Lightfoot has adduced, are either dissimilar or modern, and prove no more than that the Jews spoke of God as their Father in Heaven, a formula to which Christ now gives life. The glory of the faithful in the New Testament is thus to pray. In this place is laid the foundation of praying in the name of Christ : see John xvi. 23. He who is permitted to address God as his Father, may ask all things from Him in prayer. — ripuv, our) The children of God individually pray for all His children collectively: but even their prayers are, by this little word our, declared to be more acceptable when offered in common : see ch. xviii. 19. — 6 iv roTg ovpavoTg, which art in the Heavens) i.e. Maxime et optime1 (Almighty, and All-good) ; see ch. vii. 11. Shortly afterwards we find in ver. 10. — ev ovpavu, in Heaven ; nor is it without cause that the number2 (which is elsewhere frequently used promiscu ously, as in ch. xxii. 30, and xxiv. 36), varies in so short a passage as the present : ovpavbs (in the singular number), signifies here that place, in which the will of the Father is performed by all, who wait upon Him ; o-jpavoi (in the plural) signifies the whole Heavens which surround and contain that one as it were lower and smaller Heaven : cf. note on Luke ii. 14. — ayiaffdriru, hal lowed be) The petitions are seven in number and may be sepa rated into two divisions, the former containing three petitions which relate to the Father, " THY Name, THY Kingdom, THY Will," the latter containing four which concern ourselves. In the former we declare our filial affection subscribing to the right, the dignity, and the good pleasure of God, after the manner of the angelic chorus in Luke ii. 14 : but in the latter we both sow and reap. In both divisions is expressed the struggle of the sons of God from Earth to Heaven, by which they as it were draw down Heaven to Earth. The object of the first petition is the sanctification of our Divine Father's Name. God is holy : i.e. He is God. He is sanctified therefore, when He is acknow ledged and worshipped and celebrated as He really is. The mood3
1 The mode in which the ancients addressed the Supreme God. — (I. B.)
2 i.e. ovpctvo; Heaven in the singular — ovp&voi heavens in the plural. — (I. B.)
3 i.e. all the three verbs are in the same mood, the Imperative, and have the same precato>y force. It is scarcely necessary to remind the general reader that the Imperative Mood intreats as well as commands. — (I. B.)