much disturbed by them, but bear up against them with fortitude; having always on our lips the words of the Apostles, "The will of the Lord be done; [1] and, also, those of holy Job, " As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord." [2]
"GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD."
THE fourth and following petitions, in which we particularly and expressively pray for the necessary succours of soul and body, have reference to those which preceded. According to the order of the Lord's Prayer, we ask for what regards the body and its preservation, after that which regards God. As man's creation and being terminate in God as his ultimate end, so, in like manner, the goods of this life have reference to those of the next; and it is with a view to the former, that we should desire and pray for the latter. This we should do, either be cause the divine order so requires, or because we have occasion for these aids to obtain those divine blessings, and, assisted by them, to attain our proposed end, the kingdom and glory of our Heavenly Father, and the reverential observance of those commands which we know to emanate from his holy will. In this petition, therefore, we should propose to ourselves nothing but God, and his glory.
In the discharge of his duty towards his people, the pastor, therefore, will endeavour to make them understand, that, in praying for temporal blessings, our minds and our desires are to be directed in conformity with the law of God, from which we are not to swerve in the least. By praying for the transient things of this world, we but too often transgress; for, as the Apostle says, " We know not what we should pray for as we ought." [3] These things, therefore, " we should pray for as we ought," lest, praying for any thing as we ought not, we receive from God for answer, " You know not what you desire." [4]
To ascertain what petition is good, and what the contrary, the purpose and intention of the petitioner is an infallible criterion. To pray for temporal blessings, under an impression that they constitute the sovereign good; to rest in them, as the ultimate end of our desires, and to seek for nothing else; this, unquestionably, is not to pray as we ought; for, as St. Augustine observes, " we ask not these temporal things as our good, but as necessaries." [5] The Apostle, also, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, teaches, that whatever regards the necessary pur-
