A29703:285
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 14
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.
Fourteenthly, Consider, that 1God is omnipresent. We cannot get into any blind hole, or dark corner, or secret place, but the Lord hath an eye there, the Lord will keep us company there, Math. 6. 6. And thy father which seeth in secret shall reward the openly. So v. 18. there is not the darkest dirtiest hole in the world into which a saint creeps, but God hath a favourable eye there. God never wants an eye to see our secret tears; nor an ear to hear our secret cries and groans, nor a heart to grant our secret requests; and therefore we ought to pour out our souls to him in secret. Psal. 38. 9. Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hide from thee. Though our private desires are never so confused, though our private requests are never ⟨p. 97⟩so broken, and though our private groanings are never so much hidden from men, yet God eyes them all, God records them all, and God puts them all upon the file of heaven, and will one day crown them with glorious answers and returns. We cannot sigh out a prayer in secret, but he sees us; we cannot lift up our eyes to him at midnight, but he observes us. The eye that God hath upon his people when they are in secret, is such a special tender eye of love, as opens his ear, his heart, and his hand, for their good, 1 Pet. 3. 12. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears▪ are open unto their prayers; or, as the Greek hath it, his ears are unto their prayers. If their prayers are so faint, that they cannot reach up as high as Heaven, then God will bow the heavens 2