THE

THIRD PETITION

EXPLAINED.

XLIX. LORD'S DAY.

Mat. vi. 10. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

Q. 124. Which is the third petition ?

A. "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven;" that is, grant that we and all men may renounce our own will, and without murmuring obey thy will, which is the only good; that so every one may attend to, and perform the duties of his station and calling as willingly and faithfully, as the angels do in heaven.

WHERE the word of a king is, there is power; and who

may say unto him, What dost thou?" thus speaks the wisest of kings, Eccl. viii. 4. The supreme authority, and sovereign dominion of kings is manifested in their giving of their word and laws to their subjects, who must submit to the laws of the king, without murmuring, and obey the king agreeably to them. If we deprive the king of his power to enact laws, we deny him, and divest him

of his kingly authority: "When every man in Israel did what was right in his own eyes, then there was no king in Israel," Judges xvii. 6.

"The Lord is a great God, and a king above all gods," Psalm Xcv. 3. And therefore he also is "the only Lawgiver, who can save and destroy," James iv. 12. All the creatures are under his control, and he hath power to govern them according to his will and his laws: "His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth : and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What dost thou ?” Thus the great "Nebuchadnezzar praised him who liveth for ever," Dan. iv. 34, 35. He hath as king of the whole earth, given the law of nature to all his irrational and inanimate creatures, which they also obey: "Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants," as David speaks to the Lord, Psalm cxix 90, 91. But as king of his rational creatures, he hath given them particularly his "royal law," that he may cause them to "love him and their neighbour," James ii. 8. But as he is especially the king of his children in the kingdom of grace, therefore he gives them the most righteous laws and statutes, which they, as his freemade subjects, are bound to observe, and they glory that "the Lord is their Judge, their Lawgiver, and King, who will save them," Isaiah xxxii. 22. And they are also ready and "exceedingly willing" to do his will, as it is foretold of them, Psalm cx. 3. Yea, they pray that their King would enable them and others to do it, when they pray, "Thy will be done," &c.

The Lord Jesus had commanded believers to pray that the name of God might be hallowed, and for this end also that his kingdom might come. In order now to promote the coming of his kingdom, he requires that they should pray in the third petition that they, and all the inhabitants of the earth may do the will of the Lord, as those who are in heaven do it.

In this petition we must inquire,

1. What the will of God is.

II. How it is done in earth, after the example of those who are in

heaven.

III. What we desire with this petition, and

IV. Why we must pray thus.

I. The will of God, and particularly the will of the Father, the King, is the love which he beareth to himself, and to his glory, and for which he doth, according to his sovereignty, appoint and command wha'soever he pleaseth. "Our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he pleased," Psalm cxv. 3. It is distinguished into the will of his decree and of his command. The will of the decree is God's eternal counsel and purpose, whereby, before the foundation of the world, he decreed and resolved with and in himself what he would do and permit in time. "He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." saith the apostle, Iph. i. 2. The will of the command is that which God hath expressed in his commands, by which he declares what he will have his reasonable creatures do and forbear: This is the will of God, even your sanctification," saith Paul, 1 Thess iv. 3. We must nevertheless not understand this so, as if there were a twofold will, or a twofold operation of the will, the one distinct from the other, in God; for God, being simple, or uncompounded, there cannot be any diversity in him; and therefore there is but one simple will in him, yea, his will is the willin, God himself. But as we are not simple, and cannot comprehend God with one single act of our understanding, and as God's simple will is exercised about a twofold object, decreeing one thing, and commanding another, therefore we distinguish in this manner between the will of the decree, and the will of the command. Let none imagine that the will of the decree militates against the will of the command; for God hath also decreed what he would command. God commands Abraham, in order to try him, to offer up his son isaac, and he had decreed that he should not offer him up. This, we would say, militates. It appears so: it militates also to offer and not to offer; but the will of the decree, that he should not offer, doth not therefore militate against the will of the command, that he should offer, as they would, if God himself would effect the will of the command, as he effects the will of the decree, and if he had not also willed and resolved by his decree, that he would command him to offer his son, and nevertheless would hinder him from doing it. But God decreed that Abraham should not offer up his son, and that he would nevertheless command him to do it, not that it should be done, but that he might prove him; and he resolved withal that he would hinder him from doing it and so the will of the command is subordinate to the will of the decree Now we know that things which are contrary to one another do indeed militate against each other, but not things that are subordinate to one another: and we

do not distinguish the will of God thus without reason: for the word of God affords us examples of such a distinction, as we have seen from Eph. i. 11. 1 Thess. iv. 3, and because the will of the decree is not the rule of our conduct, since it is unknown to us, but the will of the command, which God hath prescribed to us. We shall other wise destroy all difference between virtue and vice, as appears sufficiently in the example of the Antinomians, or adversaries of the law; for though they commit ever so many sins, they will not repent of them, but imagine that they must acquiesce in the will of God, who hath decreed them. And this issues at last in a total denial of a Godhead, and of our obligation to the law, which is given

to us.

II. With respect to the will of God, we must pray that it may be done in earth, as it is in heaven." The will of God is done by God himself, or by his children and the subjects of his kingdom. God himself doth not do the will of his command, except so far, that he gives his Spirit to men, in order that they may do it; but he doth the will of his decree, which is the plan that he hath devised, according to which he doth powerfully and unchangeably effect all things: "He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," saith Paul, Eph. i. 11. He saith himself, Isaiah xlvi. 10. "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure."

As God the Lord doth the will of his decree, and not the will of his command, so the children of God do the will of his command, and not so much the will of his decree: for the command of God, and not his decree, is the only rule of their actions. It is true, they must submit to the calamitous evils, which he inflicteth upon them by his providence, according to his decree, as Jesus, and the church at Cesarea did, Luke xxii. 42. Acts xxi. 14. And they must entreat God by their prayers to bestow his decreed blessings, with Daniel, Dan ix. 2, 3. Yea, they ought with Isaiah to proffer themselves, as instruments, to execute the decree of God, that they may serve his counsel, Isaiah vi. 8-10. But this is not doing the will of the decree, but the will of the command, which enjoins on us to do thus; for the decree of God doth not bind and oblige man, but his command which he hath given to him. God had decreed and promised, that he would show great favour to his people, and he commanded them to pray for that favour, which he had decreed and promised, in order that his decree and promise might be fulfilled; Ezek. xxxvi, 36, 37. And it behooved them to do thus, not the will of the decree, but the will of the command. Thus the instructor also explains this petition, when he saith that the will of God is done

by obeying it, which therefore respects a command and injunction that is obeyed.

us.

The will of the command requires that we should believe all that God reveals, do all that be commands, abstain from all that he forbids, and endure patiently all the calamitous evils that he inflicts on Which we perform in truth, and in such a manner as is acceptable to the Lord, when (a) “We renounce our own will." Though our will be ever so right and good, if it nevertheless oppose the will of our Father, we must then submit our own will to his will, yeas we must not will any thing, though ever so good and necessary, and must have no will but God's, and we must lose our will in his. So the Saviour acted with his own will, though it was perfectly holy, "saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me : nevertheless not my will, but thine be done," Luke xxii. 42. We ought more especially to renounce our will on account of God's will, which is only good, because our will is evil and perverse through sin, and “a will of the flesh and mind," Eph. ii. 3, and also " enmity against God," Rom. viii. 7. If we shall do the will of God, we must then renounce our own will, forsake and mortify it, and thus cut off our hand and foot, and pluck out our eye," Mark ix. 43-48, for "it is impossible to serve two masters," the will of God, and our own will, Matt. vi. 44. (b) We do the will of God by surrendering ourselves to him, and becoming servants of him and of his will, that we may do his will only: "We join ourselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to be his servants," Isaiah Ivi. 6. We proffer our selves to him for this end with Samuel, and with the Messiah, 1 Sam. iii. 10 Psalm xl. 7, 8, and we give ourselves to the Lord, as those who were delegated by the great ecclesiastical council of Jerusalem, Acts xv. 26, and as those of Macedonia, "first gave themselves by the will of God to the Lord," and afterwards to those who collected their alms, 2 Cor. viii. 4. (c) To doing the will of God belongs also doing his commands in obedience to him. It is not enough to forsake the evil, which is forbidden, and to perform the good that is commanded; but this must be done in obedience to God, and because it is his will: "Servants must be obedient to them that are their masters: but not with eyeservice, as menpleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart," Eph vi. 5-7.

If we shall do the will of God in a manner that is acceptable to him, we must do it as those who are in heaven. In the address of the Lord's prayer we read of heavens in the plural, but here only of

This is agreeable to the Dutch translation.