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1. The Lord, by His promise, gave those whose hopes were resting
on Himself a special ground of confidence, when He said, "For I
go to the Father; and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will do
it." His proceeding, therefore, to the Father, was not with any
view of abandoning the needy, but of hearing and answering their
petitions. But what is to be made of the words, "Whatsoever ye
shall ask," when we behold His faithful ones so often asking and not
receiving? Is it, shall we say, for no other reason but that they
ask amiss? For the Apostle James made this a ground of reproach when
he said, "Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may
consume it upon your lusts." What one, therefore, wishes to
receive, in order to turn to an improper use, God in His mercy
rather refuses to bestow. Nay, more, if a man asks what would, if
answered, only tend to his injury, there is surely greater cause to
fear, lest what God could not withhold with kindness, He should give
in His anger. Do we not see how the Israelites got to their own hurt
what their guilty lusting craved? For while it was raining manna on
them from heaven, they desired to have flesh to eat. They disdained
what they had, and shamelessly sought what they had not: as if it were
not better for them to have asked not to have their unbecoming desires
gratified with the food that was wanting, but to have their own dislike
removed, and be made themselves to receive aright the food that was
provided. For when evil becomes our delight, and what is good the
reverse, we ought to be entreating God rather to win us back to the
love of the good, than to grant us the evil. Not that it is wrong to
eat flesh, for the apostle, speaking of this very thing, says,
"Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused which is
received with thanksgiving; but because, as he also says, "It is
evil for that man who eateth with offense;" and if so, with offense
to man, how much more so if to God? to whom it was no light offense,
on the part of the Israelites, to reject what wisdom was supplying,
and ask for that which lust was craving: although they would not
actually make the request, but murmured because it was wanting. But
to let us know that the wrong lies not with any creature of God, but
with obstinate disobedience and inordinate desire, it was not in
swine's flesh that the first man found death, but in an apple; and it
was not for a fowl, but for a dish of pottage, that Esau lost his
birthright.
2. How, then, are we to understand "Whatsoever ye shall ask, I
will do it," if there are some things which the faithful ask, and
which God, even purposely on their behalf, leaves undone? Or ought
we to suppose that the words were addressed only to the apostles?
Surely not. For what He has got the length of now saying is in the
very line of what He had said before: "He that believeth in me, the
works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall
he do;" which was the subject of our previous discourse. And that no
one might attribute such power to himself, but rather to make it
manifest that even these greater works were done by Himself, He
proceeded to say, "For I go to the Father; and whatsoever ye shall
ask in my name, I will do it." Was it the apostles only that
believed on Him? When, therefore, He said, "He that believeth
on me," He spoke to those, among whom we also by His grace are
included, who by no means receive everything that we ask. And if we
turn our thoughts even to the most blessed apostles, we find that he
who labored more than they all, yet not he, but the grace of God that
was with him, besought the Lord thrice that the messenger of Satan
might depart from him, and received not what he had asked. What shall
we say, beloved? Are we to suppose that the promise here made,
"Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will do it," was not
fulfilled by Him even to the apostles? And to whom, then, will ever
His promise be fulfilled, if therein He has deceived His own
apostles?
3. Wake up, then, believer, and give careful heed to what is
stated here, "in my name:" for in these words He does not say,
"whatsoever ye shall ask" in any way; but, "in my name." How,
then, is He called, who promised so great a blessing? Christ
Jesus, of course: Christ means King, and Jesus means Saviour!
for certainly it is not any one who is a king that will save us, but
only the Saviour-King; and therefore, whatsoever we ask that is
adverse to the interests of salvation, we do not ask in the name of the
Saviour. And yet He is the Saviour, not only when He does what we
ask, but also when He refuses to do so; since by not doing what He
sees to be contrary to our salvation, He manifests Himself the more
fully as our Saviour. For the physician knows which of his patient's
requests will be favorable, and which will be adverse, to his safety;
and therefore yields not to his wishes when asking what is prejudicial,
that he may effect his recovery. Accordingly, when we wish Him to do
whatsoever we ask, let it not be in any way, but in His name, that
is, in the name of the Saviour, that we present our petition. Let
us not, then, ask aught that is contrary to our own salvation; for if
He do that, He does it not as the Saviour, which is the name He
bears to His faithful disciples. For He who condescends to be the
Saviour of the faithful, is also a Judge to condemn the ungodly.
Whatsoever, therefore, any one that believeth on Him shall ask in
that name which He bears to those who believe on Him, He will do
it; for He will do it as the Saviour. But if one that believeth on
Him asketh something through ignorance that is injurious to his
salvation, he asketh it not in the name of the Saviour; for His
Saviour He will no longer be if He do aught to impede his salvation.
And hence, in such a case, in not doing what He is entreated to do,
His way is kept the clearer for doing what His name imports. And on
that account, not only as the Saviour, but also as the good Master,
He taught us, in the very prayer He gave us, what we should ask, in
order that, whatsoever we shall ask, He may do it; and that we,
too, might thereby understand that we cannot be asking in the
Master's name anything that is inconsistent with the rule of His own
instructions.
4. There are some things, indeed, which, although really asked in
His name, that is, in harmony with His character as both Saviour
and Master, He doeth not at the time we ask them, and yet He
faileth not to do them. For when we pray that the kingdom of God may
come, it does not imply that He is not doing what we ask, because we
do not begin at once to reign with Him in the everlasting kingdom: for
what we ask is delayed, but not denied. Nevertheless, let us not
fail in praying, for in so doing we are as those that sow the seed;
and in due season we shall reap. And even when we are asking aright,
let us ask Him at the same time not to do what we ask amiss; for there
is reference to this also in the Lord's Prayer, when we say,
"Lead us not into temptation." For surely the temptation is no
slight one if thine own request be hostile to thy cause. But we must
not listen with indifference to the statement that the Lord (to
prevent any from thinking that what He promised to do to those that
asked, He would do without the Father, after saying, "Whatsoever
ye shall ask in my name, I will do it") immediately added, "That
the Father may be glorified in the Son: if ye shall ask anything in
my name, I will do it." In no respect, therefore, does the Son
act without the Father, since He so acts for the very purpose that in
Him the Father may be glorified. The Father, therefore, acts in
the Son, that the Son may be glorified in the Father: and the Son
acts in the Father, that the Father may be glorified in the Son;
for the Father and the Son are one.
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