the wise upon his religious son which being ineffectual roared out to the spirits themselves Inducias Inducias O let me alone untill the morning this as a Beacon is set up by an holy man that our lives being more vertuous our death may be more consolatory The death of the prophane is the sadest being ill first in leaving the world which they love worse in their souls removing from the body but worst of all in their being both soul and body adjudged to eternal condemnation It is observed of Egypt that after the flourishing of many famous Churches the Gospel being planted by the Apostles Alexandria it self having the Evangelist Mark Nephew to St. Peter for its Pastor or Bishop yet justo Dei Judiciâ— by reason of their sin the inhabitants being exemplarly wicked full of blasphemy and rape is now without God and generally hath a greater hatred to Christianity then the ordinary Saracens for which they are destined to eternal plagues Let this age know and every man in it fear and stand in awe for what is it Egypt had of ungodliness whereof we have not plentiful examples with this aggravation that we have had of old Christianity and of late great judgments Yet there is a Cautioner a Surety even Jesus who will pay the Creditor unto whom it is alike who pay him for by Christs stripes we are healed he entred into bond yea into prison for us and by rising from the dead the third day he both declared himself to be the Son of God and of his giving satisfaction to the utmost of all that was owing unto him making us thereby free from the Law of sin and death Yet so miserably are we deluded with self and self-conceit that debt is daily contracted by taking up more mercy abusing more time neglecting much grace thwarting many invitations quenching many good motions and by inadvertency falling into numerous temptations which continually call for fresh suits for forgivenesse and consider'd might cause expostulation with sin O peccata O wickednesse how easily dost perswade us to commit thee but with what difficulty do we procure riddance from thee While thou smiles we imbrace thee but while embracing thou art killing us to death and in death Eye the debter and he is so unable that his very soul cannot be full restitution eye the Creditor and he is so inexorable that he will be payed the utmost farthing by our selves or by our Cautioner and his suretyship is to be humbly intreated for for they are our debts and no secret conveyance no private contract can turn them over to another hand Eye the debt it is deplorable there are original debts our parents debts our own debts of childhood ignorance knowledge debts of presumption infirmity against counsel against conscience and against threats debts of the Sabbath of the Week of our Family and of our Neighbour-hood c. debts of our waking of our sleeping of our talking and of our thinking c. offences of the Chamber sins of the Shop and iniquities of the Street so that all of our selves and each man for his brother may cry Innumerable evils have compassed us about and no way for deliverace but by acquittance and no way for that but forgivenesse Over and above reflect upon that magna lenitas great goodnesse infinit patience ineffable mercy and long-suffering God hath shown unto us that we might call for this forgivenesse having this comfortable Scripture I will not remember thy sins Forgive us our debts c. FORGIVE A short word but of large and extended sense much used in Gods promises and oft pressed in the Saints petitions and the word properly signifies a sending back something to the place whence they came Sin came from hell and here the soul would have it remanded to the same land of darknesse As it stands in this Prayer it denotes somewhat which relates to God and somewhat relating to our selves As it respects God it weighs 1. His commiseration of us because of our debts Goodnesse is an ordinary plea with all the holy and they sound that the Lord as a Father pitieth them that fear them that pray And the liere who taught us to pray this Prayer hath promised his Fathers mercy saith a Father mercy cometh ex bonitate Dei purely from goddnesse yet must be drawn from him by innocence vertue and obedience as did Abraham Isaac and Iacob Ioseph Iob and Moses saith another He discovers love in desiring our salvation in euring our wounds in teaching us prayers in pardoning our sins and upbraiding us with our unbelief 〈…〉 there not mercy in the word Father and goodnesse and hope in the word Forgive Manasseh his Prayer and Iudas his Confession were alike but he pardoneth iniquity because he delighteth in mercy In a dearth at Corinth Theocles and others advised Creditors to remit their debts for easing of the poor but being refused he acquitted his own and those who contemned the motion were in invincible rage slain by their debters excited to extremity by poverty and necessity we have fair offers and better conditions both a remission offered and a reward for acceptance of that tender that as the earth expects showres and light from Heaven so man is to expect yea he is called to look up for truth and mercy 2. His aversion detected not to exact those debts What is man but dust what is his birth but loathsome and shameful to himself and at best so contemptible that God might say to Justice Let him alone non dignus est ira Caesaris he is not worthy of my wrath Iob thought of this when he uttered And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one and bringest me into Iudgment 3. His indiminishable possession though he should remit the debt Admit our skin could ransome our life what would he gain or if he freely absolve it what would be his losse Knowing this he puts us neither to call for ease nor time but for a forgiving Accept of the precept by begging a free acquittance and so much the rather that bounty and liberality is to be shew'd quantum potest non idoneis where there is the least hopes of advantage in requital which in our arguing for Heaven is an excellent rule The Roman and famous Alexander would exclaim against his shy yet deserving Courtiers why do you not ask something from me do it that I neither be your debter nor complained of as a slighter of your merit Yet what he gave was neither silver nor gold nor out of his own treasure but bona punitorum the goods or wealth of forâ—eited malefactors c. not diminishing thereby his Revenue Here is a greater Emperour without merit giving of his own requesting of his foes to plead remission of injuries done to himself for their good who have done the injury 4. His dominion or just power to forgive the
for thee â—â—on being a Giant in these matters or if that offend a Gamaliel in things Divine or to peruse them with judgment and brotherly-Kindnesse which is done when thou forgives us our trespasses that is correct the Printers faults with thy Pen for he Errs and the Authors with thy love for he also is a Man Farewel The Author to his Pater Noster AWake my drowsie Sheets arise you Sons of Day Accost with peace run you to the High-way Plead not for Faction Strife Debate but rather Entice to Concord Peace that all my say OUR Father Unmask this Gypsie Earth that doating Man May loath her Blacknesse and in loathing scan Her Comforts shortnesse see her paths un-even Next love respects the things which are in HEAVEN Th'exchange-bells rings to Truck for Trade they run Pride here Lust there Attempts to overcome He walks as Herod Centers in Vulgar Fame Teach them Hosan ' to sing in Hallowed be THY NAME Sad Rueful Projects Harrasseth the Mind Of plodding Earthlings God and Christ pretend Them boldly check be pressing nor be dumb They Seek their own Forgets THY KINGDOM come Some Talk but Do not Some Do neither well Unfold the Cheat endure their Anger Fell The Edger Disputant at last wants Breath And then perswade him to THY WILL be done in Earth The Crooked and Vntoward Rules men take 〈◊〉 Measures by For Glories Crown forsake Move not for Pin-sleev'd Faith be driven By neither side But do As it is DONE in Heaven A narrow Heart 's a plague an idle Hand 's accurs'd A doubting Prayer's unheard a Nabal's Heart shall burst Ply you your Plough I 'l say to it God speed That 's move to Work Then pray GIVE us our daily BREAD Much God bestow's what Man receives is lent him And what Man cancells God scores out at Reckoning Review the Bill Pardon ere you be Call'd for Teaching FORGIVE our debts as we FORGIVE our debtor Destroying Grins hath Hells black Master found T' ensnare poor foolish Man But Grace hath Bound His fiercer Hands And to avoid Seduction Religious Care doth sense LEAD'S not into TEMPTATION Sin lyes at Door our Eyes are Bent upon It Our Hearts respect It yet our Death is in It Nor Power have we t'ward Hands Tongues or Devil Despond not though Pray But DELIVER us from evil As Subjects besecure if Foyl'd yet Conflict on While Trump of Glory sounds For THINE is the KINGDOM Fear not to Prosper watch the Praying Hour Lift up your Eyes when saint Receive THE POWER Of Conquering Triumph promis'd the Heavenly Livâ—â— The Humble Saint That is The GLORY for ever That â—nowledge of your Rules prove no Mans Baine â—erswade the World with me to Say AMEN PATER NOSTER OUR FATHER OR The Lords Prayer explained c. MATTH VI. IX After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever Amen AS the Sacrifices in the Jewish Temple did in general signifie Christ and the Christians duty so those called the daily ones in the opinion of Divines did intimate the indispensible duty of prayer and praise in which a believer is to be daily because continually exercised every morning and every evening one Lamb at the least was to be offered and the time of that Sacrifice under and in the Gospel is called the hour of prayer which Peter and Iohn and Cornelius observed and about that time also was the vail of the Temple rent a symbole of the abolishment of all Jewish rites and of that future confidence which all Nations might have in their immediat access unto God in which the believers delight and the penitents comfort hath since stood which made our Saviours Disciples desire to be instructed in that duty by their Master and are advised not to go to Ierusalem but look upward where ever they be and say Our Father c. And what he said to them in private he said here publickly to the multitude After this manner pray ye Our Father which art in heaven c. Purposing to enter upon a discovery of some of those grand truths folded up in the Lords Prayer It may prove advantagious to imitate men in the opening of a curious Cabinet first view the carved out-work and then the particular excellencies of each single Drawer and therefore it is proper to speak of Prayer in general which shall open our understandings the more prosperously to apprehend the fecundity and special rarities locked up in the Lords Prayer in particular In pursuing of which design we shall in these following Sections consider 1. what Prayer is and its being 2. Its effects and concomitants 3. Its obstacles and hinderances 4. It s duty and necessity 5. It s root and tryal SECT I. THe object or person prayed unto altering the nature of a prayer hath induced the learned to frame a distinction betwixt a civil and a religious one the first being that by which in courtesie something from our neighbour is demanded as Abrahams servant of Rebekah saying Let me I pray thee drink a little water of thy pitcher whereas the latter is the devout intreaty of a religious soul for attaining of grace and mercy from God in his heavenly designs and undertakings which from Authors hath received several definitions It is called a Religious Invocation of God by which we ask necessary good things for soul or body and deprecats the contrary judgments thus Abraham prayed for Sodom Moses for Israels sin and David against Sauls punishment It is said to be a religious exercise proper to rational creatures by which they reverence God as their Superiour and owns him to be the fountain of all their good therefore it is truly said of an Ancient that in many things men differs from the Angels as in Nature Wisdom Knowledge yet in calling upon God and speaking to him in duty there is no diversity at all so that Prayer separats us from bruits and unites us to the holy Angels It is known that Christ is said to pray yet it is also to be understood that he doth it according to his Humane Nature in which respect he hath a superiour and though the Spirit be said to pray yet it is by a Trope because he helps us to pray and aids men in uttering their desires But when the Beasts and Fowls are said to cry unto God it is not to be imagined they pray but in a very improper as well as in a large sense that duty being peculiar to Angels and men and the man who doth it not seems not to be reasonable being in that particular more ignorant
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
hands the presented morsel of whatsoever kind Knowing that like an indulgent parent if we receive this or that contentedly from him he may give us choice and liking in all other matters and study like a father to please us being obedient in cloaths or money He that peruseth Solomons Dream with the Response thereof may understand the meaning of this rule Christ prayed to his Father for deliverance from the bitter Cup and though S. Matthew shews he drank it yet S. Paul relates he was heard in what he asked but how he submitted to his Fathers will and Angels comâ—orted and strengthned him so against fear that with a daring Majesty he faced those murtherers with an I am he Behold the Handmaid of the Lord said Mary Be it unto me according to thy word Let us be ready for service and we shall be crowned with the reward In all things let it be according to his Will with us and it shall be his will to do great things for us and as Holy is his Name so holy and just are all his purposes and then are we holy when we know it 4. Father is a more comprehensive stile and so fitter for our weakness As every word in this Prayer hath an ample sense and each Petition of an enlarged nature so this word Father though short in Letters yet of so huge bulk in sense as would puzle Angels to expound When we pray for daily bread we also intreat an easy bed good rest for wholesome meat at home and kind friends without a fair way when we travel for a good horse when we ride sound Ship when we sail and for seemly cloaths when we visit our acquaintance so that the word bread is of a copious nature and this word Father not short of it in signification comprehending Creation Regeneration Preservation Discrimination 1. Our Creation Each son of man is a son of Adam who was the son of God so that our radical being was from him and stamped at first by the hand of his power being Earth with Life Reason and Religion which not only as brethren binds us in affection to one another but as children units our tongues to express this word Pater Father all of us being created by him I have somewhere read that in a firait Lady Elizabeth afterward Queen of England cryed Lord look upon the wounds of thy hands and be merciful to the works of thy own hands 2. Our Regeneration Christ having taught us now under the fall to call Our Father minds us not only that he did make but hath also re-made us At first indeed in Adam we had great possessions and our service altogether praise but by his not paying the contracted fore-quit-rent of exact obedience forefeited his priviledges and we as heirs of his body lost our inheritance and being filii diaboli sons of the devil we are born again and become a-new filii Dei In evidence whereof the eternal Son of the same Father teacheth us confidently in Prayer to call his Father and God our God and Father Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant having procured peace in Heaven for a re-admission into our heavenly Paradise hath given us power to become the sons of God in our consciences and by the the testimony of the Spirit knowing he came from the bosome of the Father shewing the good Fathers good pleasure of our addressing our selves to him though we have back-slidden with love confidence and joy in our Father Thy Kingdom come c. This to the reprobate cannot be affirmed God in this last sense being no more his Father or they his children spiritually then David the son of Goliah when he sought against him or Pipes and Organs the off-spring of Iubal because he made them 3. Our preservation We can speak and call for help hope look and rejoice in the very expectation of our Fathers succour yea benefactors are called Fathers and where there is a personal agreement to perform all offices of love the recipient from respect may use the appellation Father He gave us milk and life and cloaths appointed for us the weeks of the harvest numbreth our hairs preserveth our bones It s true his Angels have charge over us yet as a Father he hath his eyes upon us though those Angels as servants have a command to lead us sor our greater security Our good things he giveth us as his glory and kingdom evil things he puts far from us as our necessities and debts all desirable things he hath promised us and we believe him because the Kingdom and Power and Glory is his of all which we are to have a share being his off-spring 4. Our Discrimination It is a compellation differencing us from Heathens who know not God the Father from Jews and Turks who believe not in the Son and from all who fight against him as an enemy Tremell that famous Jew and Translator of the Syriack-Bible being at his death asked concerning his faith answered Vivat Christus pereat Barrabas Let Christ live and â—arrabas be crucified Distinguishing himselâ— by this from his blood-thirsty fore-Fathers and numbering himself among those whose confidence was in Jesus which Our Father also doth he adopting us only in his Son 4. Father is a more aluring stile and so more conformable to prayer In our Petitions we are to exercise the Graces of Hope Faith and Charity unto which this title brings in singular supports on Gods part upon mans account 1. On Gods part For we in Prayer can lay hold upon his affection Though we be as grashoppers and unworthy to be admitted to glory yet worthy is the Lamb his Son our Saviour who hath procured it for us in whom his providence saith of us to all his creatures what David said of Absalom to all his Commanders Deal gently with the young man with the old man with the sick person and tender infant for my sake though the Prodigal had spent his All yet because he confides in his Father and returns bemoans and repents he is arrayed with honourable raiment entertained with delicious sare and honoured with melodious musick to chear his heart to beautifie his countenance and attract respect from beholders 2. On our part for we in this life ought to have filial conversation This Prayer is not for dogs and therefore taught only to Sons which we are when we obey reverence and walk in our Fathers footsteps The debauch'dnesse of Angustus Daughters made him call them not children but imposthums boils of his body Shall not God much more reprove reproach them who give out they are begotten of him when the seed of the Serpent remaineth in them and the poyson thereof spreading to the infection of others contrary to duty nature and profession because they confess our Father Our Father THe eminent and transcendent acts by which the Name of Father is assumed by
Fathers House into which if thou go and ask thou wilt receiver a blessing One dying in a strange countrey was somewhat dejected but roused by Anaxagoras with a Be of good cheer the way to the dead is alike to all Let us rejoice for so is the way to heaven Let the foundations be destroyed the Lord is in his holy Temple his eyes behold his eye-lids try the children of men And when the wind bloweth and the Marriner at his wits end yet this Father hears and brings him to his desired haven All which considered as Chymists call quick-silver Pater omnium mirabilium in a juster sense we ought to acknowledge this Father the Father of all wonders the parent of all miracles and the most wonderful Father being maker begetter preserver of men and Angels Moreover from our Fathers we have our well-being our natural birth like the purest wheat is attended with the dust straw chaff of original corruption from which young ones ought by their parents to be even by threshing I mean smiting winnowed and cleared off and by that reduced to good order In which the Lacedemonians were famous requiring of their youth these duties to the aged Salutari appeti decedi assurgi deduci reduci consuli And to salute them at a distance to draw near them in affection to give place to them in motion and to rise up to them in approaching to lead them in their stumbling to conduct them in their wandring and to consult them in our determining is a respect we owe the aged as they are fathers but to this Father in Heaven the Ancient of Dayes we owe all these and more and as a natural parent naturally conveyeth the natural life to his son so he is to labour to propagate the knowledge of his sons duty in a gracious instructing about the nature of holy and comfortable conversation and for that is indebted to his son Nutrition Education Instruction Possession which being viewed God is to be owned and highly regarded reverenced and loved as an excelling all Progenitor Man having eminently from him 1. Nutrition A parent is to give his son bread not a stone but it 's he in heaven must both send the loaf and give the stomach heat to digest it or the bones shall never strengthen And for all the care Fathers take we are directed to look upward for our daily bread and to obtain which the greatest Father must bow his knee and pray for his own yea shew me that Father that by taking thought can add though he have meat one cubit to his sons stature this heavenly-one excepted and the omission of daily prayer may be pass'd without a censure but speculation making this certain that duty ought not to move retrograde 2. Education This is held so necessary for our well-being that we judge him not a Father who neglects it and what an Orator said of Eloqution may be said of Education It is the first the second the third thing the main thing towards children to be performed The Moralist forbids softnesse and we must advise against viciousnesse And as there are many arguments in Scripture demonstrating Gods goodnesse so this of Education is performed by him in so supream a manner that his righteousnesse is argued from his teaching sinners in the way and his saving truths are so industriously inculcated that the very damned in that day shall be made without excuse A profligat youth led to execution desired to speak to his mother and in stead of whispering bit a piece from her face saying Sit hoc maternae educationis pretium Let this be her reward for my education for it is not the Magistrat but my mother that hath brought me to the Gallows This gave ground to that of the King Train up a child in the way that he should go Initia enter him in it at first and hold him so in the love of it that he may delight in the exercise of vertue for ever Let search be made God hath not one son that is idle or a drunkard or that obeyeth not his voice or that is cruel to his own flesh David kept sheep and God kept his heart as harmlesse as his flock yea when he turned unto sinful folly he was brought back again with the rods of men So far is God from allowing vice through fond I should say sinful indulgency But admit the highest degree of detestable vice no Father but he in heaven can remove the old and implant a new heart seriously to contemn for hidden pleasures 3. Instruction He can so teach that the greatest dolt shall learn wisdom and smallest infant shall cry Hosanna making them both wise unto salvation that like little Samuel they shall grow before the Lord by his own Spirit teaching them within at the heart into which Cantore an earthly Father dare not so much as look One Author mentioneth of a dull Prince so doltish that he was never capable to learn the names of the four and twenty letters in the Christs Crosse-row not when he had four and twenty Pages waiting upon him each one being named according to a letter the first A the second B c. So vitiated a brain can be throughly cleansed by the eye of this Father and their capacity so extended as to understand the Law by which he shall be wiser then all his other teachers then all his enemies But suppose we had all knowledge yet who is fit to pray except he inâ—use in us the very thoughts of spiritual desires and who can hold out in prayer unless he uphold what he begun and make that flourish which he did sow and bring that to perfection by his mercy which he first rooted in us by his love 4. Possession Their Fathers like Iacob provide for their Iosephs and as Iob his daughters A dutiful father will give inheritance to his sons among their brethren yet their portions being earthly perisheth as dung while the legacy of that heavenly Parent being better then Gold because riches and honour are both of them durable which not being here found Bonds Contracts Testaments are crowded with this name Death which being excluded and of no force in the inheritance of the Saints Be strong and of good courage Fear not little flock it is not only your Fathers pleasure but his good pleasure to give you a kingdom little though you be in number nature and beauty yet the Kingdom shall be yours which for Unity Stability and Majesty is not once to be named with the Terrene-Conquests trembling and doubtâ—ull parents bequeaths their covetous and contentious issue As men are called Fathers by nature so from favour too yet when their kindnesse is ballanced with his in this Preface the Crown of all glory and paternity is alone to be set upon his head whether you eye their Benefits Cares and Sagenesse 1. For Benefits Iobs
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
all the cause of those devastations and miseries wherewith the Church is harrass'd each Christian may say with him in the Satyr Ego omnium scelerum materia ego causa sum I have aided I have helped I have been the Author of all 3. Examplarly by doing all things in his Name Paul being put into the Ministry gave thanks to God before all and Peter acknowledged that he healed the impotent man in the Name of Iesus and Numa who first taught the Romans Religion enacted that God should not be worshipped obiter or casu at it were in passing by or by the by but to have the whole mind intent upon the service which beautifying Religion makes it graceful yea taking and it is observed that Scipio Affricanus never entered upon privat or publick business untill in the Capitol he had consulted god and was thereupon thought to be Iupiter's Son It ought to be the study of all but most especially of great man to be patterns of good works that men seeing them may glorifie God and it ought to be the duty of all men to read the Scriptures frequent Churches visit Neighbours abide in their Families as they are directed to sing Psalms viz. to the praise and glory of God Hallowed be thy Name WE are now to reflect upon the speciality of hallowing his Name and secluding all others that they do not so much as mingle with the glory attributed to it which is insinuated in the Pronoun THY NAME in which an Emphasis is apparent a Seclusion is intended 1. An Emphasis is apparent signifying that our hearts countenances voices ought to be elevated and our minds upon nothing inferiour to himself THY NAME THY NAME speaks the temper of the supplicant to be altogether holy and eying nought save Divine Attributes 2. A Seclusion is intended There being none like unto him among all the gods It must be conceded that there is no name so high to be hallowed as that by which he is called The Father is the God of glory so is the Son the Lord of glory and the holy Spirit is the Spirit of glory the sense of which being diffused in and virtuating the Soul of the Petitioner his demands are conform to his Fathers declaration I am the Lord that is my Name and my glory I will not give to another And that God be not pillag'd of that which he is resolved to keep do but consider His Eminency His Singularity His Eminency above all other gods Kings Angels are called gods yet both these wait upon him and their glory but the Jewels that adorn his foot-stool THY NAME is so singular that it admits of no companion neither is it capable of any augmentation To speak Scripturally no god hath a Name but he and where there is no name we are to attribute no praise Vna revera numen est unicum there is but one God and therefore but one Name unto which truth the wisest of the old Philosophers did assent A great Herauld delineating the particulars that grace and make a man honourable sheweth that Vertue good Parentage Wealth Office Countenance a good Name and a gracious Sirname compleat a person and if an union of these creat nobility how ought our Lord Jesus Christ to be respected in whom all these meet so in their causes as without his concurrence they shall be in none as in their subject Behold his power to act All arms before him are but as straw and the strongest is but feeble It would puzle the Creation to make one drop of rain or scatter one cloud or command a dewy morning In all our undertakings if not fools we shall say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that Glory not therefore in thy wisdom or riches for these flee away thou saith I am add the Epithet rich or wise yet thou art not for in speaking thou art changing and no more to be seen what thou wast then we can behold again the same water in a running river Behold also his wisdom to discern He only knows the intentions causes nature and the end of things The device of saving poor man after his fall was above the imagination of the highest Angel and for Adam all he could invent was an Apron of Fig-leaves but a Garment of Righteousness never once entred into his head untill it pierced his ear in the promise He heholds the heart so clearly which even to Angels themselves is dark nisi revelentur except revealed to them by God or some external sign concluded by them that Ferdinand and fourth of Spain putting two to death for a conspiracy both of them appointed the King to appear before the Tribunal of God within thirty days to give an account why they were put to death for they were innocent at the limited time while others thought the King had been sleeping he was really dead and in probability answering the charge One Turson among the Goths condemning an innocent and beholding the execution was by the prisoner commanded that very hour to appear before God to answer for putting to death an innocent and no sooner had the executioner done his office then the Judge expired and fell from his horse Many things of this nature might be inserted to evince that all ought to cease from flattering themselves in magnifying their own opinion of Saints or humours and ascribe only Glory to the name of IAH our God Behold further his goodness to forgive Peters charity was indeed hot but not to the eight degree it could not reach to forgive above seven times But as there is in us a multitude of gross sins so with him there are multitudes of tender mercies expressed in the number of seventy times seven which yet is not a determinat number as if at that we should close but thereby is signified that our mercy should never end The Law being given us in ten Commandments which being broken sin adds one and makes the number of eleven and seven comprehending all time because time runs through the seven dayes of the Creation by which we are to press upon our selves the remitting upon Gods part the breach of the ten Commandments committed in any of the seven dayes and declare the same to our Brother crying peccavi after his offending though he owned us a hundred talents for it were an indignity to our Saviours boundless love to collect from his seventy times seven the non-forgiveness of seventy times eight since a more plain rule is before us touching pardon which is as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us and he forgiveth all Besides six is a number of work and labour wherein God wrought but the seventh is a day of rest and seventy times seven sheweth that God when our sins are at the highest rests in pardoning grace and is at friendship with the penitent and declaring the same by his Spirit
obedience There are that think by will peace is signied and then the prayer may be thus understood let the peace of God be on Earth as it is in Heaven Yet as correcting themselves or at least not resting in those wide Expositions it is agreed that sicut in Coelo as it is in Heaven imports our zeal for having such insused gifts that as none offends God in neglect of his will above so we so strengthned may be able and so sanctified may be qualified as never to be guilty of the contrary vice disobedience never respecting our own but alwayes his will It is also asserted that this Petition includes our behaviour in word and deed to be so modell'd as theirs are whose habitations are in Heaven adding that because of earth its being a mixed Kingdom where his will is often neglected it is the tenor of this request that never more Satans but his will be done only as it is in Heaven for this would be pondered and weighted that we pray not for the knowing but doing of his will Moreover the words are exponded to signifie our desire of and longing for that blessed union and conjunction of those different Families in Heaven and Earth that they beacted by the command of one Lord and guided with one will which ought to be his for it is THY will And in regard that much is done in earth through the wickednesse of the times the desire of the flesh the pleasure and terrour of the Devil we proportion our solicitations by applying our selves to the Throne of God that flesh may be subdued the wickednesse of the times reformed and Satan interrupted and that one will be in earth and Heaven viz. Gods Angels and Men the two last devoting themselves to the will of the first that God may be King over all the Earth And in this sense and to this meaning the generality of Interpreters both ancient and modern doth agree and subscribe It is noted that these words as it is in Heaven ought to be understood in the Petitions preceeding though here only expressed sensing the Prayer thus Hallowed be thy Name in Earth as it is in Heaven Thy Kingdom come in Earth as it is in Heaven and then Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven That as there is no life but what is from God so there may be no will but what shall flow from him The word Earth may be corrupted Hebrew that Language expressing it Eretz and the old Germains from which most of our Monosyllables come expressed it Artham from Em a Mother and Eretz the Earth that being like another Evah the Mother of us all and afterward they called it Ertham then Erd whence Earth a derivation more probable because more ancient then from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Era the Roman word Terra is deduced from Tero the Earth being broken and teared asunder for mans maintenance and for man must it be here understood the Holy Ghost by a holy Synecdoche taking a part for the whole man being born in it nursed by it and at last destined to return into it To passe by his earthy and fleshly lusts may and often is called Earth which is also called Arida dry Land and Humus moist Earth and Tellus the ground the word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from the fruitfulnesse and fertilty though it be such a condition as we find the Earth had not when we first heard of it being then Tohu Vabohu that is Informis Inanis without form and void but now being by sin corrupted in its holinesse and by transgression cursed with barrennesse we here request that men its inhabitants be renewed their wills sanctified and their hearts like good ground once again made fruitful by yeelding obedience unto God that earth it self may be blessed with fertilty and become well watered like the Paradise of God By Earth then understanding Men who are of it and in it and by it again understanding only living men we proceed applying this Petition to the rule So pray ye 1. Looking to man as earth in his formation or creation we are to pray for others If the multitude of sinful men in the old world merited through their earthlinesse wickednesse and malice to be termed Earth what now doth in this last age the multitude of the Nations deserve to be named by more appositly then Earth Earth Earth for whom our devtion must have wings being obliged to pray for them whom Peter preached unto viz. the Parthians Medes Elamits and the dwellers in Mesopotamia c. As also we are to embrace both the Indies in the arms of our brotherly charity that as the Inhabitants thereof bear the image of the earthly by the disobedience of one they may bear the image of the Heavenly Man by the obedience of another Earth of it self is naturally cold and dry and will not easily be brought from its natural shape Saul untill knocked down and nature until humbled will not say Lord what wilt thou have me to do It is the Lords voice in the Gospel must bring all into obedience and therefore Religion when we are on our knees suggests us to what Paul dreamed viz. that a poor Indian or a man of Macedonia stands before us saying Come over and help us that by your prayers we may be brought to the knowledge of the everlasting Covenant 2. Looking to man in his vocation and because that is upon earth he is to pray for himself It is wide yet pious note observed from that of the Psalmist from the end of the earth will I call unto thee for a terrae finibus clamat because living in the flesh he was absent from Christ and that being as earth he cryed and groaned with the Apostle for help being willing to be freed from that necessity of abiding in the body This is sure in going about our imployment from our house to the street from that as to an Exchange to buy and sell we are but as Servants to our Masters and must account to him how much of his will and how little of our own we have performed and professing our selves with Iames servants of God and of our Lord Iesus Christ intrusted with his Money in Purse his Goods in Shop his Commodities in the Ware-house his Garments in the Wardrob we ought daily to look into our Accounts and register our actings that at reckoning it may be sound we have done his will 3. Looking upon the Christian in his profession he lies if he be satisfied with earth with the Bird we take our meat from it making Heaven the Standart and measure of our doings not so stupified with earths Diapery or so much embased with the sensual pleasures thereof as not to make so much as our talking be unburnished with Celestial purity it being for this the Christian buys his Bible respect
To these we might add a third viz Gods goodnesse to the body At the giving of the Law he gave man six dayes to work for its upholding and at the ordering of prayer you see he allowes one Petition for the same end the Ravens brought Elisha bread and flesh to eat and the brook did afford him water in a drought here lest natural strength should sail and the body languish by immoderat fasting we are advised to pray for all these in this one word bread notwithstanding our attendance about Heavenly doctrine To these three might be added a fourth that is our charity to all in the body We say not Me but Vs and Our bread which phrase is as wide as the sea and as large as the earth and commands us to pray for bread to all in the flesh or in the Lord our glory and honour not consisting in our wealth strength youth beauty nor in nothing of the worlds product but he that gloryeth let him glory in this that he knoweth and seeketh after God and releaseth his poor servants laying up in them a good foundation against the time to come For charity is omnium Artium quaestuosissima the most enriching trade delivering us from the power of death providing us oyl for our lamps fitting us for the great wedding and building for us everlasting habitations And in this case the words of Pius the second Pope may be applied to an officious Chambersain hindering true information of affairs Knowest thou not I have the Papacy for others rather then for my self Let the Reader put in Wealth Riches Power Honour in place of Papacy and he may learn his duty Prepare your appetites for receiving as God shall direct us to distribute this bread in our old method by shewing first the matter and next the order of this Petition the former we lay before you in four pieces 1. The thing asked that is bread 2. The manner it is askad by and that is imperative give us 3. What kind of bread we ask and that is our own our bread 4. The time wherein we ask this our own bread which is this day If there remain any fragments we shall gather them together putting them in the basket of the word dayly which shewes the extension how long we would have this bread given us which is dayly or day by day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bread so called from its fitnesse for us it being fit as a staff for an old man or from its perfectnesse as having all other things under the crust thereof so eminently that it is conceived the Roman word Panis is from the Greek word Pan as if it had every thing in it or all things understood by it it may be deduced from the word Pascendo as if it alone sed men or were his proper because chief food Our Saxon Ancestors called it Brood the Germains now Brot whence probably comes now the word Bread and all from the Greek Brotus that is Meat in a most emphatick sense all meats yea the least of meats being generally unwholesome if not loathsome without bread so that bread by interpretation is all things necessary for the being or well-being of man and a sufficiency of them in that which is most necessary and most excellent which is BREAD and here dayly to be demanded and having it to conclude we have sufficiency of food Ordo petitionum cogit me saith a great Cardinal the method of the Prayer enforceth me by bread to understand not that of the body but of the soul as the Gospel and the Sacraments c. to which sense many of the Ancients do adhere and many Romish Interpreters but he erred not that undestood it de utroque of them both But to the Cardinals ordo I oppose a Jesuites existimatio existimamus nihilominus for all that saith he we conclude that here we are to understand corporal or bodily bread It is observed that where bread hath a mystical signification there is added some word to discover its mytaphysick sense as the bread of God bread from Heaven bread of life c. which insorceth a spiritual sense but as it stands here there is no circumstance insringing its literal interpretation all things divine or spiritual being couched in the other Petitions thy Kingdom come and thy will be done and yet in a remote sense soul-bread may be an orthodox glasse relating to Christ and the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist but in its proximat signification we shall understand it vulgarly for the ordinary staff of life with the consent of reformed Interpreters Take then Reader thy bill and for bread and in bread and with bread write down meat drink raiment strong house wholsome air upright friends good neighbours honest servants dutiful children and a vertuous wife understand also prudent Magistrates wise Counsellours a fruitful Soyl and a peaceable Countrey for all these are good and profitable to men for these the best of men have prayed and these also hath God promised to his people The Pilgrim may have bread in his Budget yet perish on the top of Snowy Mountains the Mariner his Bisket and his Bottle yet be swallowed up by insulting waves the diseased may have the learned'st Medicinal receipts yet be Bedrid None of which things being congruously reducible to the other Petitions they relating immediatly to God ought in equity if not in necessity to be brought to this Petition as their proper continent All of them being necessary for life comfortable for life helpers to a godly life and enjoyed and prayed for by the godly in this life 1. Necessary for life This is so natural a truth that though the Scripture shew'd not famine to be a Judgment we were able by the light of Nature to read punishment in the looks of the very bruit Bread is called the staff of life and that is sometimes broke implying by its breaking either the want of all corn provision or withdrawing from the grain its natural strength and vigour whereby it having nourishment men â—aint for it is bread that strengthens mans heart Consult man in his highest attainments and the miseries in which he is envalp'd maketh his condition deplorable and to individuat the same in prayer would make devotion and his other affairs incompatible wherefore by an holy Synecdoche we here have part for the whole God our Father knowing how to apply our sense of desiring bread to the present or soreseen exigence we are or shall be under The Sea-man senseth it calm winds the eye of providence discerns a necessity of baiting a leak The Traveller means it good accommodation the Father graciously adds liberation from Robbers one may want sleep in a soft and another cannot get it in a hard bed thus mans calamities cumulat themselves and multiplied against him he is taught to encounter all prevent all to pray against all
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
debt This Petition hath a peculiar respect to the Preface Our Father because none can forgive but God it being his Law his Grace his Son his Gospel we sin against Hence the Indulgences to be bought at Rome and the Pardon 's even for sin not yet but to be committed a greater grace then ever God promised two whereof King Iames of blessed memory upon this Petition doth protest he saw are to be detested this being a more sure word of Prophesie I even I am be that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake mark for mine own sake neither for Peters nor the Virgins c. 5. His Iustification though he should make us stand to those debts They are our debts and though he delay to acquit us his Throne is to be frequented Petitions to be iterated and forgive us our debts importunatly to be demanded untill the vigorous exaction of the Law be repelled by the mellifluous sentence of the Gospel Be of good chear thy sins are forgiven Not intending to pose any with that question whether they could be content of damnation if God so pleased God putting no such question to us but joyning his will and our salvation together we affirm that in Gods demurring to answer or delaying the assurance of remission notwithstanding of our prayer he is not to be deemed severe nor imputed unjust but in his seeming greatest rejectment of thy petitions let Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord be the burden of thy devotion Forgive As it eyes our selves in this Prayer is not limited to the strict sense of the word forgive but hath a greater latitude evincing sorrow confession inability 1. Sorrow for our wantonnesse The debts our fathers left us are great and many but how prodigiously prodigal have we been in spending that little nature by them gave us defacing Gods Image so much the more earnestly by how much we have acted against the principles and light of a natural conscience This Petition saith Woe is me my mother thou hast born me a man of strife of a hard heart yet harder by custome of loose principles yet more loose by obstinance distant from God yet further off by rebellion deformed by sin but more monstruous by delighting in ungodlinesse Woe is me calls the Prophet Be merciful to me calls the Psalmist O Lord hear O Lord forgive calls the relenting penitent They say a man is once miserable if twice rich and all of us had once enough and most of us had more then we have Adam and we also by receiving from the devil that which was not necessary became a debter but Christ hath made us free Abstulit debitum reddidit libertatem bertatem by paying the debt restored our priviledges with the price of his own blood for which expence the soul in a holy ingenuity is angry at sin and sorrowful for its own miscarriage 2. Confession of our own loosnesse By this Forgive us our debts we acknowledge our delinquency for qui petit veniam delictum confitetur Petition for implyes confession and that includes action of sin and mark this it is not debt but debts insinâ—ating long Bills of Account for which the word Pardon is used as if we should say do it or fogive them throughly sensed by per and dona the Germains say Verâ—geven the word Ver incomposition very much hightning the sense and the word Forgive flowing thence shews how far that is how infinitly we desire the remission to be extended Man hath a five-fold act about sin I mean the impenitent man comprehended in this verse Laetatur silet extenuat tremitatque laborat For doth he not delight in it or boast of it as did Doeg or hides and conceals it as Cain or lessens and extenuats it as Saul or stâ—rtles and despâ—irs because of it as did Iudas or though in vain labours in some unprofitable work to be rid of it as did the Iews but the Saint takes a far better course which is this of confession complicated with that other superadded grace of forsaking sin as did the Prodigal true confession in prayer being ever accompanied with mortification of heart In relation to the progresse or ingresse of sin it is observed that it enter'd man pep saggestionem Diaboli nostram liber am admissionem by the Devils sugestion and our own consent so for sins egresse or removing there must be the spirits compunction with our own assent that the guilt of it be not imputed by a cordial rejectment which cannot be without an open acknowledgment of its iniquity and our folly not only when called upon by Authority as was Achan but when goaded unto it by Conscience meditation Scripture or the Spirit as Peter In this word Forgive there is a general implicit confession of all our sins and so pray ye preventing Satan who will with a hellish noise bawl them out before God except we our selves say thus and thus have I done which will remove a thousand sins yea millions God never refusing the humble soul how criminous soever confessing of sin being an exalting of his Name 3. Inability for our own release If a man have Cash it were both sin and shame to beg either for composition or remission but poor Adam having nothing involved in desperate difficulties by ommitting good committing evil is introduced by Jesus and by him so placed before the Father that forgivenesse is promised yea sworn The great Lucifer fell from Heaven but could not for all his Angelick nature recover himself again he is very subtile yet never could invent a proper mean to discharge that debt his sin contracted Arrest the dead man yet cannot he redeem himself we as dead in sin yet alive to suffer are taught to plead in forma pauperis or sue out a billa bonorum being poor blind and naked What can we do can we either obtain the Spirit of God to sin no more can we believe in his Son and fear no more can we keep our selves from Gods hand and procure some time more to shelter us from his wrath or can we say unto death we will not be arrested to the grave we will not be imprisoned For know that death is in this Petition and where is there a Pent-house or To-fall untill he passe by Verily verily it is as if a man should flee from a Lyon and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned on the wall and a serpent bit him being one degree beyond the misery of that monster Nero who in desperat rage cryed out at his death nec amicum nec inimicum habes have I no friend to help me nor enemy to kill me for of â—oes we shall have legions and though we strugle from one or two solvi in Gaehenna necesse est we must begin payment of our debts in hell And quid boni operari
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
shew such that to run into temptation ought not to be our practice but quietly to rest in our calling and patiently endure the time of tryal not opening a door of temptation to our selves the presumptuous being fearlesse heedlesse are evermore in hazard whereas the intelligent in the perfection of Christian stayedness say in a sound sense with Ahaz I will not sin nor tempt the Lord. And he gave one golden sentence among hundreds to the Church who uttered tentationes declina flee from temptations like a child but if they come shew manhood and endure them patiently Lead us not into temptation THe danger or great evil of being led into temptation couched in this Petition offers it self Reader unto consideration the Iews tempted Christ and were destroyed of serpents tu igitur cave believe and tremble Naturalists speak of a little but bold Bird that will sall upon the biggest Goat and suck her leaving as a reward drynesse and blindnesse to her feeder for ever to this Caprimulgus or Pfassus that being the Birds vulgar name may temptation be compared which falls upon us in our wandring tickling our breasts with complacency and sinful delight yet we are made empty of the sincere milk of the Word of God in one sense and by it is picked up the good seed of the Word in another and being blinded in our understandings we become as hooded Hawks and carried whither temptation pleaseth This Petition hath fear for its rise as all the rest hath necessity and love A wise man will decline the food that disposes the humours for that disease unto which he naturally inclineth and avoids the house infected with that malady of which he is apprehensive and all being subject mille modis more then ten thousand wayes unto it wâ—shall to creat warrinesse 1. Discover the danger which is here feared 2. How we shall be delivered from it the thing here desired The first shall appear from the Coherence from the Exigesis it follows immediatly after the Petition for pardon of sin forgive us our trespasses because relapses are dangerous sin is compared to broken bones sores diseases wounds the relapsing into which is a prognostick of direful sufferings David sell by a woman Lot by wine Peter by a wench but we do not read they turned back into those sins after the washing not loving these iniquities in their practice again which once by repentance they had vomited up or re-acting that folly for which lately before God they pretended to be sorry Let one example of a relapsed sinner throughout the whole Bible be sound that after conviction supplication pardon and absolution went back to his former irregularity and redintegrated for all that into favour with God again and something may be said but since it cannot be had let the pardoned sinner fear the snare and pray against temptation The Exigesis as it is called clears this for after Lead us not into temptation followeth Deliver us from evil as if temptation and the Devil temptation and ill temptation and evil were so joyned as hardly to admit a separation And in earnest we read of sew assaulted but were either killed wounded or skarred Iob it is true cursed not God yet he cursed the day of his birth which God made and uttered some words which God did not relish It is an excellent observe that the fall of the two wisest Adam and Solomon was so great that though upon little ground their salvation is questioned which is a punishment their fall deserved The strongest Peter that is the most rocky Christian being but an earthen vessel may get a crack by temptation which in our circuit through the world should obsequiously make us listen to our Saviours direction and pray after this manner for the way of man is not in himself neither is it in man that walketh to direct his steps A poor man in Leipzick having murthered and robbed the Master Mistriss and Children of a Family declared when attaqued and apprehended that he had lyen hungry three days under a stair studying how yet abhoring to do the deed and in deliberating whether to do it it was whispered by an unknown voice Fac fac do it do it upon which being encouraged he attempted and executed that bloody crime Tempting to sin is usually attended with sin if not with the sin designed yet a sinful way may be forged to elude the design which maketh temptations to be dangerous and so much the more are they portentuous as there is used a five-fold pollicy to ensnare the most Cautelous 1. Temptation beautifieth the sin The wine is sweet and pleasant to the gust of Noah Ahab rejoiced no doubt in the conceited pleasure of the not yet possessed Garden of herbs and how did Iudas hugg his thirty pieces of silver when represented unto him in the fairest colours that the Devil or the World could possibly draw to overballance the bloudinesse of that crime nature it self detests and without the fascination of money would not commit Hence one calleth temptation a deceitful glosse set upon vice to make it look amiable Pirats at Sea will put out the Kings Colours promising peace and assuring friendship so temptation will put forth the vexillum of Profit Security Quiet Rest Satisfaction and Content and thus Wolf-like cloathed with the Sheeps Coat prey upon the credulous inadvertent and the carelesse soul. Avoid therefore Reader first the pleasure of sin and next the sorrow of sin in a withdrawing from temptation yea when omnia prospera sunt time all things thrives live thou in fear 2. It maketh them frequently to commit the sin Peters love made him follow his master but fear of himself made him do it afar off and at last overcame his love and made him be plunged in the gulf of temptation And as the Fishes in Iordan glides smoothly down the River and sports in the Sea of Tiberias and then hopefully advancing as they think they suddenly fall into the dead and stinking Sea of Sodom So had Peter been by the stream carried to perdition if our Saviour had not turned which made Peter be though wet safely landed upon the shore God stood by and suffered Noah to drink but sent Noah's own son to mock him for his intemperance which occasioned the Father to curse his Son which for his insobriety was a punishment to himself Sampson saw an Harlot and went in unto her and Delilah at last made that Nazarite be shaven and the Judge of Israel to be derided of the Philistines justly he had put out the eyes of his soul by gazing upon the face of a daughter of the uncircumcised and they uncircumcised put out the eyes of his body that he circumcised should gaze upon no other 3. It may benumme the conscience under sin How soon did David's heart smite him for cuting the lap of Sauls garment but
beyond all ordinary rules a lesson more then our Masters can pierce or construe I say since he for ever lives to punish us for ever in case of disloyalty let us for ever be obedient Some learned men during the Council of Basil a time wherein the world was turned a School and every soul a learned Disputant walking in and about a Wood debating about the questions of that age heard and saw an unusual if not prodigious bird its sweetnesse was so inchanting that it was suspected and conjured and then it declared it self to be a soul condemned in unto that Wood untill the great day after which it was to suffer eternal plagues then taking wing cryed saying O quam diuturna est aeternitas O how long is eternity O how immense is eternity all suddenly sickned and in few dayes after died who beheld it Melanchton judged it to be a Devil inhabiting the place But whatever it were the relation may admonish us in this litigious age wherein qâ—estions are started of no weight yet pursued with scorching â—eat to retire from the throng of disputes into our selves and mind eternity for by well-doing and upright living shall we only live happily with our Father which is in Heaven an â—pellation in the Preface settling us in love as thine is the Kingdom Power and Glory fixeth us in confidence in the Conclusion For ever CHAP. X. Amen IF the structure of this Prayer be like to Solomons Temple the Preface as the Porch the Prayer like the holy place the Conclusion like the most holy we shall in it assimulat Amen to the glory of the Lord in a cloud which being the last breath of this first and perfect Prayer cometh last to be considered 1. In its original and nature 2. In its place and order It is signaculum orationis Dominicae the seal of this and of all other prayers yet forsooth hath the misfortune with its companions to be thrust from the Codex of the Gospel as being inserted into the Evangelist not from our Saviours lips but from the custom of the Church as if every thing which is not in Luke or Mark must be ejected Iohn and Matthew where Amen is to be sound this Prayer being sent as an Epistle to our Father closed by Amen and given to be presented by the graces of Faith and Charity upon command It is sometime put before a sentence and so is a note of confirmation ordinarily translated verily and in the New Testament imports that expression As I live in the Old but here it is in the close as in the execrations of the Law and is doubled by the Psalmist in blessing the Lord from everlasting to everlasting Amen and Amen that is Amen in the heart Amen in the mouth demonstrating the union of these two in this one duty of blessing God It is a Iew by birth and speaketh Hebrew in the Laconick style yet its ingenuity and noble converse its candor and comprehensivenesse hath procured for it self that freedom to be denized in all Nations and all in each Nation speaking the same Language saith Amen and is either imperantis of command or confirmantis of assuring or precantis of desiring and is generally and was of old annexed to Prayer and Praise except that it was impiously because out of scorn laid aside by Humorists as though the saying of Amen had not been a Gospel-precept It groweth upon the Hebrew root Aman which by interpretation signifieth to nourish and by degrees as by bearers blooms on a branch signifying truth and fixednesse and the truth is Amen hath nothing of flatulency or windinesse but nourisheth every soul that by holy discretion prepares a Conscience for its receiving It is not interpreted by Expositors here Nec Graeâ—us Interpres ausus est neither dare they yea the verity is they cannot there being no Language to expresse its full sense and in Scripture having different significations being taken 1. Substantively 2. Assertively 3. Optatively 1. Substantively and then it signifieth Christ himself These things saith the Amen that is the Truth he being prima veritas the first and the last and by Amen he gives a reality to what he hath spoken because in him all the promises are yea and Amen In the word Father the Trinity is implyed the first Person only expressed in Amen the second is contained and these are one with the Spirit Hence one promiseth I resolve never te leave Amen out of my Prayer since it is as much as Christ which one sound from the heart is able to procure Godsâ—blessing on all our askings importing For Christs sake have mercy and hear O Heavenly Father 2. Assertively and then it is a note of Attention translated often Verily for what is in one Text Amen or Verily is in the parallel Text Amen or of a truth as if Christ should have said I speak it not rashly but certe profecto si fas est dicere juratio ejus est it is indeed his Oath so to speak As I live Amen Verily there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God And in the Prophet it is said he who blesseth or sweareth in the earth shall blesse or swear by the God Amen or of truth 3. Optatively and then it is a note of wishing Blessing and thanksgiving and honour said the Angels be to our God for ever and ever Amen and may in this sense be expounded fiat or So-be-it a word short of Amen's extent and is but a corner of it yet used by many of late with us as thought more perfect and significant though Amen is reverent and gray-headed and venerable through all ages under the Law by Moses used in point of jealousie and in point of exaction by Nehemiah that it like the last stroak of an heavy Bell might bumme in their ears who had offended It ends all the Epistles the third of Iohn and that of St. Iames excepted and is the last word of the Bible and one way or other Fifty times used in the New Testament It is acutely observed that the mystery of the Iews conversion is herein touched the whole Prayer being Greek this Amen only Hebrew hinting though obscurely that the Greeks that is the Gentiles shall speak the language of Canaan and that the Iews shall be conducted unto Christ the Amen these two by our Father being united in him who is the truth the way the life and the AMEN Let Amen respect Christ it is nota fiduciae of affiance regarding all his offices expecting with confidence deliverance by him as our King Instruction as our Prophet and remission of sin as our Priest yea indubitanter it is unquestionable he would not have us scruple the obtaining any thing we demand because next Amen he saith if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will
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