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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43573	Closet-prayer a Christian duty, or, A treatise upon Mat. VI, VI. tending to prove that worship of God in secret is the indispensible duty of all Christians ... together with a severe rebuke of Christians for their neglect of, or negligence in, the duty of closet-prayer, and many directions for the managing thereof ... / by O. Heywood.	Heywood, Oliver, 1629-1702.	1671 (1671)	Wing H1762; ESTC R24371	90,506	148

affected with the sweetness of pardoning grace and ardently pleads with God for acceptance again when the graces of the Spirit are acted in the duty as an holy awe and fear of God faith love humility zeal and fervency and a willingness to forgive others as well as to be forgiven by the Lord Lastly a soul may know when it hath communion with God by the consequences of duty as when the Christian is more vile in his own eyes as Abraham was gives God all the glory sees and bewails his defects in greatest inlargements when the spirit is left in a better frame and fitter to bear crosses and perform after-duties c. I do but hint these things 4. Case Suppose I have prayed and prayed and find not my heart affected 't is dead dull distracted I do no good get no good in duty I fear I offend God What shall I do Ans Such a case is sad yet consider 1. It may be the case of gracious hearts David was so depressed and troubled that he could not speak Psal 77.3 4. Gods best Children are sometimes out of frame their spirits unfit for duty 2. A total neglect will not mend the matter nor help the frame of your hearts one sin will never cure another running from the fire is not the way to be warm your hearts will not be better but worse by forbearance omission indisposeth 3. Who knows but God may come in the next time Keep upon the Royal Exchange still ply the oars give God no rest gratifie not Satan by neglect Tradesmen keep their Markets though for small gains you 'l get something at last worth your pains they never were ashamed that have waited on him The issue will be good 4. God may graciously accept thy obedience though thou have not sweet inlargement the obedience is thine the inlargement God's he is a free Agent and works when he pleaseth he loves to see poor souls tug and struggle with their own hearts though they can get little forward yet they would be better and do better The Father takes it well when the Child is striving to obey him though it fall very far short He sees the Spirit is willing though the flesh be weak and accepts of upright endeavours Nay observe it a Christians conscientious attendance upon God without inlargements may be more acceptable to God than when he hath the sweetest inlargements because there is most obedience in those duties but in the other a Christian is as it were hired to performances by the Earnest-peny of inlargements Oh 't is a brave thing to persevere in duty under discouragements he that can trade when times are so dead that all his wares lye upon his hand yet trades more surely his stock is great So 't is an evidence of much Faith Love Sincerity when the Soul can maintain this Heavenly Trade when his sensible incomes are small Yet when God thus withdraws from you you must deeply lay it to heart inquire the cause make your peace with him and ply the Throne of Grace with greater importunity Thus much briefly for these Cases of Consciences And now beloved friends I have dispatcht this Subject concerning Closet-prayer What remains but that we should all fall closs to the constant practice of this duty What do Ministers preach Sermons or print Books for Is it to be seen and heard in publick Is it to be applauded Or is it not rather to do good to peoples souls And can people get any good by hearing a sound of words or a complemental reading what is written Is there not something else required of you now even a setting about the conscientious practice of what is before you What say you sirs to this Point Is Closet-Prayer a Christian duty or is it not If it be not why doth Christ direct us to the right manner of performance and assure us that our Father will reward it openly Will God reward any thing but commanded duty There 's no question but 't is a duty I challenge any man to disprove it now and to stand to his assertion another day before the God of Heaven But I think none will deny it to be a duty and sirs dare any man that professeth Religion live in the gross neglect of plain duty Do you think it 's fit it should be done and will you not do it Shall your own tongues be brought in as witnesses against your selves Will you be like that Son that said I go sir but went not Shall God wait your leisure and you 'l not give him a visit Will you go into your Closets to make up your accounts And will you not reckon streight betwixt God and your Souls Dare you go from day to day under the guilt of a known sin If you do not what you have read this Book will flie in the face of conscience another day But I am most afraid lest Christians trifle about this work and shuffle it off after any fashion and so put off God with a meer outside performance to pacifie conscience without that warmth and life we should have in our Closets 'T is recorded of Luther that he prayed every day three hours and even then when his spirits were most lively Per tres horas easq ad studia aptissimas Nor were his Closet-Prayers dull careless heartless be so fervent and ardent saith Melancthon that they which stood under his window where he stood praying might see his tears falling and dropping down Oh but where is this zeal and ardency in our secret devotion Are we not ready to drop asleep even upon our knees Alas how formal are we The fire of God is wanting in our sacrifices Nay do we not take Gods Name in vain many times and know not what we say Oh why do we thus forget Gods omnipresence and omniscience Doth not he know our hearts And should not we approve our selves to God in our Closets Yea doth not Satan stand under our Closet-window or rather at our Elbow and hears what we say to God in our Closets If you take not notice of your mistakes in Closet-Prayer Satan doth and takes advantage by them Indeed I have heard some make this a scruple whethey should in secret confess heart-sins lest Satan should be acquainted with what he knew not before and so be furnishd with matter to accuse them of but an ingenious confession prevents Satans accusation because we have a promise of remission annexed thereunto Rom. 8.33 And who shall lay any thing to the charge of justified persons He hath little reason to take your confessions and dash them in your teeth since that was both the means and evidence of pardon But if you fear that you may do as Hannah in Prayer speak in your hearts and then Satan cannot tell what you say but your God doth However neglect not the duty for this you may be sure that Satan will catch more advantage by omission or negligent performance than by an ingenuous acknowledgment of heart-sins though he do hear you Sirs Awake to righteousness Rouze up your selves to the work put not off God or conscience with a negative answer you may as well say Nay as pretend and promise to do it and not perform fall to the practice of it therefore this day there 's danger in delays if you do it not to day you 'l be more unfit to morrow At this instant fall upon thy knees beg a blessing upon this book for the good of thy soul and others look upon Closet-Prayer as thy priviledge as well as thy duty 'T is a mercy thou mayst go to God as often as thou wilt and for what thou needest 'T is no small favour that God hath allowed thee the use of this privy Key to open Heaven-gates when thou hast not the more publick key of others help in Prayer yet this is thy incouragement Thy Father that sees in secret will reward thee openly I shall shut up all with a piece of Herberts Poetry called Artillery AS I one Evening sate before my cell Methought a Star did shoot into my lap I rose and shook my cloaths as knowing well That from small fires comes oft no small mishap When suddenly I heard one say Do as thou usest disobey Expel good motions from thy brest Which have the face of fire but end in rest I who had heard of Musick in the Sphears But not of speech in Stars began to muse But turning to my God whose Ministers The Stars and all things are if I refuse Dread Lord said I so oft my good Then I refuse not even with blood To wash away my stubborn thought For I will do or suffer what I ought But I have also Stars and Shooters too Born where thy Servants both Artilleries use My Tears and Prayers night and day do woe And work up to thee yet thou dost refuse Not but I am I must say still Much more oblig'd to do thy will Than thou to grant mine but because Thy promise now hath even set Thee Laws Then we are shooters both thou dost deign To enter combate with us and contest With thine own clay But I would parley fain Shun not my Arrows and behold my brest Yet if thou shunnest I am thine I must be so if I am mine There is no articling with thee I am but finite yet thine infinitely FINIS

the word is necessary and so is this nor must the one justle out the other yea these secret duties help us to profit by publick Ordinances If dung be poured down on heaps in the field it doth no good it must be spread abroad before it make fruitful ground The plaister heals not except it be applyed so the Word must be spread on our hearts by serious and secret Meditation and Application or else it will never make our souls healthful and fruitful and then we must pray over it for the showers of divine grace to wash it and work it into our hearts Many Sermons are lost for want of souls taking them home to their Closets and turning them to Prayer I fear all will be little enough that Ministers can preach or write upon this theam I doubt still this work will be either totally neglected or negligently performed it s an hard work the spirit must travel in it and saith good Mr. Bains the Saints can indure better to hear an hour than to pray a quarter yea our trifling hearts will make any excuse to shift from this duty or shuffle it off nay though it be in exchange for another a sign the work is of God and tending much to the souls good or else Satan and our corrupt hearts would never so much hinder or oppose it P●or Soul it may be thou lookest abroad and seest much wickedness committed holiness persecuted thy God dishonoured many things out of order thou wantest a capacity to bring a remedy I must therefore say to thee as it 's reported Albertus Crantzius said to ●…her when he began to oppose the Pope Frater vade in cellam die Miserere mei Deus Brother go into thy cell and say God be merciful unto me so say I. Alas thy interest and influence reacheth but a little way to mend a wicked world though thou must seek to perform as far as thy place and calling extends but go thy way to thy God in thy Closet bewail thy sins and the sins of others plead with God for thine own soul Busie thy self about thyself set all straight at home take heed of that which the poor Church complains of Cant. 1.6 They made me the keeper of the vinyards but mine own vinyard have I not kept Oh leave other things undone rather than this great matter that concerns the affairs of thine own soul Mr. Fox tells us of one Peter Moyce a German Martyr being called before the Synod at Dornick Acts mon. 2. vol. lib. 8. fol. 1●2 they began to examine him in certain Articles of Religion to whom as he was about to answer boldly and expresly to every point they interrupting him bad him say in two words Yea or Nay Then said he If you will not suffer me to answer for my self in things of such importance send me to my Prison again among my Toads and Frogs which will not interrupt me while I talk with my Lord my God Oh Christian the time may come or is already when men may stop thy mouth and will not suffer thee to witness a good confession withdraw thy self from men and retire unto thy God who will make thee freely welcom to pour out thy soul to him in secret He 'l neither stop thy mouth nor stop his car he bids thee Open thy mouth wide Psal 81.10 And he tells thee His ear is open to thy cry Psal 34.15 That cast not ask such great things as he can and will give Only see thou beest a Child of God Naturalists tell of a precious Stone of an excellent vertue yet loseth all its efficacy when 't is put into a dead mans mouth so Prayer in the lips of a Saint or a righteous man availeth much but the Prayer of the wicked is not only ineffectual but abominable to God See to your states and then see that you pray aright for manner matter end many ask and receive not because they ask amiss Above all Soul in thy secret addresses to God take heed of a trifling spirit thou'lt find most ado with thy self herein our wanton spirits are loath to be pent up in the narrow room of a spiritual performance we love to take our liberty in ranging abroad to a thousand objects but Christian as thou lovest thy peace thy Soul thy God look to thy spirit in secret Prayer Do not trifle away thy time upon thy knees let not thy words freeze as they come from thee let no discouragements beat thee off the Woman of Canaan as one saith takes the Bullets that Christ shot at her and with an humble boldness of faith sends them back again in Prayer which indeed reach'd his heart and prevailed with God for mercy But I shall inlarge no more at present but refer thee to this small Treatise wherewith I have according to my poor talent laid before thee this great duty What effect it shall have I know not my God knows in whose hands the blessing of our endeavours lyes Get alone and pray over this Book and for the unworthy sinful Author as he desires to do for thee into whose hand this may come let our Prayers daily meet at the throne of Grace till our souls meet before the throne of God if thou receivest any good by this or any other work this poor worm hath handed to thee ascribe nothing to the instrument but all to the agent and efficient our good God from whom comes every good and perfect gift disdains not the work for the plainness of the stile it was purposely put in this dress for the vulgars benefit and if it or my self be exposed to censure for that 't is welcom I write not to please learned Scholars but to profit plain Christians whose spiritual good I prefer above any credit to my self I am sure there is none due there being few of my brethren but they transcend me in parts and learning But by the grace of God I am what I am 1 Cor. 15.10 Nor is that grace altogether in vain for as it hath helped me in labours so he hath in some measure blessed my labours though I be nothing the least of Saints not meet to be called a Minister Did those that read my labours know me they would be ready to despise my undertakings this I speak because my former book hath found such good acceptance and this is so much desired And that no man think of me above what he knoweth to be in me my heart hath been near fainting through discouragements from my great weakness had I not been supported many a time with that word in 2 Cor. 4.7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the Power may be of God and not of Man Whence I gather that God can make use of weak unlearned sinful instruments to do great works and he can use persons of mean abilities to accomplish his glorious ends in converting souls as well as the profoundest Clerks or wisest men on

earth yea sometimes be layeth aside these and rather useth the former that all the glory might be his And that no flesh might glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1.29 But such as I am or have is all devoted to the honour of our Redeemer and welfare of Souls Octob. 31. 1668. Whiles I am Oliver Heywood Books to be sold by Thomas Parkhurst at the Golden-Bible at the lower end of Cheapside AN Exposition of Temptation on Mat. 4. ver 1. to the end of the eleventh by Dr. Tho. Taylor fol. Daille on the Epistle to the Colossians containing 49. Sermons fol. A practical Exposition on the third Chapter of the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians with the Godly Mans Choice on Psa 4. v. 6 7 8. By Anthony Burgess fol. The view of the holy Scriptures By Hugh Broughton fol. These six Treatises next following are written by Mr. George Swinnock 1. The Christian Mans Calling or a Treatise of making Religion ones business in Religious Duties Natural Actions his Particular Vocation his Family Directions and his own Recreation to be read in Families for their Instruction and Edification The first part 2. Likewise a second Part wherein Christians are directed to perform their Duties as Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants in the conditions of Prosperity and Adversity 3. The third and last part of the Christian Mans Calling wherein the Christian is directed how to make Religion his business in his dealings with all Men in the Choice of his Companions in his carriage in good Company in bad Company in solitariness or when he is alone on a week-day from morning to night in visiting the sick on a Dying-bed as also the means how a Christian may do this and some motives to it 4. The Door of Salvation opened by the Key of Regeneration 5. Heaven and Hell Epitomized And the True Christian characterized 6. The Fading of the Flesh and the flourishing of Faith Or One cast for Eternity with the only way to throw it well All these by George Swinnock M. A. Large Octavo's An Exposition on the five first Chapters of Ezekiel with useful observations thereupon By Will. Greenhil 4to The Gospel-Covenant or the Covenant of Grace opened Preached in New-England by Peter Bulkely 4to God's holy Mind touching Matters Moral which himself uttered in ten words or ten Commandments Also an Exposition on the Lords Prayer By Edward Elton B. D. 4to Fiery Jesuite or an Historical Collection of the Rise Increase Doctrines and Deeds of the Jesuites Exposed to view for the sake of London 4to Horologiographia Optica Dialling Universal and Particular Speculative Practical By Sylvanus Morgan 4to The Rebuilding of London encouraged and improved in several Meditations By Samuel Rolles The sure way to Salvation or a Treatise of the Saints Mystical Union with Christ wherein that great Mysterie and Priviledge is opened in the nature properties and the necessity of it By R. Steedman M. A. A defence against the fear of Death By Zuch Croston Gods Soveraignty displayed By Will. Geering The Godly Mans Ark or City of Refuge in the day of his distress in five Sermons with Mrs. Moor's Evidences for Heaven By Edm. Calamy The Almost Christian discovered or the false Professor tryed and cast By Mr. Mead. Spiritual Wisdom improved against Temptation By Mr. Mead. 1. A Divine Cordial 2. A word of comfort for the Church of God 3. A Plea for Alms in a Sermon at the Spittle 4. The Godly Mans Picture drawn with a Scripture-pensil 5. The Doctrine of Repentance 6. Heaven taken by Storm 7. The Holy Eucharist or The Sacrament of the Lords Supper briefly opened These seven by Mr. Tho. Watson The true bounds of Christian Freedom or a Discourse shewing the extents and restraints of Christian liberty wherein the truth is setled many errors confuted out of John 8. ver 36. Comfortable Crumbs of Refreshment by Prayers Meditation Consolation and Ejaculations with a Confession of Faith and sum of the Bible Aurifodina Linguae Gallicae or the Golden Mine of the French Language opened By Ed. Costlin Gent. Sins Sinfulness By Ralph Venning Sober Singularity By R. Steedman The Parable of the great Supper By John Crump late of Maidstone The Christians daily Monitor By Joseph Church A Memento to young men and old By J. Maynard A Little Book for Little Children By Tho. White The History of Moderation or the Life Death Resurrection of Moderation The Conversion of a Sinner explained and applied from Ezek. 33.11 Worthy Walking By Nat. Vincent Method of Meditation By Tho. White Antidote against Quakerism The Contents of the Book Sect. 1. THe context cleared 1 Sect. 2. The words explaind 4 Sect. 3. Doctrines raised 7 Sect. 4. Instances for Closet-Prayer 1 Abraham 12 2 Isaac ibid. 3 Jacob 13 4 Moses 14 5 David ibid. Sect. 5. More Instances of 6 Elijah 15 7 Jeremiah 16 8 Daniel 17 9 Peter ibid. 10 Jesus Christ 18 CHAP. II. Sect. 1. Reason 1. Conveniency of Privacy 20 For 1 Expostulation 21 2 Act distraction ibid. Sect. 2. Reas 2. Relation betwixt God and Soul 24 1 The hearts free opening to a Father ibid. 2 God communicates himself to it ibid. Sect. 3. Reas 3. God sees in secret i. e. 1 He takes notice whether thou Pray 27 2 He hath seen thy secret sins 28 3 Thou losest not thy labour 29 4 Thou ownest Gods omnipresence 30 Sect. 4. Reas 4. God rewards openly fo●… ways 31 1 Returning visible Answers 32 2 Discriminating providences 33 Sect. 5. 3. Increase of Graces 35 Sect. 6. 4. Solemn owning at the great Day 36 CHAP. III. Sect. 1. Vse 1. Of information concerning places of Prayer 42 Sect. 2. The nature of Prayer 1 It is an immediate Worship 45 2 Cannot be interrupted ib Sect. 3. 3. The power of Prayer 48 Sect. 4. 4. The property of a Christian 50 CHAP. IV. Sect. 1. Vse of Reprehension 1 Of Wicked 53 Sect. 2. 2 Of Godly for neglecting this herein 56 1 They are unlike Jesus Christ ibid. 2Vnlike the Saints of God 57 3Vnlike themselves formerly 58 Sect. 3. 4 They lose much spiritual good 59 5 Expose themselves to temptation 60 6 They express little love to God 61 7 Gross ingratitude to him ibid. Sect. 4. 8 They contradict the Spirits motions 63 9 May be deprived of Helps 64 10 What if Christ surprize them in neglect 65 CHAP. V. Sect. 1. 3. Vse of Instruction about Closet-Prayer wherein are 1. preparatives to it 1 Look to your state 68 2 Lay aside other business 69 Sect. 2. 3 Set your selves in Gods sight 70 4 Muster up your thoughts wants 71 Sect. 3. 2 Essentials required in secret Prayer 1 Ingage the heart in it 74 2 Beg the Spirits assistance 77 Sect. 4. 3 Pray according to Gods will 78 4. In the name of Jesus Christ 80 CHAP. VI. Sect. 1. 3 Circumstances about Closet-Prayer Referring to Place 8 Referring to Posture 84 Referring to Season 85 Referring to Voyce