SERMON IV.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

MATTHEW vi. 9.

After this manner therefore pray ye.

THIS admirable form of Prayer comes recommended by the highest possible authority. Our Lord was himself its author-and he hath left it to the Church that calls itself after his name. He delivered it on two occasions with very little difference indeed in the expressions: once in that summary of practical Religion, which he promulgated to theassembled multitudes in his Sermon on the Mount,* and again when one of the Disciples besought him to teach them to pray as John the Baptist also taught his Disciples. Thus it comes to us as a Prayer to be used, and as a model to be copied an address from the heart to him who seeth in secret, rebuking by its simplicity the ostentation of the Pharisees, and by its † Luke xi. 2.

*Matthew vi. 9.

conciseness the vain repetitions and much speaking of the Heathens: expressed in terms most easy of comprehension, and applicable to every condition of human society and in every circumstance of human life. Properly the first learned of all our prayers, its familiarity may have superceded in some any special enquiry into its meaning: the result of such enquiry will shew it admirable alike for the extent of its matter and the compendiousness of its construction. Let me call on your attention while in this day's discourse I unfold its brevity, while I explain its petitions, while I bring more fully into view what it implies and what it recommends, and while I urge on you the dispositions required in those who would use it with effect. For our Lord did not deliver a form of words that was to be effectual when repeated without understanding and without feeling: which was to obtain whatever it asked, without faith in God to whom it applied, or without effort in the supplicant to render himself a meet object on whom God's favor might be bestowed. No: the Prayer itself will shew the contrary and an analysis of its contents, to such minuteness as time will permit, will open your minds as well to the fit subjects of your addresses in general to God, as to the manner in which he should be solicited and the disposition with which he should be approached.

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The idolatrous Priests of Baal cried out from morning until noon with a tiresome sameness, "O Baal, hear us."* Our Lord's Prayer, repeated as it often is in our service, does not lay us open to the charge of vain repetition it is replete with varied and abundant matter, and the Church calls us in different devotions of human composition to the divine one which should be a model for them all. Under the impression of the same sentiments, the same words will without design often reIn the Psalms of David we meet with the same forms of words repeatedly-often, as the choral song of the Lyric chaunt-often, as the same conclusion proved by various arguments or illustrated by varieties of cases. Thrice did our Lord in the same words pray that the cup of bitterness should pass from him. The prayer which is called after his name does not affect novelty. It is a compendious abstract of the most valuable part of the Jewish Liturgies, combining with them an Epitome of his own Gospel. Let none then who believes in that Gospel, let none who regards the character and authority of its teacher object to this prayer's being repeated frequently in the devotions of our Church : in each division of its services it should properly form a leading part. It is a beacon to direct the course of our worship and to bring * 1 Kings xviii. 26.

us back from the wanderings of human invention: it is a light from Heaven to revive and to re-animate the devotions of those who use the words of his supplication, as they hope to obtain their petitions by his intercession. The Church which always prays in his name should shew a marked affection and veneration for the words by which he taught to pray.

The introduction, Our Father, which art in Heaven," specifies whom we are addressing and recites the grounds on which our hopes of obtaining our petitions are founded. The words "our Father," express that the relation in which God stands to us is one of solicitous love and of commanding authority. In virtue of his creation, God may be said to be the father of all things in heaven and earth, for he is the author of their existence and the artist of their powers: angels and men, formed in his likeness, are more especially termed his sons, towards whom he exercises a parental kindness, providing largely for their comfort, and even, when he visits them with afflictions, dealing out his chastisements as a father towards the children he loves. But by the Christian Covenant are we yet in a more encouraging sense his sons through our blessed Lord and Saviour: for whosoever receive him, to them hath he given power to become the sons of God.* With him are we "joint heirs

* John i. 12.

of eternal life" and "children of God being children of the resurrection."* While we

offer up the prayers then of our sonship to God our father, let us also bear in view him who after our fall from the natural relation reconciled us to a spiritual sonship and a more excellent inheritance, and through faith in him let us ask, for "he is faithful that promised."†

That God exists through all space, that he fills heaven and earth, and that through every part of the universe to the purposes of intelligence and regulation he is always present, we are convinced. Yet are we warranted by Scripture in supposing for him a throne, a tabernacle, at distance from the humble abode of his dependant creatures, and established in that exalted region of spiritual bliss where angels do him honor, and from whence this inferior world receives its movements and its administration. But though the Lord's throne is in Heaven, Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him: his kingdom ruleth over all, and in his hand is power and might which none can withstand. When we apply the words, "which art in Heaven" to the description of God, we profess our belief in his superiority over every thing which earth can contain; we acknowledge his power to be above all earthly restraint and his glory as of * Luke xx. 36. † Hebrew x. 23.