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| The Seven Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, According to Matthew.
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Chapter 115.—The Seven
Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, According to Matthew.
Accordingly, in the Gospel
according to Matthew the Lord’s Prayer seems to embrace seven
petitions, three of which ask for eternal blessings, and the
remaining four for temporal; these latter, however, being necessary
antecedents to the attainment of the eternal. For when we say,
“Hallowed be Thy name: Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done in
earth, as it is in heaven”1311
(which some have interpreted, not
unfairly, in body as well as in spirit), we ask for blessings that
are to be enjoyed for ever; which are indeed begun in this world,
and grow in us as we grow in grace, but in their perfect state,
which is to be looked for in another life, shall be a possession
for evermore. But when we say, “Give us this day our daily bread:
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors: and lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,”1312
who does
not see that we ask for blessings that have reference to the wants
of this present life? In that eternal life, where we hope to live
for ever, the hallowing of God’s name, and His kingdom, and His
will in our spirit and body, shall be brought to perfection, and
shall endure to everlasting. But our daily bread is so
called because there is here constant need for as much nourishment
as the spirit and the flesh demand, whether we understand the
expression spiritually, or carnally, or in both senses. It is here
too that we need the forgiveness that we ask, for it is here that
we commit the sins; here are the temptations which allure or drive
us into sin; here, in a word, is the evil from which we desire
deliverance: but in that other world there shall be none of these
things.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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