Chapter III
That the essential acts offaith in prayer are such as do not necessarily require
a certain persuasion of obtaining the very particular blessing for which we
pray.
I come to inquire into the principal and most essential acts of faith in
praying, and shall still carry on the same demonstration founded on this, that the essential acts of faith do admit of the like former latitude, and are such as do not necessarily require that in praying we should have such a
particular persuasion of obtaining the particular blessing which we ask.
1. The first and main act of faith in praying is, a firm belief and per suasion of the fore-mentioned grand and fundamental object of faith, as of
CHAP. III.J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 435
God and his attributes, and the truth and faithfulness of his promises ; and hereof our assertion is, that there must be an assurance of faith, or a certain firm and fixed persuasion, without wavering, of the fundamental objects of
faith. This assurance of faith, excepting in times of great tentations and
overflowings of unbelief, we must always retain, and by virtue of a firm
faith in these we must always pray, or we must not indeed think to obtain
anything of the Lord. And this, as it is a great truth, so it will prove to be the main intention of our apostle, when he says,
* But let him pray in
faith, nothing wavering. The apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews lays and makes this fundamental necessary unto both faith and prayer
: He that cometh unto God, says he, Heb. xi. 6, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And thus to do, being of the substance of faith (verse 1), must be firmly believed, without waver
ing ; and as our apostle here (James i. 7), exhorts to pray in faith, so in
verse 5 you may observe how he had first set forth God as a God that
giveth liberally, &c., and thereupon his exhortation is, to pray in the faith
of God, as such a God that giveth liberally ; and also our Saviour Christ
doth, as an introduction to his exhortation unto faith in prayer (Mark xi. 23, 25), preface this, verse 22, Have faith in God, says he, speaking of faith in praying to God in Christ s name, of the prevalency of whose name with God an assurance also is required under the New Testament : John xvi. 23,
* Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, he will give
it you.
Obj. You will here say to me, This is but a general faith, what profit is
there in praying with a faith that is such ?
Arts. I answer, That there is much advantage every way, if the general faith you pray in be the same with that in Heb. xi., if it be a faith which
is there said to be a sight of him that is invisible, ver. 27 ; that is, a
seeing God in himself and attributes by a spiritual light and sight of faith, which doth render and present God and Christ subsistent, and really present too, and with the soul in prayer. This very sight and presence of
him, when we come to pray, will in some good degree cause us to pray in faith.
If you ask how or wherein ? I answer, By operating and working in the
soul two eminent things in prayer, that have a great tendency to obtain the
desired blessing.
(1.) This sight of God and Christ, with this foresaid assurance of faith,
will humble the soul deeply in the presence of this great God. And,
(2.) This sight of him presents us with that in God which will encourage us to pray, and to ask the things we would have ; and these are good steps unto praying in faith.
(1.) There is an humbling act of faith put forth in prayer. Others style
it praying in humility; give me leave to style it praying in faith. In faith, which sets the soul in the presence of that mighty God, and by the sight of him, which faith gives us, it is that we see our own vileness, sinfulness, and abhor ourselves, and profess ourselves unworthy of any, much less of
those mercies we are to seek him for. Thus the sight of God had wrought in the prophet : Isa. vi. 5, Then said I, Woe is me ! for I am undone ; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amongst a people of un
: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. And
clean lips
holy Job speaks thus, Job xlii. 5, 6, Now mine eye seeth thee : wherefore
I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. This is as great a requisite to prayer as any other act ; I may say of it alone, as the apostle here, that without it we shall receive nothing from the hands of God. God loves to
436 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III.
fill empty vessels, he looks to broken hearts. In the Psalms how often do we read that God hears the prayers of the humhle, which always involves and includes faith in it : Ps. ix. 12, He forgetteth not the cry of the
humble, and Ps. x. 17, Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble : thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear. To be
deeply humbled is to have the heart prepared and fitted for God to hear
the prayer; and therefore you find the psalmist pleading sub forma pauperis, often repeating, I am poor and needy. And this prevents our thinking much if God do not grant the particular thing we do desire. Thus also
Christ himself in his great distress, Ps. xxii., doth treat God, ver. 2, my God, I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not ; and in the nightseason am not silent. Our fathers trusted in thee. They cried unto thee, and were delivered. But I am a worm, and no man ; reproached of men, and despised of the people ; ver. 6, and he was heard in the end
* in what he feared. And these deep humblings of ourselves, being joined with vehement implorations upon the mercy of God to obtain, is reckoned into
the account of praying by faith, both by God and Christ, Mat. viii. There comes to him a poor man to heal his servant, beseeching him, says the
text, which (the man believing that he was God, and the Son of God, as
ver. 9) is to be interpreted to have been a supplication or prayer put up unto him. He came not to him as one friend useth to do to another, that
entreats a favour from his friend as such, but as to one that was God : There came to him a centurion, beseeching him, says the 5th verse. He
beseecheth him for his servant that lay at home sick, and he tells him his
case ; saith Christ at the 7th verse, I will come and heal him. Ver. 8, The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou
shouldst come under my roof. This being joined with that faith the 9th
* I have not found so
verse speaks of, Jesus Christ thereupon pronounceth,
great a faith, no, not in Israel ; and his coming and praying in that deep
humility is to be reckoned in unto his faith, which did obtain. Thus faith
in prayer lays its foundation.
(2.) To come to God with such an assurance of faith, that he is, &c., Heb. xi. 6 (as hath been fore-mentioned), doth many ways encourage the
soul in prayer, and raiseth hopes to be heard, and so excites him further
to pray, more than that general faith, as I may call it.
[1.] For when God doth sistere se prcesentem., make himself thus present to faith, this will mightily encourage the heart with a hope that he hears
* communed with God (as it is
the prayer. If the soul but knows it hath
said of Abraham, Gen. xviii. 33), and God with it, a man doth from thence
carry away a secret persuasion, even this at least, that God hears him, and
that his prayer is accepted ; and will you say this is no great matter ? If
Christ but says, It is I, Mark vi. 50, then, Be not afraid, or be of good
courage, Bono ammo sitis, will follow thereupon. His real presence doth
scatter fears and misgivings of heart, as the sun doth clouds, and works a
persuasion of acceptation, both of a man s person and prayer. If the soul
can but say, I have seen God to-day, as Job, or as an holy man once said, I am sure Christ is alive, I saw him it was in prayer this morning ; if God presents himself as the living God, this will hearten the soul to believe on him, and pray to him for anything whatever.
[2.] If the soul believes with assurance of faith that God is a rewarder
of them that seek him (as it is in the fore-cited Heb. xi. 6), this also leaves
a persuasion that a man s prayers shall not return empty, that he doth
not seek him in vain, Isa. xlv. 19, but that he shall have a reward and
return of his prayer one way or other. David makes this very attribute of
CHAP. III.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 437
his being a God hearing prayer as a foundation of his faith in prayer. Ps. Ixv. 2, thou which hearest prayer, unto thee all flesh (that is,
man) shall come, and therefore do I come among the rest ; and this is in
the substance of it a parallel speech unto that in Heb. xi., that he is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him ; as also of our apostle, that he giveth liberally to them that ask. And Calvin s outcry and inference from thence is, that we do never seek God in vain ; and nunqiiam irritas
fore preces he hath up an hundred times in his Commentaries on the Psalms.
Yea, this very faith on God, as hearing prayer, in the substance of it,
helped David against the grandest objection which the heart can have to
discourage it from believing that his prayer shall be heard, viz., prevailing
iniquities in point of guilt, and the conscience of sins that have in a godly man s practice for a while prevailed. But here upon this, that God is a God hearing prayers, David s confidence riseth, that these should not
hinder a man s hope of being heard (and these if anything would), but
notwithstanding them, David is still resolved to pray, and would have
others to do so too, because God is a God hearing prayers, which he will
never be if he hears not sinners ; and so it follows, ver. 3,
* Iniquities
prevail against me ; as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. But though this faith in God, that he is a God hearing prayer, makes
something towards an hopefulness that I may obtain the very thing, and
towards a certain confidence that God will some way or other answer me,
yet still whether certainly or no in the very thing I ask, this scripture
speaks not ; and so still it may fall out, I may pray in faith, when not
necessarily with a confidence I shall have the thing. And yet this I may
say hereof, that this faith hath obtained a good degree of praying in faith, when put up in Christ s name, which the gospel doth require.
The particulars of such like principles, fundamental unto our faith in prayer, are divers others besides this, of all which there must be a firm belief with
out wavering, as of and about several attributes of God, and also the truth and faithfulness of God in all his promises. Likewise, there must be a
belief of the name and interest that Christ hath with his Father, in whose name I come ; and the necessity of a stedfast faith of these is founded on
the same reason that the faith that there is a God already instanced in is
founded upon ; and the same fruits and consequents to encourage the heart
in prayer doth follow the faith of them as we have seen doth the faith of
that other, that there is a God. There must be an hypostasis, a subsistence
of all these fundamentals in a man s heart, and he must fixedly believe
them, and that with spiritual faith, as that there is a God, and he a re-
warder, so that he is able to help and succour me in any distress. Also,
I must fixedly believe that he is a God merciful and gracious, and willing
to help, and gives liberally, &c., there ought not to be a doubting here. Martha firmly believed the resurrection, and doubted not; she believed the
thing when yet she wavered about the application of it to that particular, whether her brother should be raised up then or no before the general resurrection. And indeed you find the belief of these things, in Heb. xi.,
to be the basis, fulcrum, substantia, the foundation and support that bears
up all ; and therefore, to pray in the faith of such as these principles, with
out doubting, is required ; and it is the belief of these doth make a man
continue in prayer. Yea, and when all is said to the contrary, the faith of
these is the main of faith, and the faith of these causes us to cleave to God, and to follow after him, and not to take any denial, because we believe
those things are in him, and such promises made by him. Only it is a
spiritual faith that doth this, a faith which makes God real, and all h s
438 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III.
attributes real, it is a faith in earnest. Now, when I say he believes these
things, which are the foundations, without wavering or doubting, my mean
ing is not that a true and firm believer may not have many injections cast in to the contrary by Satan, and many reasonings of his own speculative understanding, and great degrees of unbelief mixed with the faith of them, as hath been the case of many poor souls that have been exercised long with this temptation, that there is no God, and reasonings to the contrary, yet so as still the belief of those things remaineth firm in his practical understanding, which carries him unto obedience and all duties ; and in like manner, to cleave to God in prayer, such a one prays and behaves himself as verily believing there is a God, to purpose ; and his cleaving to God, and following after God, clearly shews that he believes there is a God in earnest. My meaning also is not as if God did not grant many requests upon prayer when men are very weak in faith of those things.* There came a poor man to Christ about his child vexed with the devil, and says to him, But if thou canst do anything, have compassion upon us, and help us. Christ discerned his faith was very weak in the great business of his power, that he should put an if to it ; And Jesus saith unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth ; and the man cries out with tears,
* Lord, I believe ; help my unbelief. He began to gather up a faith upon the power of Christ, he plucked up an heart to believe through the power of the Spirit, yet discerning a great deal of un
belief, and darkness, and deficiency, even to this very point; for it was the power of Christ therein which was the thing spoken about, as appears both by Christ s speech and his. As a cannon discharged makes a recoil until
it comes to that which firmly holds it, so it is with many a poor soul his faith in prayer.
^ But my further design is to shew, that such a faith as this, which is without wavering, and a praying in such a faith, is that which well suiteth with the scope of the apostle here in this place.
1. The persons that he gives this caution to, about asking in faith, nothing doubting, were certainly temporary professors of religion, or as we usually call them, hypocrites, that in the end waver in their faith about
religion itself, and the spiritual principles of it ; and when they come to a stress of persecution, which was the case of those times, the wavering that
is in their hearts appears in their prayers, and in their irresolutions and readiness to fall off, and in making them to close with any shifts or preten sions that may colour their deserting those principles which the persecution is directed against. And my reason why he points to, and levels the dint of this caution against such, is, because, ver. 8, he doth expressly say, speaking of those men, A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. As he is wavering in his prayers, so in his mind, which makes him unstable in his whole course, which proceeds from his not having spiritual prevalent convic tions of the principles of faith which he doth profess ; and this looseness or shockiness is seen in their prayers between God and them, but especially when they come to be in any stress. I have compared it thus : there are two pins in a wall, the one is loose, and yet hath a room in the wall, and seems firm, and there is another pin that is riveted, so that it is fixed indeed ; the difference of these two pins you will see when you hang any weight upon them, and put them to a stress. When you come to hang any thing upon that which is loose, and not fixed, itself and all will tumble
* Ames well distinguished, that Dubitatio minuens tantum assensum consistere potest cum fide iufirma, sed non ilia dubitatio quee tollit assensum, and for that he quoteth this very place, James i. 6-8. Medulla l.2c.6 de fide, Thes. 44.
CHAP. III.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 439
down with it. And thus it is in times of temptation, that the wavering of
their faith is seen in such apostates.
2. The very word here used, diaxoivo/Mvos, translated wavering, or
doubting, is used in Scripture elsewhere to express the opposite to that
faith which is fixed, as to the principles to be believed, and unto them
applied.
(1.) I find it used of Abraham s faith, whereby he believed the power of God, that God was able : Horn. iv. 20, He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief ; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God ; and
being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able to perform, &c. The word translated he staggered not, is the same that is used here, translated not wavering. And this commendation of his faith is not that he staggered not in the belief of the will of God, for he had a personal pro mise from God, that God would do it, and therefore no wonder if it be not
said,^he doubted not of that ; but that which his faith is commended for, was that he staggered not at the power of God, but was fully persuaded God was able.
(2.) The same word is usedjn Mat. xxi. 21, when he speaks of faith in
* If you have faith, and doubt not, you shall say unto this moun
tain, Be thou removed ; xai ^ diaxgtQnrs ; if you do not stand disputing or wavering, whether it is possible for God to do this, or not to do it. If
prayer,
you think in respect of the power of God it be too hard or difficult a thing, this is to doubt* in Christ s intention, so as indeed it is the believing, or
doubting about his power, that the word is there pitched upon, consonantly unto that of that too often confident apostle, Mat. xiv., who, walking upon the waters, and his faith sinking together with himself, Christ reproved him, and said unto him, thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? His doubting was not of Jesus Christ s will, for Christ had resolved him of
that in bidding him come to him ; but when he saw the wind boisterous, he
began to doubt of his power.
(3.) The word d/axg/vd^svog signifies disputing, or a disceptation against a thing
: Acts xi. 2, When Peter was come to Jerusalem, they of the cir cumcision contended with him ; it is the same word that is used here. So
those men of whom; the; apostle speaks are diaxgivopsvoi, disputing, waver
ing and reasoning against things in religion, principles in religion (which they had professed), upon occasion of persecution. The hearts of such use
to begin to cavil against religion, and call in question this or that which
they professed, as willing to be rid of it. Now prayer is to be put forth with a faith opposite to such a reasoning, or (as it is translated) such a
wavering, and as being fully satisfied of the truth of those things, they should never have so much as a thought to desert them ; and therefore we find, 1 Tim. ii. 8, that as we should be without wrath, so
%<wg/g diaXo*
: we must pray with a heart
yit^w, without reasoning, disputing against
fixed in the principles of faith.
(4.) Even here in the text it is an attribute of God that is proposed to
the faith of a man that prays, and to believe the truth of it fixedly, which
attribute is this, that God gives liberally, and upbraids not ; and to doubt
of this goodness and readiness of God to hear prayers, and return answer
to them, is the principal thing which the apostle had in his eye, whilst he
says, But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. So then the faith he
intends is about the reality of the truth of this, and other the like attributes
given to God.
* Multi enira, quia putant id quod petunt esse arduum et difficile, liinc diffidunt
se a Deo id iinpetraturos, ideoque non impetrant.
440 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PART II. BOOK III.
2. A second act of faith is of adherence, or cleaving unto God, for the
good things promised, and of recumbency, coming to, and casting one s
self on God to obtain it, with trusting on God, and waiting on him. And these may strongly be exercised and put forth in prayer, effectually to
obtain, when yet a particular personal persuasion, that a man shall obtain the very thing he asketh, is wanting. The truth of this assertion, concern
ing such acts of faith as these, although deficient in special assurance, might be carried through the whole Bible in many particular instances, as of David
for his child, Hezekiah for his life, &c. But I shall content myself with
this only, and fix and centre upon this one argument for it : that there may be a true exercise of these kind of acts of faith, and effectually put forth in prayer, for the great and grand business of a man s own salvation, who yet may want personal assurance of his salvation, from whence ariseth an invincible demonstration that there may be a true faith, and praying in
faith for all other things whatsoever, short of such an assurance. For the truth of the antecedent, I need not much insist upon it, it being so fre
quently true in experience, and now so generally entertained and acknow
ledged by our divines ; and few or none of protestant divines, holding that
faith of assurance, or a particular persuasion of a man s own salvation, is
that essential act of faith by which we are justified and saved. That the
first act of justifying faith, in him that begins to believe, is not an act of assurance that he is justified is most clear, for that were to say, that a man should first believe he is justified, that he might be justified by that act, which is a contradiction. The aim of the first act, yea, of the true justify ing act of faith, as justifying is always and all along a believing on God, that a man may be justified
: Gal. ii. 16, Knowing that a man is not
justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we
have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ, and not by the works of the law : for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. It notes forth both the aim of the soul, when it puts forth faith for justification, as also that justification follows upon believing, unto which agrees that speech of Christ, though spoken to the contrary, and to unbelievers, and shewing what unbelief is : Ye will not come [to] me
.that ye might have life ; that is, ye will not believe (which elsewhere is
expressed by a coming to Christ), with that intent to have life from me, which all those whom I save do come unto me for. That particle,
* that
ye might have life, denotes out the end or aim which he is to take up, who truly comes to Christ, or believes upon him, and it signifies not only what is the event or consequent* that would follow upon believing.
And yet a faith on some promises or declarations or other for salvation the man must have ; for faith and promises, &c., in the word are relatives, and on promises made unto conditions or qualifications, not wrought as yet in him (we speaking now of a first act of faith justifying put forth) he cannot then in the first act of his believing lay hold, both because he hath no such qualifications as are certain and proper characters of a person already in a state of justification ; nor would he discern any such in him
self if we could suppose he had them ; for the true and genuine work of
humiliation doth altogether divest a man of all, and presents him to him
self as empty of all good, and lays him naked afore God as an ungodly
person, Rom. iv. 5, and he sees and views nothing but sin in himself; and
faith being that which first puts him into a state of justification, Rom. v. 1, he therefore can neither lay hold on any promise made to believing itself,
for he is supposed now to begin to believe, and never to have done it before ;
* Ut significat finem, non solum consequentiam. Brugensis in verba.
CHAP. III.J OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 441
and therefore lie is wholly left unto absolute promises and declarations, and
to throw and cast himself upon God and Christ in them, as a man that is
in a ship that is sinking under him doth cast himself upon a rock that is
afore him, and that immediately with his whole weight, and without the help of plank or board, or anything to convey him to it ; so here is the rock
Christ, and the soul now flung upon it, it having nothing else to set his
foot upon.
This condition is much the same with that of a person that, after long
conflictings with various doubts and tentations about his spiritual estate, is
ever and anon turned out of all within himself, as in his own apprehensions, that should give him so much as ease in his hold on Christ, and so he wanteth prevailing assurance, though perhaps his faith from some experi
ences, &c., is a-growing up towards it. In this case this man may and doth find it the safest, easiest, and shortest way for his faith to have an immediate recourse unto absolute promises, and to use such pleas in
prayer as may be fetched from, and picked up out of them, and taken up
| from them ; for they usually contain in them naked discoveries, and
layings open of the causes and original of man s salvation, and those very
things which move God and Christ to save us, as there is the motive in
* For my name s sake I will blot out thy transgressions. The manner of such souls is to turn them into pleas from out of those pro
that promise :
mises, and to return them upon God as motives to him to save their souls
in particular.
The corollary from this will prove to be an invincible demonstration for
that grand assertion which is my general subject ; for if justifying faith and praying with faith for justification doth not at first, nor oftentimes long
after, rise up to assurance of faith, or a certain persuasion that I am
justified, or that I shall be justified, and remains but an adherence or
coming to Christ that I may be justified, unto which faith yet the promise of being justified is made, and the prayers from out of that faith are heard, and shall be answered, though the soul as yet apprehend it not, the corol
lary from thence is, that then certainly such a faith wherewith a believer comes to God to obtain such or such a particular mercy promised (which
is far less than salvation), and prays in such a like faith, though far short
of a certain persuasion of obtaining it, must needs be of prevalency with God to obtain, though he hath not assurance. The reason of the conse
quence is, a majori ad minus, from the greater to the lesser. Justification
is the greater, if not the greatest spiritual blessing by far (however, to be
sure salvation is), and is absolutely necessary, as without which a man
cannot be saved; but many other spiritual blessings, as those promises about such degrees of grace, &c., the like also of such or such temporal mercies and promises, are infinitely of less necessity and moment to us, and in no respect absolutely necessary ; and therefore if faith of recumbency
prevails to obtain the greater, then much more the less. It would be
strange that such a faith of recumbency and adherence, wanting personal
assurance, and praying therewith, should obtain the greater, and that the same kind of faith for other mercies should not obtain the less, or that God should ordinarily part with the grand blessing, the blessing of blessings, upon so low and cheap a rate of believing, as this seems to be for the
degree of it, in comparison with that of assurance, and yet hold all other
mercies at a higher price and rate, and hold them harder and faster, so as none should obtain them unless they be first assured they shall have the
very particular they ask. Who would not think that if faith of recumbency be good faith for salvation itself, it should not be for all things that are
442 OF THE OBJECT AND ACTS [PAET II. BoOK III.
less than salvation itself, yea, that are comprehended in it, and go with it, and have all the promises annexed to it ? I may say, as the apostle says of (rod s giving Christ, If he hath given his Son, how shall he not with him give us all things ? So here, if he hath committed the keys of life and salva tion into the hands of faith of recumbency, to open this great mass of
treasure, shall he shut up all his lesser cabinets from all capacity of
opening them ? I may boldly say, how shall he not give us all things, with the same faith, and give power unto it over all other blessings whatever ?
2. Neither can any account be given why that the same person should be obliged unto so hard and high a condition of believing, as faith of assur ance is, and which is a further special gift of God superadded unto faith of
recumbency, or else he shall not receive mercies of any inferior rank and
kind, when yet if he prays for the transcendent mercy of the whole of his
salvation, but with a faith of recumbency only without assurance, he shall receive it, when yet not the other without that highest degree of faith, as the contrary assertion doth and must suppose.
3. Let this consideration be added, that it is hard to suppose that this same believer should be obliged to pray for all other things with a faith of
assurance, whilst yet he wants assurance of the main, viz., of his own
salvation, which is as the grand lease upon which the promises of all other
mercies, as lesser causes, do depend ; yea, and whilst he conflicts daily with, and is under, doubtings of his personal interest in salvation, his real
interest in which must give him interest in all other promises. And in
this case, who will not readily see that assurance of his interest in the love and favour of God, that is the fountain of all other blessings, and of his
interest in Christ, the purchaser and channel of all blessings, must be had
first, as that which must in any ordinary way be the foundation of his
assurance, that he hath or shall have any of the smaller rivulets or streams that flow therefrom ? He must in reason be assured of the grand lease
ere he can claim, or with assurance sue for particular demesnes belonging to it. What more absured than to think that we must be bound to ask
all other things else in the name of Christ as being our Christ, to be given us out of God s special grace and love, and all this with an assurace we
shall receive from thence, whilst yet we are in doubt, or at least do not
certainly know that Christ is ours, or that God certainly loves us. This were to put men s faith upon contradictions. I deny not, but in the case of the faith of miracles, those that wrought them were persuaded and assured God would work such a miracle by them ere they would declare that they would attempt it, or did attempt to work it. And also I grant, that many of those that had such a faith were not yet believers with a
saving faith. But the case is far otherwise here, for in and unto them the
working of miracles did not depend upon that special love of God which he beareth to his children, but in the fate* in hand. All blessings given to
any true believers, after justification, comes out of the same love that
salvation itself doth ; and therefore, if this believer suppose faith of assur ance that he shall receive them, it must withal be an assurance that God out of that special favour will bestow them on him, for otherwise
his supposed faith of assurance terminates itself in God s bestowing the things without a persuasion of God s love to give them; and if so, then he prayeth but with such a faith of assurance as was common to men
unregenerate, that did work miracles, who barely had a faith God would do the thing by them, but without a respect of a love borne to their persons therein. And so it would be a contradiction to say the same person should
* That is, fact, or deed. ED.
CHAP. IV.] OF JUSTIFYING FAITH. 443
want faith of assurance of God s special love for his salvation, and that yet he should pray for particular blessings out of a faith of assurance, that God
out of such a love would give him them. At least it would be a faith of
miracles, to have such an assurance for particular blessings, when a man wants assurance of God s love.
4. Yea, and lastly, he should be obliged to this assurance (if such a
tenet were true) about things which are not so certainly proposed, viz., the
promises of degrees of grace, &c., as also temporal things, which are not with an absolute certainty proposed in the promises of them.