O how great a task is it for a poor soul that comes, sensible of sin
and the wrath of God, to say in faith but this one word, Father! I
tell you, however hypocrites think, yet the Christian that is so
indeed finds all the difficulty in this very thing; he cannot say
God is his Father. O, saith he, I dare not call him Father. And
hence it is that the Spirit must be sent into the hearts of God's
people for this very thing, to cry Father; it being too great a work
for any man to do knowingly and believingly without it. When I say
knowingly, I mean knowing what it is to be a child of God and to be
born again; and when I say believingly, I mean for the soul to
believe, and that from good experience, that the work of grace is
wrought in him. This is the right calling of God, Father; and not as
many do, to say in a babbling way the Lord's prayer by heart. No,
here is the life of prayer, when in or with the Spirit, a man being
made sensible of sin and how to come to the Lord for mercy, he
comes, I say, in the strength of the Spirit, and crieth, Father.
That one word spoken in faith, is better than a thousand prayers in
a formal, cold, lukewarm way.
Naturally the name of God is dreadful to us, especially when he is
discovered to us by those names that declare his justice, holiness,
power, and glory; but the word FATHER is a familiar word; it
frighteth not the sinner, but rather inclineth his heart to love and
be pleased with the remembrance of him. Hence Christ also, when he
would have us to pray with godly boldness, put this word FATHER into
our mouths, saying, "When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in
heaven;" concluding thereby that in the familiarity which by such a
word is intimated, the children of God may take more holdness to
pray for and ask great things. I myself have often found that when I
can say but this word, FATHER, it doth me more good than when I call
him by any other scripture name.
It is worth your noting, that to call God by his relative title was
rare among the saints in Old Testament times; but now in New
Testament times, he is called by no name so often as this, both by
the Lord Jesus Christ himself and by the apostles afterwards. Indeed
the Lord Jesus was he that first made this name common among the
saints, and that taught them in their discourses, in their prayers,
and in their writings, so much to use it; it being more pleasing to,
and discovering more plainly our interest in God, than any other
expression. For by this one name we are made to understand that all
our mercies are the offspring of God, and that we also who are
called are his children by adoption.