than in the doctrine) as that prayer, which we call the Lord's Prayer, not because he said it, for he could never say, forgive us our trespasses, but because he commanded us to say it. For though by Matthew, which saith, After this manner pray, we seem not bound to the words, yet Luke saith, When you pray, say, Our Father which art, &c. But this is a prayer of God, to God. Not as the Talmudist's Jews feign God to pray to himself, Sit voluntas mea, ut misericordia mea superet iram meam; but as when foreign merchandise is misported, the prince may permit, or inhibit his subjects to buy it, or not to buy it. Our blessed Saviour arriving in this world freighted with salvation, a thing which this world never had power to have without him, except in that short time, between man's creation and fall, he by this prayer begs, that even to these despisers of it, it may be communicable, and that their ignorance of the value of it, may not deprive them of it. Teaching that by example here, which he gave in precept before, Pray for them which persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, doing so now, he might well say, Father, forgive them, which is the first room in this glorious palace. And in this contemplation, my unworthy soul, thou art presently in the presence. No passing of guards, nor ushers. No examination of thy degree or habit. The prince is not asleep, nor private, nor weary of giving, nor refers to others. He puts thee not to prevail by angels nor archangels. But lest anything might hinder thee, from coming into his presence, his presence comes into thee. And lest majesty should dazzle thee, thou art to speak but to thy Father. Of which word, Abba, the root is, to will; from which root, the fruit also must be willingness, and propenseness to grant. God is the Father of Christ, by that mystical and eternal inexpressible generation, which never began nor ended. Of which incomprehensible mystery, Moses and the ancient prophets spake so little, and so indirectly, that till the dawning of the day of Christ, after Esdras' time, those places seem not to be intended of the Trinity. Nay, a good while after Christ, they were but tenderly applied to that And at this day, the most of the writers in the reformed churches, considering that we need not such far fetched, and such

sense.

VOL. V.

Matt. v. 41.

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forced helps, and withal, weighing how well the Jews of these times are provided with other expositions of those places, are very sparing in using them, but content themselves modestly herein, with the testimonies of the New Testament. Truly, this mystery is rather the object of faith than reason; and it is enough that we believe Christ to have even been the Son of God, by such generation, and ourselves his sons by adoption. So that God is Father to all; but yet so, that though Christ say3, My Father is greater than all, he adds, I and my Father are all one, to show his eternal interest. He seems to put a difference, I go to my Father, and your Father, my God, and your God. The Roman stories have, that when Claudius saw it conduce to his ends, to get the tribuneship, of which he was incapable, because a patrician, he suffered himself to be adopted. But against this adoption, two exceptions were found; one, that he was adopted by a man of lower rank, a plebeian; which was unnatural; and by a younger man than himself, which took away the presentation of a father. But our adoption is regular. For first, we are made the sons of the Most High, and of the Ancient of Days, there was no one word, by which he could so nobly have maintained his dignity, kept his station, justified his cause, and withal expressed his humility and charity, as this, Father. They crucified him, for saying himself to be the Son of God. And in the midst of torment, he both professes the same still, and lets them see, that they have no other way of forgiveness, but that he is the Son of that Father. For no man cometh to the Father but by the Son.

And at this voice (Father) O most blessed Saviour, thy Father, which is so fully thine, that for thy sake, he is ours too, which is so wholly thine, that he is thyself, which is all mercy, yet will not spare thee, all justice, yet will not destroy us. And that glorious army of angels, which hitherto by their own integrity maintained their first and pure condition, and by this work of thine, now near the consummatum est, attend a confirmation, and infallibility of ever remaining so; and that faithful company of departed saints, to whom thy merit must open a more inward and familiar room in thy Father's kingdom, stand all attentive, to hear

what thou wilt ask of this Father. And what shall they hear? What dost thou ask? Forgive them, forgive them? Must murderers be forgiven? Must the offended ask it? And must a Father grant it? And must he be solicited, and remembered by the name of Father to do it? Was not thy passion enough, but thou must have compassion? And is thy mercy so violent; that thou wilt have a fellow-feeling of their imminent afflictions, before they have any feeling? The angels might expect a present employment for their destruction: the saints might be out of fear, that they should be assumed or mingled in their fellowship. But thou wilt have them pardoned. And yet dost not out of thine own fulness pardon them, as thou didst the thief upon the cross, because he did already confess thee; but thou tellest them, that they may be forgiven, but at thy request, and if they acknowledge their advocate to be the Son of God. Father, forgive them. I that cannot revenge thy quarrel, cannot forgive them. I that could not be saved, but by their offence, cannot forgive them. And must a Father, Almighty, and well pleased in thee, forgive them? Thou art more charitable towards them, than by thy direction we may be to ourselves. We must pray for ourselves limitedly, forgive us, as we forgive. But thou wilt have their forgiveness illimited and unconditioned. Thou seemest not so much as to presume a repentance; which is so essential, and necessary in all transgressions, as where by man's fault the actions of God are diverted from his appointed ends, God himself is content to repent the doing of them. As he repented first the making of man, and then the making of a king. But God will have them within the arms of his general pardon. And we are all delivered from our debts; for God hath given his word, his co-essential word, for us all. And though, (as in other prodigal debts, the interest exceed the principal) our actual sins exceed original, yet God by giving his word for us, hath acquitted all.

But the affections of our Saviour are not inordinate, nor irregular. He hath a for, for his prayer: Forgive them, for, &c. And where he hath not this for, as in his prayer in his agony, he quickly interrupts the violence of his request, with a but, Father, let this cup pass; but not my will: in that form of prayer which

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himself taught us, he hath appointed a for, on God's part, which is ever the same unchangeable; For thine is the kingdom; therefore supplications belong to thee: the power, thou openest thy hand and fillest every living thing: the glory, for thy name is glorified in thy grants. But because on our part, the occasions are variable, he hath left our for, to our religious discretion. For when it is said, You lust and have not, because you ask not3; it followeth presently, you ask and miss, because you ask amiss. It is not a fit for, for every private man, to ask much means, for he would do much good. I must not pray, Lord put into my hands the strength of Christian kings, for out of my zeal, I will employ thy benefits to thine advantage, thy soldiers against thine enemies, and be a bank against that deluge, wherewith thine enemy the Turk threatens to overflow thy people. I must not pray, Lord, fill my heart with knowledge and understanding, for I would compose the schisms in thy church, and reduce thy garment to the first continual and seemless integrity; and redress the deafnesses and oppressions of judges, and officers. But he gave us a convenient scantling for our fors, who prayed, Give me enough, for I may else despair, give me not too much, for so I may presume. Of schoolmen, some affirm prayer to be an act of our will; for we would have that which we ask. Others, of our understanding; for by it we ascend to God, and better our knowledge, which is the proper ailment and food of our understanding; so, that is a perplexed case. But all agree, that it is an act of our reason, and therefore must be reasonable. For only reasonable things can pray; for the beasts and ravens, (Psalm cxlvii. 9.) are not said to pray for food, but to cry. Two things are required to make a prayer. 1. Pius affectus, which was not in the devils' request, Let us go into the swine, nor Stretch out thine hand, and touch all he hath'; and, stretch out thine hand, and touch his bones, and therefore these were not prayers. And it must be rerum decentium: for our government in that point, this may inform us. Things absolutely good, as remission of sins, we may absolutely beg and to escape things absolutely ill, as sin. But mean and indifferent things, qualified by the circumstances, we must ask

3 James iv. 1.

6 Matt. viii. 31.

7 Job i. 11.

conditionally and referringly to the Giver's will. For when Paul begged stimulum carnis to be taken from him, it was not granted, but he had this answer, My grace is sufficient for thee3.

Let us now (not in curiosity, but for instruction) consider the reason: They know not what they do. First, if ignorance excuse: and then, if they were ignorant.

Hast thou, O God, filled all thy Scriptures, both of thy recorders and notaries, which have penned the history of thy love, to thy people; and of thy secretaries the prophets, admitted to the foreknowledge of thy purposes, and instructed in thy cabinet; hast thou filled these with praises and persuasions of wisdom and knowledge, and must these persecutors be pardoned for their ignorance? Hast thou bid Esay to say, It is a people of no understanding, therefore he that made them, shall not have compassion of them'. And My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge"; and now dost thou say, Forgive them because they know not? Shall ignorance, which is often the cause of sin, often a sin itself, often the punishment of sin, and ever an infirmity and disease contracted by the first great sin, advantage them? Who can understand his faults, saith the man according to thy heart; Lord cleanse me from my secret faults": he durst not make his ignorance the reason of his prayer, but prayed against ignorance. But thy mercy is as the sea: both before it was the sea, for it overspreads the whole world; and since it was called into limits: for it is not the less infinite for that. And as by the sea, the most remote and distant nations enjoy one another, by traffic and commerce, East and West becoming neighbours: so by mercy, the most different things are united and reconciled; sinners have heaven; traitors are in the princes' bosom; and ignorant persons are in the spring of wisdom, being forgiven, not only though they be ignorant, but because they are ignorant. But all ignorance is not excusable; nor any less excusable, than not to know, what ignorance is not to be excused. Therefore, there is an ignorance which they call nescientiam, a not knowing of things not appertaining to us. This we had had, though Adam had stood; and the angels have it, for they know not the latter day, and therefore

8 2 Cor. viii.

10 Hosea iv. 6.

9 Isaiah xxvii. 11.

11 Psalm xix. 12.