SER M. proper Sense, in which every thing is accounted XVIII. holy Nor is it : any bar to this holiness of theirs, that their Lives are unfanctified and unclean. A Veffel that has been dedicated to the Service of God, though defiled and polluted by facrilegious hands, is nevertheless a holy Veffel to the Lord. And the Reason is plain, because the Sanctity or Holiness, that is afcribed to all Beings, except God, is not a natural and inherent, but a derivative Holiness: It does not arise from any Purity of Nature, but merely from the Relation which that Being bears to him, who is perfect Holiness. There is therefore a certain decency of Behaviour to be obferved to all those, who are employed in this important Truft, though, not for their own fake, but God's: And ill does it become thofe, who have a regard to God's Glory, to treat with Scorn, as too many do, an Order of God's own appointing, and to make that the Object of Contempt and Derifion, which is a Title of the highest Honour and Respect.

Upon the whole then, as often as thefe Words are ufed, we are firft to understand them as an Act of Praife; as a dutiful Acknowledgment, that God ought to be adored and glorified by all his Creatures; that his Name is worthy to be praised and had in Honour, and that it is the duty of all thofe, who are capable of performing it, to afcribe to him all Glory and Worship. Secondly, It is a Petition or Request to God, that we and all others may be enabled to perform it in fuch a manner as will be acceptable to him: That we may preferve in our Minds an habitual Senfe of his infinite and most ado. rable Perfections; that this Senfe may be expressed by proper acts of Worship, particularly by Medita

tion and Prayer, which Prayer fhould be conceived SERM. in a fet Form of Words, and delivered in the most XVIII. humble Posture: That he may be pleased to preserve us in this profligate Age, from that Spirit of Profanenefs which is gone out among us, destroying all distinctions between facred and profane, and tempting us to treat every thing that is dedicated to him, in the most irreverent and contumelious manner: Particularly that he may enable us by the Affiftance of his Grace, to preserve an awful Regard to his holy Name, how much foever we hear it vilified and blafphemed To his Sabbath, however it is now prostituted and profaned by the management of our fecular concerns, or by the no more innocent, though lefs cenfured cuftom of employing it in idle and impertinent Vifits, and thereby fpending it in vain and unprofitable, if not wicked and uncharitable Difcourfe: To his Temple, the Place where he has fet his Name, however it is unhallowed and defiled by the wilful Inattention and Indevotion of fome, who appear to come thither with very different Views from the End and Defign for which it was erected, and devoted to the Name of God: To the Word of God, however rudely handled by ludicrous and licentious Pens: To the Sacraments ordained by Christ himself, however deferted and difufed by fome, and however profaned by others: And to the Perfons of his Minifters, appointed by his Word, to act in his name and stead, however unworthy of that honourable distinction, however contemned, traduced and fcorned by inconfiderate and uncharitable men. In one word, it is a Petition, that we may all be endued with fuch a competent meafure of God's fpecial Grace, that

We

SERM. we may live like men who have a conftant Senfe XVIII. of a fuperior Being prefiding over them, who deferves all the tenders of duty we can make, and whom therefore let us worship by the Reverence of our Hearts, by the Acknowledgments of our Lips, and above all by the Obedience and Purity of our Lives, both now and for ever

more.

Now to God, &c.

A

SERMON

On MATT. vi. 10. Thy Kingdom come.

HIS fhort Petition, and the next SER M.
which follows, that the Will of God XIX.
may be done on Earth, in like manner
as it is done in Heaven, are defigned
to carry on that Act of Worship,
which was begun in the foregoing

Words; where, as foon as we have afcribed all
Praise and Glory to our Father which is in Heaven, we
proceed to pray, that that Glory may be display'd by
the coming of his Kingdom, and by the obedience
of all rational or intelligent Creatures, thofe on
Earth as well as those in Heaven. The first of these,
namely the Coming of his Kingdom, will at this
time be the Subject of my Discourse; in which I
fhall enquire.

I. What is meant by the word Kingdom, and
II. What is meant by its coming.

After which

I fhall conclude with fome practical Observations, which my Subject seems naturally to suggest.

I. The Kingdom of God, in the Language of holy Writ, is understood in very different Senfes. Sometimes it is spoken of that abfolute Dominion,

SERM. which is exercised by God over the Works of his XIX. hands, as the great Author and Sovereign of the whole; agreeable to which are those words of the Pfalmift, The Lord hath prepared his Throne in Heaven; his Kingdom ruleth over all. Sometimes it is taken in a more limited fenfe, as importing his particular Providence over men, diftinguished from the reft of their Fellow-Creatures upon Earth, by the Principle of Reafon which he has given them: In which fense it is faid by the fame holy Writer, The Kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the Governor among the People. But in neither of thefe fenfes, however common in holy Writ, is the Word Kingdom to be understood in my Text. For in both these fenfes it is already come, and has been from the Creation of the World. God is our King of old, fays David, the Lord is King for ever and ever. There never was a time when his Power was lefs abfolute, nor can it ever be more abfolute than it is, nor can we ever pray that this Kingdom of his may come, in any other sense, than to testify our Submiffion to his fovereign Will and Pleafure; to declare that we are content with his Difpenfations to us, well fatisfied with the Reafona, bleness and Equity of his Proceedings, and willing to confefs with the most thankful hearts, that the Sceptre of his Kingdom is a right Sceptre. This indeed it is our duty to do; but this is not what is meant in my Text; for this would confound it with the following Petition: Whereas in fuch a short and comprehenfive Form, it cannot be fuppofed, that the fame thing fhould be asked twice, or made the Subject of any two Petitions.

By the Kingdom of God, in the words now to be confidered, we we are therefore to understand that spiritual Kingdom, which is no where men