2. A deliverance is never so sweet, nor so thankfully improved, if it come at the first call.
[1.] It is not so sweet, nolo nimis facilem. We disdain things that come too easily, but that which costs us much pains and long crying is more prized. The reason is because delay and difficulty sharpen our desires, and the sharper our desire in the absence of a blessing, the greater gust and sweetness we find in it when it cometh at last. A sack that is stretched out is more capacious, and holdeth the more ; so is the soul more widened by enlarged desires, to entertain the bless- ing, for always our delight is according to the proportion of our de- sires ; as a hungry man, or one long kept from meat, relisheth his food better than another that hath it always at hand : Isa. xxv. 9, 'And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us ; this is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad, and rejoice in his salvation.' We that know blessings more by the want than the worth of them, in waiting we are acquainted with the difficulties and inconveniences that attend the want of things, and so are more fitted to prize them than ever we should have been if we had not so long waited.
[2.] It is more thankfully improved ; this follows upon the former, and may be further made good, because when we know the difficulty of getting a blessing, we will not easily part with it ; as they that get an estate are usually more careful how they spend it than they that are born to one : therefore God holdeth his people long at prayer, to prepare and season their hearts, that when they have it, they may know better how to employ it for his glory and his own good. Ques- tionless Hannah would never have devoted her child to God had she not continued so long without him, and prayed for him with such bit- terness of heart; but that wrought on her: 1 Sam. i. 11, 'And she vowed a vow, and said, 0 Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man-child ; then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.' Compare this with ver. 27, 28, ' For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him ; therefore also I have lent him to the Lord ; as long as he liveth he shall be lent unto the Lord.' The same effect you may ob- serve in any spiritual comfort you obtain for your souls, or any tem- poral mercy or comfort of the present life, which you get by prayer. If God had answered you at first, it had been reckoned among the ordinary effects of his goodness, and so passed by ; but what is won by prayer is usually worn with thankfulness. You would not have been so sensible of the hand of providence, the graciousness of the answer, or your obligation to God, or indeed that it had been an answer of prayer at all.
3. Things often and earnestly asked of God come with the greater fulness of blessing when they come ; and so, as one saith, God payeth them use 1 for forbearance ; the mercy is the more ample, and so every prayer hath its reward. Christ denied the woman of Canaan long, but at length yieldeth up himself to her importunity : Mat. xv. 26,
1 That is, interest. — Ed.
5G SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. [SeR. CLXIV.
' 0 woman, great is thy faith ; be it unto thee as thou wilt.' She lost nothing Ly the delay. Hannah was long without a child, hut at length the child proved the more eminent ; she gets both a child and a pro- phet too. Let God alone, and do you continue praying, and he will recompense yoiiv abundantly for all his delay. Peter was in prison, and the church made prayers without ceasing, Acts xii. 5, and God doth not only bring him out, but brings him out with a miracle, so that they were astonished, ver. 16. God delayed for a "while, and seemed to refuse their prayers; but when Herod was just about to bring him forth to execution. God brought him forth to deliverance. Every prayer is upon the file, and contributeth to make the mercy the more complete ; it remaineth day and night before the Lord : 1 Kings viii. 59, ' And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, as a memorial ; ' Acts x. 4, ' Thy prayers and thine alms arc come up for a memorial before God.'
4. It argueth an ill spirit when we will not continue praying, though we have not presently that which we pray for. To be sure —
[1.] There is disobedience in it, for it is contrary to God's injunc- tions: Luke xviii. 1, 'Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.' We ought not to surcease our suits so : Eph. vi. 18, ' Praying always, and with all perseverance ;' always relateth to the constant exercise of this duty upon all occasions ; with all perseverance, to particular suits we put up to God. Now our duty must not be omitted, whatever the discouragements be ; as Moses was to hold up his hands till the going down of the sun, so are we to continue our suits, and press hard for an answer, till God give us the thing we pray for.