A29703:322
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
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.
Fifthly, and lastly, This truth looks sourly and sadly upon those that do all they can to hinder and discourage others from this duty of duties, Private prayer; and that either by deriding or vilifying of the duty; or else, by denying of it to be a duty; or else, by their daily neglect of this duty; or else, by denying them that are under them time and opportunity for the discharge of this duty. In Matth. 23. 13. You have a woe pronounced against those that will neither go to Heaven themselves, nor suffer others to go that are willing to enter into an everlasting rest. And so I say, woe to those Parents, and woe to those Husbands, and woe to these Masters and Mistresses, that will neither pray in their closets themselves, nor suffer their children, nor their wives nor their servants, to pour out their souls before the Lord in a corner. O Sirs, how will you answer ⟨p. 133⟩this to your consciences, when you shall lye upon a dying bed and how will you answer it to the Judge of all the world, when you shall stand before a Judgment seat! Certainly, all their sins, and all their neglects, and all their spiritual losses, that might have been prevented by their secret prayers, by their closet communion with God, will one day be charged upon your accounts. And, O that you were all so wise as to lay these things so to heart, that you may never hinder any that are under your care or charge, from private prayer any more. But,
Fifthly, and lastly, This truth looks sourly and sadly upon those that do all they can to hinder and discourage others from this duty of duties, Private prayer; and that either by deriding or vilifying of the duty; or else, by denying of it to be a duty; or else, by their daily neglect of this duty; or else, by denying them that are under them time and opportunity for the discharge of this duty. In Matth. 23. 13. You have a woe pronounced against those that will neither goe to Heaven themselves, nor suffer others to goe that are willing to enter into an everlasting rest. And so I say, woe to those Parents, and woe to those Husbands, and woe to these Masters and Mistrises, that will neither pray in their closets themselves, nor suffer their children, nor their wives nor their servants, to pour out their souls before the Lord in a corner. O Sirs, how will you answer