Argument.—The Treatise of Cyprian on the Lord’s Prayer Comprises Three Portions, in Which Division He Imitates Tertullian in His Book on Prayer. In the First Portion, He Points Out that the Lord’s Prayer is the Most Excellent of All Prayers, Profoundly Spiritual, and Most Effectual for Obtaining Our Petitions. In the Second Part, He Undertakes an Explanation of the Lord’s Prayer; And, Still Treading in the Footsteps of Tertullian, He Goes Through Its Seven Chief Clauses. Finally, in the Third Part, He Considers the Conditions of Prayer, and Tells Us What Prayer Ought to Be.1 1st, persevering and continuous, after the example of Christ our Lord; 2dly, watchful, and poured forth from the heart, after the example of the priest who, in the preface which precedes the prayer, prepares the minds of the brethren by saying Sursum Corda, to which the people answer Habemus ad Dominum; 3dly, associated with good works and alms, like that of Tobias and Cornelius; 4thly, at every hour of the day, and especially at the three hours appointed by the Church for prayer, to wit, the third, the sixth, and the ninth hour; and, moreover, we must pray morning and evening.—
Tres complectitur partes tractatus S. Cypriani de Oratione Dominica, in quo librum Tertulliani de Oratione imitatur. In priore ostendit 0519C Orationem Dominicam esse omnium excellentissimam, summe spiritualem et ad impetrandum efficacissimam. In altera vero parte Dominicae Orationis complectitur explicationem, septemque ejus partes praecipuas, Tertulliani vestigiis inhaerens, decurrit. Demum in tertia parte Orationis conditiones expendit, docetque Orationem esse debere, 1 perseverantem et assiduam, exemplo Christi Domini; 2 vigilantem ac toto corde effusam, exemplo sacerdotis qui «ante orationem praefatione praemissa parat fratrum mentes dicendo: Sursum corda, et respondet plebs: Habemus ad Dominum;» 3 bonis operibus et eleemosynis consociatam, Tobiae instar et Cornelii; 4 omnibus diei horis ac praesertim tribus ab Ecclesia Orationi destinatis, tertia nimirum, sexta et nona, mane nec non 0519D et vespere esse orandum. EDD.