by Thomas Hooker
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
Hand-typed, modernized and formatted by William Gross, onthewing.org
hand-typed from the original!!!
Excerpt: How does this word ‘Father’ help a man to call on God by Prayer?
When we conceive of God as a Father, it puts us in mind of his mercy, that he will pity us as a Father. A man will be reconciled unto his son easily, and will spare his son, though he be a prodigal; yet a father will pass by and cover all. So I pray to a Father; did I pray to a Judge that will condemn me, or an enemy that would not be reconciled to me, little hope I had to speed because I have wronged him? Yet I will arise and go to my Father, and say, “Father, I have sinned.” Psa 103.13. As a father pities his son, so God pities them that fear him. He is my child, says God, though stubborn, and I must look to him. When a man’s rebellions witness against him, and Satan vexes him, and says, “What, do you think to have mercy, and are so vile?” True, says the soul, I am nothing, but I go to a father. If a child but aims at a thing, the father accepts him. If he speaks but half a sentence, the father interprets it. So this is the great encouragement of the faithful to go to God, that notwithstanding so many failings, and though so dead and so barren, yet a father bears all. The Lord interprets all, though but broken speeches, he accepts all, and regards all. We have a Father [5] to go to, that is willing to pass by many failings.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview
Preface: Our Father.
Which art in Heaven, etc.
Petition 1: Hallowed be Thy Name
Petition 2: Thy Kingdom come
Petition 3: Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven.
Petition 4: Give us this day our daily bread.
Petition 5: And forgive us our trespasses, etc.
For we forgive others.
Petition 6: And lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom
And the glory.
Thine.
Forever and ever, etc.
Amen.