Heavenly Solitude

Richard Baxter, The Saints' Everlasting Rest, in The Practical Works of Richard Baxter, Vol. 2, p. 304:

As this [meditation] is a private and spiritual duty, so it is most convenient that thou retire to some private place: our spirits had need of every help, and to be freed from every hinderance in the work: and the quality of these circumstances, though to some they may seem small things, doth much conduce to our hinderance or our help. Christ himself thought it not vain to direct in this circumstance of private duty, Matt. vi. 4, 6, 18. If in private prayer we must shut our door upon us, that our Father may hear us in secret, so is it also requisite in this meditation. How oft doth Christ himself depart to some mountain, or wilderness, or other solitary place! For occasional meditation I give thee not this advice, but for this daily set and solemn duty I advise that thou withdraw thyself from all society, yea, though it were the society of godly men, that thou mayst awhile enjoy the society of Christ: if a student cannot study in a crowd, who exercises only his invention and memory, much less when thou must exercise all the powers of thy soul, and that upon an object so far above nature: when thy eyes are filled with the persons and actions of men, and thine ears with their discourse, it is hard then to have thy thoughts and affections free for this duty. Though I would not persuade thee to Pythagoras's cave, nor to the hermit's wilderness, nor to the monk's cell; yet I would advise thee to frequent solitariness, that thou mayst sometimes confer with Christ, and with thyself, as well as with others. We are fled so far from the solitude of superstition, that we have cast off the solitude of contemplative devotion. Friends use to converse most familiarly in private, and to open their secrets and let out their affections most freely. Public converse is but common converse. Use, therefore, as Christ himself did, (Mark i. 35,) to depart sometimes into a solitary place, that thou mayst be wholly vacant for this great employment. See Matt. xiv. 23; Mark vi. 23; Luke ix. 18, 36; John vi. 15, 16. We seldom read of God's appearing, by himself, or his angels, to any of his prophets or saints in a throng, but frequently when they were alone.

Save Asia, Africa, Europe and America

Eve LaPlante (author of Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall and American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans.), "The Opposite of Thanksgiving," Boston Globe (Nov. 18, 2007):

Remarkably, [Judge Samuel] Sewall also left us a careful record of his devotions during a private fast day, providing a glimpse of the mental world of a devout Puritan and the deeply spiritual aims of fast and thanksgiving days. Sewall's description of a private day of prayer and fasting that he observed on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 1708, when he was 55, is "the most full and minute existing record of a private fast-day as kept by" devout Puritans, according to M. Halsey Thomas, a historian of Colonial America who edited the published volumes of Sewall's diaries.
...
First, Sewall retreated from family life. He and his 49-year-old wife, Hannah, who had watched seven of their 14 children die, still had three daughters at home. He went alone to an upper room on the second floor of his house, which occupied the southeastern corner of Washington and Summer streets in modern Boston, and was surrounded by gardens, orchards, and on one side a pond. (Shoppers who visited Filene's Basement, in Downtown Crossing, entered a space that was once the cellar of Sewall's mansion.) The window of Sewall's room overlooked Boston's noisiest thoroughfare, which is now Washington Street. He fastened the shutters and closed the door.

He may have prostrated himself on the floor, as his peer the Rev. Cotton Mather sometimes did in prayer, but he surely did not kneel, for Puritans were loath to kneel during prayer, a Catholic custom that seemed to them idolatrous.

"Dear God," Samuel began, according to his notes, "perfect what is lacking in my faith and in the faith of my dear yokefellow," his wife. "Please convert and recover our children, especially Samuel," his oldest son, age 29, who was struggling in his career and marriage, "and Hannah," his sickly 28-year-old daughter. Mentioning his other living children, he prayed, "Recover [18-year-old] Mary, and save Judith [6], Elizabeth [16], and Joseph," a 19-year-old student at Harvard College. He prayed for two servants: "Make David a man after thy own heart. Let Susan live and be baptized with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."

Sewall prayed for his own church. "Bless the South Church in preserving and spiriting our pastor, in directing unto [us] suitable supply, and making the church unanimous." Moving outward, he continued, "Save the town [Boston], the college [Harvard, from which he graduated with a master's degree in 1674], [and New England] province from invasion of enemies, open and secret, and from false brethren. Defend the purity of worship. Save Connecticut and the New York government."

Extending his prayer beyond the world that he physically knew, he went on, "Reform all the European plantations in America - Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, and Dutch. Save this New World, that where sin hath abounded, grace may superabound...Save all Europe. Save Asia, Africa, Europe and America."

Sewall's goal was the reformation of the entire world - all its quarters - as well as his own small part of it. His prayer was a cry to God to help humanity.

Melvin Yazawa, ed., The Diary and Life of Samuel Sewall, pp. 30-31:

One of the finest descriptions of a "private day of prayer and fasting" appears in Sewall's entry for February 10, 1708. Isolated in an upper chamber of his house, with the shutters fastened, Sewall commenced his praying by beseeching God's help in perfecting "what is lacking in my faith, and in the faith of my dear Yokefellow." He then moved on to "other important matters," progressing smoothly from his immediate family ("convert my children, especially Samuel and Hannah"), to his servant ("make David [Sinclair] a man after thy own heart"), to the province ("steer the government in this difficult time, when the Governor and many others are at so much variance"), to other colonies ("save Connecticut...[and] N. York"), to the Western Hemisphere ("Reform all the European Plantations in America; Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Dutch"), and finally to the world ("save Asia, Africa, Europe and America"). At the end, Sewall acknowledged the "bounteous grace of God" in helping him conclude a "very comfortable day."51

51 Ibid., 2:641, 961; 1:589.

Samuel Sewall, Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1674-1729, Vol. 2., pp. 216-217:

Court being to be made upon next Fifth day, Febr. 12 [1708], I pray'd God to Accept me in keeping a privat day of Prayer with Fasting for That and other Important Matters: I kept it upon the Third day Febr. 10. 1707/8 in the uper Chamber at the North-East end of the House, fastening the Shutters next the Street. -- Perfect what is lacking in my Faith, and in the faith of my dear Yokefellow. Convert my children; especially Samuel and Hanah; Provide Rest and Settlement for Hanah: Recover Mary, Save Judith, Elisabeth and Joseph: Requite the Labour of Love of my Kinswoman Jane Tappin, Give her health, find out Rest for her. Make David a man after thy own heart, Let Susan live and be baptised with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. Relations. Steer the Government in this difficult time, when the Governour and many others are at so much Variance: Direct, incline, overrule on the Council-day fifth-day, Febr. 12. as to the special Work of it in filling the Super. Court with Justices; or any other thing of like nature; as Plimo infer Court. Bless the Company for propagation of the Gospel, especiall Govr Ashurt &c. Revive the Business of Religion at Natick, and accept and bless John Neesnumin who went thither last week for that end. Mr. Rawson at Nantucket. Bless the South Church in preserving and spiriting our Pastor; in directing unto suitable Supply, and making the Church unanimous: Save the Town, College; Province from Invasion of Enemies, open, Secret, and from false Brethren: Defend the Purity of Worship. Save Connecticut, bless their New Governour: Save the Reformation under N. York Governmt. Reform all the European plantations in America; Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Dutch; Save this New World, that where Sin hath abounded, Grace may Superabound; that CHRIST who is stronger, would bind the strong man and spoil his house; and order the Word to be given, Babylon is fallen. -- Save our Queen, lengthen out her Life and Reign. Save France, make the Proud helper stoop [Job IX. 13], Save all Europe; Save Asia, Africa, Europe and America. These were the genl heads of my Meditation and prayer; and through the bounteous Grace of GOD, I had a very Comfortable Day of it.

MHCC 25: Morning Devotions

Matthew Henry on Ex. 34.4:

It is good to be early at our devotions. The morning is perhaps as good a friend to the graces as it is to the muses.

Meditation on Heaven

In his devotional work on private prayer, Sir William Dawes writes, "O! let us then often retire to our closets, and give our souls the pleasure of conversing thus with God, let us be frequent in reading his word, in praying to him and praising him, and in sending up our souls to him in religious meditation" (pp. 207-208)...."If therefore we desire to become Friends of God, if we would enjoy his Conversation, it must be in our closets..." (p. 2). As an help to sweet meditation, he gives us some samples of his own, one of which, on heaven, I thought good to share here.

William Dawes, Meditation II (on Heaven), in The Duties of the Closet from The Whole Works of Sir William Dawes, Vol. 3 (1732 ed.), pp. 154-156:

Great and glorious are the things which are spoken of thee, thou city of God. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, how richly thou art furnished with all things necessary to make the happiness of thine inhabitants complete and perfect. But this in general we know, that as the happiness which thy blessed inhabitants enjoy is vastly beyond that which we call happiness in this world, so is it likewise in itself exceeding great; great indeed, since it is, too big for us to frame any notion or conception of; infinitely great, because it shall be like the happiness of him, who is indeed happiness itself. For we know and are allured, that when we shall ascend up into heaven, we shall become like God himself; like him, as in other things, so in his happiness and glory. Did we therefore know no more of our future happiness than this, it were enough to satisfy us in our inquiries concerning it, for what can we desire more than to be like God, the most perfectly happy being, in happiness? But if we desire to be more particularly still informed concerning the ingredients that help to make up the mighty happiness, the scriptures will discover some of them to us. They promise us an infinite enlargement of our knowledge, and that our wills shall be unchangeably bent towards good, and our affections chained to the most amiable objects; that we shall know God, even as he knows us, cheerfully and readily perform his will, and love him, and be beloved by him, with the most intense and ardent affection; that we shall be admitted into the society of angels and just men made perfect, and enjoy their endearing conversation and friendship, and partake with them their blessed employments, and in that fullness of joy, which is continually in God's presence. O glorious state! how wilt thou feast our understandings, wills and affections, by setting before them constantly such objects, as they shall contemplate, love and admire with inexpressible pleasure. Were this the only happiness of heaven, it would be an abundant recompence for all that we can do or suffer in this world. But alas! we know not yet what our happiness will be, and even this which we pretend to know, we know but in part, very darkly and obscurely. This I know, O may I often think on it! that the rewards of heaven are infinitely beyond everything which I can now conceive or imagine, and that the happiness which the blessed souls there enjoy, being like the happiness which God himself enjoys, must be infinitely great and infinitely perfect.