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may fend forth pious thoughts towards heaven, and maintain communion with God while you are engaged in your daily labours: "Pray without ceafing."

Idea Isnoit I might have fpoke of occafional and ftated prayer; of public, private, and fecret prayer; and of ordinary and extraordinary; but I fhall drop all thefe, and only give you next a difcourfe on fecret prayer.

A DISCOURSE ON SECRET PRAYER.

MATTH. VI. 6.-But thou, when thou prayeft, enter into thy clofet, and when thou haft fhut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in fecret, and thy Father which feeth in fecret, shall reward thee openly.

HAVIN

AVING opened unto you the nature of prayer in ge neral, before I proceed to the explanation of the Lord's prayer, it will not be improper to difcourfe a little of that too much neglected duty, fecret prayer; concerning which our bleffed Lord gives directions in this paffage of fcripture. And this he does negatively, ver. 5. cautioning against performing that important duty with vanity and oftentation, to gain the applaufe of men. (2.) Pofitively, in the text. Wherein confider,

1. The duty itself urged by the Lord. And in it we may obferve,

(1.) The duty fuppofed: When thou prayeft. That this is to be understood only of fecret prayer, is manifeft from the text, and the preceding verfe. Public prayer cannot be meant; for where else is that to be performed but in the congregation? Not family-prayer, which is not performed in a clofet, and which must be done by more than one. Not ejaculatory prayer, which may be done any where, in any company, and whatever one be doing, as in the cafe of Nehemiah, chap. ii. 4. Therefore we muft understand here folemn fecret prayer; which, in the text, the Lord takes it for granted that his difciples made confcience of.

(2.) The place to be chofen for it: Enter into thy closet ; that is, a fecret place, where you may be out of the view VOL III. No. 29. 3 B

of others; for fecret prayers are not to be reftrained to fecret chambers, as Chrift's praying on a mountain does evidence.

(3.) The care that we fhould take leaft our fecret place become public: Shut thy door, fo as others may not fee thee, and so thou fall a facrifice to hypocrify, vanity, and oftentation.

(4.) The duty itself commanded: Pray to thy father which is in fecret. Where we have, [1.] The object of prayer, thy Father, namely, in Chrift; intimating to us, that when we go to God, we fhould go to him as he is our Father in Christ, able and ready to help us, and reconciled to us in him. [2.] A defignation which the Father gets, which is in fecret; who knows as well what thou fayeft in a fecret place as what thou fayeft in public; for he is omniscient and omniprefent.

2. The motive whereby he preffeth fecret prayer, viz. God's reward, who will openly reward fervice done in fecret, which the world knows not of. And those who make confcience of this duty in faith and fervency, are no ftrangers to those rewards and advantages that are to be met with in 3.0.1 of this heavenly traffic.

The text affords the following doctrine.

DOCT. "Secret prayer is a neceffary duty incumbent on all."

In difcourfing from this fubject, I fhall,

1. Confirm the doctrine.

II. Shew the neceffity of fecret prayer.

III. Anfwer fome cafes relating to this duty, in order to clear it further to you.

IV. Make fome practical improvement.

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1. I am to confirm the doctrine, or fhew that fecret prayer is a neceffary duty incumbent on all. This will be clear, if ye confider,

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1. Chrift's exprefs command in the text, which is to us inftead of all reafons. His will is a fufficient ground of our duty. He commands nothing but what is juft and right in itfelf, good for us, and conducive to his glory. And the command of God fhould be a prevalent motive

with all to practise conftantly this duty, which is attended with so much pleasure and profit.

2. The Spirit of God, by the apostle, Eph. vi. 18. calls for it," Pray with all praying," viz. all forts of prayer, of which fecret prayer is one. There are many exhortations to this duty in holy fcripture, which manifeftly fhew the importance and neceffity of it; fuch as that, 1 Theff. v. 17. "Pray without ceafing;" which muft denote fecret prayer, as well as other kinds of that exercise..

3. The practice of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who hath fet a fair and striking example of this duty to all his followers. He was in ftrict propriety a man of prayer, and spent much time in this delightful exercife; as we may fee from Matth. xiv. 23. “" And when he had fent the multitude away, he went up into a mountain a part to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone." Mark i. 35. "And in the morning, rifing up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a folitary place, and there prayed." Thus he retired from his public labours to converse in fecret with his heavenly Father, and prevented the dawning of the day, to hold communion with heaven. Compare 1 John ii. 6. "He that faith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." The neglect of fecret prayer is an incontestable evidence of one's being a stranger to Christ.

4. The practice of the faints of God, who were all diligent in the performance of this excellent duty. Thus the Pfalmift fays, Pfal. v. 3. "My voice fhalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." And how often this holy man was employed in this exercife, he tells us, Pfal. lv. 17. "Evening and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice." Which practice of his may make even the best of us blufh, who ufually confine our fecret devotions to the morning and evening, and perhaps on very flight occafions intermit fometimes one of these feafons. But this pious man, though a crowned head, and involved in much bufinefs, was yet oftener at the throne of grace; for he fays, Pfal. cxix. 164. "Seven times a-day I will praife thee." O that we could imitate fo noble an example of fequeftration and retirement from the world! Thus alfo Daniel "kneeled upon his knees three times a-day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God," chap. vi. 10. and

that at a time when prayer to God was made a capital crime. Thus alfo we find, that Cornelius the Roman centurion, a profelyte to the Jewish religion, was one that "prayed to God always," Acts x. 2.; and that it was fecret, and not fa. mily-prayer, in which he was employed, when the angel ap peared to him, is evident from ver. 7.; for on the departure of the heavenly meffenger from him, who certainly spoke to him in a retired chamber, he called fome of his domeftics, to dispatch them for Peter to come to him, as the angel had directed. Thus likewife we find, that good King Hezekiah was no ftranger to this delightful exercife; for when the prophet Isaiah was fent with a heavy meffage to him, announc ing his death, he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord," If. xxxviii. 1, 2. Compare Cant. i. 7. And indeed to which of the faints can we turn in any age, who neglected this duty? Habitual neglect of prayer is not the fpot of God's children. No fooner does grace take poffeffion of the foul of any perfon, but behold that perfon will pray, as Saul did at Damafcus, after the extraordinary appearance of the Lord Jefus to him on his journey to that city, Acts ix. 11.

Thus we have express divine precepts, apoftolical injunctions, and the approved practice of our Lord Jefus, and of all the faints, to recommend this duty to us; and wo unto us if we neglect it.

II. I proceed to fhew the neceffity of fecret prayer. It is not neceffary in regard of merit, as if we could procure hea ven by it. The only ground of eternal life in the manfions of blifs is the righteoufnefs of a crucified Redeemer. Beg gars pay no debts, but confefs infufficiency, faying with the prophet, Dan. ix. 5. "We have finned, and have commit. ted iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts, and from thy judge. ments." But it is neceffary,

1. In regard of the command of God. He by a plain and exprefs command requires it; and that command binds it as a neceffary duty upon us. To neglect it, therefore, is a direct violation of the command of the great God and Lawgiver; and to make confcience of it is a neceffary and proper act of obedience to the divine will.

per. To give

2. To give God the glory of his omniscience and omni

prefences When we pray to our Father which is in fecret, we plainly declare, that we believe he knows and fees all things, that the darkness and the light are alike unto him; and that he is the witnefs and infpector of all our actions, and will call us to an account for all our thoughts, words, and actions, which are well known to him.

3. To evidence our fincerity, that it is not to be feen of a men that we pray; that we are not acted from motives of oftentation and vain-glory, but from regard to the divine command, and a fincere defire to ferve God: though indeed it will not hold that all fuch as pray in fecret are fincere; for, alas! men may be very affiduous in this duty, and yet be far from being fincere Chriftians, or accepted of God therein.

4. In regard that none know our cafe fo well as ourselves! and therefore, though the master of the family pray in the family, yet we ought to pray by ourselves, in order to make known our particular cafe and wants unto God, which none other can know, and to ask fuch bleffings and mercies of him as we ftand in need of, and are fuitable to our circumftances.

05. In regard that, if we know our own hearts, we cannot but have fomewhat to fay unto the Lord, that we cannot, nor would it be at all proper to fay before others, refpecting both confeffion of fins and fupplication for mercies. Hence the spouse fays, Cant. vii. 11, 12. "Come, my Beloved, let us go forth unto the field: let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards, let us fee if the vine flou rifh, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth there will I give thee my loves."

6. In regard of our wants continually recurring on our hands, and daily and hourly temptations, that may call for this exercife, when family-prayer cannot be had. What man is fo well fupplied, both as to temporal and fpiritual bleffings, as to have no occasion for asking fupplies from above? Man is à needy and indigent creature in all refpects; as a creature he lives on the bounties of providence, and as a Christian on the grace which is in Chrift Jefus; and therefore he muft daily apply to the throne of grace for neceffary fupplies in both. And as we are daily furrounded with temptations, and have no ftrength to refift or repel them,