CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

2. It cannot be denied but that if a man should pray with these thoughts, that he should change Gods mind, and make him alter his will, such a man hath false and sinful thoughts of God; and yet how many are plunged into such falsehoods; They conceive they have to do with God, as with a man who is mutable, and therefore by entreaties and importunities we make him change his resolutions, and do those things he never purposed to do, as we see in the importunate Widow with the unjust Judge; If therefore thou in thy Prayers to God should go with these thoughts, as if by thy prayers thou couldst provoke ⟨p. 138⟩God to will that at the present which he did not will before from all Eternity; or that when he had purposed one thing, by thy prayers he should be persuaded to do another thing; In this case thou hast sinful and dishonourable thoughts of God; Thou thinkest of him as a man like thy own self, and the ground why such apprehensions are ungodly and unbeseeming the Majesty of God, is because he is immutable and unchangeable in his nature: There is no ground of change or alteration in him, because there is no ignorance in his understanding, he foreknoweth all things, no mutability in hi• will, therefore thy prayers though they are necessary and useful, yet they have no such influence upon God as to change his mind, or to make him of unwilling, willing.

2. It cannot be denied but that if a man should pray with these thoughts, that he should change Gods minde, and make him alter his will, such a man hath false and sinful thoughts of God; and yet how many are plunged into such falshoods; They conceive they have to do with God, as with a man who is mutable, and therefore by entreaties and importunities we make him change his resolutions, and do those things he never purposed to do, as we see in the importunate Widow with the unjust Judge; If therefore thou in thy Praiers to God should go with these thoughts, as if by thy praiers thou couldst provoke ⟨p. 138⟩God to will that at the present which he did not will before from all Eternity; or that when he had purposed one thing, by thy praiers he should be perswaded to do another thing; In this case thou hast sinful and dishonourable thoughts of God; Thou thinkest of him as a man like thy own self, and the ground why such apprehensions are ungodly and unbeseeming the Majesty of God, is because he is immutable and unchangeable in his nature: There is no ground of change or alteration in him, because there is no ignorance in his understanding, he foreknoweth all things, no mutability in hi will, therefore thy praiers though they are necessary and usefull, yet they have no such influence upon God as to change his minde, or to make him of unwilling, willing.