require the same thing of us; for, that it is his pleasure, that we should constantly use that form of prayer, which he as our great Lord and Master was pleased to compose for all his disciples, is so plain, that I wonder how any can doubt of it; there being no command in all the Bible more plain than that, when ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, &c. Luke, ii. 2. But it is as plain, that he designed this prayer should be used publicly and in common by his disciples, when met together in their public assemblies. In that he hath drawn it up all along in the plural number, that many may join together in it, and say, Our Father, which art in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So that there is not one petition, nor one expression in it, but what a whole congregation may jointly use. From whence St. Cyprian truly observed, that this is publica et communis oratio, a public and common prayer. Not but that it may, and ought to be also used privately by every single christian apart by himself; be

cause every Christian is a member of Christ's Catholic Church, and should pray as such in private, as well as in public; and for all his fellow members as well as for himself, they being all but one body. But however, it must be acknowledged, that being so exactly fitted to a public congregation, it was primarily and chiefly intended for that purpose. And that our Saviour would have us say this prayer every day, appears most plainly from that petition in it, Give us this day our daily bread. For this shews, that as we depend upon God every day for our necessary food, so we ought to pray unto him every day for it. And if we must put up this petition every day, we must put up all the rest with it. For Christ hath joined them all together, and therefore we must not put them asunder. Neither is there any part of the prayer, but what is as necessary to be said every day as this.

Wherefore, seeing our blessed Saviour himself was most graciously pleased to compose this prayer, so as to suit it to our daily public devotions, and hath plainly commanded us to use it, according as he had composed it; we may rea

sonably from thence infer, that it is his Divine will and pleasure, that we should publicly pray to our heavenly Father every day, as his church had all along before done it, morning and evening. Be sure his Apostles thought so, when they had received his Holy Spirit to lead them, according to his promise, into all truth, and to bring into their remembrance all things that he had said unto them. For after the day of Pentecost, on which the Holy Ghost came upon them, the next news that we hear of any of them, is, that Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour, or the hour of Evening prayer; which they would not have done if they had not believed it to be agreeable to the doctrine which he had taught them.

And if there was no divine revelation for it, our natural reason might teach us the same thing. For, seeing we depend continually upon God, and every day receive fresh mercies from him; there is all the reason in the world, that we should every day, some way or other, testify our acknowledgment that we do so. For that is all that we can do to him, for all that he does for us.

We cannot give him any thing, for we have nothing but what he gives us. And therefore, he expects nothing from us, for all the favors he is pleased to shew us, but only to own that they come from him, and to shew we do so, by all such means and methods, as he for that purpose hath prescribed to us. Of which, the performance of public devotions was always reckoned the most plain and proper. I say public, for what we do in private, none in the world knows but God, and ourselves. But by performing our public devotions to him, we demonstrate to the world, that we believe and acknowledge, that he is the supreme governor and disposer of all things in it, that it is in him we live, and move, and have our being; and that we neither have, nor can have any thing, but what we receive from him. By our praising him for what we have, we own that it was he who gave it; and by praying to him for what we want, we own that it is he alone who can give it to us. And by doing this publicly, we shew that we are not ashamed to own it, nor care if all the world knows that we have nothing of our own; nothing but what

we receive from God, and wish that all others would join with us, and assist us in praising of him, and in praying to him, both for themselves, and for us too. This is properly to serve God, and glorify him in the world: the great work we were made for, and for which we are still supported and maintained by him. So that by this means we may so far answer the end of our creation, and the end of all his goodness and mercies to us. For he made all things for himself at first, Prov. xvi. 4. And he still doth all things for himself, even for his own glory. And we accordingly set forth his glory in all our public devotions; by owning him publicly for our great and continual benefactor, by recounting the glorious works that he hath done for us, and supplicating him for all the good things that we can ever have and so ascribing the glory of all to him. And therefore we ought in reason to perform such devotions as often as we can. We are bound to do it, by all those reasons which oblige us to serve God that made us, and to do the work which he sent us into the world about. For that, this is properly the serving of God, or as we