Luke 11:2 And he said to them, When you pray, say, Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done… It is a negative freedom, like that which is indulged to prisoners who are allowed the liberty of the prison, to go freely about the house, but may not exceed that circuit (if you can call it a liberty not to wear shackles) or else have leave to walk abroad with their keepers, or be confined to one room, this is such: man is not left indifferent to himself, but still waited on by an abridgment. To speak more properly, man hath such a freedom over his will, as keepers have over lions in their grates, who permit them a kind of liberty: they do not tie them up, but let them walk about in their cells, and can choose, keeping them within those bounds, whether they shall do any hurt; but it were a dangerous presumption to inlarge them further, as dangerous in their boldness, who dare impute to man the liberty of doing well, or give the latitude and scope to will, which, if it be not bridled and with a strait band held in, is wilder than the wildest of creatures. Man may rudely cast and project good things, intend and mean towards well, yet all this is but purpose, but pretence, it is not action. He must wait on God for the finishing his good intents. For though he may cast the model, lay the platform of virtue, he cannot raise the work without higher assistance. "Except the Lord build the house," in vain is all other endeavour. (Archdeacon King.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. |
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