But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do : for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Ver. 7. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions] Babble not, bubble not, saith the Syriac, as water out of a narrow mouthed vessel. Do not iterate or inculcate the same things odiously et ad nauseam, as Solomon's fool, who is full af words (saith he); and this custom of his expressed μιμητικως, in his vain tautologies. a "A man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell?" Ecclesiastes 10:14. Such a one also was that Battus (to whom the Evangelist here hath relation), an egregious babbler. b In common discourse it is a sign of weakness to lay on more words upon a matter than needs must: how much more in prayer! Take we heed we offer not the sacrifice of fools; God hath no need of such, 1 Samuel 21:15; cf. Psalms 5:5. He "is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few," Ecclesiastes 5:2. Prayers move God, not as an orator moves his hearers, but as a child his father ("your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things," Mat 6:8). Now a child is not to chat to his father, but to deliver his mind, humbly, earnestly, in few, direct to the point. St Peter would have men to be sober in prayer, that is, to pray with due respect to God's dreadful majesty, without trifling or vain babbling, 1 Peter 4:7. He that is fervent in spirit, prays much, though he speak little, as the publican, Luke 18:13, and Elijah, 1 Kings 18:36. But as a body without a soul, much wood without a fire, a bullet in a gun without powder, -so are words in prayer without spirit. Now long prayers can hardly maintain their vigour, as in tall bodies the spirits are diffused. The strongest hand long extended will languish, as Moses' hand slacked against Amalek. It is a praise proper to God, to have "his hand stretched out still," Isaiah 9:12. Our infirmity suffers not any long intention of body or mind. Our devotion will soon lag and hang the wing: others also that join with us may be tired out, and made to sin by weariness and wanderings. In secret indeed, and in extraordinary prayer with solemn fasting, or so when the heart is extraordinarily enlarged, our prayers may and must be likewise. Solomon prayed long at the dedication of the Temple, so did those godly Levites. Neh 9:5-38 Our Saviour prayed all night sometimes, "and rising up a great while before day, he went apart and prayed," Mark 1:35. Of Luther it is reported that he spent constantly three hours a day in prayer, and three of the best hours, and fittest for study. c It was the saying of a grave and godly divine, that he profited in the knowledge of the word more by prayer in a short time than by study in a longer. That which our Saviour condemneth, is needless and heartlessly repetitious, unnecessary digressions, tedious prolixities, proceeding not from heat of affection or strength of desire (for so the repetition of the self-same petition is not only lawful, but useful, Dan 9:17-18 Mark 14:39; Psalms 142:1; Psa 130:6), but either out of ostentation of devotion, as Pharisees, or the opinion of being heard sooner, as heathens, when men's words exceed their matter, or both words and matter exceed their attention and affection. See that these be matches, and then pray and spare not.
For they think they shall be heard for their much speaking] As Orpheus in his hymns, and other pagans; calling, as the mariners in Jonah, "every man upon his God;" and lest they should not hit the right, closing their petitions with that Diique Deaeque omnes, to all gods and goddesses. And since this was the folly and fault of pagans, so is it also still of the Papists, whom the Holy Ghost calleth heathens, with whom they symbolize, as in many things else, so in their battologies or vain repetitions: which are so gross that the devil himself (had he any shame in him) might well be ashamed of them. d In their Jesus Psalter (as they call it) there are fifteen of these prayers: "Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, have mercy on me. Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, help me. Jesu, Jesu, give me here my purgatory." Every of these petitions are to be ten different times at once said over for a task. So on their church and college doors, the English fugitives have written in great golden letters, Iesu, Iesu, converte Angliam, Fiat, Fiat. Jesus, Jesus convert the English, Do it, do it. These be their weapons, they say, prayers and tears. But the truth is, the Jesuits (the pope's blood hounds) trust more to the prey than to their prayers; like vultures, whose nests, as Aristotle saith, cannot be found, yet they will leave all games to follow an army, because they delight to feed upon carrion. Their faction is a most agile sharp sword, whose blade is sheathed at their pleasure in the bowels of every commonwealth, but the handle reacheth to Rome and Spain. They strive under pretence of long prayers and dissembled sanctity, which is double iniquity (simulata sanetitas duplex iniquitas), to subdue all to the pope, and the pope to themselves. Satan, they say, sent Luther, and God sent them to withstand him. But that which Vegetius (i. 24) said of chariots armed with scythes and hooks, will be every day more and more applied to the Jesuits; "at first they were a terror, afterwards a scorn."
a Μη Βαττολογησατε. ‘ Εν πολυλογια πολυμωρια, In multiloquio stultilofuium.
b - sub illis
Montibus inquit erunt, et erant sub montibus illis.
Risit Atlantiades, et me mihi perfide prodis?
Me mihi perfide prodis? ait. Ovid, Met. 2. 203.
c Nullus abit dies quirt ut minimum tres horas, easque studiis aptissimas, in orationem ponat.
d Gentes sunt Antichristus cum suis asseclis. Pareus. Battologiae Pontificiae vel Satanam ipsum pudeat. Beza.