Composed prayer distinguished as secret or social 1/2

           Second Distinction.  What we have called composed prayer may be distinguished as either soli­tary, or social—performed jointly with others.  It is designated composed, because the Christian compos­eth himself more solemnly to the work by setting some considerable time apart from his other occa­sions, for his more free and full communion with God in prayer.  We begin with the first of these.

           First. Secret Prayer.  When the Christian re­tireth into some secret place, free from all company, and there pours out his soul into the bosom of God, none being witness to this trade he drives with heaven but God and himself.  I shall here, 1. Prove this to be a duty incumbent upon us; and, 2. Give the reasons why.

Secret prayer a duty, and the reasons why

1. I shall prove secret or closet prayer to be a duty incumbent upon us.  That is it is the Christian’s duty secretly and solitarily to hold intercourse with God in prayer, I believe will be granted of more than practise it.  Even those that are strangers to the per­formance thereof carry in their own bosom that which will accuse them for their neglect, except by long looking on the light, and rebelling against the same, their foolish minds be darkened and have lost all sight and sense of a deity.  If any prayer be a duty, then secret prayer needs be one.  This is to all the other as the carinaor keel is to the ship—it bears up all the rest.  If we look into the practice of Scripture saints, we shall find them all to have been great dealers with God in this trade of secret prayer.  Abra­ham had his ‘grove,’ whither he retired to ‘call on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God,’ Gen. 21:33. Neither was Rebekah a stranger to this duty, who, upon the babes struggling in her womb, ‘went to inquire of the Lord,’ Gen. 25:22, which, saith Calvin, was to pray in secret.  Jacob is famous for his wres­tling, as it were hand to hand, with God in the night. Holy David’s life was little else, he ‘gave himself to prayer,’ Ps. 109:4.  Allow but some time spent by him for nature’s refection and the necessary occasions of his public employment—which yet came in but as a parenthesis—and you will find most of the rest laid out in meditation and prayer, as appears, Ps. 119.  We have Elias at prayer under the juniper tree, Peter on the leads, Cornelius in a corner of his house; yea, our blessed Saviour—whose soul could have fasted long­est without any inward impair through the want of this repast—yet none more frequent in it.  Early in the morning he is praying alone, Mark 1:35, and late in the evening, Matt. 14:23.  And this was his usual prac­tice, as may be gathered from Luke 22:39 compared with Luke 21:37.  Thus Christ sanctified this duty by his own example.  Yea, we have a sweet promise to the due performance of it—and God doth not use to promise a reward for that work which he command­eth us not to do—but ‘when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly,’ Matt. 6:6. Where our Saviour takes it for granted that every child of God will be often praying to his heavenly Fa­ther; and therefore he rather encourageth them in the work he seeth them about, than commands them to it.  ‘I know you cannot live without prayer.’  Now, when you would give God a visit, ‘enter into thy closet,’ &c.  But why must the Christian maintain this secret intercourse with God?
2. I shall give the reasons why secret or closet prayer is incumbent upon us.

           (1.) In regard of God.  He hath an eye to see our secret tears, and an ear to hear our secret groans; therefore we ought to pour them out to him in secret. It is a piece of gross super­stition to bind this only to place or company: ‘I will,’ saith the apostle, ‘that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands,’ &c., I Tim. 2:8.  God is everywhere to be found, at church and at home, with our family and our closet; and therefore we are to pray everywhere.  O what a comfort it is to a gracious soul, that he can never be out of God’s sight or hearing, wherever he is thrown, and therefore never out of his care! for it is out of sight out of mind.  This comforted holy David.  His friends and kins­men, they, alas! were afar off.  He might lie upon his sick-bed, and cry till his heart ached, and not make them hear.  But see how he pacifies himself in this solitude, ‘Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee,’ Ps. 38:9.  Little thought Jacob that he had a son prisoner in Egypt, laden there with irons that entered into his soul.  But he had a God that was nigh unto him all the time of his dis­tress, and heard the cry of the poor prisoner, though his earthly father never dreamed of any such matter.