condemn'd by our Saviour but the Repetition now spoken of is to mend your Incogitancy and Thoughtlesness of the Business you are about For it is not the tumbling out of so many words or of the same words over and over again or the Length and Multitude of them that is pleasing unto God any farther than as they express the fervency of your Spirit the Importunity of your Zeal and the greatness of your Wants But if you affect Length and Repetition in Prayer either out of Hypocrisie or Vainglory it will be so far from pleasing God and prevailing with him that it will have a quite contrary effect And this you may conclude from our Saviours carriage in this Particular who disliking the Heathens Length and Vociferation in Prayer gave his Disciples a short comprehensive Form which they were to use and imitate in their calling upon God Fourthly When you find out the Wandring of your Thoughts and that you are ready to mind any thing rather than that you should there is no such Cure for this as Attention For by it you instantly recal your self to your Business and to a serious minding of what you are about And you will soon perceive your obligation to do this when you consider that without doing it you slight one of the most Eminent Parts of God's Worship By drawing nigh unto him with your lips when your heart is far from him Besides if you exactly weigh your lack of Attention you will find it has in it a great degree of Atheism For not to Attend to what you say when you speak unto God betrays in you a low esteem of his Majesty and that you have mean unworthy Thoughts of the Godhead which has ever been accounted a piece of the vilest Atheism Call home then your roving Thoughts and employ them in what you are about Get as near Heaven as you can and have your mind there and there only For unless this be your care and practice when you offer to God the Sacrifice of Prayer you will be but like the Cheat in Plutarch Who brought unto the Altar of his Idol the Skeleton of an Ox cover'd with a fair hide pretending that he offer'd a goodly Sacrifice of Flesh and Entrails when indeed there was nothing but a skin full of bones You would count him a vain Thoughtless Person worthy of Ridicule and Contempt who coming to beg his Life of his Prince should give over his Suit to run after a Butterfly And yet this is your figure when in Prayer you suffer your mind to be carried away to impertinent objects and fasten your Thoughts to the things which you ought to avoid thinking on Can you hope as was but now intimated God should incline His ears to the Prayers to which you will not incline your own That he should regard your Petitions when you do not regard them your self You may easily observe your aptness to heedlesness at Devotion and how many things all foreign to what you are about do interpose when you fall down upon your Knees you may find to your sorrow the Common Enemy tampering with your Heart at the same time your tongue is speaking unto God 'T is therefore necessary to recollect your self to fix your mind when you come before the Almighty and to affect your Soul with this consideration That you are not sure of another opportunity to solicit him with your Prayers But if through the frailty of humane Nature you cannot always exercise that Attention which is necessary to restrain your wandring in Prayer then beg of God to assist your frailty and to establish your Attention against all avocations And tho' they may steal upon you at Devotion that he would enable you by his Grace to reject them And if after all you cannot be rid thereof be sure to give them no encouragement but to deny them your approbation and consent For when you do sincerely strive against them God will either crown your endeavour with conquest over them or pardon them if they prove invincible But if the want of attention in Prayer be the fruit of your own wilful Negligence you can hope neither for God's assistance nor his pardon whilst this negligence is continued CHAP. XI Zeal in Prayer ZEal is another help against the wandring of your thoughts in Prayer Now Zeal is a sacred warmth and fervour of Mind and an affectionate earnestness to have your Prayers heard For it is not enough that you keep your Thoughts to what is utter'd by him that ministreth in the publick Service and to ponder and mind every word he speaks but you must do it with intention and fervency For both all wandring and all deadness in Prayer must be driven away True Zeal will melt and dissolve your heart and make you cry unto God with the utmost strength of Spirit and it will move you to be wholly bent to obtain what you crave A cold indifferent Suitor seldom prevails with Men. For if a begger should ask relief at your hands and do it in so loose a manner as that he seem'd indifferent whether he had it or no you would think he had either little Want or great Pride and so have no heart to relieve him Now the things you beg of God are so much above the rate of any ordinary Alms that you can never expect they should be given you if you are slight and heavy in asking them When you apprehend and fully consider the matter of your Prayer and add to it a devout earnestness of desire then may your Devotion be truly said to be Zealous And tho' this quality chiefly resides in the Soul yet it often appears in the gestures of the Body As was seen in Moses who when he made intercession for Israel Fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights and did neither eat bread nor drink water because of all the sins that Israel had sin'd in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger Deut. 9.18 And the Zeal of this meekest of Men was more than ordinary when he desir'd God rather to blot him out of his BOOK than that he should execute his menaces against Israel Elias cast himself upon the earth to express his Earnestness in praying for Rain And the ever Blessed Jesus continued all night in Prayer and offer'd up his supplications with strong crying and tears Luke 6.12 Heb. 5.7 And pray'd with such Ardour and Affectionateness that the sweat fell from him to the ground as if it had been great drops of blood Luke 22.44 And this zeal and earnestness seems to have been meant by S. Paul when he exhorted Believers to be instant in Prayer Rom. 12.12 To strive in prayer Rom. 15.30 To labour frequently in prayer Col. 4.12 Night and day to pray exceedingly To pray always with all prayer praying earnestly 1 Thes 3.10 Eph. 6.18 1 Pet. 4.7 Jam. 6.7 By all which sacred Texts that Zeal and Vehemency seems to be enjoyn'd which I
Pray and go not thither full of thy Sins unrepented of And be not as Fools who offer Sacrifices for their Sins and yet turn not from them Only Penitents then are fit to come to the House of Prayer and to be Suppliants at the Throne of Grace Every one is to put off his Shooes to abandon his Sins when he comes unto God to take heed to his Feet and approach him with all possible Reverence Under the Law no man had liberty to come into the Congregation who had touch'd any Unclean thing till he was sprinkl'd with Water by the Priest And under the Gospel there is no coming unto God without having your heart sprinkl'd from an evil Conscience and your body wash't with pure water Heb. 10.22 2. The Masters forbad any to enter the Temple with Dust on their Feet meaning thereby That all Earthly and Worldly Affections Thoughts and Passions were to be shaken off and discharged by them who come to offer Spiritual Holy Services unto God The Jews were also injoyn'd not to bring with them into the Sanctuary any of those Tools and Instruments used by them in their Civil Trades and Imployments by which they were also minded to leave behind them whatsoever might in the least suggest any Earthly Concern Worldly Notion or Incumbrance whilst they were at God's House lest they should be disturb'd or diverted in Devotion Nor were the Jews singular in this particular or the only People that were careful thus to Prepare themselves for Prayer For the Mahumedans who took many of their Rites from the Jews are very precise in Preparing themselves for the Moschs or Giamma's the places of their Publick Worship For they never repair to these till they have first Wash't at home nor do they enter those Solemn Places with their Shooes on And they are of Opinion That if they come Unprepared to Prayers or behave themselves Indecently at them that they lose the benefit of their coming Cleanliness according to Mahumed is the Key of Prayer and that it is not regarded without it Under the name of Cleanliness all the Preparatives to Prayer are understood And by Prayer is meant the whole System of Religious Worship Now this Cleanliness does not only respect the Body but also regards the Mind and Conversation and it implies the putting away of all unlawful Actions the purging of the Heart from all vicious and unworthy Thoughts and Affections And they hold that Filthiness in these is a thing most offensive to God who according to their Alcoran as well as our Bible is of Purer Eyes than to behold the least Defilement And it may well be suppos'd that Christians will not come behind Jews and Mahumedans in this particular Nor boldly and inconsiderately rush upon those holy Duties which these Infidels approach with so great Preparedness The Apostle advises all of his Religion to lift up holy and pure hands in Prayer 1 Tim. 2.8 By his Apostolical Authority he appointed that not only at the Temple at Jerusalem but every where else Christians should Pray with that Ceremony of holding up the hands joyn'd with Purity of Conscience and Good Works And that they should take care that no doubts or irresolutions of Mind should hinder the exercise or benefit of Prayer You do but burn Incense to Vanity and lift up your hands to Heaven to no purpose whilst you regard Iniquity in your Heart and your Actions are unjust God will cast back your Prayers like dung upon your face and reject both them and your Person when you tread his Courts and at the same time hate to be reform'd God hears not sinners but if any man be his worshipper him he heareth S. John 9.31 His eyes are over the righteous and his ears are open to their Prayers but his face is against them that do evil Psal 34.15 1 Pet. 3.12 God looks kindly on his obedient servants but he sets himself as an enemy against the obstinately wicked He is nigh to good men and hears their Prayers but their Prayer is an abomination unto him who turn their ears from hearing the Law Prov. 28.9.15.29 The humble dutiful Soul imploring God's assistance is sure to receive it in kind or in equivalence But the Texts of Scripture declaring the Prayers of Sinners to be ineffectual are to be understood of none but Impenitent sinners who stubbornly walk in the Ways of their own Hearts and do that which is Right in their own Eyes who either wilfully continue in their Impieties or retain a kindness for them It is not then your having committed Sin and your sense of some Guilt being upon you that ought to hinder your Praying For you must Pray the rather that God may remit and pardon the sins you have commited For if you are humbly minded and sincerely chang'd from Bad to Good if you loath and forsake your evil Ways and with a broken and contrite Heart grieve for your Offences you then are one whose cry God will hear and whose tears he will put into his bottle and not suffer a Drop falling from the eye of a Penitent to be as Water spilt upon the ground He will hear your cry and deliver your soul from death He will recover your feet from falling that you may walk before him in the light of the living Psal 116.8 9.13 He will give you space and opportunity to live and acceptably to serve him He will hear your Prayers when you come unto him without the love of your Sins about you or purposes to continue in them When Noah came out of the Ark in which saith one he had long been Buried not Dead his first Care was to Build an Altar unto the Lord and to take of every Clean Beast and of every Clean Fowl to offer in Burnt-Offerings And the Lord smelt a sweet Savour he took notice of the Purity of Noah's heart and accepted of his Actions and shew'd himself pleas'd with his Holy Intentions But that which herein seems to be most observable and to our purpose was Noah's great Industry and Care for the right offering of this Sacrifice And this was seen in his Building an Altar and making Choice of such Beasts and Birds as were fit thereon to be Offered Now Prayer is your best Sacrifice which in Imitation of Noah you are to offer unto the Lord with great Preparedness For the want of this will betray in you a Prophane temper of Spirit and a lack of a just Esteem and Reverence for God and his Service And therefore according to Siracides Before thou prayest prepare thy self and be not as one that tempteth the Lord Ecclus 18.23 Let the Clean Beasts and Birds offer'd by Noah mind you of keeping your Soul Clean and Pure from all wicked Resolutions and Affections and to appear before the Lord empty of all Sinful Habits and Intentions And let no Envy Hatred Malice or any Uncharitableness lodge in your Heart For no Lusts of Carnal Uncleanness no Filthiness of Spirit no
like considerations you may vigorate and enliven your Devotions with an Active Faith and draw near and fall low at his Footstool in full Assurance that his Ear is open and his Hand stretcht out to give you the things you long for or some thing else which in his Infinite Wisdom he knows to be better for you You are not alway to believe you shall certainly receive every particular thing you Pray for you cannot with any just confidence expect what God hath no where promis'd And tho' he has absolutely promis'd you all things pertaining to Eternal Life and Godliness yet as to the things appertaining to this present Life he has limited his promise of them so that he will give or withhold them as he sees them Necessary Profitable or Convenient for you Seeing then that all the Promises of God are not of equal Extent and seeing your Faith can go no farther than the Promises you cannot firmly believe that you shall have every particular thing granted you because you cannot certainly tell whether this or that will be Beneficial or Proper for you For whatever you may imagine or conceive in your own Thoughts it is God alone that knows that Infallibly and therefore you cannot be assur'd that God will bestow it on you CHAP. IX Charity requir'd in Prayer AND as you are to pray in Faith so likewise in Charity This is a diffusive Grace ready to do good and extend it self to all It takes the whole Race of Mankind into your Litany and obliges you to pray according to our Saviour's Form which teaches you to beg all the same Blessings for others that you beg for you self All your business in this Life next to serving God is to do all the Good you can to your self and others And seeing by reason of the narrow and weak condition of your Nature it is not in your Power to do all that is needful you must therefore apply your self to him from whom cometh every good and perfect Gift praying that he out of his own infinite and inexhaustible Treasures would supply the Wants of all Men. And seeing every one is in some Want or other every one must have a share in your Prayers The forgiveness of your Trespasses is that which above all things you have absolute need to desire of God for without this all other Blessings would be insignificant But you have no reason to expect God should forgive you your Trespasses unless you forgive Men their Trespasses In the Petition you make for Pardon of your own Sins you solicit your own Ruine if you pardon not others their Sins For in saying Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us you pray God would never pardon you if you do not pardon others How can you rationally desire Forgiveness from God when you deny it to your Neighbour The great Man in the Gospel who forgave his Servant a considerable Sum when he desir'd it charg'd the same anew upon him when he refused to forgive his Fellow-servant a small Debt Matth. 18.23 His doing this so far provok'd his Lords indignation against him that he gave him up to the Tormentors And thus will God deal with you if you deal thus with your Fellow-Christians who can never so far trespass against you as you do against God Who will assuredly handle you as you do them If you forgive not men their trespasses your heavenly father will not forgive you yours Matth. 6.15 And as the Goodness of God can in nothing be more Evident and Illustrious than in readily Forgiving those who beg his Pardon So there is not any thing in which his Justice can be more Equal than in dealing Severely with those who deal Severely with their Brethren It 's observable that our Saviour took hold of frequent occasions to inculcate the Necessity of Mutual Charity and that he made it the Badge whereby his Followers were to be distinguished from men of all other Religions And to the end you might continually remember it he inserted it into the Prayer which you are to use daily Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And with what Face can you look up to the Father of Mercies with this Petition in your Mouth if you want Compassion and Charity How can you hope to prevail with your Crys and Importunities on God as long as you have no Bowels your self towards your Neighbour Remember it is the Rule of Gods Proceedings That he shall have Judgment without Mercy who has shew'd no Mercy Jam. 2.13 And tho' Prayer be the best Sacrifice and the best Gift you can bring to God's Altar yet it will not be accepted at your hands if your Heart be malicious when you come to offer it There were many things which under the Law would render the best of Sacrifices rather Offensive to Almighty God than be of any Avail to him that offer'd them and in like manner there is nothing which more effectually at once destroys the whole design of what is the True and Proper Christian Sacrifice than Uncharitableness If therefore you have any Pique or Uncharitable Variance with your Neighbour do all that in you lies to be reconcil'd to him before you present God with your Supplications For Christ taught you this when he bad him who brought his Gift to the Priest to be offer'd in Atonement for his Sins that if he remember'd he had injur'd any man he should leave his offering unpresented and repair to the person he had wrong'd and to use Means to make him Friends with him and then to come and compleat his intended Atonement Every wilful Sin is a Cloud interposing betwixt you and Heaven and hinders the Ascension of your Prayers but no cloud is so thick as Uncharitableness This darkens the whole Heaven of Religious Exercises rendering them void of all Efficacy and Advantage for Whatsoever you do without Charity profiteth nothing 1 Cor. 13.3 God has made of one Blood and Redeem'd by one Ransom all Nations of Men so that you are not to harden your Bowels against any that partake with you of the same Common Nature and Redemption And therefore if you want Tenderness of Heart you are humbly to importune the Father of Compassions to give it you that you may be deeply affected with the Miseries and Calamities of all Men and imploy your Abilities for their Succour and Relief Beg the Holy Spirit of Love to dwell in your Heart and to cast out thence Malice Hatred and Uncharitableness and to beget in you that Pious Generous Temper of Mind which seeks not only to please your self but also your Neighbour for his Good to Edification And seeing that all your doings without Charity are nothing worth beseech God to pour into your Heart that most excellent Gift of Charity without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before him What was it that provok'd God to animadvert so severely upon Corah and his Accomplices when they
continually to God and that without which you can never hope to be safe and prosperous For Praying gives you a title to God's safeguard and preservation and it must be as lasting as your own wants and obligation to worship God And therefore till you find you have no need of God's Mercies nor any tye upon you to adore him you must Pray without ceasing Which words imply Secondly That your Prayers under the Gospel must bear proportion with the Daily Sacrifices under the Law which were constantly offer'd Morning and Evening And you cannot sink your Prayers to a lesser proportion or pray seldomer than Morning and Evening It being highly reasonable and necessary that you should begin all your works with calling upon God for his direction and blessing and end them with praise and thanks for his protection and assistance Some have interpreted the Apostles words Pray without ceasing of spending every moment of their life in Prayer which can be no error if it be understood of such an excellent frame of Spirit and pious disposition of Mind as is alway in readiness to call upon God This religious temper and habitual devoutness of Soul is like the Holy fire of the Sanctuary which never went out For it is always ready to flame in pious ejaculations and affectionate breathings after God And when for want of meet circumstances your Prayers cannot be Vocal yet they may be Mental And in this sense you may be said to pray without ceasing which according to Diodati is to be understood rather of the heart and affection than of the tongue and words And tho' you have not always leisure and opportunity to be upon your knees yet you never want either to bow your heart before God and by a pious temper of mind and spirit of Devotion to lift it up to the Lord. And notwithstanding the Scripture has left the frequency of Prayer undetermined yet you may take your measures as to publick Prayers from the Rules of the Church and in your private Devotions from the examples of Holy Men. And first the Rules of the Church acquaint you with the stated times of Publick Prayer from which you are not to be absent when you can possibly be at them And it must be a matter of considerable moment that can justify your absence from the Lords House at the set times of Prayer Now according to some Expositors you may be said to Pray without ceasing when you observe the hours or times of Prayer appointed by the Church But if you were not injoyn'd to observe such stated times of Prayer yet the very Light of Nature and the Law of Piety would oblige you to observe them For both these teach you to omit no occasion to express your Duty to God Which consists in worshipping him giving him thanks calling upon him honouring his holy Name and his word and serving him truly all the days of our life And as to Frequency in your Private Devotion you have the Examples of Holy men in Scripture for your Guide And first of David Who evening morning and at noon did cry unto the Lord and he heard his voice Psal 55.17 With his constant importunity he re-inforc'd an impression of his Prayers upon God the better to move him to grant them My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Psal 5.3 This religious Prince made the first fruits and prime of the day to present his supplications before God and after the manner of earnest Petitioners he fix'd his eyes on heaven resolving to wait and never to move till the Lord hearken'd unto the voice of his Prayer nay from thrice David encreas'd his praying to seven times a day Psal 119.164 rightly concluding that he could never sufficiently admire and magnifie the Divine Excellencies and that if he had had nothing else to be the matter of his praises yet he thought himself bound continually to extol them It 's true the phrase seven times may be taken in a larger sense and not meerly to signifie that number but be look'd upon as a mode of speech denoting a great frequency in Prayer and shewing that David was daily very often imploy'd therein which custom to pray often was not peculiar to David only but was also used by God's people many hundred years after he saw corruption As was seen in Daniel who when he knew the Dead-warrant was sign'd for his execution Went into his house and his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem he kneel'd upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime Dan. 6.10 The last words shew that it was not an emergent zeal or an extraordinary fit of Devotion but that it was his constant and usual practice to pray thrice a day which was the common custom of the Jews who made Morning noon and evening the three times of prayer Acts 3.1 and 10.4 and 9.31 which custom was observ'd also by the Apostles and some Devouter Christians went farther and pray'd six times a day taking in the Compline or the Prayer made by good men at nine at night But if you should imagine these examples to be imitable and that it would exhaust too much of your time to be so often on your knees then revolve with your self 1. That you are never so far to immerse and bury your self in worldly business as not to allow space to begin and end the day with Prayer And you cannot justly complain you want time to be thus often in Devotion when you consider how much time you can find to cast away if not upon that which is vicious yet upon that which is wholly impertinent to your Station If you would prudently retrench your Recreations and imploy in Piety the hours you spend in Vanities you would never be straitned for time to bestow in Devotion The true reason of your having so little time to give to this is because you lavish so much away in things of so little moment if not worse that when it is past you cannot but condemn your self for it But seeing you must one day give an account of the spending of your time it behoves you to be wary how you spend it And the more time you have wastfully mispent already the more signally careful you ought to be of that which yet remains And to redeem the hours you have thrown away upon Impieties by a vertuous and religious imployment of those God shall yet please to vouchsafe you Consider Secondly how reasonable and just a thing it is that you allow a liberal portion of your time to his service who is graciously pleas'd to allow so much to your own God does not grudge you space enough for your lawful Business and necessary Diversions but then he expects you would not encroach upon those minutes which are appointed to Religious Exercises It is very observable That men of
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