39, 40. But the falvation of the righteous is of the Lord, he is their ftrength in the time of trouble. And the Lord fhall help them and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and fave them because they trust in him. Pfal. xxxi. 19. O how great is thy goodness, which thou haft laid up for them that fear thee; which thou baft wrought for them that truft in thee before the fons of men! Pfal. lv. 22. Caft thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall fuftain thee: he shall never fuffer the righteous to be moved. Pfal. cxxv. 1. They that truft in the Lord fhall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. Ifa. xxvi. 3, 4. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whofe mind is ftaid on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Truft ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

4. Provided yet further, that we pray earnestly to God for his gracious help and affiftance, for his merciful comfort and fupport under fufferings; that he would be pleafed to ftrengthen our faith, and to increase and lengthen out our patience, in proportion to the degree and duration of our fufferings.

All the promises which God hath made to us are upon this condition, that we earnestly feek and fue to him for the benefit and bleffing of them, Pfal. 1. 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Ezek. xxxvi. 37. After a great deliverance, and many blessings promifed to them, this condition is at last added, Thus faith the Lord God, I will yet for this be enquired of by the houfe of Ifrael, to do it for them. And this likewife is the tenor of the promises of the New Teftament, Matth. vii. 7, Ask, and it shall be given you; feek, and ye shall find: knock, and it shall be opened unto you. And in this very cafe that I am fpeaking of, God expects that we fhould apply our felves to him for fpiritual wisdom and grace to behave ourfelves under fufferings as we ought, Jam. i. 2, 3, 4. where fpeaking of the manifold temptations that Chriftians would be exercised withal, he directs them to God for wisdom to demean themfelves

to

pray under perfecutions, with patience, and constancy and chear

chearfulness, My brethren, account it all joy, when ye fall into divers temptations; (meaning the temptations and trials of fuffering in feveral kinds) knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have its perfect work. And because this is a very difficult duty, and requires a great deal of fpiritual skill, to demean our felves under fufferings as we ought, therefore he adds in the next words: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

And this earnest application we are to make to God, for his grace and feasonable help in time of need; not to put him in mind of his promife, but to teftify our dependence upon him, and expectation of all good from him. And we must likewise use great importunity in our prayers to God, to affift us and ftand by us in the day of trial, and the hour of temptation. And therefore our Saviour heaps up feveral words, to denote the great earneftness and importunity which we ought to ufe in prayer, bidding us to ask, and feek, and knock. And to fhew that he lays more than ordinary weight upon this matter, and to encourage our importunity, he spake two several parables to this purpofe; the first, Luke xi. 5. of the man, who by mere importunity prevailed with his friend to rife at midnight to do him a kindness, which our Saviour applies to encourage our importunity in prayer, ver. 9. And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given you; feek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. The other is the parable of the importunate widow and unjuft judge, related by the fame evangelift, Luke xviii. 1. with this preface to it; and he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. And to fpeak the truth, they feem at first fight two of the oddest of all our Saviour's parables, as if the defign of them were to infinuate to us, that God is to be prevailed upon by the mere importunity of our prayers to grant our requests: But our bleffed Saviour, who best knew his Own meaning, tells us, that all that he defigned by it, was

R 3

only

only to fignify, that we ought always to pray, and not to faint, that is, to continue inftant in prayer, and not to give over after once asking, as if we defpaired of prevailing. Not that mere importunity prevails with God to give us thofe things which he is otherwife unwilling to grant; but because it becomes us to be fervent, and earnest, to teftify our faith and confidence in the goodness of God, and the deep fense we have of our own weak nefs and wants, and unworthiness; and likewise that we fet a true value upon the bleffings and favours of God, as worth all the earnestnefs and importunity we can use: And in this decent and fober fenfe, the fuccefs of our prayers may truly be faid to depend upon our importunity; not that it is neceffary to move God to grant our requests, but that it becomes us to be thus affected, that we may be the more fitly qualified for the grace and mercy which God is willing to confer

upon us.

I have been the longer upon this, to give us a right notion of this matter, and that we may the more diftinctly understand the true reason why our Saviour does require fo much earnestness and importunity of prayer upon our part; not at all to work upon God, and to difpofe him to fhew mercy to us (for that he is always inclinable to, whenever we are fit for it) but only to difpofe and qualify us to receive the grace and mercy of God, with greater advantage to ourselves.

5. Provided moreover, that we be not confident of ourselves, and of the force and ftrength of our own refolution. We know not ourselves, nor the frailty and weakness of our own refolution, till we are tried. It is wife advice which Solomon gives us, and never more feasonable than in the day of trial, Prov. iii. 5, 6, 7. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths; be not wife in thine own eyes; that is, be conceited and confident of thine own wifdom and ftrength, or ability in any kind; there is a fecret providence of God, which mingles itfelf with the actions

not

and

and fpirits of men, and difpofeth of us unknown to ourselves; and what we think to be the effect of our own ftrength and refolution, of our own wit dom and contrivance, proceeds from an higher cause, which, unfeen to us, does fteer and govern us. So the wife man obferves, Prov. xx. 24. Man's goings are of the Lord, how can a man then underftand his own ways?. And therefore we have reason every onelto fay with the Prophet, Jer. x. 23. O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Our feet will foon flip, if God do not uphold us by his hand. Remember how fhamefully the chief of our Lord's difciples mifcarried, by too much confidence in himfelf, I mean St. Peter; in whofe fall we may all fee our own frailty; if God do but permit the devil to have the winnowing of us, there will be a great deal of chaff found in the best of us. What St. Paul faid of himself, 2 Cor. xii. 10. When I am weak, then am I ftrong, we fhall all find true, when it comes to the trial; we are then strongest, when, in a juft fense of our own weakness, we rely most upon the ftrength and power of God.

6. Provided furthermore, that according to our ability, we have been much in the exercife of alms and charity. For well-doing, or doing good, is fometimes taken in a narrower fenfe, not improper here to be mentioned, though perhaps not fo particularly intended here in the text, for works of charity and alms. As Heb. xiii. 16. But to do good, and to communicate (that is, to the neceffities of the poor) forget not, for with fuch facrifices God is well pleased. This kind of well-doing is a fpecial prefervative in times of evil; there is no kind of grace or virtue, to which there are in fcripture more fpecial promifes made of our protection and prefervation from evil and fuffering, of fupport and comfort under them, and deliverance out of them, than to this of a charitable and compaffionate confideration of thofe who labour under want or fuffering. Pfal. xxxvii. 3. Truft in the Lord, and do good, fo falt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

And

And ver. 19. fpeaking of righteous or merciful men, they fhall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be fatisfied. Pfalm xli. 1, 2. Bleffed is he that confidereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble; the Lord will preferve him, and keep him alive, and he shall be bleffed upon the earth; and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. .

There are likewife in the apocryphal books excellent fayings for the encouragement of charity, as that which will be particularly confidered and rewarded to us in the times of danger and diftrefs, in the days of affliction and fuffering, Tob. iv. 7, 8, 9, 10. Give alms of thy fubftance, and turn not thy face from any poor man, and the face of God fhall not be turned away from thee. If thou haft abundance, give alms accordingly; if thou haft but a little, be not afraid to give according to that little; for thou layeft up for thyself a good treasure against the day of neceffity, because that alms do deliver from death, and fuffereth not to come into darkness. Ecclus. iii. 31. fpeaking of him that gives alms, and is ready to do kindness to others; He is mindful of that which may come hereafter; and when he falleth he shall find a ftay. And chap. xxix. 11, 12, 13. Lay up thy treasure according to the commandment of the Moft High, and it shall bring thee more profit than gold; Shut up alms in thy ftore-houses, and it fhall deliver thee from all affliction, it shall fight for thee against thine enemies, better than a mighty shield, and a Strong Spear.

I have often faid it, and am verily perfuaded of it, that one of the best figns of God's mercy and fayour to this poor nation, is, that God hath been pleafed of late years to ftir up fo general a difpofition in men to works of alms and charity, and thereby to revive the primitive fpirit of Chriftianity, which fo eminently abounded in this grace, and taught thofe who believed in God, to be careful to maintain and practife good works. And nothing gives me greater hopes that God hath mercy ftill in ftore for us, than that men are fo ready to fhew mercy. There are great objects