Jefus, our prayers can find acceptance with a juft and holy God. With what propriety prayer may be termed a wrestling with God is best known in the true Chriftian's own experience: for although at fome times he may pray with joy, and like a fhip in a calm, cast the anchor of faith with ease, yet at others he is fo dreadfully toffed with Satan's temptations, under the heavy clouds of defertion when God withdraws from him the light of his countenance, that he is ready to fink in these deep waters; then it is, in the language of a certain godly minifter, the foul, were, makes defperate efforts to believe, faying with Jacob, I will not let thee go, except thou blefs me: and with Job, though he flay me, I will truft in him, Gen. xxxii. 26. Job xiii. 15. as it But were Jacob and Job the only perfons who thus wreftled? No, fuch alfo were Mofes, Samuel, David, Heman, Elias, Hezekiah, Nehemiah, and Daniel, with many more on facred record, who all prevailed; and fo fhall we, if like them, instant in prayer, we wrestle with God through faith in Christ; for he faid not unto the feed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain, Ifa. xlv. 19. And our Lord hath told us, that God will avenge his own elect, who cry unto him day and night, Luke xviii. 7, 8. And the royal Pfalmist, for our encouragement hath left his own fweet experience on record, faying, 66 I "waited patiently for the Lord, and he " inclined unto me, and heard my cry; he brought me up alfo out of an horrible pit, "out of the miry clay, and fet my feet up on a rock, and established my goings: "and he hath put a new fong in my mouth, "even praise unto our God," Pfalm xl. I---3 Methinks now this queftion highly neceflary for us to put to ourselves: Do we deserve the character of wrestlers with God?. if fo, what are the marks or evidences thereof? First, If we are fuch wrestlers, fuch wreftlings will make us humble; for as the Lord, no doubt to keep Jacob fo, touched the hollow of his thigh, and put it out of joint, Gen. xxxii. 25, 31. fo that he halted ever after fo he, as it were toucheth the hol Q 2 low of every believer's thigh, putting them out of conceit with themselves, fhewing them that they were all dislocated by the fall of Adam; and fo grievously put out of joint to the divine law, that it is impoffible to walk uprightly before God in their own ftrength. Secondly, We will not only lodge our petitions before the throne of grace, but anxiously look and feek after them as a condemned rebel who petitions his sovereign for life, will fuch a one only lodge his petition for the royal clemency, and mind no more about it? No: will he not ardently wish for a favourable answer, thinking every hour a day, and day an age, till the messenger arrive with the all-important answer, which if delayed, will he not again and again, with a degree of ardour known to himself only, repeat the momentous petition? Thus did David: "One thing, faith he, have I desired of the Lord, that will I feek after," Pfal. xxvii. 4. We do not pray for our daily bread only, but also strive by every mean in our power to obtain it; fo all true wrestlers with God, not only pray for fpiritual blessings, but also strive through the means of divine appointment to obtain the fame thro' grace. But alas! too many of us endeavour to quiet our confciences, by prefenting a few lukewarm defires in a formal manner before the Almighty, without looking any more after them, as indifferent whether they be granted, as Pilate was, who after he had afked our blessed Lord, What is truth? went out without ftaying for an answer, John xviii. 38: or if we do in reality defire spiritual bleffings, and delivery from the love and power of fin, it is too often, as St Augustin prayed before his converfion, Not yet. Such feekers, if they continue still seeking in such a manner, shall never obtain, nor be able to enter in at the ftrait gate, Luke xiii. 24. for the kingdom of heaven fuffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Thirdly, All true wreftlers with God efteem communion with him dearer to them than every thing else in the world; hence Jacob, to obtain that, ftayed behind, not only Leah and her children, but even his beloved Rachel and Jofeph, that ever memora ble night to him, in which he was honour ed with the name of Ifrael, Gen. xxxii. 28, What gay flowers are these which grow on the brink of the river! Let me draw near and explore their beauties. All aghaft, I fpring back from the awful fpot!--Poor flowers, for all your. gaiety the brook is undermining you, in which you will foon be swallowed, and all your beauties destroyed. Juft fo is it with refpect to the wicked and careless in this life; though they may be gay and profperous, having more than their heart can wifh, the brook of God's infinite wrath is undermining them, and will foon overwhelm them then fhall their beauty confume in the grave from their dwelling. Pfal. xlix. 14. From this we may fee the state of the wicked, however profperous, is not to be envied. This water likewife brings me in mind of that near which Gideon and his company gained fuch a fignal victory over the host of Midian, by only using the means of founding trumpets, breaking pitchers, and |