A practical exposition of the Lord's-Prayer

3. Therefore doth Christ use this Comparison, that we might not miscarry by a low Example. How apt are we to follow the track, and to take up with an easy and low rate of Obedience, Luke 18. 11. that put great Confidence in that, God, I thank thee, I am not as other Men. Now because we have few Examples in the World, and those we have, have their Spots and Defects, and are very susceptible of Evils, and apt to miscarry by them; therefore Christ would carry us up to look after a Heavenly and Celestial Pattern; he propoundeth the Angelical Perfection as a Pattern and Example. He that shoots at a Star, will shoot higher than he that aims at a Shrub: Surely the higher the Pattern that we aim at, the greater will our Obedience be. Wicked Men they think that every thing is enough in Religion, though ⟨p. 254⟩it be never so little; but the Godly cannot so easily satisfy themselves, they are pressing and hastening on more and more.

3. Therefore doth Christ use this Comparison, that we might not miscarry by a low Example. How apt are we to follow the track, and to take up with an easy and low rate of Obedience, Luke 18. 11. that put great Confidence in that, God, I thank thee, I am not as other Men. Now because we have few Examples in the World, and those we have, have their Spots and Defects, and are very susceptible of Evils, and apt to miscarry by them; therefore Christ would carry us up to look after a Heavenly and Coelestial Patern; he propoundeth the Angelical Perfection as a Patern and Example. He that shoots at a Star, will shoot higher than he that aims at a Shrub: Surely the higher the Patern that we aim at, the greater will our Obedience be. Wicked Men they think that every thing is enough in Religion, though ⟨p. 254⟩it be never so little; but the Godly cannot so easily satisfy themselves, they are pressing and hastening on more and more.