A29703:236
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 8
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.
Fourthly, You have the ground of the Quarrel, and that was Jacobs fear of Esau, and his importunate desire for a blessing. Jacob flies to God that he might not fall before man; he flies to God that he might not fly before men. In a storm there is no shelter like to the wing of God. He is safest, and happiest, and wisest, that lays himself under divine protection. This Jacob knew, and therefore he runs to God, as to his only City of refuge. In this conflict God would have given out; Let me go, for the day breaketh, vers. 26. but Jacob keeps his hold, and tells him boldly to his very face, that he would not let him go unless ⟨p. 54⟩he would bless him. O the power of private prayer! it hath a kind of omnipotency in it, it takes God captive, it holds him as a prisoner, it binds the hands of the Almighty; yea, it will wring a mercy, a blessing out of the hand of Heaven it self. O the power of that prayer that makes a man victorious over the greatest, the highest Power. Jacob though a man, a single man, a travelling man, a tired man, yea, though a worm (that is easily crushed and trodden under 1foot) and no man, yet in private prayer, he is so potent, that he overcomes the Omnipotent God, he is so mighty that he overcomes the Almighty.
Fourthly, You have the ground of the Quarrel, and that was Jacobs fear of Esau, and his importunate desire for a blessing. Jacob flies to God that he might not fall before man; he flies to God that he might not fly before men. In a storm there is no shelter like to the wing of God. He is safest, and happiest, and wisest, that lays himself under divine protection. This Jacob knew, and therefore he runs to God, as to his only City of refuge. In this conflict God would have given out; Let me go, for the day breaketh, vers. 26. but Jacob keeps his hold, and tells him boldly to his very face, that he would not let him go unless ⟨p. 54⟩he would bless him. O the power of private prayer! it hath a kind of omnipotency in it, it takes God captive, it holds him as a prisoner, it binds the hands of the Almighty; yea, it will wring a mercy, a blessing out of the hand of Heaven it self. O the power of that prayer that makes a man victorious over the greatest, the highest Power. Jacob though a man, a single man, a travelling man, a tired man, yea, though a worm (that is easily crusht and trodden under