ground withering being scorched with the suffocating heat of intestine supposed heavenly yet really hellish broils In spight of that Gospel-rule of Amity we can curse backbite accuse those that are of not only the same Countrey but of the same Faith with our selves believing in the Lord Jesus that they may be saved from hell which is below yet this is not a guard sufficient to blunt the edge of those deadly arrows even bitter words which from the bent bow of studied malice and the most exact aim of time probability and place is from the arm of prejudice caused to flee to the very whit to the very heart of them whom contrary to the character of a good man they love to malign Because they cannot have the Kingdom of God come according to their vitiated platforms prays not for its advance at all and because of that will pray for their daily bread that they may live to revenge conceited faults purposing never to forgive groaning under a surmised evil so heavily that God hath not nor shall not have any glory by its sending in regard they suffer not patiently nor soberly because they walk not charitably as the Primitive Christians did when they had really Heathens to be their persecuters at which time pro omni statu they prayed for all men How much better Raimundus who dwelt so much about and delighted so much in love that he answered all questions by it as whence he came from love Whither he was going to love c. O! let us desire that brotherly love might begin O! let us desire that brotherly love might begin and next study that it might continue I may say with one Iam saepe dixi fratres frequentius dicere debeo I have often said and must oftner attest let none defraud let none deceive himself he who hateth any one man in this world let him do for God what he pleaseth all is in vain For Paul did not lie when he professed though he gave his body to be burned it should profit him nothing if he wanted charity without which neither Alms nor Prayer doth avail For in Prayer we must observe the pattern in the Mount and say not my but Our Father which art in Heaven which as the rule of all Prayer is next to be enstated in your meditations SECT V. THe Precept being to pray after this manner we must eye our copy and he hath no eyes that seeth not or covers them that perceiveth not by this rule that we are to pray pertinently modestly briefly and Heavenly 1. Pertinently for matter Observe this Prayer and there is not only no superfluous word but each syllable beautifies and every Petition depends upon another First we ask for our Fathers glory in Hallowed be thy Name and then for our own salvation in Thy Kingdom come which shall come to our comfort when we do his will on earth as it is in heaven which we shall have strength to do when we have our daily bread and having been refreshed thereby there is a necessity of praying against sin past in Forgive us our trespasses and in regard the vessels of uncleanness will or may fill as soon as any other it is expedient to pray against sin to come in Lead us not into temptation which may avail much to deliver us from much evil and all this is a reasonable service because it is the Father we pray unto whose prerogative is the Kingdom that should come and the power by which we must expect it shall come for our delivery and therefore the glory should be his for applying all these things unto us Thus hath he shewed thee O man what is good nothing lawful nothing needful nothing honourable is here comitted More then these we should not ask and less then these we ought not to ask being to pray after this manner 2. Modestly for expression The word Fathers the phrase Kingdom have couched in them great mysteries the small expression bread comprehends many different things according to the supplicants place station and calling With a Souldier it will signifie victory with a Traveller safety with the weary rest with the feeble strength with a King Majesty with a Counsellour wisdom with the fruitful it will signify good children and with the barren it imports a fruitful womb Study then the meaning of the words first and the application of them unto thy case next and in the enlargements of thy soul let thy words be alwayes modest and moderat lest in asking abundance thou be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness Neither limit the Holy One of Israel by asking thus much or thus much now and then but be content with the portion given and satisfied with the quantity and quality thereof 3. Briefly for time Our Saviour in this form adviseth against two faults espied in the prayers of some viz. Hypocrisie and Verbosity and had Solomon been in our dayes and had heard the tedious length unto which some Zelotes had drawn their impertinent prayers and the vain repetitions with which they were filled with the vain bablings to which they were to a nauseating length extended to pass their other scandalous behaviour he had enlarged himself upon that advice Let thy words be few the obeying of which may prevent those heartless digressions wilde and idle discourse of such pretended extempore petitioners who were forced through emptiness to go backward and forward like Hounds at a loss and being word-bound knew not how to make an end Be not therefore as that babler Battus non-sensically reiterating the same words again and again unto whose practice in probability the Holy Ghost hath an excellent allusion discharging vain repetitions or more wording then matter requireth and therefore dischargeth an imitation of him in his loquacity Not but that the zealous may his heart not staggering or recoyling mount further that is nearer Heaven by extending his prayers the length of a winters night or Summers day as David or Christ did But the distinction betwixt privat and publick Prayer may inform the intelligent that this rule is necessary in requiring short and full petitions before others but with themselves they my use long yet ought to offer still hearty servent and pertinent supplications For when words perturb the spirit of man it is more than time to break off Sed doles animo c. the groanings of the soul making the more ehement cry as did the heart of Moses the lips of Hannah the blood of Abel 4. Heavenly-mindedness all along From the Dan to the Beersheba of this Prayer there is nothing minded but Heaven from Our Father to its Amen there is nothing as earthly suggested Our daily bread not being asked but as it relates to the doing of his will the coming of his Kingdom the hallowing of his Name of his Name on earth as it is in Heaven we begin at Heaven and end at glory by our Amen Among
everlasting principles A good man being told that his father was dead was sharp and replyed define blasphemare blaspheme not my father he is immortal and indeed die absolutely we shall not the soul but removes for a while and until it return the body sleeps our eviternity causeth us to eye eternity and because we are for ever to be its pertinent to deprecat evil for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughout ages for ever some render it in English for ever and ever the first ever expressing Gods ever-being or that part of eternity which is past pardon the impropriety of the phrase and the last ever that which is to come Touching the confidence this Conclusion creats in the Temple or in the Closet in the breast and soul of the heavenly Orator it is pregnantly seen by applying the several parts thereof unto the several Petitions of the Prayer thus viz. Thine is the Kingdom and therefore God ought and it is for his honour to regard his good Name and therefore let it be hallowed and as a King he ought to look to the observation of his Laws therefore let his will be done and he must being a King look to the wealth of his Subjects and therefore let them have bread It is also the glory of a King to passe by a transgression let him therefore pardon our trespasses he ought moreover to â—ecure his Subjects by delivering them from temptation and ease his Subjects by delivering them from evil the doing whereof can be nothing to him for his is the power nay it shall proâ—ure something to him for he shall have all the glory for ever For ever The King of the Ammonites had once a Kingdom and a Crown but could keep neither Darius in his first message unto Alexander the great stiled himself Rex Regum Consanguineum Deorum King of Kings and Cousin to the Gods with other expressions thought by the Historian flaunting but the event shew'd his folly fear flight poverty and thirst made him know he was but when highest as the grasse the glory of all Kings but being emanations from the glory of this King of whom we treat and like summer brooks shall be dryed up as the story of Darius was his glory alone remaining for ever and praise belonging to him not power to them To Kingdom Power and Glory here St. Peter adds Dominion and Iude Majesty words without multiplication not being able to expresse Iehovah his greatnesse yet these two how eminent soever are comprized in this breviary Dominion being to be found in the word Kingdom and Majesty in that of Glory from which as a fountain all the rivulets of splendor refreshing men or Angels have their first rise as is cleared in the Pronoun THINE Thine is the Glory not only of delivering us from evil but of bequeathing unto us good yea because of his goodnesse being confident of glorious good things for ever his Name God being originally from that act called Good in our Ancestors Dialect Thankfulnesse and Gratitude a constituent of true Prayer and without which it cannot nor ought not to be is so shining in this Epilogue of Thine is the Kingdom c. that a learned Author concludes it to be added purely ut Dei laus finiret preces nostras to evince our Prayers are to end in Praise and generally it is so in these or the like words now as of old in refutation of the Arrian Hereâ—ie the latine Fathers ended their supplications Through our Lord Iesus Christ cui cum Patre to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be honour and glory for ever and this not only to their own conceptions but to this Prayer taking all means to hammer that heretical doctrine of Arrius which by the Learned is given as a reason for their ommitting of this per oration in their Commentaries and Homilies upon the Gospel However it may be questioned what kind of Prayers these be which want both Praise in their body and in their close but leaving them to the censure of the Scriptures I must declare it provokes a smile to hear how impertinently to say no worse some even in publick end their addresses unto God where after begging plurality or multitude of mercies they end with In hope whereof we give thee praise and remaine as mute as Fishes appending neither Glory nor Amen according to this manner The smell of thy Ointments saith the Spouse to his Church is better then all Spices there is ointment of Contrition a falling down before the Throne in grief for sin committed the soul thereby anointing the feet oâ— Christ. Of Devotion in doing good to all the Saints whereby the body of Christ is anointed And there is also the ointment of Gratulation acknowledging the receipt of invaluable favours wherewith the soul unguents the head of Christ Crowning him King-like by giving to him Praise Honour and Glory for all possessions And in this form of Praise we render â—â—anks 1. For our Denization being Naturaliz'd and made Subjects of his Kingdom 2. For our Information and knowledge of the blessed Trinity and that in Unity included in the expression Father in Heaven that his glory be not given to another 3. For our Expectation or hopes of the world to come for ever being added ut firmius stet that we migâ—â— be strengthned in the perpetuity and immutability and eternity of Gods glory and dominâ—â—n 4. For our Preservation or deliverâ—nce from evil and all evils in which both in and from the womb we might have fallen without his inspection as was that Countrey Boy who being ordered to drive home some Oxen from the Field was benighted and storm-stead by a sudden showre of snow which covering the wayes and stopping passages the Child was inclosed in the Mountains his â—arents seeking him in vain but after two dayes designing to find only his body for burial they found him on a Bank neither covered nor touched with snow and told them he tarried there intending to return home in the evening certainly God was both a Sun and a Shield unto him nay a Purveyour for being asked if he had eaten any thing told them A man whom I knew not came and gave me Bread and Cheese Though all meet not with such portions of wonderful kindnesse yet generally we have such Guardian Providences that if God had not held us by the coat we had perished in our folly in our impiety which ought to be recorded by us both in thankful remembring of it before the Altar and in walking suitably thereunto before men For Prayer must be practised and in an holy life only can we pray daily he having the Kingdom and the Power we as Subjects ought to be faithful and loyal and as Servants diligent and peaceable and that alwayes since he is for ever a word that man cannot fathom a note
also forgive you Let it respect the soul and its nota desiderii and checks our dulnesse roâ—zing up our â—ethaâ—gick spirits and like the last stroak of a shrill Clock shews what time we have spent in Prayer and what heart we have towards God for the advancement of his honour or for the remission of sin Make haste my beloved said the Church of old Even so come Lord Iesus saith the Church now Amen The Iews make four kinds of Amen 1. Pupillum when the thing to which iâ— is said is not understood The 2. is surreptum when it is not heard throughout The 3. is oâ—â—osum when it is not thought upon The last is when it is pronounced from the heart and desired and that is Amen justorum which they account their own ending still their devotion with it this sheweth quam difficile how hard a thing it is to say Amen saith one yet Cyprian being sentenced ut gladio feriatur to be beheaded with the sword for being Christian said Amen is somewhere recorded by another Let it respect the Preface and it containeth the mystery of the Trinity unto which we only ought to pray all others being only our fellow-creatures and hath not begotten us or our sisters or brethren and so not our fathers which speaketh two things 1. The fulnesse of the Scriptures not only Amen but each Iota in the institutions of God is mysterious and of immensiâ—rable sense 2. Comforts in our failings for if in Prayer infirmity divert us from a zealous pursuit of heavenly objects we recover our feet and unites in one Amen Now there remains three said a Father the Word Example and Prayer yet all the three is here for Prayer and Amen and example even in History is not wanting For Basil the Great being sick was attended by one Ioseph a Iew and his Physician who had from natural signs shewed him that he should die about the evening What said Basilius if I live another day then said Ioseph I shall become Christian. The holy man for saving a soul plyes the Throne of God and about three of the Clock riseth next morning in health which so astonished the Doctor that he was the same day baptized in the publick Congregation by Basil who returning to his bed died Likewise Soâ—inus dying called upon his Redeemer attesting dependence upon providence and mercy hearing Scriptural exhortations for his souls strengthning to every Text sobjoyned his zealous Amen Amen And what hath not Prayer done throughought the world why then should this threeâ—old cord be broken having the word Prayer and example for Amen in all our supplications Let it respect the Petitions it is worthily compared to a bound or stitched up Book more portable and lesse bulksome then when scattered in single sheets the Law was abreviated in the ten Commandments the Gospel is abridged in the Creed and the Lords Prayer yea all Prayer in Amen which speaketh three things 1. Ordering the studying of Amen Let the mad world say its list it is Divine and of heavenly sanction and as Iesus though Hebrew is over all the world understood and if more closely studied would prove consolatory and more rever'd even so Amen if searched into should prove significantly helpful for all addresses It was of old uttered to each curse and here annexed to each Petition and once for all uttered discovering its secret Energy but impenitus enim audiens if he that understands not the prayer cannot say Amen how shall he say it who understandeth not Amen it self 2. Ordering the saying of Amen As it is an old so it is an holy seemly and necessary duty in the Church or at Church-service for all to say Amen by it the Church Militant being mostly Uniform to that of the Triumphant the noise of Dogs is harsh of crying children troublesome of opening locks unholy c. But the noise of Amen is heavenly we are baptized said Iustine in his Apology for Christianity to Antonius the heathen Emperour we communicat we gather offerings we pour forth prayers we celebrat praise and the people say Amen And if the word lingua the tongue in its initiatory letters direct to a six-â—old duty at all times the tongue must express Amen for it doth as L. directs for then loquitur bene it speaks good I. then Iesus is acknowledged N. and then the Name of God is invocate G. then the Grace of God is proclaimed V. then the Will of God is obeyed A. and all others about us are edified instructed and holily excited 3. Ordering the affecting of Amen we have not ended our prayers if according to this pattern untill this be Eccho'd from the heart Christ having said it before us It is said that the natural heat being more and greater in man then in any other creature doth in a second sense or as a secondary cause make his body straight and his soul when heated by holy zeal shall more and more being fledged or â—eathered by the practice of prayer spiritually go aloft entering by devotion the Quire of Angels bearing share in their Antiphonies as in the vision Amen Allelujd where obiter by Amen we learn that God is to be praised and by Allelujah that he is to be feared it is the fiâ—tieth Greek word in this prayer and fifty was the Jubilee and that was the year of rest and after much plodding and praying we rest in Amen that is in Christ Iesus Let it respect the Conclusion and it sheweth when in prayer the Christian cometh to his conclamaâ—um est a closs laying his petitions and his case before the Throne of God leaving them to the Power Glory and Authority of God which speaketh two things 1. Perseverance in all prayer Mind but that precept Pray without ceasing and this command Pray after this manner that is as and from Our Father to Amen and from Amen to Our Father in circulo and it is easie to infer that there is a religious unweariednesse at least in habit wrap'd up in this word and work 2. Confirmation of all good We here beg and continue begging for good and comfortable things untill we say Amen there sisting stedfastly perswaded that in the Kingdom of our Father by his Power for his Glory we shall want no portion of the matter craved heeding this form as most perfect which was dayly by the Ancients in Gods House observed as such in order for their prosperous and more successful issue in their practical devotion its vastnesse and perfection mediating from Heaven Antidots against the narrownesse and many failings wherewith their performances in point of justice were beheld and because of which they might have been excluded the ears of God who certainly is most delighted with the penitents lips and heart when both are acting in the words his blessed Son and our Saviour hath endited to them Not that we are to use no other prayer
for thee â—â—on being a Giant in these matters or if that offend a Gamaliel in things Divine or to peruse them with judgment and brotherly-Kindnesse which is done when thou forgives us our trespasses that is correct the Printers faults with thy Pen for he Errs and the Authors with thy love for he also is a Man Farewel The Author to his Pater Noster AWake my drowsie Sheets arise you Sons of Day Accost with peace run you to the High-way Plead not for Faction Strife Debate but rather Entice to Concord Peace that all my say OUR Father Unmask this Gypsie Earth that doating Man May loath her Blacknesse and in loathing scan Her Comforts shortnesse see her paths un-even Next love respects the things which are in HEAVEN Th'exchange-bells rings to Truck for Trade they run Pride here Lust there Attempts to overcome He walks as Herod Centers in Vulgar Fame Teach them Hosan ' to sing in Hallowed be THY NAME Sad Rueful Projects Harrasseth the Mind Of plodding Earthlings God and Christ pretend Them boldly check be pressing nor be dumb They Seek their own Forgets THY KINGDOM come Some Talk but Do not Some Do neither well Unfold the Cheat endure their Anger Fell The Edger Disputant at last wants Breath And then perswade him to THY WILL be done in Earth The Crooked and Vntoward Rules men take 〈◊〉 Measures by For Glories Crown forsake Move not for Pin-sleev'd Faith be driven By neither side But do As it is DONE in Heaven A narrow Heart 's a plague an idle Hand 's accurs'd A doubting Prayer's unheard a Nabal's Heart shall burst Ply you your Plough I 'l say to it God speed That 's move to Work Then pray GIVE us our daily BREAD Much God bestow's what Man receives is lent him And what Man cancells God scores out at Reckoning Review the Bill Pardon ere you be Call'd for Teaching FORGIVE our debts as we FORGIVE our debtor Destroying Grins hath Hells black Master found T' ensnare poor foolish Man But Grace hath Bound His fiercer Hands And to avoid Seduction Religious Care doth sense LEAD'S not into TEMPTATION Sin lyes at Door our Eyes are Bent upon It Our Hearts respect It yet our Death is in It Nor Power have we t'ward Hands Tongues or Devil Despond not though Pray But DELIVER us from evil As Subjects besecure if Foyl'd yet Conflict on While Trump of Glory sounds For THINE is the KINGDOM Fear not to Prosper watch the Praying Hour Lift up your Eyes when saint Receive THE POWER Of Conquering Triumph promis'd the Heavenly Livâ—â— The Humble Saint That is The GLORY for ever That â—nowledge of your Rules prove no Mans Baine â—erswade the World with me to Say AMEN PATER NOSTER OUR FATHER OR The Lords Prayer explained c. MATTH VI. IX After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever Amen AS the Sacrifices in the Jewish Temple did in general signifie Christ and the Christians duty so those called the daily ones in the opinion of Divines did intimate the indispensible duty of prayer and praise in which a believer is to be daily because continually exercised every morning and every evening one Lamb at the least was to be offered and the time of that Sacrifice under and in the Gospel is called the hour of prayer which Peter and Iohn and Cornelius observed and about that time also was the vail of the Temple rent a symbole of the abolishment of all Jewish rites and of that future confidence which all Nations might have in their immediat access unto God in which the believers delight and the penitents comfort hath since stood which made our Saviours Disciples desire to be instructed in that duty by their Master and are advised not to go to Ierusalem but look upward where ever they be and say Our Father c. And what he said to them in private he said here publickly to the multitude After this manner pray ye Our Father which art in heaven c. Purposing to enter upon a discovery of some of those grand truths folded up in the Lords Prayer It may prove advantagious to imitate men in the opening of a curious Cabinet first view the carved out-work and then the particular excellencies of each single Drawer and therefore it is proper to speak of Prayer in general which shall open our understandings the more prosperously to apprehend the fecundity and special rarities locked up in the Lords Prayer in particular In pursuing of which design we shall in these following Sections consider 1. what Prayer is and its being 2. Its effects and concomitants 3. Its obstacles and hinderances 4. It s duty and necessity 5. It s root and tryal SECT I. THe object or person prayed unto altering the nature of a prayer hath induced the learned to frame a distinction betwixt a civil and a religious one the first being that by which in courtesie something from our neighbour is demanded as Abrahams servant of Rebekah saying Let me I pray thee drink a little water of thy pitcher whereas the latter is the devout intreaty of a religious soul for attaining of grace and mercy from God in his heavenly designs and undertakings which from Authors hath received several definitions It is called a Religious Invocation of God by which we ask necessary good things for soul or body and deprecats the contrary judgments thus Abraham prayed for Sodom Moses for Israels sin and David against Sauls punishment It is said to be a religious exercise proper to rational creatures by which they reverence God as their Superiour and owns him to be the fountain of all their good therefore it is truly said of an Ancient that in many things men differs from the Angels as in Nature Wisdom Knowledge yet in calling upon God and speaking to him in duty there is no diversity at all so that Prayer separats us from bruits and unites us to the holy Angels It is known that Christ is said to pray yet it is also to be understood that he doth it according to his Humane Nature in which respect he hath a superiour and though the Spirit be said to pray yet it is by a Trope because he helps us to pray and aids men in uttering their desires But when the Beasts and Fowls are said to cry unto God it is not to be imagined they pray but in a very improper as well as in a large sense that duty being peculiar to Angels and men and the man who doth it not seems not to be reasonable being in that particular more ignorant
than the bruits in neglecting so profitable I add so rational a service that qui non orat he that prayeth not is dead in one sense and mad in another It is represented to be a manifestation of the hearts fervency before God by which through faith in Christ we beg for obtaining of mercy and for avoiding of ill or give thanks for benefits accepted whether in words groans or sighs whence it follows that the ten Commandments and the Creed are not given to us nor to be used by us as forms of Prayer which many ignorant Protestants doth conjecture nor the Ave Maria or Hail Mary as the Romanists generally practise And that the weakest Saint might be cherished Prayer is held forth to be the bitter groanings of a heart-broken soul or the sound of incomposed words therefrom sor have we not in Scripture as well a weeping Peter and a muttering Hannah comforted as a roaring David pardoned and blessed We shall call and prove Prayer to be a hearty calling upon God for good things we or others want or deliverance from the evils they or we fear or feel by and through Iesus Christ. In which description there is the Root of Prayer it must be hearty the Beauty of Prayer it must be a calling the true Object of Prayer it must be a calling upon God the matter of Prayer for good things the charity of Prayer for our selves or others the only means of acceptance through Iesus Christ. 1. It must be hearty if the frame and structure of all our petitions be not builded on this rock they will fall as did Silo's Tower upon our selves and crush us to death for if the heart be not good the very evils we pray against will flee the more swiftly towards us and the kingdom we pray for will hasten the more to our amazement the Pharisees washed their bodies face and hands but there must be a clean heart before there be enjoyed a clear conscience for endeavouring to be seen of men is to be debarred from Gods presence and frustrate of his approbation If with Ieroboams wife we counterfeit gravity and be sober in the Temple from the face only we may hear from the Angel with her but sad and heavy things though perhaps in no worse language then friend how camest thou in hither If Delilah complained of Samson in abstracting his heart from those signs he gave her of endeared affection how shall not the furnace of incensed wrath be seven times more heated when God shall get such words as Thy will be done by him who not only demurrs but impudently resolves to give it a resistance the good man is said to have cor simplex a simple that is a soul without solds being stretched to the full length that the searcher of hearts may know and remark he is prepared to do his will in its just extension from the soul. Si lingua if the tongue utter words of righteousnesse and the heart wandring about worldly not to say hellish business there is no certainty of profite and probably without a peradventure the greater condemnation said one It not being the tongue or the throat but the soul whence prayer must ascend said another Prayer being serium animi cum Deo colloquium a serious discoursing of the soul with God said a third of which seriousness Agatho had earnest thoughts of who being interrogate what might be the hardest thing in the world replyed to pray as we ought 2. It must be a hearty calling as we have a soul to reflect upon the things we wish or want so we have a tongue to call for both and as God is said to have a heart to pity us so he is said to have an ear to hear us when complaining for which Abraham's praying is called a communing i. e. a speaking with the Lord. Heart speaking is indeed simply necessary and without it no prayer and by it alone in some cases there may be a holy petition darted upward the soul having naturally a loud voice yet outward calling is exceeding usefull heart speaking is Ecclesiastica plane operatio the Churches work being conform to her Redeemers Precept of praying in secret but to withdraw the tongue from Gods Altar is a defrauding him of his just right and detains from the supplicant himself many auxiliaries whose accession to his already mustred forces might give him abundance of spiritual courage to fight against all temptations that assaults him in his militant condition It doth not only more forceibly lay bonds upon himself not to act against what he prayes for or against committing those follies he hath repented of after prayer but hinders distraction in prayer and vehemently excits devotion even to that ardency which may constitute a joyful noise It lets Satan and the holy Angels know our holy purposes and resolutions it provokes to a good example and hath great influence in discharging of that debt we owe to God for our bodies However care must be taken that the heart speak before the tongue for avoiding battology by the tongue and to both of these we must joyn a holy life by which we speak both to God and man to God with a Remember now I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart And to man with a follow me as I follow Christ in doing of which we may be applauded and rewarded for praying continually 3. It is a hearty calling upon God he alone is a very present help in trouble and neither Saint nor Angel can clear our souls from or deliver us from evil to come as he only is our Father so he only is to be requested for our dayly bread and he being the only King who hath immortality his kingdom is only to be violently seized upon and importunatly sought after and being the Lord our God he is only to be worshipped 4. It is a calling for good things that is such things as cannot naturally have a tendency to ill as Faith Love Hope Knowledge sufficiency for to ask to be rich or honourable may as too oft they prove be unhappy mediums to extinguish heavenly heat and cause the germinating grace of God which was rooted in us by the Spirit to be eradicated and made to languish under the most favourable aspects improving grace no more then the thorns in the parable did advance the the growing of that good seed of the Word A Philosopher advised his Pupills to ask only of God bona good things because thought he God knows the particular good our souls hath most in pursuit yet our Saviour a far better teacher encourageth us in begging to hold out our finger and point out the sore we would have healed the mercy we desire to possesse for Good is either that of glory which we ask for in Thy
removing of ill must our devotions be mingled evil things filling up so great a place in our little time here allotted us wherefore in our definition of Prayer we have added 6. Deliverance from those evils either feared or felt Evil is either of sin or punishment it is either past present or to come and therefore as we pray for forgiveness of sin past in Forgive us our debts so for deliverance from evil to come or present in Lead us not into temptation c. But all must be 7. Through our Lord Iesus Christ His merits is that Incense that must persume which must capacitate our accesses to become his purity lest they should be nauseated by his Holiness This is the salt that must season every sacrifice and except we have the garments of this our elder Brother we shall not smell as that field which the Lord will bless but have with Iacob rather occasion to argue the partaking of a curse For in all communing with God that would be pondered that he sayes of Jesus as Iosephs did of Benjamin except ye bring him ye shall not see my face It is to be noted that this calling upon God is either publick or private it eyes either mercies received and then it is called Thanksgiving or wished for to others and then it is called Intercession or for avoiding of ill and then it is called Supplication or if either of these for our selves it is called Prayer for into these four is Prayer divided by St. Paul and each of these are espoused to and to be found in the Lords Prayer and in each Petition thereof In the first Petition Hallowed be thy Name we pray for knowledge of the Word of God in our selves supplicate for all Christian Brethren in tribulation we interceed that the fins of our Brethren in seeking their own name be not imputed and giveth thanks if God hath made us instruments in honouring at any time his In the second Thy Kingdom come we give thanks for our hopes of Heaven and pray for the advancing of his Church we supplicate to be strengthened by his grace and interceed that all may be blessed by the Word and Sacraments In the third Thy will be done c. We interceed for a through conformity with the Angels we pray for a subjugating of our wills we give thanks for the enlightning of our minds and supplicat for ardency and zeal In the fourth Give us this day our dayly bread we supplicat against poverty and want we pray against impatience and discontent and interceed for ability and strength to gain our bread and giveth thanks for our calling and imployment In the fifth Forgive us our debts c. We give thanks for the imputation of Christs righteousnesse we supplicat against a tryal by Law we interceed that all may be saved and pray against malice and revenge In the sixth Lead us not into temptation we bewail our by-past sollies give thanks for our former conquests interceed for safety to our brethren and prayes for the spirit of discerning to our selves In the seventh Deliver us from evil we pray for a binding up of satan interceed for assistance against natural corruption supplicate against hell and death and give thanks for our hopes of a joyful Resurrection and the reason of all is his is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever SECT II. THe effects of Prayer follows in our former proposed order which he thought many and good who called Prayer Clavis coeli the Key that opened Heavens Gate unto us the Stair by which we ascended to the company of the first-born to the society of Angels to the enjoyment of our Saviour and to the bosome of the Father It is the Arms of the Christian for by fervent prayer Moses overcame the Amalakites David Goliah Ezekiah Senacheriâ— and Esther Haman What needs more It heats the soul becalms the heart keeps off evil obtains a pardon procures long life restoreth health pacifieth God creats wisdom infuseth grace purchaseth plenty delivers from judgement increaseth courage conserveth peace and shews us what should be done Let us see its holy workings for and upon those three great ones Conscience God and Satan 1. It purifieth the Conscience by opening its sores the impostumated matter therein by long contracted guilt becomes feaverish and when headed will make the stoutest through pain cry with the Prophet My bowels my bowels woe is me I am pained at my very heart or with the Apostle O wretched man that I am but prayer as a lance opens the boil and by confession the putrid matter is evacuated as in David thus and thus have I done and with the Prodigal I have sinned against Heaven yea by the same orifice of acknowledgement is the precious balm of a Fatherly Absolution poured in in a God hath taken away thy iniquity thou shalt not die by which the late dejected spirit is made to rejoice in Gods house of Prayer Saint Pauls thorne was so painfull to him that he prayed thrice against it and by prayer was strengthened to enduce and had comfort in the smart of the same to teach us that when conscience heats or ulcers it is excellent to retire our selves and with Daniel cry O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do confideing in mercy upon and for his answer Fear not peace be unto thee be strong yea be strong assuring thy self that whoso calleth upon the Name of the Lord shall be delivered The Apostle enjoyneth Prayer without ceasing it is pressed by a Father both day and night yet magis noctu rather in the night when free from incumbrances visits and most apt to enjoy our selves then are we fittest to open our sores Animarum Medico to the Chirurgian of Souls in recollecting what we have been doing and what thinking in the day-time that by compunction of Soul and Spirit our misdoings and our negligences may be remitted and the wounds they made healed spending a solitary night as Pyrrhus spent his solitude and time for being found alone and demanded what he was doing replyed I am studying to be good Which act of communing with our own heart was of no small account in the eyes of David 2. It dignifieth God by depending upon his love By this we reason with him not being dashed for all our scarlet-sins nor desperate though we have play'd the Prodigal because we return to him who is our Father it evidencing his acceptance and his goodnesse that we presume to call for our dayly bread his liberality that he forgives us our debts his omnipotency that he defends us from Devils his ubiquity that we can call in every place In confession we own the justnesse of
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
other fond reformations aimed at in this Age rich Amen was reduced to a beggerly So be it when yet there was as great difference betwixt them as between the garments of Tamar the harlot whom Iudah defiled and the Virgin-like apparel of Tamar the Princess whom Ammon ravished It is the only Hebrew word in this Prayer and not interpreted by our Saviour nor the Evangelist nec Graecus interpres neither durst the Latine nor Greek Interpreters translate it lest it should be contemned by being made naked since no Language can express its full sense whereof almost all Nations as they say Jesus Christ though Originally Greek and Hebrew sayes Amen as sufficiently understood Is is an oath that what you pray for is your hearts desire it is a wish that what you pray for may be your portion it is your assent that what you hear prayed for it your judgment and therefore in Amen we wish swear believe that the Prayer for forgiving sins of deliverance from evil of giving daily bread is from the power and goodness of your Father and that the Kingdom of his glory and grace is to be advanced by the same power and when by it you are brought to do his will you resolve to hallow his Name in the first and give him the glory in all for ever through Christ who is the Amen and therefore when you pray mind Heaven with Moses let all the people with you say Amen And I say To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven c. HAving viewed at a distance the out-works and general form of Prayer it is now seasonable to enter in and behold the special rule of Prayer and the several parts of that called the Lords Prayer unto which the unseasonable and cloudy weather that may be both felt and seen in the Firmament of our Church urgeth our meditation having visibly as once in Egypt in it showres of hail and fire mingled with the hail hence prudentially we are enforced both to make more haste to it and carry longer in it It is called the Lords Prayer because by our Lord composed in this expression After this manner pray ye and by him also imposed in this Precept when ye pray say Our Father c. and to difference it from the Prayers of other holy men as of Moses David Asaph Heman from which it is as really diversifi'd as a week day from the Sabbath for though the Spirit of God made both yet the Holy Ghost hath eminently sanctified and commanded us in Prayer to remember it in this Mandat When ye pray say Our Father c. We have by our Saviour a living and new way a new Command it was thought also by his inscrutable wisdom fit to give us a new Prayer as new Wine for our new Bottles Pray after this manner As the Temple of old so this Gospel-structure consists of three parts 1. a porch or gate which may be called Beautiful in the words of the Preface Our Father which art in Heaven 2. A holy place consisting of the several Petitions in the Body of the Prayer as Hallowed by thy Name Thy Kingdom come c. In which the lights of the Lamps lead us orderly from one Petition to another from wherein his Kingdom is concerned to that in which our obeying the Laws of that Kingdom is related in Thy will be done by which we see the Table of the Shew our necessary bread whence we go forward to the brazen Altar whereon we lay our sin-offering in Forgive us our debts c. and having sanctified our selves as Priests we ascend to the third Part the Holy of Holies For thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory for ever at the end of which or rather the head we have the glory of the Lord in a cloud in this word Amen filling it self and the whole house with the light thereof Of the Preface then next of the Petitions and lastly of the Conclusion let us treat CHAP. I. Our Father which art in Heaven IN these words we have goodness Our Father next greatness which art in Heaven They are the head of the Christians Prayer and like that of the Spouse it is as the most fine Gold and weighs thus much that we should be so circumspect in our walking and living upon earth as to be accounted worthy to posses our Parents Inheritance in Heaven unto whom we pray whence ariseth those duties of lifting up of the heart of the voice of the soul of the eyes unto God They have also in them the Person we pray unto Father the relation we pray under Our Father the place we pray unto which art in Heaven all ushering-in the several Petitions Our Saviour more boni Oratoris as an Orator here patterns and becomes a Patron unto goodly Prefaces whereby our Petitions are proposed with greater gracefulness and sweetness and what shall more readily procure affection than Praise and Praise is placed upon the Porch of this Prayer in that our Lord will have us begin to beg no otherwayes then by calling the great God our Father insinuating praise and love which rule had the Gadarens observed they had not so prophanely besought Christ his Son to have departed from their coasts To have our Prayers quadrat and conform to this holy Preface We shall discover 1. What lyeth couched under this Name Father 2. What reasons might induce our Saviour to give him that Name 3. The special excellencies by which most eminently he merits that Name In beholding the first both thee and I Reader are to behold What astonisheth Angels What makes the Heavens to wonder and the Earth to tremble which flesh cannot express And I said A great Preacher dare no utter yet dare not be silent The Lord grant that I may speak and you may hear this great thing viz. Gods giving himself to the Earth and we our selves to Heaven Both which is granted to be done in these words Our Father which art in Heaven Our Father c. THis Name Father is as the Angels name Secret and wonderful yet with Moses we shall view its back-parts And first of all we may perceive the whole Trinity in nature For the Lord God is a Father God the Son is a Father God the holy Ghost is a Father Or without errour we may understand the first person of the Deity in order sometime called the Father of Rain of Iesus Christ and again the Father of Grace the first having in it some vestigia of his power the second being the express image of his person the third the similitude of his nature and holiness And to him we may cry as to the first person with David Be merciful unto me O God be merciful unto me and also in the same phrase Father We may call to
Pharisee go not too high blurt not out thy desire without some Religious Preface After this manner as Daniel O Lord the great and dreadful God and remember that proud beggars may go hungry away whereas the humble and meek may get succour for it is a Throne of grace affirming mercy and there is an Art in begging and a reward for that Art as the Publicane will shew you 2. With awfulness but not with distraction Is he a Father he will be honoured Is he a Master he will be feared now he is both and to both our behaviour must conform he speaks not love expresly in the Prophet but of fear and honour because he was not yet become like one of us in the Incarnation of the second Person As Sons we are to reverence and honour him which we do not but when we love which shuts out amazement and terrour as a slave because as Sons we serve for love and waits in love for the time of possessing the Inheritance For even the visions of mercy and beauty did put Iacob to a fright yet made him not forget his Pillar his Oyl his Vow nor his Liberality If therefore you call on the Father after this manner do it viz. passing the time of your sojourning here in fear For these two words Our Father as they are sensed by our Royal Interpreter are inserted to put us in mind that we are but dust and ashes learning thereby to have our reverence mixed with a sweet confidence in his love God being both a kind Father and a great King will not have these divorced what he hath joyned together and what the great Emperour Sigismund would never have separated for being questioned whether it was better for a King to be loved or feared as angry at the division replyed God will be both feared and loved and so must Kings God is optimus we know and therefore to be loved but as the best so he is maximus the greatest the King of Kings the Lord of Lords Hence God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him 3. With plainness yet with meditation How loftily could our Saviour have composed this Prayer and with what sublimity of stile could he have expressed the Deity yet as himself was swadled in clouts and his Type Moses wrapped in flaggs so shrowds he the glorious Trinity under the low Canopy of this tearm Father and we must pray after this manner For the want of meditation makes our devotion flatulent and windy by empty words or unseemly Barne-like expressions plain praying may become uncivil pratting It is true there ought to be more Religion in our Prayer then Eloquence yet this palliats not the absurdities of them whose petitions are arrayed in nastiness and withal making empty frothy repetitions from which let me tell you again our Saviour dehorts by this form from one Battus as the word imports Poaeta quodam a certain empty Poet inculcating tediously through ignorance on the same verse as In illis Montibus inquit erant erant in montibus illis That is Hills were in that Land and in that Land were Hills from which some determineth Battus to be a stammerer and necessitat to utter the same words over through impediment of speech as well as ignorance of mind before his sentence could be perfected which no wayes excuseth such who are impeded in their elocution by a wilfull and knowing rejectment of the proper means of laudable utterance which is study and meditation Strive therefore against vain repetitions in Prayer by communing with your own heart and taking with you words If volubility of expression be denyed or variety of sentences not promptly minted The Roman Orator himself may see the Rules of his own Art sanctified by our Saviour in the composure of this Prayer And a greater then Cicero the Preacher of Ierusalem because he was wise sought to find out acceptable words and spake gracefully so Christ spake graciously yet so plainly that never man spake like him yet that plainness was so heavenly and so purely delivered that it will be our learning and our wisdom in both to imitate him and pray after this manner Once more let us press this Cluster of Grapes for its juice is sweet Our Father having in it yet more encouragement for us and still discovereth something to be done by us as mercy on his part and love upon ours 1. Mercy or compassion in his bowels supplying our wants By his eyes at a distance he knows our indigence as the Father knew the Prodigals neither doth long absence from him cause us to be forgotten to perswade to which we have not only the parable of the lost sheep of the clocking hen yea the shortness of this Prayer but a reiterated Precept joyned with a comfortable Promise Remember these O Iacob and Israel for thou art my servant I have formed thee thou art my servant O Israel thou shalt not be forgotten of me 2. Our love unto him opening our straits in all or any extremities whether can doth or ought a child to take Sanctuary rather than in his Fathers bosome Let Rome with Israel go aside to Saints with Iudab let us be faithful to this rule and adress to God who hath begotten us And in sound reason he who saith to the Virgin Mary Pater Noster may be suspected to have a flaw in his Pia Mater This expression of Father as it holds forth love ought to excite servent affection or then justly might we be charged with ingratitude unnaturality and idolatry which last to avoid with Battalogy and Hypocrisie this rule is given to the Churches Mercy alwayes meriting duty his love to us in becoming our Father craves from us as dutiful and heavenly born sons imitation delectation fellowship and assurance of acceptance 1. Imitation of his holiness Is it not written as obedient children be ye holy for I am holy Ergo hoc sit primum said the Melifluous Cicero teaching his Orator the first precept I give is this that we study whom to imitate and let it be him who excells in that the imitation whereof is designed but shews to his son that this choise flows from our own will which God in his sons will have to bear no sway but commands holiness because he is holy Urging more authoritative wayes to perswade to vertue than that Roman exhortted implicitely his son to goodness from the example of Hercules who being young had presented two wayes unto him one of pleasure which was fair broad c. the other of vertue narrow difficult and hard yet as a true son of their great Iupiter their conceited god he choosed the last When wickedness though painted is seducing us to embraces and offering the way of the sinner let us as sons of the most High resuse such Syren enchantments and say with David Depart
hands the presented morsel of whatsoever kind Knowing that like an indulgent parent if we receive this or that contentedly from him he may give us choice and liking in all other matters and study like a father to please us being obedient in cloaths or money He that peruseth Solomons Dream with the Response thereof may understand the meaning of this rule Christ prayed to his Father for deliverance from the bitter Cup and though S. Matthew shews he drank it yet S. Paul relates he was heard in what he asked but how he submitted to his Fathers will and Angels comâ—orted and strengthned him so against fear that with a daring Majesty he faced those murtherers with an I am he Behold the Handmaid of the Lord said Mary Be it unto me according to thy word Let us be ready for service and we shall be crowned with the reward In all things let it be according to his Will with us and it shall be his will to do great things for us and as Holy is his Name so holy and just are all his purposes and then are we holy when we know it 4. Father is a more comprehensive stile and so fitter for our weakness As every word in this Prayer hath an ample sense and each Petition of an enlarged nature so this word Father though short in Letters yet of so huge bulk in sense as would puzle Angels to expound When we pray for daily bread we also intreat an easy bed good rest for wholesome meat at home and kind friends without a fair way when we travel for a good horse when we ride sound Ship when we sail and for seemly cloaths when we visit our acquaintance so that the word bread is of a copious nature and this word Father not short of it in signification comprehending Creation Regeneration Preservation Discrimination 1. Our Creation Each son of man is a son of Adam who was the son of God so that our radical being was from him and stamped at first by the hand of his power being Earth with Life Reason and Religion which not only as brethren binds us in affection to one another but as children units our tongues to express this word Pater Father all of us being created by him I have somewhere read that in a firait Lady Elizabeth afterward Queen of England cryed Lord look upon the wounds of thy hands and be merciful to the works of thy own hands 2. Our Regeneration Christ having taught us now under the fall to call Our Father minds us not only that he did make but hath also re-made us At first indeed in Adam we had great possessions and our service altogether praise but by his not paying the contracted fore-quit-rent of exact obedience forefeited his priviledges and we as heirs of his body lost our inheritance and being filii diaboli sons of the devil we are born again and become a-new filii Dei In evidence whereof the eternal Son of the same Father teacheth us confidently in Prayer to call his Father and God our God and Father Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant having procured peace in Heaven for a re-admission into our heavenly Paradise hath given us power to become the sons of God in our consciences and by the the testimony of the Spirit knowing he came from the bosome of the Father shewing the good Fathers good pleasure of our addressing our selves to him though we have back-slidden with love confidence and joy in our Father Thy Kingdom come c. This to the reprobate cannot be affirmed God in this last sense being no more his Father or they his children spiritually then David the son of Goliah when he sought against him or Pipes and Organs the off-spring of Iubal because he made them 3. Our preservation We can speak and call for help hope look and rejoice in the very expectation of our Fathers succour yea benefactors are called Fathers and where there is a personal agreement to perform all offices of love the recipient from respect may use the appellation Father He gave us milk and life and cloaths appointed for us the weeks of the harvest numbreth our hairs preserveth our bones It s true his Angels have charge over us yet as a Father he hath his eyes upon us though those Angels as servants have a command to lead us sor our greater security Our good things he giveth us as his glory and kingdom evil things he puts far from us as our necessities and debts all desirable things he hath promised us and we believe him because the Kingdom and Power and Glory is his of all which we are to have a share being his off-spring 4. Our Discrimination It is a compellation differencing us from Heathens who know not God the Father from Jews and Turks who believe not in the Son and from all who fight against him as an enemy Tremell that famous Jew and Translator of the Syriack-Bible being at his death asked concerning his faith answered Vivat Christus pereat Barrabas Let Christ live and â—arrabas be crucified Distinguishing himselâ— by this from his blood-thirsty fore-Fathers and numbering himself among those whose confidence was in Jesus which Our Father also doth he adopting us only in his Son 4. Father is a more aluring stile and so more conformable to prayer In our Petitions we are to exercise the Graces of Hope Faith and Charity unto which this title brings in singular supports on Gods part upon mans account 1. On Gods part For we in Prayer can lay hold upon his affection Though we be as grashoppers and unworthy to be admitted to glory yet worthy is the Lamb his Son our Saviour who hath procured it for us in whom his providence saith of us to all his creatures what David said of Absalom to all his Commanders Deal gently with the young man with the old man with the sick person and tender infant for my sake though the Prodigal had spent his All yet because he confides in his Father and returns bemoans and repents he is arrayed with honourable raiment entertained with delicious sare and honoured with melodious musick to chear his heart to beautifie his countenance and attract respect from beholders 2. On our part for we in this life ought to have filial conversation This Prayer is not for dogs and therefore taught only to Sons which we are when we obey reverence and walk in our Fathers footsteps The debauch'dnesse of Angustus Daughters made him call them not children but imposthums boils of his body Shall not God much more reprove reproach them who give out they are begotten of him when the seed of the Serpent remaineth in them and the poyson thereof spreading to the infection of others contrary to duty nature and profession because they confess our Father Our Father THe eminent and transcendent acts by which the Name of Father is assumed by
abode which must be eyed in Prayer It is fit to notice this word Art which though darkly yet truly intimats Gods constancy or our Fathers immutability Others change their affection their opinion their scituation but the Lord changeth not and therefore we are not consumed Yet this is not objective to be understood as though he changed not things before him for that belongs to his free-will and can alter them as he pleaseth but in sensu composito he determining his will to one thing is unchangeable in that there being nothing that can perswade him to desist alter his purpose heighten his reason or remove his habitation he wanting the very shadow of changing his understanding being perfectly clear Queen Elizabeth her motto of England was semper eadem his is semper idem being still the same to day yesterday and for evermore This of old was expressed in his Name I AM THAT I AM Ehejeh Asher Ehejeh I shall be what I shall be referring to his will his nature his purposes his intentions his love his mercy his word his promises are everlasting and therefore is his Covenant called a Covenant of salt that is firm in it self and preserving others So that in Prayer to cut off all Satans discouragements we may competently be furnished with strength in questioning our inward part what is written in the Law how readest thou and finding there the expressions of everlasting kindness boldly concur to thy Saviours precept and say Our Father which art in Heaven Other fathers moving from and to other places from the Streets to their Tables thence to their beds whence may be they are shifted to their graves but this Father in Heaven abides the same for ever I AM WHAT I AM is like that which is which was and which is to come denoting both eternity and immutability and though St. Paul said once I am what I am yet as Kings their coin he circumscribes his performances Gratia Dei by the grace of God Cyrus dying endeavoured a diversion to his childrens sorrow and his friends malady in discoursing about unity and vertue and the gods and closed his eyes commanding that none should behold his soul-less body but that the Persians being invited to his Sepulchre all should rejoice that Cyrus was with the gods and secured for ever against suffering of any evil May not the Christian concluding from the paternal relation God beareth unto him secure his soul from all damping considerations which can arise from his perplexed heart upon the entertaining thoughts respecting Gods immutability and sublimity he being in heaven eternally ruling and unchangeably abiding to award entanglements Father gives of it self significant and apt succours to virtuat the practice of Prayer but a more manifest vigour is acquired when this qui es which art is reflected upon Which expression being read backward maketh se hinting his being his immutable being his unchangeable being is altogether of himself whence the supplicant may irrefragably infer that though he hath changed possibly to sin since the last Prayer yet God is not altered and therefore may be addressed unto for pardon vigorously in assurance It is to be noted that the word art is not expressed in the Original but implyed only yet it is manifest that it is not idle in the Translation but operats upon the duty of Prayer 1. Shewing Gods presence in it and therefore our awe It is used of them only who are before us for of the absent we say not quiâ—es which art but which is And therefore if the women of Corinth were to be covered because of the Angels how much more ought all to have a holy modesty when they call upon God lest eying him too sawcily he make ready his arrows against our faces the visible seat of our shameful impudence Take heed therefore not only to thy foot but to thy knee thy tongue thy face thine eye when thou enterest into the house of God or to thine own prayer-house lest thou be accounted hasty sawcy and malapert by asking of him wherewith to nourish thy lust Thou mayst offend in thy lofty looking with the Pharisee much speaking with the Heathen much repeating with Battus for one saith Battology is inarticulata vox like the talk of young children Study thou therefore to be manly and pray with understanding 2. Our confidence in it and therefore let us be open in Prayer The Sun never fails for all the light he transmits unto the world the Sea is not diminished notwithstanding the moisture it affords Gods Store-house will not empty though he enrich the world with his substance while therefore thou art with him in thy house or closet ask enough ask that thy joy may be full Illi enim 〈◊〉 exaudiri merentur he is heard aâ—â—â—ably of God who being heated with 〈◊〉 zeal asks and doth what good possibâ—â—â—y is within the sphear of his activity Ask therefore and ask again and ask more still capacitating for more good that thy own joy and the joy in others may yet be more full Et ne demittas eum and let not him go untill by love thy soul be joyned unto him which shall corroborat and yet more accumulat thy joy Alexander ordered his Treasurer to give Anaxagoras as much treasure as he pleased to demand he asked a hundred Talents each Talent valued 375 pound sterling at which the Treasurer wondering Alexander gladned saying Recte facit He doth as he ought knowing he hath a friend who can and will give him so much Be not sparing in thy requests but beg the utmost for the discharging of all thy debts the assurance of all his possessions thy Father can do it thy King will do it the glory of Christ nor of the Angels nor of the Saints being not all diminished by thy accession to those heavenly Mansions 3. Our chearfulness therefore let us not be disheartned in Prayer That God should come and stand before us with sealed pardons ought to conciliat us to all heavenly exercises but more singularly to this personal treaty to this intercourse of Prayer wherein we can look God in the face and he behold our tears when both are beyond the possibility of other Fathers What could Amittai have done for his beloved Ionah when in the Whales belly yet this Pater in Coelis God in heaven delivered him from all his distresses It is to be noted that though God be often in Scripture said to repent which implyes a change of and mutation in mind yet it is to be understood rei mutatio not Dei A change there was in the Ninivites first and after in God in the language of men that not being executed which was threatned we call it repentance when God repreived their destruction for to speak properly God hath in himself no umbrage of a change but as the Stars of Heaven
with contemplating of Earth This so pray ye to shew it once more renders Heaven the object of our eye and therefore of our heart to be looking to Heaven and pointing to the Earth with the Roman Senator is to become sharers of his deserved scorn and yet how many are there while Heaven is in their mouth flesh fish or ships are in their heart Acting too truly what in the Fable is said of the Wolf when at School for learning to spel Pa-ter Father but being by his Master ordered to put them together in stead of Father said Agnus Lamb thinking on his prey An userer at the same time made the like proficiency and in place of Fa-ther said Pecunia Money But let not this be among you he is in Heaven and hath his eye-lids trying the children of men not but that he is every where but in Prayer he is by design said to be in Heaven that our hearts and minds may be lifted up to the excellency of his dignity and greatness having all things naked and open before him and therefore thy hypocrisie is apparent thy in-side being naked 4. That Prayer is to be quickned by confideing in the All sufficiency of God to give what is asked whether things of Heaven or of Earth By the Heavens and influences therefrom is Earth and Sea sustained he is in Heaven therefore in the Air upon the great Waters And because he can order all for his peoples good we are not to despond and doubt of his soveraignty but let our necessities be known whether for the Wine-press or for the light of the Sun or for the Cattel upon a thousand hills fish in the Sea Fowls of the Air Angels in Heaven or mercy from his bosome for his Son we need not doubt redressing He is in Heaven and thence he gave horns to the Bull hoofs to the Horse teeth to the Lyon finns to the Fish wings to the Bird scent to the Dog motion to the Air coolness to the Water heat to the Fire light to the Sun chain to the Devils strength to the Angels his Image and his Son to man what therefore should make the humble Orator to pray sorrowing as those without hope O thou of little faith wherefore dost thou doubt He is Almighty God walk pray before him and be perfect be confident 5. That Prayer is continually to be qualified with earnest considerations tending to the honour of God while we are upon Earth It is a dishonour for a Prince to have suits made in his presence-Chamber not adequat to the dignity of that room To ask of thy Father in Heaven meat money or cloaths to debauch with the glutton to swill with the drunkard entice with the stallion is a reproach unto his Majesty ask things fit for Heaven and do things like Heaven that it may be known thy Father is in Heaven that is in thee as some expound these words saying Illi sunt Coeli These are Heaven in whom there is Faith Gravity Continency Knowledge and a heavenly life Fulgentius while young had frequently these thoughts fluctuating in his breast Cur sine spe c. Why do I live on Earth without the hopps of Heaven what profit shall the world at last bring me if we love to be merry is it not better to have a good conscience and how much better do they rejoyce that fear nothing but sin and studie but how to keep the Law c. Let us pray for these or the like matters as for the avoiding of judgments for they are revealed against all unrighteous men from Heaven or for procuring of grace for that becomes Heaven And all weighty matters bearing equality with Heaven View the whole fabrick of the Lords Prayer and there is nothing can be accounted trivial or base in it the forgiving of sins deliverance from evil the bread of our necessity the fulfilling of his will the advancement of his kingdom are substantial and solid purposes so is the request that 's first because the chief end of all for the hallowing of the Name of God which being the first Petition as impatient of any longer delay we put a closure to the Preface Our Father which art in Heaven CHAP. II. Hallowed be thy Name THis is the first part of the holy place which our eyes are invited to behold I say invited for otherwise its dazling might not only amaze us but utterly darken those Casements of the soul those balls of light our bodily eyes our souls intelligence What some have observed of all the Petitions may be attested of this one it being 1. short 2. full or comprehensive where by the way their arrogancy may be detected whose popularity made them in publick give this Prayer correctior emendatior abridged or enlarged to the people as their emptiness or vanity gave them occasion or eloqution Let thy Kingdom come in our dayes cryed one Lord lead us not into temptation cryed another equally absurd yet excusable because it might be from ignorance in regard of them whose singularity and pretended holiness ascended the chair and passed an Act of Sequestration upon the Prayer it self discharging it in the Church so far as they could by their total ommission of it or stigmatizing them who used it but for all their eminencies the Lords Prayer is sacred and verily verily where ever the Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached that Prayer that he hath made shall be used for a memorial of him The Petitions like the Precepts of the Law are divided between God and man those aspecting God are first placed as Hallowed be thy Name c. those respecting man then follow as give us our daily bread so that hallowed be thy Name is the first Petition of the first Table in this Law concerning Prayer so pray ye because of which it is first to be considered It shall not be much here debated whether there be six or seven Petitions the Ancients are generally for seven so are the Romish Interpreters and some also of the reâ—ormed The number seven was by the Hebrews called numerus juramenti because Abraham in swearing to Abimelech took seven Lambs for a testimony by others it is called numerus ultionis the number of revenge for he that killed Cain vengeance should be taken on him seven fold By others numerus libertatis the number of liberty the Hebrew servant being liberat the seventh year By others numerus purificationis because the Leper was to be tryed by seven dayes and Naman washed seven times Hence some call it numerus Sacer the holy number God rested the seventh day Iericho was taken the seventh day Christ slept in the grave the seventh day Enos the seventh from Adam was translated We have seven Lamps in Zechariah seven Trumpets and seven Seals in the Revelation and David praised seven times in the day and this hath had so great veneration in
all ages that some will have it numerus or ationis making deliverance from evil a distinct Petition from that against temptation approved by Chemnitius and King Iames as shall be seen in due place they shewing good reason for this enumeration of seven Petitions In the first whereof we beg admission into his Temple in Hallowed be thy Name In the second to his Palace in Thy Kingdom come In the third to his Council in Thy will be done In the fourth to his Granary Give us our daily bread In the fifth to his Treasury Forgive us our debts In the sixth to his Armory Lead us not into temptation In the seventh to his Garden or Arbory Deliver us from evil Unto all which if we pray truly all Prayer may be congruously reduced in evidence whereof receive a Fathers judgment with very small alteration If any beg Let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee saith he not Hallowed by thy Name If any call Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved saith he not Thy Kingdom come If any supplicat Order my steps according to thy Word desireth he not Thy will be done If any demand give me neither poverty nor riches saith he not Give us our daily bread If any utter O Lord my God if I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me yea I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy is not this to be constructed Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters Implores any Send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me is not that Lead us not into temptation And doth any request Deliver me from mine enemies my God is it not Deliver us from evil Hence therefore this Prayer is not only as a rule to pray by but as a form to pray in supplying what ever is deficient in the supplications of mortals whose arm at longest cannot fathom the length of that request put up for the belly give us bread much lesse commensâ—trat the extension of that put up for God Hallowed be thy Name Yet as we can we shall search 1. into the matter of this Petition hallowing of the Name of God 2. The order of it for it is reckoned among the first three and is become their Captain therefore more honourable Name hath its name in the Greek from the help or aid it gives to know things or persons by and with the Latines Nomina were notamina marks tokens signs to difference things by when men were â—ewest there were names and they increasing sirnames were added still to distinguish one from another neither do we find any Nation so barbarous but had names the savages of Mount Altas in Barbary excepted who were reported to be both namelesse and dreamlesse Names begun with the Creation the eldest daughter of which being Light was called Day And who can shew the improbability of their duration when time shall be no more Moses was termed Moses when Peter saw him in the Mount and who is that will earnestly deny that Enos shall not be called Enos even in glory The old Pollanders gave names to their children at the first cutting of their hair but the most Christian Nations have followed the Iews and given names about the eighth day yea the old Romanes gave it to their Femals the same day but to their Males on the ninth All gave them for discrimination to difference a Cain from an Abel Samaria from Ierusalem some had it because of some property as Esau from his being hairy Some from an atchievment Iacob was called Israel for his prevailing with God Others gave names from a desire of continuating their own names upon earth and because it is a kind of judgement to want a name as did Davids adulterous infant and the rich Churle in the Gospel for this they intended to call Iohn Zacharias after the name of his Father some give them in imitation of some vertue as Iob or David as a spur for the bearer to follow the vertues of those Saints Hence it is thought Iacobs sons were never named Iacobites but Israelites to animate the whole race for strugling with God untill they got a blessing Lastly Names have been imposed from some sudden emergency as Isaac from Sarahs or Abrahams laughter or from future foreseeing as was Cain Abel or from some profession as at this day the Mahometan from Mahomet and the Christian from professing Christ. Most of these wayes have God taken to himself and recevied names from others yea we may say firnames he is often called the Lord Jehovah God and frequently the God of all consolation the Lord God of our Fathers the Saviour of Israel who blotteth out transgressions for his own Names sake which is to be hallowed In order to which let us descant upon 1. What may be understood by his Name 2. How that Name is to be hallowed 3. Why the speciality of that Name is expressed all other names being secluded as is implyed in that Pronoun Thy Name By name in general understand his ineffable and invisible essence and nature which he held out in his Name I AM and his Name Iehovah is so peculiarly his that it was never and is never to be communicated to any creature not that the letters of his Name Iehovah is to be adored with the superstitious Jews as those of Iesus are with the idolatrous Papists but his nature expressed in and by those letters including both the Spirit and the Son for all that the Father hath being his cur non nomina why should not the Name Iehovah be likewise and consequently he get his respect By name understand also his wonderfull and inseparable properties as Wisdom Omnipotency as also his beautiful and admirable acts and workings all which are called upon to praise that is occasion or perswade others to glorifie the Lord such as his work of Creation Redemption his wonders miracles for preservation of and for his Church add to these his comfortable and inalterable writings which he hath so exalted above all His Name that when many of his works shall change and wax old as a garment his promises to his servants shall endure for ever The doctrine whereof is not to be blasphemed for by that his Name is spoken against Let none hence conclude that it ought from this to have been Hallowed be thy Names that objection being long ago answered for Nomen Divinum the Name of God is here expressed in the singular to remove the occasion of idolatry or conceit of many gods Thy Name having respect to the Father mentioned in the preface in which also the whole Trinity is included yet not expressed in the plurality of persons for the reason aforesaid Nomina sanctae immaculatae Trinitatis the names of the
move for the promoving of that transcendent honour dueto his Name by all the earth 3. That he would remove suddenly the impediments of his glory Though give us this day are in words only affixed to our daily bread yet without errour they may be appended to this Petition and then it is this day Hallowed be thy Name Lord said Elijah let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel Father saith the Petitioner let all atheism prophanenesse idolatry be removed that all the world may say this day The Lord he is God the Lord he is God That all idols with Dagon may fall down before his everlasting Gospel and all people may attend and incline their ear unto the words of his mouth this Petition is put up and offered in the Imperative Mood by way of command a holy zeal animating the breast of the conforming supplicant daringly yet humbly charging yet praying his Father to look after the dignity of his own Name How suddenly was the head of vapouring Goliah separated from his body and frighted Israel shouting for joy after little David had gone out in the Name of the Lord And that God would arise girding his sword upon his thigh to be feared by all that contend against him ought in earnest to be the matter rather of our prayers then those curious quircks and home-spun I may say hell-spun questions and political debates which are too frequently the materials of our popular and domestiâ—k supplications the former tending to quietnesse and peace the latter only to strife and debate within our houses and among our Churches 4. That we might improve all his providences for this his glory Are we advanced to any degree of honour hath God assigned us a larger portion of this worlds goods for the splendor of our retinue and numerousness of our Family are we respected by the admiring Vulgar then let us not sacrifice to our own net but acknowledge that all this store cometh of his hand and all his own Timotheus that Dux or Imperator Fortunatus was so fortunat in his Warrs that Cities were painted yielding to him he sleeping Yet somewhere it is observed that proudly saying in a full and great Assembly at Athens Haec ego feci non Fortuna this I did not Fortune and again in this Fortune had no share attributing Conquests only to himself and not to that ages fancied gods It was by all observed he never prospered but lost all the glory he had gotten And such at last shall be his fate who gives not God but himself the praise of his rich possessions Contrary are we brought so low that our harvest is blasted honour despised children buried and all pleasant things removed out of sight let our devotion keep its wonted vigour and surmise neither Planet stricking nor Wizards bewitching but Gods holy Providence in his wise Counsel hath been the contriver of all our losses and suffer not only with the wise Heathens patiently but sucking good from them as Asclepiades who being asked what disadvantage he had by blindness ut uno puero said he ambulem comitatior I can talk more chearfully to any one Lycurgus not only forgave the wild Alcander for rashly beating out his eyes but by vertuous discourse reclaimed him Poor Epictetus was amicus diis for all his poverty still at friendship with the gods I say suffer not only with these but study to know with Eli it is the Lord and next with Iob to say blessed be his Name preferring a Lame-leg a hungry belly with Gods countenance beyond the covered tables or dainties of the wicked Iubet me fortuna Fortune calls upon me to study Philosophy and wisdom cry'd a Philosopher hearing of a great lose at Sea God calls upon me say thou in the greatest strait to know him the world and the mutability of all things except himself cry thou blessed be his Name though brought into the lowest degree of misery were it a dung-hill or a bush of thorns it being easie to adore him upon the pinacle of prosperity over a rich Carpet or leaning upon a Velvet Cushion This is sure qui non sanctificat Deum he that glorifies not God shall never be glorified of God and therefore the beauty of our possessions the industry of our hands the pregnancy of our wit the patience in our suffering the prevalency of our interest being considered say however Not unto us not unto us O Lord but to thy Name give we praise And whether we eat or drink which are works of necessity or what ever we do which may relate to pleasure at conveniency Let us do all to his glory for our actions must concur with our wishes in this matter that as we exalt his Name by the one we may not blasphem it with the other Further this duty is to be performed specially according to his grace and that not in respect to its nature or as it is in the fountain that is in God but as it doth gratiam recompensare benefactoribus as it eyes our grateful returns to him and so Hallowed be thy Name implyes Thankfulness to him Knowledge of him Affection towards him all our abilities to be laid out for him 1. Thankfulness in what his power hath wrought by referring all unto him To batter down that wall of ingratitude which this age hath raised we touch again this point or rather explain the former we Belshazzerâ— like drinking and ranting but the God in whose hand our breath is not glorified at all for our peace freedom and honour c. A godly Lady-martyr professed that the bloud of her Saviour had made her fair and beautiful and not her servants industry by care or art not the servants vigilance but the Masters pounds gained ten pounds moe Shall we have health wealth peace Princes as at the first and God receive no tribute of praise since we professe sanctity which in the Heathens sense was nothing but ascribing to the immortal gods their due praise and thanks Are not many healed but where are the nine i. e. the many that examining their unfitnesse for mercy attends at Gods Altar with their Hallelujahs for his breaking the Spear assunder and burning the Chariots in the fire It is Fabled that one finding a Serpent frozen or starved almost to death in a vehement eold he warmed it at his own fire the Serpent boasting afterward that it was not his fire that animated him the matter came to be judged and thus determined that the Serpent should be left in periculo in the same state danger and condition wherein at first it was found We have reason to apprehend that being delivered from our civil yet uncivil war and our vitious lives testifying no grateful resentment as it flowed from God that he shall cause this generation to be brought back into that howling wildernesse of barbarous and cruel
Lord and therefore let us stand upright and not flectere ad ima as bowed down behold the things of this carnal and perishing world lest we be accounted unfit to approach unto or enter in the Kingdom of God Exoneremus ergo let us therefore cleanse our hearts from the contagion of unclean cogitations and fit our selves for a daily offering up unto Christ prayer and praise as Priests separated by the Spirit for that good work and office and particularly to offer bread I mean the remembrance of the whole Tribes the whole earth for their good It was Sauls question whether the promise or hopes of fields or vineyards made his Guards not inform him of Davids supposed conspiracy and consederacy with Ionathan and truly the largeness excellency the Vineyards and fields the riches and the glory of the Kingdoms of grace and providence ought to provoke us to be earnest for the advancement of the Kingdom of God the protection we have from Angels the heat we receive from the Sun the light we have from the Heavens the prospect we have from the Hills the Flowers we behold from the Valleys the Commodities we have from the Sea the comforts we draw from the Beasts the spiritual consolations we receive from the Gospel shew the advantages we have by his Government and therefore ought to endeavour the removing and fight for the departing of Saul's the sense is easie and the coming of David's Kingdom in pressing for the enlargement of the Kingdom of grace under our Lord Jesus Christ. For though in the Kingdom of his providence we possess such a lot or portion as his wisdom or power giveth and judgeth convenient for us yet remembring that these things we enjoy common with the Swine in the field and the Raven of the air the Fort-royal of our affections are not to be possessed much less commanded by the desire of enlarging temporalities being given but as apt means to uphold our otherwise frail Tabernacle but collecting all our strength animat our zeal for a studious striving for and earnest thirsting after the beautifying confirming enlarging and adorning of our inward man by grace against the approaching of the Kingdom of glory This Age hath many who slight this Prayer in their practice as well as neglect it in their religious exercise they desire the coming of his Kingdom limiting their thoughts to that of Providence desiring the hastning and advancement of those good things they desire to possess yet not contented with their portion by stealing cheating robbing they snatch it impudently out of his hands being impatient that he brings it not unto them and grumbleth that he makes not speed whereas Thy Kingdom come implyes modesty and our waiting upon Gods leasure Let pilfring sinners therefore know that not a snatching but a mannerly receiving is contained in this Petition Hasten not therefore to be rich Eye his Kingdom of Grace we have those so pure in their own eyes so holy in their own conceits that they behold no urgent cause for its more evident appearing Let such know that not sufficiency but a daily exuberancy is contained in this Petition Say not therefore I have enough It is obvious that many concludes the coming of this Kingdom to consist in such tenets or opinions they have imbibed from the Rabbies of some saction to them beloved Let such know that not the following of mens opinions but the knowledge and owning of Gods heavenly dominion is contained in this Petition the great Officers therein under himself being Magistrats and Ministers c. both which are prayed for in Thy Kingdom come Thy Kingdom come THe Kingdoms of Grace and Glory as they are united in this Petition are now to be explicated and first of Grace whereby Christ reigns in the soul which by having the Gospel is nigh unto us and next that of Glory prepared for us before the foundation of the world yet these are not so much two as one differing only as the light conveyed by the window differs from that immediatly flowing from the Sun In the Kingdom of Grace Christ is compared to a Roe standing behind the wall looking forth at the window shewing himself through the lattess the wall is our flesh the window is his Law the lattess is his Prophets but in the Kingdom of Glory the wall is pellucide the window and lattess both removed and the immediat beams i. e. glory of the Father by the Saints viewed and respected By Grace here he hath Servants Kings and Teachers in his Temple and Throne but there in glory there is no teaching because no ignorance no King because no offence and Kingdom implying government and that under a King Christ is King and Head of his Church and God the Father as Jesus is man is the head of Christ Hence we pray Our Father which art in Heaven Thy Kingdom come In which Petition there is something we pray against and something we pray for the latter is for the Churches and our guidance into the Holy of Holies the former is for subjugating Gods and our enemies and all pernicious lusts obstructing our glory to come We pray against the dominion of sin the darkness of nature the prevalency of Satan and the delay of the Saints reward 1. The dominion of sin that its head which is as a Serpents may be bruised and its reign which is tyrannical may be ended all lust being base and ignoble and ineffably cruel domineering more over the soul and making it suffer more from it quam corpus c. then the body doth from diseases for it reigns and brings into eternal death at last fascinating in the mean time and bewitching mens hearts so that but few are sensible of that danger which these Ammonites will bring upon them if longer tolerated and those few again have their souls so entangled that though they have no love to embrace yet they want power to extricate themselves out of sins snare or force to drive it from exercising dominion over them Therefore calls for help against that strong man that by the power of grace and strength of faith and ardency of zeal all from the Spirit of God he may be bound as a rebel against heaven and an usurper over man in forcing obedience to his lusts and rigidly exacting what was never his due viz. love and subjection Thy Kingdom come as it eyes the Church imports that it might be manifest among men and that it might be known to the ignorant but eying Grace it respects the extinguishing of all vice by the power of God that neither devil nor world nor carnal lust nor any sin might have dominion over us but God alone For if we study good works and shine in vertue lust and iniquity shall never overcome us nor the power of hell suppress us restat ergo we ought therefore as in all
To these we might add a third viz Gods goodnesse to the body At the giving of the Law he gave man six dayes to work for its upholding and at the ordering of prayer you see he allowes one Petition for the same end the Ravens brought Elisha bread and flesh to eat and the brook did afford him water in a drought here lest natural strength should sail and the body languish by immoderat fasting we are advised to pray for all these in this one word bread notwithstanding our attendance about Heavenly doctrine To these three might be added a fourth that is our charity to all in the body We say not Me but Vs and Our bread which phrase is as wide as the sea and as large as the earth and commands us to pray for bread to all in the flesh or in the Lord our glory and honour not consisting in our wealth strength youth beauty nor in nothing of the worlds product but he that gloryeth let him glory in this that he knoweth and seeketh after God and releaseth his poor servants laying up in them a good foundation against the time to come For charity is omnium Artium quaestuosissima the most enriching trade delivering us from the power of death providing us oyl for our lamps fitting us for the great wedding and building for us everlasting habitations And in this case the words of Pius the second Pope may be applied to an officious Chambersain hindering true information of affairs Knowest thou not I have the Papacy for others rather then for my self Let the Reader put in Wealth Riches Power Honour in place of Papacy and he may learn his duty Prepare your appetites for receiving as God shall direct us to distribute this bread in our old method by shewing first the matter and next the order of this Petition the former we lay before you in four pieces 1. The thing asked that is bread 2. The manner it is askad by and that is imperative give us 3. What kind of bread we ask and that is our own our bread 4. The time wherein we ask this our own bread which is this day If there remain any fragments we shall gather them together putting them in the basket of the word dayly which shewes the extension how long we would have this bread given us which is dayly or day by day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bread so called from its fitnesse for us it being fit as a staff for an old man or from its perfectnesse as having all other things under the crust thereof so eminently that it is conceived the Roman word Panis is from the Greek word Pan as if it had every thing in it or all things understood by it it may be deduced from the word Pascendo as if it alone sed men or were his proper because chief food Our Saxon Ancestors called it Brood the Germains now Brot whence probably comes now the word Bread and all from the Greek Brotus that is Meat in a most emphatick sense all meats yea the least of meats being generally unwholesome if not loathsome without bread so that bread by interpretation is all things necessary for the being or well-being of man and a sufficiency of them in that which is most necessary and most excellent which is BREAD and here dayly to be demanded and having it to conclude we have sufficiency of food Ordo petitionum cogit me saith a great Cardinal the method of the Prayer enforceth me by bread to understand not that of the body but of the soul as the Gospel and the Sacraments c. to which sense many of the Ancients do adhere and many Romish Interpreters but he erred not that undestood it de utroque of them both But to the Cardinals ordo I oppose a Jesuites existimatio existimamus nihilominus for all that saith he we conclude that here we are to understand corporal or bodily bread It is observed that where bread hath a mystical signification there is added some word to discover its mytaphysick sense as the bread of God bread from Heaven bread of life c. which insorceth a spiritual sense but as it stands here there is no circumstance insringing its literal interpretation all things divine or spiritual being couched in the other Petitions thy Kingdom come and thy will be done and yet in a remote sense soul-bread may be an orthodox glasse relating to Christ and the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist but in its proximat signification we shall understand it vulgarly for the ordinary staff of life with the consent of reformed Interpreters Take then Reader thy bill and for bread and in bread and with bread write down meat drink raiment strong house wholsome air upright friends good neighbours honest servants dutiful children and a vertuous wife understand also prudent Magistrates wise Counsellours a fruitful Soyl and a peaceable Countrey for all these are good and profitable to men for these the best of men have prayed and these also hath God promised to his people The Pilgrim may have bread in his Budget yet perish on the top of Snowy Mountains the Mariner his Bisket and his Bottle yet be swallowed up by insulting waves the diseased may have the learned'st Medicinal receipts yet be Bedrid None of which things being congruously reducible to the other Petitions they relating immediatly to God ought in equity if not in necessity to be brought to this Petition as their proper continent All of them being necessary for life comfortable for life helpers to a godly life and enjoyed and prayed for by the godly in this life 1. Necessary for life This is so natural a truth that though the Scripture shew'd not famine to be a Judgment we were able by the light of Nature to read punishment in the looks of the very bruit Bread is called the staff of life and that is sometimes broke implying by its breaking either the want of all corn provision or withdrawing from the grain its natural strength and vigour whereby it having nourishment men â—aint for it is bread that strengthens mans heart Consult man in his highest attainments and the miseries in which he is envalp'd maketh his condition deplorable and to individuat the same in prayer would make devotion and his other affairs incompatible wherefore by an holy Synecdoche we here have part for the whole God our Father knowing how to apply our sense of desiring bread to the present or soreseen exigence we are or shall be under The Sea-man senseth it calm winds the eye of providence discerns a necessity of baiting a leak The Traveller means it good accommodation the Father graciously adds liberation from Robbers one may want sleep in a soft and another cannot get it in a hard bed thus mans calamities cumulat themselves and multiplied against him he is taught to encounter all prevent all to pray against all
upon his adversaries and foes And truly upon the opening of our mouth depends the enlarging of our Tenements and if we be straitned in our houses it is because we are first straitned in our bowels not thinking upon God so much as in a dream with Pilats wife Since this large promise sounds in our ears Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it that is enlarge it by desire confession and by love it shall be filled with my self and my glory 3. His truth is only engaged to the prayerful Heaven may be as equally expected without holiness as mercy can be imagined to come without a duty And when we seek then only have we reasonably a ground to hope the Precept being Ask seek knock which is done by praying first next by well-doing the third by persevering to the end which last crowns our devout performances The door of the Tabernacle was not of hard Cedar nor massy silver but a vail easily penetrable so is Heaven yet it had a vail so hath Heaven which by prayer we must draw aside enter in and pleasd for atonement for which his house is not called a house of strength though we be there confirmed nor of knowledge though we be there instructed nor of justice though acquitted but of prayer because in that God will be reconciled That man stands constantly bound to this kind of officiating and advocating for himself or others before the Bar and sight of God is clear beyond a demonstration For 1. His indigency makes him look out for help He knows he must pay and again he knows he cannot pay his debts nor deliver himself from evil Can he creat one drop of rain for removing thirst or form a morsel of bread to abate hunger He is to speak ingenuously so poor that ability wisdom health consolation life hath he none but what he must beg for at the Gate of Heaven The Centurion can command his servants to go and do this or that but cannot order his disease to remove or say to the Palsie be gone When King David had a multitude of sins he repairs not to the number of his Troups but addresses to his Saviour for a multitude of tender mercies All the Royalty of his magnificence being insignificant to allay the pain of his broken bones without the aid of Heavens skilful yea alsufficient Artisâ— 2. There is no other way found out whereby he can get help When Seth called his son Enos that is miserable men began to call upon the Name of the Lord Christ as man took no way to be freed of his bitter passion then a Transeat calix iste Father if it be thy will let this cup pass from me The Saints being wise men had but confession and lamentation to procure to themselves the best things of Heaven When Peter was in prison prayer was made and Peter miraculously liberated hinc clare apparet saith one It is manifest by this how successful Prayer is when a Pope is in prison but we say no less briskly and far more truly it is by this demonstrable how prevalent Prayer is when a Church is afflicted and a member thereof in distress It is true that Dives found out in a pinching strait another medium for salvation by desiring some to be sent from the dead But as I intend not to detect his folly so I trust I need not discuss the vanity of that surmise yet remember he took Prayer as the most adapt mean for the accomplishing the thing contrived I have not a friend said a poor woman in extremity but I can pray and that never failed me All other instruments without this are like Iobs friends Physicians of no value whereas Prayer is like Goliah's sword None to that Say therefore Give it me 3. No way to have a sanctified use of what is given him for help Mercies Crosses Sacraments Miracles are only by Prayer fitted for us and applied by us for good All is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer that is by Christ through Prayer the Word sanctifying for and procuring a blessing to every enjoyment Sin makes not only our actions but our possessions to send forth a stinking savour whereas Prayer causeth all as incense grateful to the nostrils of the Almighty and puts him in love both with us and ours for which the Church is compared to Mountains of Myrrhe and unto Hills of Frankincense By Mountains understand the strong fixed and resolute determinations of mortifying sin and corruption and by the Hills learn to be humble in Prayer yet fervent and the soul may be acertained of a visite from and cohabitation with Christ for unto the soul thus qualified the Bridegroom gets him untill the day break and shadows flee away holding forth the perpetuity of his residence for we may English that untill Time shall cease and Eternity appear And that all our forecasts or designs may daily imbibe the favourable influences of prosperous goodness it is a pertinent advice of one to begin every day with the duties of Adoration Thanksgiving Charity Contrition Petition to press which upon other considerations do but reflect upon Prayer in its easiness sweetness and suitableness 1. The easiness of it upon our part Prayer makes the soul keep alwayes Holy-day and save for it we are to be careful for nothing There are many dark thoughts in some about the issues of death the fruits of sin the weakness of flesh the remissness of duty the vexations of the world but Prayer husheth all by making request of God and pouring forth the sense of the spirit before him and says to such as the three Children to that Heathen King We are not careful to answer thee or you in this matter Pray pray said an English Martyr to his Wife I am merry and I trust I shall be merry maugre the teeth of all the Devils in hell Pray pray pray c. This mean made the holy Martyr in lingring flames to cry Welcome life welcome everlasting life Daniel fought not with the Lions but prayed and he was in the Den Hezekiah purged not for his disease and he was in the bed the converted Thief strugled not for life but prayed and he was on the Cross. And where ever the Christian be he can erect an Altar for himself yea though he bow not the knee not list up his hand nor smite upon his breast yet if he list up his soul he offers an acceptable sacrifice which the Servant can do in the Mercat the Page upon the Road the Butler at the Binne and the Cook in the Kitchin God requiring the heart at all times in all places provided the Petitioner put not off his devotion to these places and times 2. The sweetness of it upon Gods part He is our Father a word of delight which is in Heaven a place
Religio from Eligo as chusing God to be ultimat end and not our selves or rather from Religo that binding us together and by this as by a livery are we known to be Christians indeed that is Chrismate sacro anointed with the holy Ghost for so the word by interpretation whose character is love which as the pitch to the Ark should be within us and without us to hold us together and though true peace be tyed to the Church yet what Religion is there the embracers whereof have not a mutual regard one to another To pass both Ancient and Modern Hereticks It is observable that the Turks have not been of late so vehement in fighting against the Persians as formerly their opinions touching Mahomet being now more clearly known then before and if nothing will prevail O that Christians would ruminat upon that of Christ Wo unto thee Chorazin for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in thee they had a great while ago repented But why should I say Christians for look about and where or how few are there for num tu illum Christianum put as in quo nullus Christianitatis actus is he to be called Christian who hath no righteousness in his conversation who oppresseth the poor and loads the miserable who robs others who gives his tongue to lying his lips to obscenity his hands to sacriledge his soul to hypocrisie by worshipping in the Temple as if God knew none of this Wherefore Charissime in Christo good Reader let us pray that the love of Heaven abate self-love that piety cool our fury modesty our lust moderation our talkativeness fasting our curiosity sobriety our drunkenness meekness our uncharity humility our pride and the love of God and our neighbour the love of this present world and then and not before shall we be Christians indeed and univocal children to our Father which is in Heaven For the very form of our supplications binds us to this union Granting to the earnestness of some that this Prayer is not to be used as a form but a rule only yet as a rule it commands them to have no malice when they bow their knee but to pray for all as burdened by the same sin liable to the same sailings and justly may expect without mercy the same punishments How are they from their own mouths condemned that not only refuse not to pray for but glorie in their cursing of their brethren satisfying themselves to be called from this or that opinion this or that man whereas in this saith a Father we glory Christianos esse nominari to be and to be called Christians The inheritance and expectation we all have of Heaven binds us also to this charity Why should we fall out in that way or separate in that road of blessed concord for those things especially wherein the judgment of God doth not concern it self as not being essential to the purchasing of or the being abandoned out of Heaven Peter required of his Converts but repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins I am perswaded that never was there an age but had its own particular contentions nor person but had his own beloved opinion extraneous to the principles of etâ—rnal life yet Philip thought the Eunuch richly endowed for glory and capacitat in the highest degree for Baptism that he believed Iesus Christ to be the Son of God What heaps of interrogatories had he been troubled withall if to have been â—atechised excentrick to this by some spirituallized men in our dayes But to know Christ and him crucified only is no doctrine in our times The Spartans consulting their wise Lycurgus about repelling an invading soe had this wholsome counsel 1. To remain poor that their enemy might have no temptation and to end their privat discords that their uniting might cause fear And there is no surer way to confound the rage of a spiteful Devil then to be reduced to that old Christian temper of having one heart and one soul which is not unattainable if every man will as he ought cast his eyes inward and by viewing his pernicious thoughts cure himself of those Convulsion-fits which to the affronting of the very image of God in his face or converse befalls him in dwelling in spleen rancour and malice and it shall evidence a perfect recovery when his enlarged soul shall praying say Our Father As to what may be objected touching Turks Iews Traitors or our own enemies or those of our Countrey we must alwayes difference the enmity from the enemy or the power from the person the Turks power we are to pray against or our adversaries force or wisdom but the person ought ever to be supplicated-for were he stoning us to death as Jesus did and Stephen for excluding lawful war we are not to do otherwise without a special revelation as did Elisha in his cursing the children If it be demanded whether a holy man may not say My Father when he prayeth It is answered that some thinks it is proper to Jesus only to cry My God or say My Father yet since Abrahams servant designed him Lord God of my master Abraham and David most often in the Psalms expresseth himself thus my God my King and that Thomas said my Lord and my God without a check Yea there being a precept that it shall be so said under the Gospel It ought not to be accounted sinful especially when the soul is in privat yet alwayes care is to be had that in this personal applying of God to thy self thy thoughts exclude none who are called by thy Fathers name for as Our Father in the general indirectly includes thy self so my Father in particular by reflection implyes others and this by interpretation is Our Father Another Lacedemonion Lady hearing an ill report of her son writ after this manner There is evil heard of thee mend it or die So there is evil known to be in this Age and particularly uncharitable walking from which save your selves or you die Being separat from the God of love unto whom Creatura rationalis man is tyed by love only the love of God and the love of man being as the breasts of the Church which are lovely to Christ by which the holy soul is nourished in cleaving to God and letting out good to man to the godly to our neighbour pari dilectione est optanda vita aeterna omnibus hominibus and salvation unto all men that heaven the next considerable thing in the Preface as being the place we pray unto may be filled with our brethren for which Let the peace of God be in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body Our Father which art in Heaven BEfore our thoughts pursue this part of the Preface Heaven Gods ubi or the place of his