and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’?
Prayer is one of the great laws of natural religion. That man is a brute, is a monster, that never prays, that never gives glory to his Maker, nor feels his favour, nor owns his dependence upon him. One great design therefore of Christianity is to assist us in prayer, to enforce the duty upon us, to instruct us in it, and encourage us to expect advantage by it.
Commenting on Luke 11:1-13
I say unto you,.... This is the accommodation of the parable; to these words are premised, in the Vulgate Latin version, the following, "if he continue knocking": though he will not rise and give him, because he is a friend; though mere friendship will not influence and engage him to rise from his bed, at such an unseasonable time, and fulfil the request of his...
Trouble me not--the trouble making him insensible both to the urgency of the case and the claims of friendship. I cannot--without exertion which he would not make.