When] i. e. as often as thou prayest by thy self, enter not thy house only, thy hall or thy common chamber, but thy closet, the most secret and retired privacy. Shut the door] that others may neither discern thee, nor rush in suddenly upon thee. He shall reward thee] i. e. he shall answer thee and perform thy request as a gracious return to thy secret sincerity. God is pleased by promise to make himself a debtor to secret prayer. It brings nothing to God but empty hands and naked hearts: to show that reward in Scripture sense does not slow in upon the streams of merit but grace. It's monkish divinity to assert otherwise, for what merit strictly taken can there be in prayer: the mere asking of mercy cannot merit it at the hands of God, who out of our most sincere petitions (being at best impregnated with sinful mixtures) might take up matter enough to sling as the dung of our sacrifices in our faces.1 We halt like Jacob both in and after our choicest and strongest wrestlings. But such is the grace of our heavenly Father, who spies that little sincerity of our hearts in secret, that he is pleased to accept us in his beloved, and to smell a favour of rest in the fragrant perfumes and odours of his intercession.
When] i. e. as often as thou prayest by thy self, enter not thy house only, thy hall or thy common chamber, but thy closet, the most secret and retired privacy. Shut the door] that others may neither discern thee, nor rush in suddenly upon thee. He shall reward thee] i. e. he shall answer thee and perform thy request as a gracious return to thy secret sincerity. God is pleased by promise to make himself a debtor to secret prayer. It brings nothing to God but empty hands and naked hearts: to shew that reward in Scripture sence does not slow in upon the streams of merit but grace. It's monkish divinity to assert otherwise, for what merit strictly taken can there be in prayer: the meer asking of mercy cannot merit it at the hands of God, who out of our most sincere petitions (being at best impregnated with sinful mixtures) might take up matter enough to sling as the dung of our sacrifices in our faces.1 We halt like Jacob both in and after our choicest and strongest wrestlings. But such is the grace of our heavenly Father, who spies that little sincerity of our hearts in secret, that he is pleased to accept us in his beloved, and to smell a favour of rest in the fragrant perfumes and odours of his intercession.
- 1Mal. 2.3.
