pray in charity and love towards others 7. As he is Almighty and Almerciful in Christ in whom he hath promised all things we must pray in greatest confidence 8. Because our necessity is great and we seek great and necessary things from him so we must be instant importunate wrastle with him and not let him be quiet till he hear help and bless us Sect. 3. In the body of the prayer we must observe the Method and excellent order to which he hath reduced all matters to be prayed for To understand this we must consider that he hath made two general heads and parts of petition the 1. Of supplication the 2. Of deprecation In the former we petition for all good we can justly desire In the latter we seek deliverance from all evil where unto we are subject The good we pray for is spiritual or temporal the spiritual respects Gods glory in 1. Hollowed be thy name or our spiritual happiness in the coming of his Kingdom 2. In doing of his will Temporal good we pray for when we say Give us this day our daily Bread Deliverance from evil is two fold either from sin or affliction The evil of sin is either guilt of sin past or temptation to sin in time to come The former we seek in these words Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trepass against us The latter in these Lead us not into Temptation Deliverance from evil we pray for when we say Deliver us from evil Sect. 4. We begin our petitions with these words Hallowed be thy Name where by name we must understand the excellent Majesty and supream Dominion of God our heavenly Father in respect of which all honour glory power and praise are due to him and ought to be ascribed unto him by men and Angels for ever yet all this doth not make him more glorious and excellent then he is in himself for what can be added to that which is infinite This excellency and supream dominion we profess to believe in the first Article of our Creed and promise to acknowledge in the first commandment of the moral Law And here we pray for the universal acknowledgment in the first Petition for such must be our respect to him as that above all things his name may be glorified therefore in these words we pray that his name and supream excellency may be manifested more and more both by his Ordinary and Extraordinary works of creation and providence and also by his blessed word especially by the Gospel of Christ. â— That being manifested to us and to all others it may be more and more clearly known 3. That being known we and all others may acknowledge it and submit with all our hearts to him as supream Lord and that he may be glorified in the eternal destruction of such as will not honour him as supream Lord. In these words we pray against all Atheism Idolalatry Profaneness Rebellion Apostasie and the usurpation of divine power 2. We pray Thy Kingdom come where we have 1. A kingdom 2. The coming of it 3. A petition for the coming of it Gods Kingdom is two-fold 1. Universal and general over all 2. Special over men The latter here is meant this second Kingdom respects Men as sinful and ready to perish yet as having some hope of Salvation by the Redemption of Jesus Christ therefore it s the kingdom of God Redeemer looking upon Man as first redeemed and so ordinable unto everlasting salvation for sinful Mans happiness begins in Gods love which moved him to give Christ to death for the Expiation of our sins for this was the laying the foundation of Eternal Life The coming of this Kingdom is the exercise of his power to make redemption effectual for then this kingdom comes to any person or persons when God Redeemer begins to reign by his Word and Spirit and by them calls men to repentance and faith The end where at this government aims is the ruine of all enemies and the eternal peace of all such as shall submit unto his power and continue to be loyal and obedient subjects Thus God did alwayes reign since the first promise of Christ made unto Adam but this reign advanced and became more glorious after that Christ was â—et at the right hand of God sent down the Holy Ghost revealed the Gospel and it shall be consummate when all enemies shall be subdued and Gods chosen Saints fully and for ever glorified Some make two degrees of this Government the first of grace and the second of glory The one begins with our first conversation the other with the resurrection In this petition therefore we do not seek of God the coming of Christ nor the conquest of Sin and Satan upon the Cross nor of death by his resurrection nor his exaltation to the right hand of God nor the beginning of his reign for all these are past But we pray that our heavenly Father would 1. Send his Ministers with the Gospel and the power of his Spirit into all nations who sit in darkness and the shadow of death and contrive the means of conversion to all people who enjoy them and in particular to us 2. That he would make these means effectual to the conversion of many 3. That he would justifie sanctifie adopt all such as are converted 4. That he would do these things more and more till he hath subdued all sin in them 5. That he would hasten to subdue death the last enemy by the resurrection and the last change of mortal bodies 6. That all enemies being conquered he may reign perfectly and that when Christ hath delivered up the kingdom God may be all in all his Saints and give them perfect holiness full joy and peace everlasting 7. That he would by degrees and at last totally and finally destroy all the power of Satan Sin Death wicked Men which oppose our Salvation and Eternal Peace The principal thing desired is first eternal life then all means which conduce unto the end The principal effect of this Government is destruction of Rebels and Enemies and the conversion and salvation of his People To this head may be referred all Petitions for the ruine of Babylon and Antichrist persecuting Enemies both open and secret for good Magistrates Ministers and Governours in Church and State for powerful preaching of the Gospel for good discipline and due administration of the Sacraments and here is to be observed that the more his Kingdom comes the more his name is hallowed and glorified 3. Yet because no man can enjoy the benefits peace and priviledges of any Kingdom tho never so excellent except he will submit unto the power of the Prince observe his Laws and do his will therefore that we may attain to the eternal peace and felicity of this Kingdom we pray that the will of our heavenly Father may be done where we have 1. The will of God 2. The doing of it 3. The manner or pattern of doing 4.
very little our imperfections many yet we must desire and endeavour to be perfectly obedient to the end 4. We pray Give us this day our daily Bread In the former part of this form of prayer we sought of God spiritual blessings and such as tended more immediately to Gods glory and our salvation And in this we sue for temporal mercies and the necessary comforts of this life whilst we are seeking a better and the order here observed by our Saviour doth teach us that we must prefer spiritual graces before temporal blessings and seek Gods Kingdom and his righteousness first which if we do we may more certainly expect our daily Bread according to his promise In the words we have 1. Bread 2. Our daily Bread 3. This day 4. Our petition for this to be given us 1. By bread is meant all necessary comforts of this life which are given us that we may more chearfully and freely without distraction serve our God seek his Kingdom and do his will Bread which is the staff of Life and hath great affinity with Mans Body is only namely to signifie that we must not seek unnecessary dainties rarities variety superfluity and abundance to expend them in maintaining our Pride pomp and pleasure These necessaries signified by bread are private or publick temporal Commodities Goods Blessings as health food raiment house lands cattle and other things whereby Man 's life is preserved and also good government peace seasonable and plentiful times safety quiet enjoyment of that we have and Gods blessing upon our labours 2. Our daily bread that is the bread of our indigency which we daily want so the Syriack our Bread for to morrow so the Arabick our Food of every day so the Ethiopick our Bread which is necessary for the day The meaning of all is that by daily bread is meant a competent portion of necessaries fit for the preservation of our lives so that we need not perish or be distracted with fear of want 3. This day that is the present time of our life and doth imply that our life is not long neither must we expect to live many daies and though we have not provision beforehand but from hand to mouth as the Proverb is yet we should be content and trust in God we must not perplex or distract our selves with thoughts of future times nor promise to our selves long life and torment our souls with needless and ineffectual cares as tho we had no faith no Father in heaven no Interest in him or think that he that feeds the Ravens who make no provision for time to come nor have any thing laid up in store will be so careless of us as to see his Children want bread 4. We in these words petition our heavenly Father to give us this bread This implies 1. That we have nothing not one morsel of bread but from our God 2. That he gives us this and all things necessary freely we do not deserve or buy it but beg it at his hands therefore 1. we seek it of him by prayer for our selves and others 2. That he would continue to provide for us still 3. That he would bless that which he gives and we possess unto us for if he give it not we have nothing if he continue it not it s easily took from us and tho we be as rich as Job yet we may be as poor as he was in a day have much this hour and have nothing the next and that our best and most wholsom food without his blessing can do us no good 4. We pray that God would deliver us from Diseases sickness famine nakedness sword oppression drought inundation unseasonable times and all such things as deprive us of our daily bread and because we never knew what want of bread is nor ever considered how much we depend for these things upon our God therefore we so little prize these earthly comforts and are unthankful for these mercies 5. We must with our prayers labour and use lawful means for the attaining of these things be provident frugal liberal charitable and expend as much as we can spare in pious uses and then that Father who will give us Eternal will surely give us Temporal blessings he that will give us an heavenly kingdom will give us earthly necessaries and he that hath given us Christ will with him give us all things 5. We pray for forgiveness of our sins in these words Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us Here begins the deprecatory part of this prayer whereby we seek deliverance from evil and that which is contrary to our happiness This kind of prayer is sometimes joyned with weeping fasting complaints lamentations and confession of sins The first evil is that of sin past which remains in the guilt for to understand this petition we must consider 1. Trespasses 2. Our trespasses 3. The forgiveness of trespasses 4. The party forgiving 5. The party capable of forgiveness 1. By trespasses we must understand sin and disobedience to Gods Laws the word which in St. Matthew signifies debts is expounded in Luke by a word which signifies sins and all sins are debts or rather contract debts for first we owe unto God obedience and by the Law are bound to perform it but if we pay not this but prove disobedient we run into another debt and owe a punishment to God and by the same law are bound to suffer it for we are bound unto obedience by the precept and to punishment by the commination of the law When sin is once past the guilt thereof which is an obligation unto punishment remains The punishments which man deserves and God doth threaten are not only bodily and temporal but spiritual and eternal The reason and cause why sin doth render the sinner liable to the displeasure of God and to so many and fearful penalties not only of the loss of all those mercies God hath promised but of suffering of all those evils God doth threaten is because it is so base and vile and so unworthy and unbeseeming so noble a creature as man is by Gods creation that it must needs offend God pollute man and debaâ—e him very much its contrary to Gods justice and holiness and includes in it a contempt of Gods power and of his law which is a mirrour of wisdom and righteousness The sins of men are many and of different sorts there is sin original sin actual sin of omission sin of commission sin against the law of nature sin against the law of grace and a great inequality between these actual transgressions some less some more hainous and such as may be several wayes fearfully agravated and the more of will there is in any sin the more grievous it is 2. These sins and trespasses are said to be Ours so that we are chargeable with them and punishable for them For though the Devil may tempt us yet he cannot force us cannot necessitate us Though
our wants defects and imperfections be many and our corruptions what by nature what by custom be great yet they are some ways from our selves And we make our selves guilty by consent so that our hearts are the chiefest subject and also either the sole or principal or accessary causes of our sins This consent appears by our continuance in them or return unto them and that especially when we contrary to the light of nature the law of God and other means and motives of repentance walk according to the imaginations and lusts of our hearts Therefore we must say Our trespasses that we may charge our selves and justifie God 3. The Forgiveness of Sins the freeing of the party sinning from the sad and woful consequents of sin and especially from the guilt and so from the punishment in this respect its called remission or absolution loosing because pardon takes away the obligation unto penalty This act of forgivness presupposeth first that sin is pardonable and that without any violation or breach of justice yet according to the rules of Gods proceeding with sinful man this cannot be without satisfaction made unto divine justice Therefore God to signifie that he was just and hated sin yet willing to shew mercy to the sinner required the bloody sacrifice of his dearest Son to be offered without spot unto his eternal Majesty before he would grant that any sin of man should be pardonable and this blood must be pleaded by Christ in heaven before he would actually pardon any Neither would this blood-shed pleaded be accepted for any but such as were penitent and believing and did rely upon this satisfaction and intercession And this freedom from guilt doth not leave the party pardoned under the dominion of sin which is the greatest penalty but is alwaies joyned with sanctification of the divine Spirit without which remission is to little purpose because the root of sin remains and will be a cause of new sin which will make man punishable again when man is thus pardoned and purified the greatest cause of shame of fear of grief is taken away Gods wrath averted the sinner reconciled adopted and in a state of salvation of peace and joy in hope of everlasting life There is no sin but is pardonable in respect of Christ death Gods mercy and the general promise yet upon impenitency and unbelief no sin not the least shall actually be pardoned There are some sins so hainous and so directly contrary to the blood of Christ and the holy Spirit and no benefit can be expected from the blood nor any hope of repentance to be wrought by that Spirit which was never promised to renew such persons These are sins to death for which we must not pray By forgiveness we are freed from the eternal punishment by way of prevention from present punishment lying upon us by way of removal 4. The party which can forgive and to whom we sue for pardon is God yet as atoned and propitiated by the blood of Christ. This is proper unto him for as he is the supreme Law-giver so he is the supreme Judge whose peremptory sentence is irrevocable from him lies no appeal who only knows the hearts of men seeking pardon who alone can free not only from temporal but eternal punishments and can execute his sentence to the full which none else can do He may make use of men to declare his sentence and apply his promises to such as by them being prepared may seem capable of pardon yet their sentence and absolution on earth is so far good and valid as he shall ratifie and make it effectual in heaven This absolution by some is said to be only declarative by others to be judicial yet if it be passed by vertue of their commission and according to the rules of that commission from Christ it s judicially declarative Therefore if man believe Christ plead the Church absolve and God justifie who can condemn who can lay any thing to our charge 5. The parties who being capable of remission upon their prayers shall obtain mercy are such as being conscious and sensible of their sins are grieved because they have offended God hate sin loath themselves are willing to amend their lives confess themselves guilty offer the sacrifice of an humble and contrite spirit rely upon the Death and Intercession of Christ the promise and mercy of God and are as willing to be merciful to their offending Brethren returning unto them as they desire God to be merciful unto them These and only these are they who shall be washed in the Blood of Christ and justified before the throne of God and being justified shall have peace with God and joy in the hope of glory In these words therefore we in all humility and godly sorrow confessing our sins and daily renewing our repentance do earnestly pray that God for Christs sake would forgive our many and grievous sins turn away his wrath receive us into favour look upon us as his children give us joy and comfort seal unto us a pardon by giving us his blessed Spirit of consolation and sanctification that so we being delivered from the terrours of conscience the accusations of the devil the danger of hell and fear of eternal death may magnifie his mercy and glorifie his name for evermore 6. We pray Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil This petition is against sin and respects it as to come and us as in danger to contract new guilt for as before so after our-penitent and believing Prayers made in this name of Christ we have obtained remission of sin past we may be tempted and overcom and so sin again therefore we pray to be delivered from temptation And here we must consider 1. What temptation is 2. What it is to be led into temptation 3. What we pray for in these words 4. What it is to be delivered from evil 1. To tempt in this place is taken in an ill sense and to tempt is to sollicite and perswade man to sin and disobey the just and good and holy Laws of God and seeing man is endued with understanding and free-will the way is to delude his understanding and pervert his will by representing that which is evil as good and that which is good as evil and by taking away the fear of punishment and promising some happiness to follow that so the understandding may assent to that which is false and the will consent to that which is evil Those suggestions are always false and contrary to the holy Scriptures and the thing perswaded unto is against the Laws of God which always should be the rule of our thoughts words and deeds So likewise the swasives and motives are contrary to the promises and the comminations of the word And if we be ignorant of the Scriptures depraved in our hearts or rash and inconsiderate the tempter will have great advantage against us The great tempter the devil that old subtle serpent who
wonders and glorifie thy name for ever and give all glory praise and thanks to thee that so all Atheists Idolaters prophane persons Apostates and rebellious wretches may be convinced or confounded 2. That thy name be the more hallowed and we sinful wretches eternally saved let thy Kingdom come that Christ at thy right hand may powerfully and gloriously reign till all his enemies be made his footstool O let thy word and spirit so mightily prevail that all Nations may be converted submit themselves to Christ their Saviour thy Church enlarged from Sea to Sea and from the river to the worlds-end till the number of thy Saints be finished and made perfect and thou mayest rule in our hearts till sin and the power of Satan be wholly and forever destroyed Raise up a continual supply of faithful and godly Ministers and good Kings and Magistrates which may be Defenders of the Faith and nursing Fathers to thy Church and pour down the gifts of thy Spirit in great plenty upon all flesh break in peices the power of Satan and all persecuting enemies let death the last enemy be destroyed make all thy Saints immortal and bless them with eternal joy and peace that so they may sing an eternal Hallelujah to thy name in the heaven of heavens where there shall be no sin no sorrow no pain but fulness of joy in thy presence and pleasures for evermore at thy right hand 3. That we may enjoy the priviledges and attain the eternal felicity of thy Kingdom we desire that thy will may be done on earth as it in heaven we do confess that by nature we are blind and ignorant and have no power to do thy heavenly will All our spiritual knowledge wisdom and power of obedience is from thee our God and the good spirit of Christ. Seeing therefore this is our condition as born of Adam and brought up in a wicked world and Christ hath given himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculier people zealous of good works we beseech thee open our eyes and enlighten our understanding that we may more clearly know thy heavenly Laws and sanctifie our hearts more and more that we may constantly and freely with joy and delight observe all thy holy and blessed Laws O raise up our thoughts and affections that we may seek that glorious and eternal estate which thou hath prepared for those that love thee and so renew our hearts that we may be zealous of thy glory mortifie sin bring forth the fruits of thy spirit abound in good works give good example unto others make our calling an Election sure manifest that we are born from Heaven that so following the example of thy blessed Angels and aiming at their perfection may in the end be partakers of eternal bliss together with them 4. Whil'st in this vale of tears we seek thy Kingdom and endeavour to do thy holy will we have need of many earthly comforts as food and raiment and such things as without which we cannot live we therefore pray thee give us this day our daily bread we acknowledge that we have neither life nor health nor a morsel of bread nor any place where to lay our heads but from thee our heavenly father Be pleased therefore out of our fatherly goodness to give us good government peace safety seasonable times a comfortable and competent Estate and a quiet enjoyment of the same If we should ask for superfluities dainties and abundance to spend them for to maintain our pride and seusual pleasures we confess it were just with thee not to hearken unto us thou mights justly deny them but we are contented with food and rayment and other necessaries and seek them from thee that we may without distraction seek thy heavenly Kingdom O pity the sick the poor the weak the widow and the fatherless the stranger and such as are in want and oppressed feed the hungry cloath the naked deliver poor captives and relieve thy persecuted and distressed Saints These mercies thou hast promised in order to our eternal happiness whil'st we are in this vale of tears until we come to our abiding city where we shall have no need of these things And we seek these at thy hands with hope to receive them because thou hast promised them yet we are resolved that howsoever thou shalt deal with us we will submit unto thy will and be contented 5. O heavenly Father tho' we should do thy will always and from our heart in all things yet we have often sinned and done evil in thy sight made our selves guilty and liable to eternal death and have great need of thy mercy in Jesus Christ therefore we pray thee forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us We do confess that both in the state of Nature of Grace we often offend thee and transgress thy holy laws and besides the guilt of the first sin which lies heavy upon us and our inbred corruption we are guilty of many actual transgressions And these have been committed not only out of ignorance or infirmity or upon surprizal or violence of temptation but many of them against knowledg and some of them are very hainous and of a crimson die some are publick some private som open some secret neither is this all but we harden our hearts in them against the light of thy Gospel the dictates of thy Spirit thy patience and long-suffering against thy mercies and deliverances against thy chastisements and many gracious invitations against thy dearest love and the bitter sufferings of our Saviour And these are the more hainous because committed by us who have received so many mercies enjoyed for a long time so many powerful means of conversion and have vowed better things O how much hath thou done to convert us and we are not converted how miserable have we made our selves what fearful punishments have we deserved Oh take away these stony hearts of ours give us hearts of flesh and make us sensible of our sins that we may loath our selves and that our hearts may inwardly bleed because we have offended thee so good a God Remember thy tender mercies the bitter sufferings of our Saviour and thy gracious promises in him unto poor sinners Shall he dye on earth and plead his blood in heaven and we confess our sins and yet not obtain mercy O pity spare forgive turn away thy wrath cast us not out of thy presence take not thy holy Spirit from us deny us not the joy of thy salvation And this mercy we desire with the greater hope because we desire to forsake our sins put our sole and whole confidence in our blessed Saviour and are willing to forgive and be reconciled to such as trespass against our selves 6. O Lord thou knoweth our frailty the great danger of temptation which is such that though we be sanctified and sin past pardoned yet we may fall into sin again and so contract
successours yet these things though not here expressed are certain 1. They must go to all Nations for none are excepted or excluded 2. They must begin at Jerusalem and first tender salvation to the Jew 3. They must begin in this place immediately upon the receiving of the Holy Ghost and the gift of Languages 4. They must go to other Nations as providence did direct them and the Spirit did reveal unto them 5. They might go severally and have their several assignations yet so that sometimes two or more might go together or meet at the same place 6. They might do and did many things by assistants 7. The principal work of the Apostles was to plant and lay the foundation of the Christian Church and Religion 8. Seeing the work could not be finished before the Worlds end therefore much must be left to their successours 9. Christ did not so limit himself to the eleven Apostles then present as that he could not commission others and invest them with Apostolical power for afterward St. Mathias was substituted in the place of Judas and St. Paul made a thirteenth Apostle 10. This universal power in respect of all Nations was not so limited to the Apostles or any extraordinary Ministers that the ordinary might not do Christ service in the universal Church or any Nation whether God should call him according to the opportunity and ability which God should give him But to be brief and hasten to the principal part of the commission I will in this proposition briefly observe four things 1. The preventing grace of God 2. His enlarging mercy 3. The benefits which redound unto us thereupon 4. Our duty to be performed in respect of this grace mercy and those benefits Sect. 3. 1. The preventing grace of God appears in this that the Nations did not pray to God to send them nor seek to the Apostles to come unto them nor did they come unto the Apostles but the Apostles were commanded to go to them and did go and came to all Nations They must not take their ease and make Jerusalem the place of their residence in one College Consistory or palace there They must not stand upon terms of Honour and send out their Edicts to cite and summon the Nations to come unto them and appear before them It s true that hitherto the Jew had taken State upon him and because of Gods Election of that City and the Temple the Gentiles must assemble there appear before God in that holy place If thus he refuse to do he must stand at a distance and continue without Christ without honour without God in the World If the Gentile will not come over to the Jew the Jew will not must not go over unto him But the time of this dispensation was expired and God will take another course and in his infinite mercy he will prevent the Gentiles of all Nations The Apostles must part asunder take several ways and with great labour peril charge visit the Nations of the World and seek their souls in every climate And God by them did bring the Gospel Christ and Salvation to their doors and offer Heaven and Eternity of bliss unto most unworthy wretches who never sought or thought of any such thing Then began to be fulfilled that which was spoken by the Prophet long before Esay 65. 1. I am sought of them that asked not for me I am found of them that sought me not I said Behold me behold me unto a Nation not called by my Name The distance between God and sinful man is very great and would for ever so continue if God should deal with him in strict justice nay if he should not shew him great mercy For man would never think of God as he ought never desire him never come unto him if God should not prevent him call him and come unto him first For man will never seek his God if God do not seek him first For mans salvation must begin in Gods free love and preventing grace whereby he seeks him finds him and finds him dead in sins and trespasses and ready for to perish This is Gods preventing grace 2. His enlarging mercy appears in that the Apostles must go not only to the Jew but to the Gentile and not only to the Gentiles of some few Nations but of all and seek to gather them into one body and close them up into one fold For formerly his special mercy was confined to a single Nation the people of the Jews the posterity of Abraham by Jacob but now it must be extended to all Nations and to all sorts of all Nations No Nation in particular by name is excepted excluded or to be omitted and passed by God for a long time inclosed the Jew and by a partition wall severed him from all Nations in matter of Religion His Oracles his Covenant the promise of Christ the sanctifying Spirit and all the means of conversion were the priviledges of this people But now Gods mercies will not be thus straitned and contained in such narrow bounds The partition wall must be broken down and his saving grace will overflow these petty Banks and like the Ocean compass the whole Earth 3. But for what end must this mercy thus enlarge and why must they go unto all Nations of the Gentiles They might have gone to denounce most fearful judgements For what could Idolatrous Apostates who had forsaken their God who made them and every moment preserved them expect but some fearful punishments to be executed upon them Yet such was Gods mercy towards them that they were not sent to denounce judgement but to proclaim an act of Eternal Indemnity and Pardon of all their many grievous sins and promise and that upon fairest terms Eternal life Therefore the benefit of this preventing grace and enlarging mercy which did redound to all people of all Nations was very great They sate in darkness and the shadow of death under the power of Satan ignorant blind corrupted hardned without any means of conversion or hope of salvation But by the Apostles God sends unto them light life peace joy comfort Heaven gates are opened Eternal Life offered and Christ is very willing and desirous to save us and give us eternal bliss O that men would consider how great a mercy it is for God to come so near unto us and put us in a capacity of salvation 1. This benefit would appear to be the greater if we would remember how unworthy we are 2. The sad condition of others to whom God never vouchsafed the light of the Gospel without this preventing grace Salvation is impossible to all without this enlarging mercy impossible to many especially to us who live at so great a distance in a corner of the World But it hath been so enlarged that it reached us God hath found us Christ is come unto us and the heavenly light of saving truth doth clearly shine upon us So that if we perish we are deeply guilty and
of Christ as before his Ascension or explicitly as after They must be made especially by us Christians in the name of Christ who by his blood hath satisfied Gods justice made him propitious the Throne of grace accessible hath merited all mercies promised to be our Advocate and to sollicite our cause in heaven and procure for us whatsoever we ask in his name They must also be made by the Spirit who alone doth sanctify us and qualifie our hearts for this duty and enables us to perform it so as that it may be effectual and when we know not how to pray as we ought he stirs up in us sighs and groans which cannot be uttered by which he makes intercession for us to the Father who not only understands these dark expressions but is much moved and affected with them So that a Christian effectual prayer is a presenting of our petitions to God the Father in the name of Christ by the Spirit And how powerful must that prayer be which is offered to the Father in the name of his Son by the power and grace of his Spirit A prayer may be made inwardly in the soul without any words of the Mouth and it may be â—o qualified as to prevail very much with God who principally looks at the heart It may be made outwardly and that without any understanding sense and inward affection and this is but a Carkase of prayer and not regarded of God though delivered in most excellent expressions and as it were in the language of Angels This outward prayer whether said or sung in Prose or Verse if made in publick or in company must be in a language and in terms more easily understood by the people with whom we pray that they may say Amen which they cannot if they understand not And though they understand yet if their hearts be not affected with the matter and rightly disposed towards God it s to no purpose For all outward prayer should be joyned with the inward and issue from an heart rightly disposed A prayer of a righteous man may sometimes be ineffectual because it s not made by him as righteous Sect. 2. These things concerning prayer in general observed I proceed unto the Lords prayer we find many particular prayers praises and thanksgivings in the Scripture and many forms both for publick and private devotion taken out of this blessed Book yet all these seem to be but so many branches of that excellent form which our Saviour taught his Disciples wherein he contracted the substance of all lawful prayers and that in an excellent method It was taught and prescribed in the days of his humiliation and was suitable unto their present light and condition For herein he gives no direction how to ask any thing in his name and the reason was he was not yet glorified nor made Advocate general in heaven nor possessed of his glorious Kingdom This may seem to be intimated in that petition Thy Kingdom come For then to him and so to them it was to come In it we may observe 1. The Entrance or Preface 2. The Body and Matter 3. The Conclusion In the entrance we may take notice of 1. The parties who must perform this duty 2. The parties for whom Prayer must be made 3. The party to whom Prayer must be made 4. The qualification of the Prayer it self 1. The parties who must perform this duty are persons living on Earth who have not lost their interest in God upon whom all and every one depends and our necessities are many and great and prayer is Ordained as a means whereby all things we need may be obtained and that more certainly because we have a Promise Besides its an universal Command and all Men are bound in that respect to pray and by prayer to worship and glorifie God For by it we acknowledge that God is the supreme Lord the fountain of all goodness the Father of Mercies willing freely to give us what we need and that we are miserable and indigent persons and that God is no ways bound to relieve us or supply our wants but only he promised to hear and help and this promise was freely made Some will not pray some cannot some can pray but not effectually yet all these are bound to pray and therefore their sin or misery must be very great 2. The persons for whom we must pray are our selves and all others who are capable of any benefit by our prayers For we are directed to say Our Father and in this word Our we include our selves and others too As we must love our Neighbour as our selves so we must pray for our Neighbour as for our selves And by Neighbour we must understand not only our Acquaintance and Friends but strangers and Enemies For we must pray for them which despitefully use us So Christ prayed for such as did Crucifie him saying Father forgive them for they know not what they do yet as we must love some more then others so we must pray more especially for some then others most of all for the Church and our persecuted Brethren For Christian charity in our prayers doth enlarge it self and abhors partiality and self-love 3. The person to whom we must pray is God and God is our Father in heaven Father is a word of power and pity Father in heaven is a term of supreme power and infinite pity And if all the power and pity of all Fathers even the best were united in one yet all were nothing to the pity and power of our God This Father loved us and gave his Son for us when we were Enemies and called us when we were dead in Sins and Trespasses greater love never was manifested to any creature and greater love to any creature there cannot be And how much must he love us when once we begin to love him as our God! What cannot a Father in heaven what will not a father in Christ do for his Children seeing in him meet in one power and pity might and mercy greatness and goodness which include all his perfections Thus we must conceive of God to whom we address our selves to whom we direct our prayers 4. The qualifications of prayers are many 1. One is faith whereby we believe that he is present in all places at all times hears all prayers knows all things and with what heart we pray that he is just holy wise of infinite goodness and unspeakable mercy in Christ who makes intercession for us in heaven that his power is Almighty and his dominion over all things is supreme 2. In respect of his infinite and eternal excellency and supreme dominion we must come into his presence with all humility and reverence adoring his eternal Majesty 3. As he is holy we must be holy and draw near with pure and upright hearts 4. As he is just we must petition for just things 5. As he is a father we must be obedient Children 6. As he is full of love so we must