avoid all Things that will make our Duty hard to us. And by this you may know whether the Man be averfe from the Sin: Does he, or does he not, love the Temptation to it? If he does not, he will avoid it; if he does, how can he defire God to rescue him from Temptation, when he voluntarily runs upon it? 3. We muft alfo confider what our proper Temptations are, that is, in what Inftances we are most likely to mifcarry; and this every Man may underftand, who thinks it worth the while to look over his paft Actions; for if we do not know our own Temper, yet we may eafily understand what our Practice has been, wherein we have, and that not once or twice, but frequently miscarried, and that will fhew us the Failing and Faultiness of our Temper alfo, and confequently what those Temptations and Occafions of Sin are that are principally to be avoided by us. To reflect To reflect upon a Man's Paft Converfation cannot indeed make the Evils he hath wrought not to have been, but it may hinder the like for the future, by making him cautious against those Snares and Temptations that he has been caught by heretofore. And he that has not this Concern upon him to know what his greatest Danger is, can have no serious Defire to avoid it; and he speaks Words with }: out out giving Meaning to them, when he defires God to deliver him from Temptation. 4. He that useth this Petition fincerely, must be supposed alfo to arm himself against Temptations, which he cannot reasonably avoid, and to fortify himself against them before-hand by particular Refolution. If he knows, for inftance, how apt he is to let go his Guard of himself when he falls in amongst drinking Companions, he must provide himself with a firm Purpose beforehand that he will not exceed fuch a Meafure; he must not venture himself upon a general Intention of Sobriety till he has attained an Habit of Sobriety, and mended the very Frame and Conftitution of his Mind by frequent Acts of well-doing. And the fame I fay of all other Occafions of refifting Temptations that we have reason to think hazardous. To conclude. No Man can earnestly pray against Temptation, who does not watch against it too. For this is a true Rule, as to all the Prayers we offer up to God for any Bleffing or good Thing in behalf of our felves or others, that by thefe very Prayers we pretend to promise to God that we will contribute towards the Effect as far as we can; and therefore if there be no fuch Performance, our Prayer is no better than the Prayer of an Hypocrite. SER SERMON X. The Eighth and laft Sermon on the LORD'S PRAYER. MATTH. VI. xiii. For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, for ever. Amen. Whe Hen I began to explain to you the Lord's Prayer, the feveral Petitions of which I have now gone thro', I fhewed you in difcourfing of the Form of Invocation wherewith it is begun, viz. Our Father, c. how proper it is for Prayer in the general, and for this Prayer in particular. For whofe Honour fhould we be more concern, ed for than our Father's? And therefore we pray that the Name of God may be hallowed, and that his Peerless Majefty may be acknowledged by all Men, and that nothing may be profaned or irreverently used which relates to his Worship. What Kingdom or Government fhould we defire conftantly the the Advancement of more than of a Paternal Kingdom, where there is Righteousness, and Godliness, and Juftice, and Charity? And this we defire when we say, Thy Kingdom come. To whom is Obedience more naturally due than to a Father? And therefore we pray, Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Upon whom do Children depend but upon their Father? And our Lord hath taught us to ask of God our daily Bread. What is more proper for an of fending Son than to arife and go to his Father, and fay, I have finned? And our Lord hath taught us to beg of God the Forgivenefs of our Trefpaffes. Laftly, It is upon this Ground that we alfo beg of him Protection and Defence against our Spiritual Enemies, that we may not be led into / Temptation, but delivered from Evil. AH this is the more confiderable, because we do by these Petitions exprefs, as far as Words can do it, the Duty we owe to our heavenly Father, viz. in the first our Reverence to his Majefty, in the fecond our Love to his Goodness, in the third our Subjection to his Authority, our Obedience to his Commands, in the fourth our Dependance upon his Providence, Care and Bounty, in the fifth our Hope in his Mercy, and our Belief of his Promises; in the last our Trust in his Power and Wifdom. And the Importance of these feveral Petitions doth not only re quire our Earneftnefs and Importunity in praying, as I have fhewn you all along, but the Confideration of this, that God, who is our Father, doth encourage us thereto. I fhall now fhew you that the Clofe of this Prayer is of like Ufe with the Begining of it, For thine is the Kingdom,and the Power, and the Glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 1. Concerning God's Kingdom. In the Explication of the fecond Petition I fhewed you the feveral Notions of God's Kingdom in Scripture. That which belongs to this Place is the first that I then mentioned, viz. God's rightful Sovereignty over all the World, as when the Pfalmift fays, His Kingdom ruleth over all; this could not be meant in the Petition, because the Kingdom there mentioned is that which we pray may come, that is, the farther Succefs of the Gospel, and the Confummation of all in the Kingdom of God's Glory. But here where we acknowledge abfolutely the Kingdom to be God's, we can understand nothing but his Sovereign Rule and Authority over all. 2. The Power is his Omnipotence, which is of a distinct Confideration from bare Authority and Right to govern. The Meaning is, that God's Authority over all Things is not only unquestionable, which is what we mean by his Kingdom, but that he can do what he pleafes in all Places of his Do minion, |