open your petitions to God, in the words of this divine prayer; that you may obtain those helps, both corporal and spiritual, which you stand in daily need of, and obtain forgiveness of the sins you daily commit. Repeat this prayer with that attention, devotion, and fervour proportioned to the things you pray for. Glorify God, and beg his favour at all times, but chiefly morning and evening, in that divine manner he has taught you in this prayer.

R.

The petitions of the Lord's Prayer explained.

WHAT
HAT means those words, Our Father who

art in heaven? A. That God is our Father, and that we may with a pious confidence, beg all blessings of him, both for ourselves and others. Q. What mean those words, Who art in heaven? A. That God is in heaven, to whom we ought to raise our hearts as often as we pray.

INSTRUC.-God is our Father, and we his children; 1. Because he made us, not as other creatures, but to his own image and likeness. 2. Because he provides for us, gives us our daily bread, and all we have. 3. Because from him we have our inheritance in the kingdom of heaven; for being, through original sin, made slaves of the Devil, we are by baptism, which is our second birth, born again sons of God, and heirs to his kingdom, which is called adoption; so that God is our Father, both by creation and adoption: See what love the Father has for us, that we should be called, and be the sons of God. 1. John iii. 1.

Who art in heaven: God by his immensity is every where; but heaven being the place where he is seen in all his glory, and where we are to be eternally happy, our Saviour would have us raise our hearts and thoughts up thither, as often as we pray, to put us in mind that heaven is the chief end of all our prayers and wishes.

Q.

R. WHA

PETITION I.

Hallowed be thy name.

HAT do we beg by this? A. That God may be known, praised, served, and ho

noured, by all.

INSTRUC.By this petition, we beg that all glory may be given to God; that not only we, who are Christians, but all others, may come to know, love, and serve him, and so may give him the honour due to him; that not only God, but the very name of God may be adored. EXHOR. To have God above for our Father, to commiserate our miseries, and assist us, by his Almighty power, in our necessities, is a great encouragement to bless and glorify his holy name: ungrateful then is that man, who by oaths and curses profanes that adorable name, to which we owe our being, health, life, and happiness. Repent if you have been guilty of this vice of swearing; resolve to amend and even to correct others, when you hear this sacred name dishonoured by their sacrilegious mouths: rather join with the heavens, in declaring his glory, and with all blessed souls, in sounding forth his praise.

Q. WHAT

PET. II.

Thy kingdom come.

AT do we beg by this petition? A. That when the miseries of this life are ended, we may partake of the joys of his kingdom.

INSTRUC.-By the first petition, we beg that God may be glorified and honoured; by the second, we beg our own greatest good, which consists in the enjoyment of God and bis kingdom.

EXHOR.-In gaining this, you gain all things; this is the great end to which all are created; this is what we ought principally to pray for; especially if we look

on the calamitous state of our lives here, surrounded daily with evils and miseries; that we are mere exiles, and live in a place, where the prince of this world, the Devil, reigns, always tempting us to sin, and even our own corrupt nature, drawing us from good. Who can think of this, and not desire and pray to be delivered from this weight of miseries? O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death! From the miseries of a life, which is more properly called death than life: that an end being put to the reign of the wicked, God may fully reign without resistance, and we partake of the joys of his kingdom.

PET. III.

Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

QWHAT do we beg by this? A. That God would enable us by his grace, to do his will in all things. Q. What is his will? A. That we love, fear, serve, and obey him. Q. What means those words, On earth as it is in heaven? A. That we may be as ready and cheerful to do the will of God on earth, as the Saints and Angels are in heaven.

INSTRUC. Since the kingdom of God cannot come, unless we merit it by doing his will, therefore in the next place, we pray for grace to accomplish his will, and obey all his commandments, and that we may be as ready and devout in his service, as the Saints and Angels. Look on your perverse will, which is ever contradicting the will of God, and you will see the necessity of daily addressing this petition to him, Thy will be done. The source of depraved will is concupiscence; which opposes the will of God, without ceasing; and have we not reason to beg grace necessary to overcome this evil of concupiscence, that our will may be conformable to the will and law of God?

EXHOR.-Renounce O christian, your own will, so far at least, as it contradicts the law of God: nothing offends God, but self-will; let this no longer reign in

your mortal body, so opposite to the will of God: away with your own will, and give place to his. Seek_above all things, by his grace, to do his will on earth: He who does the will of God, remains for ever. 1. John ii. 17.

૧.

PET. IV.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Q. WHAT do we beg by this? A. All food and

sustenance for our souls and bodies. INSTRUC. In this fourth petition, we confess God to be the great giver of all good things, of temporal blessings, as well as spiritual; and herein we acknowledge that he is Lord of all things, and our sovereign Benefactor by this petition, we beg all necessaries of life, food, raiment, and habitation; for bread, in holy scripture, often imports thus much, Gen. iii. 19. xviii. 5. Psalm xiii. 4. İsaiah iii. 7. Prov. ix. 5. But for riches, plenty, and dainties we pray not; nor has God any where promised his servants such things, but rather warned them against riches, which are seldom his gift, but often got by ill means. Daily nourishment and necessaries are the things we here pray for, food, raiment, and habitation; and with these we ought to be content; we only ask for what is necessary for God's glory, and our good. We pray to God for our daily bread; that is, we pray that we may get it honestly; for if we get it otherwise, it is not ours, nor does God give it us. In a word, we pray for our daily bread, to shew that all, both rich and poor, depend even for their daily bread upon divine providence.

Daily bread, according to such of the holy fathers as have expounded the Lord's prayer, signifies also our spiritual food; as the word of God, which is the food of the soul, and the Holy Eucharist, which is the bread of life.

EXHOR.-Think, O christian, how much you stand in need daily of God's gracious help, since it is in him we live, and move, and are, Acts xvii. 28. Every moment of life you depend on him: for want of this

thought, you so often recite this divine prayer with sloth and indifferency; whereas did you reflect on your wants, you would pray with the greatest fervour; Give us this day our daily bread. Often reflect on these words of the Psalmist: Thou openest thy hand, and fillest every creature with blessing, Psalm cxliv. 16. Sweet Jesus, open thy hand to my poverty and want; thou who fillest every living creature with blessings of food and sustenance. Did we serve God in the first place, and thus recommended our affairs to him daily, by many devout prayers, it is likely, not so many would come

to want bread.

Be still more in earnest to offer up this petition for your spiritual good, as your soul infinitely surpasses your body, as glory surpasses dust, and eternity this life. Beg not only for grace, but that you may never make it void, but co-operate with it. Beg not only for the wholesome admonitions of the word of God, but that you may reduce them to practice. Beg not only for the bread of life, the holy Eucharist, but that by a worthy communion, it may give life to you.

PET. V.

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.

Q. W would forgive us the sins of our life past,

HAT do we beg by this? A. That God

and all the punishments due to them. Q. Why is this condition added, As we forgive them that trespass against us? A. It is on this condition God has promised the forgiveness of sin; and signifies, that if we forgive others, we shall be forgiven; and that if we do not forgive others, we shall not be forgiven.

INSTRUC. By this petition we confess ourselves to be sinners; and truly, if we say, we are without sin, we deceive ourselves, and truth is not in us. 1 John i. 8. For us sinners, the Lord's prayer is a general remedy, when we pray with an humble and contrite heart; it then remits venial sin, and obtains mercy, that mortal