can easily find out private places for their dogs to lye in and their swine to sleep in and their horses to stand in and their oxen to feed in c. who can't find out a private place to seek the face of God in But did these men but love their God or their souls or private prayer or eternity as well or better than their beasts they would not be such bruiâ—es but that they would quickly find out a hole a corner to wait upon the Lord in But Secondly I Answer If a Christian be on the top of the house with Peter he may pray there or if he be walking in the field with Isaac he may pray there or if he be on the mountain with Christ he may pray there or if he be behind the door with Paul he may pray there or if he be waiting at table with Nehemiah he may secretly pray there or if he be in a wood he may pray there as the primitive Christians in times of persecution did or if he be behind a tree he may pray there or if he be by the Sea side he may pray there as the Apostles did 'T was a choice saying of Austin Every Saint is Gods Temple saith he and he that carryes his temple about him may go to prayer when he pleaseth Some Saints have never had so much of heaven brought down into their hearts as when they have been with God in a corner O the secret manifestations of divine love the secret kisses the secret embraces the secret influences the secret communion with God that many a precious Christian hath had in the most solitary places it may be behind the door or behind the wall or behind the hedge or behind the arbour or behind the tree or behind the rock or behind the bush c. But Thirdly and lastly didst thou never in thy unregenerate estate make use of all thy wits and parts and utmost endeavours to find out convenient seasons and secret corners and solitary places to sin in and to dishonour thy God in and to undoe thine owne and others souls in yes I remember with shame and blushing that 't was so with me when I was dead in Eph. 2. 1 2 3. trespasses and sins and walked according to the course of this world O how much then doth it concern thee in thy renewed sanctified and raised estate to make use of all thy wits and parts and utmost endeavours to find out the fittest seasons and the most secret corners and solitary places thou canst to honour thy God in and to seek the welfare of thine owne and others souls in O that men were but as serious studious and industrious to find out convenient seasons secret places to please and serve and glorifie the Lord in as they have been serious studious and industrious to find out convenient seasons and secret places to displease and grieve the Spirit of the Lord in But Sixthly and lastly others may further object and say we would be often in private with God we would give our selves up to closet prayer but that we can no sooner shut our closet doors but a multitude of infirmities weaknesses and vanities doe face us and rise up against us our hearts being full of distempers and follies and our bodies say some are under great indispositions and our souls say others are under present indispositions and how then can we seek the face of God in a corner how can we wrestle with God in our closets c. Now to this Objâ—ction I shall give these six Answers 1. Iâ— these kinds of reasonings or arguings were sufficient to shut private prayer out of doores where lives that man or woman that husband or wife that father or child that master or servant that Psa 40. 12. Psal 51. 5. Rom. 7. 15 24. Psal 130. 3. 1 Cor. 4. 4. 2 Chr. 6. 36. Phil. 3. 12. would ever bè found in the practise of that duty Where is there a person under heaven whose heart is not full of infirmities weaknesses follies and vanities and whose body and soul is not too often indisposed to closet duties 1 Kings 8. 46. If they sin against thee for there is no man that sinneth not c. Eccl. Grace in this life is like Gold in the ore full of mixture 7. 20. For there is not a just man upon the earth that doth good and sinneth not Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Job 14. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an uncleane not one Job 9. 30 31. If I wash my self with Snow-water and make my hands never so clean Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine owne cloaths shall abhor me Job 9. 20. If I justifie my self my owne mouth shall condemne me If I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse Psal 143. 2. And enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified James 3. 2. For in many things we offend all 1 John 1. 8. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Such that affirme that men may be fully perfect in this life or without sin in this life they do affirme that which is expresly contrary to the Scriptures last cited and to the universal experience of all Saints who daily feel and lament over that body of sin and death that they bare about with them yea they do affirme that which is quite contrary to the very state or constitution of all the Saints in this life In every Saint the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that they cannot do the things Gal. 5. 17. that they would In every good Eph. 4. 22 23 24. man there are two men the old man and the new the one must be daily put on and the other daily put off All Saints have a law in their members rebelling against the law of their minds so that the Rom. 7. 23. 15. comp good that they would doe they do not and the evil that they would not do that they do They have two contrary principles in them from whence proceeds two manner of actions motions and inclinations continually opposite one to another hence it is that there is a continual combat in them like the strugling of the Twins in Rebecah's womb An absolute perfection is peculiar to the triumphant state of Gods Elect in Heaven Heaven is the onely priviledged place where no unclean thing can Rev. 23. 21 enter in that 's the only place where neither sin nor Satan shall ever get footing Such as dream of an absolute perfection in this life do confound and jumble heaven Heb. 12. 22 23. and earth together the state of the Church militant with the state of the Church Triumphant which are certainly distinct both in
if they do but hear Drums or Tabours sound about them Were not Job and Jeremiah Job 3. Jer. 20. such Tygres who in the day of their afflictions did more than curse the Day of their birth O what a bitter cup what a heavy burden was affliction to them Job 10. 1. My Soul is weary of my life Job 7. 15. My Soul chooseth strangling and death rather than life Psal 6. 6. I am weary with my groaning Psal 69. 1 2 3. Save me O God for the waters are come in unto my Soul I sink in deep mire where there is no standing I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me I am weary of my crying my throat is dryed mine eyes fail while I wait for my God Doubtless many good men have sat under Elias 1 Kings 19. 4. his Juniper wishing themselves out of the World if it might stand with Divine pleasure that they might rest from their sins and sorrows and be rid of their many burdens and bondages looking upon life little better than a Hell were it not for the hopes of a Heaven hereafter But Fifthly When Parents take up the Rod into their hands they will not lay it down till Rodolphus the Emperours Motto was Omnia eoe voluntate Dei All must be as God will have it And this should be every Christians Motto under the Rod. they have subdued the spirits of their Children and brought them to submit and to kiss the Rod and to sit still and quiet before them 'T is so here when God takes up the Rod he will not lay it down till he hath brought us to lye quietly at his feet Lev. 26. 40 41 42. If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers with their trespas which they have trespassed against me and that also they have walked contrary to me And that I also have walked contrary unto them brought them into the Land of their enemies if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity Then Will I remember my Covenant with Jacob and also my Covenant with Isaac and also my Covenant with Abraham will I remember and I will remember the Land When God takes up the Rod his Children must either bow or break they must say the Jer. 5. 3 6. Lord is righteous they must kiss the Rod of Correction or else destruction will come like a Whirle-wind upon them 'T is reported of the Lyon that he spares those creatures that fall down before him and submit unto him but as for those that endeavour to run from him or to contend with him those he tears in pieces 'T is just so with the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah as you may see in that Hos 5. 14 15. King Edward riding furiously Acts and Mon. in Edward I. after a servant of his that had highly displeased him with a drawn Sword in his hand as purposing to kill him seeing him submit and on bended knee suing for his life did not only put up his Sword but also spared him and received him into his favour The King of Kings will never put up his sword when once he hath drawn it till his People fall on their knees submit unto him God never left chastising of Ephraim Jer. 31. 18 19 20. till he had brought him to his bow till he had made him submit and kiss the Rod. But Sixthly Afflictions are called a Rod in respect of the hand that layes them on Though Affliction be a Rod it is a Rod in a Fathers hand John 18. 11. The Sword is in the Judges hand and the Cudgel is in the Masters hand but the Rod is in the fathers hand Heb. 12. 6 7 8 9. When Balaams Ass Num. 22. 29. offended him he wished for a sword to slay him But so doth not God when we doe most highly provoke him he doth not take up a Sword to slay us but only a Rod to scourge us and chastise us as indulgent Fathers do their dearest Children But Seventhly and Lastly Afflictions are called a Rod in regard of the ends to which they serve A Rod is not to kill but to cure 't is not for destruction but for correction When David gave a full commission to his Souldiers against Absolom 'T was not to slay him but to restrain him 't was not to ruine him but to reduce him to his former obedience The Application is easie We can as well live without our daily bread as without our dayly Rod. Now the ends of taking up the Rod are these First and more generally 'T is for the good of the child and not for his hurt 'T is so here God takes up the Rod but 't is for the good of his People Gen. 50. 20. But as for you ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive Divine goodness did so over-master the plotted malignity of Josephs Brethren as that it made a blessed medicine of a most deadly poyson Jer. 24. 5. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel like these good Figs so will I acknowledg them that are carried away Captive of Judah whom I have sent out of this place into the Land of the Chaldeans for their good When Israel was dismissed out of Egypt 'T was with Exod. 11. Gold and Ear-rings And when Judah was dismissed out of Babylon 't was with great gifts Jewels and all necessary Utensils So Rom. 8. 28. And Ezra 1. we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the Called according to his purpose This Text like Moses his Tree cast into the bitter waters of Affliction may make them sweet and wholsome to drink of But Secondly and more particularly The Rod is to make the Child sensible of his folly and vanity Pro. 10. 13. In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found but the Rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding So 't is here God takes up the Rod but 't is to make his People sensible of their folly and vanity 't is to make them look up to him and to look into Conscience and to look out to their Conversations Schola Crucis is Schola Lucis Gods house of correction is his school of instruction his lashes are our lessons his scourges are our School-masters and his chastisements are our advertisements Isa 26. 9. Psal 94. 12 Pro. 3. 12 13. Job 36. 8 9 10. Hence both the Hebrews and Greeks express chastening and teaching by one and the same word Musar Paideia because the latter is the true end of the former according to that in the Proverb Smart makes Wit and vexation gives understanding Afflictions are a Christians Looking-Glass by which he may see how to dress his own Oculos quos peccatum claudit paena apperit Greg.
had need be alwayes in an actual readiness to die No man shall die the sooner but much the easier and the better for preparing to die And therefore let us alwayes have our loins girt and our lamps burning As death leaves us so Judgment will find us and there fore we have very great cause to secure our interest in Christ a changed nature and a pardon in our bosomes that so we might have nothing to do but to die Except we prepare to die all other preparations will do us no good In a word Death is a change a great change 't is the the last change till the resurrection 't is lasting yea an everlasting change for it puts a man into an eternall condition of happiness or misery 't is an universal change all persons must pass under this flaming Sword That Statute Law Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return will Gen. 3. 18. sooner or later take hold on all mortals and therefore it highly concerns us to prepare for death And thus I have shewn you these Lessons that you are to learn by the Rod. The Lord grant that your souls may fall under those fresh those choice those full and those constant influences and communications of his holy Spirit as may enable you to take out those twenty Lessons that I have laid open before you I confess the Epistle is large but do but consider your own conditions and the present dispensations under which we are cast then I suppose you will not call it by the name of a tedious Epistle Dear Friends the following discourse on Closet-prayer I heartily recommend to your serious perusal I have many reasons to hope that when you have once read it over you will be more in love with Closet-prayer than ever that you will set a higher price upon Closet-prayer than ever that you will make a better and fuller improvement of Closet-prayer than ever yet you have done Consider what I say in my Epistle to the Reader labour so to manage this little Treatise that now I put into your hands that God may be glorified your own souls edified comfored encouraged in the wayes of the Lord and that you may be my Crown and joy in the great day of our Lord Jesus So 1 Thes 2. 19 20. wishing that the good will of him that dwelt in the bush may abide upon you and yours for ever I take leave and rest Dear Friends Your souls servant in our Dear Lord Jesus THOMAS BROOKS TO THE READER Christian Reader THe Epistle Dedicatory being occasionally so large I shall do little more than give thee the grounds and reasons of sending forth this little piece into the World especially in such a day as this is Now my reasons are these First Because God by his present dispensations calls more loudly for Closet-prayer now than he hath done in those last twenty years that are now past over our heads See more of this in the 16. Argument for Closet-prayer pag. 103 to p. 108. Secondly Because I have several reasons to fear that many Christians do not clearly nor fully understand the necessity excellency and usefulness of this subject and that many O that I could not say any live in too great a neglect of this indispensible duty and that more than a few for want of light erre in the very practice of it Thirdly For the refreshing support and encouragement of all those Churches of Christ that walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost c. especially that particular Church to whom I stand related Fourthly To preserve and keep up the power of Religion and Godliness both in mens houses hearts and lives The power of Religion and Godliness lives thrives or dies as Closet-prayer lives thrives or dies Godliness never rises to a higher pitch than when men keep closest to their Closets c. Fifthly Because Closet-prayer is a most sovereign Remedy a most precious Antidote of Gods own prescribing against the Plague that now rageth in the midst of us 1 Kings 8. 37 38 39 c. Sixthly Because every man is that really which he is secretly Never tell me how handsomly how neatly how bravely this or that man acts his part before others but tell me if thou canst how he acts his part before God in his Closet for the man is that certainly that he is secretly There are many that sweat upon the stage that are key-cold in their Closets Seventhly Though many worthies have done worthily upon all other parts of prayer yet there are none either of a former or later date that have fallen under my eye that have written any Treatise on this Subject I have not a little wondred that so many eminent Writers should pass over this great and princely duty of Closet-prayer either with a few brief touches or else in a very great silence If several Bodies of Divinity are consulted you will find that all they say clearly and distinctly as to Closet-prayer may be brought into a very narrow compass if not into a nut-shell I have also enquired of several old Disciples whether among all the thousand Sermons that they have heard in their dayes that ever they have heard one Sermon on Closet-prayer and they have answered No. I have also enquired of them whether ever they had read any Treatise on that Subject and they have answered No. And truly this hath been no small encouragement to me to make an offer of my mite and if this small attempt of mine shall be so blest as to provoke others that have better heads and hearts and hands than any I have to do Christ and his people more service in the handling of this choice point in a more copious way than what I have been able to reach unto I shall therein rejoyce Eighthly and lastly That favour that good acceptance and fair quarter that my other poor labours have found not onely in this Nation but in other Countryes also hath put me upon putting pen to paper once more and I hope that the good will of him that dwelt in the bush will rest upon this as it hath to the glory of free grace rested upon my former endeavers I could add other reasons but let these suffice Good Reader when thou art in thy Closet pray hard for a poor weak worthless worm that I may be found faithful and fruitful to the death that so at last I may receive a Crown of Life So wishing thee all happiness both in this lower and in that upper World I rest Thine in our Dear Lord Jesus THOMAS BROOKS Books printed and are to be sold by John Hancock at the first shop in Popes-head-Alley next to Cornhill NIne Books lately published by Mr. Thomas Brooks late Preacher of the Gospel at St. Margarets New Fish-street 1 Precious Remedies against Satans Devices Or Salve for Believers and Unbelievers sores being a Companion for those that are in Christ or
ensample Phil. 4. 9. Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you 1 Thess 1. 6. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word in much affliction Heb. 6. 12. That ye be not sloathful but followers of them who through faith and patience inher it the Promises So 2 Tim. 3. 10 11 12 14. Titus 2. 7. 'T was an excellent Law that the Ephesians made viz. That men should propound to themselves the best patterns and ever bear in mind some eminent man Bad men are wonderful in love with bad examples Jer. 44. 16 17. The Indian hearing Praecepto docent Exempla movent that his Ancestors were gone to Hell said That then he would go thither too Some men have a mind to go to hell for company-sake Oh that we were as much in love with the Examples of good men as others are in love with the examples of bad men and then we should be oftner in our closets than now we are Oh that our eyes were more fixed on the pious examples of all that have in them aliquid Christi any thing of Christ as Bucer spake Shall we love to look upon the Pictures of our Friends and shall we not love to look upon the pious examples of those that are the lively and lovely Picture of Christ The pious examples of others should be the looking-glasses by which we should dress our selves He is the best and wisest Christian that writes after the fairest Scripture Copy that imitates those Christians that are most eminent in grace and that have been most exercised in Closet-prayer and in the most secret duties of Religion Hierome having read the Life and Death of Hilarion one that lived most Christianly and died most comfortably folded up the Book saying Well Hilarion shall be the Champion that I will follow his good life shall be my example and his godly death my president 'T is brave to live and die by the examples of the most eminent Saints But Secondly consider when Christ was on earth he did much exercise himself in secret prayer he was often with God alone as you may see in these famous Scriptures Matth. 14. 23. And when he had sent the multitudes away he went up into a mountain apart to pray and when the evening was come he was there alone Christs choosing solitudes for private prayer doth not only hint to us the danger of distraction and deviation of thoughts in prayer but how necessary it is for us to choose the most convenient places we can for private prayers Our own fickleness and Satans restlesness calls upon us to get into such corners where we may most freely pour out our souls into the bosom of God Mark 1. 35. And in the morning rising up a great while before day he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed As the morning time is the fittest time for prayer so solitary places are the fittest places for prayer Mark 6. 46. And when he had sent them away he departed into a mountain to pray He that would pray to purpose had need be quiet when he is alone Luke 5. 16. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed Gr. He was departing and praying to give us to understand that he did thus often When Christ was neither exercised in teaching nor in working of miracles he was then very intent on private prayer Luke 6. 12. And it came to pass in those dayes that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God Did Christ spend whole nights in private prayer to save our souls and shall we think it much to spend an hour or two in the day for the furtherance of the internal and eternal welfare of our souls Luke 21. 37. And in the day time he was teaching in the Temple and at night he went out and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of Olives Christ frequently joynes praying and preaching together and those whom Christ hath joyn'd together let no man presume to put asunder Luke 22. 39 41 44 45. And he came out and went as he was wont to the Mount of Olives and his Disciples also followed him And he was with-drawn from them about a stones cast and kneeled down and prayed And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood clotted or congealed blood falling down to the ground never was Garden watred before or since with blood as this was And when he rose up from prayer and was come to his disciples he found them sleeping for sorrow Ah what sad pieces of vanity are the best of men in an hour of trial and temptation These very men that a little before did stoutly professe and promise that they would never leave him nor forsake him and that they would to prison for Christ and die for Christ yet when the day of trial came they could nor so much as watch with him one hour they had neither eyes to see nor hands to wipe off Christs bloody sweat So John 6. 15 16 17. Thus you see by all these famous Instances that Christ was frequent in private prayer Oh that we would daily propound to our selves this noble pattern for our imitation and make it our business our work our heaven to write after this blessed Copy that Christ hath set us viz. To be much with God alone Certainly Christianity is nothing else but an imitation of the divine nature a reducing of a mans self to the Image of God in which he was created in righteousness and true holiness A Christians whole life should be nothing but a visible representation of Christ The Heathens had this notion amongst them as Lactantius reports That the wayes to honour their gods was to be like them Sure I am that the highest wayes of honouring Christ is to be like to Christ 1 John 2. 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked Oh that this blessed Scripture might alwayes lye warm upon our hearts Christ is the Sun and all the watches of our lives should be set by the Dial of his motion Christ is a pattern of patterns his example should be to us in stead of a thousand examples 'T is not only our liberty but our duty and glory to follow Christ in all his moral vertues absolutely other patterns be imperfect and defective but Christ is a perfect pattern and of all his Children they are the happiest that come nearest to this perfect pattern Heliogabalus loved his Children the better for resembling him in sin But Christ loves his children the more for resembling him in sanctity I have read of some Springs that change the colour of the Cattel that drink of them into the colour of their own waters as Du Bartus sings Cerona Xanth and Cephisus
to cleave him and his Babylonish Garment a Garment to shrowd him Joshua makes a bonfire of all that he had secretly and sinfully stoln and burns him and his children and all that he had in it Oh how openly how severely doth God sometimes punish men for their most secret iniquity The same you may see in that great instance of David 2 Sam. 12. 9 10 11 12. Wherefore hast thou despised the Commandement of the Lord to do evil in his sight thou hast killed Vriah the Hittite with the sword this was done in a secret Letter and hast taken his Wife to be thy Wife Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house because thou hast despised me hast taken the Wife of Vriah the Hittite to be thy Wife Thus saith the Lord Behold I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house and I will take thy VVives before thy eyes and give them to thy Neighbour and he shall lye with thy VVives in the sight of the Sun For 2 Sam. 16. 22. thou didst it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel before the Sun David was very studious very industrious to hide his sin and to save his credit but the covering made of Vriah's blood was too short and too narrow to hide his folly with Bathsheba and therefore when he had done all he could his sin was tost like a ball from man to man through Court City and Country I have read of one Parthenius an homicide treasurer to Theodobert King of France who having traiterously slain an especial friend of his called Ausanius with his Wife Papianilla when no man suspected or accused him thereof he detected accused himself after this strange manner As he slept in his Bed suddenly he roared out most pitifully crying for help or else he perished and being demanded what he ailed he half asleep answered That his friend Ausanius and his wife whom he had slain long ago summoned him to judgment before God Upon which confession he was apprehended and after due examination stoned to death Thus the terrors and horrors of his own consciences discover that secret wickedness which none could prove against him I have read how that Mahomet Turk Hist Fol. 400. the great Turk had with great rewards procured two Turks to undertake to kill Scanderbeg These Traytors came to Scanderbeg making such a shew of the detestation both of Mahomets Tyranical Government and vain superstition that they were both by Scanderbeg and others reputed to be indeed the men they desired to be accounted and so after they had learned the Principles of the Christian Religion they were both by their own desire Baptized Soon after by a providence it so fell out that these two Traytors fell at variance betwixt themselves by which meanes the plot came to be discovered and after due examination and confession of the fact they were presently condemned and executed Conscience is Gods spy in the Conscience saith Philo is the little consistory of the soul Conscience is mille testes a thousand witnesses for or against a man Conscience is a Court of Record and whatsoever it sees it writes down and Conscience is alwayes as quick in writing as the sinner can be in sinning The very Heathen could say that Conscience was a God to every man bosome Conscience as a Scribe a Register sits in the Closet of your hearts with Pen in hand and makes a Diurnal of all your secret wayes and secret crimes which are above the cognizance of men Conscience sets down the time when the place where the manner how and the persons with whom such and such secret wickednesses have been committed and that so clear and evident that go where you will and do what you can the characters of them shall never be cancelled or rased out till God appear in judgment Let a man sin in the closest retirement that humane policy can contrive let him take all the wayes he can to hide his sins to cloak and cover his sin as Adam did yet Conscience will so play the Judge that it will bring in the evidence produce the Law urge the penalty and pass the sentence of Condemnation upon him There is many a man who makes a fair profession and who hath a great name in the world who yet is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-condemned for those secret sins which are not obvious to the eyes of man nor punishable by the Laws or hands of men yea many times in this life God raiseth such a hell of horror terror in many mens Consciences by reason of their secret sins that they can have no rest nor quiet neither at bed nor at board neither lying down nor rising up fain they would conceal their sins unwilling they are that the world should know how vile they have been in secret but Conscience being upon the rack and still a gnawing accusing condemning of them they can hold no longer now all must out and now those sins that were most secret concealed come to be published upon the house-top Some that have been under anguish of Conscience others that have been smitten with a Frensie and many in their very sleep have been often the blazers and proclaimers of their own secret filthiness and wickedness In those cases God hath made many a secret sinner to cry out with the Leper unclean unclean and with Judas Lev. 13. 45. Mat. 27. 4. before all present I have sinned I have sinned Many times in this life God doth very strangely and wonderfully discover those secret works of darkness in which persons have lived long undiscovered A Pythagorean bought a pair of Shooes upon trust the Shoomaker dies he is glad thinks them gained but a while after his Conscience flyes upon him and becomes a continual chider and tormentor of him he hereupon repairs to the house of the dead casts in his money with these words There take thy due thou livest to me though dead to all besides But Fourthly Consider That secret sins are in some respects more dangerous than open sins Many a man bleeds to death inwardly and no man perceives it The more inward and secret the disease is the more the man is in danger to lose his life There are no Fevers so dangerous as those that prey upon the spirits and inward parts so there are no sins so dangerous and pernicious to the souls of men as those that are most inward and secret secret sins often reign in the souls of men most powerfully when least apparently First Consider That he that sins secretly deprives himself of those helps and remedies which by a divine blessing might arm him against sin yea make him victorious over sin to wit the Prayers Counsels Reproofs Examples and Encouragements of Friends Relations c. A mans house may be on fire but whilest 't is all inward help comes not in but when the fire flames out when it catcheth the
outside of the house then help runs in then help on all hands is ready He that sins in secret debars himself of all publick Remedy and takes great pains to damn his soul in a corner and to go to Hell in the dark But Secondly Secret sins will make way for publick sins He that makes no Conscience of sinning in the secret Chamber will e're long with Absolom be ready to spread a Tent upon the top of the 2 King 16. 21 22 house and to go in to his Concubines in the sight of all Israel Such as have made no Conscience of stealing a few pins or pence or a few shillings in private have in time come to be so bold as to take a purse on the road at high-noon The Cockatrice must be crushed in the Egge else it will soon become a Serpent The very thought of sin if not thought on will break forth into action action into custom custom into habit and then both body and soul are irrecoverably lost to all eternity If Satan can but wound our heel as the Poets feign of Achilles he will make a hard shift but he will send death from the heel to the heart If this subtile Serpent can but wriggle in his tayl by an ill thought he will soon get in his head by a worse action Hence it is that Christ calls hatred murder and a wanton eye adultery Secret hatred often issues in upon murder and secret wanton glances of the eye do often issue in visible adultery If Ammon be sick with the sinful conceptions of incestuous lust how will his soul be in pain and travail till he hath brought forth And how many are there that in secret have taken now and then but one Cup more than enough who now may be seen at high-noon reeling against every Post Look as secret diseases in the body if not cured will in time openly break forth so secret sins in the soul if not pardoned and purged will in time be openly revealed Covetousness was Judas his secret sin and no sooner doth an occasion or a temptation present it self but he is very ready and forward to betray and sell his Lord and Master for thirty pieces of Silver before all the world Lust having conceived brings forth sin and James 1. 15. that thus First Sin hath its conception and that 's delight and then its formation and that 's design and then its birth and that 's action and then its growth and that 's custome and then its end and that 's damnation But Thirdly Secret sinning puts far more respect fear upon men than upon God Thou wilt be unjust in secret and wanton in secret and unclean in secret and treacherous in secret c. and why but because thou art afraid that such or such men should know it or that such and such Friends should know it or that such and such Relations should know it Ah poor wretch art thou afraid of the eye of a man of a man that shall Isa 51. 12. dye and of the Son of man which shall be made as Grass and yet not tremble under his eye whose eyes are as a flame of fire sharp and terrible such as pierce into the inward Rev. 1. 14. Heb. 4. 13. parts Ah how full of atheisme is that mans heart that tacitly saith If my sins be but hid from the eyes of the world I do not care though the Lord knows them though the Lord strictly observes them though the Lord sets a mark a Memorandum upon them What is this O Man but to brave it out with God and to tempt him and provoke him to to his very face who is Light and in whom there is no darkness at all Ah sinner sinner can man 1 John 1. 5 6. damn thee can man dis-inherit thee can man fill thy Conscience with horrors and terrors can man make thy life a very Hell can man bar the gates of Glory against thee can man speak thee into the Grave by a word of his mouth and after all can man cast thee into endless easeless and remediless torments O no can God do all this O yes why then doth not thy heart stand more in awe of the eye of the great God than it doth of the eye of a poor weak mortal man I have insisted the longer on this particular because there is not any one thing in all the world that doth more hinder secret Communion with God and secret prayer than secret sins And Oh that you would all make it your great business to watch against secret sins and to pray against secret sins and to mourn over secret sins and deeply to judge and condemn your selves for secret sins and carefully and Conscientiously to shun and avoid all occasions and provocations that may be as fuel to secret sins Certainly there are no men or women that are so sincere and serious in Closet-prayer or that are so frequent so fervent so constant in Closet-prayer or that are so delightful so resolulute so undaunted or so unwearied in Closet-prayer as those that keep themselves most cleer and free from secret sins For a Close remember this That though secret sins are in some respects more dangerous than other sins are yet in three respects they are not so bad nor so dangerous as other sins are First In that they do not so scandalize Religion as open sins do Secondly In that they do not shame grieve and wound the hearts of the Saints as open sins do Thirdly In that they are not so infectious to others nor such provocations to others to sin against the Lord as open sins are And thus you may see what those things are that you must carefully take heeed of as ever you would adict your selves to Closet-prayer And as you must take heed of these five things So there are several other things that you must carefully and conscienciously apply your selves to as ever you would be found faithful and constant in this great duty viz. Closet-prayer Now they are these First Lament greatly and mourn bitterly over the neglect of this choice Duty He that doth not make Conscience of mourning over the neglect of this Duty will never make Conscience of performing this Duty O that Jer. 9. 1. your heads were waters and your eyes a Fountain of tears that you might weep day and night for the great neglect of Closet-prayer He that mourns most for the neglect of this Duty will be found most in the practise of this Duty He that makes most Conscience to accuse arraign and condemn himself for neglecting Closet-prayer he will make most Conscience of giving himself up to Closet-prayer 'T is said of Adam that he turned his face towards the Garden of Eden and from his heart bitterly lamented his great fall O that you would turn your faces towards your Closets and bitterly lament your rare going into them But Secondly Habituate your selves accustom your selves to Closet-prayer Make private prayer