But more particularly : their error in this matter was charging weakness and harshness upon God, or not worshipping him according to his spiritual nature.
[1.] Charging weakness upon God, as if many words did help him to understand their meaning, or to remember their petitions the better. Hence that practice of Baal's priests, 1 Kings xviii. 26, ' They called on the name of Baal from morning till night, 0 Baal, hear us.' They were repeating and crying again and again, ' 0 Baal,' as if their clamour would awaken their god. Whence Elijah's sarcasm, ' He sleepeth, and must be awaked.' As those that for two hours together cried out, ' Great is Diana of the Ephesians ! Great is Diana of the Ephesians ! ' Acts xix. 34.
[2.] Their ascribing harshness to God, as if he were hard to be en- treated, and delighted in the pain of his creatures, and would be more aflected with them, because they wearied themselves with the irksome- ness of a long prayer. Penal satisfactions are very natural. Super- stition is a tyranny ; it vexeth the soul with unreasonable duty, affects outward length to the weariness of the flesh. The general conceit is, that man thinks God must be served with some self-denial, and the flesh must be displeased ; but it shall be displeased but in a little, and in an outward way, as Baal's priests gashed themselves ; as if God were pleased with our burdensome and long exercises.
[3.] There was error in it. They did not conceive aright of the spiritual nature of God ; as if he were pleased with the mere task, a long hymn, and an idle repetition of words, without sense and aflec- tion. Whereas the Lord doth not measure prayers by prolixity, but
28 ""AN INTrvODUCTION TO THE [MaT. VI. 6-8'
by the vehemency ; not by the labour of the external work, but by the inward affection manifested therein. And words are only accepted with him as they serve to quicken, continue, or increase our affection.
Secondly, Our Saviour's next reason is drawn from verse 8 : ' Be not ye like unto them ; for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before you ask him." It is inconsistent with the true notion of God, Here are three propositions, all which are of force to draw us off from babbling, or affectation of many words in prayer. As: —
1. That God is a Father, and that both by creation and covenant. By creation, to all mankind ; so he will be ready to sustain that which he hath made. He that hath given life will give food ; he that hath given a body will give raiment. Things expect supply thence from whence they received their being. But much more by covenant ; so he is our Father in Christ : ' Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us,' Isa. Ixiii. 16. Well, but what is this to the present purpose, that God is a Father ? This is a cheok to bab- bling ; therefore we should go to him in an unaffected manner, with a child-like spirit and dependence, with words reverent, serious, and plain. Children do not use to make starched speeches to their fathers Avhen they want bread, but only express their natural cry, and go to them for such things as they stand in need of. There they speak, and are accepted ; and a word from a child moves the father more than an orator can move all his hearers. Even such a naked address should we make to God in a plain manner ; for when we come to pray, Christ would have us take up God in the notion of a father, and to behave ourselves in a natural way to him ; for affected eloquence or loquacity in prayer is one of the main things Christ here disproves.i Pi'ayer ought to be simple and plain ; therefore the great business of ' the Spirit of adoption' is to make us cry, ' Abba, Father :' Eoni. viii. 15.
2. He is such a Father as is not ignorant of our wants. The care of his providence is over all the creatures he hath made. God hath an inspection over them, to provide necessaries for them ; much more over his people. His eyes run to and fro, to find them out in all the places of their dispersion ; and he doth exercise his power for their relief : 2 Chron. xvi. 9. Now this thought should be rooted in our hearts when we come to pray to God : I go to a Father, which hath found me out in the throng of his creatures, and knows what is good for me. This is a great ground why we should not use battology, because God knows what my needs are. Words are not required for God's sake, but for ours ; not to inform God, but that we may perform our duty the better. Well, then, so far as they are useful, so far they should be used ; to bound our thoughts, to Avarm our affections, to strengthen our faith. (1.) To bound our thoughts ; for an interrup- tion in speech is sooner discerned that an interruption in meditation. (2.) And to warm our affections. Words at first are vent to affection, but afterwards they continue to increase the affection ; as a hearth is first warmed by the fire, and then it serves to keep in the fire. (3.) And they conduce to strengthen our faith, while we plead promises in