And it is encouraging in this respect because he hath experimented this Duty he knows how soon human Strength is spent and put to it for he himself hath been wrestling with God in Prayer with all his Might His submitting to these Duties gave him Sympathy he knows the Heart of a praying Man when wrestling with God with all Earnestness therefore he helpeth us in these Agonies of Spirit Again his praying is an Encouragement against our Imperfections Christians when we are alone with God and our Hearts are heavy as a Log and Stone what a Comfort is it to think Christ himself prayed and that earnestly and was once alone wrestling with God in human Nature Matth. 14. 23. and when the Enemy came to attach him he was alone striving with God in Prayer he takes all occasions for Intercourse with God and if you have the Spirit you will do likewise 3. I might argue from God's end in pouring out the Holy-Ghost wherefore hath God poured out his Spirit Zech. 12. 11 12 13 14. I will pour out the Spirit of Grace and of Supplication c. He poureth out the Spirit that it may break out by this Vent the Spirit of Grace will presently run into Supplication the whole House of Israel shall mourn there 's the Church they have the Benefit of the pouring out of the Spirit and every Houshold hath benefit that he and his Family may mourn apart and every Person apart that we may go and mourn over our Case and Distempers before God and pour out our Hearts in a holy and affectionate manner This Argument I would have you to note that this was God's end in pouring out his Spirit for a double reason both to take off Excuses and to quicken Diligence Partly to take off Excuses because many say they have no Gifts no Readiness and Savouriness of Speech and how can they go alone and pray to God Certainly Men which have Necessities and a sense of them can speak of them in one Fashion or other to God but the Spirit is given to help Such is God's Condescention to the Saints that he hath not only provided an Advocate to present our Petitions in Court but a Notary to draw them up not only appointed Christ for help against our Guilt and unworthiness but likewise the Spirit to help us in Prayer When we are apt to excuse our selves by our Weakness and Insuffâ—ciency he hath poured out the Holy-Ghost that we may pray apart Partly to this end the more to awaken our Diligence That God's precious Gift be not bestowed upon us in vain to lie idle and unimployed he hath poured out the Spirit and therefore we should make use of it not only that we may attend to the Prayers of others and joyn with them but that we may make use of our own share of Gifts and Graces and open and unfold our own Case to God 4. That it is a necessary Duty I plead it from the Practice of the Saints who are a praying People O how often do we read in Scripture that they are alone with God pouring out their Souls in Complaints to him nothing so natural to them as Prayer they are called a Generation of them that seek God Psal. 24. 6. As light Bodies are moving upward so the Saints are looking upward to God and praying alone to him Daniel was three times a day with God and would not omit his hours of Prayer though his Life was in danger Dan. 6. 10. And David seven times a day do I praise thee Psal. 119. 164. And Cornelius 't is said that he prayed to God always Acts 10. 2. not only with his Family but alone in holy Soliloquies He was so frequent and diligent that he had gotten a Habit of Prayer he prayed always Well then if this be the Temper of God's People then to be altogether like them when we have no delight in these private Converses with God or neglect them it gives just cause of Suspition 5. Our private Necessities shew that is a necessary Duty which cannot be so feelingly spoken to and exprest by others as by our selves and it may be are not so fit to be divulged and communicated to others we cannot so well lay forth our Hearts with such largeness and Comfort in our own Concernments before others There 's the Plague of our own Hearts which every one must mourn over 1 Kings 8. 38. As we say no Nurse like the Mother so none so fit humbly with a broken Heart to set forth our own Wants before the Lord. There is some Thorn in the Flesh that we have cause to pray against again and again For this I sought the Lord thrice saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. 7 8. We should put Promises in suit and lay open our own Case before the Compassions of God It is a Help sometimes to joyn with others but at other times it would be a Hinderance we have peculiar Necessities of our own to commend to God therefore must be alone Secondly This Closet and Solitary Prayer as it is a necessary Duty so it is a profitable one 1. It conduceth much to Iâ—largement of Heart The more earnest Men are the more they desire to be alone free from Trouble and Distraction When a Man weeps and is in a mournful Posture he seeks Secreâ—y that he may indulge his Grief They were to mourn apart Zech. 12. and Ier. 13. 17. My Soul shall weep sore for your Pride in secret Places So here when a Man would deal most earnestly with God he should seek Retirement and be alone Christ in his Agonies went apart from his Disciples When he would pray more earnestly it is said He was withdrawn from them about a Stones cast Luke 22. 41 44. it is said He went apart Strong Affections are loth to be disturbed and diverted therefore seek Retirement And it is notable Iacob when he would wrestle with God it is said Gen. 32. 24. And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a Man with him until the breaking of the Day When he had a mind to deal with God in good earnest he sent away all his Company A Hypocrite he finds a greater flash of Gifts in his publick Duties when he prays with others and is the Mouth of others but is slight and superficial when alone with God if he feels any thing a little overly matter serves the turn But usually God's Children most affectionately pour out their Hearts before him in private where they do more particularly express their own Necessities there they find their Affections free to wrestle with God In publick we take in the Necessities of others but in private our own 2. As it makes way for Enlargement of Heart on our part so for secret Manifestations of Love on God's part Bernard hath a Saying The Churches Spouse is bashfull and will not be familiar and communicate his Loves before Company but alone The sweetest Experiences which God's Saints receive many times are
Instrument out of Tune but it s being neglected and not looked after Certainly by Experience we find none so tender so holy so humble and heavenly as they which are often with God This makes the Heart tender which otherwise would grow hard dead and stupid 2. It is not only an Omission in general but an Omission of Prayer which is first a Duty very natural to the Saints Prayer is a Duty very natural and kindly to the new Creature As soon as Paul was converted the first News we hear of him Acts 9. 11. Behold he prayeth As soon as we are new-born there will be a crying out for Relief in Prayer It is the Character of the Saints This is the Generation of them that seek thee Psal. 24. 6. a People much in calling upon God And the Prophet describes them by the Work of Prayer Zeph. 3. 10. My Supplicants And Zech. 12. 10. I will pour upon them the Spirit of Grace and Supplication Where ever there is a Spirit of Grace it presently runneth out into Prayer Look as a Preacher is so called from the frequency of his Work so a Christian is one that calleth upon God Every one that calleth on the Name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10. 13. In vain he is called a Preacher that never preacheth so he is in vain called a Christian that never prayeth As Things of an airy Nature move upward so the Saints are carried up to God by a kind of Naturality when they are gracious God hath no Tongue-ty'd or dumb Children they are all crying Abba Father Then it is an Omission of a Duty which is of great Importance as to our Communion with God which lieth in two Things Fruition and Familiarity in the Enjoyment of God and in being familiar and often with him Fruition we have by Faith and Familiarity is carried on by Prayer There are two Duties which are never out of season Hearing and Prayer both which are a holy Dialogue betwixt God and the Soul until we come to Vision the Sight of him in Heaven Our Communion with God here is carried on by these two Duties We speak to God in Prayer God answereth us in the Word God speaks to us in the Word and we return and eccho back again to him in Prayer Therefore the New Creature delighteth much in these two Duties Look as we should be swift to hear James 1. 19. until we come to seeing we should take all Occasions and be often in hearing So in Prayer we speak to God and therefore should be redeeming Time for this Work In the Word God comes down to us and in Prayer we get up to God therefore if you would be familiar and often with God you must be much in Prayer This is of great Importance You know the very Notion of Prayer it is a visiting of God Isa. 26. 16. O Lord in Trouble have they visited thee they poured out a Prayer when thy Chastening was upon them Praying to God and visiting of God are equivalent Expressions Now it argueth very little Friendship to God when we will not so much as come at him Can there be any Familiarity where there is so much Distance and Strangeness as never to give God a Visit 3. It is the Omission of personal and secret Prayer which in some respects should be more priz'd than other Prayer Partly because here our Converse with God is more express as to our own Case When we join with others God may do it for their sakes but here Psal. 116. 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard my Voice and my Supplication When we deal with him alone we put the Promises in Suit and may know more it is we that have been heard We put God more to the Trial we see what he will do for us and upon our asking and striving Partly here we are more put to the Trial what Love we will express to our Father in secret when we have no outward Reasons no Inducements from Respects of Men to move us In publick Duties which are liable and open to the Observance of others Hypocrites may put forth themselves with great vigor quickness and warmth whereas in private Addresses to God they are slight and careless A Christian is best tried and exercised in private in those secret Intercourses between God and his own Soul there he finds most Communion with God and most Enlargement of Heart A Man cannot so well judg of his Spirit and discern the Workings of it in publick because other Mens Concernments and Necessities mingled with ours are taken in and because he is more liable to the Notice of others But when he is with God alone he hath only Reasons of Conscience and Duty to move him When none but God is conscious and our own Hearts then we shall see what we do for the Approbation of God and Acceptance with him And partly in some respects this is to be more prized because Privacy and Retiredness is necessary and is a great Advantage that Mens Spirits may be setled and composed for the Duty Sinful Distractions will croud in upon us when in Company and we are thinking of this and that How often do we mingle Sulphur with our Incense carnal Thoughts in our Worship How apt are we to do so in publick Duties But in private we are wholly at leasure to deal with God in a Child-like Liberty Now will you omit this Duty where you may be most free without distraction to let out the Heart to God And partly because a Man will not be fit to pray in publick and in Company which doth not often pray in secret he will lose his Savour and Delight in this Exercise and soon grow dry barren sapless and careless of God Look as in the Prophet Ezekiel you read there that the Glory of the Lord removed from the Temple by degrees it first removed from the Holy Place then to the Altar of Burnt-Offerings then to the Threshold of the House then to the City then to the Mount which was on the East Side of the City there the Glory of the Lord stood hovering a while as loth to be gone to see if the People would get it back again This seems to be some Emblem and Representation of God's dealing with particular Men First God is cast out of the Closet private Intercourses between God and them are neglected and then he is cast out of the Family and within a little while out of the Congregation publick Ordinances begin to be slighted and to be looked upon as useless things and then Men are given up to all Prophaneness and Loosness and lose all So that Religion as it were dieth by degrees and a carnal Christian loseth more and more of the Presence of God And therefore if we would be able to pray in Company we must often pray in secret 4. Consider the Mischief which followeth Neglect of private Converse with God Omissions make way for Commissions If
that we may know God doth all that he governeth all humane Affairs that we may live upon his Allowance and take our daily Bread from his hands and that we may see we hold all these Things from our great Landlord therefore we pray unto him We are Robbers and Thieves if we use the Creature without his Leave God is the great Owner of the World who gives us our daily Bread and all our Supplies therefore he will have it asked that we may acknowledg our dependance 2. It is most for our Profit Partly that our Faith should be exercised in pleading God's Promise for there we put the Promise in Suit Faith is begotten in the Word but it is exercised in Prayer therefore it is called the Prayer of Faith In the Word we take Christ from God in Prayer we present Christ to God That Prayer which is effectual it is an Exercise of Faith Rom. 10. 14. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed And as it concerns our Faith so also our Love which is both acted and increased in Prayer It is acted for it is Delight in God which makes us so often converse with him Thus the Hypocrite Iob 27. 10. Will he always call upon the Lord Will he delight himself in the Almighty They that love God cannot be long from him they that delight in God will be often unbosoming themselves to him It doth also increase our Love for by Answers of Prayer we have new Fuel to keep in this holy Fire in our Bosoms We pray and then he gives direct Answers Psal. 116. 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard my Voice and my Supplication So our Hope is exercised in waiting for the Blessing pray'd for Psal. 5. 3. O Lord in the Morning will I direct my Prayer unto thee and will look up That looking up is the Work of Hope when we are looking and waiting to see what comes in from pleading Promises It is much too for our Peace of Conscience for it easeth us of our Burthens It is the Vent of the Soul like the opening of a Vein in a Fever When our Hearts swell with Cares and we have a Burthen upon us and know not what to do we may ease our selves with God Phil. 4. 6. Be careful for nothing but in every Thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your Requests be made known to God And the Peace of God shall keep your Hearts O blessed Frame that can be troubled at nothing here in this World where there are so many Businesses Encounters Temptations What 's the way to get this Calmness of Heart Be much in opening your Hearts to God let your Requests be made known to God Look as in an Earthquake when the Wind is imprisoned in the Bowels of the Earth the Earth heaves and shakes and quakes until there be a Vent and the Wind be got out then all is quiet So we have many Tossings and Turmoilings in our Minds till we open and unbosom our selves to God and then all is quiet Also it prepareth us for the Improvement of Mercies when we have them out of the hands of God by Prayer For this Child I prayed said Hannah and I will lend him unto the Lord. 1 Sam. 1. 27 28. Those Mercies we expresly pray'd for we are more throughly obliged to improve for God What is won with Prayer is worn with Thankfulness APPLICATION VSE 1. To caution us against many Abuses in Prayer which may be disproved and taxed either formally or by just Consequence I shall instance in five 1. An idle and foolish Loquacity when Men take a liberty to prattle any thing in God's hearing and do not consider the Weight and Importance of Prayer and what a Sin it is to be hasty to utter any thing before God Eccles. 5. 2. It is a great Irreverence and Contempt of the Majesty of God when Men go hand over head about this Work and speak any thing that comes into their mind As Men take themselves to be despised when others speak unseemly in their presence Surely it is a lessening and a despising of God when we pour out raw tumultuous undigested Thoughts and never think of what we are to speak when we come to God Psal. 45. 1. My Heart is inditing a good Matter The Word signifieth it boils or fryes a good Matter It is an Allusion to the Mincah or Meat-Offering which was to be boil'd or fry'd in a Pan before it was to be presented to the Lord that they might not bring a Dough-bak'd Sacrifice and Offering to the Lord. Such ignorant dull sensless Praying it is a blaspheming of God and a lessening of the Majesty of God 2. A frothy Eloquence and an affected Language in Prayer this directly comes under Reproof As if the Prayer were more grateful to God and he were moved by Words and Strains of Rhetorick and did accept Men for their Parts rather than Graces Fine Phrases and quaint Speeches alas they do not carry it with the Lord They are but an empty Babble in his Ears rather than an humble Exercise of Faith Hope Love and Child-like Affections and holy Desires after God If we would speak with God we must speak with our Hearts to him rather than with our Words This is a Sin of Curiosity as the other was of Neglect 'T is not Words but the Spirit and Life which God looks after Prayer it is not a Work of Oratory the Product of Memory Invention and Parts but a filial Affection that we may come to him as to a Father with a Child-like Confidence Therefore too much Care of verbal Eloquence in Prayer and tunable Expressions is a Sin of the same nature with Babling Tho Men should have the Wit to avoid impertinent Expressions and Repetitions yet when Prayer smells so much of the Man rather than of the Spirit of God alas 't is but like the unsavoury Belches of a rotten Breath in the Nostrils of God We should attend to Matter to the Things we have to communicate to God to our Necessities rather than to Words 3. Heartless speaking filling up the Time with Words when the Tongue out-runs the Heart when Men pour their Breath into the Air but their Hearts are dead and sleepy or their Hearts keep not time and pace with their Expressions We oftner pray with our Tongues than with our Minds and from our Memories than our Consciences and from our Consciences than our Affections and from our Affections as presently stirred than from our Hearts renewed bended and inclined towards God Be the Prayer long or short the Heart must keep pace with our Tongues As the Poet said Disticha longa facit his Disticks were tedious so it is tedious and irksom to God unless we make Supplication in the Spirit Eph. 6. 18. Remember God will not be mocked 4. When Men rest in outward Vehemency and loud Speech Saith Tertullian Quibus Arteriis opus est si pro streno
his Harness boast himself as he that putteth it off 1 Kings 20. 11. When a Field is won then they will rejoice But a Believer when he goes to fight is sure to have the best of it before-hand in Bello the War though not in Praelio the particular Conflict Why Because the Father and Jesus Christ are stronger than all his Enemies they cannot pluck the Believer out of his Hands John 10. 28 29. I give to them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Father's Hand My Father which gave them me is greater than all and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's Hand This is the Priviledg which Christ conferreth upon his Sheep upon those which have an Interest in him tho they have many shakings and tossings in their Condition yet their final perseverance is certain Christ is so unchangeable in the purposes of his Love I will give to them Eternal Life and so invincible in the Power of his Grace None shall pull them out of my Father's Hand nothing shall be able to hinder their perseverance Now though the Fight be long and troublesom yet this is one of God's Encouragements you are sure of Victory at last Therefore how much doth it concern us to get an Interest in Christ that we may keep on in this Way and in this Hope Secondly Let us be provided and prepared against Temptations And to this end I shall First Give some Directions how to resist Temptations in General Secondly What to do in a special Hour of Temptation which comes upon the World When there are Terrors without and we know not what Evil may be a coming and our Hearts are full of Doubt how we may support and bear up our selves First To direct you as to Temptations in General 1. You must be compleatly armed Ephes. 6. 11. Put on the whole Armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the Wiles of the Devil Not a piece only but the whole Armor of God otherwise you will never come off with Honour and Safety from the Spiritual Conflict The Poets feign of their Achilles that he was vulnerable only in the Heel and there he got his Death's Wound A Christian though he be never so well furnished in other parts yet if any part be left naked you are in danger Our first Parents were wounded in their Heel Who would have thought that they which had such vast knowledg of God and his Creatures that they should be inticed by Appetite And Solomon who had the upper part of his Soul so well guarded that he should be enticed by Women To see Men of great knowledg to be unmortified and miscarry by their sensual Appetite is sad A Christian must have no saving-Grace wanting 2 Pet. 1. 5. Add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledg c. There 's all the Graces and they must come out in their turn We need Faith and Vertue Zeal and Holiness and Knowledg to guide it and Patience to arm it against the Troubles of the present Life and we need Temperance to moderate our Affections to our worldly Enjoyments and Godliness that we may be frequent in communion with God and Brotherly-kindness that we may preserve Peace among our Brethren and may not make Fractions and Ruptures in the Church and we need Charity that we may be useful to all that are about us There is use and work for all Graces one time or other Sometimes we shall be tempted to a neglect of God at other times we shall be tempted to make a breach upon Brotherly-kindness at other times there will be a breach of Charity Sometimes the Devil seeks to tempt us to fleshly wickedness therefore we need Temperance sometimes to spiritual Wickedness to Error therefore we need Knowledg sometimes to raging with despair then we need Faith We need the whole Armour of God for Satan hath his various ways of Battery and Assault sometimes through Ignorance we miscarry and run into Error sometimes for want of Faith we run into Despair and Discomfort sometimes for want of Temperance violent corrupt Lusts over-set the Soul 2. We must often pray to God for renewed Influences we must not only get habits of Grace but pray for a renewed Influence It is notable next to the Spiritual Armour the Apostle mentioneth Prayer Ephes. 6. 18. Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all Perseverance We never receive so much from God upon Earth as to stand in need of no more And therefore though you put on the whole Armour of God yet praying always with all supplication in the Spirit Why Because without the Lord 's special Assistance whereby he actuates those Graces we can never defend our selves nor offend the Adversaries or do any thing to purpose in the Spiritual Life Strength of Grace inherent will not bear us out against new Assaults Habitual Grace it needs Actual Influence partly that these Graces may be applied and excited to work Phil. 2. 13. He giveth to will and to do God giveth to do that is excites that strength you have and carrieth it out to work and then that it may be directed in work 2 Thess. 3. 5. And the Lord direct your Hearts into the Love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. Every time we would make use of the Helmet of Salvation when we would lift up the Head and wait for the Mercy of God the Lord direct you we must be directed And not only so but that it may be supplied with new strength for it is said Isa. 40. 29. He giveth Power to the faint and to them that have no Power he increaseth strength And he doth continue it Luke 22. 32. I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not Thus will God keep us in dependance for those liberal Aids and constant Supplies of his Grace without which we cannot use the Grace that we have 3. You must resist 1 Pet. 5. 9. Whom resist stedfast in the Faith James 4. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you Stand your Ground and then Satan falls In all those Assaults Satan hath only Weapons Offensive as fiery Darts none Defensive We have not only the Sword of the Spirit which is an Offensive Weapon but the Shield of Faith that 's a Defensive piece of Armour Therefore your Safety lieth in resisting Now this Resistance must be 1. Not faint and cold but strong and vehement 2. Thorow and total 3. Constant and perpetual 1. Not faint and cold Some kind of Resistance may be made by general and common Grace The Light of Nature will rise up in defiance of many Sins especially at first but this must be earnest and vehement it is against the Enemies of your Soul Paul's Resistance was with serious Dislikes and deep Groans Rom. 7. 15. 24. The Evil that I hate And O wretched Man how shall I be delivered In
disproved the Practice of the Pharisees seeks to set his own Disciples right in the management of their Prayers as well as in their Alms. Pharisaism is very natural in the best We are apt to be haunted with a carnal Spirit in the best Duties not only in Alms where we have to do with Men but in Prayer where our Business lieth wholly with God especially in Publick Prayer even there much of Man will creep in The Devil is like a Flie which if driven from one place pitcheth upon another so drive him out of Alms and he will seek to taint your Prayers Therefore Christ to rectify his Disciples in their personal and solitary Prayers instructs them to withdraw into some place of Recess and Retirement and to be content with God for Witness Approver and Judg. But thou when thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut thy Doors pray to thy Father which is in secret c. In which Words you may observe I. A Supposition concerning solitary Prayer But thou when thou prayest II. A Direction about it Enter into thy Closet and shut thy Door and pray to thy Father which is in secret III. Encouragement to perform it And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly Where two Things are asserted 1. God's Sight He is conscious to thy Prayers when others are not 2. God's Reward He will reward thee openly To open the Circumstances of the Text I. In the Supposition But thou when thou prayest Observe 1. Christ takes it for granted that his Disciples will pray to God He doth not say If thou prayest but when thou prayest as supposing them to be sufficiently convinced of this Duty of being often with God in private 2. I observe again Christ speaks of solitary Prayer when a Man alone and without Company pours out his Heart to God Therefore Christ speaks in the singular Number When thou prayest not plurally and collectively When ye pray or meet together in Prayer Therefore he doth not forbid Publick Praying in the Assemblies of the Saints or Family-Worship both are elsewhere required in Scripture God hath made Promises to publick and church-Church-Prayer praying with Men or before Men Mat. 18. 19. When two or three are met together and shall agree on Earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven And when they shall agree in one publick Prayer it seems to have a greater Efficacy put upon it When more are interessed in the same Prayer when with a combined Force they do as it were besiege the God of Heaven and will not let him go unless he leaves a Blessing Look as the Petition of a Shire and County to Authority is more than a private Man's Supplication So when we meet as a Church to pray and as a Family there is combined Strength And in this Sence that Saying of the School-men is Orthodox enough viz. That Prayer made in the Church hath a more easy Audience with God why because of the Concurrence of many which are met there to worship God Christ doth not intend in this any way to justle out that which he seeks to establish elsewhere Let your Intentions be secret tho your Prayers be publick and open in the Family or Assemblies of the Saints II. Let us open the Direction our Lord gives about solitary Prayer The Direction is suited so as to avoid the double Error of the Pharisees their Offence as to Place and as to the Aim and End 1. Their Offence as to the Place Enter into thy Closet and shut thy Door These Words are not to be taken metaphorically nor yet pressed too literally Not metaphorically as some would carry them Descend into thy Heart be serious and devout with God in the Closet of thy Soul which is the most inward Recess and retiring Place of Man This were to be wanton with Scripture The literal Sence is not to be left without necessity nor yet pressed too literally as if Prayer should be confined to a Chamber and Closet Christ prayed in the Mountain Mat. 14. 23. and Gen. 24. 63. Isaac went into the Field to meditate The meaning is Private Prayer must be performed in a private Place retired from Company and the Sight of Men as much as may be 2. Christ rectifieth them as to the End Pray to thy Father which is in secret That is Pray to God who is in that private Place tho he cannot be seen with bodily Eyes Wherein Christ seems secretly to tax the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees who did rather pray to Men than to God who was invisible because all their Aim was to be approved of Men and to be cried up by them as devout Persons So that what the Lord saith concerning Fasting Zech. 7. 5 6. When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh Month even those seventy Years did ye at all fast unto me even to me And when ye did eat and when ye did drink did not ye eat for your selves and drink for your selves So here was this unto God No tho the Force and Sound of the Words carried it for God yet they were directed to Men. When God is not made both the Object and Aim it is not to him when you seek another Pay-Master you decline God yea you make him your Footstool a Step to some other Thing III. Here are the Encouragements to this personal private and solitary Prayer and they are taken from God's Sight and God's Reward 1. From God's Sight Thy Father seeth in secret that is observeth thy Carriage The Posture and Frame of thy Spirit the Fervor and Uprightness of Heart which thou manifestest in Prayer is all known to him Mark that which is the Hypocrites Fear and binds Condemnation upon the Heart of a wicked Man is here made to be the Saints Support and ground of Comfort that they pray to an All-seeing God 1 Iohn 3. 20. If our Hearts condemn us God is greater than our Hearts and knoweth all Things Their heavenly Father seeth in secret he can interpret their Groans and read the Language of their Sighs Tho they fail as to the outside of a Duty and there be much brokenness of Speech yet God seeth brokenness of Heart there and it 's that he looks after God seeth what 's that He seeth whether thou prayest or no and how thou prayest 1. He seeth whether thou prayest or no mark that Passage Acts 9. 11. The Lord said to Ananias Arise and go into the Street which is called Straight and enquire in the House of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth Go into such a City such a Street such a House such a Part in such a Chamber behold he prayeth The Lord knew all these Circumstances It is known unto him whether we toil or loiter away our Time or whether we pray in secret He knows what House in what Corner of the House what we are doing
there 2. He seeth how you pray Rom. 8. 27. It is propounded as the Comfort of the Saints And he that searcheth the Heart knoweth what is the Mind of the Spirit God knoweth you throughly and can distinguish of your Prayers whether they be customary and formal or serious Acts of Love to God and Communion with him 2. The other thing which is propounded here is God's Reward And he will reward thee openly How doth God reward our Prayers Not for any Worth or Dignity which is in them What Merit can there be in begging what doth a Beggar deserve in asking Alms But it is out of his own Grace and Mercy having by Promise made himself as it were a Debtor to a poor faithful and believing Supplicant But He will reward thee openly how is that Either by a sensible Answer to thy Prayers as he doth often to his Children by granting what they pray for as when Daniel was praying in secret God sent an Angel to him Dan. 9. 20. Or by an evident Blessing upon their Prayers in this World for the conscionable Performance of this Duty Abraham Isaac and Iacob that were Men of much Communion with God were eminently and sensibly blessed they were rewarded openly for their secret Converse with him Or it may be by giving them Respect externally in the Eyes of others A praying People dart Conviction into the Consciences of Men. It is notable that Pharaoh in his Distress sent for Moses and Aaron and not for the Magicians The Consciences of wicked Men are open at such a time and they know God's Children have special Favour and great Audience with him and he having the Hearts of all Men in his hands can manage and dispose Respect according as he pleaseth And when they are in Distress this Honour God hath put upon you they shall send for you to pray with them and those which honour him tho but in secret God will openly put Honour upon them 1 Sam. 2. 30. But chiefly this is meant at the Day of Iudgment then those which pray in secret their heavenly Father will reward them openly When thou relievest the Poor and shewest Comfort to the Needy they cannot recompence thee but then thou shalt be recompensed at the Resurrection of the Just Luke 14. 14. There 's the great and most publick Reward of Christians 1 Cor. 4. 5. Then he will bring to Light the hidden Things of Darkness and will make manifest the Counsels of the Heart and then shall every Man have Praise with God That is every Man that is praise-worthy however he be mistaken and judged of the World for the Apostle speaks it to comfort them against the Censures of Men. And mark this is opposed to the reward which the Pharisees pleased themselves with It was much with them to be well thought of in such a Synagogue or before such a Company of Men but your Father which seeth in secret will reward you openly that is not only in the Eyes of such a City or Town but before all the World The Point is this Doct. That private solitary and Closet-Prayer is a Duty very necessary and profitable It is a necessary Duty for Christ supposeth it of his Disciples to whom he speaks But thou when thou prayest c. And it is profitable for unto it God makes Promises you have a Father which seeth in secret and one day shall be owned before all the World First It 's a Duty Necessary and that will appear 1. From God's Precept That Precept which requireth Prayer requireth secret and Closet-Prayer For God's Command to pray first falls upon single Persons before it falls upon Families and Churches which are made up of single Persons therefore where God hath bidden thee to pray you must take that Precept as belonging to you in particular I shall give some of the Precepts Col. 4. 2. Continue in Prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving And 1 Thes. 5. 17. Pray without ceasing These are principally meant of our personal Addresses to God every Man for himself for in joyning with others the Work is rather imposed upon us than taken up upon choice and that can only be at stated Times when they can conveniently meet together but we our selves are called upon to continue to pray and that without ceasing that is to be often with God and to keep up not only a praying Frame but a constant Correspondence with him Surely every Man which acknowledgeth a God a Providence and that depends upon him for Blessings much more every one that pretends he hath a Father in Heaven in whose Hands are the Guidance of all the things of the World is bound to pray personally and alone by himself to converse with God 2. I shall argue it from the Example of Christ which bindeth us and hath the force of a Law in things moral as Christ's Word is our Rule so his Practice is our Copy This is true Religion to imitate him whom we worship In this you must do as Christ did Now we often read that Christ pray'd alone he went aside to pray to God therefore if we be Christians so it should be with us Mark 1. 35. And in the Morning rising up a great while before Day he went out and departed into a solitary Place and there prayed He left the Company of his Disciples with whom he often joyned that he might be alone with God betimes in the Morning And again you have it Mat. 14. 23. And when he had sent the Multitude away he went up into a Mountain apart to pray and when the Evening was come he was there alone And Luk. 6. 12. It is said He went out into a Mountain to pray and continued all Night in Prayer to God You see Christ takes all Occasions in retiring and going apart to God Now the Pattern of Christ is both engaging and encouraging It is very engaging Shall we think our selves not to need that Help which Christ would submit unto There are many proud Persons which think themselves above Prayer Christ had no need to pray as we have he had the Fulness of the God-head dwelling in him bodily yet he was not above Prayer And if he had need of Prayer he had no need of Retirement to go and pray alone his Affections always served and he was not pestered with any Distraction and all Places and Companies were alike to him and yet he would depart into a solitary Place that he might be private with God Then the Pattern of Christ is very encouraging For whatever Christ did he sanctified in that respect his Steps in every Duty leave a Blessing Look as Christ sanctified Baptism by being baptized himself and made the Water of Baptism to be saving and comfortable for us and the Lord's-Supper by being a Guest himself and eating himself at his own Table So he sanctified private Prayer when he prayed a Virtue went out from him he left a Strength to enable us to pray
of Hagar and Religion be crouded out of Doors Faelix illa domus ubi Martha queritur de Maria That 's a happy House where Martha complains of Mary Martha which was cumbred with much Service complained of Mary that she was at the feet of Jesus Christ hearkning to his gracious Counsel but in most Houses Mary may complain of Martha Religion is neglected and goes to the Walls 2. Some want a Place He that doth not want a Heart will find a Place Christ went into a Mountain to pray and Peter to the top of the House 3. Many say they want Parts they cannot tell how to pray Wherefore hath God given his Spirit In one fashion or other a Man can open his Case to God he can go and breath out his Complaints the Lord will hear Breathings Go chatter out thy Requests to thy Father tho you can but chatter like a Crane yet do it with fervency and with a Spirit of Adoption We have not only Christ given us for an Advocate but the Holy-Ghost to help our Infirmities He hath given us the Spirit of his Son whereby we may cry Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. A Child can acquaint a Father with his Wants VSE 2. To exhort God's Children to Frequency in this Duty and to much Watchfulness and Seriousness in the performance of it First To Frequency For Arguments again to press you 1. It argueth more Familiarity to pray to God alone than in Company He that goeth to a Prince alone and upon all Occasions hath access to him in private when Company is gone hath nearer Friendship and a greater Intimacy with him than those which are only admitted to a Speech with him in the Company of others So the oftner you are with God alone the more familiar He loves to treat with you apart as Friends are most free and open to one another when they are alone 2. Then you will have a more sensible Answer of your own Prayers you will see what God hath done upon your Requests Dan. 9. 21 22. Daniel was praying for the Church and an Angel comes and tells him It is for thy Prayers and Supplications that I am come Therefore surely a Man would take some time to go and plead the Promises with God But further by way of Means 1. Consider the Omnipresence of God which is the Argument in the Text He is in secret and seeth in secret If Men were convinced of that they would make Conscience of secret Prayer Look as Jesus Christ says of himself Iohn 16. 32. You leave me alone and yet I am not alone for the Father is with me So when you are alone you are not alone there is a Father in secret tho no-Body to see and hear yet God is there We are apt to think all is lost which Men are not conscious to and done in their â—â—ght Acts 10. 4. Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a Memorial before God God keeps a Memorial of your private Prayers there is a Register kept in Heaven and never a Prayer lost 2. Consider the Excellency of Communion with God Ier. 2. 32. Can a Maid forget her Ornaments and a Bride her Attire Women are very curious and careful of their Ornaments and will not forget their Dressing-Attire especially a Bride upon the Wedding-Day she that is to be set forth in most costly Array she makes it her Business to put on Jewels to be seen in all her Glory God is as necessary to us as Ornaments to a Bride We should be as mindful of Communion with God as a Bride of her dressing Ornaments Yeâ— they have forgotten me days without number What ever is forgotten God must not be forgotten 3. Make God a good Allowance resolve to be much in the practice of it It is best to have set Times for our Religious Worship For Persons which are sui juris at their own dispose it is lawful and very convenient to dedicate a certain part and portion of our Time to the Lord of Time Lazy idle Servants must be tasked and required to bring in their Tale of Brick So it is good to task the Heart to make God a fair and reasonable and convenient Allotment of some part of our Time David had his fixed Hours Three times a day will I call upon thee And Daniel had his set Times he pray'd three times a day Tho we cannot charge you to observe these Hours yet you should make a prudent Choice your selves and consecrate such a part of Time as will suit with your Occasions your Course of Life according to your Abilities and Opportunities It is an Expression of Love to God to give him somewhat that is your own and it will be of exceeding Profit to you and make your Communion with him more seasonable and orderly This will make you careful and watchful how you spend your other Hours that you may not be unfit when Times of Prayer come 1 Pet. 3. 7. Husbands dwell with your Wives according to knowledg that your Prayers be not hindred But do not propose a Task too great for your Strength and perplex your selves with such an unreasonable Allowance as will not suit with your Occasions Men create a Trouble to themselves and bind themselves with Chains of their own making when they propose more Duty than they can well discharge The second Part of the VSE Do it seriously with Caution and warily Here Christ gives direction When thou prayest enter into thy Closet and shut thy Door and then think of thy Father which is in secret We need a great deal of Caution for 1. When you shut the Door upon all others you cannot shut the Devil out of your Closets he will croud in When you have bolted the Door upon you and shut other Company out you do not lock out Satan he is always at hand ready to disturb us in holy Duties where-ever the Children of God are he seeks to come at them When the Sons of God met together Satan was in the midst of them Iob 1. He meets in Congregations he gets into the Closet When Ioshua the High-Priest was ministring before the Lord Satan stood at his right-hand ready to resist him Zech. 3. 1. 2. There needs Caution because in private Duties there may be many Failings and Evils which we are apt to be tainted with in our private Addresses to God 1. There may be danger of Ostentation therefore Christ gives direction here that it should be managed with the greatest Secrecy both as for Place Time and Voice Let none but God be conscious to our drawing aside that we may be alone Withdraw your selves out of the sight and hearing of others lest Pride and Ostentation creep upon you The Devil will seek to blast this serious Acknowledgment to God one way or other 2. There may be Customariness for fashion sake It is said of Christ That he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath-Day as his Custom was We may use accustomed Duties
5. 2. Be not rash with thy Mouth and let not thine Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy Words be few Remember you have to do with a great God and do not babble things over impertinently in his Ears It is a Truth evident by the Light of Nature Paucis verbis rem divinam facito Platinus If you be to worship God a needless Prolixity doth not become Addresses to him But because this Text may be abused I shall endeavour to clear it a little further There are two Extremes the slight and careless Spirit and Babling 1. There is the slight and careless Spirit who doth the Work of an Age in a Breath and is all for Starts and sudden Pangs which pass away like a Flash of Lightning in a dark Room whose good Thoughts are gone as soon as they rush into the Heart A poor barren and slight Spirit which is not under the Influence and Power of that Celestial Love which keeps the Soul in converse with God cannot endure to be any while with God Alas we need Stroke upon Stroke to fasten any thing upon the Heart We are like green Wood that will not presently take Fire until it lie long there and be throughly and well warmed so until we have gone far in the Duty we can hardly get any warmth of Heart They which are short in Prayer had need of much habitual preparation of Heart The Babler is another Extreme who thinks the Commendation of a Duty is to be long in it and affects to say much rather than well whereas serious and short Speech makes the best Prayer Prov. 10. 19. In the multitude of Words there wanteth not Sin Either to God or Men 't is true but especially when affected So they do but beat the Air rather than pray to God These then are the two Extremes Shortness out of Barrenness or Slightness or Length out of Affectation â—â—d we must carefully avoid these Christ would 〈◊〉 justify that Shortness which comes from Slightness and Barrenness of Heart nor on the other side indulge the Affectation of Length in Prayer Therefore let us a little see I. What is the Sin II. Give you the Force of our Lord's Reasons here urged or how conclusive our Saviour's Arguments are against this Practice What is the Sin That 's necessary to be known for all Repetitions are not vain nor is all Length in Prayer to be accounted Babling First For Repetitions 1. When they express Fervency and Zeal they may be used And so we read Christ prayed over the same Prayer thrice Mat 26. 44. O my Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me And another Evangelist sheweth that he did this out of special Fervency of Spirit Luk. 22. 44. Being in an Agony he prayed more earnestly And so we read of the Prophet Daniel chap. 9. 17 18 19. O our God hear the Prayer of thy Servant O my God incline thine Ear and hear O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do defer not for thine own sake O my God All this was out of vehemency he goes over again and again the same Request When we use many Words of the same kind and signification and it be out of vehemency and fervency of Spirit it is not forbidden 2. This Repetition is not to be disproved when there is a special Emphasis and spiritual Elegancy in it as Psal. 136. you have it twenty six times repeated For his Mercy endureth for ever because there was a speciâ—â—â—eason in it his purpose there being to sheâ—â—â— Unweariedness and the unexhausted Riches of God's free Grace that notwithstanding all the former Experiences they had had God is where he was at first We waste by giving our Drop is soon spent but God is not wasted by bestowing but hath the same Mercy to do good to his Creatures as before Tho he had done all those Wonders for them yet his Mercy was as ready to do good to them still All along God saved and blessed his People For his Mercy endureth for ever But as there are Repetitions which have their Use so there are useless Tautologies and vain Repetitions And such they are when they neither come from the Heart nor go to the Heart when they come not from the abundance of the Heart but rather the emptiness of the Heart because we know not how to inlarge our selves to God therefore fall upon idle and useless Repetitions of the same Words and Requests As a Man that hath small Skill in Musick doth only play over the same Note so when Men have not a full spiritual Abundance they waste themselves in Prayer in these idle Repetitions And then they go not to the Heart they do not conduce to warm the Affections A vain clamorous ingeminating the same thing without Faith and without Wisdom meerly to fill up the Tale of Words or to wear out a little time in a religious Exercise that 's it which is here condemned under the notion of vain Repetitions Secondly For the other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or much speaking Every long Prayer is not forbidden for our Lord Jesus himself centinued all Night in Prayer Luke 6. 12. And in extraordinary Duties of fasting Length seems to be very necessary Esther 4. 16. They fasted and prayed together for three days and nights without eating any Bread And Solomon pray'd long at the Dedication of the Temple But that which is forbidden is when Men speak Words without need and without Affection a needless lengthening out of Prayer and that upon a Conceit that it is more acceptable to God 1. In the General Prayer should be short as all Examples of Scripture teach us and the Lord's Prayer you see how concise and short it is for presently upon this our Lord teacheth his Disciples to pray For Prayer is a spending rather then a feeding Duty Those which affect long speaking many times run into this they make it a feeding Duty for they mingle Exhortations with Prayer which is a great Abuse A Man can bear up under the hearing of the Word for an Hour or two better than half an Hour in Prayer with that necessary Vigor of Spirit which God hath required Therefore the general Rule is Let your Words be concise but full of Affection Look as in vast and great Bodies the Spirits are more diffused and scattered and therefore they are more unactive than those which are of a smaller Compass so in a long Prayer there may be more of Words but less of Life 2. The Affectation of Prolixity is naught usually it comes from some evil Ground either from Pride and Ostentation of Gifts Thus we read the Pharisees were taxed for making long Prayers Mat. 23. 14. that under the colour of them they might devour Widow's Houses that is be credited and trusted with the Management of their Estates Or else it may come from Superstition such
lost Man might be restored in Blood and have a Right and Interest in God and when Justice put in Exceptions against us Jesus Christ was content to be made under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons Gal. 4. 4 5. There could be no Reconciliation no Amity no Alliance until Sin was expiated and Justice satisfied therefore Christ was not only made of a Woman but made under the Law first our Brother by Inâ—â—rnation and then our Redeemer by his Death and Suffering As under the Law if a Man had waxen poor the next of Kin was to be his Redeemer Levit. 25. 25. Or if he had sold himself v. 47. one of his Brethren was to redeem him Christians there was a kind of Sale and Forfeiture on our part of the Inheritance and Right and Title of Children therefore Jesus Christ when he became a Man jure propinquitatis by virtue of his Kindred and Nearness to us came to redeem his People and purchase us to God And this is the Relation which is mainly intended in this place for mark Christ taught his Disciples to pray Our Father others they cannot speak of this Relation and in them all that believe and all that walk in the Spirit these alone can come to God as a Father II. What Advantage have we in Prayer by taking up God under this Notion and Relation when we can come to him and say Our Father 1. It conduceth to our Confidence in Prayer 2. It furthereth our Duty First It conduceth to our Confidence in Prayer For it is not an empty Title or a naked Relation but this is the ground of all that Favour and Grace which we stand in need of and receive from God â—It is notable 2 Cor. 6. 8. saith God I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters In other places it is said Ye shall be called my Sons but here You shall be my Sons you shall not only be called so but be so He will really perform all the parts of a Father to us yea no Father like God The outward Father is but a Shadow as still in the Comparison outward Things are but the Shadow and Similitude the Reality is in inward Things A Servant is not always a Servant there may be a Release a Husband is not always a Husband there may be a Separation by Divorce but a Father is always a Father and a Child a Child I am the true Vine The ouâ—ward Vine is but a Shadow but Christ himself hath the true Properties of a Vine So the outward Father is but a Shadow and Similitude the Reality is in God none so fatherly and kind as he Mat. 7. 11. If ye being evil know how to give good Gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good Things to them that ask him There is a how much more upon the fatherly Care of God Natural Parents whose Affections are stinted and limited nay corrupt and sinful when a Son comes for a Fish will not give him a Scorpion when he comes for Bread will not give him a Stone that were a monstrous thing vile and unnatural So Isa. 49. 15. Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have Compassion on the Son of her Womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Passions in Females are more vehement the Mother hath stronger Affections if the Mother could do so as totally to forget that ever she had such a Child yet she would not forget her Sucking Child a poor shiftless helpless Babe that can do nothing without the Mother a Child which never provoked her she would not forget such a Child they may forget yet will I not forget thee Certainly God which hath left such an impression upon the Hearts of Parents hath more of Pity Bounty and Goodness in his own Heart for whatsoever of God is in the Creature is in God in a more eminent manner But particularly How will God perform the parts of a Father 1. In allowing them full leave to come to him in all their Necessities Gal. 1. 6. Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father There is a Spirit that attendeth upon this State They which are Sons shall have the Spirit of Sons and God will incline their Hearts to come and call to him for Supplies This is a great Advantage When he gives a Spirit of Prayer then he will be ready to hear and grant our Requests not only to give us a Heart to ask them but to incline his Ear. Luk. 11. 13. How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him When we ask for the highest Blessing when we come and are importunate with him and will take no nay 2. In supplying all our Wants Mat. 6. 32. Your Father which is in Heaven knoweth you have need of these things A Father will not let his Child starve certainly none so Fatherly as God You have not such a Father as is ignorant regardless of your Condition but takes an exact notice of all your Wants and Pressures It is notable to observe how God condescendeth to express the particular notice he taketh of the Saints Isa. 49. 16. Behold I have graven thee upon the Palms of my Hands As we use to tye things about our Hands that we may remember such a Work and Business So God doth as it were put a print and mark upon his Hands to speak after the manner of Men. Nay Mat. 10. 30. The Hairs of their Heads are numbred God hath a particular notice of their Necessities And Jesus Christ he is his Remembrancer one that ever appeareth before him to represent their Wants Heb. 9. 24. As the High-Priest in the Law was to go in with the Names of the Tribes upon his Breast and Shoulder when he did minister before God Exod. 28. Which is a Type how much we are in the Heart of Christ ever representing himself before the Lord on the behalf of such and such a Believer 3. Pitying our Miseries As he taketh notice of them so he will pity their Miseries as a Father pityeth his Children when he seeth them in an afflicted Condition Psal. 103. 13. Like as a Father pityeth his Children So the Lord pityeth them that fear him Nay he will pardon their Sins Maâ— 3. 17. And I will spare them as a Man spareth his own Son which serveth him An only Son needs not fear much if his Father were to be his Judg tho he hath done unworthily They may exhaust and draw up all their Pity their Bowels may shrink when they meet with multitude of Provocations Now God will spare us as a Man spares his only Son Nay not only his only Son but his dutiful Son which serves him Many times we forget the Duty of Children but God will not forget the Mercy of a Father I will go
to my Father saith the Prodigal He had forgotten the Duty of a Child he went into a far Country and wasted his Patrimony and that basely and â—ilthily upon Harlots yet upon his Return when he was a great way off The Father runs to meet him half way and kisseth him 4. In disciplining and treating us with much Indulgence and Wisdom and Care A Father takes a great deal of Pains in forming his Child and fashioning its Manners and Behaviour So doth God with his Children If he afflicteth it is as a Father only with purposes of good and not so as an Earthly Father Heb. 12. 10. For verily for a few days they chastned us after their own Pleasure but he for our Profit that we might be partakers of his Holiness They mingle a great deal of Passion with their Correction when they are inflamed but God never mingleth Passion with his Rod When he gives a bitter Cup he is a Father still Ioh. 18. 11. 5. In providing able Guardians for his Children None so attended as God's Children are those which are adopted and taken into Grace and Favour with Christ Heb. 1. 14. Angels are ministring Spirits sent abroad for the Heirs of Salvation They have a guard of Angels to watch over them that they dash not their Foot against a Stone 6. In laying up an Inheritance for them The Apostle saith 2 Cor. 12. 14. Children ought not to lay up for their Parents but Parents for their Children Now God hath laid up for us as well as laid out much upon us Luk. 12. 32. Fear not little Flock it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom He has a Kingdom a glorious Inheritance to bestow upon us And we are kept for that happy State Tho he hath an Heir already Jesus Christ the Heir of all things yet God hath made us Co-Heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 17. Thus then it is a mighty Advantage If we did take up God in this Notion to look upon him as a Father it would increase our Confidence and Dependance upon him This is a sweet Relation the Reality is more in God than can be in an Earthly Father for he is a Father according to his Essence knowing our Necessities pardoning our Sins supplying our Wants forming and fashioning our Manners providing able Guardians for us and laying up a blessed Inheritance for us in Heaven Secondly As it encourageth us to pray so it furthereth our Duty in Prayer that we may behave our selves with Reverence Love and Gratitude 1. With a Child-like Reverence and Affection in Prayer Mal. 1. 6. If then I be a Father where is mine Honour And if I be a Master where is my Fear If we expect the Supplies of Children we must perform the Duty of Children God will be owned as a Father not with a Fellow-like Familiarity but humbly and with an awe of his Majâ—sty 2. With Love Now our Love to God is mainly seen by Subjection and Obedience to his Laws Thus Christ would have us take up God in Prayer under such a Relation that we might mind our Duty to him 1 Pet. 1. 17. And if ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth according to every man's work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear We never pray aright but when we pray resolving to cast off all Sin How can we call him Father whom we care not continually to displease from Day to Day So the Lord treats his People Jer. 3. 5 6. Thou hast said thou art my Father Behold thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest God takes it to be a Contumely and Reproach to himself when we do evil yet come and call him Father He takes it ill that Men should come complementally and flatter him with Lying Lips and do not walk as Children in holy Obedience Therefore it is an engagement to serve God with Holiness 3. With Gratitude When we come to pray we must remember not only what we want but what we have received acknowledging we have all from him he is our Father Deut. 32. 6. Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish People and unwise Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee Hath he not made thee and established thee We must acknowledg the good we have as well as that we expect to come from him Therefore if we would have a praying Frame and be eased of our Sollicitude and that anxious care which is a disparagement to Providence it is good to take up God under the Notion of a Father which makes us rest upon him for all things Mat. 6. 25. Take no thought for your Life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your Body what ye shall put on Why For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things You that are able Fathers would take your selves disparaged if that your Children should filch and steal for their Living and beg and be sollicitous and go up and down from Door to Door for their Maintenance and Support and not trust to your Care and Provision A Believer which knoweth he hath a Heavenly Father will not be negligent in his Calling but be active and industrious in his way and use those lawful means which by the Providence of God he hath been brought up in and then Be careful for nothing as the Apostle's advice is Phil. 4. 6. And in every thing by Prayer and Supplication make your request known unto God O could we turn Carking into Prayer and run to our Father it would be happy for us Care and Diligence and necessary Provision that 's our work and labour but for the Success and Event of Things leave it to God When we are carking in the World with such anxiousness and troubled with restless Thoughts how we should be provided for in old Age and what will become of us and ours we take God's work out of his Hands this is a disparagement to our Heavenly Father and a reproach to his Providence and Fatherly Care Well then certainly this is of great advantage in Prayer APPLICATION Vse If it be a great advantage in Prayer to take up God under the Notion and Relation of a Father Then those that would pray aright let this instruct and quicken them above all things Clear up your Adoption that you may be able to call God Father for otherwise when you come to pray it is a very Lye to God As Acts 5. 4. When Annanias spake false to the Apostle saith Peter to him Thou hast not lyed unto Men but unto God Why Because he knows all that is done in the World But much more do they lie unto God here this is a very Disgrace and Blasphemy a Contumely rather than a Prayer and Supplication when you will come and make God to father the Devil's Brats When you that live in Sin and have no Reverence and Awe of God upon your Hearts shall come and pray to
him this is a Lye which is told to the very Face of God But if this be a Truth that all those which would pray aright must clear up their Adoption and get a sense of it then here will Doubts arise Therefore here I shall handle three Cases 1. What shall natural Men do Must they desist from Prayer for they have no right to it 2. What shall they do which have not as yet received the Testimony of the Spirit For a Child of God may have the Right of Children yet have not a sense of his Adoption 3. What are the Evidences by which our Adoption may be cleared up to us how we may know we are taken into a Child-like State First What shall natural Men do must they desist from Prayer for they have no Right to it I answer You may see here the miserable Condition of wicked Men how much they are bound to pray and yet what an Impossibility lieth upon them of praying aright Certainly none should desist from this Duty of Prayer because they cannot perform it aright for tho we have lost our Power and Fitness yet there is no reason God should lose his Right and his Power to our Obedience There is an Obligation and Precept from God as a Father by Creation upon all Mankind all which are reasonable Creatures they are to own God as a Father in this way I say Prayer is an Homage we owe to God by natural Right therefore no doubt wicked Men do sin when they cease to pray It is one of the Accusations brought against natural Men and is an Aggravation of their Sin Psal. 14. 1. They do not call upon God Rom. 3. 10. it is applied to natural Men. This is the Misery they have subjected themselves to that their Prayer is turned into Sin As a natural Man must not omit Hearing because it is a means to bring him to be acquainted with God tho he cannot hear in Faith So he must not omit Prayer because it is one Means to bring us to own God as a Father by Adoption A Man is not to turn the Back upon him but call him Father as well as he can Ier. 3. 19. But I said How shall I put thee among the Children and give thee a pleasant Land a goodly Heritage of the Hosts of Nations And I said Thou shalt call me My Father and shalt not turn away from me Better to own God any way than not to own him at all than not to enquire after him to own him rationally if not spiritually to own him by Choice if not out of Sense If we cannot come and clear up our Title to this great Privilege by the Spirit of Adoption yet any way Thou shalt not turn away from me We should not shut the Door upon our selves It is required of a natural Man being weary of his Sins to flie to God in Christ Jesus for his Grace and Favour that he might become his God and Father Secondly What shall they do which have not as yet received the Testimony of the Spirit that do not know their Adoption I answer A Child of God may have the Effects and Fruits of Adoption yet not always the feeling of it to witness to him that God hath taken him into a Child-like Relation to himself Certainly they are in a very uncomfortable Condition for they want an Help in Prayer Doubtless thou art our Father O what an Advantage is that How much of Eloquence and Rhetorick is there in that when we can speak to God as a Father Yet they are not to neglect their Addresses to God for this is a means to obtain the Spirit of Adoption Luke 11. 13. He will give the Spirit to them that ask him Therefore in what ever Condition we be we must pray otherwise we shut the Door upon our Hopes You continue the Want upon your selves and so wholly detain your selves in a comfortless Condition There is a fourfold spiritual Art we must use in Prayer when we have not the Sense of our Adoption that we may be able to speak to God as our Father 1. Disclaim when you cannot apply When you cannot clear up your own Relation and Interest then disclaim all other Confidences If thou canst not say Father yet plead Fatherless Hos. 14. 3. In thee the Fatherless find Mercy Come as poor helpless shiftless Creatures seek Peace and Reconciliation with God in Christ It may be God may take you into his Favour He is a Father of the Fatherless 2. Own God in the humbling way Learn the Policy of the Prodigal Luke 15. 18 19. Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son This is the Policy and Art of an humble Faith to call God Father As Paul catcheth hold of the Promise on the dark Side Iesus Christ came to save Sinners and presently he addeth Whereof I am chief So when a Believer can come and say Lord I am not worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired Servants 3. The third Policy we should use in Prayer is to call him Father in Wish Optando si non affirmando If we cannot do it by direct Affirmation let us do it by Desire Let us pray our selves into this Relation and groan after it that we may have a clearer Sense that God is our Father in Christ. 4. Faith hath one Art more it maketh use of Christ Jesus God hath a Son whose Name signifieth much in Heaven therefore if you cannot come to him as your Father come to him as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Eph. 3. 14. For this cause I bow my Knees to the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ. Let Christ bring you into God's presence He is willing to change Relations with us Take him along with you in your Arms go to God in Christ's Name Whatsoever you ask in my Name shall be given to you Thirdly But what are the Evidences by which our Adoption may be cleared up to us How shall we know that we are taken into a Child-like State 1. Consider how it is brought about How do we come to be related to God by Christ Jesus By receiving Christ as he is offer'd in the Gospel John 1. 12. To as many as received him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God It is a Prerogative and special Grant those which receive Christ even those that believe in his Name that is those who out of a sense of their own Need and Sight of Christ offered in the Promise do really consent to take him for the Ends for which God offereth him to wit as Prince and Saviour that he might give you Repentance and Remission of Sins not in pretence but in your Hearts These have full liberty to call God Father to come to treat and deal with him tho they have not a sense of the Blessedness of their State for this followeth Believing After
when we unfeignedly chuse him for our Portion and set apart our selves to act for his Glory 1. When we chuse and cleave to him as our all-sufficient Portion The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul Lam. 3. 24. Sometimes the Lord speaks to us I am thy Reward I am thy Salvation Psal. 35. 3. So the Soul speaks to God Thou art my Portion When we cleave to God He is my Portion for ever Psal. 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee c. When our Souls are satisfied in God having enough in him this is to give up our selves to him 2. When we set apart our selves to his Use to live and act for his Glory this is also entring into Covenant with God As in that formal Matrimonial Covenant that was used between the Prophet and his Wife Hos. 3. 3. Thou shalt not be for another Man so will I also be for thee So in the Covenant we resolve to renounce all others and to live and act for God The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself Psal. 4. 3. When we are thus set apart for God to serve him and glorify him by this special Dedication of our selves to his Use this is the Act of Grace on our part We were God's by Election but he comes and takes possession for himself by the Spirit and then the Soul sets himself apart for God Secondly That all the Saints have a common Interest in the same God therefore Christ taught us to say Our Father They have one Father as well as one Spirit one Christ one Hope and one Heaven Eph. 4. 6. Questionless it is lawful to say My Father Some have disputed it because they suppose this Expression is used to signify Christ's singular Filiation Christ could only say My Father But it is lawful provided we do not say it exclusively and appropriating it to our selves But here Christ when he giveth us this perfect Form teacheth us to say Our Father As the Sun in the Firmament is every Man's and all the World's so God is every single Believer's God the God of all the Elect. But why would Christ put this in this perfect Patern and Form of Prayer 1. To quicken our Love to the Saints in Prayer When we come to pray there must be a brotherly Love expressed now that 's a distinct thing from common Love Add to brotherly Kindness Charity 2 Pet. 1. 7. When we are dealing with God in Prayer we must express somewhat of this brotherly Love How must we express it In praying for others as well as for our selves Necessity will put Men upon praying for themselves but brotherly Love will put them upon praying for others Wherein must Brotherly Kindness be expressed in Prayer In two Things 1. In a Fellow-feeling of their Miseries in being touched with their Necessities as we would be with our own To be sensless it is a spiritual Excommunication a casting our selves out of the Body Members must take care for one another We must be grieved with their Pains Who is offended saith the Apostle and I burn not If there be any Power in such a Confession or Title of a Father we must be wrestling with God how well soever it be with us remembring we speak to him in whom others have a joint Interest with our selves 2. It must be expressed in wishing the same good to others as to our selves Many that pray in their own Case with what Earnestness and Importunity are they carried out but how flat and cold in the Case of others Now a good Christian must be as earnest with God for others as for himself Look what Earnestness and Heedfulness of Soul he sheweth when he puts up Prayers for himself the same must he do for all Saints Ephes. 6. 18. Self-love and Self-respect must not breath only in our Prayers they must be carried out with as much Earnestness as if we would go to God in our own Case 2. Again As it sheweth us what brotherly Love we should express in Prayer so it checketh many carnal Dispositions which we are guilty of and Christ would mind us of them It checks Strife and Contention we are Brethren have one common Father Every where Meekness and Love it is a Qualification for Prayer Let the Husband live with his Wife according to Knowledg that their Prayers be not hindred 1 Pet. 3. 7. If there be such Brauls in the Family how can the Husband and Wife call upon God with such an united Heart as is requisite So 1 Tim. 2. 8. I will that Men pray every where lifting up holy Hands without wrath and doubting Not only lift up pure Hands to God and that without doubting there must be Confidence in our Prayers But that 's not all but without wrath there must be nothing of Revenge and Passion mingled with your Supplication And then it checketh Pride and Disdain Christ teacheth all in all Conditions whether Masters or Servants Fathers or Children Kings or Beggars all to say Our Father for we have all one Father Thou hast not a better Christ nor a better Father in Heaven than they have The Rich and the Poor were to give one Ransom under the Law Exod. 30 to shew they have all the same Redeemer The Weak should not despise nor disdain the Strong nor the Rich be ashamed to own the Poor as Brethren We should never be ashamed to own him as a Brother whom God will own as a Son Which art in Heaven WE have considered the Title given to God with respect to his Goodness and Mercy He is a Father Our Father Now let us consider the Titles given to him with respect to his Greatness and Majesty Which art in Heaven From thence note Doct. It is an Advantage in Prayer to look upon God as a Father in Heaven By way of Explication to shew First What is meant by Heaven There are three Heavens in the Computation of the Scripture There is first the lowest Heaven that where the Fowls of the Air are whence the Rain descendeth therefore the Fowls are called the Fowls of Heaven Job 35. 11. And Iam. 5. 18. Elijah prayed and the Heaven gave Rain Secondly the Luminary Heaven where the Sun Moon and Stars are Therefore it is said Mat. 10. 25. The Stars of Heaven shall fall Thirdly there is the highest Heaven or the Heaven of the Blessed spoken of Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that is into the third Heaven the glorious Heaven the blessed Presence of God Mat. 18. 10. In Heaven their Angels do always behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven In Heaven that is the third Heaven so it is called by Paul 2 Cor. 12. 2. Which was the highest Part because he saw and heard Things which it is not lawful for a Man to utter In this Heaven God is Secondly How is God there since he is every where 1. Negatively It
thou the Walls of thy Jerusalem But how cometh David who was in the depth of private Humiliation so suddenly to fall upon the Case of the Church There was a special Reason for annexing this Request to his own private Complaints and Confessions The Reasons will occasion so many Observations 1. Because of the Offence Scandal and Mischief done to the Church by his Fall and to make amends he prayeth the more earnestly Let not Zion fare the worse for my sake From thence observe That the Sins of particular Persons oft bring a Mischief upon the whole Community David had made a Breach in the Walls of God's Protection and left them naked and more in danger of Judgment Therefore do good c. 2. David was not only a private Member but a Prince and their Sins have a more universal Influence The Sins of Magistrates draw down Judgments on their People all smart for their Miscarriages Hezckiaâ— â—s Pride cost Israel dear 2 Chron. 32. 25. Wrath was upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem It did not stay upon his Person As a great Oak cannnot fall but all the Shrubs about it suffer Loss But 3. David having some comfortable Assurance of the Pardon of his Sins doth now seek Mercy for the Church From thence observe That we are never fit to pray for the Publick till we have made our Peace with God As the Priests under the Law offered Sacrifice first for their own Sins and then for the Peoples Heb. 7. 27. 4. Because being brought by such a solemn but sad occasion into God's presence he could not but have some thoughts of Zion And from thence observe That we should never come to God upon any private occasion but we should remember the Publick We are to pray in Love as well as Faith Christ hath not taught us to say My Father but Our Father to shew that we should take in the Interests and Concernments of the whole Body that there may be a Spirit of Communion breathing in our Prayers David doth not only say Have mercy upon me according to thy Loving-kindness but Do good unto Zion in thy good pleasure Every living Member will be careful for the Body Members should be careful one for another much more for the whole Is any Member pained or grieved all suffer If the Toe be trod upon the Tongue complaineth you have hurt me but now much more when all is concerned Therefore we should not altogether seek our own Things but wrestle with God for the Publick 1. This reproveth divers sorts of People Some are Enemies to the Publick Welfare as Vipers eat out the Dam's Belly especially Enemies to Zion Down with it down with it even to the Ground What Monsters hath this Age brought forth Others are indifferent and careless which goeth up Christ or Antichrist they only mind the Matters of their own Interest and Concernment All seek their own Things As to the Publick Interest of the Church let all go how it will Let me tell you To be selfish is a sort of Self-Excommunication you cast your selves out of the Bundle of Life And to be sensless 't is an implicit renouncing the Body Others there are that are gracious but full of discontent at some Passages of Providence and these seem to have lost their publick Affections 'T is a sad Symptom when a praying People are discouraged from praying for Publick Welfare God is very tender of the Prayers of his People he is loth they should be lost and sorry they cannot be granted We may sin in ceasing to pray 'T is a sad Judgment when the Hearts of God's People are taken off from praying Again Those that pray too coldly for the Publick not as those that would do their Work There is a great Decay of the Spirit of Prayer which is also a sad Presage But now to shew you II. What we should pray for for Zion 1. The Dilatation or Enlargement of it throughout the World The more ample God's Heritage is the more is his Glory known Prov. 14. 28. In the Multitude of the People is the King's Honour and the Glory of a Shepherd lieth in the Number of his Flock So Christ's Kingdom the more it is enlarged the more Honour God hath Psal. 67. 2. That thy Way may be known among the Heathen and thy Saving-Health among all Nations Especially when the Fulness of the Gentiles is brought in Psal. 54. 2. and when the Jews are brought in Hos. 3. 5. To be instrumental to enlarge Christ's Kingdom 't is an Honour to us to draw on Christ's triumphant Chariot let us be sure to have an hand in it These Prayers if sincere are never in vain if they profit not others they promote the Kingdom of God in our selves 2. The Preservation and Defence of the Churches already planted frustrating the Plots and Power of the Enemies That God would be a Wall of Fire round about them Zech. 2. 5. Qui comminus arccat eminus terreat When at the weakest God can protect them bridling by his secret Power the Rage of Adversaries or defeating their Attempts 3. For Comfort and Deliverance in Afflictions We should pity the distressed Church as before That God would redeem them out of all their Troubles Every true Member of the Church hath Life Christ and that Life giveth Feeling and that Feeling Affection and Sympathy to rejoice and mourn They that mourn for Zion rejoice with her Isa. 66. 10. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her rejoice for Ioy with her all ye that mourn for her 4. For the Furniture of the Church a Supply of all Good internal and external 1. Internal That God would bless them with Ordinances enrich them with Graces preserve Truth and Unity and continue his Presence with them his Ordinances that they may enjoy them in Purity that the Word Seals and Censures may be rightly administred till the Lord come These are Things pertaining to the Kingdom of God concerning which Christ spake to the Disciples Acts 1. 3. These are to be kept till Christ's appearing â— Tim. 6. 14. 'T is an Honour to God and of great Profit to the Church and a rejoycing to God's People to see them pure and unmixed Tho absent in the Flesh yet I am with you in the Spirit joying and beholding your Order Col. 2. 5. And then that God would enrich them with his Presence Mat. 28. 20. Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the World 'T is God that giveth the Increase Paul may plant and Apollos water but God giveth the Increase 1 Cor. 3. 6. for Conviction Conversion Confirmation 'T was not the Ark nor Mercy-Seat covered with Cherubims but the Answer from between the Cherubims given immediately by God that manifested his Presence It is not the Sound of the Gospel or outward Ministry but the Work of his Spirit Psal. 84. 2. My Soul yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my
Prayer not a drousy Devotion not only that we hear but take heed how we hear not only that we serve him but serve him instantly not only run but so run The great thing that is put into the Ballance of the Sanctuary when God comes to weigh the Actions of Men what doth he consider He weighs the Spirits Prov. 16. 2. All the Ways of Man are right in his own Eyes but the Lord weigheth the Spirits That is he considers vvith vvhat frame of Heart and in vvhat manner vve go about any thing vve do for him And therefore this is the main thing vve should look after in what manner we serve him even as the Angels do in Heaven not in an ordinary but perfect manner But wherein doth the Resemblance hold How should we be as the Angels 1. In conformity to the Angels we must serve God readily The Angels are represented as with Wings Isa. 6. 2. And the Angel Gabriel is said to flie swiftly upon God's Message They are hearkning for God's Word and go on God's Errand So we should be ready and speedy in our Obedience Psal. 119. 60. I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments It is not enough to keep God's Commandments but vve must make haste that is before the strength of the present Impulsion be lost and those Fervors which are upon us be cool'd 2. Willingly and chearfully and without murmuring Angels are ready at God's beck they are ministring Spirits even to the meanest Saints God hath sent them abroad for the Heirs of Salvation they are as Guardians to them to look after them in all their Ways The Devils what Christ bids them do do it murmuringly the unclean Spirit would not come out without rending and tearing Mark 9. Christ's presence was a Burthen to them Mat. 8. When we do things with reluctancy murmuringly we are more like the Devil than the Angels When the Devils obey his Word they are forced to it by the absolute Power of Christ yet they do it not with Willingness and Freeness as the good Angels do But we are to do it freely I delight to do thy Will O my God Psal. 40. 8. And Iohn 4. 34. It is my Meat and Drink to do the Will of him that sent me That was the Dish Christ loved 3. Constantly and unweariedly Thus do the Angels in Heaven The Devils they abode not in the Truth but Angels they do it without weariness they rest not Day nor Night but are still lauding praising and serving God and are never weary God in Communion is ever new and fresh to them the Face of their heavenly Father is as lovely as at first moment no Weariness or Satiety creeps upon those good Spirits Thus should we do it without Weariness and then we shall reap if we faint not 4. Faithfully not picking and chusing They hearken to the Voice of his Word whatever it be be it to ascend or descend So we if it be to go backward for God tho it be against the Bent of our Hearts David is said to be a Man after God's Heart because he did all God's Will Acts 13. 22. All which should be a Patern for us and we should strive to come up to it Give us this day our daily Bread WE are now come to the second sort of Petitions that concern our selves as the former did more immediately concern God Now you may observe the Stile in the Prayer is altered It was before Thy Name Thy Kingdom Thy Will now it is Give us and forgive us c. Before our Lord had taught us to speak in a third Person Thy Will be done and now in a second Person Give us this day Which is not so to be understood as if we were not at all concern'd in the former part of the Lord's Prayer In those Petitions the Benefit is not God's but ours When his Name is sanctified his Kingdom cometh and his Will is done these Things do not only concern the Glory of God but also our Benefit It is our Advantage when God is honoured by the Coming of Christ's Kingdom and the Subjection of our Hearts unto himself But these latter Petitions do more immediatly concern us Now among these in the first place we pray for the necessary Provisions of the present Life Some make a scruple why such a Prayer should be put in the first place Surely not to shew the Value of these Things above Pardon and Grace but this is the last of the Supplications The Lord's Prayer may be divided into Supplications and Deprecations Among the Supplications there we pray'd first for the Glory of God next for the Kingdom of God next for our Subjection to that Kingdom and in the last place we pray for daily Bread or Sustentation of the present Life But the other two are Deprecations and that either of Evil already committed and so we pray for Pardon of Sin Forgive us our Trespasses Or Deprecation of Evil that is likely to be admitted and so we pray against Temptation Lead us not into Temptation So that this Request is put into a fit Order First we seek God's Glory as the End his Kingdom as the primary Means our Subjection to that Kingdom as the next Means and last of all our comfortable Subsistence in the World as a remote subservient Help that we may be in a capacity to serve and glorify God In this Petition there is I. The Thing asked and that is Bread by which is meant all Things necessary for the maintenance of this Life Now this is set forth 1. By a Note of Propriety Our Bread 2. By an Adjunct of Time Daily Brea◠II. The Manner of asking Give we ask it as a Gift of God III. The Persons for whom we ask Give us as many as are supposed to be in a Family together Those that can call God Father by the Spirit they may come with most confidence to God about daily Supplies IV. The renewing of our Request 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This day There is very much in that we ask but from Morning till Night Give us this day our daily Bread Before I come to explain these Circumstances let me observe in general Doct. I. That it is the Lord which doth bestow upon us freely and graciously the good Things of this Life It is Bread we ask and we ask it of God and to God we say Give All which Circumstances do fully make out the Point This Point again must be made good by parts 1. That God giveth it 2. That he freely and graciously giveth it First I shall shew you how God is interested in the common Mercies we do enjoy and how every one high or low rich or poor full or in a mean Condition of what rank soever they be even those that have the greatest Store and Plenty of worldly Accommodations they must come from Morning to Morning and deal with God for daily Bread Those common Mercies which we do enjoy 1.
Thomas Manton DD. A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION OF THE Lord's-Prayer BY The late Reverend and Learned Divine THOMAS MANTON D.D. LONDON Printed by I. D. and are to be sold by Ionathan Robinson at the Golden-Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard 1684. The Preface SUch is the Divine Matter and admirable Order of the Lord's Prayer as became the Eternal Wisdom of God that composed and dictated it to his Disciples In it are opened the Fountains of all our regular Petitions and the Arguments contained to encourage our Hopes for obtaining them In our Addresses to Men our study is to conciliate their favourable Audience but God is most graciously inclin'd and ready to grant our Requests therefore we are directed to call upon him by the Title of Our Father in Heaven to assure us of his Love and Power and thereby to excite our reverent Attention to raise our Affections to confirm our Confidence in Prayer The supream end of our desires is the Glory of God in Conjunction with our own Happiness This is exprest in the two first Petitions That His Name may be Hallowed and His Kingdom come that we may partake of its Felicity In order to this our Desires are directed for the Means that are proper and effectual to accomplish it And those are of two kinds the good things that conduct us and the removal of those Evils that obstruct our Happiness The good things are either the Spiritual and Principal Means to prepare us for Glory an intire cordial and constant Obedience to the divine Commands exprest in the third Petition Thy Will be done on Earth as 't is in Heaven Or natural and subservient the Supports and Comforts of this Life which are contained in the fourth Petition Give us this Day our daily Bread The removal of Evils is disposed according to the order of the good Things we are to seek We pray that our Sins may be forgiven the guilt of which directly excludes from his glorious Kingdom that we may be preserved from Temptations that withdraw us from observing the Divine Commands and to be delivered from all afflicting Evils that hinder our arrival at our blessed End The Conclusion is to strengthen our Faith by ascribing to our Heavenly Father the Kingdom Power and Glory and to express our ardent desires of his Blessing by saying Amen This divine comprehensive Prayer is the Subject of the following Sermons wherein the Characters of Dr. Manton's Spirit are so conspicuous as sufficiently discover them to be his and the Reader is assured they have been diligently compared with his own Copy WILLIAM BATES ADVERTISEMENT DR Manton's second Volumn of Sermons in Folio on the 25th Chapter of St. Matthew the 17th of St. Iohn the sixth and eighth Chapters to the Romans and the fifth of the second Epistle to the Corinthians being perused by Dr. Bates Dr. Collins and Mr. How is now in the Press and will be finished with all Expedition there being three Presses already at work and two more will be shortly imployed for the dispatch thereof Therefore all Persons who expect the benefit of the Proposals are desired to send in their Money forthwith The Proposals are to be had at Ionathan Robinson's at the Golden Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard AN INTRODUCTION TO THE EXPOSITION OF THE Lord's-Prayer MATTH 6. 6 7 8. But thou when thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut the Door pray to thy Father c. I Intend to go over the Lord's Prayer and to make way for it I shall speak a little of these foregoing Verses wherein our Lord treats of the Duty of Prayer and the Necessity of being much therein In the beginning of this Chapter our Lord taxeth the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees which was plainly to be seen in all their Duties their Alms their Prayers and their Fasting I. For their Alms. Christ deals with that in the four first Verses It seems it was their Fashion when they gave Alms to sound a Trumpet and their Pretence was to call all the Poor within hearing Or to give notice that such a Rabby giveth Alms to Day Now our Lord sheweth that tho this were the fair pretence to call the Poor yet their Heart was meerly upon their own Glory their own Esteem with Men and therefore he perswades his Disciples to greater Secresy in this Work and to content themselves with God's Approbation which will be open and manifest and honourable enough in due time when the Arch-Angel shall blow the Trumpet to call all the World together 1 Thes. 4. 16. And Christ shall publish their good Works in the hearing of Men and Angels Matth. 25. 34 35 36. Thus he deals with them upon the point of Alms. II. For their Prayers Christ taxeth their Affectation of Applause because they sought out places of the greatest Resort the Synagogues and Corners of the Streets and there did put themselves into a praying Posture that they might be seen of Men and appear to be Persons of great Devotion and so might the better accomplish their own Ends their Publick Designs upon the Stage for the Pharisees were great Sticklers at that time and also their private Designs upon Widows Houses that they might be trusted with the management of Widows and Orphans Estates as being devout Men and of great Sanctity and Holiness In which Practice there was a double Failing 1. As to the Circumstance of Place performing a personal and solitary Prayer in a publick Place which was a great Indecorum and argued the Action to be Scenical or brought upon the Stage meerly for publick Applause And certainly that private Praying which is used by Men in Churches doth justly come under our Lord's Reproof 2. Their next Failing was as to their End Verily they do it to be seen of Men. Object But what Fault was there in this Doth not Christ himself direct us in his Sermon Mat. 5. 16. Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven And yet the Pharisees are here taxed for praying fasting and giving Alms that they might be seen of Men How can these Places stand together By way of Answer 1. We must distinguish of the different Scope and Intention of Christ in these two places There Christ's Scope is to commend and enjoin good Works to be seen of Men ad edificationem for their Edification Here his Scope is to forbid us to do good Works to be seen of Men ad ostentationem for our own Ostentation There Christian Charity to the Souls of Men is commended and here Vain-Glory is forbidden 2. Again Good Works are to be distinguished Some are so truly and indeed others only in outward shew and appearance Good Works that are truly so and indeed Christ enjoins there Hypocritical and feigned Acts that are only so in outward shew and semblance are forbidden here To pray is a good Work take inward and outward Acts of it together and so 't
when they are alone with him When Daniel was praying alone with great Earnestness the Angel Gabriel was sent and caused to fly swiftly to him to tell him his Prayers were answered Dan. 9. 21. And Cornelius while he was praying alone an Angel of God came unto him to report the hearing of his Prayers Acts 10. 3. and vers 9. Peter when he was praying alone then God instructs him in the Mystery of the calling of the Gentiles then had he that Vision when he was got upon the top of the House to pray Before we are regenerated God appeareth to us many times when we do not think of it but after we are regenerated usually he appeareth upon more eminent Acts of Grace when we are exercising our selves and more particularly dealing with God and putting forth the Strength of our Souls to take hold of him in private 3. There is this profit in it It is a mighty Solace and Support in Affliction especially when we are censured scorned and despised of Men and know not where to go to find a Friend with whom we may unbosom our Sorrow then to go aside and open the matter to God it 's a mighty ease to the Soul Iob 16. 20. My Friends scorn me but mine Eye poureth out Tears unto God When we have a great Burden upon us to go aside and open the matter to God it gives Ease to the Heart and Vent to our Grief as Hannah in great Trouble falls a praying to God and then was no more sad 1 Sam. 1. 13. As the opening of a Vein cooleth and refresheth in a Fever So when we make known our Case to God it is a mighty Solace in Affliction 4. It is a great Trial of our Sincerity of our Faith Love and Obedience when we are alone and no body knows what we do then to see him that is invisible Heb. 11. 27. When we are much with God in private where we have no Reasons but those of Duty and Conscience to move us Carnal Hypocrites will be much in outward Worship They have their Qualms and pray themselves weary and do something for Fashion sake when foraign Reasons move them but will they so pray as to delight themselves in the Almighty Will they always call upon God Job 27. 10. That Delight in God which puts us upon Converses with God affects Privacy 5. It is a profitable Duty because of the great Promises which God hath made to it This secret and private Prayer in the Text shall have a publick Reward it will not be lost for God will reward it openly So Iob 22. 21. Acquaint now thy self with him and be at Peace thereby Good shall come unto thee Frequent Correspondence with and constant Visits of God in Prayer what Peace Comfort Quickning brings it into the Soul So Psal. 69. 32. His Soul shall live that seeks the Lord. Without often seeking to God the vitality of the Soul is lost we may as well expect a Crop and Harvest without sowing as any Liveliness of Grace where there is not seeking of God Could a Man take notice of another in a Croud whose Face he never saw before So will God own and bless you in the Crouds of the Assemblies of his People if you mind not this Duty when you are alone APPLICATION Vse 1. To reprove those which neglect Closet-Addresses to God they wrong God and themselves 1. They wrong God because this is a necessary part of the Creatures Homage of that Duty he expects from them to be owned not only in publick Assemblies but in private And they wrong Themselves because it brings in a great deal of Comfort and Peace to the Soul and many sweet and gracious Experiences there are which they deprive themselves of and a Blessing upon all other things But more particularly to shew the Evil of this Sin 1. It is a Sin of Omission and these Sins are very dangerous as well as Sins of Commission Natural Conscience usually smites more for Sins of Commission than for Sins of Omission To wrong and beat a Father seems a more heinous and unnatural Act then not to give him due Reverence and Attendance We are sensible of Sins of Commission but yet God will charge Sins of Omission as well as Commission upon you and so will Conscience too when it is serious when against the plain Knowledg of God's Will you can omit such a necessary part of God's Worship Iames 4. 17. To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is Sin That is it will be Sin with a Witness Conscience will own it so when it is awakened by the Word or by Providence or great Affliction or cast upon your Death-bed how will your own Hearts reproach you then that have neglected God and lost such precious Hours as you should have redeemed for Communion with him Sins of Omission argue as great a Contempt of God's Authority as Sins of Commission for the same Law which forbids a Sin doth also require a Duty from us And Sins of Omission argue as much Hatred of God as Sins of Commission If two should live in the same House and never speak to one another it would be taken for an Argument of as great Hatred as to sight one with another So when God is in us and round about us and we never take time to confer with him it argues much hatred and neglect of Him And Sins of Omission are an Argument of our Vnregeneracy as much as Sins of Commission A Man which lives in a course of Drunkenness Filthiness and Adultery you would judg him to be an unregenerate Man and that he hath such a Spot upon him as is not the Spot of God's Children So to live in a constant neglect of God is an Argument of Unregeneracy as much as to live in a course of Debauchery The Apostle when he would describe the Ephesians by their unconverted State describes it thus Eph. 2. 12. That they lived without God in the World when God is not owned and called upon and unless the Restraints of Men the Law of common Education and Custom of Nations call for it they live without God So Psal. 14. 1. They are corrupt they have done abominable Works there is none that doth Good they are altogether become filthy every unregenerate Man is that Atheist There is some Difâ—erence among unregenerate Men some are less in the Excesses and gross Out-breakings of their Sins and Folly some sin more some less but they all are abominable on this account because they do not seek after God And the Apostle makes use of that Argument to convince all Men to be in a State of Sin Rom. 3. 11. There is none that seeketh after God The Heart may be as much hardned by Omissions yea sometimes more than by Commissions As an Act of Sin brings a Brawniness and Deadness upon the Heart so doth the Omission of a necessary Duty Not only the breaking of a String puts the
Covenant By Creation to all Mankind kind so he will be ready to sustain that which he hath made he that hath given Life will give Food he that hath given a Body will give Raiment Things expect Supply thence from whence they received their Being But much more by Covenant so he is our Father in Christ Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us Isa. 63. 16. Well but what 's this to the present Purpose that God is a Father This is a Check to babling therefore we should go to him in an unaffected manner with a Child-like Spirit and Dependance with Words reverent serious and plain Children do not use to make starch'd Speeches to their Fathers when they want Bread but only express their natural Cry and go to them for such things as they stand in need of there they speak and are accepted and a Word from a Child moves the Father more than an Orator can move all his Hearers Even such a naked Address should we make to God in a plain manner for when we come to pray Christ would have us take up God in the Notion of a Father and to behave our selves in a natural way to him for affected Eloquence or Loquacity in Prayer is one of the main things Christ here disproves Prayer ought to be simple and plain Therefore the great Business of the Spirit of Adoption is to make us cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. 2. He is such a Father as is not ignorant of our Wants The care of his Providence is over all the Creatures he hath made God hath an Inspection over them to provide Necessaries for them much more over his People His Eyes run to and fro to find them out in all the places of their Dispersion and he doth exercise his Power for their Relief 2 Chron. 16. 9. Now this Thought should be rooted in our Hearts when we come to pray to God I go to a Father which hath found me out in the Throng of his Creatures and knows what is good for me This is a great ground why we should not use Battology because God knows what my Needs are Words are not required for God's sake but for ours not to inform God but that we may perform our Duty the better Well then so far as they are useful so far they should be used to bound our Thoughts to warm our Affections to strengthen our Faith 1. To bound our Thoughts for an Interruption in Speech is sooner discerned than an Interruption in Meditation 2. And to warm our Affections Words at first are Vent to Affection but afterwards they continue to increase the Affection as a Hearth is first warmed by the Fire and then it serves to keep in the Fire 3. And they conduce to strengthen our Faith while we plead Promises in God's hearing We wrestle with God that we may catch a heat our selves And therefore Words should be only used as they conduce to the strengthning our Faith or continuing our Affection to God Longer than they serve that End in Prayer they are Babling and vain Repetitions and much speaking which Christ here forbids Consider there is not a Change in God but a Change in us wrought by Prayer 'T is neither to give Information to God that he may know our meaning nor to move him and persuade him to be willing by our much speaking but only to raise up our own Faith and Hope towards God 3. He is such a Father as is not unwilling to relieve us Your heavenly Father is very ready to give you such Things as you stand in need of as Christ expresseth it Mat. 7. 11. If ye being evil know how to give good Things unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give good Things to them that ask him And Luke 11. 13. it is How much more shall your heavenly Father give his holy Spirit When you come to beg for Grace consider what earthly Parents would do for a Child Their Affections are limited they are in part corrupt and poor straitned Creatures have not such Bowels of Compassion as God and yet when a Child comes to them with a genuine Cry with a sense of his Want and Confidence of his Father he cannot harden his Bowels against his Child This also checks much speaking for we do not pray to stir up Mercy in him as if he needed much Intreaty and were severe and delighted to put the Creature to Penance No he is ready before we ask he knows our Wants and Needs and is ready to supply us with those Things we stand in need of only will have this comely Order observed Sometimes he prevents our Prayers before we ask Before they call I will answer and I am found of them that sought me not Before we can have a Heart to come the Lord prevents us with his Blessing And sometimes he gives us what we ask This is the Condescension of God that when you call he will answer and when you cry he doth in his Providence say What will you have poor Creatures And he gives more than we ask As Solomon asked Wisdom and God gave him more than he asked Wisdom Riches and Honour Object But here 's an Objection These Notions seem not only to exclude long Prayer and much speaking but all Prayer If God know our Wants and is so ready to give whether we ask or no what need we open them to him in Prayer at all I answer It is God's prescribed Course and that should be enough to gracious Hearts that will be obedient to their Father Whatever he intends tho he knows our Wants and resolves to answer them yet it is a piece of religious Manners to ask what he is about to give Ier. 29. 11. I know my Thoughts towards you Thoughts of Peace yet will I be enquired of you for these Things God knows his own Thoughts hath stated his Decrees and will not alter the beautiful Course of his Providence for our sakes yet he will be sought unto So Ezek. 36. God purposed to bless them and therefore promiseth I will do thus and thus for you yet vers 37. I will yet for this be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them I will do it but you shall milk out the Blessing by Prayer This Course is also necessary and that both for his Honour and our Profit and Comfort 1. It is necessary for his Honour that God may still be acknowledged that the Creature may be kept up in a constant dependance upon God and may go about nothing but may ask his Leave Counsel and Blessing Prov. 3. 6. In all thy Ways acknowledg him and he shall direct thy Paths We ask God's Leave that we may do such a thing for he hath the Dominion over all Events And if we are doubtful we ask his Counsel whether we may stay here or there or dispose of our selves and Families And we ask his Blessing upon our Resolution Now
audiamus What Lungs and Sides must we have if we be heard to speak to Heaven by the Noise and Sound In some there is a natural vehemency and fierceness of Speech which is rather stirr'd up by the heat and agitation of the bodily Spirits than any vehemency of Affection There is a Contention of Speech which is very natural to some and differeth much from that holy Fervor the Life and Power of Prayer which is accompanied with Reverence and Child-like Dependance upon God It is not the loud Noise of Words which is best heard in Heaven but the fervent affectionate Cries of the Saints are those of the Heart rather than of the Tongue Exod. 14. 17. it is said Moses cried to the Lord We do not read of the Words he uttered his Cry was with the Heart There is a crying with the Soul and with the Heart to God Psal. 10. 17. Lord thou hast heard the Desire of the Humble It is the Desires God hears Psal. 39. 9. Lord all my Desire is before thee and my Groaning iâ— not hid from thee The Lord needs not the Tongue to be an Interpreter between him and the Hearts of his Children He that hears without Ears can interpret Prayers tho not uttered by the Tongue Our Desires are Cries in the Ears of the Lord of Hosts the vehemency of the Affections may sometimes cause the extention of the Voice but Alas without this it is but a tinkling Cymbal 5. Popish Repetition and loose shreds of Prayer often repeated as they have in their Liturgy over and over again their Gloria Patri so often repeated their Lord have Mercy and in their Prayer made to Jesus Sweet Iesus Blessed Iesus and going over the Ave Maria and this to be tumbled over upon their Beads and continuing Prayer by tale and by number Surely these are but vain Repetitions and this is that much-speaking which our Lord aims at Thus I have dispatched the abuses of Prayer Vse 2. To give you direction in Prayer how to carry your selves in this holy Duty towards God in a comely manner I shall give you Directions 1. About our Words In Prayer 2. About our Thoughts 3. About our Affections First about our Words there is a use of them in Prayer to excite and convey and give vent to Affection Hos. 14. 2. Take with you Words and turn to the Lord and say Take away all Iniquity and receive us graciously Surely the Prophet doth not only prescribe that they should take Affections but take with them Words Words have an Interest in Prayer Now these may be considered either when we are alone or in Company 1. When we are alone Here take the advice of the Holy-Ghost Eccl. 5. 2. God is in Heaven and thou art upon Earth therefore let thy Words be few How few Few in Weight Conscience Reverence Few in Weight affecting rather to speak Matter than Words concisely and feelingly rather than with curiousness to express what you have to say to God Few in Conscience Superstition is a Bastard-Religion and is tyrannous and puts Men upon tedious Services and sometimes beyond their Strength therefore pray neither too short nor too long do it not meerly to lengthen out the Prayer or as counting it the better for being long the shortness and the length must be measured by the fervency of our Hearts our many necessities and as it tendeth to the inflaming our Zeal as it can get up the Heart let it still be subservient to that Few with Reverence and managed with that Gravity Awfulness and Seriousness as would become an Address to God As Abraham Gen. 18. 31. had been reasoning with God before therefore he saith Let not God be angry if I speak to him this once when he renewed the Suit Thus alone 2. In Company there our Words must be apt and orderly moving as much as may be not to God but to the Hearers managed with such Reverence and Seriousness as may suit with the Gravity of the Duty and not encrease but cure the Dulness of those with whom we join And what if we did in publick Duties choose out Words to reason with God as Iob saith Chap. 9. 14. Choose out my Words to reason with him If we did use Preparation and think a little before hand that we may go about the Duty with serious Advice and not with indigested Thoughts But this hath the smallest Interest in Prayer Secondly Our Thoughts That we may conceive aright of God in Prayer which is one of the greatest difficulties in the Duty 1. Of his Nature and Being 2. Of his Relation to us 3. Of his Attributes First Of the Nature and Being of God Every one that would come to God must fix this in his Mind That God is and that God is a Spirit And accordingly he must be worshipped as will suit with these two Notions Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh to God must believe that God is and then that God is a Spirit for it is said Ioh. 4. 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth O then when ever you come to pray to God fix these two Thoughts let them be strong in your Heart God is I do not speak to an Idol but to the living God And God is a Spirit and therefore not so much pleased with plausibleness of Speech or tuneable cadency of Words as with a right Temper of Heart Alas when we come to pray we little think God is or what God is much of our Religion is performed to an unknown God and like the Samaritans We worship we know not what It is not Speculations about the Divine Nature or high strain'd Conceptions which doth fit us for Prayer the discoursing of these things with some Singularity or Terms removed from common Understanding this is not that which I press you to but such a sight of God as prompteth us to a reverent and serious worshipping of him Then we have right Notions of God in Prayer when we are affected as Moses was when God shew'd him his Back-parts and proclaimed his Name Exod. 34. He made haste bowed his Head and worshipped when our Worship suiteth with the Nature of God 't is Spiritual and Holy not Pompous and Theatrical Well then these two things must be deeply imprinted in our Minds that God is and that He is a Spirit And then is our Worship right For Instance 1. For the first Notion God's Being Then is our Worship right when it doth proclaim to all that shall observe us or we that observe our selves there is a great an infinite eternal Power which sits at the upper end of Causes and governeth all according to his own Pleasure Alas the Worship of many is flat Atheism they say in their Hearts either there is no God or believe there is no God Therefore do you worship him as becomes such a glorious Being Is his Mercy seen in your Faith and Confidence His Majesty in your
to bring your Hearts to God in this manner AN EXPOSITION OF THE Lord's-Prayer Our Father which art in Heaven I Have insisted upon the foregoing Verses which do concern the Duty of Prayer let me now come to the Lord's-Prayer it self This Prayer was form'd and digested by Christ and therefore to be highly esteemed by Christians Jesus Christ who was the Wisdom of God he knew both our Necessities and the Father's good Will towards us and therefore surely he would give us a perfect Form and Directory We are not absolutely tied to this Form we do not read that it was ever used by the Apostles tho we have many of their Prayers upon Record in the Acts and in the Epistles yet they plainly differ as to the Construction of the Words And this very Prayer is diversly set down by the Evangelists themselves Mat. 6. 11. Give us this day our daily Bread it is in other Words Luke 11. 3. Give us day by day our daily Bread And v. 12. And forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors in Luke 11. 4. it is And forgive us our Sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us But however tho we are not tied to this Form yet I think it may be humbly used for Christ taught his Disciples how to pray while as yet they were in their Ignorance and Tenderness and had not received the Spirit And God usually puts Words into Sinners Mouths Hosea 11. 2. Take with you Words and say unto him Receive us graciously Look as Ioseph is said to feed his Father and his Brethren as a little Child is nourished as it is in the Margent there is not only Food provided but it is put into their Mouths Gen. 47. 12. So did Christ teach his Disciples to pray not only as directing them what they should pray for but putting a Form of Words into their Mouths In this Prayer there are three Parts observable 1. The Preface 2. The Petitions themselves 3. The Conclusion In the Preface we have a Description of God as always we should begin Prayer with awful Thoughts of God God is described partly from his Goodness and Mercy Our Father and partly from his Greatness and Majesty Which 〈◊〉 in Heaven I. His Goodness and Mercy Our Father Where is set forth 1. The Relation wherein God standeth to his People in the Word Father 2. Their Propriety and Interest in that Relation wherein not the particular Interest of a single Believer is asserted My Father but the general Interest of all the Elect in Christ Our Father I shall wave all which may be said concerning Prayer in general concerning the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of a Form in Prayer The Disputes concerning the Use of this Form as also all the Disputes concerning the Object of Prayer which we learn from hence to be God alone Surely Prayer is a Sacrifice and belongeth only to God it cannot be made to any other but to him who knoweth all the Prayers that are made in the World at the same time and the Hearts of all those that pray I will also wave what might be spoken concerning Preparation before Petition for here there is a Preface before the Prayer it self Neither shall I speak concerning the Necessity of conceiving right Thoughts of God in Prayer how we may conceive of his Goodness to beget a Confidence of his Majesty to beget an Awe and Reverence That which I shall insist upon is the Notion and Relation under which God is here expressed which is that of Father Our Father Observe Those that would pray aright must address themselves to God as a Father in Iesus Christ. Hypocrites at the last Day will cry Lord Lord but Christ hath taught us to say Our Father Here I shall I. Enquire in what Sence God is a Father II. What Encouragements we have from thence in Prayer when we can take him up under this Notion and Appellation I. In what Sence God is a Father This Title may be given to God either essentially or with respect to personal Relation 1. Essentially and so 't is common to all the Persons in the Godhead Father Son and Holy-Ghost all three are God and our Father And thus not only the First Person but the Second is called the Everlasting Father Isa. 9. 6. And the Holy-Ghost being Author of our Being is called our Maker But 2. It may be ascribed to God personally And so the first Person is called God the Father and that either with relation to Christ or to us 1. With relation to Christ as the Son of God So the first Person is called the Father as he is the Fountain of the Deity communicating to and with him the Divine Essence Psal. 2. 7. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee The personal Property of the Father is to beget and of the Son to be begotten There is an eternal Now wherein God is said to beget him Thus he may be called the Father of Christ as he is the second Person now as Incarnate and Mediator Tho God be Christ's Father as second Person yet they are all equal in Power Dignity and Glory But as Mediator God is his Father in another respect So it is said Iohn 14. 28. My Father is greater than I Not as God for so he was equal He thought it no Robbery to be equal with God Phil. 2. 6. But greater than I that is consider him as Man and Mediator in the state of his Humiliation For it is notable to consider upon what occasion Christ speaks these Words If ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I said I go unto the Father for my Father is greater than I That is You admire me and prize my Company exceedingly because you see the Power which I put forth in the Miracles which I do ye would rejoice if you understood it aright He is infinitely more glorious than I appear in this State of Abasement and Humiliation Thus with respect to Christ God the first Person may be called the Father 2 With respect to Vs for the first Person is not only the Father of Christ but our Father John 20. 17. I go to my Father and your Father We share with Christ in all his Relations As God was his God by Covenant so he is our God And in this Sence personally it may be taken here for our Business lieth mainly with the first Person with whom Christ intercedeth for us 1 Iohn 2. 1. We have an Advocate with the Father even Iesus Christ the Righteous Before whom doth he appear Before the Father And it is to him to whom we direct our Prayers tho not excluding the other Persons Eph. 3. 14. I bow my Knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesu◠Christ. Tho it be not unlawful to pray to Christ or to the Holy-Ghost for that hath been done by the Saints Stephen saith Lord Iesus receive my Spirit and Iacob saith The Angel of the Covenant bless the Lads
as we have a Cause to present to God There the High-Priest he entred with the Blood of Beasts but we enter by the Blood of the Son of God O what a great Privilege is this that we have a Father in Heaven In this respect the Holy Place is now open to us Tho we have not a personal Access till Death yet by the Blood of Jesus we may come with Boldness presenting our selves before the Lord with all our Wants and Desires The great Distance between Heaven and Earth shall not hinder our Communion with God if we have a Friend above Therefore it is very comfortable now to say Our Father which art in Heaven that is our gracious and reconciled Father in and by Christ. APPLICATION If we have a Father in Heaven let us look up to Heaven often 1. If we have a Father in Heaven and a Saviour at his right-hand to do all things that are needful for us let us look upon the aspectable Heavens with an Eye of Sense with our bodily Eyes It is good to contemplate the Glory of the heavenly Bodies or the Outside of that Court which God hath provided for the Saints It is not an idle Speculation I press you to The Saints of God have thought it to be worthy of their Morning and Evening-Thought It is notable David doth in two Psalms especially contmeplate Heaven 〈◊〉 seems to be a Nightly the other a 〈◊〉 Meditation The Night-Meditation you have Psal. 8. 3. When I consider thy Heavens the Work of thy Fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained David was got abroad in a Moon-shining Night looks up and had his Heart affected But now the 19th Psalm that seems to be a Morning-Mediation he speakds of the Sun coming out like a Bridegroom from his Chamber in the East and displaying his Beams and Heat and Influences to the World and then saith he v. 1. The Heavens declare the Glory of God Morning and Evening or when ever you go abroad to see the Beauty of the outward Heavens say I have a Father there a Christ there this is the Pavement of that Palace which God hath provided for the Saints Christians it is a sweet Meditation when you can say He that made all Things is there It will be a delightful profitable thing sometimes with an Eye of Sense to take a view of our Father's Palace as much as we can see of it here below 2. Let me especially press you to this with an Eye of Faith to look within the Vail and when ever you come to pray to see God in Heaven and Christ at his Right-hand The great Work of Faith is to see him that is invisible and the great Duty of Prayer is to get a Sight of God in Heaven and Christ at his right-hand What Stephen did miraculously or in an Extasy we must do graciously in Prayer Now it is said of Stephen Acts 7. 56. Behold I see the Heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right-hand of God There is a great deal of Difference about Stephen's Sight How the Heavens could be opened for they are solid Bodies and cannot be divided fluent Air and so come together again How he could see the Glory of God with his corporal Senses which is invisible How he could see Christ at such a Distance the Eye not being able to reach so far Some think it to be a meer intellectual Vision or a Vision of Faith that is he did so firmly believe and had the Comfort of it in his Heart as if he had seen it with his Eyes So they think Stephen saw the Glory of God and Christ at his right-hand as Abraham saw Christ's Day and rejoiced that is he saw it by Faith Some think it to be a Prophetical Vision by seeing those things objected to his Fancy by imaginary Species as Isaiah saw God in a Vision Isa. 6. and as Paul's Rapture Some think it a Symbolical Vision that he saw these thing represented by some corporeal Images as Iohn saw the Holy-Ghost descending in the form of a Dove Some think his bodily Eyes did pierce the Clouds and got a sight of the Glory of Christ. Whatever it be there must be such a Sight in Prayer something answerable to this in a spiritual way this must ever be done Psal. 5. 3. I will pray saith the Psalmist and look up There is a looking up required in all Prayer a seeing the invisible God by Faith If you would have God look down upon you from his holy Habitâ—tion you must look up with an Eye of Faith and converse with God in Heaven Psal. 63. 4. I will lift up my Hands in thy Name If you would have God look upon you with an Eye of Compassion you must look up and see Christ at his right-hand by an Eye of Faith 3. Let us love our Father love God in Christ and love the Place for his sake where his Residence is 1. Love God in Christ. Psal. 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee When God hath been so gracious to you Christians if I had no other Argument to press you to love god but that he which is in Heaven offereth to be your Father in Christ Jesus it might suffice because it is a great Condescension that the God of Heaven will look upon poor boken-hearted Creatures that he whose Throne is in Heaven would look upon him that is of a trembling Spirit Isa. 66 2. That the high and lofty One that dwelleth in the high and holy Place will look to him that is of a contrite Heart Isa. 57. 15. That he that is the Lord of Heaven and Earth will be our Father and own us and bless us A great Condescension on God's part and a great Dignity also is put upon us and how should our Hearts be affected with it Therefore though there be a great Distance between Heaven and Earth it should not lessen our Affections to God He is mindful of us visits us at every turn we are dear and tender to him therefore let the Lord be dear to you The Butler when he was exalted forgot Ioseph but Christ is not grown stately with his Advancement He doth not forget us O let not us forget God Let us manifest our Love by being often with him at the Throne of Grace with our Father which is in Heaven A Child is never well but when in the Mother's Lap or under the Father's Wing So should it be with us with an humble Affection coming into the presence of God and getting into the Bosom of our heavenly Father Never delight in any thing so much as conversing with him and serious Addresses to him in Prayer Again 2. Love the Place for his sake God is there and Christ is there We have cause to love the Place for our own sakes and in a short time if you continue patient in well-doing you will be with God It is not only God's Throne but it is your
House 2 Cor. 5. 1. We look for an House in Heaven no made with hands It is a Place appointed for our everlasting Abode therefore all our Hopes Desires and Delights should run that way But chiefly I would press you to love it for his sake the Place where you heavenly Father dwells God hath not taken his Denomination from Earth which is the Place of Corruption but from Heaven which is the Place of Glory and Happiness O let us not forget our heavenly Father's House We are to apt to say it is good to be here Christians let us draw home apace let us grow more heavenly-minded every day seek the things which are above prize it rather upon this occasion because if we were more heavenly in the frame of our Hearts we would be more heavenly in our solemn Approaches to God What 's the reason a Man is haunted with the World and things which are of a worldly Interest and Concern when he comes to Prayer 'T is because his Heart is taken with these Things Hallowed be thy Name WE are now come to the first petition of the Lord's Prayer there three Things will fall under Discussion I. The Order of this Petition II. The Necessity of putting up such a Request to God III. The Sence and Mâ—aning of the Petition it self I. Of the Order it is the first of all the six The Petitions of the Lord's-Prayer may thus be ranked The four first concern the obtaining of Good and the two last the removal of Evil either the removal of Evil past and already committed or the removal of Evil future and such as may be admitted by the Temptation of the Devil Among the former those Things that do more immediately concern the Glory of God they have the first place In this Petition the Glory of God is both desired and promised on our part for every Prayer is both an Expression of a Desire and also an implicit Vow or a solemn Obligation that we take upon our selves to prosecute what we ask Prayer it is a preaching to our selves in God's hearing We speak to God to warm our selves not for his Information but for our Edification From the Order observe Doct. That those Things are to be desired in the first place and with the greatest Affection which do concern the Glory of God The first Petition is Hallowed be thy Name Here to shew 1. Why this Petition if put first 2. Present some Reasons of the Point First This Petition is put first for a double Reason 1. Partly to shew that this must be the End of all our Requests All that we desire and pray for in behalf of our selves and others must be subordiante to this End All these things must be asked that by the accomplishment of them God may be brought more in request in the World See all the other Petitions in this Prayer how they are suited to this End in Scripture When we say Thy Kingdom come what do we beg that for but ultimately the Glory of God Phil. 2â— 10 11. God hath given him a Name which is above every Name that every Tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father When we say Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven it is still to the Glory of God Mat. 5. 16. That our good Works may so shine forth before Men here upon Earth that they may glorify our Father which is in Heaven When we ask our daily Bread and Provisions for the present Life it is still that he may be glorified in our comfortable Use of the Creature 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do do all to the Glory of God When we ask for the Remission of Sins it is that God may be glorified in Christ Rom. 3. 25 26 Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past that he may be just c. When we beg Freedom from Temptation it is that we may not dishonour God Prov. 30. 8 9. Lest I be full and deny thee and say Who is the Lord Or lest I be poor and steal and take the Name of my God in vain Still that God may be glorified in every Condition When we ask Deliverance from Evil Psal. 50. 15. Call upon me in the Day of Trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me So that the Glory of God in all Requests that we make to him like Oil still swims on the Top and must be the End of all the rest for other things are but Means in subordination to it 2. It notes that our chiefest Care and Affection should be carried out to the Glory of God when we pray We should rather forget our selves than forget God God must be remembred in the first place There is nothing more precious than God himself therefore nothing should be more dear to us than his Glory This is the great Difference between the Upright and the Hypocrite The Hypocrite never seeks God but when his Necessities do require it not in and for himself But when the Upright come to seek God it is for God in the first place their main Care is about God's Concernments rather than their own Tho they seek their own Happiness in him and they are allowed so to do yet it is mainly God's Glory which they seek not their own Interests and Concernments See that Psal. 115. 1. Not unto us not unto us O Lord but unto thy Name give Glory for thy Mercy and for thy Truth 's sake It is not a Doxology or Form of Thanksgiving but a Prayer not for our Safety and Welfare so much as thy Glory Not to reek and satisfy our Revenge upon our Adversaries not for the Establishment of our Interest but for the Glory of thy Grace and Truth that God may be known to be a God keeping Covenant for Mercy and Truth are the two Pillars of the Covenant It is a great dishonouring of God when any thing is sought from him more than himself or not for himself Saith Austin it is but a carnal Affection in Prayer when Men seek Self more than God Self and God are the two things that come in competition Now there are several sorts of Self there is carnal Self natural Self spiritual Self and glorified Self above all these God must have the Preheminence 1. Carnal Self By a foolish Mistake we take our Lusts to be our selves Col. 3. 5. Mortify your Members here upon Earth And these Members he makes to be Fornication Uncleanness and the like Our Sins are as dear to us as any essential or integral part of the Body they are our Members Now these should have no room in our Prayers at all tho usually they have the first place Jam. 4. 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your Lusts. Our
corrupt and wholly poisoned with Self-Love we prefer every base Interest and Trifle before God nay we prefer carnal Self before God Some are wholly brutish and so they may wallow in Ease and Pleasure and eat the Fat and drink the Sweet never think of God care not how God is dishonoured both by themselves and others And then some O how tender are they in matters of their own Concernment and affected with it more than for the Glory of God! Ioh. 12. 43. They are more affected with their own Honour and their own Loss and Reproach than with God's dishonour or God's Glory If their own Reputation be but hazarded a little O how it stings them to the Heart But if they be faulty towards God they can pass it over without Trouble A Word of Disgrace a little Contempt cast upon our Persons kindles the Coals and â—ills us with Rage but we can hear God's Name dishonoured and not be moved with it When they pray if they beg outward Blessings if they ask any thing it is for their Lusts not for God 't is but to feed their Pomp and Excess and that they may shine in the Pomp and Splendor of external Accommodations If they beg Quickning and Enlargment it is for their own Honour that their Lusts may be fed by the Contributions of Heaven So by a wicked Design they would even make God to serve the Devil The best of us when we come to pray what a deep Sense have we of our own Wants and no desire of the Glory of God If we beg daily Bread Maintenance and Protection we do not beg it as a Talent to be improved for our Master's use but as Fuel for our Lusts. If we beg Deliverance it is because we are in pain and ill at ease not that we may Honour and glorify God that Mercy and Truth may shine forth If we beg Pardon it is only to get rid of the Smart and enlarged out of the Stocks of Conscience If they beg Grace it is but a lazy Wish after Sanctification because they are convinced there is no other way to be happy If they beg eternal Glory they do not beg it for God it appears plainly because they can be content to dishonour God long provided they at length may be saved Most of us pray without a Heart set to glorify God and to bring Honour unto his great Name Tho a Man hath never so much sense and feeling in his Prayer yet if his Hâ—art be not duly set as to the Glory of God his Prayer is turned into Sin It is not the manner of the Vehemency only for a Carnal Spring may send forth High-Tides of Affection and Motions that come from Lust may be earnest and very rapid Therefore it is not enough to have Fervour and Vehemency but when our aim is to honour and glorify God Zech. 7. 5 6. When ye fasted did ye at all fast unto me even to me And when ye did eat and when ye did drink did you not eat for your selves and drink for your selves Vse 2. For Exhortation to press us to seek the Glory of God above all things Take these Arguments 1. How necessary it is the Lord should have his Glory The World serves for no other purpose it is made and continued for this End Rev. 4. 11. Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power For thou hast created all things and for thy Pleasure they are and were created All that God hath made it was for his own Glory And Rom. 11. 36. For of him and through him and to him are all things To whom be Glory for ever Amen Of him in a way of Creation Through him by way of Providential Influence and Supportation that they may be To him in their final tendency and result God did not make us for our selves but his own Glory 2. It is a singular Benefit to be admitted to sanctify God's Name O that poor Worms should come and put the Crown upon God's Head And that he will count any thing we can do to be a Glory to himself â— Chron. 29. 14. But who am I and what is my People that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort For all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee 3. Consider how much it concerneth us that we may make some Restitution for our former dishonouring of God therefore we should be more zealous in this Work How forward have we been to dishonour God in Thought Word and Deed before the Lord wrought upon us There is not a Mercy but we have abused it nor any thing we have medled with but one way or other we have turned it to the Lord's Reproach and Dishonour Now when the Lord hath put Grace in our Hearts When we are a People formed for his Praise Isa. 43. When he hath made us anew we should think of making some Restitution some amends to God and should zealously affect his Glory above all things Vse 3. For Trial. Do we prefer the Glory of God in the first place Take these Marks 1. Then we would be content with our own loss provided the Name of God may gain any respect in the World and so he may be magnified no matter what becomes of us and our Interest and Concernment Phil. 1. 20. The Apostle expresseth there a kind of Indifferency So Christ shall be magnified in my Body whether it be by Life or by Death O then it is a sign you make it your purpose drift and care when you are contented to do or be any thing that God will have you to be or do This holds good not only in temporal Concernments when you are content to want necessary Food c. But it holds also in Spiritual Concernments As to sense of Pardon tho God should suspend the Consolations of his Spirit yet if it be for the Glory of his Grace I am to be content Nay in some Cases God's Glory is more to be cared for than our own Salvation if they two could come in competition but that case never falls out with the Creature our Salvation is conjoyned with the Glory of God But yet in supposition if it should as Paul and Moses puts the Supposition Exod. 32. 32. Blot me I pray thee out of the Book which thou hast written So God might be honoured in saving that People So Rom. 9. 3. For I could wish that my self werâ— accursed from Christ for my Brethren my Kinsmen according to the Flesh. It was not a rash Speech a thing spoken out of an unadvised Passion see but with what a serious Preâ—ace it is ushered in vers 1. God is my Witness I lye not my Conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost He calls God to witness this was the real disposition of his Heart and he speaks advisedly and with good deliberation Object But is it lawful thus to wish to be accursed Certainly Paul could not
implicitely Amen Lord that it were so and surely Lord it shall be so we believe it and we desire it with all our Hearts 2. Explicitely Even so Lord Iesus Come quickly From this latter Clause I might observe many things 1. The sweet and blessed Harmony that â—is between Christ and the Church Christ's Voice and the Churches Voice are Unisons Christ saith I come and the Church like a quick Eccho takes the Word out of Christ's Mouth Even so come There is the same Spirit in Christ and in the Church for it is his Spirit that resides with us Christ he speaks in a way proper to him by way of Promise I come and the Church in a way proper to her by way of Prayer Even so come 2. I might observe That in the Close of the World we should most earnestly desire Christ's Coming We have the Advantage of former Times to us Christ saith I come quickly Now the set time almost is come therefore our Pulses should beat more strongly in putting up this Request to Christ. Tertullian shews that the Primitive Christians did pray prâ— mora finis that the End might not come too soon Christ having â—s yet but a small Interest in the World they expecting Enlargement upon Earth but we have more cause to look for the Accomplishment of his Kingdom in Heaven Thâ—ey expected the Revelation of Antichrist and we expect the Destruction of Antichrist They that God might be known in the World we that he might be no longer dishonoured in the World When great Promises are near their Accomplishment there is a more lively Spirit stirring in the Hearts of the Saints Dan. 9. 2 3. I understood by Books the Number of the Years whereof the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomcomplish seventy Years in the Desolations of Jerusalem And I set my Face to the Lord God to seek by Prayer and Supplication But quitting these Notes I shall mainly insist upon this Point Viz. Doct. That the Church and all the faithful Members of it do really and heartily desire Christ's second Coming They look for it they long for it they wait for it They look for it Phil. 3. 20. Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. They reckon upon it as Rebekah espied Isaac afar off He is gone within the Vail he is appearing before God but he will come out again When they see the Clouds upon these one day will our Saviour come Then they long for it It is their Description 2 Tim. 4. 8. They love his Appearing Wicked Men and guilty Sinners hate and abhor it he being to come to them as a terrible Judg. Malefactors do not long for the Assizes But now the Saints who are absolv'd and washed in the Blood of Christ it doth them good to the Heart to think of it that one day Christ will appear in all his Glory And then they wait for it 1 Thess. 1. 10. They wait for his Son from Heaven even Iesus who hath delivered us from Wrath to come It is Wrath to come something behind the Coming of Christ which makes it so terrible Hell makes the Day of Judgment terrible The Devil could not endure to hear of Christ's coming Mat. 8. 29. Art thou come to torment us c. So wicked Men have the Spirit of the Devil it is a Torment and Bondage to them to think of the Judges Coming But those which have their Discharge they wait for it it supports and bears up their Hearts in the midst of their present Afflictions and they go on chearfully in their Work notwithstanding Lets and Troubles To give some Reasons why the faithful Members of Christ so really and heartily desire Christ's second Coming They are of three Sorts 1. Some in respect of the Person who is to come 2. Some in respect of the Persons which desire his Coming 3. Some in respect of the Coming it self I. In respect of him who is to come 1. His Person that we may see him The Children of God have delighted to look upon him through a Vail and have had a king of Heaven upon Earth from beholding his Face in the Glass of an Ordinance Looking upon him in the Vail of Ordinances hath been a mighty Comfort and Refreshing to them now they would desire to see his Person face to face They know by Hear-say this great Redeemer and Saviour of theirs he wooeth them by Proxy As Eleazar Abraham's Servant was to go abroad and seek for a Match for his Master's Son So the great Business of the Ministers of God is to set forth our Master's Son Now the Saints would fain see him Nay they have not only heard of him but believed in him and received him into their Hearts nay not only believed in him but they have loved him greatly 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love in whom tho now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoice with Ioy unspeakable and full of Glory It hath been a ravishing thought to them to think of Christ. And they have tasted 1 Pet. 2. 3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious And they have felt him in the drawings of the Spirit they live by his Life they have found a Virtue going out from him Now all that they desire is that they may see this great Person who hath been their Redeemer and Saviour 2. Consider him as in his Person so in his Relations to them Here are two Titles Even so Lord Iesus He is Lord and he is Iesus He is Lord as a Master and Husband as Sarah called Abraham Lord. As a Master Good Servants will look for their Master 's coming Mat. 24. 46. And surely such a Master should be longed for and looked for for when he comes he will not come empty-handed Behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me Rev. 22. 12. Here Christ's Servants have their Vales but not their Wages Here they have present Maintenance that is all they have now but then they shall have their Reward and Wages here they have their Earnest but then they shall have the full Sum. Under the Law Masters were charged severely not to defraud their Servants of their Hire why He hath lift up his Soul to him that is in the middle of his hard Labours this was his Comfort when the Work of the Day was over he should have his Wages and his Hire at Night So you have lift up your Souls to him the great Pay-Day will come and this hath born you up in all your Labours and Travel of your Soul Therefore as he is our Lord so we should look for him And then as our Husband this is a sweeter Relation The Bride saith Come Rev. 22. 17. We are here contracted and betrothed to Christ I will betroth thee to me Hos. 2. 19. But the Day of solemn Espousals is hereafter Here we are betrothed to Christ in
his Purchase then the godly Christian comes to have his Crown 1 Pet. 5. 4. When the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away He that hath been careful to honour God in his Relation then the great Shepherd comes to put the Crown of Glory which fades not away upon his Head Are the Children of God always in this Frame as to desire his Coming Many tremble at the thoughts of it and can have no comfort for want of Assurance of God's Love and many times the Saints do not feel such Inclinations and such ardent and strong Desires I answer 1. The meanest Saint hath some Inclination this way he cannot but desire Christ should come into his Heart and bless him in turning him from his Sins and that he should come to Judgment since Comfort and Reward is more naturally embraced than Duty Whoever is begotten to God is begotten to a lively Hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. his Heart is carried this way tho not with so much Strength and lively Motions as others are Yet I grant 2. Sometimes there may be a Drowsiness and Indisposition when their Lamps are not burning when they are grown careless and fallen asleep as the wise Virgins slept as well as the foolish by a sluggish Security And the Saints may find themselves indisposed possibly by the remission of their Watchfulness they may contract an Indisposition yet there is a Spirit stirring this way which begins with the new Birth and still continues tho it doth not always alike put forth it self A Wife desires her Husband 's coming home yet it may be all is not in such good Order Now all Christians desire the coming of Christ but they are not so watchful therefore are not so lively Security brings Deadness until God awakens them by some sharp Affliction The Needle that is touched with the Loadstone yet may a little be discomposed and turned aside but it settles again This is the right Posture and Frame of a gracious Soul to be thus earnestly bent and carried out after the coming of Christ. 3. I answer again The Church doth really and heartily desire this Coming tho they may tremble at some Circumstances of it When we think of this great Day and of the Book that shall be opened and the impartial Proceedings there is some degree of Bondage still left in the Saints that doth a little weaken their Confidence and Boldness 1 Iohn 4. 18. we are told Perfect Love casteth out Fear because Fear hath Torment Until our Graces are perfect there is something of Fear APPLICATION Vse 1. To reprove those that do not desire the coming of Christ but put off the thoughts of it why Because it casts a damp upon their fleshly rejoycing Which put far away the Day of the Lord the evil Day it is so to them Amos 6. 3. They wish it would never come and would be glad in their Hearts to hear such News why For Christ's coming is their Torment and Burthen they look upon it as a Vengeance and an evil Day therefore are loth to entertain the thought of it Saith Austin Canst thou pray that the Kingdom of God may come when thou art afraid the Kingdom of God should come A carnal Man cannot say the Lord's Prayer without being afraid they tremble at the remembrance of it they are afraid it should be true and afraid to be heard if it might go by their Voice Christ should never come The Voice of corrupt Nature is Depart from us And what can the Almighty do for them Job 22. 17. Or if they do desire it it is but in a slight formal manner as those in the Prophet that would see the Day of the Lord yet they could not bear it Amos 5. 18. Wo unto you that desire the Day of the Lord to what end is it for you The Day of the Lord is Darkness and not Light They little consider what they are doing and what is their Danger when they are making such a Prayer to God Thy Kingdom come Vse 2. For Trial. How are you affected towards the Coming of Christ Are you carried out with such an Inclination and Bent of Heart as the Day of your Perfection and the Day of your solemn Enjoyment of God Is the Bent of your Heart carried out to things to come If there be looking then there would 1. Be a preparing A Man that expects and desires the coming of a great Person to his House will make all things ready is careful to furnish himself When all is sluttish and nasty and nothing of Provision do you look for your Guest What have you done as to the Day of Christ's Coming Have you judged your selves 1 Cor. 11. 31. If we would judg our selves we should not be judged Have you ever seriously passed Sentence upon your selves according to the Law that you may be found in Christ. Rom. 8. 1. There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ. That you may have Christ's Righteousness to bear you out in that Day against Christ's Judgment Are you so as you would be found in him Do you live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Strict walking is a preparing and providing for this Day you do but provide for Terror when you give way to Sin 2 Pet. 3. 10 11. The Day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the Night therefore what manner of Persons should ye be in all holy Conversation and Godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the Day of God We should be trimming up our Lamps 2. What kind of Entertainment do you give to Christ now Do you entertain him for the present into your Hearts in his Ordinances A Woman that never cares to hear from her Husband doth she long for his Coming O be careful now to get Christ into your Hearts 3. What doth this Expectation produce what revivings in the fore-thoughts of it Iohn 8. 56. Abraham rejoyced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad He means the Day of his Incarnation the Day of his Abode in the World Abraham foresaw by the Eagle-Eye of his Faith through all Mists Clouds Vails and Ceremonies he got a sight of Christ's Day and it did him good at Heart Do the Apprehensions of it make your Hearts spring and leap within you for joy What Groanings Longings what dealing with God about it doth it produce Rom. 8. 19. For the earnest Expectation of the Creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God What Support and Strength doth it give you against the Burthens and Sorrows of this present Life to remember Christ will come Vse 3. To press us to this sweet Affection and Disposition of the Saints I might mention the Profit of it this longing looking and waiting for the coming of Christ it will make us heavenly in our Conversation Christ is there where should we converse most but where Christ is And it makes us faithful in
14. Peace upon Earth Now God offereth Grace and now it is his Will we should come out of our Sins and accept of Christ to the ends for which he hath appointed him And here we must be sanctified else we shall be filthy for evermore Corn grows in the Field but it is laid up in the Barn Now is the time of minding this Work here upon Earth 3. That while we are upon Earth we might long for that happy Estate we shall have in Heaven wherein we might serve God Therefore Christ in his Prayer would have us think how God is glorified and obeyed there that we might send up hearty Wishes after that perfect Estate when we shall serve God without Weariness and without Distraction 4. Upon Earth to shew that we pray not for those in the other World but for those upon Earth We do not pray for the Saints departed they are out of harms way past our Prayers being in their final Estate We pray not for the Dead but for the Living Thus for the first Circumstance in this Petition the place where Secondly There remains nothing but the last and that 's the manner how this is to be done As it is in Heaven Chrysostome observes that this Clause may be referred to all the former Petitions Hallowed be thy Name upon Earth as it is in Heaven Thy Kingdom come upon Earth as it is in Heaven But certainly most proper it is to the matter in hand But what is the sense How is God obeyed in Heaven There are in Scripture three Heavens the Airy Heaven the Starry Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens In all these Heavens God's Will is done God is obeyed in the lower Heaven you shall see in Psal. 148. 8. Fire Hail Snow and Vapours stormy Winds fullfilling his Word Winds and Storms and all those things which seem to be most tempestuous and unruly to be the disorders of Nature they are at God's beck Then in the Starry Heaven vers 6. He hath made a Decree which shall not pass They are under a Law and Statute and are not exorbitant and excentrick do not alter their Path the Sun riseth setts and knows the just point of his Compass But it is chiefly meant of the Heaven of Heavens where Angels and blessed Spirits are and they obey God perfectly Psal. 103. 20 21. Bless the Lord ye his Angels that excel in Strength that do his Commandments hearkening unto the voice of his Word Bless ye the Lord all ye his Hosts ye Ministers of his that do his Pleasure The Angels do his Commandments and are hearkening to the Voice of his Word are at God's beck to be sent up and down to ascend and descend as God will have them so with respect to this doth Christ say Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven But here again why is this added As it is in Heaven 1. To sweeten our Subjection to God's Will We upon Earth are not held to a harder Law and Task than they in Heaven The Angels they are not sui juris at their own dispose They have many Priviledges above Man yet have no Exemption from Homage and Duty to God They have an Exemption and Freedom from Trouble and Sicknesses and Diseases and the necessities of Meat and Drink and all the Molestations and Infirmities of the Flesh which we lie under but are not freed from the Will of God but they obey his Commandments hearkning to the voice of his Word These Courtiers of Heaven are Servants of God and Fellows with us in the same Obedience none is too great to obey God The Angels which excel in Strength they obey his Will and so must we nay they obey his Will with a holy Awe and Fear that they may not displease him in the least for it is said of Michael the Arch-angel Iude vers 9. That he durst not bring against the Devil a railing Accusation but said The Lord rebuke thee He had not boldness to speak one uncomely Word or one unseemly Word to do any thing that was displeasing to God 2. As to sweeten our Obedience so to shew us the Reasonableness of this Obedience We would have the Happiness of the Angels and therefore certainly we should come into a Fellowship in their Duty it is but equal we should imitate their Holiness If we would have Communion with them in Glory we should have Communion also with them in Grace Mat. 22. 30. it is said we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the Angels of God We seek after the same Glory and Happiness which they have to stand before the Lord and to behold his Face that 's their Happiness Surely if we would have the reward of Angels which we upon Earth are aspiring and looking after it is but equal we should do the Work of Angels and write after their Copy 3. Therefore doth Christ use this Comparison that we might not miscarry by a low Example How apt are we to follow the track and to take up with an easy and low rate of Obedience Luke 18. 11. that put great Confidence in that God I thank thee I am not as other Men. Now because we have few Examples in the World and those we have have their Spots and Defects and are very susceptible of Evils and apt to miscarry by them therefore Christ would carry us up to look after a Heavenly and Coelestial Patern he propoundeth the Angelical Perfection as a Patern and Example He that shoots at a Star will shoot higher than he that aims at a Shrub Surely the higher the Patern that we aim at the greater will our Obedience be Wicked Men they think that every thing is enough in Religion though it be never so little but the Godly cannot so easily satisfy themselves they are pressing and hastening on more and more 4. To teach us that we are not only to look to the Quid but to the Quomodo not only to what we do but also in what manner we yield Obedience to God therefore Christ would not teach us to pray only Thy Will be done but as it is in Heaven in such a manner God respects not only the doing of what he hath required but also the manner of it that we may not only do good but well it is the Adverb which crowns the Action We are to consider with what Heart we go about it Prov. 2. 16. The Lord weigheth the Spirits That which he putteth into the Ballance of the Sanctuary is with what Spirit with what Heart we go about the Work that 's it he weigheth and regardeth Now that we may look not only to the matter of Obedience but also to the manner how we do it therefore doth Christ give us this Patern Object But you will say Our Obedience is accompanied with many Defects and Infirmities therefore how can we serve God as the Angels do in Heaven How shall we take Comfort in our Obedience if this be our Patern I answer
1. Though we cannot do it in the same measure yet we should do it in the same manner though there be not an exact Equality yet there should be some answerable Resemblance Our Obedience should not be wholly different in the kind and manner of it from theirs which serve God in Heaven though for the degree and rate we cannot come up to their Patern 2. Though we do not attain to this Perfection in this Life yet we must aim after it long for it and pray for it Aim after it not sluggishly content our selves with any low degrees of Obedience but aim at the highest And to long for it there is a time coming when we shall be perfect when we shall be not only as the Angels are but as Christ is We shall be like him 1 John 3. 2. And we pray for that on Earth what is expected in Heaven we pray for what we do expect from the final and consummate Estate when we shall be as the Angels of God and perfectly do his Will I come to the Points they are three 1. It concerns them very much that would in Prayer own God as a Father and pretend a respect to his Glory and Kingdom to see that his Will be done here upon Earth 2. It is the Lord that giveth to will and to do those things which are pleasing in his sight 3. God doth not only look to this that his Will be done but to the manner how it is done 1. It concerneth them very much that would in Prayer own God as a Father and pretend a respect to his Glory and Kingdom to see that his Will be done here upon Earth I shall prove it First By the Arguments intimated in the Point 1. As we pray to God we should see his Will be done upon a double account as real and successful 1. As we would express a Reality and Sincerity in Prayer They mock God that pray they might do his Will yet have no care to do it that declaim against their Lusts yet hug them and keep them warm in their Bosoms We oftner pray from our Memories than our Consciences and oftner from our Consciences than our Affections from our Memory as we repeat Words by rote without sence or feeling or Consideration of the Importance of them From our Consciences rather than Affections Austin observes of himself while he was under the Power of his Lusts he would pray against Concupiscence but his Heart would say at noli modo timebam enim ne me exaudiret Deus but Lord not yet for I am afraid lest God should hear me Conscience tells us that such things must be done and asked thus we put a little of our Conscience in Prayer but nothing of Affection and serious Desire Many would be loth God should take them at their words when they seem to resign up themselves to his Will and think of parting with their Lusts it is bitter and irksome to them as Phaltiel Michal's Husband went after her going and weeping 2 Sam. 3. 16. Now if we would manifest our Prayers to be real we should labour to perform the same otherwise we are but like those Souldiers which spate upon Christ and buffeted him yet cry'd Hail King of the Iews so it is but a mockage to say Thy Will be done yet have no care to do it Matth. 15. 8. This People draweth nigh unto me with their Mouth and honoureth me with their Lips but their Heart is far from me There is no Reality in the Prayer whatever be in it if the Heart be not in it Some Men's Prayers are but the Fruit of Wit and Memory others but the result of their Iudgments what is fit to be done rather than of their Hearts what they desire to be done and they are only good so far as they do more solemnly express God's Right not their inward Desires 2. If we would have our Prayers successful Psal. 66. 18. If I regard Iniquity in my Heart the Lord will not hear me Clearly if we will not do Godâ—s Will there is no reason he should regard our Will If I regard Iniquity in my Heart there may be Sin in the Heart but if I regard it there God will not hear me if I entertain an Affection to it When the Wind blows some cold Air will get into the Chamber though the Door be shut never so close but to leave the Door open for it doth not argue such a care of Health as is requisite There will be Sin in the Children of God but it is not allowed Love to any known Sin makes our Prayers to God to be without success So Prov. 28. 9. He that turneth away his Ear from hearing the Law even his Prayer shall be Abomination God useth often the Law of Retaliation will pay home Sinners in their own Coin we will not hear him therefore he will not hear us The same Argument we have to urge to God in Prayer that God hath to urge to us for Duty and Obedience What Argument will you use to awaken your Confidence and Affection By the Blood of Christ we have boldness to come to him Heb. 10. 19. and Eph. 3. 12. This is not only an Argument to be urged in Expectation of Mercy but also in the enforcement of Duty when God beseecheth you by the Bowels of Christ to do his Will and to mind his Work If the Blood of Christ cannot prevail with us to bring us up to the Will of God how can we expect it should prevail with God to bring us in Returns of Blessing When God speaks we slight him therefore when we speak God may cast off our Prayers God speaks more wisely to us than we can to him we stammer and lisp and speak foolishly in our Prayers to God There is far more reason why we should hear God than God hear us For there is more Equity in his Precepts than there is Reason in our Prayers and we are bound to obey God's Will more than he is to grant our Request and therefore if we would not have God turn away his Ear from our Prayers we should not turn away our Ears from hearing his Law and Counsel John 9. 31. Now we know that God heareth not Sinners but if any Man be a Worshipper of God and doth his Will him he heareth It is a general Maxime Those which were ready to deprave Christ's Actions were possest of the Truth of this If any worship him and do his Will him he heareth Joh. 9. 32. It is not enough to keep up a form of worshipping but we must be tender of his Will that 's the way to get a gracious Answer Thus as we pray we are bound 2. As God's Children so we must do his Will Mal. â— 6. If I be a Father where is mine Honour and if I be a Master where is my Fear Relations to God are not bare Titles and grounds whereby we may expect favour from God but they carry in their Bosom
such a Right as sollicited Vengeance But the Right Christ purchased was a gracious Right that God might protect and preserve us Well then if Christ purchased Body and Soul he hath obtained not only that God should be gracious to our Souls but gracious to our Bodies then the Argument runs clearly for confirming the Faith of the Saints in expectation of temporal Benefits 2. God hath given us greater things therefore he will not stand upon the less when a Man hath been at great Cost he will not lose it The Lord hath given us his Christ Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his own his Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all Things Can any Man be so illogical so ill-skilled in Consequences as not to conclude from thence if God give us Christ with him he will give us all things So Mat. 6. 33. Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and all other Things shall be added to you 3. These things are dispensed to inferior yea to the worst of his Creatures Psal. 147. 9. He giveth to the Beast his Food and to the young Ravens which cry Will God maintain the Beasts of the Field and will he not maintain his Children It is monstrous and unnatural to think thus that God will not support you and bear you out in your Work This is Christ's own Argument Mat. 6. 34. Take therefore no thought for the Morrow for the Morrow shall take thought for the Things of it self Sufficient unto the Day is the Evil thereof Daily Bread is in your Father's Power and he gives it graciously to all his Creatures and therefore certainly he will give it to you Thus you may see with what Confidence you may expect daily Supplies Secondly It informs us that we may ask temporal Things if we ask them lawfully It is true Prayers to God for spiritual Things are more acceptable As your Child pleaseth you better when it comes to you to be taught its Book rather than when it comes for an Apple So it is more pleasing to God when you come for the Mediator's Blessing and spiritual Things Acts 3. 26. God hath sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his Iniquities But yet we may ask other Things why For they are good and useful to us in the Course of our Service and without them we are exposed to many Temptations And Prayer easeth you of a deal of carking about them Phil. 4. 6. Be careful for nothing but in every Thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your Requests be made known unto God We may ask them but it must be lawfully and that for Order not in the first place That is howling when we come to God meerly for Corn Wine and Oil when we prefer these Things before his Favour and the Graces of his Spirit Then it must be lawful too as to the Manner a moderate Proportion not to set God a Task to maintain you at such a rate but to ask a moderate Allowance Christ teacheth us here to pray for Bread which is a necessary Allowance Prov. 30. 8. Feed me with Food convenient for me And 1 Tim. 6. 8. If we have Food and Raiment let us therewith be content And then ask them with Humility and Submission to the Will of God We ought to say as in Iam. 4. 15. If the Lord will we will go to such a Place and get Gain And then lawfully too as to the End not for an unlawful End for Ostentation and Riot that we may live at large and at ease Jam. 4. 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your Lusts. But we must ask it for a good End Psal. 115. 1. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give Glory for thy Mercy and for thy Truths sake Lord not for our Ease or our Plenty but that thy Name may be glorified that we may be supported in Service And then again lawfully as to the Plea We must not come and challenge it as if it were our Due we must not use the Plea of Merit but of Mercy Our Saviour doth not say Let this Bread come to us any how as he saith Let thy Will be done our Subjection to God is due but Give us this day our daily Bread acknowledging the Lord's Mercy Vse 2. Let us not place our Confidence in second Causes but in God by whose Goodness and Providence over us all temporal Things do come unto us for without him all our Carking and Labour is nothing and if we have our Wishes without Labour yet we shall not have our Comfort and Blessing without God Mat. 6. 27. Which of you by taking thought can add one Cubit unto his Stature By taking thought he meaneth anxious Care about Success We cannot change the Colour of a Hair by all our anxious Thoughts We cannot make our selves stronger or taller Many a Man is pierced through with worldly Cares and still the World frowns upon him so all his Care comes to nothing Prov. 10. 4. it is said The Hand of the Diligent maketh rich compare it with vers 22. and it is said The Blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no Sorrow with it Most commonly they that are diligent they thrive with their Diligence yea but if that be all if they have not the Lord's Blessing they have not that Sweetness and Peace when they have gotten Abundance O therefore let us place our Confidence not in second Causes but in God Vse 3. Let us be thankful to God for these vvorldly Things that vve enjoy I urge this First Because of the Danger of Ingratitude Usually we never forget God more than when he remembreth us most When Men have what they would have then God is neglected they grow careless in Prayer or flat and cold in the performance of it There is a great deal of difference between Men poor and rich When poor they will seem to put a natural Fervency into their Prayers but when rich they grow cold and careless Mark what the Lord saith Hosea 13. 6. They were â—illed and their Heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten me O how frequent is this that many having been kept under a great Sense of God in a low Condition but when they have been well at ease then they bear it up as if they could live without God the Bucket comes to the River with an empty Mouth gaping to receive its Fulness as it were but when it is full the Bottom is turned towards it So it is very usual with Men to turn their Backs upon the Mercy-Seat and when the Lord hath given them great Increase in worldly Things and leased out a great Estate to them he hath very little Rent from them Now because this is usual therefore those whom God hath blessed with the Supplies of the present Life how
us over-born with Sollicitude but look no further than this day 6. Christ would teach us that worldly things should be sought in a moderate Proportion if we have sufficient for a day for the present Want we should not grasp at too much Ships lightly loaden will pass through the Sea but when we take too great a burden the Ship will easily sink with every Storm We have sore Troubles to pass through in the World now when we are over-burdened with present things we have more Snares and Temptations 7. Christ would train us up with thoughts of our Lives Vncertainty Iames 4. 13. say not This and this I will do to day or to morrow What is your Life it is but a Vapor One being invited to Dinner the next day said for these many Years I have not had a to-morrow meaning he was providing every day for his last day We do not know whether we have another day but are apt to sing Lullabies to our Souls and say Soul take thine Ease thou hast Goods laid up for many Years Luke 12. 19. We are sottishly secure and dream of many Years whereas God tells us only of to day 8. To awaken us after heavenly things When we seek Bread for the present Life then give us this day but now come to me saith Christ and I will give you Bread that shall nourish you to eternal Life Bread that endureth for ever Iohn 6. 27. Labour not for the Meat which perisheth but for that Meat which endureth unto everlasting Life There is Meat that will endure for ever but for the present we beg only for this day 1 Pet. 1. 4. To an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you That 's an eternal State this is but of a short and of a small continuance You see what need you have to go to God that he will most plentifully provide for you And forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtoâ—s WE have now done with the Supplication of this Prayer and are come to the Deprecations The Supplications are those Petitions which we make to God for obtaining of that which is good The Deprecations are those Petitions we make to God for removing of that which is evil Now of this latter sort there are two 1. We pray for the Remission of Evil that is already committed 2. We pray for the prevention of the Evil which may be inflicted The first of these is the Petition we have now in hand Here 1. The Petition is proposed Forgive us our Debts 2. 'T is confirmed by an Argument As we forgive our Debtors In the first take notice 1. Of the Object or Matter of this Petition and that is Debts 2. The Subject or Persons praying Vs. 3. The Person to whom we pray our Heavenly Father who alone can forgive our Sins 4. The Act of God about this Object Forgive Then the Petition is confirmed by an Argument which is taken from our forgiving of others In which there 's an Argument 1. A Simili from a like Disposition in us Thus what is good in us was first in God for he is the Patern of all Perfection If we have such a Disposition planted in our Hearts and if it be a Vertue in us surely the same Disposition is in God for the first being wanteth no Perfection 2. The Argument may be taken à dispari or à minori ad majus from the less to the greater If we that have but a drop of Mercy can forgive the Offences done to us surely the infinite God that is Mercy it self he hath more Bowels and more Pity For his ways are above our ways as high as the Heaven is above the Earth Isa. 55. 9. So it seems the Argument is propounded Luke 11. 4. Forgive us our Sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us 3. The Argument may be taken from the Condition or the Qualification of those that are to expect Pardon They are such that out of a sense of God's Mercy to them and the Love of God shed abroad in their Hearts are inclined and disposed to shew Mercy to others So Christ explains it vers 14. making it a Condition or Qualification on our part If ye forgive Men their Trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you But this will be more abundantly clear when I come to examine that Clause Before we come to the Petition it self the Connection is to be considered for the Particle And links it to the former Petition After Hallowed be thy Name he doth not say And thy Kingdom come they are propounded as distinct Sentences but Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our Debts for three Reasons 1. Without Pardon all the good Things of this Life will do us no good They are but as a full Diet or as a rich Suit to a condemned Person they will not comfort him and allay his present Fears Until we are pardoned we are under a Sentence ready for Execution and therefore we cannot have that Comfort in outward Things until we have some Interest in God's fatherly Mercy A Man that is condemned hath the King's Allowance until Execution So it is the Indulgence of God to a wicked Man to give him many outward Things tho he is condemned already We should not satisfy our selves with daily Bread without a sense of some Interest in pardoning Mercy 2. To shew us our Unworthiness Our Sins are so many and grievous that we are not worthy of one Morsel of Bread to put in our Mouths When we say Give us this day c. we need presently to say Forgive us our Sins There is a Forfeiture even of these common Blessings Gen. 32. 10. I am not worthy of the least of all the Mercies and of all the Truth which thou hast shewed unto thy Servant All that we have we have from Mercy and it is Mercy undeserved As we are Creatures there can be no common Right between God and us to engage him to give temporal Blessings for we owe our selves wholly to him as being created out of nothing Children cannot oblige their Parents But much more as we are guilty Creatures it is meerly of the Mercy of the Lord. 3. These are join'd together because Sin is the great Obstacle and Hindrance of all the Blessings which we expect from God Ier. 5. 25. Your Sins have with-held good Things from you When Mercy comes to us Sin stands in the way and turns it back again so that it cannot have so clear a Passage to us Therefore God must forgive before he can give that is bestow these outward Things as a Blessing on us Having spoken of this Connexion let me observe something from the Petition it self The first Thing I shall observe is the Notion by which Sin is set out Forgive us our Debts The Point is Doct. I. That Sins come under the Notion of Debts In Luke 11. 4. it is Forgive us our
wicked Wretch takes advantage against David and rails at him yet David forgives him when restored to his Crown He shall not die 2 Sam. 19. 23. Nay he sware to him So his Estate When a Debtor is not able to pay and yet submits So Paul bids Philemon to forgive the Wrongs of Onesimus Put it on my Score Philem. Vers. 18. that is for my sake forgive this Wrong 3. We must be ready to perform all Offices of Love to them Luke 6. 27. Love your Enemies do good to them which hate you Mark do not only forbear to execute your Wrath and Revenge upon them but do good to them yea tho they be Enemies upon a religious ground tho Religion be made a Party in the Quarrel and so engage us to the greater Fury when that which should bridle our Passions is the Fuel of them Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you Mat. 5. 44. Miriam when she had wronged Moses yet he falls a praying for her Numb 12. 13. that the Lord would forgive the Sin and heal her For the Reasons why those that would rightly pray to be forgiven of God must forgive others It should be so it will be so there is a Congruency and a Necessity 1. The Congruency it should be so It is fit that he that beggeth Mercy should shew Mercy it is exceedingly congruous For this is a general Rule That we should do as we would be done unto and therefore if we need Mercy from God we should shew Mercy to others and without it we can never pray in Faith He that doth not exercise Love can never pray in Faith why His own revengeful Disposition will still prejudice his Mind and make him conclude against the Audience of his Prayers for certainly we muse on others as we use our selves And that 's one reason of our Unbelief why we are so hardly brought to believe all that tender Mercy which is in God because 't is so irksom to us to forgive seven times a day we are apt to frame our Conclusions according to the Dispositions of our own Heart Can we think God will forgive when we our selves will not forgive A Man 's own Prayers will be confuted What is more equal than to do as we would be done unto And therefore it is but equal if he entreat Mercy for himself he should shew it unto others Look as the Centurion reasoned of God's Power from the Command that he had over his Souldiers Mat. 8. 9. I am a Man under Authority and I say to one Go and he goeth and to another Come and he cometh Those things we are accustomed to they are apt to run in our Minds when we come to think of God Now he that kept his Souldiers under Discipline that if he said Go they go he reasons thus of God Surely God hath Power to chase away Diseases So accordingly should we reason of God's Mercy according to the Mercy that we find in our selves Therefore it is very notable that when Christ had spoken of forgiving our Brethren not only seven times but seventy times seven the Disciples said unto the Lord Increase our Faith Luke 17. 5. How dotâ— this come in In the 4 th Verse Christ had spoken that they should forgive not only seven times but seventy times seven and they do not say Lord increase our Charity but our Faith implying that we cannot have such large thoughts of God when our own Hearts are so straitned by Revenge and our private Passions 2. In point of Necessity as it should be so so it will be so for God's Mercy will have an Influence upon us to make us merciful All God's Actions to us imprint their stamp in us his Election of us makes us to choose him and his ways his Love to us makes us love him again who hath loved us first so his forgiving of us makes us to forgive our Brethren There is an answerable Impression left upon the Soul to every act of God why for a true Believer is God's Image The new Man is created after God Eph. 4. 24. and therefore he acts as God Certainly if there be such a Disposition in our Heavenly Father it will be in us if we have an Interest in him Look as a Child hath Part for Part and Limb for Limb answerable to his Father tho not so big in Stature and Bulk so hath a Child of God which is created after God he hath all the Divine Perfections in some measure in his Soul And this Consideration is of more force because the New-Creature cannot be maimed and defective in every Part but is entire lacking nothing And therefore if God forgive others certainly the Godly will be inclinable to forgive too Vse 1. Here 's a ground of Tryal whether we are pardoned or no. Is our revengeful Disposition that is so natural and so pleasing to us mortified That 's one Trial or Evidence whether we are forgiven of God can we freely from the Heart forgive others Object But it may be objected against this Do you place so much in this property of forgiving others It doth not agree only to pardoned Sinners because we see some Carnal Men are of a weak and stupid Spirit not sensible of Injuries And on the other side many of God's Children find it hard to obtain to the perfect Oblivion of Injuries that is required of them Answ. As to the first part I answer We do not speak of this Disposition as proceeding from an easy Temper but as it proceedeth from Grace when in Conscience towards God and out of a Sense of his Love to us in Christ our Hearts being tendered and melted towards others to shew them such Mercy as we our selves have received from the Lord that 's the Evidence And again we do not press to judg by this Evidence single and alone but in Conjunction with others when they are humbly Penitent and confessing their Sins and turn to the Lord which is the great Evangelical Condition Job 33. 27. If any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not Then will he restore light to him When a Man is soundly touched with remorse and seeth the folly of his former Courses and asketh Pardon of God then is God gracious to him But this is that we say that this Disposition of Pardon in Conjunction with the great Evangelical Condition of Faith and Repentance it helpeth to make the Evidence more clear 2. As to the other part of the Objection which was this it will be a great weakening of the Confidence of God's Children who cannot get such a perfect Oblivion of Injuries they have received but find their Minds working too much this way I answer As long as we live in the World there will be Flesh and Spirit Corruption as well as Grace there will be an intermixture of the Operations of each Carnal Nature is prone to Revenge but Grace prevaileth and inclineth to a Pardon
Well then if this be the prevalent Inclination of the Soul and that which we strive by all good Means to cherish in us this meek Disposition passing by of Wrongs we receive by others then we may take Comfort by this Evidence tho there be some reluctancies and regrudgings of the old-Nature Vse 2. To press us to this ready Inclination to forgive Wrongs and Injuries We are not so perfect but we all need it from one another There will be mutual Offences while we are in the World especially in a time when Religious Differences are on Foot therefore it concerns us to look after this Disposition of forgiving others as we would be forgiven of God Human Society cannot well be upheld without this mutual Forbearance and Forgiving Now imitate your Heavenly Father No Man can wrong us so much as we daily trespass against him and yet God pardoneth us He doth not only pardon the lesser Failings some Venial Errors and Sins of Incogitancy and sudden Surreption which creep upon us we know not how but he pardons the greatest Sins tho they be as Scarlet Isa. 1. 18. Those that are of a Crimson hue God can wash them out in the Blood of Christ. And mark what is it then that you will stand upon Is it the greatness of the Offence God pardons great Sins Or is it the baseness of those that injure you this is the Circumstance When we have received wrong from those which are our Inferiors that owe us more Reverence and Respect What are we to God Notwithstanding the baseness of those which affront him daily all Men to him are but as the drop of the Bucket and the small Dust of the Ballance Isa. 40. 15. yet God pardons them And then again cast in the consideration of God's Omnipotency He is able to right himself of the wrongs done to him and no Man can call him to an account Many times it is not in our Power He can cast Body and Soul into Hell Mat. 10. 28. God is thus offended and by sawcy Dust that is ready to fly in his Face inconsiderable Man and yet the Lord pardons and this he doth freely Luke 7. 42. He frankly forgave them both And he pardons fully as if it were never committed Mich. 7. 19. He casts all our Sins into the Depths of the Sea Then he pardons frequently His Free Gift is of many Offences unto Iustification Rom. 5. 16. And he multiplies to pardon Isa. 55. 7. And mark he pardons too in some sence before they Repent there 's a Purpose he provided Christ before we were born And he gives us Grace to repent or else we could never humble our selves at his Feet the offended God he gives them the Grace whereby they shall acknowledg the Offence Christ prayed for his Persecutors when they had no sense of the Injury they had done him they were converted by that Prayer afterwards Luke 23. 34. Father forgive them for they know not what they do therefore certainly much more when they repent and submit Oh therefore let us not be drawn hardly to this Duty or at least we should not upon every petty Offence cherish Hatred and Rancor against our Brethren But here are certain Cases that would come into debate First Case Whether it be consistent with this Temper forgiving of others to seek reparation of wrongs in a way of Justice and pursue Men at Law for Offences they have committed against us Answer Yes For 1. Certainly one Law doth not cross another By the Law of Charity the Law of Iustice is not made void A Magistrate tho he be a Christian and bound to forgive others is not bound up from executing his Office against publick Offenders Nor yet are private Men tyed from having recourse to the Magistrate for restoration to their Right or reparation of their Wrong For to demand ones Right is not contrary to Love nor to seek to amend and humble the Party Nocent by the Magistrates Authority who is the Minister of God for Good Rom. 13. 4. And that others may hear and fear Deut. 19. 20. And the Party damnified may for the future live in Peace Forgiving is an Act of private Jurisdiction The Offence as far as it is private to us it may be forgiven but there are many such Offences as are not only an Offence to us but to the Publick Order and that must be left to the Process of the Law 2. Whosoever useth this Remedy must look to his own Heart that he be not acted with private Revenge nor with a Spirit of Rigor or Rankor against the Party offending but that he be carried out with Zeal to Justice with pity to the Person that he and others may not be hardned in Sin For this is the general Law of Christ That all things should be done in Love 1 Cor. 16. 14. Therefore when we are acted by our private Passion and secret desires of Revenge we abuse God's Ordinance of Magistracy and make it to Lacquey upon our Lusts. And therefore there must be a taking heed to the frame of our own Hearts that they be upright in these things Tho it seem hard to Flesh and Blood yet remember Flesh and Blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Grace must frame your Hearts to the Obedience of God's Will 3. These Remedies from Authority must be in weighty Cases and in matters of moment and importance Their contending in Law one with another about the smallest matters is that which the Apostle taxeth 1 Cor. 6. 7. Not upon every trifling occasion It must be after other means are tryed and used as the help of Friends to compound the matter for Charity tryeth all things 1 Cor. 13. 4. And the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 6. 5. Is there none to judg between you that is none to decide and arbitrate the difference for the refuge to Authority should be our last Remedy And it must be too when the Party wronging is able to make Satisfaction otherwise it is Rigor and Inhumanity 2 Kings 4 1. As When the Creditors came to take the Sons of the Widow for Bondmen When you are rigorous with those that come to Poverty not by their own Default but by the discharge of their Duty brought Poverty upon themselves 't is contrary to Christianity Look as Physicians deal with Quick-Silver after many Distillations they make it useful in Medicines So after many preparations is this Course to be taken 2. Another Case Whether in forgiving Injuries we are bound to tarry for the Repentance of the Party The ground of doubting is because Christ saith Luke 17. 3. If thy Brother trespass against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him and because of God's Example who doth not forgive an obstinate Sinner but him that repents Certainly even before Repentance we are bound to lay aside Revenge and in many cases to go and reconcile our selves with others Saith our Saviour If thou hast ought against any one go reconcile
Afflictions when things fall cross to our Desires and we know not what Evil waits for us how should we do to behave our selves 1. Be not over confident or over diffident Not over confident in running beyond the bounds of our Calling to cast our selves into Dangers and Hazards of Temptation Nor over diffidâ—nt by base flying from or giving way when God calls for valiant Resistance Both ways is the Devil likely to assault us either by making us fool-hardy So Satan seeks to drive us beyond the bounds of our Calling to put us out of our Place that we may be a Prey to him As Men use to trouble the Water that they may rouse the Fish and draw them into the Snare and drive them out of places of Safety where they rest so the Devil seeks to put us out of our Safety Peter would needs come to Christ Mat. 14. 28. Lord if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the Water and we see he sinks before he could accomplish his Purpose So when we are over-confident and run out of our Calling upon Hazards then we are ever and anon ready to sink But we should not turn back when God calls us to a valiant Resistance Should such a Man as I flee Neh. 6. 11. Observe Peter's dastardliness when he ventures without a Call into the Priests-Hall a Question of the Damsels overturns him He that was so Cowardly when he was out of his Way look upon his Boldness when he was in his Work Acts 4. 7. unto vers 13. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John they marvelled Iohn was the Disciple of Love and Peter was the Fearful Disciple yet how full of Boldness Courage and Zeal when they were called and singled out to give proof of the reality of God's Grace And therefore we should never be over-forward nor over-backward but own God in his Truth when we are in our Calling Let not Satan bring you out of your Place to cast your selves as a prey to him 2. In an Hour of Temptation we should be more solicitous about Duties than Events and about Sins than Dangers As to Events God is concerned as well as you and he will order them for his own Glory It should be your great care that you may be kept blameless to his Heavenly Kingdom 2 Tim. 4. 17 18. The Lord that hath delivered me out of the Mouth of the Lion shall deliver me from every evil Work and will preserve me unto his Heavenly Kingdom However God deal with you as to Events and whatever Dangers attend you this should be your care mainly that you may not sin but be kept blameless David often begged direction that he might be guided in his trouble and not faulter and do any thing unseemly 3. Be more jealous of Satan's Wiles than of his open Assaults Natural Courage and the bravery of a common and ordinary Resolution together with deep engagement of Credit and Interest may do much to make us stand out against Assaults against open Force and Violence of Evil Men but there needs a great deal of Judgment to stand out against the Wiles and Crafts of the Devil Flesh and Blood will not so easily bear us out against the secret Insnarings of the Heart The young Prophet doth thunder out his Message against the King 1 Kings 13. 3. yet was enticed by the Wiles of the old Prophet So we may stand out against an open Assault and apparent Violence but take heed of the secret Wiles of Satan 4. The Wiles of Satan are to inforce and draw us into those Corruptions which are incident to the Season Here 's the great Point of Spiritual Wisdom to be seasoned in our Mortification and to withstand the Spiritual Evil that is apt to grow upon us in the time of our Fears Psalm 56. 3. What time I am afraid I will trust in thee Then our great Business is to cherish our dependance upon God to prevent distrust and unbelieving Thoughts of God's Providence As on the other side in a Time when we are likely to be corrupted with ease and prosperity then our Business is to watch against security and deadness of Heart which is apt to grow upon us As Nazianzen said When things go prosperous with me I read the Lamentations of Ieremiah I remember the mournful Passages which befal the People of God and that 's my Cure So to prevent despondency in a time of Fears to encourage our Souls to dependance Now when our Wills are crossed Dangers attend us on every side and we know not how far Evil will break out to the overturning of all What are the Sins incident to such a time of trouble and how do the Wiles of Satan come upon us 1. Impatience Gen. 30. 1. when the Will of Rachel was crossed she said unto Iacob Give me Children or else I die When we impatiently fret against the Lord Psalm 37. 1. Fret not thy self because of evil Doers neither be thou envious against the workers of Iniquity 2. Murmuring and repining against the Lord that 's another Snare Jonah 4. 9. I do well to be angry even unto Death when he was crossed Discontent at God's Providence gratifieth Satan exceedingly when we will justify our selves and think it a kind of Zeal to be angry and pett against Providence 3. A Spirit of Revenge against Instruments when we do not sweetly calm the Heart with the remembrance of God's Hand 2 Sam. 16. 9. Why should this dead Dog curse my Lord the King Let me go over I pray thee and take off his Head Thus when wicked Men disturb Order the Heart is apt to rise in revenge therefore we are to calm our Hearts 4. There 's fainting in Duty when we begin to give over Prayer and are discouraged and are loth to wrestle with God in an Ordinance Heb. 12. 12. Lift up the Hands which hang down and the feeble Knees When a Man's Hands begin to wax feeble and he is discouraged in the Ways of the Lord My Foot had well-nigh slipt saith David Psal. 73. 2. 5. There 's closing with sinful means and running to them for an escape As Saul when he was crossed 1 Sam. 28. 7. Seek me a Woman that hath a Familiar Spirit that I may go to her and enquire of her When we go to carnal Shifts and unworthy Means these are very natural to us 6. Despair and distrustful Thoughts of God though we have had much experience of his Goodness David 1 Sam. 27. 1. I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul after all his experience 7. Questioning our Interest in God by reason of Crosses or the doubtful posture of our Affairs Judges 6. 13. If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us These are the Wiles of Satan Ride out the Storm upon Gospel-Encouragements This will bear us up it is but a moment to Eternity It is but a light Affliction and will work for us a far more
culpae but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never but Evil of Fault And we need not anxiously dispute whether the one or the other for one cannot be understood without respect to the other Therefore I shall take it in a general sence That Evil which results from Temptations whether they arise from Satan the World or our own Hearts From the words thus opened the Points will be two First That while we are in this Valley of Tears and Snares we should with earnestness and confidence pray to be delivered from Evil. Secondly To be kept from the Evil of Sin is a greater Mercy than to be kept from the trouble of Temptation I observe the first Point because Christ thus directed us to pray to God The second Because the Evil of Sin is intended For the First We should pray with earnestness because of our Danger and with Confidence because of God's undertaking The Lord Jesus knows what Requests are most acceptable to his Father Now when he would give a perfect Pattern and Platform of Prayer he bids you pray thus Deliver us from Evil. Nay we have not only Christ's Direction but Christ's Example John 17. 15. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the World but that thou shouldst keep them from the Evil. He did not absolutely pray for an exemption from Temptation though he knew the World would be a tempestuous Place that his People must expect strong Assaults Lord take them not out of the World but keep them from the Evil so here Deliver us from Evil. First We should pray with Earnestness because of our Danger from the Enemies of our Salvation which are the Devil the World and the Flesh In respect of all which we pray to be delivered from Evil. 1. From the Evil which the Devil designs against us Both bad and good Men have need to make this Prayer Bad Men have need Good Men will have a Heart certainly to pray thus to God if they consider their Danger 1. Natural and unconverted Men they are under the Power of the Devil if they were sensible of it for the Devils are said to be Rulers of the Darkness of this World Ephes. 6. 12. By which is meant the Wicked Ignorant and carnal part of the World whether they live in Gentilism or within the Pale and Line of Christ's Communion over all those that live in their unrenewed state of Sin and Ignorance over all these Satan hath an Empire and Dominion And mark when God carried on his Kingdom in in a way of sensible Manifestation by Visions Oracles and Miracles So did Satan visibly govern the Pagan World by Apparitions Oracles lying Wonders and sensible manifestations of himself But now when God's Kingdom is Spiritual The Kingdom of God is within you Luke 17. 21. So by proportion Satan's Kingdom is Spiritual too he rules in the Hearts of Men though they little think of it All natural Men whether they be Pagans or Christians though outwardly and apparently they may renounce the Devil's Kingdom and do not seem to have such open communion with him as the Gentiles that consult with his Oraclâ—s and were instructed by his Apparitions acted by his Power and offered Sacrifice to him But Spiritually all natural Men are under the Devil for 1 Io. 3. 8. He that committeth Sin is of the Devil that is he belongeth to him How is he of the Devil They are his Children Acts 13. 10. O thou Child of the Devil And they are his Subjects he ruleth in them he hath a Kingdom among Men which by all means he goeth about to maintain Mat. 12. 26. If Satan be divided against himself how then can his Kingdom stand And they are his Work-houses he worketh in them Ephes. 2. 2. The Spirit that worketh in the Children of Disobedience The Devil is hard at work in a wicked Man's Heart framing Evil Thoughts Carnal Motions urging them to break God's Laws drawing them on to more Sin and Villany fills their Hearts with lying and all manner of Sins Acts 5. 3. Why hath Satan filled thine Heart to lie to the Holy Ghost He binds them with Prejudices and will not suffer them to hearken to the Glorious Gospel 2 Cor. 4. 4. In whom the God of this World hath blinded the Minds of them which believe not lest the Light of the Glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them He blinds and holds them captive at his Will and Pleasure their Souls are fettered 2 Tim. 2. 26. And sometimes he oppresses their Bodies for Satan carrieth on his Kingdom by Force Tyranny Fears and Bondage and therefore it is said Acts 10. 38. That Christ went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil Yet further as God's Executioner he hath the Power over Death for their torment Heb. 2. 14. That through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil And unless the Lord be merciful he never ceaseth carrying on wicked Men until both they and he are for ever in Hell Mat. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels All this is spoken to shew Carnal Men their Condition O that they would seriously think of it When they do Evil when they slight the Motions of God's Grace they are under Satan and not only by force as a Child of God may be sometimes but they are willingly ignorant 2 Pet. 3. 5. The more willingly we commit Sin still the more we are under the Power of the Devil Well then if any have need to say Deliver us from Evil certainly unrenewed Carnal Men have need to go to God and say Lord pluck us out of Evil as the same Expression is used Col. 1. 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of Darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who hath delivered us with a strong hand O go to God in the Name of Christ there is no way of escape until God pluck you out by main force And mark this Power by which we are delivered God conveyeth by the preaching of the Word which was appointed to turn us from Darkness unto Light and from the Power of Satan unto God Act. 26. 18. and therefore hearken to God's Counsels before your Condition grow incurable and wait upon the Ordinances for the more you neglect and contemn the means of your Recovery your misery increaseth upon you for every day you are still more given up to Satan by the just Judgment of God and to be captivated and taken by him at his will and pleasure by the Snares he sets for you 2. Good Men or God's own Children though they are delivered from the Power of Satan and brought into the Kingdom of Christ yet they are not wholly free in this World but are sometimes caught by Satan's Wiles Ephes. 6. 11. sometimes wounded by his fiery Darts ver 16. Their Lusts and their Consciences are sometimes set a raging though he hath no allowed
but the Preface and the Conclusion and then you have a full Description of God Look upon him as an Eternal Being whose is the Kingdom absolute Right to dispose of all things in the World backed with All sufficiency and Strength And look upon him as your Father that is in Heaven for Our Father which art in Heaven relates to Christ that is in the heavenly Sanctuary appearing before God for us This will help you in your Conceptions of God that you may not be puzled nor intangled in Prayer 3. It directs us as to the Manner of praying with Reverence with Self-abhorrency and with Submission 1. With Reverence for he is a great powerful and glorious King Thine is the Kingdom Power and Glory O shall we serve God then in a slight and careless Fashion Mal. 1. 8. If ye offer the Blind the Lame and Sick for Sacrifice is it not evil Offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy Person saith the Lord of Hosts Go to an Earthly King would you come to him with rude Addresses not thinking what to say tumbling out Words without Sence and Understanding And compare this with Vers. 14. saith God when they brought him a sickly Offering I am a great King implying it is a lessening of his Majesty You do as it were dethrone God you put him besides his Kingdom you do not treat him as he doth deserve if you do not come into his presence with a holy Trembling 2. With Self-abhorrency and a Sense of your own Nothingness I observe this because all the Arguments in Prayer are not taken from us but from what is in God from his Attributes Thine is the Kingdom Power and Glory It is a blessed thing to have God's Attributes on our side to take an Argument from God when we can take none from our selves Christ teacheth us to come with Self-denial The two first Words Kingdom and Power shew that all things come from God as the first Cause and the last Word Thine is the Glory shews all must be referred to God as the last End So that Self must be cast out So that all the Reasons of Audience and Acceptance are without us not from within us Dan. 9. 8 9. To us belongeth Confusion of Face to the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgivenesses Therefore thus it directs us to place all our Confidence in God's fatherly Affection in his Power Goodness and Glory and in his absolute Authority nothing to move God from our selves 3. To come with Submission Thine is the Kingdom that is he hath an absolute Power to dispose of all Blessings therefore it is lawful for him to do with his own as he pleaseth We must come not murmuring or prescribing to God but expecting the fulfilling of our desires as it shall seem good to the Lord according to his Wisdom and Power by which he exercises his Kingdom over all Things as may be for the Glory of his Name Psal. 115. 1. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give Glory for thy Mercy and for thy Truths sake Not to satisfy our Revenge not to gratify our private Interest and Passions but Lord for thy Name-sake as may be for manifesting thy Mercy and Truth so do it Not too passionate for our own Ends but confident that God who hath the Kingdom and Government of the World in his own hands will administer and carry on all Things for his own Glory 4. It directs us again what are the Duties of the Persons praying 1. Freely to resign up our selves to God's Service Otherwise we mock God when we acknowledge his Dominion over all the World and we our selves will not be made subject to God Therefore certainly a Man that useth this Prayer Thine is the Kingdom Power and Glory will also say I am thine save me Psal. 119. 94. Let us freely resign up our selves for him to reign over us Can you say with any face to God Thine is the Kingdom yet cherish rebellious Lusts in your own Hearts It 's the most unsuitable thing that can be Thine is the Power He is able to bear you out in his Work however the World rage And therefore we should not think scorn of his Service for his is the Glory The Service of such a King will put honour upon you 2. Another Duty of him that is to pray is to depend upon God's All-sufficiency Shall we speak thus of God and say Lord Thine is the Power and yet not rely upon him He that cannot rely upon him for this Life and the other doth but reproach God when he saith Thine is the Power Thine is the Power yet I will not trust thee but fly to base Shifts as if the Creature had Power and Man had Power as if they could better provide for us then God Therefore we are to live upon him and cast our selves into the Arms of his All-sufficiency 3. Another Duty of them that would pray this Prayer is sincerely to aim at and seek the Lord's Glory in all things Why for the Glory is thine Wilt thou say Thine is the Glory and yet give and take the Glory which is due to God to thy selâ— All is due to him from whom we have received all things But he that prides himself in Gifts and Graces cannot be in good earnest Wilt thou rob God of the Honour and wear it thy self Did â—en believe all Glory belongs to God they would not take Vain-glory to themselves Heroâ— was eloquent and the People cried out The Voice of a God and not of a Man He did but receive this Applause and usurped the Glory due to God and God blasted him Therefore when we pride our selves in our Sufficiencies and abuse our Comforts to our own Lusts we cannot with a good Conscience say Thine is the Glory Forâ—â—ver Amen ALL this is seal'd up to us in the last Word Amen Which may signify either so be it so let it be or so it shall be The Word Amen sometimes is taken Nominally Rev. 3. 14. Thus saith the Amen the faithful and true Witness the beginning of the Creation of God Sometimes it is taken Adverbially and so it signifieth Verily and Truly and so either it may express a great Asseveration or an affectionate Desire Sometimes it expresseth a great and vehement Assâ—veration John 6. 47. Amen Amen Verily Verily I say unto you In other places it is put for an affectionate Desire Ier. 28. 6. When the false Prophets prophesied Peace and Ieremiah pronounced War Amen! the Lord do so the Lord perform thy Words which thou hast prophesied Amen 't is not an Asseveration as confirming the Truth of their Prophecy but expressing his own hearty wish and desire if God saw it good Two things are required in Prayer a fervent Desire and Faith A fervent Desire therefore it is said James 5. 16. The effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous Man availeth much And then Faith James 1.
6. But let him ask in Faith nothing wavering What 's that Faith required in Prayer A Persuasion that those things we ask regularly according to God's Will that God will grant them for Christ's Sake Now both these Amen signifies our hearty desire that it may be so and our Faith that is our Acquâ—â—â—scency in the Mercy and Power and Wisdom of God concerning the Event Christ would have us bind up this Prayer and conclude it thus Amen so let it be so it shall be Observe hence That it is good to conclude holy Exercises with some Vigour and Warmth Natural Motion is swifter in the end and close So should our spiritual Affections as we draw to a conclusion put forth the Efficacy of Faith and holy Desires and recollect as it were all the foregoing Affections that we may go out of the Presence of God with a sweet Savour and Relish and a renewed Confidence in his Mercy and Power Again This Amen relateth to all the foregoing Petitions not to one only Many when they hear Lord Give us this day our daily Bread will say Amen but when they come to the Petition Thy Will â—e done on Earth as it is in Heaven they are cold there and have not hearty Desires and earnest Affections Many beg pardon of Sin but to be kept from Evil to bridle and restrain their Souls from Sin they do not say Amen to that Many would have Defence Maintenance and Viâ—tory over their Enemies but not with respect to God's Glory They forget that Petition Hallowed be thy Name but this should be subordinated to his Glory Nay we must say Amen to all the Clauses of this Prayer Many say Lord Forgive us our Debts but do not like that as we forgive our Debtors they are loth to forgive their Enemies but carry a rancorous Mind to them which have done them wrong But now we must say Amen to all that is specified in this Prayer Then Mark This Amen it is put in the close of the Doxology Observe hence There must be a hearty Amen to our Praises as well as our Prayers that we may shew zeal for God's Glory as well as Affection to our Profit Your Allelujahs should sound as loud as your Supplications and not only say Amen when you come with Prayers and Requests things you stand in need of but Amen when you are praising of God FINIS ERRATA PAge 19. line 14. after Lord read as our selves P. 18 l. 34. for like r unlike p. 42. l. 11. f. misprision r. misapprehension p. 47. l. ult r. a grâ—at p 49. l. 28. r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 57. l. 13. r. to God p. 58. l. 4 5. r. that may hence either formally or by just Consequeâ—ce be taxed p. 64. l. 34. r. worship p. 65. l. 15. f. and r. he p. â—0 l. 30. dele thought l. 32. ast and add you p. 71. l 8. after and add is l. 17. r. spiritual Weaknesses are c. l ult r. without Fire p. 73. l. 4. f. digested r. indighted p. 76. l. 31. â— now r. and not only as p. 80. l. 6. r Heb. â—2 9. p. 81. l. 17. dele Christ saith p. 87. l. 10. r. 2 Cor. 6. 18. l. 18. r. in all comparisons p. 88. l. 22. r. Gal. 4. 6. p. 89 l. 37. r. Mal. 3. 17. p. 97. l. 9. dele when f. can r. may p. 93. l. 3. f. take r. think p. 105. l. 30. f. Look aâ— the Right was r. Or as any Israelite had l. 31. f. so we r. hâ— p. 110. l. 20. r. Mar. 13. 25. p. 112. l. 27. aft expansin dele of f. those r. the. p. 125. l. 18. r. which are a solid Body l. 19. r. as fluid p. 129. l. 10. f. warm r. warn p. 136. l. 20. aft serve dele the turn of l. 25. f. him r. iâ— l. 25. aft of r. it p. 141. l. 27. f. of r. or p. 164. l. 12. r. Psal. 147. p. 177. l. 34. r. 1 Sam. 6. 20. p. 200. l 6 7. r Thâ— they worship not by Pagan Rites p 202. l. 16. dele and. p. 206. l. 9. r. First The King of Glory himself and for than r. then l. 14 r. but where his Will is obeyed and his Laws observed p. 211. l. 33. f. Covenant r. Law p. 218. l. 21. r. Isa 34. 2. p. 220. l. 6. aft Soul add longeth p. 239. l. 10. r. a day of Vengâ—ance p. 240. l. 3. aft God add requireth p. 253. l. 25. r. few good Examples p. 254. l. 14. r. Prov. 16. 2. p. 255. l. 10. â— what r. which p. 280. l. 12. f. remove r. offer l. 16. aft give r. the Habits of Grace p. 283. l. â— f. Motions r. Notions p. 284. l. 15. f. to r. as l. 18. r. find him to be one p. 317. l. 20. dele not l. 21. r. it will not p. 354. l. 6. f. ouâ— r. their p. 359. l. 16. f. Inheritance r. Inherency p. 369. l. 23. f. of r. the. p. 408. l. 16. aft Hoasts r. if p 444. l. 23. f. by r. off p. 465. l. 33. r. a colour of Gracâ—
is enjoined But hypocritical and superstitious Prayer which hath only the face and shew of Goodness this is forbidden 3. We must distinguish of the Ends of good Works principal and subordinate adequate and inadaequate First the principal and primary End of good Works must not be that we may be seen of Men but the Glory of God but now the subordinate or less principal End may be to be seen of Men. Again it must not be our adequate End that is our whole and main Intention and Scope but a collateral and Side-End it may be It is one thing to do good Works only that they may be seen it is another thing to do good Works that they may not only be seen but also be imitated to win others by them to give Glory to God It is one thing to do good Works for the Glory of God another thing to do them for the Glory of our selves We may do good Works to be seen in the first respect but not in the last We may not pray with the Pharisees meerly to be seen of Men yet we may let our Light shine before Men to draw them to Duty and give more Glory to God 4. Again There Christ speaks of the general Bent of our Conversation and here only of particular and private Duties It would argue too much Hypocrisy to do these in publick tho the whole Frame and Course of our Carriage before Men must be religious in their sight And that is agreeable to what the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 8. 21. We should provide for honest Things not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of Men. And Phil. 2. 15. Christians are advised there to be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crook'd and perverse Generation shining among them as Lights in the World That which is obvious to the Sight and Observance of Men must be such as will become our holy Calling But our private and particular Duties which are to pass between God and us these must be out of sight I hope another Man may approve himself to be honest and religious to me tho he doth not fall down and make his personal and private Prayers before me But to leave no scruple if possible 5. We must distinguish of the diverse Significations of that Phrase which is used here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we may be seen There is a twofold Sence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or That It may be taken two ways as they speak either causally or eventually Causally and then it implies and imports the End and Scope why we do such a thing namely for this very purpose that we may obtain it And thus the Pharisees here did pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might be seen of Men that is this was their main End and Scope Thus That is taken causally Secondly That sometimes is taken eventually and then it doth not import the End and Scope but only the Event that will fall out and follow upon such a thing Thus That is often taken in Scripture Iohn 9. 39. Christ saith there For Iudgment I am come into the World that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind 'T was not Christ's Scope to do so but Christ foresaw that this would be the Event of his coming into the World and therefore he saith That c. So Luke 14. 10. Christ tells them there But when thou art bidden to a Feast go and sit down in the lowest Room that when he that â—ade thee comes he may say unto thee Friend go up higher Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at Meat with thee That is taken eventually not causally for Christ doth not bid them there to set themselves at the lower End of the Table for this very end or to make this their scope that is the thing he forbids Affectation of Precedency But that hoc est then it will follow that is this is likely to be the Event then the Master of the House will come to you if you do this Not that it should be your Scope to feign Humility that you may obtain the highest Place at the Table And so may Christ's Words be taken Let your Light so shine c. This will fall out upon it then Men will be conscious to your Christian Carriage and gracious Behaviour and by that means God will be much honoured and glorified There it is taken eventually But here it is taken causally The Pharisees did it that they might be seen of Men that is this was their Scope and principal Intention And thus may you reconcile these two Places of Scripture Well now Christ having taxed them for these two Faults For their undue Place the Synagogue and Corners of the Streets being unfit for a private and personal Act of Worship and for their End that they might be seen of Men He saith They have their Reward That is the whole Debt is paid they can challenge nothing at God's hands God will be behind-hand with none of his Creatures As they have what they look'd for so they must expect no more they must be content with their Penny The Phrase is borrowed from Matters of Contract between Man and Man and is a Word proper to those which give a Discharge for a Debt As Creditors and Money-Lenders when they are paid home the full Sum which is due to them then they can exact no more So here they must be contented with the empty windy Puffs of Vain-Glory and to feed upon the unsavoury Breath of the People they can expect no more from God for the Bond is cancell'd and they have received their full Reward already Briefly here is the Difference in the several Rewards that the Hypocrites and the Children of God have The Hypocrites they are all for the present and have their Reward and much good may it do them there is not a Jot behind 't will be in vain to expect any more But now for the Children of God your Father will reward you they must expect and wait for the future And yet in Scripture we read oftentimes that the Children of God have their Reward in this Life but then the Word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth they have but in part not the Word which is used here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies they have what is due 't is fulfilled paid them So those Expressions in Scripture are to be taken Ye have eternal Life And he hath And that ye may have 'T is often spoken in Scripture of the Children of God so that they seem to have their Reward too They have their Reward but it is partially not totally There is something the best Things yet behind A Child of God he hath Promises First-Fruits some Beginnings of Communion with God here but he looks for greater Things to come Well then Christ having
a Gardiner withholds his hand the Ground is soon grown over with Weeds Restrain Prayer and neglect God and noisom Lusts will abound Our Hearts are fill'd with Distempers when once we cease to be frequent with God in private It is said of Iob chap. 15. 4. Thou restrainest Prayer before God That Passage is notable Psal. 14. 4. They eat up my People as they eat Bread and call not upon the Lord. Omit secret Prayer and some great Sin will follow within a little while you will be given up to some evil Course or other Either brutish Lusts Oppression or Violence to hate the People of God to join in a Confederacy with them which cry up a Confederacy against God The less we converse with God in private the more is the Awe of God lessen'd But now a Man which is often with God dareth not offend him so freely as others do As they which are often with Princes and great Persons are better cloathed and more neat in their Apparel and Carriage So they which are often conversing with God grow more heavenly holy watchful than others are and when we are not with God not only all this is lost but a great many Evils to be found It is plainly seen by Mens Conversations how little they converse with God But now to avoid the Stroke of this Reproof what will Men do Either deny the Guilt or excuse themselves First Some will deny the Guilt They do call upon God and use private Prayer therefore think themselves to be free from this Reproof Yea but are you as often with God as you should be There are three sorts of Persons 1. Some there are that omit it totally cannot speak of redeeming any Time for this Work These are practical Atheists without God in the World Eph. 2. 12. They are Heathens and Pagans under a Christian Name and Profession We should pray without ceasing 1 Thess. 5. 17. that is take all praying Occasions Therefore they which pray not at all all the Week long God hears not from them surely come under the force of this Reproof 2. There are some which perform it seldom O how many Days and Weeks pass over their Heads and God never hears from them The Lord complains of it Ier. 2. 32. They have forgotten me Days without number It was Time out of mind since they were last with God 3. The most do not perform it so often as they should And therefore that I may speak with Evidence and Conviction I shall answer the Case what Rules may be given how often we should be with God and when we are said to neglect God 1. Every day something should be done in this kind Acts 10. 2. Corneliuâ— pray'd to God always every day he had his Times of Familiarity with God Daniel tho with the hazard of his Life would not omit praying three times a day Dan. 6. 10. And David speaks of Morning Evening and Noon Psal. 55. 17. Tho we cannot bind all Men absolutely to these Hours beause of the difference of Conditions Employments and Occasions yet thus much we may gather from hence That surely they which are most holy will be most frequent in this Work 2. Love will direct you They which love one another will not be strange one to another a Man cannot be long out of the Company of him whom he loveth Christ loved Lazarus and Mary and Martha Iohn 11. 5. and therefore his great Resort was to Bethany to Lazarus's House Surely they which love God will have frequent recourse to him In the Times of the Gospel God trusts Love we are not bound to such particular Rules as under the Law Why for Love is a liberal Grace and will put us upon frequent Visits and tell us when we should pray to God 3 The Spirit of God will direct you There are certain Times when God hath Business with you alone when he doth as it were speak to you as to the Prophet in another Case Ezek. 3. 22. Go forth into the Plain in the Desart and there I will talk with thee So get you to your Closets I have some Business to speak with you Thou saidst Seek ye my Face my Heart answered Thy Face Lord will I seek Psal. 27. 8. God invites you to Privacy and Retirement You are sent into your Closet to deal with God about the Things you heard from the Pulpit This is the actual Profit we get by a Sermon when we deal seriously with God about what we have heard When God sends for us as it were by his Spirit and invites us into his Presence by these Motions it is spiritual Clownishness to refuse to come to him 4. Your own inward and outward Necessities will put you in mind of it God hath not stated what Hours we shall eat and drink the Seasons and Quantity of it are left to our Choice God hath left many Wants upon us to bring us into his presence Sometimes we want Wisdom and Counsel in Darkness Iam. 1. 5. If any lack Wisdom let him ask of God which giveth to all Men liberally It is an Occasion to bring us to God God is the best Casuist to resolve our Doubts and guide us in our Way Sometimes we lack Strength to withstand Temptations the Throne of Grace was set up for a Time of Need Heb. 4. 16. when any Case is to be resolved and Comfort to be obtained We want Comfort Quickning Counsel and all to bring us to God So for outward Necessities too Certainly if a Man doth but observe the Temper of his own Heart he cannot neglect God but will find some occasion or other to bring him into his presence some Errand to bring him to the Throne of Grace We are daily to beg Pardon of Sin and daily to beg Supplies Now certainly when you do not observe these Things you neglect God Secondly Others to avoid it will excuse themselves Why they would pray to God in private but either they want Time or they want a convenient Place or want Parts and Abilities But the truth is they want a Heart and that 's the Cause of all and indeed when a Man hath no Heart to the Work then something is out of the way 1 Some plead they want Time Why if you have Time for other Things you should have a Time for God Shall we have a Season for all Things and not for the most necessary Work Hast thou time to eat drink sleep follow thy Trading how dost thou live else and no time to be saved no time to be familiar with God which is the greatest Business of all Get it from your Sleep and Food rather than be without this necessary Duty Jesus Christ who had no such Necessity as we have yet it is said Mark 1. 35. He arose a great while before day and went out and departed into a solitary Place and there prayed Therefore must God only be encroached upon the lean Kine devour the fat Sarah thrust out instead
Kindness do maintain a Friendship between Man and Man so do these renewed Acts of Love and of God's Care and Kindness over us maintain a Friendship between God and us 2. It engageth us to a constant Dependance upon God and Communion with him It is Dependance which maintains the Commerce between Heaven and Earth Now if we did keep the Stock our selves God and we should soon grow Strangers When the Prodigal had his Portion in his own hands he goes out of his Father's House Luke 15. The Throne of Grace would lie neglected and unfrequented if we did not stand in need of daily Receivings when would the Lord hear from us And therefore to oblige us to a constant Dependance God will keep the Grace in his own hands that ever we may have something to drive us to himself some Necessities upon us for the Throne of Grace is for a Time of Need Heb. 4. 16. 3. This is that which keeps us humble and that upon several Considerations All we have 't is by Gift and then what can we be proud of Not only the Habits of Grace themselves but also those actual Incitements which are necessary to draw them forth into Act. So that of all our Excellencies we may say Alas 't is but borrowed and if we be proud of them we are but proud we are more in Debt than others when most enlarged and most assisted it is from God We would laugh if a Groom should be proud of his Master's Horse and his Master's Cloak Shall we usurp that Honour that is due to God What hast thou that thou didst not receive 1 Cor. 4. 7. And then we have it from Hand to Mouth That which we have received will not bear us out unless God come in with new Influences of Grace We should soon grow proud if God did not direct us and give out the renewed Evidences of his Love day after day And we should not acknowledg our Benefactor if God should do all at once therefore he lesseneth and weakneth our Corruptions by degrees and by the renewed Influences of his Grace And by this means we are made sensible of the Mutability of our own Nature God left Hezekiah to try him that he might know all that was in his Heart 2 Chron. 32. 31. God hath so dispensed Grace that he will be going and coming as to actual Influence therefore sometimes he will leave us that he may discover a Man to himself Tho we have Grace planted in our Hearts and are renewed yet if God leave us how weak and foolish are we We are renewed but not fully recovered of that Maim and Bruise we got by the Fall of Adam and we cannot do as we will If God withdraw his Quickning his Strength secret Corruption will break forth and our Indisposition to holy Things will soon appear 4. Then it is for the Honor of the Lord's Grace It doth abundantly provide for the Glory of Grace that from first to last we are indebted to God not only for those permanent and fixed Habits which constitute the New Creature but for those daily Supplies without which the Motions of the Spirit are at a stand And this is that which makes the Saints still to put the Crown upon Grace's Head When the Servants gave an Account of improving of their Talents saith one of them Luke 19. 16. Lord thy Pound hath gained ten Pounds He doth not say My Industry but Thy Pound So Paul Gal. 2. 20. I live yea but he interposeth presently Yet not I but Christ liveth in me They are ever ascribing all to God because they see they can do nothing without him When we come to Heaven 't is a Question which we shall admire most Grace or Glory the Glory of that Estate into which we are brought or else Grace which was the Foundation of it O when we see all that was done and suffered for God it was from God Of thine own have we given thee How will the Soul admire the Riches of his glorious Grace We have not only traded with his Money but by his Direction and when our Stock was imbezell'd he supplied us at every turn For these Ends the Lord still keeps Grace in his own hands that we can do nothing to any purpose unless he be pleased to concur by the Influences and Quicknings of his own Spirit VSE The Use shall only be in these two Branches 1. In doing any good Work let us do all things in him as well as to him Let us not only make this our Scope that we may do it to God but let us make his Grace our Principle Otherwise when we go to work for God without God it will befall us as it did Sampson that thought to go out and shake himself as in former time but his Locks were cut and his Strength gone Men that have had former Experiences think to find a like Vigor of Affection a like Raisedness of Spirit a like Savoriness of Expression but if they take not God along with them they find their Strength is gone their Affections dead that all their Spirits are dry and sapless and that they do not go forth with such Life and Power as formerly Therefore when ever you go about a good Work say as David I will go forth in the Strength of God 2. It directs us in ascribing the Honour of what we have done It is dangerous to assume Divine Honour to our selves or accept it from others but we must give the Lord the Glory whose Concurrence doth all the Work Remember we have received all from God and God must have all the Glory and Honour If others should ascribe it to us we are not to take it To conceal and receive stollen Goods brings us within the Compass of Theft as well as to steal them our selves So when others would ascribe any thing to us still let the Lord have the Glory of every Work and Business The third Point Doct. 3. We are not only to look to this that his Will be done but to the Manner how it is done It is not for the Honour of his Majesty to be put off with any thing we must serve him with all our Mind and Strength Mal. 1. 14. When ye brought that which was torn and lame and sick should I accept this of your Hands saith the Lord. I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts and my Name is dreadful among the Heathen We are to aim at the highest manner of serving God There is an ardent Desire in the Saints to be perfect If by any means they would attain to the Resurrection of the Dead Phil. 3. 11. That is that happy and sinless State they shall enjoy hereafter The Manner is more considerable than the Work it self A Man may sin in doing good but he cannot sin in doing well therefore the Manner is that which is mainly stood upon in Scripture God doth not only look that we pray but it must be â—ervent effectual