Now, what can be more comely or more desirable than to see their natures and their practices to answer to their names ? They are the Lord's secret ones, his hidden ones ; and therefore how highly doth it concern them to be much with God in secret, and to hide themselves with God in a comer ! Shall Nabal's nature and practice answer to his name ? 1 Sam. xxv, 25, ' Let not my Lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal : for as his name is, so is he : Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.' Nabal signifies a fool, a sot, a churl ; it notes one that is void of wisdom and goodness ; it signifieth one whose mind, reason, judgment, and understanding is withered and decayed. Now, if you look into the story, you shall find that as face answers to face, so Nabal's nature and practice did echo and answer to his name. And why then, should not our natures and practices answer to our names also ? We are called the Lord's secret ones, his hidden ones ; and how highly therefore doth it concern us to be much with God in secret ! Why should there be any jarring or discord between oiu: names and our practices? It is observable that the practice and carriage of other saints have been answerable to their names. Isaac signifies laughter, and Isaac was a gracious son, a dutiful son, a son that kept clear of those abominations with which many of the patriarchs had defiled them- selves, a son that proved matter of laughter to his father and mother all their days. So Josiah signifies * the fire of the Lord ;' and his prac- tice did answer to his name. Witness the pulling down of Jeroboam's altar, and his burning of the vessels that were made for Baal, and his pulling down the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had set up, and his burning the grove at the brook Kedron, and his stamping it to powder, and his breaking down the houses of the Sodomites, and his defiling of the high places where the priests had burnt incense, and his breaking in pieces the images, and cutting down the groves, and filling their places with the bones of men, &c., 1 Kings xiii. 2, 2 Kings xxiii. 4-21. So Joshua signifies 'a saviour;' and his practice was answerable to his name. Though he could not save his people from their sins, yet he often saved them from their sufferings. Great and many were the deliverances, the salvations, that were instiiimentally brought about by Joshua, as all know that have read the book of Joshua. So John signifies ' gracious,' and his practice was answerable to his name. He was so gracious in his teachings and in his walkings that he gained favour in the very eyes of his enemies. By all these instances, and by many more that might be given, you see that other saints' practices have answered to their names ; and, therefore, let every one of us look that our practices do also answer to our names, that as we are called the Lord's secret ones, so we may be much with God in secret, that so there may be a blessed harmony between our names and* our practices, and we may never repent another day that we have been called God's secret ones, his ' hidden ones,' but yet never made con- science of maintaining secret communion with God in our closets. And thus you see that there are no less than twenty arguments to persuade you to closet prayer, and to maintain private communion with God in a corner.
The use and application of all follows.
Is it 80 that closet prayer or private prayer is such an indispensable
Mat. VI. 6.] the privy key of heaven. 1 99
duty, tliat Christ himself hath laid upon all thai are not willing to lie under the woful brand of being hypocrites ? Then this truth looks very sourly and sadly upon these five sorts of persons.
(1.) Fi7'st, It looks sourly and sadly upon all those that put off secret prayer, private prayer, till they are moved to it by the Spirit; for by this sad delusion many have been kept from secret prayer many weeks, many months ; oh that I might not say, many years ! Though it be a very fit season to pray when the Spirit moves us to. pray, yet it is not the only season to pray, Isa. Ixii. 1, Ps. cxxiii. 1, 2, Glal. iv. 6. He that makes religion his business, will pray as daily for daily grace as he doth pray daily for daily bread : Luke xviii. 1, ' And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men oilght always to pray, and not to faint ;' 1 Thes. v. 17, 'Pray without ceasing;' Eph. vi. 18, 'Praying always ^ with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with aU perseverance, and supplication for all saints ;' Rom. xii. 12, * Continuing instant in prayer.' The Greek is a metaphor taken from hunting dogs, that never give over the game till they have got their prey. A Christian must not only pray, but hold on in prayer, till he hath got the heavenly prize. We are wanting always ; and therefore we had need be praying always. The world is always alluring ; and there- fore we had need be always a-praying ; Satan is always a-tempting ; and therefore we had need be always a-praying ; and we are always a-sinning ; and therefore we had need be always a-praying ; and we are in dangers always ; and therefore we had need be prajring always ; and we are dying always, 1 Cor. xv. 31 ; and therefore we had need be pray- ing always. Man's whole life is but a lingering death ; man no sooner begins to live, but he begins to die. When one was asked why he prayed six times a day, he only gave this answer, * I must die, I must die, I must die.' Dying Christians had need be praying Christians, and they that are always a-dying had need be always a-praying. Cer- tainly prayerless families are graceless families, and prayerless persons are graceless persons, Jer. x. 25. It were better ten thousand times that we had never been bom iuto the Avorld, than that we should go still-bom out of the world. But,
(2.) Secondly, This truth looks sourly and sadly upon those that pray not at all, neither in their families nor in their closets. Among all God's children, there is not one possessed with a dumb devil. Prayer- less persons are forsaken of God, blinded by Satan, hardened in sin, and every breath they draw liable to all temporal, spiritual, and eternal judgments. Prayer is that part of natural worship due to God, which none will deny but stark atheists, Ps. xiv. 1.^
It is observable that amongst the worst of men, Turks, and the worst of Turks, the Moors, it is a just exception against any witness, by their law, that he hath not prayed six times in every natural day, it being usual with them to pray six times a day.
(1.) Before the daybreak they pray for day.
(2.) When it is day, they give thanks for day.
' (> !r«»T) Koi^a. In every season, as occasion and opportunity offers itself, we must pray.
* That wicked men ought to pray, and the grand objection against their prayers an- swered at large in my treatise called ' The Crown and Glory of Christianity,' from page 326 to page 337. [See tub voce. Vol. IV.— G.]