the Prayer of his Servants to do it for them Therefore hath our Lord Jesus Christ taught us so to enquire by Prayer in and according to this Great Rule of Prayer he hath given There are Three Things the Word of God hath made necessary to our Receiving any Mercy in the Nature and Order of a Mercy 1. That we should pray unto and enquire of God for it 2. That the Thing we pray for should be within the Decree and Determination of God it should be and so according to his Will 3. That it should be ask'd in Faith or upon a Promise declaring to us that Will and Determination of God Now in these Great Points Christ hath taken a certain Care 1. That there should be Prayer for those things by giving this Prayer for them 2. Seeing he gave this Prayer by an Infallible Spirit knowing the Mind of God it is certainly squared according to the Will and Promise of God As therefore this Prayer is every way prepared for being heard so Jesus Christ most certainly sends out his Spirit to all his Servanrs to give Faith and to move holy Desire according to this Prayer that God may be cried to Day and Night agreeably with it And when his Saints may be short in either the Understanding it or in the Faith or Desire that it should be Pray'd with the Spirit makes Intercession according to the will of God with Groans that cannot be Vttered wherein God understands the Mind of his Spirit because it makes Intercession according to his will so this Prayer must be a certain Prediction that all these things shall be so For God cannot Fail of his will and promise Christ cannot Fail of having Taught to Pray according to this will and promise of God nor can Christ Fail to give his Spirit to his Servants to Excite them to Faith and Holy Desire according to this Prayer From all which it uncontestably Follows That this Prayer must be a certain Prediction That the will of God shall be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and the whole Concatenation of Things be according to it and therefore that the Kingdom of Christ must come on Earth as it is in Heaven so that this Prayer must be a Prayer for the Glorious Appearance of Christ's Kingdom according to the highest Elevation of the Sense of the Prayer and so the Prayer to be Expounded as the Prayer of the Kingdom For what is more Visible than that this hath not yet been nor is like to be in the Present State upon Earth but even to Horror and Amazement the contrary hath been ever since the general Profession of Christianity by Nations and in all the Prospect we can have of Things Humanly speaking it will continue so There must be therefore a peculiar State Created for the Answer of this Petition and what can that be but that New Earth according to promise wherein Righteousness shall Dwell even at and in the Kingdom of Christ And so this Prayer must be the Prayer of the Kingdom enquiring of God for the Accomplishment of that Promise I can therefore by no means allow the Abatement of the Force of this Petition upon a compare of it with such Expressions be ye Holy as I am Holy be ye Perfect as your Faâ—her in Heaven is Perfect or by comparing it with the Apostle's vehement Emotion of forgetting things that are behind and pressing forward for the mark of the price of the High Calling of God in Jesus Christ if by any means he might attain the Resurrection of the Dead or the State of Perfection in this Life if we should so Expound it Now to Interpret these Expressions either as gracious Desires though not Answer'd in this World or as setting up to our selves the highest and most perfect Mark to Shoot at though we cannot reach it in this World or that such Expressions of being Holy and Perfect as God is shew that excellent Kind and Alloy of Holyness though we cannot rise up to the Perfection of Degrees and then to suppose this Sense to be all the Sense of this Petition and that it cannot be fully and compleately Answer'd till we come to Heaven this Explication I affirm cannot agree 1. Because all these gracious both Endeavours and Designs have a Time and and a State of coming to their Complement and Perfection even to a Perfection of Degrees so far as Created Nature is Capable of such a Perfection and therefore neither those Commands nor Desires are in vain though they do not obtain their desired Effect in this State Because there is a State on purpose for that Perfection But for the doing the will of God on Earth as it is in Heaven that can never come to its Perfection except there be a State on some very Earth where it may come into its Perfection For there is so Direct and Perpendicular a Fixing the Petition upon some Earth That it must come to its Perfection on such Earth or not at All Seeing then there are such Promises to the Earth That Knowledg shall cover it as the Waters do the Sea That Righteousness shall dwell in it That the Sinners shall be Consumed out of it That the Meek shall Inherit it and then such a Prayer Taught by Christ for the Doing the Will of God on Earth and according to so great an Exemplar as in Heaven There must be a Perfection of it on Earth or else this Petition cannot be Heard For Personal Qualifications follow Persons and may be Perfected in their Perfection how ever they change their Place But Local Priviledges adhere to the place and except Earth it self were carried up to Heaven there cannot be a Perfecting of what is proper to the Holy State of Earth but it must be on Earth For else there must be a Confounding Heaven and Earth 2. It is duly to be observ'd and it is very plain it is so that Heaven and Earth are Parallell'd as two places one where the Will of God is done and the other where it is prayed It may be done The words are therefore most exactly Framed to express a Parallel It is therefore Prayed That as the places stand in Parallel one to another so that the State of the Will of God done in one may be made Parallel by the doing the Will of God in the other And as the doing the Will of God is the Glory of the one Place so that it may be also the Glory of the other and therefore except that Glory Fill the Earth according to so many Promises foremention'd as it now Fills the Heaven this Petition cannot be heard 3. The Kingdom comming is as it were the Key of the Sanctifying the Name of God and the doing the Will of God Now the very words Thy Kingdom come do enough Explain It is a State on Earth that is desir'd and shew both the Time and the High Efficacy which will then be at work for the Sanctifying the Name of
Life freely Running down from the Holy City and Sanctuary So that though they have not an Absolute Incorruptibility till they are caught up and put on Incorruption and Immortality Yet their Corruptible and Mortal shall never see Death or Corruption And as to all Things of the Present State there is by the Divine Benediction and no Curse entring sufficient Food and Durable Clothing That is All that is necessary by a Spontaneous production without their Toyl or so much as Thought for it God provides And thus in this very Petition Christ hath Spann'd Heaven and Earth with his Hand and made it correspendent to the Sanctifying the Name of God and doing his Will in his Kingdom being come and to let us into the Sense of it hath chosen a Word of an Extraordinary Key and that can be no way interpreted to Satisfaction but into this high Sense of Super-Essential Super-Substantial I proceed now to the Fifth Petition Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive Them that trespass against us Now This Petition also as hath been before observed is a Petition that shall be heard as all the other Petitions of this Prayer to Perfection It is most True and undoubted That it carries an high Obligation to mutual Forgiveness even now among all the Disciples of Christ and Worshippers of him according to this Prayer he hath Taught But This doth not exclude the higher Predictive Sense that is included in the Elevation of this Petition especially because we find so low a State of Things if we measure according to it whether we consider the Comfortable Sense that the Saints of Christ have of their Sins being pardoned by God or the Degrees of mutual Pardon Christians are Able to extend one towards another in this Present State There are Three Things therefore that I will propose to Discourse upon it 1. That this Petition imports a State of the Highest and Fullest Forgiveness of the Saints of Christ one towards another even so high that our Lord proposes it as the very Standard of the Forgiveness of God not that it is indeed so but contrary-wise The Forgiveness of God is certainly the Original Exemplar of Pardon and the Grand Efficient of it as it is in his Saints One to Another 2. This Petition therefore Declares a Forgiveness and Pardon from God to the Highest of all our Notions and Sentiments of Pardon that either we can desire from or yield one to another which is one main Reason of our Saviour's Teaching us the Desire of Forgiveness from God as we Forgive That is to the Heighth and Depth to the Breadth and Length of all our Conceptions of Pardon and also as we learn from Scripture much above and beyond what we can know ask or think 3. When we compare this Prayer with Scripture in its whole Latitude which as I have said is the True Exposition of it and with the Height of Prophetical Scripture in this Point of Reconciliation we find It shall be of All Things in Hâ—aven and Earth or of the Creatures among themselves or of the whole Creation in all the Parts of it one with another 1. I begin with the First wherein our Lord appears to have Given us as a Key a private Key That this is the Prayer of his Kingdom viz. That he Teaches us to pray that we may be forgiven even as we Forgive or as it is said in Luke For we also forgive I do not at all doubt as I have already declared on All Accounts and so on this but that our Lord did hereby Teach the Great Duty of Mutual Forgiveness and that the Expository Discourses upon this Petition are of Great Weight and Moment and of mighty pressing Obligation to all such Mutual Forgiveness But I do only endeavour to shew They do not reach the Heighth of this Petition And therefore on Two Grounds I would discourse this as the Prayer of the Kingdom upon this Petition 1. That the very mention of Forgiveness one of another does import an high State of our Mutual Forgiveness For the Petition does intend not only a Prayer that God would forgive as we forgive but also a Prayer that we may forgive so as we desire to be forgiven of God For a Duty so much above Flesh and Blood and also so contrary to Flesh and Blood how can we presume upon in our own strength without Prayer for it in the very mention of it included For else the Words wauld be as if we Vyed with God in the Magnanimity of Pardon and desir'd him to take Pattern by us and to fâ—rgive us For we are able to forgive those who are indebted to us Whereas we know and Scripture so makes plain to us God is He to whom none is like in pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin And indeed none can Forgive at all but God principally and primarily because every Sin against Men is first against Him and a Victation of his Order and Government of the World And therefore David when he had sinned subordinately against the Honour of Vriah's Bed and against his Life yet confesses Against Thee Against Thee only have I sinned Not as many would take it eztolling his Kingly Power and Supremacy but acknowledging God's Original Right over All Things and that Sin is so against Him that he hath a Supreme Right of pardoning without the Consent of the offended Creature although it be both the Duty of the Offending to Ask and of the offended Creature to Grant that Pardon And that is because both the Offending and the Offended are his But not insisting upon our forgiving as being intended by way of Petition but only as a Condition of and Qualification for Divine Pardon Yet seeing Gods forgiveness of us we desire should be to the heighth There must be a Time when our forgiving one another shall be at such a Heighth that it may be the Glory of that State that Forgiveness of one another and also Forgiveness from God to us may be at a heighth because this Prayer does in every thing imply the highest Senses and therefore must have an Answer to a heighth So on all Accounts there must be a Time of God's forgiving us and our forgiveness of one another at the heighth and the Latter must be such that it may declare and display the Glory of the Former or else This Prayer does not Attain its End 2. Indeed Our Forgivness of one Another is now so low that if it should be the Measure in any Sence of Gods Forgiving us the Best and the most Charitable would want a plenary Pardon if so Measured out to Them I should desire in the Behalf of Those who Forgive most Clearly They should yet be in a Higher Measure Forgiven of God then They Forgive The best Men have too great Tinctures of the Sence of the Injury of others against them Remaining upon their Spirits and especially according to the Comprehensive Word here Chosen by Christ Debts that is either
Exposition of so Grand a Portion or part of Scripture may if it should be convinced of Falshood or Contrariety to the Glory Wisdom Truth and Holiness of the Giver be Redargued in the same manner It is endeavour'd to be Argued not with Respect to circumstantial Mistakes or Oversights from which nothing in the present state is Free and without any personal References to the Expositor who before hand lays himself Prostrate which can neither add nor take away from substantial Truths For so is the Apostolick Precept to an Evangelick Person seated in Authority to do it to Reprove by Elenchizing or Argumentation when the merit of the case requires it But if on the other side what is written be upright and words of Truth such a Person will I doubt not take care that He that hath so Laboured in the word and Doctrine may receive the double Honour alloted by Christ These are obligations on Him that is entrusted with a Gospel Oeconomy Now the Concernment is very great viz. The Exposition of the Prayer so universally Styled The Lord's Prayer Both because the Prayer is an inestimable Treasure and even Treasury to all Christians and that in its very Repetition it is made so essential to the Form of Publick Worship in this as it owns it self National Church and by Law Established The Exposition is also Levelled to the Highest Point of Christianity If it be as it is declared so supreme a Truth of the Gospel as the Kingdom of Christ peculiar to Him as the Messiah as the great Son of Man is who hath it written on his Vestim and on his Thigh King of Kings Lord of Lords Not only as He hath unchangeably a Kingdom as the eternal Word or as He now hath All Power in Heaven and Earth But in a visible glorious Kingdom the Kingdom of the Thousand Years that great Festival of Tabernacles Nehem. 8. 15. that shall be celebrated with everlasting Joy with Lawrels Olives and Palms with all the Glory Verdure and Flourish of Paradise when the Pallace of the highest Heaven shall be as it were left for that Time the Glory and Throne of God and of the Lamb shall come down with the New Jerusalem into the New Heaven above and into the New Earth beneath as in Heaven and on Earth according to this Prayer This Tabernacle-state Rev. 2. 13. of God with and comming down to be with men Not They with him gives style to this Feast of Tabernacles so renowned by the Prophet Zechary c. 14. Because it is not the everlasting Pallace but the Tabernacle of a thousand Years at the end of which as a Kingdom Deliver'd up It is drawn up again to God All in All and All Tabernacle-State ceases And seeing now as is most constantly Affirmed This Kingdom according to an exact Calculation of Scripture-time shall be in its Succession and to prepare for its Glory within five Summers and that as in the Sermon upon the Witnesses Rising herewith Printed There shall be the Avant-Courriers of that Succession all along these very Five Years This solemn Appeal according to the Greatness and Dignity of the Subjects Treated of is Presented to such an Angel in the Church of Ghrist as is Tuly Hoped in whom the National Episcopacy and Pastoral Office draws to a Point and Unit and so is Presented to All in Him By Their most Humble Servant in the Prophecy of Jesus Christ T. BEVERLEY AN EXPOSITION Of the PRAYER we Generally Stile The Lord's Prayer According to the Evangelists Matthew and Luke Mat. 6. 9. Luke 11. 1. SHEWING That according to its True Elevation It is the Prayer of the Kingdom viz. of the Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ in the New Heaven or Jerusalem above and in the New Earth or Jerusalem below I Have treated much of the Kingdom of Christ and endeavour'd tâ— demonstrate it from a great Concert of Scriptures Now This Prayer is a most deservedly Celebrated Portion of Scripture and even Summary of Scripture especially with relation to Prayer it being a Prayer taught by Christ to his Disciples when he was here upon Earth and in them to all Successions of Christians until his Kingdom comes Therefore It must be presum'd to draw within it self whatever is matter of Desire and so of Prayer throughout the Scripture Seeing then this Kingdom must needs be the most Earnest and Passionate Desire and Prayer of the Servants of Christ It would be a deep Prejudice against the Doctrine of the Kingdom if it could not be found within this Prayer But on the other side If it shall be found that all the Lines of the Prayer meet in it as in a Center so that it must be according to its Trne Elevation the Prayer of the Kingdom It will certainly much incline to the Belief of such a Kingdom Those who have not hitherto receiv'd it into their Faith Hope and Expectation It is therefore most expedient I should by the Assistance of the Spirit undertake an Exposition of this Prayer since I on so great Reason esteem it to be the Prayer of the Kingdom and therein manifest It is such and that as such it ought to be Prayed by all the Servants of Christ according to such measures of Praying it as shall be given until that very Kingdom come and more especially by us who live so near the Approaches of it as we may by the Holy Books understand we do and therefore should more earnestly pray for it as Daniel of old for Jerusalem by this very Prayer Let it be no Prejudice then I beseech you to Any who shall read this Exposition that I add another Interpretation of this Prayer as the Prayer of the Kingdom to all those Interpretations that you may have heretofore receiv'd and may be now in your Families For I acknowledge those Interpretations or Expositions to be of very great not only Excellency and Use but also Necessity I am so far from drawing you off from them that I receive them with greatest Veneration and Reverence and declare of them so to others But think it not strange that he who spake as never Man spake and therefore most Justly it ought to be believ'd of him that when he Taught to pray he so Taught as never Man besides himself Taught to pray Think it not strange I say that he Compriz'd in this Prayer Things beyond the ordinary Apprehension beyond the Surface of Things For he hath so fram'd this Prayer that it begins at the Foundation of the Kingdom the Spirituality of it in the Works of Grace here and it rises to the Top of the Kingdom in the Glory of an Illustrious Appearance and so guides the Prayers of his Servants by it in relation to their State in Grace here and even to their whole State in this World in Subordination to it as to rise in their Desires to that higher State of Bodies of the Resurrection in Glory wherein they shall Appear before the Throne of
Entring in they hinder as our Lord Censuring the great Rabbies and Masters of the Jewish Law speaks concerning the Key of Knowledg Luke 11. 52. I will therefore first lay down several Arguments that the true Elevation of this Prayer in its Exposition must be as it is the Prayer of the Kingdom and accordingly I will Aime to give it when I have first Established this main Position by these Proofs of it Argum. 1 The first Argument I draw from the express and plain Words of the Prayer Thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth Now taking the Words according to the plain Sence of them and as we generally understand them it is evident this Prayer Teaches us to rise to the utmost of our desires that the Will of God may be done And seeing there can be no higher Example of its being done then the doing of it as it is done in Heaven we therefore pray it may be done on Earth as it is in Heauen now the same Holiness Zeal and Spirituallity or Heavenly design must move us to pray that the Name of God should be Sanctified to the same height that we pray His Will should be done unto And that utmost is that it may be on Earth as it is in Heaven Sanctified And if we are Taught to pray that the Will of God may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and by Analogy and proportion that his Name may be Sanctified on Earth as it is in Heaven our Lord hath by Admirable Wisdom set the Kingdom of God between these Two Petitions even the Petition that His Kingdom may come between those Two Petitions that undeniably ought to be prayed to the height viz. the Name Sanstified as in Heaven so on Earth and the Will done as in Heaven and so on Earth that what otherwise we might doubt of whether His Kingdom ought to be prayed to come on Earth as it is in Heaven Because we are ready to think that its only to be in Heaven might be ascertain'd to us That we ought to pray for the Kingdom coming even on Earth as it is in Heaven and that we should not be able to wrench out what is so Rivetted into the midst And the very Analogy and Proportion of Heavenly Affection to the Glory of God equally looks to all if there be a possibility They may All be now to shew that They may All be even the Kingdom coming on Earth as in Heaven as well as the Name Sanctified on Earth as in Heaven and the Will done on Earth as in Heaven of which we make no doubt we ought so to pray the Prayer hath so placed that the most to be doubted of in the middle that we may pray for all together and alike Again there is such a concatenation of the things they cannot be divided For the Will of God is that His Name should be Vniversally Sanctified as innumerable Scriptures testify If then His Will be done on Earth as in Heaven His Name must be Sactified on Earth as it is in Heaven seeing that it is so Supream a manifestation of His Will that His Will cannot be done if that be not done and if His Will be so done on Earth as in Heaven His Kingdom must so come For what is a Kingdom but that he who hath the Kingdom should have His Name Highest most Celebrated Honoured and Ador'd which is the Sanctifing the Name of God when it is set at Infinite heights and distances above all other Names and this in Christ who hath a Name above all other Names to the glory of God the Father and that he should have His Will obeyed when ever therefore the Will of God is obeyed the Name of God is so Sanctified on Earth as it is in Heaven His Kingdom must needs come on Earth as it is in Heaven and so His Kingdom will come when ever that is thus when one is the other is also when one is not the other cannot be the things are perfectly convertible and turn on the same Poles when one is all are together with it and if so much as one be not It is certain neither of the other can be But that we may know both the Time when each of the other may be and shall be and that we may also know the Grand Expedient or mighty Instrument when each of the other shall be effected The Kingdom coming is set in the midst of each when the Kingdom comes the other Two shall be For that Kingdom shall certainly effect and bring the other Two to pass viz. the Name shall be so sanctified and the VVill so done But these things are impossible to come to pass according to the Experience of so many Thousand Years that the World hath already had or to be hoped for or expected without Bowing the Heavens Rending the Heavens the Heavens coming down as it were to the Earth in such Glorious Manifestations as the Kingdom of Christ is describ'd to appear in And if these so Fundamental Points of Glory and Happiness in that Kingdom be established how great will be the Consequences There shall certainly be the constant Table of the Kingdom in the Bread of Life and the most abundant Sufficiency of All Things the State of Reconciliation betwixt God and Man betwixt Man and Man betwixt Man and the whole Creation betwixt the lower Creatures and themselves and throughout the whole Frame of the Creation of God All things in Heaven and Earth being Reconciled in him even in him and then most certainly there will be no more Leading into Temptation but a perfect Deliverance from Evil For the Cause of all the Indigencies of that Life that is to be supported by that Epiousious or Supersubstantial Bread according to the Day of all the Anger of God and the Mutual Enmities in the World and of the Curse upon the Creation is That the Will of God is not done on Earth as it is in Heaven and his Name sanctified and because the present State is not the State of the Kingdom of Christ But then shall it be Acknowledg'd with Hallelujahs That the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory is his throughout Eternity of Ages Seal'd with an Unchangable and everlasting Amen Now I would appeal to any one whether our Lord Teaching his Disciples then and successively in All Ages to pray that the Will of God may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and that All Things that must in Necessary Consequence fall out together should come to pass also whenever his Will is so done whether I say our Lord would Teach so to pray if he had not known it was the Will of God Things should be so or if there were not a promise of God for such a Kingdom of Christ wherein All these Things should be so as a Ground of Faith they should be so And because God hath so promis'd and resolv'd they should be so and that he will yet be enquir'd of by
God and for the doing the will of God as in Heaven and on Earth as is further to be made out in the Explaining that Petition And It does assure us the Intention of the Petition is not that there may be only such a doing the Will of God as was before Jesus Christ came in the Flesh and since Christ came universal among the Saints viz. with that Sincerity and in that doing it that is of the same kind with that in Heaven such indeed there hath been but alas It hath been but in so very low degrees as bear no Proportion so that except there be a new State of things such a doing the Will of God can never arise to any Perfection seeing it hath not done it in 1600 years and we can have no Reason except such a Kingdom Come to expect it in 1600 or 16000 more if Time could so long continue All which makes it beyond all doubt that this Petition can never be Fulfill'd but by such a Kingdom as shall bring Heaven and Earth to such a Parallel And therefore as shall be shewn in the Explaining the Petition it self The Prayer is most strictly and yet most Intentionally for an exact Paralellism between the new Heaven and the new Earth as shall be in the Kingdom of Christ and wherein Righteousness shall Dwell alike It is therefore a Prayer not only for the doing the will of God on Earth but also in Heaven viz In that New Heaven and that such an Heaven and Earth may be in a Parallel one to another according to the Promise so that the Prayer if we speak sincerely of the matter is not directly that the will of God may be done in this Earth as it is now done in the Third Heaven above us where God and Christ and Holy Spirits of Angels and Saints are But that there may be such a Parallel New Heaven and New Earth although it is most True the present Sanctification of the Name Kingdom and will of God done in the Highest Heavens is the Original Exemplar of all And therefore the New Jerusalem comes down from God out of Heaven into that New Heaven of the Air and so there is a parallel on the New Earth betwixt that New Heaven and New Earth And this is of great concernment that we understand it aright on these two Accounts 1. Because the present Heaven of the Air hath not the Will of God done in it now any more than in this Earth 2. Because in full Sense The will of God shall not be done in the New Earth as it is now in the highest Heaven by way of Parallel 1. Becaose the present Heaven or Air is by Scripture made the Habitation and Residence of Spiritual Wickednesses for they are Spiritual Wickednesses in Heavenlies That must be in Heavenly places for they are nor can be in any other Sense in Heavenlies nor can they be in any other Heavenly place but the Air The Heaven of the Divine presence can be no Residence for Bad Spirits Sathan with his Armies and Hosts of Bad Spirits is call'd the Prince of the Power of the Air that is he hath under Divine Permission a Residence in the Air and when ever God hath use for his Sathanick Ministery he hath undoubtedly great Command there So there is now a Parallel betwixt the Will of God not done by those Spiritual Wickednesses in the Air or the Heavenlies and the not doing the Will of God by the Seed of the Wicked One on Earth But when the Kingdom of Christ shall Come these Wicked Spirits shall be under an Obligation to Dislodg from their Heavenlies and whether there is not a Force upon them by the Fire of that Day I will not Dispute But it is most certain they are Lay'd hold of bound and Chain'd and Lock'd up in the Bottomless Pit and cannot come out to Deceive the Nations for those 1000 years of the Kingdom of Christ Thus it may be very well understood there may be a Prayer for a Parallelism betwixt the New Heaven and the New Earth in doing the Will of God Taught us by Jesus Christ as in the New Heaven and in the New Earth to be effected and brought to pass by his Kingdom And this is the most true and proper Sense of this Petition as in Heaven and upon Earth 2. The Will of God shall not be done at all in the New Earth as it is now in the Highest of Heaven by way of Parallel for though it is True the Will of God done now in the Highest Heaven by Angels and Saints is the first Exemplar yet it is not the Parallel to which it Answers but the New Heaven is the Parallel And the Reason is this The Angels and Saints doing the Will of God are out of Bodies and in a state of Spirits and so cannot be an Agreeable Parallel Jesus Christ is so Transcendent He in his own Person can be nâ— parallel But betwixt Holy Spirits and Spirits in so mean and sinful a State there are so great Odds there can be no parallel But betwixt Christ as the Head and his Saints of the First Resurrection in Incorruptible Bodies in the New Heaven and the Saints the Living the Remaining on the New Earth in Changed Bodies that shall not die there shall be though not a perfect Equality yet so great a Likeness in the doing the Will of God as in the New Heaven by one and in the New Earth by the other as shall fill out the Paralellism to great Glory of doing the Will of God as in Heaven and upon Earth And thus whether we take this Petition in the more General Sense and as it is Universally Expounded viz. That the Will of God may be done on Earth as it is now in the Highest Heaven Or whether we take it in the more True Near Strict Sense wherein there is so great Evidence our Lord defign'd it it is very evident it is a Petition that must be Answer'd in some State on Earth and not in the Heaven of Eternity only in Perfection and here only in some Degrees or Likeness of Kind in Regard of Sincerity And further it is most evident upon a New Argument there is a parallel betwixt the Heaven and the Earth in this Prayer It is not said therefore on Earih as in Heaven but as in Heaven and upon Earth But such a parallel cannot be in either the Bodies of Saints now on Earth so unfit for the doing the Will of God nor in an Earth so under the Curse as This is that yields nothing but Briars and Thorns except at least upon the Expence of the Sweat of the Brows and with the greatest Vanity and Vexation of Spirit There must be therefore the New Earth that the Coming Kingdom of God by Jesus Christ brings with it Having now dispatch'd this first and greatest Argument That this Prayer is indeed the Prayer of the Kingdom I come to a Second Argument Argum. 2 That
into which All the Prophecies issue as All the Promises determine themselves particularly that of the New Heaven and the New Earth and wherein the Mystery of God is Finish'd cannot be left out of that Prayer which the Great Prâ—phet High Priest and Apostle of our Profession Taught to his Disciples If it were so either the Things spoken of must be small or the Prayer must be small But neither of these can be suppos'd Not the First because they are the Result and Issue of all the wonderful Counsels and Works of God in the World Not the latter because it is the great Comprehensive Prayer the whole Element of Prayer So that when we pray aright and according to the Word of God we do say as the words may very well bear whenever you do pray you do say not so much Imperatively as Indicatively whenever the Spirit of Adoption crys in us Abba Father we do presently say Our Father When the Spirit of Prayer moves upon any of the Stores of Prayer in the Word of God we immediately fall into this Prayer If ever therefore Any of Those so very Great and Visible and Conspicuous Things in the Word of God that concern the Kingdom of Christ either in Relation to our selves or the Church of Christ in general come into our Prayers and how can it be otherwise if we do indeed pray Then either we must pray out of and beyond this Prayer which must needs be impossible if this be so Comprehensive a Prayer as we All allow it to be or else this Kingdom must be so conspicuous in this Prayer Since then on one side we Find the Word of God so full of the Great Expressions of this Kingdom that we must either pray for the Things therein declar'd by Prophecy and Promise or we must leave such Huge Tracts of the Word of God out of our Prayers And seeing on the other side in this Prayer which we acknowledge so Comprehensive a Prayer we find the so Express Words Thy Kingdom come and a parallel State of Doing the Will of God as in Heaven and upon Earth besides all the other so Correspondent Relations how can we but be assur'd This Prayer is the Prayer of the Kingdom in its highest Elevation and that it can be no other and that seeing it is so it must prevail for the Coming of the Kingdom in its proper Time seeing as we have Fully Reason'd it cannot but be heard Argam 3 That which is so much the Will of God that it should be that He hath infus'd a Natural Emotion into the very Creation towards it and that it as with a Lifted-up Head of Expectation and Desire sues for That certainly is comprehended in this Prayer For it cannot be once suppos'd that Jesus Christ Teaching his Servants and Saints to pray should not give them in a Spiritual and Intellectual way what is given to the Lower Creat on as by Instinct because it is so Necessary Now that Restitution of All Things That Glorious Manifestation of the Sons of God That Deliverance of the Creatures from their Vnwilling Subjection to Vanity they now Groan and Travail under yet under Hope of bringing forth a better tSate All this the Creatures with Earnest Expectation wait for with lifted-up Heads They as it were beg for How then can it be but that so Great a Point of the Divine Will should have very fair Lines of it in this Prayer And seeing our Lord directs us in this Prayer to look up to God as a Father The Liberty even the Glorious Liberty of his Sons must needs be a principal part of it And where can there be so Reasonable a placing of it as in that Great Petition Thy Kingdom come For where should the Sons of God have a Liberty of Glory but in his Kingdom This is so undeniably certain and Evident that I insist no further upon it Argum. 4 When the Apostle speaks of this very Glorious Liberty of the Children of God and the Manifestation of the Sons of God by it and in it who cry unto him Abba Father He does Affirm we have the First Fruits of the Spirit and groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption that is the Manifestation of the Sons of God and That is the Redemption of our Bodies He further manifests This cannot be a Present State 1. Because the Apostles had only the First Fruits of the Spirit compar'd with that Great Harvest of the pouring out of the Spirit that shall be at that Time and withal the Vouchsafement of the Spirit to all Christians in general now is a First Fruits an Anointing a Seale and an Earnest to All that Glory 2. He shews It is a Future State because it is in Hope and therefore cannot be in present For then Hope and Sight would be confounded Then he goes forward and Affirms Seeing this Hope cannot but be Full of Desires and those Desires will be breaking out into Prayers That therefore the Spirit helps our Infirmities in that great Point wherein we know not what to pray for as we ought But the Spirit makes Intercession with Groanings that cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the Heart knoweth the Mind of the Spirit For he maketh Intercession foâ— the Saints according to the Will of God From all these Things Duely laid together arise many Great Points to our purpose 1. That the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God at the Time of their Manifestrtion and the Restitution of the Creation cannot but be a principal Point of Prayer For saith the Apostle We groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption c. And so he falls into the Discourse of Prayer for it with Groans that cannot be uttered 2. The Apostle so often referring to God as a Father by the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father by the so often mention of the Sons of God by the Adoption leads us even by a stretch'd-out Hand to that Prayer wherein the very first word is Our Father If therefore we are led by the Consideration of God as a Father to the Prayer that Teaches us to say Our Father we are certainly led also to the Great Points of Adoption viz. the Manifestation of and the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God which must be principal Points of that Prayer wherein we call God Father because the Adoption is proper to Sons even as the Manifestation of and the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God is and therefore they must be intimately Related both of them to God as a Father Because Sons and Father are so strictly and inseparately Cor-related The Kingdom of God then coming as in Heaven and on Earth must be the Center wherein All these Lines meet For at that Kingdom is the Redemption of our Bodies that is the Resurrection as All Scripture Agrees 3. The Apostle plainly signifies We do know what we are to pray for and yet we do not know what to pray far as we ought That is we
17. which is the Pattern of Christ's Intercessory Prayer and which none can pray but himself in the whole Frame of it and was not therefore Taught by him to his Church to the End They should so pray it as he did That Prayer is for this Kingdom in which Kingdom God in Christ and Christ in his Saints shall be so visibly made perfect in One that the World which will not now Believe shall against their Wills Know and Believe and Believe and Know as the Devils know and Believe and Tremble that God sent Jesus Christ and hath loved his Saints as he loved him Ver. 21. 23. This cannot be in this World where this Glory is scorned and defied and neither Believ'd nor Known It cannot be after the Enemies of Christ are put quite down under his Feet into the Lake and he Renders up the Kingdom into an immediate Enjoyment of God All in All For then this Illustrious Appearance is ended both as to his own and his Saints so Visible Glory in Humane Nature and also the Dishonour of his Enemies And Nothing Remains but the Beholding God All in All or the Eternal Misery of Separation from his Favour or wailing under his Displeasure Argum. 7 If each part of this Prayer viz. The Address to God as Our Father each Petition and the Doxology or Conclusion Ascribing to God That Thine is the Kingdom c. may with Admirable Agreement both in Expression and Sense be concerted with Eminent Scriptures Relating to the Kingdom and Glory of Christ and of his Saints as in Heaven and on Earth Then with how much Right may This Prayer be call'd and Expounded into the Prayer of the Kingdom This Concert therefore of this Prayer and those Scriptures I will endeavour to make in the following Exposition Object But against all this Discourse this mighty Objection may be Levyed How can this Prayer be look'd upon as the Prayer of the Kingdom or so Great a Standard of Prayer or Comprehensory of it that hath not the least mention of the Great Prince Messâ—ah or of his Redemption which is both the Fundamental Point of Prayer and of the Kingdom How can this possibly be Reconcil'd with All that hath been said of this Prayer There are Two Great Answers to be given to this and such as will excedingly Establish it Answ 1 There can be no more certain and Demonstrative Argument That This Prayer was never intended by Christ as a Form or that we should place a Devotion in the Repetition of it For then could it have wanted the Name of Christ the Mediation of Christ the Blood and Redemption of Christ or the Express Mention of the Spirit which is that Supream Good Thing being One with God and with Christ which proceeds from the Father and Takes of Christs and Gives it to us which we should according to our Lord's Doctrine of Prayer in so near Neighbourhood to this Prayer be so most earnestly importunate for But now if This Prayer be such a Standard of Prayer as is to be understood and apprehended in the whole Latitude of the Word of God All leads to Christ and to the Eternal Spirit to the Redemption Blood and Mediation of Christ as the Foundation of All. And it was an End worthy of such an Omission of the Express Name of Christ and of the Spirit to keep us from Resting in this Prayer as a Form and to cast us upon the whole Word of God that we might pray after that manner and that we might Read or Expound that Prayer by it whenever we pray Answ 2 This Prayer is Full of the Kingdom of Christ No Word of it but is Full of it and cannot be understood but with the Knowledge of the Kingdom Now the Kingdom being the Kingdom of Messiah of the Redeemer and the Petitions being so adjusted to that very Kingdâ—m of Messiah and of his Redemption The Petitions cannot be understood but with the Knowledge of Christ and of his Name and of his Redemption So that though there be no Express Mention of Christ nor of his Redemption yet by searching the Sense and Meaning of each Petition according to the Word of God we must needs find it all there And so proportionably it may be said with Relation to the Spirit of God The Kingdom is a Kingdom of the Spirit poured out according to Esay 59. Last Every Petition therefore must needs be full of the Spirit of the Promise of that poured out even as it is Full of the Kingdom when it is search'd and understood according to the whole Word of God Answ 3 The Prayers that we find in the New Testament after this Prayer given cannot but be Expressive of this Prayer and drawn out of it else Christ did not Teach to pray in This Prayer For to Teach his Disciples to pray and they not to pray according to it must be either an Insufficiency in the Manner of Christ's Teaching to pray or else a Great Disobedience or at least Neglect for his Servants not to pray according to that Prayer Now it is most evident The Prayer of Christ in his Mediation John 17. although it be indeed Transcendent to our praying as to those things proper only and peculiar to Christ and his Mediatorship in it Yet it is instructive to us how to draw near to God in Christ and to form our Approaches through him And All the Prayers we find in the Apostles must have the Lines and Spirit of this Prayer in Them else Christ Taught not to pray when he Taught to pray or he Taught to pray to no purpose Now All Those Prayers being Full of Christ and Full of the Spirit we hereby know certainly This Prayer must needs be so also in the Bottom of it and therefore must be Explicated according to All those Prayers and we are sent by it to Them Object To all that hath been said of this Prayer That it is the Prayer of the Kingdom and that there is in it a paralellism between the New Heaven and the New Earth in doing the Will of God There may be this Objection made A Kingdom of God and of Christ is eminently directed to in this Prayer and also a parallel State betwixt Heaven and Earth But All This is to be understood of the Kingdom of Eternity which Kingdom of Eternity shall have a New Heaven and a New Earth And it is a Kingdom that shall never end and it is called Eternal Life This therefore lifts up a Kingdom of Christ much above that of a Thousand years And whereas the Son is said to deliver up a Kingdom it is only to be understood of that Kingdom wherein he is in a State of continual Acquisition wherein he is Riding out Conquering and to Conquer and subduing Enemies That is the Kingdom He indeed shall deliver up to God and Receives at the same Time the Kingdom of Fruition and Enjoyment which endures indeed for ever and ever The Thousand Years
must therefore be cast back into some space most fit for them within that Kingdom of Christ that is in a State of Acquisition And what fitter Time is there than when the Christian Empire began in Constantine until that great Ravage the Turks as a Gog Magog made in the World In Answer hereunto Answ 1 I cannot understand how the Apostle's express Words of the Son 's delivering up of the Kingdom to God even the Father can be expounded of changing a Kingdom of Acquisition for a Kingdom of Fruition much less how the Son 's being Himself subject can be interpreted into such a Kingdom of Fruition It is very plain the Son who delivers up and who is subject must be the Son of Man who Receiv'd the Kingdom from the Hand of the Ancient of Days For the Eternal Word can neither Receive a Kingdom nor Deliver it up Nor would God be more All in All so much as to Oeconomy or Dispensation for the Eternal Words Delivery up of a Kingdom to Him who is One with Him The Kingdom therefore the Eternal Word ever had the Father ever had unitedly with Him If he should deliver up a Kingdom to the Father he would still have it equally with the Father because the Father and He as the Eternal Word are One. There can be no Receiving nor Delivering up of a Kingdom betwixt the Father and the Eternal Word There can be no so much as Representation of God and the Father more or less All in All for any Kingdom the Eternal Word hath or Delivers up of a Kingdom The Kingdom therefore delivered up that God may be All in All must be the Kingdom of the Son of Man which as in Oeconomy or Representation is made so supreme though indeed to the Glory of God the Father that the Glory of God seems not to stand Alone in Glory but is pleas'd to Allow Full Glory to and not to out-shine the Kingdom of the Humane Nature of Christ or of the Man Christ Jesus Answ 2 There is no possible Fitting Any Part of Time that hath yet been to the Description Given of the Thousand Years by the Spirit of God Revel 20. But it must needs be yet to come for this Great and most Apparent Reason There hath been no Time yet wherein Sathan could be said to be so Bound as not to deceive the Nations any more What Time hath there yet been in which besides all Unholy Practices he hath not Deceiv'd with Paganism with Mahometanism and Antichristianism These Thousand Years must therefore be proper and peculiar to a Kingdom of Christ yet to come and that therefore must be to the Kingdom design'd by Christ in this Prayer Answ 3 The parallel State of the Will of God done in the New Heaven and in the New Earth as in the Kingdom of Eternity can have no place in this Prayer because it can indeed have no place at all in that Eternal State Arg. 1 Because the Apostle stiles the Time of the Delivery up of the Kingdom most Signally and Eminently The End And he distinguishes it from that End when Christ shall come with which also concurs the Resurrection of His his Reign and so Kingdom till Death the Last Enemy shall be subdued and then the Kingdom is Delivered up Seeing then the End it self is after the Coming of Christ and after the Resurrection the End it self must be an End to that Last State For the Coming of Christ and the Rising of his Saints is an End to this World and to the State of it so it cannot be the End of this State but of that After-State of the Reign of Christ and whatever consists with that And that we shall find to be the State of the New Heaven and of the New Earth For Arg. 2 The New Heaven and New Earth must needs be the World to come whereof saith the Apostle we speak which is put into subjection to Christ and it is put into subjection to Him at his coming when He Reigns and hath All Things put under Him If then there so comes an End when this Kingdom shall be deliver'd up by the Great Ruler of it Christ what Reason is there to believe that That World it self is then to take End at and with that End It is certain it must have End or be deliver'd up For the Son shall be subject It can be his World therefore no longer his Heaven and Earth no longer Arg. 3 If then the State of God's Kingdom even the Father shall be such that it will bear no such Heaven nor Earth then it is certain They must have End when All is deliver'd up But God being All in All No New Heaven nor New Earth can be born for either They must Enjoy God or be Enjoyed by God and by his Saints Their Natures are such that they cannot enjoy God being not Creatures of Understanding or Will To be therefore and not to enjoy God takes off from God being All in All For then would there be Creatures of an Eternal Duration even when God is All and They in no Capacity to enjoy him If it should be said They do enjoy him in their way I Answer That is High enough for an Oeconomical State but not for this of Eternity If it be said That God may enjoy them and his Saints may enjoy them and praise him for them and they Declare his Glory I Answer This also is Allowable to the Oeconomical but not to the Eternal State God is the only Enjoyable in that State to himself and to his Saints and He Enjoys his Saints only in the Communication of Himself to Them No less than This can be understood by God being All in All He must be The Alone to be Enjoyed and He must be Enjoyed Argum. 4 There is but One Place of Scripture that gives Account of Things after the Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ and that is Revel 20. It plainly gives Account of the State after that Kingdom because it gives an Account of Things after the Expiration of the Thousand Years when Sathan is Loosed And the Thousand Years are said to be the Reign of Christ with his Saints So it must be the Thousand Years Kingdrm of Christ Now the utmost End of that State is a Great White Throne and One sate upon it from whose Face Heaven and Earth fled away and there was not Place Found for them Now from hence several Arguments Arise Assuring us There are no Heaven and Earth except the Heaven of Divine Presence after the utmost End of All. 1. There appears an Emblematical Introduction to the Utter Blaâ—ching and Annihilation of All Being but God and his Saints on one side and the Lake of the Second Death with its Dead on the other 2. Because the Lake receives All the Dead with Death it self we are Assured it is that very End when the Kingdom is deliver'd up and the Son becomes Subject All being subdued to him For here the Last
Enemy Death is subdued and then is the End 3. When this Heaven and Earth Fled away There was no Place Found For them When any one dies it is said Their place knows them no more Their place remains but it knows them no more Another comes in their place Or as it is said in Job Out of their Earth another grows So when the Heaven and Earth that now are are burnt up another Heaven and Earth shall come in their room But when this Heaven and Earth Fly away there is no place for them not so much as place where they may be and so not where any other may come 4. The Heaven and Earth that now are are Treasur'd up for fire and are to be for the perdition of ungodly men and so in other Scriptures But these fly from the sole Presence of Him that sits on the white Throne These Two Descriptions are very differing But if All These Things could be Accommodated and it be said There are New Heavens and a New Earth that succeed c. 21. those which fly away c. 20. I further Argue Argum. 4 The Heavens and Earth that fly away c. 20. are no other nor can be any other than the very New Heavens and New Earth that John saw c. 21. And though to draw a Veil on Prophecy They are set as it were in a Succession to the Heaven and Earth that Fled away yet there are several Great and Undeniable Arguments That the Flying away of the Heaven and Earth spoken of c. 31. must be after the New Jerusalem State and therefore must be of the New Heavens and New Earth that were created New together with the New Jerusalem For the New Heaven and Earth John saw are so close Tied with the New Jerusalem as not to be separated For after the mention of them it is immediately subjoyn'd I John saw the New Jerusalem that made her self Ready as a Bride Adorned for her Husband cap. 19. Come down cap. 21. And again after the seeing both the New Heavens and the New Jerusalem He that sate on the Tbrone said Behold I create All New So there is a Locking in the New Heaven and the New Earth even on purpose with the New Jerusalem that they may not be Divided But the Flying away of Heaven and Earth from him that sate on the white Throne must needs be after the New Jerusalem For it is after the Holy City and the Beloved City which was no other than the Bride the New Jerusalem that was therefore Beloved because the Bride and therefore Holy because Arrayed in Linen White and Clean which is the Righteousness of the Saints Now this New Jerusalem must be together with the Thousand Years also for at the end of the Thousand Years Satan was Let Loose to make the Attempt on the Holy and Beloved City by deceiving the Nations into that Attempt Now Satans being let Loose is expresly said to be when the Thousand Years were expired so the City must needs be during the Thousand Years in Peace and Safety and Attempted at the end of the Thousand Years when Fire Comming down to destroy the Enemies and Satan not being Sealed up only but cast into the Lake after this Attempt immediately Following the White Throne and Heaven and Earth flying from the Face of Him that Sat upon it So then the Heaven and Earth that Fled away must be the new-New-Heaven and Earth that were together in the Holy City during the Thousand Years And yet hath not this Kingdom End when the Thousand Years End because Christ delivers up the Saints into the Enjoyment of God the Principal Part of this Kingdom but yet much more strictly and properly the Kingdom is delivered up Because what was more Immediately mannaged by Christ in the Humane Nature in a Visible and Conspicuous Glory is now mannaged by the Divine Nature conveying his Love by the Eternal Word through the Human Nature in Grace to his Saints and in Wrath to those in the Lake For the Kingdom delivered up is the Power delivered up and it is explained by the Son being Subject and by God even the Father therein opposed to the Son being All in All All things else Being then Subdued and the Glory shining from the Father by the Eternal Word Vibrated by the Eternal Spirit through the Human Nature For so Assures us our Lords whole Discourse John 17. 21. to the End And with this whole State of things upon close Examination will be found to Agree all the Oeconomies of Scripture and otherwise none of them will be found to Agree So that if it should be said why should not this Prayer be understood of the present State of the Kingdom as High as we can attain in it and then of the Absolute Perfect and Supreme Kingdom of Eternity The Answer is very plain He who is the only Wise God hath found the Oeconomy of this Kingdom of Christ necessary both as a Mirror of his own Wisdom and Glory in Relation to his Creation as Restored by the Redemption of Christ and also as a preparation of his Saints by Christ in the Glory and Holiness of Human Nature for that Union with himself in the Absolutely Divine Kingdom of Eternity In which That Last Act of Jesus Christ as in our Nature seeking not his own Will nor Glory but the Glory of the Father He does not only in and by himself perform as that Highest Act of Obedience and self Resignation but he United all his Saints with him in that Act that however the State of the Kingdom of Christ might seem more proportioned to the Human Nature as of Spirits in Bodies Christ the Head for his whole Body of Saints the Church and they in and by him Choose and are most gladly Delivered up into that whole State to have Body as much as can stand with Remaining Highest Spiritualiz'd Bodies and Distinct Beings swallowed up of God all Spirit and Created swallowed up of Increated and is that Last and most perfect Act of Christs Declaring to All the Name of the Father and wherein He will declare it that the Love wherewith the Father Loved Christ may be in them and He in them John 17. ult All which is in cluded in this Prayer for the Kingdom I have now so far as I can understand setled the Principal design and find the true Elevation of this Prayer as the Prayer of the Kingdom and Vindicated it from all objections I now come to Adjust each part of this Prayer hereunto which Consists of a Prefatory Address and a Doxological Conclusion and as they are Generally Accounted Six but as I Account Seven Petitions Answerable to the many Sevens in the Revelation Leading to the Kingdom of Christ And the reason why I Account Seven what others Account but six is Those Two Lead us not into Temptation But deliver us from Evil very naturally fall into Two Petitions and express Two distinct very High things though Both fall into one State
and cannot but do so even that State of this Kingdom of Christ And the but is a but of Discretion and Distinction of things And yet because those Two distinct things can neither of them be but United in time and in that Blessed State wherein either of them shall be They are so Conjoyned and the but does not only Discern but Tye them together I Come therefore to the Prefatory Address which consists of Two things The Compellation used to God Father and our Father A Compellation Importing Transendent Greatness and Goodness and the further Magnification of him by his Residence which is Heaven who are in Heaven Preface Our Father I deny not any of the Senses Holy Men of God have given of this Appellation but exalt it to ' its Heighth and the Heighth is when God gives the Inheritance then he appears in full Paternity and Fatherhood and this is at the Resurrection the Redemption of our Bodies For as he is the God so he is the Father not of the Dead but of the Living and at this Time as he is not Ashamed to be called the God so he will not be Ashamed to be called the Father of his Servants For then He will bring the Inheritance and the Adoption together and shew how One is Provided for the Other And this must needs be so There must be such an Adoption by and in the Resurrection and such an Inheritance For as our Lord says They All Live to Him whose God He is He cannot else be their God So then that they may Live to Him and He be their God They must Live else how can They Live to Him and he be their God and their Father Now seeing God is the God of all his Servants not only as Spirits but as Spirits in Bodies They must thtrefore All Live to him as Spirits in Bodies and if for some Time They are Spirits out of Bodies and those Spirits are Pledges of the Future State of Life yet it can be but for a Time though it may be to the Servants of God who liv'd far off from that Resurrection a very long time according to our Measure of Time yet nothing compar'd with the Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ Deliver'd up into an Eternity of Vnion with God and the Father Seeing then I say again God is the God of his Servants as Spirits in Bodies and the State opposite to it is call'd Hades Death and the Grave or at the highest an Invisible State though in his wise Dispose for so considerable a Space He is satisfied by his Saints as Spirits living to him yet there must needs be a Resurrection that in Full sense his Servants may Live to Him and He be known to be Their God and Father For the Children of God are then known to be the Children of God and He their Father when they shall be and appear the Children of the Resurrection It is therefore said at the New Jerusalem as the Just time of all these things fulfill'd He that overcometh shall inherit All Things And I will be to him a God and He shall be to me a Son Then the Abba Father that we now cry as Children shall in that Fulness of the Inheritance be pronounc'd in Full and Manly Sounds and Accents This must be the Adoption then If the Adoption it must be also the Resurrection or Redemplion of our Bodies For the Adoption and the Redemption of our Bodies are by the Apostle made one and the same Accordingly the New Jerusalem hath a Resurrection and is an Inheritance But further to make this out whenever the Adoption or Manifestation of the Children of God shall be there shall be a Restitution of the whole Creation For the Creation it self shall then be Delivered into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God When therefore this World to come is it shall be put in subjection to Christ Alone Then shall be his Kingdom therefore For these things reciprocate Then shall be the Adoption and when the Adoption is This VVorld to come of the Restitution shall be So the Kingdom of Christ and the Restitution must needs be together with the Adoption or the Resurrection or the Redemption of our Bodies Let us then lay All together The Prayer that our Lord taught Teaches us to pray Our Father The Highest sense of God being Our Father is at the Adoption or Manifestation of the Sons of God in the Resurrection or Redemption of our Bodies Together with this is the Restitution of the Creation in the World of the second Adam that is the World to come of which God in Christ is the Father even of that New Heaven and New Earth as He is now styl'd the Father of Heaven and Earth All these are in the New Jerusalem and Kingdom of Christ This Prayer of our Lord comprehends the Largest and Reaches the highest sense of All Things of Prayer The very Calling of God therefore Father and Our Father must needs reach the State of the Adoption or Manifestation of the Kingdom of God which is the State of the Resurrection or Redemption of our Bodies which is the State of the Restitution of All Things which is the State of the World to Come which is the State of the New Jerusalem and of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which Kingdom the New Jerusalem is and accordingly It hath a Resurrection and a New Creation Appertaining to it which is the Restitution of All Things so that this Prayer must even from this Prefatory Address be the Prayer of the Kingdom Let us now consider the further Magnification of God by his Residence in Heaven that we may observe whether That have any Manuduction of our Thoughts towards the Kingdom Our Father which art in Heaven or in the Heavens These words are a Magnification of God as by his supreme Residence in the Heavens or in the Heaven of Heavens Now to pray to him who Dwelleth in the Heavens that his Name may be Sanctified as in Heaven and on Earth and his Kingdom Come as in Heaven and on Earth and his Will Done as in Heaven and on Earth what is it but to Beseech Him to Bow the Heavens to Rend the Heavens and to Come Down and to Establish as in a Lower Heaven a parallel State as in Heaven and on Earth It is to say to God as Solomon said The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Thee Come down therefore into the Lower Heaven and Earth and Establish a State as in Heaven and on Earth And because This cannot be in the present Old lower Heaven and Earth Therefore to pray for such a State as in Heaven and on Earth is to pray for the New Heaven and the New Earth or the New Jerusalem that shall Come Down from Our Lord out of Heaven And when this is The Heavens that now are shall be Rent indeed as an old Garment and shall with the vehemency of that Flame melt and Come Down And They shall be according
to this his Promise New Heavens and a New Earth wherein Righteousness shall Dwell and so his Name should be Sanctified his Kingdom come and His will be done as in Heaven and in Earth And in our Father not only the Father but the Eternal Word who is One with the Father is Prayed unto So that in a more proper Sence of the Prayer we beseech his Comming down in our Nature For the Heavens Receive and so Contain Him but till the Times of the Re-En-Livening and Restitution of All Things the Re-En-Livening them as by a Resurrection and New Vigor of the whole Creation Then they shall no longer Receive or Contain Him but He shall Descend even that Jesus now Preached God will send Down from the Heavens that now Receive Him Acts 3. 20. c. And thus there is nothing more suitable to Scripture then to Describe God in the Heaven when he is to Manifest Himself as Comming down from Heaven and out of Heaven Thus God Dwelling with the Humhle and Contrite Heart is prefaced with his Dwelling in the High and Holy Place and Inhabiting Eternity and with the Heaven being His Throne and the Earth His Foot-Stool and together with this Description of the Grandieur of God in Heaven is joyned the Creation of New Heavens and a New Earth c. 65 c. 66. to shew how Great the Power of Him that Dwelleth in the Heavens is And the Dwelling of God and of Christ in the Heavens now is no Barr to His Tabernacle being with Men in the Kingdom of Christ but the Infinite Power therein Imployed produces it in its own Time At the New Jerusalem it is Proclaimed therefore out of Heaven with a Loud Voice The Taberacle of God is with Men and he will Dwell among them Not they with Him as in the Heaven of Heavens but He with them as in the New Heaven and New Earth The Voice is from Heaven and the New Jerusalem comes down from God out of Heaven Thus we see how fitly the Address to God as our Father and as our Father who is in Heaven agree with the Scriptures Relating to the Kingdom of Christ I Come therefore to the First Petition and to Observe how agreeable it is to the Elevation of the Prayer as it is the Prayer of the Kingdom The Words of this First Petition are these great ones Hallowed or Sanctified be thy Name And it is to be Remarked that they sustain the Place of the First Petition of so Great a Prayer and These Consist of Two Parts viz. the Grand Object in the Eye as I may so speak of the Petition and that is the Name of God and That which is Prayed or Desired concerning it that it may be Sanctified and further the Form or Manner of the Petition is greatly to be Considered It is not declared how or by whom the Name is to be Sanctified but absolutely that it should be Sanctified till we come to that Common Modification of these Three Petitions as in Heaven and upon Earth as hath been set out Let us then Enquire for the Highest Senses of the Name of God and of the Sanctification of His Name for it is certain this Prayer taught by Christ Reaches those Highest Senses and those Highest Senses must Issue themselves when ever the Petition is Answered into a State as in Heaven and upon Earth All which Laid together will Absolutely evince and make Good that no Lower State than that of the Kingdom of Christ can be the Answer of this Prayer If we then First Research the Name of God it can be no other in its Highest Sence but his Nature in its Highest Manifestation For His Name is I am that I am that is His Being is His Name and His Name is His Being When God therefore says to the Israelites he was not known unto their Fathers by his Name Jehovah It signifies he was not known unto them by those Essential Manifestations of himself he was now about to make himself known to themselves the Children of those Fathers by before Egypt and the Cananites and in those Glorious Appearances from Heaven at his Giving of the Land and in the Tabernacle of Testimony And Generally where ever there are Extraordinary Appearances of Divine Power and Glory and Wondrous Works there his Name is said to be near as many Scriptures do shew When God gave Moses a sight of his Glory he is said to Proclaim his Name Exod. 33 c. 34. Now there is no Manifestation or Divine Dispensation what ever wherein the Divine Glory so Appear'd as in and by our Lord Jesus Christ in whom his Name is said to be and who is said to come in his Name and to declare his Name So there is no Manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ so great as that of his Kingdom when the Lord shall be One in all the Earth and his Name One and that One Name is in Christ to whom God hath given a Name above every Name that is Named in Heaven or Earth And all shall confess Him to be Lord to the Glory of God the Father Because the Name of God the Father is Essentially in him as he is the Eternal Word and in him by way of Highest Manifestation as he is the Son of Man or the Eternal Word in Human Nature Seeing then It can no way be denied but that every Word of this Prayer is to be understood in the Highest Sence The Name of God must be understood in the highest Sence both as to the Manifestation of his Essential Eternal Increated Glory And That is by the Eternal Word And as to his Manifestation of himself in a Created Glory and ' it s highest Elevation That is in the Glory of the only Begotten Son of God beheld in the heighth of his Glory and of his Kingdom And thus we see in Regard of the Name of God this Prayer must be the Prayer of the Kingdom Let us now Consider the Thing that is Desired touching this Name of God And that is That it may be Sanctified and Absolutely Sanctified Sanctified be thy Name so expressed as to signifie an Absolute Sanctification That we may then understand the Sanctifying of Gods Name Holiness it self is to be sought out in the true Notion of it now Holiness is that so Supream Atribute of God that the Seraphims Rest not Day and Night saying Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts The fulness of the Earth is his Glory That is it properly is so and ought to be so So this is said by way of highest Exaltation in the Song of Moses the Servant of God Glorious in Holyness Now the Essential Notion God gives us of Holiness in his Word is Separation to God is Holiness to Jehovah The Contrary to this Holiness is Commonness to other Uses The Holiness of God is then his Eternal Separation to himself in the perfection of his own Being and Glory the Receiving into Union with which his own Saints and
Servants Angels and Men is their Holiness and Glory and this he doth by no other than himself by the Eternal Word in our Nature and by his Spirit in and through him If this then be the Notion of the Essential Holiness of God Sanctification of God or of his Name can be no other than the Manifestation of God as thus Infinitely Holy For there can be no Addition to the Holiness seeing it is Infinite Men are therefore said to Sanctify God when they declare and Speak of and Treat with God as Infinitely Holy So God is said to Sanctify himself when He Lays Obligations on Creatures to See him and Speak of him as so Holy Now it is Certain none can Sanctify God as himself As his own Purity Power Wisdom Truth Goodness is Seen Acknowedg'd Adored in his Great Works and Word So the more Immediate the Appearance is the Greater is the Sanctification The Works of Immediate Power and Presence Sanctify God more than his General Works as Moses Sings to him Glorious in Holiness Fearful in Praises doing Wonders When God had Appeared so Immediately at the Red Sea Never was God so Sanctified as by Jesus Christ whom to that so great End He Sanctified is Sealed and Sent into the World to Glorify him by shewing and Setting out his own Holiness and declaring his Name No way therefore can God be so Sanctified as in that Kingdom wherein God and the Lamb Christ will have his Throne and his Tabernatle shall be with men Then shall God be known to be the Holy Holy Holy and the Fullness of the Earth his Glory For when Esay saw this Glory of Christ Then was this Acclamation Isa 6. â—ohn 12. to his Holiness And as it was then by Serophs so when the Kingdom of Christ is shall it be by all his Saints as in the New Heaven so on the New Earth and his Servants shall see his Face and his Name shall be in their Foreheads And so They in their Sphere are in a perpetual Sanctification of the Name of God as with a Plate on their Foreheads inscribed with Holiness to Jehovah Seeing then as hath been already Argued and it can no way be denied This Prayer Ascends to the very Heighth of Things that are to be prayed for and to the highest Senses the Words it uses can be expounded into and that there is such a State and Kingdom wherein the Name of God shall be thus Sanctified to the Highest by Saints by Christ who is Himself even in so immediate a Kingdom Certainly This Prayer at its highest Elevation must be a Prayer for the State of that Kingdom and that Sanctification of the Name of God And seeing it must be a Stâ—te as in a Parallellism and as in Heaven and upon Earib as hath been Argued from the Will of God Donè as in Heaven and upon Earth The Glory of God in the Holiness of his Name must shine as in Heaven and upon Earth that is from the New Heaven upon the New Earth I come now to the Second Petition Thy Kingdom come And whether it be taken in the strict Sense of the Words or in the Connexion with the Petitions before and after it it will be every way evinced That this Prayer must be the Prayer of the Kingdom For when we pray That the Kingdom of God may come what Kingdom can it be that should come The Kingdom of God's Universal Power and Dominion cannot be pray'd for that it should because it is alway it hath been alway and it cannot but be for ever The Kingdom of the Gospel it might be till the Universal Preaching of it by the Apostles and First Ministers of the New Testament But then the Coming of it was Accomplished except as there shall be a more Full and Glorious Coming at the more Universal Preaching of it as this Prayer must needs import Or else to pray That the Kingdom may come as it is the Kingdom of the Gospel must be as to pray that Messiah might come who is already come And That would be a Secret Denial That Christ is come in the Flesh and that This is the True Gospel or Grace of God wherein we stand If therefore it be the Kingdom of the Gospel that is as it is indeed here to be understood It must needs be That as the Messiah is to have an Vniversal Glorious Kingdom so there shall be yet a much more Vniversal and Effectual preaching of the Gospel even the Everlasting Gospel Declaring and Introducing that Kingdom There is I acknowledge yet remaining a Kingdom of Glory in Eternity introduc'd by the Day of Judgment according to the General Notion that might be intended in this Prayer And though this Kingdom could not properly be said to come in regard of Place seeing it is to be in the Highest Heaven where it already is yet that the Time of it might come might be prayed and that in the mean Time the Will of God might in Degree and in Sincerity be Done on Earth as in Heaven But because as hath been already and shall still be Argued There is a Glorious Kingdom before that and that stands in a Parallel betwixt the New Heaven and the New Earth and that prepares for and Issues into that Greatest Kingdom of Eternity and is indeed One with it in all Substantials It must needs be most Directly in the Eye of this Prayer which reaches the highest sense that the Words can possibly be supposed to contain Seeing then the Gospel in the Vniversal preaching in that It is to bring forth the Great and most Illustrious Kingdom of God and of Christ is call'd the Kingdom of God and that Our Lord continually call'd it so in that Time of his Ministry wherein he gave this Prayer and wherein He Teaches to pray Thy Kingdom come This Kingdom must needs be understood to be the Highest State of the Gospel most Vniversally and most Efficaciously preach'd so that it shall indeed most conspicuously and illustriously bring forth that Kingdom in its Glory And that is the Kingdom here prayed for And it is a Kingdom that shall never end and therefore is One Kingdom with the Eternal Kingdom of God into which it is Delivered up From All which it follows The Preaching of the Gospel is not that Kingdom in the meer Administration or Preaching of it but as it is to produce the Kingdom of God and of Christ in its Glory For Christ Left the Gospel in preaching when He went into a Far Countrey to Receive a Kingdom and to Return with it when that Gospel should have its full Effect and he shews That though the Preaching of the Gospel did immediately Appear yet the Kingdom did not immediately Appear there was a Dawn of it in that Preaching which is therefore in a General Way call'd the Kingdom of God But it was not to bring forth the Kingdom till a Second more Universal and Effectual Publication Luke 19. compar'd with Revel 14.
And thus far I have Argued upon a simple Consideration of the Words in Themselves But if we look upon them as involv'd with the Foregoing and Following Petitions the Enforcement is much stronger For the Connexion may be Three manner of ways understood and in which soever of those ways it be understood the Argument will be very forcible 1. Let these Three Petitions stand equally as Petitions And if it be a Rule of Prayer for the Enlargement of the Glory of God that his Glory should be the Fullness of the Earth or as in Heaven and upon Earth Then there is the Force of a Petition Taught by Christ infallibly according to Faith according to Promise according to the Will of God and under the Mediation of Christ and therefore That must be Answer'd For there is the same Rule of Proportion that if we ought to desire the Will of God may be done and His Name sanctified as in Heaven and upon Earth we ought also to Pray His Kingdom may come as in Heaven and upon Earth 2. Take the Petitions in Connexion And if that Petition Thy Will be done as in Heaven and on Earth be Heard it cannot be otherwise the Kingdom of God must be as in Heaven and on Earth For his Will done is his Kingdom and so proportionably His Name must be sanctified When one is the other cannot but be If any one is not the other cannot either of Them be 3. Indeed the Kingdom placed in the middle is as the Great Instrument by which the other Two are effected the Center about which they turn That his Name may be sanctified and his Will done as in Heaven and on Earth His Kingdom must come as in Heaven and on Earth For what Reason can be given seeing it is so highly pleasing and acceptable to God and so due from all his Creatures if it be but in the Nature of the Thing possible that his Name should be sanctified and his Will done as in Heaven and on Earth that it should not in so long a Time either besore or especially since this Prayer taught by our Lord have come to pass but that in his wife Dispose and Determination the Time of his Glorious and Illustrious Kingdom as in Heaven and on Earth was not yet come When therefore the Mystery of God shall be finish'd in the Days of the Seventh Angel and He shall Sound it shall be proclaim'd that the Kingdoms of this World are beeome the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ That he hath taken to him his Great Power and Reigns when there shall be the Voice of many VVaters and of mighty Thunderings saying The Lord God Omnipotent Reigns Then shall be the Kingdom and Appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ And it shall be a Kingdom as in Heaven and on Earth a Kingdom of God and of the Lamb Revel 19. I come therefore to the Third Petition Thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth For so are the Words exactly translated And it seems not unworthy Notice That when in the Address to God we say Our Father which art in Heaven The Word in the Greek is in the Plural Number who art in the Heavens But when we pray Thy Will be done as in Heaven and on Earth the word Heaven is in the singular Number and so in the Revelation c. 21. a single New Heaven John saw Now these words are generally understood as if they had been thus Form'd Thy Will be done on Earth according to the Exemplar of its being done in Heaven but in both Matthew and Luke they are fram'd by way of parallel Let thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth So that in strictest holding to the words the Prayer is for a parallel State as in Heaven and upon Earth I dare not deny but if there were not Another Admirable Sense given us by Scripture concerning them That Sense of the Exemplarity of the Will of God being done on Earth as in Heaven were very clear and good But when this Contexture is such as to Favour Another Sense most viz. of the Parallellism and that Scripture offers such a Parallellism to us Undoubtedly the Parallelism is rather to be chosen When therefore as I have already Argued this Prayer is so Founded that this Petition shalI certainly be Answer'd And that it must be Answered in a State on some Earth and that it cannot be otherwise Answered and that there is so great Countenance of a Parallellism as in Heaven and upon Earth we have nothing more necessary now to do than to search Scripture for the full settling of this Paralellism By Three Gradations therefore we may take this Paralellism 1. By considering those Scriptures that Represent Heaven and Earth in such a Parallel The Apostle Peter says VVe according to his promise look for New Heavens and a New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness where the Parallel lies in the Heaven and Earth expresly nam'd in both being New and Righteousness dwelling in both Ep. 2. c. 3. 13. Again the Apostle Ephes 1. 10. speaking of that very Time of the Kingdom of Christ in its Glorious Appearance when he shall appear the Second Time without Sin unto Salvation He calls it the Oeconomy the Fullness of Time Now at this Time saith the Apostle God would Recollect All as into One Head in Christ even in Christ All things in Heaven and Earth Here are All things in Heaven and Earth Here are All Things in Heaven and in Earth in a parallel in Christ even in Christ In a Scripture of a very like Constitution with this Col. 1 20. the Apostle speaks of God Reconciling All Things in Heaven and Earth by him even by him Here again are All Things in Heaven and Earth in a parallel Reconcil'd by him to God even by him As if the Apostle in both places had said Take notice I say it Twice over In him In him By him By him are All Things in Heaven and Earth Gathered under one Head and Reconcil'd Lastly In a Psalm Prophetick of the Last Turning the Captivity of the people of God as in a paralellism betwixt Heaven and Earth it is said Truth shall spring out of the Earth and Righteousness shall Look down from Heaven Psal 85. 11. How now can Things be more fix'd and settled for the Doing the VVill of God as in Heaven and on Earth than that there should be a New Heaven and a New Earth wherein Righteousness shall dwell That All Things in Heaven and Earth should be Reconcil'd by Christ to God and that Truth should spring out of the Earth and Righteousness look down from Heaven When things are thus it cannot be otherwise then but that what hath never yet been in this Old Earth but in Christ Alone should be viz. That the Will of God should be done as in Heaven and upon Earth 2. The Scripture gives Account of the Dead in Christ or of Those who Sleep by Jesus that God
will bring them with him and as signifying They shall be with Christ in the Air viz. of the New Heaven The Living Saints shall after the 1000 Years Kingdom of Christ be caught up to that most General Assembly and Church of the First Born All Saints together meeting Christ when he Delivers up the Kingdom So then during the 1000 Years Kingdom there shall be Saints with Christ in Bodies incorruptible that cannot die being the Children of God and of the Resurrection and Saints in Paradisiac Bodies chang'd So as that They shall not dye One in the New Heaven the Other on the New Earth Now as by the One the VVill of God shall be done in Heaven by the other as in a parallel upon Earth As in Heaven and upon Earth 3. As in the New Heaven there shall be a Restitution of the Creation that the Heavens shall be Clean and the Stars Pure and the Highest Order and Beauty in All and no Enmity or Smiting from thence upon Any Thing on Earth and all those Hosts and Powers of the Air Spiritual Wickednesses in Heavenly Places Dislodged and seal'd up in their Abyss making Room for better Inhabitants So the Earth shall be so fruitful of All that is Excellent that instead of the Briars and Thorns shall come up the Fir Tree and the Myrtle Tree And they shall be to the Lord a Sign and a Memorial that shall not be cut off And at the same Time the mutual Enmities of the Creatures most Contrary to the Gracious Designment of the Creator shall be utterly Extinguished and a wonderful Reconciliation among Them So that the Lyon and the Lamb shall lye down together There shall be an Vniversal Tameness and Quiet There shall be no Hurting nor Destroying in all tbe Holy Mountain of the Lord For Knowledg shall cover the Earth as the Watèr does the Sea A State which we All know hath never been yet But to Reconcile Event and Prophecy together Men have been forced to Evaporate and Attenuate Prophecy into Allegory Now according to this our Saviour Composes this Prayer And Holiness to the Lord the most Comprehensive Expression of the Will of God is most Specific to these Two States For as above All is most Pure Clear and Undefiled So below Holiness to the Lord is on the Equippings of the Horses upon the Bowls and Pots in the Lords House Which shall be as Bowls before the Altar as of a Holiness that is of nearer Approach to God And all the Pots and Bowls in Jerusalem shall be Holiness to the Lord which in Prophetic Language is the very same with Thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth when All the Saints are Priests of God and of Christ and Reign a 1000 Years Zeoh 14. 20. All which comes Home to all that has been said That This Prayer and the Exposition of it at the true Height is as of the Prayer of the Kingdom And we pray that the Will of God may be done that is that there may be Holiness to the Lord as in Heaven and on Earth in that State of Christs Kingdom the New Heaven or the Jerusalem Above and the New Earth or the Jerusalem Below I go forward now to the Fourth Petition Give us this day our daily Bread And it may seem This Petition can no way consist with that High Sence of this Prayer that hath been undertaken to be given of it But at least here the Prayer must Flat into a Prayer suited only to the Present State For what may we say can be plainer that no Higher is Intended than the presen State when we pray that this Bread may be given us To Day or This Day That it may be Given according to the Day and when it is called our Bread and hereunto is to be Accommodated the word we Translate Daily All This Layed together makes it seem Impossible to extend the Sence of this Bread beyond the necessary Bread of this present Life with any Agreeableness to the Words of the Petition But against all this I shall Levy these Four Arguments that there is a much Higher Intention than the present Bread of Natural Life Couched under this Petition But I First premise I do by no means deny but most Fully and Freely Acknowledge There is a Plain and Manifest Intention of Supplicating God in this Petition for the present necessities of Life that they may be Supplied to us according to the Food that is Convenient for us and in order to our Support for the Seeking the Eternal Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Bread that endures to Everlasting Life This our Father knows that we have need of So that I do not in the least Impeach any Part of those Exellent and Profitable Discourses that have been made upon this Petition in Relation to our depenedncy upon Providence for the necessaries of Life or that Moderation and Contentment in what is necessary for the day without taking Care for To morrow Which our Lord Annexes to this very Petition after this very Prayer there Given Mat. 6 But upon all this it must be Considered and understood that as our Lord in declaring Himself the Bread of Life and the Bread from Heaven served Himself of the General Notion we have of Bread and of the Usefulness of it to Life to convey into our thoughts and to Raise our Hearts to that much more Excellent Bread So under the Petition for our dayly Bread He did intend to lift up our Hearts in Prayer for a much Higher Thing And as in that Discourse of the Bread of Life He did not pull down our value and esteem of Natural Bread but allowed it So in the Petition for a much Higher Bread He did not Disannul Prayer for the Bread of the Day but made it the Vehicle of a much Higher Supplication And those very Words our Bread and to Day and what is According to the Day which seem most to stay our Thoughts in the Bread of Nature are also most Apposite Conveyances of our Lords Great Purpose Argum. 1 Our Lord Entertains a Large and Great Discourse Concerning Himself as the Bread of Life Concerning the Bread that came down from Heaven And that endures to Everlasting Life Concerning John 6. Eating His Flesh and Drinking His Blood And that else we have no Life in us but that whosoever so Eateth and Drinketh Dwelleth in Christ and Christ in him and as the Living Father hath sent Him and He Lives by the Father So he that so Eateth and Drinketh shall Live by Him and He will Raise him up at the Last day Our Lord declares an Eating and Drinking at His Table in His Kingdom He hath by His Servant John sett out the Life of that Kingdom Sustain'd by a Tree of Life and by a River Clear as Christal Flowing with the Water of Life He hath Appointed that Great Ordinance of the Lords Supper till He Comes as a Symbol of that Bread and
far from being Able to Grant such Things that they cannot in the least understand Them No more in the main is any Power Able below His whose is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory to bring forth these Petitions in their Complement 2. In regard that He whose is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory will Take to Himself his Great Power and Reign These Petitions are well Grounded and well Address'd to him For seeing the Things are so high that though the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory are always God's yet These Petitions have not yet been Answered nor these Great Things come into Effect The Petitions would not be well Grounded if there were not a Time He would thus Take to himself his Great Power and Reign For if the World continued never so long and that the Kingdom and Power and Glory were in all the Right of them Gods yet these Things Pray'd for would for all that never be fullfill'd So that they must have been either laid lower or have been in vain As therefore as Scripture hath fully declar'd there is a Time God will Take to Himself his Great Power and Reign so these very Petitions are fram'd to such an Altitude to such a Supreme Pitch And because they close with this as an Argument That God's is the Kingdom and the Power and Glory and that for Ever and Ever They become a certain Assurance That these Petitions are well Grounded and well Address'd and that though they do not Appear so yet in Regard of their being Fullfill'd yet that they shall Appear so at the Time of the Kingdom and of God's taking to Himself the Power and the Glory And that certainly there shall be such a Time wherein the Kingdom of God shall be and All These Things Fullfill'd in it 2. As These Things cannot be till the Kingdom be so on the other side the Kingdom cannot be till these Things are A Kingdom and a Power and a Glory God always hath But this Kingdom cannot Appear nor the Power and the Glory be seen to be God's till his Name be Sanctified his Will done as in Heaven and upon Earth Till he shews his Grace to his Servants in giving them the Supersubstantial Bread according to the Day or in a Perpetuity Till he Reconciles All to Himself in Heaven and Earth by Him even by Him and till he sets wholly free from Temptation and Delivers from Evil all the Subjects of his Kingdom And All these are the Coming of his Kingdom 3. Therefore by the way of so Close a Conjunction and Union of these Two our Saviour declares this Prayer to be the Prayer of the Kingdom And that as the Kingdom is the Great Sense Mind and Spirit of this Prayer so that it can never be aright prayed nor is heard so as to be Answer'd till this Kingdom come So that the Kingdom shall certainly come in Answer to this Prayer and in Answer to every Petition of it Every Thing in it shall be done because God's is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for Ever and Ever 2. This Doxology is most immediately Linck'd with that Last Petition Deliverance from Evil to shew both the Inconsistency of the Divine Kingdom in its Glory and Coming with a State of Evil even of the Evil of Affliction Pain and Misery So that it is the Last Enemy subdued by the Divine Kingdom that is the Divine Kingdom Alone can subdue it and only when it Appears and not before But when it Appears it shall be perfectly remov'd And our Lord takes the Advantage at that very Time and in that Order to press and follow home the whole by the Argumentative Doxology For thine is the Kingdom And therefore Thou art Able and wilt Deliver from Evil by that Kingdom and Power which is thy own and at the Appearance of thy own Glory 3. Under the Doxology conveyed by way of Argument This is to be Acknowledg'd That a constant Offering up to God in a way of Praise and Adoration this Confession That His is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory is most due to Him from us in all our Prayers and Supplications to him But yet the highest Sense of this Doxology is proper to the Kingdom and Argues the Prayer to be the Prayer of the Kingdom For seeing our Lord hath put this Doxology into our Mouths That His is the Kingdom and yet at the same Time Teaches us to pray Thy Kingdom come It signifies plainly and necessarily That it hath not yet so come as to Appear to be His And that His is the Power and yet at the same Time Taught us to pray Thy Will be done as in Heaven and upon Earth in the same plain manner he signifies The Power does not yet Appear to be his For wherein is Power seen but in the having the Will of Him done who hath that Power And that his is the Glory and yet at the same Time Teaches us to pray Sanctified or Glorified by Thy Name This shews very manifestly the Glory is not His as it shall be By All This it Arises clearly to our Notice That Our Lord hath in putting this Doxology into our Mouths put a Prophecy into our Mouths That the Time is coming according to the Measures Given us in his Word of Prophecy when the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory shall in full and highest Sense be Ascrib'd to God and as at a very present Time in that fullest Sense So that this Doxology of the Prayer Leads us to that Revel 4. 11. Thou art worthy Oh Lord to Receive Glory and Honour and Power For thou hast created All Things and for thy pleasure they are and were created And c. 5. 13. And every Creature which is in Heaven and on the Earth and under the Earth and such as are in the Sea heard I saying Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever c. 11. 17. We give Thee Thanks Oh Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy Great Power and hast Reigned and the Nations were Angry as at a thing not done before c. 15. 3. Great and marvellous are thy Works Lord God Almighty Just and True are thy ways Oh King of Saints Who shall not Fear thee Oh Lord and Glorifie thy Name For thou only art Holy For All Nations shall come and Worship before thee For thy Judgments are made manifest c. 19. 5. Hallelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God For True and Righteous are his Judgments And a Voice came out of the Throne Praise Our God All ye his Servants and ye that Fear Him both Small and Great And I heard as it were the Voice of a Great Multitude and as the Voice of many Waters and as the Voice of mighty Thunderings saying Hallelujah For the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth When
these Great Doxologies come into their High and Lofty and Solemn Sounds then shall this Doxology be both fully understood and fullfill'd and not before And therefore it shews this Prayer to be the Prayer of the Kingdom The Seal of this Prayer both as to the Sincerity and Reality of our own Desires and of our Faith and Hope in God's Gracious Answer and Giving Effect to our Prayers is common to All Prayers and yet most peculiar to this Prayer as the Comprehensionary Prayer of all Prayers And it is Amen which hath the Force not only of So be It as in other Prayers but of So It is or So It shall be even in this Prayer Taught by an Infallible Master of Prayer who calls himself the Amen And so was and is Able to set with highest Efficacy the Amen to his own Prayer And he will most certainly bring All Things to pass according to it even as he is the Amen the Faithful Witness the Beginning or mighty Principle as of the First so of the New Creation of God And therefore every Petition of it shall be Answer'd to even every Iota Heaven and Earth shall pass but not one Iota of this Prayer shall pass away till All be fullfilled And as it thus looks back to the whole Prayer and every Iota of it so it particularly respects the Doxology We therefore find as in Harmony with it in Two Great Doxologies this Word Amen set as in Capital Letters and in most exalted Accents Revel 5. 14. When Every Creature in Heaven and Earth had said Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be to Him that sits on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever The Four Living Creatures in the most solemn manner said Amen And c. 19. 4. Where there had been a Voice of much People in Heaven Saying Allelujah c. The Four and Twenty Elders and the Four Living Creature Pronounced again in most Sollemn manner Amen Allelujah And indeed Amen is a Word most Proper and Peculiar to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ when All Prophecy even the whole Mystery of God as He hath Spoken by all the Prophets shall be Finished and when All Prayers of Saints Comprehended in this Prayer which is beyond what we can Aske or Think but as the Spirit helping our Infirmities with Groans that are not to be Vttered makes Intercession for us shall be Fully Answered and Fulfilled So that though Amen be a Common Obsignation of all Prayer yet it hath a much higher Sence in this Prayer which Communicates it to All Prayer Flowing from and Returning into it self and even the highest Sence of the Amen to this Prayer is as it is the Prayer of the Kingdom and is Fulfilled in the Doxologies of the Kingdom and of the Power and of the Glory which that Kingdom shall Produce So that even this however Common Amen of All Prayer Expounded into its Full Sence as set to this Prayer is also a Proof to us This Prayer is the Prayer of the Kingdom a Prayer with a Supream Amen Peculiar to it Object If any should say why is it then together with the Doxology wholy Omitted in the Gospel of St. Luke and then Especially when Jesus Christ the Messiah the Prince Taught His Disciples to Pray as John the Fore-Runner Taught his Disciples and where also if any where He Commands the use of it as a Form Answ I can understand no Reason but according to what hath been already Intimated That Our Lord might shew He did in neither Place Intend a Rigid Form and least of All where it might be most Collected from His Words He did Intend a Form as in the Evangelist Luke yet here the Prayer Arises least to a Form being without the Doxology or the Amen And that therefore we might be engaged upon that Rule of Praying after the manner of this Prayer as it is Expounded to us in the whole Word of God And Especially in the Word as it is most peculiarly the Word of the Kingdom And particularly according to the manner of this Prayer as given before by our Lord according to the Evangelist Matthew where we have the Doxology and the Amen And therefore to make Formal Repetition of the Prayer as in Luke without the Doxology and Amen as in Matthew is a Gross Offence against that Precept of our Lords in Matthew Pray after this manner Extending to the Doxology and Conclusion as much as to any part of the Prayer and is by Consequence to be joyned to it in Luke where the Repetition of it is so Given as to make both One Let us now make a Review upon the whole Prayer and behold the Order of it as It is the Prayer of the Kingdom And First Our Father Who is now in the Heavens will Rend and Bow the Heavens And they shall open to Him as He Descends in Jesus Christ the only Begotten Son and Receives his whole Adoption made Conformable to the Image of his Son in His Saints of the First Resurrection who put on Incorruption and the Saints Living Remaining Changed And the Creatures also waiting for the Manifestation of the Son of God are Delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the Glorious Liberty of the Son of God And so He Appears the Father of Heaven and Earth as the Father of Christ of whom the Whole Family of Heaven and Earth is Called So the Whole Creation is Filled with His Glory which is the Sanctification or Glorification of His Name by Himself Immediately even together with this Appearance of His Kindom comes in the Universal Holiness of Jehovah Written on the Forheads of His Servants Serving Him which is His Will done by His Saints in the New Heaven above and the New Earth below and His Enemies Crouching Down at the Foot-Stool of His Feet Hereupon follows the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the Eating and Drinking at His Table in His Kingdom that is the Full Communion with Christ the Bread of Life the Super-Substantial Bread in a Constant Uninterrupted Yesterday and to Day the same For ever At this Supper as so Great a Festival for it There is an Universal Reconciliation of God by Christ and of all the Saints one with another and of the whole Restored Creation even those Parts which seem'd most at Enmity which is the Universal Forgiveness as we are Forgiven and a Perfect State of Righteousness and Peace in the New Jerusalem that there can be no New Offences under our Great Melchisedeck King of Righteousness King of Peace And the Serpent and his Seed at the Foot-Stool of Christ Eat Dust and cannot so much as Repast upon Temptation For there shall be none And at the same Time the whole Curse is Remooved So that Sorrow and Sihgthing Flee away and are Remembred no more nor come into Mind This Universal State of Glory Flows from the Universal Dominion and Kingdom of God and therefore it is Thundered out with Everlasting Hallelujahs The
God and of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem above and also to have regard in their Pâ—ayers according to this Prayer to the New Creation of God in a New Earth a State of Restitution to all the Creatures as in a New Jerusalem below And even through all This our Lord hath in this Prayer peirc'd and soar'd beyond even into the Kingdom of Eternity when God shall be All in All. Now as to the First the State of the Kingdom of Grace which is now and also with relation to the Kingdom of Eternity which shall be at the utmost hereafter of the Kingdom Deliver'd up I presume to add nothing to the General Expositions already so full but shall only endeavour to draw the Lines of the Discourse in parallel to the Epiphania or Lustre of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in his Glorious Appearance I only premise in the General That I rest upon the Guard of Providence over this Elect Portion of Scripture And that it hath so watch'd over it as to surprize and prevent any Change of it So that we have whatever the Divine Spirit Dictated to the Evangelists concerning it and just as it Dictated to each Evangelist I therefore matter no Difference of Copies but as this Prayer is givâ—n by Two Evangelists and at Two several Times and on Two several Occasions or Accounts so God hath preserv'd the Prayer in each Evangelist as we find it and so I proceed to Discourse upon it I begin with this Prayer therefore as we find it in the Evangelist Matthew where it is plac'd in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount in which our Lord gathering together the great Heads of the Spirituality of the Doctrine of Christianity relating to Practice and Action necessarily falls upon that high Point of Prayer First He Regulates the End and Intention of Prayer as having to do with God only in secret and banishes from it all Pharisaic Ostentation and Desire to be seen of Men and from thence he slides into the manner or modelling of Prayer and bars the Heathen way of Praying from making an Invasion into the Christian Church as it seems it had done on the Jews upon whom the Gentiles Times of Servitude under the Romans now sate heavy and their Principles had too much Leav'ned many of the Jews Our Lord therefore Cautions his Disciples against the Leaven of Herod implying the Gentiles and against the Leaven of the Pharisees implying the Corrupted Judaism Mark 8. 15. And undoubtedly in this very Prayer our Lord Remonstrated to All After-Ages of Christians against that False Judaism and the Gentilism of the Antichristian Apostacy in this very matter of Prayer which yet in his Divine Spirit He Fore-saw would come upon it under the working of the Mystery of Iniquity and the Revelation of the Man of Sin And the Apocalyptick Prophecy foretells it under those very Names Jews who Lyed in saying They were Jews and were not and Gentiles who Crouded into the Outer Court and Took away this Daily Sacrifice of Spiritual Evangelical Prayer and brought in Idolatry and Superstition in rhe room of it When therefore our Great High Priest and Prophet Commanded to Pray after this manner giving only the Summary of Prayer that must needs intend Enlargement according to every Head and in this Plain and Unaffected Method and intire Composure of Prayer without interruptions or breakings off without Repetitions without intermixed Responsals or Suffrages He hath for ever Damned All those prescribed imposed Liturgies and Litanies that consist of these and particularly the so often Repetitions of this Prayer which is exceedingly injur'd and affrouted thereby the very avowed intention of it being against all Affected Repetitions and so of it self especially Accordingly the First and purest Times of Christianity pray'd after this Plain Unaffected Manner of Prayer Yeâ— it is not to be thought It was any part of our Lord's meaning to abridge the pouring out Prayer unto God when the Soul is full of Affection and flows out into Expression as abundant even as Himself continued a whole Night in Prayer and hath left to his Church upon Record that much larger Prayer as it were some Sample of his Great Intercession John 17. Nor does he lay his Prohibition upon the Repetition of the very same Words when the Spirit within insisting earnestly upon the same Thing Naturally chuses again and again the very same Words Fot he himself Thrice used the same Words concerning the Removal of the Cup from him Now with this Prayer as given in this Sermon on the Mount hath our Lord interwoven many great Principles of Christianity as he makes plain by enlarging upon them as that of Forgiveness of Trespasses according to that That we should forgive even as we desire to be Forgiven of seeking the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of iâ— in the First place according to that Thy Kingdom come of trusting Providence with the Things of To Morrow according to that Give us this Day and of not trusting to the saying Lord Lord without doing the Will of our Father according to that Thy Will be done Of All which the Exppsitors of this Prayer in general have excellently treated Let it be then allowed and acknowledg'd that the Sum of the Account of our Lord 's giving this Prayer as in the Sermon on the Mount is To give a Prayer Commensurate with the whole Doctrine of Christianity to all his Disciples And his commanding Them to pray after this manner included a Command to obtain an Acquaintance with the Spiritual Sense and Meaning of this Prayer which they are to learn from the whole Word and Gospel of the Kingdom For it cannot be expected the Great Concernmenss of Christianity this Prayer refers unto as they fall within Prayer in general should be found explicitly within this Summary of Prayer for them That Christians therefore may be able to pray after this manner or according to the mighty Importances of this Prayer the Variety of their own States and all the Occasions thereof and according to the various Motions of their own Spirits the whole Word and Gospel of the Kingdom must dwell Richly in them that they may all steer by the Compass of this Prayer as Men upon the Sea shape various Courses and yet all sail by one Compass that never varies So should we in Prayer by this Prayer understood according to the whole Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and no otherwise to be understood And as to the Manner That there should be no Prescribing after Christ For what can the Man do that comes after him who would yet prescribe no otherwise than thus in brief and in this plain sincere way without Artifice without Doublings this way and that way and yet by such an All-Comprehending Wisdom that no Man can pray according to the Word of God but he must pray according to this Prayer For it is as the Sea to Prayer All the Rivulets of Prayer come out of
Words when ye pray say does not oblige us to the Words but to the whole Latitude of their Evangelick Sense and Importance 4. Give leave to add here as in the most seasonable Place with Relation to this Prayer as it is found both in the Evangalist Matthew and Luke That neither in Them nor in the whole New Testament is this Prayer any where styled the Lords Prayer as the Breaking of Bread is styled the Lords Supper and the First Day the Lords Day nor yet any way Referred to as such To shew the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Form of Words is no Instituton of Christs to be used in solemn Worship as the Lords Day and Lords Supper are not to be divided one from another Joyned so by that singular Word not again used in the whole New Testament 1 Cor. 11. 20. Rev. 1. 10. as viz. Lordly or Belonging to the Lord that is by Peculiarity or Speciallity This is very much to be weighed as shewing the very Prayer as in the Form does not Tye us Object To all that I have said upon the Prayer as in the Evangelist Luke it may be ojected whether the Prayer Tye us to a Form or not It seems wonderful the Disciples should forget Christ had taught them to Pray before as in Matthew and that even as the Great Prophet in that Sermon on the Mount Answ Undoubtedly this Inadvertency and Forgetfulness as in other Cases was permitted by God that they might in this solemn manner desire the Lord to Teach them more solemnly as Messiah as John the Fore-Runner of Messiah Taught his Disciples and that Christ giving the same Prayer again might shew how close His Messiahship and the whole Doctrine of Christianity are conjoyned and that all Run together unto His Kingdom 2. The second Circumstance of this Prayer as it is given in the Evangelist Luke is the Consideration of the Discourses relating to Prayer after the giving this Prayer that our Lord looks unto and they are these Two 1. The Earnestness and Importunity that we ought to use in Prayer and that must relate to this Prayer in all the Parts or Branches of Prayâ—r to which it directs us and even Leads us by the Hand into we ought to be so earnest as not to receive a Denial from God And this Earnestness He after in this very Gospel of Luke particularly guides to is unto his own Coming when he will Avenge his own Elect Assuring us even while he does indeed Bear long yet he will Avenge speedily And that herein he hath Respect to his own Coming he plainly shews For he adds And yet when the Son of man cometh shall he find Faith on the Earth c. 18. 1 7 8. 2. The other Point of Prayer our Lord discourses with Relation to this Prayer is That when his Servants are sincere in their Desires God will give them the Best Things though they may not understand the Heighth and Depth the Breadth and Length of the Divine Promises and Senses of the Word of God with Relation to Prayer and particularly as gather'd into this Prayer For God will understand for his Children the Best Things even as a most compassionate Father if his Children ask things that are good in their kind he does not give things different nor Below much less contrary but better and Above And this may thus relate to this Prayer the whole Stream of it runs into the Channel of Truest good Things They therefore whom the Holy Spirit moves to pray it shall not be answered with any thing of a worse or lower kind but with the Spirit the Supream and All-Comprehending Good And this He will give and still give till it comes to the Height of His Kingdom according to Esay 59. last For so his Spirit makes Intercession with groanings not to be uttered And God understands His own Spirit as is after further to be Insisted upon and he understands it not only by our words no nor by our more formed apprehensions but by deep Search of our Hearts and the most retired Operations of his Spirit within our Hearts And to this great purpose our Saviour speaks in those words also in Matthew Be ye not like the Heathen in much speaking For your Faiher knoweth what things you have need of before you ask Him shewing That Prayer is not to be manag'd as if we would Inform or change God but to affect our own Hearts and to put them into an order for receiving from God by his Grace in Christ Spiritual Understanding Holy Affection Humble Dependence Earnest Desire and Zeal for his Glory and Kingdom and a State here preparatory for it That way of Prayer that either by meer often Repetition by customariness by not having the Spirit and Power of the Word of God in it is Unserviceable to the Great Ends is not after the manner of the Lord 's Teaching to Pray nor received into it And what ever precribed way of Prayer it is that more or less brings in a Rote of much Speaking only and takes off from the Exercise of this Spiritual understanding and Affection hath sutable degrees of that Great Guilt of bringing Gentilism into the Temple of God and taking away the daly Sacrifice of Prayer Object But it may be still said the Lords putting His Prayer so much into a Form argues He intended it should be so used else why did he put it into a Form Answ That He did not intend it as a Riged Form I have fully argued yet He put it into a Form especialy in Matthew that it might stand the more Conspicuous and Full in all parts as a Pattern and might ever in Relation to His Kingdom be in constant Use as to the substantial Importance of it and by an Admirable Foresight of the way of using this Prayer by the Christian World condemns the Ignorance the Unbelief the Oppossition to the Dactrine of His Kingdom even out of the own Mouths of the generallity of Christians And now I come having spoken this in preparation to Teach you the Vse of this Prayer of the Kingdom as David Taught the Children of Israel the Vse of the Bow * 2 Sam. 1. 1â— For Spirits of Saints Instructed and Armed with the Spioit of this Prayer and the Divine Senses of it without any over Ceremoniousness about the Repetition of the Words are as the Charriots and Horsemen of Israel especially They who are thus instructed in it As it is the Prayer of the Kingdom And herein I have said I propose this to you to give you the Key of this Prayer as it is the Prayer of the Glorious Kingdom of Christ and seeing I have declared I do no way prejudice the Expositions Calculated for general use tho I take the Elevation of this Prayer according to this Kingdom let none thefore be angry at it least they fall under the Reproof of taking away the Key of this Prayer They would not Enter in themselves and Those who are
Necessities might with Earnestness Remonstrate His own Counsels our Hearts and Affections being every way prepared and disposed thereunto And God Graciously giving and bringing things to pass as at our Defires and Petitions Oh how great is the Indearment As David says I will Love the Lord because he hath Heard my Supplication He Inclined to me and heard my Cry and upon this Account I will call upon Him as long as I Live And because Prayer is according to His own Counsels and thus prepared to the indearing our Hearts to God Therefore he Stiles Himself a God hearing Prayers that to him all Flesh may come And He is nigh to them that call upon him that call upon Him in Truth He will fullfill the Desire of them that Fear Him He also will hear their City and save them And they that thus Hope in His Mercy more then in all Created Leggs He takes Pleasure in as those that will be most Moov'd to Fear and Love Him But it may be still Urged Either the giving of this Prayer may Excuse our Looking into the VVord and we may be most secure in praying this Prayer only as most certainly according to the VVord or this Prayer can do us no Service For still our business is to Look into all the VVord of God and then how are we helped by this Prayer To this the Answer Lies in Two Things giving account of the Reason of this Prayer Taught by Christ notwithstanding it is our Duty to Look into the Whole VVord and to Pray this Prayer according to it with the most Enlarged Understandings Affections and Expressions 1. This Prayer and the Several Petitions of it are as Sea-Marks and Land-Marks in the vast Compass and Ocean of the VVord of God Guiding us to the Great Fundamentals of Prayer and setting Just and Due Bounds to us therein 2. It does Especially Winde up our Hearts Thoughts and Affection in all Spirituall VVisdome and Prudence and Intellectual Sence to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ when it is Fully understood as I have now made out and which is the highest Flight of Prayer And seeing it is only thus as I have shewn to be used even when it is Repeated and not by way of meer Form and Languid Repetition It shews the Necessity of the word of God dwelling Richly in us in all VVisdom that we may without such Forbidden Repetition or Thinking to be heard for our much Speaking Continue in Prayer and Abound therein with Thanksgiving And if we make the Repetition of this Prayer only to Sum up our Prayers To do it when we find our hearts Enflamed and Running out of Choise into these Words with most Elarged Understandings and Affections And this is indeed an Admirable Communion with God in Prayer and frees it from the Ignorance of a Blind Devotion and from all the Fopperies of Superstition or the possible Unreasonableness of Thinking to Inform or Change God And it shews us Prayer is not for God as if He any way wanted it But it is for us to Conform us to God and to the highest Conspiring with His Will with His Glory and to draw up the Faith Love Obedience Reverence and highest Honour of our Spirits upon Him And so we Observe the True Ends of our Lords giving this Prayer in our either Praying according to it out of the whole Word of God or making a Recital of it as we find our hearts carried on so to Recite it at Some Time more than Another and not in a Ritual maner Infer 9 Seeing the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of it the Peace and Glory of Christ is the highest Counsel of God for the Glory of God and of his Saints and even for the Glory and Happiness of His Creation Therefore This must needs be the highest Point of Prayer and therefore this Prayer the Standard and Examplar of Prayer In this then we according to the Nature and Duty of Prayer should Conspire with the Counsel of God and Cry Day and Night to Him for it But alass as Christ said when the Son of Man Comes shall He find Faith on the Earth Even those who Continually Roll over this Prayer by Affected Repetition least penetrate and Enter into the Sence of it in their Eyes and hearts upon the Kingdom of Christ as it is Intended and designed in it And even those who have understood and desire'd it more yet have understood it only in the General notions of the Coming of Christ to Judgment and of the Resurrection This hath been the Slumber of the Apostacy upon the Christian World even upon the VVise Virgins so that the Comming of Christ will be a Surprize upon them That is His Comming in another sort of a Kingdom then they expected in their Slumber and in the Time of the Bridegrooms Delay Yet notwithstanding All that are indeed VVise who have Oyl in their Vessels and not in their Lamps only that is Grace in their Hearts not in Profession only shall go with Christ in to the Wedding Although in this true Explained Notion of His Kingdom He will not when He Cometh Find Faith on Earth But it is very Observable that tho this Prayer hath not been Awakenedly Understood as is ought to be Yet by the Secret Guidance of Providence and Government of the Church Either the Form of this Prayer hath so Prevaled in the Church of Christ Or the Sence of the Kingdom of Christ in the General and Vertual or in the Particular and more Express Notions of it according to the Gospel of the Kingdom have so derived from and Fallen into this Prayer that there hath been always a Generation of the Sincere Servants of God and of Christ that have Cryed to Him Day and Night for His Kingdom and according to this Praayer Infer 10 However The Foundation of God Remaineth Sure In this Kingdom The Promises of God are Yea and Amen And in this Prayer To the Kingdom of Christ is the Great and True Amen and Yea of it set On which Account as I have said The Amen of this Prayer is of an Elevated Note and in Harmony with All the Promises that are Yea and Amen in Him Therefore after the declaring His Coming in the Clouds Rev. 1. 17. It is Added Yea Amen and after His own saying When He had Testified His Coming in His Kingdom in the Four Chapters before Behold I come quickly It is Rejoyned by His Servants in their Prayers Comprehended in this Prayer Amen Yea Come Lord Jesus And therefore it is Certain He will come to His Servants in and according to this Prayer Crying to Him Day and Night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Constant Notice of His Kingdom Speedily Quickly Yea and Amen Amen and Yea Even So Even So Be It Let him who is the Amen the Fatihful Witness the Amen of all the Promises in His Kingdom Come according to the Amen of this Prayer Comprehending the Prayers of All Saints Amen Yea. Revel 22. 12. 20. FINIS
Blessed is the Man that endureth Temptation And God is Faithful and will not suffer you to be Tempted above what you are Able to Bear meaning of Affliction but Jam. 1. 2. 1 Cor. 10. 13. will with the Temptation make you a way of Escape Thus on the Account of Evil and Fear coming upon them at the Time of His Suffering Our Lord warns His Apostles to Watch and Pray That they may not Enter into Temptation Now our Lord having taken care in the First of these Two Petitions of what Concerns the Smoother and more Oyly part of Temptation that we should not be Led into it In this Latter Petition He takes Care against the Rougher and more Formidable Part that Affrights us and Scares from that Duty and Station wherein we ought to stand Fast that we might avoid such or such Evils or by Reason of which we are dispirited and Faint in our minds or that by any Impression dissits or disadvantages in holding a Close Communion with God or abates the Honour or Glory of our Service to Him Because we want what is necessary for the most Illustrious management or it For we know that low State of Things that abundant of Evil by way of Punnishment or Affliction that is in the world however It may be more Acceptable to God to Discover Sincerity and other Graces Yet it Clouds and Darkens the Splendor of Religion and it is not the State the Holy Wise and Good Creator designed things at First for Nor that They should so continue though for a Time His Srength may be thus Manifested in our weakness So that though I shall not in the Least Question but that the Petition may Import deliverance from the Evil of Temptation while we are in the Present State yet that the Heighth and Elevation of it Intends the Deliverance of the Servants of Christ from all the Disadvantages upon any Account whatsoever they Receive or may Receive from All or any of the various Kinds or Forms of Natural Evils of those Evils which we call the Evil of Punishment and of Affliction in the World which are so from the want of such a plentifull and Happy State that might more Encourage and Raise our Spirits and the Honour of the Kingdom of God in this World and that upon these Two Accounts 1. Because it cannot agree with the Holiness Wisdom and Goodness of God and the Glory of His own Perfection and Happiness that there should last always such a Dark shade upon the Great Fabrick of Things such a Disorder and Confusion in His Creation and Government of the World as we now see But that All should come into a State of Perfect Light Peace Order and Happiness as that wherein Himself the only Wise and Happy Potentate Dwells 2. Because the Description of the Last State of Things is such as does declare such a Deliverance from the whole Power of Evil viz. of Affliction or Punishment Both as in the want of Good and the pressure of Evil and this we find both in the Prophets and more Fully and together in the Revelation For Rev. 21. 4. God shall wipe away all Tears from the Eyes of His Servants and there shall be no more Death neither Sorrow nor Crying neither shall there be any more pain For all the former Things are past away And Chap. 22. 3. There shall be no more Curse And there is a City of Gold and Pearl and the Glory of God and the Lamb are its so Supream Lights that there shall be No need of the Sun and the Tree of Life with its Twelve Kinds of Fruit are in the Middest of it and the River of the Water of Life Clear as Christal Run through it and the Throne of God and of the Lamb are the never Failing Splendor of it Now seeing there is such a State as this in the Word of God how can we think it Possible so great a Petition of so great a Prayer should leave it out that is so Admirably prepared to Express it as this Deliver us from Evil or from the Evil viz. from the Whole Nature of Evil of the Evil of Misery and of Affliction and that Low Poor Indigent State wherein we can set out nothing Splendidly for our God and in our way of Service and Honour to Him in His Worship or in Obedience to His Commands and Conformity to Himself but we are Ensnared with Fears Amazed with Terrors Discouraged by Want kept down with Pressures This is the Evil in this Petition Our Lord Teaches us to Pray for Deliverance from as that Black and Dismal and Terrible side of Temptation Which is the Curse that shall be no more in His Kingdom There now remains only the Consideration of our Lord's Manner of Summing up of this Prayer which is so done that it Appears with a Threefold Aspect 1. It looks back upon the whole Prayer by way of Recollective Argument and Enforcement of it in every part as it is the Prayer of the Kingdom 2. It particularly indents and entwines it self with the Last Petition Deliver us from Evil as the most sensible to us now Character of the Kingdom 3. Under the close Conveyance of the Argument enforcing to the hearing of the whole and every part and Petition of this Prayer it falls into the Great Doxology of the Kingdom which however it is always due to God yet is in its highest Sense and Elevation the Doxology proper to the Kingdom and which argues this Prayer to be the Prayer of the Kingdom The Argument looking back upon the whole Prayer may be understood these Three ways 1. All these Petitions are thus Argued to be well Founded upon greatest Equity Truth and Righteousness in Two Regards 1. Such High Desires and Petitions were most Abominable and Sacrilegious if They were not Offered and Addressed to Him whose is the Power and the Kingdom and the Glory For All the Things desired in this Prayer He Alone is worthy to be prayed unto for them whose is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory even for ever and ever And it were to make a God of him who is no God to offer them by way of Prayer to Any other to Make a False God and to cloath him with the Majesty and Greatness that is None of His but is peculiar to Him who is God Alone and there is None besides Him There is not any Other and so it is a strong Bar to Invocation of Angels and Saints for any of the Things laid up in this Prayer which are indeed All things that according to the Word of God fall into Prayer To offer them to any other is both Sacriledge and Idolatry and therefore it is so to pray Religiously to Any other because all Holy Prayer is Treasur'd in them And they were also most Foolish Vain and to no purpose to be offer'd to any other even as if they were offered to a Fly or a Glod of Earth in comparison who are so