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
and lively seasons for Closet-prayer is the mornings before a mans spirit be blunted or cooled deadned damped or flatted by worldly businesses A man should speak with God in his Closet before he speaks with his worldly affairs and occasions A man should say to all his worldly businesseg as Abraham said unto his young men when he went to offer up his only Isaac abide you here and I will goe yonder and worship and then return to you again He that will attend Closet-prayer without distraction or disturbance must not first slip out of the world into his Closet but he must first slip into his Closet before he be compassed about with a crowd of worldly employments It was a Precept of Pythagoras that when we enter into the Temple to worship God we must not so much as speak or think of any worldly business least we make Gods service an idle perfunctory and lazy recreation The same I may say of Closet-prayer Jerome complains very much of his distractions dulness and indisposedness to prayer and chides himself thus What dost thou think that Jonah prayed thus when he was in the Whales belly or Daniel when he was among the Lyons or the Thief when he was upon the Cross Thirdly When men or women are under rash and passionate 1 Tim. 2. 8. distempers for when passions are up holy affections are down and this is a very unfit season for Closet-prayer for such prayers will never reach Gods eare which do not first warm our own hearts In the Muscovy Churches if the Minister mistake in reading or stammer in pronouncing his words or speak any word that is not well heard the hearers doe very much blame him and are ready to take the book from him as unworthy to read therein And certainly God is no less offended with the giddy rash passionate precipitate and inconsiderate prayers of those who without a deliberate understanding do send their petitions to heaven in post-hast Solomons advice is worthy of all commendation and acceptation Be not Eccl. 5 2. rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God Or as the Hebrew may be read Let not thy heart through hast be so troubled or disturbed as to tumble over and throw out words without wisdome or premeditation Good men are apt many times to be too hasty rash and unadvised in their prayers complaints and deprecations Psal 31. 2. 2 Psal 116. 11 Job 10. 1 2 3. Jer. 18. 15. 18. Jon. 4. 2 3 4. Matth. 20. 20 21. witness David Job Jeremiah Jonah and the Disciples No Christian to him that doth wisely seriously weigh over his prayers and praises before he pours out his soul before the Lord. He never repents of his requests who first duly deliberates what to request but he that blurts out whatsoever lyes uppermost and that brings into the presence of God his rash raw tumultuary and indigested petitions confessions complaints c. he doth but provoke God he doth but brawl with God instead of praying to him or wrestling with him Suiters at Court observe their fittest times and seasons of begging they commonly take that very nick of time when they have the King in a good mood and so seldome or never come off but with good success Sometimes God strongly enclines the heart to Closet-prayer sometimes he brings the heart before hand into a praying frame sometimes both body and soul are more enlivened quickned raised and divinely enflamed than at other times sometimes Conscience is more stirring working and tender c. O now strike while the Iron is hot O now lay hold on all such blessed opportunities by applying of thy self to private prayer O Sirs can you take your fittest times seasons and opportunities for plowing and sowing and reaping and buying and selling and eating and drinking and marrying c. And can't you as well take your fittest times and seasons to seek the Lord in your Closets Must the best God be put off with the least and worst of your time the Lord forbid Neglect not the seasons of grace slip not your opportunities for Closet-prayer thousands have lost their seasons and their souls together My Third Advice and counsel is this Be marvelous careful that you do not perform Closet Duties meerly to still your Consciences you must perform them out of Conscience but you must not perform them only to quiet Conscience Some have such a light set up in their understandings that they cannot omit An ill Conscience saith Austin is like a scolding wife a man saith he that hath an ill Conscience he cares not to be at at home he cares not to look into his own soul but loves to be abroad Closet-prayer but Conscience is upon their backs Conscience is still upbraiding and disquieting of them and therefore they are afraid to neglect Closet-prayer least Conscience should question arraign and condemn them for their neglects Sometimes when men have greatly sinned against the Lord Conscience becomes impatient and is still accusing condemning and terrifying of them and now in these Agonies they will run to their Closets and cry and pray and mourn and confess and bitterly bewail their transgressions but all this is only to quiet their Consciences and sometimes they find upon their performances of Closet-duties that their Consciences are a little allayed and quieted and for this very end and purpose do they take up Closet-prayer as a charm to allay their Consciences and when the storm is over and their Consciences quieted then they lay aside Closet-prayer as the Monk did the net when the fish was caught and are ready to transgresse again O Sirs take heed of this for this is but plain hypocrisie and will be bitternesse in the end He that performs Closet-prayer only to bribe his Conscience that it may not be clamorous or to stop the mouth of Conscience that it may not accuse him for sin he will at length venture upon such a trade such a course of sinning against Conscience as will certainly turn his troubled Conscience into a seared Conscience And a seared Conscience is like a sleepy Lyon when 2 Tim. 4. 2. he awakes he roars and tears his prey in pieces and so will a seared Conscience when 't is awakened roar and tear the secure sinner in pieces When Dionysius Conscience was awakened he was so troubled with fear and horrour of Conscience that not daring to trust his best friends with a razor he used to singe his beard with burning coals as Cicero reports All the mercy that a seared a benummed Conscience doth afford the sinner when it doth most befriend him when it deals most seemingly kind with him is this that it will not cut that it may kill it will not convince that it may confound it will not accuse that it may condemn it will spare the sinner a while that it may torment him for ever it will spare him here that it may gnaw
do defer Dan. 9. 19. not for thine own sake Look as there be two kinds of Antidotes against Poyson viz. hot and cold so there are two kinds of Antidotes against all the troubles of this life viz. fervent prayers and holy patience the one hot the other cold the one quickening and the other quenching and holy Daniel made use of them both Fervency to prayer is as the fire was to the spices in the Censor or as wings to the Bird or as oyl to the wheels and this Daniel found by experience God looks not for any James with horny knees through assiduity of prayer nor for any Bartholomew with a Century of prayers for the morning and as many for the evening but for fervency of spirit in prayer which alone carryes all with God Feeble prayers like weak pangs go over and never brings a mercy to the birth Cold prayers are still-born Children in whom the Father of spirits can take no pleasure Look as a painted man is no man and as painted fire is no fire so a cold prayer is no prayer Such prayers never win upon the heart of God that do not first warm our own hearts As a body without a soul much wood without fire a Bullet in a Gun without powder so are all prayers without fervency of Spirit Luther termes Prayer Bombarda Christianorum the Gun or Canon of Christians or the Christians Gun-shot The hottest springs send forth their waters by ebullitions Cold prayers make a smoak a smother Isa 1. 15. Ch. 65 5. in the eyes of God Lazy prayers never procure noble answers Lazy beggars may starve for all their begging Such as have a male in their flock and offer to the Lord a female Such as offer to the Lord the torn and the lame and the sick such as turn off God with their cold lazy sleepy and formal Mal. 1. 13 14. devotions are condemned cast and cursed by God David compares his prayers to incense and no incense was offered without Psal 141. 2. fire it was that that made the smoke of it to ascend 'T is only fervent prayer that hits the mark and that pierces the walls of heaven though like those of Gaza Isa 45. 2. made of Brass and Iron While the Child only whimpers and whines in the Cradle the Mother lets it alone but when once it sets up its note and cryes out right then she runs and takes it up So 't is with a Christian Psal 34. 6. This poor man cryed there is his fervency he cryed but it was silently and secretly in the presence of King Achish as Moses did at the Red-Sea and as Nehemiah did in the presence of the King of Persia and the Lord heard him and delivered him out of all his troubles here is his prevalency So Latimer plyed the Throne of grace with great fervency crying out Once again Lord once again restore the Gospel to England and God heard him Hudson the Martyr deserted at the Stake went from under his Chain and having prayed fervently he was comforted immediately and suffered valiantly I have read of one Giles of Bruxels a Dutch Martyr who was so fervent in his prayer kneeling by himself in some secret place of the Prison where he was that he seemed to forget himself and being called to his meat he neither heard nor saw who stood by him till he was lifted up by the armes and then he would speak gently to them as one awaked out of a Trance So Gregory Nazianzen speaking Paulin. Epist lib. 1. Epist 4. of his sister Gorgonia saith that in the vehemency of her prayer she came to a Religious impudency with God so as to threaten heaven and tell God that she would never depart from his Altar till she had her petition granted Let us make it our businesse to follow these noble examples as ever we would so Prince it in prayer as to prevail with God An importunate soul in prayer is like the poor beggar that prayes and knocks that prayes and waits that prayes and works that knocks and knits that begs and patches and will not stir from the door till he hath an alms Well Friends remember this God respects no more luke-warm prayers than he doth luke-warm persons and they are such that he hath threatned to spue out of his mouth Those prayers that are but lip-labour are lost-labour And therefore in all your Closet-prayers look to the fervency of your spirits My Seventh Advice and counsel is this Be constant as well as servent in Closet-prayer look that you hold on and hold out and that you persevere to the end in private prayer 1 Thes 5. 17. Pray without ceasing A man must alwayes pray habitually though not actually he must have his heart in a praying disposition in all estates and conditions Though Closet-prayer may have an intermission yet it must never have a cessation Luke 18. 1. And he spake a Parable unto them to this end that men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint or as the Greek hath it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shrink back as sluggards in work or cowards in war Closet-prayer is a fire like that on the Altar that was never to go out day nor Lev. 12. 6. night 1 Thes 3. 10. Night and day praying exceedingly Paul speaks like a man made up all of prayer like a man that minded nothing so much as prayer So Ephes 6. 18. Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance Calvin makes this difference between praying alwayes in the beginning of this Verse and praying with perseverance in the end of this Verse By praying alwayes saith he he exhorts us to pray in prosperity as well as in adversity and not to quit the duty of prayer in a prosperous estate because we are not driven to it by outward pressing necessities and miseries and by praying with perseverance he admonisheth us that we be not weary of the work but continue instant and constance in its performance though we have not presently what we pray for So that praying alwayes is opposed to a neglect of the Duty in its proper times and seasons and praying with perseverance is opposed to a fainting in our spirits in respect of this or that particular suit or request that we put up to God When God turns a deaf ear to our prayers we must not fret nor faint we must not be dismayed nor discouraged but we must hold up and hold on in the Duty of prayer with invincible patience courage and constancy as the Church did Lament 3. 8 44 55 56 57. compared Col. 4. 2. Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving We must be constant and instant in Closet-prayer we must wait upon it and lay all aside for it He that is only in his Closet by fits and starts will neither glorifie God nor advantage his own soul If we do not make a