Sermons on the Lord's Prayer/Sermon 1

by Oliver Prescott Hiller

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 open; with those whose thought is shut, nothing more appears therein than the sense of the letter, or the sense that is next to the expressions."^[2] It is added, that "all spirits and angels may be known as to their quality, from the Lord's Prayer, and this by an influx of their thoughts and affections into the contents of that Prayer."^[3]

In this view, how interesting, how beautiful, how wonderful does this holy Prayer become; and how infinitely above all other prayers! Not, indeed, that we are forbidden by the Lord to offer other prayers:—we are by no means forbidden to pour forth our wants, and hopes, and supplications, like little children, in the simplicity of our own words. All heartfelt prayer must be acceptable to the Lord; indeed, all genuine prayer is inspired by the Lord himself—both the thought, and the good affection from which it springs:—every heavenly aspiration is from him, and from him alone: "Without me," he says, "ye can do nothing." When, then, a sincere aspiration puts itself forth in words, it is an uttered prayer; and such a prayer cannot but be well-pleasing to the Lord, for it is, in fact, that which is derived from him, returning to him again: and thus, truly, it is not man that speaks, but the Lord in man. The difference between such a prayer and the Lord's Prayer is indeed still great, for one is but human and finite, and the other Divine and infinite: yet both are good, because both are from the Lord, the one mediately, however, and the other immediately: the one being good and truth received from the Lord into man's finite and imperfect faculties, and modified by its weak receptacle; the other, good and truth uttered directly by the Lord himself, without passing through any human medium, and therefore perfect and Divine. Yet even the widow's mite is acceptable to the Lord; the humblest offering from a sincere heart is well pleasing to him; the simplest prayer of a fervent spirit, expressing itself in natural human language, though it be the rudest upon earth, must be more pleasing in his sight, than the words even of his own Divine Prayer, when uttered merely by the lips, and not filled with the corresponding thought and affection. For the Lord "looks on the heart, not on the outward appearance;"^[4] it is the thoughts and the affections that the Lord hears, not the words; for in the spiritual world—as the New Church Doctrine teaches—thoughts speak and are audible: and this is the language that reaches the Lord's ear.

That the Lord did not intend to confine us exclusively to the form of words given on that occasion to the disciples, is evident from the fact that there are other prayers found in the Word itself, and spoken moreover by the Lord himself. The poor publican, who stood and smote upon his breast, saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner," went down, as the Lord declared, to his house, justified.^[5] These few and simple words, uttered from a humble and repentant heart, were accepted by the Lord: and so is every sincere prayer, be it expressed in what words it may. A full heart, indeed, more naturally perhaps, expresses itself in language which it makes for itself at the moment, than in any set form of words whatever; and though it be true, that the Lord's Prayer, as being Divine and infinite, contains in its interior sense, all prayer, yet in the letter merely that Divine truth may be less accommodated to man's natural mind than a human prayer: in the letter alone, the various thoughts and affections answering to the state of him who is praying, are not expressed in detail and in words in which his feelings can so naturally clothe themselves; and the full soul burns to pour itself forth in terms more correspondent to its simple human thoughts. Hence the necessity of human prayer. For the same reason, a prayer thus expressed in simple human language, warm from the heart, is often found to have more effect on the minds of listeners, than the mere repeating of the Lord's Prayer; not that the one is comparable in degree of goodness and truth to the other, but because it is goodness and truth accommodated to man's natural state; and, as the New Church Doctrine teaches, only that which is accommodated to the thing to be acted upon, can produce an effect. It is for the same reason, that expositions of the Word are given, on the Lord's Day, for the purpose of spiritual instruction: it is with the end of presenting Divine truth in a form accommodated to the states of the hearers; otherwise, the simple reading of the Word would be sufficient, as that contains in itself all truth. And just as it is necessary to expound, or to express in human language the Divine truth contained in the Word, in order that it may be received by the hearer,—so is it of service to expound, as it were, or simplify, by expressing in human language, the truth and good comprehended in the Lord's Prayer, in order to reach and stir up to devotion both our own spirits and those of our fellow-worshipers.

While, however, for these reasons, it may be both proper and profitable to use in our worship, private and public, other modes of prayer than the set form of words contained in the Lord's Prayer,—yet, as this Prayer, being Divine, tends, like all the rest of the Holy Word, to conjoin the mind directly with the Lord, and to bring it into communication with heaven, it should be habitually used in acts of worship, and may form a fitting conclusion to other prayers.

Let us enter now upon an examination of the opening words of this Divine Prayer.

"Our Father." When we say these words, what is the idea that we are to have in our minds? What is the form, object, or appearance, that we should bring before our thoughts? Whom are we to conceive ourselves as addressing? This is a most important question: all our other ideas, in uttering the prayer, depend upon this: the effect of the prayer on our hearts, also, will depend in great part upon this. Are we to picture to ourselves a great, distant Being, the Creator of the Universe, an Infinite Spirit, without form? Such an idea would be no idea. God, as he is in his Divine Essence, the infinite Divinity, is incomprehensible to the mind of man; no idea whatever can be formed of him, because man's mind is finite, and the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. "No man hath seen God at any time," saith the Scripture,—no, neither with the eyes of the body, nor with the eye of the mind. But though we cannot go to him, he could come to us; though we cannot behold him, as he is in his Divine Essence, he could come forth, as it were, and manifest himself in such a form as to be comprehensible to the minds, and even visible to the eyes, of men. And this he has already done. Jesus Christ was "God manifest in the flesh." At his birth it was declared who he was, "Emmanuel, God with us."^[6] The Divine Being had put on humanity, that he might present himself to men in a form which they could comprehend with their minds, and even behold with their eyes; in a form, through which he could manifest audibly and visibly his Goodness, Wisdom, and Power in words and deeds; a form, in which he could stand amongst men, speak to them, teach them, pour out his Divine influence upon them, heal their diseases, raise them from the dead, teach them truth, and save them from infernal spirits, the Powers of Darkness.

The humanity, thus assumed, was called the Son of God, as being derived from the essential Divinity—in Scripture language that which is derived being called a son, as that from which a thing is derived is called a father. Yet the Father and the Son were not two Persons, but one,—just as the internal and external of man, or as the soul and body, are one: as the Lord said, "I and the Father are one," "the Father dwelleth in me." Whenever he seemed to speak of himself as distinct from the Father, it was merely the humanity, or human part of his nature, distinguishing itself from the Divine part within; for, before the humanity was fully glorified, there was a distinction between them—they were not yet perfectly united: just as man's natural and spiritual minds are distinct, and even opposite, before he becomes fully regenerated. But the process of glorification, or of uniting the Divinity and humanity, was going on steadily during all the Lord's life in the world. What was already accomplished of that work, the Lord manifested to the disciples at his transfiguration on the mount, when he opened their spiritual sight, and gave them to see his humanity so far as already glorified within—"his face shining as the sun, and his raiment white as the light." But the process continued to go on, the humanity became more and more subject to the Divinity and filled with it, till at last, by the death of the cross, the mere natural human life itself was extinguished, and in the tomb the last of materiality was put off—and the Lord rose glorified—with the humanity completely united to the Divinity, and itself made Divine. In this "glorious body," as the Apostle terms it, this Divine humanity, the Lord ascended to the heavens, and "far above all heavens, that he might fill all things."^[7] Jesus Christ was now God and man—himself the Father and the Son in one Divine Person.

When now we turn again to the Prayer, and say "Our Father," of whom are we to think? whom are we to address? Plainly, the Lord Jesus Christ and no other. For he is both the Father and the Son; he is the Father, or the Essential Divinity, clothed with Humanity, and thus made comprehensible to man, and visible to his thought. And we are sure, that in looking at him, and beholding in thought his glorious Person, and addressing our prayer to that, we are addressing "our Father;" for he himself declared to the disciples, "He that seeth me, seeth the Father," and rebuked Philip for desiring to be shown the Father, otherwise than as he is seen in him:—" Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father."^[8]

But a little further reflection will make it still more plain, that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Father, both in a spiritual and in a natural sense. Eighteen hundred years ago, God assumed humanity, and appeared in the world in the form of Jesus Christ. He then glorified that humanity, as before explained, and ascended with it to his own eternal place, "far above all heavens." Ever since that time, then, plainly, there has been no other God than he that is called Jesus Christ—Jesus Christ being the name of the Divinity clothed with Humanity. There is no such Being now as a Divinity not clothed with Humanity (by which I mean a Divine Natural Humanity): once there was, but there is not now, and there has not been these eighteen hundred years: for the Original Divinity clothed itself with humanity in the world, and glorified it, and thus took it to Itself: and, in that Humanity glorified, God is called Jesus Christ. And thus Jesus Christ is the one God, and the sole Object of Christian worship.

But now, we all confess God to be the Author of our being, of our natural life and existence, our Creator, and in that sense our Father. But, as just shown, Jesus Christ is God and the only God. It is Jesus Christ, then, who is the Author of our being and our Creator, and he is therefore our Father: and consequently it is to the Lord Jesus Christ that we are to address the words of the Prayer, "Our Father." When we lift up our eyes and minds in prayer, we should behold before us the Person of the Lord Jesus, in appearance as he was beheld transfigured before the disciples, "His face shining as the sun, and his raiment white as the light." Thus we shall have a distinct object for the mind's eye to rest upon; and from his glorious Person there will flow illumination into the understanding, and warmth into the heart, and every blessing; for he is Omnipotent—"All power is given to me," he said, "in heaven and in earth;"^[9] (by "all power being given," here, is meant omnipotence communicated from the Divine to the glorified Human).

But, if the Lord Jesus Christ is Our Father in a natural sense, still more plainly is he seen to be such, in a spiritual sense. For from him, and from him alone, are we born again—that is, regenerated. It is from his Glorified Humanity that the Holy Spirit flows, by which man's regeneration is effected; for before that humanity was glorified, the Holy Spirit was not—as is declared in John, "the Holy Ghost was not yet, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."^[10] But after the Humanity was glorified, that is, after the Lord rose from the tomb, we find him breathing upon the disciples, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit."^[11] And just as the Lord, from his glorified Humanity, breathed the Holy Spirit on his disciples, so now also, upon us, who desire to be his disciples, who wish to learn of him, and worship him, and do his commandments, he still breathes his Holy Spirit constantly; for though in heaven, he is still on earth, for there is no space with the Lord: he is still near, and can still pour upon us, if we look to him, that light of Divine truth, and that warmth of Divine love, which constitute the Holy Spirit, and which have power to regenerate the heart and mind and the whole man. Thus may we perceive, that the Lord Jesus Christ is truly our Spiritual Father, since he and he alone is our Regenerator; from him alone we are born anew, and it is his children that we become, as we grow up in the regenerate life. And when, having been thus regenerated, we enter heaven after death, we shall see and recognize him as indeed our Heavenly Father, and the Only Father and Lord of all.

We have now to consider the remaining words of the address, "Who art in the heavens."

Strictly speaking, the Lord cannot be said to be in the heavens,—he is Personally above the heavens. For, in the words of the Apostle, before quoted, Jesus ascended up "far above all heavens." In Solomon's prayer, also, at the dedication of the temple, we have the sublime words, "Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee;"^[12] and in the Psalms it is said, "Lord, our Lord, who hast set thy glory above the heavens;" and again, "The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens."^[13] For the same reason, also, the Lord is called the "Most High," and is said to be "over all." The Lord, as is taught by the doctrine of the New Church, appears far above the heavens, as a Sun, whence is derived to the angels their light and heat, which are, in fact, truth and love; for spiritual light is truth, and spiritual warmth is love. And therefore the Lord is called in Scripture a "Sun"—and the "Sun of righteousness." The same truth is also implied in the expression, "His glory is above the heavens"—"glory" signifying his splendor and brightness, as the great source of spiritual light. It is also declared by the Apostle, that the Lord dwelleth in light inaccessible, or "which no man can approach unto."^[14] Thus, then, the Lord is properly to be thought of, as dwelling above the heavens, in the midst of a glorious spiritual sun, or great source of heavenly light and heat, which is, in truth, but an emanation from his own Divine and glorious Person. It is the light from the same heavenly Sun, that illumines the minds of men on earth, and it is its heat that warms their hearts with love: as Jesus said, "I am the light of the world."^[15]

By the expression, then, "Our Father, who art in the heavens," is to be understood, in a strict sense, the Divine of the Lord as it is received in the heavens by the angels there—which is the Lord dwelling in their hearts; and in particular, it signifies the Divine Good from the Lord which is with them. For by the term "Father," in Scripture, when used in an abstract sense, is signified the Divine Good, and by "Son," the Divine Truth, both in and from the Lord; because Goodness or Love is the first essential and producing principle, from which are all things, and for that reason, termed Father, while Truth is a secondary principle derived from Love, as light proceeds from flame, and is therefore called Son. In this sense, by "Father in the heavens," is signified the Divine Good which is from the Lord in the heavens. In a similar sense, the phrase is used in other places in Scripture; as in the command of the Lord, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in the heavens is perfect."^[16] Now it would be too much to require man to equal in goodness the Lord himself, who is Divine and Infinite Goodness; but the goodness that is from the Lord in heaven, we may take for a model, with the hope of equaling or at least approaching it; for the angels of heaven were all once men like ourselves. In this sense of the phrase, the command to be "perfect as your Father in the heavens is perfect," is seen to possess a distinct and appropriate meaning.

It is on account of this signification of the term Father, as designating especially the Divine Goodness or Love, that the Prayer commences with the expression, "Our Father;" in order to convey the idea that all prayer is directed to the Lord, as a Being of love, and that from his love all requests are granted and all blessings flow. We have indeed a general view of the same truth, when we think of the phrase merely in its literal sense,—the term "father" conveying to our minds the idea of one who loves us as his children, and wishes to bless us. But a knowledge of the spiritual sense of the term makes the idea more full and distinct.

The reason, probably, why the expression "in the heavens" is added, is because it is to the Lord as the Author of the good that exists in heaven, and as being himself, indeed, that good, that our prayer is in particular directed,—because that is the good that we ourselves solicit and wish to receive. The Divine Goodness, as it is in the Lord himself, we can have no conception of, and no hope to attain, for it is Infinite; we cannot, as it were, even see such Goodness in our thought, so as to address it. But the Lord's goodness as it exists in heaven, we can conceive of, and may rightly pray for; and him, as being the author of that goodness, and as being that Goodness, we properly pray to, for of him in that view we can have a distinct idea.

In conclusion. When, then, we kneel down to offer up this holy Prayer, and utter the words, "Our Father, who art in the heavens," let us bring distinctly before our minds the Divine Form and Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, holding out, as it were, his arms to us, and saying tenderly, as he said on earth, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Looking thus to him who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," who has "all power in heaven and earth," who is "the light of the world," we may reasonably hope for an answer to our prayer; we may hope to receive that light and truth which will guide us in the way of life everlasting; we may trust that we shall be delivered from evil and blessed with good; and that with us, at least, his "kingdom will come, and his will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

1. Arcana Cœlestia, n. 6619.
2. A. C., 6476.
3. A. C., 4047.
4. Samuel vi. 7.
5. Luke xviii. 13, 14.
6. Matthew i. 23.
7. Ephesians iv. 10.
8. John xiv. 7, 9.
9. Matthew xxviii. 18.
10. vii. 39.
11. John xx. 22.
12. 1 Kings viii. 27.
13. viii. 1, and cxiii. 4.
14. 1 Timothy vi. 16.
15. John viii. 12.
16. Matthew v. 48.