SERMON X.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

AVING finished what I intended

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on the former part of the Lord's Prayer, I am now to difcourfe on the Conclufion, which contains first, a doxology, or folemn giving glory to God, thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever; and fecondly, an expreffion of our full approbation of, and hearty consent to the whole prayer, in the word, Amen. I shall therefore explain the meaning of these words, and fhew what sense we ought to have in our minds, when we exprefs

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exprefs them; and then obferve what duties we may learn, and are inftructed in, by the ufe thereof.

These words may be understood as a recognition and acknowledgment of the greatness and majefty of God, and may be thus paraphrafed. We heartily acknowledge thy fupreme dominion over us, and the whole world; we adore and worship thee as the great King, the Sovereign Lord of all. We also humbly admire and praise that infinite power, whereby thou governeft the world, and ordereft all the affairs of it according to thine own pleafure; and we give thee the glory of thy Greatness and Power, for all the good thou doft to any, especially for what thou beftoweft on us and laftly, we hereby acknowledge that God is unchangeable, that he ever was, and will be, as great, powerful, and glorious as he now is, being infinitely and eternally the fame, yesterday, to-day and for ever.

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We may alfo understand these words as affigning fome reasons inducing us to ask, and God to grant us our feveral requests; and the connection between these words, and the foregoing petition by the word For, seems to favour this interpretation. And then the full fenfe that we ought to have in our minds, when we say this Conclufion of the Lord's Prayer, will be thus.

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And having now offered up our Petitions for what we want, it is but fit that we should also render thee our praise and thanks for what we have received. We therefore acknowledge that thou art a great King, whom we ought to worship with the lowest reverence, and that thy Power is infinite to grant what we have requested. confefs that thy Glory is above all, and humbly defire that thou mayeft be glorified in all things. Laftly we acknowledge, that thy kingdom, power, and glory are for ever, eternal and immutable; and therefore we will at all times put our whole Bb 2 trust

truft in thee, because thou canst never fail us.

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From this form of praise being added by our Lord, to that form of Prayer which he hath taught us to ufe, we may learn, that it is always our duty to join to our prayers for what we want, our praises and thankfgivings alfo for the mercies that we have received, with joyful acknowledgments of his majesty, greatness and bounty; that we should pray without ceafing, and in every thing give thanks, and by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be made known unto God. And in particular from the first clause of this doxology, for thine is the kingdom, we are reminded that it is our duty in all things to fubmit to the will of God, and to refign ourselves to his disposal, he having sovereign dominion over all.

From the second claufe of it, thine is the power, we fhould learn that it is our duty, in all straits and difficulties to apply

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