Practical Exposition of the Lords Prayer, Frontispiece – Advertisement
Thomas Manton DD.
A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION OF THE Lord's-Prayer.
BY The late Reverend and Learned Divine THOMAS MANTON, D.D.
LONDON; Printed by I. D. and are to be sold by Ionathan Robinson, at the Golden-Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1684.
The Preface,
SUch is the Divine Matter, and admirable Order of the Lord's Prayer, as became the Eternal Wisdom of God, that composed and dictated it to his Disciples. In it are opened the Fountains of all our regular Petitions; and the Arguments contained to encourage our Hopes for obtaining them. In our Addresses to Men, our study is to conciliate their favourable Audience: but God is most graciously inclin'd and ready to grant our Requests; therefore we are directed to call upon him by the Title of Our Father, in Heaven, to assure us of his Love and Power, and thereby to excite our reverent Attention, to raise our Affections, to confirm our Confidence in Prayer. The supream end of our desires is the Glory of God in Conjunction with our own Happiness: This is exprest in the two first Petitions, That His Name may be Hallowed, and His Kingdom come, that we may partake of its Felicity. In order to this, our Desires are directed for the Means that are proper and effectual to accomplish it. And those are of two kinds, the good things that conduct us, and the removal of those Evils that obstruct our Happiness. The good things are either, the Spiritual and Principal Means to prepare us for Glory, an intire, cordial and constant Obedience to the divine Commands, exprest in the third Petition, Thy Will be done on Earth, as 'tis in Heaven: Or natural and subservient, the Supports and Comforts of this Life, which are contained in the fourth Petition, Give us this Day our daily Bread. The removal of Evils is disposed according to the order of the good Things we are to seek: We pray that our Sins may be forgiven, the guilt of which directly excludes from his glorious Kingdom, that we may be preserved from Temptations, that withdraw us from observing the Divine Commands; and to be delivered from all afflicting Evils, that hinder our arrival at our blessed End. The Conclusion is to strengthen our Faith, by ascribing to our Heavenly Father, the Kingdom, Power, and Glory, and to express our ardent desires of his Blessing, by saying, Amen.
This divine comprehensive Prayer is the Subject of the following Sermons, wherein the Characters of Dr. Manton's Spirit, are so conspicuous, as sufficiently discover them to be his; and the Reader is assured they have been diligently compared with his own Copy.
WILLIAM BATES.
ADVERTISEMENT.
DR. Manton's second Volumn of Sermons, in Folio, on the 25th Chapter of St. Matthew, the 17th of St. Iohn, the sixth and eighth Chapters to the Romans, and the fifth of the second Epistle to the Corinthians, being perused by Dr. Bates, Dr. Collins, and Mr. How, is now in the Press, and will be finished with all Expedition, there being three Presses already at work, and two more will be shortly imployed for the dispatch thereof. Therefore all Persons who expect the benefit of the Proposals, are desired to send in their Money forthwith.
The Proposals are to be had at Ionathan Robinson's at the Golden Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard.