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
Lord and therefore let us stand upright and not flectere ad ima as bowed down behold the things of this carnal and perishing world lest we be accounted unfit to approach unto or enter in the Kingdom of God Exoneremus ergo let us therefore cleanse our hearts from the contagion of unclean cogitations and fit our selves for a daily offering up unto Christ prayer and praise as Priests separated by the Spirit for that good work and office and particularly to offer bread I mean the remembrance of the whole Tribes the whole earth for their good It was Sauls question whether the promise or hopes of fields or vineyards made his Guards not inform him of Davids supposed conspiracy and consederacy with Ionathan and truly the largeness excellency the Vineyards and fields the riches and the glory of the Kingdoms of grace and providence ought to provoke us to be earnest for the advancement of the Kingdom of God the protection we have from Angels the heat we receive from the Sun the light we have from the Heavens the prospect we have from the Hills the Flowers we behold from the Valleys the Commodities we have from the Sea the comforts we draw from the Beasts the spiritual consolations we receive from the Gospel shew the advantages we have by his Government and therefore ought to endeavour the removing and fight for the departing of Saul's the sense is easie and the coming of David's Kingdom in pressing for the enlargement of the Kingdom of grace under our Lord Jesus Christ. For though in the Kingdom of his providence we possess such a lot or portion as his wisdom or power giveth and judgeth convenient for us yet remembring that these things we enjoy common with the Swine in the field and the Raven of the air the fort-Fort-royal of our affections are not to be possessed much less commanded by the desire of enlarging temporalities being given but as apt means to uphold our otherwise frail Tabernacle but collecting all our strength animat our zeal for a studious striving for and earnest thirsting after the beautifying confirming enlarging and adorning of our inward man by grace against the approaching of the Kingdom of glory This Age hath many who slight this Prayer in their practice as well as neglect it in their religious exercise they desire the coming of his Kingdom limiting their thoughts to that of Providence desiring the hastning and advancement of those good things they desire to possess yet not contented with their portion by stealing cheating robbing they snatch it impudently out of his hands being impatient that he brings it not unto them and grumbleth that he makes not speed whereas Thy Kingdom come implyes modesty and our waiting upon Gods leasure Let pilfring sinners therefore know that not a snatching but a mannerly receiving is contained in this Petition Hasten not therefore to be rich Eye his Kingdom of Grace we have those so pure in their own eyes so holy in their own conceits that they behold no urgent cause for its more evident appearing Let such know that not sufficiency but a daily exuberancy is contained in this Petition Say not therefore I have enough It is obvious that many concludes the coming of this Kingdom to consist in such tenets or opinions they have imbibed from the Rabbies of some saction to them beloved Let such know that not the following of mens opinions but the knowledge and owning of Gods heavenly dominion is contained in this Petition the great Officers therein under himself being Magistrats and Ministers c. both which are prayed for in Thy Kingdom come Thy Kingdom come THe Kingdoms of Grace and Glory as they are united in this Petition are now to be explicated and first of Grace whereby Christ reigns in the soul which by having the Gospel is nigh unto us and next that of Glory prepared for us before the foundation of the world yet these are not so much two as one differing only as the light conveyed by the window differs from that immediatly flowing from the Sun In the Kingdom of Grace Christ is compared to a Roe standing behind the wall looking forth at the window shewing himself through the lattess the wall is our flesh the window is his Law the lattess is his Prophets but in the Kingdom of Glory the wall is pellucide the window and lattess both removed and the immediat beams i. e. glory of the Father by the Saints viewed and respected By Grace here he hath Servants Kings and Teachers in his Temple and Throne but there in glory there is no teaching because no ignorance no King because no offence and Kingdom implying government and that under a King Christ is King and Head of his Church and God the Father as Jesus is man is the head of Christ Hence we pray Our Father which art in Heaven Thy Kingdom come In which Petition there is something we pray against and something we pray for the latter is for the Churches and our guidance into the Holy of Holies the former is for subjugating Gods and our enemies and all pernicious lusts obstructing our glory to come We pray against the dominion of sin the darkness of nature the prevalency of Satan and the delay of the Saints reward 1. The dominion of sin that its head which is as a Serpents may be bruised and its reign which is tyrannical may be ended all lust being base and ignoble and ineffably cruel domineering more over the soul and making it suffer more from it quam corpus c. then the body doth from diseases for it reigns and brings into eternal death at last fascinating in the mean time and bewitching mens hearts so that but few are sensible of that danger which these Ammonites will bring upon them if longer tolerated and those few again have their souls so entangled that though they have no love to embrace yet they want power to extricate themselves out of sins snare or force to drive it from exercising dominion over them Therefore calls for help against that strong man that by the power of grace and strength of faith and ardency of zeal all from the Spirit of God he may be bound as a rebel against heaven and an usurper over man in forcing obedience to his lusts and rigidly exacting what was never his due viz. love and subjection Thy Kingdom come as it eyes the Church imports that it might be manifest among men and that it might be known to the ignorant but eying Grace it respects the extinguishing of all vice by the power of God that neither devil nor world nor carnal lust nor any sin might have dominion over us but God alone For if we study good works and shine in vertue lust and iniquity shall never overcome us nor the power of hell suppress us restat ergo we ought therefore as in all
than the bruits in neglecting so profitable I add so rational a service that qui non orat he that prayeth not is dead in one sense and mad in another It is represented to be a manifestation of the hearts fervency before God by which through faith in Christ we beg for obtaining of mercy and for avoiding of ill or give thanks for benefits accepted whether in words groans or sighs whence it follows that the ten Commandments and the Creed are not given to us nor to be used by us as forms of Prayer which many ignorant Protestants doth conjecture nor the Ave Maria or Hail Mary as the Romanists generally practise And that the weakest Saint might be cherished Prayer is held forth to be the bitter groanings of a heart-broken soul or the sound of incomposed words therefrom sor have we not in Scripture as well a weeping Peter and a muttering Hannah comforted as a roaring David pardoned and blessed We shall call and prove Prayer to be a hearty calling upon God for good things we or others want or deliverance from the evils they or we fear or feel by and through Iesus Christ. In which description there is the Root of Prayer it must be hearty the Beauty of Prayer it must be a calling the true Object of Prayer it must be a calling upon God the matter of Prayer for good things the charity of Prayer for our selves or others the only means of acceptance through Iesus Christ. 1. It must be hearty if the frame and structure of all our petitions be not builded on this rock they will fall as did Silo's Tower upon our selves and crush us to death for if the heart be not good the very evils we pray against will flee the more swiftly towards us and the kingdom we pray for will hasten the more to our amazement the Pharisees washed their bodies face and hands but there must be a clean heart before there be enjoyed a clear conscience for endeavouring to be seen of men is to be debarred from Gods presence and frustrate of his approbation If with Ieroboams wife we counterfeit gravity and be sober in the Temple from the face only we may hear from the Angel with her but sad and heavy things though perhaps in no worse language then friend how camest thou in hither If Delilah complained of Samson in abstracting his heart from those signs he gave her of endeared affection how shall not the furnace of incensed wrath be seven times more heated when God shall get such words as Thy will be done by him who not only demurrs but impudently resolves to give it a resistance the good man is said to have cor simplex a simple that is a soul without solds being stretched to the full length that the searcher of hearts may know and remark he is prepared to do his will in its just extension from the soul. Si lingua if the tongue utter words of righteousnesse and the heart wandring about worldly not to say hellish business there is no certainty of profite and probably without a peradventure the greater condemnation said one It not being the tongue or the throat but the soul whence prayer must ascend said another Prayer being serium animi cum Deo colloquium a serious discoursing of the soul with God said a third of which seriousness Agatho had earnest thoughts of who being interrogate what might be the hardest thing in the world replyed to pray as we ought 2. It must be a hearty calling as we have a soul to reflect upon the things we wish or want so we have a tongue to call for both and as God is said to have a heart to pity us so he is said to have an ear to hear us when complaining for which Abraham's praying is called a communing i. e. a speaking with the Lord. Heart speaking is indeed simply necessary and without it no prayer and by it alone in some cases there may be a holy petition darted upward the soul having naturally a loud voice yet outward calling is exceeding usefull heart speaking is Ecclesiastica plane operatio the Churches work being conform to her Redeemers Precept of praying in secret but to withdraw the tongue from Gods Altar is a defrauding him of his just right and detains from the supplicant himself many auxiliaries whose accession to his already mustred forces might give him abundance of spiritual courage to fight against all temptations that assaults him in his militant condition It doth not only more forceibly lay bonds upon himself not to act against what he prayes for or against committing those follies he hath repented of after prayer but hinders distraction in prayer and vehemently excits devotion even to that ardency which may constitute a joyful noise It lets Satan and the holy Angels know our holy purposes and resolutions it provokes to a good example and hath great influence in discharging of that debt we owe to God for our bodies However care must be taken that the heart speak before the tongue for avoiding battology by the tongue and to both of these we must joyn a holy life by which we speak both to God and man to God with a Remember now I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart And to man with a follow me as I follow Christ in doing of which we may be applauded and rewarded for praying continually 3. It is a hearty calling upon God he alone is a very present help in trouble and neither Saint nor Angel can clear our souls from or deliver us from evil to come as he only is our Father so he only is to be requested for our dayly bread and he being the only King who hath immortality his kingdom is only to be violently seized upon and importunatly sought after and being the Lord our God he is only to be worshipped 4. It is a calling for good things that is such things as cannot naturally have a tendency to ill as Faith Love Hope Knowledge sufficiency for to ask to be rich or honourable may as too oft they prove be unhappy mediums to extinguish heavenly heat and cause the germinating grace of God which was rooted in us by the Spirit to be eradicated and made to languish under the most favourable aspects improving grace no more then the thorns in the parable did advance the the growing of that good seed of the Word A Philosopher advised his Pupills to ask only of God bona good things because thought he God knows the particular good our souls hath most in pursuit yet our Saviour a far better teacher encourageth us in begging to hold out our finger and point out the sore we would have healed the mercy we desire to possesse for Good is either that of glory which we ask for in Thy
Kingdom come or of grace and that either of preventing ill demanded in Lead us not into temptation or removing of ill which is sued for in deliver us from evil or of grace against doing ill in Thy will be done or of nature which we have grounded in give us this day our dayly bread Two of which I question if they were known to that Oraculum sapientiae humanae Socrates the wise who prompted his Disciples to that as he thought important advice The promises and precepts of God are to be the main Pillars to support the Arches of our requests in the Church which is the house of God lest with Zebedees wife we ask things incongruous hence one calls Prayer Ascensio mentis ad Deum the ascending of the soul towards God for asking some seemly or decent things from him And should the incomprehensible treasure of Gods inaccessible greatness to be set before us with a proffer of all our hearts desire to ask with Solomon wisdom to discharge our Callings or with Moses to number our dayes were more beneficial then Elisha's desiring to die or the two Disciples to have the right and left hand in the Kingdom of our Father for to the former he never proved negligentem auditorem an unwilling hearer but to the other hath despiciuntur enim orationes leves frothy prayers being alwayes rejected But for a heavenly Petition priusquam egressa sit before it pass from the mouth it is recorded in his Book and though it be an abstruse point exactly to draw an Inventory what good things are to be asked or to decipher their just sinless and convenient number yet the ordinary general prescribed Rules are these viz. To pray for heavenly things mainly and for worldly things modestly The first by our Saviours rule is first to be done that is Principaliter hoc unum this one thing is to be our chief care in which we are still to continue because Time is still running from us and therefore the most necessary thing to be most regarded the glory of God in Hallowed be thy Name must preceed our daily bread or forgive us our debts and therefore first in time and in dignity and in love are we first that is Principally to be active in the acquisition of Heavens Kingdom and its righteousness The things below are neither vera nor nostra neither things nor truly ours but flying shadows yet these are the lean kine in Pharoh's dream devours the fattening thoughts of attaqueing Heaven which I find one in sickness would not so much as occasion when after long lying on his back it was judged convenient he should be turned called out Sinite fratres Sirs Suffer me to behold Heaven rather than a wall that my soul may be directed for its journey to my God While we are upon the earth we are to labour but not for the meat which perisheth but for that which endureth unto life eternal which meat consisting in vero bono good things and true things endureth because they lead to eternal life To pray for earthly things modestly is also a commended circumstance in devotion and fiat voluntas tua If it be thy will must be a curb to our otherwise too heady too greedy appetites It is in order before our daily bread Thy will be done c. Teaching us to entertain our own thoughts with a dutifull succumbency to the hand of his providence in affording us little or much and therewith to feast our selves even to a satiety for when we pray for health for food for strength we must do it as men ought to set out for a journey i. e. if the Lord Will. For tota Fidelium salus the salvation of all Believers and the strength of all their patience must depend upon and be stored up in him who doth all things wonderfully I add wisely therefore he and not our selves must carve our portion for us and say with David Let God do with me give unto me what seemeth him good 5. The charity that is requisite in our Prayers will have us pray for good things both for our selves and others Necessity prompts us to the first but piety oblidgeth us to the other however men stand in relation to us whether they be Kinsmen or Strangers Foes or Friends the Knowing or Ignorant Godly or Debauched So David prayed for his enemies Christ for his persecuters Peter for Dorcas and Stephen for those who stoned him We have a large Precept to pray for all men and he whose charity cometh short of that Law is so much short of a Christian and ought to take care that in this sense there be a cubit added to his stature All having temptations all being subject to failings and all of us by pursuing what is too much our own forgetting the love we owe to our neighbour gives an occasion of offence and really scandalizes one another which alone ought to make us rack our selves and part with much of our too much beloved opinions as Abraham did the half of his promised possession that there may be lodging found for the too long extruded Christian Amity The party that says the Lords Prayer must in that small word Vs include the large mass of Mankind and Humanity were it but for his own security he being concerned in the whole number of Adam's succession must say Deliver us from evil Prayer being that Magnus Thesaurus the best armour of soul-defence the best security in spiritual assaults the greatest treasure in abounding poverty the quietest Harbour in tempestuous times and the surest place of refuge in all calamity Which if seriousâ—y considered in evil times might perswade us not to say me or he but Father deliver us from evil It was this that gave great consolation to a Ship-wracked King who enquiring in a hideous storm the time of the night it was told it was past mid-night called to his disconsolate associats Be not afraid for all the good Subjects of my Kingdom and of all other parts of the world are rising and praying for us and by their prayers we shall be delivered and sicut credidit saith my Author ita contigit ei it happened unto him according to his saith It is without debate that he who is conscious to himself of his own mediating before God for others may in distress comfortably reflect and infer that there are holy ones interceeding for him whose supplications together with his own being uniformly devout shall no doubt act vigorously for securing him from irreparable ruine And what before I close if it be told you that melius est it is better to pray for our enemies than for our friends the one having a blessing the other no reward It not being alwayes fair weather with the Saints not only praying for good things but also for the
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
all ages that some will have it numerus or ationis making deliverance from evil a distinct Petition from that against temptation approved by Chemnitius and King Iames as shall be seen in due place they shewing good reason for this enumeration of seven Petitions In the first whereof we beg admission into his Temple in Hallowed be thy Name In the second to his Palace in Thy Kingdom come In the third to his Council in Thy will be done In the fourth to his Granary Give us our daily bread In the fifth to his Treasury Forgive us our debts In the sixth to his Armory Lead us not into temptation In the seventh to his Garden or Arbory Deliver us from evil Unto all which if we pray truly all Prayer may be congruously reduced in evidence whereof receive a Fathers judgment with very small alteration If any beg Let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee saith he not Hallowed by thy Name If any call Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved saith he not Thy Kingdom come If any supplicat Order my steps according to thy Word desireth he not Thy will be done If any demand give me neither poverty nor riches saith he not Give us our daily bread If any utter O Lord my God if I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me yea I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy is not this to be constructed Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters Implores any Send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me is not that Lead us not into temptation And doth any request Deliver me from mine enemies my God is it not Deliver us from evil Hence therefore this Prayer is not only as a rule to pray by but as a form to pray in supplying what ever is deficient in the supplications of mortals whose arm at longest cannot fathom the length of that request put up for the belly give us bread much lesse commensâ—trat the extension of that put up for God Hallowed be thy Name Yet as we can we shall search 1. into the matter of this Petition hallowing of the Name of God 2. The order of it for it is reckoned among the first three and is become their Captain therefore more honourable Name hath its name in the Greek from the help or aid it gives to know things or persons by and with the Latines Nomina were notamina marks tokens signs to difference things by when men were â—ewest there were names and they increasing sirnames were added still to distinguish one from another neither do we find any Nation so barbarous but had names the savages of Mount Altas in Barbary excepted who were reported to be both namelesse and dreamlesse Names begun with the Creation the eldest daughter of which being Light was called Day And who can shew the improbability of their duration when time shall be no more Moses was termed Moses when Peter saw him in the Mount and who is that will earnestly deny that Enos shall not be called Enos even in glory The old Pollanders gave names to their children at the first cutting of their hair but the most Christian Nations have followed the Iews and given names about the eighth day yea the old Romanes gave it to their Femals the same day but to their Males on the ninth All gave them for discrimination to difference a Cain from an Abel Samaria from Ierusalem some had it because of some property as Esau from his being hairy Some from an atchievment Iacob was called Israel for his prevailing with God Others gave names from a desire of continuating their own names upon earth and because it is a kind of judgement to want a name as did Davids adulterous infant and the rich Churle in the Gospel for this they intended to call Iohn Zacharias after the name of his Father some give them in imitation of some vertue as Iob or David as a spur for the bearer to follow the vertues of those Saints Hence it is thought Iacobs sons were never named Iacobites but Israelites to animate the whole race for strugling with God untill they got a blessing Lastly Names have been imposed from some sudden emergency as Isaac from Sarahs or Abrahams laughter or from future foreseeing as was Cain Abel or from some profession as at this day the Mahometan from Mahomet and the Christian from professing Christ. Most of these wayes have God taken to himself and recevied names from others yea we may say firnames he is often called the Lord Jehovah God and frequently the God of all consolation the Lord God of our Fathers the Saviour of Israel who blotteth out transgressions for his own Names sake which is to be hallowed In order to which let us descant upon 1. What may be understood by his Name 2. How that Name is to be hallowed 3. Why the speciality of that Name is expressed all other names being secluded as is implyed in that Pronoun Thy Name By name in general understand his ineffable and invisible essence and nature which he held out in his Name I AM and his Name Iehovah is so peculiarly his that it was never and is never to be communicated to any creature not that the letters of his Name Iehovah is to be adored with the superstitious Jews as those of Iesus are with the idolatrous Papists but his nature expressed in and by those letters including both the Spirit and the Son for all that the Father hath being his cur non nomina why should not the Name Iehovah be likewise and consequently he get his respect By name understand also his wonderfull and inseparable properties as Wisdom Omnipotency as also his beautiful and admirable acts and workings all which are called upon to praise that is occasion or perswade others to glorifie the Lord such as his work of Creation Redemption his wonders miracles for preservation of and for his Church add to these his comfortable and inalterable writings which he hath so exalted above all His Name that when many of his works shall change and wax old as a garment his promises to his servants shall endure for ever The doctrine whereof is not to be blasphemed for by that his Name is spoken against Let none hence conclude that it ought from this to have been Hallowed be thy Names that objection being long ago answered for Nomen Divinum the Name of God is here expressed in the singular to remove the occasion of idolatry or conceit of many gods Thy Name having respect to the Father mentioned in the preface in which also the whole Trinity is included yet not expressed in the plurality of persons for the reason aforesaid Nomina sanctae immaculatae Trinitatis the names of the
likewise of a kingdom of men in contradistinction to which we pray Let thy Kingdom come there is a kingdom of darkness is the king therof is the angel of the bottomless pit for confusion of which we pray THY Kingdom come It is that Kingdom which the blood of Christ hath purchased the faith of the Saints expected and that which in the parable of the sheep on the right hand we are invited to enter into and possess It is Regnum Coeleste the Kingdom of Heaven in all its steps advantages and degrees In this as in the former Petition we shall search into the matter and next into the order thereof with the application of both to the rule So pray ye In the matter there occurs to be treated upon 1. The extension of the Kingdome 2. The steps methods whereby that Kingdom comes 3. The zeal that is supposed to be in the Petitioner to have that Kingdom come God hath a twofold Kingdom in the world and its inhabitants one general reaching to the birds even in their falling to the hairs of mens head and their numbering and to the devils in their chaining and this is called the Kingdom of his providence Whence it hath been questioned though upon poor ground whether here we pray for the coming or continuing of this Kingdom of providence For since the soul and body are preserved in their united harmony by his favourable concurrence he acting all creatures for the preservation of our life by their subsisting which by some is attributed to Chance to Fortune to the Moon to the Sun and to any other creature which the ignorance of the true God shall lay before an idolater Christianity being but thin-sowen and Christ not so universally believed upon but that a great part of the world is idolaters and unbelievers Quinsay the greatest City in the whole earth was of late known to have had in it but one Church of Christians in the rest Gentilism sacrificing to the very Devil that he might not hurt Which considered what should hinder our earnest sueing for a more clear manifestation of his infinit authority that all Altars and all hearts may offer up holy sacrifice to that only true God by whom they only live and in whom they shall and may be eternally made happy It was not or but darkly known that the most high ruled in the Kingdoms of men and gave it to whomsoever he will but yet so that he himself governed it by the wisdom of his power and protected it by the wisdom of his government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy Kingdom the word importing that Kings are inviolable and not to be hurt or grieved which God is by the idolatrous and superstitious rites of Gentiles and Jews or that Kings are the foundation or upholder of the people which God also is all things being upheld by him and to that purpose is a King a word from the Saxon word Cyning or Cunning which importeth to know and understand and ability to act as we proverbially say a canny man one that can do and act with dexterity and skill in which God is transcendently eminent King-like providing and taking care for all making grass to grow for the Oxe and herb for the service of man Sent he not hail and fire mingled with hail very grievous upon all the Land of Egypt and a pestilence in the dayes of David upon the twelve Tribes It s thy Kingdom implying his Majesty Splendor Tranquility and Honour and may we not desire that by the greatness of his power he would command the air to be healthful and the fire not to be hurtful and that it be known to be his act to all the world as an effect of his unlimited Soveraignty Besides this he is said to have a Kingdom by and in which he rules his Saints and Church in special and relating to his Church triumphant is called a Kingdom of glory relating to his Church militant is called a Kingdom of grace that of grace going along in that of providence and going forward to that of glory we shall speak of them both mutually beginning with that of providence and grace For a safe and prosperous success of our undertakings and affairs for the subjugating of our foes for destroying the power of darkness that we may have no treacherous heart with Iudas nor a covetous with Ahab nor an ambitious with Absolom and that the Kingdoms of the earth may become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and that such who know him may give him no rest untill he make Ierusalem that is his Church a praise in the whole earth we pray for in Thy Kingdom come At this time regnavit Diabolus the Devil reignes Sin reigns Death reigns and by them mankind hath been taken captive hence we beg that Satan may perish Sin may cease Death may die and that Captivity may be taken captive that we being freed from these may reign quietly honourably and securely under him If he suffer Turks or Tyrants to afflict his Church we call for strength and aid by his providence for grace and power by his Spirit and in both saying before Ephraim Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength why before these three but because these Tribes both mar ched and pirched nearest the Ark a type of his presence and in Thy Kingdome come his rising as a Giant out of sleep in the sight of his Church and march forward to subjugat those 〈◊〉 by his mustered forces that is the ordered Army of his creatures or peovidences or graces of faith love and real that Ephraim and Manasseh without fear may worship the Lord in Benjamin that is in his Ierusalem that is in all holy places The work of Gods hand and his providence about it may lead us to admire but leas◠we should stand in the world as Mary at the grave looking to behold what we cannot find we call for his Kingdom to free us of that sordid vassalage which our parents sin temptation and unbelief have brought upon us to the beholding those invisible riches above pursuing in our thoughts their duration fixation and consolation The world here follows us so closs and grips us so hard that we are put back in our pursuit of those more desirable treasures above so that it is called a striving to apply our thoughts thereto so much as in a wish which imports among many things this one that there must be great pressing and fearing to be over-pressed we pray Thy Kingdom come Anaxagoras affirmed the cause of his birth and coming into the world was to behold the Heavens and the Sun from which the curiosity of some hath picked such a mystery as I am prone to conjecture was never in his thoughts for by Heaven they would give out he understood the power of God which is attributed to the Father and by the Sun
the Indian tongue they have learned to speak of Iehovah and avoid many sins and hates and avoids Pawwows that is Witches and Charmers c. Now to pray for a farther binding up of Satan in the conversion of more Indians all Turks Iews were an acceptable work in it self and our duty as Christians that all the worlds inhabitants may cry out with that poor dying Indian Iehovah Aninumah that is O Lord give me Iesus Christ which is equivalent to Thy Kingdom come and that each professor might repell all temptations as one of them did when tempted to Pawwow for a sick person saying I must not break my Covenant and sin against God But now to return to the old world again where Satan also hath his seat which lyeth in wickedness he having in it universal dominion demonstrated by the vanity impiety of its inhabitants for though his kingdom be not natural but malicious his goverment not defensive but persecution bending his power to the damnation of his subjects yet in the opinion of a Father is he a great King strengthning his Kingdom with vices walling it with abominations building castles in it with attrocious acts and furnishing them with Armour of enforced filthiness The Collectors of his Revenue are oppressors of the poor his Officers are seducers deceivers of the simple and honest his Lord cheif Justice is perversnesse In his Court and about his Chamber you have Cuning Rooks by hook and by crook purchasers cheating Merchants covetous Preachers protracting Doctors conscience-hiring Hucksters for his Advocat he hath a Iack of both sides Lawyer He hath also about him forgers of lies contrivers of mischief receivers of bribe reproachers of men because effeminat as woman and for a Page he hath Amictus discoloribus saith my Author a Peacock-tail'd gallant But when the Kingdom of God shall come It shall discover that the world like men brings good wine at the first and afterward that which is worse for sin is Voluptatum est Tormentum the end of our eating is infirmity the end of our living is death and the end of death to all that crucifie not the world is eternity of misery the thoughts of which are suffciently valid to wash the paint from the world to cure the itch of the flesh and to fight or animat us against the tyranny of the devil and then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be within us 4. Against the delay of the Saints reward The vision being for an appointed time must be waited for yet as the hireling for the shadow the watch-man for the morning the weather-beaten Pilot for the Haven the sick for his recovery the weary Traveller for his Inn so doth a Saint long for the end of all designs their enjoyment of God in Christ Their modesty keeps them from saying Arise let us go hence yet the soul of man being easily seduced their zeal inflamed with the thoughts of what they shall possess vigorously enforceth them with a holy seriousness to call Adveniat Regnum tuum Thy Kingdom come That is Lord say to the North give up and to the South restore the dead bodies of thy Saints given them in charge that they and we the time appointed of the Father being come may be caught up to meet the Lord in the air to remain for ever with him The soul being stamped with the image of God betrothed by the faith of God endowed by the Spirit of God redeemed by the blood of God capable of the blessedness of God having nothing to do with flesh longs for the perfect vision and full fruition of the holy place of the holy face of God that mortality might be swallowed up of life The soul is Christs Spouse and conform to her condition hath a threefold marriage The 1. is In her Iustification by faith at which she is feasted by the ablution of sin the attainment of grace the reforming of nature but this is attended through the souls default with many jarrs The 2. is Her Regeneration or Sanctification by hope at which she receives divine consolation heavenly communion and a taste of the glory to come but this is also mixed with fears and doubtings and therefore the third is wished for which is her glorification by charity at which she is entertained with eternal incorruption true glory and the perpetual vision of God and this being the more excellent affectu pio sensu profundo she groans most ardently for it As we pray against these things so there are other matters we pray for such as the Churches soveraignty the Saints felicity and our Fathers universal and sole authority 1. The Churches soveraignty in general The Church is the continent wherein Christ reigns and in it his Palace and his Temple stands which two are oft clouded by foggs arising from open hatred against them or pretended friendship to them casting stumbling blocks in the way of others by disloyal practices as the idolatry of Rome offends the Jew and the heat of the Calvinists and Lutherans in their often debates becometh scandal again to the Papist To clear the air is this Petition put up that all may behold the mountain of the Lords house and the Sun of Righteousness shining thereon that is Christ Jesus before whom the Jews had only Lamp-light by the Law and the Prophets which also shined upon them untill the Baptist who was a burning and a shining light but after that he rose whose Name was the East whose Star arose in the East like a Sun enlightning the world directing to the knowledge of that Triune God all may say of Gospel-rules this is the way let us walk in it that Sanctity Innocency Purity and Piety may lodge in the breast of all and malice and mischief excluded from all The vision of the conversion of the Gentiles to the saith of Christ and to the Churches of the Saints is expressed by the similitude of doves flying to their windows thereby shewing the swiftness zealousness harmlessness and unity doves generally going in flocks that shall be in those Converts and the multiplication and addition of whom unto the saith notwithstanding of the diversity of opinions as natural as variety of feathers or faces is contained in this Thy Kingdom come That all beholding the King in his beauty his Sacraments in their dignity all his Ordinances in their purity may have their souls so influenced as to have all one heart not being dismembered by faction or passion which rather shews men to be inhabitants of several Provinces then fellow-subjects having one Language and united in one Kingdom The Petition therefore importing the accomplishing of that which St. Paul gave once a charge for viz. that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified that is be opened and expounded before learned and unlearned that though we behold one unskilful in knowledge or expression yet being
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
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
is of the sons of Abraham ought to have alwayes burning upon the Altar of his heart the fire of holy charity and that to be blown up by the example of the Fathers and Testimony of holy Scripture unto which if we look and take heed the zeal for their own salvation and their brethrens glory that all might fear and declare the work of God and wisely consider of his doing is their chief care according to this rule The Multitude of sinners the fewness of Saints in the throng of professours ought to be seriously reflected upon that faith might bring our brethren in the flesh to Sons of the Spirit that living by the Laws of the Kingdom of God the Scriptures they might be accounted as the subjects of it faithful and worthy to possess the inheritance that fadeth not away the harvest therefore being great pray to the Lord thereof that the idolatrous and prophane which like the Syrians fill the countrey may be listed under the Standart of Jesus and united to Israel which are but as a few Kids that the seekers of the Lords face may be many nay may be all for which provoke one another to love and to good works It was an odd saying of Remigius yet a sad one because true that though the Church hitherto endure they being baptized that were her persecutors yet the Devil is not baptized and plagueth the Church not now or not only by the fury of Pagans but by the harshness ill-will and cruelty of Christians which to put an end unto let each man say as one said Et tu Domine Iesus Lord Jesus where is thy wonted kindness and O Father where is the sounding of thy bowels and remember we have but two commands from God one to love God the other man yet these two are but one love shewing without the one we want the other and by not doing the one we forfeit our interest in the other said a wise man Our zeal ought to extend to the utmost confines of the world for a bringing in of many sons and daughters unto this Kingdom in order to which we are to become Orators for a blessing upon Kings Princes c. That by their power upon Parents that by their authority upon Preachers that by their gravity upon Masters that by their industry the Word of the Lord may run and be glorified and that affectionatly and with ardor of mind Remissness sleepiness and dulness in prayer being one cause publickly declared from heaven in a vision of the eight persecution of the Church under Valerianus 4. His glory is in his Kingdom there is our dignity There is an earnest of the Spirit in the believers soul assuring him of glory and an earnest is part of the bargain so that in his conscience he hath a holy assurance that when ever the Kingdom of God shall appear he shall be crowned in it Here we behold the invisible God by that which is also invisible Munda scil mente vel corde a clean heart and a right spirit which argueth our distance and is at best but a comfortable ignorance but let this Kingdom be revealed and the soul being evacuat of all imperfections freed of all contagious principles or objects shall behold it self in its spiritual beauty to be the off-spring of God and as a Son behold his Fathers naked face in his ineffable glory Have we not made his dominion our choice his Son unto whom this Kingdom is given our joy and shall we not with endeared regard crave that its beautifull and powerfull manifestation be no longer retarded by the hypocrisie of some the intemperance of another the uncleaness of a third the blasâ—hemies of many the malicious quarrellings of most and the false slandrings of idle busie-bodies but as the people gathers to Shiloh the Souldiers to their Colours the Birds to the Carcass so ought we in our several capacities urge fervently the gatherings of all to the Lord of Hosts that it might be no longer with Christians as it was with the Manicheans with whom there was nothing rational nothing certain nothing blamlesse all being doubtful scandalous abominable and absurd That being truly and properly a Kingdom where a King will have such to be his subjects and they will have such an one to be their King and for this the whole creation cryeth with us adveniat Thy Kingdom come The Stars in their courses the Saints in their sufferings cry out how long O Lord holy and true because holy in himself and true in his promise therefore say the Saints judge and avenge our blood which expression being doubled shews desiderium vindicandi a desire of this Kingdom which the Ox at the Plough the Horse on the road the Elements in their motions yea the whole creation in its subjection groans for to be redeemed by it from that vanity under which they are in bondage Have we made his dominion our choice and not fight yea fight for suppressing diverting of all those forces Art can contrive Magick fancy Sacriledge Minister the Devil in the multitude of sinners can suggest or sin in the bloodiness of its aims can muster which if we do not let us be self-condemned as unworthy of its enjoyment when it shall be revealed The Romans at their first entry into Britain were much terrified by the valour and to them by the strange way of the British fighting which being perceived by the Standart-bearer of the tenth Legion he cast himself out of the Ship and assaulted his foes crying aloud Fight my companions except you will betray the Roman Eagle into the hands of the enemy for mine own part I will be faithful to the Common-wealth of Rome and to Cesar my General at which shame and courage animating all the Standart was followed a victory obtained and Britain subdued Let this exhilerat this Age whose remissness I might say whose perversness suffers the glory of the Cross of Christ and the government of Jesus to be betrayed to the hands of sin and sinners the zeal of his house being so far from consuming us or from eating of us up that we suffer both it and our selves to be swallowed up by hell and destruction I mean strife and division Consider what this Kingdom produceth which we may call its In-land Commodity and our zeal shall become importunat that consisting in peace righteousnesse joy in the Holy Ghost the two former are the leaves of the door that admits us into the latter for we have first righteousness by our faith freeing us of sin and then peace hushing all our passions then cometh joy by our here expecting and afterward enjoying our reward which three we glimmeringly enjoy in the Kingdom of grace below but shall receive them in their Meridian lustre in that Kingdom of glory above having righteousness without sin iniquity being taken away peace without disturbance
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
cursing flee back-bitting flee heart-burning flee oppressing for by the eye as by a window temptation suffers Satan to enter and then he finds no difficult task to pick the lock of the most secret Cabinet I mean the remotest faculty of the soul which was known to that as to a sword undaunted though young Alexander he refusing to give frequent visits to Darius daughters then his Prisoners alleading that Persice Puellae the Persian Ladies made his eyes sore 2. Attraction this discovers weaknesse A fish smoothly glyding down the River is in safety but beholding the bait and turning aside after it is ensnared by the hook Let the Painter Paint as he pleaseth I am prone to suppose that Evah both went unto the tree and pluckd the fruit her self The foolish youth having seen followed after the strange woman whereas if that evil one wound us by a sinsul thought we are not to yeeld but to fight against that little to keep our selves from danger by a greater which shall besal us when sinful thinking grows to sinful doing which we have not force sufficient to evite except we bruise its head as soon as it is conceived As children having no strength to oppose runs from what may endanger them so let us flee at first sight yea the sweeter its voice be let us make the greater speed and it shall be spiritually and morally found what proverbially is received a fleeing man valueth not the Lute and this Petition beareth witnesse of our inability for self-defence yea experience proveth very few Iesus Christ excepted to have entred into the field of temptation but came off with losse Abraham held out in Mount Moriah yet could lye in Egypt hence a Father affirmeth there are temptations which we cannot bear and what are they Omnes all and in truth without God we can bear none 3. Inescation this ought to stir us to repentance We will eat of the fruit and swallow the broath though poyson be in the one and death in the other and sell our birth-right for a dish of either The soul ought as a mirrour or glasse to be kept clean that in it might perfectly be viewed the Image of God but alas sin hath dusted and darkned the same and yet we are not sorry and yet we are not warry though we say lead us not into temptation that is given us wisdom to know those evils we are encompassed with and not be so sordid as to prefer our lusts to God a Concubine to our Saviour or our Catamite to our Heavenly Paradise King Lysimachus besiedged in Thracia quitted his Army his Honour his Liberty and Kingdom to Dromichata for a draught of puddle-water to quench his thirst whereof when he tasted his sad Fate he thus sadly lamented O how for how small a pleasure have I a King made my self a servant The voice of Hell may be imagined to have something in it like this O for how small a pleasure having to aggrege their hellish dispair this that their was no such necessity for their drinking stoln waters To these three you may add Occasion awaking us to prayer neither Devil world nor flesh dare assault the most Abject among men if occasion do not fairly invite The works of the flesh though manifest as Adultery Murther Witch-craft are more or lesse brought to the birth as occasion the Midwife is sooner or later in coming that incitamentum ad malum in us corruption being fearful even to peep where opportunity is wanting which that wanton knew who to assure the simple youth of all security told him that the Good-man was not at home but was gone a long journey An ancient writing to Secundine whose life was privat and solitary among other Items of Satans subtilty is warned of this that in the souls privat retirements there shall be as it were visits made by the tempter and things brought to his mind and laid before his eyes and all to seduce him in his thinking of he cannot get him to perpetrat ungodlinesse It is written that Ioseph was held by the Garment by his Mistriss when none of the men were within it is said they were all abroad at a feast she having counterfeited sicknesse to procure an occasion to satishe her intemperance hence one calls temptation an instruction how and when to sin we say Occasio facit furem Occasion maketh the Thief it maketh also the Murtherer the Wencher and the Tipler Simulque animadvertendum let it be remembred that untill our Saviour was hungry Satan had no occasion to assault him or at least most strongly then did attempt him I have said David remembred they Name O Lord in the night Tempus tentationum I think saith a Father he means in the time of temptation when he is encompassed with darknesse take it either way it intimats in solitude God is to be remembred and contrary thoughts to be expelled from the soul imitating Pyrrhus who being alone was asked what he was about I am said he studying to be good There is Fabled of a suit commenced betwixt the heart and eye which were the causers of sin and thus it was decided Cordi causam imputans occasionem oculi the heart was the cause but the eye gave the occasion of sin In short occasion hath so great a hand in evil that it is a temptation to evil Saint Iames giving us the degrees of temptation gives them thus Every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust and enticed then when lust bath conceived it bringeth forth sin which when finished it bringeth forth death Concupiscence then being the Mother Sin the Daughter and Death the Grand-daughter all issuing from the strength of temptation set on by Satan as he finds our complexions inclinations pliable to receive the impression ought to excite us and in an holy servour to draw from us Lead us not into temptation It is observed that our Saviour had three strong temptations in the Wildernesse that there were three which refused to come to the Supper of the Kings Son and that there are three which in the world bear up enmity against God and in them all the sight of the eye bears a great stroak therefore to be lookt after in resisting temptations against which to highten your zeal consider their unweariednesse nearnesse imperiousnesse appositnesse and their closnesse 1. Their unweariednesse The Devil is still going about and temptation is never quiet Et ideo Deus meus therefore O God we ery for security cryed one because whether we sleep or wake eat or drink by force or fraud secretly or openly is our watchful enemy directing his poysoned darts for our destruction which made another cry that our life was but one temptation and another adds that it is not so one way but multipliciter illudat many here it affirms there denies there it changeth
are not to quarrel with them nor oppose their good therefore but what can be said propter peccatum venditi sumus we are by our sins separated from God and by judgment he hath divorced us from one another and not praying against evil with and for our Brethren all of us suffer evil from our God as from our adversary because we will not agree with our brother in the way from which evil with all other good Lord deliver us And so much for the Matter of this Petition the Order hath respect unto the whole prayer and is briefly this viz. there is no freedom from evil to be expected without calling upon the Father hallowing of his Name advancing of his Kingdom doing of his Will acknowledging of his Providence craving pardon for our offences watching against temptation all which do so secure us that evil shall not come nigh our dwelling CHAP. IX For thine is the Kingdom Power and Glory for ever IN our entry this Prayer was compared to Ierusalems Temple it had an outward Court here is a Preface a goodly Porch like it having no doors because representing Heaven the words Our Father being open to all Believers There was the holy place here are seven Petitions there was the most holy place here is the conclusion the comparison running not upon all four for thine is the Kingdom Power and the Glory c. Words significant yet ommitted in the Vulgar Latine and generally neglected by the Latine Fathers because as it is thought not recorded by St. Luke from which argument how much of the Gospel must be snatched from and scratched out of St. Iohn because not recorded by St. Matthew yet retained in the writings of the Greek Fathers Chrysostom Theophylact and the Author of Opus imperfectum which passed for the work of the first named Author generally untill the last age and is yet ordinarily bound up with his works The Romish Interpreters put a reproach generally upon this clause thinking it hath stole into the Gospel from a custom of the Greek Church whose Clergy said this when the people uttered deliver us from evil But the dangerous consequence of such conclusions explods the very imagination of such base and blasphemous interpretations and much of the Gospel by it may be adjudged mens conceits not to rake into Montanus his animadverte Erasmus his nugae Barradius his irrepsit and having spoken of that difference betwixt the two Evangelists and the reasons thereof Either this must be a part of the Prayer or most Greek copies must be suspected or which is more this prayer is not perfect as wanting a sorm of Praise and Thanksgiving which makes it so opposit in St. Matthew who registrats the prayer fully that it ought not to be extruded though not found in some copies through prejudice or misunderstanding many having it and learned Interpreters paraphrasing upon it yea Aquinas gives it his interpretation without any reflection upon its being a fondling but as holy Writ though in his text following the Vulgar it be not inserted though yet it be retained in more Authentick and more correct copies the Syriack and the hebrew which were the Originals Being not bound to err with any holding this conclusion as part of the holy Canon and holy Writ we shall of it as of the prayer consider the matter and next its influence on prayer In the first it may be explained 1. As a reason of our praying 2. As a reason of our praying to the Father 3. As a reason of our so praying In the first of these as they are illative and â—ollowing the particle FOR they weigh 1. The Kingdom to â—e his and therefore as subjects the supplicants are to be preserved It is a Kings duty to guard his coasts secure his subjects and protect their goods they having no power of themselves except to say Deliver us from evil For thine is the Kingdom 2. The Power to be his and therefore the supplicants as unable ought to be upheld It is power which makes a King and the higher power being God yea as in our Creed being God Almighty the inhabitants of Earth have recourse to him for bread for forgivenesse for thine is the Power 3. The Glory to be his and therefore the supplicants as thankful ought to be answer'd The beggar receiving a morsel renounceth merit and blesseth his benefactour the Christian knowing whose bread he eats ought not to forget but being religiously thankful bless God for food natural as bread or Physick or spiritual for mercy and forgivenesse or political as freedom of body credit in report or conveniency in house and is retributio divinorum but all the reward expected for bountiful liberality For for hastening of his Kingdom teaching of his will and deliverance from evil his shall be that is thine is the Glory It was said of Gordian the third Emperour that he wanted nothing to compleat a Prince but Age and it was said by him miserable is that King from whom truth is concealed but in the King of this Kingdom there is no apprehension of deâ—ect he clearly knowing all distresses the meanest subject can fall under which is his Glory and can by omnipotence deliver him out of all for his is the Power there being no possibility of avoiding his search and censure for his is the Kingdom Again we pray to him not to Saints or Angels the Soveraignty not being theirs give us deliverance assistance say we to the Father For thine is the Kingdom Peter Mary Gabriel Anna or St. Barbara being but Subjects our Sisters and our Brethren neither is the Power theirs by grace they are what they are but he by nature that is by himself can discharge all debts quench the horest fire restore the dead stop the mouths of Lions framed us in the womb maketh the Heavens as a Canopy above us and hangeth the earth upon nothing under us For which power let him have all the Glory and make our accesse by faith unto him It is said that young Titus the delight of mankind as he is called after worthy warlike exploits was so courted so beloved that it was rumored he intended to rebel against his father but he hasted to confute the calumny and after a great expedition unexpectedly accosted Vespasian the Emperour with a veni Pater veni Father here am I Father here am I as if thereby he had shewed him filial faithfulnesse and bear testimony there was no project of disloyalty against his Syre the Kingdom being his and certainly in the worshipping of Saints there is treachery against the King of Saints he having no Master of requests in Heaven but Iesus nor no name there whereby we can be saved but Christ's of Nazareth There may be a King without a Kingdom without Power and Glory in his Kingdom The King of Spain when all Christian Princes have quit it styles himself
everlasting principles A good man being told that his father was dead was sharp and replyed define blasphemare blaspheme not my father he is immortal and indeed die absolutely we shall not the soul but removes for a while and until it return the body sleeps our eviternity causeth us to eye eternity and because we are for ever to be its pertinent to deprecat evil for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughout ages for ever some render it in English for ever and ever the first ever expressing Gods ever-being or that part of eternity which is past pardon the impropriety of the phrase and the last ever that which is to come Touching the confidence this Conclusion creats in the Temple or in the Closet in the breast and soul of the heavenly Orator it is pregnantly seen by applying the several parts thereof unto the several Petitions of the Prayer thus viz. Thine is the Kingdom and therefore God ought and it is for his honour to regard his good Name and therefore let it be hallowed and as a King he ought to look to the observation of his Laws therefore let his will be done and he must being a King look to the wealth of his Subjects and therefore let them have bread It is also the glory of a King to passe by a transgression let him therefore pardon our trespasses he ought moreover to â—ecure his Subjects by delivering them from temptation and ease his Subjects by delivering them from evil the doing whereof can be nothing to him for his is the power nay it shall proâ—ure something to him for he shall have all the glory for ever For ever The King of the Ammonites had once a Kingdom and a Crown but could keep neither Darius in his first message unto Alexander the great stiled himself Rex Regum Consanguineum Deorum King of Kings and Cousin to the Gods with other expressions thought by the Historian flaunting but the event shew'd his folly fear flight poverty and thirst made him know he was but when highest as the grasse the glory of all Kings but being emanations from the glory of this King of whom we treat and like summer brooks shall be dryed up as the story of Darius was his glory alone remaining for ever and praise belonging to him not power to them To Kingdom Power and Glory here St. Peter adds Dominion and Iude Majesty words without multiplication not being able to expresse Iehovah his greatnesse yet these two how eminent soever are comprized in this breviary Dominion being to be found in the word Kingdom and Majesty in that of Glory from which as a fountain all the rivulets of splendor refreshing men or Angels have their first rise as is cleared in the Pronoun THINE Thine is the Glory not only of delivering us from evil but of bequeathing unto us good yea because of his goodnesse being confident of glorious good things for ever his Name God being originally from that act called Good in our Ancestors Dialect Thankfulnesse and Gratitude a constituent of true Prayer and without which it cannot nor ought not to be is so shining in this Epilogue of Thine is the Kingdom c. that a learned Author concludes it to be added purely ut Dei laus finiret preces nostras to evince our Prayers are to end in Praise and generally it is so in these or the like words now as of old in refutation of the Arrian Hereâ—ie the latine Fathers ended their supplications Through our Lord Iesus Christ cui cum Patre to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be honour and glory for ever and this not only to their own conceptions but to this Prayer taking all means to hammer that heretical doctrine of Arrius which by the Learned is given as a reason for their ommitting of this per oration in their Commentaries and Homilies upon the Gospel However it may be questioned what kind of Prayers these be which want both Praise in their body and in their close but leaving them to the censure of the Scriptures I must declare it provokes a smile to hear how impertinently to say no worse some even in publick end their addresses unto God where after begging plurality or multitude of mercies they end with In hope whereof we give thee praise and remaine as mute as Fishes appending neither Glory nor Amen according to this manner The smell of thy Ointments saith the Spouse to his Church is better then all Spices there is ointment of Contrition a falling down before the Throne in grief for sin committed the soul thereby anointing the feet oâ— Christ. Of Devotion in doing good to all the Saints whereby the body of Christ is anointed And there is also the ointment of Gratulation acknowledging the receipt of invaluable favours wherewith the soul unguents the head of Christ Crowning him King-like by giving to him Praise Honour and Glory for all possessions And in this form of Praise we render â—â—anks 1. For our Denization being Naturaliz'd and made Subjects of his Kingdom 2. For our Information and knowledge of the blessed Trinity and that in Unity included in the expression Father in Heaven that his glory be not given to another 3. For our Expectation or hopes of the world to come for ever being added ut firmius stet that we migâ—â— be strengthned in the perpetuity and immutability and eternity of Gods glory and dominâ—â—n 4. For our Preservation or deliverâ—nce from evil and all evils in which both in and from the womb we might have fallen without his inspection as was that Countrey Boy who being ordered to drive home some Oxen from the Field was benighted and storm-stead by a sudden showre of snow which covering the wayes and stopping passages the Child was inclosed in the Mountains his â—arents seeking him in vain but after two dayes designing to find only his body for burial they found him on a Bank neither covered nor touched with snow and told them he tarried there intending to return home in the evening certainly God was both a Sun and a Shield unto him nay a Purveyour for being asked if he had eaten any thing told them A man whom I knew not came and gave me Bread and Cheese Though all meet not with such portions of wonderful kindnesse yet generally we have such Guardian Providences that if God had not held us by the coat we had perished in our folly in our impiety which ought to be recorded by us both in thankful remembring of it before the Altar and in walking suitably thereunto before men For Prayer must be practised and in an holy life only can we pray daily he having the Kingdom and the Power we as Subjects ought to be faithful and loyal and as Servants diligent and peaceable and that alwayes since he is for ever a word that man cannot fathom a note