The thing here reproved, is not simply the length, any more than the shortness of our prayers: but, first, length without meaning; the speaking much, and meaning little or nothing: the using (not all repetitions; for our Lord himself prayed thrice, repeating the same words; but) vain repetitions, as the Heathens did, reciting the names of their Gods over and over: as they do among Christians, (vulgarly so called)and not among the papists only, who say over and over the same string of prayers, without ever feeling what they speak: secondly, the thinking to be heard for our much speaking, the fancying God measures prayers by their length, and is best pleased with those which contain the most words, which sound the longest in his ears. These are such instances of superstition and folly, as all who are named by the name of Christ, should leave to the Heathens, to them on whom the glorious light of the gospel hath never shined.
5. Be not ye therefore like unto them. Ye who have tasted of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, are throughly convinced, your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. So that the end of your praying, is not to inform God, as tho’ he knew not your wants already; but rather to inform yourselves, to fix the sense of those wants more deeply in your hearts, and the sense of your continual dependence on him, who only is able to supply all your wants. It is not so much to move God, who is always more ready to give than you to ask; as to move yourselves, that you may be willing and ready to receive, the good things he has prepared for you.
III. 1. After having taught the true nature and ends of prayer, our Lord subjoins an example of it: even that divine form of prayer, which seems in this place to be proposed by wayof pattern chiefly, as the model and standard of all our prayers: After this manner therefore pray ye. Whereas elsewhere he enjoins the use of these very words, [97]He said unto them, when ye pray, say——
2. *We may observe in general concerning this divine prayer. First, that it contains all we can reasonably or innocently pray for. There is nothing which we have need to ask of God, nothing which we can ask without offending him, which is not included either directly or indirectly in this comprehensive form: secondly, that it contains all we can reasonably or innocently desire; whatever is for the glory of God, whatever is needful or profitable not only for ourselves, but for every creature in heaven and earth. And indeed our prayers are the proper test of our desires; nothing being fit to have a place in our desires, which is not fit to have a place in our prayers: what we may not pray for, neither should we desire: thirdly, that it contains all our duty to God and man: whatsoever things are pure and holy, whatsoever God requires of the children of men, whatsoever is acceptable in his sight, whatsoever it is whereby we may profit our neighbour, being exprest or implied therein.
3. It consists of three parts, the preface, the petitions, and the doxology or conclusion. The preface, Our Father which art in Heaven, lays ageneral foundation for prayer; comprizing what we must first know of God, before we can pray, in confidence of being heard. It likewise points out to us all those tempers, with which we are to approach to God, which are most essentially requisite, if we desire either our prayers or our lives should find acceptance with him.
4. “Our Father.” If he is a father, then he is good, then he is loving to his children. And here is the first and great reason for prayer. God is willing to bless, let us ask for a blessing. “Our Father,”—Our Creator: the author of our being; he who raised us from the dust of the earth, who breathed into us the breath of life, and we became living souls. But if he made us, let us ask and he will not with-hold, any good thing from the work of his own hands. “Our Father”—Our preserver; who day by day sustains the life he has given: of whose continuing love we now and every moment receive life and breath and all things. So much the more boldly let us come to him, and we shall find mercy and grace to help in time of need. Above all, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of all that believe in him: who justifies us freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus: who hath blotted out all our sins, and healed all our infirmities; who hath received us for his own children, by adoption and grace, and because we are sons, hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father: who hath begottenus again of incorruptible seed, and created us a-new in Christ Jesus. Therefore we know that he heareth us always: therefore we pray to him without ceasing. We pray, because we love. And we love him, because he first loved us.
5. “Our Father”—Not mine only who now cry unto him; but our’s, in the most extensive sense. The God and Father of the Spirits of all flesh; the Father of angels and men: (so the very Heathens acknowledged him to be, Πατήρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε·) The Father of the universe, of all the families both in heaven and earth. Therefore with him there is no respect of persons. He loveth all that he hath made. He is loving unto every man, and his mercy is over all his works. And the Lord’s delight is in them that fear him, and put their trust in his mercy; in them that trust in him thro’ the Son of his love, knowing they are accepted in the Beloved. But if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Yea, all mankind: seeing God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, even to die the death, that they might not perish but have everlasting life.
6. Which art in heaven:—high and lifted up; God over all, blessed for ever. Who sitting on the circle of the heavens, beholdeth all things both in heaven and earth. Whose eye pervades the whole sphere of created being; yea and of uncreated night: unto whom are known all his works, and all the works of every creature, notonly from the beginning of the world (a poor, low, weak translation) but ἀπ᾽ αἰῶνος· from all eternity, from everlasting to everlasting: who constrains the host of heaven, as well as the children of men, to cry out with wonder and amazement, O the depth! The depth of the riches both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! Which art in heaven—the Lord and ruler of all, superintending and disposing all things: who art the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, the blessed and only Potentate: who art strong and girded about with power, doing whatsoever pleaseth thee! The Almighty: for whensoever thou willest, to do is present with thee. In heaven,—eminently there. Heaven is thy throne, the place where thine honour particularly dwelleth. But not there alone; for thou fillest heaven and earth, the whole expanse of space. Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Glory be to thee, O Lord most high!
Therefore should we serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto him with reverence. Therefore should we think, speak and act, as continually under the eye, in the immediate presence of the Lord, the King.
7. *Hallowed be thy name. This is the first of the six petitions, whereof the prayer itself is composed. The name of God is God himself; the nature of God, so far as it can be discovered to man: it means therefore, together with his existence, all his attributes or perfections—his eternity, particularly signified by his great and incommunicable name Jehovah, as the apostle John translates it, τὸ ἀ, καὶ τὸ ω, ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος. ὁ ὤν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος· The alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, he which is, and which was, and which is to come:—His fulness of being, denoted by his other great name, I am that I am—His omnipresence—His omnipotence; who is indeed the only agent in the material world; all matter being essentially dull and inactive, and moving only as it is moved by the finger of God: and he is the spring of action in every creature, visible and invisible; which could neither act nor exist, without the continued influx and agency of his almighty power—His wisdom, clearly deduced from the things that are seen, from the goodly order of the universe—His trinity in unity and unity in trinity, discovered to us in the very first line of his written word ברא אלהים: literally the Gods created, a plural noun joined with a verb of the singular number: as well as in every part of his subsequent revelations, given by the mouth of all his holy prophets and apostles—His essential purity and holiness—and above all, his love, which is the very brightness of his glory.