pedigree from the dirt and are akin to clay One calls the body the blot of nature another calls it the Soul's beast a sack of dung worms-meat another calls it a prison a sepulchre and Paul calls it a body of vileness Now for a man to make so much adoe about the distempers of his body to excuse the neglects of his Soul is an evil made up of many evils But really Sir I am so ill and my body is so distempered and indisposed that I am not able to mind or meddle with the least things of the world Well if this be so then know that God hath on purpose knockt thee off from the things of this world that thou may'st look the more effectually after the things of another world The design of God in all the distempers that are upon thy body is to wind thee more off from thy worldly trade and to work thee to follow thine heavenly trade more close Many a man had never found the way to his Closet if God by bodily distempers had not turn'd him out of his shop his trade his business his all c. Well Christians remember this once for all if your indisposition to Closet-prayer doth really arise from bodily distempers then you may be confident that the Lord will pitty you much and bear with you much and kindly accept of a little You know how affectionately Parents and ingenious Masters doe carry it towards their children and servants when they are under bodyly distempers and indisposition and you may be confident that God will never carry it worse towards you than they doe towards them Ponder often upon that Ezek. 34. 4 16 21 22. vers But Sixthly and lastly I shall answer this Objection by way of distinction thus First There is a contracted indisposition to private prayer and there is an involuntary indisposition to private prayer there is a contracted indisposition and that is when a man by his wilful sinning against light knowledge conviction c. contracts that guilt that lyes as a load upon his Conscience Now guilt makes the Soul shye of God and the greater the guilt is the more shye the Soul is of drawing neer to God in a corner The Child that is sensibly under guilt hides himself as Adam did in the day from his Fathers Gen. 3. 7. 8. eye and at night he slips to bed to avoid either a chiding or a whipping from his Father Guilt makes a man fly from God and fly from Prayer 'T is a hard Job 11. 14 15. Jer. 20. 3 4. thing to look God in the face when guilt stares a man in the face Guilt makes a man a terrour to himself now when a man is a terrour to himself he is neither fit to live nor fit to die nor fit to pray When Poison gets into the body it works upon the spirits and it weakens the spirits and it endangers life and unfits and indisposes a man to all natural actions 't is so here when guilt lyes heavy upon the conscience it works upon the Soul it weakens the Soul it endangers the Soul and it doth wonderfully unfit and indispose the Soul to all holy actions Guilt fights against our Souls our Consciences 1 Pet. 2. 11. our Comforts our Duties yea and our very graces also There is nothing that wounds and lames our graces like guilt there is nothing that weakens and wasts our graces like guilt there is nothing that hinders the activity of our graces like guilt nor there is nothing that clouds our evidences of grace like guilt Look what water is to the fire that our sinnings are to our graces evidences and duties Guilt is like Prometheus Vulture that ever lyes gnawing 'T is better with Evagrius to lye on a Bed of straw with a good Conscience than to lye on a Bed of Downe with a guilty Conscience What the Probationer Disciple said to our Saviour Matth. 8. 19. Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest that a guilty Conscience saith to the sinner whithersoever thou goest I will follow thee If thou goest to a fast I will follow thee and fill thy mind with black and dismal apprehensions of God If thou goest to a feast I will follow thee and shew thee the Hand-writing on the Wall If thou goest abroad Dan. 5 5. I will follow thee and make thee afraid of every Leaf that wags thou shalt look upon every Bush as an armed man and upon every man as a Devil If thou stayest at home I will follow thee from room to room and fill thee with horrour and terrour If thou lyest down to rest I will follow thee with fearful dreams and tormenting apparitions If thou goest into thy Closet I will follow thee and make thy very Closet a Hell to hold thee It is storied of King Richard the third that after he had murthered his two Nephews in the Tower guilt lay so hard upon his Conscience that his sleeps were very unquiet for he would often leap out of his Bed in the dark and catching his sword in his hand which hung by his bed side he would goe distractedly about his Chamber seeking for the Traytor So Charls the ninth of France after he had made the streets of Paris run down with the blood of the Protestants he could seldome take any sound sleep nor could he endure to be awakened out of his sleep without musick Judge Morgan that passed the Sentence of Condemnation upon Jane Grey a virtuous Lady shortly after fell mad and in his raving cryed out continualy Take away the Lady Jane from me Take away the Lady Jane from me and in that horrour ended his wretched life James Abyes going to execution for Christ's sake as he went along he gave his money and his cloaths to one and another till he had given all away to his shirt whereupon one of the Sheriffs men fell a-scoffing and deriding of him and told him that he was a mad-man and an heretick and not to be believed but as soon as the good man was executed this wretch was struck mad and threw away his cloaths and cryed out that James Abyes was a good man and gone to Heaven but he was a wicked man and was damned and thus he continued crying out till his death Certainly he that derides or smites a man for walking according to the word of the Lord the Lord will first or last sosmite and wound that mans Conscience that all the Physitians in the world shall not heal it Now if thy indisposition to private prayer springs from contracted guilt upon thy Conscience then thy best way is speedily to renew thy Repentance and greatly to judge and humble thine own soul and so to act Faith afresh upon the blood of Christ both for pardoning mercy and for purging grace When a man is stung with Guilt 't is his highest wisdome in the world to look up to the Brazen Serpent and not to spend his time or create torments to
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
beast in Sacrifice to the gods but when the beast was opened it was without a heart which the South-sayers looked upon as an ill omen 'T is a sad omen that thou wilt rather provoke the Lord than prevail with him who art habitually heartlesse in thy Closet-duties Of the heart God seemeth to say to us as Joseph did to his Brethren concerning Benjamin Ye shall not see my face without it It was the speech of blessed Bradford that he would never leave a Duty till he had brought his heart into the frame of the duty he would not leave confession of sin till his heart was broken for sin he would not leave petitioning for grace till his heart was quickened and enlivened in a hopeful expectation of more grace he would not leave gratulation till his heart was enlarged with the sence of the mercies he enjoyed and quickened in the return of praise My sixth advice and counsel is this Be fervent be warm be importunate with God in all your Closet-duties and performances James 5. 17. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much or as the Greek hath it the working prayer that is such working 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prayer as sets the wholeman on work as sets all the faculties of the soul and all the graces in the Psal 55. 1. Psal 61. 1. Psal 64. 1. Psal 88. 1 13. Psal 119. 164. Jon. 2. 1 2. Joel 2. 13. Psal 119. 145 147. Psal 119. 20. soul at work the word signifies such a working as notes the liveliest activity that can be Certainly all those usual phrases of crying wrestling and striving with God which are scattered up and down in Scripture do strongly argue that holy importunity and sacred violence that the Saints of old have expressed in their addresses to God Fervency feathers the wings of prayer and makes them fly the swifter to Heaven An Arrow if it be drawn up but a little way flyes not far but if it be drawn up to the head it will fly far and pierce deeply So fervent Qui timide rogat docet negare saith the Philosopher prayer flyes as high as Heaven and will certainly bring down blessings from thence Cold prayers bespeak a denyal but fervent prayers offer a sacred violence both to heaven and earth Look as in a painted fire there is no heat so in a cold prayer there is no heat no warmth no omnipotency no devotion no blessing Cold prayers are like Arrows without heads as swords without edges as Birds without wings they pierce not they cut not they fly not up to heaven Such prayers as have no heavenly fire in them do alwayes freez before they reach as high as heaven But fervent prayer is very prevalent with God Acts 12. 5. Peter therefore was kept in prison but prayer was made without ceasing The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies instant prayer earnest prayer stretched-out prayer prayer stretched-out upon the tenters as it were These gracious souls did in prayer strain and stretch themselves as men do that are running in a race they prayed with all the strength of their souls and with all the fervency of their spirits and accordingly they carryed the day with God as you may see in the following verses So Acts 26. 7. Vnto which promise our Twelve Tribes instantly serving God day and night or rather as the Greek hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a stretched-out manner serving God day and night These Twelve Tribes or the godly Jews of the Twelve Tribes of Israel stretched out their hearts their affections their graces to the utmost in prayer In all your private retirements do as the Twelve Tribes did Rom. 12. 11. Fervent in spirit serving the Lord. The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies seething hot God loves to see his people zealous and warm in his service Without fervency of spirit no service finds acceptance in heaven God is a pure act and he loves that his people should be lively and active in his service vers 12. Continuing instant in prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continuing with all your might in prayer 'T is a Metaphor from hunting dogs that will never give over the game till they have got it Rom. 15. 30. That ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strive mightily strive as Championsstrive even to an Agony as the word imports 'T is a military word and notes such fervent wrestling or striving as is for life and death Col. 4. 12. Alwayes labouring fervently for you in prayer The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is here used signifies to strive or wrestle as those do that strive for mastery it notes the vehemency and fervour of Epaphras his prayers for the Colossians Look as the wrestlers do bend and writhe and stretch and strain every joynt of their bodies that they may be victorious so Epaphras did bend writh and stretch strain every joynt of his soul if I may so speak that he might be victorious with God upon the Colossians account So when Jacob was with God alone ah how earnest Gen. 32. 24 27. Hos 12. 4 5. and fervent was he in his wrestlings with God! he wrestles and weeps and weeps and wrestles he tugs hard with God he holds his hold and he will not let God go till as a Prince he had prevailed with him Fervent prayer is the Souls contention the Souls strugling with God it is a sweating work it is the sweat and blood of the soul it s a laying out to the uttermost all the strength and powers of the Soul He that would gain victory over God in private prayer must strain every string of his heart he must in beseeching God besiedge him and so get the better of him he must be like importunate beggars that will not be put off with frowns or silence or sad answers Those that would be masters of their requests must like the importunate Widdow press God so far as to put him to an holy blush as I may say with reverence They must with an holy impudence as Basil speaks make God ashamed to look them in the face if he should deny the importunity of theirs souls Had Abraham had a little more Dor. Don. Fol. p. 522. Gen. 18. 22 23. of this impudence saith one when he made suit for Sodom it might have done well Abraham brought down the price to ten righteous and there his modesty staid him had he gone lower God only knows what might have been done for God went not away saith the Text till he had left communing with Abraham that is till Abraham had no more to say to God Abraham left over asking before God left over granting he left over praying before God left over bating and so Sodom was lost O the heavenly fire the holy fervency that was in Daniels Closet-prayer O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and
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