PRAYER. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who in these last days hast spoken to us by thy Son; give us grace to receive him as our Teacher, that knowing from his mouth the whole extent and purity of thy law, and our manifold transgressions of it, we may be convinced of our want of mercy, gladly receive him as our Saviour, and behold him with the eye of faith, as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." Great is our blindness, great is the rebellion of our wills; and though thou warnest us of our sin and danger, to the end thou mayest deliver us from it, and bring our straying hearts back again to thee in love, yet we choose darkness rather than light, and continue stubborn in unbelief. But, O Lord, who workest in us both to will and to do of thy good pleasure, make speed to save us, make haste to help us. Take the veil from our hearts; guide us into the right knowledge of our duty, that thereby we may see the greatness of our sin. Let thy hatred of sin, and will to punish it, be always before our eyes, that we may fear to continue in it. Remove from us that spirit of slumber which makes us deaf to thy calls, and keeps us hardened against thy offers of mercy. Thou hast made all thy goodness to pass before us in the person of Jesus Christ; establish us in the faith of it, that, rejoicing in thy peace, we may be diligent to keep it, by learning of him to be meek and patient, charitable and forgiving, to live in friendship with all the world, to be kind to the evil and unthankful, to love and bless our enemies, to be thy children by similitude of nature, and perfect as thou art perfect, in a will to all goodness. O Lord, hear us, help us; grant that, as the disciples of Jesus, in faith and love, in truth and purity, we may pass quietly and safely through the world; welcome death, and find mercy in the great day, for his sake, and through his alone merits, the same Jesus Christ, our blessed Saviour and Redeemer. Amen. SECTION X. ST. MATTHEW, vi. 1. TAKE heed-It is not a matter to be lightly regarded. The motives of our actions, especially those which we think will recommend us to the notice of God, had need be well considered; for such as our aims and intentions are, such are we. That ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them.-1. They must be done; this is necessarily implied. 2. To a right end, and from a right principle; for the relief of the needy, in love, and for God's sake. Doing them to be seen of men, is confessedly so mean and shameful an end to propose to ourselves, that every one will be ready to disavow it. But-take heed. - Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. He cannot take that as done to him, which is not. A man, like ourselves, would not be so imposed upon. Every word is weighty. Reward - Think whether it is not worth striving for, and how it may be secured: Of your Father-An earthly father would be sure to proportion the reward to the desert: Which is in heaven and rewards with heaven. Ver. 2. Therefore, when thou dost thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do. If they really did so, and the expression is not rather descriptive of a most nauseous vanity, we may suppose the pretence for sounding the trumpet was to call the poor together. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward.→→→ What they seek after, the praise of men: the meaning further is, and all they ever shall have. The action is lost as to God. Ah! make deep search into thyself. Dost thou give according to thy ability? Much, if thou hast much? And if thou dost, Hast thou one unblemished offering of a pure alms in all thy life, to be the ground of a reward? Ver. 3. But when thou dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right doth. If it were possible, conceal it even from thyself. But how does this consist with the injunction, to let our light shine before men? Very well; if nothing of this kind is done out of ostentation, and the heart would always choose secrecy, if it was not for the sake of some greater good. Ver. 4. That thine alms may be in secret. Always as much in secret as may consist with a better end, And observe, not to gain thy own applause. And thy Father which seeth in secret. Whether good or bad; every thing is, every moment, full in his view. O! let the thought of this piercing eye lay us all in the dust. -Himself shall reward thee openly. Whatever is done for the Lord's sake shall in no wise lose its reward, but shall be amply repaid in the view of all the world; and whatever imperfections adhered to thy best works, will, together with all thy other sins, be forgotten, as having been all washed away by the blood of the Lamb. Here is encouragement for believers to work in faith and love. I say to believers; for those who are of the works of the law, and place not their whole dependence for salvation on the Lord Jesus, are under a curse, and must expect no favourable allowances. Heaven is freely bestowed through Jesus alone; but the believer will find it furnished more or less when he shall arrive there, as he has more or less abounded in the work of the Lord. "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." 2 Cor. ix. 6. Ver. 5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. It is here supposed that all do pray; and our Saviour gives two important directions concerning it. 1. To avoid all ostentation in prayer, or public performance of it, on purpose to draw the eyes of men upon us, which is rank hypocrisy. 2. Not to make worldly things the chief matter of our prayers, which is downright heathenism. And, 3. He prescribes a form of prayer, weighty in words and sense, as the ground-work of all our petitions, and therein pointing out our greatest wants. Ver. 6. But when thou prayest, enter into thy closet.— Do this; but withal be sure to enter into the depth of thy heart. -And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret.-As if there was no other being in the world but God and thyself. Oh! it is an awful work and an awful time! Dost thou, canst thou pray, and pray thus? -And thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. The great day will be the happy time to have thy prayers known, and publicly proclaimed. Ver. 7, 8. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do, &c. With heathenish hearts, and for heathenish ends; plainly, for worldly things, and chiefly, if not solely, for them. I conceive that neither all repetitions, nor length in prayer, are here condemned; but the matter of them, as if we should be heard for our importunity, or much speaking, when we ask amiss. Our temporal wants are known to God, and will all be provided for in such a manner as is best for us. They must not engage our desires, and engross our souls, so as to be made the burthen of our prayers; and we shall hear more in this chapter of a fruitless anxiety about them: but spiritual blessings we may, and must, be anxious about; and, if we know the value of them, cannot be too earnest in prayer for them. Pray for these with a feeling heart, and then thou hast Christ's own example for saying the same words. LECTURE. ARE you attending to our Lord's sermon on the mount? Do you consider who is the teacher, Jesus Christ, speaking to us in the Father's name and his own? What could we desire, if we hearts, but to be so taught? might have the wish of our Where else shall we go for What reason have we to instruction in divine things? bless God for putting this light into our hands? And how utterly inexcusable shall we be if we do not receive it? I say, therefore, again, Are you attending to it, and often thinking of it? Did you ever so much as once, in your whole lives, read these three chapters, on purpose to know the mind of Christ, and with a full resolution to learn your duty, and receive a law at his mouth? When you heard him telling you eight or nine times over who are blessed and who are not, what did you tell yourselves of your condition? Can you say that you are poor in spirit, godly mourners, meek men and women, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peace-makers, lovers of Christ's truth, and so well established in it, that you can bear to be hated and persecuted for it? Is it your great desire to fulfil the law of God as explained by him, and submit to his strict rules of self |