fhould fuperfede the latter. Are we the lefs dependent, and the lefs indigent, because God knows our dependence and indigence? Prayer ftands upon a firm foundation, even the fupremacy of God, and our own dependency: and till this be shaken, our obligation to it can never be cancelled. God can fupply our wants without our afking: but is it reasonable to expect that he will? Why should he bestow favours upon perfons who seem to have no fenfe of the value of them, and exprefs no defires after them? Any of us may know a man to be in great diftrefs, and it may be in our power, and perhaps in our inclination too, to relieve him; yet we may reafonably expect that he should some way or other discover his own sense of his wants, and make application to us for relief: otherwise, if he is ftout and fullen, and, notwithstanding the mifery of his case, will make no representation of it, I am perfuaded we fhould reckon him unworthy of our favour. If fo; then let us not be partial, but allow as much to God as we affume to ourselves. The bleffings of heaven are not fo flight and inconfiderable, as not to be worth the afking for. 'Tis 3 happy happy for us that we can obtain them at fo eafy a rate. It is further objected against prayer, that it is needlefs, because God is of himself, and in his own nature, merciful and compaffionate, and cannot be made more fo by the warmest and most affectionate addreffes that we can make unto him. He is not to be overcome by importunity, or perfuaded by rhetoric, or melted by tears and paffionate expoftulations: these things have place only in weaker minds, but can never affect the infinitely perfect being. To this I answer: The end of prayer is not to overcome God by importunity; for that is a thing impoffible. All the earneftness and vehemence we can use, will not prevail upon him to give us those things which he is otherwise unwilling to grant. And if there are any texts of fcripture which infinuate as if these things had any effect upon God to make him more pitiful and compaffionate than he is by nature, they must not be understood literally, but figuratively and can mean no more than this; that God will as certainly hear the prayers of good men, as if he was liable to the fame paffions that men are, and, like them, was capable of being wrought upon by earneftnefs and importunity. But tho prayer makes no change in God, yet it makes a change in us: tho it cannot make him more benevolent and propitious towards his creatures, yet it may, and undoubtedly it doth, make them more fuitable objects of his favour. For it cherisheth true piety; it doth honour to God by acknowledging his power and goodness, and our own weakness and infufficiency, and by testifying our value and esteem of his favours; and it is of fingular use to ourfelves, because it alienates our affections from fin, and fets them upon virtue and goodness, and works us up into fuch a temper and difpofition of mind as fits us for receiving the bleffings we pray for. So that prayer is far from being needlefs: because, tho it hath no effect upon God, to make him more wife or more compaffionate; yet it is capable of having a very good effect upon ourselves, infpiring us with pious and devout affections, and thereby qualifying and difpofing us for the mercy of God, which we should otherwise be utterly unfit for. 2. It is objected, that prayer is bold and prefumptuous, because of the tranfcendent excellency and glory of the divine being. He is the high and lofty one who inbabiteth eternity: he fitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grafhoppers: all nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to bim less than nothing, and vanity : therefore bis excellency should make us afraid, and we should not prefume to addrefs ourselves to one who is so much our fuperior. It is granted, that God is a great and glorious being, and that we are very mean and infignificant in comparison of him; and this is a very good reason why we should approach him with great reverence and humility; but can never be a reason why we should not approach him at all. God is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few, fays Solomon. He doth not say, therefore utter no words, therefore never address thy maker at all. The tranfcendent excellency of God is indeed an argument for prayer, rather than against it; for by how much the greater he is, by fo much the more worthy of religious worship and adoration. Befides, tho God God is exalted infinitely above us, yet he stands in a very near relation to us: as great and glorious as he is, yet still he is our father, inafmuch as we derive our existence from him; and fhall we be afraid to go to our father? We see that earthly parents give good gifts unto their children: how much more will our heavenly Father give good things unto them who ask him? But, to ftrengthen the objection, it is added, that we are at a vast distance from God, not only in point of being, but also in point of rectitude. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and be cannot look on iniquity: behold he putteth no truft in his faints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his fight: how much more abominable and filthy is man who drinketh iniquity like water! Therefore if not the glory and majefty, yet furely the holiness and purity of the divine nature fhould deter fuch polluted and finful creatures as we are from making fupplication to him. But how plaufible foever this objecton might appear in the mouth of an heathen, who never enjoy'd the benefit of a divine revelation; it can with no colour at all be made by a chriftian. I 2 For |
