Prayer –The Privvy Key of Heaven–Thomas Brooks

 
THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN;
 
OR, A DISCOURSE OF CLOSET PRAYER.
 
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.—Matt 6:6.
 
These words of our Saviour are plain, and to be taken literally, and not allegorically, for he speaketh of shutting the door of the chamber. In this chapter there is a manifest opposition between the Pharisees praying in the synagogues and corners of the streets, and others praying in secret.
In the text you have a positive precept for every Christian to pray alone: "But thou, when thou prayest." He saith not, when you pray, but thou, "when thou prayest, enter into thy closet," etc., as speaking not so much of a joint duty of many praying together, as of a duty which each person is to do alone. The command in the text sends us as well to the closet as to the church; and he is a hypocrite in grain that chooses the one and neglects the other; for thereby he tells the world he cares for neither, he makes conscience of neither. He that puts on a religious habit abroad to gain himself a great name among men, and at the same time lives like an atheist at home, shall at the last be uncased by God, and presented before all the world for a most egregious hypocrite.
Bellarmine[1] and some others turn the text into 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. It is usual with papists and other monkish men that lie 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 of allegories.[2] By the strength of his parts and wanton wit, he turned most of the Scriptures into allegories; and by the just judgment of God upon him, he foolishly understood and absurdly applied that Matt 19:12 literally, "Some have made themselves chaste for the kingdom of heaven," and so gelded himself And indeed he might as well have plucked 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," Matt 18:9. In all ages heretics 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 Hymenaeus 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[3] have expounded paradise 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 wisdom, and the rest of the trees to be the virtues 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 rendered 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 cupboard to lay victuals in; thirdly, for a locked chest or cupboard 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:
Doctrine. That closet prayer or private prayer is an indispensable duty, that Christ himself hath laid upon all that are not willing to lie under the woful brand of being hypocrites.
I beseech you seriously to lay to heart these five things:
1. 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 public prayer. Secret prayer sweetly inclines and strongly disposes a Christian to all other religious duties and services. Ergo,—But,
2. Secondly, If secret prayer be not an indispensable duty that lies upon thee, by what authority doth conscience so upbraid thee, and so accuse thee, and so condemn thee, and so terrify thee, as it often doth for the neglect of this duty? But,
3. 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, Matt 6:6,18. And therefore without all peradventure this is a duty incumbent upon all Christians.
4. 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 ears, 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," etc.
5. Fifthly, If closet prayer be not an indispensable 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, and to take off Christians from it? Certainly, Satan would never make such a fierce and constant war as he doth upon private prayer, were it not a necessary duty, a real 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, etc.
Now, these five things do very clearly and evidently demonstrate that secretly and solitarily to hold intercourse 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, etc.
[1.] 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 days and forty nights, Exod 34:28. So Abraham fills his mouth with arguments, and reasons the case out alone with God in prayer, to prevent Sodom’s 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 Beersheba, 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 pour 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 rendered meditate, signifies to pray as well as to meditate, and so it is often used. It is a comprehensive word, that takes in both prayer and meditation. So you shall find Jacob at his private prayer: Gen 32:24-28, "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 dark night, and when his joints were out of joint, he so wrestles and weeps, and weeps and wrestles in private prayer, that as a prince at last he prevails with God, Hos 12:3-4. So David, Ps 55:16-17, "As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and he shall hear my voice." So Daniel was three times a-day in private prayer: Dan 6:10, "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and, his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a-day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime." Daniel had accustomed himself to private prayer; he went to his closet before he went to his public employment and state affairs; and at his return to dinner, he turned first into his chamber to serve his God and refresh his soul before he sat down to feast his body; and at the end of the day, when be had despatched his business with men, he made it his business to wait upon God in his chamber. So Jonah keeps up private prayer when he was in the fish’s belly, yea, when he was in the belly of hell, Jon 2:1-2, etc. So we have Elijah at prayer under the juniper tree, 1 Kings 19:4; so Hannah, 1 Sam 1:13. Now, Hannah she speaks in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. The very soul of prayer lies in the pouring out of the soul before God, as Hannah did, 1 Sam 1:15. Neither was Rebekah a stranger to this duty, who, upon the babe’s struggling in her womb, went to inquire of the Lord, Gen 25:22; that is, she went to some secret place to pray, saith Calvin, Musculus, Mercerus, and others. So Saul is no sooner converted, but presently he falls upon private prayer: Acts 9:11, "And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for, behold, he prayeth." Though he was a strict Pharisee, yet he never prayed to purpose before, nor never prayed in private before. The Pharisees used to pray in the corners of the streets, and not in the corners of their houses. And after his conversion he was frequently in private prayer, as you may see by comparing of these scriptures together, Rom 1:9; Eph 1:15-16; Phil 1:3-4; 2 Tim 1:3. So Epaphras was a warm man in closet prayer, Phil 4:12-13; so Cornelius had devoted himself to private prayer, Acts 10:2,4; and so Peter gets up to the housetop to pray: Acts 10:9, "On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the house top to pray, about the sixth hour." Peter got up upon the leads, not only to avoid distraction, but that he might be the more secret in his private devotion. Eusebius tells us of James called Justus, that his knees were grown hard and brawny with kneeling so much in private prayer.[4] And Nazianzen reports of his sister Gorgonia, that her knees seemed to cleave to the earth by her often praying in private. And Gregory with of his aunt Trucilla, that her elbows was as hard as horn by often leaning upon her desk at private prayer. I have read of a devout person, who, when the set time for his private devotion was come, whatever company he was in, he would break from them with this neat and handsome come off, "I have a friend that stays for me; farewell." And there was once a great lady of this land, who would frequently withdraw from the company of lords and ladies of great quality, who came to visit her, rather than she would lose her set times of waiting upon God in her closet; she would, as they called it, rudely take her leave of them, that so she might in private attend the Lord of lords. She would spare what time she could to express her favours, civilities, and courtesies among her relations and friends; but she would never suffer them to rob God of his time, nor her soul of that comfort and communion which she used to enjoy when she was with God in her closet.[5] And indeed, one hour’s communion with God in one’s closet, is to be preferred before the greatest and best company in the world. And there was a child of a Christian gentlewoman, that was so given to prayer from its infancy, that before it could well speak, it would use to get alone and go to prayer; and as it grew, it was more frequent in prayer and retiring of itself from company; and he would ask his mother very strange questions, far above the capacity of one of his years; but at last, when this child was but five years old, and whipping of his top, on a sudden he flung away his scourge-stick and top, and ran to his mother, and with great joy said unto her, "Mother, I must go to God; will you go with me?" She answered, "My dear child, how dost thou know thou shalt go to God?" He answered, "God hath told me so, for I love God, and God loves me." She answered, "Dear child, I must go when God pleaseth. But why wilt thou not stay with me?" The child answered, "I will not stay; I must go to God." And the child did not live above a month after, but never cared for play more; but falling sick, he would always be saying that he must go to God, he must go to God; and thus sometimes "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God hath perfected praise," Matt 21:16. Certainly such persons will be ripe for heaven betimes who begin betimes to seek God in a closet, in a corner. And Eusebius reports of Constantine the emperor, that every day he used to shut up himself in some secret place in his palace, and there, on bended knees, did make his devout prayers and soliloquies to God. "My God and I are good company," said famous Dr Sibbes.[6] A man whose soul is conversant with God in a closet, in a hole, behind the door, or in a desert, a den, a dungeon, shall find more real pleasure, more choice delight, and more full content, than in the palace of a prince. By all these famous instances, you see that the people of God in all ages have addicted themselves to private prayer. O friends these pious examples should be very awakening, very convincing, and very encouraging to you. Certainly it is as mach your duty as it is your glory to follow these pious patterns that are now set before you. Witness these following scriptures: Prov 2:20, "That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous;" 1 Cor 11:1, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ; Phil 3:17, "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so, as ye have us for an ensample;" Phil 4:9, "Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do; and the God of peace shall be with you;" 1 Thess 1:6, "And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction;" Heb 6:12, "That ye be not slothfu
l, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." So 2 Tim 3:10-12,14; Titus 2:7. It was an excellent law that the Ephesians made, viz., that men should propound to themselves the best patterns, and ever bear in mind some eminent man.[7] Bad men are wonderful in love with bad examples, Jer 44:16-17. The Indian, hearing that his ancestors were gone to hell, said that then he would go thither too. Some men have a mind to go to hell for company’s sake. Oh that we were as much in love with the examples of good men as others are in love with the examples of bad men; and then we should be oftener in our closets than now we are! Oh that our eyes were more fixed on the pious examples of all that have in them aliquid Christi, anything of Christ, as Bucer spake! Shall we love to look upon the pictures of our friends; and shall we not love to look upon the pious examples of those that are the lively and lovely picture of Christ? The pious examples of others should be the looking-glasses by which we should dress ourselves. He is the best and wisest Christian that writes after the fairest Scripture copy, that imitates those Christians that are most eminent in grace, and that have been most exercised in closet prayer, and in the most secret duties of religion.
Jerome having read the life and death of Hilarion, one that lived most Christianly, and died most comfortably, folded up the book, saying, Well, Hilarion shall be the champion that I will follow; his good life shall be my example, and his godly death my president.[8] It is brave to live and die by the examples of the most eminent saints. But,
[2.] Secondly. Consider, when Christ was on earth, he did much exercise himself in secret prayer; he was often with God alone, as you may see in these famous scriptures: Matt 14:23, "And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray; and when the evening was come, he was there alone." Christ’s choosing solitudes for private prayer, doth not only hint to us the danger of distraction and deviation of thoughts in prayer, but how necessary it is for us to choose the most convenient places we can for private ravers. Our own fickleness and Satan’s restlessness calls upon us to get into such corners, where we may most freely pour out our souls into the bosom of God: Mark 1:35, "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." As the morning time is the fittest time for prayer, so solitary places are the fittest places for prayer: Mark 6:46, "And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray." He that would pray to purpose, had need be quiet when he is alone: Luke 5:16, "And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed." (Greek, He was departing and praying) to give us to understand that he did thus often. When Christ was neither exercised in teaching nor in working of miracles, he was then very intent on private prayer: Luke 6:12, "And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." Did Christ spend whole nights in private prayer to save our souls; and shall we think it much to spend an hour or two in the day for the furtherance of the internal and eternal welfare of our souls? Luke 21:37, "And in the daytime he was teaching in the temple, and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives." Christ frequently joins praying and preaching together, and those whom Christ hath joined together, let no man presume to put asunder: Luke 22:39,41,44-45, "And he came out, and went as he was wont to the mount of Olives, and his disciples also followed him. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down and prayed. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood" (clotted or congealed blood) "falling down to the ground" (never was garden watered before or since with blood as this was). "And when be rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow." Ah! what sad pieces of vanity are the best of men in an hour of trial and temptation! These very men, that a little before did stoutly profess and promise that they would never leave him nor forsake him, and that they would to prison for Christ, and die for Christ, yet when the day of trial came, they could not so much as watch with him one hour; they had neither eyes to see nor hands to wipe off Christ’s bloody sweat; so John 6:15-17. Thus you see, by all these famous instances, that Christ was frequent in private prayer. Oh that we would daily propound to ourselves this noble pattern for our imitation, and make it our business, our work, our heaven, to write after this blessed copy that Christ hath set us, viz., to be much with God alone. Certainly Christianity is nothing else but an imitation of the divine nature, a reducing of a man’s self to the image of God, in which he was created "in righteousness and true holiness." A Christian’s whole life should be nothing but a visible representation of Christ. The heathens had this notion amongst them, as Lactantius reports, that the way to honour their gods was to be like them. Sure I am that the highest way of honouring Christ is to be like to Christ: 1 John 2:6, "He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked." Oh that this blessed Scripture might always lie warm upon our hearts. Christ is the sun, and all the watches of our lives should be set by the dial of his motion. Christ is a pattern of patterns; his example should be to us instead of a thousand examples. It is not only our liberty, but our duty and glory, to follow Christ in all his moral virtues absolutely. Other patterns be imperfect and defective, but Christ is a perfect pattern; and of all his children, they are the happiest that come nearest to this perfect pattern.
Heliogabalus loved his children the better for resembling him in sin. But Christ loves his children the more for resembling him in sanctity. I have read of some springs that change the colour of the cattle that drink of them into the colour of their own waters, as Du Bartas sings:
 
"Cerona, Xanth, and Cephisus do make
The thirsty flocks, that of their waters take,
Black, red, and white; and near the crimson deep,
The Arabian fountain maketh crimson sheep."
 
Certainly, Jesus Christ is such a fountain, in which whosoever bathes, and of which whosoever drinks, shall be changed into the same likeness, 2 Cor 3:18.
Question. But why was our Lord Jesus so much in private prayer? Why was he so often with God alone?
Answer 1. First, It was to put a very high honour and value upon private prayer; it was to enhance and raise the price of this duty. Men naturally are very apt and prone to have low and undervaluing thoughts of secret prayer. But Christ, by exercising himself so frequently in it, hath put an everlasting honour and an inestimable value upon it. But,
Answer 2. Secondly, He was much in private prayer, he was often with God alone, that he might not be seen of men, and that he might avoid all shows and appearances of ostentation and popular applause. He that hath commanded us to abstain from all appearances of evil, 1 Thess 5:22, would not himself, when he was in this world, venture upon the least appearance of evil. Christ was very shy of every thing that did but look like sin; he was very shy of the very show and shadow of pride or vainglory.
Answer 3. Thirdly, To avoid interruptions in the duty. Secrecy is no small advantage to the serious and lively carrying on of a private duty. Interruptions and disturbances from without are oftentimes quench-coals to private prayer. The best Christians do but bungle when they meet with interruptions in their private devotions.
Answer 4. Fourthly, To set us such a blessed pattern and gracious example, that we should never please nor content ourselves with public prayers only, nor with family prayers only, but that we should also apply ourselves to secret prayer, to closet prayer. Christ was not always in public, nor always in his family, but he was often in private with God alone, that by his own example he might encourage us to be often with God in secret; and happy are they that tread in his steps, and that write after his copy.
Answer 5. Fifthly, That he might approve himself to our understandings and consciences to be a most just and faithful High Priest, Heb 2:17; John 17. Christ was wonderful faithful and careful in both parts of his priestly office, viz., satisfaction and intercession; he was his people’s only spokesman. Ah! how earnest, how frequent was he in pouring out prayers, and tears, and sighs, and groans for his people in secret, when he was in this world, Heb 5:7. And now he is in heaven, be is still a-making intercession for them, Heb 7:25.
Answer 6. Sixthly, To convince us that his Father hears and observes our private prayers, and bottles up all our secret tears, and that he is not a stranger to our closet desires, wrestlings, breathings, hungerings, and thirstings.
[3.] Thirdly, Consider that the ordinary exercising of yourselves in secret prayer, is that which will distinguish you from hypocrites, who do all they do to be seen of men:[9] Matt 6:1-2, "Take heed that you do not your alms before men, to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward." Self is the only oil that makes the chariot-wheels of the hypocrite move in all religious concernments. Matt 6:5, "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to stand praying in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward." Matt 6:16, "Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward." Thus you see that these hypocrites look more at men than at God in all their duties. When they give alms, the trumpet must sound; when they pray, it must be in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets; and when they fasted, they disfigured their faces that they might appear unto men to fast. Hypocrites live upon the praises and applauses of men. Naturalists report of the Chelydonian stone,[10] that it will retain its virtue no longer than it is enclosed in gold. So hypocrites will keep up their duties no longer than they are fed, and encouraged, and enclosed with the golden praises and applauses of men. Hypocrites are like blazing stars, which, so long as they are fed with vapours, shine as if they were fixed stars; but let the vapours dry up, and presently they vanish and disappear.
Closet duty speaks out most sincerity. He prays with a witness that prays without a witness. The more sincere the soul is, the more in closet duty the soul will be, Job 31:33. Where do you read in all the Scripture, that Pharaoh, or Saul, or Judas, or Demas, or Simon Magus, or the scribes and pharisees, did ever use to pour out their souls before the Lord in secret? Secret prayer is not the hypocrite’s ordinary walk, his ordinary work or trade. There is great cause to fear that his heart was never right with God, whose whole devotion is spent among men, or among many; or else our Saviour, in drawing the hypocrite’s picture, would never have made this to be the very cast of his countenance, as he doth in Matt 6:5. It is very observable, that Christ commands his disciples, that they should not be as the hypocrites. It is one thing to be hypocrites, and it is another thing to be as the hypocrites. Christ would not have his people to look like hypocrites, nor to be like to hypocrites. It is only sincerity that will enable a man to make a trade of private prayer. In praying with many, there are many things that may bribe and provoke a carnal heart, as pride, vainglory, love of applause, or to get a name. An hypocrite, in all his duties, trades more for a good name than for a good life, for a good report than for a good conscience; like fiddlers, that are more careful in tuning their instruments, than in composing their lives. But in private prayer there is no such trade to be driven. But,
[4.] Fourthly, Consider that in secret we may more freely, and fully, and safely unbosom our souls to God than we can in the presence of many or a few. Hence the husband is to mourn apart, and the wife apart, Zech 12:12-14, not only to shew the soundness of their sorrow, but also to shew their sincerity by their secresy. They must mourn apart, that their sins may not be disclosed nor discovered one to another. Here they are severed to shew that they wept not for company’s sake, but for their own particular sins, by which they had pierced and crucified the Lord of glory. In secret, a Christian may descend into such particulars, as in public or before others he will not, he may not, he ought not, to mention. Ah! how many Christians are there who would blush and be ashamed to walk in the streets, and to converse with sinners or saints, should but those infirmities, enormities, and wickednesses be written in their foreheads, or known to others, which they freely and fully lay open to God in secret. There are many sins which many men have fallen into before conversion and since conversion, which, should they be known to the world, would make themselves to stink, and religion to stink, and their profession to stink in the nostrils of all that know them. Yea, should those weaknesses and wickednesses be published upon the housetops, which many are guilty of before grace received, or since grace received, how would weak Christians be staggered, young corners on in the ways of God discouraged, and many mouths of blasphemy opened, and many sinners’ hearts hardened against the Lord, his ways, reproofs, and the things of their own peace; yea, how would Satan’s banner be displayed, and his kingdom strengthened, and himself infinitely pleased and delighted! It is an infinite mercy and condescension in God to lay a law of restraint upon Satan, who else would be the greatest blab in all the world. It would be mirth and music to him to be still a-laying open the follies and weaknesses of the saints.
Ambrose brings in the devil boasting against Christ, and challenging Judas as his own. "He is not thine, Lord Jesus, he is mine: his thoughts beat for me; he eats with thee, but is fed by me; he takes bread from thee, but money from me; he drinks with thee, and sells thy blood to me." There is not a sin that a saint commits, but Satan would trumpet it out to all the world, if God would but give him leave. No man that is in his right wits, will lay open to every one his bodily infirmities, weaknesses, diseases, ailments, griefs, etc., but to some near relation, or bosom friend, or able physician. So no man that is in his right wits will lay open to every one his soul-infirmities, weaknesses, diseases, ailments, griefs, etc., but to the Lord, or to some particular person that is wise, faithful, and able to contribute something to his soul’s relief Should a Christian but lay open or rip up all his follies and vanities to the world, how sadly would some deride him and scorn him! and how severely and bitterly would others censure him and judge him! etc. When David was alone in the cave, then he poured out his complaint to God, and shewed before him his trouble, Ps 142:2. And when Job was all alone, then his eyes poured out tears to God, Job 16:20. There is no hazard, no danger, in ripping up of all before God in a corner, but there may be a great deal of hazard and danger in ripping up of all before men.
[5.] Fifthly, Secret duties shall have open rewards. [Eccles 12:14; 2 Cor 5:10; Rev 22:12; Ps 126:5; Luke 14:14; Matt 25:34,37] Matt 6:6, "And thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." So, Matt 6:18, God will reward his people here in part, and hereafter in all perfection. He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him in a corner. They that sow in tears secretly, shall reap in joy openly. Private prayer shall be rewarded before men and angels publicly. How openly did God reward Daniel for his secret prayer! Dan 6:10,23-28. Mordecai privately discovered a plot of treason against the person of king Ahasuerus, and he is rewarded openly, Esther 2:21-23, with Esther 6. Darius, before he came to the kingdom, received privately a garment for a gift of one Syloson; and when he came to be a king, he rewarded him openly with the command of his country Samus.[11] God, in the great day, will recompense his people before all the world, for every secret prayer, and secret tear, and secret sigh, and secret groan that hath come from his people. God, in the great day, will declare to men and angels, how often his people have been in pouring out their souls before him in such and such holes, corners, and secret places; and accordingly he will reward them.
Ah, Christians! did you really believe this, and seriously dwell on this, you would,
(1.) Walk more thankfully.
(2.) Work more cheerfully.
(3.) Suffer more patiently.
(4.) Fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil, more courageously.
(5.) Lay out yourselves for God, his interest and glory, more freely.
(6.) Live with what providence hath cut out for your portion, more quietly and contentedly. And,
(7.) You would be in private prayer more frequently, more abundantly.
[6.] Sixthly, Consider that God hath usually let out himself most to his people when they have been in secret, when they have been alone at the throne of grace.[12] Oh the sweet meltings, the heavenly warmings, the blessed cheerings, the glorious manifestations, and the choice communion with God, that Christians have found when they have been alone with God in a corner, in a closet, behind the door! When had Daniel that vision and comfortable message, that blessed news, by the angel, that he was "greatly beloved," but when he was all alone at prayer? Dan 9:20-23, "And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God, for the holy mountain of my God; yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation; and he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved. Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision." Whilst Daniel was at private prayer, God, by the angel Gabriel, reveals to him the secret of his counsel, concerning the restoration of Jerusalem, and the duration thereof, even to the Messiah; and whilst Daniel was at private prayer, the Lord appears to him, and in an extraordinary way assures him that he was "a man greatly beloved," or as the Hebrew chumudoth hath it, "a man of desires," that is, a man whom God’s desires are towards, a man singularly beloved of God, and highly in favour with God, a man that art very pleasing and delightful to God. God loves to lade the wings of private prayer with the sweetest, choicest, and chiefest blessings. Ah! how often hath God kissed a poor Christian at the beginning of private prayer, and spoke peace to him in the midst of private prayer, and filled him with light and joy and assurance upon the close of private prayer? And so Cornelius is highly commended and graciously rewarded upon the account of his private prayer: Acts 10:1-4, "There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house; which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always: he saw in a vision evidently, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? and he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God." Acts 10:30-31, "And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting-until this hour" (that is, until three o’clock in the afternoon, Acts 10:3), "and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, Thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God." Mark, as he was praying in his house, namely, by himself alone, a man in bright clothing—that was an angel in man’s shape, Acts 10:3—appeared to him, and said, "Cornelius, thy prayer is heard." [Acts 10:31] He doth not mean only that prayer which he made when he fasted and humbled himself before the Lord, Acts 10:30-31; but, as Acts 10:2-4 shew, his prayers, his prayers which he made alone. For it seems none else were with him then, for he only saw that man in bright clothing; and to him alone the angel addressed his present speech, saying, "Cornelius, Thy prayers are heard, Acts 10:4,31. Here you see that Cornelius his private prayers are not only heard, but kindly remembered, and graciously accepted, and gloriously rewarded. Praying Cornelius is not only remembered by God, but he is also visited, sensibly and evidently, by an angel, and assured that his private prayers and good deeds are an odour, a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing to God. And so when had Peter his vision but when he was praying alone on the housetop? Acts 10:9-13, "On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew near unto the city, Peter went up unto the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. And he became very hungry, and would have eaten; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet, knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat." When Peter was upon the housetop at prayer alone, then he fell into a trance, and he saw heaven opened; and then he had his spirit raised, his mind elevated, and all the faculties of his soul filled with a divine revelation. And so when Paul was at prayer alone, Acts 9:12, he saw in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight. Paul had not been long at private prayer before it was revealed to him that he was a chosen vessel, and before he was filled with the gifts, graces, and comforts of the Holy Ghost. And when John was alone in the isle of Patmos, "for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ"—whither he was banished by Domitian, a most cruel emperor[13]—then he had a glorious sight of the Son of man, and then the Lord discovered to him most deep and profound mysteries, both concerning the present and future state of the church, to the end of the world. And when John was weeping, in private prayer doubtless, then the sealed book was opened to him. So when Daniel was at private prayer, God dispatches a heavenly messenger to him, and his errand was to open more clearly and fully the blessed Scripture to him. Some comfortable and encouraging knowledge this holy man of God had attained unto before by his frequent and constant study in the word, and this eggs him on to private prayer, and private prayer posts an angel from heaven to give him a clearer and fuller light.[14] Private prayer is a golden key to unlock the mysteries of the word unto us. The knowledge of many choice and blessed truths are but the returns of private prayer. The word most dwells richly in their hearts who are most in pouring out their hearts before God in their closets. When Bonaventura, that seraphical doctor, as some call him, was asked by Aquinas from what books and helps he derived such holy and divine expressions and contemplations, he pointed to a crucifix, and said, "Iste est liber, etc., Prostrate in prayer at the feet of this image, my soul receiveth greater light from heaven than from all study and disputation." Though this be a monkish tradition and superstitious fiction, yet some improvement may be made of it. Certainly that Christian or that minister that in private prayer lies most at the feet of Jesus Christ, he shall understand most of the mind of Christ in the gospel, and he shall have most of heaven and the things of his own peace brought down into his heart.
There is no service wherein Christians have such a near, familiar, and friendly intercourse with God as in this of private prayer; neither is there any service wherein God doth more delight to make known his truth and faithfulness, his grace and goodness, his mercy and bounty, his beauty and glory to poor souls, than this of private prayer. Luther professeth, "That he profited more in the knowledge of the Scripture by private prayer in a short space, than he did by study in a longer space,"[15] as John by weeping in a corner got the sealed book opened. Private prayer crowns God with the honour and glory that is due to his name; and God crowns private prayer with a discovery of those blessed weighty truths to his servants, that are a sealed book to others. Certainly the soul usually enjoys most communion with God in secret. When a Christian is in a wilderness, which is a very solitary place, then God delights to speak friendly and 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.[16] A husband imparts his mind most freely and fully to his wife when sheds alone; and so doth Christ to the believing soul. Oh the secret kisses, the secret embraces, the secret visits, the secret whispers, the secret cheerings, the secret sealings, the secret discoveries, etc., that God gives to his people when alone, when in a hole, when under the stairs, when behind the door, when in a dungeon! When Jeremiah was calling upon God alone in his dark dungeon, he had great and wonderful things shewed him that he knew not of, Jer 33:1-3.
Ambrose was wont to say, "I am never less alone, than when I am alone; for then I can enjoy the presence of my God most freely, fully, and sweetly, without interruption."
And it 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 thyself therefore by prayer and meditation into thy closet or the fields, and there thou shalt have Christ’s 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!" etc.
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 choicest, 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 seldom come at.
[7.] 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 practice 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, etc., 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.
[8.] 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! Ps 31:22. Oh the great mercies that have been obtained by private prayer! Ps 38:8-9. And oh the great threatenings that have been diverted by private prayer! And oh the great judgments that have been removed by private prayer! And oh the great judgments that have been prevented by private prayer! I have read of a malicious woman who gave herself 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 whenever he came, he found him either reading the Scriptures, or at private prayer. Private prayers pierces the heavens, and are commonly blessed 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 days fifteen years, Isa 38:5. So when Isaac was all alone meditating and praying, and treating with God for a good wife in the fields, he meets Rebekah, Gen 24:63-64. So Jacob: Gen 32:24-28, "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until 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 Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, 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:
(1.) First, We have the combatants or duelists, 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 human shape, as it appeareth by the whole narration, and by Hos 12:3-5. Now, that this man that wrestled with Jacob was indeed God, and not really man, is most evident by these reasons
[1.] First, Jacob desires a blessing from him, Gen 32:26. Now, it is God’s prerogative-royal to bless, and not angels’ nor men’s. Ergo,
[2.] Secondly, He calls him by the name of God; "thou hast power with God," Gen 32:28. And saith Jacob, "I have seen God face to face," Gen 32:30. 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 testify his more immediate presence, but not himself.
[3.] Thirdly, The same person that here Jacob wrestles with is he whom Jacob remembereth in his benediction as his deliverer from all evil, Gen 48:16. It was that God that appeared to him at Bethel when he fled from the face of his brother, Gen 35:7. Ergo,
[4.] Fourthly, Jacob is reproved for his curious inquiring or asking after the angel’s name, Gen 32:29, 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 not to be understood, a word never to be spoken. One being asked what God was, answered, "That he must be God himself before he could know God fully."[17] We are as well able to comprehend the sea in a cockle-shell, as we are able to comprehend the Almighty, or that nomen Majestativum, as Tertullian phraseth it. "In searching after God," saith Chrysostom, "I am like a man digging in a deep spring: I stand here, and the water riseth upon me; and I stand there, and still the water riseth upon me."
In this conflict you have not one man wrestling with another, nor one man wrestling with a created angel, but a poor, weak, mortal man wrestling with an immortal God; weakness wrestling with strength, and a finite being with an infinite being. Though Jacob had no second, though he was all alone, though he was wonderfully overmatched, yet he wrestles and keeps his hold, and all in the strength of him he wrestles with.
(2.) Secondly, You have the place where they combated, and that was beside the ford Jabbok, Gen 32:22. This is the name of a brook or
river springing by Rabbah, the metropolis of the Ammonites, and issuing into Jordan beneath the Sea of Galilee, Num 21:24; Deut 2:37; Judg 11:13,15; Deut 3:16. Jacob did never enjoy so much of the presence of God as when he had left the company of men. Oh! the sweet communion that Jacob had with God when he was retired from his family, and was all alone with his God by the ford Jabbok! Certainly Jacob was never less alone than at this time, when he was so alone. Saints often meet with the best wine and with the strongest cordials when they are all alone with God.
(3.) Thirdly, You have the time of the combat, and that was the night. At what time of the night this wrestling, this duel began, we nowhere read; but it lasted till break of day, it lasted till Jacob had the better of the angel. How many hours of the night this conflict lasted, no mortal man can tell. God’s design was that none should be spectators nor witnesses of this combat but Jacob only; and therefore Jacob must be wrestling when others were sleeping.
(4.) Fourthly, You have the ground of the quarrel, and that was Jacob’s fear of Esau, and his importunate desire for a blessing. Jacob flies to God, that he might not fall before man; he flies to God, that he might not fly before men. In a storm, there is no shelter like to the wing of God. He is safest, and happiest, and wisest, that lays himself under divine protection. This Jacob knew, and therefore he runs to God, as to his only city of refuge. In this conflict God would have given out: "Let me go, for the day breaketh," Gen 32:26; but Jacob keeps his hold, and tells him boldly to his very face that he would not let him go unless he would bless him. Oh the power of private prayer! It hath a kind of omnipotency in it; it takes God captive; it holds him as a prisoner; it binds the hands of the Almighty; yea, it will wring a mercy, a blessing, out of the hand of heaven itself. Oh the power of that prayer that makes a man victorious over the greatest, the highest power! Jacob, though a man, a single man, a travelling man, a tired man, yea, though a worm, that is easily crushed and trodden under foot, and no man, Isa 41:14, yet in private prayer he is so potent, that he overcomes the omnipotent God; he is so mighty, that he overcomes the Almighty.
(5.) Fifthly, You have the nature or manner of the combat, and that was both outward and inward, both corporal and spiritual. It was by might and flight; it was as well by the strength of his body as it was by the force of his faith. He wrestled not only with spiritual strugglings, tears, and prayers, Hos 12:4, but with corporal also, wherein God assailed him with one hand, and upheld him with the other. In this, conflict, Jacob and the angel of the covenant did really lay arm on arm, and set shoulder to shoulder, and put foot to foot, and used all other sleights and ways as men do that wrestle one with another. The Hebrew word , from , that is here rendered wrestled, signifies the raising of the dust; because those which did wrestle of old did not only wrestle naked, as the manner then was, but did also use to cast dust one upon another, that so they might take more sure hold one of another. Some, from this word abak, do conclude that Jacob and the angel did tug, and strive, and turn each other, till they sweat again; for so much the word imports. Jacob and the angel did not  wrestle in jest, but in good earnest; they wrestled with their might, as it were, for the garland; they strove for victory as for life.
But as this wrestling was corporal, so it was spiritual also. Jacob’s soul takes hold of God, and Jacob’s faith takes hold of God, and Jacob’s prayers takes hold of God, and Jacob’s tears takes hold of God, Hos 12:4-5. Certainly Jacob’s weapons in this warfare were mainly spiritual, and so "mighty through God." There is no overcoming of God but in his own strength. Jacob did more by his royal faith than he did by his noble hands, and more by weeping than he did by sweating, and more by praying than he did by all his bodily strivings.
(6.) Sixthly and lastly, You have the issue of the combat, and that is, victory over the angel, Gen 32:28. Jacob wrestles in the angel’s arms and armour, and so overcomes him. As a prince, he overpowers the angel by that very power he had from the angel. The angel was as freely and fully willing to be conquered by Jacob, as Jacob was willing to be conqueror. When lovers wrestle, the strongest is willing enough to take a fall of the weakest; and so it was here. The father, in wrestling with his child, is willing enough, for his child’s comfort and encouragement, to take a fall now and then; and so it was between the angel and Jacob in the present case. Now in this blessed story, as in a crystal glass, you may see the great power and prevalency of private prayer; it conquers the great conqueror; it is so omnipotent that it overcomes an omnipotent God.
Now this you may see more fully and sweetly cleared up in Hos 12:3-4, "He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength be had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us." When Jacob was all alone and in a dark night, and but on one leg, yet then he played the prince with God, as the Hebrew hath it. Jacob by prayers and tears did so prince it with God as that he carried the blessing. Jacob’s wrestling was by weeping, and his prevailing by praying. Prayers and tears are not only very pleasing to God, but also very prevalent with God. And thus you see that this great instance of Jacob speaks out aloud the prevalency of private prayer.
See another instance of this in David: Ps 6:6, "I am weary with my groanings: all the night make I my bed to swim: I water my couch with my tears." These are all excessive figurative speeches, to set forth the greatness of his sorrow, and the multitude of his tears. David in his retirement makes the place of his sin, viz. his bed, to be the place of his repentance. David sins privately upon his bed, and David mourns privately upon his bed. Every place which we have polluted by sin, we should sanctify and water with our tears: Ps 6:8, "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping." As blood hath a voice, and as the rod hath a voice, so tears have a voice. Tears have tongues, and tears can speak. There is no noise to that that tears in secret make in the ears of God. A prudent and indulgent father can better pick out the wants and necessities of his children by their secret tears than by their loud complaints, by their weeping than by their words; and do you think that God can’t do as much? Tears are not always mutes: Lam 2:18, "Cry aloud," saith one, "not with thy tongue, but with thy eyes; not with, thy words, but with thy tears; for that is the prayer that maketh the most forcible entry into the ears of the great God of heaven." Penitent tears are undeniable ambassadors that never return from the throne of grace without a gracious answer. Tears are a kind of silent prayers, which, though they say nothing, yet they obtain pardon; and though they plead not a man’s cause, yet they obtain mercy at the hands of God. As you see in that great instance of Peter, who, though he said nothing that we read of, yet weeping bitterly, he obtained mercy, Matt 26:75. I have read of Augustine, who, coming as a visitant to the house of a sick man, he saw the room full of friends and kindred, who were all silent, yet all weeping: the wife sobbing, the children sighing, the kinsfolk lamenting, all mourning; whereupon Augustine uttered this short ejaculatory prayer, "Lord, what prayer dost thou hear, if not these?" Ps 6:9, "The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer." God sometimes answers his people before they pray: Isa 65:24, "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer." And sometimes while they are praying; so it follows in the same verse, "And while they are yet speaking I will hear." So Isa 30:19, "He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry: when he shall hear it, he will answer thee." And sometimes after they have prayed, as the experiences of all Christians can testify. Sometimes God neither hears nor receives a prayer; and this is the common case and lot of the wicked, Prov 1:28; Job 27:9; Isa 1:15. Sometimes God hears the prayers of his people, but doth not presently answer them, as in that case of Paul, 2 Cor 12:7-9; and sometimes God both hears and receives the prayers of his people, as here he did David’s. Now in this instance of David, as in a glass, you may run and read the prevalency of private prayer and of secret tears.
You may take another instance of this in Jonah: Jon 2:1-3,5,7,10, "Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly, and said, I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, into the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came in unto thee, into thy holy temple. And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." When Jonah was all alone, and in the midst of many dangers and deaths, when he was in the whale’s belly, yea, in the belly of hell,—so called because horrid and hideous, deep and dismal,—yet then private prayer fetches him from thence. Let a man’s dangers be never so many, nor never so great, yet secret prayer hath a certain omnipotency in it that will deliver him out of them all. In multiplied afflictions, private prayer is most prevalent with God. In the very midst of drowning, secret prayer will keep both head and heart above water. Upon Jonah’s private prayer, God sends forth his mandamus, and the fish serves Jonah for a ship to sail safe to shore. When the case is even desperate, yet then private prayer can do much with God. Private prayer is of that power that it can open the doors of leviathan, as you see in this great instance, which yet is reckoned as a thing not feasible, Job 41:14.
Another instance of the prevalency of private prayer you have in that 2 Kings 4:32-35, "And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord." Privacy is a good help to fervency in prayer. "And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and he stretched himself upon the child, and the flesh of the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes." Oh the power, the prevalency, the omnipotency of private prayer, that raises the dead to life! And the same effect had the private prayer of Elijah in raising the widow’s son of Zarephath to life, 1 Kings 17:18, et seq. The great prevalency of Moses his private prayers you may read in the following scriptures: Num 12:1-2, "And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it: and his anger was kindled: and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched." Moses by private prayer rules and overrules with God; he was so potent with God in private prayer that he could have what he would of God. So Num 21:7-9; Ps 106:23; Exod 32:9-14; Exod 14:15-17. The same you may see in Nehemiah, Neh 1:11, compared with Neh 2:4-8. So Luther, perceiving the cause of God and the work of reformation to be greatly strained 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 Charles 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 zeal for three things:
(1.) That Queen Elizabeth might come to the crown;
(2.) That he might seal 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.[18]
Constantine commanded that his effigies should be engraven, not as other emperors 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 prevail, 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 door, for I must be gone; take away the old woman behind the door, for I must be gone." And so by the old woman’s prayers behind the door 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 Saul’s sword and Jonathan’s bow, when duly qualified as to the person and act, never returns empty; it hits the mark, 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. Oh, who can express the powerful oratory of private prayer! etc.
[9.] Ninthly, Consider, that secret duties are the most soul-enriching duties. Look, as secret meals 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 soul. 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 hen’s wings cherisheth them, so are the graces of the saints enlivened, and cherished, and strengthened by the sweet secret influences which their souls fall under when they are in their closet-communion with God. Private prayer conscientiously performed is the privy key of heaven, that hath unlocked such treasures and such secrets as hath passed 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 Nehemiah did in the presence of the king of Persia; "and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles," Exod 14:15; Neh 1:11; and Neh 2:4. And, oh, 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 showers of rain 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, public, and visible duties of religion, which too, too often are mingled and mixed with the sun and wind of pride and hypocrisy.
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 tradesman or a merchant gets in twenty years’ labour and pains, etc. So a Christian many times gets more by one secret motion, by one private request to the King of kings, than many others do by trading long in the more public 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 public; for in public we only hear others exercise their parts and gifts, etc.; in public 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 strengthened and increased. All acts strengthen habits. The more sin is acted, the more it is strengthened. And so it is with our gifts and graces; the more they are acted, the more they are strengthened. But,
[10.] Tenthly, Take many things together. All Christians have their secret sins. Ps 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 errors which he understood not. It is incident to every man to err, and then to be ignorant of his errors. Many sins I see in myself, saith he, and more there are which I cannot espy, which I cannot find out; nay, I think, saith he, that every man’s 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 sinful 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 filthinesses, the secret unbelievings, etc., that God might every day charge upon his soul? Should the best and holiest man on earth have but his secret sins every day written in his forehead, it would not only put him to a crimson blush, but it would make him pull his hat over his eyes, or cover his face with a double scarf. So 1 Kings 8:38, "What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart," etc. Sin is the greatest plague in the world, but never more dangerous than when it reaches the heart. Now, secret sins commonly lie nearest the heart, the fountain from whence they take a quick, immediate, and continual supply. Secret sins are as near to original sin as the first droppings are to the spring head. And as every secret sin lies nearest the heart, so every secret sin is the plague of the heart. Now, as secret diseases are not to be laid open to every one, but only to the prudent physician, so our secret sins, which are the secret plagues, the secret diseases of our souls, are not to be laid open to every one, but only to the physician of souls, that is only able both to cure them and pardon them. And as all Christians have their secret sins, so all Christians have their secret temptations, 2 Cor 12:8-9. And as they have their secret temptations, so they have their secret wants; yea, many times they have such particular and personal wants that there is not one in the congregation, nor one in the family, that hath the like. And as they have their secret wants, so they have their secret fears, and secret snares, and secret straits, and secret troubles, and secret doubts, and secret jealousies, etc. And how do all these things call aloud upon every Christian to be frequent and constant in secret prayer!
 [11.] Eleventhly, Consider, Christ is very much affected and delighted in the secret prayers of his people. Song 2:14, "O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." Christ observes his spouse when she is in the clefts of the rock; when she is gotten into a corner a-praying, he looks upon her with singular delight, and with special intimations of his love. Nothing is more sweet, delightful, and welcome to Christ than the secret services of his people. Their secret breathings are like lovely songs to him, Mal 3:4; their secret prayers in the clefts of the rock, or under the stairs, are as sweet incense to Jesus. The spouse retires to the secret places of the stairs not only for security, but also for secresy, that so she might the more freely, without suspicion of hypocrisy, pour out her soul into the bosom of her beloved. The great delight that parents take in the secret lispings and whisperings of their children, is no delight to that which Christ takes in the secret prayers of his people. And therefore, as you would be friends and furtherers of Christ’s delight, be much in secret prayer.
[12.] Twelfthly, Consider you are the only persons in all the world that God hath made choice of to reveal his secrets to. John 15:15, "Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord loth; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." Everything that God the Father had communicated to Christ as mediator to be revealed to his servants, he did make known to his disciples as to his bosom-friends. Christ loves his people as friends, and he uses them as friends, and he opens his heart to them as friends. There is nothing in the heart of Christ that concerns the internal and eternal welfare of his friends, but he reveals it to them: he reveals himself, his love, his eternal good will, the mysteries of faith, and the secrets of his covenant, to his friends. [1 Cor 2:10-11; John 1:9; Rom 16:25; 1 Cor 2:7; Eph 3:3-4,9] Christ loves not to entertain his friends with things that are commonly and vulgarly known. Christ will reveal the secrets of his mind, the secrets of his love, the secrets of his thoughts, the secrets of his heart, and the secrets of his purposes, to all his bosom-friends. Samson could not hide his mind, his secrets, from Delilah, though it cost him his life, Judg 16:15-17; and do you think that Christ can hide his mind, his secrets, from them for whom he hath laid down his life? Surely no. O sirs! Christ is,
(1.) A universal friend.
(2.) An omnipotent friend, an almighty friend. He is no less than thirty times called Almighty in that book of Job; he can do above all expressions and beyond all apprehensions.
(3.) He is an omniscient friend.
(4.) He is an omnipresent friend.
(5.) He is an indeficient friend.
(6.) He is an independent friend.
(7.) He is an unchangeable friend.
(8.) He is a watchful friend.
(9.) He is a tender and compassionate friend.
(10.) He is a close and faithful friend; and therefore he cannot but open and unbosom himself to all his bosom friends. To be reserved and close is against the very law of friendship. Faithful friends are very free in imparting their thoughts, their minds, their secrets, one to another. A real friend accounts nothing worth knowing unless he makes it known to his friends. He rips up his greatest and most inward secrets to his friends. Job calls his friends "inward friends," or the men of his secrets, Job 19:19. All Christ’s friends are inward friends; they are the men of his secrets: Prov 3:32, "His secrets are with the righteous," that is, his covenant and fatherly affection, which is hid and secret from the world. He that is righteous in secret, where no man sees him, he is the righteous man, to whom God will communicate his closest secrets, as to his dearest bosom-friend. It is only a bosom-friend to whom we will unbosom ourselves. So Ps 25:14, The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant."
Now, there are three sorts of divine secrets:
(1.) First, There are secrets of providence, and these he reveals to the righteous, and to them that fear him, Ps 107:43; Hos 14:9. The prophet Amos speaks of these secrets of providence: Amos 3:7, Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants and prophets." Micah knew the secret of the Lord touching Ahab, which neither Zedekiah nor any other of the false prophets knew. So Gen 18:17, "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" The destruction of Sodom was a secret that lay in the bosom of God; but Abraham being a bosom-friend, God communicates this secret to him, Gen 18:19-21. Abraham was a friend, a faithful friend, a friend by a specialty, James 2:23; and therefore God makes him both of his court and counsel. Oh how greatly doth God condescend to his people. He speaks to them as a man would speak to his friend; and there is no secrets of providence, which may be for their advantage, but he will reveal them to his faithful servants. As all faithful friends have the same friends and the same enemies, so they are mutual in the communication of their secrets one to another; and so it was between God and Abraham.
(2.) Secondly, There are the secrets of his kingdom; and these he reveals to his people: Matt 13:11, "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but unto them it is not given." So Matt 11:25, "At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." "Let us not think," saith Jerome,[19] that the gospel is in the words of Scripture, but in the sense; not in the outside, but in the marrow; not in the leaves of words, but in the root of reason." Augustine humbly begged of God, that if it were his pleasure, he would send Moses to him to interpret some more abstruse and intricate passages in his book of Genesis.[20] There are many choice, secret, hidden, and mysterious truths and doctrines in the gospel, which Christ reveals to his people, that this poor, blind, ignorant world are strangers to. [Joel 2:28; 1 Tim 3:9,16; Col 1:26-27; 1 Cor 2:9-12; Eph 4:21] There are many secrets wrapped up in the plainest truths and doctrines of the gospel, which none can effectually open and reveal but the Spirit of the Lord, that searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. There are many secrets and mysteries in the gospel, that all the learning and labour in the world can never give a man insight into. There are many that know the doctrine of the gospel, the history of the gospel, that are mere strangers to the secrets of the gospel. There is a secret power, a secret authority, a secret efficacy, a secret prevalency, a secret goodness, a secret sweetness in the gospel, that none experience but those to whom the Lord is pleased to impart gospel secrets to: Isa 29:11-12, "Seal my law among my disciples." The law of God to wicked men is a sealed book that they cannot understand, Dan 12:9-10. It is as blotted paper that they cannot read. Look, as a private letter to a friend contains secret matter that no man else may read because it is sealed; so the law of grace is sealed up under the privy-seal of heaven, so that no man can open it or read it, but Christ’s faithful friends to whom it is sent. The whole Scripture, saith Gregory, is but one entire letter despatched from the Lord Christ to his beloved spouse on earth. The Rabbins say that there are four keys that God hath under his girdle: 1, the key of the clouds; 2, the key of the womb; 3, the key of the grave; 4, the key of food; and I may add a fifth key that is under his girdle, and that is the key of the word, the key of the Scripture; which key none can turn but he that "hath the key of David, that opens, and no man shuts; and that shuts, and no man opens," Rev 3:7. O sirs! God reveals himself, and his mind, and will, and truth, to his people, in a more friendly and familiar way than he doth to others: Mark 4:11, "And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:" Luke 8:10, "And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand." Though great doctors, and profound clerks, and deep-studied but unsanctified divines may know much of the doctrines of the gospel, and commend much the doctrines of the gospel, and dispute much for the doctrines of the gospel, and glory much in the doctrines of the gospel, and take a great deal of pains to dress and trim up the doctrines of the gospel, with the flowers of rhetoric or eloquence; though it be much better to present truth in her native plainness, than to hang her ears with counterfeit pearls. … The word, without human adornments, is like the stone garamantides, that hath drops of gold in itself, sufficient to enrich the believing soul. … Yet the special, spiritual, powerful, and saving knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel, is a secret, a mystery, yea, a hidden mystery to them, Rom 16:25; 1 Cor 2:7.
Chrysostom compares the mysteries of Christ, in regard of the wicked, to a written book, that the ignorant can neither read nor spell; he sees the cover, the leaves, and the letters, but he understands not the meaning of what he sees. He compares the mystery of grace to an indited epistle, which an unskilful idiot[21] viewing, he cannot read it, he cannot understand it; he knoweth it is paper and ink, but the sense, the matter, he knows not, he understands not. So unsanctified persons, though they are never so learned, and though they may perceive the bark of the mystery of Christ, yet they perceive not, they understand not, the mystery of grace, the inward sense of the Spirit, in the blessed Scriptures. Though the devil be the greatest scholar in the world, and though he have more learning than all the men in the world have, yet there are many thousand secrets and mysteries in the gospel of grace, that he knows not really, spiritually, feelingly, efficaciously, powerfully, thoroughly, savingly, etc.
Oh, but now Christ makes known himself, his mind, his grace, his truth, to his people, in a more clear, full, familiar, and friendly way: 2 Sam 7:27, "For thou, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant;" so you read it in your books; but in the Hebrew it is thus: "Lord, thou hast revealed this to the ear of thy servant." Now, the emphasis lieth in that word, to the ear, which is left out in your books. When God makes known himself to his people, he revealeth things to their ears, as we use to do to a friend who is intimate with us: we speak a thing to his ear. There is many a secret which Jesus Christ speaks in the ears of his servants, which others never come to be acquainted with: 2 Cor 4:6, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
The six several gradations that are in this scripture are worthy of our most serious consideration. Here is,
First, Knowledge; and,
Secondly, The knowledge of the glory of God; and,
Thirdly, The light of the knowledge of the glory of God; and,
Fourthly, Shining; and,
Fifthly, Shining into our hearts; and,
Sixthly, Shining into our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ.
And thus you see that the Lord reveals the secrets of himself, his kingdom, his truth, his grace, his glory, to the saints. But,
(3.) Thirdly, There are the secrets of his favour, the secrets of his special love, that he bears to them; the secret purposes of his heart to save them; and these are those great secrets, those "deep things of God." which none can reveal "but the Spirit of God." Now these great secrets, these deep things of God, God doth reveal to his people by his Spirit: 1 Cor 2:10-12, "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." Now what are the things that are freely given to us of God, but our election, vocation, justification, sanctification, and glorification? And why hath God given us his Spirit, but that we should know "the things that are freely given to us of God." Some by secret in Ps 25, do understand a particular assurance of God’s favours, whereby happiness is secured to us, both for the present and for the future. They understand by secret, the sealing of the Spirit, the hidden manna, the white stone, and the new name in it, "which none knoweth but he that hath it." And so much those words, "He will shew them his covenant," seems to import: for what greater secret can God impart to his people, than that of opening the covenant of grace to them in its freeness, fulness, sureness, sweetness, suitableness, everlastingness, and in sealing up his good pleasure, and all the spiritual and eternal blessings of the covenant to them? Such as love and serve the Lord shall be of his cabinet-council, they shall know his soul-secrets, and be admitted into a very gracious familiarity and friendship with himself: John 14:21-23, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and manifest myself unto him. Judas saith unto him (not Iscariot), Lord! how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If any man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." God and Christ will keep house with them, and manifest the secrets of their love to them that are observant of their commands. And thus you see that the saints are the only persons to whom God will reveal the secrets of his providence, the secrets of his kingdom, and the secrets of his love unto. Christ came out of the bosom of his Father, and he opens all the secrets of his Father only to his bosom-friends. Now what an exceeding high honour is it for God to open the secrets of his love, the secrets of his promises, the secrets of his providences, the secrets of his counsels, and the secrets of his covenant, to his people!
Tiberius Caesar thought no man fit to know his secrets. And among the Persians none but noblemen, lords, and dukes, might be made partakers of state secrets; they esteeming secresy a godhead, a divine thing, as Ammianus Marcellinus affirms. But now such honour God hath put upon all his saints, as to make them lords and nobles, and the only privy statesmen in the court of heaven. The highest honour and glory that earthly princes can put upon their subjects is to communicate to them their greatest secrets. Now this high honour and glory the King of kings hath put upon his people; "For his secrets are with them that fear him, and he will shew them his covenant." It was a high honour to Elisha, 2 Kings 6:12, that he could tell the secrets that were spoken in the king’s bedchamber. Oh! what an honour must it then be for the saints to know the secrets that are spoken in the presence-chamber of the King of kings!
Now I appeal to the very consciences of all that fear the Lord, whether it be not a just, equal, righteous, and necessary thing, that the people of God should freely and fully lay open all the secrets of their hearts before the Lord, who hath thus highly honoured them, as to reveal the secrets of his providence, kingdom, and favour to them? Yea, I appeal to all serious and ingenuous Christians, whether it be not against the light and law of nature, and against the law of love, and law of friendship, to be reserved and close, yea, to hide our secrets from him who reveals his greatest and our choicest secrets to us? And if it be, why then do not you in secret lay open all your secret sins, and secret wants, and secret desires, secret fears, etc., to him that seeth in secret? You know all secrets are to be
[13.] Thirteenthly, Consider, that in times of great straits and trials, in times of great afflictions and persecutions, private prayer is the Christian’s meat and drink; it is his chief city of refuge; it is his shelter and hiding-place in a stormy day. When the saints have been driven by violent persecutions into holes, and caves, and dens, and deserts, and howling wildernesses, private prayer hath been their meat and drink, and under Christ their only refuge. [Heb 11:37-38; Rev 12:6; Ps 102:6-14] When Esau came forth with hostile intentions against Jacob, secret prayer was Jacob’s refuge: Gen 32:6-9,11, "And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him:" all cutthroats. "Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; and said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape." When all is at stake, it is Christian prudence to save what we can, though we cannot save what we would. "And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee." Promises in private must be prayed over. God loves to be sued upon his own bond, when he and his people are alone. "Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children;" or upon the children, meaning he will put all to death. Some look upon the words to be a metaphor taken from fowlers, who kill and take away the young and the dams together, contrary to that old law, Deut 22:6. Others say it is a phrase that doth most lively represent the tenderness of a mother, who, seeing her children in distress, spares not her own body nor life, to hazard the same for her children’s preservation, by interposing herself, even to be massacred together with and upon them, Hos 10:14. When Jacob, and all that was near and dear unto him, were in eminent danger of being cut off by Esau, and those men of blood that were with him, he betakes himself to private prayer as his only city of refuge against the rage and malice of the mighty. And so when Jeremiah was in a solitary and loathsome dungeon, private prayer was his meat and drink, it was his only city of refuge: Jer 33:1-3, "Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the maker thereof, the Lord that formed it, to establish it; The Lord is his name: call unto me, and I will answer thee, and I will shew thee great and mighty," or hidden "things, which thou knowest not." When Jeremiah was in a lonesome, loathsome prison, God encourages him by private prayer, to seek for further discoveries and revelations of those choice and singular favours, which in future times he purposed to confer upon his people: so 2 Chron 33:11-13, "Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters," or chains, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him: and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God." When Manasseh was in fetters in his enemy’s country, when he was stripped of all his princely glory, and led captive into Babylon, he betakes himself to private prayer as his only city of refuge; and by this means he prevails with God for his restoration to his crown and kingdom. Private prayer is a city of refuge that no power nor policy, no craft nor cruelty, no violence nor force, is ever able to surprise. Though the joint prayers of the people of God together were often obstructed and hindered in the times of the ten persecutions, yet they were never able to obstruct or hinder secret prayer, private prayer. When men and devils have done their worst, every Christian will be able to maintain his private trade with heaven. Private prayer will shelter a Christian against all the national, domestical, and personal storms and tempests that may threaten him. When a man is lying upon a sickbed alone, or when a man is in prison alone, or when a man is with Job left upon the dunghill alone, or when a man is with John banished for the testimony of Jesus into this or that island alone, oh then private prayer will be his meat and drink, his shelter, his hiding-place, his heaven. When all other trades fail, this trade of private prayer will hold good. But,
[14.] Fourteenthly, Consider that God is omnipresent. [Jer 16:17; Job 34:21; Prov 5:21; Jer 32:19; Rev 2:23; Lam 3:66] We cannot get into any blind hole, or dark corner, or secret place, but the Lord hath an eye there, the Lord will keep us company there: Matt 6:6, And thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." So Matt 6:18. There is not the darkest, dirtiest hole in the world into which a saint creeps, but God hath a favourable eye there. God never wants an eye to see our secret tears, nor an ear to hear our secret cries and groans, nor a heart to grant our secret requests, and therefore we ought to pour out our souls to him in secret: Ps 38:9, "Lord! all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee." Though our private desires are never so confused, though our private requests are never so broken, and though our private groanings are never so much hidden from men, yet God eyes them all, God records them all, and God puts them all upon the file[22] of heaven, and will one day crown them with glorious answers and returns. We cannot sigh out a prayer in secret, but he sees us; we cannot lift up our eyes to him at midnight, but he observes us. The eye that God hath upon his people when they are in secret, is such a special tender eye of love, as opens his ear, his heart, and his hand, for their good: 1 Pet 3:12, "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers;" or, as the Greek hath it, "his ears are unto their prayers.[23] If their prayers are so faint, that they cannot reach up as high as heaven, then God will bow the heavens and come down to their prayers." God’s eye is upon every secret sigh, and every secret groan, and every secret tear, and every secret desire, and every secret pant of love, and every secret breathing of soul, and every secret melting and working of heart; all which should encourage us to be much in secret duties, in closet services. As a Christian is never out of the reach of God’s hand, so he is never out of the view of God’s eye. If a Christian cannot hide himself from the sun, which is God’s minister of light, how impossible will it be to hide himself from him whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the sun? In every private duty, a Christian is still under the eye of God’s omnisciency. When we are in the darkest hole, God hath windows into our breasts, and observes all the secret actings of our inward man, 1 Tim 2:8. The eye of God is not confined to this place or that, to this company or that; God hath an eye upon his people as well when they are alone, as when they are among a multitude; as well when they are in a corner, as when they are in a crowd. Diana’s temple was burnt down when she was busy at Alexander’s birth, and could not be at two places together.[24] But God is present both in paradise and in the wilderness, both in the family and in the closet, both in public and in private at the same time. God is an omnipresent God; he is everywhere. Non est ubi, ubi non est Deus. As he is included in no place, so he is excluded from no place: Jer 23:24, "Can any man hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him, saith the Lord?" Prov 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, entering 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 centre is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere. 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 God’s palace, yet it is not his prison. But,
[15.] Fifteenthly, He that willingly neglects private prayer shall certainly be neglected in his public 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 public. 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 public ordinances. Oh that Christians would seriously lay this to heart! Certainly, that man or woman’s heart is best in public who is most frequent in private. They make most yearnings in public ordinances that are most conscientiously exercised in closet duties. No man’s graces rises so high, nor no man’s experiences rises so high, nor no man’s communion with God rises so high, nor no man’s divine enjoyments rises so high, nor no man’s springs of comfort rises so high, nor no man’s hopes rises so high, nor no man’s parts and gifts rises so high, etc., 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 public ordinances retire into their closets and look up to heaven for a blessing upon the public means. It is certain that private duties fit the soul for public ordinances. He that makes conscience to wait upon God in private, shall find by experience that God will wonderfully bless public ordnances to him, Mic 2:7. My design is not to set up one ordinance of God above another, nor to cause one ordinance of God to clash with another,—the public with the private, or the private with the public,—but that every ordinance may have its proper place and right, the desires of my soul being to prize every ordinance, and to praise every ordinance, and to practise every ordinance, and to improve every ordinance, and to bless the Lord for every ordinance. But as ever you would see the beauty and glory of God in his sanctuary, as ever you would have public 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 strengthened, and your strong corruptions weakened under public ordinances, be more careful and conscientious in the performance of closet duties, Ps 63:1-3. Oh how strong in grace! Oh how victorious over sin! Oh how dead to the world! Oh how alive to Christ! Oh how fit to live! Oh 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,
[16.] Sixteenthly, Consider, the times wherein we live call aloud for secret prayer. Hell seems to be broke loose, and men turned into incarnate devils:[25] land-destroying and soul-damning wickednesses walk up and down the streets with a whore’s forehead, without the least check or control: Jer 3:3, "Thou hast a whore’s forehead, thou refusest to be ashamed;" Jer 6:15, "Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush." They had sinned away shame, instead of being ashamed of sin. Custom in sin had quite banished all sense of sin and all shame for sin, so that they would not suffer nature to draw her veil 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 Jer 8:12. How applicable these scriptures are to the present time 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 secrecies, "for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore" (Hebrew, 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 height of sin and wickedness, that they were above all shame and blushing; now they were grown so proud, so hardened, so obstinate, so rebellious, so mad upon mischief, that no mercies could melt them or allure them, nor no threatenings nor judgments could any ways terrify 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, falsehoods, hypocrisy, bribery, atheism, horrid blasphemies, and hellish impieties, are now to be found rampant in the midst of thee! Ah, England! England! how are the Lord’s 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 practices afresh 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 frugality into pride and prodigality, their simplicity into subtilty, their sincerity into hypocrisy, their charity into cruelty, their chastity into chambering and wantonness, their sobriety into drunkenness, their plain-dealing into dissembling, their works of compassion into works of oppression, and their love to the people of God into an utter enmity against the people of God! etc. And what is the voice of all these crying abominations, but every Christian to his closet, every Christian to his closet, and there weep, with weeping Jeremiah, bitterly, for all these great abominations whereby God is dishonoured openly. Oh weep in secret for their sins who openly glory in their sins, which should be their greatest shame. Oh blush in secret for them that are past all blushing for their sins; for who knows but that the whole land may fare the better for the sakes of a few that are mourners in secret? But however it goes with the nation, such as mourn in secret for the abominations of the times, may be confident that when sweeping judgments shall come upon the land, the Lord will hide them in the secret chambers of his providence, he will set a secret mark of deliverance upon their foreheads that mourn in secret for the crying sins of the present day, as he did upon theirs in Ezek 9:4-6.
[17.] Seventeenthly, Consider that the near and dear relations that you stand in to the Lord calls aloud for secret prayer, John 15:14-15. You are his friends. Now, a true friend loves to visit his friend when he may find him alone, and enjoy privacy with him. A true friend loves to pour out his heart into the bosom of his friend when he hath him in a corner, or in the field, or under a hedge. You are his favourites; and what favourite is there that hides his secret from his prince? Do not all favourites open their hearts to their princes when they are alone? You are his children; and what ingenuous child is there that doth not delight to be much with his father when he is alone, when nobody is by? Oh, how free and open are children when they have their parents alone, beyond what they are when company is present. You are the spouse of Christ; and what spouse, what wife is there that doth not love to be much with her husband when he is alone? True lovers are always best when they are most alone: Song 7:10-12, "I am my beloved’s, and his desire is towards me. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vines flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves." The spouse of Christ is very desirous to enjoy his company in the fields, that so, having her beloved alone, she might the more freely and the more secretly open her heart to him. As wives, when they are walking alone with their husbands in the fields, are more free to open their minds and the secrets of their hearts, than they are when in their houses with their children and servants about them, so it was with the spouse. Without all peradventure, they have very great cause to question whether they are Christ’s real friends, favourites, children, spouse, who seldom or never converse with Christ in their closets, who are shy of Christ when they are alone, who never accustom themselves to give Christ secret visits. What Delilah said to Samson, Judg 16:15, "How canst thou say, I love thee, when thou hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth" (the discovery of which secret at last cost him his life), that, Christ may say to very many in our days: How can you say you love me, when you never acquaint me with your secrets? How can you say you love me, when you never bestow any private visits upon me? How can you say that you are my friends, my faithful friends, my bosom-friends, when you never in private unbosom yourselves to me? How can you say that you are my favourites, when you can spend one month after another, and one quarter of a year after another, and yet not let me know one of all your secrets, when every day you might have my ear in secret if you pleased? How can you say that you are my children, and yet be so close and reserved as you are? How can you say you are my spouse, and that you lie in my bosom, and yet never take any delight to open your hearts, your secrets, to me when I am alone? What Alexander said to one that was of his name, but a coward, "Either lay down the name of Alexander, or fight like Alexander,"[26] that I say to you, Either be frequent in closet duties, as becomes a Christian, or else lay down the name of a Christian; either unbosom yourselves in secret to Christ, as friends, favourites, children, spouses, or else lay down these names, etc. But,
[18.] Eighteenthly, Consider that God hath set a special mark of favour, honour, and observation, upon those that have prayed in secret. As you may see in Moses, Exod 34:28; and in Abraham, Gen 21:33; and in Isaac, Gen 24:63; and in Jacob, Gen 32:24-29; and in David, Ps 55:16-17; and in Daniel, Dan 6:10; and in Paul, Acts 9:11; and in Cornelius, Acts 10:2,4; and in Peter, Acts 10:9-12; and in Manasseh, 2 Chron 33:18-19. God hath put all these worthies that have exercised themselves in secret prayer upon record, to their everlasting fame and honour. The Persians seldom write their king’s name but in characters of gold. God hath writ, as I may say, their names in characters of gold who have made conscience of exercising themselves in secret prayer. The precious names of those that have addicted themselves to closet-duties are as statues of gold, which the polluted breath of men can no ways stain; they are like so many shining suns that no clouds can darken; they are like so many sparkling diamonds that shine brightest in the darkest night. A Christian can never get into a hole, a corner, a closet, to pour out his soul before the Lord, but the Lord makes an honourable observation of him, and sets a secret mark of favour upon him, Ezek 9:4-6. And how should this provoke all Christians to be much with God alone! The Romans were very ambitious of obtaining a great name, a great report, in this world; and why should not Christians be as divinely ambitious of obtaining a good name, a good report, in the other world? Heb 11:39. A good name is always better than a great name, and a name in heaven is infinitely better than a thousand names on earth; and the way to both these is to be much with God in secret. But,
[19.] Nineteenthly, Consider that Satan is a very great enemy to secret prayer. Secret prayer is a scourge, a hell to Satan. Every secret prayer adds to the devil’s torment, and every secret sigh adds to his torment, and every secret groan adds to his torment, and every secret tear adds to his torment. When a child of God is on his knees in his secret addresses to God, oh the strange thoughts, the earthly thoughts, the wandering thoughts, the distracted thoughts, the hideous thoughts, the blasphemous thoughts, that Satan often injects into his soul! and all to wean him from secret prayer.[27] Sometimes he tells the soul, that it is in vain to seek God in secret; and at other times he tells the soul it is too late to seek God in secret; for the door of mercy is shut, and there is no hope, no help for the soul. Sometimes he tells the soul that it is enough to seek God in public; and at other times he tells the soul, that it is but a precise trick to seek the Lord in private. Sometimes he tells the soul, that it is not elected, and therefore all his secret prayers shall be rejected; and at other times he tells the soul, that it is sealed up unto the day of wrath, and therefore a secret prayer can never reverse that seal; and all this to dishearten and discourage a poor Christian in his secret retirements. Sometimes Satan will object to a poor Christian the greatness of his sins; and at other times he will object against a Christian the greatness of his unworthiness. Sometimes he will object against a Christian his want of grace; and at other times he will object against a Christian his want of gifts to manage such a duty as it should be managed. Sometimes he will object against a Christian his former straitenedness in secret prayer; and at other times he will object against a Christian the small yearnings that he makes of secret prayer; and all to work the soul out of love with secret prayer, yea, to work the soul to loathe secret prayer; so deadly an enemy is Satan to secret prayer. Oh, the strange fears, fancies, and conceits, that Satan often raises in the spirits of Christians, when they are alone with God in a corner; and all to work them to cast off private prayer. It is none of Satan’s least designs to interrupt a Christian in his private trade with God. Satan watches all a Christian’s motions; so that he cannot turn into his closet, nor creep into any hole to converse privately with his God, but he follows him hard at heels, and will be still injecting one thing or another into the soul, or else objecting one thing or another against the soul. A Christian is as well able to tell the stars of heaven, and to number the sands of the sea, as he is able to number up the several devices and sleights that Satan uses to obstruct the soul’s private addresses to God. Now from that great opposition that Satan makes against private prayer, a Christian may safely conclude these five things:
(1.) First, The excellency of private prayer. Certainly if it were not an excellent thing for a man to be in secret with God, Satan would never make such head against it.
(2.) Secondly, The necessity of this duty. The more necessary any duty is to the internal and eternal welfare of a Christian, the more Satan will bestir himself to blunt a Christian’s spirit in that duty.
(3.) Thirdly, The utility or profit that attends a conscientious discharge of this duty. Where we are like to gain most, there Satan loves to oppose most.
(4.) Fourthly, The prevalency of private prayer. If there were not a kind of omnipotency in it, if it were not able to do wonders in heaven, and wonders on earth, and wonders in the hearts and lives and ways of men, Satan would never have such an aching tooth against it as he hath.
(5.) Fifthly, That God is highly honoured by this duty, or else Satan would never be so greatly enraged against it. This is certain. The more glory God hath from any service we do, the more Satan will strive by all his wiles and sleights to take us, either off from that service, or so to interrupt us in that service, that God may have no honour, nor we no good, nor himself no hurt, by our private retirements. But, in the
[20.] Twentieth and last place, Consider, that you are only the Lord’s secret ones, his hidden ones; and therefore if you do not apply yourselves to private prayer, and to your secret retirements, that you may enjoy God in a corner, none will. It is only God’s hidden ones, his secret ones, that are spirited, principled, and prepared to wait on God in secret: Exod 19:5, "Then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people." The Hebrew word segullah signifieth God’s special jewels, God’s proper ones, or God’s secret ones, that he keeps in store for himself, and for his own special service and use. Princes lock up with their own hands in secret their most precious and costly jewels; and so doth God his: Ps 135:4, "For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure," or for his secret gem: Ps 83:3, "They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones," or thy secret ones; so called partly because God hides them in the secret of his tabernacle, Ps 31:20, and partly because God sets as high a value upon them as men do upon their hidden treasure, their secret treasure; yea, he makes more reckoning of them than he doth of all the world besides. And so the world shall know when God shall arise to revenge the wrongs and injuries that hath been done to his secret ones. Neither are there any on earth that knows so much of the secrets of his love, of the secrets of his counsels, of the secrets of his purposes, of the secrets of his heart, as his secret ones do. Neither are there any in all the world that are under those secret influences, those secret assistances, those secret incomes, those secret anointings of the Spirit, as his secret ones are under. And therefore, no wonder if God calls them again, and again, and again, his secret ones. Now, what can be more comely or more desirable than to see their natures and their practices to answer to their names? They are the Lord’s secret ones, his hidden ones; and therefore how highly doth it concern them to be much with God in secret, and to hide themselves with God in a corner! Shall Nabal’s nature and practice answer to his name? 1 Sam 25:25, "Let not my Lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him." Nabal signifies a fool, a sot, a churl; it notes one that is void of wisdom and goodness; it signifieth one whose mind, reason, judgment, and understanding is withered and decayed. Now, if you look into the story, you shall find that as face answers to face, so Nabal’s nature and practice did echo and answer to his name. And why then, should not our natures and practices answer to our names also? We are called the Lord’s secret ones, his hidden ones; and how highly therefore doth it concern us to be much with God in secret! Why should there be any jarring or discord between our names and our practices? It is observable that the practice and carriage of other saints have been answerable to their names. Isaac signifies laughter, and Isaac was a gracious son, a dutiful son, a son that kept clear of those abominations with which many of the patriarchs had defiled themselves, a son that proved matter of laughter to his father and mother all their days. So Josiah signifies "the fire of the Lord;" and his practice did answer to his name. Witness the pulling down of Jeroboam’s altar, and his burning of the vessels that were made for Baal, and his pulling down the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had set up, and his burning the grove at the brook Kedron, and his stamping it to powder, and his breaking down the houses of the Sodomites, and his defiling of the high places where the priests had burnt incense, and his breaking in pieces the images, and cutting down the groves, and filling their places with the bones of men, etc., 1 Kings 13:2; 2 Kings 23:4-21. So Joshua signifies "a saviour;" and his practice was answerable to his name. Though he could not save his people from their sins, yet he often saved them from their sufferings. Great and many were the deliverances, the salvations, that were instrumentally brought about by Joshua, as all know that have read the book of Joshua. So John signifies "gracious," and his practice was answerable to his name. He was so gracious in his teachings and in his walkings that he gained favour in the very eyes of his enemies. By all these instances, and by many more that might be given, you see that other saints’ practices have answered to their names; and, therefore, let every one of us look that our practices do also answer to our names, that as we are called the Lord’s secret ones, so we may be much with God in secret, that so there may be a blessed harmony between our names and our practices, and we may never repent another day that we have been called God’s secret ones, his "hidden ones," but yet never made conscience of maintaining secret communion with God in our closets. And thus you see that there are no less than twenty arguments to persuade you to closet prayer, and to maintain private communion with God in a corner.
The use and application of all follows.
Is it so that closet prayer or private prayer is such an indispensable duty, that Christ himself hath laid upon all that are not willing to lie under the woful brand of being hypocrites? Then this truth looks very sourly and sadly upon these five sorts of persons.
(1.) First, It looks sourly and sadly upon all those that put off secret prayer, private prayer, till they are moved to it by the Spirit; for by this sad delusion many have been kept from secret prayer many weeks, many months; oh that I might not say, many years! Though it be a very at season to pray when the Spirit moves us to pray, yet it is not the only season to pray, Isa 62:1; Ps 123:1-2; Gal 4:6. He that makes religion his business, will pray as daily for daily grace as he doth pray daily for daily bread: Luke 18:1, "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;" 1 Thess 5:17, "Pray without ceasing;" Eph 6:18, "Praying always[28] with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance, and supplication for all saints;" Rom 12:12, "Continuing instant in prayer." The Greek is a metaphor taken from hunting dogs, that never give over the game till they have got their prey. A Christian must not only pray, but hold on in prayer, till he hath got the heavenly prize. We are wanting always; and therefore we had need be praying always. The world is always alluring; and therefore we had need be always a-praying; Satan is always a-tempting; and therefore we had need be always a-praying; and we are always a-sinning; and therefore we had need be always a-praying; and we are in dangers always; and therefore we had need be praying always; and we are dying always, 1 Cor 15:31; and therefore we had need be praying always. Man’s whole life is but a lingering death; man no sooner begins to live, but he begins to die. When one was asked why he prayed six times a day, he only gave this answer, "I must die, I must die, I must die." Dying Christians had need be praying Christians, and they that are always a-dying had need be always a-praying. Certainly prayerless families are graceless families, and prayerless persons are graceless persons, Jer 10:25. It were better ten thousand times that we had never been born into the world, than that we should go stillborn out of the world. But,
(2.) Secondly, This truth looks sourly and sadly upon those that pray not at all, neither in their families nor in their closets. Among all God’s children, there is not one possessed with a dumb devil. Prayerless persons are forsaken of God, blinded by Satan, hardened in sin, and every breath they draw liable to all temporal, spiritual, and eternal judgments. Prayer is that part of natural worship due to God, which none will deny but stark atheists, Ps 14:1.[29]
It is observable that amongst the worst of men, Turks, and the worst of Turks, the Moors, it is a just exception against any witness, by their law, that he hath not prayed six times in every natural day, it being usual with them to pray six times a day.
(1.) Before the daybreak they pray for day.
(2.) When it is day, they give thanks for day.
 (3.) At noon, they thank God for half the day past.
(4.) After that, they pray for a good sunset.
(5.) And after that, they thank God for the day past.
And then, sixthly and lastly, they pray for a good night after their day.
Certainly these very Moors will one day rise in judgment against them who cast off prayer, who live in a total neglect of prayer, who suffer so many suns and moons to rise and set upon their heads without any solemn calling upon God. I have read of a man who, being sick, and afraid of death, fell to his prayers; and, to move God to hear him, told him "that he was no common beggar, and that he had never troubled him with his prayers before; and if he would but hear him at that time, he would never trouble him again."[30] This world is full of such profane, blasphemous, atheistical wretches. But,
(3.) Thirdly, This truth looks very sourly and sadly upon such who are all for public prayer, but never regard private prayer; who are all for going up to the temple, but never care for going into their closets. This is most palpable hypocrisy, for a man to be very zealous for public prayer, but very cold and careless as to private prayer. He that pretends conscience in the one, and makes no conscience of the other, is an hypocrite in grain, Matt 23:5, and Matt 6:1-2,5; and the devil knows well enough how to make his markets of all such hypocrites that are all for the prayers of the church, but perfect Gallios as to private prayer, Acts 18:17. Such as perform all their private devotion in the church, but not in the chamber, do put too great a slight upon the authority of Christ, who saith, "When thou prayest, enter into thy chamber: he doth not say, "When thou prayest, go to the church," but, "When thou prayest, go into thy chamber." But,
(4.) Fourthly, This truth looks sadly and sourly upon such who in their closets pray with a loud clamorous voice. A Christian should shut both the door of his closet and the door of his lips so close, that none should hear without what he saith within. "Enter into thy closet," saith Christ, "and when thou hast shut thy door, pray." But what need a man shut his closet door, if he may pray with a clamorous voice, if he make such a noise as all in the street or all in the house may hear him? The hen, when she lays her eggs, gets into a hole, a corner; but then she makes such a noise with her cackling, that she tells all in the house where she is, and about what she is. Such Christians that in their closets do imitate the hen, do rather pray to be seen, heard, and observed by men, than out of any noble design to glorify God, or to pour out their souls before him that seeth in secret. Sometimes children, when they are vexed, or afraid of the rod, will run behind the door, or get into a dark hole, and there they will lie crying, and sighing, and sobbing, that all the house may know where they are. Oh it is a childish thing so to cry, and sigh, and sob in our closets, as to tell all in the house where we are, and about what work we are. Well! Christians, for an effectual redress of this evil, frequently and seriously consider of these five things.
[1.] First, That God seeth in secret.
[2.] Secondly, That God hath a quick ear, and is taken more with the voice of the heart, than he is with the clamour of the mouth. God can easily hear the most secret breathings of thy soul. God is more curious in observing the messages delivered by the heart, than he is those that are only delivered by the mouth. He that prays aloud in private, seems to tell others, that God doth not understand the secret desires, and thoughts, and workings of his people’s hearts.
[3.] Thirdly, It is not meet, it is not convenient nor expedient, that any should be acquainted with our secret prayers, but God and our own souls. Now it is as much our duty to look to what is expedient, as it is to look to what is lawful, 2 Cor 8:10; 1 Cor 6:12, "All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient." So 1 Cor 10:23, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." Now it is so far from being expedient, that it is very high folly for men to lay open their secret infirmities unto others, that will rather deride them, than lift up a prayer for them.
[4.] Fourthly, Loud prayers may be a hindrance and disturbance to others, that may be busied near us, in some religious or civil exercises.
[5.] Fifthl