prove by any promise or prophecy, is not to be called any act of divine faith at all, nor to be trusted to. _Quest._ XXVI. But must we not believe that every lawful prayer is accepted and heard of God? _Answ._ Yes: but not that it should be granted in the very thing, unless so promised: but you may believe that your prayer is not lost, and that it shall be a means of that which tendeth to your good, Rom. viii. 28; Isa. xlv. 19. _Quest._ XXVII. With what faith must I pray for the souls or bodies of other men; for their conversion or their lives? _Answ._ A godly man may pray for wicked relations or others, with more hope than they can pray for themselves, while they remain ungodly: but yet not with any certainty of prevailing for the thing he asketh; for it is not peremptorily promised him. Otherwise Samuel had prevailed for Saul, and Isaac for Esau, and David for Absalom, and the good people for all the wicked; and then no godly parents would have their children lost; no, nor any in the world would perish, for godly persons pray for them all. But those prayers are not lost to him that puts them up. _Quest._ XXVIII. With what faith may we pray for the continuance of the church and gospel to any nation? _Answ._ The former answer serveth to this; our hope may be according to the degrees of probability: but we cannot believe it as a certainty by divine faith, because it is not promised by God. _Quest._ XXIX. How may we know when our prayers are heard of God, and when not? _Answ._ Two ways: sometimes by experience, when the thing itself is actually given us; and always by the promise; when we ask for that which God commandeth us to ask, or promiseth to grant; for we are sure God's promises are all fulfilled. If we ask for the objects of sense (as food or raiment, or health, &c.) sense will tell us whether our prayers be granted in the same kind that we asked for; but if the questions be of the objects of faith, it is faith that must tell you that your prayers are granted; but yet faith and reason make use of evidences or signs. As if I pray for pardon of sin, and salvation, the promise assureth me, that this prayer is granted, if I be a penitent, believing, regenerate person, otherwise not; therefore faith only assureth me that such prayers are granted, supposing that I discern the evidence of my regeneration, repentance, and faith in Christ. So if the question be whether my prayer for others, or for temporal mercies, be answered in some other kind, and conduce to my good some other way, faith only must tell you this from the promise, by the help of evidences. There are millions of prayers that will all be found answered at death and judgment, which we knew not to be answered any way but by believing it. _Quest._ XXX. What should a christian of weak parts do, that is dry and barren of matter, and can scarce tell what to say in prayer, but is ready to rise off his knees almost as soon as he hath begun?