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CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE

ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.
Translated by the Rev. Ernest Wallis, Ph.D.

ARGUMENT.--THE TREATISE OF CYPRIAN ON THE LORD'S PRAYER COMPRISES THREE
PORTIONS, IN WHICH DIVISION HE IMITATES TERTULLIAN IN HIS BOOK ON PRAYER,
IN THE FIRST PORTION, HE POINTS OUT THAT THE LORD'S PRAYER IS THE MOST
EXCELLENT OF ALL PRAYERS, PROFOUNDLY SPIRITUAL, AND MOST EFFECTUAL FOR
OBTAINING OUR PETITIONS. IN THE SECOND PART, HE UNDERTAKES AN EXPLANATION
OF THE LORD'S PRAYER; AND, STILL TREADING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF TERTULLIAN,
HE GOES THROUGH ITS SEVEN CHIEF CLAUSES, FINALLY, IN THE THIRD PART, HE
CONSIDERS THE CONDITIONS OF PRAYER, AND TELLS US WHAT PRAYER OUGHT TO
BE.(7)--

   1. The evangelical precepts, beloved brethren, are nothing else than
divine teachings,--foundations on which hope is to be built, supports to
strengthen faith, nourishments for cheering the heart, rudders for guiding
our way, guards for obtaining salvation,--which, while they instruct the
docile minds of believers on the earth, lead them to heavenly kingdoms.
God, moreover, willed many things to he said and to be heard by means of
the prophets His servants; but how much greater are those which the Son
speaks, which the Word of God who was in the prophets testifies with His
own voice; not now bidding to prepare the way for His coming, but Himself
coming and opening and showing to us the way, so that we who have before
been wandering in the darkness of death, without forethought and blind,
being enlightened by the light of grace, might keep the way of life, with
the Lord for our ruler and guide!

   2. He, among the rest of His salutary admonitions and divine precepts
wherewith He counsels His people for their salvation, Himself also gave a
form of praying--Himself advised and instructed us what we should pray for.
He who made us to live, taught us also to pray, with that same benignity,
to wit, wherewith He has condescended to give and confer all things else;
in order that while we speak to the Father in that prayer and supplication
which the Son has taught us, we may be the more easily heard. Already He
had foretold that the hour was coming "when the true worshippers should
worship the Father in spirit and in truth;"(1) and He thus fulfilled what
He before promised, so that we who by His sanctification(2) have received
the Spirit and truth, may also by His teaching worship truly and
spiritually. For what can be a more spiritual prayer than that which was
given to us by Christ, by whom also the Holy Spirit was given to us? What
praying to the Father can be more truthful than that which was delivered to
us by the Son who is the Truth, out of His own mouth? So that to pray
otherwise than He taught is not ignorance alone, but also sin; since He
Himself has established, and said, "Ye reject the commandments of God, that
ye may keep your own traditions."(3)

   3. Let us therefore, brethren beloved, pray as God our Teacher has
taught us. It is a loving and friendly prayer to beseech God with His own
word, to come up to His ears in the prayer of Christ. Let the Father
acknowledge the words of His Son when we make our prayer, and let Him also
who dwells within in our breast Himself dwell in our voice. And since we
have Him as an Advocate with the Father for our sins, let us, when as
sinners we petition on behalf of our sins, put forward the words of our
Advocate. For since He says, that "whatsoever we shall ask of the Father in
His name, He will give us,"(4) how much more effectually do we obtain what
we ask in Christ's name, if we ask for it in His own prayer!(5)

   4. But let our speech and petition when we pray be under discipline,
observing quietness and modesty. Let us consider that we are standing in
God's sight. We must please the divine eyes both with the habit of body and
with the measure of voice. For as it is characteristic of a shameless man
to be noisy with his cries, so, on the other hand, it is fitting to the
modest man to pray with moderated petitions. Moreover, in His teaching the
Lord has bidden us to pray in secret--in hidden and remote places, in our
very bed-chambers--which is best suited to faith, that we may know that God
is everywhere present, and hears and sees all, and in the plenitude of His
majesty penetrates even into hidden and secret places, as it is written, "I
am a God at hand, and not a God afar off. If a man shall hide himself in
secret places, shall I not then see him? Do not I fill heaven and
earth?"(6) And again: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding
the evil and the good."(7) And when we meet together with the brethren in
one place, and celebrate divine sacrifices with God's priest, we ought to
be mindful of modesty and discipline--not to throw abroad our prayers
indiscriminately, with unsubdued voices, nor to cast to God with tumultuous
wordiness a petition that ought to be commended to God by modesty; for God
is the hearer, not of the voice, but of the heart. Nor need He be
clamorously reminded, since He sees men's thoughts, as the Lord proves to
us when He says, "Why think ye evil in your hearts?"(8) And in another
place: "And all the churches shall know that I am He that searcheth the
hearts and reins."(9)

   5. And this Hannah in the first book of Kings, who was a type of the
Church, maintains and observes, in that she prayed to God not with
clamorous petition, but silently and modestly, within the very recesses of
her heart. She spoke with hidden prayer, but with manifest faith. She spoke
not with her voice, but with her heart, because she knew that thus God
hears; and she effectually obtained what she sought, because she asked it
with belief. Divine Scripture asserts this, when it says, "She spake in her
heart, and her lips moved, and her voice was not heard; and God did hear
her."(10) We read also in the Psalms, "Speak in your hearts, and in your
beds, and be ye pierced."(11) The Holy Spirit, moreover, suggests these
same things by Jeremiah, and teaches, saying, "But in the heart ought God
to be adored by thee."(12)

6. And let not the worshipper, beloved brethren, be ignorant in what
manner the publican prayed with the Pharisee in the temple. Not with eyes
lifted up boldly to heaven, nor with hands proudly raised; but beating his
breast, and testifying to the sins shut up within, he implored the help of
the divine mercy. And while the Pharisee was pleased with himself, this man
who thus asked, the rather deserved to be sanctified, since he placed the
hope of salvation not in the confidence of his innocence, because there is
none who is innocent; but confessing his sinfulness he humbly prayed, and
He who pardons the humble heard the petitioner. And these things the Lord
records in His Gospel, saying, "Two men went up into the temple to pray;
the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood, and
prayed thus with himself: God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are,
unjust, extortioners, adulterers, even as this publican. I fast twice in
the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. But the publican stood afar
off, and would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon
his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. I say unto you, this
man went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee: for every
one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and whosoever humbleth himself
shall be exalted."(1)

   7. These things, beloved brethren, when we have learnt from the sacred
reading, and have gathered in what way we ought to approach to prayer, let
us know also from the Lord's teaching what we should pray. "Thus," says He,
"pray ye:--

   "Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done, as in heaven so in earth. Give us this day our
daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And
suffer us not to be led into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
Amen."(2)

   8. Before all things, the Teacher of peace and the Master of unity
would not have prayer to be made singly and individually, as for one who
prays to pray for himself alone. For we say not "My Father, which art in
heaven," nor "Give me this day my daily bread;" nor does each one ask that
only his own debt should be forgiven him; nor does he request for himself
alone that he may not be led into temptation, and delivered from evil. Our
prayer is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one, but for
the whole people, because we the whole people are one. The God of peace and
the Teacher of concord, who taught unity, willed that one should thus pray
for all, even as He Himself bore us all in one.(3) This law of prayer the
three children observed when they were shut up in the fiery furnace,
speaking together in prayer, and being of one heart in the agreement of the
spirit; and this  the faith of the sacred Scripture assures us, and in
telling us how such as these prayed, gives an example which we ought to
follow in our prayers,  in order that we may be such as they were: "Then
these three," it says, "as if from one mouth sang an hymn, and blessed the
Lord."(4) They spoke as if from one mouth, although Christ had not yet
taught them how to pray. And therefore, as they prayed, their speech was
availing and effectual, because a peaceful, and sincere, and spiritual
prayer deserved well of the Lord. Thus also we find that the apostles, with
the disciples, prayed after the Lord's ascension: "They all," says the
Scripture, "continued with one accord in prayer, with the women, and Mary
who was the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren."(5) They continued with
one accord in prayer, declaring both by the urgency and by the agreement(6)
of their praying, that God, "who maketh men to dwell of one mind in a
house,"(7) only admits into the divine and eternal home those among whom
prayer is unanimous.

   9. But what matters of deep moment(8) are contained in the Lord's
prayer! How many and! How great, briefly collected in the words, but
spiritually abundant in virture! so that there is 'absolutely nothing
passed over that is not comprehended in these our prayers and petitions, as
in a compendium of heavenly doctrine. "After this manner," says He, "pray
ye: Our Father, which art in heaven." The new man, born again and restored
to his God by His grace, says "Father," in the first place because he has
now begun to be a son. "He came," He says, "to His own, and His own
received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name."(9) The man,
therefore, who has believed in His name, and has become God's son, ought
from this point to begin both to give thanks and to profess himself God's
son, by declaring that God is his Father in heaven; and also to bear
witness, among the very first words of his new birth, that he has renounced
an earthly and carnal father, and that he has begun to know as well as to
have as a father Him only who is in heaven, as it is written: "They who say
unto their father and their mother, I have not known thee, and who have not
acknowledged their own children; these have observed Thy precepts and have
kept Thy covenant.(10) Also the Lord in His Gospel has bidden us to call
"no man our father upon earth, because there is to us one Father, who is in
heaven."(1) And to the disciple who had made mention of his dead father, He
replied, "Let the dead bury their dead;"(2) for he had said that his father
was dead, while the Father of believers is living.

   10. Nor ought we, beloved brethren, only to observe and understand that
we should call Him Father who is in heaven; but we add to it, and say our
Father, that is, the Father of those who believe--of those who, being
sanctified by Him, and restored by the nativity of spiritual grace, have
begun to be sons of God. A word this, moreover, which rebukes and condemns
the Jews, who not only unbelievingly despised Christ, who had been
announced to them by the prophets, and sent first to them, but also cruelly
put Him to death; and these cannot now call God their Father, since the
Lord confounds and confutes them, saying, "Ye are born of your father the
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. For he was a murderer from
the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in
him."(3) And by Isaiah the prophet God cries in wrath, "I have begotten and
brought up children; but they have despised me. The ox knoweth his owner,
and the ass his master's crib; but Israel hath not known me, and my people
hath not understood me. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with sins, a
wicked seed, corrupt children!(4) Ye have forsaken the Lord; ye have
provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger."(5) In repudiation of these, we
Christians, when we pray, say Our Father; because He has begun to be ours,
and has ceased to be the Father of the jews, who have forsaken Him. Nor can
a sinful people be a son; but the name of sons is attributed to those to
whom remission of sins is granted, and to them immortality is promised
anew, in the words of our Lord Himself: "Whosoever committeth sin is the
servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the
son abideth ever."(6)

   11. But how great is the Lord's indulgence! how great His condescension
and plenteousness of goodness towards us, seeing that He has wished us to
pray in the sight of God in such a way as to call God Father, and to call
ourselves sons of God, even as Christ is the Son of God,-a name which none
of us would dare to venture on in prayer, unless He Himself had allowed us
thus to pray! We ought then, beloved brethren, to remember and to know,
that when we call God Father, we ought to act as God's children; so that in
the measure in which we find pleasure in considering God as a Father, He
might also be able to find pleasure in us. Let us converse as temples of
God, that it may be plain that God dwells in us. Let not our doings be
degenerate from the Spirit; so that we who have begun to be heavenly and
spiritual, may consider and do nothing but spiritual and heavenly things;
since the Lord God Himself has said, "Them that honour me I will honour;
and he that despiseth me shall be despised."(7) The blessed apostle also
has laid down in his epistle: "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with
a great price. Glorify and bear about God in your body."(8)

   12. After this we say, "Hallowed be Thy name;" not that we wish for God
that He may be hallowed by our prayers, but that we beseech of Him that His
name may be hallowed in us. But by whom is God sanctified, since He Himself
sanctifies? Well, because He says, "Be ye holy, even as I am holy,"(9) we
ask and entreat, that we who were sanctified in baptism may continue in
that which we have begun to be. And this we daily pray for; for we have
need of daily sanctification, that we who daily fall away may wash out our
sins by continual sanctification. And what the sanctification is which is
conferred upon us by the condescension of God, the apostle declares, when
he says, "neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor
deceivers, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such indeed were you; but ye are washed; but ye are
justified; but ye are sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
by the Spirit of our God."(10) He says that we are sanctified in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. We pray that this
sanctification may abide in us and because our Lord and Judge warns the man
that was healed and quickened by Him, to sin no more lest a worse thing
happen unto him, we make this supplication in our constant prayers, we ask
this day and night, that the sanctification and quickening which is
received from the grace of God may be preserved by His protection.

   13. There follows in the prayer, Thy kingdom come. We ask that the
kingdom of God may be set forth to us, even as we also ask that His name
may be sanctified in us. For when does God not reign, or when does that
begin with Him which both always has been, and never ceases to be? We pray
that our kingdom, which has been promised us by God, may come, which was
acquired by the blood and passion of Christ; that we who first are His
subjects in the world, may hereafter reign with Christ when He reigns, as
He Himself promises and says, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the
kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the
world."(1) Christ Himself, dearest brethren, however, may be the kingdom of
God, whom we day by day desire to come, whose advent we crave to be quickly
manifested to us. For since He is Himself the Resurrection,(2) since in Him
we rise again, so also the kingdom of God may be understood to be Himself,
since in Him we shall reign. But we do well in seeking the kingdom of God,
that is, the heavenly kingdom, because there is also an earthly kingdom.
But he who has already renounced the world, is moreover greater than its
honours and its kingdom. And therefore he who dedicates himself to God and
Christ, desires not earthly, but heavenly kingdoms. But there is need of
continual prayer and supplication, that we fall not away from the heavenly
kingdom, as the Jews, to whom this promise had first been given, fell away;
even as the Lord sets forth and proves: "Many," says He, "shall come from
the east and from the west, and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be
cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth."(3) He shows that the Jews were previously children of the kingdom,
so long as they continued also to be children of God; but after the name of
Father ceased to be recognised among them, the kingdom also ceased; and
therefore we Christians, who in our prayer begin to call God our Father,
pray also that God's kingdom may come to us.

   14. We add, also, and say, "Thy will be done, as in heaven so in
earth;" not that God should do what He wills, but that we may be able to do
what God wills. For who resists God, that l He may not do what He wills?
But since we are hindered by the devil from obeying with our thought and
deed God's will in all things, we pray and ask that God's will may be done
in us; and that it may be done in us we have need of God's good will, that
is, of His help and protection, since no one is strong in his own strength,
but he is safe by the grace and mercy of God. And further, the Lord,
setting forth the infirmity of the humanity which He bore, says, "Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me'" and affording an example to
His disciples that they should do not their own will, but God's, He went on
to say, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt."(4) And in another
place He says, "I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will
of Him that sent me."(5) Now if the Son was obedient to do His Father's
will, how much more should the servant be obedient to do his Master's will!
as in his epistle John also exhorts and instructs us to do the will of God,
saying, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If
any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that
is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the
ambition of life, which is not of the Father, but of the lust of the world.
And the world shall pass away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the
will of God abideth for ever, even as God also abideth for ever."(6) We who
desire to abide for ever should do the will of God, who is everlasting.

   15. Now that is the will of God which Christ both did and taught.
Humility in conversation; stedfastness in faith; modesty in words; justice
in deeds; mercifulness in works; discipline in morals; to be unable to do a
wrong, and to be able to bear a wrong when done; to keep peace with the
brethren; to love God with all one's heart; to love Him in that He is a
Father; to fear Him in that He is God; to prefer nothing whatever to
Christ, because He did not prefer anything to us; to adhere inseparably to
His love; to stand by His cross bravely and faithfully; when there is any
contest on behalf of His name and honour, to exhibit in discourse that
constancy wherewith we make confession; in torture, that confidence
wherewith we do battle; in death, that patience whereby we are crowned;--
this is to desire to be fellow-heirs with Christ; this is to do the
commandment of God; this is to fulfil the will of the Father.

   16. Moreover, we ask that the will of God may be done both in heaven
and in earth, each of which things pertains to the fulfilment of our safety
and salvation. For since we possess the body from the earth and the spirit
from heaven, we ourselves are earth and heaven; and in both--that is, both
in body and spirit--we pray that God's will may be done. For between the
flesh and spirit there is a struggle; and there is a daily strife as they
disagree one with the other, so that we cannot do those very things that we
would, in that the spirit seeks heavenly and divine things, while the flesh
lusts after earthly and temporal things; and therefore we ask(7) that, by
the help and assistance of God, agreement may be made between these two
natures, so that while the will of God is done both in the spirit and in
the flesh, the soul which is new-born by Him may be preserved. This is what
the Apostle Paul openly and manifestly declares by his words: "The flesh,"
says he, "lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: for
these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things
that ye would. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;
adulteries, fornications, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, murders, hatred, variance, emulations, wraths, strife,
seditions, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and
such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, magnanimity, goodness,
faith, gentleness, continence, chastity."(1) And therefore we make it our
prayer in daily, yea, in continual supplications, that the will of God
concerning us should be done both in heaven and in earth; because this is
the will of God, that earthly things should give place to heavenly, and
that spiritual and divine things should prevail.

   17. And it may be thus understood, beloved brethren, that since the
Lord commands and admonishes us even to love our enemies, and to pray even
for those who persecute us, we should ask, moreover, for those who are
still earth, and have not yet begun to be heavenly, that even in respect of
these God's will should be done, which Christ accomplished in preserving
and renewing humanity. For since the disciples are not now called by Him
earth, but the salt of the earth, and the apostle designates the first man
as being from the dust of the earth, but the second from heaven, we
reasonably, who ought to be like God our Father, who maketh His sun to rise
upon the good and bad, and sends rain upon the just and the unjust, so pray
and ask by the admonition of Christ as to make our prayer for the salvation
of all men; that as in heaven--that is, in us by our faith--the will of God
has been done, so that we might be of heaven; so also in earth(2)--that is,
in those who believe not(3)--God's will may be done, that they who as yet
are by their first birth of earth, may, being born of water and of the
Spirit, begin to be of heaven.

   18. As the prayer goes forward, we ask and say, "Give us this day our
daily bread." And this may be understood both spiritually and literally,
because either way of understanding it is rich in divine usefulness to our
salvation. For Christ is the bread of life; and this bread does not belong
to all men, but it is ours. And according as we say, "Our Father," because
He is the Father of those who understand and believe; so also we call it
"our bread," because Christ is the bread of those who are in union with His
body.(4) And we ask that this bread should be given to us daily, that we
who are in Christ, and daily(5) receive the Eucharist for the food of
salvation, may not, by the interposition of some heinous sin, by being
prevented, as withheld and not communicating, from partaking of the
heavenly bread, be separated from Christ's body, as He Himself predicts,
and warns, "I am the bread of life which came down from heaven. If any man
eat of my bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread which I will give is
my flesh, for the life of the world."(6) When, therefore, He says, that
whoever shall eat of His bread shall live for ever; as it is manifest that
those who partake of His body and receive the Eucharist by the right of
communion are living, so, on the other hand, we must fear and pray lest any
one who, being withheld from communion, is separate from Christ's body
should remain at a distance from salvation; as He Himself threatens, and
says, "Unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye
shall have no life in you."(7) And therefore we ask that our bread--that
is, Christ--may be given to us daily, that we who abide and live in Christ
may not depart from His sanctification and body.(8)

   19. But it may also be thus understood, that we who have renounced the
world, and have cast away its riches and pomps in the faith of spiritual
grace, should only ask for ourselves food and support, since the Lord
instructs us, and says, "Whosoever forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot
be my disciple."(9) But he who has begun to be Christ's disciple,
renouncing all things according to the word of his Master, ought to ask for
his daily food, and not to extend the desires of his petition to a long
period, as the Lord again prescribes, and says, "'Fake no thought for the
morrow, for the morrow itself shall take thought for itself. Sufficient for
the day is the evil thereof."(10) With reason, then, does Christ's disciple
ask food for himself for the day, since he is prohibited from thinking of
the morrow; because it becomes a contradiction and a repugnant thing for us
to seek to live long in this world, since we ask that the kingdom of God
should come quickly. Thus also the blessed apostle admonishes us, giving
substance and strength to the stedfastness of our hope and faith: "We
brought nothing," says he, "into this world, nor indeed can we carry
anything out. Having therefore food and raiment, let us be herewith
content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and
into many and hurtful lusts, which drown men in perdition and destruction.
For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted
after, they have made shipwreck from the faith, and have pierced themselves
through with many sorrows."(1)

   20. He teaches us that riches are not only to be contemned, but that
they are also full of peril; that in them is the root of seducing evils,
that deceive the blindness of the human mind by a hidden deception. Whence
also God rebukes the rich fool, who thinks of his earthly wealth, and
boasts himself in the abundance of his overflowing harvests, saying, "Thou
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those
things be which thou hast provided?"(2) The fool who was to die that very
night was rejoicing in his stores, and he to whom life already was failing,
was thinking of the abundance of his food. But, on the other hand, the Lord
tells us that he becomes perfect and complete who sells all his goods, and
distributes them for the use of the poor, and so lays up for himself
treasure in heaven. He says that that man is able to follow Him, and to
imitate the glory of the Lord's passion, who, free from hindrance, and with
his loins girded, is involved in no entanglements of worldly estate, but,
at large and free himself, accompanies his possessions, which before have
been sent to God. For which result, that every one of us may be able to
prepare himself, let him thus learn to pray, and know, from the character
of the prayer, what he ought to be.

   21. For daily bread cannot be wanting to the righteous man, since it is
written, "The Lord will not slay the soul of the righteous by hunger; "(3)
and again "I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.(4)  And the Lord
moreover promises and says, "Take no thought, saying, "What shall we eat,
or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all
these things do the nations seek. And your Father knoweth that ye have need
of all these things. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and alI these things shall be added unto you."(5) To those
who seek God's kingdom and righteousness, He promises that all things shall
be added.(6) For since all things are God's, nothing will be wanting to him
who possesses God, if God Himself be not wanting to him. Thus a meal was
divinely provided for Daniel: when he was shut up by the king's command in
the den of lions, and in the midst of wild beasts who were hungry, and yet
spared him, the man of God was fed. Thus Elijah in his flight was nourished
both by ravens ministering to him in his solitude, and by birds bringing
him food in his persecution. And--oh detestable cruelty of the malice of
man!--the wild beasts spare, the birds feed, while men lay snares, and
rage!

   22. After this we also entreat for our sins, saying, "And forgive us
our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." After the supply of food,
pardon of sin is also asked for, that he who is fed by God may live in God,
and that not only the present and temporal life may be provided for, but
the eternal also, to which we may come if our sins are forgiven; and these
the Lord calls debts, as He says in His Gospel, "I forgave thee all that
debt, because thou desiredst me."(7) And how necessarily, how providently
and salutarily, are we admonished that we are sinners, since we are
compelled to entreat for our sins, and while pardon is asked for from God,
the soul recalls its own consciousness of sin! Lest any one should flatter
himself that he is innocent,(8) and by exalting himself should more deeply
perish, he is instructed and taught that he sins daily, in that he is
bidden to entreat daily for his sins. Thus, moreover, John also in his
epistle warns us, and says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, the Lord
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."(9) In his epistle he has
combined both, that we should entreat for our sins, and that we should
obtain pardon when we ask. Therefore he said that the Lord was faithful to
forgive sins, keeping the faith of His promise; because He who taught us to
pray for our debts and sins, has promised that His fatherly mercy and
pardon shall follow.

   23. He has clearly joined herewith and added the law, and has bound us
by a certain condition anti engagement, that we should ask that our debts
be forgiven us in such a manner as we ourselves forgive our debtors,
knowing that that which we seek for our sins cannot be obtained unless we
ourselves have acted in a similar way in respect of our debtors. Therefore
also He says in another place, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured to you again."(10) And the servant who, after having had all his
debt forgiven him by his master, would not forgive his fellow-servant, is
cast back into prison; because he would not forgive his fellow-servant, he
lost the indulgence that had been shown to himself by his lord. And these
things Christ still more urgently sets forth in His precepts with yet
greater power of His rebuke. "When ye stand praying," says He, "forgive if
ye have aught against any, that your Father which is in heaven may forgive
you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father
which is in heaven forgive you your trespasses."(1) There remains no ground
of excuse in the day of judgment, when you will be judged according to your
own sentence; and whatever you have done, that you also will suffer. For
God commands us to be peacemakers, and in agreement, and of one mind in His
house;(2) and such as He makes us by a second birth, such He wishes us when
new-born to continue, that we who have begun to be sons of God may abide in
God's peace, and that, having one spirit, we should also have one heart and
one mind. Thus God does not receive the sacrifice of a person who is in
disagreement, but commands him to go back from the altar and first be
reconciled to his brother, that so God also may be appeased by the prayers
of a peace-maker. Our peace and brotherly agreement(3) is the greater
sacrifice to God,--and a people united in one in the unity of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

   24. For even in the sacrifices which Abel and Cain first offered, God
looked not at their gifts, but at their hearts, so that he was acceptable
in his gift who was acceptable in his heart. Abel, peaceable and righteous
in sacrificing in innocence to God, taught others also, when they bring
their gift to the altar, thus to come with the fear of God, with a simple
heart, with the law of righteousness, with the peace of concord. With
reason did he, who was such in respect of God's sacrifice, become
subsequently himself a sacrifice to God; so that he who first set forth
martyrdom, and initiated the Lord's passion by the glory of his blood, had
both the Lord's righteousness and His peace. Finally, such are crowned by
the Lord, such will be avenged(4) with the Lord in the day of judgment; but
the quarrelsome and disunited, and he who has not peace with his brethren,
in accordance with what the blessed apostle and the Holy Scripture
testifies, even if he have been slain for the name of Christ, shall not be
able to escape the crime of fraternal dissension, because, as it is
written, "He who hateth his brother is a murderer "(5) and no murderer
attains to the kingdom of heaven, nor does he live with God. He cannot be
with Christ, who had rather be an imitator of Judas than of Christ. How
great is the sin which cannot even be washed away by a baptism of blood--
how heinous the crime which cannot be expiated by martyrdom!

   25. Moreover, the Lord of necessity admonishes us to say in prayer,
"And suffer us not to be led into temptation." In which words it is shown
that the adversary can do nothing against us except God shall have
previously permitted it; so that all our fear, and devotion, and obedience
may be turned towards God, since in our temptations nothing is permitted to
evil unless power is given from Him. This is proved by divine Scripture,
which says, "Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and besieged
it; and the Lord delivered it into his hand."(6) But power is given to evil
against us according to our sins, as it is written, "Who gave Jacob for a
spoil, and Israel to those who make a prey of Him? Did not the Lord,
against whom they sinned, and would not walk in His ways, nor hear His law?
and He has brought upon them the anger of His wrath."(7) And again, when
Solomon sinned, and departed from the Lord's commandments and ways, it is
recorded, "And the Lord stirred up Satan against Solomon himself."(8)

   26. Now power is given against us in two modes: either for punishment
when we sin, or for glory when we are proved, as we see was done with
respect to Job; as God Himself sets forth, saying, "Behold, all that he
hath I give unto thy hands; but be careful not to touch himself."(9) And
the Lord in His Gospel says, in the time of His passion, "Thou couldest
have no power against me unless it were given thee from above."(10) But
when we ask that we may not come into temptation, we are reminded of our
infirmity and weakness in that we thus ask, lest any should insolently
vaunt himself, lest any should proudly and arrogantly assume anything  to
himself, lest any should take to himself the glory either of confession or
of suffering as his own, when the Lord Himself, teaching humility, said,
"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is
willing, but the flesh is weak; "(11) so that while a humble and submissive
confession comes first, and all is attributed to God, whatever is sought
for suppliantly with fear and honour of God, may be granted by His own
loving-kindness.

   27. After all these things, in the conclusion of the prayer comes a
brief clause, which shortly and comprehensively sums up all our petitions
and our prayers. For we conclude by saying, "But deliver us from evil,"
comprehending all adverse things which the enemy attempts against us in
this world, from which there may be a faithful and sure protection if God
deliver us, if He afford His help to us who pray for and implore it. And
when we say, Deliver us from evil, there remains nothing further which
ought to be asked. When we have once asked for God's protection against
evil, and have obtained it, then against everything which the devil and the
world work against us we stand secure and safe. For what fear is there in
this life, to the man whose guardian in this life is God?

   28. What wonder is it, beloved brethren, if such is the prayer which
God taught, seeing that He condensed in His teaching all our prayer in one
saving sentence? This had already been before foretold by Isaiah the
prophet, when, being filled with the Holy Spirit, he spoke of the majesty
and loving-kindness of God, "consummating and shortening His word,"(1) He
says, "in righteousness, because a shortened word(2) will the Lord make in
the whole earth."(3) For when the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came
unto all, and gathering alike the learned and unlearned, published to every
sex and every age the precepts of salvation He made a large compendium of
His precepts, that the memory of the scholars might not be burdened in the
celestial learning, but might quickly learn what was necessary to a simple
faith. Thus, when He taught what is life eternal, He embraced the sacrament
of life in a large and divine brevity, saying, "And this is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent."(4) Also, when He would gather from the law and the
prophets the first and greatest commandments, He said, "Hear, O Israel; the
Lord thy God is one God: and thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first
commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself."(5) "On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets."(6) And again: "Whatsoever good things ye would that men should
do unto you, do ye even so to them. For this is the law and the
prophets."(7)

   29. Nor was it only in words, but in deeds also, that the Lord taught
us to pray, Himself praying frequently and beseeching, and thus showing us,
by the testimony of His example, what it behoved us to do, as it is
written, "But Himself departed into a solitary place, and there prayed."(8)
And again: "He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in
prayer to God."(9) But if He prayed who was without sin, how much more
ought sinners to pray; and if He prayed continually, watching through the
whole night in uninterrupted petitions, how much more ought we to watch(10)
nightly in constantly repeated prayer!

   30. But the Lord prayed and besought not for Himself--for why should He
who was guiltless pray on His own behalf?--but for our sins, as He Himself
declared, when He said to Peter, "Behold, Satan hath desired that he might
sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail
not."(11) And subsequently He beseeches the Father for all, saying,
"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on
me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in
me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us."(12) The Lord's loving-
kindness, no less than His mercy, is great in respect of our salvation, in
that, not content to redeem us with His blood, He in addition also prayed
for us. Behold now what was the desire of His petition, that like as the
Father and Son are one, so also we should abide in absolute unity; so that
from this it may be understood how greatly he sins who divides unity and
peace, since for this same thing even the Lord besought, desirous doubtless
that His people should thus be saved and live in peace, since He knew that
discord cannot come into the kingdom of God.(13)

   31. Moreover, when we stand praying, beloved brethren, we ought to be
watchful and earnest with our whole heart, intent on our prayers. Let all
carnal and worldly thoughts pass away, nor let the soul at that time think
on anything but the object only of its prayer. For this reason also the
priest, by way of preface before his prayer, prepares the minds of the
brethren by saying, "Lift up your hearts," that so upon the people's
response, "We lift them up unto the Lord," he may be reminded that he
himself ought to think of nothing but the Lord.(14) Let the breast be
closed against the adversary, and be open to God alone; nor let it suffer
God's enemy to approach to it at the time of prayer. For frequently he
steals upon us, and penetrates within, and by crafty deceit calls away our
prayers from God, that we may have one thing in our heart and another in
our voice, when not the sound of the voice, but the soul and mind, ought to
be praying to the Lord with a simple intention. But what carelessness it
is, to be distracted and carried away by foolish and profane thoughts when
you are praying to the Lord, as if there were anything which you should
rather be thinking of than that you are speaking with God! How can you ask
to be heard of God, when you yourself do not hear yourself? Do you wish
that God should remember you when you ask, if you yourself do not remember
yourself? This is absolutely to take no precaution against the enemy; this
is, when you pray to God, to offend the majesty of God by the carelessness
of your prayer; this is to be watchful with your eyes, and to be asleep
with your heart, while the Christian, even though he is asleep with his
eyes, ought to be awake with his heart, as it is written in the person of
the Church speaking in the Song of Songs," I sleep, yet my heart
waketh."(1) Wherefore the apostle anxiously and carefully warns us, saying,
"Continue in prayer, and watch in the same;"(2) teaching, that is, and
showing that those are able to obtain from God what they ask, whom God sees
to be watchful in their prayer.

   32. Moreover, those who pray should not come to God with fruitless or
naked prayers. Petition is ineffectual when it is a barren entreaty that
beseeches God.(3) For as every tree that bringeth not forth fruit is cut
down and cast into the fire; assuredly also, words that do not bear fruit
cannot deserve anything of God, because they are fruitful in no result. And
thus Holy Scripture instructs us, saying, "Prayer. is good with fasting and
almsgiving."(4) For He who will give us in the day of judgment a reward for
our labours and alms, is even in this life a merciful hearer of one who
comes to Him in prayer associated with good works. Thus, for instance,
Cornelius the centurion, when he prayed, had a claim to be heard. For he
was in the habit of doing many alms-deeds towards the people, and of ever
praying to God. To this man, when he prayed about the ninth hour, appeared
an angel bearing testimony to his labours, and saying, "Cornelius, thy
prayers and thine alms are gone up in remembrance before God."(5)

   33. Those prayers quickly ascend to God which the merits of our labours
urge upon God. Thus also Raphael the angel was a witness to the constant
prayer and the constant good works of Tobias, saying, "It is honourable to
reveal and confess the works of God. For when thou didst pray, and Sarah, I
did bring the remembrance of your prayers before the holiness of God. And
when thou didst bury the dead in simplicity, and because thou didst not
delay to rise up and to leave thy dinner, but didst go out and cover the
dead, I was sent to prove thee; and again God has sent me to heal thee, and
Sarah thy daughter-in-law. For I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels
which stand and go in and out before the glory of God."(6) By Isaiah also
the Lord reminds us, and teaches similar things, saying, "Loosen every knot
of iniquity, release the oppressions of contracts which have no power, let
the troubled go into peace, and break every unjust engagement. Break thy
bread to the hungry, and bring the poor that are without shelter into thy
house. When thou seest the naked, clothe him; and despise not those of the
same family and race as thyself. Then shall thy light break forth in
season, and thy raiment shall spring forth speedily; and righteousness
shall go before thee, and the glory of God shall surround thee. Then shalt
thou call, and God shall hear thee; and while thou shalt yet speak, He
shall say, Here I am."(7) He promises that He will be at hand, and says
that He will hear and protect those who, loosening the knots of
unrighteousness from their heart, and giving alms among the members of
God's household according to His commands, even in hearing what God
commands to be done, do themselves also deserve to be heard by God. The
blessed Apostle Paul, when aided in the necessity of affliction by his
brethren, said that good works which are performed are sacrifices to God.
"I am full," saith he. "having received of Epaphroditus the things which
were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well
pleasing to God."(8) For when one has pity on the poor, he lends to God;
and he who gives to the least gives to God--sacrifices spiritually to God
an odour of a sweet smell.

   34. And in discharging the duties of prayer, we find that the three
children with Daniel, being strong in faith and victorious in captivity,
observed the third, sixth, and ninth hour, as it were, for a sacrament of
the Trinity, which in the last times had to be manifested. For both the
first hour in its progress to the third shows forth the consummated number
of the Trinity, and also the fourth proceeding to the sixth declares
another Trinity; and when from the seventh the ninth is completed, the
perfect Trinity is numbered every three hours, which spaces of hours the
worshippers of God in time past having spiritually decided on, made use of
for determined and lawful times for prayer. And subsequently the thing was
manifested, that these things were of old Sacraments, in that anciently
righteous men prayed in this manner. For upon the disciples at the third
hour the Holy Spirit descended, who fulfilled the grace of the Lord's
promise. Moreover, at the sixth hour, Peter, going up unto the house-top,
was instructed as well by the sign as by the word of God admonishing him to
receive all to the grace of salvation, whereas he was previously doubtful
of the receiving of the Gentiles to baptism. And from the sixth hour to the
ninth, the Lord, being crucified, washed away our sins by His blood; and
that He might redeem and quicken us, He then accomplished His victory by
His passion.

   35. But for us, beloved brethren, besides the hours of prayer observed
of old,(1) both the times and the sacraments have now increased in number.
For we must also pray in the morning, that the Lord's resurrection may be
celebrated by morning prayer. And this formerly the Holy Spirit pointed out
in the Psalms, saying, "My King, and my God, because unto Thee will I cry;
O Lord, in the morning shalt Thou hear my voice; in the morning will I
stand before Thee, and will look up to Thee."(2) And again, the Lord speaks
by the mouth of the prophet: "Early in the morning shall they watch for me,
saying, Let us go, and return unto the Lord our God."(3) Also at the
sunsetting and at the decline of day, of necessity we must pray again. For
since Christ is the true sun and the true day, as the worldly sun and
worldly day depart, when we pray and ask that light may return to us again,
we pray for the advent of Christ, which shall give us the grace of
everlasting light. Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the Psalms manifests that
Christ is called the day. "The stone," says He, "which the builders
rejected, is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; and
it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; let
us walk and rejoice in it."(4) Also the prophet Malachi testifies that He
is called the Sun, when he says, "But to you that fear the name of the Lord
shall the Sun of righteousness arise, and there is healing in His
wings."(5) But if in the Holy Scriptures the true sun and the true day is
Christ, there is no hour excepted for Christians wherein God ought not
frequently and always to be worshipped; so that we who are in Christ--that
is, in the true Sun and the true Day--should be instant throughout the
entire day in petitions, and should pray; and when, by the law of the
world, the revolving night, recurring in its alternate changes, succeeds,
there can be no harm arising from the darkness of night to those who pray,
because the children of light have the day even in the night. For when is
he without light who has light in his heart? or when has not he the sun and
the day, whose Sun and Day is Christ?

  36. Let not us, then, who are in Christ--that is, always in the lights
cease from praying even during night. Thus the widow Anna, without
intermission praying and watching, persevered in deserving well of God, as
it is written in the I Gospel: "She departed not," it says, "from the
temple, serving with fastings and prayers night and day."(6) Let the
Gentiles look to this, who! are not yet enlightened, or the Jews who have
remained in darkness by having forsaken the light. Let us, beloved
brethren, who are always in the light of the Lord, who remember and hold
fast what by grace received we have begun to be, reckon night for day; let
us believe that we always walk in the light, and let us not be hindered by
the darkness which we have escaped. Let there be no failure of prayers in
the hours of night--no idle and reckless waste of the occasions of prayer.
New-created and newborn of the Spirit by the mercy of God, let us imitate
what we shall one day be. Since in the kingdom we shall possess day alone,
without intervention of night, let us so watch in the night as if in the
daylight. Since we are to pray and give thanks to God for ever, let us not
cease in this life also to pray and give thanks.(7)


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 5, Roberts and Donaldson). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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