liberality made him the poor mans Father and yet what could rich I should say poor Iob do had he not all his plenty out of this Fathers store-house yea if he had wanted Gods leather he had gone bare-foot and were the least of us not confident of his goodnesse in providing for us bread we should go with small comfort with Ioseph to our homes at noon 2. For Cares He who provides relieves educateth or teacheth Orphans or the poor or desolate is gratified with the name Father as Elijah was by Elisha and thus Kings become Fathers to the Church and Paul to the Saints yet God being all in all caring for all ruling in all being King of kings turning mens hearts according to his pleasure Killing and keeping alive conform to the determinat counsel of his own just will deserves the appellation in a far sublimer sense 3. For Sageness An old wise Counsellour will be named Father and so much the more deservedly when in judgement he alwayes proves successful the hairy head is to receive from all a grave and reverend respect this Lord and Father more then all who being old as Eternity is called the Ancient of dayes and his hair said to be like pure Wool that is white soft and fine All this considered in him as being our own Father not our step-father we are to glory with that great Apostle the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Iesus and having predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ unto himself and in magnifying for improvement we are to exercise 1. Thankfulnesse 2. Obedience And 3. Observations upon his Providences Our Father c. HAving seen the Person we pray unto the next thing in this holy Preface that commands our observation is the manner we pray after where Presumption is first check'd lest any say My Father as also Atheism lest any say Thy Father both which are equally abominable and deviating from this rule enjoyning to say Our Father A holy man in an iron age was affray'd to speak of the necessity dignity utility of brotherly-love yet love shame and duty with a desire to have his hearers unite extorted from him an Oration a treatise upon that subject Making the same Apology for my self knowing that Prayers are to be made for all men and hindred by nothing more then by meum tuum mine and thine whereas ours ought to be the Christians Motto God ever requiring as piety to himself charity to man Let us see the necessity of this charity 2. The hinderances of it in our dayes 3. The obligations that lye upon us to remove those hinderances Not to speak of the devils or damned who for ever are excluded the verge of all prayer there is a common charity we owe all by nature as they are men and a special charity we are to carry unto all for grace as they are good men The last is mainly here understood yet the other not to be excluded for as we are to do good unto all so we are to pray for all but especialy for those of the houshold of faith God being unto them a Father in Christ whereby they are Christian-brothers one to another and ought to appear with and pray for each other upon many considerations as our sympathy Gods universality the enlargement of our own glory the Saints exemplary piety and from our own extravagancy and misery 1. From our sympathy and similitude in nature by generation Not only are we of one blood root and sprung originally from the stock of one Father even Adam which among Barbarians will be a perswasive motive to union but we have one Lord one hope and why therefore not one Prayer and one Psalm and one heart to rejoyce with them that rejoyce and weep with them that weep Abraham no sooner knew of Lots captivity then he armed his servants and fighting the pillagers redeemed the prisoners and also brought again his brother Lot so called as being of the same stock with him though in line but his Nephew If our father Abraham â—ought may not we pray for a Sodomite for a friend because a brother may be and certainly is concerned in him Christ and his Church are but one body and thou with thy brother are as living stones in the building if he be shaken remember thy self for a hole in the wall may prove fatal to more than one but principally to him who is heedless that is prayerless Poverty is want of means sickness is want of health and in the first as well as in the latter are we to confess our faults one to another and pray one for another and our Father being equally concerned in all of us we ought the more fervently to interest our selves in each other there being this difference betwixt our faith and love that our faith is closshanded and we believe for our selves but our charity is open-handed open-eyed and all for others Corpus quidem nostrum our bodies are confined to one place but our souls by the wings of charity must flee all the world over that though in the greatnesse of this journey we be bodily at a vast distance yet by piety and love we may be present having fellowship and communion Iesus pitied a multitude wanting bread and gave it them a Widow when her son was dead and said Noli flere weep not and to him who was dead said Arise to perswade our otherwise flinty souls to some sparkles of compassion when struck upon by the steel of our brothers sad countenance and pressing necessities and if this prevail not Behold the man is not our Fathers image in his eye and that will enforce us if we be sons to relieve him with our substance If thy brother be under any temptation he ought to have thy commendamus that the Fathers wrath wax not hot assuring thy self if when thy brother is under the rod thou come with tales to edge the indignation by aggravating his offences Thy unbrotherly carriage in the sight of so indulgent a parent will take his hand from his already humbled son and the remainder of wrath to thy greater astonishment shall be laid on thy back as a punishment for so unseasonable address Therefore Christian think upon Remember us O Lord the children of Edom and fear to insult Think upon the Devil in the case of Iob and fear to accuse and of Doeg in the case of David and boast not of mischief for hatred and envy makes a man to dwell in darknesse but love and amity clears the eye and makes him behold God for so much only are we in his congregation and â—avour by how much we are towards his people our enemy in favour and affection It is recorded of Hannibal that his father beholding his morosity took him at nine years of
Covetousness in Buff Oppression watching Lust posting Fury thâ—â—tning Malice contiriving and Policy uniting to suppress the Gospel and though it get ground in the conversion of some to the saith of Jesus yet what Hanibal said of the Roman General Marcellus may the Church say of them and the devil their Captain that neither conquered nor conquering will they be quiet yea her case must be sad since the very liâ—e of her peace consists in fighting against these restless adversaries and where overcome yet so desperate is their wrath they with the Gadarens beseech Christ to depart It s regiment is likewise often obnubilated Grace now and then is put to the flight by an army of lusts The Church is said to be a Woman cloathed with the Sun the Moon under her feet that she is a Woman betokeneth her weakness her fruitfulness cloathed with the Sun her protection by and obedience to Jesus Christ the Moon under her feet signifyeth her contempt of all earthly because mutable enjoyments yet for all this pompous equippage she is forced to go to the wilderness for shelter against the Dragons rage and fury The feeling the beholding the hearing of these things will cause sorrow and what consolation is that offered by an Ancient comforting a Christian in sad times It was Pia tristitia beata miseria a blessed melancholy and a pleasant misery to behold the sins of others and weep and to another Plangenda sunt haec non miranda these things are to be be 〈◊〉 for not wondred at yet adds that prayer ought to be made I shall not say that after the fall God appointed our flesh our sinful lusts to rule overus for our punishment as he appointed thorns to arise out of the earth for mans vexation but since the fall lusts and corruption overshadow grace within us to that hight that Peter will curse David fall and Iacob lie to his Father and these weeds are permitted to abide in all until the Kingdom of God come with power which made David call but thou O Lord how long that is in the new Testament-stile Thy Kingdom come The Gospel in its progress is compared by our Saviour to leaven and that workes gradually regeneration to a new birth and man is perfected by degrees the Church to a builing and that advanceth by rule and measure and Wisdom is said to have hewn out her seven pillars which implies addition the new man hath not his proportion by years but by degrees and comes to perfection by distinct gifts and graces he first learns as a child to read the good examples of others then advancing forward he comes to live according to divine Law then he is so in love with Christ that marrying himself to him he would not sin though there were no Law against it growing now strong he can endure and stand out against the worlds troubles and vexations and then growing rich in the abundance of the things of the Kingdom of God he leads a peaceable and contented life then he comes to forget that is not to heed transitory things being wholly intent as aged in grace upon life eternal and now there remains but one step more that is the Kingdom of glory which advanceth towards us by the grace of faith illumination of the soul Discipline of the Church and by finishing the number of the Elect. 1. By the hearing of faith This eyes all the Kingdoms we have spoken of for as by faith we believe that Jesus came to save sinners so we believe by â—aith that the world was created and yet preserved the Father Almighty hitherto working and darkly hinted at in the conclusion of this Prayer For thine is the Kingdom power and glory All that we know of Hell his prison of Earth his Foot-stool of the Clouds his Chariots of Man his Image of Angels his Hosts of Heaven his Pallace of Christ his Son is by the doctrine of Faith for untill it come we are not savingly sensible of the Kingdom of God And the doctrine of the Worlds Creation Mans fall and Christs coming are recorded to have been the Principles of Religion taught in Adams Temple Oratory or place of worship where God dwelt from whose face Cain departed all which shew that it is necessary to believe as firmly that God the Father Almighty made the Heaven and Earth as it is to believe in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord. The grace of faith is said to be the Kingdom of God within that Kingdom being spiritual and reigning in the hearts of the faithfull while they are in the Kingdom of providence and by which they are nourished and protected untill they arrive at the Kingdom of God in glory where they shall reign as Kings and Priests unto God for ever 2. By the enlightning of the mind This peculiarly eyes his Kingdom of grace As Moses face shined when he was with God under the Law so now God shines in the hearts of his friends under the Gospel he saith now not Let there be light but is himself a light unto his people The Gospel puts a Key in the Converts hand to intuat and behold the mysteries in Christ crucified which others cannot see and also a Lamp to know how far and in what kind for what use and for what end they appertain to him As at the Creation there was a fiat lux Let there be light so in Conversion there is a scias fu thy sins are forgiven thee which is that unction of the Spirit by which all things are known as the Eunuch knew and believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and by which also their Conversation is in Heaven having security by God and joy in him for which cause also it is the highest stone in Wisdoms seven Pillars upholding the house that is the Conscience or Soul of man The first whereof being good Will next a sanctified Memory the third a clean Heart the fourth a free Soul the fifth a right Spirit the sixth a devout Mind but the last and highest is an enlightned Understanding By the discipline of the Church Admonitions Reproofs Censures are as military weapons used by the Church for the upholding of this Kingdom of Grace yea a delivery over unto Satan by excommunication which if justly duly and compassionatly done is and hath been found instrumental for the stirring up the authority and power of Grace in the soul of some obdured shame and fear being very efficacious motives where other means are less effectual to perswade a soul to cry Peccavi Father I have sinned as did the incestuous Corinthian One Sigbert King of the East Saxons keeping society and familiarity with a Count or Earl whom holy Cedd had excommunicated for unlawful marriage once by accident met with Cedd as he journeyed to the Counts house and being smitten with shame and fear alighted from his horse and craved
honour not his being as to make our very lives pray Hallowed be thy Name Hallowed be thy Name WE have now the application of holinesse not to say Hallownesse unto his Name to be considered that we may regularly engage our selves both to live and pray according to this rule This Petition is like that of our Saviours Father glorifie thy Name we read of old of hallowed Places Times Persons Vessels yea any thing that was dedicated to God or separat for his use or any thing used in his service now in a Scripture-sense hath a degree of holiness but God is esteemed holy being perfectly free from the very stain of impurity his mercy pure mercy his justice holy justice his truth holy truth his knowledge holy knowledge the first wanting solly the second cruelty the third mistake and the fourth ignorance yea himself being light and in him no darkness at all and therefore his Name like his House is not to be polluted by the transgressions of the people after the abomination of the Heathen And if Holiness be a knowledge of or how to worship God we are not to persevere in our ignorance but to value every document offered that may make his Name known which he is resolved to hallow that is make holy and which we ought to sanctifie that is to glorifie in our selves first and before all others next that his Name as it is holy may be hallowed honoured and magnified of us and his glory shine more and more among men though our enemies for their reconciliation It properly signifies to preserve from the Earth that it be not defiled with our terrene maleversation but contrary by a holy Artifice hold or heave it still upward as Cesar did his writings in his left hand and holding his royal Coat-armour in his teeth that the one should not be wet nor the other become a prey to his adversary when swiming for his life at Alexandria So hold we fast his Name that it may shine and out-shine all other beings in the Firmament of this world provoking one another to revere the same God said of Paul He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my Name before the Gentiles as Standard-bearers in war are to undergo and suffer much in holding up the Banners or Colours lest they fall into the enemies hand so those that bear the Name of God or of Christ whether in peace or war are studiously to endeavour that neither by ill speaking nor ill doing it fall into the hands or vile tongues of the wicked that they may triumph in heaven above and be admired for their stoutness and courage by the holy Angels The duty is undergone three ways First generally then specially then personally the first eyes Nature at large the second Grace and the third the Souls of men Eying nature in praying Hallowed be thy Name we intreat earnestly 1. That all things might and all affairs end in his glory As this is the end of all his undertakings so it is the beginning of our desires Consuevit enim scriptura the Scripture usually putting name for glory shews us to have Gods glory in our aims for an universal discovery thereof the more pressingly knowing his Name Honour or glory to have many enemies maliciously contriving and by inraged force uniting to darken yea were it possible to extinguish the glory of his Omnipotency Many and different are the ways which Devils and devilish men conclude as apt means for the perfecting of such projects their atheism and hatred invents against God and his Church yet by an over-ruling providence all their industry defeats themselves being baffled by their own Arguments God causing his honour to be the result of their darkest and deepest consultations though differently managed and by contrary spirits acted yet are they reconciled in bringing forth this one thing Gods glory Iudas sold Christ for money the Jews delivered him for envy Pilat condemned him for fear the Souldiers guarded from obedience Carpâ—â—ters might make the Cross for profite the beholders mock for pastime and the devil pressed all for hatred the Sepulchre was watched for security yet those watchers becoming witnesses of the resurrection it shewed to their own eye-sight that both Herod Pontius Pilat the Jews the Souldiers were gathered together for to do whatsoever God had in his Counsel predetermined to be done Providentia est subdita bene disponere providence being but an orderly disposing of things for the production of some good manifests that this Prayer intimats our servent zeal consent and agreement that God would do what he doth in agreeing all affairs and consummating all designs for his own Names sake to his great glory that even Adams sin Abels slaughter Noahs drunkennesse as well as Lots vexation Iobs scraping Rabshekahs railing and Peters denying and Thomas doubting and Sauls persecuting as well as Pauls preaching might evince to all the world that God is to be feared loved and honoured 2. That all might acknowledge and owne that glory Our faith in the power of God renders it easie for us to believe that all must submit unto him but here our charity for the souls of men perswades us to become suiters at his Throne that by his Spirit he would so mollifie the hearts of our brethren as to cause them become Volunteers in his service since the will must be made willing to submit before any submission be rewarded or accepted Those Iews who blasphemously attested our Saviour to have a devil shall give compelled submission and be instrumental in causing his Name to be exalted before ail though if they sorrowed not it be in then damnation and trembling Cain became objectively a teacher of the holiness severity and justice of God But to have men move in a resolute and masculine courage by loving and sedulously acting to propogat that glory that all the world might actually ascribe unto him that excellent Majesty which is his and is his due is the import of this Petition God is then hallowed first when it is known what he is next when it is known what he is not next when it is known how he is The first keeps us from folly that we say not there is no God The second from Idolatry that we fancy not a false god The third from misery when we know he is in Heaven full of grace goodnesse power and truth all which ought to induce us to speak of his Name with fear and reverence causing our lives and actions to eccho â—orth this Petition Hallowed be thy Name ascribing to it holiness with the Angels justice with the converted Iews that as his Name is great in Israel and in Iudah known so every where his praise may be glorious for then is his Name great when he is named that is accounted according to his glorious Majesty For which Kings Princes Fathers Teachers Children are to sing and in their Sphear
age and upon an Altar made him swear irreconciliable enmity and hatred to the Romanes which fastned so much upon him that being demanded concerning the end of the Carthaginian War with Rome made no reply but struck the ground and made a dust denoting thundering-war untill either Rome or Carthage were levelled which happened accordingly What ever Heathens did to wed themselves to contention though even among them such courses were condemned by the most refined yet for Christians to betroth their issue unto hellish debates is not only a scandal in this present age to our adversaries but a reproach to our selves being dedicated to God by our Baptism and by it vowed charity to the body of Christ upon earth which vow ought to be observed if we expect to enjoy the benefits conveyed mystically to us in that blessed Sacrament Hast thou an enemy in point of opinion or practice love him doth he curse thee bless him doth he hate thee do him good and pray for him though he despitefully use you and what is that pray for him but that God would give them repentance and bring them out of the snare of the devil by which alone we evidence that as the elect of God we have put on bowels of mercy A Temple said that Heathen Phocion is not to lack an Altar nor the humane nature to be without compassion which indeed beautifies and maketh fragrant all our other endowments 2. From our Gods universality good meaning or intention His Sun shines his rain falls his corn grows equally on good and bad just and unjust his fish is taken in the net as well of the churl as of the liberal his water cools the reprobate as well as sleep refresheth him who is upright and though God do as sometimes he makes a difference yet every one who is even holy ought not by and by to execrate such whom they suggest to be in evil courses since the prayers of a dying Stephen may be so prevalent as to prove instrumental in snatching a persecuting Saul both from the counsel and doctrine of the Pharisees And to cause the soul to take wing for the practice of this Doctrine of Charity consider 1. The certainty we have of Gods willing all men to be saved What meant providence to move Pilats hand for this inscription upon the Cross in Latine Greek and the Hebrew Tongue IESVS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE IEWS but to cause all of these Nations read and be assured that unto all of them there was a Iesus a Saviour even Christ the Lord then dying for them and afterward to be believed upon by them His endowing his Apostles with the gift of Tongues was but to learn every man that heard the wonderful works of God to believe in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth and in Jesus Christ his only Son is as clear as the fire the Spirit came down in Why then should dust and ashes cross the purpose and good will of God in endeavouring a blasphemous opposition by and wishing him ill unto whom God hath sent Ambassadors beseeching him to be reconciled to God Put up O man thy desire for the same end and be not surly for thou knows not but that thy prayer may prosper Ac primum noverimus know this that nothing is more profitable then love and nothing more hurtfull or unprofitable then to malign sedulously therefore study a good opinion a placid mind and benign affection toward all men There is no sinner ordinarily so perverse but hath so much of the Image of God that under the greatest conflicts with revealed wrath we may without sin both shed tears and offer up prayers for him as Samuel did for Saul yea nature it self teacheth us to love our friends and grace commands us to bless our foes and we see children either have or study to have some property of their father and let this be aimed at to imitate our Father rather in doing good then in uttering curses for that is his strange work and beseeching good for them since we behold God hath good thoughts towards them 2. The uncertainty of our being first placed In the Register of Gods future purposes one may be intended his daily bread before another be remitted of his debts one possibly is to be brought within the body of his Kingdom before another have his heart screwed up to become pliant to his Law and Will since therefore thou knows not where thy action is enrolled nor when it shall be called observe the proposed rule and pray for all men of which thy self is ever to be understood one Abraham did earnestly desire and sollicitously beg a son by Sarah and had one yet before his birth he had a son of Hagar this in providence being to precede was to come out first And so it may fare with thee in thy pressing suits The words Our Father leads us to the consideration of a great mystery of our faith an Article of our Belief the communion of Saints making us pray for them that hears us not and leads our eyes to behold as many objects as there are letters to give nos we or our being making us look 1. visione reflexiva upon our selves nos alwayes includes me and noster supposeth meum Our speaketh alwayes mine and give us our bread intimats thou art hungry 2. Visione collaterali side-wayes and that both to the right hand upon our brethren by grace and to the left hand upon our brethren by nature compassion working for both 3. Visione recta ascendente to behold directly God himself From my Author I infer he that looks not to the other two shall never beholds this last Prayer shewing love to God which is shown purely by demonstrating love to men and though in the contrary passion he deceive himself yet he cannot delude his Maker none being admitted into his house but whom he finds charitably qualified that being the place where men must live together before they enter they must pray together And none knowing who shall first enter let us call Our Father 3. The probability of the souls being the more enlarged As the bigger the Star the greater is the shine so the broader the soul be the more beaming is the glory and the better service the better wages They that be wise shall shine as the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever holding forth degrees of glory for a reward to them whose lives are more eminently holy which is in no one thing more elucide then in charitable praying for that Petition whose rise is necessity doth not so sweetly relish with our God as that doth whose basis or foundation is love and charity Yea hâ—c est Christianorum bonitas it is the beauty glory and splendor or Christianity to walk as Christ walked in relation to enemies persesecuters and
the world to save sinners And though all the Psalms be sweet yet some for their excellency are sent to the chief Musician The Scriptures discover the whole will of God yet have a hand to point at some part of it more then another as more eminent in their use and comfort and to which all other portions may be reduced For instance 1. He wills our faithful adhering to his Son Many Commandments he gave but this is his Commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Iesus Christ applying Christ unto our selves his death and merits to our souls without which our performances are but nauseating to his spirit and therefore Domine adauge fidem nostram Lord increase our saith is solded up in this Petition Thy will be done 2. He wills our sincere converting from sin It is iniquity causeth him grieve at us and maketh us averse to him and how careful and painful he is to reform the sinner before he be cast out as a Publican shews that if he perish it is by his obstinacy in sin rather then for his committing of it for had he delighted to punish for that he had long ago burned this present world as he spared not but drowned the old We need not many Arguments to evince this having his oath for his being delighted in the conversion of the wicked for miserable we are if we will not believe God when he swears the purposes of his heart unto us But as Gideons one Bastard slew his seventy Sons so one sin left alive will destroy our stock of gifts and graces which God knowing he wills our sincerity desiring us to be not almost but altogether Christians in departing from every evil way the end of his Commandment being charity out of a pure heart a good conscience and love unfeigned 3. He wills humility in our carriage to himself What shall or what can besall thee Reader that can excuse any insolence thy audacious spirit dare shew before him Is it death of kindred loss of goods want of health be perswaded better want all these then once to roave at him for the want of any one for hath he not shewed thee O man what it good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly love mercy and walk humbly with thy God The ancient Gauls suffered not their children even to stand before them that in perfect age they might have them in greater veneration and our Father in Heaven though more condescending will yet have of all his sons a religious reverence sawciness becoming sacriledge robbing him of his just devoir To swell for the removing of thy Gourd as Ionah may have a sadder issue imitat rather Adam whom we read not once to have spoken after banished Paradise a silent sorrow for our delinquency for sin is sorrows Prodrome being the best succour for our weather-beaten souls and is more advantagious then any Fort we can erect by argument or reason to plead against or surmize familiarity with God That of Germanicus is Heathenish giving this attestation of himself at death sifato concederem c. though I should die the common death of men I have just cause to be angry at the gods that in manly age I am robbed from my Parents Children and Countrey by them but when I die by the sorcery or poysonings of Piso c. but the Christian knows he stands at Cesars Iudgment Seat and that enjoyns reverence fear humility and love which makes him behave himself with David like a weaned child and washeth with Naaman upon deliberation in the commanded Iordan though the waters to sense appear never so despicable 4. He wills compassion in behalf of our brethrem This is his great and new Commandment that men love one another and that we put on howels of mercy to all yea the Oxe or Ass of our enemy are within the verge of his authority and law And we are not only to offer our hread but draw out our very souls to the hungry God insinuating thereby that fellow feeling which the fight of an hungry soul ought to stir up in us Non curite quid agat humanum genus not to be solicitious how the world went or careful about the concerns of mainkind was held impious by a Heathen but the religious contrary is diffusive in his charity and his willigness to do good is exemplified in the parable of the Samaritan who secured the person anointed the wounds defrayed the charges and contracted debt for the robbed Traavller Three things evince true compassion Concealed charity 2. Known poverty And 3. Unnatural death being alwayes ready to answer St. Pauls question in the negative who is weak and I am not weak who though they were Bibylonians with the Prophet that testifying good-will with a Father when a Brothers adversity causeth anguish and his tranquility exciteth thankfulness to account anothers loss our own and reckon his gain our profit loving neither friend nor soe for the world but both for God is true charity Love being a great God of whose beginning we have no History and of its ending it were madness to suppose therefore ought our life to be a life of love or then it is not the life of God nor agreeable to his will 5. He wills our folicity with himself He He hath so strong and fatherly a love to his children that he desires yea designs them heirs of his Kingdom For this is the will saith Christ of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son I might say the Sun may have everlasting life this is a faithful laying and worthy of all acceptation And the Psalm wherein the Psalmists confidence of future glory is attested is called Michtum that is a golden Psalm of David Be not Reader abused by any natural vanity so far as in any thing to become competit or with God and untill thy will can give thee fields and vineyards nay until it can make a feather to please thee a sâ—raw to ease thee make it not the staple of thy soul but award its blows and avert its plagues for it shall to last be found the armed man to binâ— thee and a sword to kill thee whereas Gods will hath nothing more ultimatly its scope then thy salvation There are many other particulars touching our converse discovered to be the will of God such as Modesty in our expressions Righteousnesse in our actions Discipline in our manners enduring injuries loving the brethren delighting in God loving him as a Father fearing him as a Lord to value none in comparison of Christ and therefore inseparably to cleave to his love couragiously to bear his cross constantly to consess his Name which is to be heir with Christ to do the command of God to fulfill the will of the Father but such and many others being reducible to
affaires and they take up a great deal of time against our own wills that this must be done against the spring that this is fit for such a countrey and this is suitable for such a coast gives us no time to study the will of God As fishers have several baits for different fishes so the world hath variety of snares for its multitude of traders Demonaae when questioned if the world had a soul then if it was round With indignation answered you are very carefull about the world yet about your filthiness contracted in the world you are carelesse Here this man is settling his heir there that man bewailing his poor crop he casting up his accounts and a fourth is preparing for a forreign plantation because of all which there is such a bumming in the ears of man that with the maniest the sound of the words carrying the sense of the will of God hath not admittance into that gate of the soul the ear which if it had we should not be so far embased about the drudgery of this pelf but write with a holy man for direction and instruction about sub jugating our wills to the will of God and what we ought to do therefore It is desired on earth though to our sorrow we know it will never be there exactly done suppose our hearts for once holy ground yet the Rod of Moses I mean the Law when cast thereon becomes a Serpent and we are scarce able to endure the sight of the just holy and good commandment sin by it taking occasion to work in us all manner of concupiscence sed hic inter in ex parte oramus we pray for some measure of obedience here that we may be perfected in all obedience hereafter God crowning in heaven with perfection our sincere service performed on earth though through weaknesse imperfecte clamemus igitur in Coelum we therefore list up our voices to Heaven because under it there is nothing but labour sorrow vanity and vexation The earth hath its heats and colds according to the cloudiness of the air or distance of the Sun obedience likewise hath her colds and heats her workings and faintings her runings and stumblings and sometimes a great intermission of her spiritual pulse On earth Faith hath her distrusts Hope her doubts Charity her damps there this opinion raiseth Choler that doctrine provoketh Rancour he caufeth offence by an ill example these are scandalled through supposed mistakes whereby the Earth that is the best of its inhabitants is but a bad copy yea indeed no copy at all hence our Lord teacheth that not Earth but Heaven be the rule for doing our Fathers will Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven THE rule of our obedience is now before us and the mould in which all actions are to be cast for Heavens that is for Gods plaudit As it is in Heaven is a Doctrine of comparing qualities not substances it respects neither Earth nor Heaven Physically but Morally pressing a conformity in the inhabitants of either to the will of the Lord of both and grand Master of each It is also a doctrine of holinesse among Spirits that the souls of the righteous here Militant may in vertue and well-doing totally resign themselves in imitation of the Spirits Triumphant for the will of God that they may be found without fault before the Throne of God That their conversation may be in Heaven by contemplating the things which are not seen here and affecting the things that are only there by working all things according to the Angels Samplar Yea even to follow God himself it being not unlawful per divina ire vestigia to walk as Christ himself walked The word is singular Heaven not Heavens as in the Preface excluding all but the very in-side of Heaven the interior parts of the Heaven of Heavens there being there exactness in opposition to Earths crookedness and stateliness against its baseness 1. Exactness Examples are to be eminent and as far as possible contrived above the censure of ordinary operators in things wherein honour is concern'd but in things divine wherein are couched the most pressing interests of the souls eternity patterns ought not to have so much as an umbrage or shadow of sensuality which not being sound on earth a David will trip a Iacob will halt and a Noah lye uncovered we are to eye Heaven for acquiring of righteousness and ture holiness 2. Stateliness How slovenly so to speak do we handle the mysteries of God Is not a trembling hand a glazy eye a blubred face commended in the approaches of the devout to the greatest pledges of their salvation and yet in these addresses not only faith but their love to God is then more sublimely to be acted that it may be felt heard and understood so that the highest raptures and most ravishing transportations like high Steeples are not without their Cob-webs whereas in Heaven the divine beams of glory shining upon the faces and hearts of the Elect both heats their souls and beautifies their exercise to that degree that with redoubled acclamations of ineffable joy they stand before their Saviours Throne and go about their Masters errant in a Royal Majestick and Authoritative deportment These are so well known to be in Heaven that good men do not only mistrust others but fear themselves pray against themselves ask forgivenesse both in and for their most religious undertakings which must cede to the performance of those Sainted above they being incapable of pollution laxation or heâ—itation through the spiritualizing of all their faculties In this Prayer there are two sicuts two as-es one is As we forgive our debters forgive us in which Earth draws a pattern from Heaven to follow sets it a copy to write a pardon by the other is this Petion As thy will is done in Heaven let it be done in Earth in which Heaven is recommended as worthy for imitation of Earth and sets before it a picture for Earth to draw the lively features of exact and acceptable duties For note in Heaven there are three whom we must imitate and follow viz. Christ Angels and the Saints glorified Behold Christ as man and as when upon earth it was meat to do his Fathers will for himself giving us in that consideration an example to prevent sin and as God a remedy against it from which it is deducible that our eyes feet hands and tongue are to be observant observers of the whole Law and will of God as Christ was we making his life our book our glass our rule our way his present residence in Heaven and work there is the Churches salvation in general thy soul Reader and that other mans in particular for it is the will of the Father that none of these little ones perish hence Christ becomes their Advocat that they all may
have everlasting life For when the Name Iesus sounds in thy ears understand a meek man and a man humble in heart courteous sober chast compassionat conspicuous and renowned for honesty and sanctity and the same person to be the Omnipotent God qui suo me exemplo sanet leading thee by his example and confirming strengthning thee by his power It was a good advice to imitat an honest man was the way to become the best man and when we know that even Christ ascended for the same cause he suffered which was that we should follow his steps we ought to go up with him and to him by intercession for our Brethren and by imitating of one so just we may and shall be crowned with those that are holy Observe him where you please in the Pulpit in the Hill in the Ship in the Garden exemplo suo he is by his example teaching us the great Philosophick vertue of submission to the will of God and doing of the same which we must indispensibly conform unto or be extruded the felicity his obedience purchased for him The Scripture is not very clear or distinct in shewing how Gods will is observed by the Saints or Angels yet it is so full that we can collect their readiness about it whereby we may not only learn to lament our own depravation but beholding their activity can remeed the distemper and keeping in their path though not in their strides at length by assenting to divine documents we shall ararrive at the same beatifick vision of God they by their obedience do possess Angels have Laws and Precepts concerning Devils men whether good or bad alive or dead touching governments fouls bodies or goods of men to afflict or comfort to fight to kill or destroy I say Angels have this whether Cherubims or Seraphims Powers Thrones or Archangels all these being comprehended in this one word Angel there being in that holy Hierarchy this equality that they are all Messengers of God made to the likeness of God and carried all to that one purpose which is in God readily throughly zealously 1. Readily They are spirits of life and as for their life they go about Gods will with so speedy pace that they are said to have wings And hath God said to day harden not your hearts or break off thy sins by repentance Say not to morrow with Pharaoh but in this thy day say thy face O Lord I seek We read that an Angel of God spake to Hagar out of Heaven in which History we have what he was an Angel 2. Whos 's he was of the Lord and should we from some mens pronity to wickedness and vice conclude the certainty of their subjection to a higher power we could not rationally give any other designation then messengers of Satan and if we should demand whence comest thou a question never asked of the good Angels their wayes are so well known it might be replied from compassing the earth they are so ready to perform the Devils pleasure and the fulfilling of their own lusts by which they are as it were alwayes in the dark the eye of Gods approbation being never upon them which the good Spirits and good men having they are said to be continually before him 2. Throughly They are so serious in the doing and executing of the Lords purpose that to half it or quarter it is none of their ease whence they are said to do his pleasure that is in all their actions perfect all his thought their complacency being that wherein his soul delighteth abhorring to behold men repudiat and abandon one vice to espouse themselves to another it may be to them more beautiful profitable or easie for though an horse be restrained by the bridle yet man is to be inwardly transformed by the word to the will of God and not to be like the gods in the Egyptian Temples decked with Gold and Silver or vailed with Purple-royal that is shadowed before men with gorgeous formality which being once like fair Hangings drawn aside or pryed into filthy Apes of impure notions are visible and the dustinesse nastinesse or lustfulnesse of their inward parts recte scio maketh them justly accounted the more abominable that they only studied to seem good it being an uniform devotion and conversation that maketh men Angel-like adapting them for those eternal mansions these blessed Spirits abide in for otherwise the Devil sometimes covering his cloven hoof could not in equity but be reputed Saint and accordingly associated withall It hath been disputed what that particular sin was for which the Devils fell from Heaven whether stubbornnesse against the foreknown Incarnation envy or pride some who are for the last respect man in envying Adams dignity and God in affecting against him Domination and Authority Admit this How humble are the good Angels let God command they will stand in a Lane as a Guard untill a poor Iacob passe through they will enter into dark Prisons for a condemned Daniel or liberat a captivat Peter Let men learn of the Angels and not put the Almighty to his wishes as once to say O that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments The Lacedemonians had good Laws touching education especially of Children yet had orders again encouraging them to steal and an honor drium for a cleanly conveyance provided they observed the Laws wherein there was something excepted Such Mungrels are too many Christians though not in the same Commandment accounting it too base to steal yet holding it a degree of honour to swear and being afraid or ashamed to deliver up themselves to all kinds of ill embrace what is more convenient for their place and station but this Petition dischargeth such bartery as sacrilegious enjoyning perfect because conscionable obedience and sueth for the gifts and graces required thereunto 3. Zealously The heart giving life to every commanded duty hath such impressions on the Angels spirits in their missions that they are said to be flaming fire their strength to be Chariots of fire and their swiftnesse horses of fire he maketh saith the Psalmist his Angels Spirits his Ministers flaming fire denoting Agility Ardency Penetrability Dexterity and the Fervency with which they go about his will They are called Angels because they deliver his message Cherubims because they know his purpose and Seraphims because they burn with a holy zeal to confesse and glorifie God it was one of these that flew with a live coal to purge away the pollution from the Prophets lips and life What hath been said of the Angels might be truly said of the Saints departed but they not being imployed about earthly affairs as Angels are let us distinctly search into their doing of the will of God and without much scrutiny we shall see them do it conjunctly continually