full of saith and fear of God dare not open his mouth to sin against him which alone constitutes true wisdom and with these being replenished with hope and charity and and all other vertues Iesus Christ may reign in him and in all other that the Lord Iesus Christ being known of all to be the only begotten Son of the Father and whom they shall visibly perceive coming from Heaven to judge quick and dead and upon that score ought to be known feared obeyed and worshipped of all by addressing to his Kingdom in their belief of the Gospel and swearing allegiance to his Crown in receiving the Sacraments thereof 2. For the Saints felicity eternal Labouring in the earth causeth weariness and makes the work-man eye the Sun to behold its hight there being no cloath capable to dry the eyes of the penitent save the Robe of glory It is here intreated for that tears not only in themselves but in their causes and occasions may for ever be removed from them and never admitted where they are to the interruption of their joy Alexander hearing Anaxagoras evincing the existency of many worlds wept because he had conquered scarce one The believer from the principles of eternal wisdom hath collected the being of a world where shall be no night neither properly nor metaphorically understood the want of which considering his present habitation causeth him with Mary weep yet looking up with a phosphere redde diem Come Lord Iesus come quickly All the possessions Abraham enjoyed were but poor in his eye so long as Childless give any of his faithful sons an extract of earthly pleasures they are contemned because heavenless and St. Paul's Cupio dissolvi I desire to depart senseth this Petition Though this Pronoun THY give the property of this Kingdom unto God yet as the bread we eat is His first and next by saith Ours so is this Kingdom the truth of God having engaged it self in a promise to us that we shall possess it both as his and our inheritance The other Petitions admitt of no demurr no delay and are therefore in our faithful arguing attended with a desire of dispatch for his will must be done now and this day we must have our daily bread but this alone hath the continuation of days in the Court of Conscience and therefore may be called a Petition of hope living in hope yet such an one that maketh not ashamed in regard it is for a Kingdom which will come though for a while it may tarry 3. For our Fathers Kingdom universal When the end cometh Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom unto God that is the Kingdom of his Mediator-ship at which the Kingdom of Grace shall end the Son himself as man becoming subject to the Father that God may be all in all then Heavens Gates shall be shut there being no more to enter and Hell shut Devils rambling being no more to be tolerat the harvest being then gathered and no more seed to be sowen the elect glorified there being no more to be called but God ruling having brought into subjection all that either denyed him or defyed him where begins his Kingdom of Glory For that time wherein God is enjoyed without Ordinances and praised without adversaries sin and death being abolished and an immediat union with God acquired is this Petition offered that the supream dominion of the great God may be hastned and a final close put to all things by folding up of the sheets of time where ends the Kingdom of Providence The changes and mutations the framings as we may call them which attend the Kingdom of Grace have caused it to be called Regnum lapidis the Kingdom of a stone the fixedness perpetuity of the Kingdom of glory is called Regnum montis the Kingdom of the Mountain the other being but as a stone hewen or hewing for that immovable and eternal Kingdom therefore its approaches this Petition is numbred among our dayly prayers Yet for a caution it may be added that this is necessary to be heeded viz. that their cause had need to be good who long for and presse after the coming of the Iudge Remember thy faults therefore implore a pardon be circumspect in thy way purifying thy soul by faith abiding in hope dwelling in love and then call Thy Kingdom come and the Lord will hasten his word to perform it for his own glory to thy comfort Thy Kingdom come WE are now to examine the steps and methods by which this Kingdom comes for coming denots a progressive and an advancing motion our Father having authority over it as the Centurion if he say go it goeth if come it cometh Prepare ye therefore the way of the Lord and make his paths straight In our endeavouring to clear first its motion next uses from that motion Man being in Scripture interpretatively every creature we shall not speak much of his Kingdom of providence wherein his regiment over the creatures is manifested but eying especially that of his Grace and Glory which his goodness is pleased to represent in this prayer with its face and favour towards us c. The coming and compleating of his authority by grace ought to be prayed for upon many considerations its regiment being as yet imperfect impeded and ost obnubiâ—ated It s regiment is imperfect The tallest Christian is but of a low stature and the wisest studieth most to increase in wisdom the utmost that St. Paul could reach unto was with his mind to serve the Law of God his flesh still observing that of sin and every good man being two men and divided in himself ought to endeavour more and more freedom from that law of death There is no Wheat without its Chass nor Rose without its Thorne nor saith without its doubt nor heart without its lust yea the Moon wants not her Spots nor the Sun its Eclipses unto which the Church is compared when in her greatest beauty nor army even with banners without its own care and fear unto which she is also likened when she is most terrible It s regiment is also impeded There are enemies in the coasts possessing strong sorts hindering grace in her noble atchievments Schisms Divisions Heresie Idolatry Scandals Prophanness hinder the marches of the King of Saints as craggy rocks do the passage of Kings of the Nations Saying depart from us that is turn from us which includes a removing of him intended by them that they may remain free This people hath a revolting heart saith the Prophet they are revolted they are gone They say go the other sayes depart both being against his approaches and dominion Pardon the application if we take the wings of the morning and flee to the uttermost parts of the earth Satans power sins law lusts dominion is resisting Christs nearer communion with his Church There shall be sound Pride in Armour
the wise upon his religious son which being ineffectual roared out to the spirits themselves Inducias Inducias O let me alone untill the morning this as a Beacon is set up by an holy man that our lives being more vertuous our death may be more consolatory The death of the prophane is the sadest being ill first in leaving the world which they love worse in their souls removing from the body but worst of all in their being both soul and body adjudged to eternal condemnation It is observed of Egypt that after the flourishing of many famous Churches the Gospel being planted by the Apostles Alexandria it self having the Evangelist Mark Nephew to St. Peter for its Pastor or Bishop yet justo Dei Judiciâ— by reason of their sin the inhabitants being exemplarly wicked full of blasphemy and rape is now without God and generally hath a greater hatred to Christianity then the ordinary Saracens for which they are destined to eternal plagues Let this age know and every man in it fear and stand in awe for what is it Egypt had of ungodliness whereof we have not plentiful examples with this aggravation that we have had of old Christianity and of late great judgments Yet there is a Cautioner a Surety even Jesus who will pay the Creditor unto whom it is alike who pay him for by Christs stripes we are healed he entred into bond yea into prison for us and by rising from the dead the third day he both declared himself to be the Son of God and of his giving satisfaction to the utmost of all that was owing unto him making us thereby free from the Law of sin and death Yet so miserably are we deluded with self and self-conceit that debt is daily contracted by taking up more mercy abusing more time neglecting much grace thwarting many invitations quenching many good motions and by inadvertency falling into numerous temptations which continually call for fresh suits for forgivenesse and consider'd might cause expostulation with sin O peccata O wickednesse how easily dost perswade us to commit thee but with what difficulty do we procure riddance from thee While thou smiles we imbrace thee but while embracing thou art killing us to death and in death Eye the debter and he is so unable that his very soul cannot be full restitution eye the Creditor and he is so inexorable that he will be payed the utmost farthing by our selves or by our Cautioner and his suretyship is to be humbly intreated for for they are our debts and no secret conveyance no private contract can turn them over to another hand Eye the debt it is deplorable there are original debts our parents debts our own debts of childhood ignorance knowledge debts of presumption infirmity against counsel against conscience and against threats debts of the Sabbath of the Week of our Family and of our Neighbour-hood c. debts of our waking of our sleeping of our talking and of our thinking c. offences of the Chamber sins of the Shop and iniquities of the Street so that all of our selves and each man for his brother may cry Innumerable evils have compassed us about and no way for deliverace but by acquittance and no way for that but forgivenesse Over and above reflect upon that magna lenitas great goodnesse infinit patience ineffable mercy and long-suffering God hath shown unto us that we might call for this forgivenesse having this comfortable Scripture I will not remember thy sins Forgive us our debts c. FORGIVE A short word but of large and extended sense much used in Gods promises and oft pressed in the Saints petitions and the word properly signifies a sending back something to the place whence they came Sin came from hell and here the soul would have it remanded to the same land of darknesse As it stands in this Prayer it denotes somewhat which relates to God and somewhat relating to our selves As it respects God it weighs 1. His commiseration of us because of our debts Goodnesse is an ordinary plea with all the holy and they sound that the Lord as a Father pitieth them that fear them that pray And the liere who taught us to pray this Prayer hath promised his Fathers mercy saith a Father mercy cometh ex bonitate Dei purely from goddnesse yet must be drawn from him by innocence vertue and obedience as did Abraham Isaac and Iacob Ioseph Iob and Moses saith another He discovers love in desiring our salvation in euring our wounds in teaching us prayers in pardoning our sins and upbraiding us with our unbelief 〈…〉 there not mercy in the word Father and goodnesse and hope in the word Forgive Manasseh his Prayer and Iudas his Confession were alike but he pardoneth iniquity because he delighteth in mercy In a dearth at Corinth Theocles and others advised Creditors to remit their debts for easing of the poor but being refused he acquitted his own and those who contemned the motion were in invincible rage slain by their debters excited to extremity by poverty and necessity we have fair offers and better conditions both a remission offered and a reward for acceptance of that tender that as the earth expects showres and light from Heaven so man is to expect yea he is called to look up for truth and mercy 2. His aversion detected not to exact those debts What is man but dust what is his birth but loathsome and shameful to himself and at best so contemptible that God might say to Justice Let him alone non dignus est ira Caesaris he is not worthy of my wrath Iob thought of this when he uttered And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one and bringest me into Iudgment 3. His indiminishable possession though he should remit the debt Admit our skin could ransome our life what would he gain or if he freely absolve it what would be his losse Knowing this he puts us neither to call for ease nor time but for a forgiving Accept of the precept by begging a free acquittance and so much the rather that bounty and liberality is to be shew'd quantum potest non idoneis where there is the least hopes of advantage in requital which in our arguing for Heaven is an excellent rule The Roman and famous Alexander would exclaim against his shy yet deserving Courtiers why do you not ask something from me do it that I neither be your debter nor complained of as a slighter of your merit Yet what he gave was neither silver nor gold nor out of his own treasure but bona punitorum the goods or wealth of forâ—eited malefactors c. not diminishing thereby his Revenue Here is a greater Emperour without merit giving of his own requesting of his foes to plead remission of injuries done to himself for their good who have done the injury 4. His dominion or just power to forgive the
ter having a three-fold duty over and among the people he being to govern them to pray for them and to correct them when offending for which end God appointed swords burning scourging according to the merit of the cause and the Jews have a rule when the Scripture saith of an offender morte plectitur he shall die or be put to death without mentioning the particular kind strangling is to be understood judging that to be the easiest so that a Magistrat being tender in executing the sinner he doth but his duty and transgresseth not this rule of prayer Were authority of this nature revoked why soth the Gospel mention of bearing a sword without reproos for having that he would be no more feared by evil doers if he durst not strick then is a George on horseback upon a half-crown the sword the Magistrats bearing is no Romantick or Pageantry but really to shed blood which is according to Divine Law in the Old Testament in infinit places according to the New yea from the very Law of nature which appointed death for criminals and particularly death was by heathens thought deserved for adultery might be made application to Magistracy And though there be many instances of Worthies who have declined authority and power from its difficulty molestation yet it cannot be found of any who threw it off as sinful and though ease plead for exemption yet God hath appointed ut sit vindex Magistracy to be a terrour against and a punisher of evil works and the want of it is a plague and judgment to a Nation Imo sine imperio and without government nec domus nec gens neither house nor kingdom could subfist But it would be ruminated lthat he punishing by vertue of authority and place ought not to expectorat rancour choler or upbraid his prisoner with any misdemeanour personally committed against himself for that would bear the impresse of revenge not justice and creat contest in the sentenced being doubtfully carried whether to defend his sin or patiently submitt since not the Law but splean becometh his accuser and parcere afflictis to pity the miserable is required in a judge Hence the last clause of the condemning speech of the British judges is and the Lord have mercy upon your souls Justice according to the Heralds Art beareth in a Field Iupiter a pair of ballances Luna intimating vigilancy in service and courtesie with discretion but the religious practice of Nicias the Heathen would also be reflected upon and prayer daily made to God for the good of the Common-wealth and that his prayers may prosper who punisheth the wicked discreet courteous and religious must his behaviour be there being three things in the opinion of a Statist deterring from vice viz. Religio Pudor Paena Religion Shame and Smart this last as more felt is caetoris duabus firmius more binding then the other tow and therefore to be applied but where Religion and modesty attends the Judge it will certainly be more pungent and the offender the more ashamed of his misdeeds and the Magistrat better qualified to say Forgive us for we forgive and though he be rewarded with calumny and hatred as who can be high but he shall be blown upon yet this being the general reward of unstained integrity land hardly possible to be avoided since Subditi sine severitate malitia eorum ita exigente it is severity best rules land keeps most in order in the judgment of another skill'd in politicks As God whose place he beareth let him be fixed in his own vertuous intentions persevering in ruling though wickednesse shew its teeth confidering that as it is written not to say dream'd that to dream of being Provost or Bailiff Mayor or Alderman betokeneth suture Anger and trouble so to be either of them may make this a Prophetick Revelation yet since God himself pleaseth not all nor Solomon escaped not the censure of oppression nor Iesus the name of a Devil be patient under the greatest obloquy and faithful in dispensing the authority intrusted for care the conscientious shall habe a Crown and for trouble rest in glory Yet with Venerius a Duke of Venice to study by goodnesse to conciliat love may creat even honour and respect on earth with all ingenuous How Creditors should behave towards their debtors is next to be considered and without much scrutiny it may be declared that they may pray this Petition yet crave their debts The good Samaritan in the Parable payed the Reckoning for his Guefâ—â—nd the Prophet in the Story gave no order to the Widow to pray but shew'd her the means how to pay her Creditor Aâ— there are diversity of debts so there are great difference in and among Creditors one may be able and unwilling the Law may be pressed upon him another is willing but unable he hath oft promised upon hopes but cannot pay it through want the breach of that pronise in the judgment of a Father must be forgiven for Peccat namque in te he wrongs thee in promising forgive him that wrong or then this prayer cannot be offered A poor and honest Debter who hath it not to pay though he should be sold lto satisfie thy lent favour puzleth and perplexeth the merciful and humane for what shall be done he cannot give it nor get it for thee it is at this point because thou hast lost thy money he a servant of the great God and of our Lord Jesus Christ must die or as the phrase is rot in prison which is but poor payment beggerly satisfaction and nothing increasing thy substance But what shall be sone I do not say his debts are to be forgiven but this from Scripture may be said that he is not to be thus straitned but the other ot wait the bettering of his fortune and turn his He will never be able to pay me unto a May be he will or to a May be God shall who sheweth mercy to the merciful who hath in relation to the 〈◊〉 made but two exceptions either when he was a forraingner or able to pay for if he were poor and of Israel he was to be supplied and doubtlesse the bond of Christianity is as near a tye to us las kindred was unto the Iew. To close this it may be added we are to do good and lend hoping for nothing again that is saith one forgive our debters that is say I when they have nothing to pay But since no man can forgive sins but God how is it that this Petiton insinuats man to have the authority so to do in so high a measure that he makes it his argument for God to forgive him his sins because he hath forgiven those against himself It is evident to give a short reply that this duty of forgiveness as relating to man is frequently pressed in holy Scripture and commanded and therefore he hath
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
be had I say must for that which by some Interpreters is called panem quotidianum dayly bread super-substantialem or heavenly bread or victum alimentarium our nourishing bread is translated by some panem necessitatis the bread of our necessity there being such inseparable connexion betwixt bread and life especially in wholesome constitutions that without the first the latter should expire and David's let my soul live and it shall praise thee when reduced to this prayer may be expounded give me bread and I will blesse thee Trees plants rooted in the earth must have nourishment from the same for their upholding their enlarging so our bodies being earthy must have from thence competency of nourishment or they perish were it but bread and water hence God is said to water the hills from his chambers that he may bring forth food out of the earth Cyrus that great King when demanded what he would have dressed for dinner replyed Bread for I hope said he to sup at a River deferring the deliciousness of water in quenching his thirst by the hopes of future tasting Great temperance in a heathen yet heighten'd when we consider his custome was never to dine or sup untill by some exercise he was brought to a gentle sweat And that Fathers advice was also sound who advising a fitness for continual fasting for God recommends the accustoming of a mans self paucis non gloriosis i. e. neither unto many nor luscious dishes And indeed it is noted as a crime in the rich glutton that he fared deliciously every day which is discharged in this phrase dayly bread things necessary God accounting only profitable superfluities not relieving but destroying nature and reason also in so grosse a way that rioting and drunkennesse the usher of chambering and wantonnesse makes them not to appear so much men quam feras belluas as Boars and Bulls 5. Because but by him we have no heart to eat our own bread The earth by its primeve and first blessing of sertility bringeth forth fruits and by a natural appetite in man some of these fruits must be received yet there are Misers whose hearts grudge their own craving stomack to that degree that their tongue is disposed to curse their hand for conveying a morsel to their own mouth which is not only vanity but an evil disease There is a man saith Solomon to whom God hath given riches that is artificial as store of Coyn and Wealth that is natural riches as abundance of Wine c. and Honour that is put him in an honourable estate so that he wanteth nothing that is pertaining to a pleasant life yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof because the churl himself will not suffering his belly his body the fruit of his body his children the walls of the house that containeth his body and the companion of his body his wife to want that which God sent to them but diverted to a by end I mean to fill his eye or ear thereby giving all occasion to curse and cursed he is for God abhorreth him This is magna miseria an inexpressible misery the Nabal cruciating and vexing himself nimia parcitate by his sordid detaining from his own soul in selfishnesse what he ought to give it to be mute of the Laws of Justice Prudence and Religion which commands sustentation of himself to himself having this alwayes like the sting of the Scorpion biting him to death that he painfully gathers up wealth by wayes none knoweth how that they may be spent by he knoweth not whom Was it not base in the Cardinal Angeloctus by secret wayes to enter his Stable and from the Manger to steal the allowed Provender from his own Horses until the Groom after watching gave him Stock-fish-oyl anointing his shoulders with the Strapado apprehending him at first to have been a forraign thief What heaps of Authors can shew the Readers that the sordid covetousness of the Emperour Mauricius cast himself his children and his wife into the barbarous hands of the Usurper Phocas their murtherer and Phocas again upon the same selfish account to be parted limb from limb by Heraclius Though I dare not say the last was undeserved yet I close that these and all such as these were poorer then the poor and they being poor in the judgment of one rich both in grace and honour who being rich are not bountiful to the indigent nor helpful to the maimed nor pitiful to the oppressed How superlatively miserable is that Dives who withholds not only from these but from his own loins their proper aliment Diogenes asking something from such a wretch and perceiving him to Fall into a brown study and suggesting denial he called O homo O man I am asking thee for some bread not commanding thee ad sepulchrum to a sepulchre To this man may all such men be compared the sight of their own food or their childrens coats frighting them like Executioners â—ll which to prevent in our selves we say Give us bread give us our bread that is our own bread that is in this sense a heart a hand a power a will to eat enjoy a sufficiency of those good things thy bounty in our labours hath bequeathed for thy glory our own comfort credit and content that we our selves not strangers may possesse our wealth It was sordid in Lewis the eleventh French King to imploy his Barbour Oliver in Embassy through covetousnesse and was like to prove satal to that Stateless State-officer notwithstanding of National agreements for immunity he having been like to be wash'd I cannot say trim'd but for his heels in the River Guant And the rich City Florence for sending Merchants Ambassadours to Rome when besiedged by Charles the fifth who being found to have Gold Threed for sale to save charge was put to greater charge when their Ambassadours were-rejected with scorn and sent home with shame this is registrated to be as a monitor to all that high and low be excited in their several ranks to understand this Petition as desiring an enlarged soul for the splendid honourable as well as gracious and proportionable elargition of their goods otherwise another shall be their Almoner and because their Cash wants a Master it shall elect one to it self who of thy money and by thy wealth shall eat his own bread and be thankful to God be blessed by the poor in the interim thou have neither praise nor comfort but shame and grief with men and in thy self and a vomiting up before God through remorse or sting of Conscience what ever thou hast greedily devoured It would be discovered when our bread is our own since it is that we here call for and may be so called 1. When by our industry and labour we procure it having it by us prepared by and in the exercise of our Calling 2. When by piety and devotion
there are who give better rules about converse recommending if our company be better then our selves to learn if inferiour to be modest and learn them if our equals to assent to all proposals that relate to good which eminently will keep alive charity in Families and Corporations without which vertue neither of them can even in the brain of a learned States-man be fancied to subsist so great is the power even of a fancied Amnestia or brotherly forgivenesse It was the wonder of a Father writing to an holy man from Mount Sinai that he was not moved irritated perplexed or any way afflicted with the reproaches of men and forgive Vs is not meant Vs here but Vs all wheresoever we be whatsoever we are Us predicats of all people kinds nations sexes languages and proclaiming every soul to be a sinner all should be tender and make as God the scarlet offences of their brother to become by their forgivenesse white as wool that God by his may make their crimson-sins become as snow Revenge flows from a conceit of some abused excellency which we conjecture to be in our selves and though it were yet know that self and self-opinion is to be mortified In order to which let me impresse a story printed by a Modern expounding this Petition wherein he shews he was once demanded by one who was troubled in his mind for this viz. he suspected himself guilty of not forgiving injuries and affronts and was desirous to know of this clause as we forgive our debters might be ommitted in daily prayer for he trembled to think of it I answered him saith that reverend and learned Doctor with St. Chrysostoms answer The work was of old thought his but now generally known by the name of Author Imperfect in Matth. he not ending his Comments upon Matthew as Chrysostome doth 1. Qui non sic orat ut Christus docuit non est Christi Discipulus he who prayeth not after Christs manner is none of Christs Disciples 2. Non exaudit Pater orationem nisi quam Filius dictaverit the Father heareth not that Prayer which the Son hath not commanded Which answer was somewhat more refined then that supposed Father his Author gave it for it is prefaced with this word stulti O fools accounting them such who will not say as I forgive yea such do say in their heart either that there is no God or that they have no sin which if they thought they had Nullam rationem habes there is no reason to complain of mans rising up against thee when thou hast exalted thy horn against God It is not with the soul of man as it is with the setting of the Sun that prognosticating a fair morning if there be a red cloud for he that would arise and wake in mercy and who knows how soon he may fall asleep must not ly down with execration for so did not Christ whose doctrine as well as profession or name thou must take upon thee or then in vain are all thy pretences to Religion and thy usurping the empty title without the substance of it Love evidenceth that not the being but being thought a Christian is all thy care Death and sicknesse humble us and at that time chiefly we are to ask what an Expositor says we here beg that is Spiritum scientiae wisdom to know our offences against God which when acquired the offences against our selves shall never be weighed in the ballance It is said the scobs or powder of a mans scull is soveraign for curing the Epilepsie a disease strongly vitiating and impeding the sense and understanding sure it is as when Bees fight the throwing dust among them causeth a truce so the thoughts of death is a season for the absolute crossing the day-book of our remembrance and quitting to our brother whatever upon the account of injury he is indebted to us suddenly heartily freely which shall so clear the soul in beholding his own remission therein that without tergiversation or lingring he may confidently say Lord forgive me my debts as or for I forgive my debters As the tree falls so it lies whether to the south the warm gates of mercy or to the north the freezing blasts of provoked indignation to ly down in wrath anger spite is to begin a fire yea wilde fire that shall never consume yet burn and make thee feel what Guntherus Chancellour to Henry the third Emperour saw and heard when beholding miraculously the Heavens opened and God in his Majesty extending his Arm wherein was brandished a sword and saying I will render vengeance to my enemies and will reward them that hate me after which many Princes of the Empire dying he saw God again the sword sheathed and heard a fire is kindled in mine anger and shall burn unto the lowest hell hereby we know we love God if we keep this command of forgiveness but if we as enemies kindle a fire in our wrath there is a sad conclusion to be deduced which is that God shall kindle another in his And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters MAny are the inferences might be drawn from this Doctrine and Text of forgiveness so principal a point and so material that it is the only Petition in this Prayer observed by St. Mark in his Gospel he suo more comprehendit abridging after his usuall way of writing the whole Prayer into this one in regard whoso hath it granted hath not much more to demand save grace for perseverance in the consolations which by that he hath attained so that this may be reckoned inter preces armatas among commanding prayers by it asking forgivenesse but with this burden that we forgive first The advice being King-like enforcing the thing advised Our meditations shall eye such as go to Law towards Magistrats that put malefactors to death towards Creditors that do trust and lend and touching dying Malefactors who do ordinarily forgive Concerning the first it may be questioned whether such as pursue by legal decreets or executions the reparation of damnages losses hurt they have received from the frowardness or untowardness of their neighbours can say in such pursuits and claims Forgive us as we forgive or for we forgive the whole process bearing a contradiction to this Petition hence it is that Anabaptists and other Hereticks revived this old condemned Doctrine in our dayes that no Christian ought to go to Law and that none ought to be a Magistrat To which it may both truly and briefly be replyed that it is not only lawful but absolutely necessary since the fall for the preserving of mankind in orderly society for to have Laws and Government whereunto the oppressed may run for shelter and protection As for those abused Texts Iudge not that you be not judged Resist not evil My Kingdom is not of this world c. They strike not in the least against Magistracy but privat
revenge malice ambition which were sins also under the Law under which they approve of Magistracy and now under the Gospel there is a necessity of Officers and Judges the old abominations enormities disorders through natural corruption being even under the Gospel daily breaking forth Christ himself payed tribute to Cesar and Paul appealed to him and complained to Lysias of a conspiracy against him yea pleaded his cause and innocency without reflecting or exclaiming against Courts of Judicature Good Kings in the Old Testament are famed for their Judgment and our Saviour in the New mentioneth of Judges Officers and of Prisons even while he is establishing the Doctrine of the Gospel and gives no hint to their abolishing under it In short the Magistrat being appointed to punish evil doers prevent consusion and maintain good works we may complain to him of theft murther c. and yet say this prayer Alwayes distinguishing betwixt the Offence and the Damage the offence we are called to pardon but not the losse which may be a mans whole substance again differencing the publick from my privat capacity a personal contumely I am to answer with silence or a soft reply but if my friend be murthered or maimed the malefactor is to be accused that wickednesse be restrained that if possible all the world may see that calm which Helvetia both really and proverbially heard of and had in it viz that if any man had wedges of gold hanging at his staffes end over his shoulder huic licere tuto per Helvetiam iter facere he might travel in security throughout the country This being the end of the Law it may be repaired unto observing these few rules 1. If it be the last refuge this checks the Baratour It is here as in Church-discipline tell it not the judge at first a plaister of Cantarides is not to be applied for every small it ching of the blood nor the Bar to be run unto for every trifle least the remedy be worse then the disease From the clamours of others of this lawing it may be attested what Solomon says of the strange woman go not first to it least strangers be filled with thy wealth Which Ghilon the wise reflected upon in his precepts written afterward in letters of gold at Delphos Oracle they being 1. Know thy self 2. Covet not much The 3. was Aeris alieni shun debt and the law All which how applicable to this Text is easie to apprehend and profitable to observe adding to it that of Artimidorus that the very dreaming of Judges of Attourneys signifies trouble and anger 2. If it be done in all simplicity this reproves the cheater plain-dealing becomes a court of judgment as holinesse doth Gods house to enter thy processe with salse evidences fly conveyances whereby an unjust suite is bumbasted as Taylors do the garments of crooked Customers and made to appear straight and good may cause the pursuer to seed with Pharaohs fat Kine in a meadow but God the avenger of all defrauded shall have them so consumed that their riches shall not be seen or known and illegitimat in his own way such tricks such forged evidences such extorted and cunning interpretations of the Law 3. If it be done in all charity this blameth the hater To stand at the bar without bowels of mercy and with teeth and nails to destroy and tear is toto Coelo different from that paciflck disposition required in this prayer and that little is done among us in charity is evident from our numerous suits Iosephs brethren hated him without a cause so we ours and power failing us to parallel the Patriarchs we sell our brother to a pettey-fogger 4. If it be done out of necessity this is to shame the trifler Some are like the bees bumming at the first approach of the term or Session and thrusting out their stings if men but over-shadow them Henry the sixth Emperour for his tawing nature was surnamed Asper and wanted but one degree of a tyrant these men are so nettly that a sew grains more of perversnesse would rob them of the name man having already laid aside so much humanity as makes them to act meerly to please themselves without pity or compassion towards others and like Ishmael becoming wild men irritats themselves by themselves as the Lyon is said to anger himself before fight by beating his sides with his tail are brought unto that unhappinesse as to be incapacitate to enquire any thing touching the for givenesse of their sins being convinced in themselves that they remit not the enormities or supposed transgressions of others 5. If it be done in all humility this discovers the murmurer The Law is a Lottery and he who hath the sentence of it against him is to acquiesce in the judgment even though oppressed committing his cause to him who judgeth rightously and who will sometimes blind the eyes of a judge to punish by an unjust sentence him who hath formerly been consenting to an unjust act c. Socrates being kicked and spurned at by a profligat and impure youth was in indignation by the beholders desired to accuse him publickly but what said he should I if an Asse strick me fling at the Asse again No yet this was not all the ranter had for being houted at by the people for such an unworthy deed and nick-namaed Calcitronem the kicker for grief he hanged himself Let it be below thy spirit to accost a judge or salute the bar for every disingenuous act and remembring as one said of Philosophy in all things that thou art a Christian and then shall Christ the Judge reward thee by rectifying the abuse when thou art patient but if with Patacion thou make a gain of quarrels of thy own raising or with Eurymnus thou strive to seperat even Castor and Pollux i. e. dear Brethren or with Euristenes and Procles two Brothers thou only fight and law it thy self contentiously but at death recommend the contest to thy heirs thou shalt have a reward but not of glory that being the Bravium of the patient sufferer the very hopes of which shall do thy Honour and thy Estate good but however thy conscience shall be benefited thereby for as that King was no fool who highly applauded that answer of the Augur when demanded what was best for the eye-sight which was seldom to see a Lawyer so to thy experience shalt thou perceive good to attend thy not attending at the Courts but if compulsion give thee a call observing the fore-mentioned rules thou mayest enter thy suite and say forgive us as we forgive c. In the next place if it be demanded whether Magistrats in punishing delinquents by death Confiscation Mulct or Mutilation can with a safe conscience offer up this Petition it is answered in the affirmative they can The word shews his duty being compounded of magis