18 FIRST SERMON And prayers thus regulated are most seasonable, and sovereign duties in times of trouble ; the key which opens a door of mercy, the sluice which keeps out an inundation of judgments. Jacob wrestled and obtained a blessing, Hos. xii. 4. Amos prayed, and removed a curse, Amos vii. 3. 7, 8. The woman of Canaan will not be denied with a denial, Matt. xv. 24. 27. The people of Israel will beg for deliverance, even then when God had positively told them, that he would deliver them no more, Judg. x. 13. 15. Jonah will venture a prayer from the bottom of the sea, when a double death had seized upon him, the belly of the deep, and the belly of the whale, and that prayer of his opened the doors of the leviathan, as the expression is, Job xli. 14. and made one of those deaths a deliverance from the other. O let the Lord's remembrancers give him no rest. There is a kind of omnipotence in prayer, as having an interest and prevalence with God's omnipotence. It hath loosed iron chains ; it hath opened iron gates ; it hath unlocked the windows of heaven ; it hath broken the bars of death. Satan hath three titles given him in the scripture, setting forth his malignity against the church of God. A dragon, to note his malice ; a serpent, to note his subtlety ; and a lion, to note his strength : but none of all these can stand before prayer. The greatest malice, the malice of Haman, sinks under the prayer of Esther ; the deepest policy, the counsel of Ahithophel, withers before the prayer of David ; the largest army, a host of a thousand thousand Ethiopians, run away like cowards before the prayer of Ma. How should this encourage us to treasure up our prayers ! to besiege the throne of grace with armies of supplications ! to refuse a denial ! to break through
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=