A29703:587
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.
and so when the heart is separated from the lip in prayer, the prayer is dead.
The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their Synagogues these words, Tephillah belo cavannah ceguph belo neshamah; that is, a prayer without the heart (or, without the intention of the affection) is like a body without a soul.
In the Law of Moses the Priest was commanded to wash the inwards and the feet of the Sacrifices in water, and this was done, saith Philo, not without a mystery, to teach us to keep our hearts and affections clean when we draw nigh to God. In all your Closet-duties God looks first and most to your hearts, My Son 1give me thy heart. It is not a piece, it is not a corner of the heart, that will satisfy the maker of the heart; the ⟨p. 326⟩heart is a treasure, a bed of spices, a royal throne wherein he delights. God looks not at the clegancy of your prayers, to see how neat they are; nor yet at the Geometry of your prayers, to see how long they are; nor yet at the Arithmetic of your prayers, to see how many they are; nor yet at the Music of your prayers, nor yet at the sweetness of your voice, nor yet at the Logic of your prayers; but at the sincerity of your prayers, how hearty they are. There is no prayer acknowledged, approved, accepted, recorded, or rewarded by God, but that wherein the heart is sincerely and wholly. The true mother would not have the 2child divided. As God loves a broken and a contrite heart, so he loathes a divided heart. God neither loves halting nor halving, he will be served truly and totally. The Royal Law is, Thou shalt love and serve the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. Among the Heathens, when the