A29703:644
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.
After Moses had enjoyed forty days private communion with God in the Mount, how did his heart rise, and his anger wax hot against the Molten Calf that his people had made! Exod. 32. 19, 20. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the Camp, that he saw the Calf and the dancing, and Moses anger waxed hot, and he cast the Tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount: and he took the Calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, & strawed it upon the water, & made the children of Israel drink of it. Moses had never more intimate fellowship with God than ⟨p. 382⟩now, and he never discovered so much holy zeal, anger and indignation against sin as now. When a man comes off from the mount of Closet-duties with a greater hatred, anger, wrath, and indignation against bosom sins, darling sins, complexion sins, that were once as dear to him as right hands, or right eyes, or as Delilah was to Sampson, or Herodias to Herod, or Isaac to Abraham, or Joseph to Jacob, then certainly he hath had communion with God in those Duties. When a man finds his beloved sins, his Delilahs (which like the Prince of Devils command all other sins) to fall before his closet-duties, as Dagon fell before the Ark, or as Goliath fell before David, then assuredly he hath had fellowship with God in them. Pliny writes of some Families that had privy marks on their Bodies, peculiar to those of that Line. Certainly, there are no Families, no persons, but have some sin or sins, some privy marks on their souls, that may in ⟨p. 383⟩a peculiar way be called theirs. Now when in private duties they find the bent of their hearts, and the purposes, resolutions, and inclinations of their souls more raised, inflamed, and set against these, they may safely and comfortably conclude, that they have had communion with God in them. O Sirs, there is no bosom sin so sweet or profitable, that is worth burning in hell for, or worth shutting out of Heaven for; and therefore in all your private duties and services, labour after that communion with God in them, that may break the neck and heart of your most bosom sins. When Darius fled before Alexander, that he might run the faster out of danger, he threw away his Massive Crown from his head. As ever you would be safe from eternal danger, throw away your golden and your silver Idols, throw away your bosom sins, your darling lusts.