The Right Method for a Settled Peace of Conscience, Direction 9
DIRECTION IX.
9. Having thus far proceeded, in diſcovering and improving the General Grounds of Comfort, and then in diſcovering the Nature of Faith, which gives you Right to the ſpecial Mercies of the Covenant, following it; Your next work muſt be, To perform this Condition by actual Believing.
YOur ſoul ſtands in extreme need of a Saviour: God offereth you a Saviour in the Goſpel, what then have you next to do, but Accept him? Believe that this offer is general, and therefore to you: and that Chriſt is not ſet to ſale, nor doth God require you to bring a Price in your hand: but only heartily and thankfully to Accept of what he freely giveth you. This muſt be done before you fall on trying your Graces to get Aſſurance: for you muſt have Grace, before you can diſcover it: and this is the firſt proper ſpecial ſaving Grace (as it comprizeth that knowledge and Aſſent which neceſſarily go before it.) This is not only the method for thoſe that yet never believed, but alſo for them that have loſt the ſenſe of their faith, and ſo the ſight of their evidence. Believe again, that you may know you do believe; or at leaſt may poſſeſſe an Accepted Saviour. When God in the Goſpel bids you, Take Jeſus Chriſt, and beſeecheth you to be reconciled to him; what will you ſay to him? If your heart anſwer, Lord I am willing, I will Accept of Chriſt and be thankfull; why, then the match is made between Chriſt and you: and the marriage Covenant is truly entered, which none can diſſolve. If Chriſt were not firſt willing, he would not be the ſuitor and make the motion: and if he be willing, and you be willing, what can break the match? If you will ſay, I cannot believe, if you underſtand what you ſay, either you mean that you cannot believe the Goſpel is true; or elſe that you cannot be willing that Chriſt ſhould be yours. If it be the former, and you ſpeak truly, then you are a flat Infidel (yet many temptations to doubt of the truth of Scripture, a true believer may have, yea and actual doubtings; but his faith prevaileth and is victorious over them:) But if you really doubt whether the Goſpel be true, uſe Gods means for the diſcovery of its truth. Read what I have written in the ſecond part of my book of Reſt: I will undertake now more confidently then ever I did, to prove the truth of Scripture, by plain, full, undeniable force of Reaſon. But I ſuppoſe this is none of your caſe. If therefore when you ſay, that you cannot believe, you mean that you cannot Accept an offered Chriſt, or be willing to have him: then I demand, 1. What is your reaſon? the Will is lead by the Reaſon of the Underſtanding. If you be not willing, there is ſomething that perſwades you to be unwilling. This Reaſon muſt be from ſomething reall, or elſe upon a miſtake, upon ſuppoſal of ſomething that is not in being. If it be upon miſtake, either it is that you be not convinced of Chriſts willingneſs to be yours; and if you thought he did conſent, you would conſent willingly: If this be it, you do truly believe while you think you do not: for you do conſent (and that's all on your part to make the match) and Chriſt doth certainly conſent, though you do not underſtand it: In this caſe it concerneth you, to underſtand better the extent of the new Covenant, and then you will be paſt doubt of the willingneſs of Chriſt, and ſee that wherever the match breaks, it is only for want of conſent in men; for Chriſt is the firſt ſuitor, and hath long ago in the Covenant proclaimed his conſent, to be the Head and Husband of every ſinner, on condition they will but conſent to be his.
If your miſtake be from any falſe apprehenſion of the Nature of Chriſt, as if he were not a ſufficient Saviour, or were ſuch an enemy to your comfort that he would do you more hurt then good; if theſe miſtakes are prevalent, then you do not know Chriſt, and therefore muſt preſently better ſtudy him in the Goſpel, till you have prevailed over ſuch ignorant and blaſphemous conceits (but none of this I ſuppoſe is your caſe.)
If then the reaſon why you ſay, you cannot believe, be from any thing that is really in Chriſt (and not upon miſtake,) then it muſt be either from ſome diſlike of his ſaving work, by which he would pardon you, and ſave you from damnation (but that is impoſſible; for you cannot be willing to be damned or unpardoned, till you loſe your Reaſon:) Or elſe it is from a diſlike of his work of ſanctification, by which he would cleanſe your heart and life, by ſaving you from your ſinfull nature and actions: ſome grudgings againſt Chriſts holy and undefiled Laws and wayes will be in the beſt, while there is that fleſh in them which luſteth againſt the Spirit, ſo that they cannot do the things they would: But if truly you have ſuch a diſlike of a ſinleſs condition, through the love of any ſin or creature, that you cannot be willing to have Chriſt to cure you and cleanſe you from that ſin, and make you holy, I ſay, if this be true, in a prevailing degree, ſo that if Chriſt and Holineſs were offered you, you would not Accept them, then it is certain you have not true faith. And in this caſe it is eaſie to diſcern, that your firſt work lyeth not in getting Comfort or eaſe to your troubled minde, but in getting better conceits of Chriſt and a holy ſtate and life, that ſo you may be willing of Chriſt as Chriſt is of you, and ſo become a true believer. And here I would not leave you at that loſſe as ſome do, as if there were nothing for you th… do for the getting of faith: for certainly God hath preſcribed you Means for that end. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God preached, Rom. 10.17. 1. Therefore ſee that you wait diligently on this Ordinance of God. Read the Scriptures daily; and ſearch them, to ſee whether you may not there finde that Holineſs is better then ſin. 2. And (however ſome ſeducers may tell you, that wicked men ought not to pray, yet) be ſure that you lye on your knees before God, and importunately beg that he would open your eyes and change your heart, and ſhew you ſo far the evil of ſin, and the want and worth of Chriſt and holineſs, that you may be unfainedly glad to Accept his offer.
Object▪ But the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord.
Anſw. 1. You muſt diſtinguiſh between wicked men as actually wicked and going on in the proſecution of their wickedneſs; and wicked men as they have ſome good in them, or are doing ſome good, or are attempting a return to God. 2. You muſt diſtinguiſh between real Prayer and ſeeming prayer. 3. You muſt diſtinguiſh between full Acceptance of Prayer, when God delighteth in them, and an Acceptance only to ſome particular end, not intimating the Acceptance of the perſon with his prayer: And between Acceptance fully Promiſed (as certain) and Acceptance but half-promiſed (as Probable:) And upon theſe diſtinctions I ſhall anſwer your objection in the Concluſions.
1. When wicked men pray God to proſper them in their wickedneſs, yea or to pardon them while they intend to go on in it, and ſo to give them an indulgence in ſin; or when they think with a few prayers for ſome Good which they can endure, to put by that Holineſs which they cannot endure, and ſo to make a cloak for their rebellion, theſe prayers are all an abomination to the Lord.
2. When men uſe the words of a Prayer without the deſire of the thing asked, this is no Prayer, but equivocally ſo called, as a carkaſſe is a man: and therefore no wonder if God abhor that Prayer, which truly is no Prayer.
3. God hath not made a full Promiſe, aſcertaining any wicked man, while wicked, that he will hear his Prayer: for all ſuch Promiſes are made to Believers.
4. God doth never ſo hear an unbelievers Prayer, as to accept his perſon with his Prayer, or to take a complacency in them. So much for the Negative.
Now for the Affirmative I add: 1. Prayer is a duty which God enjoyned even wicked men (I could prove it by a hundred Scripture texts.)
2. There may be ſome good deſires in unbelievers, which they may expreſs in prayer, and theſe God may ſo far hear as to grant them, as he did in part to Ahab.
3. An unbeliever may lye under preparing Grace, and be on his way in returning towards God, though yet he be not come to ſaving faith; and in this ſtate he may have many good deſires, and ſuch Prayers as God will hear.
4. Though God have not flatly engaged himſelf to unbelievers, ſo as to give them a certainty of hearing their prayers, and giving them true Grace on the improvement of their naturals, yet he hath not only appointed them this and other means to get Grace, but alſo given them half promiſes, or ſtrong probabilities of ſpeeding, ſo much as may be a ſufficient encouragement to any ſuch ſinner to call on God and uſe his Means. For as he appointeth not any vain Means to man, ſo no man can name that man who did improve his naturals to the utmoſt, and in particular, ſought God in prayer ſo far as a natural man may do, who yet miſt of Grace and was rejected (This is the true mean between Pelagianiſme and Antinomianiſme in this point.)
5. When God calls unbelievers to Prayer, he withall calls them to Believe: and when he works their heart to Prayer by that call, he uſually withall works them to Believe, or at leaſt towards believing. If he that was unwilling to have Chriſt, do pray God to make him willing, it is a beginning of willingneſs already, and the way to get more willingneſs. In Prayer God uſeth to give in the thing prayed for, of this kinde.
6. Prayer is the ſouls motion Godward: and to ſay an unbeleever 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 neer; Let the wicked forſake his way, &c. Iſa. 55.6, 7.
7. Prayer hath two parts, Deſire is the ſoul of it, and Expreſſion is the body: the ſoul can live ſeparated from the body, but ſo cannot the body ſeparated from the ſoul: ſo can Deſire without Expreſſion, but not Expreſſion without Deſire. When our blind Antinomians (the great ſubverters of the Goſpel, more then the Law) do rail againſt Miniſters for perſwading wicked men to Pray, they are againſt us for perſwading men to Deſire that they pray for: Prayer having Deſire for its ſoul. And do not thoſe men deſerve to be exterminated the Churches and ſocieties of the Saints, who dare ſay to a wicked unbeliever, Deſire not Faith: Deſire not to leave thy wickedneſs: Deſire not Grace, or Chriſt, or God: and that will proclaim abroad the world (as I have oft heard them with zealous reproaches,) that our Miniſters are Legaliſts, Seducers, Ignorant of the Myſteries of the Goſpel, becauſe they perſwade poor ſinners to Pray for Faith, Grace, and Chriſt; that is, to Deſire theſe, and to expreſs their Deſires; which in effect is to perſwade them to Repent, Believe and turn to God. Indeed if theſe blind Seducers had ever heard our Miniſters perſwading wicked men to Diſſemble and lye to God, and ask Faith, Grace and Chriſt with their tongues, but not Deſire them in their hearts, then had they ſufficient grounds for their reviling language (but I have been too long on this.) I may therefore boldly conclude, that they that finde themſelves unbelievers, that is, unwilling to have Chriſt to deliver them from ſin, muſt uſe this ſecond Means to get faith, even earneſt frequent Prayer for it, to God.
3. Let ſuch alſo ſee that they avoid wicked ſeducing company and occaſions of ſin: and be ſure that they keep company with men fearing God, eſpecially joyning with them in their holy duties.
4. Laſtly, Let ſuch be ſure that they uſe that Reaſon which God hath given them, to conſider frequently, retiredly, ſeriouſly of the vanity of all thoſe things that ſteal away their hearts from Chriſt; and of the excellency of Holineſs, and how bleſſed a ſtate it is, to have nothing in us in heart or life that is diſpleaſing to God, but to be ſuch as he taketh full delight in; alſo of the certainty of the damnation of unbeleevers, and the intollerableneſs of their torments; and of the certainty and unconceivable greatneſs of Believers everlaſting Happineſs. If wicked unbelievers would but do what they can in daily, ſerious, deep conſidering of theſe things and the like, they would have no cauſe to deſpair of obtaining Faith and Sanctification. Believing is a Rational Act: God bids you not to Believe any thing without Reaſon, nor to Accept or Conſent to any thing without full Reaſon to cauſe you to conſent. Think then often and ſoberly of thoſe Reaſons that ſhould move you to Conſent, and of the vanity of theſe that hinder you from Conſenting, and this is Gods way for you to obtain Faith or Conſent.
Remember then that when you have underſtood and improved General grounds of Comfort (nay before you can come to any full improvement of them,) your next buſineſs is to Believe: to Conſent to the Match with Chriſt, and to Take him for your Lord and Saviour: And this Duty muſt be lookt to and performed, before you look after ſpecial Comfort. But I ſaid ſomewhat of this before under the ſixth Head, and therefore will ſay no more now.