his misery plead for mercy and giving God the glory due unto his name oh then he goes away much satisfied and God must needs accept his person and hear his Prayer Why so Why he hath sound abundant assistance meltings quicknings and inlargements Alas Sirs where is Christ all this while I am afraid your advocate is quite forgotten your surety set aside as a poor insignificant Cypher And tell me soul thou that boastest thus of thy inlargements darest thou appear before an holy God in those rotten rags Suppose thy rags be Velvet they are but rags still and are too scant a garment for thy naked soul thou comest to unlock the ear of God and open his heart with a wrong key we are accepted only in the Beloved and not because we are inlarged 'T is true evangelical assistance may be a sign of acceptance but 't is no cause thereof No no our persons and prayers are owned only upon the account of our surety and intercessour Our dear Lord Jesus who dyed for us he lyes leager at the Court of Heaven as our Ambassador to plead for us and to see matters carried fairly betwixt God and ransomed souls and shall we not imploy our advocate and find him work Or shall we think to go our own errand Lord forgive this gross ingratitude Oh Christians whatever your straitness or inlargements be make use of him who is at Gods right hand lay your sacrifices on this golden Altar lay the whole stress of your acceptance upon Christs meritorious intercession act faith on him who mingles his sweet incense with your sorry performances Oh look after our Aaron who is gone into the Holy of Holies for us Consider friends it would be sad with you if you were to be judged according to the best secret duties that ever you performed It 's good to have an inlarged heart in secret yet there 's danger in it and it may undo us because our naughty hearts are apt to boast of and trust to our inlargements therefore 't is better for us sometimes to be straitned than constantly inlarged in our Closet-Prayers This is that which hath made some say that their duties have done them more hurt than their infirmities and the reason is plain because our corrupt hearts are so apt to depend upon the former when as we are daunted and emptied of our selves by considering the latter The Lord help us all in this main businâ—ss of Prayer yea this principal part of our religion to depend wholly upon the righteousness and intercession of Jesus Christ for access to and acceptance with God Study these Scriptures Joh. 16.23 24. Eph. 3.13 Heb. 4.15 16.10.19 20 21 22. Phil. 3.3 18. The Gospel is full of this yea this is the main hinge of our Religion you are not Christians unless you make Jehovah your righteousness in all you do as well as God your ultimate end You 'l go away as the proud Pharisee without acceptance if you plead your inlargements with God but if you come as the Publican pleading only Gods mercy and Christs merits you shall be owned and crowned with abundant incomes There are also several other necessary Ingredients in all prayer which I might urge with reference to this duty of secret Prayer as 1. A right understanding 1 Cor. 14.15 I will pray with understanding For blind devotion is not pleasing to God 2. A sensible feeling of our wants we must come weary and heavy laden Mat. 11.28 Pressed with the guilt of sin pinched with want of grace 3. Fervency of spirit James 5.17 arising from a consideration of the necessity and excellency of what we desire burning Zeal 4. A reverent disposition Eccl. 5.2 an unfeigned abasing of our selves before him from the sense of his infinite Majesty and our own indignity 5. Secret perswasions of prevailing 1 Tim. 2.8 grounded on Gods All sufficiency and Fidelity though the soul be unworthy 6. A charitable disposition forgiving others Mat. 6.14 bearing an endeared affection to all Saints 7. Perseverance in Prayer holding on without cessation Eph. 6.18 Following God in the duty all our dayes Such as these constitutive ingredients essentially requisite in the duty of Prayer I might urge but must contract This is the second sort of Directions CHAP. VI. The circumstances of Secret Prayer opened SECT I. THe third head of Instructions concerning Closet-Prayer is the Circumstances that attend it which may be a great furtherance or hinderance in this performance These are four Referring either to the 1. Place 2. Posture 3. Season 4. Voice I shall but briefly touch at these 1. For the Place I advise you to chuse the most retired room where you may be freest from disturbance that you may not hear the noise of the family or distracting commotions of a tumultuous world be not curious in the choice of a place so it accomplish your end for secrecy or retirement no matter how homely it be the sweetness of the company will compensate the meanness of the place Lovers care not where they meet so they may conveniently be together If you have not a convenient room within doors yet a good heart will not disdain to go meet its Beloved in any coat or barn or wood Isaac walkt out into the Fields to pray and meditate See you chuse a private place wherever it be according to the nature of the duty before opened to you observe God's providence in disposing of you and accept such place as he shall offer to you 2. For Posture In general see that you use an humble gesture there are examples of several laudable gestures in prayer sometimes we find Saints standing ordinarily kneeling spreading forth their hands lifting up their eyes towards Heaven sometimes prostrating the body all along upon the Earth before the Lord you may do in this as you find most advantageous in your experience no universal rules can be given as to these particular circumstances only see that your Closet-Prayers be with as much reverence as if you were before others consider your bodies are Gods and must be presented as a sacrifice to God He will be worshipped with the outward as well as inward man you cannot without dangerous sacriledge rob him of either Besides observe it there is both evidence and assistance in the bodies humble gesture it is an help to make you humble and 't is a sign that you are humble But on the contrary an unsuitable sight and position of the body in Gods service is a sad sign of an unhumbled soul Cogitemus nos sub conspectu Dei stare placendam est Divinis â—…ulis habitu corporis mâ—de vocis Cyp. Serm. in Orat. Dom. p. 409. and hinders humiliation Therefore though you be never so solitary yet remember your Father in Heaven sees you Therefor as Cyprian exhorts let us consider we stand under the presence of God and seek to please the Divin 〈…〉 h in the habit of our body and manner o 〈…〉 Think of this
joy i. e. No creature on earth is privy to the secret groans or sweetest solace of a retired Saint That 's the second Reason SECT III. The third Reason is drawn from God seeing in secret ANother Reason is drawn from Gods Omniscience and Omnipresence the Text saith Thy Father sees in secret And the strength or force of this argument lyes in these four particulars 1. God sees in secret Therefore he takes notice whether thou pray in secret yea or no He looks after thee as it were when thou goest into such a chamber and solitary place and saith That soul hath now an opportunity a convenient place and fit occasion to wait upon me and will he not Will he be always so busie in other company that I must have none of his fellowship Must his converse be so much with men that he can spare no time for communion with God Nay will he go so often into such a room to do such and such a business and can he never find a time to go down upon his knees and visit me Hath he so much to do in the world that he hath no leisure to look up to Heaven Do his worldly occasions still thrust out spiritual meditations Will he never set himself solemnly to transact betwixt my self and him in Prayer and Meditation the most important business of his soul Ah sirs the Omnipresent God takes notice of all your motions into and out of your chambers and expects that sometimes at least your souls should wait upon him And why should Christians frustrate his expectation 2. God sees in secret Therefore he hath seen thy secret sins and sins in secret Thy closs and Closet-wickedness is naked and open before the piercing eyes of an all-seeing God therefore should thy Closet-tears and Prayers testifie thy sound and saving repentance For this is a rule in practical divinity that sorrow for sin must bear some proportion to the nature and circumstances of the sin both as to degree and circumstances of time and place Manassch humbled himself greatly for his great abominations So for place and manner them that sin openly must be rebuked before all and testifie their repentance before the Church 1 Tim. 5.20 So if the sin be private or less known the rule in Mat. 18.15.16 is to be observed for private admonition and confession And consequently secret sins must be secretly mourned for When thy sins are known to none but to God and thine own conscience thou art not bound to discover them to any other but to God in an hearty secret repentance except in some few cases Here then comes in secret prayer and godly sorrow Well then there 's none of us without our secret sins and God sees them all though never so privily committed we may hide sin from men we cannot hide it from the Lord he sets our secret sins in the sight of his countenance Psal 90.8 His eyes are open upon all the wayes of man and who knows all the errors of his life Job 34.21 21. Jer. 32.19 Pro. 5.10 Therefore must we get alone and enumerate all the sins we know of and desire God to shew us what we do not know and with holy David breath out that devout Petition Psal 19.12 Cleanse thou me from secret faults 3. God sees in secret Therefore thou dost not lose thy labour though men know not where thou art or what thou art a doing yet thy God takes notice of thee thou dost not thy good works incognito though thy groans are not seen or heard by men yet they are well known to thy God Psal 38.9 Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee As if David should say Lord I many times withdraw my self into a Closet or retired place and there I open before the Lord the sorrows of my soul I pour out my heart like water before the face of the Lord Lam. 2.19 Sometimes in the night-watches or in solitary places none knows what I am doing no eye sees no ear hears my briny trears or bitter out-cryes but the all-seeing God hides not his eyes from my tears stops not his ears to my cryes but knows my groans yea my very desires Observe it There is not a believing Prayer but it is upon the file and on record in Heaven though offered up by an obscure person in an obscure place yea God knoweth the meaning of his spirit in the hearts of his people Rom. 8.17 though the troubled Saint cannot tell whether it be indeed the spirit of God or no But this know that secret prayers in a chamber are as well known to God as open prayers in a publick Church heart-ejaculations are owned by God as well as loudest acclamations God took notice of Hezekiah when he turned his face toward the wall and wept and prayed and saith God I have heard thy Prayer I have seen thy Tears Isa 38.5 Though men did not much take notice God did yea more he expresseth his approbation and acceptation of these sacrifices in secret But of that anon 4. God sees in secret Therefore Closet-Prayer is a solemn acknowledgment of Gods omniscience and omnipresence When you pray in a corner you testifie your faith in Gods ubiquity and look upon him as filling Heaven and Earth and this God commands us to believe yea would have us to lye under the sense hereof Hence that vehement expostulation 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 Yes saith the believing soul I know thou art every where no thought can be with-holden from thee therefore I wait on thee here all 's one where I am for wherever I am I cannot run away from thee and wherever I am I may approach unto thee And the Lord is nigh to broken hearts and praying souls Psal 34.15 17 18. He is not far from every one of us but his special presence is with his Saints in duty David composeth a Psalm of God's Immensity Psal 139. Wherein he shews 1. Gods omniscience in the six first verses Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up rising c. 2 Gods omnipresence ver 7. to ver 14. Whither shall I go from thy spirit If to Heaven thou art there c. Darkness and light are both alike to thee And what use doth holy David make of this Heavenly doctrine surely if God will be with him wherever he is he is resolved to be with God v. 18. When I awake I am still with thee i. e. by secret prayer and meditation when I lye down I commend my soul and body to thee and when I rise up I meditate of thee when I go to sleep I pray when I awake I am with God by holy and precious thoughts So that I am still with God all my dayes in all places conditions relations companies I am still with my God and as a good man
husbands wives apart Zech. 12.11 12. And of gracious souls to be like Doves of the valleys every one mourning for his iniquity Eze. 7.16 There must be joynt-Prayers and separated Prayers together and apart Let not Christians be content to find Christ in a Corner for themselves but let them do what they can that others also may enjoy him this was the frame of the Church or believing Soul Cant. 3.4 When she had found him I held him saith she and would not let him go until I had brought him into my Mothers house i. e. into more publick assemblies And truly Christians that man hath not found Christ at all that would not have all others to find him Oh thinks the Christian in his retirement that others did but feel and injoy what my soul hath sweet experience of would to God my Husband Wife Brother Father Child Neighbour would but try this course a while Oh what advantage would they get by it Though I eat these sweet morsels alone yet fain would I have others to partake with me In things of this world persons are apt to grudge others any benefit by what they have stoln from others a view but in spiritual advantages there 's no envy and if there be it proceeds not from Grace but from corrupt Nature the more grace the less envy and when envy is gone persons will be communicative Take away envy Tolle invidiam mea tua sunt tua mea and mine is thine and thine is mine true Grace or Charity is kind envieth not 1 Cor. 13.4 Now this I am perswading to that they that have found Christ would be so charitable to souls as to communicate the knowledge of him and the way to enjoy him unto others Thus doth Andrew come to Simon and Philip to Nathaniel and both of them were as a man finding a jewel and cannot contain overjoyed and cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found him We have found the Messias Joh. 1.41 45. And when the poor woman of Samaria had been privately conversing with Jesus down she threw at least left behind her her water-pot and all in haste went to the City and said to the men Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did Is not this the Christ John 4.28 29. Thus do you sirs promote and propagate this choice duty commend it unto others practice and so you may be instruments of good CHAP. VII Concerning the matter or words of Prayer SECT I. THere is one thing yet remains which it may be expected something should be spoken to and that is The matter in praying or words of Prayer Whether it be lawful or requisite to use a form or no Most judge Videas Ames Cas Cons lib. 4. c. 17. p. 190. that as forms are lawful so prescript words may be requisite to some young beginners in Religion and other Christians of weak parts that cannot express their desires to God in fit words to help their rudeness yet Christians ought to press after more growth and proficiency that they may lay aside those Crutches and arrive at that gift of Prayer that may be of singular use As for Closet-Prayer Practical Catech. pag. 277. Dr. Hammond doth assert it that every one may ask his own wants in what form of words he shall think fit And indeed all particular cases incident and variable can scarce be comprehended in one constant form besides in secret Prayer God doth not so much stand upon phrases or pat sentences as the workings of the heart in sighs and groans which are the best Rhetorick in his ears It 's inquired Whether we may use the Lords Prayer I answer we may use it as other prayers in Scripture but I conceive the principal end of it is not to be rehearsed every time we pray but an example platform or directory according to the contents whereof we must direct our prayers Therefore for the further help of young professors I shall briefly touch at the several branches of that admirable compendious rule of Prayer you have in Mat. 6. ver 9. to v. 14. And the rather because it may seem to refer chiefly though not only to Closet-devotion what I shall say to it may be a practical analysing of it in its several parts and branches 1. For the preface Our Father which art in Heaven You may thus make use of it Infinite and Eternal Majesty the Maker of Heaven and Earth who dwellest in the highest Heavens and in the lowest hearts who seest all things here below and art a God that hearest prayers I am a poor worm at thy foot-stool looking up to the Throne of thy Grace cast a Fatherly eye up on me and though I be by Nature a Child of wrath yet through Jesus Christ make me thy child by Grace and Adoption teach me to cry Abba Father with holy reverence and filial confidence raise my heart to Heaven beget in me Faith in thy promises love to my brethren and due apprehensions of thy Soveraign power and gracious condescention that praying by the help of thy Spirit in the name of thy Son I may obtain good at thy Fatherly hands Secondly for the Petitions 1. Petition Hallowed be thy Name Thus O my God I have dishonoured thee all my days by my ignorance pride hardness and unthankfulness and I am unapt and unable to glorifie thee but do thou glorifie thy self in my conversion and salvation help me to know and adore thee to make an high account of thy titles attributes ordinances to believe thy word admire thy works in mercy or judgment help me with spiritual thoughts becoming my holy profession with divine lips speaking good of thy Name and a suitable conversation to walk before the Lord Holy God destroy Atheism Ignorance Idolatry and Profaneness magnifie thy Name through the World and direct and dispose all things to the advancement of thy glory by thy over-ruling providence and thy infinite wisdom 2. Petition Thy Kingdom come Thus improve it Lord I must confess that by nature I am dead in sin and a bond-slave to the Prince of darkness who rules in my heart and leads me captive by ignorance errour disobedience but do thou by the power of thy grace cast out the strong man take possession of my heart sway thy blessed Scepter in me bring my whole man to obedience destroy Satans kingdom propagate the Gospel among all Nations purge thy house furnish thy Church with officers orders and pure ordinances make Kings nursing Fathers to it convert sinners confirm Saints comfort the sad hasten thy second coming to judgement and the blessed Kingdom of Glory 3. Petition Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Thus Holy Majestie I acknowledge my natural ignorance of thy will impotencie to obey it yea enmity and antipathy against it my best services are imperfect my spirit repining under thy hand and my will wilfully resisting grace and rushing into sin but Dear Lord
the duty of secret Prayer Although mental ejaculations are fit enough in both yet it 's not convenient to kneel down or use outward gestures of secret Prayer there 7. Closet-Prayer must be with all secrecy and solitariness In a Closet door shut As we must not blow a Trumpet when we give Alms so we must not hold out a flag when we go to wait on God in the Duty of Prayer It was carnal counsel the brethren of Christ gave him Joh. 7.4 Shew thy self to the World The reason is given v. 5. For neither did his brethren believe in him A sad sign of carnality 8. God alone is the proper object of our Prayers pray to thy Father As he is the object of our Faith so of Prayer For he alone can help therefore he is to be sought none else sees our state or can satisfie souls Isa 63.16 Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us 9. In all our addresses to God we must own God as our Father as having adopted us in Christ because his therefore ours I ascend saith Christ to my Father and your Father Joh. 20.17 Indeed by nature we were children of wrath but by grace children of his Love so that they may say as Isa 64.8 But now O Lord thou art our Father Oh plead and improve this relation 10. God is omnipresent Hinc omnipraesens est quia nullum est Ubi unde est exclusus neque alicubi est inclusus Ames Med. Theol. lib. 1. Cap. 4. 47. Thy Father which is in secret the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him 1 King 8.27 He filleth all places with his immense and infinite essence Heaven is his throne the Earth is his footstool he is excluded from no place included in none for he is without all limitation dimension or termination 11. God is omniscient Thy Father which seeth in secret The darkest night or secretest closet or most hidden thought of a reserved heart can neither hide or be hid from God's all-seeing eye Heb. 4.13 God beholds all things in Heaven and on Earth with one simple single act of his Understanding without composition discourse or representation of Species 12. Every believing Prayer hath a sure reward He will reward thee openly Not a good word to God or work for God shall be lost To him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward Prov. 11.18 And we know every right Prayer is a real seed Psal 126.6 And it will rise in a full and plentiful crop another day 13. The reward of secret Prayer shall be open and manifest They have already a reward and gift in secret Communion with God is an abundant recompence In keeping thy Commandements there is great reward Psal 19.11 But this is a praemium ante praemium reward before the reward the other shall be in Heaven before Angels and Men. 14. A Christians reward is from God Thy Father will reward thee Not men Scribes and Pharisees have their reward from men from men they expect it Saints expect their reward from God and God gives it them Men reward them evil for their good will and they expect no better If better come from men they own it as a gratuity sent from their Father It 's a principle of Religion to know and believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 And as God gives a reward so he is the reward of his Saints Gen. 15.1 Yea an exceeding great reward It can admit of no Hyperbole it cannot have a sufficient Emphasis to enjoy God is a reward sufficient in and for the service of God These Doctrines would afford large discourses but none of these are the subject I shall insist upon I shall raise one from the main scope of the Text which is this Doct. That Closet-Prayer is a Christian Duty Secret Prayer is an Evangelical exercise Every child of God may and must perform the duty of Secret Prayer As a Christian must pray all manner of Prayer so in all places 1 Tim. 2.8 I will that men pray every where And if every where then in their Closets This divine Incense should perfume every room and should ascend to Heaven from Chambers as well as Churches Any place now is fit for a divine Oratory Psal 109.4 Psal 30. title God and a believing soul may meet in a corner a Saint should give himself to Prayer and dedicate his house to God he should as it were consecrate every room in his house to be a place of private devotion Abraham reared an altar to God wherever he came so must a Christian make every place where he can get closs to the duty a place of Prayer Mr. Mede hath undertaken to prove from Josh 24.26 That the Jews of old and Christians in Gospel-times had their Proseuchae or praying places which he thus describes as to the Jews of old Proseucha saith he Medes Diatribae pag. 279. was a plot of ground encompassed with a wall or some other like mound or inclosure and open above much like to our Courts the use properly for Prayer as the name Proseucha imports And these were without the Cities as Synagogues were within Of this as he thinks were those in Act. 21.31 and Luk. 6.12 Where Jesus Christ is said to continue all night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Proseucha Dei in the place of Prayer or Proseucha of God Now although I shall say little of the Notion yet I cannot see how it will prove any relative holiness of places nor yet do I believe or find but that the Saints had other praying places as in houses and elsewhere as occasion was offered even in dwelling houses Act. 12.12 But as to this Duty of secret Prayer it must not be so narrowly confined but we may go to any Closet or private Room where our souls may meet with God And as one saith we shall not fail to find that the Grots and caves lye as open to the coelestial influences The life of Dr. Hammond in a letter p. 201. as the fairest and most beautiful Temples SECT IV. Instances of several in Scripture that used Closet-Prayer THe Doctrine needs no Explication but Confirmation which I shall do from Scripture-Instances and Reasons We have several Examples of Patriarchs Prophets Apostles that used this duty of solitary or secret prayer 1. Abraham The friend of God and Father of the faithful conversed much with his God alone particularly in this duty of Prayer Gen. 18.22 When the men i. e. the created Angels that seemed men were gone towards Sodom Abraham stood yet before the Lord or Jehovah i. e. Jesus Christ the Angel of the Covenant Standing is a praying posture therefore put for prayer hence Abraham drew near and pleaded with God for Sodom That was his errand to God at that time No doubt he had used this course frequently in other cases Hence arose that intimacy betwixt God and Abraham So that God
to make the right use of solitariness by having recourse to God No man cares for being alone but the serious person and no man cares for going to God when alone but the sincere Christian Man is a sociable creature and naturally we have no mind to entertain our selves by our selves A carnal heart hates a domestical audit men that have shrewish wives love not to be at home and persons that have guilty consciences cannot endure to hold discourse with them left they be tormented before the time Oh but a Christian that is upright and down-right would know all that concerns his own heart the best and worst therefore he communes with his own heart Psal 77.6 as David did and left he miss or mistake in his search he turns him to the heart-searching God by Prayer and cryes out to him to search his heart and discover him to himself The life of Religion consists in a souls communion with God in secret a man hath so much Religion as he hath betwixt God and his own Soul and no more A true Saint dares approve his heart to God in a Corner He is there exercising himself like a Souldier by himself handling his Pike and keeping his postures that he may be better fitted for a more solemn onset Yea a Christian doth purposely withdraw himself from company that he may converse with God Papists are true Christians Apes hence comes the solitary life of Monks pretending to imitate Eliah and Elisha John Baptist and the Apostles but 't is acknowledged by Hierom and great sticklers for a monastick life that this practice begun not till about the year 260 or 300. Some say Hilarion others Paulus Thebaeus others Antonius begun this manner of conversation But certainly there is a vast difference betwixt those ancient Christians solitary life and the Papists way of Monastick living 1. Those first Christians lived solitary of necessity that they might lye hid more safely in a time of persecution 2. They were not compelled to give all to the poor 3. They were not bound to a certain Rule nor did they ingage themselves by a perpetual Vow to that place and state Vid. Perk. Demonstr problem Monach. p. 227 228. but might change their manner of life if they saw good they were not bound as to meats marriage fasting 4. These ancient Monks were of the Laity not of the Clergy nay not so much as Deacons or Presbyters 5. They had no conceit of merit in a Monastick life till these latter ages I may add 6. Clarks Eccles Hist fol. 13. Those ancient Monks had a particular Calling and did work as the Monks of Bangor that lived by the sweat of their brows and 7. They were not tyed up from conversing abroad as there was occasion and occasions there are manifold 'T is not fit persons should be always coopt up in a Corner but that they be of use to others in their places and capacities We were not born for our selves nor must we live only within our selves which would contradict the Law of Love and Charity Vita solitaria communi inferior est quia importunis cogitationibus plena quae tanquam muscae minutissimae de timo surgentes volunt in oculos coâ—dis interrumpunt Sabbathum mentis Ivo Carnatensis Epist 258. Videsis plura in Perk Ubi supra demonstrat Monasteria veterum ut plurimum faisse scholas publicas i. e. communitates docentium discentium A constant solitariness exposeth persons to a world of temptations it is not good to be alone saith Solomon An ancient could speak it from his own experience that a solitary life is inferiour to a common conversing because 't is full of importunate cogitations which like little flyes arising from dung fly in the eyes of the heart and interrupt the Sabbath of the mind Thus he But I need not trouble you with the mention of Popish Fopperies A right-bred Christian that hath learned the truth as it is in Jesus being thrust into a Corner knows how to improve solitariness for soul-advantage and voluntarily doth withdraw himself into a Corner that he may set himself to the work of God in good earnest Hence saith the Apostle concerning Husband and Wife 1 Cor. 7.5 Defraud ye not one the other except it be with consent for a time that you may give your selves to fasting and prayer Thence note that it 's convenient sometimes for Christians to sequester themselves from nearest Relations Vide Pareum in loc that they may have freer communion with God in holy Duties Only let these four cautions and limitations of the Text be observed 1. That it be with mutual consent 2. But for a Season 3. The end an advantage for Fasting and Prayer 4. That they come together again This respects not every days ordinary performances but some solemn undertakings of stated and extraordinary Fasts in a day of danger or calamity at which time the Bridegroom is to go forth of his Chamber and the Bride out of her Closet Joel 2.16 i. e. to sequester themselves from conjugal delights to afflict their souls by Fasting and Prayer But in these cases a sound Christian's due discretion regulated by the general rules laid down in Scripture will help in such performances that he may not dash on either rock of Superstition or Negligence but maintain a closs and constant communion with God both in the duties of his general and particular calling in publick Ordinances and in private and secret duties Thus much for the first Use CHAP. IV. The Second Vse viz. of Reprehension SECT I. Wicked men reproved 1. HEre is just ground of sharp rebuke to all graceless prayerless persons who understand nothing of this duty they know not what it is to tug and struggle with the Lord in Closet-Prayer David saith The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 He cannot pray aright any where much less in secret the same Psalm tells us what he doth in secret ver 8 9 10. In the secret places doth he murder the innocent his eyes are privily set against the poor The Apostle saith It is a shame even to speak of those things that are done of them in secret Eph. 5.12 Oh the abominable practices of prophane spirits in a corner Their consciences can tell them sad stories of secret sins which none but the God of Heaven and themselves know of yea because they see not God they think God sees not them like the silly bird because she thrusts her head into a bush thinks she is hid from the Fowler though her body be exposed to open view carnal mens Maxim is like that Monkish one Caute si non Caste Carry it warily if not chastly if they can hide their sin from men they take no notice whether God see them or no and from wishing that he did not see begin to suspect whether he do see or no and
tears and groanings in secret Oh sirs if others sins draw you not to secret Prayer let your own which may afford matter of abundant grief in your Closets and retirement 8. Would you not prevent and circumvent wicked mens secret plots Be sure then you undermine them by secret Prayer The Devil and the Pope have many closs and conclave consultations to undermine the Protestant Religion and to root out the name of Israel from under Heaven they are working under ground to do us mischief we have seen by the light of London's flames their hellish devices in their dark vaults Wicked men lye in wait secretly as a Lion in his den to catch the poor and murder the innocent Psal 10. Psal 64.1 2 4 5. 8 9. And now what course is to be taken for preventing these horrid designs Alas we have no other remedy but the ancient Christians weapons Prayers and Tears these may break their nets and blunt their weapons good Jeremiah knew not that they had devised devices against him but he reveals his cause to God in prayer and then God shews him their doings and prevents their attempts Jer. 11.18 19 20. Saints Closet-prayers may break wicked mens Closet-plots Fall closs then to this great duty 9. Would you not be condemned by the Heathens Chamber-Idolatry Oh then do you perform Chamber and Closet-Duties They had their Divos penetrales or Penates their Houshold-gods and Closet-images they had their opertanea and tenebrosa sacra their covered vailed and mysterious exercises in secret places And the Jews borrowed several mystical rites of the Heathens hence we read in Ezek. 8.12 of Chambers of imagery as the Papists at this day have their Crucifixes their petty-Chamber Closet deities where they drop their Beads and do homage to their Idols and shall these in their blind superstition condemn our irreligion Shall it be said of a devout Philosopher that in so many years he spoke more with the gods than with men And shall it be said of any of us that God even the true God is not in all our thoughts or so little in our lips at least in secret solemn addresses to him Let not poor ignorant Papists out-strip us in devotion Since there is such vast difference 10. Would you not be suitable to Gods dispensations When the Lord our God puts us to silence and into solitary places he expects that we should visit him there Cant. 2.14 Oh my Dove that art in the clefts of the rock in the secret place of the stairs i. e. in an afflicted persecuted and desolate condition Let me see thy countenance let me hear thy voice i. e. in the duties of Prayer praise and Gospel-Ordinances For then was her voice sweet and countenance comely when they are cast out then doth God expect and entertain them And this advantage have Gods children had by privacy into which they were cast as we heard before of Jeremiah Chap. 15.15 So the afflicted Church Lam. 3.28 29. When she sitteth alone in solitariness then she putteth her mouth in the dust in fasting and prayer and so a particular person as there Now a man is at leisure for it While persons have their full imployment or enjoyments they are too busie but when persons are taken off other wayes 't is time to retire themselves and retreat to God The less comfort persons find in publick Ordinances the more serious must they be in Closet-performances that the loss may be supplied some way SECT II. Several Objections Answered T Is strange if our carnal hearts and cavilling spirits have not something to say against this difficult duty I shall therefore mention what Objections I can foresee may be made and briefly answer them 1. Obj. We pray in our families and is not that enough What needs all this ado Answ 1. This Objection cannot be made by all some have no Families to pray with but if thou dost pray in thy family 't is well there 's many graceless heads and prayerless houses Of which it may be said The fear of God is not in this place Oh the wrath that shall be poured out on such Families But suppose thou dost Family-prayer is one thing and Closet-prayer is another and let me tell thee God never made one duty to supersede another you must not justle out one work because you are bound to perform another Every thing is beautiful in its place and season Gods Commandments are exceeding broad and take in a great compass of duties You must worship God in your Houses that exempts you not from worshipping God in your Closets no more than in the publick Assemblies There 's equal commands for all necessity of all neglect any at your peril Besides I told you a Child of God hath a secret errand to his Father that it is not fit his family should know of and upon this account God hath appointed Closet-Prayer as tendering the credit of his people that they might not discover their spiritual nakedness to any but to that God who knows their secrets and will keep their counsel And I must tell thee Soul thou art very little sensible of thy spiritual state or wants if thou have nothing to say to God that thou wouldst not have others to hear 2. Obj. But I am a poor man and busie in my calling and cannot take so much time in Closet-Prayer I have other occasions Answ Friend hast thou any greater business than the affairs of thy soul let thy calling stand still rather than thy soul should be damned Cursed be those occasions that eat out Religion But consider you may follow both Callings if you be observant our general and particular callings must not interfere Clean creatures divided the hoof considerate Christians are such as rightly proportion works to their particular seasons A chief part of David's Arithmetick of numbring daies was in that which we call Division to cast the account of this our short life so as to divide the little total sum thereof into the several portions of time due for performing every duty in The hand-maid may not thrust out the Mistress nor the Shop have all and Chamber none of our time You are flat Atheists if you think Praying will hinder your work No no Nobis pietate peculâ—a Câ—escunt Mant. it blesseth and expediteth temporal affairs We use to say Meat and Mattins hinder no work Canst thou not get time for eating sleeping Yea dost thou not spend as much time in idleness and vain discourse as would be required every day for this duty If thou hadst an honest heart thou wouldst redeem time from thy meat or sleep or recreations for Prayer rather than neglect a duty or damn thy soul The truth is we complain we want time but we waste time There 's not the poorest Labourer but he mis-spends more time than Prayer-time comes to And why should any water be left off when there 's little enough in the channel to turn the Mill for or towards our