was to be like them. Sure Lam, that the best way of honouring Christ, is to be like unto Christ, 1 John ii. 6. "He thausaith he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk, even as he walked." O ! 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. 'Tis not only our liberty, but our duty and glory to follow Christ in all his moral virtues: other patterns are 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 better for resembling him in sin: But Christ loves his children the more for resembling him in holiness. 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 Dubartis 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. iii. 18.

But why was our Lord Jesus so much in private prayer: why was he so often with God alone?

1st. 'Twas to put a very high honour and value upon private prayer. 'Twas 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, C

hath put an everlasting honour, and an inestimable value upon it. But

2nd. He was much in private prayer, was often with God alone, that he might not be seen of men, and to avoid all shews of popular applause. He that hath commanded us to abstain from all appearance of evil, 1 Thes. v. 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 looked like sin; he was very shy of the very shew and shadow of pride or vain-glory.

3rd. 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 often times quench-coals to private prayer. The best christians do but bungle when they meet with interruptions in their private devotions.

4th. 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. 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.

5th. That he might approve himself to our understandings and consciences to be a most just and faithful High Priest. 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! hew 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. v. 7. And now he is in heaven, he is still making intercession for them, Heb. vii. 25.

6th. 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.

III. Consider, that the ordinary exercising of your selves in secret prayer, is that which will distinguish you from hypocrites, who do all they do to be seen of men, Matt. vi. 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 alius, sound not 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 religious concerns. verse 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. Verse 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

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their faces, that they might appear unto men to fast; Hypocrites live upon the praises and applauses of men. Naturalists report of the Chelidonian stone, that it will retain its virtue no longer than it is inclosed in gold. So hypocrites will keep up their duties no longer than they are fed, and encouraged, by the praises of men. Hy pocrites are like blazing stars, which so long as they are fed with vapours, shine as fixed stars; but let the va pours 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. xxxi. 33. Where do you read in all the scripture that Pharoah, 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, there is great cause to fear that his heart was never right with God, whose 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. vi. 5. 'Tis very observable that Christ commands his Disciples, that they should not be as the hypocrites, and 'tis one thing to be hypo erites, and 'tis another thing to be as the hypocrites. Christ would not have his people to look like hypocrites: 'Tis only sincerity that will enable a man to make a trade of privtae prayer.

In praying with many, there are some things that may bribe and provoke a carnal heart, as pride, vain-glory, 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; liké fidlers, 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,

IV. Consider that in secret we may more freely, 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. xii. 12, 13, 14. not only to shew the soundness of their sorrow, but also to shew their sincerity by their secresy; they 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 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 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 their infirmities, enormities and wickedness, 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 men have fallen into before conversion and since conversion, whch should they be known to the world would make themselves to stink, religion to stink and their profession to stink in the nostrils of all that know. them. Yea, should those weaknesses be published upon the house tops, which many are guilty of before grace received, or since grace received; how would weak christians be staggered, young comers on in the ways of God discouraged, and many mouths of blasphemy opened, and many sinners hearts hardened against the