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LECTURE XXXVIII.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.-SECOND PETITION.

"Thy kingdom come."

LUKE, XVII. 20, 21.

The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

THE

HE request contained in this second petition of our Lord's Prayer is of all others the most important, both to our present and eternal welfare. In praying that GOD'S KINGDOM MAY COME, is implied a faithful desire that we may be made children of that kingdom; and as no one can offer this petition to any saving purpose, who is not sincere as to the request, so no sincerity can be expected, unless we are fully acquainted with the true sense of the petition. It may afford useful instruction to enlarge upon these words, that, by impressing your minds with the many serious articles they comprehend, the desires of the heart may accompany the sacrifice of the lips; and by thus praying with the

understanding we may offer a more acceptable service to Almighty God than barely repeating a form of words (though originally dictated even by the Holy Spirit) could otherwise prove to him.

That you may have a thorough knowledge how truly we style this Prayer in general a most comprehensive form of words, I will proceed to show you how much religious information is included in, and may be collected from, this particular part of it. And, first, by declaring ourselves interested in the coming of God's kingdom, we plainly acknowledge him to be a King. Now, it may assist our becoming worship of him as such, to consider in how many respects this title does most truly belong to him. God is evidently a King, in these essential characters following: 1. In regard to all the world, which, as it was created by his power, and as he rules and supports it by his providence, so the holy Psalmist (xcv. 3, 4, 5) does thus most justly represent his most awful majesty-For the Lord is a great God, and a great KING above all gods: in his hands are all the corners of the earth, and the strength of the hills is his also: the sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Again (xcvii. 1), The Lord is King; the earth may be glad thereof, yea, the multitude of the isles may be glad thereof.

Secondly, he is also entitled to the kingly

character, in relation to his church and people : for these he governs and conducts, both by his word and Holy Spirit, with respect to which dominion Christ speaks in Mark, i. 15, when, preaching the Gospel or glad tidings of the kingdom of God, he exhorts his hearers to consider that the time was fulfilled, and that the KINGDOM of God was at hand, and therefore it behoved them to repent and believe the Gospel, that is, the blessed news he was sent to convey to them.

Thirdly, The title of kingly majesty is peculiarly applicable to God, with respect to his heavenly kingdom; that seat of bliss ineffable, where he actually reigns over all his holy angels with glory now, and in which blessed region he will hereafter continue to rule over all his perfected saints and servants to all eternity. And it is of God's rule over this kingdom above, that our blessed Master speaks in Matt. v. 10, when he pronounces as one proof of the blessed state of those who suffer in a righteous cause, that theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And in the 20th verse he alludes to the very same place, when he declares, that except our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, we cannot possibly enter into that heavenly kingdom. And to convey some further notion to us of the glorious nature of that holy place, he adds this splendid de

scription of it, in Matt. xiii. 43: that the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of his Father. This is that kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, for all who, striving to enter into its strait gate, shall be called by the King of it to approach towards his right hand, and, being found prepared for this high honour, shall be styled the blessed of the Father.

By considering God's universal dominion in these three points of view, we acknowledge him to be a King, in the fullest sense of the word; and the scriptural testimonies so often selected, do sufficiently establish the glory of his kingdom, both in heaven and earth. It was very proper the mind should be prepared by a due sense of the majesty of the divine PERSON, before we extend our inquiries as to the different acceptations in which his kingdom may be received, and to the true meaning of wishing or praying that God's kingdom may come.

Now, these words will admit both of a general and a limited interpretation: the first, as it concerns all mankind; the second, as it relates more immediately to ourselves. In the enlarged sense of the petition, we pray that all men may both more clearly know, and more worthily obey, the true and only God (the Lord of heaven and earth), than, from common observa

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