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| General Introduction.
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III.
On Prayer.
[Translated by the Rev. S.
Thelwall.]
————————————
Chapter I.—General
Introduction.8760
| 8760 [After the discipline
of Repentance and of Baptism the Laws of Christian Living come into
view. Hence this is the logical place for this treatise. See the
Prolegomena of Muratori and learned annotations, in Routh,
Opuscula I. p. 173, et sqq. We may date it circa
a.d. 192. For much of the Primitive Discipline,
concerning Prayer, see Bunsen, Hippol. III. pp. 88–91,
etc.] |
The Spirit of God, and the
Word of God, and the Reason of God—Word of Reason, and Reason and
Spirit of Word—Jesus Christ our Lord, namely, who is both the one
and the other,8761
| 8761 Oehler’s
punctuation is followed here. The sentence is difficult, and has
perplexed editors and commentators considerably. | —has
determined for us, the disciples of the New Testament, a new form of
prayer; for in this particular also it was needful that new wine should
be laid up in new skins, and a new breadth be sewn to a new
garment.8762
| 8762 Matt. ix. 16, 17; Mark ii. 21, 22; Luke v.
36, 37. | Besides, whatever
had been in bygone days, has either been quite changed, as
circumcision; or else supplemented, as the rest of the Law; or else
fulfilled, as Prophecy; or else perfected, as faith itself. For the new
grace of God has renewed all things from carnal unto spiritual, by
superinducing the Gospel, the obliterator of the whole ancient bygone
system; in which our Lord Jesus Christ has been approved as the Spirit
of God, and the Word of God, and the Reason of God: the Spirit, by
which He was mighty; the Word, by which He taught; the Reason, by which
He came.8763
| 8763 Routh suggests,
“fortase quâ sensit,” referring to
the Adv. Praxeam, c. 5. | So the prayer
composed by Christ has been composed of three parts. In
speech,8764
by which
prayer is enunciated, in spirit, by which alone it prevails,
even John had taught his disciples to pray,8765
| 8765 This is
Oehler’s punctuation. The edition of Pamelius reads: “So
the prayer composed by Christ was composed of three parts: of the
speech, by which it is enunciated; of the spirit, by which alone it
prevails; of the reason, by which it is taught.” Rigaltius
and subsequent editors read, “of the reason, by which it is
conceived;” but this last clause is lacking in the mss., and Oehler’s reading appears, as he says, to
“have healed the words.” [Oehler’s punctuation must
stand; but, the preceding sentence justifies the interpolation of
Rigaltius and heals more effectually.] |
but all John’s doings were laid as groundwork for Christ, until,
when “He had increased”—just as the same John used to
fore-announce “that it was needful” that “He should
increase and himself decrease”8766
—the
whole work of the forerunner passed over, together with his spirit
itself, unto the Lord. Therefore, after what form of words John taught
to pray is not extant, because earthly things have given place to
heavenly. “He who is from the earth,” says John,
“speaketh earthly things; and He who is here from the heavens
speaketh those things which He hath seen.”8767
And what is the Lord Christ’s—as
this method of praying is—that is not heavenly? And
so, blessed brethren, let us consider His heavenly wisdom:
first, touching the precept of praying secretly, whereby He exacted
man’s faith, that he should be confident that the sight and
hearing of Almighty God are present beneath roofs, and extend even into
the secret place; and required modesty in faith, that it should offer
its religious homage to Him alone, whom it believed to see and to hear
everywhere. Further, since wisdom succeeded in the following precept,
let it in like manner appertain unto faith, and the modesty of faith,
that we think not that the Lord must be approached with a train of
words, who, we are certain, takes unsolicited foresight for His own.
And yet that very brevity—and let this make for the third grade
of wisdom—is supported on the substance of a great and blessed
interpretation, and is as diffuse in meaning as it is compressed in
words. For it has embraced not only the special duties of prayer, be it
veneration of God or petition for man, but almost every discourse of
the Lord, every record of His Discipline; so that, in fact, in
the Prayer is comprised an epitome of the whole
Gospel.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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