Page:Sermons on the Lord's Prayer.djvu/24

 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."

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." 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