ground withering being scorched with the suffocating heat of intestine supposed heavenly yet really hellish broils In spight of that Gospel-rule of Amity we can curse backbite accuse those that are of not only the same Countrey but of the same Faith with our selves believing in the Lord Jesus that they may be saved from hell which is below yet this is not a guard sufficient to blunt the edge of those deadly arrows even bitter words which from the bent bow of studied malice and the most exact aim of time probability and place is from the arm of prejudice caused to flee to the very whit to the very heart of them whom contrary to the character of a good man they love to malign Because they cannot have the Kingdom of God come according to their vitiated platforms prays not for its advance at all and because of that will pray for their daily bread that they may live to revenge conceited faults purposing never to forgive groaning under a surmised evil so heavily that God hath not nor shall not have any glory by its sending in regard they suffer not patiently nor soberly because they walk not charitably as the Primitive Christians did when they had really Heathens to be their persecuters at which time pro omni statu they prayed for all men How much better Raimundus who dwelt so much about and delighted so much in love that he answered all questions by it as whence he came from love Whither he was going to love c. O! let us desire that brotherly love might begin O! let us desire that brotherly love might begin and next study that it might continue I may say with one Iam saepe dixi fratres frequentius dicere debeo I have often said and must oftner attest let none defraud let none deceive himself he who hateth any one man in this world let him do for God what he pleaseth all is in vain For Paul did not lie when he professed though he gave his body to be burned it should profit him nothing if he wanted charity without which neither Alms nor Prayer doth avail For in Prayer we must observe the pattern in the Mount and say not my but Our Father which art in Heaven which as the rule of all Prayer is next to be enstated in your meditations SECT V. THe Precept being to pray after this manner we must eye our copy and he hath no eyes that seeth not or covers them that perceiveth not by this rule that we are to pray pertinently modestly briefly and Heavenly 1. Pertinently for matter Observe this Prayer and there is not only no superfluous word but each syllable beautifies and every Petition depends upon another First we ask for our Fathers glory in Hallowed be thy Name and then for our own salvation in Thy Kingdom come which shall come to our comfort when we do his will on earth as it is in heaven which we shall have strength to do when we have our daily bread and having been refreshed thereby there is a necessity of praying against sin past in Forgive us our trespasses and in regard the vessels of uncleanness will or may fill as soon as any other it is expedient to pray against sin to come in Lead us not into temptation which may avail much to deliver us from much evil and all this is a reasonable service because it is the Father we pray unto whose prerogative is the Kingdom that should come and the power by which we must expect it shall come for our delivery and therefore the glory should be his for applying all these things unto us Thus hath he shewed thee O man what is good nothing lawful nothing needful nothing honourable is here comitted More then these we should not ask and less then these we ought not to ask being to pray after this manner 2. Modestly for expression The word Fathers the phrase Kingdom have couched in them great mysteries the small expression bread comprehends many different things according to the supplicants place station and calling With a Souldier it will signifie victory with a Traveller safety with the weary rest with the feeble strength with a King Majesty with a Counsellour wisdom with the fruitful it will signify good children and with the barren it imports a fruitful womb Study then the meaning of the words first and the application of them unto thy case next and in the enlargements of thy soul let thy words be alwayes modest and moderat lest in asking abundance thou be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness Neither limit the Holy One of Israel by asking thus much or thus much now and then but be content with the portion given and satisfied with the quantity and quality thereof 3. Briefly for time Our Saviour in this form adviseth against two faults espied in the prayers of some viz. Hypocrisie and Verbosity and had Solomon been in our dayes and had heard the tedious length unto which some Zelotes had drawn their impertinent prayers and the vain repetitions with which they were filled with the vain bablings to which they were to a nauseating length extended to pass their other scandalous behaviour he had enlarged himself upon that advice Let thy words be few the obeying of which may prevent those heartless digressions wilde and idle discourse of such pretended extempore petitioners who were forced through emptiness to go backward and forward like Hounds at a loss and being word-bound knew not how to make an end Be not therefore as that babler Battus non-sensically reiterating the same words again and again unto whose practice in probability the Holy Ghost hath an excellent allusion discharging vain repetitions or more wording then matter requireth and therefore dischargeth an imitation of him in his loquacity Not but that the zealous may his heart not staggering or recoyling mount further that is nearer Heaven by extending his prayers the length of a winters night or Summers day as David or Christ did But the distinction betwixt privat and publick Prayer may inform the intelligent that this rule is necessary in requiring short and full petitions before others but with themselves they my use long yet ought to offer still hearty servent and pertinent supplications For when words perturb the spirit of man it is more than time to break off Sed doles animo c. the groanings of the soul making the more ehement cry as did the heart of Moses the lips of Hannah the blood of Abel 4. Heavenly-mindedness all along From the Dan to the Beersheba of this Prayer there is nothing minded but Heaven from Our Father to its Amen there is nothing as earthly suggested Our daily bread not being asked but as it relates to the doing of his will the coming of his Kingdom the hallowing of his Name of his Name on earth as it is in Heaven we begin at Heaven and end at glory by our Amen Among
or glory of God are three such as relate to mans salvation are also three this respecting the body being but one demonstrats upon what the vehemency of our affections should be fixed And if any contrary to this rule hath minded their body with a three-â—old more zeal then their souls let them know that God and not bread is to be the Alpha and Omega of all their duties but more especially at this duty to Prayer and say with Isaeus whose pallat had been a touch-stone for tastes when demanded what fish or sowl was sweetest replyed de hisee cur are desii it is long since I left off such foolish doings because unprofitable and sinful As the Sun shineth and enlighteneth the Orbs above as well as those under so it is thought this Petition hath an aspect upon these precedent and subsequent requests in the whole body of this Prayer sensing the Prayer thus Hallowed be thy Name this day Thy Kingdom come this day c. Forgive us our debts this day c. which is the Petition in our Saviours holy method we are next indebted unto for explication and shall cum Deo endeavour to discharge the same CHAP. VI. Matth. 6. 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters Luke 11. 4. And forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us HItherto we have been begging from our Father and in that hath attained to such degrees of familiarity that in an humble confidence we sinlesly prescribe directions for him to walk and act by for what other is this Petition forgive us as we forgive or Forgive us for we forgive This Petition making a Jubilee in the soul and inviting every one that is in debt to run to God as they did to David for security pardon and a discharge we offer our selves to open it for purchasing a release in your application of the same unto your lives of all former delinquencies transgressions and enormities In this form of Prayer we shall keep our old set form of method and see the matter and next the order of this Petition The first relating to debt a word borrowed from the French debte and that from the Roman debitum to owe or be engaged to any thing or person being varied by two Evangelists sheweth how to expound the phrase the one calling debts what the other calleth sins discovering that our sins being debts we pray that what we owe may not be exacted i. e. for forgiveness as we forgive or for we forgive both concurring to this Interpretation that sin is debt yet not properly but by similitude and by similitude nos sumus debitores we because sinners are debters and owned such in the parables of the Gospel yea and condemned to pay the utmost farthing if we stand to a reckoning For clearing of which the word debt is first to be explain'd next the extent of this term forgive After that the necessity and equity of the condition as we forgive And lastly resolve some questions about forgivenesse Forgive us ne quis sibi quasi innocensf let no man conceit himself free or exalt himself in that fancy lest by contracting more in denying just debt he perish more severely and be surprized more suddenly Solida vitae puritas it being madnesse to fancy a Church pure from â—in since this Law is given to the Church pray after this manner forgive us our sins which are as debts being contracted booked and must be cleared 1. They are contracted Our meat lodging washing dwelling cloathing we receive from the Lord Paramount the great Landlord of Heaven and earth and all is noted down with the returns we make unto him the highest of us all being but Tenant Parravail Sub-sub-tenants What we owe may be guessed at by the justs mans falling seven times a day by which we may understand sin which is as debt and riseth again which we may interpret mercy and that also expects a discharge and must by us be accounted for Two wayes men contract debt by poverty by prodigality the poor must live and therefore must borrow and our wantonesse compelleth us to take up more then we need Adam was not hunger-starved but had great store yet that morsel of the forbidden fruit must go down David had many Lambs yet that one in the house of Vriah as fairer fatter goodlier then any in the royal flocks must be dressed for that stranger of carnal lust which visited his Palace How unnecessary eating abundant drinking rash swearing intemperat living enlargeth the scores of many is matter of no great difficulty seeing men hourly swallowing by hand-fulls mouth-fulls cup-fulls what without calling for forgivenesse shall take eternity to deâ—ray To passe the curtains of the womb where our poverty was excessively great were we not met in this world with clouts and milk in our infancy which our being men will make us to repay And though we came naked into this world yet in ordinary gracious providence we go not out so naked as to want a burial-place and winding-sheet which exected kindnesse is good debt and with thankfulnesse remembred if we know it was given to our relations But wastfully and in prodigious debauchery to borrow from our creditor for entertainment of insatiable lusts or unbridled vanity may justly cause him immediately to demand discharging of the Bill without giving us a day not to pay but to pray for a remittment 2. They are booked My transgressions sayeth Iob thou-hast sealed up in a bag For nisi Poenitentia interveniente without a hearty Forgive us and sorrow for the debt the sins publickly committed are concealed in the secret judgment of God untill as Clarks do Charges or Processes they be brought forth into open Court. And hence that of Moses Is not this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my Treasures to wit for a just punishment That though as a thief may gallop away with a stollen horse the wicked may conceit himself secure and gallantly mounted yet he shall be found and a Court fenced and his charge before him unto him and against him read for his thieving vapouring and sinful revelling To passe also the Book of life there shall be two Bookes used in the sinners condemnation that of the Law which shews the duties to be done upon the receiving of the mercy and that of the Conscience which discovers vices done under that mercy and as Peters Cock it will make the most secure to think upon all that ever he did and cause the dryest eye weep All Raps Fornications Oppressions Adulteries being therein written and not vanished as the profligat may suppose A Phythagorean taking shoes upon his credit came to make payment some few dayes after but understanding of his creditors death concluded a discharge within himself yet his conscience gave him such a summonds that he went to the dead mans
Kingdom come or of grace and that either of preventing ill demanded in Lead us not into temptation or removing of ill which is sued for in deliver us from evil or of grace against doing ill in Thy will be done or of nature which we have grounded in give us this day our dayly bread Two of which I question if they were known to that Oraculum sapientiae humanae Socrates the wise who prompted his Disciples to that as he thought important advice The promises and precepts of God are to be the main Pillars to support the Arches of our requests in the Church which is the house of God lest with Zebedees wife we ask things incongruous hence one calls Prayer Ascensio mentis ad Deum the ascending of the soul towards God for asking some seemly or decent things from him And should the incomprehensible treasure of Gods inaccessible greatness to be set before us with a proffer of all our hearts desire to ask with Solomon wisdom to discharge our Callings or with Moses to number our dayes were more beneficial then Elisha's desiring to die or the two Disciples to have the right and left hand in the Kingdom of our Father for to the former he never proved negligentem auditorem an unwilling hearer but to the other hath despiciuntur enim orationes leves frothy prayers being alwayes rejected But for a heavenly Petition priusquam egressa sit before it pass from the mouth it is recorded in his Book and though it be an abstruse point exactly to draw an Inventory what good things are to be asked or to decipher their just sinless and convenient number yet the ordinary general prescribed Rules are these viz. To pray for heavenly things mainly and for worldly things modestly The first by our Saviours rule is first to be done that is Principaliter hoc unum this one thing is to be our chief care in which we are still to continue because Time is still running from us and therefore the most necessary thing to be most regarded the glory of God in Hallowed be thy Name must preceed our daily bread or forgive us our debts and therefore first in time and in dignity and in love are we first that is Principally to be active in the acquisition of Heavens Kingdom and its righteousness The things below are neither vera nor nostra neither things nor truly ours but flying shadows yet these are the lean kine in Pharoh's dream devours the fattening thoughts of attaqueing Heaven which I find one in sickness would not so much as occasion when after long lying on his back it was judged convenient he should be turned called out Sinite fratres Sirs Suffer me to behold Heaven rather than a wall that my soul may be directed for its journey to my God While we are upon the earth we are to labour but not for the meat which perisheth but for that which endureth unto life eternal which meat consisting in vero bono good things and true things endureth because they lead to eternal life To pray for earthly things modestly is also a commended circumstance in devotion and fiat voluntas tua If it be thy will must be a curb to our otherwise too heady too greedy appetites It is in order before our daily bread Thy will be done c. Teaching us to entertain our own thoughts with a dutifull succumbency to the hand of his providence in affording us little or much and therewith to feast our selves even to a satiety for when we pray for health for food for strength we must do it as men ought to set out for a journey i. e. if the Lord Will. For tota Fidelium salus the salvation of all Believers and the strength of all their patience must depend upon and be stored up in him who doth all things wonderfully I add wisely therefore he and not our selves must carve our portion for us and say with David Let God do with me give unto me what seemeth him good 5. The charity that is requisite in our Prayers will have us pray for good things both for our selves and others Necessity prompts us to the first but piety oblidgeth us to the other however men stand in relation to us whether they be Kinsmen or Strangers Foes or Friends the Knowing or Ignorant Godly or Debauched So David prayed for his enemies Christ for his persecuters Peter for Dorcas and Stephen for those who stoned him We have a large Precept to pray for all men and he whose charity cometh short of that Law is so much short of a Christian and ought to take care that in this sense there be a cubit added to his stature All having temptations all being subject to failings and all of us by pursuing what is too much our own forgetting the love we owe to our neighbour gives an occasion of offence and really scandalizes one another which alone ought to make us rack our selves and part with much of our too much beloved opinions as Abraham did the half of his promised possession that there may be lodging found for the too long extruded Christian Amity The party that says the Lords Prayer must in that small word Vs include the large mass of Mankind and Humanity were it but for his own security he being concerned in the whole number of Adam's succession must say Deliver us from evil Prayer being that Magnus Thesaurus the best armour of soul-defence the best security in spiritual assaults the greatest treasure in abounding poverty the quietest Harbour in tempestuous times and the surest place of refuge in all calamity Which if seriousâ—y considered in evil times might perswade us not to say me or he but Father deliver us from evil It was this that gave great consolation to a Ship-wracked King who enquiring in a hideous storm the time of the night it was told it was past mid-night called to his disconsolate associats Be not afraid for all the good Subjects of my Kingdom and of all other parts of the world are rising and praying for us and by their prayers we shall be delivered and sicut credidit saith my Author ita contigit ei it happened unto him according to his saith It is without debate that he who is conscious to himself of his own mediating before God for others may in distress comfortably reflect and infer that there are holy ones interceeding for him whose supplications together with his own being uniformly devout shall no doubt act vigorously for securing him from irreparable ruine And what before I close if it be told you that melius est it is better to pray for our enemies than for our friends the one having a blessing the other no reward It not being alwayes fair weather with the Saints not only praying for good things but also for the
the second person with Stephen Lord Iesus receive my spirit For both is here understood and Prayer ought jointly to be put up to them as they are one and severaly to all the Persons as they are three provided that in naming of one as here we exclude not the Son nor Spirit as Stephen not the Spirit nor the Father though the Son be solely invoked It was the Trinity that said Let us make man and from the Trinity did sin cause man to fall and by Prayer to the Trinity must man be remitted of his sin delivered from evil and instructed to avoid temptation It is given as a rule that where the Word Father is simply used without any other word restricting it to any of the other Persons as here there is none the whole Deity is thereby signified ex gr The fowls of the Air sow not yet your heavenly father feedeth them In Father all the Trinity is understood but in these words The Father loveth the Son the second Person is distinctly spoken of and distinguished from the first as also the first from the second But to reach the depth of the word Father in this profound sense were to puzle our souls with inscrutable Mysteries and with Simonides to drench our brains in unprofitable questions For he being asked by Hiero the King what God was desired one days liberty to answer the question but that being too short he demanded two but these not being sufficient he intreated for four in regard the more he pondered his soul was the more darkned touching the nature of a Deity neither do we read that ever he answered the question though eight days was allowed him his head questionless being filled with doubts and niceties studying the solution We shall therefore taking a prospect of this word of this cloud Father from its darkest side as it relates to Prayer and then we may see clearly â—avour on Godsâ—part and duty upon ours The favour is to be seen in Priviledges Justification and in our Adoption 1. Our Christian-priviledges above the Iew. Many and lofty were the Titles and Names by which God made himself known under the Law as the Lord God of gods the God of Abraham and the Almighty God but it is Our Father quia noster esse cepit he now becoming our God having left off to be theirs His Name to them was I AM denoting Eternity and Immutability to be in himself But Our Father shews plainly our interest in him and his to us he is not now under the Gospel called the God of Abraham at a distance but having spoken to us by his Son to keep us with him for ever sweetens our service under the notion of fatherly attendance the other having rebelled against him They indeed while with him had much of his praise but to which of them at any time said he When ye pray say Our Father They prayed indeed but in comparison of us they did it as servants we doing it as sons having received that spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father But of this afterward 2. Our Iustification by the blood of Christ. Our sins made us lose our interest we had in him by our wandring as the lost sheep and by our lavishing as the Prodigal we became like our old father the Devil and by consequence were afar off but now made nigh by the blood of Christ who made our peace animating us with confidence to pray After this manner having by faith received the power to become the Sons of God For nec peccator neither can a sinful people or a sinful man be attoned or made a son or sons except there preceed a remission of sin which is accompanied by the gift of Son-ship For whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin and he who would receive the kiss of the Father must return and confess with the Publicane and he shall not only have bread enough but his sin shall be forgiven him 3 Our Adoption by the regeneration of the Spirit Regeneration implyes a two-fold birth First we are born children of wrath and so are children of the Devil yet not by nature but imitation because the lusts of that father we will do by which we have no plea to Heaven And unless as regenerated a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God He comprehends all Ages Sexes and conditions and except he be born again shews a new Father and a new nature Of water understand that Baptism is an entry into a new life which is administred in the Name of the Father upon our bodies denoting that even our flesh is capable of Heavens glory and of the Spirit this is that wherein all blessedness consists for as the Spirit of man must be prop'd or buttress'd by the Spirit of God or it can never be elevated so as to enter the Kingdom of God so must the Spirit of God uphold the faith of the believer by bearing witness to it of the souls being born of God or then we cannot call after this manner without mocking our Father which is in Heaven A Father he is in respect of Christ and because of him he is a Father in respect of us like our elder Brother and elder brethren Let us seek after the things of Heaven that it may be known we pray by the spirit of Adoption having re-purchased the title of Sons Acknowledging by Father an absolution of offences a freedom from judgement Justification Sanctification and the Adoption of Sons a fellowship with Christ the gifts of the Spirit an inheritance incorruptible that fadeth not away eternal in the Heavens Whereby it may be attested of our Father what a dying man said of the Epistles and Gospels when desired by some to deliver a rule for the right ordering of their lives held up them with an ecce omnia hic here are all things necessary for attaining of a good and blessed life he meant they living after the rules there taught so shall it be with us if we practise according to the form prescribed here For this Preface holdeth out also duty on our part and we learn by it to pray with confidence awfulness and plainness 1. With confidence but not with presumption God hath come low to embrace us as sons he hath given us freedom to touch his Scepter yet ought not man to be saucy for the one nor play as a child with the other Let not the pride of thy countenance keep thee O man from God that is from calling upon him because he is thy Father nor permit the sin of thy soul to perswade thee to run from him because he is in Heaven Do this and live come boldly to the Throne of grace that you may obtain mercy It is a Throne therefore denotes Majesty to stop presumption with the
not that they on earth are idle for all his works praise him put Angels for the host of Heaven and Saints for the work of his hands on earth and then we may infer our duty to bless the Lord because he only preserveth us King Iames knew this who is of happy memory were it but for this that knowing a Prince that feareth not and loveth not the Divine Majesty nothing in his Government can succeed well with him therefore my son said he to his Prince first of all things learn to know and love God Which darkly was performed by Numa Pompilius who knowing that God hated sloathful services commanded the Romanes though Heathen to wait and attend upon prayer rebus omnibus post-positis all other affairs being first laid aside Iupiter and Iuno conceited Deities were so called by their worshippers from the help and aid they gave to things but our God doth more then juvare help because vitam salutem tribuit he giveth life health and happinesse and therefore ought more affectionatly to be implored and only to be adored An Army of Infidels rushing into the Dominions of the famous Christian Emperour Theodosius were worsted rather by his prayers then Arms for first a thunder-bolt from Heaven slew Rugas their Captain next a plague thinned their Army and the remnant were consumed by fire from the Element After which Proclus Bishop of Constantinople expounded a portion of Ezekiels Prophesie wherein God was exalted and the Patriarch applauded for his applying of it sanctifying God before their eyes he having magnified himself in the eyes of many Nations If you eye service he only can reward Should one intreat the Virgin Mary or St. Barbara against his wifes barrenness it may be doubted if ever he should have a Son or had Peter when sinking followed the Doctrine of his pretended successour and cryed Abraham or Ieremiah save me or I perish I am prone to conjecture he had been drenched by this one instance be excited in life or death to pay the tribute of Prayer and Praise to him solely who hath not only an eye to see and an ear to hear us but by precepts hath commanded us to adresse our selves to him for comfort in the life he hath given us in the death before us and in the hopes of that Heaven he hath proposed to us If you eye justice he only doth merit Are not the Cattle upon a thousand hills his Are we not the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands Are we not in spight of our hellish adversaries preserved by the artifice and methods of his providence The good we have is it not from him the peace health we enjoy is it not of him the Gospel we read did not he teach it us and the soul we live by did not he give it us What a mad project and unjust proceeding must that therefore be to fancy that some other then he ought to have the sacrifice of our souls the fruits of our lips That distinction of the Romish Schoolman is not so concluding as perhaps he thought it viz. that God is only to be repaired unto for grace or glory not the Saints they being only desired to assist us or to pray for us for the Scripture in things relating betwixt God and man hath given no ground for such distinction it denying any Mediator except Christ who also invites us to come directly to him for rest and ease and to him our selves without sending another And as when he trode the Wine-presse he was alone and none with him so in the application of its benefits we have no example of imploying Man or Angel to plead for us at his hand now glorified Besides how can we call on him or her in whom we have not believed and Rome with us professing to believe in God the Father Almighty c. ought with us also to expunge their Saints Litanies from their service Not to affront Gabriel or Paul or Peter or the Virgin Mary whose faith whose vertues whose example is this day in the greatest part of the Christian world commemorat and taught for her eternal renown in which we oppose her receiving prayers or in this sense giving glory to her name It was justice that extorted from a poor serving man that excellent decision of that ridiculous question started by the Romish Friers in this Kingdom whether the Lords Prayer might be said to Saints and after much talk hot debates absurd distinctions the Servant concluded when he had asked his Master to whom should it be said meaning the Lords Prayer but to God and let the Saints have said he Credos and Ave Marias enough for it might suffice them and too good for them But he spoke more knowingly and of this Kingdom likewise who said Let us remember that the Pronoun Thy is possessive and pointeth out the Name to whom glory and honour do most chiefly and of due belong For though there be many names yet there is not any name to which honour and glory both of debt and duty belongs but only to the Name of God 1. Because by him is named all the family in Heaven or Earth 2. Because by his sufferings and victorious triumphs he hath obtained a name far above all others 3. There is no other name by which we can be saved The Son gave it us to put up to our Father not to Peter or Brother much lesse to the Virgin Mary our Sister And therefore to the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen And so much for the matter of this Petition Hallowed be thy Name NOw we are brought unto the order of this Petition unto which for brevities sake we shall annex the method of the whole Prayer and to avoid confusion hint withall at the exactness required in our accesses unto God All our actions ought to have God for the ultimat design or end and so should our prayers to which purpose they either are to eye his glory as in Hallowed be thy Name or enjoyment of his glory in thy Kingdom come unto which something is directly and principally necessary as Thy will be done or necessary and instrumentally as give us our dayly bread or necessary and accidentally as the removing of hinderances either directly excluding out of Heaven as forgive us our sins or impeding us in our way towards it as lead us not into temptation or irksomness in our life travelling towards it as Deliver us from evil There are who shew the order thus all Petitions respecting either the good things of Heaven or Earth are here ordained by our Saviour to be thus sought after such as relate to Heaven are first to be demanded and are contained in the three first Petitions and the first of them being Hallowed be thy Name regards his glory and the other
Covetousness in Buff Oppression watching Lust posting Fury thâ—â—tning Malice contiriving and Policy uniting to suppress the Gospel and though it get ground in the conversion of some to the saith of Jesus yet what Hanibal said of the Roman General Marcellus may the Church say of them and the devil their Captain that neither conquered nor conquering will they be quiet yea her case must be sad since the very liâ—e of her peace consists in fighting against these restless adversaries and where overcome yet so desperate is their wrath they with the Gadarens beseech Christ to depart It s regiment is likewise often obnubilated Grace now and then is put to the flight by an army of lusts The Church is said to be a Woman cloathed with the Sun the Moon under her feet that she is a Woman betokeneth her weakness her fruitfulness cloathed with the Sun her protection by and obedience to Jesus Christ the Moon under her feet signifyeth her contempt of all earthly because mutable enjoyments yet for all this pompous equippage she is forced to go to the wilderness for shelter against the Dragons rage and fury The feeling the beholding the hearing of these things will cause sorrow and what consolation is that offered by an Ancient comforting a Christian in sad times It was Pia tristitia beata miseria a blessed melancholy and a pleasant misery to behold the sins of others and weep and to another Plangenda sunt haec non miranda these things are to be be 〈◊〉 for not wondred at yet adds that prayer ought to be made I shall not say that after the fall God appointed our flesh our sinful lusts to rule overus for our punishment as he appointed thorns to arise out of the earth for mans vexation but since the fall lusts and corruption overshadow grace within us to that hight that Peter will curse David fall and Iacob lie to his Father and these weeds are permitted to abide in all until the Kingdom of God come with power which made David call but thou O Lord how long that is in the new Testament-stile Thy Kingdom come The Gospel in its progress is compared by our Saviour to leaven and that workes gradually regeneration to a new birth and man is perfected by degrees the Church to a builing and that advanceth by rule and measure and Wisdom is said to have hewn out her seven pillars which implies addition the new man hath not his proportion by years but by degrees and comes to perfection by distinct gifts and graces he first learns as a child to read the good examples of others then advancing forward he comes to live according to divine Law then he is so in love with Christ that marrying himself to him he would not sin though there were no Law against it growing now strong he can endure and stand out against the worlds troubles and vexations and then growing rich in the abundance of the things of the Kingdom of God he leads a peaceable and contented life then he comes to forget that is not to heed transitory things being wholly intent as aged in grace upon life eternal and now there remains but one step more that is the Kingdom of glory which advanceth towards us by the grace of faith illumination of the soul Discipline of the Church and by finishing the number of the Elect. 1. By the hearing of faith This eyes all the Kingdoms we have spoken of for as by faith we believe that Jesus came to save sinners so we believe by â—aith that the world was created and yet preserved the Father Almighty hitherto working and darkly hinted at in the conclusion of this Prayer For thine is the Kingdom power and glory All that we know of Hell his prison of Earth his Foot-stool of the Clouds his Chariots of Man his Image of Angels his Hosts of Heaven his Pallace of Christ his Son is by the doctrine of Faith for untill it come we are not savingly sensible of the Kingdom of God And the doctrine of the Worlds Creation Mans fall and Christs coming are recorded to have been the Principles of Religion taught in Adams Temple Oratory or place of worship where God dwelt from whose face Cain departed all which shew that it is necessary to believe as firmly that God the Father Almighty made the Heaven and Earth as it is to believe in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord. The grace of faith is said to be the Kingdom of God within that Kingdom being spiritual and reigning in the hearts of the faithfull while they are in the Kingdom of providence and by which they are nourished and protected untill they arrive at the Kingdom of God in glory where they shall reign as Kings and Priests unto God for ever 2. By the enlightning of the mind This peculiarly eyes his Kingdom of grace As Moses face shined when he was with God under the Law so now God shines in the hearts of his friends under the Gospel he saith now not Let there be light but is himself a light unto his people The Gospel puts a Key in the Converts hand to intuat and behold the mysteries in Christ crucified which others cannot see and also a Lamp to know how far and in what kind for what use and for what end they appertain to him As at the Creation there was a fiat lux Let there be light so in Conversion there is a scias fu thy sins are forgiven thee which is that unction of the Spirit by which all things are known as the Eunuch knew and believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and by which also their Conversation is in Heaven having security by God and joy in him for which cause also it is the highest stone in Wisdoms seven Pillars upholding the house that is the Conscience or Soul of man The first whereof being good Will next a sanctified Memory the third a clean Heart the fourth a free Soul the fifth a right Spirit the sixth a devout Mind but the last and highest is an enlightned Understanding By the discipline of the Church Admonitions Reproofs Censures are as military weapons used by the Church for the upholding of this Kingdom of Grace yea a delivery over unto Satan by excommunication which if justly duly and compassionatly done is and hath been found instrumental for the stirring up the authority and power of Grace in the soul of some obdured shame and fear being very efficacious motives where other means are less effectual to perswade a soul to cry Peccavi Father I have sinned as did the incestuous Corinthian One Sigbert King of the East Saxons keeping society and familiarity with a Count or Earl whom holy Cedd had excommunicated for unlawful marriage once by accident met with Cedd as he journeyed to the Counts house and being smitten with shame and fear alighted from his horse and craved
affaires and they take up a great deal of time against our own wills that this must be done against the spring that this is fit for such a countrey and this is suitable for such a coast gives us no time to study the will of God As fishers have several baits for different fishes so the world hath variety of snares for its multitude of traders Demonaae when questioned if the world had a soul then if it was round With indignation answered you are very carefull about the world yet about your filthiness contracted in the world you are carelesse Here this man is settling his heir there that man bewailing his poor crop he casting up his accounts and a fourth is preparing for a forreign plantation because of all which there is such a bumming in the ears of man that with the maniest the sound of the words carrying the sense of the will of God hath not admittance into that gate of the soul the ear which if it had we should not be so far embased about the drudgery of this pelf but write with a holy man for direction and instruction about sub jugating our wills to the will of God and what we ought to do therefore It is desired on earth though to our sorrow we know it will never be there exactly done suppose our hearts for once holy ground yet the Rod of Moses I mean the Law when cast thereon becomes a Serpent and we are scarce able to endure the sight of the just holy and good commandment sin by it taking occasion to work in us all manner of concupiscence sed hic inter in ex parte oramus we pray for some measure of obedience here that we may be perfected in all obedience hereafter God crowning in heaven with perfection our sincere service performed on earth though through weaknesse imperfecte clamemus igitur in Coelum we therefore list up our voices to Heaven because under it there is nothing but labour sorrow vanity and vexation The earth hath its heats and colds according to the cloudiness of the air or distance of the Sun obedience likewise hath her colds and heats her workings and faintings her runings and stumblings and sometimes a great intermission of her spiritual pulse On earth Faith hath her distrusts Hope her doubts Charity her damps there this opinion raiseth Choler that doctrine provoketh Rancour he caufeth offence by an ill example these are scandalled through supposed mistakes whereby the Earth that is the best of its inhabitants is but a bad copy yea indeed no copy at all hence our Lord teacheth that not Earth but Heaven be the rule for doing our Fathers will Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven THE rule of our obedience is now before us and the mould in which all actions are to be cast for Heavens that is for Gods plaudit As it is in Heaven is a Doctrine of comparing qualities not substances it respects neither Earth nor Heaven Physically but Morally pressing a conformity in the inhabitants of either to the will of the Lord of both and grand Master of each It is also a doctrine of holinesse among Spirits that the souls of the righteous here Militant may in vertue and well-doing totally resign themselves in imitation of the Spirits Triumphant for the will of God that they may be found without fault before the Throne of God That their conversation may be in Heaven by contemplating the things which are not seen here and affecting the things that are only there by working all things according to the Angels Samplar Yea even to follow God himself it being not unlawful per divina ire vestigia to walk as Christ himself walked The word is singular Heaven not Heavens as in the Preface excluding all but the very in-side of Heaven the interior parts of the Heaven of Heavens there being there exactness in opposition to Earths crookedness and stateliness against its baseness 1. Exactness Examples are to be eminent and as far as possible contrived above the censure of ordinary operators in things wherein honour is concern'd but in things divine wherein are couched the most pressing interests of the souls eternity patterns ought not to have so much as an umbrage or shadow of sensuality which not being sound on earth a David will trip a Iacob will halt and a Noah lye uncovered we are to eye Heaven for acquiring of righteousness and ture holiness 2. Stateliness How slovenly so to speak do we handle the mysteries of God Is not a trembling hand a glazy eye a blubred face commended in the approaches of the devout to the greatest pledges of their salvation and yet in these addresses not only faith but their love to God is then more sublimely to be acted that it may be felt heard and understood so that the highest raptures and most ravishing transportations like high Steeples are not without their Cob-webs whereas in Heaven the divine beams of glory shining upon the faces and hearts of the Elect both heats their souls and beautifies their exercise to that degree that with redoubled acclamations of ineffable joy they stand before their Saviours Throne and go about their Masters errant in a Royal Majestick and Authoritative deportment These are so well known to be in Heaven that good men do not only mistrust others but fear themselves pray against themselves ask forgivenesse both in and for their most religious undertakings which must cede to the performance of those Sainted above they being incapable of pollution laxation or heâ—itation through the spiritualizing of all their faculties In this Prayer there are two sicuts two as-es one is As we forgive our debters forgive us in which Earth draws a pattern from Heaven to follow sets it a copy to write a pardon by the other is this Petion As thy will is done in Heaven let it be done in Earth in which Heaven is recommended as worthy for imitation of Earth and sets before it a picture for Earth to draw the lively features of exact and acceptable duties For note in Heaven there are three whom we must imitate and follow viz. Christ Angels and the Saints glorified Behold Christ as man and as when upon earth it was meat to do his Fathers will for himself giving us in that consideration an example to prevent sin and as God a remedy against it from which it is deducible that our eyes feet hands and tongue are to be observant observers of the whole Law and will of God as Christ was we making his life our book our glass our rule our way his present residence in Heaven and work there is the Churches salvation in general thy soul Reader and that other mans in particular for it is the will of the Father that none of these little ones perish hence Christ becomes their Advocat that they all may
both power to do it and it is just so to do In every trespasse there are two offences and consequently two offended God and Man As it eyes God it is called a sin which he can only forgive as it eyes Man it is called an injury and in that sense men may must and ought to forgive it Ita si spolietur homo a man is robbed here is theft a sin against God a loss sustained here is a trespasse against man the first God only can pardon man the other Trespasse is thought to come from Trans passus as if to offend were to go over the hedge of the Law which when done Ergo pro me proximus pro se I for my self and my neighobour for his self lcan forgive and Preachers of the Gospel can forgive that is Ministerially but to do it Authoritatively is proper only to God and to do it charitably common to all and required of all Phocion that famous Greek being unjustly and by execrable ingratitude condemned to die by poyson was demanded if he had any fatherly advice to leave his son gave this that his death should never be revenged by him upon the Athenians here is a Heathen shewing us how to pardon and how to distinguish Gods act and mans in this vertue of remitting Yet have a care that they be they own debts which thou remittest not acting the part of a busie-body in other mens matters whereunto thou art not called or related Paul who had much charity yet did not give but beg forgiveness of Philemon for his run-away-servant The last reflection is touching Malefactors of whom it may be enquired whether when at the place of Execution we hear them forgive their Judges Accusers Apprehenders we may conclude Gods remitting unto them the sin for which they die Most certain it is that these words are added as a rule and afterwards added as a precept and here urged as a reason why God should forgive us implying in all that forgivenesse is blessed with forgivenesse and God will never be wanting to the execution impoletion or fulfilling of his own promise It is true forgiving in a perfunctory heedlesse or heartless way or for some friend whom we love or respect or for hope of some advantage or fear of greater mischief or out of a lumpish dedolent and stupid way it cannot have much weight But contrary if it flow from a fruit of that Spirit which worketh repentance for his sin against God and dewed with the tears of contrition for the same and pardoning man thereupon for his concurrence in apprehending for condign punishment Let me see such a thief and to die to day saith one and I dare say that this night he shall be with Christ in Paradise Reader suffer a word of exhortation And 1. Smooth not thy debts It were a foolish thing to extenuat and conceal them when forgiving will pay them all Hell cannot be washed with Spanish white neither will God suffer sin to go apparell'd in Silver Cloath say with David pardon mine iniquity for it is great Praying here for the imputation of Christs righteousnesse and against the imputation of our own offences both quoad culpam paoenam as to their guilt and punishment it were an improsperous course to sue a pardon from their paucity or smalnesse from him especially who accepts us most heartily when we conclude our condition most desperat 2. Clear not thy debts Notwithstanding of asking crosse not presently thy conscience as if thy businesse were immediatly done who hath a suit at Court must wait untill his Petition be signed and by the Master of Requests returned 3. Curse not thy self There is in this Prayer a mercy said to be given to thy brother if there be a lie here is a fearful execration against thy self saith thou not Forgive as I forgive Now beware and take heed for etiam per quod orat accusat thou art accusing thy self saying Lord as I purpose never to forget this injury to revenge this losse so revenge thy self upon me for ever and forgive me as I forgive others therefore quantum velis or quaris as much mercy as thou wishes or desires to thy self shew to thy brother For mark here is one word copulative not in the Prayer before and after which followeth Forgive us as we forgive shewing that with the same earnestnesse wherewith we are carried to seek after the things of this life as daily bread or that other as remission of sin we have already pardoned our brother I say already for God will trust neither our promises nor our charity but will have us be reconciled to our Brother before we come to him for reconciliation otherwise our supplications are so much the more damnable as the condition upon which they stand is the more feasable for scio sane sine difficultate said a Father pressing charity that command may without difficulty be obeyed where nothing is commanded but what is within the possibility of the party enjoyned The reciprocal offices of Husband and Wife Parents and Children Master and Servant Neighbour and Kins-man can hardly be performed without flaws and ruptures quarrels debates and breaches which by amity must be filled and ended again by a proceeding in the duties and making progress in the offices answering those relations where the trespass at least destroyes not the relation as that of Adultery in the case of Marriage In all which si dimiseris if thou forgive the injuries committed against thee it is comely and it doth become thy Father in Heaven to forgive thee thy sins committed against him Thy sins though as was Davids they be great that is in number more then the sand in weight as a heavy burden great in cry reaching up to Heaven in continuance for they have endured since thy mother conceived thee in her womb yet he can scatter them as a cloud and cause them to flee away To flee away but in his own due time he may be angry at the prayers of his people yea at our prayers and may order this dropping Summer to lay our Feathers wash our Paint and make our strength to fail yet continue saying Forgive us our debts and be assured to hear Thine inlquity is done away c. Let this suffice for the matter of this Petition the method and order thereof followeth which is this We have this and another next that for our daily bread indicating that bread ought not to be so delicious or any natural delicate to be so zealously sought for as those Celestial refreshings assurance of pardon and guidance from and in temptation Moreover t is apparent that all worldly wealth contained in the word bread are frustraneous ineffectual for procuring or interpreting us to have blessings from God if unto these remission of our sin be not annexed here pleaded for by arguments from the