a direful Sentence upon his obstinate Enemies sending them to be Tormented with the Devil and his Angels even for the Coming of this Kingdom you are also to pray saying with the Holy ones under the Altar Come Lord Jesus come quickly CHAP. XV. A farther Account of the Things to be Pray'd for AND having Pray'd God thus to rule in your heart by Grace that you may be fit for his coming in Glory to Crown his Servants and Torment his Enemies you are to Pray again that God would enable you to do both his secret and revealed Will and that you may patiently and contentedly submit to the former and readily and chearfully perform the latter as far as it is set down in his Holy Word Now Obedience to God's Law and Submission to his Providence are both requir'd to the doing of his Will For you are not only to observe what he enjoyns or prohibits but also to submit to whatever happens to you according to his Good Will and Pleasure whether it be Misery or Happiness And he who taught you to do thus did illustrate it with his own Example when with an admirable Resignation he Pray'd Not mine O Father but thy Will be done Now the manner of your Doing God's Will is taken from the Pattern of the Holy Angels who are God's ministring Spirits executing his Commandments with readiness fidelity and perseverance flying upon his errand with the wings of Love and Zeal But seeing you find perhaps in your self a reluctancy to do thus and that your Duty herein is often delay'd through Idleness or interrupted through Vanity so that your Obedience moves heavily and is clogg'd with fears and broken off by temptations you are to supplicate the Father of all Mercies that he would bestow upon you that Zeal and Affection for his Service wherewith the Holy Angels are Inspired to the intent that you may as they do his Will with Fervency and Chearfulness And that following the Examples of their Obedience whilst you are on Earth you may be joyn'd with them and your blessed Brethren in Glory to sing eternal Praises in Heaven And as our Lord in the three first Petitions of his Prayer compris'd all things respecting God and his Glory for which you are to Pray So in the next three Petitions he has sum'd up whatsoever you have need to desire respecting your own or your Neighbours Wants and Necessities And you may observe that the things relating to God's Glory are by our Saviour's Prescription first to be solicited and if this be rightly done you can scarce miss of the rest For all other things shall be given to them Who first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Matth. 6.33 And seeing God's Glory is of greater moment than yours or any man's Wants therefore you are to Pray for the first And yet seeing you are neither all Flesh nor all Spirit but a compound of both and that both have Needs to be supplyed you are to Pray for the relief of both And first you are to beg a supply for your Bodily Necessities all which our Lord comprehended under the name of Bread Which Word signifies outward comforts And in Praying God to give you this you declare your sole dependance to be on him for this present life and for all things that support it And the begging them of God declares likewise your abhorrence of all unjust and indirect ways to obtain them Next by the adjunct Daily added to Bread you evidence your contentedness with present necessaries and your purpose to Pray continually for them Which likewise declares your trust in God and that you cast your Cares upon him acknowledging that all you have or expect are from his bounteous Hand and sanctified by his Blessing And this Petition for Daily Bread was no doubt taken from that Prayer of the Jews which was thus The necessities of thy People Israel are many and their knowledge small so that they know not how to disclose their Necessities let it be thy good Pleasure to give to every man what sufficeth for food c. And the Petition for Daily Bread is by some thus paraphras'd Provide for us to morrows Bread and give it us to day that we be not solicitous for to morrow for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof All things needful for this present life come from God and the Petition for Daily Bread shews that you are not to desire them all at once but that he would distribute them by little and little according as you need them That by this means you may never be destitute of nor desist in Praying for them For if you should possess them in too great abundance and as it were in a heap you might be in danger to rest contented within your self and forget to call upon the Lord Prov. 30.8 9. Christ in this Petition for Daily Bread seems to have reflected upon the sending of the Manna and as that was daily gather'd so this might be daily begg'd and given Some of the Fathers have Allegoriz'd this Petition and understood it of Christ the Bread of Life and the partaking of him in the Blessed Eucharist which does nourish the Soul unto Life Eternal as material Bread does the temporal Life of the Body And tho' I could wish that in this sense the Request for Daily Bread were both understood and practis'd and that now as in the Primitive Times the Sacrament of Christ's Death were daily celebrated yet I think the Petition is best interpreted of all manner of Food that is necessary for the preservation of human Life and of whatever is requir'd to support Man's frail Nature which could not be particularly express'd in so short a Form But if you look not farther than to your Bodily needs even to that of your Soul the supply of the first may prove a Misery and not a Happiness if the other be neglected Now the first thing you are to beg for your Soul is the forgiveness of your Sins and that God would not exact their penalty but that for the sake of the satisfaction Christ made to his Divine Justice he would mercifully acquit you from their Guilt and Punishment And to the end that you may not forfeit God's Pardon to you by Denying yours to your Brethren you are humbly to beseech the Almighty to give you those bowels of Compassion towards others when they trespass against you which you stand in need of when you trespass against them and if you who through the corruption of Humane Nature are prone to revenge can through God's Grace forgive others you need not doubt but your Heavenly Father whose Goodness is infinite will forgive you For it is certainly true That if you forgive Men you shall be forgiven of God Not that you are to give Law to God or to ground your Prayers on the merits of your own Works but that you subscribe to God's order to Pardon if you purpose to be Pardon'd And here take
none can be thought worthy to live or to enjoy the breath of life who does not chearfully exercise himself in praying to and praising the Almighty Which shews the Universality as well as Necessity of Prayer and that it is the Duty not only of this or that sort of men but of all For if any should vainly pretend to be excus'd from paying this homage to God it must be either because they are too holy or too great either they are so good as not to need to pray or so great that it is below them But no man by reason of his holiness can be free from this duty for those who have been most eminent for this divine quality have been also most eminent for Devotion And of this you have an unquestionable instance in our Saviour who was superlatively eminent for all heavenly perfections and immaculate both by nature and conversation For he was both born and liv'd without sin And yet it is recorded of this most heavenly divine person That in the days of his flesh whilst he was yet in the world in the course of his obedience and humiliation and not arriv'd to the glorious and spiritual state of the celestial life Heb. 5.7 He did offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he fear'd or as it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his piety Here the Eternal Son becoming Man made his submissive Petition to his Eternal Father either to free him from that direful passage to death or to strengthen and bear him up in the horrible terrors conflicts and agonies that therein he met with and that being dead he would restore him to life and not to let him continue in the grave but to raise him thence and send back his spirit into his body And God heard and granted his desire For the third day after his burial Christ rose from the dead and God gave him back that spirit which on the Cross he so affectionately recommended into his hands Luke 23.46 And as by this plain example of Christ's praying you may clearly see that no mans sanctity can excuse him from doing doing the like so in the next place no man is freed from praying upon the score of his grandeur or secular Greatness This was evident in David who at the same time he wore the Royal Diadem did not neglect the hallowed Censor but constantly offer'd unto God the Incense of Prayer And for his diligence and assiduity in this sacred office he gain'd as some think the glorious character of being a Man after God's own heart 1 Sam. 13.14 And indeed all good men have ever thought it their duty and made it their practice to worship God by Prayer And even bad men too have been of the same judgment For they likewise have own'd it to be their obligation thus to serve God And whenever they perform'd Prayer as a Duty to him without doubt they were accepted of him Saul pray'd for a decision by lots and God granted his request but it had like to have cost him the life of his Son and the revolt of his Subjects 1 Sam. 14.41 42. Which shows That God do's sometimes hear the prayers of the wicked but then it is in justice and not in mercy as will appear in due place And now seeing Prayer is a special and principal part of God's worship you must own it to be indispensibly requir'd of you so long as you think it your duty to worship God He commands and you must discharge it your obedience herein is above all things most acceptable to God and will be best rewarded by him CHAP. III. The necessity of Prayer as it is made to be the means of obtaining what we want and of conveying a blessing on what we enjoy WAnt is commonly said to be the Mother of Prayer so that if you want nothing you need use prayer no otherwise than as it is an expression of your Duty and a discharge of the worship you owe to God But if you stand in need of any thing you can never solidly hope to receive it but by the mediation of Prayer For God has appointed it as the proper means to obtain his blessings And all those Texts which require Prayer as a Duty and homage belonging to God do at the same time propound it as a means to gain his favour in the relief of your wants and blessing what you have But here I expect to find you objecting That tho' Prayer be undeniably a part of religious Worship which none ought to neglect yet you think it needless to the obtaining a supply of your necessities because God needs not your prayers to inform him of your wants nor to move him to relieve them 'T is true God needs not your prayers to inform him of your wants For according to our Saviour Matth. 6.8 He knows what things you have need of before you ask him which words shew that Prayer is not needful in order to inform God who by reason of his infinite knowledge can be ignorant of nothing but they respect those who at our Saviour's being upon Earth were wont to lengthen out their Prayers with vain repetitions and idle Tautologies thinking they should have their petitions the sooner granted for the sake of the multitude of words used therein whereas Our Lord assures them that our heavenly Father was not to be wrought upon by their long prayers and their much speaking and that such were altogether useless in order to inform him of mens minds and wants as fully knowing them without being told Christ was so far from abolishing that he establishes the use of prayer when he taught his Disciples how they might pray aright To which end he gave them a most absolute comprehensive Form of Prayer which he enjoyn'd them both to use and imitate Which form bears his Name and from him is call'd the Lord's-Prayer Whereof I shall have occasion to mind you in another place As to the other branch of your Objection which makes Prayers unnecessary to move God to relieve your wants because of his being ready to do it without them there needs no more to be said to it but only to desire you to consider That tho' God is naturally inclin'd to be gracious and ready to give more than either you desire or deserve yet he has been pleas'd to declare That he will not give without asking And it sufficiently demonstrates his goodness and bounty to give to them that ask and to open to them that knock And tho' goodness is essential to God and that it is his nature and property to open his hand and fill his creatures yet still he expects you should address your requests to him if not to move his goodness to relieve your wants yet to shew you are sensible of them and that you believe he alone is able to give supply Besides in every prayer
infinite perfections and the effects thereof and he expects it should be paid him by all his Creatures both in Heaven and Earth And tho' all solemn Acts of Religion should aim at his honour and be directed to it as their genuine end yet in a more eminent manner this honour is design'd him in Prayer For were it otherwise Our Lord would not have begun his Prayer with Hallowed be thy Name nor have concluded it with Thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory And if the glory of what you have and are be not ascrib'd to that Omnipotent Being from whom you receive them If you sacrifice unto your Net and burn incense unto your Drag if you attribute any acquisition or endowment to your self you rob God of his Honour of which he is most tender and can be truly said neither to Hallow Gods Name nor to give him Glory And here it will be natural for you to consider that the Kingdom Power and Glory of God are not fading and transitory but permanent eternal and for ever and ever For if it were otherwise and that you were to make your Prayers to a mortal mutable God one subject to change of mind and death it would lessen the vigor of your Devotion But seeing the object thereof is the same yesterday to day and for ever and that his Kingdom Power and Glory are from everlasting to everlasting seeing God is a merciful Father and still ready to hear the cry of his Penitent Children and seeing he is for ever a King loving and helpful to his Subjects and for ever one for whose Glory it is to grant your Addresses these considerations give you spirit to call upon him with comfort and assurance and prevent your doubting of his gracious Audience for the things you crave of him for the sake of his Kingdom Power and Glory All communications of Goodness flow from God and it is but just that they should return to him again in Sacrifices of Praise and Adoration And therefore let it be your care to ascribe unto him the honour of all you have and do For this will keep you from that ostentation and vain-glory to which man 's proud nature is not a little inclinable especially in matters of Religion which being observ'd by our Saviour he strictly caution'd all men against it bidding them by all means to avoid Vanity and Pride in the duties of Religion and particularly in Alms and Prayers In Alms he requires such a Secrecy as that if the left hand had eyes and ears yet it should neither see nor hear what the right hand did that by this means the Alms-giver might utterly be freed from all suspicion of Vain-glory. The Scribes indeed gave their Alms with sound of trumpet they call'd the Poor together from every quarter not that they should all partake of their Alms but to have the more Spectators All they aim'd at was the empty rumour and vogue of being Bountiful For which they were so far from deserving any reward from God that they deserv'd a punishment for their Folly Dissimulation and Injustice For their Folly in preferring Humane things to Divine for their Dissimulation in imposing upon the world by their counterfeit Piety and for their Injustice in assuming that Praise to themselves which was due only unto God CHAP. XVIII The End and Drift of Prayer c. AND as our Lord caution'd all men against Vain-glory in giving Alms so he likewise caution'd them against the same in Prayer In which he would have all carefully to eschew the fashion and mode of Hypocrites Personators and Actors in Religion who among the Jews were wont to pray standing in the Synagogues and corners of the streets places of publick concourse where they were sure to have many to see them But instead of affecting any such popularity he would have you studiously to avoid it by going in your closet and shutting the doors and with all possible privacy to pray to your Father which is in secret and your Father which seeth in secret shall reward you openly Not that our Lord condemns Publick Prayer which the Church has practis'd ever since she had a being upon Earth but rather than that you should be thought to pray for Ostentation he would have you retire from all worldly company as Jacob did when he wrestled with the Angel Gen. 32.24 And in your private Prayers of which Christ Jesus speaks S. Matth. 6. to be as private as you can to go into the most secret Apartment and there unbosom your self to God For tho' he himself be invisible yet he sees you how secret soever you are and all that you do in secret And he that is thus the beholder of Private Devotions shall reward you before men and Angels Be content therefore that God looks upon and esteems you that he is a witness of what you do seeing it is from him alone that you expect your reward But if in a duty wherein God's Glory is so nearly concern'd you take in so poor an accession as the praise of men it is but just that that should be your reward and that you receive none other from God to whom nothing can be more displeasing than to see Ostentation interpose in your Devotion and that therein you seek the applause of men more than his Glory Whereas in all your worship of God private or publick your eye should be still on his Honour regarding nothing so much as to have him approve your doings because he only is able to reward them And tho God's Glory is to be the first and principal end of your Prayers yet in subordination to this you may also design your own benefit and that of others For these are very consistent and need not be separate For at the same time that you use Prayer as an Act of Worship solely due unto God you may also use it as a means appointed by him to obtain his Blessings which are either Spiritual or Secular belonging to your Soul or Body The first are Grace Holiness and Pardon of Sins in praying for which you may be peremtory and absolute But in praying for temporal Blessings you are to be conditional and to use resignation and submission and in craving them never to design any thing that is mean and sordid And 1. if you desire and God gives you Secular Power and Authority do not abuse or prostitute it to wicked unmanly purposes such as the gratifying of your spleen and revenge and the oppression of those you hate But imploy your Authority in undoing the heavy burthens in protecting the impetent and him that has no helper in breaking the jaws of the wicked and plucking the Spoil out of their teeth in delivering the poor that cry and the fatherless and him that has none to help In short use the authority God gives you in executing Justice and maintaining Truth in being a Terror to evil doers and a Praise and encouragement to them that do well And