Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

since there is no good we can want, but he hath promised to give, upon our sincere and ardent desire for it?

God hath decreed to give this or that to Man, but conditionally, and by the means of enquiring after him, and asking for it:^* Ask and you shall receive, as much as to say, you shall not receive unless you ask. When the highest promises are made, God expects they should be put in suit: Our Saviour joins the Promise and the Petition together; the Promise to encourage the Petition, and the Petition to enjoy the Promise: He doth not say perhaps it shall be given, but it shall, that is, it certainly shall; your heavenly Father is unchangeably willing to give you those things. We must depend upon his Immutability for the thing, and submit to his Wisdom for the time. Prayer is an acknowledgement of our dependence upon God, which dependence could have no firm foundation without unchangeableness. Prayer doth not desire any change in God, but is offered to God that he would confer those things which he hath immutably willed to communicate, but he willed them not without Prayer as the means of bestowing them. The light of the Sun is ordered for our comfort, for the discovery of visible things, for the ripening the fruits of the Earth; but withal tis required that we use our faculty of seeing, that we employ our industry in sowing and planting, and expose our fruits to the view of the Sun, that they may receive the influence of it. If a man shuts his eyes, and complains that the Sun is changed into darkness, it would be ridiculous; the Sun is not changed, but we alter our selves; Nor is God changed in not giving us the blessings he hath promised, because he hath promised in the way of a due address to him, and opening our Souls to receive his influence; and to this, his Immutability is the greatest encouragement.

God hath decreed to give this or that to Man, but conditionally, and by the means of enquiring after him, and asking for it:^* Ask and you shall receive, as much as to say, you shall not receive unless you ask. When the highest promises are made, God expects they should be put in sute: Our Saviour joyns the Promise and the Petition together; the Promise to encourage the Petition, and the Petition to enjoy the Promise: He doth not say perhaps it shall be given, but it shall, that is, it certainly shall; your heavenly Father is unchangeably willing to give you those things. We must depend upon his Immutability for the thing, and submit to his Wisdom for the time. Prayer is an acknowledgment of our dependence upon God, which dependence could have no firm foundation without unchangeableness. Prayer doth not desire any change in God, but is offered to God that he would conferr those things which he hath immutably willed to communicate, but he willed them not without Prayer as the means of bestowing them. The light of the Sun is ordered for our comfort, for the discovery of visible things, for the ripening the fruits of the Earth; but withal tis required that we use our faculty of seeing, that we employ our industry in sowing and planting, and expose our fruits to the view of the Sun, that they may receive the influence of it. If a man shuts his eyes, and complains that the Sun is changed into darkness, it would be ridiculous; the Sun is not changed, but we alter our selves; Nor is God changed in not giving us the blessings he hath promised, because he hath promised in the way of a due address to him, and opening our Souls to receive his influence; and to this, his Immutability is the greatest encouragement.