Riches of mercy to men in misery, or, Certain excellent treatises concerning the dignity…

You know there is a double ground of asking a sign; ¹One is when a man asks a sign, to tempt the Lord. As the Jews asked a sign, not out of a desire to profit by it, but because they would see what the Lord would do: and this Christ denied them, this is a sinful asking of a sign. There is another asking of a sign, when it is to confirm our faith, when the intention is good, and the heart is upright. Thus Hezekiah asked a sign, and the Lord gave him a sign; hence observe, that

You know there is a double ground of asking a sign; ¹One is when a man asks a sign, to tempt the Lord. As the Iewes asked a sign, not out of a desire to profit by it, but because they would see what the Lord would do: and this Christ denyed them, this is a sinful asking of a sign. There is another asking of a sign, when it is to confirm our faith, when the intention is good, and the heart is upright. Thus Hezekiah asked a sign, and the Lord gave him a sign; hence observe, that

1. 1A sign asked on a double ground.

The Lord tenders a weak faith.

He will not quench the smoking flax, nor break the ¹bruised reed: but he is ready to supply it, when it is but as a grain of mustard-seed. When Hezekiah had not faith enough to believe what the Prophet had told him ⟨p. 407⟩