And yet they obtain pardon; and though they plead not a man's cause, yet they obtain mercy at the hands of God. As you see in that great instance of Peter, who though he said nothing, (that we read of) yet, weeping bitterly, he obtained mercy. I have read of Augustine, who coming as a visitant into the house of a sick man, he saw the room full of friends and kindred, who were all silent, yet all weeping; the wife sobbing, the children sighing, the kinsfolk lamenting, all mourning; whereupon Augustine uttered this short ejaculatory prayer, "Lord, what prayer dost thou hear if not these ?" Psalm vi. 9. "The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer." God sometimes answers his people before they pray, Isa. lxv. 24. "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer." sometimes while they are praying; so it follows in the same verse, “And while they are yet speaking, I will hear. So Isa. xxx. 19. "He will be very gracious unto thee, at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee." And sometimes after they have prayed; as the experience of all christians can testify. Sometimes God neither hears nor receives a prayer; and this is the common case and lot of the wicked, Prov. i. 18. Job xxvii. 9. Isa. i. 15. Sometimes God hears the prayers of his people, but doth not presently answer them, as in that case of Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8, 9. And sometimes God both hears and receives the prayers of his people, as here he did David's. Now in this instance of David's as in a glass, you may run and read the prevalency of private or secret prayer. You may take another Instance of this in Jonah, Jonah ii. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10. “Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly, and said, I cried by reason of my affliction, unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried. I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, into the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about, all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapt about my head. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee, into thy holy temple. And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." When Jonah was all alone, and in the midst of many dangers and deaths; when he was in the Whale's belly, yea, in the belly of hell, yet then private prayer fetches him from thence. Let a man's dangers be ever so many, or ever so great, yet secret prayer hath a certain omnipotency in it, that will deliver him out of them all. In multiplied afflictions private prayer is most prevalent with God. In the very midst of drowning, secret prayer will keep both head and heart above water. Upon Jonah's private prayer, God sends forth his mandamus, and the fish serves Jonah for a ship to sail safe to shore. When the case is even desperate, yet then private prayer can do much with God. Private prayer is of that power that it can open the doors of Leviathan, as you see in this great instance; which is reckoned very difficult. Job xli. 14. Another instance of the prevalency of private prayer you have in 2 Kings iv. 32-35. "And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord. Privacy is a good help to fervency in prayer, and he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands, and he stretched himself upon the child, and the child waxed warm. Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro, and went up and stretched himself upon him ; and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes." O! the power, the prevalency, the omnipotency of private prayer, that raises the dead to life! And the same effect had the private prayer of Elijah in rising the widow's son of Zarephath to life, 1 Kings xvii. 18. The great prevalency of Moses's private prayers you may read in the following scriptures Num. xi. 1, 2. "And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord, and the Lord heard it; and his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost part of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched." Moses by private prayer rules and overrules with God: he was so potent with God in private prayer that he could have what he would. So Num. xxi 7, 8, 9. Psalm cvi. 23. Exo. xxxi. 9-14. xiv. 15, 16, 17. The same you may see in Nehemiah, Neh. i. 11. compared with Neh. ii. 4-8. So Luther perceiving the cause of God and the work of reformation greatly, straitened, and in danger, he went into his closet, and never left wrestling with God, till he had received a gracious answer from heaven; upon which he comes out of his closet to his friends leaping and triumphing with vicimus, vicimus, we have overcome, we have overcome, in his mouth. At which time it is observed, that there came a proclamation from Charles the fifth, that none should be further molested for the profession of the gospel. At another time Luther being in private prayer, for a sick friend of his (who was very comfortable and useful to him) had a particular answer for his recovery: whereupon he was SO confident, that he sent word to his friend, that he should certainly recover; and so it fell out accordingly. And so Latimer prayed with great zeal for three things, 1. That Queen Elizabeth might come to the crown. 2. That he might seal the truth with his heart's blood. And, 4 3. That the gospel might be restored once again; which he expressed with great vehemency of spirit. All which three, God heard him in. Constantine commanded that his effigies should be engraven, not as the Emperors, in their armour leaning, but as in a posture of prayer, kneeling; to manifest to the world, that he won more by secret prayer, than by open battles. Mr. Dodd reports, that when many good people had often sought the Lord for a woman that was possessed with the devil, and yet could not prevail, at last they appointed a day for fasting and prayer ; at which time there came a poor woman to the chamber door, where the exercise begun, and craved : entrance; but she being poor they would not admit her in upon that the poor woman kneeled down behind the door, and sought God by prayer. But she had not prayed long, before the evil spirit raged, roared, and cried out in the possessed woman, take away the old woman from behind the door, for I must be gone; take the old woman from behind the door, for I must be gone. And so by the old woman's prayers he was cast out. Thus you see by these instances the great prevalency of private player. Private prayer like Saul's sword and Jonathan's bow never returns empty, it hits the mark, it carries the day with God, it pierceth the walls of heaven, though like those of Gaza, made of brass and iron, Isaiah xlv. 2. 0! who can express the powerful oratory of private prayer! IX. Consider that secret duties are the most soulenriching. As secret meals make fat bodies, so secret duties make fat souls and as secret trades brings in great riches, so secret prayers make many rich in spiritual and heavenly riches. Private prayer is the privy key of heaven that unlocks all the treasures of glory to the soul. The best riches and the sweetest mercies, God usually gives to his people when they are in their closets upon their knees. As chickens find warmth by close sitting under the hen's wings, so the graces of the saints are enlivened, cherished, and strengthened, by the sweet secret influences, which their souls fall under, when they are in closet communion with their God. Private prayer conscientiously performed, is the privy key of heaven that hath E |