Excerpt from Practical Discourses on the Liturgy of the Church of England, Vol. 4 The Communion Service, which we are now entering upon, begins with the Lord's Prayer, which, being the most perfect, the most absolute, and the most excellent form of prayer, indited and prescribed by our blessed Saviour himself, very fitly begins all the offices of divine service, according to the command and intention of Christ in these words of our text 'When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, ' &c. Nor can we hope better to prevail with the Father, than by addressing to him in the words of his only-begotten and beloved Son, and our only Lord and Saviour; who being in his Father's bosom, is best acquainted with the secrets of his mind and will, and therefore fittest to direct us both in the matter and manner of our petitions. And as this Prayer is a good beginning and ending of all our devotion, and is therefore fitly prescribed in all the offices of the Church; so it is no where more properly prefixed, than in the solemn service of this holy Sacrament, wherein we more especially remember our dearest Lord, in a feast of his own appointment; which we cannot better do, than by addressing, in his own name and words, saying, 'Our Father, ' &c. In explaining therefore of this divine form, I must consider the three parts of it, viz. the Preface, the Petitions, and the Conclusion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.