I have learned that I have here no abiding City but I seek one to come The benefits of the consideration of this Text are many 1. It will teach a Man a very low esteem of this present World and never to set the heart upon it Wilt thou set thy heart upon that which is not It is not an abiding City Either like the old feigned inchanted Castles it will vanish and come to little while we think we have fast hold of it or else we must leave it we know not how soon It is full of trouble and vexation when we injoy it and very unstable and uncertain is our stay in it 2. But let it be as good as it will or can be yet this Text tells of a City that is better worth our thoughts an abiding City a City that cannot be shaken where there are no Troubles no Thorns no Cares no Fears but Righteousness and Everlasting Peace and Rest 2. Consequently it will teach us to seek that which is most of value first and most and make that our greatest Endeavor which is our greatest Concernment namely to seek that City that is to come Peace with God in Christ Jesus and the Hope of Eternal Life It is true while we are in this City that continues not this Inferior World God Almighty requires a due care for Externals and Industry in our Imployments and Diligence in our Callings It is part of that service we ow to God to our Families to our Relations to our Selves and being done in Contemplation of his Command it is an act of Obedience and Religious Duty to him But this Consideration will add this Benefit even to our Ordinary Imployments in our Calling it will be sure to bring a Blessing upon it Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added unto you It shall be given in as an advantage and over-measure 2. It will add great Chearfulness to the Imployments of your Calling and to those Worldly Imployments that are requisite for your support and subsistence when you shall resign up your endeavors therein to the Good Pleasure of Almighty God 3. It will remove all Vexatious Solicitousness and Anxiety from you when you shall have such Considerations as these Almighty God it is true hath placed me in this World as in a passage to another and requires of me an Honest Imployment for my support and subsistence or else hath lent me a reasonable liberal portion whereby I may comfortably subsist without much pains or labor I will use it Soberly Chearfully Thankfully If he bless me with Increase or greater Plenty I will increase my Humility Sobriety and Thankfulness but if it be not his pleasure to bless me with Plenty and Increase his Will be done I have enough in that I have there is another more abiding City wherein I shall have supplies without Want or Fears or Cares 3. This Consideration will give abundance of Quietness Patience Tranquillity of Mind in all conditions Am I in this World Poor or Despised or Disgraced or in Sickness or Pain yet this Text gives me two great Supports under it 1. It will be but short this lower World the Region of these Troubles and Storms is no continuing no abiding City and consequently the Troubles and Storms of this inferior City are not abiding or long 2. After this flitting perishing City that thus passeth away this sower life which is but the Region of Death there succeeds another City that indureth for ever a City not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens a State of Everlasting Blessedness where are neither Cares nor Tears nor Fears nor Poverty nor Sorrow nor Want nor Reproach I will therefore with all Patience Chearfulness and Contentedness bear whatsoever God pleaseth to exercise me withal in this life for I well know that my light Afflictions which are but for a moment shall be attended with a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory These Considerations will seem but dry and empty to Men that do not deeply and considerately weigh matters Ordinarily young heads think them at least unseasonable for their youth but they must know that Sickness and Death will overtake the youngest in time and that will undeceive People and render the best appearances of this World either Bitter or at least Insipid and without any pleasant relish and then the Hopes and Expectations of this City to come will be more of value to us than the best Conveniencies and Delights this lower World can afford Let us therefore in our health make it our business to secure our Interest in it and it will be our Comfort and Benefit both in Life and Death OF CONTENTEDNESS AND PATIENCE COntentedness and Patience differ in this that the Object of the former is any condition whether it be Good Bad or Indifferent the Object of the latter is any present or incumbent Evil. But though they differ in the Latitude or Extent of their Object yet they both arise from the same Principle which if rightly qualified gives both The Measure and Original of all Passions is Love and the Object of Love is That which is really or apparently Good If our Love be right it regulates all our Passions For Discontent or Impatience ariseth from the absence of somewhat that we love and value and according to the measure of our love to the thing we want such is the measure of our Discontent or Impatience under the want of it He that sets his love upon that which the more he loves the more he injoys is sure to avoid the danger of Discontent or Impatience because he cannot want that which he loves and though he love something else that may be lost yet under that loss he is not obnoxious to much Impatience or Discontent because he is sure to retain that which he most values and affects which will answer and supply lesser wants with a great advantage The greatest bent and portion of his love is laid out in what he is sure to injoy and it is but a small portion of love that is left for the thing he is deprived of and consequently his discontent but little and cured with the fruition of a more valuable Good He that sets his love upon the Creature or any result from it as Honor Wealth Reputation Power Wife Children Friends cannot possibly avoid Discontent or Impatience for they are mutable uncertain unsatisfactory Goods subject to Casualties and according to the measure of his love to them is the measure of his Discontent and Impatience in the loss of them or disappointment in them He that sets his love upon God the more he loves him the more he injoys of him and the surer hold he hath of him In other things the greatest danger of disappointment and consequently of impatience is when he loves them best but the more love we bear to God the more love he returns to us and Communicates his Goodness the more
seise upon my Body no part of my Body free from pain no place affords me ease no Cordial gives me comfort my Breath short and painful and even loathsome unto my self my eyes consumed and weary with expectation of Deliverance my Heart faint and not able to support its weak and languishing motion my Stomach gone and not able to receive or digest the most pleasant meat my exhausted consumed Body standing in need of supply and yet unable to receive it my Intrails parcht and scorcht with burning heat which is nevertheless the more increased by that which should allay it my Limbs and Joynts and Arteries torn and racked with tormenting Convulsions my Sleep gone or more troublesome than if I were awaked no posture no place affording me ease or relaxation in the Morning I wish it were Night and in the Night I long for the Morning my easie Bed assords me no ease and I desire to rise and when I am risen I cannot bear it I must presently lie down importunately longing for this or that meat and when I have it loathing the very sight of it In sum the whole mass of my Blood corrupted and my whole Body a bag full of putrefaction stink and corruption loathsome to my self and others a very Carcass bound to a living Soul tired with her burthen exquisitly sensible of it unable either to bear it or deliver her self of it These be some of those sad attendants that accompany this condition and it may be all those Calamities befal a Man at once together with the loss of Friends or near Relations as in the case of Job and then what remains to denominate a Man perfectly miserable if the calamities of this World can do it But if under any or all of those Pressures I can upon sound grounds and assurance rest upon my Hope of Immortality these and a thousand more External miseries will not only be tolerable but easie When I can upon sound Convictions and Experiences practically entertain my self with such thoughts as these It is true I am as miserable in Externals as the World can make me but in the midst of all my External Losses and Poverty I have in my prospect a Kingdom prepared for me that cannot be shaken a Treasure in Heaven above the malice and reach of Men and Devils and after a few days spent in my poor Pilgrimage through this World I shall as surely possess it as if I were already actually invested in it and as this Hope doth allay the sharpness of my passage so in my arrival to my Happiness my present suffering will make my future rest more welcome That Beam of Light and Comfort that this Hope darts into my Soul will inlighten my darkest Night here and walk along with me to my Canaan when my Hope shall be swallowed up in Vision and Fruition in the midst of all the Storms and Reproaches and Vilifyings that the World heaps upon me I injoy the Comfortable Presence and Favor of my God in my Soul and his Suffrage and Attestation and Acceptance of my Innocence which doth infinitely more over-ballance the Frowns and Contempts of the World than the favor of the greatest Prince doth over-weigh the Reproaches of the basest Peasant In the midst of my closest and darkest Restraints I have that converse which the strictest guard the strongest Bars cannot exclude I have the Presence and Conversation of my Saviour Christ and his Blessed and Sacred Spirit which doth cure and heal the noysomness and supply the retiredness of my closest Restraints and this company makes my Prison a Temple wherein I can with his Blessed Apostle with a chearful Heart magnifie my God my Soul and Mind is at liberty and free in despight of Gates of Brass and Bars of Iron In the midst of all my Pains and Sickness and the tedious declination of my Body to its final corruption and dissolution I can satisfie my self with an expectation of a happy Resurrection when this weak and frail and dying Body of mine shall be made like unto the glorious Body of my glorified Saviour and translated into the Company of Saints and Angels where there shall be no Sickness nor Sorrow nor Pain nor Sin nor Death and I shall meet with those Friends and Relations of mine which died before me in the same hope I look upon these my present Pains and Sickness and Weakness as the Harbingers of that dissolution which shall put an end to them and begin my Happiness and hereupon I bear them not only with-Patience but Comfort the greater their Violence is the sooner they will finish their business and rend away this mortal corrupted Carcass from my Immortal Soul and even in the instant of my dissolution can by the eye of my Faith discern the Blessed Angels ready to transport my Soul cleansed by the Blood of Christ into the joys of Heaven and my Blessed Redeemer standing on the other side as it were of this dead Lake ready to receive me and lead me into those Heavenly Mansions of Rest and Happiness which he went before to prepare for me This Hope and Assurance as it makes the best things of this World in their best appearance and dress but light and vain and empty and nothing So it makes the worst things that the World and Mortality can inflict or suffer light and easie For these light Afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal 2 Cor. 4.17 18. These be some of those Preparations that will admirably fit and prepare us to meet with Afflictions and in them these two things are to be remembred First That we do not only content our selves with Notions and bare Speculations of these things but that we may practically digest them into our Hearts and Resolutions for if they be but notional only Afflictions when they come will easily rend and defeat these Notions I have known many Men that have had very excellent Notions of this kind and could discourse excellently of them nay could urge them very effectually upon others but when any little Cross hath overtaken them they have been quite out of all Patience and Comfort and as much to seek how to entertain it as those that had never known any such matter nay a poor experienced Christian that could not talk half so much hath received the shock of Affliction with much more Christian Resolution than the other and the reason is The former had digested these Matters barely into Notion and the latter he made it Practical and Cordial When I read Plutarch and Seneca and Tully I find excellent Instances and Reasonings to support the Mind in Afflictions and many times upon the soundest Grounds that can be Plutarch de Animae Tranquillitate tells us That he
the more concernment The End which most concerns us to enquire after is the end of our Being why or for what end we were made for as that is the thing of the greatest moment to us so the ignorance or mistake therein is of the greatest danger Now touching this End of Man we must know 1. That in all wise workers that act by deliberation and choice the appointment of the end of any work belongs to him that makes it 2. In as much therefore as Mankind is in its Original the workmanship of God therefore it belongs to him to appoint the end of his own workmanship and of him it must be inquired 3. That in as much as God is the wisest worker and in as much as Mankind is a piece of excellent workmanship it becomes the Wisdom of God as to appoint man to an end of his own designing so to appoint him to an end answerable to the excellency of the work an end as much above other creatures as man exceeds them in worth and excellency So that certainly Man is ordained by God to an End and to an excellent End beyond the condition of other inferior Creatures for we see them all appointed for the use and service of Man to feed and cloath and heal and delight him What therefore is common to the Beasts as well as Man cannot be the End of Man The Beasts Eat and Drink and Live and Propagate their kind with as much delight and much more contentment than Man they are free from Cares and from Fears which Man is not and though they die so doth Man also therefore to live and eat and drink and perpetuate their kind is too low an End for Man And if so then much more is it below him to make Wealth and Honor and Power his End For they are but in order to his temporal life here either to provide for it or to secure it And besides that they cannot answer the desires and continuance of an Immortal Soul which Man bears with him And hence grows the Weariness and Vexation and Unquietness and Restlesness of Man in the midst of all Wealth and Honors and Pleasures therefore there is some other End to which Man was appointed Which is 1. In reference to God to glorifie him 2. In reference to Man an everlasting injoyment of God 1. To glorifie God two things are considerable 1. What it is for Man to glorifie God 1. There is a Glorifying of God common to all the Works of God in as much as they all bear in them the visible footsteps of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God Thus the Sun and Heavens glorifie God Psa 19.2 There is a glorifying of God properly belonging to Intellectual Creatures Angels and Men. 1. In his Understanding whereby he learns to know God in his Word and in his Works his Power Goodness Wisdom and Truth and with his heart admires and with his tongue praiseth him 2. In his Will whereby he submits to him Worships Fears him and in the course of his life Obeys him whereby he acknowledgeth his Soveraignty and submits to it Psal 50.23 He that offereth Praise glorifieth him and to him that orders his conversation aright will I shew the Salvation of God Both these are imperfectly done here but shall be perfectly done in the life to come 2. Why the Glorifying of God is made the Chief End of Man 1. It is the Chief End that God proposed in all his Works of Creation Prov. 16.4 He made all things for himself that is his own Glory In his Works of Preservation and Providence Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me In his Work of Redemption Ephes 1.6 To the praise of the glory of his Grace whereby he hath made us accepted in the beloved In his Work of Sanctification Matth. 5.16 That Men seeing your good Works may glorifie your Father who is in Heaven 2. It is but just it should be the Chief End of Man to glorifie God because it is a most Reasonable Tribute to pay to him for all his Mercies and Goodness From him we receive our Being and all the Blessings of it and it is but just for God to require and for Man to perform the due acknowledgment of the Goodness of that God from whom he receives them which is his Glorifying of God 2. To injoy God for ever 1. Two things are to be explained 1. What it is to injoy God 2. Why this is part of the Chief End of Man 1. To injoy God is either 1. In this Life which is to have Peace with God Assurance of Reconciliation with him for then we have Peace with our selves Contentment and Quietness of Soul Access to him as to our Father for all we want and Hope and Assurance of Everlasting Life which will make the Comforts of our Life safe and the Afflictions thereof easie and the End and Dissolution thereof Comfortable 2. In the life to come the fulness of fruition of the Knowledge Goodness Glory and Presence of God according to the uttermost measure and capacity of our faculties which in the Resurrection shall be great and capacious and this is called the Beatifical Vision 2. Why this is part of the Chief End of Man Because this is the Happiness and Blessedness of Man to injoy God and nothing besides can make him Happy which appears 1. in all other injoyments without the injoyment of God there is a great deal of Vanity and emptiness whether in Pleasures or Profits or worldly Advantages Men expect great matters from them but after a little injoyment of them they are weary and find themselves disappointed and that there is not that comfort in them that they expected and then they travel to some other worldly injoyment and there they find the like This therefore cannot afford Man his Happiness 2. In all other injoyments without God there is a great deal of Vexation and Trouble The Cares and Fears and Sorrows and Disappointments that we meet with in the injoyment of them doth out weigh all the Contentment and Benefit that we receive in them and therefore this cannot be our Happiness 3. All other injoyments without God have their End and Term Sometimes we over live them the Pleasures and Contentments of youth leave us when we are old And sometimes we see our Riches our Health our Earthly Comforts taken from us but if not yet when we die we leave them and yet our Souls continue after death and our Bodies and Souls continue after our Resurrection for ever The injoyments therefore of this Life cannot be our Happiness but that Happiness which continues as long as we continue which is the injoyment of the Favor Love and Presence of God for ever Now put both together The Glorifying of God and the injoyment of him for ever is the Happiness and Blessedness of Man the Chief End for which he was made Such is the
waiting upon him partly to carry us on to more Importunity and Continuance in Prayer and by this means our Souls are made the better by drawing nearer and nearer to him that is the Fountain of Light and Goodness for the repetition of Prayers rectifies the Soul brings it nearer to God lays more hold upon his Strength and Goodness as the sinking Man draws himself nearer to the shore by the repeated laying hold upon that Cord that is from thence thrown out to save him Neither doth he rest here for the Deliverance he sends is not barely sent to deliver us from the Affliction or Danger nor barely to gratifie our Prayers but to bring us yet nearer to God and to make us active Instruments to give Glory to that God that hath thus delivered us whereby at once we are drawn nearer to the Fountain of our own Happiness and Almighty God receives and attains the great end of his Goodness in the active Glory and Gratitude that he receives from his Creature And this is attained 1. By a kind of Natural Instinct Ingenuity and implanted Tendency as I may call it of a Good Nature whereby unless a Man be a fool or hath put off the common Rudiments of Humanity he is carried out to Thankfulness Gratitude and an indeavor of complacency to him that is his Benefactor which as it is the most rational consequence imaginable so it is a principle so riveted in the very Constitution of Humanity it self that even without any antecedent ratiocination or rational discourse it doth presently and at first view and antecedently antevert any rational discourse of the Mind We are Grateful and study to be complacent to him that doth us good without any using of Topicks or Arguments by a kind of Natural Instinct or Sympathy 2. By a kind of Stipulation or bargain made by Almighty God with his poor Creature to have this Tribute of Gratitude and Benevolent Affection from his Creature as the Tribute and return of his Goodness and Beneficence Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me And this Retribution as it is most admirably Con-genious and Con-natural to the right constitution of the Humane Nature so it is the most Reasonable and the most Noble and the most Easie and the most Beneficial Retribution in the World to him that makes it For first Whereas the Creature in his Prayer seeks and in the returns thereof receives something from God in his Gratitude and Glorification of God he performs that which his Maker graciously accepts as a return made to him from his Creature Secondly By this means he attains the two great Ends of his Being namely the Glorifying of God and the Improvement of his own Felicity for Gratitude and Thankfulness brings the Soul to a nearer approach to God if it be possible than his very Prayers doth because it is the greatest motion of Love and Beneficence in the Soul unto God that can be and the nearer the Soul is moved unto God the nearer it is joyned to its Life its Perfection its Happiness The more it participates of the Love the Goodness the Influence the Communication of the Divine Goodness OF PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING Psal CXVI 12. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his Benefits towards me THere are two great Duties that we ow unto God which are never out of season But such as we have continual occasion and necessity to use whilest we live namely Prayer and Thanksgiving Prayer Is always seasonable in this life because we ever stand in need of it we always want something and have always occasion to fear something although we could be supposed in such a state of Happiness in this World that we could not say we wanted any thing yet we have cause to pray for the continuance of the Happiness we injoy which is not so fixed and stable but that it may leave us I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved Thou hiddest thy face and I was troubled We are never out of the reach of the Divine Providence either to Relieve or Afflict us and therefore we are under a continual Necessity of Prayer either to Relieve and Supply us or at least to preserve and uphold us Thanksgiving is likewise always seasonable because we are never without something that we receive from the Divine Goodness that deserves and requires our Thankfulness It may be we want Wealth yet have we not Health If we want both yet have we not Life If we want Temporal Blessings yet have we not Eternal Everlasting Blessings If we have any thing that is comfortable to or convenient for us we have it from the Goodness and Bounty of God And though we have not all we would yet we have what we deserve not and what we prize and value and therefore while we have any thing we have occasion of Thanksgiving to our great Benefactor But yet it seems though both those Duties be highly due and necessary yet Thanksgiving hath a kind of preference even above Prayer it self in these considerations especially 1. The Duty of Thanksgiving seems to be a more Permanent Duty even than Prayer it self and of a greater extent and durableness The Blessed Angels and the Saints that are and shall be settled and fixed in a state of full and unchangeable Happiness that enjoy whatsoever they can desire and therefore have no reason to pray for more because they cannot enjoy more than they do yet have an Everlasting occasion of Thanksgiving for that Happiness they Everlastingly enjoy And as this is their Everlasting occasion so it is and shall be their Everlasting business unto all Eternity to Praise and Glorifie God And as the Beams of the Divine Goodness shall Everlastingly shine upon them so there will be an Everlasting Reflection as it were of the same Goodness in the necessary and uncessant returns of Praise and Thanksgiving by them 2. The Duty of Thanksgiving seems to be a Duty of more noble Nature than even Prayer it self because it answers more appositly and closely the noblest End in the World namely the Glory of God which certainly is a more ultimate and noble End than even the very Good of the Creature It is true Almighty God receives no accession to his Happiness and Perfection by all the Honour and Praise and Thanksgiving that all the Creatures in the World can pay him yet the Glory of his Majesty is the chief ultimate End why he made all things Rev. 4.11 Thou art worthy to receive Glory Honour and Power for thou hast Created all things and for thy pleasure they were and are Created It is true the proximate immediate reason of the Creation of all things was that the Redundant Goodness of Almighty God might be communicated unto Being derived from him by Creation But the ultimate and more universal End was that by this Communication of the Divine Goodness unto something without
Angel of the Lord smote him Acts 12.23 and when the great King was puffed up with the greatness of his Glory and Power then the Message comes that the Kingdom is departed from him Dan. 4.13 And commonly God takes that season to punish the whole stock of Sins that a man hath committed when his heart is most lifted up Pro. 16.18 Pride goeth before destruction Again Presumptuous Sins these bid defiance to the Name of God to his Truth his Justice his Power his Presence Deut. 29.20 The Jealousie of God will smoke against such a Man Scandalous Sins in those that bear or profess the Name of God 2 Sam. 12.14 by this occasion is given to the Enemies of God to blaspheme Inadvertence and want of Consideration of the Works of God Because they regard not the works of the Lord nor the operations of his hands therefore shall he destroy them and not build them up Psal 28.5 God therefore doth dispense many of his works of Providence that Men should wisely consider of his doings and declare his work Psal 64.9 This Inadvertence partly disappointeth God of his End and robbeth him of his Glory Misapplication of events either to false causes Idols Fate Fortune or only to Second causes without the due attribution of all to the most Wise and Powerful Counsel of the Mighty Lord Deut. 8.17 18. And thou say in thy Heart my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is hee that giveth thee power to get Wealth So for promotion Psal 75.6 Victory Isay 10.5 O Assyrian the Rod of mine anger 13. but he saith by the strength of mine hand have I done this and by my Wisdom And as in things concerning others this Observation is to be used so principally in the Occurrences and Providences concerning thy self to labour to know that all things that befal thee come from the most Wise and Just hand of God in all thy Blessings acknowledge his Mercy and labour to find him in them in all thy Afflictions acknowledge his Justice and his Wisdom Labour to find out the Cause and give him the Glory Now concerning the Order of this Petition it fell not in the first place by Chance but he that was the Wisdom of the Father placed it there upon most just Reasons 1. The Glory of God is that which is first to be sought for because it is the chief End of God in all things and that which he principally intended He made all things for his Glory Vide Isa 43.7 21. The first and highest Duty of Man is to Love God and Love to God will carry the Heart to desire that first which God first wills in so much as if the Glory of God must be lost or the Soul that loves him the perfection of Love will choose the preservation of his Glory rather than of it self if it were possible Vide Exod. 32.33 Rom. 9.3 2. It is the Justest and only Tribute that all Creatures can return to God for their Being and Blessing Such is his infinite Self-sufficiencie that it is impossible he can receive any good from them that receive their Being from him Job 35.7 If thou be righteous what givest thou him Psal 16.2 My goodness extendeth not to thee But the return of the Honour and Glory and acknowledgment of his Goodness is all that the Creature can give and that he is pleased to accept Psal 50.15 I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 116.12 Whatshall I return unto the Lord for all his benefits to me I will take the cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. Revel 4.11 Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created And according to this Debt of Duty which the Creatures owe to God for their being so we find them according to their several capacities and conditions bringing in their Tribute Revel 5.13 And every Creature which is in Heaven in the Earth and under the Earth and in the Sea heard I saying Blessing Honour Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lamb for Ever and Ever 3. It is the best preparative for the Heart that approacheth to God in Prayer to be first taken up withal If in the ordinary Actions of our Nature the Glory of God should affect our heart and be the End at which we should aim 1 Cor. 10.31 Whether ye Eat or Drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God And if the Son of God in this Pattern of Prayer begins his Petitions with the sanctifying of his Name it is certainly most necessary that the heart of him that sets upon this Duty be taken up with the consideration of the Honour and Majesty of him who will be sanctified by all that draw near unto him and to carry that End through all our Prayers lest while we repeat the words of this Petition we take the Name of God in vain seemingly praying for the Glorifying of that Name which we at the same time dishonour either for want of a due consideration of his Majesty or for want of making his Glory the Rule and End of our Prayers This first Petition therefore requires that the Heart be duly affected with the Glory of that Name which it invokes and duly acted and directed to that Glory and that this Petition be drawn through all the rest of our Requests These ensuing Considerations therefore arise from the placing of this Petition first in this Prayer 1. As thou prayest that his Name be hallowed so in all thy Request labour to Sanctifie the Lord in thy Heart Sanctifie him in his Greatness and Majesty with honourable and reverent thoughts of him in thy Heart with an aweful and humble carriage both of thy inward and outward man as in the presence of the Great and Glorious King of Heaven and Earth Sanctifie him in his Authority and Sovereignty by calling upon him in Obedience to his Command and Will who hath Commanded it by acknowledgment of thy dependance upon him Sanctifie him in his Power and All-sufficiencie by casting thy self upon him who is Mighty to Save and to fulfil thy most Extensive and Large Requests Sanctifie him in his Goodness and Mercy which is infinite more large to pardon thy Sins to supply thy Wants and to fill thee with all good Things than thy Necessities or the widest compass of thy Soul can be to ask Sanctifie him in his Truth and Faithfulness by a recumbence and resting upon his Promises that no one thing shall fail of all the good things that he hath spoken that no man shall seek his Face in vain that he that hath said Whatsoever thou shalt ask in his Son's Name he will give it that hath granted us access unto him upon the purchase of his Son's Blood will in no sort
reject those Requests which he himself hath Commanded thee to make 2. As thou prayest in the first place that his Name may be sanctified so let that be the End of all thy Requests Be sure thou ask not any thing which may not be sutable to that End much less contrary to it And in what thou askest agreeable to that End let it be likewise for that End Ask not thy daily Bread for thy Lusts but that thou mayest Glorifie him by it and for it Ask not Pardon for thy Sin barely for thy ease from Punishment much less to make room for new Offences but that thereby his Mercy and Truth may be magnified and his Creature restored to a condition actively to serve him and glorifie him The End is first in intention and is it that draws out all the Actions and orders and directs them to that End and every Action tasts and relisheth of that End Since therefore the Sanctifying of the Name of God is or should be thy chief End and therefore is first in thy Requests Let all thy Requests and Prayers be primarily and chiefly directed to this that is or should be thy chiefest End 3. As the Glory of God should be the chief of thy desires so consequently must it be the Measure of them That which is the chiefest End must control and over-rule all other subordinate Ends if they come in competition with it For as it is of greatest value so it is of greatest force Whatsoever therefore thou askest let it be still with subordination to the Glory of God and be rather contented to be disappointed in thy other inferiour Ends than that this should in the least degree be disappointed Only know and rest assured of this truth that such is the great Goodness and Wisdom of God that he hath placed all those Requests which are of absolute necessity to be granted thee in such an order and path that the granting of them always consists with his Glory and whil'st thou seekest them thou canst not miss of glorifying him and therefore thou mayest be sure the making of his Glory the measure of thy Request shall never disappoint thee in them such as are the pardoning thy sins the delivering thee from being finally overcome with spiritual Evil but thy other requests for temporal Benefits or Deliverances or the particular Circumstances of those other as the manifestation or assurance of Pardon the degrees of spiritual Blessings or the seasons of granting them these may not always lie in the Road-way of his Glory Be content in these to wait upon him and let them still be asked with subordination to this great End but be assured that by preferring his Glory as thy chief End and subjecting the fulfilling of thy Request to the Glory of God thou shalt be no loser in the end Never any man was a loser nor ever shall be that principally intends the Glory of God though to the disappointment of his own particular Ends. Thou hast done thy duty in asking and in asking with this restriction if it tend most for the Glory of God And thou hast done thy Duty in being contented and rejoycing that thy very request is disappointed if God receive Glory thereby for thou hast that which thou diddest in the first place desire and had thy particular Request been granted and the Glory of thy Maker suffered thereby thou had'st been disappointed in this first and great Petition Sanctified be thy Name which thou hast carried along with thee as the qualification of all the rest of thy Requests and as that which thou hast as it were prayed over again in every other Petition thou hast made Assure thy self if thou canst take delight in the Glory of God though to thy own particular damage God will more abundantly recompence thy seeking of his Glory than that very Petition which is denied could have done if granted Thou servest a Bountiful Master that will surely recompence thy Love of his Glory above thy own particular advantage And thou servest a Wise Master that will recompence thee in such a kind or at such a season as shall be more sutable and more comfortable than if thou had'st been thy own carver And this thou shalt clearly and sensibly find that which thou did'st in the first place ask is granted in kind viz. the Honour of God and that which thou did'st ask for thy self though denied in kind is the more granted in value thy own particular benefit Our Saviour prayed that that bitter Cup of death might pass from him yet with submission to the Will and Glory of God Matth. 26.39 yet his Soul must be made an offering for sin and it was so The Glory and the Truth of God required it yet he was heard in that he feared Heb. 5.7 he suffers him to dye but raiseth him from death and he saw of the travail of his Soul and was satisfied Isa 53.11 Thou prayest for deliverance from any affliction from a Disease from Poverty for knowledg or Assurance in such a degree It may be it will not be so much for the Glory of God to grant it or to grant it yet as for the present to deny it First therefore pray Thy Name be hallowed and though I am for the present denied it is enough I am abundantly answered if God be glorified though I be denied Thou shalt find that none that waits upon him shall be ashamed if he grant thee not deliverance he will give thee sufficient Grace if he deny thy recovery he will give thee patience if he deny thee Riches he will give thee Contentedness If he deny thee that measure of Grace he will grant thee Humility If he deny thee that degree of Assurance he will give thee Dependance So that though thou walk in darkness for a while and hast no light yet thou shalt trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon thy God Isa 50.10 such is the Goodness of God that while we seek his Glory in the first place and other things with subordination to it our other request shall be granted either in kind or compensation Thy Kingdom Come The Kingdom of God hath several acceptations 1. His Universal Kingdom The Kingdom of his Providence which extendeth to all the Actions and Events of all his Creatures Mat. 10.39 Luke 12.6 even to the falling of a Sparrow Psal 103.19 The Lord hath prepared his Throne in Heaven his Kingdom ruleth over all Psal 66.7 He ruleth by his Power for ever his Eyes behold the Nations And this he doth by planting originally in his Creatures their several Laws or Rules by which they move by a derivation of a continual Influence whereby they are supported and preserved in their several Motions Operations and Beings which if he should withdraw but one Moment all things would return unto their Nothing by correcting and over-ruling of all things sometimes contrary to their Nature to shew his freedom and Sovereignty but always by the mingling
Nature laid hold upon that seeming good and violated the Command This taught the Wise man to pray against extreams either of Plenty or Poverty because his corrupted Nature was ready to turn either into Temptation Riches into Arrogance and Presumption Poverty into Blasphemy and Murmuring Prov. 30.9 3. For that Act which is not ordered unto Sin but to some Experiment or Tryal of the temper or disposition that is in a Man a Temptation of Trial. Thus God tempted Abraham when he commanded him to offer up his Son to prove the sincerity of his Love and Obedience to God Gen. 22.12 By this I know that thou fearest God To the like purpose were all those difficult dispensations to the People of Israel at the Red Sea and in the Wilderness that he might humble them and prove them and to know what was in their heart Deut. 8.2 And for this end God often sends several Afflictions upon those he truely loves that their Faith may be tryed And these Tryals are called Temptations 1 Pet. 1.6 7. Ye are in Heaviness through manifold Temptations that the Tryal of your Faith may be found to praise c. Jam. 1.2 Count it all Joy when ye fall into divers Temptations knowing that the Tryal of your Faith worketh Patience 2. What it is to lead into Temptation and how God may be said to lead us into them 1. As to the latter of these sorts of Temptations they may and do come from God viz. Tryals of Grace by the permitting and inflicting of afflictions It is a work no way unbecoming his Purity and Justice It is ordained to singular Ends. 1. To his own Glory 2. To the good of those that he thus tryes thereby teaching them to despise the World to adhere unto him to reach out after a better Life to live by Faith and not by Sense patiently to submit to his hand and to wait upon him for deliverance By this Refiners fire he consumes their dross their carnal confidence building Tabernacles here drives them to their true home and gives them a proportion of Eternal Comfort and Hope far more valuable than that Temporal comfort which they want 2. As touching Temptation unto Sin 1. That God tempteth no Man He that is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity will never solicite any Man to that which only he hates It is the great work of God to withdraw Men from sin and surely he will never draw Men into it Jam. 1.13 God cannot be tempted with Evil neither tempteth he any Man 2. As he doth not actively tempt any Man or move him to Evil so neither doth he infuse into the Heart or Soul a Receptivity of Temptation he doth not excite the Heart to close with any Temptation or create or stir up any corruption in the Heart to take fire from a Temptation And yet in some sort he is said to lead into Temptation 1. By withdrawing that Grace of his whereby we are prevented from and defended against Temptation We walk in the midst of Enemies and snares the Prince of the air hath his Instruments that most Vigilantly takes all opportunities to draw us into sin evil Angels and evil Men And were there not a Devil or his Instruments without us to tempt us to Evil we have an old Man within us a fountain a Sea of Corruption a deceitful and wicked heart a Body of sin and death that can with much advantage and doth with much ease draw us into Sin and the merciful God that seeth these snares which the evil one layes for us in our way though we see them not sends out his own Grace and Spirit and sometimes removes the snare out of our way sometimes leads us another way that we miss the snare he over-rules and restrains this raging Sea of our own corruptions and as our Saviour did to the Winds and Seas commands them Peace and be still he doth by the same Spirit strengthen and inable our hearts to resist and oppose and subdue those Temptations that rise from within and comes from without And this Grace of his he owes not to us It is meerly of his free Mercy Gen. 20.6 For I withheld thee from sinning against me and yet such is his Goodness that he seldom withdraws this Grace from us unless we thrust it away and reject it and then he withdraws that Grace of his and that being withdrawn that cruel and subtil Enemy of our Souls falls in upon us and subdues us and that Sea of corruption within us that hath now no banks to keep it in breaks in and over-whelms us And thus was the heart of Pharaoh hardned by himself Exod. 8.15 And yet said to be hardned by God Exod. 10.1 By withdrawing from him that Grace that should soften it And this Subduction of the Grace of God principally respects Temptations from our selves 2. By Permission The Devil and his Instruments are under the restraint of the Power of God and without a commission or at least a permission from him cannot actually execute that evil that is in their Natures and Wills he solicits Job by himself and his instruments to let go his integrity but this he cannot do without a Permission Job 1.12 he seduceth Ahab to his destruction but this he cannot do without a Permission 1 Kings 22.21 he tempts David to presumption and carnal confidence 1 Chro. 21.1 But this he cannot do without a Permission 2 Sam. 24.1 he watcheth the opportunity of Gods displeasure against Israel and gets leave thereupon to tempt David to number the People and here we may see the Infinire Wisdom of God in managing that evil that was in the Devil to tempt and in David's heart to be overcome to a most just and excellent end the punishment of the sin of Israel by Davids sin Here was in the same action Malice in the Devil corruption in David yet nothing but Purity and Justice in God He never gives the Devil a Permission to tempt that Man may thereby sin but he turns that Temptation and that sin into a work either of singular Mercy or Justice The Devil could not have entered into Judas without a Permission nor Judas have betrayed our Lord without a Permission nor the Jews have delivered him up to Judgment without a Permission nor Pilate have judged him without a Permission John 19.11 Here was Malice in the Devil and Treachery in Judas and envy in the Jews and Injustice in Pilate and Murder in the Souldiers and yet in God the greatest manifestations of his Truth and Justice and Wisdom and Purity and Mercy that ever the World did or shall see While he permits the Instrument to sin he nor his action is in no sort defiled by it but manageth that sin which is none of his to bring forth that Righteousness that is only his 3. He is said to lead into Temptation by the External Dispensation of his Providence and that 1. By withdrawing those External restraints from sin such are