it capable of all those useful Productions; it is he who fo adapts the Fruits of the Earth to our Bodies, that they are capable of yielding them Nourishment and Strength: It is he likewife who furnishes us with the Dexterity and Ability of both Body and Mind, to do our Part in thofe Productions. And as for their being bestowed promiscuously on Good and Bad, that doth not hinder them from being the Gifts of God; for he has many common Gifts of that Nature, which he thinks fit to beftow even upon the Evil and the Unthankful, as our Saviour tells us that he makes bis Sun to shine on the Evil and the Good, and his Rain to fall on the Just and the Unjuft. But then if these are fuch common Mercies that they are beftowed promifcuously upon all, what occafion is there to beg them of God? This leads me to the second Thing I took notice of in this Obfervation, namely,

2. That God will be frequently addreffed to for these temporal Bleffings: We are to beg them of God, and we are to beg them as a Gift or Boon, not as a Thing that is our Due, of which we demand Payment, but as a Bounty; and therefore we fay, Give us. I fhall fpeak to both these, why they are to be prayed for at all, and why as a Boon.

(1.) Why we are at all to addrefs our felves to God for thefe Things by Prayer and Thanksgiving. I anfwer, that it is neceffary on many Accounts. This diftinguishes us from the brute Creatures, who though they partake of God's Bounty in feeding them, yet do not acknowledge God in it; for it is but in a Figure that the young Lions when they roar after their

Prey,

Prey, are faid to feek their Meat from God, and that other brute Creatures are faid to wait on God, that he may give them their Meat in due Seafon. This likewife diftinguishes us from wicked Men, who facrifice to their own Net, and impute all their Wealth to their own Pains and Induftry, according to the Description we have of them, Deut. viii. 17. faying, My Power, and the Might of my Hand, hath gotten me this Wealth: Whereas good Men remember the Lord their God, for it is he that giveth them Power to get Wealth, as it there follows. There is nothing then more rational, than for good Men, who believe a Providence, and that God is the Author of every good Gift, to addrefs to him, and to own him as the Giver of all the Neceffaries and Conveniencies of Life, in Prayers and Thanksgivings.

(2.) But then as we are thus to addrefs our felves to God for our daily Bread, we are to address our felves for it humbly, as for a free Gift, not a Debt; and therefore our Addreffes must be with all Humility, yet they may nevertheless be with an holy Confidence, as that of Children is, when they come to afk Neceffaries of a Father; for this paternal Affection is not fo great in any earthly Parent, as it is in God: Can a Woman forget her fucking Child, that she should not have Compaffion on the Son of her Womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, faith the Lord, Ifa. xlix. 15. And (a) if ye being Evil, know how to give good Gifts to your Children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give

(a) Matt. vii. 11.

good

good Things to them that afk him? fays our Saviour hereafter in this fame Sermon.

As thefe Addreffes to God are to be with Humility and Confidence, fo they ought to be very frequent and confequently with an holy Importunity. The Neceffaries of Life understood here by Bread, are fo many, and our Wants of them recur fo frequently, that this alone neceffarily engages us in the frequent Practice and Exercife of Prayer. And befides, the Words, this Day, fhew us that this Petition is defigned to be renewed every Day; and therefore we should keep our felves in a conftant good Difpofition for drawing near to God.

I have now done with the Explication of the Text; I shall be very fhort in the Application of it.

1. First then, this Text fhews us by the Word, daily Bread, how we ought to content our felves with the Neceffaries and Conveniencies of Life; and how we fhould retrench the Superfluities of it. I might here run out into a copious Reproof of Luxury; and recommend the Virtues of Temperance, Sobriety, and Frugality, as being most suitable to this Part of our Saviour's Prayer. Particularly, I might run out against that beaftly Vice of Drunkenness; I call it beaftly, not that I know any Beafts that are guilty of

but because it makes Men more brutish in their Actions, than the Beasts themselves, that they are not capable of being governed by any Impreffions of Reason, Religion, Intereft, or even common Shame; but run on in a mad career of

drinking away their very Senfes, and all the right Notions they ever were Mafters of.

2. By our praying this Day for our daily Bread, I might here reprove the reigning Sin of Covetoufnefs, which is never contented, no not with much Goods laid up for many Years. The Moderation of this Petition, fhould teach us to wean our Hearts from the World, and if God bleffes us with Riches, to be rich in good Works, ready to diftribute, willing to communicate, laying up in Store for our felves a good Foundation against

the time to come.

3. By our being taught here to depend and wait on God for our daily Bread, we fee how justly they ftand condemned, who have all their Dependance on their Inheritances, Friends, Places, Callings, and their own Skill and Industry for their making their Fortunes in the World; but God is not in all their Thoughts, they put him out of their Schemes; they addrefs not themselves to him for his Bleffing, nor thankfully acknowledge his Bounty; they propofe not to themfelves his Glory or Service by any of their Purchases, nor ever expect to be accountable to him for the Ufes they put their Eftates to, but facrificing entirely to their own Net, are puft up in their vain Minds, and think their Wealth is their own, Who is Lord over them?

4. If we are thus to pray for our daily Bread, there is another great Duty confequent upon that; namely, forafmuch as we expect not that God fhould beftow it upon us by the way of Miracle, but by giving his Bleffing to our own Endeavours; we must therefore take care to fet about nothing towards the procuring of a Livelihood, but what we may beg his Blefing upon it, and therefore must carefully abstain from all knavish, disho

neft

neft Courses, such as we cannot look up to God, and beg his Bleffing to them; and muft employ our felves diligently in the Duties of a lawful Calling, and not expect that this Prayer for our daily Bread, will be granted, if we either betake not our felves to honeft Employments, or are lazy and flothful in the Management of them.

5. Since we have our daily Bread from God, this fhews us with what Gratitude we ought to partake of his Benefits. It is ftrange how we can forget God, our daily and hourly Benefactor. The Ox knoweth his Owner, and the Afs his Mafter's Crib, Ifa. 1. 3. And shall we be more unnatural, and more ungrateful than they?

I content myself to have thus briefly mentioned thefe Things in the End of a Sermon, leaving the further Improvement of them to your own Meditation, and God's Bleffing, without which all our Labour is to no purpose.

Now to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, our great Supporter and bountiful Benefactor, who fills our Hearts with Food and Gladness, be all Praife, Honour, and Glory, Might, Power, and Dominion, for ever and ever. Amen.