SERMON I.
"After this manner, therefore, pray ye: Our Father, who art in the heavens."—Matthew vi. 9.
The Lord's Prayer, as it was spoken from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, is, like all his words, Divine. And being Divine, it is infinite in meaning; for whatever is Divine, is infinite. Hence, as is affirmed by the Doctrine of the New Church, "there are in the contents of that Prayer more things than the universal heaven is capable of comprehending;" "infinite things are in the expressions of that Prayer, and the Lord is present in each."[1]
In the letter, indeed, it appears but a short and simple form of words; but in the spiritual and Divine senses that are beneath the letter, there is wisdom capable of enlightening the minds of men, and of angels also, and of elevating them toward the Lord, more and more, for ever. The degree of this influence depends, indeed, upon the state of him who utters the Prayer: "More things are in it," says the New Church Doctrine, "in proportion as man's thought is more opened towards heaven, and fewer things are in it, in proportion as his thought is less
- ↑ Arcana Cœlestia, n. 6619.
