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Robert Hawker

Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary - Matthew 6:5-8

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. Here the LORD speaks of prayer, and which is yet more express in reference to the LORD. Secret it must be between GOD and the soul, even in the public congregation, for what indeed is prayer but immediate communion, in which the only parties are JEHOVAH and his people. No lookers-on, no standers-by, can be supposed to interrupt the conference. But alas! how little understood by the great... read more

Robert Hawker

Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary - Matthew 6:9-13

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. We have here the pattern of prayer; which the LORD JESUS himself hath given. It were to hold up a small taper to the sun, to attempt an explanation of it, so plain, so evident, and so suited to every capacity. I only desire for myself, and everyone whom God the HOLY GHOST directs in the use of it, that the sweet spiritual sense of it, by his most gracious power, was... read more

Robert Hawker

Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary - Matthew 6:14-15

But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. We must not suppose from those expressions at the close of the LORD'S prayer, as if the condition of our forgiveness was suspended upon our forgiving of others. Our glorious Lord could not be supposed to mean this, because our pardon and acceptance with GOD is wholly on CHRIST'S account. But it is meant as a blessed evidence of grace. Paul, his servant, marks the feature of a renewed heart as a... read more

Robert Hawker

Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary - Matthew 6:16-18

That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. We have our LORD'S direction in these verses concerning the proper observance of Fasts. In which Jesus doth not condemn seasons of humbling the soul, but he reproves the Pharisaical method of pretending to mortify the body. Perhaps nothing in the Church of CHRIST hath opened to greater evil under the cloak of religion, than Fasts and pretended Fasts. It... read more

Robert Hawker

Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary - Matthew 6:19-24

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. These directions of our LORD are so very plain that they need no comment. I detain the Reader, however, just to ask, the question, not to decide upon that verse: if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? Doth not JESUS allude to that kind of head-knowledge, void of heart-influence, which... read more

George Haydock

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary - Matthew 6:1

Your justice; [1] in the common Greek copies, your alms, which seems to be the sense in this place. (Witham) --- Hereby it is plain that good works are justice, and that man doing them doth justice, and is thereby just and justified, and not by faith only. All which justice of a christian man, our Saviour here compriseth in the three eminent good works, alms deeds, prayer, and fasting. (St. Augustine lib. perf. just. chap. viii.) So that to give alms is to do justice, and the works of mercy are... read more

George Haydock

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary - Matthew 6:2

This must be understood figuratively, that we must avoid all ostentation in the performance of our good works. Many respectable authors are of opinion, that it was customary with the Pharisees and other hypocrites, to assemble the poor they designed to relieve by sound of trumpet. (Menochius) --- Let us avoid vain glory, the agreeable plunderer of our good works, the pleasant enemy of our souls, which presents its poison to us under the appearance of honey. (St. Basil) read more

George Haydock

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary - Matthew 6:3

Be content to have God for witness to your good works, who alone has power to reward you for them. They will be disclosed soon enough to man, when at the day of general retribution the good and the evil will be brought to light, and every one shall be rewarded according to his works. (Haydock) read more

George Haydock

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary - Matthew 6:4

This repaying or rewarding of good works, so often mentioned here by Jesus Christ, clearly evinces that good works are meritorious, and that we may do them with a view to a reward, as David did, propter retributionem. (Haydock) read more

George Haydock

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary - Matthew 6:5

Hypocrisy is forbidden in all these three good works of justice, but not the doing of them openly for the glory of God, the edification of our neighbour, and our own salvation. Let your light so shine before men, i.e. let your work be so done in public, that the intention remain in secret. (St. Gregory) read more

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