Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation And God is Faithful and will not suffer you to be Tempted above what you are Able to Bear meaning of Affliction but Jam. 1. 2. 1 Cor. 10. 13. will with the Temptation make you a way of Escape Thus on the Account of Evil and Fear coming upon them at the Time of His Suffering Our Lord warns His Apostles to Watch and Pray That they may not Enter into Temptation Now our Lord having taken care in the First of these Two Petitions of what Concerns the Smoother and more Oyly part of Temptation that we should not be Led into it In this Latter Petition He takes Care against the Rougher and more Formidable Part that Affrights us and Scares from that Duty and Station wherein we ought to stand Fast that we might avoid such or such Evils or by Reason of which we are dispirited and Faint in our minds or that by any Impression dissits or disadvantages in holding a Close Communion with God or abates the Honour or Glory of our Service to Him Because we want what is necessary for the most Illustrious management or it For we know that low State of Things that abundant of Evil by way of Punnishment or Affliction that is in the world however It may be more Acceptable to God to Discover Sincerity and other Graces Yet it Clouds and Darkens the Splendor of Religion and it is not the State the Holy Wise and Good Creator designed things at First for Nor that They should so continue though for a Time His Srength may be thus Manifested in our weakness So that though I shall not in the Least Question but that the Petition may Import deliverance from the Evil of Temptation while we are in the Present State yet that the Heighth and Elevation of it Intends the Deliverance of the Servants of Christ from all the Disadvantages upon any Account whatsoever they Receive or may Receive from All or any of the various Kinds or Forms of Natural Evils of those Evils which we call the Evil of Punishment and of Affliction in the World which are so from the want of such a plentifull and Happy State that might more Encourage and Raise our Spirits and the Honour of the Kingdom of God in this World and that upon these Two Accounts 1. Because it cannot agree with the Holiness Wisdom and Goodness of God and the Glory of His own Perfection and Happiness that there should last always such a Dark shade upon the Great Fabrick of Things such a Disorder and Confusion in His Creation and Government of the World as we now see But that All should come into a State of Perfect Light Peace Order and Happiness as that wherein Himself the only Wise and Happy Potentate Dwells 2. Because the Description of the Last State of Things is such as does declare such a Deliverance from the whole Power of Evil viz. of Affliction or Punishment Both as in the want of Good and the pressure of Evil and this we find both in the Prophets and more Fully and together in the Revelation For Rev. 21. 4. God shall wipe away all Tears from the Eyes of His Servants and there shall be no more Death neither Sorrow nor Crying neither shall there be any more pain For all the former Things are past away And Chap. 22. 3. There shall be no more Curse And there is a City of Gold and Pearl and the Glory of God and the Lamb are its so Supream Lights that there shall be No need of the Sun and the Tree of Life with its Twelve Kinds of Fruit are in the Middest of it and the River of the Water of Life Clear as Christal Run through it and the Throne of God and of the Lamb are the never Failing Splendor of it Now seeing there is such a State as this in the Word of God how can we think it Possible so great a Petition of so great a Prayer should leave it out that is so Admirably prepared to Express it as this Deliver us from Evil or from the Evil viz. from the Whole Nature of Evil of the Evil of Misery and of Affliction and that Low Poor Indigent State wherein we can set out nothing Splendidly for our God and in our way of Service and Honour to Him in His Worship or in Obedience to His Commands and Conformity to Himself but we are Ensnared with Fears Amazed with Terrors Discouraged by Want kept down with Pressures This is the Evil in this Petition Our Lord Teaches us to Pray for Deliverance from as that Black and Dismal and Terrible side of Temptation Which is the Curse that shall be no more in His Kingdom There now remains only the Consideration of our Lord's Manner of Summing up of this Prayer which is so done that it Appears with a Threefold Aspect 1. It looks back upon the whole Prayer by way of Recollective Argument and Enforcement of it in every part as it is the Prayer of the Kingdom 2. It particularly indents and entwines it self with the Last Petition Deliver us from Evil as the most sensible to us now Character of the Kingdom 3. Under the close Conveyance of the Argument enforcing to the hearing of the whole and every part and Petition of this Prayer it falls into the Great Doxology of the Kingdom which however it is always due to God yet is in its highest Sense and Elevation the Doxology proper to the Kingdom and which argues this Prayer to be the Prayer of the Kingdom The Argument looking back upon the whole Prayer may be understood these Three ways 1. All these Petitions are thus Argued to be well Founded upon greatest Equity Truth and Righteousness in Two Regards 1. Such High Desires and Petitions were most Abominable and Sacrilegious if They were not Offered and Addressed to Him whose is the Power and the Kingdom and the Glory For All the Things desired in this Prayer He Alone is worthy to be prayed unto for them whose is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory even for ever and ever And it were to make a God of him who is no God to offer them by way of Prayer to Any other to Make a False God and to cloath him with the Majesty and Greatness that is None of His but is peculiar to Him who is God Alone and there is None besides Him There is not any Other and so it is a strong Bar to Invocation of Angels and Saints for any of the Things laid up in this Prayer which are indeed All things that according to the Word of God fall into Prayer To offer them to any other is both Sacriledge and Idolatry and therefore it is so to pray Religiously to Any other because all Holy Prayer is Treasur'd in them And they were also most Foolish Vain and to no purpose to be offer'd to any other even as if they were offered to a Fly or a Glod of Earth in comparison who are so
Lord God Omnipotent Reigns Resounded and Seal'd with a never Ending Amen Thus Our Lord hath given this All Comprehensive Prayer from and According to the very First Beginning of His Kingdom in the Preaching and Power of His Gospel all along upon the Hearts of His Servants unto and untill His Kingdom in it's Glory To this Purpose He hath with a Divine Wisdome drawn the Whole Counsel of God in His Word within it So that to Pray after this manner is to Pray according to the whole Scope of Scripture Understandingly Referred to every Petition But Especially with an Eye to the Glorious and Illustrious Appearance of His Kingdom Concerning which I would Appeal to All whether these things are not the Highest Flights of Prayer and most worthy to be the Highest Sence of the Prayer Our Lord Taught The very Form is no further prescribed but that our Rule for the Frame of our Prayers should from hence be understood That we ought not to Compose Our Prayers to a Superstitious much Speaking or to Repetition for Repetitions or much speaking sake nor with the Artifices of Feigned and yet Blind Devotion according to Innumerable Formalities The Servants of God Praying according to this Whole Counsel of God in His Word Pray into and within this Prayer For their Prayers are as it were Drawn within this Element of Prayer And when they so Pray they do indeed say Our Father c. The Intercession of Christ Overshaddows Receives and Preserves all Prayers according to His Word as if they Fell into the very Words of this Prayer so that they are all within Gods Gracious Acceptance and Remembrance even as this very Prayer of Christ which in Substance they are and shall have besides the Present a Full Answer in the Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ and they are all bound up within that Great Intercessory Prayer of Christ John 17. But because of the Various States of the Church and of the Servants of Christ the Various Degrees of Light and Opportunities of Knowledg Their Prayers have been of a very different Elevation or Raisedness of Apprehension Faith and desire with Relation to the Councel of God in his Word for Prayer according to this Prayer There are Three Expedients of Divine Grace as Helps in this Great Concernment 1. There is such an Unexpressible Concatenation or Lincking all Parts of the Divine Kingdom that what ever Saint of Christ is sincerly possessed with any one Principle of it and Prays according to it It Allies Him to the Whole and it shall Lead Him into All so far as is necessary to His Measure His Stature in Christ and it shall Unite His Prayer with this Prayer of Christ according to His Degree of Prayer in it For even in Prayer one Saint differs from another Saint in Glory Yet this ought not to straiten or Abate but even to Excite the Weakest Saint and to Encourage him to Endeavour an Attainment of the Full Assurance of Vnderstanding in the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ and in Prayer according to the whole VVord of God with as Particular a Respect as may be to this Prayer 2. Because the Church of Christ hath not as yet in any Age Risen but very Little to the Heighth of this Prayer of the Kingdom And Few Saints in Comparison Attaind it The Spirit of God hath Helped them with Inward Grones which they could not Articulate or Utter And so Proportionably in all the Absolutely Necessary Points of This Prayer according to the VVord of God wherein their Knowledg hath been Low or Wanting 3. The Intercession of Christ Receives the Prayers of All who Sincerely Pray within this Prayer And the Intercession of the Spirit Joyned with it makes their Prayer Effectual Though They are not Enlarged in the Spiritual Vnderstanding of this Prayer in its Heighth and Depth in its Breadth and Length 4. God is pleased to Understan His Children in their Weak Cries Abba Father and in their Lowest Understanding of His VVord in this Prayer and to know the Mind of His Spirit making Intercession according to His VVill And He knows how to Give them the Best Things above any Earthly Parents even the Kingdom of Christ which they Ask Seek and Knock for above their own Understanding For He Interprets His own Spirit by a Word of theirs into its High Sences So that they having the first Fruits of the Spirit Groan for that Kingdom and the Large Effusions of that Spirit init And so cry to Him Night and Day and God hears them speedily that is in the very proper Times of the Kingdom of Christ And that Kingdom comes And thus this Prayer otherwise very hard to be Understood in its design even by a Thinking Considering Christian is one of the most Stupendious Mirrors of the VVisdom and Grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and with open Face shews the Glory of Christ though as yet but in a Glass till in the Kingdom we see All Face to Face Let now some brief Inferential Reflections conclude the whole Infer 1 How profound and hidden is the Judgment of God upon the Antichristian World which so contrary to the Literal and Express Intendment of our Lord in this Prayer against Heathenish Repetitions in Prayer should even Burlesque it not only by vain Repetitions but by offering to God as in Sacrifice these Repetitions by Tale and by Number of Beads And All this in a strange Language as if they hop'd to be heard for their much speaking and their meer speaking Well said the Divine Spirit by our Lord As the Heathen do For they proclaim aloud They are the Gentiles that Tread the Outward Court of the Christian Prafession under Foot and have done so for near these 1260. Years now within Five at an End Revel 11. Infer 2 Too near Them do the Ignorant and Carnal Protestants approach Protestants they call Themselves who yet knowing nothing of the Scriptures of the Power of God or of his Wisdom in Relation to this Prayer hope yet to be accepted by Formal Repetitions of it These however they Name themselves are but in the Outward Court where those very Gentiles are last spoken of and which is Trodden under Foot by those Gentiles And though these Protestants as they are in a General Course of Charity Call'd do not Tread under Foot that Court in the Gross Heathenish manner the Other do yet they are in no better a State than to be in the Outward Court or the Profession of Christianity so Trodden under Foot by Gentiles which is a very dangerous State Infer 3 Seeing this Prayer is such an Admirable Foundation of Prayer both as to Matter and Form which the Supreme Master-Builder hath Laid Let every one take heed how he builds upon it in Prayer For if he lay upon it Gold Silver Precious Stones that is truly Spiritual Scriptural Prayer and Praises his Building shall endure But if Hay Stubble Wood either as to
Exposition of so Grand a Portion or part of Scripture may if it should be convinced of Falshood or Contrariety to the Glory Wisdom Truth and Holiness of the Giver be Redargued in the same manner It is endeavour'd to be Argued not with Respect to circumstantial Mistakes or Oversights from which nothing in the present state is Free and without any personal References to the Expositor who before hand lays himself Prostrate which can neither add nor take away from substantial Truths For so is the Apostolick Precept to an Evangelick Person seated in Authority to do it to Reprove by Elenchizing or Argumentation when the merit of the case requires it But if on the other side what is written be upright and words of Truth such a Person will I doubt not take care that He that hath so Laboured in the word and Doctrine may receive the double Honour alloted by Christ These are obligations on Him that is entrusted with a Gospel Oeconomy Now the Concernment is very great viz. The Exposition of the Prayer so universally Styled The Lord's Prayer Both because the Prayer is an inestimable Treasure and even Treasury to all Christians and that in its very Repetition it is made so essential to the Form of Publick Worship in this as it owns it self National Church and by Law Established The Exposition is also Levelled to the Highest Point of Christianity If it be as it is declared so supreme a Truth of the Gospel as the Kingdom of Christ peculiar to Him as the Messiah as the great Son of Man is who hath it written on his Vestim and on his Thigh King of Kings Lord of Lords Not only as He hath unchangeably a Kingdom as the eternal Word or as He now hath All Power in Heaven and Earth But in a visible glorious Kingdom the Kingdom of the Thousand Years that great Festival of Tabernacles Nehem. 8. 15. that shall be celebrated with everlasting Joy with Lawrels Olives and Palms with all the Glory Verdure and Flourish of Paradise when the Pallace of the highest Heaven shall be as it were left for that Time the Glory and Throne of God and of the Lamb shall come down with the New Jerusalem into the New Heaven above and into the New Earth beneath as in Heaven and on Earth according to this Prayer This Tabernacle-state Rev. 2. 13. of God with and comming down to be with men Not They with him gives style to this Feast of Tabernacles so renowned by the Prophet Zechary c. 14. Because it is not the everlasting Pallace but the Tabernacle of a thousand Years at the end of which as a Kingdom Deliver'd up It is drawn up again to God All in All and All Tabernacle-State ceases And seeing now as is most constantly Affirmed This Kingdom according to an exact Calculation of Scripture-time shall be in its Succession and to prepare for its Glory within five Summers and that as in the Sermon upon the Witnesses Rising herewith Printed There shall be the Avant-Courriers of that Succession all along these very Five Years This solemn Appeal according to the Greatness and Dignity of the Subjects Treated of is Presented to such an Angel in the Church of Ghrist as is Tuly Hoped in whom the National Episcopacy and Pastoral Office draws to a Point and Unit and so is Presented to All in Him By Their most Humble Servant in the Prophecy of Jesus Christ T. BEVERLEY AN EXPOSITION Of the PRAYER we Generally Stile The Lord's Prayer According to the Evangelists Matthew and Luke Mat. 6. 9. Luke 11. 1. SHEWING That according to its True Elevation It is the Prayer of the Kingdom viz. of the Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ in the New Heaven or Jerusalem above and in the New Earth or Jerusalem below I Have treated much of the Kingdom of Christ and endeavour'd tâ— demonstrate it from a great Concert of Scriptures Now This Prayer is a most deservedly Celebrated Portion of Scripture and even Summary of Scripture especially with relation to Prayer it being a Prayer taught by Christ to his Disciples when he was here upon Earth and in them to all Successions of Christians until his Kingdom comes Therefore It must be presum'd to draw within it self whatever is matter of Desire and so of Prayer throughout the Scripture Seeing then this Kingdom must needs be the most Earnest and Passionate Desire and Prayer of the Servants of Christ It would be a deep Prejudice against the Doctrine of the Kingdom if it could not be found within this Prayer But on the other side If it shall be found that all the Lines of the Prayer meet in it as in a Center so that it must be according to its Trne Elevation the Prayer of the Kingdom It will certainly much incline to the Belief of such a Kingdom Those who have not hitherto receiv'd it into their Faith Hope and Expectation It is therefore most expedient I should by the Assistance of the Spirit undertake an Exposition of this Prayer since I on so great Reason esteem it to be the Prayer of the Kingdom and therein manifest It is such and that as such it ought to be Prayed by all the Servants of Christ according to such measures of Praying it as shall be given until that very Kingdom come and more especially by us who live so near the Approaches of it as we may by the Holy Books understand we do and therefore should more earnestly pray for it as Daniel of old for Jerusalem by this very Prayer Let it be no Prejudice then I beseech you to Any who shall read this Exposition that I add another Interpretation of this Prayer as the Prayer of the Kingdom to all those Interpretations that you may have heretofore receiv'd and may be now in your Families For I acknowledge those Interpretations or Expositions to be of very great not only Excellency and Use but also Necessity I am so far from drawing you off from them that I receive them with greatest Veneration and Reverence and declare of them so to others But think it not strange that he who spake as never Man spake and therefore most Justly it ought to be believ'd of him that when he Taught to pray he so Taught as never Man besides himself Taught to pray Think it not strange I say that he Compriz'd in this Prayer Things beyond the ordinary Apprehension beyond the Surface of Things For he hath so fram'd this Prayer that it begins at the Foundation of the Kingdom the Spirituality of it in the Works of Grace here and it rises to the Top of the Kingdom in the Glory of an Illustrious Appearance and so guides the Prayers of his Servants by it in relation to their State in Grace here and even to their whole State in this World in Subordination to it as to rise in their Desires to that higher State of Bodies of the Resurrection in Glory wherein they shall Appear before the Throne of
Words when ye pray say does not oblige us to the Words but to the whole Latitude of their Evangelick Sense and Importance 4. Give leave to add here as in the most seasonable Place with Relation to this Prayer as it is found both in the Evangalist Matthew and Luke That neither in Them nor in the whole New Testament is this Prayer any where styled the Lords Prayer as the Breaking of Bread is styled the Lords Supper and the First Day the Lords Day nor yet any way Referred to as such To shew the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Form of Words is no Instituton of Christs to be used in solemn Worship as the Lords Day and Lords Supper are not to be divided one from another Joyned so by that singular Word not again used in the whole New Testament 1 Cor. 11. 20. Rev. 1. 10. as viz. Lordly or Belonging to the Lord that is by Peculiarity or Speciallity This is very much to be weighed as shewing the very Prayer as in the Form does not Tye us Object To all that I have said upon the Prayer as in the Evangelist Luke it may be ojected whether the Prayer Tye us to a Form or not It seems wonderful the Disciples should forget Christ had taught them to Pray before as in Matthew and that even as the Great Prophet in that Sermon on the Mount Answ Undoubtedly this Inadvertency and Forgetfulness as in other Cases was permitted by God that they might in this solemn manner desire the Lord to Teach them more solemnly as Messiah as John the Fore-Runner of Messiah Taught his Disciples and that Christ giving the same Prayer again might shew how close His Messiahship and the whole Doctrine of Christianity are conjoyned and that all Run together unto His Kingdom 2. The second Circumstance of this Prayer as it is given in the Evangelist Luke is the Consideration of the Discourses relating to Prayer after the giving this Prayer that our Lord looks unto and they are these Two 1. The Earnestness and Importunity that we ought to use in Prayer and that must relate to this Prayer in all the Parts or Branches of Prayâ—r to which it directs us and even Leads us by the Hand into we ought to be so earnest as not to receive a Denial from God And this Earnestness He after in this very Gospel of Luke particularly guides to is unto his own Coming when he will Avenge his own Elect Assuring us even while he does indeed Bear long yet he will Avenge speedily And that herein he hath Respect to his own Coming he plainly shews For he adds And yet when the Son of man cometh shall he find Faith on the Earth c. 18. 1 7 8. 2. The other Point of Prayer our Lord discourses with Relation to this Prayer is That when his Servants are sincere in their Desires God will give them the Best Things though they may not understand the Heighth and Depth the Breadth and Length of the Divine Promises and Senses of the Word of God with Relation to Prayer and particularly as gather'd into this Prayer For God will understand for his Children the Best Things even as a most compassionate Father if his Children ask things that are good in their kind he does not give things different nor Below much less contrary but better and Above And this may thus relate to this Prayer the whole Stream of it runs into the Channel of Truest good Things They therefore whom the Holy Spirit moves to pray it shall not be answered with any thing of a worse or lower kind but with the Spirit the Supream and All-Comprehending Good And this He will give and still give till it comes to the Height of His Kingdom according to Esay 59. last For so his Spirit makes Intercession with groanings not to be uttered And God understands His own Spirit as is after further to be Insisted upon and he understands it not only by our words no nor by our more formed apprehensions but by deep Search of our Hearts and the most retired Operations of his Spirit within our Hearts And to this great purpose our Saviour speaks in those words also in Matthew Be ye not like the Heathen in much speaking For your Faiher knoweth what things you have need of before you ask Him shewing That Prayer is not to be manag'd as if we would Inform or change God but to affect our own Hearts and to put them into an order for receiving from God by his Grace in Christ Spiritual Understanding Holy Affection Humble Dependence Earnest Desire and Zeal for his Glory and Kingdom and a State here preparatory for it That way of Prayer that either by meer often Repetition by customariness by not having the Spirit and Power of the Word of God in it is Unserviceable to the Great Ends is not after the manner of the Lord 's Teaching to Pray nor received into it And what ever precribed way of Prayer it is that more or less brings in a Rote of much Speaking only and takes off from the Exercise of this Spiritual understanding and Affection hath sutable degrees of that Great Guilt of bringing Gentilism into the Temple of God and taking away the daly Sacrifice of Prayer Object But it may be still said the Lords putting His Prayer so much into a Form argues He intended it should be so used else why did he put it into a Form Answ That He did not intend it as a Riged Form I have fully argued yet He put it into a Form especialy in Matthew that it might stand the more Conspicuous and Full in all parts as a Pattern and might ever in Relation to His Kingdom be in constant Use as to the substantial Importance of it and by an Admirable Foresight of the way of using this Prayer by the Christian World condemns the Ignorance the Unbelief the Oppossition to the Dactrine of His Kingdom even out of the own Mouths of the generallity of Christians And now I come having spoken this in preparation to Teach you the Vse of this Prayer of the Kingdom as David Taught the Children of Israel the Vse of the Bow * 2 Sam. 1. 1â— For Spirits of Saints Instructed and Armed with the Spioit of this Prayer and the Divine Senses of it without any over Ceremoniousness about the Repetition of the Words are as the Charriots and Horsemen of Israel especially They who are thus instructed in it As it is the Prayer of the Kingdom And herein I have said I propose this to you to give you the Key of this Prayer as it is the Prayer of the Glorious Kingdom of Christ and seeing I have declared I do no way prejudice the Expositions Calculated for general use tho I take the Elevation of this Prayer according to this Kingdom let none thefore be angry at it least they fall under the Reproof of taking away the Key of this Prayer They would not Enter in themselves and Those who are
17. which is the Pattern of Christ's Intercessory Prayer and which none can pray but himself in the whole Frame of it and was not therefore Taught by him to his Church to the End They should so pray it as he did That Prayer is for this Kingdom in which Kingdom God in Christ and Christ in his Saints shall be so visibly made perfect in One that the World which will not now Believe shall against their Wills Know and Believe and Believe and Know as the Devils know and Believe and Tremble that God sent Jesus Christ and hath loved his Saints as he loved him Ver. 21. 23. This cannot be in this World where this Glory is scorned and defied and neither Believ'd nor Known It cannot be after the Enemies of Christ are put quite down under his Feet into the Lake and he Renders up the Kingdom into an immediate Enjoyment of God All in All For then this Illustrious Appearance is ended both as to his own and his Saints so Visible Glory in Humane Nature and also the Dishonour of his Enemies And Nothing Remains but the Beholding God All in All or the Eternal Misery of Separation from his Favour or wailing under his Displeasure Argum. 7 If each part of this Prayer viz. The Address to God as Our Father each Petition and the Doxology or Conclusion Ascribing to God That Thine is the Kingdom c. may with Admirable Agreement both in Expression and Sense be concerted with Eminent Scriptures Relating to the Kingdom and Glory of Christ and of his Saints as in Heaven and on Earth Then with how much Right may This Prayer be call'd and Expounded into the Prayer of the Kingdom This Concert therefore of this Prayer and those Scriptures I will endeavour to make in the following Exposition Object But against all this Discourse this mighty Objection may be Levyed How can this Prayer be look'd upon as the Prayer of the Kingdom or so Great a Standard of Prayer or Comprehensory of it that hath not the least mention of the Great Prince Messâ—ah or of his Redemption which is both the Fundamental Point of Prayer and of the Kingdom How can this possibly be Reconcil'd with All that hath been said of this Prayer There are Two Great Answers to be given to this and such as will excedingly Establish it Answ 1 There can be no more certain and Demonstrative Argument That This Prayer was never intended by Christ as a Form or that we should place a Devotion in the Repetition of it For then could it have wanted the Name of Christ the Mediation of Christ the Blood and Redemption of Christ or the Express Mention of the Spirit which is that Supream Good Thing being One with God and with Christ which proceeds from the Father and Takes of Christs and Gives it to us which we should according to our Lord's Doctrine of Prayer in so near Neighbourhood to this Prayer be so most earnestly importunate for But now if This Prayer be such a Standard of Prayer as is to be understood and apprehended in the whole Latitude of the Word of God All leads to Christ and to the Eternal Spirit to the Redemption Blood and Mediation of Christ as the Foundation of All. And it was an End worthy of such an Omission of the Express Name of Christ and of the Spirit to keep us from Resting in this Prayer as a Form and to cast us upon the whole Word of God that we might pray after that manner and that we might Read or Expound that Prayer by it whenever we pray Answ 2 This Prayer is Full of the Kingdom of Christ No Word of it but is Full of it and cannot be understood but with the Knowledge of the Kingdom Now the Kingdom being the Kingdom of Messiah of the Redeemer and the Petitions being so adjusted to that very Kingdâ—m of Messiah and of his Redemption The Petitions cannot be understood but with the Knowledge of Christ and of his Name and of his Redemption So that though there be no Express Mention of Christ nor of his Redemption yet by searching the Sense and Meaning of each Petition according to the Word of God we must needs find it all there And so proportionably it may be said with Relation to the Spirit of God The Kingdom is a Kingdom of the Spirit poured out according to Esay 59. Last Every Petition therefore must needs be full of the Spirit of the Promise of that poured out even as it is Full of the Kingdom when it is search'd and understood according to the whole Word of God Answ 3 The Prayers that we find in the New Testament after this Prayer given cannot but be Expressive of this Prayer and drawn out of it else Christ did not Teach to pray in This Prayer For to Teach his Disciples to pray and they not to pray according to it must be either an Insufficiency in the Manner of Christ's Teaching to pray or else a Great Disobedience or at least Neglect for his Servants not to pray according to that Prayer Now it is most evident The Prayer of Christ in his Mediation John 17. although it be indeed Transcendent to our praying as to those things proper only and peculiar to Christ and his Mediatorship in it Yet it is instructive to us how to draw near to God in Christ and to form our Approaches through him And All the Prayers we find in the Apostles must have the Lines and Spirit of this Prayer in Them else Christ Taught not to pray when he Taught to pray or he Taught to pray to no purpose Now All Those Prayers being Full of Christ and Full of the Spirit we hereby know certainly This Prayer must needs be so also in the Bottom of it and therefore must be Explicated according to All those Prayers and we are sent by it to Them Object To all that hath been said of this Prayer That it is the Prayer of the Kingdom and that there is in it a paralellism between the New Heaven and the New Earth in doing the Will of God There may be this Objection made A Kingdom of God and of Christ is eminently directed to in this Prayer and also a parallel State betwixt Heaven and Earth But All This is to be understood of the Kingdom of Eternity which Kingdom of Eternity shall have a New Heaven and a New Earth And it is a Kingdom that shall never end and it is called Eternal Life This therefore lifts up a Kingdom of Christ much above that of a Thousand years And whereas the Son is said to deliver up a Kingdom it is only to be understood of that Kingdom wherein he is in a State of continual Acquisition wherein he is Riding out Conquering and to Conquer and subduing Enemies That is the Kingdom He indeed shall deliver up to God and Receives at the same Time the Kingdom of Fruition and Enjoyment which endures indeed for ever and ever The Thousand Years
Life freely Running down from the Holy City and Sanctuary So that though they have not an Absolute Incorruptibility till they are caught up and put on Incorruption and Immortality Yet their Corruptible and Mortal shall never see Death or Corruption And as to all Things of the Present State there is by the Divine Benediction and no Curse entring sufficient Food and Durable Clothing That is All that is necessary by a Spontaneous production without their Toyl or so much as Thought for it God provides And thus in this very Petition Christ hath Spann'd Heaven and Earth with his Hand and made it correspendent to the Sanctifying the Name of God and doing his Will in his Kingdom being come and to let us into the Sense of it hath chosen a Word of an Extraordinary Key and that can be no way interpreted to Satisfaction but into this high Sense of Super-Essential Super-Substantial I proceed now to the Fifth Petition Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive Them that trespass against us Now This Petition also as hath been before observed is a Petition that shall be heard as all the other Petitions of this Prayer to Perfection It is most True and undoubted That it carries an high Obligation to mutual Forgiveness even now among all the Disciples of Christ and Worshippers of him according to this Prayer he hath Taught But This doth not exclude the higher Predictive Sense that is included in the Elevation of this Petition especially because we find so low a State of Things if we measure according to it whether we consider the Comfortable Sense that the Saints of Christ have of their Sins being pardoned by God or the Degrees of mutual Pardon Christians are Able to extend one towards another in this Present State There are Three Things therefore that I will propose to Discourse upon it 1. That this Petition imports a State of the Highest and Fullest Forgiveness of the Saints of Christ one towards another even so high that our Lord proposes it as the very Standard of the Forgiveness of God not that it is indeed so but contrary-wise The Forgiveness of God is certainly the Original Exemplar of Pardon and the Grand Efficient of it as it is in his Saints One to Another 2. This Petition therefore Declares a Forgiveness and Pardon from God to the Highest of all our Notions and Sentiments of Pardon that either we can desire from or yield one to another which is one main Reason of our Saviour's Teaching us the Desire of Forgiveness from God as we Forgive That is to the Heighth and Depth to the Breadth and Length of all our Conceptions of Pardon and also as we learn from Scripture much above and beyond what we can know ask or think 3. When we compare this Prayer with Scripture in its whole Latitude which as I have said is the True Exposition of it and with the Height of Prophetical Scripture in this Point of Reconciliation we find It shall be of All Things in Hâ—aven and Earth or of the Creatures among themselves or of the whole Creation in all the Parts of it one with another 1. I begin with the First wherein our Lord appears to have Given us as a Key a private Key That this is the Prayer of his Kingdom viz. That he Teaches us to pray that we may be forgiven even as we Forgive or as it is said in Luke For we also forgive I do not at all doubt as I have already declared on All Accounts and so on this but that our Lord did hereby Teach the Great Duty of Mutual Forgiveness and that the Expository Discourses upon this Petition are of Great Weight and Moment and of mighty pressing Obligation to all such Mutual Forgiveness But I do only endeavour to shew They do not reach the Heighth of this Petition And therefore on Two Grounds I would discourse this as the Prayer of the Kingdom upon this Petition 1. That the very mention of Forgiveness one of another does import an high State of our Mutual Forgiveness For the Petition does intend not only a Prayer that God would forgive as we forgive but also a Prayer that we may forgive so as we desire to be forgiven of God For a Duty so much above Flesh and Blood and also so contrary to Flesh and Blood how can we presume upon in our own strength without Prayer for it in the very mention of it included For else the Words wauld be as if we Vyed with God in the Magnanimity of Pardon and desir'd him to take Pattern by us and to fâ—rgive us For we are able to forgive those who are indebted to us Whereas we know and Scripture so makes plain to us God is He to whom none is like in pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin And indeed none can Forgive at all but God principally and primarily because every Sin against Men is first against Him and a Victation of his Order and Government of the World And therefore David when he had sinned subordinately against the Honour of Vriah's Bed and against his Life yet confesses Against Thee Against Thee only have I sinned Not as many would take it eztolling his Kingly Power and Supremacy but acknowledging God's Original Right over All Things and that Sin is so against Him that he hath a Supreme Right of pardoning without the Consent of the offended Creature although it be both the Duty of the Offending to Ask and of the offended Creature to Grant that Pardon And that is because both the Offending and the Offended are his But not insisting upon our forgiving as being intended by way of Petition but only as a Condition of and Qualification for Divine Pardon Yet seeing Gods forgiveness of us we desire should be to the heighth There must be a Time when our forgiving one another shall be at such a Heighth that it may be the Glory of that State that Forgiveness of one another and also Forgiveness from God to us may be at a heighth because this Prayer does in every thing imply the highest Senses and therefore must have an Answer to a heighth So on all Accounts there must be a Time of God's forgiving us and our forgiveness of one another at the heighth and the Latter must be such that it may declare and display the Glory of the Former or else This Prayer does not Attain its End 2. Indeed Our Forgivness of one Another is now so low that if it should be the Measure in any Sence of Gods Forgiving us the Best and the most Charitable would want a plenary Pardon if so Measured out to Them I should desire in the Behalf of Those who Forgive most Clearly They should yet be in a Higher Measure Forgiven of God then They Forgive The best Men have too great Tinctures of the Sence of the Injury of others against them Remaining upon their Spirits and especially according to the Comprehensive Word here Chosen by Christ Debts that is either
these Great Doxologies come into their High and Lofty and Solemn Sounds then shall this Doxology be both fully understood and fullfill'd and not before And therefore it shews this Prayer to be the Prayer of the Kingdom The Seal of this Prayer both as to the Sincerity and Reality of our own Desires and of our Faith and Hope in God's Gracious Answer and Giving Effect to our Prayers is common to All Prayers and yet most peculiar to this Prayer as the Comprehensionary Prayer of all Prayers And it is Amen which hath the Force not only of So be It as in other Prayers but of So It is or So It shall be even in this Prayer Taught by an Infallible Master of Prayer who calls himself the Amen And so was and is Able to set with highest Efficacy the Amen to his own Prayer And he will most certainly bring All Things to pass according to it even as he is the Amen the Faithful Witness the Beginning or mighty Principle as of the First so of the New Creation of God And therefore every Petition of it shall be Answer'd to even every Iota Heaven and Earth shall pass but not one Iota of this Prayer shall pass away till All be fullfilled And as it thus looks back to the whole Prayer and every Iota of it so it particularly respects the Doxology We therefore find as in Harmony with it in Two Great Doxologies this Word Amen set as in Capital Letters and in most exalted Accents Revel 5. 14. When Every Creature in Heaven and Earth had said Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be to Him that sits on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever The Four Living Creatures in the most solemn manner said Amen And c. 19. 4. Where there had been a Voice of much People in Heaven Saying Allelujah c. The Four and Twenty Elders and the Four Living Creature Pronounced again in most Sollemn manner Amen Allelujah And indeed Amen is a Word most Proper and Peculiar to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ when All Prophecy even the whole Mystery of God as He hath Spoken by all the Prophets shall be Finished and when All Prayers of Saints Comprehended in this Prayer which is beyond what we can Aske or Think but as the Spirit helping our Infirmities with Groans that are not to be Vttered makes Intercession for us shall be Fully Answered and Fulfilled So that though Amen be a Common Obsignation of all Prayer yet it hath a much higher Sence in this Prayer which Communicates it to All Prayer Flowing from and Returning into it self and even the highest Sence of the Amen to this Prayer is as it is the Prayer of the Kingdom and is Fulfilled in the Doxologies of the Kingdom and of the Power and of the Glory which that Kingdom shall Produce So that even this however Common Amen of All Prayer Expounded into its Full Sence as set to this Prayer is also a Proof to us This Prayer is the Prayer of the Kingdom a Prayer with a Supream Amen Peculiar to it Object If any should say why is it then together with the Doxology wholy Omitted in the Gospel of St. Luke and then Especially when Jesus Christ the Messiah the Prince Taught His Disciples to Pray as John the Fore-Runner Taught his Disciples and where also if any where He Commands the use of it as a Form Answ I can understand no Reason but according to what hath been already Intimated That Our Lord might shew He did in neither Place Intend a Rigid Form and least of All where it might be most Collected from His Words He did Intend a Form as in the Evangelist Luke yet here the Prayer Arises least to a Form being without the Doxology or the Amen And that therefore we might be engaged upon that Rule of Praying after the manner of this Prayer as it is Expounded to us in the whole Word of God And Especially in the Word as it is most peculiarly the Word of the Kingdom And particularly according to the manner of this Prayer as given before by our Lord according to the Evangelist Matthew where we have the Doxology and the Amen And therefore to make Formal Repetition of the Prayer as in Luke without the Doxology and Amen as in Matthew is a Gross Offence against that Precept of our Lords in Matthew Pray after this manner Extending to the Doxology and Conclusion as much as to any part of the Prayer and is by Consequence to be joyned to it in Luke where the Repetition of it is so Given as to make both One Let us now make a Review upon the whole Prayer and behold the Order of it as It is the Prayer of the Kingdom And First Our Father Who is now in the Heavens will Rend and Bow the Heavens And they shall open to Him as He Descends in Jesus Christ the only Begotten Son and Receives his whole Adoption made Conformable to the Image of his Son in His Saints of the First Resurrection who put on Incorruption and the Saints Living Remaining Changed And the Creatures also waiting for the Manifestation of the Son of God are Delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the Glorious Liberty of the Son of God And so He Appears the Father of Heaven and Earth as the Father of Christ of whom the Whole Family of Heaven and Earth is Called So the Whole Creation is Filled with His Glory which is the Sanctification or Glorification of His Name by Himself Immediately even together with this Appearance of His Kindom comes in the Universal Holiness of Jehovah Written on the Forheads of His Servants Serving Him which is His Will done by His Saints in the New Heaven above and the New Earth below and His Enemies Crouching Down at the Foot-Stool of His Feet Hereupon follows the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the Eating and Drinking at His Table in His Kingdom that is the Full Communion with Christ the Bread of Life the Super-Substantial Bread in a Constant Uninterrupted Yesterday and to Day the same For ever At this Supper as so Great a Festival for it There is an Universal Reconciliation of God by Christ and of all the Saints one with another and of the whole Restored Creation even those Parts which seem'd most at Enmity which is the Universal Forgiveness as we are Forgiven and a Perfect State of Righteousness and Peace in the New Jerusalem that there can be no New Offences under our Great Melchisedeck King of Righteousness King of Peace And the Serpent and his Seed at the Foot-Stool of Christ Eat Dust and cannot so much as Repast upon Temptation For there shall be none And at the same Time the whole Curse is Remooved So that Sorrow and Sihgthing Flee away and are Remembred no more nor come into Mind This Universal State of Glory Flows from the Universal Dominion and Kingdom of God and therefore it is Thundered out with Everlasting Hallelujahs The
Entring in they hinder as our Lord Censuring the great Rabbies and Masters of the Jewish Law speaks concerning the Key of Knowledg Luke 11. 52. I will therefore first lay down several Arguments that the true Elevation of this Prayer in its Exposition must be as it is the Prayer of the Kingdom and accordingly I will Aime to give it when I have first Established this main Position by these Proofs of it Argum. 1 The first Argument I draw from the express and plain Words of the Prayer Thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth Now taking the Words according to the plain Sence of them and as we generally understand them it is evident this Prayer Teaches us to rise to the utmost of our desires that the Will of God may be done And seeing there can be no higher Example of its being done then the doing of it as it is done in Heaven we therefore pray it may be done on Earth as it is in Heauen now the same Holiness Zeal and Spirituallity or Heavenly design must move us to pray that the Name of God should be Sanctified to the same height that we pray His Will should be done unto And that utmost is that it may be on Earth as it is in Heaven Sanctified And if we are Taught to pray that the Will of God may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and by Analogy and proportion that his Name may be Sanctified on Earth as it is in Heaven our Lord hath by Admirable Wisdom set the Kingdom of God between these Two Petitions even the Petition that His Kingdom may come between those Two Petitions that undeniably ought to be prayed to the height viz. the Name Sanstified as in Heaven so on Earth and the Will done as in Heaven and so on Earth that what otherwise we might doubt of whether His Kingdom ought to be prayed to come on Earth as it is in Heaven Because we are ready to think that its only to be in Heaven might be ascertain'd to us That we ought to pray for the Kingdom coming even on Earth as it is in Heaven and that we should not be able to wrench out what is so Rivetted into the midst And the very Analogy and Proportion of Heavenly Affection to the Glory of God equally looks to all if there be a possibility They may All be now to shew that They may All be even the Kingdom coming on Earth as in Heaven as well as the Name Sanctified on Earth as in Heaven and the Will done on Earth as in Heaven of which we make no doubt we ought so to pray the Prayer hath so placed that the most to be doubted of in the middle that we may pray for all together and alike Again there is such a concatenation of the things they cannot be divided For the Will of God is that His Name should be Vniversally Sanctified as innumerable Scriptures testify If then His Will be done on Earth as in Heaven His Name must be Sactified on Earth as it is in Heaven seeing that it is so Supream a manifestation of His Will that His Will cannot be done if that be not done and if His Will be so done on Earth as in Heaven His Kingdom must so come For what is a Kingdom but that he who hath the Kingdom should have His Name Highest most Celebrated Honoured and Ador'd which is the Sanctifing the Name of God when it is set at Infinite heights and distances above all other Names and this in Christ who hath a Name above all other Names to the glory of God the Father and that he should have His Will obeyed when ever therefore the Will of God is obeyed the Name of God is so Sanctified on Earth as it is in Heaven His Kingdom must needs come on Earth as it is in Heaven and so His Kingdom will come when ever that is thus when one is the other is also when one is not the other cannot be the things are perfectly convertible and turn on the same Poles when one is all are together with it and if so much as one be not It is certain neither of the other can be But that we may know both the Time when each of the other may be and shall be and that we may also know the Grand Expedient or mighty Instrument when each of the other shall be effected The Kingdom coming is set in the midst of each when the Kingdom comes the other Two shall be For that Kingdom shall certainly effect and bring the other Two to pass viz. the Name shall be so sanctified and the VVill so done But these things are impossible to come to pass according to the Experience of so many Thousand Years that the World hath already had or to be hoped for or expected without Bowing the Heavens Rending the Heavens the Heavens coming down as it were to the Earth in such Glorious Manifestations as the Kingdom of Christ is describ'd to appear in And if these so Fundamental Points of Glory and Happiness in that Kingdom be established how great will be the Consequences There shall certainly be the constant Table of the Kingdom in the Bread of Life and the most abundant Sufficiency of All Things the State of Reconciliation betwixt God and Man betwixt Man and Man betwixt Man and the whole Creation betwixt the lower Creatures and themselves and throughout the whole Frame of the Creation of God All things in Heaven and Earth being Reconciled in him even in him and then most certainly there will be no more Leading into Temptation but a perfect Deliverance from Evil For the Cause of all the Indigencies of that Life that is to be supported by that Epiousious or Supersubstantial Bread according to the Day of all the Anger of God and the Mutual Enmities in the World and of the Curse upon the Creation is That the Will of God is not done on Earth as it is in Heaven and his Name sanctified and because the present State is not the State of the Kingdom of Christ But then shall it be Acknowledg'd with Hallelujahs That the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory is his throughout Eternity of Ages Seal'd with an Unchangable and everlasting Amen Now I would appeal to any one whether our Lord Teaching his Disciples then and successively in All Ages to pray that the Will of God may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and that All Things that must in Necessary Consequence fall out together should come to pass also whenever his Will is so done whether I say our Lord would Teach so to pray if he had not known it was the Will of God Things should be so or if there were not a promise of God for such a Kingdom of Christ wherein All these Things should be so as a Ground of Faith they should be so And because God hath so promis'd and resolv'd they should be so and that he will yet be enquir'd of by
into which All the Prophecies issue as All the Promises determine themselves particularly that of the New Heaven and the New Earth and wherein the Mystery of God is Finish'd cannot be left out of that Prayer which the Great Prâ—phet High Priest and Apostle of our Profession Taught to his Disciples If it were so either the Things spoken of must be small or the Prayer must be small But neither of these can be suppos'd Not the First because they are the Result and Issue of all the wonderful Counsels and Works of God in the World Not the latter because it is the great Comprehensive Prayer the whole Element of Prayer So that when we pray aright and according to the Word of God we do say as the words may very well bear whenever you do pray you do say not so much Imperatively as Indicatively whenever the Spirit of Adoption crys in us Abba Father we do presently say Our Father When the Spirit of Prayer moves upon any of the Stores of Prayer in the Word of God we immediately fall into this Prayer If ever therefore Any of Those so very Great and Visible and Conspicuous Things in the Word of God that concern the Kingdom of Christ either in Relation to our selves or the Church of Christ in general come into our Prayers and how can it be otherwise if we do indeed pray Then either we must pray out of and beyond this Prayer which must needs be impossible if this be so Comprehensive a Prayer as we All allow it to be or else this Kingdom must be so conspicuous in this Prayer Since then on one side we Find the Word of God so full of the Great Expressions of this Kingdom that we must either pray for the Things therein declar'd by Prophecy and Promise or we must leave such Huge Tracts of the Word of God out of our Prayers And seeing on the other side in this Prayer which we acknowledge so Comprehensive a Prayer we find the so Express Words Thy Kingdom come and a parallel State of Doing the Will of God as in Heaven and upon Earth besides all the other so Correspondent Relations how can we but be assur'd This Prayer is the Prayer of the Kingdom in its highest Elevation and that it can be no other and that seeing it is so it must prevail for the Coming of the Kingdom in its proper Time seeing as we have Fully Reason'd it cannot but be heard Argam 3 That which is so much the Will of God that it should be that He hath infus'd a Natural Emotion into the very Creation towards it and that it as with a Lifted-up Head of Expectation and Desire sues for That certainly is comprehended in this Prayer For it cannot be once suppos'd that Jesus Christ Teaching his Servants and Saints to pray should not give them in a Spiritual and Intellectual way what is given to the Lower Creat on as by Instinct because it is so Necessary Now that Restitution of All Things That Glorious Manifestation of the Sons of God That Deliverance of the Creatures from their Vnwilling Subjection to Vanity they now Groan and Travail under yet under Hope of bringing forth a better tSate All this the Creatures with Earnest Expectation wait for with lifted-up Heads They as it were beg for How then can it be but that so Great a Point of the Divine Will should have very fair Lines of it in this Prayer And seeing our Lord directs us in this Prayer to look up to God as a Father The Liberty even the Glorious Liberty of his Sons must needs be a principal part of it And where can there be so Reasonable a placing of it as in that Great Petition Thy Kingdom come For where should the Sons of God have a Liberty of Glory but in his Kingdom This is so undeniably certain and Evident that I insist no further upon it Argum. 4 When the Apostle speaks of this very Glorious Liberty of the Children of God and the Manifestation of the Sons of God by it and in it who cry unto him Abba Father He does Affirm we have the First Fruits of the Spirit and groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption that is the Manifestation of the Sons of God and That is the Redemption of our Bodies He further manifests This cannot be a Present State 1. Because the Apostles had only the First Fruits of the Spirit compar'd with that Great Harvest of the pouring out of the Spirit that shall be at that Time and withal the Vouchsafement of the Spirit to all Christians in general now is a First Fruits an Anointing a Seale and an Earnest to All that Glory 2. He shews It is a Future State because it is in Hope and therefore cannot be in present For then Hope and Sight would be confounded Then he goes forward and Affirms Seeing this Hope cannot but be Full of Desires and those Desires will be breaking out into Prayers That therefore the Spirit helps our Infirmities in that great Point wherein we know not what to pray for as we ought But the Spirit makes Intercession with Groanings that cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the Heart knoweth the Mind of the Spirit For he maketh Intercession foâ— the Saints according to the Will of God From all these Things Duely laid together arise many Great Points to our purpose 1. That the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God at the Time of their Manifestrtion and the Restitution of the Creation cannot but be a principal Point of Prayer For saith the Apostle We groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption c. And so he falls into the Discourse of Prayer for it with Groans that cannot be uttered 2. The Apostle so often referring to God as a Father by the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father by the so often mention of the Sons of God by the Adoption leads us even by a stretch'd-out Hand to that Prayer wherein the very first word is Our Father If therefore we are led by the Consideration of God as a Father to the Prayer that Teaches us to say Our Father we are certainly led also to the Great Points of Adoption viz. the Manifestation of and the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God which must be principal Points of that Prayer wherein we call God Father because the Adoption is proper to Sons even as the Manifestation of and the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God is and therefore they must be intimately Related both of them to God as a Father Because Sons and Father are so strictly and inseparately Cor-related The Kingdom of God then coming as in Heaven and on Earth must be the Center wherein All these Lines meet For at that Kingdom is the Redemption of our Bodies that is the Resurrection as All Scripture Agrees 3. The Apostle plainly signifies We do know what we are to pray for and yet we do not know what to pray far as we ought That is we
do know as to the Matter of Prayer but we do not know in clear Apprehension And that therefore the Great Transaction in this Prayer is between the Spirit of God in our Hearts making Intercession with Groans not to be uttered in what we do pray for but know not to pray for as we ought and God searching the Heart and knowing the Mind of the Spirit wherein our Apprehensions are not Form'd and Explain'd who yet hears us because that Intercession is according to the Will of God and the Rule of this Prayer although our Apprehensions are not Express Now what more exact State of the Case can there be with Relation to the Generality of Christians praying this Prayer They do by this Prayer know what to pray for for they know to pray that the Kingdom of God may come But they know not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Thing of that Kingdom as they ought They have not the True Explain'd Apprehensions of the Kingdom according to the Excellent Nature of it This we know is the General Case of Christians The Spirit therefore here helps out it gives unform'd Desires Groans not uttered that leave a Savour a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inward Sense of this And God knowing that Sense the Spirit leaves imprinted to be according to his Will and according to this Rule or Prayer by Christ That it is for that Glorious Manifestation of the Sons of God and the Restitution of all Things Hears according to that Rule and that Sense according to the Rule imprinted and left by the Spirit And thus All Christians pray and are heard for this Kingdom beyond Themselves knowing it For this Prayer giving them the words Thy Kingdom come The Spirit beyond Themselves give the Groans And God Gracioussy gives the Ear to his Sons â—ords and to the Sense of his Spirit 's Groans because they are Both according to his Will Argum. 5 The Prayer which Our Lord gave as The Messiah as The Christ as The King of Israel cannot but be a Prayer for his Kingdom For His Kingdom is so Great a Truth that he said For this end was I born and for this end came I into the World to bear witness to the Truth And every one that is of the Truth Heareth his Voice in this Great Point For this was the very Point Christ was upon when he used these Words even in Rejoynder to that Demand of Pilate Art thou a King then And this was the Good Confession he witnessed before Pontius Pilate as by Compare of John 18. 37. and 1 Tim. 6. 13. may be seen And therefore upon the very mention of that Good Confession of Christ the Apostle goes on to the Fuller Discourse of and Display of the Kingdom of Christ Now then if the Kingdom of Christ was so Principal a Point of the Witness of Jesus Christ for which he came into the World certainly when he Gave a Prayer to his Servants as the Great Standard of Prayer and that he makes peculiar mention of the coming of that Kingdom which as hath been every way shown cannot be the Kingdom of Eternity but a preparation to it and that Kingdom into which it is delivered up This Prayer must be the Prayer of the Kingdom of Christ For Christ Taught it in his Great Capacity of Messiah as John Taught it in his Capacity as the Fore-runner of Messiah It could not therefore be but that in this Prayer Christ Lifted up a Banner and an Ensign and a Standard to be displayed because of this Truth to which All his Servants should be gathered in their Desires I do not therefore at all wonder that the Principal or All the Petitions might be collected from the usual Petitions among the Jews and thus Canonized and made Sacred by Christ because the Jews had the more particular promises of this Kingdom the more particular Notices and Notions of it as may easily appear by the whole Stream of the Old Testament and many Evidences of their Expectation of it in the New However they had much debased and straitned those Notions Our Lord therefore to shew He was that King of Israel and His was that Kingdom they expected Composed their loose and scattered Petitions for it into this Excellent Frame and under so Divine a Sanction as the Prayer he Taught And it stands therefore as a Monument for Them and for All the Gentile Churches of his Kingdom and to draw All thereby to himself as their King and That King that is to come into the World Argum. 6 Jesus Christ is the One Mediator and Intercessor between God and Man presenting and making Acceptable to God the Prayers of his Saints and Giving much Incense with them And This is his peculiar Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedeck For as such saith the Apostle He Lives for ever to make Intercession for All Those that come to God by him Now in this Priesthood of Intercession Two Things must necessarily meet His Kingdom and his Prayer His Kingdom because his Melchizedekian Priesthood hath an immediate Reference to his Kingdom of Righteousness and of Peace that is his Glorious Kingdom wherein his own Glory as the Head the Glory of his Church as the Body lye together enfolded and are to come to perfection And in that Priesthood he is a Saviour to Perfection or to the very End Again That which is the principal Point of his Redemption is the principal Point of his Intercession Now to make us Kings and Priests to God and to his Father that we may Reign on and over the Earth is the principal Point of his Redemption and so Celebrated in the New Song Revel 5. and therefore of his Intercession Lastly That which is the High Expectation of Christ at the Right Hand of God must needs fall in with his Intercession on the Right Hand of God Now He is set down on the Right Hand of God expecting that his Enemies should be made his Footstool and that is in his Kingdom as it appears at his Comming as the Apostle teaches us 1 Cor. 15. 21. Therefore he intercedes for it For his Expectation is grounded on his Intercession and Redemption Heb. 10. 13. 2 Tim. 4. 1. And as his Kingdom and Intercession thus meet so must his Intercession meet also with and be undivided from the Prayer he Taught For no possible supposal can there be that Christ should Intercede upon the Prayers of his Saints but that their Prayers must be comprehended in that Pattern and Rule of Prayer he gave For he would not Give a Prayer he would not Intercede upon and that that should not be the Square and Summary of all the Prayers he would Intercede upon It must needs therefore be that the Kingdom coming the Prayer insists upon must needs be the Melchizedeckian Kingdom the Kingdom when his Redeemed as Kings and Priests Reign upon and over the Earth and when his Enemies are made his Footstool That Prayer therefore John
must therefore be cast back into some space most fit for them within that Kingdom of Christ that is in a State of Acquisition And what fitter Time is there than when the Christian Empire began in Constantine until that great Ravage the Turks as a Gog Magog made in the World In Answer hereunto Answ 1 I cannot understand how the Apostle's express Words of the Son 's delivering up of the Kingdom to God even the Father can be expounded of changing a Kingdom of Acquisition for a Kingdom of Fruition much less how the Son 's being Himself subject can be interpreted into such a Kingdom of Fruition It is very plain the Son who delivers up and who is subject must be the Son of Man who Receiv'd the Kingdom from the Hand of the Ancient of Days For the Eternal Word can neither Receive a Kingdom nor Deliver it up Nor would God be more All in All so much as to Oeconomy or Dispensation for the Eternal Words Delivery up of a Kingdom to Him who is One with Him The Kingdom therefore the Eternal Word ever had the Father ever had unitedly with Him If he should deliver up a Kingdom to the Father he would still have it equally with the Father because the Father and He as the Eternal Word are One. There can be no Receiving nor Delivering up of a Kingdom betwixt the Father and the Eternal Word There can be no so much as Representation of God and the Father more or less All in All for any Kingdom the Eternal Word hath or Delivers up of a Kingdom The Kingdom therefore delivered up that God may be All in All must be the Kingdom of the Son of Man which as in Oeconomy or Representation is made so supreme though indeed to the Glory of God the Father that the Glory of God seems not to stand Alone in Glory but is pleas'd to Allow Full Glory to and not to out-shine the Kingdom of the Humane Nature of Christ or of the Man Christ Jesus Answ 2 There is no possible Fitting Any Part of Time that hath yet been to the Description Given of the Thousand Years by the Spirit of God Revel 20. But it must needs be yet to come for this Great and most Apparent Reason There hath been no Time yet wherein Sathan could be said to be so Bound as not to deceive the Nations any more What Time hath there yet been in which besides all Unholy Practices he hath not Deceiv'd with Paganism with Mahometanism and Antichristianism These Thousand Years must therefore be proper and peculiar to a Kingdom of Christ yet to come and that therefore must be to the Kingdom design'd by Christ in this Prayer Answ 3 The parallel State of the Will of God done in the New Heaven and in the New Earth as in the Kingdom of Eternity can have no place in this Prayer because it can indeed have no place at all in that Eternal State Arg. 1 Because the Apostle stiles the Time of the Delivery up of the Kingdom most Signally and Eminently The End And he distinguishes it from that End when Christ shall come with which also concurs the Resurrection of His his Reign and so Kingdom till Death the Last Enemy shall be subdued and then the Kingdom is Delivered up Seeing then the End it self is after the Coming of Christ and after the Resurrection the End it self must be an End to that Last State For the Coming of Christ and the Rising of his Saints is an End to this World and to the State of it so it cannot be the End of this State but of that After-State of the Reign of Christ and whatever consists with that And that we shall find to be the State of the New Heaven and of the New Earth For Arg. 2 The New Heaven and New Earth must needs be the World to come whereof saith the Apostle we speak which is put into subjection to Christ and it is put into subjection to Him at his coming when He Reigns and hath All Things put under Him If then there so comes an End when this Kingdom shall be deliver'd up by the Great Ruler of it Christ what Reason is there to believe that That World it self is then to take End at and with that End It is certain it must have End or be deliver'd up For the Son shall be subject It can be his World therefore no longer his Heaven and Earth no longer Arg. 3 If then the State of God's Kingdom even the Father shall be such that it will bear no such Heaven nor Earth then it is certain They must have End when All is deliver'd up But God being All in All No New Heaven nor New Earth can be born for either They must Enjoy God or be Enjoyed by God and by his Saints Their Natures are such that they cannot enjoy God being not Creatures of Understanding or Will To be therefore and not to enjoy God takes off from God being All in All For then would there be Creatures of an Eternal Duration even when God is All and They in no Capacity to enjoy him If it should be said They do enjoy him in their way I Answer That is High enough for an Oeconomical State but not for this of Eternity If it be said That God may enjoy them and his Saints may enjoy them and praise him for them and they Declare his Glory I Answer This also is Allowable to the Oeconomical but not to the Eternal State God is the only Enjoyable in that State to himself and to his Saints and He Enjoys his Saints only in the Communication of Himself to Them No less than This can be understood by God being All in All He must be The Alone to be Enjoyed and He must be Enjoyed Argum. 4 There is but One Place of Scripture that gives Account of Things after the Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ and that is Revel 20. It plainly gives Account of the State after that Kingdom because it gives an Account of Things after the Expiration of the Thousand Years when Sathan is Loosed And the Thousand Years are said to be the Reign of Christ with his Saints So it must be the Thousand Years Kingdrm of Christ Now the utmost End of that State is a Great White Throne and One sate upon it from whose Face Heaven and Earth fled away and there was not Place Found for them Now from hence several Arguments Arise Assuring us There are no Heaven and Earth except the Heaven of Divine Presence after the utmost End of All. 1. There appears an Emblematical Introduction to the Utter Blaâ—ching and Annihilation of All Being but God and his Saints on one side and the Lake of the Second Death with its Dead on the other 2. Because the Lake receives All the Dead with Death it self we are Assured it is that very End when the Kingdom is deliver'd up and the Son becomes Subject All being subdued to him For here the Last
Enemy Death is subdued and then is the End 3. When this Heaven and Earth Fled away There was no Place Found For them When any one dies it is said Their place knows them no more Their place remains but it knows them no more Another comes in their place Or as it is said in Job Out of their Earth another grows So when the Heaven and Earth that now are are burnt up another Heaven and Earth shall come in their room But when this Heaven and Earth Fly away there is no place for them not so much as place where they may be and so not where any other may come 4. The Heaven and Earth that now are are Treasur'd up for fire and are to be for the perdition of ungodly men and so in other Scriptures But these fly from the sole Presence of Him that sits on the white Throne These Two Descriptions are very differing But if All These Things could be Accommodated and it be said There are New Heavens and a New Earth that succeed c. 21. those which fly away c. 20. I further Argue Argum. 4 The Heavens and Earth that fly away c. 20. are no other nor can be any other than the very New Heavens and New Earth that John saw c. 21. And though to draw a Veil on Prophecy They are set as it were in a Succession to the Heaven and Earth that Fled away yet there are several Great and Undeniable Arguments That the Flying away of the Heaven and Earth spoken of c. 31. must be after the New Jerusalem State and therefore must be of the New Heavens and New Earth that were created New together with the New Jerusalem For the New Heaven and Earth John saw are so close Tied with the New Jerusalem as not to be separated For after the mention of them it is immediately subjoyn'd I John saw the New Jerusalem that made her self Ready as a Bride Adorned for her Husband cap. 19. Come down cap. 21. And again after the seeing both the New Heavens and the New Jerusalem He that sate on the Tbrone said Behold I create All New So there is a Locking in the New Heaven and the New Earth even on purpose with the New Jerusalem that they may not be Divided But the Flying away of Heaven and Earth from him that sate on the white Throne must needs be after the New Jerusalem For it is after the Holy City and the Beloved City which was no other than the Bride the New Jerusalem that was therefore Beloved because the Bride and therefore Holy because Arrayed in Linen White and Clean which is the Righteousness of the Saints Now this New Jerusalem must be together with the Thousand Years also for at the end of the Thousand Years Satan was Let Loose to make the Attempt on the Holy and Beloved City by deceiving the Nations into that Attempt Now Satans being let Loose is expresly said to be when the Thousand Years were expired so the City must needs be during the Thousand Years in Peace and Safety and Attempted at the end of the Thousand Years when Fire Comming down to destroy the Enemies and Satan not being Sealed up only but cast into the Lake after this Attempt immediately Following the White Throne and Heaven and Earth flying from the Face of Him that Sat upon it So then the Heaven and Earth that Fled away must be the New-Heaven and Earth that were together in the Holy City during the Thousand Years And yet hath not this Kingdom End when the Thousand Years End because Christ delivers up the Saints into the Enjoyment of God the Principal Part of this Kingdom but yet much more strictly and properly the Kingdom is delivered up Because what was more Immediately mannaged by Christ in the Humane Nature in a Visible and Conspicuous Glory is now mannaged by the Divine Nature conveying his Love by the Eternal Word through the Human Nature in Grace to his Saints and in Wrath to those in the Lake For the Kingdom delivered up is the Power delivered up and it is explained by the Son being Subject and by God even the Father therein opposed to the Son being All in All All things else Being then Subdued and the Glory shining from the Father by the Eternal Word Vibrated by the Eternal Spirit through the Human Nature For so Assures us our Lords whole Discourse John 17. 21. to the End And with this whole State of things upon close Examination will be found to Agree all the Oeconomies of Scripture and otherwise none of them will be found to Agree So that if it should be said why should not this Prayer be understood of the present State of the Kingdom as High as we can attain in it and then of the Absolute Perfect and Supreme Kingdom of Eternity The Answer is very plain He who is the only Wise God hath found the Oeconomy of this Kingdom of Christ necessary both as a Mirror of his own Wisdom and Glory in Relation to his Creation as Restored by the Redemption of Christ and also as a preparation of his Saints by Christ in the Glory and Holiness of Human Nature for that Union with himself in the Absolutely Divine Kingdom of Eternity In which That Last Act of Jesus Christ as in our Nature seeking not his own Will nor Glory but the Glory of the Father He does not only in and by himself perform as that Highest Act of Obedience and self Resignation but he United all his Saints with him in that Act that however the State of the Kingdom of Christ might seem more proportioned to the Human Nature as of Spirits in Bodies Christ the Head for his whole Body of Saints the Church and they in and by him Choose and are most gladly Delivered up into that whole State to have Body as much as can stand with Remaining Highest Spiritualiz'd Bodies and Distinct Beings swallowed up of God all Spirit and Created swallowed up of Increated and is that Last and most perfect Act of Christs Declaring to All the Name of the Father and wherein He will declare it that the Love wherewith the Father Loved Christ may be in them and He in them John 17. ult All which is in cluded in this Prayer for the Kingdom I have now so far as I can understand setled the Principal design and find the true Elevation of this Prayer as the Prayer of the Kingdom and Vindicated it from all objections I now come to Adjust each part of this Prayer hereunto which Consists of a Prefatory Address and a Doxological Conclusion and as they are Generally Accounted Six but as I Account Seven Petitions Answerable to the many Sevens in the Revelation Leading to the Kingdom of Christ And the reason why I Account Seven what others Account but six is Those Two Lead us not into Temptation But deliver us from Evil very naturally fall into Two Petitions and express Two distinct very High things though Both fall into one State
and cannot but do so even that State of this Kingdom of Christ And the but is a but of Discretion and Distinction of things And yet because those Two distinct things can neither of them be but United in time and in that Blessed State wherein either of them shall be They are so Conjoyned and the but does not only Discern but Tye them together I Come therefore to the Prefatory Address which consists of Two things The Compellation used to God Father and our Father A Compellation Importing Transendent Greatness and Goodness and the further Magnification of him by his Residence which is Heaven who are in Heaven Preface Our Father I deny not any of the Senses Holy Men of God have given of this Appellation but exalt it to ' its Heighth and the Heighth is when God gives the Inheritance then he appears in full Paternity and Fatherhood and this is at the Resurrection the Redemption of our Bodies For as he is the God so he is the Father not of the Dead but of the Living and at this Time as he is not Ashamed to be called the God so he will not be Ashamed to be called the Father of his Servants For then He will bring the Inheritance and the Adoption together and shew how One is Provided for the Other And this must needs be so There must be such an Adoption by and in the Resurrection and such an Inheritance For as our Lord says They All Live to Him whose God He is He cannot else be their God So then that they may Live to Him and He be their God They must Live else how can They Live to Him and he be their God and their Father Now seeing God is the God of all his Servants not only as Spirits but as Spirits in Bodies They must thtrefore All Live to him as Spirits in Bodies and if for some Time They are Spirits out of Bodies and those Spirits are Pledges of the Future State of Life yet it can be but for a Time though it may be to the Servants of God who liv'd far off from that Resurrection a very long time according to our Measure of Time yet nothing compar'd with the Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ Deliver'd up into an Eternity of Vnion with God and the Father Seeing then I say again God is the God of his Servants as Spirits in Bodies and the State opposite to it is call'd Hades Death and the Grave or at the highest an Invisible State though in his wise Dispose for so considerable a Space He is satisfied by his Saints as Spirits living to him yet there must needs be a Resurrection that in Full sense his Servants may Live to Him and He be known to be Their God and Father For the Children of God are then known to be the Children of God and He their Father when they shall be and appear the Children of the Resurrection It is therefore said at the New Jerusalem as the Just time of all these things fulfill'd He that overcometh shall inherit All Things And I will be to him a God and He shall be to me a Son Then the Abba Father that we now cry as Children shall in that Fulness of the Inheritance be pronounc'd in Full and Manly Sounds and Accents This must be the Adoption then If the Adoption it must be also the Resurrection or Redemplion of our Bodies For the Adoption and the Redemption of our Bodies are by the Apostle made one and the same Accordingly the New Jerusalem hath a Resurrection and is an Inheritance But further to make this out whenever the Adoption or Manifestation of the Children of God shall be there shall be a Restitution of the whole Creation For the Creation it self shall then be Delivered into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God When therefore this World to come is it shall be put in subjection to Christ Alone Then shall be his Kingdom therefore For these things reciprocate Then shall be the Adoption and when the Adoption is This VVorld to come of the Restitution shall be So the Kingdom of Christ and the Restitution must needs be together with the Adoption or the Resurrection or the Redemption of our Bodies Let us then lay All together The Prayer that our Lord taught Teaches us to pray Our Father The Highest sense of God being Our Father is at the Adoption or Manifestation of the Sons of God in the Resurrection or Redemption of our Bodies Together with this is the Restitution of the Creation in the World of the second Adam that is the World to come of which God in Christ is the Father even of that New Heaven and New Earth as He is now styl'd the Father of Heaven and Earth All these are in the New Jerusalem and Kingdom of Christ This Prayer of our Lord comprehends the Largest and Reaches the highest sense of All Things of Prayer The very Calling of God therefore Father and Our Father must needs reach the State of the Adoption or Manifestation of the Kingdom of God which is the State of the Resurrection or Redemption of our Bodies which is the State of the Restitution of All Things which is the State of the World to Come which is the State of the New Jerusalem and of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which Kingdom the New Jerusalem is and accordingly It hath a Resurrection and a New Creation Appertaining to it which is the Restitution of All Things so that this Prayer must even from this Prefatory Address be the Prayer of the Kingdom Let us now consider the further Magnification of God by his Residence in Heaven that we may observe whether That have any Manuduction of our Thoughts towards the Kingdom Our Father which art in Heaven or in the Heavens These words are a Magnification of God as by his supreme Residence in the Heavens or in the Heaven of Heavens Now to pray to him who Dwelleth in the Heavens that his Name may be Sanctified as in Heaven and on Earth and his Kingdom Come as in Heaven and on Earth and his Will Done as in Heaven and on Earth what is it but to Beseech Him to Bow the Heavens to Rend the Heavens and to Come Down and to Establish as in a Lower Heaven a parallel State as in Heaven and on Earth It is to say to God as Solomon said The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Thee Come down therefore into the Lower Heaven and Earth and Establish a State as in Heaven and on Earth And because This cannot be in the present Old lower Heaven and Earth Therefore to pray for such a State as in Heaven and on Earth is to pray for the New Heaven and the New Earth or the New Jerusalem that shall Come Down from Our Lord out of Heaven And when this is The Heavens that now are shall be Rent indeed as an old Garment and shall with the vehemency of that Flame melt and Come Down And They shall be according
And thus far I have Argued upon a simple Consideration of the Words in Themselves But if we look upon them as involv'd with the Foregoing and Following Petitions the Enforcement is much stronger For the Connexion may be Three manner of ways understood and in which soever of those ways it be understood the Argument will be very forcible 1. Let these Three Petitions stand equally as Petitions And if it be a Rule of Prayer for the Enlargement of the Glory of God that his Glory should be the Fullness of the Earth or as in Heaven and upon Earth Then there is the Force of a Petition Taught by Christ infallibly according to Faith according to Promise according to the Will of God and under the Mediation of Christ and therefore That must be Answer'd For there is the same Rule of Proportion that if we ought to desire the Will of God may be done and His Name sanctified as in Heaven and upon Earth we ought also to Pray His Kingdom may come as in Heaven and upon Earth 2. Take the Petitions in Connexion And if that Petition Thy Will be done as in Heaven and on Earth be Heard it cannot be otherwise the Kingdom of God must be as in Heaven and on Earth For his Will done is his Kingdom and so proportionably His Name must be sanctified When one is the other cannot but be If any one is not the other cannot either of Them be 3. Indeed the Kingdom placed in the middle is as the Great Instrument by which the other Two are effected the Center about which they turn That his Name may be sanctified and his Will done as in Heaven and on Earth His Kingdom must come as in Heaven and on Earth For what Reason can be given seeing it is so highly pleasing and acceptable to God and so due from all his Creatures if it be but in the Nature of the Thing possible that his Name should be sanctified and his Will done as in Heaven and on Earth that it should not in so long a Time either besore or especially since this Prayer taught by our Lord have come to pass but that in his wife Dispose and Determination the Time of his Glorious and Illustrious Kingdom as in Heaven and on Earth was not yet come When therefore the Mystery of God shall be finish'd in the Days of the Seventh Angel and He shall Sound it shall be proclaim'd that the Kingdoms of this World are beeome the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ That he hath taken to him his Great Power and Reigns when there shall be the Voice of many VVaters and of mighty Thunderings saying The Lord God Omnipotent Reigns Then shall be the Kingdom and Appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ And it shall be a Kingdom as in Heaven and on Earth a Kingdom of God and of the Lamb Revel 19. I come therefore to the Third Petition Thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth For so are the Words exactly translated And it seems not unworthy Notice That when in the Address to God we say Our Father which art in Heaven The Word in the Greek is in the Plural Number who art in the Heavens But when we pray Thy Will be done as in Heaven and on Earth the word Heaven is in the singular Number and so in the Revelation c. 21. a single New Heaven John saw Now these words are generally understood as if they had been thus Form'd Thy Will be done on Earth according to the Exemplar of its being done in Heaven but in both Matthew and Luke they are fram'd by way of parallel Let thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth So that in strictest holding to the words the Prayer is for a parallel State as in Heaven and upon Earth I dare not deny but if there were not Another Admirable Sense given us by Scripture concerning them That Sense of the Exemplarity of the Will of God being done on Earth as in Heaven were very clear and good But when this Contexture is such as to Favour Another Sense most viz. of the Parallellism and that Scripture offers such a Parallellism to us Undoubtedly the Parallelism is rather to be chosen When therefore as I have already Argued this Prayer is so Founded that this Petition shalI certainly be Answer'd And that it must be Answered in a State on some Earth and that it cannot be otherwise Answered and that there is so great Countenance of a Parallellism as in Heaven and upon Earth we have nothing more necessary now to do than to search Scripture for the full settling of this Paralellism By Three Gradations therefore we may take this Paralellism 1. By considering those Scriptures that Represent Heaven and Earth in such a Parallel The Apostle Peter says VVe according to his promise look for New Heavens and a New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness where the Parallel lies in the Heaven and Earth expresly nam'd in both being New and Righteousness dwelling in both Ep. 2. c. 3. 13. Again the Apostle Ephes 1. 10. speaking of that very Time of the Kingdom of Christ in its Glorious Appearance when he shall appear the Second Time without Sin unto Salvation He calls it the Oeconomy the Fullness of Time Now at this Time saith the Apostle God would Recollect All as into One Head in Christ even in Christ All things in Heaven and Earth Here are All things in Heaven and Earth Here are All Things in Heaven and in Earth in a parallel in Christ even in Christ In a Scripture of a very like Constitution with this Col. 1 20. the Apostle speaks of God Reconciling All Things in Heaven and Earth by him even by him Here again are All Things in Heaven and Earth in a parallel Reconcil'd by him to God even by him As if the Apostle in both places had said Take notice I say it Twice over In him In him By him By him are All Things in Heaven and Earth Gathered under one Head and Reconcil'd Lastly In a Psalm Prophetick of the Last Turning the Captivity of the people of God as in a paralellism betwixt Heaven and Earth it is said Truth shall spring out of the Earth and Righteousness shall Look down from Heaven Psal 85. 11. How now can Things be more fix'd and settled for the Doing the VVill of God as in Heaven and on Earth than that there should be a New Heaven and a New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell That All Things in Heaven and Earth should be Reconcil'd by Christ to God and that Truth should spring out of the Earth and Righteousness look down from Heaven When things are thus it cannot be otherwise then but that what hath never yet been in this Old Earth but in Christ Alone should be viz. That the Will of God should be done as in Heaven and upon Earth 2. The Scripture gives Account of the Dead in Christ or of Those who Sleep by Jesus that God
Water of Life in His Kingdom Can it then be that in so Great an Institution of Prayer Comprehensive as I have said of all the Gospell and Word of the Kingdom so far as it can Fall into Prayer That a Petition for Bread should miss that Supream Bread of the Kingdom somuch Discoursed in His Word So promised in His Kingdom so Represented in the Supper of His Kingdom We may be Assured It cannot be And that therefore this Bread must be of a Higher Importance than Natural Bread Argum. 2 Especially Our Lord sets a severe Brand in the Exposition or discourse after as upon the Heads of this Prayer upon too Earnest Care and Seeking viz. by Prayer as one way What we shall Eat and Drinck c. and Recommends to our Principal Desires and Prayers the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of it as what should be in our Eye And assures us that our Father Knoweth the need we have of Other Things and will give them in Course as a Surplusage to those Greater Things Not that we are Forbidden to Pray for them at all but that they should be the Lowest of our Prayers And therefore They cannot be the Principal of such a Petition as This is Our Lord also severely Reproves those who Sought Him because they Eat even of His Miraculous Loaves and were Filled and directs them Better then to Labour for the Meat that Perisheth setting before them as was said that which Endureth to Eternal Life How then can it be that this Bread that perisheth should take up One though it be but One Petition in this Prayer and it not have a Higher Sence and Meaning in a Higher Spirited Bread then our daily Natural Bread Certainly it cannot Be. Argum. 3 Our Lord made choice of such a Word in the Language wherein He gave this Prayer viz. that which Two Inspired Writers Uniformly give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which most nearly nextly and naturally signifies Super-Essential or Super-Substantial and it Poses and even Crucifies Learned Men when they cannot Acquiesc in that Sence The very Enquiry therefore after the Sence of a Word no where else used and the so Ready Offer of Super-Essentiality Super-Substantiality must needs perswade us Our Lord intended the Bread that came down from Heaven Especially by this Super-Essential Bread Argum. 4 Those Expressions Our Bread Bread for to Day or that is according to the Day and daily or successive Bread from Day to Day as some understand that Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altho they carry Notions of great Moderation to all things in this World a diligence in calling and Justice in Eating our own Bread yet they Offer us a much Higher Sence in that Super-Essential Bread as that which is much more truely our own Bread That better part then much serving about the Bread of this World which shall never be taken from us but Endures to Everlasting Life This is indeed our own Bread And it is indeed Bread of a certain Succession and Sufficiency as certain as Duration it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yesterday and to Day without a Tomorrw the Same for Ever Bread of every Day Sufficient to it and of a certain Succession in Fullest Truest Sence What They Ignorantly Carnally Prayed for Lord evermore give us this Bread It is Evermore given it is unto Eternal Life He that Eats of it shall never Die And together with it is given to the Saints The Living The Remaining Saints on the New Earth a Sufficiency of all outward Enjoyments according to the Day without any Labour or Toyl distracting their Enjoyment of God and in a certain Succession without any Care or Solicitude or taking Thought for To morrow But how can the State of this World Quietly submit to a Dependency upon Providence according to the Prayer or find the Just Temper betwixt that Providence for To morrow we look upon as our Duty and the Care and Immoderate Thoughts for To morrow our Lord forbids This World is too Poor and Indigent and the Course of things too Broken and Disorderly to Trust till Tomorrow without Anxieties Except we had a better Faith than the very most of Saints have here Nor can this Bread be called Epiousious Super-Substantial or Essential or so much as in a kindly Natural Course of Succession without something Parallel to the Sweat of the Brow Or so much as Ours Since besides all other Reasons that may be given which make it too apt to be the Mammon of Vurighteousness It is very often that while it is in our Mouth the Body for which it is and it Perish together So that this Petition in its Just Elevation of Sence can never be Answered but in the Kingdom of Christ which assures us It is the Prayer of the Kingdom Although it is indeed our Duty and it ought to be our constant Prayer to come as near as we can to the State herein Imported But we are too much Gentiles in this Regard not only caring Inordinately but Inordinately Enjoying the World more than can Consist with the delay of the Kingdom of Christ and His Patience for it And as it were to shew we are yet in the Gentiles Times our very Word to express Splendor of Condition and Affluence is taken from Them even that Word we Rate our selves so much by Gentile is taken from the Gentiles By which I intend not to diminish any thing from True Honour Worth or Accomplishment Distinction of Families or Persons but make a Full Allowance of Honour and Reverence to whomsoever due But I cannot but observe how Ominous a Word we use to express these Things But to sum up All concerning this Petition Seeing the Word we translate Daily hath not so much as any Air Sound or Breath of Daily in it and that the fairest Sense is Super-Essential Super-Substantial and that Jesus Christ is Alone that Bread even that Living Bread on which Angels and Saints are continually Repasted and in Regard of which Manna the Type was call'd Angels Food and for which They now stoop down to the Churches Table What Reason is there to understand this Petition in its highest Elevation to be for the Table of the Kingdom and the Bread so convenient to Immortal Beings which the Innumerable Company of Angels together with the Saints in the New Jerusalem eat of as of the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God and drink of as of the Chrystal River Running through the Holy City even the Fruit of his Redemption which is indeed in the Beginnings of it participated here below but is then as a Passover fullfill d and that Fruit of the Vine drunk New in that so exalted Participation of the Great Marriage-Supper of the Lamb in his Kingdom And of this Enjoyment the Saints below have their just proportion so that they shall never die The Leaves of the Tree of Life are for the Healing of them and the Fruit for sufficient Food and They drink of the Water of
far from being Able to Grant such Things that they cannot in the least understand Them No more in the main is any Power Able below His whose is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory to bring forth these Petitions in their Complement 2. In regard that He whose is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory will Take to Himself his Great Power and Reign These Petitions are well Grounded and well Address'd to him For seeing the Things are so high that though the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory are always God's yet These Petitions have not yet been Answered nor these Great Things come into Effect The Petitions would not be well Grounded if there were not a Time He would thus Take to himself his Great Power and Reign For if the World continued never so long and that the Kingdom and Power and Glory were in all the Right of them Gods yet these Things Pray'd for would for all that never be fullfill'd So that they must have been either laid lower or have been in vain As therefore as Scripture hath fully declar'd there is a Time God will Take to Himself his Great Power and Reign so these very Petitions are fram'd to such an Altitude to such a Supreme Pitch And because they close with this as an Argument That God's is the Kingdom and the Power and Glory and that for Ever and Ever They become a certain Assurance That these Petitions are well Grounded and well Address'd and that though they do not Appear so yet in Regard of their being Fullfill'd yet that they shall Appear so at the Time of the Kingdom and of God's taking to Himself the Power and the Glory And that certainly there shall be such a Time wherein the Kingdom of God shall be and All These Things Fullfill'd in it 2. As These Things cannot be till the Kingdom be so on the other side the Kingdom cannot be till these Things are A Kingdom and a Power and a Glory God always hath But this Kingdom cannot Appear nor the Power and the Glory be seen to be God's till his Name be Sanctified his Will done as in Heaven and upon Earth Till he shews his Grace to his Servants in giving them the Supersubstantial Bread according to the Day or in a Perpetuity Till he Reconciles All to Himself in Heaven and Earth by Him even by Him and till he sets wholly free from Temptation and Delivers from Evil all the Subjects of his Kingdom And All these are the Coming of his Kingdom 3. Therefore by the way of so Close a Conjunction and Union of these Two our Saviour declares this Prayer to be the Prayer of the Kingdom And that as the Kingdom is the Great Sense Mind and Spirit of this Prayer so that it can never be aright prayed nor is heard so as to be Answer'd till this Kingdom come So that the Kingdom shall certainly come in Answer to this Prayer and in Answer to every Petition of it Every Thing in it shall be done because God's is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for Ever and Ever 2. This Doxology is most immediately Linck'd with that Last Petition Deliverance from Evil to shew both the Inconsistency of the Divine Kingdom in its Glory and Coming with a State of Evil even of the Evil of Affliction Pain and Misery So that it is the Last Enemy subdued by the Divine Kingdom that is the Divine Kingdom Alone can subdue it and only when it Appears and not before But when it Appears it shall be perfectly remov'd And our Lord takes the Advantage at that very Time and in that Order to press and follow home the whole by the Argumentative Doxology For thine is the Kingdom And therefore Thou art Able and wilt Deliver from Evil by that Kingdom and Power which is thy own and at the Appearance of thy own Glory 3. Under the Doxology conveyed by way of Argument This is to be Acknowledg'd That a constant Offering up to God in a way of Praise and Adoration this Confession That His is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory is most due to Him from us in all our Prayers and Supplications to him But yet the highest Sense of this Doxology is proper to the Kingdom and Argues the Prayer to be the Prayer of the Kingdom For seeing our Lord hath put this Doxology into our Mouths That His is the Kingdom and yet at the same Time Teaches us to pray Thy Kingdom come It signifies plainly and necessarily That it hath not yet so come as to Appear to be His And that His is the Power and yet at the same Time Taught us to pray Thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth in the same plain manner he signifies The Power does not yet Appear to be his For wherein is Power seen but in the having the Will of Him done who hath that Power And that his is the Glory and yet at the same Time Teaches us to pray Sanctified or Glorified by Thy Name This shews very manifestly the Glory is not His as it shall be By All This it Arises clearly to our Notice That Our Lord hath in putting this Doxology into our Mouths put a Prophecy into our Mouths That the Time is coming according to the Measures Given us in his Word of Prophecy when the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory shall in full and highest Sense be Ascrib'd to God and as at a very present Time in that fullest Sense So that this Doxology of the Prayer Leads us to that Revel 4. 11. Thou art worthy Oh Lord to Receive Glory and Honour and Power For thou hast created All Things and for thy pleasure they are and were created And c. 5. 13. And every Creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea heard I saying Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever c. 11. 17. We give Thee Thanks Oh Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy Great Power and hast Reigned and the Nations were Angry as at a thing not done before c. 15. 3. Great and marvellous are thy Works Lord God Almighty Just and True are thy ways Oh King of Saints Who shall not Fear thee Oh Lord and Glorifie thy Name For thou only art Holy For All Nations shall come and Worship before thee For thy Judgments are made manifest c. 19. 5. Hallelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God For True and Righteous are his Judgments And a Voice came out of the Throne Praise Our God All ye his Servants and ye that Fear Him both Small and Great And I heard as it were the Voice of a Great Multitude and as the Voice of many Waters and as the Voice of mighty Thunderings saying Hallelujah For the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth When
Necessities might with Earnestness Remonstrate His own Counsels our Hearts and Affections being every way prepared and disposed thereunto And God Graciously giving and bringing things to pass as at our Defires and Petitions Oh how great is the Indearment As David says I will Love the Lord because he hath Heard my Supplication He Inclined to me and heard my Cry and upon this Account I will call upon Him as long as I Live And because Prayer is according to His own Counsels and thus prepared to the indearing our Hearts to God Therefore he Stiles Himself a God hearing Prayers that to him all Flesh may come And He is nigh to them that call upon him that call upon Him in Truth He will fullfill the Desire of them that Fear Him He also will hear their City and save them And they that thus Hope in His Mercy more then in all Created Leggs He takes Pleasure in as those that will be most Moov'd to Fear and Love Him But it may be still Urged Either the giving of this Prayer may Excuse our Looking into the VVord and we may be most secure in praying this Prayer only as most certainly according to the VVord or this Prayer can do us no Service For still our business is to Look into all the VVord of God and then how are we helped by this Prayer To this the Answer Lies in Two Things giving account of the Reason of this Prayer Taught by Christ notwithstanding it is our Duty to Look into the Whole VVord and to Pray this Prayer according to it with the most Enlarged Understandings Affections and Expressions 1. This Prayer and the Several Petitions of it are as Sea-Marks and Land-Marks in the vast Compass and Ocean of the VVord of God Guiding us to the Great Fundamentals of Prayer and setting Just and Due Bounds to us therein 2. It does Especially Winde up our Hearts Thoughts and Affection in all Spirituall VVisdome and Prudence and Intellectual Sence to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ when it is Fully understood as I have now made out and which is the highest Flight of Prayer And seeing it is only thus as I have shewn to be used even when it is Repeated and not by way of meer Form and Languid Repetition It shews the Necessity of the word of God dwelling Richly in us in all VVisdom that we may without such Forbidden Repetition or Thinking to be heard for our much Speaking Continue in Prayer and Abound therein with Thanksgiving And if we make the Repetition of this Prayer only to Sum up our Prayers To do it when we find our hearts Enflamed and Running out of Choise into these Words with most Elarged Understandings and Affections And this is indeed an Admirable Communion with God in Prayer and frees it from the Ignorance of a Blind Devotion and from all the Fopperies of Superstition or the possible Unreasonableness of Thinking to Inform or Change God And it shews us Prayer is not for God as if He any way wanted it But it is for us to Conform us to God and to the highest Conspiring with His Will with His Glory and to draw up the Faith Love Obedience Reverence and highest Honour of our Spirits upon Him And so we Observe the True Ends of our Lords giving this Prayer in our either Praying according to it out of the whole Word of God or making a Recital of it as we find our hearts carried on so to Recite it at Some Time more than Another and not in a Ritual maner Infer 9 Seeing the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of it the Peace and Glory of Christ is the highest Counsel of God for the Glory of God and of his Saints and even for the Glory and Happiness of His Creation Therefore This must needs be the highest Point of Prayer and therefore this Prayer the Standard and Examplar of Prayer In this then we according to the Nature and Duty of Prayer should Conspire with the Counsel of God and Cry Day and Night to Him for it But alass as Christ said when the Son of Man Comes shall He find Faith on the Earth Even those who Continually Roll over this Prayer by Affected Repetition least penetrate and Enter into the Sence of it in their Eyes and hearts upon the Kingdom of Christ as it is Intended and designed in it And even those who have understood and desire'd it more yet have understood it only in the General notions of the Coming of Christ to Judgment and of the Resurrection This hath been the Slumber of the Apostacy upon the Christian World even upon the VVise Virgins so that the Comming of Christ will be a Surprize upon them That is His Comming in another sort of a Kingdom then they expected in their Slumber and in the Time of the Bridegrooms Delay Yet notwithstanding All that are indeed VVise who have Oyl in their Vessels and not in their Lamps only that is Grace in their Hearts not in Profession only shall go with Christ in to the Wedding Although in this true Explained Notion of His Kingdom He will not when He Cometh Find Faith on Earth But it is very Observable that tho this Prayer hath not been Awakenedly Understood as is ought to be Yet by the Secret Guidance of Providence and Government of the Church Either the Form of this Prayer hath so Prevaled in the Church of Christ Or the Sence of the Kingdom of Christ in the General and Vertual or in the Particular and more Express Notions of it according to the Gospel of the Kingdom have so derived from and Fallen into this Prayer that there hath been always a Generation of the Sincere Servants of God and of Christ that have Cryed to Him Day and Night for His Kingdom and according to this Praayer Infer 10 However The Foundation of God Remaineth Sure In this Kingdom The Promises of God are Yea and Amen And in this Prayer To the Kingdom of Christ is the Great and True Amen and Yea of it set On which Account as I have said The Amen of this Prayer is of an Elevated Note and in Harmony with All the Promises that are Yea and Amen in Him Therefore after the declaring His Coming in the Clouds Rev. 1. 17. It is Added Yea Amen and after His own saying When He had Testified His Coming in His Kingdom in the Four Chapters before Behold I come quickly It is Rejoyned by His Servants in their Prayers Comprehended in this Prayer Amen Yea Come Lord Jesus And therefore it is Certain He will come to His Servants in and according to this Prayer Crying to Him Day and Night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Constant Notice of His Kingdom Speedily Quickly Yea and Amen Amen and Yea Even So Even So Be It Let him who is the Amen the Fatihful Witness the Amen of all the Promises in His Kingdom Come according to the Amen of this Prayer Comprehending the Prayers of All Saints Amen Yea. Revel 22. 12. 20. FINIS