by a specialty and therefore God makes him both of his Court and Counsel Oh how greatly doth God condescend to his People he speaks to them as a man would speak to his friend and there is no secrets of Providence which may be for their advantage but he will reveal them to his faithful servants As all faithful friends have the same friends and the same enemies so they are mutual in the communication of their secrets one to another and so 't was between God and Abraham Secondly There are the secrets of his Kingdom and these he reveals to his people Matth. 13. 11. Vnto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven but unto them it is not given So Matth. 11. 25. At that time Jesus answered and said I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Hierom. ad Eph. lib. 1. Let us not think saith Hierom. that the Gospel is in the words of Scripture but in the sense not in the outside but in the marrow not in the leaves of words but in the root of reason Augustin humbly begg'd of God That if it were his pleasure he would send Moses to him to interpret some more abstruce and intricate passages in his Book of Genesis There are many choice secret hidden Joel 2. 28. 1 Tim. 3. 9 16. Col. 1 26 27. 1 Cor. 2. 9 10 11 12. Eph. 4. 21. and mysterious Truths and Doctrines in the Gospel which Christ reveals to his people that this poor blind ignorant world are strangers to There are many secrets wrapt up in the plainest truths and doctrines of the Gospel which none can effectually open and reveal but the Spirit of the Lord that searcheth all things yea the deep things of God There are many secrets and mysteries in the Gospel that all the learning and labour in the world can never give a man insight into There are many that know the Doctrine of the Gospel the History of the Gospel that are meer strangers to the secrets of the Gospel There is a secret power a secret authority a secret efficacy a secret prevalency a secret goodness a secret sweetness in the Gospel that none experience but those to whom the Lord is pleased to impart Gospel secrets to Isa 29. 11 12. Seal my law among my Disciples The Law of God to wicked men is a sealed book that they cannot understand Dan. 12. 9 10. 'T is as blotted paper that they cannot read Look as a private letter to a friend contains secret matter that no man else may read because it is sealed So the law of grace is sealed up under the privy seal of Heaven so that no man can open it or read it but Christs faithful friends to whom 't is sent The whole Scripture saith Gregory is but one entire letter dispatcht from the Lord Christ to his beloved Spouse on earth The Rabbins say that there are four keys that God hath under his Girdle 1. The key of the Clouds 2. The key of the Womb. 3. The key of the Grave 4. The key of Food And I may add a Fifth key that is under his Girdle and that is the key of the Word the key of the Scripture which key none can turn but he that hath the key of David that opens and no man shuts and that shuts and no man opens Revel 3. 7. O sirs God reveals himself and his mind and will and truth to his people in a more friendly and familiar way than he doth to others Mark 4. 11. And he said unto them unto you 't is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables Luke 8. 10. And he said unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God but to others in parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand Though great Doctors and profound Clerks and deep studied but unsanctified Divines may know much of the Doctrines of the Gospel and commend much the doctrines of the Gospel and dispute much for the doctrines of the Gospel and glory much in the doctrines of the Gospel and take a great deal of pains to dress and trim up the doctrines of the Gospel with the flowers of Rhetorick or Eloquence though it be much better to present truth in her native plainness than to hang her ears with counterfeit Pearls the Word without humane adornments is like the stone Garamantides that hath drops of gold in it self sufficient to enrich the believing soul Yet the special spiritual powerful and saving Rom. 16. 25. 1 Cor. 2. 7. knowledge of the doctrines of the Gospel is a secret a mystery yea a hidden mystery to them Chrysostome compares the mystery of Christ in regard of the wicked to a written book that the ignorant can neither read nor spell he fees the cover the leaves and the letters but he understands not the meaning of what he sees He compares the mystery of Grace to an indited Epistle which an unskilful Ideot viewing he cannot read it he cannot understand it he knoweth it is paper and ink but the sense the matter he knows not he understands not So unsanctified persons though they are never so learned and though they may perceive the bark of the mystery of Christ yet they perceive not they understand not the mystery of grace the inward sense of the spirit in the blessed Scriptures Though the Devil be the greatest Scholar in the world and though he have more learning than all the men in the world have yet there are many thousand secrets and mysteries in the Gospel of grace that he knows not really spiritually feelingly efficaciously powerfully throughly savingly c. O but now Christ makes known himself his mind his grace his truth to his people in a more clear full familiar and friendly way 2 Sam. 7. 27. For thou O Lord of hosts God of Israel hast revealed to thy servant so you read it in your Books but in the Hebrew it is thus Lord thou hast revealed this to the ear of thy servant Now the emphasis lieth in that word to the ear which is left out in your Books When God makes known himself to his people he revealeth things to their ear as we use to do to a friend who is intimate with us we speak a thing to his ear There is many a secret which Jesus Christ speaks in the eares of his servants which others never come to be acquainted with 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ The six several gradations that are in this Scripture are worthy of our most serious consideration Here is First Knowledge And Secondly The knowledge of
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.
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
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