I : if'«' I! m ll:i: # .# J ^ CO 00 1= 2 m I #) 5 03 C bi) <: "oj E CO CO -o •♦-' c 0) to (U CO xj"" 4-J CD CO ^ >. T-H 0) fO r^) O 04 in w < — O U LO W o C^cj PQ < Fh O CM M\ VII. PRINTED BY ROESON, LEVEY, AND FRANKI.YN, Great New Street, Fetter Lane. THE LORD'S PRAYER, JMawMEiI of Mdigbi^ lEmotolf^ge, / THE REV. ROBERT ANDERSON, PERPETUAL CURATE OF TRINITY CHAPEL, BRIGHTON. THIKD EDITION. LONDON: JAMES BURNS, 17 PORTMAN STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE. M.DCCC.XLI. yuvi UF PRIITCETOIT^^ RECJUN 1881 ^. THBOIiOGIGAI ^mxti mhtxthe\ UR Lord lias left this Divine Prayer with His Church, not only as a model of all prayers, but also, as an express form of words, to be used by all the people of God, as often as they approach the throne of grace. In obedience, therefore, to our Lord's com- mand, the Church of England has introduced this Prayer into all her Services, both stated and occa- sional. It is placed, moreover, in the Church Cate- chism, accompanied by a paraphrase, which explains to children what they desire of God in this Prayer ; and, by our daily use of it, we realise, in its fullest sense, the Communion of Saints, seeing that the words of this Prayer have been daily repeated by God's people, in every age of the Christian Church. Upon all these accounts, it is hoped that a plain, practical Exposition of the Lord's Prayer will be regarded as a fit subject for a volume of The Eng- lishman's Library. I will only add, that I have endeavoured to write this Exposition in very simple language, such as may easily be understood by all classes of readers ; and VI ADVERTISEMENT. that, with the same view, 1 have occasionally made some verbal alterations in the various passages which I have extracted from the works of different authors, both ancient and modern, on the subject of the Lord's Prayer. R. A. Brighton, 1840. > P.S. — I might have enriched the Appendix with Bishop Ken's Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer, as contained in his Exposition upon the Church Cate- chism, entitled ' The Practice of Divine Love.' But as the foregoing work has just been republished among the volumes of The Englishman's Library, I deem it sufficient to refer my readers to the sixth volume of the series, for Bishop Ken's simple, devout, and most touching Exposition. TABLE OF CONTENTS. SECTION I. PAGE The Petition to our Father which is in heaven, for the hallowing of His Name 1 SECTION II. The Petition for the coming of His kingdom .... 21 SECTION III. The Petition for the fiilfilment of His will in earth, as it is fulfilled in heavqn 35 SECTION IV. The Petition for daily bread 51 SECTION V. The Petition for the forgiveness of our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us 66 SECTION VI. The Petition against being led into temptation, and for deliveran-e from evil 87 CONTENTS. SECTION VII. The Doxology ; or, the thankful acknowledgment of God's eternal and everlasting kingdom, power, and glory 106 APPENDIX. Bishop Taylor's Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer ... 123 Dr. Ogden's ditto 131 QUESTIONS AND ANSWEBS, JF-rom t!)r Cijurci) ©atcdji'sm. Qtiesfion. ' My good child, know this, that thou art unable to do those things of thyself, nor to walk in the command- ments of God, and to serve Him, without His special grace ; which thou must learn at all times to call for by di- ligent prayer. Let me liear, therefore, if thou canst say the Lord's Praver. Question. ' What desirest thou of God in this prayer 1 Answer. " Our Father, which art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come ; Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven ; Give us this day our daily bread ; And forgive us our tres- passes, as we forgive them that trespass against us ; And lead us not into temp- tation ; But deliver us from evil. Amen.'" Answer. I desire my Lord God, our heavenly Father, who is the Giver of all goodness, to send His grace unto me, and to all people ; that we may AVorshi)) Him, Vas we Serve Him, > ought to And obey Him, ) do. And I pray unto God, that He will send us all things that be needful, both for our souls and bodies ; And that He will be merci- ful unto us, and forgive us And that it will please Hira to save and defend us in all dangers ghostly and bodily ; And that He will keep us from all sin and wickedness, and from cmr ghostly enemy, and from everlasting death. And this I trust He will do of His mercy and good- ness, through our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore I say, Amen, so be it.' ' He who gave us the gift of life, taught ub eiIso the way of prayer ' What prayer can be more spiritual, than that which was given us hy Christ, by whom the Holy Spirit was sent to us ? "What form of prayer can be more true, in the eight of the Father, than that which was delivered by the Tips of His Son, who is Himself the Truth'"— St. Ctpriak. ' We have received from the Lord a Rule of Prayer, which -we, must not transgress, either by adding to it, or by leaving out any part of it. ' If you examine the words of all the prayers used by the saints, you will find nothing, which the Lord's Prayer does not contain and bring within its compass. It is therefore at yonr choice to pray in different words from time to time, while you yet offer the samfc petitions in your prayers : but it XQust not be at your choice to offer different petitions. ' If we pray aright and agreeably to God's word, we say nothing else than thatwliich is included in the Lord's Prayer.' -St. AUQOSTINB. THE PETITION TO OUR FATHER THE HALLOWING OF HIS NAME. "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art ia heaven, hallowed be Thy Name."— iVa«. vi. 9. " And He said unto them, When ye pray, say. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name." — Luke xi. 2. ]N the Lord's Prayer, we are furnished with a heavenly model of prayer,' according to which all our devotions should be framed. For when Jesus Christ first delivered this Prayer, in His Sermon on the Mount, He said to His disciples, ** After this manner pray ' Martin Luther somewhere speaks of the Creeds, as the science of sciences ; of the Commandments, as the law of laws ; and of the Lord's Prayer, as the prayer of prayers ; — that is, he/ regarded them all, as models in their several classes. THE LORD S PRAYER. ye." But we are sure that our Lord intended it, not only as a pattern by which we are to regulate all our other prayers, but as an actual form of words, to be used exactly as they are here set down for our guidance, in all our exercises of devotion ; seeing that, when He delivered this Prayer the second time. He introduced it with these words : " When ye PRAY, say. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name." And this conclusion is fully sup- ported by the circumstances which accompanied this second delivery of the Prayer. For our Lord's dis- ciples had just referred to a form of prayer, with which John the Baptist's disciples had been pro- vided; and it was in answer to their request, that He would " teach them to pray, as John also taught his disciples," that Jesus left with His Church this Divine form of prayer, to be used by Christians, in every age, as the badge of their discipleship. Ac- cordingly, we find it spoken of, by St. Cyprian and others of the early Fathers, as 'the daily prayer;' and all the liturgies of the early Christian Churches have it, in every one of their services. Now, if any of us have been accustomed to under- value or dislike prescribed forms of prayer, as being apt, in our opinion, to degenerate into coldness or formality, we should remember that we have here a form of prayer actually prescribed by our Lord Him- self ; and we should consider, tlierefore, whether the coldness and formality, of which we complain, may not be owing entirely to our own want of affection SECT. I.] THE lord's PRAYER. 3 in spiritual things. For if we are always desiring variety in prayer, what i' it but the want of a spi- ritual mind that makes this needful ? In order that our affections may be lively m that holy exercise, we find it necessaiy that they should be continually stirred up by new expressions ; whereas the soul that is really in earnest in the thing itself, for itself, pant- ing ardently after the grace of God, and the pardon of sin, regards not in what terms utterance shall be given to its petitions, whether new or old. Nay, though these petitions may be in the words which have been heard and uttered a thousand times, yet still they will be new to a spiritual mind. And, surely, the devotion that continues in lively exercise, while pursuing this regular and constant path, has more evidence of sincerity and true vigour in it, than that which depends upon new notions and new words to move it, and which cannot, as it were, stir a step without them. To borrow the language of the good Archbishop Leighton; * We may well doubt whether that can be any other than a false flash of temporary devotion, which comes only by the power of some moving strain of prayer that is altogether new. But when confes- sion of sin and requests for pardon, though uttered in accustomed terms, are found to caiTy the heart along with them heavenward, it is then far more certain that the Spirit of God dwelling in us, and the sense of the things themselves, such as the esteem of the blood of Christ, and the favour of God, really move 4 THE LORD S PRAYER. the heart, since there is no novelty of words to help it.'^ Let us not err, then, in a point of such import- ance as this ; but let us rest assured, that when the Holy Spirit teaches God's people to pray, He exer- cises His blessed influences not so much on the un- derstanding as on the affections. Let us not suppose, therefore, that when He pours upon us the spirit of grace and supplication. His work consists, wholly or chiefly, in furnishing new supplies of thoughts and words ; but let us consider it, rather, as His peculiar province to excite the heart anew at times of prayer, that so it may break forth in ardent desires to the Lord God of our salvation. Following the guidance of Christian antiquity, the Church of England has introduced this Divine Prayer into all the various Services in the Prayer- Book, whether stated or occasional ;^ that so, by its perfection, it may, as it were, supply the defects of our own services, and may compensate for our own ignorance or blindness, in approaching the throne of grace. And, indeed, ' though men should speak with the tongues of angels, yet words so pleasing to the ears of God, as these which the Son of God Himself - See the passage quoted at length in Help to Knowledge (vol. iv. of this Series), pp. 46, 47. 2 The author of a volume of poems called The Cathedral has given different metrical paraphrases of the Lord's Prayer, expressive of what may be supposed to be the mind of the de- vout worshipper, as he utters this Divine Prayer in the differ- ent Services and Offices of the Church of England. SECT. 1.] THE lord's PRAYER. 5 hath composed, were not possible for men to frame. ^ He, therefore, who hath made us to live, hath also taught us to pray ; to the end that, speaking unto the Father, in His Son's own prescript form, we may be sure that we utter nothing which God will either disallow or deny. Other prayers we use many be- sides this, but this oftener than any other ; and the causeless dislike thereof which others have conceived, is no sufficient reason for us to forbear a thing which, uttered with true devotion and zeal of heart, afFordeth to God Himself that glory, that aid to the weakest sort of men, to the most perfect that solid comfort, which is unspeakable.'^ And, assuredly, the more we enter into the depth and fulness of this Divine Prayer, the more we shall feel disposed to doubt whether it can be too frequently repeated in the assemblies of the Church. Our ignor- ance in asking is too gross to be denied ; and it is too certain, moreover, that if our hearts do not ac- company the words which we utter, our prayers will only be as mockery in God's sight. What, then, can be more wise, or just, or holy, than, at short and ' ' Seeing that we have an Advocate with the Father for our sins, when we, that have sinned, come to seek for pardon, let us allege unto God the words which our Advocate hath taught. For since His promise is our plain warrant, that in His Name what we ask we shall receive, must we not needs much the rather obtain that for which we sue, if not only His Name do countenance, but also His very speech present our request ?' — St. Cyprian. 2 Hooker. B 2 6 THE LORD S PRAYER. frequent intervals, to recall to our minds both for what, and in what manner, we ought to pray, by the insertion of the Lord's Prayer, every clause of which is suited to recall the wandering heart, and whose fulness will supply every defect, since it tacitly im- plies, though it does not positively express, our desire for every thing which man can wish or ought to ask ? Superior' this prayer is in excellence, comprehensive in brevity, holy in substance, solemn in manner, and simple in expression ; it is, at once, so short, that the meanest may learn it ; so plain, that the most ignorant may understand it ; and yet so full, that it compre- hends all our wants, and intimates all our duty, shewing not only what is fit to be asked, but what manner of persons we that ask ought to be. And well, therefore, might Tertullian speak of it as ' the epitome of the Gospel ;' since it contains our persua- sion of God's love, our desire of His honour, our sub- jection to His authority, our submission to His will, our dependence on His providence ; together with our earnest supplication for mercy to deliver us from the guilt, and for grace to deliver us from the power of sin ; concluding with acts of faith, and praise, and adoration. But, after all, who shall attempt to give dignity, by human praise, to that which proceeded from the Lord of all ? It was He, who spake as never man spake; it was Jesus, the wise, the holy, and the just, ^ See Dean Comber on the Liturgy. SECT, I.] THE lord's PRAYER. 7 who gave this prayer for the use and imitation of His disciples; — and therefore, if we are not moved to adopt it by the reverence and gratitude which we feel for its Author, it were in vain to endeavour to influence the heart or the understanding by the weak applauses of a creature's tongue. They, and they only, can value this prayer aright, whose hearts are touched with the flame of true devotion ; and sure I am that no really devout worshipper of God will ever complain of the frequent repetition of such a prayer as this. For who, I would ask, ever finds it a wearisome task frequently to think or speak of that in which his heart is really engaged ? Who does not find rather, that, in such case, the very recurrence of the term, which is ex- pressive of the object so endeared to us, gives it the greater and more powerful access to his heart } Now, it is the heart, which is the only real seat of all true religion. It is upon this account that we are taught, by our Church, to call upon the * Lord of all power and might,' beseeching Him to ' graft in our hearts the love of His Name.'^ And who, that offers up such a petition in spirit and in truth, can ever be weary of saying, " Our Father which art in heaven, hallow^ed be Thy Name?" In teaching us to say, not "My," but "Our Father," Jesus emphatically reminds us, not only that the prayer is suited, as well for the purposes of public worship, as for the daily use of every child of ^ Collect for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity. 8 THE lord's prayer. God, but, also, that our prayers, even when they axe most private, should be charitably extended, so as to take in, with our own, the good of others ; and that when we are most earnest in offering prayers for our- selves at a throne of grace, we should not be unmind- ful of our brethren. Let the place and the perform- ance of secret prayer be as private as may be, still we are here taught that the scope of our supplication should be public as well as personal. It follows, therefore, that the most private prayer of every true believer may be regarded as a public good ; since the prayers which he pours forth may benefit others, as well as himself. In like manner, every believer has a share in all the prayers of his brethren ; and, in truth, though little considered by many of us, it is one of the many privileges belonging to that ' Com- munion of saints ' which constitutes an article of our faith, that every believer participates in the prayers of the Church at large. ' He is a partner,' says Arch- bishop Leigh ton, ' in every ship of that kind that puts forth to sea ; and he has a portion of all their gain- ful voyages.' And, indeed, if the observation of St. Ambrose be just, with regard to him ' who prays for HIMSELF ALONE,' VIZ. that hc ' stauds ALONE, with no one else to pray for him,' it is evident that even self-love may plead for this exercise of love to our brethren. When engaged, therefore, in our closets, in the exercise of devotion, let us not be unmindful of the Church of God. Let us not forget to seek the good SECT. I.] THE lord's PRAYER. [) of Zion, seeing that it is not only our duty, but that it may be our benefit, so to do. For are we not all concerned in the good of Zion, if we are, in truth, what we profess to be, parts of that mystical body of which Christ is the living Head ? We find that David, even when lamenting his own sinfulness, and praying for the light of God's countenance upon him- self, was not unmindful of the Church of God. " In Thy good pleasure," he says, " do good to Zion, and build up the walls of Jerusalem" (Ps. li. 18). And, assuredly, this should be the constant tenour of our prayers even in secret. " When thou prayest," says Jesus, in the passage immediately preceding the first deliveiy of this prayer, " shut thy door" (Matt. vi. 6). We are to shut out, therefore, as much as we can, the sight and notice of others ; but we are not to shut out the interest and the good of others. Let us remember the words of the prophet Malachi, " Have we not all one Father .'' Hath not one God created us ?" (Mai. ii. 10) ; and let us say, with overiiowing hearts, '* Our Father."* ^ * As for the appellation " Father," it doth mind us of our relation to God, who, upon many grounds and in divers high respects, is '• our Father." He is " our Father" by nature, for that He gave us our being, and made us after His own image ; by providence, for that He continually rcaintaineth and pre- serveth us ; by grace, for that He reneweth us to His image in righteousness and holiness ; and by adoption, for that He alloweth us the benefit and privilege of His children, assigning au eternal inheritance to us. It is natural for chUdien, in any danger, strait, or want, to fly to their parents for shelter, relief. 10 THE LORD S PRAYER. Yes; let this be the spirit in which we daily- utter these words, regarding ourselves as interces- sors, one for another, because we are bound together by the tie of * one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of Christ ;'^ and then, how ardent will be our devotions, when we assemble together, on each returning Sabbath, in the courts of the Lord's house ! Having been accustomed, always, to regard ourselves and others as the members of that one mystical body, we shdl never exhibit, within the house of God, the listless countenance or the wan- dering eye, as if the exercise of public worship were nothing to us. But we shall rejoice at every new opportunity of entering the house of common prayer; and while, with a pure heart and humble and succour: and it is so, likewise, for us to have recourse unto God, in all those cases wherein no visible means of help appear from elsewhere ; and to do so, the title of Father doth encourage us, signifying not only power and authority over us, but affec- tion and dearness towards us. The name God, importing His excellent perfections ; the name Lord, minding us of His power and empire over us ; with the like titles, declai'ative of His supereminent majesty, might deter us, being conscious of our meanness and unworthiness, from approaching to Him : but the word Father is attractive and emboldening. Thinking on that, we shall be apt to conceive hope, that, how mean, how unworthy soever, yet, being His children. He will not reject or refuse us ; for, " If men, being evil, do give good gifts unto their children, how much more will our Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask Him ?" (Matt. vii. 11.)' — Dr. Isaac Barrow. ^ Collect for All Saints' Day. SECT. 1.] THE lord's PRAYER. 11 voice, we repeat, each for himself and for all around him, the words " Our Father,"^ we shall experience something of that holy rapture which led the patri- arch to exclaim, " This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Gen. xxviii, 17). And now, as we pause for a while upon these words, " Our Father," let us consider how forcibly they declare to us, that though love surpassing thought beams forth in every part of the great scheme of salvation, still it is a love in perfect con- sistency with a holiness which cannot look upon iniquity. It is, in short, the love of that Almighty God, who has not exerted His omnipotence in silen- cing or overstepping the claims of justice, but in meeting them and fulfilling them. For before we can contemplate God as " our Father," we must first regard Him as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who yet became the Son of man, that He might make us the sons of God. Yes, though we know ^ * For ourselves, necessity compelleth us to pray, " My Father." * For our brethreu, charity inviteth us to pray, " Our Fa- ther." ' In these two words, " Our" and " Father," the law and prophets are comprehended. * In " Father," the love of God. * In " Our," the love of our neighbour. ' And in these two words the sum of the Gospel is con- tained. In '"Father"^ ^^^ f faith. ' " Our'' / 1 charity.' Instiiutiones Pia ; edited by Archdeacon Hale. 12 THE lord's prayer. that Jesus Christ is that well-beloved Son, in whom the Father is* always well pleased ; though we know that the Father " possessed Him in the beginning of His way, before His works of old" (Prov. viii. 22) ; yet such is the Father's abhorrence of sin, that this well-beloved Son must humble Himself unto death, even the death of the Cross, before the sinner can be redeemed from the curse which sin has introduced. To all, therefore, who refuse to honour this Son, as the one appointed Mediator between God and man, God is and must be a consuming fire ! But " as many as receive Him, to them giveth He power to become the sons of God" (John i. 12). And O, what heart can conceive, or what tongue can declare, the blessedness of those who are made " the children of God by. faith in Christ Jesus !" (Gal. iii. 26.) Having been admitted, at Holy Baptism, into the family of God, they have deemed it their highest privilege to approach Him, day by day, in the words of this Divine Prayer, which was then repeated, in their behalf, as a pledge of their adop- tion into the congregation of Christ's flock. Under all the trials, and amidst all the changes, of this mortal life, they have known what it is to look to their heavenly Father, for guidance and for help. And if they have ever wandered from their Father's house, they have deeply felt what an evil and bitter thing it is thus to turn away from Him, of whom they can say, from their own experience, that He is not, as the world ignorantly conceives, a hard and SECT. I.] THE lord's PllAYEll. 13 severe taskmaster ; but a lo\dng and tender Father, sparing us when we deserve punishment, and in the midst of judgment thinking upon mercy. May we ever hear that Father saying to us, " How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a land of desire, and an heritage of glory!" (Jer. iii. 19 ; and see margin.) And, with our hearts penetrated by a sense of such unutterable love, may we each of us have grace to say, " My Father, Thou art the Guide of my youth ; suffer me not to turn away from Thee" (see Jer. iii. 4, 19). For " doubtless Thou art on: Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not : Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer" (Is. Ixiii. 16). Let us, then, only ponder in our hearts the full scope and signification of the words, " Our Father WHICH ART IN HEAVEN," and we shaU fccl coHstrained to say ;^ Blessed and comprehensive form of words ! Almighty Father of all ; Father of all that was, and is, and is to come ; Father of every thing that hath, and every thing that hath not, within it the breath of life ; Creator of the heavens and of the earth ; Creator of the angels, that excel in strength, and of all the host of heaven ; Creator of all creatures that live and move, and have their being upon the face of the earth ; Cre- ator of the fowls of the air, and of the fishes of the sea, and of the beasts of the field, and of creeping ' See Benson's Sermon on Luke xi. 2 ; and Archbishop Leighton on the Lord's Prayer. c 14" THE lord's prayer. things innumerable ; Creator of man, Father of our souls and of our bodies, great Source of all we are, and have, and hope for ; To Thee, the eternal Parent of the universe, we lift our thoughts, in the humility of prayer, when we bid our tongues obey the com- mands of Thy Son, and address Thee as " our Fa- ther!" Our Father Thou art, because Thou hast formed us out of the dust of the ground ; our Father Thou art, because Thou hast adopted us into the children of Thine inheritance; our Father, because Thou hast spiritually begotten us, that we might be called the sons of God ; our Father, because we are the brethren, and Thou art the very Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In all these glorious attributes, and under all these varied forms of creation, we look up to Thee, when we call upon Thee as " our Father." Thou hast graciously imparted to us that spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father ; and what is there which Thou wilt not vouchsafe, in answer to the prayers of Thy children, seeing that Thou hast not denied them this, the greatest privilege of all, viz. to call Thee " Father." " Our Father," too, " which art in heaven!" And therefore, as heavenly, and not as earthly, do we call upon Thee.^ Emboldened to address Thee, ^ * Our prayers are directed to our Father in heaven ; be- cause, though He hears them wheresoever they are uttered, yet He no where hears them with acceptance save only in heaven ; and the reason is, because our prayers are acceptable only as they are presented before the Father, through the intercession SECT. I.J THE lord's pkaykr. 15 as " our Father which art in heaven," we raise our thoughts from earth to heaven ; we look up to that seat, where Thou hast dwelt from eternity, enthroned in majesty above all height, and clothed with light which no eye can bear to behold. To none upon earth do we call ; for they, being earthly, could nei- ther hear nor help us according to our wants. But Thou dwellest above all, as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, in the height and in the holiness of heaven ; Thou art a Spirit, and therefore the discerner of our spirits ; Thou art Holy, and therefore a lover and rewarder of the holy ; Thou art High and above all, and therefore art able to look into the very inmost chambers of the heart, knowing all our necessities be- fore we ask, and our ignorance in asking. In teaching us to say, " Our Father," our Lord reminds us of the mercy of Him, on whom we call, in order that He may beget in us the confidence of of the Son. Now the Son performs His mediatorial office only in heaven ; for He performs it in both natures, as He is not only God but man, sitting at the right hand of the Father; and therefore we are still concerned to pray to " Our Father which is in heaven." God, indeed, hears us upon earth; for there is not a word in our tongues, but, " behold, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether" (Ps. cxxxix. 4). But this will not avail us unless God hears our prayers a second time, as repeated over in the intercession of Jesus Christ, and perfumed with the in- cense which He offers up with the prayers of all the saints.' — " Bishop Hopkins. ' They also are " in heaven," says St. Cyril, who bear the image of the heavenly ; in whom God is, dwelling and walking in them' (2 Cor. vi. 16). 16 THE lord's prayer. faith ; and in teaching us to say, " Our Father which ART IN HEAVEN," Hc reminds us of His majesty, that He may beget in us humiUty and reverential fear. And it is in this mingled spirit of childlike confidence, deep humility, and holy fear, that we should ever put forth our prayers to " Our Father which is in hea- ven." For * most certain it is, that they who dare speak rashly to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, know not His greatness ; and that they who dare not speak to Him, provided it be with filial re- verence and fear, know not His goodness. '^ As often, moreover, as the believer repeats these words, " Our Father which art in heaven," he regards them as seal- ing to him the blessed assurance that his portion is " in heaven ;" that his inheritance lies there, where it cannot be lost or impaired. And therefore, if the believer deems it his best privilege to call God a " Father," it is because he knows that to be the son of God is not an empty title ; but that He, who makes us " sons," makes us " heirs" likewise ; even " heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. viii. 17). For although earthly fathers, by reason of the limited nature of all worldly possessions, are compelled, for the most part, to restrict their inheritance to their elder children, it is not thus with the possession which God has in store for those that love Him. No, all who belong to the family of God, are partakers of the same rich inheritance ; and all who are made *• meet 1 Archbishop Leighton. SECT. I.] THE lord's PRAYER. 17 to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. i. 12), shall, as ages roll along, still stand beside the ocean of the Divine Perfections, and shall still exclaim, with adoring hearts, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom, and power, and love of our Fa- ther and our God ! It was to purchase this inherit- ance for us, that the Son of God came from heaven to earth ; and He is returned thither to prepare it for us : "I go," says Jesus to all true believers, " to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there ye may be also" (John xiv. 2). Do we then desire to be " where He is ?" If we do, let us shew that we are continually mindful of our inheritance, by " hallowing the Name" of " Our Fa- ther which is in heaven ;" let us shew that we are continually mindful of our inheritance, by walking as becomes the children of that Father, who, while by making us " joint-heirs with Christ," He has given us a " name better than of sons and daughters" (Is. Ivi. 5), has commanded us to shew that we belong to His family, by having our conversation daily in hea- ven. And let us consider, within ourselves, how cer- tain it is that then only is God's " Name" really " hallowed" by His children, when they are " holy in all manner of conversation" (1 Pet. i. 15). For though we may tell the world that God is holy, they know Him not ; they can neither see Him nor His holiness. But when they see that there are men of the same sinful and polluted nature with themselves, who are yet so renewed in the spirit of their minds c 2 18 THE lord's prayer. that they hate the defilements of the world, and do indeed live as burni-ng and shining lights in the midst of a perverse and crooked generation ; this may, and this will convince them, that there is, in a land far off, a spring of holiness, where it is, in all its blessed fulness, and from whence these drops have descended upon the children of men.i And while we thus daily endeavour to " hallow the Name" of our God, in all our life and conversa- tion, let our dally conviction of the weakness of our mortal nature, and of the imperfection of our best and holiest services, lead us daily to rejoice in the thought that there are purer services and praises given Him above ; that there are multitudes of angels and glori- fied spirits " hallowing" and praising His great and glorious " Name," who " rest not day and night, saying. Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come" (Rev. iv. 8). In this grand chorus, all the children of God, even though yet militant on earth, are permitted to take part. And we should therefore daily endeavour, by Divine grace, ' ' Let Thy Name, thy essence, and glorious attributes be honoured and adored in all the worM, believed by faith, loved by charity, celebrated with praises, thanked with eucharist; and let Thy Name be hallowed in us, as it is in itself.'— BrsHOP Jeremy Taylor. * We say, " Hallowed be Thy Name " not that we wish for God, that He may be hallowed by our prayers, but that we ask of Him that His Name may be hallowed in us ; we ask and pray that we, who have been sanctified in baptism, may perse- vere therein, wherein we have begun to be.' — St. Cyi^rian. SECT. I.] TiIK lord's PRAYER. 19 SO to live above the snares and temptations of this sinful world, that we may be able to add our joyful acclamation, saying, though in a lower key, in answer to the words of the heavenly worshippers ; Even so, Lord, " HALLOWED BE ThY NaME."^ • * By a rare complication, this sentence doth involve both praise and petition ; doth express both our acknowledgment of what is, and our desire of what should be. We do, I say, hereby partly acknowledge and praise the supereminent per- fections of God above all things, in all kind of excellency, join- ing in that seraphical doxology which to utter is the continual employment of the blessed spirits above, and confessing, with the heavenly host, that the '' Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Al- mighty" is worthy to receive " glory, and honour, and praise" (Rev. iv. 8, 11). We do also partly declare our hearty wishes that God may be every where had in highest veneration ; that all things relating to Him may receive their due regard ; that all honour and praise, all duty and service, may in a peculiar manner be rendered unto Him by all men, by all creatures, by ourselves especially ; that all minds may entertain good and worthy opinions of Him ; all tongues speak well of Him, cele- brate and bless Him ; all creatures yield adoration to His Name and obedience to His will ; that He be worshipped in truth and sincerity, with zeal and fervency. This, particularly in the prophet Isaiah, and by St. Peter (Isa. viii. 13, xxix. 23 ; and 1 Pet. iii. 14, 15), is called " sanctifying God's Name," in opposition to idolatrous and profane rehgion. " Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself, and let Him be your fear, let Hira be your dread," saith the prophet; and " Fear not their fear, nor be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts," saith the apostle. Thus do we pray and wish, in respect to all men, and to all creatures capable of thus sanctifying God's Name ; but, more particularly, we pray for ourselves, that God would 20 THE LORD S PRAYER. grant to us that we, by our religious and righteous conversa. tion, may bring honour to His Name; so that " men, seeing our good works, may glorify our Father which is in heaven" (Matt. V. 16, compared with 1 Pet. ii. 12). ' Vouchsafe, O Father, that we may live so purely, that all men by us may glorify Thee:' so descants St. Chrysostom.' — Dr. Isaac Barrow. SECTION II. THE PETITION FOR THK COMING OF HIS KINGDOM. " Thy kingdom come."— Matt. vi. 10 ; Luke xi. 2. ^^n'HE opening words of this Divine Prayer have taught us that our supplications IV ^^^M' ^^ ^^^ throne of grace, even when they "^^ ^^^gj j are most private, should be charitably extended to others ; and that when we are most earnest in offering up prayers for ourselves, we should not be unmindful of the wants of mankind at large ; for we pray that "Our heavenly Father's Name may be hallowed." And can we utter this petition, in sincerity and truth, without desiring the continual increase of such devout worshippers, as may present this " incense to His Name and a pure offering?" (Mai. i. 11.) In one word, can we daily pray that God's ** Name" may be " hallowed," with- out desiring that the " kingdom" of His grace may " COME," in the fulness of its power and extent, and that " the kingdoms of this world" may " become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ ?" (Rev. xi. 15.) 22 THE lord's prayer. When we consider the state of things at the time when the " kingdom" of God, or the Gospel-dispen- sation, was first " coming," or, approaching among men, we may regard our Lord's disciples as desiring, in the first instance, that Christianity might soon be propagated through the world ; so that all men might willingly acknowledge God as their Lord and Maker, worshipping and serving Him in truth ; and that they might receive HLs blessed Son Jesus Christ as their King and Saviour, heartily embracing His doctrines, and humbly submitting to His laws. And, by parity of reason, we should desire, as we utter this clause in the Lord's Prayer, that the Christian rehgion may be settled and confirmed, may grow and increase, may prosper and flourish in the world ; and that God's authority may be maintained and promoted, both in external profession and real effect ; the minds of all men being subdued to the obedience of faith, freely and cheerfully avowing the subjection due to Him, and truly yielding obedience to His most just and holy laws. And it is in the spirit of this Divine Prayer, therefore, that our own scriptural Collect, for * all conditions of men,' opens with an earnest petition to God, as the ' Creator and Preserver of all mankind,' beseeching Him, * that He may be pleased to make His ways known unto them. His saving health unto all nations.' But, on the other hand, unless we ourselves, who utter this prayer, shall receive the kingdom of God into our own hearts, to what purpose do we pray to SECT. II.] THE lord's PRAYER. 23 Him, as if we desired that it should be enlarged and flourish abroad? Accordingly, in the Collect just referred to, we go on to pray, for ourselves, who are the subjects of that kingdom, beseeching God to grant that we, who ' profess and call ourselves Chris- tians, may be led into the way of truth, and may hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life.' And, in like manner, as often as we pray, in the words " Thy kingdom come," for the gradual enlargement and future per- fection of God's visible kingdom, we must remember that, unless, at such seasons of prayer, we are trifling with the Divine Majesty, we are thus beseeching our heavenly Father, that He would graciously establish His kingdom in our own hearts. This personal appli- cation of the prayer to our own hearts and lives, it behoves each of us to- regard, as we daily utter the words of this clause. And, keeping this in view, I know not how I can better illustrate this clause in the Lord's Prayer, than by our Lord's answer to the Pharisees, when interrogated by them as to the com- ing of the " kingdom of God." " He answered them and said. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation ; neither shall they say, Lo, here ! or Lo, there ! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke xvii. 20, 21). The kingdom of God, as Jesus declares in these words, is not in the pomp or the glory of the world. In vain shall we look for it there. Many there are who profess to desire it, but they w^ill not learn how 24 THE lord's prayer. to look for it, or how to prepare themselves for it. The search must be unintermitted ; the preparation must be going on at every moment of our lives. "Worldly men, dazzled by the glare of an earthly monarchy, are quite unable to discern the kingdom of God ; and they care not to seek for it, since it is established only on the ruins of that love which they cherish for the world, and for the things belonging to it. The kingdom of grace is visible only to those who are endowed with spiritual discernment, and to whom the things that are not seen are their all in aU. * But it may, perhaps, be lawful for us to consider this phrase of " the kingdom of God within us," more particularly since our Lord's words were addressed to the Pharisees, as placed in contrast, not only with outward pomp and splendour, generally, but, more especially, with the rites and solemnities wl^ich dis- tinguished the worship of God under the Law ; and I would therefore offer a few remarks,^ on the points of agreement and difference between the Mosaic and o Christian dispensations. To begin with their agreement. A very little consideration may induce us to accept the statement of the seventh article of our Church, that ' the Old Testament is not contrary to the New ; ' but that * both in the Old and New Testament, everlasting ^ For the substance of these remarks I am indebted to Miller's Bampton Lectures. SECT. II.] THE lord's PRAYER. 25 life is offered to mankind l)y Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man.' The appointment, for a season, of institutions adapted to the state and necessities of man, and their repeal afterwards, when they had fulfilled the purpose intended, — this is con- sistent M^ith every notion which we can form of per- fect wisdom. But the will of the Almighty we cannot suppose subject to change ; " heaven and enrth shall pass away," but the word which God hath spoken " shall not pass away" (Matt. xxiv. 35). And there- fore, admitting the New Testament to be true, and embracing it as such, we cannot do otherwise than admit, as a truth involved in this, that the substance of the elder must, in effect, be one and the same with that of the later dispensation. This point may be illustrated by comparing our Saviour's declaration, that He gave to His disciples " a new commandment" (John xiii. 34), with St. John's language, in his first general epistle, where he says, " Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment, which ye had from the beginning" (1 John ii. 7). It was a " new commandment," then, not in letter or in effect, but in extent and sanction ; new, in revealed motives, since it was founded now upon better promises; new, in respect of the example set for its fulfilment, and the encouragement offered for observing it ; new, also, by reason of the practical degradation and disuse into which it had fallen. But, in purpose and effect, it was old ; in respect of its inherent tendency to bring 26 THE lord's prayer. man into present happiness and peace, and to fit him for a blessed eternity, it was " the same which was from the beginning." And not only has this great scheme of moral go- vernment been one in substance, but it has been uni- formly working its way, so to speak, through the same substantial state of things. It has had to ope- rate upon the same moral constitution of human na- ture ; and it has had to travel onward through the same order of natural providences. Day unto day still uttereth speech, and night unto night still shew- eth knowledge : the lights of heaven still rule in the firmament, and seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, still return, as they always have returned, and as the Lord has declared that they always shall return, while the earth re- maineth. Man, too, continues the same as ever; born with the same nature, tempted by the same passions, liable to fall continually through the same licentious- ness of an obstinate will, and only to be restored by the same heavenly grace. Had it been otherwise, and had the laws of the Divine government appeared sub- ject to change or caprice, we might have doubted ; but, as things are, we are willing to believe, from the very fact of their consistency, that the same " Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (Rev. xix. 6) over the children of men. But still there is a great difference' between the Mosaic and Christian dispensations ; and this may be illustrated by what St. Paul says, in his epistle to the SECT. II.] THE lord's PRAYER. 27 Galatians : " We, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements," or, " rudiments^ of the world ; but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son ; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ" (Gal. iv. 3-7). Under the Mosaic covenant, there- fore, that appeal was chiefly made which was propor- tioned and adapted to the capacities of children. An open and direct appeal to the motives, the hopes, and the faculties, which belong to the raaturer age, was reserved until the " ministration of death" and " con- demnation" (2 Cor. iii. 7 and 9), put to proof and found wanting, might itself stand forth, in its wreck and insufficiency, an additional and most convincing argument, that to live by sight is not the way to con- quer the perverse will, nor to bring the heart of man unto that extent of obedience and of purity, of which, even in this present life, God hath vouchsafed to make it capable. Such vv'ould appear to be the respective charac- ters of these two dispensations ; and, accordingly, the means employed under each will appear to be exactly adapted to the difference here pointed out in their several methods of appeal. In the earlier dispensa- tion, we observ^e many splendid outward manifesta- tions, by visible symbols of the DiAine presence, and ^ Compare Col. ii. 8, 20. 28 THE lord's prayer. by signs of guidance and protection, held forth to the very eyesight of the subjects whom it called to obey : but only a temporary end was fully declared. The real and enduring end was hidden, as it were, behind a veil. Under the Gospel, the order is reversed. In- finitely as the glory of the latter revelation surpasses that of the former, yet, like the latter compared with the former temple, it is greater only by a spiritual greatness. The Law may be truly said to have had its end veiled, wdth its means of appeal, outward and visible ; whereas the Gospel, or, the kingdom of grace, has its means inward and spiritual, but its end fully revealed. The view which we have now been taking of the Christian dispensation, as not coming with observa- tion or outward show, but as being the kingdom or reign of God within us, is calculated, under the Divine blessing, to promote the growth of the three Christian graces, so peculiarly characteristic of a spiritual king- dom ; FAITH, and hope, and love. 1. To instance in faith. Viewing ourselves as the subject^ of a spiritual dispensation, we shall not stagger, through unbelief, at the mournful sight which is so continually presented to us, by the two opposite classes of practical and intellectual unbelievers. For we shall well know the hopelessness of expecting to convert or convince, by merely human means, those who will persist in strengthening themselves in the might and the pride of their own unassisted under- standing ; and we shall feel within ourselves a living SECT. II.] THE lord's PRAYER. 29 •witness that it is not by our own strength that we stand, but by the grace and blessing of God upon the disposition which He has given us to receive His will. If we would habitually view ourselves in this light, we should learn how to conduct ourselves toward per- sons betraying either of these unhappy states of mind ; ever remembering that, while we must keep fast to our own convictions, as we value our immortal souls, we must, at the same time, prove the sincerity and power of those convictions, by abounding more and more in the fruits of patience, and forbearance, and meekness, and gentleness, to all around us ; and must ever remember that the strength of the believer lies in internal confidence, not in outward debate and strife. All are not warriors and champions in the Israel of God. Many cannot go forth with the armour of disputation ; for they have not proved it. But all who surely trust in the protection of that God, who hath preserved the heritage and flock of their fathers, may wield successfully the sling and the stone of a simple and charitable conversation. And that which is prescribed to Christians, generally, in this matter, is, to be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in th^m with meekness and fear, and with well-doing to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. 2. We see how the subject before us bears upon the cultivation of the grace of hope. By hope, I would here be understood to comprehend, in its full- est sense, not only an assured expectation of an eter- nal state of glory and joy, but that state of mind, D 2 30 THE LORD S PRAYER. ascribed to the father of the faithful, which " against hope can believe in hope" (Rom. iv. 18), when con- templating the general aspects of a fallen world. . It may be said, of the believer, that he " casts his bread upon the waters," only in the sure hope of " finding it after many days" (Eccles. xi. 1). Always bearing in mind, that the kingdom of God cometh not with outward show, he derives comfort from the as- surance, that, upon that very account, they who belong to that heavenly kingdom, and are fellow- citizens with the saints, care not to have their works seen of men, or to have men say, " Lo, here ! or, Lo, there !" but are content to tread in secret the path of duty, with a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man. He knows that the spiritual fabric, which is erected on the basis of faith and love, and of which Jesus Christ is the chief corner-stone, generally rises in secrecy and silence towards the gates of heaven ; and that it may be said of it. as of the Temple of Je- rusalem of old, that there is " neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while it is in building" (1 Kings vi. 7). Remembering this, the believer still looks up, amidst appearances the most discouraging, to the polar- star of Christian hope. It may be, in the mercy of God, that he shall find the bread which he has cast upon the waters, in this life, but he reckons upon it only in another. The believer does not look, therefore, towards the visible sum of other people's account, but to that which serves to- wards the positive increase, the required amount of SECT, II.] THE lord's PRAYER. 31 his own. He knows that he is to " work out his own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. ii. 12) ; and in this he is always upheld by a hope which maketh not ashamed, because he knows, also, that " it is God which worketh in him both to will and to do of His good pleasure." 3. But, in fulfilling this his appointed work, the believer's path lies through the blessed employment of advancing the happiness of his fellow- creatures. On this, therefore, the attention of the believer will always be set ; and to this object he will, in the un wearied exercise of Christian love, be continually pressing forward. Not that he ever allows himself to form any wild or extravagant project of an universal reformation ; but he desires, in simplicity and godly sincerity, to contribute his own share towards an event which he is satisfied to leave in the hands of the Almighty. And, with this end always in view, he humbly endeavours, at all times and in all ways, to recommend that which is good to others by the light of personal example ; so that they, who will not listen to the w^ords, may be brought to reverence the works, of the Spirit, and be led at last " to glorify our Father which is in heaven" (Matt. v. 16). Let it thus be seen, from the manner in which we walk before men, that the kingdom of God is indeed within us ; let it only be seen, that the whole com- plexion of our lives corresponds with the language of our prayers ; and many of those, who have been hitherto wandering in the ways of their own hearts. 32 THE lord's prayer. will desire to become the subjects of that kingdom which begins on earth, and is to be perfected in heaven. For, be it remembered, the " kingdom," for the " coming" of which we daily pray, is a kingdom to be PERFECTED hereafter. Those members of the Church who are already in heaven, are permitted to witness, even now, some of its glorious manifesta- tions. There is the throne of God especially esta- blished ; and there it is that He displays Himself in the splendour of His majesty. In that blest abode, there is no mixture of the good and the bad together, neither is there any mixture of bad in the good ; but all are holy, for " there shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth" (Rev. xxi. 27). There are neither temptations to try God's people, nor sins to defile them, nor sorrows to afflict them ; but all is peace, and purity, and joy. For there all tears have been wiped away from the eyes of its inhabitants ; and all sin, the cause of those tears, has been rooted out of their hearts. And yet, as it has been truly said, two things are stUl wanting to complete the happiness of the saints in heaven. 1 . For, on the one hand, the kingdom of God is not yet perfected : nor will it be, till the whole num- ber of the elect shall be called, and the whole number of the called glorified. Many are yet conflicting here below, and ripening- for their eternal reward, and many are yet unborn •, all of whom God will, in His SECT. II.] THE lord's PRAYER. 33 due time, bring into the possession of His heavenly kingdom, to complete the number of His glorious subjects. And therefore it is said, concerning the saints who are already in heaven, that " white robes" have been " given unto every one of them," and that they are to " rest yet for a little season, until their fellow -sei-vants also and their brethren" shall " be FULFILLED." (See Rev. vi. 11.) 2. And, on the other hand, those saints who are now in heaven have not attained to a perfect con- summation of happiness ; for their bodies continue still under the arrest of death and the power of the grave. But, through that mysterious union which subsists between Jesus Christ and His mystical body, they shall, at His coming, obtain a glorious and joy- ful resurrection. And then shall the kingdom, for which we pray, be every way perfect. The kingdom shall itself be perfect, in the full number of its sub- jects, and every subject shall be perfect, in his full reward ; his soul made for ever blessed in the blissful \dsion of God, and his body made inconceivably glo- rious, by " bearing the image of the heavenly" (1 Cor. XV. 49) ; and both shall remain for ever with the Lord. May this hope animate our prayers ; and, while thus engaged, we shall enjoy, in its fullest extent, the blessedness of the communion of saints. For though we may not pray to, or for, the souls of the departed, yet we may, and we should, pray with them, • for the Second Advent of Christ, in His glorious ma- 34 THE lord's prayer. jesty, to judge the quick and dead. The souls of the faithful are, indeed, already * dehvered from the bur^ den of the flesh,' and are ' in joy and felicity.'^ But as "WITHOUT us" they cannot be "made perfect" (Heb. xi. 40), so, together with us, they are look- ing forward to that day, when all the redeemed of the Lord shall have their ' perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in His eternal and everlasting glory. '2 Yes ; in this we are permitted, even now, to join, daily and hourly, with the members of the Church in heaven ; viz. in praying that the days of sin and misery may be shortened ; that Christ may come in His glory ;^ and that, after rising to the life immortal, we all may be one, Christ in us, and we in Christ, that we may be made perfect in one. ** Even so come. Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen." (See Rev. xxii. 20.) ^ Service for the Burial of the Dead. 2 Ibid. ; and see Rev. vi. 10, 11. 2 ' The kingdom of grace being in order to the kingdom of glory, the latter, as it is principally to be desired, so may pos- sibly be here chiefly intended ; vsrhich also is the more probable, because the address of this prayer being to God the Father, it is proper to observe, that the kingdom of grace, or, of the Gospel, is called the kingdom of the Son; and that of glory, in the style of Scripture, is the kingdom of the Father.' — Bishop Jeremy Taylor. * SECTION III. THE rKTITION FUR THE FULFILMENT OF HIS WILL IN EARTH, AS IT IS FULFILLED IN HEAVEN. ' Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." — Matt. vi. 10. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth."— Lu/ce xi. 2. ^^ S we proceed ^\ith this Divine Prayer, ni^v' we perceive, more and more clearly, ^vs^L LT "J t^J ^^"^ suited it is to guide and assist us L^^t<^^ in ordering the frames and desires of the heart, as often as we approach " our Father which is in heaven." We are plainly taught, in it, not only to prefer the honour of God to our own immediate interest, and to set the heart first upon its advance- ment, but to keep the heart stedfastly fixed on that one end. For the Prayer leads us to dwell upon the honour due to the Divine Majesty, in three several petitions, thus ' varying^ the expression of that one desire, as often as there are several requests following of our own concernment ; and thus plainly teaching us, that the glory of God does, in its own worth, and therefore should, likewise, in our afi'ections, out- Archbishop Leighton. 36 THE lord's PRA-YER. weigh all tlie different things besides that we can de- sire — "Thy Name be hallowed; Thy kingdom COME ; Thy will be done in earth, as it is in HEAVEN." '' And not only does the dignity of the thing itself demand this adding of one request to another, in order to stir up our dull and backward aifections to the pitch of true devotion, but as Archbishop Leigh- ton remarks, there is, in the petitions themselves, a very profitable difference, though their scope be one. They are so many different arrows aimed at the same mark. In the first petition, "Hallowed be Thy Name," we express our desire that every kind and degree of ' ' The feeling of zeal for God's glory so pervaded the heart of Jesus Himself, and He knew it to be one of so absorb- ing a character in all God's children, that not only has He placed the expression of it foremost in the prayer, but He has supplied, for that expression, notwithitandmg the exceeding brevity of the whole composition, not less than three separate sentences, or, rather, a threefold outlet for the inward rush of feeling. For, in the feebleness of language, and its utter inad- equacy to express the more intense emotions, this is the only expedient to which men can have recourse — to piece out, as it were, the scantiness of the material employed — to make up for the insufficiency of one form of utterance, by the addition of another, and another, which together may supply the symbol, if not the perfect picture, of our inward mind, and indicate the length and breadth of those emotions to which we would fain give full expression — '* Hallowed be Thy Name," ex- claims the Christian to his Heavenly Father ; " Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.'" — Griffith on the Lord's Prayer. SECT. III.] THE lord's PRAYER. 37 honour may be oiFered to the Name of God. And because His Name is especially honoured in the ad- vancement of His spiritual kingdom, the second peti- tion is ; " Thy kingdom come." And because, until that kingdom shall be completed, it lies in two several countries ; the one part of it being already above, which is the appointed place for the perfection and perpetuity of this kingdom ; the other part being here below, but continually tending thither; — the words of this third petition, " Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," particularly relate to all who are serving God on earth ; desiring, for them, that, in obedience to their King, they may be as much conformed as is possible to those who are serving Him above ; even to those countless hosts of minis- tering spirits, who encircle His throne, and who cease not day and night, to celebrate and to serve Him, with uninterrupted praises and with unerring obe- dience.^ ' * These three petitions are addressed to God by way of adoration In the first, " Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name," the soul puts on the afiFections of a child, and divests itself of its own interest, offering itself up wholly to the designs and glorifications of God. In the second, " Thy kingdom come," it puts on the relation and duty of a subject to her legitimate prince, seeking the promotion of his regal interest. In the third, " Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," she puts on the affections of a spouse, loving the same love, and choosing the same object, and delighting in union and conformities. And in the three following petitions, which concern ourselves, the soul hath affections proper to her E 38 THE lord's prayer. It follows, therefore, from the scope of this peti- tion, that we ought to regard the world as a school, in which we are to be taught obedience and submis- sion to the will of God, that so we may be trained up for " the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. i. 12). For here it is, that we discover the necessity of God's government, and the equity and excellence of God's law. Here it is, that we learn the indispens- able obligation of full and unreserved submission to God's will ; seeing that misery, and discord, and con- fusion, arise from the opposition of human wills, and from their perpetual struggles for the mastery. And here it is, that we learn to prize that holy reverential fear of God which is the source of all true obedience ; seeing that they only are able, at all times, and un- der all circumstances, to " delight themselves in the abundance of peace" (Ps. xxxvii. 11), whose hearts are filled with this spirit of holy fear, and whose feet have therefore been guided into all the paths of such obedience. But if this be the lesson which the Christian may derive from his residence in the world, how sweet and how abundant is the encouragement which he receives own needs, as in the three former to God's glory. In the first of them, she expresses the affection of a poor, indigent, and necessitous beggar ; in the second, of an offending but penitent servant ; in the last, of a person in affliction or danger. ' A.nd after all this, the reason of our confidence is derived from God: " For Thine is tlie kingdom, the povrer, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.'" — Bishop Jeremy Taylok. SECT. III.] THE lord's PKAYER. 39 in every part of Scripture, thus to persevere in his obedience ! "What man is he that feareth the Lord } him shall He teach," says David, " in the way that He shall choose" (Ps. xxv. 12). Yea, says a greater than David, " If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whe- ther I speak of myself" (John vii. 17). And, to re- present still more emphatically the Christian's privi- leges, our Lord says elsewhere, " Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother" (Mark iii. 35). In other words, the man, who doeth the will of God from the heart, does, in very deed, belong to the family and house- hold of God. For, by " keeping the words" of Jesus, the believer shews that he " loveth Him" (John xiv. 23) : and of every one who thus loveth Him, and keepeth His words, Jesus says, " My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Such is the gracious promise which the Saviour has made to all who walk in the way of God's commandments ; and well, therefore, may all such be described as * The living homes, where Christ shall dwell, And never pass away.'' With such encouragements before us, let us now turn to tlie petition which our Lord Himself has taught us to use, and let us ponder in our hearts the full scope of these few but comprehensive words, " Thy will BE DONE IN EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN." * Keble's Hymn on the Annunciation. 40 THE lord's prayer. Now what is the spirit in which we usually repeat the words, " Thy will be done ?" When we utter this petition, is it in the spirit of simple acquiescence in our heavenly Father's will ? Do we, in short, view God, as a kind, and tender, and compassionate Pa- rent, sparing us when we deserve punishment, and in the midst of judgment thinking upon mercy ? And do we, therefore, desire to improve the talents com- mitted to our charge, in conformity with the will of Him whose we are, and whom we ought to serve with every faculty and every ivffection of the soul ? Or do we not, rather, too frequently hide our talent in a napkin, or conceal it under the earth, like the sloth- ful servant in the parable, as if we were called upon to serve an austere master, who would compel us to serve with rigour, and would make our lives bitter with hard bondage ? Yes ; we are all too apt either to worship altoge- ther a god of our own imagination, or to form our judgment of the character of God only from that un- willing exercise of His severer attributes, which we have, as it were, extorted from Him by our sins. But if we would view the Lord our God, not in this par- tial light, nor according to the vain, and shallow, and imperfect conceptions of our own corrupt and ignorant minds, but as He is plainly revealed to us in the Bible, in all the glorious harmony of the Divine perfections, — we should at once feel and acknowledge, that " even as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him" (Ps. ciii. 13). We should there SECT. 111.] THE lord's PRAYER. 41 find it written in every page, thut though we have left our Father's house, and have been bhndly following the devices and desires of our own sinful hearts, He is still stretching forth His hands to us, and is still pro- mising us forgiveness of all that is past, if, with a perfect and true heart, we will return unto Him. Let us, therefore, acquaint ourselves with the character and with the dispensations of God, as set forth in Scripture ; and we shall understand, that, when He calls upon us to " do His will," or, in other words, to be holy, even as He is holy, He does in eifect call upon us to be happy, even as He is happy. In one word, let us only return to our Father's house ; and, in proportion as we shall exchange the miserable bondage of sin and Satan, for that service of God in which our freedom consists, we shall find that the holiness in which we are now commanded to walk, is only another name for happiness commenced upon earth ; being, as it were, a pledge to assure us that the perfection of happiness which awaits us hereafter, is only the perfection of holiness in the kingdom of the blessed, ' Our will,' says Bishop Andrews, ' is blind and foohsh ; but God's will is full of counsel and wisdom. Our will is crooked, and perverse, and froward ; but His will is full of all goodness, as we are to under- stand hereby, that He sheweth himself a Father to us. If a child be left to his own will, it is as much as his life is worth ; and our will being childish, we must be abridged of it, or else we shall fall into E 2 42 THE lord's prayer. danger. Therefore do we pray, not only that we may submit our will to God's, but that we may ut- terly deny our own will, so that God's holy will may take place in us. Nor is this all : we pray, not only that we may have a will and desire to do God's will, but also that we may have ability and power to do it, since of ourselves we have no strength for the per- formance. The apostle saith, that we are " not suffi- cient of ourselves to think any thing, as of ourselves" (2 Cor. iii. 5). Yea, such is our corruption, that, though God will, we will not. It is certain, then, that we have not, of ourselves, either wiU or ability, but that it is God who giveth both. And therefore we are petitioners for the grace of God, and for power from Him ; so that our desire is to obtain something from God, whereby His will may be accomplished in us. For, observe, it is not said, " Let us do," or " Do Thou Thy will ;" but, " Thy will be done." So that we must have that active grace, by M^hich the will of God may be done in us ; according to the words of the prophet : " Thou, Lord, hast wrought all our works in us" (Is. xxvi. 12). Yes; God must not only heal the thoughts and change our affections, but He must also bring to pass, that, as He gives us abi- lity to do His will, so His will may indeed be done by us. We must say, with the Psalmist, " Thou hast been my help : leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation" (Ps. xxvii. 9). And with an earnest desire for the full performance of the Divine will, we must daily say, with Christ, " Not my will, SECT. III.] THE lord's PRAYER. 43 but Thine, be done ;" gladly abridging ourselves of our own will, that God's will may take place.' With such a view of the nature, the extent, and the blessedness of true and faithful obedience, let us now consider what is the full scope of our supplication, when we pray that the will of our hea- venly Father may be " done in earth, as it is in heaven." I remember to have heard, that when the question was once put, * How is the will of God done in hea- ven ?' — the answer was made, ' It is done by the angels in heaven immediately, diligently, alwaj^^s, altogether, with all their strength, and without asking any ques- tions about it.' And our answer would be in sub- stance the same, if, with Archbishop Leighton, we were to describe the obedience practised in heaven, as being a cheerful and universal obedience. 1. The obedience of the angels in heaven, is a cheerful obedience. The Psalmist, after desciibing the angels of the Lord as " excelling in strength," immediately adds, that " they do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word" (Ps. ciii. 20). And from the connexion, therefore, in which these words are placed, we find it to be the proper employ- ment of the " strength" in which the angels " excel," that it should be continually performing the will of God. For it seems that the angels are endued with such excellent strength for this one end, viz. that they may " do His commandments." In like manner, must the Christian devote all his strength to the ful- 44 THE lord's prayer. filment of God's commandments ; and he will always experience the most inward joy and gladness, when he keeps the closest to the Divine will. For the law of God is not to him, as it is to others, a force from without, urging him on violently against his own rebellious will ; but it is a power lodged within his heart ; inchning and enabling him to pursue the path of God's commandments. As, therefore, he increases in strength, he will run with fresh alacrity the way of these commandments ; and he will partake more largely of the blessedness of those " whose strength is in the Lord, and in whose heart are His ways" (Ps. Ixxxiv. 5). Not only are the feet of God's children in His ways, but, as the Psalmist here declares, " His ways are in their hearts." 2. The obedience of the angels in heaven is also UNIVERSAL. For in the same passage in which the angels are described as those who "excel in strength," and who " do His commandments," it is beautifully said of them, that they " hearken unto the voice of His word." The angels never turn away their ears from any, the least, of God's commandments. They wait but for a word from Him, and that is enough for them. And, in like manner, the true Christian will desire to " have respect unto all God's command- ments" (Ps. cxix. 6), and to " set the Lord always before him" (Ps. xvi. 8), in an uniform, constant re- gard to His will. He will offer up his heart to God, that it may be fashioned and moulded by Him to His will. He will desire to resign it up to his Lord, and SECT. III.] THE lord's PilAYER. 45 to be himself as a piece of wax in God's hand, ready to be moulded to what form He will. His prayer will be, that the Lord God would banish from his breast whatever may be displeasing in His sight, and that He would fill it with His good Spirit. It will be his constant desire that he may have no will but God's ; and that he may be altogether subject both to His commanding and to His disposing- will,^ being always pre])ared to do what He commands, and in all His dealings \vith us, to be pleased with what He does. In one word, the language of the believer will be : For my actions, let God's word be my guide ; and for the events of things, and all that concerns me, let His good pleasure, and His wise disposal, be my will. Yea, let me give up the rudder of my life into His hand, to be steered by Him into* the haven of everlasting rest. And amidst all the changes of this lower world, let me have grace to say from my heart, " My Father, Thou art the Guide of my youth:" let me never " turn away from after Thee" (Jer. iii. 4 and 19). ^ ' God's will must be done hy us ; and then we may cheer- fully consent that it should be done vpon us : for He can will no evil to those that serve Him.' — Dean Comber. * One portion of God's will is done toward us, to exercise our patience and our faith ; and one is done by zis, to exercise our obedience and our activity.' — Augustus Hare. ' The best man iia the field to-day, said a general, was a soldier who had his arm lifted up against an enemy, but who, on iiearing the trumpet sound a retreat, checked himself, and dropped his arm without striking a blow.'— /^ii7. 46 THE lord's prayer. Such, then, is the mark at which we are com- manded to aim ; viz. an obedience to God's will, as cheerful and as universal as that of the angels which are about His throne. This is the high and unalter- able standard by which we are to measure all our performances ; this is the true scope which we pro- fess to set before us, as often as we repeat the words of the petition ; " Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven !" But, as we would hope really to transcribe these words into our hearts and lives, we must now endea- vour, in conclusion, to fix our thoughts and our affec- tions upon that Lamb of God, without blemish and without spot, of whom the Scriptures declare, that He " came to do the will of the Father" (com- pare Ps. xK with Heb. x.). Let us, then, in the first place, look to Jesus as having tabernacled among the children of men ; and as we dwell on every part of His mysterious suffer- ings, let us regard them, as declaring to us, with a voice which cannot be misunderstood, the gracious nature of that Divine Will, to which we pray that we may be conformed. For when, in obedience to the Father's will, the Son of God emptied Himself of all His glory, that He might take our nature upon Him, and suffer death for us upon the cross, then was it seen, how justice and mercy met together, to ac- complish God's wonderful scheme of salvation for a rebellious world ; then was it seen, how the Son of God had been ordained to lift a load from the crea- SECT. III. J THE lord's PRAYER. 47 tion, under which it would otherwise have sunk into utter and endless ruin ! And when the view of our Saviour's passion shall have deeply affected our hearts with a sense of the GOOD WILL of that heavenly Father, who, to shew His hatred for sin, coupled with the tenderest com- passion for the person of the sinner, did " not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Rom. viii. 32) ; when we shall have learned, from the great mystery of our redemption, how, in testimony of this good will to man, God " hath made Him to be sm foi us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. v. 21) ; then let us lift up our hearts, in holy meditation, towards ^hat temple above, even heaven itself, into which our High Priest is entered, " now to appear in the pre- sence of God for us" (Heb. ix. 24) ; and let us ask, in His Name, for such supplies of grace as may enable us to " do our Father's will in earth, as it is in hea- ven." For the Son of God came, not only to atone for the sins of men, and to bring in everlasting right- eousness, for the justification of their persons, but also to bestow upon them a new and regenerate life, enabling them, cheerfully and unreservedly, to run the way of God's commandments. And who, but He, who liveth and reigneth with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit ; who, but the Son of God, could obtain for us help, to guide our wandering feet into the paths of holiness and peace } Who, but the Son of God, could thus ob- 48 THE lord's prayer. tain for us grace to subdue our perverse and rebel- lious wills, and to write all God's laws in our hearts ? For, ever since the fall of Adam, man has been so en- slaved by that carnal mind which is enmity against God, that, if left to himself, he would actually refuse to be made whole. Though light be come into the world, he would, if left to himself, still love darkness rather than light, and would not come to the Physi- cian of souls, that he might be healed. But, blessed be God, we have to do with a High Priest, of whom it was expressly written, that He should make His people " willing in the day of His power" (Ps. ex. 3). And all, therefore, who desire to " do the will" of God " in earth, as it is in heaven," will " put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. xiii. 14), as " the Lord THEIR righteousness" (Jer. xxiii. 6) ; they will put Him on, as their perfect and everlasting righteous- ness, for the justification of their persons ; and they will put Him on, as the all-sufficient source of right- eousness and holiness, for the inward sanctification of their hearts. They will pray that the Spirit which is derived from Him, may so change them into the same Divine image, that they may, in very deed, ex- change that carnal mind which is enmity against God, for that spiritual mind which is life and joy and peace ; — that they may be very members incorporate in that mystical body, of which Christ is the Head. And if that prayer be answered, they will know what it is to " do the will" of God " in earth, as it is in heaven." For if it be true, of the mystical Head, that He SECT. III.] THE lord's PRAYER. 49' " came to do His Father's will ;" that He " delights to do it ;" and that " the Father's law is within His heart" (compare Ps. xl. 7, 8, with Heb. x. 7-9), — assuredly, He will so write it, by His Spirit, in the hearts of all His faithful people, that, as the members of His body, it will be their chief desire, and their highest privilege, to be, to do, and to sutFer, whatever their heavenly Father shall appoint. Hear us, therefore, blessed Jesus, from Thy throne of grace, and so mould our hearts, by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may indeed be enabled to " do the will" of Thy Father, and our Father, " in earth," even " as it is in heaven !" ' Write in our hearts what our hea- venly Father commands us to do ; and then let Him command what He will.'' Suffer us not to utter the words, " God's will be done," with the slavish spirit of those who feel that they must submit, only because they dare not oiFer any resistance to His will. But so shed abroad in our hearts the love of Him, whose " will" we are commanded to '• do," that we may utter the words, " Thy will be done," as dear chil- dren, in the spirit of adoption, deeming it our best and greatest privilege, to be always employed in ful- filling the will of God Himself, by crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts, and by abounding in every good word and work ! And, to this end, be pleased, O Lord, so to mortify our hearts and all our members from all worldly and carnal lusts, that, whe- ther it be by active obedience to the word, or by 1 St. Augustin. 50 THE LORD S PRAYKR. a cheerful acquiescence in the providential appoint- ments, of our heavenly Father, we may, in all things, obey His blessed will, and glorify His holy Name 1 Amen ! Amen ! ^# SECTION IV. THE PETITION FOR DAILY BREAD. •' Give us this day our daily bread."— -¥a«, v. 11. " Give us day by day," or, " for the day," ' " our daily bread." — Luke xi. 3. E have been instructed to pray to "our Father which is in heaven," that " His name may be hallowed," that " His kingdom may come," and that " His will may be done in earth, as it is in heaven." And, when we have thus fulfilled our first and highest duty, in praying for those things which pertain to the glory of God, and the extension of His kingdom upon earth ; then, and not till then, are we authorised to turn our views to those things which pertain to our bodies and this present life. When we have said, from the bottom of our hearts ; " Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven;" then, and not till then, are we permitted to utter a petition for the food by which our bodies live, that we may subsist. Then, and not till then, do we say, " Give us this day our daily bread ;" or, as it is in ^ Margined reading. 52 THE lord's prayer. the eleventh chapter of St. Luke, " Give us, day by day," or " for the day," " our daily bread."^ Now, limited and moderate as this petition is, it is yet the only petition of the Lord's Prayer which at all refers to the supply of the temporal and bodily wants of man. The rest of the prayer is altogether employed in making petitions for the concerns of the soul and eternity. And, perhaps, there is no other method by which we could have been so clearly and forcibly impressed with the judgment of our Lord upon the comparative value and importance of the present and the future world. For while the life that now is, is touched upon by Him but slightly, and but once ; the world that is to come, forms the ground- work of the whole prayer. Commentators have remarked, that every word of this petition, " Give us, this day," or "day by day, ' * The first petition that the natural man makes, is for his " daily bread ;" but our care must be, first, for the " kingdom of God;" next, for "the fulfilling of God's will," and doing that righteousness which God requires at our hands ; and, after- wards, we may, in the third place, pray for such things as we stand in need of during our life. This order the fathers ob- serve in the blessing which Isaac pronounced upon his sons. Jacob's blessing was, first, " the dew of heaven," and then " the fat of the earth; ' shewing that the godly do prefer heavenly comforts before earthly. Esau's blessing was, first, "the fatness of the earth," and next, " the dew of heaven;"' to teach us that profane persons do make more reckoning of earthly commodities than of heavenly comforts.' — Bishop Andrews. SECT. IV.] THE LORn S PRAYER. 53 our daily bread," has a lesson for our instruction. We ask for " bread :" not for dainties, or superflui- ties, but only for " bread ;" only for what is needful for the body, and for the support of those who depend upon us.^ This teaches us sobriety and temperance. We ask for " our bread :" we do not ask for the *' bread of deceit," or the " bread of idleness" (Prov. XX. 17 and xxxi. 27), but for bread honestly and law- fully gotten. This plainly teaches us honesty and industry. We ask for our *' daily bread. "^ In other words,^ we ask for that which is sufficient for our daily life ; we ask for what will strengthen us, from day to day, for serving God with cheerfulness and vigour. And this, therefore, emphatically teaches us not to take any anxious " thought for the morrow," but to live, from day to day, under a continual and growing sense of God's providential care.'* ' We are directed to ask, says Chrysostom, for rpocprju, oh Tpv<\)T)v, for necessary food, not for luxurious plenty or delicacy. " ' To save us from losing ourselves in a wood of cares and anxieties, Christ warns us to keep out of the wood, and to be content with the shelter of a single tree.' — Augustus Hare. ^ The original word, iivLoxxnov, denotes what is sufficient for our present support and subsistence, in opposition to Trcpt- ova-Lou, denoting what is abundant or superfluous. ■* * ** Give us this day our daily bread :" that is, Whenever the future becomes darkened, may I no longer think thereon, but simply clasp Thy guiding hand !' — Griffith ontheLord's Prayer. * In this clause of the Lord's Prayer, we declare the sense which we have of our total dependence upon God ; avowing f2 54 THE lord's prayer. Again, whatever may be our state or condition in life — whether high or low, rich or poor, — we call upon God to " GIVE us, day by day, our daily bread ;" thereby acknowledging this important truth, viz. that the highest, as well as the lowest of men, must be beholden to the mercy of God for their daily food ; and, above all, that they must be beholden to His blessing upon that daily food, in order that it may nourish and support them. For, to borrow the lan- guage of Bishop Hall, ' Though we all live by food, yet it is not by any virtue in it, independently of the ourselves to subsist by His cave and bounty, and disclaiming, consequently, all confidence in any other means to maintain and support us ; in any store we have laid up, or estate we pretend to ; in any contrivance or industry we can use ; in any succour of friends or relations ; since, notwithstanding all these, we do need our " daily bread" to be dealt to us by God, and must continually beg it as a gift from His hands. We should not, therefore, desire to be set out of Gods house, or His immediate protection and care. This in itself cannot be, since God cannot alienate His goods from Himself, nor can we subsist out of His hand; nor must we desire that it should be so. It is a part of atheism or infidelity, yea, of heathenish profaneness and folly, to desire it. " These things," saith our Lord, '• do the Gentiles seek." That is, they are covetous of wealth, and careful for provisions, to live v/ithout dependence upon God, But we must esteem God's providence our surest estate, God's bounty our best treasure, God's fatherly care our most certain and most comfortable support ; " casting all our care upon Him," as being assured that *' He careth for us ;" that " He will never leave us nor forsake us;" and that He will not withhold what is necessary for our comfortable suste- nance.' — Dr. Isaac Barrow. SECT. IV.] THE lord's PRAYER. 55 Divine blessing ; for, without the help of God's pro- vidence, bread would rather choke than nourish us. Let Him withdraw His hand from His creatures ; and, in their greatest abundance, we perish. Why then do we bend our eyes on the means, and not look up to the Hand which gives the blessing ? For what necessary dependence hath the blessing upon the creature, if our prayers hold them not together .-*' Surely, we ought daily to feel and acknowledge that, without the blessing of God to make our food serve its proper end, even the very staff of life Avould be but a broken staff, which would have no power to help us in our time of need. It is said, in Holy Scripture, even of the very beasts of the earth, and the fowls of the air, that they " seek their meat from God" (see Ps. civ. 21 and cxlvii. 9). This^ may well be termed a natural cry, or the voice of their necessity. But when Christians say, " Give us this day our daily bread," this spiritual cry of prayer is the peculiar voice of God's own children. They earnestly implore God's ordinary blessing upon their " daily bread." Nor do they rest here ; but there is something, even beyond this ordinary bless- ing, which they chiefly desire, viz. a secret character and stamp of His pecuUar favour upon all their tem- poral enjoyments. And this, as all God's faithful people know, from their own experience, is a delight- ful fruit of prayer. Yes, there is a peculiar voice of ^ See Archbishof LfiiGHXoN on the Lord's Praver. 56 THE lord's PHAYEH, God's own children in the words of this petition. And if so, we may rest assured that He distinguishes it, both fi'om the common voice of natural men, and from the cry of the other creatures which call for supply, and that He returns a special answer to their prayer. Together with the " daily bread," which He gives to others, and a common blessing upon it, be- lievers have something, therefore, which is not given to others; and they feel that their " daily bread," and all their needful supplies, are peculiarly sweetened by this one consideration, viz. that they receive them, after a special manner, out of their Father's own hand, having humbly prayed for them, as His " gift." Moreover, while the Christian is taught, in the words of this petition, to look up to God, as the Author and Giver of all good things, he is taught, at the same time, to look upon all around liim as entitled to share in the benefit of his prayers. For when he utters the words, " Give us this day our daily bread," he does, in effect, say to his heavenly Father ; Give it, not to me only, but to others in common with me. We are thus plainly reminded, how necessary it is that we should cultivate a spirit of tender and com- passionate concern for all the members of Christ's body, and, more especially, that, in all our prayers, and even in our most secret devotions, we should ever be mindful of the bodily and spiritual wants of all around us. Let us observe, lastly, how forcibly we learn, from the very terms of the request, the duty and the ne- SECT. IV.] THE lord's PRAYER. 57 cessity of daily devotion. For when, in the words, " Give us THIS DAY," or, " Give us, day by day, our daily bread," we are expressly commanded to ask for the food and raiment which are convenient for us, only for a single " day," we are assuredly bound to ask for them every day. The prayer for " bread," to be given " day by day," or " for the day," must evidently be a daily prayer. And should not this remind us, that we are to renew the desire of our souls toward God, as often as the wants of our bodies are renewed .'' Should not this remind us, that, as duly as the day returns, we should pray to our hea- venly Father, and consider that we might as well go a day without food, as a day without prayer ? Such is the full import of the petition, " Give us this day our daily bread." And now, let us ask our- selves, whether it does not exhibit the true temper and frame of a Christian mind. For, whatever may be his own lawful care and labour, and with, whatever measure of success that care and labour may be at- tended, still that upon which the believer relies and lives, is the good providence of God — not his own forethought, industry, or skill. He lives upon that providence, from one day to another,^ like a child in his father's house. And, with regard to provision for the future, he thinks it as good in God's hand, as if it were in his own. If, therefore, he have much land or great revenues, he does not trust any more in ^ Archbishop Leighton. 58 THE lord's prayer. his substance than if he possessed nothing: while, under a full conviction that nothing can profit us, except as it bears the impress of the Divine blessing, he knovi^s how indispensable it is that he should, day by day, offer up the prayer, *' Give us this day our daily bread." And, on the other hand, if the Chris- tian have bread for to-day, and nothing for to-morrow — just as the children of Israel had their manna — yet he trusts no less in God, than if he were possessed of thousands. In short, the believer's language always is : Whether I have much or little, I look to my God only for the provision which I need ; and it is upon His blessing, in answer to prayer, that I desire to live, from day to day. Let " the Lord be my Shep- herd" (Ps. xxiii. 1), and " I shall not want."' ^ I subjoin a passage from one of Bishop Heber's parish Sermons, beautifully illustrating the full scope and signification of this clause of the Lord's Prayer. ' When we witness the many dangers which threaten the springing of the rising corn ; when we reckon up, in our thoughts, the opposite dangers of drought or of moisture, of parching heat or of pinching and untimely cold ; the blights, which may taint the ear ; the worm, which may consume the root ; and all the other alarms which the husbandman feels or fears ; we cannot but perceive tliat something more than the industry of man is required to make him happy or prosperous, and that it is with good reason, that, in o\ir daily prayers, we ask our ** daily bread" of God ; since no day in the year can be found in which His blessing is not needed, either to preserve the seed ; or to prosper the tender stalk ; or to fill the ear ; or to rebuke the mildew, or the storm, by which the maturer crop is endangered. And, even when the food of many days is SECT. IV.] THE lord's PRAYER. 59 It is plainly declared, then, in the petition which our Lord has here taught us to use, that we should approach our heavenly Father, day by day, as know- ing ourselves to be daily dependent upon His watchful and never-failing providence, and daily to need His blessing upon all that we are, or have, or undertake. Let us learn, therefore, to acknowledge, with thank- fulness, this dependence upon Him, who " gives us, day by day, our daily bread ;" and let us learn, also, to regard this daily and hourly dependence upon " our Father which is in heaven," as a daily and hourly call upon us to consecrate all our faculties, whether of body or soul, to His service ; remembering, that "* whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do," we are to " do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. x. 31). Let us learn to look to Him, as the God of all grace, and the Fountain of all good, both for our souls and our bodies. And may He give us the single eye and the pure heart, so that, knowing Him as a reconciled Father, we may commit our souls to Him, in faith and prayer, in patience and well-doing, humbly de- waving before our eyes, we cannot choose but feel an anxious joy, a solemn, and, in some degree, a mournful thankfulness, when we compare our own unworthy lives with the unbounded mercies of God ; when we recollect how little and how seldom we have thought of Him, who careth for us continually ; and when we tremble, lest, even now, our sins should interrupt the stream of His mercy, and that the improper use which we too often make of plenty, should, even yet, turn our abundance into hunger.' 60 THE lord's pra"Ser. pending on Him, as His children, not only for the supply of all our bodily wants, but also for all His spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus; or, as it is ex- pressed in our Catechism, ' for all things that be needful, both for our souls and bodies.' This is the language used by the compilers of the Catechism, in paraphrasing the clause of the Lord's Prayer which is now before us. And this leads me to remark, that though, in the connexion in which it stands, the petition evidently relates to our temporal wants, yet, when taken in itself, it may be regarded, as it was regarded by many of the early fathers,^ in a spiritual sense, as relating, also, to that " bread of life," which " came down from heaven," to " give life unto the world" (John vi. 33) ; and which is as ne- cessary to the daily nourishment and support of our souls, as the manna, which came down in the wilder- ness, was to the bodies of the Israelites. When pointing out the difference between the manna which was given in the wilderness, and the "living bread which came down from heaven, Jesus says, " Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. But if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever : and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John vi. 49, 51). 1 ' Christ is the Bread of life, and this Bread belongs not to all men, but to us ; and as we say, " Our Father," because the Father of the understanding and believing, so we speak of " Our Bread," because Christ is the Bread of us, who appertain to His body.' — St. Cyprian. SECT. IV. j THE lord's PRAYIiR. 61 The manna, however, was intended to foreshadow the blessings of redemption ; and it may be well for us, therefore, to consider tlie truths which are illus- trated by this remarkable type of Christ. The manna was provided for all. And does not our Lord invite all, without exception, even all v^dio are weary and heavy-laden, to come unto Him } The manna accompanied the people of Israel, even to the borders of the promised land. And did not this represent, in a most affecting manner, that mystical union with Christ, by a true and lively faith, which supports the believer, in all dangers and adversities, even until his life's end ? And when we read how the Lord commanded Moses, that an omer full of manna should be '* laid up before the Lord" in the holy of holies, "to be kept for their generations" (see Ex. xvi. 32-34) ; are we not thus forcibly re- minded of the promise made by our Lord to every true believer, in His message to the Church of Per- gamos ; "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of THE HIDDEN MANNA .^" (RcV. ii. 17.) And blessed, indeed, would those Jews have been, who listened, at Capernaum, to the words of Jesus, had they considered what a privilege they enjoyed, beyond that of their fathers in the desert, in seeing Him, whom the manna so remarkably foreshadowed. Blessed would they have been, had they been pre- pared to receive the saying, ** I am the living bread which came down from heaven : if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever ; and the bread that 62 THE lord's prayer. I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John vi. 51). But, though our Lord had told the Jews, in plain terms (see John vi. 29, 35), that He was desiring to inculcate the necessity of faith in Himself, as the pro- mised Messiah, whom " God the Father had sealed" (John vi. 27) ; and though the image which He had been employing, was evidently intended to illustrate, in a powerful and yet familiar manner, that all-im- portant truth ; still the Jews perversely disputed among themselves, saying, " How can this man give us his flesh to eat }" (John vi. 52.) And how, indeed, could our blessed Lord have employed such language as this, had He not been a greater than Moses ? How indeed could our Lord have employed such language as this, had He not been the High Priest of those good things to come, which the manna but faintly foreshadowed ? Let all, therefore, who have hitherto regarded Jesus Christ only as a human instructor, ponder, in their hearts, the language which our Lord employs in the sixth chapter of St. John, and let them say whether, on the one hand, it does not place Jesus Christ before them as the eternal Son of God, and whether, on the other hand, it does not plainly teach us, that " the life which we now live- in the flesh, we are to live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us ?" (Gal. ii. 20.) 1. Does it not place Jesus Christ before us, on the one hand, as the eternal Son of God .** As we SECT. IV.] THE lord's PRAYER. 63 read the Scriptures, we shall often find the sacred writers representing the instructions therein con- tained, as the food of the soul ; but where shall we find it said, of any other teacher, that he is himself the food which we are commanded to eat ? Where shall we find it said, of any other teacher, that w^e are to " eat his flesh" and " drink his blood ?" " The bread of God," says Jesus, " is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. I am the bread of life ; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." Yea, " I am the living bread which came down from heaven : if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever ; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John vi. 33, 35, 51). 2. And if Jesus Christ is here placed before us, as the eternal Son of God, are we not here taught, with equal plainness, that " the life which w^e now live in the flesh," we are to " live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us ?" In other words, are we not here invited to partal^e, by a true and lively faith, of the benefits of Christ's mysterious sacrifice ? " Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood," says Jesus, " hath eternal life ; and I will raise him up at the last day." It is plain, therefore, not only that the believer has a title to eternal life, but that he has the beginning of it even here ; and the resurrection of the believer's soul to a new and spiritual life is the pledge of the resurrec- 64 THE lord's prayer. tion of his body to everlasting glory ; for " he that eateth me," says Jesus, " even he shall live by me." Yea, " he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever" (John vi. 57, 58). And, therefore, as we would hope to be partakers of such great salvation, we must shew the reality of our faith by feeding continually on this LIVING BREAD. Now, our Lord's injunction is express, that we should draw near to our heavenly Father, day by day, with the words of this petition, " Give us this day our daily bread;" and we have seen, that if we would realise the depth and fulness of this prayer, we must remember how indispensable it is that we should ask and receive daily nourishment, both for our bodies and our souls. But it is not, as we shall readily admit, the mere preparation of our natural food which nourishes and sustains the body : it must be received and wrought into the system. And, were it not for the blindness and perverseness of our hearts, we should admit, with equal readiness, that Jesus Christ does not give life to our souls merely by dying for us, or by being exhibited in the Gospel ; but only when He is received and fed upon by faith ; and when we thus find our souls nourished and strengthened to every good word and work. May we feed, then, day by day, on this living BREAD, by faith, with thanksgiving ! May we receive Christ, by renewed exercises of penitence and faith, as " our daily Bread !" And may we esteem it our highest privilege to receive, from time to time, the SECT. IV. J THE LORD S PRAYER. 65 most comfortable sacrament of the body and blood of Christ,^ believing assuredly that, at the holy table, the souls of believers are strengthened and refreshed by His body and blood, even as their bodies are by the bread and wine; and that they thus become "one bread and one body," since they are " all partakers of that one Bread" (1 Cor. x. 17). So shall we find our spirits recruited, our hearts encouraged, and our strength repaired, to run the race, to endure the conflict, and to perform the work, which God has appointed us, until we are " delivered from the bond- age of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God !" (Rom. viii. 21.) ' The custom of daily communion in the early Church is sufficiently proved by the following remarkable passage from St. Cyprian. '"We pray that this Bread be given us '* day by day," lest we, who are in Christ, and who daily receive the Eucharist for food of salvation, should, by the admission of any grievous crime, and our being therefore shut out from communion, and forbidden the heavenly Bread, be separated from the body of Christ.' G 2 SECTION V. THE PETITION FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF OUR TRESPASSER, AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US. " And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." — Matt. vi. 12. "And forgive us our sins ; for we also forgive every one that is in- debted to us." — Luke xi. part of ver. 4. UFFICIENT unto the day,^ is all that, in the Divine Prayer before us, we are taught to desire ; and yet it is more than we deserve, by reason of the manifold and great transgressions, of which we have been so repeatedly guilty. Is it not evident, then, that how- ever regular and constant may be our prayers for daily bread, we cannot reasonably expect that they will be answered, unless we shall endeavour, with God's assist- ance, to place ourselves in such a posture before the throne of grace, as may render us meet to receive the mercies of Heaven ? Or, even should our daily prayer prove effectual in obtaining our daily bread, still it would profit us but little to receive and to eat that bread, did we not feel assured that we had our hea- venly Father for our Friend. The children of Israel ' See Benson's Sermon on Matt vi. 11-13, SECT, v.] THK lord's PRAYER. 67 did eat angels' food, and were fed with manna in the wilderness. Yet with some of them God was not well pleased. Their sins were not forsaken, and therefore not forgiven. And so it came to pass, that when God •' gave them their request," He " sent leanness withal into their soul" (Ps. cvi. 15). God is not changed with the lapse of ages : He is " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever" (Heb. xiii. 8) ; and He will as certainly condemn and punish the evil-doers now, as He did the evil-doers then. If, therefore, we bear within our bosoms the burden of crimes unrepented and unpardoned, it may be that, though we receive our food and raiment as a gift from heaven to-day, God, on the morrow, shall visit us in His wrath. But even should we not be visited for our iniquities in this world, and should our wants con- tinue to be graciously supplied from day to day, still, if we carry about with us a conscience w^eighed down w4th the terrors arising from unpardoned sin, it mat- ters little how long, or in what state of life, we live.^ ^ * After supply of food, next pardon for sin is asked for, that he who is fed of God, may live in God. Thus pro- vision is made, not only for the present and passing life, but for the eternal also ; whereunto we may come, if we receive the pardon of our sins, to which the Lord gives the name of " debts," saying, in the words of the parable, " I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me." ' — St. Cyprian. * After taking his food, what would encumber the soldier on his march ? A heavy weight to carry. Therefore the peti- tion, " Give us this day our daily bread," is aptly followed by the clause, " Forgive us our trespasses :" because, unless we are 68 THE LORD S PRAYER. True indeed it is, that God maketh His sun to rise both on the evil and on the good ; but it is to the good alone that the beauty of his rising is wont to bring cheerfulness of countenance and gladness of heart. In the same manner do all the mercies of Providence fall unblessed upon the heads and hearts of the un- righteous : and to him that eateth his bread in the bitterness of a spirit wounded, with the recollection of unforgiven offences, it will neither give strength to his body, nor peace unto his mind. From the supply, therefore, of those temporal wants, which is necessary to our existence here, our Lord passes forward, immediately, to the considera- tion of those spiritual wants, the answer to which is essential to our well-being in every state. " Forgive us our debts," or, " trespasses," is the language which Jesus enjoins to every sinner on earth ; because, with- out the " forgiveness" of God, all other petitions, even if granted, will be of little avail for the purposes of inward and abiding consolation.' pardoned, we can neither fight nor march to good purpose.* — Augustus Hare. 1 * Having already desired, at God's hands, the glory of God's " kingdom ;" the good of grace, for the doing of '' His will;" and all outward good things necessary for this life, we are, of necessity, to pray that God will " forgive us our sins," which, otherwise, will hinder us of these good things. And, as our sins do hinder God's graces, that they cannot come to us, so do they hinder our prayers, that they cannot come to God ; for our sins are, as it were, a cloud to hide God, so that our prayers cannot pass through.' — Bishop Andrews. SECT, v.] THE lord's PRAYER. 69 It is upon this clause of the petition, in which we implore forgiveness of our own trespasses, that I will, in the first place, make a few remarks ; under the full persuasion, that, if our hearts shall be touched with a sense of our own need of mercy, and of the ful- ness of that MERCY, which the Gospel has revealed to us, we shall not need many arguments to convince us that, according to the full purport of the second clause, we ought to be merciful, one to another, even " as our Father also is merciful" (Luke vi. 36). 1. Now the petition, which we are here taught to utter, is, that our heavenly Father will " forgive us our debts ;" or, as we find it expressed in the paral- lel passage in St. Luke, that He will " forgive us our sins."' That the two expressions are strictly equivalent, our Lord has Himself pointed out in the solemn declaration, by which, on the former occa- sion, the Prayer was accompanied ; " For if ye forgive men their trespasses," says Jesus, " your heavenly Father will also forgive you" (Matt. vi. 14). And what, indeed, are the sins, whether of thought, word, or deed, which we are daily and hourly committing, but so many " debts," which we are daily and hourly accumulating, which we can never pay, and which need, therefore, continual remission ? For do we not, daily and hourly, need " forgiveness," not only of ^ In old English, i, e. in Anglo-Saxon and Norman, the word for guilt or trespass, and debt or fine, is all one : * Gylt,' guilt or debt : ' Forfait,' trespass or fine. Perhaps, therefore, the word 6(pfi\7]/xaTa has the same twofold meaning. — Editor. 70 THE LORD S PRAYER. our former sins, but of our renewed offences ? Do we not, daily and hourly, need " forgiveness" of aU our sins, in thought, word, or deed ; of all our sins in heart and life ; of all our sins of omission and com- mission, in our conduct toward God and man ? And do we not need to be daily and hourly reminded how little we can ever do for Him, from whom, as our Creator and Redeemer, we receive every thing need- ful, whether for our bodies or our souls, and to whom, therefore, all should be devoted in perfect love ? In the affecting language of two of our Lord's parables, we have, in truth, " nothing to pay" (see Matt, xviii. 23-25 and Luke vii. 41-43) : but, how blessed is the declaration which follows, in the same parables, that when we feel and acknowledge our poverty, and come before our God, in the posture of poor and lowly penitents, He will frankly " forgive us all that debt !" How blessed, also, is the promise given by the mouth of His prophet, " When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them I" (Is. xli. 17.) May it ever be deeply engraven on our hearts, that here we have a pattern of prayer,! in which Christ has taught us continually to implore the for- giveness of our sins ; that as we, through the frailty of our nature, are daily subject unto sin, so we should daily exercise the acts of repentance, and perpetually ' See Bishop Pearson on the Creed : article, ' Forgive- ness of sins.' SECT, v.] THE lord's PRAYER. 71 seek the favour of God ! While we are in this life, encompassed with flesh ; while the enticements of the world, while the crafts of the devil, and while the in- firmities and corruptions of our nature, betray us to the transgression of the law of God, we are always liable to oflfend. This, however, is the comfort of the Gospel of Christ, that, while it discovers sin within us, it shews how w^e may be delivered from its power and its guilt ; it shews us how we may apply our- selves unto God by repentance, and be pardoned by His mercy, and renewed by His grace. But if we would feel still more deeply our own NEED of mercy for the forgiveness of our sins, we must ponder, in our hearts, the Scripture definition of sin, as * the transgiession of the law" (1 John iii. 4), and then consider how fearful is the load of guilt which we must be daily accumulating, seeing that man's best and holiest actions are stained with imper- fection and defilement. Yes, we must consider how we ought to ' acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed, by thought, word, and deed, against God's Divine Majesty, provoking most justly His wrath and indignation against us.'^ For if the law of God be, of a truth, the rule of the actions of men, then any, the smallest deviation from that law is sin. Not only^ is every thought, every word, and every deed, which is in opposition to that ' Confession at the Holy Communion. - Bishop Pearson, ut supra. 72 THE lord's prayer. pure and holy law, to be regarded as sin, but also every evil habit contracted in the soul, by the actions committed against the law of God, is a sin ; every corruption and inclination in the soul, to do that which God forbids, or to omit that which God commands, is a sin, by which we justly provoke His wrath and in- dignation against us. Great, therefore, is the need which we have to say, day by day, from the very ground of our hearts, " Forgive us our sins." But, blessed be the Name of Him, to whom we address the prayer, " with Him there is mercy, and with Him there is plenteous re- demption" (Ps. cxxx. 7). Would we know, then, the FULNESS of that MERCY which the Gospel reveals to us ? Let us contemplate^ " God in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them" (2 Cor. v. 19). Let us contemplate the wonderful humiliation and the mysterious sufferings of the Eternal Word ; and let us remember that the painful and shameful death, which terminated those sufferings, was endured for sin. For " this man," says St. Paul, " offered one sacrifice for sins" (Heb. X. 12). Now, we are told, by one apostle, that " Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust" (1 Pet. iii. 18) ; and we are told, by another, that He was " holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Heb. vii. 26). And it is plain, therefore, that the sins for which He suffered were not His own. No ; it is the united testimony of the prophets and ^ Bishop Pearson, tct supra. SECT, v.] THE lord's PRAYER. 73, the apostles, that the sins for which He suffered were not His, but ours : for " He was wounded for our transgressions" (Is. liii. 5) ; " He was delivered for our offences" (Rom. iv. 25) ; " He gave Himself for our sins" (Gal. i. 4). "He died for our sins accord- ing to the Scriptures" (1 Cor, xv. 3). And what was this " dying for our sins ?" It was suffering death, as a punishment taken upon Himself, to free us from the punishment due unto our sins. For God the Fa- ther hath " laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Is. liii. 6), and hath " made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteous- ness of God in Him" (2 Cor. v. 21). Yea, " He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows ; the chas- tisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed" (Is. liii. 4, 5) ; and (blessed consummation of the adorable scheme of redemption !) by suffering this punishment, to free us from the pen- alty due unto our sins, it comes to pass that our sins are forgiven. For " this," saith Jesus, " is My blood of the New Testament, or New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins'' (Mat. xxvi. 28) ; and, as St. Paul says to the Ephesian converts, " In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. i. 7). Let us, therefore, meditate with adoring hearts on the FULNESS of that mercy which is revealed to us in the Scriptures of truth. For sure I am, that the more H 74 THE lord's prayer. we shall ponder in our hearts this glorious mystery of redemption, the more we shall admire God's goodness and the happiness of the true believer. "When man was once fallen into sin, it was utterly impossible that he should be able to work out his own recovery : and yet, if it be the express declaration of God's holy and unchangeable law, that the soul which sinneth must of necessity die, it is plain that unless some way of escape shall be provided for the sinner, whereby that " law" may be " magnified" (Is. xlii. 21), the wrath of God must be abiding on him for ever. But what^ can be imagined within the sinner, which should move God not to execute His righteous sentence against him ? or what can be imagined without him, which could pretend co rescue him from the sentence of an almighty and offended God.? Glorious, therefore, must the goodness of our God appear, who Himself taketh off the guilt, and who imputeth not the sin. This is, indeed, the unutterable goodness of God, and this is the unspeakable happiness of the true believer ; for " blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered ; blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity" (Ps. xxxii. 1, 2). Under the Old Testament dispensation, the year of release, the year of jubilee, was a time of public joy ; but, assuredly, there is no voice like that which we hear under the Gospel-dispensation, " Thy sins are forgiven thee;'" for by this the believer is rescued ' Bishop Pearson, ut sitpra. SECT. V.J THE lord's PRAYER. 75 from the worm that clieth not ; by this he is made capable of heaven ; hy this he is assured of eternal happiness. 2. I have dwelt thus at length upon the first clause of this petition in the Lord's Prayer, because, as I have said, I am fully persuaded that if our hearts shall be touched with a deep sense of our own need of forgiveness, and of the fulness of that mercy which is revealed to us in the Gospel, we shall not require many arguments to convince us that, accord- ing to the scope of the second clause, we ought to he merciful, as our Father also is merciful : for, wherever Christ really dwells in the heart by faith, the reality of that faith must and will be evinced by the exercise of a love which shall embrace the whole family of man. And, accordingly, it is upon this very ground of a real, vital behef of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, that St. Paul beautifully enforces, in two dif- ferent epistles, the exercise of Christian forgiveness. " Let all bitterness," says the apostle, in his epistle to the Ephesians, " and wrath, and anger, and cla- mour, and evil- speaking, be put away from you, with all malice : and be ye kind one to another, tender- hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Eph. iv. 31, 32). And, in writing to the Colossians, he says, still more emphatically, " Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, hum- bleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering ; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man /G THE LORD S PRAYER. have a quarrel against any : even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye" (Col. iii. 12, 13). Knowing, therefore, that, in the words of this pe- tition, our Lord has graciously purposed to elevate our hearts and minds, day by day, to the true, the only standard of Christian forgiveness, the believer, as he repeats this petition, devoutly prays that, under an increasing sense of the fulness of that mercy which has been exercised toward himself, he may, indeed, be merciful, as our Father also is merciful. And the ear- nest desires of his heart, as he gives utterance to the words which our Lord has taught us to use, may be thus expressed : * Do thou, O Father, for Christ's sake, forgive me my debts, as I forgive my debtors. Yea, let my whole Hfe bear testimony to my thankful heart, that the gratitude which extends not to Thee, may overflow to men. For how just is it that I should shew to them that mercy, which I ask and want ! I bless Thee for Thy goodness ; I feel the constraining influence of the love of Christ ; and I do now, from the bottom of my heart, naked before that Presence from which no thought is hid, most freely forgive all those who, by thought, word, or deed, knowingly or ignorantly, have offended or have injured me. I lay aside all my claims to vengeance. I wish to forget all offences that' have ever been committed against me ; and if I remember them at all, I desire only to re- member them in my prayers, earnestly beseeching Thee, in behalf of the offenders, that Thou wouldest be pleased to change their hearts, and to save their SECT. V.J THE lord's PRAYER. 77 souls. And I do most ardently desire, O Father, that the sense of Thy divine and boundless love may kindle^^ in my breast, a flame of thankfulness to Thee, which no time shall quench, and may lead me to cherish an affection to men, which no provocation, no \ATongs, shall conquer. And may this principle of heavenly love reign in my heart, and direct and animate all my actions."' And now, let us consider how different would be the aspect of this Christian country, if such were the spirit which really actuated every family and every neighbourhood through the length and breadth of the land. We should then learn, it we may so ex- press ourselves, to hate as God Himself hates ; to hate, that is, not the persons of men, but their sins — not what God made them, but what they have made themselves : and we should then learn not to rest satisfied with the mere pretence and show of for- giveness. For what is it but a vain and idle pretence, to talk, as so many are accustomed to talk, of for- giving, though they cannot forget, the injuries which they have received.? Is this the forgiveness which we desire to obtain for ourselves, when we approach the throne of grace } Should we be content with such forgiveness from God ; to have only a present forbearance of revenge, but no further friendship, no blessed reconciliation with Him ? Not such is the forgiveness which sinners need, and not such is the ^ Dr. Ogden's Paruplirase. h2 78 THE lord's prayer. forgiveness which God so graciously vouchsafes to them ; for, whatever niay be the character of many of our reconciUations, as we call them, God's way of forgiving is, to forgive and to forget ; and, assuredly, if ours be not so, we have no portion in His. We know indeed that, in strictness of speech, God cannot forget the sins which have been committed against Him ; and yet, what is the language in which He is pleased to convey to the penitent the blessed assur- ance of forgiveness ? "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jer. xxxi. 34). And "who," as the prophet Micah so emphatically asks, " is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage ? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. He wiU turn again ; He will have compassion upon us ; He will subdue our iniquities ; and Thou wilt CAST ALL our SINS INTO THE DEPTH OF THE SEa" (Micah vii. 18, 19). But if such be the character of the Divine for- giveness, it is evident that, according to the scope of the petition before us, even such should be the character of that forgiveness, which we are to exer- cise, one toward another : and if this shall appear a hard saying, is it not because we are so apt to forget that religion has its seat in the heart, and not in the head ? We all know how common it is to say, of those who evince an ungrateful spirit, that they forget the kindness which has been bestowed upon them. SECT, v.] TIIK lord's PRAYER. 79 Not that such acts of kindness have really faded from their memory, but that their whole conduct betrays the utter insensibility of their cold and selfish hearts. Now, with the children of God, the reverse of all this takes place ; for, while they treasure up every act of kindness in their very heart's core, they forget the injuries which they may have received. Not, indeed, that they are actually able to blot out the particular circumstances from their memory, but that the re- membrance of such injuries only leads them to pray, the more earnestly, for the souls of those who have committed them, and that they daily and hourly en- deavour, with God's assistance, to overcome evil mth good.' There are cases, indeed, as our Lord Himself has plainly shewn us, in the parable of the unmerciful servant, where, owing to the perverseness of the of- fending party, it may not be possible to manifest this forgiveness in all its blessed extent (see Matt, xviii. 16, 17). But still, the spirit of Christian forgiveness is, in every case, to be freely and fuUy exercised. In every case, we are to endeavour, by the exercise of patience, and forbearance, and long-suffering, to gain a brother to God, and to ourselves. And, whatever may be the success of our endeavours, we are still to shew that we ourselves forgive the offender, by for- getting the offence, as having been committed against ourselves, and by remembering it only as having been * See Note at the end of this section. 80 THE LORD S PRAYER. committed against God, that so our prayers may be quickened, in our brother's behalf, at the throne of grace. There are many, it is to be feared, who will be absolutely startled at this portrait of Christian for- giveness. But, if so, let them ask themselves whether they have ever laid to heart the aflfecting truth, con- tained in the above-mentioned parable ; viz., that when we are once brought to feel and acknowledge that we are unable to pay, our Lord " freely for- gives us ALL THAT DEBT." O, if wc havc any sense of God's l(3ne to us, we shall never hereafter talk of our enemies. Nay, more than this, we can have no enemies, none that we shall ever consent to treat as such, if we have the least glimpse of what is meant by God's love to us, or any spark of love to Him ! To fix this lesson the deeper in our hearts, let us remember, in conclusion, that even St. Peter, before he knew the immeasurable extent of redeeming love, could say, " How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him } till seven times ?" Jesus answered, " I say not unto thee, until seven times ; but until seventy times seven" (Matt, xviii. 21). And, accordingly, we afterwards find this same Peter thus appealing to his fellow- Christians, and saying, " Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another ; love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous : not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing ; but contrariwise blessing" (1 Pet. iii. 8, 9). May this be the spirit, in which we may always SECT, v.] THE lord's PRAYER. 81 dwell, one with another. And if ever our proud, and envious, and uncharitable hearts shall rise against these heavenly precepts, may we have grace to say to our heavenly Father, from the very bottom of our hearts ; " Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." And, as we pray, may we endeavour to realise to ourselves those awful words of the par- able ; "I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desired st me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow- servant, even as I had pity on thee ?" For vain, and worse than vain, will te our own prayers for mercy, " if we from our hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses' (Matt. xviii.'82, 33, and 35). 82 THE LORD S PRAYER. ON CHRISTIAN FORGIVENESS. I. Passage extracted from Bishop Jeremy Taylor's ^History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus* ' We pray to be forgiven, with a tacit obligation to forgive. For so only, and upon that condition, we entreat pardon to be given or continued respectively : that is, as we, from our hearts, forgive them that did us injury in any kind, never entertaining so much as a thought of revenge, but contrariwise, loving them that did us wrong. For so we beg that God should do to us ; and therefore it is but a lesser revenge to say, I will forgive, but I will never have to do with him. For if he become an object of charity, we must have to do with him, to relieve him ; because he needs prayers, we must have to do with him, and pray for him ; and to refuse his society, when it is . easonably amd innocently offered, is to deny that to him which Christians have only been taught to deny to persons excommunicate — to persons under punishment ; i. e. to persons not yet forgiven. And we shaU have but an evil portion, if God should forgive our sins, and should not also love us^ and do us grace, and bestow benefit upon us. So we must forgive others ; so God forgives us.' II Passages extracted from Mr. Henry Thornton's * Family Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount.' * The forgiveness of injuries is one of the distinguishing doctrines of Christianity ; and this doctrine having been most plainly taught by Christ, there is no one now, bearing the • • Parilm est nobis non puniri, nisi merearaur et diligi.'— Hugo de St. Victok SECT, v.] THE lord's PRAYER. 83 Christian name, who refuses to give his assent to it. But yet there are multitudes who contrive, in one way or another, to evade it in their practice ; and I would now speak, therefore, of those various occasions on which an unforgiving spirit is apt to shew itself. • The occasions on which different men are apt to take offence are, indeed, very different. It may, however, be ob- served, in general, that whenever the pride of men is wounded, they are then wounded in the most tender part ; and that they cannot so easily forgive an affront to their pride, as they can an injury to their interest. Let us then not fancy that we are of a forgiving spirit, because we can forgive those who have committed a trespass upon our property ; because we can par- don the thief or the housebreaker who has robbed us, and whose injury, moreover, we know that the law of the land will amply revenge. Let us examine rather, whether we forgive those, who, by some act or other, have offered an affront to the natural pride of our hearts, and who, in this far more trying way, have been guilty of some trespass against us. * Again, it is worthy of remark, that it is by no means the greatest and most notorious injuries, which are apt to give the greatest offence. On great occasions, we know that the world observes us ; and, by forgiving a notable injury, we think that we shall do ourselves credit with the world. Moreover, we usually find that, where the injuiy is great, many sympathise with us, and join together in blaming the guilty persons. ' This general defamation of the man who has offended us serves, much like the execution of the severe sentence of law, to satisfy our anger and to quiet an unforgiving spirit. Let us then not take credit for forgiving our enemies, merely because we forgive them in cases of this sort ; let us inquire, rather, whether we forgive him who injures us, when he does it in such a manner that the world takes part with him rather than with us, and when the offender seems to suffer no punishment or inconvenience of any kind for his offence. If we can freely 84 THE LORD S PRAYER. forgive, in cases of this kind, it is a strong mark of our having attained to a truly forgiving spirit. It is true, undoubtedly, that provocations will sometimes be given, which are so very great, that it is hard indeed, especially for men of certain natural tempers, not to be much ruffled by them ; but it is one thing to be agitated and even angry for a moment ; it is another to bear settled malice in the heart. Let us dread, above all things, to retain a secret ill-will against any.one ; let us be able to say, ** There is no man on earth whom I account my enemy ; I live in charity with all mankind." * And there is much need, with all of us, for watchfulness and prayer, if we would attain to this exercise of heavenly love ; for it is much to be suspected that many, who freely admit the excellency of the saying of Christ, " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy," do, notwithstanding, contrive altogether to evade it. They, for instance, who say that they freely forgive an injury, but cannot forget it, break this admo- nition of Christ. They also, who profess both to forget and forgive, may manifest, by some part of their conduct, that they are transgressors on this point : and even they, who confer some favour on the person who has injured them, may not be clear of the sin in question, since the very pride of superiority may lead a man to confer a favour on him from whom an injury has been experienced. To receive a favour from an enemy is a better proof of a forgiving spii'it than to bestow it. * Let us, therefore,- inquire, not only whether we forgive those who trespass against us, but in what sort of humour we are with them. Is it a benevolent and kind humour, an un- reserved and friendly humour, a communicative and pleasant humour ? Or, are we reserved towards them, silent, distant, and desirous of avoiding them } Do we rejoice with them when they rejoice, and weep with them when they have any thing to make them weep, in the same manner as we did before they trespassed against us ? If the trespass be thoroughly for- given, undoubtedly this will be the case ; but if quite the con- SECT, v.] THE lord's I'RAYER. 85 trary to this happen ; if we fesl secretly grieved at their cheer- fulness and prosperity, and glad at their adversity, this is a strong mark of our not feeling towards them a forgiving spirit. For forgiveness, be it remembered, does not consist in saying, *' I forgive :" it consists in the generad temper and spirit: it consists in the perseverance of kindness after the offence. How is this, as to God ? We pray to be forgiven by Him in the same manner as we forgive others. But when we pray for His forgiveness, do we not mean, by it, that we pray for a kind and beneficent and friendly disposition in God towards us ? Should we consider Him as forgiving us our trespasses, if we knew Him to be still difficult of approach, cold and distant towards us, not allowing us to draw near to Him in prayer as His child ren, but wishing us to depart from His presence, instead ot inviting us towards Him ?" < Let us then examine ourselves closely respecting the nature of that forgiveness which we exercise : for, in the same manner in which we forgive men their trespasses, our heavenly Father will also forgive us. Oh, how great is the contrast between that forgiveness to which we lay claim from God towards us, and our temper towards others I God, we expect, will forgive us great offences, offences many times repeated, and will for- give them freely, liberally, and from the heart ; but we are offended at our neighbour, perhaps, for the merest trifles, and for an injury only once offered, and we are but half reconciled when we seem to forgive. Even an uncertain rumour, an am- biguous word, or a suspected look, will inflame our anger ; and hardly any persuasion will induce us for a long time to relent. By one, offence is taken at a neglect in not answering a letter ; by another, at not returning a visit ; by a third, at some acci- dental failure in those attentions, which we, in the pride and littleness of our own minds, have been led to expect. We are embittered, perhaps, not against enemies, but against our very friends, by some of these causes, and we find it hard, and almost impossible, to forgive. 86 THE lord's prayer. ' HLow different is this treatment of others who have tres- passed against us, from that treatment which we ourselves expect at the hand of God ! In order, then, to cure this temper, let us call often to mind our own trespasses against Him ; let us earnestly implore of Him pardon for our great ofiFences ; and, while we thus pray, let us abhor the thought of retaining the slightest feeling ot an unforgiving spirit towards our neigh- bour.' SECTION VI. THE PETITION AGAINST BEING LED INTO TEMPTATION, AND FOR DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. " And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." — Matt. vi. part of ver, 13 ; and Luke xi. part of ver. 4. PON reviewing^ those clauses of the Prayer which have hitherto engaged our attention, we cannot fail to remark that the several petitions of this Divdne Prayer, which should always be regarded by us as the model of every Christian prayer, and as the summary of the Gospel, point out the several relations, in which we stand toward God, and the various graces and dis- positions which those relations imply. In the words, " Our Father which art in heaven," we are reminded that we should always approach the throne of grace, as the children of God, with our hearts disengaged from the things of earth, animated by the spirit of Di\ane adoption, and desiring to be united to Him, who is the fountain of light and Hfe, the only Author and Giver of every good and every perfect gift. When repeating the following words, " Hallowed ' See Note from Bishop Taylor, in Section III. p. '61 . 88 THE lord's prayer. be Thy Name," we are reminded that we are to pray, as belonging to a holy priesthood, and that our hearts, therefore, should be warmed with zeal for the glory of God, with an ardent desire for the sanctification of His Name, among all orders and degrees of men, and with an earnest wish so to be clothed ourselves with the garment of holiness, that we may resemble *'* our Father which is in heaven." Christians are also to regard themselves as sub- jects, desiring to proclaim the majesty of their king. We are taught, therefore, to say, " Thy kingdom come," and to desire that He alone may reign in our hearts ; that so we may " bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. x. 5). The true believer knows, also, that it is his pri- vilege to cherish a spirit resembling that of a wife toward her husband ; desiring, in all things, to obey the blessed will of the Lord God of his salvation, and seeking only to please Him. And he says, therefore, not only with his lips, but from the very ground of his heart, " Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." Moreover, when we approach the throne of grace, we should always come, as sheep disposed to follow our Shepherd whithersoever He leadeth us, and to look to Him only for all the nourishment we require. And even such is the spirit, in which we should repeat the words, " Give us this day our daily bread." Once more, we must always come to the throne of grace as penitents, imploring mercy for the forgive- SECT. VI.] THE lord's PRAYER. 89 ness of our past transgressions, and grace to help us for the time to come ; that so, under a sense of the mercy shewn to us, we may " forbear one another, and forgive one another," even as God for Christ's " sake forgave us" (Col. iii. 13, and Eph. iv. 32). Day by day, therefore, are we to offer up the words of this petition : " Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us." To all these several petitions our attention has been already directed ; and it has been my endeavour so to illustrate their scope and signification, that we might be able to comprehend the fulness and perfec- tion of this Divine Prayer, and thus be led to repeat it vnth the spirit of true devotion. We are now to consider the remaining petition, " Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil ;" reserving, for the concluding section, the words of praise with which our Lord closed the prayer when He delivered it, for the first time, in His sermon on the mount. The first clause of this petition serves to remind us, that we should always approach our heavenly Fa- ther, as the great Physician of souls, acknowledging and deploring that ' fault and corruption' of our na- ture, whereby we are ' very far gone from original righteousness,' and are * inclined to evil :'^ for we are here taught daily to say, " Lead us not into tempta- tion." And, assuredly, as we daily utter these words, we ought to feel that the way of salvation is a way of ' Article ix. I 2 90 THE lord's prayer. deep self-abasement, since we thus acknowledge that the grace which the Gospel promises, is a help which must be called into daily and active exercise by every child of God. And what, indeed, should render us more humble ; what should render us more vigilant ; what should lead us more frequently to the exercise of faith and prayer, than the rooted persuasion that we are naturally inclined to evil, and that we have no power to do any thing acceptable or well-pleasing to God, except by God's grace ' preventing us that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will ?'^ What should lead us to pray more earnestly, than the deep conviction that we are continually exposed to all the evil suggestions of a deceitful heart within, and to all the temptations of a wicked world without us ? The second clause of the petition, " Deliver us from evil," is suited to remind us, that we should al- ways approach our heavenly Father, as captive exiles, suing to Him, who only can deliver us from the bond- age under which we are groaning. And when we think of all the " evils," which beset us on every side, and when we consider the warfare, in which, there- fore, we must necessarily be engaged, as long as we are in this world of trial, well may we plead, day by day, for grace to help us in time of need ; and well may we long for that day of complete deliverance, when the tempter and his temptations, when all evil ' Article x. SECT. VI.] THE lord's PRAYER. 91 desires and all sinful inclinations, shall be destroyed for ever ! ^ Let us now proceed to consider the words of this petition somewhat more in detail ; and then let us endeavour, under the Divine blessing, to improve the subject of our meditations to our own instruction in righteousness. Were it not that some persons have used very- unwary expressions on this subject, it would be scarcely necessary to observe, that, when we say, " Lead us not into temptation," the words cannot imply that God is, in any sense, the Author of temp- tation. ^ " Thou art not a God," says the psalmist, " that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with Thee." " Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever : the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wick- edness" (Ps. V. 4, and xlv. 6, 7). " He is the rock," says Moses ; " His work is perfect; for edl His ways ^ ' When we say, " Deliver us from evil," then are we re- minded that, we have not yet attained the region of that bless- edness, where no evil shall be suffered any more. And this last thought, with which the Lord's Prayer is summed up, is so comprehensive, so suflScient for every state of trouble, that, be the Christian in what trial he may, this final deliverance forms the ultimate object of his groanings. The longing for this brings out his warmest tears ; with aspirations towards this he begins his supplications ; on the hope of this he lingers through their course ; and, with his whole soul fixed on this, he brings them to a close.' — St. Augustine. 2 See Note from Da. Bar row at the end of this section. 92 THE lord's prayer. are judgment : a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is He" (Deut. xxxii. 4). " What sha.ll we say then," exclaims the apostle Paul, when treat- ing of the Divine sovereignty, " is there unrighteous- ness with God ? God forbid" (Rom. ix. 14). And the language of the apostle James is remarkably cle-ar and impressive : " Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God ; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man : but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed" (Jas. i. 13, 14). The last-mentioned words of the apostle, describ- ing man as being " tempted," when "he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed," may serve to guide us to the true interpretation of the clause, " Lead us not into temptation." And its meaning may be expressed in the following terms : Withdraw not Thy grace from us, O Father, lest, when left to grapple^ with our spiritual foes in our own strength, ^ ' Does the Lord teach us to pray that we may not be tempted at all ? How then is it said elsewhere, " My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations ?" (Jas i. 2.) Or, rather, does not the entering into temptation mean the being whelmed under the temptation ? For the temptation is, like a winter-torrent, difficult to cross. Some then, being most skilful swimmers, pass over, not being whelmed beneath temp- tations, nor swept down by them at all : while others, who are not such, entering into them sink in them. Listen to the com- pany of unscathed saints, giving thanks for deliverance from temptation : *' For Thou, O God, hast proved us : Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net ; SECT. VI.] THE lord's PRAYER. 93 we should be " drawn away of our own lust, and en- ticed." 'JThou knowest the dangers in which we are placed. Thou knowest that we live in the midst of enemies, who are ever plotting to destroy our souls ; that we have the prince of darkness always going about, as a " roaring lion, seeking whom he may de- vour" (1 Pet. V. 8), and the treacherous corruption of our own hearts, ready to betray us into his power ; and that we have snares laid for us on every side, — snares in our hours of solitude and in our hours of social intercourse ; snares in our worldly occupations ; snares in all the walks of pubHc or of private life ; yea, snares in our most holy and spiritual exercises, even in meditation and prayer. Seeing, then, that we are thus encompassed with " temptation" on every side, and that we have * no power of ourselves to help our- selves,'^ suffer us not, O Father, to be overcome by temptation, but ' grant to us such strength and pro- tection as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations, through Jesus Christ our Lord.'2 Thou laidest affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads ; we went through fire and through water ; but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place" (Ps. Ixvi. 10-12). Thou seest them speaking boldly, because they passed through and were not pierced. " But Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place." Now, their coming into a " wealthy place," is their being " delivered from temptation." ' — St. Cyril. ' Collect for the second Sunday in Lent. ^ Collect for the fourth Sunday after the Epiphany. 94 THE lord's prayer. It is said, in the tenth Article of the Church of England, that we have ' no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will.' Now, it will appear, from the train of thought which we have just been pursuing, that the words of this clause, " Lead us not into temptation," may be considered as relating to God's ' preventing grace,' or, the grace which should always go before us ' in all our doings,' that so we may always be upon the watch against all the enemies of our salvation. But we require, not only Divine grace, to ' prevent us, that we may have a good will,' but the same grace, to assist us, and * work with us when we have it.' And therefore it is, that we pray to our heavenly Father, saying, not only, " Lead us not into temptation," but, also, " Deliver us from evil." In other words : With- draw not from us Thy preventing grace, lest we be left blind, and naked, and defenceless, amidst all the dangers and '* temptations" of the world, the flesh, and the devil ; and grant us, at the same time. Thy assisting grace, to " deliver us from evil." Yes, save us, we implore Thee, from evil of every kind ;^ from ' * As for such evils as these : the want of things necessary or convenient for us ; bodily disease and pain ; disappoint- ment in our designs, and ill success in our undertakings ; dis- grace and reproach upon our good names ; dangers, difficulties, and distresses, concerning our outward estate ; distractions, vexations, and troubles of mind about temporal matters ; with SECT. VI.] THE lord's PRAYER. 95 every evil passion and every evil thought ; from every evil word and every evil work ; from every evil being and every evil thing ; from the wickedness of man, the malice of the devil, and the danger and deceit- fulness of our own corrupted nature. Yea, may Thy the like evils (in some sense, in some degree, evils, or appear- ing such to our natural sense and fancy) ; we may, indeed, de- precate them, as even our Lord Himself did, with submission, as He did, to the wisdom and will of God, in case it pleaseth Him and He thinketh fit to remove them. But all these things being but names and empty sounds in comparison to spiritual and eternal evils, such as are vicious distempers of mind ; indispositions to serve God ; ill progress in our spi- ritual affairs ; dissatisfaction concerning our state in respect to God ; actual transgression of God's holy will and law ; incur- ring God's displeasure and disfavour ; being deprived of His grace and assistance ; wanting the communion and comfort of His Holy Spirit ; remorse of conscience and anguish of spirit for having violated or neglected our duty ; blindness of mind ; hardness of heart ; want of love, reverence, and devotion to- ward God ; of charity and good will toward our neighbour ; and of sobriety, humility, regularity of passion, and calmness of temper, in respect to ourselves and the inward frame of our souls; — with respect to these and such-like evils, we should absolutely request of God, that He, in mercy, would deliver and free us from them, they being irreconcileably contrary to His will and glory, and inconsistent with our eternal welfare."' — Dr. Isaac Barrow. * If " Lead us not into temptation" had implied the not being tempted at all, He would not have said, " But deliver us from the evil." Now " the evil" is the wicked spirit, who is our adversary, from whom we pray to be delivered.' — St. Cyril. * The man of the world looks to himself, and calls those 9S THE lord's prayer. grace be continually ' working with us,' that so we may be saved ' from all sin and wickedness, and ciom our ghostly enemy, and from everlasting dea'h.'" Now, when we think of all these " evils," from which we pray that we may be delivered, we might well shrink from venturing, in our own strength, upon such a fearful conflict. ' Alas !' might the Christian say, when looking upon the temptations without, and the corruptions within himself, and when considering how slow has been the growth of that measure of grace which he has already received ; ' alas ! how shall this be ? How shall I ever attain my journey's end ?' But, when the Christian looks upward ; when he lifts his eyes above his difficulties, and beholds the strength of God engaged in his behalf ; when he di- rects his prayer to Him for help, and is assured that he shall find it, — this upholds him, and dissipates all his fears. For what though there be a " roaring lion" (1 Pet. v. 8) that seeks to devour us ? Still there is, also, * a strong rescuing lion,'^ even " the Lion of the tribe of Judah" (Rev. v. 5), who will deliver all be- lievers from this cruel adversary. " Yes," says the Apostle Paul, " the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Rom. xvi. 20). He says, things " evil" which are displeasing to himself. The Christian looks to God, and calls those things " evil" which are displeas- ing to Him.' — Augustus Hare. ' See the paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer in the Church Catechism. 2 Archbishop Leighton. SECT. VI.] THE lord's PRAYER. 97 not, be it obsen^ed, Wk " shall bruise Satan under our feet," but " God" shall do it. Yet it is not said, that God shall bruise him under His own feet, but under ours : that is, as all believers gather joyfully from these words, the victory shall be theirs, though wrought by God. We should observe, moreover, that the Apostle here speaks of God, as the " God of PEACE." For it is as if he had said to all the children of God ; * Because He is the " God of peace," be as- sured that He will finally subdue that great disturber of your peace, and will admit you into those courts of the heavenly temple, where the wicked one ceases from troubling, and where the weary shall enter into endless peace.' Having thus considered the scope and significa- tion of the words, " Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," we are now to endeavour, with God's assistance, to improve the subject of our medi- tations to our instruction in righteousness. And, to this end, I would oflfer two remarks ; the one arising out of the connexion of this petition with that imme- diately preceding ; the other, out of the words them- selves, as shewing the necessity of watchfulness and prayer. Let us, then, first consider the connexion of the petition before us with the petition immediately pre- ceding.^ In that petition, we pray to our heavenly ^ * As God lets go His hold, so we must let go ours. And if we will have God to remit our former sins, we must beware K 98 THE lord's prayer. Father, beseeching Him " to forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us :" and when, therefore, we say, immediatelj-^ afterwards, " Lead us not into temptation, but dehver us from evil," do we not plainly gather, from the connexion of these two petitions, that we need to be rescued from the domi- nion, as well as to be freed from the damnation, of sin ? In other words, do we not gather from the con- nexion of the two petitions, that, while we need the blood of Christ, to purchase for us forgiveness of sins, and so to deliver us from the guilt and condemnation of sin, we need the Spirit of Christ, to rescue us from its power ? I observed, in the last section, that the man, who feels most deeply his own need of mercy to cover his past transgressions, will be the first to exer- cise forgiveness towards others, and to be merciful even as his Father also is merciful. And I may now add, that the same deep and abiding sense of his need of Divine mercy, to cover all his past sins, will ever be accompanied by such an experimental acquaintance with the power of indwelling sin and the treachery of his own heart, as must lead the believer to pour out many a fervent prayer for grace, to carry him through all " temptations," and to " deliver him from all evil." We have thus seen, from considering the petition before us in connexion with the petition immediately preceding, how it is suited to remind us that we must pray, day by day, to be delivered from the power, as that we do not sin against Him afresh, but that we strive against temptation to come.' — Bishop Andrews. SECT. VI.] THE lord's PRAYER. 99 well as from the guilt and condemnation, of sin ; and if we now dwell, in conclusion, on the particular scope of the petition itself, we shall see how it is suited to inculcate the necessity of watchfulness and prayer. 1. " Watch and pray," says Jesus, " that ye enter not into temptation" (Matt. xxvi. 41) : and, accord- ingly, as often as we repeat this petition, " Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," we should be reminded, on the one hand, of the necessity of watchfulness. Indeed,' if there be truth in the observation which I have already made, viz., that snares surround us on every side : in our sohtude, and in our social converse ; in our more public or in our more private duties ; and even in our most holy and spi- ritual employments : yea, if it be true that when we would do good, evil is present with us, surely there cannot be a minute of our lives, in which we can be exempted from the duty of Christian watchfulness. Day by day, and hour by hour, we must be " putting off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;" and more than that, we must, day by day and hour by hour, be " putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true hoHness" (Eph. iv. 22-24). For, not only are we "not" to be '* conformed to this world," but, as St. Paul ex- horts the Roman converts, we must be " transformed by the renewing of our mind" (Rom. xii. 2). And, if we attended to the exact force of this latter clause of ^ See above, p. 93. 100 THE lord's prayer. the exhortation, we should have little difficulty in un- derstanding what the apostle means, when he warns us, in the preceding clause, "not" to be "conformed to this world ;" for it is evident, that they only are "not conformed to this world," who are continually " transforming" themselves " by the renewing of their mind." We are, therefore, deluding our own souls, if we imagine that St, Paul is here calling upon us to abandon the station of life, to which it has pleased God to call us, or to neglect, in any the smallest de- gree, the duties and the relations of social life. We may shut ourselves out from the busy haunts of men, and we may choose only to hold intercourse with those, who will adopt the same narrow and exclusive notions with ourselves ; but, how secluded soever may be our daily walk, and how narrow soever may be the circle of our acquaintance, still the world will follow us everywhere, and entwine itself with all the inmost affections of our hearts, unless those hearts shall be " transformed" by the renewing influence of the Holy Spirit. It follows, therefore, that they only under- stand the apostle's precept, who have learned, by Di- vine grace, not to shut themselves out from the world, but to shut out the world, with all its sinful practices, from their own hearts and minds ; and that they only are the true soldiers of the Cross, who, instead of de- serting the post in which they have been stationed by the Captain of their salvation, are endeavouring, with His assistance, to overcome all the dangers and tempta- tions of this sinful world, by a daily and hourly trans- SECT. VI. J THE lord's PRAYER. 101 formation of their hearts and minds. With this view, they resolve to " take unto them the whole armour of God" (Eph. vi. 13) ; and, in the expressive language of one of our old writers, they never think of laying aside their armour, until others shall be called upon to wrap them in their shroud. 2. But, while the command to " watch," is to call forth our activity in all the ways of a holy obe- dience, the command to " pray," is to remind us that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves, but that all our strength is placed in another. In vain, then, shall we resolve to watch and strive against all the onsets of the world, the flesh, and the devil, un- less, by the exercise of earnest and ferv^ent prayer, we shall engage the Holy One of Israel to place underneath us His everlasting arms, that, in His strength, we may indeed be strong. For we are plainly reminded, in Scripture, that " except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it;" and that " except the Lord keep the city, the watch- man waketh but in vain" (Ps. cxxvii. 1) : and, there- fore, while w^e "watch" and labour, as if the work were to be all our own, we must believe and " pray " as if it were all God's. To revert, then, to the lan- guage of the petition before us ; as, on the one hand, we hope not to be " led into temptation," we must pray to our heavenly Father for that preventing grace which shall open our eyes to see the dangers to which we are exposed from the world, the flesh, and the devil ; and as, on the other hand, we hope to be K 2 102 THE lord's prayer. " delivered from evil," we must pray for that assist- ing grace, which, by rescuing us now ' from all sin and wickedness,' may be regarded as a pledge and an earnest of our final deliverance hereafter from ' our spiritual enemy and from everlasting death.'' May we " watch," therefore, and " pray," that we enter not into temptation. Yea, may we be " strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might ; putting on the whole armour of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil ; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance " (Eph. vi. 10, 11, 18). And then we may rest assured, that the " God of peace will bruise Satan under our feet shortly" (Rom. xvi. 20), and that- He will finally " deliver us from " all " evil," through J(;sus Christ our Lord. ' Church Catechism. SECT. VI. J THE lord's PRAYER. 103 NOTE. * The word " temptation," is commonly taken for an occa- sion, (presented with ill purpose, or, naturally tending, and not easily avoided,) of falling into sin ; a stumbling-block ; a snare ; as when St. Paul saith, that " they who will be rich, do fall" els ireiparrfxhu koX irayi^a, " into temptation and a snare" (1 Tim. vi. 9). Thus St. James assureth us, that " God tempteth no man" (James i. 13) ; that is, doth not intend to seduce or inveigle any man into sin. Yet, because nothing in the world, either good or bad, doth happen without God's permission and governance ; and the devil himself must obtain license from GoJ, before he can tempt any man, or do any mischief, as we see in Job's case, and in the history of Ahab ; since God seeth whatever is done, and with greatest ease could hinder it ; and doth not, otherwise than for some good end, suffer any evil to be designed or achieved ; it is the style of Scripture to attribute such things, in some sense, to Him. Thus God is said to " send Joseph into Egypt to pre- serve life" (Gen. xlv. 5); whenas, in truth, his brethren, out of envy and ill will, did sell him thither : and thus God is said to " move David to number the people" (2 Sam. xxiv. 1) ; whenas, indeed, Satan, as it is othei-wise affirmed, " pro- voked him to number them" (1 Chron. xxi. 1) : and thus the horrid tragedy, acted by the Jews upon our blessed Saviour, is said to be brought to pass by the "hand" and '• determi- nate counsel of God" (Acts ii. 23, and iv. 28) ; because God, foreseeing how these men would be tempted to commit such acts, and their inclinations to perform them, did resolve not to interpose His power in hinderance of them, but, suffering them to proceed, would turn their mischievous practices to an excellently good end, and use them as instruments of His just, holy, and gracious purposes. Thus, then, whereas, by 104 THE lord's prayer, " temptation' here, is meant any occasion, alluring or pro- voking to sin, or withdrawing from duty, with a violence, all things considered, exceeding our strength to resist or avoid ; God may be said to bring them into it, whom in justice He permits to be exposed thereto ; although He do no otherwise intermeddle, or concur therein, than by not affording, or by withdrawing. His especial direction and assistance ; leaving them, without check, blindly or wilfully to follow the sway of their own tempers, the instinct of their vain minds, the bent of their corrupt wills, and the violence of their unruly passions and appetites ; letting them fedl into the manifold snares of false opinion, evil custom, and contagious example, which the world sets before them ; and permitting the devil, without control or impediment, by his wiles to delude and seduce them. This kind of proceeding of God with men is clearly represented in the eighty-first psalm ; where, of the Israelites, God says, that, having signally declared His pleasure to them, and, by promise of great benefits, invited them to observe it, upon their wilful neglect. He dealt thus with them : " My people would hot hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me ; so I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts ; and they walked in their own counsels" (Ps. Ixxxi. 11, 12). In like manner, if God, provoked thereto by our heinous miscar- riages, doth justly bring us into, or doth let us "enter into temptation," as our Lord otherwhere expresseth it, when He saith, ** Pray that ye enter not into temptation" (Luke xxii. 40, 46), we shall infallibly run into many grievous sins and desperate mischiefs ; no less surely, than we shall wander and stumble in the dark, or, than we shall slide and faU in the most slippery places, and. sometimes be entangled, when we do walk in the midst of snares, surrounded with traps innu- merable, most cunningly laid to catch us. "It is not," saith the prophet, " in man to direct his steps" (Jer. x. 23), so as to go straight and upright ; it is not in him to see his duty ; to bend his inclinations to a compliance therewith ; to restrain SECT. VI. J THE LOUd's PRAYER. 105 his appetites, when sensible objects forcibly press on them ; to govern his passions, when they are vehemently stirred to disorderly motion ; but we do continually need God's instruc- tion to guide us, God's "hand to uphold us" (Ps. xxxvii. 23, 24), and God's care and help to guard us. When, there- fore, our condition and circumstances do minister dangerous occasions of sin ; when our vain and weak tempers do incline or betray us thereto ; when the world would smile or frown us into it ; (for the world, by its fair promises and pleasing flat- teries, enticeth to sin, or, by its angry frowns and fierce threats, discourageth from goodness;) when the devil violently solicits, or thrust^ on toward it ; thus to be destitute of God's grace, thus to be left to ourselves, is the most horrible judgment that can be. In such cases and seasons, God's interposal is neces- sary, either to remove those temptations, or to support ana defend us from the prevalence of them, (pvkdaa-ccp a-K-raiarovs, " keeping us from stumbling and falling," as St. Jude speaks (Jude, 24) ; and " not suffering us," as St. Paul expresseth it, " to be tempted above what we are able, but making with the temptation also a way to escape,'' so " that we may be able to bear it" (1 Cor. x. 13).' — Dr. Isaac Barrow. SECTION VII. THE DOXOLOGY ; OR, THE THANKFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF god's eternal and EVERLASTING KINGDOM, POWER, AND GLORY. " For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."— Matt. vi. part of ver. 13. JHE words of this doxology, or, form of praise, are found only in the gospel ac- cording to St. Matthew. It is, in sub- stance, the same with a doxology which was in use in the Jewish Church ; and we may con- clude, therefore, that our Lord saw fit to adopt it from the Jewish liturgy. But, as we do not find it in the gospel by St. Luke, we must infer that, when our Lord delivered this Divine form of prayer, on the second occasion, He omitted the words of the doxology. We find, indeed, that, in the Latin copies of the New Testament, it is omitted, even in the gospel by St. Matthew ; but, as the clause is found in the Syriac version, which can be traced up to the earliest ages of the Christian Church ; as it is intro- duced into the Greek liturgies, as it is utterly im- SECT. VII.] THE lord's PRAYER. 107 probable that the holy fathers of the Greek Church should presume to add their own inventions to a form which our Lord had Himself delivered to His dis- ciples ; and as it is difficult to understand why the clause, if added afterwards, should not have been introduced into the gospel by St. Luke, as well as the gospel by St. Matthew, we may safely receive this doxology, as part of the Lord's Prayer. It is, moreover, so perfectly scriptural in its character, and so full of profitable instruction, that the internal evi- dence of its Divine origin seems to be quite unanswer- able. It was, as we may suppose, upon these grounds, that the venerable Compilers of our own Liturgy deemed it right to preserve the clause, not only when the prayer is introduced, for the first time, at Morn- ing and at Evening Prayer, but in certain other parts of the Book of Common Prayer, when the occasion seems more especially to call for praise and thanks- giving ;' while, in the remaining parts of the Liturg}^ ^ The Lord's Prayer is introduced twice into the order of the administration of the Lord's Supper; and a compgirison between the two different parts of the office, in which the prayer is found, will serve to illustrate the care with which every part of the Liturgy has been prepared. At the com- mencement of the Communion Office, the Lord's Prayer is, according to the pattern contained in the gospel by St, Luke, without the doxology. But, when repeated in the Post Com- munion, immediately after the distribution of the sacred ele- ments, the doxology is subjoined, according to the gospel by St. Matthew. As if the Compilers of our Prayer-book would 108 THE LOKd's prayer. we are taught to repeat this Divine Prayer, as it is found in St. Luke, without this doxology. Not that the omission of this particular clause, is to be regarded as an omission of praise ; seeing that the whole Prayer, independent of the doxology, is, in truth, one beautiful and comprehensive form of adora- tion, to the praise and glory of the Most High. For is not the praise of our heavenly Father set forth by us, in this Prayer, when we call upon Him, as " Our Father which is in heaven," beseeching Him, that His " Name may be hallowed ;" that His " kingdom may come ;" that His " will may be done in earth, as it is in heaven;" when we put up these petitions to Him alone ; and when we refer every thing to His will and His glory ? Every clause of this prayer, therefore, is virtually in praise of God : and it is, perhaps, exactly that species of praise, which, on almost all occasions, is most fit to be used by stran- gers and pilgrims, like ourselves, who must feel that their praises should always be mingled with fervent thus remind us, that the sacrifice of praise to the Holy, Holy, Holy, Lokd God of hosts, whose is " the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever," will best be performed by those, whose souls have been strengthened and refreshed by the body and blood of Christ, at His holy table ! In like manner, the doxology is not subjoined to the Lord's Prayer, either in the office of Baptism, or in the order of Confirmation ; but it seems to be purposely reserved for those, who, in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, publicly receive Him, as the Bread of life, who, at Holy Baptism, had received them into the congregation of His Church. SECT. VII. THE LORDS I'KAYER. 109 prayers for mercy and for grace For, assuredly, the pure, unmixed language of praise must be reserved for that state, when they, who have " come out of great tribulation" (Rev. vii. 14), shall join the ranks of the Church triumphant, and shall unite in singing praise to Him, that " sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb" (Rev. vii. 10). And blessed, indeed, are they, who, after a daily repetition of this prayer on earth, shall, hereafter, be permitted to exchange their Hosannahs for Hallelujahs, and to say, ' Hal- lowed be Thy Name, O Lord ; for thy kingdom is come. Thy will has been accomplished. Our sins are forgiven ; the season of trial and temptation has passed away, and we have been delivered from all evil. Thine, indeed, is the kingdom ; and to Thee be ascribed all power and glory for ever and ever. Amen.'^ Let us now consider the words of this doxology, as they stand in connexion with the several petitions which have already passed under our review ; and that we may give them the largest interpretation which, in this connexion, they may seem to admit, let us view them in three different lights : viz. as * ' The " power" of God may be regarded as a name of the Son, and the ** glory" of God, as a name of the Holy Ghost. And it may be, therefore, that there is some great mystery concerning the Father, hidden under the word ' ' king- dom." In old times, the very mention of three things would have brought the most Holy Trinity to men's minds.' — British Critic, No. LT,, Art. 2. 110 THE lord's prayer. constituting a special form of praise and thanksgiving, pointing out the fit accompaniment of prayer ; as con- stituting the reasons, upon which the preceding peti- tions are grounded ; and as pointing out the end and purpose, to which all our devotions should be directed. 1 . To consider these words, in the first place, as constituting a special form of praise and thanksgiving, denoting the fit accompaniment of prayer. Viewing them in this Hght, they may serve to remind us that the thanltful acknowledgment of former mercies and deliverances, and of the Divine attributes and perfec- tions, wiU always be found to be a great help and encouragement in our addresses at the throne of grace ; in other words, that we must have praising hearts, before we can ever hope to approach the Throne of grace with such praying hearts, as may find acceptance with " our Father which is in heaven." Do we, then, really believe, and joyfully acknowledge, that His is the " kingdom," or *' dominion," His the " power," and His the " glory for ever .''" If so, this belief and this acknowledgment will be a strong en- couragement to us to pray, that His " kingdom" may '* come," in full strength and power. Do we often ponder in our hearts, and thankfully acknowledge, the proofs which He has given both of His almighty *' power," and of His readiness to ' stretch forth the right hand of His Majesty, to' be our defence against all our enemies V^ If so, this consideration will ope- ' Collect for the third Sunday in Lent. SECT. VII. J THE lord's PRAYER, 111 rate as a strong encouragement to us, to pour out our hearts before Him, in fervent and persevering prayer. " I was cast upon Thee," says David, " from the womb ;" and, having experienced the Divine care and protection all his life long, he feels encouraged to say, "Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help me" (Ps. xxii. 10, 11). 2. And this leads me to consider the words of this doxology, in the next place, as constituting an enforcement of the preceding petitions ; i. e. as being ttie reasons, upon which those petitions are grounded. We beseech our heavenly Father to grant the thingr. which we have prayed for ; and why ? Even because " His is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory." The words are thus connected with the preceding petitions, as forming the very ground, upon which we venture to offer them up to God, and upon which we trust that He will be pleased to grant them. And it is, therefore, as if we should say : If we desire, O Lord God, that " Thy Name may be hallowed ;" that " Thy kingdom may come ;" and that " Thy will may be done in earth, as it is in heaven :" it is because " Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glorjs for ever!" Seeing, therefore, that Thou art so great and glorious a King, and that Thy do- minion endureth throughout all generations, may we not come, with holy confidence, to pray that all good things may be bestowed upon us, and that all evil may be averted from us ; that we may find Thee gracious to us, both in giving and forgiving; and 112 THE lord's prayer. that, as Thou dost torgive us the guilt of our sin, so Thou wilt vouchsafe to free us from its power ? We are under Thy almighty protection ; we are Thy sub- jects, yea. Thy children ; for Thou art our King and our Father : and sure^ we are that, to whatever sum our debts amount, thej^ cannot rise above the height of Thy goodness, which rises far above the highest thought of men or angels. Sure we are, likewise, that, be the multitude of our enemies what it may, we need not fear, since all their force cannot be above Thy sceptre; and "Thine is the kingdom." Our enemies, it is true, may be strong, too strong for us ; yet in Thy sight they are " as nothing," yea, " less than nothing" (Is. xl. 17), for all " power" is " Thine." And this we know, m^oreover, that all the good which Thou conferrest upon us will bring back " glory" to Thy Name, for " Thine," also, is the " GLORY, for ever !" We pray to Thee, therefore, that " Thy Name" may be hallowed, because Thou art the " King of kings and Lord of lords" (Rev. xix. 16) ; and because the exercise of Thy " power" for this end will tend to Thy " glory." We pray to Thee, that " Thy kingdom" may "come;" or in other words, that Thy throne may be established in the hearts of men ; because to Thee only it appertains to rule in men's hearts ; because Thou only canst bless the means, which are to be employed for the advancement of this ' Archbishop Leighton. SECT. VTI.] THE LORd's PRAYER. 113 kingdom of grace ; and because, in so doing, " Thine" will be ''the glory, for ever!" We pray that "7.1iy will may be done in earth, as it is in heaven ;" be- cause the inhabitants of the " earth" are Thy sub- jects, and owe Thee obedience, as well as the angels in " heaven ;" because this is a part of Thy universal " kingdom," though too long revolted from Thee ; because " the power" is in Thy hand, to recover us from our enmity against Thee, by affording both the outward means, and the inward grace ; and because this will tend both to our happiness, and to Thy honour and " glory." We ask Thee to " give us this day our daily bread ;" because " Tliou waterest the hills from above, and the earth is filled with the fruit of Thy works ;" because " Thou bringest forth grass for the cattle, and green herbs for the sen^ice of man :" and because it is for thy honour and " glory," that " all" should " wait upon Thee, that Thou may- est give them meat in due season" (Ps. civ. 13, 14, 27). We ask Thee to " forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us ;" because Thou hast established a " kingdom," in which " mercy and truth are met together" (Ps. Ixxxv. 10) ; because Thou hast invited all that are " weary and heavy laden to come unto Thee" (Matt. xi. 28) ; and be- cause, as Thou declarest Thine Almighty * power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity,'' so we believe that Tliou mlt be chiefly glorified in fhe exercise of that ' Collect for the eleventh Sunday after Trinity L 2 114 THE lord's prayer. mercy, through Thy Son our Saviour, Jesus Christ. And we ask Thee, lastly, " not to lead us into temp- tation, but to deliver us from evil ;" because we know that our " adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet. V. 8) ; because we know that he is seeking either to withdraw us altogether from Thy service, or, to cor- rupt us in our obedience to Thee, our rightful Lord and King ; and because we know, that we cannot hope to withstand his crafts and assaults, unless we take refuge under the wings of Thy Almighty "power," and unless we continually beseech Thee to glorify Thyself in the salvation of our souls : for " Thine" only " is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever !" 3. And thus are we led to consider the words of this doxology, in the third place, as pointing out to us the one end and purpose, to which all our devo- tions should be directed, viz. the honour and glory of God. This, indeed, is the line,^ under which all our prayers ought to move. All our petitions should be regulated by it ; and they may certainly be regarded as irregular, when they swerve and wander from it. We may observe, also, from carefully examining this Divine Prayer, that the line here marked out for our devotions, is a circular line ; the exercise of prayer being, as Archbishop Leighton so beautifully observes, a * heavenly motion ; circular, as the motion of the heavens themselves." For the prayer before us begins ' Archbishop Leighton. SECT. VII.] THE lord's PRAYER. 115 and ends in the same point ; viz. the " glory" of that God, to whom we pray, and who is the God that heareth and answereth prayer. In that point, the Lord's Prayer begins, and in that point, it ends ; and if the requests which regard ourselves are placed in the middle, we are hereby plainly taught that all our desires should move in this heavenly circle. Yes, we are here distinctly reminded, (and I pray that the lesson, which is thus inculcated, may be deeply en- graven on our hearts!) that, though the things for which we pray, whether temporal or spiritual, con- cern ourselves, yet they are not to terminate in ourselves, but in Him, who is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End of all things ! For we are to desire, not only the blessings of this life, but the blessedness of the life to come, more for His glory, than for our own good. Viewing the words of the doxology under this last aspect, we plainly learn that, as often as we ap- proach the throne of grace, God's " glory" should be the one grand scope and mark, toward which we should direct all our petitions ; so that we should desire the things, for which we pray, not only as being good for ourselves, but as being suited to help us in the ser- vice of our God. And, assuredly, if we thus viewed the words of this doxolog}% we should learn to pray, as those who desire ' perfectly to love God, and worthily to magnify His holy name.'^ We should ' Collect at the Holy Communion. 116 THE lord's prayer. learn never to rest in any inferior good, but, in all our petitions, to aim at a higher and a nobler purpose. In praying, for instance, for a blessing on the means which we may employ, we should never forget the end, for which we are to employ them. And, in praying to the Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift, for any valuable talent, we should be al- ways careful to pray, at the same time, for grace, to employ it in His service, and for His glory ! Having thus briefly considered the words of the doxology, as reminding us how praise should accom- pany prayer ; as constituting the reasons, upon which the preceding petitions are grounded ; and as point- ing out the aim and end, to which all our devotions should be directed ; let us now endeavour, under the Divine blessing, to bring the words home to our hearts, for our own guidance and instruction, in our Chris- tian pilgrimage. 1. If, then, the " kingdom" be God's, let us rest our souls upon this comfortable truth, viz. that the whole world is under His government. If He, who is the King of all the earth, be, indeed, our " hope and strength," then surely we need not fear, " though the earth be moved, and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea :".>^no, " though the waters thereof rage and swell, and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same" (Ps. xlvi. 1-3). If God governs the world, then it shall, and it must, be weU with all them that fear God They may safely resign themselves to Him, and disburden all their SECT VII.] THE lord's PKAYER. 117 anxieties in His bosom. And they may rest well assured of this, that all things shall indeed work to- gether for good, to them that love Him. Not but that there are many dark and difficult things in God's Providence, wliich cannot be fathomed by our weak and limited understandings : but the language of the believer is, " Though I walk in darkness, and have no light ; yet I will trust in the Name of the Lord, and stay upon my God" (Is. 1. 10). And, while the believer thus learns to have honourable conceptions of God and His kingdom, he learns, also, to live in entire and cheerful obedience to His laws ; to have no intercourse with any of His enemies ; and to be " faithful" to Him, even " unto death," that so he may obtain a " crown of life" (Rev. ii. 10). Is God indeed the King of all the earth ? Then, in the midst of all the trials and difficulties to which we may be exposed; amidst all the temptations of the world around us, and all the suggestions of our own sinful hearts within us, let us commit our way unto Him, in fervent, humble, believing prayer, and He will bring it to pass ! 2. If, again, the " power" be God's, let us stay ourselves upon this blessed persuasion, that no force or fraud of the devil, or man, shall be able to wrest the sceptre out of His hand, or to do us any the smallest injur}-, but by His permission, for His own wise ends and purposes. If God's authority be over all, and if His power be equal to His authority, as- suredly no weapon formed against His kingdom shall 118 THE LORD S PRAYER. prosper. " The floods are risen, O Lord, the floods nave lift up their voice ; the floods lift up their waves. The waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly ; but Thou who dwellest on high art mightier" (Ps. xciii. 4, 5). 3. Once more : if, in all things, the " glory** be God's, then does it follow that the " glory" of all the good things for which we are commanded to pray, is God's likewise. And is not this a source of real and abiding consolation, viz. that our duty and our happiness do not draw one way, and God's glory another ; but that one and the same method answers both these ends ; or, rather, that these are one and the same thing ; so that we cannot better set forth God's honour, than by setting forward the salvation of our souls ? Let this, then, be our comfort, that our holiness and happiness, and the glory of God, are always mo\ang in the same blessed circle. And let this truth, also, be deeply impressed on our hearts, viz. that the honour of all the good that we do, is due to God alone. For it is He that * directs, sanc- tifies, and governs both our hearts and bodies in the ways of His laws, and in the works of His command- ments :'^ it is He that gives us the means for the ac- complishment of all good things ; and it is He that supplies us with grace to use those means aright ; so that, in all things, the " glory" of all is due unto Him ! There yet remains to be noticed one circumstance, ' Collect in the Post Communion. SECT. VII.] THE lord's PRAYER. 119 which crowns all the rest ; viz. that the " kingdom," of which we pray to be subjects ; the " power," to which we would flee for refuge amidst all the strife and tumult of this unquiet world ; and the " glory," of which we hope to partake, are " for ever ! " * We read of one, in ancient story, who when, amidst all the pomp and grandeur of a stately triumph, he was asked, by one of his own courtiers, ' What was wanting there ?' immediately returned for answer'that * continuance was wanting.' And where, indeed, shall we look for any earthly glory, of which it can be said that it ever continues in one stay .'' The golden-headed image, in Nebuchadnezzar's vision, had brittle feet ; and hence it was that it fell to pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer thrashing- floor. Nay, more than this, not only do things on earth decay, but the very heavens themselves shall wax old like a garment. " But Thou, O Lord, art the same, and Thy years shall have no end" (Ps. cii. 26, 27). Here, then, is a " kingdom," which can never be shaken ; here is a " power," that can never be controlled ; here is a V glory," that can never fade ; and therefore, here is a lasting motive for our preferring these our petitions to our heavenly Father, under the full persuasion that, if we are earnest in our supplications. He wdll always fulfil them, as He shall see to be ' most expedient for us. ' * Here the prayer ends, by leaving the image of eternity before us.' — Augustus Hare. 120 THE lord's prayer. granting us, in this world, knowledge of His truth, and, in the w^orld to come, life everlasting.'^ It is under this blessed persuasion that the believer adds, from the very bottom of his heart, " Amen." Verily, O Father, so would I have it ; this is my wish : and verily so do Thou let it be ; this is my prayer. When we repeat this word "Amen," which is so significant in the original, as to be left untranslated in our Authorised Version, we yield our cordial as- sent to all that has gone before ; thus following up our petitions with winged desires, and with hearty affec- tions, proceeding from the warmth of true devotion, and earnestly pressing what has been already uttered in the prayer. And it is even more than this ; for it is a signification of our faith and hope, to obtain that for which we have prayed. Oh ! may this, then, be the spirit, even the spirit of Christian faith and Christian hope, in which our prayers may always be offered ; and then shall our petitions rise, upon these two wings, to the Throne of the Eternal ! Yes, may we always be prepared in faith and in hope, to add our hearty " Amen," to this and every other prayer which we oflfer up to " Our Father which is in heaven." And, not resting here, let the whole complexion of our lives return a cordial " Amen," to the prayers of our lips. Let us endea- vour, day by day, to ratify the prayers which we utter, by " hallowing," in all our life and conversa- tion, ** the Name" of " Our Father which is in hea- ' Prayer of St. Chrysostom. BECT. VII.] THE LOKD's PRAYER. 121 ven;" by obeying the laws of His " kingdom;" and by *' doing His will on earth, as it is in heaven I" And then we may rest assured, that He will " give us, day by day, our daily bread ;" that He will " forgive us our trespasses," seeing that " we forgive them that trespass against us ;" and that He will " not suffer us to fall into temptation, but will deliver us from evil ;" because His is tue " kingdom, and the power, and THE glory, for EVER. AmEN !" r^^^ APPENDIX. I. ISisijop %vcvm ^arlor'a l^arapljrase of t^e ilorU's draper. " OUR FATHER " ERCIFUL and gracious, Thou gavest us being, raising us from nothing, to be an ^ excellent creation, forming us after Thy own image, tenderly feeding us, and con- ducting and strengthening us all our days. Thou art our Father, by a more excellent mercy, adopt- ing us, in a new birth, to become partakers of the in- heritance of Jesus. Thou hast given us the portion and the food of sons ; O make us to do the duty of sons, that we may never lose our title to so glorious an in- heritance. Let this excellent Name and title, by which Thou hast vouchsafed to relate to us, be our glory and our confidence ; our defence and guard ; our ornament and strength ; our dignity ; and the endearment of obedience, the principle of a holy fear to Thee, our Father, and of love to Thee, and to our brethren, partakers of the same hope aud dignity. 124 APPENDIX. Unite every member of the Church to Thee, in holy bands. Let there be no more names of division, nor titles and badges of error and partiality. Let not us, who are brethren, contend, but in giving honour to each other, and glory to Thee ; contending earnestly for the faith, but not to the breach of charity, nor the denying each other's hope. But grant that we may all join in promoting the honour of Thee our Father, in celebrat- ing the Name, and spreading the family, and propagat- ing the laws and institutions, the promises and dignities, of our elder Brother; that, despising the transitory en- tertainments of this world, we may labour for and long after the inheritance to which Thou hast given us title, by adopting us into the dignity of sons. For ever let Thy Spirit witness to our spirit, that we are Thy child- ren, ana enable us to cry, " Abba, Father." " WHICH ART IN HEAVEN." Heaven is Thy throne, the earth Thy footstool. From Thy throne Thou beholdest all the dwellers upon earth, and triest out the hearts of men, and nothing is hid from Thy sight. And as Thy knowledge is infinite, so is Thy power uncircumscribed : and Thou sittest in Thy own essential happiness and tranquillity, immov- able and eternal. That is our country, and thither Thy servants are travelling; there is our Father, and that is our inheritance ; there our hearts are, for there our treasure is laid up, till the day of recompense. " HALLOWED BE THY NAME," Thy Name, O God, is glorious, and in Thy Name is our hope and confidence. *' According to Thy Name, so is Thy praise unto the world's end."' " They that APPENDIX. 125 love Thy name shall be joyful in Thee ;" for Thy Name, which Thou madcst to be proclaimed unto Thy people, is, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." In this glorious Name we worship Thee, O Lord ; and ^' all they tliat know Thy Name will put their trust in Thee." " The desire of our soul is to Thy Name, and to the remembrance of Thee." Thou art worthy, O Lord, of honour, and i)raise, and glory, for ever and ever. We confess Thy glories ; we rejoice in Thy mercies ; '* we hope in Thy Name, and Thy saints like it well," for Thy Name is praised nn^'o the ends of the world. It is believed by faith, relied upon by a holy hope, and loved by a great charity. All Thy Church celebrates Thee with praises, and offers to Thy Name the sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving. Thou, O God, didst frame our nature by Thy own image ; and now Thou hast imprinted Thy Name upon us. We are Thy servants, the relations and domestics of Thy family ; and Thou hast honoured us with the gracious appellative of Christians. O, let us never dis- honour so excellent a title, nor, by unworthy usages, profane Thy holy Name, but for ever glorify it. Let our life be answerable to our dignity ; that our body may be chaste, our thoughts clean, our words gracious, our manners holy, and our life useful and innocent ; " that men seeing our good works, may glorify Thee, our Father, which art in heaven." "thy kingdom come." Thou reignest in heaven and earth : O, do Thou M 2 126, APPENDIX. rule also in our hearts. Advance the interest of reli- gion ; let Thy Gospel be placed in all the regions of the earth ; and let all nations come and worship Thee, laying their proud wills at Thy feet, submitting their understandings to the obedience of Jesus, conforming their affections to Thy holy laws. Let Thy kingdom be set up gloriously over us, and do Thou reign in our spirits, by Thy Spirit of grace. Subdue every lust and inordinate appetite, trample upon our pride, mortify all rebellion within us, and let all Thine and our ene- mies be brought into captivity, that " sin may never reign in our mortal bodies," but that Christ may reign in our understanding, by faith ; in the will, by charity ; in the passions, by mortification ; in all the members, by a right and a chaste use of them. And when Thy kingdom that is within us hath flourished, and is ad- vanced to that height whither Thou hast designed it, grant that Thy kingdom of glory may speedily succeed, and that we. Thy servants, may be admitted to the peace and purity, the holiness, and glories of that state, where Thou reignest alone, and art all in all. " THY WILL BE DONE IN EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN." Thy will, O God, is the measure of holiness and peace ; Thy providence, the great disposer of all things, tying all events together, in order to Thy glory, and the good of Thy servants, by a wonderful, mysterious chain of wisdom. Let Thy will, also, be the measure of our desires ; for we know that whatsoever Thou sayest, is true, and whatsoever Thou doest, is good. Grant that we may submit our wills to Thine, being patient of evils which Thou inflictest, lovers of the good which Thou commandest, haters of all evil which Thou forbid- APPENDIX. 127 dest, pleased with all the accidents Thou sendest ; that, though our nature is weaker than the nature of angels, 5'^et our obedience may be as humble and as uniform as theirs ; that, as they in heaven, so we on earth, may obej'- Thy will promptly, cheerfully, zealously, and with all our faculties. And grant, that as they there, so all the world here, may serve Thee with peace and concord, purity and love unfeigned, with one heart and one voice glorifying Thee, our heavenly Father. Grant that we may quit all our own affections, and suspect our reasonings, and go out of ourselves, and all our own coniSdences ; that, Thou being to us all things, disposing all events, and guiding all our actions, and directing our intentions, and over-ruling all things in us and about us, we may be servants of Thy divine will for ever " GIVE us THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD." Thou, O God, which takest care of our souls, do not despise our bodies, which Thou liast made and sancti- fied, and designed to be glorious. But, now that we are exposed to hunger and thirst, nakedness and weariness, want and inconvenience, " give unto us neither poverty nor riches, but feed us with food convenient for us;" and clothe us with fitting provisions, according to that state and condition wherein Thou hast placed Thy ser- vants ; that we may not be tempted with want, nor made contemptible by beggary, nor wanton or proud by riches, nor in love with any thing in this world ; but that we may use it as strangers and pilgrims, for the relief of our needs, and the support of our infirmi- ties, till we are quite spent in Thy service. Lord, take from Thy servants, sad carefulness, and all distrust, and 128 APPENDIX. give us only such a proportioi of temporal tilings as may enable us, with comfort, to do our duty.' " FORGIVE us OUR TRESPASSES, AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US." O dear God, unless Thou art pleased to pardon us, in vain it is that we should live here ; and what good will our life do us ? O, look upon us with much mercy, for we have sinned grievously against Thee. Pardon the imperfections of our life, the weaknesses of our duty, and the carelessness of our spirit ; pardon our affected ignorance and want of diligence in Thy service, our rashness and want of observation, our malice and presumptions. Turn Thine eyes from our impurities, and behold the brightness and purest innocence of the holy Jesus ; and, under His cover, we plead our cause, not that Thou shouldest judge our sins, but that Thou shouldest give us pardon, and blot out all our iniqui- ties ; so that we may never enter into the horrible regions, where there are torments without ceasing, a ' It will be seen that, in paraphrasing this clause of the Lord's Prayer, " Give us this day our daily bread," Bishop Jjlremy Taylor views it only as relating to the supply of our bodily wants ; but, in the exposition of the Lord's Prayer, which he gives in his ' History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus,' he adopts the twofold interpretation which is'given by the early fathers, and which is so well expressed, in our Church Cate- chism, by ' all things that be needful both for our souls and bodies.' In the above-mentioned exposition, after giving the first and most obvious interpretation of the clause, the bishop proceeds as follows : — ' There is also a Bread, which came down from heaven, a dirine nutriment of our Bouls, the food and wine of angels, Christ Himself, as He ccmmutiicates Himself in His word and sacraments. And if we be destitute of this Bread, we are miserable and perishing people. We must pray, therefore, that our souls may feed upon that heavenly food, prepared for us during our pilgrimage upon earth, till the great and fuller meal of the supper of the Lamb shall answer all our prayers, and satisfy every desire.' APPENDIX. 129 prison without ransom, reproaches without comfort, anguish without patience, darkness without light, a " worm that never dies, and the fire that never goeth out." But be pleased, also, to give us great charity, that we may truly forgive all that trouble or injure us ; that, by this character, Thou may est discern us to be Thy sons and servants, disciples of the holy Jesus ; lest our prayer be turned into sin, and Thy grace be recalled, and Thou enter into a final anger against Thy servants. " LEAD us NOT INTO TEMPTATION." Gracious Father, we are weak and ignorant ; our affections betray us, and make us willing to die ; " our adversary, the devil, goeth up and down, seeking whom he may devour ;" he is busy and crafty, malicious and powerful, watchful and envious ; and we tempt our- selves, running out to mischief, delighting in the ap- proaches of sins, and love to have necessities put upon us, that sin may be unavoidable. Pity us, in the midst of these disorders, and give us spiritual strength, holy resolutions, a watchful spirit, the whole armour of God, and Thy protection, even the guard of angels, and the conduct of Thy Holy Spirit, to be our security in the day of danger. Give us Thy grace to fly from all occa- sions to sin, that we may never tempt ourselves, nor delight to be tempted. Let Thy blessed providence so order the accidents of our lives, that we may not dwell near an enemy ; and when Thou shalt try us, and suffer us to enter into combat, let us always be on Thy side, and fight valiantly, resist the devil, and endure patiently, and pejsevere constantly unto the end, that Thou may est crown Thy own work in us. 130 APPENDIX. " BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL." From sin and shame, from the malice and fraud of the devil, and from the falseness and greediness of men, from all Thy wrath, and from all our impurities, good liOrd, deliver Thy servants. Do not reserve any of Thy wrath in store for us ; but let our sins be pardoned so fully, that Thou mayest not punish our inventions. And yet if Thou wilt not be entreated, but that it be necessary that we suffer. Thy will be done. Smite us here with a Father's rod, that thou mayest spare us hereafter. Let the sad acci- dents of our life be for good to us, not for evil ; for our amendment, not to exasperate or weary us, not to harden or confound us. And what evil soever it be that shall happen, let us not sin against Thee. For ever deliver us from THAT evil, and for ever deliver us from the power of the Evil One, the great enemy of mankind ; and never let our portion be in that region of darkness, in that " everlasting burning," which Thou hast " pre- pared for the devil and his angels for ever." " FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN." So shall we, Thy servants, advance the mightiness of Thy kingdom, the power of Thy majesty, and the glory of Thy mercy, from generation to generation, for ever. Amen. APPKNDIX. 131 II. Br. ©glJnt'a Pvivapfjras? of tl)e iLorb's |3raper. *' OUR FATHER, WHICH ART tX HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME." Abba, Father ; Thou Author, Preserver, Support, of my being, life, hopes, and happiness ; who hast brought me into this world. Thy work; and redeemed me by Thy only-begotten Son, through Thy Holy Spirit, to an eternal inheritance in heaven ; I acknowledge Thy authority and Thy aftection, with reverence and grati- tude. I own thy paternal power and tenderness, and approach Thy Presence wdth the sentiments of a son ; with fear, and love, and joy. Thus emboldened, I raise my thoughts from earth to heaven ; I look up to that seat, where thou hast dwelt from eternity, enthroned in majesty above all height, and clothed with light which no eye can bear to behold. But, though Thy glory is unsearchable, and I cannot see Thee as Thou art ; yet so much, at least, I can discern of Thee by Thy image, expressed in Thy word, and reflected from Thy works, that Thou art great, and just, and holy. Thou wilt be " sanctified in them that come nigh Thee" (Lev. X. 3). Thou requirest truth in the hearts of Thy worshippers ; and that the lips which presume to utter Thy hallowed Name, be free both from impurity and fraud. May the number be multiplied, without mea- sure, of such as present this " incense to Thy Name, and a pure offering" (Mai. i. 11). And oh 1 that my voice also might be heard among tnose who thus adore Thee! 132 APPENDIX. " THY KINGDOM COME. to Thy rightful sway : we have followed the dictates of pride and passion ; have been seduced by the Tempter, led astray by our own corrupt mind, or by the wiles of others ; and Thy world hath lain under the power of the Evil One. How long, O Lord, Holy and True? Thy time will surely come, (let it come speedily !) when Thy just dominion shall be universally acknowledged, in every region, by every heart ; when Thou shalt reign unrivalled in all Thy works ; and the usurped authority of that false spirit, which divides and deforms Thy king- dom, shall be utterly destroyed for ever. " THY WILL BE DONE IN EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN." In heaven, Thy will is the only law. " Thousand thousands minister unto Thee, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Thee" (Dan. vii. 10 V who cease not day and night to celebrate and to serve Thee, with uninterrupted j)raises, and unerring obedience. Oh, that such fidelity w^ere found on earth ! Oh, that the sons of men did even now resemble that blest society, to which they hope hereafter to be united ! Oh, that they were animated with the Uke holy, ardent zeal, and could give themselves to God, with the same entire de- votion ! We are blind and vain, but Thou art wise and good. Wise, therefore, in Thy wisdom, secure under Thy care, great and happy in humility and subjection, we have no wishes but in Thee. Our whole desire and glory is to be, to do, to suffer, whatever Thou art pleased to appoint. APPENDIX. 133 " GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD. During our passage through this perishable state, we trust and know that Thou, who gavest us life, wilt give us also all such things as are necessary for its sup- port ; and we ask no more. But oh ! leave us not des- titute of that " Bread which cometh down from hea- ven" (John vi. 32, 33). Let our souls be nourished by Thy word and ordinances ; that we may grow in grace, and be made partakers of a life which will never end. We ask not for wealth, or fame, or power ; but we ask for grace to " lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal" (Matt. vi. 20). The one object of our desires is the light of Thy coun- tenance ; even the approbation and the applause of our God! " FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES, AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US." But what have I said ? Ah me ! can I hope to be justified, when I am judged ? Dare I trust to that fiery trial ? Will my life, or will my heart, endure the in- spection of Thy pure eye ? No ; but, (blessed be Thy Holy Name !) there is forgiveness ; there is mercy with Thee. * Have mercy, therefore, have mercy upon me, most merciful Father ; and for Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, forgive me all that is past.'* Then shall my life bear testimony to my thankful heart ; and that gratitude, which extends not to Thee, shall overflow on men. For how just is it that I should shew to them that mercy, which I ask, and want ! I bless Thee for ' Confession at the Holk Commuj N 134 APPENDIX. Thy goodness, and I feel the constraint of love ; and I do now, from the bottom of my heart, naked before that Presence, from which no thought is hid, most freely forgive all those, who, by word or deed, knowingly or ignorantly have offended, or have injured, me. I lay aside all my claims to vengeance. I wish to forget all offences that have ever been committed against me ; and if I remember them at all, I desire only to remem- ber them in my prayers, earnestly beseeching Thee, in behalf of the offenders, that Thou wouldst be pleased to change their hearts, and save their souls. And I do most ardently desire, O Father, that the sense of Thy divine and boundless love may kindle, in my breast, a flame of thankfulness to Thee, which no time shall quench ; and may lead me to cherish an affection to men, which no provocation, no wrongs shall conquer. And may this principle of heavenly love reign in my heart, and direct and animate all my actions ! " LEAD us NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL." I am willing, moreover, that it should be called forth and cultivated by exercise and discipline. And, whatever trials or sufferings Thy wisdom sees fit for this happy end, I cheerfully embrace them all. Shew me no hurtful indulgence. I decline no danger for Thy glory, for the good of men, for the improvement of my own soul. Yet remember that I am but dust. Be Thou near me in those perilous moments. Let not the storms of trouble and trial overwhelm me. Strengthen my failing faith. When I sink, stretch forth Thy hand. I rely on Thy providence and grace, that Thou wilt deliver me from the danger, or support me uJideT it. APPENDIX. 135 Save me from sin, from the great enemy of souls, and from eternal misery ! These, Lord, are the requests which my heart j^ours out unto Thee. But Thou seest the wants, which it doth not know ; Thou hearest the desires, which it cannot utter. Give us what is good, though we ask it not ; and mercifully deny, when we pray for evil. " FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN." My soul falls down, with the lowest reverence, be- fore Thy throne, adding its little homage to the devout adoration of all Thy servants upon earth, and to the triumphant hallelujahs of the whole company of hea- ven ; saying, Power and honour, dominion and glory, infinite and everlasting, be unto Thee, my Lord, my Father, and my God ! Amen ! Amen ! ■^^ip (iM Date Due )lp25 '4^ m^ ■ T ip^i'f- -"" /■ f)