I proceed now to the other Encouragement, taken from the Nature of God, confidered as he is our heavenly Father. Or what Man is there of you, &c. In fpeaking to which Words, I fhall apply myself to the three following Particulars.

1. To confider God's Goodness and Readiness to give good Things to us his Creatures.

But, 2. That he loves that we should ask him for those Things.

3.

What Duties are incumbent upon us, from the Knowledge and Belief of this Paternal Affection in God, toward his poor Creatures.

But before I enter upon the Particulars, fince they all rife from the Similitude in the Text of a Father's Readiness, not to deny good Things to his Children, when they ask him; it will be neceffary, First, briefly to clear up this Comparifon. As God is infinitely removed from our Sight and immediate Knowledge, the little Knowledge we have of him, is by the Help of Similitudes, taken from the Creatures. Particularly, there is nothing more resembles the Love of God to his Creatures, than that natural Love which they have for their Offspring. Mofes compares God's Care of his People Ifrael to the Eagle's tender Care of her Young, Deut. xxxii. II. As an Eagle firreth up her Neft, flutterth over her Young, Spreadeth abroad her Wings, taketh them, beareth them on her Wings; fo the Lord alone did lead Ifrael. Efpecially the Goodnefs of God is refembled to that of Parents to their Children; to a Mother's Care for Tendernefs; and to a Father's for Providence. To

come

come then to the Simile in the Text, for our Encouragement to frequent and ardent Prayer, God is reprefented here as a kind Father, who, when his Son afks him ufeful Neceffaries, would be loth to cheat him with hurtful Things, fomething resembling the other in Figure or Shape, but not at all of the fame Beneficial Nature. And from hence he draws an Argument à fortiori, If ye then being evil, know how to give good Gifts unto your Children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven, give good Things to them

that ask him?

The Similitude being thus cleared up; we may observe from it thefe Three Things.

1. That God's Goodness to those who pray to him, is really beyond any Thing we have to explain it by. We know nothing in Nature of a more fincere and steady Love than that is of Parents to their own Children, yet it is much allayed and abated by their other bad Qualities; by Paffion and Ill-nature, by Luft and Drunkennefs, and divers other Vices of the Parents. And where it is not abated in the Heart, it is often curbed in the outward Expreffions of it, by the Narrowness of their Fortune, and other Neceffities of their outward Circumstances. Now though we should in our own Minds abftract all thefe Impediments from this Love, yet we must still believe that all created Love and Goodness, as to the Degree of it, falls infinitely fhort of God's Love and Goodness to his Creatures.

2. Another Thing we may obferve from our Saviour's Deduction from this Simile is, that the Promise and Encouragement in the Text are to VOL. IV M

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be limited to good Things: And this accounts for many of our Petitions, of which we cannot perceive that we have any Returns. For perhaps the Things we prayed for were not good in themfelves, or not good for us; there is a great deal of Reason why it ought to be left to our heavenly Father's fuperiour Wisdom to decide whether it is fit to give us these very Things in kind, or to deny them, as being improper for us, or to anfwer our Prayers in fomething that is better, and

more convenient.

3. A Third Thing we may observe from this fame Way of arguing, is, that the Promise is not reftrained to the Elect, fanctified Ones, who, in a more peculiar Senfe are the Children of God; but is to be extended to all that pray to him, with the due Qualifications formerly described; for it is not here faid, How much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good Things to his Children? This would only have created great Doubts and Scruples, that not being easy to be known who are the Children of God. But, for preventing all Scruple, it is faid here, How much more fhall your Father which is in Heaven, give good Things to them that afk him? A plain Intimation, that the Encouragement is to all Men; to the Good, that they may fo continue, and increase more and more in Grace; and to the Bad, that they may become Good. But it is time now to come to the Particulars, which I proposed to confider from the Words.

I. The firft was, God's Goodnefs and Readinefs to give good Things to his Creatures. There is no Attribute of God more effential to him, or

that he feems more defirous we fhould know him by, than this. This is the chief Part of his Name, or Character, as it is defcribed, Exod. xxxiv. 5, 6, 7. And the Lord defcended in the Cloud, and proclaimed the Name of the Lord. And the Lord paffed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-fuffering, and abundant in Goodness and Truth. Keeping Mercy for Thousands, forgiving Iniquity, and Tranfgreffion, and Sin. This is the Attribute he recommends moft to our Imitation, that we should be merciful, as he is merciful, Luke vi. 36. Without this all his other Attributes would be very terrible. Wifdom without Goodness, degenerates into an infidious Cunning; and Power without Goodness, is the Character of a Tyrant, or an Oppreffor, or a Devil. But when infinite Goodness is joined to Almighty Power, and unerring Wisdom, it is the greatest Encouragement in the World to make our Application to fuch a Being. It was from this Goodness that God created the World; for it was not that he might thereby procure or contrive any Addition to his own Happiness, which was always infinite, but that he might communicate of his own Fulness to his Creatures. And it is from the fame Goodness that he fupplies us with all Things pertaining to Life and Godliness. And not to ftay upon the Enumeration of leffer Mercies; it was from this his Love and Goodnefs to poor loft Man, that he sent his dear Son Chrift Jefus into the World, to recover them out of that wretched State and Condition, into which they had funk themfelves; and, finally,

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it is owing to this Goodness, that for Chrift's Sake he is ready and willing to bestow all Grace upon us, if we fervently afk it, and diligently ufe it. And this would lead me to the next Thing I propofed to confider, namely, that how foever ready and willing God is to give good Things to us Men, he loves that we fhould address him for them by Prayer. But because there are fome obvious Objections against this Doctrine of God's Readiness to give us good Things, it will be fit in the firft Place to remove them.

This Doctrine then may feem inconfiftent both with what perhaps ye may have heard, of a great Number of Men, without any Confideration of their antecedent Demerits, decreed before both to Sin and Mifery; and to the fcanty Measure of the Grace of God beftowed upon Men, without which they are not able of themselves to bring any Good to Perfection; how foever they may have fome imperfect Embryo's of it. But I think both these are easily answered; for as to the firft, howfoever the Devil has propagated fuch a strange Notion, on Purpose to lay all the Blame of our Sin and Damnation upon God; there is nothing more certain, than that from the whole Tenour of the holy Scripture, our Destruction is only of ourselves; and that no Man will ever be condemned for any Thing, which it was not in his own Power, by the Grace of God, to have helped and prevented. And as for the fcanty Measure of the Grace of God, that is likewise purely our own Fault, in that we do not more