comes from the Grace of God therefore much less can we do any thing to merit it Far be it from us to affirm as the Papists do that Good Works proceeding from Grace are Meritorious of Pardon and Salvation Alas what are our Prayers our Sighs our Tears yea our very Blood should we spend it for Christ They are but poor imperfect things and are so far from having in them any infinite worth and value to counterbalance our sins that the defects of them add to the number of our other Transgressions They cannot all of them make one blot in the Book of God's Remembrance but may well make more Items there against us Had it been possible for Men to have quitted scores with Divine Justice by what they could do or suffer Heaven would not have been so needlessly lavish as to send Christ into the World to lead an afflicted Life and to die an accursed Death only for our Redemption and Salvation Secondly The Pardoning Grace of God is not free in respect of Christ but it cost him the price of Blood It is the Blood of the Lamb Slain from the Foundation of the World that crosseth the Debt-Book Without shedding of Blood there is no remission says the Apostle Heb. 9.22 And this is my Blood which was shed for the Remission of sins Matth. 26.28 And although possibly God might according to his absolute Sovereignty have freely remitted all the sins of all the World without any kind of Satisfaction only by a Free and Gracious Act of Mercy Yet considering that he had otherwise declared in his unalterable Word of Truth that there must be a recompence made him for all our offences it had been a wrong to his Veracity if not to his Justice to have granted the Pardon of any one sin without the intervention of a full price and satisfaction No satisfaction could be made correspondent to the wrong done to an infinite God but by an infinite Person who was God himself for had the Person been finite the Sufferings must have been Eternal otherwise they could not have been proportionable to the offence which requires an infinite Satisfaction But if the Sufferings had been Eternal Satisfaction could never have been made but would for ever have bene making unto the Justice of God and consequently our sins could never have been Pardoned And therefore God appointed to this Work of reconciling himself to fallen Man his only begotten Son God Co-equal and Co-eternal with himself and every way infinite as himself that he might be able to bear the whole Wrath of God at once and at one bitter draught drink off the whole Cup of Fury which we should have been draining by little drops to all Eternity So that Justice being satisfied in the Sufferings of Christ for the sins of those whose Persons and whose guilt he sustained upon the Cross Mercy hath now a way opened to Glorifie its Riches in their Pardon and Salvation Thus in these two Positions it appears that though the remitting of our sins be an Act of God's Free Grace and Mercy in respect of us yet it is the effect of Purchace in respect of Christ God Pardons sins to them who committed them upon their Faith and Repentance but he Pardon 's not those very sins to Christ to whom they were imputed but exacted Satisfaction from him to the very utmost rigour of Justice Hence it follows Thirdly That the Pardon of sin is not only an Act of meer free Grace and Mercy but according to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace it is also an Act of Justice in God Indeed both Mercy and Justice are concurrent in it for since by the Union of Faith we are made one Mystical Body with Christ it could not consist with the Equity of God to punish the sins of Believers in their own Persons for this would be no other than to punish them twice for the same Offence once in their surety and again in themselves Now what abundant cause of Comfort may this be to all true Believers that God's Justice as well as his Mercy shall acquit them That that Attribute of God at the Apprehension of which they were wont to tremble should interpose on their behalf and plead for them Yet through the All-sufficient Expiation and Atonement that Christ hath made for our sins this Mystery is effected and Justice it self brought over from being a formidable Adversary to be of our Party and to Plead for us Therefore the Apostle tells us 1 John 1.9 That God is Faithful and Just to forgive us our sins And St. Paul 2 Thessal 1.6 7. It is a Righteous thing with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels Fourthly When God pardons he doth no longer account of us as sinners Indeed after Pardon we still retain sinful and corrupt Natures and there is that Original Pollution in us that can never be totally dislodged in this Life But yet when God pardons he looks not upon us as Sinners but as Just The Malefactor that is legally discharged either by satisfying the Law or by his Princes Grace and Favour towards him is no more reputed a Malefactor but as Just and Righteous as if he had never offended So is it with us we are both ways discharged of our guilt both by satisfying the penalty of the Law in Christ our Surety and by the Free Grace and Mercy of God who hath Sealed to us a Gracious Act of Pardon and therefore we are Just in the sight of God as if we had never sinned Fifthly Pardon of sin is one great part of our Justification Justification consists of these two parts Remission and Acceptance We have them both joyned together Ephes 1.6 7. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved in whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins Remission of sins takes away our liableness to Death Acceptation of our persons gives us a Title unto Life Now to be free from our obnoxiousness to Death and instated in a Right to Eternal Life these two Constitute a perfect Justification For to be accepted of God in Christ is no other than for God through the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ imputed to us to own and acknowledge us to have a Right to Heaven And therefore we have mention of Pardon and an Inheritance together in St. Paul's Commission to his Ministery Acts 26.18 That they may receive forgiveness of sins and an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified It is not therefore O Soul a bare negative Righteousness that God intends thee in the Pardon of thy sins it is not meerly to remove the Curse and Wrath thy sins have deserved though that alone can never sufficiently be admired but the same hand that plucks thee out of Hell by Pardon lifts thee up to Heaven by what he gives thee together with
First I answer First this was St. Paul's very Case Rom. 7.8 Sin taking occasion by the Command wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence now this effect is merely accidental and is not to be imputed unto the Holy Word of God but to the wicked Heart of Man which takes an hint so desperately corrupt is it from God's forbidding Sin to put it self in Mind of committing it Secondly Thou complainest that the Word exciteth to Corruptions but it doth it no otherwise than the Sun draws Smoak and stink out of a Dunghill It doth increase but unhappily excite them The very same Lusts lay hid in their Hearts before There they lay like so many Vipers and Serpents asleep till the Light and Warmth of the Word makes them stir and crawl about And this Advantage thou mayest make of it that when thy Corruptions swarm thick about thee upon the disturbance the Law of God hath made among them thou mayest thence see what a wicked Heart and Nature thou hast how much Filth and Mud there lyeth at the bottom of it which presently riseth upon the first stirring This may make thee vile in thine own Eyes and deeply humbled under the sad and serious Consideration of thy indwelling Sin 'T is the very use the Apostle makes in the same Case Rom. 7.24 O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death When Humors are in Motion we soon perceive what is the state of our Body and when Corruptions are once stirred we may thereby easily know the State and Condition of our Souls Thirdly The same Word that doth thus occasionally stir up Sin is the best means to beat it down You may perceive by this there is somewhat in the Word that is extreamly contrary to their Sins since they do so rise and arm against it their great Enemy is upon them and this alarm that they take is but before their overthrow It may be the Mud is only stirred that it might be cast out and their Hearts cleansed from it Be not discouraged therefore for there is no Means in the World so apposite to the destruction and subduing of Sin as the Scripture though at first it may seem instead of subduing of Sins to strengthen them Sixthly Many are discouraged from studying the Scriptures because their Memories are so treacherous and unfaithfull they can retain nothing when they have read the Scripture and would recollect what they have read they can give no account of it either to themselves or others Nothing abides upon them and therefore they think it were as good give over as thus continually pour Water into a Sieve and inculcate Truths upon such a leaky Memory where all runs out This is indeed the Complaint of many But First This should put thee on a more frequent and diligent study of the Scripture than discourage thee from it More pains will supply this Defect thou must the oftner prompt and the oftner examine thy Self the more forgetful thou art Memory is the Soul's Steward and if thou findest it unfaithful call it the oftner to account Be still following it with Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept and continually instill somewhat into it A Vessel set under the fall of a Spring cannot leak faster than it is supplyed A constant dropping of this Heavenly Doctrine into the Memory will keep it that though it be leaky yet it never shall be empty Secondly Scripture Truths when they do not inrich the Memory yet they may purifie the Heart We must not measure the Benefit we receive from the Word according to what of it remains but according to what effect it leaves behind Lightning you know than which nothing sooner vanisheth away yet it often breaks and melts the hardest and most firm Bodies in its sudden Passage Such is the irresistable force of the Word the Spirit often darts it through us it seems but like a flash and gone and yet it may break and melt down our hard Hearts before it when it leaves no impression at all upon our Memories I have heard of one who returning from an affecting Sermon highly commended it to some and being demanded what he remembred of it answered truly I remember nothing at all but only while I heard it it made me resolve to live better than ever I have done and so by God's Grace I will Here was now a Sermon lost to the Memory but not to the Affections To the same Purpose I have somewhere read a story of one that complained to an aged Holy-Man that he was much discouraged from reading the Scripture because his Memory was so slippery he could fasten nothing upon it that he read The old Hermet for so as I remember he was described bid him take an earthen Pitcher and fill it with Water when he had done it he bid him empty it again and wipe it clean that nothing should remain in it which when the other had done and wondred to what this tended now saith he though there be nothing of the Water remaining to it yet the Pitcher is cleaner than it was before so though thy Memory retain nothing of the word thou readest yet thy Heart is the cleaner for its very passage through Thirdly Never fear your Memory only pray for good and pious Affections Affection to the truths we read or hear makes the Memory retentive of them Most Mens Memories are like Jett or Electrical Bodies that attract and hold-fast only straws or Feathers or such vain and light things discourse to them the Affairs of the World or some idle and romantick story their Memories retain this as faithfully as if it were ingraven on leaves of Brass Whereas the great important truths of the Gospel the great Mysteries of Heaven and concernments of Eternity leave no more impression upon them than words on the Air in which they are spoken whence is this but only that the one sort work themselves into the Memory through the interest they have got in the Affections which the other cannot do Had we but the same delight in Heavenly Objects did we but receive the Truth in the love of it and mingle it with Faith in the hearing this would fix that Volatileness and Flittiness of our Memories and make every truth as indelible as it is necessary That 's in Answer to the 6th Objection Seventhly others complain that the Scripture is obscure and difficult to be understood they may as well and with as good success attempt to spie out what lies at the Centre of the Earth as search into the deep and hidden Mysteries which no humane understanding can fathom or comprehend And this discourageth them To this I answer First 't is no wonder if there be such profound depths in the word of God since it is a System and Compendium of his Infinite and unsearchable Wisdom that Wisdom which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God Those deep Truths which your understanding cannot reach
to God and they become his proper Name God is Holy Wise Powerful Just Merciful True c. and so are likewise some of his most excellent Creatures whom he hath made like unto himself but then the difference between God and them consists in this That his Wisdom and the rest of his Attributes are originally from him theirs derivatively from him his infinite and boundless theirs limited and stinted his invariable and unchangeable their 's subject to mutations and decays and total abolition So that in these Three respects even the communicable Attributes of God are themselves incommunicable and so they are his Name whereby he is known and differenced from all other Beings whatsoever But may it not be here said to me as it was to Manoah Judges 13.18 Why askest thou after my Name seeing it is secret and wonderful Indeed we can no more find out the Name of God to perfection than we can his Nature and Essence for both are infinite and unsearchable And there are Two expressions in Scripture that make this Knowledge impossible the one of them quite contrary to the other One is that God dwelleth in that light to which no Man can approach 1 Tim. 6.16 Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à Gloriâ He that will too busily pry into Majesty shall be oppressed and dazled with Glory And the other is that he dwells in thick Darkness 2 Chron. 6.1 both implying the same impossibility of searching out the Almighty to perfection as Job speaks ch 11. 7. But though this comprehensive Knowledge be impossible yet God hath given us hints and traces of himself by which we may discover enough for our Adoration though not perhaps for our satisfaction And there are Two ways whereby God hath made known himself and his Name unto us and they are by his Works and by his Word First We may spell out God's Name by his Works and to this end serve those two great Capital Letters of Heaven and Earth the Air and Sea yea there is no one Creature how vile and contemptible soever it be but it reads us Lectures of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of the great Creator in which sence the Apostle tells us Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and God-head Secondly More expresly and distinctly by his Word for the Scriptures are Nomenclatura Dei By these we come to a more clear and evident Knowledge of these Attributes of God which the Works of Nature held forth to us in a more obscure and confused manner And by this likewise we attain to the Knowledge of those perfections of God which the Works of Creation and Providence could never have instructed us in as of a Trinity in Vnity of the Eternal Generation and Temporal Incarnation of the Son of God of the whole Mystery of Religion and the tenure of the Covenant of Grace which are things that could never have been known but by Divine Revelation Indeed we may from the Works of God alone gather Knowledge enough of him to make us inexcusable if we Worship him not as God for so did the Heathens as the Apostle speaks in the forecited place Rom. 1.20 but it is only from the Word that we know so much of God as to make us Eternally Blessed and Happy Here he hath displayed his Name the Lord God Gracious and Merciful pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin Here alone hath he made known himself to be our Father in Jesus Christ and appointed the Spiritual Worship of himself that might prepare us for the Eternal Enjoyment of him in Glory So that now we see what is meant by the Name of God his Titles as King Lord Creator Father Redeemer and the like And his Attributes both Communicable as Justice Holiness Wisdom Mercy and Truth c. and incommunicable as Infinite Eternal Vnchangeable Omnipotent Independent and such like and that both this Name both of Titles and Attributes are made known to us either by the Works of God or by his Word Let us in the next place enquire what it is to Hallow this Name of God To Hallow is nothing else but to Sanctifie or make Holy so that Hallowed be thy Name is no other than let thy Name be made Holy But here may be a Question How can Creatures be said to make God Holy whereas it is God that makes them Holy I answer There is a Three-fold way of Hallowing or Sanctifying a thing or person One by Dedication A Second by Infusion And a Third by Declaration First A thing may be Hallowed or made Holy by Dedication setting them a part for Holy Uses and Services so the First-born are said to be Sanctified to the Lord Exod. 13.2 And that because among Men the First-born were to be Priests unto the Lord and among Beasts they were to be Sacrificed And thus Aaron and his Sons and the whole Tribe of Levi whom God took in Exchange for the First-born are said to be Consecrated and Sanctified Exod. 28.41 and many more instances might be given to the same purpose were it needful And thus at least we are said to be Sanctified by Baptism Ephes 5.26 That is we are by that Holy Ordinance set apart and Consecrated to the Service of God Thus one Creature may Sanctifie and make another Holy namely by Dedication or Separatiom to some Sacred Use and Service And so the Ministers of Christ do Sanctifie and Hallow the Elements in the Holy Communion setting them apart from common and ordinary use to that Blessed Mystery Secondly There is a Sanctification or Hallowing by Infusion or Implanting the real Principles and Habits of Holiness into that which is Hallowed And thus God Sanctifies his Elect by Infusing of his Grace into them and making them Holy in some measure and similitude like himself So our Saviour Prays John 17.17 Sanctifie them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth And the Apostle 1 Thes 5.23 Prays The very God of Peace Sanctifie you wholly In neither of these Two Sences is God's Name to be Sanctified or Hallowed by us for thus to Pray were to Blaspheme Thirdly There is a Sanctifying by Declaration when we acknowledge and reverence that as Holy that is indeed so And thus only it is that Creatures may Sanctifie the Name of God the Creator So we have it used Isa 29.23 They shall Sanctifie my Name and Sanctifie the Holy One of Jacob and shall fear the God of Israel Now thus to Sanctifie the Name of God is the very same with that other Expression that commonly occurs in Scripture of Glorifying God We can add nothing to his infinite Perfections nor to the Lustre and Brightness of his Crown yet then are we said to Sanctifie and Glorifie God when in our most Reverend Thoughts we observe and admire his Holiness and the bright Coruscations of his Attributes and when we endeavour by all Holy ways to declare them
unto others that they may observe and admire them with us and give unto God that Holy Veneration which is due unto him Thus we see what the Name of God is and what it is to Sanctifie or Hallow this Name Thirdly Let us now consider what is contained in this Petition Hallowed be thy Name And here First In that Christ hath taught us to make this the first Petition in our Prayer to God we may learn that the Glory of God is to be preferred by us before all other things whatsoever And indeed that which God hath made the last and utmost of all his ends and hath appointed to be the highest and utmost of ours should be the First of all our Thoughts and Endeavours and preferred before whatsoever else is dearest unto us yea before our very Lives themselves This was our Saviour's Practice John 12.27 28. Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour Father Glorifie thy Name As if he had said Though Life be naturally dear and the Cup which I am to drink very bitter and the Wrath that I am to undergo heavy and infinite yet all these things are not so considerable to me as thy Glory and therefore though it be by Agonies by Death by the Cross yet Father Glorifie thy Name The same mind should dwell in us likewise and we should hereby be instructed to desire and pray for other things with limitations and restrictions but for the Glory of God absolutely and simply Father Glorifie thy Name and if in the Counsel of thy Will and the course of thy Providence it cannot be otherwise than by my Suffering or Sorrow yea or Death it self yet Father even in this Glorifie thy Name and out of my very Ruins erect thou a Trophy and Monument to thy Praise Be thou Hallowed and Sanctified although at my cost and with the loss of all Secondly In that this Petition is placed in the beginning of the Lord's Prayer it intimates to us that in the very beginning and entrance of our Prayers we ought to beg assistance from God so to perform Holy Duties that God may be Glorified and his Name Sanctified by us in it It is a good and needful request to beg of God the aid and help of his Spirit to enable us to Hallow his Name in the succeeding requests we are to make Thirdly Observe that when we present this Petition before God we beg Three things of him First Such Grace for our selves as may enable us to Sanctifie and Glorifie him Secondly Graces likewise for others to enable them thereunto Thirdly That God would by his Almighty Providence direct and over-rule all things both good and evil to the advancement of his own Glory First We beg of God that he would bestow upon us such Graces as are requisite to Glorifie him in the World We beg Knowledge and Understanding of him of his Nature of his Will and of his Works for we cannot Glorifie that God whom we are ignorant of We beg likewise Patience and Contentment in all Estates thankfulness for every Providence Graces that do highly tend to the Promoting of God's Honour and Glory We beg Faith likewise whereby we give the highest and greatest Glory to God that Mortal Men are able to ascribe for to trust upon his Word and to build upon his Promises is to Honour his Truth and Faithfulness And therefore we have that Expression Rom. 4.20 That Abraham was strong in Faith giving Glory to God We beg also that our Speech may be Savoury and such as may Minister Grace to the Hearers And lastly a humble blameless and exemplary life for by our good Works we are to Glorifie our Heavenly Father I cannot stand to insist upon these things particularly because my design is only to give you briefly and summarily an account of what is contained in this most Excellent Prayer that you may understand what you Pray for when you present these Petitions before God Secondly We herein beg of God That he would so over-rule all things whatsoever that his Glory may be secured nay promoted by them and therefore whatsoever falls out we ought to say Hallowed be thy Name by it Hereby we Pray that the Gifts and Eminent Graces of God's Children may redound unto his Glory that they may not be puffed up with them nor ascribe the credit of them to themselves That the Peace and Prosperity of the Church of Christ may turn to the Glory of God that outward Mercies may not make them careless and forgetful of his Service and Honour That the sins and failings of God's People may eventually turn to the Glory of God which seem directly to blot and stain it And that by their Repentance and Confessions they may give Glory to him whom they have offended and Satisfaction to them whom they have scandalized that all the Afflictions and Troubles of his People may in the end tend unto his Glory as well as their Good by declaring his Power in supporting them and his Goodness and Mercy in delivering them That all the Devices and Conspiracies the Rage and Fury of the Enemies of his Church may contrary to their intentions be overswayed to advance his Honour and that the Wrath of Man may praise him by shewing forth his Power Wisdom and Goodness either in restraining or overturning it And finally that all Creatures both in Heaven and in Earth yea all the Works of God's Hands should Glorifie God in the several Stations in which he hath set them Some by being the Manifestations of his Attributes and some the Manifesters of them Brutes and Senseless Creatures passively declaring the Glory of their great Creator and rational and intelligent Creatures shewing it forth actively and all concurring in this great Work for which all were made even the Glory and Praise of God Thus we see what a large and copious request we present before God when we pray that his Name should be Hallowed which that it may be let us our selves endeavour to be Holy for it is impossible that an unholy Heart or Life should Sanctifie a Holy God Whilst we persevere in our wicked Conversations we do but mock God and our selves when we desire to Sanctifie that Name of his which we daily prophane and pollute nay indeed we do but Pray for our own Destruction even that God would Sanctifie his Name part whereof is his just and dreadful severity upon all those and consequently upon our selves who defile and prophane it And thus I have finished the First Petition Hallowed be thy Name The Second Petition follows Thy Kingdom come This now very aptly succeeds upon the former because this is the best way and means to Hallow God's Name by enlarging his Kingdom and bringing in many to submit to his Scepter and Government For Praise waiteth for God in Sion Psal 65.1 And his Name is great in Israel Psal 76.1 Now here for our clearer proceeding we must distinguish of God's
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
deliverance in all our dangers for supports under all our troubles and for comfort under all our sorrows because he is Eternal and therefore the same God who hath heretofore in all Ages of the World done great things for all those who trust in him And therefore the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory which were a forcible plea with God in former times a plea to which he could deny nothing when urged in Faith have still the same efficacy and validity now For these and all other of God's Attributes are his for ever Therefore O Christian now lay hold on God's strength and plead with him what he hath done for his Children in former Ages How he hath forgiven the Penitent revived the Contrite restored Joy and Salvation to dejected and despondent Spirits how he hath wrought for the Sanctification of his great Name by what wonderful providences and wise methods he hath established and inlarged his Kingdom how he hath strengthened the weak hands and feeble knees and made those who were without Might able by his Grace to perform the hardest Duties in fullfilling his Will and Commandments how he hath provided for all their necessities rebuked the temptations of the wicked one and kept them in the World from the evil of the World And then urge Lord thou art still the same God Eternal in thy Essence Immutable in thy Attributes thy Power thy Wisdom and thy Mercy are the same that ever they were and therefore vouchsafe unto us the same Favour This plea offers an holy violence to Heaven a violence that is pleasing and acceptable unto God which he will not he cannot resist If we endeavour to be of the same dispositions and affections with the Saints of old we may be sure to obtain of God's hands the same Mercy and Salvation See how Asaph instructs the Church to make use of the Memorials of God's former loving kindnesses and the great and wonderful works that he had wrought for their Fathers Psal 78.4 6 7. We will shew to the Generations to come the Praises of the Lord and his strength and the wonderful works that he hath done that one Generation may declare them to another that they may set their hope in God And therefore the consideration of the Eternity and unchangableness of God is of vast and infinite comfort and a mighty advantage for the strengthening our Faith in pleading with God for the same Mercies which he hath formerly bestowed upon others because he is the same yesterday to day and for ever And thus I have finished the Doxology and therein considered the four Glorious Attributes ascribed unto God in it his Sovereignty his Omnipotence his Excellency and his Eternity There remains but one thing more to be spoken of in this Prayer and that is the Conclusion and Ratification of all in that short Particle Amen Of this I shall speak but very briefly and so shut up this whole Subject This word Amen is sometimes prefixed before a Speech and sometimes affixed after it When it is prefixed before it is assertory and so we find it very often in the Evangelists for wheresoever our Saviour useth the word verily it is no other but Amen Verily verily Isay unto thee i. e. Amen Amen I say unto thee which is a vehement assertion of the Truth and necessity of what he speaks And our Saviour useth it to gain the more attention and belief to what he desires Thus John 3.5 Amen Amen I say unto thee except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven So John 16.23 Amen Amen I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my Name he will give it you And so in many other places in the Evangelists How backward are we to believe since our infidelity is such that it constraineth the Son of God who is Truth it self to use asseverations and protestations to win our assent unto him Secondly As this Particle Amen used in the beginning of a Speech is Assertory of the undoubted Truth of it so when it is subjoined and used at the end of it is Precatory and signifies our earnest desire to have our Prayers heard and our Petitions granted Psal 41.13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting Amen and Amen Psal 72.19 Let the whole Earth be filled with his Glory Amen and Amen Psal 106.48 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the People say Amen In the former sence of the words as it is prefixed to a Speech it signifies so it is In this Latter as it is added to a Petition or Request it signifies so be it Now this teacheth us to put up all our Petitions First with understanding duly weighing and considering what it is we ask of God For when we use vain and insignificant babling how can we seal and close them up with an hearty Amen And this condemns the mockery of the Papists who because God understands what is uttered in a language to them unknown think that they may lawfully pray to him in a Tongue which they themselves understand not But with what Zeal with what affection can they close up such Prayers with an Amen This is like setting a Seal to an Instrument which they know not what it contains and is expresly condemned by the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.16 How shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of Thanks seeing he understands not what thou sayest Secondly It teacheth us to present all our requests to the Throne of Grace with fervent Zeal and Affection Amen is a wing to our Prayers it is the Bow that shoots them up to Heaven And although every Petition as we utter them before God should be accompanied with an earnest and hearty desire to have them heard and granted yet at the close of them all we are to redouble and repeat this our desire in the word Amen Wherein we do as it were briefly and succinctly Pray over again all that we had prayed before and in one word beg of God That he would give us all that we had before asked of him And therefore whether we Pray our selves or joyn in Prayers with others and make their Petitions ours we ought to attest our understanding of our assent unto and our earnest desires after the Mercies that are begged by Sealing up the Prayers with an Amen And certainly it would be a very beseeming thing if Amens were audible and sounding unless we are ashamed to be thought to Pray when others Pray and to make use of others expressions to present our Petitions When we come to the publick Worship we are not to look upon the Minister only as Praying for the People but he is the Peoples Mouth unto God and it is or ought to be the Prayer of the whole Congregation which he presents They Pray with him and by him and every Petition that he
require your humble Veneration Secondly The Scripture is suited to every Capacity It is as it is commonly exprest a Ford wherein a Lamb may wade and an Elephant swim and herein is the infinite Wisdom of God seen in wreathing together plain Truths with obscure that he might gain the more Credit to his Word by the one instructing the ignorance of the weakest by the other puzling and confounding the understanding of the wisest This also adds a Beauty and Ornament to the Scripture As the Beauty of the World is set off by a gracefull variety of Hills and Valleys so is it in the Scripture There are sublime Truths that the most aspiring reason of Man cannot over-top and there are more plain and easie Truths in which the weakest Capacity may converse with Delight and Satisfaction No Man is offended with his Garden for having a shady thicket in it no more should we be offended with the word of God that among so many fair and open Walks we here and there meet with a Thicket that the Eye of Humane Reason cannot look through Thirdly Those Truths that are absolutely necessary to Salvation are as plainly without either Obscurity or Ambiguity recorded in the Scripture as if they were as the Mahumetans think concerning their Alcoran written with Ink made of Light there 's the necessity of Faith in Jesus Christ of repentance for dead works of an holy and mortified Life so clearly set down that scarce have there any been found so impudent as to raise Controversies about them and is it not peevish to quarrel at the word for being obscure in those things which if thou hast used thy utmost Diligence to understand the ignorance of them shall not at all prejudice thy Salvation Bless God rather that he hath so clearly revealed the necessary and practical Duties of a Christian Life that those are not involved in any mystical or obscure Intimations but thou mayst without doubt or dispute know what is of absolute necessity to be either believed or practised in order to Salvation Be assured of this that what with all thy Labour and Diligence thou canst not understand thou needest not and what is needful is plain and obvious and thou mayest easily understand it Fourthly the Scripture is obscure but hath not God offered us sufficient helps for the unfolding of it Have you not the promise of his Spirit to illuminate you 1 Cor. 2.10 God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God Have we not his Minister whose Office it is to instruct us and lead us into the inmost Sence of the Scriptures Nay have we not the Scripture it self which is the best interpreter of its own meaning usually if it speak more darkly in one place it speaks the same truth more clearly in another Now compare Scripture with Scripture you will find it holds a Light unto its self The oftner you read and the more you ponder on those passages that are abstruse the more you will find them clear up to your understanding So that neither is this any reasonable discourgement from studying the Holy Scriptures Eighthly Others may say they are doubtful because they see many of those who have been most Conversant in the Scripture how they have been perverted and carried aside into damnable Errors and yet still have pleaded Scripture for the defence of them I answer True the Devil hath in these our days busied himself to bring a reproach upon Scripture through the whimsies and giddiness of those who have pretended most acquaintance in it But let not this be any discouragement for this ariseth not directly from the influence the Scripture hath on them which is the rule of truth only but from the pride and self conceit of a few Notionists who wrest it to their own Perdition And though they boast much of Scripture to countenance their Opinions yet Scripture misunderstood and misapplyed is not Scripture Indeed there is no other way to discern truth from Error but only by the Scripture rightly understood and there is no way rightly to understand it but diligently to search it But to say that therefore we must not read the Scripture because some wrest it to their own Destruction is alike reasonable as to say that therefore we must not Eat nor Drink because that some eat to Glutony and others drink to Giddiness and Madness The Apostle St. Peter tells us Epist 1 Chap. 3. v. 16. that in St. Paul's Epistles there were some things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Sriptures to their own destruction Shall we therefore conclude that neither his Epistle nor any other of the Scriptures should be read by us because that in some instead of Nourishment they have occasioned onely Wind Flatulency and ill humours If this had been his purpose it had certainly been very easie for him to have said Because they are hard to be understood and many wrest them to their own destruction therefore beware that you read them not But in stead of this he draws another inference verse 17. Ye therefore beloved beware least ye also being led away with the Errors of the Wicked fall from your own stedfastness but grow in grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ He saith not beware that you read them not but beware how you read them This is the true Apostolical Caution which tends not to drive us from the Scriptures but to make us more studious and inquisitive in them least we also be perverted by the cunning craftiness of Men who lie in wait to deceive And this the Primitive Parents thought the best and surest means to preserve their People from Error and Seduction It were almost endless to recite to you those many passages wherein they do most Pathetically exhort all of all Ranks and Conditions of each Sex of all Ages to a diligent perusal of the Holy Scriptures And so far were they from taking it up in a Language unknown to the Vulgar or debarring the Laity from Reading it that the Translations of it into the common Tongue of each Country were Numerous and their Exhortations scarce more vehement and earnest in any thing than that the People would employ their time and thoughts in revolving them It is therefore a most certain sign that that Church hath false wares to put off which is of nothing more careful than to darken the Shop And assuredly the wresting the Scriptures by some who read them cannot occasion the Destruction of more than that damnable Idolatry and those damnable Heresies have done which have been brought into and are generally owned and practised by the Church of Rome through the not reading of them Thus you see as it was in Josiah's time how much dust and Rubbish this Book of the Law lies under I have endeavoured to remove it And shall now proceed to those Arguments that
may persuade you to a diligent search and perusal of the Scriptures The Jews indeed were so exact or rather Superstitious in this that he was judged a despiser of those Sacred Oracles who did not readily know how often every Letter of the Alphabet occurred in them This preciseness God hath made use of to deliver down his word to us unvaried and uncorrupted It is not such a scrupulous search of the Scripture I now exhort you to but as God hath left it to us a rich Depositum a dear pledge of his Love and care so we should diligently attend to a rational and profitable study of it There are but two things in the general that commend any writing to us either that it discovers knowledge or directs practice that it informs the Judgment or reforms the Life Both of these are eminently the Characters of this Book of God And therefore David tells us Psal 19.7 The Law of God converts the Soul and makes wise the simple It is a light not only to our heads but it is a Lamp unto our Feet and a light unto our paths Psal 119.105 Let us consider it as to both First In point of knowledge as it perfects the understanding and so it will appear in sundry particulars how excellent a study it is For First The Scripture discovers unto us the knowledge of those truths that the most improved natural Reason could never sift out and are intelligible only by Divine Revelation God hath Composed two Books by the diligent study of which we may come to the knowledge of himself The Book of the Creatures and the Book of the Scriptures The Book of the Creatures is written in those great Letters of Heaven and Earth the Air and Sea and by these we may spell out somewhat of God He made them for our instruction as well as our service There is not a Creature that God hath breathed abroad upon the face of the Earth but it Reads us Lectures of his infinite Power and Wisdom So that it is no absurdity to say that they are all the Works of his mouth so they are all the works of his Hands The whole World is a speaking workmanship Rom. 1.20 The invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead And indeed when we seriously consider how God hath poised the Earth in the midst of the Air and the whole World in the midst of a vast and boundless nothing how he hath hung out those glorious lights of Heaven the Sun the Moon and Stars and made paths in the Sky for their several courses how he hath laid the Sea on heaps and so girt it in that it may possibly overlook but not overflow the Land when we view the Variety Harmony and Law of the Creation our Reason must needs be very short if we cannot from these collect the infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of the Creator So much of God as belong to these two great Attributes of Creator and Governour of the World the Book of Nature may plainly discover to us But then there are other more retired and reserved Notions of God other truths that nearly concern our selves and our eternal Salvation to know and believe which nature could never give the least glimpse to discover What Signature is there stampt upon any of the Creatures of a Trinity in Unity of the eternal Generation or temporal Carnation of the Son of God What Creature could inform us of our first fall and guilt contracted by it Where can we find the Copy of the Covenant of Works or of grace printed upon any of the Creatures All the great Sages of the World though they were Nature's Secretaries and ransack'd its abstrusest mysteries yet all their Learning and Knowledge could not discover the Sacred Mystery of a Crucified Saviour These are truths which Nature is so far from searching out that it can scarce receive them when revealed 1. Corinth 2.14 The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned The light that can reveal these must break immediately from Heaven it self And so it did upon the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles the Pen-men of the Holy Scriptures And if it were their singular Privilege that the Holy Ghost should descend into their breasts and so possess them with Divine inspirations that what they spake or wrote became Oracular how little less is ours since the Scriptures reveal to us the very same truths which the Spirit revealed to them God heretofore spake in them and now he speaks by them unto us Their Revelations are become ours the only difference is that what God taught them by extraordinary inspiration the very same truths he teacheth us in the Scripture by the ordinary illumination of his Spirit Here therefore whilest we diligently converse in the Book of God we enjoy the privilege of Prophets The same word of God which came unto them comes also unto us and that without those severe preparations and strong agonies which sometimes they underwent before God would inspire them with the knowledge of his Heavenly truth That is the first Motive and Argument Secondly The knowledge which the Scripture teacheth is for the matter of it the most sublime and losty in the World All other sciences are but poor and beggarly Elements if compared with this What doth the Naturalist but only busie himself in digging a little drossie knowledge out of the Entrails of the Earth The Astronomer who ascends highest mounts no higher than the Coelestial Bodies the Stars and Planets which are but the out-works of Heaven But the Scripture pierceth much farther and lets us into Heaven it self There it discovers the Majesty and Glory of God upon his Throne the Eternal Son of God sitting at his right hand making a prevailing and Authoritative intercession for us The glittering train of Cherubims and Seraphims an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect So that indeed when you have this Book laid open before you you have Heaven it self and all the inconceivable glories of it laid open to your view What can be more sublime than the nature of God And yet here we have it so plainly described by all its most glorious Attributes and Perfections that the Scripture doth but beam forth light to an Eye of Faith whereby it may be inabled to see him who is invisible But if we consider those Gospel Mysteries the Scripture relates the Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ's incarnation the Mystical Union of our persons to his by our believing that the Son of God should be Substituted in the stead of guilty Sinners that he who knew no sin should be made a Sacrifice for sin and the Justice of God become reconciled to Man through the blood of God these are Mysteries so infinitely profound as are enough to puzzle a whole College of
Angels Now these the Scripture propounds unto us not only to pose but to perfect our understanding For that little knowledge we can attain unto in these things is far more excellent than the most comprehensive knowledge of all things else in the World And where our scanty apprehensions fall short of fathoming these deep mysteries the Apostle hath taught us to seek it out with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the Riches both of the Knowledge and Wisdom of God! how unreasearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out Thirdly The Scripture is an inexhaustible Fountain of Knowledge the more you draw from it the more still springs up It is a deep Mine and the farther you search into it still the richer you find it It is tedious to read the works and writings of Men often over because we are soon at the bottom of what they deliver and our understanding hath nothing new to refresh it But in reading the Scripture it fares with us as it did with those whom Christ miraculously fed the bread multiplied under their Teeth and increased in the very chewing of it So here while we ruminate and chew on the truths of the Scripture they multiply and rise up thicker under our meditation One great cause of the neglect that many are guilty of in reading the Holy Scripture is a fear that they shall but meet with the same things again which they have already read and known and this they account tedious and irksome Indeed if they read it only Superficially and slightly it will be so But those who fix their minds to ponder and meditate upon the word find new truths arising up to their understanding which they never before discovered Look as it is in a Starry night if you cast your Eyes upon many spaces of the Heavens at the first glance perhaps you shall discover no Stars there yet if you continue to look earnestly and fixedly some will emerge to your view that were before hid and concealed So is it with the Holy Scriptures If we only glance curiously upon them no wonder we discover no more Stars no more glorious truths beaming out their light to our Understanding St. Augustine found this so experimentally true that he tells us in his third Epistle that though he should with better capacity and greater diligence study all his Life time from the beginning of his Childhood to decrepit Age nothing else but the Holy Scriptures yet they are so compacted and thick set with truths that he might daily learn something which before he knew not God hath as it were studied to speak compendiously in the Scriptures What a Miracle of brevity is it that the whole Duty of Man relating both to God and his Neighbour should be all comprised in ten words Not a word but were the sence of it drawn out were enough to fill whole Volumes and therefore the Psalmist Psal 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandments are exceeding broad When we have attained the knowledge of those things that are absolutely necessary to Salvation there yet remain such depths of Wisdom both in the manner of Scripture expression and in the mysteriousness of things exprest that after our utmost industry still there will be left new truths to become the discovery of a new search Fourthly The Scripture exhibits to us that knowledge which is necessary to Eternal Salvation This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17.3 And this knowledge the Scriptures alone can afford us John 5.39 So 2 Tim. 3.15 We need not therefore enquire after blind traditions or expect any whimsical Enthusiasms the written word contains whatsoever is necessary to be known in order to Eternal Salvation and whosoever is wise above what is written is wise only in impertinences Now hath God contracted whatever was necessary for us to know and summed it up in one Book and shall not we be diligent and industrious in studying that which doth so necessarily concern us Other knowledge is only for the adorning and embellishment of Nature this is for the necessity of Life of Life Eternal I have before spoken enough concerning the necessity of knowledge unto Salvation and therefore shall not farther inlarge Therefore as St. Peter said to Christ Lord whither shall we go thou hast the words of Eternal Life So let us Answer whatsoever may seem to call us off from the diligent study of the Scriptures Whither shall we go to this we must cleave with this we will converse for here alone are the words of Eternal Life Fifthly The Knowledge that the Scripture discloseth is of undoubted Certainty and perpetual Truth it depends not upon Probabilities or Conjectures but the infallible Authority of Christ himself he hath dictated it for whom it is impossible to lye The rule of our Veracity or Truth is the conformity of our Speech to the existency of Things but divine Truth and Veracity hath no other Rule besides the Will of him that speaks it He must needs speak infallible Truth who speaks things into their beings such is the omnipotent Speech of God Whatsoever he declares is therefore true because he declares it Never matter how strange and impossible Scripture-Mysteries may seem to Flesh and Blood to the corrupt and captious understandings of natural Men when the word of God hath undertaken for the Truth it is as much impiety to doubt of them as it is Folly to question the reality of what we see with our very Eyes Nay the information of our Senses what we see what we hear what we feel is not so certain as the truth of those things which God reveals and testifies in the Scriptures And therefore the Apostle 2 Pet. 1.18 19. Speaking of that Miraculous Voice that sounded from Heaven Matth. 17.5 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Pleased We saith the Apostle heard this Voice when we were with him in the Holy Mount but we have also a more sure word of Prophecy or as the Greek may well be rendred We account more sure the word of Prophecy unto which ye do well that ye take heed What a more sure word than a Voice from Heaven When God himself shall vocally bear witness to the Truth Yes we have a more sure Word and that 's the Word of Prophesie recorded in the Old Testament And hence it will follow that because the Prophecies concerning Christ may seem somewhat obscure in Comparison with this audible Voice from Heaven therefore the testimony of obscure Scripture is to be preferred before the testimony of clear Sence Now therefore if you would know things beyond all danger either of Falshood or Hesitation be Conversant in the Scripture where we may take all for certain upon the Word and Authority of that God who neither can deceive nor be deceived Sixthly The Scripture alone gives us the true and unerring Knowledge