Prayer which the good Chriftian will regulate all his devotions by, and which he will never omit to make a part of them.

Thus much obferved in general, I shall make it my business to set 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 respects God is faid 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 fay our, and not, my Father.

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

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

One of the refpects 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 of dew declare their having been begotten by him; but in a more eminent and exalted fenfe he is the Father of Man, having created him after his own image,

image; whence Adam is called the Son of God, and Man may more especially fay with the Prophet, Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?

Prefervation is another reason for our calling God Father, and the continuation of our existence a perpetual obligation on us to make ufe of that name. If the first giving of being is a proper foundation of Paternity, the preservation of that Being, which is not improperly ftiled a Continued Creation, must be a foundation of Paternity likewife; fo that God, who is our Father in right of having graciously created us, is ftill farther fo, in right of having no less graciously preserved us,

Redemption is another reafon for our calling God Father. The difobedience of our first parents brought themselves and their posterity into so miserable an estate, their nature was fo corrupted, their understanding fo darkened, and their will for perverse, that it was impoffible for them

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to fulfill the law of nature, and without fulfilling it, it was absolutely certain, that they must fall into condemnation. In this deplorable condition, the mercy of God regarded us; he made a covenant with his only begotten Son, that he should come into the world, and die for mankind, and, upon the merit of that, cancel the handwriting of the law, which bore fo hard upon us; that he should afford us easier conditions, greater affistances, and more glorious promises, that he should deprive Sin of her strength, swallow up Death in Victory, and lead Captivity captive; that he should redeem us from the claim of Hell, and reinstate us in our title to the joys of Heaven. For this reason therefore it is alfo, that we confess the Paternity of God, that we joyfully look upon our Creator and Preferver as amiably cloathed with the mercies of a Redeemer, and as thereby acquiring a fresh title to the name of Father, in that he hath begotten us from the death of Sin, unto the life of Righteousness.

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Regeneration is another reason for our calling God Father. In refpect of Creation, and Preservation, all things in general may call upon God by this name; in refpect of those many excellent endowments by which human nature is exalted above the inferior parts of the creation, and in which she bears the image of God, the whole race of men may with equal propriety make use of this appellation; and the Paternity arising from Redemption is as univerfal as the Satisfaction of Chrift, who died for all men; but in respect of Regeneration, no one can call God Father, who is not actually entered into the Gospel Covenant, and become a member of Jefus Christ, who hath not been sprinkled with the laver of Regeneration, and fanctified by the Holy Ghoft; whofoever believeth that Jefus is the Chrift, is born of God. If we confider indeed the wonderful alteration which is made in us by the gracious operations of God's holy Spirit in our Regeneration, how thoroughly we are purified when baptized with the Holy Ghoft

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