anguish and torment but in Heaven it is had for not onely the Angels but the Saints of God behold his Face and this is that which makes the heavens to be a heaven of heavens for the heavens which his hands made shall be dissolved but the heavens which his Face makes shall bee for ever and were able to make even hell also to bee a heaven if that were capable to receive it But how doe we know that God is any more in heaven then any where else or that he is in heaven or any where else at all O my soule take heed of comming so neere to be the foole that David speakes of though thou say not in thy heart There is no God yet to let thy tongue but make it a question For doth not David tell us that the heavens tell â—s The Heavenâ— declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handyworkeâ— as much as to say The heavens declare that there is a glorious God and the Firmament is a worke that sheweth him to be the workman The heavens indeed declare it so plainely by the heavenly bodies that in them as in plaine letters and characters we may even reade not onely that God is but that he is there But if the heavens declare it never so plainely and we will not take notice or believe their declaration what are we the better For wilt thou believe that the Starres which thou seest as small as sparkes are bigger yea much bigger then the whole earth and then what a world of worlds must there be in the starry heaven which yet are all as nothing compar'd to the magnitude of the greater heavens Wilt thou believe that the motion of the Sunne which yet seemes to stand still is swifter yea manifold swifter then a â—let from a Canon and yet is slownesse compar'd to the swiftnesse of the Primum Mobile Wilt thou believe that the earth as great as it is is yet but a point or centre to the starry heaven and that the starry heaven is so high above us that though the sight of our eyes can reach unto it in an instant yet the swiftnes of a hundred miles a day cannot reach unto it in a thousand yeeres yet is hard by compar'd to the distance of the highest heavens All which and many the like though they exceed our capacity yet they exceed not our knowledge and though they be so strange that theymake both art suspected nature astonished yet are they so certain that they are demonstrable And this is a great ascent from earth to heaven yet an easie one for we know these wonders of the heavenly bodies as perfectly bâ—ing on earth as if we were in heaven to see them But it is a farre greater ascent from heaven to God and yet a farre easier For who can chuse but know the first cause to be omnipotent which hath made second causes so excessively potent Who can chuse but acknowledge the Creatour to bee infinite who hath made Creatures that to our capacity are themselves infinite And therefore the authour of the Booke of Wisedome speaking in proofe of the deity waiveth all other reasons and insists upon this That by the greatnesse of the creatures and of their beauty the Creatour being compared with them may bee considered God indeed hath reserved the sight of himselfe untill our eyes shall put on Immortality but the sight of his dwelling hee hath afforded to our mortall eyes that though in it we cannot see his person yet by it we may be assured of his being and of his being there For as when wee see a building of invaluable valew we presently conceive it to be the Pallace of a Prince so when we see the Frame of heaven so full of wonders where Sâ—arres are but as dust and Angels are buâ— servants where every word is unspeakeable and everâ— motion is a miracle we may plainely know it to â—e the dwelling of him whose name is Wonderfull For who is fit to inhabit such a house but hee onely who inhabiteth eternity and who fit to be Master of such servants but he who was a Master before he had servants that is he onely who onely is But why doth God write himselfe of heaven which how glorious soever it be is but of a late building For no doubt God had a dwelling and a place to bee in before hee made heaven and he should rather write himselfe of his ancient mansion place then of his new seate But O my soule be sober For where thou thinkest that God had a place to be in before he made heaven thou art even in that deceived for how could he have a place to be in when place it selfe had yet no being For as heaven and earth were twinnes created both at once so time and place were twinnes made both together and all of them for the use of the creatures none of them for any use to God for God being eternall hath no use of time and being infinite can have no place but out of eternity by his omnipotent Power he produced Time and out of infinitenesse he produced place for no use to himselfe but in relation to his creatures If therefore thou wouldst comprehend where God was before he made heaven thou must comprehend infinitenesse which were not infinite if it could be comprehended And yet as no place is great enough to hold God so none is small enough to exclude him for he is place to himselfe he is place himselfe as David saith Thou art my place to kide me in and it is one of the names which the Iewes attribute to God that he is called Maquom that is to say Place Yet it is happy for us that God writes himselfe to be in heaven because we know now where to finde him least otherwise we might wander infinitely in the search of him and be never the neere not that heaven limits Gods ubiquity but that it regulates our capacity for as one sayd well in another sence Qui ubique est nusquam est so certainely if we knew nothing of Gods being any where but that he is every where we might easily fall into the errour to thinke hee were no where Iustly therefore doth God write himselfe of heaven now that he stiles himselfe Our Father seeing he therefore made heaven because he intended to be our Father that there might bee one House to hold both Him and his Children and that where he is wee might bee also for to be with God where God was before he made the world or where he now is above or without the world is utterly impossible for men or Angels to attaine to But why say we Our Father which art in heaven and say not rather Our heavenly Father seeing by that we tell onely where God is but by this we might tell what he is By that we name onely his place but by this we might name his substance But we must
us if it be not more admirable unworthinesse in us that we admire it not which is so admirable But it may be no question why we admire it not because without question we apprehend it not for if we did truely apprehend what it is to be the sonnes of a Father which is in heaven wee could not chuse but skorne all humane things as meane all earthly things as base and thinke it a shame for them who shall one dâ—y come to fit with him in his Throne to lie alwaies grovling about his Footstoole But the Angels apprehended it and therfore admired it and as holy as they were some of them could not chuse but envy it and from our rising tooke their fall Which fell out well for ouâ— experience for by the consideration of their falling we come to conceive a certainety to see plainly a probability of our own rising For why is it more sâ—range that heavy things should ascend then that light things should descend that men who are of Earthy mould should bee liftâ—d up into the highâ—st Heavens then that Angels who are of Heavenly substance were cast downe into the nethermost earth unlâ—sie we thinke that Gods love towards children is not so powerfull as his anger against servants or that his arme is not so strong in lifting up as in casting downe Wherefore O my soule if thou wonder how it will be possible for â—his heavy body of thine to be raysed out of the dust and to rise to so high a place as heaven thou mayst leave thy wondring if thou doe but consider how it was possible that the light substances of the Angels were cast downe into so lâ—w a place as hell For as God brought a grossenesse upon the lightnesse of their suâ—stances which made them descend so he will bring a lightnesse upon the grossenesse of our bodies which will make us ascend But it was after the fall of Angels that God said to man Earth thou art and to earth thou shalt returne but not a word spoken of his comming to heaven It is true for those words were spoken by God as a Iudge Our comming to Heaven is not spoken by him but as a Father and those words are reserved for his Son the Word it selfe to deliver to us and indeed the word delivered them to us in Deed when the word was made flesh for when the Sonne of God â—ook upon him our flesh then our flesh tooke notice of being made the sonnes of God and then the Kingdome of heaven was preached to all believers and this dignity of our Nature is a maine object of the divels envy for why else should the devill beare more malice to men then to all other creatures as we see apparantly he doth for he will never goe into swine if he can possibly ' get into men and when he doth goe it is but to hurt men that when hee cannot hurt them in their persons he will yet like lame malice doe them what hurt he can in their goods Thus the greatnesse of this dignity which wee cannot see in the light we may discerne in the darke for how can we chuse but know it to be exceeding great which nourisheth malice even in divels For certainely if the divels knew nothing of any such dignity ordained for men in the world to come they would never doe as they doe never trouble themselves so much to trouble men so much in this present life thereby to hinder them from the glory to come And are not some men beholding to the divell in this who seeking to hinder us from the glory to come in the life hereafter makes it manifest that there is a glory to come in a life hereafter from which we may be hindred Which if some men otherwise will not easily believe yet this way at least they can hardly deny And even this were enough to breed this faith in an Infidell that there shall be certainely a life after this seeing wee may bee sure the divell would never take such paines for nothing he is not so idle to be so busie for trifles and he would never be so violent in seeking to draw men into sinne if there were not some great matter to be gotten by their sinning And what can the divell get by the sinnes of men but onely the satisfying of his owne malice and how is his malice satisfied but in their miseries and what miseries have wicked men in this life who are rather the favourites of the world and as David saith They are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued like other men There must therefore undoubtedly be another world where wicked men shall bee miserable and where the divels malice shall take effect For though the hurt of the divell be all taken in this life yet it is not fully felt till another life which if there were none It should bee skarce felt at all For as a man that is wounded in his heate feeles not the wound till he come to be cold so we skarce feele the wounds of the divell as long as the heat of life is in us but when we come to bee cold and are laid in the cold earth then begins the smart of his wounds and then we feele it when we seeme to bee past all feeling and if this were not so there should be none in the world more happy then the wicked there should bee none more miserable then the godly there should be none a verier foole then the divell we may therefore be as affured that there is a life to come after this as we are assured that the divell is no fâ—ole that godly men are not miserable that wicked men are not nor can be happy And though it bee no thanke to the divell that we learne this from him yet it will be worth thankes if we can learne it for who that is truely perswaded of a life after this where the godly shall be happy and the wicked miserable will not endeavour and with all earnestnesse endeavour to leade his life so that he may die the death of the righteous and not suffer the transitory things of this world which are but as a messe of Iacobs Potage to withdraw his minde from the respect of his Birth-right which is to sit with Christ at his Fathers Table But for all this are we indeed satisfied in our consciences that God is our Father and that we are his Children may we not be mistaken as the Iewes were who thought themselves sure enough that Abraham was their father yet Christ proves plainly they were deceived For if saith he yee were the children of Abraham yee would doe the workes of Abraham which because they did not doe they could be none of his children for all their boasting And doth not God say the same to us If I be your father where is my love and to love God in Gods owne exposition is to keepe his Commandements If therefore we
it is strucken downeward the higher it rebounds upward so the lower thy prayers take their rising from thy heart the higher they ascend up into the eares of God Stoope therefore O my soule and bee sure to bee humble and so thou mayst be sure to command faile â—ot to be lowly and so thou shalt not faile to be exalted be content to be strucken the harder downeward and so thou shalt make the higher bound upward into Heaven But will not this be a dry diet to have onely bread and no drinke to it Did it not even choake the Bethulians and almost wither the Israelites in the Wildernesse Or why should we thinke to have drinke without asking more then bread Is it for that wee sinned first in eating and therefore are punished with begging for bread to eate Or is it that Christ keeps within his compasse and teacheth us to aske for bread from heaven who was himselfe the bread that came downe from heaven Or is it as Christ sayd of the poore that water we have alwaies with us but bread wee have not alwaies such indeed may bee the mazes of thoughts when they wander in darknesse but by the light of the first cause wee shall see the true cause that Christ who is himselfe verbum Abbreviatum makes this prayer for us in a kinde of Hierogliphicks where one character stands for many things and if Moses comprehended all Elementar matter as fire ayre water under the one word of earth why may not Christ comprehend all temporall things under the one word of bread and indeed in this sence oftentimes the Scriptures use it as when wee read in Ezekiel that one of the sinnes of Sodome was fulnesse of bread wee must not thinke that their excesse was onely in eating of dry bread but that they exceeded in the superfluity of all meates and drinkes adding thirst to drunkennesse and making themselves Artificiall stomackes with devises of gluttony But why then should hee use so many words even five whole petitions in expressing spirituall Graces Is â—t not that temporall things like foule cloathes or ragges may well enough bee wrapped up in one bundle together but spirituall graces as things more precious require more roome and being to make us without spot are themselves to bee made up without wrinkle Yet may it perhaps not bee without mistery also that Christ teacheth us here to aske onely for bread as he promiseth us in heaven to give us onely drinke to shew that this life and the next are both but one meale and that we cannot drinke with him in his Fathers Kingdome unlesse wee first eate him here the bread which came downe from heaven But doth not this petition seeme to be out of his right place and doth it not come in before his time seeing Forgivenesse of trespasses is a more excellent gift then giving of bread and in all reason that which is first in excellency should also be first in order Yet we shall finde reason for this ordering of these petitions and the lawes of true Heraldry no way transgressed For as Rachel sayd to Iacob Give me children or else I die so wee much more justly say to God Give us bread or else we die So that as Nature is before Grace and life before a happy life It must needs be reasonable that asking for bread which nature cals for to supply the defects of life should goe before Forgiving of trespasses which Grace cals for to supply the defects of a hapy life and as there is this reason in respect of our selves so their is a stronger reason in respect of God for nothing can more admirably set forth the admirable goodnesse of Gods Nature then the very scituation of these petitions For by this bounty is placed before his mercy and it comes to passe that the Sunne shines upon the good and the bad and the raine fals upon the just and unjust And even for us it is a most happy marshalling of the petitions for if God should never give us any thing but when he hath nothing to forgive us he should never give us seeing our life is a perpetuall encrease of our debts and while wee aske him to Forgive us even in that we commit somthing that needs forgivenes It is proper to this petition that it is not proper to any one sort of creatures but is common to all and therefore though it stand in a valley yet it hath the largest prospect And it may be called the petition of providence for where all the other are intentive to the care of another life this onely is appoynted to make provision for the present life Here now would bee competition for place betweene the two that follow but that Repentance is in wonderfull grace with God and hath the Angels also for speciall friends and therefore hath precedence For when we say Forgive us our trespases is it not plainely the prayer of penitent sinners who are alwaies confessing their sinnes and professing their amendment imploring Forgivenesse and deploring their owne weakenesse all which and onely which are the parts of this petition And therefore this petition if wee did well should not bee spoken with words but with sighes for what can come from a broken heart but sighes and untill the heart bee broken this petition will never bee truely sound And least our owne sighes should not bee sufficient the Spirit it selfe makes request for us with sighes that cannot be expressed which though it bee true of all the other petitions yet most properly of this For if sorrow griefe feare shame all of them great and all of them together deserve sighing they are all here met or are all heere to meete in this Petition There is a word which though it be no part of the petition yet because it brings the petition in it is not it selfe to be left out namely the conjunction And which in all the former petitions was never used because indeed there was no use of it For they went all singly by themselves as chiefly referred to the honour of God who is Actus simplicissimus and chiefely fitted for the mouthes of Angels who are substantiae simplices but now that we are come to the Petitions for the onely use of men now there is use of this conjunction for all blessings in this world are tied as it were by linkes together are not good but in conjunction therefore this conjunction And is now here used that as the first use of it that ever was was to joyne the bodies themselves of heaven earth together so the use of it here is to joyne the blessings of heaven earth together for as an earth without a heaven would have made but a miserable world so these earthly blessings without the heavenly will make but a miserable man And therefore wee have no sooner sayd Give us this day our daily bread but it presently followes And forgive us our
the world to come or else will bee concluded for unperfect may wee not very justly justifie it even in this kinde also Let us therefore take a review For though at the first looking wee have discovered nothing yet if wee continue looking as the servant of Eliah did wee shall perhaps discerne a Cloude arrising from the sea of these petitions that will serue to signifie a showre of blessings immediately to follow And we need not stand long a looking for doe not the very first words afforde us a Cloude For when we say Our Father doth it not imply that wee are his children and if the Father alwaies be in Heaven shall the children alwaies be on Earth how then is it true that where hee is we shall be also and that which Christ sayth the sonne abideth in the House for ever For how shall hee abide there if hee never come there seeing therefore Heaven is Gods House and we as children must in our time bee in the house with him we must necessarily at last come to be in Heaven and so one of the blessings is found here which was complayed of to bee wanting in the prayer And when it is savd Hallowed bee thy Name shall not Gods Name eternally bee hallowed If then wee bee appoynted to doe a worke which is eternall must not we be needes eternall that are to doe it and so to our being in Heaven is added eternity another of the blessings complayned of to be missing Let us now come to Thy Kingdome come and will not this afforde us to see the Cloude more plainely For the Kingdome is but in relation to the subjects if therefore the Kingdome bee perfect the subjects must bee perfect also for without perfection of subjects It can never bee a perfect Kingdome and what perfection of subjects could there bee if their should be no other subjects but onely Angels For so there should be but one ranke of subjects which in a Kingdome were a great imperfection To make therefore some other rankes for perfecting of this Kingdome wee also shall bee taken in and then certainely taken in whole and imireâ— both hody and soule for else the Kingdome should rule over but pieces of subjects which in a perfect Kingdome must not bee If then wee bee taken in whole and intire then must our bodies be raysed and joyned to our soules againe and this is our resurrection another of the blessings complayned of to be missing And may we not continue looking still and come to discerne the cloude yet playner For when it is sayd Thy Will bee done in earth as it is in Heaven are not we to doe as much worke as the Angels and if wee doe as much worke may wee not expect as much blessing and they behold the face of God continually and therefore wee certainely if wee doe the Will of God shall doe so to and so wee have found even the greatest of the blessings which were complayned of to bee missing in this prayer And we have found it here where we least expected it Eor indeed these petitions will afford divers waies of drawing forth these blessings from them according as wee take our standing to discerne the Cloude But this which is done may serve sufficiently to cleere this prayer from all imputation of imperfection seeing we have all the blessings now that can be thought of worth the having Eternall life and that in Heaven and that both in body and soule and in them both to enjoy the blessed vision of God which is life everlasting in its exaltation And now if any man thinke that to fetch the resurrection of our bodies and the rest of these blessings is farre fetched and from the Clouds indeed Let him consider how farre it was fetching it from the words of God to Moses I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaack and the God of Iacob and yet when Christ fetched it so farre it was taken for a proofe neere hand and for a Cloude of witnesses And indeede there is a benefit to us by this abstruse expressing for being lesse obvious It is more speculative in the searching and more meditative in the finding and the more it is wrapped up to the sence the more it is dignified to the understanding And though these Petitions may serve sufficiently to afford these Blessings yet there is a Petition behinde which though it make not so great a shew of a Cloude yet may prove to afford as great a showre of blessings as all the former For when we are delivered from all evill then if death bee evill we are delivered from death and to be delivered from death is life everlasting When we are delivered from all evill then if corruption of the body bee evill wee are delivered from that corruption and to be deliverd from that corruption is the very resurrection When wee are delivered from all evill then if restraint from the sight of God bee evill wee are delivered from that restraint and to bee delivered from that restraint is to be admitted into his presence and to enjoy his blessed vision And now this prayer reacheth full as high as Iacobs ladder and so we have ladder enough to carry us to Heaven and prayer enough to obtaine the blessings of Heaven wee are come to the Consummatum est which is not onely a finishing but a perfecting a perfecting in it selfe in being made perfect and a perfecting of us in making us perfect Let us therefore pray this prayer and let us pray that we may pray it seeing it can never bee too much sayd which can never be enough done Wee have now gone over these petitions as they lie in the prayer Ordine recto but doe they not invite us also to a consideration of them as they lie Ordine Inverso and apply hither that of Christ the first shall be last and the last first For the first of these petitions in our praying will be the last of Gods accomplishing and the last will prove the first and they seeme to have a correspondence to Gods favours shewed to the Israelites in their progresse in the Wildernesse For when wee say Deliver us from evill Is it not the first blessing wee receive from God that we are delivered from the bondage wee were in to satan and this was figured by Gods first favour shewed to the Israelites in delivering them from the captivity of Aegypt after many temptations with signes and wonders The next petition is our desire to bee forgiven and to have our sinnes washed away in the blood of Christ and was not this also figured to the Israelites in the Passover a figure of the true Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the World And these two petitions are immediate to one another as the two favours were intermingled to the Israelites For there could not bee a deliverance without a Passover to them because there cannot bee to us The third petition is for our daily
my Father but I doe not duly pray if I say not Our Father Wee have not done with saying Our Father untill we have said Which art in Heaven that so his humility may bring us to his Majesty his love may lead us to his bounty for as before he abased himselfe in Name to exalt us so here he streightens himselfe in Place to enlarge us and to make us desirous of Heaven as of the only home for his children he restraineth himselfe to Heaven as to the onely mansion of his being But is not this word Heaven as strangely placed here amongst these words as Heaven it selfe is placed above in the height of the Firmament For what words of greater neerenesse then Father and Children yet what words of greater separation then Heaven and Earth who neerer to us then Our Father what further from us then to be in Heaven but least these words Our Father should breed too great a familiarity in us these words Which art in Heaven are justly inferred to make us keepe a distance And yet in truth it is such a distance as doth not so much divide us as that which is strange the very familiarity doth estrange us For as considering God in heaven we have just cause to be astonished with admiration at the greatnesse of his Maiesty So considering him our Father we have iuster cause to admire him with astonishment for the greatnesse of his love and so while familiarity where it findeth effects of defect breeds cause of contempt Here where it finds cause of admiration it breeds effects of Respect And may we not finde some other treasure wrapt up in these words Which art in Heaven For when we say Our Father It carries the mind in an ambiguity and if we apply it to God This is yet a transcendent and gives no period to our understanding but when we adde Which art in Heaven This both determines the ambiguity and limits the transcendency and so the mind hath something now in certaine whereupon to fixe it selfe which though it afford not a visible symbole to represent Gods person to our sight which the Israelites sought so grossely in their golden Calfe and many since doe seeke as vainely in their painted and carued Images yet it affords the visible place of Gods presence and this serves sufficiently both to elevate the mind and also to fixe the understanding for we no sooner have a thought of God but the mind hath presently recourse to Heaven as fixing it selfe upon the place where he is visible seeing upon the visibility of himselfe it cannot And is it not another cause why we say Which art in Heaven to make us know that God is no where to be spoken withall but in Heaven For if our thoughts when we pray stay groveling about the earth and our words rather fall from our mouthes then rise from our hearts hough God no doubt may heare such prayer by the extent of his Power yet he heares it not graciously by extending his grace for Earth is not the place where he gives Audience but he hath placed his Throne in Heaven where hee sits both in Maiesty and in mercâ— and though his mercy continually descend to us yet his Maiesty requires we should come thither to him For as to pray to any but God is Coram non Iudice so to pray any where but in Heaven is Coram non Tribunali Although therfore our feet be fastned to the earth and cannot ascend yet our hearts are at liberty and may and must indeed ascend if we will truely pray for this ascending of the soule in praying is the soule of praying which puts a life into our words thoughts and carries them thither where it is it selfe and as the brethren of Ioseph could finde no favour without bringing their brother Beniamin with them so our hearts are the Beniaâ—in wee must bring to God without which neither our words are gracious in his hearing nor our selves acceptable in his sight Wherefore O my soule when thou goest to pray put away from thee all carnall cogiâ—ations and raise thy selfe up by ascending into heaven Fixing thy selfe stedfastly upon the Throne of God and never once offer to open thy mouth untill thy heart be first fixed there that thou mayst present thy suit unto him pure freed as in earthen Vessels it can from Earthly mixture and then as thy heart hath ascended up to Heaven so the blessings of Heaven shall descend upon thee and either bring with them the things thou prayest for or greater for never any Heart did knocke at Heaven gate which had it not opened nor sought any thing in Heaven which it did not finde For though his Maiesty make his mercy to keepe state yet his mercy makes his Maiesty to becom gracious and he never denyed the suite of any that came so farre as Heaven to aske it But thou art not O Lord in Heaven onely who art in all places wholly and though no where as contained yet every where as present and though thou takest up no roome with thy being and power yet thou fillest all roomes with thy power and being But when we say Which art in Heaven we must not stay at the Heavens where we see with our eyes the two great Eyes of Heaven the Sunne and the Moone nor yet at the starry Heaven though that be the uttermost object of our sight but there are other Heavens which Salomon cals the Heavens of Heavens whose height is so great that it may rather be admired then can be conceaved yet are they not high enough to hold God but David is faine to goe higher and saith He is exalted above the Heavens and though the highest Heavens have their bounds yet this exaltation hath none but how high soever we conceave it is still higher then that we conceave And why then doe we say Which art in Heaven Not that he is no where else but that he is no where else in so great glory And is he not in as great glory on Earth seeing it is said as well of Earth as of Heaven Heaven and Earth are full of the maiesty of thy glory Nay is he not in hell also in great glory seeing David saith If I goâ— dowâ— into Hell thou art there also and God is no where without his glory but is glorified in the punishment of the damned as he is in the happinesse of the Angels We may therefore understand it that God is therefore said to bee in Heaven because hee is there visibly present and amongst his most glorious Creatures And this is a reason why not onely properly but properly onely God is said to be in heaven seeing in this manner he never was on earth nor can be for No man can see God and live much lesse can he be in this manner in Hell for how can the vision of God which is the cause of all happinesse bee had there where nothing is had but
much a singularity of Majesty but much rather a plurality of Persons And being more then One that they are but Three and that Three they are is revealed also to us by St. Iohn where he saith There are three beare record in Heaven The Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And but for feare of prophanenesse I could here borrow an Argument from some Philosophers who thought God a Number For certainly if he be a Number He must needs be the first perfect Number and that is Three For One is no number being lesse multiplyed by it selfe then added to it selfe and Two is but imperfect being but equall whether multiplied by it selfe or added but Three is more multiplyed then added which is the true Perfection of a Number One other Miraculous secret in Gods Nature seemes revealed to us by St. Iohn where he saith that God is love for certainely if he be love he is all love seeing God is not any thing in part and is not this miraculous wee may conceive that God is just and that he is mercifull and we may perhaps conceive that hee is justice it selfe and that hee is mercy it selfe but to conceive that he is all justice and yet all mercy that hee is all wisedome and yet all power that hee is totally so many things and yet distinctly but one thing this is that we cannot conceive yet this wee must conceive before wee can conceive what the Substance of God is What have we then to say here but as Christ said With man it is impossible but with God all things are possible with man whose understanding is onely perpendicular and measures all things by streight lines It is impossible but with God with whom circles are streight lines and streight lines are Angles both this and all things else are possible And what remaines then for us to doe but seeing we know God now but in Aenigmate and shall know him hereafter Facie ad Faciem that wee beate not our braines to expound this Riddle before the time but that contenting our selves to sit in the cloude till he remove it up and shine upon us we acknowledge him to be infinite and not to be measured to be eternall and not to be comprehended to be all wisedome and not to be understood to be all mercy and not to be conceived to be all power and never to be enough magnified to be all glory and never to be enough adored But may wee not make some further use of these words Which art in Heaven that knowing now where God is we may seeke strive to goe thither if we desire to be with him It is enough for God that he hath descended into Heaven as David saith It is a descent to him to see the things in Heaven we must not looke that he will come any lower It is our turne now to ascend up to him It is true he sent once his onely sonne to us on earth but his entertainement was so ill that he had not one pleasing day in his whole life but was Vir Dolorum a man of sorrowes all the time he was amongst us but it shall not bee so with us in going to heaven for if once wee come there we shall desire to continue there still and never to come from thence any more For this is the true Hic whereof Peter spake when he spake in Extasie Bonum est esse Hic It is good being here let us make three Tabernacles one for Christ another for Moses and another for Elias Not Hic here on Earth the being here God knowes is not so good to be worth making Tabernacles Nor Hic here on the Mount as it were betweene earth and heaven for though we mount never so high It is but as an apparition there is no stability in it but Hic here in heaven where Christ hath a Tabernacle not made with hands sufficient to hold both Moses and Elias and us all And it may be mervailed how Moses and Elias were ever gotten to come from thence to meete Christ on the Mount but that we may consider they did not wholy leave heaven when they came to visit the Lord of heaven in whose presence are the joyes of heaven And yet perhaps a further matter in it that seeing the Law and the Prophets reach to Christs suffering It was fit that Moses and Elias representing the law and the Prophets should come to Christ before his suffering or rather seeing Christ was to be Authour of a new Testament and was shortly to have it sealed It was fit that Moses and Elias representing the Old Testament should come in person and make their surrender Enough hath beene said to make us long to be there but how shall we doe to get thither For there seemes as great a space to bee passed as the Gulph betweene Dives and Abrahams bosome This must be the worke of the Petitions following for if we can follow them well we shall quickly overtake Moses whatsoever we doe Elias and come to heaven in body as soone as he though he be gone so many hundred yeeres before us Here offers it selfe a note which though it may seeme of small note yet because nothing is small in the Word of God whereof one jot shall not passe It may not be passed over without observing that where it is said Which art in Heaven and where it is said In Earth as it is in Heaven in both places we have in our translation but onely the singular number whereas in the originall and in most other languages the first is put in the plurall number which expression may not perhaps bee without some mystery seeing one heaven holds all Angels but all heavens cannot hold one God or rather seeing the Angels are in heaven as defined by place but God is in the heavens as being in all places but defined by none which our language might expresse also if it pleased but that it followes the mother tongue which cannot expresse it if it would the word for heaven in the Dutch tongue having no plurall number as in the Hebrew Tongue it hath no singular number It is a great honour to bee the sonne of a Prince and the greater the Prince is the greater the honour to be his sonne Oâ—hen my soule what honour is it to thee tâ— bee the sonne of him who is the Prince of Princes whose Kingdome is everlasting and poâ—er iâ—init Canst thou thinke this and not with Paul be â—apt â—p into the third heaven in an extasie Canst thâ—u â—ay this and not with Zachary bee struâ—n dumbe with amazement God the Almighty and Incomprehâ—n ible God the God of all Glory and Majesty 〈◊〉 our Father The Angels were created in great glory yet are but ministring Spirits We Dust and Ashes and dwell in houses of clay and for us to bee the children of him whose dwelling is in heaven O most admirable promotion to
doe as God commands us we may be bold to call him Father but if wee keepe not his Commandements we may looke us out another father wee shall bee but Terrae filii at the best and never bee admitted into the number of Gods Children And were not this a miserable negligence to loose the honour of so divine a Parentage as to be Gods Children and to loose the hope of so gloâ—ious an Inheritance as to be heires with Christ onely for want of loving him Consider then O my soule the great cause St Paul had to bee so resolute and doe thou joyne with him in resolution that neither life nor death nor Angels nor Principalities nor things present nor things to come nor height nor deâ—th nor any other creâ—ture shall bee able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. But O my soule if thou wilt indeed be resolute to doe it canst thou doe it Canst thou love God when thou listest at thy own pleasure It is a plaine Argument indeed of Gods love to us that he is our Father but it is no argument of our love to God that we be his Children seeing experience hath made it a Proverb That love doth descend but not ascend Gods love comes easily to us because it descends but how should our love come to God which against its nature must ascend St. Iohn indeed in saying We love God because God loved us first seemes to shew a reason for it but Christ gives the reason of it where he sayth No man can come unto me except the Father draw him St. Iohn shewes the motion of a motive but Christ gives the force of a cause and lesse would not serve for our love to God is very Iron and were never able to ascend if Gods love to us were not a most perfect Adamant But what say the children of Belial God saith to us If I be your Father where is my honour that is where is our honouring of him and may not we say to God If we be his children where is our loue that is where is his love to us For when men are constrained to eate their bread in the sweat of their browes where is the loving kindnesse of a Father Nay when men are faine to begge from doore to doore where appeare their childrens portions Nay when men lie in prisons ready to sterve with cold and hunger what likelihood is there of their being heires These things are often so indeed yet are such men never the further off from being the true Children of God For St. Paul laboured with his hands to get his living yet no man doubts but he was undoubtedly a deere childe of God And Lazarus lay begging at Dives gate among the Dogs yet he was approved to be a child of God by being received into Abrahams bosome What shall we say then Is the love of God a â—ree that beares no better fruite Or are these the Inheritances he provides for his Children But O my soule thou must remember what thou hast said Our Father which art in Heaven For we shall wrong both God and our selves if we expect our inheritance in a wrong place for where our Father is there must our inheritance be expected and seeing our Father is in heauen we must looke for an inheritance in heaven and not on earth And certainely when men are so hasty to receive their portions in this life It is a very presaging signe they have none to receive in the life that is to come For what did Abraham tell Dives was the cause he could not be receiâ—ed into his bosome but because he had received Bona sua his portion in his life time But was Abraham a fit man to tell him so who had received more goods then ever he had done yet he could come not onely to be in heaven himselfe but to be himselfe a heaven for others to be in We must therefore know that Abraham though he received more riches or more honours yet he received them not as Bona sua they were things he looked not much after nor set his heart upon them the goods he looked and longed after was Videre Diem Domini to see the day of Christ and he saw it and in that was all his joy And indeed seeing we are buâ—children children adopted in Christ and to be heires with him there is no reason we should looke for an Inheritance here where he himselfe had none for the sonne of man had not where to lay his head for that Inheritance Esau kept still though he sold his birthright Yet this makes some men be of opinion that he is then carelesse of his children in this life and lookes not after them but very injuriously For may we not thinke that as in the earth there are Hils and Dales high Mountaines and low Valeys which seeme to us to make a great inequality in the even roundnesse of the earth yet compared to the heavens to which it is but as a Centre they make all but evennesse so these fortunes of men Riches and Poverty Honour and Basenesse Health and Sicknesse they seeme to us to make a great inequality in mens estates yet to God who being Eternall reduceth all things to Eternity they appeare indifferent and we our selves also when we attaine to our Eternity in heaven shall thinke so too and shall wonder at our selves that ever we could be so simple to thinke otherwise In the meane time we can place our thoughts whereand how we list and why can we not make our thoughts to place us where how they list This indeed is an Angelicall cunning and if we could as by faith we may aspire unto it It would easily make an equality of all fortunes and turne a Dungeon into a Pallace a pallet of Netles into a bed of Roses And let not this be thought impossible for a Christian to doe in fayth when the Heathen could conceive it possible in the onely contemplation of vertue to say upon the Racke Quam suave est hoc And never slight it by saying that this at most were but imaginary for faith will take it in great skorne to bee matcht with imagination though even imagination if we give fayth to Philosophy can doe no small wonders but seeing the world is all as I may say for the pleasures of that part of the Noune which may be Seene Felt or Heard give us leave at least to be for the pleasures of the other part which may bee understood that if you say of our pleasures they are without sence we may say of theirs They are without understanding But what say we then to Moses his blessings Blessed shalt thou be in the City and blessed in the Field Blessed shall bee the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy Cattell These are all Earthly and sensible blessings and were not these promised to the children of God No doubt
they were but as Moses himselfe had a veile over his face so Moses his words had a veile over their meaning and by this meanes Blindnesse came upon Israel For they tooke that for their Iourneys end which Moses intended but for a bayting place He allowed them liberall baytes at first to make them the more cheerefully goe on their Iourney but they like foolish Travellors that make a dwelling of their Inne tooke such pleasure in their baytes that they never once thought of going any further As therefore God sayd of the ceremonies hee appoynted to the Iewes that hee had given them Statutes that were not good not good indeed to them that understood them not nor could observe them so we may perhaps say of these baytes that God had given them blessings that were not good not good indeed to them that understand them not nor can tell how to use them But now the veile is layd aside the baytes cleane taken away and those blessings of Moses removed a fourme lower for they were to them the very face of the promise but are to us onely the backeparts they were to them as the first fruits but are to us as onely gleanings after the Vintage and therfore though David in the old Testament never saw the righteous forsaken nor their seed begging their bread yet Christ in the new Testament could tell us of one Lazarus who for all his being righteous was faine to lie begging his bread at Dives gate God in his goodnesse is willing to try alwaies to see if any way he can bring us to goodnesse He allowed liberall baytes at first to make them the more cheerefully goe on their journey That succeeded not he hath taken away those baytings now to maâ—e us the more intentive to our journeys end Those blessings were promised by the mouth of Moses a servant Our blessings are promised by the mouth of Christ a sonne They trusted to the blessings promised to the person of Abraham we trust to the blessings promised to the seed of Abraham as it is said And in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed This is that seed by vertue whereof we stand here as Gods Children and have the honour to call him Father and by which we are borne againe to a new hope of recovering our old inheritance though that be long since removed up to heaven as appeares by the words of Christ to the Thiefe on the Crosse This day thou shalt bee with me in Paradise that wee can never hope to have a Paradise here on earth any more And now O my soule seeing thou dwellest in a house whose windowes are made to looke upward make use of those lights and afford not the Earth so much as a looke but stand gazing to see Christ Ascending into Heaven whither he is gone not onely to take possession himselfe but to provide a place for thee in that Inheritance and give not over gazing untill an Angell assure thee that this Iesus which is taken up from you shall so come as ye have seene him goe into heaven and till then possesse thy selfe in patience and let these meditations be thine ankers that if thou dyest in thy youth thou dost but goe the sooner to God that thou mayest bee the longer with him If thou die for hunger thou dost but goe fasting to God that thou mayst have the better stomacke to the heavenly Banquet if thou sterve for want of clothes thou dost but goe naked to God that thou mayest bee the readyer for putting on the Wedding Garment If thou die with torment thou dost but follow Christ to God that having followed him here the Sheepe before the Shearer thou mayst follow the Lambe wheresoever he goeth And seeing thou desirest to be a Lazarus in Abrahams bosome thou must first be contented to be a Lazarus at Dives gate and as thou tremblest to thinke of being a Dives in hell to want a cup of water to coole thy tongue so thou mayst tremble as much to be a Dives on earth to fare deliciously every day And as for the fawning pleasures of the world consider the fearefull judgements that are passed upon them Woe unto you rich men for ye shall howle and mourne Woe unto you great men for the mighty shall be mightily tormented Woe unto you that live in pleasures for how much yee receive in pleasures here so much shall be added to your torments hereafter Wherefore O my soule close up all with this Corollary that the forbearing thy portion in this world with Christ gives thee right in Christ to have a portion in heaven and that the enduring of miseries which cannot long endure is a way to passe to that felicity which shall never passe away A little hath beene sayd of infinite much that may be sayd concerning the Preface It followes now to speake of the Prayer it selfe which is digested into a structure and composition so absolute and yet so rare that whilst it stretcheth it selfe to all it is comprehended but of a few whilst the simplest in it may see their defects the wisest by it may amend their defects and if understanding be necessary to learn other lessons this Lesson is necessary to learne understanding If a man shall thinke of mending the Penning of this prayer he may as well thinke of mending the framing of the world which if he should goe about to make proofe of in particular he would in general make himselfe ridiculous For if he should adde any thing hee would make it superfluous if diminish defective if alter deformed and such a one would he prove that should presume upon mending these Petitions seeing there is nothing that concernes eyther the life present or the life to come nothing that concernes eyther Grace or Glory nothing that concernes eyther Antidote or Physicke for eyther soule or body but it is all here and all so fully and perfectly here that whatsoever the wit of man shall devise further to these ends will be but as branches out of these roots or as deductions out of these principles and may adde in bulke but not in weight And he should not erre that would affirme that Christ shewed himselfe as perfectly to be God by making this Prayer as by doing his miracles For to let passe the many causes of admiration in it that it is so compendious and yet so copious that it is so plaine and yet so intricate that it is so familiar and yet so sublime that it is of so few parts and yet so compleate all which are characters of Divinity who could have given warrant to the sonnes of men to call the God of heaven their Father but he only who is the Son of God and God himselfe we call God Almighty by his owne warrant to Abraham and we call him Iehovah by the same warrant to Moses but we cannot call him Father but onely by this warrant from Christ who
therefore commonly goes away as it came and makes no stay there And if it come to the eyes as sometime it offers at the sight of Gods workes It findes them not able to stay long open but must have their windowes shut in so are apt to keepe it out or if they stand open they are apt to let in vanity which this Kingdome likes not and therefore cannot abide to abide there neyther but vanisheth away And indeed these are but Out-places this Kingdome loves to be within us as Christ saith The kingdome of God is within you and we have no place within us fit to make the Seate of a Kingdome but onely our heart and this indeed hath no back doore to let it out as the eare hath nor no percullis to keepe it out as the eye hath but it hath a large entrance and a boundlesse circuit and therefore most fit to give this Kingdome entertainement And yet as fit as it is God will not have it unlesse we give it him and he will not have it so neither unlesse we give it him all for it is against his Nature to have a Partner and he cannot abide to heare of moyities either he must have all or he hath nothing at all to be a piece for God and a piece for the world is to be all for the world to conclude God at all is to exclude him from all Wherefore O my soule mangle not thy heart in giving it to God but give it him all and thinke thy selfe happy that he will take it all for the more he possesseth it the freer he makes it the more hee dwelleth in it the fayrer hee builds it the more raigneth in it the richer he adornes it O my Lord God that thou wouldst come and dwell in my heaâ—ras the owner of it and reigne in my heart as the King of it I should not then envy the Pallaces of Princes nor the kingdomes of the earth seeing I should have within my selfe a Pallace and a Kingdome not onely to equall but farre to exceede them But what kinde of Kings will this Kingdome make us Is it as one saith Rex est qui metuit nihil and indeed there is not such a King to be found amongst all the Princes of the earth for how is it possible they should be without feare who have a sword hanging over their heads continually but by a thred yet such Kings shall we be made by the comming of this Kingdome For whereof should we be afraide Of enemies but they shall be all subdued under our feete Of poverty But we shall hunger and thirst no more Of nakednesse But the Sunne shall not burne us by day nor the Moone by night Of sorrow But all teares shall he wiped away from our eyes Of death but Mors ultra non dominabitur Yet all this will mâ—ke us but negative Kings and meere negation makes not happy for happinesse is a positive thing and puts us in a reall possession of all good things And such happinesse too shall we have by the comming of this Kingdome for wherein can wee thinke doth happinesse consist If in dainty fare we shall eate and drinke with Christ at his Fathers Table If in fine clothes we shall all be cloathed in long white robes If in curious Musicke we shall heare the Quier of Angels continually singing If in light Fulgebimus sicut sol If in knowledge we shall know as we are knowne If in dominion we shall judge the Angels If in joy our joy shall be full and none shall be able to take it from us If in glorious sights we shall see the blessed face of Gâ—d which is the glory of all sights the sight of all glory O happy Kingdâ—me O happy comming O happy we to whom it shall come that we can never be intentive enough in praying never earnest enough in longing that this Kingdome may come But doth not this petition seeme to cast an eye upon the Iewes seeing it is not the Kings but the Kingdomes comming that is here prayed for for their King it was well enough knowne was come knowne by the Wisemens question Where is the King of the Iewes that is borne Knowne by the peoples acclamation Hosanna Blessed is the King of Israel that commeth in the Name of the Lord. Knowne by Pilates superscription Iesus Nazaronus Rex Iudaeorum Thus their King they saw but his Kingdome they saw not for how could they see that which was spirituall with carnall eyes neyther indeed can they ever come to see this Kingdome unlesse this Kingdome come and visit them first And is not this then a fit petition for them also And if we give way to this fancie of exposition it will not goe much a stray from the former seeing the comming of this Kingdome to the Iewes is the immediate Fore-runner of the comming of this King to us that are Christians But it is time now to leave being Iewes and to pray for the comming not onely of the Kingdome but of the King himselfe that seeing in attire of humanity they knew him not and in estate of submission they honoured him not he would now come at length in the brightnesâ—e of his Deity and in the greatnesse of his Soverainety that the eyes which scorned his humility may bee dazeled at his glory and that they which refused the haven of his mercy may suffer shipwracke on the rocke of his justice And to this end we doe all of us set our hands and hearts to that supplication of thy Saints who groaning under the burden of their long deferred hope doe continually with sighes present thee this petition Come Lord â—esus come quickly And if O God thou hast Corne behind to reape which is not yet sowne and stubble behind to burne which is not yet sprung though with patience we will waite the season of thy pleasure yet with prayers we will importune the hastening of thy Harvest and though we be not worthy to open the Seales yet we cannot chuse but be tempering with the waxe that we long for no others comming but thine owne and reckon nothing long a comming but thy Kingdome It is proper to this petition that where all the other have their present dispatches and are put in possession of their suites this onely lives in expectation and is put off with a dilatory answer for God knowes how long yet is as well pleased with this expectation as the others are with their present possessions and therefore may justly be called the petition of hope but hope that makes not ashamed seeing it consists not in the uncertainnesse of the matter but onely of the time Next to the Saints in heaven are placed the Saints on earth for when it is sayd Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven is it not plainely the prayer of the faithfull living seeing Christ himselfe while hee lived on Earth made use of this
Petition for our example Father if it be possible let this Cup passe from mee yet not as I will but as thou wilt But may not this petition bee thought superfluous to pray for that which is and will bee done whether wee pray for it or no For God doth what soever he will both in Heaven and in earth and who hath resisted his Will But wee must consider that we pray not for God but to God for our selves that having undone our selves by doing our owne will wee may bee repaired by doing of his Will and not of his Will absolute but of his Will in relation Not when hee commands as when hee said Let there be Light but when hee gives Commandements as when hee said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Wee therefore pray that this Will of his may bee done of us by our obedient and cheerfull Acting it and done in us by our patient and thankfull suffering it that concerning the first we may doe as the Captaines said to Ieremie whether it be good or evâ—ll wee will obey the voice of the Lord and concerning the latter wee may say as Ely said It is the Lord let him doe to me as seemeth good in his Eyes But if wee understand it so Doe we not then free the Petition from being superfluous and charge it with being impossible For if we understand it of doing his Will actively how is it possible for Earth to doe it so well as Heaven and if of doing it passively how is that done in Heaven at all and if wee can find an answer for this shall wee not perhaps free it from being impossible by making it to bee either slight or improvident for if wee understand it of doing his will actively what great matter is it for Earth to compare with Heaven seeing all impiety began first in Heaven and if of doing his Will passively what doe we then by this Petition but call for Iustice to be done in Earth upon our selves as it was done in Heaven upon the Angels But O my soule consider wee say not Thy Will be done in Earth as it was but as it is in Heaven for it is true there was once an Apostasie in Heaven but it was but once They which exalted themselves were cast downe never to rise and the rest have continued in their uprightnesse never to fall for Christ hath merited as for us to bee purged from our sinnes so for them to be established in their holinesse and what he is to us in restoring hee is to them in confirming But shall wee make God so peremptory a Prince as that his Will must stand for a Law Doe wee well to attribute that stile to God which wee would scarce attribute to a just Prince Sic volo Sic Iubeo stat pro ratione voluntas Indeed where the Will may bee separated from reason this objection may be reasonable but not with God of whose Will it cannot bee so truly said that it is ruled by Reason as that it is the very rule of Reason nothing being otherwise reasonable but as it is conformable to his Will and therefore he gave reason to man that hee might bee capable to doe his Will which because hee hath not given to Beasts they are not all other things they can doe as well if not better then men They can make them Nests and houses and are better Builders They can hoord up and provide before hand and are better husbands They can prevent and circumvent and are better politicians They can extract the spirits of vegetables and are better Alchymists Onely doe the will of God they cannot and therefore how much a man applyes himselfe to doe the Will of God so much may hee bee said a reasonable Creature but if once hee leave to doe that hee is presently compared to the beasts that perish and yet hee is favoured in the comparison too for all things considered man is certainely farre the more unreasonable as appeares by Gods owne complaint The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Asse his Masters â—ryb but Israel hath not knowne my People hath no understanding And though of the Will of God wee doe not alwayes know the reason yet wee alwaies know there is a reason in it unlesse perhaps we shall speake more properly that not reason is the Rule of Gods Will but either his Will is Rule to it selfe as hee saith I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy or at least some superiour Faculty farre above the capacity of our reason of which it is said Who hath knowne the minde of God or who hath been his Counsellour We are not therfore to stand upon termes with God and to examine or censure his Will by any rule of our reason which if Abraham had done he had never beene the Father of the faithfull but to make an absolute submission and humbly to say Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven But how can wee be sure at any time of doing the Will of God seeing God seemes oftentimes variable in his Will and continues not alwaies in one minde For was it not Gods Will that the â—sraelites should offer him sacrifices yet he tels them a while after they are an abomination to him Was it not Gods Will that Balaam should goe to Balâ—k yet when Balaam sadled his Asse went God sent his Angell to stop his Asse in the way and hindred his going Was it not Gods Will that Moses should number the People yet when David numbred the People God smote him for it with a heavie punishment And how then is it possible to doe his Will that is so variable and so often changeth O my soule take heede for in none of these nor ever in any is there any changeablenesse in God at all all the change is in our selves For God indeed appointed sacrifices to the Iewes that were but ceremonies but hee intended also the substance with them when they therefore offered not the sacrifices that were substantiall had not God just cause to refuse their sacrifices that were onely ceremoniall God indeed commanded Balaam to goe to Balak but when Balaam went with intent to curse Israel whom God intendâ—d hee should blesse had not God just cause to hinder his journey God indeed commanded Moses to number the people that notice might be taken of their great deliverance but when David numbred them to ground a confidence upon them had not God just cause though not to punish his right numbering yet to punish his wrong confidence For to doe the will of God consists not so much in the act as in the end of doing it otherwise we should be like Iehu who did the will of God indeed in destroying all the house of Ahab but he had his owne ends in it to establish the Kingdome to himselfe We must not therefore thinke of doing Gods will as Polititians mingling our owne ends with
Gods Will but we must doe it as Angels simply and purely we must doe it onely that we may doe it so doe his will that we may doe the intent of his will and thus if we doe the will of God we shall finde him alwaies one and the same and no variablenesse in him at all nor shadow of change We make a petiâ—ion here that Gods will may be done but should we not have made a petition first that it might bee knowne as David prayed That thy way may bee knowne upon earth for untill we know it how can we doe it how doe we now know it seeing it seemes to many to be yet sub Iudice and so great controversie and division about it as if the descending of the Holy Ghost in fiery and cloven tongues had beene of purpose to foreshew the fiery division that should after follow in the tongues of the Church But should wee not consider that all Gods Law is fu'filled in our love and while in doubtfull controversies wee contend what his will is of this wee bee sure that his will is not we should contend And doe we not finde it true that Nimium Altercando veritas amittitur the very heate of disputation makes our judgements as it were to warpe that though Davâ—d sayd well The zeale of Gods House had eaten him up yet wee cannot say well the zeale of Gods cause hath eaten up our understanding But let it bee granted that we are satisfied concerning the knowledge of his will seeing we have an Oracle for it Gods word is a Lanthorne to our feet and a light to our path yet what reason have we to pray that it may be done in earth as it is in heaven For what doe we know how it is done in heaven and so we pray we know not for what But doe we not know that there are none in heaven but Saints and Angels who are all ministring spirits and being spirits must needs serve God in spirit and Christ fetcheth this argument higher that God himselfe is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth If then wee worship God in spirit and truth wee doe his will in earth as it is in heaven It is not enough to believe Gods will as David sayd I have believed thy Commandements For the divels believe and tremble Nor to remember his will as he also sayd I will never forget thy precepts for such was hee of whom God complaines What hast thou to doe to declare mine Ordinances seeing thou hatest to be reformed Nor to approve his Will as David also sayd All thy Commandements are true and I know O God that thy Iudgements are right for this the Israelites did to Moses when they received the law All that the Lord hath commanded we will doe but yet did it not Nor to love his will as he also sayd O how I doe love thy Law for Peter was not without love to Christ even then when he denied him All these are good steppes but they goe not farre enough they are but as to looke our face in a Glasse and so be gonâ— There is no good to bee done with God without doing good and therefore David after these useth alwaies to adde It is my meditation continually and I have refrained my seete from every evill way that I might keepe thy Word and if the nature of our earthen vessels be such that it will not keepe this water of life untainted and in the native purenesse yet it shall be accepted of God if we goe forward and can truely say with David I have applied my heart to fulfill thy Statutes alwaies even unto the end and I desire to doe thy will O God For if unfainedly and seriously we apply our hearts to fulfill his lawes and desire to doe his will and doe it to our power this very applying shall bee counted a fulfilling this desire shall be reckoned for a deed and then we shall doe his will in earth as it is in heaven But whether doe wee make this petition in behalfe of the Will of God to have that enlarged or in behalfe of the earth to have that exalted for it seemes applyable to both sences But alasse what enlargement would it be to the Will of God which is now already done in heaven to have it also to bee done in earth For what is it to adde earth to heaven but to adde as it were a droppe to the Sea but it is a great exaltation to the earth to have the Will of God done in it as it is in heaven seeing to have power to doe the Will of God is the largest franchise that can bee granted of God and if it might bee fully enjoyed would make the earth an equall match with heaven But though it be now prayed for yet it cannot be expected till the time come of which St. Peter speakes We expect a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteoâ—nesse for then heaven and earth shall bee even matches and it will bee a new world and newes indeed to have righteousnesse dwell here where dwelleth nothing now but cruelty and oppression For alas poore earth Thou art condemned for man to thornes and thistles and in revenge thereof thou bringest forth men full of thistles and thornes that as thou skratchest and tearest them so they skratch and teare one another and there will be no help for this till the time come that the Creature also shall bee delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God and then will be the full accomplishment of this petition By this petition wee know that Gods will is done in heaven and here wee pray it may bee done in earth but seeing the petition is chiefely referred to the honour of God why doe wee not pray it may bee done in hell also seeing hell is a large and spacious place as it is sayd Tophet is made deepe and large for by leaving this out we leave out a spacious circuit where his Will may be done and so abridge him in the extent of his command But is it not that wee therefore pray not his will may be done in hell because indeed there are no doers there but all sufferers they are all there in bonds and bound from action and if we should understand it of doing his will passively by suffering patiently that cannot be done there neyther seeing impatience is eyther one of their Torments or one of their tormentors We justly therefore name not that place in our prayer because there are no persons in it that are capable of our prayer And yet God hath a Will that is done even there enough for his honour Voluntas Beneplaciti Not that he is pleased with the damned but that he is pleased with their damnation but wee meddle not with this will and therefore meddle not with this place
where there is no other will done Wee learne by this Petition what it is wee must doe when wee come to Heaven and doth not this make men carelesse whether ever they come there or no for seeing the Will of God is so unpleasing a thing to doe heere how can they thinke it will be any better or be ere a whit mended to doe it there and therefore if there bee nothing gotten by going to Heaven but doing of Gods will they thinke themselves better as they are and would bee glad to tarry heere still where they may doe their owne wills But O my soule is not this to bee starke dead in sinne For it there were any sence of life or any life of sence remaining in us we could not choose but see the beauty and tast the sweetnesse and smell the Odour of doing Gods Will. Sweeter saith David then the hony or the hony combe More beautifull saith Salomon then the rowes of Iewells or then chaines of Gold More fragrâ—t saith hee also then an Orchard of Pomegranats or then Myrrhe and Aloes with all the spices O thou eternall light and life of all things so enlighten the eyes and quiâ—ken the senses of my soule and body that I may both see the Beauty and Tast the sweetnesse of doing thy will I shall not then neede any greater motives of longing to be in heaven then that I may be as able as willing who now am scarce willing but altogether unable to doe thy Will But why doe wee pray that Gods Will may be done in Earth which is done in Earth already and that by Creatures which one would thinke were never able to doe it Hee hath set bounds to the Sea which it must not passeâ— and the Sea as raging as it is and provoked by all the Rivers of the Earth that come running into it as it were for the nonce to make it passe his bounds yet keepes it selfe precisely within the limits He hath appointed the earth to stand still and not to move and the earth though but hanging in the Ayre and nothing at all to hang upon yet offers not so much as once to stirre He hath chargedthe Trees to bring forth fruit and the Trees though even killed with cold of winter and threatned with tempests of the spring yet take heart to come forth and seeme to rejoyce they can doe as they are bidden The very beasts though never so wilde and savage yet observe the properties of their kind and none of them encroach upon the qualities of another And why all this but onely to doe the Will of God And that which may seeme more strange the Flowers come out of the durty earth and yet how neate and cleane Out of the unsavoury earth and yet how fresh and fragrant Out of the sowre earth and yet how mellifluous and sweet Out of the duskish earth and yet how Orient and Vermillian Out of the unshapen earth and yet in what dainty shapes in what curious formes in what enammelings and Dyapers of beauty as if the earth would shew that for all her being cursed she had something yet of Paradise left and why all this but onely to doe the Will of God And why then should there be complaining as though the Will of God were not done in earth O wretched man It is onely thy selfe that is out of tune in this harmony Man that should be best is of all the worst that should bee cleanest is of all the foulest that should be most beautifull is of all the most deformed most full of graces yet most voyde of grace of most understanding to direct his will yet of least will to follow the direction of understanding Man endued with celestiall qualities yet leaves them all to encroach upon the qualities of every beast upon the obscenity of swine in drunkennesse upon the greedinesse of Cormorants in covetousnesse upon the craftinesse of Foxes in fraud upon the cruelty of Tygers in malice as if he would strive to exceede his first parents in transgressing and try whether God had any greater punishment left then casting out of Paradise that if Christ would have served us in our kinde and as we deserve he needed not have gone for patterns to Heaven he might have found patterns good enough for us amongst the meanest creatures of the earth and as he told the Pharisees the Queene of the South should rise up against them in Iudgement so he might have told us the Flowers the Trees the Beasts shall all rise up in Iudgement against Man that we had more need to say O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I might weepe day and night then after Trees and Beasts have done Gods Will to come after them all with but onely saying Thy Will be done in earth as it is in heaven But how doe these Petitions hang together or how is not this directly contrary to that which went before For there we desire a Kingdome that we may doe what we list and here we desire subjection and to be at anothers command Yet here is no contrariety for there we desire to raigne over our owne wills and here we desire to be subject to his will and this subjection is our true reigning this service our perfect freedome Or is it not rather a straighter Obligation For by the comming of his Kingdome we may be thought onely subjects at large but by submitting our selves to his will we are servants by vow that seemes to referre to Gods promise to the Israelites Yee shall be to mee a Kingdome of Priests and an holy Nation this seemes to referre to the peoples answere to God All that the Lord hath spoken we will doe And so there is no contrariety betweene the petitions but the latter is a consectary to the former But is it not rather that wee overshoote our selves and make it here a suite to bee made bond-slaves for what is it but slavery when wee can never have our wills but must live alwaies subject to the will of another especially where there is so great an antipathy as betweene Gods Will and ours But O my soule consider how wretched a thing thine owne will is how blessed a thing the Will of God is and be not here a Dogmatist but an Empyricke rather hearken not to thy reason which oftentimes is but a Parasite to thy sence but looke upon experience which rightly discerned will make thee alwaies to discerne the right Hath not misery alwaies followed the doing of our owne will happines alwaies the doing of Gods Will Our first parents left Gods Will to doe their owne will in eating the forbidden fruit and what fruite followed but the utter undoing of themselves and all their followers Cain left Gods Will to doe his owne will in killing his brother and what became of him but that hee became a vagabond lived like a beast and came at last to be killed for a
service we can doe that will serve Gods Name but onely our hallowing it we have love and glorifying and admiring and will none of these serve the turne If we should say loved be thy Name that would be too little for God himselfe allowes us to love our neighbours and indeed every creature of God that is usefull to us deserves our love Or if we should say Glorified be thy Nâ—me that would not be enough seeing St. Paul tels us that one Starre excels another in glory and indeed the heavens in shewing the glory of God deserve themselves in some sort to be glorified Or if we should say Admired be thy Name that would not be sufficient seeing an Angell told Manoah that his Name was admirable And indeed the Angels are Creatures of so transcendent eminency that they justly deserve our admiration But when we say Hallowed be thy Name this sets it apart and sets it above all other names and it is so properly that it is onely belonging to the Name of God and altogether incommunicable to any creature For though we may say of Angels that they be holy yet we cannot say to any of them Hallowed be thy Name seeing their holinesse is onely in dependance and a quality Gods onely independent and a substance and it was an inscription upon the Myter of Aaron as not onely due to God but due to him in the highest place Holinesse to the Lord. O Lord God so sanctifie the faculties of my soule that I may love thee for thy goodnesse and glorifie thee for thy love and admire thee for thy glory and hallow thee in them all But can we finde nothing in God more worthy of hallowing then his Name seeing names are often changed alwaies changeable seldome true never certaine Our first parent was named Hevah as being the mother of all living and yet she proved to be brought a bed of death The son of Salomon was called Rehoboam signifying an enlarger of his people and he enlargde them fairely brought twelve Tribes to two Simon was called Peter as being a Rocke unmoveable and yet he was shaken with the weake blast of a maydes mouth But O my soule consider the Name of God is not as the names of creatures for their natures are muâ—ble and therefore their names deceitfull but in God there is no mutability nor shadow of change Creatures have a nature and a name but Gods Nature is his Name his Name is himselfe for whatsoever we can rightly name of God is the Name of God that we may be sure we have his Optimum when we have his Totum the best in him when the whole of him not that any thing in God is so best as though one thing in him were better then another who is Totus sine partibus and Optimus sine gradibus but that he is Totum unum and Totum Optimum and both Vnum and Optimum totum Nomen nothing but his Name Or to speake it in plainer termes that the nature of his Name is not onely farre beyond the compasse of expressing but infinitly above the reach of understanding And indeed what can be thought so high as that which brings us so low even upon our knees and not us onely but the Angels themselves as it is savd At the Name of God all knees shall bow bâ—th of things in heaven and things on earth and if this be thought impossible because Angels have no knees you may thereby know there is more honour due to God then is possible to be given him Yet must even Angels finde such knees to bow downe as God finds eyes to looke on and by this we may make up a true hallowing of Gods Name if we can joyne the knees of our bodies as men the knees of our soules as Angels together and bow thâ—m all downe to doe him reverence These indeed the bowing downe our knees with Daniel the holding up our hands with Moses the lifting up our eyes with Stephen are all good expressions but they are but onely outward It will not be a perfect hallowing untill we come to that of David My soule praise thou the Lord and all that is witâ—in me praise his â—oly Name For that which is within must underâ—roppe that which is without or elle the bowing our knees to the ground will fall to the ground and these outward hallowings will soone be prophaned And therefore David accounted the lifting up his eyes to heaven a good expression of hallowing Gods Name because in him the proppe of it was faith and considence in Gods mercy which alwaies looke upward but the Publicane accounted the casting downe his eyes a cleane contrary motion to that of Davids as good an expression because in him the prop of it was humility and sence of his owne unworthinesse which alwaies looke downward For even this also is a kind of hallowing Gods Name when we acknowledge the prophanenes of our own natures But why should the hallowing of Gods Name bee accounted so great a vertue when the sinne of not hallowing his Name can be but nominall and nominall is much inferiour to that which is reall and seeing it is made so great a matter may we not justly aske Cui bono what good get we by it Indeed a most ungratefull question for the tongue to make seeing this is the chiefe thing for which our tongues were made Could Philosophers finde cause enough in vertue to love it for it selfe though to themselves there came no benefit and cannot we finde cause enough in Gods name to hallow it for it selfe though to our selves there should come no profit Could they finde brightnesse in a beame of the Sunne and cannot we finde brightnesse in the Sunne it selfe For what is vertue but as it were a beame of that eternall and uncreated light which is the very essence of God and by what can we more expresse the essence of God then by his name For when we say Hallowed be thy Name we say as much as hallowed be thy Majesty thy Eternity thy Glory thy substance thy selfe thy all in all And yet perhaps it may be sayd we hallow Gods name not so much for our selves to get as that God may not lose for what greater losse then disparagment of name which if we that be wormes and no men make so great account of what may we thinke of God for the sunne of whose glory all the starres of heaven cannot make one beame Our names are but accidentall things and there was a time when they were not ours but Gods name is essentiall to him and it was his before time it selfe was And if we should say that not onely his name was but that it was hallowed before there was eyther Man or Angell to hallow it though this be more then wee can conceive yet it is no more then whereof we finde a parallell for why is it more strange that his name should be hallowed when there was none to hallow
but none of these have coales from the Altar and the hallowing of Gods Name is a sacrifice and must be done with fire a fire of feare and reverence bâ—rning in the heart and sending forth flames of holy and devout thoughts in the minde of godly and sanctified communications in the tongue of lowly and chast aspects in the Eyes of Innocency and deeds of charity in the hands and when every part both of body and soule hath thus contributed its heate there will then be made as perfect a sacrifice to hallow Gods Name as the sacrifice of peace offring which Salomon offred at the 〈◊〉 of the Temple It is a 〈◊〉 â—couragement to men for doing of anything whâ—ther can see apparent reasons whâ— they â—oe it â—us what reasons doe wee see heâ—re for hallowing of Gods Name O my soule art thou so blinde of sight so dull of understanding Hast thou said Our Father which art in Heaven and dost thou consider his love as being our Father his Majesty as being in Heaven and dost thou complaine for want of reasons to hallow his Name as a Father he hath created and begotten us hee hath Elected and Adopted us he hath preserved and redeemed us and have we not reason then to hallow his Name as creatures as living creatures as reasonable creatures as servants as children as heires as bondmen freed as leapers cleansed as dead men revived borne anew if we should set our selves to reckon them up all It is not the stars of heaven that would be counters enow to summe them And if his love afford us so many reasons doth not his Majesty afford us as many more he is in heaven not with in heaven within it but not contained contained but not defined He is in heaven and that makes the Sun so bright which without his being there should have no brightnes He is in heaven and that makes the heavens so glorious which without his being there should have no glory Doe we see how bright the Sunne is and doe we not coÌ„sider how great his brightnes is that made the Sunne Doe we see how glorious the heavens are and doe we not consider how great his glory is that made the heavens He is in heaven that he may looke downe in mercy upon us on earth he is in heaven that we may looke up in faith to him in heaven he is in heaven to let us downe the Angels ladder from heaven he is in heaven to draw us up to be as Angels in heaven if we should stand to finde out all the reasons which may be drawne from the consideration of his Majesty for the hallowing of his Name It would not be be a worke for time but for eternity for as wee know not where to begin in that which is incomprehensible so we should never know how to end in that which is infinite O my Lord God so enlighten my understanding that I may see the reasons of hallowing thy Name so sanctifie my nature that I may above reason be able to hallow it We say here Hallowed be thy Name but might we not say better with David Laudate Dominumomnes Angeliejus Praise the Lord all yee Angels For so we should commit Gods honour to the care of Angels who we may be sure would alwaies be carefull of it whereas now leaving it indefinite while it is committed to none it may be omitted by all But is it not that David could goe no higher then Angels for hallowing of Gods Name In concreto but Christ teacheth us here to goe higher in Abstracto for creatures how eminent soever are yet but limited and limited as well in action as in essence where the hallowing of Gods Name is in it selfe unlimmitted therefore we justly abstract it from all matter of the instrument which necessarily inferreth a restraint and leave it indefinite which is capable of being infinite But is this petition seated onely on mount Gerizim to warrant David to say If any man seeke the Lord and love his salvation let him rejoyce alwaies and be glad and say continually The Lord be magnified and doth it not as well reach to mount Eball and warrant the Church to proclaime If any man with Goliah defie the armies of Israel and vilifie Gods power let him be Anathema For Hallowed he thy Name If any man with Rabsakeh seeke to withdraw the peoples hearts from trusting in the living God let him be Anathema for Hallowed be thy Name If any man with Iulian shall say in dâ—rision of Christ Vicisti Galilaee let him be Anathema for Hallowed be thy Name And let Anathemaes be still proclaimed against all the blasphemers of Gods Name till there be no more left that two Mountaines at last may meet Eball with Gerizim and Hell it selfe be forced with griefe to houle what with joy it cannot sing Hallowed be thy Name We have thought this petition most proper to be sayd of Angels but may we not appropriate it to our selves exclude the Angels from saying it at all Indeed as it is here placed perhaps we may For having called God Our Father and this petition comming so immediatly upon it we seem to pray that his Name of Father may be hallowed by us if we understand it so what have the Angels to do to say it They may say Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbath and so hallow him in his Name of Lord as Servants but to hallow him in his Name of Father as Sons they cannot Not but that the Angels are the Children of God by creation and grace of holinesse but that they are not the Sons of God by regeneration and grace of â—option this dignity is only proper to men as being members of Christ who tooke our nature upon him and not that of Angels But seeing David hath brought into this Quier not onely the Angels in Heaven but the Heavens themselves not only the Trees and Cedars of the Mountaines but the Mountaines themselves not only beasts and creeping things of the earth but the earth it selfe Let not us so streighten the Name of God as that we leave out Angels who are our sweetest Quiristers nor yet other Creatures who are our loudest voyces seeing loudnesse also hath a place in this Musicke as David saith Sing yee loud unto the Lord all the earth least seeking to â—ncrease our own dignity by propriety of the song we detract from Gods glory by restraint of the fingers And enter not O my soule into the shame to thinke that where all other creatures doe directly sing it we onely doe but make suit to sing it and it is thought in us a good degree of doing it if we can but onely pray to doe it And indeed we have need to pray to doe it seeing praying to doe it is all in effect we can doe of it to any purpose For our hallowing can be but as our understanding is and our understanding can
can men performe as perfect duties as the Angels Indeed not in equality but in similitude Not to doe as well as they but to doe our best as well as they Not that our Vessels can bee as bright as theirs but be as cleane and not hold as much but be as full And even this cleannesse and even this fulnesse not of our selves For what cleannesse can there bee in dirt or what fulnesse in vessels that are full of holes and such we are all of us not onely ex humo but ex limo and Pleni rimarum quenching the spirit as fast as it is kindled all our cleannesse is in him to whom we say Purge me with Hisop and I shall bee cleane all our fulnesse from him of whom it is sayd Of his fulnesse wee have all received Hee onely that hath set us the taske can give us the power and by him wee may attaine to that of St. Paul I can doe all things in him that comforteth me for by the comfort of this Comforter it may be possible to make the petition possible Thy Will be done in earth as it is in heaven But if it be onely in similitude why doe we pray onely to be like the Angels and pray not rather to be like God himselfe as Christ would have us Be yee holy as your heavenly Father is holy Be yee perfect as he is perfect for now wee make a prayer that comes short of Christs precept Is it not that the perfectest patternes that can bee are in both places propounded to us and therefore here where it is matter of obedience the Angels are our patternes of whom Dâ—vid saith Praise the Lord all yee his Angels that doe his Commandement in obeying the voyce of his Word but this patterne God cannot be seeing obedience cannot be where there is no superiour but where it is matter of holinesse or perfection there God must be our patterne and therefore we justly forbeare to speake of Angels where we have a patterne to speake of in God himselfe O Lord God if I cannot bee like thee in holinesse yet let me bee like the Angels in obedience and If I can attaine to neyther let mee at least aspire to both and what I want in power and performance make me to supply with vowes and prayer The time was when Angels might have envyed man for his happinesse but now man hath just cause if any cause can be just to envy Angels for their happinesse for what happinesse can be greater then to be made patternes of holynesse and that by God to the Image of God by the Sonne of God to the Sonnes of God But O blessed Spirits we envy you not but admire you rather for why should we envy you for continuing holy who pitty us for not continuing and not onely pity us but doe your best to relieve us And how can we choose but admire you for patternes who so farre exceed the proportion of patternes Patternes are but examples but you are also Assistants Patternes doe but lie before us but you pitch your Tents round about us Patterns doe but light us to the likenesse but you delight to have us be like you And how then can wee envy you for being our betters who envy not us to become your equals O blessed Spirits we envy you not but admire you rather and willingly not onely accept you for our patternes but under Christ acknowledge you for our Guardians And here now seemes a fit â—lace to sit downe and wonder at the unspeakeable love and bounty of God expressed toward us in these three petitions For by the first we are assured of eternity by the second of a Kingdome by the third to bee like the Angels or if wee like it better to say By the first we are informed what we shall be as Angels By the second what wee shall have A Kingdome By the third what we shall doe The Will of God These are blessings worthy to come from a heavenly Father these are rewards which worthily become a bountifull Master And now let the Swine flesh and blood goe murmure against God that he is a hard Father and a bad Master and that there is no profit in serving him because he gives them not the mire of the world to wallow in as though he had no other way to expresse his favours but by cloddes of earth but doe thou O my soule meditate upon these petitions and in them upon these blessings and in these upon the infinite love and bounty of God and thinke how happy thou art to have such a Father how much thou art bound to love such a Master and thinke not much to love him with thy whole heart seeing he hath blessings to bestow upon thee which cannot enter into thy heart thinke not much to submit thy selfe wholly to his Will seeing his Will is to give thee beauty for ashes the Oyle of gladnesse for mourning that we shall ever finde it a most happy thing for us to say Thy Will be done in earth as it is in Heaven It is proper to this petition that where the other seeme to waite at Gods Throne this onely waites at his footestoole and where the other sing onely the high note Glory be to God on high this seemes to adde a Base saying In Earth as it is in Heaven And it may justly be called the petition of obedience seeing all the other have their ends in injoying this onely hath no end but in obeying Next to these as I may say of the higher House come in the commons and first takes place a generality as it were a corporation for when it is sayd Give us this day our daily bread is it not plainely the prayer of all living creatures whether living the life reasonable or the life sensitive or even the life onely vegetative For of unreasonable creatures it is said The Lions seeke their meate at God and the young Ravens call upon him and he feedeth them And of vegetables it is manifest that though the Corne give bread to us yet God gives bread to the Corne by his dewes from heaven And even the Angels though they have no bodies yet they have their bread too of which it is said Man did eate the bread of Angels and of all together it is sayd All things looke up to thee and thou givest them meate in due season thou openest thy hand and fillest with thy blessing every living creature But as these severall kinds of creatures may be conceived to have their severall waies in making use of this petition so man as the summary of them all partakes with all of them in all the waies of using it He partakes in using it with the vegetables by indigence of Nature Hee partakes in using it with the beasts by appetite of sence He partakes in using it with the Angels by acknowledgement of the Authour and thankesgiving for their preservation as may be thought
yet such a Master and King and Father is God that if thou doe it in charity and say it in fayth it will worke with him the effect he promiseth and this shall be a signe unto thee thou shalt finde in thy minde that Peace which passeth all understanding thou shalt finde in thy heart that Ioy which the world cannot give and shalt plainely perceive by this subordinate petition what great cause thou hadst to say Thy Kingdome come But what will be the best time for our saying of this petition May we not put it off till we have committed more sinnes and then aske forgivenesse for all together May we not run a while upon the skore and then strike a tally for all at once O my soule be not so nngratefull to God so improvident for thy selfe for canst thou thinke it fit to runne further upon the skore when thou art more upon the skore already then all thou art worth Canst thou thinke it fit to commit more sinnes when thou hast committed more already then a thousand deaths can expiate Hath God spared thee for this that thou shouldst goe on to provoke him further Hath he for this given thee a time to repent thee that thou shouldst make him repent him of the time he hath given thee This deferring of repentance dries up the blood of Christ God in him is a Father now who knowes how soone he may turne to a Iudge God in him is now all mercy who knowes how soone he may returne to his Iustice This present houre this very instant is the Faire kept as I may say of forgiving sinnes It may be had now at an easie rate onely for forgiving them that trespasse against thee but if thou tarry till the Faire be ended and who knowes how soone it may be seeing it hath lasted so long already there will then be no rardons to be purchased at any rate but thou must pay for thy improvidence with thy uttermost farthing O then my soule put not off from day to day least thou come as it is sayd a day after the Faire but whilst it is called to day call thy selfe to account and let not the Sunne goe downe upon thy Impenitence to God or upon thine anger to thy neighbour least it happen to thee as to the rich man in the Gospell who to morrow after his barnes were built would gee in hand with repentance when God would not tarry the building of Barnes but Hac â—e repetent aniâ—nam tuâ—m this very night they shall take away thy soule But is there not in this petition a hole left for revenge to creepe in may we not doe as much as we say and yet leave some trespassors upon whom to bee revenged For if we forgive some that trespasse against us we forgive them that trespasse against us although we forgive not all that trespasse against us and those we forgive not will bee left for us to be revenged But O my soule what Sophistry is this to be used to God doâ— thou not by this entangle thy selfe in thy owne Net May not God justly returnâ— thy Sophistry upon thee and say Thou desirest to be forgiven anâ— thou shalt have thy desire If I forgive thee some of thâ— trespâ—sses I forgive thee thy trespassâ—s although I forgive thee not all thy trespasses and thoâ—e I forgive not will serve my turne for thy condemnation And when God shall say this art thou not well served for thy Sophistry Wherefore O Foolish soule leave playing the Sophister with God as it is thy desire to have all thy trespasses forgiven so let it be thy meaning to forgive all that trespasle against thee For if thou wilt have a generall pardon thou must generally pardon If our forgiving of others consisted in giving good words in shewing faire lookes in affording smiling countenances in offering dissembled courtesies we might well enough thinke that every man living performed the condition of this petition and that the whole world were nothing but charity but seeing God hath thus centured the Israelites Fasting Is it such a Fast that I have chosen Is it to bow downe your heads as a Bulrush and to spread Sackclmb and Ashes under you Doe we not thinke he will not as â—verely censure our forgiving Is it such a Forgiving that I require Is it to smile in a mâ—ns face and cut his throat behinde his backe Is it to give good words and watch a time to take revenge Is it to carry Honey in the mouth and Gâ—ll in the heart And how then can wee choose nâ—w but feare there is searâ—e a man living that can looke to have his fâ—nes forgiven and that there is not so much as the poore womans mite of charity in the world For truâ— chaâ—ity is without dissimulation and to take dissimulation out of the world what were it but after a sort to prevent God and to make a new earth before the time But why should God require of us such a quicke returne from anger who could himselfe carry anger in his minde much longer for did he not so to Moses who having angred God a little at Meribah was punished for it at Caâ—an a long time after But O my soule farre be it from thee to thinke Gods goodnesse can once be touched with such imputation God was angry indeed and upon just cause angry with Moses at Meribah and sware in his wrath that he should not enter into Canaan So the doome was instantly passed and could not be revoked and his anger was as instantly passed and never after shewed For when the sentence came to executing with what circumstances of mildnesse with what favour of interpretation was it done that though the punishment could not be revoked yet Gods love turned it into a benefit For though he might not goe into Canaan with his feet yet he was suffered to goe into it with his eyes that having taken the pleasure of seeing the figure he might goe the more cheerefully to take possession of the substance Neyther was it perhaps so much a punishment as a mystery at least a punishment not without mystery for Moses represented the law and could not therefore bring the Israélites into Canaan because the law cannot bring us to heaven It must be Ioshuah the type of Christ Iesus that must bring them into Canaan the type of heaven as it is lesus the true Ioshua that must bring us to heaven the true Canaan But seeing God hath forgiven our sinnes already in Christ what need we to trouble God or our selves to aske forgivenesse againe as though our words could doe more then Christs deeds but is it not as when a King proclaimes a generall pardon to all offendours yet none shall have benefit by it but such onely as sue it forth and fetch it out so God indeed hath granted a generall pardon to all sinners in the merits of his Sonne but none shall have benefit by it but such onely as
Pharaoh that pursues to destroy us but thou art the Lord of Hosts that gettest thee honour upon Pharaohs Host and thine is the glory And for this deliverance from Pharaoh and his Host though but a type of ours Moses long since sung a song so loud that it hath ecchoed from him to David and from David to Esay and from Esay is come to us Thou O Lord art our strength and our song for thou hast beene our deliverance But is deliverance from evill the highest blessing we can reach to by our prayers what becomes then of the resurrection of our bodies and the life everlasting things so much talked off and so highly magnified Are they onely idle names and are there no such things indeed Or are they so little worth the praying for in all this absolute prayer we bestow not so much as a word upon them Or shall we thinke the prayer unperfect seeing the greatest things are left unprayed for and not once named or implyed O my soule take heede let not the weake fancies of thy owne spirit or the strong suggestions of a worse Spirit move such unhallowed doubts within thee For our deliverance from evill shall plainely appeare to bee the highest blessing wee can directly attaine to by our prayers and yet our confidence for the resurrection of our bodies and for the life everlasting shall have foundation enough to stand most firme For the three first petitions seeme chiefly referred to the honour of God in whom all his attributes are equall and therefore in them we goe as I may say upon even gronnd we can finde neither rising nor falling in them we seeme to see nothing that carries any higher than the earth or that tarries any longer then this life and therefore that clause In Earth as it is in Heaven though it be expressed onely in the third petition yet it is by many understood also in the other two but in the three latter which are referred to our owne benefit wee seeme to bee climbing up Iacobs ladder for at every petition we take a steppe higher In the first we begin very low and aske as Iacob did but onely meat and rayment In the second we take a steppe higher and aske a pardon of our faults In the third we goe yet higher and aske an absolute protection from all dangers and deliverance from all evill wherein we may be sayd to have wrestled with the Angell and obtained a blessing for this is the highest steppe we can possibly attaine to in this mortall life But how doth this step reach so high as Iacobs ladder which reacheth up to heaven Marke therefore O my soule for having begun in humility It seemes as if Christ here should say unto us Friend sit up higher for this step of our deliverance from evill seemes to deliver us to Heaven seeing it is contiguous and joynes immediately to the first steppe we shall take in Heaven when all teares shall be wiped from our eyes and they be made cleere to behold the blessed vision of God which is the highest steppe of all and in which consists the summe and summum of our eternall happinesse But why in all this prayer should we have for these things no petition Is it that wee shall have them rather by the participation of Christ then by the intercession rather as sonnes by inheritance then by suit as servants and is as much beyond our prayers as above our capacities Or is it that our deliverance from evill which is the highest steppe we are capable of in this world implies an Adhering to the Deliverer himselfe in the world where we shall be capable Or may we not say that the petition Thy Kingdome come though it goe from us with an onely reference to the honour of God yet it is returned from God to us with this Interence Honorantes me Honorabo and though it reach not so farre as the suite of the mother of Zebedeus sonnes to have one sit at his right hand the other at his left yet hee reacheth as farre as the suite of the thiefe upon the Crosse Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome But least it should be sayd that we goe about to take the Kingdome of Heaven by violence may wee not make the matter playner by saying that we therefore pray not for the resurrection of the body and for the life everlasting because they are not so properly the objects of fayth which have most to doe in our prayers as they are the objects of hope which is a transcendent to our prayers Fayth indeed prepares us for hope and the things we here pray for for the things we here after hope for but as it is not the fashion of a sonne to pray his father to make him his heire but hee carryeth himselfe dutifully and performeth his obedience and then he doubts not but he shall be heire so it is not our fashion with God to pray for our inheritance which is life everlasting and the Kingdome of Heaven but we pray that as sonnes wee may doe our duties and obey his Will and then we have an assured hope we shall enjoy them Although therefore by Name and in expresse termes we pray here but for the things onely which may bee had here yet by consequent and as in their causes wee pray also for the things which shall be had hereafter For the Graces which are the causes preceding now the blessings which are the effects will necessarily follow that is remission of sinnes and obedience to his Will and an uniting to Christ by the comming of his Kingdome being here obtayned the resurrection of our bodies and the life everlasting and the blessed vision of God will undoubtedly succeed Wee therefore pray onely that all impediments of our owne defects may bee removed and that all graces necessary may be supplyed and for the rest we rest our selves upon God and Fayth seemes here to put us over to hope for we have no more petitions to make but the next thing that followes is that of the Martyr Stephen concerning our eternall life In manus tuas Domine Commendo spiritum meum concerning the resurrection of our bodies that of the Prophet David My stesh shall rest in hope For having the promise of his word and the truth of his promise and the infallibility of his truth for our security though we have not done with Fayth yet wee have now more to doe with hope and thorough fayth are made confident to say in hope I know that my Redeemer liveth and though wormes destroy this body yet I shall see God in my â—esh For we thorough the spirit wayte for the hope of righteousnesse thorough fayth and that being justified by his grace wee shall bee made heires according to our hope of everlasting life But yet at last if it be exacted of this prayer that it must of necessity include also the blessings of