only generally the Father of all, but also of each particularly, he would, nevertheless, be called our Father, to remind us of brotherly charity, without distinction of rank, dignity, or age; to love one another as brothers, and to pray for all in common, despising none. So speaks Malachias. Have we not all one Father ? Has not one God created us? Why, then, does every one of us despise his brother ? Yet nothing for bids me at times, as my affection may lead me, thus to address God in private, because I am with as full light his adopted son, as if I were the only one.
Who art in heaven.
Although God is in every place, we name heaven in particular,
1st. To excite in ourselves a reverence for his Majesty, which resides in heaven as its throne.
2d. To raise our minds to heaven, where is the home and the inheritance of the sons of God;
3d. That we may understand that here we are exiles and pilgrims, and that we ought to live in such a way that our conversation may be in heaven.
4th. To remind myself, thither to raise my eyes and my heart, from whence only help shall come to me.
Again, heaven, and the peculiar seat of God, are those holy souls that are raised above the earth, in which God dwells by grace, and specially illuminates them with the light of his knowledge.
So far the introduction; now follow the petitions.
1. Hallowed be thy name.
Be thou esteemed, as thou art, holy, pure, just, true, and good. God holds nothing so high as to be esteemed and proclaimed holy. Hence he so often says, Be holy, because I am holy. Hence he was angry with Moses and Aaron, because they had not sanctified him at the waters of contradiction before the children of Israel. Again, the only song of the blessed is, Holy, holy, holy,
2. He says not, thy power, or thy majesty, but thy name; to comprehend in one all that is named by us which belongs to God, as being all holy, and to be celebrated accordingly. For he is named almighty, wise, creator, and so forth.
3. He says, thy name; for it is thy name only which is holy in itself, whence comes the drop of which the just partake. Therefore not our, but thy . To the king eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever; but to us confusion of face. Why, then, do we so anxiously seek our own glory, and a great
