all. DocT. Secret prayer is a necessary duty incumbent on In difcourfing from this fubject, I shall, 1. Confirm the doctrine. II. Shew the neceffity of fecret prayer. III. Answer fome cafes relating to this duty, in order to clear it further to you. IV. Make fome practical improvement. I. I am to confirm the doctrine, or fhew that fecret prayer is a neceffary duty incumbent on all. This will be clear, if ye confider, 1. Chrift's exprefs command in the text, which is to us instead of all reafons. His will is a fufficient ground of our duty. He commands nothing but what is juft and right in itself, good for us, and conducive to his glory. And the command of God fhould be a prevalent motive with all to practise conftantly this duty, which is attended with fo much pleasure and profit. 2. The Spirit of God by the apoftle, Eph. vi. 18. calls for it, Pray with all praying, viz. all forts of prayer, of which fecret prayer is one. There are many exhortations to this duty in holy fcripture, which manifeftly fhew the importance and neceffity of it; fuch as that, Theff. v. 17. Pray without ceafing; which muft denote fecret prayer, as well as other kinds of that exercife. 3. The practice of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who hath fet a fair and friking example of this duty to all his followers. He was in ftrict propriety a man of prayer, and spent much time in this delightful exercise ; as we may fee from Matth. xiv. 23. And when he had fent the multitude away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray and when the evening was come, he was there alone. Mark i. 35. And in the morning, rifing up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a folitary place. and there prayed. Thus he retired from his pu forgive our debtors. There may be much selfishness in praying for those that love us; but that kindly concern for our enemies makes us liker God, Matth. v. 45. SIXTHLY, For what are we to pray? We are to pray for things agreeable to God's revealed will, and for fuch things only, 1 John v. 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. We may not prefent unto God unlawful defires, nor petitions in favour of our lufts, Jam. iv. 3. These muft needs be an abomination, and a daring affront to a holy God. And indeed wicked things are fo much the more wicked, as they are brought into our addreffes to a holy God. The matter of our prayers must be regulated by the word of God, wherein he has fhewn what is pleasing to him, and what is not fo. The fignification of God's will and good pleasure as the good to be beftowed on men, and our prayers, are to be of equal extent. Wherefore let us fée that whatever we pray for be within the compafs of the command or the proInife. Such are all things tending to the glory of God, Matth. vi, 9. or to the welfare of the church, Pfal. cxxii. 6. to our own good, temporal, fpiritual, or eternal, Matth. vii. 11. or that of others, Pfal. cxxv. 4. SEVENTHLY, How are we to pray, if we would pray rightly and acceptably? 1. Understandingly, underftanding what we fay, 1 Cor. xiv. 15. Therefore they must be in a known tongue. And to repeat words before God, while we know not what they mean, can never be prayer indeed. 2. Reverently, Eccl. v. 1. We must maintain an outward reverence in expreflion, voice, and gefture, fince in prayer we are before the great God: an inward reverence especially, having an awful apprehenfion of the majefty of God, before whom we appear, Pfal. Ixxxix. 7. Heb. xii. 28. Fear and trembling becomes a creature, much more a guilty creature, before a holy God. And fearless prefumptuous addresfes to God are the produce of a hard heart. 3. Humbly, Pfal. x. 17. with a deep fense of our own unworthiness and finfulness on our fpirits. In prayer we come to beg, not to buy or demand our right, and therefore fhould be fenfible of unworthinefs, Gen. xxxii. 10. and the more grace, the more unworthy will we be in our own eyes, Gen. xviii. 27. And going to God, we must turn our eyes inward with the publican (Luke xviii. 14.) on our own evils of heart and life. 4. Feelingly, being deeply affected with a fenfe of our needs, like the prodigal, Luke xv. 17. 18. 19. Alas! what does it avail to go to God with an infenfible heart, to fit down at his table without fpiritual hunger, to come to his door rich and increafed with goods, in our own conceit? Such are fent empty away. Therefore it is a piece of very neceffary preparation for prayer, to look over our wants, ere we go to prayer. 5. Believingly, Matth. xxi. 22. All things whatfoever ye shall afk in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. He who prays acceptably must be endued with faving faith, Heb. xi. 6. An unbeliever cannot pray acceptably, Rom. x. 14. Hence the prayers of the unrenewed man are all loft in refpect of gracious acceptance. Moreover, the believer must be in the exercife of faith in prayer, which must be mixed with faith. One must have a faith of particular confidence in prayer, as to the things prayed for, Mark xi. 24. What things foever ye defire when ye pray, believe that je receive them, and ye shall receive them. For where that is altogether wanting, the prayer can never be accepted, Jam. i. 6. Let him afk in faith nothing wavering. Since it muft needs be highly dishonouring to God, to come to him to afk, without any expectation from or trust in him, as to what is afked. Quest. How may one have that faith? Anf. By applying the promises, and believing them. If the things be abfolutely neceffary, the promise makes these very things fure to them who come to God through Chrift for them, as peace, pardon, &c. If they be not, then the promife fecures God's doing the beft, that either he will give the very thing defired, or what is as good. And we are to believe accordingly. 6. Sincerely, Pfal. cxlv. 18. Hypocrify and diffimulation in prayer, when the heart goes not along with the lips, mars the acceptance of prayers. There are feigned lips, Pfal. xvii. 1. when the affections do not keep pace with the words in prayer, when fin is confeffed, but the heart not humbled under it; petitions are put up, but no ferious defire of the things afked. See Jer. xxix. 13. 7. Fervently, Jam. v. 16. Cold, lifelefs, and formal prayers are not of the right ftamp. We should as in a moft weighty matter be boiling hot, Rom. xii. 11. Importunity in prayer is most pleasing to God. It confifts not in a multitude of words, Matth. vi. 7. but in a holy earneftnefs of heart to be heard, Pfal. cxliii. 7. and pleading with the Lord by allowable arguments, as one who is in deep earneft, Job xxiii. 4. A heart warmed with a live-coal from God's altar will produce this. 8. Watchfully; watching unto prayer, as in the text; taking need to our fpirits, that they do not wander. Wandering thoughts in prayer mar many prayers. They come on like the fowls on the carcafe, and will devour it, if not driven away. A carnal frame of heart is the mother of them, and rafh indeliberate approaches to God help them forward. In that cafe one fhould be like the builders of the wall, having the trowel in the one hand, and the fword in the other, refolutely to refift vain thoughts, and refufe to harbour them. Nay turn the cannon on the enemy, confider them as affording new matter of humiliation, and a clamant occafion of plying the throne of grace more clofely. If they be ftriven againft, they will not mar your acceptance; but if not, they will. 9: Perfeveringly; watching thereunto with all perfeverance, as in the text. When we have tabled our fuit before the throne, we must not let it fall, but infift upon it, Luke xviii. 1. Hold on, with one petition, one prayer on the back of another, till it be granted, If. lxii. 1. In due time ye fhall reap, if ye faint not. Lastly, Dependingly, waiting upon the Lord with humble fubmiffion to his holy will, and looking for an answer, Micah vii. 7. We must come away in a waiting depending frame. No wonder thofe prayers be not regarded which we never look after, and are not concerned for the answer of. EIGHTHLY, Are all fuch prayers accepted, heard, and answered? 1. An unrenewed man cannot thus pray, neither are fuch a one's prayers at any time accepted, Prov. xv. 8. The facrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. John ix. 31. God heareth not finners. 2. God's own people do not always thus pray, neither are all their prayers accepted. For, fays the pfalmift, Pfal. lxvi. 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. 3. But all fuch prayers, being the produce of God's Spirit in the faints, are prefented by the Mediator, and are accepted, heard, and anfwered by the Father, though not presently answered, Pfal. xxii. 2. yet they fhall be answered in due time, either by granting the very thing defired, 1 John v. 15. or fomething as good, Gen. xvii. 18. 19. 2 Cor. xii. 8. 9. SECONDLY, The fecond part of prayer is confeffion of our fins. Here we fhall fhew, I. What fins we are to confefs. 2. The neceffity of confeffion. 3. How we are to confefs fin. First, The fins we are to confefs are original and |