A29703:355
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.
Eighthly & lastly, I answer, The more worldly business lies upon thy hand, the more need hast thou to keep close to thy closet. Much business lays a man open to many sins, and to many snares, and to many temptations. Now the more sins, snares and temptations a mans business lays him open to, the more need that man hath to be much in private prayer, that his soul may be kept pure from sin, and that his foot may not be taken in the Devils trap, and that he may stand fast in the hour of temptation. Private prayer is so far from 1being a hinderance to a mans business, that 'tis the way of ways to bring down a blessing from heaven upon a mans business; as the first ⟨p. 160⟩fruits that Gods people gave to him brought down a blessing from heaven upon all the rest, Deut. 26. 10, 11. Whet is no let; Prayer and Provender never hinders a Journey. Private prayer is like to Jacob 2that brought down a blessing from heaven upon all that Laban had. Private prayer gives a man a sanctified use, both of all his earthly comforts, and of all his earthly business; and this David and Daniel found by experience, and therefore 'twas not their great public employments that could take them off from their private duties. Time spent in heavenly employments, is 3no time lost from worldly business. Private prayer makes all we take in hand successful. Closet prayer hath made many rich, but it never made any man poor or beggarly in this world. No man on earth knows what may be the emergencies, or the occurrences of a day, Prov. 27. 1. Boast not thy self of to morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Every day is as it ⟨p. 161⟩it were a great-bellied day. Every day is as it were with child of something, but what it will bring forth, whether a cross or a comfort, no man can tell; as whilst a woman is with child, no man can tell what kind of birth it will be. No man knows what mercies a day may bring forth, no man knows what miseries a day may bring forth; no man knows what good a day may bring forth, no man knows what evil a day may bring forth; no man knows what afflictions a day may bring forth, no man knows what temptations a day may bring forth; no man knows what liberty a day may bring forth, no man knows what bonds a day may bring forth; no man knows what good success a day may bring forth, no man knows what bad success a day may bring forth;