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
than the bruits in neglecting so profitable I add so rational a service that qui non orat he that prayeth not is dead in one sense and mad in another It is represented to be a manifestation of the hearts fervency before God by which through faith in Christ we beg for obtaining of mercy and for avoiding of ill or give thanks for benefits accepted whether in words groans or sighs whence it follows that the ten Commandments and the Creed are not given to us nor to be used by us as forms of Prayer which many ignorant Protestants doth conjecture nor the Ave Maria or Hail Mary as the Romanists generally practise And that the weakest Saint might be cherished Prayer is held forth to be the bitter groanings of a heart-broken soul or the sound of incomposed words therefrom sor have we not in Scripture as well a weeping Peter and a muttering Hannah comforted as a roaring David pardoned and blessed We shall call and prove Prayer to be a hearty calling upon God for good things we or others want or deliverance from the evils they or we fear or feel by and through Iesus Christ. In which description there is the Root of Prayer it must be hearty the Beauty of Prayer it must be a calling the true Object of Prayer it must be a calling upon God the matter of Prayer for good things the charity of Prayer for our selves or others the only means of acceptance through Iesus Christ. 1. It must be hearty if the frame and structure of all our petitions be not builded on this rock they will fall as did Silo's Tower upon our selves and crush us to death for if the heart be not good the very evils we pray against will flee the more swiftly towards us and the kingdom we pray for will hasten the more to our amazement the Pharisees washed their bodies face and hands but there must be a clean heart before there be enjoyed a clear conscience for endeavouring to be seen of men is to be debarred from Gods presence and frustrate of his approbation If with Ieroboams wife we counterfeit gravity and be sober in the Temple from the face only we may hear from the Angel with her but sad and heavy things though perhaps in no worse language then friend how camest thou in hither If Delilah complained of Samson in abstracting his heart from those signs he gave her of endeared affection how shall not the furnace of incensed wrath be seven times more heated when God shall get such words as Thy will be done by him who not only demurrs but impudently resolves to give it a resistance the good man is said to have cor simplex a simple that is a soul without solds being stretched to the full length that the searcher of hearts may know and remark he is prepared to do his will in its just extension from the soul. Si lingua if the tongue utter words of righteousnesse and the heart wandring about worldly not to say hellish business there is no certainty of profite and probably without a peradventure the greater condemnation said one It not being the tongue or the throat but the soul whence prayer must ascend said another Prayer being serium animi cum Deo colloquium a serious discoursing of the soul with God said a third of which seriousness Agatho had earnest thoughts of who being interrogate what might be the hardest thing in the world replyed to pray as we ought 2. It must be a hearty calling as we have a soul to reflect upon the things we wish or want so we have a tongue to call for both and as God is said to have a heart to pity us so he is said to have an ear to hear us when complaining for which Abraham's praying is called a communing i. e. a speaking with the Lord. Heart speaking is indeed simply necessary and without it no prayer and by it alone in some cases there may be a holy petition darted upward the soul having naturally a loud voice yet outward calling is exceeding usefull heart speaking is Ecclesiastica plane operatio the Churches work being conform to her Redeemers Precept of praying in secret but to withdraw the tongue from Gods Altar is a defrauding him of his just right and detains from the supplicant himself many auxiliaries whose accession to his already mustred forces might give him abundance of spiritual courage to fight against all temptations that assaults him in his militant condition It doth not only more forceibly lay bonds upon himself not to act against what he prayes for or against committing those follies he hath repented of after prayer but hinders distraction in prayer and vehemently excits devotion even to that ardency which may constitute a joyful noise It lets Satan and the holy Angels know our holy purposes and resolutions it provokes to a good example and hath great influence in discharging of that debt we owe to God for our bodies However care must be taken that the heart speak before the tongue for avoiding battology by the tongue and to both of these we must joyn a holy life by which we speak both to God and man to God with a Remember now I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart And to man with a follow me as I follow Christ in doing of which we may be applauded and rewarded for praying continually 3. It is a hearty calling upon God he alone is a very present help in trouble and neither Saint nor Angel can clear our souls from or deliver us from evil to come as he only is our Father so he only is to be requested for our dayly bread and he being the only King who hath immortality his kingdom is only to be violently seized upon and importunatly sought after and being the Lord our God he is only to be worshipped 4. It is a calling for good things that is such things as cannot naturally have a tendency to ill as Faith Love Hope Knowledge sufficiency for to ask to be rich or honourable may as too oft they prove be unhappy mediums to extinguish heavenly heat and cause the germinating grace of God which was rooted in us by the Spirit to be eradicated and made to languish under the most favourable aspects improving grace no more then the thorns in the parable did advance the the growing of that good seed of the Word A Philosopher advised his Pupills to ask only of God bona good things because thought he God knows the particular good our souls hath most in pursuit yet our Saviour a far better teacher encourageth us in begging to hold out our finger and point out the sore we would have healed the mercy we desire to possesse for Good is either that of glory which we ask for in Thy
slanderers and overcome as did Christ evil by good We are to lay hold on eternal life and he that would grasp much of any thing ought to extend and to span his fingers to the utmost extension nature can allow Open thy mouth wide with good words in peaceable expressions and thy hand with good works and benevolent actions the reward of all will be a fellowship with the Father and the Son glancing upon thy soul by thy prayers returning into thy own bosome Two contentioâ—s persons agreeing to stand to the umpirage or arbitriment of Archidamus were by him brought into the Temple of Minerva and there made to swear the standing to his determination and after adjured them not to stir untill they both agreed O if there were such a heart in us that God might behold us flying as doves to the windows that as doves we might have no bag of gall implying sweetness and in flocks to signifie our unity and oneness and flying to evidence our readiness and zeal for each others good We read of a Temple in Athens dedicated to Mercy into which none was to enter but the beneficient and helpful and that attested by the Senate How should that structure have stood solitary in these dayes of strife and debate wherein daily annoyances have intoxicated the most composed soul and made it obnoxious to uncharitable surmises harsh and dismal roavings unjust undecent and to say no worse immoderat expressions But hoping better things we proceed to extort a conâ—ession of the necessity of praying according to this universal rule from 4. The Saints piety and enlarged devotion How afâ—ectionatly did Abraham plead for Sodom though he knew their iniquity and gave no particular account of his pity towards his Nephew Lot but shewed his desire to be equally extended for the rescuing of that cursed brood â—rom the â—ury of heavens not to say hells flames And if one said Mentior let be accounted a liar if inhospitality was not Sodoms ruine it might truly be said let us not be credited it inhumanity be not the sin of this generation and will prove the bane of this present age What tears of sorrow what workings of compassion yea no question what pressing arguments did Samuel probably in retiredness shed and put up that cast-away Saul might be again taken into favour And though we only find that Noah preached to the old world it is not once to be suspected but that its unholy life and predicted ruine brought from his tender soul both prayers and tears for their deliverance from the threatned floud by living according to his doctrine How oft did Moses improve his interest with God craving with inexpressible affection Israels pardon prompted thereto by nothing more then from his innat zeal for that peoples happiness though alwayes backsâ—iders from God and frequently abusers of himself And how passionatly did our Lord weep over Ierusalem when she had stood our her day which one argument ought to induce the proudest and most self-conceited among us to argue our selves into this triumphant grace of charity not only for the holy but for the sinner though he contradict and blaspheme that he may be transmented changed from his irreligious conversation yea untill with Samuel we get an absolute discharge from heaven or with Paul honoured with a view of the Book of Life by real revelation we are to pray for all men though Christ himself should remain speechless as disdaining such requests as did the Disciples for that woman of Canaan The Greeks in the celebration of their marriage-festivals took the galls of such beasts as were sacrificed to the gods and in a ceremonious indignation threw them behind the Altar hinting their aboâ—â—ency of any bitterness that might arise betwen the young couple And is it not hence a shame for this generation whose profession betrothing us as Virgins unto Christ to live in and upon the very gall of bitterness making feasts of the relation of falls calumnies hellish suggestions sad and sinful practices of their brethren so far wide are we from the due observance of those Christian Laws which oblige us to pray over and weep for the enormities our eyes behold or our ears are informed of Every one of us saith our Royal Expositor is commanded to call him Our Father in the Plural Number to shew that holy communion which is among the Saints and that every one of us is a member of a body of a Church that is compacted of so many members contrary to those little up-starts in Amsterdam where two or three make a Church How should that Kings zeal have inveighed against these had they aimed at so much presumption which some particular persons with us hath arrived at even to Church themselves and excommunicate from Heavens glory all whose opinions do not quadrate with their own But 4. From our extravagancy and malever sation may we press this duty Vnder this Fathers power is the Servant and his Master the Souldiour and Commander the Rich and Poor All of which in our several stations hath caused one another to fall by our ill example which might move us so highly to resent it as to make us dread lest the failings of others be by justice reputed ours and so all lyable to double stripes first for our own offences in their simple nature then for their aggravations in working upon others It was this as many think made the rich man beg that one might be sent from the dead to forwarn his brethren of the place of torment he having been an ill example unto them knew each of them would in that respect be a saggot to his own fire by the impresses that his former actions should engrave upon his despairing conscience Therefore let us pray for our brethren here or we may fear compulsion through a heliish agony may cause us curse our selves not them hereafter 5. From our own misery and forlorn condition let this duly be performed What reward can we expect for loving or praying only for them who are of our own sect or party since Gospel-precepts goe further and the promises thereof shew more for from what Arguments might love betwixt man and wife have been enforced and though heirs of the same grace of life might be a sufficient bond to unite their dear respects yet that your prayers be not hindered is thought a more binding reason Whence it sadly follows that even the prayers of this Age are debarred from having accesse we not living as heirs of the same life but in revengeful spight frowning at and even cursing them whose contemplations are heaven-ward if in one jote dissenting from us Our misery in the neglect of this charity is so much the greater as that we might procure by praying one for another from him who is the hearer of prayer 1. A removing of the occasions or temptations of our
with contemplating of Earth This so pray ye to shew it once more renders Heaven the object of our eye and therefore of our heart to be looking to Heaven and pointing to the Earth with the Roman Senator is to become sharers of his deserved scorn and yet how many are there while Heaven is in their mouth flesh fish or ships are in their heart Acting too truly what in the Fable is said of the Wolf when at School for learning to spel Pa-ter Father but being by his Master ordered to put them together in stead of Father said Agnus Lamb thinking on his prey An userer at the same time made the like proficiency and in place of Fa-ther said Pecunia Money But let not this be among you he is in Heaven and hath his eye-lids trying the children of men not but that he is every where but in Prayer he is by design said to be in Heaven that our hearts and minds may be lifted up to the excellency of his dignity and greatness having all things naked and open before him and therefore thy hypocrisie is apparent thy in-side being naked 4. That Prayer is to be quickned by confideing in the All sufficiency of God to give what is asked whether things of Heaven or of Earth By the Heavens and influences therefrom is Earth and Sea sustained he is in Heaven therefore in the Air upon the great Waters And because he can order all for his peoples good we are not to despond and doubt of his soveraignty but let our necessities be known whether for the Wine-press or for the light of the Sun or for the Cattel upon a thousand hills fish in the Sea Fowls of the Air Angels in Heaven or mercy from his bosome for his Son we need not doubt redressing He is in Heaven and thence he gave horns to the Bull hoofs to the Horse teeth to the Lyon finns to the Fish wings to the Bird scent to the Dog motion to the Air coolness to the Water heat to the Fire light to the Sun chain to the Devils strength to the Angels his Image and his Son to man what therefore should make the humble Orator to pray sorrowing as those without hope O thou of little faith wherefore dost thou doubt He is Almighty God walk pray before him and be perfect be confident 5. That Prayer is continually to be qualified with earnest considerations tending to the honour of God while we are upon Earth It is a dishonour for a Prince to have suits made in his presence-Chamber not adequat to the dignity of that room To ask of thy Father in Heaven meat money or cloaths to debauch with the glutton to swill with the drunkard entice with the stallion is a reproach unto his Majesty ask things fit for Heaven and do things like Heaven that it may be known thy Father is in Heaven that is in thee as some expound these words saying Illi sunt Coeli These are Heaven in whom there is Faith Gravity Continency Knowledge and a heavenly life Fulgentius while young had frequently these thoughts fluctuating in his breast Cur sine spe c. Why do I live on Earth without the hopps of Heaven what profit shall the world at last bring me if we love to be merry is it not better to have a good conscience and how much better do they rejoyce that fear nothing but sin and studie but how to keep the Law c. Let us pray for these or the like matters as for the avoiding of judgments for they are revealed against all unrighteous men from Heaven or for procuring of grace for that becomes Heaven And all weighty matters bearing equality with Heaven View the whole fabrick of the Lords Prayer and there is nothing can be accounted trivial or base in it the forgiving of sins deliverance from evil the bread of our necessity the fulfilling of his will the advancement of his kingdom are substantial and solid purposes so is the request that 's first because the chief end of all for the hallowing of the Name of God which being the first Petition as impatient of any longer delay we put a closure to the Preface Our Father which art in Heaven CHAP. II. Hallowed be thy Name THis is the first part of the holy place which our eyes are invited to behold I say invited for otherwise its dazling might not only amaze us but utterly darken those Casements of the soul those balls of light our bodily eyes our souls intelligence What some have observed of all the Petitions may be attested of this one it being 1. short 2. full or comprehensive where by the way their arrogancy may be detected whose popularity made them in publick give this Prayer correctior emendatior abridged or enlarged to the people as their emptiness or vanity gave them occasion or eloqution Let thy Kingdom come in our dayes cryed one Lord lead us not into temptation cryed another equally absurd yet excusable because it might be from ignorance in regard of them whose singularity and pretended holiness ascended the chair and passed an Act of Sequestration upon the Prayer it self discharging it in the Church so far as they could by their total ommission of it or stigmatizing them who used it but for all their eminencies the Lords Prayer is sacred and verily verily where ever the Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached that Prayer that he hath made shall be used for a memorial of him The Petitions like the Precepts of the Law are divided between God and man those aspecting God are first placed as Hallowed be thy Name c. those respecting man then follow as give us our daily bread so that hallowed be thy Name is the first Petition of the first Table in this Law concerning Prayer so pray ye because of which it is first to be considered It shall not be much here debated whether there be six or seven Petitions the Ancients are generally for seven so are the Romish Interpreters and some also of the reâ—ormed The number seven was by the Hebrews called numerus juramenti because Abraham in swearing to Abimelech took seven Lambs for a testimony by others it is called numerus ultionis the number of revenge for he that killed Cain vengeance should be taken on him seven fold By others numerus libertatis the number of liberty the Hebrew servant being liberat the seventh year By others numerus purificationis because the Leper was to be tryed by seven dayes and Naman washed seven times Hence some call it numerus Sacer the holy number God rested the seventh day Iericho was taken the seventh day Christ slept in the grave the seventh day Enos the seventh from Adam was translated We have seven Lamps in Zechariah seven Trumpets and seven Seals in the Revelation and David praised seven times in the day and this hath had so great veneration in
the world to save sinners And though all the Psalms be sweet yet some for their excellency are sent to the chief Musician The Scriptures discover the whole will of God yet have a hand to point at some part of it more then another as more eminent in their use and comfort and to which all other portions may be reduced For instance 1. He wills our faithful adhering to his Son Many Commandments he gave but this is his Commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Iesus Christ applying Christ unto our selves his death and merits to our souls without which our performances are but nauseating to his spirit and therefore Domine adauge fidem nostram Lord increase our saith is solded up in this Petition Thy will be done 2. He wills our sincere converting from sin It is iniquity causeth him grieve at us and maketh us averse to him and how careful and painful he is to reform the sinner before he be cast out as a Publican shews that if he perish it is by his obstinacy in sin rather then for his committing of it for had he delighted to punish for that he had long ago burned this present world as he spared not but drowned the old We need not many Arguments to evince this having his oath for his being delighted in the conversion of the wicked for miserable we are if we will not believe God when he swears the purposes of his heart unto us But as Gideons one Bastard slew his seventy Sons so one sin left alive will destroy our stock of gifts and graces which God knowing he wills our sincerity desiring us to be not almost but altogether Christians in departing from every evil way the end of his Commandment being charity out of a pure heart a good conscience and love unfeigned 3. He wills humility in our carriage to himself What shall or what can besall thee Reader that can excuse any insolence thy audacious spirit dare shew before him Is it death of kindred loss of goods want of health be perswaded better want all these then once to roave at him for the want of any one for hath he not shewed thee O man what it good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly love mercy and walk humbly with thy God The ancient Gauls suffered not their children even to stand before them that in perfect age they might have them in greater veneration and our Father in Heaven though more condescending will yet have of all his sons a religious reverence sawciness becoming sacriledge robbing him of his just devoir To swell for the removing of thy Gourd as Ionah may have a sadder issue imitat rather Adam whom we read not once to have spoken after banished Paradise a silent sorrow for our delinquency for sin is sorrows Prodrome being the best succour for our weather-beaten souls and is more advantagious then any Fort we can erect by argument or reason to plead against or surmize familiarity with God That of Germanicus is Heathenish giving this attestation of himself at death sifato concederem c. though I should die the common death of men I have just cause to be angry at the gods that in manly age I am robbed from my Parents Children and Countrey by them but when I die by the sorcery or poysonings of Piso c. but the Christian knows he stands at Cesars Iudgment Seat and that enjoyns reverence fear humility and love which makes him behave himself with David like a weaned child and washeth with Naaman upon deliberation in the commanded Iordan though the waters to sense appear never so despicable 4. He wills compassion in behalf of our brethrem This is his great and new Commandment that men love one another and that we put on howels of mercy to all yea the Oxe or Ass of our enemy are within the verge of his authority and law And we are not only to offer our hread but draw out our very souls to the hungry God insinuating thereby that fellow feeling which the fight of an hungry soul ought to stir up in us Non curite quid agat humanum genus not to be solicitious how the world went or careful about the concerns of mainkind was held impious by a Heathen but the religious contrary is diffusive in his charity and his willigness to do good is exemplified in the parable of the Samaritan who secured the person anointed the wounds defrayed the charges and contracted debt for the robbed Traavller Three things evince true compassion Concealed charity 2. Known poverty And 3. Unnatural death being alwayes ready to answer St. Pauls question in the negative who is weak and I am not weak who though they were Bibylonians with the Prophet that testifying good-will with a Father when a Brothers adversity causeth anguish and his tranquility exciteth thankfulness to account anothers loss our own and reckon his gain our profit loving neither friend nor soe for the world but both for God is true charity Love being a great God of whose beginning we have no History and of its ending it were madness to suppose therefore ought our life to be a life of love or then it is not the life of God nor agreeable to his will 5. He wills our folicity with himself He He hath so strong and fatherly a love to his children that he desires yea designs them heirs of his Kingdom For this is the will saith Christ of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son I might say the Sun may have everlasting life this is a faithful laying and worthy of all acceptation And the Psalm wherein the Psalmists confidence of future glory is attested is called Michtum that is a golden Psalm of David Be not Reader abused by any natural vanity so far as in any thing to become competit or with God and untill thy will can give thee fields and vineyards nay until it can make a feather to please thee a sâ—raw to ease thee make it not the staple of thy soul but award its blows and avert its plagues for it shall to last be found the armed man to binâ— thee and a sword to kill thee whereas Gods will hath nothing more ultimatly its scope then thy salvation There are many other particulars touching our converse discovered to be the will of God such as Modesty in our expressions Righteousnesse in our actions Discipline in our manners enduring injuries loving the brethren delighting in God loving him as a Father fearing him as a Lord to value none in comparison of Christ and therefore inseparably to cleave to his love couragiously to bear his cross constantly to consess his Name which is to be heir with Christ to do the command of God to fulfill the will of the Father but such and many others being reducible to
it is placed after all the Petitions that concern God insinuating that his work and glory is first to be done and then we may cause lay the cloath and put on bread We find that in times of Famine there have fallen showres of Wheat for the refreshing of the hunger-bitten and here we are directed without a prodigy to respect Heaven and not the Fields for Grain or the Mill for Meal but both sexes to imitate the vertuous woman and bring their food from afar For so pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread From the naked face of which words we discover a Law commanding care for and abstinence while we are in the body 1. Our care for the body For beauty proportion strength the body is so stately and curious a structure that it were impiety against nature to suffer or design delapidation the least hair whereof being allowed a place in Gods Note Book we may conclude its bowels to be more intensly regarded It is the souls Cabinet therefore not to be broke Christ died for it and therefore it is not to be slighted the earth is to conceal it and therefore is not to be strip'd yea Heaven is ordained for it and therefore it is to be honoured The soul indeed is to be the main not our only care but the body hath here Gods Image and shall if we be wise walk up and down in his inheritance above As Ioseph by faith gave charge to bury his bones we by the same grace may give charge concerning our bodies and order to set on bread The charge against shedding the blood of man is from this Argument For in the image of God made he man that image being in the blood tanquam in copula in the body tanquam in organo in the soul tanquam in proprio subjecto in its proper place the vital spirits are carried by the blood and upon them also depend all the senses and upon the senses depends the rational soul in which the image of God principally resides now take away bread the blood fails and by that the spirits fail and by them the senses fail and by that the soubremoves and by that the image of God We offer this to the consideration of the malicious who shedding the blood of man desaceth that goodly workmanship for whose preservation he is bound to pray it not being preceptive give me but give us our daily bread For quid est conservare humanitatem what other is the preservation of humanity then the loving of man because he is a man and the same that we our selves are and who doth it not dispoyls himself of the appellation man as not worthy to be so termed The superstitious also rivetting this request upon his own thoughts will be self-condemned his cutting tearing whipping and lashing himself making him Fellon de se in a sort a self-murtherer in renting the back or torturing the skin of that belly he prayes for c. The covetous also must not plead immunity from the mulct appended unto the breach of this Divine Law of cherishing the body as the fruit of his prayer for in his fordid baseness withdrawing from the flesh what God hath sent it and keeping from the belly its just modicum which it craves yet to his own annihilation it remains empty he in the mean time cramming even to nauseating the hollow bowels of a wooden box makes him culpable of self-hostility and impeding him in his spiritual traffick his cash but serves him to buy damnation For quid prodest what is the profit of concealed hoards and who knows not that by doing good and shewing mercy men shall find mercy and reap good but what shall he gather who is merciless to his own self It is good and comely for one to eat and drink yea deck his house and to enjoy the good of all his labour which God hath given him in neglecting whereof he becomes guilty of Idolatry in St. Pauls meaning and of Adultery in the sense of an holy Interpreter and abundantes temporalium inopes aeternorum being rich in this world is yet poor and yet more poor when it is considered he hath no treasure in Heaven If any object that we are not to take thought what we shall eat and the required zeal in the duty of prayer will certainly suffer intermission in enlarging upon dayly bread It is to be adverted that there is no repugnancy between give us bread and take no thought what ye shall eat c. The latter condemning distrustsulnesse and â—infull distraction not a prudential foresight of competent provision for Parents are to lay up for Children and a Master must provide for his Family and a man for himself 2. Our abstinence while in the body Abstinence in the judgment of the Orator did much conduce for conciliating People and Prince but in our Saviours Doctrine it is the sole medium for keeping Heaven and earth in concord so clearly that the great Amphiaraus who in life was accounted a great Prophet and after his death a reputed god among the Grecians advised their Priests before their consulting at the Altar to abstain one day from bread and three from wine Plato made his greatest seasts to consist in Salt Olives Chease and Herbs and he was called the Divine The Egyptians tyed their Kings by Law to a certain portion of wine and meat and they were accounted Sacred Yea bread water and salt velut exquisitis obsoniis as great delicats did the Persians give to their Children And we read that Martha after our Saviours Ascension did neither eat flesh nor drink wine untill she saw him whom her soul loved above BREAD the poorest boon that nature can ask and the least a Father can deny and yet the only great thing we are to entreat for Our Lord restraining the Petitioners hungering for luxurious fare and conjuring against riches delicates and gaudy Raiment the Pedissequae or handmaids of which are Wrath Intemperance Anger Arrogancy Injustice Pride and every evil work Becoming by joyning dinner to supper and drowning the body with drink oppressing the belly with meat a ludibrious spectacle to their own attendants who must convey the vomited carcase to a dormitory out of which its possible the besotted cometh more surious then before sleep procuring neither health nor ease to the ininflamed body All which courses to prevent or temptations to avoid we are only directed to pray for our dayly bread as Agur prayed for his convenient food unto which prayer it is thought our Saviour hath reference in wording this Petition and dissect food convenient or open dayly bread in our practice we shall find sobriety to be hominis prima medicina the chief Physician of man as one Father calls it and the Mother of health as another and so good for soul and body
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
with the blood tears and sighs of the widows orphans wherewith the other delicats receive a hough-gough he shall rejoyce in his penury and say of their plenty let me not eat of their dainties The Lacedemonians regarded not wealth pleasure delicates nor abundance but made it their care to have strong sound bodies which Portion is evidently seen to be entailed to that Family where scantnesse is at board and the reason is known to the Scripturist the Lord preserving the stranger he relieving the father lesse and widow though not so well to the heathen who yet knew but I know not what way that goodnesse and poverty were sisters I have seen the Scelet of a famous Queen and really it appeared not so lovely as the bones and sculls in ordinary Charnel-houses on such as adorn the Frontispiece of common Graves so that even of bones we might answer with him who being asked why the poor had generally more thriving children then the rich answered The rich was at their own keeping the poor at Gods that is trusts more to it riches oft causing forgetfulnesse of God Hence one speaking of them whose prayers God principally heareth mentioneth the Penitent the faithful the afflicted but maketh the prayer of the poor to begin his roll Demonax the Philosopher never travelled with Coyn but when hungry step'd in at the first open door and got supply yet dying in his hundred year was honourably buried upon the publick charge And if this be thought stale or antick let the Water Poet be reflected upon who travelled from London to Edinburgh and from that to many places and from that to London again entertaind with the best drank of the best and eat most times of the best yet never spent penny borrowed never penny and begged never a penny and chearfully wrot his travels for his own mirth the Readers wonder and this Kingdoms fame and particularly this Cities honour neither dare I exclude Gods glory the Poet having religious aâ—imad versions We never read that either Christ of his Apostles begged yet they had no lands our Saviour made no Testament yet got both a Tomb and a Winding-sheet Remember poor man that seven loaves did seed many thousands bread multiplying bread either upon the table the Apostles hands or in the eaters mouth Pray for a blessing thy piece of bâ—ead thy quarter loaf may be commanded to 〈◊〉 in thy mouth thy stomack and in thy bowels for strengthening of thy body a higher degree then they who have their coâ—â—â—y â—iands their flately chynes yea if thou want it say My â—on God will provide us one and depend It was a strange yet true prodigy and wonder of love that in a great death in England Anno Dom 1555. there grew about Orford in Suffolk upon hard and solid Rocks where grasse or earth was never seen to grow without tillage or sowing a rich crop of Pease and there was in August gathered above one hundred quarters saith my Author that is two hundred bolls and in blossoming remained as many more growing immediately still from the hard Rock Meditate upon this in the night season and consider the widows oly enlarged untill her debt was payed and Hagars empty bottle was at last filled for the keeping alive her Son Once more observe Conveniency of food ought to be all our prayer our daily bread nec amplius vult he will have us to ask that but no more such as follow us to abate the edge of hunger in our travelling through this vale of Bacha and the sufficiency not to be required for it self but propter salutem corporis for the health of the body which possessing in praying for daily bread the continuance of it is desired but if it be wanting the obtaining of it is sued for in Give us this day our daily bread It is well said of an holy man that semper Dives est Christiana paupert as the poor Christian hath greater and larger possessions then the rich having more good things about him having God and in him a sufficiency yea an overflowing of all delectable things for if a Cup of cold water be rewarded and the widows mite be praised there shall be always some to shew mercy to such who have been merciful to others From all which we inferr this threesold duty 1. Look backward upon your life and praise him Noah builded an Altar after his deliverance from the stood and David composed a Psalm alter victory we have out-lived the sword the pestilence and famine and shall there be no song of triumph have we purchased our daily bread by a da nobis our prayers and shall there be no tuum est Regnum no Hosannah to our Father which art in Heaven for praise 2. Look forward supposing life and depend upon him Should the poorest of us all cast up our yearly expences they would amount to a pretty sum He is hearty at fourscore years and it may be never had so many farthings free together if his bounty hath flowed untill now trust his beneficence and distrust not though thy strength fail Let the worst be suggested and blessed are the religious poor for they only possesse their souls under arrest or confiscation in the keeping of which they cannot want their bread an omnipotent and invisible arm affording out of an immense Treasury sufficient to keep his servants soul alive Young Cyrus at a richly furnished Table begged liberty to do what he pleased gave one to this and another dish to that man and to a third another for teaching him to ride c. as thinking it against health to seed upon variety if God a greater King then Cyrus give this rich quâ—ntum to one and that to another and give the strength health sound sleep and a cheery heart with thy pittance thou hast enough yea abundance 3. Look present on passing life and be content The richest of us all can have but a belly-full and what they have more is not theirs if the poors bowels be not empty they may be said to be both rich alike The multitude had their fare but we read not that they got the fragments and without them having sufficient for the day we ought to be grateful Bread being a help to life not the end of life pleads at our hands industry for its acquisition It was poverty after high prodigality that made Aristotle both wise and samous and pinches ought to make us importunatly presse God for bread for food and raiment as the very words of this Prayer imports curbing our mouths girthing our bellies composing all disputes about what shall we eat in commanding us to call and allowing us but to call for our daily bread this day The matter of this Petition being discuss'd the order is to be next viewed and it is easie to behold that the Petitions relating to the Kingdom
twice in any one thing Temptation not being the cause of our falling but our inadvertence dulnesse and instability whereby we shall even without outward violence as that house builded on the sand which will sink though neither winds nor flouds should rise Satan that old Serpent being the father of sin and our own lust its mother adultery fornication uncleannesse c. its progeny Moses rod and an evil conscience its attendants diseases of the body consumptions of estate and destruction of the soul being consequences thereof we are to pray against it and temptations to it which shall suffice for the matter and follows now the order of this Petition It followeth Forgive us our debts that relating to sin past whereas Lead us not insinuats our desire to be redeemed from sin to come and in both imports the sad and perplexed estate of poor mortals who can no sooner have sin remitted but must expect from hell to be freshly assaulted and led into temptation which generally is an Usher to signal great and sad evils prayed against in the next Petition CHAP. VIII But deliver us from evil THis is a Petition calling for the effectual accomplishment of that promise made by the Holy Ghost to the fearer of the Lord viz. that he should not be visited with evil And with an Ancient is oft reckoned a distinct Petition being septima ultima the seventh and the last Yet again the same Author hath a modest videtur a probability only that it may be so Many of the modern Authors beholding this but as an explication of Lead us not into temptation will have this not to be differenced so much as to sense one Petition We are clear for his judgment who asserts parum refert it is no great matter whether we hold this to be so or no and he is pertinent among reformed Writers who concludes they may be reduced into one yet are not so one but they may be divided into two Petitions that is in the general and implicitly they are one in particular expresly and actually they are two And considering that every evil is not temptation and that in Lead us not c. we pray that no evil may be done whereas here we pray that no evil may be suffered we shall handle them as a distinct Petition which is approved not only as most ancient but as most rational clear and edifying and as natures motion is more swift the nearer it approach to the Center so shall we make the more speed to arrive at our place of rest this Prayers signaculum Amen It is to be adverted the Vulgar Translation hath in Luke curtail'd this Prayer by ommission of these words holding it contained in Lead us not into temptation but being originally in both the Evangelists man is not to be wise above what is written especially when the matter written continet tantum hath as much in it as the retained part which here it doth for pray we not for the doing of Gods will for the coming of his Kingdom only that we may be delivered from evil whether visible or invisible In this last as in all the other Petitions we shall make enquiry into the matter and next the order of this the first hath deliverance in its mouth and evil in its eye à malo so sin may be called from its blacknesse and therefore as evil it defileth or from its cause say others for it came by an apple and therefore it is evill it causeth deadnesse This is certain there is both natural and moral evil There is natural evil in but least in this Petition blindnesse deafnesse bruises deformity or any casualty marring the beauty of man is herein deprecated in this the child prayes against cuts hurts before he play that Mephibosheths misfortune happen not unto him in his sports There is moral evil in and most in this Petition against sin our prayers here ascend our heart continually as the sea casting forth the dirt and mire of adulteries and all lascivousnesse in their acts or fumes and falling down by either in shours of vengeance except scatter'd by the beames and rayes of mercy we say with the Psalmist Incline not our hearts to any evil thing to practise wicked works Really performing what was thought Hypopocritically written by a vain-glorious Braggadochi over the door of his house the Friend or Son of God liveth here let no evil enter when as Diogenes questioned how the Inhabitant himself should enter he being excessively vitious of which extream there are so many imitators that were Timon the Man-hater alive he would encounter with multitudes naturally so torrid so rough so scorching contentious that his once admired dandling young Alcibiades for nothing but because he saw in him fair symptomes or rather shrew'd signs of much future mischief to be done by him towards his Countrey I say this act of his should be razed from Authentick record as wonderful his confederats should be so numeroâ—s evil having so universally infected nature mankind and man There is also political evil in but last in this Petition Sin and punishment drunkennesse and poverty are not many leagues distant not many say I yea not one each sinner as a Muscovia servant carrying a Curbatch at his girdle wherewith he is to be beaten when found offending the Delinquents breast not to say his belt having Scorpions tyed unto it wherewith he is to be scourged and shall be tortured when doing a misse But generals not being pungent the evils we pray against are more particularly these from evil that is from an evil conscience which followeth evil doing When Adam sinned he was first ashamed then afraid conscience under guilt may as a dog in the warm Sun of worldly affluence sleep in or at the door of the benummed but in the gloomy weather of â—ading pleasure will in defyance of all resistance fright and tear the sinner either out of his rest or out of his sin Pestilence and Famine attending evil actions with evil beasts the sword with terrifying diseases are with evil interwoven and lest our cities be depopulat our families scattered our beauty blasted we beg deliverance from evil From evil that is from Satan the tempter to all evil he is here so understood that some will have no other evil thought upon that he is understood is certain but that other evils are not likewise included seems grosse there being no circumstance of restraint we are bound to take the word in its largest extension though he as more eminent then others propter excessum malitiae for his abounding wickednesse may be principally eyed who having nothing to say against us yet irreconciliably pursueth us for hurt Against which wickednesse of his even of his we are here commanded to pray the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Masculine signifying properly Satan and in