The Lord's Prayer

HAVING (through the good providence of God) gone over the chief Grounds and Fundamentals of Religion, and enlarged upon the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, I shall now at the close, speak something upon the Lords Prayer.

After this manner therefore pray ye, Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed, &c.

In this Scripture are two things observable.

I. The Introduction to the Prayer.

II. The Prayer it self, which consists of three parts.

2. Petitions

3. The Conclusion.

I. The Introduction to the Lords Prayer, sic orate vos, After this manner pray ye.] Our Lord Jesus in these words prescribed to his Disciples and us a directory for prayer. The Ten Commandments are the rule of our Life, the Creed is the summe of our Faith, and the Lords Prayer is the pattern of our Prayer: As God did prescribe Moses a pattern of the Tabernacle, Exod. 25.9. so Christ hath here prescribed us a pattern of Prayer. After this manner pray ye, &c. The meaning is, let this be the Rule and Model according to which ye frame your prayers; Ad hanc regulam preces nostras exigere necesse est. Not that we are tied to the words of the Lords-prayer: [Calvin.] Christ saith not after these words, pray ye, but after this manner; that is, let all your petitions agree and symbolize with the things contained in the Lords prayer; and indeed well may we make all our prayers consonant and agreeable to this prayer, it being a most exact prayer. Tertullian calls it breviarium totius Evangelii, a breviary and compendium of the Gospel: It is like an heap of massy gold. The exactness of this prayer appears, 1. In the Dignity of the Author: A piece of work hath commendation from the Artificer; and this prayer hath commendation from the Author; it is the Lords Prayer. As the Law Moral was written with the Finger of God, so this prayer was drop'd from the Lips of the Son of God. Non vox Hominem sonat, est Deus. 2. The exactness of this prayer appears in the excellency of the matter. I may say of this prayer, It is as silver tryed in a furnace, purified seven times; Psal. 12.6. Never was there prayer so admirably and curiously composed as this. As Solomons Song for its Excellency is called the Song of Songs; so may this well be called the prayer of prayers. The matter of it is admirable; 1. For its Succinctness, 'tis short and pithy, 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, multum in parvo, a great deal said in a few words. It requires more Art to draw the two Globes curiously in a little Map. This short Prayer is a System or Body of Divinity. 2. Its Clearness. This prayer is plain and intelligible to every capacity: Clearness is the grace of Speech. 3. Its Compleatness. This prayer contains in it the chief things that we have to ask, or God hath to bestow.

p. 425VSE. Let us have a great esteem of the Lords prayer; let it be the model and pattern of all our prayers: There is a double benefit ariseth from framing our petitions suitable to the Lords prayer. 1. Hereby Error in prayer is prevented: 'Tis not easie to write wrong Copy; we cannot easily err having our pattern before us. 2. Hereby Mercies requested are obtained; for the Apostle assures us God will hear us when we pray according to his Will, 1 Iohn 5.14. and sure we pray according to his Will, when we pray according to his pattern he hath set us. So much for the Introduction to the Lords prayer, After this manner pray ye.

II. The Prayer it self, which consists of three parts.

2. Petitions.

3. The Conclusion.

1. The Preface to the prayer: 1. Our Father, 2. Which art in Heaven. To begin with the first words of the Preface.

(1.) Our Father.] Father is sometimes taken personally; Iohn 14.28. My Father is greater than I: But Father in the Text is taken essentially for the whole Deity. This Title, Father, teacheth us to whom we must address our selves in prayer, to God alone. Here is no such thing in the Lords prayer, as, O ye Saints or Angels that are in Heaven hear us, but our Father which art in Heaven.

Quest. In what order must we direct our Prayers to God? Here is only the Father named, may not we direct our Prayers to the Son and Holy Ghost?

Answ. Though the Father only be named in the Lords prayer, yet the other two persons are not hereby excluded: The Father is mentioned because he is first in order, but the Son and Holy Ghost are included, because they are the same in Essence: As all the three persons subsist in one Godhead, so in our prayers, though we name but one ◊◊rson, we must pray to all. To come then more closely to the first words of the Preface, [Our Father]. Princes on Earth give themselves Titles expressing their Greatness, as High and Mighty: God might have done so, and expressed himself thus, Our King of Glory, Our Iudge, but he gives himself another Title, Our Father, an expression of Love and Condescension. God that he might encourage us to pray p. 426to him, represents himself under this sweet notion of a Father, Our Father. Dulce nomen Patris: The Name Iehovah carries Majesty in it; the Name Father carries Mercy in it.

p. 426Quest. 1. In what sense is God a Father?

Resp. 1. By Creation; it is he that hath made us; Acts 17.28. 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, we are his Off-spring, Mal. 2.10. Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God Created us? But there is little comfort in this; for so God is Father to the Devils by Creation, but he that made them will not save them.

2. God is a Father by Election, having chosen a certain number to be his Children, whom he will entail Heaven upon; Eph. 1.4. 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, He hath chosen us in him.