What Do We Pray for in the Fourth Petition?

Answ. In the fourth petition (which is,
Give us this day our daily bread), we pray,
That of God’s free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life,
and enjoy his blessing with them.

Q. What is meant by bread in this petition?

A. All temporal blessings, such as, food, raiment, health, strength, agreeable relations, habitation, &.c.

(^. Why are these called bread? A. Because,

like bread, they are necessary for the welfare of our body.

Q^ What measure of these temporal blessings may we pray for? A. A competent portion, Prov. xxx. 8.

Qj What call you a competent portion of them?

A. Such a portion as enableth us to live without being a burden to others -, or as much as tends to God’s glory and our good, Isa. xxxiii. 16. 1 Thess. iv. 11, 12*

■Q. What besides this competent portion do we request in this petition i A. God’s blessing with it.

Q^ What do you mean by God’s blessing on temporal enjoyments A. His” prospering our endeavours to

get them j making us to see his love, bounty, and faithfulness in them *, giving us contentment with, and comfort in them, and enabling us to thankfulness for them.

Q. Why are we in this petition taught to pray for bread, and not for dainty meats or riches?

A. To teach us to be content with little, Heb. xiii. 5.

Q. Why are we taught to pray for daily, and not for Weekly and monthly bread?

A. To teach us a constant dependence on God for temporal, as well as spiritual good things, Acts xvii. 28.

Q. Why are we taught to say, Give us this day our daily bread?

A. To teach us to avoid covetous anxiety, and live every day as if it were our last, Luke xxi. 34.

Q. Why is the bread we are to pray for called ours?

A. To teach us, that we must have a proper right to the bread we ask from God, or crave his blessing on.

Q. What right ought we to have to our temporal enjoyments? A. A civil right before men, which even unbelievers often have j and a new covenant right before God, which only believers can have, Isa. xxxiii. 16.

<£. What bread, and other temporal enjoyments, may we not ask from God, nor crave his blessing on?

A. What is gotten by idleness, deceit, and violence.

Q. Why do we ask our temporal enjoyments from God, when we labour for them with our hands? A. Because it is God who giveth us opportunity and strength for labour, success in it, and a blessing with it, Deut. viii.

Q. Is it not then a profane and beastiy practice, to eat and drink without craving God’s blessing on, and returning him thanks for our food?

A. Yes, Exod. xxiii. 25. 1 Tim*, iv. 4, 5.

Q. Why are we to request our temporal mercies as God’s free gift? A. Because we deserve nothing

at his hand but wrath for our sin, Gen. xxxii. 10.

Q. How are the saints, when often so poor, said to inherit all things?

A. All things are theirs by covenant-right, and do work for their good *, and they enjoy as much as is sufficient for them, 1 Cor. iii. 22. Rom. viii. 28.

Q. Whence then is it, that some saints in straits more

readily doubt of their daily bread, than of their eternal salvation?

A. It proceeds from the carnality of their hearts.