Mat. VI. 6-8. J exposition of the lord's prayer. 31
we open and unbosom ourselves to God, and then all is quiet. Also it preparetli us for the improvement of mercies, when we have them out of the hands of God by prayer : 1 Sam. i. 27, 28, ' For this child I prayed,' said Hannah, ' and I will lend him unto the Lord.' Those mercies we expressly prayed for we are more thoroughly obliged to improve for God. What is won with prayer is worn with thankful- ness.
APPLICATION.
Use 1. To caution us against many abuses in prayer, which may be disproved and taxed, either formally, or by just consequence. I shall instance in five.
1. An idle and foolish loquacity, when men take a liberty to prattle anything in God's hearing, and do not consider the weight and importance of prayer, and what a sin it is to be ' hasty to utter any- thing before God:' Eccles. v. 2. It is great irreverence and contempt of the majesty of God, when men go hand over head about this work, and speak anything that comes into their mind. As men take them- selves to be despised when others speak unseemly in their j)i'esence, surely it is a lessening and a despising of God, when we pour out raw, tumultuous, undigested thoughts, and never think of what we are to speak when we come to God: Ps. xlv. 1, 'My heart is inditing a good matter.' The word signifieth, it ' boils or fries a good matter.' It is an allusion to the Mincah, or meat-offering, which was to be boiled or fried in a pan, before it was to be presented to the Lord, that they might not bring a dough-baked sacrifice and offering to the Lord. Such ignorant, dull, senseless praying, it is a blaspheming of God, and a lessening of the majesty of God.
2. A frothy eloquence, and an affected language in prayer, this directly comes under reproof. As if the prayer were more grateful to God, and he were moved by words and strains of rhetoric, and did accept men for their parts rather than graces. Fine phrases, and quaint speeches, alas ! they do not carry it with the Lord. They are but an empty babble in his ears, rather than a humble exercise of faith, hope, love, and child-like affections, and holy desires after God. If we would speak with God, we must speak with our hearts to him, rather than with our words. This is a sin of curiosity, as the other was of neglect. It is not words, but the spirit and life which God looks after. Prayer, it is not a work of oratory, the product of memory, invention, and parts, but a filial affection, that we may come to him, as to a father, with a child-like confidence. Therefore, too much care of verbal eloquence in prayer, and tunable expressions, is a sin of the same nature with babblinsjr. Though men should have the wit to avoid impertinent expressions and repetitions, yet when prayer smells so much of the man rather than of the Spirit of God, alas ! it is but like the unsavoury belches of a rotten breath in the nostrils of God. We should attend to matter, to the things we have to com- municate to God, to our necessities, rather than to words.
3. Heartless speaking, filling up the time with words, when the tongue outruns the heart, when men pour their breath into the air, but their hearts are dead and sleepy, or their hearts keep not time and
32 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE [MaT, VI. 6-8.
pace with their expressions. We oftener pray with our tongues than with our minds, and from om' memories than our consciences, and from our consciences than our affections, and from our affections, as presently stirred, than from our hearts renewed, bended, and inclined towards God. Be the prayer long or short, the heart must keep pace with our tongues. As the poet said, disticha lonja facii, ' his distichs were tedious,' so it is tedious and irksome to God, unless we make supi^lication in the spirit : Eph. vi. 18. Remember God will not be mocked.
4. When men rest ia outward vehemency and loud speech, saitli Tertullian, Quibus arleriis opus est, si pro sono audiamur ! 'What lungs and sides must we have, if we be heard to speak to heaven by the noise and sound ! ' In some there is a natural vehemency and fierceness of speech, which is rather stirred up l)y the heat and agita- tion of the bodily spirits than any vehemency of affection. There is a contention of speech, which is very natural to some, and differeth much from that holy fervour, the life and power of prayer, which is accompanied with reverence and child-like dependence upon God. It is not the loud noise of words which is best heard in heaven, but the fervent affectionate cries of the saints are those of the heart rather than of the tongue. Exod. xiv. 17, it is said, ' Moses cried to the Lord.' We do not read of the words he uttered ; his cry was with the heart. There is a crying with the soul and with the heart to God : Ps. X. 17, ' Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble.' It is the desires God hears : Ps. xxxix. 9, ' Lord, all my desire is be- fore thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee.' The Lord needs not the tongue to be an interpreter between him and the hearts of his children. He that hears without ears can interpret prayers though not uttered by the tongue. Our desires are cries in the ears of the Lord of hosts. The vehemency of the affections may sometimes cause the ex- tension of the voice, but alas ! without this it is but a tinkling cymbal.