Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A26359
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The Christians daily sacrifice duly offer'd, or, A practical discourse teaching the right performance of prayer by Lancelot Addison.
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Addison, Lancelot, 1632-1703.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing A512; ESTC R25228
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55,277
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162
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a direful Sentence upon his obstinate Enemies sending them to be Tormented with the Devil and his Angels even for the Coming of this Kingdom you are also to pray saying with the Holy ones under the Altar Come Lord Jesus come quickly CHAP. XV. A farther Account of the Things to be Pray'd for AND having Pray'd God thus to rule in your heart by Grace that you may be fit for his coming in Glory to Crown his Servants and Torment his Enemies you are to Pray again that God would enable you to do both his secret and revealed Will and that you may patiently and contentedly submit to the former and readily and chearfully perform the latter as far as it is set down in his Holy Word Now Obedience to God's Law and Submission to his Providence are both requir'd to the doing of his Will For you are not only to observe what he enjoyns or prohibits but also to submit to whatever happens to you according to his Good Will and Pleasure whether it be Misery or Happiness And he who taught you to do thus did illustrate it with his own Example when with an admirable Resignation he Pray'd Not mine O Father but thy Will be done Now the manner of your Doing God's Will is taken from the Pattern of the Holy Angels who are God's ministring Spirits executing his Commandments with readiness fidelity and perseverance flying upon his errand with the wings of Love and Zeal But seeing you find perhaps in your self a reluctancy to do thus and that your Duty herein is often delay'd through Idleness or interrupted through Vanity so that your Obedience moves heavily and is clogg'd with fears and broken off by temptations you are to supplicate the Father of all Mercies that he would bestow upon you that Zeal and Affection for his Service wherewith the Holy Angels are Inspired to the intent that you may as they do his Will with Fervency and Chearfulness And that following the Examples of their Obedience whilst you are on Earth you may be joyn'd with them and your blessed Brethren in Glory to sing eternal Praises in Heaven And as our Lord in the three first Petitions of his Prayer compris'd all things respecting God and his Glory for which you are to Pray So in the next three Petitions he has sum'd up whatsoever you have need to desire respecting your own or your Neighbours Wants and Necessities And you may observe that the things relating to God's Glory are by our Saviour's Prescription first to be solicited and if this be rightly done you can scarce miss of the rest For all other things shall be given to them Who first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Matth. 6.33 And seeing God's Glory is of greater moment than yours or any man's Wants therefore you are to Pray for the first And yet seeing you are neither all Flesh nor all Spirit but a compound of both and that both have Needs to be supplyed you are to Pray for the relief of both And first you are to beg a supply for your Bodily Necessities all which our Lord comprehended under the name of Bread Which Word signifies outward comforts And in Praying God to give you this you declare your sole dependance to be on him for this present life and for all things that support it And the begging them of God declares likewise your abhorrence of all unjust and indirect ways to obtain them Next by the adjunct Daily added to Bread you evidence your contentedness with present necessaries and your purpose to Pray continually for them Which likewise declares your trust in God and that you cast your Cares upon him acknowledging that all you have or expect are from his bounteous Hand and sanctified by his Blessing And this Petition for Daily Bread was no doubt taken from that Prayer of the Jews which was thus The necessities of thy People Israel are many and their knowledge small so that they know not how to disclose their Necessities let it be thy good Pleasure to give to every man what sufficeth for food c. And the Petition for Daily Bread is by some thus paraphras'd Provide for us to morrows Bread and give it us to day that we be not solicitous for to morrow for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof All things needful for this present life come from God and the Petition for Daily Bread shews that you are not to desire them all at once but that he would distribute them by little and little according as you need them That by this means you may never be destitute of nor desist in Praying for them For if you should possess them in too great abundance and as it were in a heap you might be in danger to rest contented within your self and forget to call upon the Lord Prov. 30.8 9. Christ in this Petition for Daily Bread seems to have reflected upon the sending of the Manna and as that was daily gather'd so this might be daily begg'd and given Some of the Fathers have Allegoriz'd this Petition and understood it of Christ the Bread of Life and the partaking of him in the Blessed Eucharist which does nourish the Soul unto Life Eternal as material Bread does the temporal Life of the Body And tho' I could wish that in this sense the Request for Daily Bread were both understood and practis'd and that now as in the Primitive Times the Sacrament of Christ's Death were daily celebrated yet I think the Petition is best interpreted of all manner of Food that is necessary for the preservation of human Life and of whatever is requir'd to support Man's frail Nature which could not be particularly express'd in so short a Form But if you look not farther than to your Bodily needs even to that of your Soul the supply of the first may prove a Misery and not a Happiness if the other be neglected Now the first thing you are to beg for your Soul is the forgiveness of your Sins and that God would not exact their penalty but that for the sake of the satisfaction Christ made to his Divine Justice he would mercifully acquit you from their Guilt and Punishment And to the end that you may not forfeit God's Pardon to you by Denying yours to your Brethren you are humbly to beseech the Almighty to give you those bowels of Compassion towards others when they trespass against you which you stand in need of when you trespass against them and if you who through the corruption of Humane Nature are prone to revenge can through God's Grace forgive others you need not doubt but your Heavenly Father whose Goodness is infinite will forgive you For it is certainly true That if you forgive Men you shall be forgiven of God Not that you are to give Law to God or to ground your Prayers on the merits of your own Works but that you subscribe to God's order to Pardon if you purpose to be Pardon'd And here take
no warrant of Scripture but rather contrary thereunto CHAP. V. Some uncommon Considerations to stir you up to the Holy exercise of Prayer THere is not any one part of Religious Worship which is more strictly commanded by the Laws of God or more highly recommended by the practice of Holy Men than that of Prayer This carries with it the greater Beauty and Lustre and in all respects is of greatest use and benefit And yet notwithstanding all this there are not many things wherein perhaps you may find your self more indifferent cool and unactive than in Prayer And therefore the better to quicken you up to this Sacred Office I here present you with some less obvious Considerations to that purpose And 1. Consider that by your diligence in Prayer and constant calling upon God you become his Remembrancer and suffer him not to be unmindful of you And indeed he can no more be forgetful of such as importune him with their Prayers than a Mother can forget her sucking Child But if a Mother should be so unnatural as to stop her ears to the Infants cry yet God will hearken unto the cry of his Children and give them if not what they particularly desire yet what he knows to be most for their good It is not safe for you to conclude of his kindness towards you by his not speedily granting your Requests For they that are dearest to him may oftentimes with great difficulty work out those blessings which fall into the Mouths of the Careless And the Wise disposer of all things knows it fit to hold his best Servants short of those Favours which they sue for but then it is for the tryal of their Faith or the exercise of their Patience or the encrease of their Importunity or the doubling of their Obligation And when he withholds his Benefits for a while from his humblest Suppliants yet he does not forget them However if he were capable of forgetting any one as he is not and especially of those that pray unto him yet frequent application is of the like nature with the importunity we use to one another when we want to be reminded and have our Memory refresh'd It is holding such a continual converse with God as humbly to let him know as Jacob did the Angel with whom he strove that we will not suffer him to leave till he is graciously pleas'd to bless us 2. All pious Christians according to S. Paul have their conversation in Heaven Phil. 3.20 Matth. 6.20 21. it is their Property and Glory to live here below as if they were above they bend all their Thoughts and Desires principally to Heaven and tho' their Bodies are on Earth yet their Affections are where Christ sits at the right hand of God Now there is no readier way for you to have your Conversation in Heaven than by continually sending up your Soul thither in fervent Prayer For by this you pierce the Clouds and have access to the throne of Divine Mercy and hold correspondence with the Almighty Maker and Governor of the Universe When your Soul is not press'd down with earthly heavy Affections but by a pure and holy Life becomes light and Ethereal then it nimbly mounts up to the things on high and may be said to soar above the low creeping Concerns of this impure World and to have its Conversation in Heaven And by the force of pious Desires it ascends to the blessed Mansions above whence you look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ And if this be fully consider'd 't will be enough to endear Devotion to your choice and to oblige your care of so Seraphic a performance In the Third place Consider that at the last general Judgment your Prayers shall come up for a memorial before God and be both acknowledged and rewarded by him Then will the Judge of the whole Earth own all devout Souls for his and in the most literal sense make good what ought as far as in us lies to be daily verified in this World That he is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of the Saints and to be had in Reverence of all those that are round about him In the Sacred History of the Acts of the Apostles you read of Cornelius a Proselyte of the Jews one who worshipped the true God tho' uncircumcis'd That he gave much alms to the poor and pray'd to God alway Acts 10. He was charitable and bountiful to the indigent and a constant observer of the set times of Prayer And his Alms and Prayers were so pleasing to God that they brought down no ordinary blessing upon him for of a Jewish Proselyte God made him a Christian Convert By which single instance you may discern the particular regard Heaven has for those who conscientiously observe slated Times of Prayer and joyn Works of Charity with Devotion That such are blessed of the Lord and shall not fail of reaping the Fruit thereof in due season if they faint not Consider in the last place the singular satisfaction which from Prayer accrews to the best and worthiest Powers of your Soul All thinking men observe That the Understanding and Will which are your principal Faculties meet with a sensible Pleasure and Content when they are employ'd about the noblest of their proper Objects Now Truth is the most proper object of the Understanding and God is the noblest Truth and seeing that in Prayer the Mind is employ'd in the Contemplation of him it cannot miss of Delight and Pleasure nor fares it otherwise with the Will the proper Object whereof is what we call Good either real or in appearance Now in Prayer the Will is suppos'd to be fixt upon God who is Goodness it self all those Excellencies which are scatter'd among the Creatures and denominate them to be good and all which put together are but few and small in comparison of the supreme Good do all concentre in a superlative degree in him to whom we pray so that the mind must needs receive a sensible delight as being thereby conversant about the most excellent of the things that properly belong to them But besides all this there is a great satisfaction accrewing to the Soul through the means of Prayer by reason of that pious Familiarity which therein it enjoys with God Can there be a greater satisfaction to your Rational part than to have the liberty of unloading all your Perplexities and Fears Scruples and Doubts into the bosom of the Almighty Is it possible that any thing should bring more ease to a pained Mind than freely to make known unto the Lord not only your Frailties but even your worst wilful Sins and that too with assurance of their Remission if they are truly repented of and entirely forsaken That God the only Maker Preserver and Universal Monarch of the World should admit sinful Dust and Ashes to approach him and in Prayer to converse with him is not only the highest Satisfaction and Contentment but the greatest Dignity and