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 th te 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 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 [ô v rois gavois,] 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, végтara 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

that he is not shut up there, and regardless of things below, we learn in that same place; for he adds, His eyes behold, and His eye-lids try the children of men.

This is added, first, for distinction. As the Apostle, differencing Him from the fathers of our flesh, Heb. xii. 9. calls him, The Father of Spirits, so, here, to distinguish Him from earthly fathers, He is styled, Our Heavenly Father.

Observe. We cannot here know God according to what He is in Himself, and therefore He is described to our capacity, and to our profit, so as we are able, and as it most concerns us to know Him here; by His gracious relation to us as our Father, and by the excellency of His dwelling, as a sign of His greatness, that He is in Heaven; both which are extrinsical to his essence. But thus we may learn thus much, to worship and love Him as the best and the greatest, infinitely exceeding all that we can conceive of Him.

As it is for distinction, so, it is such a word of difference as is of excellent use.

1. To make the soul humble and reverend in approaching to God in prayer. If we consider it, shall we not be wary how we behave ourselves in the presence of so great a King? It is very strange, that our souls should not be possessed with the deepest lowliness and self-abasement in the sight of God; worms in the dust, before the Majesty that dwells in Heaven. This Solomon expresses: He is in heaven, and thou on earth, therefore let thy words be few. What is this we find in ourselves, that makes us so drunk with self-conceit, not only in converse one with another, but with God? Surely, we know Him not; at least, we consider not who He is, and where He dwells, and who we are, and where we dwell. Surely, it would lay us low, if, when we come before God, we would consider Him as the most glorious King, sitting on His throne, and compassed with glorious spirits, who offer Him spotless praises, and we ourselves coming before Him, as base frogs creeping out of our pond, where we dwell amidst the mire of sinful pollutions.

Thus, indeed, His highness should humble us in coming,

but it should not affright us from coming before Him; for though He is in Heaven, and we on earth, yet, He is our Father. Thus ought we to join these two, and to behold them jointly, that we may have that right posture of mind by them which suits with prayer-humble boldness.

There may be undue distrust, but there cannot be too much humility of spirit, in prayer. The more humble, the fitter to come to God; and He the more willing to come into the soul, and dwell in it. For that is the other house that He hath chosen. They seem very ill suited together: if the highest heavens be the Lord's one dwelling, it would seem fit that the other should be the richest palaces on earth, or stately-built temples. No, the other is such a one as we most despise, but God prefers before all other, even the most sumptuous building. Isa. lvii. 15. Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also, (A strange also!) that is of a broken and humble spirit. The highest heavens are the habitation of His glory, and the humble heart hath the next honour, to be the habitation of His grace.

2. As the word humbles the soul in God's sight, so, it elevates it to heaven where God dwells, and fixes it there in prayer. And this elevation is not contrary to humility: the soul that is laid lowest in itself, is most sublime in converse with God, Sublimiter humilis et humiliter sublimis. [CYPRIAN.] And thus ought our hearts to ascend in prayer, which, alas, we usually suffer to lag and draw the wing heavily on the earth. ·Unto Thee, O Lord, says the Psalmist, do I lift up my soul. Psal. xxv. 1. That is the right and natural motion of prayer. But there is another lifting up that our souls are better acquainted with, which is spoken of in the Psalm immediately foregoing, the lifting up of the soul unto vanity; and the more so lift up, the further off from God. O the vainness of our hearts! And how hard is it to establish them on Him who dwells on high! Even while we are speaking to Him, we suffer them to break loose and rove, and to entertain foolish