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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 9
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.
Ninthly, consider that secret duties are the most soul-enriching duties. Look as secret meals make fat bodies, so secret duties make fat souls: and as secret Trades brings in great earthly riches, so secret prayers makes many rich in spiritual blessings and in heavenly riches. Private prayer is that privy ⟨p. 68⟩key of heaven that unlocks all the Treasures of glory to the soul. The best riches and the sweetest mercies, God usually gives to his people when they are in their closets upon their knees. Look as the warmth the Chickens find by close sitting under the Hens wings, cherisheth them; so are the graces of the Saints enlivened, and cherished, and strengthened, by the sweet secret influences, which their souls fall under, when they are in their closet-communion with God. Private prayer conscientiously performed, is the privy key of heaven that hath unlocked such treasures and such secrets as hath past the skill of the cunningest Devil to find out. Private prayer Midwifes the choicest mercies, and the chiefest riches in upon us. Certainly there are none so rich in gracious experiences, as those that are most exercised in closet duties, Ps. 34. 6. This poor man cried (saith David) and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles. David, pointing to himself, tells us that he ⟨p. 69⟩cried, that is, silently and secretly, as Moses did at the red sea, and as 1Nehemiah did in the presence of the King of Persia: and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles. And, O what additions were these deliverances to his experiences! O my friends, look as the tender dew, that falls in the silent night, makes the grass, and herbs, and flowers, to flourish and grow more abundantly than great showers of rain that fall in the day; so secret prayer will more abundantly cause the sweet herbs of grace and holiness, to grow and flourish in the soul, than all those more open, Public, and visible duties of Religion, which too too often are mingled and mixed with the sun and wind of pride and hypocrisy.