THE LORD'S PRAYER
THE OUR FATHER
CONSIDER first, that divine hope cannot lie idle in the soul, nor suffer her to be idle, but exercises the soul in prayer, as the great means of obtaining all the good she hopes for. Now all the good that we are to hope and pray for, is marked out to us by our Lord, and comprised in a very few words, in that excellent prayer which he has taught us, commonly called, The Lord's Prayer. Here, in seven short petitions, we pray for all that we are any ways authorized by the word of God to hope for, for ourselves, or for our neighbours, for body or soul, for time or eternity. Here we are taught to make acts of all the most necessary virtues, of faith, hope, love of God, conformity to his blessed will, charity for our neighbours, forgiveness of injuries, and repentance for our sins. Here we daily make a spiritual communion, by aspiring after the bread of life. O the excellence of this heavenly prayer; so short in words, that the meanest capacity may easily learn it, and so copious in its contents, that they might
