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and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world (Titus ii. 12), and also by the example1 of our blessed Lord. For as He who hath called us is holy, so should we be holy in all manner of conversation (1 Pet. i. 15; 1 Thess. iv. 3).

4. Thy will be done. When, therefore, we pray Thy will be done, we pray for grace to enquire what the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God is (Rom. xii. 2), and as His blessed Son came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him2 (Jn. vi. 38), so we may make His will the rule of our actions, and His commandments3 the rule of our lives. We pray also that He, who alone can "order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men," will so "change and fashion our wills to the meaning and will of His majesty, that we may will or wish nothing, much less do anything that His Divine will misliketh"," but may obey Him in all things, as we ought to do.

5. As it is in heaven. Not only, however, are we to pray that God's will may be done by us on earth, but that it may be done in earth, as it is in heaven. For

1 See the Collect for the Second Sunday after Easter, where we pray that God, "Who hath given His only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an ensample of godly life, will give us grace...to daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of His most holy life."

2 Comp. also Jn. iv. 34, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.

3 See Cranmer's Catechism, p. 150.

4 See the Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Easter; and the conclusion of that for the First Sunday after Trinity. 6 Nowell's Catechism, p. 197. The petition, then, offered up is for the grace of perfect obedience.

6 Γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά Σου ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς (Mtt. vi. 10) Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Some would refer the words in earth as it is in heaven to the three petitions which have gone before. See Bengel on Mtt. vi. 10; Denton, pp. 110, 111.

the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handywork (Ps. xix. 1), and fire and hail, snow and vapours, wind and storm, fulfil His word (Ps. cxlviii. 8). In heaven, moreover, God hath ordained and constituted the services of angels and archangels in a wonderful order1. In that blest abode they do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word (Ps. ciii. 20), and render unto Him perfect, ready, willing, and constant service. As, then, in heaven there is perfect obedience, so we pray that in earth the same ready and willing service may be rendered by us, that here as there one Will may be loved, and one Will may be done3.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FIRST PETITION FOR OUR OWN NEEDS.

THE LORD'S PRAYER. Give us this day our daily bread.

THE EXPLANATION.

I pray unto God, that He will send us all things that be needful both for our souls and bodies.

I. Connection with the preceding Petitions. The first three Petitions of the Lord's Prayer relate, as we have seen, to the glory and sovereignty of God, and are therefore expressed in general and impersonal

1 See the Collect for Michaelmas Day.

2 Comp. (1) Isai. vi. 2, 3; (2) Heb. i. 14; (3) Lk. i. 19, ii. 8-14; (4) Acts xii. 6-11.

3 Respecting the plan and inner coherence of the Lord's Prayer, St Augustine observes of the first three petitions, that "God's Name, at His coming in the flesh, began to be hallowed; since then His kingdom has been ever coming, as it is in part come; hereafter it will be a perfected kingdom, at His Second Advent, from which time His will will be done here as perfectly as in heaven." Trench's Sermon on the Mount, from St Augustine, p. 108.

forms. The four remaining petitions relate to our own wants and our own daily necessities. Hence they are expressed in our own name as four personal entreaties. Give us this day OUR daily bread; forgive us our trespasses; lead vs not into temptation; deliver us from evil1.

2. The life of the body. Of our daily necessities the first and most obvious is the preservation of life2, which depends on a due supply of food, and both on the good-will of our heavenly Father3 (Ps. cxlv. 15, 16). Therefore our Lord has taught us to pray for bread, which strengtheneth man's heart (Ps. civ. 15), and is sometimes put for the whole sustenance of man, bodily food, clothing and shelter, and "all competent means and outward blessings, that shall be meet for our necessity, for our Christian and sober delight."

3. Our daily bread. But He has bidden us pray not for our sustenance generally throughout our lives,

1 See Denton On the Lord's Prayer, p. 123.

2 "Restant petitiones pro ista vita peregrinationis nostræ : ideo sequitur, Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie. Da æterna, da temporalia. Promisisti regnum, noli negare subsidium. Dabis apud te sempiternum ornamentum, da in terra temporale alimentum." S. Augustine, de Serm. Dom. LVII. 7.

3 "When we saye, Gyue us thys daye oure daylye breade, we praye to God, that as through His great mercye and goodnesse, He dydde create vs, so He wyl lykewise nouryshe and feade us." Cranmer's Catechism, p. 155.

4 Nicholson On the Catechism, p. 168. Compare the Church Catechism "all things that be needful for our bodies." "When we desyer God to gyue vs oure dayly breade, thynke not that our heauenly Father wyl gyue vs only a morsell of bread, and nothing besyde, but under the name of breade be all thynges conteyned, which be necessarie to the maintenance of our lyfe, as meate, drynke, apparell, houses, landes, cattell, and moneye, according to the saynge of sainte Paule, God gyveth all thynge to our vse richely and aboundantly." Cranmer's Catechism, p. 158.

but to say, Give us this day (Mtt. vi. 11), or day by day (Lk. xi. 3), the bread required for our subsistence1. Hereby He teaches us moderation in our desires 2, and warns us against allowing ourselves in anxious and distracting cares about the morrow, which may not come, and making luxurious provision for the flesh and for its lusts. It is for bread, simple fare, He would have us pray, and that the bread of to-day3.

4. The life of the soul. But man doth not, like the beasts that perish, live by bread only (Deut. viii. 3), nor is it his body only that requires to be sustained.

1 Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον. The word πioÚσLov, which occurs nowhere else, has caused great difficulty. It is capable of two derivations, (i) from èrl and ἰέναι, (ii) from ἐπὶ and εἶναι.

i. If we derive it from ènì and iéval, we must connect it with either (a) the feminine participle πιoûσα, sc. nuépa= give us this day our bread for to-morrow, which would be direct contrary to the precept in Matt. vi. 34; or (b) the participle masculine d étɩúv, sc. Xpóvos="Give us this day, and every day to come, the bread which we need in the present and in the future," which it is difficult to explain side by side with σήμερον. ii. If we derive it from ènì and eivai, we must refer it either (a) directly to the participle, like wapovola, μerovoía, or (b) to the substantive ovcía, which (1) existence, (2) subsistence (comp. Lk. xv. 12), and translate it the bread of our existence, or better, the bread required for our subsistence. See Tholuck's Sermon on the Mount, 341-353.

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2 See Prov. xxx. 8, 9; Mtt. vi. 34; 1 Tim. vi. 8; and above, p. 100. Christ hath not taught vs to aske sustinaunce for fyfthy or three score yeare, nor yet for one yeare, no nor for one moneth or weake, but He hath wylled us to aske our dayly breade; and He saieth, Be not careful for to morowe, for to morowe bringeth care enough of it selfe." Cranmer's Catechism, p. 186.

3 "Impudentia est ut a Deo petas divitias: non est impudentia ut petas panem quotidianum. Aliud est unde superbias, aliud est unde vivas." August. de Serm. Dom. LVI. 1). "Pereat avaritia, et dives est natura." Ib. LVIII. 5.

There is the life of the soul also, and in this Prayer wo pray unto God that He will send us all things that be needful for our souls as well as for our bodies1. Of the life of the soul Christ is the Sustainer. I am the Bread of life, He tell us; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst (Jn. vi. 35).

5. Needs of the soul. This spiritual life He supplies through the study of the revealed word of God, which is perfect, converting the soul, enlightening the eyes, a lamp unto the feet, and a light unto the path" (Ps. xix. 7, 8; cxix. 105), through the steady use of the appointed means of grace3, public and private prayer, and especially the reception of the Eucharist, wherein we "spiritually eat the flesh of Christ, and drink His Blood; we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us; we are one with Christ, and Christ with us."

CHAPTER VII.

THE SECOND PETITION FOR OUR OWN NEEDS.

THE LORD'S PRAYER. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us.

THE EXPLANATION. I pray unto God...that He will be merciful unto us, and forgive us our sins.

1 See the Catechism. "Quidquid animæ nostræ et carni nostræ in hac vita necessarium est, quotidiano pane concluditur." August. de Serm. Dom. VIII. 5.

Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live. (Deut. viii. 3). The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life (Jn. vi. 63). Compare the Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent, "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them."

3 "Quod vobis tracto, panis quotidianus est: et quod in Ecclesia lectiones quotidie auditis, panis quotidianus est. et quod hymnos auditis et dicitis, panis quotidianus est." August. de Serm. Dom. LVII. 7.

Jn. vi. 47-65. See the Exhortation in the Ante

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