Sermons on the Lord's Prayer. Oliver Prescott Hiller
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