe but would shame him which maketh God his refuge Psal 14 4 6. And how can they be called Christians to whom the description of the heathen doth so properly agree Ier. 10 25. The Prophet Ieremie describeth the heathen by this that they were families that call not on Gods Name and these he holdeth to be meete persons upon whom God should poure out his fury and fiercenesse of his indignation But I leave these and come Vse 2 to speake to Gods owne children who even in this point of prayer are much to blame For many of them make too little account of this pretious dutie How seldome doe they set about it how loath to come to it how cold and livelesse in it and how soone wearie of it Is it any marvell if they be full of crosses and be impatient under them Is it any wonder that the world doth so oft overcome them and the divell so oft foile them when they are so seldome and so weake in prayer This failing proceedeth from want of faith in God from too much confidence in the arme of flesh and meanes here below and from poring too much upon the prosperitie of those Psal 73.7 who without prayer have more then heart could wish and by laying their owne crosses in which they lie notwithstanding they have praied too close unto themselves From these and the like causes as lying in some sinne unrepented of or the like it is that you are unwilling to pray and when you doe pray your edge of praier is quite taken off But enter I pray you into Gods sanctuarie that you may see confesse and bewaile your folly and learne with that Psalmist to say Psal 73.28 It is good to draw neere to God and to put your trust onely in the Lord. Vse 3 Let all that professe the name of God bee exhorted not to conceive of praier as a thing arbitrarie and indifferent but as of a necessarie duty as hath beene proved in the Doctrine Are any afflicted Iam. 5.13 let them pray Are any in prosperitie let them pray and praise God In what condition or state soever ye are pray For besides that it is Gods command and his immediate worship Manifold motives unto prayer we by prayer injoy an holy communion with God taking sanctuarie under his wings We edifie our selves also in our most holy faith and in all other the saving graces of Gods spirit when we pray in the Holy Ghost for by it all the weapons of our Christian warfare all the good gifts of God and meanes of our salvation become usefull and good unto us By prayer either we shall prevent Gods iudgements and corrections or bee made able to beare them and be made much better by them By prayer wee shall obtaine pardon and repentance of sins past and strength to resist temptations of sinnes to come In thus doing we shall have all such good things as be needfull for us with a blessing upon them or with contentednesse without them grace and peace in this life perfection of grace and glory in the life to come Would wee doe good to our enemies and to our friends and would we doe our selves good would we be beneficiall to the Common-weale and Church then let us pray 2 Chron. 30.20 Gen. 25.21 Mark 9.25 Mat 15.28 Mat. 8.13 Gen. 24.12 For Kings have prayed for their subjects husbands for their wives fathers for their sonnes mothers for their daughters masters for servants servants for masters and all have beene heard in that which they praied Prayer because it is ordained by God and hath his promise calleth in and ingageth Gods power truth for him that maketh it and so through God becommeth omnipotent What hath beene or can be too hard for Prayer Exod 14.15.16 It hath caused the Sea to divide it selfe and become an high way to Gods people also together with the Whale Ionah 2 1.1.10 Iosh 10.12 to give up Ionas alive and set him ashore It caused the Sunne to stand still yea to goe backe It hath loosed chaines and unlocked Prisons Act. 1â— 5.7.11 and iron gates and delivered the prisoners What hath not prayer done what will it not doe in the behalfe of the Church or of any of Gods chosen Nothing so deepe but with this bucket we may draw
to thinke that I had better not pray at all That you feele these defects Answ and do observe these your inabilities and failings in prayer if withall you be humbled and your conscience can witnesse that your desire is that your heart were inlarged and were rightly disposed to prayer this is well this argueth that you have some life and some good disposition to the worke but here is no ground of discouragement or cause why you should forbeare to pray The best of Gods children sometimes have beene in your case David himselfe had his spirit overwhelmed Psal 77.3.4 and was so troubled that he could not speake Ezekiah said that he did chatter like a crane Isa 38.14 he did rather stutter and stammer out his desires to God in a broken sort then by distinct and apt words to expresse them As for wandring thoughts who is free or who can be free so long as sinne dwelleth in him and Satan is alwayes readie to cast them in As for faith it may be that you pray in faith though you conceive otherwise because you feele so much doubting but would you pray in faith do you grieve that you cannot beleeve and can you say with him in the Gospel I do beleeve Mar. 9.24 Lord helpe my unbeleefe then you pray in faith though you feele it not If you feele your selfe worse after prayer this is a misconceit of yours or a suggestion of Satan But if it be so indeed in your feeling this doth not argue that you are worse for your prayer but better for that evill which was in you before unseene is now discovered that you may reforme it The flesh and Satan sometimes may bee more stirring with their tentations but prayer gaineth alwayes a secret helpe of God if you would but improve it But know whatsoever your feeling be if failings in prayer be not allowed but resisted and and prayed against God passeth them by and doth not account them unto you If you endeavour to pray aright and do pray as well as you can though you faile very much this unallowed failing is onely a sinne of infirmitie for which God doth pity you and will spare you as a father doth his sonne that serveth him But not to pray at all is a grosse sinne of wilfull negligence which God hateth and will severely punish Wherefore whatsoever your indisposition be and whatsoever your former failings and discouragements have beene you must breake through all lets know that you have the more need to pray setting about it in the power of Gods might sith that you have no power of your owne Psal 119.88 Psal 119.32 Psal 86.9 Do as David did pray to be quickened and to have your heart inlarged and that God would unite your heart to feare his name If there be truth of desire in your prayer then know that you are heard and accepted not for the goodnesse and worth of your prayer but for the goodnesse and merits of Christ Iesus by whom you offer up your prayers What though you know not how to pray Rom. 8.26.27 the Spirit of him who hath commanded you to pray will helpe your infirmitie and enable you to pray in such sort as God shall accept thereof in Christ Iesus And if you be so heavie and comfortlesse after prayer it is your fault proceeding from groundlesse doubts and false feares but yet no argument that you did not pray aright or that you were not heard much lesse that you should think you pray in vaine or that you had better not pray at all But so long as a doubt and scruple remaineth in my mind Quest whether I may pray or no is it not best for me not to pray till that scruple be removed for I must do nothing doubtingly nor against scruple of conscience Answ To this I answer this is but a delusion of the devill and a groundlesse fancie In things indifferent of which the Apostle speaketh a man must be fully perswaded in his owne minde Rom. 14.5.23 and he must not do a thing indifferent though lawfull in it selfe to be done so long as hee doubteth and doth make scruple of conscience thereabout whether it may be done or no and therefore he must with all singlenesse of heart use meanes by the truth of Gods word to informe his conscience But in things expresly commanded such as is this dutie of prayer in this case a man is not to hearken to any scruple which shall rise concerning the not performing of it but is violently to resist that scruple and to breake through it and to addresse himselfe to the dutie of prayer notwithstanding For whensoever scruples under pretence of conscience shall arise to trouble and hinder a man from performing a necessarie dutie When a man may do contrary to scruple of conscience such as prayer and the like it is lawfull to do contrary to such scruples for a scruple is nothing else but a groundlesse feare wherefore to do a thing commanded by God though it be done contrarie to this scruple is not to do it against conscience for there can be no tye of conscience against any of Gods Commandements Wherefore laying aside all carnall reasoning and objecting as also all scruples and doubting be you encouraged to bee frequent in prayer and that not onely because unspeakable good shall redound to your selfe thereby but out of conscience of dutie because it is the wil of God that you should pray unto him Pray in this manner or as Luk. 11.1 Say Our Father c. Note hence that Doct. 4 The Lords prayer is a prayer and may be used in this verie forme of words for a prayer Our Saviour else would not have said Say Our Father Luk. 11.1 Reason Whatsoever is requisite in prayer may be expressed in uttering the very words of this prayer And in them a man may make his requests knowne to God which to do is to pray Vse 1 This confuteth the rash and ungrounded opinion of those which because the Lords Prayer is a patterne of prayer therefore hold it unlawfull to use it for a prayer As if it might not be both a prayer and a pattern as indeed it is And why may it not as well as a Kings standard weights and measures which are patternes of all sorts of weights and measures of the kingdome by which all both small and great are to be made and examined yet no wise man will say those standards are not weights or will not use them but of all weights if he may will use them because they be perfect and by them he may make others of his owne If the Lords Prayer be a Vse 2 prayer to be used in that verie forme in which Christ hath left it Set prayers are lawfull then without question set prayers are lawfull and no man should make scruple thereat yea in private for this prayer may be said in the closet Mat. 6.6 Besides we have good
warrant from Moses teaching the Priests to blesse the people in a set forme saying Num. 6.24 The Lord blesse thee and keepe thee c. Also when the Ark set forward they had a set forme Numb 10.35 Rise up Lord c. David penned his Psalmes to bee used in the Church and Psal 92. for every Sabbath And Hezekiah commanded the Levites to sing praises unto the Lord with the words of David 2 Chron. 29.30 and of Asaph It is said of our Saviour Christ whose example we may bee bold to follow That he prayed the third time saying the same words Mat. 26.44 Ob. Set formes of prayer doth stint the spirit Sol. It doth not no more then a premeditated Sermon doth stint the spirit of Prophesie or then a conceived prayer by the Minister doth stint the spirit of prayer in the people who must restraine themselves to his words yet the spirit in truth is not stinted in them Order and edification in the Church requireth set formes of prayers and praises to be used in publicke as it hath beene the custome of all established true Churches there being common sinnes to be deprecated common graces to bee prayed for and common mercies to thank God for And in more private praier the ignorance forgetfulnesse and bashfulnesse of some persons before their family or others causeth that for a time it is needfull to use the helpe of a set form which he may reade or repeate so that he joyne understanding and assent of heart thereto Yet it must be remembred that Christians must not alwayes be such novices and weaklings in religion to use set formes of prayer in private which like crutches and bladders serve to initiate and minister to them helpe untill they have gotten strength as if they never intended to pray without them But let this here be observed It must not on the other side be held that onely premeditated studied and set praiers are lawfull He is not meete for the place of a Minister nor worthy the name of a strong Christian that hath so tyed his devotion to a set forme that he will not or cannot vary his petitions for his people or himselfe as particular occasions varie and new necessities require It is impossible that any prayer booke should meet with all occasions either of prayer or thanksgiving which fall out daily And conceived prayer is not so defective and imperfect but if it be pertinent and in truth God liketh it Exo 14.15 though it had no set forme to bring it forth Such were the prayers of Moses at the Red-sea 1. Sam. 1.13 and of Hannah at the Tabernacle their prayers were conceived and brought forth without set forme or voice I conclude this point therefore affirming that it is an error to hold set prayer to be unlawfull and it is no lesse error to hold that no prayer but a set forme of prayer is lawfull In this manner If our Saviour would have us use onely this forme S. Luke would not have varied from this of Saint Matthew saying Sinnes for debts and far for as in the fifth petition neither would he have left out the forme of thanksgiving nor yet would the Apostles have prayed in any other forme All which shew that In this manner signifieth according to it and not onely to use those words whence learne that All prayers must be made according Doct. 5 to the patterne of the Lords Prayer If made according to this they are acceptable if not they are faultie The best confirmation of this point besides Christs expresse exhortation which is authenticke is to compare this praier with the prayers of the Saints recorded in holy writ both before and after this prayer and it will be found that they all may without wresting be referred unto some branches of this prayer even as all the precepts scattered in the Bible may be referred unto the ten commandements Reason The perfection that this prayer hath above all other prayers doth challenge the rule of all the rest for whatsoever is necessarily requisite in praier is to be learned by this if it be truly understood For it plainly teacheth how he must be qualified that doth pray also to whom we must pray what we must aske and with what heart and affection as will appeare in the handling of it Vse 1 Every disciple and member of Christ Iesus should therefore have this prayer in great esteeme because it is of Christs owne composing they are his own words and he did of purpose leave it to be a patterne of prayer to all Christians Onely take heed that you do not with the Papists turne the use of it into abuse through superstition Let all men use this prayer Vse 2 for the guide of all their prayers and as skilfull workemen by the helpe of some small but true modell or draught can erect a large and stately building so we by this compendious but most exact briefe of prayer must learne to enlarge our selves in prayer That use of this patterne for the making of prayers according to it How to frame all prayers by the patterne of the Lords prayer may be made two things must be learned First learne the plaine meaning of the words and the sense and meaning of Christ in them Secondly learne how this patterne may be applied As for the first because such exceeding brevity doth cause some obscurity the more paines must be taken that by the light of other Scripture and helpe of those men which have faithfully travelled in the interpretation of this prayer the true meaning may be found out And untill you meete with better directions use these following First two things in generall one contrary to the other are to be understood in every petition namely petition and deprecation praying for some thing that is good and praying against the contrary evill And it is a sure rule that in the same petition where the good thing is desired the contrary evill is prayed against as in the foure former petitions Also where the evill prayed against is expressed in the petition the contrary good thing to be desired is to be understood in the same petition as in the two last petitions As it is in the commandements in the same commandement that any vice is forbidden the contrary duty is commanded A second rule is If one kind or part of any thing be expressed in any petition all kindes and parts of the same thing are to be understood A third rule is where any one thing is prayed for in any petition the causes effects thereof and whatsoever properly belongeth unto the said thing is understood to be prayed for in the same petition except they fall out to bee the expresse subject of some other petition The second thing to be learned is how application of this prayer may be made to the framing of all other prayers by it which that ye may do take notice that this prayer directeth us unto
fashions to the Patriarches before the Law yea the second person in Trinity appeared to Abraham Gen. 18.1.3.22 Gen. 32 24. and to Iacob in shape of a man yet in the * Deu. 4.16 law God expresly forbiddeth the representing of him by any similitude whether of man or of any other thing Wherefore neither can any act of Gods particular dispensation in his apparitions to man since the Law bee a dispensation to us who are bound to keepe the Law For it is our duty to obey Gods Law not to follow the examples of Gods owne particular dispensation he being a Law to himselfe and under no Law It is true Christ Iesus was a very man in all things like to us sinne onely excepted was crucified upon a material crosse capable of portraiture yet no image can set forth Christ as he is our Saviour and as he is to be worshipped For an image can onely set forth his bodily shape and his outward state of humiliation These images therefore debase Christ who now is glorified And who so shall now represent Christ to his mind according to the likenesse of an ordinary man or in the likenesse of Christs manhood as it was in his state of debasement the same turneth Christ into an idoll For he is to be conceived of in the minde and to be worshipped not as a meere man whose body onely the image can but uncertainly represent but as God and man and as man now glorified subsisting not as other men do but in the second person of the Deitie Faith apprehendeth more of Christ than the eye can represent or if an image could represent more than it doth yet we have not Gods institution for it but against it Thirdly sith God is in heaven wee learne that we must not needlesly multiply words before him when wee pray but that our words be few This same thing the Holy Ghost inferreth saying God is in heaven and thou upon the earth therefore let thy words bee few Eccl. 5.2 The meaning is bee not rash and inconsiderate but ponder as well your words that you may know how to utter your minde to God as to consider the matter what to speak unto him namely you must use such words and so many as may aptly and sufficiently expresse your desires to God without superfluity of speech and without needlesse and heartlesse repetitions and unnecessary digressions This vain repetition of words babling Mat. 6.7 our Saviour forbiddeth Against this rule Papists doe grosly offend in measuring out their prayers not by weight but by number as they will say so many Pater-nosters so many Avie-maries so many Dirges c. to obtaine their desires of God according as they are prescribed in their Rosaries and they presume to be heard by the merit of their much babling In like manner do offend all those which utter their minde to God with affectation of fine words as if they would court God or on the other side in a loose and carelesse expression or though using apt words yet they utter them without understanding or affection Quest But may we not at all make long prayers nor repeat the same petitions which will require many words Answ The case touching long prayer When there is cause wee may use long prayers we may use repetitions and therefore many words in some prayers namely when the matter of our prayer is large and when in repetition of the same things we do indeed renew and double our desires and do withall expresse a farther degree of seriousnesse and earnestnesse of our heart in putting up the said desires The examples of the prayers of David of Salomon Psal 51. Psal 119. 1 Kings 8.22 to 53. Dan. 9. Luke 6.12 of Daniel and of our blessed Saviour Christ Iesus who spent whole nights in prayer and therefore must needs use many words do give us a sufficient warrant But words in prayer without matter many words and repetitions without understanding and without new affections Mat. 6.7 and when men think they shall the rather bee heard for their Oratory or much speaking or when men make long prayers that they may bee thought to have a large gift in prayer or when they do it under any colourable pretence to serve their base ends Mat. 23.14 in these and in like cases long prayers and many words in prayer are unlawfull Fourthly the consideration of this infinite heavenly Majesty and goodnesse of our God and father doth teach us that when we pray unto him wee must performe it with holy adoration and devotion with all holy reverence alwayes inwardly in our hearts as also outwardly when time place and ability serveth with reverent and apt gestures of the body Reason 1 For Christ hath redeemed both our soules and bodies therefore wee must serve him and glorifie him in and with our body and spirit 1 Co. 6.20 which are Gods Reason 2 Though the essence of prayer consisteth in the desire and lifting up of the heart which must therefore be looked unto that it be rightly affected and though God be a Spirit and is not moved with bare bodily gestures Vse of befitting gestures in prayer yet befitting gestures are of speciall use in prayer as partly to help the inward man making the spirit more apt and lively and the minde to bee more attentive to what we are about and partly to expresse the inward devotion and affection of the heart But how far is a man bound in conscience to use outward gestures Quest and what gestures must wee use The worship of God consisteth not in outward gestures Answ The case touching gestures in prayer and when a gesture is not by him commanded it is not properly any part of Gods worship And the Scripture hath not commanded any particular gesture to bee used alwayes in prayer therefore the conscience is not bound to any thing certaine thereabout but left free to observe what in Christian discretion is fittest to be done In Scripture we read of variety of gestures in prayer as bowing the knees Eph. 3.14 Psal 95.6 Iohn 17.1 1 Tim. 2.8 2 Chr. 6.13 Mar. 11 25 Luk. 18 13 and prostrating the body this is most usuall and when we can conveniently is fittest to be used also lifting up the eyes and hands stretching out of the hands knocking the breast looking downe to the earth standing Luk. 24 30 Isa 38.2 sitting at meat and lying in the bed all these postures of the body have been used indifferently Rules touching gestures Yet some rules consonant to Scripture may bee given for our better direction In short ejaculations and in secret praier while a man is in company Neh 2.4 or on his way in his journey or the like in these cases bodily gestures are neither fit nor usefull No gesture is to bee used but such as is apt to stirre up or holily to expresse a right affection to God ward as either
must take those deeds for currant pay when they are but meere counterfeit stuffe if they trie their deeds by the touch of the directions before given Yet none so readie to upbraid God and hit him in the teeth as we speak with How good they are and what service they do him as these kinde of men who will challenge God like them in Isaiah Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest us not wherefore have we afflicted our soule and thou takest no knowledge No men presume that God should save them more than these They will say Lord Mat. 7.22 Lord have not we prophecied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out devils But he will answer I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquitie For actions which are good in the matter thereof yet do stinke and are very iniquitie in Gods account Isa 1.13 if they be not done aright For what is not done with a good conscience and in truth of heart is not done at all in Gods account for he looketh to the heart and manner how all things be performed Let it be every mans prayer Vse 2 and endevor to do good things well to fulfill Gods will in an heavenly manner viz. upon good ground with good conscience and good affections This is the heart life and verie soule of every good action And though there may happen to be some failings in the matter of what is done which also is not to bee allowed yet if the heart be upright in the manner God doth beare with much weaknesse and doth accept of truth and uprightnesse As in heaven The patterne of the right manner of doing Gods will is a perfect one taken from heaven Christ would have all men ayme at this whence note Doct. 5 Christians must ayme at perfection They must alwayes presse hard forward to attaine it Now the God of peace make you perfect to do his will saith the Apostle Hebr. 13.20 21. Let us go on unto perfection Heb. 6.1 Let us perfect holines in the feare of God saith he 2. Cor. 7.1 Naturall things do affect Reason and in their manner long after the perfection of themselves An infant is still growing in the wombe untill it come to a perfection Light bodies are not quiet if they be not above and in their place So that it may justly be doubted there is not truth of Christianity if there be not a desire and longing after perfection of Christianitie This blameth all that thinke Vse 1 they know enough and have made progresse farre enough in the race of Christianitie But what saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 9.24 Not all that runne receive the price If men fall back or stand at a stay they can never finish their course Wherefore hee would have others do as he did So run that they might obtaine and so fight that they might get the masterie and win the crowne Hee that puts his hand to the plough and looketh backe he is not apt for the kingdome of God Luke 9.62 Vse 2 Meanes of growing towards perfectiō The thoughts of heaven and of the patternes for imitation which are in heaven and the state of perfection in which we shall be when we come to heaven should be load-stones to draw us to heaven-ward and to perfection Be perfect saith Christ Mat. 5.48 as your heavenly Father is perfect in everie thing and everie way perfect The way to attaine this is first to convince the heart that we ought to bee perfect Phil. 3.12.13 then see with the Apostle that wee are not alreadie perfect Thirdly let us not look on what wee have done and what is behinde but on that which is before to bee done Fourthly 2. Cor. 7.1 be daily purging our selves from filthinesse of flesh and spirit and so perfect holinesse Fiftly that we may do all these be daily conversant in the reading hearing and meditation of the holy Scriptures for their end is 2. Tim. 3.17 to make the man of God perfect Lastly give al diligence and presse forward Phil. 3.14 as the Apostle did toward the marke and price of the high calling of God in Christ. Thus do and the rather because he that doth not ayme at perfection of degrees hath not the perfection of truth and of parts The fourth Petition Give us this day our daily bread Having dispatched the handling of the three first Petitions which did more immediately concerne God wee are now come to the other three which do more especially concerne man which are also meanes to enable a man to glorifie God by doing his will These petitions following concerne man in a double respect First in respect of the outward man for sustaining the bodie and life of nature in this fourth petition Secondly in respect of the inward man and good of the soule also scil the life of grace the hindrance whereof is sinne concerning which the Lord directeth his disciples to deprecate and pray against two things First the guilt and damnation of sinne praying for justification in the fifth Petition Secondly against the power dominion of sinne praying for sanctification in the sixt and last Petition Request for to have a comfortable naturall life and being upon earth doth follow immediately upon the request of doing Gods will on earth for the dead cannot praise God And if a man be not gathered into Christs kingdome before death there is no hope Isa 38.18.19 For there is no worke nor device nor knowledge in the grave Eccles 9.10 Wherefore because no man can doe the will of God on earth except God give him a comfortable life upon earth this petition followeth next the other in a most holy order This petition is placed before the other two which concerne the estate of the soule and of the life of grace not in order of prioritie of dignitie as if the temporall estate of the body were more needfull or more excellent than the eternall life of the soule for this latter is farre more excellent but because in order of nature the naturall life is before the spiritual and a man must have a being in nature before he can have a being in grace and a comfortable naturall life is both the fitter subject for the life of grace and fitter instrument by which grace worketh and doth the will of God upon earth therefore it is first prayed for Besides it is usuall in Scripture that the thing which is least to be insisted upon is placed first in order before that which sometimes is more excellent that having finished the lesse worthy subject in few words it might dwell more largely upon that subject which was most worthy As the histories of Iaphet and cursed Cham Gen. 10. are set before that of blessed Shem Gen. 36. and after Isaacks death the storie of prophane Esau i◠for this cause set before that of Iacob Gen. 37. So our Saviour in one petition and in few
adversaries that presume upon their owne strength shall faint but they that waite upon the Lord shall renew their strength Asa did confirme himselfe against an hoast of more than a thousand thousand enemies by this point in hand saying to the Lord 2. Chron. 14.11 It is nothing with thee to helpe whether with many or with them that have no power And whereas Gods children are many of them little and weak and their adversaries mightie and strong yet if they lay hold on the power of Gods might they shall stand in the evill day and bee sure to overcome Thus John encourageth all Gods children saying Ye are of God 1. Ioh. 4.4 little children and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world Paul comforteth himselfe in this when persecutours went about to take away his life 2. Tim. 2.12 saying I know whom I have beleeved and I am perswaded that he is able to keepe that which I have committed unto him And hereby we know that our vile body shall be made like Christs glorious body Philip. 3.21 because of that mighty working whereby Christ is able to subdue all things to himselfe And we are assured of that inheritance incorruptible in the heavens because both it is reserved for us and we are kept for it by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1. Pet. 1.4.5 And thine is glory In that glory is appropriated unto God we learne All glory and praise primarily Doct. 5 and properly belongeth unto God Therefore the foure and twenty Elders ascribe glory and honour unto him Revel 4.11 Likewise all creatures in heaven and in earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them are brought in giving glorie and honour to him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lambe for ever and ever Revel 5.13 This is Reason because God onely is of himselfe excellent and glorious If any other persons or things have any excellencie or goodnesse they have it of God for of him Rom. 11.36 through him and to him are all things saith the Apostle to whom bee glory for ever Amen Who so would be further confirmed and would see what use he should make of this Doctrine let him look back into the first Doctrine of the first Petition For ever Here it must be observed that Doct. 5 All divine prerogatives and properties that are in God are everlasting His soveraigntie power and glorie and all his attributes had no beginning and shall have no ending Moses in the Psalme saith From everlasting to everlasting thou art God Psalm 90.2 The Apostle saith To the King eternall immortall c. be honour and glory for ever 1. Tim. 1.17 who also speaking of God in another place saith Who onely hath immortality c. to whom bee honour and power everlasting 1. Tim. 6.16 The nature of God is perfect and absolute without mixture Reason or composition of things contrary or divers so that there cannot be in him any internall cause of corruption and ending Also God is independant and above all other things that there can be no externall cause and therefore no cause that can cause any alteration in him or can put an end to his being therefore God must needs be the same yesterday to day and for ever Is God everlasting in everie Vse 1 one of his properties then let the wicked feare and tremble for the truth of all Gods threatnings in his word is everlasting heaven and earth shall passe but no jot of the truth of his Word shall be unfulfilled Hereby they must assure themselves that the intolerable torments of hell that are appointed for them are everlasting If there might be an end of Gods justice power and glorie there might be an end of torment but so long as God whose breath as a streame of brimstone Isa 30.33 doth kindle hell-fire is everlasting Mark 9. the gnawing worme and scorching fire made to torment every sinner must needs be everlasting Ah how can they endure this everlasting burning Isa 33.14 The thoughts of the eternitie Vse 2 of Gods properties are exceeding joyous and comfortable unto all that have made their peace with God through faith in Christ for his truth his grace and love and his power to save them 1. Thes 4.17 Psal 16.11 is everlasting By this we may assure our selves that after the day of judgement we shall both in body and soule ever be with the Lord in whose presence is fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore because he that hath promised and purchased and which hath prepared and reserved an eternall inheritance in the heavens for us 1. Pet. 1.4 ever liveth to fulfill and continue it to us Sith all Gods excellencies are Vse 3 everlasting we must daily and constantly for ever ascribe unto him glory everlasting Amen This is the second part of the Lords Prayer whereby is expressed the right disposition of the minde and heart of a man when he prayeth which is indeed the very life of prayer This Hebrew word Amen remaineth for the most part untranslated in Greeke Latin English and in all other languages It is used either in the beginning or ending of a speech In the beginning of a speech it importeth an earnest asseveration whereunto our saying verily or indeed or in very truth doth answer in this sense it is often used by Christ in the Gospell When it is in the latter end of a speech as here and in divers other places it signifieth two things either a wish of the heart to obtaine what is proposed or else a perswasion of the heart that it shall obtaine that which was proposed Oft times it signifieth both That Amen is a wish and desire of what was before spoken of it appeareth by Benaiah's answer to David when he had appointed Solomon to be ruler over Israel and over Iudah saying Amen which he doth explane by these words The Lord God of my Lord the king say so too 1. King 1.36 That Amen sheweth a perswasion of faith touching the thing before spoken of see Rom. 9.5 where when Paul had said of Christ that he was over all God blessed for ever he addeth Amen that is he was assuredly perswaded that it was so Amen in this place signifieth both the assent and wish of the heart as also assurance of faith and expectation of the petitions before mentioned These different acts of the soule scil a heartie wish and expectation of what is wished are not so different but that they may in one instant be acted at once in the heart and therefore may fitly be expressed in one word so long as the word Amen doth signifie both those acts of the soule As it expresseth the assent and desire of the heart it implieth knowledge truth of heart and fervor in asking As it expresseth faith of the heart it implieth an assured expectation to obtaine
the things asked This sense of Amen may be thus rendred O heavenly Father now that I have asked all these petitions according to thy will in the name of Christ I do heartily wish and desire againe and againe that thou wouldest grant them and I am perswaded and do expect that in the best time they shall be granted Amen As it signifieth assent of heart unto what was asked doth necessarily presuppose the understanding of what was asked Whence we may collect Doct. 1 Prayer must be made with understanding Whosoever praieth must know what it is that he prayeth for Sing ye praises with understanding saith the Psalmist Psal 47.7 I will pray with my understanding saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 14.15 meaning he would pray so that both he might understand himselfe and that others might understand him also Reason Every man must say Amen to his owne petitions as well as to the petitions that others do make for him for this Lords prayer is to be said in the closet as well as in the Church Now the Apostle saith he that occupieth the roome of the unlearned cannot say Amen at the giving of thanks if he understand not what is said by another There is the same reason why a man cannot say Amen to his owne prayers if he do not understand what he hath said This confuteth the Popish Vse 1 divinity which requireth no more in prayer then a generall good intention of the heart which is sufficient though it be not understood what is asked and though a particular attention of the minde be not added and I would it were onely the Papists errour This confuteth the Papists Latin service wherto the unlearned people cannot say Amen Whereas they say God understandeth Latin and doth like of devotion I answer he must understand what the heart saith as well as what the tongue vttereth and as for blind devotion such as that is which is without understanding hee doth abhorre it Yet this is a common fault not only among Papists but of the common sort of ignorant professors of the true religion for even many of them if they have said over their prayers doe thinke they have served God well and and are blest for that day when poore soules they do not vnderstand one halfe of what they speak Let all before spoken of understand that all uttering of words of prayer without understanding are but bare repetitions of words they are no prayers but mere babling which God detesteth Vse 2 Whensoever any man doth pray unto God let him bee sure that if he pray alone he do understand what it is that he uttereth before God and if hee bee the mouth of others that he expresse his desires in such words that those that heare him may understand him that both himselfe and others may indeed say Amen unto his prayer Amen This implieth intention and assent of heart unto all the petitions before mentioned Whence note The minde and heart must alwaies Doct. 2 bee conjoyned with the tongue or thought in prayer There must be truth and intention of heart in all prayers David saith his prayer did not go out of fained lips Psal 17.1 The Apostle saith Hee would pray and sing with the spirit as well as with the understanding 1 Cor. 14.15 The Lord did dislike the prayers of Israel because when they prayed they cryed unto him not with their heart Hoseah 7.14 He did likewise abhorre the praiers of the Pharisees because they onely drew neere unto God with their mouth and seemed to honour him with their lips but their heart was farre from him Mat. 15.8 Reas 1 Truth of heart and true intention of the minde unto the requests or thanks which a man doth offer is the very life of prayer without which words or thoughts in prayer are but an outside and carkasse of prayer and are mere hypocrisie Reas 2 The promise of hearing and granting requests is made only unto hearty and unfained prayers Yee shall seek me and finde me when ye shall search for me with all your heart saith the Lord Ierem. 29.13 And Christ saith whatsoever ye desire when ye pray beleeve that ye receive them and yee shall have them Mark 11.24 Vse 1 This is to discover and reprove much faultinesse in the prayers of many men of whom albeit it cannot alwayes bee said they pray not in understanding for they know what they say yet they may be charged with this fault that they do not pray in the spirit for they do not alwayes mind what themselves or others do utter in prayer or if they minde it do not heartily desire it or not desire all that is asked they will say Amen to the petition for dayly bread but say not Amen to thy will bee done or lead us not into temptation These offenders are of two sorts One sort never take notice of this their slightnesse and hypocrisie and are so farre from being humbled for their faylings that even for their hypocriticall service they expect God should respect them Thus did those Iewes Isaiah 58.3 who said Why have we fasted thou seest us not all such are in the power of hypocrisie who except they repent must expect to have their portion with hypocrites There are another sort of offenders in this kinde that through drowsinesse of body wandering of their thoughts and through an evill custome of slight and heedlesse praying alone or with others do not minde the things which they seeme to pray for but either have their thoughts suspended that they thinke on nothing or else have their thoughts on some other things than what are uttered in prayer but these either take themselves in the manner in the time of prayer whereat they grieve and presently call in their thoughts and fix their heart upon the present worke or at least when they have made an end of praying they will call their faylings to minde and humble themselves before God for them Albeit this latter sort are Gods children for the best are subject to slightnesse hollownesse and many wandring thoughts in prayer yet they must judge this manner of praying to be sinfull and must sufâ—er themselves to be reproved and must reprove themselves and take paines to avoid this evill of heedlesnesse and hypocrisie in prayer else how can they say Amen to their owne or other mens prayers when they did not give heed or attend unto prayer their prayers must needs be without spirit and life and therefore displeasing unto God This calleth upon every one Vse 2 which would make an acceptable prayer unto God to have a care that not onely the matter of his prayer be good and lawfull and that he also do understand what he uttereth but that his heart and spirit likewise do joyne in the uttering of every request and thanks that he offereth unto God The heart must be lift up unto God and be kept steady upon him and upon every confession petition and thanksgiving from the beginning of prayer
Gods providence or grace usually bestowed else let no man looke to have his prayer granted He that doth aske daily bread he must labour and use the lawfull ordinarie meanes of maintenance else he may justly starve notwithstanding his prayer So likewise a man may pray for knowledge for faith repentance and for eternall life but if this bee but a sluggards wish and be not joyned with using the ordinarie meanes of knowledge faith and repentance as namely hearing reading and meditating of the Word of God and a right partaking of the Sacraments If a man do not heed the Word if he do not consider it and lay it to his heart If he do not withall improve the strength which hee hath gotten in the use of the meanes of grace considering what grounds and what cause he hath to beleeve and repent c. and if he do not assay and put himselfe on to the leaving the sinne he prayeth against or to the doing whereof he desired grace of God let him never thinke that he shall obtaine the things prayed for For God never intended to give them but in the use of those means which he hath prescribed If therefore your person bee not thus qualified If either you be not in state of grace or if you live in any grosse sinne unrepented or if you bee not in charity with your neighbour or if you have beene and are unthankfull for old favours or if you be failing in not using the lawfull meanes of having what you aske you may thanke your selfe if though you have prayed yet you have not your petitions Though your person may be in the maine fitly qualified in the former respects yet there may be such failing in the particular act of praying that it may hinder the granting of the praier As 1. If you pray not to God onely 2. If you conceive not of God aright 3. If you pray not in the name of Christ at least impliedly 4. If the matter of your prayer bee not good and warrantable 5. If you do not pray with understanding 6. If you do not intend your prayer as a worship of God and be sincere in it 7. If it be not with a sensible desire 8. If it bee not with attention of minde 9. If it be not with fervour 10. If it be not with holy devotion 11. If it be not to a right and warrantable end 12. And if it be not in faith beleeving that you shall have your request put up to God in manner as aforesaid and if it bee not such a faith which causeth you to waite patiently then if God have not heard you must blame your self and if you would be heard another time consider wherein you failed and amend it and particulary take heed that when you have endeavoured to pray as well as you can that your not beleeving you should be heard be not the chiefe cause why you have not your prayers granted It will further be objected Ob. If the before-mentioned failings may hinder the granting of our prayers then who can beleeve that ever his prayer shall be heard for who faileth not in some or other of them I answer first God is many times better to us than our praiers and if hee please hee may grant our petitions though made with some speciall failings if he do it is of his mercy if he do not the fault was in us But secondly difference must be put betweene a failing out of weaknesse and manifold temptations and that which is through wilfulnesse and customary negligence If a mans conscience can witnesse to himselfe that when he prayeth the intent and the bent of his heart is to pray aright and not to faile then God for Christs sake in whose name prayer is made doth passe by and forgive such failings and doth certainely heare Wherefore in such cases we ought when we pray to beleeve that God will grant our prayers notwithstanding such failings in prayer Secondly though we have not offended him in our prayers yet God may see cause why he will not grant them For the generall rule of his promise to heare our prayers doth admit of some exception As first when if the thing asked were granted it would crosse some acts of his eternall purpose not knowne to us which he hath intended for the setting forth of his glory in wayes unknowne to us whether it be in things concerning his Church or our owne selves in particular Moreover we are apt to desire things to come to passe in such or such a way and by such or such meanes and in such or such a manner as we thinke may stand well with Gods will when yet God hath some other way some other meanes of doing his Church or of doing us good in another manner then we expect Many times wee would have it our way but God holdeth it best to give it his way 2 King 5.11 Like Naaman the leper he would be cured one way but God cured him by another way Act. 27.24.30.44 God saved Paul and all with him not as they would by the safety of the ship but by the pieces of the ship after shipwracke We are apt to rest upon such and such meanes and to set the meanes above God then it is fit that he should choose other meanes yea hee doth many times choose weake meanes to confound the strong that all the praise may be given to God and that no flesh might glory in his presence Many want comfort and other things because they prescribe to God the meanes Mat. 26.39 In such cases wee should alwayes pray with a reservation namely if thou wilt let this thing be or let this thing passe yet not my will but thine be done A second exception is if the thing asked be not for our good We many times aske for things good in themselves and lawfull for us to aske but God who knoweth what is better for us than we do he knoweth that if we had them they would not be good for us In this case to be denyed our suite is a mercy and and a favour to us God promiseth that we shall want nothing that is good Psa 34.10 Psa 84 1â— Rom. 8.28 and that hee will with-hold nothing that is good and that all things shall worke together for good to them that love him Thirdly God doth heare and grant our prayers when wee thinke that he doth not God doth grant our requests divers wayes Sometimes he giveth the same thing that is asked even in the same kinde as when God gave unto Hannah a sonne at her request 1 Sa. 1.27 Psal 21.2 and gave unto David his hearts desire Sometimes God doth not give the same thing in kinde which is asked but the same in effect or that which is farre better When wee aske temporall blessings as health wealth liberty or the removall of such and such a crosse it may be God doth not hold it fit that those particulars
absolutely necessary to salvation or not necessary and according as Gods promise the ground of our faith and hope is absolute or conditionall Our prayer for things needfull bee they things spirituall or temporall must be particular and absolute because a generall petition namely that God should doe with us as hee pleaseth as may bee for his glory and for our good is properly no petition for in saying so a man asketh no certaine thing neither doth hee know what he doth aske So likewise a conditionall petition is no petition Wee may and must truly and particularly desire the things lawfully asked yet as wee aske temporall things with lesse earnestnesse and intension of minde and spirituall things with more fervor and intension of minde so our expectation of the one is absolute and more firme our expectation of the other is lesse firme and alwayes with submission either expressed or understood unto the will of God In resolving this Case 2 Cases whether a man may aske temporall things absolutely Whether a man may aske temporall things absolutely I will with it propound and answer another Case to wit Whether when a man hath asked temporall things he may expect them absolutely Whether when a man hath asked temporall things he may absolutely expect them I answer difference must be put between asking a thing absolutely and expecting a thing absolutely when it is asked There are some things may bee asked absolutely which yet may not absolutely bee expected Gods command is the ground of our asking this command to pray for temporall things is absolute for we are as well bid to aske our daily bread as to aske forgivenesse of sins Gods promises are the ground of our faith and expectation of receiving the things asked Now all Gods promises are not absolute his promise of temporall things and of such spirituall things as are not necessary to salvation doth admit of reservations and exceptions that is hee will give temporall things to us so farre as they may well stand with our enjoying of those good thing which are spirituall and eternall Likewise his promises which concerne the giving a specialty of grace and of comfort over and above what is necessary to salvation upon our asking are to bee understood with this exception unlesse hee holdeth it best 2 Cor. 12.8.9 to keepe us humble hungry and thirsty watchfull and prayerfull under the sense of our infirmity and want of what we desire which in some cases is farre better for us than to have our desire Namely when if we had such or such grace and comfort we should bee exalted above measure and should despise them that had not the like or should grow presumptuously secure Wherefore when wee shall aske for spirituall things absolutely necessary for Gods glory and mans good such as hallowing of Gods name comming of his kingdome and doing of his will also forgivenesse of sinnes and grace to convert repent and to live godly these things being asked in the truth of our heart we must say Amen unto them with a full and absolute assurance that our petitions are granted for of these things the promises are absolute But as for petitions concerning our outward man state of life and concerning such and such degrees and measure of grace and concerning the feeling of comfort in the assurance of our forgivenesse all which are lawfull and needfull to bee prayed for though we must say Amen to these also with true assurance that God heareth and is well pleased with those our Petitiōs yet we must not say Amen with that absolute expectation of enjoying the things asked For these are asked with a reservation still unto Gods will both when he shall please and in what measure he shall in his gracious pleasure thinke good For my part therefore upon the former grounds I conceive that though temporall good things as health libertie peace life and the like may be absolutely asked that is distinctly and particularly without condition yet those things so asked are not absolutely to be expected in the very particulars to be granted Onely this we may and must absolutely expect when wee pray even for these things that either we shall have them or that which is better at least that we shall have grace sufficient to sustaine us without them 2. Cor. 12.9 so as to have matter of comfort in God in this life and of hope of salvation in the life to come For in that we have prayed in faith this should stay our hearts That we may attaine this assurance our care must be that we make and keepe our peace with God and that we do get and cherish the spirit of prayer Luk. 11.13 that we may alwayes pray according to his will in the name of Christ Iesus Ioh. 14.13.14 then we may build upon his promise and upon his almightie power and fidelitie and we may confidently say with Saint John 1. Ioh. 5.14.15 that we know that God heareth us and that we have the petitions that we desired of him But to conclude this point suppose that when you have done what you can in prayer yet you do not feele nor finde that you have a comfortable answer to your prayers yet be not discouraged nor give over as your troubled heart and your malicious adversary will oft suggest unto you but pray daily and sith you have a promise of audience beleeve and hope even above your feeling and above hope For it will not be in vaine that you still pray Prayer is a dutie to God now if you pray though for the present you have no other benefit but this the discharge of a good conscience in obedience to God this will give some secret support to the soule But bee you assured Gal. 6 9. as in all other well-doing so you shall finde in this be not weary and in due season you shall reape if you faint not and give not over Thus I have with Gods assistance finished this Treatise upon the Lords Prayer in which amongst many other things we may see the necessity of prayer the excellency of it and also how to pray I will adde a word or two touching the difficultie of praying aright This doctrine of the difficultie of praying aright I gather partly from the need that Christs owne disciples had to be taughe to pray Luk. 11.1 and partly by the many things required in prayer of which you have heard before And for proofe hereof consider that the Apostle Paul professeth of himselfe and other beleevers Rom. 8.26 saying We know not what we should pray as we ought The causes of the difficultie are many Reas 1 First prayer is a spirituall service and some men are altogether carnall and the best men are in part carnall wherefore a man 's owne inbred and indwelling evill will alwayes be present when a man prayeth to cause deadnesse and unaptnesse also to fill him full of feares and doubts full of impertinent
and evill thoughts when he should pray Reas 2 Guiltinesse of conscience especially upon the committing of some grosse sinne together with ignorant conceits of God that his thoughts are like mens thoughts Isa 55.8 implacable and unapeazeable this maketh many a man afraid to looke God in the face This was Davids case Many because they have praied Reas 3 long and as they think have not beene heard hence they are discouraged and out of heart to pray any more So many things as hath before Reas 4 beene shewed are required to make a praier acceptable that it is hard to observe them all when we pray Satan doth Spite nothing Reas 5 more then heartie and faithfull prayer for by it his kingdome is undermined overthrowne and by it he himselfe is cast out of his possession and kept out wherefore it standeth him upon to use all his methodes and devices to hinder a man and either altogether put him by the duty it selfe or so distemper him with evill suggestions doubts false feares presumptions or some other hindrance that he shall be heartlesse faithlesse or meerely formall and hypocriticall in prayer making him content himselfe with the worke done but altogether carelesse how it be done Vse 1 This truth justly reproveth all such as thinke it an easie matter to pray therefore never prepare themselves before nor yet are watchfull over themselves when they are in the act of prayer but patter over certaine words of prayer thinke they shall go to heaven by their good prayers Indeed it is an easie matter to say our prayers you may teach a childe to say them but to pray our prayers aright as hath beene taught before out of the Lords Prayer is found by all experienced Christians to be no easie thing Ob. This doctrine touching the difficultie of prayer is enough to discourage men altogether from prayer Sol. By no meanes for prayer is a necessarie dutie and must bee done and withall it is a most profitable duty and will quit all a mans paines Besides it is not so hard to be done but that it is possible nay certaine that by the help of the Spirit of prayer it may be done in an acceptable manner In these cases knowledge of the difficulties do whet on desire and resolution and doth stirre up care and circumspection it is farre from discouraging any from the worke Wherefore the next use is let Vse 2 none be discouraged from praier because of the hardnesse of the worke Breake through all lets for pray you must Gen. 32.26 Hos 12.3.4 Jacob by much and strong wrastling did prevaile at last Do in the matter of prayer as men use to do in difficult workes Set to it with all care and watchfulnesse Set to it with all the strength which you have and which you can get We must do like those which whet and sharpen their tooles which are blunt and dul We must fetch prayers as David used to do out of meditations If wee shall raise up our mindes to heavenlinesse and get our faith in God strengthened and if we pray for the spirit of prayer and if wee will joyne with the spirit in prayer then much of the difficultie will be taken off The principall helpe to prayer next that of Gods help by his Spirit is the strength exercise of our faith Yea the Spirit of God doth both worke it and worke by it in prayer Means to strengtheÌ„ faith in prayer We may strengthen our faith in prayer by these considerations First from Gods generall goodnesse to every creature He is good to all Psa 145 9. and his tender mercies are over all his workes He giveth the beasts their food he feedeth the young ravens that cry Psa 147.9 Will hee not much more heare man when hee prayeth unto him He hath heard wicked men such as Ahab Manasses and others Secondly consider that God is all-sufficient and able to help Thirdly consider the universality of his promise made to them that pray and the extent of his mercie towards them He saith every one that asketh receiveth Thus David strengtheneth his faith in prayer saying Be mercifull to me O Lord for I crie unto thee daily Psal 86.3.5 for thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy to whom even to all that call upon thee This warrant to pray and these grounds of faith everie man as he is a creature hath in common with all men whereby he may be encouraged to pray and to expect a gracious audience But every childe of God who beleeveth in Christ in whom is the Spirit of God to sanctifie and cleanse the heart causing him to will and to endeavour in all things to please God all such have more peculiar grounds of faith expectation to be heard when they pray These may and must looke into the evidences of their adoption and sonne-ship They must consider whether they do not beleeve in Christ by such a faith which worketh by love but they must not say they have not this faith when their conscience can tell them that it is their desire that it may workby love and that it is their griefe when they faile in their duties of love to God or man now if they by faith have interest in Christ then they may know they are the sonnes and daughters of God Now when we can make good our title to God that we can call him by the spirit of adoption Rom 8.15.16 Father when we can with sonne-like affection call him our Father which art in heaven we may hereby strengthen our faith and assure our selves that he will both enable us to pray and will graciously heare and grant our prayers Is it so difficult a thing to Vse 3 pray aright then is it thus with any man or woman that in prayer they have found that their hearts have beene enlarged their spirits raised up their thoughts gathered in and composed their mindes intentive and attentive their faith strengthened and their conscience eased upon this their heartie and devout powring out their soule unto God O then let them blesse God for it for by his grace they have done a great and difficult worke they have done a blessed and most happie worke It is our great faults that we can onely complaine of our defects in prayer and not also take notice of and be thankfull to God for his helpe in our prayers Which fault if wee would amend we should finde lesse defect and more helpe from God in our prayers hereafter One thing yet remaineth to bee spoken of in a word or two before I conclude which is to answer this question Quest What are wee to doe after we have endevoured to pray aright Answ I answer first wee must not bee carkingly carefull aboâ—â— those things concerning which we have prayed Thus much the Apostle implyeth when he saith Phil. 4.6.7 Be carefull in nothing but in every thing by prayer and
prayer 99 Wicked mens Prayers are not altogether in vaine though not altogether accepted 101 Difference in the Prayers of the wicked and godly and difference in their acceptance 102 All that would pray acceptably must be in charity with their neighbours 109 Prayer is to be made onely to the true God 113 In the entrance into Prayer a man must represent God to his mind under such titles names as are aptest to induce him to pray and as may best helpe his faith in prayer 122 In Prayer God is to be conceived of in the distinction of Persons 125 Prayer ordinarily is to be directed to the Father in the name of the Sonne by the holy Ghost 133. 134 We must not be rash in Prayer 150 Man must not needlesly multiply words in Prayer 157 In what cases long Prayers may be made in what not 158 Prayer must be made with holy devotion 160 Prayer may be made to God in all places 166 Publike places fittest for publike Prayer 168 Private places fittest for private Prayer 171 Prayer may bee made with voice or without voyce 179 How farre a voyce is fittest to be used in Prayer 180 Cautions in using voyce in private Prayer 181 When and how a man may pray against others 268 Bodily welfare is to be prayed for both for our selves and others 330. 353 Prayers are to be made daily 373 How oft we must pray 376 Prayers for things of this life should be lesse insisted upon then those that concerne the life of grace and glory 398 How spirituall and temporall things are to be prayed for and how the granting of them is to be expected 749. 750 With Prayer praise thanks must be joyned 691 Prayer must bee made with understanding 716 The minde and heart must joyne in prayer 719 There must bee an holy fervour in Prayer 724 When a man hath prayed he must expect to have the things prayed for 727 It is a difficult thing to pray aright 756 Meanes to strengthen faith in Prayer 760 What a man must do after he hath endevoured to pray aright 764 God would have his children utter to him Reasons grounds why they aske and expect the things for which they pray 685 When men are fallen into Sin it must be their prayer and caâ—â— to get out by Repentance 6â—â— The properties of sound Repentance 671 How Saints departed and Angels in heaven are to be honoured by men on earth 305 Salvation is of the free grace of God 451 How a man may prevent Gods giving of him over to sinne 616 Of the kindes of Temptation 510 What a good Temptation is 510 What an evill Temptation is 511 How farre God hath to do in evill Temptations 513 What is properly to tempt to sinne 516 God hath an holy hand in the Temptations sins of men 571 The best are subject to Temptations 633 Who so would bee kept from sinne must resist it in the Temptation 644 How Temptations to sinne are pressed by tempters and how resisted by the tempted 652. 678 It must bee every Christians desire that Gods will be obeyed 285 The chiefe heads to which Gods revealed Will may be reduced 287 Disswasives from disobedience to Gods Will. 28â— Motives to obedience to Godâ— Will. 29â— Meanes to enable us to 〈◊〉 Gods Will. 29â— We must desire that Gods Wiâ—â— be done in an holy manner 30â— What is requisite in the right manner of doing Gods Will. 307 Errata Page 6 line 5. reade from p. 34 l 4 r. conceiving him p. 243. l. 6. r. rendition p. 274 l 18. 19. r. considered p. 277. l. 9. r come p. 301. l. 24. r. shall p. 322â— l. 12. r. proprietie p. 396. l. 17. r. Thâ—â— they p. 396. l. 19. r. That they p. 43â— l. 27. r. unto the. p. 445. l. 26. r use p. â—â—â— l. 3. r. unto his p. 656 l. 24. r. resist FINIS
A KEY OF HEAVEN THE LORDS PRAYER opened and so applied that a Christian may learne how to pray and to procure all things which may make for the glorie of God and the good of himselfe and of his neighbour Containing likewise such Doctrines of faith and godlines as may be very usefull to all that desire to live godly in Christ Iesus The second Edition enlarged by the Author MATTH 7.7 Aske and it shall be given yeu seeke and ye shall finde knocke and it shall be opened unto you Oratio justi clavis coeli LONDON Printed by Thomas Harper for Benâ—â—â— in Fisher and are to be sold at the signe oâ— the Talbot in Aldersgate-street 1633. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIP-FVLL Sir THOMAS CREVV and to all his hopefull children all grace and peace in this life all joy and glory in that which is to come be multiplied RIGHT Worshipfull custome doth claim by prescription that such bookes as come under the Presse to bee made publick should be ushered forth with an Epistle Dedicatory which if it want it calleth into suspition that either the Author hath no friends of worth or that the worke is not worthy patronage Wherefore having suffered this Tract on the Lords Prayer to come forth I tread the common path The profit of him to whom dedication is made or testification of respect and thankfulnesse of him that dedicateth or credit and countenance to the booke dedicated is the marke that is aymed at in dedications All these respects have moved mee to make choyce of your selfe For though you be already furnished and fully established in the truths therein delivered yet it shall bee profitable unto you that with some variety you bee put in remembrance of the same things your children likewise who may reape some good hereby will bee induced to read and make use of this booke the rather because it commeth through the hands and under the patronage of their so loving and beloved father These are likewise to acknowledge that dept of thankes due to you for the many kindnesses you have shewed mee for which I do and shall for ever stand beholding unto you also to signifie my well wishing to your children and that for the well deservings of those which are come to age and for the sake of their mother your deerely beloved wife now with the Lod to whom my selfe and mine stood much indebted whom I could not but admire and affect while she lived whose remembrance I shall alwayes honour and whose name I desire to keepe alive for to quicken others now she is dead For to speake within compasse without hyperbole amongst the many gracious women that I have knowne a more compleate Christian to whom the Lord had bestowed such a sweet concurrence of gifts of grace and nature have I 〈◊〉 knowne Nam gau deant bene nati modò renati Gratier est ouâ—châ—o veniens è corpore virâ—us And though birth beautie wit a large heart and good elocution all which were eminent in her without grace are vanitie yet when these are accompanied with love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfained all which abounded in her each doth make other admirable I would say more were it not that I shold renew your griefe in remembrance of your losse but I am assured you have learned to bee thankfull for the enjoyment of so rare an helper so long rather then to over-grieve or bee impatient that you could enioy her no longer If you shall please to suffer these my first fruits in this kinde to passe into the world through your hand they will be the better accepted of the good and defended from those that are bad and I shall remaine much bound to you All that I can say why I publish this booke is I desire by all meanes according to my abilitie to do good in the Church of God I acknowledge many have written worthily upon this subiect whose helps I have used yet none that I know in this manner and I finde that variety in this kinde doth much good Now the God of heaven whose glory I intend in this worke give it favour in the sight of his Church to the edifying thereof to whom be praise and glory for ever Amen Thus commending you and yours to the protection and blessing of the Almightie I humbly take my leave this 26. of May. Yours to be commanded in all Christian duties HENRY SCUDDER To the Reader TO bee much in perswading those that be favorites of some great person to use that interest for their best advantage were an indeavour somewhat needlesse considering naturall selfe-love inclineth men in such cases to be sensible enough of their owne good Yet so dull is our apprehension of matters that are of an higher nature that though wee have the eare of God alwayes open unto us and free accesse to the throne of grace through Christ who appeareth in heaven for us carrying our names in his breast yet wee need stirring up to improve this blessed liberty though the whole world be not worth this one prerogative that wee can boldly call God Father This disproportion of our carriage ariseth in part from Satans malice who laboureth to keepe us in darknesse that we beleeve not or minde not our best priviledges which if wee did how glorious would our lives appeare how comfortably and fruitfully should we walke what honour should God have by us what sweet sacrifice from us how should wee overlooke all opposite power But now by reason wee are prone to beleeve Satan and the lyes of our owne heart and ready to call truth it selfe into question as if these things were too good to be true no marvell if we passe our dayes so deadly For what use of an hidden and lockt up treasure if we use not this key of prayer to fetch from thence for al our need What benefit of all the precious promises made in Christ unto us unlesse wee alledge them unto God and with a reverent boldnesse binde him with his owne word which he can no more denie then ceasse to be God If we tooke these things to heart God should heare oftener from us we would be more in heaven than we are seeing wee should bring as much grace and comfort from God as we could bring faith to graspe and carry away Besides this fore-mentioned mindlesnesse of our priviledges since the fall the soule naturally loveth to spend and scatter it selfe about these present sensible things and cannot without some strife gather it selfe together and fixe upon heavenly things Now this talking with God requireth an actuall bent of the minde and carryeth up the whole soule into heaven and exerciseth as all the parts so all the graces of the soule faith especially prayer being nothing else but the flame of faith And Satan knowing that when we send up our desires to God it is to fetch supply against him troubleth the soule weake of it selfe with a world of
distractions Where he cannot corrupt the doctrine of prayer as in Popery with heresies and superstitious follies there he laboureth to hinder the exercise of it Wherein we should be so farre from being discouraged that we should reason rather that that must needs be an excellent dutie which is so irkesome to the flesh and which the devill so eagerly sets against This should incourage us to this exercise wherein lyeth all our strength that if in spite of Satans annoyance and our owne indisposition we will set upon this duty we shall finde our selves by little and little more raised up to heaven and our hearts more and more enlarged God rewarding the use of that little grace wee finde at the first with increase of strength and comfort To him that hath in the exercise of that he hath shall be given more We should labour not to be ignorant of Satans enterprises who besides his diverting our mindes from prayer and disturbing us in it laboureth by all meanes to draw us to some sin the conscience whereof will stop our mouthes and stifle our prayers and shake our confidence and eclipse our comfort which he oft aymeth more at then the sinne it selfe unto which hee tempteth us We should labour therefore to preserve our selves in such a state of soule wherein we might have boldnesse with God and wherein this gainfull trading with him might not bee hindred To passe over many other causes of the neglect of this entercourse and dealing with God by prayer we may well iudge as one of the chiefe a selfe-sufficiencie whereby men dwell too much in themselves He that hath nothing at home will seeke abroad The poore man saith Solomon speaketh supplications If wee were poore in spirit and saw our owne emptinesse it would force us out of our selves Alas what temptation can we resist much lesse overcome without fresh succour What crosse can we endure without impatiencie if we have not new support What successe can we looke for yea in common affaires without his blessing What good can we do nay thinke of without new strength When we do any good by his power do we not need pardon for the blemishes of our best performances What good blessing can we enjoy so as we defile not our selves in it without a further blessing giving us with the thing the holy use of it Yet we see most men content to receive blessings as they come from Gods generall providence without regarding any sanctified use by prayer whereas holy men knowing that God will be sought unto even for those things of which hee hath given a promise Ezek 36.37 in obedience to this his divine order desire to receive all from him as a fruit of their prayers And Gods manner is to keep many blessings from his children untill they have begged them as delighting to heare his children speake The consideration whereof moveth those that have neerest communion with God to acknowledge him in all their waies depending on him for direction strength successe whereupon he delighteth in shewing himselfe more familiarly unto them in the sweetest experiences of his love guiding them by his counsell whilest they abide here and after bringing them to glory Psal 37 24 As other graces grow in those that are in the state of grace so this spirit of prayer receiveth continuall increase upon more inward acquaintance with God and their owne estates Whence they can never be miserable having God to poure forth their spirits and ease their hearts unto who cannot but regard the voyce of his owne Spirit in them But of our selves such is our case that God who knoweth us better than wee know our selves saith wee know not what or how to pray Rom. 8.26 This language of Canaan is strange unto us Which our blessed Saviour in mercy considering stirred up a desire in his Disciples to bee taught of him the Sonne how to speake to the Father Where thereupon hee teacheth them a forme which for heavenly fulnesse of matter and exactnesse of order sheweth that it could come from no other Author This holy pattern comprizing so much in so little all things to bee desired in six short petitions it is needfull for the guides of Gods people to lay open the riches of it to the view of those that are lesse exercised An endevour which his excellent Majesty thought not unbeseeming the greatnesse of a King For the use of a set forme of prayer and this in speciall I will make no question yet in the use of this prayer we may dwell more in the meditation and enforcing such petitions as shall concern our present occasions For instance if ever there were time of praying Let thy kingdome come let Christ arise and his enemies bee scattered then certainly now is the time for us to ascend up into heaven by our prayers and awake Christ that hee would rebuke the winds and waves and cause a calme that hee would bee strong for his Church in maintaining his owne cause It is Gods manner before any great worke for his Church to stirre up the spirits of his beloved ones to give him no rest How earnest was Daniel with the Lord immediatly before the delivery out of Babylon Dan. 9. And undoubtedly if we joyne the forces of our prayes together and set upon God with an holy violence hee would set his power his wisdome his goodnesse on worke for the exalting of his Church and ruine of the enemies of it Now is the time for Moses his hands to bee upheld whilest Amalech goeth down As in the lives of David Asa Ezekia Iehosaphat c. The prevayling power of praier with God in times of danger appeareth not only in the sacred history of the Bible but hath been recorded in all ages of the Church Euseb l. 5. Tertul. in Apologet. In the primitive Church An. Dom. 175. the army of Christians was called the thundering legion because upon their prayers God scattered their enemies with thunder and refreshed themselves with showers in a great drought After in the good Emperour Theodosius his time An. Dom. 394. upon an earnest prayer to Christ the winds fought from heaven for him against his enemies as they did for us in 1588. And continually since God never left the force of faithfull prayer without witnesse If we would observe how God answereth prayers wee should see a blessed issue of all the holy desires he kindles in our hearts for hee cannot but make good that title whereby he is stiled a God hearing prayer Psal 65.2 which should move us to sow more prayers into his bosome the fruit whereof wee should reap in our greatest need Jt would bee a strong evidence in these troublesome times of the future good successe of the Church if wee were earnest in soliciting Christ with these words which himselfe hath taught us Let thy kingdom come For put him to it and hee will never faile those that seeke him Psal 9.10 He loveth importunity But
to speake something of this Treatise of this godly and painefull Minister of Christ which is written by him without affectation as desirous to cloath spirituall things with a spirituall manner of writing the diligent and godly Reader shall observe a sound cleare substantiall handling of the greatest points that naturally fall within the discourse and a more large and usefull unfolding of many things than in former Treatises It appeareth he sought the good of all so that besides the labours of other holy men there will be just cause of blessing God for his assistance in this worke To whose blessing I commend both it and the whole Israel of God Grayes Inne R. SIBBS A KEY OF HEAVEN The Lords Prayer opened and applyed MATH 6. 9 After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy Name 10 Thy kingdome come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven 11 Give us this day our daily bread 12 And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters 13 And leade us not into temptation but deliver us from evill for thine is the kingdome and the power and the glory for ever Amen THese words are part of our Saviours Sermon in the Mount they concerne Prayer and doe consist of a Precept or exhortation to pray in a right manner Patterne to exemplifie the said manner The precept is After this manner pray ye The patterne is Our Father c. This Exhortation is inferred upon consideration of divers abuses of prayer whereof our Saviour had warned his Disciples to wit Hypocrisie and vaine babling of the Pharisies and Heathen Hee reasoneth from the dissimilitude that ought to be betweene hypocrites and heathen between true Christians and faithfull beleevers saying verse 8. Be not ye therefore like unto them but pray ye in an holy manner And for that cause doth propose unto them a perfect forme of prayer intimating that if they would pray according as he did therein prescribe they should neither play the Hypocrites as did the Pharisies nor babble as the heathen nor offend any other way in this holy exercise of calling upon the name of the Lord. The words of the exhortation containe these particulars 1 The person exhorting Christ Iesus implied in his imperative speech Pray 2 The persons exhorted Ye 3 The inference whereupon it is grounded Therefore 4 The subject of the exhortation Pray in this manner Pray 1 Sam. 1 1â—.15 Pâ—â—2 8 Isâ—â—â— to pray doth import an holy speech and pouring out of the soule unto God being a joynt act of the minde will whereby the minde by voyce or thought doth make knowne to God the desires of the heart What it is to pray shewing both what a man wold have God to doe for him or to accept from him A bare desire is not to pray for many wish and desire those things for which they never speake or pray unto God Orare est appetere petere Phil. 4 6. Psal 38.9 Neither are words without desires any prayer but when the minde maketh knowne to God what the will desireth this is to pray By what way soever of expression a man doth signifie his desire directing it to God whether it be by thought onely or also by sigh a Psal 38.9 Rom. 8.26 groane or b Psal 39.12 tears or by lifting up * Ps 28.2 a hand or c Psal 123.1 eyes towards God in the heavens or by d Psal 141.1.2 voyce perfect or e Isai 38.14 unperfect if it be but by f Lam. 3.56 breathing it out as it were so be hee intend and understand what he desireth this is to pray Desires are naturall or spirituall Naturall when a man Difference between naturall and spirituall desires in prayer out of a sense of that which hee needeth and which may be for his naturall well being here and for his happinesse hereafter from a meere well-wishing to himselfe doth pray unto God to obtaine it Thus a naturall man a very Balaam may pray Num. 23.10 A spirituall desire be it of naturall or spirituall good things is from the spirit and regenerate part of man Rom 8.26 27. put up to God with holy affections in a spirituall manner to a spirituall end Onely the regenerate can thus pray Ye first the Disciples and under them hee meaneth all Christians Act. 11.26 For although Christ gave his Disciples some precepts that onely did belong to them as Apostles yet hee gave very many precepts to them as they were Christians as that in Marke 13.37 What I say to one I say to all Watch so here what he saith to them he saith to all Pray Therefore hath a double reference both to the sinfull manner dehorted fom and to this holy manner exhorted to He reasoneth thus the manner of hypocritical and heathenish praying is sinfull this manner here propounded is most holy therefore pray in this manner and not as they doe After this manner or thus the word rendred thus or in this manner is a note of likenesse pointing unto the patterne following As if he had said Say Our Father as it is Luk. 11.2 or if you use other words let them be according unto this patterne here prescribed to wit to the same person the same matter in the same kindes of prayer whether it bee in Petition for our selves for that which is good or in deprecation against that which is evill or in Intercessions for others or in Thanksgiving both for our selves and for others and with the same good disposition of heart as is taught in this forme of prayer following The words thus opened the particulars therein offer divers profitable lessons Christs diligence in teaching his servants and familie this necessarie religious duty of praier both at this time of his owne accord and at another time at the request of one of his Disciples is first to be observed Luk 11.1 All the actions of Christ Jesus are observable and of excellent use but onely some of them binde Christians to imitation That I may therefore cleere the foundation of the doctrine to be concluded from Christs practise let it be considered that the actions of Christ were of different natures He did some acts as he was God and as Mediator betweene God and man as his miracles and offering up of himselfe a sacrifice for sinne c. These actions should work in all men an holy admiration of him and faith in him but must not nay cannot be imitated How far Christs example doth bind to imitation He did other actions as hee was man some whereof were indifferent being neither commanded nor forbidden others were necessarie being commanded Those actions which he did which were indifferent doe teach us Christian libertie shewing what we may do but doe not lay a bond upon the conscience to tye us to doe the same Christ did sometimes stand when he prayed this was an indifferent action
obstinate to instruct his wife children and servants Gen. 9.27 But the Lord must perswade else words are but winde It concerneth all children Vse 6 and servants to consider what charge God hath laid upon their Governours learning thereby that it is as well Gods will that all under houshold governement should suffer themselves to be taught as that any householders should teach You must therefore willingly be present at times appointed to catechise or to talke of good things and being present attend and learn with all diligence yea sometimes give the father or master occasion to teach you by asking some good question as the Disciples did aske Christ saying What might this parable be Luke 8.9 and by moving him as the Disciple which said Lord teach us to pray Luke 11.1 And when you have received instruction of father or mother forsake it not for they will make you beautifull before God Pro. 1.9 being ornaments of grace to your heads and chaines about your neckes But if you be stubborne and will not bee taught by them then know that as he that will not eate is a murtherer of his body so are yee that refuse instruction murtherers of your soules for the eare that heareth the reproofe of life abideth among the wise Pro. 15.31.32 he that refuseth instruction despiseth his owne soule Therefore Our Saviour inferreth this exhortation to pray aright upon consideration that many prayed amisse whence learne Doct. 2 The more subject any duty is to be performed amisse there is the more cause that Christians doe learne and indeavour to performe it aright The more waies a good duty may be ill done the more care should be had how it may be well done Vpon this very ground the Lord directeth his Disciples to the right manner of giving almes verse 2. and of fasting verse 16. c. Our Saviour reasoneth in like manner for hearing the word aright that because many heard amisse scil some received the word as the high way doth seed not understanding what they heard some as the stonie ground the word tooke not deepe root some as the thorny ground they gave entertainement to worldly cares and pleasures together with the word and so all three sorts became fruitlesse Take heed therfore how you heare saith our Saviour Luk. 8.18 For to the pleasing of God Reason it is not enough that the matter of the thing done be good but the manner how Bonum consistit ex causis integris and the end why and all circumstances in the doing it must be good also so that failing but in one thing doth marre the action Man is subject to faile in prayer many waies Now if there be many by-waies man is in more danger of going out of his way then if there were but one And as mans nature is prone to erre and take the worst so Satan is very cunning and diligent by setting goodly apparences upon by-waies to cause man to mistake the right Wherefore the more subject man is to runne out into by-waies the more heed he should take that he doe not goe aside out of the right way of serving the Lord. Vse 1 Hereby is reproved the rashnesse of many who will rush headily into a religious exercise as into prayer preaching hearing the word receiving the Sacrament fasting c. and never looke to the right manner as if there were no way but one and that they could not doe amisse though they never wash their hands from filthinesse nor hearts from wickednesse nor yet so much as thinke before hand how they may bee rightly performed whereas they may and doe faile many waies Thus these good workes being ill done become so abhominable unto God that he saith Isa 1.12.14 Who requireth this at your hands my soule hateth them I am weary to beare them It therefore behoveth all Vse 2 that would serve God in sinceritie to bee very circumspect taking heed how they pray how they heare the word and how they performe all other exercises of religion for they may be and are performed by many in a very sinfull manner Salomons counsell should alwaies be sounding in our eares whensoever we begin any service of God Eccl 5 1.2 Keepe thy foote when thou goest to the house of God c. Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hastie to utter any thing before God That we may the better observe this counsell sith it concerneth a preparing a mans self before he speake unto God I will shew first whether preperation be needfull Secondly what that preparation is Preparation to prayer needfull Iob 11.13 First know that preparation to prayer is needfull according to that in Iob If thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hands towards him c. Thou wilt prepare their heart saith the Psalmist and wilt cause thine eare to heare Psal 10.17 My heart is prepared O God Psal 57.7 my heart is prepared saith he I will sing and give praise The very first words of the Lords Prayer teaching us to begin with Our Father which art in heaven doe argue that wee should have our spirits composed and our whole man rightly disposed unto this holy duty For first God before whom Reason why a man should be pâ—epared before he pray Eccles 5.2 Hâ—b 1.13 and to whom we speake is a great God of glorious majestie and God as Salomon reasoneth is in heaven wee on earth He is most holy of purer eyes then to behold uncleanenesse Levit. 10.3 He will be sanctified in all that draw neere unto him to offer this sweet incense of prayer If we doe not sanctifie him by an holy performance of his service hee will be sanctified him selfe upon us in the just punishment of our hypocrisie superstition or prophanenesse Besides God to whom wee pray is privy to all our behaviour yea to the most secret intentions and dispositions of our hearts It concerneth us therefore that wee be prepared to come before him in sort as beseemeth the presence of his holy Majesty Were we admitted to speake to an eâ—â—thly King we would before 〈◊〉 prepare both what and how 〈◊〉 speake and how to demeane our selves in his presence much more then ought we the King of Kings not onely admitting but graciously inviting us to pray unto him Secondly prayer is a most excellent and a most holy worke of the greatest consequence that can concerne man and of great difficulty to be performed aright I come now to the second case to shew what this preparation unto prayer is This preparation is twofold A twofold preparation to prayer The one generall to be made before hand inabling and fitting a man to pray in an instant whensoever he shall be moved to pray The other preparation is particular and to be made immediately before prayer that it may the better be performed Vnto that generall preparation is required that a man be indued with the spirit
distresses Or if the affliction abide prayer doth ease the heart and procure patience and strength to beare it and it doth sanctifie the crosse causing it like good physicke to work for the good of the inward man As for eternall punishment prayer is the means of forgivenesse Psal 32.5 I said I will confesse my sinne saith David and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sinne As for evils of sin and temptation Christ Iesus hath prescribed prayer for a remedie against it Mat. 26.41 saying Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation An hearty prayer hath alwayes strength either to remove the temptation or to draw from God sufficiencie of grace to resist it as it did for the Apostle who had this answer of his prayer My grace is sufficient for thee 2. Cor. 12 9 Prayer is a meane to obtaine all good things temporall therfore we are bid to say Give us this day our daily bread 1. Tim. 4.5 it sanctifieth maketh good things to be good to them that have them As for spiritual good things the Lord saith Iam. 1.5 If any man lacke wisedome let him aske of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not The Spirit of grace is obtained by prayer Your heavenly Father saith Christ shall give the holy Spirit to them that aske him Luk. 11.13 There is a necessity of praier Reason 3 both because God hath commanded it and his promises unto man are with this condition of prayer Aske Mat. 7. and ye shall have Though God can helpe if we never aske him yet usually he will not if men ask not You have not saith Iames Iam. 4.2 because ye aske not And though a man have never so much meanes these without prayer can do him no good For to the making of a thing good the word and prayer is required it being Gods ordinance 1. Tim. 4.5 that what meanes soever bee used prayer must be one and that of the quorum as we speake for in all things prayer must bee made Philip. 4.6 Ob. The Lord knoweth what every one nâ—edeth and he saith that * Isa 65.24 before they call I will answer therefore prayer may seeme to be needlesse Sol. The end of prayer is not to informe God of any thing which he knoweth not The use of prayer though God need not thereby to be informed or to perswade God to do any thing whereto he is not of himselfe most willing neither is it a meanes onely to procure good things for a mans selfe but a chiefe end of prayer is that man might expresse his obedience in performance of his dutie it being a part of his holy worship wherein a man professeth his owne frailty and nothingnesse without God and that he holdeth God to be the fountaine of all goodnesse even the giver of every good perfect gift and that hee is perswaded of his goodnesse power and truth towards him also he professeth that he is sensible of his wants and that hee doth depend on him and will be thankfull to him when hee shall please to supplie them For prayer maketh way for praise and thanks Besides prayer to God doth fit men to use those things which they obtained by prayer for God and according to his will considering that upon their suit to him they do enjoy them What though God know what we need our Saviour doth not from thence conclude we must not pray at all Mat. 6.8.9 but therefore take heed how you pray And Gods readinesse to answer before they call is an argument why they should pray For if God bee so gracious that so soone as a man doth in heart desire his helpe he beginneth to answer before he call and as he saith Whiles they are speaking I wil heare then we should not say therefore we need not pray but therefore we wil pray and speake to him because such is his readinesse to heare that we shall be sure to speed Ob. God hath long since decreed what men shall have whether much or little therefore prayer is needles for God cannot alter his purpose Mal. 3.6 I am God saith he and change not Sol. I grant God hath decreed before all worlds what to give and what not but at that time also he decreed the meanes that should come betweene his decree and the execution thereof one of which meanes is prayer without which he never intended ordinarily after hee hath given the first grace to give any thing with a blessing in mercie to any man For to whom he giveth saving grace he alwayes giveth the spirit of supplication Zach. 12.10 and looketh that they should upon all occasions stirre it up in them and improve it for the obtaining of those good things which God hath intended and promised to them God had decreed to give the Gentiles to Christ yet God said to him Aske of me Psal 2.8 and I will give the heathen for thine inheritance Daniel knew certainly the time that God had decreed to deliver his people out of captivitie Dan. 9.2.3 but this did not cause him to forbeare prayer but it quickened him to fast and pray that they might bee delivered For God who had made knowne his decree by the Prophet that after seventie yeares he would cause the Iews to returne out of Babylon and that he had thoughts of peace towards them to give them an expected end hee said also to them Ier. 29.10.11.12.13 then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you And ye shall seek me and finde me when ye shall search for me with all your heart And I will turne away your captivity c. The Prophet David though it was revealed to him that God would establish his house and kingdome upon his seed yet the rather prayeth saying Thou O Lord of hoasts 2 Sa. 7.27 God of Israel hast revealed unto thy servant saying I wil build thee an house therfore hath thy servant found in his heart to make this prayer unto thee God had not onely decreed but had promised to his people that he would give them a new heart and a new spirit c. and that he would cause them to walke in his statutes and outwardly also to blesse them so that their land should bee to them as the Garden of Eden yet saith he for this will I bee inquired of by the house of Israell Ezek. 36.37 It is granted that prayer cannot neither doth it change Gods purpose when yet without prayer he will not give for his purpose was to give when they should pray but not before prayer maketh the change not in God but in him that prayeth fitting him and making him capable of the gift who till then was not sufficiently qualified for it Many have more then heart can wish yet pray not at all Object They are onely outward things and common gifts
it up nothing so high above us or so farre from us but with this hand wee may reach it to us Hee that wrastleth by the strength of prayer though hee wrastle with the strong God shall prevaile as did Iacob of whom it is said Hee had power over the Angell and prevailed hee wept and made supplication Hos 12.4 Of all helps prayer is readiest at hand in all places and at all times if wee be not without our hearts wee neede not be without helpe It is the most universall helpe it is good for all persons at all times in all things It is a most certain helpe no faithfull prayer was ever made in vaine It is a key to open heaven all that have skill to handle it may from thence fetch all things that may doe themselves or their neighbour good Moreover when wee have made our requests knowne to GOD and have commended our cause to him by prayer this will comfort quiet and rejoyce our hearts so that wee neede bee no more sad with Hannah 1 Sam. 1.18 nor need we be carefull in any thing but may goe on in our calling in peace Phil. 4.6.7 and may lye downe in peace being assured that now God careth for us knowing that his wisedome truth and power are all set a worke for us And which is more then all which yet hath beene said Prayer is most pleasing to God hee delighteth to heare the voyce of his children It is a more sweet smelling sacrifice then that of incense It maketh way to thanksgiving It is a glorifying of his great name Sith it is the will of God that Vse 4 we should pray all feare of approaching to the throne of his grace may hence be remoued What though God be a God of majestie and thou bee an unworthy person in thy selfe It is no presumption to presse into his presence when hee commandeth this is instead of his scepter of acceptance of thee though no man might come uncalled unto that majesticall Ahashuereth yet any man might come being called nay the Queene was deposed from her place because she came not at his commandement So that it is not presumption to come but rebellion if you come not sith God every where in his word calleth you So that whatsoever thy case be thou maist come with good comfort to God and bee holpen as they say to the blinde man Marke 10.49 Be of good comfort hee calleth thee God calleth you to this duty feare not therefore to goe to God in prayer at any time Objections against prayer answered To this end you must bee able and willing to answer and resist all such objections and discouragements that Satan and your owne heart shall raise against it You may learne how to answer to those objections against the necessity of prayer namely God knoweth what we need and hee hath already decreed what we shall have and many that make no conscience of prayer have more then heart could wish by that which is written before in this doctrine in the third reason taken from the necessity of prayer And for your help I will propound and answer other objections as followeth I am not assured that I am converted Ob. and am the childe of God or that I have the Spirit of God wherefore I think that it belongeth not unto me to pray You are by profession a convert Answ and the childe of God and it may be you have the Spirit of God though yet you do not acknowledge it therefore it belongeth unto you to pray But suppose that you are not converted doth not God command you to convert Ier. 31.18 and turn unto him and finding your inability to turne you should with Ephraim pray saying Turne thou me and I shall bee turned And do you finde the want of the Spirit you should the rather pray for it that God according to his promise may give it Luk. 11.13 Do not say I cannot pray untill God have given me grace and abilitie to pray but having an expresse commandement of God to pray you must set about it assay to pray as well as you can desiring and expecting grace from him to enable you to pray For God doth not usually let us feele the strength of his grace requisite to the performance of a good dutie till that out of conscience of obeying of the command we craving his helpe do set about the doing of it Ob. My sinnes are so many and so great and I have relapsed into such grievous sinnes since I last prayed that I am ashamed and afraâ—d that I dare not come into the presence of God againe to pray unto him Answ The greater and more hainous your sinnes are the more need you have to come unto God whom by them you have offended to aske of him pardon of them And sith God is onely able to cure and heale your soule there is the more cause that by prayer you should seeke unto him to cleanse you of your sinnes and to give you power against them David doth not say because his sinne was great therefore I dare not pray but therefore prayeth thus Psal 25.11 For thy Names sake O Lord pardon mine iniquity for it is great And is not forgivenesse of sins one of the petitions which Christ hath bid you to make daily when you pray To bee ashamed for your sinne when you come before God is good and argueth that you are the fitter for prayer Ier. 31.19.20 and that you are now a meet object of Gods mercie and compassion but to be ashamed to pray and not to dare to come into Gods presence being by him commanded is a great sinne to be repented of Indeed we should not sinne at all 1. Ioh. 2.1.2 but if any man sinne be his sinnes many or few small or great we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation who hath made satisfaction for and hath covered and done away all our sinnes When you come before God to pray in the name and mediation of Christ God looketh upon your sinnes which you confesse unto him as satisfied for done away in Christ Why then should you be afraid and ashamed to pray unto him Ob. When I should pray I feele my selfe so much straitened so dead and so much indisposed to prayer I want words and matter I can neither begin or at least hold out well in prayer to the end for that I am pestred with so many wandring impertinent and sometimes evill thoughts I cannot remember all the sinnes which I should confesse nor yet all the needfull good things which I should aske I cannot pray in faith but am so full of wavering and doubting that God is not well pleased with my prayer I oft feele my selfe worse rather then better after I have prayed I rise up oft times from prayers heavie and discomforted and I offend so many wayes in prayer that I oft times am readie
to whom Fatherhood and the beginning of all things is ascribed without excluding but necessarily including the other two namely to God the Father the first person in Trinitie the naturall and eternall Father of Christ Iesus who by adopting us in Christ and by begetting us againe by regeneration through the Spirit * Ioh. 20.17 is our Father Thus the Apostle Paul conceived of God when he prayed first he conceived of God as Father of Christ saying Eph. 3.14.15 I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ then he sheweth how hee conceived God as the father of the elect when he saith Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth are named So did the Apostle Peter conceive of God 1 Pet 1.3 when he gave him thanks saying Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Which art in heaven Heaven signifieth the heaven of heavens the third heaven where Christ sitteth at the right hand of his Father By the excellencie of this place above others is set forth the majestie and excellencie of him that sitteth therein God doth not so inhabite the high and holy place but that he dwelleth also with him that is of a contrite spirit Isa 57.15 1 Kin. 8.27 Mat. 5.34.35 Psal 11.4 And the Heaven of heavens cannot containe him But because heaven is Gods Pallace and throne in comparison of earth which is but his footstoole and because from thence he doth manifest his glory more remarkeably then from any other place revealing his will power Iam. 1.17 and Godhead in his workes of mercy as David saith Psal 57.3 Psal 102.19.10 Rom. 1.18 He shall send from heaven and save me and in workes of justice as the Apostle saith The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlinesse therefore hee will that his being in heaven should as by a signe set forth his glorious Majestie Also his being in heaven doth distinguish him from earthly fathers Luk. 31 13. and putteth difference between him and false * Psal 136.26 Ion. 1.9 gods This description of God by his place is all one with that which the Apostle setteth downe at large calleth him 1. Tim 6.15.16 Onely Potentate King of kings Lord of Lords who onely hath immortalitie dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto c. If this short description be well weighed it will appeare that there could not possibly bee a a more briefe and more apt description of God meet to be represented to the minde of him that is to pray then this which in more words may be thus expressed O Lord God which art Father of Christ Iesus and through him Father of me and of all beleevers we coming to thee in the name of Christ and being moved hereunto by thy spirit of Adoption whereby we call Abba Father we are well assured that thou wilt accept of our praiers praying for our selves and for our brethren and sith thou onely art God which dwellest in the high and holy place from whence cometh every good gift and art Almightie as thou art God to answer thy willingnesse as thou art Father wherefore we call upon thee and do thou vouchsafe to heare us Our Note here that a man must have faith and be in state to call God his Father else he is not sufficiently qualified for prayer Learne therefore Whosoever would make an acceptable Doct. 1 prayer must be Gods childe he must have a right to call God Father and must come to God as a childe to his father Therefore David when hee prayeth approveth himselfe to be Gods childe saying If I regard iniquitie in my heart the Lord will not heare me Psal 66.18 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abhomination to the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight saith Solomon Prov. 15.8 It was a true speech of him which said We know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth Ioh. 9.31 Reason 1 For the person of a man must be accepted else his sacrifice cannot be good and acceptable for while the tree is naught Mat. 7 18. the fruit cannot be good Thornes cannot send forth grapes Mat. 7 16 neither can thistles beare figges Reason 2 All acceptable prayers are put up in Christs name and are accepted through his mediation Now he is Advocate for none but those for whom he is a propitiation scil beleevers according to his prayer I pray not for the world c. Ioh. 17.9 Reason 3 No man can pray untill he have the spirit of prayer Zac. 12.10 to cause him to mourne kindly for his sinne and to call Abba Father which spirit God sendeth to none but to his sonnes Gal. 4.6 Everie one that cometh to Reason 4 God must beleeve that God is and that hee is a rewarder of them that diligently seeke him Heb. 11.6 They must have faith How shall they call on him on whom they have not beleeved Rom. 10.14 The promise of acceptance Reason 5 and of a gracious hearing is made to the godly Psal 32 6. Psal 34.15.17.18 Iam. 5.16 and to the righteous whose prayers are said to be prevailing If a man have not good assurance Reason 6 that hee is the childe of God he can never answer those strong objections which the devill will urge to keepe him from prayer but if he can shew that God is his Father and that God hath commanded him to pray no objection of Satan can discourage him Vse 1 Hereby all that do not righteousnesse and that love not their brethren for by this they are discerned not to be children of God Ioh. 3.10 but of the devill must understand that if they continue in this their wicked condition and yet pray they deale presumptuously and to them God saith Psa â—0 16.17 What have ye to do to take my covenant in your mouth seeing ye hate instruction Secondly they may learne what to judge of their praiers God accepteth them not for they be no better then either howlings or cries wrung from them by pinching necessitie Hos 7.14 or meere hypocritical mocking of God abhominable sacrifices of which the Lord saith Your incense is an abhomination Isa 113.15 and when ye make many prayers I will not heare It is all one with him as if * Isa 66.3 ye did blesse an Idoll so long as ye chuse your owne waies such as ignorance superstition contempt of religion prophanenesse pride drunkennesse whoredome deceit lying unbeliefe impenitencie and such like God abhorreth all service done to him so long as their soules delight in their abhominations Consider this O ye that forget God saith the Lord lest I teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver Psal 50.22 Thirdly let all impenitent and ungodly persons take notice in how miserable a straight they are and into what a labyrinth and maze their sinne hath brought
but as a rich and bountifull Lord to his creature making his Sunne to rise on the evill and good Mat. 5.45 and sending the raine as well upon the unjust as upon the just These things God in his wise providence bestoweth upon wicked men knowing how to make use of them in humane society both in Church and Common-weale winning thereby to himselfe the glory of his patience and bounty drawing some to an admiration of his goodnesse leading some to repentance and leaving others without excuse at the day of iudgement Vse 2 Would any bee capable of making use of this invaluable benefit of praying acceptably unto God be they exhorted first to use all such meanes as God hath appointed by which they may be made the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus Gal. 3.26 Rom. 10.14.17 as hearing the word preached prayer c. then they must get good evidence that they are in state of grace and then be exhorted to come as children ought to come into the presence of so holy a Father putting off every sinne that may offend him putting on every grace that may delight him regard not iniquity in your heart cleanse your hearts and wash your hands in innocencie lift up pure hands without doubting pray in humilitie for with such sacrifice your Father is well pleased he will not despise such for God hath promised saying If my people that are called by my Name Psal 51 17 shall humble themselves and pray and seeke my face and turne from their wicked wayes then will I heare from heaven and will forgive their sinne and will heale their land 2 Chron. 7.14 Vse 3 All that with good assurance of faith can call God their Father may rejoyce in this that they are of the number of those who may improve this priviledge of praying unto God they are sure if they come not in their sinnes to speed For Iohn saith Whatsoeuer we aske we that is the children of God receive of him because we keepe his commandements and doe those things that are pleasing in his sight 1 Ioh. 3.22 Our doth note also that communion which Christians have one with another in one Father therefore even when they were to pray to God in the closet they were to represent God to their mindes in a notion which hath reference to their brethren as well as to themselves whence wee may collect Doct. All that would pray acceptably must hold a communion and good agreement with their brethren as those that have one common father to them all If a man had not beene in charitie with his brother and held not good agreement with him he was not to offer his sacrifice untill he had reconciled himselfe to his brother Mat. 5.33 The Apostle requireth that men lift up holy hands without wrath 1. Tim. 2.8 Therefore Peter would have all love exercised betweene man and wife that their prayers be not hindered 1. Pet. 3.7 For this common interest Reason 1 which Christians have in God maketh them neare of bloud as we speake having all one Spirit one hope one Lord one faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all Ephes 4.4 5 6. If men do not hold peace Reason 2 and communion with their brethren they cannot come in assurance that they themselves are Gods children for by their love to their brethren they may know whether they be beloved of God or no and may assure their hearts that their prayers shall be heard 1. Ioh 3 19.22 If they love not their brethren they remaine in death 1. Iohn 3.14 Vse 1 Here all proud scornful persons that because of parentage wit wealth or some such complement of nature do disdaine their poorer and meaner brethren may see how much they forget themselves have they not one Father if God be their Father The Prophet Malachy reproveth those which deale not well with their brethren Mal. 2.10 saying Have we not all one Father There are too many of this sort which will hypocritically say Our Father and yet scorne to have any communion with his children Yea the more they approve themselves to be Gods by holinesse of life the more they hate them and reproachfully use them and wish all evil unto them If these thinke they have God to their Father they must know that as the Apostle Iohn speaketh they are liers 1. Ioh. 4.20 because they love not their brethren What may be thought of those tongues that can blesse God and call him Father and yet curse and raile upon those which beare the true image of the same Father These things ought not so to be my brethrē saith Iames 3.9 10. Hereby all that call God Father Vse 2 should enforce upon thēselves the dutie of love and friendship to their neighbours holding with them the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Ephes 4.3.4.5.6 because the whole bodie is but one the Spirit one c. and one Father of all we must endeavour therefore to bee one in judgement and one in affection that there be no schismes and divisions amongst us Let us love heartily without putting difference in respect of persons for which fault the Iewes are blamed by Iames Iam. 2.4.1 Cor. 11.22.30 and the Corinthians were severely punished by the Lord. Wherefore whensoever we come to God let us come in love to our brethren For how can we looke our Father in the face and expect good things at his hand when he knoweth that there are jarres and falling out betweene us and his other children our brethren Father which art in heaven I will first consider the whole description of him that is to be prayed unto and then come to the severall parts thereof This description can be true of none but of God We have fathers on earth and friends in heaven but no father in heaven or heavenly father but the true God It followeth therefore Prayer is to be made to the Doct. 3 true God And because prayer is a religious worship which must bee given to none but God I adde this Prayer is to be made onely to God Offer to God thanksgiving and Call upon me in the day of trouble saith God Psal 50.14 15. The Angell which had the everlasting Gospell to preach to them that were on the earth who went before the Angel which foretold the fall of Poperie saith Feare God c. and worship him that made heaven and earth Revel 14.7 Our Saviour saith expresly Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Mat. 4.10 He to whom prayer may be made Reason must have those all-sufficiencies which are to be found onely in the eternal and infinite God First he must be able to heare all men therfore Iames biddeth us aske of God Iam 1.5 that giveth to all men He must be able to give all things 1. Ioh. 5.14 If we aske any thing according to his will he heareth us He must be able to
give good gifts yea perfect gifts good for matter good for use every way good which none can do but the Father of lights Iam. 1.17 from whom cometh downe every good and euerie perfect gift He must be able to heare all men in all things at once in one the same time else some that pray should be disappointed which were much for the dishonour of him that is called upon By this the Prophet when hee would prove that God onely and not Baal was to be worshipped and prayed unto discovereth Baals insufficiencies 1. King 18.21.27 saying Crie aloud he is a god either he is talking or he is pursuing or in a journey hee sleepeth whence hee evinceth that he was no God nor yet to be worshipped because hee could not do many things at once He must be able to heare and grant requests alwayes He must be able to know the thoughts and hearts of men else how can those bee heard who are not in case to utter a voice else how can the hypocriticall prayers bee discerned from those that be unfained He to whom prayer is made may else be mocked and cousened with counterfeit worship in stead of currant Rom. 1.27 Now God onely knoweth the minde of the spirit as well as the meaning of the voice Solomon speaking to him saith 2 Chron. 6.30 Thou onely knowest the hearts of the children of men Againe he is onely to be paryed unto in whom we may beleeve Ro. 10.14 but we are to beleeve onely in God Lastly if prayers and religious worship might be given to any but God then the holy Angels and holy men were likeliest to partake in that honour but these neither may nor yet would be worshipped Worshipping of Angels is forbidden Col. 2.18 It is against the wils of Angels and Saints for the Angel said to Iohn Rev. 22.9 See thou do it not I am thy fellow servant c. worship God When Cornelius gave Peter too much honour Peter refused it Act. 10.26 saying Stand up I my selfe also am a man When the people would have worshipped Paul and Barnabas because of a miracle that Paul had wrought they forbad them with detestation renting their clothes Act 14.15 and said Sirs why do ye these things we also are men of like passion with you c. These with the rest of the Saints have no lesse zeale for God now they are more holy in heaven then when they carried about with them many imperfections on earth These things considered we may safely conclude that God onely is to be prayed unto Whereas we reade heare Vse 1 there are yet much people both in Asia and America that worship and pray unto the very devill not with inward worship onely for if these onely did so it were happy with many that are called Christians but with outward worship also Though we cannot speake to them to reclaime them of this devillish idolatrie yet in compassion we should speake to God for them that he would please to send the light of his glorious truth and Gospel to discover their sinne unto them and to recover them out of the snare of the devill who holdeth them captive at his will I do urge this the rather because I am perswaded that when all Israel shall be called namely Ezek. 37.16 when the two stickes prophesied of by Ezekiel Iuda and the children of Israel his companions and Ephraim and the children of Israel his companions shall be joyned into one sticke when as the Apostle saith Ro. 11.26 All Israel shall be saved which state of theirs verse 15. he calleth a receiving of life from the dead when this shall come to passe I doubt not but many of those deceived soules which yet never heard of the Gospel except by Papists who make them whō they convert thrice more the children of the devill then before shall have part in the same resurrection let us therefore pray for them Vse 2 The doctrine in hand is a confutation of all Popish praying to the Saints departed as to the virgin Mary and the rest which practise of theirs hath neither precept nor president in the Canon of Scripture I referre them unto the truth before proved which doth as wel discover the contrary falshood as declare it selfe so that I will forbeare answering their weak and frivolous allegations We do them to understand that the Saints do not heare their vocall prayers much lesse their sighs and grones Isa 63 1◠For Abraham is ignorant of us saith the Prophet therfore the Church cleaveth onely to God saying Thou O Lord art our Father and doth relye onely on him And the Psalmist knew none in heaven to relie on but God saying Whom have I in heaven but thee Psal 73.25 Ier. 17.5 But cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord. They provide il for themselves which forsake God the fountaine of living water and hew out to themselves broken cisternes that can hold no water Ier. 2.17 into both which evils the Papists fall into by praying to Saints If the Saints did know what they do unto them they would abhorre it as much nay more then Paul and Barnabas did the peoples offering to do sacrifice to them Act. 14.14 when they were upon the earth Vse 3 By this doctrine the practise likewise of many superstitious women is reproved who in travaile of child-birth will call as well if not more upon our Lady then upon God Vse 4 Let al true disciples of Christ make suit only to the true God who is their Father in heaven For it is hee who is the God which heareth prayer Psal 65.2 who can heare all men in all things at all times though they do but sigh out their requests for it is God onely in whom they may beleeve If we had but as true and ardent zeale against idolaters for setting up many gods as the Princes of Darius had hatred against Daniel for serving the true God onely and were as forward to advance God to the highest honour as they were to deifie their King Darius Dan. 6.7 we should wish there were a firme decree That whosoever should aske any petition of any person save of our Father which is in heaven not for the space of thirtie dayes onely but at any time might be made a publicke example by no lesse punishment then to be cast into a denne of Lions Our Father which art in heaven If we consider the parts of this description joyntly wee may observe that our Saviour doth represent God unto the understanding of him that is to pray under such titles and names as were aptest to induce him to pray and might best help his faith in praier Whence learne Doct. 4 In the entrance into prayer God should be represented to the minde and should be called upon by such names titles or descriptions as are
most apt to enkindle the desires and helpe the faith of them that do pray If many and generall requests be to be put up then such titles and names must bee used that may perswade them they shall be heard in all If some particular petition be to be pressed then such names and descriptions of God are to be used as may helpe the heart in that particular Abrahams servant being to pray for successe in his masters businesse saith Geâ— 24 12. O Iehovah God of my master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this day and shew kindnesse unto my mâ—â—tâ—er Abraham When Peter did intricate God to make choice of an Apostle to supply the place of Iudas hee saith Thou Lord Act. 1.24 which knowest the hearts of all men shew whether of these two thou hast chosen When David prayeth against the enemies of God and his children hee saith O Lord God to whom vengeance belongeth Psal 94.1 O God to whom vengeance belongeth shew thy selfe And when hee doth magnifie Gods name and would incire all people to pray unto him and praise him he speaketh to him in this description of God O thou that hearest prayer Psal 65.2 unto thee shall all flesh come For a wise choice of apt names Reason 1 titles to represent God with doth argue knowledge of God and wisedome to make use of his different attributes both which knowledge wisdome being mixed with faith doth much please and delight God to behold in his children The representing of God to Reason 2 the minde in convenient and meet names and notions is verie needfull for it will set the heart and keepe it in good plight working aw and reverence fervencie uprightnesse and confidence all which are requisite in prayer Vse It behoveth therefore every one that would make a good entrance into prayer without which he is not like to make a good proceeding to acquaint himselfe with the true understanding of the manifold names and descriptions of God recorded in Scripture and then let them make choice of the fittest titles of God to name him by according as there shal be especiall cause or use of his power wisedome mercie truth or justice c. Then to use such names as may best expresse those attributes which are especially to bee exercised in the granting of their requests Thus much of the whole description of God being coÌ„sidered joyntly now followeth the consideration of each part of the description Father hath relation first to Christ the second person in Trinity whereby our Saviour directeth us unto a consideration of the three persons in Trinity and to the order of directing of prayers ordinarily viz. to the Father whence the doctrine is In prayer God is to be known Doct. 5 and conceived of in the distinction of persons Father Sonne and holy Ghost to whom prayer must be directed ordinarily in this sort scil to the Father by the Sonne through the helpe of the holy Ghost Christ saith Ioh. 16.23 Whatsoever ye shall aske my Father in my Name he will give it you The Apostle giveth thanks to God and the Father in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ Ephe. 5.20 We call God Abba Father by the Spirit which maketh our intercessions for us Rom. 8.15.27 For such is the divine dispensation of God the Father Reason Son and holy Ghost that though they are but one indivisible essence and whatsoever any one doth out of himselfe the very same doth the other also Ad extra yet they sustaine different persons and offices that I may so speake and do the same things in a different and distinct order yet so as the naming of one doth not exclude but necessarily include the other In prayer the Father sustaineth the person and place of him that is offended by sinne that must be appeased and doth heare and grant requests If we sinne we have an Advocate with the Father Which sheweth plainly that the Father in especiall sort must be appeased and sought unto The Sonne supplieth the place of a Mediator and intercessour by whom requests ascend and become acceptable to the Father He is that golden altar Ioh. 16.23 upon which the prayers of all Saints are offered and caused to ascend as incense Revel 8.3 No man can come to the Father but by him Ioh. 1â— 6 He is appointed of God to be a Mediatour and being God and man is both a fit and all-sufficient Mediator between God and man Without him no mans person or best actions can be acceptable because of the many imperfections Wherefore all prayers must be offered up by Christ Iesus The holy Ghost doth supply the office of a teacher and of one that helpeth our infirmities and in us Rom. 8.26 to make our intercessions and requests for us that they may be offered to the Father by the intercession of the Sonne For we know not what we should pray for as we ought and if the Spirit do not worke together in our prayers there would be no goodnesse at all in them no not so much as truth and uprightnesse without which Christ Iesus will not offer them to his Father for us Therefore prayers must bee made in the Spirit through the helpe of the Spirit Now because of this order of persons in the Deitie the Father being first and because of the different places they sustaine in the worke of our salvation the counsell and will of all three is that the Father should be prayed unto and worshipped in the onely mediation of the Sonne through the Spirit and therefore it is that the Father is here named not the Sonne or holy Ghost But because of the indivisible essence of the Godhead the naming of the Father doth necessarily imply the calling upon both Sonne and holy Ghost also If God must be known and Vse 1 worshipped in the distinction of the persons in Trinitie then it is impossible to represent God by any image as the Papists do For by what visible likenesse can an invisible Spirit which is truly not imaginarily distinguished into three persons and different manner of subsisting be likened or resembled The Papists that come to Vse 2 God by the mediatioÌ„ of Christ but in part joyning to Christ the mediation of Saints are hereby confuted For there is no Mediatour but that one person by whom God is our Father They come a distinction saying Christ is onely Mediatour of redemption but not the onely Mediatour of intercession that so they might leave a roome in which they might place the mediation of Saints but this is to sever what God hath joyned For the Scripture knoweth no Advocate or Intercessour but him who is the Redeemer 1. Ioh. 2.12 scil Christ Iesus the righteous who is the propitiation for our sinnes And it is as proper to the Mediatourship that Christ onely should make intercession at the right hand of God as to die and rise againe for the elect Rom. 8.34
Ob. If they say we pray to living men to make praiers and intercessions for us why not rather to the Saints departed who are more perfect Sol. I answer when we desire the living to pray for us we do not give any religious honour unto the living but they do properly give religious worship in praying to the dead which honour is due to God onely Besides the living know what we need the dead do not and in using the living we do not make them mediatours betweene the Father and us that he should helpe us for their worth and merit thus Christ onely is Mediatour but we onely request them to intreat the Father for Christs sake to helpe us Lastly Iam. 5.14 the Scripture doth warrant men to request the prayers of the living and doth acknowledge onely one Mediatour betweene God and man even there where it requireth that living Saints should make prayers and intercessions for all sorts of men 1. Tim. 2.1.5 All which think they know Vse 3 God but yet are altogether ignorant of the distinction of the persons must hereby know that they do not yet know God distinctly and if they worship God without any consideration of Christ by whom and of the holy Ghost through whose helpe they pray in the spirit if they do not expresse or imply thus much in prayer they do notwithstanding they professe the true God turne him into an Idol For in all true worship the unity is worshipped in Trinitie and Trinitie in unity without dividing the Godhead or confounding the Persons Vse 4 Every one that would worship God aright must therfore first learne to know him to be one only true God distinguished into the Father Sonne and holy Ghost but herein much warinesse and sobriety must be observed that none seeke into this mysterie of mysteries to understand above that which is meete namely above that which the Scripture hath revealed it being an object of faith to bee beleeved and not possible by reason to bee fully comprehended In conceiving of the distinction of persons take heed of two extremities first we must not conceive that there is an essentiall difference betweene them as if all the three had not one and the same nature Secondly we must not imagine that there is onely a rationall or imaginarie distinction whereas their different order and manner of subsisting and different manner of working declareth that there is a reall or true difference betweene them So that the Father as Father is in no respect the Sonne and the Sonne as Sonne is in no respect the holy Ghost and the holy Ghost as holy Ghost is in no respect either the Father or the Sonne When God is thus conceived of and knowne aright then in the same order as he doth subsist he must ordinarily be worshipped according to the direction of our Saviour in this patterne Stephens directing of his prayer to Christ was upon the beholding of Christ Iesus standing at the right hand of God Act. 7 â—â— it being a speciall and extraordinary occasion This argueth that it is not unlawfull to direct prayer to the second Person or third Person upon especiall cause but yet ordinarily this rule and order in worshipping GOD must be observed First we must direct prayer unto the Father of lights the giver of every good and perfect gift Secondly we must offer up praier and praise by Christ Iesus who offereth up incense with the prayers of all Saints Rev. 8.3 by whom wee have accesse to the throne of grace Heb. 4.15.16 to finde grace and helpe in time of need Thirdly wee must use all meanes to obtaine the holy Spirit of grace and supplications We must pray for it and heare the Gospell which is the ministerie of the Spirit preached Then we must cherish stirre up the good motions thereof taking heed that wee doe not grieve it or quench it by any evill conversation Let us get an holy acquaintance with it that it may make heartie requests for us For prayers cannot be sweet incense if they be not mingled and anointed with holy oyle which is the anointing of the Spirit which as it teacheth all things 1 Ioh 2.27 as Iohn speaketh so especially it must teach us to pray aright Wherefore whensoever you pray enter into consultation with the inward man what you should aske and how consult with the word denie carnall reason and presumption of your owne abilities in prayer then shall the Spirit make your requests for you which by you must be seconded and 〈…〉 and truth put up to the Father by Christ Whosoever shall in this manner direct his praier to the Father by the Sonne through the Spirit albeit I cannot promise him that his heart shall be so inlarged that he shall satisfie himselfe in prayer yet I can assure him he shall alwaies be able to offer up such sighes and desires as shall please God and prevaile more with him then shall the praiers of others who without the spirit of prayer by the meere helpe of nature art can command both words and varietie of matter at their pleasure Vse 5 This directing of prayers unto the Father in the name of the Sonne through the holy Ghost may remove the greatest discouragements that any Christian can meet with when he goeth about to pray It is not majestie nor infinite justice in God nor greatnesse or multitude of sinnes in man nor any unworthinesse of his person nor yet his insufficiencie to thinke a good thought nor yet the feeling of himselfe that many times hee knoweth not either what or how to pray can dishearten him if hee doe but consider that hee prayeth to God who is God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost and that he may pray in this order namely hee prayes to the Father of Christ who is his Father he prayes in the name of Jesus Christ who hath satisfied his Father for all his sinnes and daily doth make intercession for him and hee praieth in the Spirit who helpeth his infirmities and maketh requests for him though it bee sometimes but with sighes and groanes which are not distinctly uttered Rom. 8.26 By this meanes there is life and spirit in our prayers and God doth and will accept them for he knoweth the meaning of his Spirit and will accept the worke of his Spirit in us through Christ though wee bewray our many imperfections Father in the second place hath through Christ relation to all the members of Christ who are here willed to say Our Father whence note Doct. 6 All true Christians have the Lord of heaven and earth to their Father J ascend to my Father and your Father saith Christ Ioh. 20.17 I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almighty 2 Cor. 6.18 Reason 1 They have received the adoption of sonnes Gal. 4.5 and are all the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus Gal. 3.26 Reason 2 They are all
by beleeving a man doth set to his seale that God is true 4 By fearing him So saith the Prophet 1. Pet. 3 1â— Sanctifie the Lord of hasts himselfe let him be your feare and let him be your dread Isaiah 8.13 5 Also by loving him trusting in him and zeale for him for there is the same reason that all the affections of the heart should be for him as well as any one Iob 1.21 6 By confessing with the mouth that he is just in all his judgements so doth Daniel saying Dan. 9.14 The Lord our God is righteous in all the workes that he doth for we obeyed not his voyce Iosh 7.19 Thus Achan is bid to give glory unto the Lord. 7 Also by acknowledging his mercie goodnesse power Rom. 15.6 Rev. 19.7 c. in praises and thanksgiving He that offereth praise glorifieth me saith God Psal 50.23 8 By contending for God and his truth Isa 59.4 9 By ordering the conversation aright both in doing and suffering Herein Ioh. 1â— 8 saith our Saviour is my Father glorified that ye beare much fruit Therefore he exhorteth his disciples unto good works that as lights they may shine before men and glorifie their Father which is in heaven Mat. 5 16. Philip. 1. And Paul was assured Christ should bee magnified in his bodie whether by life or by death And Peter was foretold by what death he should glorifie God Ioh. 20.19 10 Lastly by regarding his holinesse in his titles word and holy ordinances in his holy day the Sabbath and in his children whom he hath made to be an holy people In all these our estimation and speech of them our carriage towards them and use of them must be with speciall respect to God whose holinesse they carrie upon them alwayes putting difference betweene these things and all other which have not the like respect of holinesse Though we cannot in all these hallow Gods name as wee would yet wee must endeavour it that we may be able with the Church to say The desire of our soule is to thy name Now we know the particulars let us give God glory every way and let us make it the end of our life Motivâ—s to hallow Gods Name to know and acknowledge him to be holy It is Gods right as you have heard we were created and redeemed to that end and wee have examples of the best David saith he would speake the praises of the Lord and saith Let all flesh blesse his holy Name for ever and ever Psal 145.21 Christ Iesus hath gone before us in seeking his Fathers honour and not his owne It was Ioabs praise so to order the battell 2 Sam. 12.28 that his Lord and king might have the glorie of the day and not himselfe Ought not all Gods subjects to respect their God more than he did or could respect his king Excellently spake Ioseph that the honour of interpreting dreames might not be given to him It is not in me Gen. 41.16 God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace In like manner Daniel would not assume to himself the power of revealing secrets but saith Dan 2.26.28 There is a God which yeâ—â—alleth secrets The Apostle Iohn when he was in the Spirit heard everie creature which is in heaven and on the earth and such as are in the sea saying Blessing honour glory Rev. 5.13 and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lambe for ever and ever These examples are for our learning so that we must alwayes say with the Psalmist Psal 115.1 Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give glorie If God be glorified by us Ioh 13.32 he also will glorifie us Them that honour me I will honour 1. Sam. 2.30 saith God Thus it may be learned what are the desires and endeavours to which the first petition doth leade us Before I passe to the second one thing must be observed from Christs choice of the word hallowed rather than any other Hallowed When Christ would signifie that God was to be esteemed acknowledged with the absolutest honour that could be he saith hallowed that is let thy Name be known and acknowledged to bee holy Whence we may inferre that Doct. 2 Holinesse is the highest title of honour and glory that can belong to any person yea to the most high God As any person or thing is more holy so is it more honourable When the Seraphins would give God the greatest honour and glory they crie Holy holy Isa 6.3 holy is the Lord of hosts The foure living creatures say Holy holy holy Rev. 4.8 Lord God almighty It was the honour of Ierusalem to be an holy Citie It is the glorie of the third heaven to be the high and holy place Isa 57.15 As men were more holy Psal 16.3 so did David count them more excellent For such whom hee calleth Saints he also calleth excellent And when Christ Iesus will present his Church unto himself a glorious Church he will sanctifie it Eph 5.26.27 Reason and present it holy and without blemish Because holinesse in God is the rectitude and perfection of his power mercie justice and all other his attributes which if they were not all holy could not be good much lesse goodnesse neither could he be God if he were not holy yea holinesse it selfe And as for other things the more they partake of holinesse the more like they are to God and are therfore the more glorious Man at the first was therefore most glorious of all creatures here below because hee was made according to Gods image most holy Vse 1 If holinesse be the highest most honourable title that can bee given then most blasphemous are the Pope and Papists the one for taking to himselfe the other for giving to him a prophane beast and impure Antichrist the title of holinesse in the abstract For the title of holinesse cannot simply be given to any but to God without blasphemie Vse 2 Hereby wee may learne whom to esteeme most honourable most excellent and most worthy our love and goodnes not the most witty most wealthie most beautifull or most noble by birth but as any man is more holy so is he to be held and regarded as most truly honourable Which being so the proud sinfull world erreth foulely in counting themselves the onely men of worth and esteeming the holy ones of God to be base and of no reckoning If to be holy be so honourable and glorious this must perswade Vse 3 men to follow after holinesse Heb. 12.14 Honour is the sharpest spurre to pricke men forward unto any action let it force us upon this of seeking to bee renewed after God in righteousnesse and true holines Be holy Lev. 19.2 saith God for I the Lord your God am holy No honour like this of being an holy man a chosen generation an holy nation
Reas 3 Heaven is the place into which all Christians hope to enter and where they hope to dwell for ever good reason therefore that they should accustome themselves to the manners of that place before hand Ob. These examples cannot bee knowne Sol. Answer they may because God hath revealed in his word how the Angels obey him And in what manner Christ obeyed his Father on earth in the same manner the Saints his members doe in heaven Ob. These examples are of such perfection that no man can attaine to the like Answer Sol. though men on earth cannot bee as perfect as their copie yet the better the example is the nearer they may learne to come to perfection Once man could have obeyed and againe shall obey perfectly And it appeares by the examples proposed that it is possible that creatures may doe the will of God perfectly Whereas man is most prone Vse 1 to imitation let him learne hereby to follow examples to some purpose Imitate the Angels and Saints As Christ obeyed on earth and as the Scriptures report that the Angels have done in like manner must every one of us do The particulars hereof see in the next point Let every one therefore unto the precepts and rules of well-doing present to their thoughts the actions of those that have done according to those rules By this meanes we shall better understand the rule and be heartened to put it in practise because it sheweth a possibility that it may be done In doing thus we shall every day grow better and yet not be proud for we shal daily see something before us to which we must aspire to which yet we have not attained Vs 2 Here is an Apologie for all those good Christians which shun the examples of the worst men not onely making the best men on earth their patternes but goe one straine higher they looke unto the obedience of the Angels in heaven This Scripture is their warrant which must alwaies bear them out against the scoffes of prophane and loose men that content themselves vvith a meere form and outvvard face of godlinesse vvho if they be moved to an exacter course of practice they ansvvere vvith a scoffe What would you have us Saints and Angels on earth Answer them againe with this point They must be as Angels here or they do not understand what they say when they say in earth as it is in heaven If they understand what they say they mocke God in that they meane not as they speake and deale prophanely to mocke at the performance of that by another for which they themselves did seeme solemnly to pray They may be told they must obey God like Angels and Saints upon earth or they shall never be Saints and as the Angels in heaven Learne here with what honour the Angels and Saints departed should be honoured by men on earth namely with the honour of admiration and imitation of their graces As for adoration of their persons both God forbiddeth it and they themselves do abhorre it with See thou do it not Revel 22.9 In earth as in heaven This pointeth to an heavenly manner of doing Gods wil whence we learne Doct. 4 Prayer must be made and care had that Gods will be done in an holy manner The heavenly manner as well as the lawful matter of doing Gods will must be observed Eph. 6.6 Servants are exhorted to do the will of God from the heart Not onely to do Gods will but from the heart Our Saviour instructeth his disciples in the right manner of giving almes and of fasting and prayer in this sixth of Matth. Reason 1 Gods commandments do require as well the right manner as the matter of obedience for such is the tenour of the Commandment Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soule and with all thy minde Matt. 22.37 The good or evill manner of Reas 2 doing a good deed proveth or discovereth the sincerity or hypocrisie of the heart which is the chiefe thing which God hath an eye unto in everie action Before use can well be made it must bee considered what is requisite in the right manner of doing Gods will wherefore observe these directions 1 First if a good thing bee well done it must be done wittingly and purposely not as bruit creatures or wicked men who may fulfill Gods wil but are not aware that they do it 2 In faith beleeving that it is lawfull for them to do it else it is sinne Whatsoever is not of faith is sinne Rom. 14.23 3 In integritie of heart from an habite and true disposition to keep all the commandments as well as that one which actually he doth keepe for the present else if he allow himselfe in the breach of any one Iam. 2.10 God holdeth him guilty of all And it is the propertie of a good conscience to will to live honestly in all things Heb. 13.18 4 In sinceritie which is when a good thing is done unfainedly Eph. 6.6 Doing the will of God from the heart and from right grounds not for selfe respects onely or chiefly or for by ends but with ayme at pleasing of God and bringing honour to his Name For all things must be done to the glory of God 1. Cor. 10.31 5 Constantly a good conscience will endeavour to do well alwayes Act. 24.16 6 In humility reverence and holy feare of God whose work they do As the Angels observe all the former rules so do they this also For the Seraphims cover their faces with their wings Isa 6.2 and the foure and twenty Elders fall on their faces and cast their crownes before the Throne Revel 4.10 and 5.8 7 Speedily Psal 18.44 Dan. 92. making no delay This was taught by the wings of the Seraphims wherwith they did flie Isa 6.2 David said I made haste and delayed not to keepe thy commandments Psal 119.60 8 Lastly Psal 110.3 Psal 40.8 the will of God must bee done with a willing minde cheerfully and with delight David saith It was his delight to walke in the paths of Gods commandments Psal 119.35 And it was our Saviours meat and drinke to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his worke Ioh. 4.34 By these particulars it appeareth what is further to be prayed for and striven after what also is to be prayed against on the contrarie and avoyded according to the purpose of this third petition The uses follow Vse 1 All formall and hypocriticall Christians also all meere civill honest men which thinke they bee good men and that they have done God good service when they have done onely the matter and outside of some good works may see that they do palpably deceive thēselves If they preach pray heare receive the Sacrament keepe the Church pay everie man his owne and shew now and then some scraps of mercie though there was neither integrity sinceritie nor constancie at all in those actions they thinke God
Hos 2 9. Whose money or goods was it vvherevvith vvee bought any thing vvas it not Gods And vvho gave us vvit to invent and strength to labour vvas it not that God vvho doth also teach our hands to vvarre and singers to fight 2 Cor. 9.10 Who ministreth seed to the sower and bread for food and doth multiply the seed sowne All these things are of him to whom bee praise and glory for ever Amen Let no man say in his heart Deut. 8.17 my power or might of my hand hath gotten this wealth and let not any ascribe praise for his maintenance unto friends false gods or any other meanes but to the true God lest hee teach them to acknowledge that by his taking away of their wealth vvhich they vvould not acknowledge by his bestowing it upon them For thus hee dealt vvith Israel to vvhom he said She did not know or acknowledge that I gave her corne Hos 2.8.9 and oyle and multiplied her silver and her gold Therefore will I returne and take away my corn in the time thereof saith God and my wine in the season thereof and will recover my wooll and my flaxe given to cover her nakednesse Let us therefore say with David All things are of thee and if vvee give him any thing 1 Chro 29 12.13 vve must say Of thine owne have we given thee Both riches and honour come of thee in thine hand is power and might and in thine hand it is to make great and to give strength to all now therefore our God we thank thee and praise thy glorious Name Vs that is our selves and brethren vvhence learne It belongeth to every Christian to desire and procure the bodily welfare of his neighbour Abraham Doct. 4 prayed for Sodome Gen. 18. Psal 35.13 Act. 12.5 David praied for his enemies when they were sicke The Church prayed for Peter vvhen he was in prison This duty is expresly commanded in Iames vvhere he saith Pray one for another Iames 5.14.15.16 The law of charitie doth Reas 1 binde a man to love his neighbour as himselfe therefore hee must pray for him and procure his good as hee vvould his owne They have need as vvell as Reas 2 vve and the supplying of their vvants doth make for Gods glory as vvell as the supplying of our owne Reas 3 We are to hope they are or may be members of the same body of Christ with us in so much that their vvelfare is ours because vve are members one of another Reas 4 A mercifull and conscionable care of our brethren is a true proofe that we our selves are truely religions Iam. 1.27 Vse 1 This confuteth this divellish proverbe in the world which most men follow viz. every man for himselfe This doctrine teacheth that every man must be for his neighbour as for himselfe Vse 2 This likewise condemneth those vvhich vvant bowels and compassion tovvards their brethren vvho never doe lay their sicknesse poverty or imprisonment so to heart as to send forth one hearty prayer unto God in their behalfe While all is vvell with themselves they forget the distressed Amos 6.6 and doe not grieve for the afflictions of Ioseph nay they do afflict them rather 1. Ioh. 3.17 but how dwelleth the love of God in these men For we may well assure our selves that those that will not lend their neighbours a prayer in their need will not give them wherewithall to supply their need There are many so farre from wishing their neighbours welfare that having evill eyes they envie their prosperitie and do seeke their hinderance by pilfering purloyning cheating and oppressing of them desiring if they knew how to bring them to a morsel of bread yea some grow to that height of malice that they do imprecate curse and pray I tremble to name it that a mischiefe and the plague of God or some untimely death may seize upon them yet all these will sometimes in words of prayer say Give us this day our daily bread What horrible impietie is this to say nothing of their unmercifulnesse and injustice They do herein shew themselves to be most abhominable hypocrites and mockers of God When the unmercifull man shall say Lord relieve the poore but will not himselfe give him any reliefe though he have wherewith to give when the envious shall say Lord prosper them yet fret at it when they do prosper when the malicious shall say Give health and at the same time entertaine murtherous purposes against them when the persecutor shall say Lord give them liberty yet plot how to lay them up and keepe them in durance when the unjust man shall pray Lord give them bread house and all other good meanes of life yet at that time intendeth to steale their goods or detaine wages and other dues or to circumvent them by some cunning device or other or by depopulating inclosure and laying downe tillage do bereave them of houses and corne turning them and theirs a grazing for ought they care into the wide world to learne new trades and meanes of living If all this be not palpable hypocrisie manifest mocking of God to his face what is But know that tongue is set on fire of hell Iam. 3.6 which can pray to God for their neighbours in word and yet at other times curse wrong them both in word and deed All ye that do thus abide in death saith 1. Iohn 3.14 and have not eternall life abiding in you ver 15. And if Christ will say to all hypocriticall unmercifull men Mat. 25.41 Go ye cursed into everlasting fire for I was hungrie and ye fed me not where and how shall all hypocriticall unjust persons appeare Vse 3 This should enforce all men to commend the estates of their brethren unto God in prayer And that it may appeare that they are unfained in their requests let them distribute and communicate to them that need giving more or lesse according as God hath made theÌ„ able and as their brethrens necessities do require If they hunger feed them if naked clothe them if in debt give and lend unto them if in prison visit them we must do good to all especially to the houshold of faith Gal. 6 10. It must be done with our own goods Pro. 5.17 Gal. 6 9. it must be done in season while wee live and have wherewithal and while it may do them good In giving be liberall 2. Cor. 9.7 also chearfull and constant Let us remember them that be in bonds Heb. 13.3 as if we were bound with them and them thâ—t suffer adversitie as if we were in their case If we joyne almâ—â— with prayers Heb. 13.16 they are excellent sacrifices well pleasing unto God Humanitie and Christianitie both do call for mercie at our hands yea spirituall selfe-love for we do our selves good in relieving our brethren Is not the hand a gainer when it hath made hosen for the legges and shooes for the
and with assurance of what they hope to have Phil. 4.6 and need be carefull in nothing For God according to the graciousnesse of his nature and truth of his promise doth care for them Doth not this open a gap to idlenesse improvidence Quest and unthriftinesse which are condemned in the Scripture the contraries whereof are commanded expresly and commended in the examples of good men and women yea of the very Ant or Pismire Pro 6.6.8 which provideth her meat in Summer and gathereth her food in harvest to which silly creature the Lord sendeth the sluggard to learne thrift and providence Doth not this likewise disallow all laying up of money or money-worth against old age or for posterity Answ To seeke to God for provision for the present day onely and then to leave the care of what wee shall have hereafter to God is not contrary to diligence in a calling providence to gather and thrift to save and lay up what God by his blessing hath bestowed upon any man It should be in Gods great familie as it is in some well ordered families among men the master of the familie beareth the burthen of care and providing meate and drinke and other necessaries the servants and children need care for nothing but to doe their worke If the master provide them their dinner and supper and lodging c. this is all they care for yet these servants if they be faithfull will bee painefull and provident for their master that there may be plenty brought in out of which they might have their daily allowance Therefore in harvest these servants reap and carry into the barn more in one day than need bee spent in many daies Yet their care is but for the present though their providence be for time to come So it is between the great Lord of all the earth and his servants he appointeth every man his worke in a lawfull calling a great part of his worke is to earne and gather in such things as may maintain him and his that there may be meate in Gods familie for a mans selfe and for his fellow servants as God shall please to distribute Here is labour providence and laying up by the servant but all is for the Lord his master When much is thus gathered into Gods barnes and storehouses say they be mens owne houses yet this servant should onely expect his dinner and supper and other maintenance from his master for the present day leaving the care of provision upon God it is not meet he should be his own carver This doctrine opposeth onely care of distrust and carking about what shall bee had hereafter doubting of Gods providence and successe of their labours but not the care of a wise providence to gather by lawfull meanes things meete for this life nor yet the care for laying up for them and theirs for God alloweth that when a man hath payed his debts Rom. 13.8 Eccles 3.12 and that he and his have comfortably injoyed a part according to the condition of their place and occasions and after that pious and charitable uses have taken up another part then the overplus may nay must be saved and reserved for afterwards Our Saviour would have the remainder of the loaves and fishes gathered up Ioh. 6.12 that nothing be lost And it doth belong to Parents to lay up for their children 2 Cor. 12.14 It is comfortable to Gods Vse 3 children to consider that God will have them be at his finding every day they may bee sure therefore if they will trust to this they shall be well provided for And seeing it is his will they shall aske their maintenance every day of him they have good leave and good occasion to increase an holy acquaintance with God by comming oft into his presence and speaking oft unto him Besides if the thiefe or vermine or any casualtie deprive us of what we thought should have maintained us we may go to him boldly for more for if wee depend on him according as hee hath commanded us it concerneth him to provide for us He hath store and great plenty he will provide for his children that which shal be sweet and good and enough It will not stand with his honour that his children should want No man under the Sunne can live more merrily more securely than Gods children may do for they need care for nothing but to please God Though there are many things for which they must labour in their calling yet there is nothing for which they need to care The children of Israel might lye downe and sleepe securely in the wildernesse when they had not one morsell of bread against to morrow for the morrow-day brought with it Manna provision for to morrow this was because God sustained them Psal 3 5. Psal 4.8 This holy security wee should alwaies have for it is the Lord which sustaineth us also This day Therefore bread must be asked every day If this petition for bread then the other petitions also whence we are taught Prayers must be made to God Doct. 6 every day It was Davids use At evening morning and at noone to pray and cry aloud unto God Psal 55.17 Daniel prayed three times a day and gave thankes before his God as he did aforetime it was his custome Dan. 6.10 The daily morning and evening sacrifice appointed in the Law doth teach as much Prayer and thanks are testifications Reas 1 of dependance upon God every day which worship and homage is therefore due unto him every day Gods glory kingdome and Reas 2 will are opposed every day And man hath need of bread forgivenesse of sinnes and new supply of grace every day Reas 3 Omission of prayer but one day giveth Satan great advantage Besides disuse of prayer doth so estrange the heart from God that there followeth unwillingnesse and difficultie to set about the worke of prayer againe any day Vse 1 It is therefore a fault to bee seldome in prayer If a man let a day passe and doe not make a solemne prayer to his God hee must charge himselfe with a great fault Into this fault many do fall daily for they let not dayes but weeks and moneths passe and never make an hearty prayer unto God in faith It may bee in their extremities they will howle and cry and sometime when their leisure serves God shall be beholding to them for a few words of prayer But know that not to pray daily is the very guise of hypocrites Iob. 27.10 Will he alwaies call upon God saith Iob He that will pray but seldome but now and then may justly expect that God will heare him never for of such he saith Pro. 1.28 They shall call upon me and I will not answer What shall I say then to those that doe not onely utterly neglect this duty themselves but despise all other that doe make it their practise daily to call upon God The Prophet doth set this as a brand
upon Atheists which in their hearts say there is no God Psal 14.4.6 They call not upon the Lord saith he You shame the counsell of the poore because God is their refuge But know ye the Lord looketh from heaven and doth behold and punish such impiety and prophanenesse In concerneth all Christians Vse 2 therefore to make all the petitions in this Lords Prayer either in this same forme or in other words to the same effect every day It was Christs practise and hath beene the manner of the faithfull in all ages Then shall we hold a gracious familiaritie with God our Father Then will he heare us alwaies and we shall ever have our requests granted when it shall be best for us The case touching how oft in a day wee must pray If it be asked how often in one day prayers are to be made I answer ejaculations and short liftings up of the heart should be very often according as sudden occasions shall minister cause more set and solemne prayers should be made ordinarily at morning at meales and at evening These times doe alwaies minister due cause of solemne prayer and may ordinarily without necessary lets be performed Also at other times prayer must bee made as there shall fall out speciall cause 1 Thes 5.17 For wee must pray continually that is in every state and condition and upon every good occasion when there is opportunity then pray and also praise God No certain rules can be given for any set number how oft this is left unto a mans Christian discretion as his necessities and as his opportunities doe vary But to keepe canonicall houres and to pray by stinted numbers upon beades or otherwise as Papists doe is ridiculous and too too superstitious It will rejoyce a Christian Vse 3 heart to consider that hee hath leave to come to God to preferre his suits unto him every day We are loth to put up petitions unto men too oft lest they should grow weary of us but it should not be so between Christians and the Lord for he is best pleased with those that come oftenest to him In Courts of Requests amongst men there are certaine dayes in which one mans suit is heard at which time other mens suits must be put off to other dayes of hearing Every man cannot have his suit sped every day no not every Terme But all Gods people may come to him by Christ Iesus and have their requests heard and granted in the Court of heaven every day yea seven times and if need be seventie times seuen times in one day Our that is such bread wherto we have true right and proprietie Hence we are taught Doct. 7 The maintenance wherupon a Christian may desire to live must be his owne He must have right both before GOD and man Drinke waters out of thine own cisterne Pro. 5.15 The Apostle commandeth that men should eate their owne bread 2 Thes 3.12 If they have not a spirituall Reas 1 right to their maintenance by their marriage with Christ it will be impure unto them for to the unbeleeving and defiled is nothing pure Tit. 1.15 To desire to live upon that Reas 2 which is another mans were to go about to draw the just God into copartnership of their injustice towards man With what face then can Vse 1 idle persons which have no calling or will not with quietnesse worke that they might have bread of their owne to eate say Give us our bread 2. Thes 3.10.12 the Apostle saith such should not eat untill they have laboured and gotten wherewithall by honest meanes But more especially how dare those that get their living and raise their estates by indirect and unlawful courses such as lying stealing defrauding gaming oppression usurie and such like meanes how dare I say these pray to God that hee would give and blesse to them their own bread when what they have to eate is the meat of wickednesse and what they have to drinke is as the wine of violence But wee unto him that increaseth that which is not his Pro. 4.17 Hab. 2.6 Vse 2 Would any man make this prayer in sinceritie so that he may expect a blessing from God let him be sure that hee have a good title unto that which he would have God to blesse unto him so that he can truly call it his owne There is a twofold right to the things of this life one common to all the other speciall and peculiar to the children of God The common right is founded in Gods goodnesse and bounty to man as he is his creature and is conveighed to man by such acts of Gods providence as do give unto a man a true proprietie amongst men in the things which they possesse this is called a civill right The speciall right is founded in Gods speciall love to his children in and through Christ which is added to their common right namely a right of inheritance which giveth not onely a right to the things themselves but to the blessing and comfortable use of the same this is a spirituall right derived to a beleever through Christ The want of this right is the cause why to the wicked even the things which they lawfully possesse are in their use impure Tit. 1.15 Hence it is that wicked men have not so good and so full a right to the good creatures of God as true beleevers have nor yet can have so comfortable and so sanctified a use of them as the godly may have they never partake of the good creatures of God but hee hath to except against them though not alwayes for the having yet for the abusing and for the unsanctified use of them For God giveth meat and so I may say of other things to them that beleeve 1. Tim. 4.3 and know the truth to be received with thanksgiving Though men may have a common right to the creatures of God without Christ yet they cannot have the speciall right or blessing in the use of them but by Christ For this cause it concerneth us to do two things First make we sure to bee ingrafted into Christ the heire of all things that through him it may bee said 1. Cor. 3 22. All things are ours Secondly we must live in an honest calling Eph. 4.28 and therein labour with our hand or head the thing that is good we must worke that wee may eate our owne bread having a civill right to what we possesse as well as a spirituall We must not thinke to be maintained being in a fruitfull land with Manna and Quailes from heaven for God will not allow his servants to eat either the bread of idlenesse or wickednesse Our bread Here God giveth his children leave to call bread their bread whence observe Everie childe of God hath a Doct. 8 true right to those temporall goods which hee doth lawfully possesse The meeke have right of inheritance unto the earth Matth. 5.5 They have right in the right
all the guilt and punishment be satisfied in Christ it must not bee thought that God will at a punish any that are saved by Christ Reason 2 Forgivenesse is no forgivenesse if there be not remisseâ— of punishment Ob. God pardoned Davids adulterie and murther yet reserved for him temporal punishment and the like may be observed in Gods dealing with many others wherefore sinne may be pardoned yet as punishment not remitted Sol. It must be granted that temporall evils did befall David after his sinne was pardoned and the like doth befall other of Gods children but it must be knowne that those afflictions were not satisfactorie punishments or had any respect unto the justification of those that were therewith exercised but they onely had respect unto their further sanctification The same evils in different persons namely the godly and the reprobate are of different natures and are sent of God for different purposes in the wicked they are signes of his wrath but to his children they are signes of his love Heb. 12. they are to the wicked plagues and fore-runners of destruction but they are unto the godly corrections unto instructions they are onely Gods physicke to purge out the corruption and to abate the power of sinne and are meanes leading to sanctification as I said but have no respect of satisfaction in any degree unto justification Vse 1 This confuteth Popish doctrine of satisfactions of Gods justice by temporall punishments either in this life or in Purgatorie They will acknowledge that Christ satisfied for all eternall punishment but not for temporall Which distinction was not knowne in Christs time it was onely invented to lay a foundation for Purgatory and the appurtenances thereof which being razed by this and like truths of Scripture will when Antichrist shall bee revealed by the spirit of Gods mouth be discovered to be but a fable It were little for the honour of Christ that he should pay so great a price for the redemption of man from eternall punishment and yet should leave him to himselfe to satisfie for temporall The hearts of all that beleeve Vse 2 in Christ should rejoyce at this to consider that they are not onely freely redeemed but that they are also fully redeemed from all punishment temporall and eternall If temporall chastisements be inflicted God doth send them in love either as trials of his graces wherewith he hath endued them or as physicke to prevent or remove the corruption of sinne which yet remaineth in them they do onely serve to shew what grace they have or prepare and make way for that grace they shall have Crosses are not curses to them but blessings for Blessed is the man whom the Lord correcteth and teacheth him out of his Law Psal 94.12 Vs that is the Disciples as well as others The Disciples were alreadie justified yet by Christs direction even they must every day make this petition even as oft as for daily bread whence learne Doct. 5 The best of Gods children notwithstanding they be alreadie justified must everie day aske forgivenesse of their sinnes Daniel prayed every day Dan. 6.10 and in his prayer he confessed and asked forgivenesse for his owne sinnes and the sins of the people Dan. 9.19 Reas 1 The best men are clothed with infirmities Iam. 3.2 and in something or other do sinne daily therefore had need to aske forgivenesse daily Reas 2 If pardon of a sinne bee not asked that day in which it is committed the guilt lying upon the conscience it doth benumme the conscience and so it is forgotten altogether or else when it is put off till many sinnes be committed either the heart is discouraged with multitude of offences that it is afraid to present it selfe before God or if it doe come into Gods sight those many sinnes are confessed and prayed against but confusedly and in grosse for the most part In asking forgivenesse a man Reas 3 doth not aske onely that universall and absolute justification of his person before God but also continuance of that his gracious acceptance of him into favour also he asketh under that word forgive new applications to the conscience of pardon of the sinnes which daily he doth commit with a further ratification of assurance of salvation unto his heart It is not enough that the pardon of mans sinne be actually passed with God but this pardon must be sued out that the same may also be passed in a mans conscience and this must be renewed daily even as the conscience is blurred and stained with sins daily else a man shall have little fruit or comfort of that generall and originall pardon which standeth upon record for him in the heavens The Lord hath in most excellent wisedome ordered that the justification of a sinner should be in this manner namely though it be a perfect and absolute act of God whereby the person of every membere Christ in the very instant of actuall ingrafting into Christ standeth acquitted of all sinnes yet in respect of the application of it by the worke of the holy Ghost and in respect of the full execution of it hee will that it shall be made knowne to man by parts and degrees and that he shall waite for the full execution of it untill the day of the Lord. For this maketh a man conceive more hainously of sinne and to be more circumspect that hee doe not commit it it maketh him more earnest to pray that it may be forgiven and it maketh him more heartily thankefull when it is forgiven If any dreame of perfection Vse 1 in this life this doctrine may serve to awake them out of it for if the best men need forgivenesse daily then without question the best doe sinne daily By this it appeareth that sins Vse 2 committed after Baptisme and relapses and backesliding after conversion are pardonable else our Saviour would not have framed this petition of asking forgivenesse for the use of Peter and the rest of the Church in case of their failings And if God require that one man forgive another not onely every day but seven times in one day then God will much more forgive his children if they sinne oft in one day if they doe but confesse their sinnes and aske him forgivenesse Vse 3 This reproveth those that put off the seeking of forgivenesse of sinne either untill the hand of God be upon them Danger of deferring to obtaine forgivenesse of sinnes or untill some especiall cause of humiliation be offered then through disuse they are much to seeke for time hath caused many sinnes to be forgotten and custome of lying long in sinne doth harden the heart that it doth not distaste sinne as it might have done when it was first committed Hence for the most part commeth slight generall and confused confessions and prayers or if they set themselves more carefully to search out their sinnes it having beene long since they made their peace with God the multitude of their sinnes come so thicke
duty to pray for Reas 1 the dead as well as the living there would have beene some precept or it would have beene commended in some example in Scripture Wherefore wee may conclude in such a case as this from the silence of Scripture that onely the living not the dead are to be prayed for It is vaine and bootlesse to Reas 2 pray for the dead for either they be carried by the Angels into heaven where they need not our prayers Luk. 16. or else they are throwne into hell the Scripture knoweth no third place out of which our prayers cannot fetch them Eccles 9.10 And there is no repentance or forgivenesse in the grave Vse We are therefore to abhorre and avoid that point of Popery which teacheth praying for the dead yet as absurd and vain as it is that old Poperie which was bred in the bone will not out of the flesh of many Protestants For many will never speake of any departed but with this addition God be with him or Lord have mercie on his soule If ye tell them of this fault they say Better say so than worse and if we do them no good by our prayers wee are sure we do them no harme I answer what necessity is there of praying better or worse for them And grant that your prayers do them no harme I am sure they do them no good But in praying for them you do your selves harme in committing a sinne against God by making a prayer which cannot be a prayer of faith Now he is unwise that will do himselfe harme in any thing wherein he neither pleaseth God nor doth good to his neighbour Our implyeth a plaine acknowledgement and confession of sinne without hiding excusing or extenuating of sinnes Whence this is observable In asking pardon of sinne there Doct. 8 must alwayes be an heartie acknowledgement and confession of sinne When David gave over hiding his iniquitie and said I will confesse my transgressions to the Lord then saith he Thou forgavest the iniquitie of my sin Psal 32.5 We have a large example of his confession of sin originall and actuall Psal 51.3 4 5. Daniel saith We have sinned against thee Dan. 9.8 Heartie confession of sinne Reas 1 giveth glory to God for thereby it is acknowledged that God should have been obeyed this giveth him the glory of his authoritie and soveraigntie Also thereby is acknowledged that Gods Law which is broken is equall holy and good else the act of sinne could not be acknowledged to be a fault Reas 2 A free confession sheweth that a man is ashamed of his sinne and that he is humble and sorie for it and he is hereby capable of forgivenesse whereas when a man hath committed a sinne if he will not confesse it it doth then stand God upon to seek out his proofes and bring him to his triall Reas 3 An unfained confession of sinne argueth a true desire of pardon yea it doth put an edge to desire for when the bed role of many damnable sinnes is laid open to the view of a man it will make him earnest with God as it did Daniel who after his confession is most fervent in prayer saying O Lord heare O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do deferre not for thine own sake O my God Dan. 9.19 God hath promised to forgive Reas 4 those that confesse their sinne If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes 1. Ioh. 1.9 It is therefore a great fault Vse 1 not to confesse but to go about to hide sinne from God and a mans owne conscience this doth greatly aggravate sinne This sinne is one of the first sins and one of the commonest sinnes that are amongst the sonnes of men When the devill had drawne Adam and Eve into sinne he knew the best way to keepe them from forgivenesse was to teach them to excuse and extenuate their sinne the man layeth the fault on the woman yea upon God himself Gen. 3. the woman layeth it on the serpent neither of them will take it upon themselves Even so it is with all the children of Adam untill God endue them with a great measure of his grace either they will denie or excuse or extenuate or shift it off imputing their sinne either to their naturall disposition therefore they cannot chuse they must bee borne with or they impute their sinnes to the wickednesse of the times or to their companie or to the deuil when all this while the evill heart which is most in fault is not charged at all with any faultinesse whereas in touch whatsoever was the occasion or whosoever was the entise if the heart yeeld to commit sinnes the sinne is a mans own and must be called as it is in the petition Our debt or my dâ— It is the extreamest folly 〈◊〉 can be to go about to hide siâ— for it cannot be hidde from his eyes which seeth all things who will one day when all secrets shall bee made manifest fully discover it It is a fault to commit sinne but it is aggravated when it is not confessed If I covered my transgression as Adam or after the manner of man saith Iob Iob 31.33 and 2. By hiding my sinne in my bosome Then what portion of God is there and what inheritance of the Almightie from on high verse 2. For this is the generall evill which is to be applyed to all the particular sinnes mentioned in that Chapter The hiding of sinne therefore is dangerous according to that saying He that hideth his sinnes shall not prosper Prou. 28.13 Would any man have his Vse 2 sinnes forgiven then let him uncover his sins and lay them open before God in confession that so God may hide and cover them in Christ who is the covering and true propitiation of all our sinnes that through him he may put them out of his remembrance as if they were cast into the bottome of the sea In confession it shall be needfull to observe these rules 1 Confession must be heartie not verball for this is meere hypocrisie 2 It must be voluntarie not constrained and forced as wâ— that of Pharoahs when Gods terrible judgement being upon him hee said I have sinned against the Lord c. Exod 1â— 16 3 It must bee mixed with faith and hope of pardon 〈◊〉 was that of Daniel Dan 9.9 saying 〈◊〉 the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses though we have rebelled against thee It must not be a desperate comâ—sion like that of Judas Mat. 27 4. sayiâ— I have sinned in betraying innâ—cent bloud 4 It must be with holy affections of griefe godly shame for sinne with contrition and brokennesse of heart with a lothing and detestation of the sinnes confessed and with true humiliation of heart Thus did Ezra confesse saying O God Ezra 9. I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our iniquities are increased over our heads Thus did the
on Christ Iesus who is the surety for man And be wee sure to confesse and aske forgivenesse of this debt and never give over untill it have pleased God to seale an acquittance unto our consciences by his Spirit which he will give to all that aske it This wee should doe Luk. 11. â—5 because sinne is a debt and that of most dangerous consequence Debts Our Saviour doth not say debt as speaking of one debt or of one kinde of debt but hee saith debts that is all kinde of sinnes as well veniall as mortall if we may use that distinction as well small as great From hence observe Doct. 10 Whosoever would be justified before God must be beholding to God for the free forgivenesse of all his sinnes as well as of any David saith Hee forgiveth all thine iniquities Psal 103.3 Reas 1 All sinnes are mortall and of themselves damnable For Cursed is every one that conâ—inueth not in all things written iâ— the Law to doe them Gal. 3.10 Wherefore if all sinnes be not pardoned a man abideth under the curse there denounced Reas 2 All sinnes are veniall and pardonable in Christ to all beleevers and penitent persons therfore they may expect pardon of all as well as of any one This confuteth the tenent of Vse 1 Papists which hold that such sinnes which they call veniall doe not deserve hell and may be done away by crossing and knocking the brest by holy water by any worke of charitie and such slight satisfactions Let all that will be saved be Vse 2 glad they may bee beholding unto GOD for pardon of all their sinnes and let us aske for remission of all sinnes God can as well pardon all and the greatest sinnes as one of the least and the least sinne hath need to be pardoned as well as the greatest for a Musket shot will kill as well as the shot of a great Ordenance As we forgive our debters These words are the reason serving to strengthen the faith of such as are to aske forgivenesse Here therfore we learne Doct. 11 In asking forgivenesse of sinne it is meet that reasons be used to expresse what ground a man hath to aske and to expect forgivenesse Thus David yeeldeth reasons why God should have mercy on him first from his tender mercy then from his owne confession of his sins then from his faith in Christ and from the effects which would follow upon Gods shewing mercy to him all which may be plainely seene in Psal 51.1.3.7 c. Reason Apt reasons serve much to imbolden and incourage a sinner to come before God and this he hath need of because Satan hath many devices to keepe him from asking forgivenesse as sometimes to hide from his sight the uglinesse and danger of sinnes causing him to forget his sinne or to thinke there is no great need of pardon Iâ— this fetch of his will not prevaile then he setteth all his sins before him and stretcheth them upon the tenters of aggravation making them seeme bigger than they are pleading Gods wrath and justice against them Now against arguments of discouragements and feares reasons of asking forgivenesse are very usefull They are therefore to blame Vse 1 who aske forgivenesse of their sinnes and yet cannot render a true reason why they should expect forgivenesse Let all that would breake Vse 2 through all discouragements and would aske forgivenesse of their sins with confidence furnish their hearts with strong arguments taken from Gods nature and Gods commandement to aske and from Gods promise of forgivenesse or from their misery and capablenesse to be forgiven or the like that when they come to GOD in prayer though they are not to goe about to perswade God with arguments to grant that which of himselfe he is not inclined to yet they may use arguments to perswade themselves to aske and hope for forgivenesse As we forgive them that trespasse against us Note here those which make this petition must be able to say truely they forgive others that thereby they may approve themselves to be capable of forgivenesse from God and that they have good reason to expect it Hereby we learne Doct. 12 Whosoever would have God forgive them their sinnes they must be able truely to say they forgive all other their trespasses against them Our Saviour saith If ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses Mat. 6.14.15 Also he saith When yee stand praying forgive if yee have ought against any Mark 11.25 God hath expresly commanded Reas 1 every Christian to forgive one another Eph. 4.32 Col. 3.13 Now if man will not for his sake at his commandement forgive one hundred pence why should hee expect that God should forgive him ten thousand talents at his intreatie God hath promised forgivenesse Reas 2 to all that from their heart forgive their brethren their trespasses Mat. 18.35 Mat. 6.14 15. To forgive another in mercy Reas 3 and compassion towards men and in conscience towards God this is a signe that God hath already begun to forgive us because that our forgivenesse of our neighbour is but a reflexe of Gods former forgiving of us for Gods love to us first maketh us love our brethren Now if we can assure our selves God hath begun to pardon us wee may assure our selves hee will againe pardon our sinnes if we aske it Ob. It doth belong onely to God to forgive trespasses Sol. In every wrong done to man there is a double trespasse one against man another against God whose commandement is broken by that trespasse done to man Now it is most true that God onely can forgive the sinne and trespasse against him and no man must presume to forgive the sin comitted against God onely hee is to intreate God to forgive the sinne committed in the wrong done to him as Stevâ— did Acts 7.60 who said Lord lay not their sinne to their charge But forgivenesse spoken of in the point is of forgivenesse not of the sinne but of the wrong and trespasse against man The Scripture alloweth men to require their debts Ob. and if they be wronged to complaine to the Magistrate and for that cause both magistracie and judiciall constitutions were set up in the common-wealth of Israel therefore it may seeme all trespasses are not to be remitted In every wrong done unto us Sol. there are two things concurre First defect of love in him that wrongeth us which is apt to beget the like defect in us to cause us to cease to love him yea to spite and seeke revenge The second thing is there is some hurt or damage groweth either to our name life or goods which worketh in us that are wronged desire of satisfaction and recompence for the hurt done unto us The first of these namely their ill will to us must alwayes be forgiven so that all ill will in us to them and all
came to passe that Rehoboam sinned the infatuating of Rehoboam who was of himselfe partially and corruptly affected towards his young Councellours and the not putting of wisedome into Rehoboams greene head was of God but that Rehoboam made choice of the worst counsel that was a most free act of his owne Now Gods hand was in the disposing of these things that the thing before prophesied might come to passe Thus much the word translated cause doth signifie scil the thing brought about or brought to passe was from God This act of not hearkening must be considered in divers respects First as an evill act of Rehoboam and his evill Councellours in this respect God did not cause it Secondly it must be considered as a meet punishment of that kingdome and as a means to bring to passe the prophesie of Ahijah in which respect that God in justice should leave Rehoboam and his young Councellours to their folly and to the pride of their owne hearts it was good and was caused of God Thus it may appeare as I hope that God hath an over-ruling and disposing hand in mens sinnes without being author of sinne and without any impeachment of his-holinesse The uses follow They are therefore to blame Vse 1 that alter the forme of this petition saying Suffer us not to be led in stead of Leade us not Their end may bee good but their alteration is naught and to no purpose for in truth this change of words doth not cleare Gods justice any more then Christs owne words Let the petition therefore remaine and stand holy as it is set down by Christ for it is presumption to teach Christ how to speake This our tenent is an apology Vse 2 against Papists or any other that shall slanderously affirme that we hold either directly or by consequent that God is the author of sinne although wee say as this petition teacheth us that God leadeth into temptation and hath more to do in the sinnes of men then a bare permission Vse 3 This should cause all men to admire and magnifie the infinit wisedome and perfection of Gods holinesse that can have so much to do with sinners and with their sinnes and yet there doth not so much as one dust or spot of defilement cleave unto him Vse 4 Hereby are condemned the blasphemies of very many who to excuse or lessen their sin will lay the fault on God because Gods determinate counsell hiâ— providence power permission and his giving men over is in their sin and because he might have hindered it if he would therefore they thinke they cannot chuse but sinne and why should fault bee found with them if God would it shouâ—â— be otherwise Such are brought in objecting Rom. 9. Who hath resisted his will Why doth he yet finde fault This they take from Adam who before his conversion would have laid the fault on God rather then take it on himselfe for he saith Gen. 3.12 The woman whom thou gavest to be wiih me she gave me of the tree and I did eate But take notice that although he thus extenuated his sinne by laying it on God yet God could Gen. 3.17 and did curse Adam and the earth the bitter fruits whereof we feele unto this day Know therefore thou that any way darest put off thy sin upon God if thou do not beleeve in Christ and forsake thy sinne the Lord will one day shew to thy cost that he can bring it about that thou through thine owne evill heart shalt sinne he giving thee over unto it and yet can in holy justice cast thee into hell for thy sinne For he can say he deceived the false Prophet and yet justly punish the said Prophet and all that are deceived by him Ezek. 14.9 10. Vse 5 May God if he please leade into temptation and can we not be overcome by temptation except the Lord permit This should teach all men to live so that God may be their friend and may not be provoked in his justice to give them over to the power of the devill and unto their owne lusts For which cause observe and keepe these directions following 1 First make your peace with God by faith in Christ repent of all sinnes past and having hereby obtained friendship with God then keepe it by being good before him which is then approved when you shall endevour to please him by doing his will in time to come which if ye do for this is to be good before God or to please God then you shall escape the snares and nets the hands and bands of the most enticing harlot in the world the like may be said of all other temptations but the sinner saith Solomon shall be taken by her Eccles 7. 2 As much as in you is abstaine from all sinne for since mans fall Gods giving over unto sinne is a punishment for some former sinne but especially shunne those particular sins for which God doth in speciall sort give men over the chiefe whereof are these following 1 First all refusing 2 Thess 2.10.11 or a slight and formall receiving of the truth For this causeth God to send men strong delusion to beleeve a lye 2 Abusing or not making right use of that knowledge a man hath Rom. 1 21.22 23 24 26 28. doth cause God to infatuate and give him over to vile affections 3 A willingnesse of heart to be ignorant of the truth and a wilfulnesse to practise evill for of such saith the Lord Ezek. 14.4 He that setteth up his idols in his heaâ—â— and cometh to the Prophet I the Lord will answer him that commeth according to the multitude of his idols 4 Presumption of a mans owne power of himselfe to resist temptations Matth. 26.33 34. for this cause the Apostle Peter was given over to fall so fearfully 5 All willing casting of ones selfe into the occasions of sinne for this cause Jehoshaphat's familiaritie with Ahab 1. Kin. 22. caused him to be given over to beleeve Ahabs false Prophets rather then good Micaiah 6 Idlenesse to live without a calling or negligently in a calling Ezek. 16.49 doth expose a man unto the Lords giving him over unto many abhominations for this he gave over Sodom to uncleannes 7 Allowance of secret sinnes this provoketh God many times to give men over unto some grosse open sinne that it may worke sense of sinne shame for sinne and true repentance in the elect may worke unto shame and eternall perdition of the reprobate Shun all sinnes therefore as much as in you lyeth if you would not have God leade you into temptation but especially take heed of those before mentioned Let all that beleeve in Christ and have thereby true interest Vse 5 in God draw comfort from this doctrine for God you see hath an overruling hand in the temptations and the sins of all men Satan therefore cannot winnow us nor buffet us no Luk. 2â— 31 he cannot touch us but as
unto the end thereof that in the end we may with firme remembrance of what hath been spoken and with good advisement redouble our desires and testifie our hope of audience when we say Amen Thus to pray is to pray in the spirit Amen In saying Amen a man repeateth and redoubleth his desire as if he said What I have desired I do againe and againe desire and wish it may bee so Whence note Doct. 3 There ought to be an holy fervor and earnestnesse in prayer Good King Hezekiah shewed his earnestnesse when hee said Encline thine eare O Lord and heare open thine eyes O Lord and see Isaiah 37.17 Daniel is likewise earnest when hee saith O Lord heare O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and doe deferre not for thy names sake Dan. 9.19 Aske seeke knock saith our Saviour Matth. 7.7 Those prayers which prevaile with God are called effectuall fervent prayers Iam. 5.16 For when a man is fervent Reas 1 in prayer it argueth that a man is sensible of what he doth aske and that hee is unfained in his asking It argueth that hee hath faith Reas 2 and hope to obtaine what hee asketh Mat. 15 22 25.2â— as it did the faith of the woman of Canaan The evils to bee prayed against Reas 3 are so extremely hurtfull and things to bee prayed for such as grace and glory are so excellent and so exceeding needfull that it concerneth men to be earnest God only can heare and help Reas 4 if he help not we perish good reason therfore why we should be urgent with him Reas 5 The more fervent any man is in requests the more hearty hee will be in thanksgiving Vse 1 This reproveth the faintnesse of the prayers of many persons who put up onely slender and single requsts unto God without redoubling or seconding them with pertinent repetitions or hearty adding of Amen to their requests which argueth that either they have no hearty desires of that they aske or they have little hope to speed both which faylings in prayer do much displease God Vse 2 Let all therefore that are to come before God in prayer not onely pray with understanding and in the spirit but with fervency of spirit Luk. 18.1.2 Christ teacheth this by the parable of the importunate widow and unjust Iudge for by importunity and earnestnesse she prevailed even with him Wherefore if wee would importune the righteous and most gracious God wee should prevaile much more This fervency commendeth and giveth force to our prayers yea though they bee utterred but with unperfect speech and inward grones more than the most fine phrases and most choice words that can be uttered if fervor be absent Amen doth also expresse that perswasion of faith and hope which hee that prayeth hath to obtaine his requests Whence we learne Whosoever prayeth aright Doct. 4 must beleeve and expect that he shall have his prayers granted This same Christ himselfe teacheth saying What things soever ye desire when yee pray beleeve that yee receive them and ye shall have them Mar. 11.24 The Apostle would have men pray every where without doubting 1. Tim. 2.8 John saith This is the confidence that wee have in God that if we aske any thing according to his will hee heareth us 1. Ioh. 5.14 Reas 1 Because whosoever asketh aright asketh onely those things which are lawfull and according to the will of God Therefore may expect to have them granted Reas 2 God hath peomised to grant the petitions of them that pray unto him saying Aske and it shall be given you Matth. 7.7 Our Saviour saith If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall aske what ye will and it shall be done unto you Ioh. 15.7 Yea the promise is made with condition of beleeving that they shall obtaine therefore they must beleeve for Christ saith All things whatsoever ye shall aske in prayer beleeving ye shall receive Matt. 21.22 Reas 3 All which pray aright do aske the Father in the name of Christ Rev. 8 3. who is that Angel which hath much incense which hee doth offer with the prayers of the Saints thereby making them acceptable who hath by his word given all men assurance that whatsoever they shall aske the Father in his name he will give it Ioh. 16.23 This discovereth the sinne of Vse 1 many who notwithstanding they pray daily yet they are full of doubt and do not beleeve that God doth heare or grant their requests Nay many will say that it is not their case onely for they do heare many complaine that their prayers are not granted How can we beleeve that our prayers are or can be granted To such I answer Let not Satan and a misguided judgement deceive you For First the cause may bee in your selves that you are not heard Secondly though God do not take any exception against your person or praier but liketh both well yet in his wisedome he may see cause why hee will not grant your desire Thirdly God may heare and grant your petition when yet you may thinke that you are not heard Fourthly God may for good causes oft-times deferre the granting of your requests which must not be accounted for a deniall If the fault be in your selfe either through the faultinesse of your person or action in prayer then God of purpose forbeareth to grant your prayer not because he heareth not but because he would have you to amend what was amisse both in your selfe and in your prayer To qualifie a mans person that hee may have his prayer heard it is requisite 1. that he be the true childe of God that he be ingrafted into Christ by faith and that hee abide in Christ and have his word dwelling in him For Abide in me Ioh. 15.7 saith our Saviour and let my word abide in you ye shall aske what you will and it shall bee done unto you Or 2. if a man indeed be regenerate Psal 66.18 yet if hee regard any particular knowne iniquitie in his heart and if hee lye in any grosse sinne unrepented of the Lord hath cause not to heare for this sinne as a thicke cloud Lam. 3.40.42.44 causeth that his prayer as Jeremie saith cannot passe through 3. He that would himselfe be heard of God and have God to forgive him must be one that hath put on bowels of mercie Col 3.13 Mat. 6.14 and kindnesse and readinesse to give unto and to forgive his brother at his request else how can hee thinke that God will heare him Matth. 18.32.33.35 so as either to give unto him or to forgive him 4. It is requisite that hee which would have his new petitions granted should first be thankfull for former and for old mercies received else this may be a sufficient barre to the granting of new requests 5. He that would obtaine his petitions must be readie prest and be industrious in using those means wherein and whereby the good thing asked is by
a master where is my feare It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good saith good Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 Reason 2 Gods will take it of things to be done or suffered besides that it is soveraigne and absolute Rom. 7.12 it is holy equall and good And good is the word which thou hast spoken saith Hezekiah Isa 39.8 Whereas on the contrarie the will of Satan and of the flesh is starke naught Great cause therefore why Gods will should be done and be preferred before all other wills Reason 3 The end why God doth make knowne his will unto the sonnes of men Deut 6.1 is that that they should do it and submit unto it Christ did therfore redeeme Reason 4 man that as Peter saith they should no longer live the rest of their time in the flesh according to the lusts or wil of men but according to the will of God 1. Pet. 4 2. The chiefe heads to which the will of God may bee reduced are these First that men should perfectly know his will Secondly that they should perfectly obey it thus much the Law of pure nature taught before the fall Thirdly sith all have sinned and even after conversion do in many things sinne it is the will of God that men should be convinced of their sinne Act. 2.38 be penitent for it confesse it and aske him forgivenesse through Christ Iesus Fourthly when men have done this his will is 1. Ioh. 3.23 that they should beleeve what Christ hath done and suffered for them beleeving in him and relying upon him for pardon for obtaining of grace and for everlasting salvation Fiftly his will is that all that beleeve in him and that endeavour to live holily and righteously should hope stedfastly and be assured that they through Christ shall be for ever glorified Sixthly that in the meane time they bee thankfull for Gods goodnesse towards them in everie condition and that they patiently fruitfully and comfortably beare whatsoever afflictions they shall meete with in the way waiting when God shall accomplish all his promises to them in Christ unto their everlasting glory Vse 1 The greater number of Christians in name come here to be reproved because they are willingly ignorant of Gods will and wilfully disobedient nay as if that were not bad enough they cannot abide any that strive to walke according unto the strict rule of Gods holy commandments but are all for following the course of this world the wil of Satan Eph. 2.2.3 and lusts of the flesh in all manner of disobedience of Law and Gospell These may see how contrarie they are to their profession which in word can say Disswasives from disobedience to Gods will Thy wil be done but indeed do the contrarie God cannot brooke this abhominable dissembling howsoever they thinke of themselves these remaine yet children of wrath Ephe. 2.3 Ephe. 5. â— because they remaine children of disobedience They are yet in the power of sinne Rom. 6.16 for his servants they are whom they obey These men cannot scape without punishment He that knoweth not his masters will is worthy of stripes saith our Saviour But he that knoweth his masters will Luk. 12.47.48 and yet prepareth not neither doth according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes Disobedience is a dishonour to God so saith the Apostle to the hypocriticall boasters of the Law Rom 2.23.24 Through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God For the Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you And it doth exasperate God exceedingly he could not else have beene so much provoked by Adams and Eve's transgressing his will by eating the forbidden fruit a thing for matter small as to curse the whole world in such sort that it groaneth under the burthen of it unto this day and also to damne all men in eternall flames had not the very Sonne of God by taking the curse upon himselfe saved a chosen number of them How did Sauls disobedience provoke the Lord against him who because he rejected the word of the Lord 1. Sam. 15.23 the Lord rejected him Yet his fact was such as carnall reason could and did say much in excuse of it but it was disobedience Yet who more readie to presume that the wrath of God shall be farre from them in the evill day than such as will not do the will of God but take pleasure in iniquitie and are workers thereof They will crie Lord Lord Luk. 13.26.27 hast thou not taught in our streets and Lord Lord open unto us The Lord abhorreth this scraping of acquaintance with him saying Mat. 25.11.12 Depart from me I know yea not ye workers of iniquitie there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Wherfore let no willing transgressour of Gods will deceive himselfe nor suffer any man to deceive him for Ephe. 5.6 for such things sake commeth the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience For this is most certaine that Christ commeth in flaming fire to render vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospell of our Lord Iesus Christ 2. Thess 1.8 Vse 2 Let all that professe the Name of God study to know and endeavour to submit their will to Gods will in al things let them bewaile the ignorance and rebelliousnesse of their owne and other mens evill hearts that with David they may say Psal 119.136 Rivers of waters runne down their eyes because they keepe not Gods Law Motives unto obedience to Gods will 1 Nothing pleaseth God more than to see his children to order their conversation aright and to finish the works he giveth them to do he hath not so much delight in burnt-offerings as in obeying the voyce of the Lord Behold saith Samuel 1. Sam. 15.22 to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken is better than the fat of rammes Secondly the Lord is much glorified when his servants and children submit themselves to his will both in doing and suffering Ioh. 17.4 I have glorified thee on earth saith Christ to his Father this he maketh to appeare thus I have finished the worke which thou hast given me to doe The Apostle having resolved to keepe a good conscience saith be knoweth Christ shall bee magnified in his body Phil. 1.20 whether by life or death Thirdly this is the way to gaine the reputation and honour of wise men Eph. 4 17. Be not unwise saith the Apostle but understand what the will of the Lord is Deut. 4.6 And this is your wisedome and understanding in the sight of the nations Fourthly by doing Gods will wee shall come to more knowledge of his will Ioh. 7.17 If any man will doe his will hee shall know of the doctrine saith Christ whether it be of God or no. Act. 13.22 To fulfill Gods will is to be a man according to Gods owne heart Fiftly it is to approve a mans selfe to bee
Gods childe and Christs brother Mark 3.35 Hee that doth the will of God the same is my brother sister and mother saith Christ Sixtly God will heare their prayers Ioh 9.31 If any man will doe his will him he heareth And seventhly to such belongeth the salvation of God Psalm 50.23 Be ye intreated therefore by the mercies of God to give your selves both in bodies and soules to GOD. Prove what is that good Rom. 11.1.2 that acceptable and perfect will of God Thinke thus with thy selfe It is sufficient nay too much that I have spent the time past of my life according to the will of men and of the flesh in all manner of wickednesse but now that I am quickned and professe better things now that I am redeemed from my former conversation I will therefore strive and pray that I may live according to the holy will of him that hath redeemed me Thinke thus God will have his will fulfilled by me in obedience or hee will have it fulfilled upon mee in his just vengeance Let every man therfore use all meanes to know and doe the will of God And as much as in us lyeth we must cause others to know and to doe it We have Christs example who also speaking of mans duty saith Ioh. 13.17 If yee know these things happy are yee if yee doe them Now that wee may doe the will of God Meanes inabling men to do Gods will wee must first be ingrafted into Christ and must abide in him drawing grace and vertue from him by the exercise of our faith as the branch doth from the Vine Ioh. 15.5 then wee shall doe Gods will bringing forth much fruit in him Secondly we must deny our owne wisedome and our own will Pro. 3.5 Pro. 23.4 and we must not consult with flesh and bloud but with the word of God and the inward man in which dwelleth the Spirit of God Gen. 22.3 Thus Abraham became able to doe as hard a piece of service as any man can be put unto in offering his onely sonne Isaack the sonne of his hope Rom. 4.19.20.21 who as he beleeved in God in a thing impossible to reason without reasoning against it so did hee performe a commandement of killing his sonne in naturall reason seeming unnaturall unreasonable and impious this he did by resting onely upo the word of God to which he was obedient Heb. 11.19 Thirdly wee must doe our utmost that we may know the will of God else how can wee doe it to this end wee must heare reade and meditate on the holy Scriptures which have the power of God working with them to inlighten the minde with knowledge and to incline the will to obedience Fourthly pray unto God who onely can and will informe the understanding Phil. 2 13. and give both to will and to doe at his good pleasure Thus Paul prayed that the Colossians might be filled with the knowledge of his will Col. 1.9 and that they might walk worthy of the Lord in all well-pleasing David likewise prayed saying Ps 119 8â— Quicken me after thy loving kindenesse so shall I keepe the testimony of thy mouth And the Church saith Cant 1.4 Draw mee and we will runne after thee If we will pray and seeke with all our might as we would for hid treasure Pro. 3.4 â— then shall we understand the feare of the Lord and then shall wee know Hol. 6.3 if we follow on to know the Lord. Then shall we also be able to doe the will of God Phil. 2.13 For he will worke all our workes for us and we shall be blessed in our deed Iames 1.25 As in heaven Observe here that the patterne of perfect obedience is taken from heaven whence we may collect Doct. 2 In heaven is all perfect obedience there is no failing there no not in the least circumstance 1 Cor. 13.12 Now I know but in part saith the Apostle but then that is when hee should come to heaven I shall know as I am knowne Peter speaking of the new heavens saith that therein dwelleth righteousnesse 2 Pet. 3.13 Reas 1 1 Cor. 6.9 For heauen is the holy place into which no unrighteous person can enter for when there were disobedient persons in heaven namely the divell and his Angels which kept not their first estate heaven did vomit them forth never to be burdened with them or the like againe In heaven there are no tempters Reas 2 for there are none but God Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 therefore also no temptations unto sinne The thoughts of this will moderate griefe for those our Vse 1 friends which die in the Lord. For the place whitherto death hath made a passage for them is the heaven spoken of in the Doctrine which doth secure us that they are there where they are made perfect where they shal neither offend nor be offended Doth not the meditation Vse 2 hereof worke in Gods children not onely contentment but a longing to lay downe this tabernacle to be translated hence when the Lord shall please sith the exchange will be so happy It is but a parting with a sinfull miserable earth for this heaven wherein dwelleth perfect righteousnesse It is leaving mortality for life sinne for grace and misery for glory in that place where they shall neither bee actors nor beholders of sinne where there is no sinne either to infect or vexe them Vse 3 When we are wearied and almost fainting in our combat against sinne and this wicked world if we would but consider that ere long if we do hold out manfully a while this sinne and flesh shall annoy us no more For when death commeth it is the portall to this heaven spoken of in the text which death doth as certainely separate sinne from soule and body for ever as if doth the soule from the body for a while For our place is this heaven where are the Angels the patternes of our obedience and when we come there we shall be as the Angels Luke 20.36 and shall ever be with the Lord. As in heaven Here Christ doth send us to the best and perfect examples whence note In proposing examples for imitation Doct. 3 men must propose the best such as are perfect and heavenly The examples of Angels and those that be perfect must bee imitated of men on earth Therfore when Paul would have the Corinthians follow him it was with this condition as hee followed Christ or because he followed Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 In the following such examples Reas 1 men shall alwaies have cause to proceed on and grow better and better and shall still be going forward towards perfection for such examples are perfect Reas 2 When men looke upon these perfect copies the sight of how much they come short of what they should doe taketh downe pride which else would arise from the sense of what they haue done