[3.] It directs us as to the manner of praying : with reverence, wilh sclf-abhorrency, and with submission.
252 AN EXPOSITION OF [Mat. VI. 13.
(1.) With reverence, for he is a great, powerful, and glorious king : ' Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory.' Oh, shall we serve God then in a slight and careless fashion ? Mai. i. 8, ' If ye offer the blind, the lame, and sick for sacrifice, is it not evil ? Offer it now unto thy governor, will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person ? saitli the Lord of hosts.' Go to an earthly king, would you come to him with rude addresses, not thinking what to say, tumbling out words without sense and understanding ? And compare this with ver. 14 : saith God, when they brought him a sickly offering, ' I am a great king,' implying it is a lessening of his majesty. You do as it were dethrone God, you put him besides his kingdom, you do not treat him as he doth deserve, if you do not come into his presence with a holy trembling.
(2.) W^ith self-abhorrency, and a sense of your own nothingness. I observe this, because all the ai-guments in prayer are not taken from us, but from what is in God, from his attributes : ' Thine is the king- dom, power, and glory.' It is a blessed thing to have God's attributes on our side ; to take an argument from God when we can take none from ourselves. Christ teaclieth us to come with self-denial. The two first words, Idngdom and jyower^ show that all things come from God, as the first cause. And the last word, ' Thine is the glory,' shows all must be referred to God, as the last end ; so that self must be cast out. So that all the reasons of audience and acceptance are without us, not from within us : Dan. ix. 8, 9, ' To us belongeth con- fusion of face ; to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses.' Therefore thus it directs us to place all our confidence in God's fatherly affection, in his power, goodness, and glory, and in his abso- lute authority ; nothing to move God from ourselves.
(3.) To come with submission. Thine is the kingdom ; that is, he hath an absolute power to dispose of all blessings, therefore it is law- ful for him to do with his own as he pleaseth. We must come, not murmuring or prescribing to God, but expecting the fulfilling of our desires, as it shall seem good to the Lord, according to his wisdom and power, by which he exercises his kingdom over all things, as may be for the glory of his name : Ps. cxv. 1, ' Not unto us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.' Not to satisfy our revenge, not to gratify our private interest and passions; but, Lord, for thy name's sake, as may be for manifesting thy mercy and truth, so do it : not too passionate for our own ends, but confident that God, who hath the kingdom and government of the world in his own hands, will administer and carry on all things for his own glory.
[4.] It directs us, again, what are the duties of the persons praying.
(1.) Freely to resign up ourselves to God's service. Otherwise we mock God, when we acknowledge his dominion over all the world, and we ourselves will not be made subject to God. Therefore certainly a man that useth this prayer, ' Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory,' will also say, 'I am thine, save me,' Ps. cxix. 94. Let us freely resign up ourselves for him to reign over us. Can you say, with any face, to God, ' Thine is the kingdom,' yet cherish rebellious lusts in vour own hearts ? It is the most unsuitable thin<i: that can be.
IMat. VI. 13.] THE lord's prayer. 253
' Thine is the power : ' He is able to bear you out in his work, however the world rage. And therefore we should not think scorn of his ser- vice, for his is the glory : the service of such a king will put honour upon you.
(2.) Another duty of him that is to pray is to depend upon God's all-sufficiency. Shall we speak thus of God, and say, ' Lord, thine is the power,' and yet not rely upon him ? He that cannot rely ui)on him for this life and the other, doth but reproach God when he saith, ' Thine is the power ' — thine is the power, yet I will not trust thee, but fly to base shifts, as if the creature had power, and man had power — as if they could better provide for us than God. Therefore we are to live upon him, and cast ourselves into the arms of his all-sufificiency.
(3.) Another duty of them that would pray this prayer is, sincerely to aim at and seek the Lord's glory in all things. Why ? For the glory is thine. Wilt thou say, ' Thine is the glory,' and yet give and take the glory which is due to God to thyself? All is due to him, from whom we have received all things. But he that prides himself in gifts and graces, cannot be in good earnest. Wilt thou rob God of the honour, and wear it thyself ? Did men believe all glory belongs to God, they would not take vainglory to themselves. Herod was eloquent, and the people cried out, ' The voice of a god, and not of a man.' He did but receive this applause, and usurped the glory due to God, and God blasted him. Therefore, when we pride ourselves in our sufficiencies, and abuse our comforts to our own lusts, we cannot with a good conscience say, ' Thine is the glory.'