concerned in it, if indeed you be parts of that mystical body? And it hinders not at all, but rather advances your personal suits at God's hands, when He sees your love to your brethren, and desires for the Church's good. Let not, therefore, any estate, no private perplexity or distress, nor very sorrow for sin, take you so up, as to be all for yourselves: let others, but especially the public condition of the Church of God, find room with you. We find it thus with David; when he was lamenting his own case, Psal. li. 18, and Psal. xxv. ult. and elsewhere, yet, he forgets not the Church: In Thy good pleasure do good to Zion, and build up the walls of Jerusalem. So then, let this be the constant tenor of your prayers, even in secret. When thou prayest alone, shut thy door, says our Saviour here, shut out as much as thou canst the sight and notice of others, but shut not out the interest and good of others; say, Our Father: as the heathen call their God, Zev ПáτEp.

Father.] He is indeed our Father (T≈ yàp nai yévos èoμev, Acts xvii. 28,) as the author of our being, beyond all the visible creatures. He breathed upon man the breath of life. But the privilege of this our natural relation, the sin of our nature hath made fruitless and comfortless to us, till we be restored by grace, and made partakers of a new sonship: we are indeed the workmanship of God, but, being defaced by sin, and considered in that estate, our true name is, children of wrath.

But the sonship that emboldens us to draw near unto God as our Father, is derived from His only begotten Son. He became the son of man, to make us anew the sons of God. Being thus restored, we may indeed look back upon our creation, and draw out of it, to use in prayer with God, that we are His creatures, the workmanship of His hands, and He in that sense our Father. But, by reason of our rebellion, this argument is not strong enough alone, but must be supported with this other, as the main ground of our comfort, that wherein the strength of our confidence lies, that He is our Father in His son, Christ; that by faith we are invested into a new son

ship, and by virtue of that, may call Him,

Father, and move
John i. 12. To

Him by that name to help and answer us. as many as received him, he gave power to become the sons of God. Our adoption holds in Jesus Christ as the Head of this fraternity; therefore he says, I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. John xx. 17. He says not, To our Father and our God, but severally, mine and yours; teaching us the order of the new covenant, that the sonship of Jesus Christ is not only more eminent in nature, but in order, is the spring and cause of ours, as St. Cyril well observes. So then, he that here puts this word in our mouths, to call God, Father, he it is by whom we have this dignity and comfort that we call him so.

But this adoption is accompanied (that we think it not a naked, external name) with a real change, and so great à change, that it bears the name of that which is the real ground of sonship; it is called regeneration. And these are inseparable. There be no sons of God by adoption, but such as are withal his sons by regeneration and new birth. There is a new life breathed into them from God. He is not only the Father of Spirits, by their first infusion into the body, and enlivening it by them, but by this new infusion of grace into the souls of men, (as it seems to signify there, Heb. xii. 9. where he is speaking of spiritual sons,) and enlivening them by it, which were dead without it, as the body is without them. And the Spirit of God renewing them, is the Spirit of adoption, by which they cry, Abba, Father. Rom. viii. 15. He gives them a supernatural life by this Spirit sent into their hearts; and the Spirit, by that regeneration which he works, ascertains them of that adoption which is in Christ Jesus; and in the persuasion of both, they call upon God as their Father.

So then, you who would have this confidence in approaching to God, to call Him Father, lay hold on Jesus Christ as the fountain of sonship. Offer not to come unto God, but through him, and rest not satisfied with yourselves, nor your prayers, till `you find some evidence that you are in him. And know, that

there is no evidence of your portion in the Son, but by the Spirit; therefore called the Spirit of the Son, by which we call God Father. Gal. iv. 6. See whether the Spirit of God dwells and rules in your hearts. For they that have not the Spirit of God, are none of his, says the Apostle; but, in the same chapter, he assures you, that As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are undoubtedly the sons of God, Rom. viii. 9, 14. If you then call on the name of God, and particularly by this name, Our Father, depart from iniquity. Be ashamed to pretend to be His sons, and yet be so unlike Him, wallowing in sin, it cannot be, that the sons of so holy a God, can be altogether unholy, and delight to be so: no, though they cannot be perfectly free from impurity, yet, they who are indeed his children, do certainly hate impurity, because he hates it.

Do you draw near unto God in His Son Christ? Do you give yourselves up to be led by His Spirit? Then you may account and call Him your Father. And if you may use this word, there is abundance of sweetness in it: it is a spring of comfort that cannot run dry. And it hath influence into all the petitions; as likewise the other word, Which art in Heaven; Thou who art so great and so good. Whose name and whose kingdom should we desire to be advanced so much as our own Father's, our Heavenly Father? And whose will to be obeyed on earth as it is in heaven? Of whom should we seek our daily bread, but of our Father? And especially, so rich a Father, possessor of heaven and earth! And forgiveness we may ask of our gracious Father, and conduct, and protection. In the hardest condition that can befall you, ye may come to your Father: all the world cannot bar your access. And there is no child may go to his father with any suit, with more confidence than you may to your Father; and if there be mercy and power enough in God, thou canst not miss of help. He hath the bowels of a Father. Psal. ciii. 13. Yea, says our Saviour, Can you that are evil give your children good things? How much more will your Heavenly Father give good things to them who ask Him! Matt. vii. 11. The love of parents to

their children, they have from Him: He hath given it to nature, so, it is but a drop to the ocean of fatherly love that is in himself. Ante petitionem magnum accepimus, ut possimus dicere, pater: quid enim jam non det filiis petentibus pater, qui jam hoc ipsum dedit ut essent filii ? [AUGUSTINE.] Let not, then, unworthiness scare His children. Parents love their children,

and do them good, not because they see they are more worthy than others, for it may be far otherwise, but because they are their own.

Yea, though we have run astray from Him, and forgotten very far the duty of children, yet, He cannot forget the love of a Father; and our best is, to return to Him. It cannot be well with us, so long as we go any whither else. The prodigal found it so, and therefore, though he was convinced of that, that he was unworthy to be called his son, yet he resolves to return, I will go to my father. Yea, though to thy sense He should seem to reject thee, yet, let not go this hold. If thou hast but a desire to believe in Him and love Him, though thou canst find no more, and even while thou doubtest whether He is thy Father or no, yet, press Him with the name, call Him Father, speak to Him as thy Father; Jesus, His Son, in whom He is well pleased, doth warrant thee. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him, says Job: so resolve thou, though thou sawest His hand, as it were, ready to throw thee into hell, yet, cry to Him still, and use this very name, Father, reject me not. Never any perished with such a purpose.

Who art in Heaven.]

Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Psal. ii. 11. This compellation taken together, and rightly understood, works that due temper of prayer, the mixture of these two, joy and fear, confidence and reverence. There was some such thing spoken of Augustus, but it is most true of the Divine Majesty, that they who dare speak rashly to Him, know not His greatness, and they who dare not speak to Him, provided it be with due reverence and respect, know not His goodness.

That we all invoke one Father, teaches that new law of love to one another, which our Saviour, the author of this prayer, so often recommends, and makes the very badge of his disciples. It serves to comfort the meanest, and to abate the loftiness of the greatest who pray thus, as St. Augustine well observes, that they all meet and agree in this: the greatest kings, and their meanest subjects, all must speak to God as their Father, not only all alike having their being from Him as the Father of the spirits of all flesh, but the same adoption belonging unto all, high and low, that are believers. All the pomp and command and pleasures of princes cannot make them happy without this grace of adoption; and no outward baseness prejudges any, but they may be happy by partaking of it. In this, likewise, is very clear our lesson of love to God, because our Father. For though (as they say) love doth descend much more than it ascends, and it is here most of all verified, yet it doth ascend from the children to their parents by way of reflection, especially

from the sons of God to Him as a Father, who is Love itself And as this name draws the soul to the throne of grace with assured expectation of mercy, so, it commands withal, (as we said,) honour and reverence; especially, being accompanied with this other word that mainly enforces that [ó év rois gavoïs,] In the heavens; answering the Hebrew word, which is plural, and signifying that the glorious God is above all the visible heavens. And thus the profane authors speak of God likewise, væÉgtata δώματα ναίων.

We know, although we are guilty of much forgetting it, that the Lord is every where present, neither excluded nor included any where; that he fills all places, not as contained in them, but as containing them, and upholding them, and all things in them. But He is in Heaven after a special manner, in the brightest manifestation of Himself, and as the purest service is performed to Him there. They cannot contain Him, as Solomon expresses it, 1 Kings viii. 27; yet, His throne is there, there He dwells, as in His principal palace, in greatest majesty, as David teacheth us, Psal. xi. 4, and often elsewhere, But