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
the Neuter hurts and dangers it may be sensed the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being sometime demonstrative pointing at a special one and other times indefinit for any one and in such a summary as our Lord here intended we may comprehend its meaning to be deliverance from all evil in the bulk and Satan as the chief A Spanish Gentleman and noctivagant or a night-walker rising in his sleep through excessive heat intending to wash in the River was met by one pretending the same businesse but tempted him to cast himself from a high bridge into a very deep place into which the tempter was already vapouring the Dons seet no sooner touched the water then he awoke and calling upon the other for help was frustrat perceiving it an evil spirit after prayer to God shifted as he could avoided the danger and guarded for the future against such extravagancies and the Devils going about to devour hath made the Religious of old urgent and vigilant to escape captivity and we in this age have no reason to be too secure though upon beds of Down From evil that is hell the place of evil in Heaven all is good on earth there is some good but in hell no good Iudas is said to go to his own place that â—is to which he was adjudged his merits worthily casting him from the Apostolat of which in and by his hypocrisie he only keep'd possession from which place worse then that wherein he died which yet as is said was so stinking that men were forced to stop their noses through unwholesome scents we beg here freedom from our Father setting him viz. Our Father in the preface in opposition to that evil one here begging his good against the others evil opposing person to person things to things a Father to a Foe Behold this evil through the prospect of Scriptural threats and exhortation and an evil example and an evil death is easily perceptible all the Law and Prophets by a Father is summed up in this viz to eschew evil and do good but Drunkards Blasphemers Idolaters Iews Turks seeking still to debauch there is strength to resist their solicitations violence their frauds and their enticements here prayed for that though men accept favour from such which yet ought not to be done saith some yet certainly no kindnesse ought to lure us unto encouraging them in unholy performances There is a people near unto Armenia called the Curdi whose Barbarous cruelty especially to Christians hath circumcised their country and made it be called terra Diaboli Devils land and it is to be lamented that so much of the European continent or indeed so many of its Islands may be thought to be governed by the same Soveraign yet how prevalent soever that Fiend be to prevent the spreading of his dominion as well as restricting the exorbitancies thereof yea for repelling its force and nullifying its being we pray in deliverance from evil Not only this but a peaceable departure and removeal is here beseeched the death of the uncircumcised or to die by the hands of a stranger being a curse yea not to die the common death of all men or a mans own death being both sad and dangerous is by all men except inconsiderat deprecated under the notion of evil fire water and sudden death being comprehended therein in the judgement of a learned Interpreter A Scholler quarrelling with one of his companions over night in the night in his sleep entered the others Chamber and slew him returning still asleep into his own bed declaring next day he dreamed he had slain his Comrade Here was temptation and evil both done and suffered yet such Reader as may befall both me and thee which should make us pray against evil whether in its causes or in its occasions whether for our selves or others It not being deliver me but Vs from evil without which charity neque multa neque magna the doing many things the doing great things being not good things availeth nothing but let it be still remembred that the greatest Evil viz. the evil of sin is to be guarded against sicknesse poverty death having no such bitter influences on the Conscience or on the Soul as transgression hath for how pleasant soever it seem to flesh it shall be toylsome burdensome and tormenting we read even of sowre honey such is sin of heavy sand but evil is heavier for that will rest at Earths Center but the other presse to Hells bottomlesse bottom therefore most to be prayed against and feared upon our Earth that from it by the power of our Father in Heaven we may be delivered and made watchful against it I say watchful for to pray against evil yet study to do evil is bold impiety and shall end in mischief It is 〈◊〉 â—he Iesuits have a Law secluding women from their Colledges and if any through the Porters inadvertence enter the dust upon which she trod is to be gathered and extruded the gates lest they be defiled to preserve chastity is good and to fear evil is happy but to avoid sin the Heart more then the Earth is to be heeded and the soul of man rather then the sole of the shoe is to be respected and praying rather then such fooling is to be used as a proper antidot and remedy against sin or evil But deliver us from evill THE pernicious consequences of sin and evil are so numerous that nature it self prompts natural men to endeavour an escape but freedom from the tincture and stain of vice is more earnestly pressed by the spiritually intelligent yea in fear or in case of sloath the Doctrine is feelingly urged upon all Saints by the Lord of glory in many Scriptures particularly in this Petition deliver us from evil that is from the Devil the Author and prompter to evil being old in wickednesse so skilfull in allurements that man with his carnal weapons cannot defeat him in his invisible assaults and therefore cry for deliverance which Petition that we may learn let us examine into the extent of the word deliver and next the use thereof It is as broad as evil as long as the day it is not à tali vel tali deliverance from this or that evil as Peter from drowning Sampson from thirsting but absolutely from all from any evil whether of temporal spiritual or of eternal concernment The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying two things 1. That we be preserved from falling into evil next that we be liberat out of the evil wherein we have fallen he trusted in God said the Jews let him deliver him and this deliverance our Father doth command four wayes 1. By renewing our natures through grace he washeth us by the blood of his Son which purgeth us from our innate pollution delivers us from the evil of a defiled soul hard heart dead
cursing flee back-bitting flee heart-burning flee oppressing for by the eye as by a window temptation suffers Satan to enter and then he finds no difficult task to pick the lock of the most secret Cabinet I mean the remotest faculty of the soul which was known to that as to a sword undaunted though young Alexander he refusing to give frequent visits to Darius daughters then his Prisoners alleading that Persice Puellae the Persian Ladies made his eyes sore 2. Attraction this discovers weaknesse A fish smoothly glyding down the River is in safety but beholding the bait and turning aside after it is ensnared by the hook Let the Painter Paint as he pleaseth I am prone to suppose that Evah both went unto the tree and pluckd the fruit her self The foolish youth having seen followed after the strange woman whereas if that evil one wound us by a sinsul thought we are not to yeeld but to fight against that little to keep our selves from danger by a greater which shall besal us when sinful thinking grows to sinful doing which we have not force sufficient to evite except we bruise its head as soon as it is conceived As children having no strength to oppose runs from what may endanger them so let us flee at first sight yea the sweeter its voice be let us make the greater speed and it shall be spiritually and morally found what proverbially is received a fleeing man valueth not the Lute and this Petition beareth witnesse of our inability for self-defence yea experience proveth very few Iesus Christ excepted to have entred into the field of temptation but came off with losse Abraham held out in Mount Moriah yet could lye in Egypt hence a Father affirmeth there are temptations which we cannot bear and what are they Omnes all and in truth without God we can bear none 3. Inescation this ought to stir us to repentance We will eat of the fruit and swallow the broath though poyson be in the one and death in the other and sell our birth-right for a dish of either The soul ought as a mirrour or glasse to be kept clean that in it might perfectly be viewed the Image of God but alas sin hath dusted and darkned the same and yet we are not sorry and yet we are not warry though we say lead us not into temptation that is given us wisdom to know those evils we are encompassed with and not be so sordid as to prefer our lusts to God a Concubine to our Saviour or our Catamite to our Heavenly Paradise King Lysimachus besiedged in Thracia quitted his Army his Honour his Liberty and Kingdom to Dromichata for a draught of puddle-water to quench his thirst whereof when he tasted his sad Fate he thus sadly lamented O how for how small a pleasure have I a King made my self a servant The voice of Hell may be imagined to have something in it like this O for how small a pleasure having to aggrege their hellish dispair this that their was no such necessity for their drinking stoln waters To these three you may add Occasion awaking us to prayer neither Devil world nor flesh dare assault the most Abject among men if occasion do not fairly invite The works of the flesh though manifest as Adultery Murther Witch-craft are more or lesse brought to the birth as occasion the Midwife is sooner or later in coming that incitamentum ad malum in us corruption being fearful even to peep where opportunity is wanting which that wanton knew who to assure the simple youth of all security told him that the Good-man was not at home but was gone a long journey An ancient writing to Secundine whose life was privat and solitary among other Items of Satans subtilty is warned of this that in the souls privat retirements there shall be as it were visits made by the tempter and things brought to his mind and laid before his eyes and all to seduce him in his thinking of he cannot get him to perpetrat ungodlinesse It is written that Ioseph was held by the Garment by his Mistriss when none of the men were within it is said they were all abroad at a feast she having counterfeited sicknesse to procure an occasion to satishe her intemperance hence one calls temptation an instruction how and when to sin we say Occasio facit furem Occasion maketh the Thief it maketh also the Murtherer the Wencher and the Tipler Simulque animadvertendum let it be remembred that untill our Saviour was hungry Satan had no occasion to assault him or at least most strongly then did attempt him I have said David remembred they Name O Lord in the night Tempus tentationum I think saith a Father he means in the time of temptation when he is encompassed with darknesse take it either way it intimats in solitude God is to be remembred and contrary thoughts to be expelled from the soul imitating Pyrrhus who being alone was asked what he was about I am said he studying to be good There is Fabled of a suit commenced betwixt the heart and eye which were the causers of sin and thus it was decided Cordi causam imputans occasionem oculi the heart was the cause but the eye gave the occasion of sin In short occasion hath so great a hand in evil that it is a temptation to evil Saint Iames giving us the degrees of temptation gives them thus Every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust and enticed then when lust bath conceived it bringeth forth sin which when finished it bringeth forth death Concupiscence then being the Mother Sin the Daughter and Death the Grand-daughter all issuing from the strength of temptation set on by Satan as he finds our complexions inclinations pliable to receive the impression ought to excite us and in an holy servour to draw from us Lead us not into temptation It is observed that our Saviour had three strong temptations in the Wildernesse that there were three which refused to come to the Supper of the Kings Son and that there are three which in the world bear up enmity against God and in them all the sight of the eye bears a great stroak therefore to be lookt after in resisting temptations against which to highten your zeal consider their unweariednesse nearnesse imperiousnesse appositnesse and their closnesse 1. Their unweariednesse The Devil is still going about and temptation is never quiet Et ideo Deus meus therefore O God we ery for security cryed one because whether we sleep or wake eat or drink by force or fraud secretly or openly is our watchful enemy directing his poysoned darts for our destruction which made another cry that our life was but one temptation and another adds that it is not so one way but multipliciter illudat many here it affirms there denies there it changeth
will he is a spectator and beholder as in that case of the Babylonish Ambassadors and Hezekiah whereas he withheld Abraham from sacrificing Isaac by a contrary precept leaving the other to himself for discovery of himself This is excellently figured under that parable of King Iames of a Nurse having a child but beginning to go who may be said justly to make the child fall if she leave it alone knowing it hath no strength without help for self-supportance so God Almightly as before is said is said to lead us into when he leaves us in temptation and though he can say little or nothing that cometh after that King yet for the case in hand it may be said though the Nurse may be shent yet God is not to be blamed for his relinquishing For 1. He is not oblidged to hold us up 2. We oft conceit our selves to be strong 3. We had once strength and he is not bound to repair broken sinews 4. He can cure us and make us better And 5. Such as falls blame themselves never God Iudas an Achab go not without their own heart charging themselves with the production of sin And it may be attested also from reason that God is not the Author of sin there being no evil work without the precedency of an evil will which floweth not from him as is apparent from the nature of God the Law of God the nature of sin and the bitternesse of the death of Christ. The nature of God being once known darknesse may be thought to flow from the Sun as soon as clearly as sin can be suggested to originat from him when the root of all sweetnesse shall be embittered and the Suns darknesse in his Eclipse be defended as proceeding from its self then and not before can sin in reason be thought to proceed from God he tempting no man that is to evil The Sun-beams light on a Carrion and also on a flower that the one is sweet the other not proceeds not from the Planets influence but from the delicacy or rottennesse of the thing scented The Musician stricketh on an ill-tuned instrument that it soundeth indeed he is cause but that it soundeth ill emergeth from the vitiosity of the instrument yea what though our shallow judgments sathom not the Abysse of Gods innocency rather let us charge our selves of ignorance then him of injustice for to use the words of our Royal Expositor and a Father in so high a point it is fit for every man sapere ad sobrietatem to be wise unto sobriety Respect the expresse will of God or his Scriptures and their aim scope design energy and end is to bind curb and destroy sin It was in mans redemption said to mankind sin no more and the Apostles praying preaching amounted to this dearly beloved abstain from fleshly lusts Behold also the nature of sin and it is a departing from God it is called a work of darknesse and by it the flesh striveth against the Spirit evidencing that the wise God gave no consent to its being for who would appoint a power to check and restrict himself and though none of these might yet the bloudinesse of the death of Iesus the strong cryes he put up the bloody sweat he suffered the shamefull and painfull death he under-went for the expiating its guilt the destroying of its work cleareth his detestation thereof to all which add that in the highest accusations of an awakened conscience the sinner roareth against himself for yeelding not God for leading him into temptation Once more consider there is in sin two things First the Act and next the Deformity or obliquity in that Act. The strength by which the Murtherer puts forth his hand is from God but that he doth it to kill is from another efficient The rider causeth his horse to go but if he halt it proceds from some debility in the beasts nerves Iudas eyes saw the money which was from God his fingers told the money from him also but the sin for which he had it he chargeth solely and wholely upon himself Gods giving up the Gentiles to vile affections to a reprobat mind implyeth not his Agency therein but the Retaining of his grace and leaving them to themselves being otherwise not bound to do as was the Nurse in the above-mentioned similitude And the same serves to answer if the Lord be said to be the cause of the defection of the ten Tribes from the house of David with this addition that when it is said to be of him it is understood of the disposing the proper causes thereof for the punishment of Rehoboam and fulfilling the Prophecy made against Solomon quoniam qui providenter atque omnipotenter he in his wisdom being able to rule all things whether good or evil for his own purpose The cause of Iudas selling Christ was Covetousnesse Pilats crucifying him was for Fear all was of God that is the ordering of these things for production of the great end of mans redemption Fore note his permitting sin is not otiosa a bare looking on to behold it and no more neither is it Tyrannica as to command its actions or approve its workings neither is it libera as if sin were not under his providence and had liberty to run and come where and how far it pleased his permission being determinativa determinative he appointing how far it shall go and further then his Law neithe Iews nor Pilat nor Iudas nor sin nor the Devil can go Iesus may be put to death but who can hinder his assuming life again it being so determined by God A Hermite oft deluded by the Devil being taught and having heard many things from him supposing he had been an Angel of light was at last advised by his Familiar to slay his son who abode in the Cell with him for procuring to himself equality of glory and dignity with Abraham for which glory delirus iste senex dementatus the deluded old man attempted the act of murther but the boy by flight and nimblenesse escaped for and with his life Here was temptation yeelded unto but the sin of the temptation as to its term viz. as it ended or designed the boyes life God frustrated and bound it up that sin could not do it It was for this viz. lest God should be concluded the Author of sin that some of late read or said these words Suffer us not to be led into temptation in stead of lead us not To detect which solly at large were to be like them who said it But this may be said that these indeed were wise and holy in their own conceit that thought the Gospel wanted their pertinency or the Lords Prayer their correction as if Jesus did not know how to teach apposite devotion without their directory why was not Moses refined and that ordinary expression expunged God hardened the heart of Pharaoh but
the second person with Stephen Lord Iesus receive my spirit For both is here understood and Prayer ought jointly to be put up to them as they are one and severaly to all the Persons as they are three provided that in naming of one as here we exclude not the Son nor Spirit as Stephen not the Spirit nor the Father though the Son be solely invoked It was the Trinity that said Let us make man and from the Trinity did sin cause man to fall and by Prayer to the Trinity must man be remitted of his sin delivered from evil and instructed to avoid temptation It is given as a rule that where the Word Father is simply used without any other word restricting it to any of the other Persons as here there is none the whole Deity is thereby signified ex gr The fowls of the Air sow not yet your heavenly father feedeth them In Father all the Trinity is understood but in these words The Father loveth the Son the second Person is distinctly spoken of and distinguished from the first as also the first from the second But to reach the depth of the word Father in this profound sense were to puzle our souls with inscrutable Mysteries and with Simonides to drench our brains in unprofitable questions For he being asked by Hiero the King what God was desired one days liberty to answer the question but that being too short he demanded two but these not being sufficient he intreated for four in regard the more he pondered his soul was the more darkned touching the nature of a Deity neither do we read that ever he answered the question though eight days was allowed him his head questionless being filled with doubts and niceties studying the solution We shall therefore taking a prospect of this word of this cloud Father from its darkest side as it relates to Prayer and then we may see clearly â—avour on Godsâ—part and duty upon ours The favour is to be seen in Priviledges Justification and in our Adoption 1. Our Christian-priviledges above the Iew. Many and lofty were the Titles and Names by which God made himself known under the Law as the Lord God of gods the God of Abraham and the Almighty God but it is Our Father quia noster esse cepit he now becoming our God having left off to be theirs His Name to them was I AM denoting Eternity and Immutability to be in himself But Our Father shews plainly our interest in him and his to us he is not now under the Gospel called the God of Abraham at a distance but having spoken to us by his Son to keep us with him for ever sweetens our service under the notion of fatherly attendance the other having rebelled against him They indeed while with him had much of his praise but to which of them at any time said he When ye pray say Our Father They prayed indeed but in comparison of us they did it as servants we doing it as sons having received that spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father But of this afterward 2. Our Iustification by the blood of Christ. Our sins made us lose our interest we had in him by our wandring as the lost sheep and by our lavishing as the Prodigal we became like our old father the Devil and by consequence were afar off but now made nigh by the blood of Christ who made our peace animating us with confidence to pray After this manner having by faith received the power to become the Sons of God For nec peccator neither can a sinful people or a sinful man be attoned or made a son or sons except there preceed a remission of sin which is accompanied by the gift of Son-ship For whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin and he who would receive the kiss of the Father must return and confess with the Publicane and he shall not only have bread enough but his sin shall be forgiven him 3 Our Adoption by the regeneration of the Spirit Regeneration implyes a two-fold birth First we are born children of wrath and so are children of the Devil yet not by nature but imitation because the lusts of that father we will do by which we have no plea to Heaven And unless as regenerated a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God He comprehends all Ages Sexes and conditions and except he be born again shews a new Father and a new nature Of water understand that Baptism is an entry into a new life which is administred in the Name of the Father upon our bodies denoting that even our flesh is capable of Heavens glory and of the Spirit this is that wherein all blessedness consists for as the Spirit of man must be prop'd or buttress'd by the Spirit of God or it can never be elevated so as to enter the Kingdom of God so must the Spirit of God uphold the faith of the believer by bearing witness to it of the souls being born of God or then we cannot call after this manner without mocking our Father which is in Heaven A Father he is in respect of Christ and because of him he is a Father in respect of us like our elder Brother and elder brethren Let us seek after the things of Heaven that it may be known we pray by the spirit of Adoption having re-purchased the title of Sons Acknowledging by Father an absolution of offences a freedom from judgement Justification Sanctification and the Adoption of Sons a fellowship with Christ the gifts of the Spirit an inheritance incorruptible that fadeth not away eternal in the Heavens Whereby it may be attested of our Father what a dying man said of the Epistles and Gospels when desired by some to deliver a rule for the right ordering of their lives held up them with an ecce omnia hic here are all things necessary for attaining of a good and blessed life he meant they living after the rules there taught so shall it be with us if we practise according to the form prescribed here For this Preface holdeth out also duty on our part and we learn by it to pray with confidence awfulness and plainness 1. With confidence but not with presumption God hath come low to embrace us as sons he hath given us freedom to touch his Scepter yet ought not man to be saucy for the one nor play as a child with the other Let not the pride of thy countenance keep thee O man from God that is from calling upon him because he is thy Father nor permit the sin of thy soul to perswade thee to run from him because he is in Heaven Do this and live come boldly to the Throne of grace that you may obtain mercy It is a Throne therefore denotes Majesty to stop presumption with the
all ages that some will have it numerus or ationis making deliverance from evil a distinct Petition from that against temptation approved by Chemnitius and King Iames as shall be seen in due place they shewing good reason for this enumeration of seven Petitions In the first whereof we beg admission into his Temple in Hallowed be thy Name In the second to his Palace in Thy Kingdom come In the third to his Council in Thy will be done In the fourth to his Granary Give us our daily bread In the fifth to his Treasury Forgive us our debts In the sixth to his Armory Lead us not into temptation In the seventh to his Garden or Arbory Deliver us from evil Unto all which if we pray truly all Prayer may be congruously reduced in evidence whereof receive a Fathers judgment with very small alteration If any beg Let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee saith he not Hallowed by thy Name If any call Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved saith he not Thy Kingdom come If any supplicat Order my steps according to thy Word desireth he not Thy will be done If any demand give me neither poverty nor riches saith he not Give us our daily bread If any utter O Lord my God if I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me yea I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy is not this to be constructed Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters Implores any Send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me is not that Lead us not into temptation And doth any request Deliver me from mine enemies my God is it not Deliver us from evil Hence therefore this Prayer is not only as a rule to pray by but as a form to pray in supplying what ever is deficient in the supplications of mortals whose arm at longest cannot fathom the length of that request put up for the belly give us bread much lesse commensâ—trat the extension of that put up for God Hallowed be thy Name Yet as we can we shall search 1. into the matter of this Petition hallowing of the Name of God 2. The order of it for it is reckoned among the first three and is become their Captain therefore more honourable Name hath its name in the Greek from the help or aid it gives to know things or persons by and with the Latines Nomina were notamina marks tokens signs to difference things by when men were â—ewest there were names and they increasing sirnames were added still to distinguish one from another neither do we find any Nation so barbarous but had names the savages of Mount Altas in Barbary excepted who were reported to be both namelesse and dreamlesse Names begun with the Creation the eldest daughter of which being Light was called Day And who can shew the improbability of their duration when time shall be no more Moses was termed Moses when Peter saw him in the Mount and who is that will earnestly deny that Enos shall not be called Enos even in glory The old Pollanders gave names to their children at the first cutting of their hair but the most Christian Nations have followed the Iews and given names about the eighth day yea the old Romanes gave it to their Femals the same day but to their Males on the ninth All gave them for discrimination to difference a Cain from an Abel Samaria from Ierusalem some had it because of some property as Esau from his being hairy Some from an atchievment Iacob was called Israel for his prevailing with God Others gave names from a desire of continuating their own names upon earth and because it is a kind of judgement to want a name as did Davids adulterous infant and the rich Churle in the Gospel for this they intended to call Iohn Zacharias after the name of his Father some give them in imitation of some vertue as Iob or David as a spur for the bearer to follow the vertues of those Saints Hence it is thought Iacobs sons were never named Iacobites but Israelites to animate the whole race for strugling with God untill they got a blessing Lastly Names have been imposed from some sudden emergency as Isaac from Sarahs or Abrahams laughter or from future foreseeing as was Cain Abel or from some profession as at this day the Mahometan from Mahomet and the Christian from professing Christ. Most of these wayes have God taken to himself and recevied names from others yea we may say firnames he is often called the Lord Jehovah God and frequently the God of all consolation the Lord God of our Fathers the Saviour of Israel who blotteth out transgressions for his own Names sake which is to be hallowed In order to which let us descant upon 1. What may be understood by his Name 2. How that Name is to be hallowed 3. Why the speciality of that Name is expressed all other names being secluded as is implyed in that Pronoun Thy Name By name in general understand his ineffable and invisible essence and nature which he held out in his Name I AM and his Name Iehovah is so peculiarly his that it was never and is never to be communicated to any creature not that the letters of his Name Iehovah is to be adored with the superstitious Jews as those of Iesus are with the idolatrous Papists but his nature expressed in and by those letters including both the Spirit and the Son for all that the Father hath being his cur non nomina why should not the Name Iehovah be likewise and consequently he get his respect By name understand also his wonderfull and inseparable properties as Wisdom Omnipotency as also his beautiful and admirable acts and workings all which are called upon to praise that is occasion or perswade others to glorifie the Lord such as his work of Creation Redemption his wonders miracles for preservation of and for his Church add to these his comfortable and inalterable writings which he hath so exalted above all His Name that when many of his works shall change and wax old as a garment his promises to his servants shall endure for ever The doctrine whereof is not to be blasphemed for by that his Name is spoken against Let none hence conclude that it ought from this to have been Hallowed be thy Names that objection being long ago answered for Nomen Divinum the Name of God is here expressed in the singular to remove the occasion of idolatry or conceit of many gods Thy Name having respect to the Father mentioned in the preface in which also the whole Trinity is included yet not expressed in the plurality of persons for the reason aforesaid Nomina sanctae immaculatae Trinitatis the names of the
pray here for security against those formidable forces we apprehend shall attaque us in the hour of tryal in the day of temptation Let us enquire what it is to be led into temptation and why God will lead any In general we are led into temptation when we are suffered to commit the sin we are tempted unto as David was when he did not design but actually did adulterat Vriah's wife his leading being a not liberating from the evil thereof but a suffering us to fall and to be hurt in the falling The house builded on the sand was overthrown by the rains and floods which are no other then temptations and ordinarily they are expressed by waters and the metaphor serveth to explain the sense of this Petition he that is led into temptation is upon the brink of some jeopardy he who is led in temptation is in the water but in no danger of drowning he that is led into temptation is the deep but he who is led out of temptation was in but yet drawn out of the water He who saith Lead us not into temptation saith quod amissum est exquire Lord seek what is lost and strengthen what is weak but the Energy of the words are and they reach unto Lead us from temptation Keep us far off from the waters quam ferre non possumus for we are not able to resist their violence But to be more particular then are men led 1. When God relinquisheth them and leaveth them to themselves suffering them to combat with Satan as Saul did David and Goliah he being only a beholder Ioab drew back from Vriah and he died God left Hezekiah to himself and he was wounded exposing that is suffering the tinder of mans corrupted rotten and black heart to be open for and under the flint and steel of Satan and Temptation without interposing of his power to allay or command to cause Satan avoid for no otherwise doth he lead then to leave men in it by withdrawing the assistance of his grace suffering them to be led or fall for causes best known unto himself When he stands beholding mans natural inclination inducing to sin is in Scripture a giving men up to their own lusts a hardning of their heart the wind of temptation blowing away the very leaves of formality or withering them by the heat and strength thereof thus he gave up Iudas to his covetous mind Cain to his envious heart which had been so long beaten upon by temptation that like an Anvil it made wholsome admonitions for amendment to recoyl He brought Auxiliary grace to Paul under Satans buffettings and though he was tempted yet was he not led into temptation Ioseph was brought in mind of Gods severity against sin and preserved his chastity so was not David and sell with the Wise of Vriah God suffering him to be led into yet suffered him not to perish but drew him by his love through the waters of temptation God suffering sometimes the best of his Saints to be tempted hurt and wounded And the Prophet secing Ioshua and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him palpably discovers from the circumstance of place that the accusation was both true in it self and vehemently urged Ioshua having at that time filthy thy garments all having sinned God takes glory to bring his own to himself in suffering that Accuser to be accusing that they by conviction may see mercy that Lion to be scratching that they dreading may cry for help that Serpent to be stinging that they smarting may learn to avoid sin for that wicked one toucheth them not that is tactu qualitativo non corrumpit eum the poyson doth notso invenome the heart as to kill it nor diffuse it self so far into the soul as to destroy God applying proper antidots against the malignity thereof in them leaving others to their own skill so that Lead us not into temptation is Let not temptation overcome us neither Lord suffer us to be taken in its snares 2. When he delivers them up to the enemy or commissionats their adversary with power against them As a Judge delivers his obstinat Malefactor to the hands of the Jaylor or Eâ—ecutioner so will God commissionat his Hellish Officers to dispose of refractory delinquents in such or such a way thus he authorized a lying spirit to seduce an Ahab that he might fall and by him was led in and into temptation perishing in the floods as did Saul of sin and ungodlinesse as did they who receiving not the truth were delivered up to strong delusions to believe lies that they might be damned being overwhelmed in temptation All which causeth application to God it being only his property and prerogative to deliver quid potest educere de tentatione not only because he can but because others cannot deliver me nay not the Saints but the Father only he being in all places filling all places knowing all straits which without the defending of Vbiquity to every glorified Saint is argument sufficiently valid to convince any infected with Romes Doctrine touching prayer to Saints for when I am tempted and prays for my deliverance both the Virgin and Peter and Paul and Gabriel may be out of my hearing but God never If it be demanded why our Father will suffer the workmanship of his own hands to be led into temptation that is to fall or be hurt in it or by it It is I trust no paradox to affirm that strictly we are not to search into the nature that is causes of his doings of which as one said of his nature we are not worthy so much as to think yet to satisfie the truly doubtful we offer these considerations It is done 1. For the discovery of Gods power He led a Iob in and into and through a temptation that by inextricable providences the procedure of sad and issue of hard harsh and almost despairing difficulties might cause Satan being baffled to be ashamed and the believer being upheld as by the chin to glorifie God so much the more ardently as he was delivered the more miraculously What a beautiful exit had Iosephs selling yea Davids Adultery how did it occasion his Harp the more melodiously to twang and gave life to seven that is to many holy songs 2. For honouring of Gods servants No General but will try a stout Officer and will give or occasion to produce something worthy of that valour he knows to be in him The Lord boasted of a Iob and because Satan would not credit the report all that Iob had was put into his hand and though for a while he was in the dust and under contempt yet what would his friends his mockers his wife yea his enemy the Devil say and how would he be lookt upon by all for holding fast his integrity at the time of his restauration whereby Iob was not only more confirmed in
meditate upon Paul's palenesse To Delicacy reflect upon Paul's tears his hungring his fasting c. do this and praesentia ridebimus omnia we shall overcome all tryals Or if you will yet go higher Art thou tempted by diseases by death by losses in thoughts of distrust c. or persecutions remember Christ his scriptum est It is written eye the Law and Scriptures observe the Saints remember Jesus and that the Word of the Lord endureth for ever Imitate what is good consider what is holy build a Solomon's Temple in thy self let light be in the holy of holies of thy soul set an watch at the door of thy mouth give not thy self over to temptation and he who keepeth thee shall not sleep Yet our life being so sull of temptations that non immerito it might be called a temptation it self we are both to be watchful of them and pray against them that we may be protected by the shield of God unto which prayer must either be effectual or we are in vain taught to pray in this Scripture after this manner Lead us not into temptation and that we be fitted to pray we are exhorted to watch that temptations may be taken at first while young In that just now cited suspicious Manuel Ioseph is represented advising his sons to chastity giving them an account of the slienesse of Memphitica his Mistriss who came to him sometimes to learn the Word of God sometimes to pray that he would pray God might give her a son which he did not knowing her meaning c. Temptations are generally wary which should make us chary and when intricat to call for deliverance Moreover in dealing with temptations the King of Syria his policy will be useful to fight against the King of Israel himself thy master-sin David declareth he was upright and kept himself from his own iniquity that which is nearest inmost And it is happy as one saith and well when the soul is acquainted with temptation as Rhoda was with Peter It is Peters voice said she It is Satans voice it is the fleshes voice say thou and flee from it not for joy but abhorrency When David was tempted to number the people he saw not the drift of the temptation but Ioab did yet all his rhetorick could not perswade that King to desist from following the temptation untill he smarted for his folly It is a difficult task to distinguish the voice of Satan from that of the flesh yet touching the first I have read a twofold rule assuring they are immediatly from Hell and from the Devil 1. When they are sudden unexpected drawn from no premisses but like a flash of lightning not for its going but for its coming 2. When they are out of the road of natural corruption when horrible destructive and contrary to the very principles of carnal self like that story of a certain Widow who being delivered of a child could not get it baptized untill she discovered the father which she resolving to conceal first killed her child and then hang'd her self and this coming to the ears of a Scholler who was the father he stob'd himself to death which related to the ears of him who refused baptism made him hang himself also Now saith my most worthy Author who can doubt but all this was done by the instigation of the Devil lying so far from the high-way of Humane frailty that they are not to be seen in it say I to which may be added drenches for destroying births murthering of infants committing incest bestiality Sodomitical embracements or the like Satan after a foyl may depart for a season watching a fitter opportunity to tempt he is called Beelzebub that is a Prince of flies either as the learned think his image was in that likenesse or worshipped among the Ekronites when molested by that creature this is sure that like a fly if he be beat off he will come on again and by some enticing way may be not yet urged fetch the soul from its former stedfastnesse to follow him which he can do with more skill then Calisto the Curtizan did who told Socrates the Philosopher he could draw none of her followers away but when she pleased she could draw away all his No wonder said he for I draw them to vertue and that is up hill a difficult ascent but thou draws them down a Precipice thrusts them down a hill which is easie We are by natural corruption still travelling upon the edge and Satan hath and will try many wayes to give a thrust and we accounting our passage easie are delighted with the change and love not to return back again Temptations may be compared to that raging sea conceited to flow upon a poor Traveller who saw moreover a raging Lyon coming towards him and at the same instant an ugly serpent creeping into his breast all which made him cry miserere for a remission of sin and delivery from death for which by a voice he was advised saying fuge sperne contere corono flee from the Sea defend thy self from the Lyon bruise the Serpents head and I shall crown thee with glory and victory the issue of every religious resister and wrestler against temptation there being a Crown for the victorious Lead us not into temptation THe danger of temptation being so great it is time to appear for caveating against harsh conceits of God and touching that it is fit to inquire whether he be the Author or cause of the sin committed since he is the leader to temptation the ground of which surmise is founded upon those Scriptures expressing his hardning of Pharaohs heart giving up the Gentiles to a reprobat mind For answer to which we shall clear 1. That God is not the Author of sin 2. What may be the true cause of it As introductory to which we distinguish betwixt Gods willing nilling and permitting sin It is unquestionable that he wills not sin that is commands it not to be it being neither among his works nor in his Law It is as evident that if he willed not the same it should not be he being able to reduce both Devils and men to order that he permitts sin is by few denyed and its permission is consistent with his Law he beholding it as a Prince might do a thief In short to say he commanded sin were to deny his holinesse to affirm he could not stop it were to infringe his omnipotence and to attest he permitted it not were to deny his providence and somewhat to exist that gives Check-mate unto his power with which also he hath nothing to do for if we err not Iosephs selling as well as Iosephs dreaming is to be referred to providence over-ruling He saw Cains envy which cannot properly be said his willing or nilling having a productive will which worketh on things as the cause on the effect but by a permissive
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