Why we are to pray ‘with all perseverance 1/2

           Second.  I proceed to the second thing prom­ised, viz. to show why we must pray ‘with all perse­verance;’ which take in these particulars:—
           First.  It is strictly commanded.  ‘Pray without ceasing,’ I Thes. 5:17; that is, without fainting.  So our Saviour, Luke 18:1, ‘And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.’  Mark, not only that they might, but ‘ought.’  It is indeed a high privilege to us, and a low stoop in the high God, to give us leave thus to lie at his door, and to suffer the cry of our prayers to be ever sounding his ears.  We, I ma sure, could not like to have beggars knocking day and night at our doors; but so infinitely good is God, that he doth not only allow us this bold­ness, but also commands it,that the fear of a sin might move us, if the loss of a privilege will not.
           Second.  This perseverance in prayer is highly recommended.  Indeed perseverance crowns every grace and commends every duty.  It is not our faith and hope, but to ‘hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end,’ that God looks at, Heb. 3:6.  Not the seeming zeal and swiftness of our motion in the ways of God at our first start and setting forth, but the constancy of a well-breathed soul in holding on his course till the race be finished, that Christ commends: ‘If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed,’ John 8:31.  So in prayer.  Not the short spurts of an inconstant zeal, that begins to pray as they say the French do to fight —like thunder and lightning, but if the first charge carries it not, then they quail, and are quite cowed in their spirits.  No; it is not this soft metal, whose edge is thus easily turned, that God likes in prayer, but a zeal tempered and hardened so with resolution that makes it cut through all delays and difficulties.  This God highly commends.  It got Jacob the name of a prince, so nobly he behaved himself in this duty, holding it out till break of day with God, and then would not let him go till he had blessed him.
           Third.  It is that which God intends by his delays and seeming denials.  Why deals he thus with his people?  Surely it is to put their graces to the trial, whether they will quit the siege for a few repulses or fall on with more courage.  He holds his peace, to make them cry the louder; steps aside, to make them hunt more eagerly after him.  He lays blocks before the wheel of their prayers, to try their mettle how well they will draw, when it seems a dead pull, and the mercy comes not at their prayer.  Now two things God aims at by his people’s perseverance in prayer.  1. His own glory.  2. Their advantage.  These two are never severed.

1. His own glory.  What fairer occasion can the Christian have in his whole life to honour God, than by holding fast his integrity, and keeping his alle­giance to God firm, when he seems to be neglected, yea, forsaken of him?  Certainly God would never have put Job to so much trouble, nor have made him pray and stay so long for the gracious issues of his providence, but to glorify himself in the faith and patience of his faithful servant.  ‘Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord,’ saith the apostle James, ch. 5:11.  Truly, we could not have heard so much of his patience, if we had not heard so much of his troubles.  Had God put an end sooner to them, he might have found more ease, but not God more honour.  This was it that God was pleased with and counted himself highly honoured by —that Satan with all his wits and wiles could not make Job give over praying, much less fall of cursing God; no, not when God broke him with his tempest, and seemed not to regard him or his prayers.  It pleaseth us most when our prayers make the shortest voyage—when they are at heaven and back again with and answer quickly; but it glorifies God most when he lays an embargo—as I may so say—upon our prayers, that no answer comes from heaven to us, and yet we will send more after them, as Jacob did Benjamin after his other son, who was then prisoner in Egypt. When the poor soul will not be taken off the duty by any intervening discouragements, but presseth harder upon God from his seeming denials, this is indeed to give glory to God.  ‘Blessed is he that hath not seen, and yet’ thus ‘believeth.’
2. God, by his people’s persevering long in prayer before he gives in his gracious answer, intends their advantage.