A treatise of faith divided into two parts. The first showing the nature, the…A treatise of faith diuided into two parts. The first shewing the nature, the…

Again, What we are taught to ask of God in Prayer, and have a promise to obtain, that by faith we may be assured to obtain.¹ For God that hath commanded us to pray, and directed what to ask according to his will, and promised to grant the desires of them that call upon him in truth according to his Commandment, he will not deny his promise, nor go back from the thing that he hath spoken. But we are commanded to ask the pardon and forgiveness of our sins, and have a promise to ⟨p. 106⟩be heard in that which we desire. Therefore by faith we may be assured of the particular remission of our offences. Our Adversaries except, that what we are assured of already,² that we cannot ask of God in prayer: and therefore if we be assured of pardon, we must not pray for pardon. What, is it lawful in no sense to pray for that whereof we are assured? David prayed to God for the pardon of those sins, which he believed by faith were forgiven (for so was he assured from the Lord by the Prophet Nathan) unless we shall charge him with infidelity for not believing the Prophet: since the speech was so plain, that he could not but understand it. I have sinned against the Lord: ³A plain and true confession. The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. As plain and certain an absolution. Will our Adversaries come in here with their vain distinction of guilt and punishment, of temporal and eternal? If they do, it is to no purpose. For whatsoever the respects were in which David prayed for the forgiveness of his sins, once this is clear, that he prayed for it: and then what remains, but that our adversaries must condemn him of sinning grievously in asking God pardon for those sins, which he believed by faith were forgiven him; or of infidelity for not believing; or else grant it lawful in some regard to crave pardon, when it is already granted, and believed to be so. But further it is manifest, that both guilt and punishment were remitted: because the Prophet precisely mentions both parts. The Lord hath taken away thy sin: There is the guilt wiped away. Thou shalt not die: There is the punishment forgiven, the whole punishment, the whole penalty of the statute concerning sin.