P. 1. You granted me before that hearing and considering and searching the Scripture, and other things named, are to be done before Believing in Christ, by those that are yet unbelievers. He that believeth that there is a God, must behave himself accordingly in obeying God. 2. Men that believe in Christ but by Assent, that he is truly the Christ, and the Gospel true, and that there is a life to come, surely, if they love themselves, must do somewhat in order to a fuller Justifying Belief. 3. And are you so much against the very Law of Nature, worse than the Seamen that bid Jonah call upon his God, worse than the Ninevites, and than almost all mankind, as that you would have no men pray but godly men? Did not Peter bid Simon Magus repent and pray, Acts 8. And doth not God command the wicked, Isa. 55. to seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near? Should no graceless man ask Wisdom of God, who giveth liberally to all men, and upbraideth not, James 1. and giveth his Spirit to them that ask it? Must they not pray for Grace, Faith and Repentance, that want them? 4. But yet let me remember you, that we use not to exhort men to draw nigh to God with the lips alone; nor to pray without Desire. For Praying is but Desiring, and presenting that Desire to God. And when we bid men pray for Grace, we bid them desire it. And so bid them Repent and Pray, Believe and Pray; for Praying is a Returning act; And if we may not call them to pray, we may not call them to Turn to God. Mr. Eliot in New England teacheth the Indians another lesson, whose great work is to call them to pray, and the title that his Converts have, is the Praying Indians.
P. 1. You granted me before that hearing and considering and searching the Scripture, and other things named, are to be done before Believing in Christ, by those that are yet unbelievers. He that believeth that there is a God, must behave himself accordingly in obeying God. 2. Men that believe in Christ but by Assent, that he is truly the Christ, and the Gospel true, and that there is a life to come, surely, if they love themselves, must do somewhat in order to a fuller Justifying Belief. 3. And are you so much against the very Law of Nature, worse than the Seamen that bid Jonas call upon his God, worse than the Ninevites, and than almost all mankind, as that you would have no men pray but godly men? Did not Peter bid Simon Magus repent and pray, Acts 8. And doth not God command the wicked, Isa. 55. to seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near? Should no graceless man ask Wisdom of God, who giveth liberally to all men, and upbraideth not, James 1. and giveth his Spirit to them that ask it? Must they not pray for Grace, Faith and Repentance, that want them? 4. But yet let me remember you, that we use not to exhort men to draw nigh to God with the lips alone; nor to pray without Desire. For Praying is but Desiring, and presenting that Desire to God. And when we bid men pray for Grace, we bid them desire it. And so bid them Repent and Pray, Believe and Pray; for Praying is a Returning act; And if we may not call them to pray, we may not call them to Turn to God. Mr. Eliot in New England teacheth the Indians another lesson, whose great work is to call them to pray, and the title that his Converts have, is the Praying Indians.
