A29703:423
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.
Fourthly, You say you cannot pray, &c. O that you would leave off objecting, and fall upon praying. If you cannot pray as you would, nor as you should, pray as well as you can. Josephs brethren stood so long dallying & delaying and trifling out the time, that having a Journey to go to buy corn, they might have bought and returned twice, before they went and bought once. When Elijah called Elisha he goes about the bush, 1and he must needs go bid his father and mother farewell, before he could follow the Prophet. O friends, take heed of dallying, delaying, trifling, going about ⟨p. 210⟩the bush, when you should be a falling upon the work of prayer. What though with Hannah thou canst but weep out a prayer, or with Moses stammer out a prayer, or with Hezekiah chatter out a prayer, yet do as well as thou canst, and thou shalt find acceptance with God, 2 Cor. 8. 12. For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. The Publicans prayer had not much Rhetoric or eloquence in it, God be merciful to me a sinner, and yet God accepted it: He 2prayed much, though he spake little, and God did not turn a deaf ear upon him. That God that once accepted a handful of meal 3for a sacrifice, and a gripe of Goats hair for an oblation, and the poor widows two mites, as if they had been two millions, will certainly accept of what thou art able to do, though thou dost fall short, yea much short of what thou oughtest to do. Lord, saith Luther, thou commandest ⟨p. 211⟩me to pray: I cannot pray as I would, yet I will obey: for though my prayer be not acceptable, yet thine own commandment is acceptable to thee. If weak Christians would but put forth in prayer that little strength they have, God would quickly renew their spiritual strength, he would certainly carry them on from strength to strength, he would 4