memory may retain it; fo full and comprehenfive, that all our wants may very properly be reduced within the compass of it; in a word, it is of fuch intrinfick worth, that unbelievers must admire, though none but Chriftians can worthily repeat it.

Our church hath fhewn that deference to this Prayer, that fhe hath inferted it in every diftinct office of the whole Liturgy, rightly judging, that it would diffuse a brightness around it, and atone for the imperfections of thofe fervices amongst which it was placed; fenfible that there must be imperfections in all human compofitions (though, vanity apart, our Liturgy is as perfect a work as humanity must ever hope to reach) fhe endeavours, by the frequent repetition of this Prayer, where all is perfect, all is worthy of the great author, to make up for her own defects; and pro

vidently confidering how unfettled the mind of man is, how perpetually roving from one idea to another, even during the time of prayer, fhe hath wifely contrived to recall and fix his wandering thoughts, which the chains of human eloquence are too weak to bind, by frequently calling upon him to join in the repetition of that Prayer, which, if we had not the word of God for it, would of itself proclaim its divine original.

The fame regard which the church pays to this prayer in her publick services, doth it become every pious Chriftian to pay to it in his private devotions. Though, the foul pouring out herself before her Maker in fecret, is left at greater liberty than in the great congregation, and is not bound by fet forms of human compofition, yet even there fhe is not freed from this form,

and

and if the hath any true judgment of the real value of things, will not defire to be. Man, retired from the world, may take a greater fcope, more explicitly dwell upon his wants, and acknowledge his fins; but, after all, he will find them here fummed up and epitomized in fuch a manner, and in fuch words, as will put the higheft eloquence of man to the blush.

As the good man will always use this Prayer, becaufe Chrift hath commanded it, "fo the wife man will use it, because he can find none that is comparable with it; it is the only Prayer which many, and the best which all can repeat; it is, in a word, that Prayer which the good Chriftian will regulate all his devotions by, and which he will never omit to make a part of them.

Thus

make it

Thus much observed in general, I fhall my bufinefs to fet before you, in as plain and practical a manner as poffible, the true purport of each part of this divine Prayer, to mention the proper affections, and enforce the refpective duties which ought to accompany our repetition, of it, beginning with Our Father which art in Heaven. In my confideration of which words I fhall fhew,

First, In what refpects God is said to be Our Father.

Secondly, Why we are taught in our Prayers to make use of the name of Father, rather than any other.

Thirdly, Why we are inftructed to say

our, and not my Father.

Fourthly,

Fourthly, In what refpect God is faid to be in Heaven.

Fifthly and laftly, Why we are taught to make a particular mention of God's refidence in Heaven, in our Prayers.

One of the respects in which God is faid to be our Father, is Creation. This is a language ufual even with Heathen writers, who acknowledging God to be the Maker of the world, do frequently ftile him the Father of it; fuppofing the act of Creation to be equivalent to that of generation, and that we are as much the children of him who created us in general, as of that individual person who begat us in particular. In this refpect, God is the Father of all things, and the generations of the Heaven and the Earth, confefs his Paternity; the rain claims him for a Father, and the

drops