A29703:292
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 17
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.
Seventeenthly, Consider, That 1the near and dear relations, that you stand in to the Lord, calls aloud for secret prayer. You are his friends. Now a true friend loves to visit his friend when he may find him alone, and enjoy privacy with ⟨p. 108⟩him. A true friend loves to pour out his heart into the bosom of his friend, when he hath him in a corner, or in the field, or under a hedge. You are his favourites: and 2what favourite is there that hides his secret from his prince? do not all favourites open their hearts to their princes, when they are alone? You are his Children: and what ingenious child is there, that doth not delight to be much with his father 3when he is alone, when no body is by? O how free and open are children when they have their parents alone, beyond what they are when company is present. You are the Spouse of Christ: and what spouse, what wife is there that doth not love to be much with her husband when he is all alone? True lovers are always best when they are most alone, Cant. 7. 10, 11, 12. I am my beloveds, and his desire is towards me. Come my beloved, let us go forth into the field: let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vines flourish, ⟨p. 109⟩whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves. The Spouse of Christ is very desirous to enjoy his company in the fields, that so having her beloved alone, she might the more freely, and the more secretly open her heart to him. As wives, when they are walking alone with their husbands in the fields, are more free to open their minds, and the secrets of their hearts, than they are when in their houses with their children and servants about them; so 'twas with the spouse. Without all peradventure, they have very great cause to question, whether they are Christs real friends, favourites, children, spouse, who seldom or never converse with Christ in their closets, who are shy of Christ when they are alone, who never accustom themselves to give Christ secret visits? What Delilah said to Sampson,