An Exposition of the Lord's Prayer, in the Way of Catechism

By M. Perkins.

*Matth. 6. ver. 9.* After this manner therefore pray you, Our Father, &c.

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 Saviour 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 therefore our Saviour 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 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, &c. Mark how invocation and faith are linked together; and Paul's reason may be framed thus. In whom we put our affiance 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 wise 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.

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 14:15) The Lord said 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.

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 lists; 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 wise 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 (Psalm 51:17). When Ahab abased himself, though he did it 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 all his angels, and within a bound, 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. Psalm 130:1: Out of the depths I 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 out 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 32:20), where we may see what a marvelous desire they had to obtain their request. So also (Romans 8:26) the Spirit makes request with groans so great, that they cannot be uttered, as they are felt. David, Psalm 143:6, 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 2:19).

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 anything 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 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, verse 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 bayards, 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 may have a certain assurance to be heard. For he that prays, must steadfastly believe that God in Christ will grant his petition. This affiance being wanting, it makes prayer to be no prayer. For how can he pray for anything effectually, who doubts whether he shall obtain it or no. Therefore, it is an especial 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 commandement, Pray you thus. Seeing our Savior commandeth 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. Also, brethren I beseech you that you would strive with me by prayers to God for me (Romans 15:30). What is the cause, why the Lord does oft defer his blessings after our prayers? No cause, but that he might stir us up to be more fervent, and more earnestly to cry to the Lord. When Moses prays 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 (Exodus 32:10). 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 commandement, 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 commandement 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 command, 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 commandement 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 the 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 prayer 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 pleases 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 defence, not only to us, but also to the Church, and them 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 (Psalm 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 has 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 commandement, is to pray after the manner following in the Lord's prayer. Where it is to be noted, that the Lord's prayer is a direction, and as it were, a sampler 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 words, but to the matter and 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 be all faulty, because they are not according to the words of the Lord's prayer. Also, by reason of this, divers in our church, ignorantly persuade themselves that it is unlawful to use the words as they are set down for a prayer. 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 (they say) 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 persequutione. and Augustine sermone 126. de tempore. Therefore, the opinion is full of ignorance and error.

Well, whereas our Savior first gives a commandement to pray, and then after gives a direction for the keeping of it, this he does to stir up our dulness, 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 commandement of our Savior Christ: now follow the words of the prayer.