throne, and "pray for you with groanings that cannot be uttered." Doth it grieve you, that ye must remain so long a time absent from your Father, who is in heaven, and that ye are not yet taken up to him; well, your eldest brother Jesus "is gone before you," in order, as he saith himself, John xiv. 2, 3, "to prepare a place for you, and when he hath accomplished that work, he will come to you, and take you unto himself, that where he is, there ye may be also." Amen.

THE

FIRST PETITION.

EXPLAINED.

XLVII. LORD'S DAY.

Mat. vi. 9. Hallowed be thy name.

Q. 122. Which is the first petition ?

A. "Hallowed be thy name;" that is, grant us first rightly to know thee, and to sanctify, glorify and praise thee in all thy works, in which thy power, wisdom, goodness, justice, mercy and truth are clearly displayed; and further also, that we may so order and direct our whole lives, our thoughts, words and actions, as that thy name may never be blasphemed, but rather honoured and praised

A

SON 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? saith the Lord of hosts," Mal i. 6. It is the duty of children to honour their father: "Children, honour your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise," saith Paul, agreeably to the law of the Lord, Eph. vi. 1, 2, and this is also

the nature of right-tempered children. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Solomon exhibited noble evidences of this, and especially the Lord Jesus, the pattern of us all: " he was subject to his pa rents," Luke ii. 51. Therefore God also justly requires this of his people, Mat. i. 6. For he is their Father, and they are his children. Yea, he requires with greater justice that his children should honour him, than earthly fathers require it of their children, inasmuch as he excels earthly fathers in the highest degree in glory and sovereign authority, and his favoured people are more obligated to him than to their earthly fathers. Therefore the apostle saith, Heb. xii. 9. "We had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?" Yea, the children of God, who know the honourableness of their Father, are pleased, and they esteem it their happiness, when he is honoured and glorified: "Their souls are then satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and they praise him with joyful lips," Psalm Ixiii. 5. It is their principal aim, and they desire to direct all that they do, yea, even their “eating and drinking,” to this end, as the apostle admonisheth, 1 Cor. x. 31. And since they behold so much honourableness and glory in God, that "he is exalted above all blessing and praise," Neh. ix. 5, and that they are in themselves too contracted and unable to glorify his name, therefore they cry and pray that he would grant them to do this, as the Saviour teacheth them to pray to the Father, "Hallowed be thy name."

The Saviour teaching his followers to acknowledge and address God, as their heavenly Father, enjoins upon them to pray in the first place. that his name may be hallowed and glorified, as the first and principal object, to which all the following petitions ought to be directed, as means; for we must, as we have taught on the forty-fifth Lord's day, divide the six petitions in such a manner, that the first exhibits the chief end, and the five following the means which lead to that end; for if we desire that the kingdom of God should come, his will be done, &c. it must only be to the end, that the Father's name may be glorified and hallowed.

In order rightly to understand this petition concerning the hallowing of God's name, we must attend to four particulars;

I. What the name of God, and particularly what the Father's name is.

II. How it is hallowed.

III. For what we pray here, and

IV. Why we must pray thus.

I. That the Lord God, being incomparably glorious, needeth ne name; and that he hath nevertheless called himself by a name, that he might make himself better known, and distinguish himself more from idols; and that by his name, we must understand himself, as far as he makes himself, his perfections and excellencies known to the reasonable creature by his words and works, that he may be the God of the sinner, this, we have shown upon the third commandment. Therefore the instructor explaining in this Lord's day the name of God, saith also, "that in all his works his power, wisdom, goodness, justice, mercy and truth are clearly displayed; in which we learn, as by his name, rightly to know him, to glorify and praise him." And his name denotes particularly in this petition, that he is the Father of believers, and therefore is become their Father in Christ, "in the midst of whom is his Father's name, and whe makes his Father's name known to the men, who were given him," Exod. xxiii. 21. John xvii. 6.

II. Since the name of the Lord is holy, therefore we may not profane it, but it must be hallowed. To hallow (or sanctify) any thing denotes, (a) to make that which is unholy, holy; as sinners "are washed and sanctified," 1 Cor. vii. 11. (b) To set that which is common apart for a holy use: "Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, said the Lord to Moses," Exod. xiii. 1. (c) To acknowledge that which is holy to be so: "Sanctify the Lord in your hearts," 1 Pet. iii. 15. It is evident, that to hallow the Father's name doth not signify to make it holy, or to set it apart for a holy use for it is essentially and incomparably holy: "There is none holy, as the Lord," saith Hannah, 1 Sam. ii. 2. But to hallow his name is to acknow! edge it to be holy.

It is necessary to declare beforehand what the holiness of God is; and then how his name is hallowed. As "God's name is wonderful," Judges xiii. 18. "What is his name, and what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell?" saith Agur, Prov. xxx. 4, so his holiness also is inconceivable and inexpressible. We say in a stammering manner, and as the book of God teacheth us, that the holiness of God is, (a) that most pure love, which God beareth to himself, to his perfections and excellencies, and to his honour, by which he is so immaculate, that he cannot say or do aught that militates against his perfections, and that he hath therefore a natural hatred to all that is sinful, and that opposeth him, and so "he is of purer eyes than to behold evil," Hab i. 13. (b) That becomingness and fitness of God's nature and conduct, that all that he doth is proper and un blamable, and we cannot censure him in any instance, but must ap

prove of him in the highest degree: "My God," saith the Psalmist," I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent,” What then? will he censure the Lord ? no, all that he doth is right, therefore he submitted himself, and said, "but thou art holy," Psalm xxii. 2, 3. (c) The highness, incomparable glory, lustre and brightness which shines forth from his essence, perfections, virtues and works. Hear this from the mouth of Moses, Exod. xv. 11, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" (d) His unchangeableness, whereby he continues the same that he is and was, in his essence and glory. Thus those four living creatures declare the holiness of God, when they cry, "Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come," Rev. iv. 8.

We may easily conceive now, that the name of God is hallowed, when his holy glory, and glorious holiness is declared, manifested, acknowledged and glorified. Thus "the four living creatures proclaiming the glory of the Lord, gave glory, and honour, and thanks to him," Rev. iv. 8, 9, as before that "the seraphs cried one to another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is filled with his glory," Isaiah vi. 3.

The name of God is hallowed by the Lord himself, or by his crea tures: God hallows his name (a) by his judgments, with which he punisheth the wicked; for by them he minifests his holy aversion from the sinner, and from his sins; he demonstrates thus his justice by inflicting on the sinner his righteous anger, he declares the truth of his threatenings, and he causes the wicked doer to experience his punitive power, and so the Lord causes the ungodly and all others to see that "he is a righteous Judge, and a God who is angry every day," Psalm vii. 11. "And a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth," as David speaks in his maschil, Psalm lxiii. 11. "When the Lord consumed the sons of Aaron by the fire, which went out from him, he was then sanctified and glorified before all the people," Lev. x. 2, 3. "When God executed judgments in Zidon, he was sanctified in her likewise," as he speaks, Ezek. xxviii. 22. (b) God also hallows his name by bestowing blessings and benefits upon his children, for he manifests thus in an illustrious manner his great pow. er, wisdom, goodness, love, grace, mercy, and the truth of his promises to his people, so that they, and the wicked also behold the favourable hand of God toward them; "I will sanctify my great VOL. II.

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