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much more may we be assured of this, when we take into account that infinite benignity and condescension of character in which the Most High has revealed himself, and the near relation which he has chosen to sustain to his redeemed. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith; and shall not the Lord avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? The answer was not refused, but only delayed; and at the appointed time the destruction of his enemies did arrive and brought with it deliverance to his cause and people.

Another most interesting and ample attestation to the success of importunity in prayer, you will find in the eleventh chapter of this gospel, from the fifth to the thirteenth verse, which we request you particularly to consult.

The passages which have been quoted are but a specimen out of the abundance of Scripture declarations on this subject. There are, it is true, some assurances in the word of God which cannot be extended beyond the times of miracle; but such is not the application of those to which we have referred, which have a refer

ence as evidently general and universal as any of those promises and precepts which are acknowledged to apply to all times and ages. Even the ancient church could say, in expectation of times of enlargement, O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee SHALL ALL FLESH COME. Let us endeavor to enter into the liberality and largeness of divine assurances. Let us only ask in accordance with the will of God, and there are no degrees of blessing within which we need to limit our wishes and our expectations. Every one who prays must have known from experience, in some measure at least, the faithfulness of God to his largest promises; and the only reason why he does not fulfil them to an extent beyond even our utmost conceptions, is, that we have not the heart to place full reliance upon his word-that we stop short at the very threshhold of infinite fulness, and in the faintness of our desires, when we have but seen some openings into the riches treasured up in Christ, conclude that we can advance no further. Instead of this, if we imitated an apostle in his prayers, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give unto us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the

*2

knowledge of him, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and WHAT

IS THE EXCEEDING GREATNESS OF HIS POWER to us-ward who believe, ACCORDING TO THE WORKING OF HIS MIGHTY POWER; and would fill us with ALL THE FULNESS OF GOD!

III. We proceed in the third place, to endeavor to obviate what may be considered the principal discouragement to perseverance in prayer, that distrust of its efficacy which arises from apparent want of success in obtaining the objects of petition.* Disappointment may be generally ascribed to one of two causes.

* Respecting the efficacy of prayer, some difficulties have been raised of a metaphysical nature. These the author takes the liberty of passing over, for two reasons ; first, that he chiefly writes for those who are more likely to be affected with experimental than with speculative doubts; and secondly, that the difficulties are amongst the shallowest that philosophy has ever started on the subjects of inspiration. They have been often answered with the utmost conclusiveness of demonstration. He

The first of these is, error as to the matter of our requests; the objects of petition may be such as God has nowhere promised to confer.

begs leave to quote, on this topic, a passage from one of Dr. Gordon's admirable sermons.

"Were the question put to a believer, why he prays, or how he ean hope that his prayers can have any efficacy in determining the will and the procedure of him, all whose purposes are unchangeable, and all whose works are known to him from the beginning; he might satisfy himself with replying, that God has authorized and commanded him to pray, with the express promise that the prayer of faith, offered up in the name of Christ, shall be heard and answered; and that he can safely leave it, therefore, with God himself, to provide for the fulfilment of his promise, in perfect consistency with the immutability of his counsels. But though he may hold this to be a satisfactory answer to every such question, and on this ground decline entering on the discussion of any difficulty that may be suggested, about reconciling the efficacy of prayer with the unchangeableness of the divine will; yet there is enough in Scripture to enable him to go much farther towards the solution of such difficulties, and, what is unspeakably more important, to elevate his conceptions of the nature and privilege of prayer. He is there warranted to maintain, that prayer is most deeply concerned in the determination of all the purposes of God concerning his people; that every believing supplication that has been

In one sense, it may be said that we are warranted to consider the promises annexed to prayer as absolute, and certain of a uniform accomplishment. He who prays to God aright, comes as a needy suppliant for favor at the hand of the gracious dispenser of mercy. His supplications generally point to some particular object conceived to be good; but still, the object is viewed only as the means of real advantage to the supplicant, and that advantage is desired whether the particular object be conducive to it or not. Considering prayer in this general light, we may affirm that every petition conceived and presented in the true spirit of prayer, shall be answered with a return of blessing from above. Whether it appear good or not to the Father of mercies to grant the object.

or ever will be offered up, was as much the subject of the divine fore-knowledge as any other action or event that was to take place in the moral world; and that the same infinite wisdom which so arranged the constitution of things as to provide for what we would call contingencies, and to determine the bearing and the effect of every one event upon another, did, by that same arrangement, make provision also for meeting every prayer of faith with a special and determinate act of his will."

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