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"For the use of all Christians": a short catechesis on the Lord's Prayer

Richard Warner in his The Sermon on the mount; in five discourses (1840) - five sermons preached "on several successive Sunday afternoons" - offers a short catechesis on the Lord's Prayer, "that simple but sublime, that short but comprehensive, form of supplication adapted, and intended, for the use of all Christians", recognising its significance as a mainstay of popular Christian and Prayer Book piety and devotion:

Commencing with an ejaculation to "the high and lofty one, that inhabiteth eternity" - the author and preserver of universal being -under the endearing name of "Our Father" - a name which embraces every idea of love; compassion; kindness; protection; long-suffering and forgiveness - this holy form of supplication goes on to combine and recognize, in a few sentences, all our duties to God and man - "Hallowed be thy Name: thy Kingdom come: thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven" - is a paragraph, which includes our obligation to worship the Most High, in "the beauty of holiness"; and to glorify his name, by a conscientious obedience, to all his revealed commandments - "Give us this day (or, day by day) our daily bread", implies an acknowledgment of our entire dependence upon God, for life, and breath, and all things: which supplicates for a continuance of those "good gifts" which are needful to us, for our support and comfort: and conveys an indirect lesson to us, of gratitude for God's mercies: and resignation and contentment, under his appointments - "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us" binds upon our consciences, the duties of placability; compassion; and forgiveness of offence, to those who have injured or offended us; under the awful penalty, of God's condemnation resting upon our own guilty heads, if we, "from our hearts, forgive not, everyone his brother, their trespasses" - "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" is a supplication for the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to preserve us from being exposed to the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the Devil; and , if assailed by them, to be preserved uninjured by the assault; and rendered triumphant in the conflict - and the sublime conclusion of the Prayer  - "for thine is the Kingdom: and the Power: and the Glory: for ever and ever. Amen" - directs the mind of the supplicant, to a devout acknowledgment, and contemplation, of the glorious attributes of the Being he is addressing: "whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom", the blessed future residence, of penitent sinners, redeemed by the blood of his adorable Son : whose power, unlimited and irresistible, is "able to save", and will save, "to the uttermost", those who labour to ensure its protecting mercy: and whose glory, though " high above the Heavens", condescends to receive some of its rays, from the earth, in the salvation of Mankind, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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