Necessities might with Earnestness Remonstrate His own Counsels our Hearts and Affections being every way prepared and disposed thereunto And God Graciously giving and bringing things to pass as at our Defires and Petitions Oh how great is the Indearment As David says I will Love the Lord because he hath Heard my Supplication He Inclined to me and heard my Cry and upon this Account I will call upon Him as long as I Live And because Prayer is according to His own Counsels and thus prepared to the indearing our Hearts to God Therefore he Stiles Himself a God hearing Prayers that to him all Flesh may come And He is nigh to them that call upon him that call upon Him in Truth He will fullfill the Desire of them that Fear Him He also will hear their City and save them And they that thus Hope in His Mercy more then in all Created Leggs He takes Pleasure in as those that will be most Moov'd to Fear and Love Him But it may be still Urged Either the giving of this Prayer may Excuse our Looking into the VVord and we may be most secure in praying this Prayer only as most certainly according to the VVord or this Prayer can do us no Service For still our business is to Look into all the VVord of God and then how are we helped by this Prayer To this the Answer Lies in Two Things giving account of the Reason of this Prayer Taught by Christ notwithstanding it is our Duty to Look into the Whole VVord and to Pray this Prayer according to it with the most Enlarged Understandings Affections and Expressions 1. This Prayer and the Several Petitions of it are as Sea-Marks and Land-Marks in the vast Compass and Ocean of the VVord of God Guiding us to the Great Fundamentals of Prayer and setting Just and Due Bounds to us therein 2. It does Especially Winde up our Hearts Thoughts and Affection in all Spirituall VVisdome and Prudence and Intellectual Sence to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ when it is Fully understood as I have now made out and which is the highest Flight of Prayer And seeing it is only thus as I have shewn to be used even when it is Repeated and not by way of meer Form and Languid Repetition It shews the Necessity of the word of God dwelling Richly in us in all VVisdom that we may without such Forbidden Repetition or Thinking to be heard for our much Speaking Continue in Prayer and Abound therein with Thanksgiving And if we make the Repetition of this Prayer only to Sum up our Prayers To do it when we find our hearts Enflamed and Running out of Choise into these Words with most Elarged Understandings and Affections And this is indeed an Admirable Communion with God in Prayer and frees it from the Ignorance of a Blind Devotion and from all the Fopperies of Superstition or the possible Unreasonableness of Thinking to Inform or Change God And it shews us Prayer is not for God as if He any way wanted it But it is for us to Conform us to God and to the highest Conspiring with His Will with His Glory and to draw up the Faith Love Obedience Reverence and highest Honour of our Spirits upon Him And so we Observe the True Ends of our Lords giving this Prayer in our either Praying according to it out of the whole Word of God or making a Recital of it as we find our hearts carried on so to Recite it at Some Time more than Another and not in a Ritual maner Infer 9 Seeing the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of it the Peace and Glory of Christ is the highest Counsel of God for the Glory of God and of his Saints and even for the Glory and Happiness of His Creation Therefore This must needs be the highest Point of Prayer and therefore this Prayer the Standard and Examplar of Prayer In this then we according to the Nature and Duty of Prayer should Conspire with the Counsel of God and Cry Day and Night to Him for it But alass as Christ said when the Son of Man Comes shall He find Faith on the Earth Even those who Continually Roll over this Prayer by Affected Repetition least penetrate and Enter into the Sence of it in their Eyes and hearts upon the Kingdom of Christ as it is Intended and designed in it And even those who have understood and desire'd it more yet have understood it only in the General notions of the Coming of Christ to Judgment and of the Resurrection This hath been the Slumber of the Apostacy upon the Christian World even upon the VVise Virgins so that the Comming of Christ will be a Surprize upon them That is His Comming in another sort of a Kingdom then they expected in their Slumber and in the Time of the Bridegrooms Delay Yet notwithstanding All that are indeed VVise who have Oyl in their Vessels and not in their Lamps only that is Grace in their Hearts not in Profession only shall go with Christ in to the Wedding Although in this true Explained Notion of His Kingdom He will not when He Cometh Find Faith on Earth But it is very Observable that tho this Prayer hath not been Awakenedly Understood as is ought to be Yet by the Secret Guidance of Providence and Government of the Church Either the Form of this Prayer hath so Prevaled in the Church of Christ Or the Sence of the Kingdom of Christ in the General and Vertual or in the Particular and more Express Notions of it according to the Gospel of the Kingdom have so derived from and Fallen into this Prayer that there hath been always a Generation of the Sincere Servants of God and of Christ that have Cryed to Him Day and Night for His Kingdom and according to this Praayer Infer 10 However The Foundation of God Remaineth Sure In this Kingdom The Promises of God are Yea and Amen And in this Prayer To the Kingdom of Christ is the Great and True Amen and Yea of it set On which Account as I have said The Amen of this Prayer is of an Elevated Note and in Harmony with All the Promises that are Yea and Amen in Him Therefore after the declaring His Coming in the Clouds Rev. 1. 17. It is Added Yea Amen and after His own saying When He had Testified His Coming in His Kingdom in the Four Chapters before Behold I come quickly It is Rejoyned by His Servants in their Prayers Comprehended in this Prayer Amen Yea Come Lord Jesus And therefore it is Certain He will come to His Servants in and according to this Prayer Crying to Him Day and Night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Constant Notice of His Kingdom Speedily Quickly Yea and Amen Amen and Yea Even So Even So Be It Let him who is the Amen the Fatihful Witness the Amen of all the Promises in His Kingdom Come according to the Amen of this Prayer Comprehending the Prayers of All Saints Amen Yea. Revel 22. 12. 20. FINIS
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
AN EXPOSITION OF THE Divine Standard of Prayer STYL'D THE Lord's Prayer Of the Preface Conclusion and of Every Petition of it As of the PRAYER of the KINGDOM of Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ By T. BEVERLEY LUKE XI 1. Lord Messiah Teach us to Pray as John the Forerunner Taught his Disciples LONDON Printed for John Salusbury at the Rising Sun in Cornhil 1692. The PREFACE to the Exposition upon the Prayer Jesus Christ hath Taught us in the Gospel as the Prayer of the Kingdom THIS Prayer Taught by our Lord Jesus Christ which is of due Right the Admiration and Veneration of all Serious and Understanding Christians hath yet been very little understood in the Excellency of its Spirit and High Intention I confess my self to have been much in the Dark concerning it till ihis very Earnest Application of my Thoughts to it and much distracted in my Judgment about it But I am now satisfied even to Humble Astonishment at the Divine VVisdom of it understanding it as the Prayer of the Kingdom which hath given me Resolution in great Doubts concerning it as I shall now hriefly present and more fully Treat in the following Discourse 1. It seem'd very perplexing to me whether this prayer was intendeded as a Form of Prayer or as a Pattern of Prayer of this I have given a full Resolution in the following Discourse That it is a Prayer comprehending All Prayer that is according to the word of God It is a Treasury or Sea of Prayer from which all Flows and into which all Returnes if duly Expounded according to the whole word of God and the word of God as it directs in Prayer is referr'd to it And because The Kingdom of Christ is in all things the Central Point where all the Lines of Prayer meet That Kingdom must needs be also the Center of this Prayer and the highest Intention of it and of all contained in it Thus as to the Matter of this Prayer And then as to the Form of it It is a Pattern or Exemplar of that Plain Spiritual Continued Vnaffected manner of Praying And No Other ought to be prescribed But as a meer Form there appears no obligation to it either by precept or Scripture Example as is to be shown And further It being so Brief and so Full of Sense what Thoughts can take in that sense keeping Time with the Repetition of it And yet an excited understanding and Enflamed Affections are no more barred from it than from other expressions of Scripture But They had need be both much exalted when we use this Prayer in the whole Form that we may not take it in vain It being never intended for a Refuge of Cold or Ignorant Formalities 2. It seemed very Strange to me to find this Prayer to have so many Petitions Taken from the Jewish Formules or little Forms of Petition so generally Allowed by All Conversant to their Writings to have been in use among them This Enclined me to Think It was a Prayer given only for the Time then being to the Apostles till the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon them But Observing it to be the Prayer of the Kingdom given by the Messiah I Find it very agreeable to the Sublimation of what was Found among the Jews as of their Baptismal washings into the Institution of Baptism and the Cup of Blessing into that of the Lords Supper So the Prayer usual among them for the Kingdom of Messiah and the Blessed Priviledges of that State are exalted by Christ into this Prayer To shew the Interest the Jews had in this Great Kingdom and the Ancient Promises of it all along the Prophesies and so most Fittly is a Prayer Composed out of their Petitions for this Kingdom 3. I could not but be under much scruple and trouble to Find that the Prayer of our Great Mediator should not bear his Name in which we are to Pray to the Father nor carry any Express Mention of His Redemption nor of the Spirit the Giving of which was the Great and Blrssed Consequence of His Assencion But by considering as I have done in the following Discourse I find nothing more Effectuall to Moove Chrstians off from Resting in and even Idolizing this Prayer as a Form or to carry them to Pray according to it in so Holy and Admirable manner but to search the whole Gospel to find the Divine Senses of this Prayer and not with out understanding it to be Satisfied in the so often Repetitions of it so cotrary to the very End of its Institution The Doubts being thus Remoov'd I find a very Glorious and Admirable Harmony in the Petitions with that Kingdom of Christ as it shall Appear in its Full Dimensions of Happiness and Blessedness And therefore altho all the Present Holy and proper Senses of each Petition are no way wav'd or disparag'd hy this Discourss but earnestly Recommended Yet it is Proved that still the Highest Elevation of this Prayer and of every Petition in it is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and therein we are to Pray in the Holy Spirit for that Kingdom without which we can never Pray this Prayer aright nor Read it as our Saviour Commands us or declare of His Servants that they do so viz. Expound it when they Pray Aright out of the Word of God For it is all along in this Discourse Endeavored to be Maniffested thus we never Pray Aright according to the word of God but we Pray as from the Springs flowing out of this Ocean of Prayer and our Prayer Fals into it So that we ought and are Commanded to Read out of It when we Pray And it is Pronounced in our behalf that we do so Pray out of it and into it when soever we so Pray according to the Word of God tho we do not at all Repeat the Words and the Intercession of our Great Mediator and the Vertue of His Mediatory Prayer is allways Falling upon His Servants in so Praying I Therefore Magnify this Prayer in this Exposition and most Humbly and Earnestly Recommend it with All Prayer and Suppication for the Right understandihg and HolyVse of it The DEDICATION To the Archbishop of CANTERBURY THE following Exposition is most humbly Presented with all Regards of Reverence and Honour which the Laws and Vsages of this Nation have Affix'd to so Great a Character and Station and to the Personage in it with sincerest Veneration of the Exemplary Piety Holiness of Conversation Largeness of Mind and Understanding Sagaciousness of Reason and Truly Christian Equanimity Condescention and Evangelical Catholickness of Spirit so Illustrious in Him before all the Churches of Christ at this Time and according to the full Perswasion of the Offerer who therefore Beseeches the Acceptance of Himself and of what is Presented And seeing such a Station is a large Province of doing Good and that a Servant of God ought to improve it as so There is nothing can be more Earnestly or Humbly Desired then that this
Exposition of so Grand a Portion or part of Scripture may if it should be convinced of Falshood or Contrariety to the Glory Wisdom Truth and Holiness of the Giver be Redargued in the same manner It is endeavour'd to be Argued not with Respect to circumstantial Mistakes or Oversights from which nothing in the present state is Free and without any personal References to the Expositor who before hand lays himself Prostrate which can neither add nor take away from substantial Truths For so is the Apostolick Precept to an Evangelick Person seated in Authority to do it to Reprove by Elenchizing or Argumentation when the merit of the case requires it But if on the other side what is written be upright and words of Truth such a Person will I doubt not take care that He that hath so Laboured in the word and Doctrine may receive the double Honour alloted by Christ These are obligations on Him that is entrusted with a Gospel Oeconomy Now the Concernment is very great viz. The Exposition of the Prayer so universally Styled The Lord's Prayer Both because the Prayer is an inestimable Treasure and even Treasury to all Christians and that in its very Repetition it is made so essential to the Form of Publick Worship in this as it owns it self National Church and by Law Established The Exposition is also Levelled to the Highest Point of Christianity If it be as it is declared so supreme a Truth of the Gospel as the Kingdom of Christ peculiar to Him as the Messiah as the great Son of Man is who hath it written on his Vestim and on his Thigh King of Kings Lord of Lords Not only as He hath unchangeably a Kingdom as the eternal Word or as He now hath All Power in Heaven and Earth But in a visible glorious Kingdom the Kingdom of the Thousand Years that great Festival of Tabernacles Nehem. 8. 15. that shall be celebrated with everlasting Joy with Lawrels Olives and Palms with all the Glory Verdure and Flourish of Paradise when the Pallace of the highest Heaven shall be as it were left for that Time the Glory and Throne of God and of the Lamb shall come down with the New Jerusalem into the New Heaven above and into the New Earth beneath as in Heaven and on Earth according to this Prayer This Tabernacle-state Rev. 2. 13. of God with and comming down to be with men Not They with him gives style to this Feast of Tabernacles so renowned by the Prophet Zechary c. 14. Because it is not the everlasting Pallace but the Tabernacle of a thousand Years at the end of which as a Kingdom Deliver'd up It is drawn up again to God All in All and All Tabernacle-State ceases And seeing now as is most constantly Affirmed This Kingdom according to an exact Calculation of Scripture-time shall be in its Succession and to prepare for its Glory within five Summers and that as in the Sermon upon the Witnesses Rising herewith Printed There shall be the Avant-Courriers of that Succession all along these very Five Years This solemn Appeal according to the Greatness and Dignity of the Subjects Treated of is Presented to such an Angel in the Church of Ghrist as is Tuly Hoped in whom the National Episcopacy and Pastoral Office draws to a Point and Unit and so is Presented to All in Him By Their most Humble Servant in the Prophecy of Jesus Christ T. BEVERLEY AN EXPOSITION Of the PRAYER we Generally Stile The Lord's Prayer According to the Evangelists Matthew and Luke Mat. 6. 9. Luke 11. 1. SHEWING That according to its True Elevation It is the Prayer of the Kingdom viz. of the Thousand Years Kingdom of Christ in the New Heaven or Jerusalem above and in the New Earth or Jerusalem below I Have treated much of the Kingdom of Christ and endeavour'd tâ— demonstrate it from a great Concert of Scriptures Now This Prayer is a most deservedly Celebrated Portion of Scripture and even Summary of Scripture especially with relation to Prayer it being a Prayer taught by Christ to his Disciples when he was here upon Earth and in them to all Successions of Christians until his Kingdom comes Therefore It must be presum'd to draw within it self whatever is matter of Desire and so of Prayer throughout the Scripture Seeing then this Kingdom must needs be the most Earnest and Passionate Desire and Prayer of the Servants of Christ It would be a deep Prejudice against the Doctrine of the Kingdom if it could not be found within this Prayer But on the other side If it shall be found that all the Lines of the Prayer meet in it as in a Center so that it must be according to its Trne Elevation the Prayer of the Kingdom It will certainly much incline to the Belief of such a Kingdom Those who have not hitherto receiv'd it into their Faith Hope and Expectation It is therefore most expedient I should by the Assistance of the Spirit undertake an Exposition of this Prayer since I on so great Reason esteem it to be the Prayer of the Kingdom and therein manifest It is such and that as such it ought to be Prayed by all the Servants of Christ according to such measures of Praying it as shall be given until that very Kingdom come and more especially by us who live so near the Approaches of it as we may by the Holy Books understand we do and therefore should more earnestly pray for it as Daniel of old for Jerusalem by this very Prayer Let it be no Prejudice then I beseech you to Any who shall read this Exposition that I add another Interpretation of this Prayer as the Prayer of the Kingdom to all those Interpretations that you may have heretofore receiv'd and may be now in your Families For I acknowledge those Interpretations or Expositions to be of very great not only Excellency and Use but also Necessity I am so far from drawing you off from them that I receive them with greatest Veneration and Reverence and declare of them so to others But think it not strange that he who spake as never Man spake and therefore most Justly it ought to be believ'd of him that when he Taught to pray he so Taught as never Man besides himself Taught to pray Think it not strange I say that he Compriz'd in this Prayer Things beyond the ordinary Apprehension beyond the Surface of Things For he hath so fram'd this Prayer that it begins at the Foundation of the Kingdom the Spirituality of it in the Works of Grace here and it rises to the Top of the Kingdom in the Glory of an Illustrious Appearance and so guides the Prayers of his Servants by it in relation to their State in Grace here and even to their whole State in this World in Subordination to it as to rise in their Desires to that higher State of Bodies of the Resurrection in Glory wherein they shall Appear before the Throne of
God and of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem above and also to have regard in their Pâ—ayers according to this Prayer to the New Creation of God in a New Earth a State of Restitution to all the Creatures as in a New Jerusalem below And even through all This our Lord hath in this Prayer peirc'd and soar'd beyond even into the Kingdom of Eternity when God shall be All in All. Now as to the First the State of the Kingdom of Grace which is now and also with relation to the Kingdom of Eternity which shall be at the utmost hereafter of the Kingdom Deliver'd up I presume to add nothing to the General Expositions already so full but shall only endeavour to draw the Lines of the Discourse in parallel to the Epiphania or Lustre of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in his Glorious Appearance I only premise in the General That I rest upon the Guard of Providence over this Elect Portion of Scripture And that it hath so watch'd over it as to surprize and prevent any Change of it So that we have whatever the Divine Spirit Dictated to the Evangelists concerning it and just as it Dictated to each Evangelist I therefore matter no Difference of Copies but as this Prayer is givâ—n by Two Evangelists and at Two several Times and on Two several Occasions or Accounts so God hath preserv'd the Prayer in each Evangelist as we find it and so I proceed to Discourse upon it I begin with this Prayer therefore as we find it in the Evangelist Matthew where it is plac'd in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount in which our Lord gathering together the great Heads of the Spirituality of the Doctrine of Christianity relating to Practice and Action necessarily falls upon that high Point of Prayer First He Regulates the End and Intention of Prayer as having to do with God only in secret and banishes from it all Pharisaic Ostentation and Desire to be seen of Men and from thence he slides into the manner or modelling of Prayer and bars the Heathen way of Praying from making an Invasion into the Christian Church as it seems it had done on the Jews upon whom the Gentiles Times of Servitude under the Romans now sate heavy and their Principles had too much Leav'ned many of the Jews Our Lord therefore Cautions his Disciples against the Leaven of Herod implying the Gentiles and against the Leaven of the Pharisees implying the Corrupted Judaism Mark 8. 15. And undoubtedly in this very Prayer our Lord Remonstrated to All After-Ages of Christians against that False Judaism and the Gentilism of the Antichristian Apostacy in this very matter of Prayer which yet in his Divine Spirit He Fore-saw would come upon it under the working of the Mystery of Iniquity and the Revelation of the Man of Sin And the Apocalyptick Prophecy foretells it under those very Names Jews who Lyed in saying They were Jews and were not and Gentiles who Crouded into the Outer Court and Took away this Daily Sacrifice of Spiritual Evangelical Prayer and brought in Idolatry and Superstition in rhe room of it When therefore our Great High Priest and Prophet Commanded to Pray after this manner giving only the Summary of Prayer that must needs intend Enlargement according to every Head and in this Plain and Unaffected Method and intire Composure of Prayer without interruptions or breakings off without Repetitions without intermixed Responsals or Suffrages He hath for ever Damned All those prescribed imposed Liturgies and Litanies that consist of these and particularly the so often Repetitions of this Prayer which is exceedingly injur'd and affrouted thereby the very avowed intention of it being against all Affected Repetitions and so of it self especially Accordingly the First and purest Times of Christianity pray'd after this Plain Unaffected Manner of Prayer Yeâ— it is not to be thought It was any part of our Lord's meaning to abridge the pouring out Prayer unto God when the Soul is full of Affection and flows out into Expression as abundant even as Himself continued a whole Night in Prayer and hath left to his Church upon Record that much larger Prayer as it were some Sample of his Great Intercession John 17. Nor does he lay his Prohibition upon the Repetition of the very same Words when the Spirit within insisting earnestly upon the same Thing Naturally chuses again and again the very same Words Fot he himself Thrice used the same Words concerning the Removal of the Cup from him Now with this Prayer as given in this Sermon on the Mount hath our Lord interwoven many great Principles of Christianity as he makes plain by enlarging upon them as that of Forgiveness of Trespasses according to that That we should forgive even as we desire to be Forgiven of seeking the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of iâ— in the First place according to that Thy Kingdom come of trusting Providence with the Things of To Morrow according to that Give us this Day and of not trusting to the saying Lord Lord without doing the Will of our Father according to that Thy Will be done Of All which the Exppsitors of this Prayer in general have excellently treated Let it be then allowed and acknowledg'd that the Sum of the Account of our Lord 's giving this Prayer as in the Sermon on the Mount is To give a Prayer Commensurate with the whole Doctrine of Christianity to all his Disciples And his commanding Them to pray after this manner included a Command to obtain an Acquaintance with the Spiritual Sense and Meaning of this Prayer which they are to learn from the whole Word and Gospel of the Kingdom For it cannot be expected the Great Concernmenss of Christianity this Prayer refers unto as they fall within Prayer in general should be found explicitly within this Summary of Prayer for them That Christians therefore may be able to pray after this manner or according to the mighty Importances of this Prayer the Variety of their own States and all the Occasions thereof and according to the various Motions of their own Spirits the whole Word and Gospel of the Kingdom must dwell Richly in them that they may all steer by the Compass of this Prayer as Men upon the Sea shape various Courses and yet all sail by one Compass that never varies So should we in Prayer by this Prayer understood according to the whole Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and no otherwise to be understood And as to the Manner That there should be no Prescribing after Christ For what can the Man do that comes after him who would yet prescribe no otherwise than thus in brief and in this plain sincere way without Artifice without Doublings this way and that way and yet by such an All-Comprehending Wisdom that no Man can pray according to the Word of God but he must pray according to this Prayer For it is as the Sea to Prayer All the Rivulets of Prayer come out of
Words when ye pray say does not oblige us to the Words but to the whole Latitude of their Evangelick Sense and Importance 4. Give leave to add here as in the most seasonable Place with Relation to this Prayer as it is found both in the Evangalist Matthew and Luke That neither in Them nor in the whole New Testament is this Prayer any where styled the Lords Prayer as the Breaking of Bread is styled the Lords Supper and the First Day the Lords Day nor yet any way Referred to as such To shew the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Form of Words is no Instituton of Christs to be used in solemn Worship as the Lords Day and Lords Supper are not to be divided one from another Joyned so by that singular Word not again used in the whole New Testament 1 Cor. 11. 20. Rev. 1. 10. as viz. Lordly or Belonging to the Lord that is by Peculiarity or Speciallity This is very much to be weighed as shewing the very Prayer as in the Form does not Tye us Object To all that I have said upon the Prayer as in the Evangelist Luke it may be ojected whether the Prayer Tye us to a Form or not It seems wonderful the Disciples should forget Christ had taught them to Pray before as in Matthew and that even as the Great Prophet in that Sermon on the Mount Answ Undoubtedly this Inadvertency and Forgetfulness as in other Cases was permitted by God that they might in this solemn manner desire the Lord to Teach them more solemnly as Messiah as John the Fore-Runner of Messiah Taught his Disciples and that Christ giving the same Prayer again might shew how close His Messiahship and the whole Doctrine of Christianity are conjoyned and that all Run together unto His Kingdom 2. The second Circumstance of this Prayer as it is given in the Evangelist Luke is the Consideration of the Discourses relating to Prayer after the giving this Prayer that our Lord looks unto and they are these Two 1. The Earnestness and Importunity that we ought to use in Prayer and that must relate to this Prayer in all the Parts or Branches of Prayâ—r to which it directs us and even Leads us by the Hand into we ought to be so earnest as not to receive a Denial from God And this Earnestness He after in this very Gospel of Luke particularly guides to is unto his own Coming when he will Avenge his own Elect Assuring us even while he does indeed Bear long yet he will Avenge speedily And that herein he hath Respect to his own Coming he plainly shews For he adds And yet when the Son of man cometh shall he find Faith on the Earth c. 18. 1 7 8. 2. The other Point of Prayer our Lord discourses with Relation to this Prayer is That when his Servants are sincere in their Desires God will give them the Best Things though they may not understand the Heighth and Depth the Breadth and Length of the Divine Promises and Senses of the Word of God with Relation to Prayer and particularly as gather'd into this Prayer For God will understand for his Children the Best Things even as a most compassionate Father if his Children ask things that are good in their kind he does not give things different nor Below much less contrary but better and Above And this may thus relate to this Prayer the whole Stream of it runs into the Channel of Truest good Things They therefore whom the Holy Spirit moves to pray it shall not be answered with any thing of a worse or lower kind but with the Spirit the Supream and All-Comprehending Good And this He will give and still give till it comes to the Height of His Kingdom according to Esay 59. last For so his Spirit makes Intercession with groanings not to be uttered And God understands His own Spirit as is after further to be Insisted upon and he understands it not only by our words no nor by our more formed apprehensions but by deep Search of our Hearts and the most retired Operations of his Spirit within our Hearts And to this great purpose our Saviour speaks in those words also in Matthew Be ye not like the Heathen in much speaking For your Faiher knoweth what things you have need of before you ask Him shewing That Prayer is not to be manag'd as if we would Inform or change God but to affect our own Hearts and to put them into an order for receiving from God by his Grace in Christ Spiritual Understanding Holy Affection Humble Dependence Earnest Desire and Zeal for his Glory and Kingdom and a State here preparatory for it That way of Prayer that either by meer often Repetition by customariness by not having the Spirit and Power of the Word of God in it is Unserviceable to the Great Ends is not after the manner of the Lord 's Teaching to Pray nor received into it And what ever precribed way of Prayer it is that more or less brings in a Rote of much Speaking only and takes off from the Exercise of this Spiritual understanding and Affection hath sutable degrees of that Great Guilt of bringing Gentilism into the Temple of God and taking away the daly Sacrifice of Prayer Object But it may be still said the Lords putting His Prayer so much into a Form argues He intended it should be so used else why did he put it into a Form Answ That He did not intend it as a Riged Form I have fully argued yet He put it into a Form especialy in Matthew that it might stand the more Conspicuous and Full in all parts as a Pattern and might ever in Relation to His Kingdom be in constant Use as to the substantial Importance of it and by an Admirable Foresight of the way of using this Prayer by the Christian World condemns the Ignorance the Unbelief the Oppossition to the Dactrine of His Kingdom even out of the own Mouths of the generallity of Christians And now I come having spoken this in preparation to Teach you the Vse of this Prayer of the Kingdom as David Taught the Children of Israel the Vse of the Bow * 2 Sam. 1. 1â— For Spirits of Saints Instructed and Armed with the Spioit of this Prayer and the Divine Senses of it without any over Ceremoniousness about the Repetition of the Words are as the Charriots and Horsemen of Israel especially They who are thus instructed in it As it is the Prayer of the Kingdom And herein I have said I propose this to you to give you the Key of this Prayer as it is the Prayer of the Glorious Kingdom of Christ and seeing I have declared I do no way prejudice the Expositions Calculated for general use tho I take the Elevation of this Prayer according to this Kingdom let none thefore be angry at it least they fall under the Reproof of taking away the Key of this Prayer They would not Enter in themselves and Those who are
the Prayer of his Servants to do it for them Therefore hath our Lord Jesus Christ taught us so to enquire by Prayer in and according to this Great Rule of Prayer he hath given There are Three Things the Word of God hath made necessary to our Receiving any Mercy in the Nature and Order of a Mercy 1. That we should pray unto and enquire of God for it 2. That the Thing we pray for should be within the Decree and Determination of God it should be and so according to his Will 3. That it should be ask'd in Faith or upon a Promise declaring to us that Will and Determination of God Now in these Great Points Christ hath taken a certain Care 1. That there should be Prayer for those things by giving this Prayer for them 2. Seeing he gave this Prayer by an Infallible Spirit knowing the Mind of God it is certainly squared according to the Will and Promise of God As therefore this Prayer is every way prepared for being heard so Jesus Christ most certainly sends out his Spirit to all his Servanrs to give Faith and to move holy Desire according to this Prayer that God may be cried to Day and Night agreeably with it And when his Saints may be short in either the Understanding it or in the Faith or Desire that it should be Pray'd with the Spirit makes Intercession according to the will of God with Groans that cannot be Vttered wherein God understands the Mind of his Spirit because it makes Intercession according to his will so this Prayer must be a certain Prediction that all these things shall be so For God cannot Fail of his will and promise Christ cannot Fail of having Taught to Pray according to this will and promise of God nor can Christ Fail to give his Spirit to his Servants to Excite them to Faith and Holy Desire according to this Prayer From all which it uncontestably Follows That this Prayer must be a certain Prediction That the will of God shall be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and the whole Concatenation of Things be according to it and therefore that the Kingdom of Christ must come on Earth as it is in Heaven so that this Prayer must be a Prayer for the Glorious Appearance of Christ's Kingdom according to the highest Elevation of the Sense of the Prayer and so the Prayer to be Expounded as the Prayer of the Kingdom For what is more Visible than that this hath not yet been nor is like to be in the Present State upon Earth but even to Horror and Amazement the contrary hath been ever since the general Profession of Christianity by Nations and in all the Prospect we can have of Things Humanly speaking it will continue so There must be therefore a peculiar State Created for the Answer of this Petition and what can that be but that New Earth according to promise wherein Righteousness shall Dwell even at and in the Kingdom of Christ And so this Prayer must be the Prayer of the Kingdom enquiring of God for the Accomplishment of that Promise I can therefore by no means allow the Abatement of the Force of this Petition upon a compare of it with such Expressions be ye Holy as I am Holy be ye Perfect as your Faâ—her in Heaven is Perfect or by comparing it with the Apostle's vehement Emotion of forgetting things that are behind and pressing forward for the mark of the price of the High Calling of God in Jesus Christ if by any means he might attain the Resurrection of the Dead or the State of Perfection in this Life if we should so Expound it Now to Interpret these Expressions either as gracious Desires though not Answer'd in this World or as setting up to our selves the highest and most perfect Mark to Shoot at though we cannot reach it in this World or that such Expressions of being Holy and Perfect as God is shew that excellent Kind and Alloy of Holyness though we cannot rise up to the Perfection of Degrees and then to suppose this Sense to be all the Sense of this Petition and that it cannot be fully and compleately Answer'd till we come to Heaven this Explication I affirm cannot agree 1. Because all these gracious both Endeavours and Designs have a Time and and a State of coming to their Complement and Perfection even to a Perfection of Degrees so far as Created Nature is Capable of such a Perfection and therefore neither those Commands nor Desires are in vain though they do not obtain their desired Effect in this State Because there is a State on purpose for that Perfection But for the doing the will of God on Earth as it is in Heaven that can never come to its Perfection except there be a State on some very Earth where it may come into its Perfection For there is so Direct and Perpendicular a Fixing the Petition upon some Earth That it must come to its Perfection on such Earth or not at All Seeing then there are such Promises to the Earth That Knowledg shall cover it as the Waters do the Sea That Righteousness shall dwell in it That the Sinners shall be Consumed out of it That the Meek shall Inherit it and then such a Prayer Taught by Christ for the Doing the Will of God on Earth and according to so great an Exemplar as in Heaven There must be a Perfection of it on Earth or else this Petition cannot be Heard For Personal Qualifications follow Persons and may be Perfected in their Perfection how ever they change their Place But Local Priviledges adhere to the place and except Earth it self were carried up to Heaven there cannot be a Perfecting of what is proper to the Holy State of Earth but it must be on Earth For else there must be a Confounding Heaven and Earth 2. It is duly to be observ'd and it is very plain it is so that Heaven and Earth are Parallell'd as two places one where the Will of God is done and the other where it is prayed It may be done The words are therefore most exactly Framed to express a Parallel It is therefore Prayed That as the places stand in Parallel one to another so that the State of the Will of God done in one may be made Parallel by the doing the Will of God in the other And as the doing the Will of God is the Glory of the one Place so that it may be also the Glory of the other and therefore except that Glory Fill the Earth according to so many Promises foremention'd as it now Fills the Heaven this Petition cannot be heard 3. The Kingdom comming is as it were the Key of the Sanctifying the Name of God and the doing the Will of God Now the very words Thy Kingdom come do enough Explain It is a State on Earth that is desir'd and shew both the Time and the High Efficacy which will then be at work for the Sanctifying the Name of
do know as to the Matter of Prayer but we do not know in clear Apprehension And that therefore the Great Transaction in this Prayer is between the Spirit of God in our Hearts making Intercession with Groans not to be uttered in what we do pray for but know not to pray for as we ought and God searching the Heart and knowing the Mind of the Spirit wherein our Apprehensions are not Form'd and Explain'd who yet hears us because that Intercession is according to the Will of God and the Rule of this Prayer although our Apprehensions are not Express Now what more exact State of the Case can there be with Relation to the Generality of Christians praying this Prayer They do by this Prayer know what to pray for for they know to pray that the Kingdom of God may come But they know not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Thing of that Kingdom as they ought They have not the True Explain'd Apprehensions of the Kingdom according to the Excellent Nature of it This we know is the General Case of Christians The Spirit therefore here helps out it gives unform'd Desires Groans not uttered that leave a Savour a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inward Sense of this And God knowing that Sense the Spirit leaves imprinted to be according to his Will and according to this Rule or Prayer by Christ That it is for that Glorious Manifestation of the Sons of God and the Restitution of all Things Hears according to that Rule and that Sense according to the Rule imprinted and left by the Spirit And thus All Christians pray and are heard for this Kingdom beyond Themselves knowing it For this Prayer giving them the words Thy Kingdom come The Spirit beyond Themselves give the Groans And God Gracioussy gives the Ear to his Sons â—ords and to the Sense of his Spirit 's Groans because they are Both according to his Will Argum. 5 The Prayer which Our Lord gave as The Messiah as The Christ as The King of Israel cannot but be a Prayer for his Kingdom For His Kingdom is so Great a Truth that he said For this end was I born and for this end came I into the World to bear witness to the Truth And every one that is of the Truth Heareth his Voice in this Great Point For this was the very Point Christ was upon when he used these Words even in Rejoynder to that Demand of Pilate Art thou a King then And this was the Good Confession he witnessed before Pontius Pilate as by Compare of John 18. 37. and 1 Tim. 6. 13. may be seen And therefore upon the very mention of that Good Confession of Christ the Apostle goes on to the Fuller Discourse of and Display of the Kingdom of Christ Now then if the Kingdom of Christ was so Principal a Point of the Witness of Jesus Christ for which he came into the World certainly when he Gave a Prayer to his Servants as the Great Standard of Prayer and that he makes peculiar mention of the coming of that Kingdom which as hath been every way shown cannot be the Kingdom of Eternity but a preparation to it and that Kingdom into which it is delivered up This Prayer must be the Prayer of the Kingdom of Christ For Christ Taught it in his Great Capacity of Messiah as John Taught it in his Capacity as the Fore-runner of Messiah It could not therefore be but that in this Prayer Christ Lifted up a Banner and an Ensign and a Standard to be displayed because of this Truth to which All his Servants should be gathered in their Desires I do not therefore at all wonder that the Principal or All the Petitions might be collected from the usual Petitions among the Jews and thus Canonized and made Sacred by Christ because the Jews had the more particular promises of this Kingdom the more particular Notices and Notions of it as may easily appear by the whole Stream of the Old Testament and many Evidences of their Expectation of it in the New However they had much debased and straitned those Notions Our Lord therefore to shew He was that King of Israel and His was that Kingdom they expected Composed their loose and scattered Petitions for it into this Excellent Frame and under so Divine a Sanction as the Prayer he Taught And it stands therefore as a Monument for Them and for All the Gentile Churches of his Kingdom and to draw All thereby to himself as their King and That King that is to come into the World Argum. 6 Jesus Christ is the One Mediator and Intercessor between God and Man presenting and making Acceptable to God the Prayers of his Saints and Giving much Incense with them And This is his peculiar Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedeck For as such saith the Apostle He Lives for ever to make Intercession for All Those that come to God by him Now in this Priesthood of Intercession Two Things must necessarily meet His Kingdom and his Prayer His Kingdom because his Melchizedekian Priesthood hath an immediate Reference to his Kingdom of Righteousness and of Peace that is his Glorious Kingdom wherein his own Glory as the Head the Glory of his Church as the Body lye together enfolded and are to come to perfection And in that Priesthood he is a Saviour to Perfection or to the very End Again That which is the principal Point of his Redemption is the principal Point of his Intercession Now to make us Kings and Priests to God and to his Father that we may Reign on and over the Earth is the principal Point of his Redemption and so Celebrated in the New Song Revel 5. and therefore of his Intercession Lastly That which is the High Expectation of Christ at the Right Hand of God must needs fall in with his Intercession on the Right Hand of God Now He is set down on the Right Hand of God expecting that his Enemies should be made his Footstool and that is in his Kingdom as it appears at his Comming as the Apostle teaches us 1 Cor. 15. 21. Therefore he intercedes for it For his Expectation is grounded on his Intercession and Redemption Heb. 10. 13. 2 Tim. 4. 1. And as his Kingdom and Intercession thus meet so must his Intercession meet also with and be undivided from the Prayer he Taught For no possible supposal can there be that Christ should Intercede upon the Prayers of his Saints but that their Prayers must be comprehended in that Pattern and Rule of Prayer he gave For he would not Give a Prayer he would not Intercede upon and that that should not be the Square and Summary of all the Prayers he would Intercede upon It must needs therefore be that the Kingdom coming the Prayer insists upon must needs be the Melchizedeckian Kingdom the Kingdom when his Redeemed as Kings and Priests Reign upon and over the Earth and when his Enemies are made his Footstool That Prayer therefore John
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
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