And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Ver. 1. Always to pray and not to faint] Gr. εκκακειν, not shrink back, as sluggards in work or cowards in war. Prayer should be redoubled and reinforced, as those arrows of deliverance, 2 Kings 13:19. The woman of Canaan prays on when denied; and Jacob holds with his hands when his thigh is lamed. He wrestled with slight and might, he raised dust, as the word signifies, and would not away without a blessing. a James, surnamed the Just (Christ's kinsman), had his knees made as hard as camel's knees with much praying, as Eusebius writes. Father Latimer, during his imprisonment, was so constant and instant in prayer, that often times he was not able to rise off his knees without help. Yea, Paulus Aemilius, being to fight with Perses, king of Macedonia, would not give up sacrificing to his god Hercules, till he saw certain arguments of a victory. As loathing of meat (saith a divine) and painfulness of speaking are two symptoms of a sick body, so irksomeness of praying and carelessness of hearing, of a sick soul.
a Etiam post naufragium tentantur maria.