A29703:301
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 20
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.
Twentieth and last place, consider, that you are only the Lords secret ones, his hidden ones; and therefore if you do not apply your selves to private prayer, and to your secret retirements, that you may enjoy God in a corner, none will. 'Tis only Gods hidden ones, his secret ones, that are spirited, ⟨p. 118⟩principled, and prepared to wait on God in secret, Exod. 19. 5. Then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. The Hebrew word Segullah signifieth Gods special Jewels, Gods proper ones, or Gods secret ones, that he keeps in store for himself, and for his own special service and use. Princes lock up with their own hands in secret, their most precious and costly Jewels; and so doth God his, Psal. 135. 4. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure, or, for his secret Gem. Psal. 83. 3. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones, or, thy secret ones; so called, partly, because God hides them in the secret of his Tabernacle, & partly, because God sets 1as high a value upon them, as men do upon their hidden treasure, their secret treasure; yea, he makes more reckoning of them than he doth of all the world besides: And so the world shall know, when God shall arise to revenge the wrongs and injuries ⟨p. 119⟩that hath been done to his secret ones. Neither are there any on earth that knows so much of the secrets of his love, of the secrets of his counsels, of the secrets of his purposes, of the secrets of his heart, as his secret ones do. Neither are there any in all the world, that are under those secret influences, those secret assistances, those secret incomes, those secret anointings of the Spirit, as his secret ones are under: And therefore no wonder if God calls them again, and gain, and again, his secret ones. Now what can be more comely or more desirable, than to see their natures and their practices to answer to their names? They are the Lords secret ones, his hidden ones, and therefore how highly doth it concern them to be much with God in secret, and to hide themselves with God in a corner! Shall Nabals nature and practise answer to his name?