CHAPTER VI: Observations made upon the disposition of the heart after prayer
be so,' and yet 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 27:4, '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 maintains 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: therefore 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 4:3. But there is an importunity joined with a subjection to God's will, which, when it runs along with it, then God hath stirred it up; and then look for something to come: otherwise you may be importunate, as 'they seek me daily,' when yet God heard not, Isa. 58:2.
CHAPTER VI:
Observations made upon the disposition of the heart after prayer 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, observe 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 obedience in his course; so as that dependence he hath upon God for the mercy he seeks for, is a special motive and means to keep him fearful of offending, and diligent in duty; to look to his paths, to walk and behave himself as becomes a suitor, as well as to come and pray as a suitor. Thus David, he walked by this principle, Ps. 66:18, 'If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me;' that consideration still came in as a curb unto sin; and without this a man provokes God, and so casts himself behindhand again, and by sinning loseth what ground he had got by praying. Therefore David, Ps. 143:8–10, 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 know 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 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 innocent, 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 Ps. 18, 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, Ps. 27:11.
Secondly, When God after prayer strengtheneth the heart to wait for the mercy; so, Ps. 27:14, David having prayed, says to his soul, 'Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he will strengthen thy heart.'
Honest men, when they nourish hopes in one that is in dependence on them, who waiteth and is obsequious upon the hopes he hath of a suit, use not to deny him: it were dishonesty in them to keep a man underhand, and then frustrate his expectations; therefore, when God keeps thy soul after praying in such a dependent 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 answered, therefore in this case answers use to come.
Both these two last we have together joined, Ps. 37:34, 'Wait on the Lord, AND KEEP HIS WAYS, and he shall exalt thee.'
CHAPTER VII:
Observations made after prayer upon the issue 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:— I. If the thing thou prayest for doth come to pass, then what needest thou doubt of an answer, and whether God heard thee or no? for
thou beholdest it with thine eyes. And so often it falls out, that God doth grant according to the desires of a man's heart; and not only so, but also fulfils his counsel therein, as it is Ps. 20:4; 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, chap. 22:27, 28, 'Thou shalt make thy prayer to God, and he shall hear thee: and decree a thing, and it shall be 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
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 according to thy faith,' so God says sometimes, '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 unerring providence and preinstinct infused by his Spirit, God will so guide 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, Ps. 21:2–4. 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. 1:20, 'Because,' says she, 'I asked him of the Lord;' and ver. 27, 'For 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. 4:10, 'Jabez 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 them: and to this end hath made such particular promises of particular mercies, which he would have us have an eye unto in our prayers; all which is because often be 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 below 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, chap. 9:16,
'As though I had called, and God had answered 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 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 have prayed for come in by prayer, I give you these further directions:— Direct. 1.—When God doth a thing in answer 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, Ps. 17:7, 'his marvellous loving-kindness;' and indeed when God hears prayers that have been a long while a making, he shews usually half a miracle 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 wards 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 business thou didst pray for, and so accomplisheth 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 12. He was sleeping between two soldiers, if they had waked he had been discovered; and he was in chains, but they fall off, ver. 6, 7; and the keepers stood before the door, but they mind him not, ver. 6; and when one watch is passed, he passeth quietly through another, ver. 10; and when both these were passed, 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 off, 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.
(2.) Or, secondly, when 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, hast thy 'way made plain before thee;'
and there falls out a great conjunction and meeting of many circumstances together to effect it, which had influence into it, whereof if any one had been wanting, haply the thing had not been done: when the thing prayed for is thus granted, prayer then hath done it. Thus, when he delivered 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 entreat them to go out; yea, 'are urgent,' says the text, and that at midnight; nay, hire them to go out with their ear-rings, Exod. 12:31, 33, 35; and Pharaoh himself then parts lovingly and fairly with them, and desires their prayers, 'Bless me also,' ver. 32. 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 obstreperous 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 Babylon, which was the conclusion of many prayers, was done in a trice, 'they were as men in a dream,' Ps. 126:1, 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 advancement 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, together 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, Ps. 21:2–5. So Solomon, he asked but wisdom, and he gave him more than he asked; 'peace, riches, honour,' and all, with it, 1 Kings 3:12, 13.
Hannah, she asked but 'one male child,' 1 Sam. 1:11, but God gave her three sons more, and two daughters, chap. 2:21. 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 together, and we fall into many of them at once, as St James speaks, chap. 1:2, 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 notice of also.
'Shew me a token for good,' says David, Ps. 86:17, 'that others may see it and be ashamed.' And such tokens doth God often make small circumstances to be. Things small in themselves 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.
11:7, which was a small circumstance, but it was magnum indicium, and so intended by God; for the text adds, 'that ye may know that God puts a difference between 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, especially in the night. So when Isaac and Abraham, and his servant also, had prayed for a wife for Isaac, sec by what a token God shewed he had heard their prayers: Rebekah was 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, Gen. 24:13, 14, 'let her offer me drink, and my camels also.' This was a small thing in appearance, but a great indicium of God's hand in it; and therefore the servant bowed at it, and worshipped. And the sign in itself was such as argued 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.
Direct. 2.—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 Isa. 49:8. As David likewise says 'he prayed in an acceptable time,' Ps. 69:13. So accordingly God
answers in the best and most acceptable time to us; for 'he waits to be gracious, for he is a God of judgment,' Isa. 30:18; 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 purpose is that of Isa. 65:24, that as sometimes 'he hears before they call,' which argues much love to give mercies unsought, so also 'whilst they are speaking
I will 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 assure Hezekiah his prayer was heard, God sent the prophet in unto him whilst he was a-praying and weeping, with hid head turned towards the wall So Isaac, going out to pray in the field, meets his Rebekah then a-coming, that blessing of a good wife being surely the great request temporal he was then in treaty with God for: this Rebekah was the fruit of many prayers. So when St Peter was in prison, the church being gathered together to pray for him, St Peter comes and knocks 'at the same hour,' Acts 12:12–17. So as it often falls out herein, as to the ruler in the gospel, John 4:52, who inquiring 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 man's faith in it, as that also did his.
Or, secondly, when it is the most acceptable 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 contentment 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 expressed, Isa. 30:18, 'He waits to be gracious, to have his mercy exalted.' The second intimated, James 4, '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 Isa.
57:16, 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 4th and 5th verses, Acts 12. 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 then God delivered him at the prayers of the church; then was the most fit time: as the Psalmist says, 'the full time to have mercy on him was come,' Ps. 102:13. 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 Isa.
30:18.
If, secondly, 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 receive them: and in this sense likewise may that be understood, that God prepareth the heart and heareth the prayer, Ps. 10:17.
As 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, and had his high thoughts, which haply at the first news of it had risen in his mind, purged out, Ps. 131:2, 'I have no high thoughts,' &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.
Obj.—But you will be ready to say, To have a thing when ray 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.
Ans.—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 satisfaction, 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 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 wouldest have been vexed with it, rather than satisfied, and found a greater vanity 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, 'I have enough.' So likewise thou mayest have an affliction thou prayedst long against taken off then when thy heart was most willing to accept thy punishment, Lev. 26:41, as Moses's phrase is, and to submit to God in it.
Direct. 3.—A third thing you are to observe concerning the accomplishment of the thing prayed for, whereby yon 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 seeking of him, and of walking with him whilst thou wert dependent 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, Ps. 18:24, 'According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me,' &c. His speech notes some similitude or likeness; 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 psalm, ver. 25, 26, 'With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure.' Pure prayers have pure blessings; et è contra, '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 backward: as 'when Moses's hands were down, Amalek prevailed;' but when they were 'lifted up, Israel had the better,' Exod. 17:12. 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.