Page:Thelordsprayeran00chaluoft.djvu/22

 pray for, with an assurance of being heard, if we pray as we ought, from him who has the disposing of this kingdom. And this is one part of the import of this petition, and contains an act of divine hope.

Consider 2dly, that as the kingdom of God is often taken in the Scriptures to signify that spiritual kingdom which Christ came to establish upon earth; and his reign in his Church, in which he is both King and Priest for ever; so, in this petition, we are also to have an eye upon the propagation, and exaltation of this kingdom of Christ; by earnestly begging that the reign of Satan and of Sin, may have an end; that all infidels may be enlightened by the light of the gospel; that all heresies, schisms, errors, and abuses may be rooted out; that all vices and scandals may be abolished among Christians, and that divine faith, hope, and charity, with all other virtues, may reign both in all the pastors of God's Church, and in all the people of God. So that here is also exercised an act of perfect love, both with relation to God, by desiring that his kingdom, his grace, and his truth, may be victorious over all the world; and with relation to all mankind, by praying that all men may be subdued to that