Use. To press us so to glorify God, as we may also sanctify him. Let this be your care. To quicken you, remember —
1. God is much offended with his people that do not sanctify him.
Mat, VI. 9.] the lord's prayer. 89
Moses and Acaron, as choice and as dear to God as they were, yet you know what the Lord saith, Num. xx. 12, ' Because ye beheved me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel ; therefore ye shall not brincj this congregation into the land which I have given them.' When Moses and Aaron murmured, and spake unadvisedly, and did not sanctify him, nor carry God's excellency aloft, they shall not enter. And God remembereth this a great while after, in that, Deut. xxxii. 51, ' Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel, at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin ; because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel, thou shalt not go into the land which I give the children of Israel.' Well, then, though God's children should get to heaven, yet if they do not sanctify God they will want many a privilege. God will remember this against them ; for he takes it ill when his people will not sanctify him as becoming his peculiar excellency.
2. If you do not sanctify God, then }'ou pollute God, and stain his memory in the world : Ezek. xxxvi. 20, ' Ye have profaned my holy name among the heathen.' How is God polluted ? Not intrinsically ; God cannot receive any pollution from us. It is here, as in that case, ' A man that lusteth after a woman, hath committed adultery already in his heart,' Mat. v. 28. The man pollutes the woman in his heart, while she remains spotless and undefiled. So in this case we blemish God in appearance, as much as in us lies we pollute and blot God, though he remains pure and undefiled. You make heathens think as if you had an unholy God. Well, then, glorify God.
For directions : —
1. Be holy. The praise of the wicked is a disgrace to him, it is an obscuring of his praise : 1 Pet. i. 15, ' As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.'
2. Study his name, if ye would sanctify his name : Ps. ix. 10, ' They that know his name will put their trust in him.'
3. Submit to his providence without murmuring. When we can speak wtII of him, though he seem to deal most hardly; as the Bethshemites, when there was such a slaughter made among them, fifty thousand slain ; they do not say, murmuringly. Who can stand before this severe, cruel God ? but before ' this holy God ? ' They own his holiness in the dispensation, though it were so dreadful, 1 Sam. vi. 20. It is a great glory to God when you own him as just in all his ways, when he deals most hardly. Whatsoever be our lot and portion, yet he is a holy God. But to cavil and murmur, it is to tax and blemish God before the world.
4. Live to public ends, that is, to draw God into request with others. Let this be tlie aim of your conversation, not only to get holiness enough to bring you to heaven, but to allure others, and i-ecommend God to them, that by the purity and strictness of your conversation you might gain upon others, and bring them to be in love with God, and acquainted with him.
And lastly. Be sensible when God's name is dishonoured by your- selves and others, not enduring the least profanation of it.
90 AN EXPOSITION OF [MaT. VI. 10.
TJiy kingdom come.
The first petition concerneth the end, the rest the means. Now, among all the means, none hath such a near and immediate respect to the glory of God as Christ's kingdom ; for here there is more of God discovered, more of his infinite grace, justice, wisdom, and power than possibly can be elsewhere. All other things are for the church, and the church for Christ as head and king, and Christ for God, 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. So that Christ's kingdom is the primary means of advancing God's glory ; and therefore among all the means it must be sought in the first place. Mat. vi. 33, ' Seek first the kingdom of God.' First, not above the glory of God, it doth not come in competition with that, but above all other things whatsoever, before pardon and grace.
In the words observe three things : — I. We grant a kingdom.
II. By way of distinction and appropriation we say, thy kingdom.
III. By way of supplication, we beg of God that it may come.
The concession, the distinction, the supplication are the three things to be opened.
I. First, The concession of a kingdom, which our heavenly Father hath. A kingdom in the general signifieth the go^*ernment of a people under one head or governor ; and therefore the term may be fitly applied to God, who alone is supreme, and we are all under his dominion.
Now, God's kingdom is twofold : —