Joseph Caryl (1602-1673) on Jesus Begging

This Westminster divine wrote:

"Secondly, For the removing of the sins of others; yea, though their sins have been against himself, which was Job's case. He prayed for those who had dealt very hard with him, and sinned against God in doing so; he prayed for the pardon of their sin, God being very angry with them, and having told them he would deal with them according to their folly, unless they made Job their friend to him. This was the occasion of Job's travailing in prayer for his friends; and in this he showed a spirit becoming of the Gospel, though he lived not in the clear light of it. And how uncomely is it, that any should live less in the power of the Gospel, while they live more in the light of it? To pray much for others, especially for those who have wronged and grieved us, has much of the power of the Gospel, and of the Spirit of Christ in it. For, thus Jesus Christ, while he was nailed to the Cross, prayed for the pardon of their sins and outrages, who had crucified him, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:35). Even while his Crucifiers were reviling him, he was begging for them, and beseeching his Father that he would show them mercy, who had showed him no mercy, no, nor done him common Justice. And thus (in his measure) Job's heart was carried out in his prayer for his friends, that those sins of theirs might be forgiven them, by which they had much wronged him, yea, and derided him (in a sort) upon his Cross, as the Jews did Christ upon his."

Joseph Caryl, An Exposition with Practical Observations Upon the Book of Job (London, Printed by Samuel Simmons, and to be Sold at his House next Door to the Golden-Lion in Aldersgate-Street, 1677), 2357. [some language updated]

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Among the other sovereign grace advocates who use the metaphor of God begging are the following men:

Augustine, Hugh Latimer, Samuel Rutherford [Westminster divine], Thomas Manton, Jeremiah Burroughs [Westminster divine], John Trapp, Sydrach Simpson [Westminster divine], Robert Harris [Westminster divine], Theophilus Gale, Isaac Ambrose, Stephen Charnock, John Flavel, Richard Sibbes, John Shower, John Collinges, William Gurnall, George Swinnock, Ralph Venning, Daniel Burgess, Samuel Willard, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Solomon Stoddard, Samuel Davies, Andrew Gray, Ralph Erskine, Charles Spurgeon, Thomas Chalmers, Walter Chantry, Erroll Hulse and John MacArthur.