Your Kingdom Come

1 The Coherence.

This petition depends on the former most excellently. For in it is laid down the means to procure the first. God's name must be hallowed among men: but how is it done? By the erecting of God's kingdom in the hearts of men. We cannot glorify God until he rule in our hearts by his word and Spirit.

2 The meaning.

[Your] This word does put us in mind that there is two kingdoms: one God's, and that is the kingdom of heaven: the other the devil's, called the kingdom of darkness (Colossians 1:13). For when all had sinned in Adam, God laid this punishment on all, that seeing they could not be content to obey their Creator, they should be in bondage under Satan: so that by nature we are all the children of wrath, and the devil holds up the scepter of his kingdom in the hearts of men. This kingdom is spiritual, and the pillars of it are ignorance, error, impiety, and all disobedience to God, in which the devil wholly delights; which also are, as it were, the laws of his kingdom. Blind ignorant people can not abide this doctrine, that the devil should rule in their hearts: they spit at the naming of him, and say that they defy him with all their hearts: but whereas they live in sin, and practice it as occasion is offered, though they can not discern of themselves, yet they make plain proof, that they live in the kingdom of sin and darkness, and are fit vessels of Satan, and shall so continue, till Christ the strong man come and bind him, and cast him out. And this is the estate of all the children of Adam in themselves. Therefore, our Savior in this petition, teaches us to consider our natural estate, and to pray that he would give us his Spirit, to set us at liberty in the kingdom of his own Son.

[Kingdom] God's kingdom in scriptures, is taken two ways. First generally, and so it signifies that administration, by which the Lord governs all things, yes, even the devils themselves, of which kingdom mention is made in the end of this prayer, and in Psalms 97:1: The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice. Again, it is taken more specially, and then it signifies the administration of Christ, the head of the Church, in which he frames men by his word and Spirit, to the subjection of the same word. And so it is taken in this petition.

In a kingdom there are four things to be noted. 1. There must be a king. 2. There must be subjects. 3. There are laws. 4. Authority.

In this kingdom, Christ is the king, it is he to whom the Father has given all authority in heaven and earth.

In this kingdom, all are not subjects, but such as are willing to give free and frank obedience to God's word; or at the least, though their hearts be not sound, make an outward profession of it.

The laws of this kingdom, is the word of God, in the books of the Old and New Testament. Therefore it is called the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13), the Gospel of the kingdom (Mark 1:13), the rod of his mouth (Isaiah 11:4), the arm of God (Isaiah 53:1). As a king by his laws brings his people in order, and keeps them in subjection: so Christ by his word, and the preaching of it, as it were by a mighty arm, draws the elect into his kingdom, and fashions them to all holy obedience.

The power and authority is, that whereby Christ converts effectually those which are to be converted, and glorifies himself in the confusion of the rest.

The kingdom being taken thus specially is also twofold. The first, is the kingdom of grace, of which mention is made (Romans 14:17): The kingdom of God stands not in meat and drink but in righteousness, that is, the assurance of our justification before God, in the righteousness of Christ: peace of conscience, which proceeds from this assurance; and joy in the Holy Ghost, which comes from them both. In this kingdom all men live not, but only those that are subject to Christ, obedient to the laws of his kingdom, and ruled by his authority, and are continually taught in his word by his Spirit. But those that refuse to live according to the laws of this king, and choose to live at their own liberty, are in the kingdom of darkness, sin and Satan.

The second is the kingdom of glory in heaven, which is the blessed estate of all God's people there, when God shall be all in all in them. And the former kingdom of grace is an entrance and preparation to the kingdom of glory.

[Come] God's kingdom comes, when it is established and confirmed in men's hearts, and made manifest to all people, the impediments being removed. Question. This coming implies a stopping but how should God's kingdom be hindered? Answer. Kingdom in this place is not taken for the power of God, whereby he rules all things, for that cannot be hindered: but for the kingdom of grace, which in the using of the outward means, as ministers, word, and sacraments may be hindered by the devil, the world, and man's corruption.

3 The wants which are to be bewailed.

The wants which we in this petition are taught to mourn for, are of two sorts: some concern our own selves: some, others. That which concerns our own persons, is a bondage and slavery under sin and Satan. This bondage indeed is weakened in God's servants, but none is wholly freed from it in this life. Paul complains, that he is sold under sin, and cries piteously: O miserable man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Question. What difference then between the godly and the wicked? Answer. The evil and ungodly man, in the very midst of his bondage has a merry heart, sin is no trouble to him, no, it is meat and drink to him. But the godly man is otherwise minded. For, considering the power of the devil, and his craft in manifold fearful temptations, and seeing the proofs of his rebellious nature, ever and anon to start away from God, he is grieved and confounded in himself, and his heart bleeds within him, that he does offend so merciful a Father.

Many men live in this world, and that many years, and yet never feel this bondage under Satan and sin. Such undoubtedly cannot tell what the Lord's prayer means; but he that would have the right use of this petition must be acquainted with it, and be touched in his conscience, for that the flesh and the devil bear such sway in him. As the poor captive is always creeping to the prison door, always laboring to get off his bolts and fetters, and to escape out of prison, so must we always cry to the Lord for his Spirit, to free us out of this bondage and prison of sin and corruption, and every day come nearer the prison door, looking when our blessed Savior will unbind us of all the fetters of sin and Satan, and fully erect his kingdom in us.

2. The wants which concern others are twofold. The former is the want of the good means, which serve for the furthering of the kingdom of Christ, as preaching, sacraments and discipline. When we shall see a people without knowledge, and without good guides, and teachers, and when we see one stand up in the congregation not able to teach, here is matter for mourning. This petition puts us in mind to bewail these wants. Our Savior, when he saw the Jews, as sheep without a shepherd, he had compassion on them, and he wept over Jerusalem, because they knew not the things which belonged to their peace (Luke 9:11). Therefore, when preachers want, to hold up the scepter of God before the people, and to hold out the word, which is, as it were, the arm of God, to pull men from the bondage of the devil to the kingdom of Christ, then it is time to say, Lord, let your kingdom come.

3. The third want which we are to bewail is that there be so many impediments and hindrances of the kingdom of grace, as the devil and all his angels, their instruments, the Pope, the Turk, and all the rest of the professed wicked of the world, which by subtle enticements and tyranny, keep back and repel the means, whereby Christ ruled as a king in his Church. When the devil sees one that was sometime of his kingdom, but to cast a look toward the heavenly Jerusalem, he straightway rages against him, and labors quite to overthrow him. Therefore, in regard of all these impediments, we must pray, your kingdom come.

4. Graces to be desired.

1. In this petition we are taught first, that we are to have a fervent desire, and to hunger, that God of his mercy would give us his Spirit to reign and rule in our hearts, and to bow them to all obedience and subjection of his will, and further, whereas our hearts have been, as it were, filthy sties and stables of the devil, that he would renew them, and make of them fit temples, to entertain his own Spirit. Psalm 51:10: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit in me, etc. Establish me with your free Spirit." If we shall consider the conversation of the wicked and the godly and their corrupt hearts together, we shall see little difference, but in this, that the wicked is delighted and glad to sin, but the godly do wrestle, as for life and death, with their temptations, and do resist the devil, and do desire, and cry to heaven, to be freed from his bondage, however their hearts are always rebelling against God.

2. Forasmuch as the kingdom of grace is erected in God's church here upon earth, here in this petition we are commanded to pray for the church of God and the parts thereof. Psalm 122:6: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love you." Isaiah 62:7: "You which are the Lord his remembrancers, give him no rest, until he set up Jerusalem the praise of the world."

And that God's Church may flourish and be in good estate, we are to pray for Christian kings and princes, that God would bless them, and increase the number of them. For they are as nursing fathers, and nursing mothers to the Church. And we especially are bound to pray for the Queen's most excellent Majesty, as also for the French King, that they may be blessed, and God's kingdom by them advanced.

And again, because ministers are the Lord's watchmen in the Church, we are also here put in mind to seek their good, and to pray that their hearts may be set for the building of God's kingdom, for the beating down of the kingdom of sin and Satan, and for the saving of the souls of his people. And the rather, because the devil labors night and day, to overthrow them in this glorious work, and to resist them in their ministry, as appears in Zechariah 3:1, when Joshua the high Priest stood before the Angel of the Lord, Satan stood at his right hand, namely, to resist him. Therefore, also we are to pray for them, that the Lord would keep them, and furnish them with gifts, and withal, make them faithful, for, where vision fails, the people are left naked, says Solomon. 2 Thessalonians 3:1: "Brethren pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have a free passage, and be glorified."

Thirdly, we must pray for all Christian schools of learning. However some think but basely of them, yet they are the ordinary means to maintain the ministry, and so the Church of God. A man that has diverse orchards will also have a seminary full of young plants to maintain it. Schools they are as seminaries to God his Church, without which the church falls to decay, because they serve to make supply of ministers.

3. Thirdly, we are to desire that the Lord would hasten the second coming of Christ, as the saints in heaven pray, "Come Lord Jesus, come quickly," and therefore the godly are said to love the coming of Christ (2 Timothy 4:8). A penitent sinner so abhors his own corruptions, and the irksome temptations of Satan, that in this respect he desires that Christ would hasten his particular coming to him by death, for no other cause, but that he might make an end of sinning and displeasing God.