The unbeliever must CRY IN PRAYER FOR FAITH 1/2

  Third Direction. Lift up thy cry aloud in prayer to God for faith.

           Question.  But may an unbeliever pray?  Some think he ought not.

           Answer.  This is ill news, if it were true, even for some who do believe, but dare not say they are be­lievers.  It were enough to scare them from prayer too; and so it would be as Satan would have it—that God would have few or none to vouch him in this sol­emn part of his worship; for they are but the fewest of believers that can walk to the throne of grace in view of their own faith.  Prayer, it is medium cultus, and also medium gratiæ—means, whereby we give worship to God, and also wait to receive grace from God; so that to say a wicked man ought not to pray, is to say he ought not to worship God and acknowledge him to be his Maker; and also, that he ought not to wait on the means whereby he may obtain grace and receive faith.  ‘Prayer is the soul’s motion God-ward,’ saith Rev. Mr. Baxter; and to say an unbeliever should not pray, is to say he should not turn to God, who yet saith to the wicked, ‘Seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near.’ ‘Desire is the soul of prayer,’ saith the same learned author, ‘and who dares say to the wicked, Desire not faith, desire not Christ or God?’  (Right Method for Peace of Conscience, p. 63)

           It cannot indeed be denied, but that an unbe­liever sins when he prays.  But it is not his praying is his sin, but his praying unbelievingly.  And therefore, he sins less in praying than in neglecting to pray; be­cause, when he prays, his sin lies in the circumstance and manner, but when he doth not pray, then he stands in a total defiance to the duty God hath com­manded him to perform, and means God hath ap­pointed him to use, for obtaining grace.  I must there­fore, poor soul, bid thee go on, for all these bugbears, and neglect not this grand duty which lies upon all the sons and daughters of men.  Only go in the sense of thy own vileness, and take heed of carrying pur­poses of going on in sin with thee to the throne of grace.  This were a horrible wickedness indeed.  As if a traitor should put on the livery which the prince’s servants wear, for no other end but to gain more easy access to his person, that he might stab him with a dagger he hath under that cloak.  Is it not enough to sin, but wouldst thou make God accessory to his own dishonour also?  By this bold enterprise thou dost what lies in thee to do it.  Should this be thy temper —which, God forbid —if I send thee to pray, it must be with Peter's counsel to Simon Magus, ‘Repent of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee,’ Acts 8:22. But I suppose thee, to whom now I am directing my advice, to be of a far different complexion—one brought to some sense of thy deplored state, and so softened by the word that thou couldst be content to have Christ upon any terms; only thou art at a loss in thy own thoughts, how such an impotent creature, yea impudent sinner, as thou hast been, should ever come to believe on him.  So that it is not the love of any present sin in thy heart, but the fear of thy past sins in thy conscience, that keeps thee from believing. Now for thee it is that I would gather the best encour­agements I can out of the word, and with them strew thy way to the throne of grace.

           Go, poor soul, to prayer for faith.  I do not fear a chiding for sending such customers to God's door. He that sends us to call sinners home unto him, can­not be angry to hear thee call upon him.  He is not so thronged with such suitors as that he can find in his heart to send them away with a denial that come with this request in their mouths.  Christ complains that sinners ‘will not come unto him that they may have eternal life;’ and dost thou think he will let any com­plain of him, that they desire to come, and he is un­willing they should? Cheer up thy heart, poor crea­ture, and knock boldly; thou hast a friend in God’s own bosom that will procure thy welcome.  He that could, without any prayer made to him, give Christ for thee, will not be unwilling, now thou so earnestly prayest, to give faith unto thee.  When thou prayest God to give, he commands thee to do.  ‘And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ,’ I John 3:23.  So that, in praying for faith, thou prayest that his will may be done by thee; yea, that part of his will which above all he desires should be done—called therefore with an emphasis ‘the work of God.’  ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent,’ John 6:29.  As if Christ had said, ‘If ye do not this, ye do nothing for God;’ and surely Christ knew his Father’s mind best.  O how welcome must that prayer be to God which falls in with his chiefest design.