The Return of Prayers

¹1. When God quiets, ⟨p. 94⟩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 conceive that certainly something had been said to him, which gave him encouragement, satisfaction and contentment in his suit; Thus when thou goest to God, and hast been importunate in a business, ⟨p. 95⟩(as suppose for Christ, Oh give me Christ, or else I die!) and thy desires were exceedingly up for it; But thou risest up with thy mind calmed and satisfied, and feelest the anxiousness, the solicitude 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 bin made more violent, so as her heart was much disquieted (for, Prov. 13. 12. Hope, and by ⟨p. 96⟩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. 1. 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 sad, as the Text says there; She arose quieted, and 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 gave her a ⟨p. 97⟩Son, a Son of her desires. And the like God doth now, by speaking (as I said) something to the heart: as by dropping in some promise or other into the heart, or some like consideration; saying as it were to the heart, even as Eli from God did to her, The Lord grants thy petition; As to S. Paul, when he was earnest with God about removing 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 depart; and to this he had an answer in