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with condign punishment. He who calls us to pray without ceasing, assures us that all the nations that forget to seek God shall be turned into hell. The history of the saints affords many valuable lessons about the necessity and success of importunate prayer. The promises set before us the blessings to be sought, and the encouragement we have to apply for them. Divine ordinances, like Christ and John, still teach men to pray, and often they have been so blessed, "that he who came to scoff, remained to pray." Providences also, and especially afflicting dispensations, are designed to acquaint us with our need, and bring us to importunity. At our wit's end, brought low, and cast into the depths, we cry to God, and in our afflictions we seek him early. God's usual way is, to bring sinners into the wilderness, and there allure them.

Besides, Christ seconds his external instructions with the inward efficacious teaching of his Holy Spirit. He impresses the sinner's heart at first with the evil of sin, the weight of the curse, the danger of hell, and his own inability to do any thing for deliverance; and thus brings him to cry for mercy. In all the Christian's journey, the Holy Ghost impresses his mind with a sense of his absolute need of this and the other blessing-of his inability to break the power of sin, oppose temptation, perform duty, extricate himself from extreme difficulty, or vanquish death. Thus impressed, he feels that he cannot do without God, and says, "My soul, wait thou only upon God: for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock, and my salvation; he is my defence: I shall not be

moved." Thus, in his first and future applications, unable to help himself, and disappointed by all the creatures, the language of his heart is, as in Psal. cxlii. 4, "I looked on my right-hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me; refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul. I cried unto thee, O Lord; I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Attend unto my cry, for I am brought very low; deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name."

4. It is highly pleasing to God. We cannot hesitate about this when we recollect that it is taught by Christ. The duty concerning which he gives outward instruction, and which he makes effectual by his Spirit, must be acceptable to the Father. There is no duty which Christ urged more frequently when in this world, or the nature of which he more explicitly and carefully explained; which is a full proof how much it honours God, is acceptable in his sight, and how beneficial it is to men. It is the believer's great resource, and ever at hand; and the right performance of every other duty will stand or fall in proportion to his fervency at the throne of grace.

We are commanded not to draw near with the lips only, but to honour God with the heart; and importunity proves that prayer is heart-work. The fervent wrestler will hang about God's hand, like the child about his father, refusing to let him go. Importunity glorifies the divine perfections. It can appeal to God's omniscience about sincerity, as it pours out the heart before him. It reflects honour on his goodness

and benevolence, as it will not go away without the blessing. It eminently magnifies his faithfulness, as it embraces the promise, holds it fast, and must have it accomplished.

The very wrestling of believers is acceptable to God. Though he perfectly knows all their wants and complaints, yet he listens with complacency to the voice of their supplications. He has such pleasure in the fervent exercises of his people, that no believing cry is unobserved; every sigh is noticed, their secret groanings are before him, and he puts their tears in his bottle. Nothing is sweeter in his nostrils than the fervent prayers of the saints: they are the production of his own Spirit, the operation of his own grace, and the application of his own children crying, Abba, Father: they are supplications for blessings which he. delights to give. They are the means of drawing down mercy to the sinner, and raising up the heart to God. They are valuable articles sent to heaven beforehand, there to be turned into eternal songs of praise.

5. Importunity in prayer will certainly prevail. This is often expressly asserted in Scripture. Hear the Lord's own words, Isa. xli. 17, 18, "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." Also chap. xlv. 19, "I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain." David, knowing that God's

name was the Hearer of Prayer, said all flesh should come to him, and he came himself, believing that he" will regard the prayer of the destitute." No words can be more explicit than these in the chapter where our text lies: "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

It is the very design of the text to give us gracious assurance that importunate prayer will prevail; and it is given in a remarkable and forcible manner. Christ does not give us a bare intimation, or hopeful insinuation, that there is a probability of success, as in Zeph. ii. 3, "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment, seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger:" or in Joel ii. 14, "Who knoweth if he will return, and repent, and leave a blessing behind him." These are what we might call kind hints, or half promises. But in the passages quoted above, and many others, the assurance that prayer will prevail is expressed in promises which are full, absolute, and most explicit. Faith relying upon these, can do wonders. In the text Christ goes farther. He proves, by the most convincing arguments and clear demonstration, that prayer shall prevail. He contends with our unbelief, and disputes with our fears; and in such a way that if we have any faith, we might almost say, sense or reason, we must be shut up to believe that God will hear our cries. The

manner in which Christ assures us might have been introduced in these words, "Come, and let us reason together; If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”

The same truth is taught in a similar manner in that parable, Luke xviii. which he spake that men should pray always, and not faint. There was a certain judge who neither feared God, nor regarded man. A poor widow, oppressed with her foes, applied to him for deliverance, and sought to be avenged of her adversary. Equally a stranger to justice and pity, he continued deaf for a long time. Though every higher motive was without influence, at last, "because this widow troubleth me," said he, "I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me." With infinite propriety and force does Christ argue from the prevalence of the widow's continued application to one of such a wretched character, to the certain success of the saints' application to a merciful and loving God, who spared not his Son, but delivered him up for them all, in the following beautiful and comfortable question and answer: "And shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry day and night to you that him, though he bear long with them? I tell he will avenge them speedily."

II. The next thing in the method was, To open up the encouragement to importunity in prayer set before us in the text. This may be divided into two

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