number of them shall have their perfect consummation and bliss in the glorification both of soul and body, after the general resurrection.

III. In the next place, we must inquire what it is we pray for, when we say, " Thy kingdom come." I answer, there are various things contained in this petition.

1. We pray that God would be pleased to plant his church where it is not, according to his promise, giving all the nations of the world to his Son for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. We pray that the dark places and corners of the earth, which are yet the habitations of cruelty, may be visited with the glorious light of the gospel shining into them; that God would reveal his Son to those poor wretched people that sit in darkness, and in the region of the shadow of death, and would rescue them from their blind superstitions and idolatries, and from the power of the devil, who strongly works in the children of disobedience, and would translate them into the kingdom of his dear Son; especially that he would remove the veil from the hearts of the Jews, upon whom a sad judicial hardness hath long lain, that they at length may be brought into the unity and fulness of Christ's body. We pray that all the world, both Jews and Gentiles, may be gathered into one sheepfold under Jesus Christ the great Pastor and Shepherd of souls; so that as God is one, so his name and service may be one, throughout all the earth. And thus we pray that Christ's kingdom may come in respect of the means of grace and salvation.

2. This petition, "Thy kingdom come," intimates our earnest desire that the church of Christ, where it is planted, may be increased in the

members of the faithful; that those who are as yet enemies to the name and profession of Christ may be brought into the visible church; and that those in it, who are yet strangers to a powerful work of grace, may, by the effectual operation of the Holy Ghost, be brought in to be members of the invisible church. And thus we pray that God's kingdom may come, in respect of the efficacy of the means of grace.

3. We pray that all the church of Christ throughout the world may be kept from ruin; that they may not be overrun with superstition or idolatry; that God would not in his wrath remove his candlestick from them, as he hath, in his righteous judgment, done from other churches which were once glorious and splendid. We pray likewise that God would make up all breaches, and compose all differences, and silence all controversies, and cut off all those who trouble the peace, and rend the unity of the church, breaking it into factions and schisms, which are the most fatal symptoms and portenders of God's withdrawing himself, and carrying away his gospel, and giving it to another people, who will better bring forth the fruits of it, which are peace, meekness, and love. And if in anything Christians be diversely minded, that God would be pleased to reveal it unto them; and that whereunto they have attained, they may walk by the same rule, and mind the same things. And thus we pray that Christ's kingdom may come in respect of its perfection and

entireness.

4. It intimates our humble request to God that his ordinances may be purely and powerfully dispensed. Hence, as I noted before, the word is called "the word

of the kingdom," Matt. xiii 19; that is, the word whereby we are brought into the kingdom of Christ here on earth, and fitted for his triumphant kingdom in heaven it is the means of our new birth, the seed of our spiritual life. And as a kingdom cannot be well established or governed without good laws, so for the government of his kingdom Christ hath established laws, which are contained in the records of the Holy Scriptures: and as his word is his law, so his sacraments are the seals of his kingdom; for to every believing partaker God doth under his seal confirm the grant of heaven and eternal salvation. And therefore in this petition we pray also that God would give his church able ministers of the new testament, who know how rightly to divide the word of truth, and to give every one his portion in due season. Likewise, that he would be pleased to accompany the outward administration of his ordinances with the inward operations of his Spirit, which alone can make them effectual to turn men from darkness to light, and to bring them from the power of Satan unto God; that the whole number of God's elect may in his due time be brought in by the means which he hath appointed and sanctified for their conversion and salvation.

These are the principal things which we beg of God for the church militant, when we say, "Thy kingdom come," namely, that it may attain a perfection of extent, and be planted where it is not, to a perfection of number; and may gain more proselytes and converts, where it is planted, to a perfection of establishment, which may not be rooted out by the violence of men, nor abandoned through the judgment of God. And to a perfection of purity and holiness,

by the powerful dispensation of gospel ordinances, attended by the efficacious concurrence of the Holy Spirit.

This petition likewise respects the church triumphant in heaven: nor is this praying for the dead, a thing justly condemned as superstitious and foolish; for we pray not for them to alter their state, which is impious and ridiculous, and a foppish consequent upon the figment of purgatory, but we pray for the church triumphant only in general, that those things which are as yet defective in it may be supplied; for certainly wheresoever there is any kind of imperfection we have ground to pray for the removal of it, especially when God hath encouraged us to it by promise that he will remove it; and therefore, 1. We may well pray that the whole body mystical of Jesus Christ, and every member of it, may be brought to the full fruition of heaven and happiness, that daily more may be admitted into the heavenly fellowship, till their numbers as well as their joys be consummate. 2. We may pray that the bodies of all the saints that have slept in their beds of earth from the beginning of the world may be raised again out of the dust, and united to their souls, and for ever made glorious in the kingdom of heaven; for both these things are absolutely promised, the one, that those whom God hath called and justified, he will likewise glorify, Rom. viii. 29, 30. And the other is, The dead in Christ shall arise, 1 Thess. iv. 16. And certainly whatsoever may be the object of our faith and hope, may be the subject of our prayers. And this every true Christian longs and breathes after, that these days of sin and misery may be shortened, that Christ would come in his glory, that his mediatorial kingdom being fulfilled, it might be

delivered up unto the Father; and that we all might be one, as the Father is in him, and he in the Father. "Even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly."

The Third Petition.

"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." This petition now follows upon the former in a most rational and admirable method; for as before we pray that the kingdom of God might come, as the best adapted means to hallow his name; so now we pray that his will may be done by us, as the clearest declaration that we are the subjects of his kingdom. Let us notice,

I. The petition itself, "Thy will be done in earth."

II. The measure and proportion of it, “As it is in heaven."

I. I shall begin with the petition, in which every word carries great weight and moment, and therefore in the explication of it I shall show you, briefly,

1. What this will of God is.

2. How his will may be said to be done.

3. What force this particle, "thy," "thy will," carries in it, and what it denotes.

4. What is meant by God's will being done in earth.

1. What this will of God is. Now the will of God is commonly and very properly distinguished into the will of his purpose, and into the will of his precept, his decrees, or his commands. The former respects what shall be done by Him, the latter what ought to be done by us: both these in Scripture are frequently called the will of God.