Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 6 · Verse 9
Verse 9. After this manner therefore pray ye]
Forms of wholesome words are profitable. A set form of prayer is held fittest for the publike; and for such weak Christians as are not yet able to expresse their own desires in their own words. The utterance of wisdom is given to some Christians only, 1 Cor. 12. 8.Your prayers. Hos. 14. 2. yet are all to strive unto it, that the testimony of Christ may be confirmed in them, 1 Cor. 1. 5, 6. God will take that at first, that afterwards will not be accepted. If words be wanting, pray that God, that commands thee to take words and come before him, to vouchsafe thee those words, wherewith thou mayest come beforeProv 18. 23. him. Speak, as the poor man doth, supplications: so did the prodigall: Forecast also (with him) what thou wilt say: Praemeditate of the matter, disposing it in due order (as one would doe that is to speak to a Prince: God is a great King, Mal. 1. 23.) Some thinke we must never pray but upon the sudden, and extraordinary instinct and motion of the spirit. This is a fancy, and those that practise it, cannot but fall into idle repetitions, and be confused; going…, …. forward and backward, like hounds at a losse (saith a good Divine) and having unadvisedly begun to speak, they know not how wisely to make an end. This to prevent, premeditate and propound to thy self fit heads of prayer: gather catalogues of thy sinnes and duties by the decalogue; observe the daily straits of mortall condition, consider Gods mercies, your own infirmities, troubles from Satan, pressures from the world, crosses on all hands, &c. And as you cannot want matter, so neither words of prayer. The Spirit will assist, and God will accept, if there be but an honest heart and lawfull petitions. And albeit we cannot vary them as some can; our Saviour in his agony, used the self-same words thrice together in prayer; and so may we, when there is the same matter and occasion. He also had a set form of giving thanks at meat; which the two Disciples at Emaus hearing, knew him by it. A form then may be used, we see, when it is gathered out of theLuk. 24. 30, 31. holy Scriptures, and agreeable thereunto. Neither is the spirit limited hereby: for the largenesse of the heart stands not so much in the multitude and variety of expressions, as in the extent of the affection. Besides, if forms were unlawfull, then neither might we sing Psalms, nor join in prayer with others, nor use the forms prescribed by God.
Our Father which art in Heaven]
Tertullian calls this prayer,…, & … doctrinae … a breviary of the Gospel, and compend of saving doctrin: It is framed in form of the decalogue: the three former Petitions respecting God, the three later, our selves and others. Every word therein hath its weight. Our, there's our charity: Father, there's our faith: In heaven, there's our hope. Father is taken sometimes personally, as in that of our Saviour, My father is greater then I; sometimes essentially, for the Whole Deity, so here. Now, that God is in Heaven, is a notion that heathens also have by nature: and do therefore in distresse, lift up eyes and hands thither-ward. And lest man should not look upward, God hath given to his eyes peculiar nerves, to pull them up towards his habitation; that he might direct his prayer unto him, and look up, Psal.Psal 73. 5. 3. that he might feelingly say with David, Whom have I in Ut au … … Adam. … vita.heaven, but thee? Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, ô thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their Masters, &c. Psal 123, 1, 2. It is reported of …, that he preached so powerfully, that he seemed to thunder, and prayed so earnestly, that he seemed to carry his hearers with him up into heaven.
Hallowed be thy Name.]
1. Honoured be thy Majesty. According to thy Name, O God, so is thy praise, Psal. 48. 10. Now Gods Name is holy and reverend, Psal. 111. 9. Great and terrible, Psal. 99. 3. Wonderfull and worthy, Psal. 8. 1. Jam. 2. 7. High and honourable, Isa. 12. 4. Dreadfull among the Heathen, Mal. 1. 14. and exalted above all praise, …. 9. 5. His glory is, as himself, eternally infinite; and so abideth, not capable of our addition or detraction. The Sun would shine, though all the world were blinde, or did wilfully shut their eyes. Howbeit to try how we prize his glory, and how industrious we will be to promote it, God lets us know that he accounts himself, as it were, to receive a new being by those inward conceptions of his glory, and by those outward honours we do him: when we lift up hisElevavit, evexit, conser, Isa. 5. 26. Name as a Standard, saying, Jehovah Nissi, The Lord is my …, Exod. 17. 15. When we bear it up aloft (as the word used in… vex l. lum adgentes. … ita inficit sermentū …, … quē tant is … tibus, nonut redem, torem expect ant … pecca. to. sed exgentium temporali jugo. D. Prid. Lect. the third Commandment, whereunto this petition answers, signifieth) as servants do their Masters badges upon their shoulders; Being confident (with S. Paul) of this very thing, that in nothing we shall be ashamed (whilest we hallow this holy God, Isa. 5. 16.) bue that with allboldnesse or freedom of speech, as alwaies, so now Christ shall be magnified in our bodies, whether it be by life or by death, Phil. 1. 20.