Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Ver. 7. Ask, and it shall be given you, &c.] Whereas it might be objected, -These are hard lessons, neither know we how to quit ourselves in the discharge of them; our Saviour answers, as Isaiah did before him, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near," Isaiah 55:6; and as St James adviseth after him, Jam 1:5 "If any man want wisdom, let him ask it of God." "Ask," saith he, "and it shall be given you." Run to the great Doctor of the Church, as Agur did to Ithiel and Ucal, Proverbs 30:1, and he will teach you; seek his face and favour, and ye shall surely find it; knock at the beautiful gate of heaven with the hand of faith, and it shall open unto you (as the iron gate did to Peter) of its own accord, Acts 12:10. Elisha's staff was laid (by his appointment) upon the dead child's face, but there was neither voice nor hearing. He went therefore himself, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord, 2 Kings 4:31; 2 Kings 4:33. This staff he knew was long enough to reach up to heaven, to knock at those gates, yea, to wrench them open. "Ask, therefore, that your joy may be full." "Hitherto ye have asked me nothing," saith Christ, disliking our dulness to this duty. Quid est cur nihil petis? pete ne privatus de me queraris, said Severus the emperor to his courtiers: What meanest thou to ask nothing of me? Ask, that thou mayest have no cause of complaint against me. And Pope Nicholas V (a great favourer of learning), when he was told of some in Rome that made good verses; "They cannot be good poets," said he, "and I not know them. Why come they not to me, if good, qui poetis etiam malis pateo, who am a friend to poets though not so good?" Christ soliciteth suitors, "and the Father seeketh such to worship him," John 4:23; not for anything he gets by it, but merely for our benefit; as the sun draws up vapours from the earth not for itself, but to moisten and fatten the earth therewith. And although he come not ever at first call, yet be not discouraged with silence or sad answers. He is nearest to such suitors as, with Mary, cannot see him for their tears and griefs; if, with her, they continue to seek him in humility; if they rest not rapping and bouncing at his gates, he will open unto them, for their importunity, Luke 18:5,7. The saints sometimes have present audience, as Eliezer, Genesis 24:15; Daniel; Dan 9:23 the disciples, Acts 4:31; and Luther, who came leaping out of his closet with Vicimus, Vicimus We conquer, we conquer, in his mouth. But what if they have not? far be it from them to think that God is asleep or gone a journey, as the prophet jeereth at Baal; or that he wanteth ears, as the image of Jupiter did at Crete. (Cretae Iovis est imago, auribus carens.) The Creteans have an image of Jupiter without ears. Questionless he that bids us ask, meaneth to give; as when we bid our children say, "I pray you, father, give me such a thing," we do it not but when we mean to give it them. If he defer help let it humble us, as it did David, Psalms 22:2; "I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not," &c. "But thou art holy," &c. Others have prayed and sped: "Our fathers trusted in thee, they cried unto thee and were delivered: but I am a worm and no man, yet will I call upon him" (not only in my sinking, but) from the bottom of the deeps. Let it also quicken us to further fervency, as it did St Paul, 2 Corinthians 12:8, and the Church, Psalms 80:3; Psalms 80:7,19; never giving over the suit (with the importunate widow, Luk 18:5) till we have obtained it. He that prayeth, moveth God, not as an orator moveth hearers, but as a child his father. The end of oratory is to speak persuasively, not always to persuade; but the end of prayer is to prevail and speed; ye which are God's remembrancers, give him no rest till ye have what ye beg. a Ask, seek, knock; use an unwearied importunity; slip not any opportunity, pray without ceasing, pray continually; set aside all for prayer, wait upon it (as the word signifieth), Colossians 4:2; cf. Acts 10:7. b But must we never leave praying, may some say, till we have our request granted? there are other things to be done. True, and you must give over the words of a prayer for a season, but never the suit of prayer. A beggar, for example, comes to a rich man's gate, and cries for an alms, but none there answers him. He being a poor man hath something else to do than to beg; and therefore he sits him down and knits or knocks, or patches, &c., and between the times, begs and works, works and begs. So should we, follow our necessary business, and yet continue our suit for grace. And the rather because beggars hold out to ask, where yet they have no promise it shall be given them; nay, when (many times) they are frowned upon, threatened, punished for begging. And whereas beggars come no nearer the house than the porch or entry, and so know not whether the master of the house be providing for them an alms or a cudgel. All God's petitioners, that call upon him in truth, are admitted into the parlour, as I may so say, into God's special presence. "An hypocrite shall not come before him," Job 13:16; "but the upright shall dwell in his presence," Psalms 140:13; "He hideth not his face from such, but when they cry he heareth," Psalms 22:24 .
And it shall be given you] It is not said what shall be given, because the gift is above all name, saith Austin. Like as Amos 4:12; "Thus will I do unto thee:" thus? how? Non nominat mala, ut omnia timeant, saith Ribera out of Jerome. No evil is named, that they may fear all.
a Isaiah 62:7. It shows instantissimam necessitatem. Aug.
b τη προσευχη προσκαρτερειτε, Colossians 4:2; Romans 12:12 .