Oh remember that at such a time you went into your closets with hard hearts, and dry eyes ; but before you came out of your closets, ah how sweetly, how evangelically, how powerfully were you melted, and humbled before the Lord ! Ps. vi. 6, xxxix, 12, Ivi. 8. Oh remember how that at another time you went into your closets clouded and be- nighted, but came out of your closets with as glorious a shine of God upon your souls, as Moses had upon his face, when he came down from the mount from communing with God ! Exod, xxxiv. 28, 29. Oh re- member how often you have gone into your closets with cold, frozen spirits, but before you came out of your closets what a fire hath God kin- died in your souls, what a spirit of burning have you found in your hearts !
Mat. VL 6.] the privy key of heaven. 293
jjuke xxiv. 31, 32, Isa. iv. 4. Oh remember how often you have gone into your closets straitened and shut up, but before you have come out, how have your souls been like the chariots of Aminadab ! Cant. vi. 12, Oh remember what power God hath given you against corruptions in your closets, and what strength God hath given you against temptations in your closets ! Oh remember the sweet discoveries of divine love that you have had when in your closets ! Oh remember the secret visits, the secret kisses, the secret embraces, the secret whispers, the secret love- tokens that Christ hath given you in your closets ! Oh seriously ponder upon these things, and then closet duties will be sweet unto you !
It was a sweet saying of Bernard, ' O saint, knowest thou not that thy husband Christ is bashful, and will not be familiar in company ; retire thyself by meditation into thy closet, or into the fields, and there thou shalt have Christ's embraces," Cant. viii. 11, 12. Meditatio nutrix orationis, meditation is the nurse of prayer.* Oh the more any man meditates upon his closet-experiences, the more he shall find his heart engaged to closet duties ; the more you ponder upon closet experiences, the sweeter will closet-experiences be to your souls ; and the sweeter closet-experiences are to your souls, the more your souls will delight to be with God in your closets.
Pliny tells u& of one Messala Corvinus, whose memory was so bad, that he forgot his own name.' And I am afraid that many of your memories are so bad, that you forget your closet-mercies, your closet- experiences.
I have read of such a pestilential disease once at Athens, as took away the memories of those that were infected with it, so that they forgot their own names. Oh that I had not cause to fear that some pestilen- tial disease or other, hath so taken away the memories of many, that they have quite forgot their closet-experiences. Well, friends, remember this, though stony hearts are bad, yet iron memories are good ; and oh that you would all labour after iron memories, that so you may remem- ber and ponder upon your closet-experiences. I have read of the heathens, how they made use of white and black stones, for these two ends : first, they gave them to persons at their ari'aignment before the judges ; if they were condemned to death, they gave him a black stone, but if absolved and set free, a white stone. To which custom the Holy Ghost seems to allude in that Rev. ii. 17, 'To him that overcometh will I give a white stone.' A second use of those stones was this, that by them they might keep an account of all the good days or evil days they had met withal in their lives. Hence Giacopo Senzaro having been long in love, and much crossed about his match, he filled a pot full of black stones, putting only one white stone among them, and being asked the. reason, answered, ' There will come one white day,' meaning his marriage day, ' which will make amends for all my black days.'
Ah, friends ! how often hath God given you the white stone in your closets ! Certainly you have had more white stones than black stones : your closet mercies and experiences have been more than your public crosses and miseries. 0 sirs ! did you but reckon your good days ac- cording to the white stones you have had in your closets, it would make yoii more in love with closet-prayer than ever. But,
' Serm. on Cantic— G. ' Gerson. ' Lib. vii. cap. 24. {sub memoriSL — G.]
294 THE PRIVr KEY OF HEAVEN. [MAT. VI. 6.
[4.] Foitrthly, Be sure that you do mot spend so much of your pre- cious time in public duties and ordinances, as that you can spare none for private duties, for secret services. Though Pharaoh's kine ate up one another, yet our duties must not eat up one another, Gen. xli. 4. Public duties must not eat up family duties, nor family duties must not eat up public duties, nor neither of them must not eat up closet duties. The wisdom of a Christian doth most eminently sparkle and shine, in giving every duty its proper time and place ; I was going to say, that either he Avas no Christian, or at least no excellent Christian, that is all eye to read, or all ear to hear, or all tongue to speak, or all knee to bow, to kneel, to pray, Eccles. viii. 5, Ah ! how many are there that spend so much time in hearing of this man and that, and in running up and down from meeting to meeting, that they have no time to meet with God in their closets. O sirs ! your duties are never so amiable and lovely, they are never so orient and beautiful, as when they are season- ably and orderly performed.
Oh how wise are the men of this world, so to order all their civil affairs, that no one business shall interfere with another. They set apart for each business a convenient proportion of time ; they allot an hour for one business, two for another, three for another, &c. Oh that we were as wise for our souls, as wise for eternity, as they are for this world. Oh that our hearts would so consult with our heads, that we may never want a convenient time to seek God in a corner ! That devil that loves to set one man against another, and one nation against another, and one Christian against another, that devil loves to set one ordinance against another, and one duty against another. Hence it is that on the one hand he works some to cry up public prayers, in opposition to secret prayer ; and on the other hand he works others to cry up private duties m opposition to all public duties ; whereas all Christians stand obliged by God, so to manage one sort of duties, as not to shut out another sort of duties. Every Christian must find time and room for every duty in- cumbent upon him. But,