An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…

Prayer ought to be very strong and fervent.

As men are gradual in their sleep, so is the Lord in his. A man is sometimes so slumberingly asleep that the least noise will awake him, you cannot stir, but he will hear it. At another time a man is ⟨p. 41⟩so dead asleep, that though you hollow in his ear you cannot awake him, thunder cannot stir him. Sometimes God departs so little, that the least voice calleth him again, he comes at the first word; at another time he is gone so far, that (as to a man in a deep sleep) you must cry and cry again, call and call again, cry aloud before he hears. And we may (in a safe sense) apply that to the true God, which Elijah did to that false god, Baal; when his Priests were calling to him from morning to night, Elijah mocking, bids them cry aloud, it may be (saith he) he sleepeth: We may say (with reverence) thus, when any pray to God, and he doth not hear, pray aloud; not in regard of the voice and outward sound, but pray with louder desires of heart, with more fervency and zeal of spirit, Peradventure God sleepeth; peradventure he is in a deep sleep at this time, and he will not suddenly be awakened, therefore cry aloud. When God seemed to depart far from the Church of the Jews, with how much fervency do they cry after him (Isa. 51.9.) Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord, awake, as in the ancient days, &c? They double and treble it upon him, and cry with an out-stretched voice, Art not thou he that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? What a clamour, what a holy stir was here, to awaken God. God himself sometimes seems (as it were) willing to take his rest; as when he said to Moses, Let me alone; he spake like a man that is in bed, or very sleepy, Do not trouble me, let me alone; as he in the Gospel (Luk. 11.7.) when he was awakened in the night to come and give bread unto his neighbour, Do not trouble me (saith he) the doors are shut, and I am in bed with my children, I cannot rise and give thee, let me alone. Thus in some sense the Lord expresses himself to his people, I am now in bed, do not trouble me, Let me alone. What must we do in this case? We must knock harder at the door, as he in the Gospel did, For whom, though his neighbour would not rise and give him, because he was his friend, yet because of his importunity he rises and gives him as many loaves as he needed.