0 let all who profess God to be their Fa- ther, honour him by their unspotted lives. Scipio abhorred the embraces of an harlot, because he was the general of an army : abstain from all sin, because you are born of God, and have God for your Father,
1 Thess. v. 22, " Abstain from all appear- ance of evil." It was a saying of Augustus, an emperor should not only be free from crimes, but from the suspicion of them. By an holy life you would bring glory to your heavenly Father, and cause others to be- come liis children. Causinus in his hiero- glyphics, speaks of a dove, whose wings being perfumed with sweet ointments, did draw the other doves after her : the holy lives of God's children is a sweet perfume to draw others to religion, and make them to be of the family of God. Justin Martyr Kiiith, that which converted him to Christi- anity, was the beholding the blameless lives of the Christians.
8. If God be our Father, let us love all that are his children, Ps. cxxxiii. L, " How pleasant is it for brethren to dwell together in unity ?' 'Tis compared to ointment, v. 2., for the sweet fragrancy of it ; 1 Pet. ii. 17., *' Love the brotherliood." Idem est motus aniincB in imaginem et rem. The saints *re the walking pictures of God ; if God be
our Father, we love to see his picture of holiness in believers, — we pity them for their infirmities, but love them for their graces, — we prize their company above o- thers, Ps. cxix. G3. It may justly be sus- pected that (iod is not their Father who love not God's children ; though they retain the communion of saints in their creed, yet they banish the communion of saints out of their company.
9. If God be our Father, let us shew hea- venly-mindedness ; they who are born of God do set their " affections on things that are above," Col. iii. 2. O ye children of the high God, do not disgrace your high birth by sordid covetousness ! What, a son of God, and a slave to the world ! What, sprung from heaven, and buried in the earth ! For a Christian, who pretends to derive his pedigree from heaven, yet wholly to mind earthly things, is to debase himself; as if a king should leave his throne to follow the plough, Jer. \\v. 5., " Seekest thou great thiuiTS fur ihvself ?" As if the Lord had said, " Wljat ! tliou Barak, — thou who art born oi God, — akin to angels, and by thy office a Levite, — dost thou debase thyself, and spot the silver wings of thy grace, by beliming them with earth ! Seekest thou great things ? Seek them not." The earth chokes the fire ; earthliness chokes the fire of good affections.
10. If God be our Father, let us own our heavenly Father in the worst times, — stand up in his cause, defend his truths. Atha- nasius owned God when most of the world turned Arians. If sufferings come, do not deny God ; he is a bad son, who denies his father. Such as are ashamed of God ia times of danger, God will be ashamed to own them fur his children, Mark viii. 38., " Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels." So I have done with the first part of the preface,. " Our Father."
11. The second part of the preface (which I shall but briefly touch on) is, " Which art in heaven." God is said to b« in hea- ven, not that he is so included there, — that he is no where else, — for the " heavea q£
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OF TIIK rUEFACE TO THE LORD'S PRAYER.
heavens cannot contHin liim," 1 KinG;-s viii. 27. ; but tlic meaning' is, (U)d is cliicily re- sident in llie empyrean heaven, wliieli tlie apostle calls " the third heaven," 2 Cor. xii. 2.; there God doth most give forth glory to his saints and angels.
Quest. fV/iat may n:e ham from this that God is in heaven ?
Ans. ]. Hence we learn that we arc fo raise our minds in prayer above the earth. God is no where to be spoken with bnt in heaven ; God never denied that soul his suit who went as far as heaven to ask it.
A. 2. We learn from God's being in hea- ven, his sovereign power. Hoc vocahii/o in- telligitur omnia subesse ejus imperio, Calvin. Ps. cxv. 3., " Our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatever he pleased." God being in heaven governs the ujiiversc, and orders all oceunenees here below for the good of his children ; when the saints are in straits and dangers, and see no way of re- lief, he can send from heaven and help them, Ps. Ivii. 3., " He shall send from heaven, and save me."
A. 3. We learn God's glory and majesty ; he is in heaven, therefore he is covered with lijrht, Ps. civ. 2.. — " clothed with honour," Ps. civ. 1., — and is far above all woriiHy princes as heaven is above earth.