Thomas Watson · 2 of 36

The Preface to the Lord's Prayer · Part 2

How shall we know our prayers to be indited by the Spirit, and so he is our Father?

When they are not only vocal, but mental; when they are not only gifts, but groans. Rom 8: 26. The best music is in concert: the best prayer is when the heart and tongue join together in concert.

When they are zealous and fervent. ‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.’ James 5: 16. The eyes melt in prayer, and the heart burns. Fervency is to prayer as fire to incense, which makes it ascend to heaven as a sweet perfume.

When prayer has faith mingled with it. Prayer is the key of heaven, and faith is the hand that turns it. ‘We cry, Abba, Father.’ Rom 8: 15. ‘We cry,’ there is fervency in prayer; ‘Abba, Father,’ there is faith. Those prayers suffer shipwreck which dash upon the rock of unbelief. We may know God is our Father, by having his Spirit praying in us; as Christ intercedes above, so the Spirit intercedes within.

[2] By having the renewing of the Spirit, which is nothing else but regeneration, which is called a being born of the Spirit. John 3: 5. This regenerating work of the Spirit is a transformation, or change of nature. ‘Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ Rom 12: 2. He who is born of God has a new heart: new, not for substance, but for qualities. The strings of a viol may be the same, but the tune is altered. Before regeneration, there are spiritual pangs, much heart-breaking for sin. It is called a circumcision of the heart. Col 2: 11. In circumcision there was a pain in the flesh; so in spiritual circumcision there is pain in the heart; there is much sorrow arising from a sense of guilt and wrath. The jailor’s trembling was a pang in the new birth. Acts 16: 29. God’s Spirit is a spirit of bondage before it is a spirit of adoption. This blessed work of regeneration spreads over the whole soul; it irradiates the mind; it consecrates the heart, and reforms the life; though regeneration be but in part, yet it is in every part. 1 Thess 5: 23. Regeneration is the signature and engraving of the Holy Ghost upon the soul, the new-born Christian is bespangled with the jewels of the graces, which are the angels’ glory. Regeneration is the spring of all true joy. At our first birth we come weeping into the world, but at our new birth there is cause of rejoicing; for now, God is our Father, and we are begotten to a lively hope of glory. 1 Pet 1: 3. We may try by this our relation to God. Has a regenerating work of God’s Spirit passed upon our souls? Are we made of another spirit, humble and heavenly? This is a good sign of sonship, and we may say, ‘Our Father which art in heaven.’

[3] We know God is our Father by having the conduct of the Spirit. We are led by the Spirit. ‘As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.’ Rom 8: 14. God’s Spirit does not only quicken us in our regeneration, but leads us on till we come to the end of our faith. It is not enough that the child has life, but he must be led every step by the nurse. ‘I taught Ephraim to go, taking them by their arms.’ Hos 11: 3. As the Israelites had the cloud and pillar of fire to go before them, and be a guide to them, so God’s Spirit is a guide to go before us, and lead us into all truth, and counsel us in all our doubts, and influence us in all our actions. ‘Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel.’ Psa 73: 24. None can call God Father but such as have the conduct of the Spirit. Try then what spirit you are led by. Such as are led by a spirit of envy, lust, and avarice, are not led by the Spirit of God; it were blasphemy for them to call God Father; they are led by the spirit of Satan, and may say, ‘Our father which art in hell.’

[4] By having the witness of the Spirit. ‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.’ Rom 8: 16. This witness of the Spirit, suggesting that God is our Father, is not a vocal witness or voice from heaven. The Spirit in the word witnesseth: the Spirit in the word says, he who is qualified, who is a hater of sin and a lover of holiness, is a child of God, and God is his Father. If I can find such qualifications wrought, it is the Spirit witnessing with my spirit that I am a child of God. Besides, we may carry it higher. The Spirit of God witnesses to our spirit by making more than ordinary impressions upon our hearts, and giving some secret hints and whispers that God has purposes of love to us, which is a concurrent witness of the Spirit with conscience, that we are heirs of heaven, and God is our Father. This witness is better felt than expressed; it scatters doubts and fears, and silences temptations. But what shall one do that has not this witness of the Spirit? If we want the witness of the Spirit let us labour to find the work of the Spirit; if we have not the Spirit testifying, let us labour to have it sanctifying, and that will be a support to us.

(4) If God be our Father, we are of peaceable spirits. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.’ Matt 5: 9. Grace infuses a sweet, amicable disposition; it files off the ruggedness of men’s spirits; it turns the lion-like fierceness into a lamb-like gentleness. Isa 11: 7. They who have God to be their Father follow peace as well as holiness. God the Father is called the ‘God of peace,’ Heb 13: 20: God the Son, the ‘Prince of Peace,’ Isa 9: 6: God the Holy Ghost, a Spirit of peace; ‘the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’ Eph 4: 3. The more peaceable, the more like God. God is not the Father of those who are fierce and cruel, as if, with Romulus, they had sucked the milk of a wolf ‘The way of peace have they not known.’ Rom 3: 17. They sport in mischief, and are of a persecuting spirit, as Maximinus, Diocletian, Antiochus, who, as Eusebius says, took more tedious journeys, and ran more hazards in vexing and persecuting the Jews, than any of his predecessors had done in obtaining victories. These furies cannot call God Father. If they do, they will have as little comfort in saying Father, as Dives had in hell, when he said, ‘Father Abraham.’ Luke 16: 24. Nor can those who are makers of division. ‘Mark them which cause divisions, and avoid them.’ Rom 16: 17. Such as are born of God, are makers of peace. What shall we think of such as are makers of divisions? Will God father these? The devil made the first division in heaven. They may call the devil father; they may give the cloven foot in their coat of arms; their sweetest music is in discord; they unite to divide. Samson’s fox tails were tied together only to set the Philistine’ corn on fire. Judges 15: 4. Papists unite only to set the church’s peace on fire. Satan’s kingdom grows up by making divisions. Chrysostom observes of the church of Corinth, that when many converts were brought in, Satan knew no better way to dam up the current of religion than to throw in an apple of strife, and divide them into parties: one was for Paul, and another for Apollo, but few for Christ. Would Christ not have his coat rent, and can he endure to have his body rent? Surely, God will never father them who are not sons of peace. Of all those whom God hates, he is named for one who is a sower of discord among brethren. Prov 6: 19.

(5) If God be our Father, we shall love to be near him, and to have converse with him. An ingenuous child delights to approach near to his father, and go into his presence. David envied the birds that built their nest near to God’s altars, when he was debarred his Father’s house. Psa 84: 3. True saints love to get as near to God as they can. In the word they draw near to his holy oracle, in the sacrament they draw near to his table. A child of God delights to be in his Father’s presence; he cannot stay away long from God; he sees a Sabbath-day approaching, and rejoices; his heart has been often melted and quickened in an ordinance; he has tasted that the Lord is good, therefore he loves to be in his Father’s presence; he cannot keep away long from God. Such as care not for ordinances cannot say, ‘Our Father which art in heaven.’ Is God the Father of those who cannot endure to be in his presence?

Use 1. For instruction. See the amazing goodness of God, that he is pleased to enter into the sweet relation of a Father to us. He needed not to adopt us, he did not want a Son, but we wanted a Father. He showed power in being our Maker, but mercy in being our Father. That when we were enemies, and our hearts stood out as garrisons against God, he should conquer our stubbornness, and of enemies make us children, and write his name, and put his image upon us, and bestow a kingdom of glory; what a miracle of mercy is this! Every adopted child may say, ‘Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.’ Matt 11: 26.

If God be a Father, then I infer that whatever he does to his children, is in love.

(1) If he smiles upon them in prosperity, it is in love. They have the world not only with God’s leave, but with his love. He says to every child of his, as Naaman to Gehazi, ‘Be content, take two talents.’ 2 Kings 5: 23. So God says to his child, ‘I am thy Father, take two talents.’ Take health, and take my love with it; take an estate, and take my love with it: take two talents. His love is a sweetening ingredient in every mercy.

How does it appear that a child of God has worldly things in love?

Because he has a good title to them. God is his father, therefore he has a good title. A wicked man has a civil title to the creature, but no more; he has it not from the hand of a father; he is like one that takes up cloth at the draper’s, and it is not paid for; but a believer has a good title to every foot of land he has, for his Father has settled it upon him.

A child of God has worldly things in love, because they are sanctified to him. They make him better, and are loadstones to draw him nearer to God. He has his Father’s blessing with them. A little that is blest is sweet. ‘He shall bless thy bread and thy water.’ Exod 23: 25. Esau had the venison, but Jacob got the blessing. While the wicked have their meat sauced with God’s wrath, believers have their comforts seasoned with a blessing. Psa 78: 30, 31. It was a sacred blessing from God that made Daniel’s pulse nourish him more, and made him look fairer than they that ate of the king’s meat. Dan 1: 15.

A child of God has worldly things in love, because whatever he has is an earnest of more; every bit of bread is a pledge and earnest of glory.

(2) God being a Father, if he frown, if he dip his pen in gall, and write bitter things, if he correct, it is in love. A father loves his child as well when he chastises and disciplines him, as when he settles his land on him. ‘As many as I love, I rebuke.’ Rev 3: 19. Afflictions are sharp arrows, says Gregory Nazianzen, but they are shot from the hand of a loving Father. Correctio est virtutis gymnasium [Correction is the school of character]. God afflicts with love: he does it to humble and purify. Gentle correction is as necessary as daily bread; nay, as needful as ordinances, as word and sacraments. There is love in all: God smites that he may save.

(3) God being a Father, if he desert and hide his face from his child, it is in love. Desertion is sad in itself, a short hell. Job 6: 9. When the light is withdrawn, the dew falls. Yet we may see a rainbow in the cloud — the love of a Father in all this. God hereby quickens grace. Perhaps grace lay dormant. Cant 5: 2. It was as fire in the embers, and God withdrew comfort to invigorate and exercise it. Faith as a star sometimes shines brightest in the dark night of desertion. Jonah 2: 4. When God hides his face from his child, he is still a Father, and his heart is towards his child. As when Joseph spake roughly to his brethren, and made them believe he would take them for spies, his heart was full of love, and he was fain to go aside and weep; so God’s bowels yearn towards his children when he seems to look strange. ‘In a little wrath I hid my face from thee, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee.’ Isa 54: 8. Though God may have the look of an enemy, yet still he has the heart of a Father.

Learn hence the sad case of the wicked. They cannot say, ‘Our Father in heaven;’ they may say, ‘Our Judge,’ but not ‘Our Father;’ they fetch their pedigree from hell. ‘Ye are of your father the devil.’ John 8: 44. Such as are unclean and profane, are the spurious brood of the old serpent, and it were blasphemy for them to call God Father. The case of the wicked is deplorable; if they are in misery, they have none to make their moan to. God is not their Father, he disclaims all kindred with them. ‘I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’ Matt 7: 23. The wicked, dying in their sins, can expect no mercy from God as a Father. Many say, He that made them will save them; but ‘It is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them.’ Isa 27: 11. Though God was their Father by creation, yet because they were not his children by adoption, therefore He that made them would not save them.

Use 2. For invitation. Let all who are yet strangers to God, labour to come into this heavenly kindred; never cease till they can say, ‘Our Father which art in heaven.’

But will God be a Father to me, who has profaned his name, and been a great sinner?

If thou wilt now at last seek God by prayer, and break off thy sins, he has the bowels of a Father for thee, and will in nowise cast thee out. When the prodigal arose and went to his father, ‘his father had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him.’ Luke 15: 20. Though thou hast been a prodigal, and almost spent all upon thy lusts, yet if thou wilt give a bill of divorce to thy sins, and flee to God by repentance, know that he has the bowels of a Father; he will embrace thee in the arms of his mercy, and seal thy pardon with a kiss. What though thy sins have been heinous? The wound is not so broad as the plaister of Christ’s blood. The sea covers great rocks; the sea of God’s compassion can drown thy great sins; therefore be not discouraged, go to God, resolve to cast thyself upon his Fatherly compassion. He may be entreated of thee, as he was of Manasseh. 2 Chron 33: 13.

Use 3. For comfort. Here is comfort for such as can, upon good grounds, call God Father. There is more sweetness in this word Father than if we had ten thousand worlds. David thought it a great matter to be son-in-law to a king. ‘What is my father’s family, that I should be son-in-law to the king?’ 1 Sam 18: 18. But what is it to be born of God, and have him for our Father?

Wherein lies the happiness of having God for our Father?

(1) If God be our Father, he will teach us. What father will refuse to counsel his son? Does God command parents to instruct their children, and will not he instruct his? Deut 4: 10. ‘I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit.’ Isa 48: 17. ‘O God, thou hast taught me from my youth.’ Psa 71: 17. If God be our Father, he will give us the teachings of his Spirit. ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them.’ 1 Cor 2: 14. The natural man may have excellent notions in divinity but God must teach us to know the mysteries of the gospel after a spiritual manner. A man may see the figures upon a dial, but he cannot tell how the day goes unless the sun shines; so we may read many truths in the Bible, but we cannot know them savingly, till God by his Spirit shines upon our soul. God teaches not only our ear, but our heart; he not only informs our mind, but inclines our will. We never learn aught till God teach us. If he be our Father, he will teach us how to order our affairs with discretion (Psa 112: 5) and how to carry ourselves wisely. ‘David behaved himself wisely.’ 1 Sam 18: 5. He will teach us what to answer when we are brought before governors; he will put words into our mouths. ‘Ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake; but take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.’ Matt 10: 18, 19, 20.

(2) If God be our Father, he has bowels of affection towards us. If it be so unnatural for a father not to love his child, can we think God can be defective in his love? All the affections of parents come from God, yet are they but a spark from his flame. He is the Father of mercies. 2 Cor 1: 3. He begets all the mercies and bowels in the creature; his love to his children is a love which passeth knowledge. Eph 3: 19. It exceeds all dimensions; it is higher than heaven, it is broader than the sea. That you may see God’s fatherly love to his children: Consider, God makes a precious valuation of them. ‘Since thou wast precious in my sight.’ Isa 43: 4. A father prizes his child above his jewels. Their names are precious, for they have God’s own name written upon them. ‘I will write upon him the name of my God.’ Rev 3: 12. Their prayers are a precious perfume; their tears he bottles. Psa 56: 8. He esteems his children as a crown of glory in his hands. Isa 62: 3. God loves the places where they were born in for their sakes. ‘Of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her’; this and that believer was born there. Psa 87: 5. He loves the ground his children tread upon; hence, Judea, the seat of his children and chosen ones, he calls a delight some land. Mal 3: 12. It was not only pleasant for situation and fruitfulness, but because his children, who were his Hephzibah, or delight, lived there. He charges the great ones of the world not to injure his children, because their persons are sacred. ‘He suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed.’ Psa 105: 14, 15. By anointed is meant the children of the high God, who have the unction of the Spirit, and are set apart for God. He delights in their company. He loves to see their countenance, and hear their voice. Cant 2: 14. He cannot refrain long from their company; let but two or three of his children meet and pray together, he will be sure to be among them. ‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.’ Matt 18: 20. He bears his children in his bosom, as a nursing father does the sucking child. Numb 11: 12; Isa 46: 4. To be carried in God’s bosom shows how near his children lie to his heart. He is full of solicitous care for them. ‘He cares for you.’ 1 Peter 5: 7. His eye is still upon them, they are never out of his thoughts. A father cannot always take care for his child, he sometimes is asleep; but God is a Father that never sleeps. ‘He shall neither slumber nor sleep.’ Psa 121: 4. He thinks nothing too good to part with for his children; he gives them the kidneys of the wheat, and honey out of the rock, and ‘wines on the lees well refined.’ Isa 25: 6. He gives them three jewels more worth than heaven — the blood of his Son, the grace of his Spirit, and the light of his countenance. Never was there such an indulgent, affectionate Father. If he has one love better than another, he bestows it upon them; they have the cream and quintessence of his love. ‘He will rejoice over thee, he will rest in his love.’ Zeph 3: 17. He loves his children with such a love as he loves Christ. John 17: 26. It is the same love, for the unchangeableness of it. God will no more cease to love his adopted sons than he will to love his natural Son.

(3) If God be our Father, he will be full of sympathy. ‘As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.’ Psa 103: 13. ‘Is Ephraim my dear son? my bowels are troubled for him.’ Jer 31: 20. God pities his children in two cases.

[1] In case of infirmities. If the child be deformed, or has any bodily distemper, the father pities it; so, if God be our Father, he pities our weaknesses: and he so pities them as to heal them. ‘I have seen his ways, and will heal him.’ Isa 57: 18. As he has bowels to pity, so he has balsam to heal.

[2] In case of injuries. Every blow of the child goes to the father’s heart; so, when the saints suffer, God sympathises. ‘In all their affliction he was afflicted.’ Isa 63: 9. He did, as it were, bleed in their wounds. ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me?’ When the foot was trod on, the head cried out. God’s soul was grieved for the children of Israel. Judges 10: 16. As when one string in a lute is touched, all the rest sound; so when God’s children are stricken, his bowels sound. ‘He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.’ Zech 2: 8.

(4) If God be our Father, he will take notice of the least good he sees in us; if there be but a sigh for sin, he hears it. ‘My groaning is not hid from thee.’ Psa 38: 9. If but a penitential tear comes out of the eye he sees it. ‘I have seen thy tears.’ Isa 38: 5. If there be but a good intention, he takes notice of it. ‘Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart.’ 1 Kings 8: 18. He punishes intentional wickedness, and crowns intentional goodness. ‘Thou didst well that it was in thine heart,’ He takes notice of the least scintilla, the least spark of grace in his children. ‘Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.’ 1 Peter 3: 6. The Holy Ghost does not mention Sara’s unbelief, or laughing at the promise; he puts a finger upon the scar, winks at her failing, and only takes notice of the good that was in her, her obedience to her husband — she ‘obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.’ Nay, that good which the saints scarce take notice of in themselves, God in a special manner observes. ‘I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. Then shall the righteous answer, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee?’ Matt 25: 35, 37. They as it were overlooked and disclaimed their own works of charity, but Christ takes notice of them — ‘I was an hungred, and ye fed me.’ What comfort is this! God spies the least good in his children; he can see a grain of corn hid under chaff, grace hid under corruption.

(5) If God be our Father, he will take all we do in good part. Those duties which we ourselves censure he will crown. When a child of God looks over his best duties, he sees so much sin cleaving to them that he is confounded. ‘Lord,’ he says, ‘there is more sulphur than incense in my prayers.’ But for your comfort, if God be your Father, he will crown those duties which you yourselves censure. He sees there is sincerity in the hearts of his children, and this gold, though light, shall have grains of allowance. Though there may be many defects in the services of his children, he will not cast away their offering. ‘The Lord healed the people.’ 2 Chron 30: 20. The tribes of Israel, being straitened in time, wanted some legal purifications; yet because their hearts were right God healed them and pardoned them. He accepts of the good will. 2 Cor 8: 12. A father takes a letter from his son kindly, though there are blots or bad English in it. What blotting are there in our holy things! Yet our Father in heaven accepts them. ‘It is my child,’ God says, ‘and he will do better; I will look upon him, through Christ, with a merciful eye.’

(6) If God be our Father, he will correct us in measure. ‘I will correct thee in measure.’ Jer 30: 11. This he will do two ways. It shall be in measure for the kind. He will not lay upon us more than we are able to bear. 1 Cor 10: 13. He knows our frame. Psa 103: 14. He knows we are not steel or marble, therefore will deal gently, he will not over-afflict. As the physician, who knows the temper of the body, will not give physic too strong for the body, nor give one drachm or scruple too much, so God, who has not only the title, but the bowels of a father, will not lay too heavy burdens on his children, lest their spirits fail before him. He will correct in measure, for duration; he will not let the affliction lie too long. ‘The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous,’ Psa 125: 3. It may be there, but not rest. ‘I will not contend for ever.’ Isa 57: 16. Our heavenly Father will love for ever, but he will not contend for ever. The torments of the damned are for ever. ‘The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.’ Rev 14: 11. The wicked shall drink a sea of wrath, but God’s children only taste of the cup of affliction, and their heavenly Father will say, transeat calix, ‘let this cup pass away from them.’ Isa 35: 10.

(7) If God be our Father, he will intermix mercy with all our afflictions. If he gives us wormwood to drink, he will mix it with honey. In the ark the rod was laid up and manna; so with our Father’s rod there is always some manna. Asher’s shoes were iron and brass, but his foot was dipped in oil. Deut 33: 24, 25. Affliction is the shoe of brass that pinches; but there is mercy in the affliction, there is the foot dipped in oil. When God afflicts the body, he gives peace of conscience; there is mercy in the affliction. An affliction comes to prevent falling into sin; there is mercy in an affliction. Jacob had his thigh hurt in wrestling; there was the affliction: but when he saw God’s face, and received a blessing from the angel, there was mercy in the affliction. Gen 32: 30. In every cloud a child of God may see a rainbow of mercy shining. As the painter mixeth dark shadows and bright colours together, so our heavenly Father mingles the dark and bright together, crosses and blessings; and is not this a great happiness, for God thus to cheques his providence, and mingle goodness with severity?

(8) If God be our Father, the evil one shall not prevail against us. Satan is called the evil one, emphatically. He is the grand enemy of the saints; and that both in a military sense, as he fights against them with his temptations; and in a forensic or law sense, as he is an accuser, and pleads against them; yet neither way shall he prevail against God’s children. As for shooting his fiery darts, God will bruise Satan shortly under the saints’ feet. Rom 16: 20. As for his accusing, Christ is an advocate for the saints, and answers all bills of indictment brought against them. God will make all Satan’s temptations promote the good of his children. [1] As they set them praying. 2 Cor 12: 8. Temptation is a medicine for security. [2] As they are a means to humble them. ‘Lest I should be exalted above measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan.’ 2 Cor 12: 7. The thorn in the flesh was a temptation; it was to prick the bladder of pride. [3] As they establish them more in grace. A tree shaken by the wind is more settled and rooted; so the blowing of a temptation does but settle a child of God more in grace. Thus the evil one, Satan, shall not prevail against the children of God.