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 1 
 
 
 
THE 
 
 RETURN OF PRAYERS. 
 
THE 
 
 RETURN OF PRAYERS 
 
 A TREATISE 
 
 WHEREIN 
 
 ^' How to Discern God^s Answers to our 
 Prayers,'' is Briefly Resolved; 
 
 WITH 
 
 OBSERVATIONS UPON PSAL. LXXXV. 8. 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 GOD'S SPEAKING PEACE, &c. 
 BY THO. 'GOODWIN, B. D. 
 
 I WILL WATCH TO SEE WHAT HE WILL SAY TO ME. 
 HAB. II. 1. 
 
 OXFORD: D. A. TALBOYS. 
 
 1839. 
 

 ^ 
 
 '■EC. JL'fv I 
 
 TO THE 
 
 MUCH HONOURED K^f^HT' 
 
 SIR NATHANIEL RICH. 
 
 li^'' 
 
 Sir, 
 
 God, who from all 
 eternity hath had an infinite mass 
 of grace and glory lying by him, to 
 bestow upon his Church: and did 
 accordingly provide a treasury and 
 magazine sufficient wherein to store 
 up all, [the bosom of his Son:] in 
 whom are hid riches so unsearch- 
 able as cannot be told over, much 
 less spent to all eternity. 
 
 He hath as richly shed his Holy 
 Spirit on us: that we, who could 
 never have known of anything be- 
 
 Eph.iii, 
 
 ttXov- 
 (xicos. 
 Tit. iii. 
 
VI 
 
 THE EPISTLE 
 
 queathed us, nor what to pray for 
 as we ought, might both, fully from 
 him know all that God hath given 
 us ; and through him lay claim 
 thereto, who maketh intercession for 
 us, and so doth furnish us with a 
 privy key to all that treasury, which 
 otherwise, is fast shut up to all the 
 world. 
 
 Through which spirit of prayer, 
 and supplications thus poured forth, 
 believers come to be at once an- 
 ointed to the fellowship, and execu- 
 tion of those three glorious offices of 
 Christ their head. Not only of 
 priests, by offering up their prayers, 
 as spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to 
 God, through Jesus Christ : but of 
 kings, to rule with God; Hos. ii. 12. 
 Being hereby made of privy council 
 to the King of kings, so as their 
 
DEDICATORY. 
 
 councils, and desires expressed in 
 their petitions, are said to be ful- 
 filled; and their decrees in their 
 prayers made, ratified, and esta- 
 blished. Nay, further, by virtue of 
 this privilege, advanced to such 
 height of favour, as by their strength 
 in prayer alone, to have power with 
 God himself; and not only with 
 him, but also over him ; and in their 
 wrestlings to prevail. Yea to com- 
 mand: himself hath said it; thus 
 saith the Lord, the Holy One of Is- 
 rael, and his maker. Ask of me, of 
 things to come, concerning my sons, 
 and concerning the work of my 
 hands, command ye me, Isai. xlv. 11, 
 which so transcendent privilege of 
 power, is, by the express words of 
 this great charter, universally ex- 
 tended unto all transactions, of this 
 
 Psal. XX. 
 4.5. 
 
 Job xxii. 
 27, 28. 
 
 Hos. xii. 
 3.4. 
 
Vlll 
 
 THE EPISTLE 
 
 Matt. vi. 
 10. 
 
 lower part of his dominions; whe- 
 ther ecclesiastical, which do con- 
 cern his sons, that is, his Church : or 
 whatever other, the more ordinary 
 works of his hands, that belong to 
 common providence. 
 
 And forasmuch as these grand af- 
 fairs of this his kingdom, as future, 
 and to come, are commended to 
 their prayers, as their most proper 
 subject, about which they are to 
 treat, Ask of me of things to come: 
 in this respect, they do become as 
 truly prophets also: though not in 
 so full and complete, yet in some 
 kind of true resemblance; not by 
 foretelling, yet by forespeaking in 
 their prayers, things that come to 
 pass. God, who made and upholds 
 this world, and all things in it, by the 
 word of his power, doth likewise rule 
 
DEDICATORY. 
 
 and govern it, by the presidents, 
 and prescript rules, of the word of 
 his will : exactly dispensing unto 
 men, both rewards and punishments, 
 according to the tenor of some or 
 other of his promises and threaten- 
 ings, and former like proceedings 
 therein recorded : though with such 
 various liberty, in respect of the par- 
 ticulars, that his ways remain un- 
 searchable and past finding out : 
 that look as he appointed in the 
 heavens, those ordinances of the 
 sun, moon, and stars, by their light, 
 heat, and motion, to rule the day and 
 nighty to divide, and cause the se- 
 veral seasons of the year, and all 
 the changes and alterations that do 
 pass over this animal and natural 
 world : in like manner hath he 
 stretched out, that so exceeding 
 
 Psal. XXV. 
 20. 
 
THE EPISTLE 
 
 Ps. cxix. 
 96, 
 
 Ps. xix. 
 1, 2. com- 
 pared 
 with Rom. 
 X. 18. 
 
 broad expanse of his word and law, 
 (to which the Psalmist doth assimu- 
 late it) over this rational world of 
 angels and men ; and therein set his 
 statutes and his judgments, that by 
 the light of precepts, and their in- 
 fluences in rewards and punish- 
 ments, they might order and direct 
 these his creatures reasonable, and 
 all their actions; also dispose and 
 set out all the issues of them. And 
 seeing his saints they are a people 
 in wJiose hearts is Ms Law; and 
 their delight is to meditate therein 
 both day and nighty they daily cal- 
 culating and observing the various 
 aspects, conjunctions, and mixed in- 
 fluences of those innumerable pre- 
 cepts, promises, and threatenings, 
 which themselves and others, nations 
 or men, stand under; and by a 
 
DEDICATORY. 
 
 judgment thence resulting, so far as 
 they have attained, endeavouring to 
 frame their supplications and peti- 
 tions according to God's will : hence 
 their prayers oft, full happily suc- 
 ceed, and aforehand do accord, to 
 those issues and events, that after- 
 wards fall out. That like as the earth 
 comes to be just under the sun and 
 moon, in some of their conjunc- 
 tions ; so their desires and prayers, 
 sometimes in a direct line fall under, 
 and subordinate ly concur with God's 
 secret purposes, and some revealed 
 promise met in conjunction, to pro- 
 duce such and such effects. The 
 Spirit also, herein helping their in~ 
 firmitieSi sometime so guiding and 
 directing them, by a gracious pre- 
 instinct, though unbeknown to them, 
 to pitch their requests upon such 
 
 J6r.viii.7. 
 
THE EPISTLE 
 
 Is. xxxvii. 
 2, 3, 4. 
 
 Zep. ii. 2. 
 
 particulars, as God hath fully pur- 
 posed to bring to pass; becoming 
 thereby, as it were, the spirit of pro- 
 phecy unto them; respectively, in 
 some measure and degree. 
 
 Thus doth that great King em- 
 ploy his nearest servants, as his un- 
 der officers and sheriffs, to serve 
 his writs and executions upon his 
 enemies, to execute the judgment 
 written in his threatenings, Psal. 
 cxlix. 9, and to accomplish his mer- 
 cies written also, by suing out all 
 the promises; to be as man-mid- 
 wives (as Hezekiah's allusion, when 
 he sent a visiting to the prophet 
 Isaiah, for his voice and suffrage, 
 seemeth to import) to help and 
 assist his promises and decrees in 
 their travail with mercies and de- 
 liverance, when these their children 
 
DEDICATORY. 
 
 do come unto the birth, and there 
 is no strength to bring them forth. 
 
 In all which they shall therefore 
 have the honour to be accounted 
 co-workers together with God in his 
 greatest works of wonder. And at 
 the latter day, when that great and 
 last edition, both of all God's works 
 and likewise ours, then complete 
 and finished, shall be published to 
 all the world, they shall find their 
 names put to them, together with 
 his own ; and the same by him ac- 
 knowledged to be as truly the works 
 of their hearts and prayers as that 
 they are the sole work of his hands 
 and power. Such honour have all 
 his saints. 
 
 And if all the works of God are 
 so exceeding great, and his thoughts 
 therein so very deep that every iota 
 
 Psal. xcii. 
 5. 
 
THE EPISTLE 
 
 Ps. xxvii. 
 6. 
 
 Mic. vii. 
 
 of them doth deserve our deepest 
 studies and intentions, and there- 
 unto require a proper skill and wis- 
 dom, to read his hand, peculiar unto 
 the saints, ver. 6, whereunto there 
 must be adjoined the most diligent 
 search and attentive observation, to 
 find out his meaning in them ; and 
 withal a special inclination and de- 
 light to be conversant therein. Thy 
 works are very great, sought out 
 of those that have pleasure in 
 thenii Psal. cxi. 2. And if, of all the 
 rest, those choicer pieces, his works 
 of mercy, may challenge our best 
 regard ; in which his heart and de- 
 lights are most; on which his wis- 
 dom hath laid on the richest work- 
 manship, in the most curious con- 
 trivements of his love. Then surely 
 that selected volume of more special 
 
DEDICATORY. 
 
 mercies (his Epistles) vouchsafed in 
 answer to our prayers, is above all 
 other most exactly to be studied, 
 and most diligently to be perused 
 by us. Wherein God doth unbo- 
 som himself, and lay open his heart 
 more sweetly, more familiarly unto 
 us, which are directed, and in a 
 manner dedicated more particularly 
 unto ourselves alone : many of them 
 written with his own hand, in a 
 more immediate manner discovered 
 and appearing in them : and all of 
 them come sealed with the impress 
 of everlasting love, and down laden 
 with the enclosure of the most pre- 
 cious tokens of his special favour. 
 Whoso is wise, will observe these 
 things, and they shall understand 
 the loving-kindness of the Lord. 
 Neither have such favours only 
 
 Psal. cvii. 
 43. 
 
THE EPISTLE 
 
 more of mercy in the things them- 
 selves bestowed, but are further en- 
 deared to us by being made our 
 own mercies, by a more pecuHar 
 title to them ; by which the kind- 
 ness in them is rendered double. 
 For therein we have that royal 
 liberty to become our own choosers, 
 and contrivers of our own condition, 
 having all the promises thrown down 
 to us, with blanks for us to write 
 our names in which of them we 
 please, which is the greatest liberty. 
 And we have withal his spirit se- 
 cretly directing and fixing the 
 needle of our desires to the same 
 point, wherein his great intentions 
 towards us do meet with our best 
 good : which is indeed the truest 
 liberty. And to be made ourselves, 
 whom we love so well, and there- 
 
DEDICATORY. 
 
 fore delight to do good unto, the 
 chiefest instruments under him of 
 our own greatest] happiness, is jsl 
 privilege than which the creature is 
 not made capable of a more trans- 
 cendent royalty. And when the 
 greatest love, thus rectified, which 
 possibly we can bear ourselves, hath 
 opened its mouth widest, and 
 stretched our desires in praying to 
 the utmost compass, then mil God's 
 infinite vast love not only fit them, 
 but do for us above all that we are 
 able to ask, yea to think; exceed- 
 ing abundantly above all ; as far 
 above as his thoughts are above our 
 thoughts, which is far more than the 
 heavens are higher than the earth. 
 
 All which, when' put together, if 
 well considered, how would it pro- 
 voke us to call in all that precious 
 
THE EPISTLE 
 
 stock of our time, thoughts, and in- 
 tentions which we cast away on tri- 
 fles, to lay out the choicest portion 
 of them in this thriving trade of in- 
 tercourse with God; the returns 
 whereof are better than the mer- 
 chandise of silver, and the gain 
 thereof than fine gold. It is the 
 praying Christian that alone em- 
 ploys the riches of the promises, 
 which we usually let lie by us, like 
 dead stock, unimproved : whilst he, 
 like a wise and diligent merchant, 
 looks abroad upon all the affairs of 
 Jesus Christ that are afloat here in 
 this world, and adventures in them 
 all ; is watchful to spy out all ad- 
 vantages, and with a holy irpay- 
 /jLoavvr), intermeddleth in every bu- 
 siness that may bring in glory unto 
 God, good unto the Church, grace 
 
DEDICATORY. 
 
 and comfort to his own soul. And 
 how infinitely rich must that man 
 needs become, that puts even God's 
 riches out to use, with the increase 
 of ten talents for one, yea a hun- 
 dred fold ! 
 
 The due estimate whereof, would 
 no less quicken us to as diligent an 
 inquiry, what becomes of all those 
 goodly adventures, the prayers we 
 make ; to listen what haven they 
 arrive at, how, and when, and with 
 what fraught they do return. 
 
 In which great duty, and most 
 necessary property of all true mer- 
 chants, many of the best and great- 
 est dealers, that are diligent enough 
 in praying, are yet found failing and 
 deficient ; that omit no gainful oppor- 
 tunity of adventure, but are careless 
 and unobservant of their returns. 
 
THE EPISTLE 
 
 Some through ignorance (it may 
 be) that this is at all a duty, or of 
 any such importance, are careful 
 only how to lade in prayers enough, 
 not expecting to find any of this 
 bread cast upon the waters, until 
 that great and general return of 
 themselves, and all the world with 
 joy bringing their sheaves with 
 them. Others, though at present, 
 many of their prayers come home 
 after a few days, and richly laden ; 
 yet through want of skill to read 
 those bills of exchange which God 
 often writes in an obscurer charac- 
 ter, they lie unreguarded by them. 
 Many, when voyages prove long, 
 (though to them greater advantage, 
 when once they do return, yet in 
 the mean time) through discourage- 
 ment, they give all for lost, as we 
 
DEDICATORY. 
 
 do ships at sea we cannot hear of. 
 The most are commonly complain- 
 ing, that their adventures still mis- 
 carry, and that little or nothing 
 comes of all their prayers. And 
 all are negligent of keeping their 
 books of accounts, to cast up their 
 comings in and goings out the one 
 with the other. By Avhich they 
 lose the chiefest portion of that 
 comfort, which for the present, God 
 hath here allotted us to live upon 
 [the revenues of their prayers.] 
 And God also is not only robbed 
 of that custom of his glory which 
 should thence accrue ; but wronged 
 also by standing still as debtor in 
 their accounts to many prayers, in 
 the return of which he hath been 
 creditor long ago. 
 
 I have endeavoured in this small 
 
THE EPISTLE 
 
 treatise to convince believers of the 
 grand importance of this duty, which 
 is so full of gain : to discover like- 
 wise the causes of the neglect herein, 
 and remove the temptations and 
 discouragements which do occasion 
 it; and have briefly resolved such 
 cases as do more usually occur in 
 the practice of it. But principally 
 my desire was to give in some few 
 experiments and observations which 
 may help to teach the weaker sort, 
 though not perfectly to read, yet 
 here and there to spell, (and espe- 
 cially out of the impressions in their 
 own hearts,) God's meaning towards 
 them in his answers. I have cast in 
 some scattered calculations of broken 
 prayers cast up, which though they 
 will not amount to make general 
 and perfect tables out of, yet may 
 
DEDICATORY. 
 
 XXlll 
 
 serve as instances and examples for 
 young beginners, to direct them in 
 the exercise of this most useful skill 
 and wisdom, how to compute and 
 balance their accounts by comparing 
 their prayers and their returns to- 
 gether. 
 
 This small and imperfect embryon 
 I have presumed to send forth into 
 the world; and directed it first of 
 all to present its service unto you, 
 and make an honourable and thank- 
 ful mention of your name. Your 
 worth deserves a more costly, large, 
 and lasting monument for this in- 
 scription. Your own abilities of 
 learning, eloquence, and depth of 
 wisdom in human affairs, would you 
 be persuaded to lay them out as 
 you are able, would erect such a 
 remembrance and sumptuous me- 
 
THE EPISTLE 
 
 morial of you when you are gathered 
 to your fathers, as would bear some 
 proportion to your great worth. But 
 that which emboldened me was, 
 the near affinity which meditations 
 of this nature do hold, with those 
 other your more retired thoughts 
 you think to none but God and 
 your own soul. You have been 
 long a frequent and constant dealer 
 in this blessed way of intercourse 
 with God in private: those that 
 know you, know your strict observ- 
 ance of those exchange hours you 
 have devoted to meet with God 
 and enjoy communion with him. 
 But above all, it was that personal 
 obligation under which a great and 
 special favour from you long since 
 brought me, upon which 1 devoted 
 (with myself) the first of my labours 
 
DEDICATORY. 
 
 unto your service. And it became 
 one great relief unto my thoughts, 
 weighing the many inconveniences 
 of appearing thus in public, that it 
 gave so full occasion to pay my 
 vows thus openly before all the 
 world; which having now done, 
 God that is rich in mercy to all that 
 call upon him, fill you with all 
 grace, and fulfil all your petitions ; 
 so prays 
 
 Your Worship's obliged to love 
 and serve you, 
 THOMAS GOODWIN. 
 

 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 
 The main observations : that God's people are dili- 
 
 
 gently to observe the answers of their prayers Page 3 
 
 The sinfulness of the neglect hereof demonstrated 
 
 
 by seven reasons 
 
 4 
 
 Reason 1. An ordinance of God taken in vain . 
 
 ib. 
 
 Reason 2. God's attributes taken in vain . 
 
 7 
 
 Reason 3. God in answering made to speak in vain 
 
 10 
 
 Reason 4. God provoked not to answer 
 
 12 
 
 Reason 5. We shall not return thanks 
 
 13 
 
 Reason 6. We shall loose much experience . 
 
 14 
 
 1st, Of God's faithfulness .... 
 
 ib. 
 
 2nd, Of our own ways towards him 
 
 15 
 
 Reason 7. We shall lose much comfort 
 
 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 
 Three cases : the first concerning prayers for such 
 
 
 promises as may be accomplished in ages to come . 
 
 20 
 
 Sect. 1. Such prayers the Church to come doth 
 
 
 reap 
 
 21 
 
xxviii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Sect. 2. Yet we at present may have an answer 
 about them 24 
 
 Sect. 3. In heaven, and at the last day, we shall 
 rejoice for their accomplishment , . .25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Second case : Concerning prayers made for others of 
 
 our friends, S^c. How answered . . .26 
 
 Sect. 1. Such prayers oft granted . . .27 
 Sect. 2. Yet not always in the very thing prayed for 29 
 Such promises but indefinite . . . .30 
 
 As all temporal promises are . . . .31 
 
 Our faith towards them not required to be as- 
 surance ........ 33 
 
 Unless God give a special faith . . . .35 
 
 Sect. 3. Such prayers returned into our own bosoms 38 
 Sect. 4. God in the end casts some out of our 
 prayers ........ 40 
 
 Sect. 5. Those prayers answered in some others . 42 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Third case : How the influence of our own prayers 
 when others pray also for the same thing with us, 
 may be discerned ...... 44 
 
 Sect. 1. If our hearts are affected with the same 
 holy affection ....... 45 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Unbeknown each to other ..... 46 
 
 Sect. 2. By some special evidence : as, 
 
 1st, Some notable circumstance . . .47 
 
 2nd, By joy in the accomplishment . . 48 
 
 3rd, By thankfulness for the accomplishment . 50 
 
 Sect. 3. This less to be doubted when the thing 
 
 prayed for by us doth concern our own particular ib. 
 
 52 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Common directions helpful in all cases and prayers : 
 taken first from observations, from before and in 
 praying ........ 
 
 Sect. 1 , Before : when God prepares the heart . ib. 
 
 Difference between Satan's motions to prayer and 
 God's 54 
 
 Sect. 2. In prayer : God's speakings in prayer are 
 evidences of hearing : and discerned by four 
 things ........ 57 
 
 1st, Giving a quietness by prayer about the thing 
 prayed for ....... ib. 
 
 Sect. 3. 2nd, By revealing his love, in and upon 
 such petitions ....... 60 
 
 A caution herein 62 
 
 Reasons why God draws nigh when he grants not 
 the thing 63 
 
 Sect. 4. 3rd, God sometimes gives a particular as- 
 surance 65 
 
 d 2 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 A caution herein 67 
 
 Sect. 5. 4th, By giving a restless importunity to 
 pray for a particular mercy . . . .71 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Observations made upon the disposition of the heart 
 after prayer : until the issue of the thing prayed for 72 
 
 Sect. 1. When God gives an obedient dependant 
 heart . ib. 
 
 Sect. 2. When God gives an heart waiting for and 
 expecting it 74 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Observations made after pi'oyer upon the issue : first, 
 if accomplished : whether as the fruit of prayer, 
 or of common providence . . . . .76 
 
 Sect. 1. God sometimes answers the prayer in the 
 very thing and manner desired . . . ib. 
 
 Sect. 2. Directions to discern that things thus ob- 
 tained are in answer to prayers . . .81 
 
 1st, From the manner of God's performance . ib. 
 
 A more than ordinary hand discovered in things 
 accomplished by prayer, instanced in five par- 
 ticulars ........ ib. 
 
 1st, By bringing it to pass through difficulties . 82 
 
 2nd, By facilitating all means . . . . 8 i 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxxi 
 
 3rd, Effecting it suddenly 84 
 
 4th, "With addition of other mercies above what was 
 desired ........ 85 
 
 5th, By some special circumstance as a token of 
 
 his hand in it 86 
 
 Sect. 3. 2nd, From the time wherein it is accom- 
 plished 88 
 
 As 1st, When we were most instant in prayer . 89 
 2nd, In the fittest time for us. Then, , . 91 
 1st, When we have most need . . . ,92 
 2nd, When the heart was best prepared to receive it 93 
 Sect. 4. 3rd, From the proportion which may be 
 observed betwixt God's dealings in the accom- 
 plishment and our prayers . , . ,95 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Seven observations more, from the effects which the 
 
 accompUshment of the mercy hath upon the heart . 98 
 Sect. 1. If it draw the heart nearer to God . ib. 
 
 Sect. 2. Enlargeth the heart with thankfulness . 100 
 Sect. 3. And encourageth the heart the more to 
 
 pray for other things 102 
 
 Sect. 4. If it makes more careful to perform the 
 
 vows made to obtain it . . . . .103 
 Sect. 5. If by faith a man sees and acknowledgeth 
 
 God's sole hand in the accomplishment . .105 
 
xxxii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Sect. 6. By an assurance which comes sometimes 
 with the mercy 108 
 
 Sect. 7. By the event : things obtained by prayer 
 prove stable mercies 108 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Considerations to quiet us, and to help to discern an 
 acceptation of the prayer, when the thing is not 
 accomplished . . . . . .110 
 
 Sect. 1. The thing not always granted when yet 
 the prayer is heard . . . . . ib. 
 
 An objection answered . . . . .112 
 
 Sect. 2. Some blessings not absolutely promised 
 nor absolutely to be prayed for . . .113 
 
 In which a denial is to be interpreted as best for 
 las in God's judgment 114 
 
 Sect. 3. There may be a reservation in the denial, 
 for some greater mercy . . . . ib. 
 
 Sect. 4. There may be a transmutation into some 
 other blessing of the same kind . . .116 
 
 Sect. 5. God, when he denies, yet answereth to 
 the ground of our prayers . . . .118 
 
 Sect. 6. And yields far in it, to give satisfaction to 
 his child 122 
 
 Sect. 7. We may know that the prayer notwith- 
 standing is accepted, by the effects upon the 
 heart, which are four 124 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxxiu 
 
 1st, If we acknowledge God righteous in the denial 124 
 2nd, If God fills the heart with contentment in 
 
 the denial 125 
 
 3rd, If the heart be thankful out of faith . . ib. 
 4th, If not discouraged, but prays still . .126 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Application : a reproof of them that pray, hut look not 
 after the returns of their prayers. The causes of 
 this neglect are . . . . . .127 
 
 1st, Temptations: 1. From want of assurance that 
 our persons are accepted . . . . .130 
 
 2. From the weakness of our prayers, three an- 
 swers to it 132 
 
 3. From not obtaining what we formerly prayed ' 
 for, answered by four things . . . .136 
 
 2nd, More sinful discouragements, as . .139 
 
 1. From slothfulness in praying . . . .139 
 
 2. Looking at prayer as a duty only, and not as 
 
 a means to obtain 142 
 
 3. Falling into sin after prayers . . .144 
 
 TIDINGS OF PEACE. 
 
 Six observations more out of the text. 
 Observ. 1. That God doth sometimes not speak 
 peace to his own people . . . .149 
 
xxxiv TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Observ. 2. The cause thereof some folly . . 150 
 Observ. 3. God only can speak peace . .154 
 
 Observ. 4. God easily can give peace . .160 
 
 Observ. 5. God will certainly speak to his people 167 
 
 THE FOLLY OF RELAPSING. 
 
 Observ. 6. After peace spoken his people should 
 
 return no irwre to folly . . , . . 1 73 
 
 The sin and folly of relapsing shewn by seven 
 reasons . . . . . . .173 
 
 Temptations from relapse into the same sin, after 
 
 peace spoken, answered 
 By Scriptures , . , . . . .194 
 
 By three Examples . . . . , .198 
 
 By four Reasons 203 
 
 Five Cautions ....... 215 
 
THE 
 
 RETURN OF PRAYERS. 
 
 PSAL. IXXXV. 8. 
 
 I will hear ivhat God the Lord will 
 speak : for he will speak peace unto 
 his people^ and to his saints : but let 
 them not turn again to folly. 
 
 THE COHERENCE OF THE WORDS. 
 
 This Psalm was penned in the 
 name and for the comfort of the whole 
 Church of the Jews, both as a pro- 
 phecy of, and a prayer for their re- 
 turn out of the Babylonish captivity, 
 and the flowing in again of that an- 
 cient glory, peace, administration of 
 justice, liberty of God's ordinances, 
 plenty and increase, which formerly 
 they enjoyed, but had now suffered 
 an ebb of seventy years' continuance. 
 And first he beginneth with prayer, 
 from the first verse to this we have 
 
The Return of Prayer. 
 
 in hand, putting the Lord in mind of, 
 and urging him with his gracious 
 dealings in former times unto his 
 Church : this is not the first time, 
 saith he, that the Church hath been 
 in captivity, and that thou hast re- 
 turned it, (as out of Egypt, &c.), and 
 therefore we hope that thou wilt do 
 so again. Thou hast been favourable 
 unto thy land, kc. His prayer being 
 finished, and he having spoke, he now 
 stands, and listens, as you use to do 
 when you expect an echo, what echo 
 he should have, what answer would 
 be returned from heaven, whither his 
 prayer had already come ; / will hear 
 what tJie Lord will speak ; or, as some 
 read it, / hear what the Lord doth 
 speak : for sometimes there is a pre- 
 sent echo, a speedy answer returned 
 to a man's heart, even ere the prayer 
 is half finished, as unto Daniel, Dan. 
 ix. 20, 21. And in brief it is this, 
 The Lord will speak peace unto his peo- 
 ple: this answer he finds written at 
 the bottom of the petition, but with 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 this clause of admonition for time to 
 come added, But let them not return 
 again to folly : a good use to be made 
 of so gracious an answer. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 The main observation and subject of this 
 discourse thence deduced : That God's 
 people are diligently to observe the an- 
 swers to their prayers : The reasons 
 of it. 
 
 These words being especially 
 spoken in relation to God's returning 
 answer to his prayer made, therefore 
 in that relation I mean principally to 
 handle them. 
 
 The observation is this : That when 
 a man hath put up prayers to God, 
 he is to rest assured, that God will in 
 mercy answer his prayers ; and to 
 listen diligently, and observe how his 
 prayers are answered : both are here 
 to be observed. / tvill hear what God 
 will speak; that is, how he will ac- 
 complish them: and withal he confi- 
 
Tlie Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 The sin- 
 fulness of 
 the neg- 
 lect here- 
 of demon- 
 strated by 
 seven 
 reasons. 
 
 Reason 1. 
 Hereby 
 an ordi- 
 nance of 
 God is 
 taken in 
 
 dently expresseth an assurance, that 
 God will speak peace. Thus doth the 
 Church, Mic. vii. 7, 8. / will look to 
 the Lord, I ivill wait, my God will 
 hear me: she was both sure of gra- 
 cious audience with him, my God will 
 hear me: and she will wait till he 
 answers her, and observe how he doth 
 it, I will look to the Lord ; and, ver. 9, 
 / will bear the indignation of the Lord, 
 till he plead my cause. So Habakkuk, 
 he having made a prayer against the 
 tyranny of Nebuchadnezzar, in the 
 first chapter, having ended it, he be- 
 gins the second chapter thus, / ivill 
 stand upon my watch tower, and see 
 what he ivill answer me : and in the 
 end an answer comes, ver. 2 ; and as 
 he thus waited for a vision, (for some- 
 time their prophecies were in answer 
 to their pray^srs,) so should we for an 
 answer unto ours. 
 
 First reason. Because otherwise you 
 take an ordinance of God in vain in 
 your hearts, which is to take God's 
 name (with whom in that ordinance 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 you deal) in vain : for it is a sign 
 you think your prayer not an effec- 
 tual means to attain that end it is 
 ordained for ; and say secretly in your 
 hearts, as they, Job xxi. 15, WJiat 
 profit have we, if we pray to him ? for 
 if we use any means, and expect not 
 the end, it is a sign we think the 
 means vain to accomplish that end. 
 Whereas every faithful prayer is or- 
 dained of God to be a means to ob- 
 tain what we desire and pray for, and 
 is not put up in vain, but shall have 
 answer: 1 John v. 14, 15. This is the 
 confidence that we have in him, that if 
 we ask any thing according to his will, 
 he heareth us. It is true God heareth 
 an enemy, but to hear with favour, is 
 the hearing there meant ; and is so 
 used in our ordinary speech, as we 
 say of a favourite that he hath the 
 king's ear ; and if a man be obstinate 
 to a man's counsel, we say he w ould 
 not hear, though he give the hearing ; 
 so here, to hear is a word of gracious 
 inclination to do the thing required; 
 
 B2 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 which is 
 
 God's 
 
 name. 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 1. and thus God's ears are said to be 
 open to their prayers ; and so it fol- 
 lows there, that if he heareth usy what- 
 soever we ask, we know tliat 2ve have 
 the petitions that we desired of him. 
 As soon as we have prayed, we are 
 said to have our petitions, that is, they 
 are then granted, and we may be con- 
 fident they are assented unto by God ; 
 although in regard of outward dis- 
 pensation, the command for accom- 
 plishment is not yet come forth : even 
 as a petitioner is said to have his suit, 
 when the word of the king is gone 
 forth that it shall be done, though it 
 passeth not the seal, or be not signed 
 a good while after. And like as when 
 a wicked man sinneth, as soon as the 
 act is committed, so soon doth sen- 
 tence from God go forth against the 
 sinner, but the execution overtakes 
 him not (it may be) a good while 
 after, according to that of Solomon, 
 sentence against an evil doer is not 
 presently executed; it is presently sen- 
 tenced, as the words imply, but not 
 
 Eccl. vii 
 11. 
 
The jReturn of Prayers. 
 
 executed : so in like manner falleth it 
 out, when a godly man prays, that as 
 soon as the prayer arrives in heaven, 
 (which is in an instant,) so soon is 
 the petition granted, (so Dan. ix. 23, 
 at the beginning of his prayer the com- 
 mand came forth ; though the angel, 
 who brought the answer, arrived not 
 at him till towards the end in the 
 evening, ver. 21,) but the real accom- 
 plishment of it may be deferred. So 
 as no prayer in respect of an answer 
 to it is in vain ; but where God hath 
 given a heart to speak, he hath an 
 ear to hear ; which not to regard, is 
 to take an ordinance in vain, which is 
 God's name. 
 
 And, secondly, not simply God's 
 name, as in an ordinance made known, 
 but also his name, that is, his attri- 
 butes are taken in vain. For it is a 
 sign you think of that God you pray 
 to, that either his ear is heavy, that 
 he cannot hear, or his hand shortened, 
 that he cannot save, or his heart 
 straightened, and his bowels restrained, 
 
 Reason 2. 
 We take 
 the attri. 
 butes of 
 God in 
 vain. 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 Psalm 
 Ixv. 2. 
 
 that he will not: and thus you rob 
 him, and despoil him of one of his 
 most royal titles, whereby he styles 
 himself, a God that heareth prayers ; 
 who is so regardful of them, that in 
 1 Kings viii. 59, they are said to be 
 nigh the Lord day and night; they 
 are all before him, and he sets them 
 in his view, as we do letters of friends 
 which we stick in our windows, that 
 we may remember to answer them ; 
 or lay them not out of our bosoms, 
 that we might be sure not to forget 
 them: so the petitions of his people 
 pass not out of his sight, till he sends 
 an answer, which is called speaking 
 here; God speaking as well in his 
 works as in his word. But you, by 
 your neglect herein, make an idol god 
 of him, such as were the vanities of 
 the heathen, as if he had ears and 
 heard not, eyes and saw not your need, 
 &c. Such a god as Elias mocked ; 
 you must speak aloud, says he, he may 
 he in a journey, &c. Even such a god 
 do you make the God of heaven and 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 earth to be, whilst you put no more 
 confidence in him, or make no more 
 reckoning of your prayers to him, 
 than the heathens did of their sacri- 
 fices to their gods. Petitioners do 
 not only put up their requests, but 
 use to wait at great men's doors, and 
 enquire, and listen what answer is 
 given unto them ; and it is part of an 
 honour to great men that we do so : 
 and for the same end are we also to 
 wait on God, to shew his greatness, 
 and our distance from him, and de- 
 pendance upon him ; as the eyes oftJw 
 servants look to the hand of their mas- 
 ters, so do we, saith David, on thee, till 
 thou hast mercy on us. And Psalm 
 cxxx., after he had prayed, ver. 2, he 
 says, he waited more than they that 
 ivatchfor the morning: like those that 
 having some great business to do on 
 the morrow, long for the day light, 
 and look often out to spy the day, so 
 he for a glimmering, and dawning of 
 an answer. The like we have Psalm 
 V. 3, In the morning will I direct my 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 Psalm 
 cxxiii. 2. 
 
10 
 
 The Return of Prayers, 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 Reason 3. 
 If God 
 give an 
 answer, 
 we make 
 him speak 
 
 1 Samuel 
 iii. 19. 
 
 prayer to thee, and look, that is, for an 
 answer. 
 
 Again, 3, If God doth give you an 
 answer, if you mind it not, you let 
 God speak to you in vain, when you 
 do not listen to what he answers : if 
 two men walk together, and the one, 
 when himself hath said and spoke 
 what he would, listens not, but is re- 
 gardless of what the other answers, 
 he exceedingly slights the man. As, 
 non respondere pro convitio est, not 
 to answer again is contempt ; so, non 
 attendere, not to attend to what one 
 says. Now our speaking to God by 
 prayers, and his speaking to us by 
 answers thereunto, is one great part 
 of our walking with God ; and to 
 study out his dealings with us, to 
 compare our prayers and his answers 
 together, which are as dialogues be- 
 tween us and him. It is said of 
 Samuel's prophecy, that not a, word of 
 it fell to the ground: and so it may be 
 said of our prayers ; and so it ought 
 to be of God's answers, not a word of 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 11 
 
 tJiem should fall to the ground: as 
 there doth, if you by your observation 
 and listening thereunto catch them 
 not, (as Benhadad's servants are said 
 to do Ahab's words,) apprehend, and 
 observe them not : and by the same 
 reason, that you are to observe the 
 fulfilling of God's promises, you are 
 of your prayers also : now, 1 Kings 
 viii. SQ^ it is said, not one word failed 
 of all he promised. Solomon had ob- 
 served this by a particular survey and 
 register made of all that God had 
 spoken and done for them, and found 
 not a promise unperformed : and there 
 is the like reason both of answers to 
 prayers, and for our observing of 
 them, for prayers are but putting 
 promises into suite ; and therefore 
 Solomon brings those words in there, 
 to this very purpose, to confirm their 
 faith in this, that no prayers made 
 would fail being grounded on a pro- 
 mise, thereby to encourage others and 
 his own heart to diligence herein, as 
 also as a motive unto God to hear 
 
12 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 Reason 4. 
 God may 
 be pro- 
 voked not 
 to answer 
 at all. 
 
 Heb.x.36. 
 
 TJie Return of Prayers, 
 
 him; for ver. 59, he infers upon it, 
 Let my words be nigh thee, &c. ; seeing 
 thou always thus performest thy good 
 word unto thy people. 
 
 1. Yea, you will provoke the Lord 
 not to answer at all, he will forbear to 
 answer, because he sees it will be thus 
 in vain. When a man is talking to 
 one that listens not to him, he will 
 cease to answer, and leave off speak- 
 ing; and so will God. So as that 
 which the Apostle saith of faith, that 
 it is not enough to believe, but when 
 you have done the will of God, you 
 have need of patience to eke out faith, 
 that you may inherit the promises, may 
 be also said, and is alike true of pray- 
 ing: it is not enough to pray, but 
 after you have prayed, you have need 
 to listen for an answer, that you may 
 receive your prayers; God will not 
 fulfil them else. As he said, the Ser- 
 mon luas not done, when yet the 
 preacher had done, because it is not 
 done, till practised; so our prayers 
 are not done, when yet made, but you 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 must further wait for, and attend the 
 accomplishment. 
 
 5. If you observe not his answers, 
 how shall you bless God and return 
 thanks to him for hearing your pray- 
 ers? Psalm cxvi. 1, 2. / love the 
 Lord, because he hath heard my voice 
 and my supjilication ; and therefore he 
 goes on to thank him, throughout the 
 whole Psalm. You are to ivatch unto 
 prayer with thanksgiving : and there- 
 fore as to watch, to observe, and re- 
 collect your own wants, which you 
 are to pray for, that you may have 
 matter of requests to put up, so also 
 to observe God's answers for matter of 
 thanksgiving ; and many fill that com- 
 mon place head full of matter to fur- 
 nish them for petitioning, but as for 
 this other of thanksgiving, they watch 
 not unto it against they come to pray, 
 nor study matter for that head also ; 
 and if any study will furnish you this 
 way, it is the studying out of God's 
 answers to your prayers : the reason 
 you pray so much, and give thanks so 
 
 13 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 Reason 5. 
 We shall 
 not return 
 thanks to 
 God for 
 hearing 
 
 Col. iv. 2. 
 
u 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Reason 6. 
 We lose 
 much ex- 
 perience. 
 1. Of 
 God's 
 faithful- 
 ness to us. 
 
 little 
 
 that you observe not God's 
 you do not study them. 
 
 IS, 
 
 answers 
 
 When we have put up a faithful prayer, 
 God is made our debtor by promise, 
 and we are to take notice of his pay- 
 ment and give him an acknowledg- 
 ment of the receipt of it, he loseth of 
 his glory else. 
 
 6. As God loseth, so yourselves 
 also the experience which you might 
 get hereby. 1. Both experience of 
 God and his faithfulness, which will 
 cause in you hope and confidence in 
 God another time, when you have 
 found him again and again answering 
 your prayers. It was a speech of one 
 eminent in holiness, upon occasion of 
 the accomjDlishment of a great request 
 made to God by him, that God having 
 never denied him any request, I have 
 tried God often, now (says he) hence- 
 forth I will trust him ; if the hearing 
 the prayers of another will encourage 
 us to go to God, (as Psalm xxxiii. 5. 
 Par this cause shall every one that is 
 godly pray unto thee) much more when 
 
The jReturn of Prayers. 
 
 15 
 
 we observe, and have experience that 
 our own are heard; therefore, says 
 David, Psalm cxvi. 1, 2. The Lord 
 hath heard me, and I will call upon 
 him as long as I live: as if he had 
 said, now that God hath heard me, 
 I know whither to go : this experi- 
 ment, if I had no more, is enough to 
 encourage me for ever to pray unto 
 God : I have learned by it to call 
 upon him as long as I live. And also, 
 % by observing God's answers to your 
 prayers, you will gain much insight 
 into your own hearts, and ways, and 
 prayers; and may thereby learn how 
 to judge of them. So Psalm Ixvi. 18, 
 19. David's assurance that he did 
 not regard iniquity in his heart, was 
 strengthened by God's having heard 
 his prayers : for thus he reasons. If I 
 regard iniquity in my heart, God will 
 not hear me : but God hath heard me. 
 For 1, if God doth not grant your 
 petitions, it will put you to study a 
 reason of that his dealing : and so you 
 will come to search into your prayers. 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 2. Of our 
 own 
 hearts and 
 ways to- 
 wards 
 him. 
 
16 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 and the carriage of your hearts, therein 
 to see whether you did not pray amiss ; 
 according to that, Ye lust and have 
 not, because ye ask amiss, James iv. 3. 
 As if you send to a friend, who is 
 punctual in that point of friendship of 
 returning answers, and useth not to 
 fail, and you receive no answer from 
 him, you will begin to think there is 
 something in it: and so also here, 
 when a petition is denied, you will be 
 jealous of yourselves, and inquisitive, 
 what should be the matter, and so by 
 that search come to see that in your 
 prayers, which you will learn to mend 
 the next time. Or, 2, if they be 
 answered, yet because that therein 
 usually God deals in a proportion with 
 you to your prayers, (as you might 
 perceive if you would observe his 
 dealings with you,) you would by this 
 means come to have much insight 
 into God's acceptation and opinion of 
 your ways : for you should see his 
 dealings with you, and yours with him, 
 to be exceeding parallel and corres- 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 17 
 
 pondent, and hold proportion each 
 with other. So Psal. xviii. 6. In my 
 distress I called upon the Lord : and 
 so verse 7, 8, &c. he goes on to de- 
 scribe his deliverance which was the 
 fruit of those prayers, and then at 
 verses 20, 21, &e. he adds his obser- 
 vation upon both. According to the 
 cleanness of my hands hath he dealt 
 with me, ^c. For with the pure thou 
 shalt shew thyself pure. 
 
 7. You will lose much of your 
 comfort : there is no greater joy than 
 to see prayers answered, or to see 
 souls converted by us, John xvi. 24-. 
 Ash and you shall receive, that your 
 joy maybe full: the receiving answers 
 makes joy to abound and overflow. 
 Yea, even when we pray for others, if 
 our prayers be answered for them, 
 our joys are exceeding great ; much 
 more when in our own behalf: and 
 therein, even in the smallest things 
 which a Christian doth enjoy, doth his 
 comfort exceed another's, that he hath 
 them by virtue of prayers and pro- 
 
 Chap. 1 , 
 
 Reason 7. 
 We shall 
 lose much 
 comfort. 
 
18 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 Prov. ix. 
 17. 
 
 3 John iv. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 mises: he knows how he came by 
 them ; If stolen waters be siceet^ and 
 bread eaten in secret^ &c., as Solomon 
 says, to wicked men, begged meat is 
 much more sweet to godly men : yea, in 
 the very praying for outward mercies, 
 there is more sweetness than they have 
 in enjoying them. As it is joy to a 
 good heart to see any one converted, 
 but much more to him that is the means 
 of it. / have no greater joy ^ says St. 
 John, than that my children walk in 
 truth : so to see God do good to his 
 Church, and hear others' prayers is a 
 comfort, but much more to see him 
 do it as a man's own prayers. There- 
 fore, when God restores comfort to a 
 drooping soul, he is said, Isai. Ivii. 
 To restore comfort also to his mourners, 
 that is, to those that prayed and 
 mourned for him, as well as unto that 
 soul itself; it being a comfort to them 
 to see their prayers answered. Com- 
 fort it is many ways ^ : To hear from 
 God ; as to hear from a friend, though 
 it be but two or three words, and that 
 
The JReturn of Prayers. 
 
 19 
 
 about a small matter, if there be at 
 the bottom this subscription : your 
 loving Father ; or, your assured friend, 
 it satisfies abundantly : so also ^ to 
 know that God is mindful of us, ac- 
 cepts our works, fulfils his promises^: 
 how doth it rejoice one to find another 
 of his mind in a controversy ; but that 
 God and we should be of one mind, 
 and concur in the desire of the same 
 things ; not two in the earth only agree, 
 but God who is heaven and we to 
 agree, this rejoiceth the heart exceed- 
 ingly. And thus it is when a man 
 perceives his prayer answered. There- 
 fore you lose much of your comfort 
 in blessings when you do not observe 
 answers to your prayers. 
 
 Chap. 1. 
 
 Mat.xviii. 
 19. 
 
20 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 2. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Three cases propounded : the first con- 
 cerning prayers for the Church, and 
 for the accomplishment of such pro- 
 mises as may fail out in ages to come. 
 
 Now as for rules and helps to find 
 out God's meaning towards you in 
 your prayers, and to spy out answers, 
 and how to know when God doth any 
 thing in answer to your prayers, this 
 is the next thing to be handled : where- 
 in first I will answer some cases and 
 queries which may fall out in several 
 sorts of prayers, about the answering 
 of them. 
 
 1. As first, concerning prayers put 
 up for the Church, for the accom- 
 plishment of such things as fall out in 
 ages to come. 
 
 2. Concerning prayers made for 
 others of your friends, kindred, &c. 
 
 3. Concerning those prayers, whe- 
 ther for yourselves or others, wherein 
 others join with you. 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 21 
 
 For the first. First, there may be 
 some prayers which you must be con- 
 tent never yourselves to see answered 
 in this world, the accomplishment of 
 them not falling out in your time : 
 such as are those you haply make for 
 the calling of the Jews, the utter 
 downfall of God's enemies, the flou- 
 rishing of the Gospel, the full purity 
 and liberty of God's ordinances, the 
 particular flourishing and good of the 
 society and place you live in, a,ll you 
 whose hearts are right do treasure up 
 many such prayers as these, and sow 
 much of such precious seed, which 
 you must be content to have the 
 Church (it may be) in after ages to 
 reap ; all which prayers are not yet 
 lost, but will have answers : for as 
 God is an eternal God, and Christ's 
 righteousness an everlasting righteous- 
 ness, and therefore of eternal efificacy, 
 Dan. ix. 24, being offered up hy the 
 eternal Spirit, Heb. ix. 14, so are 
 prayers also which are the work of 
 the eternal Spirit of Christ, made to 
 
 Chap. 2. 
 Section 1. 
 The full 
 answer 
 to such 
 prayers is 
 to come. 
 
22 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 2. 
 
 Rev.xii.l, 
 
 that God in his name, and in him are 
 eternally accepted, and of eternal 
 force, and therefore may take place in 
 after ages. So the prayer that St. 
 Stephen made for his persecutors took 
 place in Saul when St. Stephen was 
 dead. So David's prayer against Ju- 
 das, Psal. cix. 8, 9, took effect above 
 a thousand years after, as appears 
 Acts i. 20. So the prayers of the 
 Church, for three hundred years, in 
 the primitive times, that kings might 
 come to the knowledge of the truth, 
 and they lead peaceable and quiet lives 
 in all godliness and honesty (which St. 
 Paul in Nero's time exhorted unto, 1 
 Tim. ii. 2,) were not answered and 
 accomplished till Constantine's time, 
 when the Church brought forth a 
 man child. So Isai. Iviii., after he 
 had exhorted to, and given directions 
 for fasting and prayer in a right man- 
 ner, he adjoin eth this promise : Thou 
 shalt raise up the foundations of many 
 generations; thou shalt be called the 
 repairer of the breach; namely for 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 23 
 
 this, because his fasting and prayers 
 might have influence into many ages 
 yet to come, in the accomplishment 
 of what was prayed for. And that 
 which Christ says of the apostles, 
 reaping the fruit of St. John the Bap- 
 tist's ministry, and the seed he had 
 sown, is in like manner herein verified, 
 John iv. 37, One soweth and another 
 reapeth. And in this sense, that which 
 the Papists say is true, that there is 
 a common treasury of the Church, 
 not of their merits, but of their 
 prayers: there are bottles of tears a 
 filling, vials a filling to be poured out 
 for the destruction of God's enemies : 
 what a collection of prayers hath 
 there been these many ages towards 
 it I and that may be one reason why 
 God will do such great things towards 
 the end of the world, even because 
 there hath been so great a stock of 
 prayers going, for so many ages, 
 which is now to be returned: and 
 herein it falls out to us in our prayers, 
 as in their prophecies to the prophets 
 
 Chap. 2. 
 
24 
 
 Chap. 2. 
 1 Peter i. 
 11. 
 
 Sect. 2. 
 Yet they 
 may have 
 an answer 
 at pre- 
 sent, in 
 assurance 
 both that 
 they shall 
 come to 
 pass, and 
 of the ac- 
 ceptation 
 of our 
 prayers 
 for them. 
 
 The Return of Prayers, 
 
 of old, The Spirit in them did signify 
 the sufferings of Christ, and the glory 
 that should follow. Unto whom it was 
 revealed, that not unto themselves, but 
 unto us they did minister the things 
 tfiat are now revealed. And thus is it 
 in the spirit of prayer, which is in- 
 stead of the spirit of prophecy: for 
 we pray through the guidance of the 
 Spirit, who teacheth us what to ask, 
 for many things that come to pass in 
 after ages. 
 
 Only at present in prayer, it may 
 be thou hast revealed unto thee by a 
 secret impression made on thy spirit, 
 that these things shall come to pass, 
 and so hast thy faith confirmed in 
 them, and withal an evidence, that 
 even for thy prayers, among others, 
 God will perform tliem ; and that the 
 contribution of thy prayers, doth help 
 to make up the sum : and upon such 
 prayers God usually for the present 
 also testifies the acceptation of a 
 man's person, and reveals himself most 
 to him that he is his; as he did to 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 25 
 
 Moses ; he never revealed his love to 
 Moses more, than when he prayed 
 most for God's people. And haply 
 thou hast that as one of thy best evi- 
 dences of the uprightness of thy heart, 
 that thou canst pray for the Church's 
 good, though for a long time to come, 
 which thou mayest never behold with 
 thine eyes, even as David also did, and 
 rejoiced in it. 
 
 And when they are accomplished, 
 and thou in heaven, thy joy will 
 surely be the more full for these thy 
 prayers : as at the conversion of those 
 thou hast prayed for, so at the ruin 
 of the Church's enemies, &c. whom 
 thou didst pray against ; for if there 
 be joy in heaven at the conversion of 
 a sinner, as at the birth of a new 
 prince and heir of heaven, then haply 
 in a proportion he shall rejoice most, 
 whose prayers had most hand in it, 
 and a special interest therein. And 
 so as thy other works, so thy prayers 
 follow thee, and the fruit of them, as 
 Jeremiah speaks: and however, yet 
 
 Chap. 
 
 Sect. 3. 
 And in 
 heaven 
 we shall 
 rejoice at 
 the ac- 
 complish- 
 ment of 
 them : 
 and at the 
 day of 
 judgment. 
 
 Jer. xvii. 
 10. 
 
26 
 
 Chap. 2. 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 
 Pray for 
 others we 
 ought. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 at the day of judgment thou shalt re- 
 joice, as well as they that enjoyed the 
 fruit of thy prayers in their times, 
 thou having sown the seed of their 
 happiness; both he that sows, and he 
 that reaps, shall then rejoice together, 
 as Christ says, John iv. 36. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 The second case, concerning prayers 
 made for others : of our friends, §"c. 
 How they are answered. 
 
 The second case is, concerning an- 
 swers to our prayers for others, for 
 particular men, as friends, and kin- 
 dred, &c. and likewise for temporal 
 blessings. 
 
 Pray for others you know we must : 
 so the elders of the Church for those 
 that are sick, Jam. v. 15, 16. Pray 
 one for another, says St. James : as in 
 case a man is troubled with a lust, 
 tell some private friend of it ; Coif ess 
 your sins one to another ; that when 
 a man's own prayers are not strong 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 27 
 
 enough to cast it out, it may be done 
 by the help of another's prayers joined 
 with his. So it follows, that ye may 
 he healed, ver. 16: for in that sense 
 I understand healing, in ver. 16. So 
 also 1 John v. 16. If a man see his 
 brother siii a sin ivhich is not unto 
 death, that is, not against the Holy 
 Ghost, he shall ash life for him, and 
 God shall give him life, that sins not 
 unto death. 
 
 Concerning this case I give these 
 considerations, how such prayers are 
 answered. 
 
 1. Consideration. Such prayers God 
 often heareth ; why else are any such 
 promises made? As, that they shall 
 he healed in their hodies, Jam. v. 15. 
 Healed of their lusts, ver. 16. Con- 
 verted to life, 1 John v. 16. God hath 
 made these to encourage us to pray, 
 and to testify his abundant love to us; 
 that it so overflows and runs over, 
 that he will hear us, not only for our- 
 selves, but for others also ; which is a 
 sign we are in extraordinary favour. 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 
 Sect. 1. 
 Such 
 prayers 
 for others 
 God often 
 graiiteth. 
 
28 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Rev. i. 
 
 Hab. ii. 4, 
 
 So God intimates concerning Abra- 
 ham, to Abimelech, Gen. xx. 7. He is 
 a 'prophet, and he shall pray for thee, 
 and thou shalt live : and as he was a 
 prophet, so we are priests ; as for 
 ourselves, so for others also, to God 
 our Father : and it is a prerogative 
 we have through the fellowship we 
 have, and communion of Christ's 
 priestly office, who hath made us kings 
 and priests, to prevail and intercede 
 for others; and a special token and 
 pledge of extraordinary love : for if 
 God hears a man's prayers for others, 
 much more for himself in his own be- 
 half. So when Christ healed the man 
 sick of the palsy, it was, as it is said, 
 for the faith of the standers hy. Matt, 
 ix. 2 ; he seeing their faith, said, thy 
 sins are forgiven thee: the meaning is, 
 not as if for their faith's sake he for- 
 gave that man his sins, for the just 
 doth live by his (own) faith; but to en- 
 courage them, who out of faith brought 
 that sick man to him ; and us all in 
 like manner to bring others, and their 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 plaints by prayer, before him ; he 
 therefore then took occasion to de- 
 clare and pronounce forgiveness to 
 that poor man ; he therefore then 
 said, thy sins are forgiven thee. 
 
 2. Consideration. Yet, secondly, 
 prayers for others may often also not 
 obtain the particular thing prayed for 
 them. So Samuel's prayer for Saul, 
 1 Sam. XV. 35. So David for his ene- 
 mies, Psal. xxxvii. 13. 
 
 For it is in this, as it is in the use 
 of other means and ordinances for the 
 good of others ; God making such like 
 kind of promises to our prayers here- 
 in, as he hath made to our endeavours 
 to convert when we preach to men : 
 that look as we preach to many, and 
 yet but few believe ; for, WJio hath 
 believed our report? even as many as 
 are ordained to eternal life: we become 
 all to ally and win but some. So we 
 pray for many, not knowing who are 
 ordained to eternal life, which whilst 
 we know not, we are yet to pray for 
 them, 1 Tim. ii. 3, 4. Only as where 
 
 29 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 
 Sect. 2. 
 Yet al- 
 ways they 
 do not 
 prevail 
 for the 
 parties 
 prayed 
 for. 
 
 The 
 reason. 
 
 Rom. X. 
 16. 
 
30 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 
 Such pro- 
 mises to 
 hear us 
 for others, 
 being but 
 indefinite, 
 not uni- 
 versal. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 God hath set his ordinance of preach- 
 ing, it is more than a probable sign 
 he hath some to convert, and usually 
 the word takes among some, though 
 often but a few. So when he hath 
 stirred up our hearts to pray for 
 others, it is a sign God will hear us 
 for some of those we pray for : yet so 
 as we may be denied. For God doth 
 require it as a duty on our parts, be- 
 cause it is an outward means ordained 
 by God, by which sometimes he useth 
 to bring things to pass : but yet not 
 as such a certain and infallible means, 
 as he hath tied himself universally 
 unto, to bring the thing to pass on his 
 part. 
 
 And though indeed his promise to 
 hear and accept the prayer is general 
 and universal ; yet the promise to 
 hear it, by granting the very thing it- 
 self prayed for, is but an indefinite 
 promise, such as he makes to other 
 means of doing men good, as to our 
 admonitions and reproofs, and to our 
 preaching, &c. He makes such pro- 
 
The Return of Prayer, 
 
 31 
 
 niises, because sometimes he doth hear 
 and convert by them. For instance, 
 that promise, Jam. v. 15, of healing 
 the sick, cannot be universal : for it 
 might then be supposed as a truth 
 implied in it, that sick men might 
 never die, whereas it is appointed for 
 all men once to die, seeing it may be 
 supposed that the elders may at all 
 such times of danger of death still 
 come and pray with them : but the 
 meaning is, that it is an ordinance, 
 which God hath made a gracious pro- 
 mise unto, because he often doth re- 
 store the sick at their prayers : and 
 therefore upon every such particular 
 occasion, we are to rely upon God for 
 the performance of it, by an act of 
 recumbency ; though with an act of 
 full assurance that we shall obtain it, 
 we cannot ; the promise being not 
 universal, but indefinite. 
 
 Of the like nature are all other 
 promises of things temporal and out- 
 ward, (of which we herein speak,) as 
 when God promiseth to give long life 
 
 Chap. 
 
 Heb. ix. 
 27. 
 
 Illustrat- 
 ed by the 
 like tenor 
 of all pro- 
 mises of 
 things 
 temporal. 
 
32 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 
 Eccles. 
 vii. 2. 
 
 to them that honour their parents ; 
 riches and honours to them that fear 
 him ; the tenour and purport of which 
 promises is not^ as if absolutely, in- 
 fallibly, and universally God doth al- 
 ways perform these to those that are 
 yet truly qualified with the conditions 
 specified in those promises ; the con- 
 trary both Scripture instances, and 
 common experience shews: they are 
 therefore indefinitely meant, and so to 
 be understood by us; for, because 
 whenever God doth dispense any such 
 mercies to any of his, he would do it 
 by promise ; all his ways to his being 
 truth, that is, the fulfilling of some 
 truth promised ; and also God having 
 purposed in his outward dispensation 
 of things here in this world, to bestow 
 riches and honours upon some that 
 fear him, (though not upon all, for 
 how then should all things fall alike to 
 all ? Poverty and contempt upon them 
 that fear God, even as well as those 
 that fear him not.) He hath therefore 
 indefinitely expressed his gracious dis- 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 33 
 
 pensation herein : requiring answerably 
 an act of faith (which principle in us 
 is suited to a promise, as a faculty is 
 to its proper object) suitable to that 
 his meaning in the promise; that as 
 he intended not in such promises an 
 absolute, infallible, universal obligation 
 of himself to the performance of them 
 to all that fear him : so the act of faith 
 which a man is to put forth toward 
 this promise, in the application of it 
 for his own particular, is not required 
 to be an absolute, infallible persuasion, 
 and assurance that God will bestow 
 these outward things upon him, having 
 these qualifications in him; but only 
 an indefinite act (as I may so call it) 
 of recumbency and submission ; cast- 
 ing and adventuring ourselves upon 
 him for the performance of it to us, 
 not knowing but he may in his out- 
 ward dispensations make it good to us, 
 yet with submission to his good plea- 
 sure, if otherwise he disposeth it. 
 
 It is true indeed, that that act of 
 general assent, which faith is to give 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 The faith 
 towards 
 them re- 
 quired to 
 be but an 
 indefinite 
 act of re- 
 cumbency 
 not of as- 
 surance. 
 
 Though 
 of assur- 
 ance to 
 
34 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 
 the pro- 
 mise in 
 general, 
 yet not in 
 the appli- 
 cation of 
 it. 
 
 to this promise in the general abstract 
 truth of it, is to be an assured certain 
 persuasion and belief, that God hath 
 made this promise, and that he cer- 
 tainly will and doth perform it unto 
 some according to his purpose ex- 
 pressed therein ; which act of general 
 assent is that believing without waver- 
 ing ; namely, of the truth of the pro- 
 mise in general, which St. James calls 
 for in prayer, Jam. i. 6. But yet that 
 special act of application (as Divines 
 call it) required in this faith, whereby 
 I am to rest upon it, for my own par- 
 ticular, is not required to be such an 
 undoubted persuasion, as to think that 
 I shall certainly have this particular 
 promise in kind fulfilled to me; for 
 the truth, purpose, and intent of the 
 promise, is not universal, but inde- 
 finite. So as it is but an it may be (as 
 God elsewhere expresseth such pro- 
 mises, as Zeph. ii. 1, 2.) That it shall 
 be performed to me : and yet because 
 it may be God will perform it unto 
 me, therefore my duty is to cast my- 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 35 
 
 self upon God, and put in for it, with 
 submission to his good pleasure for 
 the performance of it to me. So that 
 so far as the truth and intent of it is 
 revealed to be infallible and certain, 
 so far a man is bound to have an an- 
 swerable act of faith, of certain and 
 infallible persuasion towards it, as to 
 believe without wavering that God 
 hath made such a promise, and will 
 perform it according to his intent in 
 making it, which is unto some : but 
 yet withal because the tenor of it is 
 but indefinite, and in that respect, 
 whether it shall be performed to me 
 or no, is not therein certainly re- 
 vealed. Therefore God requires not 
 of me in the application of such a 
 promise an absolute full persuasion 
 that he will perform it to me in such 
 or such a manner, &c. But only an 
 act of dependence and adherence with 
 referring it to his wise and righteous 
 good pleasure towards me. 
 
 And yet again, if God should at 
 any time give a man such a special 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 
 Yet when 
 Godsome- 
 times 
 
36 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 gives a 
 special 
 faith, then 
 we are to 
 be assur- 
 ed the 
 thingshall 
 be done. 
 
 An objec- 
 tion pre- 
 vented. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 faith concerning any such particular 
 temporal blessing for himself or an- 
 other, then he is bound to believe it 
 thus in particular : as when he gave 
 power to any to work miracles, (as to 
 his apostles he did, with a commission 
 to work them,) then they were bound 
 to believe that such and such a mira- 
 cle should infallibly be wrought by 
 them, as that the devils should be cast 
 out by them, &c. And therefore in 
 this case Christ rebukes his disciples, 
 for not believing thus upon such par- 
 ticular occasions. Matt. xvii. 20. And 
 then it is also true, that if God give 
 such a faith, he will infallibly perform 
 it : and thus those his words are to be 
 understood. Matt, xxvii. 22. Whatso- 
 ever ye ask in faith^ believing^ ye shall 
 receive: he speaks it of the faith of 
 miracles; for, ver. 21, he had said, 
 if ye believe and doubt not, ye shall 
 say to this mountain, remove into the 
 sea, and it shall be removed: so that 
 when God works such a faith, and we 
 are called to it, we are bound to 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 37 
 
 believe with a certain persuasion that 
 such a thing will be done, and it shall 
 be done : but unto such a kind of spe- 
 cial faith in temporal jDromises for our- 
 selves or others, God doth not now 
 always call us. If indeed at any time 
 we (lid believe and doubted not, by 
 reason of a special faith wrought by 
 God, that God would remove a moun- 
 tain into the sea, or bestow any out- 
 ward mercy, it should be done : for he 
 that stirred up such a faith, would ac- 
 complish the thing : but it is not that, 
 which God requires of believers, that 
 they should without doubting thus be- 
 lieve concerning outward things ; the 
 promises thereof being not universal 
 but indefinite; and therefore answer- 
 ably a man is not absolutely bound to 
 believe that God will certainly bestow 
 such a temporal blessing on him, no 
 not though he should have the qualifi- 
 cation, which the promise is made unto, 
 the promise being not universal, made 
 to all so qualified, but indefinite to 
 some of such so qualified. The case 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap, 3. 
 
 Sect. 3. 
 Such 
 prayers 
 for others 
 are often 
 returned 
 into our 
 own bo- 
 
 is the same of believing promises made 
 to our praying for others, which is the 
 thing in hand. 
 
 3. When the prayers are thus made 
 out of conscience of our duty for such, 
 who yet God doth not intend that 
 mercy unto, then they are returned 
 again into our own bosoms, to our 
 advantage : even as St. Paul saith, 
 that his rejoicing that others preached, 
 though they lost their labour, should 
 turn to his salvation, Phil. i. 20. So 
 prayers for others, though to the par- 
 ties themselves we prayed for they 
 prove in vain, yet they turn to our 
 good. So Psal. XXXV. 12, 13. When 
 his enemies were sich, David he prayed 
 and humbled himself; and my prayers 
 (says he) returned into my bosom. Da- 
 vid did by this his prayer in secret for 
 his enemies, testify the sincerity of his 
 heart to God, and his true forgiveness 
 of them (for it is the usual disposition 
 of God's children, to pray for them 
 that arc? tlie greatest enemies to them,) 
 and this prayer though it did not pro- 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 fit them, yet it turned to David's own 
 good, it came back, and home again 
 to him, with blessings to himself; God 
 delighting in, and rewarding such a 
 disposition in his child, as much as 
 any other ; because therein we resem- 
 ble Christ so truly, and shew that God 
 is our Father, and ourselves to have 
 his bowels in us ; and God stirreth up 
 this praying disposition in his children 
 for their enemies, not always that he 
 means to hear them for them, but be- 
 cause he means to draw forth, and so 
 have an occasion to reward those holy 
 dispositions, which are the noblest 
 parts of his image in them and where- 
 with he is so much delighted ; and so 
 their prayers return into their own bo- 
 som, and it is taken, as if they had 
 prayed for themselves all that while. 
 Thus in like manner, when Moses 
 prayed so earnestly for the people of 
 Israel, God offered to return his prayer 
 into his own bosom, and do as much 
 for him alone, as he had desired that 
 God would do for them. / vjill make 
 
 39 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 
 The rea- 
 son. 
 
40 
 
 The Return of Prayers, 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 
 Sect, 4. 
 God often 
 in the end 
 casts such 
 out of our 
 prayers he 
 intends 
 not to 
 hear us 
 for. 
 
 thee a great nation (says God to him) 
 for whom I will do as much for thy 
 sake, as thou hast prayed I should do 
 for these. As in preaching the Gospel, 
 Christ told the disciples, That if in 
 any house they came to preach peace, 
 there were not a son of peace, Luke 
 10, on whom the message might take 
 place, and their peace rest, Your peace 
 (says he) shall return unto you again. 
 So is it if your prayers take not 
 place. 
 
 4. If we have prayed long for those 
 whom God intends not mercy unto, 
 he will in the end cast them out of our 
 prayers and hearts, and take our hearts 
 off from praying for them. That which 
 he did by a revelation from heaven 
 to some prophets of old, as to Samuel 
 and Jeremiah, the same he doth by a 
 more undiscerned work ; that is, by 
 withdrawing assistance to pray for 
 such ; by withdrawing the spirit of 
 supplication from a man, for some 
 men, and in some businesses. Now 
 thus he did with Samuel, Wliy dost 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 thou mourn for Saul? 1 Sam. xvi. 1. 
 So with Jeremiah, Jer. vii. 16. Pray 
 not for this people : and this he cloth, 
 because he is loath when his people 
 do pray but to hear them ; and would 
 not that such precious breath as that 
 of prayer is, should be without its full 
 and direct success, or be in vain : 
 therefore when he means not to hear, 
 he lays the key of prayer out of the 
 way, so desirous is he to give answers 
 to every prayer. It falls out in this 
 case of praying for another, as in re- 
 proving another. One whom God in- 
 tends not good unto, God will lock up 
 a man's heart towards such a man, that 
 he shall not be able to reprove him ; 
 when towards another God doth en- 
 large it as much, where he intends 
 good ; thus it is sometimes in praying 
 for another; so as in praying a man 
 shall not be able to pray for, as not 
 to reprove such a man, though his 
 heart was to do both : but it fareth 
 with him as God threateneth concern- 
 ing Ezekiel towards that people, that 
 
 41 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 
 The 
 reason. 
 
42 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Ezek. iji. 
 26. 
 
 God 
 some- 
 times an- 
 swers 
 those 
 prayers 
 in some 
 others 
 whom we 
 prayed 
 not for. 
 The 
 reason. 
 
 he makes his tongue cleave to the roof 
 of his mouth. 
 
 5. God will hear those prayers for, 
 and answer them in some others, in 
 whom we shall have as much comfort, 
 as in those we prayed for: and so it 
 often proves and falls out. God, to 
 shew he looks not as man looks, nor 
 chooseth as he chooseth, lets our hearts 
 be set on work to pray for the conver- 
 sion or good of one he intends not 
 mercy to ; and then answers them in 
 some other, whom he makes as dear 
 unto us. When God had cast oif Saul, 
 still Samuel's heart lingered after him, 
 and he mourned for him : but God at 
 the same time, when he bids him cease 
 mourning for Saul, 1 Sam. xvi. to shew 
 that yet he accepted that his mourning 
 as it came from him ; Go (says he) 
 and anoint one of the sons of Jesse ^ 
 1 Sam. xvi. 1. Samuel desired to see 
 a good successor in that government, 
 and he having been their ruler, it was 
 his special care, he having anointed 
 Saul, it exceedingly grieved him, that 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 he should prove so wicked ; and God 
 saw and answered the ground of his 
 desires ; and therefore immediately 
 upon his prayers, sent him to anoint 
 the best king that ever was upon that 
 throne, who was the issue and man- 
 child of those his prayers. And again, 
 when Samuel came to anoint one of 
 the sons of Jesse ; when he saw Eliab, 
 ver. 6. Surely (says he) the Lords 
 anointed is before me : If Samuel had 
 been to choose, he would have chosen 
 him, and would have prayed for and 
 desired him : but God seeth not as man 
 seeth, ver. 7, aiid chooseth not as man 
 chooseth: but in David was his prayer 
 fully heard, and answered, and that 
 better. So Abraham, he had prayed 
 for Ishmael ; and Oh let Ishmael live 
 in thy sight! Gen. xvii. ; but God gave 
 him Isaac instead of him. So perhaps 
 thou prayest for one child more than 
 for another, out of thy natural affec- 
 tion, looking on his countenance and 
 stature, as Samuel did on EHab's : but 
 yet thy prayers being sincere in the 
 
44 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 3. 
 
 ground of them, in that thou desirest 
 a child of promise, God therefore an- 
 swers thee, though in another, for 
 whom yet haply thy heart was not 
 so much stirred ; who yet when he is 
 converted, proves to thee as great a 
 comfort ; and it is as much as if that 
 other thou didst most pray for had 
 been wrought upon. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 The third case, about such prayers 
 wherein others join with us : How 
 therein to discern the influence of our 
 own prayers. 
 
 The third case to be considered is, 
 when a man prays for something with 
 others ; or which others likewise pray 
 for with him, so as he is not alone in 
 it ; how then should he know that his 
 prayers have a hand in obtaining it, as 
 well as theirs ? For in such cases Sa- 
 tan is apt to object, though the thing 
 is granted indeed ; yet not for thy 
 prayers, but for the prayers of those 
 others joined in it with thee. 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 45 
 
 1. If thy heart did sympathize and 
 accord in the same holy affections with 
 those others in praying, then it is cer- 
 tain thy voice hath helped to carry it; 
 If two agree on earth (says Christ) 
 Matt, xviii. 19, the word is crv^(})(ovr]- 
 ao3(nv, that is, if they harmonially agree 
 to play the same tune : for prayers are 
 music in God's ears, and so called 
 3Ielodi/ to God, Eph. v. 19. It is not 
 simply their agreeing in the thing 
 prayed for, but in the affections : for 
 it is the affections that make the con- 
 sort and the melody : now if the same 
 holy affections were touched, and 
 struck by God's spirit in thy heart, 
 that in theirs, then thou doest help to 
 make up the consort ; and without 
 thee it would have been imperfect : yea, 
 without thee the thing might not have 
 been done ; for God stands sometimes 
 upon such a number of voices, and one 
 voice casts it ; as when he named ten 
 righteous persons to save Sodom : when 
 therefore the same holy motives and 
 affections affected thee in thy prayer, 
 
 Chap. 4. 
 
 Sect. 1. 
 If our 
 hearts 
 were af- 
 fected in 
 praying 
 with the 
 same holy 
 affections 
 where- 
 with o- 
 thers that 
 prayed 
 with us 
 were. 
 
46 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 4. 
 
 Especial- 
 ly when 
 this sym- 
 pathy is 
 unbe- 
 known 
 each to 
 other. 
 
 Sect. 2. 
 By some 
 special 
 evidence 
 as first, 
 some- 
 times by 
 
 wliich did them in theirs, it was the 
 work of the same spirit, both in them 
 and thee, and God hath heard thee. 
 
 Especially if God did stir up the 
 same secret instinct in thee, to sympa- 
 thize with another in praying for such 
 a thing unbeknown one to another, as 
 sometimes it falls out ; then surely thy 
 prayers are in it as well as his. You 
 shall observe sometimes a general in- 
 stinct of the Spirit, put into God's 
 people's hearts, generally to pray for 
 or against a thing, without each other's 
 stirring up one another : even as Eze- 
 kiel by the river Chebar prophecied 
 the same things Jeremiah did at home 
 at Jerusalem. Thus against the time 
 that Christ the Messiah came in the 
 flesh, there was a great expectation 
 raised up in the hearts of the godly 
 people, to look and pray for him, 
 Luke ii. 27. and 38. 
 
 2. God doth usually, and often evi- 
 dence to a man, that his prayers con- 
 tributed, and went among the rest to- 
 wards the obtaining of it ; as, 
 
The Eeturn of Prayers. 
 
 47 
 
 1st, By some circumstance: as for 
 example, sometimes by ordering it so, 
 that that man that prayed most for a 
 thing of concernment, should have the 
 first news of it when it comes to be 
 accomplished : which God doth, as 
 knowing it will be most welcome news 
 to him. God doth herein, as we do 
 with a friend, who we know is cordial 
 in, and wisheth well to a business ; he 
 sends him the first word of it, who 
 was most hearty in it, and prayed most 
 about it. Good old Simeon had 
 surely been earnest in seeking the 
 Lord, as well as the rest in Jurusalem, 
 to send the Messiah into the world, to 
 restore and raise up the ruins of Israel, 
 for God did reveal to him, that he 
 should see him before he died: and 
 therefore to evidence to him his re- 
 spect to his prayers, God carried the 
 good old man into the temple, just at 
 the time when the child was brought 
 into the temple, for to be presented to 
 the Lord, Luke ii. 27, 28. And in like 
 manner good Anna, wlio hiid served 
 
 Chap. 4. 
 some no- 
 table cir- 
 cum- 
 stance. 
 
48 
 
 Chap. 4. 
 
 Secondly, 
 by the 
 heart's 
 being fill- 
 ed with 
 much joy 
 in the ac- 
 complish- 
 ment. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 God with fasting and prayer, night and 
 day : God ordereth it so, that she 
 must also come in at the same instant, 
 Luke ii. 38. By some such like pe- 
 culiar circumstance or other, doth 
 God often use to witness to a man's 
 heart, that he hath heard him in busi- 
 nesses, prayed for in common with 
 others. 
 
 2. By filling the heart with much 
 joy in the accomplishment of w^hat a 
 man prayed for : which is an evident 
 argument that his prayers did move 
 the Lord to effect it, as well as the 
 prayers of others. Thus that good 
 old Simeon, seeing his prayers now 
 answered, he was even willing to die 
 through joy ; and thought he could 
 not die in a better time, Lord now let 
 thy servant depart in peace. For when 
 the desires have vented and laid out 
 much of themselves, then when the 
 return comes home, they have an an- 
 swerable part and share in the comfort 
 of it : and as desires abounded in 
 praying, so will joy and comfort also 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 4.9 
 
 in the accomplishment. As when a 
 ship comes home, not only the chief 
 owners, but every one that ventured 
 shall have a share out of the return, 
 in a proportion to the adventure : so 
 here, though some one whom it mainly 
 concerns hath especial interest in the 
 mercy obtained, yet thou shalt have 
 thy prayers out in joy from God, that 
 the thing is granted. St. Paul had 
 planted a Church at Thessalonica, but 
 he could not stay to water it with his 
 own preaching, yet when absent, he 
 waters those plants which he had set, 
 with prayers, night and day ; 1 Thess. 
 iii. 10. Night and day praying ex- 
 ceedingly for you, says he : and as his 
 prayers were exceeding abundant for 
 them, so was his joy as abundant in 
 them, when he had heard that they 
 stood steadfast, and fell not back 
 again ; Now we live, if ye stand fast in 
 the Lord, ver. 8. And what tJianks 
 can we render to God for all the Joy 
 whereivith we joy for your sokes, before 
 the Lord ? ver. 9. 
 
50 
 
 Chap. 4, 
 
 3. By 
 
 thankful- 
 ness for it 
 when ac- 
 complish- 
 ed. 
 
 Sect. 3. 
 Especial- 
 ly when 
 the thing 
 obtained 
 concenis 
 
 own parti- 
 cular. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 3. If God give you a heart thankful 
 for a blessing vouchsafed to another, 
 prayed for by you with others, it is 
 another sign your prayers have some 
 hand in it : St. Paul knew not what 
 thanks to give for the answering of 
 his prayers, as in 'hat forementioned 
 place. Old Eli had put up but one 
 short ejaculatory petition that we read 
 of, for Hannah ; and that was The 
 Lord grant thy petition^ 1 Sam. i. 17. 
 and for the return of that one prayer 
 when Hannah related how God had 
 answered her, ver. 26, 27, he returned 
 solemn thanks, And he worshipped the 
 Lord there, ver. 28. 
 
 And lastly, in case the thing con- 
 cerned thyself, which was prayed for 
 by others helping thee therein, what 
 cause hast thou but to think that it 
 was granted for thy own prayers, and 
 not for theirs only ? seeing God stir- 
 red up their hearts to pray for thee, 
 and gave thee a heart to pray for thy- 
 self, and besides gave thee the thing 
 which thou desiredst : which argues 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 thou art beloved as well as they, and 
 accepted as well as they. / know this 
 shall turn to my salvation through your 
 prayers, saith St. Paul, Phil. i. 19, 
 though their prayers went to the bu- 
 siness, yet had not St. Paid been ac- 
 cepted himself, the prayers of all the 
 men in the world would have done 
 him but little good. God may hear 
 the prayers of the godly for wicked 
 men, when they do not pray them- 
 selves, in temporal things : so he did 
 hear Moses for Pharaoh, Abraham for 
 Abimelech ; and he may hear godly 
 men the sooner for others' prayers ; so 
 he heard Aaron and Miriam the sooner 
 for Moses's sake, Num. xii. 1 3 : but if 
 God stirs up thy heart to pray for thy- 
 self, as well as others for thee, then 
 God that gave thee a heart to pray 
 hath heard thy prayers also, and hath 
 had a respect to them more in it than 
 to theirs, because it concerned thyself, 
 as a more special mercy unto thee. 
 
 51 
 
 Chap. 4. 
 
52 
 
 Chap. 5. 
 
 Sect. 1. 
 Before : 
 when God 
 prepares 
 the heart 
 to pray. 
 
 The Return of Prayers, 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Common directions helpful in all cases 
 and prayers. First, from such obser- 
 vations as may be taken, from before, 
 and in praying. 
 
 Having premised these cases, I 
 come now to more general and com- 
 mon directions to help you in discern- 
 ing and observing the mind of God, 
 and his answers to you in your prayers. 
 All which directions are such as may be 
 helpful in all the forementioned cases, 
 and in all sorts of prayers what ever. 
 And they are taken from observations, 
 to be made upon your prayers, &c. 
 both before, in, and after praying. 
 
 First, before praying; when God 
 bespeaks a prayer (as I may so speak) 
 that is, when God secretly speaks to 
 the heart to pray much about a thing ; 
 I express it thus according to that 
 phrase of David, Psal. xxvii. 8. Thou 
 saidst seek my face, and I said, Thy 
 face, Lord, will I seek : now God 
 then speaks to the heart to pray, when 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 53 
 
 not only he puts upon the duty by 
 saying to the conscience, this thou 
 oughtest to do : but God's speaking to 
 pray is such, as his speech at first was, 
 when he made the world, when he 
 said, Let there be lights and there was 
 light: so he says, Let there be a 
 prayer, and there is a prayer : that is, 
 he pours upon a man a spirit of grace 
 and supplication, a praying disposi- 
 tion ; he puts in motives, suggests ar- 
 guments and pleas to God ; all which 
 you shall find come in readily, and of 
 themselves, and that likewise with a 
 quickening heat and enlargement of 
 affections, and with a lingering and 
 longing, and restlessness of spirit to 
 be alone, to pour out the soul 
 to God, and to vent and form those 
 motions and suggestions into a prayer, 
 till you have laid them together and 
 made a prayer of them. And this is 
 a speaking to the heart : and observe 
 such times when God doth thus, and 
 neglect them not, then to strike whilst 
 the iron is hot: thou hast then his 
 
 Chap. 5. 
 
54 
 
 CUAP. 5. 
 
 The diffe- 
 rence be- 
 tween Sa- 
 tan's un- 
 season- 
 able urg- 
 ing us to 
 pray and 
 God's 
 moving 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 ear ; it is a special opportunity for 
 that business, such an one as thou 
 raayest never have the like. Suitors 
 at court observe moUissima fandi tem- 
 pora, their times of begging when 
 they have kings in a good mood, which 
 they will be sure to take the advan- 
 tage of, but especially if they should 
 find that the king himself should begin 
 of himself to speak of the business 
 which they would have of him : and 
 thus that phrase of Psal. x. 17. is un- 
 derstood by some, that God prepares 
 the heart, and causeth the ear to hear ; 
 that is, he fashions it, and composeth 
 it into a praying frame. And sure it 
 is a great sign that God means to hear 
 us when himself shall thus indite the 
 petition. 
 
 And by the way let me give this 
 note of difference between these speak- 
 ings to the heart and those whereby 
 Satan puts us upon such duties at un- 
 seasonable hours and times ; as when 
 we are otherwise necessarily to be em- 
 ployed in our callings, to cat, or to 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 55 
 
 sleep, &c. ; then to put upon praying 
 is a device of his he useth, to tire out 
 new converts with. The difference 
 will appear in this: the devil comes 
 in a violent imperious manner upon 
 the conscience, but enlargeth not the 
 heart a whit unto the duty ; but when- 
 soever God at such extraordinary by- 
 times doth call upon us, he fits and 
 prepares the heart, and fills the soul 
 with holy suggestions, as materials for 
 the duty ; for whatsoever he calls to, 
 he gives abilities withal to the thing 
 he calls for. 
 
 And thus usually, when he will 
 have any great matters done and ef- 
 fected, he sets men's hearts a-work to 
 pray, by a kind of gracious pre-in- 
 stinct ; he stirs them up and toucheth 
 the strings of their hearts, by his Spi- 
 rit sent down upon them : thus against 
 the return of the captivity he stirred 
 up Daniel's heart, Dan. ix. 1. he know- 
 ing by books the time to be near ex- 
 piring, was stirred up to seek God : 
 and so he that made this Psalm, Sal- 
 
 Dan. ix.2. 
 
56 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 5. 
 
 vation being then nigh, ver. ix. 10. 
 then God stirred him up to pray, and 
 pen this prayer for their return : 
 which God had foretold he would do, 
 Jer. xxix. 10, 11, 12. For having 
 promised, ver. 10, I will cause you to 
 return after seventy years : Then (says 
 he, ver. 12) shall ye call upon me, and 
 ye shall go and pray unto me, and I 
 ivill hearhen unto you: he speaks it 
 not only by way of command, what it 
 was they ought to do, but as prophe- 
 cying also what they should do ; for 
 then he meant to stir up their hearts, 
 as then he did, as appears by those 
 forementioned instances. Therefore 
 observe what things God thus, by an 
 instinct, doth enlarge thy heart to pray 
 for at times, and sometimes at extra- 
 ordinary by-times, when haply tliou 
 didst not think to pray about any such 
 thing; yet he then stirred thee up 
 most, it may be, as thou wert walking, 
 &c. ; and having spare time, he draws 
 thee into his presence and moves thee 
 in that manner specified. 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 Now secondly : as God thus speaks 
 to the heart to pray, so also in pray- 
 ing : and his speaking to the heart in 
 prayer may be discerned by these par- 
 ticulars. 
 
 1. When God quiets, and calms, 
 and contents the heart in prayer, 
 which is done by speaking something 
 to the heart, though what is spoken 
 be not always discerned. If you 
 should see one who was an earnest and 
 importunate suitor, and exceeding 
 anxious when he went in to a great 
 man, but behold him after coming out 
 from him contented, and quieted, and 
 cheerful in his spirit, you would con- 
 ceive that certainly something had 
 been said to him which gave him en- 
 couragement, satisfaction, and con- 
 tentment in his suit : thus when thou 
 goest to God, and hast been importu- 
 nate in a business (as suppose for 
 Christ, O give me Christ, or else I 
 die ! ) and thy desires were exceed- 
 ingly up for it : but thou risest up 
 with thy mind calmed and satisfied. 
 
 57 
 
 Chap. 5, 
 
 Sect, 2. 
 2. In 
 praver : 
 God's 
 speaking 
 to the 
 heart in 
 prayer, an 
 evidence 
 of hearing 
 which 
 may be 
 discerned. 
 1. By giv- 
 ing a 
 quiet rest 
 of spirit 
 about the 
 thing 
 prayed for 
 in and by 
 prayer. 
 
58 
 
 The Return of Prayers, 
 
 Chai'. 5. 
 
 and feelest the aiixiousness, the solici- 
 tude of thy heart about the thing taken 
 off and dispelled : this is a good sign 
 that God hath heard thy prayer, and 
 hath spoken something to thy heart 
 which makes it thus composed. When 
 Hannah, out of much bitterness and 
 with strong desires (which by a long 
 delay had been made more violent, so 
 as her heart was much disquieted) for 
 Prov. xiii. 12, hope, (and by the same 
 reason desire also deferred makes the 
 soul sick) when out of the abundance 
 of her grief she had poured her soul 
 out before the Lord, 1 Sam. i. 16, Eli 
 the priest joining in prayer also for 
 her, the Lord grant thy petition ; after 
 that prayer she found her heart so 
 quieted, that she looked no more sofl, 
 as the text says there, she arose quieted 
 a7id calmed, and it was that prayer that 
 did both fill Eli's mouth with that 
 word of prophecy and her heart with 
 quietness ; and a secret word from 
 God accompanying it, that did still 
 those waves: and accordingly God 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 gave her a son, a son of her desires. 
 And the like God doth now, by speak- 
 ing (as I said) something to the heart : 
 as by dropping in some promise or other 
 into the heart, or some like considera- 
 tion ; saying as it were to the heart, even 
 as Eli from God did to her, The Lord 
 grants thy petition. As to St. Paul, when 
 he was earnest with God about remov- 
 ing his buffetings by Satan (which 
 whether they were the stirring up a 
 lust, or temptations of blasphemy, I do 
 not now dispute) I besought God thrice, 
 that is, earnestly (says he) that it might 
 depa/rt ; and to this he had an answer 
 in the mean time given him, till it 
 should be taken away, enough to still 
 and quiet him, so 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9. 
 And he said, that is in prayer, the 
 Lord did put in this consideration and 
 promise into his thoughts : And Jie said 
 unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, 
 and my power is made perfect in weak- 
 ness : this answer thus coming in, this 
 promise thus seasonably suggested, 
 stayed and quieted Paul's heart. In 
 
 59 
 
60 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 5. 
 
 Heb. xiii. 
 5. 
 
 Sec. 3. 
 2. When 
 God 
 draws 
 nigh and 
 reveals 
 his love 
 in and 
 upon such 
 a petition. 
 
 like manner thou hast (it may be) 
 been long praying against poverty or 
 the like distress, and God lets fall this 
 or the like promise into thy heart, / 
 will never leave thee nor forsake thee, 
 which quiets and contents thy mind. 
 This is an answer, and observe such 
 answers, for they are precious. 
 
 2. If whilst thou art a praying, 
 God doth draw nigh to thy soul, and 
 revealeth himself to it in and upon 
 such or such a particular petition. 
 As in case thou didst mainly intend 
 when thou didst begin to pray, to set 
 thyself to beg some temporal mercy at 
 his hands, some great matter for the 
 good and prosperity of the Church (as 
 Daniel, chap. ix. did set himself to 
 seek God for the return of the capti- 
 vity :) and even before thou comest to 
 ask it, or in asking it, God smiles 
 upon thee, welcomes thee, falleth 
 about thy neck and kisseth thee, this 
 thou art to observe as a sign he hears 
 thy prayer, and accepteth both thee 
 and it ; when there is such a strong 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 61 
 
 sense of God's favour and presence 
 whilst thou art upon such a suit and 
 request, more than at other times or 
 than in other passages of the same 
 prayer, this is a token God hears thee in 
 that particular, and thou art to observe 
 this his speaking to thy heart. When 
 thus thou shalt no sooner come into 
 his presence to enquire of him, but he 
 says Here I am, as the promise is, 
 Isai. Iviii. 9. Therefore, Psal. Ixix. 
 17, 18, Hear me speedily, says David, 
 and (that I may know thou hearest 
 me) draiv nigh to me : therefore when 
 God draws nigh to thee, it is a sign 
 he hears thee. Daniel having fasted 
 and prayed for three weeks together, 
 Dan. X. 2, 3, then an angel came, and 
 one of the three persons came and told 
 him he was a man greatly beloved^ ver. 
 11 and 19, when in like manner God 
 by his Spirit comes down, and meets 
 thee, and tells thy heart in secret that 
 thou art his beloved, and he is thine, 
 then thy prayers are certainly heard : 
 for if he accepts thy person, much 
 
 Chap. 5. 
 
62 
 
 Chap. 5. 
 
 A caution: 
 that yet 
 this is not 
 always an 
 infallible 
 sign the 
 thing is 
 granted, 
 though 
 that the 
 prayer is 
 accepted. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 more thy prayers, 1 John v. 19, 20. 
 Men, false men, (false upon the ba- 
 lance, as David speaks, when they 
 come to be tried and weighed,) they 
 will, out of cunning, use suitors most 
 kindly then, when they mean to put 
 them off, and deny them their re- 
 quests : but God, who is truth and 
 faithfulness itself, doth not use so to 
 deal, but when he means to answer 
 the prayer, he withal sometimes re- 
 veals his free grace most, to the end 
 they may see and acknowledge the 
 fountain of all to be his everlasting 
 love, and so take the thing granted as 
 a fruit of it, and thereby come to be 
 the more abundantly thankful. 
 
 Only let me add this caution, which 
 may be of great use to you. That it 
 is not always infallibly true that when 
 God draws nigh to you in a particular 
 request, that that request in particular 
 shall be granted in that manner you 
 desired, but it is a certain evidence 
 that thy prayer is heard, and that the 
 thing thou askest is agreeable to his 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 will, and that he approves of thee and 
 thy request exceedingly, and thinketh 
 the better of thee for it, and he will 
 give thee it, or something that is bet- 
 ter. There may be herein and some- 
 times is a mistake of God's meaning, 
 to think that always then the thing 
 shall be granted when God draws nigh 
 to a man : experience sometimes shews 
 the contrary. 
 
 But you will say, why doth God 
 draw so nigh, if he means not to 
 grant it? 
 
 1. He shews thereby his approving 
 will of the thing prayed for. Now 
 God approves many things he decrees 
 not. There is his approving will and 
 his decreeing will. God may shew 
 his approving will of the thing thou 
 askest, (as suppose it be in view a 
 matter which is of great consequence 
 to the Church, ) which he doth for thy 
 encouragement : but yet it follows not 
 that his decreeing will is for the ac- 
 complishment of that very thing in 
 particular. 
 
 63 
 
 Quest. 
 
 Answ. 
 The rea- 
 sons why 
 God 
 some- 
 times 
 draws 
 nigh when 
 he grants 
 not the 
 thing. 
 
64 
 
 Chap. 5. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 2. God may accept the person and 
 the prayer when he doth not grant 
 the thing prayed for ; and by that 
 drawing nigh witness his accepta- 
 tion of thy person and the prayer. 
 Yea, 
 
 3. That revealing of himself is often- 
 times all the answer he intended to 
 such a prayer, and it is answer enough 
 too, to enjoy in the stead of a parti- 
 cular mercy the assurance of God's 
 love. As suppose thou didst pray 
 against some evil coming upon his 
 Church, which he yet intends to bring, 
 which he did set thy heart a- work to 
 pray against, thereby to manifest the 
 sincerity thereof, and then he seeing 
 thee thus sincere, draws nigh to thee, 
 and tells thee, however, it shall go well 
 with thee, and that thou art greatly 
 beloved of him : thou art sometime to 
 take this for all the answer he means 
 to give. And this he doth sometimes 
 also to content the heart, and prepare 
 it for a denial in the thing : whereas, 
 otherwise, the denial of what a Chris- 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 65 
 
 tian hath been earnest in, might occa- 
 sion (as in many it doth) a questioning 
 and doubting of God's love. 
 
 3. When God stirs up in the heart 
 a particular faith in a business : as 
 sometimes he doth, and upholds the 
 heart to wait for it, maugre all dis- 
 couragements. So he did in David, 
 Psal. xxvii. 3. David was then in 
 great hazards by reason of Saul, or 
 Absalom, and those such and so often, 
 as that to sense and outward probabi- 
 lities he was like never to live quietly 
 again at Jerusalem, and enjoy God's 
 ordinances there in .peace ; but for 
 this David had prayed, and had made 
 it as the grand request of his whole 
 life (as every man hath some one great 
 request of all other, even as he hath 
 some special grace above all other, or 
 gift, &c. So request to God next to 
 his salvation, as haply for his ministry, 
 or the like, therefore says David, verse 
 4, This one thing have I desired) and 
 accordingly God gave him a special 
 faith in this thing, above all other, 
 
 G2 
 
 Sect. 4. 
 Godsome- 
 times stirs 
 lip a par- 
 ticular 
 faith of 
 assurance 
 in some 
 busi- 
 nesses. 
 
66 
 
 The Beturn of Prayers. 
 
 xxvii. 1. 
 
 because it was his great request, In 
 this luill I be confident^ verse 3. And 
 though a host of men should again 
 and again incompass me, says he, yet 
 in this I tvill be confident^ that I shall 
 still escape, and see Jerusalem again, 
 and enjoy the ordinances and live in 
 peace ; and though his faith failed 
 him often (as in the persecution of 
 Saul it did) for he said he should one 
 day perish by the hand of Saul : yet 
 at other times his faith was marvel- 
 lously upheld, and he was confident in 
 this. He used not to be so, in other 
 requests thus absolutely, particularly, 
 and distinctly ; and therefore, he says. 
 In this, ^c. As there is a witness of 
 the Holy Ghost immediate to the 
 heart, sealing up adoption to a man's 
 person, so in some cases, there is the 
 like testimony for the obtaining of 
 some eminent thing we have asked. 
 Which particular special faith, doth in 
 a kind of similitude answer to the faith 
 of miracles of old, whereby a man had 
 a particular confidence that God would 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 do such a miracle by him : so in and 
 by means of prayer, in some things 
 there may be a particular strengthen- 
 ing and assuring the heart, that God 
 will do such a thing for a man : which 
 I confess is rare and extraordinary, as 
 also that immediate testimony con- 
 cerning our persons is, which many 
 want that go to heaven. And haply 
 this other concerning the accomplish- 
 ment of special mercies, is much more 
 rare; and but in some businesses; and 
 is a thing which some men are not ac- 
 quainted with, but yet may be in some 
 cases existent to some men's spirits, 
 as it was to David's in the thing men- 
 tioned. 
 
 And concerning this also I will also 
 add a caution, as about the former. 
 That it doth not always fall out upon all 
 such kind of evidences made to a 
 man's spirit, and that by God, that 
 the thing prayed for doth come to 
 pass. For these very persuasions stir- 
 red up by God, may be and are often 
 but conditional, though thus imme- 
 
 67 
 
 Chap. 5. 
 
 A caution, 
 that here- 
 in a con- 
 ditional 
 evidence 
 be not 
 taken for 
 absolute. 
 
68 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 diately made to a man's spirit, and 
 are so to be understood, and not per- 
 emtory and absolute. It cannot be 
 imagined that all these should always 
 be of greater absoluteness and peremp- 
 toriness, than were many of those 
 revelations made by God to the Pro- 
 phets, wherein he manifested his gra- 
 cious purpose towards such a man or 
 people, either to vouchsafe them such 
 a mercy, or bring such a judgment ; 
 which forewarnings though they were 
 particular and express, yet limited and 
 intended with a condition, according 
 to the performance, or not performance 
 of which it fell out, either the judg- 
 ment expressly threatened was di- 
 verted, or that good thing which was 
 as directly and fully promised, was not 
 bestowed: as it was in the case of Jonas 
 threatening the destruction of Nineveh; 
 and so in the promise concerning Eli's 
 house, 1 Sam. ii. 30, / said indeed that 
 thy house, and the house of thy Father 
 should tualk before me for ever, hut now 
 the Lord says, it shall not be so : For 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 69 
 
 they had broken the condition which 
 was implied in it ; they had despised 
 the Lord; and them that despise ine, 
 says God there, / will despise. In like 
 manner is God's meaning expressed 
 towards us in such like persuasions 
 wrought in us by prayer, to be under- 
 stood ; as that such mercies will surely 
 come to pass, but still under a con- 
 dition of obedience, and performing 
 of those vows, which a man joined 
 with those his petitions, to move the 
 Lord to grant the things ; which if a 
 man fail in, or ceaseth to go on to be- 
 lieve, it may and doth often come to 
 pass, that things fall out contrary to 
 that persuasion ; and then we are apt 
 to question whether it was from God 
 or no ; which it might be, and truly 
 wrought by his Spirit, and yet not 
 always absolutely meant (that was 
 your mistake so to take it) but con- 
 ditionally only. For in such great re- 
 quests of the soul unto God, there use 
 to pass mutual covenants between God 
 and us ; and indentures are drawn and 
 
 Chap. 5. 
 
70 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 sealed unto by us, that is, we in prayer, 
 offer and promise to do thus and thus, 
 if God will vouchsafe us such a mercy, 
 and plead it to God to move him to 
 bestow it; and God, he thereupon (it 
 may be) seals a covenant on his part 
 to grant the thing, and works such an 
 undoubted persuasion ; but if we in 
 that interim of waiting for that mercy, 
 do deal falsely in that covenant which 
 we have made ; and this even whilst 
 we are yet in dependance upon God 
 for it; whereby it appears that we 
 would have done so much more after 
 we should have received it once, in 
 this case God denies the thing, and 
 yet notwithstanding that persuasion 
 and evidence was from God that heard 
 the prayer. He said indeed he would 
 do thus and thus for thee : (as he told 
 David, / would have given thee much 
 more:) because thou saidst to him, 
 thou wouldst walk thus and thus, or 
 didst vow this or that to him ; thou 
 failest in thy word, upon which God 
 uttered his ; and thereupon, says God, 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 as to Eli, Now it shall not he so<, and 
 yr't God had spoken it afore, and not 
 Satan, nor thine own heart only. 
 
 4. When God doth put a restless 
 importunity into the heart, maugre all 
 discouragements. So in that Psalm 
 xxvii. 4-. One thing I have desired, 
 and I will seek after it; that is, as I 
 have sought it, so I will not leave 
 seeking to God for it: when God main- 
 tains this in the heart, it is a sign he 
 hears, and will answer : for you know 
 the parable, that the unjust judge 
 heard her for her importunity ; there- 
 fore when God puts an importunity 
 into the heart, he means to hear. 
 
 Only this likewise is to be added 
 in this, there is a double importunity : 
 one out of such an inordinate desire 
 to a thing, as the heart knows not 
 how to be without such a mercy, and 
 so continues to ask, but asketh amiss-) 
 and so receives not, James v. But 
 there is an importunity joined with a 
 subjection to God's will ; which when 
 it runs along with it, then God hath 
 
 71 
 
 Chap. 5. 
 
 Sect. 5. 
 When 
 God puts 
 a restless 
 importu- 
 nity into 
 the heart, 
 to pray for 
 a particu- 
 lar mercy. 
 
 A double 
 importu- 
 nity: one 
 accepted, 
 not the o- 
 ther. 
 
72 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 6. 
 
 Sect. 1. 
 When 
 God gives 
 an obedi- 
 ent de- 
 pendant 
 heart, in 
 walking 
 before 
 him. 
 
 stirred it up, and then look for some- 
 thing to come ; otherwise you may 
 be importunate, as they seek me daily^ 
 when yet God heard not, Isai. Iviii. 2. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Further observations to be made on the 
 dispositions and carriage of our hearts 
 after prayer, until the issue of the 
 thing prayed for. 
 
 Next : after thou hast prayed, ob- 
 serve what God doth towards thee. 
 
 As first, how he doth guide thy feet 
 and heart after praying : there is much 
 in that: that which was the spirit of 
 supplication in a man when he prayed, 
 rests upon him as the spirit of obe- 
 dience in his course; so as that de- 
 pendance he hath upon God for the 
 mercy he seeks for, is a special motive 
 and means to keep him fearful of of- 
 fending, and diligent in duty ; to look 
 to his paths, to walk and behave him- 
 self as becomes a suitor, as well as to 
 come and pray as a suitor. Thus David, 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 73 
 
 he walked by this principle, Psal. Ixvi. 
 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, 
 God loill not hear me ; that consider- 
 ation still came in as a curb unto sin ; 
 and without this a man provokes God, 
 and so casts himself behind-hand again, 
 and by sinning loseth what ground he 
 had got by praying. Therefore David, 
 Psal. cxlv. 8, 9, 10, when he was to 
 pray, even as for his life, (as then he 
 did, it being a deliverance from his 
 enemies he sought) he specially prays 
 God to direct him and keep him, that 
 he might not sin against him ; for he 
 knew by sinning he should enervate 
 and spoil all his prayers : not only hear 
 me speedily (says he) but also cause 
 me to hnow the way wherein I should 
 walk; teach me to do thy will; this 
 he especially prays for, and more than 
 for deliverance, for else he knew God 
 would not hear him. Therefore when 
 thou art in treaty with God for any 
 mercy, observe, doth God still after 
 praying keep thee in a more obedient 
 frame of spirit? it is a sign he intends 
 
 Chap. 6. 
 
74- 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 
 
 2. 
 When 
 God gives 
 a heart to 
 wait for 
 and ex- 
 pect the 
 mercy. 
 
 to answer thee ; as in like manner, 
 when he keeps thee from using ill 
 means, &c. When he meant to give 
 David the kingdom, he kept him in- 
 nocent, and his heart tender, that it 
 smote him but for cutting off the lap 
 of Saul's garment : he was not so 
 tender after. Therefore in Psal. xviii. 
 when he was delivered from all his 
 enemies, he says, God dealt with him 
 according to his uprightness: for I 
 kept myself from mine iniquity. So 
 also Psal. xxvii. 11. 
 
 2. When God after prayer strength- 
 eneth the heart to wait for the mercy, 
 so Psal. xxvii. ult., David having 
 prayed, says to his soul. Wait on ilie 
 Lordf be of good courage, and he will 
 strengthen thy heart. Honest men, 
 when they nourish hopes in one that 
 is in dependance on them, who waiteth 
 and is obsequious upon the hopes he 
 hath of a suite, use not to deny him : 
 it were dishonesty in them to keep a 
 man underhand, and then frustrate his 
 expectations ; therefore, when God 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 75 
 
 keeps thy soul after praying in such a 
 dependant frame, look for some good 
 answer. And indeed when a man 
 hath prayed long, in the end he begins 
 to wait (as I may so say) rather than 
 pray (though he pray still) because 
 now he looks God should perform: 
 before, and at first, he told the Lord 
 he desired it, but now he can with 
 some boldness tell him, that he waits 
 for it and expects it. The hope of a 
 godly man and his expectation should 
 make him ashamed if it were not an- 
 swered, therefore in this case answers 
 use to come. 
 
 Both these two last we have together 
 joined Psal. xxxvii. 34, Wait on the 
 Lord, and keep his ways, and he shall 
 exalt thee. 
 
 Chap. 6. 
 
76 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 Sect. 1. 
 God 
 some- 
 times an- 
 swers the 
 prayer 
 fully in 
 the way 
 and man- 
 ner de- 
 sired. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Observations to be made after prayer^ 
 upon the issue of what was prayed for : 
 and first, if accomplished, whether as 
 the fruit of prayers, or out of common 
 providence ; helps herein. 
 
 When a man hath thus waited, and 
 kept his way, then let him observe the 
 issue and conclusion of what he sought 
 for, how things are cast by God. Now 
 of necessity, one of these two must 
 fall out, that either the thing desired 
 is accomplished, or not accomplished ; 
 and in either of these he may come to 
 spy out answers to his prayers; for 
 prayer may be answered, though the 
 thing be not done. 
 
 I mean to insist severally on these : 
 1. If the thing thou pray est for 
 doth come to pass, then what needest 
 thou doubt of an answer, and whether 
 God heard thee or no ? For tliou be- 
 holdest it with thine eyes: and so 
 often it falls out, that God doth grant 
 according to the desires of a man's 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 heart ; and not only so, but also fulfils 
 his counsel therein, as it is, Psal. xx. 4, 
 that is, fulfils not only his desire, and 
 aim of his prayer, but in that very 
 way, by that very means, which his 
 judgment and counsel pitch upon in 
 his own thoughts. The desire of the 
 heart may be satisfied, when God gives 
 some other thing, but the counsel of 
 the heart is then fulfilled, when a man 
 is answered in that particular, which 
 his own judgment pitched upon as best 
 for him. For counsel is an act of 
 the understanding, deliberating about 
 means to an end, and directing to 
 choose a particular means tending to 
 an end : so that as Eliphaz says to 
 Job, xxii. 27, 28, Thou shalt make 
 thy prayer to God^ and he shall hear 
 thee: and decree a thing ^ and it shall 
 he established to thee; that is, a man is 
 guided to decree and pitch upon such 
 mercies in his prayers, as God makes 
 good in particular: he says what he 
 would have, and God performs it : and 
 this privilege thou shalt have (says 
 
 H2 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
78 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 Eliphaz there) if thou wilt turn to 
 him, and be acquainted with him, and 
 receive the law from his mouth : thou 
 shalt not err in praying ; but what 
 thou settest upon to pray for, shall be 
 accordingly granted to thee: such a 
 man shall have the privilege, Fingere 
 sibi fortunam in a right sense, to be 
 his own chooser, and carver of his own 
 mercies ; and as Christ said, Be it ac- 
 cording to thy faith, so God says some- 
 times. Be it according to thy prayers ; 
 and Eliphaz speaks of it as of a special 
 favour, that whereas other prayers are 
 answered obliquely, thine, says he, shall 
 be answered directly, which is more 
 comfortable ; as direct beams are, and 
 have more heat in them than collateral 
 and oblique : thus if a man will hear 
 God and obey him, God will hear 
 him : for if a man be subject to Christ's 
 kingly office, his prophetical office 
 shall guide him, and cause him not to 
 err in his petitions; but by an un- 
 erring providence and pre-instinct in- 
 fused by his spirit, God will so guide 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 him, as to ask even that very thing 
 which God intends to give; whereas 
 of himself he knows not what, nor 
 how to ask. So David asked long 
 life, and God gave it him, Psal. xxi. 
 2, 3, 4. God not only gave him his 
 heart's desire, but the request of his 
 lips, ver. 2. Hannah asked a son, and 
 God answered her in the very thing 
 she desired, and therefore she called 
 him Samuel, 1 Sam. i. 20, because 
 (says she) / asked him of the Lord, 
 and ver. 27 ; JFor this child I prayed, 
 and the Lord (did not give another 
 thing instead of it, but) hath given me 
 my petition I asked of him. So 1 Chron. 
 iv. 10, Jabesh called on God (it is 
 said) and God granted him the thing 
 he requested. And thus God often 
 deals with his children. And to this 
 end hath God given us his spirit ; and 
 made Christ wisdom unto us, who 
 knows what is good for us, though we 
 do not. And hath, therefore, also 
 commanded us to spy out mercies for 
 ourselves, and then come to him for 
 
80 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 Yet our 
 hearts are 
 often jea- 
 lous, whe- 
 ther it be 
 an answer 
 to prayer, 
 or out of 
 common 
 provi- 
 dence. 
 
 them : and to this end hath made such 
 particular promises of particular mer- 
 cies, which he would have us have an 
 eye unto in our prayers ; all which is 
 because often he means to bestow the 
 very things we ask. 
 
 And yet because, although we have 
 the very things we did ask and desire, 
 such is the jealousy and infidelity of 
 our hearts, that we often discern not, 
 nor acknowledge that it was our 
 prayers that obtained them from God: 
 but we are apt, when once we have 
 them, either to look but to things be- 
 low, and the second causes of them, 
 though before we did earnestly seek 
 them of God, or else still distrustfully 
 to question whether or no it was at 
 our prayers that he granted them, or 
 out of common providence. Thus Job, 
 in his distemper, Job ix. 1 6, as though 
 I had called, and God had ansiuered 
 me, yet (says he) I would not believe 
 that he had hearkened to my voice, that 
 is, not that he did it in respect to my 
 prayer and request, because he now 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 81 
 
 deals so severely with me, For he 
 breaketh me with a tempest, ver. 17. 
 and thus do our distrustful hearts 
 (which are apt to be unsatisfied with 
 all the clearest pledges of God's favour, 
 and still to misconstrue and pervert 
 them,) although God doth answer us 
 upon our calling upon him, yet we 
 will not believe that he hearkened to 
 our prayer in it. Therefore that you 
 may be further enabled to discern, 
 how, and when things you prayed for, 
 come in by prayer ; I give you these 
 further directions. 
 
 1. When God doth a thing in an- 
 swer to prayers, he often doth it in 
 such a manner, that his hand may be 
 in a more than ordinary manner seen 
 in it. There are few prayers, wherein 
 a man hath sought God much, but in 
 the answers of them God discovers 
 himself much, and turns many great 
 wheels in the accomplishment of them, 
 and manifests (as David desires, Psal. 
 xvii. 7,) his marvellous loving kind- 
 ness ; and indeed when God hears 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 Sect. 2. 
 Direc- 
 tions to 
 help to 
 disceru 
 this : 
 1. From 
 the man- 
 ner of 
 God's per- 
 formance : 
 God dis- 
 covers a 
 more than 
 ordinary 
 hand of 
 provi- 
 dence in 
 things ac- 
 complish- 
 ed by 
 prayer : 
 
82 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 instanced 
 and dis- 
 covered in 
 five parti- 
 culars. 
 
 1. By 
 
 bringing 
 it to pass 
 through 
 many dif- 
 ficulties. 
 
 prayers that have been a long while a 
 making, he shews usually half a mira- 
 cle one way or other. 
 
 Now God discovers his immediate 
 hand in the answers of prayers many 
 ways. 
 
 1. When he carries a thing through 
 many difficulties, when there were a 
 great many cross words in a business 
 prayed for, the least whereof would 
 have kept the key from turning, when 
 God shall make (as it were) a key on 
 purpose to unlock it ; when God plots 
 and contrives all the passages in a bu- 
 siness thou didst pray for, and so ac- 
 complisheth it ; this is a sign, it is a 
 fruit of prayer, and that prayer had 
 been a making that key all that while : 
 So in bringing David to the kingdom ; 
 Joseph out of prison ; Mordecai to 
 honour : and likewise St. Peter out of 
 prison, which was done at the prayers 
 of the church. Acts xii. He was 
 sleeping between two soldiers : if they 
 had waked, he had been discovered : 
 and he was in chains, but they fall off. 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 ver. 6, 7, and the keepers stood be- 
 fore the door, but they mind him not, 
 ver. 6, and when one watch is past, he 
 passeth quietly through another, ver. 
 10, and when both those were past, an 
 iron gate flies open of its own accord, 
 ver. 10. Now such difficulties are 
 there in many businesses, which yet 
 in the end are accomplished by prayer: 
 iron chains fall oflP, iron gates, enemies' 
 hearts fly open of their own accord ; 
 and though not in that miraculous 
 manner, by the means of an angel, yet 
 no less wonderfully. 
 
 Or secondly, wb^ God facilitates 
 all means to accomplish the thing 
 which was prayed for, so as all means 
 do in view conspire and combine in it, 
 that thou hast wind and tide, and a 
 fair day, and all the way paved ; or as 
 David says, hxist thy way made plain 
 before thee ; and there falls out a great 
 conjunction and meeting of many cir- 
 cumstances together to effect it, which 
 had influence into it, whereof if any 
 one had been wanting, haply the thing 
 
 83 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 Or se- 
 condly, by 
 facilitat- 
 ing all 
 the means 
 and caus- 
 ing them 
 to con- 
 spire to 
 accom- 
 plish it. 
 
84. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 Exod. xii. 
 31,33.35, 
 ver. 32. 
 
 3, By 
 
 bringing 
 it to pass 
 suddenly 
 and unex- 
 pectedly. 
 
 had not been done; when the thing 
 prayed for is thus granted, prayer then 
 hath done it. Thus, when he deli- 
 vered the people of Israel out of Egypt, 
 which was the accomplishment of their 
 long desires and prayers, {their cry 
 came up, the text says) how were all 
 things facilitated! they that detained 
 them do themselves come and intreat 
 them to go out ; yea, are urgent, says 
 the text, and that at midnight: nay, 
 hire them to go out with their ear- 
 rings ; and Pharaoh himself then parts 
 lovingly and fairly with them, and de- 
 sires their prayers ; Bless me also. 
 Yea, to shew there was no resistance, 
 the text says, a dog did not move his 
 tongue: the brute creatures did not 
 disturb them though at midnight, when 
 those creatures use to be most obstre- 
 perous through noises. 
 
 3. When he doth it suddenly, and 
 accomplisheth the thing thou hast long 
 prayed for, ere thou art aware of it; 
 as the return of the captivity of Baby- 
 lon, which was the conclusion of many 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 prayers, was done in a trice, they were 
 as men in a dream ^ Psal. cxxvi. 1, they 
 could scarce believe it was so when it 
 was done ; it was because they had 
 sown many prayers which came up on 
 the sudden, ver. 5, 6. So Peter, he 
 was fast asleep, and did not so much 
 as dream of deliverance. So Joseph's 
 delivery out of prison, and advance- 
 ment to be the greatest man in the 
 kingdom, the suddenness of it shewed 
 it was God's remembering of him, and 
 hearing his prayers. 
 
 4. When God grants the thing with 
 an overplus, above what we did ask, 
 and casteth many other mercies in to- 
 gether with that which we long prayed 
 for ; this also may be a sign God did 
 hear our prayers in it; for when he doth 
 hear indeed, he useth to do above what 
 we did ask or think, thereby the more to 
 overcome the heart. So David asked 
 long life, and he gave him more than 
 he asked, Psal. xxi. 2, 3, 4, 5. So 
 Solomon, he asked but wisdom, and 
 he gave him more than he asked, peace, 
 
 85 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 4. By do- 
 ing above 
 what 
 was de- 
 sired with 
 addition 
 of other 
 
86 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 Jam. i. 2. 
 
 5. By ad- 
 ding some 
 special 
 circum- 
 stance as 
 a token 
 of God's 
 special 
 hand in it. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 riches, honour, and all with it, 1 Kings 
 iii. 12, 13. Hannah, she asked but 
 one male child, 1 Sam. i. 10, but God 
 gave her three sons more and two 
 daughters, chap. ii. 21. When prayers 
 are answered, usually mercies come 
 thick, they come tumbling in ; the thing 
 we prayed for comes not alone ; as when 
 sins are punished, then miseries also 
 they come like armies in troops upon 
 us : as temptations likewise come to- 
 gether, and we fall into many of them 
 at once, as St. James speaks, thus do 
 mercies also. 
 
 5. When the thing is granted by 
 prayers, there is often some particular 
 circumstance of providence concurrent 
 with it, which is a token for good, and 
 sealeth to us that it is from God ; such 
 often as a man himself takes notice of, 
 and which others take no notice of 
 also. Shew me a tohen for good, says 
 David, Psal. Ixxxvi. 17? that others may 
 see it and be ashamed: and such tokens 
 doth God often make small circum- 
 stances to be. Things small in them- 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 87 
 
 selves, may be magna indicia^ great 
 signs and tokens : for example, Moses 
 and Aaron, and the Israelites had long 
 cried to God for the deliverance of 
 his people, and laid up many prayers; 
 their cry came up, as was said ; and 
 when God doth deliver them, what 
 tokens were there of good? and of 
 God's hand in it, and of his answer to 
 their prayers ? The text notes (as 
 was observed before) that a dog did 
 not bark at their going out, Exod. xi. 7, 
 which was a small circumstance, but 
 it was magnum indicium, and so in- 
 tended by God ; for the text adds, That 
 ye may know that God puts a differ- 
 ence betiveen the Israelites and the 
 Egyptians. This was a token of God's 
 hand, to overrule the tongues of rude 
 brute creatures, that use to stir at such 
 unusual noises, and at travellers espe- 
 cially in the night. So w^hen Isaac and 
 Abraham, and his servant also, had 
 prayed for a wife for Isaac, see by 
 what a token God shewed he had 
 heard their prayers ; Rebekkah was 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
88 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 Gen.xxiii. 
 13, 14. 
 
 Sect. 3. 
 Observa- 
 tion from 
 the time 
 wherein 
 the tliincr 
 prayed for 
 is accom- 
 plished, 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 the first that came out to the servant 
 sent to bring a wife for him : and if 
 she be the woman appointed for Isaac 
 (says the servant) let her offer me drink, 
 mid my camels also : this was a small 
 thing in appearance, but a great indi- 
 cium of God's hand in it, and therefore 
 the servant bowed at it, and worshipped : 
 and the sign in itself was such as ar- 
 gued a good nature in her, and a kind 
 courteous disposition, which therefore 
 (it may be) he singled out as a token 
 of a meet wife, as a thing especially 
 to be looked at in the marriage choice. 
 Again, the consideration of the time 
 wherein the things we have asked are 
 granted, may much help us to discern 
 whether it be in answer to our prayers. 
 For God who doth all things in weight 
 and measure, shews his wisdom and 
 love as much in the season as in giving 
 the thing itself. God considereth all 
 times of thy life, and still chooseth the 
 best and fittest to answer thy prayers 
 in ; In an acceptable time have I heard 
 thee^ so Isai. xlix. 8. As David like- 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 89 
 
 wise says, he prayed in an acceptable 
 time, Psal. Ixix. 13. So accordingly 
 God answers in the best and most ac- 
 ceptable time to us ; for he waits to be 
 gracious, for he is a God of judgment, 
 Isai. XXX. 18; that is, he is a wise 
 God that knows the fittest times and 
 seasons wherein to shew kindnesses, 
 and to deal forth his favours in. 
 
 As first, it may be, that at that very 
 time when thou hast been most instant 
 and earnest, yea even whilst thou art 
 a praying, or presently after, the thing 
 is done and accomplished. To this pur- 
 pose is that of Isai. Ixv. 24, That as 
 sometimes he hears before they call 
 (which argues much love to give mer- 
 cies unsought) so also whilst they are 
 speaking I ivill hear, and grant the 
 thing, which argues no less love ; and 
 he culls out that time on purpose that 
 they might rest assured that it was in 
 answer to their prayer. Thus to as- 
 sure Hezekiah his prayer was heard, 
 God sent the prophet in unto him 
 whilst he was a praying and weeping, 
 
 12 
 
 1. 
 
 Sometime 
 the thing 
 is accom- 
 plished a- 
 bout the 
 time 
 wherein 
 we are 
 most in- 
 stant in 
 prayer. 
 
90 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 with his head turned towards the wall. 
 So Isaac, going out to pray in the 
 field, meets his Rebekkah then a com- 
 ing, that blessing of a good wife being 
 surely the great request temporal he 
 was then in treaty with God for, this 
 Rebekkah was the fruit of many 
 prayers. So when St. Peter was in 
 prison, the Church being gathered to- 
 gether to pray for him, St. Peter comes 
 and knocks at the same hour^ Acts xii. 
 from the 12th ver. to the 18th. So as 
 it often falls out herein, as to the ruler 
 in the Gospel, John iv. 52, who in- 
 quiring diligently, found that the same 
 hour that Christ had said to him, Thy 
 Son liveth, his son recovered, and so 
 he believed, and his whole household: 
 So also here, that sometimes the thing 
 is done, or the news of it comes the 
 same hour, or soon after, wherein a 
 man was praying about it, and haply 
 then when the heart was most stirred 
 about it, more than at any time else : 
 this is a sign it was an answer of 
 prayers, and may help to confirm a 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 91 
 
 man's faith in it, as that also did 
 his. 
 
 Or secondly, when it is the most ac- 
 ceptable and every way the fittest time 
 to have the thing granted. At that 
 time ^ when thou hadst most need, and 
 ^when thy heart was most fit for it. 
 For in answering prayers, God aims 
 especially at two things ; ^ To shew his 
 mercy, that a man might magnify and 
 exalt that ; and ^ To have the heart 
 satisfied and filled with joy and con- 
 tentment in his answer, and the thing 
 made sweet, and a mercy indeed to 
 him : in brief, that his goodness might 
 be delighted in, and his mercy exalted. 
 And for these two purposes he culls 
 out such times, when we have most 
 need; and also when our hearts are 
 most subdued, and our lusts mortified. 
 For then we are fittest to relish his 
 goodness alone and not to be drawn 
 away with the carnal sweetness that is 
 in the thing. The one you have ex- 
 pressed, Isai. xxx. 18, He waits to be 
 gracious to have his mercy exalted. The 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 2. When 
 granted in 
 the fittest 
 time. 
 
 Thefittest 
 time 
 known 
 two ways. 
 
92 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 1. Wlien 
 we have 
 most 
 need. 
 
 second intimated, James v. Ye ask and 
 receive not, because ye ask amiss, to 
 consume upon your lusts; such prayers, 
 whilst the heart is in this temper, the 
 Lord denies, or defers in mercy till 
 the heart be weaned. 
 
 For the first of these : As, suppose 
 thou didst pray long for assurance of 
 salvation, and joy in the Holy Ghost, 
 and when thou hadst most need of it, 
 either when thy spirit would have failed 
 without it, as Isai. Ivii. 16, or against 
 some great affliction approaching, or 
 some great encounter with the world 
 for the name of Christ, then God filled 
 thy heart with it, &c., that was the 
 fittest time : now hath God heard thy 
 prayer. As St. Peter, he was in prison, 
 and had been so for many days ; as 
 appears by the fourth and fifth verses, 
 Acts xii., God could have delivered 
 him, all that while the Church prayed 
 for him, ver. 5. But God kept him 
 in on purpose, till that very night, 
 when in the next morning Herod meant 
 to bring him forth to execution, and 
 
The Retur7i of Prayers. 
 
 93 
 
 then God delivered him at the prayers 
 of the Church ; then was the most 
 fit time ; as the Psahiiist says, The full 
 time to have mercy on him was come. 
 And then to receive an answer, is a 
 sign God did it out of special love, 
 which love he would have exalted by 
 thee, as Isai. xxx. 18. 
 
 If 2. when thy heart was most fit 
 for the mercy, it was granted, then art 
 thou also heard in an acceptable time ; 
 for God doth not withhold mercies from 
 those that are his, out of want of love ; 
 neither so much for what is past, as 
 for the present evil disposition of their 
 hearts, whereby they are unfit to re- 
 ceive them : and in this sense likewise 
 may that be understood, that God 
 prepareth the heart and heareth the 
 prayer, Psal. x. 17. 
 
 As first, when thy heart is most 
 weaned from that temporal mercy 
 (supposing it such) granted thee upon 
 seeking of it : so David, when had he 
 the kingdom in possession given him? 
 then, when he was as a weaned child, 
 
 Psal. cii. 
 11. 
 
 2. When 
 the heart 
 was best 
 prepared 
 to receive 
 it, and 
 most 
 weaned 
 from it. 
 
94 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 Answer. 
 
 The Beturn of Prayers. 
 
 and had his high thoughts (which 
 haply at the first news of it had risen 
 in his mind) purged out, Psal. cxxxi. % 
 I have no high thoughts, 8^c., says he 
 then ; thus, when thy heart had let 
 all carnal ends go, and had betaken 
 itself alone to God, for thy portion to 
 be had alone out of him, then the 
 thing prayed for comes to pass: this 
 was the fittest season. 
 
 But you will be ready to say, to 
 have a thing when my heart is taken 
 off from it, and even contented not to 
 have it, makes it to be as no mercy ; 
 for where there is no desire there is 
 no rejoicing. 
 
 If thy desire be taken off the thing 
 then thou wilt rejoice the more in God 
 now; and though the thing of itself 
 should now give thee less satisfac- 
 tion, yet God by the thing will give 
 thee more, and he will make it up ; 
 for thou wilt relish his love and 
 sweetness in it now, which is better 
 than life, and therefore much better 
 than that thing enjoyed; and indeed 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 95 
 
 the violence of the desire before, 
 would have made it less sweet, for 
 the thing alone would not have filled 
 and contented that desire, when it 
 was an inordinate lust, and so thou 
 wouldesthave been vexed with it, rather 
 than satisfied, and found a greater va- 
 nity in it : but now when it is become a 
 subordinate desire unto God, that the 
 desire is down, and the heart quieted 
 and contented with God in the thing : 
 the heart says as she said, / have 
 enough. So, 2. likewise thou may est 
 have an affliction thou prayedst long 
 against taken off then, when thy heart 
 was most willing to accept thy punish- 
 ment (as Moses's phrase is,) and to 
 submit to God in it. 
 
 A third thing you are to observe 
 concerning the accomplishment of the 
 thing prayed for, whereby you may 
 discern whether granted in answer to 
 prayers, is, when thou seest God in 
 his dealings with thee, and answering 
 of thee, to deal in a kind of proportion 
 with thy manner of praying and seek- 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 Lev.xxvi. 
 
 41. 
 
 Sect. 4. 
 A third 
 sortofob- 
 serva- 
 tions,from 
 the an- 
 swerable 
 propor- 
 tion be- 
 tween 
 God's 
 dealing in 
 the ac- 
 complish- 
 ment of 
 it, and our 
 prayers. 
 
96 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 ing of him, and of walking with him 
 whilst thou wert dependant on him, 
 for such or such a mercy. And as you 
 may see a proportion between sins and 
 punishments, which are the rewards of 
 them ; that you can say, such a sin 
 brought forth this affliction, it is so 
 like the father : so you might see the 
 like proportion between your prayers 
 and your walking with God, and God's 
 answers to you, and his dealings with 
 you. So did David, Psal. xviii. 24, 
 According to the cleanness of my hands 
 hath he recompeiised me, &c. His 
 speech notes some similitude or like- 
 ness : as for example, the more by-ends 
 or carnal desires you had in praying, 
 and the more you mingled of these 
 with your holy desires, and the more 
 want of zeal, fervency, &:c. were found 
 in your prayers, the more you shall 
 (it may be) find of bitterness mingled 
 with the mercy, when it is granted; 
 and so much imperfection and want of 
 comfort in it: so says David in the 
 same Psal. vers. 25, 26, With tJie pure 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 97 
 
 thou wilt shew thyself pure. Pure 
 prayers have pure blessings ; et e con- 
 tra : With the froward thou wilt shew 
 thyself froward : and again, as you in 
 praying sometimes slackened and grew 
 cold, so you might see the business in 
 like manner to cool, and cast back- 
 ward : as when Moses's hands were 
 down^ Amelek prevailed; but when 
 they were lifted up, Israel had the 
 better, Exod- xvii. 12. God let him 
 see a proportion, which argued his 
 prayer was the means of prevailing. 
 A man finds in praying, that his suit 
 sometimes sticks, and goes not on as 
 he expected, this is because he gives 
 not so good a fee as he was wont, and 
 doth not ply God, and solicit him ; but 
 on the contrary, when he was stirred 
 up to pray, then still he found things 
 to go well : by this a man may clearly 
 see that it was the prayer which God 
 did hear and regarded. Thus likewise 
 when a man sees hills and dales in a 
 business, fair hopes often, and then all 
 dashed again, and the thing in the end 
 
98 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 7. 
 
 Chap. 8. 
 
 Sect. 1. 
 If the 
 thing 
 obtained 
 draws the 
 heart 
 nearer to 
 God, and 
 to rejoice 
 in his fa- 
 vour in it, 
 more than 
 in the 
 thing. 
 
 brought to pass, let him look back 
 upon his prayers : didst not thou in 
 like manner just thus deal with God ? 
 when thou hadst prayed earnestly, and 
 thought thou hadst even carried it, 
 then dash all again by interposing some 
 sin, and thus again and again ? Herein 
 God would have you observe a pro- 
 portion ; and it may help you to dis- 
 cern how and when they are answered 
 and obtained by prayer ; because God 
 deals thus with you therein in such a 
 proportion to your prayers. 
 
 CHAP. vm. 
 
 Seven observations more^ from the effects 
 
 which the accomplishment of the mercy 
 
 hath upon the heart, ^c. 
 
 Fourthly : thou mayest discern 
 
 whether they be in answer to thy 
 
 prayers, by the effects upon thy heart. 
 
 As, 1. If the thing that is granted 
 
 upon thy prayers draw thy heart more 
 
 near unto God, it is then certain that 
 
 it was granted as an answer to thy 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 prayers. Things granted out of ordi- 
 nary providence only do increase our 
 lusts, and are snares to us, as Saul 
 gave David his daughter Michol to 
 be a snare to him : so their full tables 
 are made snares : so God gave the 
 Israelites their will, the things they 
 desired, but withal gave them up to 
 their lusts, Psal. cvi. 15 : he gave 
 them their requests, but sent leanness 
 into their souls : the quails might fat 
 some of their bodies that survived, yet 
 their souls grew lean : there was a 
 curse upon their spirits : this new de- 
 licate food made their bodies more 
 lustful, they did eat and drink, and 
 rose up to play. But things obtained 
 by prayer are sanctified to us, for 
 every thing is sanctified by prayer, so 
 as it shall not ensnare nor entangle 
 our hearts ; a thing obtained by 
 prayer, as it came from God, so a 
 man will return it to God, and use it 
 for his glory : so Hannah having ob- 
 tained Samuel by prayer, she returns 
 him unto God, 1 Sam. i. 27, 28, For 
 
 99 
 
 Chap. 8. 
 
 Psal.lxix. 
 22. 
 
 Exod. 
 xxxii. 
 
 1 Tim. iv. 
 5. 
 
100 
 
 The Return of Prayers, 
 
 Chap. 8. 
 
 Sect. 2. 
 Prayer 
 answered 
 
 this child I prayed, and God gave me 
 my petition, and therefore also I have 
 lent him to the Lord as long as he 
 liveth. If therefore thou findest this, 
 his dealing with thee in answering 
 thee, to be a kindly motive to cause 
 thee to mourn for sin, and to be as a 
 restraint against sin, it is a sign it was 
 the fruit of prayer. Thus it wrought 
 with David, Psal. vi. 8, Away from 
 me ye that work iniquity: God hath 
 heard the voice of my weeping. 
 
 Also if thou rejoicest in God more 
 than in the thing obtained : so Han- 
 nah begins her song when she blesseth 
 God for her child, My heart rejoiceth 
 in the Lord, ^c. •! Sam. ii. 1, she re- 
 joiceth not so much in the gift as in 
 the giver : and his favour more in 
 this that her prayer was answered 
 than in the thing obtained : this is a 
 sign of having obtained the mercy 
 through prayers when it is thus sanc- 
 tified unto a man's spirit. 
 
 2. Prayers answered will enlarge 
 thy heart with thankfulness, and thus 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 101 
 
 usually they do: self-love makes us 
 more forward to pray than to give 
 thanks, for nature is all of the craving 
 and taking hand : but where grace is 
 there will be no eminent mercy gotten 
 with much struggling, but there will 
 be a continued particular thankful re- 
 membrance of it a long while after, 
 with much enlargement : and As 
 prayers abounded so ivill thanksgiving 
 abound also. Hannah she makes a 
 song, 1 S^am. i. 2. Great blessings 
 that are won with prayer are worn 
 with thankfulness: such a man will 
 not ask new, but he will withal give 
 thanks for old. Thankfulness, of all 
 duties, proceeds from pure grace; 
 therefore, if the spirit stirs thee unto 
 it, it is a sign he made the prayer: 
 What thanks shall I render to God 
 for the joy I have in you 9 saith St. 
 Paul, 1 Thess. iii. 9, 10. So in all his 
 other Epistles, all those he writes to, 
 as he prays for them, so he tells them, 
 he gives thanks for them, and for their 
 graces which he had prayed for. And 
 
 Chap. 8. 
 
 enlargeth 
 the heart 
 with 
 thankful- 
 
102 
 
 Chap. 8. 
 
 The Return of Prayers, 
 
 Sect. 3. 
 If this en- 
 courageth 
 thee to go 
 to God 
 again. 
 
 if answering prayers for others makes 
 St. Paul so thankful, what when for 
 himself? Prayer and thanks are like 
 the double motion of the lungs; the 
 air that is sucked in by prayer is 
 breathed forth again by thanks. Is 
 thy heart afresh enlarged, as to mourn 
 for past sins long since committed, so 
 in like manner for past mercies won 
 with long prayers, and this for a long 
 while after ? it is a sign that they were 
 obtained by prayer. 
 
 3. If the mercy obtained doth en- 
 courage thee to go to God another 
 time, to pray again the more confi- 
 dently and fervently, it is a sign thou 
 hast got the former that way : for the 
 Holy Ghost having once shewed thee 
 this way of procuring mercy, hence it 
 is thou art thus ready to take the same 
 course another time. Psal. cxvi. 2, 
 The Lord hath heard 7n£, and I will 
 call on him as long as I live. I know, 
 says he, now what course to take, if I be 
 in any want, even to call upon him ; 
 and he calls upon others to do so too. 
 
Tlie Return of Prayers, 
 
 103 
 
 4. When, God having heard thy 
 prayers upon solemn vows made by 
 thee, thy heart is made careful to pay 
 those vows which thou didst make in 
 the time of thy suing to God for that 
 mercy, this may be an argument to 
 thee, the thing being granted, that thy 
 prayer was heard. For first, it argueth 
 that thy heart itself doth secretly make 
 such an account, that upon them God 
 did grant the thing, and thou doest 
 therefore make conscience to return 
 all again to God in service, as the 
 condition of thy indentures made with 
 him, and as a homage due, and an 
 acknowledgment for ever that such a 
 mercy was won by prayer; and by 
 this preservest the memory of the re- 
 ceipt of that mercy, vows being of the 
 nature of homage : and secondly, in 
 this also it is an evidence that the thing 
 was obtained by prayer, in that God 
 calls for those vows from thee, by his 
 spirit in thy heart, and stirs thee up 
 to perform them, it argues that in re- 
 lation to thy prayers answered, he 
 
 Chap. 8. 
 
 Sect. 4. 
 It makes 
 a man 
 careful to 
 perform 
 his vows 
 made in 
 prayer to 
 obtain it. 
 
104. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Judg.xiii. 
 23. 
 
 takes them as dues from thee ; that 
 having dispatched thy suit, he now 
 calls for what was agreed to be given 
 him when it should be performed. 
 And thirdly, in that also he doth ac- 
 cept the payment of these thy vows of 
 thee, he acknowledgeth that those 
 vows and prayers were heard : for as 
 Manoah said in another case, If he 
 meant to have destroyed us, he would 
 not have accepted a sacrifice, so in this 
 case it may be said, if God had not 
 heard thy prayers, he would not have 
 accepted thy vows after thy praying. 
 Thus David, Psal. Ixvi. 13, 14, I will 
 pay thee my vows, which my lips have 
 uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, 
 when I was in 7ny trouble ; the reason 
 follows, ver. 17? 19, because that Ve- 
 rily God hath heard me when I cried 
 to him; and so Eliphaz in Job doth 
 connect and hang these two together. 
 Job xxii. 27, Thou shalt make thy 
 prayer to him, and he shall hear thee, 
 and thou shalt pay thy vows. This 
 which he speaks of paying his vows 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 105 
 
 was not only as it was to be his duty, 
 but also as a consequent that would 
 follow the other, that when his prayers 
 should be heard, he thereupon would 
 perform his vows : for his scope is to 
 move Job to turn to God, shewing 
 what benefit would accrue to him by it, 
 and amongst others this : the hearing 
 his prayers and performing his vows. 
 
 5. When thou art enabled by faith 
 to see clearly God's hand sheAved forth 
 in the effecting of that mercy over and 
 above the power of second causes, and 
 to acknowledge it to his glory : for 
 the truth is, one main cavilling reason 
 in our blind hearts, whereby we are 
 usually hindered and put by from ap- 
 prehending our prayers to be answer- 
 ed, when yet the thing is done, we 
 shall find to be, that our eyes are ter- 
 minated and bounded in second causes, 
 and not raised to see God's hand in the 
 thing : therefore, on the contrary, 
 when God enableth thee to see that 
 he hath done thee this kindness, so as 
 thy mind is clear in it, this is a fruit 
 
 Chap. 8. 
 
 5. If a 
 man sees 
 by faith, 
 and ac- 
 know- 
 ledgeth 
 God's sole 
 hand in 
 the ac- 
 complish- 
 ment. 
 
106 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap, i 
 
 of his hearing thy prayers ; and this 
 you will usually find to be true, that 
 so much faith and dependance as you 
 had upon God in prayer for the ob- 
 taining of a mercy, so much faith and 
 acknowledgment you will have in the 
 accomplishment of it. Parallel with 
 this rule is that other, which in another 
 case is usually given, that in perform- 
 ance of duties, so much as the soul 
 did go out of itself to God, for strength 
 to perform them, so much, when they 
 are performed, will the heart acknow- 
 ledge God's assistance, and be hum- 
 bled : and this is a sign of prayer be- 
 ing heard upon this ground, because 
 God's end of hearing prayers is, that 
 we might glorify him. So Psal. 1. 15, 
 Call upon me in the day of trouble^ 
 and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt 
 glorify me. Therefore when the heart 
 hath prayed much for a mercy, with 
 dependance before the obtaining of it, 
 and then is enabled to exalt God when 
 it is obtained, it is a sign that God did 
 it in relation to those prayers. For 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 \0\ 
 
 there is that connexion made between 
 these as between the cause and the 
 effect, / will hear thee, and thou shalt 
 glorify me. David, when he was deli- 
 vered out of all his troubles (as when 
 he made that xviii. Psal. he was, as 
 appears by the title of it), then at the 
 6th verse he relates how he had pray- 
 ed, and how he was heard : and see 
 thereupon how his heart was enlarged 
 to acknowledge God alone to have 
 done all, in the rest of that Psalm ; so 
 from the 27th and also from the 31st 
 verses. When we see angels from 
 God, beyond the power of second 
 causes descending, it is a sign that 
 prayers, as angels, first ascended, and 
 obtained that mercy. Thus also the 
 Church, Isai. xxvi. having obtained 
 those deliverances by prayer, ver. 17 
 (for which there she makes that song 
 by way of thankfulness), she ascribes 
 all unto God, ver. 12, Thou hast 
 wrought all our works for us, and ver. 
 18, Verily we Jiave not wrought any 
 deliverance in the earth. 
 
 Chap. 6. 
 
108 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 8. 
 
 Sect. 6. 
 With the 
 mercy 
 some- 
 times a 
 special 
 evidence 
 comes in 
 that it is 
 obtained 
 by prayer. 
 
 Sect. 7. 
 By the 
 event 
 things ob- 
 tained by 
 prayer 
 prove real 
 and stable 
 
 6. When with the mercy there 
 cometh the assurance of God's love, 
 and an evidence of his favour, when 
 God sends not a bare token only, but 
 a letter also with it, to bear witness of 
 his love, in which the token is wrapt. 
 I need not make that a sign, for when 
 this comes with a mercy, it carries its 
 own evidence ; you will then know 
 well enough that it is the fruit of 
 prayer. 
 
 7. Lastly, it will be evident by the 
 event : things obtained by prayer have 
 few thorns in them, the curse is taken 
 out : but what comes but by ordinary 
 providence comes as it were up of 
 itself alone, and like the earth until- 
 led, is full of thorns and briars, and 
 many vexations. The reason is, for 
 what comes in by prayer comes as a 
 blessing, and so no sorrow is added to 
 it: and also because prayer killeth 
 those inordinate lusts which are the 
 cause of that vanity and vexation 
 which are in the things enjoyed. But 
 when the blessing of God mdheth rich. 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 109 
 
 Chap. 
 
 22. Things long deferred, at last ob- 
 tained by prayer, prove most com- 
 fortable, and in a settled manner such : 
 they prove standing and stable bless- 
 ings : and what trouble the heart was 
 put to in the deferring, it is recom- 
 pensed by the more settled, constant, 
 immixed sweetness in the enjoying ; 
 prayer having long perfumed it, and 
 the thing being steeped therein, it 
 proves exceeding pleasant. So, Prov. 
 xiii. 12, Hope deferred makes the heart 
 sick ; but when the desire comes it is 
 a tree of life, and heals that sickness, 
 and abundantly comforts the heart. 
 Thus Isaac found Rebekkah a great 
 blessing, and a comfortable wife to 
 him. Gen. xxiv. ult. Such a comfort 
 also was Isaac to Abraham, Gen. xvii. 
 18, 19. A son indeed, a son of laugh- 
 ter, as his name signifies: and such 
 was Samuel to Hannah ; she had not 
 only a son of him, but a good son, a 
 blessed son, a prophet, and the judge 
 of the people of God : whereas Jacob 
 
110 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
 Sect. 1. 
 The thing 
 prayed for 
 is not 
 ilways 
 granted 
 when yet 
 the prayer 
 is heard. 
 
 getting the blessing, but without 
 prayer, how embittered was it to him 
 (though a blessing to him in the event) 
 by twenty years' banishment from his 
 mother's house ? When Israel them- 
 selves set up a king, but not by me, 
 as God says, what a punishment was 
 he to them ? given in wraths and taken 
 away in anger ^ Hos. xiii. 11. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Considerations to quiet the hearty and to 
 help it to discern an answer to, and 
 acceptation of the prayer when the 
 thing is not accomplished. 
 
 But now the next and more diffi- 
 cult question is, when the thing is not 
 granted, how shall we then discern 
 and know that God doth notwith- 
 standing hear the prayer ? 
 
 Concerning which, I must premise 
 this, that it is true, that always the 
 very thing itself desired is not granted, 
 when yet the prayer is heard. Christ 
 prayed the cup might pass from him^ 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 which though some interpret the word 
 passing, for the short continuance of 
 the brunt, and that therefore in that 
 respect he was heard directly in what 
 he asked : yet if so, why was that 
 clause, if it be possible, added? that 
 argues his petition was for a total re- 
 moval, yet with subjection to God's 
 will, for he knew there was no great 
 impossibility in a short removal of it : 
 nay, it was impossible but that it should 
 pass, Acts ii. 24-. But, howsoever, it 
 is plain in Moses, about his going into 
 Canaan : Deut. iii. 26, / besought 
 the Lord, says he, ver. 23. and he 
 was angry with me, and would not 
 hear me, ver. 26. Likewise, ere I 
 come to resolve the case, an objection 
 is also to be removed, which is, 
 
 That if the spirit of God doth make 
 every faithful prayer in us, as Rom. 
 viii. 26, it is said he doth ; we know 
 not what to pray for^ but the spirit 
 helpeth our infirmities, 8^c. and he 
 searcheth the deep things of God, as it 
 is said, 1 Cor. ii, that therefore he 
 
 111 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
112 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 An objec- 
 tion an- 
 swei-ed : 
 That 
 though 
 the Spirit 
 knows 
 God's 
 mind, and 
 teacheth 
 us what 
 to pray 
 for, yet 
 the thing 
 prayed for 
 may not 
 be grant- 
 ed. 
 
 knowing that God will not grant such 
 a thing, you may think that he should 
 not stir up the heart to pray for that 
 which God means to deny, but always 
 guide the heart aright, and not let us 
 err or miss in the things we pray for. 
 To this, in brief by way of answer. 
 
 1. The spirit makes not prayers in 
 us, always according to what God's 
 secret will and foreknowledge is, but 
 according to his revealed will to us, 
 both in his word and in his providence, 
 as things therein are pi^esented to us, 
 and do lie before our view, and so not 
 always according to what he means to 
 do, but according to what it is our 
 duty to pray most for : for he con- 
 curs to assist us to pray, as he doth 
 in preaching or using other such like 
 means and ordinances, wherein though 
 the spirit knows whom God means to 
 convert, whom not, yet he assists us 
 ministers in our spirits often times as 
 much to preach to those he means not 
 to convert, as to those he means to 
 convert: he dealing with us therein 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 according to what is our duty, not ac- 
 cording to what is his decree. 
 
 Again, secondly, that phrase helps 
 to answer this, when he is said to help 
 our infirmities, and therefore not ac- 
 cording to his own vast knowledge, 
 doth he frame our prayers, but so, as 
 he applies his assistance to our infirm, 
 weak, and narrow apprehensions, and 
 stirs up desires in us to such things, as 
 according to our knowledge we are in 
 duty to conceive, and which by all we 
 can see, by what is afore us revealed 
 in his providence, we think to be most 
 for our good, and his glory ; and God 
 accepts such desires as from us, but 
 yet doth for us according to the large- 
 ness of his own love. 
 
 And so now to come to the case 
 propounded, and therein unto helps to 
 pacify, and direct the heart about 
 those prayers at which the things are 
 not granted. 
 
 And first how didst thou frame thy 
 prayer for that thing which is denied 
 thee ? Didst thou pray for it abso- 
 
 L2 
 
 113 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
 Section 2. 
 A mistake 
 to pray 
 abso- 
 lutely for 
 such bles- 
 sings as 
 are not 
 abso- 
 lutely 
 promised. 
 
114 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
 In which 
 when we 
 are denied 
 we are 
 to rest in 
 God's 
 judgment 
 as best for 
 us and so 
 interpret 
 the prayer 
 answered. 
 
 Section 3. 
 
 lutely, and peremptorily as simply best 
 for thee ? thou must not then think 
 much, if such a prayer be denied, for 
 therein thou wentest beyond thy com- 
 mission : but if thou didst pray for it 
 conditionally, and with an (if) as Christ 
 did, if it be possible (which instance is 
 a strong ground for such kind of 
 prayers) and not my will, hut thy will 
 be done, so, as thou didst refer it unto, 
 and trust God's judgment in the thing, 
 and not thine own, only didst put him 
 in mind as thy duty was, of what was 
 represented to thee as best for thee in 
 view, and so left it to him to cast, and 
 didst refer it to his will and wisdom ; 
 then thy prayer may be most fully 
 answered and heard, and yet the thing 
 denied, and thou art to interpret, and 
 take God's meaning and mind revealed 
 in the event in the best sense, which 
 way soever it falls; for otherwise, 
 Christ had not been heard, when yet, 
 the text says, He was heard in all he 
 feared, Heb. v. 7. 
 
 2. Observe, if there were not a ye- 
 
Tlie Return of Prayers. 
 
 115 
 
 servation in that denial, for some 
 greater and further mercy, whereof 
 that denial was the foundation. Thus, 
 1. oftentimes some great cross is pre- 
 vented by the denial of a thing, which 
 we were urgent for: if we had had 
 many of our desires, we had been un- 
 done : so it was a mercy to David, that 
 his child was taken avray, for whose 
 life he was yet so earnest, who would 
 have been but a living monument of 
 his shame. It was also a mercy to 
 David that Absalom was taken away, 
 (whom surely he prayed much for, for 
 he loved him much) who, if he had 
 lived, might have been the ruin of him 
 and his house. As a wicked man's 
 deliverance and the granting his re- 
 quest lays a foundation, and is a reser- 
 vation of him to a worse judgment : 
 So, the denial of a godly man's prayer 
 is for his greater good, and is. laid as 
 a foundation of a greater mercy : And 
 again, oftentimes the very denial breaks 
 a man's heart, and brings him nearer 
 to God, puts him upon searching into 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
 There 
 may be 
 a reser- 
 vation in 
 the de- 
 nial, lor 
 some 
 greater 
 mercy. 
 
116 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
 Section 4. 
 There 
 may be a 
 trail 5:mu- 
 tation of 
 the thing 
 denied 
 into some 
 other 
 blessing 
 that is 
 better of 
 the same 
 kind. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 his ways and estate, and in his prayers 
 to see what should be amiss therein, 
 which alone is a great mercy ; and 
 better than the thing, seeing by the 
 loss of that one thing he learns how 
 to pray better, and so to obtain an 
 hundred better things afterward. Christ 
 desired the cup might pass, it did not; 
 and that was the foundation of our 
 salvation, and the way to his glory : 
 he being to pass through that suffering 
 into his glory : the woman that had 
 the bloody issue, though she used 
 many means, and haply prayers among 
 the rest, and all in vain, yet none took 
 effect ; that in the end she might come 
 to Christ, and have both body and 
 soul healed at once. 
 
 3. Observe, if there be not a trans- 
 mutation and a translation or turning 
 of the thing desired into some other 
 greater blessing of the same kind : for 
 God {all whose ways are mercy and 
 truth to his people) doth improve, hus- 
 band, and lay out the precious stocks 
 of their prayers, to the best advantage, 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 117 
 
 in things, whereby the greatest returns 
 and gains may accrue : as old Jacob 
 laid not his hand of blessing as Joseph 
 would have guided them, but laid the 
 right hand upon the younger son, 
 whom Joseph did set at his left : so 
 often doth God take off his hand of 
 blessing from the thing we prayed for, 
 and lays and discovers it in another more 
 for our good : and as God giving Isaac 
 the power and privilege to bless a son, 
 though Isaac he intended it for Esau, 
 yet God unbeknown to him trans- 
 mitted it to Jacob, yet so, as the bless- 
 ing was not lost : thus is it in our 
 prayers for blessings both upon our- 
 selves and others. There is often a 
 transmutation, never a frustration of 
 them : which may as truly and directly 
 be called an answer to the prayer ; as 
 if a factor beyond sea, when the owner 
 sends for such and such commodities, 
 supposing them more vendible and 
 advantageous, but the factor knowing 
 the state of things and the prices, 
 sends him over instead of them, such 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
118 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 
 
 Section 1. 
 God an- 
 swers to 
 the 
 
 ground of 
 our 
 prayers. 
 
 as shall sell better and bring in more 
 profit, may be said to answer his letters, 
 and that better than if he had sent 
 those very commodities he writ for; 
 thus Abraham's prayers for Ishmael 
 were turned for Isaac ; David's for the 
 child to Solomon. 
 
 4. Observe if in the end God doth 
 not answer thee still according to the 
 ground of thy prayer : that is, see if 
 that holy end, intention, and affection 
 which thou hadst in prayer be not in 
 the end fully satisfied, though not in 
 the thing thou didst desire : for God 
 answers secundum cardinem^ according 
 to the hinge which the prayer turns 
 upon. As when a general is sent out 
 with an army by a king or a state, who 
 give him many particular directions 
 how to order and dispose and manage 
 the war, although in many particulars 
 that fall out wherein they could not 
 foresee to give so punctual and parti- 
 cular directions, he swerves from the 
 directions, yet if he keeps to the in- 
 tent of their commission, and doth 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 119 
 
 what is most advantageous for their 
 ends, he may be said to keep to his 
 commission. For as they say of the 
 law, mens legis est leXy the mind of the 
 law is the law, not the bare words it is 
 printed in : so the meaning of the Spirit 
 is the prayer, Rom. viii. 27, and not 
 simply the things desired, wherein we 
 express those our desires : and still the 
 meaning, the intent, the ground of our 
 prayers shall be answered. To open 
 this, the main ends and meanings of 
 our hearts in our requests are God's 
 glory, the church's good, and our own 
 particular comfort and happiness : we 
 can desire but comfort, and a man 
 looketh out and spyeth out such a 
 particular mercy, which he thinketh 
 tends much to God's glory and his 
 happiness, and yet that thing is de- 
 nied ; yet notwithstanding God will 
 answer him according to the meaning 
 of his prayers, his glory shall certainly 
 be advanced, even for that prayer of 
 his, some other way, and his comfort 
 made up, which is the common desire 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
120 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 of all mankind : and thou canst have 
 but comfort, let the thing be what it 
 will that conveys it to thee : and God 
 will take order that that comfort thy 
 soul desired thou shalt have come in 
 one way or other ; which when it doth 
 thou canst not but say thy prayers are 
 heard. For as God fulfils his pro- 
 mises, so he hears prayers ; there is 
 the same reason of both: now God 
 hath promised, He that leaves father 
 and mother shall have an hundred 
 fold : not in specie, as we say : in 
 kind this cannot always be fulfilled, 
 for an hundred fathers he cannot have. 
 God fulfils it not therefore always in 
 the same kind, but in some other 
 things, which shall be more than an 
 hundred fathers would be. 
 
 Moses he prays he might go into 
 Canaan : God answers the ground of 
 his prayer, though not in the matter in 
 it expressed and desired ; and that 
 both for Moses's comfort and his own 
 glory : for he takes him up into hea- 
 ven, the true Canaan, whereof that Ca- 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 naan was but a type ; and he appoints 
 Joshua, a fresh and a young man, 
 coming on in the world, and one 
 whom Moses himself had tutored and 
 brought up, and was his pupil, servant 
 and attendant, Num. vi. 11, 28; and 
 this was more for God's glory, for 
 Joshua was therein to be the type of 
 Christ leading us to heaven, which the 
 law (of which Moses was the tj^e) 
 could not bring us unto, by reason of 
 the weakness of it; and he being 
 young did it better, and it was not so 
 much also for God's glory that one 
 man should do all ; and whereas Moses 
 desired to have the honour of it, in 
 that his servant that attended him, and 
 had been brought up by him, and had 
 all from him, that he was the man 
 should do it was well nigh as great a 
 honour to Moses as if he had been the 
 leader himself. And so David, when 
 he desired to build the temple and a 
 house to God, for the like reasons God 
 denied it, but yet honoured him to 
 prepare the materials, and to draw the 
 
122 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap, 9. 
 
 Section 6. 
 God when 
 he denies 
 yet some- 
 times 
 yields far 
 in it, to 
 give satis- 
 faction to 
 his child. 
 
 pattern, as also in that his son did it, 
 who was therein also the like type of 
 Christ, being a prince of peace, but 
 David a man of blood and war, and 
 likewise God accepted this of David, 
 as if he had built it, and will recom- 
 pense him as much. 
 
 5. Observe, if in the thing which 
 thou hast prayed much about, though 
 it be denied thee, yet if God doth not 
 endeavour to give thee (as I may so 
 speak) all satisfaction that may be, 
 even as if he were tender of denying 
 thee, and therefore doth much in it 
 for thy prayers' sake, though the con- 
 clusion proves otherwise, as being 
 against some other purpose of his, for 
 some other ends : as when he denied 
 Moses to go into the land of Canaan, 
 he did it with much respect (as I may 
 so speak with reverence) to Moses: 
 he yielded as far as might be, for he 
 let him lead them till he should come 
 to the very borders ; and he let him 
 see that good land, carrying him up 
 to a hill, and (as it is thought) by a 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 123 
 
 miracle enabled his sight to view the 
 whole land ; and the man he chose to 
 perform this work was his servant, 
 which was a great honour to Moses, 
 that one brought up by him should 
 succeed him. So when Abraham 
 prayed for Ishmael, Oh let Ishmael 
 live in thy sight, Gen. xvii. 18, God 
 went as far in granting his request as 
 might be ; for, says he, ver. 20, 1 have 
 heard thee, mid I have blessed him, and 
 I will make him fruitful, and multiply 
 him exceedingly, and he shall beget 
 tivelve princes ; but my covenant I ivill 
 establish tvith Isaac. So likewise, 
 when in casting that thing thou didst 
 seek at his hands, he shews an extraor- 
 dinary hand in turning it, it is a sign he 
 had a respect to thee, that he would 
 vouchsafe to discover his hand so much 
 in it ; let the thing fall which way it 
 will, if God's hand appear much in it, 
 thou mayest comfortably conclude that 
 there is some great thing in it, and 
 that prayer wrought that miracle in it, 
 to dispose it so ; and that there is some 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
124 
 
 The Return of Prayers, 
 
 Section 7. 
 Observe 
 the effects 
 that deni- 
 als have 
 upon the 
 heart. As 
 first, if a 
 man doth 
 acknow- 
 ledge God 
 righteous 
 in it, &c. 
 
 great reason why he denies thee, and a 
 great respect had to thy prayers, in that 
 he is pleased to discover so extraordi- 
 nary a providence about it. 
 
 Lastly, look into the effect of that 
 denial upon thine own heart, as, 
 
 1. If thy heart be enlarged to acknow- 
 ledge God to be holy and righteous in 
 his dealings with thee, and thine own 
 unworthiness, the cause of his denying 
 thee. Thus we often find the saints 
 expressing themselves in their prayers : 
 that Psal. xxii. though typically made 
 of Christ, yet as it was penned by 
 David, and as it may concern his per- 
 son, it may serve for an instance for 
 this, / cry in the day time, hut thou 
 hearest not, this might have made him 
 jealous of God: but, says he, TJiou 
 art holy, 8^c. and dealest now with me 
 in a holy manner, and art just in it: 
 Others have called on thee, and have 
 been heard, though I now for my un- 
 worthiness am denied : But I am a 
 worm. It might have put a man off 
 when he should think others are heard. 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 125 
 
 but not I ; but it puts not him off, but 
 humbles him : lam a ivorm, 8fc. ; and 
 Thou art holy. 
 
 2. If God fill thy heart with a holy 
 contentment in the denial ; if he speak 
 to thy heart, as he did to Moses when 
 he denied him, Deut. iii. Let it suffice 
 thee ; if as to St. Paul, when he was 
 so earnest about removing that buffet- 
 ing, if thou gettest but such an an- 
 swer as that to him, 3Iy grace is suf- 
 ficient^ or that some such like consi- 
 deration is dropped in that stays thee : 
 it was the effect of David's seven days' 
 fasting that he did so contentedly bear 
 the loss of the child, which his servants 
 thought w^ould have overwhelmed 
 him, 2 Sam. xii. 19, 20, 21. But a 
 consideration was dropped in, which 
 was the fruit of his prayer, That he 
 should go to him, not he return hither ; 
 and his mind was comforted thereby, 
 insomuch, as it is said, ver. 24, That 
 he comforted Bathsheha also. 
 
 3. If thou canst be thankful to God 
 out of faith, that God hath cast and 
 
 M2 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
 Secondly, 
 if God fill 
 the heart 
 with a 
 holy con- 
 tentment 
 in the 
 denial. 
 
 Thirdly, 
 if the 
 heart be 
 
126 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
 thankful 
 out of 
 faith, 
 when de- 
 nied. 
 
 Section 4. 
 If the 
 heart be 
 not dis- 
 couraged, 
 for con- 
 tinuing 
 still to 
 pray for 
 other 
 things. 
 
 ordered all for the best, though he 
 hath denied thee ; and although thou 
 seest no reason but that the thing 
 prayed for would have been for the 
 best, yet art thankful upon the denial 
 of it, out of faith resting in God's 
 judgment in it, as David, in all those 
 forementioned places was, Thou art 
 holy, thatinhabitest the praises of Israel, 
 he praises God for all this : David, 
 before he did eat, after his seven days' 
 fasting for the child, arose, And went 
 first into the temple, and worshipped, 2 
 Sam. xii. 20 ; and of what kind of 
 worship it was appears by his anoint- 
 ing himself and changing his raiment, 
 which was in token of rejoicing and 
 thanksgiving, and it fell out to him 
 according to his faith, for presently 
 after Solomon was begotten, ver. 24<. 
 
 4. If thou canst pray still and givest 
 not over, although thou standest for 
 mercies which thou missest; if when 
 thou hast mercies granted thou fearest 
 most, and when denied lovest most, 
 and art not discouraged, thy prayers 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 are heard, Psal. Ixxx. 4. Though God 
 seemed angry with their prayers, yet 
 they pray, and expostulate with him, 
 and give not over, for they made that 
 Psalm as a prayer, Atid how long wilt 
 thou he angry agairist tlie prayer of thy 
 people? So, Psal. xliv. 17, Though 
 we are cast among dragons, yet we have 
 not been false in thy covenant. So say 
 thou, I will pray still, though I never 
 have an answer in this life. It moves 
 ingenuous natures to see men take re- 
 pulses and denials well, which proud 
 persons will not do : and so it moves 
 God. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Application : a reproof of those that pray ^ 
 hut look not after the return of their 
 prayers : the causes of this neglect. 
 The use of all is to reprove those 
 who put up prayers, and are earnest 
 in begging, but look not after them 
 when they have done, no more than if 
 they had not prayed; who still ven- 
 ture, and have a great stock of prayers 
 
 127 
 
 Chap. 9. 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 A reproof 
 of those 
 that pray, 
 but look 
 not after 
 the return 
 of their 
 prayers. 
 
128 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 going, but look not after the returns 
 that are made, cast not up their com- 
 ings in and gainings by prayers ; and 
 when they have prayed, sit down dis- 
 couraged, as not making account in 
 earnest that ever they shall hear of 
 their prayers again, even as if they 
 had been but as words cast away : as 
 beating the air, as bread cast upon the 
 waters, which they think sinks or is 
 carried away, and they shall find it no 
 more ; but herein you despise God's 
 ordinance, and err, not knowing the 
 power of prayers ; and ye contemn 
 the Lord ; but you will say as they in 
 the prophet said, wherein do we con- 
 temn him 9 if you asked a man a ques- 
 tion, and when you had done did turn 
 your back upon him, as scoffing Pilate 
 asked in scorn of Christ, What is truth? 
 but would not stay for an answer, did 
 you not contemn him ? as not to answer 
 when a question is asked you, is con- 
 tempt, so not to regard the answer 
 made, when you have been earnest in 
 begging, is no less contempt also : if 
 
The Return of Prayers 
 
 129 
 
 you had written letters to a very friend 
 about important business, and had 
 earnestly solicited him for an answer, 
 and he were careful in due time to send 
 one, if you should make account to 
 hear of him no more, should you not 
 wrong him in your thoughts ? Or if 
 he did write, if you should not vouch- 
 safe to read over his answer, were it 
 not a contempt of him? so is it here, 
 when you have been earnest with God 
 for blessings, and regard not the an- 
 swer ; and because verily this is a fault 
 among us, I will therefore endeavour 
 to discover to you the causes and dis- 
 couragements, which though they keep 
 you not from praying, yet from this 
 earnest expectation, and real, and true 
 making account to hear of answers of 
 your prayers ; only ray scope is not to 
 shew you so much the reasons why 
 God denies you many requests, as why 
 even in your own hearts you are dis- 
 couraged after you have prayed, as if 
 they would not be answered, although 
 God doth answer them. These dis- 
 
 The 
 
 causes of 
 this ne- 
 glect are 
 of two 
 sorts. 
 
130 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
 1. Temp- 
 tations, 
 want of 
 assur- 
 ance ; as 
 1. That 
 because 
 your per- 
 sons are 
 not accep- 
 ted your 
 prayers 
 are not. 
 
 couragements are partly temptations, 
 partly sinful impediments wherein we 
 are more faulty. 
 
 I. Because your assurance that your 
 persons are accepted is weak, therefore 
 your confidence that your prayers are 
 heard, is weak also : for as God doth 
 first accept the person, and then our 
 prayers : so the belief that God doth 
 accept our persons is that which also 
 upholds our hearts in confidence that 
 our prayers shall be granted : this you 
 may find in 1 John v. 13, 14, 15; in 
 the 13th verse he says, These things 
 have I written to you, that ye may know 
 you have eternal life: and upon that 
 assurance this will follow, vers. 14, 15, 
 And this is the confidence that we have 
 in him, that if we ask any thing accord- 
 ing to his will, he hears us, &:c. Aiid 
 if we know he hears us, we knoiv ive 
 have the petitions we desired of him. 
 Mark how he links these three toge- 
 ther, as effects and consequences each 
 of other. 1. These things I write unto 
 you, that you may he assured that life 
 
The Return of Prayers, 
 
 131 
 
 and heaven is yours, as in the 12th and 
 ISth verses. And upon that, 2. this 
 confidence will follow in your hearts, 
 that God hears you, that is, that you 
 have his ears open to you, and his 
 heart enlarged towards you : and then, 
 3. if you be assured that God hears 
 you, then from this will follow an as- 
 surance that you shall have any thing 
 granted you desire ; yea, and he makes 
 this one of the main and immediate 
 effects of assurance of justification ; 
 therefore he says, this is the confidence 
 that we have in him ; that is, this effect 
 there is of this confidence, for whereas 
 they might say, what benefit will ac- 
 crue to us by this assurance? why this, 
 says he, which is one of the great and 
 main privileges of a Christian, even 
 assurance that God will hear him ; and 
 not only so, but grant him all his 
 prayers. For when a man is assured 
 God hath given him his son, he will 
 then easily be induced to believe and 
 expect. How shall he not with hhn give 
 me all things^ Rom. viii. 32. If once 
 
132 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
 2. Of the 
 weakness 
 of our 
 prayers : 
 which is 
 answered 
 by three 
 things. 
 
 he looks upon God as a father, he will 
 then easily conceive that which Christ 
 says, If fathers that are evil can give 
 good things to tJieir children^ how much 
 more shall not your Father give his 
 spirit and all good things to them tlmt 
 ash them : and if he gave his Son, when 
 we did not pray to him, how much 
 more shall he not with him give us all 
 things we pray for ? If a man comes 
 to sue to any man whose mind he 
 knew not, whether he loved him or 
 not, he would have small hope or ex- 
 pectation of having his suit granted, 
 though he came again and again ; but 
 if he be assured he is in favour with 
 him, according to that degree of favour, 
 he supposeth himself to stand in with 
 him, he is assured and confident of 
 obtaining his request. 
 
 2. Discouragement is the weakness 
 of their prayers : though a man thinks 
 his person is accepted, yet alas, says 
 he, my prayers are so poor and weak, 
 as surely God will never regard them. 
 To remove which, let me first ask thee 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 this question : Dost thou pray with 
 all thy might? then though that thy 
 might be weak in itself, and in thine 
 own apprehension such, yet because it 
 is all the might which thou hast, and 
 which grace hath in tliee, it shall be 
 accepted. For God accepts according 
 to what a man hath, and not according 
 to that he hath not. 2 Cor. viii. 1 2. 
 
 2. Thou art to consider that God 
 doth not hear thee for thy prayers' sake, 
 though not without them, but for his 
 names sake, and his Sons sake, and 
 because thou art his child, as the mo- 
 ther when her child cries (suppose it 
 be a weak child) doth not neglect to 
 hear and relieve it : but tenders it not 
 because it doth cry more loud, but 
 because it cries ; and pities it the more 
 the weaker it is. 
 
 3. Again, though the performance 
 in itself be weak, yet considered as a 
 prayer, it may be strong, because a 
 weak prayer may set the strong God 
 a work ; as faith for the act of it, as 
 produced by us may be weak, yet be- 
 
134< 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
 cause its object is Christ, therefore it 
 justifies : so is it in prayer, it prevails, 
 not because of the performance itself, 
 but because of the name, which it is 
 put up in, even Christ's name; and 
 therefore as a \Yeak faith justifies, so 
 a weak prayer prevails as well as a 
 stronger ; and both for the like reason 
 in both, for faith attributes all to God, 
 and so doth prayer; for as faith is 
 merely a receiving grace, so prayer a 
 begging grace. And therefore dost 
 thou think thy prayers are accepted 
 at all, notM ithstanding their weakness ? 
 if that they are accepted, then they 
 must be accepted as prayers, now if 
 they be accepted as prayers, then as 
 effectual motives to prevail M'ith God 
 to grant the thing you ask ; for if he 
 should not accept them to that end for 
 which they were ordained, it is as if 
 he accepted them not at all. As there- 
 fore when he approves of any man's 
 faith as true and sincere, he approves 
 and accepts of it to that purpose for 
 which it was ordained, which is to save 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 and justify, and to this end doth as 
 fully accept the weakest act of faith 
 as the strongest; so is it with their 
 prayers, which being ordained as a 
 means to obtain mercies from him, if 
 he accepts them at all, it is with rela- 
 tion to the accomplishment of them, 
 which is their end. 
 
 4. Men are mistaken in judging of the 
 weakness of their prayers, they judge of 
 the weakness of their prayers by their 
 expressions, and gifts in performing 
 them, or by the stirring and overflow of 
 affections, whereas the strength and vi- 
 gour of prayer should be estimated from 
 the faith, the sincerity, the obedience, 
 the desires expressed in it. As it is not 
 the loudness of a preacher's voice, but 
 the weight and holiness of the matter, 
 and spirit of the preacher, that moves a 
 wise and an intelligent hearer : so not 
 gifts, but graces in prayers are they 
 that move the Lord. The strength of 
 prayer lies not in words, but in that 
 it is fitted to prevail with God; one 
 prayer is not more strong than another. 
 
 135 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
136 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
 3. So of- 
 ten fail- 
 ings of an- 
 swers: an- 
 swered by 
 four 
 things. 
 
 further than it is so framed as it hath 
 power with God more or less; as of 
 Jacob it is said, he had poiver with 
 God, Hos. xii. Now prayers move 
 God, not as an orator moves his hearers, 
 but as a child moves his father : two 
 words of a child humbled, and crying 
 at his father's feet, will prevail more 
 than penned orations, Rom. viii. It 
 is the meaning of the spirit that God 
 looks unto, more than the expressions : 
 for the groans there are said to be un- 
 utterable. Hezekiah's expressions were 
 so rude and broken, that he says, Isai. 
 xxxviii. 14-, that he did but chatter, 
 (he being then sick,) even as a crane, 
 yet God heard them. 
 
 A third discouragement is failings 
 of answers ; I have prayed often and 
 long, and I have been seklom or never 
 answered, and therefore I make little 
 account of my prayers, that they are 
 heard : others have the revenues of 
 their prayers coming in, but I do miss 
 whatsoever almost I stand for : there- 
 fore say they as those. Why have we 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 fasted and thou regardedst it not ? Isai. ^^^^- ^^• 
 Win, 3. I 
 
 To remove this consider, 1. that [ i. 
 thou hast the more reason to wait, for ! 
 thou hast the more answers to come ; 
 for as wicked men treasure up wrath, 
 so do godly men mercy, and especially 
 by their prayers ; and therefore mer- 
 cies and answers do often come thick 
 together, even as afflictions also do. 
 
 Suppose thou shouldest have few 
 answers concerning the things thou 
 seekest for here, either in praying for 
 thyself or others, yet thy reward is 
 with the Lord. It is in pray is g as in 
 preaching, a man may preach faith- 
 fully many a year, and yet not convert 
 a soul, and yet a man is not to give 
 over waiting, but to observe after every 
 sermon what good is done, and whe- 
 ther God will give men repentance, ^s 
 it is, 2 Tim. ii. 25. And if none be 
 converted, yet as Isai. xlix. A^, A mans 
 reward is with the Lord. Every man 
 shall receive his own reward according 
 to his own labour^ 1 Cor. iii. 8 ; and 
 
138 
 
 The Return of Prayers, 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
 not according to the success of his 
 labour only. So it is in praying, though 
 thou missest again and again, and no- 
 thing succeeds thou pray est for, yet 
 be not discouraged, for thy reward is 
 with the Lord, which will come in one 
 day. 
 
 3. God doth it, not that he hears 
 thee not, but to try thee ; for a man 
 to say as David says, Psal. cxvi. 1, 2, 
 God hath heard my prayer ^ therefore I 
 will call upon him as long as I live ; 
 that is nothing so much as to be able 
 to say, Well, I have prayed thus long, 
 and for these many things, and never 
 sped, and yet I will call upon him 
 whilst I live, though I find no answer 
 in this life. To find comings in, in a 
 trade, and yet to hold out trading still, 
 argues not so much faithfulness in a 
 man's calling, as when a man hath 
 losses, and castings behind hand, and 
 yet to follow it. 
 
 4. God usually stays so long that 
 we have done expecting, Luke xviii. 8, 
 The elect cry day and night, but God 
 
Tlie Return of Prayers. 
 
 139 
 
 stays so long, ver. 7, that when he 
 comes he finds not faith, they have 
 done expecting, have forgot their 
 prayers, and then he doth things they 
 looked not for. 
 
 Other discouragements there are 
 wherein we ourselves are more faulty, 
 and which are our sins, more than our 
 temptations, which yet weaken the ex- 
 pectation of having our prayers an- 
 swered, as 
 
 1. Slothfulness in prayer, when we 
 do not put to all our might in praying, 
 and then no wonder we do not only 
 not obtain, but that our own hearts 
 misgive us, that we look for little suc- 
 cess and issue of such prayers. Qui 
 frigide rogat, docet negare ; he that 
 shews himself cold in a suit, teaches 
 him he sues to deny him; if we see 
 one seeking to us faintly and slightly, 
 we are not then solicitous to deny him, 
 but think he will be easily put off, and 
 not think much ; so accordingly when 
 we shall observe so much by ourselves, 
 and see ourselves slothful in praying. 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
 Isai. Ixiv. 
 
 Sect. 2. 
 A 2. cause 
 are sinful, 
 discou- 
 ragements 
 which are 
 three. 
 
 1. 
 
 Slothful- 
 ness in 
 prayer. 
 
14.0 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
 and praying as if we prayed not, no 
 wonder if b)'' reason of that conscious- 
 ness we look not after the success of 
 such prayers, which in the perform- 
 ance we slighted, when we pray as if 
 we were willing to be denied, we 
 knowing that the Scripture says that 
 the fervent prayer only prevails, that 
 prayer which is ivepyov^evr), that sets 
 all the faculties on work, James v. 16. 
 How should we then expect that God 
 should grant any good thing to us? 
 For though God sells nothing to . us 
 for our prayers, but gives freely, yet 
 he would have his gifts accepted : now 
 without large desires and longings 
 they would not be accepted : and 
 what is fervent prayer but the expres- 
 sion of such fervent desires ? Jacob 
 wrestled when he obtained. Ma7iy 
 seek to enter, says Christ, but you must 
 strive. Now when we know these 
 things, and yet are slothful, how can 
 we expect any answers at all ? will not 
 the consciousness of it quell all our 
 expectations ? and hence it comes to 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 141 
 
 pass that God proportioning his deal- 
 ings with us to our prayers, because 
 we seem to pray, and yet pray not to 
 purpose, therefore God he sometimes 
 seems like one asleep, and then some- 
 times to wake, and make fair offers to 
 help, and yet falls as it were asleep 
 again, because we were thus drowsy 
 in our prayers ; those prayers that 
 awaken God must awaken us: those 
 prayers that stir God must first stir us 
 to lay hold on God, as Isaiah speaks : 
 as obedience strengthens faith and as- 
 surance, so fervency in prayer begets 
 confidence of being heard. In all 
 other things slothfulness doth discou- 
 rage and weaken expectation : doth 
 any man expect that riches should 
 come upon him when he doth his bu- 
 siness negligently ? For it is the dili- 
 gent hand that maketh rich : doth any 
 man expect a crop and a harvest, if he 
 take not pains to plough and sow his 
 corn ? no more, if you do not take 
 pains with your hearts in prayer, can you 
 expect an answer, or indeed will you. 
 
142 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
 2. Discou- 
 ragement: 
 looking at 
 prayer as 
 a duty ra- 
 ther than 
 as a means 
 to obtain 
 blessings, 
 
 2. Cause, or sinful discouragement 
 herein, is looking at prayer only as a 
 duty to be performed, and so perform- 
 ing it as a task, and not so much out 
 of desires stirred up after the things to 
 be obtained, nor out of faith that we 
 shall obtain them; which is as if a 
 physician having a sick servant, to 
 whom he prescribeth, and command- 
 eth to take some physic to cure him, 
 and his man should take it indeed be- 
 cause it is. commanded and prescribed 
 by his master, looking at it as an act 
 of duty, as he obeys him in other bu- 
 sinesses, but not as looking at it as a 
 medicine or means that will have any 
 work upon him to cure him, and 
 therefore orders himself as if he had 
 taken no such thing. Thus do most 
 in the world pray to God ; take prayer 
 as a prescription only, but not as a 
 means : they come to God daily, but 
 as to a master only in this perform- 
 ance, not as to a father, and thus doing, 
 no wonder if they look for little effect 
 of prayers ; for our expectation never 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 143 
 
 exceeds nor reaches further than our 
 end and intention which we had in any 
 business. If I perform any ordinance, 
 but as a duty, then I rest therein and 
 expect no further ; as if a man preach- 
 eth for filthy lucre only, he performs 
 his duty and then looks for his hire, 
 but looks not after any other effect of 
 his sermons : so nor will men do after 
 their prayers for answers to them, 
 when they perform them as duties 
 only. Now to help you in this, you 
 are to look to two things in prayer. 
 First, to a command from God ; se- 
 condly, to the promise of God ; and 
 so to consider it in a double relation, 
 first, as a duty, in respect to the com- 
 mand ; secondly, as a means to obtain 
 or procure blessings at God's hand, in 
 relation to his promises : therefore, in 
 prayer, first an act of obedience, se- 
 condly an act of faith is to be exer- 
 cised, Ask in faith, nothing wavering, 
 Jam. i. Now the most in the world 
 perform it as an act of obedience only, 
 and so rest in the present performance 
 
 A direc- 
 tion. 
 Two 
 things to 
 be looked 
 at in 
 praying 
 A com- 
 mand. 
 A pro- 
 mise. 
 
144 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
 3. Discou- 
 ragement: 
 falling 
 into sins 
 again 
 after 
 praying. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 and acceptation of it; but if a man 
 pray in faith, he will pray with an eye 
 to the promises, and look on prayer as 
 a means, for time to come, to obtain 
 such or such a mercy at God's hands ; 
 and if so, then he is not satisfied till 
 he hath an answer of his prayers, and 
 till then will wait, as the Church says, 
 She iDould wait till he did arise and 
 plead her cause. 
 
 A third sinful discouragement is 
 returning to sins after prayers ; when 
 a man hath prayed for some mercy, 
 and riseth full of much confidence that 
 his prayers are heard, and so awhile 
 he walks, yet falling into a sin, that 
 sin doth dash all his hopes, undoes his 
 prayers (as he thinks) and calls them 
 back again ; meets, as it were, with 
 the answer, which is God's messenger, 
 and causeth it to return to heaven 
 again. How often when God had 
 even granted a petition, and the de- 
 cree was a-coming forth, and the grant 
 newly written, and the seal a-setting to 
 it, but an act of treason coming be- 
 
The Return of Prayers. 
 
 145 
 
 tween, stops it in the seal and defers 
 it, blots and blurretli all, both prayer 
 and grant, when newly written, and 
 leaves a guilt in the mind, which quells 
 our hopes, and then we look no more 
 after our prayers ; and this especially 
 if, when we were a-sinning, such a 
 thought came in (as often it doth to 
 restrain us), are you not in dependance 
 upon God for such a mercy, and have 
 prayed for it, and are fair for it, how 
 then dare you do this, and sin against 
 him? When in this case the heart 
 goes on, this blots all the prayer, and 
 discourageth a man ; for, saith the 
 conscience, will God hear sinners ? 
 (as he said.) And thus far it is true 
 that sinning thus between interrupts 
 and hinders the obtaining our peti- 
 tions ; that answerably as we do thus 
 dash and betray and undo our prayers, 
 so in a proportion we find in the way 
 to our obtaining the thing we prayed 
 for, so many rubs and difficulties do 
 arise ; for as we lay blocks in God's 
 way coming towards us to do us good. 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
 The an- 
 swer to it. 
 
146 
 
 Chap. 10. 
 
 The Return of Prayers. 
 
 so he in ours ; therefore often when a 
 business goes prosperously on, and we 
 think we shall carry it, comes some 
 accident between the cup and the lip, 
 that casts all ^behind hand again, be- 
 cause answerably we dealt with God. 
 For when we had prayed, and were 
 encouraged and in good hopes, then 
 by some sin or other we spoiled all, 
 and bereaved ourselves of our expec- 
 tation. But yet this you are to con- 
 sider, that as in the^end praying useth 
 to overcome sin in'God's children, so 
 also God in the end overcomes diffi- 
 culties, and brings the matter to pass: 
 and know it is not sins past so much 
 that hinder the prayers of God's peo- 
 ple as the present unfitness and indis- 
 position of their hearts for mercy. 
 
TIDINGS OF PEACE, 
 
 TO BE 
 
 SPOKEN TO CONSCIENCES DISTRESSED. 
 
 PSAL. IXXXV. 8. 
 
 God will speak peace unto his people^ 
 and to his saints, §^c. 
 
 The main thing intended to be in- 
 sisted upon out of these words is dis- 
 patched ; yet, that I may not leave so 
 fair and fruitful a crop still standing 
 upon the ground unreaped, I will go 
 on more briefly to have in the rest of 
 that harvest the text affords. 
 
 This Psalm (as was said) was pen- 
 ned as a prophecy of and prayer for 
 the return of God's people out of the 
 captivity of Babylon, and the settling 
 and establishment of that church and 
 state upon its former basis, yet so as 
 therein there is a further and more 
 especial aim had to the peace and 
 
148 
 
 Tidings of Peace. 
 
 glory to be brought in by Christ, till 
 when this prophecy otherwise had but 
 a poor and slender accomplishment, in 
 regard of much outward glory or peace 
 that that Church enjoyed. 
 
 And therefore the peace here spoken 
 of and promised for the present is to 
 be extended largelier than to outward 
 prosperity, or a happy issue out of 
 that calamity, even to speaking peace 
 to drooping and weather-beaten con- 
 sciences : and accordingly we find this 
 kind of peace to have been specially 
 promised by the prophet Isaiah to the 
 people at their return out of the cap- 
 tivity, both in Isaiah xlviii. from 20 
 to the end, and Isaiah Ivii. from l-l- to 
 the end, there being many broken 
 hearts that had wanted the light of 
 God's countenance long, having been 
 during the captivity banished from the 
 ordinances of the temple, hanging up 
 their harps mourning, whose thoughts 
 were as if God had meant to destroy 
 them, as appears Jer. xxix. 11, who 
 afterwards were refreshed with inward 
 
Tidings of Peace. 
 
 149 
 
 peace, at the restoration of those ordi- 
 nances, as well as with outward, as by 
 those jDlaces doth appear. Therefore 
 in relation to this kind of peace only I 
 will at this time handle the words. 
 
 In the words you have a discovery 
 of God's proceedings in treating of 
 peace or proclaiming war with his 
 people and subjects. 
 
 1. You see that sometimes God doth 
 not speak peace to his oivn children. 
 This was their state for the present, 
 when this Psalm was penned : He ivill 
 speak peace ; therefore, at present, he 
 did not : yea, it may incline us to 
 think that God at present spake the 
 contrary, for the prophet speaks this 
 by faith, as contrary to sense and pre- 
 sent experience ; he believes God in- 
 tends to come again to a treaty of 
 peace, though now he seems to have 
 nothing but anger, and blood, and 
 war in his looks, speeches, and ac- 
 tions; and to threaten and proclaim 
 war and take up arms against them. 
 And thus God often deals with his 
 
 02 
 
 Otser. 1. 
 
150 
 
 Tidings of Peace. 
 
 Obser. 2. 
 
 ov/n children, v/liether a people or a 
 particular man ; so with a nation : 
 Isaiah Ixiii. 10, They rebelled and he 
 fought against them : so Avith a parti- 
 cular man : God frowned upon and 
 rated his child Ephraim, and spake 
 hitter things against him (it is the 
 phrase used, Jer. xxxi. 20), though 
 yet Ephraim is my pleasant child, 
 says he : David had not a good word 
 from him a long time, Psal. li. 8, Make 
 me to hear again of joy and gladness ; 
 and Psal. 1. 7, Hear, oh my people, and 
 I will speak ; but not against them, 
 they might hope, because he owns 
 them for his people ; Hear, oh Israel, 
 and I will testify against thee ; and 
 yet it follows, / am the Lord thy God. 
 Job says, he did not speak only against 
 them, but also wrote hitter things : he 
 wrote, as it were, books against him. 
 Job xiii. 26, he writing over in his 
 conscience the sins of his youth in let- 
 ters of blood, and wrath and terrors 
 for them. 
 
 There must needs be some great 
 
Tidings of Peace, 
 
 151 
 
 reason for this, they being his people, 
 which is the second thing that is inti- 
 mated, and may be observed out of 
 these words, namely, the reason or 
 moving cause provoking God thus to 
 interrupt the peace of his people : they 
 had fallen into some gross folly or 
 other ; some sinful, inordinate disposi- 
 tions had been indulged unto and nou- 
 rished in them, which is usually, though 
 not always, the cause of this his deal- 
 ing : this is evident by this, that the 
 conclusion of their peace, when it is 
 made up again, hath this clause, as 
 the only article of reconciliation be- 
 tween them, that they return no more 
 to folly, implying they had formerly 
 run out into some inordinacy, which 
 to reduce them from, God had took up 
 arms against them, and thereby taught 
 them wisdom to take heed of losing, 
 and then buying peace at so dear a 
 rate again. And, indeed, all the quar- 
 rels that God hath against a nation, a 
 particular place, or person that belongs 
 to him, do begin there : TJiey rebelled, 
 
152 
 
 Tidings of Peace. 
 
 Use 1. 
 
 and he fought against them, Isaiah Ixiii. 
 8 ; For the iniquity of his covetousness 
 I was wrath, Isaiah Ivii. 
 
 The reason is, for anger is out of 
 love, as well as hatred, which therefore 
 he expresseth, though with grief, he 
 should be put to quarrel with those 
 he hath set himself to love. And as 
 wicked men, whom he always hates, 
 may out of his patience have a truce, 
 so, on the contrary, with his own, God 
 may take up a quarrel, yet he loves 
 them, and remembers them with ever- 
 lasting kindness. 
 
 The uses of both are these. 
 
 1. As peace with God is dear to 
 you, so to take heed of turning unto 
 folly. Only take this advertisement, 
 that they are not mere follies or igno- 
 rances that do interrupt or break the 
 peace : as it is not simply the outrage 
 of some pirates that will cause two 
 states at peace to enter into a war, 
 unless that state consent to their act, 
 and maintain them in their rapine, so 
 it is not simply the rising of lusts that 
 
Tidings of Peace. 
 
 ivar in our members against the law of 
 the mind, that break the peace be- 
 tween God and us, unless they be ap- 
 proved of, and consented unto, nou- 
 rished and maintained with some pre- 
 sumption ; whilst we maintain and take 
 up a constant fight against God's ene- 
 mies in us, and disavow the outrageous 
 risings of our lusts, the peace may hold, 
 and often doth ; for whilst we are not 
 at peace with sin, God may be at peace 
 with us and our spirits ; but so much 
 peace as we give them, so much war 
 God takes up. 
 
 The second use is : doth God take 
 up quarrels against his own ? then 
 upon any breach made, go forth to 
 meet him. It is St. Paul's exhorta- 
 tion, not to let the sun go down upon 
 thy ivrath, but to reconcile thyself ere 
 night with thy offended brother ; but 
 I turn the exhortation. Let not the sun 
 go down upon God's wrath, towards 
 thee ; but every day make and renew 
 thy peace with God, ere thou sleep- 
 est, that, as David says, thou mayest 
 
 153 
 
 Use 2. 
 
154^ 
 
 Tidings of Peace. 
 
 Uses. 
 
 Ephes. ii. 
 2. 
 
 Obser. 3. 
 
 lie doivn and sleep in peace, Psalm 
 iv. 8. 
 
 The third use : if the peace of God's 
 own people be thus often interrupted, 
 who yet are the sons of peace, Luke 10, 
 what wrath is reserved for the children 
 of disobedience and open rebels, that 
 are children of wrath, because of dis- 
 obedience ? There is no peace to the 
 wicked, says my God, Isai. Ivii. God 
 is a preparing against thee, whoever 
 thou art, that goest on in sin, if thou 
 turn not, Psal. vii. 13 ; thou art press- 
 ed for hell, and art thither bound, to 
 encounter with the wrath of the great 
 God, thither where no truce is to be 
 had : there is no discharge in that war, 
 as Solomon says, Eccl. viii. 8. Think 
 of this, you that sin, and will sin ; 
 whose peace is not struck up between 
 God and you, who never yet so much 
 as entered into any treaty of peace 
 with God, who never apprehended 
 God and yourselves at odds. 
 
 The third thing to be observed out 
 of the text is this, That when the child 
 
Tidings of Peace. 
 
 155 
 
 of God wants peace, he can have no 
 peace till God speak it. God must 
 speak peace if ever his people have it : 
 therefore, says he here, / will hear 
 what God loill speakj he speaks in 
 opposition to the voice of man and the 
 help of second causes, and of all means 
 whatever, which in time of distress of 
 themselves can do no good. 
 
 Reason first : because God is the 
 king of all the world, the sovereign 
 Lord of all. Now treaties of war and 
 peace are the prerogative of kings, 
 and of them alone : they may consult 
 with their subjects about establishing 
 good laws, as they use to do, &c. ; but 
 the proclaiming war and peace with 
 foreign states they have ever held in 
 their own hands ; and so doth God, 
 who is the King of kings. 
 
 Secondly, because God is the Judge 
 of all the world, and the party offend- 
 ed, at whose suit all arrests and con- 
 troversies do come ; now when a con- 
 demned man stands at the bar, let all 
 the standers-by say what they will, bid 
 
 Reason 1. 
 
156 
 
 Reason 3. 
 
 Reason 4, 
 
 Tidings of Peace. 
 
 him be of good comfort, and tell him 
 that his cause will go well, yet till he 
 hear the judge himself speak as much, 
 he cannot be at rest in his mind ; the 
 judge only can acquit him and absolve 
 him. The king alone speaks pardons ; 
 and so doth God peace ; all afflictions 
 are his arrests: thou must therefore 
 make thy peace with him, if thou wilt 
 be at peace. 
 
 Thirdly, peace, especially of con- 
 science, is a thing must be created, 
 for our hearts of themselves are full 
 of nothing but turmoil, as the raging 
 sea, w^hich cannot rest. / create the 
 fruit of the lips, peace, Isaiah Ivii. 19 ; 
 men may speak it, but I must create 
 it. A word of power, such as went 
 forth when light was created, must go 
 forth from God, or else there is no 
 peace ; for otherwise our hearts are as 
 the sea, that rests not. 
 
 Fourthly, the wounds of conscience 
 which are in God's people are of that 
 quality that none but God can cure 
 them ; for the chief thing that wounds 
 
Tidings of Peace. 
 
 them is the loss of God's favour, not 
 simply his wrath : for it is the glory 
 of God, and his favour, not self-love 
 only, that makes them seek him : 
 therefore nothing gives peace but the 
 restoring of his favour and the light of 
 his countenance ; the same dart that 
 wounded must heal again : Isaiah Ivii. 
 I smote him, and I will heal him. And 
 as one that is sick with love, when love 
 is the disease, no physic, no persuasion 
 of friends can cure it, nothing but only 
 the love of the party beloved ; so when 
 a soul is wounded for the loss of God's 
 love, not all the things in the world 
 can cure the heart ; but one word from 
 him, one good look, one promise from 
 him that we are his, stills all, and only 
 can give peace. Like to a poor child 
 that cries for its mother, let who will 
 dandle it, and play with it, and use it 
 never so kindly, yet it will not be still- 
 ed till the mother comes ; so it is with 
 a poor soul that cries after God day 
 and night. 
 
 1. Use. In case thou art in distress, 
 
 Usel. 
 
158 
 
 Tidings of Peace. 
 
 especially of spirit, and want of peace 
 of conscience, wait upon God, in the 
 use of means for peace ; friends may 
 come to thee, and say, Why shouldest 
 thou be troubled ? thou hast no such 
 cause to be cast down : but all these 
 are miserable comforters (as Job said) 
 unless God speak peace. David heard 
 by the prophet Nathan that his sin 
 was pardoned, but yet his soul was 
 not at quiet till God would second it 
 immediately by his spirit; therefore, 
 says he, when Nathan had been with 
 him, Psal. li. 8, Make me to hear of 
 joy and gladness. Art thou baited 
 with hellish blasphemies cast into thy 
 soul? God must speak peace, and 
 rebuke Satan for thee, and take him 
 off thee ; all thy friends, all the men 
 in the world cannot do it; they can 
 only say, as the archangel said, TJie 
 Lord rebuke thee. And he can as 
 easily do it as he did rebuke Laban, 
 and forbade him speaking roughly 
 to Jacob ; the same charge he can 
 give in an instant to Satan: there- 
 
Tidings of Peace, 
 
 fore wait upon God, and look up to 
 him. 
 
 2. Consider this against the time 
 you come to die ; all your desire is to 
 die in peace, and, Oh, let thy servant 
 depart in peace ! is the speech and 
 desire of all. But who is it that 
 must speak peace to you then ? God 
 only. At death you will send for a 
 good minister, or a good friend, to 
 give you some comfort (as you call 
 it) ; but, if God will not speak it, how 
 can they ? If you could call all the 
 angels out of heaven, and all the saints 
 both in earth and heaven, and so could 
 have all that whole college of physi- 
 cians about you, and they should de- 
 sire to comfort you with all their cor- 
 dials ; yet if God will not speak it, 
 who is able to do it ? Job xxxiv. 29, 
 If he hides his face, who can behold 
 him ? None can shew his face, as the 
 opposition in the next words shews. 
 False daubers may come to you, and 
 say peace, peace, as they in the pro- 
 phet said; but listen what God will 
 
 159 
 
 Use 2, 
 
160 
 
 Tidings of Peace, 
 
 Obser. 4. 
 
 Reason I. 
 
 speak, he only must and can do it ; 
 and be sure you make sure of him be- 
 fore you come to die. Would any 
 wise prince defer the treaty of peace 
 with his enemy till he come into the 
 field, and when the battle is begun ? 
 How foolish then are those who neg- 
 lect seeking after God till the assault 
 of death comes, and the king of fears, 
 with all his terrors, hath encompassed 
 them round ? 
 
 4. Observation is, that let God's 
 people be in never so great distress, 
 yet it is an easy thing for God to give 
 peace to them. Mark the expression 
 used here ; it is but speaking peace, that 
 is, it is as easy for him to give peace 
 as it is for you to speak a word : it is 
 no more to him. Then our comfort 
 is, that as he only must do it, so he 
 easily can do it, even with a word. 
 
 Reason 1. Because his speaking is 
 creating : if he speaks, he makes things 
 to be, even with a word : as at first, 
 he did but say, Let there he lights and 
 there was light; so still, if he but 
 
Tidings of Peace. 
 
 say, let there be peace, there is peace : 
 he made all, and upholds all by the 
 word of his power. As, therefore, 
 when the storm was at its height, and 
 the waves most raging, yet at one 
 word of Christ's they were all still : 
 The sea and the winds obey him : so, 
 when temptations are most fierce, and 
 the doubts of thine own heart most 
 tumultuous and raging, a word from 
 him can still them. 
 
 Secondly, because the light which 
 God gives to a man's spirit when he 
 speaks peace, is a sure and infallible 
 light, and therefore a satisfying light, 
 so as when it comes it must needs give 
 peace, and no objection, no temptation 
 can darken or obscure it when it 
 shines : If he give quietness, who can 
 trouble ? says he, in Job xxxiv. 29. 
 No creature is able to separate from 
 his love, or the assurance of it. 
 
 1. It is a certain and infallible light 
 which God gives when he speaks 
 peace : The anointing froyn above, 
 which enlighteneth a mans eyes, is 
 
 P2 
 
 161 
 
 Reason 2. 
 
162 
 
 Tidings of Peace, 
 
 truth, and is no lie, 1 John ii. 27 ' 
 that is, in teaching a man (of which 
 he there speaks, not only what he is 
 in himself, but what he is in teaching 
 us) he doth it so as a man is not de- 
 luded by it, and therefore it is added, 
 None else need teach him ; for did not 
 the spirit (when he did speak peace) 
 speak so as that that man to whom it 
 is spoken did not infallibly apprehend 
 it, he should speak in vain : for so the 
 Apostle reasons in case of unknown 
 tongues, that if a trumpet give an un- 
 certain sound, or a man speak so as it 
 shall not be known what he speaks, he 
 heats the air, 1 Cor. xiv. 9. Now 
 therefore, surely God, when he speaks 
 peace, speaks it so infallibly and dis- 
 tinctly that the soul knows the mean- 
 ing of it ; it is not a voice else, for, 
 says the Apostle there, v. 10, The 
 end of all voices is to signify ; and 
 therefore, If I know not the meaning 
 of the voice, he shall be as a barbarian 
 that speaks to me, v. 11, especially 
 when the speaker undertakes to be a 
 
Tidings of Peace. 
 
 witness, as the Holy Ghost, in speaking 
 peace, is, 1 John v. 6. Now to witness 
 is such a testimony as is taken for in- 
 fallible, for the end of it is to put an 
 end to the controversy, and it ends 
 the strife between man and man ; noAv 
 the Holy Ghost, when he speaks, 
 speaks as a witness, and therefore puts 
 an end to a man's doubts : he speaks 
 infallibly. 
 
 And therefore, in the second place, 
 it is a satisfying light also : it is such 
 a light as dispels darkness, as answers 
 all objections, and so speaks peace 
 home. As in a question and contro- 
 versy in divinity or logic, when some 
 one bottom truth is understood, a man 
 hath a light which goes through all 
 the objections, and answers them all, 
 such a light doth the spirit give to a 
 poor distressed soul, about the great 
 controversy of his own salvation, when 
 he doth speak peace ; he gives such a 
 light as satisfies the mind, as lets him 
 see that in God's free grace, and in 
 Christ, which doth answer to all, he. 
 
164 
 
 Tidings of Peace. 
 
 Use 1. 
 
 or all the devils can say against him, 
 from what wants or objections are in 
 himself. He openeth, and no man nor 
 devil is able to shut. And therefore, 
 when he doth speak peace, his testi- 
 mony is taken and believed : If we 
 receive the witness of men, and rest in 
 it, 1 John V. 9. The witness of God 
 is greater, that is, of more power and 
 efficacy to persuade and satisfy the 
 soul. 
 
 1. Use, is an use of comfort to poor 
 souls that are in distress, and in such 
 distress sometimes, as they think, and 
 say their case is desperate, and past 
 recovery, so far are their souls some- 
 times shot into despair. Consider, 
 how easy it is for you to have your 
 condition altered and changed, even in 
 a moment. I tell thee, though (it may 
 be) thou hast been cast down this 
 twenty years and thy soul is battered, 
 broken, hardened, settled, fixed in se- 
 rious thoughts of thy ruin and repro- 
 bation, yet one good look, one good 
 word from God, shall in an instant 
 
Tidings of Peace. 
 
 dispel all, alter thy conceit and appre- 
 hension clean ; God can and doth often 
 more with one word, in one moment, 
 than Satan could do in many years, 
 with all the objections he could muster 
 up. The truth of this, in experience, 
 we often find and observe in ourselves 
 and others. Yea, and sometimes when 
 he doth speak peace, he gives such 
 satisfaction to a man's soul in that 
 particular, that he would be content 
 to be as many years more, in his spi- 
 ritual conflicts, to enjoy but the like 
 light one half hour. Thus easy is 
 it for God to speak peace. Though 
 thou thinkest thyself never so far off" 
 from peace, yet he can speak peace to 
 them, that are afar off, as well as those 
 wlio are near: as himself says, Isai. 
 Ivii. 19, for, says he, it is I that speak 
 it. And when he doth it, then all thy 
 doubts and distresses will be forgotten, 
 as the pains of a woman in travail are 
 when a man-child is born. 
 
 Secondly, is the Church in any dis- 
 tress ? (as the Church here at this time 
 
166 
 
 Tidings of Peace. 
 
 was,) he can redeem it out of all with 
 a word. A word spoken to Cyrus 
 his heart, did set them in their own 
 land again, so you have it expressed, 
 Isai. xliv. 26, 27, 28, The God that 
 saith to Jerusalem, thou shalt be inha- 
 bited, and to the cities of Judah, ye 
 shall be built ; you see his manner of 
 doing it, it is but with a word speak- 
 ing ; he says to Jerusalem, be built; 
 and though there be never so great 
 impediments in the way, he will say to 
 the deep be dry, that his people may 
 pass over ; he dried up a whole nation, 
 a sea of people ; namely, the Babylo- 
 nians, to make way for this deliver- 
 ance. And when they are conquered, 
 and Cyrus, a new king comes to have 
 the sway of things, God speaks to his 
 heart also ; that saith of Cyrus, he is 
 my shepherd, and causeth him to say 
 to Jerusalem, be thou built. There- 
 fore go to him, and trust in him in all 
 the distresses of the Church, as the 
 Church also did, Psal. xliv. 4, Thou art 
 my King, command deliverances; a 
 
Tidings cf Peace. 
 
 167 
 
 mandamus from God doth it, and will 
 do it at any time. 
 
 Let God be never so angry, and his 
 people's distress never so great, yet he 
 will speak peace in the end to his 
 people : you heard before, that if we 
 have peace, he only must give it ; and 
 then, that he could and was able with 
 ease to do it : and now you shall hear 
 that he will certainly do it in the end. 
 
 The Reasons the text suggests are 
 these : 
 
 1. If we consider but who this God 
 is, that is to speak peace, / will hear 
 what God the Lord will speak ; he is 
 the Lord, and therefore able to speak 
 what pleaseth him ; he is peculiarly 
 the God of peace, and therefore willing 
 to speak peace. Now, \. when it is 
 said, he is the God of peace, and the 
 God of comfort, the meaning is, he is 
 full of it, infinitely full of it, and out 
 of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
 speaks; thoughts of peace, and love 
 to his, do boil within him, as hatred 
 or malice doth in a malicious man to- 
 
 Obser. 5. 
 
 Reason 1, 
 
168 
 
 Tidings of Peace. 
 
 wards his enemy; so as he cannot 
 contain and forbear expressing it to- 
 wards him ; that as David says, his 
 thoughts did hum within him, and at 
 last break forth ; so in God, / hnoic 
 the thoughts, I think towards you (says 
 he to them of the captivity) Jer. xxix. 
 11, They are thoughts of peacey and 
 not of evil. And 2. besides that these 
 his thoughts of peace are taken up of 
 himself, his son also hath bespoken 
 peace for us ; and therefore God will 
 speak it ; even as Joseph, though he 
 spake roughly a-while to his brethren, 
 yet could not in the end contain, Gen. 
 xlv. 1. so nor God. 
 
 Secondly, Let us consider who they 
 are to whom he is to speak it, they 
 are his people, as the text hath it ; and 
 to them there is no question, but he 
 will speak peace ; though he seems 
 angry for a while. They are his peo- 
 ple, that is the reason given, 1 Samuel 
 xii. 22, He will not cast off his people: 
 as also Isai. Ixiii. 8, 9, When they re- 
 belled, he was wrath, yet he said, surely 
 
Tidings of Peace. 
 
 they are my people, so I was their 
 Saviour. They ? why they are the 
 sons of peace, Luke x. 6, ordained for 
 peace, and therefore shall be sure to 
 have it ; and although some differences 
 may arise betwixt God and them, yet 
 there is a natural o-ropyrj in the Lord, 
 that moves him to speak peace in the 
 end to them: as the dumb son of 
 Croesus, when he saw his father like to 
 be killed, though he had never spake 
 before, yet then out of an impetus of 
 spirit, the strings of his tongue were 
 unloosed, and he cried out to the mur- 
 derer, kill not king Croesus ; so, when 
 the enemies of his Church are ready 
 to devour his people, and Satan is 
 ready to swallow his child up in de- 
 spair, then God's bowels work within 
 him, and he can hold no longer, but 
 cries, save my child, save my Church. 
 Is Ephraim my pleasant child, says 
 God, Jer. xxxi. 20? Well, says God, 
 though I spake against him, and took 
 him up, and chid him soundly, yet I 
 cannot forget my child, says he, nor 
 
170 
 
 Tidings of Peace, 
 
 Reason 
 
 my fatherly affection to him, hut my 
 bowels are stirred^ and I will surely 
 have mercy on him. 
 
 Thirdly, otherwise if God did not 
 in the end speak peace, they would 
 indeed return to folly, which is the 
 third thing in the text. For his end 
 of speaking peace is, that they might 
 not return to folly, Ps. cxxv. 3, The rod 
 of the wicked shall not always lie upon 
 the righteous, lest they put forth their 
 hand to iniquity ; therefore, at the last 
 verse, Peace shall be upon Israel. As 
 for this cause, he speaks outward peace, 
 so also inward, and suffers not the rod 
 of Satan, and of his own heavy dis- 
 pleasure to lie upon their hearts : for 
 else they would return to the pleasures 
 of sin ; for every creature must have 
 some delight ; their spirits would fail, 
 and be tired out else, and wearied in 
 good duties, if God should not in the 
 end speak peace, Isai. Ivii, The spirit 
 would fail before me. When the child 
 s wounds in the whipping, God lets fall 
 the rod, and falls a kissing it, to fetch 
 
Tidings of Peace. 
 
 life into it again. As it is a rule in 
 physic still to maintain nature, and 
 therefore when that shall be in hazard 
 to be destroyed, they leave giving 
 purging physic, and give cordials : so 
 doth God with his people, though with 
 purging physic he often brings their 
 spirits very weak and low, yet he will 
 uphold and maintain their spirits, so 
 as they shall not fail and be extin- 
 guished, but then he will give cordials 
 to raise them up again. 
 
 Use 3. What good heart that bears 
 a child-like aiFection to God, would 
 offend such a God, that be thy dis- 
 tresses what they will be, will certainly 
 speak peace : then do not put him to 
 it, spend not upon that precious stock 
 of his free grace and love. It is true 
 he is married to thee, and therefore 
 though thou hast gone a lohoring after 
 many lovers, Jer. iii. 1, 2, 14. still, he 
 says. Return, for lam married to thee: 
 as, therefore, when man and wife are 
 fallen out, they consider, we must live 
 together, and therefore they reconcile 
 
172 
 
 Tidings of Peace. 
 
 themselves again : so consider it must 
 be between God and thee, and make 
 it a means and motive to recover thee, 
 as Samuel did to the Israelites : 1 Sam. 
 xii. 22, You have committed this great 
 sin, yet turn not aside from following 
 the Lord, for God icill not cast you off, 
 you are his peoj)le. Go home to him 
 again, he will speak peace. Think 
 thus, the time will come wherein God 
 will be friends again with me, he and 
 I cannot be strange long; though I 
 would, he will not, Isai. Ivii. 18, 19, 
 though he went on stubbornly, yet 
 God healed him, and would not lose 
 his child, therefore I will return of 
 myself. 
 
THE 
 
 FOLLY OF RELAPSING 
 
 AFTER PEACE SPOKEN. 
 
 Psal. Ixxxv. 8. 
 But let them turn no more to folly. 
 
 The sixth observation is, thsit peace 
 being spoken to their hearts by God, 
 they should return no more to folly. 
 See this, Ezra ix. 13; 14, Thou having 
 punished us less than we deserve, and 
 given us such a deliverance as this, 
 should we again break thy command- 
 ments, wouldest thou not be angry with 
 us till thou hadst consumed us 9 
 
 1. Reason: because it will be a 
 greater aggravation in sinning; it is 
 made the aggravation of Solomon's 
 sin, 1 Kings ii. 9, That God had ap- 
 peared to him twice : they were especial 
 appearances and manifestations of 
 
 Obser. 6. 
 
174 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing, 
 
 mercy ; and though such do now 
 cease, yet we read of such as are ana- 
 logical to them, as John xiv. 21. 
 Christ promiseth to manifest himself, 
 which is by shedding abroad his love, 
 and his Father's love into the heart, 
 which is evident by the former words, 
 he shall be loved of my Father, and I 
 will love him, and after he saith, we 
 tvill come to him, and make our abode 
 with him, vers. 23 and 27, My peace 
 I loill give unto you. Now such ap- 
 pearances will be set upon the score 
 of every sin many years after, as they 
 were upon Solomon's. And the rea- 
 son is, because nothing wounds an 
 ingenuous loving nature more, than 
 matter of unkindness : If it had been 
 my enemy, says David, / could have 
 borne it, Psal. Iv. 12, 14, but it was 
 thou, oh man, mine acquaintance, we 
 took sweet counsel together : a bosom 
 friend, to whom I had committed my 
 secrets, opened my heart : thus when 
 God hath unbosomed himself, as it 
 were, to a man, and told him what 
 
The Folly of Relajjsing. 
 
 was in his heart towards him, this goes 
 nigh him, if he lifts up the heel against 
 him. And the reason of that further 
 also is: 1. Because of all things else, 
 a man cannot endure to have his love 
 abused ; you come nigh him when you 
 do so, for his love is himself, and com- 
 mands all in him, so that abuse his 
 love, and you strike at his heart : it is 
 less to abuse any excellency in a man, 
 to reproach and extenuate his parts, 
 learning, &c. though these are dear to 
 him ; but his love is his bowels. And 
 therefore, when God hath opened his 
 heart to a man, and set his love upon 
 him, and revealed it to him, and he 
 carries himself unworthily, it pains 
 him at the heart. Besides : 2. It is 
 against the law of nature and of na- 
 tions to seek out for a peace and get 
 it concluded, and then secretly to pre- 
 pare for and enter into a war : nothing 
 more hateful, or can exasperate two 
 nations one against another more than 
 this. It was the aggravation of Absa- 
 lom's sin, that being newly reconciled 
 
176 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 with his father, and taken into favour 
 again, after two years' discountenance, 
 he then began to rebel more closely. 
 
 2. Reason is intimated in the word 
 folly ; as if the Lord should have said, 
 set aside the unkindness and wrong 
 you do to me, yet therein you befool 
 yourselves ; you will have the worst of 
 it. And indeed, when God doth after- 
 wards draw nigh to a man again, upon 
 that his recovery of his peace, it ap- 
 pears to be folly, even in that man's 
 own apprehension ; when he hath 
 tasted how sweet God is, then come 
 and ask him, what, will ye return to 
 sin again ? he will then say, ask me if 
 I will wound or cut my flesh. It is 
 impossible, thinks he, I should any 
 more be so besotted ; if there were no 
 other motives, he thinks it the greatest 
 folly in the world. And thei:efore 
 God on purpose chooseth out that ex- 
 pression, and placeth it here in this 
 case, because it is indeed the greatest 
 folly in God's sight ; and is so appre- 
 hended by ourselves, looking upon sin 
 
The Folly cf Helapsiny. 
 
 after peace is spoken to us. It is folly 
 to sin against God at any time, but 
 especially then, and that will appear 
 by these particulars. 
 
 1. Because, before a man had that 
 peace, he felt the bitterness of sin, for 
 God never speaks peace till that be 
 felt : now that is an argument even to 
 sense never to return to it again, which 
 a fool will be warned by : a burnt 
 child dreads the fire ; even a child v/ill 
 take heed, being taught by sense. 
 When a man shall be in great distress, 
 and his conscience shall suggest to 
 him, as Jer. iv. 18, Thy luays and thy 
 doings have procured these things to 
 thee ; this is thy ivichedness, a speech 
 like that when you say to your chil- 
 dren, when they have gotten any harm 
 or cold, or sickness, this is your play- 
 ing and gadding and going in the 
 snow, and your eating of fruit, &c. so 
 doth God speak there to them when 
 they were in distress, This is your wick- 
 edness, for it is bitter, it reacheth to the 
 heart; it woundeth the conscience, 
 
 177 
 
178 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 the wounding of which, of all else, is 
 the greatest misery. When once a 
 man after this hath peace restored to 
 him, and he comes newly out of such 
 a distress, ask him then how he likes 
 turning to such a sin again, and he 
 Avill tell you it is the greatest folly in 
 the world : ask David if he will mur- 
 der any more after his bones have 
 been broken and set again. 
 
 2. Thou wilt easily acknowledge it 
 is folly to return to sin again, if thou 
 considerest the terms upon which thou 
 didst obtain thy peace. Reckon what 
 pains it cost thee to wash out the guilt 
 and stain which sin had made, what 
 vows and resolutions thou madest, 
 what bonds thou didst seal unto, what 
 promises never to return, what prayers 
 and tears, what raps and knocks at 
 heaven's gates, ere thou couldest get 
 an answer, or God to speak one word, 
 he making as if he had not been with- 
 in : why is it not folly now to lose that 
 in an instant thou hast been a getting 
 so long, haply many years, and with 
 
The Folly of Relapsing, 
 
 so much pains and cost ? You use it 
 as an excuse to prodigals, to say things 
 lightly come by are lightly gone ; and 
 yet you count them, and call them, 
 fools for it, as not knowing what it is 
 to earn a penny : how much more 
 folly is it, when a man having afore 
 mortgaged his peace, and God restored 
 it again after much suite, and waiting 
 many a term, then to come home, and 
 venture to cast all away at one throw 
 at dice? such a fool art thou, when 
 thou returnest to sin ; to drink that at 
 one draught, which thou hast been 
 getting many a year, what madness is 
 it ? when thou hast taken much pains 
 to wash thyself, then to wallow in the 
 mire again, and make thyself new 
 work, what folly is it ? who but chil- 
 dren and fools will do thus? That 
 which the Church said in another case, 
 may well be alluded to in this, Cant. v. 
 31, I have washed myfeety how shall I 
 defile them ? 
 
 3. Consider what it is thou dost 
 hazard to lose by returning to folly — 
 
180 
 
 The Folly of JRelajmng, 
 
 thy peace. David lost it, as appears 
 Psal. li. 12, therefore, says he, restore 
 to me the joy of thy salvation; in losing 
 of which, thou wilt be so much a loser, 
 that if the sin thou choosest, were able 
 to give thee all the world, it could not 
 recompense thee; no not the loss of 
 one hour's communion with God, which 
 in a moment will bring thee in more 
 sweetness, than all thy sins can do, to 
 eternity. If all the pleasures of sin 
 were contracted, and the quintessence 
 of them strained into one cup, they 
 would not afford so much as one drop of 
 true peace Avith God doth, being let fall 
 into the heart. It is -peace which pass- 
 eth understanding. Few pleasures here 
 do exceed the senses ; nay, the senses 
 are capable of more than the things 
 can give ; but this passeth understand- 
 ing. God's loving kindness is better 
 than life. If it were propounded to 
 thee, thou must lose thy life next mo- 
 ment, if thou shouldest commit such a 
 sin, wouldest thou venture, if thou didst 
 believe it? Now the loving kindness 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 181 
 
 of God is better than life, and wilt thou 
 lose the enjoying of it, though but for j 
 a moment ? 
 
 4. It is folly to return again, because 
 the pleasures of sin will be much less 
 to thee after thou hast had peace 
 spoken. Take them at the best, when 
 they are freshest, and when thy palate 
 was most in relish, and taste with them 
 when thou wert carnal, and ere thou 
 knewest what sweetness was in God, 
 and they then were but poor sorry plea- 
 sures : but now they will prove far 
 more empty than before ; they are 
 empty vain pleasures even to him that 
 hath them in their flower, and in his 
 season of sinning; and therefore all 
 wicked men are weary, and do in- 
 wardly complain of their condition, 
 only they cannot find sweetness in God, 
 and so are fain to keep themselves to 
 their husks ; but alas, to thee they are 
 far less worth than to another man, 
 who knows not God, and therefore 
 thou art like to have a worse bargain 
 of it ; another man can make more 
 
182 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing, 
 
 money of a sin, and get more pleasure 
 out of it, than thou art able to do. 
 
 For first, thy conscience having been 
 scorched with sin, as scalded flesh ad- 
 heres more, and is more sensible in 
 coming to the fire than other parts of 
 the bodj^, is become of a quicker sense ; 
 whereas wicked men's is seared, and 
 so they commit all uncleanness with 
 greediness ; but thine is tender and 
 galled in the act, which allays much of 
 the pleasure of thy sin, and mingleth 
 the more bitterness with it. 
 
 And, 2. besides this galling of con- 
 science, which is common to thee with 
 many an unregenerate man, thou hast 
 a principle of grace, an inner man, 
 which is dead to such pleasures, that 
 tastes them not, that is like Barzillai, 
 who through age, 2 Sam. xix. 35, could 
 not taste either what he ate or drank, 
 as young men do ; no more can that 
 neiv man in thee, and therefore it can 
 be but half as pleasant to thee as to 
 another man. If one side of a man be 
 taken all with a numb palsey, what 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 pleasure is it to that man to exercise 
 his limbs in the actions of life ? He is 
 but half a man, and lives but half a life ; 
 so it is with thee, when thou hast grace 
 in thy heart, but half thy heart can 
 take pleasure in sinning, that new man 
 the other half, reluctates, grieves for 
 it, hates what thou doest ; and all this 
 must needs strike off much of the plea- 
 sure. 
 
 But, 3. If we add to this, that this 
 new man in him having once tasted 
 what sweetness is in God, and how good 
 the Lord is, is then like a man that 
 hath eaten sweetmeats, other things are 
 out of taste with him, and therefore 
 also it is folly to return. JVo man (says 
 Christ, Luke v. ult.) having drank old 
 wine desireth neiv, for he saith the old 
 is better; a man used to high fare 
 cannot agree so well with thin diet : so 
 the soul having been used to taste of 
 great pleasures in God, the impression 
 and remembrance of them leaves his 
 soul less satisfied than another man's ; 
 a stomach that hath been enlarg^ed to 
 
184 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 full diet, looks for it, and riseth more 
 hungry from a slender meal: now com- 
 munion with God enlarges the facul- 
 ties, and widens them and makes them 
 more capable of greater joys, than other 
 men have, and therefore the creature 
 is less able to fill them; still he re- 
 members with much grief, whilst he is 
 eating his husks, what fare he had in 
 his father's house: and oh. Then it was 
 better with me than noiv. Call me not 
 Naomi, but call me Marah, as she said, 
 For I went otitfull, and am come home 
 empty ; so doth he say, when he comes 
 from the act of sinning, he went with 
 his heart full of peace, and meeting 
 with a bargain of sinning, thought to 
 eke out his joy, and make it fuller, but 
 he comes home empty. 
 
 1. Use is to those who have had 
 peace spoken to them, let them at such 
 times fear themselves and God most, 
 for then comes in this, as you see here, 
 as the most seasonable admonition that 
 can be given, to return no more to 
 folly. 1. Fear God then most: for of 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 all times else, then sins provoke him 
 most; to come and call him Father, 
 and the guide of your youth, and yet 
 to fall to sin, this is to do as evil as 
 you can, you cannot do worse. Jer. 
 iii. 4, 5 ; so Ezra ix. ; After such an 
 escaping should we again break thy 
 commandments, ivouldest thou not he 
 angry till thou hadst consumed us ? In 
 times of affliction it is the property of a 
 good child to love God most : in times 
 of speaking peace, to fear God most and 
 his goodness, and to fear to offend him 
 for his goodness' sake. Did I only say 
 that God is provoked most then, if you 
 return to folly ? Nay, I add further, 
 he is grieved, which is more than to 
 be provoked ; and therefore you shall 
 mark that expression and admonition 
 not to grieve God's spirit, then comes 
 in, when the Spirit hath sealed us up 
 to the day of redemption, Ephes. iv. 30. 
 Then by sinning we are said more pro- 
 perly to grieve him than before, when 
 he hath so far engaged himself to love 
 a man, and expressed himself to him. 
 
186 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 and set his seal upon him for his. God 
 is angry with wicked men's sins, but 
 he is grieved for yours. To grieve 
 him is more than to anger him. Mere 
 anger is an affection can ease itself by 
 revenge, and by coming even again 
 with the party, and when we can or 
 intend to do so, our minds are not so 
 much aggrieved, but please themselves 
 rather to think of the revenge which 
 we mean to execute : so when wicked 
 men sin whom God means to meet 
 with, he is said to be angry rather than 
 grieved; and says, / will ease myself 
 of mine adversaries: Isai. i. 24, and 
 avenge myself of mine enemies. But 
 here, as when a man's wife that lies in 
 his bosom, or his child shall wrong 
 him: so is it when one sins, whom 
 God hath set himself to love, and done 
 much for, and made known his ever- 
 lasting kindness unto, and sealed to 
 the day of redemption : this goes to 
 his heart, grieves him rather than an- 
 gers him, and such are the truest and 
 deepest griefs. What should he do 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 with you in this case ? if afflict you, 
 and by that means go about to turn 
 you from your iniquity, therein he 
 shall but afflict himself as it were ; for 
 though they rebelled^ yet when they were 
 afflicted he was afflicted, Isai. Ixiii. 9, 10. 
 As when a father that is a magistrate, 
 or as one that maintains a student in 
 a college, if either punisheth a child 
 or pupil in his purse, he punisheth 
 himself, so must God afflict himself to 
 afflict you. Put not the Lord into 
 these straits if you have any love in 
 you. And 2. as thou art therefore to 
 fear God most then, so thyself most, 
 and to be more watchful over thy own 
 heart ; thou art then apt to return to 
 folly, if thou takest not heed ; as when 
 a man hath been very hot, or sweat 
 much, he is apt to take the greatest 
 cold. Hezekiah, after God sealed peace 
 to him and answered his prayers, and 
 renewed the lease of his life, his heart 
 got cold, he did return to folly. The 
 reason is because then the heart is apt 
 to grow less watchful, and to think it- 
 
188 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 self fortified enough against any ten- 
 tation. As St. Peter, having seen 
 Christ transfigured in the Mount, grew 
 confident in his own strength. And 
 know that the Devil wateheth such an 
 opportunity most, for he gets a great 
 victory if he can foil thee then, after 
 he hath been foiled himself, and when 
 thou art most triumphing over him ; 
 how many battles have been lost 
 through security of victory and recoil- 
 ing of the enemy? and besides our cor- 
 rupt nature, so far as unrenewed, is apt 
 to gather heart to itself, to slight sin, 
 as thinking its pardon easily gotten. 
 
 Therefore when thou art tempted, 
 labour often to renew those thoughts, 
 which thou hadst of thy sin at that 
 time, when thou wert suing for peace, 
 before thy peace was gotten ; when 
 thou wouldest have given a world for 
 God's favour ; and also what thoughts 
 thou hadst of it, when God spake peace, 
 how thou didst abhor it, yea, thyself; 
 and look what sin was most bitter to 
 thee and an enemy to thy peace ; as if 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 uncleanness, idleness, neglect of prayer, 
 ill company, &c. and preserve in thy 
 heart those bitter apprehensions of it, 
 and say of it, thou hast been a bloody 
 sin to me, as Moses' wife said of her 
 husband : and though I have got peace 
 and my life saved, yet it was a bloody 
 sin to Christ, his blood was shed to 
 purchase this my peace, and shall I 
 return to it ? 
 
 And when tempted to it again, have 
 recourse to the kindness God showed 
 thee in pardoning, and say, how shall 
 I do this, and sin against God ? say as 
 he said. Is this thy kindness to thy 
 friend? 2 Sam. xvi. 16: and what 
 shall I Absalom like, now I am new 
 reconciled to my Father, fall a plotting 
 treason again ? what shall I make more 
 work for prayer, more work for God, 
 break my bones again, and lie roaring 
 again? Think thus, I was burned in 
 the hand afore, I shall be racked surely 
 now. Sin no more lest a worse thing 
 befall thee. 
 
 Use 3. The doctrine of assurance 
 
190 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 (if not abused) and of God speaking 
 peace to men is no dangerous doctrine 
 to make men secure and presumptuous 
 in sinning : when peace is preached in 
 any man's heart, this use naturally 
 flows from that doctrine, return no 
 more to folly. The very scope of the 
 whole Epistle of St. John is to help all 
 believers to assurance, as appears by 
 the 1 John i. 4, 5, and v. 13, These 
 things I tvrite you, that ye might have 
 communion with God, and that your 
 joy might be full. But this will open 
 a way to all licentiousness. No, says 
 St. John, ii. 1, These things I tvrite 
 unto you that ye sin not; nothing 
 guards the heart more against tenta- 
 tions, than the peace of God : it is 
 said to guard the heart, Phil. iv. 2. 
 Yea, and if you do sin, the assurance 
 of God's love is the speediest way to 
 recover you ; so it follows : If any one 
 doth sin, we have an advocate with the 
 Father^ &c. And he that hath this 
 hope in him, that is, to live with Christ, 
 and knows what manner of love the 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 Father bears us, purifies himself as he 
 is pure, 1 John iii. 1, 2, 3. If there 
 were no more but self-love in a man, 
 it were then no wonder if he doth 
 abuse it. For self-love, where the love 
 of God is wanting, is unthankful and 
 ungrateful, willing to take all the love 
 and kindness which is afforded, and 
 abuse it, and work upon it for its own 
 advantage ; and it is true also that be- 
 cause we have too much of this prin- 
 ciple unmortified in us, therefore God 
 trusteth so few with much assurance, 
 because they would abuse it. But 
 where true love to God is seated, and 
 much of it implanted, there the love 
 of God and the peace of God doth as 
 kindly and naturally enkindle and in- 
 flame and set it awork, even as argu- 
 ments suitable to self-love do work 
 upon, and stir that principle. For 
 grace is more for God than for our- 
 selves, it being the image of God's ho- 
 liness, whose holiness consists in this, 
 to aim at himself in all : and therefore 
 when God's free grace towards a man 
 
192 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 is revealed, it raiseth him up to higher 
 strains of love to God, and hatred of 
 sin. And therefore it is observable, 
 Psal. li. 12, that David, when he prays 
 for the restoring of the joy of his salva- 
 tion, he prays not simply for it, or alone, 
 but withal prays for a free spirit, Esta- 
 blish me with thy free spirit : that is a 
 spirit of ingenuity, which is kindly, 
 sweetly, and freely wrought upon : 
 therefore when we have a free spirit 
 wrought in us, then that free love that 
 is in God towards us will work most 
 kindly upon it, and , constrains us to 
 love him that loved us first. The love 
 of Christ constrains us, 2 Cor. v. 14, 
 because we thus judge, that if Christ 
 died for all, then they which live should 
 not live unto themselves, but unto him 
 that died for them : St. Paul gives the 
 reason, why this love of Christ did 
 thus constrain him, because he did thus 
 judge, that is, this consideration of 
 Christ's love, he having a principle of 
 love in his heart to Christ, he found 
 to be a powerful prevailing reason to 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 persuade him to live to Christ. Hav- 
 ing a new judgment he saw force and 
 strength in the argument. And so 
 shall we if we thus judge, and it will 
 have this natural consequence as na- 
 turally to follow upon it in our hearts, 
 as any reason in any other kind hath, 
 that is brought to enforce any other 
 conclusion. And therefore as the mind 
 is constrained (as it were) to assent to 
 a truth proved by force of reason, that 
 if you grant this, then this or that will 
 follow: so because we judge this rea- 
 sonable by an argument drawn out of 
 love's topics, that if Christ died for all, 
 who otherwise must themselves have 
 died, that then they should live to him, 
 this will constrain us to love him, and 
 live to him. 
 
 Amor Dei est eztaticus, nee se sinit esse 
 sui Juris. 
 
 This text and admonition here gives 
 a just occasion to consider a little of 
 that so often questioned case of con 
 
 The case 
 of relaps- 
 ing into 
 the same 
 sin after 
 peace 
 spoken, 
 resolved. 
 
194 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 science concerning relapses of God's 
 children into the same sins and folly 
 again, and whether after peace spoken 
 God's people may return again to folly. 
 Some have held, that a man, after a 
 second repentance, could not fall into 
 the same sin again : others, if he did, 
 it excluded him from mercy for time 
 to come. For the comfort of some 
 poor souls, whose ease and tentation 
 this may be, I will speak somewhat, 
 though sparingly and with caution. 
 
 1. The Scripture nowhere excludeth 
 those from the state of grace, or bars 
 mercy from those that have relapsed 
 into the same sin, especially so long as 
 in regard of the manner of their sin- 
 ning it be but folly, not wickedness or 
 wilful sinning ; that is, rather proceed- 
 ing out of error of understanding, and 
 heat and impetuousness of foolish af- 
 fections, than obstinacy and malice in 
 the will, and with despite of tJie spirit 
 of grace, Heb. x. 27. 
 
 Yea : 2. In Scripture we meet with 
 such passages and promises as may 
 
The Folly of Relapsing, 
 
 undoubtedly uphold any soul that hath 
 so fallen, after peace received, into the 
 same sin, and preserve him from ap- 
 prehending himself excluded therefore 
 from mercy and the state of grace. 
 As, Hosea xiv. 4, / will heal their 
 bachslidings, I will love them freely ; 
 unless they had fallen after repenting 
 and former healing, it could not have 
 been called backsliding, and yet this 
 he promises to heal, and withal shews 
 the ground that moves him to it, his 
 loving them freely : for if in anything 
 his free love is shewn to any of his chil- 
 dren, and drawn out, it is in healing again 
 such a backsliding soul after recovery 
 and peace given. For the falling into 
 the same sin which hath been repented 
 of and healed, provokes God more 
 than a thousand other acts of sins 
 formerly committed, though of the 
 same kind. And therein also to shew 
 his free love, that he can pardon even 
 the abuse of love itself, he leaves some 
 thus to sin after his love shed abroad 
 in their hearts. Some he shews his 
 
196 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 free love unto, in keeping them from 
 sinning, others in pardoning them and 
 giving them repentance : they are but 
 several ways of drawing it forth ; so 
 that, if in anything, herein his free 
 love is shewn, for if it were not free it 
 would never endure itself to be abused. 
 And likewise the sure mercies of Da- 
 vid are then shewn, when God multi- 
 plies to pardon ; so, Isaiah Iv. 3, hav- 
 ing mentioned the promise of the sure 
 mercies of David, he promises to mid- 
 tiply to pardon, as it is in the original, 
 verse 7 ; which are thus joined, both 
 because the sureness of his covenant 
 is therein shewn, and because we might 
 haply multiply to sin ; and at least it 
 supposeth the possibility of it again. 
 God likewise runs upon such a suppo- 
 sition in that expression of his, to his 
 own people, Jer. iii. 1, 2. They say, 
 If a man put away his wife, and she 
 becomes another mans, shall not the 
 Lord he greatly polluted ? but thou hast 
 played the harlot with many lovers, yet 
 return again to me, saith the Lord. 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 197 
 
 He speaks to her as to one who had been 
 his wife, who though she had not been 
 put away by him, but had put away 
 herself and run away, not once, but 
 often, and that with many lovers, and 
 sometimes in the midst of her whore- 
 doms, had come in and made chal- 
 lenge of his former love, and pleaded 
 his former mercy to her and yet fallen 
 back again, ver. 4, 5, (where he adds, 
 Wilt thou not from this time cry, my 
 father, and thou art the guide of my 
 youth ? that is, I know, says God, you 
 will come now and cry, as heretofore 
 you have done, and say, oh thou art 
 my father and my husband, and con- 
 fidently still claim an interest in me 
 upon my former kindness, and yet do 
 as evil as you can, for you cannot do 
 worse than thus to abuse my love), 
 yet, for all this, at the 12th verse. Re- 
 turn, thou backsliding Israel, saith the 
 Lord, for I am married to you, verse 
 14. That which he doth thus to a 
 nation he may do to a particular man 
 who is his child. 
 
198 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing, 
 
 Examp, 1. 
 
 Again, 3. There are not altogether 
 examples wanting for this. 
 
 1. We find Sampson, a godly man, 
 (whom yet we would scarce have 
 thought such but that we find his 
 name in the list of those worthies, 
 Heb. xi.) ensnared with a Philistine 
 woman, against the counsel of his pa- 
 rents. Judges xiv. 3, who clearly laid 
 open his sin to him : and he was in 
 the event reproved for his folly, for 
 his wife deceived him, told his riddle 
 to his enemies, which he in the end 
 perceived ; and further to reprove 
 him, in the issue she was given away 
 to another, verses 16, 17. 20; from all 
 which passages of reproof, a holy man 
 that had his eyes in his head could not 
 but see his error ; and yet again a long 
 while after this, (twenty years after, 
 Judges XV. 20,) when certainly ere 
 that he had repented of this his sin, for 
 which his parents before, and after God 
 so clearly did rebuke him, he went to 
 Gaza, Judges xvi. verse 1, and saw a 
 harlot and went in to her, and there 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 escaped narrowly with his life at mid- 
 night : and, verse 4, after that also it 
 came to pass he fell in love with an- 
 other, as bad as any of the former, 
 Dalilah, who was his ruin. But his 
 returning thus to folly cost him dear, 
 for in the end he was taken as a cap- 
 tive to the Philistines, his enemies, 
 and that through her falsehood, de- 
 prived of his strength he had spent 
 upon these women, had his eyes, those 
 betraying lights, put out, that had en- 
 snared him, and himself made a fool 
 of, to make his enemies sport. So as 
 no child of God can take any great 
 encouragement thus to return to folly 
 for the future, by his example ; though 
 comfort they may have therefrom in 
 case they have returned for the time 
 past. 
 
 2. Another example may be that of 
 Jehoshaphat, who committed a great 
 sin in joining with Ahab, that wicked 
 king, that sold himself to work ivicked- 
 ness, 2 Chron. xviii. 1, 2, 3; and he 
 was foretold what would be the success 
 
 Examp. 2. 
 
200 
 
 The Folly of Belapsing. 
 
 of that confederacy and journey, by 
 Michaiah, before he went with him to 
 battle, and after in the battle itself, 
 where he hardly escaped with his life, 
 and by an extraordinary providence, 
 at his prayer was delivered, verses 
 31, 32 ; and as if that were not suf- 
 ficient, God sends another prophet 
 to him, chap. xix. % who with open 
 mouth reproves him and discovers to 
 him his sin : Shouldest thou help the 
 ungodly, and love them that hate the 
 Lord 9 therefore is wrath upon thee 
 from before the Lord : which message 
 to so good a man doubtless was not in 
 vain, but humbled him for that his sin, 
 and wrought repentance in him to avert 
 that wrath. And yet after that great 
 and miraculous deliverance of him and 
 his people, chap. 20, we find him re- 
 lapsing into the same sin, ver. 35, 
 After this did Jehoshaphat join himself 
 with Ahaziahy king of Israel, who did 
 very wickedly, and he joined himself 
 with him to make ships to go to Tar^ 
 shish : which another prophet in like 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 manner reproveth, and likewise God 
 himself rebuked by the like ill success 
 of that league to the former, The ships 
 ivere broken, verse 37. 
 
 3. St. Peter, a man who seemed by 
 other of his carriages bold enough, 
 was yet three several times surprised 
 with base fear : once when he tempted 
 Christ not to hazard himself at Jeru- 
 salem, where Christ had told him that 
 he was to suiFer : Matt. xvi. 21, 22, 23, 
 Master, says he, spare thyself: upon 
 which speech Christ calls him Satan, 
 rebuketh him more sharply than at 
 any other time, for which surely there 
 was a more than ordinary cause. St. 
 Peter thought that if his master should 
 suffer at Jerusalem, that himself and 
 the rest should not be safe. That 
 speech therefore proceeded from fear, 
 and therefore Christ doth immediately 
 thereupon call for self-denial and 
 taking up the Cross, verse 24. And 
 this was immediately after peace 
 spoken, verses 16, 17, 18. Christ 
 had never more comfortably given 
 
202 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 testimony to St. Peter and his faith, 
 than there. Yet again, after this, 
 Christ had him up into the Mount, 
 and transfigured himself, to hearten 
 him against that trial to come, which 
 made him so confident ; yet then he 
 denied him at his arraignment : when 
 again Christ, immediately upon that, 
 looked back upon him with so sweet 
 a look as broke his heart for this his 
 folly ; and so he returned again, and 
 it cost him many a tear ; and Christ 
 after the resurrection owned him again 
 more than any of the rest ; bade them 
 that first met him. Go tell Peter ; he 
 mentions him by name, and in espe- 
 cial ; Go tell him the first news of it ; 
 and then also he asked him, Peter, 
 lovest thou me? and he said, Lord, 
 thou hnoivest I love thee : as if he had 
 said, though I have played the wretch, 
 yet / love thee : upon this, though he 
 grew more bold, Acts iv. 13, yet, Gal. 
 ii. 11, 12, we find him falling into the 
 grudgings of the same disease, which 
 cast him into another fit : he dissem- 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 203. 
 
 hied, fearing them of the circumcision. 
 This was a spice of the former sin, 
 though not so gross ; and though the 
 outward acts in these sins were divers 
 in their occasions, yet they were all 
 acts and buds of the same root of bit- 
 terness ; and may as well be called 
 sins of the same kind, as the commit- 
 ting differing acts of uncleanness are 
 reckoned falling into the same sin. 
 
 In the fourth place, if the Scriptures 
 had been utterly silent in examples, 
 yet reason consonant to other prin- 
 ciples, and grounds of divinity, and of 
 the Scriptures, might persuade the 
 same. 
 
 1. If he may, after the most serious 
 and thorough repentance, fall again 
 into as grievous a sin of another kind, 
 and return, why not into the same 
 again ? I confess there is some dis- 
 parity, which might make him more 
 averse, and set him in some more re- 
 moteness from the same sin he hath 
 particularly repented of, than another; 
 which shall be considered in its place. 
 
204< 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 Yet the difference cannot be supposed 
 such as should make the one possible, 
 and not the other ; all true repentance 
 working the heart to an abominating 
 every sin, as well as any ; and there- 
 fore, if it were true, it was for that 
 particular sin, as sin ; and then it 
 would work the like against all and 
 every sin, according to the measure of 
 the sinfulness ; and though it may and 
 doth work a more keen and special 
 hatred against that particular sin a 
 man hath been most stung with, yet still 
 this is but so far as this aggravation 
 (to fall into the same sin again) may 
 cause such a relapse to be more sinful 
 than another sin : and so far, and 
 upon that ground, he is and may be 
 more set and strengthened against it 
 than against another sin. But then, if 
 the supposition fall upon another gross 
 sin, never before committed, the sole 
 and single act of which other circum- 
 stances make as heinous even as this 
 reiterated act of a sin formerly com- 
 mitted can be, then the one is equally 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 205 
 
 as possible as the other. But however 
 yet still the difference is but in de- 
 grees, namely in that the heart is 
 elongated a degree or so further from 
 that sin formerly committed than any 
 other; which will not therefore so 
 vary the case (as magis and minus do 
 not) that it should be made impossible 
 to fall into the one, and not into the 
 other. 
 
 2. Reason. If he may fall into some 
 gross sin, which at first conversion he 
 did above all other humble himself for, 
 and yet that same initial repentance 
 did not put him into such an impossi- 
 bility of falling into that sin again ; 
 why then should a renewed act of re- 
 pentance for the same, or for some 
 other reiterated sin, be supposed to 
 have such virtue in it as to make him 
 shot-free for ever from the same fiery 
 dart again ? 
 
 Again, thirdly : Let it be considered 
 from whence it should be, that a re- 
 newed, or indeed any act of true re- 
 pentance, though never so great and 
 
 Reason 2. 
 
 Reason 3. 
 
206 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 intense, should have such a transcend- 
 ent, eternal, and invincible virtue in it, 
 and privilege annexed to it; for how 
 is it, that repentance doth strengthen 
 us against sin, but by restoring the 
 decayed frame of grace, to a better 
 constitution and greater degree of 
 strength than before; and by raising 
 it above a man's lusts and above that 
 lust, more than all other : as in David, 
 when he prayed. Create in me a clean 
 hearty which, through his sin of un- 
 cleanness, was in an especial manner 
 defiled with a proneness to that sin. 
 But yet withal remember, that that 
 new frame of heart and strength gotten 
 by that renewed repentance, and that 
 augmentation and increase of hatred 
 against, and abominating that sin 
 wrought by it, is all but a creature; 
 as grace and every new degree of 
 grace is : and therefore for preserving 
 us, hath in itself but the power and 
 force of a created habit, which may 
 be prevailed against by the sin that is 
 in us; and can no more, nay much 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 lesS; put us into a state of confirmation 
 against any particular sin, than the 
 grace of the angels could of itself 
 confirm them in a state against all sin. 
 And as for the impression of that bit- 
 terness, which in our repentance for 
 that sin fallen into, was made upon 
 our hearts : that also can be supposed 
 to have but the like force upon our 
 spirits, that the impression of joy un- 
 speakable and glorious, hath upon the 
 heart in those heavenly raptures which 
 believers sometimes enjoy ; yea, and 
 the latter of these will easily be sup- 
 posed to be of the greater efficacy of 
 the two, and both but creatures : Now 
 those ravishing joys are not yet such 
 immortal and everlastingly quickening 
 cordials, that put such spirits into a 
 man, as to preserve him from swounds, 
 and faintings of spirit for ever; and 
 though, whilst they abide and are 
 present to the heart, they do then 
 raise it above all things here below : 
 yet when a man hath been a while off*, 
 from that mount, and hath conversed 
 
208 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 a while with things here again below, 
 then that lustre wears away, as the glory- 
 that shined in Moses' face did : and 
 after a while the sense and present 
 taste of those joys wears out ; and 
 when that is gone, the bare remem- 
 brance of them which is left hath not 
 in their absence such an infallible, 
 though a great efficacy to preserve his 
 mind in an everlasting disrelishing 
 former delights ; but that he may and 
 often doth fall in love again too much 
 with them : although indeed whilst 
 the present sense of them did abide 
 upon the heart, it abstracted the mind 
 from all things here below. And hence 
 a man is apt to fall from his first love, 
 Rev. ii. and from that high esteem of 
 spiritual things ; as the Galatians, Gal. 
 iv. 15, Where is the blessedness you 
 spake of says St. Paul to them ? there- 
 fore answerably the remembrance of 
 the bitterness of any sin felt in our 
 deepest humiliations, is much less able 
 to preserve a man, nor is the impres- 
 sion and dint made so lasting, nor the 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 scars and wounds of conscience con- 
 tinuing for ever so fresh, as everlast- 
 ingly to preserve and deter us from 
 falling into the same sin again. For 
 both are but creatures, and at best 
 but arguments drawn from sense, and 
 experience within ourselves, and have 
 but an humane created power which 
 is not always efficacious ; especially 
 seeing God hath ordained us to live by 
 faith, more than by sense, for faith is 
 appointed by God to be our more 
 constant keeper, 1 Pet. i. 5, We are 
 kept through faith unto salvation, and 
 by it more surely and more constantly 
 than by impressions of joy or sorrow 
 which are made to sense : and yet we 
 are not kept by it of itself, but by the 
 power of God: so then we are kept 
 by the power of God as the principal 
 supporter and guardian, through faith 
 as the instrumental, and by it rather 
 than by sense or any other grace of 
 sorrow or repentance ; because faith 
 carries the heart out of itself, and 
 
 commits itself wholly into the hands of 
 _ 
 
210 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 God as a faithful Creator (who is the 
 strength of Israel, to keep a man from 
 every evil work,) as not being able to 
 secure itself against any sin through 
 the power of any fortification, or 
 strength that any other grace or de- 
 gree of grace hath built, no not for 
 one moment ; and therefore is as de- 
 pendant upon God after a fall, and a 
 renewed repentance out of it, yea and 
 more than before he fell, and his own 
 woeful experience hath reason to make 
 him so. The like instance to illustrate 
 the truth of this we may draw from 
 the assurance of faith itself. For even 
 the assurance of faith itself, (which is 
 an act properly belonging to that grace, 
 called therefore the assurance of faith, 
 Heb. X. 22.) which doth strengthen 
 us as much against doubting when it 
 is joined with joy unspeakable and 
 glorious, as repentance can do against 
 any other sin : and whilst it is upon 
 us, in the strength of it a believer is 
 apt to think himself armed and 
 strengthened, and so established, as 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 211 
 
 that he shall never question God's 
 love any more, or the pardon of his 
 sins ; and yet, experience shews it, that 
 the guilt of sin prevails sometimes 
 again after this, and the same doubts 
 arise, and prevail as much as ever ; 
 neither will the remembrance of the 
 former assurance be always of force 
 enough to resist them ; for he may 
 come to question that assurance itself 
 also ; and so forget that he was purged 
 from his old sins. And if the guilt of 
 sin prevail in the conscience again, 
 against such a renewed and settled act 
 of faith, why may not the power of a 
 lust prevail in the members, after a 
 renewed act of repentance ? 
 
 4. If it be said, that a renewed act 
 of thorough repentance doth keep a 
 man, not by any peculiar virtue in 
 itself alone, but by rhe power of God 
 concurrent with it: then I demand to 
 see the promise wherein God hath 
 infallibly obliged and engaged his 
 power upon such a renewed act of 
 repentance, to preserve from falling 
 
212 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 into that sin of all other for ever; with- 
 out which no man in faith can affirm 
 it ; and without which there is, an it 
 may be, and a supposition of such a 
 possibility as sometime falleth out, and 
 is reduced to existence. God indeed 
 hath said, that if we fall, he will put 
 under his hand to break that fall that 
 it shall not ruin us ; but not so to 
 keep us in his hands, as we shall be 
 out of danger of falling again. A re- 
 newed act of repentance is indeed an 
 ordinance sanctified to preserve a man ; 
 yet, but in the same manner that other 
 ordinances are, as prayer, and the 
 word preached, and admonition, &c. 
 with which God doth not always so 
 infallibly co-operate, as efficaciously 
 to work always that which they serve 
 to. 
 
 5. If there were not such a possi- 
 bility, as might and doth sometimes 
 fall out, then eveiy regenerate man, 
 after such a renewed act of repent- 
 ance, might secure himself against the 
 committing that gross act again for 
 
The Folly of Relapsing, 
 
 213 
 
 ever ; but so he can never do against 
 any particular act of sin, but that sin 
 against the Holy Ghost. St. Paul 
 therefore exhorts, when a brother is 
 fallen into a sin, to restore such an one 
 with the spirit of meekness ; upon this 
 consideration, considering thyself lest 
 thou also be tempted ; and he lays the 
 exhortation upon those who are most 
 spiritual: Ye that are spiritual, restore 
 such an one, considering thyself lest 
 thou also be tempted, Gal. vi. 1, so as 
 he speaks of such as have their hearts 
 raised up to the best frame, through 
 the most deep and serious repentance : 
 and now we will suppose one that hath 
 formerly fallen himself into the same 
 sin which another is fallen into, but 
 not yet restored, but himself is return- 
 ed by repentance out of it (for, in- 
 deed, such a spiritual man is of all 
 other like to be the meekest bone- 
 setter of a man fallen) : and even such 
 doth St. Paul exhort to consider that 
 themselves may for the time to come 
 be also or in like manner tempted. 
 
214 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing, 
 
 that is, fall as this man fell ; and there- 
 fore so be tempted as to fall into the 
 same sin again that he was fallen into. 
 And if any man could be secure from 
 the like fall again, he had been out of 
 the reach of this exhortation to this 
 duty upon that ground mentioned, as 
 not capable of it. But the Holy 
 Ghost hath elsewhere, 1 Cor. x. 13, 
 told us, that there is no tentation which 
 is common to man, but is incident to 
 befal any man, at any time : and there- 
 fore, verse 12, exhorts him that stand- 
 eth, to take heed lest he fall : indeed, 
 that temptation which is common to 
 devils with men, the sin of final de- 
 spair, and against the Holy Ghost, &c. 
 a regenerate man may, through the 
 grace of Christ, secure himself against: 
 but all such sins as are common to man, 
 from these or any of them, no man, in 
 any state, can, without an extraordi- 
 nary revelation, secure himself from 
 the commission of. 
 
 Only I add these cautions concern- 
 ing this case. 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 215 
 
 1. There are two sorts of corrup- 
 tions. First, more gross corruptions, 
 which St. Peter calls to. yLiaayLara rod 
 Koa-fxov, the defilements of the world, 2 
 Pet. ii. 20, they being the common 
 mire or kennel wherein the unclean 
 swine of this world wallow, and which 
 the Apostle calls such works of the fiesh 
 as are manifest, Gal. v. 19, even to 
 the light of nature ; such as are adul- 
 tery, fornication, drunkenness, &c. ; 
 and by those two expressions do they 
 distinguish them from a sort of more 
 spiritual and refined lusts. For, se- 
 condly, there are corruptions more 
 spiritual, as [pride, secret love of the 
 world. Now, for those gross corrup- 
 tions which are contrary even to com- 
 mon honesty, and (to use Job's phrase) 
 are punished by the Judges, Job xxxi. 
 11, which profane men wallow in, a 
 godly man hath more strength against 
 them, so as it is not so ordinary for 
 him to be entangled again and again 
 with these ; for where but moral prin- 
 ciples are, these are abstained from, as 
 
 1 Caution. 
 
216 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 we see in the Pharisee, / am no adul- 
 terer, ^c. ; therefore, where grace is, 
 much more. And some sins are more 
 opposite to the spirit of holiness, and 
 less compatible with grace, as un clean- 
 ness, of which St. Paul says, God hath 
 not called us to uncleanness, hut to holi- 
 ness, 1 Thess. iv. 7 ; it is in an espe- 
 cial manner there opposed to holiness ; 
 and such as these are worhs of the flesh, 
 which are manifest, even to nature, to 
 civil men ; and therefore, when they 
 are often fallen into, they do manifest 
 that the heart is but flesh. And al- 
 though the limits, how seldom or how 
 often, cannot be set concerning re- 
 lapses into these or any sins, yet, in an 
 ordinary course, it may be said that 
 few godly men fall into such sins 
 again and again : God keeps them 
 from such in an ordinary providence, 
 that scandals should not arise : they 
 being sins which all the world takes 
 notice of. But those other sins of 
 rash anger, and love of the world, and 
 spiritual pride, &c. these being less 
 
The Folly of Relapsing, 
 
 manifest, and sitting more close to our 
 spirits, godly men are more subject 
 unto. 
 
 Yet, secondly : we must again dis- 
 tinguish. 
 
 1. There are the inward lustings to 
 those outward acts now, though grace 
 weakeneth the very lustings within, 
 yet takes them not wholly away : The 
 spirit that is in us, (that is, in us saints,) 
 says St. James, lusteth to envy : and 
 as to envy, so to all other sins. 
 
 And secondly, there are the outward 
 gross acts of such sins ; and therein the 
 weakness of sin in a regenerate man, and 
 strength of grace shows itself most in 
 preserving from them : for, as to will is 
 present with me, says St. Paul, to will 
 what is good, yet how to perform it I 
 am notable, Rom. vii. 18. So, on the 
 contrary, to lust the heart may be 
 ready, and lust may soon rise up in 
 rebellion, but when it should come to 
 the act there is a weakness discovered ; 
 they come to the birth, and want 
 strength often to bring forth ; the 
 
218 
 
 The Folly of Relapsivg. 
 
 contrary lusting and prevailing of 
 grace being then seen and discovering 
 itself: that it fareth with a regenerate 
 man in this case often as with a man 
 that is deadly wounded, who riseth up 
 to strike his enemy, and thinks to run 
 him through, but sinks down again, 
 medio conatu, when his sword is at his 
 enemy's breast, through a deficiency 
 of spirits ; or as a man in a palsy, or 
 the gout, who thinks he is able to walk 
 till he comes to try, and then he finds 
 a weakness which makes him fall back 
 again : thus, even when the whole 
 forces of lusts are mustered up, yet 
 the weapons fall out of their hands. 
 Humours, in a healthful constitution, 
 may stir and boake in the stomach, 
 when yet they come not up, nor pre- 
 vail unto vomiting. In that place 
 aforenamed, Gal. v., the Apostle seems 
 not to deny but that in the most rege- 
 nerate, lustings may arise : for thejlesh, 
 says he, lusteth against the spirit^ ver. 
 17 ; but yet, as for outward acts, he 
 tells them, ver. 16, That if they walk 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 in the spirit, that is, in the prevalency 
 of the spirit, keeping up a holy frame 
 of heart above the flesh, that then ye 
 shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh : 
 for that frame of heart so kept up, will 
 hinder the outward fulfilling of the 
 lust, which is never done till flesh and 
 corruption is actually raised above 
 the spirit, and gets more voices to 
 carry it ; till the spirit be under 
 hatches and the flesh above, and so 
 steers the helm : otherwise the lusting 
 of the spirit against the flesh will hin- 
 der the outward doing and fulfilling of 
 a lust. For the reason he gives, ver. 
 17, So as you cannot do what you 
 would^ implies that not only lustings, 
 which arise without consent, may be 
 in such a man, but -further, much of 
 the will may be won to consent to 
 them, to like them ; when yet there is 
 not strength enough to carry it on to 
 the outward act, you cannot do what 
 you would. And what those works of 
 the flesh are, which are manifest works 
 of the flesh, and which Christians, 
 
220 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 whilst they walk in the spirit, fulfil 
 not, he mentions and reckons up in 
 the following words. And this is the 
 more ordinary frame of a Christian's 
 heart ; for, ver. 24-, says he, They that 
 are Christ's have crucified the affections 
 and lusts, that is, so far as not to fulfil 
 them. 
 
 3. He may more easily fall into a 
 gross sin- of another kind than into the 
 same after special repentance for it, 
 and peace spoken in the pardon of it. 
 Because true repentance especially 
 fortifies the heart against that sin 
 which a man hath most repented him 
 of ; and sincerity lies more in watch- 
 ing over that sin than any other ; so, 
 says David, Psal. xviii. / was upright, 
 and kept myself from mine iniquity, 
 that especial sin which was eminently 
 his sin. A man's arm that hath been 
 broke will, if well set, rather break in 
 some other place than where it was 
 broke at the first. Hence sometimes 
 it falls out that that which was a godly 
 man's bosom sin before conversion 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 221 
 
 continues not to be so after : but an- 
 other steps up in the room of it, by 
 reason that he then endeavoureth to 
 v/ash out that great stain most ; and 
 spendeth the most of the fuller's soap, 
 to purge himself from it ; and so be- 
 comes ever after most watchful over 
 it, and sets in this, his weakest place, 
 the strongest garrison, and a watch, to 
 prevent the enemy. And as an act of 
 some presumptuous sin, though it in- 
 clines the heart more to all sin than 
 before, yet especially to commit that 
 kind of sin again, rather than any 
 other : so on the contrary is it, in a 
 sound and solemn repentance for some 
 especial sin ; and in the endeavouring 
 to mortify some especial member of 
 the body of sin (to mortify which, 
 not only in the bulk and general, but 
 also particularly and apart in the seve- 
 ral members of it, the Holy Ghost ex- 
 horts, Colos. iii. 5) though thereby 
 the whole habit of the body of sin is 
 purged and weakened, yet that parti- 
 cular sin which we aim especially to 
 
 u 2 
 
222 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 have mortified, is, through God's 
 blessing, more subdued than any other. 
 We see idolatry was the sin which the 
 people of Israel relapsed into again 
 and again ; yet when they were once 
 thoroughly humbled by the captivity 
 for it, they never returned to it, of all 
 sins else, not to this day : so as it may 
 be said, as was foretold haply in an- 
 other case, Ezek. xvi. 43, Thou shalt 
 not commit this lewdness, of all thy 
 abominations. Jonah, though he would 
 haply never run away from God again 
 after his gaol delivery out of the 
 whale's belly, yet, immediately after 
 peace spoken to his heart, he falls into 
 a sin of another kind, into a passion of 
 extreme anger and peevishness, and 
 quarrelling against God. And the rea- 
 son of this especial tenderness to fall 
 into the same sin, is, because the con- 
 science looks upon a relapse into that 
 sin to be more heinous than into any 
 other sin of another kind, because of 
 that aggravation of it which thereby 
 would stain and dye it ; and although 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 a sin of another kind shews the variety 
 of corruption more, yet this is more 
 against the power and work of repent- 
 ance itself, which was particularly ex- 
 ercised about that sin ; and also breaks 
 and dissolveth all bands of a man's 
 vows, covenants, prayers, &c. made 
 against it in particular, and so is made 
 more grievous. And this we may see 
 in Ezra's humbling himself for that 
 great sin of the people, in joining 
 themselves in marriage with the peo- 
 ple of the land, when he did set him- 
 self to humble himself for them, to- 
 gether with those that feared God, 
 chap. ix. 4. What a hideous appre- 
 hension of the heinousness of that sin, 
 if they should again fall into it, did 
 that day's repentance raise his heart 
 up unto? as appears, verse 14, Should 
 we again break thy commandments, and 
 join in affinity ivith them, wouldest thou 
 not destroy us till thou hadst consumed 
 us, and till there was no escaping"^ 
 Into which sin yet the people did again 
 fall, after they had repented of it, with 
 
224 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 a solemn confession and promise of 
 amendment, which is recorded chap. 
 X. verses 11, 12, <!v:c. ; yet they return- 
 ed to it again the second time, as we 
 find in Malachi, who lived the last of 
 the Prophets, and after this prayer of 
 Ezra. For, chap. ii. 12, the Prophet 
 says, An abomination is committed in 
 Jerusalem, for Juda hath married the 
 daughter of a strange god : and then 
 follows the aggravation, verse 13, This 
 ye have done again, that is, the second 
 time, and in that respect are challenged 
 to deal treacherously ; and that also in 
 respect they had repented of it the 
 first time, covering the altar with tears, 
 with weeping, and crying out, as Ma- 
 lachi there speaks : so as God regard- 
 eth not your offerings any more. And 
 therefore, also, Psal. Ixxviii. 40, How 
 oft did they (saith he, as aggravating 
 their sins) by murmuring provohe the 
 Lord? and, Numb. xiv. 22, God 
 reckons up and mentions the times of 
 their sinning, how often they had thus 
 sinned, as an aggravation of them. 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 225 
 
 They have tempted 7ne these ten 
 times. 
 
 4. He may fall into the same sin 
 again and again, until he hath re- 
 covered himself, and his peace fully 
 by a thorough repentance, but yet 
 seldom after. Lot committed incest 
 two nights together ; but the orifice of 
 his lust was not yet stopped by re- 
 pentance ; the wound was not closed, 
 and so bled again afresh ; but when it 
 is healed once, and the heart made 
 perfect with God, and divorced from 
 that sin, and entered into communion 
 with God again ; then though it may 
 fall out, yet a man more hardly returns. 
 A woman that is gone from her hus- 
 band may play the whore a long while 
 with him she ran away withal, till her 
 husband fetches her again : but to run 
 often away, after receiving again, is 
 intolerable. That is not so ordinary 
 in God's child. 
 
 5. Though Ave can hardly set limits 
 to say when, or when not, this shall 
 fall out from the degrees of men's 
 
 4. Caution 
 
 5. Caution 
 
226 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing, 
 
 repentings : as that if they have such 
 or such a degree of repentance, then 
 they fall no more : yet we may further 
 consider a difference of their return- 
 ings to God and repentings, and of 
 God's speaking peace. 
 
 1. Of their repentings : some are 
 more imperfect, and but, as it were, 
 thawings of the mind a little, by means 
 of a little sunshine of God's love : 
 some are more thorough and deep, 
 that recover a man, and put him into 
 a sound and healthful estate. As, for 
 example, a man in an ague hath well 
 days, yet his fits return, and it may be 
 they leave him for a month or so, and 
 yet they take him again, as at spring 
 and autumn ; which is because all this 
 while his body is not thoroughly re- 
 covered to a state of health : so is it 
 with a man's heart, in respect of his 
 lusts ; though he may have many well 
 days, wherein he may eat his meat, 
 and receive sweetness in the word and 
 ordinances, yet at times his distempers 
 and aguish fits return, he being aguish 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 still ; but in the end, after the peace of 
 God hath more thoroughly established 
 his heart, he attains to some settled, 
 constant victory over it ; and when it 
 doth not prevail to victory, such agu- 
 ish fits end usually in consumptions, in 
 which long agues often end : as in 
 temporaries, in whom, sin overcoming 
 God's striving with them, it eats all 
 good beginnings out ; but if they be- 
 long to God, then usually that aguish 
 distemper is, in the end, by a more 
 thorough repentance, so healed, as that 
 they attain to more victory and secu- 
 rity against it than any other sin ; 
 that as in those other kind of tenta- 
 tions, it often falls out that that which 
 a man doubted of most, he comes in 
 the end to be most assured of, and to 
 doubt no more; so also here a man 
 becomes most freed from that sin he 
 was long exercised with of all other. 
 So also 
 
 2. For God's dealings with his, there 
 is much diflference therein to be found : 
 there are some kinds of speaking peace 
 
228 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 Heb. ii. 1, 
 
 by God, and meltings of the heart of 
 his people, which yet are not of that 
 force as to overcome, but wherein 
 God doth but, as it were, strive with 
 them ; which strivings do ever and 
 anon work their hearts to a repentance, 
 and that true and serious ; which yet 
 is not so deep and thorough, nor so 
 healing the heart at the bottom, as it 
 should. For God sometimes useth 
 more imperfect kind of strivings, even 
 with his own children, about some par- 
 ticular sin they are to leave, which do 
 not so fully, at first, prevail and over- 
 come in them ; which God doth, to let 
 them see the running issue of their 
 natures, how grace would run out at 
 it, (as the Apostle speaks,) and over- 
 come grace in them, if he should let it 
 alone : and so lets out upon his child, 
 after many years, some lust which had 
 been long down, which puts him to it 
 exceedingly, so that he is in hazard to 
 be undone, and is put into fears of it : 
 and yet God visiteth his spirit by fits, 
 and, per intervalla, at times strives 
 
The Folly of Relapsing, 
 
 with him ; and though he falls, yet he 
 puts under his hand, and gives him 
 well days, and some comfortable visi- 
 tations, yet such as are not deep enough 
 to work him fully off from it. For as 
 God strives with wicked men, so he 
 sometimes strives with his own also; 
 which may seem to be the true mean- 
 ing of that speech. Gen. vi. where, 
 having mentioned the sin of his own 
 children, ver. 2, that The sons of God 
 took to them ivives of that wicked seed of 
 Cain^ he says, My Spirit shall not 
 always strive loith 7nan^ for that \Jie 
 also~\ is hut flesh. He means not this 
 of all mankind, for he says [he also] 
 is but flesh: now, with what other 
 creatures doth he join them in this 
 comparison, but with others of the 
 sons of men ? so as the meaning is, I 
 see my children, that they also are 
 corrupt and degenerate, as well as the 
 rest of mankind, and my spirit hath 
 striven with them. In which striving 
 God lets them see how, if he did not 
 in the end shew forth his free love to 
 
230 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 the full, in the rescuing of them and 
 healing their backsliding, they would 
 be undone : so as, in the end, through 
 his grace, which is sufficient, they ob- 
 tain the greatest conquest over that 
 lust of any other ; when the heart is 
 once thoroughly awakened, and settled 
 in a thorough peace. And as those 
 doubts they were most troubled with 
 once (which though they had at times 
 some light against, yet by fits did still 
 arise) are yet in the end so overcome 
 as they arise no more, but they enjoy 
 the greatest freedom from them : so is 
 it often herein. And these strivings 
 to not overcoming I resemble to the 
 thawings of the ice in a great frost, as 
 when in the day-time the sun shines, 
 and in the sunshine it thaweth a little, 
 but yet, so as at night, or in the shade, 
 it freezeth, when sometimes the wea- 
 ther also begins to change for a night, 
 and yet falls a-freezing again, so here 
 there is not such a thorough shedding 
 abroad the love of God in the heart 
 as should make a thorough general 
 
Tlie Folly of Relapsi7ig. 
 
 thaw, to the purpose, as we say ; and 
 so, when the heat of that is withdrawn, 
 it freezeth again : but in the end there 
 comes a more thorough and general 
 thaw and change, that carries all away, 
 melts the heart, and so alters the tem- 
 per and constitution of the weather (as 
 I may so speak) as it freezeth no more. 
 And such a thawing of his heart had 
 David when Nathan came to him, and 
 not afore ; though it may be he had 
 those lesser relentings often before. 
 
 But let those that are in such a case 
 take heed they be not hardened through 
 the deceitfulness of sin : and of all the 
 times that pass over you in your lives 
 these are the most climacterial and 
 critical, and most dangerous. For 
 God will not always strive, but if thou 
 beest his child, if such thawings will 
 not do it, he will use some great afflic- 
 tions, in the end to divorce the heart 
 and thy sin : his love will one way or 
 other overcome thee, and in the end 
 prevail. As when Israel went on 
 stubbornly in the way of his heart, 
 
232 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 (says God), / have seen his ways^ and 
 will heal him and guide him, Isaiah 
 Ivii. ; and the Lord may so heal thee 
 as those lusts of all other shall not in 
 that gross manner break forth any 
 more. And in those times when God 
 dealeth thus with him, a man will after 
 say that in such passages of his life he 
 had more free love spent on him than 
 in all his lifetime, before or after ; and 
 when he is freed and healed, he will be 
 more thankful and fearful than ever 
 before, or than otherwise he would 
 have been, and so get ground by his 
 stumblings. If any of you, being now 
 in such a conflict as this, in such a 
 vicissitude and chance of war. If yet 
 thou findest a constant fight against 
 thy sin, and that those breakings and 
 meltings of thy heart by God do win 
 ground of it, and that the comforts 
 and hope which at times are vouch- 
 safed do strengthen and stablish thy 
 heart in well doing, as 2 Thess. ii. ult. 
 and makes thee more fearful every 
 time thou risest than ever ; so as to 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 look upon another fit if it should 
 come, (which, knowing the deceitful- 
 ness of the heart, thou fearest,) as the 
 fit of some great sickness, lest it should 
 return again ; esteeming it as the 
 greatest cross that can befal thee, 
 which thou wouldest buy off with thy 
 blood ; and bleedest most of all to 
 think that thou hast so unconstant a 
 heart, which as it hath abused God's 
 love formerly, so thou fearest will do 
 so again : if thus thou go on to fight 
 it out, the love of God will in the end 
 overcome in thee ; but if thou findest 
 that those encouragements from God 
 do through thy corruption (which 
 turns God's grace into wantonness) 
 nourish thy lusts, and make thee less 
 fearful against the next time, and thy 
 heart harder and secure, and to slight 
 sin more, because thou hast been so 
 oft visited from on high, and pardon- 
 ed, thy case is dangerous, and may 
 prove desperate. 
 
 6. Though he may return, yet not 
 
 presently : Luke v. last, He that 
 — - 
 
234. 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 tasted old wine, doth not straightway 
 drink and desire new : not whilst the 
 love of God and the taste and relish 
 of it is fresh in his mouth ; when the 
 impression is worn out, indeed, and 
 begins to be forgotten, then haply he 
 may return. 
 
 To conclude with the use of this 
 point : if it be folly to run into the 
 same sin, though we repent of it after- 
 wards, then, what folly is it in them 
 that utterly fall away ? and after they 
 have been enlightened, and tasted of 
 the good word of God, then fall again 
 to the pleasures of sin, and never re- 
 pent of them, as many do that come 
 and try a little what is in religion and 
 the ways of God, and then return 
 again to their vomits, and never re- 
 turn to piety again. Foolish souls, 
 who hath bewitched you ? are ye so 
 foolish, that having begun in the spirit, 
 ye end in the flesh ? as Gal. iii. 3. 
 Folly indeed, to spend the harvest of 
 your time in seeking God, and then to 
 leave him, when you are about to take 
 
The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 leave of the pleasures of sin. Alas, 
 poor souls, whither will ye go ? do 
 you ever think to have such a God 
 again ? Thou hast the words of eter- 
 nal life^ said the Disciples to Christ : 
 and as Saul said to his servants, to 
 keep them from falling away unto Da- 
 vid, Can the son of Jesse give you vine- 
 yards, and make you captains of thou- 
 sands ? 1 Sam. xxii. 7 : so, can the 
 world give you that peace that I can 
 give you ? may Christ say to you : 
 yea, and heaven besides hereafter. Is 
 the Devil, with all the wages of sin 
 you post after, able to make you 
 amends ? you thereby dishonour God 
 in returning to sin, and bring an evil 
 report upon the good land, and dis- 
 credit your master in changing your 
 service ; but withal you befool your- 
 selves most : you return to folly. For 
 even that which you think to gain the 
 world's good word and opinion by, 
 even that you lose : for though they 
 make a spoil of you, and triumph in 
 such, and glory in their flesh awhile : 
 
236 
 
 The Folly of Relapsing. 
 
 yet they never in>vardly think well of 
 such an one, nor truly love him. A 
 backslider is like lukewarm water, 
 having been once heated, which good 
 men spew out, and evil men regard 
 not ; for what use can, indeed, be 
 made of it ? Like salt that hath lost 
 its savour i it is good for nothing hut 
 the dunghill. Like one that hath been 
 married, but lives divorced, she is un- 
 done for her marriage ever after. 
 Such is the condition of those that fall 
 away and repent not : you who have 
 but turned unto folly, and are not 
 grown to a despising and despiting 
 God's ways, Retur^i, Oh Shulumite, 
 return. And you that have peace and 
 communion with God, take heed you 
 do not lose him, you will never have 
 such a God again. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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