a Discerner of the Thoughts and intents of the Heart doth strictly prohibit and condemn these callow unfledg'd motions of our Hearts to be Concupiscence the sad effects of Original sin and the fruitful cause of all actual And therefore if we would be delivered from evil we have very great cause first to pray that we be not led into Temptation For some Temptations do almost so inseparably follow one upon another that this will be our best security against those secret desires and wouldings and first smatterings and rudiments of wickedness which else the compliance of our corrupt hearts with Satan's Temptations will certainly betray us unto Hence it is that when God in Scripture frequently dehorts us from sin he extends the prohibition to all Temptations and Occasions of sinning Yea those things which in themselves considered may be lawfully and innocently done by us yet because they may prove Snares and Temptations to us we must as carefully refrain from them as we earnestly desire to keep our selves far from sin And therefore it sufficeth not the Wise Man to command If sinners entice consent thou not Prov. 1.10 but that thou mayest be sure not to consent thou must order thy Actions and Converse so as that thou mayest not be enticed by them in the 15. verse says he Walk not thou in the way with them refrain thy feet from their path And so we have the same Counsel given us by him in another Chapter that we may not be inveagled by the allurements of a strange Woman be sure to avoid all occasions thereof Prov. 5.8 Remove thy way far from her come not near the door of her House And again Prov. 4.14 15. Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil Men avoid it pass not by it turn from it pass away Here is earnestness even to a tautology as some may prophanely think but Sacred Writ can admit of no such thing But there are so many expressions heaped up signifying the same thing only to denote how great the necessity of avoiding Temptations and Occasions to evil is to those who desire to avoid the sin We have treacherous and deceitful hearts within us that have often betrayed us when we have trusted them And I beseech you call to mind when you have emboldned your selves to venture upon Temptations and sinful Occasions being confident and fully resolved not to yield to them Have you not often been surprized and led away Captive contrary to your Hopes contrary to your Intentions contrary to your Resolutions contrary to the vain Confidences with which you were before possess'd Methinks former experience should make you cautious never again to trust those hearts with such opportunities and advantages for wickedness since they have been so often already treacherous and deceitful to us Venture them not therefore upon Temptations for what security have you that a sinful heart will not sin yea and betray you to commit those great abominations which possibly you cannot now think of without horrour and shivering And thus much I thought fit to note to you from the connexion of this part of the Petition with the former Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil. In the words themselves we have two things chiefly considerable The thing that we pray against and the Person to whom we pray That which we pray against is Evil that we may be delivered from it The Person to whom we pray is God our Heavenly Father That which we pray against is Evil. Some limit this word Evil only unto Satan making the sence to be deliver us from the Evil one founding this Interpretation upon that Article that is joyned with the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this is not always descretive but sometimes indefinite as for instance Matth. 12.35 and many other places And therefore considering the Comprehensiveness of this Prayer we ought to allow the Word a large extent and to comprehend under it First Satan whose proper Style and Epithete it is to be called the Evil one and so we find this black Title given him in Scripture Matth. 13.19 The wicked one cometh and snatcheth away that which was sown And 1 John 2.13 19. You have overcome the wicked one He is the wicked one eminently and singularly He is the chief Author of Evil his Temptations are all unto Evil his delight is only in Evil he is the Father of all those that do Evil. And therefore this is the most proper and significant Character of the Devil But yet it is also ascribed unto Men according to their resemblance of him Secondly All other Evils are here meant whether they be of sin or sorrow whether they be Transgressions or Punishments and that either Temporal punishments in those Judgments which God inflicts upon sinners here or Eternal Judgments such as he hath threatned to inflict upon them hereafter From all these we pray to be delivered but the greatest of all these is Sin For First It is greatest in the Nature of it as being the only thing that is contrary to the greatest Good even God for in all other things else in the World there is something of Good even as much as derived and participated of God And so the very Devils themselves have a Metaphysical Goodness in them as they are Creatures and have received their Beings and Powers from God who is the Author of nothing that is Evil. But Sin hath not the least ray or footsteps of Goodness in it but is only defect and irregularity And that alone which as his Soul always hates so his Hands never made Secondly It is the greatest Evil in the Effects and Consequences of it It once turn'd Glorious Angels into hideous Devils and tumbled them down from Heaven to Hell filled the World with Woes and Plagues brought Death and Diseases and a vast and endless sum of Miseries into it it torments and terrifies the Conscience kindles Hell-flames exposes the Soul to the eternal and direful revenges of the great God and is so perfectly and only Evil that the worst of things here were they free from the Contagion of Sin would be excellent and amiable To pray therefore against the Evil of Sin is to pray against all other Evils whatsoever for the Devil the Evil One cannot hurt us but by Sin And no other Evil can befall us but for Sin God inflicting them as the due Guerdon and Reward of our Transgressions Sin therefore being the chief and Principal Evil and all others but retainers to it I shall at present speak only of God's delivering us from Sin Now as there are Two things in Sin which make it so exceeding Evil the Guilt of it whereby it Damns and the Filth of it whereby it Pollutes the Soul so God hath Two ways to deliver us from it First By removing the Guilt already contracted which he doth in justifying and pardoning the Sinner Secondly By preventing us from falling
First The Petition Forgive us our Debts Secondly The Condition or Proportion or Plea and Argument call it which you will for the obtaining of this forgiveness as we forgive our Debtors In the Petition we may observe that the same which our Evangelist calls Debts is by St. Luke 11.4 called Sins Forgive us our Sins We stand indebted to God both as we are his Creatures and as we are Offenders By the one we owe him the Debt of Obedience and by the other the Debt of Punishment First As we are Creatures we owe the Debt of Obedience And to the payment of this Debt we stand bound both to the absolute Sovereignty of God who is the Supreme Lord of all his Creatures and therefore may oblige them to what he pleaseth and likewise by his manifold Favours and Mercies conferred upon us From him we have received our Beings and all our Comforts he maintains us at his own Cost and Charge he enlargeth us when we are in Streights relieves us when we are in Wants Counsels us when we are in Doubts Comforts us when we are in Sorrows Delivers us in our Dangers and besides the manifold Temporal Mercies we daily receive from him gives us the Means the Hopes and Promises of obtaining far better things at his Hands even Eternal Life and Glory And therefore certainly upon these Accounts we owe him all possible Service and Obedience And indeed it is but Reason we should employ all for him from whom we receive all and give up our selves to his Service who are what we are by his Bounty and hope to be infinitely better than now we are through his Mercy Now this Debt of Obedience is irremissible and we are eternally and indispensably bound unto it For it is altogether inconsistent with the Notion and Being of a Creature to be discharged from its Obligation to the Laws and Commands of its Creator for this would exempt it from the Dominion of God and make it Absolute and Independent that is it would make the Creature to be no longer a Creature but a Deity We do not therefore pray that God would forgive us this Debt no he cannot so far deny himself and it is our Happiness and Glory to pay it To this his Sovereignty obligeth our Subject Condition and his Mercy and Goodness our Ingenuity Secondly As we are Transgressors so we owe God a Debt of Punishment to be suffered by us to make God some reparation to his Honour and satisfaction to his Justice for our transgressing his Law which sentenceth all Offenders to Eternal Death and Damnation This Debt now is that which we pray God would forgive us a Debt which if we pay we are eternally ruined and undone and there is no way possible to escape the payment of it but by the free Grace and Mercy of God remitting of it unto us And thus Sin is called a Debt not indeed properly as if we owed it but by a Metonymy as it is the meritorious Cause of this punishment the suffering of which we owe to Divine Justice Hence by the way we may observe that every Sin makes us liable to Eternal Death for Death and Damnation is the Debt which we must pay to the Justice of God and Sin is that which exposeth us unto it by the Sentence of the Law which we have transgressed For as against other Debtors is brought forth some Bond or Obligation to exact payment from them So against us is produced the Hand-writing of the Law and we not having performed the Condition of the Bond stand liable to the Forfeiture and Penalty which is no less than Curses and Woes and Torments and Everlasting Death Cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 And the Wages of Sin is Death Rom. 6.23 And the Soul that sinneth it shall Die Ezek. 18.4 Now here to excite thee to a fervency in praying for the forgiveness of thy Debts consider First The infinite multitudes of thy Debts God's Book is full of them and there they stand on account against us under every one of our Names We were born Debtors to God our Original Sin and Guilt obligeth us to punishment and although we did not personally contract the Debt yet as being the wretched Heirs and Executors of fallen Adam the Debt is legally devolved upon us and become ours And ever since we came into the World we have run upon the score with God our Debts are more than our Moments have been for whatsoever we have thought or done hath been Sin either in the matter or at least in the circumstances of it God sets all our Sins down in order in his Debt-book some as Talents and some as Pence Our flagitious Crimes and hainous Impieties our presumptuous Sins committed against Light Knowledge Conscience Convictions Mercies and Judgments each of these God sets down as a Talent And how many thousands of these may we have been guilty of Our Sins of Ignorance Surreption and daily Infirmity are much more innumerable and though they may be but as Pence in comparison with the other yet the unaccountable numbers of them will make the Debt desperate and the payment impossible And yet notwithstanding our Debts are so many and very many of them such great Sums too yet we daily run ourselves farther in Arrears not considering that a Day of Accounts will come when both our Talents and our Pence shall be punctually reckoned up against us not omitting the least Item when every vain Thought and foolish Passion that hath flushed up in us with every idle and superfluous Word that we have unadvisedly spoken as well as the more gross and scandalous Passages of our sinful Lives shall be then audited all which will make the Total Sum infinite and us desperate Secondly That God who is thy Creditor is strict and impartial his Patience hath trusted and forborn thee long but his Justice will at last demand the Debt severely and every particular shall be charged upon thee even to the utmost Farthing for he hath booked down all in his remembrance and will bring all to thine And therefore we have it expressed concerning the last Judgment that the Books were opened and the Dead were Judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their Works Rev. 20.12 What now are these Books but the two great Volumes of God's remembrance and our own Consciences These are two Tallies evenly struck that shall justly represent the same Sum and Debt and God's strict Justice will not then abate thee any thing of its utmost due for he will by no means acquit the Guilty Indeed we are apt to think that because God so long forbears us he will never calls us to make up and adjust Accounts with him Our present impunity tempts us to question his Omniscience and to suspect his Threatnings and because he winks at us we are ready to conclude that he
there were hope yea certainty of relief for thee for Divine Justice will not exact more than its due But because this is impossible thy Woes and Torments in Hell must be Eternal that they may be some way infinite as the Justice is which thou hast offended infinite if not in Degrees yet in duration and continuance And O what dreadful despair will this cause in thee when thou shalt have been in Hell under most acute and insufferable Torments Millions of years and yet the payment of all that sum of Plagues and Woes shall not be of value enough to satisfie for the least of thy Sins nor to cross out of God's Book the least and smallest of thy Debts but thy account shall still be as great and as full as it was at thy first plunging into Hell and still an Eternity of Torments remains to be paid by thee And now wretched Creatures that we are whither shall we turn our selves what hope what relief can we find shall we flatter our selves that God will not require our sins at our hands no they are Debts and therefore he may and he is a Just God Just to himself and to the Interest of his own Glory and therefore he will God hath before-hand told us at what rate we must expect to take up our sins and what we must pay for them at the last He hath told us as plainly as the mouth of Truth can utter it that the Wages of sin is Death and the ways Sinners choose lead down to the Chambers of Hell and Destruction Our own Misery is our own choice He hath in his Word set Life and Death before us and declared to us the means how we might escape the one and obtain the other He hath represented to us the unconceiveableness of both And if we will be so obstinate as after these manifest representations to choose Hell and Death it is but Reason and Justice that we should have our own Choice for it is our Choice interpretatively when we choose those ways and actions that expose to them And thus much concerning the acknowledgement we make in this Petition our Debts Debts vast and infinite which the Justice of God will strictly require of Sinners in their Eternal Condemnation Debts the least of which makes us liable to be cast into Prison into Hell and for the least of which we can never satisfie But what is there no hope Is there no possibility to cross the Book to cancel the Obligation whereby we stand bound to the revenging Justice of God and everlasting Sufferings Truly none by our own personal satisfaction but yet there is abundant hope yea full assurance of it through the free Mercy of our God And therefore as our Saviour hath taught us to acknowledge our Debts so he hath likewise taught us to pray Father forgive us our Debts And now that I have shewed you our Misery by reason of our Debts and you have seen the black side of the Cloud which interposeth between God and us So give me leave to represent to you our Hopes and Consolation in God's free Grace and the Divine Mercy in dissolving this black Cloud that it may never more appear And here let us First Consider what the Pardon of sin is And this we cannot better discover than by looking into the Nature of sin Sin therefore as St. John describes it 1 John 3.4 is a transgression of the Law of God And to the validity of all Laws it is necessary that there be a penalty annexed either literally express'd or tacitly implied The guilt that we contract by transgressing the Law is nothing else but our liableness to undergo this penalty And this guilt is Two-fold the intrinsecal and formal and that is the desert of punishment which sin always necessarily carries in it as it is a violation of a Holy and Righteous Commandment The other is extrinsecal and adventitious and consists in the appointment and designation of the sinner unto punishment This now doth not formally flow from sin but from the Will of God constituting and willing to punish sin with Death Now Pardon is nothing else but the removal of the guilt of sin But now the question is which guilt it removeth I Answer First It doth not remove the intrinsecal guilt of sin or the desert of punishment For the sins of those who are Justified and Pardoned do yet in their own Nature deserve Death and Eternal Damnation As a Pardon vouchsafed to a Traitor doth not cause his Actions not to have been Treasonable and worthy of Death for this doth necessarily follow immediately upon the Transgressing of the Law to which the Penalty is annexed So neither is it in the Power of Pardoning Grace to make that our sins should not deserve Death according to their own demerit for that were a contradiction since this demerit is necessary and essential unto sin as such Secondly Therefore Pardon of sin removes that guilt which consists in the adventitious Appointment or Ordination of the sinner unto Punishment flowing from the Will of God who hath in his Law threatned to inflict Eternal Death as the Reward and Wages of sin Now this designation of the sinner unto punishment is Two-fold either Personal or Mystical One of these two ways God will certainly punish every Soul that sins either by appointing the sinner Personally to undergo the punishment of his iniquities and thus he deals with unbelievers whom he will punish in their own Persons for their transgressions Or else he appoints them to undergo the punishment of their sins Mystically as being by Faith made one with the Lord Jesus Christ who himself hath born our sins in his own Body on the Tree Now Pardon of sin doth not remove the Mystical appointment of a Believer unto Punishment for he hath suffered it for Christ hath suffered it and Christ and he are one Mystical Person by Faith God never Pardons but he likewise punishes the very sin that he Pardons he punisheth it in our surety and undertaker when he forgives it to a Believer Pardon of sin therefore removes only that guilt which consists in our own Personal appointment and designation to punishment though the sin doth always in it self necessarily deserve Death though that Death hath been inflicted upon Christ and therefore upon Believers in him as Members of him But yet notwithstanding that God thus takes Vengeance on our sins he doth Graciously Pardon them when he releaseth our Personal Obligation unto punishment and reckons that we have suffered the penalty in Christ suffering it and therefore ought to be discharged from any further liableness unto it This now is that Pardon of sin which we pray for when we say Forgive us our Debts And for the more full Explication of it I shall lay down these following positions First The Pardoning Grace of God in respect of us is altogether free and undeserved We can of our selves scarce so much as ask forgiveness but even this
they have an exact intuitive knowledge So when by such visible Symptoms they perceive Corruption stirring in us they presently joyn issue with it and by all their art and policy inflame our Lusts by adding new fuel to them improving the first Motions and imperfect Embryo's of Wickedness till they arrive to their full strength and stature Thus if by any Symptoms the Devil can perceive Wrath and Malice boyling within our Breast he will presently move the Tongue to give it vent in opprobrious and reviling Speeches and these he will second with injurious and violent Actions So St. James tells us James 3.6 The Tongue setteth on Fire the course of Nature and is it self set on Fire of Hell But as a Holy Man I think St. Austin being demanded by a curious Questionist concerning the Origin of Evil how Sin first got into the World replied It was not so necessary to discourse how it came into the World as to consider how we might get it out again So truly it is not so necessary critically to enquire whence Temptations come into the Heart as how they may be got out of it And to this I may give the same Answer that Christ did to his Disciples Matth. 17.21 This kind goeth not out but by Fasting and Prayer We ought fervently to pray that God would rebuke the Wicked One and cause him to depart from us that he would by his Grace suppress all the Tumultuous Rebellions of our own Lusts and Passions and neither lead us into Temptation nor leave us under Temptation And thus I have done with the First General in this Petition shewing you what Temptations are The Second is To shew you how God may be said to lead Men into Temptation for it may seem very strange that the Holy and Righteous God should have a Hand in Tempting of Men which is so proper a Work of the Devil and of our own Corruptions But the different manner of God's leading us into Temptations and Satan's Tempting us will sufficiently justifie him from the least aspersion or suspicion of being the Author of Sin And therefore First God is said to lead us into Temptation when he providentially presents outward Objects and Occasions which do solicite and draw forth our inward Corruptions When the Temptations of our inward Lusts meet with external enducements that are cast in a Man's way by God's Providence then as we may be said to Tempt him so God may be said to lead us into Temptation Thus Achan and Judas were no doubt of it covetous Wretches before the one stole the Wedge of Gold and the other betrayed his Master But the Temptations of those Lusts were not as yet come to their strength till the glittering of the Wedge of Gold and the proffered Reward of the High-Priest raised their Covetousness to its full heighth Indeed we find the propensions of our wicked Hearts strongly bent towards Sin at all times even then when we have no external Objects propounded to excite them but when these inward inclinations do meet with outward enforcements as alluring Objects fit Opportunities strong Perswasions from others inducing Examples or the like the Temptation then grows head-strong and wild to purpose and if Grace doth not rein it in with a hard hand it will certainly hurry us into the commission of that Sin which hath so many advantages to commend it to the Soul Now all these Objective Temptations God may most righteously administer to our Lusts in the common course of his Providence and we often see he doth so For there is no outward act of Sin committed in the World but the Sinner took occasion from some Providence of God to perpetrate it A Thief steals not any thing but what God's Providence brings in his way The Murderer slays not any Man but whom Providence offers to his Sword and Violence And all the Villainy that ever was acted in the World was by a Providence tendring the Lusts of Men Objects and Opportunities without which Sin conceived in us could not be brought to light And therefore when we pray that God would not lead us into Temptation we pray that God by his Providence would so order and dispose all the occurrences of our lives so as not to lay before us those Objects nor proffer us those occasions which might either excite or draw forth our inbred Corruptions And indeed this is a most necessary Petition to be preferred to the Throne of Grace for we cannot but be conscious to our selves how hard a thing it is to keep our Hearts from sinful Desires when we encounter Objects to excite them And how hard a thing it is to keep our selves from sinful Actions when once sinful Desires are excited in us Secondly God is said to lead us into Temptation when he withdraws the influences of his Grace and Spirit from us and leaves us under the Power of a Temptation Those very Temptations which when assisted by Divine Grace we could easily resist and subdue will when God withdraws himself from us sadly prevail over us and shamefully foil us Thus it is said that God left Hezekiah to try or to tempt him 2 Chron. 32.31 And indeed since our corrupt Natures are of themselves prone only unto evil if God withdraw the Auxiliaries of his Grace as for many righteous causes he often doth every Temptation that assaults us will ravish our Consciences and captivate our Souls For all the security that we have from the committing of the most flagitious Crimes is wholly from God's Grace either restraining or renewing us the former holding us back from the outward act of Sin the latter weakning and destroying the inward habit and principle of Sin And therefore when we pray that God would not lead us into Temptation we beg that he would still continue the influences of his Grace unto us and by them excite and quicken our Graces that his Grace may not forsake us nor our Grace fail us That we may not be exposed to the Assaults of Spiritual Enemies naked and defenceless to become a sure and easie Prey unto them Thirdly God is said to lead Men into Temptation when he permits Satan and Wicked Men his Instruments to tempt us yea sometimes he gives them commission as well as permission and appoints and sends them to do it Thus we find in the case of Ahab 1 Kings 22.24 Who shall perswade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead and an Evil Spirit steps forth and very officiously accepts of the Employment as most congruous to so malicious a Nature and God sends him with his commission in the 22 verse Thou shalt perswade him and prevail go forth and do so and so he did And as God doth sometimes thus send the Tempter and give him commission to assault and prevail over wicked and ungodly Persons their former Sins provoking him to punish them with farther Impieties So whensoever any of us are Tempted God doth at least permit Satan to sift
into the filth and pollution of it for the future Of the Pardon of Sin I have already largely treated in the foregoing Petition The Deliverance from Evil which we here pray for is by preventing it for the future And whereas we are taught by our Saviour to beg this of God our Heavenly Father we may observe that it is only the Almighty Power of God that can keep us from Sin and that will appear if we consider either our Enemies or our selves First Consider the mighty Advantages that our great Enemy the Devil hath against us As he is a Spirit he is both powerful and subtile and both these are whetted by his great Malice against us long experience also for above five thousand years hath made him very politick in dealing with Souls and carrying on his own designs and interest He knows our temper our passions and our inclinations and can chuse and cull out those Objects which shall infallibly strike and affect us he waits those Mollia tempora fandi those easie hours of whispering his suggestions to us when we are most facile and compliant when we are most easily wrought upon and made soft to his hands by some foregoing circumstances And if after all this he despairs to prevail upon us as a Devil he can quickly shift his shape and transform himself into an Angel of Light and engage our very Consciences unto evil he can disguise his Temptations into impulses of the Holy Spirit perswade us that what he prompts us to is our Duty head his fiery Darts with Scripture Sentences wrap up his Poison in the leaves of the Bible and wound our Souls by our Consciences and certainly this Devil of Light is now gone abroad into the World with all that Power of Deceivableness he can and we cannot but with sad and bleeding Hearts observe his too general prevalency and success And besides all this he is continually present with us follows us up and down where ever we go and is always at our Elbow to prompt us to Evil and at our Right Hand to oppose us in that which is Good Hell hath Emissaries enough to afford every Man a Friend for his Attendant and these critically observe every glance of thine Eyes every flash of thy Passions and are presently ready to apply suitable Temptations unto thee and to strike thee in that part of thy Soul which is softest and most yielding And as the Syrians that were sent by Benhadad to the King of Israel to intercede for him watched every Word that should fall from his Mouth that they might lay hold of it to obtain farther Favour from him So these Spies of Hell do watch every kind Word and every kind look of thine towards Sin and want no skill to improve them to obtain yet greater matters from thee Now if God did not appear to deliver us from these subtle Wiles and Methods of the Devil how soon would he make Fools of the wisest and most experienced Christians Secondly Consider the mighty Dis-advantages that we lie under to oppose the Temptations of the Devil which though they be many and great yet I shall name but two which may be found even in the best of Men. First Our inadvertency and heedlessness through which we are often surprized into Sin and captivated by the cunning craftiness of our Enemies which lie in wait to deceive How seldom is it that we stand upon our Guard or if we do that we are compleatly armed Sometimes our Shield sometimes our Helmets sometimes our Sword of the Spirit is wanting How seldom is it that we attend all the Motions of the Enemy Indeed a Christian should look round about him for he is every where beset and encompassed about with Enemies and whilst he is vigilant to ward one part the Devil falsifies his thrust and wounds him in another but if he cannot wound on the Right Hand by Presumption he will try what he can do on the Left by Despair if he cannot prevail by his Temptations to cause us to neglect and cast off Holy Duties he will Tempt us to Pride our selves in the well performing of them if he cannot make us fall he will Tempt us to be high-minded because we stand and so make our very standing the occasion of our woful downfall and because we are apt to think our selves better than others he will Tempt us to be supercilious Despisers and Contemners of others Now O Christian it is a very hard matter and thou wilt find it so thus to turn thee about to every Assault and that Man had need to have his Spiritual Senses well exercised that shall be able dextrously to do it Now when so great circumspection is scarce sufficient for our security how can they possibly escape without fearful Wounds and Gashes in their Consciences who are supinely negligent of their Souls and mind not which way their Thoughts their Passions their Affections encline and so give the Devil a Handle to turn their Souls by which way he will Certainly if we do not buckle our Spiritual Armour close to us but suffer the joynts of it by our heedlessness to lie open the Devil may easily wound us wheresoever and in whatsoever part he pleaseth And truly if through this inadvertency and want of circumspection Adam in the State of Innocency and the State of Uprightness fell when the Devil had no immediate access or admission into the inward Faculties and Powers of his Soul yet if Satan who was but a young unpractised and unexperienced Devil could prevail with him by his Wiles to ruine himself and to betray the great Trust which God had deposited in his Hands for all his Posterity How much greater may we think is his Advantage over us into whom he may insinuate himself and his Temptations and when we are busie about other things strike and wound us at unawares Secondly Besides this inadvertency the Devil hath another grand Advantage to lead us into Evil and that is because we are naturally prone and enclined of our selves to those very Sins to which he Tempts us It is very hard for that place to escape that hath Enemies without and Traytors within So stands the case with us we are not only beleaguer'd but betrayed there are in our Hearts multitudes of Lusts that hold intelligence with the Devil and espouse his Cause yea there is no one Sin how vile and profligate soever but it may find Partisans in our base and wicked Hearts wherein are the Seeds and Principles of all Impieties and therefore as things of a like Nature presently concorporate as we see one drop of Water diffuseth it self and runs into another so Temptations to Sin meeting with a sinful Nature are presently entertained and as it were embodyed together for whilst we pursue what Satan Tempts us unto we do but pursue what our own Natural Lusts and Corruptions inclin'd unto before waiting only for an opportunity of being called forth into Act. And therefore
to another part less dangerous So God by his Providence many times turns Men from the Commission of greater sins to a lesser sin And I believe there are but few Men who if they will but seriously examine their lives may produce may instances both of the Devil's policy in fitting them with occasions and opportunities of sinning and of God's Providence in causing some urgent Affairs or some sudden and unexpected Accidents to intervene whereby they are turned off from what they purposed Fourthly Sometimes by his Providence he takes off the Objects against which they intended to sin Thus God preserved St. Peter from Herod's Ambitious Rage He intended the next morning to put him to Death but that very night God sends his Angel to work his escape and thereby hinders the execution of that wicked purpose And thus in all Ages God many times hides his Children from the fury of wicked Men that their Wrath against them like Saul's Javelin misseth David and striketh only the Wall from whence it often rebounds back into their own Faces These now are some of the most remarkable Methods of Divine Providence in preventing the sins of Men. And I am very prone to think that there are very few who if they will be at the pains to reflect back upon and strictly examine that part of their lives that is past and gone they may easily produce many remarkable instances both of the Devil's Policy in fitting them with opportunities and occasions of sinning and of God's Providences in causing some immergent affairs or some other strange and unexpected accidents to interpose so that he hath either Graciously taken away our power or taken away the Objects of our Lusts or diverted us when we were in the pursuits of them To this we owe much of the innocency and in some respects blamelessness of our lives that we have not been a scandal to the Gospel a shame to the Good and a scorn to the Bad and this is the first way how God preserves from sin by his Providence Secondly God preserves from sin by his restraining Grace Now this restraining Grace is that which is common and vouchsafed to wicked Men as well as good Indeed God by it deals in a secret way with the very heart of a sinner and though he doth not change the habitual yet he changeth the present actual disposition of it so as not only by external checks laid upon Mens Lusts but by internal persuasions motives and arguments they are taken off the prosecution of those very sins which yet remain in them unmortified and raigning Thus Esau comes out against his Brother Jacob with a Troop of two hundred Ruffians intending doubtless to take revenge upon him for his Birth-right and Blessing but at their first meeting God by a secret work so mollifies his heart that instead of falling upon him to kill him he falls upon his neek and kisses him Here God restrain'd Esau from that bloody sin of Murder not in a way of External Providence only but with his own hand he immediately turns about his heart and by seeing such a company of Cattel bleating and bellowing timorous Women and helpless Children bowing and supplicating to him he turns his Revenge into Compassion and with much urging receives a Present from him whom he thought to have made a Prey The same powerful restraint God laid upon the heart of Abimelech a Heathen King Gen. 20.6 where God tells him I with-held thee from sinning against me and therefore suffered I thee not to touch her Here was nothing visible that might hinder Abimelech but God invisibly wrought upon his heart and unhing'd his sinful desires And from these two instances of Esau and Abimelech we may clearly collect how restraining Grace differs both from restraining Providence and from Sanctifying Grace from Providence it differs because usually when God Providentially restrains from sin he doth it by some visible apparent means which do not reach to work any change or alteration upon the heart but only lays an external check upon Mens sinful Actions But by restraining Grace God deals in a secret way with the very heart of a sinner and although he doth not change the nature of it yet he alters the present inclination of it and takes away the desire of committing those sins which yet he doth not mortifie And from Sanctifying Grace it differs also in that God vouchsafes it to wicked Men and Reprobates to the end that their Lives may be more plausible their Gifts more serviceable and their Condemnation more intolerable And indeed the efficacy of this restraining Grace may be so great that there may appear but very little difference between the Conversation of a true Christian whom Special Grace Sanctifies and the Conversation of one in a State of Nature whom common Grace only restains they may both live outwardly without blame or offence avoiding the gross pollutions of the World and shine in a Sphere above the ordinary sort of Men and yet the one be a Star and the other but a Meteor The high-way may be as dry and as fair in a Frosty Winter as in a warm Summer bur there is a great deal of difference in the cause of it In Summer the Sun dries up the moisture in Winter the Frost binds it in So the ways of those who have only a restraint laid upon them may be as fair and clear as the ways of those who are truly Sanctified but the cause is vastly different Grace hath dried up the filth of the one but ownly bound in the filth of the other Now God doth thus by his restraining Grace preserve Men from sin by propounding to them such Considerations and Arguments as may be sufficient to engage Conscience against it when yet the Will and Affections are still bent towards it Restraining Grace thunders the Curse of the Law and brandisheth the Sword of Justice in the Face of a sinner reports nothing but Hell and Everlasting Torments and such terrible things which may scare Men from their sins though still they love them It is indeed a great Mercy of God to keep us from sin even by legal terrours and usually these are a good preparation and introduction for saving Grace Doubtless the thoughts and fears of Hell have with very good success been made use of to keep Men from those sins that lead unto Hell But yet if in our conflicts against Temptations we can draw Arguments from no other Topicks but Hell and Eternal Death and Destruction If we cannot as well quench the Fiery Darts of the Devil in the Blood of Jesus Christ as in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone it is much to be doubted whether our abstaining from sin be from any higher principle than what is common only for fear of punishment and not for love of God or Goodness Thirdly God hath another method of keeping Men from sin and that is by his Special and Sanctifying Grace And this is proper only to the
Kings to forgive Offenders Hence our Saviour describing the Process of the General Judgment when he comes to speak of pronouncing the Sentence of Absolution upon Believers styles himself King so we read Matth. 25.34 Then shall the King say to them on his Right Hand Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom So that here our Faith hath a very strong Plea to urge with God for the Pardon of our Sins Forgive us our Trespasses For thine is the Kingdom and it belongs to the Royalty of thy Kingdom to forgive humble and penitent Suppliants Sixthly The Kingdom is God's therefore we may well pray in Faith that he would Deliver us from Evil For this is one great end of Government to protect their Subjects from the Assaults of their Enemies And God who is our King will not neglect this care when we do with an humble Faith urge him to it by representing to him that the Kingdom is his for his interest is involved in the safety and welfare of his People And thus I have briefly shown you in general that all our Prayers ought to be enforced with strong and cogent Reasons which although they are not properly motives unto God yet are they good grounds for our Faith to build upon and therefore a good Evidence when we use them that our Petitions shall be heard and granted And I have likewise particularly accommodated this first Motive and Argument taught us by our Saviour Thine is the Kingdom to each of the Six Petitions which he hath instructed us to present to God The Second Attribute that we are to consider as a Reason and Motive urged in this Prayer is the Power of God Thine is the Power Now Power according to the usual acceptation of the Word is nothing else but an ability to work those Changes and Mutations upon created Beings which were not in them before I speak only of Active Power and the Two Terms of it are either the effecting of somewhat that was not or the annulling and destroying of that which was This is the Notion of Power whether it be ascribed to God or Man and in both it is either Absolute or Ordinate Absolute Power respects the simple ability of acting Ordinate Power respects also the will and determination to act And therefore in God whose Power we are now treating of his Absolute Power is of a much larger extent than his Ordinate for the one relates to all things possible that is to all things whose existence doth not imply a contradiction the other relates only to things future and this likewise such as shall exist according to the common course and method of God's Ordinary Providence for Miraculous effects although they are produced according to the Will and Ordination of God yet they appertain not to his Ordinate but to his Absolute Power So then the Objects of God's Absolute Power are things merely possible or things future which are without the Compass and Sphere of second causes to produce But the Objects of God's Ordinate Power are things future produced according to the Laws of Natural Agents and the Virtue of second Causes Yet both these Powers in God are infinite the one Objectively the other Formally First God's Absolute Power is Objectively infinite that is the Object of it is infinite for all things possible are the Object of this Power and all things are in themselves possible which do not imply a contradiction And Oh how vast and incomprehensible is the sum of these God might have Created more Worlds more Angels and Men than he hath done more sorts of Creatures and more of every sort if he had so pleased Yea and he might have been Creating and Acting from all Eternity to all Eternity and in his infinite duration be still producing new and therefore infinite effects for with God nothing is impossible Luke 1.37 And the only Reason why God hath produced such effects and no other so many and not more is not from want of Power but merely from the free determination of his own Will and Counsel He might have hindred the Fall of Man restored the fallen Angels raised the Stones to be Children unto Abraham brought more Deluges and general Plagues upon the World if he had so pleased Yea and though our fancy and imagination hath a large Empire and seems boundless in these Fictions and Pourtraictures of things which we Paint and Limn there yet God can really Create more than we can only imaginarily Create for we can only patch together those things which we have seen or have otherwise been the Objects of our Senses and by putting together several pieces of things really existing make an Idea of that which never was But God can actually cause those Species and kinds of beings in the World which never were nor ever was there a former resemblance of them and so can infinitely exceed the largest scope of what in us seems most unlimitted even our Thoughts and Fancies for he is able to do above what we are able to think Secondly God's Ordinate Power is infinite formally that is those things which he works according to the Counsel of his own Will they are all effected by infinite Power for tho' the Objects themselves are finite both for nature and number yet the Power that produceth them is infinite for since the Essence of God is infinite and each of his Attributes is his Essence it follows likewise that his Power is infinite even in the production of things that are finite Now it appears that the Power of God is infinite First By the Works of Creation for though the things that are Created are finite and but a few in comparison with those that are possible yet it is no less than the infinite Power of God that can impregnate the vast Womb of nothing and make it bring forth a Being It must needs be an Almighty Word that can call forth a Creature out of non-existence and make it start up into the rank of things that are And therefore we find God often ascribing it to himself as a Glorious demonstration of his Almighty Power that he spreads forth the Curtains of the Heavens that he laid the Beams of the Earth that he hung out those Glorious Lights of the Sun Moon and Stars that he breathed forth all the various sorts of the Creatures which People the Universe and by the commanding Word of his Mouth they were made His Power and his Hand formed all those Beautiful Creatures we behold out of a rude and confused Chaos and that Chaos it self out of the greater confusion of Nothing And although second Causes by their Power and Natural Energy introduce various forms into things yet all the matter they have to work upon was first God's Workmanship and there is nothing made by Man but it is the Creature of God at least as to the matter and first principle of it Now it is only infinite Power that can bring something out of nothing yea
We may and ought but our Care must be onely prudent and provident not perplexing and desponding Q. Why is that Expression this Day added A. To shew us that every Day we stand in need of Supplies from God and therefore should daily pray to receive them Q. Since we pray for daily Bread why is it called our Bread A. To note that we ought to use lawfull Means to acquire what we pray for Q. What pray you for in this Petition A. 1. That God would give us the good Things of this Life as the Acquisitions of our lawfull Endeavours 2. That he would bless the Increase of what is lawfully ours 3. That he would bestow upon us a spiritual Right in whatsoever we injoy through Jesus the Heir of all Things 4. We pray that we may not desire nor covet what is anothers 5. We pray for Life it self that it may be prolonged whilst God hath any Service for us to do in this World 6. For all the Means that may lawfully preserve our Life and Health 7. That he would strengthen our Faith and Dependence on his Providence who is the giver of all good 8. That he would give us Contentment in that Portion of Earthly Blessings which he allots us Q. What is the fifth Petition of the Lord's Prayer A. Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors Q. What things are observable in this Petition A. The Order and the Matter of it Q. What observe you from the Order of it A. That after we have prayed for our daily Bread we are taught to pray for Pardon of Sin Which Method is most rational 1. Because the Guilt of Sin many times with-holds from us those Temporal Comforts which we stand in need of Isaiah 59.2 But your Iniquities have separated between you and your God and your Sins have hid his Face from you that he will not hear 2. Because without Pardon of Sin our Temporal Injoyments are but Snares and Curses Q. What observe you in the Matter of this Petition A. Two things The Petition it self Forgive us our Debts And the Condition or Proportion or Plea and Argument for obtaining this Forgiveness As we forgive our Debtors Q. What mean you here by Debts A. The same which St. Luke 11.4 Calls Sins And forgive us our Sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us Q. How stand we indebted to God A. We stand indebted to God both as we are his Creatures and as we are Offenders on the former Account we owe God the Debt of Obedience on the latter the Debt of suffering Punishment Q. Which Debt do we pray God to forgive A. The latter onely for the former is irremissibly due to our great Creator Q. How come we to be thus indebted unto God A. By the Sentence of the Law which condemneth every Transgressour of it to undergo the Penalty it threatens which Penalty is all manner of Woes and Curses and Everlasting Death Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Rom. 6.23 For the wages of Sin is Death Ezek. 18.4 The Soul that sinneth it shall die Q. Since the Suffering of these is the Debt we owe to Divine Justice why say you that Sin is that Debt A. Because Sin alone is the meritorious Cause of these and we owe the Suffering of them onely as we are Sinners Q. Are there no Sins venial in their own Nature so as not to deserve Eternal Damnation A. No not the least for the wages of every Sin is Death All therefore are Mortal in their own Nature and all are Venial through the Mercy of God in the Merits of Christ excepting onely the Sin against the Holy Ghost Q. Can we no way pay off these Debts so as to satisfie the Justice of God A. No for neither can we do it by Obedience nor yet by Sufferings Not by the Duties of Obedience for these are a Debt we owe to God's Holiness and Soveraignty and therefore cannot pay the Debts we owe to his Justice and we cannot pay Debts by Debts Not by suffering for Sin being an infinite Evil must be punish'd with an infinite Punishment but we cannot suffer a Punishment infinite in Degrees therefore it must be infinite in Duration so that the Damned in Hell shall never be able to say It 's finish'd Q. How then may we hope to be acquitted of our Numberless Debts A. Onely through the free Mercy and Grace of God pardoning them in Jesus Christ and therefore we pray Forgive us our Debts Q. What is Pardon or Forgiveness of Sin A. It is the removal of the Guilt of Sin Q. What is the Guilt of Sin A. The Guilt of Sin is either the intrinsecal Desert of Punishment or else an Obnoxiousness and Liableness to it through God's Designation of the Sinner to undergo it Q. Doth pardon of Sin remove both these Guilts A. No it removes not the former for still the Sins of those who are pardoned do in themselves deserve Eternal Death But it removes the latter viz. it takes away our Appointment unto Death 2 Sam. 12.13 And David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said unto David the Lord also hath put away thy Sin thou shalt not die Q. How is it consistent with the Justice of God to pardon Offenders without Punishment A. Though Believers are not personally appointed to Punishment yet Mystically they are which Punishment they have already suffered in Christ their Surety with whom they are made one by Faith Q. To whom is this Prayer for Pardon of Sin directed A. To God onely whose Royal Prerogative is to forgive Sins Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Mark 2.7 Who can forgive sins but God only Q. Have not the Ministers of the Gospel power to forgive sins according to that of St. John 20.23 Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted A. They have a ministerial and declarative Power as Officers not an authoritative and judicial Power as Soveraigns As the Prince onely pardons the Herauld proclaims it So God alone by the Prerogative of his Grace grants pardon the Minister by his Office publisheth it to all that repent and believe Q. What then must we judge of that absolute and plenary Power which the Pope assumes of pardoning Sins A. That it proves him to be Antichrist in exalting himself above God 2 Thess 2.4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God For whosoever can forgive wrongs done against another must be superiour to him and have Authority to cause the Person offended to surcease the Prosecution and sit down by the wrong done him Q. If God onely can forgive Sins how then are we bound to forgive those who
will the more glorifie it in their downfal The Righteous shall see it and be glad and shall say verily there is a reward for the Righteous verily there is a God that Judgeth in the Earth Psalm 58.11 Fifthly If God doth not clear up this inequality of his providence in this Life yet he will certainly do it at the day of Judgment And indeed the strange dispensation of Affairs in this World is an Argument that doth convincingly prove that there shall be such a day wherein all the Involucra and intanglements of providence shall be clearly unfolded Then shall the riddle be dissolved why God hath given this and that profane wretch so much Wealth and so much power to do mischief Is it not that they might be destroyed for ever Then shall they be called to a strict account for all that plenty and prosperity for which they are now envied and the more they have abused the more dreadful will their condemnation be Then it will appear that God gave them not as mercies but as snares 'T is said Psalm 11.6 That God will rain on the wicked Snares Fire and Brimstone and an horrible tempest When he scaters abroad the desireable things of this World Riches Honours Pleasures c. then he rains snares upon them and when he shall call them to an account for these things then he will rain upon them Fire and Brimstone and an horrible tempest of his wrath and fury Dives who carowsed on Earth yet in Hell could not obtain so much as one poor drop of Water to cool his scorch'd and flaming Tongue Had not his excess and intemperance been so great in his Life his fiery thirst had not been so tormenting after Death And therefore in that sad Item that Abraham gives him Luke 16.5 he bids him remember that thou in thy Life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus Evil things but now he is comforted and thou tormented I look upon this as a most bitter and a most deserved Sarcasme upbraiding him for his gross folly making the trifles of this Life his good things Thou hast received thy good things but now thou art tormented Oh never call Dives's Purple and delicious fare good things if they thus end in torments Was it good for him to be wrapt in Purple who is now wrapt in Flames Was it good for him to fare deliciously who was only thereby fatted up against the day of slaughter Could you lay your Ears to Hell Gates you might hear many of the Grandees and Potentates the great and Rich ones of this World Cursing all their Pomp and Bravery and wishing they had been the most despicable of all those whom they once hated oppress'd and injured And as it will appear at that day that none of the enjoyments of this World are good to wicked Men so that none of those Afflictions and Calamities which good Men suffer are Evil. Lazarus's Sores are not Evil since now every Sore is turned into a Star His lying prostrate at the Rich Misers door is not Evil since now he lies in Abraham's Bosom And this day all these intricacies of Providence will be made plain and we shall have other apprehensions of things than what we have at present Now we call Prosperity Riches and Abundance Good things and Want and Affliction Evil. But when we come to consider these with relation to Eternity the true standard to measure them by then Poverty may be a Mercy and Riches a Judgment God may bless one by Afflictions and Curse another by Prosperity he may bestow more upon us in suffering us to want than if he should give us the store and treasures of all the Earth And certainly whatever our thoughts of it are now yet within awhile this will be the Judgment of us all When we are once lodged in our Eternal State then we shall acknowledge that nothing in this World deserved the name of good but as it promoted our eternal Happiness nor of evil but as it tends to Eternal misery And thus you see this grand Objection answered and the Providence of God cleared from that unjustice which we are apt peevishly to impute unto it Other doubts are of less moment and therefore shall be brieflier resolved As Secondly If God's Providence ordains all things to come to pass according to the immutable Law of his purpose then what necessity is there of Prayer We cannot by our most fervent Prayers alter the least circumstance or punctilio in God's Decrees If he hath so laid the method of his Providence in his own Counsels as to prepare mercies and blessings for us our Prayers cannot hasten nor maturate them before their time Or if he determine by his Providence to bring Afflictions upon us our Prayers cannot prevent nor adjourn them beyond their prefixed time Now to this Aaequinas 2.29.83 Art 2. Answers well that the Divine Providence doth not only ordain what Effects shall come to pass but also by what means and causes and in what order they shall flow God hath appointed as the effect it self so the means to accomplish it Now Prayer is a means to bring to pass that which God hath determined shall be We do not Pray out of hope to alter God's Eternal purposes but we Pray to obtain that which God hath ordained to be obtained by our Prayers We ask that thereby we may be fit to receive what God hath from all Eternity determined to give by Prayer and not otherwise And therefore when we lie under any Affliction if we languish under pain or sickness if we are pinch'd by Want or Poverty if we are oppress'd by the injuries and persecutions of others Prayer is necessary because as God by his Providence hath brought these things upon us so likewise possibly the same Providence hath determined not to remove them till we earnestly and fervently Pray for our deliverance from them And therefore when God had promised great mercies to the Jews he tells them by the Prophet Ezek. 36.37 Yet will I for this be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them Prayer therefore doth not incline God to bestow that which before he was not resolved to give but it capacitates us to receive that which God will not give otherwise Thirdly Another Objection may be this If Providence ordereth and disposeth all the Occurrences of the World then there can nothing fall out casually and contingently I Answer In respect of God it is true there is nothing casual nor contingent in the World A thing may be casual in respect of particular causes but in respect of the universal and first cause nothing is such If a Master should send a Servant to a certain place and command him to stay there till such a time and presently after should send another Servant to the same the meeting of these two is wholly casual in respect of themselves but ordained and foreseen by the Master that sent them So is it in