for thee â—â—on being a Giant in these matters or if that offend a Gamaliel in things Divine or to peruse them with judgment and brotherly-Kindnesse which is done when thou forgives us our trespasses that is correct the Printers faults with thy Pen for he Errs and the Authors with thy love for he also is a Man Farewel The Author to his Pater Noster AWake my drowsie Sheets arise you Sons of Day Accost with peace run you to the High-way Plead not for Faction Strife Debate but rather Entice to Concord Peace that all my say OUR Father Unmask this Gypsie Earth that doating Man May loath her Blacknesse and in loathing scan Her Comforts shortnesse see her paths un-even Next love respects the things which are in HEAVEN Th'exchange-bells rings to Truck for Trade they run Pride here Lust there Attempts to overcome He walks as Herod Centers in Vulgar Fame Teach them Hosan ' to sing in Hallowed be THY NAME Sad Rueful Projects Harrasseth the Mind Of plodding Earthlings God and Christ pretend Them boldly check be pressing nor be dumb They Seek their own Forgets THY KINGDOM come Some Talk but Do not Some Do neither well Unfold the Cheat endure their Anger Fell The Edger Disputant at last wants Breath And then perswade him to THY WILL be done in Earth The Crooked and Vntoward Rules men take 〈◊〉 Measures by For Glories Crown forsake Move not for Pin-sleev'd Faith be driven By neither side But do As it is DONE in Heaven A narrow Heart 's a plague an idle Hand 's accurs'd A doubting Prayer's unheard a Nabal's Heart shall burst Ply you your Plough I 'l say to it God speed That 's move to Work Then pray GIVE us our daily BREAD Much God bestow's what Man receives is lent him And what Man cancells God scores out at Reckoning Review the Bill Pardon ere you be Call'd for Teaching FORGIVE our debts as we FORGIVE our debtor Destroying Grins hath Hells black Master found T' ensnare poor foolish Man But Grace hath Bound His fiercer Hands And to avoid Seduction Religious Care doth sense LEAD'S not into TEMPTATION Sin lyes at Door our Eyes are Bent upon It Our Hearts respect It yet our Death is in It Nor Power have we t'ward Hands Tongues or Devil Despond not though Pray But DELIVER us from evil As Subjects besecure if Foyl'd yet Conflict on While Trump of Glory sounds For THINE is the KINGDOM Fear not to Prosper watch the Praying Hour Lift up your Eyes when saint Receive THE POWER Of Conquering Triumph promis'd the Heavenly Livâ—â— The Humble Saint That is The GLORY for ever That â—nowledge of your Rules prove no Mans Baine â—erswade the World with me to Say AMEN PATER NOSTER OUR FATHER OR The Lords Prayer explained c. MATTH VI. IX After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever Amen AS the Sacrifices in the Jewish Temple did in general signifie Christ and the Christians duty so those called the daily ones in the opinion of Divines did intimate the indispensible duty of prayer and praise in which a believer is to be daily because continually exercised every morning and every evening one Lamb at the least was to be offered and the time of that Sacrifice under and in the Gospel is called the hour of prayer which Peter and Iohn and Cornelius observed and about that time also was the vail of the Temple rent a symbole of the abolishment of all Jewish rites and of that future confidence which all Nations might have in their immediat access unto God in which the believers delight and the penitents comfort hath since stood which made our Saviours Disciples desire to be instructed in that duty by their Master and are advised not to go to Ierusalem but look upward where ever they be and say Our Father c. And what he said to them in private he said here publickly to the multitude After this manner pray ye Our Father which art in heaven c. Purposing to enter upon a discovery of some of those grand truths folded up in the Lords Prayer It may prove advantagious to imitate men in the opening of a curious Cabinet first view the carved out-work and then the particular excellencies of each single Drawer and therefore it is proper to speak of Prayer in general which shall open our understandings the more prosperously to apprehend the fecundity and special rarities locked up in the Lords Prayer in particular In pursuing of which design we shall in these following Sections consider 1. what Prayer is and its being 2. Its effects and concomitants 3. Its obstacles and hinderances 4. It s duty and necessity 5. It s root and tryal SECT I. THe object or person prayed unto altering the nature of a prayer hath induced the learned to frame a distinction betwixt a civil and a religious one the first being that by which in courtesie something from our neighbour is demanded as Abrahams servant of Rebekah saying Let me I pray thee drink a little water of thy pitcher whereas the latter is the devout intreaty of a religious soul for attaining of grace and mercy from God in his heavenly designs and undertakings which from Authors hath received several definitions It is called a Religious Invocation of God by which we ask necessary good things for soul or body and deprecats the contrary judgments thus Abraham prayed for Sodom Moses for Israels sin and David against Sauls punishment It is said to be a religious exercise proper to rational creatures by which they reverence God as their Superiour and owns him to be the fountain of all their good therefore it is truly said of an Ancient that in many things men differs from the Angels as in Nature Wisdom Knowledge yet in calling upon God and speaking to him in duty there is no diversity at all so that Prayer separats us from bruits and unites us to the holy Angels It is known that Christ is said to pray yet it is also to be understood that he doth it according to his Humane Nature in which respect he hath a superiour and though the Spirit be said to pray yet it is by a Trope because he helps us to pray and aids men in uttering their desires But when the Beasts and Fowls are said to cry unto God it is not to be imagined they pray but in a very improper as well as in a large sense that duty being peculiar to Angels and men and the man who doth it not seems not to be reasonable being in that particular more ignorant
other fond reformations aimed at in this Age rich Amen was reduced to a beggerly So be it when yet there was as great difference betwixt them as between the garments of Tamar the harlot whom Iudah defiled and the Virgin-like apparel of Tamar the Princess whom Ammon ravished It is the only Hebrew word in this Prayer and not interpreted by our Saviour nor the Evangelist nec Graecus interpres neither durst the Latine nor Greek Interpreters translate it lest it should be contemned by being made naked since no Language can express its full sense whereof almost all Nations as they say Jesus Christ though Originally Greek and Hebrew sayes Amen as sufficiently understood Is is an oath that what you pray for is your hearts desire it is a wish that what you pray for may be your portion it is your assent that what you hear prayed for it your judgment and therefore in Amen we wish swear believe that the Prayer for forgiving sins of deliverance from evil of giving daily bread is from the power and goodness of your Father and that the Kingdom of his glory and grace is to be advanced by the same power and when by it you are brought to do his will you resolve to hallow his Name in the first and give him the glory in all for ever through Christ who is the Amen and therefore when you pray mind Heaven with Moses let all the people with you say Amen And I say To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven c. HAving viewed at a distance the out-works and general form of Prayer it is now seasonable to enter in and behold the special rule of Prayer and the several parts of that called the Lords Prayer unto which the unseasonable and cloudy weather that may be both felt and seen in the Firmament of our Church urgeth our meditation having visibly as once in Egypt in it showres of hail and fire mingled with the hail hence prudentially we are enforced both to make more haste to it and carry longer in it It is called the Lords Prayer because by our Lord composed in this expression After this manner pray ye and by him also imposed in this Precept when ye pray say Our Father c. and to difference it from the Prayers of other holy men as of Moses David Asaph Heman from which it is as really diversifi'd as a week day from the Sabbath for though the Spirit of God made both yet the Holy Ghost hath eminently sanctified and commanded us in Prayer to remember it in this Mandat When ye pray say Our Father c. We have by our Saviour a living and new way a new Command it was thought also by his inscrutable wisdom fit to give us a new Prayer as new Wine for our new Bottles Pray after this manner As the Temple of old so this Gospel-structure consists of three parts 1. a porch or gate which may be called Beautiful in the words of the Preface Our Father which art in Heaven 2. A holy place consisting of the several Petitions in the Body of the Prayer as Hallowed by thy Name Thy Kingdom come c. In which the lights of the Lamps lead us orderly from one Petition to another from wherein his Kingdom is concerned to that in which our obeying the Laws of that Kingdom is related in Thy will be done by which we see the Table of the Shew our necessary bread whence we go forward to the brazen Altar whereon we lay our sin-offering in Forgive us our debts c. and having sanctified our selves as Priests we ascend to the third Part the Holy of Holies For thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory for ever at the end of which or rather the head we have the glory of the Lord in a cloud in this word Amen filling it self and the whole house with the light thereof Of the Preface then next of the Petitions and lastly of the Conclusion let us treat CHAP. I. Our Father which art in Heaven IN these words we have goodness Our Father next greatness which art in Heaven They are the head of the Christians Prayer and like that of the Spouse it is as the most fine Gold and weighs thus much that we should be so circumspect in our walking and living upon earth as to be accounted worthy to posses our Parents Inheritance in Heaven unto whom we pray whence ariseth those duties of lifting up of the heart of the voice of the soul of the eyes unto God They have also in them the Person we pray unto Father the relation we pray under Our Father the place we pray unto which art in Heaven all ushering-in the several Petitions Our Saviour more boni Oratoris as an Orator here patterns and becomes a Patron unto goodly Prefaces whereby our Petitions are proposed with greater gracefulness and sweetness and what shall more readily procure affection than Praise and Praise is placed upon the Porch of this Prayer in that our Lord will have us begin to beg no otherwayes then by calling the great God our Father insinuating praise and love which rule had the Gadarens observed they had not so prophanely besought Christ his Son to have departed from their coasts To have our Prayers quadrat and conform to this holy Preface We shall discover 1. What lyeth couched under this Name Father 2. What reasons might induce our Saviour to give him that Name 3. The special excellencies by which most eminently he merits that Name In beholding the first both thee and I Reader are to behold What astonisheth Angels What makes the Heavens to wonder and the Earth to tremble which flesh cannot express And I said A great Preacher dare no utter yet dare not be silent The Lord grant that I may speak and you may hear this great thing viz. Gods giving himself to the Earth and we our selves to Heaven Both which is granted to be done in these words Our Father which art in Heaven Our Father c. THis Name Father is as the Angels name Secret and wonderful yet with Moses we shall view its back-parts And first of all we may perceive the whole Trinity in nature For the Lord God is a Father God the Son is a Father God the holy Ghost is a Father Or without errour we may understand the first person of the Deity in order sometime called the Father of Rain of Iesus Christ and again the Father of Grace the first having in it some vestigia of his power the second being the express image of his person the third the similitude of his nature and holiness And to him we may cry as to the first person with David Be merciful unto me O God be merciful unto me and also in the same phrase Father We may call to
with contemplating of Earth This so pray ye to shew it once more renders Heaven the object of our eye and therefore of our heart to be looking to Heaven and pointing to the Earth with the Roman Senator is to become sharers of his deserved scorn and yet how many are there while Heaven is in their mouth flesh fish or ships are in their heart Acting too truly what in the Fable is said of the Wolf when at School for learning to spel Pa-ter Father but being by his Master ordered to put them together in stead of Father said Agnus Lamb thinking on his prey An userer at the same time made the like proficiency and in place of Fa-ther said Pecunia Money But let not this be among you he is in Heaven and hath his eye-lids trying the children of men not but that he is every where but in Prayer he is by design said to be in Heaven that our hearts and minds may be lifted up to the excellency of his dignity and greatness having all things naked and open before him and therefore thy hypocrisie is apparent thy in-side being naked 4. That Prayer is to be quickned by confideing in the All sufficiency of God to give what is asked whether things of Heaven or of Earth By the Heavens and influences therefrom is Earth and Sea sustained he is in Heaven therefore in the Air upon the great Waters And because he can order all for his peoples good we are not to despond and doubt of his soveraignty but let our necessities be known whether for the Wine-press or for the light of the Sun or for the Cattel upon a thousand hills fish in the Sea Fowls of the Air Angels in Heaven or mercy from his bosome for his Son we need not doubt redressing He is in Heaven and thence he gave horns to the Bull hoofs to the Horse teeth to the Lyon finns to the Fish wings to the Bird scent to the Dog motion to the Air coolness to the Water heat to the Fire light to the Sun chain to the Devils strength to the Angels his Image and his Son to man what therefore should make the humble Orator to pray sorrowing as those without hope O thou of little faith wherefore dost thou doubt He is Almighty God walk pray before him and be perfect be confident 5. That Prayer is continually to be qualified with earnest considerations tending to the honour of God while we are upon Earth It is a dishonour for a Prince to have suits made in his presence-Chamber not adequat to the dignity of that room To ask of thy Father in Heaven meat money or cloaths to debauch with the glutton to swill with the drunkard entice with the stallion is a reproach unto his Majesty ask things fit for Heaven and do things like Heaven that it may be known thy Father is in Heaven that is in thee as some expound these words saying Illi sunt Coeli These are Heaven in whom there is Faith Gravity Continency Knowledge and a heavenly life Fulgentius while young had frequently these thoughts fluctuating in his breast Cur sine spe c. Why do I live on Earth without the hopps of Heaven what profit shall the world at last bring me if we love to be merry is it not better to have a good conscience and how much better do they rejoyce that fear nothing but sin and studie but how to keep the Law c. Let us pray for these or the like matters as for the avoiding of judgments for they are revealed against all unrighteous men from Heaven or for procuring of grace for that becomes Heaven And all weighty matters bearing equality with Heaven View the whole fabrick of the Lords Prayer and there is nothing can be accounted trivial or base in it the forgiving of sins deliverance from evil the bread of our necessity the fulfilling of his will the advancement of his kingdom are substantial and solid purposes so is the request that 's first because the chief end of all for the hallowing of the Name of God which being the first Petition as impatient of any longer delay we put a closure to the Preface Our Father which art in Heaven CHAP. II. Hallowed be thy Name THis is the first part of the holy place which our eyes are invited to behold I say invited for otherwise its dazling might not only amaze us but utterly darken those Casements of the soul those balls of light our bodily eyes our souls intelligence What some have observed of all the Petitions may be attested of this one it being 1. short 2. full or comprehensive where by the way their arrogancy may be detected whose popularity made them in publick give this Prayer correctior emendatior abridged or enlarged to the people as their emptiness or vanity gave them occasion or eloqution Let thy Kingdom come in our dayes cryed one Lord lead us not into temptation cryed another equally absurd yet excusable because it might be from ignorance in regard of them whose singularity and pretended holiness ascended the chair and passed an Act of Sequestration upon the Prayer it self discharging it in the Church so far as they could by their total ommission of it or stigmatizing them who used it but for all their eminencies the Lords Prayer is sacred and verily verily where ever the Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached that Prayer that he hath made shall be used for a memorial of him The Petitions like the Precepts of the Law are divided between God and man those aspecting God are first placed as Hallowed be thy Name c. those respecting man then follow as give us our daily bread so that hallowed be thy Name is the first Petition of the first Table in this Law concerning Prayer so pray ye because of which it is first to be considered It shall not be much here debated whether there be six or seven Petitions the Ancients are generally for seven so are the Romish Interpreters and some also of the reâ—ormed The number seven was by the Hebrews called numerus juramenti because Abraham in swearing to Abimelech took seven Lambs for a testimony by others it is called numerus ultionis the number of revenge for he that killed Cain vengeance should be taken on him seven fold By others numerus libertatis the number of liberty the Hebrew servant being liberat the seventh year By others numerus purificationis because the Leper was to be tryed by seven dayes and Naman washed seven times Hence some call it numerus Sacer the holy number God rested the seventh day Iericho was taken the seventh day Christ slept in the grave the seventh day Enos the seventh from Adam was translated We have seven Lamps in Zechariah seven Trumpets and seven Seals in the Revelation and David praised seven times in the day and this hath had so great veneration in
PATER NOSTER OUR FATHER OR The Lord's Prayer explained The Sense thereof and Duties therein from Scripture History and Fathers Methodically cleared and Succinctly opened at EDINBURGH BY Will Annand M. A. one of the Ministers of that City late of Univers Coll. OXON LUKE XI II. And he said unto them when ye pray say OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN August ad Prob. Cap. 10. Absit enim ab Oratione multa locutio sed non desit multa Precatio si servens perseverat intentio Edinburgh Printed by George Swintoun and Iames Glen and are to be sold at their Shops in the Parliament-yard Anno Dom. 1670. To the Right Worshipful Sir ANDREW RAMSAY of Abbots-hall Knight Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh c. My Lord BOoks and Mapps of Navigation represent a long tract of Rocks in the Eastern Seas called the Pater Nosters they putting the Pilot to his prayers I here present a gift of the same name for the same end but differing in the moving cause there being here no hazard but security in bearing up and good Anchorage yea the bearing off from what is here offered in our late times is to be feared was one great cause why so many made shipwrack first of faith next of a good conscience conceiting themselves able to make way against and weather-out the Rule So pray ye And when ye pray say yet harbour in the Haven of bliss by other gales then those from Heaven which was foreseen nay foretold by a Poet then almost because not in this their own who advising for the use of the Lords Prayer in his Vox Pacifica hinteth at that Malady thus Lest that which might of bliss a means have been A means become of letting curses in I concluded to have published these sheets without designation of a Patron Dedications being now so customary that they are near to be interpreted vanity yet reflecting that at least with Divines they are no younger then St. Luke and that Charity and Candor are as cold as were the nights in which most of them were composed it was deemed rudenesse to suffer this Stripling to travel without some recommendation to some excellent Theophilus were it but for one nights lodging for I trust he is better bred then to be troublesome After which resolve let me declare it your Lordship had no Rival your Goodness Care Industry in your House Office and Authority to about and for the Ministry of this City in general and to my self in particular encouraging me and promising a courteous acceptation and enforcing upon me this Epistle so much the more that by many it is accounted a vice reverently to mention the name of a Loyal Levite whereas your Lordship more God-like will Advocat their cause Upon which it was judged disobedience against the Law and temerity against natural affection to address my Pater Noster to any save to your Lordship as a common Father of my Brethren for whose settlement as at first you were a Patron so still continueth to be and that in Solidum Your wonted affablility emboldens to crave protection for this little one under your Roof and Patronage where vertuously disposed if otherwise found faulty let it be corrected in judgment but not in wrath so shall its Parent be more encouraged to joyn in the hearty Antiphonies of this ancient and honourable Cities Ministery for your Lordships prosperity and happinesse joyntly with your Brethren the Baliffs and Councellours adding this as mine own Hymn that our Father which is in Heaven may assure you all of his Kingdom Power and Glory for ever Amen which shall industriously be pleaded-for at the Throne of Grace by My Lord From my Study Iune 15. 1670. Your Lordships Son and Servant in the Lord Iesus WILL. ANNAND TO THE READER IN the composing of these Sermons there were imitated two famous Preachers viz. Solomon and Christ because of the first sordid irreverent and unseemly expressions the Rhetorick of too many were studiously avoided being enâ—moured not so much with plainnesse as to conclude nothing such but when both Charity and Divinity must be strained yea rack'd and vehemently squeezed to strain the position and offer it for usefulnesse With the second the people is not spoken unto without a parable not to darken but enlighten the discourse and indeed since I knew the right hand from the left in Pulpit-affairs such methods of explication were approved yea much improved by that comparison of a reverend Divine and Historian lately fallen asleep attesting that reasons are the Pillars of the Fabrick of a Sermon but similitudes give the best lights the Parable of the Virgins of the Talents of the History of Siloams Tower discovers the duty of watchfulnesse charity and self-condemning most emphatically and heats the soul in personal application servidly With St. Matthew al 's for the most part I shew where it is written for if I but light my Candle at anothers Torch or borrow one beam from anothers Wood or a rough Stone from anothers Quarry for perfecting my building notwithstanding of polishing and carving in gratitude to my Benefactor his name is insculped yea if from a teeming word my fancy be so raised that with the Lark it soar may be higher then my Author attempted yet as far as my small notes could allow me I go not out of sight untill it be known whence that word came Toilsome I confess was this search unto me but if it prove profitable to any one I have sufficiency of reward To shew that importunity of friends and pressings of my Hearers occasioned the Pressing of these Papers or that my self was pressed untill I yeelded their publication were to cause all intelligent to smile that complement not to say rant being now so threed-bare that its deformity I had almost writ vanity is beheld with scorn The true cause of my publishing was this viz. that I found no Act of Parliament discharging me to scrible and that my solitary life created some hours of Melancholy especially in long nights the tediousnesse whereof I comfortably evited in blacking paper on several subjects and did really doat so much upon this my Pater Noster that pardon the boast I verily thought it might do the world as much good as half a score Books I have seâ—n withall finding few of our country write upon this Subject and of these few could never see one that Treatise of Mr. Wisharts excepted which came not to my hands untill I was within few leagues of shore To the Printer went I who it may be was of my mind and we agreed Yet for all this my papers sleep'd a full year by me and then growing bulk some not to say troublesome they were aired and dressed as thou Reader now sees them Thy humour I know not yet charity enforceth me not to conceit thee uncourteous or uncharitable but kind and Christian which will induce thee either to forbear reading 〈◊〉 papers altogether as unprofitable
his Law by prayer from the Spirit through Christ to the Father we believe and conefesse the three Persons of the God-head and by that submits and sets to our seal that God is true and the Articles of the Christian Faith to be glorious because or though mysterious Aurelius warring against the Germains was in hazard to have a great Roman Army destroyed and himself with it by reason of thirst for want of water after five dayes the Emperour was told that the Christians of whom he had a great number in his Army could obtain of their God what they pleased at the Emperour their Prince his request they kneeled in the midst of the Army then afflicted and wondering at this gesture and beholding the Enemy who had them as it were in a poâ—nd so prayed that to the honour and dignity of the Christian Religion there was not only a plentifull showre for themselves but hail thunder and rain to the dissipating of their Enemies to the admiration of the heathen evidencing thereby that the God of the Christians was Deus deorum and the Emperour named that Legion afterward the thundering Legion for perpetuating the memory of that miracle And search all the Records of Antiquity where there have been fervent and hearty prayers God hath in answering of them taken and gotten much glory to himself and Praise in the house of Prayer dayly waiteth for him upon that account 3. It restricteth Satan for it resisteth his Power that old Serpent is charmed and that evil spirit is made to depart by the musick of a penitent's complaint that Enemy is beat out of the field by these arrows of the Lords deliverance For 1. It strengthens Faith by Christs approach It was not so much Ioshua's spear as Moses prayer that discomfited the Amalekits if the cross be too heavy for the Christian if he call Christ will be sure to take the heaviest end ask and call and the promise Here I am shall be verified and again command thou me shall be expounded by which thy Faith being confirmed their needs no fear what hell can do against thee 2. It begets experience of the divine love by the Fathers condescendency God hath alwayes the largest morsel for the widest mouth and his hand is fullest to be emptied in his lap who calleth loudest for mercy for forgivenesse in which experience causeth hope that as deliverance hath come in six so there shall be help in the seventh trouble the most desperat danger the tenth wave but once more prayer is prevalent 3. In acquiring habits of lively utterance by assistance of the Spirit How forceible are right words flowing from such whose frequent practice from their youth hath made them to be acquainted with this excellent piece of Christian Armour Prayer Iobs accustomed Devotion being the object of the Devils envy by grace did so far corroborat it self that all hells malice made him but bless God with his mouth nearer the earth then before In short it made Satan certainly look black to hear David concluding from the rescue of a Lamb to the fall of Goliah despond not then of Satans recoyling when the sense of the Love of God by the long tract of glorious experience is shed abroad in thy soul O Christian That famous Fabius Maximus is said in his Child-hood so to exercise himself in Arms and Arts when young that in age after times he became excellent fortunat victorious and five times triumphed Let a man acquaint himself with God and he shall have peace for in this sense to him that hath shall be given and from him that hath not i. e. that useth not his Talent shall be taken from him even that which he hath It is not to be ommitted what is added by a venerable person that cum aliquid magnae virtutis incipere volumus c. In the acquiring of some singular and important mercy it is not to be once disputed that the just joining fasting unto Prayer shall not only receive but have the desired blesssings copiously from Gods hand transmitted to him SECT III. THe necessity of the continual performance of this duty of Prayer calls and invites us to give attendance to it at this time and it is sufficiently perceptible that there is a twofold tye binding believers to this exercise 1. In respect of God 2. In respect of themselves Our evincing its necessity upon the account of God is not to be so construed as if we suggested that the narrowness of his power or shallowness of his wisdom did indispensibly crave our words or our postures to signifie our desire of having supply for that were blasphemy against his power unto which there is nothing too hard But it s held needful by vertue of the Precepts of God whereby it is under the pain of damnation pressed all other means being as ineffectual for the attaining of a blessing as the Prophets staff for the remanding back the soul of the Shunamites child And the wrestling for a mercy without this may cause us with Iacob get a halting but never with Israel prevail with God To be particular Prayer is peremptorily required of the sons of men and must not be neglected upon the behalf of God For 1. His Precepts require Prayer As we are gratefully to laud him for things possessed so we are required to call for things desired And in Scripture these two are joyned together yea we are not only commanded to pray but recte desiderare to pray after this manner Give us this day our daily bread Forgive us our debts this day Lead us not into temptation this day but this day deliver us from evil c. Hence that of a Father Oratio justi est clavis Coeli Ascendit precatio descendit Dei miseratio Let Prayer go up Gods mercy shall come down Albeit the Earth be low and the Heavens high yet God hears the tongue of the complainer if there be in his breast a clean a tender conscience for as without the last he will not regard a Prayer so without a Prayer he hath not promised a gift 2. His judgments are denounced against the prayerless And because of these shall every one that is godly pray unto him For the wicked shall be turned into hell and all that forget God Such as invoke not therefore the protection of God uncover the roof of their habitation and expose their very Beds Cups Garments their Wardrobs to a curse and make that Prayer of the two zealous Prophets to receive full satisfaction Pour out thy wrath upon the Heathen and upon the Families that call not on thy Name where it is observed that wrath is desired to be poured out as out of a vessel fury being still to be dropped upon them as from a vial he may be angry at his sons and wrathful but pours out wrath only
of pleasure to which our prayers ascending are compared to pillars of perfume and they refresh the soul to Musick and that delights the ear to Noah's Dove that brought the Olive branch to Moses Rod that procured water in time of thirst to the Cloudy Pillar that directed Israel to Canaan to Sampsons Iaw-bone that slew the Philistines to Iacobs Ladder by which we exhilerat the Angels and ascend to their God and our God and to Davids Harp by which we make the evil spirit depart from us The famine in Canaan made Iacob send to Egypt for corn and that gave him tidings of his sons great honour and it revived the spirit of the old man that Ioseph was alive and in him he had the good of all the Land of Egypt before him So hath the Christian through Christ in Heaven and Prayer must be sent as a Messenger to return some of the fruits thereof that we die not 3. The suitableness of it upon all parts if you eye the Christians Head the Believers Lord the Souls Bridegroom the Churches Spouse Gods Son Salvations Captain the World 's Messiah Prayer is the only path he travelled in and therefore the road we ought to observe and the main tract in which the Chariot-wheels of our zealous desires ought to run and the sole coin to be told down when we take up mercy For when our Lord choosed his Apostles he prayed when he left his Apostles he prayed it is fit therefore when we pitch upon an enterprise to pray and having perfected our labour it is decent to make our requests known unto God with thanksgiving If you eye Satan the Brethrens accuser the Fleshes tempter the Chruches adversary the Souls deceiver Mans ensnarer Prayer is so suited to all of these that it breaks his snares detects his fallacies scatters his forces answers his arguments and by confession of sin pleading guilty and sueing for mercy stops the mouth of that accuser and puts that invisible foe by this impenetrable piece of Armour of all Prayer to a silence to a retreat to a soyl And the truth is Satan hath many stratagems traps and devices to charm the sinner to a security in his killing embraces and to withdraw a heart-broken creature from his God but among all these an utter neglect of or a prejudice against Prayer hath done him many and most high atchievements But this belongs to the next Section SECT IV. TO give an account particularly of the obstructions Satan and Flesh lays at the root of a structifying vigorous soul impeding its buding or sprouting forth towards Heaven in a fervent desire were a task as easie as numbering the Stars or exactly to reckon the sand upon the Sea shore yet walk along the Garden of thine own heart Reader and these following will be conspicuous among many others 1. Desponding or doubting of Gods freeness Therefore let us have faith justice and judgment being the habitation of Gods Throne may and doth make some tremble to aproach And if this alone be considered Who will not fear that King of Saints But since it is that mercy and truth go before his face we doubt because we have little faith by which there is assurance of good and not evil in our access to his presence mercy going before him and truth which promiseth that mercy succeeding that may cause emulation in each petition to be its first partaker There going before not only because promised to former Ages but to assure us who are now existent that untill mercy be neglected and truth questioned the Generation to come and this present may have confidence not to be condemned in the Throne of Judgement The Lord being good to all and his tender mercies being over all his works made a holy Bishop so highly press the duty of repentance that he was as is recorded reprehended by Satan as vilifying grace yet that good man thus answered the charge O miserabilis O miserable creature If thou shalt once defist from tempting man and repent thee of all thy wicked deeds I should trusting in the mercy of the Lord promise mercy and forgiveness unto thee What ever O man be thy thoughts or doubts Know it is of the Lords mercy thou art not consumed Despair not therefore of his tender mercies but call and thou shalt not be destroyed imitate the Leper and thou shalt be confirmed He creyed and cry thou Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean In which words as in a glass thou mayst see the face of thy own prayer and beauty and deformity of thy affections Thou hast first his knowledge Lord next his patience If thou wilt next his faith thou canst his humility make clean 2. Ignorance of Gods condescendency therefore let us study Prouidence What dishonest shifts will not some brains sorge for obtaining a piece of bread upon the suppositions that their being mean makes them accounted as abjects Inferring that GOD sending the fruits of the Earth into another barn is a passing by them as unworthy of such morsels when yet God careth for the birds of the Air and they have from him their Harvest Seed-time and their Raiment Let such as so conclude suppose themselves to be as one of them they then shall learn that not a feather of their wing a hair of their head falls to the ground without his knowledge but being men they are better then many Sparrows Let not thy Age Poverty Family question his Providence for but for that how oft hadst thou been choaked in thy Drink stifled in thy Cradle Darkned in thy Eye overlaid by thy Nurse bruised in thy slips dismembred in thy Quarrels deformed in thy birth and damned in thy sin which put together Gods filling anothers house with good things argueth not his slighting of thine Nay hark thy great and immoderat desire to have such Trash possibly keeps them from thee Study therefore Providence and seek the Kingdom of Heavens righteousnesse and these things may be will be cast towards thee and if not be regardless of it they may be but burthensome and be content if thou hast thy food though not dainties and thy raiment though not gaudy Apparel with a Selah for a poor soul with a morsel of bread shall assoon arrive at Heaven though bare-foot as he who feasts with Belshazzer or rides in his Chariot with the Eunuch 3. Defect of Christian Vnity and oneness let us learn Amity Where strife and debate are intimates prayer and supplication will not lodge And it is to be feared in this divided Age that not only the horrid clamours of our Tavern-quarrels but our pretended religious cursings our inward sinful heart-turnings our zealous promoving of selfish opinions hath not only stocked the root of true holinesse that it cannot grow in some but hath grub'd it up in others and laid it above
ground withering being scorched with the suffocating heat of intestine supposed heavenly yet really hellish broils In spight of that Gospel-rule of Amity we can curse backbite accuse those that are of not only the same Countrey but of the same Faith with our selves believing in the Lord Jesus that they may be saved from hell which is below yet this is not a guard sufficient to blunt the edge of those deadly arrows even bitter words which from the bent bow of studied malice and the most exact aim of time probability and place is from the arm of prejudice caused to flee to the very whit to the very heart of them whom contrary to the character of a good man they love to malign Because they cannot have the Kingdom of God come according to their vitiated platforms prays not for its advance at all and because of that will pray for their daily bread that they may live to revenge conceited faults purposing never to forgive groaning under a surmised evil so heavily that God hath not nor shall not have any glory by its sending in regard they suffer not patiently nor soberly because they walk not charitably as the Primitive Christians did when they had really Heathens to be their persecuters at which time pro omni statu they prayed for all men How much better Raimundus who dwelt so much about and delighted so much in love that he answered all questions by it as whence he came from love Whither he was going to love c. O! let us desire that brotherly love might begin O! let us desire that brotherly love might begin and next study that it might continue I may say with one Iam saepe dixi fratres frequentius dicere debeo I have often said and must oftner attest let none defraud let none deceive himself he who hateth any one man in this world let him do for God what he pleaseth all is in vain For Paul did not lie when he professed though he gave his body to be burned it should profit him nothing if he wanted charity without which neither Alms nor Prayer doth avail For in Prayer we must observe the pattern in the Mount and say not my but Our Father which art in Heaven which as the rule of all Prayer is next to be enstated in your meditations SECT V. THe Precept being to pray after this manner we must eye our copy and he hath no eyes that seeth not or covers them that perceiveth not by this rule that we are to pray pertinently modestly briefly and Heavenly 1. Pertinently for matter Observe this Prayer and there is not only no superfluous word but each syllable beautifies and every Petition depends upon another First we ask for our Fathers glory in Hallowed be thy Name and then for our own salvation in Thy Kingdom come which shall come to our comfort when we do his will on earth as it is in heaven which we shall have strength to do when we have our daily bread and having been refreshed thereby there is a necessity of praying against sin past in Forgive us our trespasses and in regard the vessels of uncleanness will or may fill as soon as any other it is expedient to pray against sin to come in Lead us not into temptation which may avail much to deliver us from much evil and all this is a reasonable service because it is the Father we pray unto whose prerogative is the Kingdom that should come and the power by which we must expect it shall come for our delivery and therefore the glory should be his for applying all these things unto us Thus hath he shewed thee O man what is good nothing lawful nothing needful nothing honourable is here comitted More then these we should not ask and less then these we ought not to ask being to pray after this manner 2. Modestly for expression The word Fathers the phrase Kingdom have couched in them great mysteries the small expression bread comprehends many different things according to the supplicants place station and calling With a Souldier it will signifie victory with a Traveller safety with the weary rest with the feeble strength with a King Majesty with a Counsellour wisdom with the fruitful it will signify good children and with the barren it imports a fruitful womb Study then the meaning of the words first and the application of them unto thy case next and in the enlargements of thy soul let thy words be alwayes modest and moderat lest in asking abundance thou be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness Neither limit the Holy One of Israel by asking thus much or thus much now and then but be content with the portion given and satisfied with the quantity and quality thereof 3. Briefly for time Our Saviour in this form adviseth against two faults espied in the prayers of some viz. Hypocrisie and Verbosity and had Solomon been in our dayes and had heard the tedious length unto which some Zelotes had drawn their impertinent prayers and the vain repetitions with which they were filled with the vain bablings to which they were to a nauseating length extended to pass their other scandalous behaviour he had enlarged himself upon that advice Let thy words be few the obeying of which may prevent those heartless digressions wilde and idle discourse of such pretended extempore petitioners who were forced through emptiness to go backward and forward like Hounds at a loss and being word-bound knew not how to make an end Be not therefore as that babler Battus non-sensically reiterating the same words again and again unto whose practice in probability the Holy Ghost hath an excellent allusion discharging vain repetitions or more wording then matter requireth and therefore dischargeth an imitation of him in his loquacity Not but that the zealous may his heart not staggering or recoyling mount further that is nearer Heaven by extending his prayers the length of a winters night or Summers day as David or Christ did But the distinction betwixt privat and publick Prayer may inform the intelligent that this rule is necessary in requiring short and full petitions before others but with themselves they my use long yet ought to offer still hearty servent and pertinent supplications For when words perturb the spirit of man it is more than time to break off Sed doles animo c. the groanings of the soul making the more ehement cry as did the heart of Moses the lips of Hannah the blood of Abel 4. Heavenly-mindedness all along From the Dan to the Beersheba of this Prayer there is nothing minded but Heaven from Our Father to its Amen there is nothing as earthly suggested Our daily bread not being asked but as it relates to the doing of his will the coming of his Kingdom the hallowing of his Name of his Name on earth as it is in Heaven we begin at Heaven and end at glory by our Amen Among
abode which must be eyed in Prayer It is fit to notice this word Art which though darkly yet truly intimats Gods constancy or our Fathers immutability Others change their affection their opinion their scituation but the Lord changeth not and therefore we are not consumed Yet this is not objective to be understood as though he changed not things before him for that belongs to his free-will and can alter them as he pleaseth but in sensu composito he determining his will to one thing is unchangeable in that there being nothing that can perswade him to desist alter his purpose heighten his reason or remove his habitation he wanting the very shadow of changing his understanding being perfectly clear Queen Elizabeth her motto of England was semper eadem his is semper idem being still the same to day yesterday and for evermore This of old was expressed in his Name I AM THAT I AM Ehejeh Asher Ehejeh I shall be what I shall be referring to his will his nature his purposes his intentions his love his mercy his word his promises are everlasting and therefore is his Covenant called a Covenant of salt that is firm in it self and preserving others So that in Prayer to cut off all Satans discouragements we may competently be furnished with strength in questioning our inward part what is written in the Law how readest thou and finding there the expressions of everlasting kindness boldly concur to thy Saviours precept and say Our Father which art in Heaven Other fathers moving from and to other places from the Streets to their Tables thence to their beds whence may be they are shifted to their graves but this Father in Heaven abides the same for ever I AM WHAT I AM is like that which is which was and which is to come denoting both eternity and immutability and though St. Paul said once I am what I am yet as Kings their coin he circumscribes his performances Gratia Dei by the grace of God Cyrus dying endeavoured a diversion to his childrens sorrow and his friends malady in discoursing about unity and vertue and the gods and closed his eyes commanding that none should behold his soul-less body but that the Persians being invited to his Sepulchre all should rejoice that Cyrus was with the gods and secured for ever against suffering of any evil May not the Christian concluding from the paternal relation God beareth unto him secure his soul from all damping considerations which can arise from his perplexed heart upon the entertaining thoughts respecting Gods immutability and sublimity he being in heaven eternally ruling and unchangeably abiding to award entanglements Father gives of it self significant and apt succours to virtuat the practice of Prayer but a more manifest vigour is acquired when this qui es which art is reflected upon Which expression being read backward maketh se hinting his being his immutable being his unchangeable being is altogether of himself whence the supplicant may irrefragably infer that though he hath changed possibly to sin since the last Prayer yet God is not altered and therefore may be addressed unto for pardon vigorously in assurance It is to be noted that the word art is not expressed in the Original but implyed only yet it is manifest that it is not idle in the Translation but operats upon the duty of Prayer 1. Shewing Gods presence in it and therefore our awe It is used of them only who are before us for of the absent we say not quiâ—es which art but which is And therefore if the women of Corinth were to be covered because of the Angels how much more ought all to have a holy modesty when they call upon God lest eying him too sawcily he make ready his arrows against our faces the visible seat of our shameful impudence Take heed therefore not only to thy foot but to thy knee thy tongue thy face thine eye when thou enterest into the house of God or to thine own prayer-house lest thou be accounted hasty sawcy and malapert by asking of him wherewith to nourish thy lust Thou mayst offend in thy lofty looking with the Pharisee much speaking with the Heathen much repeating with Battus for one saith Battology is inarticulata vox like the talk of young children Study thou therefore to be manly and pray with understanding 2. Our confidence in it and therefore let us be open in Prayer The Sun never fails for all the light he transmits unto the world the Sea is not diminished notwithstanding the moisture it affords Gods Store-house will not empty though he enrich the world with his substance while therefore thou art with him in thy house or closet ask enough ask that thy joy may be full Illi enim 〈◊〉 exaudiri merentur he is heard aâ—â—â—ably of God who being heated with 〈◊〉 zeal asks and doth what good possibâ—â—â—y is within the sphear of his activity Ask therefore and ask again and ask more still capacitating for more good that thy own joy and the joy in others may yet be more full Et ne demittas eum and let not him go untill by love thy soul be joyned unto him which shall corroborat and yet more accumulat thy joy Alexander ordered his Treasurer to give Anaxagoras as much treasure as he pleased to demand he asked a hundred Talents each Talent valued 375 pound sterling at which the Treasurer wondering Alexander gladned saying Recte facit He doth as he ought knowing he hath a friend who can and will give him so much Be not sparing in thy requests but beg the utmost for the discharging of all thy debts the assurance of all his possessions thy Father can do it thy King will do it the glory of Christ nor of the Angels nor of the Saints being not all diminished by thy accession to those heavenly Mansions 3. Our chearfulness therefore let us not be disheartned in Prayer That God should come and stand before us with sealed pardons ought to conciliat us to all heavenly exercises but more singularly to this personal treaty to this intercourse of Prayer wherein we can look God in the face and he behold our tears when both are beyond the possibility of other Fathers What could Amittai have done for his beloved Ionah when in the Whales belly yet this Pater in Coelis God in heaven delivered him from all his distresses It is to be noted that though God be often in Scripture said to repent which implyes a change of and mutation in mind yet it is to be understood rei mutatio not Dei A change there was in the Ninivites first and after in God in the language of men that not being executed which was threatned we call it repentance when God repreived their destruction for to speak properly God hath in himself no umbrage of a change but as the Stars of Heaven
are free from turbulency of the Airs mutations so is their Maker from mans tumultuous conceptions his not their abode being in Heaven In Heaven that is in the Saints saith a Father by a harmless mistake concluding that because wicked men may and are termed Earth so just men may be designed by Heaven they being the Temples of God which Heaven is also said to be yet not in a Figure but in a proper sense is he said to be in Heaven as a King is said to be in his Court that being the most glorious ample magnificent part of the created world discovering to us power quietness observance in God when we are at Prayer 1 His power to grant what we ask This word in Heaven prevents any harsh constructions flesh could make of his delay in answering our suits by letting the greatest infidel know since he can rule and doth reside in Heaven he hath power authority omnipotency to avert from us what ever we fear and bequeath unto us what ever we demand being there as a Father in his Cellar as a parent in his Buttry as a King in his Exchequer as a Prince in his Council as a Merchant in his Counting-house ready to perform the requests made by us proper to those offices There can none ascend thither to assist him in his designs he there stands in awe of none to impede him in his purposes we need not say if thou canst do any thing help us for there he hath done and will do whatsoever he pleaseth holding all under and in subjection laughing at those who obstinatly seek to make resistance against his dominion 2 His blessed quietness to hear us when we ask Heaven is remote from that noise and garboil with which our Earth and Sea and the inferior Regions are infestred It 's true it is compared to a Sea but it is of Chrystal solide bright and pure God is said to have two dwellings and they both evidence composure 1. the Heavens 2. the Humble In both which he is in so serene a Region that if he can be said to have any work it is to look down and see who seeks after him 3. Observance where ever we ask As Heaven is above us so are we thankfully to acknowledge that our prayers be not hindered neither by the roof of the house nor space of the Air nor the thicknesse of the clouds from appearing before God and from being under his eye The pilgrimages of Rome are but pilgrimages and their pennances not very comfortable since we are by precept and example to lift up our eyes to the hills whence our help must come and disdaining such fruitless wandrings let us look up to Heaven which the Moralist had some sense of when he protested his knowledge that the whole world was his Countrey the gods governing above him and about him censuring that is judging his words and actions Put God in the place of gods the saying is divine and the practice thereof in every place will make us holy Again Pray after this manner Our Father which art in heaven Enforceth our souls to collect that in Prayer God expects from us Pureness Zealousness Sadness Reverence 1. Pureness of soul in not minding the Earth is scarce good enough for us to look upon or think upon at any time but in prayer it ought to appear singularly despicable our appetite ought to be where our eyes are fixed and they by this precept are extended toward heaven at which they ought to be intensely viewing that it may be demonstrated our affections are above 2. Zealousness of Spirit for the things of Heaven It supposeth the eye thitherward and implyeth the heart to be already in love with glory Man having one Muscle more then any other Creature by which he can and doth look directly upward ought to be as a Pully fixed in his soul to draw it Heaven-ward for the attainment of heavenly bless for which even nature intimats a great respect in affording man proper Organs to behold it that beholding may cause wondring and wondring may effectuat a desire to possess Do not you therefore value or cleave to the Earth having found a Father which is in Heaven 3. Sadness of heart for being out of Heaven The fiâ—st and second Petitions irreâ—ragably clear this to have been in our Lords eye Hallowed be thy Name bemoaning the profaning thereof by wicked men and let thy kingdom come regrating the delay thereof from good men A child in a ditch will cry for help and a Saint in the pit will call for deliverance out of heaven the possession whereof being enjoyed by the glorified Angels Earth beholding him but as a stranger passionatly invits him to beg its festination or appearance There is Heaven where there is no sin where no wickedness is wrought where death is not felt saith one pointing toward Heaven and say thou because of that Thy Kingdom come 4. Reverence of the whole man It is said of holy Basil that in sancta sanctorum non semel quotannis sed quotidie ingrediens appearing before the Lord in the holy of holys he used it not only once in but every day of the year Imitating Moses Aaron Ioshua Elias Iohn the Baptist Paul c. whose respectful and religious life whose awful and religious reverence unto God in Prayer hath produced and obtained much mercy for themselves and revoked many menaceing Edicts against offenders There are two vices especially make our prayers not only wearisome to our selves but odious to God 1. Nimia trepidatio Much fearfulness 2. Nimia oscitatio Much boldness The soul when too much dejected with the dreadful apprehensions of incensed wrath by sorestalled imagination the fancy for reiterated offences only representing hell is curbed by this Phrase Our Father And when self-confidence makes us more daring in our behaviour being stout before God projecting rather how to be homely not to say clownishly familiar then how to be holy or savingly sprinkled we are chastised by this expression which art in Heaven that making us serve with fear and rejoice with trembling not presuming upon any works of our own but solely depending upon Christs merits the only golden Vesture wherein we shall be accepted Our Father which art in Heaven OF all that â—eap of Accidents by which one thing is distinguished from another God can and is only differenced by his countrey and his name two remarks communicable to none are here designed to guide us in our addresses to him All Translations read it Heavens the Hebrews for Heaven having no singular number In the first Language here it is thought to be denominated from its clearness to be seen others will have it so called from its betokening a mark bound or limit Coelum is derived by some from Covering others from Engraving because of the lustre of those Stars that seem
made St. Paul to groan earnestly and ought to urge upon us a proportionable zeal to inherit that house made without hands and to behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us which saith one affords unitly three acts videre amare laudare Beholding Loving Praising God and how should grief be there they entering when into it into joy having joy above them in God and his Christ joy about them in the Saints and Angels and joy within them because of all and therefore in his Name shall they rejoice all the day and in his righteousness shall they be exalted 4. There is safety to remove our fearingâ— All the splendor of this world being but like Nebuchadnezzars image having heads of gold breasts of silver yet standing upon seet of clay prognosticks dissolution and points it shall have an end Iob even in plenty when on earth seared and foresaw poverty And was not Fortune fancied by such as created gods represented standing upon a round ball shewing aptitude to motion Hath not the most Christian King a Cross upon his Golden Crown and the great Mahumetan glories in a half Moon which more equally inferrs to us a diminishing of his greatness then to himself justly it portends a growing of his power The greatest Crown may be made to â—otter by its own guard but to our Fathers City there comes none but detesters of such baseness yea they are uncapable of temptations thereunto Not to speak of the Devil though even of him some are in as great fear as one was of Hercules who hearing of his heroick atchievments did hide himself in a Cave for fear lest he should see him but spying him peeping through curiosity at first view died in a fright I say to pass Saâ—an there is no thief can there break through and steal no fear of evil in their thoughts no snare in their walk no scandal in their eye no flesh to beguile nor world to allure but all in perfect peace that is peace peace 5. There is largeness to take away our complaining The greatest Kingdom here is but a spot when compared to the whole circumference of the Mapp and it may be our portion in that Kingdom is not in the Cart at all which makes men look not to say leap over hedges that with conveniency field may be joyned to field but this Kingdom of our Fathers is spacious and the most enlarged soul hath so much elbow-room that the extasies of his Spirit are fixed in his possessions and the highest rapture he is transported unto makes him not grudge the glorious lustre of his rich because Sainted Comrade In our Fathers house are many mansions wherein the soul is satisfied being in the likeness of God For if beauty be pleasing they shine as the Sun doth strength content them they shall run and not be weary walk and not be faint doth royalty affect them they are crowned Kings if satiety please them they inherit all things Solomon shall not then have only wisdom nor Abraham obedience nor Sampson strength no Phineas zeal but every one shall be endowed with all and imployed not in looking asquint upon each other but in eying praising and adoring God Lewis son to Charles King of Sicily contemplating these two Kingdoms together whereof we speak said Si regnum paternum considero If I consider my Fathers Kingdom how little is it how small is it in comparison of that which is upward into which the soul is admitted when a man once liâ—ts up himself This he spake who hardly saw the pavement of the palace of our heavenly Father but hazy weather the utmost coasts of that blessed Countrey Yet even that did and will operat to that degree as to put no estimat upon the â—airest flourish Earth can make at any time much more at Prayer Unto which there are these six things concurring 1. It s largeness 2. It s fairness 3. It s glory 4. It s cheerfulness 5. It s exercise continual praise 6. It s eternity enduring for ever Touching the influence this description hath upon Prayer to repeat the same things being profitable this account may be rendred 1. That prayer is immediatly to be directed to God in Heaven in opposition to all upon Earth The best Father is but Pater pulveris a Father of Dust and therefore not capable to be for us either a Sun or Shield It is also a direction to pray to none but such whom we are sure are in Heaven At Rome they are sainted whom yet save in common charity we know not but they may be damned However it be let us be put in mind to lift up our hearts to our Father Sursum corda who is in Heaven Have a care said a dying Reformer of the last Age my dear Children my Eusebi my Irene my Alethea that you love God the Father Little children saith Iohn keep your selves from idols Have a care that you pray to your Father saith Christ to all his Sons After this manner therefore pray ye 2. That Prayer is to be offered up with reverent and spiritual thoughts not likening God to any Creature upon Earth As we know not what is the likaness shape or form of the inhabitants of Heaven so are we utterly ignorant of the nature of God in it and therefore in Prayer to conceit him a man as some atheistically do with us or paint him like an old man as some superstitiously do who are of Rome is a discredit to his spiritual being To desire to see and then to worship is to worship without faith Abhor therefore such idolizing and pray against the impress of such absurd vanity the more absurd that there was no manner of similitude seen on the day the Lord spake in Horeb and though we see heaven daily yet can we give no account of its nature how much lesse of God who is within it Euclid being vexed with an impertinent Questionist about the gods tartly replyed Quae petis ignoro I am ignorant of these things but this I know that the gods have indignation at such curious searchers Sure we are those that confine the illimited God in the imaginary space of any thing visible or form his spirituality in the likenesse of what can be sancyed creat a god which cannot hear them and slight a God will be revenged upon them Besides these men make God an idol when they prepare not their hearts nor fit their affections for his service and again when all their religion is in the Temple and again when they invent wayes to worship God and follow their own imaginations To speak of committing or loving sin in secret or of hoording up wealth with trust or for-swearing themselves in judgement were large subjects yet by these God is made an idol 3. That Prayer is to be presented with sincere and pure affections not defiled
those above-mentioned we surcease from more particular designation Four brethren visiting one Pambus discoursed of some special duty wherein they had exercised themselves One had been much in fasting another had so slighted the world that he had nothing of it nor in it a third professed he had studied that eminent grace of charity the fourth had lived two and twenty years in obeying the will of another to whom Pambus gave the crown of superexcellent commendation in regard he had quitted his own will and served anothers whereas his companions had chosen what their own wills had beheld as delectable and though we sacrifice our selves by giving our bodies to be burned yet obedience is more acceptable with him with whem we have to do and more performable shall his will be to us if we reflect that he wills only what is profitable and all his will is profitable for us in that he wills them to us It is to be adverted that God wills only good let none therefore be harsh it is by accident if he wills ill the means that leads to glory be more lucidly discovered and most pathetically press'd Samuel wept for Saul and David harped for him though both knew God had left him It is a scandalous practice of some to wish either the means or tendencies towards hell or to presume at first Gods final determination and accordingly with delight wisheth not to say prayeth ill for their brethren It is the will of God that all Israel be saved let it not be thy will to have any Edomite damned left thou curse thy self He wills moreover the doing of his will by thy self also be not an hypocrite exclude not thy self from this service for it is not let thy will be done by these or these or by him but let thy will be done that every where throughout the earth Errour may be eradicated and Vertue planted and in worshipping of his Name Earth may not be different from Heaven which cannot be if thy own soul be not by thy self weeded from vice and his will performed to thy power It is Storied of religious Borgia of Guant that he said the furious Dog in hunting would be commanded from the Hare at the command or hollow of the Hunt-man yet man would not abandone his lusts his sinfull projects his fleshly and hellish designs at the voice call yea thunder of God But let it not be so with thee beating up thy soul to that degree of conformity that the very whisperings of Gods Spirit may command practice and be obeyed without recoyling that God may as it were wonder at thy servency as Christ did once at a womans humility with an O man great is thy obedience Yet in applying this Petition to our selves it is good to remember his advice who propofeth this three-sold rule in and about the will of God that his will if we be particular be done 1. With a si vis as the leper Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean Moses prayed for entrance into Candan but finding it not to be the will of God he desisted from that suite 2. There must be a sicut vis a deliverance any way he will David desired to behold both the Ark and its habitation but if it were otherwise determined in the Council of God he was content 3. There is a quando vis when he will he hath called upon thee and thy Fathers house oft but his offers and his invitations have been oft rejected and Iosephs brethren flighting the anguish of his soul when they told him made Ioseph unknown to them untill the second time they went down to Egypt Wait upon the good pleasure of God therefore There were two wayes in the opinion of Poets and Philosophers in which all men walked and was thus figured â— one leading to bliss the other to sorrow the one was called the way of vertue the other of vice Christianity in its Law shews the disparity betwixt a licentious and a regular life neither is there any other path for happinesse and glory then obedience obedience obedience Wait then upon God and the God of peace that brought again our Lord Iesus from the dead shall in his own good time make you perfect in every good work to do his will Thy will be done on Earth c. THE will is the souls hand for applying to its self such things as appear useful helpful and convenient but heavenly things as most necessary must be reached unto yea violently attracted left as disobedient to Law it be stigmatized as rebellion and restrained in its other attempts all other designs saving those of piety which have the promises of both Earth and Heaven proving abortive in themselves and destructive to the brain wherein they are bred for prevention whereof we must have the earth qualified with obedience by good will and our selves upon earth to have heavenly wills that we may glorifie God in the lowest earth as he is in the highest Heavens betwixt which that there be an holy conformity pray that his will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven On Earth a real limitation and properly a boundiary unto all supplications for all Saints yet of so large an extension as includes all that are afar off upon the Sea and signifies that of David God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us Selah That thy way may be known upon earth thy saving health among all Nations On Earth as it is in Heaven hath received different and various senses from the Ancients by Heaven some understanding the Saints and godly by Earth the sinner and unbeliever making the Petition this Let thy will be done by the wicked of the world as truly as sincerely as it is by the righteous and religious Again by Heaven is understood the Spirit and by Earth the flesh or body of man which is a servant to the law of sin and then the Petition signifieth this Let all the members of my body wherein sin dwells be made by thy power as easily induced to the obedience of thy will as is my spirit by which I serve the Law of God Further by Heaven may be understood the Church and by Earth the unbaptized multitude and then the Petition speaks Let all Atheists Iews Turks do thy will as it is done in the Congregations of those professing thy Name Two Fathers will have us by Earth to understand our enemies and that here we pray against their earthly-mindednesse which being removed they and we may live in heavenly concord confirming this position from the Apostles their not being called earth but the salt of the earth yea Non abhorret it is not absurd to understand saith one by Heaven our Lord Jesus Christ and by Earth the Church who as a wife is desired to be like the Spouse her Husband in
obedience There are that think by will peace is signied and then the prayer may be thus understood let the peace of God be on Earth as it is in Heaven Yet as correcting themselves or at least not resting in those wide Expositions it is agreed that sicut in Coelo as it is in Heaven imports our zeal for having such insused gifts that as none offends God in neglect of his will above so we so strengthned may be able and so sanctified may be qualified as never to be guilty of the contrary vice disobedience never respecting our own but alwayes his will It is also asserted that this Petition includes our behaviour in word and deed to be so modell'd as theirs are whose habitations are in Heaven adding that because of earth its being a mixed Kingdom where his will is often neglected it is the tenor of this request that never more Satans but his will be done only as it is in Heaven for this would be pondered and weighted that we pray not for the knowing but doing of his will Moreover the words are exponded to signifie our desire of and longing for that blessed union and conjunction of those different Families in Heaven and Earth that they beacted by the command of one Lord and guided with one will which ought to be his for it is THY will And in regard that much is done in earth through the wickednesse of the times the desire of the flesh the pleasure and terrour of the Devil we proportion our solicitations by applying our selves to the Throne of God that flesh may be subdued the wickednesse of the times reformed and Satan interrupted and that one will be in earth and Heaven viz. Gods Angels and Men the two last devoting themselves to the will of the first that God may be King over all the Earth And in this sense and to this meaning the generality of Interpreters both ancient and modern doth agree and subscribe It is noted that these words as it is in Heaven ought to be understood in the Petitions preceeding though here only expressed sensing the Prayer thus Hallowed be thy Name in Earth as it is in Heaven Thy Kingdom come in Earth as it is in Heaven and then Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven That as there is no life but what is from God so there may be no will but what shall flow from him The word Earth may be corrupted Hebrew that Language expressing it Eretz and the old Germains from which most of our Monosyllables come expressed it Artham from Em a Mother and Eretz the Earth that being like another Evah the Mother of us all and afterward they called it Ertham then Erd whence Earth a derivation more probable because more ancient then from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Era the Roman word Terra is deduced from Tero the Earth being broken and teared asunder for mans maintenance and for man must it be here understood the Holy Ghost by a holy Synecdoche taking a part for the whole man being born in it nursed by it and at last destined to return into it To passe by his earthy and fleshly lusts may and often is called Earth which is also called Arida dry Land and Humus moist Earth and Tellus the ground the word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from the fruitfulnesse and fertilty though it be such a condition as we find the Earth had not when we first heard of it being then Tohu Vabohu that is Informis Inanis without form and void but now being by sin corrupted in its holinesse and by transgression cursed with barrennesse we here request that men its inhabitants be renewed their wills sanctified and their hearts like good ground once again made fruitful by yeelding obedience unto God that earth it self may be blessed with fertilty and become well watered like the Paradise of God By Earth then understanding Men who are of it and in it and by it again understanding only living men we proceed applying this Petition to the rule So pray ye 1. Looking to man as earth in his formation or creation we are to pray for others If the multitude of sinful men in the old world merited through their earthlinesse wickednesse and malice to be termed Earth what now doth in this last age the multitude of the Nations deserve to be named by more appositly then Earth Earth Earth for whom our devtion must have wings being obliged to pray for them whom Peter preached unto viz. the Parthians Medes Elamits and the dwellers in Mesopotamia c. As also we are to embrace both the Indies in the arms of our brotherly charity that as the Inhabitants thereof bear the image of the earthly by the disobedience of one they may bear the image of the Heavenly Man by the obedience of another Earth of it self is naturally cold and dry and will not easily be brought from its natural shape Saul untill knocked down and nature until humbled will not say Lord what wilt thou have me to do It is the Lords voice in the Gospel must bring all into obedience and therefore Religion when we are on our knees suggests us to what Paul dreamed viz. that a poor Indian or a man of Macedonia stands before us saying Come over and help us that by your prayers we may be brought to the knowledge of the everlasting Covenant 2. Looking to man in his vocation and because that is upon earth he is to pray for himself It is wide yet pious note observed from that of the Psalmist from the end of the earth will I call unto thee for a terrae finibus clamat because living in the flesh he was absent from Christ and that being as earth he cryed and groaned with the Apostle for help being willing to be freed from that necessity of abiding in the body This is sure in going about our imployment from our house to the street from that as to an Exchange to buy and sell we are but as Servants to our Masters and must account to him how much of his will and how little of our own we have performed and professing our selves with Iames servants of God and of our Lord Iesus Christ intrusted with his Money in Purse his Goods in Shop his Commodities in the Ware-house his Garments in the Wardrob we ought daily to look into our Accounts and register our actings that at reckoning it may be sound we have done his will 3. Looking upon the Christian in his profession he lies if he be satisfied with earth with the Bird we take our meat from it making Heaven the Standart and measure of our doings not so stupified with earths Diapery or so much embased with the sensual pleasures thereof as not to make so much as our talking be unburnished with Celestial purity it being for this the Christian buys his Bible respect
affaires and they take up a great deal of time against our own wills that this must be done against the spring that this is fit for such a countrey and this is suitable for such a coast gives us no time to study the will of God As fishers have several baits for different fishes so the world hath variety of snares for its multitude of traders Demonaae when questioned if the world had a soul then if it was round With indignation answered you are very carefull about the world yet about your filthiness contracted in the world you are carelesse Here this man is settling his heir there that man bewailing his poor crop he casting up his accounts and a fourth is preparing for a forreign plantation because of all which there is such a bumming in the ears of man that with the maniest the sound of the words carrying the sense of the will of God hath not admittance into that gate of the soul the ear which if it had we should not be so far embased about the drudgery of this pelf but write with a holy man for direction and instruction about sub jugating our wills to the will of God and what we ought to do therefore It is desired on earth though to our sorrow we know it will never be there exactly done suppose our hearts for once holy ground yet the Rod of Moses I mean the Law when cast thereon becomes a Serpent and we are scarce able to endure the sight of the just holy and good commandment sin by it taking occasion to work in us all manner of concupiscence sed hic inter in ex parte oramus we pray for some measure of obedience here that we may be perfected in all obedience hereafter God crowning in heaven with perfection our sincere service performed on earth though through weaknesse imperfecte clamemus igitur in Coelum we therefore list up our voices to Heaven because under it there is nothing but labour sorrow vanity and vexation The earth hath its heats and colds according to the cloudiness of the air or distance of the Sun obedience likewise hath her colds and heats her workings and faintings her runings and stumblings and sometimes a great intermission of her spiritual pulse On earth Faith hath her distrusts Hope her doubts Charity her damps there this opinion raiseth Choler that doctrine provoketh Rancour he caufeth offence by an ill example these are scandalled through supposed mistakes whereby the Earth that is the best of its inhabitants is but a bad copy yea indeed no copy at all hence our Lord teacheth that not Earth but Heaven be the rule for doing our Fathers will Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven THE rule of our obedience is now before us and the mould in which all actions are to be cast for Heavens that is for Gods plaudit As it is in Heaven is a Doctrine of comparing qualities not substances it respects neither Earth nor Heaven Physically but Morally pressing a conformity in the inhabitants of either to the will of the Lord of both and grand Master of each It is also a doctrine of holinesse among Spirits that the souls of the righteous here Militant may in vertue and well-doing totally resign themselves in imitation of the Spirits Triumphant for the will of God that they may be found without fault before the Throne of God That their conversation may be in Heaven by contemplating the things which are not seen here and affecting the things that are only there by working all things according to the Angels Samplar Yea even to follow God himself it being not unlawful per divina ire vestigia to walk as Christ himself walked The word is singular Heaven not Heavens as in the Preface excluding all but the very in-side of Heaven the interior parts of the Heaven of Heavens there being there exactness in opposition to Earths crookedness and stateliness against its baseness 1. Exactness Examples are to be eminent and as far as possible contrived above the censure of ordinary operators in things wherein honour is concern'd but in things divine wherein are couched the most pressing interests of the souls eternity patterns ought not to have so much as an umbrage or shadow of sensuality which not being sound on earth a David will trip a Iacob will halt and a Noah lye uncovered we are to eye Heaven for acquiring of righteousness and ture holiness 2. Stateliness How slovenly so to speak do we handle the mysteries of God Is not a trembling hand a glazy eye a blubred face commended in the approaches of the devout to the greatest pledges of their salvation and yet in these addresses not only faith but their love to God is then more sublimely to be acted that it may be felt heard and understood so that the highest raptures and most ravishing transportations like high Steeples are not without their Cob-webs whereas in Heaven the divine beams of glory shining upon the faces and hearts of the Elect both heats their souls and beautifies their exercise to that degree that with redoubled acclamations of ineffable joy they stand before their Saviours Throne and go about their Masters errant in a Royal Majestick and Authoritative deportment These are so well known to be in Heaven that good men do not only mistrust others but fear themselves pray against themselves ask forgivenesse both in and for their most religious undertakings which must cede to the performance of those Sainted above they being incapable of pollution laxation or heâ—itation through the spiritualizing of all their faculties In this Prayer there are two sicuts two as-es one is As we forgive our debters forgive us in which Earth draws a pattern from Heaven to follow sets it a copy to write a pardon by the other is this Petion As thy will is done in Heaven let it be done in Earth in which Heaven is recommended as worthy for imitation of Earth and sets before it a picture for Earth to draw the lively features of exact and acceptable duties For note in Heaven there are three whom we must imitate and follow viz. Christ Angels and the Saints glorified Behold Christ as man and as when upon earth it was meat to do his Fathers will for himself giving us in that consideration an example to prevent sin and as God a remedy against it from which it is deducible that our eyes feet hands and tongue are to be observant observers of the whole Law and will of God as Christ was we making his life our book our glass our rule our way his present residence in Heaven and work there is the Churches salvation in general thy soul Reader and that other mans in particular for it is the will of the Father that none of these little ones perish hence Christ becomes their Advocat that they all may
and sincerely 1. Conjunctly All the glorified number unites in this one thing of giving honour power and glory to the Lord because of all his wondrous works and such who desire to be of that Quire must to that Hymn in joynt devotion giveâ—n their Amen Israel must joyn with Egypt and Assyria avoiding neither because he is a Iew but beholding the Spirit of God breathing upon them must celebrate with them as Brethren though formerly aliens and with binding resolution each precede another by affection and in imitation of that glorified number though probably before different in opinion combine in this judgment to practise and do the will of the Lord for ever saying to dividing principles Abide here with the Asse and I will go yonder and worship c. 2. Continually Their eternal Sabbath is spent with unwearied ceasing in their serious attending his Throne we ought to be earnest and with David keep the way of his statutes unto the end i. e. sine impedimento incedam giving defiance unto the keenest temptation I shall gracefully persevere and imitably walk in the road and path of thy Commandments observing them in all my undertakings not putting on the royal apparel of Faith Righteousness and Obedience for the Throne or Temple but make them my daily garment yea my night-cloaths for at midnight will I arise and give thanks unto thee 3. Sincerely There is in Heavenly Saints a concord betwixt heart and harp being like the Sun transparent every cavity within them exceeding the Christal in purity evidenceth no disingenuity but perfect harmony in love in voice in desire in moving and in doing Abfuit ergo as true disciples of Christ let us hate dissimulation or willing to feign but let us do as well as sing I love the Lord otherwise as the devils we may speak much truth and with the reprobat do much good but neither being hearty it is not our own and the sooner shall we be accursed if we call out the Truth the Truth and not walk accordingly Not to separat what God hath joyned together both Saints and Angels in Heaven do the will of our Father joyfully humbly 1. Ioyfully Great content have they to be employed and great satisfaction have they all in doing the will and work of God Hail thou art highly favoured said Gabriel be it according to thy word said Mary to be sorrowing with the covetous young man for the sale of lust and discharging of thy sin or passionat or carelesse as was Pharaoh and Pontius Pilate is to contradict the spirit of God prompting thee to pray after this manner Thy will be done 2. Humbly Christ is represented to the Divine sitting at the right hand of the Father but the Angels and Saints about the Throne and sometimes falling down before it and then are men obedient when the precept not being delayed is heard by the ear saying Now the tongue saying arise the feet run and the hands saying all that thou commandest we will do That his will be done Reader in thy soul and in thy body in the heaven of thy soul and in the earth of thy flesh that as the Angels who are spirits thou spiritualized may live and do on earth his will as it is in Heaven The Popish Franciscus being demanded who was to be judged truly obedient ordered the exhuming of a dead body who would not be discontent how ever placed nor puft up though throned nor clamorous if dispised nor beautifull though gorgeously arrayed Such is the obedient doing giving suffering where word or providence gives order without wresting it or strutting it before the Lord. This word As either the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Germain Al 's importing similitude here denots a likenesse only not an equality we by it desiring amidst such encumbrances as the soul groans under to live inculpat as inoffensively as the Angels but to reach them in the large extent of perpetual conformity is a task beyond mortality for during our abode in houses of clay Ignorance malice weaknesse wantonnesse and wickednesse will affect us yet as children we may regard our copy and scorn luxury and all exorbitancy and lay aside superfluity of naughtinesse being perswaded that albeit the Character of our lives and actions be unproportioned we shall at length write fair and draw good Text Hand when in heaven we come to be perfect men in Christ Iesus For however obedience be here mixed with frailty and imperfection yet as a tender son endeavouring to execute his fathers will is approven so is it with God he requiring and blessing the will or desire for doing when the work it self may be defective so that though we arrive not at the perfection of the first or second Adam in doing Gods will which is to be found in the holy Angels yet we may acquire in obedience the perfection of Zacharias and Elizabeth which consists in the sincerity of our service We cannot and do not the will of God with the Angels speedily for like Lot we linger to go out of Sodom nor cheerfully for like Israel we murmure in the way nor fully for the good we would do we do not nor sincerely for our hearts are far from him nor perfectly for we know but in part and see but in part yet we are to strive after all this there being a time to come wherein all shall be obtained though now with Israel we compasse Iericho and with Sampson groan under blindnesse at length the siedge shall be ended in conquest and we revenged upon all Philistines that tormented us and all that we do shall be very good Therefore study for an enlarged soul that largely the will of the Lord be done for it is thy will not our own not every where but on earth not every way but as it is in Heaven that is doing it out of love and affection And so pray ye From all this we infer these four particulars 1. A necessity of doing Men came not into the world to stand idle or gaze about but to work and though sin and Satan put many to miserable drudgery it is still sloath except the work of God be done The heathen beheld and scorn'd the consumption of time in the inutile pursuits of the ordering plaiting and curling of hair of some phantasticks in his time and how with us such vanities are priveledged to inhabit the souls of too many is scandalously evident the saying of the prophecie of this book this prayer being kept neither in memory nor manners neither in heard nor heart c. 2. Timidity for failing The vitiousnesse of the age in spending the greatest part if not all time upon things â—innical ought to creat a fear both for our selves and others having for the doing of this will a patent not for one minut yet filling two times so nearly placed that there is
it is placed after all the Petitions that concern God insinuating that his work and glory is first to be done and then we may cause lay the cloath and put on bread We find that in times of Famine there have fallen showres of Wheat for the refreshing of the hunger-bitten and here we are directed without a prodigy to respect Heaven and not the Fields for Grain or the Mill for Meal but both sexes to imitate the vertuous woman and bring their food from afar For so pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread From the naked face of which words we discover a Law commanding care for and abstinence while we are in the body 1. Our care for the body For beauty proportion strength the body is so stately and curious a structure that it were impiety against nature to suffer or design delapidation the least hair whereof being allowed a place in Gods Note Book we may conclude its bowels to be more intensly regarded It is the souls Cabinet therefore not to be broke Christ died for it and therefore it is not to be slighted the earth is to conceal it and therefore is not to be strip'd yea Heaven is ordained for it and therefore it is to be honoured The soul indeed is to be the main not our only care but the body hath here Gods Image and shall if we be wise walk up and down in his inheritance above As Ioseph by faith gave charge to bury his bones we by the same grace may give charge concerning our bodies and order to set on bread The charge against shedding the blood of man is from this Argument For in the image of God made he man that image being in the blood tanquam in copula in the body tanquam in organo in the soul tanquam in proprio subjecto in its proper place the vital spirits are carried by the blood and upon them also depend all the senses and upon the senses depends the rational soul in which the image of God principally resides now take away bread the blood fails and by that the spirits fail and by them the senses fail and by that the soubremoves and by that the image of God We offer this to the consideration of the malicious who shedding the blood of man desaceth that goodly workmanship for whose preservation he is bound to pray it not being preceptive give me but give us our daily bread For quid est conservare humanitatem what other is the preservation of humanity then the loving of man because he is a man and the same that we our selves are and who doth it not dispoyls himself of the appellation man as not worthy to be so termed The superstitious also rivetting this request upon his own thoughts will be self-condemned his cutting tearing whipping and lashing himself making him Fellon de se in a sort a self-murtherer in renting the back or torturing the skin of that belly he prayes for c. The covetous also must not plead immunity from the mulct appended unto the breach of this Divine Law of cherishing the body as the fruit of his prayer for in his fordid baseness withdrawing from the flesh what God hath sent it and keeping from the belly its just modicum which it craves yet to his own annihilation it remains empty he in the mean time cramming even to nauseating the hollow bowels of a wooden box makes him culpable of self-hostility and impeding him in his spiritual traffick his cash but serves him to buy damnation For quid prodest what is the profit of concealed hoards and who knows not that by doing good and shewing mercy men shall find mercy and reap good but what shall he gather who is merciless to his own self It is good and comely for one to eat and drink yea deck his house and to enjoy the good of all his labour which God hath given him in neglecting whereof he becomes guilty of Idolatry in St. Pauls meaning and of Adultery in the sense of an holy Interpreter and abundantes temporalium inopes aeternorum being rich in this world is yet poor and yet more poor when it is considered he hath no treasure in Heaven If any object that we are not to take thought what we shall eat and the required zeal in the duty of prayer will certainly suffer intermission in enlarging upon dayly bread It is to be adverted that there is no repugnancy between give us bread and take no thought what ye shall eat c. The latter condemning distrustsulnesse and â—infull distraction not a prudential foresight of competent provision for Parents are to lay up for Children and a Master must provide for his Family and a man for himself 2. Our abstinence while in the body Abstinence in the judgment of the Orator did much conduce for conciliating People and Prince but in our Saviours Doctrine it is the sole medium for keeping Heaven and earth in concord so clearly that the great Amphiaraus who in life was accounted a great Prophet and after his death a reputed god among the Grecians advised their Priests before their consulting at the Altar to abstain one day from bread and three from wine Plato made his greatest seasts to consist in Salt Olives Chease and Herbs and he was called the Divine The Egyptians tyed their Kings by Law to a certain portion of wine and meat and they were accounted Sacred Yea bread water and salt velut exquisitis obsoniis as great delicats did the Persians give to their Children And we read that Martha after our Saviours Ascension did neither eat flesh nor drink wine untill she saw him whom her soul loved above BREAD the poorest boon that nature can ask and the least a Father can deny and yet the only great thing we are to entreat for Our Lord restraining the Petitioners hungering for luxurious fare and conjuring against riches delicates and gaudy Raiment the Pedissequae or handmaids of which are Wrath Intemperance Anger Arrogancy Injustice Pride and every evil work Becoming by joyning dinner to supper and drowning the body with drink oppressing the belly with meat a ludibrious spectacle to their own attendants who must convey the vomited carcase to a dormitory out of which its possible the besotted cometh more surious then before sleep procuring neither health nor ease to the ininflamed body All which courses to prevent or temptations to avoid we are only directed to pray for our dayly bread as Agur prayed for his convenient food unto which prayer it is thought our Saviour hath reference in wording this Petition and dissect food convenient or open dayly bread in our practice we shall find sobriety to be hominis prima medicina the chief Physician of man as one Father calls it and the Mother of health as another and so good for soul and body
still King of Ierusalem but his authority and royalty in it is not so great as it is when he enters Biscay where yet he must not by Law enter without a bare leg But this King having a Kingdom and in that Glory and Power and these in a King who is thy Father O thou of little faith wherefore dost thou doubt he will by Power blesse thy small store command thy handful of meal by authority not to decrease and make thy fleshlesse broath giving him the Glory nourish thee and thy son more then the dainties of a King do himself or his royal issue Yet rembember there are degrees of glory even upon earth and though St. Paul can glorifie God in his life yet if his death can produce more glory the will of God is that the lesse cede to the greater so that indeed thine is the glory is a boundiary and limitation for submitâ—ing to his will in his Kingdom and giving him the glory in the utmost extremity since his power can extricate us out of the deepest contrivances of men or Devils Once more this clause is to be reflected upon in each Petition of the Prayer as Hallowed be thy Name thy Kingdom come c. For thine is the Kingdom the power c. One will have In Earth as it is in Heaven joyned to the three first Petitions as Hallowed be thy Name c. In Earth as it is in Heaven and this last Doxology For thine is the Kingdom to have reference to the four last as Give us our daily bread forgive us our debts c. For thine is the power and to do this is for thy glory in regard he is glorified when the fearers of his Name are aided defended honoured as he was when the house of Obed-Edom prospered There is visibly in it Gods soveraignty to make us low it is not thine are the Kingdoms but the Kingdom his being but one and all others but his Vassals which even beastly Heathenish brutish and destroying Nero knew so well that at the re-building of Rome which was suspected to be burnt at his own order Sacrifices were offered to Vulcan and other gods and goddesses Sybillarumque Libri the Books of Heathenish Prophetesses were perused also to have all things more prosperous for the future this God this Father this King being a King in solidum as our learned King doth King-like interpret the words commanding all and in all over all as himself will and all for himself In it there is also Gods eternity to make us fear A Kingdom which we know is to perish a Power that will in time fade and grow feeble would not cause everlasting terrour were it not to be heâ—erodox in history it might be affirmed the Greek Monarchy to be madnesse rather then a reign and though its first Parent Alexander was dreaded and by some adored yet was he not at last contemned scorned and that by his own Mother when for want of hands for want of respect he lay thirty days unburied and got earth but by a stratagem of a friend sic transit gloria mundi so shall the fashion of this world perish and the glory of it become as dung when this everlasting King shall come in power with excellent glory to take an account of the subjects of his Kingdom in order to reward them for ever For thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever BEholding these words as a portion of the Canon the testimony against them being negative and humane and the Latine Fathers rather blame-worthy for ommitting them because not in Luke then the Greek Fathers for preserving of them being found in St. Matthew and if ommitted in some Greek Copies or in the Vulgar Latine the Monkish Amanuensis to magnifie and uphold the honour of the same might cover it as the second Commandment is from the Law because of its boldnesse to discharge Idolatry so religiously observed in the Cloyster though he who speaks most basely if not blasphemously of this Doxology acknowledgeth he found it in all Greek Copies and therefore from its adversary we press its reverence yea St. Paul in mentioning the deliverance from evil fine intervallo with the same breath mentions of a Heavenly Kingdom and of glory for ever and ever Amen But controversies being out of our Province we advance to behold the influence this Coronida hath upon prayer and how easie is it to understand its commands for praying Argumentatively Confidently Thankfully yea Practically also Great things are asked in this Prayer things not to be scann'd by the measures words or conceptious of creatures yet it is evident we are not unreasonable in our demands Bow down thine ear and hear O Lord said the Psalmist for I am poor and needy And Christ the Saviour of the world prays Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am FOR thou lovest me and will have us still to pray Thy Kingdom come FOR thine is the Kingdom Power and the Glory for ever Arguments drawn from his Dominion Authority Excellency and Eternity c. But note the reasons are all brought from himself we declining any boon from our own eminency equality or merit and if a Saint plead for mercy because of poverty or holinesse it is not to be dreamed he understands self-worth but his pressure under that exigence unto which God by grace haâ—h made promise of support And moreover it is to be remembred that the mercy is still suited in our prayers conform to the condition we stand under as we are weak ignorant or indebted so still we desire proportionable succour Keep me as the apple of the eye saith David and that hath first the brow the prominency of the brow hair-brow the lids the hair or latches to those lids then the muscles and membranes of the eye signifying that divine and secret protection he then wanted under his manyâ—old extremities from which consideration a judicious Author will have this clause to be esteemed honest and not as a thief to enter into this Prayer from any custom of men a dangerous conceit and may curtail the Bible but in an holy and devout way for a seemly close approved by God and recommended by Christ unto his Church By the way the pertinency of Prayer lyeth in these two 1. By asking relief from our present necessities by ordinary means If a weary Traveller should ask for wind to blow him forward or an hungry Petitioner for food from Heaven or a timorous Pilot for the creating of an Harbour the prayer were impiously ridiculous Our Saviour would not pray for twelve legions of Angels yet with great fervour he urged the removing of the cup. Yea not in these things only but against Alexanders Fate we may call for a decent gathering into our Fathers 2. By craving mercy agreeable to our duration having
for that is contrary to our Lords own practice in his deprecâ—ting the Cup and his precept in his enjoyning prayer that our flight might not be in the winter nor on the Sabbath day yet both these and all other Scriptural prayers are acâ—â—â—ding to this prayer as it is in Matthew pray afteâ— this mâ—nner and since the command in 〈◊〉 it is to be made a prayer as it is required in that Evangelist When ye pray say Our Father which we are no more to doubt of its being done by the Apostles then to doubt of their baptizing in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost though we read of neither the Law for both being evident and the Law of Amen is equally Scriptural as Lead us not into temptation though some boldly expunge it the Text and exclude it their moâ—ths because it s not to be found in St. Luke though in our Saviours first and famous Sermon in St. Matthew it is clear and in other Scriptures evident each Evangelist and Apostle having his own peculiar excellency and giveth by brevity in some places and by prolixity in others light glory and beauty to each other Before we close let us give thanks to the memory of that learned Divine and in this whereof we are to speak Anagramatist who by a more then ordinary because religious fancy and judgment finds in the word Amen this word Mane and cleareth hiâ— Mane thus Thereis Mane the Verb signifying to tarry pressing constancy in prayer and importuning of God as the importunate Widow did the unjust Judge There is Mane the Adverb by interpretation the morning urging earlinesse at the duty that at the rising Sun if not before we are to be at this exercise of prayer and praise to cleâ—r which Reader accept of a good note though at a great distance of â— famous English Iew let me go said the man to Iacob for the day breaketh that is tempus est ut â—antem Dei laudes cum aliis Angelis let me go for it is time I were among my fellow-Angels glorifying God as if even to those blesâ—ed Spirits a new morning a fresh Sun a day-star were arguments exciting them to magnifie God for his Providence unto us poor and dark mortals All this considered how wise are they who in the shutting up of their prayers neglected Amen or abused it in a curtail'd So-be-it or this we desire or so let it be or said Mumm whereas Amen had even sounded better and really was better and ought to have been used propter reverentiam salvatoris out of reverence to our Lord who in this Greek and Syriack prayer retained the Hebrew word Amen that Amen might not be slighted or mocked for its poornesse nakednesse or emptinesse for which reason the Ancients translated it not there being in no Language able to discover in many words its ample meaning in its own one for which cause the Churches of old in what language soever they prayed concluded with it though Hebrew decet sane verily in supplications it it most seemly for all Amen Afferre to utter Amen the custom of the Churches which if harmless is good to observe craving that from us who confirmed all that was asked communi consensu with one consent by hearkening I might say by tarrying untill the Preacher in his blessing said Amen O magnificum eâ—â—â—acissimum verbum AMEN O powerful and wonderful Amen God is Amen Christ is Amen O good O blessed Saviour the Word and Amen cryed one perfect my prayers in Amen Amen let it be done Amen let it be done and in my mouth let thy words be fulfilled thy prayer compleated and say Amen to which I add the Rabbins proverb he who saith Amen in this life is worthy to say it in the life to come understand the Christian expression worthily It is written in the life of that great light of the reformed Church of France Beza that his last Sermon was upon the third Petition of this prayer Thy will be done ceasing here to preach it that he might go to Heaven for to do it But God our Father and our Lord Iesus Christ hath conducted us through the land from the Dan to the Beersheba of this prayer and hath let us see both the rising and setting of the Sun of this most perfect plat-form and two Novembers betwixt which there were seen many and unusual Funerals Trains and Mourners going about the streets we still surviving for which and all other his mercies blessed be his glorious Name for ever and let the whole earth be filled with his glory Amen and AMEN Errata sic Corrige IT is a certain truth laid down amongst disputable things That it is a good Book and well Printed that hath but one or two or but ten Errata's from first to last And Printers in their common talk I might say in judgment not only condemns a faultlesse Book but summarily adjudgeth it to the flames immediatly as monstruous In this there are Literal Marginal and Textual escapes among others let these few be thus corrected Page 18. line 11. for pound read pownd p. 77. l. 33. for us r. O. p. 100. l. 18. for possibility r. possibly p. 207. l. 10. for sin is r. finis p. 301. l. 9. for tasting r. fasting p. 379. l. 7. for thou only r. not only p. 442. l. 1. for that this r. that is p. 452. l. 19. for opposit r. apposit Marg. p. 2. for 2. 11. r. 2. 2. for 24. r. 34. sic de ceteris Sea Mirrour lib. 1. Demonstrat 4. Wither Cant. 4. â— Full. Holy State lib. 2. c. 9 Tolbootâ— Church Novem. 17. 1667 Dan. 8. 1â— Heb. 13 15. Num. 28. 3. Acts 3. 1 Acts 10. 3. Ionah 2. 11. Luke 11. 2. Alsted Theol. Cat. S. 3. c. 13. Gen. 24. 17. Psal. 51. 11. Aquin. 2 2dae Q. 83. Art 1. Art 10. Chrys. de O. rand lib. 2. Iohn 15 16. Rom 8. 26. Iona. 3. 8 Rom. 12. 1 Chrys. de Orand lib. 1. Bucan loc Com. 35. Luk. 1. 28 Greg. Moral lib. 32. c. 27. Psal. 32. 3. Luk. 13. 4. Mark 7. 3 Heb. 10 21 Mat. 6. 5 Mat. 22 12 Iudg. 16 15 Ier. 18 12 Eph. 6. 6 Chrys. Hom. 30 in Gen. Bucan loc Com. 35 Areâ— loc Com. 72 Lonicer Theat Hist. in Exempl tert praecep Hos. 11. 8 Psal. 5. 1 Gen. 18 â—7 Beda Expos. 1 In Sam. c. 12 Mat. 6 6 2 〈◊〉 Quaest. 8 Art 12 Psal. 100 10. 1 Cor. 6 20 Isa. 38 3 1 Cor. 11 1 Psal. 46 1. 1 Tim. 6 16 Mat. 4. 10 Mark 4 â—9 Val. Max. lib. 7. c. 2. Exter Brom. Summ Praed de orat Damas. orth fid lib. 3. c. 24 Psal. 90 12 1 Kings 10. 14 Hilar. in Psal. 53 enarr Ib. in Psal. 54 Ber. in Quad. Ser. 6 Matth. 6 33 Hug. Card. in loc Gen. 41. 20 Byerl Prom. Moral in Fest. S. Cath. Ioh. 6. 27 Cajet
removing of ill must our devotions be mingled evil things filling up so great a place in our little time here allotted us wherefore in our definition of Prayer we have added 6. Deliverance from those evils either feared or felt Evil is either of sin or punishment it is either past present or to come and therefore as we pray for forgiveness of sin past in Forgive us our debts so for deliverance from evil to come or present in Lead us not into temptation c. But all must be 7. Through our Lord Iesus Christ His merits is that Incense that must persume which must capacitate our accesses to become his purity lest they should be nauseated by his Holiness This is the salt that must season every sacrifice and except we have the garments of this our elder Brother we shall not smell as that field which the Lord will bless but have with Iacob rather occasion to argue the partaking of a curse For in all communing with God that would be pondered that he sayes of Jesus as Iosephs did of Benjamin except ye bring him ye shall not see my face It is to be noted that this calling upon God is either publick or private it eyes either mercies received and then it is called Thanksgiving or wished for to others and then it is called Intercession or for avoiding of ill and then it is called Supplication or if either of these for our selves it is called Prayer for into these four is Prayer divided by St. Paul and each of these are espoused to and to be found in the Lords Prayer and in each Petition thereof In the first Petition Hallowed be thy Name we pray for knowledge of the Word of God in our selves supplicate for all Christian Brethren in tribulation we interceed that the fins of our Brethren in seeking their own name be not imputed and giveth thanks if God hath made us instruments in honouring at any time his In the second Thy Kingdom come we give thanks for our hopes of Heaven and pray for the advancing of his Church we supplicate to be strengthened by his grace and interceed that all may be blessed by the Word and Sacraments In the third Thy will be done c. We interceed for a through conformity with the Angels we pray for a subjugating of our wills we give thanks for the enlightning of our minds and supplicat for ardency and zeal In the fourth Give us this day our dayly bread we supplicat against poverty and want we pray against impatience and discontent and interceed for ability and strength to gain our bread and giveth thanks for our calling and imployment In the fifth Forgive us our debts c. We give thanks for the imputation of Christs righteousnesse we supplicat against a tryal by Law we interceed that all may be saved and pray against malice and revenge In the sixth Lead us not into temptation we bewail our by-past sollies give thanks for our former conquests interceed for safety to our brethren and prayes for the spirit of discerning to our selves In the seventh Deliver us from evil we pray for a binding up of satan interceed for assistance against natural corruption supplicate against hell and death and give thanks for our hopes of a joyful Resurrection and the reason of all is his is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever SECT II. THe effects of Prayer follows in our former proposed order which he thought many and good who called Prayer Clavis coeli the Key that opened Heavens Gate unto us the Stair by which we ascended to the company of the first-born to the society of Angels to the enjoyment of our Saviour and to the bosome of the Father It is the Arms of the Christian for by fervent prayer Moses overcame the Amalakites David Goliah Ezekiah Senacheriâ— and Esther Haman What needs more It heats the soul becalms the heart keeps off evil obtains a pardon procures long life restoreth health pacifieth God creats wisdom infuseth grace purchaseth plenty delivers from judgement increaseth courage conserveth peace and shews us what should be done Let us see its holy workings for and upon those three great ones Conscience God and Satan 1. It purifieth the Conscience by opening its sores the impostumated matter therein by long contracted guilt becomes feaverish and when headed will make the stoutest through pain cry with the Prophet My bowels my bowels woe is me I am pained at my very heart or with the Apostle O wretched man that I am but prayer as a lance opens the boil and by confession the putrid matter is evacuated as in David thus and thus have I done and with the Prodigal I have sinned against Heaven yea by the same orifice of acknowledgement is the precious balm of a Fatherly Absolution poured in in a God hath taken away thy iniquity thou shalt not die by which the late dejected spirit is made to rejoice in Gods house of Prayer Saint Pauls thorne was so painfull to him that he prayed thrice against it and by prayer was strengthened to enduce and had comfort in the smart of the same to teach us that when conscience heats or ulcers it is excellent to retire our selves and with Daniel cry O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do confideing in mercy upon and for his answer Fear not peace be unto thee be strong yea be strong assuring thy self that whoso calleth upon the Name of the Lord shall be delivered The Apostle enjoyneth Prayer without ceasing it is pressed by a Father both day and night yet magis noctu rather in the night when free from incumbrances visits and most apt to enjoy our selves then are we fittest to open our sores Animarum Medico to the Chirurgian of Souls in recollecting what we have been doing and what thinking in the day-time that by compunction of Soul and Spirit our misdoings and our negligences may be remitted and the wounds they made healed spending a solitary night as Pyrrhus spent his solitude and time for being found alone and demanded what he was doing replyed I am studying to be good Which act of communing with our own heart was of no small account in the eyes of David 2. It dignifieth God by depending upon his love By this we reason with him not being dashed for all our scarlet-sins nor desperate though we have play'd the Prodigal because we return to him who is our Father it evidencing his acceptance and his goodnesse that we presume to call for our dayly bread his liberality that he forgives us our debts his omnipotency that he defends us from Devils his ubiquity that we can call in every place In confession we own the justnesse of
upon his adversaries and foes And truly upon the opening of our mouth depends the enlarging of our Tenements and if we be straitned in our houses it is because we are first straitned in our bowels not thinking upon God so much as in a dream with Pilats wife Since this large promise sounds in our ears Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it that is enlarge it by desire confession and by love it shall be filled with my self and my glory 3. His truth is only engaged to the prayerful Heaven may be as equally expected without holiness as mercy can be imagined to come without a duty And when we seek then only have we reasonably a ground to hope the Precept being Ask seek knock which is done by praying first next by well-doing the third by persevering to the end which last crowns our devout performances The door of the Tabernacle was not of hard Cedar nor massy silver but a vail easily penetrable so is Heaven yet it had a vail so hath Heaven which by prayer we must draw aside enter in and pleasd for atonement for which his house is not called a house of strength though we be there confirmed nor of knowledge though we be there instructed nor of justice though acquitted but of prayer because in that God will be reconciled That man stands constantly bound to this kind of officiating and advocating for himself or others before the Bar and sight of God is clear beyond a demonstration For 1. His indigency makes him look out for help He knows he must pay and again he knows he cannot pay his debts nor deliver himself from evil Can he creat one drop of rain for removing thirst or form a morsel of bread to abate hunger He is to speak ingenuously so poor that ability wisdom health consolation life hath he none but what he must beg for at the Gate of Heaven The Centurion can command his servants to go and do this or that but cannot order his disease to remove or say to the Palsie be gone When King David had a multitude of sins he repairs not to the number of his Troups but addresses to his Saviour for a multitude of tender mercies All the Royalty of his magnificence being insignificant to allay the pain of his broken bones without the aid of Heavens skilful yea alsufficient Artisâ— 2. There is no other way found out whereby he can get help When Seth called his son Enos that is miserable men began to call upon the Name of the Lord Christ as man took no way to be freed of his bitter passion then a Transeat calix iste Father if it be thy will let this cup pass from me The Saints being wise men had but confession and lamentation to procure to themselves the best things of Heaven When Peter was in prison prayer was made and Peter miraculously liberated hinc clare apparet saith one It is manifest by this how successful Prayer is when a Pope is in prison but we say no less briskly and far more truly it is by this demonstrable how prevalent Prayer is when a Church is afflicted and a member thereof in distress It is true that Dives found out in a pinching strait another medium for salvation by desiring some to be sent from the dead But as I intend not to detect his folly so I trust I need not discuss the vanity of that surmise yet remember he took Prayer as the most adapt mean for the accomplishing the thing contrived I have not a friend said a poor woman in extremity but I can pray and that never failed me All other instruments without this are like Iobs friends Physicians of no value whereas Prayer is like Goliah's sword None to that Say therefore Give it me 3. No way to have a sanctified use of what is given him for help Mercies Crosses Sacraments Miracles are only by Prayer fitted for us and applied by us for good All is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer that is by Christ through Prayer the Word sanctifying for and procuring a blessing to every enjoyment Sin makes not only our actions but our possessions to send forth a stinking savour whereas Prayer causeth all as incense grateful to the nostrils of the Almighty and puts him in love both with us and ours for which the Church is compared to Mountains of Myrrhe and unto Hills of Frankincense By Mountains understand the strong fixed and resolute determinations of mortifying sin and corruption and by the Hills learn to be humble in Prayer yet fervent and the soul may be acertained of a visite from and cohabitation with Christ for unto the soul thus qualified the Bridegroom gets him untill the day break and shadows flee away holding forth the perpetuity of his residence for we may English that untill Time shall cease and Eternity appear And that all our forecasts or designs may daily imbibe the favourable influences of prosperous goodness it is a pertinent advice of one to begin every day with the duties of Adoration Thanksgiving Charity Contrition Petition to press which upon other considerations do but reflect upon Prayer in its easiness sweetness and suitableness 1. The easiness of it upon our part Prayer makes the soul keep alwayes Holy-day and save for it we are to be careful for nothing There are many dark thoughts in some about the issues of death the fruits of sin the weakness of flesh the remissness of duty the vexations of the world but Prayer husheth all by making request of God and pouring forth the sense of the spirit before him and says to such as the three Children to that Heathen King We are not careful to answer thee or you in this matter Pray pray said an English Martyr to his Wife I am merry and I trust I shall be merry maugre the teeth of all the Devils in hell Pray pray pray c. This mean made the holy Martyr in lingring flames to cry Welcome life welcome everlasting life Daniel fought not with the Lions but prayed and he was in the Den Hezekiah purged not for his disease and he was in the bed the converted Thief strugled not for life but prayed and he was on the Cross. And where ever the Christian be he can erect an Altar for himself yea though he bow not the knee not list up his hand nor smite upon his breast yet if he list up his soul he offers an acceptable sacrifice which the Servant can do in the Mercat the Page upon the Road the Butler at the Binne and the Cook in the Kitchin God requiring the heart at all times in all places provided the Petitioner put not off his devotion to these places and times 2. The sweetness of it upon Gods part He is our Father a word of delight which is in Heaven a place
God in this Prayer come now to be considered and when discovered it will appear so peculiar his due that in comparison of him we are to call no man Father on earth for one is our Father which is in heaven because all things and beings are of him He is called the Father of glory of light of mercy and he is so in respect of Christ whom from eternity he begat and also in respect of his creatures upon whom he hath impressed his image though in different colours sometimes the image of his foot-steps as in irrational or insensible Creatures and thus he is the Father of the Dew sometimes the image of his Knowledge Reason and Understanding and thus he is the Father of Men and Angels yea eye the plenitude of his power and he may justly be called both Father and Mother to all created beings their Father as begetting them by his omnipotency and their Mother as continually conserving nourshing and bringing them forth by his providence but because of holinesse and sanctity is he especially called the Father of Saints and blessed Spirits which in this Prayer is principally to be regarded It properly signifieth the natural parent of the male-kind some say when it speaks of a man it signifies a defender of children but when of God it denotes a preserver of all There are that will have it to be derived from their procuring Fathers getting or procuring children to themselves However it be men are called Fathers 1. By Nature 2. By Favour Our natural parents give us 1. a being 2. a well-being and both of these in a more excellent way are bestowed by God upon believers If you eye our being we have it principally from him having it neither wholly solely eternally essentially but by him have we an eye an ear a limb an hair but of his begetting a toe a nail but of his making It was he that kept warm in the womb our tender bodies and when ignorant of ourselves was he fashioning and joyning all our members which other fathers neither knew how to do nor could do Iohn the Baptist respected because rejoiced at the salutation of his Lords Mother for his sake who gave him life though otherwise he was ignorant of any life he had so Iacob fought and strove in the womb resolving even there to conquer whileas yet Rebekah thought of nothing less then government and dominion Compare him with earthly parents and you may perceive a wide and a vast difference for 1. We have not our being wholly from them grant that by them the principles for a body is begotten yet without him it will be no birth a lame birth or a dead birth he must give the Embrio the breath or life or then he hath not a living soul. I know that inter sanctos patres there are some that debate about the animation of the Insant yet that is pious O Anima mea O my soul if thou would have God to love thee behold thy nativity for by the Trinity was thou made in the likeness of God a gift which he gave no other creature c. As he gave the red earth a spirit at first and called it Adam so is it still it being the soul that makes us men i. e. to rule and reign in our selves and over our selves when this is well all is well and when this languisheth all fadeth so that our all depends upon it and yet all our earthly fathers wit cannot procure it for us Adam did naturally beget and Evah bare a Cain yet the man is acknowledged to be from the Lord and untill we know that natural causes can of themselves produce more excellent effects than themselves are we must hold that not the body begets but that God infuseth the soul and in respect of that is absolute Father and is called a Potter in regard of the body also so little have we from our parents 2. Neither have we our being solely from them Did not the Sun give heat the Air breath water refresh and meat nourish we should for all that other Fathers can do be stifled in the womb where blood was appointed by him to be our food and the same decreed to become milk for our meat the flax ordered to procure linnen for our clouts the sheep wool for our coats the hills wood for our cradles and the valleys corn for our bellies and the earth veins of silver for our dowries without which even Iobs daughters might live as the Muses unfortunatly single 3. Neither have we our being ever by them The mother for a time may play with her smiling spradling infant and Isaac sport with his fair Rebekah yet both at last shall say of the same delightful objects Bury my dead out of my sight and then the Father in Heaven keeps them better then the truff unto which the father on earth commits them No sooner doth the babies soul take its farewel of flesh then Angels secures it from devils seats it in Paradise by Gods command the earth as a second womb retaining the more gross part until the birth of the resurrection by another sentence neither of which can be performed by the most indulgent parent There are that will have death have his name from division yet it cannot separate us from this Father in Heaven others from parting as cutting man in two parts yet no part of us is out of our Lords protection though both parts be out of our sorrowful parents care and tuition It is the thought of an Ancient that it gets its name from biting that being brought in by sin when man was bitten by the old Serpent yet this Father knocks out his teeth that death feeds not upon us Some will have it named from its bitterness but this Father so composeth this Dose that we are not killed by death Some fetcheth it from having our arrears payed us our life being a warfare death payeth and dischargeth all that is owing us and so to be dead is to be exonerated from further duty yet it doth not this for we stand continually before the face of this heavenly Father out of the danger of hells assaults and resting in peace ac securus diem resurrectionis expecting an assured resurrection being every way guarded and protected of God and continually praising of him and dwelling in his house for ever 4. Neither have we our being always with them Our Fathers may love us yet cannot help us they may be capable to help us yet at a great distance from us we may be exposed to the dangers of plague pestilence and Famine and they afford no relief it is only he in Heaven that can do good and deliver us out of danger Seek no place therefore was a full rule but the God of and in all places thy self being a Temple unto him and where thou stands there is thy
Religio from Eligo as chusing God to be ultimat end and not our selves or rather from Religo that binding us together and by this as by a livery are we known to be Christians indeed that is Chrismate sacro anointed with the holy Ghost for so the word by interpretation whose character is love which as the pitch to the Ark should be within us and without us to hold us together and though true peace be tyed to the Church yet what Religion is there the embracers whereof have not a mutual regard one to another To pass both Ancient and Modern Hereticks It is observable that the Turks have not been of late so vehement in fighting against the Persians as formerly their opinions touching Mahomet being now more clearly known then before and if nothing will prevail O that Christians would ruminat upon that of Christ Wo unto thee Chorazin for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in thee they had a great while ago repented But why should I say Christians for look about and where or how few are there for num tu illum Christianum put as in quo nullus Christianitatis actus is he to be called Christian who hath no righteousness in his conversation who oppresseth the poor and loads the miserable who robs others who gives his tongue to lying his lips to obscenity his hands to sacriledge his soul to hypocrisie by worshipping in the Temple as if God knew none of this Wherefore Charissime in Christo good Reader let us pray that the love of Heaven abate self-love that piety cool our fury modesty our lust moderation our talkativeness fasting our curiosity sobriety our drunkenness meekness our uncharity humility our pride and the love of God and our neighbour the love of this present world and then and not before shall we be Christians indeed and univocal children to our Father which is in Heaven For the very form of our supplications binds us to this union Granting to the earnestness of some that this Prayer is not to be used as a form but a rule only yet as a rule it commands them to have no malice when they bow their knee but to pray for all as burdened by the same sin liable to the same sailings and justly may expect without mercy the same punishments How are they from their own mouths condemned that not only refuse not to pray for but glorie in their cursing of their brethren satisfying themselves to be called from this or that opinion this or that man whereas in this saith a Father we glory Christianos esse nominari to be and to be called Christians The inheritance and expectation we all have of Heaven binds us also to this charity Why should we fall out in that way or separate in that road of blessed concord for those things especially wherein the judgment of God doth not concern it self as not being essential to the purchasing of or the being abandoned out of Heaven Peter required of his Converts but repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins I am perswaded that never was there an age but had its own particular contentions nor person but had his own beloved opinion extraneous to the principles of etâ—rnal life yet Philip thought the Eunuch richly endowed for glory and capacitat in the highest degree for Baptism that he believed Iesus Christ to be the Son of God What heaps of interrogatories had he been troubled withall if to have been â—atechised excentrick to this by some spirituallized men in our dayes But to know Christ and him crucified only is no doctrine in our times The Spartans consulting their wise Lycurgus about repelling an invading soe had this wholsome counsel 1. To remain poor that their enemy might have no temptation and to end their privat discords that their uniting might cause fear And there is no surer way to confound the rage of a spiteful Devil then to be reduced to that old Christian temper of having one heart and one soul which is not unattainable if every man will as he ought cast his eyes inward and by viewing his pernicious thoughts cure himself of those Convulsion-fits which to the affronting of the very image of God in his face or converse befalls him in dwelling in spleen rancour and malice and it shall evidence a perfect recovery when his enlarged soul shall praying say Our Father As to what may be objected touching Turks Iews Traitors or our own enemies or those of our Countrey we must alwayes difference the enmity from the enemy or the power from the person the Turks power we are to pray against or our adversaries force or wisdom but the person ought ever to be supplicated-for were he stoning us to death as Jesus did and Stephen for excluding lawful war we are not to do otherwise without a special revelation as did Elisha in his cursing the children If it be demanded whether a holy man may not say My Father when he prayeth It is answered that some thinks it is proper to Jesus only to cry My God or say My Father yet since Abrahams servant designed him Lord God of my master Abraham and David most often in the Psalms expresseth himself thus my God my King and that Thomas said my Lord and my God without a check Yea there being a precept that it shall be so said under the Gospel It ought not to be accounted sinful especially when the soul is in privat yet alwayes care is to be had that in this personal applying of God to thy self thy thoughts exclude none who are called by thy Fathers name for as Our Father in the general indirectly includes thy self so my Father in particular by reflection implyes others and this by interpretation is Our Father Another Lacedemonion Lady hearing an ill report of her son writ after this manner There is evil heard of thee mend it or die So there is evil known to be in this Age and particularly uncharitable walking from which save your selves or you die Being separat from the God of love unto whom Creatura rationalis man is tyed by love only the love of God and the love of man being as the breasts of the Church which are lovely to Christ by which the holy soul is nourished in cleaving to God and letting out good to man to the godly to our neighbour pari dilectione est optanda vita aeterna omnibus hominibus and salvation unto all men that heaven the next considerable thing in the Preface as being the place we pray unto may be filled with our brethren for which Let the peace of God be in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body Our Father which art in Heaven BEfore our thoughts pursue this part of the Preface Heaven Gods ubi or the place of his
worthy of glory but God so they only give to him their praises and their prayers and that upon good reason For 1. Angels will not have his glory and they are intelligent An Angel in the Old Testastament refused an offering and another will not have thanksgiving in the New both commanding them to be performed to God expounding these to be prayer and praise what is Romes meaning or to what purpose are those Prayers and Letany's in that Church Sancte Gabriel Sancte Raphael omnes Sancti Angeli Archangeli orate c. O thou Angel Gabriel Raphael and all ye Angels and Archangels pray for us I like that part of another office better and shall subscribe unto it O Sancta Immaculata Virginitas quibus te laudibus efferam nescio O thou blessed Virgin in what words to praise thee I know not the same I say of praying as either are interpreted Adoration This is not said to infringe the glory of these holy and glorified Saints who are to be honoured with great reverence and their names to be mentioned with great respect and their vertues to be imitated with all indutry but to hallow their names or thier vertues with a remitte or an ora pro nobis we have no warrant because no rule of faith The ground of Romes Doctrine touching the worshipping of Angels is so beastly that it is shameful to publish aâ—resh yet so irrational that it may be profitable to reprint it it was this as we read from a learned venerable Doctor of the English Saxon Church In Apulia vulgarly Puglia a Provicne in Italy in the Kingdom of Naples near the City of Siponia there was a rich man called Garganus having much Cattel which fed in a Mountain of the same name in which herd there was a wanton proud Bull which could not be got home with the rest but still kept the Mountain for which the owner resolving to kill him provided Bow and Arrow but in shooting at the beast the Arrow reverted and turned upon himself at which being amazed he tells his Bishop who did appoint a three dayes fast that God would discover what was signified by the wounding of Garganus when the Arrow was levelled or aimed at the proud Bull On the third night the Archangel Michael told the Bishop scias quia à voluntate Dei hoc factum est that all was done by the appointments of God and commanded the ground whereon the Bull stood to be consecrated and set apart for prayer shewing them under it there was a Cave and in the Cave an Altar and upon the Altar a red Pall or Cloak ibi facite orationes vestras hebete memoriam meam auxiliabor vobis there say your prayer call upon my Name and I shall help you all was searched and all was found and all was done accordingly Haec fuit saith my Author prima causa and this was the first cause or rise that Angels were remembred or worshipped upon earth he must mean by Romes authority for otherwise the same doctrine was taught in but exploded the Church before and from that time to this present are they remembred in the Church c. This is such a Cock and Bull story as the proverb hath it that it needs nay deserves to have no answer but a his And the ground of it being ut legimus as we read so that it may be ture or false and if true nothing in it but what might have been done by the devil and therefore in all respects such practices are to be shunned by worshipping of God for which we have a sure foundation I pass the Fables for so let me call them which the same Author throngs the proper festivities withall for were Peter or Mary upon earth they would undoubtedly blush at the absurdities of their zealous though ignorant prayers and cause Iohn comment upon on his old text Babes keep your selves from idols And Paul upon his let no man beguile you of your reward in worshipping of Angels and not holding the head c. 2. Saints will not have this glory and they are prudent When read we that a Noah prayed to Enos though his piety and translation were notour or that a David prayed to an Abraham or that any Israelite unto or obtained mercy by his holy Ancestors Nay contrary they urged that because of Abraham's being ignorant of them and their being not regarded by Israel God would be their Redeemer his Name being from everlasting 3. The other creatures will not have his worship or his glory and they may be observed Every pile of grasse hath a finger to point up to its Maker in Heaven and day unto day uttereth speech and readeth Lectures of Gods wise government powerful providence and rich mercy At Madrid the upper Rooms of Houses belongs by Law to the King and are not to be used untill they be compounded for by the Inhabitant and to this only wise God the King eternal not only the upper Room which is Heaven doth belong but the lowest pit also for in his hand are the deep places of the earth and ought not to be used by us before we satisfie the Law by praying and praising in doing which we add to the revenue of his glory Ezekiel saw his glory in Heaven Isaiah saw it upon earth and we ought to study the beholding of both for though his heavenly glory we cannot see with that Prophet yet we may perceive something of the appearance of it in his holy Word Heavenly Motions divine Commandments at which sight we are with the other to â—all down upon our faces and with loud cryes bemoan our infirmity vilenesse and uncleannesse His glory upon earth is so clear that he who hath eyes may see it in the clouds which are his Chariots our ears can hear the birds warble in their way the praises of their Maker the fields clap their hands in contemplation of which we are to cry Vnclean unclean for this said Isaiah when he spake of him and saw his glory and thereupon was comforted and purified 4. If we consider either our good or duty we shall own him only for God Reason leads many but profits command all persons it is rational it is profitable to ascribe only glory and honour to our Father For If you eye Conscience he can only quiet that if the Church absolve and the Spirit thereby settle doth the Word of Christ apply and the soul therupon rejoice It is but in his Name they acting but in deputation from him It is he that discovers sin that we may be in our selves nothing It is he that makes us hate sin that before him we may be holy If you eye dependence he only maintains you At first Heaven was made by him the Earth the Sea and all the Creatures therein because saith Nehemiah thou preservest them all the host of Heaven worshippeth thee
not that they on earth are idle for all his works praise him put Angels for the host of Heaven and Saints for the work of his hands on earth and then we may infer our duty to bless the Lord because he only preserveth us King Iames knew this who is of happy memory were it but for this that knowing a Prince that feareth not and loveth not the Divine Majesty nothing in his Government can succeed well with him therefore my son said he to his Prince first of all things learn to know and love God Which darkly was performed by Numa Pompilius who knowing that God hated sloathful services commanded the Romanes though Heathen to wait and attend upon prayer rebus omnibus post-positis all other affairs being first laid aside Iupiter and Iuno conceited Deities were so called by their worshippers from the help and aid they gave to things but our God doth more then juvare help because vitam salutem tribuit he giveth life health and happinesse and therefore ought more affectionatly to be implored and only to be adored An Army of Infidels rushing into the Dominions of the famous Christian Emperour Theodosius were worsted rather by his prayers then Arms for first a thunder-bolt from Heaven slew Rugas their Captain next a plague thinned their Army and the remnant were consumed by fire from the Element After which Proclus Bishop of Constantinople expounded a portion of Ezekiels Prophesie wherein God was exalted and the Patriarch applauded for his applying of it sanctifying God before their eyes he having magnified himself in the eyes of many Nations If you eye service he only can reward Should one intreat the Virgin Mary or St. Barbara against his wifes barrenness it may be doubted if ever he should have a Son or had Peter when sinking followed the Doctrine of his pretended successour and cryed Abraham or Ieremiah save me or I perish I am prone to conjecture he had been drenched by this one instance be excited in life or death to pay the tribute of Prayer and Praise to him solely who hath not only an eye to see and an ear to hear us but by precepts hath commanded us to adresse our selves to him for comfort in the life he hath given us in the death before us and in the hopes of that Heaven he hath proposed to us If you eye justice he only doth merit Are not the Cattle upon a thousand hills his Are we not the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands Are we not in spight of our hellish adversaries preserved by the artifice and methods of his providence The good we have is it not from him the peace health we enjoy is it not of him the Gospel we read did not he teach it us and the soul we live by did not he give it us What a mad project and unjust proceeding must that therefore be to fancy that some other then he ought to have the sacrifice of our souls the fruits of our lips That distinction of the Romish Schoolman is not so concluding as perhaps he thought it viz. that God is only to be repaired unto for grace or glory not the Saints they being only desired to assist us or to pray for us for the Scripture in things relating betwixt God and man hath given no ground for such distinction it denying any Mediator except Christ who also invites us to come directly to him for rest and ease and to him our selves without sending another And as when he trode the Wine-presse he was alone and none with him so in the application of its benefits we have no example of imploying Man or Angel to plead for us at his hand now glorified Besides how can we call on him or her in whom we have not believed and Rome with us professing to believe in God the Father Almighty c. ought with us also to expunge their Saints Litanies from their service Not to affront Gabriel or Paul or Peter or the Virgin Mary whose faith whose vertues whose example is this day in the greatest part of the Christian world commemorat and taught for her eternal renown in which we oppose her receiving prayers or in this sense giving glory to her name It was justice that extorted from a poor serving man that excellent decision of that ridiculous question started by the Romish Friers in this Kingdom whether the Lords Prayer might be said to Saints and after much talk hot debates absurd distinctions the Servant concluded when he had asked his Master to whom should it be said meaning the Lords Prayer but to God and let the Saints have said he Credos and Ave Marias enough for it might suffice them and too good for them But he spoke more knowingly and of this Kingdom likewise who said Let us remember that the Pronoun Thy is possessive and pointeth out the Name to whom glory and honour do most chiefly and of due belong For though there be many names yet there is not any name to which honour and glory both of debt and duty belongs but only to the Name of God 1. Because by him is named all the family in Heaven or Earth 2. Because by his sufferings and victorious triumphs he hath obtained a name far above all others 3. There is no other name by which we can be saved The Son gave it us to put up to our Father not to Peter or Brother much lesse to the Virgin Mary our Sister And therefore to the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen And so much for the matter of this Petition Hallowed be thy Name NOw we are brought unto the order of this Petition unto which for brevities sake we shall annex the method of the whole Prayer and to avoid confusion hint withall at the exactness required in our accesses unto God All our actions ought to have God for the ultimat design or end and so should our prayers to which purpose they either are to eye his glory as in Hallowed be thy Name or enjoyment of his glory in thy Kingdom come unto which something is directly and principally necessary as Thy will be done or necessary and instrumentally as give us our dayly bread or necessary and accidentally as the removing of hinderances either directly excluding out of Heaven as forgive us our sins or impeding us in our way towards it as lead us not into temptation or irksomness in our life travelling towards it as Deliver us from evil There are who shew the order thus all Petitions respecting either the good things of Heaven or Earth are here ordained by our Saviour to be thus sought after such as relate to Heaven are first to be demanded and are contained in the three first Petitions and the first of them being Hallowed be thy Name regards his glory and the other
two we are directed next to the good things of earth and are to be last craved as appears in the three last Petitions whereof the last is against present evil in Deliver us from evil the fourth is the medium or copula joyning both together for by bread we have strength to ascend in the doing of our Fathers will or descend for the opposing of our enemies force or strength whether in sin or temptations to sin There are likewise who finding all prayer offered for obtaining good or avoiding ill hold the order of this Prayer out thus viz all good being either heavenly is prayed for in the second Petition Thy Kingdom come or spiritual in Thy will be done or temporal in Give us our daily bread but if we reflect upon evil it is either past remembred in Forgive us our debts or to come prevented in Lead us not into temptation or present and then its removal is supplicated for in Deliver us from evil making Hallowed be thy Name to be no distinct Petition but rather a confirmation of all the Prayer Our Saviour adding this in imitation of the Iews who used words of veneration to the memories of them whom Vertue had Nobilitat as we use to say now such an one of pious or happy memory But that they are a Petition distinct from all the other and though a confirmation yet added to the number of all the other is evident For 1. It is in the stile of all the rest more imperativo by way of a holy religious and humble command 2. It is improbable that our Saviour heeded any such custome As touching the precept of seeking the Kingdom of Heaven first which follows after Hallowed be thy Name It is well noted that of things relating to our selves that Kingdom must be first sought by us and is first placed in this Prayer but in things relating to God as his glory daily we deviat from this rule if hallowed be thy Name be not our main great and first design and by consequence our first request Let us behold and admire the blessed and heavenly wisdome of our Saviour who hath taught us to pray in secret and in open audience in so much saith as to behold the Omnipotent Lord to be alwayes by us and yet with so much modesty that like the Heathen we abuse him not with many words though we ask so much so great and so many good and different things that this Prayer is and may be termed a breviary of the whole Gospel and also Legitima Oratio as being the Standart unto which all prayer is to be brought and applied for their tryal for matter and order which when done it appears in general That we must pray for spiritual and heavenly things first before we pray for our food or deliverance from evil we ask for his Glory his Kingdom his Righteousness This Prayer may be observed to begin with glory to end with glory for ever and therefore in the Churches of the Saints according to Law heavenly things are sought after first The word first insinuats principally and the word seek implyes with industry First that is in affection they are to love and desire them most And the scope of our Saviours first Sermon rather presseth a vehemency a priority of love and intention then of utterance and expression as first infers in other places holding out not so much rank or place as zeal and earnestness It is Raven-like to be flying upward and eying the carion carcass of an earthly enjoyment whereas each supplicant like a spiritual Eagle ought to eye the slain the crucified Christ at the right hand of the Father and mount higher giving not the lowest but the highest seat unto him The Emperour Alexander Severus reconciling a discord raised by Cooks and Hucksters against some Christians who had made an oratory or chappel where formerly these had sold their sowls and meat it is better determined he to worship and serve God there in any sort then to put it to other uses as the selling of flesh or fowl If a heathen thought this house which he knew was to perish fitter to serve God then to sell Poultry in ought not men to apprehend the same of their souls which must eternaly endure Therefore sanctifie thy affections and make them rather houses for the service of God then prophane them in turning them victualing-houses to thy self the devil and his lusts There being nothing more worthy of God nor profitable for men then to give him the first place in their respects they calling him Father and putting all other things yea accounting all other things as inferiour unto his honour in that expression Again seek it first that is in appretiation when a house is on fire the Saint himself may â—ry with greater earnestness for water water then he shall cry Thy Kingdom come Earthly crosses like shallow water making the greatest noice whereas heavenly love may be more smooth because more deep David for that matter of Vriah watred his couch but for Absolom he wept in the top of his house Isaac prayed for a son and David for the life of his child earnestly sensible things because such being more apparent to our senses are easily discerned while matters spiritual though farthest out of sight are in the soul regarded with unexpressible dearness and the other once competing with God and the things of his Kingdom our hearts shall manifestly discover that not the world but God hath our most zealous thoughts How did David roar out for his Absolom his Son his Son yet not against his Sin his Sin not that David in the Cabinet of his heart did regrate his sin with less anxiety but flesh seeing what was flesh the Spirit retired into more inward lodgings waiting for a more convenient opportunity which offering it is discernable at first that in regard of dearness God and his righteousness will be laid aside for nothing nay not for Absolom his Son his Son because it is he that giveth salvation unto Kings and delivered David his servant from the burtful sword In a great persecution under Hunericus multitudes being banished by Pagans of old and young an old woman was observed leading a young child willingly to go after them and being demanded why she took the Infant pray for me said she I am a sinful woman and taketh this little boy lest he being lest alone should be a prey to the Adversary of truth and seduced from the ways thereof Preferring Gods honour before Liberty Life or Countrey nay did not Moses chuse rather not to be then live to see it questioned or eclipsed A Bishop of Lincoln journeying with some Company who one morning hasted to their horses for fear of the Pad Robbers being in that very road through which they were to travel From this place said that good man will I not stir untill I have performed my morning devotion to
Covetousness in Buff Oppression watching Lust posting Fury thâ—â—tning Malice contiriving and Policy uniting to suppress the Gospel and though it get ground in the conversion of some to the saith of Jesus yet what Hanibal said of the Roman General Marcellus may the Church say of them and the devil their Captain that neither conquered nor conquering will they be quiet yea her case must be sad since the very liâ—e of her peace consists in fighting against these restless adversaries and where overcome yet so desperate is their wrath they with the Gadarens beseech Christ to depart It s regiment is likewise often obnubilated Grace now and then is put to the flight by an army of lusts The Church is said to be a Woman cloathed with the Sun the Moon under her feet that she is a Woman betokeneth her weakness her fruitfulness cloathed with the Sun her protection by and obedience to Jesus Christ the Moon under her feet signifyeth her contempt of all earthly because mutable enjoyments yet for all this pompous equippage she is forced to go to the wilderness for shelter against the Dragons rage and fury The feeling the beholding the hearing of these things will cause sorrow and what consolation is that offered by an Ancient comforting a Christian in sad times It was Pia tristitia beata miseria a blessed melancholy and a pleasant misery to behold the sins of others and weep and to another Plangenda sunt haec non miranda these things are to be be 〈◊〉 for not wondred at yet adds that prayer ought to be made I shall not say that after the fall God appointed our flesh our sinful lusts to rule overus for our punishment as he appointed thorns to arise out of the earth for mans vexation but since the fall lusts and corruption overshadow grace within us to that hight that Peter will curse David fall and Iacob lie to his Father and these weeds are permitted to abide in all until the Kingdom of God come with power which made David call but thou O Lord how long that is in the new Testament-stile Thy Kingdom come The Gospel in its progress is compared by our Saviour to leaven and that workes gradually regeneration to a new birth and man is perfected by degrees the Church to a builing and that advanceth by rule and measure and Wisdom is said to have hewn out her seven pillars which implies addition the new man hath not his proportion by years but by degrees and comes to perfection by distinct gifts and graces he first learns as a child to read the good examples of others then advancing forward he comes to live according to divine Law then he is so in love with Christ that marrying himself to him he would not sin though there were no Law against it growing now strong he can endure and stand out against the worlds troubles and vexations and then growing rich in the abundance of the things of the Kingdom of God he leads a peaceable and contented life then he comes to forget that is not to heed transitory things being wholly intent as aged in grace upon life eternal and now there remains but one step more that is the Kingdom of glory which advanceth towards us by the grace of faith illumination of the soul Discipline of the Church and by finishing the number of the Elect. 1. By the hearing of faith This eyes all the Kingdoms we have spoken of for as by faith we believe that Jesus came to save sinners so we believe by â—aith that the world was created and yet preserved the Father Almighty hitherto working and darkly hinted at in the conclusion of this Prayer For thine is the Kingdom power and glory All that we know of Hell his prison of Earth his Foot-stool of the Clouds his Chariots of Man his Image of Angels his Hosts of Heaven his Pallace of Christ his Son is by the doctrine of Faith for untill it come we are not savingly sensible of the Kingdom of God And the doctrine of the Worlds Creation Mans fall and Christs coming are recorded to have been the Principles of Religion taught in Adams Temple Oratory or place of worship where God dwelt from whose face Cain departed all which shew that it is necessary to believe as firmly that God the Father Almighty made the Heaven and Earth as it is to believe in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord. The grace of faith is said to be the Kingdom of God within that Kingdom being spiritual and reigning in the hearts of the faithfull while they are in the Kingdom of providence and by which they are nourished and protected untill they arrive at the Kingdom of God in glory where they shall reign as Kings and Priests unto God for ever 2. By the enlightning of the mind This peculiarly eyes his Kingdom of grace As Moses face shined when he was with God under the Law so now God shines in the hearts of his friends under the Gospel he saith now not Let there be light but is himself a light unto his people The Gospel puts a Key in the Converts hand to intuat and behold the mysteries in Christ crucified which others cannot see and also a Lamp to know how far and in what kind for what use and for what end they appertain to him As at the Creation there was a fiat lux Let there be light so in Conversion there is a scias fu thy sins are forgiven thee which is that unction of the Spirit by which all things are known as the Eunuch knew and believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and by which also their Conversation is in Heaven having security by God and joy in him for which cause also it is the highest stone in Wisdoms seven Pillars upholding the house that is the Conscience or Soul of man The first whereof being good Will next a sanctified Memory the third a clean Heart the fourth a free Soul the fifth a right Spirit the sixth a devout Mind but the last and highest is an enlightned Understanding By the discipline of the Church Admonitions Reproofs Censures are as military weapons used by the Church for the upholding of this Kingdom of Grace yea a delivery over unto Satan by excommunication which if justly duly and compassionatly done is and hath been found instrumental for the stirring up the authority and power of Grace in the soul of some obdured shame and fear being very efficacious motives where other means are less effectual to perswade a soul to cry Peccavi Father I have sinned as did the incestuous Corinthian One Sigbert King of the East Saxons keeping society and familiarity with a Count or Earl whom holy Cedd had excommunicated for unlawful marriage once by accident met with Cedd as he journeyed to the Counts house and being smitten with shame and fear alighted from his horse and craved
our habitations there being in sure places joy in the Holy Ghost all sorrow and sighing being fled It is proverbially said of the three Princes Electors that the Palisgrave hath the Honour Brandeburgh the Land but the Duke of Saxony the Money but what a brave soyl must that be where every man hath all and if Shells or Pearl cast up by Tides hath made men zealous to attaque the Countrey whence they came should not our own knowledge of such invaluable things as Glory and Majesty durable riches and honour make the weak say I am strong and all of us to quit our selves like men looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God For zeal saith an honourable and learned person unto whose elaborat labours the body of Divinity and all Divines are beholding is the best evidence of a Christian the Spirit of God workes like fire and is the greatest means to draw out the soul for serving of Christ when Isaiah was touched with the fiery coal then he cryed send me he also saith it will save a sinking Church and therefore needful now and adds that it is the glory and beauty of all our services adding a lustre unto them as Varnish doth to other Colours In the Kingdom of our Father Scripturally taken must we eternally abide or for ever be inhabitants in the Kingdom of darkness so that death or life is before us and we must choose whether to be slaves to the Devils objects of fury subjects of torment where fire exerciseth our feeling ugly Devils our seeing the cryes and yelps of the damned our hearing brimstone and our own flesh our smelling and a cup of red wine of fiery indignation our tasting and the thinking upon our own follies and perpetuity of these plagues more and more heating our already enraged souls this I say must be either chosen Or liberty with God to be objects of delight subjects of Majesty in this Kingdom of God whose coming we pray for who hath Majesty for his Crown saith one Mercy for his seat Justice for his Scepter Wisdom for his Counsellour Almightiness for his Guard Eternity for his Date Heaven for his Pallace and Hell for his Prison So that unless this Kingdom of Jesus come to us we shall be for ever in bondage in the bottomless pit for mark this well will we nill we the Kingdom of the Father shall come and the will of the Father be done but in this Petition our desire is to be excited and prepared that it may come to us and we fitted to reign in it Unto which as unto all other works there is nothing so efficacious as zeal There is a vast difference betwixt the being of this Kingdom and the coming of it for where it is it is only in power and justice but where it comes it comes in love and mercy it is every where but it comes only to the Saints upon earth and the glorified in Heaven which should awake us from that spiritual lethargick drowsiness wherein sin and Satan hath lulled us to prosecute our heavenly interest with a more holy vigour that this Kingdom may come to us and we may enter into it In this Kingdom all the glory of the Father is as though we were elder brethren given to us and though we possess on earth what men calls Beauty Gallantry Majesty goods or state yet these are but Colours varnishing a rotten Post to delude our selves for their proper name is Vanity and their sirname Vexation because as a shadow we only see them not hold them and like shadows again they pass away and we see them no more Once the Church cryed out Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth as if she should have said hitherto he hath kissed me by Moses as by Proxy by his Prophets as by Ambassadours but let himself come let him descend and kiss me he sends yet his Ambassadours in the Ministry his Epistles in the Bibles History but these being but as cordials to sick persons we ought zealously to cry Attamen ipse veni make no tarrying O our God Rich Cresus cloathed with all the magnificence his royal Wardrob could afford demanded of the wise Solon if he had ever seen a more beautiful sight yes said Solon I have seen Cocks and Peacocks and truly behold man in all his glory and a Peacock far exceeds him he can sleep with his train whereas Cresus must at night be stript to his shirt and in sleep be as poor as his Foot-man the fashion of this world therefore perishing and passing away it should in a true sense be our pastime to acquitt our selves like Heaven-born souls prizing only solidities daily pray for the approach of our Fathers Dominion and our own glory Let no Zelot hence infer a necessity of disturbing or conclude by rage or fury too often termed zeal to foment division or raise discord in the Kingdoms of this world Kings and Princes being Subjects of the first rank and persons of the highest authority in this Kingdom of God and are indeed to kiss the Son yet are not oblidged to do homage to their Subjects how pretendedly holy soever The Elders cast their Crowns before the Throne but yet they are to have their Crowns to wear their Crowns that they may cast them and not be robbed of that Emblem of Soveraignty wherewith their Father hath adorned their brows in so beautiful a way that besides the appellation Father hath for a sirname called himself King of kings the removing of which from their Thrones were therefore robbing God of the glory of one of his Names and of such an one whereof he boasts Innocent and holy zeal is known by these marks 1. If it be according to knowledge 2. If it be fit and adapt for the person in his doing all duties conform to yea sometimes above his ability as the Macedonians were charitable 3. If it cause diligence in the affairs of a mans Calling idlenesse in our own and busie in other mens matters is not zeal but sin 4. If it cause meekness and humility in things relating to a mans self and fervency in what belongs to God 5. If it be more studious of good works then how to uâ—â—avel knotty questions and contentious debates 6. If it bear it self equally according to the weight of the matter it is exercised about to be zealous to tith Mint and sloathful in doing Justice to be angry at a harmless jest and delight in an ill report is not zeal but hypocrisie that rather eyes the supposed saults or infirmities of others then the real vices in a mans self whereas zeal rather respects its own short-comings or over-runnings in duty or converse And lastly it is alwayes attended with grief and sorrow towards the sinner and hath pity for the offender and in matters respecting God useth such means only as
are warranted in his Word In short zeal ought alwayes to be attended with mercy for wanting that it is rather fury then true ardour and by not endeavouring mans bettering is anger and envy which aggravats crimes more highly then Gods Word will warrand by making men offenders for a word and contrary puts more force and obligations upon themselves in some precise points then the Scriptures naturally do impose as the Pharisees did upon the Apostles eating of the ears of corn and upon our Saviour for working miracles upon the Sabbath day About the year of Christ 600 we find in old English this Petition thus paraphrased Thou bring us thy michel bliss the whole prayer being in rime sent from Rome by Pope Adrian a native English to be taught the people and about an hundred years after came it to be almost as now thus Thy Kingdom come to having sayes my Author more care to do well then speak Minion-like how ever we may spell this much that the great blessing of eternal life might be transmitted in the preaching of the Gospel to themselves and to us their posterity was the ardent request of our zealous Ancestours and seeing we hold them not so perfect as our selves in their way of worship let us exceed them in fervency by imploring of our heavenly Father to have his Gospel more and more shining among us and continuing it to us and our successors for ever Thus much for the matter of this Petition the order is discernable from what hath been said it following Hallowed by thy Name in regard that the coming of this Kingdom is the most effectual mean therefore It preceeds also Thy will be done for before his Kingdom be erected his will ought to be obeyed and hearts enlightned and we made subjects of his Kingdom God being then only advanced by us when he ruleth in us as an absolute King and we content to be governed by his Laws c. CHAP. IV. Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven THIS is a Petition goes quite contrary to the hair of nature pressing us to beg for that which of all things is most contradictory to our stuborn humour to will being an inclination and consenting of the mind about the doing of those things which are placed in us or pleasing to us and how contrary the things that are in Gods mind are to those which we ardently wish for the most blocked among mortals who have heard the sound of the Gospel may be sufficiently learned To curb or infringe the freedom of our proper will is to enter in at the strait gate and who will easily be induced to prayfor pressure in a throng to give a full swing and free carreer to proper will is to run in a broad path and who readily will not desire to have ample freedom in his own habitation Yet so it is that Christianity resolving to be Mistris over all mens endowments orders that the will of man how lordly soever shall be brought down and tip-toe it no longer but deliver it self unto her hands to be guided and commanded by the will of God We must observe in general that the will of God and God himself are essentially one for in him to be and to will are not different things his goodness is himself so is his power so is his mercy so also is his will Neither are we to difference the Fathers will from the Sons or Spirit for in themselves there is una charitas one love one purpose and one will Yet the Scripture holds it forth two wayes either properly or improperly that is his proper will which is in himself and is himself which admits of no change or alteration and is called by Divines Voluntas beneplaciti the will of his good pleasure that is improperly or metaphorically his will which we find recorded or marked out unto us in his Precepts or Laws as when a servant is commanded to go buy this or that the words signifie that this is the Masters will or Gods will and therefore called Voluntas signi a sign of his will that is a token whereby we apprehend the doing of this or that will be gratefull to him Thy will be done c. Which will of his we know by his injunctions by his prohibitions by his admonitions by his permissions and by his operations his framing of the world is a sign to us that he willed it to be made his Law of honouring his Name hallowing his Sabbath are signs that he would have these things done of both these wills Moses speaks calling the former secret things but this latter things revealed and is that whereof this Petition doth mainly take care that all doing this will of our Father which is in Heaven may be studious of holiness carefull in duties vigilant against temptations c. We shall search in this as in the other Petitions First into the matter and next into the order thereof In the former our discourse is applied 1. to the subject of it the will of God and that to be done 2. To the place wherein it is desired to be done that is in Earth 3. The rule by which we presse that it may be done that is as it is in Heaven To unsold the extent of his will were an imployment wherein Angels might be excused when declaring ignorance because of its impossibility how much more shall man discover his willingness to avoid so dark an abyss wherein Gods nature his works his eternal contrivance concerning Angels and men his eternity and immutability the fixednesse of all his past and future purposes and all the ineffable products of his unâ—ear â—â—able wisdom locked up in the secret Cabinet of his vast conception are concerned We shall therefore endeavour a view of it by reflection as men behold the Sun in a pool of water and passing-by his advice who in the matter of Gods will would have us pitch on these three things 1. What he will do with us 2. What he will do for us And 3. What he will have us to do We shall accommodâ—t our thoughts mainly to this last it respecting the will of God revealed wherein this Petition is and we aâ—â—o most concerned and in discovery what it looâ—s for from us we shall apply all to the Rule so pray yet as it operats upon his commands his chastisements our selfishnesse and our dulnesse 1. It respects his commands and then thy will be done eyes our obedience The felicity of Kings and the honour of Parents consists in that obedience which ought to be given to their Laws and the glory of Christianity is visible by that subjection the soul chiefly designs to those exact precepts by which God hath signified his will unto it as unto his betrothed his begotten his commands being not only for reading but for living and must be walked in for obtaining that great blessedness
his Preacher and offers up his Prayer Christianity hath its Armour to fight against and overcome the world a true Microscope discovering its blemishes and deformities a Teliscop or prospect approximating Heaven and its glory so near to the eye that the carrion carcase of earths circle irritats the Spirit to have it removed augurating or foreseeing some pestiferous scent arising therefrom may endanger its spiritual health and dead nay damn the soule That being a sure rule of one that never can the spiritual war be upheld if the lusts of the world be not subdued nor the mind contemplat God which meditats on fleshly pleasures the devil by them as by Tubes of Pipes conveying pride to the soul as to Evah envy as to Cain covetousness as to Achab all which is openly renounced and proclaimed against in our receiving the press-money of sacred Baptism It was asked what was piety or who was the pious man It was answered he who worshipped the gods not as a man would himself but as the gods had appointed in their Laws If this was the judgment of Heathens how darest thou in hypocisie take the words of his Covenant or this prayer in thy mouth since God will not only never shake hands with him who hath a lie interwoven in his robes of praise but revenge himself upon all who worship him not in spirit and truth Pretenders to holinesse and simulated services operat for nothing more then inlarging the vails of reserved wrath heating and thickning the same whereby their evacuation must be more formidable and the worshippers more inexcusable that they are judged out of their own mouth God only hearing doers of his will Knowledge being only as light to direct practice and a good disposition salt to season it and free profession is as wine to quicken it yet all without practice are but instruments to destroy it Let his will therefore be done On earth for it must be done there or no where there being no work or labour in the grave whereunto we tend work his will while it is day for the night cometh wherein no man can Reflect but upon natures frailty and how ruinous the edifice of the body is in the sudden dissolutions Fate hath made in others and we shall be enforced to regulate our selves to that Law of working in this our day Philemon died in a laugh Anacreon with one grain of grape therefore the Moralist adviseth that our life be but a learning to live and that spent in teaching to die there being so many pricles about the Rose of our beloved life that our hands bleed as soon as it is felt making the hardiest to cry tempting us to its embrace as did the flowry Aspect of that delectable valley the inchanted Ass in the Fable miserable man in the Mythology but no sooner in it but with furies worse then dogs is poor man set upon and men acting as devils causes the good man to sigh out his day being crossed in his highest enterprise principally from his own weakness and inadvertency every day and next from the asperity or wickedness of others each day grinding him as under the nether-milstone through sorrow enraging him again so high that from the praecipice of passionate resolves he invokes disaster more sad then did Aristarchus who yet starved himself to death to ease the pain of the Dropsie which yet might take more time and procure better preparation by filling the soul with more voluminous contemplation for exact removeal then had Baebeius Pamphilus who died even while asking a boy what it was of the Clock Death in Capital Letters being written in the front of each day and hour which having not so much as one syllable to protract the pronouncing more then day ought every day to expunge the speculation of futurity and conclude there is none to follow yea scarce that we behold since as the above-mentioned Ass we are each day suffering the Strappado of cares and griefs by which it becometh scarce a day because uncomfortable and wearisome suggesting as well as hastning thoughts of departure and dissolution What one sayes of sins remission may be said of times course and motion Now the wicked ceaseth from his vain conversation beholding the path of piety as more eligible that he gain eternal life Now he avoids the fault that he may never feel the smart nunc praeveniat he cometh before the face of God with confession that he may never be separated from him by damnation He doth it now that is while on earth or never On earth it is to be done there because it is only disputed there Disobedience indeed begun in Heaven but it found no entertainment and will never be again admitted Of hell it is said he that is obstinat filthy or unjust let him be unjust still because they must still suffer the will of God as in heaven the pure meek and just Saints are doing the will of God but earth is regnum mixtum hath in it some that obey many that deny and numbers that boggle demurr upon and dispute against or by a carnal neutrality stand in aequilibrio ready to perform Gods will or any other that policy shall account most efficacious for their carnal purposes like that prophane Souldier somewhere who had on one side of his Shield an Image for God upon the other for the Devil with this device if the one will not take me the other will There are three things upon earth that dispute against God and defie his will these are natures pravity the Devils tyranny and the variety of mens affairs 1. Natural pravity this will have us do our own will It was born with us bred with us and went to school with us which makes us lath to deny it any thing If it say as Tamar what wilt thou give me How loath are we to deny it a kid from the flock though God discharge it willing our Sanctification A Child will do much to keep his Bird though it pick him and a man will do more to preserve his will though it sting him 2. The Devils tyranny for he will have us to do his will Heaven he is secluded from and hells inhabitants he is sure of therefore his hopes his feats his threats and arguments against the will of God are in done and urged upon earth And it is evident the will of God is not alwayes done hence therefore this illation is congruous enough that the will of Satan is How soon was Adam wooed to embrace hells doctrine dethrone God and destroy himself for he was not deceived And if Iudas get content he will deliver Jesus into his enemies hands as soon as Satan fills or enters into his heart Neither left he there but is yet so busie so cumbersome so deluding that we are in many places called upon to hear the word of the Lord. 3. The variety of mens
and heathnish bachanalia this making the ballance of our iniquity more ponderous that wee celebrat our Victimes daily against the express Law of that God whom wee pretend to worship I say pretend for really he hath little service our hands being defiled with blood our eyes full of adultery and as it is in the Satyre wee delight so much about the dressing-board and like the nourishment upon it so well that God's Altar is not minded and when approached unto it is to be feared our breath favours of the Kitchin and our cloaths of the Cellar and our heart panting after a strange woman All which I say will certainly have direful effects and cast our body politick into some formidable and dreadful distemper for searâ—h the Scriptures we shall find desolation and sicknesse coupled together in a threat sent to chastise a stuborn and perverse generation and for crying in a sensual sense Our bowels our bowels it may be suggested that for punishment hereof we shall be made in a dispairing temptation to roar Our head our head when Christ our head shall depart from us because of pride uncleannesse uncharitablenesse idlenesse and fulnesse of bread Give us this day our daily bread THe mood in which this prayer is offered in order offers it self for contemplation which for the avoiding of presumption we shall examine in common with the property the bread hath we ask for and that is our bread which properly presseth humility and dependance We say Give us so that here is no bartering no selling nor indeed no returning save that of praise and glory in the conclusion It is give us our bread unto which we may add that of Rachel in her suit for children give it us or else we die The Church once complained that she got her bread with the peril of her life yet here she gets it for asking for asking nay for commanding give us our bread But remembring a Father may condescend to but children ought not to be irreverent to a father especially knowing he is such an one that if we ask for bread will not give us a stone nor a serpent when we demand a fish Give us If this eye God we see his readinesse to hear our complaint at first needing neither preface nor argument if pinched with necessity to adorn our request Christ in earth had compassion on an hungry multitude so he hath in Heaven and such as complain shall have Give us if it eye man shews our confidence in coming with so humble boldnesse to the Throne of his Grace wanting hesitation and doubts which to be intimated in this plain request is as conspicuous as the bread we desire and he that runs to God when hungry shall have a spiritual demonstration of the truth of this observe But to be more particular and reach the ground upon which this Petition is framed that is the proper arguments of our asking from God our dayly bread which are such as these 1. Because be bequeaths the means by which we purchase bread He is the Father of rain and of the dew by whâ—â— the earth is virtuated for production of necessary fruit we living moving and having our being from him as the efficient cause of our animal life of our rational life by which he is nearer to us then we are unto our selves uniting the very â—â—â—insick principles of our essence and by them â—â—using us to move our joynts and change our places for convenient subsistance Yet this must not cause sloath but he that would have bread must manure his ground observe the season applying himself diligently and skilfully to the several parts thereof all which are gifts of God and being apt mediums for obtaining of food the most â—aborious may be said to have not from himself but of God his daily bread 2. Because he gives the blessing even nourishment with bread The coâ—â— may be good the meal â—â—ne the loaf great yet may not be bread to the eater Thou shalt eat saith the Prophet but not be satisfied which though applyed to leaâ—nesse not withstanding of knowledge in the Scripture yet it is better to understand that Caninus appetitus greedy appetite when either the digestive faculty is destroyed in us or the nutritive power taken from the grain which may be that which is called the staff of bread and is ordinarily â—elt in wet years or dayes of famine As David was covered with cloaths yet could get no beat so we may have bread yet want food a medicinal potion yet no ease unless he give a blessing wherefore his goodnesse and co-operating being that right side of the ship out of which we must cast our prayers as nets let us do as he commands otherwise we may toyl all day and catch nothing yea not only so but for bread we shall find a stone and swallow a serpent in stead of a fish 3. Because undeservedly he presents us with bread The very style of this Petition debaâ—s our thoughts of buying or meriting accounted extravagant by this word Give A father will both lodge and sup his son though both wantonly and truâ—ntly he consume the day and God even our Father presents us with comfortable morsels notwithstanding of our lusciousnesse in and lasciviousnesse since excluded Paradise untill our readmitting into the heavenly Garden of God and to the impaled Tree of Life He gave Adam and Evah coats and to both their sons and daughters hath he given change of raiment and many loaves of bread when nothing but stripes might have been dispensed and as he proves himself to be God by giving rain so we may infer him a good God by our breaking of his bread his bounty in which being one of those footsteps wherein we ought to trace him love him and follow him Though our comment and text only mention bread yet our sense and gratitude ought to know that this bread is multiplicated Gods liberality with it giving us a large portion of other good things yea Patrimonies of ample possessions not like that Roman who would not give or endeavoured to hinder the giving wine to the Citizens because with that they would expect more delicate sare as Fowls Geese c. Whereas we from the inexhaustible treasure of his overflowing goodnesse are invited commanded yea incouraged to go to the Wine-presse for our stomacks sake and many infirmities the sweetnesse of which care and condescendence of such a God from the mouth of such an Apostle as Paul from the cheeks of such a trumpeter as the Apostle of the Gentils a song set by the hands of such a heavenly Musician as heard the musick of the third heaven ought to cause reflection upon that No good thing will be withhold 4. Because of that necessity we stand in to have bread Buy it we cannot steal it we dare not and yet it must
moderatus he was so moderate that none could say he did any thing excessively covetously immodestly or unbeseemingly But that was true of Peter Lord we have left all and followed thee lest all in possession left all in affection and it is conjectured that the loving of the things of this world is more hurtful then enjoying of them all which speaks against earnestnesse for superfluities since covetousnesse is not so much as to be named among Saints 5. From the inconveniency or no good they bring to man The abundance of earthly things evidenceth no more a good man then a silk Stocking argues a sound leg yea it were well it they did not harm him more leading tempting causing and multiplying in the soul treasons deceits falshood perjury restlessness and hard-heartedness It is observed that most ordinarily Spectrums Devils or Ghosts are seen it Pits or Mines of Mettal and there to work as other labourers after the Vein to carry Oâ—r winde the Wheel c. and see we not in the hearts of avaritious Pioneers hellish haunters working in them all manner of ungodlinesse for what will they not do and whither will they not go for gain gain gain Septimulius took the head from his friend confident and acquaintance Graccus and carried it through Rome fixed upon a Pole because Opimius Consul promised him Gold It was therefore said of him Ante omnes c. he was the most covetous of men yet had he been in our Christian world this attrocious crime had but numbred him among offenders Riches pierce the soul through with many sorrows saith St. Paul Care in getting fear in possessing grief in departing saith an Expositor Videamus Mark it saith one if men as they grow wealthy grow not hasty sawcy haughty angry iniquity wrapping them about as fat which fat when melting from them by the heat of some sad disaster must needs overwhelm them in despair As appeared in a French Boor who hoording corn for a dearth entring his Garner was so inchanted with the Devil or blinded with vengeance that he could perceive no grain though heaps of it before him for the supposed stealth of which he incontinently hang'd himself But what thought that other Hound who in dearth refusing to sell his Victual when ordered by Authority denying he had any to spare and what he had was scarce fit for Hoggs when his wife was brought to bed of seven young Piggs which were seen saith my Author á multis fide dignis viris by many honest men Yet this argueth not so much against the having as the abusing of riches for the rich in their abundance and the poor in their scarcity possunt salvari may both be happy since they that be sat upon earth shall worship and eat and such as go down to the dust shall bow unto him Neither read we of rich Abrahams being excluded Heaven or of poor Lazarus his being depressed to Hell Neither is this against an holy prudence a foreseeing evil to come for Ioseph laid up Corn and our Saviour had a treasure for ordinary expence In short as Harvesters make provision for the Winter and do store up grain yet causing their care to extend only to the time present so our doctrine opposeth only a care of distrust about what shall be had hereafter not a wise providing or competent provision for a mans self family or relations it being often seen that riches and glory are possessed sine culpa without hurt because used in humility The influence this hath upon Prayer is evident 1. Perseverance in Prayer Bread here is health life safety security and the daily bread insinuats a daily attending before the Throne Davids soul had ordinary as may be supposed three meals a day but in extrordinary dayes as Sabbaths New Moons it had seven teaching us not to permit our souls to languish for want of its due support but as we call daily for bread for bodily strength so for grace for spiritual vigour 2. Reverence in thy getting Be humble not arrogant in thy deportment by eating not wasting thy bread being it is the fruit of thy prayers use it for thy self for it is thine own and what is left is anothers for charity here is reciprocal we call upon God for our bread and he calls again in his poor for his bread so that on all hands we are not to be prodigal or abusers of it Hath not doth not this impious age in its stupendious prodigality consume wastfully what it is indebted to wife family and children exceeding the Israelites who gave but a boy for an harlot and sold a girle that they might drink for they give their Honour their Wife their Children for Wine Wantons Silk and Ale Dorotheus abhorring idlenesse and intemperance did yearly gather stones from the Sea and build a little house for the distressed did eat by weight every day and subdued his body so by labouring and watching that he was demanded why he killed it but he replying said otherwise it will kill me And believe it Reader the pampering the belly in this generation will be the death of many and may in time get empty intrails for a due reward of too gorgeous feeding Anacharsis the Scythian was wont to write about the Pictures of Princes this little yet worthy lesson Rule Lust temper the Tongue bridle the Belly if this be not authority sufficient sure be not filled with wine wherein is excess might be nervously pungent to command sobriety in all ranks And if adultery prodigality stoathfulnesse talk ativenesse inhumanity gluttony unchastity stubornnesse loosenesse covetousnesse lasciviousnesse and seekers after vain and unprofitable things be the sins for which in Scripture poverty is threatned as they are this age hath reason to expect a famine 3. Preparednesse for our removing This day is all we are to care for and how soon our Sun will set is unknown yet its setting ought to creat an earnestnesse in us to have our sins forgiven for it is This day and This day hath mortality frailty and death contained in it Therefore are our lives and all things inconstant here that we should be inflamed with a holy servour to love and desire the fixt and immoveable things above in which sense our dayly bread that is strength and life by the blood of Jesus is industriously to be pursued after 4. Respect for all the 〈◊〉 In prayer remember thy five thy seven brethren Give us our bread includes all men especially our friends and neighbours yea our oxen that they may be strong to labour Pray good and do good therefore unto all it being our good that is our charitable works which keeps our faith that is our hopes of salvation alive Yea as the Devil is delighted with the errors and superstitions of some he is afflicted with the bounty and liberality of others were it
the wise upon his religious son which being ineffectual roared out to the spirits themselves Inducias Inducias O let me alone untill the morning this as a Beacon is set up by an holy man that our lives being more vertuous our death may be more consolatory The death of the prophane is the sadest being ill first in leaving the world which they love worse in their souls removing from the body but worst of all in their being both soul and body adjudged to eternal condemnation It is observed of Egypt that after the flourishing of many famous Churches the Gospel being planted by the Apostles Alexandria it self having the Evangelist Mark Nephew to St. Peter for its Pastor or Bishop yet justo Dei Judiciâ— by reason of their sin the inhabitants being exemplarly wicked full of blasphemy and rape is now without God and generally hath a greater hatred to Christianity then the ordinary Saracens for which they are destined to eternal plagues Let this age know and every man in it fear and stand in awe for what is it Egypt had of ungodliness whereof we have not plentiful examples with this aggravation that we have had of old Christianity and of late great judgments Yet there is a Cautioner a Surety even Jesus who will pay the Creditor unto whom it is alike who pay him for by Christs stripes we are healed he entred into bond yea into prison for us and by rising from the dead the third day he both declared himself to be the Son of God and of his giving satisfaction to the utmost of all that was owing unto him making us thereby free from the Law of sin and death Yet so miserably are we deluded with self and self-conceit that debt is daily contracted by taking up more mercy abusing more time neglecting much grace thwarting many invitations quenching many good motions and by inadvertency falling into numerous temptations which continually call for fresh suits for forgivenesse and consider'd might cause expostulation with sin O peccata O wickednesse how easily dost perswade us to commit thee but with what difficulty do we procure riddance from thee While thou smiles we imbrace thee but while embracing thou art killing us to death and in death Eye the debter and he is so unable that his very soul cannot be full restitution eye the Creditor and he is so inexorable that he will be payed the utmost farthing by our selves or by our Cautioner and his suretyship is to be humbly intreated for for they are our debts and no secret conveyance no private contract can turn them over to another hand Eye the debt it is deplorable there are original debts our parents debts our own debts of childhood ignorance knowledge debts of presumption infirmity against counsel against conscience and against threats debts of the Sabbath of the Week of our Family and of our Neighbour-hood c. debts of our waking of our sleeping of our talking and of our thinking c. offences of the Chamber sins of the Shop and iniquities of the Street so that all of our selves and each man for his brother may cry Innumerable evils have compassed us about and no way for deliverace but by acquittance and no way for that but forgivenesse Over and above reflect upon that magna lenitas great goodnesse infinit patience ineffable mercy and long-suffering God hath shown unto us that we might call for this forgivenesse having this comfortable Scripture I will not remember thy sins Forgive us our debts c. FORGIVE A short word but of large and extended sense much used in Gods promises and oft pressed in the Saints petitions and the word properly signifies a sending back something to the place whence they came Sin came from hell and here the soul would have it remanded to the same land of darknesse As it stands in this Prayer it denotes somewhat which relates to God and somewhat relating to our selves As it respects God it weighs 1. His commiseration of us because of our debts Goodnesse is an ordinary plea with all the holy and they sound that the Lord as a Father pitieth them that fear them that pray And the liere who taught us to pray this Prayer hath promised his Fathers mercy saith a Father mercy cometh ex bonitate Dei purely from goddnesse yet must be drawn from him by innocence vertue and obedience as did Abraham Isaac and Iacob Ioseph Iob and Moses saith another He discovers love in desiring our salvation in euring our wounds in teaching us prayers in pardoning our sins and upbraiding us with our unbelief 〈…〉 there not mercy in the word Father and goodnesse and hope in the word Forgive Manasseh his Prayer and Iudas his Confession were alike but he pardoneth iniquity because he delighteth in mercy In a dearth at Corinth Theocles and others advised Creditors to remit their debts for easing of the poor but being refused he acquitted his own and those who contemned the motion were in invincible rage slain by their debters excited to extremity by poverty and necessity we have fair offers and better conditions both a remission offered and a reward for acceptance of that tender that as the earth expects showres and light from Heaven so man is to expect yea he is called to look up for truth and mercy 2. His aversion detected not to exact those debts What is man but dust what is his birth but loathsome and shameful to himself and at best so contemptible that God might say to Justice Let him alone non dignus est ira Caesaris he is not worthy of my wrath Iob thought of this when he uttered And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one and bringest me into Iudgment 3. His indiminishable possession though he should remit the debt Admit our skin could ransome our life what would he gain or if he freely absolve it what would be his losse Knowing this he puts us neither to call for ease nor time but for a forgiving Accept of the precept by begging a free acquittance and so much the rather that bounty and liberality is to be shew'd quantum potest non idoneis where there is the least hopes of advantage in requital which in our arguing for Heaven is an excellent rule The Roman and famous Alexander would exclaim against his shy yet deserving Courtiers why do you not ask something from me do it that I neither be your debter nor complained of as a slighter of your merit Yet what he gave was neither silver nor gold nor out of his own treasure but bona punitorum the goods or wealth of forâ—eited malefactors c. not diminishing thereby his Revenue Here is a greater Emperour without merit giving of his own requesting of his foes to plead remission of injuries done to himself for their good who have done the injury 4. His dominion or just power to forgive the
evil for evil yea of not for evil good Christianity is so denominat from Christ and the Christian being oblidged to walk as he walked he is to go about doing good healing the very ear of a Malchus and though reviled answered not again as he is called a Ciceronian who imitats a Cicero in his style not otherwise so he is not to be termed Christian who giveth his tongue to evil speaking his heart or hand to revengeful re-acting that being contrary both to the practice and command of Jesus Behold nature her self and this hare-brain'd fâ—llow is condemned should the pile of grass wither when trod upon or every excessive heat creat a fever in the body or should the heavens thunder at every overclouding what â—â—ights would be in the world As Chirurgions have unguentum Basilicon to cause matter so they have Apostolicum to cleanse the wound Album to expel the heat and Desiâ—â—â—tiuâ—m rubrum to dry and skin it As there are provocations to choller so there are Gospel documents which as spiritual Artists we must have ever in readinesse to apply to the place affected for curing as proper medicaments for the souls ease That advice of one Philosopher is good that when any reports thee to have been slâ—ndred say thy adversary knew not all thâ—y vices or then he had not spoke â—o little and though the world talk of honour and courage magni animi est injurius despicere It is the symptome of a large and noble soul to despise contempt or disdain revenge said another Philosopher albeit he knew not at least prosessed not the Gospel nor perchance ever saw that of the wise King he that is slow to anger is better then the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit then he that taketh a city for he sub dueth himself and possesseth himself the greatest vertue among morals It was among the Scythians a mark of insamy and dishonesty if any man had not killed some man where this bâ—dge was put upon innocency among Barbarians how mutually would they go about and prey upon one another to purchase reputation but good men detesting the procurements of such honour entails same upon themselves and their successors by their warrinesse of goring their conscience imputing it grandour to be affraid of sin and reputation to walk without offending God In that Dialogue betwixt Philosophy and her Beloved it was held as a sound advice in point of calmnesse of spirit of one Canius who being informed of a conspiracy against himself answered if I had known it I had not told it you Not to presse this on all four or every way Christianity dischargeth credulity to slanderous reports orders a check and no more to be owing the relater Moses the meekest man of the earth could bear personal calumny and before him Isaac only pleaded but scolded not for his wells and after them Paul wished no more hurt to his â—oes but that they were as himself in every thing his bonds excepted It is true these Diamonds had their flaws these Pomgranats their rotten kernels David curses and Sampson prays for the ruine of the Philistines yet these Prophetick impulses are not to be the ordinary Standart of our converse with men for Paul though sharp to Elymas prayed over the Jaylor as though he had never scourged him he gave place to wrath and adviseth like a good Preacher a good practitioner to be followers of him as he follows Christ who is maximè imitabilis most to be followed 1. For piety 2. For zeal 3. For humility 4. For patient suffering 3. From the obstruction the contrary vice bears to goodness that being by it hindered Sullenness and rancour impeding prayer from having entrance into the earâ— of Heaven the Laws whereof requiring prayer to be maâ—e every where without wrath implying frequency in that duty and composednesse of mind at it evidenceth this conclusion bottomed upon infallible verity for if Family-contentions prove obstacles to Family-duty shâ—ll not that particular Petition be doomed by men to be condemned by God whose flames are excited by the billows of fury envy hatred and passion and not by those of the Sanctuary charity love and concord The same is to be said of Sacraments spleen hindering thereby spiritual influx 〈◊〉 how can they be beneficial to him who not only is not injured but himself by ill-wishing is injurious to his brother Not to reflect it is to be feared many of our supplications because of this vanisheth into air and Sermons become unprofitable because of this unfruitfull work of darknesse malice for 〈◊〉 home understand Reader the Basis or Ground-stone of Gods forgivenesse is fixed only on the ground of thy brotherly forgiving And in spiritural conflicts allow hatred to plead its old supposed plea viz Love not him who walk's contrary to thee who derogats frâ—m thee who complains of thee and insults over thee Let love reply That the love of Christ constrains me and that quam diu so long as I keep at distance from man in point of charity so long detain I from my self the good of all my sacrifices and make my prayers yea the praying of this Prayer do me more hurt then good so much the more as this command is easie I am prone to conjecture should Christ have said Fast pray read fight kill burn and lie and be forgiven there are in this age had embraced the doctrine but to forgive is durus sermo an hard saying and cannot be digested It were some excuse if any lived and transgressed not for in many things we offend all and as a stone cast into the water creats a circle and that another and a broader so anger if tolerat will naturally kindle a fire in one mans breast which shall blow up anothers into a flame which may endanger an house and that a street and that a town and therefore happy is he first stifles it in the hearth of his own bosome lest by its heating the flesh of another be scorched in his re-offending or tart replying There was a breach made of the Kings peace in the Kings own house after the cruel servant had imprisoned his fellow for an hundred pence that is in our coyn three pound two shillings sterling when his Lord had forgiven him ten thousand talents which in our vulgar account is eighteen thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds sterling six thousand times more then was owing him yet charged upon him afresh though poor for not having mercy upon his debter when humble The stormiest man in his age it seems was Celius who was so testy though an Orator that at his own Table he avoided peace and there meeting one for patience was offended checking his guest with an aliquid contradict oppose me in something that we may discourse as if quietnesse and calmnesse in conferring had made his Table solitary yet
both power to do it and it is just so to do In every trespasse there are two offences and consequently two offended God and Man As it eyes God it is called a sin which he can only forgive as it eyes Man it is called an injury and in that sense men may must and ought to forgive it Ita si spolietur homo a man is robbed here is theft a sin against God a loss sustained here is a trespasse against man the first God only can pardon man the other Trespasse is thought to come from Trans passus as if to offend were to go over the hedge of the Law which when done Ergo pro me proximus pro se I for my self and my neighobour for his self lcan forgive and Preachers of the Gospel can forgive that is Ministerially but to do it Authoritatively is proper only to God and to do it charitably common to all and required of all Phocion that famous Greek being unjustly and by execrable ingratitude condemned to die by poyson was demanded if he had any fatherly advice to leave his son gave this that his death should never be revenged by him upon the Athenians here is a Heathen shewing us how to pardon and how to distinguish Gods act and mans in this vertue of remitting Yet have a care that they be they own debts which thou remittest not acting the part of a busie-body in other mens matters whereunto thou art not called or related Paul who had much charity yet did not give but beg forgiveness of Philemon for his run-away-servant The last reflection is touching Malefactors of whom it may be enquired whether when at the place of Execution we hear them forgive their Judges Accusers Apprehenders we may conclude Gods remitting unto them the sin for which they die Most certain it is that these words are added as a rule and afterwards added as a precept and here urged as a reason why God should forgive us implying in all that forgivenesse is blessed with forgivenesse and God will never be wanting to the execution impoletion or fulfilling of his own promise It is true forgiving in a perfunctory heedlesse or heartless way or for some friend whom we love or respect or for hope of some advantage or fear of greater mischief or out of a lumpish dedolent and stupid way it cannot have much weight But contrary if it flow from a fruit of that Spirit which worketh repentance for his sin against God and dewed with the tears of contrition for the same and pardoning man thereupon for his concurrence in apprehending for condign punishment Let me see such a thief and to die to day saith one and I dare say that this night he shall be with Christ in Paradise Reader suffer a word of exhortation And 1. Smooth not thy debts It were a foolish thing to extenuat and conceal them when forgiving will pay them all Hell cannot be washed with Spanish white neither will God suffer sin to go apparell'd in Silver Cloath say with David pardon mine iniquity for it is great Praying here for the imputation of Christs righteousnesse and against the imputation of our own offences both quoad culpam paoenam as to their guilt and punishment it were an improsperous course to sue a pardon from their paucity or smalnesse from him especially who accepts us most heartily when we conclude our condition most desperat 2. Clear not thy debts Notwithstanding of asking crosse not presently thy conscience as if thy businesse were immediatly done who hath a suit at Court must wait untill his Petition be signed and by the Master of Requests returned 3. Curse not thy self There is in this Prayer a mercy said to be given to thy brother if there be a lie here is a fearful execration against thy self saith thou not Forgive as I forgive Now beware and take heed for etiam per quod orat accusat thou art accusing thy self saying Lord as I purpose never to forget this injury to revenge this losse so revenge thy self upon me for ever and forgive me as I forgive others therefore quantum velis or quaris as much mercy as thou wishes or desires to thy self shew to thy brother For mark here is one word copulative not in the Prayer before and after which followeth Forgive us as we forgive shewing that with the same earnestnesse wherewith we are carried to seek after the things of this life as daily bread or that other as remission of sin we have already pardoned our brother I say already for God will trust neither our promises nor our charity but will have us be reconciled to our Brother before we come to him for reconciliation otherwise our supplications are so much the more damnable as the condition upon which they stand is the more feasable for scio sane sine difficultate said a Father pressing charity that command may without difficulty be obeyed where nothing is commanded but what is within the possibility of the party enjoyned The reciprocal offices of Husband and Wife Parents and Children Master and Servant Neighbour and Kins-man can hardly be performed without flaws and ruptures quarrels debates and breaches which by amity must be filled and ended again by a proceeding in the duties and making progress in the offices answering those relations where the trespass at least destroyes not the relation as that of Adultery in the case of Marriage In all which si dimiseris if thou forgive the injuries committed against thee it is comely and it doth become thy Father in Heaven to forgive thee thy sins committed against him Thy sins though as was Davids they be great that is in number more then the sand in weight as a heavy burden great in cry reaching up to Heaven in continuance for they have endured since thy mother conceived thee in her womb yet he can scatter them as a cloud and cause them to flee away To flee away but in his own due time he may be angry at the prayers of his people yea at our prayers and may order this dropping Summer to lay our Feathers wash our Paint and make our strength to fail yet continue saying Forgive us our debts and be assured to hear Thine inlquity is done away c. Let this suffice for the matter of this Petition the method and order thereof followeth which is this We have this and another next that for our daily bread indicating that bread ought not to be so delicious or any natural delicate to be so zealously sought for as those Celestial refreshings assurance of pardon and guidance from and in temptation Moreover t is apparent that all worldly wealth contained in the word bread are frustraneous ineffectual for procuring or interpreting us to have blessings from God if unto these remission of our sin be not annexed here pleaded for by arguments from the
lesse to the greater that our bread may indeed be bread and give us strength in our bodies and marrow in our bones And to close the sinner is called upon to be humble he is commanded to forgive that he may cleanse his conscience and promised forgivenesse that he may live in hope and with reverence be it said made as it were a god unto himself his own conditions being left unto the penitent to discern what he pleaseth God purposing to do the same and decree to him what he appointed to be done to others Put on therefore as the elect of God bowels of mercies kindnesse humblenesse of mind meeknesse long-suffering forbearing one another even as Christ forgave you c. CHAP. VII And lead us not into temptation THE Doctrine taught in this Chapter and in this part of this exact plat-form of pertinent Prayer is with pathetick reasons urged by our Saviour upon his Triumvirat the chief three Disciples Peter Iames and Iohn beholders as of his Transfiguration of his Passion while in the Garden where they are roused in the sense of this Petition Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation what was there disallowed viz. slumbring and sleeping is here provided against viz. not being led into temptation For the attempting the discovery of the equity of the counsel and necessity of the duty we shall speak of the Matter then of the Order of this Petition In the Matter these things are manifestly necessary to be discussed 1. The nature kinds and degrees of temptation 2. What it is to be led into temptation 3. The great evils of being so led 4. Resolve some questions concerning Gods leading men into temptation Temptations are either inward as natural lusts within us or outward as tryals brought upon us and these are either of probation for to prove us as God is said to tempt Abraham that is to try him or of Seduction to deceive us as the Serpent tempted Evah and are either from the Devil as in the same case or from the Flesh as was the adultery of David or from the world as was the covetousnesse of Achab in the case of Naboths vineyard They are said again to be either on the right hand when in a â—awning way we are flattered our of obedience in hopes of some comfortable reward as our Saviour was offered the world and in story Moses the crown of Egypt or on the left when like the north-wind in the Fable there is hard blowing and danger presented in case of refusal as was the temptation of Iob and of Paul who by buffetings of Satan was frighted had it been possible for it may be literaly understood from being zealous in the Gospel Now we praying in the third Petition that the will of our Father be done in earth as it is in Heaven temptations from him are not absolutly here prayed against but with submission to his will as our Saviour pleads the removal of the bitternesse of his passion but such as lead to deceive seduce cheat or destroys us are here deprecated against as leading to evil as David did against covetousnesse It would be remembred that properly God tempts no man but he is said in Scripture to tempt as he is said to be angry quia operatur instar irati when he appears unto man as if he were angry thus he led Israel fourty years in the wildernesse to prove him and know what was in his heart an expression after the manner of man putting men to tryal to the touch-stone to know their friendship or their kindnesse But of this afterward Lead us not into temptation that is of the flesh lest we be swallowed up by pleasure of the world lest we be burned by lust of the Devil lest with him we be damned for our iniquity and this prayed for after the great concernments of Heaven in which our confidence is inwrapt but in this our natural infirmity and weaknesse is acknowledged our inability to support our selves being involved in lead us not in temptation Satan not daring to assault us though he unjustly desire it but when God for just causes doth allow him I say Satan quia proprium est ejus officium tentare it being his property nature and practice to tempt and seduce to evil wicked men but as the serpent being his instruments The word is Peirasmon whence it is thought cometh the word Pirat in regard tempters do try whether by force or fraud by guns or false colours to search and betray the party designed into their own power and management which is so eminent in Satan that he is called the Tempter by all wayes and subtility as a pirat searching for mans destruction So that temptation in its just latitude is a searching or trying after something yet to us unknown for the commendation or destruction of the party tempted Here it is to be understood ad aliquid illicitum to some unlawful act that we may be freed therefrom or from any snare laid by the Devil world or lust against us Temptation being that handmaid in all our habitations appointed and hired by the Devil for to open the door of our hearts when he knocks to give us a visit in our quarters To detect particularly how each of our enemies hath his own Art and peculiar Stratagems adapted for his slie purpose in courting us to affect unlawful pleasure or the contrived methods or each Anvil he hath to compell us into yea frame us for debauch'd and illegal actings were too intricat for the quickest apprehension The world hath gold for an Achan a Sacrifice for Cain the Flesh can give an argument for the Stoick and both Flesh and the World hath a Damsel for Peter and a Bathsheba for David and for Evah a goodly apple in all which the hand of the Devil as of a Ioab is evidently seen Temptation hath generally in it Vision Attraction Inescation the first stirs up to watchsulnesse the other discovers weaknesse the last excites to repentance 1. Vision stirring us up to watchfulnesse It presents usually man with something that is pleasant like Rachel fair to look upon Evah saw that the tree was good for food Iudah saw her and thought she had been an Harlot Sampson went to Gaza and saw there an Harlot and Schechem saw her and he took her and lay with her Let experience be interrogat and there is scarce any imaginable distance between looking upon and liking of sin Hence Iob made a covenant with his eyes sin being as fatal as the serpent Aspedigargon causing the immediat death of him who turneth unto it which to prevent in lead us not into temptation we pray with David turn away our eyes from beholding vanity We are commanded to flee fornication Let it be affixed to each sin or trespasse of this age and let us say flee wantonness flee drunknesse flee swearing flee
the Neuter hurts and dangers it may be sensed the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being sometime demonstrative pointing at a special one and other times indefinit for any one and in such a summary as our Lord here intended we may comprehend its meaning to be deliverance from all evil in the bulk and Satan as the chief A Spanish Gentleman and noctivagant or a night-walker rising in his sleep through excessive heat intending to wash in the River was met by one pretending the same businesse but tempted him to cast himself from a high bridge into a very deep place into which the tempter was already vapouring the Dons seet no sooner touched the water then he awoke and calling upon the other for help was frustrat perceiving it an evil spirit after prayer to God shifted as he could avoided the danger and guarded for the future against such extravagancies and the Devils going about to devour hath made the Religious of old urgent and vigilant to escape captivity and we in this age have no reason to be too secure though upon beds of Down From evil that is hell the place of evil in Heaven all is good on earth there is some good but in hell no good Iudas is said to go to his own place that â—is to which he was adjudged his merits worthily casting him from the Apostolat of which in and by his hypocrisie he only keep'd possession from which place worse then that wherein he died which yet as is said was so stinking that men were forced to stop their noses through unwholesome scents we beg here freedom from our Father setting him viz. Our Father in the preface in opposition to that evil one here begging his good against the others evil opposing person to person things to things a Father to a Foe Behold this evil through the prospect of Scriptural threats and exhortation and an evil example and an evil death is easily perceptible all the Law and Prophets by a Father is summed up in this viz to eschew evil and do good but Drunkards Blasphemers Idolaters Iews Turks seeking still to debauch there is strength to resist their solicitations violence their frauds and their enticements here prayed for that though men accept favour from such which yet ought not to be done saith some yet certainly no kindnesse ought to lure us unto encouraging them in unholy performances There is a people near unto Armenia called the Curdi whose Barbarous cruelty especially to Christians hath circumcised their country and made it be called terra Diaboli Devils land and it is to be lamented that so much of the European continent or indeed so many of its Islands may be thought to be governed by the same Soveraign yet how prevalent soever that Fiend be to prevent the spreading of his dominion as well as restricting the exorbitancies thereof yea for repelling its force and nullifying its being we pray in deliverance from evil Not only this but a peaceable departure and removeal is here beseeched the death of the uncircumcised or to die by the hands of a stranger being a curse yea not to die the common death of all men or a mans own death being both sad and dangerous is by all men except inconsiderat deprecated under the notion of evil fire water and sudden death being comprehended therein in the judgement of a learned Interpreter A Scholler quarrelling with one of his companions over night in the night in his sleep entered the others Chamber and slew him returning still asleep into his own bed declaring next day he dreamed he had slain his Comrade Here was temptation and evil both done and suffered yet such Reader as may befall both me and thee which should make us pray against evil whether in its causes or in its occasions whether for our selves or others It not being deliver me but Vs from evil without which charity neque multa neque magna the doing many things the doing great things being not good things availeth nothing but let it be still remembred that the greatest Evil viz. the evil of sin is to be guarded against sicknesse poverty death having no such bitter influences on the Conscience or on the Soul as transgression hath for how pleasant soever it seem to flesh it shall be toylsome burdensome and tormenting we read even of sowre honey such is sin of heavy sand but evil is heavier for that will rest at Earths Center but the other presse to Hells bottomlesse bottom therefore most to be prayed against and feared upon our Earth that from it by the power of our Father in Heaven we may be delivered and made watchful against it I say watchful for to pray against evil yet study to do evil is bold impiety and shall end in mischief It is 〈◊〉 â—he Iesuits have a Law secluding women from their Colledges and if any through the Porters inadvertence enter the dust upon which she trod is to be gathered and extruded the gates lest they be defiled to preserve chastity is good and to fear evil is happy but to avoid sin the Heart more then the Earth is to be heeded and the soul of man rather then the sole of the shoe is to be respected and praying rather then such fooling is to be used as a proper antidot and remedy against sin or evil But deliver us from evill THE pernicious consequences of sin and evil are so numerous that nature it self prompts natural men to endeavour an escape but freedom from the tincture and stain of vice is more earnestly pressed by the spiritually intelligent yea in fear or in case of sloath the Doctrine is feelingly urged upon all Saints by the Lord of glory in many Scriptures particularly in this Petition deliver us from evil that is from the Devil the Author and prompter to evil being old in wickednesse so skilfull in allurements that man with his carnal weapons cannot defeat him in his invisible assaults and therefore cry for deliverance which Petition that we may learn let us examine into the extent of the word deliver and next the use thereof It is as broad as evil as long as the day it is not à tali vel tali deliverance from this or that evil as Peter from drowning Sampson from thirsting but absolutely from all from any evil whether of temporal spiritual or of eternal concernment The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying two things 1. That we be preserved from falling into evil next that we be liberat out of the evil wherein we have fallen he trusted in God said the Jews let him deliver him and this deliverance our Father doth command four wayes 1. By renewing our natures through grace he washeth us by the blood of his Son which purgeth us from our innate pollution delivers us from the evil of a defiled soul hard heart dead
beyond all ordinary rules a lesson more then our Masters can pierce or construe I say since he for ever lives to punish us for ever in case of disloyalty let us for ever be obedient Some learned men during the Council of Basil a time wherein the world was turned a School and every soul a learned Disputant walking in and about a Wood debating about the questions of that age heard and saw an unusual if not prodigious bird its sweetnesse was so inchanting that it was suspected and conjured and then it declared it self to be a soul condemned in unto that Wood untill the great day after which it was to suffer eternal plagues then taking wing cryed saying O quam diuturna est aeternitas O how long is eternity O how immense is eternity all suddenly sickned and in few dayes after died who beheld it Melanchton judged it to be a Devil inhabiting the place But whatever it were the relation may admonish us in this litigious age wherein qâ—estions are started of no weight yet pursued with scorching â—eat to retire from the throng of disputes into our selves and mind eternity for by well-doing and upright living shall we only live happily with our Father which is in Heaven an â—pellation in the Preface settling us in love as thine is the Kingdom Power and Glory fixeth us in confidence in the Conclusion For ever CHAP. X. Amen IF the structure of this Prayer be like to Solomons Temple the Preface as the Porch the Prayer like the holy place the Conclusion like the most holy we shall in it assimulat Amen to the glory of the Lord in a cloud which being the last breath of this first and perfect Prayer cometh last to be considered 1. In its original and nature 2. In its place and order It is signaculum orationis Dominicae the seal of this and of all other prayers yet forsooth hath the misfortune with its companions to be thrust from the Codex of the Gospel as being inserted into the Evangelist not from our Saviours lips but from the custom of the Church as if every thing which is not in Luke or Mark must be ejected Iohn and Matthew where Amen is to be sound this Prayer being sent as an Epistle to our Father closed by Amen and given to be presented by the graces of Faith and Charity upon command It is sometime put before a sentence and so is a note of confirmation ordinarily translated verily and in the New Testament imports that expression As I live in the Old but here it is in the close as in the execrations of the Law and is doubled by the Psalmist in blessing the Lord from everlasting to everlasting Amen and Amen that is Amen in the heart Amen in the mouth demonstrating the union of these two in this one duty of blessing God It is a Iew by birth and speaketh Hebrew in the Laconick style yet its ingenuity and noble converse its candor and comprehensivenesse hath procured for it self that freedom to be denized in all Nations and all in each Nation speaking the same Language saith Amen and is either imperantis of command or confirmantis of assuring or precantis of desiring and is generally and was of old annexed to Prayer and Praise except that it was impiously because out of scorn laid aside by Humorists as though the saying of Amen had not been a Gospel-precept It groweth upon the Hebrew root Aman which by interpretation signifieth to nourish and by degrees as by bearers blooms on a branch signifying truth and fixednesse and the truth is Amen hath nothing of flatulency or windinesse but nourisheth every soul that by holy discretion prepares a Conscience for its receiving It is not interpreted by Expositors here Nec Graeâ—us Interpres ausus est neither dare they yea the verity is they cannot there being no Language to expresse its full sense and in Scripture having different significations being taken 1. Substantively 2. Assertively 3. Optatively 1. Substantively and then it signifieth Christ himself These things saith the Amen that is the Truth he being prima veritas the first and the last and by Amen he gives a reality to what he hath spoken because in him all the promises are yea and Amen In the word Father the Trinity is implyed the first Person only expressed in Amen the second is contained and these are one with the Spirit Hence one promiseth I resolve never te leave Amen out of my Prayer since it is as much as Christ which one sound from the heart is able to procure Godsâ—blessing on all our askings importing For Christs sake have mercy and hear O Heavenly Father 2. Assertively and then it is a note of Attention translated often Verily for what is in one Text Amen or Verily is in the parallel Text Amen or of a truth as if Christ should have said I speak it not rashly but certe profecto si fas est dicere juratio ejus est it is indeed his Oath so to speak As I live Amen Verily there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God And in the Prophet it is said he who blesseth or sweareth in the earth shall blesse or swear by the God Amen or of truth 3. Optatively and then it is a note of wishing Blessing and thanksgiving and honour said the Angels be to our God for ever and ever Amen and may in this sense be expounded fiat or So-be-it a word short of Amen's extent and is but a corner of it yet used by many of late with us as thought more perfect and significant though Amen is reverent and gray-headed and venerable through all ages under the Law by Moses used in point of jealousie and in point of exaction by Nehemiah that it like the last stroak of an heavy Bell might bumme in their ears who had offended It ends all the Epistles the third of Iohn and that of St. Iames excepted and is the last word of the Bible and one way or other Fifty times used in the New Testament It is acutely observed that the mystery of the Iews conversion is herein touched the whole Prayer being Greek this Amen only Hebrew hinting though obscurely that the Greeks that is the Gentiles shall speak the language of Canaan and that the Iews shall be conducted unto Christ the Amen these two by our Father being united in him who is the truth the way the life and the AMEN Let Amen respect Christ it is nota fiduciae of affiance regarding all his offices expecting with confidence deliverance by him as our King Instruction as our Prophet and remission of sin as our Priest yea indubitanter it is unquestionable he would not have us scruple the obtaining any thing we demand because next Amen he saith if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will
pardon but Gedd replyed Dico tibi I shew thee because thou refrainest not from the house of that prosane wretch thou shalt for thy punishment die in it which fell out accordingly the Earl and others treacherously killing the King at a solemn treat Pyrrhus Sons demanding to which of them he would leave his Kingdom Answered To him who had the sharpest sword Let the swords either of Gideon or of God be viewed Gods is the sharpest and therefore to be most â—eared of all who believes the coming of that Judge who commands his Anointed not to be touched By Baptism the Professor takes pay from Jesus as the Captain of his salvation and by scandalous behaviour he as it were runs from his Colours and by censure is he brought back and placed again in his rank that men beholding may fear and say that God is in her viz. the Church of a truth As Lycon the Philosopher had Ambitio pudor shame and honour to goad his Schollars forward in the practice of vertue so the Church hath honour and a Rod to excite to good behaviour restraining the vicious and encourageing the vertuous 4. By finishing and perfecting the just number of the Elect. Scripture sheweth that the Kingdom of glory shall not come untill the number of these appointed for Salvation be compleated not to speak of that great mystery of the Jews blindnesse untill the fulnesse of the Gentiles be brought in the Elect whether Jew or Gentile are gathered 1. At their natural dissolution 2. At Christs publick manifestation 1. At the Saints natural dissolution Every soul here uncased and divested of the body is a stone added for the perfecting of that house which is above and when the Quarry of eternal appointment hath been hewed out by the Gospel and fitted by death the roof is laid on and the work is finished for time shall be no more and Graces government over the soul is perfected then in glory If that Prayer be a reall History which is recorded for Ieroms and in his works which he made a little before his death for hastning of his glory how pithy is it but the Conclusion much more comfortable there appearing on a sudden after his communicating so beautiful and glorious a light in his Chamber that the sick could hardly be seen and a voice heard saying Come my beloved the time is now wherein thou art to receive a reward for these labours which manfully thou hast undergone for me to which he replyed Behold I come Lord Iesus unto thee receive my soul which thou hast redeemed with thy blood which words though thus uttered by him are still expressed as oft as we say Thy Kingdom come Not that death is to be simply called for or out of impatience as did Iob or Ionah but as Moses desired a sight of God but could not perfectly get it untill he went up to die so we are to understand that Pauls Cupio dissolvi his desire to depart upon saving knowledge is the most speciall comfortable text to a man in his departing said a reverend Prelat in his own Funeral for know we not that every day we breath here we lose one days sight of heavens beauty which we may justly pray to see not to alter Gods purpose but to manifest our longing desire 2. At Christs publick manifestation At Jesus his coming in the Clouds with the train of his holy Angels who are to gather his elect from the four winds from one end of Heaven to the other the dead in Christ rising first then those that are alive caught no all allarmed by a mighty shout with the voice of the Archangel and Trump of God shall the accomplishment of the full â—â—lly or number of the elect be finished At which time the Saints of their prayers of this prayer shall say consummatum est it is come the Kingdom is come the King of glory comes Arise let us go hence and enter into our Masters joy for the Kingdom is come c. But alas how unprepared are we for its coming for the dead consciences scandalous lives malitious complotters the medlers or busie-bodies about other mens matters the hatred and envy that appears in the actions of too many professing Christianity may cause remembrance of that old complaint sine Martyrio persequeris thou persecutes without blood-shed and thou kills under the mask of Religion and thou destroyes the saith of Christ by speaking of him c. This Kingdom hath come before day as upon Iacob and Iohn the Baptist before they were born and at the dawning of the day as upon Samuel and Timothy at noon-tide of the day as on Paul and Elisha and sometimes at the setting of the Sun as upon the converted thief but as it were dark night with us we sleep and fatten in our sins neither fearing nor desiring our Lords coming and though it be come to our Iudah this part of the world yet as the Gergesens we seek by our carefulness its removeal from us Be intreated therefore to throw away our old sins while we have time wash away our spots unravel the knots of our lives study purity that the King may have pleasure in our beauty and let us be the more earnest that the coming of our Lord is nigh He stood before the doors in St. Iames his time we have reason now to apprehend he is is half over the threshold In thy Kingdom come we shew eagerness to be under his dominion subject to his power censured by his Gospel yet by our carnal divisions we evince our aversness unto all and certainly by Amen we confirm our hearts in their rebellion against his Supremacy refusing to be under him for though both Devils and sinners be under the Dominion of God yet because they will not obey they are not said to be in his Kingdom We also bewail in it our straitnesse This world is a prison at best but an Inn wherein the beautifulest Chamber even a Kings presence is so incumbred we may say of it as Seleucus of his Crown that if people knew the vexations under it they would not deign to list it from the ground yet our deeds make apparent that this world is our rest and our choice not the Kingdom of our God having no respect to its government evident in the loosness of our lives and scandalousness of our divisions O God thou hast hardened our hearts against thy fear turn thy self to us again bless our provision satisfie thy poor with bread and cloath thy Priests with righteousnesse that thy Saints may shout for joy expecting the new Ierusalem coming down from God out of Heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband Thy Kingdom come THere are three graces mainly to be exercised in our petitioning viz. Charity Humility Fervency the first is found in each Line Word
Syllable of this Prayer yea the very Preface of it Our Father is cloathed with Charity the second is equally conspicuous acknowledging our poverty in the fourth Petition our iniquity in the fifth our infirmity in the sixth c. We shall in the close of this Petition speak of the third and discover the zeal that ought to possesse the heart of the supplicant affixing this unto Thy Kingdom come yet ought it to be understood as appended unto Thy will be done Too much remissnesse and again over eager earnestnesse being equally offensive we shall discover the zeal we speak of the Arguments for it and Cautions concerning it Zeal being a hot impetus or warm affection heating the soul for practising duties governed by sound knowledge and right reason is included in the word Kingdom amplified by the Pronoun Thy and therefore vehement in our wishings and longings for its coming the very word Zeal denotes affections to be as fire that of the Pharisees earnestnesse to compass Sea and Land for a Prosylite was great no good zeal but if pitched upon the right object and mannaged with due circumstances as the love of God heeding the Word of God enflamed with a solicitous care for its advancement and attended with an innocent and holy hatred against its opposers as in David it is both good and great and in Paul it is both great and good It is composed of Love Fear and Anger in this Petition the love of God and the love of man the fear of his own weaknesse and the desire of the down-fall of Satans Dominion is clearly to be beheld It eyes chiefly the propagation of divine glory the Churches edification Satans destruction and the extirpation of all wicked Hereticks and sinners and ought to be in us not only at our prayers but in the whole course and practice of our lives being in every thing a zeal for Gods glory and our own and our Brothers good ought to be in us God hating dulnesse upon the one hand as well as rashnesse on the other Much of this Kingdom S. Paul possessed yet he reached forward unto those things that were before knowing only this that he made proficiency daily the world not yet being ended he pressed forward possessing the things he believed if not in re yet in spe not having them in possession though in reversion he endeavoured an intuition hating that Diagor an-like spirit now in man who declared he knew not whether there was a God or not and if there were was also ignorant of what nature he was With us dulnesse and carelessenesse of many in the affairs of God publisheth their uncertainty of the being and next of the quality of this Kingdom whereas he is only zealous who truly and soundly that is assuredly is acquainted with heavenly matters which in relation to this Kingdom every soul ought to be because of Safety Beauty Charity and our Dignity 1. Our safety for in his Kingdom there is no enemy Here every bramble-lust puts in for dominion over us excited thereunto by the old serpent whereby the spirits of the meek themselves are kept in a perpetual commotion to be liberat from which body of death and freed from that Law of sin consequences of the coming of this Kingdom the devout soul hath active considerations for its fruition and enjoyment Themistocles concluded that the knowledge of having a good neighbour might enhance the price of his house set to sale and the Countrey-fellow hath a Proverb we can live without our Friend but not without our Neighbour What a Countrey must that be where all are good Neighbours and not one evil among them Here we are not to trust in a Brother nor to put confidence in a Guide being sure either of guilt fear or danger every Adam having his Evah and she her serpent yea Iesus himself is not without a Herod who seeks his life But in that other Kingdom we have Christ that true Friend and Brother reigning over us the Forts of Satan our foe being battered and the dominion of Death our terrour being finished and the plotted-for place of Hell our torment being eternally secured from As Labienus at a treaty betwixt Cesar and Pompey cryed out so may the believer say of peace in this world Let us leave off speaking of peace or thinking of a truce untill we have Cesars head that is Satans head bruised and untill his dominion be overthrown 2. Our Stature is in his Kingdom that is our beauty What Zacheus among us by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature The Ark was a Cubit and half high shadowing that imperfection and â—railty attends our gifts and graces and as Children when we want who among us can do more then cry It is true that Noah was perfect but it was in his generation but in the Kingdom of God we shall be perfect men according to the stature of the fulnses of Christ. A Moralist required youth to have Temperance in the soul Silence upon their tongue and Modesty upon their face yet over and above a parent would have his Child have stature and shall we be zealous for Childrens comeliness and tepid in seeking our own perfection which can never be acquired but at the coming of this Kingdom and being with Enoch Candidats for Heaven and Students of Eternity ought we not to affect being Doctorat and set in the Chairs of everlasting bliss It was a shame for the Corinthians that after so much teaching as Paul gave them they remained still babes and not able to bear strong meat It is a note of our childishnesse in the affairs of God yea and somewhat worse that we do not in a holy emulation of the glorified Saints give all diligence if it be possible to attain the resurrection of the dead that is as perfect now as the glorified Saints are in Heaven and denotes causa excitandi studii nostri how we should be stirred up to aim at the same degree of perfection 3. Our Brethren are all in his Kingdom where is our charity Above us are all our Fathers Sons and about us are Adam's posterity the former edgeth our desire to be with them the latter fills us with fear and care for them that they also may be happy the first hath from our Father of the hidden Manna the new wine we have a portion of his bread i. e. the good Word of God but having brethren who hath not heard of the last and hath no prescience of the first and worshipping ignorantly an unknown God brings upon their souls swift destruction we are to have their names upon our heart when we stand before the Lord that unto them also might be given Repentance unto life The legal Priest who was of the sons of Aaron was to have fire alwayes burning upon the Altar before the Lord so the Evangelical also who