to pray.

fay, Our Father, but in the Lord's Prayer; where he speaks not his own words, but thofe of the multitude, which he there teaches Wherefoever he mentions God befides, he calls him my Father, or your heavenly Father; fhewing by this distinction that he only in a true fenfe is the Son of God, and thereby of the fame divine nature with his Father. The Jews (whatsoever fome Christians may now think) fo understood the expreffion, that by calling God Father, he John v, made himself equal with God. Our Saviour 18. himself therefore to diftinguish his own natural fonship from our adoptive one, tells his difciples, I go to to my Father and your Fa- John xx. ther, and to my God and your God. The privileges of Christianity should not leffen that dignity the Son of God hath by nature; and we should not think him leffen'd, but our felves advanc'd by this common appellation. He indeed by nature, but we only by his grace and redemption, call God Father; and as when we ftile our felves fons, we mean no more than the privileges of Christianity, fo when we ftile him fo, we fhould mean no less than that he is one with his Father, and by that, as the Apostle ex- Rom. ix. preffeth it, over all, God blessed for ever.

But

17.

5.

I.

But to proceed, the redemption by our Saviour is the only reason of this expreffion 1 John iii. in the Lord's Prayer: Behold what manner of love the Father bath beftow'd upon us, that we should be call'd the fons of God. This expreffion in the Lord's Prayer feem'd to the antient Church fo much to exceed the merit and dignity of human nature, that they generally fet a modeft preface before it in their Liturgies, fbefeeching God to fuffer them to ufe that familiar name, by which he is there pleas'd to be call'd, with truth and innocence. The New Testament generally useth the word adoption, in making us the fons of God; and the rights of adoption by the Roman law, may ferve to explain the Christian sense of it. In the first place no one could have any legal claim to be adopted, but he depended for it upon the free motion of another; but then after he was fo adopted he was entitled to a fhare in the inheritance, and to call the perfon fo adopting him, Father. Now this is

* Καταξίωσον ἡμᾶς, δέσποτα, μετὰ παῤῥησίας ἀκατακρίτως τολ. μὲν ἐπικαλέσαι σε τὸν ἐπεράνιον Θεὸν πατέρα, καὶ λέγειν, Πάτες v, &c. Chryfoftomi Liturgia. Which office is to this day continu'd in the Greek Church. Something like this bath been us'd in the Western Church for many ages: Præceptis falutaribus moniti & divinâ inftitutione formati, audemus dicere, Pater nofter, &c. Card. Bona de rebus Liturg.

a just

a just representation, as far as temporal things can be of fpiritual, of our redemption, and the rights of it. By our Saviour's Merits, not any claim of our own, we are affur'd of an inheritance with the faints in light; and this right of inheritance, as in the cafe of adopted fons by the Roman law, empowers us to call God Father.

St. Paul feems to ground his expreffion upon the customs of the Empire which then prevailed, when he tells the Romans, Te have received the Spirit of adoption, where- Chap.viii. by we cry, Abba, Father. And he repeats

*.15.

very near the fame words to the Galatians, when the fulness of time came, God fent his Ch. iv. Son, that we might receive the adoption: . 6. But because ye are fons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father; fo that thou art no more a Servant, but a fon; and if a fon, then an heir of God through Christ.

Our condition by grace is fo different from that by nature, that what we were before baptifm, in the Gospel account ftands for nothing. This new relation to God by Christianity is the reason why the members of it are faid to be regenerate, to be new born, and new men. The Chriftian by baptism is as it were tranflated into another family;

and

and from the different relation in which he stands from that time, is with some propriety of speech call'd for that reason a new man. This then is the Gospel fenfe, in which we call God Father in the Lord's Prayer; namely, because we are treated by him as fons, and in that capacity affur'd of a better hope in reverfion.

Tho' every instance of his common care over all his creatures deferves much thankfulness, yet his peculiar bounty to Chriftians should be more especially both remember'd and valu’d.

He doth not blefs men with existence, and as foon as that is given, with repenting churlishness resume it; but they by his mercy in Christ Jefus exchange this deceitfulness of human breath, this infancy of life, for a better and more enduring fubftance. They by the comfort of the Gofpel fee not beyond the grave a dreadful profpect of infenfible nothing, but by the eye of faith can already discover thofe prepar'd manfions of everlasting joy, into which they are to be receiv'd, when this corruptible Jhall put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality. That death, which is by nature the punishment of the fin and the terror of the finner, is, by the example of Chrift the first fruits from the dead, made the comfort and reward of virtue. Bleffed

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 1Pet.i. ji Fefus Chrift, who according to his great mercy hath begot us again to a living hope, by the refurrection of Fefas Chrift from the dead. The resurrection to life eternal as it is the highest privilege of human nature, and the trueft support of unrewarded virtue, fő it is the gift of God in Chrift Jefus. He doth not, like an indifcreet Father, fo difproportion his mercy as to preferve his children tenderly during a fhort life, and to forget them when that life is over; but his equal and extensive goodness never deferts them; it fupports and comforts them in this world, and makes them eternally happy with himself in the hext.

This then is the fenfe in which every one must be suppos'd to call God Father in this Prayer; first in the capacity of men profef fing him to be the giver of life, breath, and all things; and then in quality of Chriftians owning him the author of eternal life by the redemption. He that calls God Father, faith St. Chryfoftom &, in doing so owns the remiffion of his fins, his adoption, his near relation to Chrift; and the hope of a future refurrection.

• Chryfoftom, in locum.

The