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
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
marvelous close and secret and subtile to conceal their abominable filthiness therefore the Harlot is said to be Rab. Sol. in hunc vers subtile of heart Prov. 7. 10. The Hebrew by Rabbi Solomon is translated munito corde and having her heart fenced for saith he as a City is environed with fortifications so her heart is fertified round about with subtilty or else it may be rendred occlusa corde fast shut up in the heart even as close as a besiedged City that is most secret in the subtilty of her heart how open soever she be in the boldness of her outward carriage So the Prophet Agur reckoneth the way of a Man with a Maid and the way of an adulterous Woman among those things which neither himself nor any other man was possibly able to discover and find out and compares it to the way of three things which no wit nor industry of man is able to descry but yet God seeth all and will bring them Prov. 30. 19 20. to the Bar for all But Secondly Consider That secret In my Treatise called Apples of Gold c. I have proved by many arguments that the sins of the Saints shall not be brought into the judgment of Discussion and discovery in the great day pag. 155 to pag. 172. and therefore understand this second particular of such who live and die in their secret sins without Repentance and faith in the blood of Christ sins shall be revealed The most hidden works of darkness shall be openly manifested for though the actings of sin be in the dark yet the judgings of sin shall be in the light Luke 8. 17. For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest neither any thing hid that shall not be known and come abroad The slanders of the Jews concerning the magical arts of Christ and his Apostles the horrible lyes of the Pagans concerning the incestuous copulations of the Christians and their drinking mans-blood were in time discovered what they were Eccl. 12. 14. God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Mark he doth not say some work but every work and not only works but secrets and not only secrets but every secret and not only secret good things but evil to whether good works or ill works whether secret or open all must be brought to judgement The Books of Gods Omniscience and mans Conscience shall then be opened and then secret sins shall be as legible in thy forehead as if they were written with the most glistering Sun-beams upon a wall of Chrystal All mens secret sins are printed in Heaven and God will at last read them aloud in the ears of all the world 1 Cor. 4. 5. Judg nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart Look as there are a world of flies and motes in the Aire which we never see till the Sun shines so there are many thousand thousands of proud thoughts and unclean thoughts and worldly thoughts and malicious thoughts envious thoughts and bloudy thoughts c. which the world sees not knows not but in the great day when the counsels of all hearts shall be manifest then all shall out then all shall appear both to the upper and the lower world In the great day all Masks Vizards and Hoods shall be pulled off and then all shall out all that ever thou hast done in the secret Chamber in the dark corner shall be made known to men and Angels yea to the whole Court of Heaven and to all the world beside Rom. 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ In this great day God will judge not only our words but our works not only our open works but also our secret works and wayes When Jehoiakim 2 Chron. 36 8. was dead there was found the characters superstitious marks and prints of his sorcery upon his body which shews how deeply Idolatry was rooted in his heart seeing he bare the marks in his flesh during his life he being a King bore it out bravely and kept all close but when he was dead then all came out then the marks of his abominable Idolatry appeared upon his body Though sinners though the greatest of sinners may hide and keep close their horrid abominations for a time yet there will come a time when all shall out when all their secret marks and secret abominations shall be obvious to all the world But sinners may be ready to Object and say Let us but alone in our secret sins till that day and then we shall do well enough And therefore in the Third place Consider that God many times doth even in this life Isa 41. 21 22 23. discover and make known to the world mens secret sins God loves to act suitable to his own names Now to be a revealer of secrets is one of his Names Dan. 2. 47. and accordingly even in this world he often brings to light the most hidden things of darkness Of all the glorious Attributes of God there is none that suffers so deeply by secret sins as the Attribute of his Omniscience and therefore in this world God often stands up to vindicate the Honour of that Attribute by unmasking of sinners and by bringing to the light all those secret paths and wayes of wickedness wherein they have long walked undiscovered 'T was for the honour of this blessed Attribute of God that the secret plotted Acts 5. 1 12. sin of Ananias and Saphira was so openly discovered And great fear came upon all the Church and upon as many as heard these things Josephs Brethren for a long time hide their malice their craft their Gen. 42. 21 22. Chap. 50. 15 22. cruelty their envy their tretchery in selling their Brother into Egypt but at last by amazing and amusing providences all was brought to light Conscience that for a time may seem to be asleep yet will in time awake and make the sinner know that he is as faithful in recording as he is fearful in accusing and this Josephs Brethren found by sad experience So Gehazi 2 Kings 5. 20. ult he sins secretly he lyes fearfully and after all he defends it stoutly but at last all comes out and instead of being cloathed richly he and his posterity was cloathed with a Leprosie for ever and instead of two changes of Garments God hangs him up in Chains as a Monument of his wrath to all Generations So Achan secretly and sacriledgiously steales a goodly Babylonish Garment and two hundred Shekels of Silver and a Wedge of Gold of Fifty Shekels Weight and hides them in the earth in the midst of his Tent and by reason of this Israel flyes before their enemies but at last Achan is taken and all comes out and his Golden Wedge proved a Wedge
your constant trade Frequency begets familiarity and familiarity confidence we can go freely boldly into that friends house whom we often visit What we are habituted to we do with ease and delight A man that is habituted or accustomed to write to read to ride to run or to play on this or that musical Instrument c. he doth it all with delight and ease and so a man that doth habituate himself to Closet-prayer he will manage it with delight and ease But Thirdly Keep a Diary of all Deut. 7. 18 19. Psal 66. 12. your Closet-experiences O carefully record and book down all your Closet-mercies O be often in reading over your Closet-experiences and be often in meditating and in pondering upon your Closet-experiences There is no way like this to enflame your love to Closet-prayer and to engage your hearts in this secret trade of private prayer O remember that at such a time you went into your Closets with hard hearts and dry eyes but before you came out of your Closets Psal 6. 6. Psal 39. 12. Psal 56. 8. ah how sweetly how evangelically how powerfully were you melted and humbled before the Lord O remember how that at another time you went into your Closets clouded and benighted but came out of your Closets with as glorious a shine of God upon your souls as Moses had upon his face Exod. 34. 28 29. when he came down from the Mount from communing with God! O remember how often you have gone into your Closets Luke 24. 31 32. Isa 4. 4. with cold frozen spirits but before you come out of your Closets what a fire hath God kindled in your souls what a spirit of burning have you found in your hearts O remember how often you have gone into your Closets streightned and shut up but before you have come out how hath your souls been like the Charriots of Aminnadab O remember what Can. 6. 12. power God hath given you against corruptions in your Closets and what strenth God hath given you against temptations in your Closets O remember the sweet discoveries of divine love that you have had when in your Closets O remember the secret visits the secret kisses the secret embraces the secret whispers the secret love-tokens that Christ hath given you in your Closets O seriously ponder upon these things and then Closet-duties will be sweet unto you 'T was a sweet saying of Bernard O Saint knowest thou not that thy Husband Christ is bashful and will Can. 7. 11 12. not be familiar in company retire thy self by Meditation into thy Closet or into the fields and there thou shalt have Christ's embraces Meditatio nutrix orationis Meditation is the Nurse of Prayer O the more any man Gerson meditates upon his Closet-experiences the more he shall find his heart engaged to Closet-duties the more you ponder upon Closet-experiences the sweeter will Closet-experiences be to your souls and the sweeter Closet-experiences are to your souls the more your souls will delight to be with God in your Closets Pliny tells us of one Messala Corvinus lib. 7. c. 24. whose memory was so bad that he forgot his own name And I am afraid that many of your memories are so bad that you forget your Closet-mercies your Closet-experiences I have read of such a Pestilential disease once at Athens as took away the memories of those that were infected with it so that they forgat their own names O that I had not cause to fear that some Pestilential Disease or other hath so taken away the memories of many that they have quite forgot their Closet-experiences Well Friends remember this though stony hearts are bad yet Iron memories are good and O that you would all labour after Iron memories that so you may remember and ponder upon your Closet-experiences I have read of the Heathens how they made use of white and black stones for these two ends First They gave them to persons at their arraignment before the Judges if any were condemned to death they gave him a black Stone but if absolved and set free a white Stone To which custome the Holy-Ghost seemes to allude in that Rev. 2. 17. To him that overcometh will I give a VVhite Stone A second use of those Stones was this that by them they might keep an account of all the good dayes or evil dayes they had met withal in their lives Hence Giacopo Senzaro having been long in love and much crossed about his match he filled a Pot full of black Stones putting only one white Stone among them and being asked the reason answered There will come one VVhite Day meaning his Marriage Day which will make amends for all my Black Dayes Ah Friends how often hath God given you the White Stone in your Closets Certainly you have had more White Stones than Black Stones your Closet-mercies and experiences have been more than your publick crosses and miseries O Sirs did you but reckon your good dayes according to the White Stones you have had in your Closets it would make you more in love with Closet-prayer than ever But Fourthly Be sure that you do not spend so much of your precious time in publick Duties and Ordinances as that you can spare none for private Duties for secret services Though Pharoah's Kine eat up one another yet our Gen. 41. 4. Duties must not eat up one another publick Duties must not eat up family duties nor family-duties must not eat up publick duties nor neither of them must not eat up Closet-duties The wisdom of a Christian doth most eminently sparkle shine in giving every duty its proper time and place I was going to say that either he was Eccl. 8. 5. no Christian or at least no excellent Christian that is all eye to read or all ear to hear or all tongue to speak or all knee to bow to kneel to pray Ah how many are there that spend so much time in hearing of this man and that and in running up and down from meeting to meeting that they have no time to meet with God in their Closets O Sirs your Duties are never so amiable and lovely they are never so orient and beautiful as when they are seasonably and orderly performed Oh how wise are the men of this world so to order all their civil affairs that no one business shall interferre with another they set apart for each business a convenient proportion of time they allot an hour for one business two for another three for another c. O that we were as wise for our souls as wise for eternity as they are for this world O that our hearts would so consult with our heads that we may never want a convenient time to seek God in a corner That Devil that loves to set one man against another and one Nation against another and one Christian against another that Devil loves to set one Ordinance against another and one Duty against