unlocked such treasures and such secrets as bath past the skill of the most cunning Devil to find out. Private prayer is the means of procuring the greatest riches and the choicest mercies. Certainly none are so rich in gracious experiences, as those that are most exercised in closet duties, Ps. xxxiv. 6. This poor man cried (saith David) and the Lord saved him out of his troubles. David, pointing to himself, tells us that he cried, that is, silently, as Moses did at the red sea, and as Nehemiah did in the presence of the King of Persia; and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles. And, O! what additions were these deliverances to his experience. O my friends, look, as the tender dew, that falls in the silent night, makes the herbs and flowers to flourish and grow more abundantly than great showers of rain that fall in the day, so secret prayer will more abundantly cause the sweet herbs of grace and holiness, to grow and flourish in the soul, than all those more open, public, and visible duties of religion, which too often are mingled and mixed with the sun and wind of pride and hypocrisy. Beloved, you know that many times a favourite at court gets more by one secret motion, by one private request to his Prince, than a tradesman, or a merchant gets in twenty years: so a christian many times gets more by one secret motion, by one private request to the King of Kings, than many others do by trading long in the more public duties of religion. O Sirs, remember that in private prayer we have a far greater advantage as to the exercise of our gifts and parts than we have in public; for in public we only hear we are others exercise their parts and gifts. In public duties more passive, but in private duties we are more active. Now the more our gifts and graces are exercised, the more they are strengthened and increased. All acts strengthen habits. The more sin is acted, the more 'tis strengthened. And so it is with our gifts and graces, the more they are acted, the more they are strengthened. But, X. Take many things together. All christians have their secret sins. Ps. xix. 12. Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Secret not only to other men, but himself; even such secret sins as grew from errors which he understood not. 'Tis incident to every man to err, and then to be ignorant of his errors. Many sins I see in myself, saith he, and more there are which I canot find out: nay I think that every man's sins arise beyond his accounts. There is not the best, the wisest, nor the holiest man in the world, that can give a full and entire list of his sins, Who can understand his errors? this interrogation hath the force of an affirmation; Who can ? No man, no not the most perfect and innocent man in the world. O friends, who can reckon up the sinful imaginations, inclinations, or the secret pride, blasphemies, hypocrisies, Atheistical reasonings, murmurings, repinings, contempt, insolence, and secret unbelieving, that God might every day charge upon his soul? Should the best and holiest man on earth, have but his secret sins every day written in his forehead, it would put him to the blush. So 1 Kings viii. 38. What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart. Sin is the greatest plague in the world; but never more dangerous, than when it reaches the heart. Now secret sins commonly lie nearest the heart, the fountain from whence they take a quick and continual supply. Secret sins are as near to original sin, as the first droppings are to the spring head. And as every secret sin lies nearest the heart, so every secret sin is the plague of the heart. As secret diseases are not to be laid open to every one, but only to prudent Physicians, so our secret sins which are the secret diseases of our souls, are not to be laid open to every one, but only to the Physician of souls, who is able both to cure and to pardon them. And as all christians have their secret sins, so all christians have their secret temptations and wants. 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9. Yea, many times they have such particular and personal wants, that there is not one in the congregation, nor one in the family, that hath the like. And as they have their secret wants, so they have their secret fears, snares, troubles, and doubts. And now, all these things call aloud upon every christian to be frequent and constant in secret prayer. XI. Consider, Christ is very much affected and delighted in the secret prayers of his people, Cant. ii. 14, "O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." Christ observes his spouse when she is in the clefts of the rock; when she is gotten into a corner praying, he looks upon her with singular delight, and with special intimations of his love. Nothing is more sweet, delightful, and wel come to Christ, than the secret services of his people : Their secret breathings are like lovely songs to him; their secret prayers in the clefts of the rock, or under the stairs, are as sweet incense to Jesus. The spouse retires to the secret places of the stairs, not only for security, but also for secrecy, that so she might the more freely, without suspicion of hypocrisy, pour out her soul into the bosom of her beloved. The great delight that parents take in the secret lispings and whisperings of their children; is no delight, compared to that which Christ takes in the secret prayers of his people. And therefore, as you would be friends and promoters of Christ's delight, be much in secret prayer. XII. Consider, you are the only persons in all the world that God hath made choice of, to reveal his secrets to. John xv. 15. "Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth but I have called you. friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." Every thing that God the Father hath communicated to Christ as Mediator to be revealed to his servants, he made known to his disciples as to his bosom friends. Christ loves his people as friends, and he uses them as friends, and he opens his heart to them as friends. There is nothing in the heart of Christ, that concerns the interṇal and eternal welfare of his friends, but he reveals it to them he reveals himself, his love, his eternal good will, the mysteries of faith, and the secrets of his covenant, to his friends. Christ loves not to entertain his friends. with things that are commonly and vulgarly known. Christ will reveal the secrets of his mind, the secrets of his love, the secrets of his thoughts, the se- : erets of his heart, and the secrets of his purposes to all his bosom friends. Sampson could not hide his mind, his secrets from Dalilah, though it cost him his life:: and do you think that Christ can hide his mind, his se crets from them for whom he hath laid down his life? surely no. O sirs, Christ is 2. An omnipotent friend, an almighty friend: he is no less than thirty times called almighty in the book of Job; he can do above all expressions, and beyond all apprehensions. 3. He is an omniscient friend, 4. An omnipresent friend, 5. An indeficient friend, 9. A tender and compassionate friend. 10. He is a close and faithful friend. And therefore he cannot but open and unbosom himself to all his bosom friends. To be reserved and close is against the very law of friendship. Faithful friends are very free in imparting their thoughts, their minds, and their se crets one to another. A real friend accounts nothing worth knowing, unless he makes it known to his friends; Job calls his friends "inward friends," or, "the men of his secrets." All Christ's friends are inward friends, they are the men of, his secrets, Prov. iii. 32. "His secrets are with the righteous," that is, his covenant and fatherly affection, which is hid and secret from the world. He that is righteous in secret, where no man sees him, he is the righteous man to whom God will |