The unbeliever must CRY IN PRAYER FOR FAITH 2/2

Joab found his request, in the mouth of the woman of Tekoah, to take as he would have it.  How could it do otherwise, when he asks nothing but what the king liked better than himself did or could?  And doth it not please God more, thinkest thou—how strong soever thy desires for faith are—that a poor humbled sinner should believe, than it can do to the creature himself?  Methinks, by this time, thou shouldst begin to promise thyself, poor soul, a happy return of this thy adventure, which thou hast now sent to heaven.  But for thy further encouragement know that this grace, which thou so wantest and makest thy moan to God for, is a principal part of Christ’s purchase.  That blood, which is the price of pardon, is the price of faith also, by which poor sin­ners may come to have the benefit of that pardon.  As he has bought off that wrath which man’s sin had justly kindled in God’s heart against him, so hath also that enmity which the heart of the creature is filled with against God, and paid for a new stock of grace, wherewith his bankrupt creature may again set up; so that, poor soul, when thou goest to pray for faith, look up unto Christ, as having a bank of grace lying by him, to give out to poor sinners who see they have nothing of their own to begin with, and in the sense of this their beggary repair to him.  ‘Thou hast as­cended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them,’ Ps. 68:18.  This is beyond all doubt meant of Christ, and to him applied, Eph. 4:8.  Now observe,

           First. There is a bank and treasure of gifts in the hand of Christ—‘Thou hast.’

           Second. Who trusts him with them; and that is his Father—‘Thou hast received gifts;’ that is, Christ of his Father.

           Third. When, or upon what consideration, doth the Father deposit this treasure into Christ’s hands? ‘Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received,’ &c.  That is, when Christ had vanquished sin and Satan by his death and rode in the triumphant chariot of his ascension into heav­en’s glorious city, then did Christ receive these gifts. They were the purchase of his blood, and the pay­ment of an old debt which God, before the foun­dation of the world—when the covenant was trans­acted and struck—promised his Son, upon the con­dition of his discharging sinful man’s debt with the effusion of his own precious blood unto death.

           Fourth. The persons for whose use Christ received these gifts—‘for men,’ not angels—for ‘rebellious’ men, not men without sin; so that, poor soul, thy sinful nature and life do not make thee an excepted person, and shut thee out from receiving any of this dole.

           Fifth. Observe the nature of these gifts, and the end they are given Christ for; ‘that God may dwell in them or with them.’  Now, nothing but faith can make a soul that hath been rebellious a place meet for the holy God to dwell in.  This is the gift indeed he re­ceived all other gifts for, in a manner.  Wherefore the gifts of the Spirit and ministry, ‘apostles, teachers, pastors,’ &c., but that by these he might work faith in the hearts of poor sinners?  Let this give thee bold­ness, poor soul, humbly to press God for that which Christ hath paid for.  Say, ‘Lord, I have been a rebel­lious wretch indeed; but did Christ receive nothing for such?  I have an unbelieving heart; but I hear there is faith paid for in thy covenant.  Christ shed his blood that thou mightest shed forth thy Spirit on poor sinners.’  Dost thou think, that while thou art thus pleading with God, and using Christ’s name in prayer to move him, that Christ himself can sit within hear­ing of all this, and not befriend thy motion to his Father?  Surely he is willing that what God is indebted to him should be paid; and therefore, when thou beggest faith upon the account of his death, thou shalt find him ready to join issue with thee in the same prayer to his Father.  Indeed, he went to heaven on purpose that poor returning souls might not want a friend at court, when they come with their humble petitions thither.

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.