AN EXPOSITION VPON The Lords Prayer.  
delivered in certain Sermons, in the Cathedrall Church of S. paul.  
By Henry King Archdeacon of Colchester, and Residentiary of the same Church.  HIERON. Epist. ad LAETAM. Orationi lectio, lectioni succedat oratio: breue videbitur tempus quod tantis operum varietatibus occupatur. 
LONDON,¶ Printed by John Hauiland, and are to be sold by John Partridge in Pauls Church-yard, at the sign of the sun. 1628.   

TO THE SACRED majesty OF MY sovereign LORD AND MASTER, King CHARLES.  
Most Gracious Sir;  
THough I haue had two Masters, I never had but one Patron. When by the direction of your majesties Blessed Father, my first royal Master, somewhat was done to disprove that( since confessed) scandal, touching my Fathers revolt from his Religion, I then addressed myself to Your Princely protection, which You so liberally afforded, that my emboldened Duty afterwards instructed me to presume vpon Your goodness in the like kind. I confess, this weak testimony of my service in Gods Church, took life from the Example of Your Glorious Fathers work( I mean that excellent Meditation of His vpon this Prayer) and my purpose was to haue dedicated it unto Him, as an humble acknowledgement of the many gracious encouragements which I received from his own mouth, in the times of my Attendance on Him. But though my Purpose dyed with Him, my Obligation did not. That lives in You, whose vouchsafed favour both derived and increased it, by assuming me to Your service, when the consideration of mine own inability, and the loss of my Master made me content to lose my relation to the Court. Then, Gracious Sir, since it naturally descends on you by Two Titles, both as His Executor, and My Master, bee pleased once more to enlarge the bounty of your acceptation, and to receive this Tribute from his hand who is ambitious of nothing, but leave to wear Your Cognisance, and to writ Your Name in the Front of his labours. This afforded goodness and my gratitude will sucessiuely prompt devotion, by making it my daily practise to pray for the addition of all Blessings vpon your royal self, with that religion and Loyalty which fits  
Your majesties most humbly devoted Seruant, HENRY KING.   

Errata.  
PAg. 53. lin. 22. for noster, red noster. pag. 49. lin. 16. r. before Christ. pag. 55. l. 7. r. Aeteocles and Polynices. p. 56. l. 11. r. vendicare. p. 92. l. 11. r. crimen immane. p. 106. in the margin, r. Monac. p. 138. in the margin, Damascen. p. 156. l. 15. sufferentia. p. 303. l. 19. r. Qunes.   

AN EXPOSITION VPON THE LORDS PRAYER.  MAT. 6.9. After this manner, or thus, pray ye. 
THis Text is but a preface, and no more: or like a curtain hung before some rare piece. Behind it is delineated the curious Archetype and masterpiece of all Prayer, whose Author is Christ. From which original copy, all our prayers, so far as imitation and our weak Art can counterfeit, are derived and drawn.  

division.  The parts are three: 

First, an injunction; Pray.  
Secondly, a pattern; Thus.  
Thirdly, the Persons; ye.    
From the injunction I will observe three Circumstances.  
Fi●st, the charge itself, that Prayer is ex Praecepto.  
Secondly, the Necessity of it.  
Thirdly, the Excellence.  
I first show Prayer is ex Praecepto. To prove which, 
Pray.  needs no other argument ●han the form or modification of the word  
Pray; or as the vulgat, Orabitis, ye shall pray: both Mandatory. however then Halensis stiles it only Documentum, 
Alexand. Hales p rt 4. Aug l●b. de Bon● Pe●s●uer●●.  a lesson; Saint Augustine confessed it to be a Iussion, or command; à quo nisi ab illo accipimus à quo iussum est vt petamus. And Aquinas plainly shows it is a Precept; 
Tho. Aquin. 22. quaest. 83. Artic. 3. Resp. ad. 2.  Non solùm petere quae desideramus, said etiam rectè aliquid desiderare, sub praecepto cadit, desiderare sub praecepto charitatis, petere sub praecepto religionis.  
Christ never decreed any thing in vain, and therefore wheresoever his command is laid, it calls for obedience; and the oftener he repeats his command, the greater tie doth it leave on our duty. The injunction in this place hath diuers confirmations and ligaments; all which, like so many cords and fastenings, bind it to our memory and observation. Clama ad me& exaudiam; Call on me. 
jer. 33 3. Psal 126.6. Psal 3●. 7.  Pray for the peace of jerusalem. Subditus esto Domino& oraillum. Orate ne intretis in tentationem; 
Luk 22.40.  Watch and pray. Petite& accipietis; ask, 
Mat. 13.33.  and ye shall haue. So here {αβγδ}, Pray.  
Nor was this barely given in charge, but exemplified by the Author, Christ himself. He that in his gospel taught us to make Prayers and Supplications, did himself pray also; and that not a few times, nor in few places. For what place was there wherein this High Priest found not an Oratory to pray? The Mount, the Garden, the cross; so that I may truly say of Him, 
Alfonsus à Castro.  Tota eius vita fuit perpetua quaedam precatio; His whole life was nothing else but a long Prayer.  
My second circumstance concerning the Necessity of Prayer, 
Necessity.  naturally flows from this. For if Christ, the Lord and Master, found Prayer an act worthy to exercise him, how great a necessity is implyed from us, whose whole composition is nothing else but Wants and Necessities? All which are onely supplied by our Prayer. There is our harvest, and from that seed doth the increase of Gods blessings multiply vpon vs. Those two main props of life, 
Vict●●& vestitus.  our Raiment, and the staff of bread, are the donatives of Prayer; witness that Petition, under which they, and all else wee need, are comprised, give us this day our daily bread.  
For which, and other benefits, we haue no other commodity to traffic or exchange with God but Prayer; the onely rate at which his mercy is purchased, and the currant coin in his Exchequer.  
Therefore Pray.  
A most beneficial, yet easy task enjoined only for mans good. almighty God herein dealing with us, as those Benefactors whose bounty sets the poor a work for charity, not profit, not for any advantage they mean to make of their labour, but what merely reflects on themselves; that they may give them an occasion to earn a living. So from the solicitation of our prayers doth God take occasion to extend his mercies unto vs. Not that our prayers haue any worth or merit, or that they advantage Him, but ourselves: 
Aug. ser. 29. de verbis Domini  Ille quod nos hortatur propter nos hortatur, When he bids us Pray, he doth but fit us with a capacity to receive what he desires to give.  
he might indeed bestow vpon us his favours without the svit of our Prayers, but that were a double derogation, first from his Gift, and next from his own sovereignty.  
He that can make himself so cheap to give vnask't, certainly gives that which is not worth taking, else he would never make such hast to be rid of it. Thus to fore-stall a svit, instructs him that receives to neglect, not to thank the donor. svit puts value vpon a gift; nor is that ware held marketable which proffers itself unto the buyer. There is a modesty to be used even in doing favours; for it is an vnmannerly kindness that intrudes on the accepter, and an impudent good turn, which like a prostitute wooes him that should receive it. Such is the curious disposition of man to vnderualew and grow weary of whatsoever he comes easily by, 
Aug. ser. 5. de verb. Dom.  Cito data vilescunt. There is no bread so sweet, as what is earned with sweat; and no gift so prized, as that which is obtained with greatest difficulty. 
Petronius Arbit.  Quicquid quaeritur optimum videtur. Therefore, before God gives, it is fit he understood in a few words the desire of his client, lest he should offer a blessing to one that had no will to take it. Dare vult Deus, 
August.  said non dat nisi petenti, ne debt non capienti.  
again, if God should give without petition, it were an impeachment to his royalty. We see ordinarily men are content to enter covenant not to receive their due vn●esse vpon demand, nor will the Tenant offer his rent, if not first required and called ●o make a tender: and shall wee think to receive from Gods hand mercies which are not due unto us ex debito, but ex merâ gratiâ, not of right, but of grace, without entreaty and request? The most bountiful master that lives, though he lease out his profit, will not lease out his right,& though he expect no money payment, yet will he reserve some slight acknowledgement, though but a pepper corn. Kings themselves, when they haue rewarded such as well deserved, by the gift of manors or Lands, yet will haue those, on whom they confer such favours, hold them by some service, which service they will haue acknowledged, by some kind of homage, by some slight peny-fine, or the like.  
'tis true, such payments as a Pepper-corne or a penny add nothing to the revenue of the temporal Lord, more than the confession of his right and royalty, yet are they of such high consequence to those that hold their estates by them, that to comtemne one of those little ones, makes their whole fortune escheat into the power of the Lord. just so is it with us Christians, wee haue a Lord, by whose goodness, life and our being are demised unto us; a bountiful Master, who hath endowed us with all our temporal blessings in this life, and by his promises, given our hopes a title to eternal blessings in the life to come. For all which vnprized mercies, he hath reserved nothing to return unto himself, save onely the thankful sacrifice of our prayers. A light and easy payment to God, yet of more weighty consequence on our behalf, than Ingens auri vis, a Mine of treasure. For Prayers are our Quit-rents, our Homage, our suit-fine, 
Gerard, Aphorism.  Census nostrae subiectionis; by this service do we hold our estates in his blessings. So long as we pay unto him these rents of devotion, so long is our tenor safe, and our title to his goodness unquestionable. 
Psal. 81. 1●.  Open thy mouth( in prayers) and I will fill thee with good things. But when once we shut our mouths, when we neglect this duty and service, wee then forfeit his favour in the present, and hazard it in the future.  
Such and so great is the necessity of Prayer. And yet so great is the impudence of the Pelagian, or rather the devill, whose feed advocate he was, to cry down the use and exercise of Prayer, which had so often repelled his assault and foiled him, that from the proud insolent sophistry of Free-will, he would argue it needless to trouble God by asking either perseverance in faith, or conversion from sin, whereas it is( saith he) in each mans free election and choice, either to stand or fall. An assertion to be hissed at, not answered, being quiter contrary to Christs rule, who lays so much weakness to our charge, that wee haue not power to think well, much less to will that which is good, without his assisting grace, nor to avoid one danger hanging over us, without the same grace preventing. By this Grace are wee elected from the womb, 
Psal. 71.6.  and by it also are we holden up ever since we were born. 'tis his grace that we Pray, and again 'tis his grace which answers our Prayers: like a cloud doth this Grace still hang over our heads; but the due thereof drops not down vpon us, unless first resolved by the breath of our prayers. Let therefore our Prayers ascend up unto him, that so his Grace may descend on vs.  
Enough to disprove Pelagius, but not to stop the mouth of other heretics, who out of the infallibility of Gods prescience, would conclude the act of Prayer needless. whatsoever( say they) God hath foreseen, must come to pass, whether wee pray or not, because his knowledge cannot err. True, but let them know, the same God who fore-saw what should be, fore-saw also that we should pray unto him; the act of Prayer being necessary to obtain and impetrate those things at Gods hands, which he in his mercy fore-saw he should bestow vpon vs. This is Saint Augustines opinion, 
Aug. de civit. Dei lib. 5. cap. 10.  Preces valent ad ea impetranda quae se precantibus concessurum praesciuit.  
Since then God hath foreseen a necessity of our Prayers, let each one fore-see his own good so much, as to petition him continually. This act of invocating him being so necessary to salvation, that without it no means to salvation. 
Alexand. Hales part. 4. ex Aug.  Nullum credimus nisi orantem salutem promereri: Almighty God is easy to be found, but he will first be sought; and his hand ever open to give, if devoutly asked and entreated. For so is his own rule, Petite& dabitur vobis: 
Matth. 7.7.  ask first, and then haue.  
I am now come to consider the Excellence of this act of Prayer, 
The Excellence of Prayer.  which from hence is clear. Since that, in stead of all the abolished sacrifices of the old Law, this only remaines unto vs. This is our Morning& evening sacrifice, our cleansing sacrifice, and our sin offering Oratio sanat pests mentis: This cures the maladies of the diseased soul. It is our Incense offering, spiritual thymiama. And for the greater glory of it, Carthusian observes that the style of Incense is attributed to no other theological virtue so truly, as to Prayer: 
Dionys Carthus. in Matth.  Nulla Iustitia thymiamati comparatur nisi sola oratio. Like incense doth it fume up, making a sweet smell in the nostrils of God. Therefore the Psalmist prays, 
Psal. 141.2.  Dirigatur oratio mea tanquam incensum: Which( saith the gloss) was but a figure of Prayer. A Censer full of this Incense religiously offered, diverts the wrath of God, and interposes itself betwixt his anger and those whom it threatens: 
Numb. 16.48.  even as Aaron stood in the door of the Tabernacle, betwixt a displeased God and a wretched people.  
Such a strong prerogative hath Prayer, which God seems to aclowledge, when with a familiar anger he chides Moses, for that his Prayers hindered the execution of his vengeance vpon Israel: 
Exod. 32.11.  Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot vpon them.  
Lastly, in stead of the Eleuatum, the Heaue-offering; 
Psal. 141.2.  Eleuatio manuum, the elevation of our hands in Prayer now serves. Blessed are they that can lift up clean hands in this sacrifice, for they shall surely get the victory. When Moses his hands were held up, Israel( you know) prevailed, but when they were let down, Amaleck got ground. The moral is thus: When wee pray, our sins retire, but when we let that act fall, they charge us with double force.  
But our Prayers are unwieldy and heavy, 
Mat. 26.40.  witness the Disciples singled out to accompany Christ when he prayed in the Garden, who at that time found so heavy a weight of slumber hanging over their eye-lids, that they were not able to watch, no not one hour. 'tis requisite then they should haue props to bear them up. As Aaron and Hur were Moses his supporters, so must Faith and perseverance be the supports of Prayer; held up by these, they ascend boldly and without let unto the Throne of God; but if these fail, like dull and lazy mists drawn from the earth, they rise not to any height, but fall back vpon those places from whence they were exhaled, or vanish with that breath which sent them up.  
Not to insist long on this Encomium of Prayer: It is our scaling Ladder, 
Ecclus. 35.21.  Oratio justi penetrat nubes, our Engine of Battery, 
Mat. 11.12.  by which heaven is besieged and suffers violence( as Christ said.) 'tis our weapon with which we wound our enemies, nay, Telum est quo vulneramus cor Dei; 
Ambros. ser. 86.  with it even God himself is wounded, as the Spouse in the Canticles cries, Charitate vulneror.  
It is a thing so strong and potent, that it prevails with( though not against) the Almighty. Oratio hoins res est omnipotentissima( tis Luthers 
Luther.  devout Hyperbole.) This wrestles with God, 
Gen. 32.2.24.  as jacob with the angel, and will not part without a blessing won from Him. Therefore Saint jerome saith, 
Hieron. Epist.  Deus ipse qui nullis contra se viribus superari potest, Publicani precibus vincitur: God that cannot by any forces levied, be overcome, yet confesses himself vanquished by the Publicans prayers.  
'tis the Rudder which keeps our souls steady, in aquis multis, when cross winds, and the billows of persecution beat vpon vs.  
'tis the compass by which wee sail, when all is clouded, no star of comfort shining out unto us, this holds us in the right course till we again discover mercy. Out of the deep haue I called unto thee and thou heardest me. 
Psal. 130.1.   
Lastly, 'tis our Key which opens the gates of heaven, be they locked never so fast: Oratio justi clavis Coeli. 
Aug. Ser. 226. de tempore.  With this Key did Elias open the windows of heaven shut up for some yeeres in drought; and with this do we let down the former and the latter rain on vs. 
1 King. 18.45.   
But a Key you know hath many wards, and requires Art to make it, which Art we can no where else learn, but from Him who hath Potestatem clauium, the keys of david, to shut and open at his pleasure. Here then let us borrow our skill, and fashion our Prayers in his Mould, by that excellent pattern here in his gospel left unto us,  
Pray thus. 
Pray thus.   
Out of the form and fashion of which Prayer I observe two things. First, 
pattern.  it was a set form of Prayer, not made vpon the sudden, but composed with premeditation. Secondly, it was Short and compendious. Both which circumstances are here commended to our imitation and use;  
Pray thus.  
First, it was a set form. 
A set form.  The Art of Prayer is not a lesson obvious to all, but full of difficulty: 
Rom. 8.  Saint Paul tells us, ye pray not as ye ought, and the Disciples confessed their unskilfulness in this act, when they desired their Master to tell them how to pray, as John taught his Disciples. To answer which request of theirs, he dictates unto them this manner of praying. Prescription is a good warrant, and therefore he prays best that prays by Precedent. Yet it is a disease reigning in many now a daies to affect sudden conceptions of Religion better than mature births: I do not know what should induce them, unless out of a iealousy lest any should find out a Newer or Narrower path to heaven than themselves, they thus forsake the Churches beaten road. For my part, I must needs suspect that these sudden unsettled fits of praying, that take men like quames, cannot but argue some kind of crazinesse and distemper, if not in point of Religion, at least in Opinion and Ceremony.  
Sure I am God likes not raw Sacrifices no more than rash vows. 
Eccles. 5.2.  Bee not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart bee hasty to utter any thing before God. 
Ecclus. 18.22.  Before thou prayest prepare thyself. And david refused to offer unto God a gift which cost him nothing. 
2 Sam. 24.24.  Why then any should presume to tender him a raw unseasoned meditation that cost no pains nor study in the shaping of it, but, like an abortive, is conceived and born at the same instant, I cannot see.  
Our blessed saviour, it should seem, choose rather to be at a certainty with us for his service, than either to put us vpon sudden shifts, or stand to the courtesy of any voluntary Motions, or revelations, or Enthusiasms of ours for his allowance. To which end he prescribed a constant Method of Prayer, Pray thus. In honour& imitation whereof, our Church hath also fixed and restend vpon a settled course for her Liturgy in the book of Common Prayer.  
In contempt of both which, however some giddy separated men prefer their own fantasies, not onely rejecting our Common Prayer, but even Christs Prayer also; leaving it out, as a thing not worthy to join with their inventions, either privately in their meetings, or publicly in the Pulpit at the end of their Prayers( a contempt you know contrary to the Canon or good manners) yet, for all this, I hope there are none here soured with that leaven, or that need to bee persuaded whether a stolen and ignorant conventicle should sway more in this point, then a learned and reverend convocation.  

Hugo Cardin. in Mat. 6. dimit, &c.  Hugo Cardinal. deprives, in his iudgement, such factious men as these, of either understanding or reference to Christ, Stulti quia non sic orant vt docuit Christus, nec sunt Christi. 
Carranza. council. Tolet. 3. Can. 9. Alphons. à Castro.  But the council of Toledo deprives those Spanish Priests of their function, who held this Prayer was not to bee used daily, but only vpon the Sunday.  
Mistake me not, I do not say no Prayer should bee used but onely the Lords Prayer. The Geneua note renders it rightly, Christ binds not to the words, but to the sense and form of the Prayer. Nor do I disallow extemporary Prayers, when need or occasion shall require. Seasonably used they are the fruits of a ripe well-tuned devotion. 
Psal. 45.2.  My tongue is the pen of a ready Writer; but affencted out of nice desire to be singular, or opposition to the allowed forms of Prayer, they are the symptoms of a dangerous folly.  
I do not deny him a good artisan that works by the strength of his own phantasy: yet all will grant, he works truest that works from a copy. And though a voluntary expressed vpon an Instrument, show the sufficiency of the Musician; yet I should think that Musician, who vnderualues all set Lessons, in comparison of his voluntaries, hath more of Arrogance than Skill. just so is it in Prayer.  
I prejudice no mans gift, and let me aduise no man so much to prejudice this excellent gift of Christs Prayer, as to exalt his own Meditations above it. All I will say to such men is this only, judicium fidei sequere& non Experimentum tuum, is a safe rule;& I wish they would follow Christs Rule, which is Regula fidei, the Rule of Prayer as well as Faith, and the discipline of the Church a little better, and not, like empirics, presume to practise without book.  

2 A short form of Prayer.  My second observation was, the shortness of Christs Prayer: who having found fault with the multitude of words used by the Heathen, vers. 7. takes order to mend it in his pattern. 
Pertinet ad finem& modestiam fidei si non agmine verborum adeundum putemus ad Dominum. Tertul. lib de Orat. {αβγδ}. Chrys. in Mat.  A garrulous talkative zeal is unpleasant and unnecessary. It consists not with the modesty of Faith, nay, in the iudgement of Saint Chrysostome, such a tumultuous svit to God is rather an act of Impudence then devotion. To what end dost thou use a multitude of words in thy Prayers? God that formed thee reads the unwritten Language of thy thoughts; thy hidden desires and imaginations are plain and legible Characters in his eye. Why then shouldst thou assault his ear with superfluity of speech? unless thou doubtest he hears thee so seldom, that when thou art speaking thou wilt be sure to say enough to him. Or thinkest thou God is asleep, and must be waked with loud clamour? Or dost thou distrust his apprehension that he understands thee not at first sight, or cannot construe the meaning of thy petition without a long paraphrase? Like him Saint Chrysostome reprehends, Qui orat vt Deo quasi ignoranti suam necessitatem exponat, who prayed in such a form of language, as if he meant to tell God somewhat which he knew not before.  
Be so modest, as still to remember God is a judge, that needs take no informations of thy cause from thee; 
August. {αβγδ}, Chrys. in Mat. 6.  Orando Deum non docemus, when wee lay open our wants, wee do not tell God a thing he knew not before: 
Matth. 6.8.  Your Father knoweth whereof ye haue need before ye ask him. Misery is a subject that requires the briefest History that can be to set it forth. 'tis best therefore, in opening the complaint, to use but few words in Prayer, considering( as Saint jerome speaks) Nos non Narratores esse said rogatores, we come not to present God with a Narration, but a Petition, and not to discourse with him, but to pray to him.  
I must here again prevent the misconstruction of any that can bee jealous my meaning is bent against much praying; God forbid: I say with my Author, Non inhibemur multum orare, said multum loqui; I speak not against much praying, but much speaking in our prayers; for, saith Saint Augustine, 
Epist. ad Probam.  Multum loqui est in orando rem necessariam superfluis agere verbis; He that talks much in his prayer, is a bad performer of a good action; he ouerdoes a duty, and so by double diligence grows troublesone; especially being that this duty is not acted by the tongue, so much as the inward affection; 
August. ibid.  Plus fletu quam affatu; Nay a man may be silent, 
Cyprian.  and yet pray loudly, Deus non vocis, said cordis auditor; as Saint Ambrose spake of Moses, 
Ambros. office. lib. 1. cap. 4.  Qui cum taceret, clamabat.  
I exhort all to frequent Prayer, Mane, Meridie, Vesperi, for so often david prayed, at Morning, Mid-day, and Night: and our saviour Christ, we read, Tertio abiuit, 
Aliud est sermo multus, aliud diuturnus affectus, August. epist. 121.  prayed thrice in the Garden within a very short space; but pray in few words, for so did Christ.  
I know many there be, who deride our short prayers; 
Confutatio in Rhemist. Testament. in Matth. 16.21.  and Cartwright scoffingly terms our Collects, Shreds: but if they be shreds, they are such as haue more worth in them, than a whole piece of their vneuen, ill-spunne meditations, that follow his Tenets. Dicuntur fratres in Aegypto crebras orationes habere, said breuissimas: Saint Augustine writes that the religious men in egypt were wont to make very frequent, but very short prayers; which practise he commends to us: this being most consonant to the Wisemans speech; 
Eccles. 5.2.  God is in heaven above, and thou vpon earth, therefore let thy words be few.  
Pray ye.  
This part is my application, 
Part. 3. Vos.  I shall not need any labour to make it fit, since the words barely repeated, apply themselves. They were Christs Disciples unto whom he gave this exemplified injunction: I trust so are we; nor doth this speech with less propriety or necessity belong to you, then it did to them.  
So that you see the Disciples themselves were taught: If they who had Maiorem mensuram sanctificationis, and Dona infusa, such a large proportion of grace, and gifts of the Spirit infused, thought it no disparagement to be directed and tied to a pattern, I do not see why any of meaner endowments should think themselves too wise to learn of Christ, or to Pray after his manner.  
again, though Disciples, and in that near relation to Christ, then corporally present with them, yet for all that they must pray.  
The best that lives vpon the earth, though he can boast never so near an alliance to Christ, hath need of prayer, else all his goodness can be no Supersedeas for temptations. A walled town is no protection from the enemy, without a garrison to beat him from the walls, nor doth the place secure it, but the watch. So the strength of mans own righteousness is no fortress to secure him, unless religion guard him, and that his prayers stand sentinel, Watch and pray, soliciting the Watchman of Israel to defend him in all assaults. There is no faith so well built, or freed from decay, that needs not be repaired hourly by the invocation of Gods assistance. The just man falls Septies in die, seven times a day: how oft then falls he, that hath no claim to righteousness, nor any title but what is derived from his sins? He therefore that is fallen, must pray that he may rise, and Qui stat videat ne cadat, He that yet stands must pray to prevent his fall. For as Saint Augustine, Fusa oratio fidei impetrat firmitatem, Prayer is the base, the pedestal of faith.  
There be many that never serve God but when they need him. Quando bella, 
August. Serm. de verb. Dom.  quando fames &c. tunc putatur inuocandus Deus: and then indeed they will pray earnestly, as jonas his Mariners called vpon their Gods in the storm, but in the calms of prosperity they are tongue-tide, as if then there were no use of God.  
'tis a dangerous opinion for any to think he hath no need of God. And 'tis high time God should grow weary of doing good to that man, who grows weary of serving him. An intermittent pulse is one of the fore-runners of death, and a cessation from Prayer, which is the souls pulse, showing all her sick distempers, wants and grievances, is the argument of a desperat forlorn condition. Therefore the Apostle exhorts us to pray, 
1 Thess. 5.17.  sine intermissione, continually without any stop or intermission. In what state soever thou art, sick or in health, 'tis fit thou pray: dost thou want? why pray that thou mayst be supplied. dost thou abound? yet do not like the horseleech, being full, strait fall off, but pray still; consult thy own breast, and thou wilt find, thou hast as great cause to pray in the dayes of thy prosperity, as of thy misery, if not to implore God for any thing thou hast not, yet to praise and bless his bounty, who gave thee all thou hast. For to give thankes, is to pray, and Gratiarum actio, as well as Postulatio, thanksgiving, as well as Petition, 
Aquinas 2●. 2ae . q. 83. art. 17.  is a Species of Prayer. So Aquinas.  
Therefore I say, as was said to Israel, When thou shalt pass the river, and God shall bring thee into a Land that flows with milk and hony, give thee an exalted full fortune, still empty thy bosom in thanksgiving unto him, and with jacob, remember with what staff thou passed'st over the jordan of thy mean poor estate.  
Lastly, in what condition soever thou art, whether in abundance or in want, 
Qui innocentiam colit Domino supplicat. minute. Foelix.  be sure to offer up unto God the fruits of a clear conversation, and of a good life, for a good life is a wick form of Prayer, as pleasing to God as any thou canst offer; 
Gloss. in 1 Thess. 3. Sine intermissione orate.  Semper orat qui semper benè agit, he that lives well prays still.  
To close all, Pray, and I say again Pray. Let thy vp-rising, and thy down-lying, thy going in, and thy coming out, be hallowed by Prayer: 
Seneca.  Dic dormitanti potes non expergisci, dic experrecto potes non dormire amplius, dic exeunti potes non reuerti, dic redeunti potes non exire: It was a divine meditation of a Philosopher; When thou awakest thou canst not tell whether ever thou shalt sleep again, nor lying down to sleep, whether ever thou shalt wake: therefore pray at thy uprising, and pray at thy downe-lying, 
Ambros. lib. 3. de virg.  Vt te in ipso quietis exordio diuina meditantem somnus inueniat. Nor when thou goest out whither thou shalt return; take therefore Saint Hieroms advice, Egredientes muniat oratio, regredientibus occurrat, When thou goest our, fortify thyself with prayer; and when thou returnest, like the strong man in the gospel, Stand in the door of thy house with thy Prayers.  
Finally, because thou knowest not how soon thy borrowed life will be required back, and thy soul taken from thee, whether in the mid-day of thy age, or in the evening; therefore let thy morning meditation be spent in beseeching God that thou mayst not be taken from thyself in that horror and distraction, when thou art unsettled and unprovided: and again, Quia Dies Domini venturus est sicut fur, 
Gerard. Aphorism. Sacr.  ideo vespertina oratio nos muniat; because the Day of the Lord comes stealing on like a thief in the night( who can tell whether hac nocte, this approaching night) let us all conclude this our evening Sacrifice with humble and hearty prayers unto Almighty God, that at the coming of the bridegroom( which cannot now be far off) we may not be surprised sleeping, but being furnished with oil in our Lamps, our eye-lids waking, wee may enter in with him, that when the last everlasting night of this world shall come, we may in the morning of the next world rise to a life that shall know no end. Amen.  


Mat. 6.9.  Our Father which art in heaven.  
I Haue drawn the curtain; and now the masterpiece of Prayer, wrought and conceived by Christ, begins to discover itself. Of which, before I take a strict view, like men arrived at some curious building, who first examine the situation and model, give me leave a little to fix my contemplation on the outward parts of this fabric, to consider the form of the Prayer, before I open the Matter.  
This is the Psalmists method, who being to discourse of Sion, 
Psal. 47.  and make a spiritual corography and description of the beauty thereof, directs the eye of the beholder first to the walls and battlements, to walk round about the out-works, and to number the turrets thereof. 
Vers. 7.   
A faire and specious front promises a faire inside: and if our pitty or wishes could prevail, there should bee no faire well proportioned body, but should haue as faire a soul to inhabit it, and a disposition suiting the exterior lineaments.  
Orandum est vt sit mens sana in corpore saeno; for 'twere a foul solecism, that the Cabinet should be better then the jewel which is contained within it.  
If Salomon should haue built only a faire Porch, or a beautiful Gate, and a Temple disproportionate to his Porch, he had then drawn mens Religion into their eyes, and made them more zealous to gaze without, then to pray within. But his fabric was better cast; so much ornament, so much cost beautified the inside of his Temple, that the outward Pile served as a bait to attract the peoples devotion, and prepare them by the exterior model sufficiently to prise and admire what was contained within. Happily by describing the Courts, and Gates, and Porch of this rare Building, erected by a greater then Salomon, my discourse may attain that good effect to prepare your piety for the entrance into it.  
The outside of it comprehends enough to exercise your attention, as the landscape of jerusalem contained matter to hold the eyes of those that most curiously looked vpon it. That had many Turrets, This hath seven, raised from those seven Petitions in Christs Prayer. View it in the natural mould whereinto it is now cast, and you will find it like Minerua's Shield composed by Phydias, which consisted of many excellent parts, all which made but one entire Shield, yet taken asunder, each part that belonged to it was a complete work. So consider this Prayer as it now lies all together, the plates, and joints, and several matters, make but one Christian Buckler to ward and avert all necessities that may befall us; yet resolved into parcels, every limb, and Member, and Gradation, is a perfect Buckler to bear off our particular wants.  
It is like that famous Target of ajax, that was Clypeus Septemplex, consisted of seven folds; this is Oratio Septemplex, a prayer consisting of seven requests. That Buckler was Dart-proofe, impenetrable, and this Prayer an impenetrable Shield to resist the fiery darts of Satan. 
Aug. de civit. Dei. l. 21. c. 27.  Oratio quotidiana quam docuit ipse Dominus, vnde& Dominica nominatur, delet quidem quotidiana peccata cum quotidie dicitur. If I would insist vpon the allusion to the number of these Petitions, I might compare this whole Prayer to the constellation of the Pleiades, or seven stars in heaven; 
revel. 1.16.  Or to the seven stars in the right hand of the son of Man, being fit Lights and Tapers for the seven golden Candlesticks there mentioned, 
Vers. 12.  to be set up in those seven Churches, 
Vers. 11.  and not in them alone, but in all the Churches of the world, where Christs name is known and adored.  
Or I may liken the parts of this Prayer to the seven Planets, eminent above all other stars of the Firmament. For as some of those Planets move nearer to the earth, others higher and farther off, so is the motion of these seven Petitions; some of them move and solicit God for Earthly things, as the four last of them; others for heavenly and eternal, as the three first, Hallowed be thy Name, and thy kingdom come, 
August. Hor. 43  &c. Saint Augustine hath taken their just Height and Motion, trees petitiones superiores aeternae sunt, quatuor sequentes ad hanc vitam pertinent.  
I purpose not to enlarge my Discourse by commending the perfection and dignity of the seventh number, which some gather out of Naamans command, to wash seven times in jordan: 
Lyra in 3. Reg. 18.  or as Lyra vpon that place, revertere septem vicibus, when Elias bade his seruant go seven times and look towards the Sea, after which he discovers a cloud of rain. So saith Lyra, Post septem Christi mysteria, after the seven Mysteries of our saviour, viz. His Conception, Birth, baptism, Preaching, Passion, Resurrection, Ascension; Descendit abundanter pluuia gratiae, &c. abundant showers of grace fell vpon the earth.  
I know every seventh year is reputed a Climactericke; and seven yeeres the rate of a mans life; and seven daies the account of our weekes; and seven Petitions the number of Christs Prayer.  
But 'tis not my task to consider this Prayer by Number but by Weight. God regards not how many prayers men string with their Beads, but with what devotion they sand them up; nor doth he keep a Score or Tally of our Petitions, though he bottle up and number each religious tear  shed in the vehement imploring of his Grace. The Excellence, not the arithmetic of this Prayer, is my object, which Hugo Cardinalis commends unto us in three observations; In Dignitate, 
In Mat. 6.  Breuitate, Foecunditate, the Dignity, brevity, and fullness.  
For the Dignity, Christ was the Author of it, Qui fecit vivere docuit orare. 
Dignitas. Cyprian. de Orat.  And if he were the Author, of whom God said, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear him; it must needs follow, that for his sake this Prayer is more audible in the ears of God, and more acceptable than any we can make, 
Cyprian. ibid.  Dum prece& oratione quam Christus docuit ad Patrem loquimur facilius exaudimur.  
For the Briefenesse of it, Saint Cyprian saith, this is that verbum breuians, 
Breuitas.  short compendious Oration promised in Esay to the world, 
Esa. 10.23.  Quoniam sermonem breuiatum faciet Deus in toto orb terrae. The reason why it was comprised in so few words are severally alleged by the Fathers: one is, that it might be more portable in our memories, 
Cyprian.  vt in doctrina coelesti discentium memoria non laboraret, that so it might bee sooner learned and oftener repeated, that he who daily uses it might not think it tedious, and he who knows it not might want all excuse for his ignorance of it. Therefore Saint Augustine gives a strict charge that young children should first of all learn this Prayer, 
Aug. Ser. 213. de Tempore.  being no burden at all to their memory or capacity. The last reason for its shortness, is to show us, the most wordy voluminous Prayers are not ever the best, 
Alex. Hales. Part. 4.  or soonest heard by God Alexander Hales sums up all the commodities of it thus shortened together; Ob illius breuitatem facilius scitur, melius retinetur, frequentius iteratur, minus fastidit orantem, cito exaudiri innuit, plus affectu quam ore orandum esse insinuat, ignorantem incusat.  
The last Argument of this Prayers excellency, is the fullness and weight of it. 
Facunditas.  In few words it inuolues most copious matter, and though very brief, yet it is of an ample sense. 
tertul. de orat.  Quantum substringitur verbis tantum diffunditur sensibus: The sense of it is as large as the Body is little. 
Garran. in Matth. 6.  Continet omne petibile& expetibile: It is the sum of all we can request at Gods hands; that is, of all which we can justly and piously request. Sometimes we desire of God what is unfit for him to grant, or us to receive: therefore saith Saint Augustine, Si rectè& congruenter oramus, nihil aliud petere possumus quam quod in oratione Dominica positum est: It consists of seven Petitions( saith Biel) Et septem numerus est vniuersitatis: 
Biel Lect. 64. in Miss.  seven is a number that includes the universe of goodness: Vniuersa quae à Domino licitè desiderari possunt& postulari his petitionibus continentur: And this is the Exception which the Brownists take against it, because 'tis so ample. Saint Augustine makes a particular demonstration of it. If you run thorough all the prayers of good men and Prophets set down in the Scripture, all the several Petitions in the psalms, You shall find( saith he) none of them but may be reduced to these seven Petitions, as the Common places of all Prayer: 
John 12.28.  when Christ says, Pater clarifica nomen tuum; what is it else but Hallowed be thy name? 
Psal. 80.19.  When the Psalmist cries, ostend nobis faciem; show us the light of thy countenance; what is it but Thy kingdom come? When he says again, 
Psal. 17.5.  diring gressus meos, &c. Direct my steps in thy paths, that my feet do not slide; what is this but Fiat voluntas, Thy will be done? again, when Salomon prays unto God, 
Prou. 30.8.  give me not poverty nor riches; what is it but give us our daily bread? When the Psalmist says, 
Psal. 7.4.  Si reddidi retribuentibus mihi mala, &c. If I haue repaid evil for evil unto any; what is this, but forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive others? When it is said, 
Eccles. 23.5.  Aufer à me concupiscentias ventris; Take from me concupiscence; is it not as much as led us not into temptation? Lastly, 
Psal. 144.11.  when the Psalmist cries, Erue me ab inimicis; deliver me from mine enemies: is it not as much in effect, as Libera nos à malo; deliver us from evil?  
You see the large capacity of this Prayer, how that it comprehends the subject of all other prayers; and not them only, but even all Christian discipline, as Tertullian writes: 
tertul lib. de orat.  for which cause he stiles it Breuiarium totius Junii; the Abridgement of the whole gospel. Such plentiful Riuers stream from this Seuen-headed fountain. So that as septem-flua flumina Nili; the seven arms of Nilus watered and made fertile all egypt; so doth this Prayer, springing from seven Petitions, which are Deprecatiuae, 
Alex. Hales part. 4.  or Optatiuae, water the whole Christian world, preventing and deprecating all mishaps, and supplying our wants.  
So that in this short Prayer, as in a little orb, the son of righteousness moves: from hence doth every star, every faithful seruant and Confessor of Christ( for they are Incarnate stars) 
Nazianzen.  borrow a ray of light to illuminate and sanctify the body of his meditations. The Church in her liturgy, and the Preacher both enioyn'd to use it. A small quantity of this leaven seasons a great lump of devotion, and a few spirits give taste& quickness to much liquour. This Prayer is a Quintessence extracted by the greatest chemist that ever was, from Him that brought Nature out of Chaos, Separated Light from darkness, and extracted the four Elements out of Nothing. 
Cyprian. de orat.  All parts of it are spirits. Quae enim spiritualior oratio? And the mixture of a few grains therof with our prayers, proves the strongest and best Christian Antidote. Oremus itaque sicut Deus nos docuit( 'tis Cyprians inference) Let us gladly use that form of Prayer which Christ our Lord hath taught us, and give unto God what the son of God gave unto vs. 
Cyprian. ibid.  Amica& familiaris est oratio Deum de suo rogare, ad aures eius descendere Christi orationem: It is a familiar and friendly tribute to present God with his own; A petition clothed in Christs words, will find the ready way to heaven, and a speedy access into the ears of God. 

Agnoscit Pater Filii sui verba cum precem facimus.  
Cyprian. ib.   And when the Father acknowledges his sons words in our Prayers, he will aclowledge and ratify that promise, which through him he made unto us, that whatsoever we should ask him in his sons name should not be denied.  
Thus haue I at full surveyed the form or Outside of Christs Prayer. 
The division and general Cast of the whole Prayer.  I am now come to the Matter, to enter the inward rooms, into which my Text is the door that leads me; serving as a Prologue or a frontispiece to the whole Prayer; which is divided into three general Parts. Into an Exordium; Our Father which art in heaven, 
Petr. de Aliaco. Vid. Biel. sect. 64. in Miss.  &c. Tractatum, a Tract, which is the seven Petitions. Conclusionem, a Conclusion, a Ratification of the Prayer, Amen.  
Or if you please, I will call this whole Prayer of our saviours, a Letter consisting of four parts or compliments.  
An Endorsement or Superscription directing it to the party, viz. God, Our Father: and to the place, heaven, which art in heaven.  
The Contents following in the several Petitions, from Hallowed be thy name, &c. to deliver us from evil.  
A Subscription or Vnder-writing found in the latter part of the thirteenth verse, and immediately following the last Petition whereunto it is joined, For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever.  
The seal that closes up all, Amen.  

division of the Text.  My Text is the Endorsement, the Superscription, or it is the Exordium of the Prayer, wherein as Rhetoricians use first of all, Captare beneuolentiam, to implore the Attention and benevolence of their Auditors: so do we from hence beg Gods attention and inclination to our requests by a double Insinuation.  
First of his goodness, in that we style him Father.  
Secondly of his Power, in that wee aclowledge him the Lord of heaven, Qui es in Coelis.  
Both which circumstances conduce to his Praise and Honour( saith S. Ambrose 
Ambros. ) Laus Dei patet quia praedicatur in eo pietatis gloria. Laus Dei quia in Coelis habitat non in Terris.  

Lect. 64. in Miss.  Gabr. Biel divides this Exordium more punctually into four parts, for so many ways herein do we conciliare gratiam, win vpon Gods favour.  
A dilectionis magnitudine quia dicitur Pater; From the greatness of his love to us when we call him Father.  
A liberali bonitatis diffusione, From the liberal communication of his goodness to us, in that we say Our Father.  
Ab immutabili perpetuitate, from the immutability of his Essence, intimated in these words, Qui es, Which art.  
A sublimitate potentiae, from the high domination and power he hath over us when we say, In Coelis, Which art in heaven.  
'tis most requisite, when we speak to God, we should use a decent Method, an orderly proceeding, since he is the God of Order. 'twere a rude presumption for any to sue unto him in that fashion which they would not use unto men, if their superiors. When we make any request unto them, we hold it manners to prefix some modest introduction before the svit,; wee do not bluntly discover it at first. Dic mihi si velis hominem rogare& sic incipias, Da mihi quod peto, nonne arrogance videtur oratio? If thou begin a Petition with this homely phrase, and in this peremptory manner, give me what I require, can it avoid the censure of rudeness? as if thou cam'st to command, not entreat, and to challenge or lay a claim to a favour, not to sue for it: and canst thou hold it fit to petition Almighty God without some preface, as well to confess his power, as to declare thine own modesty?  
humbleness becomes the person of a suitour; Molestum verbum est onerosum& demisso vultu dicendum Rogo: To beseech, is a term that confounds an ingenuous man, deiects and casts down his sookes, as ashamed that his eye should follow the svit which his tongue prefers. Which bashful recognition of his wants finds an easy way to pity; whereas he that begs in arrogant terms or impudent behaviour, shuts up the hand of bounty, and destroys the good intention of the giver. 
Luke 18.14.  The dejected Publican in the gospel stood fairer and better justified in our saviours estimation, than the Pharisee insolently bragging of his worth.  
You shall find in the Scripture, that Prophets and holy men, whensoever they spake or prayed unto God, used some Preface to prepare his ear, and to make way for their words. When Abraham besought God concerning sodom, he begins, 
Gen. 18.  Let not my Lord be angry if I speak that am but dust and ashes. And Moses pleading for the people, begins, Si gratiam inveni in conspectu tuo; If I haue found favour in thy sight. 
Exodus 34.  And when david prays unto God to forget the sins of his youth, 
Psal. 25.  he makes a commemoration of the goodness and mercy of God; Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies, 
Vers. 6,  &c. even for thy goodness sake. 
Vers. 7.  It gives life and hope to our Petitions, when before wee ask we urge God with the precedents of his own goodness. This kind of acknowledgement is Ad plus dandum inuitatio; a fit preparing of his favour: and we invite him to grant again, when we revive what already he hath done. Good cause then had our saviour to lay the ground of our Petitions on Gods fatherly care and love to us, by bidding us cry Our Father. That as Orators, before they pled, use some Exordium or Preface to make the judge favourable to their causes; so we, being to speak unto the judge of heaven and Earth, might by this beginning make him propitious to our Prayers.  
Whereby let me note unto you, forms of Oratory and rhetoric are allowed in our Deuotions; 
Caluin.  Eloquentiam non pugnare cum simplicitate religionis. Nor doth Christ dislike an elegant Prayer.  
And let me tell those men who haue such an unlearned conceit of Gods service, that they think it a trespass of high nature to stain their Discourses with a latin sentence, or authority of Fathers quoted in their own Dialect, or that make it a nice case of Conscience to present God with a set studied Prayer, or any other form of speech than Quod in buccam venerit, what comes into their heads whilst they are speaking, when the tongue strives with the invention for precedence, or at least both go together; that if they please they may be more elaborate, take more pains and time for what they speak then an extemporary minute, or an instant, unless they find it more for their ease to keep unto that natural vain of theirs, vnstudied or vnlaboured, and hold it a better protection and excuse for those that know little to condemn Learning, and all that know more then themselves.  
I confess that Pia rusticitas, 
Hieron. Ep. ad Tranquillin.  devotion clothed in the rudest phrase that can be, is to be preferred before eloquent hypocrisy, and an holy Ignorance is better then learned irreligion. I would aduise all men to use more Religion than rhetoric in their Prayers; yet none can deny, but that an eloquent Meditation, so it be not affencted, 
Gloss.  and so it do not Exercendae linguae magis operam dare quam menti mundandae, is acceptable both to God and Men.  
View the Scripture, the Dictate and work of the Holy Ghost; you shall find that, for the elegance of the phrase and weight of the words, it passes all the weak shallow Oratory of Mans tongue. Therefore Saint Augustine calls it, 
confess. l. 7. c. 21.  Venerabilem Spiritus Sancti stilum, the venerable style of the Holy Ghost. And in the gospel the Iewes acknowledged our saviour for the best Rhetorician that ever was, 
job. 3.46.  He spake as never man spake. The practic perfection of which Eloquence he hath declared in nothing more then in this Prayer, which in a narrow compass comprehends the sum of all Oratory; brevity, and Elegance, and Perspicuity.  
Pater Noster. It may be asked who is here meant by Pater, 
Our Father. Biel. Lect. 64. in Niss.  whether the word be taken Notionaliter, and Personaliter, for God the Father, the first Person in the Trinity; or Essentialiter, essentially, as it is referred unto the creature made and conserved by God, in which sense it appertains to the whole Trinity, 
Biel. Loc. Cit.  Tota enim Trinitas, Pater, Filius, Spiritus Sanctus, vnus Pater est,& singula persona Pater est, sicut singula Deus; for the whole Trinity is one Father as one God. It is resolved by all, that when wee say Our Father, we mean and pray unto the Trinity, and that by good right.  
In the beginning, it was the Trinity which fathered all mankind, Faciamus hominem, which original title of son to that Father, Man might still haue preserved, had he not by his wilful disobedience made a forfeiture of it. For though God had settled an estate vpon Adam, it was not so firmly entailed, but that it might bee, and was quickly cut off. His sin did dis-inherit him, and us in him, dispossessed him of the Garden, his first Mansion and Patrimony, and deuested him of the title of a son: For he was then no more filius Dei, the son of God, but servus peccati, sins bondslave; Nay( saith Saint Augustine) Pater noster ante gratiam Christi Diabolus erat; 
Serm. 151. de Tempore.  before the devill onely had title to him, and in that bondage was he concluded till that time; by whose mediation God was reconciled to Man, and the lost son acknowledged by the right Father. I am non servus est said filius, 
Gal. 4 7.  quod si filius& haeres. So that Christ having now by Grace restored to Man what originally he lost, repurchased the title of son, by Adoption; since that we took from Creation was extinct, he held it meetest, that as God now took us for his children, wee should also in our Prayers claim him for Our Father. 
Rom. 8.15.  Since we had received Spiritum adoptionis filiorum Dei, the Spirit of Adoption should cry Abba Father. So beginning where Adam left, and directing our supplications to that Father which first made us the Blessed Trinity.  
Which though it be here meant, yet is not the essential name, as Deus, or Dominus, 
Ierem. 3.19.  God, or Lord, used; but a personal Father, Voca me Patrem( as 'tis in the Prophet) Call me not Lord, but Father.  
Saint Chrysostome 
Chrysostome.  gives the reason, God( saith he) would be called Father, and not Lord, that he might give us more confidence of obtaining what we sue for. Seruants do not always find an easiness in their Lords to grant what they ask, but sons presume it. 
Bernard.  Therefore, Oratio quae paterno dulcescit nomine omnium petitionum impetrandarum fiduciam mihi praestat. A Prayer that is sweetened with the Name of Father, how much comfort doth it beget in the heart of him that pronounces it? Can a woman forget her child? Yea, though she forget to be kind, to be natural, yet will not I forget to be merciful, saith our heavenly Father.  
Hence Saint Augustine fitly notes the privilege which the Christian hath above the jew. Nunquam invenitur praeceptum populo Israelitico vt dicerent Pater noster, said est iis infinuatus Dominus, tanquàm servis; You never find that the old Israelites were allowed to call God Our Father; no, as Seruants still they styled him Lord; but unto us Christians, he hath afforded this grace through his beloved son, to say unto him, Our Father, Dedit potestatem filios Deifieri his qui credunt.  
This Prayer then is the Prayer of Sons, 
joh. 1.  fit onely for their mouths who aclowledge God for their Father, 
Mat. 15.26.  it is the Bread of Children; Non catulis proijciendus, not lawful to bee taken into the mouths of any that are not Children. But yet say it be; admit that men of profane lips and perverse life, that hate to bee reformed take these words into their mouths; say Esau, the father of the Reprobate, spake in the language of jacob, and cry, Our Father, how is this Sacrifice accepted by God, when it is offered up from such unhallowed Altars? Doth he answer to that call of Father? or stands it with his honour to account them Sons? Either it must follow that they say false in saying Our Father, and saying false, 
Prou. 13.  sin in saying the Lords Prayer( for verbum mendax justus detestabitur) or that God must father children which are none of his, but such to whom he says, Vos ex Patre Diabolo estis. The doubt seems subtle, but easily answered by acute Alexander Hales. 
Part 4. pag. 165.  A wicked man may say this Prayer and not sin, or lie, so he say it not Indicatiuè, but Optatiuè, not Implying but Wishing that God would be so gracious as to be his Father, which wish is lawful. again, 
Idem.  this Prayer is Oratio communis, a common universal Prayer, Et dicenda in Persona Ecclesiae quae multos habet filios, said in the behalf of the whole Church of Christ, which hath many sons; therefore though Atheists or Reprobates cry Our Father; they include not themselves, but only speak the language of the Church, which reaps what they sow; for their own lips must not taste the fruit and effect of this sweet vintage, as having no part in God, nor in the Church. So that unto such men this Prayer is like weapons, which cowards or vnskilfull men wear, to arm others, not to defend themselves. Though they use the words and syllables of Christ, they want the Spirit that animates the words, and though they haue the Sword of Prayer, they want the arm of Faith to wield it. Like as the Epyrots  told the Turks( when they vaunted they had won the sword of that victorious Prince of Epyre, George Castriot) though you haue the sword of scanderbag, yet you haue not his arm.  
I need not set any mark of difference to distinguish those false spurious children from the true. The next word Noster 
Noster.  ( Our) shuts out them from the Church, and separates them from the number of Gods elect children, who can only, and may justly call him. Our Father. 
Our Father.   
Meum and Tuum, these words, Mine, and Thine, haue been the seeds of envy and Contention ever since the world was habitable. From these little grains hath the laws large harvest grown up. These were they which at first invented, and ever since exercised our terms: The common Barritors, causes of all rents and schisms in in the Common-wealths body: These haue blown the coals of strife, occasioned brothers to go to law with brothers, nay brothers to destroy one another. If Abel should haue asked Cain vpon what quarrel he killed him, he could haue stated his countrouersie in no other terms but Meum and Tuum, Thy sacrifice is better accepted than Mine: These haue been the accur'st remouers of neighbours bounds, and landmarks, haue entitled the vigilant Oppressor to anothers patrimony: These were the bloody Depositions that cost Naboth his life; had he relinquished his right to the vineyard, and not called it Mine( I will not give thee my vineyard) he had preserved a friend of jesabel, 
1 King. 21.6.  and a life too. These two little Monosyllables, Mine and Thine, they are the great Monopolists that span the wide world; that, like Abraham and Lot, divide the land betwixt them, yet cannot agree, but are ever wrangling and quarreling about their shares; like those two factious brethren, Aetrocles and Polymises, who never could be reconciled, living nor dead; for when they had slain one the other, and were put in one hearse, one funeral pile, their Ashes fought,& the flames that burnt the bodies as sensible of the mortal feud which was betwixt them living, divided themselves. How many actions and suits begun vpon these terms Mine and Thine, haue survived those that commenced them first, and descended from the great Grandfather, to the heir in the fourth generation?  
Since then these two had occasioned so much strife, so much mischief in the politic Body, Christ would not haue them admitted to make any faction or rent in the mystical Body of the Church. But as he was the Reconciler of God and Man by his blood; so would he show himself the Reconciler of Man and Man, shutting up all opposition of Mine and Thine in this one word, as the common Peace-maker, Noster, Our Father.  
'tis atheism for any to say Pater Tuus, God is Thy Father, and not Mine. 'tis presumption for any to say, Pater Meus, to call God My Father: 
Gloss.  Nemo dicat meus, quod soli Christo evenit. Patrem dicis quasi Filius said noli tibi aliquid specialiter vindicare: 'tis Saint Ambrose 
Ambros.  his caveat. Christ alone can call God My Father, for God is his Father by Nature, ours onely by Grace. unto Christ he is Pater specialis, 
Idem. Vid. Biel.  to us Pater communis, not in special, but common; Haue we not all one Father? 
Malach. 2.10.  'tis meetest then we should say in one voice, Pater noster, Our Father.  
In teaching us to say thus, Christ taught us also a two-fold Lesson.  
First of brotherly charity; we must not only( as Saint John saith) love one another, 
1 John 4.7. {αβγδ}. Chrysostom.  but Pray one for another; brother for brother, neighbour for neighbour, the Priest for the Congregation, and the Congregation again for the Priest. Thus doth the practise of our Church instruct us in the liturgy, Dominus vobiscum, The Lord be with you. There the Priest prays for the people; and the people again pray for the Priest, when they answer, 
Prou. 18.19.  And with thy spirit; Frater qui adiuuatur à fratre quasi civitas firma; When brethren thus unite their forces and prayers, they are so fortified that the power of Hell cannot make them disband. If we are commanded to do good unto all men, it follows, à maiori ad minus, that at least we must pray for all men. A good wish is better cheap than a good work, nor will they afford a real benefit to their brethren, that will not pray for them: he that thinks himself born only for himself, contracts and straightens the freedom of his being. The most noble and Christian resolution therefore is, for a man to study his brothers good as well as his own, Nec sibi said toto natum se credere mundo.  
Secondly, a lesson of humility. When he hath thus combined the race of men together in one fraternity, given the lowest and meanest as good right to call him Father, 
{αβγδ}; Chrysostom.  as the highest and best amongst us: he would not haue any to prise themselves so much, as to scorn and dis-value all below them. God is a God of the valleys, as well as the hills, nor is he a Father of the rich and noble, but of the poor too: Be their qualities and degrees never so different in the account of the world, summed up in the account of this Prayer, they are all even. As but one sacrifice was appointed for the rich and poor; 
Exod. 30.15.  so Christ hath appointed but one Prayer, but one appellation for them all, 
August. Hom. 42.  Pater Noster, Our Father. Hoc dicit Imperator, hoc dicit Mendicus, hoc dicit servus, hoc dicit Dominus: The King and the beggar, the Lord and the slave, all concur and say, Our Father.  
God is no partial Father, nor is his ear partial, he hears and accepts the one as soon as the other. For our Prayers do not ascend in their ranks, nor doth the poor mans Petition stay to let the great ones go before; but when we pray, God comprehends us all under one common Notion of sons and suitors; 
August. ib.  Intelligant ergo se esse fratres quando vnum habent Patrem; From hence let them learn this equal lesson, not to disdain any, 
{αβγδ}. Chrysost.  though the meanest, for their brethren, who haue God for their Father, as well as themselves.  
I haue held you too long vpon these first words Our Father, indeed beyond a Pater noster while. But I shall quickly dismiss you, for my speech is now arrived at the end and period of our Prayers journey, heaven. Which art in heaven.  
Thither it now bends; but being in the ascent and rising up to it, give me leave a little to breath by the way, to rest a minute vpon the contemplation of Gods Essence, intimated in these words Qui es. To be, 
Which art.  is predicated of none so properly as of God, Exod. 3.14. 
Exod. 3.14.  he takes an attribute, denominates himself from his Being: {αβγδ}, Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. again, our saviour says, Ante Abraham, Ego sum, Before Abraham was, 
John 8.58.  I am.  
Lastly, Saint John characterises him by his Essence, 
Apoc. 1.4.  {αβγδ}, Grace be unto you from him that Is, that Was, and that Is to come. He is indeed Ens Entium, Ens primum, and Ens simplicissimum, The first, purest, most independent Essence. The world, and the creatures in it, and we ourselves, are but Deriuations from that primitive Being: In him we live, and move, and haue our Being.  
As he is the most absolute, so the most immutable Essence. 
Gabr. Biel.  Qui es signifies Immutabilem subsistentiam. The circumstances of Time measure not, nor alter Him, as neither feeling the accessions multiplied, nor the waning and decrease of Times.  

Idem.  In Deo non est praeteritio nec futuritio, said nunc aeternitatis semper stans; say the schools. Things past and future, are eternally present with him, whose Title and Motto is, 
Exod. 3.14.  I am that I am, or as the Chaldee Paraphrast renders it, 
Chald. Paraphr.  I will be what I will be: Yesterday and to day the same for evermore. 
Heb. 13.8.   
In a word, he is that Immense Being, in whom those three vast transcendents, vnum, verum& bonum; unity, verity and goodness knit and meet together and make their abode. He is Maximè vnus, because most invariable; Most True, because most absolute and independent; Most Good, because the Author of all Good, nay, goodness itself in the Abstract.  
So long therefore as wee conform ourselves to his Will retaining our goodness, so long we preserve our Being, it may bee said we are; but when we once leave off that, we leave to Be: we are only priuations, or what is worse, Beasts and no Men. Non impune mali sumus, 
Lombard. lib. 1. Sent. Distinct. 1.  & in quantum mali sumus in tantum minus sumus. There is no true existence but virtue, a good man is a Copy& Image of God, God is ever near unto him, he ever near unto God; near to Beatitude, near to heaven, nay he is heaven. 
Ambros. lib. 3. de Sacram.  Caelum est ibi ubi culpa cessauit; wheresoever sin is not, there is heaven. If a sinner be called Earth, as in Genesis 3. 
Vide Hales part. 4.  Terra es& in terram reverteris; God tells Adam after he had sinned, Thou art earth: certainly, a just man by as good right may be termed heaven. His Conscience is a Firmament, 
Aristot. de Caelo.  Simplicissima, solida, pellucida( as Aristotle defines heaven) clear, and serene, and solid, not to be shaken or daunted. This is it, which whilst he lives here, makes him shine clear in report and the esteem of the world, and hereafter will cause him to shine more brightly in the kingdom of Glory. justi fulgebunt sicut Sol. 
Mat. 13.43.   

In heaven.  Thus you may perceive this short stay hath not hindered or disaduantaged our proceeding a whit, but rather set us forward and brought us a nearer, though a lower way to heaven, since we haue here discovered an heaven vpon Earth.  

Alex. Hales part. 4. de Miss. part. 2. p. 165.  For heaven is not always taken materially for the place where the Saints abide, but spiritually for Angels and Saints, or for good Men. So Saint Augustine interprets this place; Pater noster qui es in Coelis( id est) in Sanctis& justis.  
But why Coelis in the plural number? Is it onely an hebraism? or to give us an occasion to dispute whether there bee more Heauens than one? Whether heaven be divided into several Classes, and rooms, and stories, and degrees, because the Psalmist mentions the heaven of Heauens? 
Psal. 68.33.  And in the gospel we red, 
Luk. 2.14.  Glory in the highest Heauens? Whether there be three Heauens onely, because Saint Paul was rap't to the Third? or whether so many as Philosophy supposes, Ten?  
Or is it said, Qui es in Coelis, to limit God and tie him to a place, as if he were only in heaven, not in Earth? as Aristotle thought, Qui putat Deum suis contentum esse finibus; 
Ambros. office. lib. 1. cap. 13.  as if he did not fill both heaven and Earth with his presence; 
Ierem. 23.  Coelum& Terram ego impleo; or as if he were not in all places, and at all times, in this place, at this present, in this assembly, in us, as one hath it, Est Deus in nobis, &c.  
For none of these reasons was this circumstance In heaven put here; neither to egg our curiosity to dispute of heaven, nor to restrain or confine God, who is All in all and above all, as Saint Gregory 
Gregory.  excellently, Deus est inter omnia, non tamen inclusus; Extra omnia, non exclusus; infra omnia, non depressus; supper omnia, non elatus. The true reason why he is said to be In heaven, 
Caietan. in Mat. 6.  is, Vt eleuetur animus; to lift up our hearts, and our hands, and our eyes, and our contemplations unto the Lord. Saint Chrysostome 
Chrysostome.  more fully, {αβγδ}. When Christ bid us say, Our Father which art in heaven, he did it that he might remove our thoughts from the Earth, and fix them on heaven and the things above.  
Whither since I haue at last conducted your Meditations, there will I leave them. Now they are placed at that pitch, there let them rest; I will not by any farther discourse call them down, or settle them lower. I haue discharged the full scope and purpose of my Text, which was onely to direct your Prayers to the right Place, heaven; and to the right object, God our Father.  
I know, our aduersaries, the Papists, set their Disciples a lower course, directing their Deuotions to Compostella or Loretto, or the Shrines of Saints, or the Sepulchre at jerusalem, but these are no objects for our Religion or piety. heaven must be the receptacle of our Prayers. Shall wee seek to Christ amongst the Graues or tombs of the dead? The angel long since answered them, Resurrexit, non est hîc; 
Mat. 28.6.  he is not there, he is risen. And if we ever hope to find him, our prayers must rise after him; go up unto that place whither he is ascended, heaven.  
again, though their Prayers go to the right Place, yet they are not delivered according to Christs direction, unto the right Owner, Our Father, but unto Saints and Angels; they calling them Father that are but brethren and fellow-servants, as the angel  told Saint John, being about to worship him, 
revel. 19.10.  See thou do it not, I am thy fellow-servant and one of thy brethren which haue the testimony of Iesus; worship God. Nay, I would to God it were not true that they prayed unto stocks and Images, saying unto the work of the carver and the Crucifix, Thou art my Father.  
But howsoever they thus grossly will mistake their way and mis-place their prayers, and if not disclaim the true Father, yet join other Step-fathers unto him; let us go unto the right Father, and to him alone, sending our Prayers as Christ hath directed them, not leaving them by the way, or delivering them to the hand of any officious busy Saint that would intercept them; that we give not him cause to complain of us, 
Esay 1.  as he did of Israel, Filios genui qui me non agnouerunt; I haue children that will not aclowledge me.  
Happy is that people whose God is the Lord( saith david) but much happier that people whose Father is the Lord; 
Tertul. de Orat.  and Foelices qui Patrem agnoscunt( 'tis the step unto which Tertullian aduances the Emphasis) happy are they that aclowledge God for their Father, that at the last day he may own and aclowledge them for his sons; Come ye blessed Children, &c.   

Hallowed be thy Name.  
our meditations haue now raised themselves unto the first step of this sevenfold scale of Prayer. From whence we haue the advantage to take a fuller view of the whole body thereof, and to consider the order of the Petitions, as well as their several matters. So that the more wee contemplate this Theme, the more must we admire the perfection of the Lesson, and the singular method of the Teacher. 'twas not enough that he instructed us what to pray, prescribing universal remedies for our necessities out of this precious Saluatory, but he must show us also where to begin the cure. 'twas not enough for him to levy this mass of devotion, to haue mustered and drawn together the object of all Petitions into these seven Battalions, but as he is our captain and Leader, 
Psal. 60.10.  so he will go out with our Armies. He will teach our hands to war, 
Psal. 144.1.  and our fingers to fight. He will direct us in this spiritual warfare, wherein wee assail our heavenly Father and offer a devout violence to his kingdom; How these Christian forces, these troops of Prayer must be ranged, which Battalion must advance first, and begin the fight.  
This Petition stands in the head of the Troope, being brought up before the others, to aclowledge the power of that Name which could give success to all we sought for in the rest of them. Constantine wore that victorious Motto in his Banner, In hôc vinces. 
Euseb. de vita Constant. l. 1. c. 22.  Well may I writ vpon the front of this Petition, Hoc nomine vinces; by this Name shalt thou obtain the victory. It was the Motto of the most successful warrior that ever lead the host of Israel, In nomine tuo conculcabo; 
Psal. 44.  In thy Name I will tread them down that rise up against me. Since then our aim is to tread down our necessities, which would else depress and keep us down; since wee are to fight against our spiritual enemies, temptations, and the evils which this life exposes us to, it was most fit wee should begin with that Sacred Name which is the beginning of all good to us, and puts an end to all our miseries: Hallowed be thy Name.  
This way of proceeding is just and natural; for whereas Aquinas saith, 
Thom. Aquin. 2a. 2ae. q. 83.  Oratio est desiderii nostri interpres; Prayer is the Interpreter of our desire; 
Gabr. Biel Lect. 66. in Miss.  Biel in that observes the order of these Petitions holds the same course our desires do. Now our intent and desire first begins with the end, In desiderio primo cadit finis: God and his glory is the end of all Christian service, Per quem& ad quem omnia ordinantur. All motion, all operation takes beginning from Him, and by return terminates in Him. For this cause then do our Petitions, which contain Omnia bona praesentis& futurae vitae, 
Gloss.  the blessings of earth, and the blessings of heaven, blessings temporal,& blessings eternal, first exercise themselves vpon what conduceth to Gods glory, before what concerns our own profit, beginning with heaven and things concerning our future life in the Three foremost requests of this Prayer, and then descending to Earth, and what appertains to the present life in the four last.  
Biel terms this Petition Actum Charitatis, 
Caictan. Mat. 6.  an act of love. Rectus autem charitatis ordo est, vt primùm petamus quae appetimus Deo,& deinde quae appetimus nobis. This is a well regulated love, that empties and powers out itself into Gods honour, who is the Fount of love( as Saint John says) For God is love; wherein you may see the difference betwixt the love of the world and the love of God. By the Worlds maxim, our love should begin at home with ourselves, but by Christs more authentic rule it must begin with God; first serve Him before our own turns. God requires the first-lings of our love, as well as of our Fruits; 
1 joh. 4.19.  and as Saint John tells us, He loved us first, so must wee love him before and above ourselves. Our saviour, jealous of this precedence in our affection, asks Peter, 
joh. 21.15.  lovest thou me more than these? Intima●ing, by the manner of the question, how high a trespass it was to prefer any temporal respect before Him. But in the gospel of Saint Matthew he makes a more open declaration of himself in this point, He that loveth Father or Mother, 
Mat. 10 37.  son or Daughter, or any thing more than me, is not worthy of me.  
From whence let us collect thus much, that all private respects must wait on God and his service; wee must not intend our own honour above Gods. He that strives to consecrate his own name before Gods, takes a course to raze himself and his name out of all memory; but Him that honours me, I will honour, saith God. 
{αβγδ}. Chrysostome.  We must not study our own profit more than Gods glory; or like those that Christ said, followed him not for his Doctrine, but for the bread he gave them, place that Petition, Panem nostrum, &c. give us our daily bread, before Hallowed be thy Name, and the two that follow it.  
For he that is the Bread of Life, Christ Iesus, hath in the Method of this Prayer controlled such disorder in our desires, hath taught us that Non in solo pane, wee must not live onely by Bread, but by Faith in his Name, and hope of his kingdom; and that Fiat voluntas tua, To do the Will of God should bee our meat and drink, as Christ says it was his.  
'tis not abundance of worldly blessings which should take up our meditations or desires, but the aduancement of his glorious Name, who hath created those Mines and veins of treasure in the Earth. Salomon as'kt not at Gods hand Wealth but wisdom, nor did he covenant with him for gold and silver when he dedicated the Temple, but that whensoever he or his people should worship and invocate his Name in that Place, he would be gracious and propitious to them. And He that was a greater than Salomon, taught us in his gospel, 
Mat. 6.33.  first to seek God, to seek the kingdom of heaven and the righteousness thereof; and then all other temporal things should bee abundantly conferred on vs.  
Therefore here we do not pray in the first place for our own advantage, but Gods; not studious of our profit, but zealous for his glory. Non nobis Domine, non nobis, said Nomini tuo da Gloriam; Not give unto us, but to thy Name give the Glory. Sanctificetur nomen tuum; Hallowed bee thy Name.  
The parts I propose exceed not the number of the Words. 
divis.   
First, I shall speak of Nomen, Names in general, Mens Names.  
Secondly, Nomen Tuum, The Name of God.  
Thirdly, Sanctificetur, How his Name is Hallowed: which to express and set off more perfectly, I shal shadow my discourse with some dark and contrary colours; showing also, In quibus non sanctificatur, By what this sacred Name is profaned.  
The use of Names from the beginning, was distinction, 
Nomen. Of Names in general, and their first institution.  to separate creature from creature, by their several appellations. The names of the creatures are special stiles to distinguish their species, which they bear since Adams time, who had that favour permitted him by God to be the God-father to his works; 
Gen. 2.19, 20.  for he brought the Beasts and the Fowles unto him, and he gave Names to them; which yet( for ought we know) continue unaltered.  
Yet are those Names the badges of our ignorance, not imposed from a knowledge of their internal being, or to discern their Natures, but like other common marks, shape and colour, to discern them from one another. For not that three of Porphyry, nor logic, nor Philosophy, not Aristotle himself, nor he that pretended to haue trauail'd further into the Story of all creatures, than men of common faith dare beleeue, Pliny, could ever assign the essential difference of any creature. So that we must content ourselves with a wide speculation, and since we can discover no better evidences, by which to know them, hold it sufficient to distinguish an Horse from a Cow by Hinnibilis, and an ass from a Lion by his Braying.  
The Names which men bear are individual, for though there was no use of particular Names to every beast; to Man who was a creature formed for society and commerce, for rule, and the survey of all the world, nay, was to be sub-diuided into a multitude of Nations, there was a necessity of particular Names for all the successions of his race. That common title of Humanity, Man, might serve to give him sufficient distinction from creatures of a different kind; yet amongst his own ranks was no way competent to signify either Number or Sex. Nor could the disparity of conditions or degrees amongst Men bee enough to separate one from another, without Names: 
1 Cor. 13.41.  One star differeth from anothere in glory( saith the Apostle) and yet every Star hath its several Name, 
Psal. 147.4.  For God calls them by their names. The names of men therefore haue been like partitions, to divide the Families of the world, like fences, to keep one tribe from encroaching vpon another: And when there was no other Heraldry found out, Names only were the difference of the elder and younger House, of the Noble and the Base, of the Bond and of the Free, of Isaac and of ishmael, of israel and of Edom.  

All Names at first significant.  Primitiuely all or most Names were significant, pointing out not only the Person, but his Quality and Beginning. As God entitled Adam from the Mould wherein he was cast, and the principles whereof he was made, Earth.  
Others in Scripture haue been denominated from their Professions( a practise continued unto our times or some remarkable accident, as israel from jacob, and Paul from Saul.  
The Grecians held that Names were prognostications, and imported that Fate which the Owners were to run thorough, as hippolytus had his death written in his Name, torn with horses; and Priamus( of {αβγδ}) foreshowed that his stars had sold him to captivity, which he must buy out by ransom. Whether this rule held as just, and bare that fatal truth in others, as it did in those Two, I mean not here to discourse. Sure I am, in the intent of Scripture, most Names there were prophetical, for Abraham had Gods covenant of multiplying his Seed sealed in his Name, and the sacred Name of Iesus was a loud proclamation of the deliverance which was brought into the world by that Name. 
Iam coronae nomen h●bebat& ideò palmam martyr●j suo nomine praefe●ebat. Aug. serm. 2. de Steph.  S. Augustine tells us the crown of Stephens martyrdom was plaited in his Name, for {αβγδ} signifies a crown.  
And as there were prophecies of Good desciphered by them, so also of evil. For Achitophel was a title of ruin, jeroboam of Rebellion, jezabel of Woe.  
I know there are many amongst us, who are curious observers of Names, and will conclude some to haue been more ominous, more unlucky or unfortunate, more lasting or short lived than others, which by no means they will endure to be put vpon their children. 
Chrysost. hom. 12. in 1 Cor. 4.  As Saint Chrysostome makes mention of some in his time, that would haue their children called only after the names of those that lived longest, out of a persuasion that the Name might conduce to the addition of their Yeares. That the choice and imposition of names, so they be not scurrile or scandalous, is indifferent and free to all, I confess; though I cannot allow that conceit which misleads many so far, as to beleeue our fortunes, or our ages are contrived in our Names. Should a man bid Methuselah for one Gossip, and Salomon for another; I do not see for all that, why he should haue a longer term of life, or a larger portion of wit than others, that haue names neither so durable nor so discreet.  
Some by glorious Actions haue ennobled mean Names, and others by degenerating from their titles, haue forfeited them to infamy. Iudas by the signification of his Name, should haue been a confessor, not a traitor; and Lucifer an angel of light, not the Prince of darkness.  
I am persuaded 'tis in Mans own election to overrule the misfortunes which wild astrology guesses at, or his Name threatens.  — Sapiens dominabitur astris. 
The miseries of our lives are rooted in our Natures, not in our Names. There is no man thoroughly miserable, but he that makes himself so, and no Name fatal but unto him that believes it.  
So my life be good, what disadvantage is it if I be christened with a By-word in stead of a Name? I am sure when I go down into my grave I shall leave it there, nor shall it at the last day rise up with me; for he that will change our vile Bodies, will also change our vile Names, at our admittance into his New City, he will impose vpon us His New Name, His better Name, 
Apoc. 3.12.  that everlasting Name, 
Esay 46.5.  which shall not be put out.  
To finish this nominal discourse. For the Time when Names were given, I find no set day till the covenant of Circumcision was established, and then they used to Name and Circumcise their children at once. So we read in the gospel, 
Luke 2.21.  When the eight dayes were accomplished that they should circumcise the child, his Name was then called Iesus. By which custom wee are yet governed, forbearing to name any till their baptism, which succeeded the Circumcision in the old Law.  
In former Ages of the world, Men had onely one Name, but as the world multiplied, so did Names also. The first surname we read of in the old Testament, I take it is, 2 Sam. 20.21. Sheba filius Bichri cognomine( so the vulgar reads it) but the New Testament mentions diuers.  
Yet the romans not content with one name( as Varro says, their Founder Romulus had no more) or with Two, as most of their succeeding Kings, swelled into no less than four, bearing as many Names, as a Pinnace hath sails, their main, and Fore, and Top, &c. for they had their Praenomina, their Nomina, their Cognomina, their Agnomina. I never lately heard of so many, but onely in Eudaemon johannes, who sure had more witnesses than ordinary, else I wonder how he came by so many Names.  
Wee in our practise are satisfied with Two, the surname, which is Nomen gentilitium, the name of the Tribe or Family, from whence wee issue, and the Christen Name received at our baptism. In the giuing whereof, though( as I said before) an vndenied Liberty be left, for the choosing of any either Hebrew or ethnic, yet most commonly we bear such Names as wee find mentioned in the Scripture, either of Prophets, or Patriarkes, or Christs Saints and Apostles, which we choose not for that reason Stapleton alleges on behalf of the Pontificians, 
Stapleton in Fest. johan. Baptistae.  Vt Patronos& Intercessores habeant quorum nomina gerunt, that we think they become our Guardians, or that we are enrolled into their companies, capable of their intercession and custody, because we bear their Names, but to put us in mind to imitate the virtues of those holy Men whose Names we haue.  
A practise of a pious meaning, however wee know many amongst us that olive from it, choosing out of a nice singularity, or a suspicion of circumstantial Idolatry, to impose any Names but the names of Saints. To decline which, they christen their Children with Propositions and wholesome Sentences; yea, they impose plain challenges vpon them in stead of Names, as, Sin defy; Fight the good fight of faith, and the like.  
But I should neither much blame nor censure them, did they not do it out of gross affectation, and insolent opposition to the customs used by vs.  
No more of human Names; I haue held you too long in this Argument. If you now expect I should give an account of that time I haue spent in this discourse, or show what it conduces to Nomen Tuum, to the Name of God, I must confess I followed that general Liberty which the word Nomen afforded, which Quue being so fitly given by the Text, I held it not impertinent to premise somewhat concerning Mens Names, that you might more plainly discern the difference betwixt Nomen, and Nomen Tuum; Gods Name and Ours.  
Well may we distinguish Man and Man by their several Appellations, 
Nomen Tuum. Thy Name.  but God whose simplicity is ineffable, whose Essence most indivisible, 
minute. Foelix.  we cannot. Illic vocabulis opus est cum per singulos propriis appellationum insignibus multitudo dirimenda est, Deo qui solus est, Deus vocabulum totum est. When there are many, there is need of Names; where but one, the paucity and singularity is distinction enough. There being then but one God, {αβγδ}; 
Lactant. l. 1. cap 6. ( saith Trismegistus) he needs no Name. Besides, as we want strength of sight to discern, and capacity to estimate Him, so we want Titles whereby to circumscribe his infinite Immense Being. Shall the tongue of Man grasp and fathom Him in one narrow Appellation, whom the worlds continent, nor heaven more spacious than it, no nor the heart of Man vaster and more capacious than them both, is not able to comprehend? Nobis ad intellectum pectus augustum est,& ideò sic eum dignè aestimamus, 
minute. Foelix.  dum inaestimabilem dicimus. There is therefore no use of Name with God, the disproportion is so great betwixt him and our Finite Attributes, that wee disparaged and detract from his greatness, when we strive to express him by any Names. 
Xixtus sentent.  Omne quod nomine appellatur à meliore nomen accipit. The imposition of Names implies a priority of worth, of Time, and of Knowledge, so that as the Lesser is blessed, so is he name by the Greater. But who hath preceded God in Time, as that he was acquainted with his pedigree, or in knowledge that he knew his being? or in dignity that he could denominate him?  
Amongst Men, Names illustrate and reveal the knowledge of the thing name, as Damascen defines them, 
Damascen. lib. 1. cap. 13.  {αβγδ}, but with God they shut it up, they darken and diminish that knowledge of Him which is imprinted in our apprehensions, 
Minutius Faelix.  Quod si Patrem dixero, terrenum opineris; si Regem, carnalem suspiceris; si Dominum, intelliges utique mortalem. do we style him Father, or King, or Lord? why by these same Titles do wee call mortal Men; so that wee both contract his Essence, and dim our own capacity, whilst we fix on those Appellations. 
Jdem.  Aufer additamenta nominum,& perspicies eius claritatem; remove those weak helps; a Spectacle argues an infirm eye, Thy understanding will bee more sharp and clear to discern Him without a Name. Better is it onely to conceive than to Name God, for our conceit is more ample than our language; and 'tis more Glory to God, when in a silent Contemplation wee confess Him far greater than we can utter. Let us be religious to sanctify, not curious to search his Name. {αβγδ}. 
Isidor. Pelus. lib. 2. Epist. 299.  'tis good for us to be busied in his Statutes( as the Psalmists phrase is) not in his Attributes: The one will guide us into the way of Peace, the other will confounded vs. Let pass. then all busy searches, they do hurt. Nec nomen Dei quaeras, 
Minutius Foelix.  Deus Nomen est; For thy service and adoration thou needest know no other Name but God. That Title is enough to give aim to thy Petitions; that object powerful to grant them. look not therefore after any other Name, 
Xixtus.  Quia nec invenies( one answers roundly) if thou dost, 'tis but lost labour, thou shalt never find it. God hath no Name distinguished from his being; 
Drusius.  Deus est Nomen suum, he is his own Name. Lactantius quotes out of Mercurius Trismegistus, that Ne quis Nomen eius requireret; 
●actant. l. 1. c. 6.  {αβγδ}, esse dixit, to prevent all study which men might make for finding his Name, He is without Name. Dionysius says, he is Innominabilis, impossible to be name.  
Which, if it be true, then is this Petition nullified. If God haue no Name, why do we cry, Sanctificetur Nomen Tuum, Hallowed be thy Name?  
The schools wipe away this scruple with a distinction. Nomen prout significat compositionem substantiae& qualitatis non convenit Deo; As the Name imports the composition of Substance and Quality, so it cannot svit with the simplicity of Gods Essence. For God hath no composition, either natural or metaphysical, but as it only signifies Notitiam, any thing by which He is notified, and by which we strive to express Him, so He may be said to haue a Name.  
Yea, He hath many Names, Vel potius Cognomina( saith Arias) Petrus Galatinus ●eckons out of the rabbins Threescore and twelve Names, 

Arias Montan. lib. de Arcano ser. cap. 2.  
Petrus Galatinus lib. 2. cap. 17.   which they multiplied into Ten sorts; so that according to their calculation, they amounted to seven Hundred and Twenty in all.  
But contract them according to our Numbers, and you shall find very many, yet all those too few to give us a sufficient declaration of Him. The cause of which multiplicity of Attributes springs from our own imbecility( saith Zanchius 
Zanchius. ) for they were not assigned to intimate that really, there were many distinct several virtues in God, Est enim vna duntaxat, ad omnia idonea ac sufficiens; but that by means of them He might the better descend to our capacity, 
Why God is styled under so many Attributes.  and we make shift to signify Him by Many, since One Attribute was too narrow to comprehend his Incomprehensible greatness.  
Some Names there be( saith Saint Ambrose 
Ambros. ) expressing his divinity, others his majesty. Sunt euidentia indicia quae proprietatem divinitatis ostendunt,& sunt quae perspicuam divinae Maiestatis exprimunt virtutem. The schoolmen distribute them into Three ranks; first, Essentialia, as Verity, Eternity, &c, Secondly, Notionalia, applied to each Person, as Paternity, Filiation, &c. Thirdly, Appropriationis, which though they agree to the whole Trinity together, yet are they attributed severally to every Person; as Election to the Father, Redemption to the Son, Sanctification to the Holy Ghost. Some Names God hath from everlasting, as his Attributes of Power, of goodness, of Truth, &c. 

Dominus fuit ab aeterno, s●cundum Potestatem, non secundum Relationem.  
Thom. Aquin.   Some are relative, which began in Time, as Creator, Lord, &c. for he was no Lord before he had seruants, nor Creator before the world was made. Lastly, he hath some which be rather signs and effects then Names; as his works, his Word, his Sacraments, whereby nevertheless He is known to his Church as perfectly and distinctly as men by their Names. And 'tis agreed by all Authority of Fathers, that the profanation and abuse of his Word and Sacraments are apparent breaches of the Third Commandement, Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.  
Such and so many are the Names of God, and yet this large variety no way empaires the simplicity of his Essence. 
Zanch de Nat. Dei. cap. 8. q. 4.  Cum Dei simplicitate diuersa Nomina non pugnant. Rather I should think it is a good moral way of expressing Gods Infinity by an infinite number of Attributes. What hurt or blemish is it to the Diamond, though you put several rates vpon it? the quantity and the lustre is still one, and the same: so is God.  
Neither do those Attributes of his, which began in Time, cause any alteration or change in his Eternity. For( saith Saint Augustine 
Augustine. ) Nummus cum dicitur pretium relative dicitur, nec tum mutatus est cum esse coepit pretium, nec cum dicitur pignus: One and the same piece of money is successively called a Price, a Debt, a pawn, a Tribute; yet those appellations change neither the metal, nor the weight, nor the Impression. How much easier then may we apprehended the Immutability of Gods substance amid these his Attributes, 
james 1.17.  In whom there is no shadow of Change.  
There being then so great a Number of Names belonging to God; Biel proposes the doubt, which of them the Text means, when we say, Hallowed be Thy Name. To which I answer briefly, that, whereas Saint Augustine 
Augustine.  says Nomen est quasi Notamen; that which Alexander Hales 
Alex Hales.  infers is most certain, Quicquid notificat nobis Deum Nomen eius est; whatsoever denotes or expresses God unto us, is his Name. And therefore we must sanctify every one of those notifications, sanctify Him in every Attribute, in every Circumstance, by which his knowledge is conveyed unto vs. Which how it is done, and how omitted, how Gods Name is Hallowed, and how profaned; in brief instances I shall declare, being the last part of my discourse due to this word Sanctificetur. Hallowed be Thy Name.  
First, just and merciful are Gods Names. Now we sanctify the Attribute of his Iustice, 
Sanctificetur.  when wee leave unto Him the righting and avenging of our wrongs, for Vindicta mihi, 
Deut. 32.35.  is his prerogative, Vengeance is mine: and we offer violence to this blessed Name, when urged with a distempered hast and fury, we wreak ourselves by offering violence unto our Brethren. When we rely wholly on his Mercy, confessing that there is no Name under heaven which can save, but only that of his son Christ, we sanctify that Attribute; whereas when we fly to Saints Intercession, and from rotten Shrines look for deliverance, we abuse and vilify his Name.  
Secondly, the Sacraments, and Gods word are his Names, when we reverently receive those sacred Representations of his body and blood, bringing along with us neither obstinate hearts, nor stiff rebellious knees, that will not do their duty to Him, for fear of Idolatry to the Bread, we then sanctify his Name; whereas coming thither irreverently, or unprepared, we scandalise those holy Mysteries, 
Rom. 2 1.  and condemn ourselves. When we live according to the rule of Faith, his holy Word, when we do not disguise ourselves with the Mantle of Religion, making it a cloak of maliciousness, 
1 Pet. 2.16.  and using religious pretexts but as a way to compass sacrilegious designs; when we do not as Sixtus complained of some, Magis gentilizare quam christianizare; committing nothing that may be prejudicial to the Faith we profess, or unworthy the Christian Name born from our baptism, we Hallow Gods Name; but when wee invert the Order of those words, do the contrary, 
Ambros. de Virgin.  we then take his Name in vain. For Nomen inane crimen inane. There is no greater crime then hypocrisy; when men cover a rotten heart under a religious Title, and haue no part of goodness but the Name. Of this hypocrisy none are more guilty than the Iesuites, 
Pertantes sanctum Nomen ad poenam suam. Aug. ser. 18. de verb. Dom.  none more frequently take the name of Iesus in vain than they. In whose tumultuous breasts the Lion and the Lamb cohabitate: yet not in that sense the Prophet means, but as Christ interprets those in the Gospel, wolves in sheeps clothing: cruelty coloured over and hatched on the outside, with holinesse. mere pit-falls strewed with Religion, as Coffins with flowers, to cover the ruin of many a State swallowed up by their policy.  
Lastly, we sanctify the Name of God, when we never speak or think of Him, but with a religious reverence. 
Ludouicus Vi●es.  Quoties Nominari audis Deum, maius quiddam& admirabilius occurrat quam quod posset humana mens capere: We must not talk of Him, as of a common Argument, fit for all times, or all places. How did the Hebrewes tremble to take the Tetragrammaton into their mouths? Nay it is recorded that onely the High-Priest, and that in the Temple, and on the Day of Expiation, was held fit to pronounce the Name of God.  
How is it then that Men presume to play with His Name? with scurrile wit vented in every idle pamphlet, deriding both Him, and his service. How is it that without acknowledging any distance with Him they make their tongues every where, in all places so familiar with Him, that out of an ill nurtur'd familiarity, they will not in his own peculiar, his proper place, the Church, where his Tabernacle and Habitation is fixed, scarce honour Him with a bended knee or an vncouered head? cheap low-rated compliments which they pass vpon all other occasions, and are content to cast away vpon every one that hath but leisure to entertain them: as if either God were not there present, or his presence not worthy of that regard. Is the Temple of God so much disesteemed since the Vale was rent, since the hour-glass was taken away, and the Wall of Partition, that denied the people access into the Holy Place, broken down, in comparison of what it was before: when it was free only for the Priest to enter: Men made a Religion even to look towards it; but now, when the Sanctum Sanctorum, wherein the Propitiation betwixt God and his People is made, wherein the sacrifice of Prayer is daily offered up, and the Sacraments administered, is free and open to every comer; so little reverence doth the place find from them, that even the service more awful than the place, cannot win that reverence they owe it; as if the outward worship of God had past away with the old abolished ceremonies, and with them were now extinct.  
Gods Name must be sanctified, as by our Inward, so also by our Outward worship, by the Gesture, as well as the Heart. Why else did he command Moses in the old Law to put off his shoes when he stood on holy ground? 
Exod. 3.5.  Why doth the Apostle in the New Law tell us, 
1 Cor. 11.4.  that He who prays with his head covered, dishonoureth his head, God and his Christ? Or why doth he publish that Decree enacted by divine Authority, that At the Name of Iesus every knee should bow? That many take a perverse liberty, 
Philip. 2.10.  some out of a wilful neglect, others out of a precise superstition, to trespass vpon either of these precepts, is true; but how any way they can discharge themselves of those duties, or excuse the neglect, I cannot see; if they but think it is no order in the mosaical Law, but a Decree in the gospel, which binds them to it.  
In a word, if the old Israelites were so timorous and sparing to use the Name of God, unless in weighty occasions, Let me ask with david, 
Psal. 78.56.  Why do wicked men tempt and provoke God? By daily profanations of his Name, by an habituated blasphemy, by a trade of swearing, rending open the wounds of Christ their saviour, and making new issues for his blood to flow out at their Mouths? accounting it a grace, not a sin, to enterline their discourse with oaths; not thinking their words haue either their just Ballast, or true cadence, unless poised and bound up with oaths, in stead of Periods. How happy were our assemblies, did not this loud sin reign in them? How happy were wee all, if wee could reserve this sacred Name, not for our talk, but for our Prayers, doing that which the language of my Text invites us to, Sanctificetur Nomen Tuum, Hallowing the Name of God.  

Conclusion.  To end all; how we abuse the Name of God wee plainly see: but let me ask this once for all; How can we sanctify it? Is not Holinesse his Attribute, 
Luke 1.49.  Holy is his Name? Nay not onely the Act, but the power to hallow al things( for so saith Arias Montanus, the Hebrew word imports Sacrare;) and, as John Baptist said to Christ when He came to bee baptized of him, cometh he to be Hallowed by us, who are men of profane lips and polluted lives? Doth God want that sanctity which wee can lend him? Doth he need the help and advantage of our Prayers? Or hath Christ taught us here to pray for Him as well as ourselves? Saint Augustine 
Aug.  makes my reply, Intellige& pro te rogas; mark well the sense of the words, and thou shalt find 'tis for thyself, for thy own benefit, for thy own sanctification, thou prayest not for God. Vt quod semper est sanctum sanctificetur in te, 
Idem.  Thou prayest that the Name of God, which is holy in itself, may also bee sanctified by Thee; Thou prayest that His Word, His Sacraments, which are His Names, may be vindicated from all abuse. Thou prayest that his glorious Name may be sanctified here on Earth, 

Illa particula in Caelo& in terrâ, determinat quamlibet trium primarum petitionum.  
Caietan. in Mat. 6.   as it is in heaven, where the Angels cry aloud, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts. Lastly, thou prayest,( saith Saint Chrysostome) that His Holy Name which sanctifies all things may also sanctify Thee. 
Chrysost.  For without His Grace thou canst not Name Him as thou oughtest in thy Prayers, and unless first anointed with his Holy oil ( Oleo meo sancto unctus) thou canst not Hallow that Name whereof the Scripture testifies; 
Cant. 1.3.  Oleum effusum Nomen Tuum, Thy Name is like a precious Ointment powred out. That therefore the odour of this Name may prove unto us the Sweet savour of Life and not of Death, 
2 Cor. 2.16.  let us daily beseech that God who owns that Name. 
August.  Situ quaeris Nomen Dei, quaerit& ipse Nomen Tuum. If thou shalt forget his service, and take no notice of his Name in this life, He will not know thee in the next, Verily I know you not. But if thou seek the honour of His Name here, thou shalt see his Glory, and his reward hereafter. If thou call on the Name of the Lord in these thy daies, 
Mat. 25.34.  He will in His Great Day call on thy Name, Veni Benedicte, Come thou blessed. Now the God of all Mercies grant us his gracious assistance, that we may so sanctify his Name on Earth, that our Names may be writ in his book of Life in heaven, Amen.   

Thy kingdom come.  
A kingdom is no common Notion, no popular Theme, but very nice and dangerous to bee discussed. It was the Admonition of Pindarus, to speak temperately and cautelously of the Gods; the advice holds as well for those that are the Gods of the Earth, Kings and their kingdoms.  
' Ti● grown a fashion amongst some that would pretend a deeper reach than men of ordinary compass, to speak no language but State, and with that mis-becomming freedom, that their usual discourse is no better than a libel. Such contemplations as these, when they move out of their own sphere, and are versed by persons not qualified with the liberty or capacity to handle them, are full of hazard.  
From the Pulpit they sound worst of all, that being a place not privileged for censure, but erected as an Oratory wherein to pray for Kings and kingdoms.  
'twas never well with christendom, since the Romish Clergy left divinity and studied politics. Had the consideration of States never entred the conclave of Cardinals, and had the Iesuites not entred into the secrets of kingdoms; but like Regular men lived within their Cloister, many Princes had gone down to their Graues, 
funeral.  Siccâ morte, with white winding sheets, not stained or discoloured with their own blood.  
If at any time we will mention the King or kingdom, let it be in our Prayers, our Commission reaches no further. For our blessed saviour did as straitly charge us by the mouth of his Apostle, to pray for Kings and the present prosperity of those kingdoms he hath established on Earth, as by his own Mouth he hath taught us to pray for the coming of his heavenly kingdom, adveniat Regnum tuum; Thy kingdom come.  
The parts are two:  
First, the object of our Prayer, 
divis.  Regnum Tuum, Thy kingdom.  
Secondly, the Petition, by which wee desire to bring it near to us, adveniat; Thy kingdom come.  
But did he teach us onely to Pray for kingdoms and Princes, and not also to gives thankes for them? Certainly, if the Apostles rule hold, that wee must give Thankes for all men, much more for those that are the best of Men, Princes: And if for Princes, how much more for the Best of that rank? improved to that superlative, not by the partial rate of our affections( which might bee allowed to value him in that degree, because ours) but weighed in the unpartial balance of Merit, which cannot lie, nor needs the least grain of flattery or favour to make Him more currant in the Worlds opinion.  
Me thinks I should not go on in this subject, and not allow Him a room in it; nor can we effectually pray for the coming of Christs kingdom, 
The Prince his return from spain.  and not first give Him thankes for the coming home of our own.  
Indeed our kingdom shifted place, our island swam from us and made an Inroad vpon the Continent, where while it stuck. Yea our Hearts traveled from us, bound on a voyage in which all our Hopes were adventured.  
They are now return'd, and we fixed in our own Center again. And shall wee be tongue-tied? shall we not bless the God of jacob, who hath brought back the staff of our jacob, wherewith he past over that jordan which divides these kingdoms, crossed the river to come to us, and hath restored safe from the flood the staff of these kingdoms, which went out from us, and crossed a Sea greater than jordan? Shall we not praise his goodness, who, when our hopes were embarked and put to Sea in so rich a bottom as the Prince, brought both Him and them back unto us without wrack or miscarriage in the adventure?  
Yet some may say, this Ceremony is ended, and therefore suppose the repetition of it sounds out of date. I think not so. he that imagines thankes can be at any time unseasonable, is not of Saint Pauls mind, 
1 Thes. 5.18.  who bids us give thankes always. And he that thinks when God hath given him a share in any blessing, that he can pay him at one breath, and after a short Lord I thank thee, 
Luk. 18.11.  may sue out his Quietus, as if he owed Him no more; or that thinks his gratitude for this particular Blessing, which was kindled and lighted with his Bonfire, should burn out and end in it, is not of my mind.  
The mercies which God affords us require many daies of payment, we cannot discharge them at one entire solution. Some blessings God hath bestowed on us, for which we haue taken above five thousand yeeres to satisfy him, so long haue we been thanking Him for our Election, which was more ancient than the world, and his Church hath these sixteen hundred yeeres been levying Thankes to pay him for the salvation he sent into the world by his onely son; and yet the sum is imperfect, the greatest part behind vnpayed.  
I am not so mad to compare these ancient mercies of God with any later. New benefits hold no proportion, nor deserve to be name with them; yet this I know, God that did allow so many Hundred yeeres of thanksgiving for spiritual blessings, doth allow a few daies for temporal. And if so, I come within my time to pay my thankes, nor can I forfeit any thing to his discretion, that will censure this mention unfit or unseasonable. Not to trouble you with a receipt of many words, Sueton writes, 
In Caligula.  when the news of Germanicus his welfare came to Rome, the people welcomed it with Lights and Fires, and this shout, Salua Roma, Salua Patria, Saluus Germanicus; turn it to Britanicus, and the Acclamation vpon this happy return may be ours, Salua Patria, Saluus Britanicus, our Country is safe, our Prince is safe; God grant that both He and It may long continue so; He secure in It, It secured by Him. And as He is the Branch of a most royal stock, may He spread like Him, that our Hopes may rest and build in his boughs, and under them the Church and Common wealth be sheltered.  
Nor let it seem uncharitable or vnchristian to anathematize them, who do not bear a part in this Ioy and in this Prayer for the good of our kingdom, from having any part in the kingdom of Christ which here we sue for, adveniat Regnum tuum.  
There is no eye so dull, but that discerns the kingdom 
kingdom.  here specified, not to lie so low as Earth; nor is that temporal kingdom of Christ, which the Iewes vainly expect, here meant. Our saviour himself hath  told us, The kingdom which he promises, and we pray for, is not of this world. 
John 18.36.  Yet are the kingdoms of the Earth Christs, by the surest Titles that can be, Inheritance and Purchase. He that is the Lord of the citadel commands the town; and he that is possessed of the hills, is Lord of the inferior valleys. By an higher prerogative of Domination then must it follow, that he who is the King of heaven, is King of the Earth too.  
For heaven is the original Copy of all kingdoms, as Christ of all Kings.  
Let me not seem to led your Meditations out of the way or meaning of my Text, if I stay them a little vpon the temporal consideration of Regnum tuum, touch vpon the kingdom of the Earth.  
My Method thus strengthened will run but the same course wee ourselves hold. From Earth we travell upwards towards heaven; and from the general consideration of Regnum tuum, will I conduct your attention to the Kingdom of Christ.  
The Romish Pilgrims are content to beleeue their nearest way to heaven lies thorough Arabia and Palestina, the Holy Land: but I hope our Climate is not a whit out of the way. 
Hieron. Ep. ad Paulin. de Institut. Monar.  Saint jerome assures us, Et de Hierosolymis& de Britanniâ, aequaliter patet aula celestis.  
britain is as near heaven as any other kingdom of the World; and I dare undertake to carry your Meditations as soon thither from hence, as if they traveled by jerusalem or the Sepulchre.  
In fetching of which compass I pretend onely to prove( what none can contradict) that he that made heaven and Earth, is King of Earth as well as heaven. however then the devill was so frank to offer Him all those kingdoms which he shewed in that large Map of his, mentioned in the third of Matthew; he sought to bribe Christ, but with his own, for he needed not the devils usurped claim to strengthen his title, since all was his before. The Earth is the Lords, and all the kingdoms of the Earth are but Copyholds belonging to Regnum tuum, His kingdom, as the capital Mannor and hold from him.  
hear by what evidence.  
'tis true, the first Adam was heir of the world, and invested with a kingly Power, 
Gen. 1.26.  To rule over all the Earth; but those conditions and covenants which God made with him, being not observed, his title forfeited by disobedience became voided, and reuerted into His hand again that first gave it. 
Gen. 3.17.  In the third of Genesis, vers 17. God Re-enters, and in vers. 24. Adam is ejected. nevertheless, God at that time did not otherwise make seizure of it, but that it might bee redeemed again, whensoever the debt of Adam, and the weighty arrearage which his seed had run into was satisfied. By Christ, the second Adam, was this debt discharged, and by His blood was Death's Bond, that Chyrographum Lethale mentioned by the Apostle, cancelled and washed out. So that the World forfeited to Iustice, and lying as a desperate Mortgage, not possible to be redeemed but onely by the son of God, now became His purchase: God surrenders and yields up both Title and Possession to Him, 
Psal. 2.8.  I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance, and the ends of the Earth for thy possession. In the verse following, he puts the sceptre into His hand, and in the sixth verse proclaims the Coronation, 
Vers. 6.  I haue set my King vpon Sion.  
Thus Christ being enthronized in the Worlds kingdom, hath ever since set His own stamp and figure vpon every kingdom thereof, fear and majesty. A Roman Historian writes, that when Vespasian was saluted Emperour, the transfiguration of his State shone in his face, which appeared much brighter than before. Indeed every King is, as it were, a rich medal cast in Christs own Mould, and bears that awful Motto of safety written about his sacred Person, Nolite tangere Christos meos; 
Psal. 105.15.  Touch not mine anointed. A spell of most approved virtue, for we haue often known that the majesty which a King bears about him, hath been a charm to fright treason from him, by disarming and casting down the hands of such who came provided and furnished for his Death. The looks of Marius, though his high fortunes were now leveled with the ground on which he lay, so appalled his Executioner, that in stead of wounding him, he drops his sword from his hand, and cries for mercy, Parce o Imperator. Yea, the very sound of Christs voice in the Garden, when the darkness of Night concealed his face and begot an uncertainty of Him whom they sought, made his surprisers retire, and do an homage to his Person by falling flat to the ground. 
joh. 18.6.   
Besides, he hath declared how close this Tuum hath bound the kingdom to Him by undertaking the substitution of Deputies here on Earth. 'tis his condition, 
Deut. 17.16.  Thou shalt make no King but whom the Lord shall choose; and in Aggee, He exercises that power, 
Aggae. 2.24.  I haue chosen Thee. And again, by the confession of the wisest and greatest King that ever was, Per me Reges regnant; 
Prou. 8.15.  By me Kings reign, that is, by my permission, my appointment: the Psalmist gives the reason, Quoniam Domini est Regnum; 
Psal. 22.28.  Because the kingdom is the Lords.  

The Pope no disposer of kingdoms.  If it be clear then, that Regnum tuum is Christs peculiar; if he be the Disposer of sceptres and sovereignty, by what right doth the Pope undertake to bestow both them and the allegiance of Subiects, as he pleases? Or what wrong can he complain of, if those persons it concerns deny him to be their judge and Visitor?  
I never red that the Iron sceptre which bruises the Nations was put into his hands; 
Psal. 2.9.  and though he will needs keep the keys, surely the chains and Fetters to bind Princes and Nobles were no part of his charge: The Psalmist left them with Christ, where they yet remain, unless he hath since purloined them. Yet I know the Canonists haue lifted him up to as high a pitch as that was from whence the devill ouerlookt the kingdoms of the world, 
Baldus.  Princeps omnium, Rex Regum, King of Kings; Pater dignitatum, sicut sol pater planetarum,( so cries another) The Father of Principalities, from whom Emperours receive their power, as the moon borrows light from the sun. And again, in that blasphemous acclamation of the conclave to Pope Iulius, Tu es omnia, suprà omnia, omnis potestas tibi data est in Coelo& in Terra: Thou art all, above all, all Power in Earth and heaven is entrusted to thee. Yea, had those flatterers been silent, he hath been forward enough to be his own Trumpet; Ego sum Papa& Caesar, coelestis& terrestris Imperij Dominium habeo, so Boniface proclaimed himself.  
But for all this, these Sycophants onely speak what his Ambition strives to bee, not what of right he is or should be: these lying Texts are more authentical to prove him Antichrist, then King of Kings, or a disposer of the Nations. For what less can he be, that would divest Christ of that glorious Attribute, to put it on himself?  
Since that time he laid by the keys, and presumed to vnsheath the Emperours sword, christendom hath felt to her smart, that sword could never yet find the way into its scabbard again. 'twere a great deal better for Christs Vicar to meddle with his own church-book, to be content with his wax vailes, his Commutations and Tributes, his Impost vpon the Bordelli: those Candle-rents, as being Petty Tithes, we confess due to his vicarage; but for sceptres and kingdoms they are great Tithes, and onely proper to Christ, whose Vicar he calls himself.  
again, if it be Regnum Tuum, Christ be the supreme transcendent Monarch, 
revel. 19.16.  King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, 
1 Tim. 6.15.  and Solus potens Rex Regum; and as the Psalmist, 
Psal. 103.19.  His kingdom ruleth over all; how can any other appropriate the Earths kingdoms to himself, or lay claim to an universal Monarchy?  
'tis an hateful enclosure to hedge in the World at once, 
No universal Monarchy.  and a licence which none but a Geographer can justify, to quarter Sea and Land in one Globe. Did God appoint to each Body a Peculiar angel, and did he less to those Greater Bodies, kingdoms, and common wealths? The Apostle tells us, there is but one Faith, 
Ephes. 4.5, 6.  one baptism, one God, Father of all, which is above all, yet we haue no Text that there should be but one King. When God took asunder the world, and scattered it into several people and several languages, certainly he never meant any man should piece them together again, or make them understand one Tongue; but Christ alone, whose Trumpet in the end of the World shall speak to them in such a language that shal be heard and understood alike of all. Then indeed the curse which scattered them shal be repealed, but not till then, and all shall be reduced unto one Head, that there may be One Shepherd and one fold.  
The Poet says, Alexander was almost stisted with a conceit that the World was so narrow for him, he wanted air and elbow-roome in it.  

funeral. sat.  Aestuat infoelix angusto limit mundi.  
And Plutarch writes, He wished for more worlds than one, fearing that which was discovered was too small a prise for him to conquer, and would be too quickly won. I confess this became him well in an apothegm, or a Verse; but in plain meaning Prose, for any man to be so vast in his desires as to affect no less than the whole Worlds sovereignty, is a prodigious avarice too great for our Wonder.  
He indeeres himself too far into Gods favour that thinks the Earth was made onely for him, as the floods for leviathan. Sure Almighty God that calls himself King of Kings, 
revel. 17.14.  intended more Kings than one.  
In the psalm we find a Plurality, God standeth in the congregation of Princes, 
Psal. 82.1.  there God is President of that royal Assembly. And in another psalm he speaks to them, Be wise O ye Kings of the Earth, 
Psal. 2.10.  wise to preserve and understand their number, as well as their obedience unto Him. For should there bee one onely supreme Power on Earth to whom all the rest should be subordinate, they were not then Kings but histories, nor could their States be called kingdoms but Corporations, rather held at the devotion of Him that gives the Charter.  
To come off from this Argument; Wee find in the Reuelat. 
revel. 4.10.  The Crownes of all the Kings cast at the feet of the lamb. The reason is there given, Quoniam dignus, he alone was worthy to be Lord of them all. If there bee any more worthy of them then Christ, let him stand up and claim them. Till then, we shall aclowledge no singular Power, no Lord Paramount, nor universal Monarch but Christ alone. And until that Interrogation of job bee solved, Quem constituit alium supper terram, aut quem posuit supper orbem? 
job 34.13.  We will turn his Quaere into a Thesis, and say, He hath appointed no one to Lord the whole Earth besides himself.  

Tuum. Thy kingdom.  I haue done with the temporal consideration of Regnum Tuum, I come now to the stricter acception of it, which is spiritual; in which sense Regnum Tuum imports a kingdom different much from the other. For those other kingdoms are occidental, wee look on them as on the sun setting and declining to Night; but this kingdom is in the East, and the aspect of it is like the morning sun which fairly rises to our Prayers: Those sceptres are delivered over from hand to hand, but this is Sceptrum aeternum, not successive, but eternal, as the Psalmist says, Thy Throne, O God, 
Psal. 45.6.  is for ever, the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Lastly, Earths kingdoms bear the difference of the younger house, they are Regna transeuntia, movable kingdoms, which go and come, change and decline; but this is Regnum Adueniens, not yet Come, but coming. Yea when it is Come, it will be Adueniens still; when it hath grown as old as the World, seen as many yeeres as we reckon from Adam, there shall come after them a term longer lived than the first, and still the succeeding date shall bee double, till at the last the Account outgrow all arithmetic. Though we began our Calculation with the stars, and laid the dust of the Earth for ciphers, yet shall we want number to compute how many ages are behind to come of this kingdoms date which here we pray for, adveniat.  
The schoolmen that deal altogether vpon distinction, and would, if it were possible, divide Christs seamless Coat, haue variously divided this kingdom of His, made it an Heptarchy. For they do not only understand by Regnum Tuum, that general Administration whereby he governs all things, or the kingdom of Grace, or that of Glory, but they make Regnum Scripturae, and Regnum Ecclesiae Militantis, The Scripture and the Church kingdoms. They make Locum Beatitudinis, the place where the blessed Saints contemplate God, a kingdom; Nay, by a bold figure they erect a Throne in the Kings own Person, take Christ himself for a kingdom.  
For all which I deny not but they may haue colourable warrant from the Scripture; yet I shall not hold their course, or stay to view so many kingdoms as their discoveries haue traveled thorough.  
I rest vpon that proper construction of Regnum Tuum, which imports Christs Administration as He is head of the Church, and by his sacred Word( which is the Law whereby His kingdom is governed) subiects the Faith and obedience of his seruants to himself.  
Which acception will fully determine in two others contained under it, The kingdom of Grace, and the kingdom of Glory. And however the last of these is the final object of our prayers; yet is the first a disposition and necessary means to attain the other. He that prays for the Kingdom of Glory, and hath not a sufficient stock of Grace to maintain and bear up that Petition, builds without his foundation. He is like one that attempts to fly without wings, or like a projector, that in going nearer ways to profit or preferment than by the beaten path, beguiles himself at last: he sends up his Prayers as vainly as children do their arrows into the air, which fall back as fast as they shoot them up.  
The kingdom of Glory presumes that of Grace; As the Peace which God gives us in this World, is a pledge of our future peace in the other, so is Grace the earnest of our Glory. None can be admitted into the Triumphant Church, but who hath first served in the Militant, and none can bee made free of the kingdom of Glory, but he who hath served his time in the kingdom of Grace. Therefore by good right do we here pray for the kingdom of Grace, as well as for the kingdom of Glory.  
Yet our adveniat, when it refers to the kingdom of Grace, doth not look on it, as on a thing altogether absent, but as not yet fully come. The kingdom of God indeed hath been come amongst us ever since Christs time, and we haue lived under the reign of Grace ever since the Law was abolished and the gospel established; but this kingdom is yet straightened, bears not it's full breadth, nor is it arrived at it's perfect growth. Wee therefore yet Pray, adveniat, for the dilation, the increase, the perfection of this Empire. So long as the Holy Scripture, that rich Cabbanet, wherein the Graces and Mercies of God are locked up, is opened with the right Key, understood in the true upright meaning of it, and preserved in that height of dignity which Christ appointed to it, not wrested to make heresy authentical, nor abased so low as to make Tradition judge of it; so long( I say) as the lustre of it is not dimmed, but the dignity preserved religiously amongst us, so long haue we the earnest of salvation and pledge of Grace deposited with us; but where it is quiter locked up from Gods people, and the keys kept in the Popes Chamber, that the Laity cannot open it at all, nor when it is opened, must understand it any way but how he pleases, how it serves best for his advantage, Where Tales and Fables bear more authority then divine Stories, Where the Legend is in stead of Bibles, and mans stupid Traditions valued above Gods Scripture, I fear the kingdom of Grace hath lost much ground there, that there it is, since the first coming of it, almost gone, almost extinct, and that the curse which was thrown vpon the hard-hearted Iewes that would not see what they saw, nor understand what they red, hath trenched very deep vpon it, 
Mat. 21 43.  Auferetur Regnum Dei à vobis; The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you: That is, Intelligentia spiritualis Scripturae sacrae, the true understanding and estimation of the Scripture shall be removed from you.  
Our adveniat therefore must stand in the Gates of our lips, to disperse this Canker that it never eat vpon our Church, that the dangerous teeth of this curse never fasten vpon us, but that the Word of God may still be as open to our understanding, as it is free and open for us to hear in all Churches of this Land.  
again, so long as the gospel of Christ, which is the evidence of his Grace is minced or damned up in any Circumstances, so that the Current is hindered and cannot flow with a free liberal stream, it shows the kingdom of Grace is not fully come. We must therefore open the course with our adveniat, pray that the Obstacles may be removed, and those sluices that either stop or divert the natural Current of it may be taken up; that so it may find no let or opposition through the Christian World. Let me add Saint Chrysostomes exposition. So long as our earthly affections are predominant, and a perverse will overrules the understanding, so long as the flesh is in rebellion against the Spirit and prevails, the kingdom of Grace is not yet come. But when the Spirit hath subdued the Earthly Man, 'tis an Infallible token of the kingdom of Grace. Our adveniat therefore prays for the setting up of this kingdom in mans self( which the schools call Regnum ainae) as well as for Christs kingdom. 
Chrysost.  He that by Religion and reason hath subjecteth that earth which lies in his Temper, he( saith Chrysostome) is Lord of himself. And Gerson out of that old maxim, Si vis tibi omnia subijcere, subijce te rationi, infers; He is not fit to reign with Christ in his kingdom, who hath not first overcome all worldly passions, and been King over himself.  
Lastly, whilst the sound of the gospel hath not gone out into all Nations, whilst there is a World laid open to our discovery which hath not discovered Christ, nor heard of Him( like those in the Acts who had not heard whether there were a Resurrection or no) the kingdom of Grace is not yet come so amply as it should bee. Wee must therefore daily propagate it in our Prayers, beseeching God that all Nations may entertain his Truth, that so Christ may be Lord from Dan to Beersheba, from Sea to Sea, from one side of the Continent to the other. And then, where there is this Extent of Grace, where there is this unity of Faith, and Harmony of Religion through the world, 'tis the immediate fore-runner of Christs last glorious advent: the kingdom of Grace is then at a Period, and gives way to the last Monarchy which ever shall be, The kingdom of Glory, which is the full scope of our adveniat, Thy kingdom come.  
Thus wee can make shift to delineate, though in a rude imperfect model, the kingdom of Grace, but the kingdom of Glory we cannot. On that we are permitted to look at the distance whereat Seamen discover Land, and our hopes are as remote from us, as they from Harbour, which they onely begin to ken, and no more. 
Numb. 27.12.  Or as Moses from the top of Abarim suruaied the Land of Promise, and took possession of the soil with his eye; so from this Mount of Grace are we permitted to descry that higher Mount of Glory, whose top reaches the highest Heauens, To taste it in the promises of the gospel, and take possession of it, Oculo fidei, with the Eye of our Faith, till ourselves being seated in it, the Eyes of our Body shall hereafter see all that we now beleeue.  
We are suffered to discern that to bee our goal, may descry the Host of heaven, Angels and Saints there assembled, and haue a glimpse of that crown of righteousness which Saint Paul speaks of, 
2 Tim. 4.8.  and red that promise writ in the circled of it, Si compatimur conregnabimus, 
2 Tim. 2.12.  that we shall after that great day of Coronation reign for ever with Christ: but here our eye dazzles, dim and unable to behold any more; the Consequence of that bliss is unutterable, the Measure of it not to bee taken by so weak a perspective as the Eye. The eye hath not seen, 
1 Cor. 2.9.  nor the ear heard, nor can the heart of man conceive the joys which are comprehended in that kingdom of Glory.  
So then the kingdom of Grace is not our Petitions full scope, it onely is the Harbinger to fit us for the life of Glory, as John Baptist was to prepare the way for Christ. And as John Baptist could no otherwise describe the Excellency of Him that was to come after him, but onely by accusing his own unworthiness, 
Luk. 3.16.  Non sum dignus, I am not worthy to untie his shooe-latchet; so can we no way decipher the kingdom of Glory and the joys there treasured up, but by professing ourselves unworthy to utter, and unable to figure it in any other Mould but in our wishes and Petitions, praying to God That it may come.  
But what language doth this adveniat 
adveniat. Thy kingdom come.  naturally speak? What is our meaning in this Petition? do we accuse God of slackness, that He tarries too long? or do wee dare His coming? Or do we doubt it? like those in the Prophet, Qui dicunt festinet, which call for his coming, 
Esa. 5.19.  Let him make hast.  
Or do we think our request can prevail with Him to alter the prefixed day of his arrival, to change the Iesses of that great journey, and come sooner than in his eternal purpose he hath decreed? certainly none of these. This Petition doth not argue or complain of Gods slowness, no more than the Saints in the revelation, that cry from under the Altar, usque quò Domine? How long Lord holy and true, 
revel. 6.10.  &c. nor is it so ill bread as to press or quicken Him, but it shows the alacrity of our Faith beating in our Prayers, by which we do Festinare ad spei nostrae complexum, 
Tertul. lib. de Orat.  a little anticipate our Hopes, and labour to get a little ground, a little advantage of that Time, which vpon even terms will out-flie vs. For if we lie still and be not before hand with it, but suffer it to overtake us, we are lost. 'tis so speedy and we so dull, we cannot keep wing with it, but shall be cast behind so far as the foolish Virgins were, nor can we ever be able to recover that ground which our slow improvidence hath lost. again, in this adveniat wee do not sue to God to change his purpose of coming, but rather beseech him to change our vile bodies that so we may go the sooner to Him, uncloathing ourselves of the burden of our flesh, 
Phil. 1.23.  and crying with Saint Paul, Cupio dissolui, I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ; and winging ourselves with the Prophet Dauids wish, 
Psal. 55.6.  O that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly away and bee at rest.  
Lastly, 'tis no impatient voice of a man weary of Gods stay, or not content to tarry his leisure, but rather like the shout of men harnessed and prepared for the battle, which declares our readiness to encounter Him, not silently awaiting his coming, but whilst he is yet on his way making out to meet Him, and standing ready to welcome his arrival, his journey towards us with the loud acclamation of an adveniat Regnum tuum, Thy kingdom come.  
I haue spoken all, and in this short Paraphrase vpon the adveniat in my Text, delivered the full use we all must make of this Petition: which is, to make ourselves as ready for the kingdom of Glory, as that is ready for us, to set ourselves as near to God, as the approaching day of his kingdom is near to vs. John Baptist long since proclaimed this kingdom to be at hand, and in the Reuelat. that Ecce venio, 
revel. 16.15.  tells us the King of Glory is not far off. O then( as it is in the psalm) Lift up yourselves ye everlasting Gates, 
Psal. 24.7.  that the King of Glory may enter in. The Heart is the Gate at which Christ must enter, 'tis the Fort, the citadel which He would haue yielded into his possession, My son give me thy heart; 
Prou. 23.26.  Let us therefore prepare our Hearts for the entertainment of so great a Guest, that so our souls may hold the same course hereafter which our Prayers here do. If wee cry unto Him adveniat, pray for his coming, yet are unready and unsettled against that Day, we do not love but fear his arrival. And then if this adveniat breath from a soul distracted with fear, our Petitions run counter; the point of them is turned against our own breast, we pray against ourselves. 
Aug. in Psal 97.  Optas vt veniat quem times ne veniat? dost thou wish for Him whom thou fearest? 
Aug. in Psal. 147  Peruersum est& nescio vtrum verum, quem diligis timere ne veniat; Orare veniat regnum tuum,& timere ne exaudiaris? How shall God beleeue thee when thou thus iugglest and playest the Hypocrite with Him, when thou makest a request to Him which thou art afraid lest he should grant unto Thee?  
think how miserable were thy case if he should take thee at thy word, and when thou sayest Thy kingdom come, should suddenly at the instant come vpon thee, before thou hadst time to recollect thyself, and to repent this hypocrisy of thy Prayers.  
Thou hast no way to rectify and set strait thy Prayers but by rectifying thyself. Corrige te vt non oars contra te; correct thy perverse ways and amend thy life, lest if God take thee unprovided, thou find by late and woeful experience that thou hast prayed against thyself.  
'tis most true, Repentance is the best preparative for the kingdom of Glory, commended to us by the Great physician of our souls, Repent, 
Mat. 4.17.  for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He that against that time shall be enabled with Grace to lay up so good a stock for himself as a New life, is furnished for a glorious voyage into the New jerusalem. Nor needs he be afraid how soon Christs second advent will be. This onely preparation doth He require of us, and if He yet defer His coming a while longer, 'tis onely for our good, to give us time thus to provide for his entertainment, as He himself warns us, 
Mat. 24.44.  Et vos estote parati; we do not stay for Him, no, He stays for vs. Behold, his preparations are all made, O that ours were made also. hear from his own mouth, Omnia parata, All things are in a readiness; 
Mat. 22.4.  Paratae sunt nuptiae, The Marriage is at hand; 
Vers. 8.  Parata est Coena, My Supper is ready; and Paratum est Regnum, My kingdom is long since prepared. Blessed is that Man who can truly answer him, Paratum est Cor meum, Lord, 
Psal. 57.7.  my heart is ready, my heart is ready. He shall be sure to be one of those to hear that joyful Reply from Christ again, Possidete paratum vobis Regnum; 
Mat. 25.34.  Enter into that glorious kingdom prepared from th● beginning of the world.   

Thy will bee done in Earth as it is in heaven.  
HItherto our Petitions haue been in the ascent, raising and working themselves vpon the wings of this Prayer. They are now climbed to the highest pitch, the Culmen& fastigium, Top of this Mount of God. For the contemplation of Gods Will is next in height to his own Presence, nay 'tis himself. Wee can put no difference betwixt his Essence and his Will. Now because this is otherwise in Man, whose Will is a faculty of the soul, and not his Essence;  
My first part shall be to show the difference betwixt voluntas tua, and voluntas hoins, Gods Will and Mans.  
Secondly, I shall declare what this Will of God is, and the several Acceptions of it, which is the contemplative part; Inuoluing Totum theologiae, the whole body of divinity.  
Thirdly, how this Will of His is to bee fulfilled, which is the wick part of the Petition; and indeed Totum Religionis, the main scope of Religion: In the performing whereof, the whole Law and the Prophets are fulfilled; Fiat, Thy Will be done.  
Lastly, I shall present unto you the pattern proposed unto us, according to which, Religion and our endeavours must work; Sicut in Coelo, In Earth as it is in heaven; and this is the perfection of this Petition, which is the Exemplary part.  
First, of the consideration of voluntas Tua and hoins, Gods Will and Mans. Like the distance betwixt heaven and Earth, such is the disproportion betwixt God and Man. God sees not as Man sees, nor doth He Will like him. The Will of Man is moved by occasions, altered by chance; but the Will of God, like the Persian laws, stands irrevocable, neither to be resisted nor reversed.  
When Adams privilege was called in, the Will was abridged too, and allowed less freedom than before. If it now haue any Liberty, 'tis negative. It is in a Mans own Will and choice whether he will do any foul fact, perpetrate an Ill, for Homo est liberè malus, nothing compels or lays an inevitable necessity of sinning vpon him; 'tis free for him to avoid it. No loose star bawds him in his inordinate desires; no angry Planet guides his hand to murder; no watery Influence urges him to that familiar sin now grown a fashionable compliment, drunkenness. he may avoid the Actions of sin, though not the Offers. Those Primi motus, motions and seeds of sin, which are scattered vpon his whole being, will bud and put forth a blade. Though the Heart of Man be never so well manured by Grace, and sown with grain of better value; for all that, original sin will sand up those rank weeds, those wild tares to grow amongst our best harvests, as the remembrances and Characters of that taint wee bear about vs.  
Now although Man be Liberè malus, he is not Liberè bonus; Though it be in his Election to act no mischief, 'tis more than he can undertake to do any Good; yea, or to think well, without the assistance of God.  
The liberty of Will consists not In indifferentia ad vtrumque contrariorum( which is the state of the question, and the terms of quarrel betwixt us and the Papists touching Free-will) in an Indifferency to Will that which is Good or that is evil, but onely In immunitate à Coactione, in an immunity from any Coaction; a man is not good against his Will, nor is there any Necessity of sinning laid vpon him.  
So that this Liberty is clogged with Restraint.  Cum fugit à collô trabitur pars longa catenae. 
Pers. Sat. 5.  
It is a negative freedom, like that which is indulged to Prisoners, who are allowed the liberty of the Prison, to go freely about the house, but may not exceed that circuit( if you can call it a liberty not to wear shackles) or else haue leave to walk abroad with their Keepers, or be confined to one room, this is such: Man is not left indifferent to himself, but still waited on by an Abridgement.  
To speak more properly, Man hath such a freedom over his Will, as Keepers haue over Lions in their grates, who permit them a kind of liberty: they do not tie them up, but let them walk about in their cells, and can choose, keeping them within those bounds, whether they shall do any hurt; but it were a dangerous presumption to enlarge them further: as dangerous is their boldness, who dare impute to Man the liberty of doing well, or give the latitude and scope to Will, which if not bridled, and with a straight hand held in, is wilder then the wildest of creatures.  
Man may rudely Cast and project good things, Intend and mean towards Well, yet all this is but Purpose, but pretence, 'tis not Action. He must wait on God for the finishing his good intents. For though he may cast the model, lay the platform of virtue, he cannot raise the work without higher assistance. 
Psal. 127.1.  Except the Lord build the house, in vain is all other endeavour; Vpon which foundation Damascen builds his conclusion, 
Damascen. lib. 2. cap. 29.  {αβγδ}: We haue in our eye and contemplation what to do, but cannot determine vpon it, or effect it without God co-operate with vs.  
But howsoever Man be thus confined in his Will, God is not in His. He is Liberrimum agens, such an Agent as attends not the concurrence of Causes or Times for accomplishing what he would haue effected: all times are seasonable to Him, all causes give way to his prerogative, who precedes all causes that we can call First; and with such a prompt passive obedience, that He no sooner Wils any thing, but that Will is moulded and made up into a Work, Eodem modô vidit facta, 
August.  quô viderit facienda. His Will speaks in no other tongue but his works, and what we in our language and translation call works, is in the original nothing else but His Will. He doth not Velle first, and then Facere, first Intend, and then Act, but these run even together; if there be any prevention in either, 'tis in the Action, forward to obey his Will.  
You never red a volvit, but you see a Fecit goes along with it. Quicquid volvit fecit, 
job 23.13.  He hath done whatsoever he pleased. Whereupon justly doth Saint Augustine infer; 
Aug. lib. 3. de Trinitate.  Voluntas Dei prima& summa causa est omnium operum& motionum, Gods Will is the highest and the Primary Cause of all motion and action. Damascen enlarges it farther, 
Damascon. lib. 2. cap. 29.  {αβγδ}: His Will both makes and conserves all things.  
Besides, the Will of Man is but a Quality, an adherent Companion to the soul, rather Consequens essentiam ainae, then Essentia ipsa, a Consequence, not an Essence. He that writes most boldly of it, stiles it but Pars ainae, part of the soul. 
Zanchius.  But the Will of God is not Pars Dei, a part of the Deity, but entirely itself: not an affection, or a quality, or an elicit act, but the very Essence. 
Pet. Lomb. lib. 1. Dist. 45.  Nam voluntas Dei quâ semper volens est non affectus vel motus est said Diuina {αβγδ}: 'tis not a distinct thing in God to Will and to Be, but the same. And as it is all one in Him, to be Good and to bee God, so Idem est ei esse volentem ac esse Deum, it is all one in Him to Will and to be God. Such an Identity is betwixt the Essence of God and his Will; in which justin Martyr grossly erred, holding that Gods Essence differed from his Will.  
They are both convertible, and yet the Master of the Sentences well notes that the conversion holds not round, for though we say, Idem est Deo velle quod esse, non tamen dicendum est Deum esse omnia quae vult. howsoever it bee true to say, 'tis all one in God to Will as to Be, we must not for all that say, God Is whatsoever He Wils.  
The distance then appears so large betwixt these two Wills, of God, and Man, that 'tis fit I set the terms of my comparison wider then at first I did. For heaven and Earth are less distant from each, than Gods Will and Mans. As remote as they seem to our apprehensions, yet they meet in logic; one Predicament contains both heaven and Earth, but Voluntas hoins, and Voluntas Tua totô genere differunt, differ in the Genus, Gods Will and Mans will not to be reconciled in one Predicament, the Will of God being a Substance and the Essence of God, Mans but a Faculty and Accident.  
Lastly, the Will of God and of Mans, differ sometimes as contraries. Mans will is carried to those objects which the Will of God is not to grant him. Oft times we wish abundance and a smooth life, not made rugged or soured with Crosses, when God in his wisdom knoweth want is better for us, and that calamity best makes us understand both Him and ourselves, according to that, Vexatio dat intellectum.  
We covet long terms of life, addition of daies both to ourselves and those wee love, when wee see God withstands our wishes, dealing more mercifully with us than we are able to apprehended, or choose for ourselves. What the Poet spake of the false gods, with better right may I of the True God, Charior est illis homo quàm sibi. Out of this provident care of us he cuts us off early, before age hath reached his midway, and by this diminution of yeeres, as well prevents the growth of sin in us, as takes us from the sense and sight of those woes which hang over the last times. he deprives us of our dearest comforts, takes from us the chiefest blessings which the World yields, for whose sakes wee are content to grow enamoured of the World, not being desirous to foregoe it for heaven, till that tedious age seize us, wherein wee are not fit or able to live any longer. By which sad lesson he lets us know, that 'tis in vain to dream of any heaven vpon Earth, of any perpetuity of worldly blessings; and admonisheth us that we should wean and dissettle our affections from them betimes, fixing our eyes vpon better objects. For by the path of loss and Affliction, he leads our eyes, and draws up our Meditations to that Tabernacle of rest, that place of everlasting comfort, whither he hath taken our friends before vs.  

2 Part. Thy Will.  I haue easily discharged my first Part, touching the difference of Gods and Mans Will. My second is an harder task, to show what this Voluntas Tua, Will of God is; indeed an impossibility, if we understand by it his Hidden and Secret Will. For who hath been the Lords counselor? who hath known his mind so far as to bee acquainted with the mystery of His Will? What finite tongue is able to define such an infinity as it? As no Name hath signification enough, no. Attribute breadth or capacity competent to import his Essence, so neither is any definition capable of His Will, which is himself. If any could be assigned certainly, the Genus of that definition must be Mercy: resting vpon that we shall be sure the Definition will not be much wider, and not a whit narrower than the definition, but holds the best and most equal proportion; for you shall find that His will is ever apparelled in Mercy, 
Ezech. 33.11.  As I live I would not haue the death of a sinner. Mercy was the Foundation of all his works, which are but the issues and fruits of his Will. In Mercy did he found this vast Globe of the World, 
Psal. 31.5.  and The whole earth is full of his Mercies.  
Yea, and when his Will was to contract the Greater World, to cast it in a lesser Mould, comprising the whole universe in Man, that Decree, that Act of his Will was accompanied with a Mercy greater and more ancient than the other, whereby he did Pre-elect Mankind to salvation, Antè iacta mundi fundamenta, 
Mat. 25.34.  long before the foundations of that Greater World were laid.  
Which superlative Mercy was rooted in his Will. Such a Mercy unto which He was not persuaded vpon Conditions, either Ex praeuisâ Fide( as the Arminian holds) a preuision or foresight of Faith; or, Ex praeuisis operibus, any forestalled Merit, or for Good works which he foresaw at our Election( as some of the Papists flatter themselves) but Ex merâ Gratiâ& Beneplacitô, moved and led to it by his own gracious inclination: There was no preceding cause that induced Him, no contract that tied Him to this great work of Mercy save onely his Will, Desponsaui te mihi in aeternum; I haue contracted thee, not thou thyself: even so Lord was it thy good Will and Pleasure.  
I dare not give way to a farther inquiry, or let our curiosity, though steered by Duty and Religion, trace this secret Will of God any higher. 'tis dangerous to hunt such abstruse mysteries at the view, or look too near, lest a perpetual blindness punish our presumption, as uzzah for daring to touch the ark was struck dead. 
2 Sam. 6.7.   
We will here call down our Contemplation, and as they that look on the sun reflected in the water, see him more perfectly& more safely than if they should gaze on him in his own Sphere wherein he moves: so will we behold the glorious Will of God by reflex in his Word. Thus looking on it, wee shall bee able to satisfy ourselves in so much as becomes Christians, not sulphureous, to understand.  
Moses cast a Mantle over his head, and would not suffer his eye to meet God coming towards Him, or open itself at the face of God, but onely to look after Him being past; so may we, though it be full of hazard to look on his Will, à priori, in the face of it, in the motives or occasions which first induced the operation thereof; we are allowed to survey it, à posteriori, in the Back-parts, the effects and consequences, for they are visible and vnuailed, being the marks and discoveries of his revealed Will.  
To this end, and to let in our apprehensions more clearly to the knowledge thereof, the schools distinguish variously of the Will of God. There is Voluntas been placiti, or Absoluta, 
Biel. Lect. 69. In Miss.  The absolute Will of God that ordains a Being unto all things, Sibi in aliquô complacens vt sit vel fiat,( so he illustrates it) Which is again divided into two Other, Voluntas antecedents, taken to signify his eternal Ordinance, wherein he forecast what He would do; or Consequens, which imports his providence, whereby he sustains those creatures which he hath produced.  
Secondly, there is Voluntas Signi, a Manifestation of his Will, whether it be in his works, which are the fruits of his Will, or his Word which is the evidence of his will, directing us to the knowledge what he would haue us do. A sense tropical and figurative, yet most proper to inform us: and this is scattered into five divisions or species. First, Permissio, his Permission or Allowance, or privilege to things, without which they cannot be; 
Aug. Enchirid.  Non fit aliquid nisi oimpotens fieri velit, vel sinendo vt fiat, vel faciendo. Secondly, Impletio, the Perfecting or Fulfilling of them. Thirdly, Consilium, his revealed Decree. Fourthly, Praeceptum, his positive Law; his Precepts wherein he teaches and commands us to do what is acceptable in his sight. Fiftly and lastly, Prohibitio, the Restraint he lays vpon us, His command for the eschewing those Actions which are contrary to his Will.  
Peter Lombard is of opinion that the Will of God, which in this Petition wee desire may be done, is taken Pro Praeceptô aut Consilio Dei. So that the meaning and Paraphrase of it is this; We desire God to enable us for the performance of that which his Will instructs and bids us do.  
You see into how many several acceptions Voluntas Tua is scattered, which notwithstanding do not vary or diuersifie Gods will, but our Apprehensions of it. Non Dei voluntas est diuersa, said locutio diuersa; God hath not many, but one Will, however we treat of that one Will many ways. And yet this Treaty ends not our task, which is not so much to Dispute of his Will as to do it. I therefore leave this contemplative part, and go on to the wick, which offers itself in the next Circumstance, Fiat voluntas, Thy Will bee done.  
Here some may object and ask, Doth God need our Fiat? 
Fiat. Thy Will be done. Esa. 46.10.  Doth He not perfect whatsoever. He Wills without leave from us? I red it as one of Gods Mottoes, Omnis voluntas mea fiet, every jot of my Will shall be fulfilled: And if so, why do we give him our Fiat?  
If any subordinate Magistrate should vnder-write the Kings Letters Patents, or a Constable sign a Proclamation, which is the immediate Herald and Messenger of his Will, as if those acts were so feeble and bashful that they could want countenancing or approbation from him, would you not think him lunatic? What then can we think of ourselves? if we in our Petitions annex a Fiat to Voluntas tua, Thy Will be done.  
again, is not the Will of God inflexible? 
Esa. 46.10.  Voluntas mea stabit, My Will, like a peremptory Decree, must stand: Is it not immutable, unalterable, like himself? Apud quem non est transmutatio; 
jac. 1.17.  with whom there is no shadow of change. If then his Sentences of Vengeance and of Mercy stand fixed, concluded and determined, 
Bradwardin. de causa Dei lib. 1. cap. 23. Corollar.  Non voluntate Conditionali aut Indeterminatâ said Absolutâ& Determinatâ; not by any Alterable, revocable Will, but Absolute and not to be repealed; If wee prejudicate our Petitions, knowing the fruitless success before we make them; If a despair to prevail with God, and an impossibility either to promote or hinder his purposes hang vpon our lips and clog our words as they go up, why do we pray {αβγδ}; why do wee trouble God with an importunate service, or put ourselves to an unfruitful task, praying for that, which without heresy, and the concession of Mutability in God, we cannot obtain?  
Bradwardin tells us, 
Lib. 1. cap. 28. in fine.  Imponitur Aegyptijs tanquàm error, quod ipsi putabant voluntatem Domini posse per Sacrificia immutari; It was an Error which lay on the egyptians, that they thought Sacrifices might divert Gods purposes, alter his resolutions; May it not be imputed for as great an error unto us, if wee imagine that our Prayers( which are our Sacrifices and Holocausts) can alter Gods Will, or disturb his Method, which must go on whether we pray or be silent?  
But to take away these busy scruples, and to wipe them out, vnâ Liturâ, from any weak imagination, to which they shall object themselves. I grant it a truth, that the Pelagians( of whom we may read in Saint Augustine lib. de Haeres.) anciently, and since them Petrus Abailardus( as Alphonsus à Castro) and many more I doubt not besides him( though I am sure not those religious men whom Alphonsus in that Chapter injuriously, 
Alphons. à Castro lib. 11.  and without any ground to be taken out of their works, couples with him wickliff, Hus, and Luther, whose precious Memory I will not wrong so much as to seek to vindicate them from such Blasphemy against the use of Prayer, never but highly extolled and devoutly practised by them) I say the Pelagians, and some other heretics, out of a malicious practise of theirs to discountenance the use of Prayer, and to make it vneffectuall, objected God was Inexorable, a hard peremptory Master, whose Will would not bee altered, concluding with those in Malachy, Vanus est qui seruit Domino, 
Mal. 3.14.  'tis to no end to serve or pray unto God.  
But yet I see not why this Conceit should so transport them, or stagger any others. If any spark of that heresy to this day lurk amongst us, or lie raled up in any schismatical bosom, let them know that the hindrance of Gods Will is not the scope of our Prayer, but the execution of it; for we literally beseech Him that his Will may be accomplished.  
What his secret Will is, we look not into; but we are sure Prayer is a condition of His revealed Will: the Law bids us pray, 
Leuit. 5.7.  Ora pro iis sicut praecepit Dominus; and the Prophets bid us pray, Orabit me, &c. 
jer. 29.12.  and the gospel bids us pray, 
Luk. 22.40.  Orate ne intretis in tentationem: Yea, so necessary is this act of Praying, that without it God will not sand down his blessings to us: 'tis the Medium to convey unto us those mercies which in his secret will he hath decreed to bestow vpon vs. God will not save a man against his own mind, or without his own desire, Non saluabit te sine te. Though he made thee without thy advice or knowledge, and did not call thee to counsel when he elected thee to life; yet for all this he hath left some part of thine election to bee made up by thyself. 
Phil. 2.12.  Thou must work out thy salvation by thine own importunity. Though thou hast His Word, and the Warrant for thy deliverance from death be signed, and enrolled, and registered in his Book; though it hath past his Mouth and his Hand, yet He leaves thee to be thy own solicitor for procuring the seal to bee put to it: Though He hath graciously promised thee a Pardon, 'tis in his Court of heaven, as in our common Fores, that Pardon profits not thee, is indeed no Pardon unless thou sue it out. God will not save thee if thou implore Him not, nor shalt thou beleeue He can, if by thy Prayers thou do not beg an vnwauering Faith, a constant belief in his Mercy, built and grounded vpon the promises of his Word.  
In brief thus: we do not here pray that God would Change His Will, but Alter Ours, and give us grace to conform our crooked inclinations according to that rubric, that straight Rule of our Faith: We do not take vpon us by a kind of concession to authorize Gods Will, or desire Him to do what we cannot hinder, but we petition Him to authorize us, and to enable our weakness to perform his Will, 
Cyprianus.  Non petimus vt Deus faciat quod vult, said vt nos facere possimus quod Deus vult. Wee first desire an aptitude to Will those things that are acceptable in his sight, suppling nos velle, and then to do them, Fiat voluntas Tua, Thy will be done.  
The Commandements are His Will, we do not presume so much on our own strength, or persuade ourselves wee can fulfil them as the Rhemists do, 
Rhem. Test. Mat. 11.  but retire to God from whom they came for his assistance, such is the humble voice of our litany. Incline thou O Lord our hearts to keep these laws.  
again, 'tis his Command and Will that We beleeue in the Name of Iesus Christ, joh. 3.23. Therefore wee cry to him in the gospel, 
Luk. 17.5.  Domine adauge fidem, That he would help our unbelief, and confirm his faith in vs.  
again, it is the Will of God we should be sanctified both in soul and Body, that wee abstain from fornication, from oppression, and fraud; And here the Precept is most seasonable, justly set for the Meridian of this City, of which I may speak, as Gregory Nazianzen did of Alexandria, civitas quam vix multa virtutis exempla saluare possunt; It is such a City as hath need of Prayers, within whose walls sin hath too long kept his quarter; where fraud is ever predominant, and cozenage reputed a thriving Trade, not a Crime; where Oppression lurks in the bosom of Authority, being sometimes clad in the Colour and rob of Iustice, where uncleanness is grown so impudent it seeks no dark Retreats, no suburbs or blind paths, but broadly looks day in the face, and takes a pride to outstare honesty, now a daies so dis-esteem'd and out of fashion, that 'tis held only the Birth-right of fools.  
Now as this Fiat is Vox infirmitatis, the voice of weakness, invocating God for strength and supply, so it is Vox Obedientiae, the voice of Obedience. Where this Fiat voluntas Tua, Thy Will be done, is truly said and meant, it is the pledge of our submission, yielding obedience and assent to Gods Will. Of which Obedience I seek no example but Christs, Ille materiam& exemplum dabit. He who was obedient in ●he highest Degree,( for that Obedience exalted Him to the cross) can best instruct our Wills in the passive Lessons of this virtue. He that in this place taught us to say, Thy Will be done, in the 26. Chapter of Matthew, Monstrat non jubet, there demonstrates to us by example, what he taught here by Precept. For on the eve and fearful Vigils, preceding that great festival of Tyranny, His Passion, after three several Charges made vpon Him in the Garden by different Agonies, when our faint infirmity and the guilt of our sins made him seem to shrink a little and give back, having Thrice besought his Father that Cup might pass, yet for all this He comes on again faster, and more resoluedly than he seemed to retire, making this Fiat voluntas tua, three times the Period of His Prayer. If it may not pass ●rom me but I must drink it, 
Mat. 26.39.  Thy Will be done, not mine, Not as I will, but as Thou wilt. 
Tertul. lib. de Orat.  Vpon which words Tertullian excellently glosses, Ipse erat voluntas& potestas Patris,& tamen ad demonstrationem sufferentiâ debitae, voluntati se Patris dedidit, though He was both the Power and Will of His Father, yet to tutor our Obedience by His own Example, He submitted himself to the Will of His Father.  
Lastly, it is Vox Patientiae, the voice of Patience, and sounds like that Ecce paratus sum, I am ready to undergo thy Will, O Lord. He that hath perfectly learnt Saint Pauls Lesson, 
Phil. 4.11.  To be content in what condition soever he is, that Man is a confirmed Christian. Happy is he that with a cheerful countenance can look vpon all the changes of life,— Sapiens sibique imperiosus, 
Horat. l. 2. Sat. 7.  Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula terrent; that with an even unmoved Temper can welcome all fortune; not tempted by his Felicity to forget God, nor urged by his afflictions to murmur at Him, that when he hath lost his venture by Sea, or his comforts by land, suffers no tempest or rebellious perturbation within his own breast, but parts with his wealth as Bias did with his at the sack of Priene, 
Tull. Paradox.  Ille haec ludibria fortunae ne sua quidem putavit; considering his riches as hirelings, destined to change their Masters, and parts with his friends as the noble Roman did with his son, of whose death, when he had received the notice, he entertained it with this manly reply, 
Sen. Consol. ad Polyb.  Ego cum genui tum moriturum scivi, I knew he was not immortal, and when he first became mine, I received him vpon such conditions, as that I reckoned Death might make him not mine; He I say that can thus unaltered look vpon his cross, speaking Saint Augustines language, 
Aug. Serm. 29. de verb. Domini.  and with his devout heart, Foelix sit mundus, euertatur mundus, benedicam Dominum qui fecit mundum; Let the world stand or sink to it's first foundations, let my fortune fall under those ruins, yet my Faith and Patience shall not sink; I will still bless that God that made the world, and made me. he that thus meets the affronts of Death and Fortune, giuing them Iobs thankful, though sad, farewell; Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit; 
job 1.21.  The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, blessed bee the Name of the Lord; such a man hath well learned Christ, 
Ephes. 4.20.  and made a just application of the Apostles Doctrine; 
1 Thes 5.3.  In all things give thankes, for this is the Will of God. 
Senec. Consolat.  Scias eadem esse iustissima fulmina quae etiàm percussi colunt,( divinely speaks Seneca) 'tis most certain God owns them for his dearest children, who obediently bow to His Iustice; who though Thunder-strook, his arrows sticking fast in them, yet bless Him that afflicts them, and adore the hand that hurt them. How unkind, how cursed soever thy fortune be, how violent thy afflictions, let not thy Patience prove a Ruffian. Lay thy hand vpon thy mouth, and let that which was once thy Masters be thy Motto, Sicut ovis coram tondente, 
Act. 8.32.  Like a Sheep dumb before the Shearer; for thy task is to suffer, not to reply or complain. How grievous soever thy losses bee, either of goods, or health, or( that which of all others trencheth deepest vpon our affections) of friends, amid those losses be sure thou do not lose thyself, and then be as sure thou shalt one day find again those whom thou here missest.  
Me thinks the very connexion of these two Petitions, Thy kingdom come, Thy Will be done, are like strong grapples& ties to hold a Christian& his Patience together. How can a man but gladly suffer the deprivation of his friends, when he thinks they are landed and arrived at that kingdom which we daily pray to come unto? When he remembers they are gone before to that happy place, whither we, with all the sails devotion can bear, with all the speed Prayers can make, follow after; Surely not to be thankful to God, but repined at his Will for lifting them up to that height of Beatitude, were an ingratitude next atheism; and to lament them whom we beleeue to haue gained an everlasting state of happiness, were madness, not sorrow, and rather envy than affection.  
Thus are wee arrived at our furthest point of this voyage. These mixed Meditations compounded of contrary ingredients, Bitter and Sweet, Affliction and Patience, Sorrow and Ioy, Mortality and heaven, haue brought us to the last part of this Petition, which is the Exemplary part, Sicut in Coelo sic in Terra, In Earth as it is in heaven.  

4 Part. In Earth as it is in heaven.  Man was a creature made up in imitation of his Maker, Imago Dei, the Image of God, to put him in remembrance that he should continually work after that original Copy which God gave him from heaven. 
Basil. Institut. ad vitam perfectam, cap. 2.  Thus Saint Basil, Nec ob aliam causam homo ad Imaginem Dei altissimi factus est, quàm vt aliquid gesturus, in eum tanquam in Archetypum exemplarque aspiciens, modum viamque virtutis imitari conaretur. God commanded Moses to do according to that he had received from himself in the Mount; and our blessed saviour who knew well to work his Elect by the best Copy, prays, that his Disciples might not onely be where himself was, 
John 17.11, 24.  but Sicut too, as the Father and He was. We expect to be Changed, 
Phil. 3.21.  and that our vile bodies shall one day be made like Christs glorious Body; That Faith, that belief for the alteration of our Bodies, should therefore in the mean time daily preach unto us the change of our crooked corrupt Minds, to make both Them and our perverse Wills, Sicut eius, obedient and conformable to his.  
To live Sicut in Terrâ, according to the times and fashion of the World, is quiter out of the road of heaven. Christs Method was contrary to the worlds: in his last Legacy he bequeathed, 
job. 14.27.  Pacem non sicut Mundus, a Peace to his Disciples not like the peace of the World: and he expects a like proportion from us, that wee should not vitam Mundi agere, not live to the World, but to God; not pass our daies as Worldlings and sons of the Earth, but as filii Lucis, 
Ephes. 5.6.  Children of the Light.  
We must lead our lives in, but not by the World, Sicut in Coelis, non sicut in Terrâ. Earth is a bad Copy, lame and imperfect. Let Beasts make that their object, the level of their thoughts. Mans exalted straight form bids him look up, invites his Contemplation to the things above, not the things below. That man degenerates from Nature much, from Grace more, that proposes unto himself low ignoble patterns. 
Nunquam exemplum à malis sumit: Semper à meliore parte incitamenta virtutum sunt. Hierom. Epist. 21. jac. 1.17. Mat. 10.25.  Imitation in it's proper Motion ever ascends, for the Sphere of virtue is mounted high, and all Good is derived from above. Sufficit Discipulo vt sit sicut Magister, Christ hath said, There is no competent congruous sampler for the Disciple, but his Master; nor must any Christian know any other sicùt, but sicùt in Coelis; He must only pattern himself by heaven.  
I stand not to amplify this point: only to repeat the several Interpretations which learned Men give of Coelum and Terra in this place, is a sufficient moral and Application.  
First, Saint Augustine understands by heaven, the Angels; and by Earth, Men: vpon which he grounds this exposition, Petitur vt sicut Dei voluntas fit in angels, 
Biel. loc. cit.  qui Coeli sunt, &c. ità etiàm fiat in Terrâ, in Sanctis qui sunt in Terrâ,& de Terrâ quantum ad corpus facti: When we pray, Thy Will be done, &c. we desire, that as the Will of God is performed by the Angels in heaven, so it may also be fulfilled by men on Earth; Vt sint homines similes angels, 
Jd. pag. 143.  that Men may be as obedient to Gods Will, as are those blessed Ministers of heaven, who readily fulfil all his Commands.  
'tis not enough to know the Bible, or be able to repeat the several volumes of his Will, unless a practise be joined to this speculative science of Christianity. Knowledge what to do, and forbearance to do what we know, hastens our Condemnation, and adds weight to it; 
Luk. 12.47.  That seruant who knows the Will of his Master, but does it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. Isidor Pelusiot says, 
Isidor. Pelus. Epist. 24 l. 4.  It is a most impudent hypocrisy( {αβγδ}, &c.) to call God Father, yet do nothing worthy his son; to cry, Thy Will be done, and yet do nothing agreeable to that Will.  
The gloss in Matth. 6. interprets these words, De carne& spiritu, understanding by heaven the intellectual Faculties in Man, which exercise their acts in the head and vpper region of the Body: by Earth the sensitive, which keep their quarter in Inferioribus, below; Sic ergo petimus obedientiam carnis ad spiritum, vt caro spiritui non rebellet, we pray that the flesh may not resist the good motions of the Spirit; that the dissolute appetite rebel not against Reason, that Anger or Passion breed no tumult, no intestine warres within mans self, nor distracted his thoughts from the service of God; but that Will may be governed by Reason, Sense subordinate to the Intellect, the Flesh to the Spirit, and all these obedient to the Will of God: Vt terrena coelestibus cedant, 
Cyprian.  & spiritualia& diuina praeualeant; that no worldly respects may hold down our Meditations from heaven, but that the love of God and his service may bee predominant above all earthly pleasures or profit.  
Other of the Fathers, out of these words, Sicut in Coelo, &c. extract this charitable use, to Pray for our enemies, understanding by Coelum Ecclesiam servorum, by Terra Congregationem peccatorum; by heaven, the Church; by Earth, the Congregation of sinners, and such as either know not Christ aright, or not at all. For their conversion to the true Faith do we pray in this place: Moniti sumus orare pro inimicis nostris qui Terra sunt, Quasi dicamus, 
August.  credant inimici nostri sicut& nos in te credimus. And the same Father recites out of S. Cyprian, 
Id. lib. de bono perseuerantiae.  Non tantùm pro fidelibus vt augeatur vel perseueret fides, verùm etiàm pro infidelibus vt habere incipiant, Sancta Ecclesia orat; The Church prays not onely for the constancy and perfection of Faith in the Elect, but for the Inchoation of it in those that are yet Vnbeleeuers; That they also might be enlightened, and haue a stock of Faith whereon to build their salvation.  
An excellent Christian-peece of Charity, which I wish were more in request with some Roman catholics than the practise of their Church shows. See the difference betwixt a Protestant and a Popish Charity. They solemnly ban and Curse all heretics four times a year, and on Maundy-Thursday the Protestants; but we in our Church the day after, Good-Friday, in memory and imitation of our blessed saviour, who prayed on his cross for those that crucified Him, devoutly pray for Them, that God would give them clearer Eyes and softer Hearts, that He would reduce them and all others, who either out of wilful malice, or out of ignorance wander from the Truth, to his Fold, that there might bee but one shepherd and one flock. 
John 10.16.   
Some take Coelum and Terra literally, and interpret Terra to signify Men that dwell on Earth. heaven, the material Body of the Celestials consisting of diuers orbs, of Planets and stars, all which as they are carried about in a Regular motion, no way Exorbitant or eccentrical, but according to Gods Ordinance; so we desire God that here in the Sphere of his Church we may move in a like Regularity, not transgressing his commands and our appointed bounds; that as the sun runs his race about the heaven, so may wee discharge our progress on Earth, going forward in all goodness, passing from one virtue to another, till having run thorough the whole zodiac of the virtues, and all the Degrees of goodness; we may reach our highest Degree, the Felicity of Saints in heaven. And as that sun stood still in Gibeon, 
josh. 10.13.  whilst josuah pursued the aduersaries of God, so must our Faith haue it's Solstice, and our hearts stand undaunted and unmoved in defence of Truth and the gospel, against all those that oppugn or labour to supplant it. And lastly, as the sun went back and made his retreat from the dial in Ezekiahs time, 
Esa 38.8.  so must we sometimes be Retrograde, that is, retire from the habit of our sins, and by unfeigned Repentance turn back unto the God of our salvation, from whom, as lost sheep, we went astray.  
Finally, Saint Chrysostome 
Chrysost.  doth as it were bind up these various expositions of Coelum and Terra, and applies them all briefly according to that Excellent Rule of the Apostle, 
Phil. 3.20.  Vt conversatio nostra sit in Coelis, making the full meaning of our Petition this, That our conversation may bee in heaven, and wee ourselves may so live out our Pilgrimage on Earth, that wee be not excluded from the joys and fruition of Christs glorious kingdom in heaven.  

Conclusion.  This is the Period, the resting place of all our Hopes, and of our Faith, it is the end of our Prayers, it shall also bee mine. I conclude in the words of the Psalmist, Beati qui custodiunt; Blessed are they that know the Will of God and observe it; That yield Him such a settled Obedience, which affliction cannot shake, That haue learned to bear their cross without murmur; and though wounded, give thankes with holy job, Though he kill me, 
job 13.15.  yet will I trust in him. That, if at any time rebellious passions dare turn head to reason, or dispute with God, Why go I thus heavily and oppressed? Why doth thy vengeance single me out? Why dost thou lay this burden of sorrow vpon me? are able to refute and choke it with Voluntas Domini; Be not disquieted or troubled, 
Psal. 42.11.  O my soul, it is the Will of God.  
Lastly, whose Patience is so well vaulted, that no weight crushes, but strengtheners it, making it more close and firm; whose resolution is so bold, that like Atlas, they stand, not lye under their burden; and though Fortune, or the Hand of God haue cast them never so low, yet on that dust, those ruins that cover and bury them, writ this for an Epitaph; Voluntas Domini facta est, The Will of God is done, and Blessed bee his Holy Will. They that can thus court their sorrows, thus entertain and give them such a welcome, that can so. Christian-like endure the Will of God in this kind here on Earth; let them not fear, nor doubt, nor be confounded, but know in the Confidence of Christs promise, 
Luk. 12.32.  that It is the Will of God, after those trials on Earth to give them a kingdom in heaven, where it shall be no more with them Sicùt in Terra, as it was on Earth; for there shall be no more sorrow, nor tears, nor affliction, nor night, but an everlasting Day of happiness, and a fruition of joys which shall there begin but never end, Amen.   

give us this day our daily Bread.  
THe life of a Christian is not therefore termed spiritual, that wee should live like Spirits without food; Neither did our saviour, when he said, The love of the world is enmity with God, intend to put that mortal Opposition betwixt us and the world, that wee should cast off all worldly respects conducing to a supply of our wants. He whose goodness gave us Being, gave us then also means to preserve that Being, 
1 Cor. 6.13.  Meats for the belly, 
Psal. 104 14. ( saith S. Paul) and Herbs for the use of man,( so the psalm.) I confess there are many Texts to hold the Body in subiection, but none to destroy it: For he that bids us fast, bids us not starve; and he that bids us in the psalm, 
Psal 62.10.  Not to set our hearts vpon riches, bids us not beg 
Non dixit, Nolite habere, said, Nolite diligere. Aug. Ser. 33. de verb. Dom. .  
Nay there is no Text that doth, by advancing the price and estimation of the soul, divest us of a just regard of the Body. S. Ambrose says the Body is Tunica ainae, the Coat, the Vesture of the soul; He therefore that casts off all care of it, vncloathes Nature, and discovers the shane of his understanding. Though the soul must haue the highest regard, the Body must haue a share, and a degree in our regard. For how can wee justify the neglect of that Body for the present, which God hath decreed to glorify hereafter? Of which future Glory he hath given this earnest, that he hath allotted a room in this prayer merely for things conducing to the Bodies provision.  
It is not strange that God who hath taken so strict an inventory of Man, that the very least hair of his head is entred in his Registry, 
mat. 10.30.  should be so tender of the whole Body. He that so precisely rates each Ligament, each small thread that ties the parts of the Body together, could not less than provide for sustenance to hold the main essential parts soul and Body together.  
Against all therefore that profess the Science of Want and Willing poverty, against all those that tyramnize over Nature, and execute a iustice vpon themselves beyond Gods commission, by starving the Body, let me oppose this Petition, as an inducement to them not to be cruel to their own Flesh, and as an argument of Gods impartial care of the Body, as of the soul. And you may observe how far he carries this care, even thorough all his Actions and our courses. There is not so great a disproportion betwixt the soul and the Body, as betwixt God and Man; yet in those acts which concern our profit and his Glory, He so far condescends to us, that He allows us more time for our advantage than He takes to himself. Of the seven dayes in the week, Six He allows to Mans industry, to do his work in, to buy and sell, to plant Vineyards, and to reap the fruits of the Earth, reserving only one Sabbath, the seventh day, for the adoration of his Name.  
And of the seven Petitions in this diary, this Ephaemerides of prayer, Christ hath ordained a more liberal share to Man than to himself: for only Three of them directly and immediately concern his kingdom and the Honour of his Name, the four last were intended for helps to accommodate Man whilst he lives here in the World.  
This Petition is our first step to Earth: In the three former wee made our ascents and approaches towards heaven; here our devotion flies at a lower pitch, and stoops at the World. Naturalitèr, quod procedere non potest, recedit. By Natures Rule, when things are at the highest, they must descend. When the Sun hath clomb up to the remotest part of our tropic, and is placed at greatest distance from our Hemisphaere, he traverses his course, and by another tropic falls nearer to us again. In the three first Petitions wee were nearer the Sun, nearer that place where the Throne of God is fixed, and the Sun of righteousness moves, heaven. Here wee as it were cut the Line, are in a new Climate: The Two Globes of Earth and heaven here divide themselves, this being the first side of the terrestrial. On which I shall describe unto you Six provinces that offer themselves to our view.  
First, the necessity of asking, implied in this postulation, give.  
Secondly, Ordo petendi, the order in which our Petitions must be ranked, which is exemplified in the Method of this prayer, which requires heavenly Blessings before Earthly, and teaches us to intend Gods Honour, and the performance of his Will, before our own Necessities.  
Thirdly, Qualitas petendorum, the quality of what wee ask, Bread.  
Fourthly, Modus petendi, the Measure or Bounds of our Petition, Quotidiamus, Daily Bread.  
Fiftly, the Petitioners for whom wee ask, Nobis, give vs.  
sixthly, the Date of the Petition, hody, This Day.  
It is the blessing of Clients to meet with easy Patrons, 
give.  such as will be mollified with Petitions. Wee are not sure there be many of this soft temper in the world: but wee are most certain God is one. A merciful Lord that yet never closed his ear to shut out the prayer of such as inuok't Him, nor contracted his bounty for bestowing mercy where it was implored. So gracious, that He ever gives where He is faithfully asked, yea and sometimes antedates his favours, by hearing us before wee call, 
Esa. 65.24.  and granting our requests before wee give them language to utter themselves in.  — Multa Dij dedêre neglecti. 
The Poet gave that free testimony of his false gods: how fully is it verified in the True God? He confers his Grace on many that seek it not. Indeed, if God should give us no more than wee ask, wee should receive very little; but if no more than wee deserve, nothing at all.  
Of such a profuse benignity is He, that for fear lest our own Necessities should not be imperious enough, urge us fast enough to seek his help, He with them lays his command on us, and indents with us, makes a perpetual covenant that wee shall require his assistance when wee need it: 
Psal. 50.15.  Call vpon me in the day of trouble, so I will hear thee, and thou shalt praise me. O the riches of his Mercy, that prevents the dull suitor, and bespeaks subiects to confer his blessings on! That descends so low as to solicit us to sue to him; That contracts for our prayers to be sent up for our good, 
Vers. 14.  as He doth for his own sacrifice; and is afraid of nothing more than that wee will not ask so much, and so often as he is willing to bestow.  
How different is the Worlds custom from his? There is a wretched kind of tenacity predominant in the disposition of Man, who is generally in nothing more close than in giuing, nor more reserved than in doing good to his brethren. There is scarce one amongst many that with a serene contented look receives a svit. 
Sen. de Benef. lib. 1. cap. 1.  Quis non, cum aliquid à se peti suspicatus est, frontem obduxit, vultum auertit, occupationes simulauit,& varijs artibus properantes necessitates elusit? Who is there almost that comes within the view of a Petition, but turns away his head? as if there were no spectacle so odious as a poor mans supplication: or else reuiles, or non-suits him with a frown, or feigns occasions to shake off the importunate Client and excuse his own benevolence; or, if he be surprised so that he cannot avoid the giuing of somewhat, either he gives so slowly, or unwillingly, or disdainfully, that he destroys the nature of his good turn.  
When I consider with how much delay commonly the charity of Men is stupefied and besotted, with how much insolence oft times their benefits are seasoned, I cannot but conclude them most happy, whose free independent condition exempts them from committing a servile Idolatry to Men, so that they know no Fore but the Temple, and understand no use of Petitions but in their prayers. A svit commenced in Gods Court will find a swifter decision, and cheaper Issue, than in ours. There is sometimes that unconscionable impost set vpon the favours of Men, that Clients must sue long and yet pay too. But Gods come at an easier rate, 
Esay 55.1.  Sine pretio, without money, 
mat. 7.7.  though Non sine petitione, not without prayer.  
Wee must pray then for the supply of our wants; 
mat. 17.21.  but not only pray: Hoc genus daemoniorum non eijcitur sola prece; necessity is a bad Spirit, that will not be exorcized or cast out, unless wee join our own endeavours to our prayers. When Adam forfeited his obedience, and shut God out of his heart, the ear of God and the bounty of Nature were at once barred against him: for at first the Earth wore her commodities in her forehead, visible and eminent, but after Mans fall she by Gods command called in her blessings, concealed her fruits, and in stead of that plenty wherein once she was appareled, now only wears that barren attire which Gods curse cast vpon her, thorns and Thistles. 
Gen. 3.18.  From which Curse nothing can rescue or redeem her, but Prayer and Labour; Prayer to open the ear of God, and Labour to open the Earth and search for those riches which lye hide within her bosom. So that, both these being requisite to supply Mans wants, it were a lazy presumption for any to suppose that the saying of Lord, Lord, 
mat. 25.11.  should win God to give them bread, for which they would take no pains at all.  
Now as wee must not only Pray, and not Labour, so neither must our Labour go single, without Prayer: for though it be our industry that opens the Earth with the Plough or the mattock, tis Prayer that must open the windows of heaven for 
2 King. 7.2.  the former and latter rain, 
Jerem. 5.24.  to bless the labour of the Husbandman. whosoever digs, or ploughs, or sows, or plants, it is God alone who gives the increase. 
1 Cor. 3.6.  A Fortune collected merely by mans industry, without God, shall melt away at the second generation, nor shall it haue the blessing of continuance, unless it be evicted by svit at His hand who is able to prosper the work of our hands. 
jac. 4 7.  The Apostle tells us, Ye fight and war but get nothing, because ye ask not. A man may struggle with necessity, and wage a continual war with his wants, but never get the vpper hand of them, never obtain that victory he hath sweat for, Abundance and Plenty, unless devotion be mingled with his Labours, unless he hath prayed, as well as sweat for it. Tis therefore best wee all take the advice which the Spirit gave the Church of Laodicea, 
revel. 3.18.  I counsel thee to buy of me gold that thou maiest be made rich, to purchase a Patrimony by thy Prayers from God, and to lay the foundation of thy Fortune in Religion and a good conscience.  
I pass from the necessity of our Asking, to the Order. 
Ordo petendi.  Wee must place spiritual blessings before temporal, and begin at God, from whom all things assumed their beginnings. For as He hath the priority of Essence and Power, being the Prima Causa and Primus Motor, first Cause and first mover, so must he haue the priority in our observance and duty. Else what a scepticism were it, that He who preceded the World in his own Being, should be cast back and come behind the World in our account? This were( so far as in us lies) to degrade our Maker, and to make God, who is Antiquus Dierum, 
Dan. 7.9.  the Ancient of Dayes, Puny to his own works.  
God hath stamped a method in the grave, and made the parent of Confusion, Death, sensible of order; for the Apostle tells us, Wee shall not rise, but in our order; 
1 Cor. 15.23.  and shall wee live so preposterously to disorder Him who is the God of Order, by denying that place and dignity wherein he ought to stand in our affections?  
Riuers that take their beginning from the Sea, flow back again, and pay a thankful Tribute to the Ocean, by powring themselves into the lap of their first Parent. Tis a just and equal gratitude, that the soul, who was infused by God, and took her first birth from Him, should, so soon as she is able to apprehended her own Parentage, so soon as her intellectual Faculties be full summd, and the wings of Meditation and Prayer can carry her upward, take her first flight to heaven, her native soil, there to confess the Power and goodness of Him that made Her.  
He were a most perverse Scholar, and learnt counter, that should begin at the wrong end of the Alphabet, and so trace it upward. God is the first Letter in the Christian Alphabet, for He is α, and therefore to be first studied, to haue the first room in our thoughts: And again he is ω, the last, and for that hath another capacity, another right to be first with vs. The end, though last in execution, is ever first in the intention. God is the end, to whose Glory wee and the world were made: he is the Terminus whither wee all tend: Let Him then and his kingdom possess the chief room in our desires, and then wee shall bring home the Wise mans counsel to ourselves, Let thy end be always in thy sight. 
Ecclus. 7.36.   
God cannot endure to come in the rear of our meditations, or be ranked lowest in our regard. 
Exod. 23.19.  He that commanded the First Fruits of the Earth as his due, will expect Primitias Labiorum, the Firstlings of our love and Deuotions too. For this cause He bids us, Remember him in our beginning, in the Dayes of our Youth. 
Eccles. 12 1.  And the Psalmist dedicates the first part of the Day to his service, Early will I call vpon thee. 
Psal. 88.14.   
Wee see in the common practise, that till the custom be paid the Trade is not free or open: so whilst the First fruits, which are Gods custom, rest unpaid, wee cannot expect a profitable traffic with Him, or success in our own affairs.  
The Story tells us, that when jacob pressed by the famine which reigned in his Land, sent to Egypt for victuals, he considered the dignity of the governor before his own necessity, and honoured him with a Present the best he could provide, 
Gen. 43.11.  before he asked for corn. Wee were not true Israëlites, if wee more regarded meats and drinks, than to do the Will of God, or preferred Panem quotidianum, our Daily Bread, before the Hallowing of his Name.  
Certainly to begin with God is a faire Introduction to all other blessings. They that fear God can lack nothing( saith the Psalmist) He hath given them meat that fear him; 
Psal. 111.5.  and though Lions suffer hunger, they shall be fed.  
It was Dauids conclusion, and demonstrated in his Son Salomon, whose election God so well approved in that he sought wisdom before Glory, and Religion above Riches, that he  told him, Because he had asked those things, He had not only granted what he requested, but what he asked not, 
1 King. 3.11, 12, 13.  Riches and Honours in greater measure than any of his predecessors ever had. Christ, who was figured in Salomon, by the Method and Order of this Prayer teacheth us that al Petitions are best couched for our advantage, when they begin with God and his kingdom. For so he comments vpon his own Method; 
luke. 12.31. & mat. 6.33.  First seek the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, and all these things shall be added unto you.  
This being premised touching the Order of these Petitions, my third point follows seasonably, which is Qualitas petendorum, the quality of what wee ask, Bread. 
Bread.   
S. Augustine as loth to eat before he had reconciled Christs two Texts that seem to thwart one another, moves the doubt, Why our saviour teaches us here to pray for what wee eat, and yet elsewhere precisely forbids us to be solicitous what wee should eat. 
mat. 6.31.  But the Father doth not sooner move the scruple than solve it. Alexander Hales hath made up his answer in a short distinction; There is( saith he) Solicitudo curiositatis, a curious care to please the palate with variety of diet, and there is Soli citudo diligentiae, an honest diligence that aims but at a competent allowance to resist hunger. Tis only the first solicitude Christ forbids, not the last.  
Certainly if wee measure this Petition Literally according to its object, wee shall find the Word pretends no curiosity. Tis but Bread wee ask. The smallest, most temperate request which poverty can put up, and the lowest rate Bounty or Charity can be seized at. You see how small a breadth the word carries in our acception, yet Saint Augustine in his construction enlarges it very far, and will haue it signify all kinds of meat, Panis pro omni cibo. But the Hebrew stretches the sense so wide, that under this word Bread it hath involved all things that tend to the sustentation or support of our life, as Health, Plenty, Peace. And as Manna the Bread from heaven humoured the palate so far, 
Wisd. 16.20, 21.  that it counterfeited all meats, and relished to him that ate it like that his Appetite most longed for; so doth this Bread apply itself to all necessities, importing whatsoever conduces to our preservation. Insomuch that S. Ambrose 
Ambros.  justly infers, Haec postulatio maxima est eorum quae postulantur; No Petition within this prayer is of so large dimensions as this. For Literally in it wee pray for Meats and Drinks: And because Meats without a stomach are a torment, not a blessing, wee pray for health of Body, that wee may enjoy the Earths fruits, and eat the labour of our hands. 
Psal. 128.2.  And because a Land which is made the Stage of war whereon her bloody Scenes are acted, banishes all Husbandry( for where the Sword is busy, the Plough stands idle) wee pray for Peace that wee may eat our own Bread, that every man may sit under his own Vine, 
2 King. 18.31.  and under his own figtree, that war fright not plenty from us, or make us slaves to want and famine, 
Micah 4.3.  but( as it is in the Prophet) Our spears may be turned into scythes, and Swords into Mattocks. I find also that Victory is figured under the title of Bread; for Ioshua tells Israel God would give the people of the Land of Canaan for Bread to them. 
Num. 14.9.   
By these several steps doth the signification of this word Bread dilate itself, thus wide doth it stretch in the natural meaning, and the mystical sense is as ample as the other. For as it signifies Panem corporalem, that Bread which nourisheth the Body, 
Ecclesiastic. 15.1.  so doth it also Panem vitae& justitiae, that Bread of Life which is the Word of God, wherewith the Pastors feed Christs flock. And wee may imagine, hereupon it is that S. Augustine interprets those five loaves wherewith our saviour fed the Multitude, 
mat. 14.17.  to be the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses. Besides, it signifies the Sacrament which the Psalmist calls Panem Angelorum, 
Psal. 78.25.  and the Author of the book of wisdom Panem de Coelo, 
Sap. 16.  Angels food and Bread from heaven.  
Lastly, righteousness may be called Bread; for our saviours Sermon in the Mount implies as much, when he terms them Blessed that hunger and thirst after righteousness. 
mat. 5.6.   
This is the sum of all that the schools say concerning the word Bread. Which is broken by them into five parts. First, Corporalis, our common Bread. Secondly, Spiritualis, Bread in a spiritual sense, which is Panis justitiae, righteousness. Thirdly, Doctrinalis, the doctrinal Bread distributed by Gods Dispensers, the Preachers. Fourthly, Sacramentalis, that hallowed Bread which wee receive in the Communion. Fiftly, Aeternalis, that eternal Bread of Life which wee hope to be partakers of in the World to come, of which our saviour says, Ego sum Panis viuus. 
John 6.35.  I may add one other Species of Bread, which the Psalmist calls {αβγδ}, 
Psal. 80.5.  Bread kneaded with our tears, which is the Bread of Repentance and sorrow for sin past.  
I shall not erect any large discourse on these foundations. Only thus: Wee must remember, Man lives not by Bread only, 
mat. 4.4.  but by the Word of God. And that even the soul, our best part, hath her decays as well as the Body, and requires a repair as speedy: She is sensible of wants and pinings, hath her part of Hunger and Thirst, and that in a degree so far exalted above the corporal hunger, as her subtle essence is sublimated and refined above the Body: In which kind of sense the Psalmist says, He sent leanness into their souls. 
Psal. 106.15.   
Therefore because the Word of God is our souls food, and he in the Prophet hath threatened a famine more dangerous than that of Bread, 
Amos 8.11.  a Famine of hearing his Word; Let us daily beseech Him that he will be pleased to continue both this Bread unto us, and the number of such as are to distribute it; That so the plenty which blessed his People may dwell amongst us, and wee may speak the Psalmists language, God gave the Word, great was the multitude of the Preachers. 
Psal. 68.11.   
again, because the Bread which wee eat in the Sacrament is viaticum ainae( as S. Augustine stiles it) the bait or provision to strengthen the soul in her journey; because it is both the Antidote to resist the venom of sin, and the physic to purge it away when it is collected,( for so S. Bernard 
Bernard.  says tis Medicina ainae) let us beseech the great physician that he would revive our sick souls with that Bread, and give us often leave to wash our wounded consciences in that Cup: and that the administration of his Sacraments, which are the evidences, the visible seals of his grace and favour, may never be canceled or suppressed till that time come when wee shall eat and drink with him in heaven.  
Modus petendi, The measure of the petition, is included in this word Quotidianus, Daily Bread. 
Daily Bread.   
I find the two evangelists S. Matthew and S. Luke somewhat differently translated in the Vulgar. S. Matthew hath Panem supersubstantialem; S. Luke, Quotidianum. I mean not to dispute the cause of this difference, or the truth of the translation. I am content to take the Schoolemens reason, 
Alex. Hales part. 4. quaest. 10. pag. 175.  that S. Matthew spake to the capacity of the learned, Orationem Dominicam scripsit vt perfectis conueniebat; but S. Luke spake to the understanding of the rude and unlettered, as well as the other. Supersubstantialis( saith Alexander Hales) is a word that few understand, but Quotidianus is the more easy and familiar: Therefore because this prayer was to be commonly used by all sorts of Men, the Church determined to use this word Quotidianus, Daily Bread, as most proper to inform al understandings.  
But vpon this ground and concession let me ask, unto whose capacity did the Rhemists fit their translation? when they red, give us our supersubstantial Bread. Did they intend it for the use of Scholars, or generally for the People? If for them, why would they offer with strange dresses to disfigure our Mother Tongue, to attire it in the Roman garb, blending the English with so much latin, that they utterly disguise it from vulgar apprehensions. I cannot conceive what dark design they had in obscuring the Text with so much unknown compound sophisticate Language, using not only here, but throughout their whole Translation, such words as but scholars none can understand, unless besides that plot, in which their whole faction hath long laboured, to benight the Church of Christ, and cast a general mist of ignorance to blind the World, that it should not discern this Truth, they haue a plot vpon God himself, and would, if it were possible, make Him speak in as unknown a tongue to the Congregation, as they themselves speak to the People, and teach the People to pray unto Him.  
Wee that study perspicuity embrace the common, and by best judgements most approved, word Quotidianus, both because by it Generaliùs exprimuntur petenda, 'tis of more spacious signification than Supersubstantialis, 
Biel. Lect. 70. in Miss.  carrying both the material and spiritual sense. Yet how ever it be in itself of so significative an extent, 'tis set up to us as a Boundary to limit our vast desires, and impale the wild appetite. If we may compare this Petition to a terrestrial Globe, this must be the Meridian to girdle it about; by it must wee take the length and breadth of our requests. 'tis the size, the measure of our Markets, 
Exod. 16.16.  as the Omer was Israels daily stint for the collecting of their Manna, which was their Bread. Wee here are tied to our allowance and proportion like them, our Daily Bread, that is, so much as is sufficient for our daily sustenance. The syriac Translation expresses it fully, Panis indigentiae, Bread to resist Hunger and repair Nature.  
Neither did Christ put this Epithet into our mouths only to bridle the appetite, but the Will too, and all the covetous motions springing from thence.  
What means then our wasteful excess in Meats and Drinks? our learned, witty Gluttony, which exercises all the Elements, Earth, and air, and Fire, and Water; which tortures the backs of beasts to carry, and brains of men to devise new Sacrifices to offer daily to their devouring idol, the Belly, which many serve more than God. The Roman Poet loudly exclaims against it; 
Lucan.  
O quaesitorum terrâ pelagoque ciborum  
Ambitiosa fames!  Certainly if wee but considered how little expense Nature puts us to for her support, — Quàm paucis liceat traducere vitam,  
Et quantum Natura petat: how that the staff of Bread is sufficient to waft and carry us thorough Lifes whole journey, wee should see that Gods hot indignation glowes against us as much for the prodigious abuse of his Creatures this way, as for any other sin. How can wee excuse ourselves to Him, when wee lay out on one meal a yeares allowance, and waste as much provision in a few houres, as were sufficient to relieve the famine of an Army? Si in uno conuiuio tantum capis, quantum centum diebus sufficere potest, iam non Panem Quotidianum, said multorum dierum panem manducas. 
Aug. Ser. in Monte.  When thou deuourest at one Feast what would suffice thee for an hundred dayes, thou eatest not in Gods name; for 'tis not Panis Quotidianus, thy Daily Bread, but the Bread of many dayes.  
again, 
Esa. 5.8.  what means the joining of house to house, the careful collecting of an estate purchased with loss of Time, and perhaps of Conscience? which if Fortune deprive us not of whilst we live, we must part with when wee die. If we considered how little of that earth wee buy must one day hold us, in how narrow a grave our corps shall lye, this meditation well apprehended were enough to entomb all avarice. Wee should account it madness, not providence, and not thrift but profusion, to lay out so much care in compassing that which wee must enjoy so short a time. Apuleius 
Apuleius.  elegantly speaks; Ad viuendum sicut ad natandum is melior, qui onere liberior; He swims best that hath the least weight to encumber him; and he lives happiest who least troubles himself about the worlds pelf. Minutius Foelix interprets him: Magno viatico breue iter vitae non instruitur, said oneratur; A large provision for so short a voyage as Life, is a perplexity, not an help; and a burden, not a supply.  

Ser. 105. de Tempore.  I end this point with S. Augustines paraphrase vpon this Petition: Petite vobis sufficientiam; ask not superfluity of things, but so much as is necessary for thy use. Cloath thy request in Salomons words, give me not riches nor poverty, 
Prou. 30.8.  and thou thereby dost not cross but vary these of Christ.  
Nature is not unreasonable in her desires, nor chargeable in her fare: See the whole Bill of fare, and Catalogue of her utensils set down, 
Ecclus. 39.16.  The chief things of life is Water and Bread, and clothing and lodging to cover thy nakedness: They who haue all these things haue enough, they want nothing, but the Apostles contented mind, Habentes victum& vestitum, 
1 Tim. 6.8.  his contenti simus; When wee haue food and raiment, let us therewith be content, and give God thanks.  
Concerning our spiritual Bread, that doth not so much require a Limitation, as a Caution. receive the holy Sacrament so often as thou canst prepare thyself, Quotidie accipe, quotidie curabere: S. Bernard 
Bernard.  allows it thee every day, if thou darest allow it thyself.  
hear the Word of God preached in abundance, take in at thy ear Quantum sufficit, so much as is sufficient, or if that be too little, as much as thou listest: but take heed the frequent reception of the one do not make thee loathe and vndervalue thy Lords Supper, nor the plentiful hearing of Gods Word make thy devotion surfet.  
Omnis saturatio mala, panis vero pessima; 
hippocrates.  A surfet of Bread, in the opinion of the physician, is of all surfeits the worst; but in the sentence of the divine a surfet of that Bread which is the Word of God, is of all Bread-surfets the most desperate.  
There is one condition concerning this our Bread, which I cannot pass: It must be Panis datus, Bread given to us from God, not Panis arreptus, extorted and wrung from the throats of others. For God will not bless that kind of men which vulturlike lives by rapine and preying on their brethren. Such as these do neither eat Panem nostrum, their own, nor Panem Quotidianum, 
Psal. 53.5.  their Daily Bread, but( as it is in the psalm) {αβγδ}, They eat up the people in stead of Bread. And howsoever it digests with them in this World, 
2 Chron. 18.26.  I fear they must look to be fed in the next with that diet which Ahab threatened to Michaiah, The Bread of sorrow and affliction.  
The Petitioners are intimated in this word us, 
Nobis.  give vs. That wee ask not for ourselves in particular, give me, but us, is a Lecture of charity. The Apostle professes if he had all the World, all Gifts, all Faith, and had not charity, 
1 Cor. 13.  whatsoever he had or could do was as nothing.  
I may in allusion to his speech boldly say, if God haue bestowed his gifts vpon us in the greatest abundance, if he haue filled our Granaries with corn, and multiplied our flocks in the fold, yet hath not enriched us with that Brotherly love wherewith wee should support one another; 
Ephes. 4.2.  If he hath not given us a bountiful heart, and a charitable hand to give some of our goods to the relief, and some of our bread to the nourishment of the poor, He hath given us but half a blessing. Wealth is but a confused lump, till bounty shape and put it into form; but a dead useless piece of earth, till charity inanimate and quicken, and by sending it abroad make it currant, and by distributing it to several hands give it heat and motion.  
The Apostle bids us, as to love all, 
Gal. 6.10.  so to do good to all. A man that doth good to none but to himself, is a hateful encloser; he empales Gods bounty, by usurping a strict propriety in those blessings which he intended for the common relief of mankind.  
As no part of the body was made only for itself, so no man. Wee are all one body, whereof Christ is head, and therefore one anothers members. As wee are all parts of that mystical body, so are we also of a political. Of which body as the King is the Head,& the Counsellors the brain, so the Rich man is the stomach that receives the good of the Land. Now as the stomach receives the meat not to retain it still there, but to disperse it into all the parts of the body, which must be fed by that nourishment: so haue Rich men their wealth not to hoard up, but to disperse amongst the needy: 
Psal. 112.9.  for Dispersit, Dedit pauperibus, is the Rich mans office and commendation too.  
do but observe how God waters the Earth by several veins and Channels: Shall the channel say to the dry ground, I will retain my waters and shut up my banks from relieving your barrenness▪ when the channel is but the conveyance of that blessing to the World. God oft times reaches unto us his benefits by others hands: He hath made the Rich his Almoner, his hand to contribute unto the necessities of his brethren; 
Aug. Ser. 205. de Temp.  for Per eum qui habet safeconduct egentem, per eum qui non habet probat habentem: if then he be of such a cruel retention to close and shut up himself against the poor, 
Jta suam omnipotentiam temperauit, vt laboribus hominum per homines subueniret. lo Ser. 5. de Quadrages.  he resists the ordinance of God, by with-holding that good which He intended to convey to others by him. Christ teaches us to say Our Bread, and give us; wee hear not of any in the whole book of God that says My Bread, 
1 Sam. 25.11.25.  but only Nabal, who is therefore both churl and fool vpon record. Let him that hath Bread, scatter it freely vpon the waters, 
Eccles. 11.1.  for so God shall make it Panem Quotidianum in a lasting sense, by feeding him and his posterity Daily; and, 
1 King. 17.14.  as Elisha  told the widow, neither the meal in his barrel, nor the oil in his cruse shall ever suffer a diminution.  
This Day. As tis the date of the Petition, so must it also be the date of our solicitude. 
hody.  From whence I shall only raise these short Lessons, and so end.  
First, wee must know that our care of temporal blessings ought not be prolonged so far as either to impedite devotion, or make life tedious. Care is an useless companion to Christians. For let the apprehension of it work never so strongly on thee, 
mat. 6.27.  it can neither add to thy stature, nor yet diminish the growth of thy sorrows: And though it may change thee from thyself, by making thee old and gray-headed in youth, it cannot change thy Fate. Tis an unnecessary affliction of the mind, since Man hath no cause to doubt his providence or love, who both feeds the Fowles and clothes the Lilies. 
V. 26.& 28.  Cuius enim diei spatium te visurum nescis, 
Chrysost.  quam ob causam in illius solicitudine torqueris? Let us therefore take our saviours counsel, Cast our care vpon the Lord, 
mat. 6.34.  and bid the morrow care for itself.  
Secondly, tis put as a motive to quicken our piety, and invite us to a continual exercise of Prayer. Therefore though thou beest full, though God hath given thee, as he gave israel, Bread enough, though thou art liberally replenished with the blessings of earth, and He hath filled up the measure of thy desires, let not thy abundance persuade thee to shake hands with Religion, as Lot did with Abraham, 
Gen. 13.11.  when he grew too great; As if Prayer were but a needy service for beggars, not the rich. do not thou like a Fort town, because thou art victualled for many moneths, presume vpon thy strength, or stand vpon thy own guard, as if thou couldst hold out a siege against all necessities: Like the rich man in the gospel, who having filled his barns and store-houses, 
Luk. 12.19.  bid his soul rest securely in the confidence of his wealth. Know, God with one fit of an ague can shake thy strongest Fortification; That He can cut off thy supplies, 
Psal. 105.16.  and break thy staff of Bread, as he did Israëls, and by the battery of one hot disease even in a nights skirmish beat thy soul out of her frail citadel. Stulte hâc nocte. 
Luk. 12.20.  If thou beest full therfore, praise God in the daily practise of thy Religion, 
2 Thess. 1.3.  give thanks to him always, and pray unto him continually, that his hand may not be shortened towards thee to pluck back his favours from thy possession: I say, continually pray: think it not enough to come to Church vpon sundays, or serve God once a week, and forget him till the next Sabbaths All-in awake thee. As it was a constant daily sacrifice which the Priest offered in the old Law, so must thou offer up to God Diurnum, Hodiernum sacrificium, a sacrifice of Prayer for the sanctification of this Day, and each present Day unto thee. For almighty God no more likes an intermittent, unequal, broken devotion, than a physician doth the Pulse which falters in its place, and beats an vneuen time.  
Now as thou must not discontinue Gods service, so neither must thou anticipate, putting two dayes Deuotions into one; or think to serve God so long at once, as will serve for thrice. Thou must not deal for Gods blessings, as thou dost for reversions, whose purchase precedes the possession. God doth not use to make any such estate in his favours, nor allow such early payments. He is not so needy of thy service, as that he should take it before hand. Pay thy vows when he requires, and thy Prayers when they are due, hody, This Day. hody, id est, 
Aug. Epist. ad Probam.  omni horâ& toto tempore vitae; To day in the present, that is, every day, for the present comprehends all time: Yesterday was the Present, This Day is, To Morrow will be. Pray unto Him this day, and if He give thee leave to stay till the morrow become a hody, that to morrow this time thou mayst say To Day, Pray unto Him then also; and so let thy unwearied zeal still proceed, still keep place with Time, not ceasing to travell over the whole calendar of Dayes, until it hath found that Acceptable Day wherein God will seal the full pardon of thy sins. For be sure He hath laid up That Thy Day amongst the rest, yet concealed it from thee, that he might engage thee in a perpetual, assiduous, indefatigable search of it.  
If wee mark it, Gods conveyances and Patents of Grace run in the Present, and are signed with a Hodiè. 
Jer. 1.10.  This Day haue I set thee up over kingdoms and Nations; so he tells the Prophet jeremy. again; The Lord hath avouched thee this Day to be his peculiar people. 
Deut. 26.18.  And thus also do his Pardons run. He tells the thief on the cross, Hodiè mecum eris in Paradiso, 
Luke 23.43.  This Day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. If therefore wee in our Counterpart shall vary this Date, or perform that duty which on our party wee owe unto Him in another style, wee nullify this Grant, and forfeit the whole Indenture of his favour.  
Let us therefore hear his voice to Day( as it is in the psalm 
Psal. 95.8. ) hody si vocem eius audieritis, 
Biel. Lect. 70. de Miss. p. 146.  that is, all the Dayes of our Life, and hody, let us to Day, and in a continued course of Prayer all the Dayes of our Life beseech Him to hear ours. That He would vouchsafe to speak unto every one of us in that gracious language wherein he bespoke his dear son, hody genui te, 
Psal. 2.7.  This Day haue I begotten you anew, this Day haue I accepted of you for my children, and settled on you the Inheritance of my kingdom, which shall never be revoked or reversed, 
Luk. 22.30.  That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom.  
Lastly, it objects our frailty, and puts us in mind of the shortness of Life, In which wee haue no term but the present, no State but a hody, To Day: For wee are here to day, and gone to morrow. Of all the numerous distributions of Time, which multiply from Minutes to Dayes, and from thence grow into Yeeres, wee can claim no share, no portion but so much as is measured out in a hody, one Day. For as the evening and the Morning in the Worlds beginning were the first Day, 
Gen. 1.  so Mane Iuuentutis and vesper Senectutis, our Morning of Youth and evening of Age in the computation of Life make but one Day. Of all the species of Time which Philosophy hath fathered vpon it, wee can pretend to none but only the Present. For what is past wee haue not, and what is to come wee know not whether ever wee shall; Praesens tantum nostrum est, 
Senec.  Wee are sure of nothing but the Present, and not sure of that neither. For who knows the compass of his Dayes? nay of one Day, of this hody? Who knows whether this very Minute may not be the Period of the Dayes of his Life?  
Since therefore wee haue so small an Interest in the World, let not our souls fix there, or make their habitation amongst the Tents of Kedar. 
Psal. 120.5.  Let us not still look downward, lingering after the Bread, or the temporal Benefits of this Life, as israel did after the Fleshpots of Egypt; 
Exod. 16.3.  but address ourselves for a new Voyage: remembering that when our strength and stomach shall fail, when age shall cast a general numbness over us, when this our Bread shall grow insipid, and our palate tastlesse, there is a new Table and another kind of Bread provided for us in the kingdom of Christ. In stead of this Panis Quotidianus, our Daily Bread, Panis crastinus ( for so S. jerome writes that some Hebrewes translated this place) a Future Bread, 
Hieron. Comment. in mat. 6.  which wee shall eat the Morrow after this Worlds Day concludes. Such Bread which when wee haue once tasted, will leave no more hunger to succeed it; and such a Morrow, which shall haue no new Day apparent to inherit that Light which died the evening before. For this Lifes hody, which wee call To Day, shall bee turned into a Quotidie, every Day, in the next, but without difference, or vicissitude, or alteration. That every Day shall bee but One entire Day produced and lengthened into a Semper, a blessed eternity, whose duration shall be, like our joys, both as unutterable, as endless. Amen.   

And forgive us our Debts, as wee forgive our Debtors.  
christianity is an active Profession, full of Religious importunity, that will not suffer her Disciples to fix their minds or meditations too long on Earth, but elevates their thoughts to that Meridian whose highest degree is heaven. Indeed it were unreasonable that the Seruants should slumber vpon that pillow, whereon our Great Master the Son of Man had no room to lay his head. 
mat. 8.20.   
Earth is but as the Center in the midst of a circled; and how ever our apprehensions think it a great Body( as in itself it is) yet compared to heaven tis but as a little Ball. If those 1022. stars whose bigness the Astronomer concludes to exceed the dimensions of our whole terrestrial Globe, 
Conimbricens. lib. 2. de Coelo, cap. 12.  appear to our view not like leaves, or Lines, or Characters writ in that great Volume of heaven, but only like small Points and Periods; Imagine then, to one that should from that exalted part of the Firmament survey the Lower World, how like an atom or little Mote would this huge heap of Dust appear whereon wee tread? If to mans subtle and most sublime thoughts Earth be so small a thing, what an unequal distribution should that man make of his thoughts, that could content them with such a Trifle? What an emptiness and vacuity would inhabit that soul, which when it hath capacity and receipt fit to comprehend the four points of heaven, nay Him whose Essence is larger than them, God, should contract and lessen itself, and let out all his room to entertain so small a Guest, so scant a Tenant as the World?  
Tis a just proportion to allow the cares of this life as much room in our thoughts as the quantity and breadth of that Stage whereon wee move is, compared to heaven. Tis in respect of that only Punctum, and therefore wee are taught wee should only Tangere in puncto, touch it but lightly, give it only a short entertainment in our meditations. See how short a stay our Blessed saviour makes vpon the World, who only glances vpon it in Transitu, in his way and passage thorough this Prayer, not touching it directly but in one of the seven Petitions, which is the very Center of the whole Prayer, as Earth is in respect of heaven; give us this Day our daily Bread. 
Caietan. in mat. 6.  Haec sola Petitio est boni nostri; This is the only Petition which includes temporal Blessings. For( as Caietan says further) Priores petunt bonum divinum, posteriores remotionem seu vitationem mali nostri; The three former Petitions ask those things which conduce to the Glory of God, and the three last remove and deprecate those evils, those transgressions which make us uncapable of his kingdom and unfit to do his Will.  
Now therefore, as to a Man that stands vpon this Center of Earth, heaven is his object, whether he looks Diametrically from one side to another, or whether he view the large Circumference that enuirons him, — Coelum est quodcunque videtur, Tis heaven that on al sides terminates and confines his eye: so if wee consider the middle Petition, give us this day &c. whether wee look back, heaven is behind us in the Three preceding Petitions; or look wee forward, tis before us again in those Three which follow it.  
Thus you see like men set on shore for refreshment and provision of some necessaries for their voyage, we are called aboard again: Christ did only Land us vpon the Worlds shore in that Middle Petition, to refresh us in the midst of our travels, but He purposed not to afford us any long stay, for you may see Mans meditations here embarked for the furthest point of Lifes Voyage. For the cleared of which passage to his last Home, he uses all diligence in these three last Petitions, which are as it were his Harbingers to 
Thom. Aquin. 2●. 2ae q. 83. Art. 9. in conclus. Id. Salmeron. To. 5. Tract. 51.  remove all impediments which might retard him in the course of his future Beatitude.  
See in this, Man making his peace with God and the World, compounding with his Creditor God, and with his Debtors Men, at one and the same rate, forgive us &c. As wee forgive them &c. See him in the next, preventing all future arrearages that might lye vpon him, or make his Onus swell up and become great again, when he prays for grace to avoid the occasions of sin, led us not into Temptation. And behold him in the last, suing out his everlasting Quietus est, not to be encumbered with after-reckonings, or troubled with the fearful punishment in another World for sins acted in this, deliver us from evil. Which is the scope of what most of the schoolmen writ concerning the latter part of this Prayer.  

division. First part.  This of my Text is a svit, limited by a Condition. The former part is the svit, wherein wee solicit the mercy of God for remission, forgive vs. Secondly, we specify the danger wee would be delivered from, in this word Debts. Thirdly, we aclowledge the propriety of the Debt, that it is Ours, run into by our own defaults, forgive us our Debts.  

Second part.  The latter is the covenant vpon which the validity of Gods Grant to us, and the confirmation of the svit depends, a reciprocal Mercy which wee promise to show unto our Brethren that haue iniur'd or offended us, comprehended under the style of Our Debtors, As wee forgive our Debtors.  
The first part is a Discharge wee seek from God, a privilege from former arrests, a Freehold wee labour to purchase from Him, forgive vs.  
The latter contains our bargain, and the consideration wee tender Him in lieu of his goodness to us, forgiveness to our Brethren.  
I remember Hieron. 
Hieron.  in his Epistle ad Paulinum speaks of the book of job, Singula in eo verba plena sunt sensibus, every word in it is of import. And Gerson makes this conclusion of the whole Scripture, Nihil in iis otiosum reponi putandum est; 
Gerson. part. 2. Ser. de 4. domibus.  there is nothing in them contained but is material and of use. Nay, Singuli verborum apices( saith another) every point and tittle is of consequence, according to that our saviour said, 
mat. 5.18.  Iota vnum aut apex vnus non praeteribit à lege. Now if every word in Scripture hath its weight, much more every word in this Prayer, which is the Epitome of all Scripture, and as the Spirit extracted out of the whole book of God.  
I must not then pass by this copulative ET dimit, AND forgive us, which Christ hath prefixed to this Petition, without a Note, at least without mentioning the Schoolemens reason, why this Petition is coupled with a Coniunction, and so the next after this, whereas the Three first are not tied together by any such Band. The cause is, 
Hal●s part. 4. q. 37.  saith Hales, and Biel, who recites him, for that the three former imply such a necessary connexion one to the other, that they cannot be severed; 
Biel Lect. 72. de Missa.  For the Name of the Father cannot so hearty be blessed and hallowed by the Children, unless they expected an Inheritance in the kingdom of their Father, which should deuolue on them; Nor were they capable of that Inheritance, were there not a conformity between their Fathers Will and Theirs.  
So though there be three Petitions, they haue but one scope, one and the same Increated object, the Fruition of Gods Presence; unto whose kingdom, as in a journey all the steps wee take are but one continued Motion tending to the place we go to, how ever that motion be diuersified in our Gate; so those three first Petitions are but our steps, they are but one spiritual progress in which wee make our approaches unto our Father which is in heaven. Those then being inseparable, could admit no tie to hold them together, their necessary dependence one vpon the other being their Cement, which combines them so close they appear but one piece: but tis not so with the rest of the Petitions, which ●hough they conduce to the same end as the former, yet they go by several ways. They are several subiects, and therefore needed a Coniunction, which as it unites them, so it argues the diversity of the thing united( as Biel) Copulatio Coniunctionis signum est diuersitatis copulatorum. 
Biel. loc. citat.  The Thre● first could not be dis-ioyn'd in Gods grant▪ These may: for God may give abundanc● of temporal blessings, and yet give no Remission for sin. He may give Riches In Poenam, to men that employ them so as they only by them purchase their final condemnation: He may bestow the fat of the Land vpon a Miser that cares not what extortion he practices vpon his brethren: He may bestow his Bread vpon a prodigal, that abuses it in Riot and surfeits, from that fullness growing into a wanton disorder, which pampers 'vice and encourages those Temptations of sin wee here pray against. Thus haue I shewed you the reason of this Coniunction; From whence I proceed to the first part of this Text, the svit, forgive.  

forgive.  Wherein I purpose not to dispute the propriety of the term dimit, whether it had not been better expressed by remit: since as Salmeron well notes, 
Salmeron. Tom. 5. Tract. 51.  Haec vox Ecclesiastico vsu recepta est in eâ significatione vt accipiatur pro remissione; The Church by dimit understands forgiveness or Remission of sin. An Act which though God hath imparted to his Church by a direct Commission given to the Ministers, Whose sins ye remit they are remitted, 
John 20.23.  and whose sins ye retain they are retained; yet is the power originally in himself: Quis potest dimittere peccata nisi solus Deus? 
Mark. 2.7.  Who can forgive sin but God alone? forgive vs.  
never did Man speak in so natural a Dialect as this. Other Petitions displayed he condition and temper of his Faith, this only shows the condition of his Nature. Those implied the happiness he hopes for hereafter, this the weighty misery he lies under in this World, sin. What better method can the convicted hold than to submit? or what more proper favour can the condemned sue for, than their pardon? There is no such acceptable form wherein wee can present ourselves to God, as in Repentance; nor is the accent of any word uttered by the tongue of man so sweet in his ear as the confession of a fault.  
For how should the acknowledgemen● of a sin but delight God, when the conversion of a sinner affects the whole host of glorified Spirits in heaven? 
Luk. 15.10.  Est enim gaudium coràm angels &c. Such a confession as this is the first step to a convert. Exomologesis est petitio veniae, 
tertul. de orat. ●ap. 7.  quâ qui petit veniam, delictum confitetur: To ask forgiveness, and to confess the fault, are in effect all one.  
In the practise of our Law, wee find it is not safe for a delinquent to put himself vpon his purgation, if his guilt lye in pregnant proof: Peremptory attempts of justification rather exasperate Iustice; which is in nothing more softened, than by one who( strooke with remorse) pleads guilty to his Inditement. Tis just thus in Gods Courts, who deems it a contumacy in Man to diminish an offence committed against Him by vain apology or excuse; when wee are sure that many by anticipating his Iustice, and by an vnurged Confession of their Crime, haue appeased the judge, and acquitted themselves. The Publicans bashful contrition, that was afraid to make his approaches too near the Altar, and ashamed to look that way his sin had ascended, won pity from his lips who had the power to absolve him; whereas the proud garb of the Pharisee, who( saith S. Augustine) Superbè gratias egit, overlooked God for a favour he never had, was condemned.  
He that thinks to bear up himself by his own merit, hangs a golden weight about his neck, that will choke him at last. A man must not think to turn the scale of Gods Iustice by justifying himself. That which he thinks righteousness in himself, is not so indeed; and that which is so, is not his, but Gods, Lent and Imputed by Him. Tis a proud Ingratitude therefore for a Man enriched only by devotion and loan, to lift up himself against that hand from whence he borrowed it. As if he should take up money, and then go to Law with his Creditor that lent it.  
even thus a man that glorifies himself in the conceit of that righteousness which he received not from Nature but from Grace, not by Acquisition but Infusion, affronts God with his own favours, and receives a breastplate( for so the Apostle calls it, 
Ephes. 6.14.  Loricam justitiae) out of his Armorie, to stand out and wage a presumptuous war against Him.  

Augustin. Serm. de verb. Dom.  Si vis defendere te de peccato tuo, laudare non potes Deum; Transi igitur ad vituperationem tuam& laudabis. he that defends himself, dishonours God, and wrongs his own soul; therefore accuse and discommend thyself, for so thou canst in nothing less wrong God, or more right thyself. Say with david, 
Psal.  forgive Lord, be merciful to my sins, and thy conscience shall find that voice of pitty suggested to it which he reports, Thou forgavest my sin.  
This word forgive is the Key which opens the wounds of Christ, and gives a ready passage to the Mercy Seat. He that can use this Key dexterously with that Christian skill wherewith the Artist, who first formed it, instructed the Disciples, cannot doubt of the success. 
Cyprian. de orat. Dom.  Qui orare nos pro debitis& peccatis docuit, paternam misericordiam promisit& veniam secuturam. He that taught us to ask forgiveness, promised to grant what wee sued for: And that vpon an everlasting record kept by Ezechiel, where wee may find a Pardon Dormant for all sins whensoever we should sue it out, 
Ezech. 18.22.27.  At what time soever a sinner shall repent I will blot out all his offences.  
If wee consider the condition of the Suitors, us 
Vs.  Men, wee shall then find it necessary to be sued for at all times. 
Aug in Psal. 29.  Ex quo enim homo, ex hoc& infirmus; ex quo infirmus, ex hoc& orans. Man and an infirmity which makes him prove to sin, are inseparable companions; His faults with their vnblest society will accompany him whilst he lives. And if he always sin, he hath no remedy but always to pray for his redress in the forgiveness of sins.  
To presume that Man should be Impeccable, when none that ever was appareled in our flesh, but only the son of God, was so, is a dangerous and false presumption. An fort quisquam ita superbit, 
lo Ser. 5. de Quadrages.  & ita se immaculatum esse praesumit, vt nullius renouationis indigeat? Fallitur prorsus ista persuasio,& nimiâ vanitate veterascit. Can it be believed( saith lo) that Man should flatter himself with an opinion of integrity? Man that hath more alliances to sin than to Adam, from whom the Pedigree of his Guilt is derived; 
Aug. Ser. 15. de verb. Dom.  Qui primus peccavit,& nos cum peccati obligatione generauit; whose first offence left a perpetual obligation of sin vpon vs. A sin which anticipates his birth, and when he is born grows up and waxeth like him, who is an Ancient in transgression before his birth, nay before his conception, guilty in both, as being born in iniquity, 
Psal. 51.5.  and conceived in sin.  
Since therefore Man cannot but offend, the Schoolemens cautelous doubt, which they put if in case a man that sins not says this Prayer, is defeated, whereas it is a sin to suppose a separation of sin from Mans Nature. If we say we haue no sin, wee give God the lye, who says wee haue. The very denial conuicts us, and into the number of our hidden faults calls one that is evident, an untruth. So that wee haue so much the more sin, in that wee show so little truth.  
S. Augustine says the pharisees insolent gratitude was reproved, not because he gave God thanks, 
Aug. Ser. 36. de verb. Dom.  said quia nihil sibi addi cupiebat, but because he thought himself above Gods pardon. And the same Father diduces his odious arrogance to this issue, that he needed not say forgive us our trespasses: For so he enforces, Ergo justus es, 
Jd.  ergo nihil rogas, ergo iam plenus es, ergo iam non est quaredicas, dimit nobis debita nostra. But admit the impossible supposition, that there could be found a man devoid of sin; what inconvenience could the saying of this Petition bring? nay it would prove a large advantage. Say thy branch be yet green, not blasted by the breath of sin, In ramo adhuc nihil commisisti, 
Aug. ib.  said in radice periisti; Why for all that thy root is dead, and thou hast no means to keep that mortifying Gangrene from invading thyself, but by imploring Gods prevenient grace, lest that rottenness be transfused into the limbs of thy three.  
Say thou art fallen into no actual sin, why this Petition is a warning to tell thee that thou mayst, it puts thee in mind thy actions may be foul, and that thy intentions are so. 
Cyprian.  For thus S. Cyprian, Prouidè& salubritèr admonemur, quòd peccatores sumus, ne quis sibi quasi innocens placeat.  
To go a little further. If thou hast hitherto committed no foul transgression, this Prayer like an Antidote strengtheners the complexion of thy Faith, and helps thee to resist the contagion of sin, nay it forespeakes God thus far to antedate thy pardon, in that it brings Him to an easiness to forgive thee when thou dost sin. And when he hath forgiven thee, when by his gracious pardon thou hast got thy absolution from sin, the continual repetition of this Prayer adds new seals and confirmations to that Pardon which he hath already granted. So that I may conclude of the use of this Petition, as lo doth of the Sacraments, that they are profitable for all, Good and Bad, so is this Petition aduantageous unto all, unto those that haue sinned, 
lo Ser. 5. de Quadrages.  vt quod nondum habent accipiant, that they may receive what yet they haue not, Remission of sins; unto those that are absolved of their sins, vt accepta custodiant, that they may preserve the integrity which Gods Pardon hath renewed in them. Thus it raises up those that are fallen, and it confirms those that yet stand, lest they should fall.  
To end this point. S. Bernard out of the consideration that wee sin often, concludes a necessity of our frequent suing unto God to forgive us: 
Bernard. Ser. 6. de Quadrag.  Saepiùs aberrantes& delinquentes necessariò pro indulgentiâ supplicamus. But S. Augustine will haue not only those that haue sinned, but the justest and most upright to use it as oft, 
Aug. Ser. 23. de verb. Dom. Quantumlibet profecerimus, necessarium est nobis dicere, dimit nobis debita nostra &c. Aug. Epist. 29.  Licet bona conscientia sit, tamen dicit Deo, dimit nobis debita. And you shall find that Lyra and the gloss by the authority of S. Augustine( whom they recite) interpret those two moneths( which by S. Augustines computation are threescore dayes) desired by the daughter of jephthah to bewail her virginity, 
Iud. 11.  to be the Six Ages of the Church; That is, from Adam to Noah, from him to Abraham, so to david, so to the captivity, from thence to Christ, and from his time to the End of the World: In all which Ages Virgo Ecclesia congregatur, 
Lyra& Gloss. in Iud. 11.  & peccata lamentatur, quotidie dicens, dimit nobis debita nostra: The pure Virgin Church in all her Congregations laments the sins of her People, daily crying unto God in the voice of my Text, forgive us our trespasses.  
justly therefore, because Man is a creature apt to soothe himself in the conceit of Merit, and Inherent righteousness( as doth the Church of Rome too much) and because this opinion had prevailed so far on some, that they presumed to leave out a branch of this Prayer,( for so did those Precise heretics the Cathari) exempting themselves from the community of sinning like other men; justly( I say) did a council decree, 
Carranza sum. council. Mileuit. Can. 8.  that vnicuique etiam justo dicere oporteat, dimit nobis debita nostra; He that was most righteous might truly use this Prayer, and necessary ought to say, forgive us our debts. Nay it further decreed, 
Can. 7.  that if any man presumed to say, that Saints or holy men when they used this form of Prayer, 
Alphonsus à Castro adverse. haeres. l. 11. de Oratione.  spake not on behalf of themselves, as being endowed with that measure of sanctity they needed it not, but on behalf of such as were sinners, that man should be anathematized and concluded under a curse.  
forgive us our Debts. 
Debita.  There be some debts of which tis impossible wee should be discharged, as that general Debt wee owe to Nature by Death; A payment which without difference all must equally make, as well the Prince as the vassal, the richest as the meanest. 
Horat.  Debemur morti nos nostraque. To die is as true, as good a Debt, as any the world knows. For the levying of which Debt, there is an Extent vpon all mankind, and a Statute recorded by S. Paul, Statutum est omnibus semel mori, 
Heb. 9.27.  It is decreed that all must die once. This is a Decree not to be reversed, a Debt which is not possible to be declined.  
There be other Debts from which it were a sin in us to sue for a release, as our Obedience to God and his Law, our love to Him, our thankfulness for all the favours and mercies He hath conferred vpon us: wee do not here sue to be freed from these payments( saith Salmeron) No, 
Tom. 5. Tract. 51. pag. 319.  they are heavier Debts, and of a different condition, Debts which wee borrow of as many Creditors as wee haue sins: The worst sort of Debts that can be, and yet not doubtful or Desperate Debts,( Twere well they were so) for no secret conveyance or dead of trust made underhand can delude that Creditor, who will require an account for them.  
How happy were a great many, if after the beggaring of other men by their oppressions, if after the fraudulent purchases of much wealth, and the erecting of an high Fortune of their own, vpon the ruin of their poor Brethren, first chewed and ground by those fearful millstones, the Vpper and the Lower( for there are both) use, and use vpon use, and then swallowed down and digested in a Mortgage, they could bequeath those sins from themselves, as they do their estates, or by an absolute dead of Gift make over their Guilt, assigning the punishment for their ill gotten wealth to their Executors. But twill not be, God is a cleere-sighted Creditor, who cannot be mocked out of his Iustice; and the Vengeance due unto sin is such a Debt which neither can be entailed vpon the heir, nor by any forfeiture escheat into other hands save the hand of God, nor be sold off, as men sometimes make bargains for others Debentur, nor any way be alienated. They are Debita nostra, such Debts whose property cannot be altered, our Debts, assured by such a Title as Gehazies leprosy was unto him, that it should cleave fast. 
2 King. 5.27.  The father cannot transfer them to his son, but they will revert to their first Owner: For thus God hath said, every man shall bear his own burden; 
Ezek. 18.20.  And in the Prophet he protests plainly, The son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father, nor the Father of the son.  
That by Debts are meant sins, 
Debts are Sins or Trespasses.  is apparent by the interpretation of another evangelist, who was well able to comment vpon the Text of his Master, I mean S. Luke. For that which S. Matthew here calls Debts, he reads sins, 
Luk. 11.4.  forgive us our sins. And in the fourteenth verse of this Chapter S. Matthew thus expresses himself, that Debts are Trespasses. Debitum delicti figura est in Scriptura; 
mat. 6.14. tertul. de orat. cap. 7.  Tis usual in Scripture to express sin by the name of Debts. For so in the Parable we find this Debt diversly ranted, and comprehended under the name of Talents and Pence. 
mat. 18.24.28  And justly. For as pecuniary Debts differ in their sums, and coins vary in their valuation, so do sins. The reason why sin is styled Debt, 
Id.  Tertullian renders, Quod perinde judicio debeatur,& ab eo exigatur; because it binds a man over to a future account, and in the day of Iudgement every offence will be required and charged vpon the delinquent. 
Pamelius Annotat. in Lib. Tertullian. de orat. ex Fortunato.  Nam sicut debtor à Creditore requiritur, ita peccatum à Deo in Die judicii necesse est exigatur. So Fortunatus amplifies it.  
As there is a difference in Debts, some being Greater and others less, so is there in sins too: Some are more heinous, and shal haue a severer punishment than sins of a lower degree. And yet all Debts from the greatest to the least are payable, and all sins from the foulest to the cheapest, from the wilful Offence to the sin of Ignorance, are punishable. The quantity of the Debt doth not make it more a Debt, though it make it greater. He that lends a penny is a Creditor in as true a sense, as he that lends a pound: and one that is indebted but in a small sum, hath as much right to answer it back from whence it was borrowed, as he that is engaged in a Million.  
It being then granted that there is the same reason in sins, as in Debts, it follows by necessary consequence, That by the rule of Iustice, the least sins are as liable to punishment, as are the least Debts to payment. 
No sins venial.  From which conclusion I ground a direct Antithesis against the Church of Rome, which allows the conceit of venial sins. For so their writers distinguish sin in mortal& Veniale, into mortal and venial, whereas there is no sin which is not mortal. The debt of sin is Iudgement, and the Valuation Death: Therefore as the smallest coin which bears the Kings impress is currant as well as the greatest: so the slightest offence hath its proportionable rate and value in the account of Gods Iustice, as any of an Higher Nature.  
Who will deny that Pilferings are Thefts, or that our laws punish Theft as well as murder? or who knows not but that he that Robs a Cottage though he take little, nay though he take nothing, is in as much danger of an Arraignment as he that robs a Palace? There is no sin we can commit which is less in quantity than the point of any of those thorns which were plaited in Christs Coronet,& yet the least of those thorns pricked Him, the least drew blood from Him. Shall wee then so far vnderualue any sin, as to call that venial which was ranted in any degree of Christs sufferings, or proportion of his blood? That precious, vnualuable blood, whose least drop had been enough to pay the ransom of the whole World, and make a full expiation for all sin! There is nothing more dangerous to a Christian, than to slight or diminish an offence; To say to thyself, I haue done no murder, I haue committed no Sacrilege, I haue violated no mans Bed, nor defiled my own Temple, which is my Body, but the Holy Ghosts chapel; These are sins which might bring me in danger of damnation, but I haue done no such: If I haue thought ill, that Thought was never brought to an Act; though it sprung from my infirmity, yet that infirmity never had strength to bring it forth, but like an abortive it perished again in that womb wherein it was conceived: Therefore I hope God will be more merciful than punish my purposes with death, to condemn me for that I never did, for that which was only formed and cast in my imagination, not full shaped. Surely I hope so too. And our hope in Christs Mercy is a rock whose foundation will never fail. But yet for all that, like wise builders, wee must build the right way, or else our building will prove in vain. And certainly he that trusts vpon the diminution of a sin, builds vpon the falsest foundation that may be. For to let small sins run on, out of a hope that they are not worthy Gods taking notice, or, if He do take notice, that they are not worthy of his anger, is not Hope, but Presumption, and so our Hope is turned into a sin.  
Alas wee flatter ourselves in our security, if we think there be any venial sin, or if we think that our Thoughts or lascivious looks are only the Abortions of sin, and not sin. He that imagineth evil is the Author( saith Salomon.) For The wicked thought is sin. 
Prou. 24.8, 9.  And Christ hath pronounced, that incontinent wishes are adulteries; 
mat. 5.28.  He that seeth a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery.  
So then, Thoughts are sins, and looks are sins, which( not repented) will, if not absolutely condemn,( which though I am not peremptory to pronounce, I dare not be so cool in Gods cause as to deny) yet prove as sluices to let in damnation, and work wholly unto that unhappy end; as the smallest leak which is sprung at Sea may, if neglected, let in water to drown the tallest Ship. Therefore if the Tide of sin haue washed, though never so lightly, over thy bank, if a Temptation haue floated in vpon thy soul by any of thy five Ports, thy Senses, make up the Breach betimes, lest a Tide or two more overwhelm and lay thee quiter under water. Had thy Mother evah done so, had she not looked vpon the beauty of the Fruit, she had not tasted it, nor for it had she tasted the sorrows of Child-bearing, which that curiosity derived vpon her: Had she then closed her eye, Death had never closed the eye of any child of hers. Stop then thy ear against those Romish Charmers that would besot thee with the confidence of venial sins, I mean, that some sins are so little thou needest not ask pardon for them. exorcize that plausible mischief with S. Augustines Spell, Ne minima contemnat, 
Aug.  qui in maxima labi nolit. Despise not the smallest sin, for even that is a step to a greater. Remember thou mayst multiply Pence till they come to a Talent, so thou mayst link sin to sin, till they make▪ chain long enough to drag thee into perpetual bondage with the Prince of darkness, long enough to reach from Earth to Hell, till the multiplication of those Acts grow into a Habit, become great and strong, and heavy enough to sink thee into the bottomless Pit. Remember too, that as the least coins, even to the Farthing haue their value, so also the least sins shall haue their Punishment. For the Iustice of God hath put a price vpon every sin: Christ mentions the Farthing, and will not abate even that in His Audit, 
mat. 5.26.  when he says, Thou shalt not go out till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. Vpon which the gloss excellently comments, and to the shane of many Doctors in the Romish Church; Per Quadrantem intelligit minima peccata, quia nihil remanet impunitum: By the Farthing he understands the least offences, because none of all them shall pass unpunished. And when remembering this thou shalt deliver it over unto thy meditations, and digest it into thy belief, so oft as thou shalt apply this precious balm tempered by Christ to heal thy wounded conscience, and to wipe out thy sins, whensoever thou shalt cry unto him, forgive our sins, thou wilt include sin in the Latitude, All thy sins, and sin in the Number, the very least of all thy sins; Not closing thy eyes at Night, nor opening them at Morning vpon any affair, till thou hast sued for thy release from all, And running over the History of thy Dayes and Nights, left none unrepented, whose omission might endanger thy salvation.  
forgive us Our Debts. 
Nostra.  There is not so naked, so penurious a thing as Man. 
Job 1.21.  Naked was he born, and naked shall he return, deuested of all but his sins. Wee haue no peculiar but this, nothing that wee can call Ours, but only our Faults. Except that luckless patrimony, I know not what wee can lay claim to, either that is without us, or in vs. Bona Fortunae, Wealth acknowledgeth no sovereign but Fortune, wee are not Masters of it; And though it abide with us as an Hireling, perhaps till the end of our dayes, then it surely takes leave, often before that, becoming any ones save his whose it last was. Nothing of all wee had goes along with us but our Windingsheet; for other things wee haue gathered, the psalm says, 
Psal. 39.7.  wee know not who shall enjoy them: sure wee are, wee shall not. And for that form which makes so many enamoured of themselves, can any call it Theirs? when all the Pargets Art hath invented are not able to Coat it against the violence of Time and Weather, nor by all their fillings to repair those decays and breaches which sickness hath wrought vpon it. The Breath we draw, is that Ours? Is it not sucked and borrowed from the next air? Our best part, the soul, is it any more than a loan? deposited for some yeares with the Body, after whose expiration it reuerts to him that gave it. 
Eccles. 12.7.  And lastly for our Body, is it any thing else but a lump of walking day, a little Earth inanimated? the certain restitution whereof wee owe unto that Dust from whence it was taken. What is there then of our whole selves which wee can call Ours, unless our sins? These are effects springing from our own depraved Nature, the fruits of a Vicious Crooked Will, our true Legitimate Issue, though born against all Law both human and divine. They are Nostra, Ours, by many assurances, Ours by all Titles both of right and possession. Therefore Hugo Cardinalis vpon the words of the fifteenth verse ( But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will the Father forgive yours) makes this inference; 
Hug. Cardinal. in mat. 6.15.  Benè dicit Vestra, quia haec est sola possessio& operatio hoins: Rightly doth Christ call them Your sins, because they are the only Acts wherein Man is the Prime Agent. These are the only revenues of Nature, and the possession of mankind. Such an undoubted Inheritance and Possession, of which wee can no way divest ourselves, but by conferring our Title vpon Christ, who was content to accept it, and by casting our sins vpon Him, 
2 Cor. 5.21.  who became sin for us, that He might free us from the penalty of sin, making the cross a bloody evidence of that right he claimed in our Punishment, and a trophy both of his love to us, and of his victories over Death, and Hell, and sin. The Intercession of whose blood daily solicits our Pardon, and seals unto our Conscience the forgiveness of these sins wee here sue for, forgive us our sins.   

As wee forgive our Debtors.  
I Am vpon an argument of Debts, and may assume S. Augustines beginning to some Auditors of his: 
Aug. Orat. de 5. Haeres. Tom. 6.  debtor sum fateor non necessitate cogente, said quod est vehementius charitate; Ad compellendum non potest esse molestus exactor, quando ad reddendum deuotus est debtor. I must confess myself indebted for the handling of this Text, betwixt the first part whereof and this last hath passed so large a time, that it is now become a stale arrearage. And though the Contagion which lately dispersed us, hath diminished many of those hearers unto whom I was a Debtor, I am ready to discharge it to you, being desirous to pursue my first intent( though sometimes by other service interrupted) of going thorough the several Petitions of this Prayer.  
This Petition I  told you was a svit limited by a Condition. The former part was the svit, this the Condition on our behalf; wherein wee covenant with God, whom wee daily offend, for his Mercy and forgiveness to us, As wee forgive and show mercy unto such as haue offended vs.  
So that this whereon I am now to insist is the Counterpart. From whence I shall show you in generality how we are mutual Debtors to one another.  
That wee are Debtors for some things which wee borrow not, yet wee owe and must make payment.  
That there be some Debts due unto us from others, yet wee must not require them, which are Trespasses committed against us; And these wee condition with God that wee will remit, Wee forgive our Debtors.  
The last circumstance enforces the Petition vpon ourselves, precluding us, and making us incapable of Gods Pardon, if wee forgive not our Brethren [ Sicut] forgive us &c. As wee forgive &c.  
Wee are Debtors, contracted to this title ever since the bargain of our Forefather, 
All are Debtors.  which left us indebted to the Iustice of God and penalty of sin. Since the several discharges whereof by Christ, wee yet hold a firm interest in the name. The reciprocal Offices which pass betwixt man and man are Debts: Relations whether Aequiperantiae or Disquiperantiae( as Logicians distinguish) of Distance or nearer Ties, the References of Command or of Affection, of Duty or of service, derive this style of Debtors vpon vs. Friends that are linked in a parity of mind, Husbands and wives who by a nearer union are conjoined, Masters and Seruants that in a more unequal manner refer to each, and lastly Parents and Children, that by two sure knots of blood and of Obedience are fastened together, are Debtors, by mutual respects owing themselves to each. These Offices of service, or Affection, or Duty, are so good Debt, that not onely wilful neglect of them, but omission forfaits us to the censure of God and Man.  
Our blessed saviour bound us by a Precept to love one another, 
Jo●. 13.34.  Diligite invicem, and therefore whatsoever wee pay not vpon that common Bond, wee stand indebted for, both to our Brethren and to Him.  
Subiection is the Debt of the Wife to the Husband, 
Eph●s. 5.22.  
Ephes. 6 1.  Obedience of the Children to their Parents, 
Vers. 5.  loyalty of Seruants to their Masters; And the not payment of every such Debt where it grows due makes the arrearage sin.  
To strengthen which Obligation you shall find that they are al interchangeably signed. The same Spirit who enjoined Submission to the Wife, 
Eph●s. 5.29.  hath levied also vpon the Husband a tender Affection, like unto that wherewith God loues his Church, 
Vers. 28.  {αβγδ}. Literally, they owe it to their wives, saith S. Paul.  
So Parents owe somewhat to their Children in lieu of their Obedience: They must not grieve nor provoke their Children, 
Coloss. 3.21.  
Ephes. 6.4.  no more than they must dishonour them. Nor must the Master prove a Tyrant to his Seruant, since, besides the wages he contracts for, there is a favourable respect to descend vpon him, like that which the great Lord of heaven shows unto vs. 
Ephes. 6.9.   
And yet how ever these Precepts run interchangeably obliging both parties, as well the Relatum as the Correlatum, I must tell you, the violating of the Conditions on one part doth not make the other voided. An ill Master, or an hard Father, or a worse Husband, do not disoblige Seruant, or child, or Wife, from those respects which Gods Commands hath cast vpon them as Debts. When equality of desert or correspondence in those parties failes, our Obedience unto God, under whose sentence wee must stand or fall, should supply their defect.  
unnatural harshness or rigour in Parents doth not slack the Tie of filial duty: Though they forget to be Parents, Children are bound to remember them by their Obedience, that they are so: Since though Natures dead be canceled, Gods Statute, which conveys an Honour vpon the Parents, is still in force.  
Though the Husband hate, 
Ephes. 5.29.  or prove cruel to his own flesh, if he forget the Wife of his bosom, to whose building the first Husband that ever was contributed a Rib from his own side, the wife must not make his vnkindnesse a Bill to divorce her regard from him. If vpon every distemper or frenzy of our Head the Body should take advantage to revolt, if the Heart grown hot with indignation or vnkindnesse, should by any sudden alarm which passion strikes her into, cause the blood to boil above the usual height, or make her Pulse beat a running precipitate March, if by awaking the Humours she should cause the stomach to cast up ill fumes, or the side to sand splenatiue Damps into the Head, this were not the way to cure, but quiter to discompose& disorder the frame of wedlock so much, as that it could never be pieced together again.  
Lastly, if any superiors, Lords or Masters, by the ill manage of their authority, should prove grievous or Tyrannicall to such as are subjecteth to their Commands, this default of theirs must not arm an inferior hand against them, nor doth it acquit inferiors from their subiection.  

Rom. 13.1.  Wee owe unto the Higher Powers, in what rank or title of domination soever set over us, a service as Tribute, assured by two seals of love and Conscience. So that if any that are above us sand not down those graces which inferiors may look for, they must not think to pay themselves by stoppage, or to right themselves by with-holding the Duty which they are bound to perform, but must still proceed in their observance, if not so much for love, 
Rom. 13.5.  yet for Conscience sake. These are Currant Debts, which wee Owe and Require, Pay and receive.  
There be other Debts which wee borrow not, and yet wee Owe them; such are Deeds of charity. Of which Debt how ever Manes discharges himself, who it should seem studied the Art to save his Purse, more then to save his soul, it being his thrifty heresy, that Deeds of charity are unlawful; And though the Anabaptists and family of love by their uncharitable practise would haue no Mercy move but in their own Sphere, towards their own fraternity and Sect, accounting all relief extended to others extravagant, and as Bread thrown to Dogges: Yet had He or They been but half so precise in husbanding their Conscience, as their Estates, they would haue been of another mind. Better Men, I am sure, were and are. Thy Bounty( saith S. Ambrose) is the poor mans revenue, nor is thy Rent more due to Thee, than thy alms to Him. dives propter pauperem factus est, 
Aug. Ser. 25. de verb. Dom.  & pauper propter Diuitem( saith August.) God made the Rich and the poor for one another: poverty is a subject allowed by Him to exercise the piety of such as do abound, and Abundance is but a surplusage to support the poor. So that a rich man whose abilities make him capable of doing good, if he do it not, forfeits the main cause for which God enriched him.  
The gospel carries these sins of Omission higher, making them not less than perpetrated facts. By that Rule, and in that Language all Defect in Charity is Cruelty; Not to give is as much as to take away; Not to succour the distressed is in effect all one as to spoil them. If I feed not the hungry, I starve them; if I relieve not, I destroy.  
Nay our saviour carries it yet higher, making according to his rate trespasses of this Nature not moral Vices, but capital Crimes, whereby through our vnkindnesse to our Brethren He is wounded, I was sick in prison and ye visited not me, 
mat. 25.42.  I was hungry and thirsty and ye relieved me neither with your Bread nor your drink: I was naked, and ye clothed me not. Nor can wee pled Ignorance, or excuse ourselves with Lord when saw we thee hungry, or sick, or naked? since our saviour professes, In not doing it to them, 
Vers. 45.  wee haue omitted it towards Him. give me leave in Saint Augustines phrase to raise this Debt yet one step higher, and I then fall off. 
August. Ser. 20. de verb. Dom.  Si cum Diabolo ardere habet qui nudum non vestiuit, pntas ubi arsurus est qui expoliauit? If he endanger his own safety that clothes not the naked, what shall become of Him that deuests the poor, and by Extortion makes pillage of his Brethren?  
I pass from these Debts which we owe and must pay, to other Debts which are owing to us, and yet wee must not exact them, We forgive our Debtors.  
If this gospel should haue the same construction that the Law hath, taken to the Letter, forgive our Debtors, it would scarce prove {αβγδ}, Good Tidings, or welcome news to many a Creditor. Those who in the Dialect of the Ryalto are the Best, those whom the Exchange calls Good men would Pray worst. Christs Prayer to them would become as terrible as his Scourge, and do as much as that did, drive the Money-changers out of the Temple: 
joh. 2.15.  I fear most Bankers would then turn Recusants, and not onely forbear to use the Lords Prayer in the Congregation, lest before witness they should release their lendings, but even in their Chambers would bee afraid to use it, unless they might expunge the latter part of this Petition, as the Cathari did the former. It would then grow a profitable part of Religion, a motive to devotion to be in Debt, and none would be so zealous to pay their vows to God, as they that would not pay their Debts to men.  

Nehem. 5.10.  I red that vpon the entreaty of Nehemiah the Hundreth part of the Debt was remitted by the Creditors, and all Mortgages restored to the Owners; but the greek History tells us that Lycurgus and Solon seeing how much the People of Lacedaemonia suffered by being overcharged with Debt, burnt all the Bonds and Obligations of the Creditors in the Market Place. Such a Bond-fire as this in our City would smell sweeter than the Arabian Triumphs, wherein Spices are their fuel, and create a greater jubilee amongst us, than ever was held in Rome. I am sure men would get more by the remission of their Debts, than the Pope can give them by the remission of their sins: since those who repair thither pay more for his Acquittance than the Pardon or whole Lease of their sins is worth.  
But not to sand any Creditors away discontented by preaching forgiveness of Debts, as the gospel says the young man went from Christ sorrowful when he bid him Sell his Possessions and give them to the poor; 
mat. 19.22.  not to terrify the Rich with any imagination or sound of loss, as if their love to God could make them Losers, or that they must suffer in their Fortune for Religions sake; 
Non ●ic vrgetur pecuniam d●mittere &c. August. lib. 2. de ser. Dom. in Monte cap. 13. Tom 4.  Let me tell them this Text bears another sense: These Debts are sins, and the Debtors are such as haue offended or wronged us; 
Luk. 11.4.  so S. Luke reads it. And therefore if there be any Debtor who to detain his Debt, and haue a colour not to pay, should appeal to the Letter, he may remember there is a Text which disables him to borrow, 
Rom. 13.8.  Nemini quicquam debeatis said vt invicem diligatis; Owe no man any thing but to love one another. If it were established as a Law that none should lend or borrow but from this stock, there could be no currant true payment of this Debt but to owe it still. Obligations of courtesy and Affection are not like common Bonds, Dated and canceled at a year; the older they are, the firmer; since Time not superannuates but improues them, and still the more wee owe, the more wee pay.  
I know some councils and other Popish Writers are Literally for not payment to some. A Romish Debtor is actually released of all Debt or Contract with an heretic, 
council. Carthag. p. 528. per C●ab.  saith their Canon. Which makes me remember that in the psalm, 
Psal. 37.26.21  The righteous lendeth, but the wicked borroweth and payeth not. What large Indulgences doth Rome afford to her Children, which Cancels their Debts, and Pardons their sins at the same rate! What better Religion can dissolute men choose than Popery, which privileges them to owe without payment, and to sin without punishment?  
But not to persist in this diversion. The Text intercedes not for a release of Debts, but sins. Our Commission is to preach forgiveness of sins: And yet though wee haue no warrant to preach Remission, wee haue warrant to preach Forbearance of Debts. Debita nisi suo tempore, 
Salmeron. Tom. 5 Tract. 51.  cum facultas dabitur exoluerimus, proculdubiò in peccatum labimur, contrectantes rem alienam. Tis a kind of robbery, for one that is able to restore what he borrows, to keep it from the Owner; nor is it violence, but iustice to force him to a restitution. But to press an unable Debtor is Tyranny, and makes the Creditor accountant for such a sin which his whole Debt cannot buy out. Such as these, 
mat. 18.24.  Christs Parable instructs us to forbear; and where he mediates for longer day, tis irreligion not to grant it. It is lawful for any man to call for his own, but he must do it in a temperate Christian way. I may deliver a truth in that phrase and those circumstances, that it may sound like a libel: and I may require my own in that harsh fashion, that it shall appear Extortion rather than equity. There be some men so punctual and peremptory vpon their Debtors, that impatient of reason or delay, they punish their breaking of Day for payment with imprisonment. With ill Debtors, that would delude them, they haue some colour to deal thus; But with such from whom they can receive no present satisfaction but their Body, nor expect any possibility of satisfaction but by a patient forbearance, and giuing them a longer respite, to deal thus is neither discretion nor conscience. Is the carcase of a poor Debtor languishing in a jail better security than what they haue already? or doth that wretched pawn of his Body satisfy the Debt? If not, what madness is it in them when a Debt is doubtful, to take a course to make it quiter desperate? What barbarousness is it in them, because a man is already disabled for satisfaction, by a cruel restraint vpon his liberty to disable him for ever? I am afraid to think what will become of such flinty hearted men, who sacrifice their brethren to ruin and starve poor Debtors, only to feed the wolf of their reuenge. 
Aug. Serm. 38. de Sanct.  Si periturus est qui carcerem non visitauit, quid de illo fiet qui in carcerem misit? If he be in danger to be chained up in eternal darkness who visits not the Prisons, what chains are preparing for him whose cruelty fills them?  
For such men as these, Father forgive them, or at the least reduce their cauteriz'd dead consciences to this sense of their own misery, that without a speedy repentance shall reprieue them, they are lost, and that they never must taste drop of thy mercy, unless they show that mercy unto others which they expect from thee; For wee covenant for thy forgiveness, Sicut dimittimus, As wee forgive our Debtors.  
In Matthew 7. it was a maxim which our saviour Christ gave to his Disciples, 
Sicut, As we forgive &c.  whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye unto them. A maxim so just and equal, that even Heathen men adored it. severus the Emperour was so much affencted with it, that he caused it to be engraven in his Palace, and vpon the public Buildings: And besides, out of a reverence to the Author, determined to haue built a Temple for Him. But how ever he was crost in that purpose, wee find this very sentence gave occasion to ulpian chief counsellor to severus, to frame that Conclusion which is amongst the Pandects, Quod quisque juris in alterum statuerit, vt ipse eodem jure utatur; That every one should expect that right vpon himself which he gave others. 
Camerat. Historic. Meditat. lib. 5. cap. 18.  Camerarius writes, that vpon an old Monument under which Apollonia Geria was butted at Rome, they found this inscribed; Quod quisque vestrûm optauerit mihi, illi semper eueniat vivo& mortuo; Let that befall you alive and dead which you wish to me.  
But to leave these Stories. Our saviour in his gospel, to put ● greater dignity vpon this Rule of his, professes it is not only a Law to govern the Actions that pass between Man and Man, but is also a covenant established betwixt God and us, who will do unto us as wee do unto our Brethren, exercising the same measure, the same degree of rigour or mercy on us, as wee express towards them. 
mat. 7.2.  {αβγδ}, With what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again, and with what iudgement ye judge ye shall bee judged. Which is the perfect scope of this Petition, wherein he doth not promise to hear us, or allow our prayer for Remission of our sins, but vpon condition, that wee forgive those that trespass against us: forgive us Sicut, So, and no otherwise but As wee forgive.  
Therefore Caietan 
Caietan.  well says, Modum veniae nobis ipsis definimus, wee as it were judge ourselves, and define how far the mercies of God shall extend to us, when wee either contract or dilate them according to the limits of our own charity to others. Nay wee as it were enter Bond with God, 
lo Ser. 5. de Quadrages.  Durissimis nos vinculis alligamus, nisi quod profitemur impleamus, that wee will expect no mercy from Him, if we show none.  
To what a strange equality doth the goodness of God level itself for our sakes! At first God was mans pattern by which he was wrought and made up, Factus ad imaginem, according to his Image: Now man is Gods, who forms his Actions by a sampler within us, the complexion of our Conscience: So Theophylact 
Theophylact.  says; {αβγδ}. God takes pattern by my actions, and whatsoever I do to others, the same will he do to me. You see what a necessary dependence there is betwixt the Mercy of God and Ours, when God implies Ours as a Condition not to be dispensed with, or rather as a previous Disposition which must precede His. 
mat. 5.24.  If thou haue ought against thy brother, go and first be reconciled, and then come and tender thy Gift. In vain dost thou make thy approaches to the Altar, and think to be accepted before God, when thou leavest behind thee that fume which sweetens the sacrifice of thy prayers, thy charity with Men. Therefore S. Luke delivers it absolute, forgive &c. 
Luk. 11.4.  For wee forgive those that are indebted to vs.  
So you see there is a necessity laid on us, Woe unto us if wee forgive not, for then the hand-writing of Death which stands against us must never be reversed. Wee shut out Gods mercy from us, 
mat. 18.35.  if wee first show it not to our Brethren. But yet the necessity holds only on our part. It doth not necessary follow if wee forgive others, God must therefore forgive vs. Our Remission I confess may be a motive to incline God, not a Cause to necessitate, or compel his Mercy to vs. God says he will not parley with us, unless wee first be reconciled; and yet he tells us not when wee are reconciled that our Act of Reconcilement must conclude Him. It doth not follow, if I commit adultery and remit a Grudge, that vpon my Act of forgiveness God should quit Scores, and pardon my Incontinence: Non propterea Dominus ait, 
Aug. de civit. D●● l. 21. ca 27.  Si dimiseritis vos hominibus, dimittet vobis Deus, vt eâ oratione securi quotidiana scelera faciamus. Such bargains as these would open a large way to atheism and all licentiousness. Gods mercy is not subordinate to ours, but most free and independent, no merit of ours can buy it, nor any action wee can do produce it as a consequent. Our mercy shewed to others is not the cause of Gods, but a motive to incline His, and to qualify us with a capacity to receive His. Neither did Christ in these words absolutely promise His Remission, but by an exhortation excite ours. Caluin 
Caluin.  states it rightly: Venia, quam nobis dari petimus, ab eâ quam praestamus aliis non dependet, said hoc modo ad remittendas omnes offensas hortari nos volvit Christus. For which speech Stapleton in his Antidote bitterly inueighs against him, 
Stapleton. antidote. evangel. in mat. 6.15.  as being willing to quarrel with the Truth, if Caluin spake it. Yet I will not wreak the injury vpon Stapleton; wee are vpon a Theme of forgiveness, and Stapleton himself but five lines after this hot accusation cries Caluin mercy, urging his words to refute himself; Non alia lege nos ad veniam admittet Deus, nisi fratribus ignoscimus: God will not vpon any other terms take us to favour, but as wee take those into our mercy who haue offended vs. He will not forgive our Debts, but as we forgive our Debtors.  
Let the devout eiaculation therefore of Hugo Cardinalis be the Preface to my close, Da vt nos dimittamus aliis quod in nos peccauêre,& tu dimit nobis; Good Lord grant us that gift of charity, that wee may remit unto others the wrongs which they haue done unto us, and be thou gracious to remit our trespasses committed against Thee.  
The Light of Nature, Reason, and the True Light Christ Iesus tells us, it is better to forgive, than to retain an injury.  
Is it a Calumny cast vpon thee? The noblest reuenge is silence or neglect. 
Basil. de legendis gentle. libris.  S. Basil as highly commends that Philosopher Pericles, who to a tedious Railer made no reply, as wee do conquerors. Indeed tis nothing but our apprehension which quickens slander, and gives it life; which if despised, would return vpon the Author, and like a weed perish in that rank soil which bare it.  
Is it a Law-strife, in which many a man wrangles out his time? S. Paul tells thee tis more wisdom to sit down: 
1 Cor. 6.5, 6, 7.  Is there not one wise man amongst you, but Brother goeth to Law with Brother; why do ye not rather take wrong? And our saviour tells us tis better husbandry to agree with an adversary at any rate, 
mat. 5.25.  than stand out, for there is nothing got by it: If any man sue thee at the Law to take thy coat, 
Vers. 40.  let him haue thy cloak also; for thou shalt spend more to recover one, than both are worth. Therfore if thine adversary take thy coat, give him thy cloak; for if he haue it not, thy attorney will: And since thou art sure to lose it both ways, tis better to yield it vpon quiet terms, than after much vexation lose it in the costs of thy war.  

Psal. 30.9.  Or lastly, is it a quarrel, whose decision ends in blood? Quae utilitas in sanguine meo? give me leave to use the words. What satisfaction can my blood give thee for an injury? Or what can my death add to thee, but a new sin? whose clamour can never be appeased until it haue awaked iustice, and let loose that vengeance which thy remission might still haue kept muzzel'd and tied up. What strange prodigious Spirit of wrath is it, that like an Incubus ouerlayes thy iudgement, and makes thee value the satisfaction of a wrong above the favour of God, and sooner forfeit heaven than thy Reuenge?  
O what a rebellious thing is Man, whose passions and perturbations that power which calms the angry Sea cannot alloy! Sub iussione Christi mere audit, 
Aug. Ser. 3. de Epiphan.  & tu surdus es? Shall the Wind or the floods be more obedient to Him than thou? In every such storm of fury call up thy Religion, and wake Christ, who sleeps in thee, when thy Passions are awake; as the Disciples in that tempest did with their loud cry, 
mat. 8.25.  Master help us, or wee perish. For if He sleep still, thou art utterly lost, and wracked vpon thy own cost. Nay, if thou suffer these vindicative gusts to prevail vpon thee, the storm will grow so loud, that thou shalt want voice to cry,& to wake him. whilst fury or malice is in thy heart, the tongue of thy prayer is either quiter tied up, or if it do speak, it speaks Death unto thy soul. If thou cry unto God to forgive thee, as thou forgivest, in that cruel hypocrisy of thine thou signest the warrant for thine own death. Thy not forgiving thy brother, turns thy prayer into a Curse, and like a Comet makes it shoot vengeance into thine own bosom.  
Mercy was the last legacy which thy saviour bequeathed whilst that sun of righteousness hung vpon the cross, and was near his Sun-set. He would not go down in wrath, but in forgiveness, Father forgive them. 
Ephes. 4.25.  O let not Him see the sun go down vpon thy wrath. 
mat. 16.2.  It is not with thy Conscience as with the sky; A read evening prognosticates a faire day: But if the evening of thy Life be read, if it be died or discoloured with blood, the Morning of the next World will rise foul, and lower vpon thee, nor shall any sound but of Iudgement and horror salute thy ear; Awake to Iudgement, thou that wouldest not sleep in Mercy. Whereas if here thou liest down in peace,( as david speaks) reconciled to men, and to thyself, thou shalt find( no doubt) the fruit of this reconcilement on Earth sealed in heaven, in the forgiveness of all thy sins. AMEN.   

And lead us not into Temptation.  
THis part of the prayer is rather a Deprecation than a Petition, fitly ensuing that which precedes it. Wherein as wee sued for the discharge of sins committed, so here wee deprecate all new occasions which may revive those sins, lead us not into Temptation. 
Gabriel. Biel Lect. 77. de Missa.  Ne scilicet purgatâ domo nostrâ à peccatorum sordibus, rursùs tentatione victi, in eadem aut maiora recidiuantes, nouissima nostra fiant prioribus peiora; So Biel glosses it: Lest relapsing into our soul habit of sin, after we haue been cleansed, our latter condition proves more dangerous than the first.  

Per tentationem intelligitur concupiscentia, quae origo est omnium tentationum; vnde petens singulariter non induci in illam, petit induci per consequens in nullam. Part. 4. pag. 177.  Alexander Hales makes the object of this part Concupiscence, which is Vices Seminary, the mould wherein sin is cast, the beginning of all Temptations. It is Christs Method to stop the Primos motus peccati, Conceptions of sin, prevent ills in their cradle, kill them in the Bud, before they acquire strength or opportunity to ripen.  
Lest any should misconceiue the words, and, 
Si non induceret Deus in tentationem, frustra peti ne induceret. Hales.  because wee pray unto God Not to lead us into temptation, make an affirmative inference, that He might be the Author and lead us into Temptation, I shall first show,  
God is no Cause of evil.  
Nor an occasion of it by Tempting any.  
Yet He permits Temptation.  
What, and from whence, and how Various this Temptation is, who the Author of it.  
Who the deliverer from it, my ensuing Treaty will disclose.  
My first task is to show, God is no Cause of sin. 
God is no cause of sin.  For is there any so far gone in error, as to suppose the clear fountain of all goodness can be the foul sure of sin? Can Good and evil flow from the same head? Or can the judge of all the World play booty with his Clients, receive a prayer with one hand, and deal a Curse with the other? Tis true, the tongue can bless and curse with the same breath; but God, who gave it motion, making it the Organ of Speech, and Interpreter of the Heart, made not the perverse language which the tongue utters. Cursings were never stamped in his Mint, but cast by him who is the Author of Lies and Forgeries. Contraries never rose from one Spring, nor do the brackish and sweet waters flow from the same rock. What a Monster then should that man breed in his imagination, that should pronounce God the Author of sin? If Nature abhor to teeme with Opposites in one and the same womb; If the Grape and the thorn, 
Luk. 6.44.  the fig and the Thistle, be births which one stock bears not; If bitter and sweet be qualities which necessary derive themselves from a different parentage; then much more are Good& evil Births which the God of Nature never yet reconciled in his Acts. And sooner shall Nature run counter to herself, inverting her even course, sooner shall the congealed frost lodge with the fire, and Winter become the preposterous Mother of the harvest, than the true Father of Light be brought to father the spurious issue of Night, sin and error.  
As there is none good but God alone, so nothing but goodness can proceed from Him. And if wee divest him of that propriety, we act a robbery vpon Him which his Vegetable Creatures are not capable of. Christ says, A good three bringeth forth good fruit; And if wee say less of the Author of all good fruits, than of the three, do wee not conclude his goodness to be of less growth than it?  
Such a denial as this, is, at the easiest construction, a folly of as large extent as his that denied God. Dixit insipiens, 
Psal. 53.  There is one fool in the psalm that says there is no God; And there is another fool( saith S. Basil) who imagines God the Author of evil.  
Such is the madness of many, that out of a desire to extenuate or disguise their faults, they impute them to God; 
Orig. Homil. 13. in Ezek.  Criminantur Creatorem vt se criminibus absoluant, by false criminations traducing even the God of Truth.  
Strange presumption of the Creature, that dares make Him guilty of his deformities, who in the original Copy of his works never knew any lameness or imperfection! For vpon the first review, his Penman records, that he approved them all for good, Viditque Deus cuncta quae fecerat, 
Gen. 1.31.  & erant valdè bona.  
Therefore S. Augustine 
Aug.  says right, Hominem fecit Deus, peccatorem homo; God made Man, but Man made himself a Sinner. And it is S. Bernards free confession, Si peccavi, ego peccavi, non fatum, 
Bernard. Ser. 76. in Cantic.  non fortuna, non diabolus, aduersus me pronuntiabo, non aduersus Dominum. He is so far from blaming God, that he will not blame Destiny or Fortune, nay he accounts it a slander to accuse the devill as the Author of his Sin. Tis true that the deceit of the devill was the Prologue to sin; his persuasions laid the first train by which Mans will was inflamed, he kindled his desire with curiosity to Know, but the Cause was in Mans self, a perverseness& Disobedience in his Will. ask the Prophet, and he will tell you, that there lies the head of sin: As the fountain casteth her waters, 
jer. 6.7.  so shee her malice. If Mans Will had been suitable to his first abilities, he might haue stood unshaken by any assault of the Serpent; Acceperat posse si velvet, 
August. citat. à Petr. Lombard. Lib. 2. Dist. 24.  said non habuit velle quo posset: It was in his power, at his own election, not to haue fallen, he might haue stood if he would, but his Will declined and forfeited that power. 
Aug. Enchirid.  Et quia suam maluit facere voluntatem quàm Dei, de illo acta est voluntas Dei: Therefore because he rather choose to fulfil his own vicious purpose than Gods command, God left him to the fearful consequence and punishment of the sin by him committed. If then Mans Will were the cause of his fall, what an addition should that man make to his sin, that would make God accessary to that fault, whereto onely himself consented?  
As God is not the Author of sin, so neither of Temptation: 
God not the Author of Temptation.  which in the definition of the schools is, Quidam motus vel actus natus inclinare ad aliquid illicitum, A motive or provocation to ill: 
Brulefer. lib. 2. Dist. 21. quaest. 1.  and Tentans est quicunque intendit vt tentatum reprobum faciat& seducat; The end of a Tempter is to seduce and make ill. How then can it stand with his goodness to be a Factor for reprobation, or a Confederate in that Act which he abhors?  
I know, Temptation is the concurrence of Time, and Place, and subiects appliable to both; And however in itself it be less than the Fact, yet considered in the Author, that invites sin by these opportunities, it shall far outgo it. The infirmity of a Sinner may sometimes find excuse or pity, but what shadow of excuse can shelter his malice that drew him to the Act?  
Tis more hateful to be sins Bawd, than to be the subject of it. The first is the active part of 'vice, the last is passive. The first Nurses it, the last receives it; And, if the milk be empoisoned, you will rather blame the Nurse that gave it, than the child that drew it in. Tis not the Wax, but the Impression of the seal that fortifies a conveyance, and makes the dead. Man is a thing easily persuaded to error, 
funeral.  Cereus in vitium flecti, like wax wrought to a softness, that will receive the Figure of any 'vice. And yet we blame not his softness, but lament him, whose credulity and easy temper betrays him to every Temptation.  
If wee lay the occasion of Mans fault aright, wee must lay it on the Tempter: At his allurements did Adams obedience relent, his persuasions heated him with the inordinate desire of knowledge: he chafte this wax, mollifying it with such art, that it received his authentic seal of damnation, by which sin was made currant in the World. Had there been no Tempter, happily Men had never been acquainted with sin. And we may justly think, it was the Serpent made him familiar with that mischief, which his innocent disposition then knew not.  
Temptation then is but an instruction How and When to sin, a subtle engine serving to encourage and give aim to those faults, which our frailty is perfect in without a Prompter. Tis but a deceitful gloss set vpon 'vice to make it look amiable, Assimilatio boni ad fallendum; 
Cassian.& Biel loc. cit.  As the physician wraps his bitter Pills in Gold, only to beguile the phantasy of his Patient. And if so, for Religions sake let us impose a better office on God than to be the devils Factor in procuring sins. 
tertul. lib. de Orat.  Absit vt Dominus tentare videatur, quasi aut ignoret fidem cuiusquam, aut dejicere sit consentiens( saith Tertullian) far be it from us to think God contriues or consents to Mans ruin, or like a Broker for Hell vnderwrites our Bill of Sale.  
If I would stretch my thoughts to the very center& lowest degree of baseness, they could not think a vileness below a Seducer: an office which posed that great Master of language S. jerome, whose sharp pen knew to display the darkest 'vice, and dissect the foulest Body of sin, but to deal with this he had not words nor art enough, is fain to cry for help to express himself: 
Hieron.  De te quid dicam, fili Serpentis, minister Diaboli, violator Templi Dei, qui in uno scelere dvo crimina perpetrasti? What shall I say of thee, thou child of the Serpent, minister of Satan, who by thy seducements hast couched many sins in one?  
Tis more Religion to deny God, than to make so inglorious a confession of Him, as to repute Him sins Agent. The King of Glory is an usurped Title if He trade in deeds of shane; nor is he a competent judge of sin, if his practise makes Him confederate in the sin which he condemns. 
Iam. 1.13.  Let no man therefore say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted to evil, neither tempteth he any man.  
But doth God not Tempt? How then shall wee reconcile Scripture to Scripture, 
God permits Temptation.  Moses to S. james? who tells the people in Deut. 13. Tentat vos Dominus Deus vester, 
Deuter. 13.  The Lord your God tempts you. S. Augustine reconciles both by a Distinction. There is Tentatio Deceptionis, and Probationis; 
Aug. Epist. 146. Cons●ntio. Id. Ser. 11. de verb. Dom. Tom. 10.  or, as he expresses himself elsewhere, Est tentatio adducens peccatum, quâ Deus neminem tentat;& est tentatio probans fidem, quâ& Deus tentare dignatur: There is one kind of temptation wherein God proves and makes trial of the faith of his seruants, and this himself sometimes vouchsafes to own; and there is another temptation of deceit, which allures men to sin, whereof He is by no means the Author. Notwithstanding though He be not the Cause of it, He Permits even this: 
Alex. Hales part 4 pag. 177.  Inducit Deus in Tentationem Permissiuè, non effective aut Operatiuè; so Alexander Hales. God may be said to led us into Temptation, not that He effects it, but that he gives way to it, which is by a Desertion, 
A●g de ser Dom. in M●nte, l. 2. c. 14. Tom. 4.  and the withdrawing of his help. Non enim per se inducit Deus, said induci patitur eum quem suo auxilio deseruerit, as S. Augustine exemplifies it.  
In which I haue vnueiled the sense of this Petition, which is not to imply God a party in Temptation, but a deliverer, to rescue us from it, or to avert and hinder, and break the force of it. Ne inferas, or Ne inducas, that is, Ne patiaris induci; so S. Augustine explains; And S. Cyprian reads it, 
Cyprian. de Orat. Dom.  Suffer us not to be led into Temptation.  
But Permissio est quoddam genus voluntatis, Permission implies Consent, nay it is a kind of Will, one of the five branches into which the Will is subdivided, and so near allied unto the Fact, that the Tragedian delivered it for truth, 
Senec. Tragoed.  Peccatum qui non vetat cum potest, jubet: Toleration of a fault, makes an accessary; and not to hinder a mischief when tis in his power, is to command it. How then shall wee acquit God for being accessary to the Temptation, since He who by his least word might hinder, suffers it? Or how is He vnguilty of Adams fall, when He permitted the Serpent to Tempt him, whom he knew would fall? Tis Lombards question, 
Petr. Lombard. lib. 2. dist. 23.  Quare Deus permisit hominem tentari, quem casurum sciuit? The Reply is easily formed, nor can he that weighs it aright, impute any the least part of Adams trespass either to Gods Fore-knowledge or Permission.  
First for his Prescience. Tis true, 
God no way the Cause of Adams Fall, either in regard of his Prescience or Permission.  God foresaw Man would fall, yet did not his foresight cause it. Vidit ab aeterno, said vidit non coegit, sciuit non sanxit, praedixit non praescripsit: he foresaw that luckless event, but not established it, not compelled it, not inioyn'd it. For as He Foresaw it, so He Forewarned Adam, dealing plainly with him, that If he eat of the forbidden fruit, he should die the death. Were it not strange proceeding, to indite me of conspiracy, for telling another of a danger which he might haue shunned but would not? If it be injustice to Man, tis irreligion to God: Therefore we cannot lay the fault of Adam any where but on himself, who would not apprehended the danger by taking that warning which God gave him.  
Now in his Permission of the Tempter God was less culpable than in the other. Neither do I see what God could haue done more to prevent mans ruin, than what He did, unless He should haue locked him up against all attempts by making him impregnable, and deaf to the tongue of the Charmer, and so incapable of temptation. Which had God done, he had some way degraded the dignity of his Workmanship, by forming him so that he could not be corrupted, but must be good whether he would or no.  
It was more Glory to leave him to the liberty of his Election, and more Honour for Man to haue the Power to resist Temptation, than to haue been guarded with such a privilege, as that he Could not be tempted at all: 
Petr. Lombard. l. 2. dist. 23. a.  cum in Naturâ posse,& in Potestate velle haberet non consentire suadenti, Deo iuuante,& gloriosius est non consentire, quàm tentari non posse.  
This Power had Man, by virtue whereof he might haue stood the shock of any Temptation, had he not willingly disabled himself. So that he cannot complain that he was vanquished, since he never stood out at all. Qui dedit,& non resistit, 
Augustin.  non vincitur said consentit: he yielded vpon parley, not conquest; nor was he overcome, but by a base composition surrendered himself. Nor can he complain that God preordain'd him to destruction, by giuing him a Crazy Temper, putting so much Earth and frailty in his constitution, which must needs depress him. We cannot think that an ill complexion, which was so made up, that man might not haue sinned if he would; Nor can wee lay any blot vpon Gods iustice for punishing him, who wilfully and without constraint yielded himself to sin: 
Petr. Lombard. l. 2. dist. 24.  Concedant non esse malam naturam, quae talis facta est, vt posset non peccare si velvet,& iustè punitam, quae voluntate non necessitate peccavit.  
You may observe how careful God was in preventing Mans ruin, who did not only warn him of the danger when he was yet out of the distance of it, but in the very conflict itself suggested a means to evade it. 
1 Cor. 10.13.  He did( as S. Paul says) with the Temptation make a way to escape. For though He suffered, that is, not Inhibited the Tempter, yet He Inhibited him to appear in any other shape, but of the Serpent. The devill to effect his ends, and to beguile us, can transform himself into an angel of Light: But here he was restrained for assuming that, or any other shape, but the worst; That so our first Parents might take warning from his outside, and suspect the danger of his Offer and Treaty, from the form of the Tempter.  
Which great mercy, began to our first Parents, He continues to vs. As He restrained then the Manner of the Temptation, so doth He still limit the Power of it towards vs. When He brought job to the test, suffering the devill to be the mineral to separate that pure Gold from the dross which embased all the rest of his lineage, his bad Friends and worse Wife, He bound his hands, suffered him to do nothing but by His special Warrant. When he submitted his substance to his malice, he excepted his Body: 
job 1.12.  Vpon himself shalt thou not stretch out thine hand. And when he enlarged his Commission vpon his Body, he charged him to attempt nothing against his Life, 
job 2.6.  by every step and proceeding directing his malice to a fortunate end, that, after this probation, He might enrich Iobs latter daies with blessings more ample than the first. 
job 42 12.   
Let not then a misgouern'd curiosity thrust thee into any impertinent searches, or suspicious thoughts of God, as if he conspired to make thee sin, by scattering Temptations in thy way for thee to stoop at; neither be so irreligiously acute to see more in Gods Permission than He meant.  
If thou wilt needs know why God suffered Temptations; Let this pious resolution silence all other questions of this nature, with this answer rest modestly satisfied; He suffers Temptation for our good, not to occasion our Fall, but from thence to take occasion to crown us: Tentat vt probet, 
Alexand. Hales ●art. 4.  & probatum remuneret. From those Temptations which wee are assisted by his Grace to withstand, He takes occasion to reward vs. And let me say with one who( I hope) devoutly meant it, for those Temptations which vanquish us, he suffers them, that from thence wee may borrow some colour to excuse our faults: 
Boskier.  Tentari nos patitur, vt excusationem habeamus peccandi. For those Delinquents find an easier way to pardon, that can say, though they did the fact, they were drawn and tempted to it.  

Temptation not to bee sought wilfully.  If then Temptations haue so blessed an Issue, why do wee shun them in our prayers? why do wee not rather cherish and desire them? The schoolmen, as peremptory in the stating of a doubt, as they are bold in their Quaeres, do half affirm That they are to be desired. The weakest ●ort of Christians( say they) must pray for patience and victory if Temptation assail them; 
Alex. Hales part 4. pag. 176.  Infirmis non appetenda est tentatio, ●ed appetenda patientia& victoria si accidat: Perfectis& expertis, multum confidentibus de Dei misericordia& fidelitate, benè& vtilitèr appetitur: But Christians of better growth, that dare presume on their own abilities and Gods assistance, may profitably desire it. To strengthen which assertion they urge S. Gregories speech, 
Gregor. Magnus.  Sanctus se tentari post virtutes desiderat, A Saint, next virtue, covets nothing more than Temptation. For my part I should easily subscribe to them, could they produce any of so confirmed a belief, which Temptation could not shake; but since I find none of that proof, no not amongst the Disciples, whom Christ upbraids with the title of {αβγδ}, men of little faith, I shall rest in that modest determination of S. Chrysostome and Theophylact; {αβγδ}: Wee are all at best unprofitable seruants, and at strongest too weak to wrestle with a Temptation: 
{αβγδ}. Ch●ysost. post vltim. Petit.  Therefore wee must not wilfully thrust ourselves into the mouth of danger, or draw temptations vpon vs. Such forwardness is not Resolution, but rashness, nor is it the fruit of a well ordered Faith, but an ouer-daring Presumption. There is no Ship so tall built or strongly Ribb'd, which can be confident shee will not founder in the next storm: nor is there any man of such a confidence, who, if a Tempest or Temptation rise up against him, can be assured that at the instant he can call up so much Reason and Religion as to withstand it.  
Would you not judge him mad, who, being come to an Anchor in a safe Road, would, like the Dolphin, hunt the storm, and choose to ride it out at the main Sea? Is it not enough thou hast an Antidote to expel poison, but thou must turn empiric vpon thyself, hazard the empoisoning of thine own Body, to try the power of thy Medicine? Tis no discreet Religion which seeks out dangers, and glories in Temptations; nor is he wise to salvation, who presents himself to that hazard which Christ taught him to pray against. 
Hieron. adverse. Vigilant.  Fateor imbecillitatem meam, nolo spe pugnare victoriae, ne perdam aliquando victoriam, saith S. jerome: To hazard a set battle in hope of a doubtful victory, is to out-dare a mans iudgement. Tis possible that he who exposes himself to the danger of a sight, may overcome, but tis probable he may fall: The peril is certain, the victory doubtful. In vn-needfull Temptations, I had rather distrust myself, than make trial of my strength in apparent disadvantage.  
Certainly I will pray against Temptation, tis my saviours rule, Orate ne intretis in Tentationem, Pray lest ye enter into Temptation; but if it surprise me, I will pray to Him Not to lead me into it, that is, not to deliver me into the power of it, but to give me grace {αβγδ}, 
Theophylact.  to bear it manfully. Which is the full scope of this Petition: so Isidor. Pelusiot. expresses it, {αβγδ}, 
Isidor. Pelus. l. 2. ep. 76.  Not to be swallowed up in Temptation. And Thomas Aquinas is bold to say, that herein wee do not pray that wee be not Tempted, but that wee be not overcome by Temptation: 
Th. Aquin. 2●. 2ae quaest. 83. art. 9. in conclus.  Non petimus vt non tentemur, said vt non à Tentatione vincamur.  
The gloss says, He is led into temptation, who is overthrown by it: 
Gloss. in mat. 6.  In tentationem inducitur qui tentatione frangitur. So that, Tentari non est malum, said cedere tentationi,& ab eâ vinci; Tis not ill to be Tempted,( Christ you know was, and yet without sin) the mischief grows by yielding to it. In this sense do I understand S. Augustines words, where he distinguisheth betwixt Tentari,& In Tentationem induci; The First implies the Trials God lays on his Seruants, the Last those Occasions of danger, into which, by withdrawing his help, He suffers us, by the various Ministers of sin, both external and internal, to be led.  

Temptations.  Which are so many, that, if wee will compute our danger, wee need not sand out our wishes to meet Temptations, or bring them home to us, they come too swiftly, and unbidden, like rough winds that blow from every corner of the sky; and in that number, as if each minute were computed by them. So plentiful is the spawn of sin in our waters. Therefore S. Bernard 
Bernard.  cries out, Hei mihi misero! undique mihi bella, undique volant tela, undique tentamenta, undique pericula: Woe is me! I am enuirond with war, and hemmed in on all sides with Temptations.  
Biel fitly compares them to the creeping things of the earth, which are numberless: 
Gabriel Biel lect. 77. de Miss.  Sunt in hoc mari magno& spatioso reptilia quorum non est numerus. S. Bernard likens them to the little Foxes in the Canticles, Vulpes sunt tentationes, 
Bernard. in Cantic. Ser. 64.  which with cunning insinuation lurk in every branch of our Vine, in every angle of the Body, nourished at our own board, and by the same diet which feeds our Passions. 
Bern. Ser. 4. in fest. omn. Sanct.  Ab humoribus inordinatis causas procedere passionum; The cause of perturbations and passions arises from the humours, and these perturbations are the Tinder, at which the devill lights his Temptations.  
To make which more plausible, tis ever his cunning practise to attire them in that dress and livery which best suits each mans Humour and Complexion. To the phantasy of the Melancholy he whispers nothing but horror, plying him with all objects that may bring him to madness or despair. To the Sanguine Complexion he presents those wanton delights whereunto naturally it leans. The phlegmatic, like marshes which every Tide ouerflows, he seeks to lay quiter under water, by the habit of that moist 'vice, which like a Deluge covers the greater part of the Earth, drunkenness. Lastly, the Furious and choleric he prompts to quarrels, cherishing that unruly flamme so long, till he haue made them beleeue that Murder is the triumph of Reputation; so causing them to purchase the opinion of an unhappy valour by bloodshed. At which luckless period he leaves them, to the torture of a Guilty Conscience in this Life, and the fearful expectation of vengeance in the next. Thus doth the devill, like a politic Enginer, besiege us in our own works, turning our Passions, like Daggers, vpon our own breasts.  
Twas this busy Tempter who made a svit to Christ to sift and winnow his Apostles; 
Luk. 22.31.  Satan hath desired to winnow you as wheat. Is it not time then to put in our cross plea? To make it our svit to Christ to keep us from his sleights, 
Aug. de civit. Dei lib. 6.  that wee be not entrapt by him, Qui negotium quoddam habet deceptionis, whose trade and business is to deceive: Suffer us not to be seduced by him whose proper office it is to Tempt, Lest we be tempted by him that tempts. 
1 Thess. 3.5.   
But, though the devill be the chief Instigator of sin, the Flesh is the Instrument; Nay, saith Origen, 
Origen.  etiansi Diabolus non esset, homines haberent appetitum ciborum& Venereorum; Were there no other devill, wee haue one at home, an invisible devill, that lodgeth in the blood, the seditious Appetite which urges us to perpetual mutiny against the good motions of Gods Spirit. This devill of Concupiscence which daily entises and draws us away( as S. james hath it) must wee exorcize too; 
jac. 1.14.  beseeching God that He will not, by forsaking us, deliver us over to ourselves, nor suffer our own Lusts, which maintain the hot traffic with Hell, to betray us to shane and Perdition.  
again, because every new Opinion or strange Doctrine( wherewith our Times, like ouer-ranke soils, abound) is, as Vincent. Lyrinensis calls it, a Temptation, drawing a train of new Sectaries after it, because our Religion is planted betwixt two extremes, both which haue but one End, leading us by different paths to destruction, wee beseech God so to confirm us, that wee be not delivered into the power of their persuasions, who vpon the false foundation of Merit raise up a Babel of Presumption, from whose steep and elevated top they precipitate their giddy followers, 
mat. 4.6. ( as the Tempter when he had carried Christ to the highest pinnacle, would haue cast Him down:) Nor yet suffer us to be dejected or depressed by the heavy Doctrine of those Teachers, whose tongues are heavier than the hands of Moses, when he was supported by Aaron and Hur. Indeed they preach Moses, not Christ, a pound of the Law, for a dram of the gospel; never well but when they are busied in arguments of Iudgement and Reprobation; with which Killing Letter they wound those Consciences which they should, bind up, 
Vincent. Lyrinensis.  their Doctrine being Non tam Aedificatio quam Tentatio, not to edify but to demolish, to pluck down the living stones of Christs Church by despair. Suffer us not to be seduced by either of those Spirits, the one is a Spirit of air, the other of Fire; But let thy calm, peaceful Spirit so compose our Faith, so settle our Religion, that thus established it may rest sure vpon its own Base and Center, the Word of Truth, not to be shaken by these, or disordered by any the like Temptations. 
Aug.  For In tentationem intrare est à fide exire; To depart from Faith by apostasy, nay to bee brought into any degree of revolt, either by recoiling against the Truth, or by any vnsteadinesse, any hesitation to stagger in it, is to be led into Temptation.  
Lastly, because the whole World feeds us with vanity, and foments us daily with delights, wee here beseech God to uphold us, that wee fall not on these rocks of Temptation, or be induced for the short lived happiness of this world to forfeit the everlasting joys of the World to come.  
For as He only can led us into those joys, 
God delivers from Temptation.  so He alone can led us out of the Labyrinth of Temptation, wherein without His guidance wee are apt to lose ourselves.  
however then those Arch-hereticks Pelagius and Coelestius will not be beholding to this clew to bring them out, nor will haue this Petition so understood, as if men implored Gods help to hold them up from falling by Temptation, presuming it in their own power to resist sin, and not to accept of a Temptation( which Opinion is sharply sentenced by several councils) yet We haue not so learned Christ; Nor bear wee so slight regard to that prayer which His lips authorised, as to think any part of it superfluous, or that he would instruct us to make a svit of that unto his Father, which was in our own power to grant or to deny. Wee are assured, though there be many windows, and Ports, and doors for Temptation to enter at, there is but one Key to let us out, or to lock us up against it, Gods Assistant or prevenient Grace. 
Psal. 17.30.  {αβγδ}, cries the Psalmist, By thee shall I be delivered from an host of Temptations: And it is Gods voluntary promise, 
revel. 3.9, 10.  Liberabo te ab hora Tentationis, I will guard thee so sure in all thy ways, that no Temptations shall prevail against thee.  
Which promise He performs either by giuing us ability to decline them when they offer themselves at us; 
How God delivers from Temptation.  Or by allaying them in such fashion that they become healthful Medicines to cure, not Poisons to corrupt us, and happy Probations not to waste but to refine us; As Gold runs purest from the Furnace, finding no abatement of the substance, but the dross only: Or by apportioning them to our strength, that they do not ouer-match us; so though he gives us not Peace, yet he gives us means, by a faire defensive war, to hold out the siege against them.  
Be this then our comfort, 
Conclusion.  that as Temptation hath some ill in it, so it hath much good. It was said of the conspiracy against Iulius Caesar, 
Plutarch. jul. Caesar.  If in that action there were any thing of glory, it belonged to Brutus, but all the malice and cruelty of the design was imputed to Cassius. I make a juster application; whatsoever good is occasioned by Temptation, we must ascribe it to God, but the malignity which accompanies it belongs to the devill. S. Augustine says, Gods purpose in imposing trials is not to hurt, 
Ser. 126. de Tempore.  Vt probet, non vt perimat. And S. Ambrose says, though the devill tempts to destroy us, yet God when either he tries us, or suffers us to be tempted by him, doth it to crown vs. 
Ambros. l. 1. de Abraham. c. 8.  Diabolus tentat vt subuertat, Deus tentat vt coronet. Blessed be the Spirit of Comfort, that disposes his malice to our happiness, and so fortifies us that though He suffer us to be tempted, 
1 Cor. 10.13.  He will not suffer us to be tempted above our strength. Who though He may some way Permissiuely be said to led us into Temptation, doth not put us vpon any forlorn Hope, where wee are sure to perish, but in the noblest sense of Leading, Leads us as a general doth his Souldiers, encouraging them to give on vpon the enemy, in the assurance of a victory: or as He led our general Christ Iesus to be tempted of the devill. 
mat. 4.  Blessed be our Leader Christ Iesus, who in his gospel hath left a rich legacy to comfort us in all our conflicts; Be of good comfort, 
John 16.33.  I haue overcome the world. Wee are to be assured in the Apostles confidence, 
Heb. 2.18.  In that he himself was tempted, he is able to succour us when wee are tempted. And blessed be the God of hosts, who, through the Intercession of his Son, will give us the Victory not onely over Temptation, but over our Last Enemies, Hell and Death. Amen.   

But deliver us from evil.  
christianity is but a spiritual Warfare, and the chief weapon is our Prayer. Arma nostra preces& lachrymae. You know who was the general of the Field, and Leader of this battle, who ordered the Files, ranked the several Petitions of this Prayer, and cast it into this sevenfold form.  
It is not only the property of an expert general to give on vpon the Enemy, but to go off as well. He must not only provoke his Souldiers to make bold Charges vpon the Aduersaries, but when the day is ended provide for a safe and honourable retreat. Our blessed saviour, that he might show himself a perfect Leader, not only able to instruct us in the fight, but careful to bring us off again, see how He hath ordered the manner of our Retirement, Guarding our return with safety, and fortifying the last part of his Prayer with the full Power and Fruit of his Mediation, deliverance. As He once placed the Pillar of Fire behind the Israëlites, to secure them from the danger of the Egyptians, who then had them in chase.  
I know, if wee only look with carnal eyes, no Prospect offers itself to our view but fear and terror on all sides; Temptation( like Egypt) at our heels, in the preceding Petition; and evil( like the Canaanite) nay the extremity of all evils, beyond the temporal Scourge of Ashur, the Punishment of sin before us, in This. So that wee might for ever languish in that distracted amazement which seized the Seruant of Elisha, 
2 King. 6.15, 16, 17.  when he beholded the whole Country of Samaria begird with Souldiers, and no means of Escape. But when Faith hath cleared, and devout Prayer obtained that favour at Gods hand for us, which the Prophet there did for his Seruant, the Opening of our eyes, we shall then perceive that our Trenches are stronger than all the works raised by the Enemy; that there are many Powers levied in this name of deliverance; 
Vers. 17.  that Chariots of Fire are our convoy, and, as he there confessed, they that are with us are stronger than any that oppose vs. 
Rom. 8.31.  Indeed If God be on our side, who can be against us? Who can doubt of success in his Prayer, or safety from all danger, when salvation bears him off, and deliverance marches in his Rere-gard?  deliver us from evil. 
division.  
The scope then of this last Petition is deliverance, Libera nos, deliver vs.  
The Danger wee desire to be secured from, A malo, from evil. That is,  
evil Present, and evil to come. A malo Culpae,& à Malo Poenae: From the evil of sin in this World, And from the evil of Punishment in the World to come.  
God did not onely intend his own Glory, 
deliver vs.  when He raised up so excellent a piece of Building as Man, but had a Purpose also afterwards to glorify that Creature whom he then made. How that Building was defaced, or who was the accursed Instrument to demolish it, I mention not here: The means of his Reparation, not the Manner of his Decay, is now my Argument.  
To this repair of ruined Man, and the re-setling of him in that way of Glory unto which the Ordinance of his Maker first disposed him, nothing contributes more than Prayer, which is the very Picture of our Mediator, daily soliciting the accomplishment of that happy work which he undertook for us, deliverance; and whose main intention is to prop us up from falling into the Habit of sin, and from that Habit to the lowest degree of Woe, Hell fire, deliver vs.  
Tis sometimes seen that grief makes us eloquent: I am sure danger often makes us devout. necessity prompts men to seek relief, and the apprehension of an ill, ready to fall vpon us, sends us to God for shelter.  
doubtless Religion owes much to fear. Petronius an understanding Heathen affirmed, that the Heathens his Brethren did owe the invention of their Gods to it.  Primus in orb Deos fecit timor. 
Twas fear at first opened the eye of Nature, and made her, even blindfold, to grope after some deity that ruled the World, and kept all the Elements in awe.  
In the prophecy of jonas wee find, that the fearful Tempest gave motion to those mens zeal, which perhaps before was wholly becalmed, and the working of the Sea wrought them into a Religion. When the Wind and the Billow chid loudest, the shrill accent of their fear was heard above it; The tumultuous exhortation of each one, to pray unto his God, spake in as much noise as the storm. Nor did the terror of their shipwreck, which then threatened them, employ the industry of their own prayers, but reached so far, that it awaked the sleepy devotion of jonah: What meanest thou, O Sleeper? 
jonah 1.6.  Arise and call vpon thy God, if so be that God will think vpon us that wee perish not. I do not wonder if a furious Sea frighted those Sailors into devotion, since the Disciples themselves having put to Sea, and running the like hazard by a storm, which had near butted the Ship, forgetting the confidence wherewith faith should haue armed them, and remitting all trust either in the goodness or power of their Pilot then aboard with them, though asleep, being now almost grown desperate by their fears, raised Him with this loud cry, Master save us, wee perish.  
There is nothing so natural to Man as to call for help, because there is not in the World a creature exposed to so much want and danger as he. 
Cathari hanc petitionem excluserunt, opinantes se peccare non posse quia praedestinatos.  And how ever the Cathari, out of the proud conceit of their own purity, omitted this Petition, wee know the very Condition of his Being is a misery, and his conversation full of Sin. Well may our tongues then be perfect in the language of this Petition, deliver us from evil; When Nature and Conscience, our own infirmity, and the expectation of an heavier sentence prompt us to it. Danger even now grapples with us, and Iudgement waits so close vpon us, that both in View and at Distance, near hand and far off, for the Present and for the Future, in Possession and in reversion, our miseries are entailed vpon vs. Where there are so many Ques given us, we cannot but be expert in the repetition; and when woe is the constant Scene, Libera nos should be our Mother Tongue: deliver us from evil, A Malo Praesenti& Futuro, From Ills Present and to Come.  
This is the Dialect of Nature and of 
From evil.  Conscience; By the Rules of this unhappy Syntaxis do they both most congruously speak. Life is a Misery, and sin a Sting, and Death a terror. Life exposes us to the assault and opportunity of sin, and sin binds us over to the sentence of Death at the last Sessions, when the World shall be arraigned in flames. deliver us therefore A Malo Vitae, from an evil Life, and from a Worse Death.  
Wee first grow familiar with our evils when wee take acquaintance with Life: 
A Malo vitae  Whose whole Voyage is so clogged with variety of encombrance, that tis an affliction but to carry our Contemplations thorough, or travell it with our Thoughts.  
I know, in the sense of many a wretch, Death is an happiness, and there can be no such exquisite torment as to prolong an unwilling life. I do not only include in this speech those whom Misery hath tired out, and so made weary of living; Wee must allow them to be partial, and justly to prejudicate Life. My speech reaches to all, and in this general appeal I make Common understanding the judge; and on that ground pronounce, that there is none who indifferently weighs the troubles of Life, when it is calmest, and our quiet in Death, but will rest vpon S. Ambrose his Conclusion, Tantis malis repleta est haec vita, vt comparatione eius mors remedium esse putetur, non poena. So abundant are Lifes Crosses, so scarce the Comforts, that compared to it Death is an Ease, not a Punishment, and a Curing Medicine, not a Corsiue. When wee shall think that these bodies of ours are made up only to be dissolved again: As Printing-Characters are put together only to serve the short purpose of the Author; which done, and the Impression finished, they are taken asunder again, and thrown into their Cells. When wee shall think, that discord lodges in our Temper, that the contention of the Elements rules the blood, and that the victory of every predominant Humour and quality in the Body turns to a mortal Disease to strike us into Dust. When wee shall think Youth is a hot fever, and Age a could palsy; That One and twenty is a Temptation, and Threescore an Affliction; That the Entrance of Life is with Labour, and the Catastrophe, the utmost extent of it, a mere inveterate Sorrow; we shall find good cause to approve their custom for the best, that used to mourn vpon the Birth-day, and laugh at the funerals of their Friends, welcoming the nativity of their Children with tears, but celebrating their Death with Feasts.  

Gregor. Moral. lib. 11. c. 97.  It was the speech of Gregory; Si subtilitèr consideretur omne quod hîc agitur, poena miseriae est: If wee judiciously apprehended the whole cast of life, or our own Actions, wee shall perceive a perpetual Sentence, a doom hanging over us, That our Dayes are evil, and all the Circumstances of Life or Time, but as so many Titles to misery. Which may not onely warrant us, with S. Paul to Desire a Dissolution, 
Philip. 1.23.  Cupiens dissolui, but with Elias fainting under the consideration of his sorrows, to make a voluntary resignation of his weary life, It is enough, 
1 King. 4.  O Lord, take my soul. deliver us therefore à Malo vitae, from those evils and Crosses which make Life distasteful or dangerous to vs.  
It were happy if all Mans Misery were locked up in himself, if the sum of his unhappiness consisted in his own sorrows; for then Death would Cure, at least Finish them. But the steam arising up from his corruption, flies up to heaven, and breeds ill odour in the nostrils of God: God is exasperated and troubled, nay grieved by his sins. Praebuisti mihi laborem in iniquitatibus tuis; Tis his Complaint in Esay, 
Esa. 43.24.  Thou hast wearied me with thy sins. Because therefore this Dilassation, this tiring of God, this abuse of his Patience may kindle Him into a flamme of displeasure, we pray to be delivered à Malo Culpae, from those sins which endanger his wrath, deliver us from this evil.  
I know, each sin bears a Whip at the back, 
A Malo Culpae.  and like the Scorpion carries a venom which few Antidotes can expel.  
'vice is its own Mulct, and every bad Thought is but a new capacity of Vengeance. Our Affections are our Penalties: The Master of the Sentences calls them Poenales Affectus. 
Petr. Lombard. lib. 3. dist. 15.  Our own Passions, like Plommets tied at the feet of men thrown into the Sea, weigh us down. Anger, like a Calenture, burns us up; and drunkenness, like a dropsy, melts us into water; Gluttony chokes us with surfet, and Incontinence rewards us with disease. job says the sentence is now absolutely past and gone out vpon the wicked, 
job 20.11.  His bones are full of the sins of his Youth; And so filled, that he cannot laue them out of his Conscience, or empty them into the grave. That earth which annihilates all other things, cannot concoct such a crudity as sin. The faults of Life survive in Death, Et cum eo in pulvere dormient, 
Jd.  and as men sleep vpon their own condemnation with the Axe under their pillows, so wee on them. They sleep with us in the Dust, and when the last Earth-quake shall shake off those hills of Dust that cover us, those sins will rise up with us, and produce an evidence whose bloody Character Time or rottenness could not blot out; by which they will deliver us unto a Torture more immortal than the malice of our Inditement.  
If our Prayers then rest onely here, and sue for no further deliverance than A Malo Culpae, from temporal Miseries and Diseases, or from those mischiefs which actually our sins cast vpon us in this Life, they travell but half way, leaving the greatest part of the journey, of best advantage or of most dangerous Consequence, behind them.  
Wee therefore enlarge our Petition, and pray to be delivered A Malo Poenae, 
A Malo Poenae.  from the evil of the last Punishment; for this is the full scope and meaning of the words.  
And yet wee do not exclude the avoidance of those 
Intelligitur Poenalitas praesens. Thom. Aquin. 2●. 2ae. q. 83. Art. 9. in Conclus.  Punishments which are laid vpon us whilst wee live here. The Attachment of a principal inuolues all that are Partakers. sin is a Party in Death, and temporal Punishments are as Decrees binding us over to an heavier Sentence, unless a Timely Penitence reverse that Sentence, and sue out our Pardon. The fever in my blood is a Figure of the last Fire which will burn both Body and soul, if the tears of Contrition quench it not in the mean space.  
As therefore, in the latitude of this word evil, 
Brulefer.  wee pray against all kinds of evil, whether they be Mala Naturae, or Culpae, or Poenae; natural evils, as deformity of the Body, blind, or Lame, Misse-shapen Births, such as Monsters are made up in: Or moral evils, sins that deform the soul, and make the mind of Man a Monster, or prodigy to affright even himself: Or lastly, evils of Punishment ordained for the vindication of those sins: So under the title of Punishment wee are allowed to pray against all kinds thereof, whether they be( as the schools distribute them) temporal, or eternal.  

Bonauent. l. 2. dist. 33. Art. 3. q. 1.  And yet bonaventure apparells some of these temporal Punishments laid vpon us, in such a Phrase as makes them rather to be embraced than shunned. Poenae Temporales non tantùm sunt Punitiuae, said Promotiuae: There be some Punishments ordained for the overthrow of Gods Enemies: There be others appointed for the Reclamation of his Seruants, of which sort are those Fatherly Corrections and gentle Visitations, whereby God humbles us to raise us up to an higher degree in his favour, and set us a step nearer heaven. These are the Christians press-money, whereby God binds them to his service. Castigat omnem filium &c. 
Hebr. 12.6.  He chastens every son he loues. Wee do not pray against these Castigations, that conduce to the bettering or improving of our souls; These are not angry Curses darted against us, but Blessings: Beatus quem tu corripis.  
They are the other vindicative Punishments wee seek to decline; Those that speak in mortal Diseases, in Famine, and bloodshed.  
Nor do we only pray against these. All Earths Punishments compared to those that are treasured up against the day of wrath, are Mercies.  
This Petition is but an armor to bear off the heat of the last fearful Day. Famine, or war, or Disease, can only kill the Body, but the final Punishment is an eternal war, waged with my soul and Body too, that never admits a Truce; A Famine which Time cannot determine, nor Comfort relieve. As our saviour bids us rather fear those can kill both Body and soul, 
Luk. 12.4, 5.  than those who onely haue power to destroy the Body: So hath He instructed us, rather to pray against the everlasting Torture of the soul, than the Momentany Discruciations of the Body. The principal aim of this Petition is leueld against the principal Misery, the eternal Punishment of the Life to come; deliver us from evil.  
By which Malum Poenae, Future Misery, what is meant, what Species of Punishment it is, I shall first show by a negative, and then Define.  

Purgatory not meant here.  First, this evil is not Purgatory: For that which hath no being, cannot be the subject of this Petition. Purgatory( I confess) is a fine Tale for a Romanza, but a ridiculous History to be brought into a Church; It being capable of no colour of Truth. And therefore it was one of the wisest Acts the council of Trent ever did, at that time when it decreed, That the Doctrine of Purgatory should be believed by the people, taught by the Bishops and Priests, even in the Body of the Decree to prohibit any Disputation or curious search after it. They suspected, and justly, it would lye open to too much infirmity, and shane the Abettors by the folly of its Pedigree. For what ever they vaunt in the Praeludium to that Ninth Session, 
council. Trident. sess. 9.  cum Catholica Ecclesia Spiritu Sancto edocta, ex sacris Literis &c. bringing the Holy Ghost, the Scripture, and the Fathers to authorize their invention; undoubtedly the Father was an Amorite, the Mother an Hittite. It owes the true Parentage, the natural extraction to Philosophy and Poetry.  
It was first fancied by Plato, four hundred yeeres before Christ: Who, in his book De Anima, reports the several success of deceased Men. Those( saith he) who haue lived very well, 
Eusebius lib. 1. Appar. cap. ult.  are conveyed to the purest Regions and Islands of the blessed: Those that haue lived but indifferently are wasted over Acheron unto a Fiery Marish, where they suffer for a time, and then {αβγδ}, being Purged and Purified in that Fire, they are released. But mortal, capital Offenders, {αβγδ}, they are cast into tartarous, from whence there is no release.  
Virgil confirms this: 

Aeneid. 6.  aliis sub gurgite vasto  
Infectum eluitur scelus aut exuritur igni.   

Vid. Chemnitium in Exam. council. Trident. Sess. 9. Decret. de Purgator.  So Homer, Odyss. α. and γ.  
So ovid 2. Fast.  
And so the Alchoran, Artic. 10.  
Here then without all controversy it began, and from thence obtained some credit amongst men addicted to the reading of Philosophers and Poets.  
Origen, a Man of rare Parts and great Wit, but subject( as great Wits are) to the extrauagancie of conceit, was the first learned Conuertite that name it in his Writings. Who notwithstanding, though he held a Purgatory, held not that any Prayers were available to deliver souls from thence. And besides, his Purgatory differs very much from that of the Church of Rome. The Romish Purgatory takes place immediately after the end of this life, Origens not till after the day of Iudgement. The Church of Rome holds their Purgatory is ordained for men of a middle condition or state of goodness, Origen extends his to all, even the very best. 
Origen.  cum nemo in hac vitâ à sordibus mundus sit, etiam sanctissimos in flammis Purgatorij expurgandos.( It is the fift Article for which he was condemned.) His authority gained amongst his many scholars some private Adherents, but yet found such could entertainment in the greek Church, wherein he lived, that in the council held at Basil Ann. Dom. 550. vpon an apology then delivered by the eastern Pastors, it was scornfully exploded, and by full consent cast out, as a new groundless imagination. So the apology runs, 
Apolog. Graec. pag. 119.  {αβγδ} {αβγδ}. We never heard from the Doctors of our Church there was any such thing as Purgatory. So then howsoever the council of Trent give it out for a thing generally currant in the catholic Church, you see it was not so, since the eastern Church opposed it from the first. And so Roffensis( whom they haue reason to beleeue) confesses; 
Roffens. Art. 18. pag. 86. b.  The Greekes to this day do not beleeue there is a Purgatory &c. It was then rejected by the greek Church, yet not extinguished so, but that it began to break out again in the latin; I mean named, but not defined as a thing De Fide.  

Aug. de civit. Dei. lib. 21. c. 13.  S. Augustine, though he mentions it, concludes nothing for it; nay he is so far from that, he confesses ingenuously it began from the Platonicks and Heathen Authors. And in his book De Haeres. he registers Origens opinion of Purgatory for an heresy; 
Haeres. 43.  which had he believed, sure he never would haue done.  
In this uncertain manner for a long time, like a spark raled up in Embers, it lay sometimes glowing, but with no confident apparance at all, until the council of Florence held Anno 1439. There it was set a foot and decreed for. In which Session though they allotted it a being, they could not assign it an ubi; They would haue it somewhere, but neither they nor any Writers since them could ever yet resolve where. Some will haue it to be in Hell; from whence a new question springs, 
Eckius in Enchirid. Lorich. Instit. Cathol. de 12. Fidei Artic.  An Gehenna& Purgatorium sint in eodem loco? Others in the Center of the Earth. Eckius placeth it in the bottom of the Sea. But Lorichius, in a distempered Conscience and troubled mind. Olaus Magnus translates it to Heckelburge in Norway. Bellarmine out of Gregory, Moral. lib. 15. cap. 30. contends that Purgatory is in Mount Etna, or Lipara, or Hiera, and the rest of the Vulcanean Islands. But, because the matter which nourished the Fire in those places hath( as 
At nunc Lipara& Hiera a●dere desinunt, iam plurimis ante annis consumptâ materiâ. Fazellus. Id. de Aetna, ad Annum 1554 Surius Hist. ad Annum 1537. Hekla perpetuis damnata aestibus& niuibus horrendo boatu lapides euomit. vid. Ortelium.  Fazellus reports) long since failed, 
Of the eruption of these fires, see Purchase Pilgrim. part. 3. pag. 939. Vt. joseph. Acosta, lib. 3. cap. 19. vid.& Herera.  Surius lays the scene at Hekla in Iseland, Quod ibi erumpant Flammae: It was ill lucke that " Tierra deal Fuego in the South of America was not discovered in his time. It had been the best use that Region could ever haue been put to; And I am persuaded that in the whole world a fitter place either in regard of compass of Land, or plenty of Fire, could not haue been thought of to receive this Plantation of Purgatory.  

Incertum est an à Daemonibus torquentur ainae. Eman. Sa Aphorism. in Purgatorium, ex Tho. Aquin.& Bellarmin.  As they could never agree about the Place, so neither about the Tormentors in Purgatory, whether they were Angels, as some thought, or devils. Neither about the Torments, whether they consist of Fire only, and then whether that Fire be corporeal or incorporeal: or whether of Water and Fire; 
Purgantur aequè frigore ac igne aut glacie. Olaus Magnus.  or of Frost and could: Or of none of these, but of disturbed affections, perplexed with faint Hopes and certain fears. 
Loc. citat.  So Lorichius.  


Incertum est quamdiu &c. Emanuel Sa loc. citat. Dionys. Carthus. de 4. Hom. Nouiss.  
Aliquas saltem ad Diem judicii &c. Beda lib. 5. hist. cap. 13.   Neither about the Duration of those Torments; whether all the souls condemned to that Fire, languish there until the day of Iudgement, as Dionys. Carthusian. Or some only, and not all, as Beda. Or whether they lye there only for the space of Ten yeeres, and no more, 
Dominic. à Soto in 4. lib. Sent. Dist. 19. Quaest. 3. Art. 2.  as Dominicus à Soto: or until the Pope pleases to enlarge them, as others. Or whether they haue intermission from their pains vpon sundays and holidays, 
Durand. de office. Mort. lib. 7. Et Bellarmin. l. 2. de Purgator. c. 18. Quod autem poena Purgatorii paulatim remittatur, &c.  as Durandus and Prudentius, cited by Bellarmine: Sunt& spiritibus saepe nocentibus poenarum celebres sub Styge Feriae. Or whether those pains by little and little are remitted and diminished, as Bellarmine. 
Bellarm. lib. 2. de Purgator. cap. 14. in fin.   
Neither about the Causes or Occasions of those Torments; 
Gregor. Dialog. lib. 4. cap. 39.& Eman. Sa. loc. cit. Eckius Posit. 6.  Whether venial sins are only punished there, as Gregor. or venial and mortal sins too, as Eckius.  
Nor lastly about the Condition and State of souls in Purgatory. 
Emanuel Sa. ex Gregor. Anselm. &c. Vid. Bellarm. l 2. de Purgator. cap. 14.  For some hold, that the souls punished in that Fire, endure a Torment which surpasseth all the most exquisite Torments in this life. But the Rhemists think the souls in Purgatory to be in a more happy and blessed Condition than any men that live in this World: And Tho. Aquinas, 
Rhem. Testam. Annot. in Apoc. 14. 13.  
Tho. Aquin. 2●. 2ae. quaest. 83. art. 11. ad 3m. Bellarm. l. 2. c. 15. de Purgator.  with Bellarmine, think it probable, Animas igne Purgatorio tortas, pro nobis orare& impetrare: Both which are cited by Emanuel Sa, Aphorism. Confessar. in Purgatorium. Yet notwithstanding, the council of Trent makes nothing to swallow down all these incongruous, fantastical conceits of Purgatory, and to digest them into a Canon with Decrees for that Spurious, lunatic Monster, which is only full shaped and made Legitimate there. Yet not out of any foundation either in Reason, or Scripture. For whereas that council boasts of Scriptures authority to shore up this rotten building, it is so false, that their own Writers, who had the reputation of Learned, by name Petrus à Soto and Perionius, aclowledge there is no Text of Scripture which proves or Names Purgatory. There is but one place to make it colourable, and that in the Apocrypha( which they are fain for that and the like Purposes to make canonical) where Iudas Macabaeus made a Collection of Two Thousand drachmas which he sent to jerusalem to offer a Sin-offering: 
2 Macab. 12.43.  And that, for ought they know, was for the living rather than the Dead; That the whole Army might not perish for their sin, who under their Coats, 
Vers. 42.  contrary to their Law, 
Vers. 40.  had hidden the jewels consecrated to Idols: 
J●sh. 7.21.  even as Achan did the Wedge, for which so many were slain flying before the men of Ai.  
And although vers. 44. Praying for the Dead be mentioned, wee find Iudas did it in contemplation of the Resurrection: not a word of bringing souls out of Purgatory. 
Vid. Chemnitium Exam. council. Trident. loc. cit.  For other texts of Scripture alleged by their side, they are but forced impostures, and mere distorsions.  
Thus haue I delivered the full History of Purgatory, which all learned men of their own side know to be true. And I will be bold to do them that right, as to say, however they are well content, for the great commodity which thence ariseth to their Church, that common ignorant people beleeue it for Truth, I cannot be persuaded they themselves beleeue it at all.  
Tis a politic Case of Profit, not of Conscience, which makes them willing to hold it. 
Acts 19.  just like Demetrius in the Acts, who not for the zeal to Dianaes Temple at Ephesus, but in respect of the advantage to his own Trade, exasperated the tumultuous people against Paul. His Exordium is, 
Vers. 25.  Sirs, you know by this Art wee haue got our goods. Vpon which Principle( I suppose) the Pontificials are willing to maintain their conclusion for Purgatory.  
Tis certain, their most gainful Copyholds and Tenements hold of Purgatory, as their chief Mannor. Their Masses for the Dead, their Pilgrimages, their baths for the soul, Vigils, Anniuersaries, Indulgences, works of Supererogation, Holy Water, Exequies; their Oblations at the Shrines of Saints: All which Candle-rents would fall to ground, were this conceit of Purgatory removed, which onely keeps them in repair and Tenentable. Wee for our parts neither fear nor credit it, and therefore not include it in the scope of this Prayer.  

A Malo Gehennae.  The evil wee pray against, is the Sentence of the evil Day, the Day of Wrath, of blackness and Tempest, of Vengeance and Fire: Whose sequel is to them that haue done ill, incessant Torment in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone. Tis consonant to our Creed to aclowledge no Third place betwixt heaven and Hell: The one for the Righteous, the other for the Reprobate. They that haue done Good shall go into Life everlasting, 
Athanas. Creed  and they that haue done evil into everlasting Fire.  
A Father defines a Sinner to be the substance of all Misery both in this World and in the next: Peccator est substantia miseriae huius& futuri saeculi. whilst he lives here, his Conscience like a sad perspective shows him Hell; and when he dies, he feels what he but feared before. To make up which, the extremity of all Ill concurs, Poena Damni and Poena Sensus, The pain of loss and the pain of Sense: One to torment the soul, the other the Body; whilst he shall both languish in a perpetual Exilement from the sight of God, wanting the comforts of his gracious Presence, and in a most exquisite sense endure all shapes of Torment multiplied vpon the Body. This is the worm that gnaws, but never dies, this the unquenchable Fire that continually feeds on them who are cast into it, but never consumes itself or them.  
When I haue said this, no mans curiosity( I presume) will expect a more punctual Description of this Summum Malum, Highest Degree of evil; Or desire to be resolved what kind of Fire it is, whether material, or immaterial? What Place it hath, whether in the Body of the Earth, or in the air? What Intermissions, what Duration?  
I am not so well skilled in the Chorography and Map of Hell, as those that undertake both to Dispute and Define these things. Tis a Theme rather to exercise our fears and devotion, than our Enquiry. If any scrupulous Atheist there be that denies Hell, as Almaricus did; or doubts it, as Dionysius; or believes it only in an allegorical sense, as the Family of love, and those ancient heretics mentioned by S. Augustine did, 
Aug. de Haeres.  I pray God they do not fetch their resolution there too soon; Like that unreasonable Philosopher, who, denying the Fire to burn, was by his enraged Antagonist thrust into the Fire, that he who would not be instructed by reason, might be confuted by sense and demonstration in the flamme.  
What this Gehenna is, Tertullian will sufficiently resolve: 
tertul. Apologet. cap. 47.  Est ignis arcani subterraneus ad poenam thesaurus; It is a Treasure of Fire which will break out at the last Day. That this Fire differs from that culinary Fire which serves our use, there is no controversy: 
Cap. 48.  Longè alius est qui vsui humano, alius qui judicio Dei apparet. That there shall be a difference in the Torment, wee may boldly pronounce for Truth: For as all shall not be rewarded with equal degree of Beatitude, so neither shall all Sinners be punished alike. Adultery, and Theft, and murder, meet in one and the same Center Hell, but the thief and the murderer shall not burn alike. undoubtedly bloodshed shall haue more Heat, a greater intention of Flames. But for the Intermission or Cessation of each Offenders Punishment, that must be hopeless. however it be imputed to Origen, that( in this more merciful than God) he hath shortened the date of that fearful Iudgement, assigning certain paroxysms to conclude that exalted fever of Fire, and putting a Period not only to the pains of the Damned, but of the devils themselves. To beleeue this is more dangerous than his Pity was foolish. All Epithets are too narrow to comprehend, all language too light to express the weight of those Torments, all arithmetic too little to calculate the duration of them. It is Mors sine Morte, Finis sine Fine, Defectus sine Defectu; An immortal Death, a dying, yet never determining Life, an endless End, a Plenty of all Misery, but Dearth of all Comfort. Poenae Gehennales torquent, non extorquent; puniunt, non finiunt corpora: The Punishment of Hell is a torture that kills not; A Iudgement that executes eternally, but never finishes the execution. Tis an everlasting Calenture, a Disease under which the Body ever languishes, but never impairs. Where though the Body be the fuel, yet the vn-deuouring Fire feeds it; Like the Salamander, which is nourished in the flamme; or the liver of Prometheus, which grew as fast as the Vulture gnawed it. 
tertul. Apologet. cap. 48.  Non enim absumit quod exurit, said dum erogat reparat.  
The least spark of this Fire may serve to kindle our devotion, and the contemplation of so great a danger give Religion a tongue to call loudly to the God of Mercy to deliver us from this Iudgement: May teach us to make this Libera nos à Malo, the Antiphone of our Litany, deliver us from this evil.  
Nothing but the breath of Prayer can cool, nothing but the tears of Contrition and Penitence quench this Fire.  
Let it then be our care betimes to strive to alloy this Combustion, which, if neglected, grows too violent to be appeased; and whilst wee live here, to laue from our eyes those religious showers which may extinguish it. whilst our oil is yet in out lamps, and these Candles of Nature, our Eyes, not sunk down within their Sockets, the doors of heaven lye open to our Prayers; but when wee are once benighted with dimness, closed within the Chambers of Death, the Gates of heaven are shut: Either wee cannot pray, or if we do, our Prayers knock at heaven as at a Gate of brass; for it is now become so, and like a Mine of Adamant deaf and Impenetrable beats back the voice.  

Lactant. lib. 1. cap. 15.  Quis tam demens qui consensu& placito innumerabilium stultorum aperiri Coelum mortuis arbitretur? The successless Petition of dives will show that the souls condemned to the Pit of Sulphur are so far from release, that they cannot make their approaches to the first degree of comfort. The Ocean of Gods Mercy, then dry as the Pumish, hath not one drop that can be purchased, or wrung out by any importunity. The fountain of living Water is only free to Life. Nor will the balm of Gilead cure the second Death. When the fever is vpon us, preventing physic comes too late. Prayer and Penitence are unable to remove the fits of the last critical fire when they are vpon us: but if they be seasonably and timely applied, they do not only Bale us from Iudgement by delivering and Guarding us from evil, but like stars, fix us in that glorious Firmament, where is the fruition of All deliverance, salvation, and Peace, and Ioy for evermore. Amen.   

For thine is the kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, for ever. Amen.  
WHen I first entered vpon this Prayer, I compared it to a Letter, which is a justifiable Metaphor: For all Prayer is the Interpreter of our mind and Desire,( so Aquinas defines it) Oratio est quodammodo desiderij nostri interpres ad Deum. 
Tho. Aquinas 2a. 2ae. q. 83.  Nay tis both the Letter and the Bearer too, Per nuntium orationis, so S. Augustine. To a Letter or Epistle doth this Prayer agree in each circumstance. First, for the Endorsement, or Superscription, whereby it is directed to God, Our Father &c. Secondly, for the Contents, which are branched out into seven Petitions. Thirdly, for the Coronis, the form of Conclusion, or Subscription, which is the matter of this Text, For thine is the kingdom &c. I might for a need find a date for it, though a large one, in these words, For ever. And lastly here is a seal put to it, Amen.  
The Direction, and Explication of the Matters severally contained in the Petitions, hath been my former subject. That which remaines here to make up my last treatise, is like that civil and Mannerly Ceremony, which wee usually refer to the latter part of our Letters, wherein wee mention our acknowledgement and Farewell together.  
I do not call it a Ceremony any way to diminish or lessen the dignity of the words. They haue their weight and authority confirmed by Him who dictated the rest. Nor are they unnecessary or useless, though only annexed, not incorporated into the Prayer. Though our essential Parts, as soul and Body, be the main Foundations of our Being, none will deny but that the Integrals, as Hands and Feet, are necessary assistants both to serve and adorn our Being.  
Of the nature of integral Parts are these words; which as they haue their decency, so they are Necessary too.  
They are the grateful acknowledgement of Gods goodness, with whose mention as wee begin our Prayers, so tis fit we end them. Quomodo cepit à laudibus Dei, 
Ambros. de Sacrament. l. 6. c. 5.  sic debet in Dei laud desinere. It is a comely thing to sing praises unto God( saith the psalm.) And the Apostle will tell us, They that ask must be confident that he of whom they ask hath power to give, for else they do not ask in faith.  
You see in what a qualified sense I call this doxology a Ceremony. I wish some others had not in a proper sense used it as a Ceremony, fit only to be annulled and ●brogated. The latin Copies are deficient in setting it down. Whether they were loth one evangelist should speak more than another, for Luke hath it not at all; or whether they suspected that these words were additions to the Prayer, wanting the privilege of our saviour, who was the Author, to make them authentical. Erasmus, it should seem, was transported with this conceit, and hath not so much forfeited his Temper or Iudgement vpon any thing of like consequence, as this. For in his Notes vpon Matthew, he peremptorily delivers it, that 
Magis taxanda fait illorum temeritas, qui non veriti sunt tam divinae precationi suas nugas assuere. Erasm. annot. in mat. 6.  they which annexed this Conclusion to the Lords Prayer, did patch up the Prayer with their own idle invention, leaving a greater scorn vpon these words, which in good manners he might haue left disputable whether they were Christs or no, than vpon any apocryphal writings, which without controversy he knew to be but mans. Maldonat the Iesuite deals more calmly, he does not vilify the words like Erasmus, but only seeks to excuse the latins for leaving them out: Supposing, as Erasmus doth, that their use began from the greek Church; who, he thinks, were like enough to make the addition here, as they added the Gloria Patri to the end of each psalm, and likewise to the Angels Salutation of the blessed Virgin these words, {αβγδ}. Or as they used to close their Sermons with this doxology, {αβγδ}, ascribing, as wee do, all Honour, and Power, and Dominion unto God. 
Maldonat. in mat. 6.13.  Estque id Graecorum ingenio& moribus valdè consentaneum, qui ad finem concionum solent adiungere, {αβγδ}, &c.  
I will not look so far into the meaning of the Holy Ghost, as to dispute whether these words* were not borrowed from the speech of david, 1 Chron. 29.11. 
Cartwright Respons. Praefat. Rhem. Test. p 154  Thine( O Lord) is greatness, and Power, and Victory, and Praise; for all that is in heaven and in Earth is thine: Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou excellest, as Head over all. Tis not unlikely that the same Spirit might speak the same thing here again, though in a shorter phrase.  
This I am sure is granted on all parts, and confessed by Maldonat, that not onely the Septuagint, or the Fathers of the greek Church, Chrysostome, Theophylact, and Euthymius, recite the words, but the Hebrew and the syriac, which were the original Copies. And tis not unfitly noted by Chemnicius, that S. Paul mentioning the sense of the last Petition, adds this clause too: 
Chemnicius in harmony. cap. 51. 2 Tim. 4.17.  And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.  
Let then this truth be granted, that the Testaments Originally had this clause, and reason( if not authority which outweighs Erasmus) will confirm us, that this is no vnsuited Argument, patched in to stuff out the Prayer, but added as a most apposite and devout Close, not only to inform our desires, that their main scope must terminate in the Glory of God, but to teach us that the several Dictates and Petitions of Christs Prayer are radicated and founded in God alone; To weaken thereby the pride of such who vaingloriously impute the success of their Prayers rather to their own merit than the mercy of God. So Caluin infers. 
Caluin. harmony. mat. 6.   
But if his credit be too light to counterbalance him, I think in any indifferent iudgement S. Chrysostome will turn the scale. For he makes these words to haue a necessary relation to the Two last Petitions, being annexed by our saviour {αβγδ}, 
Chrysost.  to embolden and fortify the faith of his seruants. He was loth to leave their Meditations vpon two such dangerous Rocks as Temptation and evil, without a Tide or a flash of Mercy to fetch them off; 
{αβγδ}, & c. {αβγδ}. Chrys. Homil. 20. ●n mat. 6.  And therefore adjoined these words to establish them in a confident belief, that He, who taught them to pray against the kingdom of Satan or Power of sin, was able to destroy them both, and in the mean time willing to confine them so, that they should not prevail against them For all the Principalities and Powers, whether of the air or of the Fire, of Light or of darkness, must stoop and bow under His sceptre who hath Dominion over sin and Death, heaven and Hell. For thine is the kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, &c.  
The sum of the words, is but an investing God with his own Titles, which are three, set out  
1. By an eminent Declaration: 

1. The kingdom.  
2. And the Power.  
3. And the Glory.    
2. Their Duration, For ever, or as our liturgy hath it, For ever and ever.  
3. The form, under which they are conveyed vpon God, Tuum est &c. For thine is &c.  
4. Lastly, the seal of the whole Prayer, Amen.  

1 The kingdom.  God, who at first imparted his Image to Man, in that Act derived some of his authority vpon him too, To rule the World as his Vicegerent vpon Earth: By which He lifted up Man to the Contemplation of his divine majesty and kingdom. When Man but thinks over his own and the Worlds History, he must needs in the end of his travell land vpon the consideration of that majesty, whose prerogative put him into the possession of the World. Philosophers beginning but at the Foot of Motion, could trace it up to the Head, and by that speculative study arrive at the First mover. So when Man judiciously suruayes his own being, how all Creatures are subordinate unto him, to serve either his Necessities or his Delight, how himself hath Dominion over them, Reason over Him, Faith over Reason, and God over Faith, must confess that the top of all Dominion and supremacy is in God alone.  
S. Basil says a King is {αβγδ}, a visible God, but God {αβγδ}, an invisible King. So the King is the glass thorough which wee may behold God: he is his Picture, and yet resembles Him no nearer than dead Colours do the Life. For Death doth not only rule in his Complexion and the Temper of his Body, but even all those faire Colours of State and show, of outward pomp and Command, of Glory and authority, which set him off, shall in a little Time starve and fade, like those which the hand of the Painter hath laid vpon his Picture. 
{αβγδ}. 1 Cor. 7.31.  As the Fashion, and Symmetry, and Beauty of this World passes away, so also the fashion of those that rule the World. 
Gregor. Tholos. Syntagm. juris lib. 18. cap. 1. Num. 14.  Paulatìm imperia, regna,& principatus senescunt, aegrotant, concidunt, &c. Principalities grow old and infirm, they sicken and die. An Empire hath its funeral pile, as the Emperour his Hearse. kingdoms expire like the Kings, and they like vs. For though they haue the title of Gods, they are but mortal, miserable Gods, like their gorgeous Statues, which the stroke of an hammer breaks into dust. every slight distemper is able to depose and thrust them into earth, imprisoning all their Glories in a little Coffin, from which low captivity their whole Exchequer cannot buy them. 
Psal. 82.7.  They shall Die like common men; And not onely their Bodies, but their Thoughts perish. 
Psal. 146.4.   
He then that takes the Altitude of God by the King, goes a regular way: but he that rises to no higher an estimate of Gods Power than the Kings, degrades that high authority which gave Kings theirs, and makes Him less, by whom they were made so Great. All the several Lines of regality are united in God, as the whole mass of Light in the Body of the sun, but in an higher exaltation of majesty, in a more eminent degree. The phrase here specified sounds no less, The kingdom. Which small Particle speaks Him in his fullest style, importing the difference of his State, and the Aduancement of his prerogative above all the kingdoms of the Earth. A King, or A kingdom, is currant Language thorough most parts of the inhabited World, Pagan or Christian: But since the Truth of God was revealed in his Word, or That Word translated into other Tongues, never was it known that The kingdom was translated in any Tongue but Spanish; Which in the Title of the catholic King amasses all sovereignty. As if all other Kings were his histories, and not Gods, holding their Crownes in Fee from him, and not from that Supreme Power which hath said, By me Kings rule.  
I need not be coy in speaking it, since tis an Argument they daily maintain both with their Pens and Swords. They haue not long since 
untrodden de la Puente Chronista de la Magd Catolica en Madrid en la Imprinta Real 1612  printed it, the King himself allowing the press: and not onely in America, but in all parts of christendom( so far as they can or dare) they avow this Doctrine by their practise.  
Suidas writes, the pride of Cleopatra swelled so high, that she would be called the queen of queens: And Curtius reports, that Darius the Persian Monarch, before he was vanquished by Alexander the Great, styled himself 
Rex Regum& consanguineus Deorum. Quint. Curtius lib. 2.  King of Kings, and Kinsman of the Gods, affording no Title to Alexander but of his seruant. His Pride and Ignorance of God( I confess) might some way excuse his folly; but how I should excuse any Christian Prince, that lays claim to an universal Monarchy, I am yet to learn. david may command from Dan to Beersheba, or from the river to the flood; but such an Extent of Dominion, as includes all the Nations of the Earth, such an Expansion of government as reaches from Sea to Sea, from Gibraltar to the Mediterranean, from one Point of heaven to the other, is only the Limit of Christs Dominion, and the Inheritance of the Son of God. 
Psal. 2.8.  The whole Globe of the Earth, and all the several provinces contained therein, are too great an handful to be grasped by any palm but His, 
Psal 95.3, 4.  who is a great King above all Gods, and in whose hand are all the Corners of the Earth. Tacitus, though an Heathen, would give supremacy and singularity of Rule to none but God: Vnum esse regnatorem omnium Deum, was his maxim. Nor by the Rules of christianity is universal Homage due to any but to Him alone, who claims this honour, that {αβγδ}, every knee shall bow to me. 
Rom. 14.11.  Therefore david concludes his festival Sacrifice with this anthem, 
1 Chron. 16.31.  Let the Heauens be glad, and the Earth rejoice, and let men say among the Nations, The Lord reigneth. For thine is the kingdom.  
But Titles without Power make authority ridiculous, and beget scorn, not reverence. They are but like Cities in a Map, where wee only travell over Names and Titles, not Countries. Therefore to show that God is not only mighty in Word, 
Luk. 24.19.  but in dead too; That He is not only powerful in Voice and Name, but in Fact too; here is authority joined to his sceptre, and to the Latitude of Dominion the prerogative of Power, 
2 And the Power.  For thine is the kingdom, and the Power.  
Well may our Prayers determine in this ascribing of Power to God, when the first Prayers used in our Church bear this Confession in their foreheads, and begin with this Attribute of Power, Almighty.  
I haue heard that Power belongeth unto God( saith david.) And wee haue seen the Declarations and Testimonies of that Power. It was that Mighty Power which first reduced the World out of that dark Confusion wherein it lay, into a clear and beautiful form, and stamped the face of Method vpon it, when it was concluded in a rude Chaos. By that Power were the Motions of the Heauens established; and by that same Power are the Species of Creatures moving vpon the Earth conserved. By that Power were the Elements extracted out of Nothing, and by that Power are they restrained to their Stations and Places.  
The highest evidence of Earthly Power is the Power of Making laws, and the tying up of factious dispositions in an Obedience of doing whatsoever they command. But unto what an height is this Power elevated in God? who is the universal lawgiver, ruling them which rule us, by whose Decrees Nature and the Elements are governed, Life and Death administered.  
A Story tells us, that Canutus sometimes King of this Land, sitting by the Riuers side, at the coming in of the Tide, charged the flood it should not presume to approach that ston whereon his feet restend. But the unruly flood disdaining to be checked by any command save Gods, by whose Ordinance it was allowed to make its usual sallies from the Ocean, and then retire again, notwithstanding his charge wet his feet: Letting him see, it was God only could give laws to the Water, saying to the Sea, 
job 38.11.  Thus far and no farther shall thy proud waves come. And whereas Homer fainingly tells us, that the petty King of Ithaca, Vlysses, had the Winds in a bag, to enlarge or shut up at his pleasure, wee are sure that it is only the True God who hath the Winds in custody, which when He pleaseth He brings out of his Treasures. In a word, he hath the full exercise of Power, both for the Dispensation and Execution of laws: The Portion of shane, or the crown of Glory; Iudgement or Mercy are the pay of his Exchequer. 
Germani Patriarchae Constantinop. expos. in orat. Dominic.  In tuâ manu& potestate sunt misericordia& salus, mors& vita:( Tis the Paraphrase of a devout Patriarch vpon this place) he destroys and he saves, he scatters abroad and collects again, banishes and repeals, kills and makes alive, ruling the grave by so high an hand, that when the first Death hath arrested these Bodies of ours, He by his Power can Bale them, can recall the Breath which is fled, and transplant the defaced ruins of Nature, out of that corruptible Mould wherein they were butted, into the kingdom of Glory. For as the kingdom, and the Power, so The Glory is His.  
There is no Theme so conspicuous as the Glory of the Lord: 
3 And the Glory.  
Psal. 18.2.  Whose Anniuerse the Heauens are( for they declare his Glory) and whose Trumpet the Tongue of Angels. Gloria in altissimis, 
Luk. 2.14.  was the anthem sung by the Angels, Glory be to God on high. That Glory was an Argument which they found not on Earth, but brought it along with them from heaven: Nor do they leave it here behind them; The tenor of their embassy is, Peace vpon Earth, and Grace or Good will to Men, but Glory only to God.  
What Monuments of shane then do those erect to themselves, and at how easy a rate do they purchase confusion, who prise their own deservings too much? What forbidden Altars do they build, what high Places do they set up for an Idolatrous worship, who glorify Dust and Ashes? who studying the doxology of men, in the most servile Postures of insinuation, are content to cast themselves below the reputation of Men, and to promote their own ends, make Aduancement their Religion, and their Patron their God? 
1 Cor. 3.21.  Let no man Glory in men,( it was S. Pauls Lesson) no not in the best of men, Princes. For, to let us see that all our glorying even in them is but shane, our blessed saviour so far degrades the opinion of Salomons Magnificence, that in his gospel he prefers the Glory of the lily before his: 
mat. 6.29.  And he that clothes the lilies, 
1 Cor. 1.31.  Crownes Kings. Let him then that Glories, Glory in the Lord: And let him that wrongs himself by Glorifying Men, at length do God right, by giuing Him the Glory which is only due and peculiar unto Him.  
King david( who had better right to take, than they to give) to the shane of Sycophants, modestly releases all his claim or Title to Glory, conferring it wholly vpon God: Non nobis Domine, 
Psal. 115.1.  non nobis, said Nomini tuo da Gloriam; Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but to thy Name give the Glory. For heaven is the Sphere of Glory, and God is the King of Glory, and Glory is the prerogative of his kingdom, which as it doth convenire soli, so Semper; As it is Only His, so everlastingly His. For Thine is the kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, For ever.  
How loosely do Honours sit on Men, 
4 For ever.  when every Disease shakes them off, and lays them in the Dust? 
Psal. 7.5.  How miserable is the Condition of all Earths Glory, which hardly holds out a Life, but often dies before us, ravished away by a frown, or forfeited by a fault? Or if it do last as long as the Owners, with the staff of Office cracked and thrown into the grave, is there butted with the Corps.  
It is a woeful, but fit difference, to distinguish that specious vanity which Man terms Glory, from the Glory of God, which onely is true Glory, because onely Permanent. When the fashion of ours is as transitory as the fashion of the World, when it tastes the same frailty which our Bodies do, even this, like a Lecture of mortality, tells us that here all Glory is but Corruption: That either wee haue none, or if any, tis included in our Hopes, respiced and adjourned till that time when This Corruptible shall put on Incorruption. 
1 Cor. 15.54.  But the Glory of God is an immortal Title, which Time cannot discolour, nor Age enfeeble; An unalterable Possession, which as He ever had, He hath now, and shall ever haue. When all Motion shall cease, and the Time which measured that Motion shall be no more; When those great Lights in the Firmament, which successively watch the Iesses and observe the journeys of Time, by whose calendar wee compute the revolution of our own Yeeres, and the expense of every hour; When( I say) those Lights, like Dying Tapers, shall be eternally smothered and go out, the Glory of the Lord shall shine forth, and make a fairer Light than ever the sun in the pride of his Meridian could cast. A Light which is preserved by His Presence, who is the true Light; A Light which can never be eclipsed by the interposition of darkness or Sorrow, but shall continue like that Glorious Essence which feeds it, {αβγδ}, thorough all Ages, or thorough all Successions of eternity,( for so the transcendent expression of our English hath it) For ever and ever. The one whereof refers to His Being, which ever was; the other to His Duration, which ever shall be.  
Our tenors here are suited and proportioned to our own Being: They are Ours durant vitâ, whilst Life lasts, else they cannot properly be called ours, but anothers; They are not Free-holds, but farms; nor are wee Inheritors, but Tenants.  
Is it not fit the great Landlord of Nature, who hath leased unto us not onely the means to sustain our Being, but our Being also, should hold his Titles by a tenor as lasting and as independent as wee? Our terms are bounded by a few yeeres, but there is no scope of Time, no term that can hold any proportion with God, but For ever and ever. eternity is Gods Free-hold, and there is no Title worth his wearing, which is not eternal. Thy Yeeres are from everlasting, and the sceptre of thy kingdom is an everlasting sceptre; Thy Power infinite, Thy Glory for ever and ever. Which perpetuity concludes Him the Owner and Proprietary both in The kingdom, The Power, and The Glory which is here settled vpon Him, and wherewith He is invested, being put into a full possession with Tuum est, Thine is the kingdom, &c.  

5 Thine is &c.  The compliment wee use with God is quiter different from that wee use to Men. In the shutting up of our Letters wee commonly mention the Obligations wee owe unto those wee writ, professing how much and by how many Titles wee are Theirs. But here in the close of our prayers wee reward God out of his own inventory, and, in the rehearsal of his Titles, profess unto Him how much is His, Thine is the kingdom, the Power, and the Glory.  
And yet in this we imply a Dedication, a Deuoting of ourselves to Him: For the ascribing of Dominion and Power to Him, imports the obedience, and subiection, and service which wee owe Him.  
Wee can never in the way of thankful Debtors owe Him enough, who gave his Only son a ransom for vs. Wee can never give Him too much Honour, who gave us all the Circumstances of our Being. Nay, such is our poverty, wee cannot give Him any Thing, but for a Gift are fain to tender Him a Repetition of His own. Wee see by experience that it is no new thing for the bounty and munificence of God to pose us daily with new Blessings, or new deliverances from Danger. But for us to present Him with any new form of Gratitude is impossible. As in the old legal Sacrifices, Offerings were made unto God of those Creatures which were His before, 
Psal. 50.10. ( for so He claims them, The Beasts of the Field are mine) and of those Fruits wherewith he had first enriched the Earth: So, in this evangelical Sacrifice of Prayer and thanksgiving, what wee offer unto Him is taken out of his own Store.  
The keys of those Faculties and Organs wherewith wee praise Him, are in His custody: The Heart that prays is in His Hand: The Spirit which vocally interprets the Heart is in the disposal of His Will. And therefore the Prophet david will not presume to enter vpon the subject of His Praise without leave from Him: Domine labia mea aperies, 
Psal. 51.15.  &c. Thou must open my lips, that my mouth may show forth thy praise. 
Aug. in Psal. 49.  O sacrificium gratiâ datum! Non quidem hoc emi quod offerrem, said tu donâsti!( tis S. Augustines exclamation) O the vouchsafed grace of God! I did not buy the sacrifice, but received it from Thee; Twas not my Purchase, but thine own Gift. Though Gods love to mankind cost Him dear, yet our Thankes to Him costs little, tis at a most cheap rate. Such is his Bounty, and the riches of his love to us, that He doth not only find the Sacrifice, but build the Altar too; he is not only at the charge of the Offering, but of the Wood to dress it. he bestows the Holocaust, and he bestows the fuel. he obligeth us first, and then prompts us to a grateful return of that Obligation. he by his mercy gives us cause to praise Him, and he by the working of his Grace inspires us with a Duty and holy zeal to ascribe this Praise. Thus wee pay God out of his own Exchequer: Wee receive from Him not only the Matter of our thanksgiving, but the form too; not only the subject of our Gratitude, but the expression of that Gratitude. As the favours wee receive are His, so their Acknowledgement is his also. These Organs of our Bodies are His, and the music they make is by Him. The Praise wee yield Him is His own; Dono tuo te laudo, 
Aug. in Psal. 62. ( saith S. Augustine.) Nay He himself is His own Praise; 
Idem Soliloq. cap. 10.  Laus tua Domine Tu ipse es, saith the same Father in another place.  
Since then all Titles of Possession thus meet and concentre themselves in God; Since the style of His survey runs universally, and is Audited in a Tuum est, All is Thine; How miserable were wee, had wee no place to be entered into this Audit? Since not only the Dominion over all things, and Power, and Glory is Gods, but the means of rendering, the ability of conveying those Attributes vpon Him is given unto us by Him, what shane were it that wee ourselves should not accompany our own Faculties? that wee who entitle God to all His Attributes, should not be able to make any title to Him ourselves? Certainly in the intent of Christ, the Dedication of these Attributes and of our Prayers to God is lame on our parts, and imperfect, if wee include not ourselves in the Dedication, if wee are not able to say that as the Power and the Glory is Gods, so wee are His too.  
S. Paul leaves the Corinthians vpon this comfort, that As Christ is Gods, 
1 Cor. 3.23.  so they are Christs. And may that God for His Christs sake grant unto us all, that into this Account of Gods Possession wee may cast ourselves, and whilst wee utter this Doxology, Thine is the kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, may, in the assurance of our Faith, be able to say that wee ourselves are Thine: That so, when wee shall sleep in the Dust, by His Power wee may be raised up to the Life of Glory, and established in His everlasting kingdom.  
Our dead is now finished and ready for the seal; 
6 Amen.  I must onely desire your help for the Impression of that seal. It hath been my Office, throughout this whole Tract vpon Christs Prayer, only to Chafe the Wax, to inform, and mollify, and prepare your Meditations, by kindling a Religious zeal in you. My part is done, and I must now expect somewhat from you. To show that your hearts went along with me in this holy exercise, to testify your assent to the Dictates of Christ, that He spake no more to God for you, than you would be ready to speak over again for yourselves, you must now add your Suffrage, since the remainder lies on you. For as it is the Priests duty to pray in the Temple, so tis the duty of the Congregation to say Amen to his Prayers.  
I know some Writers of the Roman Church endeavour to prove that None but the Priest should here say Amen. Indeed, to speak truth, in a Church where Prayer in an unknown Tongue is practised and defended, where the People understand not what the Priest says, S. Paul thinks it no reason that in such a case their devotion should exceed their Learning, or that they ought to say Amen: 
1 Cor. 14.16.  How shall the unlearned say Amen at thy giuing thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? But in a Church where, for the most part I hope, wee do, or should understand one another; where, as near as wee can, wee follow the Psalmists rule, 
Psal. 47.7.  To praise God with understanding, there is no colour nor reason to leave it onely to the Priests Mouth. Seeing that in Deuteronomy no less than twelve times the Command is iterated, Let all the People say Amen. 
Deuter. 27.  And in Nehemiah, when Ezra the Priest blessed the Lord, All the people said Amen, Amen. 
Nehem. 8.6.   
It is then your work. But since he that offers at the Altar, is a party with the Congregation, and offers for himself too; Since the Priest in praying for others, prays for himself,( for wee say Our Father, and forgive us) Since wee are not only ambassadors from God for your sakes, but heralds too, I will by your patience survey this seal, and Blazon the Coat which is engraven in it, and then leave it to be Affixed by you.  
I do not impose a new Name vpon it, in styling the Amen a seal. S. jerome calls it Signaculum Orationis Dominicae, 
Hieron. in mat. 6.  the seal of the Lords Prayer; Sicut Sigillum confirmatio est alicuius codiculi, 
Albinus Flaccus de divinis office. pag. 78.  As a seal is the confirmation of a codicil, so Albinus Flaccus expresses it. And like a most authentic Signet, it hath remained unaltered, retaining that original stamp of Language which the mouth of God first put vpon it. 
Alexand. Hales part. 4 q. 10.  Pronuntiatur in illo idiomate siue linguâ, in quâ pronuntiabatur à Domino. S. Augustine gives the reason: There be( saith he) some Hebrew words which cannot be translated, as Racha and Osanna; the first whereof is the voice of Indignation, the last of Exultation. There bee others which wee might haue translated, but yet Propter sanctiorem authoritatem seruata est antiquitas, 
Aug. de Doctr. Christ. lib. 2. c. 11.  it was held fit by the primitive Church, 
Vid.& Rabban. Maurum de Instit. Cleric. lib. 1. cap. 33.  for the greater dignity and authority of the words, to preserve them in the Hebrew garb still, as hallelujah and Amen. 
Nec Graecus hoc Interpres ausus est facere, nec Latinus. Sic mansit& non est interpretatum, vt honorem haberet velamento Secreti, non vt esset negatum, said ne vilesceret nudatum. August. Tract. in johan. 41. cap. 8.  For which reason, the same Father speaking of this word, by occasion of our saviours asseveration, John 8.34. Amen dico vobis, says, That in honour of it, neither the greek nor latin Interpreter durst render it.  
Tis certain that {αβγδ}, in the conclusion of the 88. psalm, and Fiat in the latin, and So be it in our English, might serve to express this Amen: But S. Augustine liked no Translation of it, but itself.  
Indeed it cannot be denied, but that it must needs lose much weight being translated, in that no one word can express it. For though the Prolation of the word be still the same, yet the meaning varies with the use, and according to the Acception in the Scripture. 
judaei non solùm ad omnes preces, said ad omnes conciones& expositiones Allegoricas dicere debent Amen, vt per hoc significent quod credant id omne quod Rabbini loquentur, &c. Vid. Buxdorf de synagogue. judaic. cap. 1. pag. 64.  In the practise of the Iewes, Amen was a Note of Assent; nor was it used in their Synagogue at Prayers onely, but at the Sermons and Expositions delivered by the rabbins, to testify that the people believed and assented to all which they taught. But the schoolmen haue gathered diuers other acceptions of it in the Scripture. Sometimes it is taken Nominalitèr, as a Name, signifying as much as Verax, or Veritas, Truth telling, or Truth, and so it is used revel. 3.14. Haec dicit Amen, Testis fidelis; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness.  
Sometimes tis taken Aduerbially, and then it signifies as much as Verè or Fidelitèr, Truly or Verily. So it is used by our saviour in the gospel, by way of asseveration, Amen dico vobis, Verily I say unto you. In which sense S. Bernard terms it Verbum confirmationis, 
Bernard. Declamat. in illa verba Ecce nos reliquimus omnia. Aug. Tract. in joh. 41. c. 8.  The word of Confirmation: And S. Augustine terms it our saviours oath; Quodammodò, si dici fas est, iuratio eius est.  
Lastly, it is taken Verbalitèr, Verbally, as it is an Hebrew word, importing as much as Fiat, Let it be done, or So be it, intimating the Affection, or Desire, or zeal of such as Pray. 
Biel. loc. cit.  ubi exprimit desiderium Orantis; Where the pronounced Amen is Quasi Clausio, the Close, or in Saint Hieromes Phrase, the Signet with which our Prayers are Sealed up.  
Indeed it is a Transcendent seal, which like the Great seal, commands or includes all other seals. As our Prayers, so our Faith hath seals too. The Sacraments are the seals of our Faith, but this seal of Prayer is the seal also of the Sacraments. When wee desire those Sacraments may be effectual to us, wee testify our desire by saying Amen. When by those means He hath allowed, wee either apply God to us, or ourselves to Him, wee conclude and strengthen the Application by an Amen. When wee commend the Bodies of our deceased Brethren to Earth, In hope of the Resurrection, wee seal up their Graues with Amen. And when wee commend our own souls into the protection of God, we sign that Petition with the same Amen. In a Commonwealth it would be thought a forgery for a Party to seal his own passport; but in the Church tis Religion, and an Indulgence given by Christ, that each man may promote not only his Prayers, but his passage to heaven, and contribute something to the Sealing of his own passport.  

In libro Tanchuma scriptum est, quod Rabbi Iehudah dicebat quemlibet qui dicat Amen in mundo hoc, dignum quoque esse vt dicat Amen in mundo futuro. Buxdorf. de synagogue. judaic. cap. 5. pag. 181.  I find that Rabbi Iehudah thought the pronouncing of Amen so meritorious, that he who said Amen in this World, was worthy thy to say Amen in the Next. And 
Sapientissimi judaeorum scribunt, quod quisquis cum magnâ Cauanah& attentione dicat Amen, is efficient vt Redemptio no●tra celeriter appropinquet. Id. ib.  others of the rabbins esteemed it so effectual, that being devoutly uttered, it would accelerate and hasten the time of their Redemption. For my part, I place no Merit in the Prolation or Sound of the word, but yet I account it such a strength to Prayer, and so fit an Attestation of the Peoples zeal, 
Alexand. Hales part. 4. q. 10. Dicitur à Sacerdote celebrante,& non ab aliis assistentibus: Dicitur Submissè à Sacerdote,& non Altè.  that I must ever wonder wherefore the Church of Rome should make this Amen only the Priests Peculiar, shutting out the People for bearing any share in it: Or why they labour to give a reason that like a Counter-verse it ought to be pronounced in a soft single voice by the Priest, when the whole Congregation, like a full choir, most fitly should pronounce it: For so S. John reports, that he heard the Host of heaven like the sound of many Waters, or like the voice of Thunder, crying Amen, 
revel. 19.6.  hallelujah.  
The Priest only must preach to the People, but the People may pray for themselves: Or if the Priest do pray for the People, at least let the People say Amen to his Prayers. I shall never think he means fairly, or prays with a good intent for me, that usurps both Priest and clerk, and will not give me leave to say Amen for myself. I deny not, that in the Church the Priests Prayers are more acceptable than the Congregations, because he is the Mediator betwixt God and the People: Yet I will never beleeue but the Congregations Amen is more obligatory, more effectual than the Priests. At the Siege of jericho the Priests Trumpets shooke the Walls, 
josh. 6.20.  but the Walls fell not down till the People shouted. The saying of Amen is but the Peoples Acclamation, the joyful shouting of the Congregation, in assurance of the Victory and success of Prayer. Per hos impletur confirmatio precis, 
Ambros. in Epist. 1. ad Corinth. 14. p. 529. E.  qui respondent AMEN, &c. For by those that cry Amen, the Prayer is confirmed( saith S. Ambrose.) Nay the Blessing which the Priest distributes is then confirmed, 
Id. in Psal. 40. pag 370. b. Sic ivo Carnotens. de rebus Eccles. Hâc vnâ participem voice se faciens omnium charismatum, quod Sacerdos multiplici Sacramentorum diuersitat studuit impetra● De Ecclesiast. office. li. 3. ca. 9.  cum Sacerdos benedicit, Populus respondet Amen, confirmans benedictionem. This was the opinion and practise of the primitive Church; And some Writers of the roman Church, handling purposely the Order of their liturgy, hold it most fit to be continued. So Amalarius Fortunatus, sometimes Bishop of Treuere: so also 
De rebus Eccles. ser. pag. 434.  ivo Carnotensis Episcopus. But why sum I up human Authorities, when God himself hath inioynd it? And when He bids say Amen, let not the authority of Rome silence you, but in obedience to his Command, and in assent to our Prayers, Let all the People say Amen.  
But yet Prayers are not crowned with their effects unless God himself also say Amen. The Peoples Amen concludes the Prayer, expressing a desire to obtain, but Gods Amen perfects it, by consummating that desire.  
Let us therefore address ourselves to Him not only in our Prayers, but for the success of those Prayers, beseeching Him, who at first pronounced a Fiat over the work of his Creation, to repeat that Fiat over us in accomplishing the work of our Redemption. 
mat. 8.8.  Dic verbum tantùm, Lord only say the word, and thy seruants shall live. By the Power of thy Word thou didst set up a Light in darkness; Thou saidst, 
Gen. 1.3.  Let there be light, and it was made: Gracious God, for thy mercies sake, exercise that Act of Power vpon vs. When we shall be benighted in our Graues, and shut up within the Region of darkness, O Thou that art the True Light, suffer us not for ever to sleep in Death, 
Psal. 13.3.  but grant that in Thy kingdom, and in Thy Presence, wee may haue the fruition of a New Light: That wee may see Light in Thy Light, and enjoy that Light by enjoying Thee who art that Light: That from thy Militant Church, wee may be translated into thy Triumphant: That of Christians here, we may be made Saints there, and finally exchange the State of Grace for a crown of Glory in Thy kingdom, which shall know no End. Amen.   
FINIS.