130 SERMON VI. JOB XXI. 15. The latter Part of the T What Profit should we have if we pray unto Him? unto him? HE whole Verfe is this What is the Almighty that we fhould ferve him, and what Profit Should we have if we pray So faid the Atheists in the Days of Job, and fo we may hear fome among us fay now: For it is no ftrange Thing, in this Age, to hear Men talk against the Duties of Religion, as well as the Doctrines of it, and against no Duty more than that of praying to God, of which Job here fpeaks. This, though though one would think it fhould be the most natural, the most reafonable Duty in the World, confidering that we are all the Creatures of God, and do and muft depend upon him continually for all the Good we hope for, either here or hereafter, yet it is accounted by fome among us, a very unphilofophical abfurd Thing: If we would place Religion in Acts of Juftice and Beneficence, and fuch other moral Virtues, they could be content fo far to own it: Nay, they would not be against the exercifing our Devotions to God by way of Hymns and Praises for his Excellencies and wonderful Works, though yet he ftands in need of none of our Service; but as for this Bufinefs of praying to him, and tiring him every Day with our Petitions, and Supplications, and Interceffions, in which the godly People spend most of their Time, there is no Sense, no Reason in it; nay, they have unanswerable Reafons to prove that all this is Labour loft, and Time spent very unprofitably. It is my Defign at this time, to vindicate this Part of Religion from the Cavils and Exceptions of this Sort of Men, and to give an Answer to them that are apt to afk, with those that are here represented in my Text, What Profit fhall we have if we pray unto God? Now, methinks, to thofe that put fuch a Queftion as this, it fhould in Reafon be a futficient Answer to reprefent these following Things: First of all; That all good Men who have ever feriously applied themselves to God by Prayer, have always had, and ftill have, many and great Inftances and Experience of God's anfwering their Prayers: And there is no devout Man (and fuch kind of Men only are capable Judges of this Matter)," but is ready to atteft the Truth of this; fo that here is conftant Experience on the Side of Prayer, against their philofophical Doubt. Secondly, It has been the general Belief of all Nations, in all Ages, that God hears the Prayers of good Men, and answers them; and accordingly all Nations have always made ufe of this Way for the obtaining thofe Benefits they ftood in need of, and for the removing thofe Evils they were preffed with; fo that as there is Experience on the Side of praying to God, fo there is likewife the univerfal Confent and Practice of all the World. Thirdly, If we may believe God's Revelations, which he hath made in the Holy Scriptures, we are certain that there is great Profit and Advantage to be found in Praying to God; for God hath, in thofe Scriptures, made the moft folemn Promises that he will hear hear and grant all the Prayers of his Servants, if they be put up to him as they ought to be; and a great many Inftances we find in thefe Scriptures wherein God hath remarkably made these Promises good. Fourthly, and Laftly, God hath, in thefe Scriptures, laid fo great a Stress upon this Duty of Prayer, and declared it to be fo neceffary in order to the obtaining the good Things we ftand in need of, that he hath told us, without our Prayers we shall not have them; fo that furely, all thefe Things confider'd, it is not in vain that we should ferve God, neither is it without Profit that we fhould pray unto him. t Well, but all this doth not fatisfy that Sort of People which we have to deal with What do we talk to them of Experience and Revelations, fo long as the Thing itself is against Reason, so long as in the Nature of the Thing it is abfurd to think that our Prayers fhould help us in any Diftrefs? Now, for the Proof of this, they argue four feveral Ways: Some argue from the Immutability of God's Nature, others from his effential Goodness, others from his eternal Decrees, and laftly, others from the Frame of the World, and the established Course of Nature. From all thefe Topicks they draw Arguments, and, they think, very frong ones, to prove that our Prayers fignify K 3 nothing nothing as to any real Benefit we receive from them. Well! let us, at this Time, examine these their Arguments one by one, and fee what Force there is, in them for the inferring this Conclufion; I am confident you will be fatisfied that there is none at all, tho' yet I fhall give them all the Weight they are capable of. The firft Argument, against the Needfulnefs or Efficacy of Prayer, is drawn from the Immutability of the Nature of God, and it runs thus: To fuppofe that our Prayers are at any Time effectual, or, which is all one, that God doth at any Time grant the Requests that are put up to him, is to fuppofe that he doth upon our Prayers beftow fomething upon us, which without our Prayers he would not have done; which is in effect to fay, that our Prayers can produce a Change, an Alteration in the Mind of God; for before our Prayers he was not inclined or difpofed to give us fuch and fuch Bleffings, but after our Prayers he is : So that according to this Doctrine, God is fo far from being immutable by his Nature, that it is in the Power of the most contemptible Man in the World to make him alter his Purpose, which is very impious to affirm, and directly contrary even to our own Scripture Propofitions, which declare, That with God there is no Variableness nor Shadow of |
