{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030745.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030745.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030745.htm","text":"[Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.]\nChapter I.\u2014General Introduction. 8760\nThe Spirit of God, and the Word of God, and the Reason of God\u2014Word of Reason, and Reason and Spirit of Word\u2014Jesus Christ our Lord, namely, who is both the one and the other, 8761 \u2014has 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 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 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 but all John\u2019s doings were laid as groundwork for Christ, until, when \u201cHe had increased\u201d\u2014just as the same John used to fore-announce \u201cthat it was needful\u201d that \u201cHe should increase and himself decrease\u201d 8766 \u2014the 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. \u201cHe who is from the earth,\u201d says John, \u201cspeaketh earthly things; and He who is here from the heavens speaketh those things which He hath seen.\u201d 8767 And what is the Lord Christ\u2019s\u2014as this method of praying is\u2014that is not heavenly? And so, blessed brethren, let us consider His heavenly wisdom: first, touching the precept of praying secretly, whereby He exacted man\u2019s 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\u2014and let this make for the third grade of wisdom\u2014is 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.\n[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\u201391, etc.]\n681:8761\nOehler\u2019s punctuation is followed here. The sentence is difficult, and has perplexed editors and commentators considerably.\n681:8762\nMatt. 9:16, 17, Mark 2:21, 22, Luke 5:36, 37.\n681:8763\nRouth suggests, \u201cfortase qu\u00e2 sensit,\u201d referring to the Adv. Praxeam, c. 5.\n681:8764 681:8765\nThis is Oehler\u2019s punctuation. The edition of Pamelius reads: \u201cSo 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.\u201d Rigaltius and subsequent editors read, \u201cof the reason, by which it is conceived;\u201d but this last clause is lacking in the mss., and Oehler\u2019s reading appears, as he says, to \u201chave healed the words.\u201d [Oehler\u2019s punctuation must stand; but, the preceding sentence justifies the interpolation of Rigaltius and heals more effectually.]\n681:8766 681:8767","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part III: Chapt...","type":"page"}