CHAP. XXI. fecution they were forced to assemble in the night; and in the following ages, when perfecution ceafed, and fo the occafion of those nightly affemblies ceafed likewife; yet in fome places, especially when a monaftical life came to be efteem'd, they continued ftill these nocturnal offices. But the Church of England at the reformation obferved a moft excellent decorum in this matter, requiring only the morning and evening fervice in her Liturgy; and these neither at any definite hours, leaving that to the wisdom of governours, and the convenience of places, and the attending of this fervice (as well as the private exercise of devotion) where the neceffary bufiness of human life will admit, may very well be look'd upon, as included in that acceptable frequency which importunity and perfeverance do imply.

(4.) PERSEVERANCE in prayer implies unweary'd and undifcouraged countenance in begging fome particular mercy, tho' God feems not to regard us, nor does, in any thing at prefent, look as if he would ever answer us in that matter. That fuch an importunity is an act of faith which God is well pleased with, and how long foever he may keep us in the exercise of it, by feeming to take no notice of our request, will certainly at length give a gracious answer to, is feveral times inculcated by our Saviour; as in that parable of the unjuft judge, and the importunate widow, the moral of which is exprefly declared to be, that * Men ought always to pray, and not to faint; and in that other of the houfholder raised at midnight by the importunity of his friend, though other confiderations would not prevail to fupply him with what he wanted. And that this is that very perfeverance more immediately encouraged by our Saviour here, appears, in that

* Luke xviii. 1, 2.

he

he makes the application of the last mentioned parable, in the fame words with his exhortation here, + Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. The like encouragement he gives alfo in his conduct to the woman of Canaan, who follow'd him with repeated folicitations to heal her daughter, and tho' fharply anfwered and repuls'd, would take no denial; whereupon, as if he were overcome at length by her refolute perfeverance, he answered her, ‡ O woman, great is thy faith: Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. Such perfeverance therefore is an act of faith, moft highly acceptable to God; when tho' all circumftances look dark about us, and we have long and earnestly prayed, yet feem to have hitherto prayed in vain; and have no prospect of being anfwered ftill, and every thing carries an appearance, that we fhall never gain our point; we nevertheless hold on praying, continue our earnest requefts, and wait fubmiffively the will of God concerning us. Hoping even against hope, and with pious Job, refolving, * Tho' he flay me, yet will I truft in him. We are not to fuppofe, that God's requiring or expecting this importunity, is a mere point of majesty. Tho' if it were, 'tis furely reafonable; and the most exalted creature in the universe could not think much to wait upon the fovereign and infinite Majefty of God with its requests, how long foever it might be before he would vouchfafe an answer: Nor are we to imagine, that by repeated folicitations we may tire him out, and fo change his mind, and oblige him to grant us what he had no intention at firft to yield to: For that were a weakness, of which the unchangeable wifdom of God is incapable. But he requires and expects it, because he would exercife our faith in him,

CHAP. XXI. and try us, whether we can firmly adhere to, and depend upon him under fuch difcouraging delays and feeming difregard of us; and this too, for our own fakes; that our virtue being the brighter by fuch an exercife, may be the more gloriously rewarded, and the bleffing we have fo long defired, may be the more acceptable to us, and more thankfully received by us, when it comes. For we pray, and perfevere in praying; the mercy we pray for (provided it be really a mercy, and will do us good) will furely come at laft: If we thus afk, it shall be given us; thus feek, we fhall find; thus knock, it fhall be opened to us. But then we muft confider the matter of our petitions, what it is we afk for; if it be riches, or long life, or grandeur and honour in this world, to be importunate in begging thefe, is to be impudent; God has no where promifed them; nay, he has forbid us to fet our hearts upon them; and therefore fuch an importunity about them, is not only vain and trifling, but difpleafing to him. For a fickly man to be importunate in begging health; a man under the preffures of poverty, fuch fupplies as are neceffary for him, or a change of his condition for a better; a man in danger, or in any affliction begging for deliverance, or engaged in any lawful undertaking of moment, imploring fuccefs, and a bleffing on his endeavours: In these and the like cafes, I fay, 'tis lawful to be importunate, because God has encouraged us to afk; but then the concern being only temporal, and the glory of God, and our own real good being, for ought we know, more to be ferved by denying, than by anfwering our requeft, the importunity here must be always accompany'd with an humble and entire fubmiffion to God's will and wifdom. This our Saviour's example teaches us; who tho' he prayed thrice, and

† Pet. i. 7.

very earnestly in the garden, that he might not fuffer, ftill corrected his defires with, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. But when we pray for fpiritual bleffings, for pardon of fin, and for the grace of God, importunity has its full fcope; it is not only lawful, but a virtue here; and we may follicite abfolutely for them, and must never ceafe till we obtain them. Thus I have gone through the first part of the paragraph, I come now to the fecond.

II. THE great rule of doing as we would be done by, than which nothing is a more equitable, or a more eafy guide for our behaviour in the offices of fociety, or civil life, towards all with whom we have to do. The equity of it is fo vifible, that it needs no proof; the univerfal reafon of mankind agrees to it in the theory, though their appetites and paffions hurry them befide the practice. Nay, fo fond of it was that brave and virtuous Roman Emperor Alex. Severus, tho' an Heathen, that giving it the negative turn, he caused it be wrote in letters of gold over the gates of his palace, and in other public places; Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris; What you would not have others do to YOU, do not you to OTHERS. And the eafiness of this rule, is as great as the equity of it: For 'tis, a guide which every man carries in his own breaft, whereby he can readily determine, without recurring to large volumes of laws, or fyftems of morality, or courts of judicature, what is juft and fit for him to do with refpect to another; he needs but turn the tables, and fuppofe his neighbour's cafe to be his own, and his his neighbour's, and then he has his direction at hand; what ufage he should give, by confidering what ufage he would expect. We are commanded to love our neighbour as our felves; but our partiality in this,

Bb 3

and

and the difference we are apt to make, in the way of love and esteem, betwixt our felves and others, is the cause of all injuftice. Now this selfishness, is what the precept here of doing as we would be done by, is defigned to correct. And the rule is fo true and exact in it felf, that were it not for the corruption of human nature, which triumphs in nothing more than in perverting and debauching that which fhould reform it, one might pronounce it to hold good in all cafes without bounds or limitations; but because the very beft things are liable to abuse, and the wifeft maxims may be stretch'd beyond the defign and reason of them, it will be necessary fo to reftrain our prefent rule, that it may not lead us beyond what is lawful or reasonable to be done.

(1.) WE must confine it to things that are lawful, or not prohibited by the word of God: For elfe the Scriptures would be contradictory, if by this rule of doing as we would be done by, we are obliged or allow'd to do to others, what by other plain and evident texts we are forbid to do, or to defire. My friend defires me to tell a lie for him to excufe him, or to fpread a falfe story about for his advantage; or though he don't defire it, yet I think it would ferve his intereft, and what then? Though I my felf fhould be fo wicked, or fo weak, as to defire the like of another, or be glad of its being done on my account, yet will this rule by no means juftify my doing fo for any body elfe, because it is finful either for me either to tell a lie my felf, or to defire another fhould; in like manner it will be no excufe to a cheating gamefter, that he will give the perfon he games with leave to cheat him if he can; nor to him that endeavours to make his companion drunk, that he is very willing to be made as drunk himself, because cheating and drunkennefs are fins, and no pretence whatfoever can qualify the guilt. This maxim therefore, of doing as

We