purchased the name for us and bestowed it upon us It is true God offred himselfe to the Iewes that he would be their Father and they should be his sonnes but it was with relation and presupposition of receiving Christ whom because they rejected they never went further then their Father Abraham Neither indeed to our understanding had God power in himselfe to communicate his Name of Father to us but onely in Christ seeing Christ had in him the whole interest of his Father as being his onely Sonne And now in making Essayes upon the Petitions following if I shall seeme unto any and thereupon be blamed that I am not constant in any one certaine eyther explication or application of them he may know that these petitions have something like in our understanding as the Planets have amongst themselves which alter their forces and even their natures according to the diversity of their Aspects And if he complaine for want of order he may also know that though Art useth method yet meditation useth none but receiving her Company as they come makes use of them in Troope and not in Files God finished the world in sixe daies and Christ finished this Prayer in sixe Petitions that so the workes which God formed for man and the words which Christ framed for man may may have a correspondence But is not here a fault at first Is it not presumption to come to God with so many suits at once and thinke to speed in them all were it not modesty to doe as David did for hee made but one Petition Vnum Petii a Domino One thing have I asked of the Lord and Christ himselfe in another place told Martha as much Vnumest necessarium One thing is needfull so that eyther there he comes short in his account or here he makes more a doe then needs for if but one thing be necessary One Petition might well enough have served most of all it may seeme strange in Christ who ever used rather substraction then multiplication as of ten Commandements hee made but two and now that of one Petition he should make sixe But O my soule Be it farre from thee to have such thoughts to raise such scandall For the Commandements are duties and duties are burthens and in abridging them hee performes his promise Come unto me and I will ease you and well hee might abridge them to us who hath indeed perform'd them for us but the Petitions are graces and the more Graces the more grace the more Graces we receive from God the more grace we are in with God and Christ will not onely substract burthens but as well also multiply graces although in truth these sixe Petitions are all in effect but one Petition that having called God Our Father we here desire to be his Children but we must observe a difference in being Gods Children and being children of men for here we are children first and afterwards we doe our duties but there we doe at least some duties first and afterwards we are children as it is said As many as received him to them he gave power to be the sonnes of God And indeed though Christ dilate it to us here in sixe Petitions for our understanding yet presently after the delivery of them he seemes to reduce them againe to One petition where he sayth How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Ghost to them that desire him for to desire the Holy Ghost is all in effect that wee desire in these sixe Petitions which therefore some would have to be seaven that so they may answere to the seven spirits which St. Iohn speakes of to represent the Holy Ghost Indeed the three last are properly bare ly petitions but the three first are as Christ said of Iohn Baptist that he was a Prophet and more then a Prophet so these are petitions more then petitions for they are both Hallelujahs and Hosannaes For we glorifie God by the first that he is our Father By the second that he is our King by the third thathe is our Master and they are petitions also the first that we may be his obedient Children the second that wee may be his loy all subjects the third that we may be his dutifull servants And from these three first grows a confidence unto us of obtaining the three last which therfore seeme subordinate to them that asa Father he will give to us his children bread and sustenance and as a King he will grant to us his subjects a pardon of our trespasses as a master he will not lay upon us his servants greater burdens then we can beare But may not this Paraphrase be opposde hath not this Prayer a correspondence rather with the fall of Angels and doth it not make a resemblance of our condition to theirs but that they were cast downe all at once and we here fall downe by degrees for at every petition wee take a fall At the first we seeme to set out in a high hand and as though we needed nothing in our owne behalfe we aske all for God In the second we fall to asking for our selves but yet no lesse then a Kingdome In the third we are glad of the condition to be servants In the fourth we fall to the state of plaine beggars In the fift we fall yet lower and come to be in debt In the last we fall to the lowest to be in prison and that under satan And now we are fallen as low as the Angels that fell or rather so much lower as we are under them This indeed is the progresse of our condition in our selves but Christ our Redcemer who having put out the hand writing that was against us and fastned it to his crosse descended into hell to set open the prison dores to let us out He hath put another nature into these petitions and made them to resemble rather the sixe daies of creation as David said Create in me O God a cleane heart which is but this very prayer in a lesser volume For as every day in the Creation had particular workes so every petition in this Prayer hath particular graces and as it is said that God made all things at once yet the making of each creature is ascribed to some peculiar day so this prayer is the supplication of the whole body of the Church and of every Member therof yet each petition seemes to have some speciall relatiou to some peculiar Member For the first petition may not unfitly bee thought the prayer of Angels the second the prayer of the Saints departed the third the Prayer of the Faithfull living the fourth the prayer of all creatures the fifth the praier of penitent sinners the sixth the prayer of Infants And now having thought these petitions to be for such most proper let us conforme our selves accordingly to them when we say Hallowed be thy Name let us lift up the voyces
of others Indeed not onely charitably but most justly seeing the trespasses of others are oftentimes the trespasses of our trespasses For if we infect others by our counsaile or by our example are not our trespasses a cause of theirs Or if they infect us are not their trespasses a cause of ours and this is all the good wee get by company Company the great darling of the world without which it were no world there were no pleasure that it is no marvaile Iohn Baptist went into the Wildernesse to avoyd company that so he mighty neither infect nor be infected Indeed if men were to men as God intended them nothing could cause more comfort would yeeld more benefit then society but seeing they have left their first love the love of God what marvaile if now they leave their second love to love one another that nothing seemes now more dangerous nor is oftentimes more deadly then society This word Our is thrice used in this prayer and in each place seemes to have a severall extent for when we say Our Father it intends community when we say Our trespasses it intends propriety when we say Our bread it partakes of both There is nothing we call Ours in which we have so absolute a property as in our Trespasses In Our Father others have a right In Our bread others may claime a share but in Our trespasses none can challenge any part with us for every man must beare his owne burden every man must be accountable for his proper debts We have just cause therefore to say Forgive as our trespasses but what cause have we to say As we forgive them that trespasse against us For is not this a suddaine and strange alteration We have all this while beene at our prayers and now to come in with a petition of right We have hitherto beene the Publicane confessing our sinnes and now on the suddaine to turne Pharise and boast of our workes But O my soule doe not so conceive it for what boasting can there be in humility and what greater humility then bearing and forgiving Trespasses But it is an humble presenting and offering our service to God whereby wee shew our selves prepared by his grace and in hope to be capable of his Forgivenesse And we may perceive by Christ that there is some great necessity of these words in this petition for when he had delivered the whole forme of this prayer to his Disciples he doth not so leave it but makes of this petition a repetition and nrgeth it particularly as if he had some speciall interest in it himselfe and so indeed he hath for what doth Christ so much labour for all his life as to make us his Disciples and how are we made his Disciples but by bearing our crosses and comming after him and what is this bearing our Crosse but our Forgiving of Trespasses for even this was the laft act of his owne bearing his crosse when his crosse bearing him he sayd Father forgive them for they know not what they doe Injuries indeed and wrongs oppressions and persecutions may be layd upon us as Christs Crosse was layd upon Simon of Cyrene and we made to beare them whither we will or no but this doth not make us Christs Disciples but we must take them up and beare them of our selves and as I may say not with presumption precipitation but with patience and charity crosse our crosses and so we shall make them a true Christs Crosse indeed and by this we shall be knowne whose Disciples we are and thus if we present our selves to God the Father bearing the cognisance of God his Sonue we may be sure of favourable audience which is the thing that Christ so much desires Wherefore O my soule wonder not that these words are with such earnestnesse taught thee to say but wonder at the love and loving kindnesse of Christ thy Saviour who is so urgent with thee to have them sayd which are so urgent for thee to be performed Many would desire to know and prize it at a great rate how they might get the knowledge to be assured when their finnes are forgiven and yet it is a knowledge easie to be had and every man may tell himselfe For if thou findest in thy heart a loathing of thy former sinnes and a resolution to continue in amendment of life and especially a sixed charity to forgive others thou mayst be assured thou art in the favour of God and thy sinnes past are all forgiven thee But if thou continuest to take delight in thy former sinnes and art unresolved in reforming thy courses and especially if thou findest in thy selfe a desire of revenge and art implacable towards others thou mayst then be assured thou art still in the state of Gods displeasure thy sinnes are not yet forgiven For these things are not onely the signes but the certaine effects of Gods forgiving us when we confesse and be grieved for our owne trespasses to him and are compassionate and relenting to the trespasses of others to us But are we not in this all Naamans Doe we not all thinke that washing seven times in Iordan is too slight a medicine to cure our leprosie that our forgiving of others can never have the power to worke in God a forgiving of us but what is this O my soâ—le but to vilifie that which God hath sanctified If God had sayd unto thee If thou wilt have me to forgive thy trespasses then goe sell all thou hast and give it to the poore as the young man in the Gospell was bidden Or then goe sacrifice thy onely sonne as Abraham was commanded oughtest thou not to have done these thiâ—gs how much more when he saith Forgive and thou shalt be Forgiven For to skorn the meanes because they seeme to us to be weake what is it but to forget the power of that hand which useth them Could Christ give power to the Hem of his garment that the only touching it drew vertue from him and cannot God give power to our forgiving of others to draw mercy from him could God give power to seven times going about Ierico to make the walls fall downe and can he not as well give power to our forgiving the trespasses of others to make our trespasses fall downe before him But this is done to make us know that Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts nor his waies as our waies For what Father indeed on earth though never so loving would give so great ablessing to so small a duty what Master though never so bountifull would propose so glorious a reward to so meane a service what King though never so gracious would grant so free a pardon upon so easie termes for this which he requires is not the intending of an action but the remitting of a passion It is not to suffer but not to offer it is not to doe more then we can doe but not to doe so much as we would doe
besides And as thou didst shew more love by more labour in thy creating us so thou hast shewed more love by more cost in thy redeeming us for thou gavest thy begotten sonne to make us thine adopted sonnes and wert contented he should call us Brother to the end we might call thee Father and sentest him of a message into hell to provide us of a passage into heaven As thy mercy was infinite of enemies to make us children so thy bounty is immeasurable of children to make uâ— heires and though not all heires in an equality yet all with so unpartiall a partition that none shall have so much to leave lesse for the rest nor none shall have so little to desire more from the other None shall be so exalted to envy others as meane nor none shall be so meane to envy others as exalted but every one to bee owner of so goodly an Inheritance that to survay the greatnesse we must have cleerer eyes and to conceave the excellency diviner hearts Thou hast vouchsaâ—ed us the honour to be thy children Vouchsafe us the Grace also to be thine obedient children that as thou gloriest in expressing thy love to us so we may glory in performing our duâ—ies to thee and that though our foreâ—athers gave thee cause to repent thee of creating man yet we their posterity may give thee no cause to repent thee of adopting man But why say we Our Father as though this prayer were made onely to be say'd in company for if we say it by our selves alone what reason is there to use the word of number as though we meant to make God believe that many of us come sutours to him at once when it is none but our selves alone Or may we thinke that Christ taught this prayer to his Diâ—iples as they were together and they being many he was necessarily to use a word of number but if he had taught it to one alone he would have taught him to say My father and not Our Father But is it not that prayer and specially this prayer is not a common or rather is not a private speech but must be said as well in charity as in faith and charity can abide no singular numbers it is against her nature to be without company and company she will finde to joyne with her in praâ—ing thâ—ugh she say her prayers by her selfe alone Indaed prayer without company is like Samyâ— Without his haire it is not strong enough to breake the cords of sinne with which we lie bound And what is this company but the Communion of Saints of whom we have not alwaies the corporall presence but alwaies the spirituall and though they be often disioyned from us in place yet are they alwaies joyned with us in love and charity and to expresse this Communion to communicate this charity we are justly commanded to say Our Father as then our prayers being most effectuall for our selves when in them we shew our selves most affectionate towards others And as in our charity we desire that God will heare our prayers in behalfe of others So in our hope we may expect that God will heare the prayers of others in behalfe of us and then doe but consider the benefit of this word how infinitely by it our charity returnes multiplyed unto us for when we say Our Father including our brethren Our brethren that is the whole Church saies Our father and includes us Let no man therefore presume to come to God with saying My father as though he meant to engrosse God to himselfe and to enioy him alone but let us in communion of Saints say Our Father that praying as we are taught we may be heard as we are promised And as we have this reason out of the bond of love to draw us so we have a stronger reason out of the bond of necessity to compell us to say Our Father for as charity will not be without her fellowes so faith cannot be without her Master and this Master is Christ whom we must take along with us in our prayer or else all praying will be in vaine For we are not naturally the children of God God knowes we are farre from it we are all by nature the children of wrath Christ onely is his naturall sonne and it is a naturall sonne onely that hath right originally to say Father Adopted sonnes have their right but derived from him We therefore that are onely adopted in Christ have no right to call God Father but onely in Christ and as in him we have received the honour of our adoption so from him we learne the use of our adoption for as he hath made us to become children so he teacheth us what becomes us to doe as children that if we will obtaine any thing at Gods hands we must aske it in his Name in whom we are adopted and made children and where in all this prayer in which we aske all things doe we aske any thing in Christs name but onely in these words by saying Our Father for if we come with saying My Father we leave Christ cleane out and come not at all in his Name and so have neither warrant to call God Father nor promise to receive his blessing but when we say Our Father as we challenge the adoption so we acknowledge the Authour and in these two onely words we expresse the three great vertues Faith Hope and Charity In the word Father our Hope In the word Our our Charity and in the words Our Father our Faith in Christ in whom he is our Father Let no man therefore presume upon saying My Father as though he came to God in his owne right and stood upon his owne greatnesse with him buâ— let us come in the Name of Christ by saying Our Father that praying in his Name as he hath taught us we may obtaine for his sake as he hath promised us But is God then Our Father in generall and as it were in Grosse and is he not the Father of every one of us in particular I beleeve that I am a childe of God and must I not believe that God is my Father No doubt you must and you must not doubt it but it is not all one to believe that God is my Father and to pray to God by saying My Father for my believing is onely in Faith but my praying mast be also in Charity neither yet can I pray in faith by saying My Father seeing my faith that God is my Father is onely in Christ and Christ is betweene God and me so I cannot come to God and say My Father unlesse I put Christ by for if I take Christ with me I must needs say Our Father and therefore when Christ taught this prayer to his Disâ—iples though in the sentence before he said as speaking to one alone Pray unto thy Father yet when he delivers the prayer he alters the number and bids them say Our Father so I may truely say I pray unto
anguish and torment but in Heaven it is had for not onely the Angels but the Saints of God behold his Face and this is that which makes the heavens to be a heaven of heavens for the heavens which his hands made shall be dissolved but the heavens which his Face makes shall bee for ever and were able to make even hell also to bee a heaven if that were capable to receive it But how doe we know that God is any more in heaven then any where else or that he is in heaven or any where else at all O my soule take heed of comming so neere to be the foole that David speakes of though thou say not in thy heart There is no God yet to let thy tongue but make it a question For doth not David tell us that the heavens tell â—s The Heavenâ— declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handyworkeâ— as much as to say The heavens declare that there is a glorious God and the Firmament is a worke that sheweth him to be the workman The heavens indeed declare it so plainely by the heavenly bodies that in them as in plaine letters and characters we may even reade not onely that God is but that he is there But if the heavens declare it never so plainely and we will not take notice or believe their declaration what are we the better For wilt thou believe that the Starres which thou seest as small as sparkes are bigger yea much bigger then the whole earth and then what a world of worlds must there be in the starry heaven which yet are all as nothing compar'd to the magnitude of the greater heavens Wilt thou believe that the motion of the Sunne which yet seemes to stand still is swifter yea manifold swifter then a â—let from a Canon and yet is slownesse compar'd to the swiftnesse of the Primum Mobile Wilt thou believe that the earth as great as it is is yet but a point or centre to the starry heaven and that the starry heaven is so high above us that though the sight of our eyes can reach unto it in an instant yet the swiftnes of a hundred miles a day cannot reach unto it in a thousand yeeres yet is hard by compar'd to the distance of the highest heavens All which and many the like though they exceed our capacity yet they exceed not our knowledge and though they be so strange that theymake both art suspected nature astonished yet are they so certain that they are demonstrable And this is a great ascent from earth to heaven yet an easie one for we know these wonders of the heavenly bodies as perfectly bâ—ing on earth as if we were in heaven to see them But it is a farre greater ascent from heaven to God and yet a farre easier For who can chuse but know the first cause to be omnipotent which hath made second causes so excessively potent Who can chuse but acknowledge the Creatour to bee infinite who hath made Creatures that to our capacity are themselves infinite And therefore the authour of the Booke of Wisedome speaking in proofe of the deity waiveth all other reasons and insists upon this That by the greatnesse of the creatures and of their beauty the Creatour being compared with them may bee considered God indeed hath reserved the sight of himselfe untill our eyes shall put on Immortality but the sight of his dwelling hee hath afforded to our mortall eyes that though in it we cannot see his person yet by it we may be assured of his being and of his being there For as when wee see a building of invaluable valew we presently conceive it to be the Pallace of a Prince so when we see the Frame of heaven so full of wonders where Sâ—arres are but as dust and Angels are buâ— servants where every word is unspeakeable and everâ— motion is a miracle we may plainely know it to â—e the dwelling of him whose name is Wonderfull For who is fit to inhabit such a house but hee onely who inhabiteth eternity and who fit to be Master of such servants but he who was a Master before he had servants that is he onely who onely is But why doth God write himselfe of heaven which how glorious soever it be is but of a late building For no doubt God had a dwelling and a place to bee in before hee made heaven and he should rather write himselfe of his ancient mansion place then of his new seate But O my soule be sober For where thou thinkest that God had a place to be in before he made heaven thou art even in that deceived for how could he have a place to be in when place it selfe had yet no being For as heaven and earth were twinnes created both at once so time and place were twinnes made both together and all of them for the use of the creatures none of them for any use to God for God being eternall hath no use of time and being infinite can have no place but out of eternity by his omnipotent Power he produced Time and out of infinitenesse he produced place for no use to himselfe but in relation to his creatures If therefore thou wouldst comprehend where God was before he made heaven thou must comprehend infinitenesse which were not infinite if it could be comprehended And yet as no place is great enough to hold God so none is small enough to exclude him for he is place to himselfe he is place himselfe as David saith Thou art my place to kide me in and it is one of the names which the Iewes attribute to God that he is called Maquom that is to say Place Yet it is happy for us that God writes himselfe to be in heaven because we know now where to finde him least otherwise we might wander infinitely in the search of him and be never the neere not that heaven limits Gods ubiquity but that it regulates our capacity for as one sayd well in another sence Qui ubique est nusquam est so certainely if we knew nothing of Gods being any where but that he is every where we might easily fall into the errour to thinke hee were no where Iustly therefore doth God write himselfe of heaven now that he stiles himselfe Our Father seeing he therefore made heaven because he intended to be our Father that there might bee one House to hold both Him and his Children and that where he is wee might bee also for to be with God where God was before he made the world or where he now is above or without the world is utterly impossible for men or Angels to attaine to But why say we Our Father which art in heaven and say not rather Our heavenly Father seeing by that we tell onely where God is but by this we might tell what he is By that we name onely his place but by this we might name his substance But we must
beast Saul left Gods Will to doe his owne will in sparing Agag and the fatte of the sheepe and what was thâ— issue but the utter destruction of himselfe and all his issue But looke now upon those who have gone the other way and see how they have proved Abraham left his owne will to doe Gods Will in offring to sacrifice his onely sonne and was it not his making and made him the father of all the faithfull â—oseph left his owne will to doe Gods will in not embracing the embraces of his Mistris and was it not his making and made all Aegypt embrace him for their Master Daniel left his owne will to doe Gods Will in bowing his knee to God against the decree of the King of Persia and was it not his making and made all Persia bow their knees to him O wretch that I am I now see how unhappy I am that I have a will yet cannot but thinke my selfe happy for having a will For if I had not a will I could not love God and having a will I cannot love him as I should for my will is divided and cannot love him intirely my will is corrupt and cannot love him sincerely my will is wâ—vering and cannot love him constantly for I am not master of my will nor ever shall be nor ever can be unlesse thy Will O God come and helpe me to master it That it is not the making the Pâ—tition that makes us to be bondslâ—ves but it is our being bondslaves that makes us to make the petition as having no other way to recover our freedome but onely the vertue of this Petition Thy Will be done in 〈◊〉 as it is in heaven To doe the Will of God as it is done in Heaven is not onely to doe it fully for the matter but with delight for the manner and therefore David describing a godly man is not contented to say onely That he walked not in the counsaile of the 〈◊〉 but he addeth And his delight is in the Law of the Lord. For without this delight there is no doing it like the Angels who are therefore perhaps sayd continually to bee singing And to quicken us the more to this Angelicall perfection we may consider that the delight that is taken in God in the doing of his Will doth infinitly exceede the delight of all other objects Godlinesse is the perfecting of the soule and seeing every thing delights most in its owne perfection it must needs be that the chiefe delight of the soule is godlinesse And therefore where the minde is not sensible of this delight it shewes plainely that the soule is degenerated into a grosse corruption and stupidity For if we did but see a glimpse of this in the native purenesse it would plainely make appeare all worldly lustres to be but staines all earthly pleasures to be very paines O Lord God let it be the pleasure of thy Will that I may take pleasure in doing thy Will for unlesse it be thy pleasure it can never bee my will for though we may be good followers yet we are no good beginners and therefore though it please thee to say Turne unto me and I will turne unto you as though we should begin first yet we are faine to returne it backe and say Turne us O Lord and we shall be turned for we God knows are too unweldy to turne us of our selves It must be done by strong hand and none hath strength enough to doe it but thou O God who art the God of strength And if wee would strive as much with the Angels for holinesse as we doe with men for place and dignity we should finde God as ready to take our parts as he was to take our nature and by such a helpe of such a helper we should be able to make good our saying Thy Will be done in earth as it is in heaven We may know what it is to doe Gods Will in earth as it is in heaven by that which St. Iohn tels of the foure and twenty Elders That they cast downe their Crownes before the Throne of God saying Thou art worthy O God to receive glory and honour and power for so must we doe by our wills which are indeed our Crownes cast them downe and resigne them up to God but cast them down not cast them away resigne them but yet retaine them for without wills of our owne we can never doe Gods Will unwilling service is never acceptable as St. Paul sayth If I doe it willingly I have a reward and thus if wee can have wills of our owne and yet not doe our owne wills if wee can willingly renounce our owne wills take Gods Will in their roome and make it our owne will we shall then doe with our wills as the Elders did with their Crownes and then we shall doe Gods Will as it is done in heaven It is a hard matter oftentimes for flesh and blood to say this petition For could our first parents well say it when they were cast out of Paradise Nay did the Apostles who were something more then flesh and blood well say it when Christ told them of his departure from them yet see the weakenesse of our judgements the darkenesse of our understandings This casting out of Paradise was thorough Gods grace an occasion of attaining to a farre better Paradise for if they had tarried there still the Son of God had never come into the world this departing of Christ from them was a meanes of his comming neerer to them for if he had not departed the holy Ghost had not come And thus the two greatest seeming crosses that possibly could be proved the two greatest reall blessings that could be possible And what account then can be made of these petty crosses or of these petty blessings which happen daily to us in this world Surly in prosperities wee may well moderate our selves with this feare that they doe but prepare a way for us to greater crosses and in adversities we may well comfort our selves with this hope that they doe but prepare a way for us to greater blessings Let us therefore endeavour alwaies and doe our best that the best may happen but let us alwaies thinke that best whatsoever happens so we shall neyther clip the wings of hope for the future and wee shall give patience a firme ground to stand upon for the present and let us remember that as it hath beene sayd of old Periissemus nisi Periissemus so it hath beene observed of old Tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviore ruant that if we give experience leave to speake the truth Shee will tell us There is not a weaker threatner nor a stronger flatterer then fortune is and therefore we can never have any just cause to hinder us from laying Thy Will be done in earth as it is in heaven It is a fearefull thing to make this a petition to God if we doe
can men performe as perfect duties as the Angels Indeed not in equality but in similitude Not to doe as well as they but to doe our best as well as they Not that our Vessels can bee as bright as theirs but be as cleane and not hold as much but be as full And even this cleannesse and even this fulnesse not of our selves For what cleannesse can there bee in dirt or what fulnesse in vessels that are full of holes and such we are all of us not onely ex humo but ex limo and Pleni rimarum quenching the spirit as fast as it is kindled all our cleannesse is in him to whom we say Purge me with Hisop and I shall bee cleane all our fulnesse from him of whom it is sayd Of his fulnesse wee have all received Hee onely that hath set us the taske can give us the power and by him wee may attaine to that of St. Paul I can doe all things in him that comforteth me for by the comfort of this Comforter it may be possible to make the petition possible Thy Will be done in earth as it is in heaven But if it be onely in similitude why doe we pray onely to be like the Angels and pray not rather to be like God himselfe as Christ would have us Be yee holy as your heavenly Father is holy Be yee perfect as he is perfect for now wee make a prayer that comes short of Christs precept Is it not that the perfectest patternes that can bee are in both places propounded to us and therefore here where it is matter of obedience the Angels are our patternes of whom Dâ—vid saith Praise the Lord all yee his Angels that doe his Commandement in obeying the voyce of his Word but this patterne God cannot be seeing obedience cannot be where there is no superiour but where it is matter of holinesse or perfection there God must be our patterne and therefore we justly forbeare to speake of Angels where we have a patterne to speake of in God himselfe O Lord God if I cannot bee like thee in holinesse yet let me bee like the Angels in obedience and If I can attaine to neyther let mee at least aspire to both and what I want in power and performance make me to supply with vowes and prayer The time was when Angels might have envyed man for his happinesse but now man hath just cause if any cause can be just to envy Angels for their happinesse for what happinesse can be greater then to be made patternes of holynesse and that by God to the Image of God by the Sonne of God to the Sonnes of God But O blessed Spirits we envy you not but admire you rather for why should we envy you for continuing holy who pitty us for not continuing and not onely pity us but doe your best to relieve us And how can we choose but admire you for patternes who so farre exceed the proportion of patternes Patternes are but examples but you are also Assistants Patternes doe but lie before us but you pitch your Tents round about us Patterns doe but light us to the likenesse but you delight to have us be like you And how then can wee envy you for being our betters who envy not us to become your equals O blessed Spirits we envy you not but admire you rather and willingly not onely accept you for our patternes but under Christ acknowledge you for our Guardians And here now seemes a fit â—lace to sit downe and wonder at the unspeakeable love and bounty of God expressed toward us in these three petitions For by the first we are assured of eternity by the second of a Kingdome by the third to bee like the Angels or if wee like it better to say By the first we are informed what we shall be as Angels By the second what wee shall have A Kingdome By the third what we shall doe The Will of God These are blessings worthy to come from a heavenly Father these are rewards which worthily become a bountifull Master And now let the Swine flesh and blood goe murmure against God that he is a hard Father and a bad Master and that there is no profit in serving him because he gives them not the mire of the world to wallow in as though he had no other way to expresse his favours but by cloddes of earth but doe thou O my soule meditate upon these petitions and in them upon these blessings and in these upon the infinite love and bounty of God and thinke how happy thou art to have such a Father how much thou art bound to love such a Master and thinke not much to love him with thy whole heart seeing he hath blessings to bestow upon thee which cannot enter into thy heart thinke not much to submit thy selfe wholly to his Will seeing his Will is to give thee beauty for ashes the Oyle of gladnesse for mourning that we shall ever finde it a most happy thing for us to say Thy Will be done in earth as it is in Heaven It is proper to this petition that where the other seeme to waite at Gods Throne this onely waites at his footestoole and where the other sing onely the high note Glory be to God on high this seemes to adde a Base saying In Earth as it is in Heaven And it may justly be called the petition of obedience seeing all the other have their ends in injoying this onely hath no end but in obeying Next to these as I may say of the higher House come in the commons and first takes place a generality as it were a corporation for when it is sayd Give us this day our daily bread is it not plainely the prayer of all living creatures whether living the life reasonable or the life sensitive or even the life onely vegetative For of unreasonable creatures it is said The Lions seeke their meate at God and the young Ravens call upon him and he feedeth them And of vegetables it is manifest that though the Corne give bread to us yet God gives bread to the Corne by his dewes from heaven And even the Angels though they have no bodies yet they have their bread too of which it is said Man did eate the bread of Angels and of all together it is sayd All things looke up to thee and thou givest them meate in due season thou openest thy hand and fillest with thy blessing every living creature But as these severall kinds of creatures may be conceived to have their severall waies in making use of this petition so man as the summary of them all partakes with all of them in all the waies of using it He partakes in using it with the vegetables by indigence of Nature Hee partakes in using it with the beasts by appetite of sence He partakes in using it with the Angels by acknowledgement of the Authour and thankesgiving for their preservation as may be thought
yet such a Master and King and Father is God that if thou doe it in charity and say it in fayth it will worke with him the effect he promiseth and this shall be a signe unto thee thou shalt finde in thy minde that Peace which passeth all understanding thou shalt finde in thy heart that Ioy which the world cannot give and shalt plainely perceive by this subordinate petition what great cause thou hadst to say Thy Kingdome come But what will be the best time for our saying of this petition May we not put it off till we have committed more sinnes and then aske forgivenesse for all together May we not run a while upon the skore and then strike a tally for all at once O my soule be not so nngratefull to God so improvident for thy selfe for canst thou thinke it fit to runne further upon the skore when thou art more upon the skore already then all thou art worth Canst thou thinke it fit to commit more sinnes when thou hast committed more already then a thousand deaths can expiate Hath God spared thee for this that thou shouldst goe on to provoke him further Hath he for this given thee a time to repent thee that thou shouldst make him repent him of the time he hath given thee This deferring of repentance dries up the blood of Christ God in him is a Father now who knowes how soone he may turne to a Iudge God in him is now all mercy who knowes how soone he may returne to his Iustice This present houre this very instant is the Faire kept as I may say of forgiving sinnes It may be had now at an easie rate onely for forgiving them that trespasse against thee but if thou tarry till the Faire be ended and who knowes how soone it may be seeing it hath lasted so long already there will then be no rardons to be purchased at any rate but thou must pay for thy improvidence with thy uttermost farthing O then my soule put not off from day to day least thou come as it is sayd a day after the Faire but whilst it is called to day call thy selfe to account and let not the Sunne goe downe upon thy Impenitence to God or upon thine anger to thy neighbour least it happen to thee as to the rich man in the Gospell who to morrow after his barnes were built would gee in hand with repentance when God would not tarry the building of Barnes but Hac â—e repetent aniâ—nam tuâ—m this very night they shall take away thy soule But is there not in this petition a hole left for revenge to creepe in may we not doe as much as we say and yet leave some trespassors upon whom to bee revenged For if we forgive some that trespasse against us we forgive them that trespasse against us although we forgive not all that trespasse against us and those we forgive not will bee left for us to be revenged But O my soule what Sophistry is this to be used to God doâ— thou not by this entangle thy selfe in thy owne Net May not God justly returnâ— thy Sophistry upon thee and say Thou desirest to be forgiven anâ— thou shalt have thy desire If I forgive thee some of thâ— trespâ—sses I forgive thee thy trespassâ—s although I forgive thee not all thy trespasses and thoâ—e I forgive not will serve my turne for thy condemnation And when God shall say this art thou not well served for thy Sophistry Wherefore O Foolish soule leave playing the Sophister with God as it is thy desire to have all thy trespasses forgiven so let it be thy meaning to forgive all that trespasle against thee For if thou wilt have a generall pardon thou must generally pardon If our forgiving of others consisted in giving good words in shewing faire lookes in affording smiling countenances in offering dissembled courtesies we might well enough thinke that every man living performed the condition of this petition and that the whole world were nothing but charity but seeing God hath thus centured the Israelites Fasting Is it such a Fast that I have chosen Is it to bow downe your heads as a Bulrush and to spread Sackclmb and Ashes under you Doe we not thinke he will not as â—verely censure our forgiving Is it such a Forgiving that I require Is it to smile in a mâ—ns face and cut his throat behinde his backe Is it to give good words and watch a time to take revenge Is it to carry Honey in the mouth and Gâ—ll in the heart And how then can wee choose nâ—w but feare there is searâ—e a man living that can looke to have his fâ—nes forgiven and that there is not so much as the poore womans mite of charity in the world For truâ— chaâ—ity is without dissimulation and to take dissimulation out of the world what were it but after a sort to prevent God and to make a new earth before the time But why should God require of us such a quicke returne from anger who could himselfe carry anger in his minde much longer for did he not so to Moses who having angred God a little at Meribah was punished for it at Caâ—an a long time after But O my soule farre be it from thee to thinke Gods goodnesse can once be touched with such imputation God was angry indeed and upon just cause angry with Moses at Meribah and sware in his wrath that he should not enter into Canaan So the doome was instantly passed and could not be revoked and his anger was as instantly passed and never after shewed For when the sentence came to executing with what circumstances of mildnesse with what favour of interpretation was it done that though the punishment could not be revoked yet Gods love turned it into a benefit For though he might not goe into Canaan with his feet yet he was suffered to goe into it with his eyes that having taken the pleasure of seeing the figure he might goe the more cheerefully to take possession of the substance Neyther was it perhaps so much a punishment as a mystery at least a punishment not without mystery for Moses represented the law and could not therefore bring the Israélites into Canaan because the law cannot bring us to heaven It must be Ioshuah the type of Christ Iesus that must bring them into Canaan the type of heaven as it is lesus the true Ioshua that must bring us to heaven the true Canaan But seeing God hath forgiven our sinnes already in Christ what need we to trouble God or our selves to aske forgivenesse againe as though our words could doe more then Christs deeds but is it not as when a King proclaimes a generall pardon to all offendours yet none shall have benefit by it but such onely as sue it forth and fetch it out so God indeed hath granted a generall pardon to all sinners in the merits of his Sonne but none shall have benefit by it but such onely as