down these four propositions 1. First Prayer in general is the Christians duty a burthen laid upon us by God himself It is very much commanded in the Word and the Precept of it frequently repeated Matt. 26. 41. Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation 1 Thess. 5. 17. Pray without ceasing 1 Tim. 2. 8. I will that men pray every where without wrath or doubting And in Matt. 18. 1. Our Saviour spake a parable to them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to saint You should be continually in a praying frame having your Graces and Affections ready and you should be frequent in the Work This is a piece of natural worship the very Law of our Creation doth oblige us to it and the light of Nature though it be now since the Fall exceeding dim and like a Candle burnt down into the Socket hath directed the Heathens themselves to the performance of it They when in a menacing Storm and Ionah fast a-sleep in the Ship could go and awaken him and bid him to call upon his God Prayer is what we owe to God not only as we are Christians but likewise as we are creatures not only as Saints but also as Men and Women It is a part of that homage which we ought to pay to him as we had our Being from his Power and as we have that Being continued and sweetned to us by his Goodness In a word It is a practical acknowledgment of that necessary and constant dependence we have upon him So that the Man or Woman who doth not pray is no better than an Atheist both in Heart and Life He doth first cast off God who casts off Prayer Psal. 14. 1. The fool first saith in his heart there is no God and then you find in vers 3 4. That he doth not seek God nor call upon him Let Men and Women make never so great and fair a profession attribute to themselves what they will and lay their claim to as many glorious Names and Titles as they please their Profession is no better than a Lye those Names and Titles do not at all belong to them and the Religion unto which they pretend is no other than a lifeless Image which God when he awakes will most certainly despise in case they live without this excellent duty You may call and count them Atheists without doing them any injury Those that live without Prayer in the World are the Men and Women that live without God in the World and if they live without God in this World you may easily know with whom they shall live in that World which is to come Some may be apt to think it a thing impossible for any Atheists to be found in London where there is so much Knowledg such plenty of Means such a great and glorious Light shining but I fear if there were an enquiry made it would plainly appear there are more of them than we do imagine yea I am not in the least afraid to affirm that in this famous City there are the greatest and vilest Atheists in the World The Lord himself saith Isa. 42 14. Who is blind but my servant or deaf as my messenger that I sent Who is blind as He that is perfect or blind as the Lord's servant As if he should have said There is no reason to wonder at the ignorance and blindness which is among the Heathen who live in the dark places of the Earth when there is such blindness among my Servants both Prophets and People who have their habitations in a Land of Light a Valley of Vision There are none so blind as those who are blinded by the Sun and have their Eyes put out by that very light by which they should see None so blind as those that will not see none so ignorant as those that will not learn and know First Men do wickedly shut their own eyes and then God doth in just judgment put them out Isa. 6. 9. Go and tell this People Hear ye indeed but understand not see ye indeed but perceive not make the heart of this People fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed But know that in the first place remember and consider it Prayer is absolutely your duty charge it upon your selves and make conscience of minding and doing it you are obliged to it both as you are Christians and Creatures it is a part of your reasonable service and your neglect of it will never discharge and deliver you from your engagement to it If you do not pay it the Debt goes on the Sin increases and how great a sum will it at last amount to every day that you pass without your Morning and Evening Sacrifice you do feloniously rob God of that glory which is due to his Name and wickedly transgress the Law of your Creation 2. Secondly As Prayer it self is your duty so a liberty to pray is your choice priviâ—ege It is God's mercy and your happiâ—ess that he gives you leave to knock at his Door and lie begging there Sit down â—ere and pause a little and seriously think with your selves how great a matter it is for a poor contemptible Worm to have the Ear of the Infinite and Glorious God open to its cry for you who are no better as Abraham freely acknowledged than dust and ashes to have the door of Grace opened to you and leave to approach and make your application to the Majesty of Heaven and to state your case to him and to spread all your desires before him and to pour out your requests and groans into his Bosome at any time and as often as you please so that you come in a right manner and behave your selves with a becoming reverence and godly fear Converse and Communion with God was the happiness of innocent Man So long as our first Parents persisted in that pure and perfect state in which they were created they could think of God with rejoycing contemplate his Glory with delight and walk with him as Friends But all this was forfeited and lost by the Fall Sin at its first entry broke that harmony it cloathed God with terror and Man with shame his confidence was gone and horror took its place so that instead of fellowship with God man fled from him and would have hid had he known how and where Sin presently erected a middle-wall of partition between them It would have been fatal to man and as much as his life was worth to have adventur'd in his lapsed state into the presence of God whom he had highly provoked had there not been help laid upon one that is mighty and the gracious interposition of a powerful and prevailing Mediator God is in himself a devouring fire and everlasting burnings How then is it safe for man to approach to him or to dwell with him
things 1. Safety 2. Comfort 1. First Secret Prayer is a choice and excellent means of Security would a Man be safe when he is alone then let him pray when he is alone On this side of Heaven there is not any one place to be sound in which a person may rationally look upon himself as quite out of the reach of danger I heard one once wittily say He did not upon the Road fear Highway-men so long as be was alone But there are other enemies from whom we may apprehend mischief when we are most alone The subtil Serpent wrigled himself into Paradise it self and there he did mortally sting our first Parents and undid them and all their posterity in them Holy Paul was perfectly safe while he continued in the third Heaven the malicious Tempter could not come at him there since he was cast down from that blessed place He never yet could and for the future he never shall make a re-entry nor is his Arm strong enough to shoot an Arrow or throw a fiery Dart so high But no sooner was that eminent Apostle come down again but he was desperately set upon worse than the Philistins were upon him there was a Thorn stuck in his flesh which could not but put him to pain and a Messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him who without peradventure gave him no small blows One would conclude a person safe enough when no-body is with him as there is none to help so there is none to hurt yet even then he may be in danger for though there be no Man with him yet there is a Devil with him yea more than one possibly more than a Legion It might have been rationally concluded That David walking upon the top of his House did not stand in need of his Life-guard about him Who was that should or could do the King a mischief there Yet even there a Naked Woman conquered that Man of War and a malicious Devil let fly one of his envenom'd Arrows and wounded him to the very heart by the eye It had been well for that good Man if instead of gazing about and viewing every object that presented he had been looking up to his God and praying in secret Know and consider O thou poor Soul the Devil hath a mind to thee not out of any Love he bears thee for there is no such thing in Devils they must cease to be Devils before they can have any kindness for Men But he hath a mind to you as a roaring Lion hath to his prey and in pursuance of his bloody design he is restless though he can do himself no good he reckons it worth his while to do thee a mischief and therefore he doth not only walk with thee up and down in the Street and from this private or publick House to that nor only follow thee to the publick Congregation there to divert thy thoughts or deaden thy affections or direct thine eye to some vain and wanton object or pick up the seed which is sown that though it be cast in at the ear yet it may never reach so far as the heart to root there and bring forth precious fruit in the Life and Conversation but he will also dog you into your Chambers and intrude into your Closets when the Door is shut he will get in you cannot while here get clear of the old Man and the old Serpent and where-ever he is you may be sure He comes for no good He is wholly set upon mischief that is his constant imploy his beloved work his heart is set upon it he follows it close and with all his might Therefore my advice is That thou wouldest make Prayer thy Closet-business that when this implacable Enemy of thine finds thee alone he may not have an advantage against thee When in Ephes. 6. the Apostle Paul had told you of the Enemies you must contend with that they are not only flesh and blood but also principalities and powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places he advised you to put on the whole Armour of God and over and above he directed you to this excellent and necessary work of Prayer as knowing that both your security and victory depend as much upon that as any thing Your Armour will not do without your God and him you cannot expect without Prayer If then you would not fall both into temptation and by it your care and work must be to watch and pray and I do not in the least doubt but Prayer hath laid many a restraint upon the Devil and kept him off from medling with a Child of God when his fingers have itch'd at him and blunted his tools often and often so that he could not do the work he intended with them and broken the neck of many a cursed design which he was most industriously carrying on 2. Secondly Secret Prayer is a special way for the making of your retirement comfortable and pleasant to you Solitariness is looked upon as having Melancholly for its usual Companion and a Life of loneliness and retirement is reckon'd a very disconsolate Life The Prophet made this a part of his bitter complaint Psal. 102. 7. That he was as a sparrow alone upon the house top And Solomon saith Eccles. 4. 10. Wo be to him that is alone Hence one said He that loves to be alone is either a Beast or a God But Secret-Prayer is an excellent way to sweeten solitariness and take off the uncomfortableness of it If thou dost but in thine uprightness apply thy self heartily to this work when thou art without any Company thou shalt not be without matter of rejoycing but with Hagar in the Wilderness find a Spring opened to thee That was a great saying of one Nunquam minus solus quam cum maxime solus I am never less alone than when I am most alone He did never find less want of Company than when he had none then a Man enjoys his God and himself and he that hath indeed that enjoyment needs no body Iohn 16. 32. Our Saviour spake thus to his Disciples The hour cometh yea is now come that ye shall be scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone and yet I am not alone because the father is with me Not alone when alone I shall be altogether without you but not without my Father who doth more infinitely more than fill up those vacancies as at noon-day we do not want the Stars though they be all obscur'd and disappear because we have the glorious Light and Beams of the Sun who doth abundantly supply their absence David tells us in Psalm 145. 18. which is a Psalm of Praise That the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him to all that call upon him in truth Sincere Prayer will fetch God down from Heaven to stand at thy right hand Our Heavenly Father is more ready than the most affectioâ—ate tender-hearted Mother upon Earth to arise and come in at the cry
not seek his face where you sin to his face Oh! look carefully to it that as there are secret Faults so there be secret Prayers and Tears as secret Sins so secret Services Fourthly There are special and momentous Causes and Reasons for secret Prayer Surely there is not that Man nor Woman to be found upon the face of the earth but hath something or other which he would by all means have a Mantle of privacy thrown over something or other which he may be free and willing to whisper in the ear of a prudent intimate Friend and lock up in his bosom but he would not have it divulg'd and come abroad to the knowledge of every body Now let me ask thee Hast thou nothing to speak to God in his ear something which thou wouldst not have any person in the world acquainted with something it may be that doth greatly oppress thee and whilst thou dost smother it altogether in silence thy heart is almost broken within thee There is an absolute necessity of giving vent and thereby some ease to thine over-burden'd mind and where canst thou do it with more freedom and greater hope of relief than when thou art alone before a gracious God whose mercies are everlasting and his compassions do not fail Will that which they call Common-Prayer râ—ach thy whole Case doth it contain in it all that is in thine heart dost thou find every one of thy wants mention'd there every one of thy groans form'd there every one of thy desires drawn up there is there nothing singular and peculiar in thy Case is it exactly stated by others in all the particularities of it I am sure the Wise Man tells us Prov. 14. 10. The heart knoweth his own bitterness and a stranger intermedleth not with his joy These things are so lock'd up in the heart of a man that no body else hath a key to let him into them I think it is most proper for a poor diseased Patient to tell his Physician how he feels himself indeed if he be so disturbed in his reason or so much enfeebled that he cannot do it then it is necessary for some other to do it that hath been about him and curious in his Observations but I am of the mind that the wise Physician will like that account best which comes from his Patient 's own mouth supposing him capable of giving one Do thou go and do so to thy great and ever-blessed Physician the holy God and to that end study both his Word and thy Heart that by studying his Word thou maist come to know how it should be with thee and by studying thine own heart thou maist know how it is with thee and then go and tell him Again will Publick-Prayer at all times become thee and in every one of thy concernments Hast thou so much of an unspotted innocency or such a large measure of confidence as that thou wilt not blush to tell the whole story of thine heart and life upon the House-top Hast thou been so undefiled in the way that thou needest not care who knows what thou hast been and what thou hast done Indeed when a proud and self-conceited Pharisee makes it his business to display his glory and to trumpet out his own commendations to tell God that he is a Phoenix a kind of none-such in the World one that is so free from common defilements so abundant in goodness and acts of goodness that his fellow is scarce to be met with it is no wonder to find him ambitious of having Auditors enough and to see him in the pride of his countenance and with his hand by his side strutting it to the Temple where he doth expect a great confluence of people who might go and inform others what great things they had heard concerning him from his own mouth and so raise to him Thousands of admirings among such as would be credulous and believe him upon his bare word But methinks when a poor Publican that groans under an heavy burthen of sin and guilt who knoweth himself unable to answer for one of a Thousand and who hath had often and often the sentence of death in himself pronounced by his own awakened and wounded Conscience when I say he is to draw up an Indictment against himself and to read it in the presence of his righteous Judge and then having so done to beg upon his knees and plead hard for his Life Lord be merciful to me a sinner He may stand a great way off and get alone by himself as a person ashamed and even confounded When thou goest to acquaint God with thy diseases foul loathsom diseases of Soul and to open thy Artery Sores and those wounds in thy Conscience which as poor David found and owned stink and are corrupt it speaks an humble modesty and doth highly become thee to do it between him and thee alone Now Christian give me leave to deal particularly with thee and to come as close as I can and to propound some few Questions to thee and to desire thee to propound them to thy self when I have done 1. Hast thou not some secret sins to confess to God Hast thou been all thy days so sober and righteous and godly so circumspect and exact that no action of thine troubles thee or will reflect dishhonour upon thee or in the least put thee out of countenance is there no blot in thy Escutchion no dead Fly in thy Box of Ointment Are there not some things done by thee which nobody doth know of and which thou wouldest not for more than I will say have any body know of Let this bring thee to Secret Prayer for they must be confest Indeed unless it be in some cases thou dost not need to do it unto Men there is no necessâ—â—y for thee to proclaim and publish thine own shame Auriculaâ—â—onfeâ—â—â—on which the Popish Priests do require is an abomination But a Confession there must be else the wound of Conscience will not be healed the oppressed Spirit will not be relieved the Sâ—ain will not be taken out the Sin will not be pardon'd The Promise is He that confesseth and forsakes his sin shall find mercy as much as he needs or can desire And the word of Truth gives us this assurance I Iohn 1. 9. That if we confess our sins God is just and faithful to forgive us â—u sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Blessed be God for those words from all Pardoning Mercy and Justifying Grace will make thorow work where-ever it comes it takes away iniquity transgression and sin all sorts and sizes sins of all kinds and degrees But where doth this take place Only in them that Confess Where there is no Confession you cannot with reason hope for a Remission Add this You may very well spread before God those sins which you have committed in secret because it is not in your power to hide them from him they are all in the light of his
and dread upon thy spirit with as great â—umility and reverence in thy carriage and deportment as if thou hadst the eyes of all the World upon thee though thou mayest in thy retirements be more free and open in giving an account of thy self and thy condition thy burthens wants and desires because no body sees thee yet thou must not be rude unmannerly and sawcy because God sees thee When thou art in a Corner God is in Heaven upon a Throne of Glory attended by innumerable Angles who in his presence cover their Faces with their Wings as knowing their distance their inability and unworthiness to behold him Remember thou hast to do with Majesty yea with an Infinite and Glorious Majesty and Shall not his excellency make you afraid and his dread fall upon you Job 13. 11. And indeed then are we most excellent when we do most fear God's Excellency David began Psalm 8. with the admiration of God's Excellency O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth And then in the same Psalm he fell to humbling and vilifying thoughts and expressions of Man What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him Abraham was the Father of the faithful and the Friend of God yet how low was he in his own eyes and how much fill'd with an awe of God when he alone stood before him pleading for wicked Sodom Observe how he carried and what he said Genesis 18. 27. Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes And vers 30. O let not the Lord be angry and I will speak And yet again verse 32. O let not the Lord be angry and I will speak yet but this once By all this you see how much he was afraid of offending God and this is that which God expects from his creatures yea from his dearest Children he stands upon his honour and looks to be treated like himself Levit. 10. 3. Moses said unto Aaron This is that the Lord spake I will be sanctified in all them that come nigh me See then that you have grace to serve him with reverence and godly fear as knowing that your God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 28 29. Nadab and Abihu found him so when destroyed by fire that came from his presence upon their not observing his order in matter of worship they brought with them strange fire and met with devouring fire Therefore do you fear before him when you pray to him and though no-body be by remember and consider that God is by as to hear your Prayers so curiously to observe both the frame of your spirits and the manner of your deportments before him as he is of pitiful eyes so of pure and piercing eyes which cannot indure to behold iniquity and from which nothing can be hid all is naked and open before him with whom you have to do Secondly When thou settest about the work of Secret-Prayer study and endeavour secrecy to the utmost and be as secret as ever thou canst do not tell others the business thou art taking in hand What though none know of it let it be enough for thee that thy Father doth for that is enough he alone is sufficient to be thy witness and to do for thee all that thou desirest Never go to it with a design nor in such manner that others may take notice of it for thy commendation A Christian indeed may do Alms and pray so as to be taken notice of and let his light shine before Men in order to the alluring of others and drawing them to the like acts of piety and charity But to give others by any means an item of our private Duties in order to our own applause that we might have praise with Men and be by them accounted in the number of serious strict and eminent Christians is too low a pitch for the Children of God to fly it is Pharisaically wicked and abominable And sure I am you your selves will find it true at the last That a name thus obtained will not pay the charge but cost you a great deal more than it is worth It is far better for us to take care of our duty and leave it to God to take care of our names If we can please God and get to Heaven we shall be glad to be there though no-body knew all the steps we took in the way thither When thou art in the work and warm at it when the Fire burns speak with thy tongue it is thy friend in Prayer and thy glory in Praises but command it to keep a due decorum be not so loud that others may hear do not like some make the street ring I readily grant that the lifting up of the voice is sometimes the effect of an oppressed spirit whom speaking will not serve there must be crying and that aloud sometimes it is the effect of a soul fir'd and inflam'd with holy longings and it may be allowed to be an help to the raising up of the spirit and affections Only when thou dost make use of it get as far as thou canst out of the hearing of others that thou mayest not be as the hypocrites are If thou hast not conveniency for that neither within doors nor without then go to God as he came to Elijah in a soft and still voice Thy Father can hear thy whispers for thou always speakest in his ear yea more Romans 8. 27. He that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the spirit He had in the Verse before spoken of groans that could not be utter'd desires that are in the Soul which it knoweth not how to express but though thou canst utter neither sighs nor groans nor words God knoweth your minds what your spirits are working out after when you say nothing he can tell what you would have All my desire is before thee He understands the language of thy sighs yea thy very tears are to him articulate when he doth not hear the words of thy mouth We do not find that Woman said any thing who washed Christ's Feet with her tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head but in those tears and actions Christ saw love and thankfulness much is forgiven her therefore she loveth much yea he doth know what you have a mind to by your very looks Hence it was that when the floods compassed Ionah about and all the billows and waves passed over him and he looked upon himself as being in a perishing condition he resolved upon giving God a look before he was quite lost Ionah 2. 4. Then I said I am cast out of thy sight yet I will look again toward thy holy Temple and that look saved him Verse 6. Thou hast brought up my life from corruption O Lord my God He looks pitifully up to God and God looks graciously down upon him do thou so act the Saint as carefully to avoid every