Counsel and direction for the weak Christian in persevering prayer 2/3

1. Consider what it is to pray.  It is to go a beg­ging for an alms, not to demand a debt.  Now, doth it become thee in so poor a condition, and about such a work, to be so quick and short with thy God?  If you can live without being beholden to God, why then do you at all come to his door?  If you cannot, why then do you not wait more patiently for his pleasure? Should he wrong thee if he beat thee from his door? Why then art thou no more thankful for his leave to wait there, though thou beest not presently served?
2. Consider who he is thou prayest to.  Is he not the great and glorious majesty of heaven and earth?  And is not this one piece of the state he looks to be served in by his poor creatures?  How long did Mor­decai sit at the king's gate before he had that which he waited for?  Is it not time enough for the servant to be set at dinner after he hath waited at his master’s table?  Were it not unsufferable sauciness in the serv­ant to complain his master sat too long and required too much waiting at his hands?  This is the language of our hearts, when we think much to stay God’s time for a mercy.  Is he not a righteous holy God?  Surely he doth thee no wrong to make thee pray, and that long, for a mercy which thou deservest not when it comes at last.  Is he not wiser than thou, to know how to time his mercies?  ‘Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?’ Job 18:4.  Wilt thou have God overthrow the course of his providence, which he thinks fit, to gratify thy impatient spirit?  Surely this is to charge God fool­ishly with some error in his government.  In a word, is not he a faithful God, though he comes not so soon to thy relief  as thou wouldst have him?  where did he give thee leave to date his promises and set the day of payment?  No; he hath promised to answer his chil­dren’s prayers, but concealed the time of performance of his promise, on purpose to keep them in a waiting posture; and therefore he breaks not his promise when he detains a mercy, but thou forgettest thy duty not to wait.  God is not unfaithful, but thou art faith­less and unbelieving.
3. Have not as good as thyself prayed, and that as long as thou, before they have received an answer,and yet have not thus behaved themselves?  Look into the generation of seekers, and thou wilt find that God hath exercised their patience as well as thine. Hast thou stood at God’s door longer than many of thy brethren have done?  Remember Job, David, and Heman, how many troubles came over their heads! what sad tidings did they hear!  Dismal afflictions did they endure they endure before the day broke and divine providence cleared up!  Shall God raise a causey^[5] for thee to walk by thyself dryshod, while these, and thousands besides, have taken many a weary step through the deep sloughs of affliction, before they could come to fair way?  When God led Israel far about, and made it a journey of forty years from Egypt to Canaan, it had been great pride for any among them to have desired God to lead them a shorter way thither than all his brethren.  David de­sired no more at God’s hands than to fare as his fellow-saints did: ‘Be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name,’ Ps. 119:132.  Nay, doth not Christ himself and example beyond all example, wait, and that long, even in heaven itself for an answer to his prayers?  He hath been already above a thousand years  there at prayer for his church, and against his enemies, and hath not as yet received the full of his desires; but still is expecting till the one be saved, and the other be made his footstool.  Who art thou that thou shouldst have so high an opinion of thyself, as to look God should make all stay, and trade for time, while thou alone for ready money?
4. Consider whether thou didst never make God wait on thee before his suit could be heard, though he begged not for his benefit but thy own.  Did God wait in thy carnal state upon thee, that he might at last be gracious to thee, and thinkest thou much to wait at prayer now on him?