are free from turbulency of the Airs mutations so is their Maker from mans tumultuous conceptions his not their abode being in Heaven In Heaven that is in the Saints saith a Father by a harmless mistake concluding that because wicked men may and are termed Earth so just men may be designed by Heaven they being the Temples of God which Heaven is also said to be yet not in a Figure but in a proper sense is he said to be in Heaven as a King is said to be in his Court that being the most glorious ample magnificent part of the created world discovering to us power quietness observance in God when we are at Prayer 1 His power to grant what we ask This word in Heaven prevents any harsh constructions flesh could make of his delay in answering our suits by letting the greatest infidel know since he can rule and doth reside in Heaven he hath power authority omnipotency to avert from us what ever we fear and bequeath unto us what ever we demand being there as a Father in his Cellar as a parent in his Buttry as a King in his Exchequer as a Prince in his Council as a Merchant in his Counting-house ready to perform the requests made by us proper to those offices There can none ascend thither to assist him in his designs he there stands in awe of none to impede him in his purposes we need not say if thou canst do any thing help us for there he hath done and will do whatsoever he pleaseth holding all under and in subjection laughing at those who obstinatly seek to make resistance against his dominion 2 His blessed quietness to hear us when we ask Heaven is remote from that noise and garboil with which our Earth and Sea and the inferior Regions are infestred It 's true it is compared to a Sea but it is of Chrystal solide bright and pure God is said to have two dwellings and they both evidence composure 1. the Heavens 2. the Humble In both which he is in so serene a Region that if he can be said to have any work it is to look down and see who seeks after him 3. Observance where ever we ask As Heaven is above us so are we thankfully to acknowledge that our prayers be not hindered neither by the roof of the house nor space of the Air nor the thicknesse of the clouds from appearing before God and from being under his eye The pilgrimages of Rome are but pilgrimages and their pennances not very comfortable since we are by precept and example to lift up our eyes to the hills whence our help must come and disdaining such fruitless wandrings let us look up to Heaven which the Moralist had some sense of when he protested his knowledge that the whole world was his Countrey the gods governing above him and about him censuring that is judging his words and actions Put God in the place of gods the saying is divine and the practice thereof in every place will make us holy Again Pray after this manner Our Father which art in heaven Enforceth our souls to collect that in Prayer God expects from us Pureness Zealousness Sadness Reverence 1. Pureness of soul in not minding the Earth is scarce good enough for us to look upon or think upon at any time but in prayer it ought to appear singularly despicable our appetite ought to be where our eyes are fixed and they by this precept are extended toward heaven at which they ought to be intensely viewing that it may be demonstrated our affections are above 2. Zealousness of Spirit for the things of Heaven It supposeth the eye thitherward and implyeth the heart to be already in love with glory Man having one Muscle more then any other Creature by which he can and doth look directly upward ought to be as a Pully fixed in his soul to draw it Heaven-ward for the attainment of heavenly bless for which even nature intimats a great respect in affording man proper Organs to behold it that beholding may cause wondring and wondring may effectuat a desire to possess Do not you therefore value or cleave to the Earth having found a Father which is in Heaven 3. Sadness of heart for being out of Heaven The fiâ—st and second Petitions irreâ—ragably clear this to have been in our Lords eye Hallowed be thy Name bemoaning the profaning thereof by wicked men and let thy kingdom come regrating the delay thereof from good men A child in a ditch will cry for help and a Saint in the pit will call for deliverance out of heaven the possession whereof being enjoyed by the glorified Angels Earth beholding him but as a stranger passionatly invits him to beg its festination or appearance There is Heaven where there is no sin where no wickedness is wrought where death is not felt saith one pointing toward Heaven and say thou because of that Thy Kingdom come 4. Reverence of the whole man It is said of holy Basil that in sancta sanctorum non semel quotannis sed quotidie ingrediens appearing before the Lord in the holy of holys he used it not only once in but every day of the year Imitating Moses Aaron Ioshua Elias Iohn the Baptist Paul c. whose respectful and religious life whose awful and religious reverence unto God in Prayer hath produced and obtained much mercy for themselves and revoked many menaceing Edicts against offenders There are two vices especially make our prayers not only wearisome to our selves but odious to God 1. Nimia trepidatio Much fearfulness 2. Nimia oscitatio Much boldness The soul when too much dejected with the dreadful apprehensions of incensed wrath by sorestalled imagination the fancy for reiterated offences only representing hell is curbed by this Phrase Our Father And when self-confidence makes us more daring in our behaviour being stout before God projecting rather how to be homely not to say clownishly familiar then how to be holy or savingly sprinkled we are chastised by this expression which art in Heaven that making us serve with fear and rejoice with trembling not presuming upon any works of our own but solely depending upon Christs merits the only golden Vesture wherein we shall be accepted Our Father which art in Heaven OF all that â—eap of Accidents by which one thing is distinguished from another God can and is only differenced by his countrey and his name two remarks communicable to none are here designed to guide us in our addresses to him All Translations read it Heavens the Hebrews for Heaven having no singular number In the first Language here it is thought to be denominated from its clearness to be seen others will have it so called from its betokening a mark bound or limit Coelum is derived by some from Covering others from Engraving because of the lustre of those Stars that seem
of pleasure to which our prayers ascending are compared to pillars of perfume and they refresh the soul to Musick and that delights the ear to Noah's Dove that brought the Olive branch to Moses Rod that procured water in time of thirst to the Cloudy Pillar that directed Israel to Canaan to Sampsons Iaw-bone that slew the Philistines to Iacobs Ladder by which we exhilerat the Angels and ascend to their God and our God and to Davids Harp by which we make the evil spirit depart from us The famine in Canaan made Iacob send to Egypt for corn and that gave him tidings of his sons great honour and it revived the spirit of the old man that Ioseph was alive and in him he had the good of all the Land of Egypt before him So hath the Christian through Christ in Heaven and Prayer must be sent as a Messenger to return some of the fruits thereof that we die not 3. The suitableness of it upon all parts if you eye the Christians Head the Believers Lord the Souls Bridegroom the Churches Spouse Gods Son Salvations Captain the World 's Messiah Prayer is the only path he travelled in and therefore the road we ought to observe and the main tract in which the Chariot-wheels of our zealous desires ought to run and the sole coin to be told down when we take up mercy For when our Lord choosed his Apostles he prayed when he left his Apostles he prayed it is fit therefore when we pitch upon an enterprise to pray and having perfected our labour it is decent to make our requests known unto God with thanksgiving If you eye Satan the Brethrens accuser the Fleshes tempter the Chruches adversary the Souls deceiver Mans ensnarer Prayer is so suited to all of these that it breaks his snares detects his fallacies scatters his forces answers his arguments and by confession of sin pleading guilty and sueing for mercy stops the mouth of that accuser and puts that invisible foe by this impenetrable piece of Armour of all Prayer to a silence to a retreat to a soyl And the truth is Satan hath many stratagems traps and devices to charm the sinner to a security in his killing embraces and to withdraw a heart-broken creature from his God but among all these an utter neglect of or a prejudice against Prayer hath done him many and most high atchievements But this belongs to the next Section SECT IV. TO give an account particularly of the obstructions Satan and Flesh lays at the root of a structifying vigorous soul impeding its buding or sprouting forth towards Heaven in a fervent desire were a task as easie as numbering the Stars or exactly to reckon the sand upon the Sea shore yet walk along the Garden of thine own heart Reader and these following will be conspicuous among many others 1. Desponding or doubting of Gods freeness Therefore let us have faith justice and judgment being the habitation of Gods Throne may and doth make some tremble to aproach And if this alone be considered Who will not fear that King of Saints But since it is that mercy and truth go before his face we doubt because we have little faith by which there is assurance of good and not evil in our access to his presence mercy going before him and truth which promiseth that mercy succeeding that may cause emulation in each petition to be its first partaker There going before not only because promised to former Ages but to assure us who are now existent that untill mercy be neglected and truth questioned the Generation to come and this present may have confidence not to be condemned in the Throne of Judgement The Lord being good to all and his tender mercies being over all his works made a holy Bishop so highly press the duty of repentance that he was as is recorded reprehended by Satan as vilifying grace yet that good man thus answered the charge O miserabilis O miserable creature If thou shalt once defist from tempting man and repent thee of all thy wicked deeds I should trusting in the mercy of the Lord promise mercy and forgiveness unto thee What ever O man be thy thoughts or doubts Know it is of the Lords mercy thou art not consumed Despair not therefore of his tender mercies but call and thou shalt not be destroyed imitate the Leper and thou shalt be confirmed He creyed and cry thou Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean In which words as in a glass thou mayst see the face of thy own prayer and beauty and deformity of thy affections Thou hast first his knowledge Lord next his patience If thou wilt next his faith thou canst his humility make clean 2. Ignorance of Gods condescendency therefore let us study Prouidence What dishonest shifts will not some brains sorge for obtaining a piece of bread upon the suppositions that their being mean makes them accounted as abjects Inferring that GOD sending the fruits of the Earth into another barn is a passing by them as unworthy of such morsels when yet God careth for the birds of the Air and they have from him their Harvest Seed-time and their Raiment Let such as so conclude suppose themselves to be as one of them they then shall learn that not a feather of their wing a hair of their head falls to the ground without his knowledge but being men they are better then many Sparrows Let not thy Age Poverty Family question his Providence for but for that how oft hadst thou been choaked in thy Drink stifled in thy Cradle Darkned in thy Eye overlaid by thy Nurse bruised in thy slips dismembred in thy Quarrels deformed in thy birth and damned in thy sin which put together Gods filling anothers house with good things argueth not his slighting of thine Nay hark thy great and immoderat desire to have such Trash possibly keeps them from thee Study therefore Providence and seek the Kingdom of Heavens righteousnesse and these things may be will be cast towards thee and if not be regardless of it they may be but burthensome and be content if thou hast thy food though not dainties and thy raiment though not gaudy Apparel with a Selah for a poor soul with a morsel of bread shall assoon arrive at Heaven though bare-foot as he who feasts with Belshazzer or rides in his Chariot with the Eunuch 3. Defect of Christian Vnity and oneness let us learn Amity Where strife and debate are intimates prayer and supplication will not lodge And it is to be feared in this divided Age that not only the horrid clamours of our Tavern-quarrels but our pretended religious cursings our inward sinful heart-turnings our zealous promoving of selfish opinions hath not only stocked the root of true holinesse that it cannot grow in some but hath grub'd it up in others and laid it above
confusion wherein we so lately were labyrinthically and scandalously involved by making desirable peace to be enjoyed only by our more holy Successours c. Themistocles having done great service observing himself noted and pointed at in the Olympick Games as the deliverer of his Countrey is recorded to say This day I am sufficiently rewarded for all that ever I have done for Greece God shall also hold himself really repayed for all offered and possessed mercy if we remitting somewhat of that passionat prejudice against what we have not shall render our selves grateful for what we have and for more sureties sake pursue those things wherein gratitude stands which is in invitation of others to behold the mercy in observing of the poor who stand in need of mercy in a restoring what we have taken from others without mercy in a confessing that all our good flows purely from mercy and because each man complains of the others remissnesse let every one affectionatly mourn to testifie his desire of requiting God that men do not praise the Lord for his goodnesse nor for his wonderful works to the children of men 2. Knowledge in what his mercy hath accomplished in the â—eeds of the Gospel As that the second person died for us and that all the three Persons draws us from the power of Satan to receive the forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified That as peace came down with the birth of his Son so peace and purity was infused by the shedding abroad of his Spirit upon us because of which on earth glory is to be given to God in the highest 3. Love because of that which all his attributes hath designed As a Father we have his love upon us as a King his power exercised about us as we are children we have his Angels ministring unto us at all times his face to refresh us his Spirit to comfort us and at last his bosome to entertain us To love him is to hallow him than which nothing is more equitable fruitful or honourable 4. Abilities for that which in his holy Law is enjoyned We cannot express our obligations nor demonstrat the tye that lyes upon us for spreading abroad his same wherefore this Hallowed be thy Name reflects upon our impotence and confesseth we cannot do it and therefore he must for though the devils and damned glorifie God yet they cannot sanctifie the Name of God no more can any untill there be a new heart created a new spirit infused while the Angels cryed Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts all that the Prophet could do was to cry Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and did not change his note untill his iniquity was taken away and his sin purged which is also prayed for in this Petition And for the continuing of which grace of sanctification and spiritual life or ability we saith a Father pray continually both day and night that by the grace and protection of the most high they may be in us and for us preserved ut qui quotidie delinquimus that as we sin daily we may by the sanctification of the Spirit be daily purged leâ—t we fall from the grace of God The Temple and Utensils thereof when defiled were cleansed and purified from their pollution quae Deo sunt destinata or dedicata vocantur sancta they are holy they are Saints they are righteous who fall not only but even those that fall and rise again washing themselves from their old sins by amendment Of which he was apprehensive who complained that having desires to be happy but his thoughts would not suffer him if such struglings happen in thy breast Reader sentence them to death and if too strong for thee put up thy supplication in an Hallowed be thy Name that the power of God may be discovered in thy infirmity and his strength in thy weakness by dissipating such cogitations His Name in the last place is to be hallowed personally if you eye man comprehending as bound thereunto both soul and body and in this Petition included and performed directly indirectly and exemplarly 1. Directly by a holy and reverend using of his Name The Romanes suffered not their children to swear by Hercules untill they went out of doors to prevent their vain and ordinary swearing The ancient manner of the Hebrews in their Judical swearing was by the Magistrats attesting the witnesse in this form Give glory to God And yet there are profane wits among us who disanulling all bonds interprets oaths to be a point wherein their gentility consists and are so little afraid of a jealous God that their jealousie is lest their comrade out-swear them so both becomes rivals of damnation Men may consult and act for the good of a Kingdoms peace and quiet yet a great man and a holy is mistaken is swearing be not worse then the edge of the sword and the plague thereof beyond that of war And if men will do no more yet let them revere the book they handle and the Gospel that is dayly before them saying Swear not at all c. but let your yea be yea and your nay nay all other being of sin And it is no ill derivation to bring the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth an oath from Orcus that is hell especially considering that even Heathens fancied if any god had swore false or broken his oath having sworn by Styx he was to be punished himself in hell for it nine thousand years for which cause said they Iupiter took the more care how he swore Whither shall we go to hide our faces off this age who hath got such a knack of swearing that it is our livelyhood our trade our pastime our humour as if our being gods i. e. great men wer a plea sufficient to reprieve us from hells torments When these who knew not the God of Heaven would out of reverence even in Markets say no more then By c. forbearing to name the god they thought upon Some will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an oath to be brought from a word that signifieth to compel and without a necessity there is no naming of the Blood of Christ or Omnipotency of God The Hebrews call an oath Shabugnah from a Root signifying seven hinting thereby both a mystery in it and good advice or deliberat thinking before the taking of it which may be done in these cases Paxfama fides reverentia cautio damni Defectus veri tibi dant jurare libenter And when the peace of our Countrey our own good report or want of witnesses or loss of goods whether our own or trusted to us are in hazard we are lawfully to clear our selves or free our selves by an oath so are we if Authority call us to it or faithfulnesse be expected of us but to inure our tongues to an
my God He all that day traveled in safety while his companions quickly fell in the hands they feared So good it is with all boldness to magnifie Christ even in our bodies whether it be by Life or Death or Fortune Further First that is in pronounciation Even in utterance our first words in Prayer are to have our Fathers Name as Lord God Almighty or his Sirname as God of all Consolation Father of lights or of our Lord Iesus Christ this being the homage to expound this in the words of an excellent King that we ow unto God before we make our suits it being arrogancy and an impudent thing for any Subject to make a suit to his Soveraign before he did his homage in a reverent accost To blame were these men then and scarce are those words to be accounted Petitions that some pretenders to Sanctity offered up in our late times and many still offer up in which the Name of our Father is not in the Preface nor his Son our Lord Jesus in the Conclusion the practice of the old Saints and yet with the true still accounted so necessary that that Prayer uttered without these holy Indications of the parties they pray unto are to be rejected as flatulent and windy dangerous and uncertain and not to have our Amen The sum of all is this that the Glory of God and the râ—ches of his invisible Kingdom together with the mysteries contained in the Gospel are more earnestly zealously constantly to be sought after by us then the possessing of any thing we see or know we want upon Earth God resolving that his works shall never be so much loved as himself It became the object of a Heathens scorn and laughter as judicious Calvin relates that men abused the eares of God with profane and unfavoury requests Yet how do Christians ask of God to bestow upon their lusts their consciences by that declaring they have no reverence nor fear to that Name Since our heavenly Master hath so plainly proposed a rule to us to pray by and in that his own Glory not riches or vain glory to bear sway to wanton with the Prodigal to be strong with the revengeful nor wise to defraud our Brother not so much as in imagination to be reflected upon but our Fathers honour unto which once more Reader suffer a word of exhortation And in all prayer 1. Praise God for mercies received For thy bread thy bed thy cloathing thy lodging thy strength cloak liberty knowledge and for thy hope of Heaven It is said of Israel she did not know that God gave her corn and wine but she prepared for Baal these blessings the highest act of ingratitude which consisting of four parts makes their unthankfulnesse the more grosse The first is not to return a benefit and do one good deed for another there is a greater not to remember a good deed there is yet a greater to say it was done by another but the greatest of all is to honour reward and thank the adversary of our benefactor this grieved God most that Baal the Devil his enemy had the glory of the good things he gave his people the same sin is acted by such who give the praise of their purchase to their arm their wit their diligence rather then to him It is a holy and true saying of one that praise compared with petitionary prayer praise excelleth it as far as giving is better then receiving And it was also a just reproof one gave of some Fasts celebrated in our days that they fell short in Thanksgiving for such mercies as were plentifully possessed The Children of Persia were in their play accustomed to hear try and determine causes and in earnest punished delinquency but causam ingratitudinis vehementer agunt they had a detestation of ingratitude towards god their Parents their Countrey their Relation and do but consider that Thankfulness is that Ward in the Key of Prayer by which we open the doors I mean the bowels of love it is the scarlet threed we hang out of the window of our soul to let God know we are within whereby we may be saved when those that forget God shall be turned into hell non vero verecundae sed ingratae mentis indicium est beneficia tacere divina it is not modesty but iniquity to be silent in sounding praise for divine beneficence 2. Praise him for the evils you have avoided O give thanks unto the Lord calls the Psalmist for he overthrew Pharaoh and his host and led his people through the wilderness for his mercy endureth for ever One requesting of Simonides a courtesie promising to be thankful he replied he had two Chests at home in onâ— whereof he put the Money in the other the thanks he got for service done and in occasion of using either he generally found that wherein lay the Money most helpful to him how good a God serve we that offers an absolute discharge of all we owe if we be but grateful nay will do us yet more good and deliver us for ever if we publickly say that he hath healed our diseases and redeemed our life from destruction Let us therefore be thankful since we reckon our selves among them that are to be saved yet not in words only but in works and actions and this true thanksgiving is when we do those exercises wherein God is to be glorified 3. Praise him in confessing the evils you have committed Against thee thee only have I sinned said David after his fall with Bathsheba that thou mightst be justified when thou speakest Reader give glory I pray to the Lord God of Israel and shew him what thou hast done It is not my scope to handle controversies here yet that auricular confession taught at Rome enters within my thoughts judging it 1. New 2. Impossible 3. Intolerable 4. Dangerous 5. Scandalous and oft times 6. Ridiculous c. But if a conscience like a raked up fire be very hot or aking as a putrid sore it is good to confess to God or man or to both the sin so pricking that the conscience may be eased The multitude that was baptized in Iordan confessed their sin and the sick believer may acknowledge his faults to his Pastor yea where he is not it glorifies God to acknowledge the commission of some attrocious crime as Paul â—wned he was a blasphemer for know how greatly soever the impudence of the sinner in sinning displeaseth God so much is he pleased with the penitents bashfulness when regrating Confession is so necessary for the acquiring of confidence in prayer in the sense of the Church of England that in her holy that is in her common service she first prepareth her children by a confession of their sin to receive according to the Gospel a pardon as being penitent and then ordains them and not before to say Our Father which art in Heaven
removing of ill must our devotions be mingled evil things filling up so great a place in our little time here allotted us wherefore in our definition of Prayer we have added 6. Deliverance from those evils either feared or felt Evil is either of sin or punishment it is either past present or to come and therefore as we pray for forgiveness of sin past in Forgive us our debts so for deliverance from evil to come or present in Lead us not into temptation c. But all must be 7. Through our Lord Iesus Christ His merits is that Incense that must persume which must capacitate our accesses to become his purity lest they should be nauseated by his Holiness This is the salt that must season every sacrifice and except we have the garments of this our elder Brother we shall not smell as that field which the Lord will bless but have with Iacob rather occasion to argue the partaking of a curse For in all communing with God that would be pondered that he sayes of Jesus as Iosephs did of Benjamin except ye bring him ye shall not see my face It is to be noted that this calling upon God is either publick or private it eyes either mercies received and then it is called Thanksgiving or wished for to others and then it is called Intercession or for avoiding of ill and then it is called Supplication or if either of these for our selves it is called Prayer for into these four is Prayer divided by St. Paul and each of these are espoused to and to be found in the Lords Prayer and in each Petition thereof In the first Petition Hallowed be thy Name we pray for knowledge of the Word of God in our selves supplicate for all Christian Brethren in tribulation we interceed that the fins of our Brethren in seeking their own name be not imputed and giveth thanks if God hath made us instruments in honouring at any time his In the second Thy Kingdom come we give thanks for our hopes of Heaven and pray for the advancing of his Church we supplicate to be strengthened by his grace and interceed that all may be blessed by the Word and Sacraments In the third Thy will be done c. We interceed for a through conformity with the Angels we pray for a subjugating of our wills we give thanks for the enlightning of our minds and supplicat for ardency and zeal In the fourth Give us this day our dayly bread we supplicat against poverty and want we pray against impatience and discontent and interceed for ability and strength to gain our bread and giveth thanks for our calling and imployment In the fifth Forgive us our debts c. We give thanks for the imputation of Christs righteousnesse we supplicat against a tryal by Law we interceed that all may be saved and pray against malice and revenge In the sixth Lead us not into temptation we bewail our by-past sollies give thanks for our former conquests interceed for safety to our brethren and prayes for the spirit of discerning to our selves In the seventh Deliver us from evil we pray for a binding up of satan interceed for assistance against natural corruption supplicate against hell and death and give thanks for our hopes of a joyful Resurrection and the reason of all is his is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever SECT II. THe effects of Prayer follows in our former proposed order which he thought many and good who called Prayer Clavis coeli the Key that opened Heavens Gate unto us the Stair by which we ascended to the company of the first-born to the society of Angels to the enjoyment of our Saviour and to the bosome of the Father It is the Arms of the Christian for by fervent prayer Moses overcame the Amalakites David Goliah Ezekiah Senacheriâ— and Esther Haman What needs more It heats the soul becalms the heart keeps off evil obtains a pardon procures long life restoreth health pacifieth God creats wisdom infuseth grace purchaseth plenty delivers from judgement increaseth courage conserveth peace and shews us what should be done Let us see its holy workings for and upon those three great ones Conscience God and Satan 1. It purifieth the Conscience by opening its sores the impostumated matter therein by long contracted guilt becomes feaverish and when headed will make the stoutest through pain cry with the Prophet My bowels my bowels woe is me I am pained at my very heart or with the Apostle O wretched man that I am but prayer as a lance opens the boil and by confession the putrid matter is evacuated as in David thus and thus have I done and with the Prodigal I have sinned against Heaven yea by the same orifice of acknowledgement is the precious balm of a Fatherly Absolution poured in in a God hath taken away thy iniquity thou shalt not die by which the late dejected spirit is made to rejoice in Gods house of Prayer Saint Pauls thorne was so painfull to him that he prayed thrice against it and by prayer was strengthened to enduce and had comfort in the smart of the same to teach us that when conscience heats or ulcers it is excellent to retire our selves and with Daniel cry O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do confideing in mercy upon and for his answer Fear not peace be unto thee be strong yea be strong assuring thy self that whoso calleth upon the Name of the Lord shall be delivered The Apostle enjoyneth Prayer without ceasing it is pressed by a Father both day and night yet magis noctu rather in the night when free from incumbrances visits and most apt to enjoy our selves then are we fittest to open our sores Animarum Medico to the Chirurgian of Souls in recollecting what we have been doing and what thinking in the day-time that by compunction of Soul and Spirit our misdoings and our negligences may be remitted and the wounds they made healed spending a solitary night as Pyrrhus spent his solitude and time for being found alone and demanded what he was doing replyed I am studying to be good Which act of communing with our own heart was of no small account in the eyes of David 2. It dignifieth God by depending upon his love By this we reason with him not being dashed for all our scarlet-sins nor desperate though we have play'd the Prodigal because we return to him who is our Father it evidencing his acceptance and his goodnesse that we presume to call for our dayly bread his liberality that he forgives us our debts his omnipotency that he defends us from Devils his ubiquity that we can call in every place In confession we own the justnesse of
his Law by prayer from the Spirit through Christ to the Father we believe and conefesse the three Persons of the God-head and by that submits and sets to our seal that God is true and the Articles of the Christian Faith to be glorious because or though mysterious Aurelius warring against the Germains was in hazard to have a great Roman Army destroyed and himself with it by reason of thirst for want of water after five dayes the Emperour was told that the Christians of whom he had a great number in his Army could obtain of their God what they pleased at the Emperour their Prince his request they kneeled in the midst of the Army then afflicted and wondering at this gesture and beholding the Enemy who had them as it were in a poâ—nd so prayed that to the honour and dignity of the Christian Religion there was not only a plentifull showre for themselves but hail thunder and rain to the dissipating of their Enemies to the admiration of the heathen evidencing thereby that the God of the Christians was Deus deorum and the Emperour named that Legion afterward the thundering Legion for perpetuating the memory of that miracle And search all the Records of Antiquity where there have been fervent and hearty prayers God hath in answering of them taken and gotten much glory to himself and Praise in the house of Prayer dayly waiteth for him upon that account 3. It restricteth Satan for it resisteth his Power that old Serpent is charmed and that evil spirit is made to depart by the musick of a penitent's complaint that Enemy is beat out of the field by these arrows of the Lords deliverance For 1. It strengthens Faith by Christs approach It was not so much Ioshua's spear as Moses prayer that discomfited the Amalekits if the cross be too heavy for the Christian if he call Christ will be sure to take the heaviest end ask and call and the promise Here I am shall be verified and again command thou me shall be expounded by which thy Faith being confirmed their needs no fear what hell can do against thee 2. It begets experience of the divine love by the Fathers condescendency God hath alwayes the largest morsel for the widest mouth and his hand is fullest to be emptied in his lap who calleth loudest for mercy for forgivenesse in which experience causeth hope that as deliverance hath come in six so there shall be help in the seventh trouble the most desperat danger the tenth wave but once more prayer is prevalent 3. In acquiring habits of lively utterance by assistance of the Spirit How forceible are right words flowing from such whose frequent practice from their youth hath made them to be acquainted with this excellent piece of Christian Armour Prayer Iobs accustomed Devotion being the object of the Devils envy by grace did so far corroborat it self that all hells malice made him but bless God with his mouth nearer the earth then before In short it made Satan certainly look black to hear David concluding from the rescue of a Lamb to the fall of Goliah despond not then of Satans recoyling when the sense of the Love of God by the long tract of glorious experience is shed abroad in thy soul O Christian That famous Fabius Maximus is said in his Child-hood so to exercise himself in Arms and Arts when young that in age after times he became excellent fortunat victorious and five times triumphed Let a man acquaint himself with God and he shall have peace for in this sense to him that hath shall be given and from him that hath not i. e. that useth not his Talent shall be taken from him even that which he hath It is not to be ommitted what is added by a venerable person that cum aliquid magnae virtutis incipere volumus c. In the acquiring of some singular and important mercy it is not to be once disputed that the just joining fasting unto Prayer shall not only receive but have the desired blesssings copiously from Gods hand transmitted to him SECT III. THe necessity of the continual performance of this duty of Prayer calls and invites us to give attendance to it at this time and it is sufficiently perceptible that there is a twofold tye binding believers to this exercise 1. In respect of God 2. In respect of themselves Our evincing its necessity upon the account of God is not to be so construed as if we suggested that the narrowness of his power or shallowness of his wisdom did indispensibly crave our words or our postures to signifie our desire of having supply for that were blasphemy against his power unto which there is nothing too hard But it s held needful by vertue of the Precepts of God whereby it is under the pain of damnation pressed all other means being as ineffectual for the attaining of a blessing as the Prophets staff for the remanding back the soul of the Shunamites child And the wrestling for a mercy without this may cause us with Iacob get a halting but never with Israel prevail with God To be particular Prayer is peremptorily required of the sons of men and must not be neglected upon the behalf of God For 1. His Precepts require Prayer As we are gratefully to laud him for things possessed so we are required to call for things desired And in Scripture these two are joyned together yea we are not only commanded to pray but recte desiderare to pray after this manner Give us this day our daily bread Forgive us our debts this day Lead us not into temptation this day but this day deliver us from evil c. Hence that of a Father Oratio justi est clavis Coeli Ascendit precatio descendit Dei miseratio Let Prayer go up Gods mercy shall come down Albeit the Earth be low and the Heavens high yet God hears the tongue of the complainer if there be in his breast a clean a tender conscience for as without the last he will not regard a Prayer so without a Prayer he hath not promised a gift 2. His judgments are denounced against the prayerless And because of these shall every one that is godly pray unto him For the wicked shall be turned into hell and all that forget God Such as invoke not therefore the protection of God uncover the roof of their habitation and expose their very Beds Cups Garments their Wardrobs to a curse and make that Prayer of the two zealous Prophets to receive full satisfaction Pour out thy wrath upon the Heathen and upon the Families that call not on thy Name where it is observed that wrath is desired to be poured out as out of a vessel fury being still to be dropped upon them as from a vial he may be angry at his sons and wrathful but pours out wrath only
abode which must be eyed in Prayer It is fit to notice this word Art which though darkly yet truly intimats Gods constancy or our Fathers immutability Others change their affection their opinion their scituation but the Lord changeth not and therefore we are not consumed Yet this is not objective to be understood as though he changed not things before him for that belongs to his free-will and can alter them as he pleaseth but in sensu composito he determining his will to one thing is unchangeable in that there being nothing that can perswade him to desist alter his purpose heighten his reason or remove his habitation he wanting the very shadow of changing his understanding being perfectly clear Queen Elizabeth her motto of England was semper eadem his is semper idem being still the same to day yesterday and for evermore This of old was expressed in his Name I AM THAT I AM Ehejeh Asher Ehejeh I shall be what I shall be referring to his will his nature his purposes his intentions his love his mercy his word his promises are everlasting and therefore is his Covenant called a Covenant of salt that is firm in it self and preserving others So that in Prayer to cut off all Satans discouragements we may competently be furnished with strength in questioning our inward part what is written in the Law how readest thou and finding there the expressions of everlasting kindness boldly concur to thy Saviours precept and say Our Father which art in Heaven Other fathers moving from and to other places from the Streets to their Tables thence to their beds whence may be they are shifted to their graves but this Father in Heaven abides the same for ever I AM WHAT I AM is like that which is which was and which is to come denoting both eternity and immutability and though St. Paul said once I am what I am yet as Kings their coin he circumscribes his performances Gratia Dei by the grace of God Cyrus dying endeavoured a diversion to his childrens sorrow and his friends malady in discoursing about unity and vertue and the gods and closed his eyes commanding that none should behold his soul-less body but that the Persians being invited to his Sepulchre all should rejoice that Cyrus was with the gods and secured for ever against suffering of any evil May not the Christian concluding from the paternal relation God beareth unto him secure his soul from all damping considerations which can arise from his perplexed heart upon the entertaining thoughts respecting Gods immutability and sublimity he being in heaven eternally ruling and unchangeably abiding to award entanglements Father gives of it self significant and apt succours to virtuat the practice of Prayer but a more manifest vigour is acquired when this qui es which art is reflected upon Which expression being read backward maketh se hinting his being his immutable being his unchangeable being is altogether of himself whence the supplicant may irrefragably infer that though he hath changed possibly to sin since the last Prayer yet God is not altered and therefore may be addressed unto for pardon vigorously in assurance It is to be noted that the word art is not expressed in the Original but implyed only yet it is manifest that it is not idle in the Translation but operats upon the duty of Prayer 1. Shewing Gods presence in it and therefore our awe It is used of them only who are before us for of the absent we say not quiâ—es which art but which is And therefore if the women of Corinth were to be covered because of the Angels how much more ought all to have a holy modesty when they call upon God lest eying him too sawcily he make ready his arrows against our faces the visible seat of our shameful impudence Take heed therefore not only to thy foot but to thy knee thy tongue thy face thine eye when thou enterest into the house of God or to thine own prayer-house lest thou be accounted hasty sawcy and malapert by asking of him wherewith to nourish thy lust Thou mayst offend in thy lofty looking with the Pharisee much speaking with the Heathen much repeating with Battus for one saith Battology is inarticulata vox like the talk of young children Study thou therefore to be manly and pray with understanding 2. Our confidence in it and therefore let us be open in Prayer The Sun never fails for all the light he transmits unto the world the Sea is not diminished notwithstanding the moisture it affords Gods Store-house will not empty though he enrich the world with his substance while therefore thou art with him in thy house or closet ask enough ask that thy joy may be full Illi enim 〈◊〉 exaudiri merentur he is heard aâ—â—â—ably of God who being heated with 〈◊〉 zeal asks and doth what good possibâ—â—â—y is within the sphear of his activity Ask therefore and ask again and ask more still capacitating for more good that thy own joy and the joy in others may yet be more full Et ne demittas eum and let not him go untill by love thy soul be joyned unto him which shall corroborat and yet more accumulat thy joy Alexander ordered his Treasurer to give Anaxagoras as much treasure as he pleased to demand he asked a hundred Talents each Talent valued 375 pound sterling at which the Treasurer wondering Alexander gladned saying Recte facit He doth as he ought knowing he hath a friend who can and will give him so much Be not sparing in thy requests but beg the utmost for the discharging of all thy debts the assurance of all his possessions thy Father can do it thy King will do it the glory of Christ nor of the Angels nor of the Saints being not all diminished by thy accession to those heavenly Mansions 3. Our chearfulness therefore let us not be disheartned in Prayer That God should come and stand before us with sealed pardons ought to conciliat us to all heavenly exercises but more singularly to this personal treaty to this intercourse of Prayer wherein we can look God in the face and he behold our tears when both are beyond the possibility of other Fathers What could Amittai have done for his beloved Ionah when in the Whales belly yet this Pater in Coelis God in heaven delivered him from all his distresses It is to be noted that though God be often in Scripture said to repent which implyes a change of and mutation in mind yet it is to be understood rei mutatio not Dei A change there was in the Ninivites first and after in God in the language of men that not being executed which was threatned we call it repentance when God repreived their destruction for to speak properly God hath in himself no umbrage of a change but as the Stars of Heaven
holy Trinity being taken not so much from nature as from holy works we shall observe some letters of this Name that we may be careful of giving him in it that due respect which belongs unto his greatnesse since the secrecy and mystery of his being dischargeth our srailty and ignorance curiously to pry and behold his Name in his works of mercy of wonders of patience of comsorts of veracity the first respecting the miserable the second the despicable the third the scornful the fourth the mournful the fifth the doubtful 1. One great letter in his Name is mercy promised to the miserable and may be as clearly seen as Pilats inscription over Jesus by this as well as Paul all are delivered from the body of death and the mercy shown to the Prodigal by the Father discovers the tenderness of God towards a sinner when becoming which yet is through grace flexible and penitent In this the Saints rejoiced and for this God is feared that is hallowed and intreated his heart being affected with the miseries of poor man he stands at their hand to save him from those that would condemn his soul Christ pleading out of compassion and procuring not a repreive but a pardon And when men neither do nor will implore his Omnipotent aid for deliverance from evil nay when they reluctat against his severe threats either that they be superceded or omitted his mercy passing over all neglects presseth in upon them dilating it self so far that no faculty of the soul more cordially entertains the thoughts of any thing save those of Mercy Mercy Septem in me video misericordias Domini A holy man viewing the experiences of Gods love finds a seven-fold mercy graciously afforded to himself The first was that God had preserved him from many sins in his generation another was that he had highly and often offended yet had not been plagued A third was that in visiting his soul God had made him know that sin was bitter A fourth was that he becoming peâ—itent had felt the blessedness of him whose tranlgression was covered A fifth was that after his recovery he was kept from sliding back into his old fins A sixth was that he had grace given him to promove and advance in a holy conversation And the last was in which he highly magnified God that he had gotten the assurance of acquiring Heavens Kingdom It was said by them of old time the Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you that he is merciful and gracious speaks his mercy to be Speciosa beautiful but that he waits to be gracious upon you shews that it is Spatiosa exceeding large and universal 2. His wonders performed to the despicable is another Letter and may be as clearly seen as the Prophets vision upon Tables he that runs may read it and who reads it ought to fear before it That which he hath done for his little Benjamin for and by Moses in the land of Ham and the terrible things by the Red-sea should make the whole earth tremble before him and how twelve fishermen from Ierusalem have brought the greatest Princes and most refined part of the Universe to imbrace the truth of Christ and him crucified in so ample and honourable manner that their Crowns hath not its chiefest Jewel if it want a Crosse nor themselves accounted of but as Barbarians if not christian is strange wherefore hallow his Name sing unto him talk you of all his wondrous works That famous Christian and woman-Martyr Blandina being by tormentors tormented by turns wearied and not able to plague her with renewed tortours having her body rent yet as oft as she pronounced I am a Christian and have committed no evil was refreshed and felt no pain Tyburtius the Martyr compelled to offer Incense to idols or walk bare-foot over hot Iron boldly undertook the last with these words Depone O Fabiane renounce thy unbelief and do as much in the name of thy Iupiter as I in the Name of my Iehovaâ— and if he can let him save thee from pain or torment How did he secure the Children in the Furnace Ioseph in the Prison Iob in the Dung-hill wherefore glory ye in his holy Name There are three great wonders should cause men revere and stand in awe at Gods Name and power 1. Christs rising from the dead 2. His ascending up to Heaven 3. Converting of the world by twelve men by the contemning of wealth despising of glory refusing of government and enduring of torment which was wonderful 3. His patience protracted to the scornful is another Letter and may be as evidently seen as on the thigh of the WORD of GOD KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS They who are as smoak to his eyes are yet admitted into his Temple and how ost would he have gathered Ierusalem yea our selves when the Sun riseth may learn that the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance It is true the Axe of his justice is laid at the root of the tree but mark it is but laid to see if fruit by consideration and contrition will come and though he be broken with our whorish hearts yet he â—aith How long or when shall it once be We believe Gods power and have heard of his thunder yet how few faith as Adam was afraid when I heard thy voice in the Scriptures but after all our roavings rather impudently say with Gehazi Thy servant went no whither and because we are not sentenced to judgment infer either that he is like our selves or mocks the promise of his coming both which is endured through his ineffable patience to reduce us at last to more sober apprehensions that is repentance contrition 4. His comforts exhibited to the mournful is another Letter as clear as the name Iohn upon Zacharias Table he is called sometimes the God of Abraham and sometimes the God of Heaven as also of grace and consolation His Spirit the Comforter drying the eyes of all who discerning their crimes and dangers sanctifie his Name by calling for a pardon against those defections they have made from the way of his holiness and peace What high revelations had Iohn the Divine in Patmos what comfort had Iacob in his stone-pillows and may we not appeal to many if in providence by Prayer it hath not been said Be it unto thee according to thy faith when they have been perplexed by the cold blasts of temporal or spiritual calamities and as Nehemiah been made to stand to blesse the Lord for ever and his glorious Name which is exalted above all blessings and praise It is the worlds design to delude the soul the fleshes purpose to betray it and Satans to destroy it but Christ resolves to protect it and checks our unbelief to the end of the world with
his said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst see the salvation of God In all conflicts we have seven grounds for consolation 1. The mercy bounty and love of God 2. The mediation of Jesus Christ. 3. The sealing of the Spirit for the day of redemption 4. The Covenant of grace by which we are adopted as sons 5. The seals of that Covenant in the Sacraments 6. The gifts of the Spirit to persevere 7. The example of those Saints whose iniquity hath been pardoned whose souls have been delivered as David Paul Zacheus Manasseh and the converted theif All which in spight of those numerous Troups which assault and oppress man in the contemplation of his own misery affords auxiliaries upon the only expence of a hearty Miserere mei Lord have mercy upon me sufficient to set the soul free from all disturbance and settle it against all shakings whatsoever 5. His Veracity to the doubtful is another letter of His Name and equally clear to that Motto engraven upon Aarons mitre HOLINESS TO THE LORD He hath many Names in Scripture yea and sirnames too as the mighty God the jealous God but his truth is one of those immutable things wherein we have strong consolation both in our life and death comparing his veracity with the transient and fading because airy promises or undertakings of men which are in our greatest extremity as volatile as are the passions and humours of the undertakers hence the Philosopher Pithagoras being questioned when men were likest the gods replyed when they spake truth that having but one face and one way said another like unto God without change or revocation He hath highly glorified this attribute 1. In the execution of those things denounced against sin and sinners which should make us fear his Name 2. In the Salvation of his Elect by his Sons condescendency At last the seed of the woman bruised the head of the serpent Let us accordingly rejoyce in his Name for the idols of the heathen are vain but our God is a God of truth 3. In the Preservation of all things made by his ordinary providence therefore presume not upon his Name hallow it but tempt it not our Saviour would not tempt the Lord by casting himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple there being a pair of Stairs for descension for he is said to tempt qui â—ine ratione who without necessity will cast himself upon or in an apparent hazard when otherwise it may be avoided So abstruse is the effence of Almighty God and so diffused is his power that the only one God in Scripture and with all people hath received different names to expresse his Nature by and beautified those names I might say sanctified and hallowed them Praeclaris Elogiis with singular and eminent Attributes from his existence he is called Iehovah from his being with us Emmanuel from his great authority the Lord of hosts from his dreadfulness a consuming fire from his goodnesse both we and the Germains calls him God or Godt and from his kindnesse he is ordinarily termed Father from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that from his care over us as children in feeding begetting Say not of his Law then it is vain for it is his Name and every article thereof is good and necessary composed neither by Art nor mans device slight it not for its plainnesse simplicity which made the wise and learned Philosophers of the world disesteem it as not flaunting though yet it be majestically high for by its light our steps MUST be ordered by its food our souls nourished by its vertue our diseases removed by its edge our enemies subdued by its drawing our wounds cured and by its instruction heaven MUST be acquired Buy therefore Bibles Animae Pharmaca the souls Apothecaries shop there being their proper receipts not only against all diseases but antidots against all damnages and medecines to prevent all losses which the Spirit in its quickest intuition can behold it self capable to come under Creatures are but creatures and as to Salvation but meer consonants wherefore in comparison of the Gospel all creatures are to be abandoned If punishing with a vengeance those who deride its authority and sitting in the seat of the scornful give suffrage against its dignity The last words of a prophane courtier in this kingdom once were apagite away with these idle things concerning Christ I never believed there was a God a devil or hell and for which I am now damned and turned over to the devil to be eternally plunged according to my merit in the lowest hell and so died the Gospel being in readiness to revenge all disobedience either in life or at death Much better died Sanctus Dacianus Deacon of the Church of Vienna who in the midst of exquisite torments from persecuting heathens being demanded what he was Replyed I am a Christian this is my Name my Country my Family my Religion and besides Christian I am nothing and untill all things be accounted as dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Iesus Christ the Name by which we must be saved we shall never spell our own Salvation Abuse not his creatures his name is seen in them the basest of them if there be any base is wonderful and as a straw can puzle the wisest for know as false Doctrine so a profane life dishonours the name of God and affronts the Majesty of our Saviour eat not with the Glutton for delight sit not down with the Drunkard for good fellowship for bitterness proves the issue of unholy friendship Respect the Sacraments for his Name is also beheld in them by the one are we baptized in his Name and by the other nourished in the application of him in them both to our selves let them be Sacraments that is industriously prepare for them Sacra mente holy appetites making neither the Table of the Lord polluted by a meer customary coming nor the waters of the Sanctuary despicable by a careless beholding but sanctifie our selves in religious meditation upon the nature end and use of these sacred Mysteries that our Christianity may be fertile and evidenced to have a higher rise then education Our Baptism hath a more noble end then by a name to distinguish us among men for he that is baptized hath put on Christ that is de jure we are to be accounted the Sons of God or that we are covered and protected as with cloaths by Jesus Christ his Spirit giving us an inward garment in renovation an outward in conversation and in both by a conformity to his holiness or that by baptism all our sins as our bodies and imperfections by cloaths are covered by Christ our works affections our selves are changed into Christ which more discovers our monstrous baseness if for any reward much lesse for any lust we so
worthy of glory but God so they only give to him their praises and their prayers and that upon good reason For 1. Angels will not have his glory and they are intelligent An Angel in the Old Testastament refused an offering and another will not have thanksgiving in the New both commanding them to be performed to God expounding these to be prayer and praise what is Romes meaning or to what purpose are those Prayers and Letany's in that Church Sancte Gabriel Sancte Raphael omnes Sancti Angeli Archangeli orate c. O thou Angel Gabriel Raphael and all ye Angels and Archangels pray for us I like that part of another office better and shall subscribe unto it O Sancta Immaculata Virginitas quibus te laudibus efferam nescio O thou blessed Virgin in what words to praise thee I know not the same I say of praying as either are interpreted Adoration This is not said to infringe the glory of these holy and glorified Saints who are to be honoured with great reverence and their names to be mentioned with great respect and their vertues to be imitated with all indutry but to hallow their names or thier vertues with a remitte or an ora pro nobis we have no warrant because no rule of faith The ground of Romes Doctrine touching the worshipping of Angels is so beastly that it is shameful to publish aâ—resh yet so irrational that it may be profitable to reprint it it was this as we read from a learned venerable Doctor of the English Saxon Church In Apulia vulgarly Puglia a Provicne in Italy in the Kingdom of Naples near the City of Siponia there was a rich man called Garganus having much Cattel which fed in a Mountain of the same name in which herd there was a wanton proud Bull which could not be got home with the rest but still kept the Mountain for which the owner resolving to kill him provided Bow and Arrow but in shooting at the beast the Arrow reverted and turned upon himself at which being amazed he tells his Bishop who did appoint a three dayes fast that God would discover what was signified by the wounding of Garganus when the Arrow was levelled or aimed at the proud Bull On the third night the Archangel Michael told the Bishop scias quia à voluntate Dei hoc factum est that all was done by the appointments of God and commanded the ground whereon the Bull stood to be consecrated and set apart for prayer shewing them under it there was a Cave and in the Cave an Altar and upon the Altar a red Pall or Cloak ibi facite orationes vestras hebete memoriam meam auxiliabor vobis there say your prayer call upon my Name and I shall help you all was searched and all was found and all was done accordingly Haec fuit saith my Author prima causa and this was the first cause or rise that Angels were remembred or worshipped upon earth he must mean by Romes authority for otherwise the same doctrine was taught in but exploded the Church before and from that time to this present are they remembred in the Church c. This is such a Cock and Bull story as the proverb hath it that it needs nay deserves to have no answer but a his And the ground of it being ut legimus as we read so that it may be ture or false and if true nothing in it but what might have been done by the devil and therefore in all respects such practices are to be shunned by worshipping of God for which we have a sure foundation I pass the Fables for so let me call them which the same Author throngs the proper festivities withall for were Peter or Mary upon earth they would undoubtedly blush at the absurdities of their zealous though ignorant prayers and cause Iohn comment upon on his old text Babes keep your selves from idols And Paul upon his let no man beguile you of your reward in worshipping of Angels and not holding the head c. 2. Saints will not have this glory and they are prudent When read we that a Noah prayed to Enos though his piety and translation were notour or that a David prayed to an Abraham or that any Israelite unto or obtained mercy by his holy Ancestors Nay contrary they urged that because of Abraham's being ignorant of them and their being not regarded by Israel God would be their Redeemer his Name being from everlasting 3. The other creatures will not have his worship or his glory and they may be observed Every pile of grasse hath a finger to point up to its Maker in Heaven and day unto day uttereth speech and readeth Lectures of Gods wise government powerful providence and rich mercy At Madrid the upper Rooms of Houses belongs by Law to the King and are not to be used untill they be compounded for by the Inhabitant and to this only wise God the King eternal not only the upper Room which is Heaven doth belong but the lowest pit also for in his hand are the deep places of the earth and ought not to be used by us before we satisfie the Law by praying and praising in doing which we add to the revenue of his glory Ezekiel saw his glory in Heaven Isaiah saw it upon earth and we ought to study the beholding of both for though his heavenly glory we cannot see with that Prophet yet we may perceive something of the appearance of it in his holy Word Heavenly Motions divine Commandments at which sight we are with the other to â—all down upon our faces and with loud cryes bemoan our infirmity vilenesse and uncleannesse His glory upon earth is so clear that he who hath eyes may see it in the clouds which are his Chariots our ears can hear the birds warble in their way the praises of their Maker the fields clap their hands in contemplation of which we are to cry Vnclean unclean for this said Isaiah when he spake of him and saw his glory and thereupon was comforted and purified 4. If we consider either our good or duty we shall own him only for God Reason leads many but profits command all persons it is rational it is profitable to ascribe only glory and honour to our Father For If you eye Conscience he can only quiet that if the Church absolve and the Spirit thereby settle doth the Word of Christ apply and the soul therupon rejoice It is but in his Name they acting but in deputation from him It is he that discovers sin that we may be in our selves nothing It is he that makes us hate sin that before him we may be holy If you eye dependence he only maintains you At first Heaven was made by him the Earth the Sea and all the Creatures therein because saith Nehemiah thou preservest them all the host of Heaven worshippeth thee
things so in suppressing of sin to call for divine aid and to flee to that rock of reâ—uge impregnable against all assaults saying Deliver me O Lord from mine enemies for I flee unto thee It desires that God may so reign in us that sin and death may cease to reign over us being weakned in their strength blasted in their beauty and confounded in their force 2. Against darkness of nature Happinesse being the scope and design of all rational beings Religion shews to be only in God which yet to obtain mans weaknesse and infirmity holds difficult if not impossible except God himself take us by the hand and lead us to its enjoyment we being as dead men uncapable of acting or if capable blind as the Sodomites wearying our selves in a fruitlesse groping or if neither of these yet as the nighted Levite in Gibeah we sit down ready to embrace the felicity any one shall offer and alace are there not many who say who will shew us any good Our Saviours nativity was by the Philosophers mocked neither did Philosophy agree to the doctrine of his rising from the dead this earthly mind of ours like the Kingdom of the beast being so darkned we beg in Thy Kingdom come for the light of the holy Gospel i. e. for the spirit and gift of understanding for though the truth be shining upon us and about us yet as blind men we behold it not untill the rayes of the Spirit of light and truth by sound and saving Knowledge virtuat our understanding to behold and next to approve the things of God either as to the simple knowing the nature thereof or reall observing the laws thereof for without practice knowledge is but more damning For as he is not called an Artificer who hath no skill in the trade so nor he a Christian in whom the exercise of Christianity is not beheld Christian being a name of Justice Goodness Integrity Patience Chastity Prudence Humility Humanity Innocency and Godliness all comprehended in that precept walk as Children of light The Kingdom of God coming in the spiritual efficacy thereof and shining in upon man discovers the thinness blackness of all his other actions the reasonableness of all Evangelick duties and the wayes of extracting comforts from them Whereas the want thereof either secureth the sinner upon conjectures that all is well or damns him by leaving him to the glimmering light of his own natural Conscience which filling him with fear and horrour causeth him do many good things and with Herod hear Iohn Baptist gladly All which to prevent by a knowledge tending to eternal life both in work and reward we say Thy Kingdom come that is the sapâ—ence the knowledge of thy Son in opposition to that blindness Satan the god of this world hath cast upon us and to that natural ambition he as king over the children of pride hath infused in us disdaining to become subjects to the most high God choosing rather vassalage to him yea to be one with him the devil and wicked men making up one body and from him as being the head are the members sometimes designed Iudas as he was a traitor is called a devil and all sinners are either his associats or his sons and one way or other related to him and industrious for him 3. Against the prevalency of Satan That God may be seen to rule in his Saints by their peaceable conformity to his Law without the reach of that Serpents sting that Dragons tail that Lyons claw for their so doing the sting being pulled out the tail broken and the claw paired which in the Scripture-language is a chaining him up having no chair of estate as in the heart of Iudas nor my repose as once in the bosome of David nor mint office in the heart of any as once in Annanias nor magazine in any mans soul as he had in Ahabs breast for the slaughter of any as he had in Herod and in summe Regnum Diaboli est omne malum the devils kingdom is where ever evil is and therefore that Gods Kingdom which is where ever good is may come for the subduing of all that is naught is to be earnestly pressed Though we have all come short of the glory of God yet to limite Satan and deliver us adds much to the glory of his Kingdom especially since God hath begun to bind him those countries wherein he hath so long and probably for ever intended to play Rex as in the America Islands the inhabitants whereof as a learned man conjectures being drawn from the north places of the world after the Gospel begun to shine among these barbarous Nations their God Vitzililiputzli or Vitzliputzli the Image of which Idol they carried in a Cosser of Reeds supported by four principal Priests unto whom also he gave directions and in apish imitation of the Israelits cloud so this devil signed their advance or stay being still in the midst of their Camp and having alwayes a Tabernacle erected for his worship where they rested which at last was at the place where Mexico now stands so called from their chief Captain Mexi whom they followed But God found them out and affronted the devil in his own territories where he was worshipped untill of late so eminently that the King of Callicut eat not his meat untill it was offered unto the devil by the name Deumo as being the great Gods Viceroy and the government of all the lower world for conveniency and ease deputed unto him and the fragmeâ—ts given to Crows which for that were accounted holy c. Let my Reader pardon me if for Gods glory the words of that Covenant be inserted taken by the Indian inhabitants of new England after great pains given by English Divines by interpretation the engagement is this We are the sons of Adam we and our forefathers have a long time been lost in our sins but now the mercy of the Lord beginneth to find us out again therefore the grace of Christ helping us we do give our selves and our children unto God to be his people he shall rule us in all our affairs not only in our Religion and affairs of the Church these we desire as soon as we can if God will but also in all our works and affairs in this world God shall rule over us Is. 33. 22. The Lord is our Iudge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King he will save us the wisdom which God hath taught us in his Book that shall guide us and direct us in the way O Iehovah teach us wisdom to find out thy wisdom in the Scriptures let the grace of Christ help us because Christ is the wisdom of God send thy Spirit into our hearts and let it teach us Lord take us to be thy people and let us take thee to be our God And by their getting Psalms translated in
but for which we ought to sow more bountifully yet God promising mercy to the mercisul excites eminently enlarged devotion for our brethren 5. Piety in all our acting To pursue our own lusts and go a whoring after our own inventions all day is to do the Devils work and to call give us our bread is to crave our supper and lodging from God at night which argueth impudent presumption Are we children servants or heirs of God expecting to eat at his table we are to execute his will attend upon his work serve in his house then verily we shall be fed and dwell in the land feeding upon the finest of the wheat the hidden Manna the bread that came down from heaven Matth. 6. 11. Give us this day our dayly bread Luke 11. 3. Give us day by day our dayly bread WE are now arived at the utmost border viz. the extension of this petition intended in our design to be viewed as it relates to bread yet before we launch forth towards the other shoar of the succeeding words we shall look about the country or at least the ground we eat our bread upon and gathering up the fragments cast them into the basket of this word dayly before which its necessary to speak of that diversity these two Evangelists relate this prayer in Originally the word translated bread is alike in both yet the vulgar Interpreter translates it in Matth. supersubstantial bread which occasioned the ancients and causeth many of the romish Writers generally to understand it by Christ. But in St Luke he expounds it Quotidian or dayly bread though originally the word be the same in both and for the difference of the translation we have this reason given That the Translater spake in Matth. to the capacity of the learned and in Luke to the understanding of the unletter'd dayly being a word more familiar to the vulgar or saith another Matthew eying only the bread of the soul it is called super substantial but in Luke eying both soul and body it is rendred dayly both being dayly i. e. necessary to be had This ariseth from the ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying as it may be derived either substance as being fit for our substance or acceding as if bread must continually be coming to us and in this sense Ierom shews he found in a certain edition the word Machar signifying to morrow or the time to come but it is best to understand it in the former sense bread that must come to us which sufficeth not having once received it but in the intercourse of changing times must come unto us ever and anone dayly or day by day continually The reason given for its spiritual sense being nimis profana too grosse as if Christ in prayer saith Calvin would not have us mind bodyly things whereas his goodnesse is conspicuous in giving us and allowing us the things of this life as a reward of godlinesse Unto which sense agreeth and to which verdict assents the whole Jury of reformed Interpreters For the other difference in our Translâ—tion conform to the Original we must note that in the judgment of a learned person this prayer in St. Matthew was a part of our Saviours first and famous Sermon the second year after this Baptism but as Luke records it our Lord did repeat it in a privat place upon another occasion in the third year and tyed not himself to the reiteration of the same words but gave it to his Disciples more compendiously as to the number of the words omitting the Doxology For thine is the Kingdom and more elucidly as to the sense of the words as in this Petition day by day that is sufficient for each day So that this day in Matthew or day by day in Luke reacheth the present condition we shall at any time be in we not needing the same kind of bread at all times the times of adversity travel sicknesse requiring other mercies then those of prosperity rest or health do which Luke in his day by day may have a holy regard unto enlarging only not contradicting Matthew in his this day they being both as all the sayings of the Holy Ghost at peace between themselves yet Matthew as more large is generally used in our Churches in the word dayly avoiding such thundering words in prayer as supersubstantial But to leave this we may gather from the whole Petition 1. That possessions ought not to restrain prayer Though we have a portion a Barn-full a Shop-full a House-full a Buttry-full yet day by day and every day is the Throne the face of our Father importunatly to be inquired â—â—â—er for a blessing and in this sense it is the rich mans prayer Bread may be had and the stomack be away Beds may be had yet sleep may be away cloaths may be had yet heat may be away much may be had and but little used This day or day by day as trouble ariseth still implores â— prosperous usage of good things I say implores for he who confides in his prosperity and fixes himself in his abundance or in the transient comforts he here apprehends Iustus non est cannot be holy Yea conceit oâ— our selves as we please pauperes tamen omnes in universum sumus we are all poor and stand in need of the mercy of God and therefore ought continually to crave it It is recorded to the honour of Pacilla wise to Theodosius Emperour that she would visite the sick and with her own hands succour the maimed and give bread to the famished and would say often to her Husband oportet te semper alwayes remember what formerly thou was and what futurly thou shalt be discovering the truth now under search that no greatnesse should obstruct piety He as Father or tender Mother having bread alwayes by him of which thou hast need that in all emergency thou mayest as a son be supplyed For prayer preserveth increaseth the treasure of man upon a three-sold account It blesseth all for us It enters the very pith of any undertaking and so virtuats it that our very eating and drinking talking yea our sleeping is acceptable to God whereby what was said of Erasmus may be of the Christian he purchasing a good report and wheresoever he turneth finding friends It preserveth all to us Sin transports both our bread and water to another country Moab had bread when Canaan that fruitful soil had none yea not bread only but birds also it forceth from us robbing us at once both of profite and pleasure of a tune for the ear and a dish for the mouth It keepeth both God and them with us When our care hath done its utmost we must own this That the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it Worldly goods may be east as a Master doth a sat bone to
or glory of God are three such as relate to mans salvation are also three this respecting the body being but one demonstrats upon what the vehemency of our affections should be fixed And if any contrary to this rule hath minded their body with a three-â—old more zeal then their souls let them know that God and not bread is to be the Alpha and Omega of all their duties but more especially at this duty to Prayer and say with Isaeus whose pallat had been a touch-stone for tastes when demanded what fish or sowl was sweetest replyed de hisee cur are desii it is long since I left off such foolish doings because unprofitable and sinful As the Sun shineth and enlighteneth the Orbs above as well as those under so it is thought this Petition hath an aspect upon these precedent and subsequent requests in the whole body of this Prayer sensing the Prayer thus Hallowed be thy Name this day Thy Kingdom come this day c. Forgive us our debts this day c. which is the Petition in our Saviours holy method we are next indebted unto for explication and shall cum Deo endeavour to discharge the same CHAP. VI. Matth. 6. 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters Luke 11. 4. And forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us HItherto we have been begging from our Father and in that hath attained to such degrees of familiarity that in an humble confidence we sinlesly prescribe directions for him to walk and act by for what other is this Petition forgive us as we forgive or Forgive us for we forgive This Petition making a Jubilee in the soul and inviting every one that is in debt to run to God as they did to David for security pardon and a discharge we offer our selves to open it for purchasing a release in your application of the same unto your lives of all former delinquencies transgressions and enormities In this form of Prayer we shall keep our old set form of method and see the matter and next the order of this Petition The first relating to debt a word borrowed from the French debte and that from the Roman debitum to owe or be engaged to any thing or person being varied by two Evangelists sheweth how to expound the phrase the one calling debts what the other calleth sins discovering that our sins being debts we pray that what we owe may not be exacted i. e. for forgiveness as we forgive or for we forgive both concurring to this Interpretation that sin is debt yet not properly but by similitude and by similitude nos sumus debitores we because sinners are debters and owned such in the parables of the Gospel yea and condemned to pay the utmost farthing if we stand to a reckoning For clearing of which the word debt is first to be explain'd next the extent of this term forgive After that the necessity and equity of the condition as we forgive And lastly resolve some questions about forgivenesse Forgive us ne quis sibi quasi innocensf let no man conceit himself free or exalt himself in that fancy lest by contracting more in denying just debt he perish more severely and be surprized more suddenly Solida vitae puritas it being madnesse to fancy a Church pure from â—in since this Law is given to the Church pray after this manner forgive us our sins which are as debts being contracted booked and must be cleared 1. They are contracted Our meat lodging washing dwelling cloathing we receive from the Lord Paramount the great Landlord of Heaven and earth and all is noted down with the returns we make unto him the highest of us all being but Tenant Parravail Sub-sub-tenants What we owe may be guessed at by the justs mans falling seven times a day by which we may understand sin which is as debt and riseth again which we may interpret mercy and that also expects a discharge and must by us be accounted for Two wayes men contract debt by poverty by prodigality the poor must live and therefore must borrow and our wantonesse compelleth us to take up more then we need Adam was not hunger-starved but had great store yet that morsel of the forbidden fruit must go down David had many Lambs yet that one in the house of Vriah as fairer fatter goodlier then any in the royal flocks must be dressed for that stranger of carnal lust which visited his Palace How unnecessary eating abundant drinking rash swearing intemperat living enlargeth the scores of many is matter of no great difficulty seeing men hourly swallowing by hand-fulls mouth-fulls cup-fulls what without calling for forgivenesse shall take eternity to deâ—ray To passe the curtains of the womb where our poverty was excessively great were we not met in this world with clouts and milk in our infancy which our being men will make us to repay And though we came naked into this world yet in ordinary gracious providence we go not out so naked as to want a burial-place and winding-sheet which exected kindnesse is good debt and with thankfulnesse remembred if we know it was given to our relations But wastfully and in prodigious debauchery to borrow from our creditor for entertainment of insatiable lusts or unbridled vanity may justly cause him immediately to demand discharging of the Bill without giving us a day not to pay but to pray for a remittment 2. They are booked My transgressions sayeth Iob thou-hast sealed up in a bag For nisi Poenitentia interveniente without a hearty Forgive us and sorrow for the debt the sins publickly committed are concealed in the secret judgment of God untill as Clarks do Charges or Processes they be brought forth into open Court. And hence that of Moses Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my Treasures to wit for a just punishment That though as a thief may gallop away with a stollen horse the wicked may conceit himself secure and gallantly mounted yet he shall be found and a Court fenced and his charge before him unto him and against him read for his thieving vapouring and sinful revelling To passe also the Book of life there shall be two Bookes used in the sinners condemnation that of the Law which shews the duties to be done upon the receiving of the mercy and that of the Conscience which discovers vices done under that mercy and as Peters Cock it will make the most secure to think upon all that ever he did and cause the dryest eye weep All Raps Fornications Oppressions Adulteries being therein written and not vanished as the profligat may suppose A Phythagorean taking shoes upon his credit came to make payment some few dayes after but understanding of his creditors death concluded a discharge within himself yet his conscience gave him such a summonds that he went to the dead mans
both power to do it and it is just so to do In every trespasse there are two offences and consequently two offended God and Man As it eyes God it is called a sin which he can only forgive as it eyes Man it is called an injury and in that sense men may must and ought to forgive it Ita si spolietur homo a man is robbed here is theft a sin against God a loss sustained here is a trespasse against man the first God only can pardon man the other Trespasse is thought to come from Trans passus as if to offend were to go over the hedge of the Law which when done Ergo pro me proximus pro se I for my self and my neighobour for his self lcan forgive and Preachers of the Gospel can forgive that is Ministerially but to do it Authoritatively is proper only to God and to do it charitably common to all and required of all Phocion that famous Greek being unjustly and by execrable ingratitude condemned to die by poyson was demanded if he had any fatherly advice to leave his son gave this that his death should never be revenged by him upon the Athenians here is a Heathen shewing us how to pardon and how to distinguish Gods act and mans in this vertue of remitting Yet have a care that they be they own debts which thou remittest not acting the part of a busie-body in other mens matters whereunto thou art not called or related Paul who had much charity yet did not give but beg forgiveness of Philemon for his run-away-servant The last reflection is touching Malefactors of whom it may be enquired whether when at the place of Execution we hear them forgive their Judges Accusers Apprehenders we may conclude Gods remitting unto them the sin for which they die Most certain it is that these words are added as a rule and afterwards added as a precept and here urged as a reason why God should forgive us implying in all that forgivenesse is blessed with forgivenesse and God will never be wanting to the execution impoletion or fulfilling of his own promise It is true forgiving in a perfunctory heedlesse or heartless way or for some friend whom we love or respect or for hope of some advantage or fear of greater mischief or out of a lumpish dedolent and stupid way it cannot have much weight But contrary if it flow from a fruit of that Spirit which worketh repentance for his sin against God and dewed with the tears of contrition for the same and pardoning man thereupon for his concurrence in apprehending for condign punishment Let me see such a thief and to die to day saith one and I dare say that this night he shall be with Christ in Paradise Reader suffer a word of exhortation And 1. Smooth not thy debts It were a foolish thing to extenuat and conceal them when forgiving will pay them all Hell cannot be washed with Spanish white neither will God suffer sin to go apparell'd in Silver Cloath say with David pardon mine iniquity for it is great Praying here for the imputation of Christs righteousnesse and against the imputation of our own offences both quoad culpam paoenam as to their guilt and punishment it were an improsperous course to sue a pardon from their paucity or smalnesse from him especially who accepts us most heartily when we conclude our condition most desperat 2. Clear not thy debts Notwithstanding of asking crosse not presently thy conscience as if thy businesse were immediatly done who hath a suit at Court must wait untill his Petition be signed and by the Master of Requests returned 3. Curse not thy self There is in this Prayer a mercy said to be given to thy brother if there be a lie here is a fearful execration against thy self saith thou not Forgive as I forgive Now beware and take heed for etiam per quod orat accusat thou art accusing thy self saying Lord as I purpose never to forget this injury to revenge this losse so revenge thy self upon me for ever and forgive me as I forgive others therefore quantum velis or quaris as much mercy as thou wishes or desires to thy self shew to thy brother For mark here is one word copulative not in the Prayer before and after which followeth Forgive us as we forgive shewing that with the same earnestnesse wherewith we are carried to seek after the things of this life as daily bread or that other as remission of sin we have already pardoned our brother I say already for God will trust neither our promises nor our charity but will have us be reconciled to our Brother before we come to him for reconciliation otherwise our supplications are so much the more damnable as the condition upon which they stand is the more feasable for scio sane sine difficultate said a Father pressing charity that command may without difficulty be obeyed where nothing is commanded but what is within the possibility of the party enjoyned The reciprocal offices of Husband and Wife Parents and Children Master and Servant Neighbour and Kins-man can hardly be performed without flaws and ruptures quarrels debates and breaches which by amity must be filled and ended again by a proceeding in the duties and making progress in the offices answering those relations where the trespass at least destroyes not the relation as that of Adultery in the case of Marriage In all which si dimiseris if thou forgive the injuries committed against thee it is comely and it doth become thy Father in Heaven to forgive thee thy sins committed against him Thy sins though as was Davids they be great that is in number more then the sand in weight as a heavy burden great in cry reaching up to Heaven in continuance for they have endured since thy mother conceived thee in her womb yet he can scatter them as a cloud and cause them to flee away To flee away but in his own due time he may be angry at the prayers of his people yea at our prayers and may order this dropping Summer to lay our Feathers wash our Paint and make our strength to fail yet continue saying Forgive us our debts and be assured to hear Thine inlquity is done away c. Let this suffice for the matter of this Petition the method and order thereof followeth which is this We have this and another next that for our daily bread indicating that bread ought not to be so delicious or any natural delicate to be so zealously sought for as those Celestial refreshings assurance of pardon and guidance from and in temptation Moreover t is apparent that all worldly wealth contained in the word bread are frustraneous ineffectual for procuring or interpreting us to have blessings from God if unto these remission of our sin be not annexed here pleaded for by arguments from the
its voice and is ashamed of neither 2. Their nearnesse The greatest engine wherewith Satan endeavours mans ruine is mans own heart It is thought Iobs wife gave him the sharpest and sorest temptation to despair because of her proximity being indeed as wives are said to be his second self But what pangs of horrour shall he feel and to what strange extravagancy may he be tempted unto whose inbred corruption allures to sinful exploits and then to despairing attempts because of which there is still temptation or fear of temptation which yet must not be differenced from a temptation in the soul Apollodorus dreaming of captivity among the Scythians fancied that they flayed off his skin and chop'd him in pieccs and then boyling him in a Caldron imagined his heart ex ipso lebete out of the furnace cryed unto him O Apollodours I am the cause of all this pain and misery thou endureth A Iudas a Cain may be conjectured to say the like words in torment There is within us putrid matter apt tinder which the Devil is still striving to fire and carrying it about us in our very bodies we have no reason to confide in our selves but pray Lead us not into temptation 3. Their imperiousnesse Annanias sacrilegious thoughts and Iudas covetous desires with the Jews malicious contrivings say unto them what thou dost do quickly and then it may be to do good is present with thee but such an usurped dominion hath lust got that the good we would do cannot be done being besooled besotted and enraged by the fleshes soft things the worlds vain things and Beelzebubs bitter things our own hearts joyning withall forcing upon us the acceptance of things corrupt from each as occasion shall prompt us with convenient opportunity to that degree that we might observe and write of all the world and of our selves in particular what one did of Cyprus for there the Turks despise their Alcharon the Iews smileth at their Religion and the Christian derideth the Scripture and all men and people make a mock of purity and sanctifying graces or the true way to salvation so that I am weary of this prophane Countrey and desire nothing more then the blessedness of our own c. yours in the midst of temptation 4. Their appositnesse Temptations like David take our own sword and cut off our head our own dagger and wound us the Melancholian shall have horrour trouble and vexations yea the pleasantest song in providence shall be represented in the tune of the Lamentatiâ—ns making even mercy and long-suffering an argument of Gods stupendious wrath that being but delayed untill meeting in the other world Contrary to a ranting Belshazzer it will renew the thoughts of it may be forgotten victories and hold no Goblet fit to drink his Concubines health in but the Lords Chalice no ground proper for his dance than that which is holy nor no sporting-jest so frisking as that which moves by the wyer of sacred Scripture When Herod swears out of Madnesse Drunkennesse or Vanity to grant the request of that galloping Wench Herodias it answers and is set to the Tune of her Malice and off the head of the Baptist goeth They will give the furious man occasion of broils the phlegmatick both wine and wantons and the proud shall be presented with a Boorish Clown an inadvertent Swain on purpose to make him swear and roar or with some Colloguing Gnatho to cause him huff swell and vapour all which keeps the soul like the sea in so restlesse a motion that except we anchor within the vail how easily shall all make ship-wrack of faith and a good conscience 5. Their closnesse Did temptation speak out its mind there would be no great danger to debate the cause with it Iudas did look for something beside a Halter and who can perswade that Dapper Youth in the Proverbs that he is going to the house where a dart is prepared for his liver the very seat of love which if temptation told he would avoid it as death and hell The malicious Iews averr that their blood-thirstinesse comes from a zeal to God and their spleen against the Apostles to be a voice from Heaven and Saul before he was called Paul thought in his conscience no doubt that he ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Iesus Christ. Neither doth temptation come all at once but by degrees as we listen and attend unto it and indeed as we are able to bear it It told not David at first of Vriahs murther for then it is possible he had started from adultery so it told not Iudas at first he should hang himself but set him on coveting then to stealing then to murmuring so luring him and trolling him to her hand untill she slew him There is one who wittily shews how temptation passeth through and advanceth forward in the dominion of the soul make the heart a Countrey and then temptation hath six Posts six dayes march and thus her Gests lyeâ—lâ— the first day she provoketh lust to the first motions of sin then the second day or the second Stage she turneth the heart toward it the third Stage is when the heart in a high trot that is earnestly cometh up to it in the fourth Stage she hovers is circumspect and dwells upon the way and manner of doing that evil in the fifth she begins to assent and to dally embrace and do the projected sin in the sixth the evil is done finished and accomplished Temptation is then entered the head City the Fort-royal is taken and the soul says unto it Take thy ease and indeed it may for its work is done and the errant it came for is already finished It can do no more and leaves it unto sin to bring forth death the proper work thereof Temptations then having no other end then to cast us under the wrath of God to bring and draw innumerable evils from him and atlast to have us hear the sentence of final extirpation to be pronounced by him Let us mind our deliverance and study its avoidance and if thou Reader hath yeelded formerly unto its flatterings to prevent killing by its hellish blandishments imitat that Sophist Isaeus once wilde but at last sober who when questioned if he knew that beauty or if that woman were fair modestly replied desii laborare ab oculis I have given over gazing It being a sure rule that sin is best overcome by flying that is by flying from it Lead us not into temptation THE wonders which God performed and the difficulties wherein he led his people of old are called great temptations and in that same wildernesse wherein Israel saw the works of God did our Saviour hear the temptings of the Devil but having strength within him he held out and was not tempted i. e. did not yeeld we wanting ability to oppose when he embatles against us
also forgive you Let it respect the soul and its nota desiderii and checks our dulnesse roâ—zing up our â—ethaâ—gick spirits and like the last stroak of a shrill Clock shews what time we have spent in Prayer and what heart we have towards God for the advancement of his honour or for the remission of sin Make haste my beloved said the Church of old Even so come Lord Iesus saith the Church now Amen The Iews make four kinds of Amen 1. Pupillum when the thing to which iâ— is said is not understood The 2. is surreptum when it is not heard throughout The 3. is oâ—â—osum when it is not thought upon The last is when it is pronounced from the heart and desired and that is Amen justorum which they account their own ending still their devotion with it this sheweth quam difficile how hard a thing it is to say Amen saith one yet Cyprian being sentenced ut gladio feriatur to be beheaded with the sword for being Christian said Amen is somewhere recorded by another Let it respect the Preface and it containeth the mystery of the Trinity unto which we only ought to pray all others being only our fellow-creatures and hath not begotten us or our sisters or brethren and so not our fathers which speaketh two things 1. The fulnesse of the Scriptures not only Amen but each Iota in the institutions of God is mysterious and of immensiâ—rable sense 2. Comforts in our failings for if in Prayer infirmity divert us from a zealous pursuit of heavenly objects we recover our feet and unites in one Amen Now there remains three said a Father the Word Example and Prayer yet all the three is here for Prayer and Amen and example even in History is not wanting For Basil the Great being sick was attended by one Ioseph a Iew and his Physician who had from natural signs shewed him that he should die about the evening What said Basilius if I live another day then said Ioseph I shall become Christian. The holy man for saving a soul plyes the Throne of God and about three of the Clock riseth next morning in health which so astonished the Doctor that he was the same day baptized in the publick Congregation by Basil who returning to his bed died Likewise Soâ—inus dying called upon his Redeemer attesting dependence upon providence and mercy hearing Scriptural exhortations for his souls strengthning to every Text sobjoyned his zealous Amen Amen And what hath not Prayer done throughought the world why then should this threeâ—old cord be broken having the word Prayer and example for Amen in all our supplications Let it respect the Petitions it is worthily compared to a bound or stitched up Book more portable and lesse bulksome then when scattered in single sheets the Law was abreviated in the ten Commandments the Gospel is abridged in the Creed and the Lords Prayer yea all Prayer in Amen which speaketh three things 1. Ordering the studying of Amen Let the mad world say its list it is Divine and of heavenly sanction and as Iesus though Hebrew is over all the world understood and if more closely studied would prove consolatory and more rever'd even so Amen if searched into should prove significantly helpful for all addresses It was of old uttered to each curse and here annexed to each Petition and once for all uttered discovering its secret Energy but impenitus enim audiens if he that understands not the prayer cannot say Amen how shall he say it who understandeth not Amen it self 2. Ordering the saying of Amen As it is an old so it is an holy seemly and necessary duty in the Church or at Church-service for all to say Amen by it the Church Militant being mostly Uniform to that of the Triumphant the noise of Dogs is harsh of crying children troublesome of opening locks unholy c. But the noise of Amen is heavenly we are baptized said Iustine in his Apology for Christianity to Antonius the heathen Emperour we communicat we gather offerings we pour forth prayers we celebrat praise and the people say Amen And if the word lingua the tongue in its initiatory letters direct to a six-â—old duty at all times the tongue must express Amen for it doth as L. directs for then loquitur bene it speaks good I. then Iesus is acknowledged N. and then the Name of God is invocate G. then the Grace of God is proclaimed V. then the Will of God is obeyed A. and all others about us are edified instructed and holily excited 3. Ordering the affecting of Amen we have not ended our prayers if according to this pattern untill this be Eccho'd from the heart Christ having said it before us It is said that the natural heat being more and greater in man then in any other creature doth in a second sense or as a secondary cause make his body straight and his soul when heated by holy zeal shall more and more being fledged or â—eathered by the practice of prayer spiritually go aloft entering by devotion the Quire of Angels bearing share in their Antiphonies as in the vision Amen Allelujd where obiter by Amen we learn that God is to be praised and by Allelujah that he is to be feared it is the fiâ—tieth Greek word in this prayer and fifty was the Jubilee and that was the year of rest and after much plodding and praying we rest in Amen that is in Christ Iesus Let it respect the Conclusion and it sheweth when in prayer the Christian cometh to his conclamaâ—um est a closs laying his petitions and his case before the Throne of God leaving them to the Power Glory and Authority of God which speaketh two things 1. Perseverance in all prayer Mind but that precept Pray without ceasing and this command Pray after this manner that is as and from Our Father to Amen and from Amen to Our Father in circulo and it is easie to infer that there is a religious unweariednesse at least in habit wrap'd up in this word and work 2. Confirmation of all good We here beg and continue begging for good and comfortable things untill we say Amen there sisting stedfastly perswaded that in the Kingdom of our Father by his Power for his Glory we shall want no portion of the matter craved heeding this form as most perfect which was dayly by the Ancients in Gods House observed as such in order for their prosperous and more successful issue in their practical devotion its vastnesse and perfection mediating from Heaven Antidots against the narrownesse and many failings wherewith their performances in point of justice were beheld and because of which they might have been excluded the ears of God who certainly is most delighted with the penitents lips and heart when both are acting in the words his blessed Son and our Saviour hath endited to them Not that we are to use no other prayer
the second person with Stephen Lord Iesus receive my spirit For both is here understood and Prayer ought jointly to be put up to them as they are one and severaly to all the Persons as they are three provided that in naming of one as here we exclude not the Son nor Spirit as Stephen not the Spirit nor the Father though the Son be solely invoked It was the Trinity that said Let us make man and from the Trinity did sin cause man to fall and by Prayer to the Trinity must man be remitted of his sin delivered from evil and instructed to avoid temptation It is given as a rule that where the Word Father is simply used without any other word restricting it to any of the other Persons as here there is none the whole Deity is thereby signified ex gr The fowls of the Air sow not yet your heavenly father feedeth them In Father all the Trinity is understood but in these words The Father loveth the Son the second Person is distinctly spoken of and distinguished from the first as also the first from the second But to reach the depth of the word Father in this profound sense were to puzle our souls with inscrutable Mysteries and with Simonides to drench our brains in unprofitable questions For he being asked by Hiero the King what God was desired one days liberty to answer the question but that being too short he demanded two but these not being sufficient he intreated for four in regard the more he pondered his soul was the more darkned touching the nature of a Deity neither do we read that ever he answered the question though eight days was allowed him his head questionless being filled with doubts and niceties studying the solution We shall therefore taking a prospect of this word of this cloud Father from its darkest side as it relates to Prayer and then we may see clearly â—avour on Godsâ—part and duty upon ours The favour is to be seen in Priviledges Justification and in our Adoption 1. Our Christian-priviledges above the Iew. Many and lofty were the Titles and Names by which God made himself known under the Law as the Lord God of gods the God of Abraham and the Almighty God but it is Our Father quia noster esse cepit he now becoming our God having left off to be theirs His Name to them was I AM denoting Eternity and Immutability to be in himself But Our Father shews plainly our interest in him and his to us he is not now under the Gospel called the God of Abraham at a distance but having spoken to us by his Son to keep us with him for ever sweetens our service under the notion of fatherly attendance the other having rebelled against him They indeed while with him had much of his praise but to which of them at any time said he When ye pray say Our Father They prayed indeed but in comparison of us they did it as servants we doing it as sons having received that spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father But of this afterward 2. Our Iustification by the blood of Christ. Our sins made us lose our interest we had in him by our wandring as the lost sheep and by our lavishing as the Prodigal we became like our old father the Devil and by consequence were afar off but now made nigh by the blood of Christ who made our peace animating us with confidence to pray After this manner having by faith received the power to become the Sons of God For nec peccator neither can a sinful people or a sinful man be attoned or made a son or sons except there preceed a remission of sin which is accompanied by the gift of Son-ship For whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin and he who would receive the kiss of the Father must return and confess with the Publicane and he shall not only have bread enough but his sin shall be forgiven him 3 Our Adoption by the regeneration of the Spirit Regeneration implyes a two-fold birth First we are born children of wrath and so are children of the Devil yet not by nature but imitation because the lusts of that father we will do by which we have no plea to Heaven And unless as regenerated a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God He comprehends all Ages Sexes and conditions and except he be born again shews a new Father and a new nature Of water understand that Baptism is an entry into a new life which is administred in the Name of the Father upon our bodies denoting that even our flesh is capable of Heavens glory and of the Spirit this is that wherein all blessedness consists for as the Spirit of man must be prop'd or buttress'd by the Spirit of God or it can never be elevated so as to enter the Kingdom of God so must the Spirit of God uphold the faith of the believer by bearing witness to it of the souls being born of God or then we cannot call after this manner without mocking our Father which is in Heaven A Father he is in respect of Christ and because of him he is a Father in respect of us like our elder Brother and elder brethren Let us seek after the things of Heaven that it may be known we pray by the spirit of Adoption having re-purchased the title of Sons Acknowledging by Father an absolution of offences a freedom from judgement Justification Sanctification and the Adoption of Sons a fellowship with Christ the gifts of the Spirit an inheritance incorruptible that fadeth not away eternal in the Heavens Whereby it may be attested of our Father what a dying man said of the Epistles and Gospels when desired by some to deliver a rule for the right ordering of their lives held up them with an ecce omnia hic here are all things necessary for attaining of a good and blessed life he meant they living after the rules there taught so shall it be with us if we practise according to the form prescribed here For this Preface holdeth out also duty on our part and we learn by it to pray with confidence awfulness and plainness 1. With confidence but not with presumption God hath come low to embrace us as sons he hath given us freedom to touch his Scepter yet ought not man to be saucy for the one nor play as a child with the other Let not the pride of thy countenance keep thee O man from God that is from calling upon him because he is thy Father nor permit the sin of thy soul to perswade thee to run from him because he is in Heaven Do this and live come boldly to the Throne of grace that you may obtain mercy It is a Throne therefore denotes Majesty to stop presumption with the
Pharisee go not too high blurt not out thy desire without some Religious Preface After this manner as Daniel O Lord the great and dreadful God and remember that proud beggars may go hungry away whereas the humble and meek may get succour for it is a Throne of grace affirming mercy and there is an Art in begging and a reward for that Art as the Publicane will shew you 2. With awfulness but not with distraction Is he a Father he will be honoured Is he a Master he will be feared now he is both and to both our behaviour must conform he speaks not love expresly in the Prophet but of fear and honour because he was not yet become like one of us in the Incarnation of the second Person As Sons we are to reverence and honour him which we do not but when we love which shuts out amazement and terrour as a slave because as Sons we serve for love and waits in love for the time of possessing the Inheritance For even the visions of mercy and beauty did put Iacob to a fright yet made him not forget his Pillar his Oyl his Vow nor his Liberality If therefore you call on the Father after this manner do it viz. passing the time of your sojourning here in fear For these two words Our Father as they are sensed by our Royal Interpreter are inserted to put us in mind that we are but dust and ashes learning thereby to have our reverence mixed with a sweet confidence in his love God being both a kind Father and a great King will not have these divorced what he hath joyned together and what the great Emperour Sigismund would never have separated for being questioned whether it was better for a King to be loved or feared as angry at the division replyed God will be both feared and loved and so must Kings God is optimus we know and therefore to be loved but as the best so he is maximus the greatest the King of Kings the Lord of Lords Hence God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him 3. With plainness yet with meditation How loftily could our Saviour have composed this Prayer and with what sublimity of stile could he have expressed the Deity yet as himself was swadled in clouts and his Type Moses wrapped in flaggs so shrowds he the glorious Trinity under the low Canopy of this tearm Father and we must pray after this manner For the want of meditation makes our devotion flatulent and windy by empty words or unseemly Barne-like expressions plain praying may become uncivil pratting It is true there ought to be more Religion in our Prayer then Eloquence yet this palliats not the absurdities of them whose petitions are arrayed in nastiness and withal making empty frothy repetitions from which let me tell you again our Saviour dehorts by this form from one Battus as the word imports Poaeta quodam a certain empty Poet inculcating tediously through ignorance on the same verse as In illis Montibus inquit erant erant in montibus illis That is Hills were in that Land and in that Land were Hills from which some determineth Battus to be a stammerer and necessitat to utter the same words over through impediment of speech as well as ignorance of mind before his sentence could be perfected which no wayes excuseth such who are impeded in their elocution by a wilfull and knowing rejectment of the proper means of laudable utterance which is study and meditation Strive therefore against vain repetitions in Prayer by communing with your own heart and taking with you words If volubility of expression be denyed or variety of sentences not promptly minted The Roman Orator himself may see the Rules of his own Art sanctified by our Saviour in the composure of this Prayer And a greater then Cicero the Preacher of Ierusalem because he was wise sought to find out acceptable words and spake gracefully so Christ spake graciously yet so plainly that never man spake like him yet that plainness was so heavenly and so purely delivered that it will be our learning and our wisdom in both to imitate him and pray after this manner Once more let us press this Cluster of Grapes for its juice is sweet Our Father having in it yet more encouragement for us and still discovereth something to be done by us as mercy on his part and love upon ours 1. Mercy or compassion in his bowels supplying our wants By his eyes at a distance he knows our indigence as the Father knew the Prodigals neither doth long absence from him cause us to be forgotten to perswade to which we have not only the parable of the lost sheep of the clocking hen yea the shortness of this Prayer but a reiterated Precept joyned with a comfortable Promise Remember these O Iacob and Israel for thou art my servant I have formed thee thou art my servant O Israel thou shalt not be forgotten of me 2. Our love unto him opening our straits in all or any extremities whether can doth or ought a child to take Sanctuary rather than in his Fathers bosome Let Rome with Israel go aside to Saints with Iudab let us be faithful to this rule and adress to God who hath begotten us And in sound reason he who saith to the Virgin Mary Pater Noster may be suspected to have a flaw in his Pia Mater This expression of Father as it holds forth love ought to excite servent affection or then justly might we be charged with ingratitude unnaturality and idolatry which last to avoid with Battalogy and Hypocrisie this rule is given to the Churches Mercy alwayes meriting duty his love to us in becoming our Father craves from us as dutiful and heavenly born sons imitation delectation fellowship and assurance of acceptance 1. Imitation of his holiness Is it not written as obedient children be ye holy for I am holy Ergo hoc sit primum said the Melifluous Cicero teaching his Orator the first precept I give is this that we study whom to imitate and let it be him who excells in that the imitation whereof is designed but shews to his son that this choise flows from our own will which God in his sons will have to bear no sway but commands holiness because he is holy Urging more authoritative wayes to perswade to vertue than that Roman exhortted implicitely his son to goodness from the example of Hercules who being young had presented two wayes unto him one of pleasure which was fair broad c. the other of vertue narrow difficult and hard yet as a true son of their great Iupiter their conceited god he choosed the last When wickedness though painted is seducing us to embraces and offering the way of the sinner let us as sons of the most High resuse such Syren enchantments and say with David Depart