A PRACTICAL

EXPOSITION

OF THE

CATECHISM

OF THE

Church of England.

PART III.

Of the LORD's Prayer.

LECTURE XXIII.

Dur Father which art in Heaven.

H

Aving Difcours'd already concerning what we are to believe and do, as they are laid down in the Creed and the Ten Commandments; we hall now proceed to confider what is further neceffary to affift us in the Performance of them, Now fince we

can

can neither believe, nor do any thing as we ought, without the Divine Grace affifting us therein; God has therefore Ordained and Commanded to us the Ufe of Prayer, and of the Sacraments, as the means to convey his Grace into our Souls, fo as to enable us both to believe in him, and alfo to Love and Obey him in a Holy and Acceptable, manner, And of thefe we are yet to Treat, and the firft of them in order is Pray

er.

We are now therefore come to the Third General Part of this Catechifm, concerning the Lord's Prayer. And it is called the Lord's Prayer] being that Prayer which our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift taught his Difciples: And that not only as a Form of Prayer in its felf; but as a Model or Pattern whereby to form our other Prayers, and direct us in our Petitions to God. And if we ferioufly confider our Weakness and Ignorance, that we neither know what to Pray for, nor how to Pray as we ought; it will appear no fmall Priviledge, to be thus Taught of God (by his own Son) and directed both in the one and the other, to our great Comfort and Affurance, that we fhall obtain what we thus ask according to his Will. Without this Directi on and Affiftance, we muft needs wander in the dark, either Praying for things hurtful or unlawful, or not in that due manner as we ought to Pray. The Confideration of this Ignorance of Men in making their Prayers to God, was the occafion of thofe General Forms of Prayer among the Heathens. As we read that Socrates was wont to beg nothing of the Gods, but what they knew to be good for him. And it was the Cuftom of the Lacedemonians, both in their Publick and Private Prayers, to defire only good things in general, leaving the choice of them to God. And Socrates in Plato, com

* Ζεῦ βασιλευ, ταμὲν ἑθλὰ καὶ ευχομένοις και αινέυκτοις. Αμμι δίδυ, τα ἢ δεινὰ κι ευχομένοις απαλέξειν κελέψει. Plat. Alcib. 2.

mends

mends this as a good Form: O Jupiter King, give us what is beft for us, whether we ask it or no, and keep from us all evil things, even tho' we ask them. And this general way of Praying he commends as beft and fafelt, till fuch a one come as fhould teach Men how to behave themselves towards God and towards Men' which bleffed Time he feem'd to long for, and greatly defir'd to fee that Teacher. And this (by the way) may ferve as one Inftance of what Chrift himfelf told his Difciples, Matth. 13. 17. Verily I fay unto you, That many Prophets and Righteous Men have defir'd to fee thofe things which ye fee, and have not seen them and to bear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. But what was denied to him, is vouchfaf'd to us; and we are now taught plainly how to Pray, by that Divine Teacher himfelf, and therefore thould, (like him) be ready to hearken to his Inftructions.

Now this moft excellent Prayer confitts of Three General Parts.

I. The Preface.

2. The Petitions. And,

3. The Conclufion. Of each of thefe in their Order. And,

I. I fhall begin with the Preface or Invocation, in thefe Words, Our Father which art in Heaven. Wherein we are to confider three things.

1. The Title of Father.

2. Of our Father.

And,

3. Of Heavenly Father, or our Father which is in Heaven. And,

(1.) We are to confider this Title of Father, which being here used with refpect to us, is to be taken EfJentially, and not Perfonally (as in the Creed) but fo as to include all the Perfons in the Bleffed Trinity. In the Creed (as I have formerly fhewn) the word Father,

is

is to be understood with refpect to his Son Jefus Chrift, and not to us: But in this Prayer, we are to look upon God, not with refpect to the other Perfons in the Bleffed Trinity, but with refpect to our felves, and as he is our Father. Now God may be faid to be our Fa ther feveral ways.

1. He is our Father by Creation. And he is more particularly fet out to us in that Relation, than to any other of his Creatures: As Plato faid, that God was a Maker of other things, but a Father of Men. And the Latin Poet calls him, The Father and Preferver of all Mankind. But,

2. He is our Father by Adoption. Now the way of Adoption was found out for the Comfort of thofe who have no Children, that they might take other Men's Children and Adopt them as their own. But when God Adopts Believers as his Sons, it is not becaufe he had no other Son, for he had Chrift bis only Begotten Son, in whom he was well pleafed, Matth. 3. 17. But because he had as yet no Sons of Humane Race, for by Adam's Sin we were alienated from him, and become the Children of Wrath. Wherefore be fent his own Son into the World, made of a Woman, made under the Law, that we who were under the Law might receive the Adoption of Sons, Gal. 4.5;

3.

He is our Father by Regeneration. And fo we are faid to be Born again, or from above, as the word vwder fignifies, John 3.3. And in this refpect all the Als of an Earthly Father are by him perform'd to us, but in a Spiritual manner, and a far higher and more excellent degree. As (1.) His Begetting us anew to a lively Hope, by giving us his Spirit, the Principle of Spiritual Life. (2.) His Continuance of Affifting Grace,

* Gentis Humanæ Pater atque Cuftos. Hor.

tó

to preferve what he has Begotten. (3) His Preven ting, Exciting, and Illuminating Grace, as a kind of Education to our Souls. And (4) His providing an Inheritance for us in another World, not by the Death of the Father, but the Purchase of the Son, to be confered on us at our Death, which is, as it were the com ing out of our Nonage.

Now the former of thefe ways of God being our Father is common to all Mankind, but the two latter are peculiar to Believers, as we read, John 1. 12. That as many as received him, to them he gave Power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on bis

Name.

Now for the Use of this,

1. If in our Prayers we are to call God Father, it highly concerns every one of us, as much as in us lies, to fecure our Relation to him, and our Propriety in him, that we may be fure he is indeed our Father. *What is God to me, if he be not mine? What fignifies it to us that God is a Father to others, if he be not our Father? For none can Pray Effectually, and with Affurance to be heard, but fuch as are really the Children of God. But alas! 'tis greatly to be feared that many who daily ufe this Prayer, and call God Father, do but mifcal him all the while; fince there is but little appearance of any fuch Relation between them. Of whom we may fay, as Chrift did to the Jews, who boafted that God was their Father, John 8. 41. If God were your Father, then would ye love him and keep his Commandments; but he tells them,, v. 44. Te are of your Father the Devil, and the Lufts of your Father ye will do.

2. If we pretend that God is our Father, we ought to be very careful to behave our felves like his Chil

? Quid mihi Deus, fi non meus.

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