A29703:284
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 13
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.
Thirdly, Consider, that in times of great straits and trials, in times of great afflictions and persecutions, private prayer is the Christians meat & drink; 'tis his chief city of refuge; 'tis his shelter and hiding place in a stormy day. When the Saints have been driven by violent persecutions, into holes, and 1caves, and dens, and deserts, and howling wildernesses; private prayer hath been their meat and drink, and under Christ their only refuge. When Esau came forth with hostile intentions against Jacob, secret prayer was Jacobs refuge, Gen. 32. 6, 7, 8, 9, 11. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, we came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. All cut-throats. Then ⟨p. 92⟩Jacob was greatly afraid, and distressed; and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks and herds, and the camels into two bands. And said, if Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape. When all is at stake 'tis christian prudence to save what we can, though we cannot save what we would. And Jacob said, O God of my Father Abraham and God of my Father Isaac; the Lord which saidst unto me, return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. Promises in private must be prayed over; God loves to sued upon his own bond when he and his People are alone. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, front the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the Mother with the children; or, upon the children, meaning; he he will put all to death. Some look upon the words to be a metaphor taken from Fowlers, who kill and take away the young and the Dams together; contrary to ⟨p. 93⟩that old law, Deut. 22. 6. Others say 'tis a Phrase that doth most lively represent the tenderness of a mother, who seeing her children in distress; spares not her own body nor life, to hazard the same for her children's preservation, by interposing 2her self, even to be massacred together with and upon them. When Jacob, and all that was near and dear unto him, were in eminent danger of being cut off by Esau, and those men of blood that were with him, he betakes himself to private prayer as his only City of refuge, against the rage and malice of the mighty.