A29703:520
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, I answer, The more infirmities and weaknesses hang upon us, the more cause have we to keep close and constant to our Closet duties. If grace be weak, 1the omission of private prayer will make it weaker. Look as he that will not eat will certainly grow weaker and weaker: So he that will not pray in his c[…]et will certainly grow weaker and weaker. If corruptions be strong, the neglect of private prayer will make them ⟨p. 277⟩stronger. The more the remedy is neglected, the more the disease is strengthened. Whatsoever the distempers of a mans heart be, they will never be abated, but augmented by the omission of private prayer. The more bodily infirmities hang upon us the more need we have of the Physician: and so the more sinful infirmities hang upon our souls, the more need we have of private prayer. All sinful omissions will make work for repentance, for hell, or for the Physician of souls. Sinful omissions lead to sinful commissions; as you may see in the Angels that fell from heaven to hell, and in Adams fall in Paradise.
Fourthly, I answer, The more infirmities and weaknesses hang upon us, the more cause have we to keep close and constant to our Closet duties. If grace be weake, 1the omission of private prayer will make it weaker. Look as he that will not eat will certainly grow weaker and weaker: So he that will not pray in his c〈…〉et will certainly grow weaker and weaker. If corruptions be strong, the neglect of private prayer will make them ⟨p. 277⟩stronger. The more the remedy is neglected, the more the disease is strengthned. Whatsoever the distempers of a mans heart be, they will never be abated, but augmented by the omission of private prayer. The more bodily infirmities hang upon us the more need we have of the Physitian: and so the more sinful infirmities hang upon our souls, the more need we have of private prayer. All sinful omissions will make work for repentance, for hell, or for the Physitian of souls. Sinful omissions lead to sinful commissions; as you may see in the Angels that fell from heaven to hell, and in Adams fall in Paradise.