47Q THE LORD'S PRAYER seminal principle of all the petitions of a 'Christian, both for spiritual and temporal things ; and however in the fulness of his heart he will necessarily depart from his model in his choice of expressions ; into whatever lamina he may expand the pure gold of which it is composed ; yet he will still find the general principle of his own more enlarged application to GOD, substantially contained in this brief but finished compendium. Is it not a striking proof of the Divine condescension, that, knowing our pro- pensity to err, our blessed Lord should Himself have dictated our petitions, partly perhaps as a corrective of existing superstitions, but certainly to leave be- hind him a regulator by which all future ages should set their devotions ; and we might perhaps establish it as a safe rule for prayer in general, that any petition which cannot in some shape be accom- modated to the spirit of some part of the Lord's Prayer may not be right to be
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