6. And lead us not.
Thou hast now, O Lord, received me back indeed to grace with the kiss of peace, and embracest me with loving arms; but thou knowest my infirmity; let me not, I beseech thee, be ever again separated from thee, nor go astray after my own heart’s desire.
7. But deliver us.
Preserve and deliver me from all the evils of my present and future life, as far as they are opposed to the advancement of thy glory and my own salvation, that I may suffer no hindrance in serving thee perfectly upon earth, and may happily enjoy thee in heaven, where no evil can enter in, but thou art all in all, and art for ever the highest good of those that love thee. Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER OPPOSED TO THE SEVEN CAPITAL SINS.
The Lord's Prayer is most fruitful in holy meanings, and is, as it were, a complete armory, or, if you mil, a universal charm against the plagues and diseases of the soul, which all spring up out of the direful root of the seven capital sins. Against these the Lord’s Prayer is the most suitable defence.
This sevenfold evil principle is therefore described in the Apocalypse under the figure of a Beast having seven heads, which, as being exceedingly hatef ul and inveterate against man, ceases not to assail us with one or other of its heads, and to pour its baneful poison upon us; so that as one is cut down another springs up, and as one loses another gathers strength, and thus in turn they succeed one another.
Nay, they not unfrcquently combine together, as it were, to attack us in a body, as every one soon knows by experience whs is in earnest about his salvation. Hence our Saviour, when he left us this contest for the trial of our virtue and the increase of our merit, gave us in his own prayer a remedy ready to our hand; and this he delivered to us with its seven petitions, as though it were armed with so many weapons, with each of which we might inflict a wound upon every head of the Beast. Therefore in saying.
Our Father, who art in heaven.
Lift up thy eyes to God thy Father, who dwells in heaven, and knows the high afar off; nay, is nigh to all that call upon him, and to them
