Pharaoh that pursues to destroy us but thou art the Lord of Hosts that gettest thee honour upon Pharaohs Host and thine is the glory And for this deliverance from Pharaoh and his Host though but a type of ours Moses long since sung a song so loud that it hath ecchoed from him to David and from David to Esay and from Esay is come to us Thou O Lord art our strength and our song for thou hast beene our deliverance But is deliverance from evill the highest blessing we can reach to by our prayers what becomes then of the resurrection of our bodies and the life everlasting things so much talked off and so highly magnified Are they onely idle names and are there no such things indeed Or are they so little worth the praying for in all this absolute prayer we bestow not so much as a word upon them Or shall we thinke the prayer unperfect seeing the greatest things are left unprayed for and not once named or implyed O my soule take heede let not the weake fancies of thy owne spirit or the strong suggestions of a worse Spirit move such unhallowed doubts within thee For our deliverance from evill shall plainely appeare to bee the highest blessing wee can directly attaine to by our prayers and yet our confidence for the resurrection of our bodies and for the life everlasting shall have foundation enough to stand most firme For the three first petitions seeme chiefly referred to the honour of God in whom all his attributes are equall and therefore in them we goe as I may say upon even gronnd we can finde neither rising nor falling in them we seeme to see nothing that carries any higher than the earth or that tarries any longer then this life and therefore that clause In Earth as it is in Heaven though it be expressed onely in the third petition yet it is by many understood also in the other two but in the three latter which are referred to our owne benefit wee seeme to bee climbing up Iacobs ladder for at every petition we take a steppe higher In the first we begin very low and aske as Iacob did but onely meat and rayment In the second we take a steppe higher and aske a pardon of our faults In the third we goe yet higher and aske an absolute protection from all dangers and deliverance from all evill wherein we may be sayd to have wrestled with the Angell and obtained a blessing for this is the highest steppe we can possibly attaine to in this mortall life But how doth this step reach so high as Iacobs ladder which reacheth up to heaven Marke therefore O my soule for having begun in humility It seemes as if Christ here should say unto us Friend sit up higher for this step of our deliverance from evill seemes to deliver us to Heaven seeing it is contiguous and joynes immediately to the first steppe we shall take in Heaven when all teares shall be wiped from our eyes and they be made cleere to behold the blessed vision of God which is the highest steppe of all and in which consists the summe and summum of our eternall happinesse But why in all this prayer should we have for these things no petition Is it that wee shall have them rather by the participation of Christ then by the intercession rather as sonnes by inheritance then by suit as servants and is as much beyond our prayers as above our capacities Or is it that our deliverance from evill which is the highest steppe we are capable of in this world implies an Adhering to the Deliverer himselfe in the world where we shall be capable Or may we not say that the petition Thy Kingdome come though it goe from us with an onely reference to the honour of God yet it is returned from God to us with this Interence Honorantes me Honorabo and though it reach not so farre as the suite of the mother of Zebedeus sonnes to have one sit at his right hand the other at his left yet hee reacheth as farre as the suite of the thiefe upon the Crosse Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome But least it should be sayd that we goe about to take the Kingdome of Heaven by violence may wee not make the matter playner by saying that we therefore pray not for the resurrection of the body and for the life everlasting because they are not so properly the objects of fayth which have most to doe in our prayers as they are the objects of hope which is a transcendent to our prayers Fayth indeed prepares us for hope and the things we here pray for for the things we here after hope for but as it is not the fashion of a sonne to pray his father to make him his heire but hee carryeth himselfe dutifully and performeth his obedience and then he doubts not but he shall be heire so it is not our fashion with God to pray for our inheritance which is life everlasting and the Kingdome of Heaven but we pray that as sonnes wee may doe our duties and obey his Will and then we have an assured hope we shall enjoy them Although therefore by Name and in expresse termes we pray here but for the things onely which may bee had here yet by consequent and as in their causes wee pray also for the things which shall be had hereafter For the Graces which are the causes preceding now the blessings which are the effects will necessarily follow that is remission of sinnes and obedience to his Will and an uniting to Christ by the comming of his Kingdome being here obtayned the resurrection of our bodies and the life everlasting and the blessed vision of God will undoubtedly succeed Wee therefore pray onely that all impediments of our owne defects may bee removed and that all graces necessary may be supplyed and for the rest we rest our selves upon God and Fayth seemes here to put us over to hope for we have no more petitions to make but the next thing that followes is that of the Martyr Stephen concerning our eternall life In manus tuas Domine Commendo spiritum meum concerning the resurrection of our bodies that of the Prophet David My stesh shall rest in hope For having the promise of his word and the truth of his promise and the infallibility of his truth for our security though we have not done with Fayth yet wee have now more to doe with hope and thorough fayth are made confident to say in hope I know that my Redeemer liveth and though wormes destroy this body yet I shall see God in my â—esh For we thorough the spirit wayte for the hope of righteousnesse thorough fayth and that being justified by his grace wee shall bee made heires according to our hope of everlasting life But yet at last if it be exacted of this prayer that it must of necessity include also the blessings of
besides And as thou didst shew more love by more labour in thy creating us so thou hast shewed more love by more cost in thy redeeming us for thou gavest thy begotten sonne to make us thine adopted sonnes and wert contented he should call us Brother to the end we might call thee Father and sentest him of a message into hell to provide us of a passage into heaven As thy mercy was infinite of enemies to make us children so thy bounty is immeasurable of children to make uâ— heires and though not all heires in an equality yet all with so unpartiall a partition that none shall have so much to leave lesse for the rest nor none shall have so little to desire more from the other None shall be so exalted to envy others as meane nor none shall be so meane to envy others as exalted but every one to bee owner of so goodly an Inheritance that to survay the greatnesse we must have cleerer eyes and to conceave the excellency diviner hearts Thou hast vouchsaâ—ed us the honour to be thy children Vouchsafe us the Grace also to be thine obedient children that as thou gloriest in expressing thy love to us so we may glory in performing our duâ—ies to thee and that though our foreâ—athers gave thee cause to repent thee of creating man yet we their posterity may give thee no cause to repent thee of adopting man But why say we Our Father as though this prayer were made onely to be say'd in company for if we say it by our selves alone what reason is there to use the word of number as though we meant to make God believe that many of us come sutours to him at once when it is none but our selves alone Or may we thinke that Christ taught this prayer to his Diâ—iples as they were together and they being many he was necessarily to use a word of number but if he had taught it to one alone he would have taught him to say My father and not Our Father But is it not that prayer and specially this prayer is not a common or rather is not a private speech but must be said as well in charity as in faith and charity can abide no singular numbers it is against her nature to be without company and company she will finde to joyne with her in praâ—ing thâ—ugh she say her prayers by her selfe alone Indaed prayer without company is like Samyâ— Without his haire it is not strong enough to breake the cords of sinne with which we lie bound And what is this company but the Communion of Saints of whom we have not alwaies the corporall presence but alwaies the spirituall and though they be often disioyned from us in place yet are they alwaies joyned with us in love and charity and to expresse this Communion to communicate this charity we are justly commanded to say Our Father as then our prayers being most effectuall for our selves when in them we shew our selves most affectionate towards others And as in our charity we desire that God will heare our prayers in behalfe of others So in our hope we may expect that God will heare the prayers of others in behalfe of us and then doe but consider the benefit of this word how infinitely by it our charity returnes multiplyed unto us for when we say Our Father including our brethren Our brethren that is the whole Church saies Our father and includes us Let no man therefore presume to come to God with saying My father as though he meant to engrosse God to himselfe and to enioy him alone but let us in communion of Saints say Our Father that praying as we are taught we may be heard as we are promised And as we have this reason out of the bond of love to draw us so we have a stronger reason out of the bond of necessity to compell us to say Our Father for as charity will not be without her fellowes so faith cannot be without her Master and this Master is Christ whom we must take along with us in our prayer or else all praying will be in vaine For we are not naturally the children of God God knowes we are farre from it we are all by nature the children of wrath Christ onely is his naturall sonne and it is a naturall sonne onely that hath right originally to say Father Adopted sonnes have their right but derived from him We therefore that are onely adopted in Christ have no right to call God Father but onely in Christ and as in him we have received the honour of our adoption so from him we learne the use of our adoption for as he hath made us to become children so he teacheth us what becomes us to doe as children that if we will obtaine any thing at Gods hands we must aske it in his Name in whom we are adopted and made children and where in all this prayer in which we aske all things doe we aske any thing in Christs name but onely in these words by saying Our Father for if we come with saying My Father we leave Christ cleane out and come not at all in his Name and so have neither warrant to call God Father nor promise to receive his blessing but when we say Our Father as we challenge the adoption so we acknowledge the Authour and in these two onely words we expresse the three great vertues Faith Hope and Charity In the word Father our Hope In the word Our our Charity and in the words Our Father our Faith in Christ in whom he is our Father Let no man therefore presume upon saying My Father as though he came to God in his owne right and stood upon his owne greatnesse with him buâ— let us come in the Name of Christ by saying Our Father that praying in his Name as he hath taught us we may obtaine for his sake as he hath promised us But is God then Our Father in generall and as it were in Grosse and is he not the Father of every one of us in particular I beleeve that I am a childe of God and must I not believe that God is my Father No doubt you must and you must not doubt it but it is not all one to believe that God is my Father and to pray to God by saying My Father for my believing is onely in Faith but my praying mast be also in Charity neither yet can I pray in faith by saying My Father seeing my faith that God is my Father is onely in Christ and Christ is betweene God and me so I cannot come to God and say My Father unlesse I put Christ by for if I take Christ with me I must needs say Our Father and therefore when Christ taught this prayer to his Disâ—iples though in the sentence before he said as speaking to one alone Pray unto thy Father yet when he delivers the prayer he alters the number and bids them say Our Father so I may truely say I pray unto
as in Adam who is the Old man all that come from him are sinners so in Christ who is New man all that live by him are justified There are many phrases in Scripture by which Gods Forgiving our trespasses is expressed Micah cals it a casting them into the bottom of the Sea David calls it a removing them as farre as the East is from the West Another calls it a casting them behind Gods backe and great variety there is of such expressing it yet all comes to this that if our sinnes be once forgiven they are as if they never had beene done we are as if we never had beene sinners God is as if he never had beene angry But doth it not concerne us to know the extent of this word Trespasses For how can we looke that God will understand it any otherwise then we intend it Or that he will extend his forgivenesse any further then we extend our petition that if we come short in our asking he is like to come as short in his forgiving And what are then the trespasses wee desire to have forgiven Are they the trespasses of our feasting and not as well of our Fasting Are they the trespasses of our cursing and not as well of our praying Are they the trespasses of our prophanenesse and not as well of our devotion Are they the trespasses of our cruelty and not as well of our charity O then how innumerable must our vices be when our vertues themselves are tainted at least with some spice of vitiousnesse For seeing all our righteousnesse is but as a stained cloath even the best workes we can doe as of our selves we doe them have all of them a need of saying this petition That as the divell in the Swine told Christ his Name was legion because they were many So wee more truely may say of our trespasses that their name is legion because they are exceeding many David saith of his sinnes that they are more then the haires of his head and Manasseth that his sinnes are more then the sands of the sea and now if wee could not say of Gods mercies that their name is legions of legions what hope could we have of being forgiven for what can forgive but that which exceeds although therefore we thinke it enough that we put our trespasses here in the plurall number as being a number able to hold them though never so many yet seeing wee have trespasses enow to fill it wee had need looke out some other kind of number for Gods mercies a number that may not be Quantitas discreta but continua and though no such number bee found in art or nature yet David seemes to have found us out such a number to our hands where hee saith Thy mercy O God is from everlasting to everlasting that wee may make it the burden of our song as David did of his For his mercy endureth for ever When we pray that our trespasses may be forgiven why doe we not tell what trespasses and how many they be For this might both stirre in our selves a greater intention and move in God a greater compassion but is it not that we tell not what our trespasses bee First indeed because we cannot for who can tell the trespasses he commits against God which made David pray Forgive mee O God my secret sinnes And well might David pray so for in his sinnes about Vrias and his wife when God had forgiven him his two great trespasses Murder and Adultery who would have thought there had beene any more behind yet God found a consectary of these sinnes more heynous in his sight then the sinnes themselves that thorow them his Name was blasphemed which no man could have drempt of and perhaps not David himselfe if God had not made it knowne and told him of it Which made also St. Paul to say I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not thereby Iustified for though hee knew nothing by himselfe yet God he was sure knew something And as this may be one cause why we tell not what our trespasses be because we cannot so it may be another cause because we need not for how great or many soever our sinnes be yet wee must come to God with this confidence that his mercies are more and greater then they And indeed there is none of the petitions which a guilty conscience can make with more confidence then it may do this seeing it takes God in his proper element with whom it is as naturall to forgive trespasses as it is for fire to ascend upward Which yet we must take with reverence not as though we thought God a naturall agent who doth all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because in his Arke of Govenant hee hath onely Mercy for his Seat and in his proclamation of himselfe he hath chiefely Mercy for his Title We shall not therefore need to tell what or how many our trespasses be but this we shall need if at any time sinne assault us that we looke upon God as onely all Iustice but all Iustice to the wilfull but if sinne have taken hold of us and overcome us that we looke upon God as onely all mercy but all mercy to the penitent so eyther our feare of God shall be the beginning of wisdome or our faith in Christ the ending of folly But how happens it that St. Matthew making mention of this petition sets downe Debts and St. Luke Trespasses which cannot both be true for if Christ sayd Debts then St. Luke is in an errour who sets downe Trespasses and if Christ sayd Trespasses then St. Matthew is in an errour who sets downe Debts This indeed may seeme a knot but is none at least not hard to bee untied For the word which Christ used as Interpreters note was Choba a Syriacke word and signifies both Debts and Trespasses which as to the purpose here are both as one unlesse we may say that sinnes may more properly be called Debts being taken as omissions when we leave that undone which we ought to have done and more properly Trespasses being taken as commissions when wee doe that wee ought not to doe and the Evangelists being not able in a translate Tongue to expresse Christs word in one have expressed his sence in two which shews not so much a diversity in the writers as an unity of the Spirit by which they write And yet withall we may observe that though St. Matthew in the petition it selfe set downe Debts yet in the repetition presently after hee sets downe trespasses and St. Luke also though in the forepart of the petition hee sets downe sinnes yet in the latter part he sets downe Debtours that it is but a knot sought in Bul-rush to seeke from these words to lay aspertion upon these holy writers But why say we Our trespasses have we not trespasses enow of our owne to pray for but we must pray also for the trespasses
of others Indeed not onely charitably but most justly seeing the trespasses of others are oftentimes the trespasses of our trespasses For if we infect others by our counsaile or by our example are not our trespasses a cause of theirs Or if they infect us are not their trespasses a cause of ours and this is all the good wee get by company Company the great darling of the world without which it were no world there were no pleasure that it is no marvaile Iohn Baptist went into the Wildernesse to avoyd company that so he mighty neither infect nor be infected Indeed if men were to men as God intended them nothing could cause more comfort would yeeld more benefit then society but seeing they have left their first love the love of God what marvaile if now they leave their second love to love one another that nothing seemes now more dangerous nor is oftentimes more deadly then society This word Our is thrice used in this prayer and in each place seemes to have a severall extent for when we say Our Father it intends community when we say Our trespasses it intends propriety when we say Our bread it partakes of both There is nothing we call Ours in which we have so absolute a property as in our Trespasses In Our Father others have a right In Our bread others may claime a share but in Our trespasses none can challenge any part with us for every man must beare his owne burden every man must be accountable for his proper debts We have just cause therefore to say Forgive as our trespasses but what cause have we to say As we forgive them that trespasse against us For is not this a suddaine and strange alteration We have all this while beene at our prayers and now to come in with a petition of right We have hitherto beene the Publicane confessing our sinnes and now on the suddaine to turne Pharise and boast of our workes But O my soule doe not so conceive it for what boasting can there be in humility and what greater humility then bearing and forgiving Trespasses But it is an humble presenting and offering our service to God whereby wee shew our selves prepared by his grace and in hope to be capable of his Forgivenesse And we may perceive by Christ that there is some great necessity of these words in this petition for when he had delivered the whole forme of this prayer to his Disciples he doth not so leave it but makes of this petition a repetition and nrgeth it particularly as if he had some speciall interest in it himselfe and so indeed he hath for what doth Christ so much labour for all his life as to make us his Disciples and how are we made his Disciples but by bearing our crosses and comming after him and what is this bearing our Crosse but our Forgiving of Trespasses for even this was the laft act of his owne bearing his crosse when his crosse bearing him he sayd Father forgive them for they know not what they doe Injuries indeed and wrongs oppressions and persecutions may be layd upon us as Christs Crosse was layd upon Simon of Cyrene and we made to beare them whither we will or no but this doth not make us Christs Disciples but we must take them up and beare them of our selves and as I may say not with presumption precipitation but with patience and charity crosse our crosses and so we shall make them a true Christs Crosse indeed and by this we shall be knowne whose Disciples we are and thus if we present our selves to God the Father bearing the cognisance of God his Sonue we may be sure of favourable audience which is the thing that Christ so much desires Wherefore O my soule wonder not that these words are with such earnestnesse taught thee to say but wonder at the love and loving kindnesse of Christ thy Saviour who is so urgent with thee to have them sayd which are so urgent for thee to be performed Many would desire to know and prize it at a great rate how they might get the knowledge to be assured when their finnes are forgiven and yet it is a knowledge easie to be had and every man may tell himselfe For if thou findest in thy heart a loathing of thy former sinnes and a resolution to continue in amendment of life and especially a sixed charity to forgive others thou mayst be assured thou art in the favour of God and thy sinnes past are all forgiven thee But if thou continuest to take delight in thy former sinnes and art unresolved in reforming thy courses and especially if thou findest in thy selfe a desire of revenge and art implacable towards others thou mayst then be assured thou art still in the state of Gods displeasure thy sinnes are not yet forgiven For these things are not onely the signes but the certaine effects of Gods forgiving us when we confesse and be grieved for our owne trespasses to him and are compassionate and relenting to the trespasses of others to us But are we not in this all Naamans Doe we not all thinke that washing seven times in Iordan is too slight a medicine to cure our leprosie that our forgiving of others can never have the power to worke in God a forgiving of us but what is this O my soâ—le but to vilifie that which God hath sanctified If God had sayd unto thee If thou wilt have me to forgive thy trespasses then goe sell all thou hast and give it to the poore as the young man in the Gospell was bidden Or then goe sacrifice thy onely sonne as Abraham was commanded oughtest thou not to have done these thiâ—gs how much more when he saith Forgive and thou shalt be Forgiven For to skorn the meanes because they seeme to us to be weake what is it but to forget the power of that hand which useth them Could Christ give power to the Hem of his garment that the only touching it drew vertue from him and cannot God give power to our forgiving of others to draw mercy from him could God give power to seven times going about Ierico to make the walls fall downe and can he not as well give power to our forgiving the trespasses of others to make our trespasses fall downe before him But this is done to make us know that Gods thoughts are not as our thoughts nor his waies as our waies For what Father indeed on earth though never so loving would give so great ablessing to so small a duty what Master though never so bountifull would propose so glorious a reward to so meane a service what King though never so gracious would grant so free a pardon upon so easie termes for this which he requires is not the intending of an action but the remitting of a passion It is not to suffer but not to offer it is not to doe more then we can doe but not to doe so much as we would doe
yet such a Master and King and Father is God that if thou doe it in charity and say it in fayth it will worke with him the effect he promiseth and this shall be a signe unto thee thou shalt finde in thy minde that Peace which passeth all understanding thou shalt finde in thy heart that Ioy which the world cannot give and shalt plainely perceive by this subordinate petition what great cause thou hadst to say Thy Kingdome come But what will be the best time for our saying of this petition May we not put it off till we have committed more sinnes and then aske forgivenesse for all together May we not run a while upon the skore and then strike a tally for all at once O my soule be not so nngratefull to God so improvident for thy selfe for canst thou thinke it fit to runne further upon the skore when thou art more upon the skore already then all thou art worth Canst thou thinke it fit to commit more sinnes when thou hast committed more already then a thousand deaths can expiate Hath God spared thee for this that thou shouldst goe on to provoke him further Hath he for this given thee a time to repent thee that thou shouldst make him repent him of the time he hath given thee This deferring of repentance dries up the blood of Christ God in him is a Father now who knowes how soone he may turne to a Iudge God in him is now all mercy who knowes how soone he may returne to his Iustice This present houre this very instant is the Faire kept as I may say of forgiving sinnes It may be had now at an easie rate onely for forgiving them that trespasse against thee but if thou tarry till the Faire be ended and who knowes how soone it may be seeing it hath lasted so long already there will then be no rardons to be purchased at any rate but thou must pay for thy improvidence with thy uttermost farthing O then my soule put not off from day to day least thou come as it is sayd a day after the Faire but whilst it is called to day call thy selfe to account and let not the Sunne goe downe upon thy Impenitence to God or upon thine anger to thy neighbour least it happen to thee as to the rich man in the Gospell who to morrow after his barnes were built would gee in hand with repentance when God would not tarry the building of Barnes but Hac â—e repetent aniâ—nam tuâ—m this very night they shall take away thy soule But is there not in this petition a hole left for revenge to creepe in may we not doe as much as we say and yet leave some trespassors upon whom to bee revenged For if we forgive some that trespasse against us we forgive them that trespasse against us although we forgive not all that trespasse against us and those we forgive not will bee left for us to be revenged But O my soule what Sophistry is this to be used to God doâ— thou not by this entangle thy selfe in thy owne Net May not God justly returnâ— thy Sophistry upon thee and say Thou desirest to be forgiven anâ— thou shalt have thy desire If I forgive thee some of thâ— trespâ—sses I forgive thee thy trespassâ—s although I forgive thee not all thy trespasses and thoâ—e I forgive not will serve my turne for thy condemnation And when God shall say this art thou not well served for thy Sophistry Wherefore O Foolish soule leave playing the Sophister with God as it is thy desire to have all thy trespasses forgiven so let it be thy meaning to forgive all that trespasle against thee For if thou wilt have a generall pardon thou must generally pardon If our forgiving of others consisted in giving good words in shewing faire lookes in affording smiling countenances in offering dissembled courtesies we might well enough thinke that every man living performed the condition of this petition and that the whole world were nothing but charity but seeing God hath thus centured the Israelites Fasting Is it such a Fast that I have chosen Is it to bow downe your heads as a Bulrush and to spread Sackclmb and Ashes under you Doe we not thinke he will not as â—verely censure our forgiving Is it such a Forgiving that I require Is it to smile in a mâ—ns face and cut his throat behinde his backe Is it to give good words and watch a time to take revenge Is it to carry Honey in the mouth and Gâ—ll in the heart And how then can wee choose nâ—w but feare there is searâ—e a man living that can looke to have his fâ—nes forgiven and that there is not so much as the poore womans mite of charity in the world For truâ— chaâ—ity is without dissimulation and to take dissimulation out of the world what were it but after a sort to prevent God and to make a new earth before the time But why should God require of us such a quicke returne from anger who could himselfe carry anger in his minde much longer for did he not so to Moses who having angred God a little at Meribah was punished for it at Caâ—an a long time after But O my soule farre be it from thee to thinke Gods goodnesse can once be touched with such imputation God was angry indeed and upon just cause angry with Moses at Meribah and sware in his wrath that he should not enter into Canaan So the doome was instantly passed and could not be revoked and his anger was as instantly passed and never after shewed For when the sentence came to executing with what circumstances of mildnesse with what favour of interpretation was it done that though the punishment could not be revoked yet Gods love turned it into a benefit For though he might not goe into Canaan with his feet yet he was suffered to goe into it with his eyes that having taken the pleasure of seeing the figure he might goe the more cheerefully to take possession of the substance Neyther was it perhaps so much a punishment as a mystery at least a punishment not without mystery for Moses represented the law and could not therefore bring the Israélites into Canaan because the law cannot bring us to heaven It must be Ioshuah the type of Christ Iesus that must bring them into Canaan the type of heaven as it is lesus the true Ioshua that must bring us to heaven the true Canaan But seeing God hath forgiven our sinnes already in Christ what need we to trouble God or our selves to aske forgivenesse againe as though our words could doe more then Christs deeds but is it not as when a King proclaimes a generall pardon to all offendours yet none shall have benefit by it but such onely as sue it forth and fetch it out so God indeed hath granted a generall pardon to all sinners in the merits of his Sonne but none shall have benefit by it but such onely as