Luke xi. 5 — 8. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves ; for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not : the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed ; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
IT is common with proud infidels, when disputing against the doctrines of our holy religion, to reduce Jehovah, as it were, to a level with man ; and to argue, that what would be unsuitable for man to do towards
his fellows must therefore be unsuitable for God to do in his dealings with mankind. But what know we of Jehovah, that we should presume to judge of him by ourselves? or what claim have we on God, that we render him amenable to us for his dispensations towards us, when we might, every one of us, have been justly left, like the fallen angels, to have taken our portion in the abyss of hell, if He, of his sovereign grace, had not determined to put a difference be- tween us and them ? To bring Jehovah to our bar, and to try him there by a standard of our own, is impious in the extreme. His ways and thoughts are infinitely above ours ; " nor will He give account to us of any of his matters :" and our province, in re- ference to his revealed will, is, not to dispute, but to believe, and to obey. Yet there are circumstances wherein we may, with great propriety, draw a parallel between God and ourselves : as, for instance, if there be any thing good which man will do, we may be perfectly assured, not only that God will do the same, but that he will infinitely exceed it. Thus our Lord, having taught his Disciples to pray, and wishing to encourage in them the utmost urgency and fullest confidence of success in prayer, he appeals to them respecting the effect of importunity between man and man, and teaches them to expect still greater effects from it in their addresses at the throne of grace. From this appeal of his, I will take occasion to shew,
I. The force of importunity in our intercourse with man —
[Our Lord supposes a sadden emergency to have arisen. A friend, on a journey, having lost his waya, and wandered about till midnight, suddenly comes to our house, oppressed both with fatigue and hunger ; and, whilst we joyfully afford him a lodging, we accidentally have no provision, not so much as a piece of bread, to set before him for his refreshment. (This is a case which may very well be supposed ; nor is there in it any thing so extraordinary, but that it may fitly serve as a basis for a hypothetical proposition.) To what expedient would you have recourse ? You yourself have a friend near at
a See the marginal translation.