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of this petition. fo is likewife the will of his command. And this falls under thefe confiderations:

1. As thou willeft in Heaven, fo let it be done by us on earth; aid to that purpose,

1. Let thy will be difcovered and made known unto us, and to all creatures: And inafmuch as none 'teaches like God, let us be all taught of thee. Let thy revealed will in thy word come unto us as light, into darkness; and becaufe our understandings are 'blind and fealed up that they cannot receive this light, and our hearts are perverfe and will refift it, send down thy fpirit of life and power to open our underftandings to receive it, to difcern the truth, and 'purity and perfection of it; open our hearts to receive it in the love of it; and conquer that cell of corruption and oppofition that lies there ready to ftifle it; mingle thy word in our hearts with faith, that may purify our hearts, and make thy word powerful to the fubduing of all thofe ftrong holds and oppofi'tions that stand out against it: thy will in heaven is a perfect, pure, and Holy Will; fend out fuch difcoveries of thy Will, that we may know it in the fpiritu alness and truth of it, vindicated from the falfe gloffes that the corruptions and degenerations of the times, or our deceitful and falfe hearts are apt to put upon it: and that thy Will may be done on Earth as it 'is in Heaven, let it be known on Earth as it in heaven.

2. Because the only true principle of obedience is love; shed abroad thy love in our heart: and because the fenfe of thy love to us is the cause and ground of our love to thee, fhew us the greatnefs and fulness of thy love to us in Chrift, and that will reflect acts of 'love to thee again, and make us ready and willing to obey thy will, and exceeding thankful to thee that ' thou art pleased to accept the fincere, though imperfect obedience of thy creature.

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3. And because the end of the manifeftation of thy 'love to mankind in Christ, was to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify unto thyself a peculiar people,

• zealous

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zealous of good works 1. And inafmuch as our conformity to thy Will, as it is our perfection, fo it is the great and just tribute that we owe unto thee for our being, as creatures, and much more for our redemption as redeemed and purchafed creatures; let all our thoughts, words and works, be universally fubject and obedient to thy will, revealed in thy Son, that we may be holy as thou art holy, in all manner of converfation purge our hearts from vain and unprofitable thoughts, from finful and polluted thoughts, from devilifh and atheistical thoughts; and let our thoughts 'be fuch as becomes the prefence of God, before whom they are naked and legible, fuch as becomes that heart where Chrift is pleafed to make his refidence, pious, charitable,pure, chafte, clean, sober, humble thoughts, 'fit to be attendants upon fo heavenly a gueft: wafh my tongue from that fire of hell that is naturally in it 2, deliver it from blafphemous, atheistical, calumniating, uncharitable, falfe, vain, and unprofitable words; and let me ufe my tongue as one whofe words are all regiftered, and that must give an account for every idle word: let my fpeeches be feafoned with falt, glorifying thy name, edifying others; true, profitable, feafon• able, serious, charitable, difcrete; for by my words I ◄ shall be justified, and by my words I fhall be condemned. Deliver me from all finful, impure, unfeemly, unjust actions: in the first life of any action or intention, let me bring them to the rule of thy word, to the rule of my confcience, to the rule of thy 'prefence, and impartially meafure them thereby, and if they will not abide that examination, or upon that examination want their due conformity, let me reject them without any more reafonings or difputings. In all my actions relating immediately to thy Majefty, let them be warrantable, pious, fincere, reverent, humble in all my actions relating to others, let them be 'full of juftice, charity, free from revenge, difdain, ful⚫ lennefs, measuring out impartially, as in the prefence

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Tit. ii. 14.

* James P. 6.

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of God, the fame measure which I would defire to be done unto myself. In all my actions relating to myself, let there be fobriety, temperance, moderation, feafonablenefs. And let all this be done out of that only true principle of obedience, love to God, prefented unto him upon that only ground of accepta tion, Jefus Chrift; and feafoned with that acceptable grace of humility. If when I have done all that is injoined, I am but an unprofitable fervant; how unpro'fitable am I when I infinitely fail of what I am com'manded?

And as I pray that the things that thou willest to be done in Heaven may be done by us on Earth, so I defire that that Heavenly Will of thine may be done ' on Earth as thy will is done in Heaven by thofe glorious and pure creatures that always behold thy face, perfectly, univerfally, fpeedily, chearfully, humbly.'

1. Perfectly. The angels do clearly difcern and know the will of God by a double act2: 1. On God's part, a clear emanation or beam of the mind of God fhining into their clear intellectual nature, and convey ing into them a a perfect difcovery of the mind and Will of God concerning them. 2. On their 2. On their part, by a clear intuition of God, and beholding his Mind and Will in him concerning them; the wife God having fitted their natures with fuch a measure of intuition of him, whereby, though they cannot fee all his perfec tions, yet they are fitted and enabled to fee fo much as is fuitable to their nature, conducible to the fulness of that perfection which they are capable of, and to the performance of that active fervice which he requires of them. And as thus they perfectly know his will, fo their wills are moft purely inclined and moved to the obedience of it; there is no mixture of impurity or refiftance in their will againft the will of God; no mixture of hypocrify or bafe felf-ends: for their pure natures are taken up with a fulness of the love of God, large and comprehenfive as their natures, and upon that principle they move in all their acts of obedience;

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and they clearly fee that their highest perfection confifts in the most even and unbiaffed conformity to the command of God; fo the more perfect their obedience is, the more abfolute is their perfection; they need no other motive to obey him but this; that it is the most perfect command of the most perfect, and wife, and holy God. And as thus their minds and wills are fafhioned and fitted to a moft perfect obedience, fo they are endued with a power from God exactly commenfurate to an exact performance of his will; whether it be in their reflected actions unto God, or whether it be in their inftrumental actions unto others. If God command an Angel to destroy an hoft of the Affyrians, he can dispatch 185000 of them in one night; if he command an Angel to deliver Daniel out of the lion's den, he can fhut the lion's mouth, that they fhall be rather his guard, than his executioners. If he command an Angel to deliver Peter out of the prifon, he can make his chains fall off from him, like the tow when it feeleth the fire 2. When he commands an Angel to comfort his Son, though under a preffure and weight more heavy to his foul than the weight of the earth, he can dart into the tender and vital parts of the foul fuch comforts and cordials, that can enable his humanity to bear that burden 3. When he commands an Angel to attend the refurrection of his Son, he can at the fame inftant shake terror and amazement and diffolution into the fpirits of the foldiers, and comfort and fatisfaction into the fouls of thofe that expected his refurrection, and caufe that ftone, which the Pharisees laid upon the fepulchre as a feal unto his mortality, to ftart afide and give way to our Saviour's refurrection 4. And little do we know thofe wonderful fervices that these invifible powers do in the world, even for poor and weak men, at the command of their great Lord and Sovereign, every hour in the day. And now, O Lord, it is true, that thy Will is done in Heaven by ⚫ those thy glorious creatures perfectly and exactly; but Dan. vi. 22. 2 Acts xii. 7.

: VOL. I.

3 Luke xxii. 43. 4 Luke xxviii. 34. 'I and

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'I and all thy creatures upon earth, have in us a mixture of darkness that we cannot know thy Will; and a 'mixture of corruption that refifts the obedience of thy Will; and a mixture of impotence, that we cannot per'form that part of thy Will that we know and defire to obey; fo that when we can at any time fay with the Apoftle, To will is prefent with me; yet we muft, with the fame Apoftle fay, That how to perform that good, "we find not '; therefore I cannot, in this houfe of clay, hope to afpire to the full perfection of an Angelical' obedience, nor to thy Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven; yet there is an imperfect perfection which in Chrift thou art pleased to accept of, an Evan'gelical, though not an Angelical perfection in our obedience; a perfection of integrity and fincerity, free from guile, bafe ends, or hypocrity; a heart truly endeavouring to obey the voice of God in his Word, and truly forrowful for his defects and failings in that ' obedience: thus the heart of David 2, of Hezekiah 3, were perfect hearts; the obedience enjoined by David 'to Solomon :''Serve him with a perfect heart, and willing mind 4. And this perfection of obedience give unto thy fervants, that thy will may be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, fincerely and fingly.'

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2. Which is a confequent of the former; Angelical Obedience is an Univerfal obedience: there is not any command of God, not the meaneft, but they perform it. Blefs the Lord ye his angels that excel in ftrength, that do his commandments, hearkning unto the voice of his word 5. For the fame principle of perfect love to God moves them to a willing obedience to every command, as well as any; and they find as much beauty in their obedience unto the command of God, when fent out to minifter for the poor members of the Son of God, as when fent upon an employment, for the matter, more glorious. And O Lord,

let thy will be thus done on Earth as it is in Heaven:

Rom. vii. 18. 1 Kings xv. 3. 1 Kings xx. 3. 2 Chron. xxviii. 9. • Psal. ciii. 20.

Heb. i. 14.

• Let

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