is to be preferred before the greatest and best company in the world. And there was a child of a Christian gentlewoman, that was so given to prayer from its infancy, that before it could well speak, it would use to get alone and go to prayer ; and as it grew, it was more frequent in prayer and retiring of itself from company ; and he would ask his mother very strange questions, far above the capacity of one of his years ; but at last, when this child was but five years old, and whipping of his top, on a sudden he flung away his scourge- stick and top, and ran to his mother, and with great joy said unto her, ' Mother, I must go to God ; will you go with me ?' She answered, ' My dear child, how dost thou know thou shalt go to God T He answered, ' God hath told me so, for I love God, and God loves me.' She answered, ' Dear child, I must go when God pleaseth. But why wilt thou not stay with me V The child answered, ' I will not stay ; I must go to God.' And the child did not live above a month after, but never cared for play more ; but falling sick, he would always be saying that he must go to God, he must go to God ; and thus sometimes ' out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God hath perfected praise,' Mat. xxi. 16. Certainly such persons will be ripe for heaven betimes who begin betimes to seek God " in a closet, in a comer. And Eusebius reports of Constantino the emperor, that every day he used to shut up himself in some secret place in his palace, and there, on bended knees, did make his devout prayers and soliloquies to God. * My God and I are good company,' said famous Dr Sibbes.^ A man whose soul is con- versant with God in a closet, in a hole, behind the door, or in a desert, a den, a dungeon, shall find more real pleasure, more choice delight, and more full content, than in the palace of a prince. By all these famous instances, you see that the people of God in all ages have addicted themselves to private prayer. O friends ! these pious examples should be very awakening, very convincing, and very encouraging to you. Certainly it is as much your duty as it is your glory to follow these pious patterns that are now set before you. Witness these fol- lowing scriptures : Prov. ii. 20, • That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous ;' 1 Cor. xi. 1, ' Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ;' Philip, iii. 17, 'Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so, as ye have us for an ensample' ; Philip, iv. 9, ' Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do ; and the God of peace shall be with you' ; 1 Thes. i. 6, 'And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction ;' Heb. vi. 12, 'That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.' So 2 Tim. iii. 10-12, 1 4, Titus ii. 7. It was an excellent law that the Ephesians made, "viz., that men should propound to themselves the best patterns, and ever bear in mind some eminent man.^ Bad men are wonderful in love with bad examples, Jer. xliv. 16, 17. The Indian, hearing that his ancestors were gone to hell, said that then he would go thither too. Some men have a mind to go to hell for company's sake. Oh that we were as much in
' One of a number of tender and pleasant memories of the heavenly Sibbes, found in contemporary writings. Brooks uses it in his ' Ark for all God's Noahs' also. See page 80 ante. — G. • Prajcepta decent, exempla movent. [As before. — G.]
Mat. VI. 6.] the peivy key of heaven. 169
love with the examples of good men as others are in love with the examples of bad men ; and then we should be oftener in our closets than now we are ! Oh that our eyes were more fixed on the pious examples of all that have in them cdiquid Chinsti, anything of Christ, as Bucer spake ! Shall we love to look upon the pictures of our friends ; and shall we not love to look upon the pious examples of those that are the lively and lovely picture of Christ ? The pious examples of others should be the looking-glasses by which we should dress ourselves. He is the best and wisest Christian that writes after the fairest Scripture copy, that imitates those Christians that are most eminent in grace, and that have been most exercised in closet prayer, and in the most secret duties of religion.
Jerome having read the life and death of Hilarion, one that lived most Christianly, and died most comfortably, folded up the book, saying. Well, Hilarion shall be the champion that I will follow ; his good life shall be my example, and his godly death my president.^ It is brave to live and die by the examples of the most eminent saints. But,