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 was 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 behind the door, for I must be gone ; take away the old woman behind the door, for I must be gone.' And so by the old woman's prayers behind the door he was cast out. Oh the prevalency of prayer behind the door ! And thus you see by all these great instances the great prevalency of private prayer.
Private prayer, like Saul's sword and Jonathan's bow, when duly qualified as to the person and act, 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,. Isa. xlv. 2. Oh, who can express the powerful oratory of private prayer ! &c,
[9.] Ninthly, Consider, that secret duties are the most souL-enrieh- iing duties. Look, as secret meals make fat bodies, so secret duties make fat souls ; and as secret trades brings in great earthly riches, so secret prayers makes many rich in spiritual blessings and in heavenly riches. Private prayer is that 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. Look, as the warmth the chickens find by close sitting under the hen's wings cherisheth them, so are the graces of the saints enlivened, and cherished, and strengthened by the sweet secret in- fluences which their souls fall under when they are in their closet-com- munion with God. Private prayer conscientiously performed is the privy key of heaven, that hath unlocked such treasures and such secrets as hath passed the skill of the cunningest devil to find out. Private prayer midwifes the choicest mercies and the chiefest riches in upon us. Certainly there are none so rich in gracious experiences as those that are most exercised in closet duties : Ps. xxxiv. 6, ' This poor man cried,' saith David, ' and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles.' David, pointing to himself, tells us that he ' cried,' that is, silently and secretly, as Moses did at the Red Sea, and as Nehemiah did in the presence of the king of Persia ; ' and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles,' Exod. xiv. 1 5 ; Neh. i. ] 1 , and ii. 4. And, oh, what additions were these deliverances to his experiences ! O my friends, look, as the tender dew that falls in the silent night makes the grass and herbs and flowers to flourish and grow more abundantly than great showers of rain that fall in the day, so secret prayer will more abundantly cause the sweet herbs of grace and holiness to grow and flourish in the soul, than all those more open, public, and visible duties of religion, which too, too often are mingled and mixed with the sun and wind of pride and hypo- crisy.
Beloved ! you know that many times a favourite at coiirt gets more by one secret motion, by one private request to his prince, than a tradesman or a merchant gets in twenty years' labour and pains, &c. 8o a Christian many times gets more by one secret motion, by one private request to the King of kings, than many others do by trading
184 THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN. [MaT. VI. 6.