concurrence and effectual working of the Divine Spirit I might prevail with you I can say to the glory of God and desire to do it with thankfulness That these Discourses when Preached were not without some fruit oh that now I have been put upon the Publishing of them they may go and bring forth much more fruit Do not stand arguing the case it is a Thousand pities that any part of that should be made matter of Dispute which is or ought to be a matter of Practice Do not procrastinate and put it off Why shouldest thou say To morrow when it should be done to day and it may be thou shalt not have a morrow to do it in Fall immediately upon the performance When the Spouse would not open at the first knock and importâ—â—atâ— call but lay still asking questions and making excuses when she reflected upon her unkindness found her Bowels troubled within her and rose up and opened to her Beloved He to her grief and cost had withdrawn himself and was gone David's example doth command and deserve our imitation who could say Psalm 119. 60. I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments I beseech you out of hand answer the call make your Houses Churches and your Chambers Oratories send up such Prayers as may come before God like Incense and be in his Nostrils a sweet-smelling favour Though Man be a sociable creature and his nature carries him out to desire of communion and it is not good for him to be always alone yet it is best for him to be sometimes alone It will certainly conduce much to your advantage to converse frequently with your selves to search curiously into your own hearts that you may understand the better their frame and constitution to be asking your selves such important questions as no body elâ—e can answer and diligently enquire how matters stand with you whether you thrive or go backward A Merchant sees it necessary for him to be in his Counting-house as well as upon the Exchange whatever you do O Christians be not strangers at home be self-studied and self-acquainted And at other times yea and in the same retirement before you return to your secular affairs it will be for your interest to be conversing with your God you never go to him in a becoming manner but he gives you something that is worth your while a gracious Soul gets something even when as to its present sense and feeling it gets nothing In a Winter season though the Branches of the Tree look as if they were dead the Root is often water'd Tell me O Christian Have there not been such times in which thou hast found God speaking to thee Elihu indeed saith Job 33. 14. God speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not Many a Man is so careless that he doth neither understand God nor mind he doth not perceive what God saith what his meaning is it is all a strange Language to him and he doth not perceive that God speaks he doth not think that God saith any to him Isa. 26. 11. Lord when thine hand is lifted up they will not see No they shut their eyes and are willingly ignorant and as they will not see when God's hand is lifted up so they will not hear when God's voice is lifted up The Saints if well and in health have all their senses exercised but wicked men have none of their senses exercised about the things of God But hast thou not perceived God speaking to thee once yea twice in divers manners By his Providences frowning and smiling prosperous and adverse by his Word and Ministers by his Holy and Blessed Spirit and by thine own Conscience which he hath awakened when it was drowsy and sleeping and opened its mouth and put words into it that it should say to thee Hath he not spoken to thee at divers seasons In a dream when thy eyes were shut and when awake abroad and at home when in company and when alone when up and when laid in a vision of the night as Elihu said when deep sleep falleth upon men in slumberings upon the bed And he hath spoken to thee to divers purposes sometimes Precepts to direct thee sometimes Promises to revive thee now a Rebuke then a Cordial at one time Trouble and at another time Peace Thus according to thy case and exigency he hath varied his Applications Now hath God spoken so often to you and do you find nothing to say to God Will you be always in the possession and under the power of a dumb Devil Are you so full of goodness and comfort so rich in knowledg and grace so increased in mercies and blessings of all sorts that you have no more to ask Do you find that to be a Canaan a Heaven which others call a Wilderness because of pinching wants and pricking Thorns and Beasts of prey Is your mouth so filled as that you need no more to open it wide nay not at all Remember how Laodicea was mistaken about her own case pleasing her self in such high but vain conceits when indeed she was wretched and poor and miserable and blind and naked Rev. 3. 17. Are things so well with thee that thou hast no reason for a sigh nor room for a groan Is it so throughly and perfectly well with thy Soul with thy Body with thine Estate with thy Family and Relations with the Nation and Church of God that thou hast no complaint to make to him not one boon to beg of him Is thy day so serene and fair that there is no cloud appearing Is there no sin within that is too hard for thee Doth it never war against the Law in thy mind or doest thou immediately knock it down and get a complete victory at thy first entrance into the field Hast thou quite shaken off that body of death which poor Paul could not for his heart get rid of but carried up and down with him or hath it grown less trouble some and ceased to stink in thy Nostills Is there no burtheâ— upon thy back that is too heavy for thee Is there no wound in thy Conscience that puts thee to pain is there no plague in thine heart that needs a cure If thou beest indeed a Believer a Man or Woman in Christ I grant the cure is begun and dare assure thee that being in the hand of so great a Physician it shall be carried on but what is it perfected already In a word is there nothing at all that troubles thee or hast thou nothing to say to God in private what nothing but what thou wouldest have every body hear and know But I pass by that at present we shall by and by have a fitter opportunity of speaking more concerning it Come come Christian be thine own Friend better than ever thou hast been yet and without more ado be persuaded to get alone and shut thy door and fall down upon thy knees and pour out thy Soul into the bosom
thing of the Pharisee Thirdly When thou art alone in prayer make it thy great desire and care to be with God In all thy approaches to him and in all thine appearances before him make sure that thou be with him The Psalmist could say Psal. 139. 18. When I awake I am still with thee this some understand of the constancy of God's kindness Though the most vigilant of the Saints sometimes fall into sleepiness and drowsiness of spirit that they perceive not God's presence with them nor care over them nor love to them yet when the Lord awakeneth up their Souls and reneweth their spiritual senses they are made to see and acknowledge that the Lord doth never leave them no not when they least perceive his presence But others do by this understand the gracious frame and workings of David's Spirit He was every morning with God as soon as ever he opened his eyes he directed them to God God was the excellent and endeared Object that he would first converse with and bestow his morning visit upon I am still with thee by meditation Oh that thou couldest say the same in truth as to this duty of Prayer Lord when I am at prayer I am still with thee I am often upon my knees and I am as often with my God I Iohn 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. Do you press after that a fellowship with God do you enquire for that as Elisha when he had got the Mantle which his Master had dropt he cried out Where is the Lord God of Elijah so do you here is the Prayer but where is the fellowship Truly that Person is both wickedly and miserably alone in his duty who is not with God in duty He sins greatly in it and he shall get nothing by it That is an accursed privacy out of which the great and ever-blessed God is excluded He is indeed with thee in all places in thy greatest retirements Psal. 139. 8. If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my bed in Hell thou art there So if thou art in the Congregation God is there if in the Chamber God is there if in the Field God is there He fills all places and he takes notice of all persons and of all their Actions but that is not enough no gracious Soul that doth indeed love him will sit down satisfied with that While God is with thee by his Omnipresence observing thee and all thy ways what duties thou dost and how thou dost them it must be thy great care to be with God in a way of holy meditation and affection to have the thoughts dwelling with God the desires running out to God and the delights feasting upon God Have a care that when you pretend to be alone in your duty you do not lay the reins upon your necks and allow your minds in their loose and vain exâ—ursions Christian go to thy duty and go to thy God too So that good man wisely resolved Psal. 43. 3 4. O send out thy light and truth let them lead me let them bring me unto thy hill and to thy tabernacles then will I go unto the altar of God unto God my exceeding joy He would not stop at the Altar but get up to the God who was worshipped there and when thou art with him keep with him as close as thou canst let no temptation draw thee away Fourthly Whensoever thou art in secret before God reveal all thy secrets to him deal plainly and openly with him anatomize thy Soul in his presence tell him all that is in thine heart and all that thou remembrest hath been in thy life and do not hide any thing from him whatsoever thine own Conscience preacheth to thee do thou go and repeat it all to God confess to him those evil Actions thou didst in a corner and under the covert of darkness though no mortal eye saw them nor can any body charge thee with them The keeping back of part of thy sins may be thy ruine as well as keeping back part of the price of the Land and covering the fraud with a lie was the death of Ananias and Sapphira Acknowledge to him those heart-corruptions which did never come into act the law in the members that warreth against the law in your mind the sin that dwelleth in you that cursed root of bitterness which lieth under ground the vicious fountain that is continually boiling and bubling up in filthy thoughts and vile affections though it never sent forth such muddy and abominable streams as run in an impetuous and rapid manner in the lives of others overflowing all the banks that Religion and Reason do set them In a word Do thou thy self acquaint God with the plague of thine heart which threatens the life of thy Soul though there be no spots to be seen by others upon thee though it doth not shew it self in botches and boils I have already told you that though you need not let men know not your dearest intimate and most faithful Friends know all that you are chargeable with yet you are bound to do so to God and it is indeed no other than a giving of him the glory of his Omniscience and if you do it as you ought in a believing way the glory of his Mercy and Goodness too as being a God ready to forgive and multiply pardons Besides as I have said it is in vain to hide any thing from him because he seeth all searcheth the hearts possesseth the reins and hath our most secret sins in the light of his countenance He that covers his sins shall not prosper not in that action when men go to eover God will come to discover Adam having sinned went like a guilty Malefactor to hide himself but God knew where he was and fetcht him out with a word Achan having stoln the wedge of Gold and two hundred pieces of Silver and a goodly Babylonish Garment went and hid them in the earth in the midst of his Tent but God made him fetch them out again When all is done plain-dealing is best specially when you have to deal with God And let me here add That freedom and openness of heart in a way of humble confession unto God is a very good argument of a gracious frame of heart and speaks a person acted by an ingenuous filial spirit that he is no friend to sin no admirer of himself but willing to load himself that so he might the more loath himself and work his heart into the greater admirings of that patience which notwithstanding so many affronts hath so long born with him and that grace which notwithstanding so great provocations doth yet open to him a door of hope And take one thing with you further this freedom and openness of heart in confessing your sins to God is a singular
A DISCOURSE OF CLOSET or SECRET PRAYER FROM MATT. VI. 6. First Preached and now Published at the Request of those that heard it BY SAMUEL SLATER Mininister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Ionathan Robinson and Tho. Cockerill at the Golden-Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard and at the Three Leggs in the Poultry over against the Stocks-Market MDCXCI To that Flock of Christ over which the Holy-Ghost hath made me an Overseer Beloved in the Lord IF Sins and Troubles make times bad those have been so in which our lines have been cast as great and glorious light hath shin'd in our Horizon as in any since the Apostle's Age yet the works of darkness have abounded among us Superstition Persecution and Prophaneness Great numbers among us hate the light of Truth and gladly would have it extinguished And who can count those who walk as enemies to the Cross of Christ whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame We have had fierce disputes and hot contentions Veluti pro aris focâ—s for lifeless Forms and Ceremonies not worth a button which have been bones of Contention in the Church of God ever since the Reformation and will continue so to be till Men are grown wise enough to cast them out but at the same time the Vitals of Christianity and Power of Godliness have been forgotten and neglected nay by the generality such Christians there are in our days ridicul'd and hated so that many live direct contradictions to the Profession they make and throw dirt upon that Name in which they would be thought to Glory The grand design indeed driven on among us hath been to reduce these Nations to the See of Rome and to bring in Popery among us in order whereunto Men taught by the Devil and wise to do evil have by their Hellish and Cursed Examples introduc'd prophandenss for none so fit to make a Doctrinal Papist as one that is a Practical Atheist How far these persons have prevailed and this Nation hath been by them immoralized and debauched and all ranks of Men among us Clergy as well as Laity Nobility and Commons Gentlemen and Peasants vitiated both in Principles and Life is alas too obvious and visible to any one that hath an eye in bit head And if ever God hath a purpose to do this Nation good and to deliver us form implacable enemies and menacing dangers and after all ou fears and convulsions and shakings to settle â—uâ— upon sure and lasting foundations he will reform us I wish that every one would reform himself and save cur Rules a labour if they will not I wish that our Governours would imploy then power and as they are providing as necessity requires against a potent Adversary abroad they would by the vigorous execution of wholesoâ—â— Laws against overflowing sins within which most expose us to ruin because to Divine wrath and thereby if I may so speak save God a labour But if they will not do their work God will do his It is my hope that he will not for sake this pleasant Land in which he hath so great an interest but mend it that he might delight in it though in what way and by what means whether by some smarting Rod or stiâ—ging Scorpion teaching us by Briars and Thorns letting out the corrupt Blood by tremendous Iudgments or more gently by the Word it is not for me to determine that we must leave to him whose wisdom is unsearchable and his ways past finding out Though I cannot but hope well from his gracious opening such a wide and effectual door to hiâ— glorious Gospel and giving to it so free a passage as blessed be his name we see at this day and restoring a desired and welcome liberty of Preaching to many of his faithful and eminent Servants who had by severe Laws been driven and kept out of the Vineyard for which many of them who had an hand in making those Laws have answered at the highest and most dreadful Tribunal and the rest shall in due time too soon for them The good Lord grant that while the Gospel runs it may be glorified by attaining is most excellent and noble end in the hearts and lives of those who sit under the joyful sound thereof that so Religion may recover its pristine Lustre yea shine forth with a greater glory than it did in the days of our most famous Predecessors Altogether unexpectedly to me It pleased the great God whose right it is to dispose of us according to his good pleasure to call me to Minister to you in the Gospel of his Son after he had taken home to an everlasting Rest and fulness of Ioy in and with himself your former Learned and every-way accomplished Pastor whose death was as it deserved to be bitterly bewailed by you In the same Relation to you he hath continued me for almost these Fifteen years during which space of time variety of Providences have passed over our heads we have met with both Halcion and Tempestuous days but we must we are obliged togive an honourable report of him as having been to us a shadow from the heat and a shelter from the storm so that few of our Sabbaths have been in the fury of the times Fasting-days throughout and very fâ—w of our Meeting disturbed and violently broken up But as he was pleased to give me an heart to Preach so you had from him an heart to hear and however some that went off from us have tack'd about and defiled their Garments the most of you have weathered the point born the burnt kept your ground and found mercy to be faithful to the Cause you owned not sinfully complying with the Lusts of Men nor submitting to their impositions and unscriptural mixtures with and in things pertaining to Divine Worship upon which account among many others I can look upon you as those that have been and yet are and will I hope go on to be my Ioy and Crown I can call God to witness that I love you in truth and have both sincerely and earnestly desir'd your good endeavouring to the utmost of my ability to make known unto you the whole Counsel of God not putting you off with Rhetorical flourishes the enticing words of Man's wisdom new and empty notions Philosophical strains and inventions of Men but with that Bread that came down from Heaven nourishing you up to Eternal Life determining to know nothing among you but Iesus Christ and him Crucified who is the admiration of Angels and worthy to be the desire of all Nations but too little Preached in England in London at this day and too little valued and believed in He hath been the great subject of my Discourses among you while as you will bear me testimony I have not sought yours but you And as you did chuse your Cook so you have liked the Provision be drest and set upon your Board having been for the greatest part as constant in your attendance upon
was not only thus with a profane Esau who might well be thought to have forfeited the blessing by his selling his Birthright but even good Iacob himself when he would have a blessing from Heaven he was constrained to wrestle with the Angel for it and to put forth all his strength in the conflict and to keep his hold though the Angel seâ—med willing to shake him off yea and to tell him at last that he would not let him go until he had got it Thus it hath been formerly Blessings come down from Heaven upon the wings of Prayer And what O man dost thou think that the Blessings of God are fallen so much in their price and grown so cheap at this day as that they go a begging Or that men may have them without asking for God hath been wont to stand more upon his Honour than so and therefore hath declared his will that Prayer shall come in between the Promise and the Performance he would have his People sue out the Promise before they shall have the good which is contained in it as is evident from that well-known Scripture Ezek. 36. we find the heart of God greatly inlarged to his People and Promises flowed in abundance from him and He gives them the assurance of his fixed resolution in the thing I the Lord have spoken it and I will do it Do not you doubt call not my truth in question I will be as good as my word Yet observe what follows in the 37th verse Thus saith the Lord God I will yet be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them All those great and good things had been in the heart and purpose of God from eternity and now he was graciously pleased for their comfort to put them into his Promise but if they had a desire to have them they must send Prayer to Heaven for them Holy David tells us Psal. 3. 8. God's blessing is upon his People and certainly every one will grant that there is a great deal of reason why it should be upon them exclusive to all the World beside upon them and upon none but upon them they only have been by the Lord Iesus redeemed from the curse of the Law and therefore they only can lay a rightful claim to the Blessings of the Gospel God may yea and he every day doth give bread to his Enemies but surely as long as they continue his Enemies he will not give them his blessing and indeed why should they expect it But now O prayerless Soul how wilt thou prove thy self one of his People Thou hast upon thee those Spots which are not the Spots of his People when at the same time thou dost want those Marks which are the Marks of his People thou who spendest thy days without prayer dost pay no homage unto God thou ownest no dependence upon him thou givest him no reverence thou dost him no service thou bringest him no honour and I pray tell me why should his blessing be upon thee God may deal bountifully with thee possibly he doth do so already and gives thee waters of a full cup it is his manner many srcaps and good bits fall under his Table He lets them fall on purpose for his Dogs to gather up his Sun shines and his Rain falls upon barren Wildernesses and noysome Dunghills as well as upon fruitful Fields and pleasant Gardens Outward mercies are therefore called Common Mercies because all have their share in them the just and the unjust too the evil as well as the good so that the Wise Man tells us No man can know either love or hatred by all that is before him Therefore let no man be proud of his temporal Enjoyments nor of an elated Spirit because he is of a raised condition and stands upon the World 's upper ground If thou hast no other arguments to use but those thou fetchest from the World's Topicks thou wilt never prove thy self Heaven-born nor make out thy Title to the happiness and glory which is above God indeed may fill thy Pocket and spread thy Table furnishing it with variety of Dainties He may cram thy Bags and make thy Cup run over He may throw into thy Possession Houses and Lands as he gave Quales to the Israelites in his wrath and if thou wilt take the pains to turn over all thou hast and make as diligent search as thou canst thou wilt not find one blessing in it many a Creature and in every one a curse thy Cloaths have a plague in them witness thy Pride thy Table is thy snare witness thy excess and Riches are laid up by thee to thy hurt whilst thou makest them thy God which should be no more than thy Servants Thus it is with thee at present and thy present condition is thy best condition unless thou growest better that will not all that thou canst do is to rejoyce in sense thou must leave it to others to rejoice in hope But however if it will do thee any good and the Lord grant that it may we will enquire what is like to be hereafter Therefore Lastly Let us look on to the consequence and consider what will follow this sinful bruitish negect of your unquestionable duty You know your own Consciences tell you that you do not pray you are not convinced of any need that you have of it other things there are which you think you cannot be without such are your Jovial Companions and your vain antick Dresses but you can be and do very well without Prayer you taste no sweetness in it ranting and roaring is musick Healths and Huzza's Balls and Masques are ravishingly delicious but to you Prayer is a very dull and insipid business But I pray what will be at the last I would stain have my best at last and so would you too if you be wise if you have not your best at your latter end you will be found fools at your latter end I find an excellent wish concerning Israel of old whether it was God's wish or Moses's or both I am sure it was very good and carried in it a great deal of love Deut. 32. 24. O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end By latter end there according to the judgment of Expolitors we are not so much to understand their death as the end and issue of that course which they were then steering O that they would seriously think with themselves and wisely foresee whither that way would bring them in which they were then walking It was a very smooth and pleasant way it was paved with delights but the great business was whither did it lead them It is my hearty wish for you whoever you are that you would once in a day retire your selves and get alone and seriously think what your total neglect of Prayer will produce when you are on a Death-bed and after Death in Eternity First What fruit you will have from
hence when Sickness Arrests you and you find that the King of terrors is at your very door that will be a dismal time and it will cause many thoughts and tremblings of heart and then if ever you will stand in need of Cordials and happy the Man that hath his comfortable Reflections and Prospects to support his Spirits who can look back to his Life past with peace and look forward to Eternity with hope When a Child of God that hath maintain'd a close and intimate Communion with his God and given himself unto Prayer comes to lie upon his Death-bed he is so roughly handled by that last enemy that he cannot pray his heart is so faint within him and his pains are so strong upon him that he hath not any leisure for that work in which he hath found so much sweetness and for which he hath so dear a love Alas then his case his weakness his agonies his tumblings and tossings are such that he cannot pray as he was wont only sigh and groan and lift up an eye and give a look toward God's Holy Temple and dart up a short ejaculation Poor Soul that is the utmost length he can go and it is no small grief to him that he is so straitned and confined Holy Asaph put this among the Reasons of his bitter complaints Psal. 77. 4 That he was so troubled that he could not speak But at that very time he can relieve and comfort himself with his former praying and former walking and Communion with God his former seeking of God and conversing with him When there was a message of death by the Prophet brought to Hezekiah he could send this short Petition up again to Heaven Isa. 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight He could do but very little then his strength was gone and his breath was short but he could with comfort remember and desire God himself to remember how he had walked and what he had done in his Halcion and healthful days So when a gracious person is disabled for his work he can think thus There is a stock of Prayers which I have laid up in Heaven against such a time of need as this is and the thought thereof will be a singular support and comfort to him But what do you think will become of you at such a time you that have been all your days strangers to this work When you come to dye you cannot pray your distempers and pains will not lâ—t you and you do not know how to go about it nor how to do one stroke at it and it will then be a sting and horrour to you to think that when you were in health and strength and all things well with you you would not pray You were called upon often by your godly Ministers and by your gracious Friends and Relations but you would not At a dying hour you will have no fitness for that work and all the time that you lived before you had no heart to it But possibly you will comfort your selves with this that when you are sick and full of fears and inward disquiets and you are not in a capacity of praying for your selves then you or some of your Friends for you will send for some godly Minister or other and desire him to pray for you Well suppose that is done and the Minister sent for comes if he knows what a wretch thou hast been and how much thou hast neglected God and thy Duty all thy days What straitnings of Soul must he of necessity be under as to thee With what holy confidence and hope may we go to God in Prayer on the behalf of a godly person when sick if we can say to God as they did to Christ on the behalf of Lazarus John 11. 3. Lord he whom thou lovest is sick But what a damp must it needs be to us when we think we are going to God for a sick and dying Man but such an one as neglected God and hated him and lived without him and in open rebellion against him I fear I fear there are too many among us that befool and deceive themselves with this That if they can get a Minister to Pray by them especially if it be such an one as will give them the Sacrament too oh then all is well and their Souls go immediately to Heaven without any stop by the way and the Gate of Glory is opened to them and entrance granted but it is probable that will not do and that these Men build their high hopes upon a Sandy-foundation that will fail them And I would fain know what great encouragement or what sufficient ground we have to believe that we shall carry them in the Arms of our Prayers safe to Heaven who would not themselves take one right step in the way that leads thither would never be humble Petitioners for the pardon of their Sins or for the Life and Salvation of their own Souls That I look upon as exceeding worthy of your observation and repeated thoughts which we meet with in the 1st of Samuel chap. 12. After that good Man had faithfully reproved the people for their great wickedness in asking a King and likewise put them into a great consternation by a Storm of Thunder and Rain in the time of Wheat-Harvest which was unusual in that Countrey they became humble Suitors to him saying in verse 19. Pray for by servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not That request he was most freely wilâ—ing to grant God forbid saith he that I should sin in ceasing to pray for you He had prayed for them and would continue to pray for them But now mark and remember that which followeth in vers 24. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart Which is as if he had said I will not be wanting to my Duty you are a people that I dearly love and heartily wish welfare and prosperity to I will speak for you and plead for you and wrestle with God for you but do not you lay too great stress upon my Prayers look to it that you be not found sinning against God whil'st I am praying to him for you left you do your selves more mischief than I can do you good My Prayers will not prevail on your behalf unless you will resolve to fear God your selves and to seek and serve him your selves and pray and honour and obey him your selves By warrant of that Scripture I do now say to you when you are sick and in distress and fear you shall dye you will call the Ministers to pray for you and we are ready to do it when you send for us we will come only I wish that we may be sent for sooner than we are by some of you viz. while you are able to give us an account of your selves and in