Lord and therefore let us stand upright and not flectere ad ima as bowed down behold the things of this carnal and perishing world lest we be accounted unfit to approach unto or enter in the Kingdom of God Exoneremus ergo let us therefore cleanse our hearts from the contagion of unclean cogitations and fit our selves for a daily offering up unto Christ prayer and praise as Priests separated by the Spirit for that good work and office and particularly to offer bread I mean the remembrance of the whole Tribes the whole earth for their good It was Sauls question whether the promise or hopes of fields or vineyards made his Guards not inform him of Davids supposed conspiracy and consederacy with Ionathan and truly the largeness excellency the Vineyards and fields the riches and the glory of the Kingdoms of grace and providence ought to provoke us to be earnest for the advancement of the Kingdom of God the protection we have from Angels the heat we receive from the Sun the light we have from the Heavens the prospect we have from the Hills the Flowers we behold from the Valleys the Commodities we have from the Sea the comforts we draw from the Beasts the spiritual consolations we receive from the Gospel shew the advantages we have by his Government and therefore ought to endeavour the removing and fight for the departing of Saul's the sense is easie and the coming of David's Kingdom in pressing for the enlargement of the Kingdom of grace under our Lord Jesus Christ. For though in the Kingdom of his providence we possess such a lot or portion as his wisdom or power giveth and judgeth convenient for us yet remembring that these things we enjoy common with the Swine in the field and the Raven of the air the Fort-royal of our affections are not to be possessed much less commanded by the desire of enlarging temporalities being given but as apt means to uphold our otherwise frail Tabernacle but collecting all our strength animat our zeal for a studious striving for and earnest thirsting after the beautifying confirming enlarging and adorning of our inward man by grace against the approaching of the Kingdom of glory This Age hath many who slight this Prayer in their practice as well as neglect it in their religious exercise they desire the coming of his Kingdom limiting their thoughts to that of Providence desiring the hastning and advancement of those good things they desire to possess yet not contented with their portion by stealing cheating robbing they snatch it impudently out of his hands being impatient that he brings it not unto them and grumbleth that he makes not speed whereas Thy Kingdom come implyes modesty and our waiting upon Gods leasure Let pilfring sinners therefore know that not a snatching but a mannerly receiving is contained in this Petition Hasten not therefore to be rich Eye his Kingdom of Grace we have those so pure in their own eyes so holy in their own conceits that they behold no urgent cause for its more evident appearing Let such know that not sufficiency but a daily exuberancy is contained in this Petition Say not therefore I have enough It is obvious that many concludes the coming of this Kingdom to consist in such tenets or opinions they have imbibed from the Rabbies of some saction to them beloved Let such know that not the following of mens opinions but the knowledge and owning of Gods heavenly dominion is contained in this Petition the great Officers therein under himself being Magistrats and Ministers c. both which are prayed for in Thy Kingdom come Thy Kingdom come THe Kingdoms of Grace and Glory as they are united in this Petition are now to be explicated and first of Grace whereby Christ reigns in the soul which by having the Gospel is nigh unto us and next that of Glory prepared for us before the foundation of the world yet these are not so much two as one differing only as the light conveyed by the window differs from that immediatly flowing from the Sun In the Kingdom of Grace Christ is compared to a Roe standing behind the wall looking forth at the window shewing himself through the lattess the wall is our flesh the window is his Law the lattess is his Prophets but in the Kingdom of Glory the wall is pellucide the window and lattess both removed and the immediat beams i. e. glory of the Father by the Saints viewed and respected By Grace here he hath Servants Kings and Teachers in his Temple and Throne but there in glory there is no teaching because no ignorance no King because no offence and Kingdom implying government and that under a King Christ is King and Head of his Church and God the Father as Jesus is man is the head of Christ Hence we pray Our Father which art in Heaven Thy Kingdom come In which Petition there is something we pray against and something we pray for the latter is for the Churches and our guidance into the Holy of Holies the former is for subjugating Gods and our enemies and all pernicious lusts obstructing our glory to come We pray against the dominion of sin the darkness of nature the prevalency of Satan and the delay of the Saints reward 1. The dominion of sin that its head which is as a Serpents may be bruised and its reign which is tyrannical may be ended all lust being base and ignoble and ineffably cruel domineering more over the soul and making it suffer more from it quam corpus c. then the body doth from diseases for it reigns and brings into eternal death at last fascinating in the mean time and bewitching mens hearts so that but few are sensible of that danger which these Ammonites will bring upon them if longer tolerated and those few again have their souls so entangled that though they have no love to embrace yet they want power to extricate themselves out of sins snare or force to drive it from exercising dominion over them Therefore calls for help against that strong man that by the power of grace and strength of faith and ardency of zeal all from the Spirit of God he may be bound as a rebel against heaven and an usurper over man in forcing obedience to his lusts and rigidly exacting what was never his due viz. love and subjection Thy Kingdom come as it eyes the Church imports that it might be manifest among men and that it might be known to the ignorant but eying Grace it respects the extinguishing of all vice by the power of God that neither devil nor world nor carnal lust nor any sin might have dominion over us but God alone For if we study good works and shine in vertue lust and iniquity shall never overcome us nor the power of hell suppress us restat ergo we ought therefore as in all
moderatus he was so moderate that none could say he did any thing excessively covetously immodestly or unbeseemingly But that was true of Peter Lord we have left all and followed thee lest all in possession left all in affection and it is conjectured that the loving of the things of this world is more hurtful then enjoying of them all which speaks against earnestnesse for superfluities since covetousnesse is not so much as to be named among Saints 5. From the inconveniency or no good they bring to man The abundance of earthly things evidenceth no more a good man then a silk Stocking argues a sound leg yea it were well it they did not harm him more leading tempting causing and multiplying in the soul treasons deceits falshood perjury restlessness and hard-heartedness It is observed that most ordinarily Spectrums Devils or Ghosts are seen it Pits or Mines of Mettal and there to work as other labourers after the Vein to carry Oâ—r winde the Wheel c. and see we not in the hearts of avaritious Pioneers hellish haunters working in them all manner of ungodlinesse for what will they not do and whither will they not go for gain gain gain Septimulius took the head from his friend confident and acquaintance Graccus and carried it through Rome fixed upon a Pole because Opimius Consul promised him Gold It was therefore said of him Ante omnes c. he was the most covetous of men yet had he been in our Christian world this attrocious crime had but numbred him among offenders Riches pierce the soul through with many sorrows saith St. Paul Care in getting fear in possessing grief in departing saith an Expositor Videamus Mark it saith one if men as they grow wealthy grow not hasty sawcy haughty angry iniquity wrapping them about as fat which fat when melting from them by the heat of some sad disaster must needs overwhelm them in despair As appeared in a French Boor who hoording corn for a dearth entring his Garner was so inchanted with the Devil or blinded with vengeance that he could perceive no grain though heaps of it before him for the supposed stealth of which he incontinently hang'd himself But what thought that other Hound who in dearth refusing to sell his Victual when ordered by Authority denying he had any to spare and what he had was scarce fit for Hoggs when his wife was brought to bed of seven young Piggs which were seen saith my Author á multis fide dignis viris by many honest men Yet this argueth not so much against the having as the abusing of riches for the rich in their abundance and the poor in their scarcity possunt salvari may both be happy since they that be sat upon earth shall worship and eat and such as go down to the dust shall bow unto him Neither read we of rich Abrahams being excluded Heaven or of poor Lazarus his being depressed to Hell Neither is this against an holy prudence a foreseeing evil to come for Ioseph laid up Corn and our Saviour had a treasure for ordinary expence In short as Harvesters make provision for the Winter and do store up grain yet causing their care to extend only to the time present so our doctrine opposeth only a care of distrust about what shall be had hereafter not a wise providing or competent provision for a mans self family or relations it being often seen that riches and glory are possessed sine culpa without hurt because used in humility The influence this hath upon Prayer is evident 1. Perseverance in Prayer Bread here is health life safety security and the daily bread insinuats a daily attending before the Throne Davids soul had ordinary as may be supposed three meals a day but in extrordinary dayes as Sabbaths New Moons it had seven teaching us not to permit our souls to languish for want of its due support but as we call daily for bread for bodily strength so for grace for spiritual vigour 2. Reverence in thy getting Be humble not arrogant in thy deportment by eating not wasting thy bread being it is the fruit of thy prayers use it for thy self for it is thine own and what is left is anothers for charity here is reciprocal we call upon God for our bread and he calls again in his poor for his bread so that on all hands we are not to be prodigal or abusers of it Hath not doth not this impious age in its stupendious prodigality consume wastfully what it is indebted to wife family and children exceeding the Israelites who gave but a boy for an harlot and sold a girle that they might drink for they give their Honour their Wife their Children for Wine Wantons Silk and Ale Dorotheus abhorring idlenesse and intemperance did yearly gather stones from the Sea and build a little house for the distressed did eat by weight every day and subdued his body so by labouring and watching that he was demanded why he killed it but he replying said otherwise it will kill me And believe it Reader the pampering the belly in this generation will be the death of many and may in time get empty intrails for a due reward of too gorgeous feeding Anacharsis the Scythian was wont to write about the Pictures of Princes this little yet worthy lesson Rule Lust temper the Tongue bridle the Belly if this be not authority sufficient sure be not filled with wine wherein is excess might be nervously pungent to command sobriety in all ranks And if adultery prodigality stoathfulnesse talk ativenesse inhumanity gluttony unchastity stubornnesse loosenesse covetousnesse lasciviousnesse and seekers after vain and unprofitable things be the sins for which in Scripture poverty is threatned as they are this age hath reason to expect a famine 3. Preparednesse for our removing This day is all we are to care for and how soon our Sun will set is unknown yet its setting ought to creat an earnestnesse in us to have our sins forgiven for it is This day and This day hath mortality frailty and death contained in it Therefore are our lives and all things inconstant here that we should be inflamed with a holy servour to love and desire the fixt and immoveable things above in which sense our dayly bread that is strength and life by the blood of Jesus is industriously to be pursued after 4. Respect for all the 〈◊〉 In prayer remember thy five thy seven brethren Give us our bread includes all men especially our friends and neighbours yea our oxen that they may be strong to labour Pray good and do good therefore unto all it being our good that is our charitable works which keeps our faith that is our hopes of salvation alive Yea as the Devil is delighted with the errors and superstitions of some he is afflicted with the bounty and liberality of others were it
liberality made him the poor mans Father and yet what could rich I should say poor Iob do had he not all his plenty out of this Fathers store-house yea if he had wanted Gods leather he had gone bare-foot and were the least of us not confident of his goodnesse in providing for us bread we should go with small comfort with Ioseph to our homes at noon 2. For Cares He who provides relieves educateth or teacheth Orphans or the poor or desolate is gratified with the name Father as Elijah was by Elisha and thus Kings become Fathers to the Church and Paul to the Saints yet God being all in all caring for all ruling in all being King of kings turning mens hearts according to his pleasure Killing and keeping alive conform to the determinat counsel of his own just will deserves the appellation in a far sublimer sense 3. For Sageness An old wise Counsellour will be named Father and so much the more deservedly when in judgement he alwayes proves successful the hairy head is to receive from all a grave and reverend respect this Lord and Father more then all who being old as Eternity is called the Ancient of dayes and his hair said to be like pure Wool that is white soft and fine All this considered in him as being our own Father not our step-father we are to glory with that great Apostle the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Iesus and having predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ unto himself and in magnifying for improvement we are to exercise 1. Thankfulnesse 2. Obedience And 3. Observations upon his Providences Our Father c. HAving seen the Person we pray unto the next thing in this holy Preface that commands our observation is the manner we pray after where Presumption is first check'd lest any say My Father as also Atheism lest any say Thy Father both which are equally abominable and deviating from this rule enjoyning to say Our Father A holy man in an iron age was affray'd to speak of the necessity dignity utility of brotherly-love yet love shame and duty with a desire to have his hearers unite extorted from him an Oration a treatise upon that subject Making the same Apology for my self knowing that Prayers are to be made for all men and hindred by nothing more then by meum tuum mine and thine whereas ours ought to be the Christians Motto God ever requiring as piety to himself charity to man Let us see the necessity of this charity 2. The hinderances of it in our dayes 3. The obligations that lye upon us to remove those hinderances Not to speak of the devils or damned who for ever are excluded the verge of all prayer there is a common charity we owe all by nature as they are men and a special charity we are to carry unto all for grace as they are good men The last is mainly here understood yet the other not to be excluded for as we are to do good unto all so we are to pray for all but especialy for those of the houshold of faith God being unto them a Father in Christ whereby they are Christian-brothers one to another and ought to appear with and pray for each other upon many considerations as our sympathy Gods universality the enlargement of our own glory the Saints exemplary piety and from our own extravagancy and misery 1. From our sympathy and similitude in nature by generation Not only are we of one blood root and sprung originally from the stock of one Father even Adam which among Barbarians will be a perswasive motive to union but we have one Lord one hope and why therefore not one Prayer and one Psalm and one heart to rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep Abraham no sooner knew of Lots captivity then he armed his servants and fighting the pillagers redeemed the prisoners and also brought again his brother Lot so called as being of the same stock with him though in line but his Nephew If our father Abraham â—ought may not we pray for a Sodomite for a friend because a brother may be and certainly is concerned in him Christ and his Church are but one body and thou with thy brother are as living stones in the building if he be shaken remember thy self for a hole in the wall may prove fatal to more than one but principally to him who is heedless that is prayerless Poverty is want of means sickness is want of health and in the first as well as in the latter are we to confess our faults one to another and pray one for another and our Father being equally concerned in all of us we ought the more fervently to interest our selves in each other there being this difference betwixt our faith and love that our faith is closshanded and we believe for our selves but our charity is open-handed open-eyed and all for others Corpus quidem nostrum our bodies are confined to one place but our souls by the wings of charity must flee all the world over that though in the greatnesse of this journey we be bodily at a vast distance yet by piety and love we may be present having fellowship and communion Iesus pitied a multitude wanting bread and gave it them a Widow when her son was dead and said Noli flere weep not and to him who was dead said Arise to perswade our otherwise flinty souls to some sparkles of compassion when struck upon by the steel of our brothers sad countenance and pressing necessities and if this prevail not Behold the man is not our Fathers image in his eye and that will enforce us if we be sons to relieve him with our substance If thy brother be under any temptation he ought to have thy commendamus that the Fathers wrath wax not hot assuring thy self if when thy brother is under the rod thou come with tales to edge the indignation by aggravating his offences Thy unbrotherly carriage in the sight of so indulgent a parent will take his hand from his already humbled son and the remainder of wrath to thy greater astonishment shall be laid on thy back as a punishment for so unseasonable address Therefore Christian think upon Remember us O Lord the children of Edom and fear to insult Think upon the Devil in the case of Iob and fear to accuse and of Doeg in the case of David and boast not of mischief for hatred and envy makes a man to dwell in darknesse but love and amity clears the eye and makes him behold God for so much only are we in his congregation and â—avour by how much we are towards his people our enemy in favour and affection It is recorded of Hannibal that his father beholding his morosity took him at nine years of
sinning 2. Possess the heavenly joy the believer hath at the conversion of one sinner 3. Escape those plagues that have befallen others for sin c. A Daniel a Noah a Iob may by their servent supplications save themselves from sudden calamity which like an amazing thunder-bolt shall at last pierce the interior parts of that soul whose breast is hardened against the mishaps of men and whose spirits are careless of what befals men When God scourgeth a Land his very sondlings so to speak must not expect immunity they not being without their saults how much more shall his severity rage against them who do not only neglect to bring water to cool and allay our heat but poure on oyl to augment the fire Since such as love not peace nor delight in blessing nor rejoice in mercy are threatned with the want of them when their souls are most exposed to the contrary perils and may chance for their fiery life to die like Constantius Copronymus whose last words were I am condemned to inextinguishable flames They might charge me perhaps with cruelty should I enlarge the story and shew how his body as unworthy of burial was first burned then thrown into the Sea but this inference is harmless to induce all to live peaceably with living men lest just Providence refuse them a lodging with the dead when they are to be joined with them That is not absurd to be added which is taught us in the fabulous divinity of the old Poets of Pluto their supposed god of wealth whom they held to be nursed by Pax that is peace sufficiently knowing that where peace and amity is not an inhabitant it is not the wit nor industry of man that will prevent indigence or poverty Such therefore as complain of the decay of substance and who complains not shall make a more hopeful harvest at the return of the year if they would maugre malice cultivat their bosoms grubbing up the thorns and brambles which grow therein and makes their fellowship dangerous sowing it with â—eed of the love of God which would produce fruit in the love of man and then the Lord being our God the earth should yield her increase Unity being as Hermons dew to the hills of Zion the means wherein we shall have the blessing of fruitfulness and to that life for evermore Let us now enter upon the causes of that uncharitable spirit in our dayes wherein this precept so pray ye is not heeded and though there is no cause for it yet there is a source whence it ariseth as 1. From each ones natural corruption not being searched after He naturally hath pride he envy he curiosity he uncleanness he intemperance which suffered to grow spread diverse branches and they again bring forth infinit sprigs all which finally will be mother to direful actings and ridiculous disputings the bane of this transported prophane impure talkative and speculative age In hac dilectissimi unitate sanctorum In that unity that is to be seen among the Saints there is no spare room for the proud man nor place for the covetous nor pretence for the envyous or for whatsoever vain glory boasts of or wrath is eager for or luxury is itching after these being known not to belong unto Christ but in covenant with satan and far from being owned as pious Fremit itaque therefore the adversary to peace rageth c. If this Age be examined by this true rule many pretended Saints and loose Professors should be sirnamed by some other thing then Christian. 2. From each ones having too great respect for his own opinion Is it not obvious to the most purblind in our neighbourhood that by marrying our selves to our own humour sordidly called a principle we have divorced our selves from the God of love and peace eagerly contending for to make prize of all which have not payed Toll and Custom at our board according to our own privat law or book of rates which yet is as different as there are heads to invent making our confusion the more irreparable and our consciences the more insensible yea our vilest actions the more excusable as that each sinner inferrs the soundness of his own positions from the rottenness he beholds in the others practice Love is generally divided into five sorts that of God that of our neighbour that of our Countrey that of the World and that of our Selves this last is so near and so dear and so choice a bit that before it be not fully enjoyed all the other shall passe uncourted yea had we a love to the things of this world this generation would not so eagerly seek their own pleasures for sondness in this maketh the other languish before us our projects for Government digging sepulchres visibly for interment of Gospel-practice 3. From each ones too great aspect to his own profit Then were murderers complainers men walking after their own lusts their mouths speaking great swelling words when mens persons were had in admiration Many other reasons of this sort might be added as Gods just judgement upon us for our late barbarous unchristian dishonourable treacherous seditious rebellious behaviour towards Authority our Countrey our Relations our Religion our Selves which particularly to discusse were a task too great for a By-nature designed Historian Subordinat to these our Peace is obstructed and Charity banished First by our weighing Doctrine by men A sound truth will be received as Orthodox from one mans mouth which â—rom the mouth of a Cephas a Paul or an Apollos were they alive should either be condemned as heretical or thought unsavoury salt There is a second surmising evil things of men neglecting duty owned by themselves lest evil should thereby follow upon others which evil none seeth so consequential to that duty but it may and ought to be undergone there is a third bearing a real hatred to men for which it may be asked what the Ghost of the Murthered said to Pomenes Quare me occidisti Why dost thou kill me or hate me the tongue of the malicious being equally mortal to that of the tale-bearer which is a maul a sword a sharp arrow Qui odit Fratrem saith one He who hates his brother is in darkness and again is a murtherer he goeth out he cometh in yet he is chained unto guilt do not imagine he is not imprisoned for Carcer ejus cor ejus est his own heart is his prison and there he is tormented Where is there a Nathanael admired of Christ nay where is there a Gerhard bemoaned by Bernard O amicum fidelem O faithful friend in whom there wanted not friendly behaviour and all offices of love and charity and who sought not his own things This puts an obligation upon us deliberatly to study the acquisition of this universality of love that in our prayers we may remember all men Unto which the very word Religion binds us
Religio from Eligo as chusing God to be ultimat end and not our selves or rather from Religo that binding us together and by this as by a livery are we known to be Christians indeed that is Chrismate sacro anointed with the holy Ghost for so the word by interpretation whose character is love which as the pitch to the Ark should be within us and without us to hold us together and though true peace be tyed to the Church yet what Religion is there the embracers whereof have not a mutual regard one to another To pass both Ancient and Modern Hereticks It is observable that the Turks have not been of late so vehement in fighting against the Persians as formerly their opinions touching Mahomet being now more clearly known then before and if nothing will prevail O that Christians would ruminat upon that of Christ Wo unto thee Chorazin for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in thee they had a great while ago repented But why should I say Christians for look about and where or how few are there for num tu illum Christianum put as in quo nullus Christianitatis actus is he to be called Christian who hath no righteousness in his conversation who oppresseth the poor and loads the miserable who robs others who gives his tongue to lying his lips to obscenity his hands to sacriledge his soul to hypocrisie by worshipping in the Temple as if God knew none of this Wherefore Charissime in Christo good Reader let us pray that the love of Heaven abate self-self-love that piety cool our fury modesty our lust moderation our talkativeness fasting our curiosity sobriety our drunkenness meekness our uncharity humility our pride and the love of God and our neighbour the love of this present world and then and not before shall we be Christians indeed and univocal children to our Father which is in Heaven For the very form of our supplications binds us to this union Granting to the earnestness of some that this Prayer is not to be used as a form but a rule only yet as a rule it commands them to have no malice when they bow their knee but to pray for all as burdened by the same sin liable to the same sailings and justly may expect without mercy the same punishments How are they from their own mouths condemned that not only refuse not to pray for but glorie in their cursing of their brethren satisfying themselves to be called from this or that opinion this or that man whereas in this saith a Father we glory Christianos esse nominari to be and to be called Christians The inheritance and expectation we all have of Heaven binds us also to this charity Why should we fall out in that way or separate in that road of blessed concord for those things especially wherein the judgment of God doth not concern it self as not being essential to the purchasing of or the being abandoned out of Heaven Peter required of his Converts but repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins I am perswaded that never was there an age but had its own particular contentions nor person but had his own beloved opinion extraneous to the principles of etâ—rnal life yet Philip thought the Eunuch richly endowed for glory and capacitat in the highest degree for Baptism that he believed Iesus Christ to be the Son of God What heaps of interrogatories had he been troubled withall if to have been â—atechised excentrick to this by some spirituallized men in our dayes But to know Christ and him crucified only is no doctrine in our times The Spartans consulting their wise Lycurgus about repelling an invading soe had this wholsome counsel 1. To remain poor that their enemy might have no temptation and to end their privat discords that their uniting might cause fear And there is no surer way to confound the rage of a spiteful Devil then to be reduced to that old Christian temper of having one heart and one soul which is not unattainable if every man will as he ought cast his eyes inward and by viewing his pernicious thoughts cure himself of those Convulsion-fits which to the affronting of the very image of God in his face or converse befalls him in dwelling in spleen rancour and malice and it shall evidence a perfect recovery when his enlarged soul shall praying say Our Father As to what may be objected touching Turks Iews Traitors or our own enemies or those of our Countrey we must alwayes difference the enmity from the enemy or the power from the person the Turks power we are to pray against or our adversaries force or wisdom but the person ought ever to be supplicated-for were he stoning us to death as Jesus did and Stephen for excluding lawful war we are not to do otherwise without a special revelation as did Elisha in his cursing the children If it be demanded whether a holy man may not say My Father when he prayeth It is answered that some thinks it is proper to Jesus only to cry My God or say My Father yet since Abrahams servant designed him Lord God of my master Abraham and David most often in the Psalms expresseth himself thus my God my King and that Thomas said my Lord and my God without a check Yea there being a precept that it shall be so said under the Gospel It ought not to be accounted sinful especially when the soul is in privat yet alwayes care is to be had that in this personal applying of God to thy self thy thoughts exclude none who are called by thy Fathers name for as Our Father in the general indirectly includes thy self so my Father in particular by reflection implyes others and this by interpretation is Our Father Another Lacedemonion Lady hearing an ill report of her son writ after this manner There is evil heard of thee mend it or die So there is evil known to be in this Age and particularly uncharitable walking from which save your selves or you die Being separat from the God of love unto whom Creatura rationalis man is tyed by love only the love of God and the love of man being as the breasts of the Church which are lovely to Christ by which the holy soul is nourished in cleaving to God and letting out good to man to the godly to our neighbour pari dilectione est optanda vita aeterna omnibus hominibus and salvation unto all men that heaven the next considerable thing in the Preface as being the place we pray unto may be filled with our brethren for which Let the peace of God be in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body Our Father which art in Heaven BEfore our thoughts pursue this part of the Preface Heaven Gods ubi or the place of his
to be engraven upon it others will have it so expressed from the cavaty and hollownesse thereof Our word Heaven is borrowed from the Saxon Hefon and to heave for lifting up is yet good and ordinary English yea Scripture-language Heaven being above all and receives a three sold signification in holy writ First more largely because more sensibly for the Region of the Air in which we behold the Birds and Fowls to reside therefore called the Fowls of Heaven and may be called the lower heaven Next more strictly yet still visibly for the spacious Firmament over us called Heaven by God himself and may be called the starry Heaven Lastly and more closely for the very seat of God where he appears in royal Majesty admired of his Saints and Angels and is called sometimes simply Heaven sometimes the third Heaven containing and circumscribing within and about it self all visible or invisible creatures God in the midst being the glory of it Yet observe his being said to be in Coelis in Heaven hath no servile signification as if he were excluded any other place he being there only as a King in his Court or presence or as a Skipper in his Ship or Cabine ruling and influencing all by his authority or greatnesse guiding all with the skilfulness of his hands Let us see the nature of the Countrey Its influence upon Prayer as it eyes that rule so pray ye which cannot be more exactly delineated then by pourtraying though in rude draughts the nature of this Country whereof we are Inhabitants In which Death Hatred Rueing Fearing and Complaining fills the Table 1. There that is in Heaven is life against our dying In this earthly Countrey we are but hourly painting for breath and at best in a storm sailing to the port of our grave and the many deaths we undergo may sadly cause us superadde to that old complaint The sorrowes of death compassed me the pains of hell got hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow In opposition to which Heaven our Fathers Countrey is said to have in it the Tree of life the Water of life the Bread of life there being no care in getting it no cloying in eating it nor vexation to keep it whence the nearer the Saints draw to it the sweeter do they sing as Moses David and Simeon Agite igitur Strive therefore that when worms shall destroy this body our souls being adorned by good works unto which our shortness of time calamities in time and the graves of the rich shall prompt us we may with all the Saints rejoyce in Heaven 2. There is love against our hating In this world we are pestred with ira furor odium wrath anger and malice contriving mischief against our brother while our hand is with him in the dish I have read that a Ewe did yean a Lyon not a Lamb such yeaners for all the world are many of us our pretended innocents and harmless being seriously the dame to tyrannical behaviour and unnatural opinions which though at first may be play'd withal yet proves imperious beasts of prey towards those about them when adult But in Heaven each one joys in the prosperity of his fellow admiring affecting him because of his exceeding weight of glory and God in Christ rejoycing over all in each one as a Bridegroom over his Bride giving them to drink of the new Wine in his own kingdom Cesar observes that at his coming into France Non solum in omnibus Civitatibus not only in their Cities or Villages but in every house there were factions Had that noble Commander the opportunity of returning to the world again he would it may be conjecture France had crossed the Channel and had been now seated where Britain was And though there be too much cause of complaining of many turning Prosylites to the Roman-See yet it is more then evident our divisions may make us subject and our sactions betray us not to Cesars but to Romes dominion Let him that readeth understand in a worse sense then Cesar meaned the other To what shifts are some put to defend their barbarous morosity in looking ascue upon the vertues of the best and aggravating the vices of the vicious whereby their lives are but a studious vitality for desaming one another and then guilding their slander by an adulterated reason Timon's hating wicked men because they deserved no love and good men because they hated not the wicked was but a compend of the desperat fury whereby this generation is universally and therefore miserably for punctilio's wofully infected The single contemplation whereof more pathetically melts the devout enlivening him for and with a desire to depart and to be with Christ in Heaven there being no Saul among those Prophets nor Doeg among those Abimelechs nor Ieroboam among those Solomons nor no Satans among those Sons of God nor Serpents among those Birds of Paradise For though Hominibus stulâ—is suavis est the things of this world to fools be sweet yet to the wise and prudent they are but bitter neither is it loved but when it is not known wherefore such as have the Spirit of God cryes How long O Lord how long 3. There is pleasure against our rewing Amon loves to day a Tamar but the same object of beauty he hates to morrow Voluptas dolor pleasure and sorrow though of contrary dispositions are near neighbours yea as in the Fable perpetual associats for they once quarreiling Iupiter finding no other means of reconcilement so joyned them that he who embraces one must hugg the other Others say that he joyned them together by an Adamantine chain inseparably to remain and the best remedy the old Romanes found for sorrow was the goddess Angerona i. e. of silence whose image was placed upon the Alâ—ar of pleasure figuring that in the crowd of cares there was no pleasure but in silence a remedy God wot that increased the disease But we have a more sure word of prophesie for Heaven from its peaceable pleasure is denominated Paradise and from its pleasant fruitfulness there is represented to endear our respects a tree of Life whereof we shall plentifully feed being ordained for their eternal repast who alienats their minds from the garbadge of this present evil world which is not in the same day to be named with the fatness of that house and the rivers of his pleasures rivers not because they are passing but from their eternal overflowing the very writing of this minds me that somewhere it is said that Pleasure washing her self in a River Sorrow came and put on her cloaths then lying on the River bank and travelling every one ran to catch her yet found but Sorrow in Pleasures garment our greatest comforts in the opinion of poor Heathens being overcome and mastered with their congenit bitterness and anxieties The consideration of which
likewise of a kingdom of men in contradistinction to which we pray Let thy Kingdom come there is a kingdom of darkness is the king therof is the angel of the bottomless pit for confusion of which we pray THY Kingdom come It is that Kingdom which the blood of Christ hath purchased the faith of the Saints expected and that which in the parable of the sheep on the right hand we are invited to enter into and possess It is Regnum Coeleste the Kingdom of Heaven in all its steps advantages and degrees In this as in the former Petition we shall search into the matter and next into the order thereof with the application of both to the rule So pray ye In the matter there occurs to be treated upon 1. The extension of the Kingdome 2. The steps methods whereby that Kingdom comes 3. The zeal that is supposed to be in the Petitioner to have that Kingdom come God hath a twofold Kingdom in the world and its inhabitants one general reaching to the birds even in their falling to the hairs of mens head and their numbering and to the devils in their chaining and this is called the Kingdom of his providence Whence it hath been questioned though upon poor ground whether here we pray for the coming or continuing of this Kingdom of providence For since the soul and body are preserved in their united harmony by his favourable concurrence he acting all creatures for the preservation of our life by their subsisting which by some is attributed to Chance to Fortune to the Moon to the Sun and to any other creature which the ignorance of the true God shall lay before an idolater Christianity being but thin-sowen and Christ not so universally believed upon but that a great part of the world is idolaters and unbelievers Quinsay the greatest City in the whole earth was of late known to have had in it but one Church of Christians in the rest Gentilism sacrificing to the very Devil that he might not hurt Which considered what should hinder our earnest sueing for a more clear manifestation of his infinit authority that all Altars and all hearts may offer up holy sacrifice to that only true God by whom they only live and in whom they shall and may be eternally made happy It was not or but darkly known that the most high ruled in the Kingdoms of men and gave it to whomsoever he will but yet so that he himself governed it by the wisdom of his power and protected it by the wisdom of his government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy Kingdom the word importing that Kings are inviolable and not to be hurt or grieved which God is by the idolatrous and superstitious rites of Gentiles and Jews or that Kings are the foundation or upholder of the people which God also is all things being upheld by him and to that purpose is a King a word from the Saxon word Cyning or Cunning which importeth to know and understand and ability to act as we proverbially say a canny man one that can do and act with dexterity and skill in which God is transcendently eminent King-like providing and taking care for all making grass to grow for the Oxe and herb for the service of man Sent he not hail and fire mingled with hail very grievous upon all the Land of Egypt and a pestilence in the dayes of David upon the twelve Tribes It s thy Kingdom implying his Majesty Splendor Tranquility and Honour and may we not desire that by the greatness of his power he would command the air to be healthful and the fire not to be hurtful and that it be known to be his act to all the world as an effect of his unlimited Soveraignty Besides this he is said to have a Kingdom by and in which he rules his Saints and Church in special and relating to his Church triumphant is called a Kingdom of glory relating to his Church militant is called a Kingdom of grace that of grace going along in that of providence and going forward to that of glory we shall speak of them both mutually beginning with that of providence and grace For a safe and prosperous success of our undertakings and affairs for the subjugating of our foes for destroying the power of darkness that we may have no treacherous heart with Iudas nor a covetous with Ahab nor an ambitious with Absolom and that the Kingdoms of the earth may become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ and that such who know him may give him no rest untill he make Ierusalem that is his Church a praise in the whole earth we pray for in Thy Kingdom come At this time regnavit Diabolus the Devil reignes Sin reigns Death reigns and by them mankind hath been taken captive hence we beg that Satan may perish Sin may cease Death may die and that Captivity may be taken captive that we being freed from these may reign quietly honourably and securely under him If he suffer Turks or Tyrants to afflict his Church we call for strength and aid by his providence for grace and power by his Spirit and in both saying before Ephraim Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength why before these three but because these Tribes both mar ched and pirched nearest the Ark a type of his presence and in Thy Kingdome come his rising as a Giant out of sleep in the sight of his Church and march forward to subjugat those 〈◊〉 by his mustered forces that is the ordered Army of his creatures or peovidences or graces of faith love and real that Ephraim and Manasseh without fear may worship the Lord in Benjamin that is in his Ierusalem that is in all holy places The work of Gods hand and his providence about it may lead us to admire but leas◠we should stand in the world as Mary at the grave looking to behold what we cannot find we call for his Kingdom to free us of that sordid vassalage which our parents sin temptation and unbelief have brought upon us to the beholding those invisible riches above pursuing in our thoughts their duration fixation and consolation The world here follows us so closs and grips us so hard that we are put back in our pursuit of those more desirable treasures above so that it is called a striving to apply our thoughts thereto so much as in a wish which imports among many things this one that there must be great pressing and fearing to be over-pressed we pray Thy Kingdom come Anaxagoras affirmed the cause of his birth and coming into the world was to behold the Heavens and the Sun from which the curiosity of some hath picked such a mystery as I am prone to conjecture was never in his thoughts for by Heaven they would give out he understood the power of God which is attributed to the Father and by the Sun
Covetousness in Buff Oppression watching Lust posting Fury thâ—â—tning Malice contiriving and Policy uniting to suppress the Gospel and though it get ground in the conversion of some to the saith of Jesus yet what Hanibal said of the Roman General Marcellus may the Church say of them and the devil their Captain that neither conquered nor conquering will they be quiet yea her case must be sad since the very liâ—e of her peace consists in fighting against these restless adversaries and where overcome yet so desperate is their wrath they with the Gadarens beseech Christ to depart It s regiment is likewise often obnubilated Grace now and then is put to the flight by an army of lusts The Church is said to be a Woman cloathed with the Sun the Moon under her feet that she is a Woman betokeneth her weakness her fruitfulness cloathed with the Sun her protection by and obedience to Jesus Christ the Moon under her feet signifyeth her contempt of all earthly because mutable enjoyments yet for all this pompous equippage she is forced to go to the wilderness for shelter against the Dragons rage and fury The feeling the beholding the hearing of these things will cause sorrow and what consolation is that offered by an Ancient comforting a Christian in sad times It was Pia tristitia beata miseria a blessed melancholy and a pleasant misery to behold the sins of others and weep and to another Plangenda sunt haec non miranda these things are to be be 〈◊〉 for not wondred at yet adds that prayer ought to be made I shall not say that after the fall God appointed our flesh our sinful lusts to rule overus for our punishment as he appointed thorns to arise out of the earth for mans vexation but since the fall lusts and corruption overshadow grace within us to that hight that Peter will curse David fall and Iacob lie to his Father and these weeds are permitted to abide in all until the Kingdom of God come with power which made David call but thou O Lord how long that is in the new Testament-stile Thy Kingdom come The Gospel in its progress is compared by our Saviour to leaven and that workes gradually regeneration to a new birth and man is perfected by degrees the Church to a builing and that advanceth by rule and measure and Wisdom is said to have hewn out her seven pillars which implies addition the new man hath not his proportion by years but by degrees and comes to perfection by distinct gifts and graces he first learns as a child to read the good examples of others then advancing forward he comes to live according to divine Law then he is so in love with Christ that marrying himself to him he would not sin though there were no Law against it growing now strong he can endure and stand out against the worlds troubles and vexations and then growing rich in the abundance of the things of the Kingdom of God he leads a peaceable and contented life then he comes to forget that is not to heed transitory things being wholly intent as aged in grace upon life eternal and now there remains but one step more that is the Kingdom of glory which advanceth towards us by the grace of faith illumination of the soul Discipline of the Church and by finishing the number of the Elect. 1. By the hearing of faith This eyes all the Kingdoms we have spoken of for as by faith we believe that Jesus came to save sinners so we believe by â—aith that the world was created and yet preserved the Father Almighty hitherto working and darkly hinted at in the conclusion of this Prayer For thine is the Kingdom power and glory All that we know of Hell his prison of Earth his Foot-stool of the Clouds his Chariots of Man his Image of Angels his Hosts of Heaven his Pallace of Christ his Son is by the doctrine of Faith for untill it come we are not savingly sensible of the Kingdom of God And the doctrine of the Worlds Creation Mans fall and Christs coming are recorded to have been the Principles of Religion taught in Adams Temple Oratory or place of worship where God dwelt from whose face Cain departed all which shew that it is necessary to believe as firmly that God the Father Almighty made the Heaven and Earth as it is to believe in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord. The grace of faith is said to be the Kingdom of God within that Kingdom being spiritual and reigning in the hearts of the faithfull while they are in the Kingdom of providence and by which they are nourished and protected untill they arrive at the Kingdom of God in glory where they shall reign as Kings and Priests unto God for ever 2. By the enlightning of the mind This peculiarly eyes his Kingdom of grace As Moses face shined when he was with God under the Law so now God shines in the hearts of his friends under the Gospel he saith now not Let there be light but is himself a light unto his people The Gospel puts a Key in the Converts hand to intuat and behold the mysteries in Christ crucified which others cannot see and also a Lamp to know how far and in what kind for what use and for what end they appertain to him As at the Creation there was a fiat lux Let there be light so in Conversion there is a scias fu thy sins are forgiven thee which is that unction of the Spirit by which all things are known as the Eunuch knew and believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and by which also their Conversation is in Heaven having security by God and joy in him for which cause also it is the highest stone in Wisdoms seven Pillars upholding the house that is the Conscience or Soul of man The first whereof being good Will next a sanctified Memory the third a clean Heart the fourth a free Soul the fifth a right Spirit the sixth a devout Mind but the last and highest is an enlightned Understanding By the discipline of the Church Admonitions Reproofs Censures are as military weapons used by the Church for the upholding of this Kingdom of Grace yea a delivery over unto Satan by excommunication which if justly duly and compassionatly done is and hath been found instrumental for the stirring up the authority and power of Grace in the soul of some obdured shame and fear being very efficacious motives where other means are less effectual to perswade a soul to cry Peccavi Father I have sinned as did the incestuous Corinthian One Sigbert King of the East Saxons keeping society and familiarity with a Count or Earl whom holy Cedd had excommunicated for unlawful marriage once by accident met with Cedd as he journeyed to the Counts house and being smitten with shame and fear alighted from his horse and craved
is of the sons of Abraham ought to have alwayes burning upon the Altar of his heart the fire of holy charity and that to be blown up by the example of the Fathers and Testimony of holy Scripture unto which if we look and take heed the zeal for their own salvation and their brethrens glory that all might fear and declare the work of God and wisely consider of his doing is their chief care according to this rule The Multitude of sinners the fewness of Saints in the throng of professours ought to be seriously reflected upon that faith might bring our brethren in the flesh to Sons of the Spirit that living by the Laws of the Kingdom of God the Scriptures they might be accounted as the subjects of it faithful and worthy to possess the inheritance that fadeth not away the harvest therefore being great pray to the Lord thereof that the idolatrous and prophane which like the Syrians fill the countrey may be listed under the Standart of Jesus and united to Israel which are but as a few Kids that the seekers of the Lords face may be many nay may be all for which provoke one another to love and to good works It was an odd saying of Remigius yet a sad one because true that though the Church hitherto endure they being baptized that were her persecutors yet the Devil is not baptized and plagueth the Church not now or not only by the fury of Pagans but by the harshness ill-will and cruelty of Christians which to put an end unto let each man say as one said Et tu Domine Iesus Lord Jesus where is thy wonted kindness and O Father where is the sounding of thy bowels and remember we have but two commands from God one to love God the other man yet these two are but one love shewing without the one we want the other and by not doing the one we forfeit our interest in the other said a wise man Our zeal ought to extend to the utmost confines of the world for a bringing in of many sons and daughters unto this Kingdom in order to which we are to become Orators for a blessing upon Kings Princes c. That by their power upon Parents that by their authority upon Preachers that by their gravity upon Masters that by their industry the Word of the Lord may run and be glorified and that affectionatly and with ardor of mind Remissness sleepiness and dulness in prayer being one cause publickly declared from heaven in a vision of the eight persecution of the Church under Valerianus 4. His glory is in his Kingdom there is our dignity There is an earnest of the Spirit in the believers soul assuring him of glory and an earnest is part of the bargain so that in his conscience he hath a holy assurance that when ever the Kingdom of God shall appear he shall be crowned in it Here we behold the invisible God by that which is also invisible Munda scil mente vel corde a clean heart and a right spirit which argueth our distance and is at best but a comfortable ignorance but let this Kingdom be revealed and the soul being evacuat of all imperfections freed of all contagious principles or objects shall behold it self in its spiritual beauty to be the off-spring of God and as a Son behold his Fathers naked face in his ineffable glory Have we not made his dominion our choice his Son unto whom this Kingdom is given our joy and shall we not with endeared regard crave that its beautifull and powerfull manifestation be no longer retarded by the hypocrisie of some the intemperance of another the uncleaness of a third the blasâ—hemies of many the malicious quarrellings of most and the false slandrings of idle busie-bodies but as the people gathers to Shiloh the Souldiers to their Colours the Birds to the Carcass so ought we in our several capacities urge fervently the gatherings of all to the Lord of Hosts that it might be no longer with Christians as it was with the Manicheans with whom there was nothing rational nothing certain nothing blamlesse all being doubtful scandalous abominable and absurd That being truly and properly a Kingdom where a King will have such to be his subjects and they will have such an one to be their King and for this the whole creation cryeth with us adveniat Thy Kingdom come The Stars in their courses the Saints in their sufferings cry out how long O Lord holy and true because holy in himself and true in his promise therefore say the Saints judge and avenge our blood which expression being doubled shews desiderium vindicandi a desire of this Kingdom which the Ox at the Plough the Horse on the road the Elements in their motions yea the whole creation in its subjection groans for to be redeemed by it from that vanity under which they are in bondage Have we made his dominion our choice and not fight yea fight for suppressing diverting of all those forces Art can contrive Magick fancy Sacriledge Minister the Devil in the multitude of sinners can suggest or sin in the bloodiness of its aims can muster which if we do not let us be self-condemned as unworthy of its enjoyment when it shall be revealed The Romans at their first entry into Britain were much terrified by the valour and to them by the strange way of the British fighting which being perceived by the Standart-bearer of the tenth Legion he cast himself out of the Ship and assaulted his foes crying aloud Fight my companions except you will betray the Roman Eagle into the hands of the enemy for mine own part I will be faithful to the Common-wealth of Rome and to Cesar my General at which shame and courage animating all the Standart was followed a victory obtained and Britain subdued Let this exhilerat this Age whose remissness I might say whose perversness suffers the glory of the Cross of Christ and the government of Jesus to be betrayed to the hands of sin and sinners the zeal of his house being so far from consuming us or from eating of us up that we suffer both it and our selves to be swallowed up by hell and destruction I mean strife and division Consider what this Kingdom produceth which we may call its In-land Commodity and our zeal shall become importunat that consisting in peace righteousnesse joy in the Holy Ghost the two former are the leaves of the door that admits us into the latter for we have first righteousness by our faith freeing us of sin and then peace hushing all our passions then cometh joy by our here expecting and afterward enjoying our reward which three we glimmeringly enjoy in the Kingdom of grace below but shall receive them in their Meridian lustre in that Kingdom of glory above having righteousness without sin iniquity being taken away peace without disturbance
and sincerely 1. Conjunctly All the glorified number unites in this one thing of giving honour power and glory to the Lord because of all his wondrous works and such who desire to be of that Quire must to that Hymn in joynt devotion giveâ—n their Amen Israel must joyn with Egypt and Assyria avoiding neither because he is a Iew but beholding the Spirit of God breathing upon them must celebrate with them as Brethren though formerly aliens and with binding resolution each precede another by affection and in imitation of that glorified number though probably before different in opinion combine in this judgment to practise and do the will of the Lord for ever saying to dividing principles Abide here with the Asse and I will go yonder and worship c. 2. Continually Their eternal Sabbath is spent with unwearied ceasing in their serious attending his Throne we ought to be earnest and with David keep the way of his statutes unto the end i. e. sine impedimento incedam giving defiance unto the keenest temptation I shall gracefully persevere and imitably walk in the road and path of thy Commandments observing them in all my undertakings not putting on the royal apparel of Faith Righteousness and Obedience for the Throne or Temple but make them my daily garment yea my night-cloaths for at midnight will I arise and give thanks unto thee 3. Sincerely There is in Heavenly Saints a concord betwixt heart and harp being like the Sun transparent every cavity within them exceeding the Christal in purity evidenceth no disingenuity but perfect harmony in love in voice in desire in moving and in doing Abfuit ergo as true disciples of Christ let us hate dissimulation or willing to feign but let us do as well as sing I love the Lord otherwise as the devils we may speak much truth and with the reprobat do much good but neither being hearty it is not our own and the sooner shall we be accursed if we call out the Truth the Truth and not walk accordingly Not to separat what God hath joyned together both Saints and Angels in Heaven do the will of our Father joyfully humbly 1. Ioyfully Great content have they to be employed and great satisfaction have they all in doing the will and work of God Hail thou art highly favoured said Gabriel be it according to thy word said Mary to be sorrowing with the covetous young man for the sale of lust and discharging of thy sin or passionat or carelesse as was Pharaoh and Pontius Pilate is to contradict the spirit of God prompting thee to pray after this manner Thy will be done 2. Humbly Christ is represented to the Divine sitting at the right hand of the Father but the Angels and Saints about the Throne and sometimes falling down before it and then are men obedient when the precept not being delayed is heard by the ear saying Now the tongue saying arise the feet run and the hands saying all that thou commandest we will do That his will be done Reader in thy soul and in thy body in the heaven of thy soul and in the earth of thy flesh that as the Angels who are spirits thou spiritualized may live and do on earth his will as it is in Heaven The Popish Franciscus being demanded who was to be judged truly obedient ordered the exhuming of a dead body who would not be discontent how ever placed nor puft up though throned nor clamorous if dispised nor beautifull though gorgeously arrayed Such is the obedient doing giving suffering where word or providence gives order without wresting it or strutting it before the Lord. This word As either the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Germain Al 's importing similitude here denots a likenesse only not an equality we by it desiring amidst such encumbrances as the soul groans under to live inculpat as inoffensively as the Angels but to reach them in the large extent of perpetual conformity is a task beyond mortality for during our abode in houses of clay Ignorance malice weaknesse wantonnesse and wickednesse will affect us yet as children we may regard our copy and scorn luxury and all exorbitancy and lay aside superfluity of naughtinesse being perswaded that albeit the Character of our lives and actions be unproportioned we shall at length write fair and draw good Text Hand when in heaven we come to be perfect men in Christ Iesus For however obedience be here mixed with frailty and imperfection yet as a tender son endeavouring to execute his fathers will is approven so is it with God he requiring and blessing the will or desire for doing when the work it self may be defective so that though we arrive not at the perfection of the first or second Adam in doing Gods will which is to be found in the holy Angels yet we may acquire in obedience the perfection of Zacharias and Elizabeth which consists in the sincerity of our service We cannot and do not the will of God with the Angels speedily for like Lot we linger to go out of Sodom nor cheerfully for like Israel we murmure in the way nor fully for the good we would do we do not nor sincerely for our hearts are far from him nor perfectly for we know but in part and see but in part yet we are to strive after all this there being a time to come wherein all shall be obtained though now with Israel we compasse Iericho and with Sampson groan under blindnesse at length the siedge shall be ended in conquest and we revenged upon all Philistines that tormented us and all that we do shall be very good Therefore study for an enlarged soul that largely the will of the Lord be done for it is thy will not our own not every where but on earth not every way but as it is in Heaven that is doing it out of love and affection And so pray ye From all this we infer these four particulars 1. A necessity of doing Men came not into the world to stand idle or gaze about but to work and though sin and Satan put many to miserable drudgery it is still sloath except the work of God be done The heathen beheld and scorn'd the consumption of time in the inutile pursuits of the ordering plaiting and curling of hair of some phantasticks in his time and how with us such vanities are priveledged to inhabit the souls of too many is scandalously evident the saying of the prophecie of this book this prayer being kept neither in memory nor manners neither in heard nor heart c. 2. Timidity for failing The vitiousnesse of the age in spending the greatest part if not all time upon things â—innical ought to creat a fear both for our selves and others having for the doing of this will a patent not for one minut yet filling two times so nearly placed that there is
the confidence and power of God but as Abraham had his faith so Iob hath his fortitude courage and patience spoke of and known to all the world and for this cause temptations are because without them there is no Crown Cesars Souldiers fought as became them best in Câ—â—â—ris conspectu while Cesar was beholding â—hat something might be done by each worthy of his praise and commendation An Abraham in the Mount a Paul in the Sea a Stephen at the Bar God beholding will do great matters to be accounted faithful which will make them to be esteemed honourable Temptation affords to the godly a twoâ—old good in purging as by fire the heart from its rust in cleansing as by Betony the wounds of the soul and curing the bones broken by fleshly pleasure or wordly pomp for sine tentationum experimentis without the thorn of temptation there were no excitement to vertue and without perturbing cares no faith and without an enemy no contest nor without fighting would there be a victory When he hath tryed me saith Iob I shall come forth as gold and tryed he was being made neither father nor master nor healthful nor honourable and yet made all repente on a sudden yea nothing was left him but the tongue that by that he might blaspheme God but he was still like gold shining in the fire and spreading in the water of affliction 3. For the humbling of conceited persons where the flesh is proud corrhoding Medicines by the Judicious Chirurgeon are applied as proper for a cure when Peter is lofty and David is haughty a wench a Doeg a Saul shall be imployed as instruments to bring them to acknowledge they are no better then their fathers and after the sacrifice of humility by reminding of their infirmity thereby to increase in the exercise and habit of all vertue by seeking God in their affliction early that making him to be the more regarded This doctrine giving ground to the proudest to confesse his basenesse that he may be exalted and by his not being pussed up with a conceited glory either of suffering for or confessing of God may escape these bruises wounds griefs which the most upright hath to their sorrow felt in imagined security And mark that temptations in themselves are here not so much prayed against as strength to resist them expressed in the word into for when a Martyr is to die for bearing witnesse to the truth of Iesus he is thereby tempted but unlesse he deny the Lord that bought him he is not led into the temptation Eleutherius Bishop of Illyricum was under and by Adrian the heathen Emperour first laid upon an Iron-grate having fire under it then put into a Fat or Caldron of boyling Oyl and after placed in a fiery furnace but God strengthening even his body to endure all and confirming his â—aith that he denyed nothing he was tyed to wild horses but vi divina though they pulled thither and thither God was yet supporting his servant and he escaped that after was cast unto wild beasts but they not offering to tear he was slain by two souldiers where the temptation ended he never being led into it It is also recorded for no Historian hath all circumstances in every thing that after he had layen an hour upon the grate being thought dead he was untyed and afterward lifting up his arm he cryed Magnus est Christianorum Deus c. Great is the God of the Christians whom Peter and Paul preached in this city and by whom was done many miracles and wonders in this city for it was at Rome none can can say but the snare was broken and this holy Saint and Martyr was though tempted delivered from temptation 4. For discovery of men both in and unto themselves In the temptations laid before the reprobate it is made manifest to themselves that they are unworthy of the Kingdom of God in their so easie parting from the promises thereof for the enjoyment of a ticklish transitory and galling lust rejecting the honourable permanent and comfortable offers of immortality and life as touching the Elect as the Israelites were led through the wildernesse for discovering to themselves the soundnesse of their mettal so he led Hezekiah Peter and David that they might know what was in themselves I will said David keep thy Testimonies but meminisse debemus it is to be remembred that by temptation we may be induced to a despising neglecting and denying of them therefore there follows O forsake me not utterly Temptation is an Alarum seldom false and it is a fann to separat the chaff from the wheat it is a cloud predicting a storm and causeth the conscionable observer to hasten to an harbour it is an assault shewing the disparity betwixt true and counterfeit armour it is a shour detecting the soundnesse of our roose it is a sea and shews if the ship be sound it is a rod to know if we be patient under severest dispensations by it Paul discovers his love to Christ and Demas his love unto the world It being a blast blowing upon the heap of professours separating the chaff from the wheat for the endure temptation makes not a man patient or stedfast but only discovers them so to be Gods end in tempting Iob or David or Abraham not being ut perimatur that he should be destroyed but tryed 5. For punishing of men for their own presumptuous sins done against the light within themselves The Gentiles knowing God but not glorifying him according to that knowledge were given over to a reprobat mind Saul to an evil and Achab to a lying spirit vides igitur by this it is easie to perceive that God alloweth temptations to awaken his Disciples rouse his followers and make them watchful to resist temptations when they come that they be proportionat to our strength and also we liberat from their fraud or force both which are hinted at in lead us not into temptation Lead us not The old rule of charity is here again to be reflected upon and presseth brotherly-love upon all undertaking to pray we are all subject to temptation and all is to be prayed for that we all may be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might The Mahumitans will stand together the Indians pray for one another yet it is with Christians as it was in the Orators complaint with the Romans a small allowance being given me to alter for with shaddows idlenesse pleasure opinions and wicked works are we destroyed destroying each other in our cursings heart-burnings railings and sinful reproachings of our neighbours in stead of earnest servent and religious solicitations for them To inveigh against such in this age who it may be feared put themselves into temptation and when their wayes are by themselves Barricado'd demands strength from Christ to support them is not my design yet it is a duty to