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…

A Pythagorean bought a pair of Shoes upon trust, the Shoemaker dies, he is glad, thinks them gained; but a while after his Conscience flies upon him, and becomes a continual chider and tormentor of him; he hereupon repairs to ⟨p. 444⟩the house of the dead, casts in his money with these words, There, take thy due; thou livest to me, though dead to all besides. But,

A Pythagorean bought a pair of Shooes upon trust, the Shoomaker dies, he is glad, thinks them gained; but a while after his Conscience flyes upon him, and becomes a continual chider and tormentor of him; he hereupon repairs to ⟨p. 444⟩the house of the dead, casts in his money with these words, There, take thy due; thou livest to me, though dead to all besides. But,

Fourthly, Consider, That secret sins are in some respects more dangerous than open sins. Many a man bleeds to death inwardly, and no man perceives it. The more inward and secret the disease is, the more the man is in danger to lose his life. There are no Fevers so dangerous, as those that prey upon the spirits and inward parts; so there are no sins so dangerous and pernicious to the souls of men, as those that are most inward and secret. secret sins often reign in the souls of men most powerfully when least apparently.

First, Consider, That he that sins secretly deprives himself of those helps and remedies, which by a divine blessing might arm him against sin, yea, make him victorious over sin, to wit, the Prayers, Counsels, Reproofs, Examples and Encouragements of ⟨p. 445⟩