his own soul by perpetual poring upon his guilt When Guilt upon the Conscience works a man to water the earth with tears to make Heaven ring with his groans then it works kindly When the sence of Guilt drives a man to God to Duty to the Throne of Grace then it will not be long night with that man He that thinks to shift off Private Prayer under the pretence of Guilt doth but in that increase his own Guilt Neglect of Duty will never get Guilt off the Conscience But then there is an involuntary indisposition to private prayer as in a sick man who would work and walk but cannot being hindered by his disease or as it is with a man that hath a great chain on his leg he would very fain walk or get away but his chain hinders him Now if your indisposition to private prayer be an involuntary indisposition then God will in mercy in course both pardon it remove it Secondly There is a total indisposition to private prayer there is a partial indisposition to private prayer A total indisposition to private prayer is when a man hath no Jer. 4. 22. Chap. 44. 17 18 19. mind at all to private prayer nor no will at all to private prayer nor no love at all to private prayer nor no delight nor no heart at all to private prayer now where this frame of heart is there all is naught very naught stark naught A partial indisposition to private prayer is when a man hath some will to private prayer though not such a will as once he had and some mind to private prayer though not such a mind as once he had and some affections to private prayer though not such warm and burning affections as once he had Now if your indisposition to private prayer be total then you must wait upon the Lord in all his appointments for a changed nature and for union with Christ but if your indisposition to private prayer be only partial then the Lord will certainly pardon it and in the very use of holy means in time remove it But Thirdly and lastly there is a transient accidental occasional or fleeting indisposition to private prayer and there is a customary a constant or permanent indisposition to private prayer Now a transient accidental occasional or fleeting indisposition to that which is good may be found upon the best of Saints as you may see in Moses Exod. 4. 10 11 12 13 14. and in Jeremiah Jer. 1. 5 6 7 8 17 18. 19. and Chap. 20. 9. and in Jonah chap. 1 and in David Psal 39. 2 3. Now if this be the indisposition that thou art under then thou mayest be confident that it will certainly work off by degrees Isa 65. 2. Jer. 9. 3. as theirs did that I have last cited But then there is a customary a constant or permanent indisposition to private prayer and to all other holy Duties of Religion Now if this be the indisposition that thou art under then I may safely conclude that thou art in the very gall of bitternesse and in Acts 8. 21 22 23. the bond of iniquity and thy work lyes not in complaining of thy indisposition but in repenting and believing and in labouring for a change of thy heart and state for till thy heart thy state be changed thou wilt remain for ever indisposed both to Closet-Prayer and to all other Duties of Religion and godlinesse To see a sinner sailing Hell-ward with Wind and Tide on his side to alter his course and Tack about for Heaven to see the earthly man become heavenly the carnal man become spiritual the proud man become humble the vain man become serious to see a sinner move contrary to himself in the wayes of Christ and holiness is as strange as to see the earth fly upward or the Bowl run contrary to its own Byass and yet a divine power of God upon the Soul can effect it and this must be effected before the sinner will be graciously inclined and sincerely disposed to Closet-prayer And let thus much suffice by way of Answer to this Objection also Now for the better management of this great Duty viz. Closet-prayer I beseech you take my advice and counsel in these 11. following particulars First Be frequent in Closet-prayer and not now and then only He will never make any yearnings of Closet-prayer that is not frequent in Closet-prayer Now that this Counsel may stick Consider First Other eminent Servants of the Lord have been frequent in this blessed work Nehem. 1. 6. Let thine earnow be attentive and thine eyes open that thou mayest hear the Prayer of thy Servant which I pray before thee day and night So Daniel he kneeled Dan. 6. 10 upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did before time So David My voyce shalt thou hear in the morning and in the evening will Psal 5. 3. I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up So Psal 88. 13. But unto thee have I cryed O Lord and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee So Psal 119. 147. I prevented the Psal 119. 164. dawning of the morning and cryed unto the Lord. So Psal 55. 17. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud Yea he Exod. 29 38 39. Numb 28. 3. Mat. 6. 11. was Vir orationis for his frequency in it Psal 109. 4. For my love they are my adversaries But I give my self unto prayer Or as the Hebrew may be read But I am a man of prayer Of Carolus Magnus it was said Carolus plus cum Deo quam hominibus loquitur that he spake more with God than with men Secondly Consider the blessed Scripture doth not only enjoyn this Duty but it requires frequency in it also Luke 18. 1. 1 Thes 5. 17. Col. 4. 2. In the former part of this discourse I have given light into these Scriptures and therefore the bare citing of them must now suffice Thirdly Christ was frequent in Private Prayer as you may easily see by comparing of these Scriptures together Mark 1. 35. Mat. 14. 23. Luke 22. 39. John 18. 2. In my second Argument for Private Prayer you may see these Scriptures opened and amplified But Fourthly Consider that you have the examples of the very worst of men in this case Papists are frequent in their private Devotions And the Mahometans what occasion soever they have either by profit or pleasure to divert them will yet pray five times every day Yea the very Heathens sacrificed to Hercules morning and evening upon the great Altar at Rome Now shall blind nature do more than grace But Fifthly Consider you cannot have too frequent Communion with God you cannot have too frequent intercourse with Jesus you cannot have your hearts too frequently filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory and with that peace that passes understanding you cannot have heaven too frequently brought
another Hence t is that on the one hand he works some to cry up publick Prayers in opposition to secret Prayer and one the other hand he works others to cry up private Duties in opposition to all publick Duties whereas all Christians stand oblieged by God so to manage one sort of Duties as not to shut out another sort of Duties Every Christian must find time and room for every Duty incumbent upon him But Fifthly Love Christ with a more enflamed love O strengthen your love to Christ and your love to closet-Closet-duties Lovers love Can 7. 10 11 12. much to be alone to be in a corner together Certainly the more any man loves the Lord Jesus the more he will delight to be with Christ in a corner There was a great deal of love between Jonathan 1 Sam. 18. 19. chap. 20. com and David and according to their love so was their private converse their secret communion one with another they were alwayes best when in the Field together or when in a corner together or when behind the door together or when lockt up together and just so it would be with you did you but love the Lord Jesus Christ with a more raised and a more enflamed love you would be alwayes best when you were most with Christ in a corner Divine Love is like a rod of Myrtle which as Pliny reports makes the traveller that carries it in his hand so lively and cheerful that he never faints or grows weary Ah Friends did you but love the Lord Jesus with a more strong with a more raised love you would never faint in Closet-duties nor you would never grow weary of Closet-duties Look as the Israelites removed their Tents from Mithcah to Hashmonah from sweetness Num. 23. 39. to swiftness as the words import So the sweetness of Divine Love will make a man move swiftly on in a way of Closet-duties Divine Love will make all Closet-duties more easie to the Soul and more pleasant and delightful to the Soul and therefore do all you can to strengthen your love to Christ and your love to Closet-work It was observed among the Primitive Christians that they were so full of love one to another that they could be acquainted one with another as well in half an hour as in half a year O Sirs If your hearts were but more full of love to Christ and Closet-duties you would quickly be better acquainted with them you would quickly know what secret communion with Christ behind the door means But Sixthly Be highly throughly and fixedly resolved in the strength of Christ to keep close to closet-closet-duties in the face of all difficulties and discouragements that you may Psal 44. 17 18 19 20 meet withal A man of no resolution or of weak resolution will be won with a Nut and lost with an Apple Satan and the world and carnal relations and your own hearts will cast in many things to discourage you and take you off from Closet-prayer but be ye nobly and firmly resolved to keep close to your Closet let the World the Flesh and the Devil doe and say what they can Daniel was a man of an invincible resolution rather than he would om it praying in his Chamber he would be cast into the Den of Lyons Of all the Duties of Religion Satan is the most deadly enemy to this of secret Prayer partly because Secret prayer spoiles him in his most secret designs plots and contrivances against the Soul and partly because secret prayer is so musical and delightful to God and partly because secret prayer is of such rare use and advantage to the Soul and partly because it layes not the soul of open to pride vain glory and worldly applause as prayer in the Synagogue doth and therefore he had rather that a man should pray a thousand times in the Synagogues or in the corner of the streets or behind a Pillar than that he should pray once in his Closet and therefore you had need to steel your hearts with holy courage and resolution that what ever suggestions temptations oppositions or objections you may encounter with that yet you will keep close to Closet-prayer There is not any better Bulwark in the day or battel than an heroick resolution of heart before the day of battel Sanctified resolutions doe exceedingly weaken and discourage Satan in his assaults they doe greatly daunt and dishearten him in all his undertakings against the Soul That man will never long be quiet in his Closet who is not stedfastly resolved to seek the Lord in a corner though all the powers of darkness should make head against him O Sir Divine fortitude holy resolutions will make you like a Wall of Brass that no Arrows can pierce they will make you like Armour of proof that no shot can hurt they will make you like that Angel Mat. 28. 2. that rolled away the Stone from before the door of the Sepulchre they will either enable you to remove the greatest Mountaines of opposition that lye between you and Closet prayer or else they will enable you to step over them Lather was a man of great resolution and a man that spent much time in Closet-prayer And such another was Nehemiah who met with so much opposition that had he not been steeled by a strong and obstinate resolution he could never have rebuilded the Temple but would have sunk in the midst of his work Now he was a man for private prayer as I have shewen in the beginning of this Treatise Who more resolute than David who more for secret prayer than David the same I might say of Paul Basil and many others who have been famous in their Generations O Sirs Sanctified Resolutions for Closet-prayer will chain you faster to Closet-prayer than ever Vlisses his resolutions did chain him to the mast of the ship 'T was a noble resolution that kept Ruth close to her mother when her sister Orpah only complements her kisses her and takes her leave of her Be but nobly resolved Ruth 1. 10 20. for Closet-prayer and then you will keep close to it when others only court it and take their leaves of it In the Salentine Country there is mention made of a Lake that is still brim full if you put in never so much it never runs over if you draw out never so much it is still full The resolution of every Christian for Closet-prayer Plin. Hist l. 2. c. 103. should be like this Lake still brim full Tide life tide death come honour or reproach come loss or gain come liberty or bonds come what can come the true bred Christian must be fully and constantly resolved to keep close to his Closet But Seventhly Labour for a greater effusion of the Holy Spirit for the greater measure any man hath of the Spirit of God the more that man will delight to be with God in secret Zech. 12. 10. And I will pour upon the House
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
an Allegory they say that in these words there are two Allegories First the Chamber Door is the Sense Shut the Door that is say they thy Sense lest vain imaginations and worldly thoughts distract thy mind in praying Secondly The Door say they is our Mouth Shut thy Door that is thy Lips say they and let thy Prayer be like the Prayer of Hannah conceived in thy mind but not uttered with thy mouth 'T is usual with Papists and other monkish men that lye in wait to deceive to turn the blessed Scriptures into a Nose of Wax under pretence of Allegories and Mysteries Origen was a great admirer Euseb Eccl. Hist Lib. 6. chap. 8. of Allegories by the strength of his parts and wanton wit he turn'd most of the Scriptures into Allegories and by the just Judgement of God upon him he foolishly understood and absurdly applied that Matth. 19. 12. litterally Some have made themselves chaste for the Kingdom of Heaven and so gelded himself And indeed he might as well have pluck't out one of his eyes upon the same account because Christ saith It is better to go to Heaven with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into Hell fire Matth. 18. 9. In all Ages Hereticks have commonly defended their Heresies by translating of Scriptures into Allegories The Apostle speaks of such as denying the Resurrection of the body turn all the testimonies of the Resurrection into an Allegory meaning thereby only the spiritual Resurrection of the soul from sin of which sort was Hymeneus and Philetus who destroyed the faith of some saying the Resurrection was past already 2 Tim. 2. 17 18. And are there not many among us that turn the whole History of the Bible into an Allegory and that turn Christ and Sin and Death and the Soul and Hell and Heaven and all into an Allegory Many have and many do miserably pervert the Scriptures by turning them into vain and groundless Allegories Some wanton wits have expounded Paradise Philo Judaeus and others of a later date to be the Soul Man to be the Mind the Woman to be the Sense the Serpent to be Delight the Tree of knowledge of good and evil to be Wisdome and the rest of the Trees to be the Vertues and Endowments of the Mind O friends it is dangerous to bring in Allegories where the Scripture doth not clearly and plainly warrant them and to take those words Figuratively which should be taken properly The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in the Text rendred Closet hath only three most usual significations amongst Greek Authors First it may be taken for a secret Chamber or close and locked Parlour Secondly for a Safe or Cupbord to lay Victuals in Thirdly for a locked Chest or Cupbord wherein Treasure usually is reserved The best and most judicious Interpreters that I have cast mine eye upon both of a former and later date do all expound my Text of Private Prayer in retired places and with them I close And so the main Doctrine that I shall gather from the words is this That Closet-Prayer or Private-Prayer is an indispensible duty that Doct. Christ himself hath laid upon all that are not willing to lye under the woful brand of being Hypocrites I beseech you seriously to lay to heart these five things First If any Prayer be a duty then secret Prayer must needs be a duty for secret Prayer is as much Prayer as any other Prayer is Prayer and secret Prayer prepares and fits the soul for Family-Prayer and for Publick-Prayer Secret-Prayer sweetly enclines strongly disposes a Christian to all other religious duties and services Ergo. But Secondly If Secret Prayer be not an indispensible duty that lyes upon thee by what authority doth Conscience so upbraid thee and so accuse thee and so condemn thee and so terrifie thee as it often doth for the neglect of this duty But Thirdly Was it ever the way or method of God to promise again and again a reward an open reward for that work or service which himself never commanded Surely No. Now to this duty of Secret Prayer the Lord hath again and again promised an open reward Matth. 6. 6. 18. And therefore without all peradventure this is a duty incumbent upon all Christians Fourthly Our Saviour in the Text takes it for granted that every child of God will be frequent in praying to his heavenly Father and therefore he encourages them so much the more in the work of Secret Prayer When you Pray As if he had said I know you can as well hear without eares and live without food and fight without hands and walk without feet as you are able to live without Prayer And therefore when you go to wait on God or to give your heavenly Father a visit Enter into your Closet and shut your doors c. Fifthly If Closet Prayer be not an indispensible duty that Christ hath laid upon all his people why doth Satan so much oppose it why doth he so industriously and so unweariedly labour to discourage Christians in it to take off Christians from it Certainly Satan would never make such a fierce constant war as he doth upon private Prayer were it not a necessary duty a reall duty and a soul-enriching duty But more of this you will find in the following discourse and therefore let this touch suffice for the present c. Now these five things do very clearly and evidently demonstrate that secretly and solitarily to hold entercourse with God is the undoubted duty of every Christian But for a more full opening and confirmation of this great and important Point I shall lay down these Twenty Arguments or Considerations c. First The most eminent Saints both in the Old and New Testament have applied themselves to Private-Prayer Moses was alone in the Mount with God forty dayes and fourty nights Exod. 34. 28. So Abraham fills his mouth with Arguments and reasons the case out alone with God in Prayer to prevent Sodoms desolation and destruction and never leaves off pleading and praying till he had brought God down from fifty to ten Gen. 18. 22-32 and in Gen. 21. 33. you have Abraham again at his private prayers And Abraham planted a Grove in Beer-sheba and called there on the name of the Lord the everlasting God Why did Abraham plant a Grove but that he might have a most private place to pray and poure out his soul before the Lord in So Isaac Gen. 24. 63. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide The Hebrew word Lasuach that is here rendred Meditate signifies to pray as well as to meditate and so it is often used 'T is a comprehensive word that takes in both Prayer and Meditation So you shall find Jacob at his private-prayer Gen. 32. 24 25 26 27 28. And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day When Jacob was all alone and in a
in a Wilderness which is a very solitary place then God delights to speak friendly comfortably to him Hos 2. 14. Behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak friendly or comfortably to her Or as the Hebrew hath it I will speak to her heart When I have her alone saith God in a solitary wilderness I will speak such things to her heart as shall exceedingly cheer her and comfort her and even make her heart leap and dance within her A Husband imparts his mind most freely and fully to his wife when she is alone and so doth Christ to the believing soul O the secret kisses the secret embraces the secret visits the secret whispers the secret chearings the secret sealings the secret discoveries c that God gives to his people when alone when in a hole when under the staires when behind the door when in a dungeon When Jeremiah Jer. 33. 1 2 3. was calling upon God alone in his dark dungeon he had great and wonderful things shew'd him that he knew not of Ambrose was wont to say I am never lesse alone than when I am all alone for then I can enjoy the presence of my God most freely fully and sweetly without interruption And 't was a most sweet and divine saying of Bernard O Saint knowest thou not saith he that thy Husband Christ is bashful and will not be familiar in company Retire thy self therefore by Prayer and Meditation into thy Closet or the Fields and there thou shalt have Christs embraces A Gentlewoman being at private prayer and meditation in her Parlour had such sweet choice and full enjoyments of God that she cried out Oh that I might ever enjoy this sweet communion with God c. Christ loves to embrace his Spouse not so much in the open street as in a closet And certainly the gracious soul hath never sweeter views of glory than when it is most out of the view of the world Wise men give their best their choisest and their richest gifts in secret and so doth Christ give his the best of the best when they are in a corner when they are all alone But as for such as cannot spare time to seek God in a Closet to serve him in secret they sufficiently manifest that they have little fellowship or friendship with God whom they so seldome come at Seventhly Consider the time of this life is the only time for private prayer Heaven will admit of no secret prayer In Heaven there will be no secret sins to trouble us nor no secret wants to pinch us nor no secret temptations to betray us nor no secret snares to entangle us nor no secret enemies to supplant us We had need live much in the practise of that duty here on earth that we shall never be exercised in after death Some duties that are incumbent upon us now as praising of God admiring of God exalting and lifting up of God joying and delighting in God c. will be for ever incumbent upon us in Heaven but this duty of private prayer we must take our leaves of when we come to lay our heads in the dust Eighthly Consider the great prevalency of secret prayer Private prayer is Porta Coeli Clavis Paradisi the Gate of Heaven a Key to let us into Paradise Oh the great things that private prayer hath done with God! Oh the Psal 31. 22 great mercies that have been obtained by private prayer And oh Psal 38. 8. the great threatnings that have been diverted by private prayer And oh the great judgements that have been removed by private prayer And oh the great judgements that have been prevented by private prayer I have read of a malitious woman who gave her self to the Devil provided that he would do a mischief to such a neighbour whom she mortally hated The Devil went again and again to do his errand but at last he returns and tells her that he could do no hurt to that man for when ever he came he found him either reading the Scriptures or at private prayer Private prayers pierces the Heavens and are commonly blest and loaded with gracious and glorious returns from thence Whilst Hezekiah was praying and weeping in private God sent the Prophet Isaiah to him to assure him that his prayer was heard and that his tears were seen and that he would add unto his dayes fifteen years So when Isaac was all alone meditating and praying Isa 38. 5. and treating with God for a good wife in the fields he meets Robckah So Jacob Gen. 32. 24 25 Gen. 24. 63 64. 26 27 28. And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him untill the breaking of the day And when he saw that he prevailed not against him he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of Jacobs thigh was out of joynt as he wrestled with him And he said let me go for the day breaketh and he said I will not let thee goe except thou bless me And he said unto him what is thy name and he said Jacob. And he said thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel for as a Prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed In this Scripture we have an elegant description of a Duel fought between the Almighty and Jacob and in it there are these things most observable First We have the Combatants or Duellists Jacob and God who appeared in the shape or appearance of a man He that is here said to be a man was the Son of God in humane shape as it appeareth by the whole narration and by Hosea 12. 3 4 5. Now that this man that wrestled with Jacob was indeed God and not really man is most evident by these Reasons First Jacob desires a blessing from him Vers 26. Now it is Gods Prerogative royal to blesse and not angels nor mens Ergo. Secondly He calls him by the name of God thou hast power with God Vers 28. And saith Jacob I have seen God face to face Vers 30. Not that he saw the Majesty and Essence of God for no man can see the essential glory of God and live Exod. 33. 20 23. but he saw God more apparently more manifestly more gloriously than ever he had done before Some created shape some glimpse of glory Jacob saw whereby God was pleased for the present to testifie his more immediate presence but not himself Thirdly The same person that here Jacob wrestles with is he whom Jacob remembreth in his benediction as his deliverer from all evil Gen. 48. 16. 'T was that God that appeared to him at Bethel when he fled from the face of his Brother Gen. 35. 7. Ergo. Fourthly Jacob is reproved for his curious enquiring or asking after the Angels name vers 29. which is a clear argument or demonstration of his majesty and glory God being above all notion and Name God is a super substantial substance an understanding
6 7 8. So Luther perceiving the Cause of God and the work of Reformation to be greatly straitned and in danger he went into his Closet and never left wrestling with God till he had received a gracious answer from Heaven upon which he comes out of his closet to his friends leaping and triumphing with Vicimus vicimus we have overcome we have overcome in his mouth At which time it is observed that there came out a Proclamation from Charls the Fifth that none should be further molested for the Profession of the gospel At another time Luther being in private prayer for a sick friend of his who was very comfortable and useful to him had a particular answer for his recovery whereupon he was so confident that he sent word to his friend that he should certainly recover and so it fell out accordingly And so Latimer prayed with great zeale for three things 1. That Queen Elizabeth might come to the Crown 2. That he might seale the truth with his heart blood And 3. That the Gospel might be restored once again once again which he expressed with great vehemency of spirit All which three God heard him in Constantine commanded that his Effigies should be engraven not as other Emperours in their Armour leaning but as in a posture of prayer kneeling to manifest to the world that he won more by secret prayer than by open Battles Mr. Dod reports that when many good people had often sought the Lord in the behalf of a woman that was possessed with the Devil and yet could not prevaile at last they appointed a day for fasting and prayer at which time there came a poor woman to the chamber door where the exercise was begun and craved entrance but she being poor they would not admit her in upon that the poor woman kneeled down behind the door and sought God by prayer But she had not prayed long before the evil spirit raged roared and cried out in the possessed woman take away the old woman behind the doore for I must be gone take away the old woman behind the door for I must be gone And so by the old womans prayers behind the doore he was cast out Oh the prevalency of prayer behind the door And thus you see by all these great instances the great prevalency of private prayer Private prayer like Sauls sword and Jonathans Bow when duely qualified as to the person and act never returns empty it hits the marke it carries the day with God it pierceth the walls of Heaven though like those of Gaza made of brass and Iron Isa 45. 2. O who can express the powerfull oratory of private prayer c. Ninthly consider that secret duties are the most soul-enriching duties Look as secret meales make fat bodies so secret duties make fat souls and as secret Trades brings in great earthly riches so secret prayers makes many rich in spiritual blessings and in heavenly riches Private prayer is that privy key of heaven that unlocks all the Treasures of glory to the soule The best riches and the sweetest mercies God usually gives to his people when they are in their closets upon their knees Look as the warmth the Chickens find by close sitting under the Hens wings cherisheth them so are the graces of the Saints enlivened and cherished and strengthned by the sweet secret influences which their souls fall under when they are in their closet-communion with God Private prayer conscienciously performed is the privie key of heaven that hath unlocked such treasures and such secrets as hath past the skill of the cunningest Devil to find out Private prayer Midwifes the choicest mercies and the chiefest riches in upon us Certainly there are none so rich in gracious experiences as those that are most exercised in closet duties Ps 34. 6. This poor man cried saith David and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles David pointing to himself tells us that he cried that is silently and secretly as Moses did at the red sea and as Exod. 14. 15. Neh. 1. 11. 2. 4. Nehemiah did in the presence of the King of Persia and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles And O what additions were these deliverances to his experiences O my friends look as the tender dew that falls in the silent night makes the grass and herbs and flowers to flourish and grow more abundantly than great showrs of raine that fall in the day so secret prayer will more abundantly cause the sweet herbs of grace and holiness to grow and flourish in the soul than all those more open Publick and visible duties of Religion which too too often are mingled and mixt with the sun and wind of pride and hypocrisie Beloved you know that many times a Favourite at Court gets more by one secret motion by one private request to his Prince than a Trades-man or a Merchant gets in twenty years labour and paines c. So a Christian many times gets more by one secret motion by one private request to the King of Kings than many others doe by Trading long in the more publick Duties of Religion O Sirs remember that in private prayer we have a far greater advantage as to the exercise of our own gifts and graces and parts than we have in Publick for in Publick we only hear others exercise their parts and gifts c. in Publick duties we are more passive but in private duties we are more active Now the more our gifts and parts and graces are exercised the more they are strengthned and increased All acts strengthen habits The more sin is acted the more 't is strengthned And so 't is with our gifts and graces the more they are acted the more they are strengthned But Tenthly Take many things together All Christians have their secret Sins Psal 19. 12. Who can understand his errors cleanse thou me from secret faults Secret not only to other men but himself even such secret sins as grew from errours which he understood not 'T is incident to every man to erre and then to be ignorant of his errours Many sins I see in my self saith he and more there are which I cannot espy which I cannot find out nay I think saith he that every mans sins do arise beyond his accounts There is not the best the wisest nor the holiest man in the world that can give a full and entire list of his sins Who can understand his errors This interrogation hath the force of an affirmation Who can No man no not the most perfect and innocent man in the world O friends who can reckon up the secret sinfull imaginations the secret sinful inclinations or the secret pride the secret blasphemies the secret hypocrisies the secret Atheistical risings the secret murmurings the secret repinings the secret discontents the secret insolencies the secret filthynesses the secret unbelievings c. that God might every day charge upon his soul Should the best and holiest man on earth have
Jer. 23. 24. Can any man hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Pro. 15. 3. The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good or contemplating the evil and the good as the Hebrew may be read Now to contemplate is more than simply to behold for contemplation addeth to a simple apprehension a deeper degree of knowledge entring into the very inside of a matter and so indeed doth God discern the very inward intentions of the heart and the most secret motions of the spirit God is an infinite and immense being whose center is every where and whose circumference is no where Now if our God be omnipresent then wheresoever we are our God is present with us if we are in prison alone with Joseph our God is present with us there or if we are in exile alone with David our God is present with us there or if we are alone in our closets our God is present with us there God seeth us in secret and therefore let us seek his face in secret Though Heaven be Gods Pallace yet it is not his prison But Fifteenthly He that willingly neglects private prayer shall certainly be neglected in his publick prayer he that will not call upon God in secret shall find by sad experience that God will neither hear him nor regard him in publick Want of private duties is the great reason why the hearts of many are so dead and dull so formal and carnal so barren and unfruitful under publick Ordinances O that Christians would seriously lay this to heart Certainly that man or womans heart is best in publick who is most frequent in private They make most yearnings in publick Ordinances that are most conscientiously exercised in closet duties No mans graces rises so high nor no mans experiences rises so high nor no mans communion with God rises so high nor no mans divine enjoyments rises so high nor no mans springs of comfort rises so high nor no mans hopes rises so high nor no mans parts and gifts rises so high c. as theirs do who conscientiously wait upon God in their Closets before they wait upon him in the Assembly of his people and who when they return from publick Ordinances retire into their Closets and look up to Heaven for a blessing upon the publick means 'T is certain that private duties fit the soul for publick ordinances He that makes conscience to wait upon God in private shall finde by experience that God will wonderfully blesse publick Mic. 2. 7. Ordinances to him My designe is not to set up one Ordinance of God above another nor to cause one ordinance of God to clash with another the publick wth the private or the private with the publick but that every Ordinance may have its proper place right The desires of my soul being to prize every Ordinance to praise every ordinance and to practise every Ordinance to improve every ordinance to blesse the Lord for every Ordinance But as ever you would see Psal 63. 1 2 3. the beauty and glory of God in his sanctuary as ever you would have publick Ordinances to be lovely and lively to your souls as ever you would have your drooping spirits revived and your languishing souls refreshed and your weak graces strengthned and your strong corruptions weakned under publick Ordinances be more careful conscientious in the performance of Closet duties O how strong in grace O how victorious over sin O how dead to the world O how alive to Christ O how fit to live O how prepared to die might many a Christian have been had they been but more frequent serious and conscientious in the discharge of Closet duties Not but that I think there is a truth in that saying of Bede the word Church being rightly understood viz. That he that comes not willingly to Church shall one day go unwillingly to Hell But Sixteenthly Consider the times wherein we live call aloud for secret prayer Hell seems to be broke loose and men turned into incarnate Devils Land-destroying and Soul-damning wickednesses walk up and down the streets with a Whores fore-head without the least check or controul Jer. 3. 3. Thou had'st a Whores fore-head thou refusest to be ashamed Jer. 6. 15. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination nay they were not at allashamed neither could they blush They had Curtius an heathen could say That he was an undone man that knoweth no shame sinned away shame instead of being ashamed of sin Custom in sin had quite banished all sence of sin and all shame for sin so that they would not suffer nature to draw her vail of blushing before their great abominations They were like to Caligula a wicked Emperor who used to say of himself That he loved nothing better in himself than that he could not be ashamed The same words are repeated in Chap. 8. 12. How applicable these Scriptures are to the present times I will leave the prudent reader to judge But what doth the Prophet do now they were as bold in sin and as shameless as so many harlots that you may see in Jer. 13. 17. But if ye will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret places or secresies for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore Heb. weeping weep or shedding tears shed tears the doubling of the verb notes the bitter and grievous lamentation that he should make for them and run down with tears Now they were grown up to that heighth of sin and wickedness that they were above all shame and blushing now they were grown so proud so hardned so obstinate so rebellious so mad upon mischief that no mercies could melt them or allure them nor no threatnings nor judgements could any wayes terrifie them or stop them the Prophet goes into a corner he retires himself into the most secret places and there he weeps bitterly there he weeps as if he were resolved to drown himself in his own tears When the springs of sorrow rise high a Christian turns his back upon company and retires himself into places of greatest privacy that so he may the more freely and the more fully vent his sorrow and grief before the Lord. Ah England England what pride luxury lasciviousness licentiousness wantonness drunkenness cruelties injustice oppressions fornications adulteries falshoods hypocrisie bribery atheisme horrid blasphemies and hellish impieties are now to be found rampant in the midst of thee Ah England England how are the Lords Sabbaths profaned pure Ordinances despised Scriptures rejected the Spirit resisted and derided the righteous reviled wickedness countenanced and Christ many thousand times in a day by these cursed practises a fresh crucified Ah England England were our forefathers alive how sadly would they blush to see such a horrid degenerate posterity as is to be found in the midst of thee How is our forefathers hospitality converted into riot and luxury their frugallity into
sleeping and superfluous feasting c. O Sirs good hours and blessed opportunities for closet prayer are merchandise of the highest rate and price and therefore whosoever hath a mind to be rich in grace and to be high in glory should buy up that merchandize they should be still a redeeming precious time O Sirs we should redeem time for private prayer out of our eating time our drinking time our sleeping time our buying time our selling time our sinning time our sporting time rather than neglect our Closet communion with God c. But Sixthly I answer Closet prayer is either a duty or 't is no duty Now that 't is a duty I have so strongly proved I suppose that no man nor devil can fairly or honestly deny it to be a duty And therefore why do men cry out of their great business alass duty must be done what ever business is left undone duty must must be done or the man that neglects it will be undone for ever 'T is a vaine thing to object business when a required duty is to be performed and indeed if the bare objecting of business of much business were enough to excuse men from duty I am afraid that there are but few duties of the Gospel but men would endeavour to evade under a pretence of business of much business He that pretends business to evade private prayer will be as ready to pretend business to evade family prayer and he that pretends business to evade family prayer will be as ready to pretend business to evade publick prayer Well sirs remember what became of those that excused themselves out of heaven by their carnal Apologies secular businesses I have bought a peice of ground and I Luke 14. 16 15. must needs goe and see it I pray thee have me excused saith one I have bought saith another five yoke of Oxen and I go to prove them I pray thee have me excused And I have married a Wife saith another and therefore I cannot come The true reason why they would not come to the supper that the King of Kings had invited them to was not because they had bought Farms and Oxen but because their Farms and Oxen had bought them The things of the world and their carnal relatitions had taken up so much room in their hearts and affections that they had no stomack to heavens danties and therefore it is observable what Christ adds at the end of the parable He that hateth not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters Vers 26. yea and his own Life also much more his Farm and his Oxen he cannot be my disciple By these words 't is evident that 't was not simply the Farm nor the Oxen nor the Wife but a foolish inordinate carnal love and esteeme of these things above better and greater blessings that made them refuse the gracious invitation of Christ They refused the grace and mercy of God offered in the Gospel under a pretence of their worldly business and God peremptorily concludes that not a man of them should tast of his supper And indeed what can be more just and righteous than that they should never so much as tast of spiritual eternal blessings who prefer their earthly business before heavens dainties who with the Reubenites prefer a countrey commodious Num. 23. for the feeding of their Cattle before an interest in the Land of Promise Private prayer is a work of absolute necessity both to the bringing of the heart into a good frame and to the keeping of the heart in a good frame 'T is of absolute necessity both for the discovery of sin and for the preventing of sin and for the imbittering of sin and for the weakning of sin and for the purging away of sin 'T is of absolute necessity both for the discovery of grace and for a full exercise of grace and for an eminent increase of grace 'T is of absolute necessity to arme us both against inward and outward temptations afflictions and sufferings 'T is of absolute necessity to fit us for all other duties and services c. For a man to glorifie God to save his own soul and to further his own everlasting happiness is a work of the greatest necessity Now private prayer is such a work and therefore why should any man plead business great business when a work of such absolute necessity is before him If a mans child or wife were dangerously sick or wounded or near to death he would never plead I have business I have a great deale of business to doe and therefore I cannot stay with my child my wife and I have no time to goe or send to the Physitian c. O! no but he would rather argue thus 'T is absolutely necessary that I should looke after the preservation of the life of my child my wife and this I will attend whatever becomes of my business O sirs your souls are of greater concernment to you than the lives of all the wives and children in the world and therefore these must be attended these must be saved whatever business is neglected But Seventhly I answer That God did never appoint or designe any mans ordinary particular calling to thrust private prayer out of door That 't is a great sin for any professor to neglect his particular calling under any religious pretence is evident enough by Paradise was mans work-house as well as his store-house Gen. 2. 15. Man should not have lived idly though he had not fallen from his innocency these Scriptures Exod. 20. 9. Six dayes shall thou labour and doe all thy work 1 Cor. 7. 20. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was câ—lled 2 Thess 4. 10 11. 12. For even when we were with you this we commanded you that if any would not work neither should he eate For we hear that there are some which walke among you disorderly working not at all but are busit-bodies Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread 1 Thess 4. 11 12. And that ye studie to be quiet and to doe your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without and that ye may have lack of nothing Ephes 4. 28. But rather let him labour working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth 1 Tim. 5. 8. But if any provide not for his own and specially for those of his own house he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel Yea our Lord Jesus Christ was a plain downright Carpenter and was laborious in that particular calling Mark 6. 3. Matth. 13. 55 56. till he entred upon the publick ministry as all the Ancients do agree And we read also that all the Patriarchs had their particular callings Abei was
what temptations a day may bring forth no man knows what liberty a day may bring forth no man knows what bonds a day may bring forth no man knows what good success a day may bring forth no man knows what bad success a day may bring forth and therefore a man had need be every day in his closet with God that he may be prepared and fitted to entertain and improve all the occurrences successes and emergencies that may attend him in the course of his life And let thus much suffice for answer to this first Objection But Object 2. Secondly others may Obiect and say Sir we grant that Private Prayer is an indispensible duty that lies upon the people of God but we are servants and we have no time that we can call our own and our masters business is such as will not allow us any time for private prayer and therefore we hope we may be excused Sol. 1. First the Text is indefinite and not limited to any sort or rank of Private prayer is a duty that lieth upon Saints as Saints persons whether high or low rich or poor bond or free servant or master But thou when thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut the door pray to thy Father which is in secret Here are three thou's thou thou thou which are to be understood indefinitely thou servant as well as thou master thou bond-man as well as thou free-man thou poor man as well as thou rich man thou maid as well as thou mistress thou child as well as thou father thou wife as well as thou husband Private prayer is an indispensible duty that lies upon all sorts and ranks of persons A man may as well say that that Pronoun Tu thou that runs through the ten Commandments Thou shalt have no other Exod. 20. 3 18. gods before me Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image Thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain Six dayes shalt thou labour Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife nor his man servant nor his maid servant nor his oxe nor his ass nor any thing that is thy neighbours c. relates to the rich and not to the poor to masters and not to servants to the free and not to them that are in bonds c. as he may say that the three thou's in the Text relates to the rich and not to the poor to masters and not to servants to those that are free but not to those that are bound but certainly there is no man in his wits that will say so that will affirm such a thing Doubtless this Pronoune Thou reacheth every man of what rank or quality soever he be in this world But Secondly I answer That the first the third the fourth the fifth the sixth the seventh and the eighth Answers that are given to the first Objection are here very applicable and O that all masters and servants were so wise so serious and so ingenious as to lay all those answers warm on their own hearts It might be a means to prevent much sin and to bespeak masters and mistresses to give their pious servants a little more time to lift up their hearts to Christ in a corner But Thirdly I answer If thou art a servant that hast liberty to choose a new Master thou wert better remove Psal 84. 10 Psal 120. 5. thy station than live under such a masters roof who is such an enemy to God to Christ to Religion to himself and to the eternal welfare of thy poor soul as that he will not give thee half an hours time in a day to spend in thy chamber thy closet though the glory of God the good of his own family and the everlasting happiness of thine own soul is concerned in it 'T is better for thee to shift thy master than to neglect thy duty 1 Cor. 7. 21. Art thou called being a servant care not for it but if thou mayest be made free use it rather Justinus the second Fmperours Motto was Libertas res inestimabilis Liberty is unvaluable We lost our liberty by sin and we affect nothing more than liberty by nature The Rabins say of Liberty That if the Heavens were Parchment the Sea Inke and every pile of Grass a Pen the praises of it could not be comprized nor expressed Labans house was full of Idols great houses are often so Jacobs tent was little but the true worship of God was in it 'T is infinitely better to live in Jacobs tent than in Labans house 'T is best being with such Masters where we may have least of sin and most of God where we may have the most helps the best examples and the choisest encouragements to be holy and happy The religious servant should be as careful in the choice of his master as the religious master is careful in the choice of his servant Gracious servants are great blessings to the families where they live and that master may well be called the unhappy master who will rather part with a gracious servant than spare him a little time in a day to pour out his soul before the Lord in a corner But Fourthly I answer If thou art a gracious servant then thou art spirited and principled by God to that very purpose that thou mayest cry Abba Father when thou art Rom. 8. 15. Gal. 4. 6. 1 Cor. 6. 19. 2 Tim. 1. 14. alone when thou art in a corner and no eye seeth thee but his who seeth in secret If thou are a gracious servant then thou hast received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God 1 Cor. 2. 12. Now he that hath this tree of life he hath also the fruit that grows upon this tree Gal. 5. 22 23. But the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance c. Now grace is called not the works of the Spirit but the fruits of the Spirit 1. Because all grace is derived from the Spirit as the fruit is derived from the root And 2. To note the pleasantness and delightfulness of grace for what is more pleasant and delightful than Cant. 4. 16. Chap. 6. 2. sweet and wholesome fruits 3. To note the profit and advantage that doth redown to them that have the Spirit for as many grow rich by the fruits of their gardens and orchards so many grow rich in grace in holiness in comfort in spiritual experiences by the fruits of the Spirit Now why hath God given thee his Spirit and why hath he laid into thy soul a stock of supernatural graces but that thou mayest be every way qualified disposed and fitted for private prayer and to
him hereafter it will not strike till it be too late for the sinner to ward off the blow O cruel mercy to observe the sin and let alone the sinner till the gates of mercy be shut upon him and hell stands gaping to devour him Gen. 4. 7. Sin lyeth at the door The Hebrew word Robets signifies to lye down or couch like some wild beast at the mouth of his cave as if he were asleep but indeed watcheth and waketh and is ready Amama quotes Tarnovius who mentions a sort of men that brought in an opinion which he calls a new-Gospel that if a man perform the external duties of Religion viz. if he go to the Church hear the word pray c. it was sufficient to salvation to fly at all that come neer it O Sirs sin is rather couchant than dormant it sleeps dogs sleep that it may take the sinner at the greater advantage and fly the more furiously in his face But My Fourth Advice and counsel is this Take heed of resting upon Closet-duties take heed of trusting in Closet-duties Noahs Dove made use of her wings but she did not trust in her wings but in the Arke So you must make use of Closet-duties but you must not trust in your Closet-duties but in Jesus of whom the Ark was but a Type There are many that go a round of duties as mill-horses go their round in a mill and rest upon them when they have done using the means as mediators and so fall short of Christ and heaven at once closet-Closet-duties rested in will as eternally undo a man as the greatest and foulest enormities open wickedness slayes her thousands but a secret resting upon duties slayes her ten thousands Multitudes bleed inwardly of this disease die for ever Open prophaneness is the broad dirty way that leads to hell but Closet-duties rested in is a sure way though a cleaner way to hell Prophane persons and formal professors shall meet at last in one hell Ah Christians do not make Closet-duties your money least you and your money perish together The Phenix gathers sweet odoriferous sticks in Arabia together and then blows them with her wings and burns her self with them so doe many shining professors burn themselves by resting in their duties and services You know in Noah's flood all that were not in the Ark though they climbed up the tallest Trees and the highest mountains and hills yet were really drowned so let men climb up to this duty and that yet if they don't get into Christ they will be really damned 'T is not thy Closet but thy Christ that must save thee If a man be not interested in Christ he may perish with Our Father in his mouth 'T is as natural to a man to rest in his duties as 't is for him to rest in his bed This was Bernards temptation who being a little assisted in duty could stroak his own head with bene fecisti Bernarde O Bernard this was gallantly done now cheer up thy self Ah how apt is man when he hath been a little assisted heated melted enlarged c. in a way of duty to goe away and stroak himself Isa 50 ult and blesse himself and hug himself and warm himself with the sparks with the fire of his own kindling Adam was to win life and wear Gen. 2. 2. it he was to be saved by his doings Doe this and live Hence it is that Acts 2. 37. Chap. 16. 30. all his posterity are so prone to seek for salvation by doing What shall we do to be saved and good Master Mark 10. 17 20. what shall I doe that I may inherit eternal life Like Father like Son But if our own duties or doings were sufficient to save us to what purpose did Christ leave his Fathers bosome and lay down his dearest life c. Closet-duties rested in may pacifie Conscience for a time but this will not alwayes hold When Ephraim saw his sickness and Hos 5. 13. Judah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb yet could they not heal him nor cure him of his wound If we rest on Closet-duties or on any thing else on this side Christ we shall find them as weak as the Assyrian or as Jareb we shall find to our cost that they can't help us nor heal us they can't comfort us nor cure us of our wounds As creatures so duties were never true to any that have trusted in them When the Israelites were in great Judg. 10. 14. distresse the Lord bids them go and cry unto the gods which they had chosen and let them deliver you saith God in the time of your tribulation O Sirs if when you are under distresse of Conscience or lying upon a dying Bed God should say to you go to your Closet-prayers and performances that you have made and rested in go to your Closet-tears that you have shed and rested in and let them save you and deliver you Oh what miserable saviours and comforters would they be unto you Look what the Ark of God was to the Phylistins that Closet-duties 1 Sam. 5. are to Satan he trembles every time he sees a poor sinner go into his Closet and come out of his Closet resting and glorying in Jesus and not in his duties but when he sees a poor creature confide in his Closet-duties and rest upon his Closet-duties then he rejoyceth then he claps his hands and sings ahah so would I have it Orest not on any thing on this side Jesus Christ say to your graces say to your duties say to your holiness you are not my Saviour you are not my Mediator and therefore you are not to be trusted to you are not to be rested in 'T is my duty to perform Closet-duties but 't is my sin to rely upon them or to put confidence in them do them I must but glory in them I must not He that rests in his Closet-duties he makes a saviour of his Closet-duties Let all your Closet-duties lead you to Jesus and leave you more in communion Heb. 7. 25. with him and in dependance upon him and then thrice happy will you be Let all thy Closet-prayers and tears thy Closet-fastings and meltings be a Star to guide thee to Jesus a Jacobs I adder by which thou mayest ascend into the bosome of Eternal Loves and then thou art safe for ever Ah 't is sad to think how most men have forgotten their resting place as the Lord complains My Jer. 50. 6. people have been like lost sheep their Shepheards have caused them to go astray and have turned them away to the Mountains they have gone from mountain to hill and forgotten their resting place Ah how many poor souls are there that wander from mountain to hill from one duty to another and here they will rest and there they will rest and all on this side their resting place O Sirs 't is God himself that is your
resting place 't is his free grace 't is his singular mercy 't is his infinite love that is your resting place 't is the bosome of Christ the favour of Christ the satisfaction of Christ and the pure perfect spotlesse marchless and glorious righteousnesse of Christ that is your resting place and therefore say to all your Closet-duties and performances farewell prayer farewell reading farewell fasting farewell tears farewell sighs and groanes farewell meltings and humblings I will never trust more to you I will never rest more on you but I will now return to my resting place I will now rest only in God and Christ I will now rest wholly in God and Christ I will now rest for ever in God and Christ It was the saying of a precious Saint that he was more afraid of his duties than of his sins for the one made him often proud the other made him always humble But My fifth advice and counsel is this Labour to bring your hearts into all your Closet-prayers and performances Look that your tongues and your hearts keep time tune Psal 17. 1. Give ear unto my prayer that goeth not out of feigned lips or as it is in the Hebrew without lips of deceit Heart and tongue must goe together word and work lip and life prayer and practise must eccho one to another or else thy prayers and thy soul will be lost together the labour of the lips and the travail of the heart must go together The Egyptians of all fruits made choice of the Peach to consecrate Plutark to their Goddess and for no other cause but that the fruit thereof is like to ones heart and the leaf like to ones tongue These very Heathens in the worship of their gods thought it necessary that mens hearts and tongues should go together Ah Christians when in your Closet-duties your hearts and your tongues go together then you make that sweet and delightful melody that is most taking and pleasing to the King of Kings The very soul of prayer lyes in the 1 Sam. 1. 15. pouring out of the Soul before God Psal 42. 4. When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me So the Israelites poured out their souls like water before the Lord So the Church The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee VVith my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Isa 26. 8 9. So Lament 3. 41. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens So Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw neer with a true heart c. So Rom. 1. 9. For God is my witnesse whom I serve in the Spirit 1 Cor. 14 15. I will pray with the spirit and sing with the spirit Phil. 3. 3. VVe are the Circumcision which worship God in the spirit Under the Law the inward parts were only to be offered to God in sacrifice the skin belonged to the Priests whence we may easily gather that truth in the inward parts is that which is most pleasing in a sacrifice When the Athenians would know of the Oracle the cause of their often unprosperous successes in battel against the Lacedemonians seeing they offered the choycest things they could get in sacrifice to the gods which their enemies did not the Oracle gave them this answer that the gods were better pleased with their inward supplication without ambition than with all their outward pomp in costly Sacrifices Ah Sirs the reason why so many are so unsuccessful in their closet-Closet-duties and services is because there is no more of their hearts in them No man can make sure work or happy work in prayer but he that makes heart work on it When a mans heart is in his prayers then great and sweet will be his returns from heaven that is no prayer in which the heart of the person bears no part When the Soul is separated from the body the man is dead and so when the heart is separated from the lip in prayer the prayer is dead The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their Synagogues these words Tephillah belo cavannah ceguph belo neshamah that is a prayer without the heart or without the intention of the affection is like a body without a soul In the Law of Moses the Priest was commanded to wash the inwards and the feet of the Sacrifices in water and this was done saith Philo not without a mystery to teach us to keep our hearts and affections clean when we draw nigh to God In all your Closet-duties God looks first and most to your hearts My Son Pro. 23. 26. give me thy heart It is not a piece it is not a corner of the heart that will satisfie the maker of the heart the heart is a treasure a bed of spices a royal throne wherein he delights God looks not at the clegancy of your prayers to see how neat they are nor yet at the Geometry of your prayers to see how long they are nor yet at the Arithmetick of your prayers to see how many they are nor yet at the Musick of your prayers nor yet at the sweetness of your voice nor yet at the Logick of your prayers but at the sincerity of your prayers how hearty they are There is no prayer acknowledged approved accepted recorded or rewarded by God but that wherein the heart is sincerely and wholly The true mother would not have the Psal 51. 17. James 1. 8. child divided As God loves a broken and a contrite heart so he loaths a divided heart God neither loves halting nor halving he will be served truly and totally The Royal Law is Thou shalt love and serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul Among the Heathens when the beasts were cut up for sacrifice the first thing the Priest looked upon Pro. 21. 27. Isa 1. 11 12. Chap. 29. 13. Mat. 15. 7 8 9. Ezek. 33. 30 31 32. Zech. 7. 4 5 6. 2 Chron. 25 1 2. Psal 78. 36 37. was the heart and if the heart was naught the sacrifice was rejected Verily God rejects all those services and sacrifices wherein the heart is not as you may see by comparing the Scriptures in the margent together Prayer without the heart is but as sounding brass or a tinckling Cymbal Prayer is only lovely and weighty as the heart is in it and no otherwise It is not the lifting up of the voyce nor the wringing of the hands nor the beating of the breasts nor an affected tone nor studied notions nor seraphical expressions but the stirrings of the heart that God looks at in prayer God hears no more than the heart speaks if the heart be dumb God will certainly be deaf no prayer takes with God but that which is the travel of the heart The same day Julius Caesar came to the imperial dignity sitting in his Golden Chair he offered a
small Communion with God and though some Christians have a strong Communion with God yet other Christians have but a weak Communion with God and though some of the people of God have a very close and neer Communion with God yet others of the people of God have but a more remote Communion with God and though some of Gods servants have a daily constant and uninterrupted Communion with God yet others of his servants have but a more transient and inconstant Communion with God But Thirdly I answer When a man acts grace in Closet-duties then certainly he hath Communion with God in Closet-duties 2 Tim. 1. 17. 1 Tim. 2. 8. when a man in Closet-duties acts faith on God or faith on the promises or faith on the blood of Christ or when a man in private duties acts repentance for sin or love to Jesus Christ or sets up God as the object of his fear or as the object of his joy c. then he hath Communion with God then he hath fellowship with the Father 1 John 1. 3. and with the Son An unregenerate man may act gifts and parts in a duty but he cannot act grace in a duty for no man can act grace in a duty but he that hath grace in his soul And hence it comes to passe that unsanctified Isa 1. 11 12 13 persons under the highest activity of their arts parts and gifts in religious duties enjoy no Communion with God at all witness the Scribes and Pharises Demas Judas Simon Magus c. As ever you would have an evidence of your Communion with God in Closet-duties carefully look to the activity of your graces carefully 2 Tim. 1. 6. stir up the grace of God which is in you But Fourthly I answer When a man hath Communion with God in his Closet then he gives God the glory of all his actings and Psal 115. 1. activities Communion with God alwayes helps a man to set the Crown of praise and honour upon the head of God witnesse that gracious and grateful Doxology of David and his people in that 1 Chr. 29. 13. Now therefore our God we thank thee and praise thy glorious name Men that enjoy no Communion with God in Religious Duties are still a sacrificing unto their own Net and a burning incense unto Hab. 1. 16. their own Drag they are still a blessing themselves and a stroaking of themselves and applauding Luke 17. 11. 12. themselves they think the Garland of praise the Crown of honour becomes no head but their own but now men that enjoy Communion with God in Religious Duties they will uncrown themselves to crown God they will uncrown their duties to Crown the God of their duties they will Acts 3 11 12 13 16. Rev. 4. 10. 11. Chap. 5. 11 12. uncrown their arts parts gifts and inlargments to set the Crown of praise upon the head of God alone Thou thinkest that thou hast Communion with God in Closet-duties yea thou sayest that thou hast Communion with God in Closet-duties but on whose head dost thou put the garland of praise if on Psal 148. 13. Gods head thou hast Communion with God if on thine own head thou hast no Communion with God As all the Rivers run into the sea all the lines meet in the Center so when all our Closet-duties terminate and center in the advance of Gods glory then have we communion with God in them Constantine did use to write the Name of Christ over his door When a man hath Communion with Christ in a duty then he will write the Name of Christ the Honour of Christ upon his duty Some say that the Name of Jesus was engraven upon the heart of Ignatius sure I am when a man hath Communion with God in a Duty then you shall find the Honour and Glory of Jesus engraven upon that Duty But Fifthly I answer When the performance of Closet-duties leaves the soul in a better frame then a man hath Communion with God in them When a man comes off from closet-Closet-duties in a more holy frame or in a more humble frame or in a more spiritual frame or in a more watchful frame or in a more heavenly frame or in a more broken frame or in a more quickened and enlivened frame c. then certainly he hath had Communion with God in those Duties When a man comes out of his Closet and finds the frame of his heart to be more strongly set against sin than ever and to be more highly resolved to walk with God than ever and to be more eminently crucified to the world than ever and to be more divinely fix't against temptations than ever then without all peradventure he hath had communion with God in his closet Sixthly I answer when Closet-duties fit a man for those other duties that lye next his hand then doubtless he hath had Communion with God in them When private duties fit a man for publick duties or when private duties fit a man for the duties of his place calling and condition wherein God hath set him then certainly he hath had fellowship with God in Eccl. 9. 10. them When a man in Closet-duties finds more spiritual strength and power to perform the duties that are next incumbent upon him then assuredly he hath met with God when private prayer fits me more for family-prayer or publick prayer then I may safely conclude that God hath drawn neer to my soul in private prayer or when one Closet-duty fits me for another Closet-duty as when praying fits me for reading or reading for praying or when the more external duties in my Closet viz. reading or praying fits me for those more spiritual and internal duties viz. self-examination holy meditation soul-humiliation c. then I may rest satisfied that there hath been some choice intercourse between God and my soul When the more I pray in my Closet the more fit I am to pray in my Closet and the more I read in my Closet the more fit I am to read in my Closet and the more I meditate in my closet the more fit I am to meditate in my closet the more I search and examine my heart in my Closet the more fit I am to search and examine my heart in my Closet and the more I humble and abase my soul in my closet the more fit I am to humble abase my soul in my closet then I may be confident that I have had communion with God in my Closet Seventhly I answer That all private communion with God is very soul-humbling and soul-abasing Abraham was a man that had much private communion with God and a man that was very vile and low in his own eyes Gen 18. 27. And Abraham answered and said Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes In respect of my original saith Abraham I am but base dust and ashes and in respect of my deserts I
blind I will and yet rebel I hate and yet I love I follow and yet I fall I press forward yet I faint I wrestle yet I halt then he may be confident that he hath had communion with God in his Closet He that comes off from Closet-duties in a self-debasing way and in laying of himself low at the foot of God he certainly hath had communion with God but when men come out of their Closets with their Luke 18. 11 12. hearts swelled and lifted up as the hearts of the Pharisees were 't is evident that they have had no communion with God God hath not been neer to their souls who say stand by thy self come not neer to me for I am holier than thou Isa 65. 5. But Eighthly and lastly VVhen a man finds such a secret vertue and power running through his closet-Closet-duties as wounds and weakens his beloved corruption as breaks the strength and the power of his special sin as sets his heart more fully resolutely and constantly against his darling lust as stirs up a greater rage and a more bitter hatred and a more fierce indignation against the Toad in the bosome then certainly he hath had communion with God in his Closet-duties Consult these Scriptures Isa 2. 20. In that day a man shall cast his Idols of Silver and his Idols of Gold which they have made each one for himself to worship to the Moles and to the Bats In the day wherein God should take these poor hearts vers 3. into communion with himself their hearts should be filled with such rage and indignation against their most delectable and desireable Idols that they should take not only those made of trees and stones but even their most precious and costly Idols those that were made of Silver and Gold and cast them to the moles and to the bats to note their horrible hatred and indignation against them Idolatry was the darling sin of the Jews their hearts were so exceedingly affected and delighted with their Idols that they did not care what they spent upon them Isa 46. 6. They lavish Gold out of the bag and weigh Silver in the ballance and hire a Goldsmith and he maketh it a God they fall down yea they worship The word here used for lavish in the Hebrew signifies properly to wast or spend riotously they set so light by their treasure that they cared not what they spent upon their Idols God gave them Gold and Silver as pledges of his favour and bounty and they lavish it out upon their Idols as if God had hired them to be wicked O but when God should come and take these poor wretches into a close and neer communion with himself then you shall find their wrath and rage to rise against their Idols as you may see in that Isa 30. vers 19 20 21. Their communion with God is more than hinted but mark verse 22. Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of Silver and the ornament of thy molten images of Gold thou shalt cast them away as a menstrous cloath thou shalt say unto it get thee hence None defile deface detest and disgrace their Idols like those that are taken into communion with God Fellowship with God will make a man cast away as a menstrous cloath those very Idols in which he hath most delighted and with which he hath been most pleased and enamoured Idols were Ephraims bosom sin Hos 4. 17. Ephraim is joyned or glewed as the Hebrew hath it to Idols let him alone O but when you find Ephraim taken into a close communion with God as you do in that Hos 14. 4 5 6 7. then you shall find another spirit upon him v. 8. Ephraim shall say what have I to do any more with Idols I have had too much to do with them already I will never have to do with them any more O how doth my Soul detest and abhor them and rise up against them O how do I now more loath and abominate them than ever I have formerly loved them or delighted in them After the return of the Jews out of Babilon they so hated and abhorred Idols that in the time of the Romans they chose rather to die than suffer the Eagle which was the imperial arms to be set up in their Temple Though Closet-duties are weak in themselves yet when a man hath Communion with God in them then they prove exceeding powerful to the casting down of strong holds and vain imaginations â— Cor. 10. 4 5. and every high thing and thought that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God When a man comes out of his Closet with a heart more fully and stedfastly set against every known sin but especially against his bosome sin his darling sin his Dalilah that he played and sported himself most with and that he hath hugged with pleasure and delight in his bosome then certainly he hath had private Communion with God After Moses had enjoyed fourty dayes private communion with God in the Mount how did his heart rise and his anger wax hot against the Molten Calf that his people had made Exod. 32. 19 20. And it came to pass as soon as he came nigh unto the Camp that he saw the Calf and the dancing and Moses anger waxed hot and he cast the Tables out of his hands and brake them beneath the mount and he took the Calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder strawed it upon the water made the children of Israel drink of it Moses had never more intimate fellowship with God than now and he never discovered so much holy zeal anger and indignation against sin as now When a man comes off from the mount of closet-Closet-duties with a greater hatred anger wrath and indignation against bosom sins darling sins complexion sins that were once as dear to him as right hands or right eyes or as Dalilah was to Sampson or Herodias to Herod or Isaac to Abraham or Joseph to Jacob then certainly he hath had communion with God in those Duties When a man finds his beloved sins his Dalilahs which like the Prince of Devils command all other sins to fall before his closet-duties as Dagon fell before the Ark or as Goliah fell before David then assuredly he hath had fellowship with God in them Pliny writes of some Families that had privy marks on their Bodies peculiar to those of that Line Certainly there are no Families no persons but have some sin or sins some privy marks on their souls that may in a peculiar way be called theirs Now when in private duties they find the bent of their hearts and the purposes resolutions and inclinations of their souls more raised inflamed and set against these they may safely and comfortably conclude that they have had communion with God in them O Sirs there is no bosome sin so sweet or profitable that is worth burning in hell for or worth shutting
out of Heaven for and therefore in all your private duties and services labour after that communion with God in them that may break the neck and heart of your most bosome sins When Darius fled before Alexander that he might run the faster out of danger he threw away his Massie Crowne from his head As ever you would be safe from eternal danger throw away your golden and your silver Idols throw away your bosome sins your darling lusts And thus I have done with the Answers to that noble and necessary Question that was last proposed My Ninth Advice and Counsel is this In all your closet-Closet-Duties look that your ends be right look Christus opera nostra non tam actibus quam finibus pensat Zanch. that the Glory of God be your ultimate end the mark the white that you have in your eye There is a great truth in that old saying Quod non actibus sed finibus pensantur officia That duties are esteemed not by their acts but by their ends Look as the shining Sun puts out the light of the fire so the glory of God must consume all other ends There may be malum opus in bona materia as in Johu's zeal Two things make a good Christian good actions and good aims And though a good aim doth not make a bad action good as in Vzzah yet a bad aim makes a good action bad as in Jehu whose Justice was approved but his Policy punished God writes a nothing upon all those services wherein mens ends are not right Jer. 32. 23. They obeyed not thy voyce neither walked in thy Law they have done nothing of all that thou hast commanded them to do So Dan. 9. 13. All this evill is come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God The Jewes were very much in religious Duties and Services witness Isa 1. 11 12 13 14 15. Isa 58. 1 2 3. Zech. 7. 5 6. I might produce a hundred more witnesses to confirm it were it necessary but because they did not aim at the Glory of God in what they did therefore the Lord writes a nothing upon all their Duties and Services It was Ephraims folly that he brought forth fruit unto himself Hos 10. 1. And it was the Pharisees hypocrisie that in all their duties and Mat. 6. 1 2 3 4 5. services they lookt at the praise of men Verily saith Christ you have your reward a poor a pitiful reward indeed Such men shall be sure to fall short of divine acceptance and of a glorious recompence that are not able to look above the praises of men Woe to that man that with Augustus is ambitious to go off the Stage of Duty with a plaudite Peter was See more of this in my Treatise on Holiness page 157 to p. 168. not himself when he denyed his Lord and cursed himself to get credit amongst a cursed crew As ever you would ask have speak and speed seek and find look that the glory of the Lord be engraven upon all your closet-duties He shall be sure to speed best whose heart is set most upon glorifying of God in all his secret retirements When God Crowns us he doth but Crown his own gifts in us and when we give God the Glory of all we do we do but give him the glory that is due unto his Name for 't is he and he alone that works all our works in us and for us All Closet Duties are good or bad as the mark is at which the soul aims He that makes God the object of Closet Prayer but not the end of Closet Prayer doth but lose his Prayer and take pains to undoe himself God will be Alexander or Nemo he will be All in All or he will be nothing at all Such prayers never reach the Ear of God nor delight the heart of God nor shall ever be lodg'd in the bosome of God that are not directed to the glory of God The end must be as noble as the means or else a man may be undone after all his doings A mans most glorious actions will at last be found to be but glorious sins if he hath made himself and not the glory of God the end of those actions My Tenth Advice and Counsel is this Be sure that you offer all your Closet Prayers in Christs Name and in his alone John 14. 13 14. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do that the father may be glorified in the son If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it John 15. 16. That whatsoever ye shall ask of the father in my name he may give it you John 16. 23 24 26. Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my name he will give it you Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say unto you that I will pray the father for you O Sirs this is your Priviledg as well as your comfort that you never deal with God but by a Mediator When you appear before God Jesus Christ appears with you and he appears for you when you do invocare then he doth advocare when you put up your petitions then he doth make intercession for you Christ gives you a commission to put his name upon all your requests and whatsoever prayer comes up with this name upon it he will procure it an answer In the state of innocency man might worship God without a Mediator but since sin hath made so wide a breach between God and Man God will accept of no worship from man but what is offered up by the hand of a Mediator Now this Mediator is Christ alone 1 Tim. 2. 5. For there is one God and one Mediator between God men the man Christ Jesus One Mediator not of Redemption only as the Papists grant but of Intercession also which they deny The Papists make Saints and Angels co mediators with Christ but in this as in other things they fight against cleer Scripture-light The Apostle plainly tells us that the Office of Intercession pertaineth unto Christ as part of his Mediation Heb. 7 25. And 't is certain that we need no other Master of requests in Heaven but the man Christ Jesus who being so neer to the Father and so dear to the Father and so much in with the Father can doubtlesse carry any thing with the Father that makes for his glory and our good This was typified in the Law The High Priest alone did enter into Ex. 28. 29. the Sanctuary and carry the names of the Children of Israel before the Lord whil'st the people stood all without this pointed out Christs Mediation In that Lev. 16. 13 14. you read of two things First of the cloud of Incense that covered the Mercy-Seat Secondly Of the blood of the Bullock that was
James 5. 7 8. wait for the return of his ships and shall the Wife wait for the return of her Husband that is gone a long journey and shall not a Christian wait for the return of his prayers Noah patiently waited for the return of the Dove to the Ark with an Olive branch in his mouth So must you patiently wait for the return of your prayers When children shoot their Arrows they never mind where they fall but when prudent Archers shoot their Arrowes up into the aire they stand and watch where they fall You must deal by your prayers as prudent Archers do by their Arrowes Hab. 2. 1. I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the Tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me The Prophet in the former Chapter having been very earnest in his expostulations and very fervent in his supplications he gets now upon his Watch-Tower to see what becomes of his prayers he stands as a sentinel and watches as vigilantly and as carefully as a spy a scout earnestly longing to hear and see the event the issue and success of his prayers That Christian that in prayer hath one eye upon a divine precept and another upon a gracious promise that Christian will be sure to look after his prayers He that prayes and waits and waits and prayes shall Psal 40. 1 2 3 4. be sure to speed he shall never fail of rich returns He that can want as well as wait and he that can be contented that God is glorified though he be not gratified he that dares not antedate Gods promises but patiently wait for the accomplishment of them he may be confident that he shall have seasonable and suitable answers to all those prayers that he hath posted away to heaven Though God seldome comes at our time yet he never fails to come at his own time He that shall come will come Heb. 10. 37. and will not tarry The mercies of God are not styled the swift but the sure mercies of David He that makes as much Conscience to Isa 55. 3. look after his prayers as to pray he shall shortly clap his hands for joy and cry out with that blessed Mr. Glover Acts mon. Martyr He is come Austin he is come he is come Certainly there is little worth in that mans heart or in that mans prayers who keeps up a trade of prayer but never looks what becomes of his prayers When you are in your Closets marshal your prayers see that every prayer keeps his place and ground and when you come out of your closets then look up for an answer only take heed that you be not too hasty and hot with God Though mercy in the promise be yours yet the time of giving it out is the Lords and therefore you must wait as well as pray And thus much by way of counsel and advice for the better carrying on of Closet-prayer I have now but one thing more to do before I shut up this discourse and that is to lay down some means rules or directions that may be of use to help you on in a faithful and conscientious discharge of this great duty viz. Closet-prayer And therefore thus First As ever you would give up your selves to private prayer Take heed of an idle and sloathful spirit If Adam in the state of Innocency must work and dress the Garden and if after his fall when he was Monarch of all the world he must yet labour why should any be idle or sloathful Idleness is a sin against the law of Creation God creating man to labour the idle person violates this Law of Creation for by his idleness he casts off the authority of his Creator who made him for labour Idleness is a contradiction to the August de Gen ad lit lib. 8. cap. 8. principles of our Creation Man in Innocency should have been freed from weariness but not from employment he was to dress the Garden by divine appoyntment And the Lord God took the man and put Gen. 2. 15. him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it All weariness in labour and all vexing tyring and tormenting labour came in by the fall In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat Gen. 3. 19. bread The bread of idleness is neither sweet nor sure An idle person shall suffer Pro. 19. 15. hunger saith Solomon An idle life an holy heart are far enough asunder By doing nothing saith the Heathen man men learn to do evil things It is easie slipping out of an idle life into an evil and wicked life yea an idle life is of it self evil for man was made to be active not to be idle The Cyclopes thought mans happiness did consist in nihil agendo in doing nothing But no excellent thing 1 Cor. 1. 17. Eph. 4. 28. 2 Thes 3. 10 12. can be the child of idleness Idleness is a mother sin a breeding sin 't is pulvinar diaboli the devils cushion on which he sits the devils anvile on which he frames very great and very many sins Look as Toads and Serpents breed most in standing waters so sin thrives most in idle persons Idleness is that which provokes the Lord to forsake mens bodies and the Devil to possess their souls No man hath less means to preserve his body and more temptations to infect his soul than an idle person O shake off sloth The sluggish Christian will be sleeping or idling or trifling when he should be in his closet a praying Sloth is the Green-sickness of the soul get it cured or 't will be your eternal bane Of all Devils 't is the idle Devil that keeps men most out of their Closets There is nothing that gives the devil so much advantage against us as idleness 'T was Hierom. ep 4. good counsel that Jerom gave to his friend Facito aliquid operis ut te semper Diabolus inveniat occupatum that when the Devil comes with a temptation you may answer him you are not at leasure It was the speech of Mr. Greenham sometimes a famous painful preacher of this nation that when the Devil tempted a poor soul she came to him for advice how she might resist the temptation and he gave her this answer Never be idle but be alwayes well employed for in my own experience I have found it when the Devil came to tempt me I told him that I was not at leasure to hearken to his temptations and by this means I resisted all his assaults Idleness is the hour of temptation and an idle person is the Devils Tennis-Ball tossed by him at his pleasure He that labours said the old Hermite is tempted but by one Devil but he that is idle is assaulted by all Cupid complained that he could never fasten upon the Muses because he could never find them idle The Fowler bends his bow and spreads his net for Birds when they are set not when
they are upon the wing So Satan shoots his most fiery darts at men when they are most idle and sloathful And this the Sodomites found by woful experience when God rained Ezek. 16. 49. hell out of heaven upon them both for their idleness and for those other sins of theirs which their idleness did expose them to It was said of Rome that during the time of their wars with Carthage and other enemies in Africa they knew not what vice meant but no sooner had they got the conquest but through idleness they came to ruine Idleness is a sin not only against the Law of Grace but also against the light of nature You cannot look any way but every creature checks and upbraids your idleness and sloth if you look up to the heavens there you shall find all their glorious Lights constant in their motions The Sun rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race the Winds Psal 19. 5. Psal 104. 23. blow the Waters run the Earth brings forth her pleasant and delightful fruits all the Fish in the Sea Fowls in the Air and Beasts in the Fields and on the Mountains have their motions and operations all which call aloud upon man not to be idle but active Solomon sends the sluggard to the Prov. 6. 6. Ant to learn industry The Ant is a very little creature but exceeding laborious nature hath put an instinct into her to be very busie and active all the Summer she is early and late at it and will not lose an hour unless the weather hinder And the Prophet Jeremiah sends the Jews to school to learn to wait and observe of the Stork Jer. 8. 7. the Turtle the Crane and the swallow And our Saviour sends us to the Sparrows and Lillies to learn attendance Mat. 6. 26 28. upon providence And let me send you to the busie Bee to learn activity and industry though the Bee be little in bulk yet 't is great in service she flyes far examines the fields hedges trees orchards gardens and loads her self with honey and wax and then returns to her Hive Now how should the activity of these creatures put the idle person to a blush O Sirs Man is that most noble creature into whom God hath put principles of the greatest activity as capable of the greatest and highest enjoyments and therefore idleness is a forgetting mans dignity and a forsaking of that rank that God hath set him in and a debasing of himself below the least and meanest creatures who constantly in their order obedientially serve the Law of their creation Nay if you look up to the blessed Angels above you you shall still find them active and serviceable Are they not all ministring Spirits sent Heb. 1. 14. forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation And if you look down to the Angels of darkness below you O how laborious and industrious are they to destroy and 1 Pet. 5. 8. damne your precious and immortal souls For a close remember that idleness is so great an evil that it hath been condemned and severely punished by the very worst of men Among the Egyptians Idleness was a capital crime Among the Lucans he that lent money to an idle person was to lose it By Solons Law idle persons were to suffer death And Seneca had rather be sick than idle The Lacedemonians called men to an account for their idle hours Among the Corinthians idle persons were delivered to the Carnifex Antonius Pius being Emperour caused the roofs coverings of all such houses to be taken away as were known to receive an idle people affirming that nothing was Capitolinus more uncomely or absurd to be suffered than such idle Caterpillars slow worms to have their food and nourishment from that Common-wealth in the maintenance of which there was no supply from their industry labour All which should steel us arm us against sloth and idleness I have the longer insisted on this because there is not agreater hinderance to Closet-prayer than sloth and idleness Slothful and idle persons commonly lye so long a bed and spend so much precious time between the comb and the glass and in eating drinking sporting trifling c. that they can find no time for private prayer Certainly such as had rather go sleeping to Hell than sweating to Heaven will never care much for Clos 〈◊〉 t prayer And therefore shun sl 〈◊〉 th and idleness as you would shun a Lyon in the way or poison in your meat or coales in your bosome or else you will never find time to wait upon God in your Closets Secondly Take heed of spending too much of your precious time about circumstantials about the little things of Religion as mint anise and cummin or in searching Mat. 23. 23. into the circumstances of worship or in standing stoutly for this or that ceremony and in the mean while neglect the studying of the covenant of grace or about enquiring what fruit that was that Adam eat in Paradise or in enquiring after the Authors of such and such books whose names God in his infinite wisdome hath concealed or in enquiring what God did before the world was made when one asked Austin that Question he answered that he was preparing Hell for such busie Questionists as he was It was a saying of Luther From a vain-glorious Doctor from a contentious Pastor and from unprofitable Questions the good Lord deliver his Church 'T is one of Satans great designs to hinder men in the great and weighty duties of Religion by busying them most about the lowest and least matters of Religion Satan is never better pleased than when he sees Christians puzzled and perplexed about Col. 2. 21. those things in Religion that are of no great moment or importance Such as negotiate and trade in Religion more for a good name than a good life for a good report than a good Conscience for to humor others than to honour God c. such will take no pleasure in loset-duties Such as are more 2 Tim. 3. 5. busied about ceremonies than substances about the form of godliness than the power such will never make it their business to be Mat. 6. 1 2 3 4 5 6. much with God in their Closets as is evident in the Scribes and Pharisees Such as are more taken up with the outward dress and garb Luke 11. 34. 40. of Religion than they are with the spirit power and life of Religion such will never affect to drive a secret trade heaven-wards There can't be a surer nor a greater character of an hypocrite than to make a great deal of stir about little things in Religion and in the mean while neglect the great and main things in Religion Such as these have all along in the Scripture discovered a strangness and a perfect carelesness as to Closet-duties I never knew any man hot and zealous about circumstantials about the little things
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
eight wayes p. 352 to p. 384. Six Arguments to prove that all Christians do not enjoy a like Communion with God in their Closets p. 356 to p. 363. Of Curiosity  Curiosity is a very great hinderance to Closet-prayer p. 410 to p. 418. E  Of Examples  We are bound to follow the best Examples p. 16 to p. 19. Christ's Example is for our imitation p. 22 23. Of Eternity  As ever you would keep close to Closet-Prayer be frequent in the consideration of Eternity p. 470 to the end Of Experiences  He that would keep close to Closet-Duties must keep a diary of his Closet-Experiences p. 453 to p. 457. F  Of a Friend or Friends  VVhat a Friend Christ is shewed in Ten particulars p. 76 77 78. H  Of Hypocrites  No Hypocrites make secret Prayer their ordinary trade or work p. 27. to p. 30. I  Of Idleness  Idleness is a very great hinderance to Closet-Prayer and therefore take heed of it p. 400 to p. 408. L  Of Love  He that would be much with God in his Closet must labour to Love Christ with a more enflamed Love p. 460 461 462. M  Eight special Meanes to help on that great Duty of Closet-Prayer from p. 451 to the end of the Book N  Of Neglecting Prayer  He that willingly Neglects private Prayer shall certainly be neglected in his Publick prayer p. 100 to p. 103. O  Objections  Object 1. We have much business upon our hands and we cannot spare time for Closet-Prayer c. Eight Answers are given to this Objection that it might never more have a resurrection p. 134 to p. 162. Object 2. Sir We grant that Closet-Prayer is an indispensable Duty that lyes upon the People of God but we are servants and have no time that we can call our own and our Masters businesse is such as will not allow us any time for private Prayer and therefore we hope we may be excused  Ten Answers are given to this Objection from p. 162. to p. 202. Object 3. O but we cannot pray alone we want those gifts and endowments which others have we are shut up and know not how to pour out our souls before God in a corner  Six Answers are given to this Objection from p. 202 to p. 251. Object 4. God is very well acquainted with all our wants necessities straits and tryals and there is no moving of him to bestow any favours upon us which he doth not intend to bestow upon us whether we pray in our Closets or no.  Four Answers are given to this Objection p. 251 to p. 257. Object 5. I would drive a private trade wtth God I would exercise my self in secret Prayer but I want a convenient place to retire into I want a private corner to unbosome my Soul to my Father in  Three Answers are given to this Objection p. 257 to p. 261. Object 6. VVe 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-doores buâ— a multitude of infirmities weaknesses and vanities doe face us and rise up against us besiâ—es both our bodies and souls are under great indispositions and how then can we seek the face of God in a corner  Six Answers are given to this Objection from p. 261 to p. 297. Of Gods Omnipresence  God is Omnipresent p. 96 to p. 100. Oâ— Prayer  First Such are reproved that put off Private Prayer till they are moved to it by the Spirit p. 123 124 125. Secondly Such that pray not at all neither in their families nor in their Closets p. 125 126 127 Thirdly Such as are all for publick Prayer for going up to the Temple but never care to go into their Closets p. 127 128. Fourthly Such who in their Closets pray with a loud and clamorous voice p. 128 129. Five Arguments to redresse this evil p. 130 131 132 Fifthly Such are reproved that do all they can to hinder and discourage others from Private Prayer p. 232 133. Of the Promises  Eight considerable hints about the Promises p. 207 208 209. R  Of the Rod.  In seven particulars Afflictions resemble a Rod in the Epistle Dedicary  Twenty special Lessons we are to learn by the Rod in the Epistle Dedicatory  Of Rewards  Secret Duties shall have open Rewards p. 34 35. Of Resolutions  He that would be much in his Closet he must be a man of high through and fitted Resolutions p. 462 463 464 465. S  Of the Spirit  Seven Arguments to prove that all the Children of God have the Spirit of God p. 216 to p. 228. He that would keep close to closet-Closet-Duties had need labour for a greater effusion of the Spirit p. 466 to p. 470. Of the Spirits Sealing  Ten special Sealing times of the Spirit p. 228 to p. 249. Of Secret Prayer  Secret Prayer is most enriching p. 67 to p. 70. Secret Prayer is a Christians meat and drink it is his chief City of refuge in times of Affliction and Persecution p. 91 to p. 96. Our neer and dear relations to God calls aloud for Secret Prayer p. 107 to p. 111. God hath set a special mark of favour and honour upon those that have Prayed in Secret p. 111 to p. 113. Satan is a great enemy to Secret Prayer p. 113 to p. 116. Five things we may infer from thence p. 116 117. See Closet-Prayer  Of Secret Sins  All Christians have their Secret Sins p. 70 to p. 73. Four Arguments to take heed of Secret Sins p. 421 to p. 451. Of Secrets  God reveales his Secrets only to his People p. 75 to p. 78. There are three sorts of divine Secrets that God reveals to his People p. 78 to p. 91. Of Gods Secret ones  The Saints are only the Lords Secret ones p. 117 to p. 123. T  The Text opened p. 1 to p. 6. Of the Times and of Time  The times wherein we live calls aloud for Secret Prayer p. 103 to p. 107. We must take heed of spending too much of our precious Time about the little things of Religion p. 408 409 410. About Redeeming of Time  Five Reasons why Servants should Redeem Time for Private Prayer from their sleep recreations or set meals c. p. 185 to p. 193. W  Of the World  A man that would exercise himself in Closet-Prayer must take heed of engaging himself in a crowd of Worldly businesses p. 418 to p. 421. FINIS