But withal I must add this, that because he is your Father, you may
intermingle confidence; nay, you are commanded so to do, and this honours
him as much as reverence. For confidence in God, as our Father, is the
best acknowledgment of the greatness and goodness of God. It declareth how
able he is to save us, and how willing, and so ratifieth all the promises
of God made to us, and setteth to a seal to his faithfulness. There is
nothing he accounts himself more honoured by, than a soul's full resigning
itself to him, and relying on his power and good-will in all necessities,
casting its care upon him, as a loving Father, who careth for us. And
truly, there is much beauty and harmony in the juncture of these two,
rejoicing with trembling, confidence with reverence, to ask nothing
doubting, and yet sensible of our infinite distance from him, and the
disproportion of our requests to his highness. A child-like disposition is
composed thus, as also the temper and carriage of a courtier hath these
ingredients in it. The love of his Father, and the favour of his Prince,
maketh him take liberty, and assume boldness; and withal he is not
unmindful of his own distance, from his Father or master. "Let us draw
near with full assurance of faith," Heb. x. 22. There is much in the
scripture, both exhorted, commanded, and commended, of that {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}, that
liberty and boldness of pouring out our requests to God, as one that
certainly will hear us, and grant that which is good. Unbelief spoileth
all. It is a wretched and base spirited thing, that can conceive no
honourable thoughts of God, but only like itself. But faith is the
well-pleasing ingredient of prayer. The lower thoughts a man has of
himself, it maketh him conceive the higher and more honourable of God. "My
ways are not your ways, nor my thoughts as your thoughts, but as far above
as the heavens above the earth," Isa. lv. 8. This is the rule of a
believing soul's conceiving of God, and expecting from him; and when a
soul is thus placed on God, by trusting and believing in him, it is fixed;
"His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord," Psal. cxii. 7. O how wavering
and inconstant is a soul, till it fix at this anchor, upon the ground of
his immutable promises! It is tossed up and do