Well, then, Christ, having disproved the practice of the Pharisees, seeks to set his own disciples right in the management of their prayers, as well as in their alms. Pharisaism is very natural in the best. We are apt to be haunted with a carnal spirit in the best duties ; not only in alms, where we have to do with men, but in prayer, where our business lieth wholly with God; especially in public prayer ; even there much of man will creep in. The devil is like a fly, which, if driven from one place, pitcheth upon another ; so drive him out of alms, and he will seek to taint your prayers.
Therefore Christ, to rectify his disciples in their personal and solitary prayers, instructs them to withdraw into some place of recess and retirement, and to be content with God for witness, approver, and judge. 'But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut thy doors, pray to thy Father which is in secret,' &c.
In which words you may observe : —
I. A supposition concerning solitary prayer : ' But thou, when thou prayest.'
II. A direction about it: 'Enter into thy closet, and shut thy door, and pray to thy Father which is in secret.'
III. Encouragement to perform it : ' And thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.' Where two things are asserted : —
1. God's sight : He is conscious to thy prayers when others are not.
2. God's reward : ' He will reward thee openly.' To open the circumstances of the text : —
In the supposition, ' But thou, when thou prayest,' observe: — 1. Christ takes it for granted that his disciples will pray to God. He doth not say, if thou prayest, but tvJien thou prayest, as supposing them to be sufficiently convinced of this duty of being often with God in private.
8 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE [MaT. VI. 6-8.
2. I observe, again, Christ speaks of solitary prayer, when a man alone, and without company, pours out his heart to God. Therefore Christ speaks in the singular number: 'When thou prayest; ' not I)lurally and collectively, when ye pray, or meet together in prayer. Therefore he doth not forbid public praying in the assemblies of the saints, or family-worship ; both are elsewhere required in scripture. God hath made promises to public and church prayer, praying with men or before men : Mat. xviii. 19, ' When two or three are met to- gether, and shall agree on earth as touching anything that they sliall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.' And when they shall agree in one public prayer, it seems to have a greater efficacy put upon it — when more are interested in the same prayer — when, with a combined force, they do as it were besiege the God of heaven, and will not let him go unless he leaves a blessing. Look, as the petition of a shire and county to authority is more than a private man's supplication, so when we meet as a church to pray, and as a family, there is combined strength. And in this sense, that saying of the schoolmen is orthodox enough — viz., that prayer made in the church hath a more easy audience with God. Why? Because of the concurrence of many which are met there to worship God. Christ doth not intend in this any way to jostle out that which he seeks to establish elsewhere. Let your intentions be secret, though your ])rayers be public and open in the family or assemblies of the saints.
II. Let us open the direction our Lord gives about solitary prayer. The direction is suited so as to avoid the double error of the Pharisees; their offence as to place, and as to the aim and end.
1. Their offence as to the place : * Enter into thy closet, and shut thy door.' These words are not to be taken metaphorically, nor yet pressed too literally. Not metaphorically, as some would carry them. Descend into thy heart, be serious and devout with God in the closet of thy soul, which is the most inward recess and retiring-place of man. This were to be wanton with scripture. The literal sense is not to be left without necessity, nor yet pressed too literally, as if 23rayer should be confined to a chamber and closet. Christ prayed in the mountain, Mat. xiv. 23 ; and Gen. xxiv. 63, Isaac went into the field to meditate. The meaning is, private prayer must be performed in a private place, retired from company and the sight of men as much as may be.
2. Christ rectifieth them as to the end : ' Pray to thy Father which is in secret ; ' that is, pray to God, who is in that private place, though he cannot be seen with bodily eyes ; wherein Christ seems secretly to tax the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who did rather pray to men than to God, who was invisible ; because all their aim was to be approved of men, and to be cried up by them as devout persons. So that what the Lord saith concerning fasting, Zech. vii. 5, 6, ' When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me ? and when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves ? ' So here, was this unto God ? No, though the force and sound of the words carried it for God, yet they were directed to men. When God is not made both the object and aim, it is not to him ;