2. Every day, because there should be family prayer ; for all that take their meat together are to come, and say to God, ' Give us this day our daily bread.' It is not said, ' Give me,' but ' Give us.* There- fore you see how little of love and fear of God is there, lyhere, week after week, they call not upon God's name.
3. To make way for our gratitude and thankfulness. Our mercies, they flow not from God all at once, but some to-day, and some to- morrow, fur we take them day by day ; all together, they are too heavy for us to wield and manage: Ps. Ixviii. 19, ' Who daily loadeth us
166 AN- EXPOSITION OF [MaT. VT. 11.
with benefits.' Our mercies, they come in greater number and a greater measure than we are able to acknowledge, make use of, or be thankful for. Therefore, this is the burden of gracious hearts, that mercies come so thick and fast they cannot be thankful enough for them ; but to help us, God distributes them by parcels. Who loadeth ns daily, some to-day, some to-morrow, and every day, that we may not forget God, but may have a new argument to praise him.
4. To show us every day we should renew our dependence upon God for temporal things. There is no day but we stand in need of the Lord's blessing, of sanctification, of comfort, that they may not be a snare, that there is still need of new strength, new grace, and new supplies.
5. Again, ' Give us tJiis day' that we may not burden ourselves with overmuch thoughtfulness, that we might not solicitously cark for to-morrow : Mat. vi. 34, ' Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Every day affords business, trouble, care, and burden enough; we need not anticipate and pre-occupy the cares of the next day ; God would not have us overborne with solicitude, but look no further than this day.
6. Christ would teach us that worldly things should be sought in a moderate proportion ; if we have sufficient for a day, for the present want, we should not grasp at too much. Ships lightly laden will pass through the sea, but when we take too great a burden, the ship will easily sink with every storm. We have sore troubles to pass through in the world ; now when we are overburdened with present things we have more snares and temptations.
7. Christ would train us up with thoughts of our lives' uncertainty : James iv. 13, ' Say not, This and this I will do to-day or to-morrow: What is your life ? it is but a vapour.' One being invited to dinner the next day, said, For these many years I have not had a to-morrow ; meaning he was providing every day for his last day. We do not know whether we have another day, but are apt to sing lullabies to our souls, and say, ' Soul, take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years,' Luke xii. 19. We are sottishly secure, and dream of many years, whereas God tells us only of to-day.
8. To awaken us after heavenly things. When we seek bread for the present life, then give us ' this day ;' but now come to me, saith Christ, and I will give you bread that shall nourish you ' to eternal life,' bread that endureth for ever : John vi. 27, ' Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto ever- lasting life.' There is meat that will endure for ever, but for the present we beg only for this day : 1 Pet. i. 4, ' To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.' That is an eternal state, this but of a short and of a small continuance. You see what need you have to go to God, that he will most plentifully provide for you.
Mat. VI. 12.] the lord's prayer. 167
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
We hare now done with the supplications of this prayer, and are come to the deprecations. The supplications are those petitions which we make to God for obtaining of that which is good. The deprecations are those petitions we make to God for removing of that which is evil. Now of this latter sort there are two : — (1.) We pray for the remission of evil that is already committed ; (2.) We pray for the prevention of the evil which may be inflicted. The first of these is the petition we have now in hand. Here,
1. The petition is proposed, ' Forgive us our debts.'
2. It is confirmed by an argument, ' As we forgive our debtors.' In the first, take notice : —
I. Of the object, or matter of this petition, and that is, debts. II. The subject or persons praying, its.
III. The person to whom we pray, our heavenly Father, who alone can forgive our sins.
IV. The act of God about this object, forgive.
Then the petition is confirmed by an argument, which is taken from our forgiving of others. In which there is an argument.
1. A simili, from a like disposition in us. Thus, what is good in us was first in God, for he is the pattern of all perfection. If we have such a disposition planted in our hearts, and if it be a virtue in us, surely the same disposition is in God, for the first being wanteth no perfection.