to God for a vertuous and holy life while you live here and for an happy and glorious Immortality when you go hence For these are the things for which you may pray absolutely and which God will certainly grant through Jesus Christ the Righteous To whom c. ALmighty and everlasting God who dost Govern all things in Heaven and Earth Mercifully hear the Supplications of thy People and grant us thy Peace all the days of our Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen GRant to us Lord we beseech thee the Spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful that we who cannot do any thing that is good without Thee may by Thee be enabled to live according to Thy Will through Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. XIV The Things to be Pray'd for I Am now come to the last Thing I propos'd to present you with viz. an Account of the Matter of Prayer or the Things you are to beg of God which are only such as he has in his Word promis'd to give and which for substance are all compris'd in the Sacred Form emphatically stil'd The Lord's Prayer Now this Prayer is of like use with the Decalogue and is to be the Rule of your Petitions as that is of your Actions And as you need do no more than what is set down in the Decalogue so you need desire no more than what is contain'd in the Lord's Prayer To the Heads of which all your Prayers are to be restrain'd and you are to use in them the like Simplicity and sober Brevity that is us'd in this And both the Decalogue and Lord's Prayer are of the same extent both teaching you your Duty to God your Neighbour and your Self The Decalogue teaches you what you are to do to each of these and the Lord's Prayer teaches you how you may beg of God to do them as you ought And as the Ten Commandments were twice given by God the Father so was the Lord's Prayer twice given by God the Son once at the request of his Disciples S. Luke 11.1 2. and a Second time of his own accord S. Matth. 6.9 And when our Lord gave this Prayer he intended it to be the true Sum of all Christian Prayers and that none were to ask any thing of God but what was therein comprehended For 1. There is not any thing that you need desire respecting your Duty to God which is not with wonderful plainness considering the brevity summ'd up in the three first Petitions of this Prayer The first whereof regards your glorifying of God's Name The second the establishing of his Authority and Dominion in your heart and the last your Submission and Obedience to his Will Which comprise all that you need desire of God in order to the right performance of your Duty towards him And in the first place it teaches you to pray for the hallowing and glorifying of God's Name By his Name you are to understand in General God Himself and in particular his Glorious Titles and Perfections together with every thing that has a peculiar relation to him as his Word his Day his House c. For as you owe to all these an awful humble Reverence and Devotion so you are to beg of God to stir up your heart and to assist you to pay it as you should That he would inable you so to carry your self toward all Things belonging to his Being and Service as that all may see you sincerely Honour and Worship his Adorable Essence and Excellencies For seeing God who is the Sovereign Holiness has been pleas'd to reveal himself as it were by a proper Name and to take unto him the endearing Title of Father honouring all Believers with the relation of his Children it is your Duty to beg that he would give you Grace to Glorifie him both in Word and Deed and that you may be an instrument of causing him to be Honor'd by all men and that neither by you nor by your means his Sacred Name may at any time be profan'd And this Hallowing of God's Name is the first thing you are taught to pray for and the foundation of all the rest For unless you Glorifie God and Magnifie him above all Things unless you acknowledge his Supreme Majesty and Superlative Goodness you are not fit to Pray for the coming of his Kingdom Which Kingdom is threefold viz. one of Power whereby he ruleth over all Creatures another of Grace whereby he ruleth in the hearts of Believers by his Word and Spirit and a third of Glory which in a more Eminent manner shall begin at the last Judgment when Christ as man shall deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father and when all the Saints shall be taken in to Reign with him And the coming of all these Kingdoms makes up the Second request of the Lord's Prayer for therein you desire that God would exercise his Power in subduing and his Justice in punishing his Enemies that by this means the World may be freed from that Impiety and Confusion wherewith it abounds and that every one may say Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth Psal 58.11 and plainly discern that this World is not govern'd by Chance but administred and manag'd by an Almighty All-wise and most Just Providence And as it is your Interest and Happiness so it ought to be your Prayer that God's Kingdom may be visible and his Authority exercised to the end that his Faithful Servants may be safe from their Adversaries and have their Necessities reliev'd and their Desires accomplish'd Next you are to pray for the coming of God's Kingdom of Grace that he would mercifully establish his Throne and Dominion in yours and in the hearts of all men That the Gospel may be Universally Embrac'd and that they who are now slaves to Satan and their own vile affections may be converted and renounce the Devil and profess themselves Subjects of Jesus doing his Works observing his Precepts and paying him Tribute Homage and Subjection as their Liege Lord. And whereas you daily see that God's Laws are broken his Messengers despised his Word and Sacraments neglected and every thing belonging to his Solemn Worship set at nought by some and ridicul'd by others you are in Charity oblig'd to pray for a better face of Affairs And that he who is the giver of all Goodness would send his Grace unto you and to all People that you may Worship him Serve him and Obey him as you ought to do And that your unruly Passions may be tam'd your rebellious Lusts mortified your naughty Desires extinguish't and every opposing Thought subdued So that Christ may have an absolute Command over your whole Man Body and Soul and that you may be happy in his Government And as for God's Kingdom of Glory or the Glorious Manifestation of Christ's coming to dispense a final Pardon to his Faithful Subjects and to admit them to the Participation of his Joy and Authority and to pronounce
a direful Sentence upon his obstinate Enemies sending them to be Tormented with the Devil and his Angels even for the Coming of this Kingdom you are also to pray saying with the Holy ones under the Altar Come Lord Jesus come quickly CHAP. XV. A farther Account of the Things to be Pray'd for AND having Pray'd God thus to rule in your heart by Grace that you may be fit for his coming in Glory to Crown his Servants and Torment his Enemies you are to Pray again that God would enable you to do both his secret and revealed Will and that you may patiently and contentedly submit to the former and readily and chearfully perform the latter as far as it is set down in his Holy Word Now Obedience to God's Law and Submission to his Providence are both requir'd to the doing of his Will For you are not only to observe what he enjoyns or prohibits but also to submit to whatever happens to you according to his Good Will and Pleasure whether it be Misery or Happiness And he who taught you to do thus did illustrate it with his own Example when with an admirable Resignation he Pray'd Not mine O Father but thy Will be done Now the manner of your Doing God's Will is taken from the Pattern of the Holy Angels who are God's ministring Spirits executing his Commandments with readiness fidelity and perseverance flying upon his errand with the wings of Love and Zeal But seeing you find perhaps in your self a reluctancy to do thus and that your Duty herein is often delay'd through Idleness or interrupted through Vanity so that your Obedience moves heavily and is clogg'd with fears and broken off by temptations you are to supplicate the Father of all Mercies that he would bestow upon you that Zeal and Affection for his Service wherewith the Holy Angels are Inspired to the intent that you may as they do his Will with Fervency and Chearfulness And that following the Examples of their Obedience whilst you are on Earth you may be joyn'd with them and your blessed Brethren in Glory to sing eternal Praises in Heaven And as our Lord in the three first Petitions of his Prayer compris'd all things respecting God and his Glory for which you are to Pray So in the next three Petitions he has sum'd up whatsoever you have need to desire respecting your own or your Neighbours Wants and Necessities And you may observe that the things relating to God's Glory are by our Saviour's Prescription first to be solicited and if this be rightly done you can scarce miss of the rest For all other things shall be given to them Who first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Matth. 6.33 And seeing God's Glory is of greater moment than yours or any man's Wants therefore you are to Pray for the first And yet seeing you are neither all Flesh nor all Spirit but a compound of both and that both have Needs to be supplyed you are to Pray for the relief of both And first you are to beg a supply for your Bodily Necessities all which our Lord comprehended under the name of Bread Which Word signifies outward comforts And in Praying God to give you this you declare your sole dependance to be on him for this present life and for all things that support it And the begging them of God declares likewise your abhorrence of all unjust and indirect ways to obtain them Next by the adjunct Daily added to Bread you evidence your contentedness with present necessaries and your purpose to Pray continually for them Which likewise declares your trust in God and that you cast your Cares upon him acknowledging that all you have or expect are from his bounteous Hand and sanctified by his Blessing And this Petition for Daily Bread was no doubt taken from that Prayer of the Jews which was thus The necessities of thy People Israel are many and their knowledge small so that they know not how to disclose their Necessities let it be thy good Pleasure to give to every man what sufficeth for food c. And the Petition for Daily Bread is by some thus paraphras'd Provide for us to morrows Bread and give it us to day that we be not solicitous for to morrow for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof All things needful for this present life come from God and the Petition for Daily Bread shews that you are not to desire them all at once but that he would distribute them by little and little according as you need them That by this means you may never be destitute of nor desist in Praying for them For if you should possess them in too great abundance and as it were in a heap you might be in danger to rest contented within your self and forget to call upon the Lord Prov. 30.8 9. Christ in this Petition for Daily Bread seems to have reflected upon the sending of the Manna and as that was daily gather'd so this might be daily begg'd and given Some of the Fathers have Allegoriz'd this Petition and understood it of Christ the Bread of Life and the partaking of him in the Blessed Eucharist which does nourish the Soul unto Life Eternal as material Bread does the temporal Life of the Body And tho' I could wish that in this sense the Request for Daily Bread were both understood and practis'd and that now as in the Primitive Times the Sacrament of Christ's Death were daily celebrated yet I think the Petition is best interpreted of all manner of Food that is necessary for the preservation of human Life and of whatever is requir'd to support Man's frail Nature which could not be particularly express'd in so short a Form But if you look not farther than to your Bodily needs even to that of your Soul the supply of the first may prove a Misery and not a Happiness if the other be neglected Now the first thing you are to beg for your Soul is the forgiveness of your Sins and that God would not exact their penalty but that for the sake of the satisfaction Christ made to his Divine Justice he would mercifully acquit you from their Guilt and Punishment And to the end that you may not forfeit God's Pardon to you by Denying yours to your Brethren you are humbly to beseech the Almighty to give you those bowels of Compassion towards others when they trespass against you which you stand in need of when you trespass against them and if you who through the corruption of Humane Nature are prone to revenge can through God's Grace forgive others you need not doubt but your Heavenly Father whose Goodness is infinite will forgive you For it is certainly true That if you forgive Men you shall be forgiven of God Not that you are to give Law to God or to ground your Prayers on the merits of your own Works but that you subscribe to God's order to Pardon if you purpose to be Pardon'd And here take
none can be thought worthy to live or to enjoy the breath of life who does not chearfully exercise himself in praying to and praising the Almighty Which shews the Universality as well as Necessity of Prayer and that it is the Duty not only of this or that sort of men but of all For if any should vainly pretend to be excus'd from paying this homage to God it must be either because they are too holy or too great either they are so good as not to need to pray or so great that it is below them But no man by reason of his holiness can be free from this duty for those who have been most eminent for this divine quality have been also most eminent for Devotion And of this you have an unquestionable instance in our Saviour who was superlatively eminent for all heavenly perfections and immaculate both by nature and conversation For he was both born and liv'd without sin And yet it is recorded of this most heavenly divine person That in the days of his flesh whilst he was yet in the world in the course of his obedience and humiliation and not arriv'd to the glorious and spiritual state of the celestial life Heb. 5.7 He did offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he fear'd or as it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his piety Here the Eternal Son becoming Man made his submissive Petition to his Eternal Father either to free him from that direful passage to death or to strengthen and bear him up in the horrible terrors conflicts and agonies that therein he met with and that being dead he would restore him to life and not to let him continue in the grave but to raise him thence and send back his spirit into his body And God heard and granted his desire For the third day after his burial Christ rose from the dead and God gave him back that spirit which on the Cross he so affectionately recommended into his hands Luke 23.46 And as by this plain example of Christ's praying you may clearly see that no mans sanctity can excuse him from doing doing the like so in the next place no man is freed from praying upon the score of his grandeur or secular Greatness This was evident in David who at the same time he wore the Royal Diadem did not neglect the hallowed Censor but constantly offer'd unto God the Incense of Prayer And for his diligence and assiduity in this sacred office he gain'd as some think the glorious character of being a Man after God's own heart 1 Sam. 13.14 And indeed all good men have ever thought it their duty and made it their practice to worship God by Prayer And even bad men too have been of the same judgment For they likewise have own'd it to be their obligation thus to serve God And whenever they perform'd Prayer as a Duty to him without doubt they were accepted of him Saul pray'd for a decision by lots and God granted his request but it had like to have cost him the life of his Son and the revolt of his Subjects 1 Sam. 14.41 42. Which shows That God do's sometimes hear the prayers of the wicked but then it is in justice and not in mercy as will appear in due place And now seeing Prayer is a special and principal part of God's worship you must own it to be indispensibly requir'd of you so long as you think it your duty to worship God He commands and you must discharge it your obedience herein is above all things most acceptable to God and will be best rewarded by him CHAP. III. The necessity of Prayer as it is made to be the means of obtaining what we want and of conveying a blessing on what we enjoy WAnt is commonly said to be the Mother of Prayer so that if you want nothing you need use prayer no otherwise than as it is an expression of your Duty and a discharge of the worship you owe to God But if you stand in need of any thing you can never solidly hope to receive it but by the mediation of Prayer For God has appointed it as the proper means to obtain his blessings And all those Texts which require Prayer as a Duty and homage belonging to God do at the same time propound it as a means to gain his favour in the relief of your wants and blessing what you have But here I expect to find you objecting That tho' Prayer be undeniably a part of religious Worship which none ought to neglect yet you think it needless to the obtaining a supply of your necessities because God needs not your prayers to inform him of your wants nor to move him to relieve them 'T is true God needs not your prayers to inform him of your wants For according to our Saviour Matth. 6.8 He knows what things you have need of before you ask him which words shew that Prayer is not needful in order to inform God who by reason of his infinite knowledge can be ignorant of nothing but they respect those who at our Saviour's being upon Earth were wont to lengthen out their Prayers with vain repetitions and idle Tautologies thinking they should have their petitions the sooner granted for the sake of the multitude of words used therein whereas Our Lord assures them that our heavenly Father was not to be wrought upon by their long prayers and their much speaking and that such were altogether useless in order to inform him of mens minds and wants as fully knowing them without being told Christ was so far from abolishing that he establishes the use of prayer when he taught his Disciples how they might pray aright To which end he gave them a most absolute comprehensive Form of Prayer which he enjoyn'd them both to use and imitate Which form bears his Name and from him is call'd the Lord's-Prayer Whereof I shall have occasion to mind you in another place As to the other branch of your Objection which makes Prayers unnecessary to move God to relieve your wants because of his being ready to do it without them there needs no more to be said to it but only to desire you to consider That tho' God is naturally inclin'd to be gracious and ready to give more than either you desire or deserve yet he has been pleas'd to declare That he will not give without asking And it sufficiently demonstrates his goodness and bounty to give to them that ask and to open to them that knock And tho' goodness is essential to God and that it is his nature and property to open his hand and fill his creatures yet still he expects you should address your requests to him if not to move his goodness to relieve your wants yet to shew you are sensible of them and that you believe he alone is able to give supply Besides in every prayer