into which All the Prophecies issue as All the Promises determine themselves particularly that of the New Heaven and the New Earth and wherein the Mystery of God is Finish'd cannot be left out of that Prayer which the Great Prâ—phet High Priest and Apostle of our Profession Taught to his Disciples If it were so either the Things spoken of must be small or the Prayer must be small But neither of these can be suppos'd Not the First because they are the Result and Issue of all the wonderful Counsels and Works of God in the World Not the latter because it is the great Comprehensive Prayer the whole Element of Prayer So that when we pray aright and according to the Word of God we do say as the words may very well bear whenever you do pray you do say not so much Imperatively as Indicatively whenever the Spirit of Adoption crys in us Abba Father we do presently say Our Father When the Spirit of Prayer moves upon any of the Stores of Prayer in the Word of God we immediately fall into this Prayer If ever therefore Any of Those so very Great and Visible and Conspicuous Things in the Word of God that concern the Kingdom of Christ either in Relation to our selves or the Church of Christ in general come into our Prayers and how can it be otherwise if we do indeed pray Then either we must pray out of and beyond this Prayer which must needs be impossible if this be so Comprehensive a Prayer as we All allow it to be or else this Kingdom must be so conspicuous in this Prayer Since then on one side we Find the Word of God so full of the Great Expressions of this Kingdom that we must either pray for the Things therein declar'd by Prophecy and Promise or we must leave such Huge Tracts of the Word of God out of our Prayers And seeing on the other side in this Prayer which we acknowledge so Comprehensive a Prayer we find the so Express Words Thy Kingdom come and a parallel State of Doing the Will of God as in Heaven and upon Earth besides all the other so Correspondent Relations how can we but be assur'd This Prayer is the Prayer of the Kingdom in its highest Elevation and that it can be no other and that seeing it is so it must prevail for the Coming of the Kingdom in its proper Time seeing as we have Fully Reason'd it cannot but be heard Argam 3 That which is so much the Will of God that it should be that He hath infus'd a Natural Emotion into the very Creation towards it and that it as with a Lifted-up Head of Expectation and Desire sues for That certainly is comprehended in this Prayer For it cannot be once suppos'd that Jesus Christ Teaching his Servants and Saints to pray should not give them in a Spiritual and Intellectual way what is given to the Lower Creat on as by Instinct because it is so Necessary Now that Restitution of All Things That Glorious Manifestation of the Sons of God That Deliverance of the Creatures from their Vnwilling Subjection to Vanity they now Groan and Travail under yet under Hope of bringing forth a better tSate All this the Creatures with Earnest Expectation wait for with lifted-up Heads They as it were beg for How then can it be but that so Great a Point of the Divine Will should have very fair Lines of it in this Prayer And seeing our Lord directs us in this Prayer to look up to God as a Father The Liberty even the Glorious Liberty of his Sons must needs be a principal part of it And where can there be so Reasonable a placing of it as in that Great Petition Thy Kingdom come For where should the Sons of God have a Liberty of Glory but in his Kingdom This is so undeniably certain and Evident that I insist no further upon it Argum. 4 When the Apostle speaks of this very Glorious Liberty of the Children of God and the Manifestation of the Sons of God by it and in it who cry unto him Abba Father He does Affirm we have the First Fruits of the Spirit and groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption that is the Manifestation of the Sons of God and That is the Redemption of our Bodies He further manifests This cannot be a Present State 1. Because the Apostles had only the First Fruits of the Spirit compar'd with that Great Harvest of the pouring out of the Spirit that shall be at that Time and withal the Vouchsafement of the Spirit to all Christians in general now is a First Fruits an Anointing a Seale and an Earnest to All that Glory 2. He shews It is a Future State because it is in Hope and therefore cannot be in present For then Hope and Sight would be confounded Then he goes forward and Affirms Seeing this Hope cannot but be Full of Desires and those Desires will be breaking out into Prayers That therefore the Spirit helps our Infirmities in that great Point wherein we know not what to pray for as we ought But the Spirit makes Intercession with Groanings that cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the Heart knoweth the Mind of the Spirit For he maketh Intercession foâ— the Saints according to the Will of God From all these Things Duely laid together arise many Great Points to our purpose 1. That the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God at the Time of their Manifestrtion and the Restitution of the Creation cannot but be a principal Point of Prayer For saith the Apostle We groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption c. And so he falls into the Discourse of Prayer for it with Groans that cannot be uttered 2. The Apostle so often referring to God as a Father by the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father by the so often mention of the Sons of God by the Adoption leads us even by a stretch'd-out Hand to that Prayer wherein the very first word is Our Father If therefore we are led by the Consideration of God as a Father to the Prayer that Teaches us to say Our Father we are certainly led also to the Great Points of Adoption viz. the Manifestation of and the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God which must be principal Points of that Prayer wherein we call God Father because the Adoption is proper to Sons even as the Manifestation of and the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God is and therefore they must be intimately Related both of them to God as a Father Because Sons and Father are so strictly and inseparately Cor-related The Kingdom of God then coming as in Heaven and on Earth must be the Center wherein All these Lines meet For at that Kingdom is the Redemption of our Bodies that is the Resurrection as All Scripture Agrees 3. The Apostle plainly signifies We do know what we are to pray for and yet we do not know what to pray far as we ought That is we
17. which is the Pattern of Christ's Intercessory Prayer and which none can pray but himself in the whole Frame of it and was not therefore Taught by him to his Church to the End They should so pray it as he did That Prayer is for this Kingdom in which Kingdom God in Christ and Christ in his Saints shall be so visibly made perfect in One that the World which will not now Believe shall against their Wills Know and Believe and Believe and Know as the Devils know and Believe and Tremble that God sent Jesus Christ and hath loved his Saints as he loved him Ver. 21. 23. This cannot be in this World where this Glory is scorned and defied and neither Believ'd nor Known It cannot be after the Enemies of Christ are put quite down under his Feet into the Lake and he Renders up the Kingdom into an immediate Enjoyment of God All in All For then this Illustrious Appearance is ended both as to his own and his Saints so Visible Glory in Humane Nature and also the Dishonour of his Enemies And Nothing Remains but the Beholding God All in All or the Eternal Misery of Separation from his Favour or wailing under his Displeasure Argum. 7 If each part of this Prayer viz. The Address to God as Our Father each Petition and the Doxology or Conclusion Ascribing to God That Thine is the Kingdom c. may with Admirable Agreement both in Expression and Sense be concerted with Eminent Scriptures Relating to the Kingdom and Glory of Christ and of his Saints as in Heaven and on Earth Then with how much Right may This Prayer be call'd and Expounded into the Prayer of the Kingdom This Concert therefore of this Prayer and those Scriptures I will endeavour to make in the following Exposition Object But against all this Discourse this mighty Objection may be Levyed How can this Prayer be look'd upon as the Prayer of the Kingdom or so Great a Standard of Prayer or Comprehensory of it that hath not the least mention of the Great Prince Messâ—ah or of his Redemption which is both the Fundamental Point of Prayer and of the Kingdom How can this possibly be Reconcil'd with All that hath been said of this Prayer There are Two Great Answers to be given to this and such as will excedingly Establish it Answ 1 There can be no more certain and Demonstrative Argument That This Prayer was never intended by Christ as a Form or that we should place a Devotion in the Repetition of it For then could it have wanted the Name of Christ the Mediation of Christ the Blood and Redemption of Christ or the Express Mention of the Spirit which is that Supream Good Thing being One with God and with Christ which proceeds from the Father and Takes of Christs and Gives it to us which we should according to our Lord's Doctrine of Prayer in so near Neighbourhood to this Prayer be so most earnestly importunate for But now if This Prayer be such a Standard of Prayer as is to be understood and apprehended in the whole Latitude of the Word of God All leads to Christ and to the Eternal Spirit to the Redemption Blood and Mediation of Christ as the Foundation of All. And it was an End worthy of such an Omission of the Express Name of Christ and of the Spirit to keep us from Resting in this Prayer as a Form and to cast us upon the whole Word of God that we might pray after that manner and that we might Read or Expound that Prayer by it whenever we pray Answ 2 This Prayer is Full of the Kingdom of Christ No Word of it but is Full of it and cannot be understood but with the Knowledge of the Kingdom Now the Kingdom being the Kingdom of Messiah of the Redeemer and the Petitions being so adjusted to that very Kingdâ—m of Messiah and of his Redemption The Petitions cannot be understood but with the Knowledge of Christ and of his Name and of his Redemption So that though there be no Express Mention of Christ nor of his Redemption yet by searching the Sense and Meaning of each Petition according to the Word of God we must needs find it all there And so proportionably it may be said with Relation to the Spirit of God The Kingdom is a Kingdom of the Spirit poured out according to Esay 59. Last Every Petition therefore must needs be full of the Spirit of the Promise of that poured out even as it is Full of the Kingdom when it is search'd and understood according to the whole Word of God Answ 3 The Prayers that we find in the New Testament after this Prayer given cannot but be Expressive of this Prayer and drawn out of it else Christ did not Teach to pray in This Prayer For to Teach his Disciples to pray and they not to pray according to it must be either an Insufficiency in the Manner of Christ's Teaching to pray or else a Great Disobedience or at least Neglect for his Servants not to pray according to that Prayer Now it is most evident The Prayer of Christ in his Mediation John 17. although it be indeed Transcendent to our praying as to those things proper only and peculiar to Christ and his Mediatorship in it Yet it is instructive to us how to draw near to God in Christ and to form our Approaches through him And All the Prayers we find in the Apostles must have the Lines and Spirit of this Prayer in Them else Christ Taught not to pray when he Taught to pray or he Taught to pray to no purpose Now All Those Prayers being Full of Christ and Full of the Spirit we hereby know certainly This Prayer must needs be so also in the Bottom of it and therefore must be Explicated according to All those Prayers and we are sent by it to Them Object To all that hath been said of this Prayer That it is the Prayer of the Kingdom and that there is in it a paralellism between the New Heaven and the New Earth in doing the Will of God There may be this Objection made A Kingdom of God and of Christ is eminently directed to in this Prayer and also a parallel State betwixt Heaven and Earth But All This is to be understood of the Kingdom of Eternity which Kingdom of Eternity shall have a New Heaven and a New Earth And it is a Kingdom that shall never end and it is called Eternal Life This therefore lifts up a Kingdom of Christ much above that of a Thousand years And whereas the Son is said to deliver up a Kingdom it is only to be understood of that Kingdom wherein he is in a State of continual Acquisition wherein he is Riding out Conquering and to Conquer and subduing Enemies That is the Kingdom He indeed shall deliver up to God and Receives at the same Time the Kingdom of Fruition and Enjoyment which endures indeed for ever and ever The Thousand Years
Enemy Death is subdued and then is the End 3. When this Heaven and Earth Fled away There was no Place Found For them When any one dies it is said Their place knows them no more Their place remains but it knows them no more Another comes in their place Or as it is said in Job Out of their Earth another grows So when the Heaven and Earth that now are are burnt up another Heaven and Earth shall come in their room But when this Heaven and Earth Fly away there is no place for them not so much as place where they may be and so not where any other may come 4. The Heaven and Earth that now are are Treasur'd up for fire and are to be for the perdition of ungodly men and so in other Scriptures But these fly from the sole Presence of Him that sits on the white Throne These Two Descriptions are very differing But if All These Things could be Accommodated and it be said There are New Heavens and a New Earth that succeed c. 21. those which fly away c. 20. I further Argue Argum. 4 The Heavens and Earth that fly away c. 20. are no other nor can be any other than the very New Heavens and New Earth that John saw c. 21. And though to draw a Veil on Prophecy They are set as it were in a Succession to the Heaven and Earth that Fled away yet there are several Great and Undeniable Arguments That the Flying away of the Heaven and Earth spoken of c. 31. must be after the New Jerusalem State and therefore must be of the New Heavens and New Earth that were created New together with the New Jerusalem For the New Heaven and Earth John saw are so close Tied with the New Jerusalem as not to be separated For after the mention of them it is immediately subjoyn'd I John saw the New Jerusalem that made her self Ready as a Bride Adorned for her Husband cap. 19. Come down cap. 21. And again after the seeing both the New Heavens and the New Jerusalem He that sate on the Tbrone said Behold I create All New So there is a Locking in the New Heaven and the New Earth even on purpose with the New Jerusalem that they may not be Divided But the Flying away of Heaven and Earth from him that sate on the white Throne must needs be after the New Jerusalem For it is after the Holy City and the Beloved City which was no other than the Bride the New Jerusalem that was therefore Beloved because the Bride and therefore Holy because Arrayed in Linen White and Clean which is the Righteousness of the Saints Now this New Jerusalem must be together with the Thousand Years also for at the end of the Thousand Years Satan was Let Loose to make the Attempt on the Holy and Beloved City by deceiving the Nations into that Attempt Now Satans being let Loose is expresly said to be when the Thousand Years were expired so the City must needs be during the Thousand Years in Peace and Safety and Attempted at the end of the Thousand Years when Fire Comming down to destroy the Enemies and Satan not being Sealed up only but cast into the Lake after this Attempt immediately Following the White Throne and Heaven and Earth flying from the Face of Him that Sat upon it So then the Heaven and Earth that Fled away must be the New-Heaven and Earth that were together in the Holy City during the Thousand Years And yet hath not this Kingdom End when the Thousand Years End because Christ delivers up the Saints into the Enjoyment of God the Principal Part of this Kingdom but yet much more strictly and properly the Kingdom is delivered up Because what was more Immediately mannaged by Christ in the Humane Nature in a Visible and Conspicuous Glory is now mannaged by the Divine Nature conveying his Love by the Eternal Word through the Human Nature in Grace to his Saints and in Wrath to those in the Lake For the Kingdom delivered up is the Power delivered up and it is explained by the Son being Subject and by God even the Father therein opposed to the Son being All in All All things else Being then Subdued and the Glory shining from the Father by the Eternal Word Vibrated by the Eternal Spirit through the Human Nature For so Assures us our Lords whole Discourse John 17. 21. to the End And with this whole State of things upon close Examination will be found to Agree all the Oeconomies of Scripture and otherwise none of them will be found to Agree So that if it should be said why should not this Prayer be understood of the present State of the Kingdom as High as we can attain in it and then of the Absolute Perfect and Supreme Kingdom of Eternity The Answer is very plain He who is the only Wise God hath found the Oeconomy of this Kingdom of Christ necessary both as a Mirror of his own Wisdom and Glory in Relation to his Creation as Restored by the Redemption of Christ and also as a preparation of his Saints by Christ in the Glory and Holiness of Human Nature for that Union with himself in the Absolutely Divine Kingdom of Eternity In which That Last Act of Jesus Christ as in our Nature seeking not his own Will nor Glory but the Glory of the Father He does not only in and by himself perform as that Highest Act of Obedience and self Resignation but he United all his Saints with him in that Act that however the State of the Kingdom of Christ might seem more proportioned to the Human Nature as of Spirits in Bodies Christ the Head for his whole Body of Saints the Church and they in and by him Choose and are most gladly Delivered up into that whole State to have Body as much as can stand with Remaining Highest Spiritualiz'd Bodies and Distinct Beings swallowed up of God all Spirit and Created swallowed up of Increated and is that Last and most perfect Act of Christs Declaring to All the Name of the Father and wherein He will declare it that the Love wherewith the Father Loved Christ may be in them and He in them John 17. ult All which is in cluded in this Prayer for the Kingdom I have now so far as I can understand setled the Principal design and find the true Elevation of this Prayer as the Prayer of the Kingdom and Vindicated it from all objections I now come to Adjust each part of this Prayer hereunto which Consists of a Prefatory Address and a Doxological Conclusion and as they are Generally Accounted Six but as I Account Seven Petitions Answerable to the many Sevens in the Revelation Leading to the Kingdom of Christ And the reason why I Account Seven what others Account but six is Those Two Lead us not into Temptation But deliver us from Evil very naturally fall into Two Petitions and express Two distinct very High things though Both fall into one State
and cannot but do so even that State of this Kingdom of Christ And the but is a but of Discretion and Distinction of things And yet because those Two distinct things can neither of them be but United in time and in that Blessed State wherein either of them shall be They are so Conjoyned and the but does not only Discern but Tye them together I Come therefore to the Prefatory Address which consists of Two things The Compellation used to God Father and our Father A Compellation Importing Transendent Greatness and Goodness and the further Magnification of him by his Residence which is Heaven who are in Heaven Preface Our Father I deny not any of the Senses Holy Men of God have given of this Appellation but exalt it to ' its Heighth and the Heighth is when God gives the Inheritance then he appears in full Paternity and Fatherhood and this is at the Resurrection the Redemption of our Bodies For as he is the God so he is the Father not of the Dead but of the Living and at this Time as he is not Ashamed to be called the God so he will not be Ashamed to be called the Father of his Servants For then He will bring the Inheritance and the Adoption together and shew how One is Provided for the Other And this must needs be so There must be such an Adoption by and in the Resurrection and such an Inheritance For as our Lord says They All Live to Him whose God He is He cannot else be their God So then that they may Live to Him and He be their God They must Live else how can They Live to Him and he be their God and their Father Now seeing God is the God of all his Servants not only as Spirits but as Spirits in Bodies They must thtrefore All Live to him as Spirits in Bodies and if for some Time They are Spirits out of Bodies and those Spirits are Pledges of the Future State of Life yet it can be but for a Time though it may be to the Servants of God who liv'd far off from that Resurrection a very long time according to our Measure of Time yet nothing compar'd with the Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ Deliver'd up into an Eternity of Vnion with God and the Father Seeing then I say again God is the God of his Servants as Spirits in Bodies and the State opposite to it is call'd Hades Death and the Grave or at the highest an Invisible State though in his wise Dispose for so considerable a Space He is satisfied by his Saints as Spirits living to him yet there must needs be a Resurrection that in Full sense his Servants may Live to Him and He be known to be Their God and Father For the Children of God are then known to be the Children of God and He their Father when they shall be and appear the Children of the Resurrection It is therefore said at the New Jerusalem as the Just time of all these things fulfill'd He that overcometh shall inherit All Things And I will be to him a God and He shall be to me a Son Then the Abba Father that we now cry as Children shall in that Fulness of the Inheritance be pronounc'd in Full and Manly Sounds and Accents This must be the Adoption then If the Adoption it must be also the Resurrection or Redemplion of our Bodies For the Adoption and the Redemption of our Bodies are by the Apostle made one and the same Accordingly the New Jerusalem hath a Resurrection and is an Inheritance But further to make this out whenever the Adoption or Manifestation of the Children of God shall be there shall be a Restitution of the whole Creation For the Creation it self shall then be Delivered into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God When therefore this World to come is it shall be put in subjection to Christ Alone Then shall be his Kingdom therefore For these things reciprocate Then shall be the Adoption and when the Adoption is This VVorld to come of the Restitution shall be So the Kingdom of Christ and the Restitution must needs be together with the Adoption or the Resurrection or the Redemption of our Bodies Let us then lay All together The Prayer that our Lord taught Teaches us to pray Our Father The Highest sense of God being Our Father is at the Adoption or Manifestation of the Sons of God in the Resurrection or Redemption of our Bodies Together with this is the Restitution of the Creation in the World of the second Adam that is the World to come of which God in Christ is the Father even of that New Heaven and New Earth as He is now styl'd the Father of Heaven and Earth All these are in the New Jerusalem and Kingdom of Christ This Prayer of our Lord comprehends the Largest and Reaches the highest sense of All Things of Prayer The very Calling of God therefore Father and Our Father must needs reach the State of the Adoption or Manifestation of the Kingdom of God which is the State of the Resurrection or Redemption of our Bodies which is the State of the Restitution of All Things which is the State of the World to Come which is the State of the New Jerusalem and of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which Kingdom the New Jerusalem is and accordingly It hath a Resurrection and a New Creation Appertaining to it which is the Restitution of All Things so that this Prayer must even from this Prefatory Address be the Prayer of the Kingdom Let us now consider the further Magnification of God by his Residence in Heaven that we may observe whether That have any Manuduction of our Thoughts towards the Kingdom Our Father which art in Heaven or in the Heavens These words are a Magnification of God as by his supreme Residence in the Heavens or in the Heaven of Heavens Now to pray to him who Dwelleth in the Heavens that his Name may be Sanctified as in Heaven and on Earth and his Kingdom Come as in Heaven and on Earth and his Will Done as in Heaven and on Earth what is it but to Beseech Him to Bow the Heavens to Rend the Heavens and to Come Down and to Establish as in a Lower Heaven a parallel State as in Heaven and on Earth It is to say to God as Solomon said The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Thee Come down therefore into the Lower Heaven and Earth and Establish a State as in Heaven and on Earth And because This cannot be in the present Old lower Heaven and Earth Therefore to pray for such a State as in Heaven and on Earth is to pray for the New Heaven and the New Earth or the New Jerusalem that shall Come Down from Our Lord out of Heaven And when this is The Heavens that now are shall be Rent indeed as an old Garment and shall with the vehemency of that Flame melt and Come Down And They shall be according
Lord God Omnipotent Reigns Resounded and Seal'd with a never Ending Amen Thus Our Lord hath given this All Comprehensive Prayer from and According to the very First Beginning of His Kingdom in the Preaching and Power of His Gospel all along upon the Hearts of His Servants unto and untill His Kingdom in it's Glory To this Purpose He hath with a Divine Wisdome drawn the Whole Counsel of God in His Word within it So that to Pray after this manner is to Pray according to the whole Scope of Scripture Understandingly Referred to every Petition But Especially with an Eye to the Glorious and Illustrious Appearance of His Kingdom Concerning which I would Appeal to All whether these things are not the Highest Flights of Prayer and most worthy to be the Highest Sence of the Prayer Our Lord Taught The very Form is no further prescribed but that our Rule for the Frame of our Prayers should from hence be understood That we ought not to Compose Our Prayers to a Superstitious much Speaking or to Repetition for Repetitions or much speaking sake nor with the Artifices of Feigned and yet Blind Devotion according to Innumerable Formalities The Servants of God Praying according to this Whole Counsel of God in His Word Pray into and within this Prayer For their Prayers are as it were Drawn within this Element of Prayer And when they so Pray they do indeed say Our Father c. The Intercession of Christ Overshaddows Receives and Preserves all Prayers according to His Word as if they Fell into the very Words of this Prayer so that they are all within Gods Gracious Acceptance and Remembrance even as this very Prayer of Christ which in Substance they are and shall have besides the Present a Full Answer in the Glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ and they are all bound up within that Great Intercessory Prayer of Christ John 17. But because of the Various States of the Church and of the Servants of Christ the Various Degrees of Light and Opportunities of Knowledg Their Prayers have been of a very different Elevation or Raisedness of Apprehension Faith and desire with Relation to the Councel of God in his Word for Prayer according to this Prayer There are Three Expedients of Divine Grace as Helps in this Great Concernment 1. There is such an Unexpressible Concatenation or Lincking all Parts of the Divine Kingdom that what ever Saint of Christ is sincerly possessed with any one Principle of it and Prays according to it It Allies Him to the Whole and it shall Lead Him into All so far as is necessary to His Measure His Stature in Christ and it shall Unite His Prayer with this Prayer of Christ according to His Degree of Prayer in it For even in Prayer one Saint differs from another Saint in Glory Yet this ought not to straiten or Abate but even to Excite the Weakest Saint and to Encourage him to Endeavour an Attainment of the Full Assurance of Vnderstanding in the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ and in Prayer according to the whole VVord of God with as Particular a Respect as may be to this Prayer 2. Because the Church of Christ hath not as yet in any Age Risen but very Little to the Heighth of this Prayer of the Kingdom And Few Saints in Comparison Attaind it The Spirit of God hath Helped them with Inward Grones which they could not Articulate or Utter And so Proportionably in all the Absolutely Necessary Points of This Prayer according to the VVord of God wherein their Knowledg hath been Low or Wanting 3. The Intercession of Christ Receives the Prayers of All who Sincerely Pray within this Prayer And the Intercession of the Spirit Joyned with it makes their Prayer Effectual Though They are not Enlarged in the Spiritual Vnderstanding of this Prayer in its Heighth and Depth in its Breadth and Length 4. God is pleased to Understan His Children in their Weak Cries Abba Father and in their Lowest Understanding of His VVord in this Prayer and to know the Mind of His Spirit making Intercession according to His VVill And He knows how to Give them the Best Things above any Earthly Parents even the Kingdom of Christ which they Ask Seek and Knock for above their own Understanding For He Interprets His own Spirit by a Word of theirs into its High Sences So that they having the first Fruits of the Spirit Groan for that Kingdom and the Large Effusions of that Spirit init And so cry to Him Night and Day and God hears them speedily that is in the very proper Times of the Kingdom of Christ And that Kingdom comes And thus this Prayer otherwise very hard to be Understood in its design even by a Thinking Considering Christian is one of the most Stupendious Mirrors of the VVisdom and Grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and with open Face shews the Glory of Christ though as yet but in a Glass till in the Kingdom we see All Face to Face Let now some brief Inferential Reflections conclude the whole Infer 1 How profound and hidden is the Judgment of God upon the Antichristian World which so contrary to the Literal and Express Intendment of our Lord in this Prayer against Heathenish Repetitions in Prayer should even Burlesque it not only by vain Repetitions but by offering to God as in Sacrifice these Repetitions by Tale and by Number of Beads And All this in a strange Language as if they hop'd to be heard for their much speaking and their meer speaking Well said the Divine Spirit by our Lord As the Heathen do For they proclaim aloud They are the Gentiles that Tread the Outward Court of the Christian Prafession under Foot and have done so for near these 1260. Years now within Five at an End Revel 11. Infer 2 Too near Them do the Ignorant and Carnal Protestants approach Protestants they call Themselves who yet knowing nothing of the Scriptures of the Power of God or of his Wisdom in Relation to this Prayer hope yet to be accepted by Formal Repetitions of it These however they Name themselves are but in the Outward Court where those very Gentiles are last spoken of and which is Trodden under Foot by those Gentiles And though these Protestants as they are in a General Course of Charity Call'd do not Tread under Foot that Court in the Gross Heathenish manner the Other do yet they are in no better a State than to be in the Outward Court or the Profession of Christianity so Trodden under Foot by Gentiles which is a very dangerous State Infer 3 Seeing this Prayer is such an Admirable Foundation of Prayer both as to Matter and Form which the Supreme Master-Builder hath Laid Let every one take heed how he builds upon it in Prayer For if he lay upon it Gold Silver Precious Stones that is truly Spiritual Scriptural Prayer and Praises his Building shall endure But if Hay Stubble Wood either as to
Matter or Form or Repetition of this Prayer it self He himself if he hold the Foundation of Prayer as it is laid in this Prayer He himself shall be saved but so as by Fire For His Work will be Lost The Day will burn it up 1 Cor. 3. 11. Infer 4 It is very Admirable how Christ hath put a VVord a Prayer even into the Mouth of Balaam and those that Hold his Doctrine even big with their own Doom and with that Kingdom which will shatter their Foundation and smite their Corners This is the Prayer of the Church the Chaste Bride which says Come but the False Adulterous Church the Whore and her Children shall find it as the Jealousie-Water to the prostituted VVife which being conveyed as in a Sacrifice shall make the Belly to swell and the Thigh to Rot That is All such shall be utterly consum'd and become a Curse in the Earth by this very Prayer Numb 5. 21. Infer 5 This Great Duty of Prayer must be so understood consider'd and spiritually managed by such saving Knowledge sincere Faith and Repentance that all our Prayers may fall within this Great Prayer and so within the Intercession of the Great Mediator whose Prayer it is within the Intercession of the Spirit within us and so within the Acceptance of God as a Father Giving the Best Things his Spirit his Kingdom to them that Ask him who when They Pray do truly say Abba Father or Our Father Else this Prayer will be as Dangerous as the Gospel when it is a Dead Savour and so unto Death and as the Lord's Supper Eaten and Drunk unworthily which is an Eating and Drinking unto Judgment So this Prayer will turn unto Sin unto us and be a Sacrifice of Abomination having not its due Acceptance with God nor sanctifying Effect upon our Hearts Infer 6 This Prayer of Jesus Christ is so wonderfully made that it ought to be understood to be prayed by the whole VVord of God enlightning it which is the best Comment or Exposition upon it And the Spirit of the VVord of God is the Spirit of this Prayer According to which Word of God if we do pray our Prayers slide into it as the Rivers into the Sea and find secret and insensible Paths into it Although we do not use the Form yet when we pray according to the Word of God we shall say Our Father c. And if we use the Form never so often if we have not the Spirit of this Prayer the Word of God mixed with Faith in the Heart It becomes as an Empty Inefficacious Form first and then a Condemnation out of our own Mouths Infer 7 This teaches us the True Way and Method of magnifying this Prayer not by multiplied Repetitions so contrary to the very Design of it not by a Great Appearance of Devotion in the saying of it as the most Absolute and Comprehensive Form of Words as Men Love to speak An Intellectual Derivation from it and Relating the whole Word of God to it is the Truest Honour of it And if we have so Deriv'd from it and Related to it in our Prayers the Conclusion of our Prayers by a bare Repetition cannot equal that Foregoing use of it but is even unnecessary if not superfluous and superstitious except enlarged Understanding Zeal and inflamed Affection inspire that Repetition For I would Appeal to Any Man of Reason and Wisdom When he hath offered to Men the Exercitation of that Wisdom and Reason God hath Given to him by Discourse or Writing Which he thinks does the Greatest Honour to it He who understandingly Digests and Discourses out of that which he hath offer'd and makes substantial References thereunto and draws the Sense of it into his own proper Discourses or Writings though with little or no Repetition or he that makes what he hath said a Form without Rational enlargement upon it It is easie to know which he would prefer Even so it is easie to judge who is most Acceptable to our Great Wise Holy and Spiritual Master in this Prayer He that Complements his Prayer by many Interlineations of bare Repetition of the Form or he who in an Abundance of Spiritual VVisdom and Vnderstanding prays according to his whole Gospel compriz'd in that Prayer Infer 8 Hereby we come to understand what Place Prayer may yet have although Our Lord tells us Our Heavenly Father knows what Things we have need of before we ask him For it might seem in strictness that All Prayer yea even the single use of this Prayer were taken away and cut off by this undoubted Principle that our Father knows before-hand yea and hath also determined before-hand what to give us as he hath also taught us in this Prayer what to Ask. What a Formality then may All Prayer or even this Prayer seem to be when it is offered to him who can neither be inform'd nor chang'd Not inform'd For he knows both our State and Desires our Wants and Natural Cravings before we have dress'd them up in the Formality of Prayers And he cannot be chang'd because he hath also Resolv'd what is most convenient to our State with Relation to that Supreme End his own Glory before we Ask Him But when we consider the VVord of God as the Great Treasury of his Counsels concerning every particular Person and their Case and concerning his Church and Kingdom in General and that Christ's Drawing these into Prayer must needs be the Great Rule of Prayer We may then understand the Reason of this Prayer of our Lord Because we know not how with certainty to draw out and with a Just Ballance to weigh out the Grand Principles and Measures of Prayers and Desires Our Lord hath given us this Beam in this Prayer And because He knew Those very Principles of Prayer can Receive their True and Full Answer only in his Kingdom He hath therefore made his Kingdom the Load-Star of it Thus All Things are made conformable to the VVill of God in this Our Lord's Prayer as the Prayer of the Kingdom But still It may be said why any Prayer at All God knows All these Things before and hath Resolved them They being All His own Counsels So He needs neither to be Informed nor Moov'd or if for any Reason Things ought to be humbly Represented to God what need any other Prayer but this Prayer only Taught by our Lord Jesus Christ who thus certainly knew the Mind of God and hath put that Mind into such Words as will be most Acceptable The Answer is Prayer in the great Wisdom and Goodness of God is Ordaind a Tye of Communion and Gracious Indearments betwixt our God and us That we by His Word Instructed in the Counsells of Grace of Mercy of Holiness and Wisdom for the Eternal Glory of his Church and Saints in General and of our selves in Particular and in all outward Things so far as are Necessary hereunto and Influenced by His Spirit and Excited by our particular