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Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness. Four discourses, accommodated…
Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness. Four discourses, accommodated unto the designs of practical godliness. The first, concerning the methods wherein men ought to engage both themselves and their houses in the service of God. The second, concerning the right and best ways of redeeming time in the world. The third, concerning the carriage which we should have under trials used by God upon us. The fourth, concerning the end, which in our desires of life, we should propound unto ourselves. Preached partly at Boston, partly at Charleston. / By Cotton Mather, Pastor of a church in Boston. ; Published by a gentleman lately restored from threatening sickness; as an humble essay to serve the interest of religion, in gratitude unto God for his recovery.Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness. Four discourses, accommodated unto the designs of practical godliness. The first, concerning the methods wherein men ought to engage both themselves and their houses in the service of God. The second, concerning the right and best waies of redeeming time in the world. The third, concerning the carriage which we should have under trials used by God upon us. The fourth, concerning the end, which in our desires of life, we should propound unto ourselves. Preached partly at Boston, partly at Charleston. / By Cotton Mather, Pastor of a church in Boston. ; Published by a gentleman lately restored from threatning sickness; as an humble essay to serve the interest of religion, in gratitude unto God for his recovery.
Boston: printed by R. Pierce. Sold by Jos. Brunning, 1689
THE GOOD MANS RESOLUTION. › Section 10 › Rule 4: The Fourth Rule.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The Fourth Rule.
Let not your Family-Prayers be your only ⟨p. 34⟩prayers. Understand, that Secret Prayers, as well as private Prayers, are to be performed by us 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 Transgressions to be confessed in our prayers; these are secretly to be confessed. To divulge a secret sin, is to add a further sin, Our secret sins, do call for our secret Prayers. We have special Temptations to be bewailed in our prayers; and these are secretly to be bewailed. Our Desires are sometimes to be too secret for our Neighbours. Out 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 Fig-tree, and He will say, Behold an Israelite indeed! Would you get Internal Blessings? then pray in secret. Solomon got his Wisdom, his Virtue, by secret prayer. Peter by secret prayer in a Balcony, was carried with Trances and Raptures ⟨p. 35⟩into the other world. Would you get External Blessings? Then pray in secret. Hannah 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 secret. 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 Super sedeas, no Diversion should ever be given to your secret prayers.