The zealous Christian taking heavenThe zealovs Christian taking heaven

4. God may give thee a mercy, and thou through thy incredulity, impatience, and inobservancie, not mind the returns that God gives. God may hear thy prayers, and yet thou not take any notice of it. This you may see in Job, Job 9. 16, 17. If I have called and God answered, yet I will not believe ¹that God hath heard me, because thou breakest me with thy tempest—Job was in a fit of impatience and unbelief. And though God did give him returns of prayer, yet he would not, did not observe them.

4. God may give thee a mercy, and thou through thy incredulity, impatiency, and inobservancie, not minde the returns that God gives. God may hear thy prayers, and yet thou not take any notice of it. This you may see in Job, Job 9. 16, 17. If I have called and God answered, yet I will not believe ¹that God hath heard me, because thou breakest me with thy tempest—Job was in a fit of impatiency and unbelief. And though God did give him returns of prayer, yet hee would not, did not observe them.

1. 1Job 9. 16, 17.

5. God may deny thee the mercy, not that he is unable, or unwilling to hear thee or relieve thee; but to make thee the more desirous of, and so the more fit for mercy. It may be yet thou art not fit for an answer. The Philosopher begged some money of Antigonus, he gave him a Drachme: He said, It is not for a King to give so little, a Talent had been a more suitable gift. The King replied, Though a Talent is fit for me ⟨p. 96⟩