Object. 1. I have no time for fecret prayer, for my work and business. Anf. 1. This is thy greatest work, even the falvation of thy foul, in comparison of which all thy other work is a mere trifle: and wilt thou take time for thy other work, and not for this work, that challenges thy utmost care and attention? 2. Fools hafte is no speed. To rife out of the bed, and to go immediately to fecular work, is foolish curfed hafte. How canft thou look for a bleffing on thy work without prayer? 3. Rife the fooner every morning, that you may not be fcrimped as to time for this exercise, as our bleffed Lord did, Mark i. 35. How wilt thou answer to God at the great day, for fpending that time in fleep, which thou fhouldft have fpent in fecret prayer? Daniel would not omit this exercise, though at the hazard of his life.

Object. 2. We are fo wearied with our work through the day, that we are not able to pray in the evening. Anf. 1. What difference is there betwixt you and the beafts that take their ease when their work is done, without any more ado? 2. You will take your meat for your bodies, though ever fo weary; and why will ye not think of and provide meat for your perifhing fouls? John iv. 6. 32. 3. Notwithstanding ye may be tired, do what ye are able. We are not commanded to tell you to make your prayers fhort or long; but by no means to neglect fecret prayer altogether, which is very dangerous. But I fuppofe, that when you fay your body is not able to fubfift, with fecret prayer, that yet if ye. could gain a fixpence at that very time, you would spend twice much more time for that paltry gain; and yet flight the concerns of your fouls, under this frivolous pretence.

Object. 3. We have no convenient place for fecret prayer. Anf. Find out once a willing heart for this exercife, and I fhall engage you for it you fhall find a place. Are there not barns, byres, out-houses, and fields, for you to retire to? Will not these rise up and witness against thee that neglectest this duty, at the great day? For my part, I would rather go to prayer, even within a dwelling-houfe, in the place where the beafts ftand, or behind a bed, or at the back of a house, ere I fhould neglect it. God requires all men to pray, but he does not require all men to have chambers and clofets.

Object. 4. But there are prayers in our family, and I join therein; what needs more! Anf. Poor foul! haft thou no

more to fay of thyfelf to God, but what the master of the family fays? Alas! thou knoweft not thyself, and the dreadful cafe thou art in by nature; which if thou didft, thou wouldft not think joining in prayer with others enough. Thou thinkeft it fufficient that the master of the family pray for thee, and the other members of his family, and thou lieft by without concerning thyfelf about duty for thyfelf: wilt thou think it enough, that he go to heaven for thee, and thou be shut out for ever?

true one.

Object. 5. But (fays the master of the family) I pray with my family, and I hope that is enough for me. Anf. In this coinmand in the text, Christ has not excepted thee, neither dare I. Again, doft thou fo well discharge family prayer, that thou haft no escapes or failures to be matter of fecret prayer? I tell you plainly, that God will not have his worfhip halved: He will have either the whole or nothing. Being confcientious in family-prayer is good, but can never excufe the neglect of fecret prayer, which is as much thy duty. Yea, the more thou art helped to difcharge familyduty, the more wilt thou be inclined to the practice of fecret duty. The falfe mother was for dividing the child, not the of ei bodrem ei.lt Object. 6. Some women that have children to nurfe and wait on, think that frees them from this duty. Anf. It is a fad obfervation of many women, who, while they are unmarried, and are not involved in the cares and troubles of a family, have fome profeffion and practice of religion; but as foon as they get a houfe to manage, and have the care of young children efpecially, they caft off all religion, as if they had no more concern therein. But furely the very fight of the child whom thou haft conceived in fin, and brought forth in iniquity, should remind thee of thy original guilt and corruption, and incite thee to apply to the blood and Spirit of Chrift for pardon and cleanfing, and be a powerful fpur to thee to fet about this great duty of fecret prayer. And remember, that the welfare of thy own foul, and that of the child, is more than that of the child's bodily welfare, which deferves but the fecond care in comparison of the other.hr would not have you by any means to caft off the care of the young one's temporal welfare; but thou mayft so observe times and feafons, as thou mayft take time for this duty morning and evening, though it be not immediately after

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thou rifeft, or before thou lieft down. Thou mayst even do it when thou art rocking the cradle, or fuckling the child. Alas! it had been telling many, that they had had the womb that never bare, and the paps that never gave fuck.

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Object. 7. God knows the heart, and what needs fo much ado about praying in fecret, as if God knew not what we wanted, or what we would be at, till we fit down on our knees, and tell him? Anf. God knows the heart of fuch an objector to be a graceless heart, and his end to be deftrućtion, Matth. vii. 15. 20.; and his heart to be a foolifh athe¿istical heart, that will not call upon God, Pfal. xiv. 1. Again, what is this but to argue God's command to be foolish? He bids you pray, and you fay it is needlefs. O daring prefumption Though the Lord not only knows your heart, but has a mind to give bleffings to poor finners, he will have you feek them by prayer: "For these things," fays he, 15 will I be inquired of by the house of Ifrael, that I may do vit for them," Ezek. xxxvi. 37. God never confers fignal - mercies on his people, without firft pouring out on them the Spirit of faith and prayer, and determines them to seek aredently the very thing he has a mind to grant them. And this method is for the glory of his name, and for our real benefit. Now!

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& Object. 8. Age and infirmity will not fuffer me to go about -that duty. Anf. Will it fuffer you to do your bufinefs in the world, and will it not fuffer you to manage your foul's business, which is of infinitely greater importance? It would ifeem, that the nearer we draw to the grave, the more active we fhould be in preparing for it. It were good, that old people would mind heaven more, and the world less, as they have fo fhort a time to ftay here. The concerns of the other -world fhould mainly ingrofs their care and attention, and they should then redouble their diligence in improving their ofpan of time, and doing that which perhaps they too much -neglected in the days of health and vigour." The hoary Head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteoufnefs," Prov. xvi. 31.; "But the finner being an hunIdred years old fhall be accurfed," If. lxy. 20. Let this found an alarm to all the old finners among you, that ye may yet apply to the merciful Redeemer, who fets even fome to work in the vineyard at the eleventh hour. It is fad to be tottering under the miferies and infirmities of old age, and yet to

have no profpect of a happy landing. Fly then to Chrift, thou old decrepit finner, while his call reaches thee, left thou fpeedily perish without remedy.

Object. 9. I am too young to mind fecret prayer. Ans. You are too old never to have entered on God's fervice. Remember that Jofiah, when he was but eight years old, began to feek the Lord God of his father David. Obadiah, Ahab's fteward, feared the Lord greatly from his youth. John Baptist was fanctified from the womb; and fo was the prophet Jeremiah. Timothy knew the holy fcriptures from a child. You can never begin to be religious too foon. None ever repented that they fought the Lord; but all have repented that they did not begin to feek him fooner. You are as liable to death as the oldest person here, have a foul as precious as theirs, and as much need to mind your best and eternal interefts as they. Up then and be doing, without putting off a moment longer.

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Object. ult. I cannot pray. Anf. The truth is, thou wilt not pray, Pfal. x. 4. If thou hadft a will to the duty, thou wouldft foon learn. But if thou wouldst learn to pray, go to God, that he may teach thee, as Chrift taught the difciples; and confider the abfolute need thou haft of divine inruction in this matter. Ufe the one talent, and God will increase it. Wherefore fet about this weighty duty, and neglect it not. Think seriously with yourselves, whether thofe who are now in hell, and when they lived neglected fecret prayer like you, would do fo ftill if they were in the world again. I fcarce think they would. Pray now, therefore, left ye repent your neglect, when it will be too late, and are tormented in the lake of fire and brimftone. Again, think with yourselves how you will this criminal neglect digested on a death-bed, when ye are ready to leap into eternity, without having once prayed for God's mercy through Chrift to your fouls; and how you will get it digefted before the awful tribunal of God, when he will drive you from his bleffed prefence for ever. Think with yourfelves how precious time is, and what a fad bufinefs it is to spend it in purfuing the world and lying vanities, and neglecting communion with God, wherein lies the life of the foul. What! will, ye delay it yet a while? O do it not! for delays are dangerous. Will ye be fo foolish as to venture all to two or three words on a fick-bed or death-bed? Perhaps you

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will not get one, but may be hurried away in a moment. Confider that awful paffage, Prov. i. 24.-28. “Because I have called, and ye refused, I have ftretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have fet at nought all my counfel, and would none of my reproof: I alfo will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as defolation, and your deftruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then fhall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they fhall feek me early, but they fhall not find me.”

Exhort. 2. Be frequent in this duty, morning and evening at least, and at other times when your conveniency will allow, and go not only to it now and then. Confider,

1. God's exprefs command, which ties you to pray always, continually, and without ceafing. This does not mean, that you should do nothing but pray, or spend your whole time in this exercise. No; but denotes frequency, and embracing every opportunity that offers for fo delightful and profitable a duty. It fays you fhould be always in a praying frame, never having your minds fo much ingroffed in worldly concerns, as to be indifpofed to call upon God in

prayer.

2. Frequency in this duty is a good fign of a good frame, and an excellent mean to maintain and preferve it. They who are not frequent in this exercise, do thereby fhew that their frame and difpofition is not spiritual, but carnal, much under the conduct of fenfe, and attachment to fenfible things. Whereas, if a person were frequent in this duty, it would be a token of a heart weaned from the world, and much converfant in the things of God.

3. Laftly, It is dangerous to grow flack and remifs in this duty, as mournful experience has teftified in the case of many. They who having been for years frequently employed in this heavenly exercife, do at laft turn careless, reftrain prayer before the Lord, or but now and then bow a knee before him, do thereby declare they have loft the life and relifh of the power of religion, and are in the high road to apoftafy. There are not wanting inftances of fuch having returned with the dog to his vomit, and with the fow that was wafhed to her wallowing in the mire. Others have been made fignal monuments of judgment, and fet up as beacons to backfliders. And fome who have had the root of the matter in them, have had fuch a ftorm raifed in their confciences, as has made