Pharisee bid stand afarre off as oft as he pleases A word we all use left since all is to use it so many severall interpretations into severall tongues should * uncloath denude it of it deserved due and diminish its sense which is so much yea its sense is so signifying and its matter so much and it self so hard to be understood that at this time I have proffered to be it interpreter to you and tell you all it means And thus I am led to the third part of my method See what is meant by Amen to tell you what is meant by Amen And what it is it signifies this done I have done I finde this Amen in chief set at latter end of our promise past to keep Gods commandements and there placed and by a Prophet 2. Set at latter end of Church service and so placed by the Church in the * Common-Prayer-Book Church Rubrick 3. Set at latter end of our Lords Prayer and so placed by our Lord. For the first I finde this Amen Amens first sense set at letter end of our promise past to keep Gods Commandements and by the Prophet And so Amen is Nota faciendi voti a note of a vow This is made apparent by that place Jer. 11.5 though the Text the So be it the marginall note is Amen And it is the Herald doth blaze Jerremiah's vow of obedience to keep Gods Commandements While then you cry Amen The Extract you Vow obedience to Gods Commandements Now to vow so oft The Taxation and break as oft is a foul fault This is to heap sin upon sin while we vow we will serve God and serve the Devill Thou hadst better never promise then never performe and say nought than say Amen and not minde to what that one word hath bound thee Amen is soon said but bindes to much And as nudum pactum a bare promise in honesty bindes to pay so this only Amen to perform that in foro mvndi this in foro Coeli that to man this to God I would have men mark how far ingaged and to cast up what their word is past for to God to doe Amen hath made us all debtors to God The Supplicat Now God of his mercy and Christ for his merits clear our score Secondly I finde this Amen set at latter end for the most part of our Church service and so placed by the Church in the Church Rubrick And so this Amen is Nota assensus a note of assent And serves to shew or declare what the Priest hath said the people assent to And thus this word Amen is used Deut. 27. from the 15. to the end of the Chapter Amen then is as much as all said I assent to in the Church service faid by the Priest And let me tell you what I think it is this How it is a laudable fashion and commendable custome in our congregations That when we have said Church Service being agrreeable with holy Bible for the people to cry Amen at end Beleeve me as it is the Clerks office so your duties to cry Amen your Amen is the man conjoynes Priests and peoples hearts together nay know 't he that hath not a mouth to cry Amen I dare say wants an heart to call on God It is a small request if we say service for you to say Amen it is a great benefit for a little disbursement when one only word interests you in all the prayers we have made My desire is when I say service to hear the whole Congregation say Amen St. Avstin Audiri veluti Coeleste tonitru populum reboantem Amen I desire to hear the people founding Amen as thunder from heaven O! it sheweth that the prayer sayed by the Minister whereunto the people answer Amen omnium esse communem to be common to all thou losest thy part by leaving out Amen and know 't he that will not lend God his tongue to say Amen it 's not probable God will be so free hearted to him as to grant him that of which there is not the least testimoniall he desired it To conclude he must play the Clerk that would profit by what uttered by the Priest Here is an happy way found out for the good of our ignorant yet know 't to your comfort by saying though but in some sort understandingly Amen The Preachers service is made yours you may come to gain as much by saying Amen as he that saith all the words at large in the Common-prayer-book An inducement sufficient to cause all to say Amen We have our task set out to read Service this is yours to say Amen Church-service is half lest undone while you neglect to say Amen and the far greater part for the people have unacted their part * Ministers We put in our replication while we say service your rejoynder is unput in without Amen Now Lord grant that while we speak to thee for us our selves and for the people The Supplicat the people may joyne with us and that their Amen to our prayers may testifie their good and godly meaning Thirdly I finde this Amen set at latter end of our Lords Prayer Pater noster Amens third sense is tripartite and so set and placed by Christ himself Now in speaking upon this Pater noster Amen this shall be my method First I will shew you three severall significations it may admit of Secondly in a my sterie I could tell you this Amen and these three significations might shadow out and in some sort the Trinity in unity yea the Trine unity that one God and the three Persons Thirdly I will give you its compleat character Fourthly Since the Text is so short give me leave to extract an heavenly fancy from the letters in this last word of our Lords Prayer Fistly The first sense of my pater noster Amen He end all with two divine Meditations First let me give you the three significations of my Pater noster Amen and first of the first 1. This pater noster Amen may here be taken pro juris jurandi nota for a testimony upon oath thus Mat. 5.18 it is as much as Verily and it is Englished oft by Truly or Verily Yet when thus Englished incipit non desinit commonly it begins ends not the sentence Yet in this place dum desinit affirmat asseveratione while we end with this word we protest all said is our minde And now see when you have made an end of praying this word Amen vowes you take your oath on it that your prayer is your very hearts desire Amen that is Lord what I have prayed for I take an holy on 't I defire it The Taxation A parlous protestation and gives all those a vehement knock over shins who say one thing and mean another With the Hawk in windy words towring into the air when their aim and end is on the earth The word being
air next us Mat. 6.26 The birds of Heaven labour not 6. Heavenly creatures as inanimate so animate as Angels Job 15.15 The Heavens are not clear in his sight 7. A great height thus Deut. 1.28 The cities are walled up to Heaven 8. The bodies of the Saints here God is said to abide ut in Coelo 1 Cor. 3. 1 Cor. 6. I finde only these 8 acceptations of Heaven in the holy Bible and though one be but meant I will give you two to make choice of far distant both significant the one * Above supra the other * Below infra the one the place of the Church triumphant the other the mysticall subject of the Church militant first then by Heaven may be meant the seat of the blessed that majesticall place of magnificence as I may so say Gods chief Mannor House in the Highlands Or if you minde not to look so high you have nigher at hand an Heaven the righteous Saints on earth they are the Temple of the living God yea and he dwels in them and walks in them here it is God dwels these are his Temples Gods house above is Heaven and his Heaven below the Saints The letter makes us subscribe to the first exposition the Spirit causes our acknowledgement of the second Dame Nature hath set her hand to the one it s the Lady Grace perswades us to confesse this other And ut potenter God is said to dwell above sic virtualiter here below his Highland House Heaven displayes his power This his * The Saints on earth house in these Netherlands his efficacious work in us Well while I acknowledge the sense litterall The Avowry I will not let passe the sense mysticall viz. that by Heaven may be meant the elect on earth Nor wants there some semblance betwixt the Saints and Heaven they shine sicut luminaria in mundo and as the Heavens lend us light so are the Saints will'd to let their light shine before men and ut sol in Coelo sic mundi in mundo as the Sun is the lightest part of Heaven so of these saies our Saviour Vos estis lux mundi Ye are the light of the world the Death of these is like the Suns Eclipse the Life of these that high noon or Sun at height which is a guide to all that are not blinde O ye Saints The radiant rayes of your good works have given me cause to conjecture how like you is that Heaven whither you are a going as also to presume I have not much miss't of Heaven while met with such so like it But come what may these two interpretations put us in minde of The first of something which concerns God The second of something which concerns our selves The first doth divulge what God himself is The second what we ought to be Our God his abode is in heaven The Extract which proclaims he is an immortall Majesty dwelling in light inaccessible By Heaven likewise may be meant us men in whom God dwels as in an house Extract O what ones then behoves it us to be The wicked are the Devils house to which he is return'd Mat. 12. Look at his house though a base beggerly one yet loe how it 's kept fine and neat swept and garnisht formality garnisht with the gilt of hypocrisie And yet to consider how we let this mansion house of Gods in the Isle Man lies full of Mamholes we may be ashamed of it in very deed we let all lie forlorne To please our friends against they come we make all trim Lord why should we not do as much to please the Lord And yet in every corner of that Hall Heart you may spie an ash-heap of evill imaginations Gen. 6. That back room Memory is fill'd with old ill done deeds That upper room Judgement with error and heresie Those out houses Ears are fil'd with rubbish of newes State newes what done in Court Countrey newes how rules price of Corn ribauldry newes obscene songs our Eyes are full of vanity our Tongues full of deceit and now while neither in-room nor out-room soul nor body is trim'd up nor cleansed how can the Lord take delight to dwell in us A fair caveat to go make fit to dresse our house yea all in this Isle of Man I am resolved against my Lord come The Avowry to make ready lest my Lord and Master take dislike with his own and in stead of taking it up for an house of prayer he leaving it it become a den of theeves Thus much for the Preface Now I purpose Deo juvante God enabling to speak upon that post-put and first of the Petitions and in brief to make this my method to take notice of 1 Their Division 2 Their Equality 3 Their Order 4 Their Precedency 5 Subject matter mued up in each Petition First for their Division they are of two severall sorts or kindes the first sort of them concern God Second our selves Secondly for Equality they are three and three three concern God and three man Thirdly for Order this order is observed Gods three precede mans mans three come behinde Gods ours are set after his his before ours Fourthly their Precedency prayes us to take a view of each particular Petition as set before one another Fiftly their matter makes us privie to what is begged of God in each of these petitions in speciall For the first these Petitions are divided into two sorts First sort or kinde are divine and cast a glance at Heaven The second sort are humane and cast a glance at earth first looks at God the other at us 1. Now this Division implies an union Three Extracts and that when we send out our supplications abroad we let them walk hand in hand Such a compound should be our Prayers Petitions sharing out requests meet for God and us joyntly 2. By this Division we are taught man was not made for himself he is to pray as well for Gods glory as his own good many remember themselves forget God in their prayers few remember God but themselves in their prayers A Sect here found fault with A platform which teaches them a better lesson yea this division of these Petitions into two sorts or kindes the one concerning God the other us tels us That who prayes aright must pray for Gods glory as well as for his own good 3. Thing this Division informes us of is that as discords make the sweetest harmony so prayers sound best in Gods ears which consist of sharps and flats risings and fallings which are now in alto as high as Heaven Anon in Basse as low as earth I mean prayers consisting of two parts Gods glory who lives above Mans good who dwels below he that would avoid the name of simple must make his prayer a compound of these two severall sorts of simples And thus while God and he meet in prayer it 's my hopes they shall do the like in
of daies when I am first in my own thoughts I am the last in Gods Book Let me set my self and all my wants a while aside till God be served let his glory be my aime in prime the second place will serve all my needs In glorifying thee a glorious good redounds to me I will not clip thy coine of glory lest I go not for currant in thy kingdome of grace O that thou wouldest inlarge my heart to give thee praise lest the want of this Foreman cause the rest of the Jurore my petitions to be excepted against in the presence of thee the Judge of Heaven and Earth The second Petition THe second Petition now succeeds by name Thy Kingdome come I will God willing speak upon The Number The Nature of the words to be explained First for number here is but one word difficult to be understood two in the former one here Can we learn no lesson from Gods plaining his speech O it shewes us 1. The more we acquaint our selves with God Three Intracts more plainly he will speak to us 2. As we grow in devotion we shall grow in understanding 3. That Gods Word with modesty the more we dive into it the more knowledge God gives to hold up our heads from drowning in the gulf of false exposition I am resolved to hold out my Rosary The Avowry with the Collect. reinforce my genius to peruse the Scriptures and all to prevent misprision augment my talent and enucleate the Text. Here is only one word to be explained Kingdome This word may be taken four waies 1. For the Scripture thus Mat. 21.43 where said Auferetur a vobis regnum Dei The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you 2. For the visible Church thus Mat. 5.19 where said He that shall break one of the least of these Commandements and teach men so shall be call'd the least in the Kingdome of Heaven 3. It may be taken for the grace of God Luk. 17. where said The Kingdome of God is within you 4. For the Church triumphant Mat. 8.11 where said Many shall come from the East and the West and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of Heaven Now all may be here meant though in prime but one 1. And then we pray in this Petition That Gods Word and its understanding may come among us 2. That upon earth there may be a fellowship of faithfull professors visible 3. That Gods grace sent by that sayne his Spirit in that Charriot the ministery of his Word may visit our hearts 4. That these daies of misery being perioded Gods Kingdome of glory we may be seated in it In one word we pray for four things 1. That the word of God and its sound may be heard in our land 2. That we may be Gods visible Church on earth 3. For Gods grace 4. And for heaven at our ending Of this last what hopes without that precedent A circumvolution of the four fold sense Again its presumption to brag of grace and live without the Church Lastly it we aime at all we must doe a somewhat more It you purpose to be members of the Church be inspired with the Spirit hereafter have heaven let the Word of God dwell plentifully in your hearts I am resolved for my own part to make much of Gods Word The Avowry with the Collect. a mean to make me a member of the Church aequire grace and gain heaven You may be bad ground and sown with this seed A review the Word where this seed Interpretation 1. the Word for so it s call'd Luk. 8. is not sown that most fertile soils manured with Ethicks and the humane arts brings out but figtree-like cursed fruit Hence it is we pray way may be made for the Word of God and it may come ut adveniat hoc regnum that the kingdome may come So the Latine signifies which makes us sensible of Two things Extracts two 1. Our Condition 2. That in Expectation 1. Of our Condition that we are dronish in our devotion and love our ease more than our gains apparent while we pray Thy Kingdome come to us we walk not on to it 2. This in the second place makes us sensible of what in expectation That since advenit verbum the Word is come into our towns oratories ears that now prayed for is that the Word may enter into our hearts I am resolved to take notice of my backwardnesse in devotion The Avowry and all to make me more eager now this * Messenger sayne Gods Word is come to open the door of my heart and give it harbour Now this word its hieroglyphick or resemblance is a Kingdome for whilest we pray Gods Kingdome may come we mean Gods Word the word of truth And in these particulars the resemblance holds 1. For Kingdome like Resembances Gods Word is of power to correct instruct and reprove 2. It 's of force sufficient to make all outlawes inlaw themselves to Gods Law 3. Hath strength enough to meet in the field and to oppose all opposers be they Schismaticks or Hereticks Schismaticall in Discipline or Hereticall in Doctrine 4. The Nerves of a Kingdome are meat and ammunition such is the Word we live by it Deut. 8.3 it is call'd the sword of the Spirit Ephes 6.17 hath in it to feed at home and defend abroad 5. The best of Kingdomes Canaan had its commendation for abounding with milk and honey such is this whole land the word and therefore call'd sincere milk 1 Pet. 2.2 And therefore aver'd when the Prophet Ezekiel had put in his mouth a morsell of this earth that it was in his mouth as honey for sweetness Ezek. 3 3. I have travel'd through the land of the Philistims and the wildernesse of Sin A Supplicat But now O Lord strengthen my resolution to set up my resting place of abode in this * he means the word Taught Kingdome That here we pray for is a visible Church Interpretation 2. thy Kingdome come that is Lord let us enjoy a Church visible This interpretation I next bring in for that unmeet to be a Church untill it have received Gods good word Here we have leave to pray as against an Elias his paucity and the 7000. inforc't concealment So for liberty to continue daily in the Temple and to finde the favour to preach and hear the Gospell Act. 2.46 47. We pray then in this petition and it 's allowed for God by this second Exposition 1. That God may adde daily unto the Church Extracts two such as shall be saved 2. For the flourishing estate of the Church to the outward eye of the world Divers can endure the Queens * Church Daughter to be all glorious within but not that her Raiment should be of pure gold They cry all for sincerity within will tolerate no honourable train without Others would have the Church in worse case
seven measures of seed i th' sprout yet all that comes up are tares sown by the envious man Here are seven sheaves ripened and fit to be inn'd and not one ear of good grain to be seen in any of them What degenerate ground is this heart of man how much brings it out and how little to be set by We are Gods husbandmen but alas how have we let lie * Unhusbanded uncultured this vineyard of the Lords Heart It 's not one but all of us have need with strong cries to beseech the Master of the vineyard not to lay it to our charge but forgive us our trespasses 3. Now I come to that we pray God to forgive us our trespasses he that hath as mean fight as the man Mark 8. who saw men as trees may see by trespasses are meant sins In two things our sins resemble trespasses that which I already have noted and again desire you to take notice of is this 1. That our sins are of the nature of trespasses for as unneighbourly trespasses sow dissension betwixt man and man so our sins betwixt God and us they are just cause of grievance and urge him to commence a sute against us in his court of justice 2. As he that trespasses his neighbour his neighbour may recover damage so our sins cast us in damage And it is no little amounting to more then all our goods to the losse of our lives to the first death death of body and without God be mercifull and remit to that second death death eternall a paslage would be well thought on which may make us admire how much our milde and mercifull God puts up at our hands we may say God is a good neighbour who bears so much with us and that earth hath no cause to complain of heavens hard neighbourhood I am resolved to take notice that so maity sins are so many trespasses committed against God The Avowry That so my notice taken of my sin may work a wonderfull amazement in me at Gods mercy I have diverse yet to go visit and I will on next in sight are a sort of our overnigh alliance even our trespasses 1. Which for plurality are many for trespasses 2. For propriety they are ours our trespasses and we own them First for plurality they are many what need I collect that so apparent and from the text Doct. It s many sins of which we are conscious would you make a privie search through soul survey life and conversation I might spare pains to bring in witnesse or would we Christians tread in the steps of Phoeylides the Heathen Hist who every night ere he went to bed recounted over thrice all the evill that day he had done O what a sort of all sorts of sins would be within sight as many might we spie as the hairs of our head sand on the shore stars in the firmament the misery of a man is he is a sinfull creature his greater misery is Mans greatest misery he takes on notice of his sins How hath the God of this world blinded the eye of our understanding Juglers make what not seem to be Satan what is as not to be that enemy which lives in our own house is the Devils fast friend our evill heart this labours to hide from us all our evill deeds If there be a wonder upon earth it is this The worlds wonder That man who is all sin sees no sin and as he that is drunk tell him of it he will scarce beleeve it Simil. but will walk out and vaunt and vault as if none such so is it with us all we are drunk but not with wine have swallowed with the Leviathan an Ocean of sin yet we walk and jet abroad as if not such sinners as God knowes we are I am in hast yet amresolved The Avowry to try my heart and search my reins yea to sift out my conversation and all to finde out those I am sure do harbour * In my heart here even a multiplicity of sins and tresyasses Judge how much should be our sorrow Vse since our sins so many let us go weep with Rachel let our weeping be like the weeping of Hadadrimmon in the vally of Megiddo we read how Mary wept much for she had sinned much and shall we sin much and sorrow little God forbid Let every sin cause us to shed a tear which if we did I am perswaded we might sail to heaven by a sea of tears what a shame then for our tears as yet not to have watered our cheeks pray to God those * Tears Ezek. 47. temple waters may rise and increase from the ankles to the knees from the knees to the loynes from the loins to be a river impassable Take my word for it there was never any went to heaven by dry land there is no way to heaven but by water It 's the water of tears through which we must sail which the deeper the lesse danger the faster they flow the more secure is the * The penitent sinner passenger from being run a ground on shelves and shallowes and sands I am resolved to fear a shallow The Avowry when not fea rt a deep and to think my self never more safe from being a cast away than when I have store of sea room of watry tears to steer in This for the plurality the propriety is the next in sight intimated in this word Our Forgive us our trespasses This * Our possessive protests sin is allied in full bloud to Adams brood It is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh it is a branch sprouts from us the bole a slip and we the knot a spread weed and our heart is the ground hath given it nutriment groweth faddoming The bark hath not nigher relation to the bole the sap to the heart of oake than our sins to us we are become one incorporated body of one name nation family nay more it s we are sins procreating parents and like none more then the viper Hist we bring them out which bring us to our deaths yet while there is the least life in us these our off-spring will not be shak't off they foot it after us as Cains dog did after him seem we to deny these to be our imps they will not be said but rame it out we are thy works and we will follow thee Vse This clamour of sinfull works after us may cause us to vail our top-sail not too much to stand upon our pantables If the fruit be bad the tree's not good bitter fruit a bitter root what we are would God we had hearts to consider For my own part I am resolved The Avowry as to beleeve what I may be ly grace so to remember what I am by nature yea to bear in minde the whole posterity of Adam are incorporated into evill The modus or manner is the last parcell in this petition