A29703:535
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.
Sixthly and lastly, I shall answer this Objection by way of distinction, thus,
First, There is a contracted indisposition to private prayer, and there is an involuntary indisposition to private prayer: there is a contracted indisposition, and that is when a man by his wilful sinning against light, knowledge, conviction, &c. contracts that guilt that lies as a load upon his Conscience: Now guilt makes the Soul shy of God; and the greater the guilt is, the more shy the Soul is of drawing near to God in a corner. The Child that is sensibly under guilt hides himself (as Adam did) in the day from his Fathers 1eye, and at night he slips to bed, to avoid either a chiding, or a whipping from his Father. Guilt makes a man fly from God, and fly from Prayer: 'Tis a hard 2thing to look God in the face, when guilt stares a man in the face. Guilt makes a man a terror to himself: now when a man is a terror to himself, he is neither fit to live, nor fit to die, nor fit to pray: When Poison gets into the body, it ⟨p. 289⟩works upon the spirits, and it weakens the spirits, and it endangers life, and unfits and indisposes a man to all natural actions; 'tis so here, when guilt lies heavy upon the conscience, it works upon the Soul, it weakens the Soul, it endangers the Soul, and it doth wonderfully unfit and indispose the Soul to all holy actions. Guilt fights against our Souls, our Consciences, 3our Comforts, our Duties, yea, and our very graces also: There is nothing that wounds and lames our graces like guilt; there is nothing that weakens and wastes our graces like guilt; there is nothing that hinders the activity of our graces like guilt; nor there is nothing that clouds our evidences of grace like guilt. Look what water is to the fire, that our sinnings are to our graces, evidences, and duties. Guilt is like Prometheus Vulture, that ever lies gnawing. 'Tis better with Evagrius to lye on a Bed of straw with a good Conscience, than to lye on a Bed of