Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness four discourses accommodated unto the designs of practical godliness : preached partly at Boston, partly at Charleston / by Cotton Mather ; published by a gentleman lately restored from threatening sickness as a humble essay to serve the interest of religion, in gratitude unto God for his recovery.

The Fourth Rule.

Let not your Family-prayers be your only

prayers▪ Understand, that Se••ret Prayers, ••s ••••ll as private Prayers, are to be performed by ••s all. For this, the word of our Lord is very positive, in Matth. 6. 6. When thou prayest, en∣ter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. Tis a great fondness and folly in any of us, if private prayer cause us to lay aside secret prayer. No, There is Closet-Prayer as well as Parlour-Pray∣er which we ought to labour in. I would say, as our Lord in another case, One you ought to do; & not leave the other undone. We have special Trans∣••••iss••••ns to be confessed in our prayers; these are 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to be confessed. To divulge a secret 〈◊〉〈◊〉, is to add a further sin, Our secret sins, do call for our secre•• Prayers. We have special Temp∣••••••••s to be bewailed in our prayers; and these 〈◊〉〈◊〉 sec••etly to be bewailed. Our Desires are some∣times to be too secret for our Neighbours. Our secret Griefs and our secret Fears call for our se∣cret Prayers. And as one of the Ancients ele∣gantly expresses it, Invisible prayers are to be of∣ten made to an invisible God. Secret prayer is one good sign of a gracious heart. Let the Lord oft see you like Nathanael at secret prayer under the 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and He will say, Behold an Israelite i••∣deed! Would you get Internal Blessings? then pray in secret. Solomon got his Widom, his Ver∣tue, by secret prayer. Peter by secret prayer in 〈…〉〈…〉 car••ied with Tran••es and Rap∣tures

into the other world. Would you get External Blessings? Then pray in secret. H••••∣nah with secre•• prayer asked one Son, and had six. Iacob had all his House preserved by secret prayer. Yea, Would you be General Blessings? Pray then in ••••c••et. Moses by secret prayer divert∣ed wrath & plagues from all the Congregation. That infamous Apostate Iulian, was killed by the secret prayer of a good man, at that hour very far distant from him▪ What shall I say? No Supe sedeas, no Diversion should ever be given to your secret prayers.

Moreover, besides your Prayers with all the Family, you may do well sometimes to Re••••r•• unto prayers with this or that particular person in it. Some do so translate that passage in Gen▪ 25. 21. Isaac entrea••ed the Lord with his wife. It were but a discreet and a decent practice, fo•• married persons to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 likewise. Thus, holy P••∣rents, have often taken their Children, one by one alone; and there pray'd and wept, and pour'd out their souls, over the poor lambs in secret places before the Lord. Thus are we to do, Thus to pray.