especially where two or three are gathered together in his Name to call upon him. 2. Hence learn the All-fufficient and Almighty Power of God, Pfal. 115. 3. Our God is in heaven, he hath done whatfoever he pleafed. As the relation of a Father carrieth with it a fulness of Love, to be willing to grant thy largest requests; fo the Confideration that he is a Heavenly Fa ther carrieth with it a fulness of Power to grant them. These confiderations of the Love and Power of God, bear up the Heart in Prayer, as once Aaron and Hur did Mofes's Hands, Exod. 17. 12. And therefore they are both placed in the Porch of this Prayer, like the Pillars of Fachin and Boaz, in Solomon's Temple, 1 Kings 7. 21. To ftablish and ftrengthen thy heart in thy Prayer to God. 3. As the confideration of Heavenly, or which art in Heaven, carries thy heart to confidence in his Power and All-fufficiency to grant thy Petitions; fo it improves thy Faith in his Infinite Tenderness and Goodness. When thou comeft to the Father of thy flesh, thy Earthly Father, that relation imports and carries with it much Love and Compaffion, as hath been obferved; but though he be thy Father, yet he is an Earthly Father; and as his Power and Sufficiencies are narrow and weak, and not adequate to the Extent of thy wants and defires, fo his Affections are limited, and mingled with the Paffions and frowardnefs of his Temper or Age. A Woman may forget the Son of her Womb, laiah 49. 15. And the hands of the pitiful Woman may feethe her own Children, Lam. 4. 10. And Fathers are apt to provoke their own Children, Ephef. 6. 4. But were there not mixtures of Diftempers in the Affections of Parents, yet their Affections are finite; and fuch is our Condition, that in one day we fhould outfin all that ftock of Patience to bear, and Mercy to forgive, that the moft tender Earthly Father ever had or could be capable of. We stand in need every day of the infinite bowels of a Heavenly Father, to bear, and pardon, and receive us, as of infinite Power to fupply and fupport us, Ifaiah 55.7. Let the Wicked forfake bis ways, ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy; and to our God, for be will abundantly pardon: for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, faith the Lord: for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth, Jo are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Hof. 13. 9. 13.9. Ob Ifrael, thou haft destroyed thy felf, but in me is thy belp. I will not return to deftroy Ephraim, for I am God, and not Man, Hofea 11. 9. As if he should have faid, Were all the Compaffions, and Bowels, and Patience, and Tenderness in the World combined in one Man, yet thy Sins are grown to that height, and thy provocation to that prefection, that all that Patience were too weak to bear, and all that Compaffion too small to pardon thee; thou haft outfinned all the Compass and Extent of a Created Patience; but I am God, and not Man, I have patience enough for all this to bear with thee; and Mercy enough abunndantly to pardon thee. Jer. 3. 12. Return thou backfliding Ifrael, faith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful, faith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever; only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou haft tranfgreffed against the Lord thy God. The Omnipotence of God runneth through all his Attributes, and is no lefs feen in his Mercy to pardon, than in his Power to create. Numb. 14. 17, 18. And now I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou haft spoken, Jaying, The Lord is long-fuffering and of great Mercy. Now I come to the Requests themselves. 1. Hallowed be thy Name: Wherein fhall be confidered, 1. What we are to understand by the Name of God. 2. What we are to understand by Hallowing or Sancti. fying his Name. As to the First. The Ways of God and his Judgments are unfearchable, paft finding out, Rom. 11. 33. and if his Ways are fuch, how infinitely unfearchable is his Effence and Nature? the Angels that are by God endued with an Understanding more receptive of this light than ours is, do behold his Face, Matt. 18. 10. But yet that light is too bright for their pure Eyes, V. Ifa. 6.2. and too wide for thofe perfect Intelligences to comprehend: but Mortal Man cannot behold his Face, Exod. 33. 20. Thou canst not fee my Face; for no Man can fee me, and live. But yet fuch is his Mercy and Condefcention to his Creature, that he communicates fo much of the knowledge of himself unto us, as is convenient for us, and fufficient to bring us to a more perfect Vision of him when our Souls fhall be endued with an Angelical capacity to fee him, Matt. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall fee God. And the means whereby we know him, is the Manifeftation of his Name unto us. John 17. 6. I have manifefted thy Name unto the men which thou gavest me. The Name of the Lord therefore imports thefe two things. 1. That which he hath been pleased to manifest unto us in his Word concerning himself, his Effence and Attributes. 2. That Glory and Honour, which, as a beam from the Sun, doth arife from that manifeftation. 1. Touching the First, God hath been pleased to reveal himself unto us by Names or Expreffions, whereby we may have fome conceptions concerning him; and though every Attribute given to God in the Scripture, is a part of his Name; yet he hath chofen fome expreffions which he hath in a special manner called his Name, as being of a more fpecial use to us, and therefore are to have a greater impreffion upon us; fometime to fignifie his Abfolute and Independent being. Exod. 3. 13. And Mofes faid unto God, When I come to the Children of Ifrael, and fhall fay unto them, The God of your Father bath fent me unto you, and they shall fay to me, What is his Name? what shall I fay unto them? And God faid unto Mofes, 1 AM THAT I AM. Thus fhalt thou fay unto them, I AM hath Sent me. Sometimes to fignifie the greatness of his Authority, Ifa. 42. 8. I am the Lord, that is my Name, and my Glory will I not give to another. Sometimes to fignifie his Power, Jer. 10: 16. The Lord of Hofts is bis Name. Sometimes to fignifie the Immenfity of his Majefty, Exod.6.3. I appeared unto Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, by the Name of God Almighty, but by my Name Jehovah was I not known unto them, Pfal. 83. 18. Thou whofe Name is Jehovah. Deut. 28.58. That thou mayeft fear this Glorious and Fearful Name, The Lord thy God. Sometimes to fignifie his Purity, Exod. 34. 14. whose name is Jealous. Pfal. 93.3. whofe Name is Holy. But above all, when God himself was pleafed, at the requests of his Creature, to make his Goodness to pafs before him, and to proclaim his Name, confifting of all the ingredients neceffary for our knowledge and use, Exod. 34. 6, 7. The Lord, the Lord God, Merciful and Gracious, Long-Suffering and Abundant in Goodness and Truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, Forgiving iniquity, tranf greffion and fin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, &c. And this was the Name that our Saviour came to comment upon, fhewing his Mercy in pardoning us, and his Juftice in punishing our Sins in his Son; his Truth in fulfilling the firft Gospel preached in Paradise, The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head. And this Name of God he manifefted to his Difciples and to us. 2. The Name of the Lord is taken for that Glory and Honour that is due unto his Effence, Attributes and Works, the reflection of his own Perfection. He hath proclaimed himself Merciful and Gracious, and his works of Mercy reflect Glory upon this part of his Name: Isaiah 48.9, 11. For my Name's fake I will defer mine anger: for how should my Name be polluted? and I will not give my Glory to another: He proclaimeth his Strength and Power, and the works of his Power reflect Glory upon that part of his Name: Jer. 10. 6. bis Name is great in Power. Jer. 32. 20. which haft fet figns in Egypt, &c. And haft made thee a Name as at this day. He hath proclaimed that he is long-Suffering; and the works of his Patience towards our back-flidings and rebellions reflect Glory upon that part of his Name: Pfal. 106. 8. Nevertheless he faved them for his Name's fake, that he might make his mighty power known: known: the power of his Patience to forbear them, as well as of his ftrength to deliver them. And thus, Pfal. 48. 10. According to thy Name, fo is thy praise in all the Earth: that is, all the works of God, and his dispensations carry an impreffion of the Glory and Truth of fome Attribute of his Name, Pfalm 134.2. Iwill praise thy Name for thy loving-kindness and thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name: that is, thy word hath proclaimed thy Name to be Merciful, Bountiful, &c. And all the course of thy Government in the World doth justifie the truth of that word of thine, and doth atteft it, every part of it bringing back to fome Attribute of that Name of thine, Glory, and a juft fuffrage unto the truth of thy Word. Hallowed, or Sanctified, be thy Name. 1. That all the Works of God, and the Actions and Occurrences of the World, may bear upon them, and in them, an impreffion of the Glory of God, of his Power, Majefty, Wisdom, Goodness, Juftice. That they may have upon them that Beauty, Comeliness and Ufefulness, that he originally did put upon them. God made all things for his Glory, and in conformity thereunto they were in their original full of Beauty and Order; and the Excellence of the Work did fpeak the Perfection of the Workman; but the Sin of Men and Angels brought upon fome parts of his works a deformity and diforder, Gen. 3. 17. I have curfed the ground for thy fake. And though in that curfe, and in all other the confequents of Sin, there is ftill a Glory of the Juftice of God in punishing, and of his Wisdom in managing of them; yet much of the beauty of the works themselves is taken from them by that diforder that fin hath brought upcn them. When we pray therefore that the Name of God may be hallowed, we defire that, as much as may ftand with his will, all things may bear in them the impreffion of his Glory; that they may have a conformity, not only to his Will, but to his good pleafure; that in all things the Wisdom, and Goodness, and Power of God may |