A29703:542
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.
Now if thy indisposition to private prayer springs from contracted guilt upon thy Conscience, then thy best way is speedily to renew thy Repentance, and greatly to judge and humble thine own soul, and so to act Faith afresh upon the ⟨p. 293⟩blood of Christ, both for pardoning mercy, and for purging grace. When a man is stung with Guilt 'tis his highest wisdom in the world to look up to the Brazen Serpent, and not to spend his time, or create torments to his own soul by perpetual poring upon his guilt: When Guilt upon the Conscience works a man to water the earth with tears, & to make Heaven ring with his groans, then it works kindly: When the sense of Guilt drives a man to God, to Duty, to the Throne of Grace, then it will not be long night with that man: He that thinks to shift off Private Prayer under the pretence of Guilt, doth but in that increase his own Guilt: Neglect of Duty will never get Guilt off the Conscience.
Now if thy indisposition to private prayer springs from contracted guilt upon thy Conscience, then thy best way is speedily to renew thy Repentance, and greatly to judge and humble thine own soul, and so to act Faith afresh upon the ⟨p. 293⟩blood of Christ, both for pardoning mercy, and for purging grace. When a man is stung with Guilt 'tis his highest wisdome in the world to look up to the Brazen Serpent, and not to spend his time, or create torments to his own soul by perpetual poring upon his guilt: When Guilt upon the Conscience works a man to water the earth with tears, & to make Heaven ring with his groans, then it works kindly: When the sence of Guilt drives a man to God, to Duty, to the Throne of Grace, then it will not be long night with that man: He that thinks to shift off Private Prayer under the pretence of Guilt, doth but in that increase his own Guilt: Neglect of Duty will never get Guilt off the Conscience.
But then there is an involuntary indisposition to private prayer; as in a sick man, who would work and walk, but cannot, being hindered by his disease; or as it is with a man that hath a great chain on his