is therefore preferable to the empty titles that deluded mortals purfue with greediness, and enjoy with diffatisfaction: in fhort, that as to call God Father is the greatest privilege of a creature, fo to do it with faith and fuitable reverence is the highest attainment of a Christian.

Ο

MATT. VI. 9.

Hallowed be thy Name.

UR Saviour having encourag'd his followers to call God their Father, now goes on to direct them in those

reasonable defires which may best approve them to be his children. He gives them in this relation to their heavenly Father the best encouragement to ask, and then fets

forth

forth the measure and standard of what they must ask for. He more efpecially strengthens their hope, that they pray according to God's will, and that this excellent form contains fuch defires as are fit for reasonable creatures to offer up, and for a Being of infinite purity

to hear.

It would not fuit the Majesty of God to fhew an indifcrect indulgence to his fervants, and to fuffer his bounty to be directed by their childish petitions. This undistinguishing fondness would be cruel in its effects, and instead of proving God to be more their Father, would prove him to be lefs fo. Human will would be a dangerous guide to Prayer; and nothing could be more miferable than our felves, if every fecret defire were granted without diftinction. It is then with great comfort that a Chriftian can use this form which the Son of God hath taught; when he thus prays, he speaks the words of eternal Wisdom, and may come more boldly with them to the throne of Grace, fince he is well affur'd that he neither prays amifs, nor in

vain.

This Prayer confifts of two parts; the former of which containing three petitions relates to Christian perfection; the other, to thofe methods by which that perfection is to

be

be obtain❜d. The one part represents the end, and the other the means of Religion; fince the glory of God's name, the advancement of his kingdom, and the full performance of his will, are only to be brought about by that pardon of fins, and that supply of our wants, which are ask'd for in the progress of this Prayer. I fhall however treat of these three former petitions distinctly, because tho' they all equally mean in confequence the fame thing, yet as they are differently expreft, they fet our duty in different, and probably more advantageous, lights.

Now in this petition that God's Name may be hallowed, two things are to be confidered.

First, What it is that we pray for.

Secondly, What thofe practical ufes are that arife from thus praying.

First, I fhall confider what we desire in praying that God's Name may be hallowed.

The word holiness fignifies in general a separation of things or perfons from common ufe, and is for that reafon in this large fenfe attributed promifcuoufly to God and his creatures. The fcriptures apply the word without distinction to God and to men. Thou, Pf. Ixxvii. O Lord, art holy; who is fo great a God as 13. our God? Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Ifai. vi. 3. Hofts.

1 Pet. i. Hofts. Be ye holy, for I am holy. Without Heb. xii. holiness no man fhall fee the Lord.

16.

14.

However holiness is attributed in a very different manner to God; it is in him the effential rectitude of his Nature, that is always unchangeably the fame; whereas it is in creatures only relative, and is therefore more or lefs, according to the changeable state of their wills. From this double fense of holiness there arifeth also a double sense of fanctification, which as it is apply'd to men, fignifies to purge and cleanse them from the drofs of nature, and to give them that purity which they had not before. But when this fanctifica⚫tion is apply'd to God (as it is in this place) it means only to confess and attribute to him that tranfcendent holiness, which he hath independently of our worship and praises, and to wish that all mankind may be sensible of it. To hallow or to fanctify God, fuppofes a thorough fenfe of his excellencies, and a readiness to exprefs it with becoming refpect and reverence.

a Cùm dicimus fanctificetur nomen tuum, nos ipfos admonemus defiderare ut nomen ejus quod femper fanctum eft, apud homines fanctum habeatur, hoc eft non contemnatur; quod non Deo fed hominibus prodeft. Aug. Ep. Tò zS άγια ήτω ἀντὶ τὰ δοξασθήτω λέγεται. Chryf. Hom. t. 5.

This fanctification is here apply'd to God's name, which according to the Eastern style meant the fame with his perfon. Names were among the Jews prophetically expreffive of the condition and behaviour of those to whom they were given; for this reason, as to praise and glorify any ones name is an expreffion peculiar to the facred language, fo it means the acknowledgment of that distinguishing character that is expreft by that name. They hall give thanks to thy name, Pf. xlix.3. that is great, wonderful, and holy. Meaning to thee, or thy perfon. This cuftom is the more reasonable in relation to God, because little more is known perfectly of that infinite incomprehenfible Being but the name; and for this reafon the Jews call him (w) the Name, by way of eminency.

But to proceed, God's name is ever us'd in Scripture in the fingular number, according to that of the Prophet; The Lord shall be Zach. xiv. one, and his Name one. The other words 9.

be ap

that exprefs power and authority, are not fo peculiar to him; but that they may ply'd to Magistrates and Judges, who are the Exod.xxi. 6. patterns of his power, tho' not of his exxxii. 8, 9. istence. But there is one incommunicable Pf. lxxxii. name Jehovah, which in the original of it expresseth that eternal and necessary existence,

that

I, 6.