the second person with Stephen Lord Iesus receive my spirit For both is here understood and Prayer ought jointly to be put up to them as they are one and severaly to all the Persons as they are three provided that in naming of one as here we exclude not the Son nor Spirit as Stephen not the Spirit nor the Father though the Son be solely invoked It was the Trinity that said Let us make man and from the Trinity did sin cause man to fall and by Prayer to the Trinity must man be remitted of his sin delivered from evil and instructed to avoid temptation It is given as a rule that where the Word Father is simply used without any other word restricting it to any of the other Persons as here there is none the whole Deity is thereby signified ex gr The fowls of the Air sow not yet your heavenly father feedeth them In Father all the Trinity is understood but in these words The Father loveth the Son the second Person is distinctly spoken of and distinguished from the first as also the first from the second But to reach the depth of the word Father in this profound sense were to puzle our souls with inscrutable Mysteries and with Simonides to drench our brains in unprofitable questions For he being asked by Hiero the King what God was desired one days liberty to answer the question but that being too short he demanded two but these not being sufficient he intreated for four in regard the more he pondered his soul was the more darkned touching the nature of a Deity neither do we read that ever he answered the question though eight days was allowed him his head questionless being filled with doubts and niceties studying the solution We shall therefore taking a prospect of this word of this cloud Father from its darkest side as it relates to Prayer and then we may see clearly â—avour on Godsâ—part and duty upon ours The favour is to be seen in Priviledges Justification and in our Adoption 1. Our Christian-priviledges above the Iew. Many and lofty were the Titles and Names by which God made himself known under the Law as the Lord God of gods the God of Abraham and the Almighty God but it is Our Father quia noster esse cepit he now becoming our God having left off to be theirs His Name to them was I AM denoting Eternity and Immutability to be in himself But Our Father shews plainly our interest in him and his to us he is not now under the Gospel called the God of Abraham at a distance but having spoken to us by his Son to keep us with him for ever sweetens our service under the notion of fatherly attendance the other having rebelled against him They indeed while with him had much of his praise but to which of them at any time said he When ye pray say Our Father They prayed indeed but in comparison of us they did it as servants we doing it as sons having received that spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father But of this afterward 2. Our Iustification by the blood of Christ. Our sins made us lose our interest we had in him by our wandring as the lost sheep and by our lavishing as the Prodigal we became like our old father the Devil and by consequence were afar off but now made nigh by the blood of Christ who made our peace animating us with confidence to pray After this manner having by faith received the power to become the Sons of God For nec peccator neither can a sinful people or a sinful man be attoned or made a son or sons except there preceed a remission of sin which is accompanied by the gift of Son-ship For whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin and he who would receive the kiss of the Father must return and confess with the Publicane and he shall not only have bread enough but his sin shall be forgiven him 3 Our Adoption by the regeneration of the Spirit Regeneration implyes a two-fold birth First we are born children of wrath and so are children of the Devil yet not by nature but imitation because the lusts of that father we will do by which we have no plea to Heaven And unless as regenerated a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God He comprehends all Ages Sexes and conditions and except he be born again shews a new Father and a new nature Of water understand that Baptism is an entry into a new life which is administred in the Name of the Father upon our bodies denoting that even our flesh is capable of Heavens glory and of the Spirit this is that wherein all blessedness consists for as the Spirit of man must be prop'd or buttress'd by the Spirit of God or it can never be elevated so as to enter the Kingdom of God so must the Spirit of God uphold the faith of the believer by bearing witness to it of the souls being born of God or then we cannot call after this manner without mocking our Father which is in Heaven A Father he is in respect of Christ and because of him he is a Father in respect of us like our elder Brother and elder brethren Let us seek after the things of Heaven that it may be known we pray by the spirit of Adoption having re-purchased the title of Sons Acknowledging by Father an absolution of offences a freedom from judgement Justification Sanctification and the Adoption of Sons a fellowship with Christ the gifts of the Spirit an inheritance incorruptible that fadeth not away eternal in the Heavens Whereby it may be attested of our Father what a dying man said of the Epistles and Gospels when desired by some to deliver a rule for the right ordering of their lives held up them with an ecce omnia hic here are all things necessary for attaining of a good and blessed life he meant they living after the rules there taught so shall it be with us if we practise according to the form prescribed here For this Preface holdeth out also duty on our part and we learn by it to pray with confidence awfulness and plainness 1. With confidence but not with presumption God hath come low to embrace us as sons he hath given us freedom to touch his Scepter yet ought not man to be saucy for the one nor play as a child with the other Let not the pride of thy countenance keep thee O man from God that is from calling upon him because he is thy Father nor permit the sin of thy soul to perswade thee to run from him because he is in Heaven Do this and live come boldly to the Throne of grace that you may obtain mercy It is a Throne therefore denotes Majesty to stop presumption with the
his Law by prayer from the Spirit through Christ to the Father we believe and conefesse the three Persons of the God-head and by that submits and sets to our seal that God is true and the Articles of the Christian Faith to be glorious because or though mysterious Aurelius warring against the Germains was in hazard to have a great Roman Army destroyed and himself with it by reason of thirst for want of water after five dayes the Emperour was told that the Christians of whom he had a great number in his Army could obtain of their God what they pleased at the Emperour their Prince his request they kneeled in the midst of the Army then afflicted and wondering at this gesture and beholding the Enemy who had them as it were in a poâ—nd so prayed that to the honour and dignity of the Christian Religion there was not only a plentifull showre for themselves but hail thunder and rain to the dissipating of their Enemies to the admiration of the heathen evidencing thereby that the God of the Christians was Deus deorum and the Emperour named that Legion afterward the thundering Legion for perpetuating the memory of that miracle And search all the Records of Antiquity where there have been fervent and hearty prayers God hath in answering of them taken and gotten much glory to himself and Praise in the house of Prayer dayly waiteth for him upon that account 3. It restricteth Satan for it resisteth his Power that old Serpent is charmed and that evil spirit is made to depart by the musick of a penitent's complaint that Enemy is beat out of the field by these arrows of the Lords deliverance For 1. It strengthens Faith by Christs approach It was not so much Ioshua's spear as Moses prayer that discomfited the Amalekits if the cross be too heavy for the Christian if he call Christ will be sure to take the heaviest end ask and call and the promise Here I am shall be verified and again command thou me shall be expounded by which thy Faith being confirmed their needs no fear what hell can do against thee 2. It begets experience of the divine love by the Fathers condescendency God hath alwayes the largest morsel for the widest mouth and his hand is fullest to be emptied in his lap who calleth loudest for mercy for forgivenesse in which experience causeth hope that as deliverance hath come in six so there shall be help in the seventh trouble the most desperat danger the tenth wave but once more prayer is prevalent 3. In acquiring habits of lively utterance by assistance of the Spirit How forceible are right words flowing from such whose frequent practice from their youth hath made them to be acquainted with this excellent piece of Christian Armour Prayer Iobs accustomed Devotion being the object of the Devils envy by grace did so far corroborat it self that all hells malice made him but bless God with his mouth nearer the earth then before In short it made Satan certainly look black to hear David concluding from the rescue of a Lamb to the fall of Goliah despond not then of Satans recoyling when the sense of the Love of God by the long tract of glorious experience is shed abroad in thy soul O Christian That famous Fabius Maximus is said in his Child-hood so to exercise himself in Arms and Arts when young that in age after times he became excellent fortunat victorious and five times triumphed Let a man acquaint himself with God and he shall have peace for in this sense to him that hath shall be given and from him that hath not i. e. that useth not his Talent shall be taken from him even that which he hath It is not to be ommitted what is added by a venerable person that cum aliquid magnae virtutis incipere volumus c. In the acquiring of some singular and important mercy it is not to be once disputed that the just joining fasting unto Prayer shall not only receive but have the desired blesssings copiously from Gods hand transmitted to him SECT III. THe necessity of the continual performance of this duty of Prayer calls and invites us to give attendance to it at this time and it is sufficiently perceptible that there is a twofold tye binding believers to this exercise 1. In respect of God 2. In respect of themselves Our evincing its necessity upon the account of God is not to be so construed as if we suggested that the narrowness of his power or shallowness of his wisdom did indispensibly crave our words or our postures to signifie our desire of having supply for that were blasphemy against his power unto which there is nothing too hard But it s held needful by vertue of the Precepts of God whereby it is under the pain of damnation pressed all other means being as ineffectual for the attaining of a blessing as the Prophets staff for the remanding back the soul of the Shunamites child And the wrestling for a mercy without this may cause us with Iacob get a halting but never with Israel prevail with God To be particular Prayer is peremptorily required of the sons of men and must not be neglected upon the behalf of God For 1. His Precepts require Prayer As we are gratefully to laud him for things possessed so we are required to call for things desired And in Scripture these two are joyned together yea we are not only commanded to pray but recte desiderare to pray after this manner Give us this day our daily bread Forgive us our debts this day Lead us not into temptation this day but this day deliver us from evil c. Hence that of a Father Oratio justi est clavis Coeli Ascendit precatio descendit Dei miseratio Let Prayer go up Gods mercy shall come down Albeit the Earth be low and the Heavens high yet God hears the tongue of the complainer if there be in his breast a clean a tender conscience for as without the last he will not regard a Prayer so without a Prayer he hath not promised a gift 2. His judgments are denounced against the prayerless And because of these shall every one that is godly pray unto him For the wicked shall be turned into hell and all that forget God Such as invoke not therefore the protection of God uncover the roof of their habitation and expose their very Beds Cups Garments their Wardrobs to a curse and make that Prayer of the two zealous Prophets to receive full satisfaction Pour out thy wrath upon the Heathen and upon the Families that call not on thy Name where it is observed that wrath is desired to be poured out as out of a vessel fury being still to be dropped upon them as from a vial he may be angry at his sons and wrathful but pours out wrath only
other fond reformations aimed at in this Age rich Amen was reduced to a beggerly So be it when yet there was as great difference betwixt them as between the garments of Tamar the harlot whom Iudah defiled and the Virgin-like apparel of Tamar the Princess whom Ammon ravished It is the only Hebrew word in this Prayer and not interpreted by our Saviour nor the Evangelist nec Graecus interpres neither durst the Latine nor Greek Interpreters translate it lest it should be contemned by being made naked since no Language can express its full sense whereof almost all Nations as they say Jesus Christ though Originally Greek and Hebrew sayes Amen as sufficiently understood Is is an oath that what you pray for is your hearts desire it is a wish that what you pray for may be your portion it is your assent that what you hear prayed for it your judgment and therefore in Amen we wish swear believe that the Prayer for forgiving sins of deliverance from evil of giving daily bread is from the power and goodness of your Father and that the Kingdom of his glory and grace is to be advanced by the same power and when by it you are brought to do his will you resolve to hallow his Name in the first and give him the glory in all for ever through Christ who is the Amen and therefore when you pray mind Heaven with Moses let all the people with you say Amen And I say To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father which art in Heaven c. HAving viewed at a distance the out-works and general form of Prayer it is now seasonable to enter in and behold the special rule of Prayer and the several parts of that called the Lords Prayer unto which the unseasonable and cloudy weather that may be both felt and seen in the Firmament of our Church urgeth our meditation having visibly as once in Egypt in it showres of hail and fire mingled with the hail hence prudentially we are enforced both to make more haste to it and carry longer in it It is called the Lords Prayer because by our Lord composed in this expression After this manner pray ye and by him also imposed in this Precept when ye pray say Our Father c. and to difference it from the Prayers of other holy men as of Moses David Asaph Heman from which it is as really diversifi'd as a week day from the Sabbath for though the Spirit of God made both yet the Holy Ghost hath eminently sanctified and commanded us in Prayer to remember it in this Mandat When ye pray say Our Father c. We have by our Saviour a living and new way a new Command it was thought also by his inscrutable wisdom fit to give us a new Prayer as new Wine for our new Bottles Pray after this manner As the Temple of old so this Gospel-structure consists of three parts 1. a porch or gate which may be called Beautiful in the words of the Preface Our Father which art in Heaven 2. A holy place consisting of the several Petitions in the Body of the Prayer as Hallowed by thy Name Thy Kingdom come c. In which the lights of the Lamps lead us orderly from one Petition to another from wherein his Kingdom is concerned to that in which our obeying the Laws of that Kingdom is related in Thy will be done by which we see the Table of the Shew our necessary bread whence we go forward to the brazen Altar whereon we lay our sin-offering in Forgive us our debts c. and having sanctified our selves as Priests we ascend to the third Part the Holy of Holies For thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory for ever at the end of which or rather the head we have the glory of the Lord in a cloud in this word Amen filling it self and the whole house with the light thereof Of the Preface then next of the Petitions and lastly of the Conclusion let us treat CHAP. I. Our Father which art in Heaven IN these words we have goodness Our Father next greatness which art in Heaven They are the head of the Christians Prayer and like that of the Spouse it is as the most fine Gold and weighs thus much that we should be so circumspect in our walking and living upon earth as to be accounted worthy to posses our Parents Inheritance in Heaven unto whom we pray whence ariseth those duties of lifting up of the heart of the voice of the soul of the eyes unto God They have also in them the Person we pray unto Father the relation we pray under Our Father the place we pray unto which art in Heaven all ushering-in the several Petitions Our Saviour more boni Oratoris as an Orator here patterns and becomes a Patron unto goodly Prefaces whereby our Petitions are proposed with greater gracefulness and sweetness and what shall more readily procure affection than Praise and Praise is placed upon the Porch of this Prayer in that our Lord will have us begin to beg no otherwayes then by calling the great God our Father insinuating praise and love which rule had the Gadarens observed they had not so prophanely besought Christ his Son to have departed from their coasts To have our Prayers quadrat and conform to this holy Preface We shall discover 1. What lyeth couched under this Name Father 2. What reasons might induce our Saviour to give him that Name 3. The special excellencies by which most eminently he merits that Name In beholding the first both thee and I Reader are to behold What astonisheth Angels What makes the Heavens to wonder and the Earth to tremble which flesh cannot express And I said A great Preacher dare no utter yet dare not be silent The Lord grant that I may speak and you may hear this great thing viz. Gods giving himself to the Earth and we our selves to Heaven Both which is granted to be done in these words Our Father which art in Heaven Our Father c. THis Name Father is as the Angels name Secret and wonderful yet with Moses we shall view its back-parts And first of all we may perceive the whole Trinity in nature For the Lord God is a Father God the Son is a Father God the holy Ghost is a Father Or without errour we may understand the first person of the Deity in order sometime called the Father of Rain of Iesus Christ and again the Father of Grace the first having in it some vestigia of his power the second being the express image of his person the third the similitude of his nature and holiness And to him we may cry as to the first person with David Be merciful unto me O God be merciful unto me and also in the same phrase Father We may call to
from me ye evil-doers for I will keep the commandments of my God my Father Because of which we ought to act as sons that as a Father we delighting in him he again as children may delight in us Lest we hear from him in conviction what a vertuous Laconian Lady wrot to her debauch'd son Aut vive rectius either mend thy manners or never return to Sparta which may be thus aplied either live as holy or expect never to see thy Fathers Countrey nor enjoy his Heaven which hâ— knew to be necessary who attested that Sanctitas was Mater Gloriae holiness was the Mother of true blessedness an argument nervous enough to conclude our practising what is enforced by the Apostle Flee fornication and be ye holy 2. Delectation in his presence Where a good Father and a dutiful Child meets the law of love may overcome lawless necessity and cause them even when urgent occasions do otherwise avocate to continue in the society of each other loathing that even business should interrupt the joy of their sweet fellowship How did David rejoyce in the Lords House and Sanctuary How amiable were they unto him How frequent were his visits in them And like an ingenuous Son how early cometh he to beg his Fathers blessing and looketh up whom if thou follow as thy Father on earth thy name shall be Solomon because thou shalt have peace and Iedidiah for the Lord will love thee 3. Fellowship in our addresses We speak with him here not only as in the same place but as Moses face to face before him When we say Our Father give us bread forgive us our sin faith brings his ear to our lips his eye to behold our tears his bowels to yearn at our cry and all these move his power to remove us out of danger This Prayer being purposely taught to impress upon our hearts the thoughts of that dearness and nearness betwixt us and a merciful God before whom all our desires are and from whom our groaning is not hid and who is said to answer when our requests are granted and the mercy prayed for obtained 4. Acceptance in our returnings Should a child knock at a neighbours door for bread once or twice he might get satisfaction but if oftner might be check'd yea bashfulness in a Boy would make him resuse if frequently sent to a strangers house for food But with what confidence can he turn and return to his Fathers Cup-board and when hunger or thirst assaults him stands not to demurr but repairs straight home because it is his Fathers house and dwelling Let us therefore come boldly to the Throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Et hoc si feceris hoc habebis if thou do the one God shall give the other obey the precept thou shalt have the benefit if thou being converted pray thou shalt have mercy and be happy in strengthning thy brethren Arristippus presenting a Petition to Dyonisius fell down offering it at his feet because said he the Emperour hath ears in his feet denoting either the liberality or at that time the surliness of the King with whom indeed Authors shew he was very bold because of his goodness and trying him to admiration boasted of his Lords gifts and favour yet all his treasure being but finite by his bounty was exhaustible as was the munificent Pope Alexander the fifth who was so profusedly charitable that in earnest sport he affirmed himself that when he was a Bishop he was something rich and when he was a Cardinal he was somewhat poor but when he became a Pope he was an arrant Beggar But our Fathers loaf never lessening nor his rich store admitting of no diminution Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool go into his tabernacles and worship at his holy footstool for from heaven doth he behold the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoner to loose those that are appointed to death And giveth to all men liberally when they ask of him Our Father c. IN the Articles of the Christian Faith we acknowledge our believing in God the Father Almighty and yet here in our prayers we are directed to say Our Father without any lofty title to express his dreadful greatness To avoid prolixity it may be thought to proceed from its fitness fastness comprehensiveness and allureingness 1. Father is a new Covenant tearm and so more fit for the Gospel His Name of old was the God of Abraham Iehovah I AM King of kings Iudge of all the earth but unto us the Gospel hath brought glad tidings not bringing us to the Mount that might not be touched that burned with fire unto blackness darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voice such as heard it desired for fear of death it might not be spoken unto them But leading us unto Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and he giving us a new Commandment a new Covenant a new way a new Sabbath it was fit under these new dispensations that God should take to himself a new Name for saith one Nusquam invenitur c. Many Laws and Ordinances had the Iews but never this Commandment simply to call him Our Father It is true he was their Father and complained of their undutifulness under that relation yet it is as true again that it mainly eyed their being made by him or created of him which is common to them with beasts and devils And though they prayed to him in the style Father yet it is added O Lord thou art our Father and therefore as this Name was not prorsus ignotum altogether unknown to them so it is evident that they had it not in that plain full and comfortable sense wherein we dare and ought to understand it The Temple wall being broken and its vail rent each man ought and may call him Father not only from their Fathers but because of his Spirit in themselves and not as theirs alone but of all others whether Jew or Gentile bond or free the name Father not being only longe natior better but notissima best of all known and speaks to us Christians most fitly Love Hope and Honour more abundantly 1. More love and affection to us Of old it was the Lord of Hosts the great and the dreadful God but now Father sounding grace and kindness God in these things having provided better for us The Temple had much smoak Moses had a vail but here it is not spoken to us in parables The King saith the Christian Church hath brought me into his chambers Pardon if I say so great is his love to us and you that the Jews and their Priests were but Drovers and Butches in respect of us their Temple but Shambles in respect of our Church they serving as it were
hands the presented morsel of whatsoever kind Knowing that like an indulgent parent if we receive this or that contentedly from him he may give us choice and liking in all other matters and study like a father to please us being obedient in cloaths or money He that peruseth Solomons Dream with the Response thereof may understand the meaning of this rule Christ prayed to his Father for deliverance from the bitter Cup and though S. Matthew shews he drank it yet S. Paul relates he was heard in what he asked but how he submitted to his Fathers will and Angels comâ—orted and strengthned him so against fear that with a daring Majesty he faced those murtherers with an I am he Behold the Handmaid of the Lord said Mary Be it unto me according to thy word Let us be ready for service and we shall be crowned with the reward In all things let it be according to his Will with us and it shall be his will to do great things for us and as Holy is his Name so holy and just are all his purposes and then are we holy when we know it 4. Father is a more comprehensive stile and so fitter for our weakness As every word in this Prayer hath an ample sense and each Petition of an enlarged nature so this word Father though short in Letters yet of so huge bulk in sense as would puzle Angels to expound When we pray for daily bread we also intreat an easy bed good rest for wholesome meat at home and kind friends without a fair way when we travel for a good horse when we ride sound Ship when we sail and for seemly cloaths when we visit our acquaintance so that the word bread is of a copious nature and this word Father not short of it in signification comprehending Creation Regeneration Preservation Discrimination 1. Our Creation Each son of man is a son of Adam who was the son of God so that our radical being was from him and stamped at first by the hand of his power being Earth with Life Reason and Religion which not only as brethren binds us in affection to one another but as children units our tongues to express this word Pater Father all of us being created by him I have somewhere read that in a firait Lady Elizabeth afterward Queen of England cryed Lord look upon the wounds of thy hands and be merciful to the works of thy own hands 2. Our Regeneration Christ having taught us now under the fall to call Our Father minds us not only that he did make but hath also re-made us At first indeed in Adam we had great possessions and our service altogether praise but by his not paying the contracted fore-quit-rent of exact obedience forefeited his priviledges and we as heirs of his body lost our inheritance and being filii diaboli sons of the devil we are born again and become a-new filii Dei In evidence whereof the eternal Son of the same Father teacheth us confidently in Prayer to call his Father and God our God and Father Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant having procured peace in Heaven for a re-admission into our heavenly Paradise hath given us power to become the sons of God in our consciences and by the the testimony of the Spirit knowing he came from the bosome of the Father shewing the good Fathers good pleasure of our addressing our selves to him though we have back-slidden with love confidence and joy in our Father Thy Kingdom come c. This to the reprobate cannot be affirmed God in this last sense being no more his Father or they his children spiritually then David the son of Goliah when he sought against him or Pipes and Organs the off-spring of Iubal because he made them 3. Our preservation We can speak and call for help hope look and rejoice in the very expectation of our Fathers succour yea benefactors are called Fathers and where there is a personal agreement to perform all offices of love the recipient from respect may use the appellation Father He gave us milk and life and cloaths appointed for us the weeks of the harvest numbreth our hairs preserveth our bones It s true his Angels have charge over us yet as a Father he hath his eyes upon us though those Angels as servants have a command to lead us sor our greater security Our good things he giveth us as his glory and kingdom evil things he puts far from us as our necessities and debts all desirable things he hath promised us and we believe him because the Kingdom and Power and Glory is his of all which we are to have a share being his off-spring 4. Our Discrimination It is a compellation differencing us from Heathens who know not God the Father from Jews and Turks who believe not in the Son and from all who fight against him as an enemy Tremell that famous Jew and Translator of the Syriack-Bible being at his death asked concerning his faith answered Vivat Christus pereat Barrabas Let Christ live and â—arrabas be crucified Distinguishing himselâ— by this from his blood-thirsty fore-Fathers and numbering himself among those whose confidence was in Jesus which Our Father also doth he adopting us only in his Son 4. Father is a more aluring stile and so more conformable to prayer In our Petitions we are to exercise the Graces of Hope Faith and Charity unto which this title brings in singular supports on Gods part upon mans account 1. On Gods part For we in Prayer can lay hold upon his affection Though we be as grashoppers and unworthy to be admitted to glory yet worthy is the Lamb his Son our Saviour who hath procured it for us in whom his providence saith of us to all his creatures what David said of Absalom to all his Commanders Deal gently with the young man with the old man with the sick person and tender infant for my sake though the Prodigal had spent his All yet because he confides in his Father and returns bemoans and repents he is arrayed with honourable raiment entertained with delicious sare and honoured with melodious musick to chear his heart to beautifie his countenance and attract respect from beholders 2. On our part for we in this life ought to have filial conversation This Prayer is not for dogs and therefore taught only to Sons which we are when we obey reverence and walk in our Fathers footsteps The debauch'dnesse of Angustus Daughters made him call them not children but imposthums boils of his body Shall not God much more reprove reproach them who give out they are begotten of him when the seed of the Serpent remaineth in them and the poyson thereof spreading to the infection of others contrary to duty nature and profession because they confess our Father Our Father THe eminent and transcendent acts by which the Name of Father is assumed by
Fathers House into which if thou go and ask thou wilt receiver a blessing One dying in a strange countrey was somewhat dejected but roused by Anaxagoras with a Be of good cheer the way to the dead is alike to all Let us rejoice for so is the way to heaven Let the foundations be destroyed the Lord is in his holy Temple his eyes behold his eye-lids try the children of men And when the wind bloweth and the Marriner at his wits end yet this Father hears and brings him to his desired haven All which considered as Chymists call quick-silver Pater omnium mirabilium in a juster sense we ought to acknowledge this Father the Father of all wonders the parent of all miracles and the most wonderful Father being maker begetter preserver of men and Angels Moreover from our Fathers we have our well-being our natural birth like the purest wheat is attended with the dust straw chaff of original corruption from which young ones ought by their parents to be even by threshing I mean smiting winnowed and cleared off and by that reduced to good order In which the Lacedemonians were famous requiring of their youth these duties to the aged Salutari appeti decedi assurgi deduci reduci consuli And to salute them at a distance to draw near them in affection to give place to them in motion and to rise up to them in approaching to lead them in their stumbling to conduct them in their wandring and to consult them in our determining is a respect we owe the aged as they are fathers but to this Father in Heaven the Ancient of Dayes we owe all these and more and as a natural parent naturally conveyeth the natural life to his son so he is to labour to propagate the knowledge of his sons duty in a gracious instructing about the nature of holy and comfortable conversation and for that is indebted to his son Nutrition Education Instruction Possession which being viewed God is to be owned and highly regarded reverenced and loved as an excelling all Progenitor Man having eminently from him 1. Nutrition A parent is to give his son bread not a stone but it 's he in heaven must both send the loaf and give the stomach heat to digest it or the bones shall never strengthen And for all the care Fathers take we are directed to look upward for our daily bread and to obtain which the greatest Father must bow his knee and pray for his own yea shew me that Father that by taking thought can add though he have meat one cubit to his sons stature this heavenly-one excepted and the omission of daily prayer may be pass'd without a censure but speculation making this certain that duty ought not to move retrograde 2. Education This is held so necessary for our well-being that we judge him not a Father who neglects it and what an Orator said of Eloqution may be said of Education It is the first the second the third thing the main thing towards children to be performed The Moralist forbids softnesse and we must advise against viciousnesse And as there are many arguments in Scripture demonstrating Gods goodnesse so this of Education is performed by him in so supream a manner that his righteousnesse is argued from his teaching sinners in the way and his saving truths are so industriously inculcated that the very damned in that day shall be made without excuse A profligat youth led to execution desired to speak to his mother and in stead of whispering bit a piece from her face saying Sit hoc maternae educationis pretium Let this be her reward for my education for it is not the Magistrat but my mother that hath brought me to the Gallows This gave ground to that of the King Train up a child in the way that he should go Initia enter him in it at first and hold him so in the love of it that he may delight in the exercise of vertue for ever Let search be made God hath not one son that is idle or a drunkard or that obeyeth not his voice or that is cruel to his own flesh David kept sheep and God kept his heart as harmlesse as his flock yea when he turned unto sinful folly he was brought back again with the rods of men So far is God from allowing vice through fond I should say sinful indulgency But admit the highest degree of detestable vice no Father but he in heaven can remove the old and implant a new heart seriously to contemn for hidden pleasures 3. Instruction He can so teach that the greatest dolt shall learn wisdom and smallest infant shall cry Hosanna making them both wise unto salvation that like little Samuel they shall grow before the Lord by his own Spirit teaching them within at the heart into which Cantore an earthly Father dare not so much as look One Author mentioneth of a dull Prince so doltish that he was never capable to learn the names of the four and twenty letters in the Christs Crosse-row not when he had four and twenty Pages waiting upon him each one being named according to a letter the first A the second B c. So vitiated a brain can be throughly cleansed by the eye of this Father and their capacity so extended as to understand the Law by which he shall be wiser then all his other teachers then all his enemies But suppose we had all knowledge yet who is fit to pray except he inâ—use in us the very thoughts of spiritual desires and who can hold out in prayer unless he uphold what he begun and make that flourish which he did sow and bring that to perfection by his mercy which he first rooted in us by his love 4. Possession Their Fathers like Iacob provide for their Iosephs and as Iob his daughters A dutiful father will give inheritance to his sons among their brethren yet their portions being earthly perisheth as dung while the legacy of that heavenly Parent being better then Gold because riches and honour are both of them durable which not being here found Bonds Contracts Testaments are crowded with this name Death which being excluded and of no force in the inheritance of the Saints Be strong and of good courage Fear not little flock it is not only your Fathers pleasure but his good pleasure to give you a kingdom little though you be in number nature and beauty yet the Kingdom shall be yours which for Unity Stability and Majesty is not once to be named with the Terrene-Conquests trembling and doubtâ—ull parents bequeaths their covetous and contentious issue As men are called Fathers by nature so from favour too yet when their kindnesse is ballanced with his in this Preface the Crown of all glory and paternity is alone to be set upon his head whether you eye their Benefits Cares and Sagenesse 1. For Benefits Iobs
made St. Paul to groan earnestly and ought to urge upon us a proportionable zeal to inherit that house made without hands and to behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us which saith one affords unitly three acts videre amare laudare Beholding Loving Praising God and how should grief be there they entering when into it into joy having joy above them in God and his Christ joy about them in the Saints and Angels and joy within them because of all and therefore in his Name shall they rejoice all the day and in his righteousness shall they be exalted 4. There is safety to remove our fearingâ— All the splendor of this world being but like Nebuchadnezzars image having heads of gold breasts of silver yet standing upon seet of clay prognosticks dissolution and points it shall have an end Iob even in plenty when on earth seared and foresaw poverty And was not Fortune fancied by such as created gods represented standing upon a round ball shewing aptitude to motion Hath not the most Christian King a Cross upon his Golden Crown and the great Mahumetan glories in a half Moon which more equally inferrs to us a diminishing of his greatness then to himself justly it portends a growing of his power The greatest Crown may be made to â—otter by its own guard but to our Fathers City there comes none but detesters of such baseness yea they are uncapable of temptations thereunto Not to speak of the Devil though even of him some are in as great fear as one was of Hercules who hearing of his heroick atchievments did hide himself in a Cave for fear lest he should see him but spying him peeping through curiosity at first view died in a fright I say to pass Saâ—an there is no thief can there break through and steal no fear of evil in their thoughts no snare in their walk no scandal in their eye no flesh to beguile nor world to allure but all in perfect peace that is peace peace 5. There is largeness to take away our complaining The greatest Kingdom here is but a spot when compared to the whole circumference of the Mapp and it may be our portion in that Kingdom is not in the Cart at all which makes men look not to say leap over hedges that with conveniency field may be joyned to field but this Kingdom of our Fathers is spacious and the most enlarged soul hath so much elbow-room that the extasies of his Spirit are fixed in his possessions and the highest rapture he is transported unto makes him not grudge the glorious lustre of his rich because Sainted Comrade In our Fathers house are many mansions wherein the soul is satisfied being in the likeness of God For if beauty be pleasing they shine as the Sun doth strength content them they shall run and not be weary walk and not be faint doth royalty affect them they are crowned Kings if satiety please them they inherit all things Solomon shall not then have only wisdom nor Abraham obedience nor Sampson strength no Phineas zeal but every one shall be endowed with all and imployed not in looking asquint upon each other but in eying praising and adoring God Lewis son to Charles King of Sicily contemplating these two Kingdoms together whereof we speak said Si regnum paternum considero If I consider my Fathers Kingdom how little is it how small is it in comparison of that which is upward into which the soul is admitted when a man once liâ—ts up himself This he spake who hardly saw the pavement of the palace of our heavenly Father but hazy weather the utmost coasts of that blessed Countrey Yet even that did and will operat to that degree as to put no estimat upon the â—airest flourish Earth can make at any time much more at Prayer Unto which there are these six things concurring 1. It s largeness 2. It s fairness 3. It s glory 4. It s cheerfulness 5. It s exercise continual praise 6. It s eternity enduring for ever Touching the influence this description hath upon Prayer to repeat the same things being profitable this account may be rendred 1. That prayer is immediatly to be directed to God in Heaven in opposition to all upon Earth The best Father is but Pater pulveris a Father of Dust and therefore not capable to be for us either a Sun or Shield It is also a direction to pray to none but such whom we are sure are in Heaven At Rome they are sainted whom yet save in common charity we know not but they may be damned However it be let us be put in mind to lift up our hearts to our Father Sursum corda who is in Heaven Have a care said a dying Reformer of the last Age my dear Children my Eusebi my Irene my Alethea that you love God the Father Little children saith Iohn keep your selves from idols Have a care that you pray to your Father saith Christ to all his Sons After this manner therefore pray ye 2. That Prayer is to be offered up with reverent and spiritual thoughts not likening God to any Creature upon Earth As we know not what is the likaness shape or form of the inhabitants of Heaven so are we utterly ignorant of the nature of God in it and therefore in Prayer to conceit him a man as some atheistically do with us or paint him like an old man as some superstitiously do who are of Rome is a discredit to his spiritual being To desire to see and then to worship is to worship without faith Abhor therefore such idolizing and pray against the impress of such absurd vanity the more absurd that there was no manner of similitude seen on the day the Lord spake in Horeb and though we see heaven daily yet can we give no account of its nature how much lesse of God who is within it Euclid being vexed with an impertinent Questionist about the gods tartly replyed Quae petis ignoro I am ignorant of these things but this I know that the gods have indignation at such curious searchers Sure we are those that confine the illimited God in the imaginary space of any thing visible or form his spirituality in the likenesse of what can be sancyed creat a god which cannot hear them and slight a God will be revenged upon them Besides these men make God an idol when they prepare not their hearts nor fit their affections for his service and again when all their religion is in the Temple and again when they invent wayes to worship God and follow their own imaginations To speak of committing or loving sin in secret or of hoording up wealth with trust or for-swearing themselves in judgement were large subjects yet by these God is made an idol 3. That Prayer is to be presented with sincere and pure affections not defiled
all ages that some will have it numerus or ationis making deliverance from evil a distinct Petition from that against temptation approved by Chemnitius and King Iames as shall be seen in due place they shewing good reason for this enumeration of seven Petitions In the first whereof we beg admission into his Temple in Hallowed be thy Name In the second to his Palace in Thy Kingdom come In the third to his Council in Thy will be done In the fourth to his Granary Give us our daily bread In the fifth to his Treasury Forgive us our debts In the sixth to his Armory Lead us not into temptation In the seventh to his Garden or Arbory Deliver us from evil Unto all which if we pray truly all Prayer may be congruously reduced in evidence whereof receive a Fathers judgment with very small alteration If any beg Let the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee saith he not Hallowed by thy Name If any call Turn us again O Lord God of Hosts and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved saith he not Thy Kingdom come If any supplicat Order my steps according to thy Word desireth he not Thy will be done If any demand give me neither poverty nor riches saith he not Give us our daily bread If any utter O Lord my God if I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me yea I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy is not this to be constructed Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debters Implores any Send out thy light and thy truth let them lead me is not that Lead us not into temptation And doth any request Deliver me from mine enemies my God is it not Deliver us from evil Hence therefore this Prayer is not only as a rule to pray by but as a form to pray in supplying what ever is deficient in the supplications of mortals whose arm at longest cannot fathom the length of that request put up for the belly give us bread much lesse commensâ—trat the extension of that put up for God Hallowed be thy Name Yet as we can we shall search 1. into the matter of this Petition hallowing of the Name of God 2. The order of it for it is reckoned among the first three and is become their Captain therefore more honourable Name hath its name in the Greek from the help or aid it gives to know things or persons by and with the Latines Nomina were notamina marks tokens signs to difference things by when men were â—ewest there were names and they increasing sirnames were added still to distinguish one from another neither do we find any Nation so barbarous but had names the savages of Mount Altas in Barbary excepted who were reported to be both namelesse and dreamlesse Names begun with the Creation the eldest daughter of which being Light was called Day And who can shew the improbability of their duration when time shall be no more Moses was termed Moses when Peter saw him in the Mount and who is that will earnestly deny that Enos shall not be called Enos even in glory The old Pollanders gave names to their children at the first cutting of their hair but the most Christian Nations have followed the Iews and given names about the eighth day yea the old Romanes gave it to their Femals the same day but to their Males on the ninth All gave them for discrimination to difference a Cain from an Abel Samaria from Ierusalem some had it because of some property as Esau from his being hairy Some from an atchievment Iacob was called Israel for his prevailing with God Others gave names from a desire of continuating their own names upon earth and because it is a kind of judgement to want a name as did Davids adulterous infant and the rich Churle in the Gospel for this they intended to call Iohn Zacharias after the name of his Father some give them in imitation of some vertue as Iob or David as a spur for the bearer to follow the vertues of those Saints Hence it is thought Iacobs sons were never named Iacobites but Israelites to animate the whole race for strugling with God untill they got a blessing Lastly Names have been imposed from some sudden emergency as Isaac from Sarahs or Abrahams laughter or from future foreseeing as was Cain Abel or from some profession as at this day the Mahometan from Mahomet and the Christian from professing Christ. Most of these wayes have God taken to himself and recevied names from others yea we may say firnames he is often called the Lord Jehovah God and frequently the God of all consolation the Lord God of our Fathers the Saviour of Israel who blotteth out transgressions for his own Names sake which is to be hallowed In order to which let us descant upon 1. What may be understood by his Name 2. How that Name is to be hallowed 3. Why the speciality of that Name is expressed all other names being secluded as is implyed in that Pronoun Thy Name By name in general understand his ineffable and invisible essence and nature which he held out in his Name I AM and his Name Iehovah is so peculiarly his that it was never and is never to be communicated to any creature not that the letters of his Name Iehovah is to be adored with the superstitious Jews as those of Iesus are with the idolatrous Papists but his nature expressed in and by those letters including both the Spirit and the Son for all that the Father hath being his cur non nomina why should not the Name Iehovah be likewise and consequently he get his respect By name understand also his wonderfull and inseparable properties as Wisdom Omnipotency as also his beautiful and admirable acts and workings all which are called upon to praise that is occasion or perswade others to glorifie the Lord such as his work of Creation Redemption his wonders miracles for preservation of and for his Church add to these his comfortable and inalterable writings which he hath so exalted above all His Name that when many of his works shall change and wax old as a garment his promises to his servants shall endure for ever The doctrine whereof is not to be blasphemed for by that his Name is spoken against Let none hence conclude that it ought from this to have been Hallowed be thy Names that objection being long ago answered for Nomen Divinum the Name of God is here expressed in the singular to remove the occasion of idolatry or conceit of many gods Thy Name having respect to the Father mentioned in the preface in which also the whole Trinity is included yet not expressed in the plurality of persons for the reason aforesaid Nomina sanctae immaculatae Trinitatis the names of the
confusion wherein we so lately were labyrinthically and scandalously involved by making desirable peace to be enjoyed only by our more holy Successours c. Themistocles having done great service observing himself noted and pointed at in the Olympick Games as the deliverer of his Countrey is recorded to say This day I am sufficiently rewarded for all that ever I have done for Greece God shall also hold himself really repayed for all offered and possessed mercy if we remitting somewhat of that passionat prejudice against what we have not shall render our selves grateful for what we have and for more sureties sake pursue those things wherein gratitude stands which is in invitation of others to behold the mercy in observing of the poor who stand in need of mercy in a restoring what we have taken from others without mercy in a confessing that all our good flows purely from mercy and because each man complains of the others remissnesse let every one affectionatly mourn to testifie his desire of requiting God that men do not praise the Lord for his goodnesse nor for his wonderful works to the children of men 2. Knowledge in what his mercy hath accomplished in the â—eeds of the Gospel As that the second person died for us and that all the three Persons draws us from the power of Satan to receive the forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified That as peace came down with the birth of his Son so peace and purity was infused by the shedding abroad of his Spirit upon us because of which on earth glory is to be given to God in the highest 3. Love because of that which all his attributes hath designed As a Father we have his love upon us as a King his power exercised about us as we are children we have his Angels ministring unto us at all times his face to refresh us his Spirit to comfort us and at last his bosome to entertain us To love him is to hallow him than which nothing is more equitable fruitful or honourable 4. Abilities for that which in his holy Law is enjoyned We cannot express our obligations nor demonstrat the tye that lyes upon us for spreading abroad his same wherefore this Hallowed be thy Name reflects upon our impotence and confesseth we cannot do it and therefore he must for though the devils and damned glorifie God yet they cannot sanctifie the Name of God no more can any untill there be a new heart created a new spirit infused while the Angels cryed Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts all that the Prophet could do was to cry Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and did not change his note untill his iniquity was taken away and his sin purged which is also prayed for in this Petition And for the continuing of which grace of sanctification and spiritual life or ability we saith a Father pray continually both day and night that by the grace and protection of the most high they may be in us and for us preserved ut qui quotidie delinquimus that as we sin daily we may by the sanctification of the Spirit be daily purged leâ—t we fall from the grace of God The Temple and Utensils thereof when defiled were cleansed and purified from their pollution quae Deo sunt destinata or dedicata vocantur sancta they are holy they are Saints they are righteous who fall not only but even those that fall and rise again washing themselves from their old sins by amendment Of which he was apprehensive who complained that having desires to be happy but his thoughts would not suffer him if such struglings happen in thy breast Reader sentence them to death and if too strong for thee put up thy supplication in an Hallowed be thy Name that the power of God may be discovered in thy infirmity and his strength in thy weakness by dissipating such cogitations His Name in the last place is to be hallowed personally if you eye man comprehending as bound thereunto both soul and body and in this Petition included and performed directly indirectly and exemplarly 1. Directly by a holy and reverend using of his Name The Romanes suffered not their children to swear by Hercules untill they went out of doors to prevent their vain and ordinary swearing The ancient manner of the Hebrews in their Judical swearing was by the Magistrats attesting the witnesse in this form Give glory to God And yet there are profane wits among us who disanulling all bonds interprets oaths to be a point wherein their gentility consists and are so little afraid of a jealous God that their jealousie is lest their comrade out-swear them so both becomes rivals of damnation Men may consult and act for the good of a Kingdoms peace and quiet yet a great man and a holy is mistaken is swearing be not worse then the edge of the sword and the plague thereof beyond that of war And if men will do no more yet let them revere the book they handle and the Gospel that is dayly before them saying Swear not at all c. but let your yea be yea and your nay nay all other being of sin And it is no ill derivation to bring the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth an oath from Orcus that is hell especially considering that even Heathens fancied if any god had swore false or broken his oath having sworn by Styx he was to be punished himself in hell for it nine thousand years for which cause said they Iupiter took the more care how he swore Whither shall we go to hide our faces off this age who hath got such a knack of swearing that it is our livelyhood our trade our pastime our humour as if our being gods i. e. great men wer a plea sufficient to reprieve us from hells torments When these who knew not the God of Heaven would out of reverence even in Markets say no more then By c. forbearing to name the god they thought upon Some will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an oath to be brought from a word that signifieth to compel and without a necessity there is no naming of the Blood of Christ or Omnipotency of God The Hebrews call an oath Shabugnah from a Root signifying seven hinting thereby both a mystery in it and good advice or deliberat thinking before the taking of it which may be done in these cases Paxfama fides reverentia cautio damni Defectus veri tibi dant jurare libenter And when the peace of our Countrey our own good report or want of witnesses or loss of goods whether our own or trusted to us are in hazard we are lawfully to clear our selves or free our selves by an oath so are we if Authority call us to it or faithfulnesse be expected of us but to inure our tongues to an
all the cause of those devastations and miseries wherewith the Church is harrass'd each Christian may say with him in the Satyr Ego omnium scelerum materia ego causa sum I have aided I have helped I have been the Author of all 3. Examplarly by doing all things in his Name Paul being put into the Ministry gave thanks to God before all and Peter acknowledged that he healed the impotent man in the Name of Iesus and Numa who first taught the Romans Religion enacted that God should not be worshipped obiter or casu at it were in passing by or by the by but to have the whole mind intent upon the service which beautifying Religion makes it graceful yea taking and it is observed that Scipio Affricanus never entered upon privat or publick business untill in the Capitol he had consulted god and was thereupon thought to be Iupiter's Son It ought to be the study of all but most especially of great man to be patterns of good works that men seeing them may glorifie God and it ought to be the duty of all men to read the Scriptures frequent Churches visit Neighbours abide in their Families as they are directed to sing Psalms viz. to the praise and glory of God Hallowed be thy Name WE are now to reflect upon the speciality of hallowing his Name and secluding all others that they do not so much as mingle with the glory attributed to it which is insinuated in the Pronoun THY NAME in which an Emphasis is apparent a Seclusion is intended 1. An Emphasis is apparent signifying that our hearts countenances voices ought to be elevated and our minds upon nothing inferiour to himself THY NAME THY NAME speaks the temper of the supplicant to be altogether holy and eying nought save Divine Attributes 2. A Seclusion is intended There being none like unto him among all the gods It must be conceded that there is no name so high to be hallowed as that by which he is called The Father is the God of glory so is the Son the Lord of glory and the holy Spirit is the Spirit of glory the sense of which being diffused in and virtuating the Soul of the Petitioner his demands are conform to his Fathers declaration I am the Lord that is my Name and my glory I will not give to another And that God be not pillag'd of that which he is resolved to keep do but consider His Eminency His Singularity His Eminency above all other gods Kings Angels are called gods yet both these wait upon him and their glory but the Jewels that adorn his foot-stool THY NAME is so singular that it admits of no companion neither is it capable of any augmentation To speak Scripturally no god hath a Name but he and where there is no name we are to attribute no praise Vna revera numen est unicum there is but one God and therefore but one Name unto which truth the wisest of the old Philosophers did assent A great Herauld delineating the particulars that grace and make a man honourable sheweth that Vertue good Parentage Wealth Office Countenance a good Name and a gracious Sirname compleat a person and if an union of these creat nobility how ought our Lord Jesus Christ to be respected in whom all these meet so in their causes as without his concurrence they shall be in none as in their subject Behold his power to act All arms before him are but as straw and the strongest is but feeble It would puzle the Creation to make one drop of rain or scatter one cloud or command a dewy morning In all our undertakings if not fools we shall say if the Lord will we shall live and do this or that Glory not therefore in thy wisdom or riches for these flee away thou saith I am add the Epithet rich or wise yet thou art not for in speaking thou art changing and no more to be seen what thou wast then we can behold again the same water in a running river Behold also his wisdom to discern He only knows the intentions causes nature and the end of things The device of saving poor man after his fall was above the imagination of the highest Angel and for Adam all he could invent was an Apron of Fig-leaves but a Garment of Righteousness never once entred into his head untill it pierced his ear in the promise He heholds the heart so clearly which even to Angels themselves is dark nisi revelentur except revealed to them by God or some external sign concluded by them that Ferdinand and fourth of Spain putting two to death for a conspiracy both of them appointed the King to appear before the Tribunal of God within thirty days to give an account why they were put to death for they were innocent at the limited time while others thought the King had been sleeping he was really dead and in probability answering the charge One Turson among the Goths condemning an innocent and beholding the execution was by the prisoner commanded that very hour to appear before God to answer for putting to death an innocent and no sooner had the executioner done his office then the Judge expired and fell from his horse Many things of this nature might be inserted to evince that all ought to cease from flattering themselves in magnifying their own opinion of Saints or humours and ascribe only Glory to the name of IAH our God Behold further his goodness to forgive Peters charity was indeed hot but not to the eight degree it could not reach to forgive above seven times But as there is in us a multitude of gross sins so with him there are multitudes of tender mercies expressed in the number of seventy times seven which yet is not a determinat number as if at that we should close but thereby is signified that our mercy should never end The Law being given us in ten Commandments which being broken sin adds one and makes the number of eleven and seven comprehending all time because time runs through the seven dayes of the Creation by which we are to press upon our selves the remitting upon Gods part the breach of the ten Commandments committed in any of the seven dayes and declare the same to our Brother crying peccavi after his offending though he owned us a hundred talents for it were an indignity to our Saviours boundless love to collect from his seventy times seven the non-forgiveness of seventy times eight since a more plain rule is before us touching pardon which is as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us and he forgiveth all Besides six is a number of work and labour wherein God wrought but the seventh is a day of rest and seventy times seven sheweth that God when our sins are at the highest rests in pardoning grace and is at friendship with the penitent and declaring the same by his Spirit
in the Word and Sacraments and releasings of the Church in a far more consolatory way then can be attained of worshipping of Saints or going on Pilgrimages c. As appeared in Gentleman of this same Age who being vexed with the Palâ—ie and entering his Ladies Chamber heard a young Child reading to her Mother by providence these words in the Gospel And Iesus said to the sick of the Palsie Son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven these which furnished the soul of the diseased with abundance of consolation and blessed God who out of the mouths of babes and sucklings ordained praise to himself in this particular of forgiving all sin 2. Consider his singularity besides him no God It is a note of authority to give and of subjection to receive names and the first act of Fathers power is in giving his Son a name but had not God named himself we had yet been ignorant both of his Name and of his Sons His Name is God because he is one the sooner therefore may he be hallowed the multiplicity of Saints and Spirits not only cusing irksomnesse but creating fear left in pleasing seven we might offend the eight for ommitting him and my intense prayers to Peter or Paul might cause my guardian Angel to take snuff when more remiss in his service or office Praise him therefore and only pray to him he being Lord above with Nehemiah and as to Hezekiah he will let thee know he inclines his ear to hear and opens his eyes to see all those that afflict thy soul and ask thy self consult Scripture and experience 1. Doth he not bring down all that are high Where are the Worthies of this world Achitophels policy or Cesars sorce Let men talk no more exceeding proudly for like Oreb and Zeeb like Pharaoh and Senacherib they perish before him Vain boasters who have spoke great words how suddenly have they been dejected and cast down How in a movement have they been removed and in a groan confessed that the glory of man was nothing It is recorded that after Senacheribs Army was destroyed by an Angel he had these words engraven upon his standing Picture Let him that looketh upon me learn to fear God Iulian Uncle to the Apostate after many oâ—trages committed against the Church was in horrible anguish advised by his Wife to praise and proclaim Christ his Saviour who had shown himself powerful in plaguing him and had done it in mercy to bring him to repentance which pious advice had some influence upon him before he died and how he hath cast abroad the rage of his wrath and beheld every one that was proud to abase him every sinner shall at last and most sick persons do and condemned Malefactors bring in plentiful evidences 2. Doth he not exalt all that are low Is Moses cast out by the law of Pharaoh though we read of none that was drowned yet he singularly was preserved by Pharaohs Daughter David appointed by his Father to keep sheep as fit neither for Court nor Camp is designed to be King of Israel no soundness is in Iobs flesh yet a sacrifice shall redintegrat both his health and fortune Ruth accounting her self not like one of Boaz hand-maids as born without the Covenant got a full reward of the God of Iocab yea a royal one in becoming Grand-mother to king David and in the Magnificat is it not said My soul doth magnifie the Lord for he hath regarded the low estate of his hand-maid Humble your selves therefore and say to the King and Queen humble your selves and all shall be exalted in due time and those who are qualified with this vertue of prasing God though here they have no house they shall have a heaven and though weak they shall have strength and though no honour it shall be reported that they pleased God When Cyrus prospered he became the more holy and more frequently caused sing praises and offered sacrifice to the gods so ought we to the God of heaven For 3. Doth he not defy all that are supposed He calls in derision of all reputed gods to whom will ye liken me and puts two things unto them to try his excellency 1. Prediction to know what is to come 2. Execution of either good or evil Which if they cannot do it follows that they are not gods and he alone is to be feard because he can creat peace and make war and knoweth all that is past what is present and what shall be hereafter To glorifie the Name of God it but to publish the miracles with a thankfull heart which he hath performed for his Church upon his enemies Which Thulis an Egyptian King knew who swelling in the pride of his own magnified greatness would needs inquire at the gods whether any King were greater or richer then himself and had this response from a Priest of Serapis The greatest is God next is the Word the Spirit with them being one in nature and eternal in power But thou O mortal haste thee out of this place and seek where to shut up thy life Immediatly after which he was slain by his own servants and so shall all the enemies of our Father perish that men may know he whose Name is Iehovah is the most high over all earth 3. Consider his infinite glory and there is none to be reputed God but he Solomon was in all his glory inferiour to a Lilly the glory of that flower being in it self and from it self yet as his was so the Lillies beauty is but a ray of his ineffable splendour and all comes from him Herod's silver doublet which is recorded to have been that which the Scripture calls his royal apparel was but poor armour though glittering in the Sun against the assault of base and contemptible worms It was as we read told him by Aâ—gurs he should see an Owl five dayes before he died which appearing as the people were admiring his eloquence and shouting he was a god he cryed Behold your god dieth It is said after his death that the Word of God grew and multiplied and until the false imagination of deluded souls be indeed slaughtered by the sword of the Spirit or detected by the light of the Word of God which is his Name his Name doth not multiply by the accession of believers to a belief of the truth For though there be many that profess his Name yet it is to be fearred there be few hath chosen it the most falling upon it by chance having found it in their native Countrey which also causeth it to be by chance but honoured their chief design being either the advancement of them selves or their faction Yet there are a few unto whom God is doing as he hath alwayes done viz. making known the unity that is the glory of his Name in the Doctrine of his Son and as they repute none
those above-mentioned we surcease from more particular designation Four brethren visiting one Pambus discoursed of some special duty wherein they had exercised themselves One had been much in fasting another had so slighted the world that he had nothing of it nor in it a third professed he had studied that eminent grace of charity the fourth had lived two and twenty years in obeying the will of another to whom Pambus gave the crown of superexcellent commendation in regard he had quitted his own will and served anothers whereas his companions had chosen what their own wills had beheld as delectable and though we sacrifice our selves by giving our bodies to be burned yet obedience is more acceptable with him with whem we have to do and more performable shall his will be to us if we reflect that he wills only what is profitable and all his will is profitable for us in that he wills them to us It is to be adverted that God wills only good let none therefore be harsh it is by accident if he wills ill the means that leads to glory be more lucidly discovered and most pathetically press'd Samuel wept for Saul and David harped for him though both knew God had left him It is a scandalous practice of some to wish either the means or tendencies towards hell or to presume at first Gods final determination and accordingly with delight wisheth not to say prayeth ill for their brethren It is the will of God that all Israel be saved let it not be thy will to have any Edomite damned left thou curse thy self He wills moreover the doing of his will by thy self also be not an hypocrite exclude not thy self from this service for it is not let thy will be done by these or these or by him but let thy will be done that every where throughout the earth Errour may be eradicated and Vertue planted and in worshipping of his Name Earth may not be different from Heaven which cannot be if thy own soul be not by thy self weeded from vice and his will performed to thy power It is Storied of religious Borgia of Guant that he said the furious Dog in hunting would be commanded from the Hare at the command or hollow of the Hunt-man yet man would not abandone his lusts his sinfull projects his fleshly and hellish designs at the voice call yea thunder of God But let it not be so with thee beating up thy soul to that degree of conformity that the very whisperings of Gods Spirit may command practice and be obeyed without recoyling that God may as it were wonder at thy servency as Christ did once at a womans humility with an O man great is thy obedience Yet in applying this Petition to our selves it is good to remember his advice who propofeth this three-sold rule in and about the will of God that his will if we be particular be done 1. With a si vis as the leper Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean Moses prayed for entrance into Candan but finding it not to be the will of God he desisted from that suite 2. There must be a sicut vis a deliverance any way he will David desired to behold both the Ark and its habitation but if it were otherwise determined in the Council of God he was content 3. There is a quando vis when he will he hath called upon thee and thy Fathers house oft but his offers and his invitations have been oft rejected and Iosephs brethren flighting the anguish of his soul when they told him made Ioseph unknown to them untill the second time they went down to Egypt Wait upon the good pleasure of God therefore There were two wayes in the opinion of Poets and Philosophers in which all men walked and was thus figured â— one leading to bliss the other to sorrow the one was called the way of vertue the other of vice Christianity in its Law shews the disparity betwixt a licentious and a regular life neither is there any other path for happinesse and glory then obedience obedience obedience Wait then upon God and the God of peace that brought again our Lord Iesus from the dead shall in his own good time make you perfect in every good work to do his will Thy will be done on Earth c. THE will is the souls hand for applying to its self such things as appear useful helpful and convenient but heavenly things as most necessary must be reached unto yea violently attracted left as disobedient to Law it be stigmatized as rebellion and restrained in its other attempts all other designs saving those of piety which have the promises of both Earth and Heaven proving abortive in themselves and destructive to the brain wherein they are bred for prevention whereof we must have the earth qualified with obedience by good will and our selves upon earth to have heavenly wills that we may glorifie God in the lowest earth as he is in the highest Heavens betwixt which that there be an holy conformity pray that his will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven On Earth a real limitation and properly a boundiary unto all supplications for all Saints yet of so large an extension as includes all that are afar off upon the Sea and signifies that of David God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us Selah That thy way may be known upon earth thy saving health among all Nations On Earth as it is in Heaven hath received different and various senses from the Ancients by Heaven some understanding the Saints and godly by Earth the sinner and unbeliever making the Petition this Let thy will be done by the wicked of the world as truly as sincerely as it is by the righteous and religious Again by Heaven is understood the Spirit and by Earth the flesh or body of man which is a servant to the law of sin and then the Petition signifieth this Let all the members of my body wherein sin dwells be made by thy power as easily induced to the obedience of thy will as is my spirit by which I serve the Law of God Further by Heaven may be understood the Church and by Earth the unbaptized multitude and then the Petition speaks Let all Atheists Iews Turks do thy will as it is done in the Congregations of those professing thy Name Two Fathers will have us by Earth to understand our enemies and that here we pray against their earthly-mindednesse which being removed they and we may live in heavenly concord confirming this position from the Apostles their not being called earth but the salt of the earth yea Non abhorret it is not absurd to understand saith one by Heaven our Lord Jesus Christ and by Earth the Church who as a wife is desired to be like the Spouse her Husband in
and sincerely 1. Conjunctly All the glorified number unites in this one thing of giving honour power and glory to the Lord because of all his wondrous works and such who desire to be of that Quire must to that Hymn in joynt devotion giveâ—n their Amen Israel must joyn with Egypt and Assyria avoiding neither because he is a Iew but beholding the Spirit of God breathing upon them must celebrate with them as Brethren though formerly aliens and with binding resolution each precede another by affection and in imitation of that glorified number though probably before different in opinion combine in this judgment to practise and do the will of the Lord for ever saying to dividing principles Abide here with the Asse and I will go yonder and worship c. 2. Continually Their eternal Sabbath is spent with unwearied ceasing in their serious attending his Throne we ought to be earnest and with David keep the way of his statutes unto the end i. e. sine impedimento incedam giving defiance unto the keenest temptation I shall gracefully persevere and imitably walk in the road and path of thy Commandments observing them in all my undertakings not putting on the royal apparel of Faith Righteousness and Obedience for the Throne or Temple but make them my daily garment yea my night-cloaths for at midnight will I arise and give thanks unto thee 3. Sincerely There is in Heavenly Saints a concord betwixt heart and harp being like the Sun transparent every cavity within them exceeding the Christal in purity evidenceth no disingenuity but perfect harmony in love in voice in desire in moving and in doing Abfuit ergo as true disciples of Christ let us hate dissimulation or willing to feign but let us do as well as sing I love the Lord otherwise as the devils we may speak much truth and with the reprobat do much good but neither being hearty it is not our own and the sooner shall we be accursed if we call out the Truth the Truth and not walk accordingly Not to separat what God hath joyned together both Saints and Angels in Heaven do the will of our Father joyfully humbly 1. Ioyfully Great content have they to be employed and great satisfaction have they all in doing the will and work of God Hail thou art highly favoured said Gabriel be it according to thy word said Mary to be sorrowing with the covetous young man for the sale of lust and discharging of thy sin or passionat or carelesse as was Pharaoh and Pontius Pilate is to contradict the spirit of God prompting thee to pray after this manner Thy will be done 2. Humbly Christ is represented to the Divine sitting at the right hand of the Father but the Angels and Saints about the Throne and sometimes falling down before it and then are men obedient when the precept not being delayed is heard by the ear saying Now the tongue saying arise the feet run and the hands saying all that thou commandest we will do That his will be done Reader in thy soul and in thy body in the heaven of thy soul and in the earth of thy flesh that as the Angels who are spirits thou spiritualized may live and do on earth his will as it is in Heaven The Popish Franciscus being demanded who was to be judged truly obedient ordered the exhuming of a dead body who would not be discontent how ever placed nor puft up though throned nor clamorous if dispised nor beautifull though gorgeously arrayed Such is the obedient doing giving suffering where word or providence gives order without wresting it or strutting it before the Lord. This word As either the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Germain Al 's importing similitude here denots a likenesse only not an equality we by it desiring amidst such encumbrances as the soul groans under to live inculpat as inoffensively as the Angels but to reach them in the large extent of perpetual conformity is a task beyond mortality for during our abode in houses of clay Ignorance malice weaknesse wantonnesse and wickednesse will affect us yet as children we may regard our copy and scorn luxury and all exorbitancy and lay aside superfluity of naughtinesse being perswaded that albeit the Character of our lives and actions be unproportioned we shall at length write fair and draw good Text Hand when in heaven we come to be perfect men in Christ Iesus For however obedience be here mixed with frailty and imperfection yet as a tender son endeavouring to execute his fathers will is approven so is it with God he requiring and blessing the will or desire for doing when the work it self may be defective so that though we arrive not at the perfection of the first or second Adam in doing Gods will which is to be found in the holy Angels yet we may acquire in obedience the perfection of Zacharias and Elizabeth which consists in the sincerity of our service We cannot and do not the will of God with the Angels speedily for like Lot we linger to go out of Sodom nor cheerfully for like Israel we murmure in the way nor fully for the good we would do we do not nor sincerely for our hearts are far from him nor perfectly for we know but in part and see but in part yet we are to strive after all this there being a time to come wherein all shall be obtained though now with Israel we compasse Iericho and with Sampson groan under blindnesse at length the siedge shall be ended in conquest and we revenged upon all Philistines that tormented us and all that we do shall be very good Therefore study for an enlarged soul that largely the will of the Lord be done for it is thy will not our own not every where but on earth not every way but as it is in Heaven that is doing it out of love and affection And so pray ye From all this we infer these four particulars 1. A necessity of doing Men came not into the world to stand idle or gaze about but to work and though sin and Satan put many to miserable drudgery it is still sloath except the work of God be done The heathen beheld and scorn'd the consumption of time in the inutile pursuits of the ordering plaiting and curling of hair of some phantasticks in his time and how with us such vanities are priveledged to inhabit the souls of too many is scandalously evident the saying of the prophecie of this book this prayer being kept neither in memory nor manners neither in heard nor heart c. 2. Timidity for failing The vitiousnesse of the age in spending the greatest part if not all time upon things â—innical ought to creat a fear both for our selves and others having for the doing of this will a patent not for one minut yet filling two times so nearly placed that there is
beyond all ordinary rules a lesson more then our Masters can pierce or construe I say since he for ever lives to punish us for ever in case of disloyalty let us for ever be obedient Some learned men during the Council of Basil a time wherein the world was turned a School and every soul a learned Disputant walking in and about a Wood debating about the questions of that age heard and saw an unusual if not prodigious bird its sweetnesse was so inchanting that it was suspected and conjured and then it declared it self to be a soul condemned in unto that Wood untill the great day after which it was to suffer eternal plagues then taking wing cryed saying O quam diuturna est aeternitas O how long is eternity O how immense is eternity all suddenly sickned and in few dayes after died who beheld it Melanchton judged it to be a Devil inhabiting the place But whatever it were the relation may admonish us in this litigious age wherein qâ—estions are started of no weight yet pursued with scorching â—eat to retire from the throng of disputes into our selves and mind eternity for by well-doing and upright living shall we only live happily with our Father which is in Heaven an â—pellation in the Preface settling us in love as thine is the Kingdom Power and Glory fixeth us in confidence in the Conclusion For ever CHAP. X. Amen IF the structure of this Prayer be like to Solomons Temple the Preface as the Porch the Prayer like the holy place the Conclusion like the most holy we shall in it assimulat Amen to the glory of the Lord in a cloud which being the last breath of this first and perfect Prayer cometh last to be considered 1. In its original and nature 2. In its place and order It is signaculum orationis Dominicae the seal of this and of all other prayers yet forsooth hath the misfortune with its companions to be thrust from the Codex of the Gospel as being inserted into the Evangelist not from our Saviours lips but from the custom of the Church as if every thing which is not in Luke or Mark must be ejected Iohn and Matthew where Amen is to be sound this Prayer being sent as an Epistle to our Father closed by Amen and given to be presented by the graces of Faith and Charity upon command It is sometime put before a sentence and so is a note of confirmation ordinarily translated verily and in the New Testament imports that expression As I live in the Old but here it is in the close as in the execrations of the Law and is doubled by the Psalmist in blessing the Lord from everlasting to everlasting Amen and Amen that is Amen in the heart Amen in the mouth demonstrating the union of these two in this one duty of blessing God It is a Iew by birth and speaketh Hebrew in the Laconick style yet its ingenuity and noble converse its candor and comprehensivenesse hath procured for it self that freedom to be denized in all Nations and all in each Nation speaking the same Language saith Amen and is either imperantis of command or confirmantis of assuring or precantis of desiring and is generally and was of old annexed to Prayer and Praise except that it was impiously because out of scorn laid aside by Humorists as though the saying of Amen had not been a Gospel-precept It groweth upon the Hebrew root Aman which by interpretation signifieth to nourish and by degrees as by bearers blooms on a branch signifying truth and fixednesse and the truth is Amen hath nothing of flatulency or windinesse but nourisheth every soul that by holy discretion prepares a Conscience for its receiving It is not interpreted by Expositors here Nec Graeâ—us Interpres ausus est neither dare they yea the verity is they cannot there being no Language to expresse its full sense and in Scripture having different significations being taken 1. Substantively 2. Assertively 3. Optatively 1. Substantively and then it signifieth Christ himself These things saith the Amen that is the Truth he being prima veritas the first and the last and by Amen he gives a reality to what he hath spoken because in him all the promises are yea and Amen In the word Father the Trinity is implyed the first Person only expressed in Amen the second is contained and these are one with the Spirit Hence one promiseth I resolve never te leave Amen out of my Prayer since it is as much as Christ which one sound from the heart is able to procure Godsâ—blessing on all our askings importing For Christs sake have mercy and hear O Heavenly Father 2. Assertively and then it is a note of Attention translated often Verily for what is in one Text Amen or Verily is in the parallel Text Amen or of a truth as if Christ should have said I speak it not rashly but certe profecto si fas est dicere juratio ejus est it is indeed his Oath so to speak As I live Amen Verily there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God And in the Prophet it is said he who blesseth or sweareth in the earth shall blesse or swear by the God Amen or of truth 3. Optatively and then it is a note of wishing Blessing and thanksgiving and honour said the Angels be to our God for ever and ever Amen and may in this sense be expounded fiat or So-be-it a word short of Amen's extent and is but a corner of it yet used by many of late with us as thought more perfect and significant though Amen is reverent and gray-headed and venerable through all ages under the Law by Moses used in point of jealousie and in point of exaction by Nehemiah that it like the last stroak of an heavy Bell might bumme in their ears who had offended It ends all the Epistles the third of Iohn and that of St. Iames excepted and is the last word of the Bible and one way or other Fifty times used in the New Testament It is acutely observed that the mystery of the Iews conversion is herein touched the whole Prayer being Greek this Amen only Hebrew hinting though obscurely that the Greeks that is the Gentiles shall speak the language of Canaan and that the Iews shall be conducted unto Christ the Amen these two by our Father being united in him who is the truth the way the life and the AMEN Let Amen respect Christ it is nota fiduciae of affiance regarding all his offices expecting with confidence deliverance by him as our King Instruction as our Prophet and remission of sin as our Priest yea indubitanter it is unquestionable he would not have us scruple the obtaining any thing we demand because next Amen he saith if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will