SPIRITUAL PEACE AND COMFORT. 267 tainly God hath prescribed you means for that end. " Faith corn- eth by hearing, and hearing by the wordof God preached ; " Rom. x. 17. i. 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 find that holiness is better than sin. ii. And however some seducers may tell you, that wicked men ought not to pray, yetbe sure that you lie on your knees before God, and importunately beg that he would open your eyes, and change your heart, and showyou so far the evil of sin, and thewant and worth of Christ and holiness, that you may be unfeignedlyglad 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 ac- tually wicked, and going on in the prosecution of their wickedness; and wicked men, as theyhave somegood in them, or are doing some good, or are attempting a return to God. (2.) You must dis- tinguish 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 inti- mating 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 objections in the conclusion. L When wicked men pray to 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 carcass is a man ; and therefore no wonder if God abhor that prayer, which is truly no prayer. 3. God bath not made a full promise, ascertaining any wicked man, while wicked, that he will hear his prayer ; for all such prom- ises are made to believers. 4. God doth never so hear an unbeliever's prayer, as to accept his person with his prayer, or to take a complacencyin them. So much for the negative. Now for the affirmative, I add ; 1. Prayer is a duty which God enjoinedeven wicked men; (I couldprove it by an hundred Scrip- ture texts.) 2. There may be some good desires in unbelievers, which they
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