2. This furnishes them with an argument, with which they urge and move him vehemently to grant their requests, The church praying under grievous distress in a plaintive manner, urgeth her petition thus, Isaiah Ixiii. 16, "Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer is thy name from everlasting." The Lord is so well pleased with their calling him their Father when they cry to him, that he suffers himself to be overcome by it, so that he is induced to show kindness to his people, which he can otherwise scarcely do, on account of their sins. Hear what the Lord himself saith of it, Jer. iii. 19, "I said how long shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the host of nations? and I said, thou shalt call me my Father, and shalt not turn away from me.”

3. When believers address God, as their Father, it excites a childlike trust and confidence in them toward God, that their prayer is acceptable to him, and that he will grant their petition. Is he become their Father in Christ, and will he then refuse them that which is less?" He who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?" saith Paul, Rom. viii. 32. When a man hears his child cry to him in distress, my father, help me, will not his bowels yearn over him, and will he not give his child what he desires? May and ought not then the consideration, that God is a Father, and that he will be addressed as such, induce believers to "confide in the very beginning of their prayers, that God will grant them their petition?" The Saviour teacheth this, Matt. vii. 9-11. "What man is there of you, whom, if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”

4. It will tend no less to excite also a childlike fear and reverence in believers, that they contemplate and address him as their Father. We must "fear our father and mother," according to the law; Lev. xix. 3. Much more then God the Father, who is higher than the highest. "A son," saith the Lord, Mal. i. 6, "honoureth his father, and a servant his master; if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear?" To contemplate God as a Lord and Judge may affect a person with a slavish fear, which will drive him from the Lord: but to address him as a Father, will excite indeed a dread for God in the believer, but it will be attended with a childlike affection, that will lead him te

the Lord. Therefore Peter saith, "If ye call on him as a Father * who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear," 1 Pet. i. 17.

II. How often doth familiarity beget contempt! As children converse most familiarly with their parents, they are not always impressed with a suitable reverence for them. The Lord Jesus, desiring to excite a becoming awe for the Father in his disciples, teachet them to pray, Our Father, "which art in heaven." In the third petition only one heaven is mentioned, but here more than one.t The air is the first heaven, in which the birds fly, which are therefore called the fowls of heaven," Matt. vi. 26. xiii. 20. The firmament, in which the sun, moon and stars shine, is also called heaven. David considered the heaven, the work of God's fingers, the moon and the stars." Psalm viii. 3. We read finally of the Paradise of God, which is called "the third heaven, and the heaven of heavens," 2 Cor. xu. 2 4. 1 Kings viii. 27.

Whoever will address God must consider him as in heaven: he is therefore often called the heavenly Father. We explain and prove upon other occasions, that the Lord God is omnipresent, neither included nor excluded any where; and it is therefore also certain, that God is not shut up in the heavens, nor confined to them: "Behold the heavens, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee," saith Solomon, 1 Kings viii. 27. But he is said to be in the heavens, (1) Because he manifests his glory and majesty in the heavens, more than elsewhere; for he is there, as in his palace, and upon his throne: "The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all," saith David, Psalm ciii. 10. Who can behold the visible heavens, the first and the second heaven, with all that appears in them, without being ravished at the sight, and crying out with David, Psalm civ. 1-3, "Bless the Lord, O my soul: O Lord my God, thou art very great, thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light, as with a garment who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind." And he manifests his glory still more in the third heaven, where he is encircled, attended upon and glorified by his courtiers, even all the blessed, and especially his angels, as Micaiah and Isaiah saw him thus in a vision," sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him, on his right hand and on his left, ready to serve • This is agreeable to the Dutch translation. According to the Dutch translation

him, and proclaiming his glory with a loud voice," 1 Kings xxii. 19. Isaiah vi. 1-3. For "the Lord is there in his holy palace, and his throne is in heaven," as David speaks, Psalm xi. 4. And therefore God hath "a heavenly majesty," as the instructor speaks. (2) God is also in the heavens, as in his treasury, from which he sends down to his children whatsoever they need for soul and body. . He sends them from heaven light, heat, rain and drought, and renders the earth habitable and fruitful. "The Lord," saith Moses, Deut. xxvii. 12, "shall open to thee his good treasure, to give the rain to thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thy hand." See also Acts xix. 17. Yea, from the highest heaven he sends his Spirit, and all heavenly grace down; for "every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights," James i. 17. Because the Father will communicate all his saving grace only through his Son, therefore he took him up to himself into heaven, and "exalted him by his right hand, that he might receive of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, and shed him forth," Acts ii. 33. The Saviour hath manifested his wisdom by directing us to address our Father, as he "who is in heaven;" for he teacheth us thus,

1. To call upon the only, true and high God, and that we ought not to turn to the idols; for that he is in heaven distinguishes him, as the true God, from the idols: "Our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands:" thus the people of God speak, Psalm cxv. 3, 4, The forefathers of Israel, "Abraham and Israel," were indeed in heaven, but not like the Lord, who "alone was their Father," in heaven, and therefore they betook themselves to him, and prayed that he would look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of his holiness and of his glory," Isaiah Ixiii. 15. 16. Therefore the Saviour requires that we should "call no man on earth our father," so as wholly to submit to him and trust in him, because God alone, "who is in heaven, is our Father," Matt. xxiii. 9.

2. The Saviour admonisheth us by this addition, "which art in heaven," that we should not form any earthly conceptions of the heavenly majesty of God. It is altogether unsuitable to entertain degrading ideas of him, "who sitteth above the circle of the earth, the inhabitants whereof are as grasshoppers before him; who stretcheth out the heavens, as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in," Isaiah xl. 18, 22. Therefore when we address the heavenly Father, we must by all means do it with exalted conceptions of him, and must thereby dispose ourselves to humility and

reverence: "Be not rash with thy mouth," saith the preacher," and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few," Eccl. v. 2.

3. Is the Father, upon whom we call, in heaven, we must then "expect from his almighty power all things necessary for soul and body" for " is he in heaven," he is then almighty, and "doth whatsoever he pleaseth," Psalm cxv. 3. In heaven he is in his full storehouse, and therefore allsufficient, and so "able to make all grace abound toward us; that we always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work," 2 Cor. ix. 8. Since now this heavenly, and therefore almighty God is the Father of believers, therefore they can and may look for that which is good from him only.

4. We must then also seek heavenly more than earthly things; for God the Father, who is the principal portion of his children, is heavenly, every blessing cometh down from heaven, and in proportion as heavenly are higher and worthier than earthly things, we ought to pursue heavenly more than earthly. things. Hath the child of God a right to seek also earthly things, he may not desire them as the principal things, but only as appendages, that he may by them be led up to heavenly things. Therefore the Lord Jesus saith, Mat. vi. 33. "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righ teousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

5. Once more; the Saviour chooseth that we should address the Father, as he "who is in heaven," that we may call on him with a heavenly heart, which lifts itself up to heaven, and places itself before his throne, and speaks to him there. Believers have for this end "lifted up their eyes, hands and hearts toward heaven," as we see, Psalm cxxiii. 1, Lam. iii. 41. Believers under the Old Testament turned themselves toward Jerusalem, the temple and the ark, as Solomon, 1 Kings viii. 44. David and Daniel, Psalm v. 7. Dan. vi. 11, because there the Lord exhibited a special token of his presence, and "sat, and dwelled there between the cherubims,” Psalm 1xxx. 1. Isaiah xxxvii. 16, as a type, that "all the fulness of the Godhead should dwell in the human nature of the Messiah, who was to come, and that "the Word should become flesh, and dwell among us, that we might behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," Col. ii. 9. John i. 14. Believers of that time did not however neglect to turn themselves toward heaven, and address God as in heaven. They directed their eyes and hands with their hearts toward heaven, as we have just now shown, and Solomon prayed "that God would hear in

heaven his dwellingplace," 1 Kings viii. 39. But when they turned themselves toward Jerusalem, the temple and ark, they showed then that they looked to the Surety, and worshipped in his name the Father, who was in heaven.

APPLICATION.

See, hearers, what a great and glorious privilege true believers obtain of the Lord, that he, who is the God of heaven, and who is exalted above all, is the Father of them, who are by nature "of their father the devil," John viii. 44, "children of wrath," Eph. ii. 3," and of the curse," 2 Peter ii. 14. If they were children of a great king, it would be a great matter. "When David was solicited to become the son-in-law of Saul, he said to the messengers of the king, Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?" 1 Sam. xviii. 22, 23. But that such arrant wretches should become the sons and daughters of the Almighty and Most High is surely inconceivable; "Behold," saith the beloved disciple of Jesus, "what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God," 1 John iii. 1. Who cán conceive or express the greatness of this love? for they are "the offspring of God, born of God," John i. 13. The Son of God, O wonderful! is "their Maker and their Husband," Isaiah liv. 5. They have one God and Father with him, John xx. 17, and they have been translated into the family of God, that they may enjoy all the true and exalted privileges of children, to wit, that "they may have an access" with confidence "through the Son and the Holy Ghost, being no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints and of the household of God," Eph. ii. 18, 19. Yea, they have even liberty through him to converse familiarly in his palace, even heaven, "to have their conversation in heaven," Philip. iii. 20, and to "enter into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus," Heb. vi. 19, 20. Behold, thus hath the Lord exalted the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints, even of the children of Israel, a people nigh unto him," Psalm cxlviii. 14.

Although every one calls God in this common prayer his Father, it is nevertheless certain that God is not the Father of all men, Moses saith of Israel after the flesh, Deut. xxxii. 5. "They are not