Miscellanies 6.12.101

This, then, was the laughter of Sarah when she received the good news of the birth of a son: not, I think, that she disbelieved the angel, but that she was ashamed of that intercourse again, through which she was to become the mother of a child. And perhaps it was from then on that Abraham, when he was in danger before the king of Egypt because of Sarah's beauty, fittingly called her his sister, of the same father, but not of the same mother. To those who have repented of their sins and have not firmly believed, God grants their requests through prayers; but to those who live without sin and as knowers, he gives when they have only thought of them. For instance, to Hannah, when she had only thought of the child, the conception of Samuel was given. “Ask,” says Scripture, “and I will do it; think, and I will give.” For we have been taught that God knows the heart, judging not from the movement of the soul, as we humans do, nor from the outcome (it is ridiculous to think so); nor, as the architect praised the work once it was done, did God likewise, having made the light, then look at it and call it good. Rather, knowing even before he made it what it would be, he praised it. What came into being by the power of the maker was good from above, through the purpose that has no beginning, that which was to be good in actuality. For he declared beforehand that what was to be was already good, the transposition of the words concealing the truth.