them: they shall be conformable to the happy and glorious souls to which they shall be united, yea, to the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. There shall then be nothing but beauty, and glory, and immortality, in them which are now frail and mortal, and being dead, do putrefy and turn to dust. He shall change our vile bodies, and make them like unto his most glorious body. Phil. iii. 21. But, as St. Bernard says well, If we would be sure of this, that our bodies shall be conformed to his in the glory to come, let us see that our souls be here conformed to his, in that humility which he so much manifested whilst he dwelt among men: if we would that then our vile body be made like his glorious body, let our proud heart now be made like his humble heart.

Life eternal.] Our Confession of faith ends in that which is the end of our faith, our everlasting salvation, or eternal life. Of which, all that we can say is but stammering, and all our knowledge and conceiting of it but ignorance, in regard of what it is; yet, so much we know, or may know of it, as, if we knew aright, would certainly draw us more into the desires and pursuit of it. The very name of life is sweet, but then especially as it is here meant, in the purest and sweetest sense, for a truly happy life. Non est vivere, sed valere, vita. For a life full of misery is scarcely worth the name of life, and the longer it were, the worse; therefore, the miserable estate of damned souls, though immortal in it, is called death. So then, by this life, true and full blessedness being meant, and then that added, that it is eternul life, what can be imagined more to make it desirable? So happy, that there shall not be the smallest drop of any evil or bitterness in it, pure unmixed bliss; nothing present in it that is displeasing, nor any thing wanting that is delightful; and everlasting, that when millions of years (if there were any such reckoning there) are rolled about, it shall be as far from ending as at the first.

A very little knowledge of this blessed life, would make us clean out of love with the life that now we make such account of. What can it be that ties us here? The known shortness

of this life, were it more happy than it is to any, might make it of less esteem with us. But then withal, being so full of miseries and sins, so stuffed with sorrows round about us, and within ourselves, that if the longest of it can be called long, it is only the multitude of miseries in it, that can challenge that name for it. Such a world of bodily diseases, here one's head paining him, another his stomach-Quam male nobis convenit, nunc de ventre, nunc de capite, &c., hoc contingere solet in alieno habitantibus. [SENECA.] some complaining of this part, some of that, and the same party sometimes of one malady, sometimes of another; what disappointments, and disgraces, and cross encounters of affairs; what personal and what public calamities; and then, sin, the worst of all! And yet, all cannot wean us! We cannot endure to hear nor to think of removing; and the true reason is, unbelief of this eternal life, and the neglect of those ways that lead to it. Be persuaded at length to call in your heart from the foolish chase of vanity, and consider this glorious life that is set before you. Do you think the provision you make for this wretched present life, worth so many hours' daily pains, and give eternal life scarcely half a thought in many hours, possibly not a fixed, serious thought in many days? Surely, if you believe there is such a thing, you cannot but be convinced that it is a most preposterous, unwise course you take, in the expense of your time and pains upon any thing else more than on life eternal. Think, what a sad thing it will be, when your soul must remove out of that little cottage wherein it now dwells, not to be bettered by the removal, but thrust out into utter darkness. Whereas, if ye would give up with sin, and embrace Jesus Christ as your joy and your life, in him you would presently be put into a sure, unfailing right to this eternal life. It is a pure life, and purity of life here, is the only way to it. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

AN EXPOSITION

OF

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

MATT. vi. 9.

After this manner, therefore, pray ye.

THE malice and craft of Satan, in reference to good actions, works first in attempting wholly to divert us from them; but, if that take not, the next is, to pervert their use, and corrupt them so in doing, that they lose their acceptance with God, and we consequently lose the fruit and comfort of them. And as there is no religious exercise that he hath more quarrel at, and owes greater enmity to, than Prayer, being the most constant crosser of his designs, there is none from which he more endeavours to estrange men, either wholly to lay it down, or to frequent cessations; or, if that cannot be, but the light of conscience still calls for somewhat at least that may pass with a man for Prayer, yet, if Satan can get it turned to hypocrisy and formality, he knows he needs not fear it, for so it wants the life of prayer, and remains nothing but a dead carcass, and therefore can neither please the living God, nor hurt him who is its enemy.

Therefore, our Saviour here warns his disciples to avoid, in praying, these two evils, the vain ostentation of hypocrites, and the vain repetition of the Heathen; not to think it Prayer, to tumble out a multitude of empty words; and upon that, takes occasion to set this matchless copy of prayer, the way of example being the shortest and liveliest way of teaching.

These words, which are but the entry, are not to be passed over: there is in them, I. The duty of Prayer supposed. II. The prescribing of this form. First, Pray. Secondly, After this manner.

I. The use and necessity of Prayer is taken for confessed, as before, ver. 7. When ye pray, and when thou prayest. And the consideration of this exercise, and of this pattern of it, is with good reason accounted among the most necessary principles of religion. Without it, indeed, all religion withers and languishes. The Law of God is so pure and exact a rule, that we cannot come near the perfection of it, and therefore fall under its curse. When we understand it so, that drives us to the Gospel, to seek salvation there. And the articles of the Gospel, of our Christian faith, are so high and mysterious, that nature cannot aright understand or believe them; and therefore, both Law and Gospel drive us to prayer, to seek of God renewing grace to conform our hearts in some measure to the holy Law of God, and faith to lay hold on Jesus Christ and salvation in him held forth to us in the Gospel. Prayer is not taken in its strict grammatical sense, in which the words used for it signify only petition or request; but as comprehending, together with petition, confession and thanksgiving. It may be called briefly and plainly, a pious invocation of God; and, as we are not speaking abstractly of prayer, but according to the estate of fallen man, it is very fit to add the express mention of the Mediator, that it is an invocation of God in the name of Christ; for it never ascends to God as pleasing incense, but when it passeth through that golden censer, and is perfumed with the sweet odours of his merits and intercession. His entrance into Heaven hath opened up the way for our prayers to come in, and there is no access to the throne of grace, but by that new and living way, as the Apostle speaks, Heb. x. 20. But how much better is the frequent practice, than much discourse and business in defining it! Whatsoever is said aright in this, is for the other as its end, as one hath it out of an ancient philosopher, Inquirimus quid sit virtus,

non ut sciamus, sed ut boni efficiamur: We inquire what virtues are, not to know them, but to have them. And indeed, to do otherwise, is but answerable employment to studying the nature of riches, and talking of them, and remaining poor, possessing none.

It is not needful to stay upon distinguishing Prayer by the different matter of petitions, or things to be requested, which, possibly, some of the different names of prayer in Scripture do signify. This may suffice, that it ought to be of such things as are conformable to the will and promises of God, and desired with a suitable disposition of mind; and therefore I call it a pious invocation. It is the highest impudence, to present God with unjust or frivolous desires. Quæ scire homines nolunt, Deo narrant, as Seneca speaks; They tell God what they would not have men to know. We ought to reverence the majesty of God, and regard that in our requests. There is a difference betwixt solemn prayer and sudden ejaculations, but it is not a difference in their nature, but only in continuance. The former is here meant. Only this of the other, it is to be wished that it were more known, and more in use with Christians; for it is, no doubt, a very happy means of preserving the heart in a holy temper and constant regard of God in all a man's actions, and is a main point of answering the Apostle's word, Pray continually. When in company, and apart, a man useth secret, short motions of the soul to God, that may be very frequent in the day, and at night; whereas men's callings and natural necessities and employments, allow them but some certain parcel of both for solemn prayer. And these frequent looks of the heart to Heaven, exceedingly sweeten and sanctify our other employments, and diffuse somewhat of Heaven through all our actions. Solemn prayer at fit times, is a visiting of God; but this were a constant walking with Him all the day long, a lodging with Him in the night. When I awake, says David, I am still with Thee. Psal. cxxxix. 18. And these sudden dartings of the soul Heavenwards, may sometimes have more swiftness and force