Let not your Family-prayers be your only ⟨image 23⟩prayers▪ Understand, that Secret Prayers, •s ••ll as private Prayers, are to be performed by •s all. For this, the word of our Lord is very positive, in Matth. 6. 6. When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. Tis a great fondness and folly in any of us, if private prayer cause us to lay aside secret prayer. No, There is Closet-Prayer as well as Parlour-Prayer which we ought to labour in. I would say, as our Lord in another case, One you ought to do; & not leave the other undone. We have special Trans••iss••ns to be confessed in our prayers; these are […] to be confessed. To divulge a secret […], is to add a further sin, Our secret sins, do call for our secret Prayers. We have special Temp••••s to be bewailed in our prayers; and these […] secretly to be bewailed. Our Desires are sometimes to be too secret for our Neighbours. Our secret Griefs and our secret Fears call for our secret Prayers. And as one of the Ancients elegantly expresses it, Invisible prayers are to be often made to an invisible God. Secret prayer is one good sign of a gracious heart. Let the Lord oft see you like Nathanael at secret prayer under the […], and He will say, Behold an Israelite i• deed! Would you get Internal Blessings? then pray in secret. Solomon got his Wisdom, his Virtue, by secret prayer. Peter by secret prayer in […] carried with Trances and Raptures ⟨image 23⟩into the other world. Would you get External Blessings? Then pray in secret. H•• nah with secret prayer asked one Son, and had six. Jacob had all his House preserved by secret prayer. Yea, Would you be General Blessings? Pray then in ••c•et. Moses by secret prayer diverted wrath & plagues from all the Congregation. That infamous Apostate Julian, was killed by the secret prayer of a good man, at that hour very far distant from him▪ What shall I say? No Supe sedeas, no Diversion should ever be given to your secret prayers.
Let not your Family-prayers be your only ⟨image 23⟩prayers▪ Understand, that Se•ret Prayers, •s ••ll as private Prayers, are to be performed by •s all. For this, the word of our Lord is very positive, in Matth. 6. 6. When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. Tis a great fondness and folly in any of us, if private prayer cause us to lay aside secret prayer. No, There is Closet-Prayer as well as Parlour-Prayer which we ought to labour in. I would say, as our Lord in another case, One you ought to do; & not leave the other undone. We have special Trans••iss••ns to be confessed in our prayers; these are 〈…〉 to be confessed. To divulge a secret 〈…〉, is to add a further sin, Our secret sins, do call for our secre• Prayers. We have special Temp••••s to be bewailed in our prayers; and these 〈…〉 sec•etly to be bewailed. Our Desires are sometimes to be too secret for our Neighbours. Our secret Griefs and our secret Fears call for our secret Prayers. And as one of the Ancients elegantly expresses it, Invisible prayers are to be often made to an invisible God. Secret prayer is one good sign of a gracious heart. Let the Lord oft see you like Nathanael at secret prayer under the 〈…〉, and He will say, Behold an Israelite i• deed! Would you get Internal Blessings? then pray in secret. Solomon got his Widom, his Vertue, by secret prayer. Peter by secret prayer in 〈…〉 car•ied with Tran•es and Raptures ⟨image 23⟩into the other world. Would you get External Blessings? Then pray in secret. H•• nah with secre prayer asked one Son, and had six. Iacob had all his House preserved by secret prayer. Yea, Would you be General Blessings? Pray then in cet. Moses by secret prayer diverted wrath & plagues from all the Congregation. That infamous Apostate Iulian, was killed by the secret prayer of a good man, at that hour very far distant from him What shall I say? No Supe sedeas, no Diversion should ever be given to your secret prayers.
