Posted by WEDNESDAY AFTER THE SECOND SUNDAY
ON THE LORD’S PRAYER
Consider first, that divine hope cannot lie idle in the soul, nor suffer her to be idle, but exercises the soul in prayer, as the great means of obtaining all the good she hopes for. Now all the good that we are to hope and pray for is marked out to us by our Lord, and comprised in a very few words, in that excellent prayer which he has taught us, commonly called The Lord’s Prayer. Here, in seven short petitions, we pray for all that we are any ways authorized by the word of God to hope for, for ourselves or for our neighbours, for body or soul, for time or eternity. Here we are taught to make acts of all the most necessary virtues of faith, hope, love of God, conformity to his blessed will, charity for our neighbours, forgiveness of injuries, and repentance for our sins. Here we daily make a spiritual communion by aspiring after the bread of life. O the excellence of this heavenly prayer; so short in words, that the meanest capacity may easily learn it, and so copious in its contents, that they might fill whole volumes! And what a pity that the generality of Christians should run over this admirable prayer with so little sense of what they are saying, and with dispositions so opposite to the import of those sacred petitions!
Consider 2ndly, that in the beginning of this divine prayer we call God our Father; and we are authorized to call him so by the Son of God himself. Stand astonished, my soul, at this high favour: what greater dignity can any creature be raised to, than to be called and to be a child of God? to have him for our Father, who made heaven and earth, and who fills heaven and earth with his infinite majesty? O my soul, see thou never degenerate from this dignity of a child of God, by behaving thyself worthily of such a Father. See thou never more make thyself a slave to sin or Satan: O child of heaven, lie no longer grovelling in the mire of the earth. In this prayer we are taught to address ourselves to our Father, ‘who is in heaven,’ to the end, that we may reflect whither we are to direct our thoughts when we pray, and that we may not suffer any attachment to the things of the earth, by love and affection, to hinder them from freely flying up to heaven. My soul, where are thy thoughts in the time of prayer? Do nor irregular affections chain them down to the earth, when they ought to be in heaven?
Consider 3rdly, what encouragement it ought to be to a Christian when he goes to his prayers, to remember that he is presenting his petitions to ‘his Father:’ and to such a Father, who has an incomparable love for his children; who encourages them to ask; who teaches them in this excellent prayer what they are to ask for; who has frequently promised to grant them what they ask, provided it be good for them; and whose power, riches, bounty, and mercy, are all equally infinite. O! let this title of ‘our Father,’ which we give to God in the Lord’s prayer, raise our hopes in him; let it inflame our hearts with love for so amiable a Father; let it bespeak a reverential awe, a filial fear of offending such a parent, and an earnest desire of being ever a dutiful and obedient child.
Conclude ever to esteem and love this divine prayer; and daily to use it with a serious attention and suitable devotion.