An Advertisement to the Reader
The occasion, and so also the coherence of these words with the former is this. The Evangelist Matthew setting down the sermons and sayings of our Savior Christ keeps not this course to propound every thing as it was done or spoken: but sometime he sets down that first, which was done last; and that last which was done before: according as the spirit of God directed him. Which thing is verified in these words, where the prayer is mentioned; yet the occasion wherefore our Savior Christ taught his Disciples to pray, is not here specified. But in Saint Luke 11:1. the occasion of these words is evident. For there it is said that the disciples of our Savior knowing that John taught his disciples to pray, made request to their master that he would do the same to them likewise.
These few words set before the prayer are a commandment, and it prescribes to us two duties: the first, to pray: the second, to pray after the manner following. Touching the first point, considering very few among the people know how to pray aright, we must learn what it is to pray.
To make prayer is to put up our request to God according to his word from a contrite heart in the name of Christ, with assurance to be heard.
For the better opening of these words, we are to consider six questions. The first is, to whom we are to pray. The answer is, to God alone: Romans 10:14. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed, etc. Mark how invocation and faith are linked together. And Paul's reason may be framed thus. In whom we put our confidence or belief, to him alone must we pray: but we believe only in God: therefore we must only pray to him. As for saints or angels, they are in no way to be called upon: because not the least title of God's word prescribes us so to do: because they cannot hear our prayers, and discern what are the thoughts and desires of our hearts: and because invocation is a part of divine worship, and therefore peculiar to God alone.
Objection: What need any man pray to God, considering he knows what we want before we ask, and is ready and willing to give that which we crave. Answer: We pray not for this end to manifest our case to God as though he knew it not, or to win and procure his favor and good will, but for other weighty ends. First, that we might show our submission and obedience to God, because he has given us a direct commandment to pray, and it must be obeyed. Secondly, that we may by invocation show forth that we do indeed believe and repent: because God has made the promise of remission of sins and of all good blessings to such as do indeed repent and humble themselves under the hand of God, and by true faith apprehend and apply the promises of God to themselves. Thirdly, we pray to God that we may (as our duty is) acknowledge him to be the fountain, author, and giver of every good thing. Lastly, that we might ease our minds by pouring out our hearts before the Lord: for to this end has he made most sweet and comfortable promises. Proverbs 16:3. Psalms 37:5.
Objection: What need men use prayer, considering God in his eternal counsel has certainly determined what shall come to pass? Answer: As God determines what things shall come to pass: so he does with all determine the means whereby the same things are effected. Before all worlds God decreed that men should live upon earth, and he decreed likewise, that meat, drink and clothing should be used that life might be preserved. Now prayer is one of the most excellent means whereby sundry things are brought to pass: therefore God's eternal counsel touching things to come, does not exclude prayer and like means, but rather include and imply the same.
The second question is, what kind of action prayer is? Answer: It is no lip-labor, it is the putting up of a suit to God, and this action is peculiar to the very heart of a man. Romans 8:26. The spirit makes request for us. But how? With groans in the heart. Exodus [illegible] 4:15. The Lord says to Moses, Why cry you? Yet there is no mention made that Moses spoke any word at all: the Lord no doubt, accepted the inward mourning and desire of his heart for a cry, Psalms 38:10. and 11:4.
The third question is, what is the form or rule according to which we are to pray? Answer: It is the revealed will and word of God. A man in humbling his soul before God, is not to pray as his affections carry him, and for what he pleases: but all is to be done according to the express word. So as those things which God has commanded us to ask, we are to ask, and those things which he has not commanded us to ask, we are in no way to pray for, 1 John 5:14. This is the assurance which we have of him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us. This then is a special clause to be marked, that men must pray in knowledge, not in ignorance. Here weigh the case of poor ignorant people: they talk much of praying for themselves and others, they imagine that they pray very devoutly to God: but alas they do nothing less, because they know not what to ask according to God's will. They therefore must learn God's word, and pray according to the same, else it will prove in the end that all their praying was nothing but as mocking, and flat dishonoring of God.
The fourth question is, with what affection a man must pray? Answer: Prayer must proceed from a broken and contrite heart. This is the sacrifice which God accepts. Psalms 51:17. When Ahab abased himself, though he did [illegible] in hypocrisy, yet God had some respect to it. 1 Kings 21:29. says the Lord to Elijah, Do you see how Ahab is humbled before me? This contrition of heart stands in two things. The first of them is a lively feeling of our own sin, misery, and wretched estate, how that we are compassed about with innumerable enemies, even with the devil and his angels, and within abound even with huge seas of wants and rebellious corruptions, whereby we most grievously displease God, and are vile in our own eyes. Being therefore thus beset on every side, we are to be touched with the sense of this our great misery. And he that will pray aright, must put on the person and the very affection of a poor wretched beggar, and certainly not being grieved with the rueful condition in which we are in ourselves, it is not possible for us to pray effectually, Psalms 130:1. Out of the deepest called upon you, O Lord: that is, when I was in my greatest misery, and as it were not far from the gulfs of hell, then I cried to God, Isaiah 26:16. Lord in trouble have they visited you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them. 1 Samuel 1:15. I am a woman (says Anna) of a hard spirit: that is, a troubled soul, and have poured my soul before the Lord. Hence it appears, that the ordinary prayers of most men grievously displease God, seeing they are made for fashion only, without any sense and feeling of their miseries, commonly men come with the Pharisee in ostentation of their integrity, and they take great pains with their lips, but their hearts wander from the Lord. The second thing required in a contrite heart, is a longing desire and hungering after God's graces and benefits whereof we stand in need. It is not sufficient for a man to buckle as it were, and to go crooked under his sins and miseries: but also he must have a desire to be eased of them, and to be enriched with graces needful.
Thus Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos prayed against Sennacherib, and cried to heaven. 2 Chronicles 32:10. Where we may see what a marvelous desire they had to obtain their request. So also Romans 8:16. The spirit makes request with groans so great that they cannot be uttered, as they are felt. David Psalms [illegible] 43:6. says, that he desires after the Lord, as the thirsty land. Now we know that the ground parched with heat, opens itself in rifts and crevices, and gapes towards heaven as though it would devour the clouds for want of moisture, and thus must the heart be disposed to God's grace, till it obtain it. The people of Israel being in grievous affliction, how do they pray? They pour out their souls like water before the face of the Lord. Lamentations 2:1[illegible].
The fifth question is, in whose name prayer must be made. Answer: It must not be made in the name of any creature, but only in the name and mediation of Christ. John 14:14. If you ask any thing in my name I will do it. A man is not to present his prayers to God in any worthiness of his own merits. For what is he to make the best of himself, what can he make of himself? By nature he is no better than the very firebrand of hell, and of all God's creatures on earth the most outrageous rebel to God, and therefore cannot be heard for his own sake. As for saints, they can be no mediators, seeing even they themselves in heaven are accepted of God not for themselves, but only for the blessed merits of Christ. If any man sin (says Saint John 1 Epistle, chapter 2:1.) we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. But how proves he this? It follows then, And he is the reconciliation for our sins. His reason stands thus, he which must be an advocate, must first of all be a reconciliation for us; no saints can be a reconciliation for us, therefore no saints can be advocates. Therefore in this place is manifest another fault of ignorant people. They cry often, Lord help me, Lord have mercy upon me. But in whose name pray they? Poor souls like blind men they rush upon the Lord, they know no mediator in whose name they should present their prayers to him. Little do they consider with themselves, that God is as well a most terrible Judge, as a merciful father.
The sixth question is: Whether faith be requisite to prayer or not. Answer: Prayer is to be made with faith, whereby a man must have certain assurance to be heard. For he that prays must steadfastly believe, that God in Christ will grant his petition. This confidence being wanting, it makes prayer to be no prayer. For how can he pray for any thing effectually, who doubts whether he shall obtain it or no.
Therefore it is an especially important point of prayer, to be persuaded, that God to whom prayer is made, not only can, but also will grant his request. Mark 11:24. Whatever you desire when you pray, believe that you shall have it, and it shall be done to you. Here we see two things required in prayer: the first, a desire of the good things which we want: the second is faith, whereby we believe that God will grant the things desired. The ground of this faith is reconciliation with God, and the assurance thereof. For unless a man be in conscience in some measure persuaded that all his sins are pardoned, and that he stands reconciled to God in Christ, he cannot believe any other promises revealed in the word, nor that any of his prayers shall be heard.
Thus much of the definition of prayer: now let us see what use may be made of this commandment, Pray you thus. Seeing our Savior commands his disciples and so even us also to pray to God, it is our duty not only to present our prayers to God, but also to do it cheerfully and earnestly. Romans 15:30. Also brethren I beseech you that you would strive with me by prayers to God for me. What is the cause why the Lord does often defer his blessings after our prayers? No cause, but that he might stir us up to be more earnest to cry to the Lord. Exodus 32:10. When Moses prayed to God in the behalf of the Israelites, the Lord answers, Let me alone: as though his prayers did bind the Lord, and hinder him from executing his judgments. Therefore this is good advice, for all Christian men to continue and to be zealous in prayer. If you be an ignorant man, for shame learn to pray, seeing it is God's commandment, make conscience of it. We see that there is no man, unless he be desperately wicked, but will make some conscience of killing and stealing, and why is this? Because it is God's commandment, You shall not kill, you shall not steal.
Well then, this also is God's commandment, to pray. Let this consideration breed in you a conscience of this duty: and although your corrupt nature shall draw you away from it, yet strive to the contrary, and know it certainly, that the breach of this commandment makes you as well guilty of damnation before God as any other. Furthermore, this must be a motive to prick you forward to this duty, that as God commands us to pray, so also he gives the spirit of prayer, whereby the commandment is made easy to us. If the Lord had commanded a thing impossible, then there had been some cause of discouragement, but commanding a thing through the grace of his spirit very easy and profitable: how much more are we bound to obedience of the same? Again, prayer is the key whereby we open the treasures of God, and pull down his mercies upon us. For as the preaching of the word serves to declare and to convey to us God's graces: so in prayer we come to have a lively feeling of the same in our hearts. And further, this must move us to prayer, seeing in that, we have familiarity with God's majesty. It is a high favor for a man to be familiar with a prince; how much more then to be familiar with the king of kings the mighty Jehovah? This then can be no burden or trouble to us, being one of the many prerogatives that God bestows on his church. For in the preaching of the word, it pleased God to talk to us, and in prayer, God does vouchsafe us this honor, to speak, and as it were familiarly to talk with him, not as to a fearful Judge, but as to a loving and merciful God.
Consider also that prayer is a worthy means of defense, not only to us, but also to the church and those that are absent. By it Moses stood in the breach, which God's wrath had made into the people of Israel, and stayed the same, Psalms 106:23. By this, Christian men fight as valiant champions against their own corruptions, and all other spiritual enemies, Ephesians 6:18. Infinite were it to show how many blessings the Lord had bestowed on his servants by prayer. In a word, Luther, whom it pleased God to use as a worthy instrument for the restoring of the gospel, testifies of himself, that having this grace given him to call upon the name of the Lord, he had more revealed to him of God's truth by prayer, than by reading and study.
The second point of the commandment, is to pray after the manner propounded in the Lord's prayer. Where it is to be noted, that the Lord's prayer is a direction, and as it were a pattern to teach us how and in what manner we ought to pray. None is to imagine that we are bound to use these words only, and none other. For the meaning of Christ is not to bind us to the word, but to the matter and to the manner, and to the like affections in praying. If this were not so, the prayers of God's servants set down in the books of the old and new testament, should all be faulty, because they are not set down in the very same words with the Lord's prayer, nay this prayer is not set down in the same words altogether by Matthew and Luke.
And whereas sundry men in our church hold it unlawful to use this very form of words as they are set down by our Savior Christ for a prayer; they are far deceived, as will appear by their reasons. First (say they) it is scripture, and therefore not to be used as a prayer. I answer, that the same thing may be the scripture of God, and also the prayer of man, else the prayers of Moses, David, and Paul, being set down in the scriptures, cease to be prayers. Again (say they) that in prayer we are to express our wants in particular, and the graces which we desire: now in these words all things to be prayed for, are only in general propounded. I answer, that the main wants that are in any man, and the principal graces of God to be desired, are set down in the petitions of this prayer in particular. Thirdly, they plead that the pattern to make all prayers by, should not be used as a prayer. I answer, that therefore the rather it may be used as a prayer, and sure it is that ancient and worthy divines have reverenced it as a prayer; choosing rather to use these words than any other, as Cyprianus Sermone de orat. Dominic. And Tertullian lib. de fuga in persequntione. And August. Sermone 126. de tempore. Therefore the opinion is full of ignorance and error.
Well, whereas our Savior first gives a commandment to pray, and then after gives a direction for the keeping of it, this he does to stir up our dullness, and to allure us by all means to this heavenly exercise of prayer: therefore still I say, employ yourselves in prayer fervently and continually, and if you cannot do it, learn to pray. Thus much of the commandment of our Savior Christ: now follow the words of the prayer.
