of pleasure to which our prayers ascending are compared to pillars of perfume and they refresh the soul to Musick and that delights the ear to Noah's Dove that brought the Olive branch to Moses Rod that procured water in time of thirst to the Cloudy Pillar that directed Israel to Canaan to Sampsons Iaw-bone that slew the Philistines to Iacobs Ladder by which we exhilerat the Angels and ascend to their God and our God and to Davids Harp by which we make the evil spirit depart from us The famine in Canaan made Iacob send to Egypt for corn and that gave him tidings of his sons great honour and it revived the spirit of the old man that Ioseph was alive and in him he had the good of all the Land of Egypt before him So hath the Christian through Christ in Heaven and Prayer must be sent as a Messenger to return some of the fruits thereof that we die not 3. The suitableness of it upon all parts if you eye the Christians Head the Believers Lord the Souls Bridegroom the Churches Spouse Gods Son Salvations Captain the World 's Messiah Prayer is the only path he travelled in and therefore the road we ought to observe and the main tract in which the Chariot-wheels of our zealous desires ought to run and the sole coin to be told down when we take up mercy For when our Lord choosed his Apostles he prayed when he left his Apostles he prayed it is fit therefore when we pitch upon an enterprise to pray and having perfected our labour it is decent to make our requests known unto God with thanksgiving If you eye Satan the Brethrens accuser the Fleshes tempter the Chruches adversary the Souls deceiver Mans ensnarer Prayer is so suited to all of these that it breaks his snares detects his fallacies scatters his forces answers his arguments and by confession of sin pleading guilty and sueing for mercy stops the mouth of that accuser and puts that invisible foe by this impenetrable piece of Armour of all Prayer to a silence to a retreat to a soyl And the truth is Satan hath many stratagems traps and devices to charm the sinner to a security in his killing embraces and to withdraw a heart-broken creature from his God but among all these an utter neglect of or a prejudice against Prayer hath done him many and most high atchievements But this belongs to the next Section SECT IV. TO give an account particularly of the obstructions Satan and Flesh lays at the root of a structifying vigorous soul impeding its buding or sprouting forth towards Heaven in a fervent desire were a task as easie as numbering the Stars or exactly to reckon the sand upon the Sea shore yet walk along the Garden of thine own heart Reader and these following will be conspicuous among many others 1. Desponding or doubting of Gods freeness Therefore let us have faith justice and judgment being the habitation of Gods Throne may and doth make some tremble to aproach And if this alone be considered Who will not fear that King of Saints But since it is that mercy and truth go before his face we doubt because we have little faith by which there is assurance of good and not evil in our access to his presence mercy going before him and truth which promiseth that mercy succeeding that may cause emulation in each petition to be its first partaker There going before not only because promised to former Ages but to assure us who are now existent that untill mercy be neglected and truth questioned the Generation to come and this present may have confidence not to be condemned in the Throne of Judgement The Lord being good to all and his tender mercies being over all his works made a holy Bishop so highly press the duty of repentance that he was as is recorded reprehended by Satan as vilifying grace yet that good man thus answered the charge O miserabilis O miserable creature If thou shalt once defist from tempting man and repent thee of all thy wicked deeds I should trusting in the mercy of the Lord promise mercy and forgiveness unto thee What ever O man be thy thoughts or doubts Know it is of the Lords mercy thou art not consumed Despair not therefore of his tender mercies but call and thou shalt not be destroyed imitate the Leper and thou shalt be confirmed He creyed and cry thou Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean In which words as in a glass thou mayst see the face of thy own prayer and beauty and deformity of thy affections Thou hast first his knowledge Lord next his patience If thou wilt next his faith thou canst his humility make clean 2. Ignorance of Gods condescendency therefore let us study Prouidence What dishonest shifts will not some brains sorge for obtaining a piece of bread upon the suppositions that their being mean makes them accounted as abjects Inferring that GOD sending the fruits of the Earth into another barn is a passing by them as unworthy of such morsels when yet God careth for the birds of the Air and they have from him their Harvest Seed-time and their Raiment Let such as so conclude suppose themselves to be as one of them they then shall learn that not a feather of their wing a hair of their head falls to the ground without his knowledge but being men they are better then many Sparrows Let not thy Age Poverty Family question his Providence for but for that how oft hadst thou been choaked in thy Drink stifled in thy Cradle Darkned in thy Eye overlaid by thy Nurse bruised in thy slips dismembred in thy Quarrels deformed in thy birth and damned in thy sin which put together Gods filling anothers house with good things argueth not his slighting of thine Nay hark thy great and immoderat desire to have such Trash possibly keeps them from thee Study therefore Providence and seek the Kingdom of Heavens righteousnesse and these things may be will be cast towards thee and if not be regardless of it they may be but burthensome and be content if thou hast thy food though not dainties and thy raiment though not gaudy Apparel with a Selah for a poor soul with a morsel of bread shall assoon arrive at Heaven though bare-foot as he who feasts with Belshazzer or rides in his Chariot with the Eunuch 3. Defect of Christian Vnity and oneness let us learn Amity Where strife and debate are intimates prayer and supplication will not lodge And it is to be feared in this divided Age that not only the horrid clamours of our Tavern-quarrels but our pretended religious cursings our inward sinful heart-turnings our zealous promoving of selfish opinions hath not only stocked the root of true holinesse that it cannot grow in some but hath grub'd it up in others and laid it above
are free from turbulency of the Airs mutations so is their Maker from mans tumultuous conceptions his not their abode being in Heaven In Heaven that is in the Saints saith a Father by a harmless mistake concluding that because wicked men may and are termed Earth so just men may be designed by Heaven they being the Temples of God which Heaven is also said to be yet not in a Figure but in a proper sense is he said to be in Heaven as a King is said to be in his Court that being the most glorious ample magnificent part of the created world discovering to us power quietness observance in God when we are at Prayer 1 His power to grant what we ask This word in Heaven prevents any harsh constructions flesh could make of his delay in answering our suits by letting the greatest infidel know since he can rule and doth reside in Heaven he hath power authority omnipotency to avert from us what ever we fear and bequeath unto us what ever we demand being there as a Father in his Cellar as a parent in his Buttry as a King in his Exchequer as a Prince in his Council as a Merchant in his Counting-house ready to perform the requests made by us proper to those offices There can none ascend thither to assist him in his designs he there stands in awe of none to impede him in his purposes we need not say if thou canst do any thing help us for there he hath done and will do whatsoever he pleaseth holding all under and in subjection laughing at those who obstinatly seek to make resistance against his dominion 2 His blessed quietness to hear us when we ask Heaven is remote from that noise and garboil with which our Earth and Sea and the inferior Regions are infestred It 's true it is compared to a Sea but it is of Chrystal solide bright and pure God is said to have two dwellings and they both evidence composure 1. the Heavens 2. the Humble In both which he is in so serene a Region that if he can be said to have any work it is to look down and see who seeks after him 3. Observance where ever we ask As Heaven is above us so are we thankfully to acknowledge that our prayers be not hindered neither by the roof of the house nor space of the Air nor the thicknesse of the clouds from appearing before God and from being under his eye The pilgrimages of Rome are but pilgrimages and their pennances not very comfortable since we are by precept and example to lift up our eyes to the hills whence our help must come and disdaining such fruitless wandrings let us look up to Heaven which the Moralist had some sense of when he protested his knowledge that the whole world was his Countrey the gods governing above him and about him censuring that is judging his words and actions Put God in the place of gods the saying is divine and the practice thereof in every place will make us holy Again Pray after this manner Our Father which art in heaven Enforceth our souls to collect that in Prayer God expects from us Pureness Zealousness Sadness Reverence 1. Pureness of soul in not minding the Earth is scarce good enough for us to look upon or think upon at any time but in prayer it ought to appear singularly despicable our appetite ought to be where our eyes are fixed and they by this precept are extended toward heaven at which they ought to be intensely viewing that it may be demonstrated our affections are above 2. Zealousness of Spirit for the things of Heaven It supposeth the eye thitherward and implyeth the heart to be already in love with glory Man having one Muscle more then any other Creature by which he can and doth look directly upward ought to be as a Pully fixed in his soul to draw it Heaven-ward for the attainment of heavenly bless for which even nature intimats a great respect in affording man proper Organs to behold it that beholding may cause wondring and wondring may effectuat a desire to possess Do not you therefore value or cleave to the Earth having found a Father which is in Heaven 3. Sadness of heart for being out of Heaven The fiâ—st and second Petitions irreâ—ragably clear this to have been in our Lords eye Hallowed be thy Name bemoaning the profaning thereof by wicked men and let thy kingdom come regrating the delay thereof from good men A child in a ditch will cry for help and a Saint in the pit will call for deliverance out of heaven the possession whereof being enjoyed by the glorified Angels Earth beholding him but as a stranger passionatly invits him to beg its festination or appearance There is Heaven where there is no sin where no wickedness is wrought where death is not felt saith one pointing toward Heaven and say thou because of that Thy Kingdom come 4. Reverence of the whole man It is said of holy Basil that in sancta sanctorum non semel quotannis sed quotidie ingrediens appearing before the Lord in the holy of holys he used it not only once in but every day of the year Imitating Moses Aaron Ioshua Elias Iohn the Baptist Paul c. whose respectful and religious life whose awful and religious reverence unto God in Prayer hath produced and obtained much mercy for themselves and revoked many menaceing Edicts against offenders There are two vices especially make our prayers not only wearisome to our selves but odious to God 1. Nimia trepidatio Much fearfulness 2. Nimia oscitatio Much boldness The soul when too much dejected with the dreadful apprehensions of incensed wrath by sorestalled imagination the fancy for reiterated offences only representing hell is curbed by this Phrase Our Father And when self-confidence makes us more daring in our behaviour being stout before God projecting rather how to be homely not to say clownishly familiar then how to be holy or savingly sprinkled we are chastised by this expression which art in Heaven that making us serve with fear and rejoice with trembling not presuming upon any works of our own but solely depending upon Christs merits the only golden Vesture wherein we shall be accepted Our Father which art in Heaven OF all that â—eap of Accidents by which one thing is distinguished from another God can and is only differenced by his countrey and his name two remarks communicable to none are here designed to guide us in our addresses to him All Translations read it Heavens the Hebrews for Heaven having no singular number In the first Language here it is thought to be denominated from its clearness to be seen others will have it so called from its betokening a mark bound or limit Coelum is derived by some from Covering others from Engraving because of the lustre of those Stars that seem
holy Trinity being taken not so much from nature as from holy works we shall observe some letters of this Name that we may be careful of giving him in it that due respect which belongs unto his greatnesse since the secrecy and mystery of his being dischargeth our srailty and ignorance curiously to pry and behold his Name in his works of mercy of wonders of patience of comsorts of veracity the first respecting the miserable the second the despicable the third the scornful the fourth the mournful the fifth the doubtful 1. One great letter in his Name is mercy promised to the miserable and may be as clearly seen as Pilats inscription over Jesus by this as well as Paul all are delivered from the body of death and the mercy shown to the Prodigal by the Father discovers the tenderness of God towards a sinner when becoming which yet is through grace flexible and penitent In this the Saints rejoiced and for this God is feared that is hallowed and intreated his heart being affected with the miseries of poor man he stands at their hand to save him from those that would condemn his soul Christ pleading out of compassion and procuring not a repreive but a pardon And when men neither do nor will implore his Omnipotent aid for deliverance from evil nay when they reluctat against his severe threats either that they be superceded or omitted his mercy passing over all neglects presseth in upon them dilating it self so far that no faculty of the soul more cordially entertains the thoughts of any thing save those of Mercy Mercy Septem in me video misericordias Domini A holy man viewing the experiences of Gods love finds a seven-fold mercy graciously afforded to himself The first was that God had preserved him from many sins in his generation another was that he had highly and often offended yet had not been plagued A third was that in visiting his soul God had made him know that sin was bitter A fourth was that he becoming peâ—itent had felt the blessedness of him whose tranlgression was covered A fifth was that after his recovery he was kept from sliding back into his old fins A sixth was that he had grace given him to promove and advance in a holy conversation And the last was in which he highly magnified God that he had gotten the assurance of acquiring Heavens Kingdom It was said by them of old time the Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you that he is merciful and gracious speaks his mercy to be Speciosa beautiful but that he waits to be gracious upon you shews that it is Spatiosa exceeding large and universal 2. His wonders performed to the despicable is another Letter and may be as clearly seen as the Prophets vision upon Tables he that runs may read it and who reads it ought to fear before it That which he hath done for his little Benjamin for and by Moses in the land of Ham and the terrible things by the Red-sea should make the whole earth tremble before him and how twelve fishermen from Ierusalem have brought the greatest Princes and most refined part of the Universe to imbrace the truth of Christ and him crucified in so ample and honourable manner that their Crowns hath not its chiefest Jewel if it want a Crosse nor themselves accounted of but as Barbarians if not christian is strange wherefore hallow his Name sing unto him talk you of all his wondrous works That famous Christian and woman-Martyr Blandina being by tormentors tormented by turns wearied and not able to plague her with renewed tortours having her body rent yet as oft as she pronounced I am a Christian and have committed no evil was refreshed and felt no pain Tyburtius the Martyr compelled to offer Incense to idols or walk bare-foot over hot Iron boldly undertook the last with these words Depone O Fabiane renounce thy unbelief and do as much in the name of thy Iupiter as I in the Name of my Iehovaâ— and if he can let him save thee from pain or torment How did he secure the Children in the Furnace Ioseph in the Prison Iob in the Dung-hill wherefore glory ye in his holy Name There are three great wonders should cause men revere and stand in awe at Gods Name and power 1. Christs rising from the dead 2. His ascending up to Heaven 3. Converting of the world by twelve men by the contemning of wealth despising of glory refusing of government and enduring of torment which was wonderful 3. His patience protracted to the scornful is another Letter and may be as evidently seen as on the thigh of the WORD of GOD KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS They who are as smoak to his eyes are yet admitted into his Temple and how ost would he have gathered Ierusalem yea our selves when the Sun riseth may learn that the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance It is true the Axe of his justice is laid at the root of the tree but mark it is but laid to see if fruit by consideration and contrition will come and though he be broken with our whorish hearts yet he â—aith How long or when shall it once be We believe Gods power and have heard of his thunder yet how few faith as Adam was afraid when I heard thy voice in the Scriptures but after all our roavings rather impudently say with Gehazi Thy servant went no whither and because we are not sentenced to judgment infer either that he is like our selves or mocks the promise of his coming both which is endured through his ineffable patience to reduce us at last to more sober apprehensions that is repentance contrition 4. His comforts exhibited to the mournful is another Letter as clear as the name Iohn upon Zacharias Table he is called sometimes the God of Abraham and sometimes the God of Heaven as also of grace and consolation His Spirit the Comforter drying the eyes of all who discerning their crimes and dangers sanctifie his Name by calling for a pardon against those defections they have made from the way of his holiness and peace What high revelations had Iohn the Divine in Patmos what comfort had Iacob in his stone-pillows and may we not appeal to many if in providence by Prayer it hath not been said Be it unto thee according to thy faith when they have been perplexed by the cold blasts of temporal or spiritual calamities and as Nehemiah been made to stand to blesse the Lord for ever and his glorious Name which is exalted above all blessings and praise It is the worlds design to delude the soul the fleshes purpose to betray it and Satans to destroy it but Christ resolves to protect it and checks our unbelief to the end of the world with
the wise upon his religious son which being ineffectual roared out to the spirits themselves Inducias Inducias O let me alone untill the morning this as a Beacon is set up by an holy man that our lives being more vertuous our death may be more consolatory The death of the prophane is the sadest being ill first in leaving the world which they love worse in their souls removing from the body but worst of all in their being both soul and body adjudged to eternal condemnation It is observed of Egypt that after the flourishing of many famous Churches the Gospel being planted by the Apostles Alexandria it self having the Evangelist Mark Nephew to St. Peter for its Pastor or Bishop yet justo Dei Judiciâ— by reason of their sin the inhabitants being exemplarly wicked full of blasphemy and rape is now without God and generally hath a greater hatred to Christianity then the ordinary Saracens for which they are destined to eternal plagues Let this age know and every man in it fear and stand in awe for what is it Egypt had of ungodliness whereof we have not plentiful examples with this aggravation that we have had of old Christianity and of late great judgments Yet there is a Cautioner a Surety even Jesus who will pay the Creditor unto whom it is alike who pay him for by Christs stripes we are healed he entred into bond yea into prison for us and by rising from the dead the third day he both declared himself to be the Son of God and of his giving satisfaction to the utmost of all that was owing unto him making us thereby free from the Law of sin and death Yet so miserably are we deluded with self and self-conceit that debt is daily contracted by taking up more mercy abusing more time neglecting much grace thwarting many invitations quenching many good motions and by inadvertency falling into numerous temptations which continually call for fresh suits for forgivenesse and consider'd might cause expostulation with sin O peccata O wickednesse how easily dost perswade us to commit thee but with what difficulty do we procure riddance from thee While thou smiles we imbrace thee but while embracing thou art killing us to death and in death Eye the debter and he is so unable that his very soul cannot be full restitution eye the Creditor and he is so inexorable that he will be payed the utmost farthing by our selves or by our Cautioner and his suretyship is to be humbly intreated for for they are our debts and no secret conveyance no private contract can turn them over to another hand Eye the debt it is deplorable there are original debts our parents debts our own debts of childhood ignorance knowledge debts of presumption infirmity against counsel against conscience and against threats debts of the Sabbath of the Week of our Family and of our Neighbour-hood c. debts of our waking of our sleeping of our talking and of our thinking c. offences of the Chamber sins of the Shop and iniquities of the Street so that all of our selves and each man for his brother may cry Innumerable evils have compassed us about and no way for deliverace but by acquittance and no way for that but forgivenesse Over and above reflect upon that magna lenitas great goodnesse infinit patience ineffable mercy and long-suffering God hath shown unto us that we might call for this forgivenesse having this comfortable Scripture I will not remember thy sins Forgive us our debts c. FORGIVE A short word but of large and extended sense much used in Gods promises and oft pressed in the Saints petitions and the word properly signifies a sending back something to the place whence they came Sin came from hell and here the soul would have it remanded to the same land of darknesse As it stands in this Prayer it denotes somewhat which relates to God and somewhat relating to our selves As it respects God it weighs 1. His commiseration of us because of our debts Goodnesse is an ordinary plea with all the holy and they sound that the Lord as a Father pitieth them that fear them that pray And the liere who taught us to pray this Prayer hath promised his Fathers mercy saith a Father mercy cometh ex bonitate Dei purely from goddnesse yet must be drawn from him by innocence vertue and obedience as did Abraham Isaac and Iacob Ioseph Iob and Moses saith another He discovers love in desiring our salvation in euring our wounds in teaching us prayers in pardoning our sins and upbraiding us with our unbelief 〈…〉 there not mercy in the word Father and goodnesse and hope in the word Forgive Manasseh his Prayer and Iudas his Confession were alike but he pardoneth iniquity because he delighteth in mercy In a dearth at Corinth Theocles and others advised Creditors to remit their debts for easing of the poor but being refused he acquitted his own and those who contemned the motion were in invincible rage slain by their debters excited to extremity by poverty and necessity we have fair offers and better conditions both a remission offered and a reward for acceptance of that tender that as the earth expects showres and light from Heaven so man is to expect yea he is called to look up for truth and mercy 2. His aversion detected not to exact those debts What is man but dust what is his birth but loathsome and shameful to himself and at best so contemptible that God might say to Justice Let him alone non dignus est ira Caesaris he is not worthy of my wrath Iob thought of this when he uttered And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one and bringest me into Iudgment 3. His indiminishable possession though he should remit the debt Admit our skin could ransome our life what would he gain or if he freely absolve it what would be his losse Knowing this he puts us neither to call for ease nor time but for a forgiving Accept of the precept by begging a free acquittance and so much the rather that bounty and liberality is to be shew'd quantum potest non idoneis where there is the least hopes of advantage in requital which in our arguing for Heaven is an excellent rule The Roman and famous Alexander would exclaim against his shy yet deserving Courtiers why do you not ask something from me do it that I neither be your debter nor complained of as a slighter of your merit Yet what he gave was neither silver nor gold nor out of his own treasure but bona punitorum the goods or wealth of forâ—eited malefactors c. not diminishing thereby his Revenue Here is a greater Emperour without merit giving of his own requesting of his foes to plead remission of injuries done to himself for their good who have done the injury 4. His dominion or just power to forgive the
honour not his being as to make our very lives pray Hallowed be thy Name Hallowed be thy Name WE have now the application of holinesse not to say Hallownesse unto his Name to be considered that we may regularly engage our selves both to live and pray according to this rule This Petition is like that of our Saviours Father glorifie thy Name we read of old of hallowed Places Times Persons Vessels yea any thing that was dedicated to God or separat for his use or any thing used in his service now in a Scripture-sense hath a degree of holiness but God is esteemed holy being perfectly free from the very stain of impurity his mercy pure mercy his justice holy justice his truth holy truth his knowledge holy knowledge the first wanting solly the second cruelty the third mistake and the fourth ignorance yea himself being light and in him no darkness at all and therefore his Name like his House is not to be polluted by the transgressions of the people after the abomination of the Heathen And if Holiness be a knowledge of or how to worship God we are not to persevere in our ignorance but to value every document offered that may make his Name known which he is resolved to hallow that is make holy and which we ought to sanctifie that is to glorifie in our selves first and before all others next that his Name as it is holy may be hallowed honoured and magnified of us and his glory shine more and more among men though our enemies for their reconciliation It properly signifies to preserve from the Earth that it be not defiled with our terrene maleversation but contrary by a holy Artifice hold or heave it still upward as Cesar did his writings in his left hand and holding his royal Coat-armour in his teeth that the one should not be wet nor the other become a prey to his adversary when swiming for his life at Alexandria So hold we fast his Name that it may shine and out-shine all other beings in the Firmament of this world provoking one another to revere the same God said of Paul He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my Name before the Gentiles as Standard-bearers in war are to undergo and suffer much in holding up the Banners or Colours lest they fall into the enemies hand so those that bear the Name of God or of Christ whether in peace or war are studiously to endeavour that neither by ill speaking nor ill doing it fall into the hands or vile tongues of the wicked that they may triumph in heaven above and be admired for their stoutness and courage by the holy Angels The duty is undergone three ways First generally then specially then personally the first eyes Nature at large the second Grace and the third the Souls of men Eying nature in praying Hallowed be thy Name we intreat earnestly 1. That all things might and all affairs end in his glory As this is the end of all his undertakings so it is the beginning of our desires Consuevit enim scriptura the Scripture usually putting name for glory shews us to have Gods glory in our aims for an universal discovery thereof the more pressingly knowing his Name Honour or glory to have many enemies maliciously contriving and by inraged force uniting to darken yea were it possible to extinguish the glory of his Omnipotency Many and different are the ways which Devils and devilish men conclude as apt means for the perfecting of such projects their atheism and hatred invents against God and his Church yet by an over-ruling providence all their industry defeats themselves being baffled by their own Arguments God causing his honour to be the result of their darkest and deepest consultations though differently managed and by contrary spirits acted yet are they reconciled in bringing forth this one thing Gods glory Iudas sold Christ for money the Jews delivered him for envy Pilat condemned him for fear the Souldiers guarded from obedience Carpâ—â—ters might make the Cross for profite the beholders mock for pastime and the devil pressed all for hatred the Sepulchre was watched for security yet those watchers becoming witnesses of the resurrection it shewed to their own eye-sight that both Herod Pontius Pilat the Jews the Souldiers were gathered together for to do whatsoever God had in his Counsel predetermined to be done Providentia est subdita bene disponere providence being but an orderly disposing of things for the production of some good manifests that this Prayer intimats our servent zeal consent and agreement that God would do what he doth in agreeing all affairs and consummating all designs for his own Names sake to his great glory that even Adams sin Abels slaughter Noahs drunkennesse as well as Lots vexation Iobs scraping Rabshekahs railing and Peters denying and Thomas doubting and Sauls persecuting as well as Pauls preaching might evince to all the world that God is to be feared loved and honoured 2. That all might acknowledge and owne that glory Our faith in the power of God renders it easie for us to believe that all must submit unto him but here our charity for the souls of men perswades us to become suiters at his Throne that by his Spirit he would so mollifie the hearts of our brethren as to cause them become Volunteers in his service since the will must be made willing to submit before any submission be rewarded or accepted Those Iews who blasphemously attested our Saviour to have a devil shall give compelled submission and be instrumental in causing his Name to be exalted before ail though if they sorrowed not it be in then damnation and trembling Cain became objectively a teacher of the holiness severity and justice of God But to have men move in a resolute and masculine courage by loving and sedulously acting to propogat that glory that all the world might actually ascribe unto him that excellent Majesty which is his and is his due is the import of this Petition God is then hallowed first when it is known what he is next when it is known what he is not next when it is known how he is The first keeps us from folly that we say not there is no God The second from Idolatry that we fancy not a false god The third from misery when we know he is in Heaven full of grace goodnesse power and truth all which ought to induce us to speak of his Name with fear and reverence causing our lives and actions to eccho â—orth this Petition Hallowed be thy Name ascribing to it holiness with the Angels justice with the converted Iews that as his Name is great in Israel and in Iudah known so every where his praise may be glorious for then is his Name great when he is named that is accounted according to his glorious Majesty For which Kings Princes Fathers Teachers Children are to sing and in their Sphear
worthy of glory but God so they only give to him their praises and their prayers and that upon good reason For 1. Angels will not have his glory and they are intelligent An Angel in the Old Testastament refused an offering and another will not have thanksgiving in the New both commanding them to be performed to God expounding these to be prayer and praise what is Romes meaning or to what purpose are those Prayers and Letany's in that Church Sancte Gabriel Sancte Raphael omnes Sancti Angeli Archangeli orate c. O thou Angel Gabriel Raphael and all ye Angels and Archangels pray for us I like that part of another office better and shall subscribe unto it O Sancta Immaculata Virginitas quibus te laudibus efferam nescio O thou blessed Virgin in what words to praise thee I know not the same I say of praying as either are interpreted Adoration This is not said to infringe the glory of these holy and glorified Saints who are to be honoured with great reverence and their names to be mentioned with great respect and their vertues to be imitated with all indutry but to hallow their names or thier vertues with a remitte or an ora pro nobis we have no warrant because no rule of faith The ground of Romes Doctrine touching the worshipping of Angels is so beastly that it is shameful to publish aâ—resh yet so irrational that it may be profitable to reprint it it was this as we read from a learned venerable Doctor of the English Saxon Church In Apulia vulgarly Puglia a Provicne in Italy in the Kingdom of Naples near the City of Siponia there was a rich man called Garganus having much Cattel which fed in a Mountain of the same name in which herd there was a wanton proud Bull which could not be got home with the rest but still kept the Mountain for which the owner resolving to kill him provided Bow and Arrow but in shooting at the beast the Arrow reverted and turned upon himself at which being amazed he tells his Bishop who did appoint a three dayes fast that God would discover what was signified by the wounding of Garganus when the Arrow was levelled or aimed at the proud Bull On the third night the Archangel Michael told the Bishop scias quia à voluntate Dei hoc factum est that all was done by the appointments of God and commanded the ground whereon the Bull stood to be consecrated and set apart for prayer shewing them under it there was a Cave and in the Cave an Altar and upon the Altar a red Pall or Cloak ibi facite orationes vestras hebete memoriam meam auxiliabor vobis there say your prayer call upon my Name and I shall help you all was searched and all was found and all was done accordingly Haec fuit saith my Author prima causa and this was the first cause or rise that Angels were remembred or worshipped upon earth he must mean by Romes authority for otherwise the same doctrine was taught in but exploded the Church before and from that time to this present are they remembred in the Church c. This is such a Cock and Bull story as the proverb hath it that it needs nay deserves to have no answer but a his And the ground of it being ut legimus as we read so that it may be ture or false and if true nothing in it but what might have been done by the devil and therefore in all respects such practices are to be shunned by worshipping of God for which we have a sure foundation I pass the Fables for so let me call them which the same Author throngs the proper festivities withall for were Peter or Mary upon earth they would undoubtedly blush at the absurdities of their zealous though ignorant prayers and cause Iohn comment upon on his old text Babes keep your selves from idols And Paul upon his let no man beguile you of your reward in worshipping of Angels and not holding the head c. 2. Saints will not have this glory and they are prudent When read we that a Noah prayed to Enos though his piety and translation were notour or that a David prayed to an Abraham or that any Israelite unto or obtained mercy by his holy Ancestors Nay contrary they urged that because of Abraham's being ignorant of them and their being not regarded by Israel God would be their Redeemer his Name being from everlasting 3. The other creatures will not have his worship or his glory and they may be observed Every pile of grasse hath a finger to point up to its Maker in Heaven and day unto day uttereth speech and readeth Lectures of Gods wise government powerful providence and rich mercy At Madrid the upper Rooms of Houses belongs by Law to the King and are not to be used untill they be compounded for by the Inhabitant and to this only wise God the King eternal not only the upper Room which is Heaven doth belong but the lowest pit also for in his hand are the deep places of the earth and ought not to be used by us before we satisfie the Law by praying and praising in doing which we add to the revenue of his glory Ezekiel saw his glory in Heaven Isaiah saw it upon earth and we ought to study the beholding of both for though his heavenly glory we cannot see with that Prophet yet we may perceive something of the appearance of it in his holy Word Heavenly Motions divine Commandments at which sight we are with the other to â—all down upon our faces and with loud cryes bemoan our infirmity vilenesse and uncleannesse His glory upon earth is so clear that he who hath eyes may see it in the clouds which are his Chariots our ears can hear the birds warble in their way the praises of their Maker the fields clap their hands in contemplation of which we are to cry Vnclean unclean for this said Isaiah when he spake of him and saw his glory and thereupon was comforted and purified 4. If we consider either our good or duty we shall own him only for God Reason leads many but profits command all persons it is rational it is profitable to ascribe only glory and honour to our Father For If you eye Conscience he can only quiet that if the Church absolve and the Spirit thereby settle doth the Word of Christ apply and the soul therupon rejoice It is but in his Name they acting but in deputation from him It is he that discovers sin that we may be in our selves nothing It is he that makes us hate sin that before him we may be holy If you eye dependence he only maintains you At first Heaven was made by him the Earth the Sea and all the Creatures therein because saith Nehemiah thou preservest them all the host of Heaven worshippeth thee
my God He all that day traveled in safety while his companions quickly fell in the hands they feared So good it is with all boldness to magnifie Christ even in our bodies whether it be by Life or Death or Fortune Further First that is in pronounciation Even in utterance our first words in Prayer are to have our Fathers Name as Lord God Almighty or his Sirname as God of all Consolation Father of lights or of our Lord Iesus Christ this being the homage to expound this in the words of an excellent King that we ow unto God before we make our suits it being arrogancy and an impudent thing for any Subject to make a suit to his Soveraign before he did his homage in a reverent accost To blame were these men then and scarce are those words to be accounted Petitions that some pretenders to Sanctity offered up in our late times and many still offer up in which the Name of our Father is not in the Preface nor his Son our Lord Jesus in the Conclusion the practice of the old Saints and yet with the true still accounted so necessary that that Prayer uttered without these holy Indications of the parties they pray unto are to be rejected as flatulent and windy dangerous and uncertain and not to have our Amen The sum of all is this that the Glory of God and the râ—ches of his invisible Kingdom together with the mysteries contained in the Gospel are more earnestly zealously constantly to be sought after by us then the possessing of any thing we see or know we want upon Earth God resolving that his works shall never be so much loved as himself It became the object of a Heathens scorn and laughter as judicious Calvin relates that men abused the eares of God with profane and unfavoury requests Yet how do Christians ask of God to bestow upon their lusts their consciences by that declaring they have no reverence nor fear to that Name Since our heavenly Master hath so plainly proposed a rule to us to pray by and in that his own Glory not riches or vain glory to bear sway to wanton with the Prodigal to be strong with the revengeful nor wise to defraud our Brother not so much as in imagination to be reflected upon but our Fathers honour unto which once more Reader suffer a word of exhortation And in all prayer 1. Praise God for mercies received For thy bread thy bed thy cloathing thy lodging thy strength cloak liberty knowledge and for thy hope of Heaven It is said of Israel she did not know that God gave her corn and wine but she prepared for Baal these blessings the highest act of ingratitude which consisting of four parts makes their unthankfulnesse the more grosse The first is not to return a benefit and do one good deed for another there is a greater not to remember a good deed there is yet a greater to say it was done by another but the greatest of all is to honour reward and thank the adversary of our benefactor this grieved God most that Baal the Devil his enemy had the glory of the good things he gave his people the same sin is acted by such who give the praise of their purchase to their arm their wit their diligence rather then to him It is a holy and true saying of one that praise compared with petitionary prayer praise excelleth it as far as giving is better then receiving And it was also a just reproof one gave of some Fasts celebrated in our days that they fell short in Thanksgiving for such mercies as were plentifully possessed The Children of Persia were in their play accustomed to hear try and determine causes and in earnest punished delinquency but causam ingratitudinis vehementer agunt they had a detestation of ingratitude towards god their Parents their Countrey their Relation and do but consider that Thankfulness is that Ward in the Key of Prayer by which we open the doors I mean the bowels of love it is the scarlet threed we hang out of the window of our soul to let God know we are within whereby we may be saved when those that forget God shall be turned into hell non vero verecundae sed ingratae mentis indicium est beneficia tacere divina it is not modesty but iniquity to be silent in sounding praise for divine beneficence 2. Praise him for the evils you have avoided O give thanks unto the Lord calls the Psalmist for he overthrew Pharaoh and his host and led his people through the wilderness for his mercy endureth for ever One requesting of Simonides a courtesie promising to be thankful he replied he had two Chests at home in onâ— whereof he put the Money in the other the thanks he got for service done and in occasion of using either he generally found that wherein lay the Money most helpful to him how good a God serve we that offers an absolute discharge of all we owe if we be but grateful nay will do us yet more good and deliver us for ever if we publickly say that he hath healed our diseases and redeemed our life from destruction Let us therefore be thankful since we reckon our selves among them that are to be saved yet not in words only but in works and actions and this true thanksgiving is when we do those exercises wherein God is to be glorified 3. Praise him in confessing the evils you have committed Against thee thee only have I sinned said David after his fall with Bathsheba that thou mightst be justified when thou speakest Reader give glory I pray to the Lord God of Israel and shew him what thou hast done It is not my scope to handle controversies here yet that auricular confession taught at Rome enters within my thoughts judging it 1. New 2. Impossible 3. Intolerable 4. Dangerous 5. Scandalous and oft times 6. Ridiculous c. But if a conscience like a raked up fire be very hot or aking as a putrid sore it is good to confess to God or man or to both the sin so pricking that the conscience may be eased The multitude that was baptized in Iordan confessed their sin and the sick believer may acknowledge his faults to his Pastor yea where he is not it glorifies God to acknowledge the commission of some attrocious crime as Paul â—wned he was a blasphemer for know how greatly soever the impudence of the sinner in sinning displeaseth God so much is he pleased with the penitents bashfulness when regrating Confession is so necessary for the acquiring of confidence in prayer in the sense of the Church of England that in her holy that is in her common service she first prepareth her children by a confession of their sin to receive according to the Gospel a pardon as being penitent and then ordains them and not before to say Our Father which art in Heaven
but for which we ought to sow more bountifully yet God promising mercy to the mercisul excites eminently enlarged devotion for our brethren 5. Piety in all our acting To pursue our own lusts and go a whoring after our own inventions all day is to do the Devils work and to call give us our bread is to crave our supper and lodging from God at night which argueth impudent presumption Are we children servants or heirs of God expecting to eat at his table we are to execute his will attend upon his work serve in his house then verily we shall be fed and dwell in the land feeding upon the finest of the wheat the hidden Manna the bread that came down from heaven Matth. 6. 11. Give us this day our dayly bread Luke 11. 3. Give us day by day our dayly bread WE are now arived at the utmost border viz. the extension of this petition intended in our design to be viewed as it relates to bread yet before we launch forth towards the other shoar of the succeeding words we shall look about the country or at least the ground we eat our bread upon and gathering up the fragments cast them into the basket of this word dayly before which its necessary to speak of that diversity these two Evangelists relate this prayer in Originally the word translated bread is alike in both yet the vulgar Interpreter translates it in Matth. supersubstantial bread which occasioned the ancients and causeth many of the romish Writers generally to understand it by Christ. But in St Luke he expounds it Quotidian or dayly bread though originally the word be the same in both and for the difference of the translation we have this reason given That the Translater spake in Matth. to the capacity of the learned and in Luke to the understanding of the unletter'd dayly being a word more familiar to the vulgar or saith another Matthew eying only the bread of the soul it is called super substantial but in Luke eying both soul and body it is rendred dayly both being dayly i. e. necessary to be had This ariseth from the ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying as it may be derived either substance as being fit for our substance or acceding as if bread must continually be coming to us and in this sense Ierom shews he found in a certain edition the word Machar signifying to morrow or the time to come but it is best to understand it in the former sense bread that must come to us which sufficeth not having once received it but in the intercourse of changing times must come unto us ever and anone dayly or day by day continually The reason given for its spiritual sense being nimis profana too grosse as if Christ in prayer saith Calvin would not have us mind bodyly things whereas his goodnesse is conspicuous in giving us and allowing us the things of this life as a reward of godlinesse Unto which sense agreeth and to which verdict assents the whole Jury of reformed Interpreters For the other difference in our Translâ—tion conform to the Original we must note that in the judgment of a learned person this prayer in St. Matthew was a part of our Saviours first and famous Sermon the second year after this Baptism but as Luke records it our Lord did repeat it in a privat place upon another occasion in the third year and tyed not himself to the reiteration of the same words but gave it to his Disciples more compendiously as to the number of the words omitting the Doxology For thine is the Kingdom and more elucidly as to the sense of the words as in this Petition day by day that is sufficient for each day So that this day in Matthew or day by day in Luke reacheth the present condition we shall at any time be in we not needing the same kind of bread at all times the times of adversity travel sicknesse requiring other mercies then those of prosperity rest or health do which Luke in his day by day may have a holy regard unto enlarging only not contradicting Matthew in his this day they being both as all the sayings of the Holy Ghost at peace between themselves yet Matthew as more large is generally used in our Churches in the word dayly avoiding such thundering words in prayer as supersubstantial But to leave this we may gather from the whole Petition 1. That possessions ought not to restrain prayer Though we have a portion a Barn-full a Shop-full a House-full a Buttry-full yet day by day and every day is the Throne the face of our Father importunatly to be inquired â—â—â—er for a blessing and in this sense it is the rich mans prayer Bread may be had and the stomack be away Beds may be had yet sleep may be away cloaths may be had yet heat may be away much may be had and but little used This day or day by day as trouble ariseth still implores â— prosperous usage of good things I say implores for he who confides in his prosperity and fixes himself in his abundance or in the transient comforts he here apprehends Iustus non est cannot be holy Yea conceit oâ— our selves as we please pauperes tamen omnes in universum sumus we are all poor and stand in need of the mercy of God and therefore ought continually to crave it It is recorded to the honour of Pacilla wise to Theodosius Emperour that she would visite the sick and with her own hands succour the maimed and give bread to the famished and would say often to her Husband oportet te semper alwayes remember what formerly thou was and what futurly thou shalt be discovering the truth now under search that no greatnesse should obstruct piety He as Father or tender Mother having bread alwayes by him of which thou hast need that in all emergency thou mayest as a son be supplyed For prayer preserveth increaseth the treasure of man upon a three-sold account It blesseth all for us It enters the very pith of any undertaking and so virtuats it that our very eating and drinking talking yea our sleeping is acceptable to God whereby what was said of Erasmus may be of the Christian he purchasing a good report and wheresoever he turneth finding friends It preserveth all to us Sin transports both our bread and water to another country Moab had bread when Canaan that fruitful soil had none yea not bread only but birds also it forceth from us robbing us at once both of profite and pleasure of a tune for the ear and a dish for the mouth It keepeth both God and them with us When our care hath done its utmost we must own this That the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it Worldly goods may be east as a Master doth a sat bone to