Our spirit is heaven, and the flesh earth.  As our spirit is renewed by believing, so may our flesh be renewed by rising again; and “the will of God be done as in heaven, so in earth.”  Again, our mind whereby we see truth, and delight in this truth, is heaven; as, “I delight in the law of God, after the inward man.”  What is the earth?  “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind?” When this strife shall have passed away, and a full concord be brought about of the flesh and spirit, the will of God will be done as in heaven, so also in earth.  When we repeat this petition, let us think of all these things, and ask them all of the Father.  Now all these things which we have mentioned, these three petitions, beloved, have respect to the life eternal.  For if the name of our God is sanctified in us, it will be for eternity.  If his kingdom come, where we shall live forever, it will be for eternity.  If his will be done as in heaven, so in earth, in all the ways which I have explained, it will be for eternity.

There remain now the petitions for this life of our pilgrimage; therefore follows, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Give us eternal things, give us things temporal.  Thou hast promised a kingdom, deny us not the means of subsistence.  Thou wilt give everlasting glory with thyself hereafter, give us in this earth temporal support.  Therefore is it day by day, and to-day, that is, in this present time.  For when this life shall have passed away, shall we ask for daily bread then?  For then it will not be called day by day, but to-day.  Now it is called day by day, when one day passes away, and another day succeeds.  Will it be called day by day when there will be one eternal day?  This petition for daily bread is doubtless to be understood in two ways, both for the necessary supply of our bodily food, and for the necessities of our spiritual support.  There is a necessary supply of bodily food, for the preservation of our daily life, without which we cannot live.  This is food and clothing, but the whole is understood in a part.  When we ask for bread, we thereby understand all things.  There is a spiritual food, also, which the faithful know, which ye, too, will know when ye shall receive it at the altar of God.  This also is “daily bread,” necessary only for this life.  For shall we receive the Eucharist when we shall have come to Christ himself, and begun to reign with him forever?  So then the Eucharist is our daily bread; but let us in such wise receive it, that we be not refreshed in our bodies only, but in our souls.  For the virtue which is apprehended there, is unity, that gathered together into his body, and made his members, we may be what we receive.  Then will it be, indeed, our daily bread.  Again, what I am handling before you now is “daily bread”; and the daily lessons which ye hear in church are daily bread, and the hymns ye hear and repeat are daily bread.  For all these arc necessary in our state