exact Meaning of the Phrafe will be best gain'd by comparing it with the Expreffion in St. Luke 11. 3. where instead of onμegov, to Day, it is faid, i nategy, Day by Day; by which it should feem that in this Petition we do not only pray for the Supply of our Neceffaries for this Day only, but for every Day that we live, for the Bread that will be enough for the Remainder of our Lives. Therefore I doubt they are something mistaken, tho' their Intention may be good, who fay, that here we pray not for Bread for to Morrow, but only for the prefent Day, and that the reafon of this Prayer for the present Day only is contained in our Saviour's Words, Take no Thought for the Morrow, Matth. 6. 34. For,

1. He that in St. Luke's Phrafe prays that he may have his daily Bread Day by Day, does certainly pray that he may have it to Morrow, if he lives fo long.

2. If onμegev fignifies moft properly to Day, yet to Day may have the fame Signification that it has Heb. 3. 7. where it fignifies the Time of Man's Life, and fo it is elsewhere ufed; and the Expreffion may feem to be chofen by our Saviour, to admonish us that it is a foolish thing to defire more than a Competency, feeing we live here but for a Day as it were, and are gone to Morrow, that we are but Strangers and Pilgrims in this World, haftening to another Country,

and

and may very well be content with what will ferve to carry us thro' this fhort Paffage into the World to come. And now if to Day is to be taken in this larger Senfe, as St. Luke's Phrase requires also, then do we pray for to Morrow as well as for to Day, But,

3. Whereas the reafon of confining this Prayer to the Needs only of the present Day, is deduced from our Saviour's Words, Take no Thought for the Morrow, there is indeed no Confequence in it. For,

1. Mà μseurone is not fimply Take no Thought, but be not follicitous and troubled in your Thoughts about the Events of to Morrow. And this Command we may obferve, and yet pray for to Morrow. And,

2. The Carefulness which our Lord forbids in these Words, is that which excludes Reliance upon, and trufting in the Divine Providence. For by the Confideration of God's general Care over his Creatures, and his particular Providence over Men, and especially over good Men, he had been exhorting his Hearers to a chearful Dependance upon Divine Providence. Now to pray for to Morrow is fo far from excluding this Truft in God, that it is one Expreffion of it. Wherefore the Command of taking no Thought for the Morrow, is no reason why we are to pray only for the present

Day,

Day, and therefore no reason to put that Restraint upon this Petition in the Lord's Prayer:

So that the Meaning feems to be this, that we defire of God to fend us fuch a Competency of Worldly Goods as may ferve to fupply our Juft Needs all the Days of our Life.

But the great Question is, What are our Juft Needs? For there are thefe two Things that feem to make it difficult to be anfwered.

1: The Variety of Mens Circumstances. 2. The Largeness of moft Mens Defires, which makes them hard to be perfuaded. what it is they Juftly Need.

Now as to the Firft; The Competency defired in this Prayer is doubtlefs to be meafured by the particular Circumftances of Men, whereby they greatly differ from one another. That is but a Competency for a King, which a Subject cannot defire without Avarice. That may be but enough for a Man that has a Family, which would be an Abundance to a fingle Perfon. Very various are the different CircumRances of Men, and therefore the Difference of their Needs, and the Measure of that Competency which is to anfwer them, are fo likewife. And then as to the Wantonness of moft Mens Defires, and the unreasonable Judgment they confequently make concern

ing what they need, I conceive this Petition is couch'd in Words defign'd on purpose to correct a covetous Humour, because the Petition leaves it to Divine Providence how much that daily Bread fhall be, and fo fhould he that makes it. And therefore the Answer to the forementioned Question is to be made by this Interpretation of the Petition, that we pray to God for a Competency of Worldly Goods fuitable to our Circumftances in the World, but this not in particular asking fo much, neither more nor lefs, but in general, that God would fend us what he fees and knows to be moft fuitable to our Condition.

III. What is meant by God's giving daily Bread? For tho' we pray to God to give it, yet we procure it alfo for our felves by the Labour of Seed-time and Harveft; it comes eafy to the wealthy Man, it is earn'd by thofe that work, it is begg'd of Man by the Poor, that cannot otherways help himself; but this does not exclude the Need of God's giving, without whofe Providence and Gift neither the Means we have, nor the Care we take, would be effectual. He giveth us Bread, and other Comforts of Life, when he fendeth fruitful Seafons, and bleffeth the Year with Encrease, when he fendeth Peace and Security, and the Bleffings of a gentle Government, when he giveth Strength to labour, and Skill to understand, and bleffes

a Man

a Man in his Profeffion, when he difpofes the Hearts of fome Men to bestow much of their Superfluity for the Relief of others, and in a word, when by innumerable Ways of Providence contributing to our Suftenance, infinitely more than our own Care, tho' that alfo be abfolutely neceffary, he doth that without which all our Care would be unprofitable. And for this reafon the Petition, Give us this Day our daily Bread, is but a juft Acknowledgment of our Dependance upon God's Providence for all the Benefits of this Life. I proceed now,

Secondly, To the Inftructions afforded by this Petition.

1. The first that I fhall name is one that I do not think was much intended, but it may very fairly be concluded from it, and that is this: That our Prayers for the Grace of God to convert and fave us, do not imply that we are wholly Paffive in the Bufinefs of Converfion, or that the Graces of God in good Men are not as well the Effects of their own Endeavours in a proper Senfe, as of the Divine Operation. For no Man will deny but that our Prayers for our daily Bread are well confiftent with taking care for it our felves. Tho' we pray for our daily Bread as a Gift from God, yet it is prepared by the Industry of Man, it is easily purchafed by the Rich, it is either hardly earn'd or received from charitable Perfons by the

Poor,