we giue him thanks and praise him Phil. 4. 6. But in al thinges let your requests be shevved to God in praier and supplication vvith thanksgiuing There is none but in want he will be ready to pray but when we haue receiued we ar slack in giuing of thanks but hee which wil pray aright must join theÌ„ both together And the sum of all Gods praise stands in these three points 1. That he is an absolute King 2. Secondly that hee hath absolute power to rule al thinges 3. That hauing power and a kingdome he hath glory also which appears in the holding of his kingdome and the â—hewing of his power in gouerning of it 4. Whatsoeuer we ask we must refer it to Gods glorie this is the first thing which wee were taught to craue and the 〈◊〉 we ar to performe because it is noted both in the beginning end of the praier Thus muche of the vse of these words altogether Now let vs mak vse of theÌ„ particularly First where as we say Thine is the kingdome Magistrates and rulers must knowe that all the authoritie and rule which they haue is from the Lord therefore they must remember to order themselues as gods Vicegerents vsing their power to bring men in subjection to Gods lawes and referring all their callings to his glorie 2 Where we say Thine is the power Wee are admonished when we are to performe anie worke as to doe seruice to God to walk in our callings that we haue no power of our selues and for this cause wee must ask power at Gods handes that we may be enabled to walke vprightly before him and doe our duties 3 In saying Thine is the glory we learn that if we wold haue a good report and praise among men wee must aboue all things seeke Gods glorie not regarding so much our own If he giue thee praise among men giue him thankes if not be content because al glorie is his Amen 1. The meaning VVE haue heard the preface and the petitions what they are Now followeth the third part which is the assent or testification of faith required in prayer in this word Amen And it containes more than men at the first woulde imagine It signifies Certainlie so be it or it shal be so 2. Cor. 1. 20. It is often taken for a bare assent of the people saying Amen to the Minister but in this place it containes more for euerie point in this prayer is not onlie a direction for publike prayer but for priuate also and must be saide as well of the Minister as of the people Nowe then there being two principall thinges in prayer the first a desire of grace the secoÌ„d faith whereby wee beleeue that God will grant things desired The first is expressed in the sixe petitions The latter is set forth in this worde Amen carrying this sence in effect As we haue craued these thinges at thy handes O Lord so we doe beleeue that for Christ his sake in good time thou wilt grant them to vs. Therefore this part is more excellent than the former by howe much our faith is more excellent than our desire For in this word is contained the testification of our faith whereas the petitions are onlie testifications of our desires And as it is in the end so also it is the seale of our prayers to make them authentical and it is to be vsed as I take it not onlie for this end to answer the Minister but also to testifie our faith for the things desired 2 Grace to be desired HEreby wee are taught what grace we ar to shew in praier We must labour to giue assent to Gods promises when we pray striue against doubting and vnbeleefe Mar. 9. 11. Lord I beleeue Lord help my vnbeleefe Psal. 42. 11. Why art thou cast down my soul and why art thou 〈◊〉 within me wait on god Manie there are that wil stande vpon the strength of their faith plead for themselues that they neuer doubted but they ar far wide for true faith beeing imperfect is alwaies accompanied with doubting more or lesse Wherefore the heart which feeles no doubting is not filled with faith but with presumption As for them which are molested with doubtings complaine of them they haue lesse cause to feare for as fire and water do neuer striue til they meete no more doth doubting and vnbeleefe til faith come into a man To conclude we see what an excellent worke prayer is in which two moste excellent graces of a Christian man bee shewed foorth hungring after mercy faith this might moue men to learn to pray praier being the exercise of grace Of the vse of the Lords praier THe principal vse of the Lords prayer is to direct God his Church in making their praiers in all places at al times and vpon all occasions though their praiers should be innumerable and vnles they be framed after this they can not be right In the vsing of it for direction there be three thinges required 1 The first is the knowledge of the Lordes prayer and al the partes thereof He that would pray by it must vnderstaÌ„d the meaning therof the wants therein to be bewailed and the graces to bee desired for which end it hath bin expounded 2. Knowing this there is in the seconde place required thus much skil that he be able to referr euerie want grace to one of the sixe petitions for example feeling in himselfe pride of heart he must be able to say this is a want in the first petition and feeling a rebellion slownes in doing Gods commandment he must be able to say this is a sin to be prayed against in the 3. petition Thus euery want he must refer to his proper hed again he must refer euery grace to be desired to one of the sixe petitions is streÌ„gth in temptation to the sixt assiance in Gods prouidence to the fourth knowledge of God to the first c. and so in the rest 3. In the third place he must before he pray consider what bee his wantes and imperfections which moste trouble him as also the graces which he wold obtain then for the helping of his memorie he must goe to the petitions and he must set those thinges first in his mind which do concern the first petition and those which concern the second petition must haue the second place in his mind and so he must proceed in order as shall haue occasion Thus a man keeping in minde the order of the petitions as they stand shall be able by referring euery grace and want vnto his proper head to mak a distinct prayer and to varie it as time place and other occasions shall moue him Quest. Must we of necessity follow al the petitions in conceiuing a praier An. No but only those which doe principallie belong to the time place occasion as Paule maketh a prayer Col. 1. 9. 10. and all the points of it may be referred to the third and
AN EXPOSITION OF THE LORDS PRAIER IN the way of Catechisme By William Perkins EDINBVRGH PRINTED BY ROBERT Walde-graue Printer to the Kings 〈◊〉 1593. TO THE RIGHT honourable Edward Lord Russell Earl of Bedford grace and peace be multiplied RIGHT honourable if you consider what is one of the cheife ornaments of this noble state vnto which God hath aduanced you It will appeare that there is none more excellent then the spirit of grace and praier For what doth your heart affect would you speake the languages Behold by praier you may speake the most heauenly toung that euer was euen the language of Canaan Would you haue the valor of knighthood By praier you may stand in the place where Gods hand hath made a breach and do as much as all the Chariots horsmen in a kingdome Would you enjoy Gods blessings which you want By praier you may as it were put your hād into the cofers of Gods treasures and inriche your selfe Do you desire the fauour of Monarks and Princes By praier you may come in presence and haue speeche with Iehoua the King of heauen and earth Lastly would you knowe whether now liuing you be dead that being dead you may liue for euer By praier a man may knowe whether he be dead to sinne dead to the world liue to God liue to Christ and liue eternally Praier then being so excellent a point of Religion I am imboldened to commend this small treatise your honour not so much for itselfe as because it doth set out the matter and true maner of inuocation of Gods holy name And I hope for your fauour in accepting of it the rather because I doubt not but your desire is to be answerable to your most honourable and for Religion most worthie ancestors in the care of maintaining and countenancing any good thing that may any whit serue for the furthering of the gospell of Christ. Now Iesus Christ our Lorde and God euen the Father which hath loued vs and giuen vs euerlasting consolation and good hope through grace stablish your Honor in euerie good word and worke to the end Your H. to command William Perkins AN EXPOSITION of the Lords prayer in the way of Catechisme By M. Perkins Matth. 6. ver 9. After this maner therefore pray yee Our Father c. THe occasion and so also the coherence of these wordes with the former is this The Evangelist Matthew setting downe the Sermons and sayings of our Sauiour Christ keeps not this course to propounde euery thing as it was done or spoken but sometime he settes down that first which was done last and that last which was done before according as the spirit of God directed him Which thing is verified in these wordes where the praier is mentioned yet the occasion wherfore our Sauiour Christ taught his disciples to pray is not here specified But in Saint Luke 11. verse 1. the occasion of these wordes is euident For there it is said that the disciples of our Sauior knowing that Iohn taught his disciples to pray made request to their master that he would do the same to them likewise These few words set before the praier are a commandement and it prescribes vnto vs two duties the first to praie the second to pray after the manner following Touching the first point considering verie fewe among the people know how to pray aright we must learne what it is to pray To make praier is to put vp request to god acording to his word from a contrite hart in the name of Christ with assurance to bee hard For the better opening of these words we are to consider six questions The first is to whome wee are to pray The answer is to God alone Rom. 10. 14. Howe shal they cal on him in whome they haue not beleeued c. Marke how inuocation and faith are linked together And Paules reson may be framed thus In whome we put our affiance or beleif to him alone must we pray but we beleue only in God therefore wee must onely praie to him As for Saints or Angels they are in no wise to be called vpon because not the least title of Gods worde prescribes vs so to doe because they cannot heare our praiers and discerne what are the thoughts and desires of our harts and because invocation is a parte of diuine worship and therefore peculiar to God alone The second question is what kinde of action prayer is Answer it is no lip-labour it is the putting vp of a sute vnto God and this action is peculiar to the verie hart of a man Rom. 8. 26. The spirite makes request for vs But how with grones in the hart Exod. 14. 15. The Lord said to Moses Why criest thou Yet there is no mentiō made that Moses spake any word at all the Lorde no doubt accepted the inward mourning and desire of his hart for a crie The third question is what is the forme or rule according vnto which we are to pray Answer It is the reueiled wil and word of God A man in humbling his soule before God is not to pray as his affections carrie him and for what he list but all is to be done according to the expresse worde So as those things which God hath cōmanded vs to ask wee are to aske and those thinges which hee hath not commanded vs to ask we are in no wise to pray for 1. Iohn 5. 14. This is the assurance vvhich vvee haue of him that if wee aske any thing according to his will hee heareth vs. This then is a speciall clause to be marked that men must praye in knowledge not in ignorance Here weigh the case of poore ignorant people they talke muche of praying for themselues others they imagine that they pray verie deuoutlie to God but alas they doe nothing les because they knowe not what to ask acording to Gods will They therefore must learne Gods worde and pray according to the same else it will prooue in the end that all their praying was nothing but as mocking and flat dishonoring of God The fourth question is with what affection a man must pray Answer Prayer must proceed from a broken and contrite hart This is the sacrifice which God accepteth Psalm 51. verse 17. When Ahab abased himselfe though he did it in hypocrisie yet God had some respect vnto it 1. King 21. verse 29. Saith the Lorde to Eliah seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me This contrition of heart stands in two thinges The first of them is a liuely feeling of our own sinne miserie and wretched estate howe that we are compassed about with inumerable enemies euen with the Deuill and all his Angels within a bound even with huge seas of wants and rebellious corruptiōs whereby we most grieuouslie displease God are vile in our own eies Being therefore thus beset on euerie side wee are to be touched with the sense of this our gret miserie And he that wil pray aright
must putte on the person and the verie affection of a poore wretched begger and certainely not being grieued with the rufull condition in which we are in our selues it is not possible for vs to pray effectually Psalm 130. verse 1. Out of the deepes I called vpon thee O Lord that is when I was in my greatest miserie and as it were not far frō the gulfes of hell then I cried to God Isai. 26. 16. Lord in trouble haue they visited thee they powred out a prayer when thy chastening was vpon them 1. Sam. 1. 15 I am a woman saith Anna of an hard spirite that is a troubled soule and haue powred out my soul before the lord Hence it appeareth that the ordinary praiers of most mē greuously displease God seing they ar made for fashion only without any sense and feeling of their miseries commonly men come with the Pharisie in ostentation of their integritie and they take greate paines with their lips but their harts wāder from the Lorde The second thing required in a contrite hart is a longing desire and hungring after Gods graces and benefites whereof we stand in need It is not sufficient for a man to buckle as it were and to go crooked vnder his sinnes and miseries but also hee must haue a desire to be eased of them to be enriched with graces needefull Thus Hezekias the king and the Prophet Isaiah the Sonne of Amos praied against Senacharib and cried vnto heauen 2. Chron. 32. 20. Where wee may see what a maruelous desire they had to obtaine their request So also Rom. 8. 26. The spirite maketh request with grones so greate that they cannot be vttered as they are felte Dauid Psalm 143. 6. saith that hee desireth after the Lorde as the thirstie land Now we know that the groūd partched with heat opens it selfe in rifts and cranies and gapes towards heauen as though it would deuoure the cloudes for want of moisture and thus must the hart bee disposed to Gods grace till it obtaine it The people of Israel being in grieuous affliction How do they pray They powre out their souls like vvater before the face of the Lord. Lam. 2. vers 19. The fift question is in whose name praier must be made Answer It must not be made in the name of any creature but onely in the name and mediatiō of Christ. Ioh. 14. ver 14. If yee ask any thing in my name I will do it A man is not to present his prayers to God in any worthines of his own merites For what is hee to make the best of himself what can he make of himselfe by nature he is no better thē the verie firebrand of hell and of all Gods creatures the most outragious rebell to God and therefore cannot be heard for his own sake As for Saints they can be no mediators seing euen they themselues in heauen are accepted of God not for themselues but only for the blessed merites of Christ. If any man sinne saith S. Iohn 1. Epistle chap. 2. verse 1. Wee haue an Aduocate with the Father Iesus Christ But how proues he this It followes then And hee is the reconciliation for our sinnes His reason stands thus he which must bee an aduocate must firste of all be a reconciliation for vs no Saintes can be a reconciliation for vs therefore no Saints can be Aduocates Therfore in this place is manifest an other faulte of ignoraunt people They cry often Lord help me Lorde haue mercy vpon me But in whose name pray they poore soules like blinde bayardes they rush vpon the Lord they know no mediatour in whose name they should present their praiers vnto him Little do they consider with themselues that God is as well a most terrible Iudge as a mercifull Father The sixt question is whether saith be requisit to prayer or not Answere Praier is to be made with faith whereby a man may haue a certaine assurance to be heard For he that praieth must stedfastly beleeue that God in Christ will grāt his petition This affiance being wanting it maketh praier to bee no praier For how can be pray for any thing effectually who doubteth whether he shall obtaine it or noe Wherefore it is an especiall pointe of prayer to be perswaded that God to whome praier is made not onely can but also will graunt his request Marke 11. 24. Whatsoeuer yee desire vvhen yee praye beleeue that yee shall haue it and it shall bee doone vnto you Here we see two thinges required in praier the first a desire of the good thinges which we want the second is faith wherby we beleue that God will grant the thinges desired The ground of this faith is reconciliation with God the assurance thereof For vnlesse a man be in conscience in some mesure perswaded that al his sinnes are pardoned and that hee stands reconciled to God in Christ hee cannot beleeue any other promises reuealed in the word nor that any of his praiers shall be heard Thus much of the definition of praier now let vs see what vse may be made of this commandement Pray yee thus Seeing our Sauiour commandeth his Disciples and so euen vs also to praie to God it is our dutie not only to present our praiers to God but also to doe it cheerefully and earnestlie Rom. 15. 30. Also brethren I besech you that yee woulde striue with me by praiers to God for me What is the cause why the Lord doeth oft defer his blessings after our praiers No cause but that hee might stirre vs vp to be more feruent more earnestly to crye vnto the Lord. Exod. 32. 10. When Moses praieth to God in the behalfe of the Israelites the lord answers Let me alone as though his praiers did bind the Lord and hinder him frō executing his iudgments Wherefore this is good aduise for all Christian men to continue and to be zealous in praier If thou be an ignorant man for shame learne to praie seeing it is Gods commandement make conscience of it We see that there is no man vnlesse he be desperatly wicked but wil mak some conscience of killing stealing and why is this because it is Gods commandment Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steale Well then this also is Gods commandement to pray Let this consideration breed in thee a conscience of this dutie and although thy corrupt nature shall drawe thee away from it yet striue to the contrary and know it certainely that the breach of this command maketh thee as well guiltie of damnation before God as any other Furthermore this must be a motiue to prick thee forward to this dutie that as God commandes vs to pray so also he giues the spirite of praier whereby the commaundement is made easie vnto vs. If the Lord had commanded a thing impossible then there had bene some cause of discouragemēt but commanding a thing through the grace of his spirite verie easie and profitable howe much more are we bound