A29703:511
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.
Thirdly, I answer, 'Tis not the infirmities and weaknesses of a Christian which are seen, lamented, bewailed and resisted, that can 1obstruct or hinder the efficacy and success of his prayers: Let me clear up this in a few instances. Jonah, you know was a man full of sinful passions, and other weaknesses, &c. and yet his prayer was very prevalent with God, Jonah 2. 1, 2, 7, 10. compared. So Elijah his prayers were exceeding prevalent with God, he could open and shut heaven at his pleasure; and yet 2subject to like passions as we are: Elijah was a man of extraordinary sanctity and holiness, a man that 3lived in heaven, whilst he dwelt on earth, Enoch-like he walked with God, and yet subject to like passions as we are: God did in an eminent way communicate to him ⟨p. 269⟩his counsel and secrets; he lay in the bosom of the father; and yet was a man subject to like passions as we are: He was a very powerful, and prevalent Prophet; his very name imports as much: Eli-jah signifies my strong God. In that 1 Kings 17. 1. it is Eli-jahu, that is, the Lord he is my strong God; and yet subject to like passions as we are: He was a man much in fasting and prayer; he was an inferior mediator between God and his people, and yet subject to like passions as we are. Now because some from hence might object and say, no wonder if such a man as he was, could by his prayers open and shut heaven at his pleasure; but I am a poor, weak, low, sinful and unworthy creature; I am full of infirmities, weaknesses and passions; and shall my prayers ever find access to God, and acceptance with God, or gracious answers and returns from God? Now to obviate this objection, and to remove this discouragement ⟨p. 270⟩out of the thoughts and hearts of poor sinners, the Holy-Ghost addeth this clause, that he was not a God, nor an Angel, but a man, and such a man as was not exempted from common infirmities; for he had his passions, frailties & weaknesses, as well as other Saints; intimating to us, that infirmities in the meanest Saints should no more prejudice the acceptance and success of their prayers with God, than they did in Elijah himself. The word Passion sometimes signifies, First, a motion of the sensual appetite, arising from the imagination of good or ill, with some commotion of the body. Secondly, Sometimes Passions signify sinful infirmities, sinful perturbations of the mind.