condemn'd by our Saviour but the Repetition now spoken of is to mend your Incogitancy and Thoughtlesness of the Business you are about For it is not the tumbling out of so many words or of the same words over and over again or the Length and Multitude of them that is pleasing unto God any farther than as they express the fervency of your Spirit the Importunity of your Zeal and the greatness of your Wants But if you affect Length and Repetition in Prayer either out of Hypocrisie or Vainglory it will be so far from pleasing God and prevailing with him that it will have a quite contrary effect And this you may conclude from our Saviours carriage in this Particular who disliking the Heathens Length and Vociferation in Prayer gave his Disciples a short comprehensive Form which they were to use and imitate in their calling upon God Fourthly When you find out the Wandring of your Thoughts and that you are ready to mind any thing rather than that you should there is no such Cure for this as Attention For by it you instantly recal your self to your Business and to a serious minding of what you are about And you will soon perceive your obligation to do this when you consider that without doing it you slight one of the most Eminent Parts of God's Worship By drawing nigh unto him with your lips when your heart is far from him Besides if you exactly weigh your lack of Attention you will find it has in it a great degree of Atheism For not to Attend to what you say when you speak unto God betrays in you a low esteem of his Majesty and that you have mean unworthy Thoughts of the Godhead which has ever been accounted a piece of the vilest Atheism Call home then your roving Thoughts and employ them in what you are about Get as near Heaven as you can and have your mind there and there only For unless this be your care and practice when you offer to God the Sacrifice of Prayer you will be but like the Cheat in Plutarch Who brought unto the Altar of his Idol the Skeleton of an Ox cover'd with a fair hide pretending that he offer'd a goodly Sacrifice of Flesh and Entrails when indeed there was nothing but a skin full of bones You would count him a vain Thoughtless Person worthy of Ridicule and Contempt who coming to beg his Life of his Prince should give over his Suit to run after a Butterfly And yet this is your figure when in Prayer you suffer your mind to be carried away to impertinent objects and fasten your Thoughts to the things which you ought to avoid thinking on Can you hope as was but now intimated God should incline His ears to the Prayers to which you will not incline your own That he should regard your Petitions when you do not regard them your self You may easily observe your aptness to heedlesness at Devotion and how many things all foreign to what you are about do interpose when you fall down upon your Knees you may find to your sorrow the Common Enemy tampering with your Heart at the same time your tongue is speaking unto God 'T is therefore necessary to recollect your self to fix your mind when you come before the Almighty and to affect your Soul with this consideration That you are not sure of another opportunity to solicit him with your Prayers But if through the frailty of humane Nature you cannot always exercise that Attention which is necessary to restrain your wandring in Prayer then beg of God to assist your frailty and to establish your Attention against all avocations And tho' they may steal upon you at Devotion that he would enable you by his Grace to reject them And if after all you cannot be rid thereof be sure to give them no encouragement but to deny them your approbation and consent For when you do sincerely strive against them God will either crown your endeavour with conquest over them or pardon them if they prove invincible But if the want of attention in Prayer be the fruit of your own wilful Negligence you can hope neither for God's assistance nor his pardon whilst this negligence is continued CHAP. XI Zeal in Prayer ZEal is another help against the wandring of your thoughts in Prayer Now Zeal is a sacred warmth and fervour of Mind and an affectionate earnestness to have your Prayers heard For it is not enough that you keep your Thoughts to what is utter'd by him that ministreth in the publick Service and to ponder and mind every word he speaks but you must do it with intention and fervency For both all wandring and all deadness in Prayer must be driven away True Zeal will melt and dissolve your heart and make you cry unto God with the utmost strength of Spirit and it will move you to be wholly bent to obtain what you crave A cold indifferent Suitor seldom prevails with Men. For if a begger should ask relief at your hands and do it in so loose a manner as that he seem'd indifferent whether he had it or no you would think he had either little Want or great Pride and so have no heart to relieve him Now the things you beg of God are so much above the rate of any ordinary Alms that you can never expect they should be given you if you are slight and heavy in asking them When you apprehend and fully consider the matter of your Prayer and add to it a devout earnestness of desire then may your Devotion be truly said to be Zealous And tho' this quality chiefly resides in the Soul yet it often appears in the gestures of the Body As was seen in Moses who when he made intercession for Israel Fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights and did neither eat bread nor drink water because of all the sins that Israel had sin'd in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger Deut. 9.18 And the Zeal of this meekest of Men was more than ordinary when he desir'd God rather to blot him out of his BOOK than that he should execute his menaces against Israel Elias cast himself upon the earth to express his Earnestness in praying for Rain And the ever Blessed Jesus continued all night in Prayer and offer'd up his supplications with strong crying and tears Luke 6.12 Heb. 5.7 And pray'd with such Ardour and Affectionateness that the sweat fell from him to the ground as if it had been great drops of blood Luke 22.44 And this zeal and earnestness seems to have been meant by S. Paul when he exhorted Believers to be instant in Prayer Rom. 12.12 To strive in prayer Rom. 15.30 To labour frequently in prayer Col. 4.12 Night and day to pray exceedingly To pray always with all prayer praying earnestly 1 Thes 3.10 Eph. 6.18 1 Pet. 4.7 Jam. 6.7 By all which sacred Texts that Zeal and Vehemency seems to be enjoyn'd which I
continually to God and that without which you can never hope to be safe and prosperous For Praying gives you a title to God's safeguard and preservation and it must be as lasting as your own wants and obligation to worship God And therefore till you find you have no need of God's Mercies nor any tye upon you to adore him you must Pray without ceasing Which words imply Secondly That your Prayers under the Gospel must bear proportion with the Daily Sacrifices under the Law which were constantly offer'd Morning and Evening And you cannot sink your Prayers to a lesser proportion or pray seldomer than Morning and Evening It being highly reasonable and necessary that you should begin all your works with calling upon God for his direction and blessing and end them with praise and thanks for his protection and assistance Some have interpreted the Apostles words Pray without ceasing of spending every moment of their life in Prayer which can be no error if it be understood of such an excellent frame of Spirit and pious disposition of Mind as is alway in readiness to call upon God This religious temper and habitual devoutness of Soul is like the Holy fire of the Sanctuary which never went out For it is always ready to flame in pious ejaculations and affectionate breathings after God And when for want of meet circumstances your Prayers cannot be Vocal yet they may be Mental And in this sense you may be said to pray without ceasing which according to Diodati is to be understood rather of the heart and affection than of the tongue and words And tho' you have not always leisure and opportunity to be upon your knees yet you never want either to bow your heart before God and by a pious temper of mind and spirit of Devotion to lift it up to the Lord. And notwithstanding the Scripture has left the frequency of Prayer undetermined yet you may take your measures as to publick Prayers from the Rules of the Church and in your private Devotions from the examples of Holy Men. And first the Rules of the Church acquaint you with the stated times of Publick Prayer from which you are not to be absent when you can possibly be at them And it must be a matter of considerable moment that can justify your absence from the Lords House at the set times of Prayer Now according to some Expositors you may be said to Pray without ceasing when you observe the hours or times of Prayer appointed by the Church But if you were not injoyn'd to observe such stated times of Prayer yet the very Light of Nature and the Law of Piety would oblige you to observe them For both these teach you to omit no occasion to express your Duty to God Which consists in worshipping him giving him thanks calling upon him honouring his holy Name and his word and serving him truly all the days of our life And as to Frequency in your Private Devotion you have the Examples of Holy men in Scripture for your Guide And first of David Who evening morning and at noon did cry unto the Lord and he heard his voice Psal 55.17 With his constant importunity he re-inforc'd an impression of his Prayers upon God the better to move him to grant them My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 5.3 This religious Prince made the first fruits and prime of the day to present his supplications before God and after the manner of earnest Petitioners he fix'd his eyes on heaven resolving to wait and never to move till the Lord hearken'd unto the voice of his Prayer nay from thrice David encreas'd his praying to seven times a day Psal 119.164 rightly concluding that he could never sufficiently admire and magnifie the Divine Excellencies and that if he had had nothing else to be the matter of his praises yet he thought himself bound continually to extol them It 's true the phrase seven times may be taken in a larger sense and not meerly to signifie that number but be look'd upon as a mode of speech denoting a great frequency in Prayer and shewing that David was daily very often imploy'd therein which custom to pray often was not peculiar to David only but was also used by God's people many hundred years after he saw corruption As was seen in Daniel who when he knew the Dead-warrant was sign'd for his execution Went into his house and his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem he kneel'd upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime Dan. 6.10 The last words shew that it was not an emergent zeal or an extraordinary fit of Devotion but that it was his constant and usual practice to pray thrice a day which was the common custom of the Jews who made Morning noon and evening the three times of prayer Acts 3.1 and 10.4 and 9.31 which custom was observ'd also by the Apostles and some Devouter Christians went farther and pray'd six times a day taking in the Compline or the Prayer made by good men at nine at night But if you should imagine these examples to be imitable and that it would exhaust too much of your time to be so often on your knees then revolve with your self 1. That you are never so far to immerse and bury your self in worldly business as not to allow space to begin and end the day with Prayer And you cannot justly complain you want time to be thus often in Devotion when you consider how much time you can find to cast away if not upon that which is vicious yet upon that which is wholly impertinent to your Station If you would prudently retrench your Recreations and imploy in Piety the hours you spend in Vanities you would never be straitned for time to bestow in Devotion The true reason of your having so little time to give to this is because you lavish so much away in things of so little moment if not worse that when it is past you cannot but condemn your self for it But seeing you must one day give an account of the spending of your time it behoves you to be wary how you spend it And the more time you have wastfully mispent already the more signally careful you ought to be of that which yet remains And to redeem the hours you have thrown away upon Impieties by a vertuous and religious imployment of those God shall yet please to vouchsafe you Consider Secondly how reasonable and just a thing it is that you allow a liberal portion of your time to his service who is graciously pleas'd to allow so much to your own God does not grudge you space enough for your lawful Business and necessary Diversions but then he expects you would not encroach upon those minutes which are appointed to Religious Exercises It is very observable That men of
to God for a vertuous and holy life while you live here and for an happy and glorious Immortality when you go hence For these are the things for which you may pray absolutely and which God will certainly grant through Jesus Christ the Righteous To whom c. ALmighty and everlasting God who dost Govern all things in Heaven and Earth Mercifully hear the Supplications of thy People and grant us thy Peace all the days of our Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen GRant to us Lord we beseech thee the Spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful that we who cannot do any thing that is good without Thee may by Thee be enabled to live according to Thy Will through Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. XIV The Things to be Pray'd for I Am now come to the last Thing I propos'd to present you with viz. an Account of the Matter of Prayer or the Things you are to beg of God which are only such as he has in his Word promis'd to give and which for substance are all compris'd in the Sacred Form emphatically stil'd The Lord's Prayer Now this Prayer is of like use with the Decalogue and is to be the Rule of your Petitions as that is of your Actions And as you need do no more than what is set down in the Decalogue so you need desire no more than what is contain'd in the Lord's Prayer To the Heads of which all your Prayers are to be restrain'd and you are to use in them the like Simplicity and sober Brevity that is us'd in this And both the Decalogue and Lord's Prayer are of the same extent both teaching you your Duty to God your Neighbour and your Self The Decalogue teaches you what you are to do to each of these and the Lord's Prayer teaches you how you may beg of God to do them as you ought And as the Ten Commandments were twice given by God the Father so was the Lord's Prayer twice given by God the Son once at the request of his Disciples S. Luke 11.1 2. and a Second time of his own accord S. Matth. 6.9 And when our Lord gave this Prayer he intended it to be the true Sum of all Christian Prayers and that none were to ask any thing of God but what was therein comprehended For 1. There is not any thing that you need desire respecting your Duty to God which is not with wonderful plainness considering the brevity summ'd up in the three first Petitions of this Prayer The first whereof regards your glorifying of God's Name The second the establishing of his Authority and Dominion in your heart and the last your Submission and Obedience to his Will Which comprise all that you need desire of God in order to the right performance of your Duty towards him And in the first place it teaches you to pray for the hallowing and glorifying of God's Name By his Name you are to understand in General God Himself and in particular his Glorious Titles and Perfections together with every thing that has a peculiar relation to him as his Word his Day his House c. For as you owe to all these an awful humble Reverence and Devotion so you are to beg of God to stir up your heart and to assist you to pay it as you should That he would inable you so to carry your self toward all Things belonging to his Being and Service as that all may see you sincerely Honour and Worship his Adorable Essence and Excellencies For seeing God who is the Sovereign Holiness has been pleas'd to reveal himself as it were by a proper Name and to take unto him the endearing Title of Father honouring all Believers with the relation of his Children it is your Duty to beg that he would give you Grace to Glorifie him both in Word and Deed and that you may be an instrument of causing him to be Honor'd by all men and that neither by you nor by your means his Sacred Name may at any time be profan'd And this Hallowing of God's Name is the first thing you are taught to pray for and the foundation of all the rest For unless you Glorifie God and Magnifie him above all Things unless you acknowledge his Supreme Majesty and Superlative Goodness you are not fit to Pray for the coming of his Kingdom Which Kingdom is threefold viz. one of Power whereby he ruleth over all Creatures another of Grace whereby he ruleth in the hearts of Believers by his Word and Spirit and a third of Glory which in a more Eminent manner shall begin at the last Judgment when Christ as man shall deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father and when all the Saints shall be taken in to Reign with him And the coming of all these Kingdoms makes up the Second request of the Lord's Prayer for therein you desire that God would exercise his Power in subduing and his Justice in punishing his Enemies that by this means the World may be freed from that Impiety and Confusion wherewith it abounds and that every one may say Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth Psal 58.11 and plainly discern that this World is not govern'd by Chance but administred and manag'd by an Almighty All-wise and most Just Providence And as it is your Interest and Happiness so it ought to be your Prayer that God's Kingdom may be visible and his Authority exercised to the end that his Faithful Servants may be safe from their Adversaries and have their Necessities reliev'd and their Desires accomplish'd Next you are to pray for the coming of God's Kingdom of Grace that he would mercifully establish his Throne and Dominion in yours and in the hearts of all men That the Gospel may be Universally Embrac'd and that they who are now slaves to Satan and their own vile affections may be converted and renounce the Devil and profess themselves Subjects of Jesus doing his Works observing his Precepts and paying him Tribute Homage and Subjection as their Liege Lord. And whereas you daily see that God's Laws are broken his Messengers despised his Word and Sacraments neglected and every thing belonging to his Solemn Worship set at nought by some and ridicul'd by others you are in Charity oblig'd to pray for a better face of Affairs And that he who is the giver of all Goodness would send his Grace unto you and to all People that you may Worship him Serve him and Obey him as you ought to do And that your unruly Passions may be tam'd your rebellious Lusts mortified your naughty Desires extinguish't and every opposing Thought subdued So that Christ may have an absolute Command over your whole Man Body and Soul and that you may be happy in his Government And as for God's Kingdom of Glory or the Glorious Manifestation of Christ's coming to dispense a final Pardon to his Faithful Subjects and to admit them to the Participation of his Joy and Authority and to pronounce
and erroneous choice of their God they were still truly Orthodox in concluding it was their duty to worship whatever they esteem'd to be so They were perswaded there was in that to which they ascrib'd Divinity all the Attributes that render'd it fit for their Adoration namely such as Power Wisdom Goodness and All-sufficiency For they must needs think it unreasonable to seek to that for help which could not be suppos'd was able to give it And this they knew must be the case of every thing that was destitute of Power Wisdom c. And tho' the gods of the Heathens were of this sort yet whilst they believed them to be Gods they believ'd also that they were bound to worship them Of which Worship Prayer or Invocation was ever thought so eminent a branch that it was wont to be put for the whole system of Divine Adoration But if the Common light of Nature should not clearly enough discover That Prayer is a chief and Principal part of that worship and homage which is indispensibly due to the All-wise Creator of the World yet the Scriptures make it undoubtably evident And the many Texts wherein God promises to hear your Prayers plainly imply a Command to make them Call upon me saith the Lord and I will answer thee Jer. 33.3 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be deliver'd Joel 3.32 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name saith our Saviour he shall give it you ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full S. John 16.23 24. Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be open'd unto you For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeks finds and to him that knocks it shall be opened S. Matth. 7.7 8 9. In all which and the like passages of Holy Writ there is imply'd both a command to pray and promise to be heard Psal 65.2 Thou that hearest the prayer unto thee saith the Psalmist shall all flesh come meaning That every man ought to betake himself to God's service and that none who has any care of Piety or sense of Religion will be negligent and remiss in imploring the divine goodness and making his requests known unto God If you seriously consider God's dealings with men you will see that they are made up of abundant Mercy Compassion and Bounty All which you devoutly acknowledge and praise when you rightly address him with your Prayers And by if a steady obedience you keep fast to his Law patiently waiting his good time and pleasure persevering in sincere applications to him relying solely upon him without resorting to any other or using any Indirect means for your support he then will seasonably grant your petitions succour you in your greatest necessities and deliver you in the most imminent dangers Psal 145.17 18 19. For the Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him faithfully He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him he will hear their cry and will save them He is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Holiness and Veracity are his two great inseparable Attributes His Holiness is visible in all his actions and works of Providence in which he is so far from being the least occasion of men's sinning that he does all that can be done to rational and free Agents to keep them from it He enlightens their minds and sanctifies their hearts intending by this means either to preserve their innocence or as far as possible to restore it after they have lost it But if you or any one be so unhappy as not to be wrought upon by this method then he lets such know that he means to punish them according to their works And next as to God's Veracity this is apparent in all his words for he never affirms what is not most true nor promises what he does not fully intend to perform And therefore seeing he has said Call upon me and I will answer thee and Ask and ye shall receive Since he is nigh to all that call upon him that is willing and ready to grant their requests he will not fail of his word And tho you find your self wavering light and unconstant and apt to be turn'd with every blast diverted by every allurement and to deal with your best and chiefest vows as Sampson with his new cords which he broke at the naming of a Philistin yet with God there is no unfaithfulness He is the Lord and changeth not he is the same yesterday to day and for ever whatsoever then he has said shall certainly come to pass For he is righteous in all his ways and never fails of making good his Title of being the Hearer of Prayers When Rebecka was childless Isaac entreated the Lord for her and she conceiv'd Moses besought the Lord to remove the Plague he had brought upon Egypt and his Prayer was granted Hannah labouring under the reproach of barrenness pour'd out her soul unto God and he gave her a son Ezra and his Country-men pray'd that God would safely guard them home out of their Babylonian bondage and he was intreated by them and his hand was upon them for good When the Israelites in the first battle with the Philistins were defeated their Judges slain and the Ark of God taken Prisoner yet Samuel cry'd to the Lord to give them better success the Lord heard him and fought from heaven in their behalf discomfiting the enemy with thunder and lightning And when ever the Jews were in affliction they no sooner made their unfeign'd supplications unto God but he sent them relief he deliver'd them from their oppressors and by his all-wise and gracious Providence directed them to some auspicious successful means of redressing their grievances and either restored them to their former condition or gave them one that was better I mention these Examples of God's granting the Prayers of his Servants with no other intent but to confirm your assurance of his never failing to fulfil his promise of hearing those who duly call upon him And he seems so ready to do this that he will rather work miracles than faithful prayers shall return empty as it hapned in the case of Joshua at whose request God made the Sun stand still upon Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Ajalon Josh 10.12 And when many have been brought to the lowest ebb of misery and want even then has God been ready at hand to hear the groanings of the Prisoners and to loose those who were appointed to die Psal 86. signally displaying his power and providence in ordering the affairs of this lower World hearing the prayers of the Poor in misery being merciful to those who call daily upon him rejoycing the souls of his Servants and saving all such as put their trust in him And David perhaps having an eye to this concludes his Psalter with this affectionate Exhortation let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord And
concerning Matters of highest importance in a grave and learned Assembly Will he not rather if he may choose to come prepared and compose and weigh every Word and Period before he ventures to speak lest he expose himself by any rude and indigested Expression this would be but a becoming Piece of Respect at least and the want of it be condemn'd as no small Presumption Now in the case before us the reason of the thing is only so much stronger than it can be put in any worldly Concerns as there is so much more of awe due to the Person we are to speak to and the Business we come upon is of far greater Moment than any thing that is meerly Temporal can pretend to You that Fray are but a Worm Dust a Shadow a Bubble Nothing nay worse sinful polluted and abominable He to whom you Pray is the Lord of Heaven and Earth who is able eternally to destroy your Soul and Body in Hell The things you may Pray for are not of an inferiour but of the greatest Moment even the Salvation of your Soul Grace in this Life and Glory in the next And when you have maturely consider'd these things I leave you to make your own Conclusion as to the Preparation now spoken of And whether Reason do's not convince you of its Necessity But if your great Oracle Reason were Dumb in this case yet the Scriptures are plain and express to the purpose They teach you not to come before God without having first fitted your self for so dreadful a Presence And this you may collect from God's Command to Aaron which was that neither he nor his Sons should Enter upon Divine Service till they had wash't their hands and feet in the Laver appointed for that end Exod. 4. A Ceremony that among other things did certainly imply that all ought Piously to compose and order themselves for the Celebration of Religious Doubts and to put away all Filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit e're they did enter upon so Momentous a Solemnity You read in Esay 1. that God would not look upon Israel when they spread out their hands unto him which was an ancient manner of Praying nor hearken when they made many Prayers because their Hands were full of Blood and their Actions full of Injustice But if they would wash and make themselves clean and put away the evil of their doings and retract their faults then he would incline his Ear to their Supplications and be found of them when they sought unto him But till this was done all their Sacrifices Prayers and Oblations were to no purpose Whilst Israel lov'd to wander and would not refrain their feet whilst they continued in their Vices and would not give over their wicked Courses God did not only reject their own Prayers but also the Prayers that others made in their behalf For he positively forbad the Prophet to pray for them Jer. 7.16 and 14.12 11. Declaring that he would not hear their Cry when they Fasted nor accept them when they offer'd Burnt Offerings and Oblations And those Cruel Princes that pluck't the Skin of the People and the Flesh from their Bones who chopt them in pieces for the Pot and as flesh for the Caldron when they cry'd unto the Lord he would not hear them because they were wicked in their doings Mich. 3.2 3 4. Though they cry in mine ears saith the Lord with a loud voice yet I will not hear them Ezek. 8.18 Mine eye shall not spare neither will I have pity You have then no hope that God should accept your Services whilst you continue Impenitent Your Heart must be furnish'd with sincere Piety if you expect your Prayers should be regarded in God's sight or that any other part of Worship should be seasonable and welcom to him Without Repentance all the Religious Acts you can possibly execute are but Illusion and Hypocrisie inward Wickedness hidden under the Cloak and Visard of outward Sanctity Till therefore you give Glory to God by a free Confession of your Sins and by a lively Conversion fly to his Mercy you can neither feel the effects of Pardon nor the acceptation of your Prayers Whilst your Silver is Dross and your Wine mixt with Water whilst your Life and Actions that should be Pure continue Corrupt and Degenerate all you do in Religion in stead of Appeasing will incense the Divine Displeasure CHAP. VII Preparation to Prayer practised by the Jews c. AND what is now spoken concerning this Preparation is no novel or upstart Doctrine but an ancient Orthodox Truth Taught and Practis'd by Men of all Religions and rejected by none but the Lewd and Miscreant And first as to the Antient Jews Aristaeus reports that it was their Custom to Wash before they Pray'd Hist 72. And the modern Jews living in the Eastern Countries observe the same custom of Washing as a Preparative to Prayer and reading the Shemaah And no doubt they do this in imitation of the Priests who enter'd not upon performing any Religious Office in the Sanctuary unless they had first Wash'd And it was with respect to this Custom that David would not come to the Altar till he had washt his Hands in Innocency that is till he had prepared himself to Worship God being well assur'd that he was not worthy to receive the Divine Protection or any gracious Answer to the Prayers wherein he did not joyn Purity to Devotion and had a Heart as clean as the Hands he had washt And that his Thoughts and Actions were as purified as his Body And tho' it was common with the Jews in any solemn Business to wash their Hands in protestation of their Innocency yet this Ceremony was especially used before they said their Prayers Which shew'd the great esteem they had for that Duty and that they thought it of such Holiness and Purity as that it could not be rightly perform'd without a Preparation answerable thereunto And this you may further collect from the several Rules prescrib'd by the Rabbins to be observ'd by the Jews when they come to Pray And 1. The Masters forbad any to enter the Temple with Shooes on their Feet Which Prohibition they founded on those Words of God to Moses Exod. 3.5 Put thy shooes off thy feet for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground which command was also given to Joshua 5.15 by the captain of the Lords host God does not bid them to put off their Shooes as if the Ground whereon they stood were Holy by an internal or perpetual Quality but because of God's Presence which he was pleas'd at that time in that place in a more especial manner to exhibit And from this injunction given to these two Worthies Solomon likely gave that General Rule namely that every one should take heed to his Feet when he enter'd the House of God Which Text the Targum explains thus Thou Son of Man take heed to thy Feet when thou entrest into the Sanctuary to
Highest Stations and Weightiest Imployments have been the most frequent and diligent in their Devotions And of this truth you have two known famous examples of David and Daniel the one a King the other a prime Minister of State yet the one prays seven and the other three times a day Consider thirdly how disingenuous and unthankful it would be in you to repine at the allowance of a small parcel of your time to the service of the Great Master of Heaven and Earth if you believe it to be just and reasonable to require so many hours service every day from those that stand in the same relation to your self But as to the parcels of time you are to allow to private Devotion they must be proportion'd to the nature of your Station and necessary Business and to be no more or longer than will consist with your urgent Affairs and be no prejudice to them And that you have time enough to do this without hindering the due discharge of the Duties of your calling or even your necessary honest Diversions will be evident if you consider the nature of Devotion in general and in particular wherein the private consists CHAP. XIII Of the Nature of Devotion c. AND First as to the nature of Devotion in general it is such an exercise of the Soul as may for the greatest part be transacted without interrupting the actions of the Body So that you need not always closet your self and lay aside your honest Affairs to be Devout Devotion is the entertaining of pious useful and wise Thoughts in your Mind it puts you upon weighing every thing you do and reflecting on whatever you have done amiss It moves you to look forward to the temptation that approaches you and puts you upon arming your self against it with serious thoughts of Heaven and Hell And when your Mind is really devout it moves you to look up to the former with earnest desires and endeavours to gain it and down to the latter with incessant care to escape it Now you may do all this in the greatest throng of your worldly Concernments For Devotion is an act of the Soul whose motions are so nimble and sprightly that they have but little dependence on the Body which latter can scarce be ever so taken up as to keep the former from being devout For what bodily Imployment can hinder you from lifting up your heart even lifting it up unto the Lord what Business can restrain your Soul from sending up its affectionate Ejaculations holy Wishes and devout Vows unto God If you have an implicit desire upon all opportunities to advance the Glory of God if you Eat and Drink and Sleep and recreate your self moderately to this end to enable you to serve God the better and so incorporate and interweave such religious Thoughts and Ejaculations among your Natural Moral and Civil Imployments so they be lawful and necessary and not sordid and servile you make your common actions to become works of Piety and exercises of Religion What office of your Calling can keep you from considering every morning the Temptations to which that day you may be liable and how you may best strengthen and fore-arm your self against them What business can be so urgent and hasty as not to give you time every morning to recommend your self to God in some short devout and zealous Prayer And what great pains or time will it cost you to take every evening an account of your Actions of the past day and with humble importunity to beg God to pardon such as have been evil and to render him thanks that he has enabled you to do any that are otherwise and that he has deliver'd you from any evil of Sin or Danger And having thus begun and concluded the day you may comfortably commit your self to God's Mercy and Protection whose only guard is abundantly sufficient to keep you secure And then close your meditations with that of the Psalmist I will lay me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety And this plain constant course of private Devotion is that which was enjoyn'd by our Blessed Lord Matth. 6. when he bad you go to your Closet and there to shut the doors after you And there is at least a great convenience if not a necessity of doing thus First because you may have many Sins to beg pardon for and many particular Mercies to implore and many Wants to be supply'd and many Graces to be obtain'd which are not so fit for you to pray for in Publick And therefore you are to go to him who is in Secret and to whom you may unbosom your self without fear of Discovery or Reproach Secondly This constant daily course of Private Devotion will beget in your mind both an Awe and Affection to God and also make you in love with this Duty because it brings you to a familiarity with him Besides this Custom in Private Devotion will wear off all the surmised difficulties thereof and make it become easie and pleasant And when it is duly managed you will find it so far from interfering either with your lawful Imployment or your necessary Recreation that it will pleasantly mingle and associate with both You read how the unjust Judge in the Parable granted the Widow's Suit not out of love to Justice but for his own Ease Lest by her continual coming she should weary him Luke 18.5 The design of the Parable is first to instruct frequency and perseverance in Prayer and that therein you are neither to be negligent nor tyr'd Next it shews the efficacy and force of constant Devotion and importunate Prayer and how mightily therewith God is wrought upon and another illustration hereof you have in the Man that went to borrow Bread of his Neighbour Tho' his Neighbour had lock't his doors and himself and all his Family were gone to bed and when the respect of friendship would not work upon him yet the Borrower shewing his real Want by coming at that time of night his confidence in the Man to whom he came prevailed with him to rise and to lend him as many Loaves as he needed Luke 11. But you have not only Parables but Instances of the power that persevering importunate Prayer has with the Almighty For Moses by it so far prevailed as to put a sort of force upon God a kind of necessity of sparing Israel when they had provok'd him to destroy them Exod. 32. And by it also Jacob wrestled with God so long till he got the better and came off with a new name which declar'd him Victor For God said unto him Thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel for as a Prince hast thou power with God and men and hast prevailed Gen. 32.28 And both these Parables and Examples recommend to your practice earnestness and perseverance in Prayer Wherein you need not fear being too instant and pressing especially in those supplications which you make
notice that according to Diodati the Forgiveness of Trespasses for which you Pray cannot be understood of the general remission of Sins in respect of the everlasting Judgment which has no other cause or ground before God but Christ's satisfaction and intercession but of the pardon of particular faults of Believers in regard of punishments in this life It was a rule of the Wise Men among the Jews That our pardoning of those who have injur'd us is rewarded by God with hearing our Prayers for Forgiveness And to this purpose are the words of Siracides Ecclus 28.1 2 c. He that revengeth shall find vengeance from the Lord and he will surely keep his sins in remembrance Forgive thy Neighbour the hurt he hath done unto thee so shall thy Sins also be forgiven when thou prayest One man beareth hatred against another and doth he seek pardon from the Lord He sheweth no mercy to a man which is like himself and doth he ask forgiveness of his own Sins If he that is but Flesh and Blood nourish hatred who will entreat for pardon of his Sins But you are not to conclude from hence that Pardon from God depends only on your pardoning of others or that it is merited by it but that it is most reasonable that you who request forgiveness of your Offences against God should forgive the Offences of your Brethren whose Offences are less in number and value and not committed perhaps without your provocation Take heed therefore lest by your Malice and want of Charity to others you bring not God's wrath and indignation on your self Deliverance from the power of Sin and all temptations to commit it is the next thing respecting your Soul that you are to seek for at the hands of your Creator Now of your self you are unable to withstand those multitudes of temptations which daily assault you so that you have need continually to have recourse to the Divine assistance and to implore God either wholly to remove all temptations or so to restrain their power and malice that they do not overcome you The former is not to be hop'd and so not to be pray'd for For the World the Flesh and the Devil will never give over soliciting alluring and tempting you to Sin Satan as his name signifies is to the Tempter who being miserable by Sin labours to make all like himself And that he spares none was seen in his hardiness to set upon our Saviour whom he would have tempted to the most horrid iniquity the worship of himself And as this shews that none can escape his temptations so it likewise shews that it is no Sin to be tempted but that all the fault lies in yielding to the temptation and this arises from that great Impostor your own Heart which is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked It ought then to be your earnest and incessant supplication to him who can restrain the powers of darkness and infatuate the mischievous devices of Hell and all its Agents that he would keep you from all evil circumstances and dangerous occasions leading to Sin that he would suppress in you all inclinations to evil and not leave you to your self nor to be tempted and carried away of your own lusts and enticed That he would not unchain and let loose the infernal foes to assail and over-master you by their accursed seducements but that you may resist unto Blood and be crown'd with conquest over them But if your Heavenly Father for great purposes leads you into any signal trials and temptations then do you resign your self to his absolute pleasure humbly beseeching his paternal tenderness to limit and controul the Tempter and to restrain your consent And tho' it ought to be your great grief to be at any time enticed to offend God yet it cannot be any great discomfort so long as God is pleas'd to relieve you from doing the evil to which you are tempted and together with the temptation to make you a way to escape The Jews have a Form which they call the short Prayer which is an Epitome or Abridgment of their longer Prayers and it was a rule among them That he who had a promptness in Prayer was to pray the eighteen Prayers but he who wanted this promptness was to use the short Prayer which was a Recollection out of the other and is as follows OUR Father which art in Heaven be gracious unto us O Lord our God hallowed be thy Name and let the remembrance of thee be Glorified in Heaven above and upon earth here below Let thy Kingdom reign over us now and for ever Remit and forgive unto all whatsoever they have done against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil thing For thine is the Kingdom and thou shalt reign in Glory or Power for ever and ever vid. Mr. John Gregory Pag. 168. CHAP. XVI Prayer to be made in the plural number Amen AND both this Summary and the larger Prayer were used by the Jews in the daies of our Saviour who out of them collected the Form which he taught his Disciples and which is now used by all Christians But when our Lord gave this Prayer he did not null or make void the other Prayers used by the Jews nor did he intend that his Followers should use his Prayer and none other but he gave it as an absolute perfect Form by which our imperfect Prayers are to be regulated and to be an abstract of all we are to Pray for So that if any thing be wanting in our Prayers it is to be supplied by adding unto them the Lord's Prayer Which Christ I say gave not to extinguish but to regulate our Prayers and to be added unto them and to render them perfect and consummate For it contains the heads of all things that you can either want or desire to have And our Lord in his Heavenly Wisdom so order'd the composure of his Prayer that it might differ as little as possible from the Jewish Form and that it might likewise be fit to be said by all And I think there is none of what Religion soever who own God to be the Father or Maker of Heaven and Earth who may not pertinently make use of the Lords Prayer and desire every thing that therein is set down It is observable that the Jews appointed all their Prayers to be said in the Plural Number tho' he that said them was alone by himself and they did it for this reason That it might never seem as tho' a man were cut off from the congregation And they have this commendable Canon viz. He that prays ought always when he prays to joyn with the Church Which Canon they do not strictly understand only of Prayers said in the Synagogue but wheresoever they are made in the world And when a Jew is most alone he is to say Prayers in the plural and not in the singular number In which number our Saviour also has taught us
to pray So that when you are in the greatest solitude and separation from company you are to own your union with the Church and Communion with all true Believers for whose happiness you ought to pray as well as for your own The Jewish Church Ordain'd that all their Publick Prayers should be concluded with Amen I say Publick Prayers for in their Private or Phylacterical Prayers it was omitted And it was a sign those Prayers were Publick to which Amen was added and a sign they were otherwise when it was not used And the Christian Church retains the same Custom adding Amen to all her Prayers Which is a word of that weight and moment that it ought never to be omitted For by saying Amen you declare your trust and assurance that God will grant the things you ask according to his Will It being one special branch of your confidence in God that if you ask any thing according to his Will and not your own fancy he heareth you By saying Amen to the Publick Prayers you express your approbation of them that you agree with the Congregation and present but one common vote unto God And when there is a happy harmony and consent of heart and voice in praying for things lawful and expedient you may be assured that he who has promis'd to grant the Requests of two or three gather'd together in his Name will much more incline his ear to a pious multitude to a numerous Congregation met solemnly to beg his Blessings But besides all this your humble hearty and zealous saying Amen shews your attentiveness to the Publick Prayers and that you are neither asleep nor inadvertent when they are made And indeed one way to quicken your attention is to consider that you are to say an hearty Amen to every Prayer and as it were to set your seal unto it by so doing And by saying Amen you also let the Hearer of Prayers know that you hope and believe to have your share in the good things that are desir'd and that on the contrary you do not expect any benefit by the Petitions which you do not sign and confirm by your Amen In which single word all your own Wants are sum'd up and theirs also for whom you pray And we read that the Primitive Christians thought the saying an hearty Amen to be of so great importance that they pronounc'd it with a sort of vociferation and affectionate earnestness which is enough to shame and awaken their negligence who either regard not at all to say Amen or do it with so provoking a drowsiness and indifferency as if it were all one to them whether God would grant or deny their Request whether he did hearken to their Prayers or stop his ears against them which being consider'd will I hope have the happy influence to make you so attentive to Prayer as to close it with such a sensible Amen as that the Lord God may say so too 1 Kings 1.36 CHAP. XVII Of our Lord's Doxology AND having now given you this plain familiar account of the Things you are to desire of God as they are set down in the Divine Summary left us by our Lord give me leave for a conclusion to present you with a short account of the drift and design of the scope and end of Prayer which is none other than God's Glory and your own Benefit That God's Glory ought to be the first and principal end and drift of Prayer is naturally to be concluded from the Doxology wherewith both Jews and Christians have ever closed their Supplications That Doxology was us'd by the Hebrews in David's time is plain from his own practice who praised the Lord before all the People and said Blessed be thou Lord God of Israel our Father for ever and ever Thine O Lord is the Greatness and the Power and the Glory and the Victory and the Majesty for all that is in the Heaven and in the Earth is thine thine is the Kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as Head above all Both Riches and Honour come from thee and thou Reignest over all and in thy Hand is Power and Might and in thine Hand it is to make Great and to give Strength unto all Now therefore our God we thank thee and praise thy glorious Name Chron. 29 10 11 c. And we find a Doxology added to all the Publick Prayers of the Jews which was follow'd by our Saviour in his Compendious Form And tho' some both in the Greek and Latin Church have look'd upon the Doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer to be a Spurious Addition put in by some well-meaning man who did not well know what he did yet I see no ground for this saying For since it is granted by all That our Saviour took every Petition of his Prayer out of the Jewish Euchologues it may justly be thought that he thence also took the Doxology and added it to his Prayer as the Jews to theirs Now the Doxology is not only a Form of Praise and Thanksgiving fit and proper to be the closing up of all Devotions in token that they are directed to God's Honor but it also contains the fundamental grounds of making your Addresses unto God For in saying Thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever You acknowledg all those excellencies to be in God which are the true and chief motives of Prayer and which give life and spirit to that Heavenly Duty and to all the Graces therein to be exercis'd And first your Faith is greatly supported in the expectation of the good things you pray for when you maturely revolve that you beg them of him who is the only universal absolute Independent Lord and Sovereign of the World And that he is easily intreated of his Subjects and takes pleasure in their Protection and Happiness Only remember that at the same time you acknowledge God's Kingdom you own your self to be his Subject and that it is your duty to obey his Laws and to submit intirely to his Government and not to countenance any one rebel Lust against him And when Secondly you ascribe Power unto God you profess your belief of his All-sufficiency and that you present your Petition to one who is able and willing to grant it For if he wanted either Will or Power to give what you beg it were enough utterly to discourage your Application But seeing that God has the bowels of a Father and the arm of a King and a Soveraign right to dispose of every thing as he pleases he is in all respects fitly qualified to grant the request you make unto him And although your own unworthiness might justly hinder you from receiving any favour at his hand yet he will not withhold what you rightly sue for That his free Grace may have that Glory from you which he hath from all to whom he has been formerly bountiful There is an excellent Honour arising unto God from his own