A29703:382
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.
If it was a capital crime in Tiberius his days, to carry the image of Augustus upon a Ring or Coin into any sordid place, as Suetonius saith it was; what crime must ⟨p. 179⟩it be in those masters, who despise, revile, reproach, scorn, abuse and tread under foot, such servants as have the image of the great God stamped upon their souls, and all because they look God-ward, Christ-ward, Heaven-ward, Holiness-ward, Duty-ward! Masters should never twit their servants in the 1teeth with their inferiority, penury, poverty, misery, mean parentage, or servile condition; but remember that these things are more the Creators pleasure, than the servants fault, and that that God that hath made the master rich and the servant poor, can as quickly make the master poor and the servant rich. God many times puts down 2the mighty from their seats, and exalts them of low degree. Certainly, no master nor mistress should dare to insult or triumph over such servants as have souls as noble as their own; but they should seriously and frequently consider of Solomons Aphorism, The righteous (though a servant, though the ⟨p. 180⟩meanest amongst all the servants) is more excellent than his neighbour, and accordingly give them a little time and liberty to converse with God in secret. And O that all gracious servants would discover themselves to be more excellent than their neighbours, by making more conscience of private prayer than their neighbours do, and by being more in their closets than their neighbours are, and by delighting themselves in their secret retirements more than their neighbours will, and by redeeming some time for God, for their souls, and for eternity more than their neighbours do. But,
If it was a capital crime in Tiber•us his dayes, to carry the image of Augustus upon a Ring or Coyn into any sordid place, as Suetonius saith it was; what crime must ⟨p. 179⟩it be in those masters, who despise, revile, reproach, scorn, abuse and tread under foot, such servants as have the image of the great God stampt upon their souls, and all because they look God-ward, Christ-ward, Heaven-ward, Holiness-ward, Duty-ward! Masters should never twit their servants in the