John Trapp on Proverbs 30:7

Verſ. 7. Two things have I required of thee] Two ſpecial requeſts he had among many: for our preſent condition is a condition of ſingular vanity and indigency; we get our living by begging; and are never without ſomewhat to bee required of God; never without out wants and aylments, and ſutes for ſupplies.

Deny me them not] See here both his familiarity with God in Prayer, and his importunity: for a lazie Sut[illegible: 1 letter]r beggs a denial: Agur therefore re-enforceth his requeſt: it was honeſt, elſe he would never have begun it: but being ſo, he is reſolved to follow it. So doth David with his one thing which hee did deſire, and he would deſire, Pſal. 27.4. he would never give it over. So Jacob would have a bleſſing, and therefore wraſtles with might and ſlight: and this he doth in the night and alone, and when God was leaving him, and upon one legge. He had a hard pull of it, and yet he prevailed. Let me goe, ſaith God: No, thou ſhalt not goe, ſaith Jacob, till I have my requeſt. It is not unlawful for us to be unmannerly in Prayer, to be importunate, and after a ſort impudent, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Luke 11.8. Propter improbitatem. Luke 18.8. Was not the Woman of Canaan ſo? Matth. 15.22. Shee came for a Cure, and a Cure ſhe would have: and had it too, with an high commendation of her heroical faith. Chriſt, he was no Penny-father, he had more bleſſings than one, even the abundance of Spirit for them that ask it. When poor men make requeſts to us, we uſually anſwer them as the Eccho doth the voyce, the anſwer cuts off half the Petition: if they ask us two things, we think we deal well if we grant them one. Few Naamans, that when you beg one talent, will force you to take two. But God heaps mercies upon his Suppliants: and blames them for their modeſty in asking. Hitherto you have asked me nothing. Nothing to what you might have done, and ſhould have had. Ask that your joy may be full. Thou ſhouldſt have ſmitten five or ſix times (ſaid the Prophet to the King of Iſrael, 2 King. 14, 18.19. that ſmote thrice only) then hadſt thou ſmitten Syria till thou hadſt conſumed it.

Before I dye] q. d. I intend to be a daily Suter for them whilſt I live: and when I dye, I ſhall have no more to doe in this kind. Every one as hee hath ſome ſpecial grace or gift above others, and as he is dogged with ſome ſpecial temptation or violent corruption, ſo he hath ſome great requeſt. And God holds him haply in hand about it all his life-long, that he may daily hear from him, and that a conſtant entercourſe may bee maintained. Thus it was with David, Pſal. 27.4. and with Paul, 2 Cor. 12.8, 9. In this caſe wee muſt reſolve to give God no reſt, never to ſtand before him, but ply this Petition: and yet take heed of preſcribing to him, of limiting the holy one of Iſrael: ſay with Luther, Fiat voluntas mea: Let my will be done: but then he ſweetly falls off, with Mea voluntas, Domine, quia tua. My will Lord, but becauſe it is, and no further than it is thy will too.