Clearness is the grace of speech.
and well may we make all our prayers consonant and agreeable to this prayer. Tertullian calls this prayer, "a breviary and compendium of the gospel!" It is like a heap of massive gold.
The preciousness of this prayer appears in the dignity of the Author. This prayer has commendation from its Author; it is the Lord's prayer. As the moral law was written with the finger of God, so this prayer was dropped from the lips of the Son of God. [The voice is not that of a man—but that of God!] The preciousness of the prayer appears in the excellence of the matter. It is "as silver tried in a furnace, purified seven times." Psalm 12:6. Never was prayer so admirably and intricately composed as this. As Solomon's Song, for its excellence is called the "Song of songs," so may this be well called the "Prayer of prayers". The matter of it is admirable:
1. For its comprehensiveness. It is short and pithy—a great deal said in a few words. It requires most art to meticulously draw the earth in a little map. This short prayer is a system, or body of divinity.
2. For its clearness. It is plain and intelligible to every capacity. Clearness is the grace of speech.
3. For its completeness. It contains the chief things that we have to ask, or God has to bestow.
Use. Let us have a great esteem of the Lord's prayer; let it be the model and pattern of all our prayers. There is a double benefit arising from framing our petitions suitably to this prayer. Hereby error in prayer is prevented. It is easy to write correctly, after this copy. We cannot easily err, when we have our pattern before us. Hereby mercies requested are obtained; for the apostle assures us that God will hear us when we pray "according to his will." 1 John