notice that according to Diodati the Forgiveness of Trespasses for which you Pray cannot be understood of the general remission of Sins in respect of the everlasting Judgment which has no other cause or ground before God but Christ's satisfaction and intercession but of the pardon of particular faults of Believers in regard of punishments in this life It was a rule of the Wise Men among the Jews That our pardoning of those who have injur'd us is rewarded by God with hearing our Prayers for Forgiveness And to this purpose are the words of Siracides Ecclus 28.1 2 c. He that revengeth shall find vengeance from the Lord and he will surely keep his sins in remembrance Forgive thy Neighbour the hurt he hath done unto thee so shall thy Sins also be forgiven when thou prayest One man beareth hatred against another and doth he seek pardon from the Lord He sheweth no mercy to a man which is like himself and doth he ask forgiveness of his own Sins If he that is but Flesh and Blood nourish hatred who will entreat for pardon of his Sins But you are not to conclude from hence that Pardon from God depends only on your pardoning of others or that it is merited by it but that it is most reasonable that you who request forgiveness of your Offences against God should forgive the Offences of your Brethren whose Offences are less in number and value and not committed perhaps without your provocation Take heed therefore lest by your Malice and want of Charity to others you bring not God's wrath and indignation on your self Deliverance from the power of Sin and all temptations to commit it is the next thing respecting your Soul that you are to seek for at the hands of your Creator Now of your self you are unable to withstand those multitudes of temptations which daily assault you so that you have need continually to have recourse to the Divine assistance and to implore God either wholly to remove all temptations or so to restrain their power and malice that they do not overcome you The former is not to be hop'd and so not to be pray'd for For the World the Flesh and the Devil will never give over soliciting alluring and tempting you to Sin Satan as his name signifies is to the Tempter who being miserable by Sin labours to make all like himself And that he spares none was seen in his hardiness to set upon our Saviour whom he would have tempted to the most horrid iniquity the worship of himself And as this shews that none can escape his temptations so it likewise shews that it is no Sin to be tempted but that all the fault lies in yielding to the temptation and this arises from that great Impostor your own Heart which is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked It ought then to be your earnest and incessant supplication to him who can restrain the powers of darkness and infatuate the mischievous devices of Hell and all its Agents that he would keep you from all evil circumstances and dangerous occasions leading to Sin that he would suppress in you all inclinations to evil and not leave you to your self nor to be tempted and carried away of your own lusts and enticed That he would not unchain and let loose the infernal foes to assail and over-master you by their accursed seducements but that you may resist unto Blood and be crown'd with conquest over them But if your Heavenly Father for great purposes leads you into any signal trials and temptations then do you resign your self to his absolute pleasure humbly beseeching his paternal tenderness to limit and controul the Tempter and to restrain your consent And tho' it ought to be your great grief to be at any time enticed to offend God yet it cannot be any great discomfort so long as God is pleas'd to relieve you from doing the evil to which you are tempted and together with the temptation to make you a way to escape The Jews have a Form which they call the short Prayer which is an Epitome or Abridgment of their longer Prayers and it was a rule among them That he who had a promptness in Prayer was to pray the eighteen Prayers but he who wanted this promptness was to use the short Prayer which was a Recollection out of the other and is as follows OUR Father which art in Heaven be gracious unto us O Lord our God hallowed be thy Name and let the remembrance of thee be Glorified in Heaven above and upon earth here below Let thy Kingdom reign over us now and for ever Remit and forgive unto all whatsoever they have done against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil thing For thine is the Kingdom and thou shalt reign in Glory or Power for ever and ever vid. Mr. John Gregory Pag. 168. CHAP. XVI Prayer to be made in the plural number Amen AND both this Summary and the larger Prayer were used by the Jews in the daies of our Saviour who out of them collected the Form which he taught his Disciples and which is now used by all Christians But when our Lord gave this Prayer he did not null or make void the other Prayers used by the Jews nor did he intend that his Followers should use his Prayer and none other but he gave it as an absolute perfect Form by which our imperfect Prayers are to be regulated and to be an abstract of all we are to Pray for So that if any thing be wanting in our Prayers it is to be supplied by adding unto them the Lord's Prayer Which Christ I say gave not to extinguish but to regulate our Prayers and to be added unto them and to render them perfect and consummate For it contains the heads of all things that you can either want or desire to have And our Lord in his Heavenly Wisdom so order'd the composure of his Prayer that it might differ as little as possible from the Jewish Form and that it might likewise be fit to be said by all And I think there is none of what Religion soever who own God to be the Father or Maker of Heaven and Earth who may not pertinently make use of the Lords Prayer and desire every thing that therein is set down It is observable that the Jews appointed all their Prayers to be said in the Plural Number tho' he that said them was alone by himself and they did it for this reason That it might never seem as tho' a man were cut off from the congregation And they have this commendable Canon viz. He that prays ought always when he prays to joyn with the Church Which Canon they do not strictly understand only of Prayers said in the Synagogue but wheresoever they are made in the world And when a Jew is most alone he is to say Prayers in the plural and not in the singular number In which number our Saviour also has taught us
to pray So that when you are in the greatest solitude and separation from company you are to own your union with the Church and Communion with all true Believers for whose happiness you ought to pray as well as for your own The Jewish Church Ordain'd that all their Publick Prayers should be concluded with Amen I say Publick Prayers for in their Private or Phylacterical Prayers it was omitted And it was a sign those Prayers were Publick to which Amen was added and a sign they were otherwise when it was not used And the Christian Church retains the same Custom adding Amen to all her Prayers Which is a word of that weight and moment that it ought never to be omitted For by saying Amen you declare your trust and assurance that God will grant the things you ask according to his Will It being one special branch of your confidence in God that if you ask any thing according to his Will and not your own fancy he heareth you By saying Amen to the Publick Prayers you express your approbation of them that you agree with the Congregation and present but one common vote unto God And when there is a happy harmony and consent of heart and voice in praying for things lawful and expedient you may be assured that he who has promis'd to grant the Requests of two or three gather'd together in his Name will much more incline his ear to a pious multitude to a numerous Congregation met solemnly to beg his Blessings But besides all this your humble hearty and zealous saying Amen shews your attentiveness to the Publick Prayers and that you are neither asleep nor inadvertent when they are made And indeed one way to quicken your attention is to consider that you are to say an hearty Amen to every Prayer and as it were to set your seal unto it by so doing And by saying Amen you also let the Hearer of Prayers know that you hope and believe to have your share in the good things that are desir'd and that on the contrary you do not expect any benefit by the Petitions which you do not sign and confirm by your Amen In which single word all your own Wants are sum'd up and theirs also for whom you pray And we read that the Primitive Christians thought the saying an hearty Amen to be of so great importance that they pronounc'd it with a sort of vociferation and affectionate earnestness which is enough to shame and awaken their negligence who either regard not at all to say Amen or do it with so provoking a drowsiness and indifferency as if it were all one to them whether God would grant or deny their Request whether he did hearken to their Prayers or stop his ears against them which being consider'd will I hope have the happy influence to make you so attentive to Prayer as to close it with such a sensible Amen as that the Lord God may say so too 1 Kings 1.36 CHAP. XVII Of our Lord's Doxology AND having now given you this plain familiar account of the Things you are to desire of God as they are set down in the Divine Summary left us by our Lord give me leave for a conclusion to present you with a short account of the drift and design of the scope and end of Prayer which is none other than God's Glory and your own Benefit That God's Glory ought to be the first and principal end and drift of Prayer is naturally to be concluded from the Doxology wherewith both Jews and Christians have ever closed their Supplications That Doxology was us'd by the Hebrews in David's time is plain from his own practice who praised the Lord before all the People and said Blessed be thou Lord God of Israel our Father for ever and ever Thine O Lord is the Greatness and the Power and the Glory and the Victory and the Majesty for all that is in the Heaven and in the Earth is thine thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as Head above all Both Riches and Honour come from thee and thou Reignest over all and in thy Hand is Power and Might and in thine Hand it is to make Great and to give Strength unto all Now therefore our God we thank thee and praise thy glorious Name Chron. 29 10 11 c. And we find a Doxology added to all the Publick Prayers of the Jews which was follow'd by our Saviour in his Compendious Form And tho' some both in the Greek and Latin Church have look'd upon the Doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer to be a Spurious Addition put in by some well-meaning man who did not well know what he did yet I see no ground for this saying For since it is granted by all That our Saviour took every Petition of his Prayer out of the Jewish Euchologues it may justly be thought that he thence also took the Doxology and added it to his Prayer as the Jews to theirs Now the Doxology is not only a Form of Praise and Thanksgiving fit and proper to be the closing up of all Devotions in token that they are directed to God's Honor but it also contains the fundamental grounds of making your Addresses unto God For in saying Thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever You acknowledg all those excellencies to be in God which are the true and chief motives of Prayer and which give life and spirit to that Heavenly Duty and to all the Graces therein to be exercis'd And first your Faith is greatly supported in the expectation of the good things you pray for when you maturely revolve that you beg them of him who is the only universal absolute Independent Lord and Sovereign of the World And that he is easily intreated of his Subjects and takes pleasure in their Protection and Happiness Only remember that at the same time you acknowledge God's Kingdom you own your self to be his Subject and that it is your duty to obey his Laws and to submit intirely to his Government and not to countenance any one rebel Lust against him And when Secondly you ascribe Power unto God you profess your belief of his All-sufficiency and that you present your Petition to one who is able and willing to grant it For if he wanted either Will or Power to give what you beg it were enough utterly to discourage your Application But seeing that God has the bowels of a Father and the arm of a King and a Soveraign right to dispose of every thing as he pleases he is in all respects fitly qualified to grant the request you make unto him And although your own unworthiness might justly hinder you from receiving any favour at his hand yet he will not withhold what you rightly sue for That his free Grace may have that Glory from you which he hath from all to whom he has been formerly bountiful There is an excellent Honour arising unto God from his own
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
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