Commentary on the Gospels and Acts, Commentary 1 · Chapter 6 · Verse 7 – Verse 8
Verse 7. But when ye …, use not vain repetitions]
Babble…. 10 14. … sub …. …. not: bubble not, saith the …, as water out of a narrow-… vessel. Doe not iterate or inculcate the same things-… & ad nauseam, as Solomons fool, who is full of words (saith he:) and this … of his … foreign, in his vain …. A man … not tell what shall be, and what shall be after him …? Such a one also was that Battus (to whom the … hath relation,) an egregious babbler. In common … a signe of …, to lay on more words upon a … then …: how much more in prayer? Take we … we … not the sacrifice of fools, God hath no need of …, 1 Sam. 21. 15. with Psal. 5. 5. He is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few, Eccles. 5. 2. Prayers move God, not as an Oratour moves his hearers, but as a childe his father, (your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things, ver. 8.) Now a childe is not to chat to his father, but to deliver his minde, humbly, earnestly, in few, direct to the point. S. Peter … have men to be sober in prayer, that is, to pray…. 4. 7. with due respect to Gods dreadfull majesty, without trifling or vain babling. He that is … in spirit, prayes much, though he speak little, as the Publican, Luk. 18. and Elias, 1 King. 20. 36. But as a body without a soul, much wood without fire, a bullet in a gun without powder; so are words in prayer without spirit. Now long prayers can hardly maintain their vigour: as in tall bodies, the spirits are diffused. The strongest hand long extended will languish, as Moses hand slacked against Amalec: Its a praise proper…. …. 12. to God, to have his hand stretcht out still. Our infirmity suffers not any long intention of body or minde. Our devotion will soon lag and hang the wing: others also that join with us, may be tired out, and made to sinne by … and wandrings. In secret indeed, and in extraordinary prayer with solemn fasting; or so, when the heart is extraordinarily enlarged, our prayers may and must be like wise. Solomon prayed long at the dedication of the Temple, so did those godly Levites, Neh. 9. Our Saviour prayed… dies … ut minimum tres horas, … aptissimas, … orationem … Vitus all night sometimes, and rising up a great while before day, he went apart and prayed, Mar. 1. 35. Of Luther it is reported, that he spent constantly three houres a day in prayer, and three of the … houres, and fittest for study. It was the saying of a grave and godly Divine, that he profited in the knowledge of the word, more…. in …. … Melanchthonem. Wilsons Theol. Rules. by prayer in a short space, then by study in a longer. That which our Saviour condemneth, is needlesse and heartlesse repetitions, unnecessary digressions, … prolixities, proceeding not from heat of affection, or strength of desire (for so, the repetition of theDan. 9. 17, 18. Mar. 14. 39. self-same petition, is not only lawfull, but usefull. See Psal. 142. 1. and 130. 6.) but either out of ostentation of devotion, as Pharisees, or opinion of being heard the sooner, as Heathens, when mens words exceed their matter, or both words and matter exceed their attention and affection. See that these be matches, and then pray and spare not.
For they thinke they shall be heard for their much speaking]
As Orpheus, in his hymnes, and other Pagans: calling, as the Mariners in Jonah, every man upon his God: and, lest they should not…. …. hit the right, closing their petitions with that Dij que Deae que omnes. …. lib. 1.And as this was the folly and fault of Pagans, so is it also still of the Papists, whom the holy Ghost calleth Heathens, with whom…. …. …. …. they …, as in many things else, so in their Battologies or…. vain repetitions: which are so grosse, … the devil himself (had he any shame in him.) might well be a shamed of them. In their Jesus-… (as they call it) there are fifteen of these prayers,…. …, Iesu, … have mercy on me. Iesu, Iesu, Iesu help me. Iesu, Iesu give me here my purgatory. Every of which petitions are to be ten … times at once said over for a task. So on their…. Church and Colledge-doors, the English fugitives have written in great golden letters, Iesu, Iesu, converte Angliam, …, …. These be their weapons, they say, prayers and tears. But the truth…. is, the … (the Popes bloud-hounds) trust more to the …, then to their prayers: like vultures, whose nests, as Aristotle saith, cannot be found, yet they will leave all games to follow an Army, because they delight to feed upon carrion. Their faction is a most … sharp sword, whose blade is sheathed, at pleasure, in the bowels of every Common-wealth, but the handle reacheth to Rome and Spain: They strive under pretence of long prayers, and…. … sanctity (… is double iniquity) to subdue all to the Pope, and the Pope to themselves. Satan, they say, sent Luther, and God sent them to withstand him. But that which … said of chariots armed with sithes and hooks, will be every dayLib. 1. cap. …. more and more applied to the Jesuits: at first they were a terrour, afterward a scorn.
Verse 8. Be not ye therefore like unto them]
God would not have his Israel conform to the Heathens customs, nor so much as once name their Idols, Exod. 23. 13. Psal. 16. 4. No more should…. …. Christians (as some are of opinion.) That of Cardinall Bembus is somewhat grosse, concerning their St Francis, quòd in … Non …. …, … esse ….Deorum ab Ecclesia Romana sit relatus. But this is like the rest: For if we may beleeve Baronius, we may see their lustrall water, and sprinkling of … in Iuvenals sixth Satyre: lights in sepulchres, in Suetonius his Octavius: lampes lighted on Saturday, in … 96. Epistle; distribution of tapers among theBaro. Annal. … 14. people, in Macrob. Saturnals, &c.
For your heavenly father knoweth what things ye need &c.]
And therefore answereth many times before we aske: as he didIsa. 65. 24. David, Psal. 32. He prevents us with many mercies we never sought him for; that our praises may exceed our prayers. I am found of them that sought me not, saith God: but yet in the same place it is said, I am sought of them that asked not for me. Importing,Isa. 65. 1. that we never seek to him for grace, till effectually called by his grace. Howbeit no sooner is any truly called, but he presently prayeth. Say not then, if God know our needs, what need we open them to him? The truth is, we doe it not to inform himNon sanè ut Deus …, sed ut mens nostra …. of that he knows not, or to stir up mercy in him, who is all bowels, and perfectly pitieth us: but 1. Hereby we acknowledge him as a childe doth his father, when he runs to him for food. 2. We run that course of getting good things, that he hath prescribedLuk. 11. 13. us, Jer. 29. 11, 12. Which Moses and Elias knew, andExod. 9. therefore the former turned Gods predictions, the later his promises1 King. 18. into prayers. 3. Hereby we prepare our selves holily to enjoy the things we crave: for prayer both sanctifieth the creature, and encreaseth our love and thankfullnesse, Psal. 116 1. 4. Prayer prepareth us, either to go without that we beg, if God see fit, as David, when he prayed for the childes life, and was fitted thereby to bear the losse of it; or else to part with that we have got by prayer, for the glory of God the giver of it. Those that make their requests known to God with thanksgiving, shall have (at least) the peace of God that passeth all understanding, to guard their foreign.hearts and mindes in Christ Iesus. They shall have strength inPhil 4 6, 7. their souls, the joy of the Lord shall be their strength, the glory ofPsal 138. 3. Nehe, 8. 10.the Lord shall be their rereward. In their marching in the wildernesse,Isa. 58. 8. at the fourth Alarm, arose the standard of Dan, Asher and Nepthali; these were the rereward of the Lords host; and to these were committed the care of gathering together the lame, feeble and sick, and to look that nothing was left behinde. Unto this the Prophet Isaiah seems (in that text) to allude, and so doth David, Psal. 27. 10. When my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will gather me, And this comfortable assurance was the fruit of his prayer.As the just must live by his own faith, so must he get his living by his own prayers. 1 Pet. 3. 7.