The Lord's Prayer
by Thomas Watson
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(4) If God be our Father, we are of peaceable spirits. 'Blessed
are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.'
Matt 5: 9. Grace infuses a sweet, amicable disposition; it files off
the ruggedness of men's spirits; it turns the lion-like fierceness
into a lamb-like gentleness. Isa 11: 7. They who have God to be
their Father follow peace as well as holiness. God the Father is
called the 'God of peace,' Heb 13: 20: God the Son, the 'Prince of
Peace,' Isa 9: 6: God the Holy Ghost, a Spirit of peace; 'the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' Eph 4: 3. The more peaceable,
the more like God. God is not the Father of those who are fierce and
cruel, as if, with Romulus, they had sucked the milk of a wolf 'The
way of peace have they not known.' Rom 3: 17. They sport in
mischief, and are of a persecuting spirit, as Maximinus, Diocletian,
Antiochus, who, as Eusebius says, took more tedious journeys, and
ran more hazards in vexing and persecuting the Jews, than any of his
predecessors had done in obtaining victories. These furies cannot
call God Father. If they do, they will have as little comfort in
saying Father, as Dives had in hell, when he said, 'Father Abraham.'
Luke 16: 24. Nor can those who are makers of division. 'Mark them
which cause divisions, and avoid them.' Rom 16: 17. Such as are born
of God, are makers of peace. What shall we think of such as are
makers of divisions? Will God father these? The devil made the first
division in heaven. They may call the devil father; they may give
the cloven foot in their coat of arms; their sweetest music is in
discord; they unite to divide. Samson's fox tails were tied together
only to set the Philistine' corn on fire. Judges 15: 4. Papists
unite only to set the church's peace on fire. Satan's kingdom grows
up by making divisions. Chrysostom observes of the church of
Corinth, that when many converts were brought in, Satan knew no
better way to dam up the current of religion than to throw in an
apple of strife, and divide them into parties: one was for Paul, and
another for Apollo, but few for Christ. Would Christ not have his
coat rent, and can he endure to have his body rent? Surely, God will
never father them who are not sons of peace. Of all those whom God
hates, he is named for one who is a sower of discord among brethren.
Prov 6: 19.
(5) If God be our Father, we shall love to be near him, and to
have converse with him. An ingenuous child delights to approach near
to his father, and go into his presence. David envied the birds that
built their nest near to God's altars, when he was debarred his
Father's house. Psa 84: 3. True saints love to get as near to God as
they can. In the word they draw near to his holy oracle, in the
sacrament they draw near to his table. A child of God delights to be
in his Father's presence; he cannot stay away long from God; he sees
a Sabbath-day approaching, and rejoices; his heart has been often
melted and quickened in an ordinance; he has tasted that the Lord is
good, therefore he loves to be in his Father's presence; he cannot
keep away long from God. Such as care not for ordinances cannot say,
'Our Father which art in heaven.' Is God the Father of those who
cannot endure to be in his presence?
Use 1. For instruction. See the amazing goodness of God, that
he is pleased to enter into the sweet relation of a Father to us. He
needed not to adopt us, he did not want a Son, but we wanted a
Father. He showed power in being our Maker, but mercy in being our
Father. That when we were enemies, and our hearts stood out as
garrisons against God, he should conquer our stubbornness, and of
enemies make us children, and write his name, and put his image upon
us, and bestow a kingdom of glory; what a miracle of mercy is this!
Every adopted child may say, 'Even so, Father, for so it seemed good
in thy sight.' Matt 11: 26.
If God be a Father, then I infer that whatever he does to his
children, is in love.
(1) If he smiles upon them in prosperity, it is in love. They
have the world not only with God's leave, but with his love. He says
to every child of his, as Naaman to Gehazi, 'Be content, take two
talents.' 2 Kings 5: 23. So God says to his child, 'I am thy Father,
take two talents.' Take health, and take my love with it; take an
estate, and take my love with it: take two talents. His love is a
sweetening ingredient in every mercy.
How does it appear that a child of God has worldly things in
love?
Because he has a good title to them. God is his father,
therefore he has a good title. A wicked man has a civil title to the
creature, but no more; he has it not from the hand of a father; he
is like one that takes up cloth at the draper's, and it is not paid
for; but a believer has a good title to every foot of land he has,
for his Father has settled it upon him.
A child of God has worldly things in love, because they are
sanctified to him. They make him better, and are loadstones to draw
him nearer to God. He has his Father's blessing with them. A little
that is blest is sweet. 'He shall bless thy bread and thy water.'
Exod 23: 25. Esau had the venison, but Jacob got the blessing. While
the wicked have their meat sauced with God's wrath, believers have
their comforts seasoned with a blessing. Psa 78: 30, 31. It was a
sacred blessing from God that made Daniel's pulse nourish him more,
and made him look fairer than they that ate of the king's meat. Dan
1: 15.
A child of God has worldly things in love, because whatever he
has is an earnest of more; every bit of bread is a pledge and
earnest of glory.
(2) God being a Father, if he frown, if he dip his pen in gall,
and write bitter things, if he correct, it is in love. A father
loves his child as well when he chastises and disciplines him, as
when he settles his land on him. 'As many as I love, I rebuke.' Rev
3: 19. Afflictions are sharp arrows, says Gregory Nazianzen, but
they are shot from the hand of a loving Father. Correctio est
virtutis gymnasium [Correction is the school of character]. God
afflicts with love: he does it to humble and purify. Gentle
correction is as necessary as daily bread; nay, as needful as
ordinances, as word and sacraments. There is love in all: God smites
that he may save.
(3) God being a Father, if he desert and hide his face from his
child, it is in love. Desertion is sad in itself, a short hell. Job
6: 9. When the light is withdrawn, the dew falls. Yet we may see a
rainbow in the cloud - the love of a Father in all this. God hereby
quickens grace. Perhaps grace lay dormant. Cant 5: 2. It was as fire
in the embers, and God withdrew comfort to invigorate and exercise
it. Faith as a star sometimes shines brightest in the dark night of
desertion. Jonah 2: 4. When God hides his face from his child, he is
still a Father, and his heart is towards his child. As when Joseph
spake roughly to his brethren, and made them believe he would take
them for spies, his heart was full of love, and he was fain to go
aside and weep; so God's bowels yearn towards his children when he
seems to look strange. 'In a little wrath I hid my face from thee,
but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee.' Isa 54: 8.
Though God may have the look of an enemy, yet still he has the heart
of a Father.
Learn hence the sad case of the wicked. They cannot say, 'Our
Father in heaven;' they may say, 'Our Judge,' but not 'Our Father;'
they fetch their pedigree from hell. 'Ye are of your father the
devil.' John 8: 44. Such as are unclean and profane, are the
spurious brood of the old serpent, and it were blasphemy for them to
call God Father. The case of the wicked is deplorable; if they are
in misery, they have none to make their moan to. God is not their
Father, he disclaims all kindred with them. 'I never knew you:
depart from me, ye that work iniquity.' Matt 7: 23. The wicked,
dying in their sins, can expect no mercy from God as a Father. Many
say, He that made them will save them; but 'It is a people of no
understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on
them.' Isa 27: 11. Though God was their Father by creation, yet
because they were not his children by adoption, therefore He that
made them would not save them.
Use 2. For invitation. Let all who are yet strangers to God,
labour to come into this heavenly kindred; never cease till they can
say, 'Our Father which art in heaven.'
But will God be a Father to me, who has profaned his name, and
been a great sinner?
If thou wilt now at last seek God by prayer, and break off thy
sins, he has the bowels of a Father for thee, and will in nowise
cast thee out. When the prodigal arose and went to his father, 'his
father had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed
him.' Luke 15: 20. Though thou hast been a prodigal, and almost
spent all upon thy lusts, yet if thou wilt give a bill of divorce to
thy sins, and flee to God by repentance, know that he has the bowels
of a Father; he will embrace thee in the arms of his mercy, and seal
thy pardon with a kiss. What though thy sins have been heinous? The
wound is not so broad as the plaister of Christ's blood. The sea
covers great rocks; the sea of God's compassion can drown thy great
sins; therefore be not discouraged, go to God, resolve to cast
thyself upon his Fatherly compassion. He may be entreated of thee,
as he was of Manasseh. 2 Chron 33: 13.
Use 3. For comfort. Here is comfort for such as can, upon good
grounds, call God Father. There is more sweetness in this word
Father than if we had ten thousand worlds. David thought it a great
matter to be son-in-law to a king. 'What is my father's family, that
I should be son-in-law to the king?' 1 Sam 18: 18. But what is it to
be born of God, and have him for our Father?
Wherein lies the happiness of having God for our Father?
(1) If God be our Father, he will teach us. What father will
refuse to counsel his son? Does God command parents to instruct
their children, and will not he instruct his? Deut 4: 10. 'I am the
Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit.' Isa 48: 17. 'O God,
thou hast taught me from my youth.' Psa 71: 17. If God be our
Father, he will give us the teachings of his Spirit. 'The natural
man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them.' 1
Cor 2: 14. The natural man may have excellent notions in divinity
but God must teach us to know the mysteries of the gospel after a
spiritual manner. A man may see the figures upon a dial, but he
cannot tell how the day goes unless the sun shines; so we may read
many truths in the Bible, but we cannot know them savingly, till God
by his Spirit shines upon our soul. God teaches not only our ear,
but our heart; he not only informs our mind, but inclines our will.
We never learn aught till God teach us. If he be our Father, he will
teach us how to order our affairs with discretion (Psa 112: 5) and
how to carry ourselves wisely. 'David behaved himself wisely.' 1 Sam
18: 5. He will teach us what to answer when we are brought before
governors; he will put words into our mouths. 'Ye shall be brought
before governors and kings for my sake; but take no thought how or
what ye shall speak; for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of
your Father which speaketh in you.' Matt 10: 18, 19, 20.
(2) If God be our Father, he has bowels of affection towards
us. If it be so unnatural for a father not to love his child, can we
think God can be defective in his love? All the affections of
parents come from God, yet are they but a spark from his flame. He
is the Father of mercies. 2 Cor 1: 3. He begets all the mercies and
bowels in the creature; his love to his children is a love which
passeth knowledge. Eph 3: 19. It exceeds all dimensions; it is
higher than heaven, it is broader than the sea. That you may see
God's fatherly love to his children: Consider, God makes a precious
valuation of them. 'Since thou wast precious in my sight.' Isa 43:
4. A father prizes his child above his jewels. Their names are
precious, for they have God's own name written upon them. 'I will
write upon him the name of my God.' Rev 3: 12. Their prayers are a
precious perfume; their tears he bottles. Psa 56: 8. He esteems his
children as a crown of glory in his hands. Isa 62: 3. God loves the
places where they were born in for their sakes. 'Of Zion it shall be
said, This and that man was born in her'; this and that believer was
born there. Psa 87: 5. He loves the ground his children tread upon;
hence, Judea, the seat of his children and chosen ones, he calls a
delight some land. Mal 3: 12. It was not only pleasant for situation
and fruitfulness, but because his children, who were his Hephzibah,
or delight, lived there. He charges the great ones of the world not
to injure his children, because their persons are sacred. 'He
suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, he reproved kings for their
sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed.' Psa 105: 14, 15. By
anointed is meant the children of the high God, who have the unction
of the Spirit, and are set apart for God. He delights in their
company. He loves to see their countenance, and hear their voice.
Cant 2: 14. He cannot refrain long from their company; let but two
or three of his children meet and pray together, he will be sure to
be among them. 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.' Matt 18: 20. He bears his children
in his bosom, as a nursing father does the sucking child. Numb 11:
12; Isa 46: 4. To be carried in God's bosom shows how near his
children lie to his heart. He is full of solicitous care for them.
'He cares for you.' I Peter 5: 7. His eye is still upon them, they
are never out of his thoughts. A father cannot always take care for
his child, he sometimes is asleep; but God is a Father that never
sleeps. 'He shall neither slumber nor sleep.' Psa 121: 4. He thinks
nothing too good to part with for his children; he gives them the
kidneys of the wheat, and honey out of the rock, and 'wines on the
lees well refined.' Isa 25: 6. He gives them three jewels more worth
than heaven - the blood of his Son, the grace of his Spirit, and the
light of his countenance. Never was there such an indulgent,
affectionate Father. If he has one love better than another, he
bestows it upon them; they have the cream and quintessence of his
love. 'He will rejoice over thee, he will rest in his love.' Zeph 3:
17. He loves his children with such a love as he loves Christ. John
17: 26. It is the same love, for the unchangeableness of it. God
will no more cease to love his adopted sons than he will to love his
natural Son.
(3) If God be our Father, he will be full of sympathy. 'As a
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear
him.' Psa 103: 13. 'Is Ephraim my dear son? my bowels are troubled
for him.' Jer 31: 20. God pities his children in two cases.
[1] In case of infirmities. If the child be deformed, or has
any bodily distemper, the father pities it; so, if God be our
Father, he pities our weaknesses: and he so pities them as to heal
them. 'I have seen his ways, and will heal him.' Isa 57: 18. As he
has bowels to pity, so he has balsam to heal.
[2] In case of injuries. Every blow of the child goes to the
father's heart; so, when the saints suffer, God sympathises. 'In all
their affliction he was afflicted.' Isa 63: 9. He did, as it were,
bleed in their wounds. 'Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me?' When
the foot was trod on, the head cried out. God's soul was grieved for
the children of Israel. Judges 10: 16. As when one string in a lute
is touched, all the rest sound; so when God's children are stricken,
his bowels sound. 'He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his
eye.' Zech 2: 8.
(4) If God be our Father, he will take notice of the least good
he sees in us; if there be but a sigh for sin, he hears it. 'My
groaning is not hid from thee.' Psa 38: 9. If but a penitential tear
comes out of the eye he sees it. 'I have seen thy tears.' Isa 38: 5.
If there be but a good intention, he takes notice of it. 'Whereas it
was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well
that it was in thine heart.' 1 Kings 8: 18. He punishes intentional
wickedness, and crowns intentional goodness. 'Thou didst well that
it was in thine heart,' He takes notice of the least scintilla, the
least spark of grace in his children. 'Sara obeyed Abraham, calling
him lord.' 1 Peter 3: 6. The Holy Ghost does not mention Sara's
unbelief, or laughing at the promise; he puts a finger upon the
scar, winks at her failing, and only takes notice of the good that
was in her, her obedience to her husband - she 'obeyed Abraham,
calling him lord.' Nay, that good which the saints scarce take
notice of in themselves, God in a special manner observes. 'I was an
hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink.
Then shall the righteous answer, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred
and fed thee?' Matt 25: 35, 37. They as it were overlooked and
disclaimed their own works of charity, but Christ takes notice of
them - 'I was an hungred, and ye fed me.' What comfort is this! God
spies the least good in his children; he can see a grain of corn hid
under chaff, grace hid under corruption.
(5) If God be our Father, he will take all we do in good part.
Those duties which we ourselves censure he will crown. When a child
of God looks over his best duties, he sees so much sin cleaving to
them that he is confounded. 'Lord,' he says, 'there is more sulphur
than incense in my prayers.' But for your comfort, if God be your
Father, he will crown those duties which you yourselves censure. He
sees there is sincerity in the hearts of his children, and this
gold, though light, shall have grains of allowance. Though there may
be many defects in the services of his children, he will not cast
away their offering. 'The Lord healed the people.' 2 Chron 30: 20.
The tribes of Israel, being straitened in time, wanted some legal
purifications; yet because their hearts were right God healed them
and pardoned them. He accepts of the good will. 2 Cor 8: 12. A
father takes a letter from his son kindly, though there are blots or
bad English in it. What blotting are there in our holy things! Yet
our Father in heaven accepts them. 'It is my child,' God says, 'and
he will do better; I will look upon him, through Christ, with a
merciful eye.'
(6) If God be our Father, he will correct us in measure. 'I
will correct thee in measure.' Jer 30: 11. This he will do two ways.
It shall be in measure for the kind. He will not lay upon us more
than we are able to bear. 1 Cor 10: 13. He knows our frame. Psa 103
Id. He knows we are not steel or marble, therefore will deal gently,
he will not over-afflict. As the physician, who knows the temper of
the body, will not give physic too strong for the body, nor give one
drachm or scruple too much, so God, who has not only the title, but
the bowels of a father, will not lay too heavy burdens on his
children, lest their spirits fail before him. He will correct in
measure, for duration; he will not let the affliction lie too long.
'The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the
righteous,' Psa 125: 3. It may be there, but not rest. 'I will not
contend for ever.' Isa 57: I6. Our heavenly Father will love for
ever, but he will not contend for ever. The torments of the damned
are for ever. 'The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and
ever.' Rev 14: 11. The wicked shall drink a sea of wrath, but God's
children only taste of the cup of affliction, and their heavenly
Father will say, transeat calix, 'let this cup pass away from them.'
Isa 35: 10.
(7) If God be our Father, he will intermix mercy with all our
afflictions. If he gives us wormwood to drink, he will mix it with
honey. In the ark the rod was laid up and manna; so with our
Father's rod there is always some manna. Asher's shoes were iron and
brass, but his foot was dipped in oil. Deut 33: 24, 25. Affliction
is the shoe of brass that pinches; but there is mercy in the
affliction, there is the foot dipped in oil. When God afflicts the
body, he gives peace of conscience; there is mercy in the
affliction. An affliction comes to prevent falling into sin; there
is mercy in an affliction. Jacob had his thigh hurt in wrestling;
there was the affliction: but when he saw God's face, and received a
blessing from the angel, there was mercy in the affliction. Gen 32:
30. In every cloud a child of God may see a rainbow of mercy
shining. As the painter mixeth dark shadows and bright colours
together, so our heavenly Father mingles the dark and bright
together, crosses and blessings; and is not this a great happiness,
for God thus to cheques his providence, and mingle goodness with
severity?
(8) If God be our Father, the evil one shall not prevail
against us. Satan is called the evil one, emphatically. He is the
grand enemy of the saints; and that both in a military sense, as he
fights against them with his temptations; and in a forensic or law
sense, as he is an accuser, and pleads against them; yet neither way
shall he prevail against God's children. As for shooting his fiery
darts, God will bruise Satan shortly under the saints' feet. Rom 16:
20. As for his accusing, Christ is an advocate for the saints, and
answers all bills of indictment brought against them. God will make
all Satan's temptations promote the good of his children. [1] As
they set them praying. 2 Cor 12: 8. Temptation is a medicine for
security. [2] As they are a means to humble them. 'Lest I should be
exalted above measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan.' 2 Cor 12: 7. The thorn in the flesh was a
temptation; it was to prick the bladder of pride. [3] As they
establish them more in grace. A tree shaken by the wind is more
settled and rooted; so the blowing of a temptation does but settle a
child of God more in grace. Thus the evil one, Satan, shall not
prevail against the children of God.
(9) If God be our Father, no real evil shall befall us. 'There
shall no evil befall thee.' Psa 91: 10. It is not said, no trouble;
but, no evil. God's children are privileged persons; they are
privileged from being hurt of every thing. 'Nothing shall by any
means hurt you.' Luke 10: 19. The hurt and malignity of the
affliction is taken away. Affliction to a wicked man has evil in it;
it makes him worse. 'Men were scorched with great heat and
blasphemed the name of God.' Rev 16: 9. But no evil befalls a child
of God; he is bettered by affliction. 'That we might be made
partakers of his holiness.' Heb 12: 10. What hurt does the furnace
to the gold? It only makes it purer. What hurt does affliction to
grace? Only refine and purify it. What a great privilege it is to be
freed, though not from the stroke, yet from the sting of affliction!
No evil shall touch a saint. When the dragon, say they, has poisoned
the water, the unicorn with his horn draws out the poison. Christ
has drawn the poison out of every affliction, that it cannot injure
a child of God. Again, no evil befalls a child of God, because no
condemnation. 'No condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.'
Rom 8: 1. God does not condemn them, nor does conscience. When both
jury and judge acquit, no evil befalls the accused; for nothing is
really an evil but that which damns.
(10) If God be our Father, we may go with cheerfulness to the
throne of grace. Were a man to petition his enemy, there were little
hope; but when a child petitions his father, he may hope with
confidence to succeed. The word 'Father' works upon God; it toucheth
his very bowels. What can a father deny his child? 'If his son ask
bread, will he give him a stone?' Matt 7: 9. This may embolden us to
go to God for pardon of sin, and further degrees of sanctity. We
pray to a Father of mercy sitting upon a throne of grace. 'If ye
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask him?' Luke 11: 13. This quickens the church, and adds wing
to prayer. 'Look down from heaven.' Isa 63: 15. 'Doubtless thou art
our Father'; ver 16. For whom does God keep his mercies but for his
children? Three things may give boldness in prayer. We have a Father
to pray to, and the Spirit to help us to pray, and an Advocate to
present our prayers. God's children should in all their troubles run
to their heavenly Father, as the sick child in 2 Kings 4: 19: 'He
said unto his father, My head, my head.' So pour out thy complaint
to God in prayer. 'Father, my heart, my heart; my dead heart,
quicken it; my hard heart, soften it in Christ's blood. Father, my
heart, my heart.' Surely God, who hears the cry of ravens, will hear
the cry of his children!
(11) If God be our Father, he will stand between us and danger.
A father will keep off danger from his child. God calls himself
Scutum, a shield. As a shield he defends the head, guards the
vitals, and shields off dangers from his children. 'I am with thee,
and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee.' Acts 18: 10. God is a
hiding-place. Psa 27: 5. He preserved Athanasius strangely; he put
it into his mind to depart out of the house he was in, the night
before the enemy came to search for him. As God has a breast to
feed, so he has wings to cover his children. 'He shall cover thee
with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.' Psa 91: 4.
He appoints his holy angels to be a lifeguard about his children.
Heb 1: 14. Never was any prince so well guarded as a believer. The
angels [1] are a numerous guard. 'The mountain was full of horses of
fire round about Elisha.' 2 Kings 6: 17. 'The horses and chariots of
fire' were the angels of God to defend the prophet Elisha. [2] A
strong guard. One angel, in a night, slew a hundred and fourscore
and five thousand. 2 Kings 19: 35. If one angel slew so many, what
would an army of angels have done? [3] The angels are a swift guard;
they are ready in an instant to help God's children. They are
described with wings to show their swiftness: they fly to our help.
'At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth,
and I am come.' Dan 9: 23. Here was swift motion for the angel, to
come from heaven to earth between the beginning and ending of
Daniel's prayer. [4] The angels are a watchful guard; not like
Saul's guard, asleep when their lord was in danger. I Sam 26: 12.
The angels are a vigilant guard; they watch over God's children to
defend them. 'The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that
fear him.' Psa 34: 7. There is an invisible guardianship of angels
about God's children.
(12) If God be our Father, we shall not want anything that he
sees to be good for us. 'They that seek the Lord shall not want any
good thing.' Psa 34:10. God is pleased sometimes to keep his
children on hard commons, but it is good for them. As sheep thrive
best on short pasture, so God sees too much may not be good for his
people; plenty might breed surfeit. Luxuriant animi rebus secundis
[In prosperity men's characters run riot]. God sees it good
sometimes to diet his children, and keep them short, that they may
run the heavenly race the better. It was good for Jacob that there
was a famine in the land; it was the means of bringing him to his
son Joseph; so God's children sometimes see the world's emptiness,
that they may acquaint themselves more with Christ's fulness. If God
sees it to be good for them to have more of the world, they shall
have it. He will not let them want any good thing.
(13) If God be our Father, all the promises of the Bible belong
to us. His children are called 'heirs of promise.' Heb 6: 17. A
wicked man can lay claim to nothing in the Bible but the curses; he
has no more to do absolutely with the promises than a ploughman has
to do with the city charter. The promises are children's bread; they
are mulctralia evangelii, the breasts of the gospel milking out
consolations; and who are to suck these breasts but God's children?
The promise of pardon is for them. 'I will pardon all their
iniquities, whereby they have sinned against me.' Jer 33: 8. The
promise of healing is for them. Isa 57: 19. The promise of salvation
is for them. Jer 23: 6. The promises are the supports of faith; they
are God's sealed deed; they are a Christian's cordial. Oh, the
heavenly comforts which are distilled from the promises! Chrysostom
compares the Scripture to a garden: the promises are the fruit trees
that grow in this garden. A child of God may go to any promise in
the Bible, and pluck comfort from it; he is an heir of the promise.
(14) God makes all his children conquerors. They conquer
themselves; fortior est qui se quam qui fortissima vincit moenia [he
who conquers himself is stronger than he who conquers the stoutest
ramparts]. The saints conquer their own lusts; they bind these
princes in fetters of iron. Psa 149: 8. Though the children of God
may be sometimes foiled, and lose a single battle, yet not the
victory. They conquer the world. The world holds forth her two
breasts of profit and pleasure, and many are overcome by it; but the
children of God have a world-conquering faith. 'This is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith.' 1 John 5: 4. They
conquer their enemies. How can that be, when their enemies often
take away their lives? They conquer, by not complying with them; as
the three children would not fall down to the golden image. Dan 3:
18. They would rather burn than bow. Thus they were conquerors. He
who complies with another's lust, is a captive; he who refuses to
comply, is a conqueror. God's children conquer their enemies by
heroic patience. A patient Christian, like the anvil, bears all
strokes invincibly. Thus the martyrs overcame their enemies by
patience. God's children are more than conquerors. 'We are more than
conquerors.' Rom 8: 37. How are they more than conquerors? Because
they conquer without loss, and because they are crowned after death,
which other conquerors are not.
(15) If God be our Father, he will now and then send us some
token of his love. His children live far from home, and meet
sometimes with coarse usage from the unkind world; therefore, to
encourage them, he sends them tokens and pledges of his love. What
are these? He gives them an answer to prayer, which is a token of
love; he quickens and enlarges their hearts in duty, which is a
token of love; he gives them the first fruits of his Spirit, which
are love tokens. Rom 8: 23. As he gives the wicked the first fruits
of hell, horror of conscience and despair, so he gives his children
the first fruits of his Spirit, joy and peace, which are foretastes
of glory. Some of his children, having received those tokens of love
from him, have been so transported, that they have died for joy, as
the glass often breaks with the strength of the wine put into it.
(16) If God be our Father, he will indulge and spare us. 'I
will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.' Mal
3: 17. God's sparing his children, imports his clemency towards
them. He does not punish them as he might. 'He has not dealt with us
after our sins.' Psa 103: 10. We often do that which merits wrath,
grieve God's Spirit, and relapse into sin. God passes by much and
spares us. He did not spare his natural Son, and yet he spares his
adopted sons. Rom 8: 32. He threatened Ephraim to make him as the
chaff driven with the whirlwind, but he soon repented. 'Yet I am the
Lord thy God.' Hos 13: 4. 'I will be thy king;' ver 10. Here God
spared him, as a father spares his son. Israel often provoked God
with their complaints, but he used clemency towards them; he often
answered their murmurings with mercies. Thus he spared them, as a
father spares his son.
(17) If God be our Father, he will put honour and renown upon
us at the last day. [1] He will clear the innocence of his children.
His children in this life are strangely misrepresented. They are
loaded with invectives - they are called factious, seditious; as
Elijah, the troubler of Israel; and Luther, the trumpet of
rebellion. Athanasius was accused to the Emperor Constantine as the
raiser of tumults; and the primitive Christians were accused as
infanticidii, incestus rei, 'killers of their children, guilty of
incest.' Tertullus reported Paul to be a pestilent person. Acts 24:
5. Famous Wycliffe was called the idol of the heretics, and reported
to have died drunk. If Satan cannot defile God's children, he will
disgrace then; if he cannot strike his fiery darts into their
consciences he will put a dead fly to their names; but God will one
day clear their innocence; he will roll away their reproach. As he
will make a resurrection of bodies, so of names. 'The Lord God will
wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people
shall he take away.' Isa 25: 8. He will be the saints' vindicator.
'He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light.' Psa 37: 6.
The night casts its dark mantle upon the most beautiful flowers; but
the light comes in the morning and dispels the darkness, and every
flower appears in its orient brightness. So the wicked may by
misreports darken the honour and repute of the saints; but God will
dispel this darkness, and cause their names to shine forth. 'He
shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light.' Thus God stood up
for the honour of Moses when Aaron and Miriam sought to eclipse his
fame. 'Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant
Moses?' Numb 12: 8. So God will one day say to the wicked,
'Wherefore were ye not afraid to defame and traduce my children?
Having my image upon them, how durst you abuse my picture?' At last
his children shall come forth out of all their calumnies, as 'a dove
covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.' Psa 68: 13.
[2] God will make an open and honourable recital of all their good
deeds. As the sins of the wicked shall be openly mentioned, to their
eternal infamy and confusion; so all the good deeds of the saints
shall be openly mentioned, 'and then shall every man have praise of
God.' 1 Cor 4: 5. Every prayer made with melting eyes, every good
service, every work of charity, shall be openly declared before men
and angels. 'I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: thirsty, and ye
gave me drink: naked, and ye clothed me.' Matt 25: 35, 36. Thus God
will set a trophy of honour upon all his children at the last day.
'Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of
their Father.' Matt 13: 43.
The Lord's Prayer
by Thomas Watson
(continued in file 4...)
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