Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A60343
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A discourse of closet (or secret) prayer from Matt. VI 6 first preached and now published at the request of those that heard it / by Samuel Slater.
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Slater, Samuel, d. 1704.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing S3960; ESTC R25761
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88,954
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200
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A DISCOURSE OF CLOSET or SECRET PRAYER FROM MATT. VI. 6. First Preached and now Published at the Request of those that heard it BY SAMUEL SLATER Mininister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Ionathan Robinson and Tho. Cockerill at the Golden-Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard and at the Three Leggs in the Poultry over against the Stocks-Market MDCXCI To that Flock of Christ over which the Holy-Ghost hath made me an Overseer Beloved in the Lord IF Sins and Troubles make times bad those have been so in which our lines have been cast as great and glorious light hath shin'd in our Horizon as in any since the Apostle's Age yet the works of darkness have abounded among us Superstition Persecution and Prophaneness Great numbers among us hate the light of Truth and gladly would have it extinguished And who can count those who walk as enemies to the Cross of Christ whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame We have had fierce disputes and hot contentions Veluti pro aris focâ—s for lifeless Forms and Ceremonies not worth a button which have been bones of Contention in the Church of God ever since the Reformation and will continue so to be till Men are grown wise enough to cast them out but at the same time the Vitals of Christianity and Power of Godliness have been forgotten and neglected nay by the generality such Christians there are in our days ridicul'd and hated so that many live direct contradictions to the Profession they make and throw dirt upon that Name in which they would be thought to Glory The grand design indeed driven on among us hath been to reduce these Nations to the See of Rome and to bring in Popery among us in order whereunto Men taught by the Devil and wise to do evil have by their Hellish and Cursed Examples introduc'd prophandenss for none so fit to make a Doctrinal Papist as one that is a Practical Atheist How far these persons have prevailed and this Nation hath been by them immoralized and debauched and all ranks of Men among us Clergy as well as Laity Nobility and Commons Gentlemen and Peasants vitiated both in Principles and Life is alas too obvious and visible to any one that hath an eye in bit head And if ever God hath a purpose to do this Nation good and to deliver us form implacable enemies and menacing dangers and after all ou fears and convulsions and shakings to settle â—uâ— upon sure and lasting foundations he will reform us I wish that every one would reform himself and save cur Rules a labour if they will not I wish that our Governours would imploy then power and as they are providing as necessity requires against a potent Adversary abroad they would by the vigorous execution of wholesoâ—â— Laws against overflowing sins within which most expose us to ruin because to Divine wrath and thereby if I may so speak save God a labour But if they will not do their work God will do his It is my hope that he will not for sake this pleasant Land in which he hath so great an interest but mend it that he might delight in it though in what way and by what means whether by some smarting Rod or stiâ—ging Scorpion teaching us by Briars and Thorns letting out the corrupt Blood by tremendous Iudgments or more gently by the Word it is not for me to determine that we must leave to him whose wisdom is unsearchable and his ways past finding out Though I cannot but hope well from his gracious opening such a wide and effectual door to hiâ— glorious Gospel and giving to it so free a passage as blessed be his name we see at this day and restoring a desired and welcome liberty of Preaching to many of his faithful and eminent Servants who had by severe Laws been driven and kept out of the Vineyard for which many of them who had an hand in making those Laws have answered at the highest and most dreadful Tribunal and the rest shall in due time too soon for them The good Lord grant that while the Gospel runs it may be glorified by attaining is most excellent and noble end in the hearts and lives of those who sit under the joyful sound thereof that so Religion may recover its pristine Lustre yea shine forth with a greater glory than it did in the days of our most famous Predecessors Altogether unexpectedly to me It pleased the great God whose right it is to dispose of us according to his good pleasure to call me to Minister to you in the Gospel of his Son after he had taken home to an everlasting Rest and fulness of Ioy in and with himself your former Learned and every-way accomplished Pastor whose death was as it deserved to be bitterly bewailed by you In the same Relation to you he hath continued me for almost these Fifteen years during which space of time variety of Providences have passed over our heads we have met with both Halcion and Tempestuous days but we must we are obliged togive an honourable report of him as having been to us a shadow from the heat and a shelter from the storm so that few of our Sabbaths have been in the fury of the times Fasting-days throughout and very fâ—w of our Meeting disturbed and violently broken up But as he was pleased to give me an heart to Preach so you had from him an heart to hear and however some that went off from us have tack'd about and defiled their Garments the most of you have weathered the point born the burnt kept your ground and found mercy to be faithful to the Cause you owned not sinfully complying with the Lusts of Men nor submitting to their impositions and unscriptural mixtures with and in things pertaining to Divine Worship upon which account among many others I can look upon you as those that have been and yet are and will I hope go on to be my Ioy and Crown I can call God to witness that I love you in truth and have both sincerely and earnestly desir'd your good endeavouring to the utmost of my ability to make known unto you the whole Counsel of God not putting you off with Rhetorical flourishes the enticing words of Man's wisdom new and empty notions Philosophical strains and inventions of Men but with that Bread that came down from Heaven nourishing you up to Eternal Life determining to know nothing among you but Iesus Christ and him Crucified who is the admiration of Angels and worthy to be the desire of all Nations but too little Preached in England in London at this day and too little valued and believed in He hath been the great subject of my Discourses among you while as you will bear me testimony I have not sought yours but you And as you did chuse your Cook so you have liked the Provision be drest and set upon your Board having been for the greatest part as constant in your attendance upon
hence when Sickness Arrests you and you find that the King of terrors is at your very door that will be a dismal time and it will cause many thoughts and tremblings of heart and then if ever you will stand in need of Cordials and happy the Man that hath his comfortable Reflections and Prospects to support his Spirits who can look back to his Life past with peace and look forward to Eternity with hope When a Child of God that hath maintain'd a close and intimate Communion with his God and given himself unto Prayer comes to lie upon his Death-bed he is so roughly handled by that last enemy that he cannot pray his heart is so faint within him and his pains are so strong upon him that he hath not any leisure for that work in which he hath found so much sweetness and for which he hath so dear a love Alas then his case his weakness his agonies his tumblings and tossings are such that he cannot pray as he was wont only sigh and groan and lift up an eye and give a look toward God's Holy Temple and dart up a short ejaculation Poor Soul that is the utmost length he can go and it is no small grief to him that he is so straitned and confined Holy Asaph put this among the Reasons of his bitter complaints Psal. 77. 4 That he was so troubled that he could not speak But at that very time he can relieve and comfort himself with his former praying and former walking and Communion with God his former seeking of God and conversing with him When there was a message of death by the Prophet brought to Hezekiah he could send this short Petition up again to Heaven Isa. 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight He could do but very little then his strength was gone and his breath was short but he could with comfort remember and desire God himself to remember how he had walked and what he had done in his Halcion and healthful days So when a gracious person is disabled for his work he can think thus There is a stock of Prayers which I have laid up in Heaven against such a time of need as this is and the thought thereof will be a singular support and comfort to him But what do you think will become of you at such a time you that have been all your days strangers to this work When you come to dye you cannot pray your distempers and pains will not lâ—t you and you do not know how to go about it nor how to do one stroke at it and it will then be a sting and horrour to you to think that when you were in health and strength and all things well with you you would not pray You were called upon often by your godly Ministers and by your gracious Friends and Relations but you would not At a dying hour you will have no fitness for that work and all the time that you lived before you had no heart to it But possibly you will comfort your selves with this that when you are sick and full of fears and inward disquiets and you are not in a capacity of praying for your selves then you or some of your Friends for you will send for some godly Minister or other and desire him to pray for you Well suppose that is done and the Minister sent for comes if he knows what a wretch thou hast been and how much thou hast neglected God and thy Duty all thy days What straitnings of Soul must he of necessity be under as to thee With what holy confidence and hope may we go to God in Prayer on the behalf of a godly person when sick if we can say to God as they did to Christ on the behalf of Lazarus John 11. 3. Lord he whom thou lovest is sick But what a damp must it needs be to us when we think we are going to God for a sick and dying Man but such an one as neglected God and hated him and lived without him and in open rebellion against him I fear I fear there are too many among us that befool and deceive themselves with this That if they can get a Minister to Pray by them especially if it be such an one as will give them the Sacrament too oh then all is well and their Souls go immediately to Heaven without any stop by the way and the Gate of Glory is opened to them and entrance granted but it is probable that will not do and that these Men build their high hopes upon a Sandy-foundation that will fail them And I would fain know what great encouragement or what sufficient ground we have to believe that we shall carry them in the Arms of our Prayers safe to Heaven who would not themselves take one right step in the way that leads thither would never be humble Petitioners for the pardon of their Sins or for the Life and Salvation of their own Souls That I look upon as exceeding worthy of your observation and repeated thoughts which we meet with in the 1st of Samuel chap. 12. After that good Man had faithfully reproved the people for their great wickedness in asking a King and likewise put them into a great consternation by a Storm of Thunder and Rain in the time of Wheat-Harvest which was unusual in that Countrey they became humble Suitors to him saying in verse 19. Pray for by servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not That request he was most freely wilâ—ing to grant God forbid saith he that I should sin in ceasing to pray for you He had prayed for them and would continue to pray for them But now mark and remember that which followeth in vers 24. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart Which is as if he had said I will not be wanting to my Duty you are a people that I dearly love and heartily wish welfare and prosperity to I will speak for you and plead for you and wrestle with God for you but do not you lay too great stress upon my Prayers look to it that you be not found sinning against God whil'st I am praying to him for you left you do your selves more mischief than I can do you good My Prayers will not prevail on your behalf unless you will resolve to fear God your selves and to seek and serve him your selves and pray and honour and obey him your selves By warrant of that Scripture I do now say to you when you are sick and in distress and fear you shall dye you will call the Ministers to pray for you and we are ready to do it when you send for us we will come only I wish that we may be sent for sooner than we are by some of you viz. while you are able to give us an account of your selves and in