Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n
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A15601
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An exposition of the Lords prayer. Delivered in two and twenty lectures, at the church of Lieth in Scotland; by Mr William Wischart parson of Restalrigg
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Wishart, William, parson of Restalrigg.
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1633
(1633)
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STC 25866; ESTC S120196
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157,088
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602
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AN EXPOSITION OF THE Lords Prayer DELIVERED IN two and twenty Lectures At the Church of Lieth in SCOTLAND By Mr WILLIAM WISCHART Parson of Restalrigg LONDON Printed by M. FLESHER for NICOLAS BOURNE at the South entrance of the Royall Exchange 1633. TO THE RIGHT Honorable GEORGE Lord GOURDON sonne and heire to the Lord Marquis of Huntley one of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Councell in the Kingdome of Scotland and chiefe Captaine of the Company of men at armes entertained there by the most Christian King MY LORD AS I love not those rheumatique pens which are alwayes scribling on the Presse for in the multitude of words there must bee much folly no more do l approve those adust complexions from whom no intreaty can wrest any drop of refreshment to the fleece of Gedion for if the one shall bee beaten for the unnecessarie wasting of his masters goods the other certainly shall bee whipt with many stripes for that hee hath hid his masters talent in the earth and not returned his owne unto him with advantage The consideratiō hereof hath made mee the least amongst the thousands of Levi to adventure this small peece to the publique view and censure of the present time a hazard I confesse much greater then I can well sustaine for Ioseph cannot goe to Dothan but hee must bee stript and sold to a Medianite Sampson cannot project a wedlock at Timnagh but hee must bee flouted by a Philistine David cannot congratulate Hanon but his legates must bee dismissed with beards halfe shaved and garments cut to their buttockes yea the very Sonne of God shall not cast out an uncleane spirit but Calumny shall say it was by Beelzebub the Prince of devils What wonder then if these few drops of inke leaping straight from my penne to the publique Theater of the world bee both greedily viewed and roundly censured for amids the beames of so pregnant a light and in the throng of so many learned writings already spred abroad on this subject to see a silly David acoast the Philistine of Gath may justly seeme to deserve the rebuke of Eliah I know thy hautines the pride of thy heart But to this supposed reproch let me answer with David What have I done is there not a cause or rather let mee say with Iesus Christ the true Sonne and heire of David If I have said evill beare witnesse of it but if I have spoken truth why do yee smite mee The God whom I serve in the Ministery of his Gospell doth well know my conscience also beareth me witnesse that as in teaching these few sermons I did not affect popularity nor praise of men but his honour who hath honoured mee with his service and the good of that people over whom hee put mee in charge so now when they shall be published to the eyes of all having before beene delivered but to the eares of a few I am neither ambitious of vulgar applause as being no Camelion to feed on such an aire nor do I much regard the frivolous checks of all that goe by for Falsus honor juvat mendax infamia terret Quem nisi mendosum mendacem Therefore whilst I desire to do some service to the Church of God and to contribute my mite to his treasure or my goates skin to the furniture of his Tabernacle I have presumed to present it to your honour my good Lord not onely to begge Patronage from your greatnes but also that by it I may in some measure render due honour unto you for your goodnesse as one not of their number who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are ready to prate of every thing but able to speake right of nothing No my Lord I know and do fully acknowledge that as there are none more truly learned so there is none more sincerely affected to the truth of God and maintenance thereof Let venemous detracting tongues wound as they list wisedome shall be justified of all her children for you have made it apparent to the world by your losse sustained at home and abroad for the testimony of the truth that you have accounted the reproach of Iesus Christ to bee greater riches then all the perishing treasures of Egypt And if there were no more yet the honourable project happy successe of that late expedition imposed by your Prince accepted and accomplished by your Lordship against the locusts of Rome raging in our Northerne quarters It hath clearly instanced to the world that whilst some of deeper profession like Meroz durst not come to the helpe of the Lord against the mighties of the earth you like another Iael did put your left hand to the naile and your right hand to the workmans hammer you have smitten Sisera you have smitten him once and he hath not risen againe Accept then my good Lord this poore handfull of water unworthy I confesse of such a Persian Potentate yet accept in it not what plenty should offer but what my penury can afford The theam is holy and may serve for vesture to a Prince if it had been wrought in Bezaleels loome yet take it howsoever as an evidence of the love and respect I owe you pardon but the weaknesse and the worke is rewarded and my earnest desire praier to God shall bee for your Lordship that your projects may continue holy your actions honourable your house and estate prosperous your death comfortable and your salvation sure in him who hath loved us and given himselfe for us a sacrifice without spot or blemish our Lord Iesus Christ in whom I am and shall alwayes endeavour to remaine Your Lordships servant in the truth W. WISCHART A Table of the Lectures in this booke Lect.  Pag. 1 Our Father which art 1 2 17 3 In Heaven 29 4 Hallowed bee thy Name 56 5 Thy Kingdome come 84 6 110 7 Thy will 133 8 Be done 157 9 In earth as it is in heaven 174 10 Give us this day our daily bread 200 11 225 12 249 13 276 14 And forgive us our trespasses 301 15 325 16 351 17 As wee forgive them that trespasse against us 376 18 And lead us not into temptation 401 19 427 20 455 21 But deliver us from evill 481 22 For thine is the Kingdome the power and the glory for ever and ever Amen 511 FINIS LECTVRES upon the Lords PRAYER LECT 1. MAT. 6. v. 9 10 11 12. Our Father which art in heaven IT may perhaps seeme strange that in the middest of so cleare and manifest a light and to the view of so learned and judicious a people I should be bold to represent a taske of so homely and domestique a straine for I know that there is not one amongst you who hath not all this Prayer by heart yet wisedome I know is justified of her childrē Let the truth therfore beget my Apologie and you shall finde that my travels will not be intended in vaine To speake the truth then there bee foure things
last thing remarkable in the words is the person at whose hands wee sue for this release and pardon of sinne which is neither man nor angell nor Saint departed but God alone for all these with the wise virgins haue adoe with their owne lamps except this onely to wit God for it is against him onely that wee sinne and it is hee onely who can forgive sinne and if pardon of sinne bee in the Church it is onely a conditionall declaration no absolute condonation LECT 17. As wee for give our debtors NExt to the consideration of that part of this Petition which is supplicatory wee come to that which is restipulatory The first part was supplicatory in begging pardon of our sinnes against God this carries the restipulation of the covenant and promiseth in our names the pardon and forgivenesse of our brethren whensoever they sinne against us The covenant of it selfe in it selfe is hard so much the harder by how much it hath both the fairer provocations for obedience and the fouler stumblings in disobedience It hath the fairer provocations to obedience for in all the covenāts that God hath made with man there is none like to this God hath made three covenants with man a naturall a Legall and an Evangelicall The naturall covenant was made with man in the day of creation The legall in the day of his temporall redemption and the Evangelicall in the fulnesse of time when the Sonne of God being made man and not knowing sinne was made sinne for our sakes and expiated our sinnes by his sufferings The tenor of the first covenant was naturall and just Naturall because he made man in nature perfect and just because hee required nothing of man but that to the obedience whereof hee had given him naturall ability The second covenant was in some condition preternaturall and just preternaturall in so farre that nature could not obey it yet just because he once strengthened nature to obey it The third covenant was supernaturall and gracious Supernaturall in requiring things that nature could not give yet supernaturally gracious in finding out a remedie for the defect of nature making the Sonne of God to become man and him that knew not sinne to bee made sinne for us that wee in him might bee made partakers of the riches of the mercy of God Now remember I pray you what I have said I said that this covenant was so much the harder by how much the provocations were gracious and the disobediences foule To have sinned against the covenant of nature was foule indeed because nature was made perfect and able to doe what was required of the naturall man To sinne against the covenant of workes which I called preternaturall was foule also for howsoever nature was then corrupt and weake yet their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt prefigurating to them the hope of a better deliverance and therefore rendred the smell of their disobedience the more odious and abominable by how much in it they had not onely the pardon of their naturall uncleannesse but also the hope of a better inheritance sealed up unto them But above all the breach of this covenant made with us in the blood of Jesus under the Gospell is so much the more foule and abominable by how much the seale of the covenant was gracious and easie For the condition of the first covenant was strict because naturall The condition of the second was fearfull because supernaturall for the time But the condition of the last covenant was easie be cause gracious and our rebellion so much the more foule because it was easie and to the corrupt nature of man so much the more hard by how much it was facilitated by the obedience of another for it is written the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth after envie And againe I do not the good that I would but the evill that I would not yet the Law in it selfe is pure holy righteous and just Well then it hath pleased God in his wisedome to adjoyn these words As we for give c. To the former to be a seale of his righteousnesse and withall to be a testimony of our uncleannesse and prevarication A seale of his righteousnesse in that hee hath freely forgiven us our sinnes A seale of our uncleannesse and prevarication in that wee cannot forgive one another Now the words being thus taken up in their dependence it is requisite that wee looke upon them in their severall stations and from thence gather their severall uses for our instruction If wee shall narrowly look upon them foure things offer themselves to our consideration First a condition imposed to man serving for the seale of the covenant As. Secondly to whom this condition is both proposed and imposed wee Thirdly the duty annexed to the condition Forgive Fourthly the persons to whom wee are obliged in this duty to our debters or them that finne against us To returne to the first of these the condition As the words are diversly read in divers Evangelists Matthew saith Forgive us our debts as wee forgive our debtors Luke in his 11. Chapter saith Forgive us our sinnes for wee even forgive them that sinne against us And according to the diversitie of the readings so hath there also diversitie of interpretations of the words arisen Some looking too strictly upon the particle of similitude here used As have been led a little to doubt of the free pardon and remission of their sinnes For if God shall forgive man no otherwise then man forgiveth his neighbour then for the most part our sinnes shall neither bee fully freely nor finally forgiven for as I have showne you in our last Sermon mans pardon is but partiall constrained and for a time and the rest laid up against the day of revenge and his more full retaliation On the other part the reading of this prayer as St Luke hath recorded it to us by way of causality in the word For hath led many to presumption thinking that if they can pardon their neighbours their sinnes then God is bound to pardon them theirs and so they would inforce by way of merit their pardon at Gods hands But that the words may be cleared and the wisedome of God in them freed from both these impostures know that the word used by Matthew is not set downe by way of parity but by way of seale And the word used by Luke is not set downe by way of causality but by way of commiseration I say that the word used by St Matthew as is not a word of parity and reciprocation but of seale so that the purpose and meaning of God in it is not to tye man to that strict and precise rigour of his conformity which either the severity of his Law or the sincerity of his nature requireth but in mercy hee leadeth man to bee confident and assured of the remission of his sinnes at Gods hands by the seale of his owne heart for by this as