Practical Difcourfe upon the Invocation.

God the Father of Heaven, have mercy upon us miferable Sinners] There is an Eality of Power, and yet a difference of Order aong the Perfons of the glorious Trinity, for the Fafer is ever reckoned in the first place, to him therefore we make our firft Addrefs. He firft gave us our being and is our Father by Creation, yea he is the Father that is the Maker of Heaven and Earth, but because he properly dwells in Heaven, and never vifibly appeared on Earth, as the Son and the Holy Ghost have done, he is peculiarly filed Our Father of Heaven, or Our Heavenly Father, and fo he is called here, as well as in the beginning of the Lords Prayer, to raise up our hearts to Heaven and the things above,and to mind us how great a Majefty we are before,even the Father of all the Heavenly Powers, who do all adore him with the lowest Venerations: He can do whatsoever he will, because he is fo great a God, and we hope he will do what we defire, because he is fo gratious a Father: Now the Petition we make to him is for Mercy, and the Motive to enforce it is, because we are miferable finkers. As we are Miferable, we are the proper Objects of Mercy, which cannot be exercised, but upon those in Mifery (b), as we are diftreffed, we need his relieving Mercy,and as we are Sinners, we need his forgiving Mercy; His Mercy can both pity our Miferies and pardon our Tranfgreffions, an that we may the more fervently put up fo neceffary a Requeft, we muft obferve, there are fome of Or Miferies which are most proper for the Father to redi efs,and fome Sins which being principally against God the Fa

(b) at mifericordia, ubi mulla eft miferia. Aug. de X. Chord.

\ther,

ther, it is moft fit to beg the Pardon of them from him; Now this being an Invocation of the Father, to whom the Works of Creation and Providence do belong; let us while we beg Mercy of him, first reflect upon our Miferies, which he is most concerned to help us in. Are we fick or weak in body, low and impoverished in Eftate, abused in our good Name, or unhappy in our Relations? Is the Air tempeftuous, the Year unfeafonable, the State imbroiled with War, or the Church disturbed with Faction? Are we deprived of our Peace, or our Traffique,our Liberty or our Rights? We may then justly go to our Heavenly Father, the great Difpofer of all things, and in a fence of our Misery and his Mercy, call upon him for relief; and when we call upon him for Mercy, let us reflect upon the Miseries of this kind, which we labour under, so shall the more earnestly beg his Pity.

Yet left our Complaints should look like accufations of his Justice, or reproaches to his Providence, in the next place let us remember, we are Sinners alfo, and call to mind thofe Offences, which have been particularly committed against our heavenly Father, and caufed him to fend thefe Evils upon us: As our forgetfulnefs of his Mer cies, our prefumption in Profperity, our murmurings in Adverfity,our greediness of worldly and contempt of heavenly things, our diftruft of his Providence,abufe of his Creatures, defiling our Bodies, unhallowing our Souls,and our wafting our precious time: These are Sins directly againft God the Father, our Maker and Preserver, and therefore are to be humbly confeffed,and heartily bewailed, before we proceed to ask any Faveurs from him:) 's meditate therefore what need we have of the Mercy of God the Father, to remove our Miseries and forgive our Sins, and then we fhall f ce,how neceffary it is for us to cry with a mighty

Pallion,

Passion, D God the Father, &c. while the Minister is repeating, we have time to confider of our Calamities and our Iniquities, and then when our part of the duty comes, I doubt not but we shall perform it with a vi gorous Devotion.

S.IV. God the Son, Redeemer of the world,habe mercy upon us miferable Sinners,] The Orthodox Chriftians did always give the fame Worship to the Son of God, which they did to the Father, because he is Equal to the Father, and the Father himfelf hath commanded, That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father, for be that honoureth not the Son,bonoureth not the Father which fent him, John v.23. fo that the Arrian Herefy, which robbed the Son of his Worship as well as his Divinity, was not only injurious to our Lord Jefus,but difpleafing to God the Father: Which was ingeniously fignified by Amphilocius, who, perceiving the Emperour Theodofius fomewhat too favourable to the Arrian Opinions, came once into the prefence, where the fame Theodofius and his Son Arcadius (then Partner with his Father in the Empire)were ftanding,and making a low obeyfance to the Father, he took no notice of the Son at all, no not when he was admonished of his Neglect; but feeing the Empercur angry thereat,he faid, Are you difpleafed with me for not giving equal Honour to your Son as to your felf, and will not God be difpleafed at those who do not worship his Eternal and only begotten Son,equally to himself, as he hath commanded, Hiftor. Tripart. l.ix. cap.25. Wherefore when we have first adored the Father, we do next invocate the Son,declaring thereby,that we believe him to be very God, of equal pow and dignity with his Father, calling him not the Son of God, but God the Son, and making the very fame Request to him that we

had

(c) Valdè ingrati funt pretio fuo, aut multum Superbi funt qui dicunt, ant illud tam parvum effe, ut folos Afros emerit, aut fe tam magnos,pro quibus folis illud datum fit. Aug.in Pfal95.

had made to the Father before, that he would hav Mercy upon us and to encourage us to believe and hope, that he will grant it, we invoke him alfo by his proper Title, Redeemer of the World, for he tafted of Death for every Man,Hebr.ii.9. and by him God reconciles the World unto himself, 2 Cor.5.19. Coloff. 1. 20. The Donatifts of old affirmed, Chrift dyed only to redeem them, but St. Augustine fharply reproves their vanity, faying, they muft either have a very mean efteem for Chrifts blood, or a very high Conceit of themselves, who confined his Redemption to their own Party (c): We know that the price he hath paid was not only for fingle perfons,but to reconcile the whole nature of Man to God;fo that he is juftly ftyled the Redeemer of the World, and bearing that Chara-“ cter,how can we doubt but he will have Mercy upon us ; he had Mercy on all,or else he had not dyed for all, he made no exceptions, and why should we by despairing doubts except our felves; 'tis fure we are of the number of those, which he hath redeemed, and therefore finding our felves to be Miferable Sinners, let us call and cry earnestly to him, declaring our Mifery, and confeffing our Sins, that he may alfo help and pardon us: And to make this addrefs more pertinent, let us (by the former Method) firft, confider of those Miseries of which we may fitly complain to God the Son, our Saviour and Redeemer,viz. the Corruption of our Nature, and the Guilt of our Sins, whereby we are in a very miferable Eftate, being by Sin become Enemies to God, Slaves of Sathan and Heirs of Damnation, the fears of Hell terrify us, the Remembrance of Judgment doth amaze us, and the thoughts of Death are difinal to us,

and