An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

Clouds will not be commanded, cannot be commanded, by the greatest and mightiest of the sons of men. Job was a great Prince himself, yet he could not, neither can the greatest Princes of the world command a shower nor a drop of rain to fall from the heavens. Man cannot command the clouds to rain, either when he will, or where he will, or how much he will; these ⟨p. 260⟩powers belong to God alone. Yet in one seen man may lift up his voice to the clouds, and abundance of waters will cover him. There is a twofold voice of man? Fi•st, A commanding voice; And secondly, A praying voice. Let man lift up his commanding voice to the clouds, as long as he will he shall get down no rain, but if man by faith lift up his praying voice to the clouds, that is, to God, in whose hand the clouds are, he may get rain, yea, abundance of waters to cover him. (Zach. 10.1.) A k ye of the Lord rain, in the time of the latter rain, so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. At the voice of man humbly praying, the Lord makes bright clouds; or (as our Margin hath it) lightnings, which fore-run black clouds; to those God gives showers of rain, and those showers of rain give every one grass, that is, they cause all sorts of Vegetables to spring and flourish in the field•, both for man and beast. This was one of the cases which Solomon put in his prayer, at the dedication of the Temple for the Lords answering of prayer. (1 Kings 8.35.) When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray towards this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sins when thou afflictest them; then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, &c. and give rain upon thy land. When the clouds are locked up, when they are as brass over our heads, prayer moves the Lord to open them, or to melt them down into showers, for the refreshing and fructifying of the earth. The Apostle James (Chap. 5.17, 18.) tells us, that alias covered the earth with abundance of rain, by lifting up his voice in prayer. Elijah (saith he) was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months: And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.