約伯倫理 第 751 章

In the same place. — 'And what does it profit us, if we pray to Him?' 53. The order of things to be asked for in prayer. — When God is not sought in prayer, the mind more quickly grows weary in prayer: for when one asks for those things which perhaps, according to His hidden judgment, God refuses to grant, He Himself also comes into disdain, who is unwilling to give what is loved. But the Lord wishes Himself rather than the things He has created to be loved, eternal things rather than earthly to be asked for, as it is written: 'Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you' (Matthew 6:33). For He who did not say 'shall be given,' but 'shall be added,' clearly indicates that one thing is what is given principally, another what is superadded.

For because in our intention there ought to be eternity, but in our use temporality, both that is given, and this without doubt is superadded from abundance. And yet often men, when they ask for temporal good things but do not seek eternal rewards, ask for that which is added, and do not desire that to which it is added. Nor do they reckon it to be gain for their petition, if here they should be temporally poor, and there live rich in blessedness for eternity; but, intent, as has been said, on visible things alone, they refuse to purchase invisible things by the labor of asking. And yet if they sought the things above, they would already exhibit their labor with fruit:

because when the mind pants in prayer toward the beauty of its Author, inflamed with divine desires, it is joined to things above, is separated from things below, opens itself by the love of its own fervor that it may receive, and receiving is inflamed; and to love the things above is already to go upward; and while with great desire it gapes after heavenly things, in a wondrous manner it tastes this very thing which it seeks to receive. There follows: