SERMON IV.
"Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."—Matthew vi. 10.
What is the Lord's will? His will is that man should be happy in heaven to eternity. This is his will, because the Lord's essential nature is Love; and love wishes the happiness of its object; and Divine love can look to nothing less than the eternal happiness of its object; and man, as an intelligent being, is the chief object towards which the love of the Creator is directed. Therefore, the happiness of man to eternity is the end, or supreme desire, or, in other words, the will, of the Lord. And as heaven is the place or state, in which man is destined, if good, to live to eternity, therefore man's happiness in heaven is the thing to which the Lord chiefly has regard.
In this view, then, for man to pray that the Lord's will may be done, is evidently most reasonable; for it is in truth but praying that man himself may be happy to eternity. And so far, indeed, it may be said that man's will agrees with the Lord's will; for every man wishes to be happy.
Ends, however, even Divine ends, cannot be attained but by means. The Lord is indeed omnipotent, but yet he must exercise his omnipotence according to the laws
