A29703:184
The privy key of heaven, or, Twenty arguments for closet-prayer in a select discourse…The privie key of heaven, or, Twenty arguments for closet-prayer in a select discourse…
The privy key of heaven, or, Twenty arguments for closet-prayer in a select discourse on that subject with the resolution of several considerable questions : the main objections also against closet-prayer are here answered ... with twenty special lessons ... that we are to learn by that severe rod, the pestilence that now rageth in the midst of us / by Thomas Brooks.The privie key of heaven, or, Twenty arguments for closet-prayer in a select discourse on that subject with the resolution of several considerable questions : the main objections also against closet-prayer are here answered ... with twenty special lessons ... that we are to learn by that severe rod, the pestilence that now rageth in the midst of us / by Thomas Brooks.
London : Printed for and are to be sold by John Hancock, 1665
THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN, Or, a Discourse of CLOSET-PRAYER. › Argument 1
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
First, The most eminent Saints, ⟨p. 9⟩both in the Old and New Testament, have applied themselves to Private-Prayer. Moses was alone in the Mount with God forty days and forty nights, Exod. 34. 28. So Abraham fills his mouth with Arguments, and reasons the case out alone with God in Prayer, to prevent Sodoms desolation and destruction, and never leaves off pleading and praying till he had brought God down from fifty to ten, Gen. 18. 22-32. and in Gen. 21. 33. you have Abraham again at his private prayers, And Abraham planted a Grove in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. Why did Abraham plant a Grove, but that he might have a most private place to pray and pour out his soul before the Lord in? So Isaac, Gen. 24. 63. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide. The Hebrew word Lasuach, that is here rendered Meditate, signifies to pray as well as to meditate, and so it is often used. 'Tis a comprehensive word, that ⟨p. 10⟩takes in both Prayer and Meditation. So you shall find Jacob at his private-prayer, Gen. 32. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. And Jacob was left alone: and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. When Jacob was all alone, and in a dark night, and when his joints were out of joint, he so wrestles and weeps, and weeps and wrestles in private Prayer, that as a Prince at last he prevails with God. Hos. 12. 3, 4. So David, Psal. 55. 16, 17. As for me, I will call upon God: and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon will I pray, and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. So Daniel was three times a day in private prayer,