Joseph Ben­son re­calls that John Fletch­er used to ga­ther the stu­dents at Tre­vec­ca in his room to pray for the ful­ness of the Ho­ly Spir­it. ‘This was not done once or twice, but ma­ny times. And I have some­times seen him on these oc­ca­sions, once in par­ti­cu­lar, so filled with the love of God, that he could con­tain no more; but cried out, “O My God, with­hold Thy hand, or the ves­sel will burst.” But he af­ter­ward told me that he was afraid he had grieved the Spir­it of God; and that he ought rather to have prayed that the Lord would have en­larged the vess­el, or have suf­fered it to break, that the soul might have no fur­ther bar or in­ter­rup­tion to its en­joy­ment of the Su­preme Good. Wes­ley adds, ‘This is cer­tain­ly a just re­mark. The pro­per pray­er on such an oc­cas­ion would have been—

Give me the enlarged desired,
And open, Lord, my soul.’