Part 1
The BIBLE AND THE CLOSET
HOW WE MAY READ THE SCRIPTURES WITH
THE MOST SPIRITUAL PROFIT,
BY REV. THOMAS WATSON;
AND
SECRET PRAYER SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED,
BY REV. SAMUEL LEE;
Ministers Ejected in 1662.
EDITED BY
JOHN OVERTON CHOULES.
WITH A RECOMMENDATORY LETTER FROM
REV. E. N. KIRK.
BOSTON
GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN,
59 Washington Street.
Source text: http://archive.org/details/bibleclosetorhow00wats
Updated language/syntax and explanatory notes (in blue).
© William H. Gross www.onthewing.org October 2012
Scripture quotes are New King James, Thomas Nelson, Publishers.
Original page numbers and headers are retained intra-text. Some original page-breaks have been adjusted for readability.
Contents
PREFACE. ............................................................................................................................... iii
RECOMMENDATORY LETTER ........................................................................................... 5
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. ................................................................................................... 6
HOW WE MAY READ THE SCRIPTURES WITH THE MOST SPIRITUAL PROFIT. .... 7
BY REV. THOMAS WATSON ........................................................................................... 7
SECRET PRAYER SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED ............................................................ 20
BY REV. SAMUEL LEE ................................................................................................... 20
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .............................................................................................. 20
SECRET PRAYER SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED. ....................................................... 21
EJACULATORY PRAYER. .............................................................................................. 45
PREFACE.
It is a proper ground for regret, that a people who owe their origin, social habits, religious privileges and national character, to the Puritans and Non-conformists of England, should manifest so little interest and curiosity, in regard to the names, persons, manners, sufferings, and writings, of their ancestry, as appears to be the case at present in the United States. The members of the churches properly attached to the doctrines of the Non-conformists, do not have that lively impression of gratitude and obligation to the struggles of the Puritans, which should characterize men who enjoy inestimable blessings, purchased by cruel bonds, far exilements, and bloody death. The young are almost ignorant of the church history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and when they do hear of the Puritans, it is probably from some infidel novelist or historian, who describes them as uncouth, sour, ignorant fanatics, or from the bigoted representations of half-popish ecclesiastics, who seem to regard amputation from Rome as a severe affliction.
The ordinations of the ministers in Congregational, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches usually take place without any reference to the distinctive principles for which our fathers contended, and which are now challenged and ridiculed by men who call Hampden1 and Pym2 traitors, Archbishop Laud3 a saint, and Charles I.4 a blessed martyr. The con-
iv.
sequence is, that our young people suppose these things are unimportant; and while they hear them assailed by fashionable and popular preachers, and no refutation is offered, they naturally fear that we have a poor cause. It has become a common thing with a certain clique of the press and pulpit, to deny piety, sound theology and literature to the Non-conformists.5 It is high time that the incomparable works of these men be made known to our churches, and they will appear an ample testimonial to their worth. It is probable that history cannot afford in any age or country a body of clergymen equal in virtue, talent, and aptness to teach, with that ejected from the Church of England by the act of uniformity passed by Charles, in 1662. The world was called to witness the reality of religious principle, when more than two thousand ministers, described by John Locke as "worthy, learned, pious, orthodox divines," sacrificed their all, rather than injure their consciences and desert the cause of civil and religious liberty. The celebrated Harvey observes: "I esteem the Puritans as some of the most zealous Christians that ever appeared in our land, to settle faith on its proper basis — the meritorious righteousness of Christ; to deduce obedience from its true origin — the love of God shed abroad in the heart; to search the conscience and convince the judgment; to awaken the lethargic and comfort the afflicted soul, with a thorough knowledge joined to a masterly application of the divine word. These are real excellences: these entered into the preaching; these, if we examine impartially, are to be found in the
1 John Hampden (ca. 1595–1643) When the English Civil War began, he was appointed a member of the committee for safety, and levied a regiment of Buckinghamshire men for the parliamentary cause against the tyranny of the Catholic crown (Charles I).
2 John Pym, (1584-1643) Leader of the political opposition to Charles I in the Long Parliament, and primary architect of Parliament's victory in the First English Civil War.
3 William Laud (1573–1645) Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. He opposed Puritanism, persecuting the Puritans with the Act of Uniformity, using it to eject them from their pulpits in 1662 ('The Great Ejection').
4 Charles believed he had a divine right (license) to rule, and not just a divine appointment. Many of his English subjects opposed his interference in the churches, and levying taxes on them without parliamentary consent.
5 Those who would not conform to the Act of Uniformity which imposed Roman Catholic theology and practice on the Protestant churches.
iii
writings of the Puritans." Whitfield bears the same testimony: "The Puritans of the last century, burning and shining lights, wrote and preached after they were cast out of the church, as men having authority; a peculiar unction attends their writings to this day; and for these thirty years past I have remarked that the more the true and vital religion has revived at home and abroad, the more the good old puritanical writings have been called for."
Brown of Haddington, in his general history, has the following remarks: "Never perhaps, since the apostolic age, was the Christian system better understood than by the British divines under Cromwell." "The Puritans," says Robert Hall, "are unquestionably the safest of all uninspired guides. The masculine sense, the profound learning, the rich and unequalled unction of the fathers of the modern church, exert a powerful influence on the mind, and greatly contribute to form and mature the characters of men."
Mr. Erskine very finely observes: "This class of men, in respect of character and services, are universally venerated. By their sufferings and labors they rescued the key of knowledge from the unworthy hands in which it had long lain rusted, and been misused, and generously left it as a rich inheritance to all coming generations. They speak with the solemn dignity of martyrs; deep and solemn seriousness is the common character of them all. They seem to have felt much; religion was not allowed to remain an unused theory in their heads; they were forced to live upon it as their
vi.
food; to live upon it as their only strength and comfort; hence their thoughts are never given as abstract views. These venerable worthies do not merely give us ideas, but ideas colored by deep affections. This gives us a great interest in their writings. They are real men, and not books we are conversing with. These were the great men of England; they were indeed a noble army."
It is proposed to publish, in uniform style, and in close succession, a selection of the writings of the Puritans and Non-conformists, who were ejected from the Church of England in 1662. Let it appear if they were not of a kindred spirit to those martyrs recorded in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and of whom the Spirit of God testifies that they were men "of whom the world was not worthy." Every volume will be complete in itself and it is designed to render the publication not only profitable to the private Christian as a guide to his devotions, but useful to the clergy, by introducing them to works which, from their exceeding scarceness, can hardly be procured in England. As far as practicable, there will be biographical notices of the authors affixed to each reprint; for to allow the memory of such men to die, is injurious to posterity. The reader is earnestly entreated to consult the texts which are so freely quoted; he will find it a delightful task, and with God's blessing upon it he will become "mighty in the Scriptures."
JNO. OVERTON CHOULES.
May, 1842.
RECOMMENDATORY LETTER
FROM THE
REV. E. N. KIRK.
University Place, New York.
My Dear Brother Choules:
Your proposal to republish the "Morning Lectures," in detached portions and a cheap form, I may say delights me. This class of publications may supply the most striking deficiency in the practical religious literature of our day. It was the defect of our fathers, that they thought efficiently without efficient action. It is ours, that action, though rarely excessive, is yet generally disproportioned to thought. The problem of the age is, to unite profound biblical thought with intense and judicious action. Now it is true that we cannot think by proxy; but it is also true, in every department of knowledge, that others
can furnish us the richest material of thought, and enable us, as it were, almost to commence where they left off. There are rich veins of scriptural illustration and of religious sentiment, buried in the tomes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it is a good service to the church of the nineteenth century to reopen those mines. Our neophytes need it, and our ministerial corps may find models which can be most profitably imitated in some points. The American pulpit is probably the most efficient in the world, in the great work of conversion. But we fail just where the Mantons, the Howes, the Owens, the Godwins excelled: in "edifying the body of Christ." May the Master approve and bless your work.
Your fellow-servant,
EDW. N. KIRK.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
The Rev. Thomas Watson, A. M., of Emanuel College, Cambridge,
and Minister of St. Stephen's Church, Walbrook.
Of the early life of Mr. Watson, there are not many traces. It is said that he was a hard student. Richard Baxter, in his own history, edited by Sylvester, says, p. 95, part 3: "Mr. Watson is so well known for his ability and piety, that I need not describe him." There is an interesting anecdote respecting his pulpit performances. Once on a public lecture, in London, the learned Bishop Richardson came in to hear him, and
was much pleased with the sermon, and especially with the prayer after it; so that he called on him at his house, to return him thanks and ask for a copy of it. "Alas," said Mr. Watson, "that is what I cannot give, for I do not pen my prayers. It was not a studied theory, but uttered as God enabled me, from the abundance of my heart and affections." The good Bishop was surprised that any man could pray in that manner extempore. Mr. Watson, after his ejectment, continued to preach in London, as Providence opened a door.
It is worthy of note that he was one of the party arrested by the Rump parliament, on the charge of treason, for assisting the royal cause in Scotland. Mr. Christopher Love was beheaded on Tower hill. Mr. Jenkin, the famous commentator on Jude, died in prison. Mr. Watson deserved a better treatment
from Charles than he received. This fact is only a solitary one, while a mass may be collected, to prove that the overturn of the monarchy was not the work of Puritan ministers alone — very many of whom were attached to the royal family, and bitterly regretted the death of Charles; and a remonstrance signed by sixty-nine of the leading ministers was addressed to Cromwell, to prevent that tragedy. (See Bennett's Memorial, p. 227.) In the admirable collection of "Farewell Sermons," there are three by Mr. Watson, in which he exemplifies much of the spirit of the gospel, in recommending love to enemies. In one of the discourses he insists largely on "the ardent affections of a right gospel minister towards his people."
Mr. Watson is best known at the present day by his folio volume of one hundred and
seventy-six sermons on the Assembly's Catechism, recommended by Dr. Bales, Mr. Howe and others. His popularity as a preacher kept him constantly engaged. At length nature gave way, and he retired into Essex, and there was found dead in his closet at prayer.
HOW WE MAY READ THE SCRIPTURES WITH THE MOST
SPIRITUAL PROFIT.
BY REV. THOMAS WATSON
"And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this Law and to do these Statutes." — Deut. 17.19.
What Cicero said of Aristotle's politics, may not unfittingly be said of this book of Deuteronomy, it is full of golden eloquence. In this chapter, God instructs the Jews about setting a king over them, and there are two things specified, as to his election, and his religion.
1. His election, verse 15. "You shall in any way set him king over you, whom the Lord your God shall choose." There is good reason that God should have the choice of their king, since "by him kings reign." Prov. 8.15.
2. His religion, verse 18. "When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priest." Here
was a good beginning of a king's reign; the first thing he did after he sat upon the throne, was to copy out the word of God in a book. And in the text, "It shall be with him, and he shall read it, all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this Law and to do these Statutes." "It shall be with him." The Book of the Law shall be his Vade Mecum, or daily companion. Charles the Great used to set his crown upon the Bible. Indeed the Bible is the best support of government. "And he shall read it." It is not below the majesty of a prince to peruse the oracles of Heaven; in them are comprised sacred apothegms, Prov. 8.6: "I will speak of excellent things." In the Septuagint it is "grave things," in the Hebrew, "princely things," such as are fit for a God to speak and a king to read. Nor must the king only read the Book of the Law at his first installment into his kingdom, but he "shall read it all the days of his life." He must not leave off reading, till he has left off reigning. And the reasons why he must be conversant in the law of God, are in the subsequent words: 1. "That he may
learn to fear the Lord his God." Reading the word is the best means to usher in the fear of the Lord, 2. "That he may keep all the words of this Law, to do them." 3. "That he may prolong his days in his kingdom."
I shall now confine myself to these words, "He shall read it all the days of his life;" i. e. the Book of the Law.
The Holy Scripture is, as Austin1 says, a golden epistle sent to us from God. This is to be read diligently; ignorance of Scripture is the mother of error, not of devotion. Matt, 22.29: "You err, not knowing the Scriptures." We are commanded to "search the Scriptures." John 5.39. The Greek word signifies to search as for a vein of silver. How diligently does a child read over his father's will and testament! and a citizen peruse his charter! With like diligence we should read God's word, which is our Magna Charta for Heaven. It is a mercy that the Bible is not
1 Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430).
THE BIBLE
prohibited. Trajan the emperor forbade the Jews to read in the Book of the Law. Let us inquire at this sacred oracle. Apollos was "mighty in the Scriptures." Acts 18.24. Melancthon,
when he was young, sucked the sincere milk of the word. Alphonsus, King of Arragon, read over the Bible fourteen times. That Roman Lady, Cecilia, had by much reading of the word, made her heart the Library of Christ, as Jerome relates. Were the Scriptures confined to the original tongues, many would plead an excuse for not reading; but when the sword of the Spirit is unsheathed, and the word is made plain to us by being translated, what should hinder us from a diligent search into these holy mysteries?
Adam was forbidden upon pain of death to taste of the tree of knowledge. Gen. 2.17: "In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die." But there is no danger of touching this tree of Holy Scripture; if we do not eat of this tree of knowledge we shall surely die. What will become of those who are strangers to the Scriptures? Hosea 8.12: "I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were considered as a strange thing." Many lay aside the Scriptures like rusty armor. Jer. 8.9. "They are better-read in romances than in Paul; they spend many hours between the comb and the glass, but their eyes begin to be sore
when they look at a Bible." Even the Turks will rise up in judgment against these Christians. The Turks reverence the Books of Moses; and if they find just a leaf on which anything of the Pentateuch is written, they take it up and kiss it. Those who slight the written word, slight God himself, whose stamp it bears. To slight the king's edict is an affront to the person of the king. Those who reject and vilify the Scriptures are in a state of condemnation. Prov. 13.13: "Whoever despises the word shall be destroyed." Nor is it enough to read the word of God, but it should be our care to get some spiritual reward and profit by it, so that our souls may be nourished in the words of faith. 1Tim. 4.6. Why else was the Scripture written but that it might profit us? God did not give us his word only as a landscape to look at, but he delivered it as a father delivers a stock of money to his son to improve on it. 'Tis sad not to profit by the word, to be like the body in consumption, that does not thrive. Men would be loath to trade and get no profit. The grand question I am to speak to is this. How we may read the Scriptures with the
most spiritual profit. In answering this question, I shall lay down several rules or directions about the reading of Scripture.
1. If you would profit by reading, remove those things that will hinder your profiting. That the body may thrive, obstructions must be removed. There are three obstructions that must be removed if you would profit by Scripture.
1. Remove the love of every sin. Let a physician prescribe ever so good recipes, if the patient takes poison, it will hinder the virtue and operation of the medicine. The Scripture prescribes excellent recipes, but sin that is lived in, poisons all. The body cannot thrive in a fever, nor can the soul thrive under the feverish heat of lust. Plato calls the love of sin magnus daemon, a great devil. As the rose is destroyed by the canker1 which breeds in it, so are the souls of men destroyed by those sins in which they indulge. 1 That is, fungus.
THE BIBLE
2. Take heed of those thorns which will choke the word that is read. These thorns our Saviour expounds to be the cares of this world. Matt. 13.22. By "cares" is meant covetousness. A covetous man has such diversity of secular employment that he can scarcely find time to read, or if he does, what errors does he commit
in reading? While his eye is upon the Bible, his heart is upon the world; it is not the writings of the Apostles that he is so much taken up with, as the writing in his account books. Is this man likely to profit? You may as soon extract oil and syrup out of a flint, as for him to have any real benefit out of Scripture.
3. Take heed against jesting with Scripture; this is playing with fire. Some cannot be merry unless they make bold with God; when they are sad, they bring forth the Scripture as their harp to drive away the evil spirit, like a drunkard who having emptied his cups, calls to his fellows, "Give us your oil, for our lamps have gone out." In the fear of God, beware of this. King Edward IV would not allow his crown to be jested with, but executed anyone who said he would make his son heir to the Crown, meaning the sign of the Crown on his tavern. Much less will God allow us to jest with his word. Eusebius relates about someone who took a piece of Scripture to jest with, that God struck him with panic. The Lord may justly give over such persons to a reprobate mind. Rom. 1.23.
2. If you would profit, prepare your hearts for reading the word; the heart is an instrument that needs to be tuned. 1Sam 7.3: "Prepare your hearts to the Lord." The heathen, as Plutarch notes, thought it was indecent to be too hasty or rash in the service of their supposed deities. This preparation for reading consists in two things:
1. In summoning our thoughts together to attend to that solemn work we are about to do. Our thoughts are stragglers; therefore rally them together.
2. In purging those unclean affections which indispose us to reading. Before we come to the water of life, let us cast away the poison of impure affections. Many come rashly to the reading of the word; it is no wonder that if they come without preparation, they go away without profit.
3. Read the Scriptures with reverence; think about every line you read; God is speaking to you. The ark in which the law was put, was overlaid with pure gold, and was carried on bars, so that the Levites might not touch it. Ex. 25, Why was this if not to breed in the people a reverence for the law? When Ehud told Eglon he had a message for him
from God, Eglon arose from his throne. Judges 3.20, The written word is a message from Jehovah; we should receive it with that veneration.
4. Read the books of Scripture in order. Though circumstances may sometimes divert our method, yet, for a constant course, it is best to observe an order in reading. Order is a help to memory. We do not begin to read a friend's letter in the middle.
5. Get a right understanding of Scripture. Psalm 119.73: "Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments." Though there are some knots in Scripture which are not easily
THE BIBLE
untied, yet the Holy Ghost has plainly pointed out to us things essential to salvation. The knowledge of the sense of the Scriptures is the first step to profit. In the Law, Aaron was first to light the lamps, and then to burn the incense; the lamp of the understanding must first be lighted before the affections can be inflamed. Get what knowledge you can by comparing scriptures, by conferring with others, and by using the best annotators.1 Without knowledge, the Scripture is a sealed book; every line is too high for us; and if the word shoots above our head, it can never hit our heart.
6. Read the word with seriousness. If one goes over the Scripture cursorily, says Erasmus, there is little good to be got by it; but if he is serious in reading it, it is the savor of life; and we may well be serious if we consider the importance of those truths which are bound up in this sacred volume. Deut. 32.47: "It is not a vain thing for you; it is your life." If a letter were to be opened and read, in which a man's whole estate were concerned, how serious would he be in reading it? In the Scripture, our salvation is concerned; it addresses the love of Christ, a serious subject. Christ has loved mankind more than the angels that fell. Heb. 2.7. The loadstone, indifferent to gold and pearl, draws the iron to it; thus Christ passed by the angels, who were of more noble extraction, and drew mankind to himself. Christ loved us more than his own life; indeed, though we had a hand in his death, yet he would not leave us out of his will. This is a love that passes knowledge; who can read this without seriousness? The Scripture speaks of
the mystery of faith, the eternal recompenses, and the paucity of those who shall be saved. Matt. 20.16: "Few chosen." Someone said the names of all the good emperors of Rome might be engraved in a little ring; and there are but (comparatively) few names in the Book of Life. The Scripture speaks of striving for heaven as in an agony. Luke 13.24. It cautions us not to fall short of the promised rest. Heb. 4.1. It describes the horrors of the infernal torments, the worm, and the fire. Mark 9.44. Who can read this and not be serious? Some have light, feathery, spirits; they run over the most weighty truths in haste (like Israel who ate the Passover in haste); and so they are not benefited by the word. Read with a solemn, composed spirit. Seriousness is the Christian's ballast, which keeps him from being overturned with vanity.
7. Labor to remember what you read. Satan would steal the word out of our mind; not that he intends to make use of it himself, but lest we should make use of it. The memory should be like the chest in the ark, where the ark was put.2 Psa 119.52: "I remembered your judgments of old."
Jerome speaks of that religious lady, Paula, that she knew most of the Scriptures by heart; we are bid to have "the word dwell in us." Col. 3.16, The word is a jewel; it adorns the hidden man, and shall we not remember it? If the word does not stay in the memory, it cannot profit. Some can better remember a piece of news than a line of Scripture; their memories are like those ponds where the frogs live, but the fish die.
8. Meditate upon what you read. Psalm 119.15: "I will meditate on your precepts." The Hebrew word to meditate, signifies to be intense in the mind. In meditation there must be a fixing of the
1 That is, commentators such as Calvin, Matthew Henry, John Gill, etc. 2 Refers to 1Sam 6.4-8; the ark and the chest containing the gold guilt offerings were kept together.
THE BIBLE
thoughts upon the object. Luke 2.19: "Mary pondered those things." Meditation is the concoction of Scripture; reading brings a truth into our head, meditation brings it into our heart; reading and meditation, like Castor and Pollux,1 must appear together. Meditation without reading is erroneous; reading without meditation is barren. The bee sucks the flower, and then works it into the hive, and so turns it into honey. By reading, we suck the flower of the word; and by meditation, we work it into the hive of our mind, and so
it turns to our profit. Meditation is the bellows of the affection. Psalm 39.3: "While I was musing the fire burned." The reason we come away so cold from reading the word, is because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation.
9. Come to the reading of Scripture with humble hearts; acknowledge how unworthy you are that God would reveal himself in his word to you. God's secrets are with the humble. Pride is an enemy to profiting. It has been said that the ground on which the peacock sits is barren; that heart where pride sits is really barren. An arrogant person disdains the counsels of the word, and hates the reproofs: is he likely to profit? James 4.6: "God gives grace to the humble." The most eminent saints have been of low stature in their own eyes; like the sun at the zenith, they showed least when they were at the highest. David had "more understanding than all his teachers." Psalm 119.99: but how humble he was. Psalm 22.6: "I am a worm and no man."
10. Give credence to the written word; believe it is of God; see the name of God in every line. The Romans, so that they might gain credit for their laws, reported that they were inspired by the gods at Rome. Believe the Scriptures to be divinely inspired. 2Tim. 3.16: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." Who but God could reveal the great doctrines of the Trinity, the atonement of Jesus Christ for sinners, and the resurrection? From where would the Scriptures come, if not from God?
1. Sinners could not be the authors of Scripture. Would they indite2 such holy lines, or inveigh so fiercely against the sins which they love?
2. Saints could not be the authors of Scripture; how could it stand with their sanctity to counterfeit God's name, and put "thus says the Lord," to a book of their own devising?
3. Angels could not be the authors of Scripture. What angel in heaven dares impersonate God, and say, "I am the Lord?"
Believe that the pedigree of Scripture is sacred, and that it comes from the Father of light. The antiquity of Scripture speaks its divinity. No extant human history reaches further than Noah's flood; but the Scripture addresses things before time. Besides that, the majesty, profundity, purity and harmony of
1 In Greek and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux were twin brothers, together known as the Dioscuri. Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and Pollux was the divine son of Zeus. In Latin the twins are known as the Gemini. When Castor was killed, Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini.
2 Indite: to produce, compose, or write.
THE BIBLE
Scripture, show it could be breathed from none but God himself. Add to this the efficacy that the written word has upon men's consciences. By reading Scripture, they have been turned into other men, as may be instanced in Austin, Junius, and others. If you were to set a seal upon a piece of marble, and it left a print behind, you would say there was a strange virtue in that seed; so that, when the written word leaves a heavenly print of grace upon the heart, it argues that it is of divine authority. If you were to profit by the word, you must believe it is of God.
Some skeptics question the verity of Scripture. Though they have the articles of religion in their creed, yet they do not have it in their belief. Unbelief enervates1 the virtue of the word and makes it abortive.2 Who will obey truths that he does not believe? Heb. 4.2: "The word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith."
11. Highly prize the Scriptures. Psalm 119.72: "The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces." Can someone be proficient in any art if he slights and depreciates it? Prize this book of God above all other books. Gregory calls
the Bible the heart and soul of God. The Rabbies say that there is a mountain of sense upon every point and tittle of Scripture. Psalm 19.7: "The law of the Lord is perfect." The Scripture is the library of the Holy Ghost; it is a code of divine knowledge, an exact model and platform of religion. The Scripture contains in it the Credenda, the things which we are to believe, and the Agenda, the things which we are to practise; it is able to make us wise unto salvation. 2Tim. 3.15. The Scripture is the standard of truth, the judge of controversy; it is the pole star to direct us to heaven. The Scripture is the compass by which the rudder of our will is to be steered; it is the field in which Christ, the pearl of price, is hidden; it is a rock of diamond; it is a sacred Collyrium, or eye-salve; it mends the eyes of those who look upon it; it is a spiritual optic glass in which the glory of God is resplendent; it is the panacea, or universal medicine for the soul. The leaves of Scripture are like "the leaves of the tree of life for the healing of the nations." Rev. 22.2. The Scripture is the breeder and feeder of grace. How is the convert born, but by
"the word of truth?" James 1.18. How does he grow but by "the sincere milk of the word?" 1Peter 2.2. The written word is the book out of which our evidences for heaven are fetched; it is the sea-mark3 which shows us the rocks of sin; it is the antidote against error and apostasy; the two-edged sword which wounds the old serpent. It is our bulwark to withstand the force of lust, like the Capitol at Rome, which was a place of strength and ammunition. The Scripture is the tower of David on which the shields of our faith hang. Take away the word, and you deprive us of the sun, said Luther. The written word is above an angelical embassy, or a voice from heaven. 2 Peter 1.18: "We heard this voice which came from heaven; we also have a more sure word." If Caesar so valued his Commentaries, that in preserving them he lost his purple robe, how should we estimate the sacred oracles of God? Job 23.12: "I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." King Edward VI, on the day of his coronation, had three swords presented to him, signifying that he was monarch of three
1 Enervate: To reduce the strength or energy of something; debilitate. 2 Abortive: Failing to accomplish an intended result. 3 Seamark: an elevated object serving as a beacon to mariners of rocky shoals.
THE BIBLE
kingdoms. The King said there was one sword missing; being asked what that was, he answered, "the Holy Bible, which is the sword of the spirit, and it is to be preferred before all these ensigns of royalty." Robert, King of Sicily, so prized God's word that, speaking to his friend Petrarch, he said, "I protest that the Scriptures are dearer to me than my kingdom, and if I must be deprived of one of them, I would rather lose my diadem than the Scriptures."
12. Get an ardent love for the word. Prizing something relates to the judgment; love relates to the affections. Psalm 119.159: "Consider how I love your precepts." He is likely to grow rich who delights in his trade; a lover of learning will be a scholar. Austin tells us that before his conversion he took no pleasure in the Scriptures, but afterwards they were his delights. David thought the word was sweeter than the honey which drips from the comb. Thomas `a Kempis used to say he found no contentment except in a corner, with the book of God in his hand. Did Alphonsus, King of Sicily, recover from a fit of sickness because of the great pleasure he took in reading Quintus Curtius? 1 Then what infinite pleasure
we should take in reading the book of life! There is enough in the word to breed holy satisfaction and delight; it is a specimen and demonstration of God's holy love for us. The Spirit is God's love-token; the word is his love letter; and how one rejoices to read over his friend's letter! The written word is a divine treasury, or store-house. Truth is scattered in it like pearls to adorn the inner man of his heart. The written word is the true manna, which has all sorts of sweet taste in it. It is a sovereign elixir; it gives wine to those with a heavy heart. I have read of an ancient Rabbi, who, in a great concourse of people, proclaimed a sovereign cordial which he had to sell. Many resorted to him and asking him to show it, he opened the Bible, and directed them to several places of comfort in it. Holy David drank of this cordial; Psalm 119.50: "This is my comfort in my affliction; for your word has quickened me." Chrysostom compares the Scripture to a garden; every line in it is a fragrant flower which we should not wear in our pocket but in our heart.
Delight in the word causes profit: and we must not love only the comforts of the word, but the reproofs. Myrrh is bitter to the palate, but good for the stomach.
13. Come to the reading of the word with honest hearts. Christ speaks of the "honest heart." Luke 8.15.
What is it to read the word with an honest heart?
1. To come with a heart willing to know the whole counsel of God. A good heart would not have any truth concealed, but says as Job did: "What I do not see, teach me." When men pick and choose in religion, they will do some things that the word enjoins them from, but not others. These are unsound hearts, and they are not benefited by holy writ. These are like a patient, who having a bitter pill prescribed, and a mint julep, he will take the julep, but he refuses the pill.
2. To read the word with an honest heart is to read that we may be made better by it. The word is the medium and method of sanctification, and we come to it not only to illuminate but to consecrate ourselves. John 17.17: "Sanctify them through your truth." Some go to the Bible as
1 Probably Quintus Curtius Rufus, a 1st century Roman historian who wrote the Life of Alexander the Great.
THE BIBLE
one goes to the garden to pick flowers, i.e. for fine notions. Austin confesses that before his conversion
he went to hear Ambrose, more for the elegant speech and quaint notions, than for the spirituality of the matter. This is like a woman that paints her face, but neglects her health. But this is to have an honest heart: when we come to the Scriptures as Naaman came to the waters of the Jordan, to be healed of our leprosy. "O," says the soul, "that the sword of the spirit may pierce the rock of my heart; that this blessed word may have such a virtue in it as the water of jealousy, to kill and make fruitful, that it may kill my sin, and make me fruitful in grace." Num. 5.27.1
14. Learn to apply Scripture; take every word as spoken to yourselves. When the word thunders against sin, think this way: God means my sins; when it presses any duty, God intends me in this word. Many put off Scripture from themselves, as if it only concerned those who lived in the time when it was written; but if you intend to profit by the word, then bring it home to yourselves. A medicine will do no good unless it is applied. The saints of old took the word as if it had been spoken to them by name. When king Josiah heard the threatening which was
written in the book of God, he applied it to himself; he "rent his clothes and humbled his soul before the Lord." 2 Kings 22.11.
15. Observe the preceptive part of the word, as well as the promissory. The precepts carry duty in them, like the veins which carry the blood; the promises carry comfort in them, like the arteries which carry the spirit. Make use of the precepts to direct you, and the promises to comfort you. Those who keep their eye on the promise, while neglecting the command, are not edified by Scripture; they look more for comfort than duty. They mistake their comforts, just as Apollo embraced the laurel tree instead of Daphne.2 The body may be swelled with wind as well as flesh; a man may be filled with false comfort, as well as that which is genuine and real.
16. Let your thoughts dwell on the passages of Scripture that matter. The bee fastens on those flowers where she may suck the most sweetness. Though the whole context of Scripture is excellent, yet some parts of it may have a greater emphasis, and be more quick and pungent. Reading the names of the tribes, or the
THEBIBLE. 35
genealogies of the patriarchs, is not of the same importance as faith and the new creature. Mind the "great things of the law." Hosea 8.12. Those who read only to satisfy their curiosity, busy themselves, rather than profit themselves. Searching too far into Christ's temporal reign has weakened his spiritual reign in some men's hearts.
1 Num 5:27 `When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, that the water that brings a curse will enter her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman will become a curse among her people.
2 In Greek mythology, Apollo insulted the young god Eros for playing with bow and arrows. Eros took two arrows, one gold to incite love, and other lead to incite hatred. He shot Daphne with the lead arrow, and Apollo with the gold. Apollo was seized with love for the beautiful Daphne, but she abhorred him. Apollo chased her everywhere but Daphne fled from him. She asked her father, the River God, to change her form so she could stop running. He transformed her into a laurel tree. Apollo still embraced her branches, but even the branches shrank from him.
THE BIBLE
17. Compare yourself with the word. See how the Scripture and your hearts agree; how your dial goes with this sun. Are your hearts, as it were, a transcript and a counterpart of Scripture? Is the word copied out into your hearts? The word calls for humility; are you not only humbled, but also humble? The word calls for regeneration: John 3.7; do you have a change of heart? Is there not only a moral and partial change, but a spiritual change? Is there such a change wrought in you, that it is as if another soul lived in the same body? 1 Cor. 6.11: "Such were some of you, but you are washed, you are sanctified." The word calls for love toward the saints; 1Peter 1.22. Do you love grace where you see it? Do you love grace in a poor man as well as in a rich man? A son loves to see his father's picture, though hung in a poor frame.
Do you love grace even though it is mixed with some failings, just as we love gold even while it is in the ore? Bringing the rule of the word and our hearts together, to see how they agree, would prove very advantageous to us. By this we come to know the true complexion and state of our souls, and we see what evidences and certificates we have for heaven.
18. Take special notice of those Scriptures which speak to your particular case. If a person with consumption1 were to read Galen or Hippocrates,2 he would chiefly observe what they said about consumption. Great regard is to be had to those paragraphs of Scripture which are most appropriate to one's present case.
I will note three cases: 1. Affliction. 2. Desertion. 3. Sin.
1. Affliction. Has God made your chain heavy? Consult these Scriptures. Heb. 12.7: "If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons." Isaiah 27.9: "By this the iniquity of Jacob shall be purged." John 16.20: "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy." 2Cor. 4.17: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." The limner3 lays his gold on dark colors; God first lays the dark color of affliction, and then the golden color of glory.
2. Desertion. Are your spiritual comforts eclipsed? See Isaiah 54.8: "In a little wrath I hid my face from you, for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you." The sun may hide itself in a cloud, but it is not out of the firmament; God may hide his face, but he is not out of the covenant. Isaiah 57.16: "I will not be always angry, for the spirits would fail before me, and the souls which I have made." God is like the musician; he will not stretch the strings of his lute too hard, lest they break. Psalm 97.11: "Light is sown for the righteous." A saint's comfort may be hidden as seed is hidden under the clods of dirt; but at last it will spring up into a harvest of joy.
3. Sin.
1. Are you drawn away with lust? Read Gal. 5.24; James 1.15; 1Peter 2.11: "Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." Lust kills with embracing. Prov. 7.10, 22, 23; Prov. 22.14: "Go to the waters of the sanctuary to quench the fire of lust."
1 That is, tuberculosis or other wasting lung disease. 2 Famous physicians of Rome and Greece respectively. 3 An illuminator: a painter who overlays his artwork or portraiture with gold paint, thus gilding it.
THE BIBLE
2. Are you under the power of unbelief? Read Isaiah 26.3: "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." Mr. Boltor speaks of a distressed soul who found much comfort from this Scripture on his sick bed. 2 Samuel 22.31: "The word of the Lord is tested; he is a buckler to all that trust in him." John 3.15: "That whoever believes in him should not perish." Unbelief is a God-affronting sin. 1John 5.10: "He that does not believe God has made him a liar." It is a soul-murdering sin. John 3.36: "He that does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Thus, in reading, observe those Scriptures which touch upon your particular case. Although all of the Bible must be read, yet be sure to put a special star upon those texts which point most directly to your condition,.
19. Take special notice of the examples in Scripture; make the examples of others living sermons to you.
1. Observe the examples of God's judgments upon sinners. They have been hanged up in chains, as a terror. How severely God has punished proud men!
Nebuchadnezzar was turned to eat grass; Herod was eaten up with vermin. How God has plagued idolaters! Numbers 25.3, 4, 9; 1Kings 14.9, 10. What a swift witness he has been against liars! Acts 5.5, 10. These examples are set up as sea-marks to avoid. 1Cor. 10.11; Jude 7.
2. Observe the examples of God's mercy to saints. Jeremiah was preserved in the dungeon; the three children in the furnace; Daniel in the lion's den. These examples are props to our faith, and spurs to holiness.
20. Do not stop reading in the Bible, till you find your hearts warmed. Psalm 119.93: "I will never forget your precepts, for you have made me alive with them." Read the word not only as a history, but strive to be affected with it. Let it not only inform you, but inflame you. Jer. 23.29: "Is not my word like a fire?" says the Lord. Do not go from the word till you can say as those disciples said, Luke 24.32: "Did our hearts not burn within us?"
21. Begin the practice of what you read. Psalm 119.66: "I have done your commandments." A student in medicine does
not satisfy himself to read over a system or body of medicine, but he begins its practice. The lifeblood of religion lies in the practical part. So it is in this text: "He shall read in the book of the law all the days of his life, so that he may learn to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them." Christians should be walking Bibles. Xenophon said many read the laws of Lycurgus,1 but few observed them. The written word is not only a rule of knowledge, but a rule of obedience; it is not only to mend our sight but to mend our pace. David calls God's word a "lamp to his feet." Psalm 119.105. It was not only a light to his eyes to see by, but to his feet to walk by; by practice we trade the talent of knowledge, and turn it to profit. This is a blessed reading of the Scriptures, when we fly from the sins which the word forbids, and espouse the
1 Xenophon was a Greek historian of Athens ca. 400 B.C.; Lycurgus was the lawgiver of Sparta ca. 800 B.C., who established the military-oriented reformation of Spartan society. All his reforms were directed towards the three Spartan virtues: equality (among citizens), military fitness, and austerity.
THE BIBLE
duties which the word commands. Reading without practice will be but a torch to light men to hell.
22. Make use of Christ's prophetical office. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah, to whom it is given to open the book of God, and loose its seals. Rev. 5.5.
Christ so teaches, as he enlivens. John 8.12.1 The philosopher says, light and heat increase together. It is true here: where Christ comes into the soul with his light, there is the heat of spiritual life going along with it. Christ gives us a taste of his word: "You have taught me how sweet your words are to my taste." Psalm 119.102, 103. It is one thing to read a promise, and another to taste it. Those who would be proficient in Scripture, let them get Christ to be their teacher. Luke 24.45: "Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." Christ not only opened the Scriptures, but he opened their understanding.
23. Tread often upon the threshold of the sanctuary. Wait diligently upon a rightly constituted ministry. Prov 8.34: "Blessed is the man who hears me, watching daily at my gates." Ministers are God's interpreters; it is their work to open and expound dark places in Scripture. We read of pitchers and lamps within those pitchers. Judges 7.16. Ministers are earthen pitchers. 2Cor. 4.7. But these pitchers have lamps within them to light souls in the dark.
24. Pray that God will make you profit. Isaiah 48.17: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit." Make David's prayer: "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." Psalm 119.18. Pray to God to take the veil off the Scriptures, so that you may understand it; and the veil on your heart, so that you may believe it. Pray that God will not only give you his word as a rule of holiness, but his grace as a principle of holiness. Implore the guidance of God's Spirit. Neh. 9.20: "You gave them your good Spirit to instruct them." Though the ship has a compass to sail by, and a store of tackle, yet without a gale of wind it cannot sail. Though we have the written word as our compass to sail by, and we make use of our endeavors as the tackle, yet unless the Spirit of God blows on us, we cannot sail with profit. When the Almighty is like dew to us, then "we grow as the lily, and our beauty is like the olive tree." Hosea 14.5, 6: by the anointing of the Holy Ghost. One may see the figures on a sun-dial, but he cannot tell how
the day goes unless the sun shines. We may read many truths in the Bible, but we cannot know them savingly till God's Spirit shines into our souls. 2Cor. 4.6. The Spirit is a Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Eph. 1.17. When Philip joined himself to the eunuch's chariot, then the eunuch understood the Scriptures. Acts 8.35. When God's Spirit joins himself to the word, then it will be effectual to salvation. These rules being observed, the written word would, through God's blessing, become an "engrafted word." James 1.21. A good shoot grafted into a bad stock, changes the nature of the stock, and makes it bear sweet and generous fruit. So when the word is grafted savingly into men's hearts, it sanctifies them, and makes them bring forth the sweet "fruits of righteousness." Phil. 1.11.
1 John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
THE BIBLE
Thus I have answered this question, how we may read the Scriptures with the most spiritual profit. In conclusion,
1. Do not content yourselves with the bare reading of the Scriptures, but labor to find some spiritual improvement and profit from it. Get the word transcribed into your hearts. Psalm 37.31: "The law of his God is in his heart."
Those who profit by reading the book of God are the best Christians alive; they answer God's cost, they credit religion, and they save their souls.
2. Those of you who have profited by reading the Holy Scriptures, adore God's distinguishing grace. Bless God that he has not only brought the light to you, but opened your eyes to see it; that he has unlocked his hidden treasure, and enriched you with saving knowledge. Some perish by not having Scripture, and others by not improving it. Bless God that he should pass by millions, and the lot of his electing love should fall upon you; that the Scripture, like the pillar of cloud, should have a dark side to others, but a light side to you; that to others it is a dead letter, but to you it is the savor of life; that Christ should not only be revealed to you, but in you; Gal. 1.16. — You should be in an holy ecstacy of wonder, and wish that you had the hearts of seraphims burning in love toward God, and the voices of angels to make heaven ring with God's praises!
But some of the godly may say they fear that they do not profit by the word they read. As in the body, when the vital spirits become faint,
cordials1 are employed. So let me apply a few divine cordials to those who are ready to faint under the fear of their non-proficiency [in the Scriptures].
1. You may profit by reading the word, even though you come short of others. The ground which brought forth thirty-fold was good ground. Matt. 13.8. Do not say you obtained no profit because you are not equal with other eminent saints; the others among David's worthies were considered his strong men, even though they did not attain the honor of the first three. 2Sam. 23.19.
2. You may profit by reading the word, even though you are not quick to apprehend. Some impeach themselves because they are slow of understanding. When our blessed Saviour told of his sufferings to come, the apostles themselves did not understand, and it was hidden from them. Luke 9.45. The author to the Hebrews speaks of some who were dull of hearing. Heb. 5.11. Those who have weaker judgments may have stronger affections. A Christian with a little knowledge may be kept from sin, like a man with weak sight may be kept by a little knowledge from falling into the water.
3. You may profit by reading Scripture, although you do not have excellent memories. Many complain that their memories leak. Christian, are you grieved that you can no longer remember? Then for your comfort,
1. You may have a good heart, even though you do not have so good a memory.
1 Cordial: a strong highly flavored sweet liquor, usually drunk after a meal.
THE BIBLE
2. Though you cannot remember all you read, yet you remember what matters most, and what you most need; at a feast we do not eat every dish, but we take only so much as nourishes. It is with a good Christian's memory as it is with a lamp: though the lamp is not full of oil, yet it has enough oil to make the lamp burn; though your memory is not full of Scripture, yet you retain enough to make your love towards God burn.
So then, be of good comfort. You profit by what you read, and you take note of that encouraging Scripture, John 14.26: "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, he shall bring all things to your remembrance." Amen.
SECRET PRAYER SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED
BY REV. SAMUEL LEE
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH The Rev. Samuel Lee, A. M., of Wadham
College, Oxford, minister of St.
Botolph, Bishopsgate.
The Rev. Samuel Lee was born in London, in 1627; his father was an eminent citizen, greatly esteemed for his private virtues, and lived to a good old age. He appears to have been a man of considerable property. Samuel was educated at St. Paul's School, under Dr. Gale, and then entered Wadham College, where he studied under the direction of Dr. Wilkins, afterwards the excellent Bishop of Chester. He made great attainments in knowledge and piety, and was so
highly esteemed as to be chosen fellow of his college and proctor of the university. No doubt can be entertained respecting his religion or literature, when it is stated that he served as proctor in 1656, when Dr. Owen was Vice Chancellor.
In the following year he composed his Temple of Solomon, which he printed in folio, at the request and expense of the University. His reputation as a preacher led him to London, and he was inducted to the living of St. Botolph, the rectory of which was £355 per annum. Here he labored with usefulness and acceptance to his parish, till his ejectment in 1662, by the Bartholomew Act. Mr. Lee was, in his view of Church discipline, a Congregationalist, but eminent for the display of charity and catholic spirit. After this trial we find him minister of an independent congregation, at Newington Green, near London. But the
persecution of the Church party continuing, he determined to escape from the tender mercies of the cruel, and in 1686, he embarked for New England, where he was received with attention and respect, and soon became pastor of the Church at Bristol, R. I., where he labored for three years. Upon hearing of the glorious revolution of 1688, and wishing to enjoy its fruits, and obtain his valuable estate, he became so desirous to return, that he embarked with his family in midwinter. He sailed from Boston for England in the Dolphin, with Capt. John Foy. The passage was very tedious, owing to the prevalence of easterly winds; and at length, on the coast of Ireland, they fell in with a French privateer. After a severe resistance, and when in great danger of sinking, they were compelled to surrender; and the Dolphin was carried as a prize to St. Maloes, in France.
After some detention, his wife and daughter and two servants were sent to England by the king's order, while he was retained a prisoner. Grief at the loss of his family, and his solitary condition in a strange land, brought on a fever of which he died in a few days, aged 64.
SECRET PRAYER SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED.
"But when you pray, enter into your closet,1 and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father
which is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret, shall reward you openly." — Matt. 6.6.
We have here our blessed Lord's instructions for the management of secret prayer, the crown and glory of a child of God.
I. The direction prescribes three things for our deportment in this secret duty:
1. Enter your closet; this word signifies a secret or recluse habitation, and sometimes it is rendered a hiding place for treasure.
2. "Shut your door'' or lock it, as the word intimates. The Greek word furnishes the term "key," as appears by Rev. 3.7, and 20.1, 3, implying that we must bar or bolt it.
3. "Pray to your Father which is in secret.'' "Father." Tertullian notes this name as intimating holy piety and power; "your Father" denoting intimacy and propriety.
II. [It is] a gracious promise which may be branched into three parts:
1. Because your Father sees you in secret, his eye is upon you with a gracious aspect when you are withdrawn from all the world.
2. He will reward you. The word used here is sometimes translated as rendering, Matt. 22.21, Rom. 2.6; 13.7; as delivering, Matt, 27.53; Luke 9.42; as yielding, or affording, Heb. 12.11; Rev. 22.2. All of which comes to this: he will return your prayers or your requests, amply and abundantly into your bosom.2
3. He will do it openly and manifestly – before the world sometimes – and most plentifully and exuberantly before men and angels at the great day. Secret prayers shall have open and public answers.
III. Here is a demonstration of sincerity, from the right performance of the duty set forth by the antithesis in the fifth verse. "But you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, so that they may be seen by men." Do not enter your house only, or your common room, but your closet – the most secret and retired privacy, so that others may neither discern you there, nor rush in
suddenly upon you. God will answer you and perform your request, as a gracious response to your secret sincerity. God is pleased by his promise to make himself a debtor to secret prayer. Such prayer brings nothing to God but empty hands and naked hearts. This is to show that reward, in a Scriptural sense, does not flow in on the streams of merit, but it flows out of grace. It is monkish divinity to assert otherwise; for what merit, strictly taken, can there be in prayer? Merely asking for mercy cannot merit it at the hands of God. Malachi 2.3. Our most sincere petitions are impregnated with sinful mixtures. We halt, like Jacob, both in and after our best and strongest wrestlings. But such is the grace of our heavenly Father, who sees the sincerity of our
1 "Closet" refers to an inner private room, or secluded chamber, that may be closed off from other rooms. 2 The "heart;" the place where secret thoughts are kept; a close affectionate and protective acceptance.
hearts in secret, that he is pleased to accept us in his Beloved, and to smell a sweet savor in the fragrant perfumes and aromas of His intercession.
Though I might draw many notes from this, I will treat only one, containing the marrow and nerves of the text: that secret prayer, duly managed, is the mark of a sincere heart, and it has the promise of a gracious return.
Prayer is the soul's colloquy1 with God, and secret prayer is a conference with God upon admission into the privy chamber of heaven. When you have shut your own closet, when God and your soul are alone, with this key you open the chambers of paradise, and enter the closet of divine love. When you are immured2 as in a curious labyrinth, apart from the tumultuous world, and entered into that garden of Lebanon in the midst of your closet; your soul, like a spiritual Daedalus,3 takes to itself the wings of faith and prayer, and flies into the midst of heaven, among the cherubims. I may call secret prayer the invisible flight of the soul into the bosom of God; out of this heavenly closet rises Jacob's ladder, whose rounds are all of light; its foot stands upon the basis of the Covenant in your heart, its top reaches the throne of grace. When your inner self has instructed you in the night season with holy petitions, when your soul has desired God in the night, then you will you seek him early with your spirit within. When the door of your heart is shut, and the windows of your eyes are sealed up from all vain and worldly objects, then up you mount; and
you have a place given you to walk among the angels that stand by the throne of God. Zech. 3.7. In secret prayer, the soul, like Moses, is in the back-side of the desert, and it talks with the angel of the covenant in the fiery bush. Ex. 3. Here's Isaac in the field at dusk,4 meditating and praying to the God of his father Abraham. Gen. 24.63. Here's Elijah under the juniper tree at Rithmah in the wilderness, and shortly after in the cave, hearkening to the still small voice of God. 1Kings 19.4, 12. Here's Christ and the spouse alone in the wine-cellar, and the banner of love over her, and she utters but half-words, having drunk of the sober excess of the spirit. Cant. 2.4. Eph. 5.18. Here we find Nathaniel under the fig-tree, though it may be at secret prayer, yet it is under a beam of the eye of Christ. John 1.48. There sits Austin in the garden alone, sighing with the Psalmist, "How long, O Lord," and listening to the voice of God, take up the Bible and read. (Confessions, 1st book, 8th chapter.) It is true, hypocrites may pray, and pray alone, and pray long, and receive their reward from whichever observations they desire; but a hypocrite takes no sincere delight in secret devotion;
he has no spring of affection toward God. But O my dove that is in the clefts of the rock, says Christ, let me hear your voice, for its melody is sweet. A weeping countenance and a wounded spirit are most beautiful prospects to the eye of heaven – when a broken heart pours out repentant tears like streams from the rock struck by the rod of Moses' law, held in the hand of a mediator.
1 Colloquy: a formal conversation. 2 Confined or locked away; here it may also suggest lost, in a good sense – or mesmerized. 3 Greek mythology: Daedalus was an Athenian inventor who built the labyrinth of Minos; to escape the labyrinth he fashioned wings for himself and his son Icarus (whose wings melted when he flew too close to the sun).
4 Originally, 'eventide.'
O how amiable in the sight of God is the cry, "Out of the depths have I cried unto you;" which Chrysostom glosses thus: to "draw sighs from the furrows of the heart." Let your prayer become a hidden mystery of divine secrets, like good Hezekiah upon the bed with his face to the wall so that none might observe him; or like our blessed Lord, that grand example, who retired into mountains and solitudes apart, and saw by night the illustrious face of his heavenly Father in prayer.
The reasons why secret prayer is the mark of a sincere heart, are as follows:
1. Because a sincere heart busies itself about heart work, to mortify sin, to quicken grace, to observe and resist temptation, to secure and advance his evidences; therefore it is very
conversant with secret prayer. The glory of the king's daughter shines within, arrayed with clothes of gold,Ps 45.11-13 but they are the spangled and glittering hangings of the closet of her heart when she entertains communion with her Lord. The more a saint converses with his own heart, the more he searches his spiritual wants, and feels his spiritual joys.
2. Because a sincere heart aims at the eye of God, he knows that God, being a spirit, loves to converse with our spirits, and to speak to the heart more than to the outward ear. He labors to walk before God as always in his sight, but especially when he presents himself at the footstool of mercy. An invisible God is delighted with invisible prayers, when no eye sees but his. He takes most pleasure in the secret glances of a holy heart.
But no more of this; let us descend to the question deducible from the text, a question of no less importance than daily use, and of particular concern to the growth of every Christian. How to manage secret prayer so that it may be prevalent with God, to the comfort and satisfaction of the soul?
For method's sake, I shall divide it into two branches.
I. How to manage secret prayer, so that it may prevail with God.
II. How to discern and discover answers to secret prayer, so that the soul may acquiesce and be satisfied that it has prevailed with God.
Before I handle these, I would briefly prove the DUTY AND ITS USEFULNESS, leaving some cases about its attendants and circumstances towards the close.
As to the DUTY itself, the text is plain and distinct in the point; yet further observe in Solomon's prayer, that if any man apart from the community of the people of Israel presents his supplication to God, he prays there for a gracious and particular answer; and we know Solomon's prayer was answered by fire,1 and so we learn there is a promise given to personal prayer. 1Kings 8.38, 39. 2Chr. 6.29, 30. 2Chr. 7.1. And that is besides the many special and particular injunctions to individual persons, such as Job 22.27, and 33.26. Psalm 32.6. 2 Wives as well as husbands are to pray apart, Zech. 12.14, solitary, by themselves. James 5.13.
1 i.e. The Scripture is clear that Solomon's prayer was acceptable to God because the sacrifice was accepted. 2 Job 22:27 You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, And you will pay your vows. Job 33:26 He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him, He shall see His face with joy, For He restores to man His
We may argue this point from the constant practice of the holy saints of God in all ages, but especially of our blessed Lord; and it is our wisdom to walk in the way of good men, and to keep the paths of the righteous, such as Abraham, Eliezer, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Hannah, Hezekiah, David, and Daniel. The time would fail me to bring in the cloud of witnesses. We sometimes find our Lord at prayer in a desert, in a mountain, in a garden; Cornelius was in his house, and Peter was upon the house-top, in secret supplication to God.
There is the experience of God's gracious presence, and answers that are sent upon secret prayer, as in the stories of Eliezer, Jabez, Nehemiah, Zechariah, Cornelius and Paul. For this reason, because David was heard, everyone that is godly will pray to him.
I might urge the USEFULNESS, no, in some cases the necessities, of secret applications to God.
1. Are we not guilty of secret sins in the light of God's countenance, that cannot, and ought not to be confessed before others, because near relations are exhorted to
secret and solitary duties? Zech. 12.12. 1Cor. 7.4. 1
2. Are there not personal wants that we would prefer to [express to] God alone?