and sincerely 1. Conjunctly All the glorified number unites in this one thing of giving honour power and glory to the Lord because of all his wondrous works and such who desire to be of that Quire must to that Hymn in joynt devotion giveâ—n their Amen Israel must joyn with Egypt and Assyria avoiding neither because he is a Iew but beholding the Spirit of God breathing upon them must celebrate with them as Brethren though formerly aliens and with binding resolution each precede another by affection and in imitation of that glorified number though probably before different in opinion combine in this judgment to practise and do the will of the Lord for ever saying to dividing principles Abide here with the Asse and I will go yonder and worship c. 2. Continually Their eternal Sabbath is spent with unwearied ceasing in their serious attending his Throne we ought to be earnest and with David keep the way of his statutes unto the end i. e. sine impedimento incedam giving defiance unto the keenest temptation I shall gracefully persevere and imitably walk in the road and path of thy Commandments observing them in all my undertakings not putting on the royal apparel of Faith Righteousness and Obedience for the Throne or Temple but make them my daily garment yea my night-cloaths for at midnight will I arise and give thanks unto thee 3. Sincerely There is in Heavenly Saints a concord betwixt heart and harp being like the Sun transparent every cavity within them exceeding the Christal in purity evidenceth no disingenuity but perfect harmony in love in voice in desire in moving and in doing Abfuit ergo as true disciples of Christ let us hate dissimulation or willing to feign but let us do as well as sing I love the Lord otherwise as the devils we may speak much truth and with the reprobat do much good but neither being hearty it is not our own and the sooner shall we be accursed if we call out the Truth the Truth and not walk accordingly Not to separat what God hath joyned together both Saints and Angels in Heaven do the will of our Father joyfully humbly 1. Ioyfully Great content have they to be employed and great satisfaction have they all in doing the will and work of God Hail thou art highly favoured said Gabriel be it according to thy word said Mary to be sorrowing with the covetous young man for the sale of lust and discharging of thy sin or passionat or carelesse as was Pharaoh and Pontius Pilate is to contradict the spirit of God prompting thee to pray after this manner Thy will be done 2. Humbly Christ is represented to the Divine sitting at the right hand of the Father but the Angels and Saints about the Throne and sometimes falling down before it and then are men obedient when the precept not being delayed is heard by the ear saying Now the tongue saying arise the feet run and the hands saying all that thou commandest we will do That his will be done Reader in thy soul and in thy body in the heaven of thy soul and in the earth of thy flesh that as the Angels who are spirits thou spiritualized may live and do on earth his will as it is in Heaven The Popish Franciscus being demanded who was to be judged truly obedient ordered the exhuming of a dead body who would not be discontent how ever placed nor puft up though throned nor clamorous if dispised nor beautifull though gorgeously arrayed Such is the obedient doing giving suffering where word or providence gives order without wresting it or strutting it before the Lord. This word As either the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Germain Al 's importing similitude here denots a likenesse only not an equality we by it desiring amidst such encumbrances as the soul groans under to live inculpat as inoffensively as the Angels but to reach them in the large extent of perpetual conformity is a task beyond mortality for during our abode in houses of clay Ignorance malice weaknesse wantonnesse and wickednesse will affect us yet as children we may regard our copy and scorn luxury and all exorbitancy and lay aside superfluity of naughtinesse being perswaded that albeit the Character of our lives and actions be unproportioned we shall at length write fair and draw good Text Hand when in heaven we come to be perfect men in Christ Iesus For however obedience be here mixed with frailty and imperfection yet as a tender son endeavouring to execute his fathers will is approven so is it with God he requiring and blessing the will or desire for doing when the work it self may be defective so that though we arrive not at the perfection of the first or second Adam in doing Gods will which is to be found in the holy Angels yet we may acquire in obedience the perfection of Zacharias and Elizabeth which consists in the sincerity of our service We cannot and do not the will of God with the Angels speedily for like Lot we linger to go out of Sodom nor cheerfully for like Israel we murmure in the way nor fully for the good we would do we do not nor sincerely for our hearts are far from him nor perfectly for we know but in part and see but in part yet we are to strive after all this there being a time to come wherein all shall be obtained though now with Israel we compasse Iericho and with Sampson groan under blindnesse at length the siedge shall be ended in conquest and we revenged upon all Philistines that tormented us and all that we do shall be very good Therefore study for an enlarged soul that largely the will of the Lord be done for it is thy will not our own not every where but on earth not every way but as it is in Heaven that is doing it out of love and affection And so pray ye From all this we infer these four particulars 1. A necessity of doing Men came not into the world to stand idle or gaze about but to work and though sin and Satan put many to miserable drudgery it is still sloath except the work of God be done The heathen beheld and scorn'd the consumption of time in the inutile pursuits of the ordering plaiting and curling of hair of some phantasticks in his time and how with us such vanities are priveledged to inhabit the souls of too many is scandalously evident the saying of the prophecie of this book this prayer being kept neither in memory nor manners neither in heard nor heart c. 2. Timidity for failing The vitiousnesse of the age in spending the greatest part if not all time upon things â—innical ought to creat a fear both for our selves and others having for the doing of this will a patent not for one minut yet filling two times so nearly placed that there is
God in this Prayer come now to be considered and when discovered it will appear so peculiar his due that in comparison of him we are to call no man Father on earth for one is our Father which is in heaven because all things and beings are of him He is called the Father of glory of light of mercy and he is so in respect of Christ whom from eternity he begat and also in respect of his creatures upon whom he hath impressed his image though in different colours sometimes the image of his foot-steps as in irrational or insensible Creatures and thus he is the Father of the Dew sometimes the image of his Knowledge Reason and Understanding and thus he is the Father of Men and Angels yea eye the plenitude of his power and he may justly be called both Father and Mother to all created beings their Father as begetting them by his omnipotency and their Mother as continually conserving nourshing and bringing them forth by his providence but because of holinesse and sanctity is he especially called the Father of Saints and blessed Spirits which in this Prayer is principally to be regarded It properly signifieth the natural parent of the male-kind some say when it speaks of a man it signifies a defender of children but when of God it denotes a preserver of all There are that will have it to be derived from their procuring Fathers getting or procuring children to themselves However it be men are called Fathers 1. By Nature 2. By Favour Our natural parents give us 1. a being 2. a well-being and both of these in a more excellent way are bestowed by God upon believers If you eye our being we have it principally from him having it neither wholly solely eternally essentially but by him have we an eye an ear a limb an hair but of his begetting a toe a nail but of his making It was he that kept warm in the womb our tender bodies and when ignorant of ourselves was he fashioning and joyning all our members which other fathers neither knew how to do nor could do Iohn the Baptist respected because rejoiced at the salutation of his Lords Mother for his sake who gave him life though otherwise he was ignorant of any life he had so Iacob fought and strove in the womb resolving even there to conquer whileas yet Rebekah thought of nothing less then government and dominion Compare him with earthly parents and you may perceive a wide and a vast difference for 1. We have not our being wholly from them grant that by them the principles for a body is begotten yet without him it will be no birth a lame birth or a dead birth he must give the Embrio the breath or life or then he hath not a living soul. I know that inter sanctos patres there are some that debate about the animation of the Insant yet that is pious O Anima mea O my soul if thou would have God to love thee behold thy nativity for by the Trinity was thou made in the likeness of God a gift which he gave no other creature c. As he gave the red earth a spirit at first and called it Adam so is it still it being the soul that makes us men i. e. to rule and reign in our selves and over our selves when this is well all is well and when this languisheth all fadeth so that our all depends upon it and yet all our earthly fathers wit cannot procure it for us Adam did naturally beget and Evah bare a Cain yet the man is acknowledged to be from the Lord and untill we know that natural causes can of themselves produce more excellent effects than themselves are we must hold that not the body begets but that God infuseth the soul and in respect of that is absolute Father and is called a Potter in regard of the body also so little have we from our parents 2. Neither have we our being solely from them Did not the Sun give heat the Air breath water refresh and meat nourish we should for all that other Fathers can do be stifled in the womb where blood was appointed by him to be our food and the same decreed to become milk for our meat the flax ordered to procure linnen for our clouts the sheep wool for our coats the hills wood for our cradles and the valleys corn for our bellies and the earth veins of silver for our dowries without which even Iobs daughters might live as the Muses unfortunatly single 3. Neither have we our being ever by them The mother for a time may play with her smiling spradling infant and Isaac sport with his fair Rebekah yet both at last shall say of the same delightful objects Bury my dead out of my sight and then the Father in Heaven keeps them better then the truff unto which the father on earth commits them No sooner doth the babies soul take its farewel of flesh then Angels secures it from devils seats it in Paradise by Gods command the earth as a second womb retaining the more gross part until the birth of the resurrection by another sentence neither of which can be performed by the most indulgent parent There are that will have death have his name from division yet it cannot separate us from this Father in Heaven others from parting as cutting man in two parts yet no part of us is out of our Lords protection though both parts be out of our sorrowful parents care and tuition It is the thought of an Ancient that it gets its name from biting that being brought in by sin when man was bitten by the old Serpent yet this Father knocks out his teeth that death feeds not upon us Some will have it named from its bitterness but this Father so composeth this Dose that we are not killed by death Some fetcheth it from having our arrears payed us our life being a warfare death payeth and dischargeth all that is owing us and so to be dead is to be exonerated from further duty yet it doth not this for we stand continually before the face of this heavenly Father out of the danger of hells assaults and resting in peace ac securus diem resurrectionis expecting an assured resurrection being every way guarded and protected of God and continually praising of him and dwelling in his house for ever 4. Neither have we our being always with them Our Fathers may love us yet cannot help us they may be capable to help us yet at a great distance from us we may be exposed to the dangers of plague pestilence and Famine and they afford no relief it is only he in Heaven that can do good and deliver us out of danger Seek no place therefore was a full rule but the God of and in all places thy self being a Temple unto him and where thou stands there is thy
the Indian tongue they have learned to speak of Iehovah and avoid many sins and hates and avoids Pawwows that is Witches and Charmers c. Now to pray for a farther binding up of Satan in the conversion of more Indians all Turks Iews were an acceptable work in it self and our duty as Christians that all the worlds inhabitants may cry out with that poor dying Indian Iehovah Aninumah that is O Lord give me Iesus Christ which is equivalent to Thy Kingdom come and that each professor might repell all temptations as one of them did when tempted to Pawwow for a sick person saying I must not break my Covenant and sin against God But now to return to the old world again where Satan also hath his seat which lyeth in wickedness he having in it universal dominion demonstrated by the vanity impiety of its inhabitants for though his kingdom be not natural but malicious his goverment not defensive but persecution bending his power to the damnation of his subjects yet in the opinion of a Father is he a great King strengthning his Kingdom with vices walling it with abominations building castles in it with attrocious acts and furnishing them with Armour of enforced filthiness The Collectors of his Revenue are oppressors of the poor his Officers are seducers deceivers of the simple and honest his Lord cheif Justice is perversnesse In his Court and about his Chamber you have Cuning Rooks by hook and by crook purchasers cheating Merchants covetous Preachers protracting Doctors conscience-hiring Hucksters for his Advocat he hath a Iack of both sides Lawyer He hath also about him forgers of lies contrivers of mischief receivers of bribe reproachers of men because effeminat as woman and for a Page he hath Amictus discoloribus saith my Author a Peacock-tail'd gallant But when the Kingdom of God shall come It shall discover that the world like men brings good wine at the first and afterward that which is worse for sin is Voluptatum est Tormentum the end of our eating is infirmity the end of our living is death and the end of death to all that crucifie not the world is eternity of misery the thoughts of which are suffciently valid to wash the paint from the world to cure the itch of the flesh and to fight or animat us against the tyranny of the devil and then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be within us 4. Against the delay of the Saints reward The vision being for an appointed time must be waited for yet as the hireling for the shadow the watch-man for the morning the weather-beaten Pilot for the Haven the sick for his recovery the weary Traveller for his Inn so doth a Saint long for the end of all designs their enjoyment of God in Christ Their modesty keeps them from saying Arise let us go hence yet the soul of man being easily seduced their zeal inflamed with the thoughts of what they shall possess vigorously enforceth them with a holy seriousness to call Adveniat Regnum tuum Thy Kingdom come That is Lord say to the North give up and to the South restore the dead bodies of thy Saints given them in charge that they and we the time appointed of the Father being come may be caught up to meet the Lord in the air to remain for ever with him The soul being stamped with the image of God betrothed by the faith of God endowed by the Spirit of God redeemed by the blood of God capable of the blessedness of God having nothing to do with flesh longs for the perfect vision and full fruition of the holy place of the holy face of God that mortality might be swallowed up of life The soul is Christs Spouse and conform to her condition hath a threefold marriage The 1. is In her Iustification by faith at which she is feasted by the ablution of sin the attainment of grace the reforming of nature but this is attended through the souls default with many jarrs The 2. is Her Regeneration or Sanctification by hope at which she receives divine consolation heavenly communion and a taste of the glory to come but this is also mixed with fears and doubtings and therefore the third is wished for which is her glorification by charity at which she is entertained with eternal incorruption true glory and the perpetual vision of God and this being the more excellent affectu pio sensu profundo she groans most ardently for it As we pray against these things so there are other matters we pray for such as the Churches soveraignty the Saints felicity and our Fathers universal and sole authority 1. The Churches soveraignty in general The Church is the continent wherein Christ reigns and in it his Palace and his Temple stands which two are oft clouded by foggs arising from open hatred against them or pretended friendship to them casting stumbling blocks in the way of others by disloyal practices as the idolatry of Rome offends the Jew and the heat of the Calvinists and Lutherans in their often debates becometh scandal again to the Papist To clear the air is this Petition put up that all may behold the mountain of the Lords house and the Sun of Righteousness shining thereon that is Christ Jesus before whom the Jews had only Lamp-light by the Law and the Prophets which also shined upon them untill the Baptist who was a burning and a shining light but after that he rose whose Name was the East whose Star arose in the East like a Sun enlightning the world directing to the knowledge of that Triune God all may say of Gospel-rules this is the way let us walk in it that Sanctity Innocency Purity and Piety may lodge in the breast of all and malice and mischief excluded from all The vision of the conversion of the Gentiles to the saith of Christ and to the Churches of the Saints is expressed by the similitude of doves flying to their windows thereby shewing the swiftness zealousness harmlessness and unity doves generally going in flocks that shall be in those Converts and the multiplication and addition of whom unto the saith notwithstanding of the diversity of opinions as natural as variety of feathers or faces is contained in this Thy Kingdom come That all beholding the King in his beauty his Sacraments in their dignity all his Ordinances in their purity may have their souls so influenced as to have all one heart not being dismembered by faction or passion which rather shews men to be inhabitants of several Provinces then fellow-subjects having one Language and united in one Kingdom The Petition therefore importing the accomplishing of that which St. Paul gave once a charge for viz. that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified that is be opened and expounded before learned and unlearned that though we behold one unskilful in knowledge or expression yet being
Syllable of this Prayer yea the very Preface of it Our Father is cloathed with Charity the second is equally conspicuous acknowledging our poverty in the fourth Petition our iniquity in the fifth our infirmity in the sixth c. We shall in the close of this Petition speak of the third and discover the zeal that ought to possesse the heart of the supplicant affixing this unto Thy Kingdom come yet ought it to be understood as appended unto Thy will be done Too much remissnesse and again over eager earnestnesse being equally offensive we shall discover the zeal we speak of the Arguments for it and Cautions concerning it Zeal being a hot impetus or warm affection heating the soul for practising duties governed by sound knowledge and right reason is included in the word Kingdom amplified by the Pronoun Thy and therefore vehement in our wishings and longings for its coming the very word Zeal denotes affections to be as fire that of the Pharisees earnestnesse to compass Sea and Land for a Prosylite was great no good zeal but if pitched upon the right object and mannaged with due circumstances as the love of God heeding the Word of God enflamed with a solicitous care for its advancement and attended with an innocent and holy hatred against its opposers as in David it is both good and great and in Paul it is both great and good It is composed of Love Fear and Anger in this Petition the love of God and the love of man the fear of his own weaknesse and the desire of the down-fall of Satans Dominion is clearly to be beheld It eyes chiefly the propagation of divine glory the Churches edification Satans destruction and the extirpation of all wicked Hereticks and sinners and ought to be in us not only at our prayers but in the whole course and practice of our lives being in every thing a zeal for Gods glory and our own and our Brothers good ought to be in us God hating dulnesse upon the one hand as well as rashnesse on the other Much of this Kingdom S. Paul possessed yet he reached forward unto those things that were before knowing only this that he made proficiency daily the world not yet being ended he pressed forward possessing the things he believed if not in re yet in spe not having them in possession though in reversion he endeavoured an intuition hating that Diagor an-like spirit now in man who declared he knew not whether there was a God or not and if there were was also ignorant of what nature he was With us dulnesse and carelessenesse of many in the affairs of God publisheth their uncertainty of the being and next of the quality of this Kingdom whereas he is only zealous who truly and soundly that is assuredly is acquainted with heavenly matters which in relation to this Kingdom every soul ought to be because of Safety Beauty Charity and our Dignity 1. Our safety for in his Kingdom there is no enemy Here every bramble-lust puts in for dominion over us excited thereunto by the old serpent whereby the spirits of the meek themselves are kept in a perpetual commotion to be liberat from which body of death and freed from that Law of sin consequences of the coming of this Kingdom the devout soul hath active considerations for its fruition and enjoyment Themistocles concluded that the knowledge of having a good neighbour might enhance the price of his house set to sale and the Countrey-fellow hath a Proverb we can live without our Friend but not without our Neighbour What a Countrey must that be where all are good Neighbours and not one evil among them Here we are not to trust in a Brother nor to put confidence in a Guide being sure either of guilt fear or danger every Adam having his Evah and she her serpent yea Iesus himself is not without a Herod who seeks his life But in that other Kingdom we have Christ that true Friend and Brother reigning over us the Forts of Satan our foe being battered and the dominion of Death our terrour being finished and the plotted-for place of Hell our torment being eternally secured from As Labienus at a treaty betwixt Cesar and Pompey cryed out so may the believer say of peace in this world Let us leave off speaking of peace or thinking of a truce untill we have Cesars head that is Satans head bruised and untill his dominion be overthrown 2. Our Stature is in his Kingdom that is our beauty What Zacheus among us by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature The Ark was a Cubit and half high shadowing that imperfection and â—railty attends our gifts and graces and as Children when we want who among us can do more then cry It is true that Noah was perfect but it was in his generation but in the Kingdom of God we shall be perfect men according to the stature of the fulnses of Christ. A Moralist required youth to have Temperance in the soul Silence upon their tongue and Modesty upon their face yet over and above a parent would have his Child have stature and shall we be zealous for Childrens comeliness and tepid in seeking our own perfection which can never be acquired but at the coming of this Kingdom and being with Enoch Candidats for Heaven and Students of Eternity ought we not to affect being Doctorat and set in the Chairs of everlasting bliss It was a shame for the Corinthians that after so much teaching as Paul gave them they remained still babes and not able to bear strong meat It is a note of our childishnesse in the affairs of God yea and somewhat worse that we do not in a holy emulation of the glorified Saints give all diligence if it be possible to attain the resurrection of the dead that is as perfect now as the glorified Saints are in Heaven and denotes causa excitandi studii nostri how we should be stirred up to aim at the same degree of perfection 3. Our Brethren are all in his Kingdom where is our charity Above us are all our Fathers Sons and about us are Adam's posterity the former edgeth our desire to be with them the latter fills us with fear and care for them that they also may be happy the first hath from our Father of the hidden Manna the new wine we have a portion of his bread i. e. the good Word of God but having brethren who hath not heard of the last and hath no prescience of the first and worshipping ignorantly an unknown God brings upon their souls swift destruction we are to have their names upon our heart when we stand before the Lord that unto them also might be given Repentance unto life The legal Priest who was of the sons of Aaron was to have fire alwayes burning upon the Altar before the Lord so the Evangelical also who
it is placed after all the Petitions that concern God insinuating that his work and glory is first to be done and then we may cause lay the cloath and put on bread We find that in times of Famine there have fallen showres of Wheat for the refreshing of the hunger-bitten and here we are directed without a prodigy to respect Heaven and not the Fields for Grain or the Mill for Meal but both sexes to imitate the vertuous woman and bring their food from afar For so pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread From the naked face of which words we discover a Law commanding care for and abstinence while we are in the body 1. Our care for the body For beauty proportion strength the body is so stately and curious a structure that it were impiety against nature to suffer or design delapidation the least hair whereof being allowed a place in Gods Note Book we may conclude its bowels to be more intensly regarded It is the souls Cabinet therefore not to be broke Christ died for it and therefore it is not to be slighted the earth is to conceal it and therefore is not to be strip'd yea Heaven is ordained for it and therefore it is to be honoured The soul indeed is to be the main not our only care but the body hath here Gods Image and shall if we be wise walk up and down in his inheritance above As Ioseph by faith gave charge to bury his bones we by the same grace may give charge concerning our bodies and order to set on bread The charge against shedding the blood of man is from this Argument For in the image of God made he man that image being in the blood tanquam in copula in the body tanquam in organo in the soul tanquam in proprio subjecto in its proper place the vital spirits are carried by the blood and upon them also depend all the senses and upon the senses depends the rational soul in which the image of God principally resides now take away bread the blood fails and by that the spirits fail and by them the senses fail and by that the soubremoves and by that the image of God We offer this to the consideration of the malicious who shedding the blood of man desaceth that goodly workmanship for whose preservation he is bound to pray it not being preceptive give me but give us our daily bread For quid est conservare humanitatem what other is the preservation of humanity then the loving of man because he is a man and the same that we our selves are and who doth it not dispoyls himself of the appellation man as not worthy to be so termed The superstitious also rivetting this request upon his own thoughts will be self-condemned his cutting tearing whipping and lashing himself making him Fellon de se in a sort a self-murtherer in renting the back or torturing the skin of that belly he prayes for c. The covetous also must not plead immunity from the mulct appended unto the breach of this Divine Law of cherishing the body as the fruit of his prayer for in his fordid baseness withdrawing from the flesh what God hath sent it and keeping from the belly its just modicum which it craves yet to his own annihilation it remains empty he in the mean time cramming even to nauseating the hollow bowels of a wooden box makes him culpable of self-hostility and impeding him in his spiritual traffick his cash but serves him to buy damnation For quid prodest what is the profit of concealed hoards and who knows not that by doing good and shewing mercy men shall find mercy and reap good but what shall he gather who is merciless to his own self It is good and comely for one to eat and drink yea deck his house and to enjoy the good of all his labour which God hath given him in neglecting whereof he becomes guilty of Idolatry in St. Pauls meaning and of Adultery in the sense of an holy Interpreter and abundantes temporalium inopes aeternorum being rich in this world is yet poor and yet more poor when it is considered he hath no treasure in Heaven If any object that we are not to take thought what we shall eat and the required zeal in the duty of prayer will certainly suffer intermission in enlarging upon dayly bread It is to be adverted that there is no repugnancy between give us bread and take no thought what ye shall eat c. The latter condemning distrustsulnesse and â—infull distraction not a prudential foresight of competent provision for Parents are to lay up for Children and a Master must provide for his Family and a man for himself 2. Our abstinence while in the body Abstinence in the judgment of the Orator did much conduce for conciliating People and Prince but in our Saviours Doctrine it is the sole medium for keeping Heaven and earth in concord so clearly that the great Amphiaraus who in life was accounted a great Prophet and after his death a reputed god among the Grecians advised their Priests before their consulting at the Altar to abstain one day from bread and three from wine Plato made his greatest seasts to consist in Salt Olives Chease and Herbs and he was called the Divine The Egyptians tyed their Kings by Law to a certain portion of wine and meat and they were accounted Sacred Yea bread water and salt velut exquisitis obsoniis as great delicats did the Persians give to their Children And we read that Martha after our Saviours Ascension did neither eat flesh nor drink wine untill she saw him whom her soul loved above BREAD the poorest boon that nature can ask and the least a Father can deny and yet the only great thing we are to entreat for Our Lord restraining the Petitioners hungering for luxurious fare and conjuring against riches delicates and gaudy Raiment the Pedissequae or handmaids of which are Wrath Intemperance Anger Arrogancy Injustice Pride and every evil work Becoming by joyning dinner to supper and drowning the body with drink oppressing the belly with meat a ludibrious spectacle to their own attendants who must convey the vomited carcase to a dormitory out of which its possible the besotted cometh more surious then before sleep procuring neither health nor ease to the ininflamed body All which courses to prevent or temptations to avoid we are only directed to pray for our dayly bread as Agur prayed for his convenient food unto which prayer it is thought our Saviour hath reference in wording this Petition and dissect food convenient or open dayly bread in our practice we shall find sobriety to be hominis prima medicina the chief Physician of man as one Father calls it and the Mother of health as another and so good for soul and body
Lake calls it Day by day which is the same BREAD this shews us to be content though he be sparing Content indeed content is that great rock that strengthens the house of the soul of man securing it from tottering against outward storms from 〈◊〉 by desponding suggestions 2. A necessity if we enjoy our selves to have that little It is clear that in this request we pray as for our lives if we want it here we may understand air but for a day we are bodâ—â—y â—ndone and flyeth away as fast as day Forget not what here hath been said touching necessity for bread here imports the supplying of the â—eeblenesse of some and supporting the honour of another Elisha must have bread and water which serves him Abraham must have bread in the head of his Army and a great deal will but serve him yet both must have sufficiency and here stands their necessity the poorest Israelite must have bread or dye but Solomon must keep a royal Table or be desamed and in that must not be thought pêccant because it is necessary for his honour 3. The excellency that is in that when enjoyed little bread being precious our fâ—ther will not have it mould or turn into a stone by us but will have us accounted by our selves rich enough if stored for a day or in a day Thus in a holy sense it is not unwholesome to eat new bread each morning by the heat of piety to have it sanctified for thy use all day which will operate upon all thy enjoyments giving occasion to say non talis fit tibi vanus that Prayer shall be profitable for all things yea for bread which must have some intrinsick value no larger commission being sealed for its acquisition by our great Master then for a day 4. Dependency on him to enjoy that little It is but bread and yet we must not eat it untill we go to his cup-board each day for it as for our set allowance and ordinary rate trusting upon his care and power for to morrow providing our selves by labour and prayer but for this day and having that with life and health say when thou beholds another feasting his heart and eye with variety as that Philosopher beholding the various curiosities in a Mercat quam multis ego non egen how many dishes can I live without with this thought superadded he can never be poor who is in friendship with God possessing all things By this Day our saith is tried whether we will trust him for our bodies as well as we do for our souls and make our lives like that of venerable Beda norma Religionis honesti both Religious and honest considing not for security upon personal abilities but providence being intelligent in this that by grace God taketh care for all but chiefly of them who are united to him by saith and therefore hush temptations of subtile dealing cirecumventing or cheating stratagems for thy maintenance but clear up the preface that God is thy Father and fear not want of the substance of this Petition thy dayly bread Yet reflect that this being but a temporal request and for a small pittance there must be submission to providence though bread be wanting and his will must be done in submitting to yeeld up the ghost for hunger man living not only by bread but upon some other food which an Expositor hath presented before us in five slices and when we wants let us be eager for another cut The first is bread requisite for this present life The next is the understanding of the holy Scriptures The third is the blessed Saarament of the Lords Supper and the fifth is the firmnesse of our obedience and all these in their courses and turns are to be prayed for and if the first be wanting pray for the last and the fourth shall not be wanting which is the refreshings of grace which as daily bread shall strengthen thee in thy journey to the Mount of God This day may occasion this question whether a Christian may lawfully beg to be rich and for store for time to come since he is only here directed to call for bread and that day by day It is denyed and that he ought not so to pray is evident For 1. There is no example for it in holy Sâ—ripture The whole Book of God is a general rule for direction in the affairs relating to Prayer and in all that there is not one instance of the thing questioned but contray Laws and Prayers against it and this Prayer an exact pattern in special and particular doth apparently exclude such a request from its studious imitator 2. We are commanded not to be careful about the end of riches Wealth but seems to answer these questions in a gaudy manner what shall we eat What shall we drink What shall we put on Problems about which we are not so much as anxiously to dream being bound in carefulness to nothing but oblidged in every thing to make request unto God for by This day we are discharged to ask riches and in our bread not to think upon delicates This day being Gods day must be known to have no night and yet consider Quis tibi pauper videtur whom thinkest thou to be poor he that is content with his own or he that coveteth anothers O dives nescis quam pauper sis know he who is so rich is miserably impoverished this being fatal to riches that they set him upon desiring of them who most plentifully possesseth them contrary to the by God decreed desires or ends of man which was sedulity in acquiring holinesse and wisdome 3. It holds forth a distrust of the providence of God To wish and call for store of provision for many years is to suggest that either God cannot keep thee long at a set rate or that he will put thee off in a distressed time whereas the birds sow not yet are continually provided for to passe by Hagar who got water Moses wanted food fourty dayes yet was not pale Tell me carping Fool Art thou not alwayes in Gods hand Hast thou not forgotten thy self but he provided for thee in the womb I say he whom thou now distrusts shake off such sinful surmising and say not to gold thou art my confidence for to doubt of thy Father is to confide in a creature 4. It suits not with that humility we ought to have before God To stand before his Throne asking for Riches many Houses large Barns much Gold fine Hangings curious Carpets gilded Cabinets delicious Scents change of Garments store of Plate and variety of Purslain to pass the sweet meats fruits and gustful drink therein were improper for us and hateful for him to hear thy breath being in his hand and thy years passing as a tale that is told He said much who affirmed of Gordianus Emperour Moribus ita
potest perditus what can the damned wretch do All which should make us eye Heaven there being an Advocat and a Cautioner that cares for us both for debts contracted and sin we shall be tempted unto or may fall in represented in the parable of the good Samaritan who promised to repay what was to be disbursed for the cure of the wounded Traveller the very inclinations and tendencies toward sin being by his mediation oft impeded and to the penitent by the same forgiven Forgive us our debts that is above in Court or then there is no faith remission of sin is one Article of our Creed and we believe it to be done above in the Signet-office of the great King first and then passing the Seals of the Sacraments in the Church we lock it up in the Charter-chest or Archives of our own conscience or then there is no joy by applying the fiducial certainty of our sealed pardon through the Spirits testimony within us giving so clear light that the soul sayeth O Lord by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back Yet because of those gloomy foggs which may arise from the lower ground or doubting part of the soul dimming our sight of such a delectable prospect as serene and heavenly love so bountiful is God that in legible Characters of our own writing he leading our hand we may have the certainty of his pardon and his seal affixed unto it in our own bosome and by the prospect or spectacle of our sincerity in pardoning the petty debts or trespasses against us we do clearly observe they are blotted out which we have done against him for thus it is written Forgive us as we forgive or for we forgive others giving us thereby Potestas veniae a power to pardon and cloathing us with authority as it were to absolve our selves Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters THE necessity of the â—ondition of pardoning offences done against Vs if we would have such forgiven done by us against God is next to be considered for we doing the one God assureth us he shall do the other making our measure of charity the Standart of his bounty and the power of limiting or enlarging it is in our own hands as we forgive so that si duri if we be hard-hearted harsh or but half-way charitable or through pac'd charitable God is still â—tinted by our prayer to our tallies to our crossings As we forgive our debters is not added here as a reason forgivenesse in him being an act of mercy and his forgivenesse in Scripture is proposed as a rule to us It is here only certa conditione contingens a certain condition on our part without which God will not seal the counter-part And though the particle be illative in Luke for we forgive yet it amounts not to a formal reason but beggs the happy conclusion of forgivenesse from one that is naturelly good because man genuinely morose can yet forgive his brother Neither is it added as a measure our forgivenesse being finit whereas his must be inâ—nit neither is it to be understood properly as if we were to forgive pecuniary or money-matters for then the shortest cut to Christianity were to contract debt and infallible assurance a concomitant to not craving which were a whip of knotted cords once more to drive buyers and sellers from the Temple It is added as an auxiliary band to help our weaknesse being one of the clearest promises a writing in Text-hand of holy writ the easiest to be read in all Scripture nothing being clearer then Forgive and you shall be forgiven which in the darkest night of grossest ignorance is fairly legible It points also at the verity and quality of our forgivenesse and intimats our desire to be that God would as heartily and speedily forgive us as we do others a duty necessary to be done upon many accounts meditat upon these â—ew 1. From the iteration of it for it is pressed and doubled This relating to forgivenesse is the only Petition our Saviour takes a review of after he hath closed this prayer enâ—orcing afresh the duties of amity and concord under the penalty of divine displeasure therefore as Pharaohs dream this is doubled shewing the necessity of our forgiving or the certainty that he will not As at the creation there was a survey of all works and in that were found to be good so here there is a reflection upon all the parts of prayer and this petition urged and repeated chiefly because of wickednesse and surlinesse it is said by such as are conversanâ— about children that they are longest in learning and pronouncing this part of prayer and is it not evident that morally men can hardly yea not without great difficulty learn it and therefore here pressed again and again And sure where God sets up candles it is for some work when he calls us to double our guards it is to prevent some dangerous surprise This prayâ—â— knocking down the surious bulls of enruged lust thirsting after revenge in brawny yea horny madnesse commands us in slanders in injuries to remember Stephens charity Davids sasting and our Lords to his Father call for mercy and fight against evil suggestions oppose sinful desires and crucifie the lusts of the flesh that the soul of man may live quietly at home Teleclus a King in Laconia being complained unto by his Brother concerning the peoples disrespect of him though a Prince causa est inquit Rex it is because said the King thou canst not put up an injury and if stinging men complain to God or man for neglect intending revenge wise men as God will advise to forgivenesse upon which honour shall attend him at the long run 2. From the opposite vice which is condemned and judged morosity doggednesse snarling and scowling is already condemned in the reverâ—ing of that Decreet given by the Lord in the Parable of the Talents where the cruel Creditor that had no mercy on his debter â—ound no compassion but more severe condemnation from his justly incensed Master Should God challenge to a duell or combat all who give him the lie there should be no man to tell truth Should he in thunder-bolts smite him upon the cheek-bone who flouts and jeers at his preceptive will the fairest face would be bruised Should he kick the ranting Belshazzers ouâ— of the world or spurn a churlish Nabal when calumniat for his laws of temperance and bounty where would there be men c. But since the Cow of the wicked calveth and casteth not her Calf and the Sun shines and the rain falls upon their houses and fields he is more then blind who perceiveth not Gods abhorrency of rendring
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
removing of ill must our devotions be mingled evil things filling up so great a place in our little time here allotted us wherefore in our definition of Prayer we have added 6. Deliverance from those evils either feared or felt Evil is either of sin or punishment it is either past present or to come and therefore as we pray for forgiveness of sin past in Forgive us our debts so for deliverance from evil to come or present in Lead us not into temptation c. But all must be 7. Through our Lord Iesus Christ His merits is that Incense that must persume which must capacitate our accesses to become his purity lest they should be nauseated by his Holiness This is the salt that must season every sacrifice and except we have the garments of this our elder Brother we shall not smell as that field which the Lord will bless but have with Iacob rather occasion to argue the partaking of a curse For in all communing with God that would be pondered that he sayes of Jesus as Iosephs did of Benjamin except ye bring him ye shall not see my face It is to be noted that this calling upon God is either publick or private it eyes either mercies received and then it is called Thanksgiving or wished for to others and then it is called Intercession or for avoiding of ill and then it is called Supplication or if either of these for our selves it is called Prayer for into these four is Prayer divided by St. Paul and each of these are espoused to and to be found in the Lords Prayer and in each Petition thereof In the first Petition Hallowed be thy Name we pray for knowledge of the Word of God in our selves supplicate for all Christian Brethren in tribulation we interceed that the fins of our Brethren in seeking their own name be not imputed and giveth thanks if God hath made us instruments in honouring at any time his In the second Thy Kingdom come we give thanks for our hopes of Heaven and pray for the advancing of his Church we supplicate to be strengthened by his grace and interceed that all may be blessed by the Word and Sacraments In the third Thy will be done c. We interceed for a through conformity with the Angels we pray for a subjugating of our wills we give thanks for the enlightning of our minds and supplicat for ardency and zeal In the fourth Give us this day our dayly bread we supplicat against poverty and want we pray against impatience and discontent and interceed for ability and strength to gain our bread and giveth thanks for our calling and imployment In the fifth Forgive us our debts c. We give thanks for the imputation of Christs righteousnesse we supplicat against a tryal by Law we interceed that all may be saved and pray against malice and revenge In the sixth Lead us not into temptation we bewail our by-past sollies give thanks for our former conquests interceed for safety to our brethren and prayes for the spirit of discerning to our selves In the seventh Deliver us from evil we pray for a binding up of satan interceed for assistance against natural corruption supplicate against hell and death and give thanks for our hopes of a joyful Resurrection and the reason of all is his is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever SECT II. THe effects of Prayer follows in our former proposed order which he thought many and good who called Prayer Clavis coeli the Key that opened Heavens Gate unto us the Stair by which we ascended to the company of the first-born to the society of Angels to the enjoyment of our Saviour and to the bosome of the Father It is the Arms of the Christian for by fervent prayer Moses overcame the Amalakites David Goliah Ezekiah Senacheriâ— and Esther Haman What needs more It heats the soul becalms the heart keeps off evil obtains a pardon procures long life restoreth health pacifieth God creats wisdom infuseth grace purchaseth plenty delivers from judgement increaseth courage conserveth peace and shews us what should be done Let us see its holy workings for and upon those three great ones Conscience God and Satan 1. It purifieth the Conscience by opening its sores the impostumated matter therein by long contracted guilt becomes feaverish and when headed will make the stoutest through pain cry with the Prophet My bowels my bowels woe is me I am pained at my very heart or with the Apostle O wretched man that I am but prayer as a lance opens the boil and by confession the putrid matter is evacuated as in David thus and thus have I done and with the Prodigal I have sinned against Heaven yea by the same orifice of acknowledgement is the precious balm of a Fatherly Absolution poured in in a God hath taken away thy iniquity thou shalt not die by which the late dejected spirit is made to rejoice in Gods house of Prayer Saint Pauls thorne was so painfull to him that he prayed thrice against it and by prayer was strengthened to enduce and had comfort in the smart of the same to teach us that when conscience heats or ulcers it is excellent to retire our selves and with Daniel cry O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do confideing in mercy upon and for his answer Fear not peace be unto thee be strong yea be strong assuring thy self that whoso calleth upon the Name of the Lord shall be delivered The Apostle enjoyneth Prayer without ceasing it is pressed by a Father both day and night yet magis noctu rather in the night when free from incumbrances visits and most apt to enjoy our selves then are we fittest to open our sores Animarum Medico to the Chirurgian of Souls in recollecting what we have been doing and what thinking in the day-time that by compunction of Soul and Spirit our misdoings and our negligences may be remitted and the wounds they made healed spending a solitary night as Pyrrhus spent his solitude and time for being found alone and demanded what he was doing replyed I am studying to be good Which act of communing with our own heart was of no small account in the eyes of David 2. It dignifieth God by depending upon his love By this we reason with him not being dashed for all our scarlet-sins nor desperate though we have play'd the Prodigal because we return to him who is our Father it evidencing his acceptance and his goodnesse that we presume to call for our dayly bread his liberality that he forgives us our debts his omnipotency that he defends us from Devils his ubiquity that we can call in every place In confession we own the justnesse of
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
sinning 2. Possess the heavenly joy the believer hath at the conversion of one sinner 3. Escape those plagues that have befallen others for sin c. A Daniel a Noah a Iob may by their servent supplications save themselves from sudden calamity which like an amazing thunder-bolt shall at last pierce the interior parts of that soul whose breast is hardened against the mishaps of men and whose spirits are careless of what befals men When God scourgeth a Land his very sondlings so to speak must not expect immunity they not being without their saults how much more shall his severity rage against them who do not only neglect to bring water to cool and allay our heat but poure on oyl to augment the fire Since such as love not peace nor delight in blessing nor rejoice in mercy are threatned with the want of them when their souls are most exposed to the contrary perils and may chance for their fiery life to die like Constantius Copronymus whose last words were I am condemned to inextinguishable flames They might charge me perhaps with cruelty should I enlarge the story and shew how his body as unworthy of burial was first burned then thrown into the Sea but this inference is harmless to induce all to live peaceably with living men lest just Providence refuse them a lodging with the dead when they are to be joined with them That is not absurd to be added which is taught us in the fabulous divinity of the old Poets of Pluto their supposed god of wealth whom they held to be nursed by Pax that is peace sufficiently knowing that where peace and amity is not an inhabitant it is not the wit nor industry of man that will prevent indigence or poverty Such therefore as complain of the decay of substance and who complains not shall make a more hopeful harvest at the return of the year if they would maugre malice cultivat their bosoms grubbing up the thorns and brambles which grow therein and makes their fellowship dangerous sowing it with â—eed of the love of God which would produce fruit in the love of man and then the Lord being our God the earth should yield her increase Unity being as Hermons dew to the hills of Zion the means wherein we shall have the blessing of fruitfulness and to that life for evermore Let us now enter upon the causes of that uncharitable spirit in our dayes wherein this precept so pray ye is not heeded and though there is no cause for it yet there is a source whence it ariseth as 1. From each ones natural corruption not being searched after He naturally hath pride he envy he curiosity he uncleanness he intemperance which suffered to grow spread diverse branches and they again bring forth infinit sprigs all which finally will be mother to direful actings and ridiculous disputings the bane of this transported prophane impure talkative and speculative age In hac dilectissimi unitate sanctorum In that unity that is to be seen among the Saints there is no spare room for the proud man nor place for the covetous nor pretence for the envyous or for whatsoever vain glory boasts of or wrath is eager for or luxury is itching after these being known not to belong unto Christ but in covenant with satan and far from being owned as pious Fremit itaque therefore the adversary to peace rageth c. If this Age be examined by this true rule many pretended Saints and loose Professors should be sirnamed by some other thing then Christian. 2. From each ones having too great respect for his own opinion Is it not obvious to the most purblind in our neighbourhood that by marrying our selves to our own humour sordidly called a principle we have divorced our selves from the God of love and peace eagerly contending for to make prize of all which have not payed Toll and Custom at our board according to our own privat law or book of rates which yet is as different as there are heads to invent making our confusion the more irreparable and our consciences the more insensible yea our vilest actions the more excusable as that each sinner inferrs the soundness of his own positions from the rottenness he beholds in the others practice Love is generally divided into five sorts that of God that of our neighbour that of our Countrey that of the World and that of our Selves this last is so near and so dear and so choice a bit that before it be not fully enjoyed all the other shall passe uncourted yea had we a love to the things of this world this generation would not so eagerly seek their own pleasures for sondness in this maketh the other languish before us our projects for Government digging sepulchres visibly for interment of Gospel-practice 3. From each ones too great aspect to his own profit Then were murderers complainers men walking after their own lusts their mouths speaking great swelling words when mens persons were had in admiration Many other reasons of this sort might be added as Gods just judgement upon us for our late barbarous unchristian dishonourable treacherous seditious rebellious behaviour towards Authority our Countrey our Relations our Religion our Selves which particularly to discusse were a task too great for a By-nature designed Historian Subordinat to these our Peace is obstructed and Charity banished First by our weighing Doctrine by men A sound truth will be received as Orthodox from one mans mouth which â—rom the mouth of a Cephas a Paul or an Apollos were they alive should either be condemned as heretical or thought unsavoury salt There is a second surmising evil things of men neglecting duty owned by themselves lest evil should thereby follow upon others which evil none seeth so consequential to that duty but it may and ought to be undergone there is a third bearing a real hatred to men for which it may be asked what the Ghost of the Murthered said to Pomenes Quare me occidisti Why dost thou kill me or hate me the tongue of the malicious being equally mortal to that of the tale-bearer which is a maul a sword a sharp arrow Qui odit Fratrem saith one He who hates his brother is in darkness and again is a murtherer he goeth out he cometh in yet he is chained unto guilt do not imagine he is not imprisoned for Carcer ejus cor ejus est his own heart is his prison and there he is tormented Where is there a Nathanael admired of Christ nay where is there a Gerhard bemoaned by Bernard O amicum fidelem O faithful friend in whom there wanted not friendly behaviour and all offices of love and charity and who sought not his own things This puts an obligation upon us deliberatly to study the acquisition of this universality of love that in our prayers we may remember all men Unto which the very word Religion binds us
abode which must be eyed in Prayer It is fit to notice this word Art which though darkly yet truly intimats Gods constancy or our Fathers immutability Others change their affection their opinion their scituation but the Lord changeth not and therefore we are not consumed Yet this is not objective to be understood as though he changed not things before him for that belongs to his free-will and can alter them as he pleaseth but in sensu composito he determining his will to one thing is unchangeable in that there being nothing that can perswade him to desist alter his purpose heighten his reason or remove his habitation he wanting the very shadow of changing his understanding being perfectly clear Queen Elizabeth her motto of England was semper eadem his is semper idem being still the same to day yesterday and for evermore This of old was expressed in his Name I AM THAT I AM Ehejeh Asher Ehejeh I shall be what I shall be referring to his will his nature his purposes his intentions his love his mercy his word his promises are everlasting and therefore is his Covenant called a Covenant of salt that is firm in it self and preserving others So that in Prayer to cut off all Satans discouragements we may competently be furnished with strength in questioning our inward part what is written in the Law how readest thou and finding there the expressions of everlasting kindness boldly concur to thy Saviours precept and say Our Father which art in Heaven Other fathers moving from and to other places from the Streets to their Tables thence to their beds whence may be they are shifted to their graves but this Father in Heaven abides the same for ever I AM WHAT I AM is like that which is which was and which is to come denoting both eternity and immutability and though St. Paul said once I am what I am yet as Kings their coin he circumscribes his performances Gratia Dei by the grace of God Cyrus dying endeavoured a diversion to his childrens sorrow and his friends malady in discoursing about unity and vertue and the gods and closed his eyes commanding that none should behold his soul-less body but that the Persians being invited to his Sepulchre all should rejoice that Cyrus was with the gods and secured for ever against suffering of any evil May not the Christian concluding from the paternal relation God beareth unto him secure his soul from all damping considerations which can arise from his perplexed heart upon the entertaining thoughts respecting Gods immutability and sublimity he being in heaven eternally ruling and unchangeably abiding to award entanglements Father gives of it self significant and apt succours to virtuat the practice of Prayer but a more manifest vigour is acquired when this qui es which art is reflected upon Which expression being read backward maketh se hinting his being his immutable being his unchangeable being is altogether of himself whence the supplicant may irrefragably infer that though he hath changed possibly to sin since the last Prayer yet God is not altered and therefore may be addressed unto for pardon vigorously in assurance It is to be noted that the word art is not expressed in the Original but implyed only yet it is manifest that it is not idle in the Translation but operats upon the duty of Prayer 1. Shewing Gods presence in it and therefore our awe It is used of them only who are before us for of the absent we say not quiâ—es which art but which is And therefore if the women of Corinth were to be covered because of the Angels how much more ought all to have a holy modesty when they call upon God lest eying him too sawcily he make ready his arrows against our faces the visible seat of our shameful impudence Take heed therefore not only to thy foot but to thy knee thy tongue thy face thine eye when thou enterest into the house of God or to thine own prayer-house lest thou be accounted hasty sawcy and malapert by asking of him wherewith to nourish thy lust Thou mayst offend in thy lofty looking with the Pharisee much speaking with the Heathen much repeating with Battus for one saith Battology is inarticulata vox like the talk of young children Study thou therefore to be manly and pray with understanding 2. Our confidence in it and therefore let us be open in Prayer The Sun never fails for all the light he transmits unto the world the Sea is not diminished notwithstanding the moisture it affords Gods Store-house will not empty though he enrich the world with his substance while therefore thou art with him in thy house or closet ask enough ask that thy joy may be full Illi enim 〈◊〉 exaudiri merentur he is heard aâ—â—â—ably of God who being heated with 〈◊〉 zeal asks and doth what good possibâ—â—â—y is within the sphear of his activity Ask therefore and ask again and ask more still capacitating for more good that thy own joy and the joy in others may yet be more full Et ne demittas eum and let not him go untill by love thy soul be joyned unto him which shall corroborat and yet more accumulat thy joy Alexander ordered his Treasurer to give Anaxagoras as much treasure as he pleased to demand he asked a hundred Talents each Talent valued 375 pound sterling at which the Treasurer wondering Alexander gladned saying Recte facit He doth as he ought knowing he hath a friend who can and will give him so much Be not sparing in thy requests but beg the utmost for the discharging of all thy debts the assurance of all his possessions thy Father can do it thy King will do it the glory of Christ nor of the Angels nor of the Saints being not all diminished by thy accession to those heavenly Mansions 3. Our chearfulness therefore let us not be disheartned in Prayer That God should come and stand before us with sealed pardons ought to conciliat us to all heavenly exercises but more singularly to this personal treaty to this intercourse of Prayer wherein we can look God in the face and he behold our tears when both are beyond the possibility of other Fathers What could Amittai have done for his beloved Ionah when in the Whales belly yet this Pater in Coelis God in heaven delivered him from all his distresses It is to be noted that though God be often in Scripture said to repent which implyes a change of and mutation in mind yet it is to be understood rei mutatio not Dei A change there was in the Ninivites first and after in God in the language of men that not being executed which was threatned we call it repentance when God repreived their destruction for to speak properly God hath in himself no umbrage of a change but as the Stars of Heaven
to be engraven upon it others will have it so expressed from the cavaty and hollownesse thereof Our word Heaven is borrowed from the Saxon Hefon and to heave for lifting up is yet good and ordinary English yea Scripture-language Heaven being above all and receives a three sold signification in holy writ First more largely because more sensibly for the Region of the Air in which we behold the Birds and Fowls to reside therefore called the Fowls of Heaven and may be called the lower heaven Next more strictly yet still visibly for the spacious Firmament over us called Heaven by God himself and may be called the starry Heaven Lastly and more closely for the very seat of God where he appears in royal Majesty admired of his Saints and Angels and is called sometimes simply Heaven sometimes the third Heaven containing and circumscribing within and about it self all visible or invisible creatures God in the midst being the glory of it Yet observe his being said to be in Coelis in Heaven hath no servile signification as if he were excluded any other place he being there only as a King in his Court or presence or as a Skipper in his Ship or Cabine ruling and influencing all by his authority or greatnesse guiding all with the skilfulness of his hands Let us see the nature of the Countrey Its influence upon Prayer as it eyes that rule so pray ye which cannot be more exactly delineated then by pourtraying though in rude draughts the nature of this Country whereof we are Inhabitants In which Death Hatred Rueing Fearing and Complaining fills the Table 1. There that is in Heaven is life against our dying In this earthly Countrey we are but hourly painting for breath and at best in a storm sailing to the port of our grave and the many deaths we undergo may sadly cause us superadde to that old complaint The sorrowes of death compassed me the pains of hell got hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow In opposition to which Heaven our Fathers Countrey is said to have in it the Tree of life the Water of life the Bread of life there being no care in getting it no cloying in eating it nor vexation to keep it whence the nearer the Saints draw to it the sweeter do they sing as Moses David and Simeon Agite igitur Strive therefore that when worms shall destroy this body our souls being adorned by good works unto which our shortness of time calamities in time and the graves of the rich shall prompt us we may with all the Saints rejoyce in Heaven 2. There is love against our hating In this world we are pestred with ira furor odium wrath anger and malice contriving mischief against our brother while our hand is with him in the dish I have read that a Ewe did yean a Lyon not a Lamb such yeaners for all the world are many of us our pretended innocents and harmless being seriously the dame to tyrannical behaviour and unnatural opinions which though at first may be play'd withal yet proves imperious beasts of prey towards those about them when adult But in Heaven each one joys in the prosperity of his fellow admiring affecting him because of his exceeding weight of glory and God in Christ rejoycing over all in each one as a Bridegroom over his Bride giving them to drink of the new Wine in his own kingdom Cesar observes that at his coming into France Non solum in omnibus Civitatibus not only in their Cities or Villages but in every house there were factions Had that noble Commander the opportunity of returning to the world again he would it may be conjecture France had crossed the Channel and had been now seated where Britain was And though there be too much cause of complaining of many turning Prosylites to the Roman-See yet it is more then evident our divisions may make us subject and our sactions betray us not to Cesars but to Romes dominion Let him that readeth understand in a worse sense then Cesar meaned the other To what shifts are some put to defend their barbarous morosity in looking ascue upon the vertues of the best and aggravating the vices of the vicious whereby their lives are but a studious vitality for desaming one another and then guilding their slander by an adulterated reason Timon's hating wicked men because they deserved no love and good men because they hated not the wicked was but a compend of the desperat fury whereby this generation is universally and therefore miserably for punctilio's wofully infected The single contemplation whereof more pathetically melts the devout enlivening him for and with a desire to depart and to be with Christ in Heaven there being no Saul among those Prophets nor Doeg among those Abimelechs nor Ieroboam among those Solomons nor no Satans among those Sons of God nor Serpents among those Birds of Paradise For though Hominibus stulâ—is suavis est the things of this world to fools be sweet yet to the wise and prudent they are but bitter neither is it loved but when it is not known wherefore such as have the Spirit of God cryes How long O Lord how long 3. There is pleasure against our rewing Amon loves to day a Tamar but the same object of beauty he hates to morrow Voluptas dolor pleasure and sorrow though of contrary dispositions are near neighbours yea as in the Fable perpetual associats for they once quarreiling Iupiter finding no other means of reconcilement so joyned them that he who embraces one must hugg the other Others say that he joyned them together by an Adamantine chain inseparably to remain and the best remedy the old Romanes found for sorrow was the goddess Angerona i. e. of silence whose image was placed upon the Alâ—ar of pleasure figuring that in the crowd of cares there was no pleasure but in silence a remedy God wot that increased the disease But we have a more sure word of prophesie for Heaven from its peaceable pleasure is denominated Paradise and from its pleasant fruitfulness there is represented to endear our respects a tree of Life whereof we shall plentifully feed being ordained for their eternal repast who alienats their minds from the garbadge of this present evil world which is not in the same day to be named with the fatness of that house and the rivers of his pleasures rivers not because they are passing but from their eternal overflowing the very writing of this minds me that somewhere it is said that Pleasure washing her self in a River Sorrow came and put on her cloaths then lying on the River bank and travelling every one ran to catch her yet found but Sorrow in Pleasures garment our greatest comforts in the opinion of poor Heathens being overcome and mastered with their congenit bitterness and anxieties The consideration of which
made St. Paul to groan earnestly and ought to urge upon us a proportionable zeal to inherit that house made without hands and to behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us which saith one affords unitly three acts videre amare laudare Beholding Loving Praising God and how should grief be there they entering when into it into joy having joy above them in God and his Christ joy about them in the Saints and Angels and joy within them because of all and therefore in his Name shall they rejoice all the day and in his righteousness shall they be exalted 4. There is safety to remove our fearingâ— All the splendor of this world being but like Nebuchadnezzars image having heads of gold breasts of silver yet standing upon seet of clay prognosticks dissolution and points it shall have an end Iob even in plenty when on earth seared and foresaw poverty And was not Fortune fancied by such as created gods represented standing upon a round ball shewing aptitude to motion Hath not the most Christian King a Cross upon his Golden Crown and the great Mahumetan glories in a half Moon which more equally inferrs to us a diminishing of his greatness then to himself justly it portends a growing of his power The greatest Crown may be made to â—otter by its own guard but to our Fathers City there comes none but detesters of such baseness yea they are uncapable of temptations thereunto Not to speak of the Devil though even of him some are in as great fear as one was of Hercules who hearing of his heroick atchievments did hide himself in a Cave for fear lest he should see him but spying him peeping through curiosity at first view died in a fright I say to pass Saâ—an there is no thief can there break through and steal no fear of evil in their thoughts no snare in their walk no scandal in their eye no flesh to beguile nor world to allure but all in perfect peace that is peace peace 5. There is largeness to take away our complaining The greatest Kingdom here is but a spot when compared to the whole circumference of the Mapp and it may be our portion in that Kingdom is not in the Cart at all which makes men look not to say leap over hedges that with conveniency field may be joyned to field but this Kingdom of our Fathers is spacious and the most enlarged soul hath so much elbow-room that the extasies of his Spirit are fixed in his possessions and the highest rapture he is transported unto makes him not grudge the glorious lustre of his rich because Sainted Comrade In our Fathers house are many mansions wherein the soul is satisfied being in the likeness of God For if beauty be pleasing they shine as the Sun doth strength content them they shall run and not be weary walk and not be faint doth royalty affect them they are crowned Kings if satiety please them they inherit all things Solomon shall not then have only wisdom nor Abraham obedience nor Sampson strength no Phineas zeal but every one shall be endowed with all and imployed not in looking asquint upon each other but in eying praising and adoring God Lewis son to Charles King of Sicily contemplating these two Kingdoms together whereof we speak said Si regnum paternum considero If I consider my Fathers Kingdom how little is it how small is it in comparison of that which is upward into which the soul is admitted when a man once liâ—ts up himself This he spake who hardly saw the pavement of the palace of our heavenly Father but hazy weather the utmost coasts of that blessed Countrey Yet even that did and will operat to that degree as to put no estimat upon the â—airest flourish Earth can make at any time much more at Prayer Unto which there are these six things concurring 1. It s largeness 2. It s fairness 3. It s glory 4. It s cheerfulness 5. It s exercise continual praise 6. It s eternity enduring for ever Touching the influence this description hath upon Prayer to repeat the same things being profitable this account may be rendred 1. That prayer is immediatly to be directed to God in Heaven in opposition to all upon Earth The best Father is but Pater pulveris a Father of Dust and therefore not capable to be for us either a Sun or Shield It is also a direction to pray to none but such whom we are sure are in Heaven At Rome they are sainted whom yet save in common charity we know not but they may be damned However it be let us be put in mind to lift up our hearts to our Father Sursum corda who is in Heaven Have a care said a dying Reformer of the last Age my dear Children my Eusebi my Irene my Alethea that you love God the Father Little children saith Iohn keep your selves from idols Have a care that you pray to your Father saith Christ to all his Sons After this manner therefore pray ye 2. That Prayer is to be offered up with reverent and spiritual thoughts not likening God to any Creature upon Earth As we know not what is the likaness shape or form of the inhabitants of Heaven so are we utterly ignorant of the nature of God in it and therefore in Prayer to conceit him a man as some atheistically do with us or paint him like an old man as some superstitiously do who are of Rome is a discredit to his spiritual being To desire to see and then to worship is to worship without faith Abhor therefore such idolizing and pray against the impress of such absurd vanity the more absurd that there was no manner of similitude seen on the day the Lord spake in Horeb and though we see heaven daily yet can we give no account of its nature how much lesse of God who is within it Euclid being vexed with an impertinent Questionist about the gods tartly replyed Quae petis ignoro I am ignorant of these things but this I know that the gods have indignation at such curious searchers Sure we are those that confine the illimited God in the imaginary space of any thing visible or form his spirituality in the likenesse of what can be sancyed creat a god which cannot hear them and slight a God will be revenged upon them Besides these men make God an idol when they prepare not their hearts nor fit their affections for his service and again when all their religion is in the Temple and again when they invent wayes to worship God and follow their own imaginations To speak of committing or loving sin in secret or of hoording up wealth with trust or for-swearing themselves in judgement were large subjects yet by these God is made an idol 3. That Prayer is to be presented with sincere and pure affections not defiled
his said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst see the salvation of God In all conflicts we have seven grounds for consolation 1. The mercy bounty and love of God 2. The mediation of Jesus Christ. 3. The sealing of the Spirit for the day of redemption 4. The Covenant of grace by which we are adopted as sons 5. The seals of that Covenant in the Sacraments 6. The gifts of the Spirit to persevere 7. The example of those Saints whose iniquity hath been pardoned whose souls have been delivered as David Paul Zacheus Manasseh and the converted theif All which in spight of those numerous Troups which assault and oppress man in the contemplation of his own misery affords auxiliaries upon the only expence of a hearty Miserere mei Lord have mercy upon me sufficient to set the soul free from all disturbance and settle it against all shakings whatsoever 5. His Veracity to the doubtful is another letter of His Name and equally clear to that Motto engraven upon Aarons mitre HOLINESS TO THE LORD He hath many Names in Scripture yea and sirnames too as the mighty God the jealous God but his truth is one of those immutable things wherein we have strong consolation both in our life and death comparing his veracity with the transient and fading because airy promises or undertakings of men which are in our greatest extremity as volatile as are the passions and humours of the undertakers hence the Philosopher Pithagoras being questioned when men were likest the gods replyed when they spake truth that having but one face and one way said another like unto God without change or revocation He hath highly glorified this attribute 1. In the execution of those things denounced against sin and sinners which should make us fear his Name 2. In the Salvation of his Elect by his Sons condescendency At last the seed of the woman bruised the head of the serpent Let us accordingly rejoyce in his Name for the idols of the heathen are vain but our God is a God of truth 3. In the Preservation of all things made by his ordinary providence therefore presume not upon his Name hallow it but tempt it not our Saviour would not tempt the Lord by casting himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple there being a pair of Stairs for descension for he is said to tempt qui â—ine ratione who without necessity will cast himself upon or in an apparent hazard when otherwise it may be avoided So abstruse is the effence of Almighty God and so diffused is his power that the only one God in Scripture and with all people hath received different names to expresse his Nature by and beautified those names I might say sanctified and hallowed them Praeclaris Elogiis with singular and eminent Attributes from his existence he is called Iehovah from his being with us Emmanuel from his great authority the Lord of hosts from his dreadfulness a consuming fire from his goodnesse both we and the Germains calls him God or Godt and from his kindnesse he is ordinarily termed Father from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that from his care over us as children in feeding begetting Say not of his Law then it is vain for it is his Name and every article thereof is good and necessary composed neither by Art nor mans device slight it not for its plainnesse simplicity which made the wise and learned Philosophers of the world disesteem it as not flaunting though yet it be majestically high for by its light our steps MUST be ordered by its food our souls nourished by its vertue our diseases removed by its edge our enemies subdued by its drawing our wounds cured and by its instruction heaven MUST be acquired Buy therefore Bibles Animae Pharmaca the souls Apothecaries shop there being their proper receipts not only against all diseases but antidots against all damnages and medecines to prevent all losses which the Spirit in its quickest intuition can behold it self capable to come under Creatures are but creatures and as to Salvation but meer consonants wherefore in comparison of the Gospel all creatures are to be abandoned If punishing with a vengeance those who deride its authority and sitting in the seat of the scornful give suffrage against its dignity The last words of a prophane courtier in this kingdom once were apagite away with these idle things concerning Christ I never believed there was a God a devil or hell and for which I am now damned and turned over to the devil to be eternally plunged according to my merit in the lowest hell and so died the Gospel being in readiness to revenge all disobedience either in life or at death Much better died Sanctus Dacianus Deacon of the Church of Vienna who in the midst of exquisite torments from persecuting heathens being demanded what he was Replyed I am a Christian this is my Name my Country my Family my Religion and besides Christian I am nothing and untill all things be accounted as dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Iesus Christ the Name by which we must be saved we shall never spell our own Salvation Abuse not his creatures his name is seen in them the basest of them if there be any base is wonderful and as a straw can puzle the wisest for know as false Doctrine so a profane life dishonours the name of God and affronts the Majesty of our Saviour eat not with the Glutton for delight sit not down with the Drunkard for good fellowship for bitterness proves the issue of unholy friendship Respect the Sacraments for his Name is also beheld in them by the one are we baptized in his Name and by the other nourished in the application of him in them both to our selves let them be Sacraments that is industriously prepare for them Sacra mente holy appetites making neither the Table of the Lord polluted by a meer customary coming nor the waters of the Sanctuary despicable by a careless beholding but sanctifie our selves in religious meditation upon the nature end and use of these sacred Mysteries that our Christianity may be fertile and evidenced to have a higher rise then education Our Baptism hath a more noble end then by a name to distinguish us among men for he that is baptized hath put on Christ that is de jure we are to be accounted the Sons of God or that we are covered and protected as with cloaths by Jesus Christ his Spirit giving us an inward garment in renovation an outward in conversation and in both by a conformity to his holiness or that by baptism all our sins as our bodies and imperfections by cloaths are covered by Christ our works affections our selves are changed into Christ which more discovers our monstrous baseness if for any reward much lesse for any lust we so
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
in the Word and Sacraments and releasings of the Church in a far more consolatory way then can be attained of worshipping of Saints or going on Pilgrimages c. As appeared in Gentleman of this same Age who being vexed with the Palâ—ie and entering his Ladies Chamber heard a young Child reading to her Mother by providence these words in the Gospel And Iesus said to the sick of the Palsie Son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven these which furnished the soul of the diseased with abundance of consolation and blessed God who out of the mouths of babes and sucklings ordained praise to himself in this particular of forgiving all sin 2. Consider his singularity besides him no God It is a note of authority to give and of subjection to receive names and the first act of Fathers power is in giving his Son a name but had not God named himself we had yet been ignorant both of his Name and of his Sons His Name is God because he is one the sooner therefore may he be hallowed the multiplicity of Saints and Spirits not only cusing irksomnesse but creating fear left in pleasing seven we might offend the eight for ommitting him and my intense prayers to Peter or Paul might cause my guardian Angel to take snuff when more remiss in his service or office Praise him therefore and only pray to him he being Lord above with Nehemiah and as to Hezekiah he will let thee know he inclines his ear to hear and opens his eyes to see all those that afflict thy soul and ask thy self consult Scripture and experience 1. Doth he not bring down all that are high Where are the Worthies of this world Achitophels policy or Cesars sorce Let men talk no more exceeding proudly for like Oreb and Zeeb like Pharaoh and Senacherib they perish before him Vain boasters who have spoke great words how suddenly have they been dejected and cast down How in a movement have they been removed and in a groan confessed that the glory of man was nothing It is recorded that after Senacheribs Army was destroyed by an Angel he had these words engraven upon his standing Picture Let him that looketh upon me learn to fear God Iulian Uncle to the Apostate after many oâ—trages committed against the Church was in horrible anguish advised by his Wife to praise and proclaim Christ his Saviour who had shown himself powerful in plaguing him and had done it in mercy to bring him to repentance which pious advice had some influence upon him before he died and how he hath cast abroad the rage of his wrath and beheld every one that was proud to abase him every sinner shall at last and most sick persons do and condemned Malefactors bring in plentiful evidences 2. Doth he not exalt all that are low Is Moses cast out by the law of Pharaoh though we read of none that was drowned yet he singularly was preserved by Pharaohs Daughter David appointed by his Father to keep sheep as fit neither for Court nor Camp is designed to be King of Israel no soundness is in Iobs flesh yet a sacrifice shall redintegrat both his health and fortune Ruth accounting her self not like one of Boaz hand-maids as born without the Covenant got a full reward of the God of Iocab yea a royal one in becoming Grand-mother to king David and in the Magnificat is it not said My soul doth magnifie the Lord for he hath regarded the low estate of his hand-maid Humble your selves therefore and say to the King and Queen humble your selves and all shall be exalted in due time and those who are qualified with this vertue of prasing God though here they have no house they shall have a heaven and though weak they shall have strength and though no honour it shall be reported that they pleased God When Cyrus prospered he became the more holy and more frequently caused sing praises and offered sacrifice to the gods so ought we to the God of heaven For 3. Doth he not defy all that are supposed He calls in derision of all reputed gods to whom will ye liken me and puts two things unto them to try his excellency 1. Prediction to know what is to come 2. Execution of either good or evil Which if they cannot do it follows that they are not gods and he alone is to be feard because he can creat peace and make war and knoweth all that is past what is present and what shall be hereafter To glorifie the Name of God it but to publish the miracles with a thankfull heart which he hath performed for his Church upon his enemies Which Thulis an Egyptian King knew who swelling in the pride of his own magnified greatness would needs inquire at the gods whether any King were greater or richer then himself and had this response from a Priest of Serapis The greatest is God next is the Word the Spirit with them being one in nature and eternal in power But thou O mortal haste thee out of this place and seek where to shut up thy life Immediatly after which he was slain by his own servants and so shall all the enemies of our Father perish that men may know he whose Name is Iehovah is the most high over all earth 3. Consider his infinite glory and there is none to be reputed God but he Solomon was in all his glory inferiour to a Lilly the glory of that flower being in it self and from it self yet as his was so the Lillies beauty is but a ray of his ineffable splendour and all comes from him Herod's silver doublet which is recorded to have been that which the Scripture calls his royal apparel was but poor armour though glittering in the Sun against the assault of base and contemptible worms It was as we read told him by Aâ—gurs he should see an Owl five dayes before he died which appearing as the people were admiring his eloquence and shouting he was a god he cryed Behold your god dieth It is said after his death that the Word of God grew and multiplied and until the false imagination of deluded souls be indeed slaughtered by the sword of the Spirit or detected by the light of the Word of God which is his Name his Name doth not multiply by the accession of believers to a belief of the truth For though there be many that profess his Name yet it is to be fearred there be few hath chosen it the most falling upon it by chance having found it in their native Countrey which also causeth it to be by chance but honoured their chief design being either the advancement of them selves or their faction Yet there are a few unto whom God is doing as he hath alwayes done viz. making known the unity that is the glory of his Name in the Doctrine of his Son and as they repute none
c. Davids acquitting God that he might be justified when he spake was but an acknowledgment of his unthankfulness for his gifts received in sining against his Law and unmindfull of all the good things he possessed Yea Daniel denyeth not but confesseth that to us that is to all belongeth shame and confusion of face because we have sinned bringing the sins of the people to himself because he was one of them aggrageing the guilt The acknowledging of our sin is so indispensible that he who confesseth not is never said to forsake them and he who trusts to pardon without this shall see his sin spread before him by the hand of God in blacker colours then his tongue eye or heart can behold or conceive and therefore spread them before the Lord in thy closet or else he will discover them in the face of the Sun It is a sad story which we read as but lately done of a dying man being Bedrid and hungry cryed for meat but at sight thereof so loathed it that he was earnest for its removal out of his fight his hunger growing loathed it as before it was removed and called for a third time and again removed at last he opened his mouth and confessed Gods justice in this dealing having never craved a blessing upon his meat when he sat down nor gave God thanks when he rose up Let them heed this that rising from meat thinks of â—othing but of sleep or it may be worse viz chambering and waâ—tonness 4. Praise him in bearing and exercising patience under evils imposed Troubles are touch-stones to try the mettal of a Christian and let hypocrisie keep never so closs it shall in some act or other be discovered They tryed a Iob and found him good gold they tryed a David and found him gold likewise but something dusted now and then he was tripping they searched a Daniel and made him more servent in prayer to put a soul under crosses is Dei mos Gods custome Virtutum flos the blossome of goodness Fidei cos the whet-stone of faith Coeli dos Heavens dowry whoso weds himself to Christ must look on crosses as a part of his portion and must not only glorifie in prosperity the Name of God but in adversity also declareing ourselves still to be under the regiment of his providence It is an argument of Gods love an argument of thy faith a medicament against thy sin and an incitement of thee unto thy prayers which ought to enforce thee to restrain thy passion in the most calamitous estate who in the tryal of thy patience in thankfulness supplants thy corruptions and provides for the future strengthning of thy gifts as a winters storm doth the young Ash Beech Elme or Oak tree I see not said the moralist boldly a more pleasant sight for God to behold upon earth if he would turn his eye toward it then to behold a Cato standing upright that is not dejected with our publick calamities sure I am to see a Iob upon the Dung-hill or a Solomon worshipping upon the Throne or Daniel depending in the Den gives far more exceeding satisfaction Inarius an old Bishop of Chalcedon becoming blind through age was mocked by Iulian and bid pray to the Galilean meaning Christ for the restoring of his eyes smartly answered gratias ago Deo I bless my Lord God for depriving me of sight that I might not see thy ungodly face extracting from his own infirmity matter of glory and praise to the eternal God in the face of a blasphemer 5. Praise him for that illumination thy soul hath obtained Reads thou upon his Sons cross Come unto me hears thou in the Sacrament this is the cup of the remission of thy sin knows thou in thy journeys his Angels have a charge over thee finds thou his Spirit saying thy sins are forgiven thee And shall there be no Halelujah of praise no Hosanna to him that cometh in the Name of the Lord Knoweth thou not thy self to be a sinful man a child of wrath a denyer of Jesus then call that the voice of the cock may awake thee and that tears as Peter may wash thee The cock hath crowed in the Scriptures and our Jesus hath already wept for us and Peter hath sent us two Epistles to strengthen us he himself being converted that we be not led away with the errour of the wicked but grow in grace and knowledge Have we abilities to pray be thankful for by that we journey unto God Have we instruction by the Gospel or behold we the edification of the Church the members thereof bearing much fruit Herein is your Father glorified rejoice and if you live in peace or keep a pure soul if you speak the truth in your heart and keep guile from your tongue become not tepid in Religion be not starters from the faith nor workers of iniquity nor captivated by errour for men beholding these things shall glorifie your Father which is in Heaven It is a good observe that this word Hallow is used because holiness is the highest title of honour and glory that can belong to any though to the most high God for the Seraphims being to give God the greatest mark of renown cry Holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts It was the honour of Ierusalem to be a holy city the glory of the third heaven to be a holy place and when Christ Jesus shall present his Church unto himself he will present it holy As we pray so we ought to practise and the holiness that God giveth unto us is that we be not deceived or become fornicators or idolaters or adulterers or effeminat or thieves or covetous or drunkards or extortioners but be washed and sanctified which we daily ought to pray for in the Name of our Lord Jesus that holy thing that holy child whose Name we pray may be glorified in you and ye in him for in this we differ from bruits and for this we have a spirit and a tongue viz. even to acknowledge the Lord for all his gifts according to the grace of God and his holy Govenant and the Lord Jesus Christ So shall he in the Hebrew be hallowed that is Halal be praised and the old English word healed secured protected or restored iniquity making God as it were sick and distempered in himself and damnified by others in his renown and glory And so much for this first Petition CHAP. III. Thy Kingdom come THE Holy Ghost in Scripture makes mention of a threesold Kingdom 1. That of God 2. Of Christ. 3. Of Heaven and all here may be truly understood it not being taught us as if God reigned not but that his reigning and domination might be manifested to all and hastned to us which is properly our inheritance being by the former Petition made holy and in the Preface adopted sons of glory There is mention
Lord and therefore let us stand upright and not flectere ad ima as bowed down behold the things of this carnal and perishing world lest we be accounted unfit to approach unto or enter in the Kingdom of God Exoneremus ergo let us therefore cleanse our hearts from the contagion of unclean cogitations and fit our selves for a daily offering up unto Christ prayer and praise as Priests separated by the Spirit for that good work and office and particularly to offer bread I mean the remembrance of the whole Tribes the whole earth for their good It was Sauls question whether the promise or hopes of fields or vineyards made his Guards not inform him of Davids supposed conspiracy and consederacy with Ionathan and truly the largeness excellency the Vineyards and fields the riches and the glory of the Kingdoms of grace and providence ought to provoke us to be earnest for the advancement of the Kingdom of God the protection we have from Angels the heat we receive from the Sun the light we have from the Heavens the prospect we have from the Hills the Flowers we behold from the Valleys the Commodities we have from the Sea the comforts we draw from the Beasts the spiritual consolations we receive from the Gospel shew the advantages we have by his Government and therefore ought to endeavour the removing and fight for the departing of Saul's the sense is easie and the coming of David's Kingdom in pressing for the enlargement of the Kingdom of grace under our Lord Jesus Christ. For though in the Kingdom of his providence we possess such a lot or portion as his wisdom or power giveth and judgeth convenient for us yet remembring that these things we enjoy common with the Swine in the field and the Raven of the air the Fort-royal of our affections are not to be possessed much less commanded by the desire of enlarging temporalities being given but as apt means to uphold our otherwise frail Tabernacle but collecting all our strength animat our zeal for a studious striving for and earnest thirsting after the beautifying confirming enlarging and adorning of our inward man by grace against the approaching of the Kingdom of glory This Age hath many who slight this Prayer in their practice as well as neglect it in their religious exercise they desire the coming of his Kingdom limiting their thoughts to that of Providence desiring the hastning and advancement of those good things they desire to possess yet not contented with their portion by stealing cheating robbing they snatch it impudently out of his hands being impatient that he brings it not unto them and grumbleth that he makes not speed whereas Thy Kingdom come implyes modesty and our waiting upon Gods leasure Let pilfring sinners therefore know that not a snatching but a mannerly receiving is contained in this Petition Hasten not therefore to be rich Eye his Kingdom of Grace we have those so pure in their own eyes so holy in their own conceits that they behold no urgent cause for its more evident appearing Let such know that not sufficiency but a daily exuberancy is contained in this Petition Say not therefore I have enough It is obvious that many concludes the coming of this Kingdom to consist in such tenets or opinions they have imbibed from the Rabbies of some saction to them beloved Let such know that not the following of mens opinions but the knowledge and owning of Gods heavenly dominion is contained in this Petition the great Officers therein under himself being Magistrats and Ministers c. both which are prayed for in Thy Kingdom come Thy Kingdom come THe Kingdoms of Grace and Glory as they are united in this Petition are now to be explicated and first of Grace whereby Christ reigns in the soul which by having the Gospel is nigh unto us and next that of Glory prepared for us before the foundation of the world yet these are not so much two as one differing only as the light conveyed by the window differs from that immediatly flowing from the Sun In the Kingdom of Grace Christ is compared to a Roe standing behind the wall looking forth at the window shewing himself through the lattess the wall is our flesh the window is his Law the lattess is his Prophets but in the Kingdom of Glory the wall is pellucide the window and lattess both removed and the immediat beams i. e. glory of the Father by the Saints viewed and respected By Grace here he hath Servants Kings and Teachers in his Temple and Throne but there in glory there is no teaching because no ignorance no King because no offence and Kingdom implying government and that under a King Christ is King and Head of his Church and God the Father as Jesus is man is the head of Christ Hence we pray Our Father which art in Heaven Thy Kingdom come In which Petition there is something we pray against and something we pray for the latter is for the Churches and our guidance into the Holy of Holies the former is for subjugating Gods and our enemies and all pernicious lusts obstructing our glory to come We pray against the dominion of sin the darkness of nature the prevalency of Satan and the delay of the Saints reward 1. The dominion of sin that its head which is as a Serpents may be bruised and its reign which is tyrannical may be ended all lust being base and ignoble and ineffably cruel domineering more over the soul and making it suffer more from it quam corpus c. then the body doth from diseases for it reigns and brings into eternal death at last fascinating in the mean time and bewitching mens hearts so that but few are sensible of that danger which these Ammonites will bring upon them if longer tolerated and those few again have their souls so entangled that though they have no love to embrace yet they want power to extricate themselves out of sins snare or force to drive it from exercising dominion over them Therefore calls for help against that strong man that by the power of grace and strength of faith and ardency of zeal all from the Spirit of God he may be bound as a rebel against heaven and an usurper over man in forcing obedience to his lusts and rigidly exacting what was never his due viz. love and subjection Thy Kingdom come as it eyes the Church imports that it might be manifest among men and that it might be known to the ignorant but eying Grace it respects the extinguishing of all vice by the power of God that neither devil nor world nor carnal lust nor any sin might have dominion over us but God alone For if we study good works and shine in vertue lust and iniquity shall never overcome us nor the power of hell suppress us restat ergo we ought therefore as in all
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
our habitations there being in sure places joy in the Holy Ghost all sorrow and sighing being fled It is proverbially said of the three Princes Electors that the Palisgrave hath the Honour Brandeburgh the Land but the Duke of Saxony the Money but what a brave soyl must that be where every man hath all and if Shells or Pearl cast up by Tides hath made men zealous to attaque the Countrey whence they came should not our own knowledge of such invaluable things as Glory and Majesty durable riches and honour make the weak say I am strong and all of us to quit our selves like men looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God For zeal saith an honourable and learned person unto whose elaborat labours the body of Divinity and all Divines are beholding is the best evidence of a Christian the Spirit of God workes like fire and is the greatest means to draw out the soul for serving of Christ when Isaiah was touched with the fiery coal then he cryed send me he also saith it will save a sinking Church and therefore needful now and adds that it is the glory and beauty of all our services adding a lustre unto them as Varnish doth to other Colours In the Kingdom of our Father Scripturally taken must we eternally abide or for ever be inhabitants in the Kingdom of darkness so that death or life is before us and we must choose whether to be slaves to the Devils objects of fury subjects of torment where fire exerciseth our feeling ugly Devils our seeing the cryes and yelps of the damned our hearing brimstone and our own flesh our smelling and a cup of red wine of fiery indignation our tasting and the thinking upon our own follies and perpetuity of these plagues more and more heating our already enraged souls this I say must be either chosen Or liberty with God to be objects of delight subjects of Majesty in this Kingdom of God whose coming we pray for who hath Majesty for his Crown saith one Mercy for his seat Justice for his Scepter Wisdom for his Counsellour Almightiness for his Guard Eternity for his Date Heaven for his Pallace and Hell for his Prison So that unless this Kingdom of Jesus come to us we shall be for ever in bondage in the bottomless pit for mark this well will we nill we the Kingdom of the Father shall come and the will of the Father be done but in this Petition our desire is to be excited and prepared that it may come to us and we fitted to reign in it Unto which as unto all other works there is nothing so efficacious as zeal There is a vast difference betwixt the being of this Kingdom and the coming of it for where it is it is only in power and justice but where it comes it comes in love and mercy it is every where but it comes only to the Saints upon earth and the glorified in Heaven which should awake us from that spiritual lethargick drowsiness wherein sin and Satan hath lulled us to prosecute our heavenly interest with a more holy vigour that this Kingdom may come to us and we may enter into it In this Kingdom all the glory of the Father is as though we were elder brethren given to us and though we possess on earth what men calls Beauty Gallantry Majesty goods or state yet these are but Colours varnishing a rotten Post to delude our selves for their proper name is Vanity and their sirname Vexation because as a shadow we only see them not hold them and like shadows again they pass away and we see them no more Once the Church cryed out Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth as if she should have said hitherto he hath kissed me by Moses as by Proxy by his Prophets as by Ambassadours but let himself come let him descend and kiss me he sends yet his Ambassadours in the Ministry his Epistles in the Bibles History but these being but as cordials to sick persons we ought zealously to cry Attamen ipse veni make no tarrying O our God Rich Cresus cloathed with all the magnificence his royal Wardrob could afford demanded of the wise Solon if he had ever seen a more beautiful sight yes said Solon I have seen Cocks and Peacocks and truly behold man in all his glory and a Peacock far exceeds him he can sleep with his train whereas Cresus must at night be stript to his shirt and in sleep be as poor as his Foot-man the fashion of this world therefore perishing and passing away it should in a true sense be our pastime to acquitt our selves like Heaven-born souls prizing only solidities daily pray for the approach of our Fathers Dominion and our own glory Let no Zelot hence infer a necessity of disturbing or conclude by rage or fury too often termed zeal to foment division or raise discord in the Kingdoms of this world Kings and Princes being Subjects of the first rank and persons of the highest authority in this Kingdom of God and are indeed to kiss the Son yet are not oblidged to do homage to their Subjects how pretendedly holy soever The Elders cast their Crowns before the Throne but yet they are to have their Crowns to wear their Crowns that they may cast them and not be robbed of that Emblem of Soveraignty wherewith their Father hath adorned their brows in so beautiful a way that besides the appellation Father hath for a sirname called himself King of kings the removing of which from their Thrones were therefore robbing God of the glory of one of his Names and of such an one whereof he boasts Innocent and holy zeal is known by these marks 1. If it be according to knowledge 2. If it be fit and adapt for the person in his doing all duties conform to yea sometimes above his ability as the Macedonians were charitable 3. If it cause diligence in the affairs of a mans Calling idlenesse in our own and busie in other mens matters is not zeal but sin 4. If it cause meekness and humility in things relating to a mans self and fervency in what belongs to God 5. If it be more studious of good works then how to uâ—â—avel knotty questions and contentious debates 6. If it bear it self equally according to the weight of the matter it is exercised about to be zealous to tith Mint and sloathful in doing Justice to be angry at a harmless jest and delight in an ill report is not zeal but hypocrisie that rather eyes the supposed saults or infirmities of others then the real vices in a mans self whereas zeal rather respects its own short-comings or over-runnings in duty or converse And lastly it is alwayes attended with grief and sorrow towards the sinner and hath pity for the offender and in matters respecting God useth such means only as
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
those above-mentioned we surcease from more particular designation Four brethren visiting one Pambus discoursed of some special duty wherein they had exercised themselves One had been much in fasting another had so slighted the world that he had nothing of it nor in it a third professed he had studied that eminent grace of charity the fourth had lived two and twenty years in obeying the will of another to whom Pambus gave the crown of superexcellent commendation in regard he had quitted his own will and served anothers whereas his companions had chosen what their own wills had beheld as delectable and though we sacrifice our selves by giving our bodies to be burned yet obedience is more acceptable with him with whem we have to do and more performable shall his will be to us if we reflect that he wills only what is profitable and all his will is profitable for us in that he wills them to us It is to be adverted that God wills only good let none therefore be harsh it is by accident if he wills ill the means that leads to glory be more lucidly discovered and most pathetically press'd Samuel wept for Saul and David harped for him though both knew God had left him It is a scandalous practice of some to wish either the means or tendencies towards hell or to presume at first Gods final determination and accordingly with delight wisheth not to say prayeth ill for their brethren It is the will of God that all Israel be saved let it not be thy will to have any Edomite damned left thou curse thy self He wills moreover the doing of his will by thy self also be not an hypocrite exclude not thy self from this service for it is not let thy will be done by these or these or by him but let thy will be done that every where throughout the earth Errour may be eradicated and Vertue planted and in worshipping of his Name Earth may not be different from Heaven which cannot be if thy own soul be not by thy self weeded from vice and his will performed to thy power It is Storied of religious Borgia of Guant that he said the furious Dog in hunting would be commanded from the Hare at the command or hollow of the Hunt-man yet man would not abandone his lusts his sinfull projects his fleshly and hellish designs at the voice call yea thunder of God But let it not be so with thee beating up thy soul to that degree of conformity that the very whisperings of Gods Spirit may command practice and be obeyed without recoyling that God may as it were wonder at thy servency as Christ did once at a womans humility with an O man great is thy obedience Yet in applying this Petition to our selves it is good to remember his advice who propofeth this three-sold rule in and about the will of God that his will if we be particular be done 1. With a si vis as the leper Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean Moses prayed for entrance into Candan but finding it not to be the will of God he desisted from that suite 2. There must be a sicut vis a deliverance any way he will David desired to behold both the Ark and its habitation but if it were otherwise determined in the Council of God he was content 3. There is a quando vis when he will he hath called upon thee and thy Fathers house oft but his offers and his invitations have been oft rejected and Iosephs brethren flighting the anguish of his soul when they told him made Ioseph unknown to them untill the second time they went down to Egypt Wait upon the good pleasure of God therefore There were two wayes in the opinion of Poets and Philosophers in which all men walked and was thus figured â— one leading to bliss the other to sorrow the one was called the way of vertue the other of vice Christianity in its Law shews the disparity betwixt a licentious and a regular life neither is there any other path for happinesse and glory then obedience obedience obedience Wait then upon God and the God of peace that brought again our Lord Iesus from the dead shall in his own good time make you perfect in every good work to do his will Thy will be done on Earth c. THE will is the souls hand for applying to its self such things as appear useful helpful and convenient but heavenly things as most necessary must be reached unto yea violently attracted left as disobedient to Law it be stigmatized as rebellion and restrained in its other attempts all other designs saving those of piety which have the promises of both Earth and Heaven proving abortive in themselves and destructive to the brain wherein they are bred for prevention whereof we must have the earth qualified with obedience by good will and our selves upon earth to have heavenly wills that we may glorifie God in the lowest earth as he is in the highest Heavens betwixt which that there be an holy conformity pray that his will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven On Earth a real limitation and properly a boundiary unto all supplications for all Saints yet of so large an extension as includes all that are afar off upon the Sea and signifies that of David God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us Selah That thy way may be known upon earth thy saving health among all Nations On Earth as it is in Heaven hath received different and various senses from the Ancients by Heaven some understanding the Saints and godly by Earth the sinner and unbeliever making the Petition this Let thy will be done by the wicked of the world as truly as sincerely as it is by the righteous and religious Again by Heaven is understood the Spirit and by Earth the flesh or body of man which is a servant to the law of sin and then the Petition signifieth this Let all the members of my body wherein sin dwells be made by thy power as easily induced to the obedience of thy will as is my spirit by which I serve the Law of God Further by Heaven may be understood the Church and by Earth the unbaptized multitude and then the Petition speaks Let all Atheists Iews Turks do thy will as it is done in the Congregations of those professing thy Name Two Fathers will have us by Earth to understand our enemies and that here we pray against their earthly-mindednesse which being removed they and we may live in heavenly concord confirming this position from the Apostles their not being called earth but the salt of the earth yea Non abhorret it is not absurd to understand saith one by Heaven our Lord Jesus Christ and by Earth the Church who as a wife is desired to be like the Spouse her Husband in
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
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
in this unite bread Zenodochus was seen to weep frequently at Table and gave this reason that being a reasonable creature he should feed upon unreasonable bruits was shameful and was it not more dashing to gnaw insensible Beings being designed for the delights of Paradise what a pinch was here He cryed because he eat and eat in his crying and had he not eat he could not have cryed and the want of these things would have forced him to cry each misery becoming a doleful Nurse to subside another yet all shewing meats that is breads necessity 2. They are comfortable during life Pestilence Blasting Mildew Locusts Caterpillers are prayed against by Solomon Nehemiah prayed for savour of the King Ezra for direction in the way Abrahams servant for a wiâ—e to his Masters Son and Isaac prayed for children all these suggaring the tart potions wherewith this life treateth her enjoyers the affections of the holy are more inflamed with an exhilerating zeal in their addresses unto God their Father 3. These are helps to a godly life Warrs crosses vexations tumults are Remora's to devotion whereas peace tranquility plenty sufficiency cause it make way they like the purest Oyl making the Lamps both of Soul and Sanctuary to give the brighter shine and make the heart for Gods service many pounds lighter Sampson's thirst and Abraham's being childless made some heaving in their otherwise becalmed souls 4. These are craved and enjoyed by godly men even in this life Hezekiah prayed and health was restored and a son given him the sick is to call the Elder and he is to pray and health and salvation is the return the Disciples prayed against shipwrack and were safely landed Our life is the only season we have to manure our hearts to do good to others and what may conduce to that great end in a natural way may be reduced to this head BREAD whether in prosperity or adversity Once more slice this bread and in its perceptible we are to pray against poverty idleness apostacy and verbosity 1. Against poverty Let the belly want its due supply the ears will hear from all quarters ill tidings of certain dissolution and when the shadow of death is drawn upon the eye-lids the nose will soon scent the turff the Raven hath an inauspicat voice and though by no Law save that of Nature it calls for food yet when it cryes it gets meat out of the earth Give us bread is give us not poverty lest we sin or be ensnared but a sufficiency for encouragement O Lord in thy service Were every man righteous wealth would be profitable and riches were truly goods conciliating to our selves friends by that mammon to receive us to everlasting habitations they would ballast the soul which otherwise like a light Ship is in danger of over-setting they would be Bladders facilitating our swiming through the Sea of this wearisome world yea they would make that Sea pacifick our pillows would be soâ—ter to sleep upon our cares would be less and our other enjoyments more comfortable It is not easie to find out that competency at which we might lay down our staff travelling no further asking no accrument to our Fortune but only a peaceable possession and continuation thereof yet Plato came near it who being asked what wealth was sufficient answered so much as did not ensnare a soul by abundance nor angust or straiten it in the want of necessaries But let God carve or cut out thy quantum let convenient food terminat thy desires and thy prayer is sinless 2. Against idleness This Prayer supposeth work and work done it not teaching us to call for bread simply but for OVR BREAD that which we have already by us in our Cupboards in our surrows give it us that is sanctifie it unto us Our Saviour dischargeth taking thought for to morrow what ye shall eat but forbids us not yea rather commands us to work but not to take thought against to morow that we may eat for from labour Adam in inocency was not exempted Hence Gamesters Dicers Lotterers c. dare not behold their gains and beg Sanctification in a give us our daily bread there being nothing in a holy sense to justifie any possession but prayer and labour labour and prayer Love not sleep Reader least thou come to poverty open thy eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread What! Love not sleep is it not a necessary act of Nature and an humane passion Yes Sleep is but the love of it is a vice and cometh of evil Nurse of idlness and that the mother of theft drunkenness tale-bearing and uncleanness and the predominancy of these sins in our dayes as they are palpably known to be the cursed daughters of sinfull idlness it is as evident they issue from the matrix of our shamefull beloved Sloath c. To exclame against the perpetual poverty sworn at Rome or against the boasted-of oscitancy of many in the monastick life is not my purpose but to either of the Perswasions let me offer what I find recorded was from heaven charged upon an Hermite when in perplexity about many thoughts he saw one in the habite of a Monck sometimes working and sometime praying at last heard a voice saying tu fac similiter do thou the like The application whereof to persons of both or of any Religion is so easy that there needs no descant upon the Story save this O man pray and worke that with quietness thou may eat thy own bread 3. Against apostacy This is cast in out of respect to the ancient Fathers of the Church Christ being named the bread of life and in a Scripture trope he being our necessary food our damnation being a consequence of receding from him they make the dayly bread in the Text to signify not that which enters into the body but that which nutriats the substance of the soul as Christ in the Gospel by saith in the Sacraments which daily profiting ought to be daily received whereas we onely annually communicat It is the Gospel of God by which men lives and ought to be received by continual meditation growing sat by the good things of the world to come which becometh ours by acceptation applying Christ himself to us being that seed that was grinded in and under the Law knead in his Cross and Passion leavened in the great mystery of godliness viz. the flesh baked in the oven of his sepulchre made ready and drawn forth in his refurrection set on upon the Table of the Church and daily broken in the remission of sins nourishing the eaters to eternal life For by a daily asking we demonstrate our willingness to be alwayes in Christ and united to him And indeed both Christ and bread may be truly called bread and our bread Not that it is not God's for even when he hath given
or glory of God are three such as relate to mans salvation are also three this respecting the body being but one demonstrats upon what the vehemency of our affections should be fixed And if any contrary to this rule hath minded their body with a three-â—old more zeal then their souls let them know that God and not bread is to be the Alpha and Omega of all their duties but more especially at this duty to Prayer and say with Isaeus whose pallat had been a touch-stone for tastes when demanded what fish or sowl was sweetest replyed de hisee cur are desii it is long since I left off such foolish doings because unprofitable and sinful As the Sun shineth and enlighteneth the Orbs above as well as those under so it is thought this Petition hath an aspect upon these precedent and subsequent requests in the whole body of this Prayer sensing the Prayer thus Hallowed be thy Name this day Thy Kingdom come this day c. Forgive us our debts this day c. which is the Petition in our Saviours holy method we are next indebted unto for explication and shall cum Deo endeavour to discharge the same CHAP. VI. Matth. 6. 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters Luke 11. 4. And forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us HItherto we have been begging from our Father and in that hath attained to such degrees of familiarity that in an humble confidence we sinlesly prescribe directions for him to walk and act by for what other is this Petition forgive us as we forgive or Forgive us for we forgive This Petition making a Jubilee in the soul and inviting every one that is in debt to run to God as they did to David for security pardon and a discharge we offer our selves to open it for purchasing a release in your application of the same unto your lives of all former delinquencies transgressions and enormities In this form of Prayer we shall keep our old set form of method and see the matter and next the order of this Petition The first relating to debt a word borrowed from the French debte and that from the Roman debitum to owe or be engaged to any thing or person being varied by two Evangelists sheweth how to expound the phrase the one calling debts what the other calleth sins discovering that our sins being debts we pray that what we owe may not be exacted i. e. for forgiveness as we forgive or for we forgive both concurring to this Interpretation that sin is debt yet not properly but by similitude and by similitude nos sumus debitores we because sinners are debters and owned such in the parables of the Gospel yea and condemned to pay the utmost farthing if we stand to a reckoning For clearing of which the word debt is first to be explain'd next the extent of this term forgive After that the necessity and equity of the condition as we forgive And lastly resolve some questions about forgivenesse Forgive us ne quis sibi quasi innocensf let no man conceit himself free or exalt himself in that fancy lest by contracting more in denying just debt he perish more severely and be surprized more suddenly Solida vitae puritas it being madnesse to fancy a Church pure from â—in since this Law is given to the Church pray after this manner forgive us our sins which are as debts being contracted booked and must be cleared 1. They are contracted Our meat lodging washing dwelling cloathing we receive from the Lord Paramount the great Landlord of Heaven and earth and all is noted down with the returns we make unto him the highest of us all being but Tenant Parravail Sub-sub-tenants What we owe may be guessed at by the justs mans falling seven times a day by which we may understand sin which is as debt and riseth again which we may interpret mercy and that also expects a discharge and must by us be accounted for Two wayes men contract debt by poverty by prodigality the poor must live and therefore must borrow and our wantonesse compelleth us to take up more then we need Adam was not hunger-starved but had great store yet that morsel of the forbidden fruit must go down David had many Lambs yet that one in the house of Vriah as fairer fatter goodlier then any in the royal flocks must be dressed for that stranger of carnal lust which visited his Palace How unnecessary eating abundant drinking rash swearing intemperat living enlargeth the scores of many is matter of no great difficulty seeing men hourly swallowing by hand-fulls mouth-fulls cup-fulls what without calling for forgivenesse shall take eternity to deâ—ray To passe the curtains of the womb where our poverty was excessively great were we not met in this world with clouts and milk in our infancy which our being men will make us to repay And though we came naked into this world yet in ordinary gracious providence we go not out so naked as to want a burial-place and winding-sheet which exected kindnesse is good debt and with thankfulnesse remembred if we know it was given to our relations But wastfully and in prodigious debauchery to borrow from our creditor for entertainment of insatiable lusts or unbridled vanity may justly cause him immediately to demand discharging of the Bill without giving us a day not to pay but to pray for a remittment 2. They are booked My transgressions sayeth Iob thou-hast sealed up in a bag For nisi Poenitentia interveniente without a hearty Forgive us and sorrow for the debt the sins publickly committed are concealed in the secret judgment of God untill as Clarks do Charges or Processes they be brought forth into open Court. And hence that of Moses Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my Treasures to wit for a just punishment That though as a thief may gallop away with a stollen horse the wicked may conceit himself secure and gallantly mounted yet he shall be found and a Court fenced and his charge before him unto him and against him read for his thieving vapouring and sinful revelling To passe also the Book of life there shall be two Bookes used in the sinners condemnation that of the Law which shews the duties to be done upon the receiving of the mercy and that of the Conscience which discovers vices done under that mercy and as Peters Cock it will make the most secure to think upon all that ever he did and cause the dryest eye weep All Raps Fornications Oppressions Adulteries being therein written and not vanished as the profligat may suppose A Phythagorean taking shoes upon his credit came to make payment some few dayes after but understanding of his creditors death concluded a discharge within himself yet his conscience gave him such a summonds that he went to the dead mans
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
evil for evil yea of not for evil good Christianity is so denominat from Christ and the Christian being oblidged to walk as he walked he is to go about doing good healing the very ear of a Malchus and though reviled answered not again as he is called a Ciceronian who imitats a Cicero in his style not otherwise so he is not to be termed Christian who giveth his tongue to evil speaking his heart or hand to revengeful re-acting that being contrary both to the practice and command of Jesus Behold nature her self and this hare-brain'd fâ—llow is condemned should the pile of grass wither when trod upon or every excessive heat creat a fever in the body or should the heavens thunder at every overclouding what â—â—ights would be in the world As Chirurgions have unguentum Basilicon to cause matter so they have Apostolicum to cleanse the wound Album to expel the heat and Desiâ—â—â—tiuâ—m rubrum to dry and skin it As there are provocations to choller so there are Gospel documents which as spiritual Artists we must have ever in readinesse to apply to the place affected for curing as proper medicaments for the souls ease That advice of one Philosopher is good that when any reports thee to have been slâ—ndred say thy adversary knew not all thâ—y vices or then he had not spoke â—o little and though the world talk of honour and courage magni animi est injurius despicere It is the symptome of a large and noble soul to despise contempt or disdain revenge said another Philosopher albeit he knew not at least prosessed not the Gospel nor perchance ever saw that of the wise King he that is slow to anger is better then the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit then he that taketh a city for he sub dueth himself and possesseth himself the greatest vertue among morals It was among the Scythians a mark of insamy and dishonesty if any man had not killed some man where this bâ—dge was put upon innocency among Barbarians how mutually would they go about and prey upon one another to purchase reputation but good men detesting the procurements of such honour entails same upon themselves and their successors by their warrinesse of goring their conscience imputing it grandour to be affraid of sin and reputation to walk without offending God In that Dialogue betwixt Philosophy and her Beloved it was held as a sound advice in point of calmnesse of spirit of one Canius who being informed of a conspiracy against himself answered if I had known it I had not told it you Not to presse this on all four or every way Christianity dischargeth credulity to slanderous reports orders a check and no more to be owing the relater Moses the meekest man of the earth could bear personal calumny and before him Isaac only pleaded but scolded not for his wells and after them Paul wished no more hurt to his â—oes but that they were as himself in every thing his bonds excepted It is true these Diamonds had their flaws these Pomgranats their rotten kernels David curses and Sampson prays for the ruine of the Philistines yet these Prophetick impulses are not to be the ordinary Standart of our converse with men for Paul though sharp to Elymas prayed over the Jaylor as though he had never scourged him he gave place to wrath and adviseth like a good Preacher a good practitioner to be followers of him as he follows Christ who is maximè imitabilis most to be followed 1. For piety 2. For zeal 3. For humility 4. For patient suffering 3. From the obstruction the contrary vice bears to goodness that being by it hindered Sullenness and rancour impeding prayer from having entrance into the earâ— of Heaven the Laws whereof requiring prayer to be maâ—e every where without wrath implying frequency in that duty and composednesse of mind at it evidenceth this conclusion bottomed upon infallible verity for if Family-contentions prove obstacles to Family-duty shâ—ll not that particular Petition be doomed by men to be condemned by God whose flames are excited by the billows of fury envy hatred and passion and not by those of the Sanctuary charity love and concord The same is to be said of Sacraments spleen hindering thereby spiritual influx 〈◊〉 how can they be beneficial to him who not only is not injured but himself by ill-wishing is injurious to his brother Not to reflect it is to be feared many of our supplications because of this vanisheth into air and Sermons become unprofitable because of this unfruitfull work of darknesse malice for 〈◊〉 home understand Reader the Basis or Ground-stone of Gods forgivenesse is fixed only on the ground of thy brotherly forgiving And in spiritural conflicts allow hatred to plead its old supposed plea viz Love not him who walk's contrary to thee who derogats frâ—m thee who complains of thee and insults over thee Let love reply That the love of Christ constrains me and that quam diu so long as I keep at distance from man in point of charity so long detain I from my self the good of all my sacrifices and make my prayers yea the praying of this Prayer do me more hurt then good so much the more as this command is easie I am prone to conjecture should Christ have said Fast pray read fight kill burn and lie and be forgiven there are in this age had embraced the doctrine but to forgive is durus sermo an hard saying and cannot be digested It were some excuse if any lived and transgressed not for in many things we offend all and as a stone cast into the water creats a circle and that another and a broader so anger if tolerat will naturally kindle a fire in one mans breast which shall blow up anothers into a flame which may endanger an house and that a street and that a town and therefore happy is he first stifles it in the hearth of his own bosome lest by its heating the flesh of another be scorched in his re-offending or tart replying There was a breach made of the Kings peace in the Kings own house after the cruel servant had imprisoned his fellow for an hundred pence that is in our coyn three pound two shillings sterling when his Lord had forgiven him ten thousand talents which in our vulgar account is eighteen thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds sterling six thousand times more then was owing him yet charged upon him afresh though poor for not having mercy upon his debter when humble The stormiest man in his age it seems was Celius who was so testy though an Orator that at his own Table he avoided peace and there meeting one for patience was offended checking his guest with an aliquid contradict oppose me in something that we may discourse as if quietnesse and calmnesse in conferring had made his Table solitary yet
untill the Child was born by Bathsheba he never reflected upon his adultery and cutting off a Worthy from Israels Camp A hand by long working contracts hardnesse to that degree that a Thorn will not penetrat nor a Nettle raise a blister What more by frequent assaults of evil thoughts crowds and throngs of unclean desires the soul becometh stupid as men are said to do by touching though with a pole the Torpedo and its hooâ— being hardened by trotting in the way of the wicked it is not disturbed but eased in the seat of the scornful the Conscience being seared as with an hot iron 4. It may cause black suppositions because of sin What sad and dark expressions flowed from the mouth of patient Iob choosed he not strangling and death rather then life c. What man can reveal the inward actings of Asaph's soul when he roared under the rod Hath God forgotten to be gracious Such a cloud of witnesses affrighting from temptation ought to inspire us to pray against it in the words of a holy man Rector meus O my God remove from me vanity of soul unconstancy of mind wandring of affection impurity of speech loftinesse of eyes gluttonny of the belly back-biting of my neighbour the desire of riches hunting for worldly glory the evil of hypocrisie the poyson of flattery the contempt of poverty for these are temptations and if they overcome our reckoning will not be so insignificant as our licentiousnesse makes them now to be accounted 5. It may end in desperation A Father speaking of the temptations of the righteous asserts that pene ad lapsum it almost creats utter despair as it did of late to that Yorkshire Minister who going down to the Water-side to drown himself opened the New Testament and in a glorious providence first fell upon that of St. Matthew Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest Doth Christ say so said the good man then I will not drown my self The soul here was bouy'd up by a miraculous and invisible hand or then he had sunk in the mighty waters the man might have sung If it had not been the Lord who was on my side when temptation rose up against me then the waters had overwhelmed me the stream had gone over my soul then the proud waters had gone over my soul blessed be the Lord who hath not given me as a prey to their teeth But what a dolefull ditty would the soul of a Iudas a Saul make when dislodged the body by the force of temptation O I am eternally doomed to be the Devils slave cried a convicted soul and in so saying impetuously threw himself out of a window and broke his bowels Alas alas cried another somewhere to one in a vision woe is me woe be to me all which to prevent keep from the brink of the Well the edge of the Hill the mouth of the Pit the way to the Den and avoid the path of death by declining the very occasion of temptation And pray 1. That they come not 2. That they conquer not That our eyes may behold no Delilah nor ears hear the voice of Ionadab nor our hands handle Iudas silver nor our backs that it wear nothing of Achans garment our tasting none of the rich gluttons sare our noses smell-nothing of the blood with Nimrods hounds I knew and heard a Malefactor affirm she smelt the blood of the murthered then in his cloaths and at a great distance certain dayes after the fact Pray Reader against such devices I say pray for it was not rowing but Lord save us or we perish brought the Disciples safe to land Palladius consulting with Macarius about his temptations was advised to tell them that he kept the walls of his Cell for God And indeed we ought to keep both the walls and furniture of the house for God temptation being so daring that if the door be not open it will creep in at the windows yea uncover the roof and take possession It is pugna contra malignos spiritus a fighting against evil spirits and they will not be said nay having a three-fold stratagem to conquer and overcome 1. Suggestione 2. Delectatione Consensu suggesting or prompting the mind to ill then alluring the affections to betroth it then commanding the will to consent to it Or first bewitching the sense then inflaming the appetite and lastly causeth the action ut hoc non hoc fiat that it be not done that God suffer us not to answer the desire of temptation nihil enim fit nothing being done but when he either doth it or permits it this Petition is offered up the Saints thereby begging perseverence in sanctity and holinesse in the whole man which as it is Gods Temple ought to be kept clean for him I can find no convincing argument perswading that Manuel under the title of the Testament of the twelve Patriarchs to be a real History yet it seems the Treatise is ancient and touching the case in hand Benjamin is personated to speak pertinently thus My children shun the naughtinesse of Belial for at the first he delighteth those that obey him but in the end he is a sword and father of many mischiefs for the mind having once conceived by him it bringeth forth envy then despair then sorrow then bondage then needinesse then troublesomnesse and then desolation for which cause Cain was tormented with these seven punishments by God and in seven years had still a new plague c. Lead us not into temptation shews we regard and notice their force and would have it dissipated and overcome which shall be we using against it the Word of God and faith in God and prayer to God It was by Scripture that Christ the Second Adam overcame the tempter not that he had no other weapon but he would use no other to teach us to depend and trust to its edge when tempted to gluttony as he was in the first temptation to vain-glory as he was in the second or covetousnesse as he was in the third all which he Overcame by the Psalms and Moses when the first Adam tempted to the same sins was foyled in the first assault In both which it is observed that Adam yeelded to be as God when Christ left it doubtful whether he was the Son of God by humility destroying the first Adams loftinesse Therefore omnes Scripturas let thy mind and heart be upon the Law and believing that word Resist the Devil and he will flee from you answer all temptations as Agesilaus answered that question What benefit the Spartans reaped by his Laws answered The contempt of pleasure or if you will take a more understanding Teacher Are you tempted to Covetousnesse think of Paul's bonds To Concupiscence ruminat upon Paul's prison To Distrustfulnesse remember of Paul's chain To Gaudinesse
where was the benefit of the change For if God suffer a David to be led into temptation having more power wisdom and strength then David had he is by that known rule qui non prohibet peccatum he who can hinder sin and doth it not commits the sin equally as guilty of the sin as he should appear to be had it been said Lead us not into temptation which yet is a more Scripture-like expression then the other For who in Scripture is said to harden Pharaohs heart It is answered God Who stirred up David to number the people It is replied God he permitting Satan Who mingled among the Princes of Zoan the spirit of errour It is said the Lord. Who gave up the Gentiles to vile affections it is attested God In these and such-like expressions he is not said to suffer it to be done but to do it and if it be demanded who leads men into temptation I answer truly because Evangelically Our Father which is in Heaven c. It is true indeed Cyprian reads the words Et ne nos patiaris suffer us not to be led being constrained as some others also so to speak because of the Manichean Doctrine of two supream beings one of God whence all good and another of the Devil whence all ill but who knows not that the Fathers must in many places as light Gold have their allowance and in feeding upon them they must have salt and enquiring only of such whether their changing lead us not to suffer us not was to confute heresie or to broach novelty I go forward knowing it may be a good Commentary as with Augustine In Lead us not there is no harm for besides our Saviours authority there is this in reason may be said for its innocency that Gods leading is not a dragging man is not forced though led into the field for being led into imports consenting to hence that Precept Resist the Devil neither is it determining Fiunt tentationes enim per Satanam temptations not flowing from Satans power but Gods sufferance and Lead us not imports a confinement of Satan a binding of him up that though he desire to yet he never may devour us Our fear not being primarly of the Devil but in God his sorsaking us nothing being able to hurt without his permission He led Cain into the field and he died but succoured Peter and though wounded yet he was not killed by his foe he so ordered Cains sin that he became a terrour to himself he so disposed of Peters fall that he is a notable example of mans frailty and Gods compassion he orders the fair and so he doth the foul weather and for the one or removal of the other he is still to be addressed unto If we search into the true cause of sin and speak properly we shall perceive it hath no cause yet since it is it must hav a principle an Author an Origin and fountain and to lay the sadle on the right horse the cause of sin is either without us which is the Devil or within us which is our own corruption Against the first in this Petition we pray and for his chaining he oft holding up the wrong end of the Perspective making sin either not visible or so little that it may be attempted saith corruption without danger or contrary by a magnifying mirrour he makes sin to appear of a despairing bignesse that it cannot that there is no hope of pardon saith both he and corruption he is that spiritual murderer that wounded our first parents that contrived the death of the Son of God Iudas covetousnesse and the Iews malice concurring He is still tempting us in visions dreams by ill example alluring the old to covet the young to lust the rich to pride the poor to despair and in short had it not been for this tempter it is probable sin had never been in man by the inordinat desire of knowledge he chaâ—â—'d the Virgin Wax of Adams innocency with such Art that it received his own image of insanctity who transmitted the same as well as his nature to his unhappy posterity but since God had mercy and saved Adam we here recurr to the same compassion for deliverance from the old tempter At Friburg he appeared in Ministerial habits to a good old man dying with Paper Pen and Ink to write down all the sins committed in his life and after much importunity he was ordered to write down first The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Serpent at which words throwing paper and all on the ground the spirit disappeared and the old man died comfortably God not leaving corruption to it self though Satan attempted excitation To scan the length or discover the various ways by which the Devil suggests or tempts to evil is a darker mystery of iniquity then man can clear and the darknesse that is in our nature where he usually keeps is so grosse that we cannot trace him Yet as the Countrey of Hamsem though covered with so obscure a darknesse that no neighbouring Province dare either enter in or can see any thing in it and yet by the voice of Men crowing of Cocks neighing of Horses which is heard it is concluded inhabited so by the noise roaring fightings Satan makes in the heart it is evident he is there and being it is not in our power we have recourse to our Father to be delivered from him yea secured from our hearts a Province in the Kingdom of Man as the other in Armenia so dark that it exceeds Cimmerian darknesse a proverb thought to rise from the above-mentioned Countrey that our selves cannot see into it untill the glorious face of God as the Sun shine in upon us and when that is done its intricacies and slienesse still enforceth this to be said Lead us not into temptation As the case is now natural pravity hardnesse of heart infidelity and all other vices arising from the soul as sparks from the fire tempteth Satan himself to tempt us and gives occasion by supine sloath for him to work us easily to his mould God is generally so forgotten his Son is ordinarily so slighted and the Spirit so oft despited that we expose our naked breasts to the tempters shafts as if their poyson and heat should be cooled and deaded before they reach our hearts It is said of one reading those words of St. Iohn The Word was made flesh and not reverend enough in his behaviour a Spirit gave him a blow on the face saying If the Word had been made a Devil the Devils never forgetting that mercy had eternally been reverently thankful But since this was not how respectfull and mindful should man be yea how vigilant against himself and how watchfull against temptation that by them God be not provoked imitating him who was so warry that he knew not if ever the Devil had beguiled him
twice in any one thing Temptation not being the cause of our falling but our inadvertence dulnesse and instability whereby we shall even without outward violence as that house builded on the sand which will sink though neither winds nor flouds should rise Satan that old Serpent being the father of sin and our own lust its mother adultery fornication uncleannesse c. its progeny Moses rod and an evil conscience its attendants diseases of the body consumptions of estate and destruction of the soul being consequences thereof we are to pray against it and temptations to it which shall suffice for the matter and follows now the order of this Petition It followeth Forgive us our debts that relating to sin past whereas Lead us not insinuats our desire to be redeemed from sin to come and in both imports the sad and perplexed estate of poor mortals who can no sooner have sin remitted but must expect from hell to be freshly assaulted and led into temptation which generally is an Usher to signal great and sad evils prayed against in the next Petition CHAP. VIII But deliver us from evil THis is a Petition calling for the effectual accomplishment of that promise made by the Holy Ghost to the fearer of the Lord viz. that he should not be visited with evil And with an Ancient is oft reckoned a distinct Petition being septima ultima the seventh and the last Yet again the same Author hath a modest videtur a probability only that it may be so Many of the modern Authors beholding this but as an explication of Lead us not into temptation will have this not to be differenced so much as to sense one Petition We are clear for his judgment who asserts parum refert it is no great matter whether we hold this to be so or no and he is pertinent among reformed Writers who concludes they may be reduced into one yet are not so one but they may be divided into two Petitions that is in the general and implicitly they are one in particular expresly and actually they are two And considering that every evil is not temptation and that in Lead us not c. we pray that no evil may be done whereas here we pray that no evil may be suffered we shall handle them as a distinct Petition which is approved not only as most ancient but as most rational clear and edifying and as natures motion is more swift the nearer it approach to the Center so shall we make the more speed to arrive at our place of rest this Prayers signaculum Amen It is to be adverted the Vulgar Translation hath in Luke curtail'd this Prayer by ommission of these words holding it contained in Lead us not into temptation but being originally in both the Evangelists man is not to be wise above what is written especially when the matter written continet tantum hath as much in it as the retained part which here it doth for pray we not for the doing of Gods will for the coming of his Kingdom only that we may be delivered from evil whether visible or invisible In this last as in all the other Petitions we shall make enquiry into the matter and next the order of this the first hath deliverance in its mouth and evil in its eye à malo so sin may be called from its blacknesse and therefore as evil it defileth or from its cause say others for it came by an apple and therefore it is evill it causeth deadnesse This is certain there is both natural and moral evil There is natural evil in but least in this Petition blindnesse deafnesse bruises deformity or any casualty marring the beauty of man is herein deprecated in this the child prayes against cuts hurts before he play that Mephibosheths misfortune happen not unto him in his sports There is moral evil in and most in this Petition against sin our prayers here ascend our heart continually as the sea casting forth the dirt and mire of adulteries and all lascivousnesse in their acts or fumes and falling down by either in shours of vengeance except scatter'd by the beames and rayes of mercy we say with the Psalmist Incline not our hearts to any evil thing to practise wicked works Really performing what was thought Hypopocritically written by a vain-glorious Braggadochi over the door of his house the Friend or Son of God liveth here let no evil enter when as Diogenes questioned how the Inhabitant himself should enter he being excessively vitious of which extream there are so many imitators that were Timon the Man-hater alive he would encounter with multitudes naturally so torrid so rough so scorching contentious that his once admired dandling young Alcibiades for nothing but because he saw in him fair symptomes or rather shrew'd signs of much future mischief to be done by him towards his Countrey I say this act of his should be razed from Authentick record as wonderful his confederats should be so numeroâ—s evil having so universally infected nature mankind and man There is also political evil in but last in this Petition Sin and punishment drunkennesse and poverty are not many leagues distant not many say I yea not one each sinner as a Muscovia servant carrying a Curbatch at his girdle wherewith he is to be beaten when found offending the Delinquents breast not to say his belt having Scorpions tyed unto it wherewith he is to be scourged and shall be tortured when doing a misse But generals not being pungent the evils we pray against are more particularly these from evil that is from an evil conscience which followeth evil doing When Adam sinned he was first ashamed then afraid conscience under guilt may as a dog in the warm Sun of worldly affluence sleep in or at the door of the benummed but in the gloomy weather of â—ading pleasure will in defyance of all resistance fright and tear the sinner either out of his rest or out of his sin Pestilence and Famine attending evil actions with evil beasts the sword with terrifying diseases are with evil interwoven and lest our cities be depopulat our families scattered our beauty blasted we beg deliverance from evil From evil that is from Satan the tempter to all evil he is here so understood that some will have no other evil thought upon that he is understood is certain but that other evils are not likewise included seems grosse there being no circumstance of restraint we are bound to take the word in its largest extension though he as more eminent then others propter excessum malitiae for his abounding wickednesse may be principally eyed who having nothing to say against us yet irreconciliably pursueth us for hurt Against which wickednesse of his even of his we are here commanded to pray the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Masculine signifying properly Satan and in
conscience darkned understanding and from the guilt of impure thoughts by sending in the nick of temptation fresh supplies of reserved grace as a General will do to a stout and overpowered Officer Divines mention often of Restraining grace by which the sinner meets with obstructions in his clossest-contrived projects as Laban did in the ease of Iacob which though a singular mercy yet superlatively amounted by this renewing grace it consisting in a transmenting of the soul and drawing out from its remotest ventricle the very wishes of doing evil destroying enmity to the Law and seminating the love of God whereby it is more desireable and is indeed a delivering from or drawing out of that dark hole which a Gentile Learned Critick thinks is implyed in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deliver us 2. By securing our persons from evil in his providence In falls slips Sea-voyages Land-journeys if his holy Angels had not supported we had been like them that go down into the pit Hath not some in their readings dreamings had warnings to prepare for the Crosse And that Book found in the belly of a Fish in the Mercat of the famous University of Cambridge a little before these late troubles which being in writ and teaching preparation for the Crosse at a publick Commencement or Laureation was certainly a providential if not a miraculous warning-piece of future disasters hardly to be believed in future ages And that was strange in that old History of a lascivious Souldier who attempting the chastity of a Virgin was wonderfully struck blind whereby with her honour the Maid escap'd intact and untouch'd 3. By restraining our adversaries through his power Satans wisdom God hath made and will still make foolishness and his power weaknesse and the poysoned Arrows which contrary to the Law of Arms he shoots called in Scripture fiery darts become ineffectual as touching the execution of his designed end for delivering of his adopted from their apprehended evil Saying to them as to the Sea Hitherto have you gone but you shall go no further Hence it is Deliver us from evil not evils that we should not be revenged at one another but united against Satan he being the head in which evil is most desperatly plotted 4. By detecting the world in shewing it in its native dresse That often by the golden Apple of some gaudy and finical pleasure interrupts us in our course to the New Ierusalem in going aside with Iudah in falling back with the Galatians in embracing this present world with Demas with those hypocritical painted countenance strong men have perished but the deformity thereof in the withdrawing its mask being viewed creats in place of love a detestation of its blandishments and a derision of her wheynings To conceit a purgatory in this prayer is to bring strange fire into the Sanctuary for unlesse it can be proved that Christ hath not compleatly suffered for our sins or that his bloud cleanseth us not from all sin we cannot fancy any suffering of our own to be either just or profitable And when the Apostle teacheth that righteous men naming himself is present with the Lord when absent from the body and that when this earthly Tabernacle is dissolved they have one eternal in the Heavens It is wondered how Rome entertains the Doctrine of purging souls in a distinct locality from either and where is that blessed rest they possesse that die in the Lord if there be a burning Purgatory Deliver us from evil that is from the Devil World and sin and in all spiritual conflicts God having a City of resuge from the inticer to evil and in case of seduction hath the kindnesse to bind up their wounds by the death of the High Priest antidoting the souls of the deluded against the poysoned Arrows which either by force or stratagem Satan or any of his complices can throw against them David and Peter fell and yet were delivered after they had finned Ioseph was delivered and he had not sinned and many of the righteous are delivered by death least they should sin which last though it be not the lot of every Saint for Daniel saw the captivity yet it hath been the prayer of the Elect as Paul of old desired to be with Christ and long after him it was said of Satyrus non nobis ereptus es sed periculis thou art not removed from us but from evils and in the last age an holy Germain desired removeal for three causes to behold Christ enjoy the company of the Saints and be free ab implacabilibus odiis Theologorum from the furious disputes of contentious Scollars and Divines Deliverance is that copiosa redemptio a full redemption from evil 1. By prevention that it come not 2. By subvention that it conquer not 3. By plenary liberation that it never come And it our houies be naunted by evil spirits to passe the proving that we are not oblidged to dwell where Satan is an inmate or to speak to him without special revelation besides that courage and faith which is to be exercised and a gooly life fasting prayer and this prayer are proper means to be delivered from that annoyance In bodily distempers worldly crosses not charmes but prayer is to be made use of for our deliverance as did the Christian Army under Bren King of Ierusalem besiedging Damiata in Egypt when provision was brought into their tents by the over-flowing of Nilus bold fishes swiming throughout the Leagure to their great terrour and amazement in that manner that Souldiers took them up in their hands but the sawce being more then the meat by prayer and fasting the river was diverted yea ditched that it returned no more by prayer and thanksgiving throughout the army by open Proclamation Afterwards the city being taken great spoyl was found and by applying the same medicament great cures have been wrought and great evils senced against for as it is said of Maro in the history it will cure feavers remove devils discharge avarice heal wrath cool lust cure sloath and command intemperance to be gone the prayers of the penitent be a Catholicon proper against all diseases It is a question well ftarted and wisely answered by a person of learning and honour why in this prayer we have no Petition for a joyful resurrection or for eternal life for to let passe what is contained in Thy Kingdom come it is sued for also in deliverance from evil it being the highest step we can attain unto in this life and by it Christs sayes Friend sit up higher and therefore are we delivered from evil that we may be delivered unto Heaven I say we for again it is deliver Vs not Me neither ought we to envy or hate our Brethren how different soever from us all have not one speech one accent nor one opinion yet non decet we
everlasting principles A good man being told that his father was dead was sharp and replyed define blasphemare blaspheme not my father he is immortal and indeed die absolutely we shall not the soul but removes for a while and until it return the body sleeps our eviternity causeth us to eye eternity and because we are for ever to be its pertinent to deprecat evil for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughout ages for ever some render it in English for ever and ever the first ever expressing Gods ever-being or that part of eternity which is past pardon the impropriety of the phrase and the last ever that which is to come Touching the confidence this Conclusion creats in the Temple or in the Closet in the breast and soul of the heavenly Orator it is pregnantly seen by applying the several parts thereof unto the several Petitions of the Prayer thus viz. Thine is the Kingdom and therefore God ought and it is for his honour to regard his good Name and therefore let it be hallowed and as a King he ought to look to the observation of his Laws therefore let his will be done and he must being a King look to the wealth of his Subjects and therefore let them have bread It is also the glory of a King to passe by a transgression let him therefore pardon our trespasses he ought moreover to â—ecure his Subjects by delivering them from temptation and ease his Subjects by delivering them from evil the doing whereof can be nothing to him for his is the power nay it shall proâ—ure something to him for he shall have all the glory for ever For ever The King of the Ammonites had once a Kingdom and a Crown but could keep neither Darius in his first message unto Alexander the great stiled himself Rex Regum Consanguineum Deorum King of Kings and Cousin to the Gods with other expressions thought by the Historian flaunting but the event shew'd his folly fear flight poverty and thirst made him know he was but when highest as the grasse the glory of all Kings but being emanations from the glory of this King of whom we treat and like summer brooks shall be dryed up as the story of Darius was his glory alone remaining for ever and praise belonging to him not power to them To Kingdom Power and Glory here St. Peter adds Dominion and Iude Majesty words without multiplication not being able to expresse Iehovah his greatnesse yet these two how eminent soever are comprized in this breviary Dominion being to be found in the word Kingdom and Majesty in that of Glory from which as a fountain all the rivulets of splendor refreshing men or Angels have their first rise as is cleared in the Pronoun THINE Thine is the Glory not only of delivering us from evil but of bequeathing unto us good yea because of his goodnesse being confident of glorious good things for ever his Name God being originally from that act called Good in our Ancestors Dialect Thankfulnesse and Gratitude a constituent of true Prayer and without which it cannot nor ought not to be is so shining in this Epilogue of Thine is the Kingdom c. that a learned Author concludes it to be added purely ut Dei laus finiret preces nostras to evince our Prayers are to end in Praise and generally it is so in these or the like words now as of old in refutation of the Arrian Hereâ—ie the latine Fathers ended their supplications Through our Lord Iesus Christ cui cum Patre to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be honour and glory for ever and this not only to their own conceptions but to this Prayer taking all means to hammer that heretical doctrine of Arrius which by the Learned is given as a reason for their ommitting of this per oration in their Commentaries and Homilies upon the Gospel However it may be questioned what kind of Prayers these be which want both Praise in their body and in their close but leaving them to the censure of the Scriptures I must declare it provokes a smile to hear how impertinently to say no worse some even in publick end their addresses unto God where after begging plurality or multitude of mercies they end with In hope whereof we give thee praise and remaine as mute as Fishes appending neither Glory nor Amen according to this manner The smell of thy Ointments saith the Spouse to his Church is better then all Spices there is ointment of Contrition a falling down before the Throne in grief for sin committed the soul thereby anointing the feet oâ— Christ. Of Devotion in doing good to all the Saints whereby the body of Christ is anointed And there is also the ointment of Gratulation acknowledging the receipt of invaluable favours wherewith the soul unguents the head of Christ Crowning him King-like by giving to him Praise Honour and Glory for all possessions And in this form of Praise we render â—â—anks 1. For our Denization being Naturaliz'd and made Subjects of his Kingdom 2. For our Information and knowledge of the blessed Trinity and that in Unity included in the expression Father in Heaven that his glory be not given to another 3. For our Expectation or hopes of the world to come for ever being added ut firmius stet that we migâ—â— be strengthned in the perpetuity and immutability and eternity of Gods glory and dominâ—â—n 4. For our Preservation or deliverâ—nce from evil and all evils in which both in and from the womb we might have fallen without his inspection as was that Countrey Boy who being ordered to drive home some Oxen from the Field was benighted and storm-stead by a sudden showre of snow which covering the wayes and stopping passages the Child was inclosed in the Mountains his â—arents seeking him in vain but after two dayes designing to find only his body for burial they found him on a Bank neither covered nor touched with snow and told them he tarried there intending to return home in the evening certainly God was both a Sun and a Shield unto him nay a Purveyour for being asked if he had eaten any thing told them A man whom I knew not came and gave me Bread and Cheese Though all meet not with such portions of wonderful kindnesse yet generally we have such Guardian Providences that if God had not held us by the coat we had perished in our folly in our impiety which ought to be recorded by us both in thankful remembring of it before the Altar and in walking suitably thereunto before men For Prayer must be practised and in an holy life only can we pray daily he having the Kingdom and the Power we as Subjects ought to be faithful and loyal and as Servants diligent and peaceable and that alwayes since he is for ever a word that man cannot fathom a note