him hereafter it will not strike till it be too late for the sinner to ward off the blow O cruel mercy to observe the sin and let alone the sinner till the gates of mercy be shut upon him and hell stands gaping to devour him Gen. 4. 7. Sin lyeth at the door The Hebrew word Robets signifies to lye down or couch like some wild beast at the mouth of his cave as if he were asleep but indeed watcheth and waketh and is ready Amama quotes Tarnovius who mentions a sort of men that brought in an opinion which he calls a new-Gospel that if a man perform the external duties of Religion viz. if he go to the Church hear the word pray c. it was sufficient to salvation to fly at all that come neer it O Sirs sin is rather couchant than dormant it sleeps dogs sleep that it may take the sinner at the greater advantage and fly the more furiously in his face But My Fourth Advice and counsel is this Take heed of resting upon Closet-duties take heed of trusting in Closet-duties Noahs Dove made use of her wings but she did not trust in her wings but in the Arke So you must make use of Closet-duties but you must not trust in your Closet-duties but in Jesus of whom the Ark was but a Type There are many that go a round of duties as mill-horses go their round in a mill and rest upon them when they have done using the means as mediators and so fall short of Christ and heaven at once Closet-duties rested in will as eternally undo a man as the greatest and foulest enormities open wickedness slayes her thousands but a secret resting upon duties slayes her ten thousands Multitudes bleed inwardly of this disease die for ever Open prophaneness is the broad dirty way that leads to hell but Closet-duties rested in is a sure way though a cleaner way to hell Prophane persons and formal professors shall meet at last in one hell Ah Christians do not make Closet-duties your money least you and your money perish together The Phenix gathers sweet odoriferous sticks in Arabia together and then blows them with her wings and burns her self with them so doe many shining professors burn themselves by resting in their duties and services You know in Noah's flood all that were not in the Ark though they climbed up the tallest Trees and the highest mountains and hills yet were really drowned so let men climb up to this duty and that yet if they don't get into Christ they will be really damned 'T is not thy Closet but thy Christ that must save thee If a man be not interested in Christ he may perish with Our Father in his mouth 'T is as natural to a man to rest in his duties as 't is for him to rest in his bed This was Bernards temptation who being a little assisted in duty could stroak his own head with bene fecisti Bernarde O Bernard this was gallantly done now cheer up thy self Ah how apt is man when he hath been a little assisted heated melted enlarged c. in a way of duty to goe away and stroak himself Isa 50 ult and blesse himself and hug himself and warm himself with the sparks with the fire of his own kindling Adam was to win life and wear Gen. 2. 2. it he was to be saved by his doings Doe this and live Hence it is that Acts 2. 37. Chap. 16. 30. all his posterity are so prone to seek for salvation by doing What shall we do to be saved and good Master Mark 10. 17 20. what shall I doe that I may inherit eternal life Like Father like Son But if our own duties or doings were sufficient to save us to what purpose did Christ leave his Fathers bosome and lay down his dearest life c. Closet-duties rested in may pacifie Conscience for a time but this will not alwayes hold When Ephraim saw his sickness and Hos 5. 13. Judah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb yet could they not heal him nor cure him of his wound If we rest on Closet-duties or on any thing else on this side Christ we shall find them as weak as the Assyrian or as Jareb we shall find to our cost that they can't help us nor heal us they can't comfort us nor cure us of our wounds As creatures so duties were never true to any that have trusted in them When the Israelites were in great Judg. 10. 14. distresse the Lord bids them go and cry unto the gods which they had chosen and let them deliver you saith God in the time of your tribulation O Sirs if when you are under distresse of Conscience or lying upon a dying Bed God should say to you go to your Closet-prayers and performances that you have made and rested in go to your Closet-tears that you have shed and rested in and let them save you and deliver you Oh what miserable saviours and comforters would they be unto you Look what the Ark of God was to the Phylistins that Closet-duties 1 Sam. 5. are to Satan he trembles every time he sees a poor sinner go into his Closet and come out of his Closet resting and glorying in Jesus and not in his duties but when he sees a poor creature confide in his Closet-duties and rest upon his Closet-duties then he rejoyceth then he claps his hands and sings ahah so would I have it Orest not on any thing on this side Jesus Christ say to your graces say to your duties say to your holiness you are not my Saviour you are not my Mediator and therefore you are not to be trusted to you are not to be rested in 'T is my duty to perform Closet-duties but 't is my sin to rely upon them or to put confidence in them do them I must but glory in them I must not He that rests in his Closet-duties he makes a saviour of his Closet-duties Let all your Closet-duties lead you to Jesus and leave you more in communion Heb. 7. 25. with him and in dependance upon him and then thrice happy will you be Let all thy Closet-prayers and tears thy Closet-fastings and meltings be a Star to guide thee to Jesus a Jacobs I adder by which thou mayest ascend into the bosome of Eternal Loves and then thou art safe for ever Ah 't is sad to think how most men have forgotten their resting place as the Lord complains My Jer. 50. 6. people have been like lost sheep their Shepheards have caused them to go astray and have turned them away to the Mountains they have gone from mountain to hill and forgotten their resting place Ah how many poor souls are there that wander from mountain to hill from one duty to another and here they will rest and there they will rest and all on this side their resting place O Sirs 't is God himself that is your
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
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.
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
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-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