former yet is it far more excellent and the Royalty of it is God's singular Delight Now this Kingdom of Grace is his Church and may be considered Two ways First In its Growth and Progress Secondly In its Perfection and Consummation In the former respect it is the Church Militant here upon Earth and in the latter it is the Church Triumphant in Heaven for both make up but one Kingdom under divers respects First Let us a little consider God's Kingdom here upon Earth or the Church Militant and that is Two-fold Visible and Invisible The Visible Kingdom of God upon Earth are a company of People openly professing the Fundamentals of Religion and those Truths necessary to Salvation which God hath made known unto the World and joyning together in the External Communion of Ordinances The Invisible Kingdom are a company of true Believers who have Internal and Invisible Communion with God by his Spirit and their Faith The Visible Church is of a much larger extent than the Invisible for it comprehends Hypocrites and Formalists and all those who have given up their Names to Christ and listed themselves under his Banner and make an outward profession of the Truth although by their Lives and Practices they contradict and deny what they own and profess with their Lips These belong to the Kingdom of God's Grace as to the External Dispensation and Regiment of it because they profess obedience to his Laws and live under the means of Grace by which many of them through the efficacious concurrence of the Spirit of God are translated into the Invisible Kingdom of his dear Son Now this Visible Kingdom of God upon Earth is but an imperfect State and Condition for though all that are Members of it are selected and taken out of the World yet there is a great deal of Mixture and Dross and many things that do offend For First There is in it a mixture of Wicked Persons with those that are really Holy Many are of this Kingdom only because their Consciences are convinced of the Truth of the Christian Religion although their Lives are not subject to the Power of it and these are taken out of the World only as they are brought into the Pale of the Church and profess the Name of Christ and his Religion as distinct from all other Religions in the World And therefore we find the Church or the Kingdom of Heaven in Scripture frequently compared to a Net cast into the Sea gathering every kind of Fish both good and bad Matth. 13.47 both sorts are embraced in the Bosom of this Net and no perfect Separation can be made until it be drawn to shore at the Day of Judgment and then the Good will be gathered into Vessels and the Bad cast away as it is there expressed Again it is compared to a Floor wherein is both Chaff and Wheat Luk. 3.17 and these will be mix'd together until the last discriminating Day and then shall the Wheat be gathered into the Garner and the Chaff burnt up with unquenchable Fire Again it is compared to a Field wherein there grows Tares as well as Corn Matth. 13.24 which must grow together until the Harvest and then shall the Tares be bound in Bundles to be burnt and the profitable Grain be gathered into the Barn This hath still been and will be the mix'd condition of God's Church on Earth wherein through Hypocrisie and gross Dissimilation many that are Enemies to the Cross of Christ will yet go under that Cognisance and keep up a Form of Godliness though they deny and hate the Power of it Secondly There is even in the Invisible Church here on Earth a great mixture too those who have a real and vital Union to Christ and maintain a Spiritual Communion with him yet even they have a sad mixture of Evil with all their Good of Sin with all their Grace and Holiness so that the Church is still imperfect not only from a mixture of Persons but from a mixture in Persons As we know but in part so we love but in part we fear we obey God but in part And with our Profession of Faith we had need also to prefer that humble Petition Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Secondly The Kingdom of God may be considered in its Perfection and Consummation and so it is Triumphant in Heaven And this consists of such Glorious Angels as never Fell and of such Glorified Saints who are raised from their Fall and restored to a far better Condition than what they lost This is the most Glorious part of God's Kingdom here is his Throne especially established and here it is that he displays himself in the splendor of his Majesty being surrounded by innumerable Hosts of Holy Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect who continually Worship before him with a most prostrate Veneration and give Honour and Glory and Praise to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Now this Kingdom is altogether free from those former Imperfections and Mixtures There is no mixture of good and bad together neither is there any mixture of bad in the good but all are Holy and all as compleatly Holy as Creatures can be for into the New Jerusalem shall no unclean thing ever enter There are neither Temptations to try us nor Sins to defile us nor Sorrows to afflict us but perfect Joy and perfect Purity Where all Tears shall be wiped from our Eyes and all Sin the Cause of those Tears rooted out of our Hearts And yet if Heaven it self may be liable to any Defects or capable of any Additions there seems at present to be wanting in it these Two things First The Kingdom of Glory is not yet Full nor shall it be till the whole Number of the Elect shall be called and the whole Number of the Called Glorified Many as yet are conflicting here below and fitting themselves for their Eternal Reward many yet lie sleeping in their Causes unborn whom God hath Foreknown and Predestinated unto Eternal Life all of whom he will in his due time bring unto the Possession of his Heavenly Kingdom to compleat the Number of his Glorious Subjects And therefore it is said concerning the Saints that are already in Heaven that white Robes were given to every one of them and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their Fellow-Servants also and their Brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled Rev. 6.11 Secondly Those Glorified Saints that are now in Heaven though their Joys be perfect yet their Persons are not but one part of them their Bodies continue still under the arrest of Death and the Power of the Grave but yet they sleep in Hope and through that Mystical Vnion that there is between Jesus Christ and every scattered Dust of a Believer they shall obtain a Glorious and Joyful Resurrection and then shall this Heavenly Kingdom
be every way perfect perfect in the full Number of its Subjects and every Subject perfect in his entire and compleat Reward his Soul made for ever Blessed in the Beatifical Vision of God and his Body made unconceivably Glorious by the redundancy of that Glory that fills his Soul and both shall remain for ever with the Lord. And thus you see what the Kingdom of God is both universal and peculiar the Kingdom of his Power and the Kingdom of his Grace and that as it is Militant here on Earth both Visible and Invisible and as it is Triumphant in Heaven The next thing in order is to shew how this Kingdom of God is said to come This Word come implies that we pray for a Kingdom that is yet in its Progress and hath not yet attained the highest pitch of that perfection which is expected and desired for that which is yet to come is not as yet arrived to that State in which it is to be And therefore we do not so properly pray that the Vniversal Kingdom of God should come for his Dominion over the Creatures is actually the same and shall be so for ever But more especially we pray that the peculiar Kingdom of God should come and that as to both parts of it Militant and Triumphant Now this peculiar Kingdom is said to come in Three respects First In respect of the means of Grace and Salvation for where these are rightly dispensed I mean the Holy Word and Sacraments there is the Kingdom of God begun and erected and therefore we find it called the Word of the Kingdom Matth. 13.19 Secondly In respect of the Efficacy of those means when all ready and cordial Obedience is yielded to the Laws of God then doth this Kingdom come and the Glory of it is advanced and increased Thirdly In respect of Perfection and so it comes when the Graces of the Saints are strengthned and increased when the Souls of the Godly departing this Life are received into Heaven and when the whole Number of them shall have their perfect Consummation and Bliss in the Glorification both of Soul and Body after the General Re-surrection And thus we have seen how the Kingdom of God may come In the next place we must enquire what it is we pray for when we say Thy Kingdom come I Answer There are various Things lie couch'd under this Petition as First We pray that God would be pleased to Plant his Church where it is not according to his Promise giving all the Nations of the World to his Son for his Inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for his Possession That the dark Places and Corners of the Earth that are yet the Habitations of Cruelty may be illustrated with the Glorious Light of the Gospel shining into them That God would reveal his Son to those poor wretched People that sit in Darkness and in the Region of the Shadow of Death and would rescue them from their Blind Superstitions and Idolatries and from the Power of the Devil who strongly works in the Children of Disobedience and would translate them into the Kingdom of his dear Son especially that he would remove the Veil from the Heart of the Jew upon whom a sad Judicial Hardness hath long lain that they at length may be brought into the Unity and Fulness of Christ's Body We pray that all the World both Jews and Gentiles may be gathered into one Sheep-fold under Christ Jesus the great Pastor and Shepherd of Souls so that as God is one so his Name and Service may be one throughout all the Earth And thus we pray that Christ's Kingdom may come in respect of the means of Grace and Salvation Secondly This Petition Thy Kingdom come intimates our earnest desire that the Church of Christ where they are planted may be increased in the Members of the Faithful That those who are as yet Enemies to the Name and Profession of Christ may be brought into the Visible Church and that those in it who are yet Strangers to a powerful Work of Grace may by the effectual Operation of the Holy Ghost be brought in to be Members of the Invisible Church And thus we pray that God's Kingdom may come in respect of the Efficacy of the means of Grace Thirdly We pray that all the Church of Christ throughout the World may be kept from ruine that they may not be over-run with Superstition or Idolatry That God would not in his Wrath remove his Candlestick from them as he hath in his Righteous Judgment done from other Churches which were once Glorious and Splendid We pray likewise that God would make up all Breaches and compose all Differences and silence all Controversies and cut off all those who trouble the Peace and rend the Unity of the Church breaking it into Factions and Schisms which are the most fatal Symptoms and Portenders of God's withdrawing himself and carrying away his Gospel and giving of it to another People who will better bring forth the Fruits of it which are Peace Meekness and Love And if in any thing Christians be diversly minded that God would be pleased to reveal it unto them and that whereunto they have attained they may walk by the same Rule and mind the same Things And thus we pray that Christ's Kingdom may come in respect of its perfection and entireness Fourthly It intimates our humble Requests to God that his Ordinances may be purely and powerfully dispensed Hence as I noted before the Word is called the Word of the Kingdom Matth. 13.19 that is the Word whereby we are brought into the Kingdom of Christ here on Earth and fitted for his Triumphant Kingdom in Heaven It is the means of our New Birth the Seed of our Spiritual Life And as a Kingdom cannot be well established or governed without good Laws so for the Government of his Kingdom Christ hath established Laws which are contained in the Records of the Holy Scriptures And as his Word is the Law so his Sacraments are the Seals of his Kingdom for so every believing Partaker God doth under his Seal confirm the grant of Heaven and Eternal Salvation And therefore in this Petition we pray also that God would give his Church able Ministers of the New Testament that may know how rightly to divide the Word of Truth and to give every one his Portion in due season And that he would be pleased to accompany the outward Administration of his Ordinances with the inward Operations of his Spirit which alone can make them effectual to turn Men from Darkness to Light and to bring them from the Power of Satan unto God That the whole Number of God's Elect may in his due time be brought in by the means which he hath appointed and sanctified for their Conversion and Salvation These are the chief and principal things that we beg of God for the Church Militant when we say Thy Kingdom come viz. that it may attain a perfection of Extent
sinceall partake of the same common Nature much more as we partake of the same especial Grace To interest one another in our Prayers and thereby maintain the Communion of Saints Q. But since God is every where present why hath our Saviour taught us to direct our Prayers to our Father in Heaven A. First because Heaven is the most glorious Place of God's Residence and therefore God is represented to us in Heaven to affect us with his Glory and Majesty Secondly Because God no where hears our Prayers with acceptation but onely in Heaven For there onely are they represented by Christ's Intercession which he makes in both Natures Q. What learn ye from our being commanded to direct our Prayers to God in Heaven A. That we should so pray as to pierce Heaven which cannot be done by the strength and intention of our Voice but of our Zeal and Affection Q. Is the Voice necessary in Prayer A. It is onely upon three Accounts 1. As that which God requires should be imployed in his Service 2. VVhen in secret it may be an help to raise our Affections still keeping it within the Bounds of Decency and Secrecy 3. In our joyning with others it is an help likewise to raise and quicken their Affections Q What is the first Petition of the Lord's Prayer A. Hallowed be thy Name Q. What is here meant by the Name of God A. First God's Name is himself Psal 20.1 The Lord hear thee in the Day of Trouble the Name of the God of Jacob defend thee and many other Places Secondly The Name of God is any perfection ascribed unto him whereby he hath made himself known unto us Q. What are the Names of God A. His Titles and his Attributes Q. What are his Titles A. They are many as Jehovah which signifies Being and giving being Creator denoting his Infinite Power Lord and King denoting his Authority and Dominion Father signifying his Care and Goodness towards his Creatures Redeemer noting his Mercy and Grace in delivering them from Temporal Evils and especially from Eternal Death Q. What are the Attributes of God A. They are of two Sorts either Incommunicable or Communicable Q. Which are his incommunicable Attributes A. Such as are so proper to the Divine Essence that they cannot in any Measure or Resemblance be ascribed to the Creatures Such are the Eternity Immensity Simplicity and Immutability Q. What are his communicable Attributes A. They are such as may in some Analogy and Resemblance be found in the Creatures As Holiness Justice Mercy Truth VVisdom and Power Q. Since they are to be found in the Creatures how are they then the proper Names of God A. They are the proper Names of God when they are applied to him free from all those Imperfections that attend them in the Creatures Q. What are these Imperfections A. They are Three 1. First That all the Perfections of the Creatures are not Originally from themselves but derivatively from God 2. Secondly They are not infinite but limited 3. Thirdly They are not unchangeable but mutable Q. How then do these become the Names of God A. VVhen we ascribe them unto God as Originally from himself and infinitely and unchangeably in himself Q. What is it to hallow this Name of God A. It signifies to make his Name Holy Q. How can God or his Name be made Holy A. Neither by Dedication to Holy Uses nor by Infusion of Holy Habits both which are frequently in Scripture called Hallowing or Sanctifying but onely by Declaration of his Glory and Holiness Q. How do we hallow the Name of God by Declaration A. VVhen in our most reverend Thoughts we observe and admire the Expressions of his Attributes and indeavour to set them forth to others both in VVords and Actions Q. What pray you for in this Petition Hallowed be thy Name A. For three Things in the General 1. First VVe beg such Graces for our selves as may inable us to sanctifie the Name of God Q. What are they especially A. Knowledge and Understanding of his Nature VVill and VVorks Thankfulness for every Mercy Patience under every Affliction Faith in his VVord and Promises For to believe God's VVord gives Glory to his Name Rom. 4.20 He staggered not at the Promise of God through Vnbelief but was strong in Faith giving Glory to God An Holy and Exemplary Life whereby we especially glorified God and induce others to do so too Matt. 5.16 Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven And lastly savoury and well ordered Speech that we may not prophane the Name of God by Oaths or Curses or vain using it but speak of him with all Holy Fear and Reverence Q. What else do we beg of God in this Petition A. VVe beg that others also may receive Grace to inable them to sanctifie his Name And Thirdly we beg that God would so over-rule all Things that his Glory may be promoted by them Q. What learn you from Christ's making this the first Petition of his Prayer A. 1. First That the Glory of God is to be preferred by us before all other Things whatsoever John 12.27 28. Now is my Soul troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this Hour But for this Cause came I unto this Hour Father glorifie thy Name Then came there a Voice from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again 2. Secondly That in the Beginning of our Prayers we ought to beg Assistance from God to present them that his Name may be hallowed Q. What is the second Petition of the Lord's Prayer A. Thy Kingdom come Q. How manifold is the Kingdom of God A. It is two fold either Universal or else his peculiar Kingdom Q. What is God's Vniversal Kingdom A. The whole VVorld both Heaven and Earth and Hell it self and all things in them Psal 103.19 The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all Q. How doth God exercise his Dominion over this Kingdom A. By the Power of his Providence disposing of all his Creatures and all their Actions according to his VVill. Q. But since wicked Men are Rebels against God how doth he maintain his Dominion over them A. Three ways 1. First In that they cannot sin without his Permission 2. Secondly In that he restrains them when he pleaseth 3. Thirdly In that he justly punisheth them for their Sins sometimes in this Life always in the next Q. What is God's peculiar Kingdom A. His Kingdom of Grace which is the Church and that either Militant here on Earth or else Triumphant in Heaven Q. How is the Church Militant to be considered A. As it is either Visible or Invisible Q. What is the Visible Church of God here on Earth A. It is a Company of People openly professing the Truths that are necessary to Salvation and celebrating the Ordinances appointed by Jesus Christ Q.
illapse and penetration of the Divine Influence he powerfully sways and determines them which way he pleaseth And from this part of his Providence brancheth forth his permission of Evil Actions and his concurrence to good both by the assistance of his common and likewise of his special Grace and lastly his general influence into all the Actions of our Lives all which we are inabled to perform by the Almighty power of the Divine Providence which as at first it bestowed upon us natural faculties so by a constant concurrence doth exite and assist those faculties to their respective operations Secondly God by his governing providence distributes rewards and punishments according to our actions And this part of his providence is oftentimes remarkable even in this present Life when we see retributions of Divine Mercy and Vengeance signally proportioned according to Mens demerits but the more especial manifestation and execution of it is commonly adjourned to the Life to come and then all the seeming inequalities of God's dispensations here will be fully adjusted in the eternal recompence of the Godly and eternal punishment of the wicked and impenitent Now by this Almighty providence God over-rules and sways all things to his own glory There is nothing comes to pass but God hath his ends in it and will certainly make his own ends out of it though the World seem to run at random and affairs to be hudled together in blind confusion and rude disorder yet God sees and knows the Concatenation of all causes and effects and so governs them that he makes a perfect harmony out of all those seeming Jarrings and Discords As you may observe it in the wheels of a Watch though they all move with contrary motions one to the other yet they are useful and necessary to make it go right so is it in these inferiour things the proceedings of Divine providence are all regular and orderly to his own ends in all the thwartings and contrarieties of second causes We have this express'd in that mysterious Vision Eccles 1.18 where the providences of God are set forth by the Emblem of a Wheel within a Wheel one intersecting and crossing another yet they are described to be full of eyes round about What is this but to denote unto us that though providences are as turning and unstable as Wheels though they are as thwart and cross as one Wheel within another yet these Wheels are all Nailed round with Eyes God sees and chuses his way in the most intricate and intangled providences that are and so governs all things that whilst each pursues its own inclination they are all over-ruled to promote his glory This is providence the two great parts of which are preservation and Government and the great end of both these the glory of the Almighty and All-wise God And this is it which our Saviour speaks of when he tells the Jews John 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto viz. in preserving and governing his Creatures and I work Secondly The second General propounded was to demonstrate to you That all things in the World are governed by the Divine Providence The Old Philosophers among the Heathens had very different notions concerning the Government of the World Some held that all things were governed by an imperious and inevitable fate to which God himself was Subject So Chrysippus and the Stoicks Others thought that all was left to blind chance and whatsoever came to pass here below was only casual and fortuitous so the Epicureans Others that the great God regarded only the more glorious affairs of Heaven but had committed the care of Earthly concernments unto inferiour Spirits as his under Officers and Deputies So most of the Platonists though their master was Orthodox Others that God's providence reached only to the great and important matters of this World but that it was too much a disparagement to his infinite Majesty to look after the motion of every Straw and Feather and to take care of every trivial and inconsiderable Occurrence in this World So speaks Cicero in his Book de natura Deorum Magna Dii curant parva neglignut vide Ariani Epictet lib. 1. cap. 12. How much better is that most excellent saying of St. Austin Tu sic curas unumquemque nostrum tanquam solum cures sic omnes tanquam singulos God takes as much care of every particular as if each were all and as much care of all as if all were but one particular And to demonstrate this all disposing providence of God I shall take two ways First From the consideration of the nature and perfection of the Deity Secondly From the contemplation of that beauty and order which we may observe in the World It is most necessary that we should have our hearts well Establish'd in the firm and unwavering belief of this truth that whatsoever comes to pass be it good or evil we may look up to the hand and disposal of all to God and if it be good may acknowledge it with praise if evil bear it with patience since he dispenseth both the one and the other the good to reward us and the evil to try us Now first To demonstrate it from the being and nature of God This I shall do in these following Propositions which I shall lay down as so many steps and gradations First That there is a God is undoubtedly clear by the light of Nature Never was there any People so barbarous and stupid but did firmly assent to this truth without any other proof than the deep impress upon their hearts and the observation of visible objects that there was a Deity 'T is neither a Problem of reason nor yet strictly an Article of Faith but the unforced dictate of every Man 's Natural Conscience where Conscience is not violently perverted and under the force of those vices whose interest it is that there should be no God Never was there any Nation that worshipp'd none but their great sottishness was that they worshipp'd many Secondly As all confess there is a God so likewise that this God must necessarily have in himself all perfections as being the first Principle and Source of all things All these perfections of Wisdom Power Knowledge or the like that we see scattered up and down among the Creatures must all be concentred in God and that in a far more eminent degree because whatever is found in Creatures is but derived and borrowed from him and therefore it must needs follow that because it is of more perfection to be infinite in each perfection therefore God is infinite in them all Thirdly Among all the perfections that are dispersed among the Creatures the most excellent is knowledge and understanding For this is a property that agrees only to Angels and Men who are the top and flower of the Creation and therefore certainly this perfection of the Creatures is to be found in God yea and that infinitely His knowledge and wisdom therefore is infinite Fourthly His knowledge