his own heart Look as the holy Spirit is not always a teaching Spirit nor always a leading Spirit nor always a comforting Spirit nor alwayes a sealing Spirit nor alwayes a witnessing Spirit nor alwayes an assuring Spirit to any of the Saints so he is not alwayes a supplicating Spirit in any of the Saints When he is grieved vexed quenched provoked he may suspend his gracious influences and deny the soul his assistance and what can a Christian then say or do But Secondly I answer Thou canst not pray but canst thou not sigh nor groan neither there may be the spirit of Adoption in sighs and groans as well as in vocal prayer Rom. 8. 26. The force the vertue the efficacie the excellency of prayer doth not consist in the number and flourish of words but in the supernatural motions of the spirit in sighs and groans and pangs and strong affections of heart that are unspeakable and unutterable Certainly the very soul of prayer lyes in the pouring out of a mans soul before the Lord though it be but in sighs groans and tears 1 Sam. 1. 13 19. One sigh and groan from a broken heart is better pleasing to God than all humane eloquence But Thirdly I answer Beg of God to teach thee to pray O beg the holy spirit that is a spirit of prayer God hath promised his holy spirit to them that ask it Luk. 11. 13. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly father give the holy spirit to them that ask him Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will takeaway the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and doe them Ezek. 11. 19. And I will give them one heart I will put a new Spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh Zech. 12. 10. I will pour upon the house of David and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication Now Gracious promises are Gods bonds and he loves to see his people put them in suit God expects Isa 62. 6 7. Isa 42. 25 26. that we should be his Remembrancers and that we should pray over his promises When he had promised great things to his people concerning Justification Sanctification Preservation he subjoynes Yet I will for this be enquired of by Ezek. 36. 37. the house of Israel to doe it God looks that we should spread his gracious promises before him as Hezekiah Isa 37. 14. did Seanacheribs letter God is never better pleased than when his people importune him in his own words and urge him with arguments taken from his owne promises Though God be a very affectionate father and a very liberal father yet he is not a prodigal father for he will never throw away his mercies on such as will not stoutly and humbly plead out his promises with him God loves to take state upon him and will be sought unto both for his giving in of mercies and for his making good of precious promises Thou sayest thou can'st not pray why can'st thou not goe into a corner and spread the Promises last cited before the Lord and tell him how much it concernes his honour glory as well as thy own internal eternal good to make good those gracious promises that he hath made concerning his giving of his Spirit to them that ask him and his putting his Spirit within them and his pouring out a Spirit of grace and supplication upon them We read of Tamar that when Gen. 38. 18 25. Judah her father-in-law lay with her she took as a pledge his signet bracelets and staffe and afterwards when she was in great distress and ready to be burnt as an Harlot she then brought out her staff and signet and Bracelets and said by the man whose these are am I with child and thereby she saved her life The promises are as so many rich Mines they are as so many choice flowers of paradise they are the food life and strength of the soul They are as a staffe to support the soul and they are as a signet and Bracelets to adorne the soul and to enrich the soul and therefore poor sinners should bring them forth and lay them before the Lord and urge God with them there being no way on earth to save a mans soule and to prevent a burning in Hell like this Concerning precious promises let me give you these eight hints First that they are truly propounded stated by God Mark 10. 30. Secondly That they shall certainly be performed 2 Cor. 1. 20. they being all made in and thorow Christ they are made first to Christ and then to all that have union and communion with him Sirtorius saith Plutarch paid what he promised with fair words but so doth not God Men many times say and unsay they often eate their words as soon as they have spoken them but God will never eat the words that are gone out of his mouth Isa 46. 10 11. My counsel shall stand and I will doe all my pleasure yea I have spoken it I will also bring it to pass I have purposed it I will also doe it Thirdly That they all issue from free grace from special love Hos 14. 4. from divine goodness Fourthly That they are all as Jer. 31. 3. unchangable as he is that made them Fifthly That they are all bottomed and Mal. 3. 6. founded upon the truth faithfulness and all sufficiency of God Sixthly That they are pledges and pawnes of great things that Heb. 13. 5. God will doe for his people in time Seventhly That they are most Heb. 6. 12. sure and certain evidences of divine favour and a declaration of the Num. 23. 19. heart and good will of God to his poor people Eighthly That they are the price of Christs blood Now how should all these things encourage poor souls to be still a pressing of God with his promises But Fourthly You say you cannot pray c. O that you would leave off objecting and fall upon praying If you cannot pray as you would nor as you should pray as well as you can Josephs brethren stood so long dallying delaying and trifling out the time that having a Journey to goe to buy corn they might have bought and returned twice before they went and bought once When Eliah called Elizeus he goes about the bush 1 Kings 19. 20. and he must needs goe bid his father and mother farewel before he could follow the Prophet O friends take heed of dallying delaying trifling going about the bush when you should be a faling upon the work of prayer What though
Father While the child is in the womb it cannot cry but as soon as it is born it cries Whilst Paul did lie in the womb of his natural estate he could not pray but no sooner was he born of the spirit but the next news is Behold he prayeth Acts. 9. 11. Prayer is nothing but the turning of a mans inside outward before the Lord. The very soul of prayer lyes in the pouring out of a mans soul into the bosome of God Prayer is nothing but the breathing that out before the Lord that was first breath'd into us by the spirit of the Lord Prayer is nothing but a choice a free a sweet and familiar intercourse of the soul with God Certainly it is a great work of the Spirit to help the Saints to pray Gal. 4. 6. Because you are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba father God hath no still-born children The Gemination Abba Father notes fiduciall filial and vehement affection The first is an Pareus Hebrew or Syriack word the Second a Greek whereby is signified the union of the Hebrews and Grecians or the Jews and Gentiles in one Church Abba Father What is Abba say others in Hebrew Father and it is added because in Christ the corner stone both peoples are joyned alike becoming sons whence soever they come circumcision from one place whereupon Abba uncircumcision from another whereupon father is named The concord of the walls being the glory of the corner stone The word Abba say others signifies Father in the Syriack Tongue which the Apostle here retaineth because it is a word full of affection which young children retain almost in all Languages when they begin to speak And he adds the word Father not only to expound the same but also the better to express the eager movings and the earnest and vehement desires and singular affection of beleevers in their crying unto God even as Christ himself redoubled the Mark 14. 36. word Father to the same purpose when he was in his greatest distress This little word Father saith Luther lisped forth in prayer by a Child of God exceeds the eloquence of Demosthenes Cicero and all other so famed Orators in the World 'T is certain that the Spirit of God helps the Saints in all their communions with God viz. in their meditations of God in their reading and hearing of the Word of God in their communions one with another and in all their solemn addresses to God And as to this the Apostle gives us a most special instance in that Rom. 8. 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered When we are to pray there is in us sometimes an infirmity of ignorance so that we know not what to pray for either in regard of the matter or the manner And there is in us at other times an infirmity of pride and conceitedness so that we cannot pray with that humility and lowliness of spirit as we should spiritual pride having fly-blown our prayers Sometimes there is in us an infirmity of deadness dullness drowsiness c. so that we cannot pray with that warmth heat life spirit and fervency as we should or as we would and at other times there is in us an infirmity of unbelief and slavish fears so that we cannot pray with that faith and holy boldness as becomes Children that draw near to a Throne of Grace to a Throne of Mercy c. But now the Spirit helps these infirmities by way of instruction prompting and teaching us what to pray for and how we should spell our lesson and by telling us as it were within what we should say and how we should sigh and groan and by rousing and quickening and stirring of us up to prayer and by his singular influence and choice assistance opening and enlarging our hearts in prayer and by his tuning the Strings of our affections he prepares us and fits us for the work of Supplication And therefore every one that derides the Spirit of prayer in the Saints saying these are the men and the women that pray by the Spirit blaspheme against the holy Spirit it being a main work of the Spirit to teach the Saints to pray and to help them in prayer Now all the Saints having the Spirit and the Spirit being a Spirit of prayer and supplication there is no reason in the world why a Saint should say I would pray in secret but I can't pray I can't pour out my soul nor my complaint before the Lord in a corner Sixthly and lastly Thou sayest thou canst not pray thou hast not the gifts and parts which others have But thou canst mannage thy callings thy worldly businesse as well as others and why then canst thou not pray as well as others Ah friends did you but love private prayer as well as you love the world and delight in private prayer as much as you delight in the world and were your hearts as much set upon closet prayer as they are set upon the world you would never say you could not pray yea you would quickly pray as well as others 't is not so much from want of ability to pray in secret that you don't pray in secret as 't is from want of a will a heart to pray in secret that you don't pray in secret Jacobs love to Rachel and Sechems love to Dina carried Gen. 29. ch 34. them through the greatest difficulties Were mens affections but strongly set upon private prayer they would quickly find abilities to pray He that sets his affections upon a Virgin though he be not learned nor eloquent will find words enough to let her know how his heart is taken with her The application is easie He in Seneca complained of a Thorn in his foot when his Lungs was rotten So many complain of want of ability to pray in their closets when their hearts are rotten Sirs do but get better hearts and then you will never say you can't pray 'T is one of the saddest sights in all the world to see men strongly parted and gifted for all worldly businesses to cry out that they can't pray that they have no ability to pour out their souls before the Lord in secret You have sufficient parts and gifts to tell men of your sins your wants your dangers your difficulties your mercies your deliverances your duties your crosses your losses your enjoyments your friends your foes and why then are you not ashamed to complain of your want of parts and gifts to tell those very things to God in a corner which you can tell to men even upon the house-top c. But Fourthly Some may further object and say God is very well acquainted with all our wants necessities straits tryals and there is no moving of him to bestow any favours upon us which he
with Hannah thou can'st but weep out a prayer or with Moses stammer out a prayer or with Hezekiah chatter out a prayer yet do as well as thou can'st and thou shalt find acceptance with God 2 Cor. 8. 12. For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not The Publicans prayer had not much Rhetorick or eloquence in it God be merciful to me a sinner and yet God accepted it He Luke 18. 13. prayed much though he spake little and God did not turn a deafe ear upon him That God that once accepted a handfull of meale Lev. 2. 1 2. Chap. 6. 15. Luke 21 3. for a sacrifice and a gripe of Goats hair for an oblation and the poor widows two mites as if they had been two millions will certainly accept of what thou art able to do though thou dost fall short yea much short of what thou oughtest to doe Lord saith Luther thou commandest me to pray I cannot pray as I would yet I will obey for though my prayer be not acceptable yet thine own commandement is acceptable to thee If weak Christians would but put forth in prayer that little strength they have God would quickly renew their spiritual strength he would certainly carry them on from strength to strength he would Isa 49. 29 30 31. Psal 84. 7. still by secret assistances and secret influences help them on in their heavenly trade As a loving indulgent Father will take his little Child in his armes and carry him on in his way home ward when his strength begins to fail him and he can walk no further and the way proves dirty slippery or uneven So doth God by his Hos 11. 3. I taught Ephram also to go as a nurse doth the infant taking them by their arm When Gods poor Children come to a fowl way or a rough place he takes them up in his own arms and helps them over the quagmire of Crosses and the difficulties of duties and over all that straitness and narrowness and weakness oâ— spirit that doth attend them in their closet performances 'T is observable that when the King of Israel was to shoot the Arrow 2 Kings 13. 16. he did put his hand upon the Bow and Elisha did put his hand upon the Kings hand So when we go into our Closets we are to put up our hand and then the Spirit of God likewise will put his hand upon our hand he will put his strength to our strengâ—h or rather to our weakness Rom. 8. 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities lifts with us or helpeth together The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie such a help as when another man of strength and ability steppeth in to sustain the burden that lieth upon our shoulders be it a logg or a piece of timber setting his shoulders under it to lift up and bear part of it with us or to help us as the nurse helpeth her little child upholding it by the sleeve When a poor Christian sets himself to closet prayer or to mourn or to believe or to obey c. then the Spirit comes in with new help and new influences and new assistances and so carryes him on in all these noble services That child that doth but stammer at first in time will speak plainly and fluently O how many Christians are there that now can pray with much freedom liberty and fluency who at first could only sigh out a prayer or stammer out a prayer or weep out a prayer Thou saiest thou canst not pray but didst thou but stir up thy self to obey that command Matth. 6. 6. as well as thou canst thou dost not know but that a power may go forth with the command that may enable thee to act suitable to the command In Matth 9. 1 9. Christ bid the Palsie man rise and walk Take up thy bed and go unto thine house The Palsie man might have objected Alas I am carried by four I am not able to stir a limb much less to rise but least of all to take up my bed and walk c. Oh but he rouseth up himself as well as he could and a power went forth with the command that enabled him to do what was commanded So Matth. 12. 10 14 There was a poor man that had a withered hand and Christ commands him to stretch forth his hand he might have replied My hand is withered and if I might have as many worlds as there be men in the world to stretch it forth I could not stretch it forth yea if my very life if my very salvation did lie upon stretching forth my withered arm I could not stretch it forth Oh but he throws by all such plea's and complies with Christ's command as well as he could and a power went forth and healed his hand O sirs if you would but pray in your closets as well as you can you do not know but that such power and virtue might flow from Christ into your hearts as might carry you on in your closet duties beyond expectation even to admiration others have found it so and why not you why not you Well remember that God is no curious nor critical observer of the incongruous expressions that falls from his poor children when they are in their closet duties he is such a father as is very well pleased with the broken expressions and divine stammerings of his people when they are in a corner 'T is not a flood of words nor studied notions nor seraphical expressions nor elegant phrases in prayer that takes the ear or that delights the heart of God or that opens the gates of glory or that brings down the best of blessings upon the soul but uprightness holiness heavenlyness spiritualness and brokenness of heart these are the things that make a conquest upon God and that turns most to the souls account But Fifthly Thou sayst thou canst not pray but if thou art a child of God thou hast the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God is a Spirit of prayer and supplication That all the Children of God have the Spirit of God is most evident in the blessed Scriptures Take these for a taste Zach. 12. 10. I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication Psal 51. 11. Take not thy holy Spirit from me Rom. 8. 15. Ye have received the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have received not the Spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God 1 Thes 4. 8. Who hath given unto us his holy spirit 1 John 3. 2â— Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us Chap. 4. 13. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath
and lively seasons for Closet-prayer is the mornings before a mans spirit be blunted or cooled deadned damped or flatted by worldly businesses A man should speak with God in his Closet before he speaks with his worldly affairs and occasions A man should say to all his worldly businesseg as Abraham said unto his young men when he went to offer up his only Isaac abide you here and I will goe yonder and worship and then return to you again He that will attend Closet-prayer without distraction or disturbance must not first slip out of the world into his Closet but he must first slip into his Closet before he be compassed about with a crowd of worldly employments It was a Precept of Pythagoras that when we enter into the Temple to worship God we must not so much as speak or think of any worldly business least we make Gods service an idle perfunctory and lazy recreation The same I may say of Closet-prayer Jerome complains very much of his distractions dulness and indisposedness to prayer and chides himself thus What dost thou think that Jonah prayed thus when he was in the Whales belly or Daniel when he was among the Lyons or the Thief when he was upon the Cross Thirdly When men or women are under rash and passionate 1 Tim. 2. 8. distempers for when passions are up holy affections are down and this is a very unfit season for Closet-prayer for such prayers will never reach Gods eare which do not first warm our own hearts In the Muscovy Churches if the Minister mistake in reading or stammer in pronouncing his words or speak any word that is not well heard the hearers doe very much blame him and are ready to take the book from him as unworthy to read therein And certainly God is no less offended with the giddy rash passionate precipitate and inconsiderate prayers of those who without a deliberate understanding do send their petitions to heaven in post-hast Solomons advice is worthy of all commendation and acceptation Be not Eccl. 5 2. rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God Or as the Hebrew may be read Let not thy heart through hast be so troubled or disturbed as to tumble over and throw out words without wisdome or premeditation Good men are apt many times to be too hasty rash and unadvised in their prayers complaints and deprecations Psal 31. 2. 2 Psal 116. 11 Job 10. 1 2 3. Jer. 18. 15. 18. Jon. 4. 2 3 4. Matth. 20. 20 21. witness David Job Jeremiah Jonah and the Disciples No Christian to him that doth wisely seriously weigh over his prayers and praises before he pours out his soul before the Lord. He never repents of his requests who first duly deliberates what to request but he that blurts out whatsoever lyes uppermost and that brings into the presence of God his rash raw tumultuary and indigested petitions confessions complaints c. he doth but provoke God he doth but brawl with God instead of praying to him or wrestling with him Suiters at Court observe their fittest times and seasons of begging they commonly take that very nick of time when they have the King in a good mood and so seldome or never come off but with good success Sometimes God strongly enclines the heart to closet-Closet-prayer sometimes he brings the heart before hand into a praying frame sometimes both body and soul are more enlivened quickned raised and divinely enflamed than at other times sometimes Conscience is more stirring working and tender c. O now strike while the Iron is hot O now lay hold on all such blessed opportunities by applying of thy self to private prayer O Sirs can you take your fittest times seasons and opportunities for plowing and sowing and reaping and buying and selling and eating and drinking and marrying c. And can't you as well take your fittest times and seasons to seek the Lord in your Closets Must the best God be put off with the least and worst of your time the Lord forbid Neglect not the seasons of grace slip not your opportunities for Closet-prayer thousands have lost their seasons and their souls together My Third Advice and counsel is this Be marvelous careful that you do not perform Closet Duties meerly to still your Consciences you must perform them out of Conscience but you must not perform them only to quiet Conscience Some have such a light set up in their understandings that they cannot omit An ill Conscience saith Austin is like a scolding wife a man saith he that hath an ill Conscience he cares not to be at at home he cares not to look into his own soul but loves to be abroad Closet-prayer but Conscience is upon their backs Conscience is still upbraiding and disquieting of them and therefore they are afraid to neglect Closet-prayer least Conscience should question arraign and condemn them for their neglects Sometimes when men have greatly sinned against the Lord Conscience becomes impatient and is still accusing condemning and terrifying of them and now in these Agonies they will run to their Closets and cry and pray and mourn and confess and bitterly bewail their transgressions but all this is only to quiet their Consciences and sometimes they find upon their performances of Closet-duties that their Consciences are a little allayed and quieted and for this very end and purpose do they take up Closet-prayer as a charm to allay their Consciences and when the storm is over and their Consciences quieted then they lay aside Closet-prayer as the Monk did the net when the fish was caught and are ready to transgresse again O Sirs take heed of this for this is but plain hypocrisie and will be bitternesse in the end He that performs Closet-prayer only to bribe his Conscience that it may not be clamorous or to stop the mouth of Conscience that it may not accuse him for sin he will at length venture upon such a trade such a course of sinning against Conscience as will certainly turn his troubled Conscience into a seared Conscience And a seared Conscience is like a sleepy Lyon when 2 Tim. 4. 2. he awakes he roars and tears his prey in pieces and so will a seared Conscience when 't is awakened roar and tear the secure sinner in pieces When Dionysius Conscience was awakened he was so troubled with fear and horrour of Conscience that not daring to trust his best friends with a razor he used to singe his beard with burning coals as Cicero reports All the mercy that a seared a benummed Conscience doth afford the sinner when it doth most befriend him when it deals most seemingly kind with him is this that it will not cut that it may kill it will not convince that it may confound it will not accuse that it may condemn it will spare the sinner a while that it may torment him for ever it will spare him here that it may gnaw
resting place 't is his free grace 't is his singular mercy 't is his infinite love that is your resting place 't is the bosome of Christ the favour of Christ the satisfaction of Christ and the pure perfect spotlesse marchless and glorious righteousnesse of Christ that is your resting place and therefore say to all your Closet-duties and performances farewell prayer farewell reading farewell fasting farewell tears farewell sighs and groanes farewell meltings and humblings I will never trust more to you I will never rest more on you but I will now return to my resting place I will now rest only in God and Christ I will now rest wholly in God and Christ I will now rest for ever in God and Christ It was the saying of a precious Saint that he was more afraid of his duties than of his sins for the one made him often proud the other made him always humble But My fifth advice and counsel is this Labour to bring your hearts into all your closet-Closet-prayers and performances Look that your tongues and your hearts keep time tune Psal 17. 1. Give ear unto my prayer that goeth not out of feigned lips or as it is in the Hebrew without lips of deceit Heart and tongue must goe together word and work lip and life prayer and practise must eccho one to another or else thy prayers and thy soul will be lost together the labour of the lips and the travail of the heart must go together The Egyptians of all fruits made choice of the Peach to consecrate Plutark to their Goddess and for no other cause but that the fruit thereof is like to ones heart and the leaf like to ones tongue These very Heathens in the worship of their gods thought it necessary that mens hearts and tongues should go together Ah Christians when in your Closet-duties your hearts and your tongues go together then you make that sweet and delightful melody that is most taking and pleasing to the King of Kings The very soul of prayer lyes in the 1 Sam. 1. 15. pouring out of the Soul before God Psal 42. 4. When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me So the Israelites poured out their souls like water before the Lord So the Church The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee VVith my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Isa 26. 8 9. So Lament 3. 41. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens So Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw neer with a true heart c. So Rom. 1. 9. For God is my witnesse whom I serve in the Spirit 1 Cor. 14 15. I will pray with the spirit and sing with the spirit Phil. 3. 3. VVe are the Circumcision which worship God in the spirit Under the Law the inward parts were only to be offered to God in sacrifice the skin belonged to the Priests whence we may easily gather that truth in the inward parts is that which is most pleasing in a sacrifice When the Athenians would know of the Oracle the cause of their often unprosperous successes in battel against the Lacedemonians seeing they offered the choycest things they could get in sacrifice to the gods which their enemies did not the Oracle gave them this answer that the gods were better pleased with their inward supplication without ambition than with all their outward pomp in costly Sacrifices Ah Sirs the reason why so many are so unsuccessful in their Closet-duties and services is because there is no more of their hearts in them No man can make sure work or happy work in prayer but he that makes heart work on it When a mans heart is in his prayers then great and sweet will be his returns from heaven that is no prayer in which the heart of the person bears no part When the Soul is separated from the body the man is dead and so when the heart is separated from the lip in prayer the prayer is dead The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their Synagogues these words Tephillah belo cavannah ceguph belo neshamah that is a prayer without the heart or without the intention of the affection is like a body without a soul In the Law of Moses the Priest was commanded to wash the inwards and the feet of the Sacrifices in water and this was done saith Philo not without a mystery to teach us to keep our hearts and affections clean when we draw nigh to God In all your Closet-duties God looks first and most to your hearts My Son Pro. 23. 26. give me thy heart It is not a piece it is not a corner of the heart that will satisfie the maker of the heart the heart is a treasure a bed of spices a royal throne wherein he delights God looks not at the clegancy of your prayers to see how neat they are nor yet at the Geometry of your prayers to see how long they are nor yet at the Arithmetick of your prayers to see how many they are nor yet at the Musick of your prayers nor yet at the sweetness of your voice nor yet at the Logick of your prayers but at the sincerity of your prayers how hearty they are There is no prayer acknowledged approved accepted recorded or rewarded by God but that wherein the heart is sincerely and wholly The true mother would not have the Psal 51. 17. James 1. 8. child divided As God loves a broken and a contrite heart so he loaths a divided heart God neither loves halting nor halving he will be served truly and totally The Royal Law is Thou shalt love and serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul Among the Heathens when the beasts were cut up for sacrifice the first thing the Priest looked upon Pro. 21. 27. Isa 1. 11 12. Chap. 29. 13. Mat. 15. 7 8 9. Ezek. 33. 30 31 32. Zech. 7. 4 5 6. 2 Chron. 25 1 2. Psal 78. 36 37. was the heart and if the heart was naught the sacrifice was rejected Verily God rejects all those services and sacrifices wherein the heart is not as you may see by comparing the Scriptures in the margent together Prayer without the heart is but as sounding brass or a tinckling Cymbal Prayer is only lovely and weighty as the heart is in it and no otherwise It is not the lifting up of the voyce nor the wringing of the hands nor the beating of the breasts nor an affected tone nor studied notions nor seraphical expressions but the stirrings of the heart that God looks at in prayer God hears no more than the heart speaks if the heart be dumb God will certainly be deaf no prayer takes with God but that which is the travel of the heart The same day Julius Caesar came to the imperial dignity sitting in his Golden Chair he offered a
do defer Dan. 9. 19. not for thine own sake Look as there be two kinds of Antidotes against Poyson viz. hot and cold so there are two kinds of Antidotes against all the troubles of this life viz. fervent prayers and holy patience the one hot the other cold the one quickening and the other quenching and holy Daniel made use of them both Fervency to prayer is as the fire was to the spices in the Censor or as wings to the Bird or as oyl to the wheels and this Daniel found by experience God looks not for any James with horny knees through assiduity of prayer nor for any Bartholomew with a Century of prayers for the morning and as many for the evening but for fervency of spirit in prayer which alone carryes all with God Feeble prayers like weak pangs go over and never brings a mercy to the birth Cold prayers are still-born Children in whom the Father of spirits can take no pleasure Look as a painted man is no man and as painted fire is no fire so a cold prayer is no prayer Such prayers never win upon the heart of God that do not first warm our own hearts As a body without a soul much wood without fire a Bullet in a Gun without powder so are all prayers without fervency of Spirit Luther termes Prayer Bombarda Christianorum the Gun or Canon of Christians or the Christians Gun-shot The hottest springs send forth their waters by ebullitions Cold prayers make a smoak a smother Isa 1. 15. Ch. 65 5. in the eyes of God Lazy prayers never procure noble answers Lazy beggars may starve for all their begging Such as have a male in their flock and offer to the Lord a female Such as offer to the Lord the torn and the lame and the sick such as turn off God with their cold lazy sleepy and formal Mal. 1. 13 14. devotions are condemned cast and cursed by God David compares his prayers to incense and no incense was offered without Psal 141. 2. fire it was that that made the smoke of it to ascend 'T is only fervent prayer that hits the mark and that pierces the walls of heaven though like those of Gaza Isa 45. 2. made of Brass and Iron While the Child only whimpers and whines in the Cradle the Mother lets it alone but when once it sets up its note and cryes out right then she runs and takes it up So 't is with a Christian Psal 34. 6. This poor man cryed there is his fervency he cryed but it was silently and secretly in the presence of King Achish as Moses did at the Red-Sea and as Nehemiah did in the presence of the King of Persia and the Lord heard him and delivered him out of all his troubles here is his prevalency So Latimer plyed the Throne of grace with great fervency crying out Once again Lord once again restore the Gospel to England and God heard him Hudson the Martyr deserted at the Stake went from under his Chain and having prayed fervently he was comforted immediately and suffered valiantly I have read of one Giles of Bruxels a Dutch Martyr who was so fervent in his prayer kneeling by himself in some secret place of the Prison where he was that he seemed to forget himself and being called to his meat he neither heard nor saw who stood by him till he was lifted up by the armes and then he would speak gently to them as one awaked out of a Trance So Gregory Nazianzen speaking Paulin. Epist lib. 1. Epist 4. of his sister Gorgonia saith that in the vehemency of her prayer she came to a Religious impudency with God so as to threaten heaven and tell God that she would never depart from his Altar till she had her petition granted Let us make it our businesse to follow these noble examples as ever we would so Prince it in prayer as to prevail with God An importunate soul in prayer is like the poor beggar that prayes and knocks that prayes and waits that prayes and works that knocks and knits that begs and patches and will not stir from the door till he hath an alms Well Friends remember this God respects no more luke-warm prayers than he doth luke-warm persons and they are such that he hath threatned to spue out of his mouth Those prayers that are but lip-labour are lost-labour And therefore in all your Closet-prayers look to the fervency of your spirits My Seventh Advice and counsel is this Be constant as well as servent in Closet-prayer look that you hold on and hold out and that you persevere to the end in private prayer 1 Thes 5. 17. Pray without ceasing A man must alwayes pray habitually though not actually he must have his heart in a praying disposition in all estates and conditions Though closet-Closet-prayer may have an intermission yet it must never have a cessation Luke 18. 1. And he spake a Parable unto them to this end that men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint or as the Greek hath it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shrink back as sluggards in work or cowards in war Closet-prayer is a fire like that on the Altar that was never to go out day nor Lev. 12. 6. night 1 Thes 3. 10. Night and day praying exceedingly Paul speaks like a man made up all of prayer like a man that minded nothing so much as prayer So Ephes 6. 18. Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance Calvin makes this difference between praying alwayes in the beginning of this Verse and praying with perseverance in the end of this Verse By praying alwayes saith he he exhorts us to pray in prosperity as well as in adversity and not to quit the duty of prayer in a prosperous estate because we are not driven to it by outward pressing necessities and miseries and by praying with perseverance he admonisheth us that we be not weary of the work but continue instant and constance in its performance though we have not presently what we pray for So that praying alwayes is opposed to a neglect of the Duty in its proper times and seasons and praying with perseverance is opposed to a fainting in our spirits in respect of this or that particular suit or request that we put up to God When God turns a deaf ear to our prayers we must not fret nor faint we must not be dismayed nor discouraged but we must hold up and hold on in the Duty of prayer with invincible patience courage and constancy as the Church did Lament 3. 8 44 55 56 57. compared Col. 4. 2. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving We must be constant and instant in Closet-prayer we must wait upon it and lay all aside for it He that is only in his Closet by fits and starts will neither glorifie God nor advantage his own soul If we do not make a
from the presence of the Lord and 2 Thes 1. â— 8 9. from the glory of his power And therefore put your mouths in the dust and be silent before the Lord. He that hath deserved a hanging if he escape with a whipping hath no cause to murmur or complain and we that have deserved a damning have little cause to murmur or complain of a whipping yea though it should be with a Pestilential-Rod But The thirteenth Lesson that you are to learn by the Rod or by the raging Pestilence is highly fully freely and signally to justifie the Lord and to think well of the Lord to speak well of the Lord under the Rod to that purpose consult these Scriptures Psal 119. 75 137. Neh. 9. 33. Ezr. 9. 13. Lam. 1. 3 5 7 8 10 4 15 18. Dan. 9. 12. 14. 2 Kings 20. 16 17 18 19. Jer. 12. 1 2. Psal 129. 17 18 19 20 21 22. Psal 22. 1 2 3. Psal 97. 2. But The fourteenth Lesson that you are to learn by the Rod or by the raging Pestilence is personal reformation When the Rod smarts the Pestilence rageth God expects that every man should smite upon his thigh and turn from the evil of his doings 2 Chron. 7. 13 14. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain or if I command the locusts to devour the Land or if I send Pestilence among my people If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray seek my face turn from their wicked wayes then will I hear from heaven will forgive their sin will heal their Land that is I will remove the judgments that are upon the Land I will confer upon my reforming people all those favours blessings that they stand in need of Consult these Scriptures Ezr. 10. 14 19. 2 Chron. 30. 8 9. And chap. 29. 8 10 15 16. But The Fifteenth Lesson that you are to learn by the Rod or by the raging Pestilence is to make God your habitation your shelter your refuge Ponder seriously upon these Scriptures Psal 91. 2 9 10. Psal 90. 1. Psal 71. 3. Psal 57. 1. They dwell most safely most securely most nobly who dwell in God who live under the shadow of the Allmighty and who every day lodge their souls in the bosome of eternal loves But The Sixteenth Lesson that you are to learn by the Rod or the raging Pestilence is to set up God as the great object of your fear Psal 119. 119 120. Isa 8. 7 8 13 14. compared When the Judgments of God are either threatned or executed feared or felt it highly concerns us to lift up God as the main object of our fear we should fear the hand that layes on the Rod more than Job 13. 11. Jer. 36. 24. the Rod it self When God takes up the Rod when he draws his sword and when he shoots his Pestilential arrows amongst us O how highly doth it concern us to fear before him with a child-like fear with a reverential fear with a fear that fortifies the heart against sin and with a fear that fits the Soul for duty that draws yea drives the soul to duty But The seventeenth lesson that you are to learn by the Rod or by the raging Pestilence is to expect Gods singular presence with you and his admirable protection over you Consult these Scriptures Isa 43. 2. Dan. 3. 24 25. Gen. 39. 39 40. Psal 23. 4 5. Psal 91. Isa 63. 9. Isa 26. 20 21. Ezek. 9. 4 6. God is above his people and beneth them Deut. 33. 25 26 27. He is under them and over them Cant. 2. 6. He is before them behind them Isa 52. 12. chap. 58. 8. He is on the right hand of his people and he is on the left hand of his people Psal 16. 8. Psal 121. 5. Ps 118. 15 16 Exod. 14. 22 29. God is round about his people Psal 34. 7. Psal 125. 2. And God is in the midst of his people Zech. 2. 5. Psal 46. 5. Psal 12. 6 O the safety the security of the poor people of God for God is above his people beneth them he is under them over them he is before them behind them he is in the front in the rear and he is round about them and in the midst of them But The eighteenth Lesson that you are to learn by the Rod or by the raging Pestilence is to live every day in a fresh choice frequent excercise of grace Consult these Scriptures Psal 91. 2 3 4. Jer. 39. 17 18. Mic. 7. 7 8 9. Psal 40. 1 2. Hab. 2. 1 2 3 4. Jer. 30. â—1 That man that lives dayly in an exercise of grace that man lives every day in heaven on this side heaven what-ever affliction or judgment he is under The Ninteenth Lesson that you are to learn by the Rod or by the raging Pestilence is to quicken up your hearts to seek the Lord by extraordinary wayes means viz. by fasting prayer Consult these Scriptures Num. 16. 46 ult Psal 106. 23 29 30. Isa 22. 2 3 4 5 12 13. Jon. 3. 5 ult 2 Chron. 12. 2 3 4 5 6 7. 1 Kings 21. 21 ult Joel 2. 12 13 14 15. 16 17. But The Twentieth and so the last Lesson that you are to learn by the Rod or by the raging pestilence is To prepare for death it is to be in actual readiness to dye Ah Friends every ach every pain every disease is one of deaths warning pieces There is not a head-ach not a tooth-ach not a gripe not a grief not a fall not a wrench not a plague-sore but is a divine warning to man to prepare to die 'T is a soleemn work to die and therefore we had need prepare to die 'T is a work that is to be done but once and therefore we had need prepare to do that work well that is to be done but once In this world we hear often pray often read often and meditate often eat often drink often Job 14. 14. Heb. 9. 27. and that which is worst we sin often but we must die but once Death will try all our graces all our experiences all our evidences all our comforts all our attainments and all our He that would see more of this may read my String of Pearls and the Funeral Sermon that is at the end of my Book of Assurance enjoyments and therefore we had need to prepare to die Though there is nothing more certain than death yet there is nothing more uncertain than 1. The time when we shall die 2. The place where we shall die And 3. The manner how we shall die as whether we shall die a sudden death or a lingring death or a violent death or whether we shall fall by the sword abroad or by famine or pestilence at home or whether we shall fall by this disease or that and therefore we
had need be alwayes in an actual readiness to die No man shall die the sooner but much the easier and the better for preparing to die And therefore let us alwayes have our loins girt and our lamps burning As death leaves us so Judgment will find us and there fore we have very great cause to secure our interest in Christ a changed nature and a pardon in our bosomes that so we might have nothing to do but to die Except we prepare to die all other preparations will do us no good In a word Death is a change a great change 't is the the last change till the resurrection 't is lasting yea an everlasting change for it puts a man into an eternall condition of happiness or misery 't is an universal change all persons must pass under this flaming Sword That Statute Law Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return will Gen. 3. 18. sooner or later take hold on all mortals and therefore it highly concerns us to prepare for death And thus I have shewn you these Lessons that you are to learn by the Rod. The Lord grant that your souls may fall under those fresh those choice those full and those constant influences and communications of his holy Spirit as may enable you to take out those twenty Lessons that I have laid open before you I confess the Epistle is large but do but consider your own conditions and the present dispensations under which we are cast then I suppose you will not call it by the name of a tedious Epistle Dear Friends the following discourse on Closet-prayer I heartily recommend to your serious perusal I have many reasons to hope that when you have once read it over you will be more in love with Closet-prayer than ever that you will set a higher price upon Closet-prayer than ever that you will make a better and fuller improvement of Closet-prayer than ever yet you have done Consider what I say in my Epistle to the Reader labour so to manage this little Treatise that now I put into your hands that God may be glorified your own souls edified comfored encouraged in the wayes of the Lord and that you may be my Crown and joy in the great day of our Lord Jesus So 1 Thes 2. 19 20. wishing that the good will of him that dwelt in the bush may abide upon you and yours for ever I take leave and rest Dear Friends Your souls servant in our Dear Lord Jesus THOMAS BROOKS TO THE READER Christian Reader THe Epistle Dedicatory being occasionally so large I shall do little more than give thee the grounds and reasons of sending forth this little piece into the World especially in such a day as this is Now my reasons are these First Because God by his present dispensations calls more loudly for Closet-prayer now than he hath done in those last twenty years that are now past over our heads See more of this in the 16. Argument for Closet-prayer pag. 103 to p. 108. Secondly Because I have several reasons to fear that many Christians do not clearly nor fully understand the necessity excellency and usefulness of this subject and that many O that I could not say any live in too great a neglect of this indispensible duty and that more than a few for want of light erre in the very practice of it Thirdly For the refreshing support and encouragement of all those Churches of Christ that walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost c. especially that particular Church to whom I stand related Fourthly To preserve and keep up the power of Religion and Godliness both in mens houses hearts and lives The power of Religion and Godliness lives thrives or dies as closet-Closet-prayer lives thrives or dies Godliness never rises to a higher pitch than when men keep closest to their Closets c. Fifthly Because Closet-prayer is a most sovereign Remedy a most precious Antidote of Gods own prescribing against the Plague that now rageth in the midst of us 1 Kings 8. 37 38 39 c. Sixthly Because every man is that really which he is secretly Never tell me how handsomly how neatly how bravely this or that man acts his part before others but tell me if thou canst how he acts his part before God in his Closet for the man is that certainly that he is secretly There are many that sweat upon the stage that are key-cold in their Closets Seventhly Though many worthies have done worthily upon all other parts of prayer yet there are none either of a former or later date that have fallen under my eye that have written any Treatise on this Subject I have not a little wondred that so many eminent Writers should pass over this great and princely duty of Closet-prayer either with a few brief touches or else in a very great silence If several Bodies of Divinity are consulted you will find that all they say clearly and distinctly as to Closet-prayer may be brought into a very narrow compass if not into a nut-shell I have also enquired of several old Disciples whether among all the thousand Sermons that they have heard in their dayes that ever they have heard one Sermon on Closet-prayer and they have answered No. I have also enquired of them whether ever they had read any Treatise on that Subject and they have answered No. And truly this hath been no small encouragement to me to make an offer of my mite and if this small attempt of mine shall be so blest as to provoke others that have better heads and hearts and hands than any I have to do Christ and his people more service in the handling of this choice point in a more copious way than what I have been able to reach unto I shall therein rejoyce Eighthly and lastly That favour that good acceptance and fair quarter that my other poor labours have found not onely in this Nation but in other Countryes also hath put me upon putting pen to paper once more and I hope that the good will of him that dwelt in the bush will rest upon this as it hath to the glory of free grace rested upon my former endeavers I could add other reasons but let these suffice Good Reader when thou art in thy Closet pray hard for a poor weak worthless worm that I may be found faithful and fruitful to the death that so at last I may receive a Crown of Life So wishing thee all happiness both in this lower and in that upper World I rest Thine in our Dear Lord Jesus THOMAS BROOKS Books printed and are to be sold by John Hancock at the first shop in Popes-head-Alley next to Cornhill NIne Books lately published by Mr. Thomas Brooks late Preacher of the Gospel at St. Margarets New Fish-street 1 Precious Remedies against Satans Devices Or Salve for Believers and Unbelievers sores being a Companion for those that are in Christ or
an Allegory they say that in these words there are two Allegories First the Chamber Door is the Sense Shut the Door that is say they thy Sense lest vain imaginations and worldly thoughts distract thy mind in praying Secondly The Door say they is our Mouth Shut thy Door that is thy Lips say they and let thy Prayer be like the Prayer of Hannah conceived in thy mind but not uttered with thy mouth 'T is usual with Papists and other monkish men that lye in wait to deceive to turn the blessed Scriptures into a Nose of Wax under pretence of Allegories and Mysteries Origen was a great admirer Euseb Eccl. Hist Lib. 6. chap. 8. of Allegories by the strength of his parts and wanton wit he turn'd most of the Scriptures into Allegories and by the just Judgement of God upon him he foolishly understood and absurdly applied that Matth. 19. 12. litterally Some have made themselves chaste for the Kingdom of Heaven and so gelded himself And indeed he might as well have pluck't out one of his eyes upon the same account because Christ saith It is better to go to Heaven with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into Hell fire Matth. 18. 9. In all Ages Hereticks have commonly defended their Heresies by translating of Scriptures into Allegories The Apostle speaks of such as denying the Resurrection of the body turn all the testimonies of the Resurrection into an Allegory meaning thereby only the spiritual Resurrection of the soul from sin of which sort was Hymeneus and Philetus who destroyed the faith of some saying the Resurrection was past already 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. And are there not many among us that turn the whole History of the Bible into an Allegory and that turn Christ and Sin and Death and the Soul and Hell and Heaven and all into an Allegory Many have and many do miserably pervert the Scriptures by turning them into vain and groundless Allegories Some wanton wits have expounded Paradise Philo Judaeus and others of a later date to be the Soul Man to be the Mind the Woman to be the Sense the Serpent to be Delight the Tree of knowledge of good and evil to be Wisdome and the rest of the Trees to be the Vertues and Endowments of the Mind O friends it is dangerous to bring in Allegories where the Scripture doth not clearly and plainly warrant them and to take those words Figuratively which should be taken properly The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in the Text rendred Closet hath only three most usual significations amongst Greek Authors First it may be taken for a secret Chamber or close and locked Parlour Secondly for a Safe or Cupbord to lay Victuals in Thirdly for a locked Chest or Cupbord wherein Treasure usually is reserved The best and most judicious Interpreters that I have cast mine eye upon both of a former and later date do all expound my Text of Private Prayer in retired places and with them I close And so the main Doctrine that I shall gather from the words is this That Closet-Prayer or Private-Prayer is an indispensible duty that Doct. Christ himself hath laid upon all that are not willing to lye under the woful brand of being Hypocrites I beseech you seriously to lay to heart these five things First If any Prayer be a duty then secret Prayer must needs be a duty for secret Prayer is as much Prayer as any other Prayer is Prayer and secret Prayer prepares and fits the soul for Family-Prayer and for Publick-Prayer Secret-Prayer sweetly enclines strongly disposes a Christian to all other religious duties and services Ergo. But Secondly If Secret Prayer be not an indispensible duty that lyes upon thee by what authority doth Conscience so upbraid thee and so accuse thee and so condemn thee and so terrifie thee as it often doth for the neglect of this duty But Thirdly Was it ever the way or method of God to promise again and again a reward an open reward for that work or service which himself never commanded Surely No. Now to this duty of Secret Prayer the Lord hath again and again promised an open reward Matth. 6. 6. 18. And therefore without all peradventure this is a duty incumbent upon all Christians Fourthly Our Saviour in the Text takes it for granted that every child of God will be frequent in praying to his heavenly Father and therefore he encourages them so much the more in the work of Secret Prayer When you Pray As if he had said I know you can as well hear without eares and live without food and fight without hands and walk without feet as you are able to live without Prayer And therefore when you go to wait on God or to give your heavenly Father a visit Enter into your Closet and shut your doors c. Fifthly If Closet Prayer be not an indispensible duty that Christ hath laid upon all his people why doth Satan so much oppose it why doth he so industriously and so unweariedly labour to discourage Christians in it to take off Christians from it Certainly Satan would never make such a fierce constant war as he doth upon private Prayer were it not a necessary duty a reall duty and a soul-enriching duty But more of this you will find in the following discourse and therefore let this touch suffice for the present c. Now these five things do very clearly and evidently demonstrate that secretly and solitarily to hold entercourse with God is the undoubted duty of every Christian But for a more full opening and confirmation of this great and important Point I shall lay down these Twenty Arguments or Considerations c. First The most eminent Saints both in the Old and New Testament have applied themselves to Private-Prayer Moses was alone in the Mount with God forty dayes and fourty nights Exod. 34. 28. So Abraham fills his mouth with Arguments and reasons the case out alone with God in Prayer to prevent Sodoms desolation and destruction and never leaves off pleading and praying till he had brought God down from fifty to ten Gen. 18. 22-32 and in Gen. 21. 33. you have Abraham again at his private prayers And Abraham planted a Grove in Beer-sheba and called there on the name of the Lord the everlasting God Why did Abraham plant a Grove but that he might have a most private place to pray and poure out his soul before the Lord in So Isaac Gen. 24. 63. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide The Hebrew word Lasuach that is here rendred Meditate signifies to pray as well as to meditate and so it is often used 'T is a comprehensive word that takes in both Prayer and Meditation So you shall find Jacob at his private-prayer Gen. 32. 24 25 26 27 28. And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day When Jacob was all alone and in a
dark night and when his joynts were out of joynt he so wrestles and weeps and weeps and wrestles in private Prayer that as a Prince at last he prevailes with God Hos 12. 3 4. So David Psal 55. 16 17. As for me I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voyce So Daniel was three times a day in private prayer Dan. 6. 10. Now when Daniel knew that the Writing was sign'd he went into his house and his Windows being open in his Chamber toward Jerusalem he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime Daniel had accustomed himself to private prayer he went to his closet before he went to his publick employment and State affairs and at his return to dinner he turned first into his Chamber to serve his God and refresh his soul before he set down to feast his body and at the end of the day when he had dispatcht his business with men he made it his business to wait upon God in his Chamber So Jonah keeps up private prayer when he was in the Fishes belly yea when he was in the belly of Hell Jonah 2. 1 2 c. So we have Elias at prayer under the Juniper Tree 1 Kings 19. 4. So Hannah 1 Sam. 1. 13. Now Hannah she speaks in her heart only her lips moved but her voice was not heard The very soul of prayer lyes in the pouring out of the soul before God as Hannah did vers 15. Neither was Rebecah a stranger to this duty who upon the Babes strugling in her womb went to enquire of the Lord Gen. 25. 22. that is she went to some secret place to pray saith Calvin Musculus Mercer and others So Saul is no sooner converted but presently he falls upon private prayer Acts 9. 11. And the Lord said unto him arise and go into the street which is called Strait and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth Though he was a strict Pharisee yet he never prayed to purpose before nor never prayed in private before The Pharisees used to pray in the corners of the Streets and not in the corners of their houses And after his conversion he was frequently in private prayer as you may see by comparing of these Scriptures together Rom. 1. 9. Ephes 1. 15 16. 1 Phil. 3 4. 2 Tim. 1. 3. So Epaphras was a warm man in closet prayer Phil. 4. 12 13. So Cornelius had devoted himself to private prayer Acts 10. 2 4. And so Peter gets up to the house top to pray vers 9. On the morrow as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the City Peter went up upon the house-top to pray about the sixth hour Peter got up upon the Leads not only to avoid destraction but that he might be the more secret in his private devotion Eusebius tells us of James called Justus that his knees were grown hard and brawny with kneeling so much in private prayer And Nazianzen reports of his Sister Gorgonia that her knees seemed to cleave to the earth by her often praying in private And Gregory saith of his Aunt Trucilla that her Elbows was as hard as horn by often leaning upon her Desk at private prayer I have read of a devout person who when the set time for his private devotion was come whatever company he was in he would break from them with this neat and handsome come off I have a friend that stayes for me Farewel And there was once a great Lady of this Land who would frequently withdraw from the company of Lords and Ladies of great quality who came to visit her rather than she would lose her set times of waiting upon God in her Closet she would as they call'd it rudely take her leave of them that so she might in private attend the Lord of Lords She would spare what time she could to express her favours civilities and courtesies among her Relations and Friends but she would never suffer them to rob God of his time nor her soul of that comfort and communion which she used to enjoy when she was with God in her Closet And indeed one hours communion with God in ones closet is to be preferr'd before the greatest and best company in the World And there was a child of a Christian Gentle-woman that was so given to prayer from its infancy that before it could well speak it would use to get alone and go to prayer and as it grew it was more frequent in prayer and retiring of it self from company and he would ask his Mother very strange questions far above the capacity of one of his years but at last when this child was but five years old and whipping of his top on a sudden he flung away his Scourge-stick and Top and ran to his Mother and with great joy said unto her Mother I must go to God will you go with me She answered My dear Child how dost thou know thou shalt go to God he answered God hath told me so for I love God and God loves me She answered Dear Child I must go when God pleaseth But why wilt thou not stay with me The Child answered I will not stay I must go to God And the Child did not live above a moneth after but never cared for play more but falling sick he would alwayes be saying that he must go to God he must go to God And thus sometimes out of the Mat. 21. 16. mouthes of Babes and Sucklings God hath perfected praise Certainly such persons will be ripe for Heaven betimes who begin betimes to seek God in a Closet in a Corner And Eusebius reports of Constantine the Emperour that every day he used to shut up himself in some secret place in his Palace and there on bended knees did make his devout Prayers and Soliloquies to God My God and I are good company said famous Dr. Sibbs A man whose soul is conversant with God in a Closer in a Hole behind the Door or in a Desart a Den a Dungeon shall find more real pleasure more choice delight and more full content than in the Pallace of a Prince By all these famous Instances you see that the People of God in all Ages have addicted themselves to private prayer O friends these pious examples should be very awakning very convincing and very encouraging to you Certainly 't is as much your duty as 't is your glory to follow these pious patterns that are now set before you Witness these following Scriptures Prov. 2. 20. That thou mayest walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of the righteous 1 Cor. 11. 1. Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ Phil. 3. 17. Brethren be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an
in favour with God a man that art very pleasing and delightful to God God loves to lade the wings of private prayer with the sweetest choicest and chiefest blessings Ah how often hath God kissed a poor christian at the beginning of private prayer and spoke peace to him in the midst of private prayer and fill'd him with light and joy and assurance upon the close of private prayer And so Cornelius is highly commended and graciously rewarded upon the account of his private prayer Acts. 10. 1 2 3 4. There was a certain man in Cesarea called Cornelius a Centurion of the Band called the Italian Band a devout man and one that feared God with all his house which gave much Alms to the people and prayed to God alwayes He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth houre of the day an Angel of God coming in to him and saying unto him Cornelius And when he looked on him he was afraid and said what is it Lord and he said unto him thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God Vers 30. 31. And Cornelius said four dayes agoe I was fasting until this hour that is until about three a clock in the after-noon vers 3. and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house and behold a man stood before me in bright cloathing and said Cornelius thy prayer is heard and thine Alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God Mark as he was praying in his house namely by himself alone a man in bright clothing that was an Angel in mans shape vers 3. appeared to him and said Cornelius thy prayer is heard he doth not mean only that prayer which he made when he fasted and humbled himself before the Lord vers 30. 31. but as vers 2 3 4. shews His prayers his prayers which he made alone for it seemes none else were with him then for he only saw that man in bright cloathing and to him alone the Angel addressed his present speech saying Cornelius thy prayers are heard vers 4 31. Here you see that Cornelius his private prayers are not only heard but kindly remembred and graciously accepted and gloriously rewarded Praying Cornelius is not only remembred by God but he is also visited sensibly and evidently by an Angel and assured that his private prayers and good deeds are an odour a sweet smel a sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing to God And so when had Peter his Vision but when he was praying alone on the house-top Acts 10. 9 10 11 12 13. On the morrow as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the City Peter went up unto the house-top to pray about the sxith hour And he became very hungry and would have eaten but while they made ready he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and a certain Vessel descending unto him as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air And there came a voice to him Rise Peter kill and eat When Peter was upon the house-top at prayer alone then he fell into a trance and then he saw Heaven opened and then he had his spirit raised his Mind clevated and all the Faculties of his soul filled with a Divine Revelation And so when Paâ—l was at prayer alone he saw in Acts 11 18. a Vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight Paul had not been long at private prayer before it was revealed to him that he was a chosen vessel before he was filled with the gifts Graces and Comforts of the Holy Ghost And when John was alone in the Isle of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ whither he was banished by Domitian a most cruel Emperor then he had a glorious Euseb l. 3. c. 18. Rev. 1. 9 ult Rev. 5. 1 to 9. sight of the Son of man and then the Lord discovered to him most deep and profound Mysteries both concerning the present and future state of the Church to the end of the world And when John was weeping in private prayer doubtless then the sealed book was opened to him So when Daniel was at private prayer God dispatches a heavenly messenger to him and his Errand was to open more clearly and fully the blessed Scripture to him Some comfortable encourraging knowledge this holy man Doctor Ames got his learning by privat prayer and so did Solomon his wisdom of God had attain'd unto before by his frequent and constant study in the word and this egges him on to private prayer and private prayer posts an Angel from heaven to give him a clearer and fuller light Private prayer is a Golden-key to unlock the mysteries of the word unto us The knowledge of many choice and blessed Truths are but the returns of private prayer The Word dwells most richly in their hearts who are most in pouring out of their hearts before God in their Closets When Bonaventure that seraphical Doctor as some call him was asked by Aquinas from what books and helps he derived such holy and divine expressions and contemplations He pointed to a Crucifix and said Iste est liber c. Prostrate in prayer at the feet of this Image my soul receiveth greater light from heaven than from all study and disputation Though this be a Monkish tradition superstitious Fiction yet some improvement may be made of it Certainly that Christian or that Minister that in private prayer lyes most at the feet of Jesus Christ he shall understand most of the mind of Christ in the Gospel and he shall have most of heaven and the things of his owne peace brought down into his heart There is no Service wherein christians have such a near familiar and friendly entercourse with God as in this of private prayer neither is there any Service wherein God doth more delight to make known his truth and faithfulness his grace and goodness his mercy and bounty his beauty and glory Bene orasse est bene studuisse Luther to poor Souls than this of private prayer Luther professeth That he profited more in the knowledge of the Scripture by private prayer in a short space than he did by study in a longer space As John by weeping in a corner got the sealed book opened Private prayer crownes God with the Honor and Glory that is due to his Name and God crowns private prayer with a discovery of those blessed weighty Truths to his servants that are a sealed book to others Certainly the soul usually enjoyes most communion with God Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus Never less alone than when alone said the Heathen And may not a Saint say so much more that hath communion with God Jer. 13. 1 2. in secret When a christian is
and his prevailing by praying Prayers and tears are not only very pleasing to God but also very prevalent with God And thus you see that this great instance of Jacob speaks out aloud the prevalency of private prayer See another instance of this in David Psal 6. 6 8 9. I am weary groanings all the night make I my bed to swim I water my couch with my tears These are all excessive figurative speeches to set forth the greatness of his sorrow and the multitude of his tears David in his retirement makes the place of his sin viz. his Bed to be the place of his repentance David sins privately upon his bed and David mourns privately upon his bed Every place which we have polluted by sin we should sanctifie and water with our tears Vers 8. Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping As blood hath a voice and as the rod hath a voice so tears have a voice tears have tongues and tears can speak There is no noise to that that tears in secret make in the ears of God A prudent indulgent Father can better pick out the wants and necessities of his Children by their secret tears than by their loud complaints by their weeping than by their words and do you think that God can't do as much Tears are not alwayes Mutes Cry aloud saith one not with thy tongue but with thy eyes Lam. 2. 18. not with thy words but with thy tears for that is the prayer that maketh the most forcible entry into the ears of the great God of Heaven Penitent tears are undeniable Ambassadors that never return from the Throne of Grace without a gracious answer Tears are a kind of silent prayers which though they say nothing yet they obtain pardon and though they plead not a mans cause yet they obtain mercy at the hands of God As you see in that great instance of Peter who though he said nothing that we read of yet weeping bitterly he obtained mercy Mat. 26. 75. I have read of Augustine who coming as a Visitant to the house of a sick man he saw the room full of friends and kindred who were all silent yet all weeping the Wife sobbing the Children sighing the Kinsfolk lamenting all mourning whereupon Augustine uttered this short ejaculatory Prayer Lord What prayer dost thou hear if not these Vers 9. The Lord hath heard my supplication the Lord will receive my prayer God sometimes answers his people before they pray Isa 65. 24. And it shall come to passe that before they call I will answer And sometimes while they are praying so it follows in the same verse And while they are yet speaking I will hear So Isa 30. 19. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry when he shall hear it he will answer thee And sometimes after they have prayed as the experiences of all Christians can testifie Sometimes God neither hears nor receives a prayer and this is the common case and lot of the wicked Prov. 1. 28. Job 27. 9. Isa 1. 15. Sometimes God hears the prayers of his people but doth not presently answer them as in that case of Paul 2 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. And sometimes God both hears and receives the prayers of his people as here he did Davids Now in this instance of David as in a glasse you may run and read the prevalency of private prayer and of secret tears You may take another instance of this in Jonah Jonah 2. 1 2 3 5 7 10. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly and said I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of Hell cried I and thou heardest my voice For thou had'st cast me into the deep into the midst of the seas and the floods compassed me about all thy billows and thy waves passed over me The waters compassed me about even to the soul the depth closed me round about the weeds were wrapt about my head When my soul fainted within me I remembred the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee into thy holy Temple And the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land When Jonah was all alone and in the midst of many dangers and deaths when he was in the Whales belly yea in the belly of Hell so called because horrid and hideous deep and dismal yet then private prayer fetches him from thence Let a mans dangers be never so many nor never so great yet secret prayer hath a certain omnipotency in it that wil deliver him out of them all In multiplied afflictions private prayer is most prevalent with God In the very midst of drowning secret prayer will keep both head and heart above water Upon Jonahs private prayer God sends forth his Mandamus and the Fish serves Jonah for a ship to sail safe to shore When the case is even desperate yet then private prayer can do much with God Private prayer is of that power that it can open the doors of Leviathan as you see in this great instance which yet is reckoned as a thing not feasible Job 41. 14. Another instance of the prevalency of private prayer you have in that 2 Kings 4. 32 33 34 35. And when Elisha was come into the house behold the child was dead and laid upon his bed He went in therefore and shut the door upon them twain and prayer unto the Lord. Privacy is a good help to fervency in prayer And he went up and lay upon the child and put his mouth upon his mouth and his eyes upon his eyes and his hands upon his hands and he stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm Then he returned and walked in the house to and fro and went up and stretched himself upon him and the child neesed seven times and the child opened his eyes Oh the power the prevalency the omnipotency of private prayer that raises the dead to Life And the same effect had the private prayer of Elijah in raising the widows Son of Zarephath to life 1 Kings 17. 18 ult The great prevalency of Moses his Private prayers you may read in the following Scriptures Num. 11. 1 2. And when the people complained it displeased the Lord and the Lord heard it and his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burnt among them and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the Camp And the people cried unto Moses and when Moses prayed unto the Lord the fire was quenched Moses by private prayer rules and over-rules with God he was so potent with God in private prayer that he could have what he would of God So Num. 21. 7 8 9. Psal 106. 23. Exo. 32. 9 10 11 12 13 14. Exo. 14. 15 16 17. The same you may see in Nehemiah Neh. 1. 11. compared with Neh. 2. 4 5
6 7 8. So Luther perceiving the Cause of God and the work of Reformation to be greatly straitned and in danger he went into his Closet and never left wrestling with God till he had received a gracious answer from Heaven upon which he comes out of his closet to his friends leaping and triumphing with Vicimus vicimus we have overcome we have overcome in his mouth At which time it is observed that there came out a Proclamation from Charls the Fifth that none should be further molested for the Profession of the gospel At another time Luther being in private prayer for a sick friend of his who was very comfortable and useful to him had a particular answer for his recovery whereupon he was so confident that he sent word to his friend that he should certainly recover and so it fell out accordingly And so Latimer prayed with great zeale for three things 1. That Queen Elizabeth might come to the Crown 2. That he might seale the truth with his heart blood And 3. That the Gospel might be restored once again once again which he expressed with great vehemency of spirit All which three God heard him in Constantine commanded that his Effigies should be engraven not as other Emperours in their Armour leaning but as in a posture of prayer kneeling to manifest to the world that he won more by secret prayer than by open Battles Mr. Dod reports that when many good people had often sought the Lord in the behalf of a woman that was possessed with the Devil and yet could not prevaile at last they appointed a day for fasting and prayer at which time there came a poor woman to the chamber door where the exercise was begun and craved entrance but she being poor they would not admit her in upon that the poor woman kneeled down behind the door and sought God by prayer But she had not prayed long before the evil spirit raged roared and cried out in the possessed woman take away the old woman behind the doore for I must be gone take away the old woman behind the door for I must be gone And so by the old womans prayers behind the doore he was cast out Oh the prevalency of prayer behind the door And thus you see by all these great instances the great prevalency of private prayer Private prayer like Sauls sword and Jonathans Bow when duely qualified as to the person and act never returns empty it hits the marke it carries the day with God it pierceth the walls of Heaven though like those of Gaza made of brass and Iron Isa 45. 2. O who can express the powerfull oratory of private prayer c. Ninthly consider that secret duties are the most soul-enriching duties Look as secret meales make fat bodies so secret duties make fat souls and as secret Trades brings in great earthly riches so secret prayers makes many rich in spiritual blessings and in heavenly riches Private prayer is that privy key of heaven that unlocks all the Treasures of glory to the soule The best riches and the sweetest mercies God usually gives to his people when they are in their closets upon their knees Look as the warmth the Chickens find by close sitting under the Hens wings cherisheth them so are the graces of the Saints enlivened and cherished and strengthned by the sweet secret influences which their souls fall under when they are in their closet-communion with God Private prayer conscienciously performed is the privie key of heaven that hath unlocked such treasures and such secrets as hath past the skill of the cunningest Devil to find out Private prayer Midwifes the choicest mercies and the chiefest riches in upon us Certainly there are none so rich in gracious experiences as those that are most exercised in closet duties Ps 34. 6. This poor man cried saith David and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles David pointing to himself tells us that he cried that is silently and secretly as Moses did at the red sea and as Exod. 14. 15. Neh. 1. 11. 2. 4. Nehemiah did in the presence of the King of Persia and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles And O what additions were these deliverances to his experiences O my friends look as the tender dew that falls in the silent night makes the grass and herbs and flowers to flourish and grow more abundantly than great showrs of raine that fall in the day so secret prayer will more abundantly cause the sweet herbs of grace and holiness to grow and flourish in the soul than all those more open Publick and visible duties of Religion which too too often are mingled and mixt with the sun and wind of pride and hypocrisie Beloved you know that many times a Favourite at Court gets more by one secret motion by one private request to his Prince than a Trades-man or a Merchant gets in twenty years labour and paines c. So a Christian many times gets more by one secret motion by one private request to the King of Kings than many others doe by Trading long in the more publick Duties of Religion O Sirs remember that in private prayer we have a far greater advantage as to the exercise of our own gifts and graces and parts than we have in Publick for in Publick we only hear others exercise their parts and gifts c. in Publick duties we are more passive but in private duties we are more active Now the more our gifts and parts and graces are exercised the more they are strengthned and increased All acts strengthen habits The more sin is acted the more 't is strengthned And so 't is with our gifts and graces the more they are acted the more they are strengthned But Tenthly Take many things together All Christians have their secret Sins Psal 19. 12. Who can understand his errors cleanse thou me from secret faults Secret not only to other men but himself even such secret sins as grew from errours which he understood not 'T is incident to every man to erre and then to be ignorant of his errours Many sins I see in my self saith he and more there are which I cannot espy which I cannot find out nay I think saith he that every mans sins do arise beyond his accounts There is not the best the wisest nor the holiest man in the world that can give a full and entire list of his sins Who can understand his errors This interrogation hath the force of an affirmation Who can No man no not the most perfect and innocent man in the world O friends who can reckon up the secret sinfull imaginations the secret sinful inclinations or the secret pride the secret blasphemies the secret hypocrisies the secret Atheistical risings the secret murmurings the secret repinings the secret discontents the secret insolencies the secret filthynesses the secret unbelievings c. that God might every day charge upon his soul Should the best and holiest man on earth have
brother front the hand of Esau for I fear him lest he will come and smite me and the Mother with the children or upon the children meaning he he will put all to death Some look upon the words to be a metaphor taken from Fowlers who kill and take away the young and the Dams together contrary to that old law Deut. 22. 6. Others say 't is a Phrase that doth most lively represent the tenderness of a mother who seeing her children in distress spares not her own body nor life to hazard the same for her childrens preservation by interposing See Hos 10. 14. her self even to be massacred together with and upon them When Jacob and all that was near and dear unto him were in eminent danger of being cut off by Esau and those men of blood that were with him he betakes himself to private prayer as his only City of refuge against the rage and malice of the mighty And so when Jeremiah was in a solitary and loathsome Dungeon Private prayer was his meat and drink it was his only City of refuge Jer. 33. 1 2 3. Moreover the word of Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time while he was yet shut up in the Court of the prison saying Thus saith the Lord the Maker thereof the Lord that formed it to establish it the Lord is his Name Call unto me and I will answer thee I will shew thee great and mighty or hidden things which thou knowest not When Jeremiah was in a lonesome loathsome Prison God encourages him by private prayer to seek for further discoveries and revelations of those choice and singular favours which in future times he purposed to confer upon his people So 2 Chron. 33. 11 12 13. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria which took Manasseh among the thorns and bound him with fetters or chains and carried him to Babylon And when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed unto him and he was intreated of him and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdome Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God When Manasseh was in fetters in his enemies country when he was stript of all his Princely glory and led captive into Babylon he betakes himself to Private prayer as his only City of refuge and by this means he prevailes with God for his restauration to his Crown and Kingdome Private prayer is a City of refuge that no power nor Policy no craft nor cruelty no violence nor force is ever able to surprize Though the joynt prayers of the People of God together were often obstructed and hindered in the times of the ten Persecutions yet they were never able to obstruct or hinder secret prayer Private prayer When men and Devils have done their worst every Christian will be able to maintain his Private trade with Heaven Private prayer will shelter a christian against all the National Domestical and Personal stormes and tempests that may threaten him When a man is lying upon a sick bed alone or when a man is in prison alone or when a man is with Job left upon the Dunghil alone or when a man is with John banished for the Testimony of Jesus into this or that Island alone O then private prayer will be his meat and drink his shelter his hiding place his Heaven When all other Trades faile this Trade of private Prayer will hold good But. Fourteenthly Consider that Jer. 16. 17. Job 34. 21. Prov. 5. 21. Jer. 32. 19. Rev. 2. 23. Lam. 3 56. God is omnipresent We cannot get into any blind hole or dark corner or secret place but the Lord hath an eye there the Lord will keep us company there Math. 6. 6. And thy father which seeth in secret shall reward the openly So v. 18. there is not the darkest durtiest hole in the world into which a saint creeps but God hath a favourable eye there God never wants an eye to see our secret tears nor an eare to heare our secret cryes and groans nor a heart to grant our secret requests and therefore we ought to pour out our souls to him in secret Psal 38. 9. Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hide from thee Though our private desires are never so confused though our private requests are never so broken and though our private groanings are never so much hidden from men yet God eyes them all God records them all and God puts them all upon the file of heaven and will one day crown them with glorious answers and returns We cannot sigh out a prayer in secret but he sees us we cannot lift up our eyes to him at midnight but he observes us The eye that God hath upon his people when they are in secret is such a special tender eye of love as opens his ear his heart and his hand for their good 1 Pet. 3. 12. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers or as the Greek hath it his ears are unto their prayers If their prayers are so faint that they cannot reach up as high as Heaven then God will bow the heavens God is totus oculus all eye and come down to their prayers Gods eye is upon every secret sigh every secret groan every secret tear and every secret desire and every secret pant of love and every secret breathing of soul and every secret melting and working of heart all which should encourage us to be much in secret duties in closet-services As a Christian is never out of the reach of Gods hand so he is never out of the view of Gods eye If a Christian cannot hide himself from the Sun which is Gods Minister of light how impossible will it be to hide himself from him whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the Sun In every private duty a christian is stil under the eye of Gods omnisciency When we are in the darkest hole God hath windows into our breasts and observes all the secret actings of our inward man The 1 Tim. 2. 8. eye of God is not confined to this place or that to this company or that God hath an eye upon his people as well when they are alone as when they are among a multitude as well when they are in a corner as well as when they are in a croud Diana's Temple was burnt down when she was busie at Alexanders birth and could not be at two places together But God is present both in Paradise and in the wilderness both in the family and in the closet both in publick and in private at the same time God is an omnipresent God he is Non est ubi ubi non est Deus every where as he is included in no place so he is excluded from no place
then sixthly and lastly they pray for a good night after their day Certainly these very Moors will one day rise in judgement against them who cast off prayer who live in a total neglect of prayer who suffer so many Suns and Moons to rise and set upon their heads without any solemn calling upon God I have read of a man who being sick and afraid of death fell to his prayers and to move God to hear him told him That he was no common beggar and that he had never troubled him with his prayers before Heil Mic. p. 376. and if he would but hear him at that time he would never trouble him again This world is full of such prophane blasphemous atheistical wretches But Thirdly This truth looks very sourly and sadly upon such who are all for publick prayer but never regard private prayer who are â—ll for going up to the Temple but never care for going into their Closets This is most palpable hypocrisie for a man to be very zealous for publick prayer but very cold and careless as to private prayer He that pretends conscience in the one and makes no conscience of the other is an hypocrite in grain Matth. 23. 5. Matth. 6. 1 2 5. And the Devil knowes well enough how to make his markets of all such hypocrites that are all for the prayers of the Church but perfect Gallio's as to private prayer Acts 18. 17. Such as perform all their private devotion in the Church but not in the Chamber do put too great a slight upon the authority of Christ who saith When thou prayest enter into thy Chamber he doth not say when thou prayest Go to the Church but when thou prayest go into thy Chamber But Fourthly This truth looks sadly and sourly upon such who in their Closets pray with a loud clamorous voice A Christian should shut both the door of his Closet and the door of his Lips so close that none should hear without what he saith within Enter into thy Closet saith Christ and when thou hast shut thy door pray But what need a man shut his Closet door if he may pray with a clamorous voice if he make such a noise as all in the street or all in the house may hear him The Hen when she lays her Eggs gets into a hole a corner but then she makes such a noise with her cackling that she tells all in the house where she is and about what she is Such Christians that in their Closets do imitate the Hen do rather pray to be seen heard and observed by men than out of any noble design to glorifie God or to pour out their souls before him that seeth in secret Sometimes children when they are vext or afraid of the rod will run behind the door or get into a dark hole and there they will lye crying and sighing and sobbing that all the house may know where they are O 't is a childish thing so to cry and sigh and sob in our Closets as to tell all in the house where we are and about what work we are Well Christians for an effectual redress of this evil frequently and seriously consider of these five things First That God seeth in secret Secondly That God hath a quick ear and is taken more with the voice of the heart than he is with the clamour of the mouth God can easily hear the most secret breathings of thy soul God is more curious in observing the messages delivered by the heart than he is those that are only delivered by the mouth He that prays aloud in private seems to tell others that God doth not understand the secret desires and thoughts and workings of his peoples hearts Thirdly 'T is not meet 't is not convenient nor expedient that any should be acquainted with our secret prayers but God and our own souls Now 't is as much our duty to look to what is expedient as 't is 2 Cor. 8. 10 Chap. 12. 1. to look to what is lawful 1 Cor. 6. 12. All things are lawful unto me but all things are not expedient So Chap. 10. 23. All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient all things are lawful for me but all things edifie not Now 't is so far from being expedient that 't is very high folly for men to lay open their secret infirmities unto others that will rather deride them than lift up a prayer for them Fourthly Loud prayers may be a hinderance and disturbance to others that may be busied near us in some Religious or Civil exercises Fifthly and lastly Hannah prayed and yet spoke never a word her heart was full but her voice was not heard 1 Sam. 1. 11. Moses prayes and cries and yet le ts fall never a word Exod. 14. 15. And the Lord said unto Moses wherefore cryest thou unto me Moses did not cry with any audible voice but with inward sighs and secret breathings and wrestlings of soul and these inward and secret cries which made no noise carried the day with God for Moses is heard and answered and his people are delivered O the prevalency of those prayers that make no noise in the ears of others Fifthly and lastly This truth looks sourly and sadly upon those that do all they can to hinder and discourage others from this duty of duties Private prayer and that either by deriding or vilifying of the duty or else by denying of it to be a duty or else by their daily neglect of this duty or else by denying them that are under them time and opportunity for the discharge of this duty In Matth. 23. 13. You have a woe pronounced against those that will neither goe to Heaven themselves nor suffer others to goe that are willing to enter into an everlasting rest And so I say woe to those Parents and woe to those Husbands and woe to these Masters and Mistrises that will neither pray in their closets themselves nor suffer their children nor their wives nor their servants to pour out their souls before the Lord in a corner O Sirs how will you answer this to your consciences when you shall lye upon a dying bed and how will you answer it to the Judge of all the world when you shall stand before a Judgment seat Certainly all their sins and all their neglects and all their spiritual losses that might have been prevented by their secret prayers by their closet communion with God will one day be charg'd upon your accounts And O that you were all so wise as to lay these things so to heart that you may never hinder any that are under your care or charge from private prayer any more But Secondly This may serve to exhort us to keep close to our Closets to be frequent and constant in Private prayer to be often with God in a corner The 20 Considerations already laid down may serve as so many motives to provoke your hearts to this noble and necessary duty Objection
But many will be ready to object and say We have much business upon our hands and we cannot spare time for private prayer we have so much to doe in our shops and in our ware-houses and abroad with others that we cannot spare time to waite upon the Lord in our Closets Now to this Objection I shall give these Eight Answers that this Objection may never have a resurrection more in any of your hearts First What are all those businesses that are upon your hands to those great businesses weighty affaires that did lye upon the hands of Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses David Daniel Elias Nehemiah See the first Consideration Peter Cornelius and yet you find all these worthies exercising themselves in Private prayers And the King is commanded every day to read some part of Gods word notwithstanding all his great and weighty imployments Deut. 17. 18 19 20. Now certainly Sirs your great businesses are little more than ciphers compared with theirs And if there were any on earth that might have pleaded an exemption from private prayer upon the account of business of much business of great business these might have done it but they were more honest and more noble than to neglect so choice a duty upon the account of much business these brave hearts made all their publick imployments stoop to private prayer they would never suffer their publick imployments to tread private prayer under foot But Secondly I answer no mens outward affaires did ever more prosper than theirs did who devoted themselves to private prayer notwithstanding their many and great worldly employments Witness the prosperity outward flourishing estates of Moses Abraham Isaac Jacob Nehemiah David Daniel and Cornelius these were much with God in their Closets and God blest their blessings to them how Gen. 22. 17 did their cups over flow what signall favours did God heape upon them and theirs No families have been so prospered protected and graced as theirs who have maintained secret communion with God in a Corner Private prayer 1 Chron. 11. 9. doth best expedite our temporal affairs he that prayes well in his Closet shall be sure to speed well in his Shop or at his Plough or 1 Tim. 4. 8. what-ever else he turns his hand unto 'T is true Abimelech was rich as well as Abraham and so was Laban rich as well as Jacob and Saul was a King as well as David and Julian was an Emperour as well as Constantine But 't was only Abraham Jacob David and Constantine who had their blessings blest unto them all the rest had their blessings curst unto them they had many Prov. 3. 33. Mal. 2. 2. good things but they had not the good will of him that dwelt in the Bush with what they had and therefore all their mercies were but bitter-sweets unto them Though all the sons of Jacob returned laden from Gen. 43. Aegypt with corn and money in their sacks yet Benjamin only had the silver cup in the mouth of his sack So though the men of the world have their Corn and their Money c. yet 't is only God's Benjamin's that have the silver Cup the Grace-Cup the Cup of blessing as the Apostle calls 1 Cor. 10. 16 it for their portion O sirs as ever you would prosper and flourish in the world as ever you would have your water turn'd into wine your temporal mercies into spiritual benefits be much with God in your closets But Thirdly I answer 'T is ten to one but that the objecter every day fools away or trifles away or idles away or sins away one hour in a day and why then should he object the want of time There are none that toyle and moyle and busie themselves most in their worldly imployments but doe Myrmecides a famous Artist spent more time in making a Bee than an unskilful workman would do to build a house Plutarch spend an houre or more in a day to little or no purpose either in gazing about or in dallying or toying or dourting or in telling of stories or in busying themselves in other mens matters or in idle visits or in smoaking the Pipe c. And why then should not these men redeem an hours time in a day for private prayer out of that time which they usually spend so vainly and idly can you notwithstanding all your great worldly imployments find an hour in the day to catch flyes in as Domitian the Emperour did and to play the fool in and cannot you find an hour in the day to wait on God in your closets There were three special faults whereof Cato professed himself to have seriously repented one was passing by water when he might have gone by land another was trusting a secret in a womans bosome but the main was spending an hour unprofirably This heathen will one day rise up in Judgment against them who notwithstanding their great imployments spend many hours in a week unprofitably and yet cry out with the Duke of Alva that they have so much to do on earth that they have no time to look up to heaven 'T was a base and sordid spirit in that King Sardanapalus who spent much of his time amongst women in spinning and carding which should have been spent in Ruling and governing his Kingdome So 't is a base sordid spirit in any to spend any of their time in toying and trifling and then to cry out that they have so much business to do in the World that they have no time for closet-prayer they have no time to serve God nor to save their own precious and immortal souls But Fourthly I answer No man dares plead this objection before the Lord Jesus in the great day of account And why then should any man be so childish foolish so â—ccl 11. 9. Rom 14. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 10. ignorant impudent to plead that before men which is not pleadable before the Judgment seat of Christ O sirs as you love your souls and as you would be happy for ever never put off your own consciences nor others with any plea's arguments or objections now that you dare not own and stand by when you shall lye upon a dying bed and when you shall appear before the whole court of heaven c. In the great day of account when the secrets of all hearts shall be made manifest and God shall call men to a reckoning before Angels Men and Devils for the neglect of private prayer all giulty persons will be found speechless there will not be a man or woman found that shall dare to stand up and say Lord I would have waited upon thee in my closet but that I had so much business to do in the world that I had no time to enjoy secret communion with thee in a Corner 'T is the greatest wisdom in the world to plead nothing by way of excusein this our day that we dare not plead in the great day But.
maintain secret communion with God in a corner Certainly God never gave any poor servant a talent of gifts or a talent of grace but in order to his driving of a secret trade heaven-ward Fifthly I answer Though King Darius had made a degree that none should ask any Petition of any God or man for thirty dayes upon the Penalty of being cast into the Den of Lyons yet Daniel who was both a subject and a servant to King Darius and one upon whose Dan. 6. 7 8 9 10. hands the chiefest and greatest affaires of the Kingdom did lye did keep up his private Devotions In the first second verses of that 6th of Daniel you will find that Daniel had abundance of great and weighty imployments upon his hands he was set over the whole affairs of the whole Empire of Persia and he with two other Presidents of whom himself was chief were to receive the accounts of the whole Kingdome from all those hundred and twenty Princes which in the Persian Monarchy were imployed in all publick businesses And yet notwithstanding such a multiplicity of business as lay upon his hands and notwithstanding his servile condition yet he was very careful to redeem time for private prayer yea 't is very observable that the heart of Daniel in the mid'st of all his mighty businesses was so much set upon private prayer upon his secret retirements for Religious exercises that he runs the hazard of losing all his honours profits pleasures yea and life it self rather than he would be deprived of convenient time opportunities to wait upon God in his chamber Certainly Daniel will one day rise in Judgment against all those subjects and servants who think to evade private prayer by their plea's of much business and of their being servants c. But Sixthly I answer If you who are gracious servants notwithstanding your Masters businesses cannot redeem a little time to wrestle with God in a corner what singular thing doe you what doe you more than others Doe you hear So do others Do you read so doe others Do you follow your Masters to publick prayers So do others Doe you joyn with your Masters in family prayers so do others O but now gracious servants should goe beyond all other servants in the world they should do singular things for God Math. 5. 47. What doe you more then others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What extraordinary thing doe you what more ordinary than to find servanâ—s follow their Masters to Publick Prayers and to Family Prayers O but now to finde poor servants to redeem a little time from their Masters business to pour out their souls before the Lord in a corner this is not ordinary yea this is extraordinary and this doth wonderfully well become gracious servants O that all mens servants who are servants to the most high God would seriously consider First How singularly they are priviledged by God above all other servants in the world They are 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. called adopted reconciled pardoned justified before the throne of God which other servants are not c. And why then should not such servants be singular in their services who are so singular in their priviledges Secondly Gracious servants are made partakers of a more excellent nature than other servants are 2 Peter 1. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be made partakers of the divine nature The Apostle None but Familists will say that we are made partakers of the substance of the Godhead for that is incommunicable to any creature The Essence of God cannot be imparted to any created beings in this expression doth not aime at any essential change and conversion of our substance into the nature of God and Christ but only at the elevation and dignifying of our nature by Christ Though that reall that neer that dear that choice that mysterious that peculiar that singular union that Christians have with Christ doth raise them up to a higher similitude and likeness of God and Christ than ever they had attained to in their primitive perfection yet it doth not introduce any real transmutation either of our bodies or souls into the divine nature 'T is certain that our union and conjunction with Christ doth neither mingle persons nor unite substances but it doth conjoyne our affections and brings our wills into a League of Amity with Christ To be made partaker of of the divine nature notes two things say some First A fellowship with God in his holiness Secondly A fellowship with God in his blessedness viz. In the beatifical vision and brightness of glory To be made partakers of the divine nature say others is to be made partakers of those holy graces those divine qualities which sometimes are called The Image of God the likeness of God the life of God Eph. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. c. whereby we resemble God not only as a picture doth a man in outward lineaments but as a child doth his father in countenance and conditions Now take the words which way you will how highly doth it concern those servants that are made partakers of the divine nature to doe singular things for God to doe such things for God that other servants that are not partakers of the divine nature have no mind no heart no spirit to do yea that they refuse and scorn to do Thirdly Gracious servants are worthily descended they have the most illustrious extraction and honourable original 1 John 5. 19. John 3. 8. James 2. 5. Fourthly Gracious servants are worthily attended they are nobly guarded Psal 34. 14. Heb. 1. ult Deu. 33. 26 27. Zach. 2. 5. Fifthly Gracious servants are worthily dignified they are dignified with the highest and most honourable Titles Peter 1. 2 9. Rev. 1. 5 6. Rev. 5 10. Sixthly Take many things in one Gracious servants have more excellent graces experiences comforts communions promises assurances discoveries hopes helps principles diet rayment portion than all other servants in the world have and therefore God may well expect better and greater things from them than from all other servants in the world God may very well expect that they should doe singular things for his Glory who hath done such singular things for their good Certainly God expects that gracious servants should be a blessing of him when other servants are a blaspheming of him that they should be a magnifying of him when other servants are a debasing of him that they should be a redeeming of precious time when other servants are a trifling fooling playing or sinning away of procious time that they should be a weeping in a corner when other servants are a sporting and making themselves merry among their jovall companions that they should be a mourning in secret when other servants are a sinning in secret and that they should be at their private devotion when other servants are sleeping and snorting c. Sâ—lâ—mon That was the wisest
doth not intend to bestow upon us whether we pray in our closets or no and therefore to what purpose do you presse secret prayer so hard upon us c. To this Objection I shall give these Answers First That this Objection lyes as strong against Family Prayer and Publick Prayer as it doth against Private Prayer God knows all thy wants and necessities all thy straits and tryals c. and therefore what needest thou pray in thy Family what needest thou attend Publick Prayers in the Communion of Saints There is no wringing of any mercy out of the hands of Heaven which God doth not intend to bestow This Objection faces all kind of Prayer and fights against all kinds of Prayer But Secondly I answer That Private Prayer is that piece of Divine Worship and Adoration 't is a part of that homage which we owe to God upon the account of a Divine Command as I have already proved Now all Objections must bow before the face of Divine Commands As Josephs Brethren bowed before him Or as King Ahasuerus Gen. 42. 6. Esth 3. 2. his servants bowed before Haman Indeed every Objection that is formed up against a Divine Command should fall before it as Dagon fell before the Ark or as Goliah fell before David He that casts off Private Prayer under any pretence whatsoever he casts off the Dominion of God the Authority of God and this may be as much as a mans life and soul is worth But Thirdly I answer Though Prayer be not the ground the cause of obtaining favours and mercies from God yet 't is the means 't is the Silver Channel 't is the Golden Pipe through which the Lord is Isa 55. 6. Jam. 1. 5. Isa 62. 7. Psal 22. 24. pleased to convey to his people all temporal Spiritual and eternal favours Ezek 36. from the 26. verse to the 37. verse of that Chapter God promises to give them the cream the choycest the sweetest of all spiritual eternal and temporal blessings but mark verse 37. I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them Though God be very prompt and ready to bestow upon his people the best and the greatest of blessings yet the will by prayer be sought unto for the actual enjoyment of them He that hath no heart to pray for a mercy he needs he hath no ground to believe that ever God will give him the mercy he needs There is no receiving without asking no finding without seeking no opening without knocking The threefold promise annexed to the threefold precept in Matth. 7. 7. should encourage all Christians to be instant fervent and constant in prayer The proud beggar gets nothing of men and the dumb sinner gets nothing of God As there is no mercy too great for God to give so there is no mercy too little for us to crave Certainly that man hath little worth in him that thinks any mercy not worth a seeking But Fourthly and lastly I answer Every Christian should labour to enjoy his mercies in mercy he should labour to have his blessings blest unto him he should labour Gen. 22. 17. to have the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush with all he hath Now this is an everlasting truth a maxim to live and die with that whatsoever mercy comes not in upon the wing of prayer is not given in mercy O how sweet is that mercy that comes flying in upon the wing of prayer How sweet was that water to Sampson which streamed to him in the channel of private prayer Judg. 15. 19. he called the name of it En-hakkore the Well of him that prayed Sampson prayed as for life and that water that was handed to him was as sweet as life Every mercy that is gathered by the hand of prayer is as sweet as the Rose of Sharon But Can. 2. 1. that mercy that comes not in at the door of prayer comes not in at the right door and that mercy that comes not in at the right door will do a man no good such mercies will make themselves wings and fly from us Every Christian should Pro. 23. 5. narrowly look that all his mercies 1 Tim. 4. 4 5. are sanctified mercies now every mercy is sanctified by the word prayer Prayer prepares and fits us for mercy and mercy for us 'T is Prayer that gives us a right and holy use of all our mercies Such mercies are but great miseries that come not in upon the wing of prayer Prayerless mens mercies are all given in wrath Psal 76. 23 32. Yea their blessings are curst unto them Prov. 3. 33. Mal. 2. 2. Look as every sacrifice was to be seasoned with salt so every mercy is to be sanctified by prayer Look as Gold sometimes is laid not only upon cloath and silks but also upon Silver it self So Prayer is that Golden duty that must be laid not only upon all our natural and civil actions as eating drinking buying selling c. but also upon all our Silver duties upon all our most religious and spiritual performances as hearing reading meditating conference church-fellowship breaking of bread c. Certainly prayer is very necessary to make every providence and every ordinance and every mercy to be a blessing to us Every mercy that comes in upon the wing of private prayer is a double mercy 't is a great-bellied mercy 't is a mercy that hath many mereies in the womb of it Happy is that Christian that can lay his hand upon every mercy that he enjoyes and say of them all as once Hannah said of her Samuel 1 Sam. 1. 27. For this child I prayed and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him But Fifthly Some may further object and say I would drive a private trade with God I would exercise my self in secret prayer but I want a convenient place to retire into I want a private corner to unbosome my soul to my Father in c. To this Objection I shall give these three short Answers First I suppose this Objection concernes but a few Christians in our dayes That God that hath given a Christ to Believers doth commonly give them a convenient corner Rom. 8. 32. to enjoy private communion with himself in Most Christians I am afraid do rather want a heart for private prayer than a convenient place for private prayer What men set their hearts upon they will find time and place to effect it whether it be good or whether it be evil whether it concerns temporals or spirituals whether it concerns this world or another world this life or a better life If most men would but get better hearts they would quickly find or make convenient places for private prayer He who hath an inflamed love to God will certainly find out a corner to enjoy secret communion with God True lovers will find out corners to enjoy one another in How many men are there that
his Commission that he can hardly forbear murmuring Must we bring water out of the Rock Mark Num. 12. 3. that word must we O how is the meekest man in all the world transported into passion anger unbelief and hurried into sad indecencies yet there was not a man on earth whose prayers were so powerful and prevalent with God as Moses his were Psal 106. 23. Exod 32. 9 -15. Chap. 33. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. Exod. 14. 13 14 15 16 c. So King Asa was a man full of infirmitities and weaknesses he relyes on the King of Syria and 2 Chron. 16. 7 13. on the Lord he is very impatient and under a great rage upon the Seers reproof He imprisons the Seer he oppressed some of the people or as the Hebrew hath it He crushed or he trampled upon some of the people at the same time And being greatly diseased in his feet he sought to the Physitians and not to the Lord and yet this mans prayer was wonderful prevalent with God 2 Chron. 14. 11 12 13 14 15. The Saints infirmities can never Psal 50. 15. Isa 30. 19. Ch. 65. 24. make void those gracious promises by which God stands engaged to hearken to the prayers of his people Gods hearing of our prayers doth not depend upon sanctification but upon Christ's intercession not upon what we are in our selves but upon what we are in the Lord Jesus both our persons and our prayers are acceptable in the beloved Ephes 1. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 5. When God hears our prayers 't is neither for our own sakes nor yet for our prayers sake but 't is for his own sake and his sons sake and his glory sake and his promise sake c. Certainly God will never cast off his people for their infirmities First 'T is the glory of a man to Pro. 19. 11. passe by infirmities O how much more then must it be the glory of God to pass by the infirmities of his people Secondly Saints are children and what father will cast off his children for their infirmities and Psal 103. 13. 14. 1 Cor. 12. 27. weaknesses Thirdly Saints are members of Christ's body and what man will cut off a member because of a scab or wart that is upon it What man will cut off his Nose saith Luther because there is some filth in it Fourthly Saints are Christ's purchase they are his possession Ephes 1. 22 23. 1 Cor. 6. u't Ch. 7. 23 1 Pet. 13. 18 19 20. his inheritance Now what man is there that will cast away or cast off his purchase his possession his inheritance because of thorns bushes or bryars that grow upon it Fifthly Saints are in a marriage Hos 2 19 20. covenant with God Now what husband is there that will cast off his wife for her failings and infirmities So long as a man is in covenant with God his infirmities can't cut him off from Gods mercy and grace Now 't is certain a man may have very many infirmities upon him and yet not break his covenant with God for no sin breaks a mans covenant with God but such as unties the marriage knot As in other marriages every offence or infirmity doth not disanul the marriage union it i◠only the breach of the marriage vow viz. adultery that untyes the marriage knot So here 't is only those sins which breaks the covenant which unties the marriage knot between God and the Soul 1. When men freely subject to any lust as a new master Or 2. When men take another husband Isa 28 15. 18. and this men doe when they enter into a league with sin or the world eh … they make a new covenant with hell and deach Now from these mischiefs God secures his chosen ones In a word If God should cast off his people for their infirmities then none of the sons or daughters of Adam could be saved For there is not a just man upon the earth that doth good and sinneth not Eccl. 7. 20. Now if God will not cast off his people for their infirmities then certainly he will not cast off the prayers of his people because of those invincible infirmities that hang upon them and therefore our infirmities should not discourage us or take us off from Closet-prayer or from any other Duties of Religion But Fourthly I answer The more infirmities and weaknesses hang upon us the more cause have we to keep close and constant to our Closet duties If grace be weake The omission of good diet breeds diieases the omission of private prayer will make it weaker Look as he that will not eat will certainly grow weaker and weaker So he that will not pray in his c … et will certainly grow weaker and weaker If corruptions be strong the neglect of private prayer will make them stronger The more the remedy is neglected the more the disease is strengthned Whatsoever the distempers of a mans heart be they will never be abated but augmented by the omission of private prayer The more bodily infirmities hang upon us the more need we have of the Physitian and so the more sinful infirmities hang upon our souls the more need we have of private prayer All sinful omissions will make work for repentance for hell or for the Physitian of souls Sinful omissions lead to sinful commissions as you may see in the Angels that fell from heaven to hell and in Adams fall in Paradise Origen going to comfort and encourage a martyr that was to be tormented was himself apprehended by the Officers and constrained either to offer to the Idols or to have his body abused by a Black amore that was ready for that purpose of which hard choice to save his life he bowed unto the Idol but afterwards making a sad confession of his foul fact he said That he went forth that morning before he had been with God in his Closet and so peremptorily concludes that his neglect of Prayer was the cause of his falling into that great sin The neglect of one day of one duty of one hour would undoe us for ever if we had not an Advocate 1 John 2. 1 2. with the father Those years those months those weeks those days those hours that are not filled up with God with Christ with grace with duty will certainly be filled up with vanity and folly All omissions of duty will more and more unfit the soul for duty A Key thrown by gathers rust A Pump not used will be hardly got to go And Armour not used will be hardly made bright c. Look as sinful commissions will stab the Soul so sinful omissions will starve the Soul Such as live Isa 24. 16. Job 16. 8. in the neglect of private prayer may well cry out Our leanness our leanness And therefore away with all these plea's and reasonings about infirmities and weaknesses and indispositions address your selves to Closet-prayer But Fifthly I
his own soul by perpetual poring upon his guilt When Guilt upon the Conscience works a man to water the earth with tears to make Heaven ring with his groans then it works kindly When the sence of Guilt drives a man to God to Duty to the Throne of Grace then it will not be long night with that man He that thinks to shift off Private Prayer under the pretence of Guilt doth but in that increase his own Guilt Neglect of Duty will never get Guilt off the Conscience But then there is an involuntary indisposition to private prayer as in a sick man who would work and walk but cannot being hindered by his disease or as it is with a man that hath a great chain on his leg he would very fain walk or get away but his chain hinders him Now if your indisposition to private prayer be an involuntary indisposition then God will in mercy in course both pardon it remove it Secondly There is a total indisposition to private prayer there is a partial indisposition to private prayer A total indisposition to private prayer is when a man hath no Jer. 4. 22. Chap. 44. 17 18 19. mind at all to private prayer nor no will at all to private prayer nor no love at all to private prayer nor no delight nor no heart at all to private prayer now where this frame of heart is there all is naught very naught stark naught A partial indisposition to private prayer is when a man hath some will to private prayer though not such a will as once he had and some mind to private prayer though not such a mind as once he had and some affections to private prayer though not such warm and burning affections as once he had Now if your indisposition to private prayer be total then you must wait upon the Lord in all his appointments for a changed nature and for union with Christ but if your indisposition to private prayer be only partial then the Lord will certainly pardon it and in the very use of holy means in time remove it But Thirdly and lastly there is a transient accidental occasional or fleeting indisposition to private prayer and there is a customary a constant or permanent indisposition to private prayer Now a transient accidental occasional or fleeting indisposition to that which is good may be found upon the best of Saints as you may see in Moses Exod. 4. 10 11 12 13 14. and in Jeremiah Jer. 1. 5 6 7 8 17 18. 19. and Chap. 20. 9. and in Jonah chap. 1 and in David Psal 39. 2 3. Now if this be the indisposition that thou art under then thou mayest be confident that it will certainly work off by degrees Isa 65. 2. Jer. 9. 3. as theirs did that I have last cited But then there is a customary a constant or permanent indisposition to private prayer and to all other holy Duties of Religion Now if this be the indisposition that thou art under then I may safely conclude that thou art in the very gall of bitternesse and in Acts 8. 21 22 23. the bond of iniquity and thy work lyes not in complaining of thy indisposition but in repenting and believing and in labouring for a change of thy heart and state for till thy heart thy state be changed thou wilt remain for ever indisposed both to closet-Closet-Prayer and to all other Duties of Religion and godlinesse To see a sinner sailing Hell-ward with Wind and Tide on his side to alter his course and Tack about for Heaven to see the earthly man become heavenly the carnal man become spiritual the proud man become humble the vain man become serious to see a sinner move contrary to himself in the wayes of Christ and holiness is as strange as to see the earth fly upward or the Bowl run contrary to its own Byass and yet a divine power of God upon the Soul can effect it and this must be effected before the sinner will be graciously inclined and sincerely disposed to Closet-prayer And let thus much suffice by way of Answer to this Objection also Now for the better management of this great Duty viz. Closet-prayer I beseech you take my advice and counsel in these 11. following particulars First Be frequent in Closet-prayer and not now and then only He will never make any yearnings of Closet-prayer that is not frequent in Closet-prayer Now that this Counsel may stick Consider First Other eminent Servants of the Lord have been frequent in this blessed work Nehem. 1. 6. Let thine earnow be attentive and thine eyes open that thou mayest hear the Prayer of thy Servant which I pray before thee day and night So Daniel he kneeled Dan. 6. 10 upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did before time So David My voyce shalt thou hear in the morning and in the evening will Psal 5. 3. I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up So Psal 88. 13. But unto thee have I cryed O Lord and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee So Psal 119. 147. I prevented the Psal 119. 164. dawning of the morning and cryed unto the Lord. So Psal 55. 17. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud Yea he Exod. 29 38 39. Numb 28. 3. Mat. 6. 11. was Vir orationis for his frequency in it Psal 109. 4. For my love they are my adversaries But I give my self unto prayer Or as the Hebrew may be read But I am a man of prayer Of Carolus Magnus it was said Carolus plus cum Deo quam hominibus loquitur that he spake more with God than with men Secondly Consider the blessed Scripture doth not only enjoyn this Duty but it requires frequency in it also Luke 18. 1. 1 Thes 5. 17. Col. 4. 2. In the former part of this discourse I have given light into these Scriptures and therefore the bare citing of them must now suffice Thirdly Christ was frequent in Private Prayer as you may easily see by comparing of these Scriptures together Mark 1. 35. Mat. 14. 23. Luke 22. 39. John 18. 2. In my second Argument for Private Prayer you may see these Scriptures opened and amplified But Fourthly Consider that you have the examples of the very worst of men in this case Papists are frequent in their private Devotions And the Mahometans what occasion soever they have either by profit or pleasure to divert them will yet pray five times every day Yea the very Heathens sacrificed to Hercules morning and evening upon the great Altar at Rome Now shall blind nature do more than grace But Fifthly Consider you cannot have too frequent Communion with God you cannot have too frequent intercourse with Jesus you cannot have your hearts too frequently filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory and with that peace that passes understanding you cannot have heaven too frequently brought
down into your hearts nor you cannot have your hearts too frequently carried up to heaven and therefore you cannot be too frequent in closet-Closet-prayer But Sixthly Consider that you are under frequent wants and frequent sins and frequent snares and frequent 1 Pet. 5. 8. Job 1. 7. temptations and frequent allurements and frequent tryals and frequent cares and frequent feares and frequent favours and therefore you had need be frequent with God in your Closets But Seventhly Consider you are the favourites of heaven you are greatly beloved you are highly honoured you are exceedingly esteemed and valued in the Court of the Most High and remember that the Petitions of many weak Christians and of many benighted Christians and of many tempted Christians and of many clouded Christians and of many staggering Christians and of many doubting Christians and of many bewildred Christians and of many fainting Christians c. are put into your hands for a quick and speedy dispatch to the Throne of Grace so that you had need be frequent in your Closets and improve your interest in heaven or else many of these poor hearts may be wronged betrayed and prejudiced by your neglect Such as are Favourites in Princes Courts if they are active diligent careful and watchful they may doe much good for others they may come as often as they please into their Princes presence and with Queen Esther have Esth 8. for asking what they please both for themselves and others Esth 7. O what a world of good may such doe for others that are Gods Favourites if they would be but frequent with God in their Closets O Sirs If you have not that love that regard that pitty that compassion to your own souls as you should have yet O let not others suffer by your neglect of private prayer O let not Zion suffer O let not any particular Saint suffer by your being found seldom in your Closets Certainly It might have gone better with the Churches of Christ and with the concernments of Christ and with many of the poor people of Christ if most Christians had been more frequent with God in their Closets But Eighthly and lastly Consider that this liberty to approach nigh Sanguis Christi clavis Coeli to God in your Closets cost Christ his dearest blood Ephes 2. 13. Heb. 10. 20. Now he that is not frequent with God in his Closet tells all about him that he sets no great value upon that liberty that Christ hath purchased with his blood The incomparable the unparalel'd 1 Pet. 1. 19. price which Christ hath paid down upon the nail above sixteen hundred years agoe that we might have liberty and free access to his Father in your Closets argues very strongly yea irrefragably the superlative excellency of that liberty O therefore let us improve to purpose this blessed purchase of our Lord Jesus by being frequent with God in our closets 'T is disputed by some whether one drop of Christs blood was sufficient for the pardon of our sins and redemption of our souls My intention is not to dispute but to offer a few things to your Consideration First It must be granted that One little drop of Christ's blood is more worth than heaven and earth Luther by reason of the hypostatical union a drop of Christ's blood was of an inestimable worth and excellency and the value of his passion is to be measured by the dignity of his person But Secondly a proportion was to be observed betwixt the punishment due to men and that which What is the blood of the Grape or the blood of a son an only son to the blood of a Saviour was suffered for man that his sufferings might be satisfactory two things were necessary Poenae gravitas as well as personae dignitas That the least drop of Christ's blood was not sufficient for the redemption of our souls may thus appear First If it were then the Circumcision of Christ was enough for there was a drop if not many drops of blood shed Secondly Then his being Crown'd with a crown of Thorns was sufficient for it is most probable that they drew blood-from him Thirdly Then all Christ's sufferings besides were superfluous and vain Fourthly Then God was unjust and unrighteous to take more than was due to his justice But for any man to affirm that God hath taken beyond what was his just due is high blasphemy Fifthly Then Christ was weak and imprudent to pay more than he needed for what need was there of his dearest heart blood if a drop from his hand would have saved our souls Let School-men fancie what they please 't is certain that not one dram of that bitter Cup that Christ drunk off could be abated in order to his Fathers full satisfaction and mans eternal redemption Christ hath given under his own hand that it was necessary that he should suffer many things Mark 8. 3. Luke 24. 26. O Sirs shall Christ shed not only a few drops of blood but his very heart blood to purchase you a freedom and liberty to be as often in your Closets with his Father as you please and will you only now and then give God a visit in private the Lord forbid My Second Advise and counsel is this Take the fittest seasons and opportunities that possibly you can for Closet-prayer Many take unfit seasons for private prayer which do more obstruct the importunity of the soul in prayer than all the suggestions and instigations of Satan As First When the body is drowsie Cant. 3. 1. and sleepy this is a very unfit season for closet-prayer Take heed of laying cushions of sloath under your knees or pillows of idlenesse under your elbows or of mixing nods with your petitions or of being drowsily devoted when you draw neer to God in your closets Secondly When a mans head and heart is filled with worldly 1 Cor. 7. 35. Ezek. 33. 31. cares and distractions this is a very unfit season for closet-closet-prayer When Dinah must needs be gadding abroad to see fashions Shechem Prince of that country meets with her and forces her virginity So when our hearts Dinah-like must needs be a roving and gadding abroad after the things of the world then Satan the Prince of the air usually seizes upon us commits a rape upon our souls and either leads us off from prayer or else he doth so distract us in prayer that it were better not to have prayed at all than to have offered the sacrifice of foolish and distracted prayer I have read a story how that one offered to give his horse to his fellow upon condition he would but say the Lords Prayer and think upon nothing but God the proffer was accepted and he began Our Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy name But I must have the bridle too said he no nor the Horse neither said the other for thou hast lost both already The application is easie Certainly the most free
beast in Sacrifice to the gods but when the beast was opened it was without a heart which the South-sayers looked upon as an ill omen 'T is a sad omen that thou wilt rather provoke the Lord than prevail with him who art habitually heartlesse in thy Closet-duties Of the heart God seemeth to say to us as Joseph did to his Brethren concerning Benjamin Ye shall not see my face without it It was the speech of blessed Bradford that he would never leave a Duty till he had brought his heart into the frame of the duty he would not leave confession of sin till his heart was broken for sin he would not leave petitioning for grace till his heart was quickened and enlivened in a hopeful expectation of more grace he would not leave gratulation till his heart was enlarged with the sence of the mercies he enjoyed and quickened in the return of praise My sixth advice and counsel is this Be fervent be warm be importunate with God in all your Closet-duties and performances James 5. 17. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much or as the Greek hath it the working prayer that is such working 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayer as sets the wholeman on work as sets all the faculties of the soul and all the graces in the Psal 55. 1. Psal 61. 1. Psal 64. 1. Psal 88. 1 13. Psal 119. 164. Jon. 2. 1 2. Joel 2. 13. Psal 119. 145 147. Psal 119. 20. soul at work the word signifies such a working as notes the liveliest activity that can be Certainly all those usual phrases of crying wrestling and striving with God which are scattered up and down in Scripture do strongly argue that holy importunity and sacred violence that the Saints of old have expressed in their addresses to God Fervency feathers the wings of prayer and makes them fly the swifter to Heaven An Arrow if it be drawn up but a little way flyes not far but if it be drawn up to the head it will fly far and pierce deeply So fervent Qui timide rogat docet negare saith the Philosopher prayer flyes as high as Heaven and will certainly bring down blessings from thence Cold prayers bespeak a denyal but fervent prayers offer a sacred violence both to heaven and earth Look as in a painted fire there is no heat so in a cold prayer there is no heat no warmth no omnipotency no devotion no blessing Cold prayers are like Arrows without heads as swords without edges as Birds without wings they pierce not they cut not they fly not up to heaven Such prayers as have no heavenly fire in them do alwayes freez before they reach as high as heaven But fervent prayer is very prevalent with God Acts 12. 5. Peter therefore was kept in prison but prayer was made without ceasing The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies instant prayer earnest prayer stretched-out prayer prayer stretched-out upon the tenters as it were These gracious souls did in prayer strain and stretch themselves as men do that are running in a race they prayed with all the strength of their souls and with all the fervency of their spirits and accordingly they carryed the day with God as you may see in the following verses So Acts 26. 7. Vnto which promise our Twelve Tribes instantly serving God day and night or rather as the Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a stretched-out manner serving God day and night These Twelve Tribes or the godly Jews of the Twelve Tribes of Israel stretched out their hearts their affections their graces to the utmost in prayer In all your private retirements do as the Twelve Tribes did Rom. 12. 11. Fervent in spirit serving the Lord. The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies seething hot God loves to see his people zealous and warm in his service Without fervency of spirit no service finds acceptance in heaven God is a pure act and he loves that his people should be lively and active in his service vers 12. Continuing instant in prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continuing with all your might in prayer 'T is a Metaphor from hunting dogs that will never give over the game till they have got it Rom. 15. 30. That ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strive mightily strive as Championsstrive even to an Agony as the word imports 'T is a military word and notes such fervent wrestling or striving as is for life and death Col. 4. 12. Alwayes labouring fervently for you in prayer The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is here used signifies to strive or wrestle as those do that strive for mastery it notes the vehemency and fervour of Epaphras his prayers for the Colossians Look as the wrestlers do bend and writhe and stretch and strain every joynt of their bodies that they may be victorious so Epaphras did bend writh and stretch strain every joynt of his soul if I may so speak that he might be victorious with God upon the Colossians account So when Jacob was with God alone ah how earnest Gen. 32. 24 27. Hos 12. 4 5. and fervent was he in his wrestlings with God! he wrestles and weeps and weeps and wrestles he tugs hard with God he holds his hold and he will not let God go till as a Prince he had prevailed with him Fervent prayer is the Souls contention the Souls strugling with God it is a sweating work it is the sweat and blood of the soul it s a laying out to the uttermost all the strength and powers of the Soul He that would gain victory over God in private prayer must strain every string of his heart he must in beseeching God besiedge him and so get the better of him he must be like importunate beggars that will not be put off with frowns or silence or sad answers Those that would be masters of their requests must like the importunate Widdow press God so far as to put him to an holy blush as I may say with reverence They must with an holy impudence as Basil speaks make God ashamed to look them in the face if he should deny the importunity of theirs souls Had Abraham had a little more Dor. Don. Fol. p. 522. Gen. 18. 22 23. of this impudence saith one when he made suit for Sodom it might have done well Abraham brought down the price to ten righteous and there his modesty staid him had he gone lower God only knows what might have been done for God went not away saith the Text till he had left communing with Abraham that is till Abraham had no more to say to God Abraham left over asking before God left over granting he left over praying before God left over bating and so Sodom was lost O the heavenly fire the holy fervency that was in Daniels Closet-prayer O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and
as the Greek article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he Elaphos doth manifest now in the females the passions of thirst are more strong as the naturalists observe By this David discovers what a vehement and inflamed thirst there was in his Soul after communion with God And as nothing could satisfie the hunted Hart but the water brooks so nothing could satisfie his soul but the enjoyments of God Psal 43. 4. Then will I go unto the Altar of God unto God my exceeding joy The altar of God is here put for the worship of God now it was not barely the Worship of God but communion with God in his Worship that was David'e exceeding joy Psal 63. 1 2 O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Davids soul did not thirst after a Crown a Kingdom or any worldly greatnesse or glory but after a choise and sweet enjoyment of God in his wildernesse estate Never did any Woman with Child long more after this or that than Davids Soul did long to enjoy sensible communion with God in the midst of all his sorrows and sufferings Psal 84. 2. My Soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord My heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God By the Courts of the Lord we are to understand the ordinances now these without communion with God would never satisfie Davids Soul I commend that speech of Bernard Nanquam abs te absque te recedo I never come to thee but by thee Bern. epist 116. I never come from thee without thee When ever you go into your Closets press hard after real and sensible Communion with God that so you may come out of your Closets with some shines of God upon your spirits as Moses came down from the Mount with his Exod. 34. 29 35. face shining O do not take up in your Closet-prayers or tears or joyes or enlargements but labour and long to enjoy that inward and close Fellowship with God in your Closets as may leave such a choice and sweet favour of God both upon your hearts and lives as others may be forced to say surely Acts 4. 13. these have been with Jesus 'T is sad when Christians return from their Closets to their shops their trades their families their commerce c. without the least visible rayes of divine glory upon them O Sirs Closet-prayer will be found to be but a dry saplesse live-lesse heartlesse comfortlesse thing if you do not enjoy Communion with God in it Communion with God is the very Life Soul and Crown of all your Closet-duties and therefore press after it as for Life When you go into your Closets let every thing go that may hinder your fruition of Christ and let every thing be embraced that makes way for your enjoyment of Christ O let Closet-prayer be a golden bridge a wherry a Chariot to convey your Souls over to God and to bring you into a more intimate Communion with God Let no Closet-duty satisfie you or content you wherein you have not conversed with God as a Child converseth with his Father or as a wife converseth with her Husband or as a Friend converseth with his Friend even face to face Nothing speaks out more unsoundness falsness and baseness of heart than this when men make Duty the end of Duty Prayer the end of Prayer than when men can begin a Duty and go on in a Duty and close up a Duty and bless and stroake themselves after a Duty and yet never enjoy the least Communion with God in the Duty But how shall a man know when he Quest hath a real Communion with God in a Duty or no This is a very noble and necessary Question and accordingly it calls for a cleer and satisfactory Answer and therefore thus First A man may have Communion Sol. with God in sorrow and tears when he hath not Communion with God in joy delight a Psal 51. 17. man may have Communion with God in a heart-humbling a heart-melting and a heart-abasing way when he hath not Communion with God in a heart reviving a heart-cheering and a heart-comforting way 'T is a very great mistake among many tender spirited Christians to think that they have no Communion with God in their Closets except they meet with God embracing and kissing Cant. 2. 4 5 6. cheering and comforting up of their souls when they find God raising the springs of joy and comfort in their souls when they find God a speaking peace unto them when they find the singular sensible Psal 85. 8. presence of God cheering refreshing and enlarging of them in their Closets O then they are willing to grant that they have had sweet Communion with God in their Closets But if God meets with them in their Closets and only breaks their hearts for sin and from sin if he meets with them and only makes his power and his presence manifest in debasing and casting down of their souls upon the sight and sence of their strong corruptions and many imperfections how unwilling are are they to believe that they have had any Communion with God Well Friends remember this once for all viz. That a Christian may have as real Communion with God in a heart-humbling way as he can have in a heart-comforting way a Christian may have as choice Communion with God John 20. 11 19. when his eyes are full of tears as he can have when his heart is full of joy Sometimes God meets with a poor Christian in his Closet and exceedingly breaks him and humbles him and at other times he meets with the same Christian in his Closet and mightily cheers him and comforts him sometimes God meets with a poor Soul in his Closet and there he sweetly quiets him and stills him and at other times he meets with the same Soul in his Closet and then he greatly revives him and quickens him God doth not alwayes come upon the Soul one way he doth not alwayes come in at one and the same door We John 3. 8. sometimes look for a Friend to come in at the fore-door and then he comes in at the back-door and at other times when we look for him at the back door then he comes in at the fore-door and just so 't is with Gods coming into his peoples souls Sometimes they go into their Closets and look that God will come in at the fore-door of joy and comfort and then God comes in at the back-door of sorrow and grief and at other times when they look that God should come in at the back-door of humiliation breaking and melting their hearts then God comes in at the fore-door of joy and consolation cheering and rejoycing their souls But. Secondly I answer That all Christians do not enjoy a
James 5. 7 8. wait for the return of his ships and shall the Wife wait for the return of her Husband that is gone a long journey and shall not a Christian wait for the return of his prayers Noah patiently waited for the return of the Dove to the Ark with an Olive branch in his mouth So must you patiently wait for the return of your prayers When children shoot their Arrows they never mind where they fall but when prudent Archers shoot their Arrowes up into the aire they stand and watch where they fall You must deal by your prayers as prudent Archers do by their Arrowes Hab. 2. 1. I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the Tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me The Prophet in the former Chapter having been very earnest in his expostulations and very fervent in his supplications he gets now upon his Watch-Tower to see what becomes of his prayers he stands as a sentinel and watches as vigilantly and as carefully as a spy a scout earnestly longing to hear and see the event the issue and success of his prayers That Christian that in prayer hath one eye upon a divine precept and another upon a gracious promise that Christian will be sure to look after his prayers He that prayes and waits and waits and prayes shall Psal 40. 1 2 3 4. be sure to speed he shall never fail of rich returns He that can want as well as wait and he that can be contented that God is glorified though he be not gratified he that dares not antedate Gods promises but patiently wait for the accomplishment of them he may be confident that he shall have seasonable and suitable answers to all those prayers that he hath posted away to heaven Though God seldome comes at our time yet he never fails to come at his own time He that shall come will come Heb. 10. 37. and will not tarry The mercies of God are not styled the swift but the sure mercies of David He that makes as much Conscience to Isa 55. 3. look after his prayers as to pray he shall shortly clap his hands for joy and cry out with that blessed Mr. Glover Acts mon. Martyr He is come Austin he is come he is come Certainly there is little worth in that mans heart or in that mans prayers who keeps up a trade of prayer but never looks what becomes of his prayers When you are in your Closets marshal your prayers see that every prayer keeps his place and ground and when you come out of your closets then look up for an answer only take heed that you be not too hasty and hot with God Though mercy in the promise be yours yet the time of giving it out is the Lords and therefore you must wait as well as pray And thus much by way of counsel and advice for the better carrying on of Closet-prayer I have now but one thing more to do before I shut up this discourse and that is to lay down some means rules or directions that may be of use to help you on in a faithful and conscientious discharge of this great duty viz. Closet-prayer And therefore thus First As ever you would give up your selves to private prayer Take heed of an idle and sloathful spirit If Adam in the state of Innocency must work and dress the Garden and if after his fall when he was Monarch of all the world he must yet labour why should any be idle or sloathful Idleness is a sin against the law of Creation God creating man to labour the idle person violates this Law of Creation for by his idleness he casts off the authority of his Creator who made him for labour Idleness is a contradiction to the August de Gen ad lit lib. 8. cap. 8. principles of our Creation Man in Innocency should have been freed from weariness but not from employment he was to dress the Garden by divine appoyntment And the Lord God took the man and put Gen. 2. 15. him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it All weariness in labour and all vexing tyring and tormenting labour came in by the fall In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat Gen. 3. 19. bread The bread of idleness is neither sweet nor sure An idle person shall suffer Pro. 19. 15. hunger saith Solomon An idle life an holy heart are far enough asunder By doing nothing saith the Heathen man men learn to do evil things It is easie slipping out of an idle life into an evil and wicked life yea an idle life is of it self evil for man was made to be active not to be idle The Cyclopes thought mans happiness did consist in nihil agendo in doing nothing But no excellent thing 1 Cor. 1. 17. Eph. 4. 28. 2 Thes 3. 10 12. can be the child of idleness Idleness is a mother sin a breeding sin 't is pulvinar diaboli the devils cushion on which he sits the devils anvile on which he frames very great and very many sins Look as Toads and Serpents breed most in standing waters so sin thrives most in idle persons Idleness is that which provokes the Lord to forsake mens bodies and the Devil to possess their souls No man hath less means to preserve his body and more temptations to infect his soul than an idle person O shake off sloth The sluggish Christian will be sleeping or idling or trifling when he should be in his closet a praying Sloth is the Green-sickness of the soul get it cured or 't will be your eternal bane Of all Devils 't is the idle Devil that keeps men most out of their Closets There is nothing that gives the devil so much advantage against us as idleness 'T was Hierom. ep 4. good counsel that Jerom gave to his friend Facito aliquid operis ut te semper Diabolus inveniat occupatum that when the Devil comes with a temptation you may answer him you are not at leasure It was the speech of Mr. Greenham sometimes a famous painful preacher of this nation that when the Devil tempted a poor soul she came to him for advice how she might resist the temptation and he gave her this answer Never be idle but be alwayes well employed for in my own experience I have found it when the Devil came to tempt me I told him that I was not at leasure to hearken to his temptations and by this means I resisted all his assaults Idleness is the hour of temptation and an idle person is the Devils Tennis-Ball tossed by him at his pleasure He that labours said the old Hermite is tempted but by one Devil but he that is idle is assaulted by all Cupid complained that he could never fasten upon the Muses because he could never find them idle The Fowler bends his bow and spreads his net for Birds when they are set not when
things of God He that affects to read the Revelations of John more than his plain Epistles or Daniels prophesies more than Davids Psalms and is more busie about reconciling difficult Scriptures than he is about mortifying of unruly lusts or that is set more upon vain speculations than upon things that make most for edification he is not the man that is cut out for Closet-prayer Such as affect sublime notions obscure expressions and are men of abstracted conceits are but a company of wise fools that will never take any delight to be with God in a corner Had many men spent but half that time in secret prayer that they have spent in seeking after the Phylosophers Stone how happy might they have been O how holy how happy how heavenly how humble how wise how knowing might many men have been had they spent but half that time in Closet-prayer that they have spent in searching after those things that are hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3. 16. But Fourthly Take heed of engageing your selves in a crowd of worldly businesses Many have so much to do on earth that they have no time to look up to Heaven As much earth puts out the fire so much worldly business puts out the fire of heavenly affections Look as the earth swallowed up Korah Dathan and Abiram so much Num. 22. 32 worldly business swallows up so much precious time that many men have no leasure to be with God in their Closets this business is to be done and that business cannot be omitted and t'other necessary occasion must be attended so that I have no leasure to step out of my shop into my Closet saith Phil. 3. 19. the earthly minded man thus a crowd of worldly businesses crowds Closet-prayer quite out of doors Many drive so great a trade in their shops that their private trade to Heaven is quite laid by There is nothing that hath kept men more from Christ and Closet-prayer than the shop the Exchange the Farm and the Oxen Luke 14. 16. 22. c. The Stars which have least circuit are neerest the Pole and men that are least perplexed with worldly businesses are commonly neerest to God to Christ to Heaven and so the fitter for Closet-prayer 'T is sad when men grasp so much business that they can have no leasure for Communion with God in a corner The noise is such in a mill as hinders all private intercourse between man and man and so a multitude of worldly businesses make such a noise as that it hinders all private entercourse between God and the soul If a man of much business should now and then slide into his Closet yet his head and his heart will be so filled and distracted with the thoughts of his employments that God shall have little of him but his bodily presence or at most but bodily presence or at most but bodily exercise 1 Tim. 4. 8. which profits little If Christ blamed Martha for the multitude of her domestical employments Luke 10. 40 41 42. though they were undertaken for the immediate service and entertainment of himself because they hindred her in her soul-concernments Oh how will he one day blame all those who by running themselves into a crowd of worldly businesses do cut themselves off from all opportunities of pouring out their souls before him in secret But Fifthly Take heed of secret sins There is no greater hinderance to secret prayer in all the world than secret sins and therefore stand upon your watch and arme your selves with all your might against them There is an Antipathy betwixt secret sinning and secret praying partly from guilt which makes the soul shy of coming under Gods secret eye and partly from those fears doubts disputes and disorders that secret siâ—â— raise in the heart Light is not more opposite to darkness Christ to Belial nor Heaven to Hell than secret prayer is to secret sins and therefore what ever you do look that you keep clear of secret sins To that purpose consider these four things First That God is privy to our most secret sins his eye is as much upon secret sins as it is upon open Psal 139. 1 2 3 4. Jer. 13. 27. Chap. 29. 23. Psal 39. 1. 1 Kings 20. 39. Jer. 20. 20 Job 10. 12. sins Psal 90. 8. Thou host set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance God hath an eye upon our inmost evils he seeth all that is done in the dark Jer. 23. 24. Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Prov. 15. 3. The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good To say that God doth not see the most secret sins of the children of men is not only derogatory to his omniscience but also to his mercy for how can God pardon those sins which he doth not see to be sins There is no cloud nor curtain nor moment of darkness that can stand betwixt the eyes of God and the wayes of men Prov. 5. 21. The wayes of men are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings In this Scripture Solomon mainly speaks of the wayes of the Adulterer which usually are plotted with the most cunning secrecy yet God seeth all those wayes Look as no boldness can exempt the Adulterer from the justice of God so no secrecy can hide him from the eye of God Though men labour to hide their wayes from others and from themselves yet 't is but labour in vain to endeavour to hide them from God Men that labour to hide God from themselves can never hide themselves from God I have read that Paphnutius converted Thais and Ephron two famous Strumpets from uncleanness only with this Argument That God seeth all things in the dark when the doors are fast the windows shut and the curtains drawn Heb. 4. 13. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened anotamized even to the eyes of him with whom we have to do 'T is an allusion to the Priests under the Law who when they killed a beast all things that were within the beast were laid open and naked before the Priest that he might see what was sound and what was corrupted Though evil be done out of the eye of all the world yet it is naked and manifest in his sight with whom we have to do Those sins which lye closest and are most secretly lurking in the heart are as obvious and odious to God as those that are most fairly written upon a mans forehead God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all eye so that he sees all the most secret turnings and windings of our hearts Our most secret sins are as plainly seen by him as any thing can be by us at noon-day Psalm 139. 11 12 If I say surely the darkness shall
outside of the house then help runs in then help on all hands is ready He that sins in secret debars himself of all publick Remedy and takes great pains to damn his soul in a corner and to go to Hell in the dark But Secondly Secret sins will make way for publick sins He that makes no Conscience of sinning in the secret Chamber will e're long with Absolom be ready to spread a Tent upon the top of the 2 King 16. 21 22 house and to go in to his Concubines in the sight of all Israel Such as have made no Conscience of stealing a few pins or pence or a few shillings in private have in time come to be so bold as to take a purse on the road at high-noon The Cockatrice must be crushed in the Egge else it will soon become a Serpent The very thought of sin if not thought on will break forth into action action into custom custom into habit and then both body and soul are irrecoverably lost to all eternity If Satan can but wound our heel as the Poets feign of Achilles he will make a hard shift but he will send death from the heel to the heart If this subtile Serpent can but wriggle in his tayl by an ill thought he will soon get in his head by a worse action Hence it is that Christ calls hatred murder and a wanton eye adultery Secret hatred often issues in upon murder and secret wanton glances of the eye do often issue in visible adultery If Ammon be sick with the sinful conceptions of incestuous lust how will his soul be in pain and travail till he hath brought forth And how many are there that in secret have taken now and then but one Cup more than enough who now may be seen at high-noon reeling against every Post Look as secret diseases in the body if not cured will in time openly break forth so secret sins in the soul if not pardoned and purged will in time be openly revealed Covetousness was Judas his secret sin and no sooner doth an occasion or a temptation present it self but he is very ready and forward to betray and sell his Lord and Master for thirty pieces of Silver before all the world Lust having conceived brings forth sin and James 1. 15. that thus First Sin hath its conception and that 's delight and then its formation and that 's design and then its birth and that 's action and then its growth and that 's custome and then its end and that 's damnation But Thirdly Secret sinning puts far more respect fear upon men than upon God Thou wilt be unjust in secret and wanton in secret and unclean in secret and treacherous in secret c. and why but because thou art afraid that such or such men should know it or that such and such Friends should know it or that such and such Relations should know it Ah poor wretch art thou afraid of the eye of a man of a man that shall Isa 51. 12. dye and of the Son of man which shall be made as Grass and yet not tremble under his eye whose eyes are as a flame of fire sharp and terrible such as pierce into the inward Rev. 1. 14. Heb. 4. 13. parts Ah how full of atheisme is that mans heart that tacitly saith If my sins be but hid from the eyes of the world I do not care though the Lord knows them though the Lord strictly observes them though the Lord sets a mark a Memorandum upon them What is this O Man but to brave it out with God and to tempt him and provoke him to to his very face who is Light and in whom there is no darkness at all Ah sinner sinner can man 1 John 1. 5 6. damn thee can man dis-inherit thee can man fill thy Conscience with horrors and terrors can man make thy life a very Hell can man bar the gates of Glory against thee can man speak thee into the Grave by a word of his mouth and after all can man cast thee into endless easeless and remediless torments O no can God do all this O yes why then doth not thy heart stand more in awe of the eye of the great God than it doth of the eye of a poor weak mortal man I have insisted the longer on this particular because there is not any one thing in all the world that doth more hinder secret Communion with God and secret prayer than secret sins And Oh that you would all make it your great business to watch against secret sins and to pray against secret sins and to mourn over secret sins and deeply to judge and condemn your selves for secret sins and carefully and Conscientiously to shun and avoid all occasions and provocations that may be as fuel to secret sins Certainly there are no men or women that are so sincere and serious in Closet-prayer or that are so frequent so fervent so constant in Closet-prayer or that are so delightful so resolulute so undaunted or so unwearied in Closet-prayer as those that keep themselves most cleer and free from secret sins For a Close remember this That though secret sins are in some respects more dangerous than other sins are yet in three respects they are not so bad nor so dangerous as other sins are First In that they do not so scandalize Religion as open sins do Secondly In that they do not shame grieve and wound the hearts of the Saints as open sins do Thirdly In that they are not so infectious to others nor such provocations to others to sin against the Lord as open sins are And thus you may see what those things are that you must carefully take heeed of as ever you would adict your selves to Closet-prayer And as you must take heed of these five things So there are several other things that you must carefully and conscienciously apply your selves to as ever you would be found faithful and constant in this great duty viz. Closet-prayer Now they are these First Lament greatly and mourn bitterly over the neglect of this choice Duty He that doth not make Conscience of mourning over the neglect of this Duty will never make Conscience of performing this Duty O that Jer. 9. 1. your heads were waters and your eyes a Fountain of tears that you might weep day and night for the great neglect of Closet-prayer He that mourns most for the neglect of this Duty will be found most in the practise of this Duty He that makes most Conscience to accuse arraign and condemn himself for neglecting Closet-prayer he will make most Conscience of giving himself up to Closet-prayer 'T is said of Adam that he turned his face towards the Garden of Eden and from his heart bitterly lamented his great fall O that you would turn your faces towards your Closets and bitterly lament your rare going into them But Secondly Habituate your selves accustom your selves to closet-Closet-prayer Make private prayer
your constant trade Frequency begets familiarity and familiarity confidence we can go freely boldly into that friends house whom we often visit What we are habituted to we do with ease and delight A man that is habituted or accustomed to write to read to ride to run or to play on this or that musical Instrument c. he doth it all with delight and ease and so a man that doth habituate himself to Closet-prayer he will manage it with delight and ease But Thirdly Keep a Diary of all Deut. 7. 18 19. Psal 66. 12. your Closet-experiences O carefully record and book down all your Closet-mercies O be often in reading over your Closet-experiences and be often in meditating and in pondering upon your Closet-experiences There is no way like this to enflame your love to Closet-prayer and to engage your hearts in this secret trade of private prayer O remember that at such a time you went into your Closets with hard hearts and dry eyes but before you came out of your Closets Psal 6. 6. Psal 39. 12. Psal 56. 8. ah how sweetly how evangelically how powerfully were you melted and humbled before the Lord O remember how that at another time you went into your Closets clouded and benighted but came out of your Closets with as glorious a shine of God upon your souls as Moses had upon his face Exod. 34. 28 29. when he came down from the Mount from communing with God! O remember how often you have gone into your Closets Luke 24. 31 32. Isa 4. 4. with cold frozen spirits but before you come out of your Closets what a fire hath God kindled in your souls what a spirit of burning have you found in your hearts O remember how often you have gone into your Closets streightned and shut up but before you have come out how hath your souls been like the Charriots of Aminnadab O remember what Can. 6. 12. power God hath given you against corruptions in your Closets and what strenth God hath given you against temptations in your Closets O remember the sweet discoveries of divine love that you have had when in your Closets O remember the secret visits the secret kisses the secret embraces the secret whispers the secret love-tokens that Christ hath given you in your Closets O seriously ponder upon these things and then Closet-duties will be sweet unto you 'T was a sweet saying of Bernard O Saint knowest thou not that thy Husband Christ is bashful and will Can. 7. 11 12. not be familiar in company retire thy self by Meditation into thy Closet or into the fields and there thou shalt have Christ's embraces Meditatio nutrix orationis Meditation is the Nurse of Prayer O the more any man Gerson meditates upon his Closet-experiences the more he shall find his heart engaged to Closet-duties the more you ponder upon Closet-experiences the sweeter will Closet-experiences be to your souls and the sweeter Closet-experiences are to your souls the more your souls will delight to be with God in your Closets Pliny tells us of one Messala Corvinus lib. 7. c. 24. whose memory was so bad that he forgot his own name And I am afraid that many of your memories are so bad that you forget your Closet-mercies your Closet-experiences I have read of such a Pestilential disease once at Athens as took away the memories of those that were infected with it so that they forgat their own names O that I had not cause to fear that some Pestilential Disease or other hath so taken away the memories of many that they have quite forgot their Closet-experiences Well Friends remember this though stony hearts are bad yet Iron memories are good and O that you would all labour after Iron memories that so you may remember and ponder upon your Closet-experiences I have read of the Heathens how they made use of white and black stones for these two ends First They gave them to persons at their arraignment before the Judges if any were condemned to death they gave him a black Stone but if absolved and set free a white Stone To which custome the Holy-Ghost seemes to allude in that Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give a VVhite Stone A second use of those Stones was this that by them they might keep an account of all the good dayes or evil dayes they had met withal in their lives Hence Giacopo Senzaro having been long in love and much crossed about his match he filled a Pot full of black Stones putting only one white Stone among them and being asked the reason answered There will come one VVhite Day meaning his Marriage Day which will make amends for all my Black Dayes Ah Friends how often hath God given you the White Stone in your Closets Certainly you have had more White Stones than Black Stones your Closet-mercies and experiences have been more than your publick crosses and miseries O Sirs did you but reckon your good dayes according to the White Stones you have had in your Closets it would make you more in love with Closet-prayer than ever But Fourthly Be sure that you do not spend so much of your precious time in publick Duties and Ordinances as that you can spare none for private Duties for secret services Though Pharoah's Kine eat up one another yet our Gen. 41. 4. Duties must not eat up one another publick Duties must not eat up family duties nor family-duties must not eat up publick duties nor neither of them must not eat up Closet-duties The wisdom of a Christian doth most eminently sparkle shine in giving every duty its proper time and place I was going to say that either he was Eccl. 8. 5. no Christian or at least no excellent Christian that is all eye to read or all ear to hear or all tongue to speak or all knee to bow to kneel to pray Ah how many are there that spend so much time in hearing of this man and that and in running up and down from meeting to meeting that they have no time to meet with God in their Closets O Sirs your Duties are never so amiable and lovely they are never so orient and beautiful as when they are seasonably and orderly performed Oh how wise are the men of this world so to order all their civil affairs that no one business shall interferre with another they set apart for each business a convenient proportion of time they allot an hour for one business two for another three for another c. O that we were as wise for our souls as wise for eternity as they are for this world O that our hearts would so consult with our heads that we may never want a convenient time to seek God in a corner That Devil that loves to set one man against another and one Nation against another and one Christian against another that Devil loves to set one Ordinance against another and one Duty against
another Hence t is that on the one hand he works some to cry up publick Prayers in opposition to secret Prayer and one the other hand he works others to cry up private Duties in opposition to all publick Duties whereas all Christians stand oblieged by God so to manage one sort of Duties as not to shut out another sort of Duties Every Christian must find time and room for every Duty incumbent upon him But Fifthly Love Christ with a more enflamed love O strengthen your love to Christ and your love to Closet-duties Lovers love Can 7. 10 11 12. much to be alone to be in a corner together Certainly the more any man loves the Lord Jesus the more he will delight to be with Christ in a corner There was a great deal of love between Jonathan 1 Sam. 18. 19. chap. 20. com and David and according to their love so was their private converse their secret communion one with another they were alwayes best when in the Field together or when in a corner together or when behind the door together or when lockt up together and just so it would be with you did you but love the Lord Jesus Christ with a more raised and a more enflamed love you would be alwayes best when you were most with Christ in a corner Divine Love is like a rod of Myrtle which as Pliny reports makes the traveller that carries it in his hand so lively and cheerful that he never faints or grows weary Ah Friends did you but love the Lord Jesus with a more strong with a more raised love you would never faint in Closet-duties nor you would never grow weary of Closet-duties Look as the Israelites removed their Tents from Mithcah to Hashmonah from sweetness Num. 23. 39. to swiftness as the words import So the sweetness of Divine Love will make a man move swiftly on in a way of Closet-duties Divine Love will make all Closet-duties more easie to the Soul and more pleasant and delightful to the Soul and therefore do all you can to strengthen your love to Christ and your love to Closet-work It was observed among the Primitive Christians that they were so full of love one to another that they could be acquainted one with another as well in half an hour as in half a year O Sirs If your hearts were but more full of love to Christ and Closet-duties you would quickly be better acquainted with them you would quickly know what secret communion with Christ behind the door means But Sixthly Be highly throughly and fixedly resolved in the strength of Christ to keep close to closet-duties in the face of all difficulties and discouragements that you may Psal 44. 17 18 19 20 meet withal A man of no resolution or of weak resolution will be won with a Nut and lost with an Apple Satan and the world and carnal relations and your own hearts will cast in many things to discourage you and take you off from closet-Closet-prayer but be ye nobly and firmly resolved to keep close to your Closet let the World the Flesh and the Devil doe and say what they can Daniel was a man of an invincible resolution rather than he would om it praying in his Chamber he would be cast into the Den of Lyons Of all the Duties of Religion Satan is the most deadly enemy to this of secret Prayer partly because Secret prayer spoiles him in his most secret designs plots and contrivances against the Soul and partly because secret prayer is so musical and delightful to God and partly because secret prayer is of such rare use and advantage to the Soul and partly because it layes not the soul of open to pride vain glory and worldly applause as prayer in the Synagogue doth and therefore he had rather that a man should pray a thousand times in the Synagogues or in the corner of the streets or behind a Pillar than that he should pray once in his Closet and therefore you had need to steel your hearts with holy courage and resolution that what ever suggestions temptations oppositions or objections you may encounter with that yet you will keep close to closet-Closet-prayer There is not any better Bulwark in the day or battel than an heroick resolution of heart before the day of battel Sanctified resolutions doe exceedingly weaken and discourage Satan in his assaults they doe greatly daunt and dishearten him in all his undertakings against the Soul That man will never long be quiet in his Closet who is not stedfastly resolved to seek the Lord in a corner though all the powers of darkness should make head against him O Sir Divine fortitude holy resolutions will make you like a Wall of Brass that no Arrows can pierce they will make you like Armour of proof that no shot can hurt they will make you like that Angel Mat. 28. 2. that rolled away the Stone from before the door of the Sepulchre they will either enable you to remove the greatest Mountaines of opposition that lye between you and Closet prayer or else they will enable you to step over them Lather was a man of great resolution and a man that spent much time in Closet-prayer And such another was Nehemiah who met with so much opposition that had he not been steeled by a strong and obstinate resolution he could never have rebuilded the Temple but would have sunk in the midst of his work Now he was a man for private prayer as I have shewen in the beginning of this Treatise Who more resolute than David who more for secret prayer than David the same I might say of Paul Basil and many others who have been famous in their Generations O Sirs Sanctified Resolutions for Closet-prayer will chain you faster to Closet-prayer than ever Vlisses his resolutions did chain him to the mast of the ship 'T was a noble resolution that kept Ruth close to her mother when her sister Orpah only complements her kisses her and takes her leave of her Be but nobly resolved Ruth 1. 10 20. for Closet-prayer and then you will keep close to it when others only court it and take their leaves of it In the Salentine Country there is mention made of a Lake that is still brim full if you put in never so much it never runs over if you draw out never so much it is still full The resolution of every Christian for Closet-prayer Plin. Hist l. 2. c. 103. should be like this Lake still brim full Tide life tide death come honour or reproach come loss or gain come liberty or bonds come what can come the true bred Christian must be fully and constantly resolved to keep close to his Closet But Seventhly Labour for a greater effusion of the Holy Spirit for the greater measure any man hath of the Spirit of God the more that man will delight to be with God in secret Zech. 12. 10. And I will pour upon the House
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplications vers 12 13 14. And the Land shall mourn every family apart the family of the House of David apart and their Wives apart the family of the House of Nathan apart and their Wives apart The family of the House of Levi apart and their Wives apart the family of the House of Shimei apart and their VVives apart All the families that remain every family apart and their VVives apart Mark in the Joel 2. 28 29. Isa 44 3. last of the last dayes when men shall be generally under a greater effusion of the Holy Spirit than ever then they shall be more given up to secret prayer than ever There will never be such praying apart and such mourning apart as there will be when the Lord shall pour out most richly gloriously abundantly of his Spirit upon his poor people now every one shall pour out his tears and his soul before God in a corner to shew the soundness of their sorrow and to shew their sincerity by their secrecy for Ille dolet vere qui sine teste dolet He grieves with a witness that grieves without a witness Certainly the more any man is now under the blessed pouring out of the Spirit of Christ the more that man gives himself up to secret Communion with Christ Every man is more or less with Christ in his Closet as he is more or less under the anointings of the Spirit of Christ The more any man hath of the Spirit of Christ the more he loves Christ and the more any man loves Christ the more he delights to be with Christ alone Lovers love to be alone The more any man hath of the Spirit of Christ the more his heart will be set to please Christ Now nothing pleaseth Christ more than the secret prayers of his people Cant. 2. 14. O my Dâ—ve that art in the clefts of the Rock in the secret places of the stairs let me see thy Countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voyce and thy countenance is comely And therefore such a one will be much in secret prayer The more any man hath of the Spirit of Christ the more his heart will be set upon glorifying and exalting Christ Now nothing glorifies Christ more nor exalts him more than secret prayer and therefore the more any man hath of the Spirit of Christ the more that man will be found in secret prayer There are many persons who say they would be more in their Closets than they are but that they meet with many hinderances many occasions many diversions many temptations many oppositions many difficulties many discouragements which prevent them Ah Friends had you a greater measure of the Holy Spirit upon you none of these things should ever be able to hinder your secret trade Heaven-ward Had you a more rich anointing of the Spirit upon you you would never plead there is a Lyon in the way a Lyon in the Streets but were there a thousand Pro. 26. 13. Lyons between you and your Closets you would either step over them or make your way through them that so you might enjoy Communion with Christ in your Closets But Eighthly and Lastly As ever you would keep close to private prayer Be frequent in the serious Consideration of Eternity O see Eternity standing at the end of every Closet-Prayer and this will make you pray to purpose in your Closets O Sirs every work you doe is a step to a blessed or to a cursed Eternity Every motion every action in this life is a step toward Eternity As every step that a Traveller takes brings him forward to his journeys end So every step that a man takes in the secret wayes of Righteousness and Holiness such as Closet-Duties are they bring him neerer to his journeys end they bring him neerer to a blessed Eternity Look as every step the sinner takes in a way of wickedness brings him neerer to Hell so every step that a Saint takes in a way of Holiness brings him neerer to Heaven Look as every step that a wicked man takes in the wayes of unrighteousness brings him nearer to a cursed Eternity so every step that a godly man takes in a way of Righteousness brings him neerer to a blessed Eternity Zeuxis the famous Painter was so exceeding careful and curious in drawing all his Lines that he would let no Piece of his go abroad into the World to be seen of men till he had turn'd it over and over and viewed it on this side and that side again and again to see if he could spie any fault in it and being asked the reason why he was so curious and so long in drawing his Lines answered Aeternitati pingo I paint for Eternity O Sirs we all pray for Eternity we fast for Eternity we read for Eternity we hear for Eternity we wait for Eternity we weep for Eternity and therefore O how curiously how exactly how wisely how faithfully how carefully how diligently how unweariedly should we be in all our Closet-Duties and services seeing that all we do is in order to Eternity Friends you must all e're long be eternally blest or eternally curst eternally happy or eternally miserable eternally saved or eternally damned eternally accepted or eternally rejected And therefore what infinite cause have you frequently to shut to your Closet Doors and to plead mightily with God in in a corner for the lives of your poor precious and immortal souls that they may be eternally saved in the great day of our Lord Jesus O Sirs when any hinderances to Closet-prayer present themselves to you seriously remember Eternity and that will remove them It is related of one Pachomius that whensoever he felt any unlawful Drex de Eternit consid 8. desires to arise in his mind he was wont to drive them away with the remembrance of Eternity The same Author relates a story out of Benedictus Rhrexanus of an ungodly fellow who on a certain Ibid. con 5. night could not sleep who up on the serious Consideration of Death and Eternity and the damned lying in Hell could not be at rest but Eternity did still run in his mind faâ—n would he have shaken off the thoughts thereof as gnawing worms therefore he followed sports and pastimes and merry meetings and sought out Companions like himself and sat oftentimes so long at his Cups that he laid his Conscience asleep and so seemed to take some rest but when he was awakened his Conscience flew in his face and would still be a suggesting sad thoughts of Eternity to him of all things in the world he could not bear it to be kept awake in the night but so it happened that being sick he was kept awake one night and could not sleep at all whereupon these thoughts rise in him VVhat is it so tedious then to be kept from sleep one night and to lye a few hours in the dark
Oh what is it then to be kept in torments and everlasting darkness I am here in my own house upon a soft bed in the dark kept from sleep but one night but to lye in flames and endless misery how dreadful must that needs be These and such like meditations were the happy means of this young mans conversion I have read a notable Story of one Theodorus a Christian young man in Egypt who when there was a great deal of feasting mirth and musick in his Fathers house withdrew himself from all the company and being got alone he thus thought with with himself Here is content and delight enough for the flesh I may have what I desire but how long will this last this will not hold out long then falling down upon his knees before the Lord in secret he said O Lord my heart is open unto thee I indeed know not what to ask but only this Lord let me not dye eternally O Lord thou knowest I love thee O let me live eternally to praise thee If there be any way or means on earth to bring us upon our knees before God in secret it is the serious and solemn thoughts of Eternity O that the fear of Eternity might fall upon all your souls O that you would all seriously consider that after a short time is expired you must all enter upon an eternal estate O consider that Eternity is an infinite endless bottomless gulph which no line can fathom no time can reach no age can extend to no tongue can expresse it is a duration alwayes present a being alwayes in being its Vnum perpetuum hodie one perpetual day which shall never see light O Sirs this is and must be for a lamentation viz. that Eternity is a thing that most men never think of or else very slenderly a snatch and away as Dogs are said to lap and away at the River Nâ—lus But as ever you would have your hearts chained to your closets and to closet-duties as the men of Tyrus chained their God Apollo to a post that they might be sure of him then seriously and frequently ponder upon Eternity and with those fourty valiant Martyrs be still a crying out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Basil 40. Martyr Eternity Eternity Mr. VVood after some holy discourse fell a musing and cryed out before all present for neer half a quarter of an hour together for ever for ever for ever Austins Prayer was Hack me hew me burn me here but spare me heareafter spare me hereafter Certainly if Christians would but spend one quarter of an hour every day in the solemn thoughts of Eternity it would make them more in love with Closet-prayer than ever yea it would make them more fearful of omitting Closet-prayer than ever and more careful and Conscientious in the discharg of all Closet-Duties than ever And thus according to my weak measure I have given out all that at present the Lord hath graciously given in to my poor soul concerning this most necessary most glorious and most useful point of points viz. Closet-prayer I shall by assisting grace follow this poor piece with my prayers that it may be so blest from on high as that it may work mightily to the internal and eternal welfare both of Reader Hearer and Writer FINIS ERRATA In the Epistle Dedicatory neer the middle for for are r. are for corrosives for appropiating r. appropriating In the 3. Lesson for Mow r. Now. In the 7. Lesson for hang up r. hang upon p. 21. l. 28. read thus p. â—0 l. 28. read Paul p. 98. l. 26. dele as well p. 99. r. in the marg Deus p. 149. l. 2. dele must p. 126. l. 7. r. lyes p. 168. l. 16. r. decree for degree p. 170 l. 4. r. evade p. 175 l. 20. r. Solomon p. 189. l. ult r. adressing p. 190. l. 14. r. or for for p. 209. l. utl r. and. p. 224 l. 18. r. drink l. 22. r. affliction p. 254. l 7. r. he for the. p. 298. l. 22. r. cum p. 357. l. 8. r. Marquess for Martyr p. 371. l. 28. r. a very for every A TABLE Containing The Chief Heads of this BOOK Of Afflictions  THat Afflictions refemble a Rod in Seven Particulars you may see in the Epistle Dedicatory  Of Allegories  Of Allegories p. 1. to 19. Of the Blood of Christ  That the least drop of Christs Blood was not sâ—fficient for the redemption of our Souls is made good by five Arguments p. 303 304 305. C  Doct. That Closet-Prayer or private prayer is an indispensable duty that Christ himself hath laid upon all that are not willing to lye under the woful brand of being Hypocrites p. 6. Five Arguments to prove Closet-Prayer to be a Duty p. 6. to p. 8. The most eminent Saint in all Ages have applied themselves to Closet-Prayer p. 8 to p. 19. We may more freely fully and safely unbosome our souls to God in our Closets than we can in the presence of many or a few p. 30 to p. 34. Christians enjoy most of God in their Closets p. 36 to p. 46. The time of this life is our only time for Closet-Prayer p. 46 47. The prevalency of Closet-Prayer p. 47. to p. 67. See Secret  Rules to be observed in Closet-Prayer  First Be frequent in Closet-Prayer and that upon eight grounds p. 297 to p. 30â— Secondly Take fit seasons and oppâ—rtuâ—ities for Closet Prayer Three unfit seasons for Closet Prayer are hinted at p. 305. to 311. Thirdly Look that you do not perform Closet-Duties meerly to still your Consciences p. 312 to p. 315. Fourthly Take heed of resting upon Closet-Duties p. 315 to p. 322. Fifthly Labour to bring your hearts into all your closet-Closet-Prayers p. 322 to p. 328. Sixthly Be servent be warm be importunate with God in all your Closet-performances p. 328. to p. 339. Seventhly Be constant in Closet-Prayer hold on and hold out in Closet-prayer p. 339 to p. 347. Eighthly In all your Closet Prayers thirst and long after Communion with God p. 347 to p. 384. Ninthly In all your Closet-Duties look that your ends be right p. 384 to p. 387. Tenthly Be sure that you offer all your Closet-Prayers in Christ's name and his alone p. 387 to p. 393. Eleventhly When you come out of your Closets narrowly watch what becomes of your Closet-Prayers p. 393 to p. 399. Of Christ  Christ was much in Secret Prayer p. 19 to 24. Six Arguments why Christ was so much in Secret Prayer p. 24 to p. 27. Christ was very much affected and delighted in the Secret Prayers of his people p. 73 to p. 75. What a friend Christ is shewed in Ten particulars p. 76 77 78. Of Combates  The Combate between the Allmigh and Jacob opened in Six particulars p. 49 to p. 58. Of Communion with God  Quest How shall a man know when he hath real Communion with God in his Closet or no Answered