A29703:736
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.
I have read a notable Story of one Theodorus, a Christian young man in Egypt, who when there was a great deal of feasting, mirth, and music in his Fathers house, withdrew himself from all the company, and being got alone, he thus thought with with himself, ⟨p. 475⟩Here is content and delight enough for the flesh, I may have what I desire, but how long will this last? this will not hold out long; then falling down upon his knees before the Lord in secret, he said, O Lord my heart is open unto thee, I indeed know not what to ask, but only this Lord, let me not dye eternally; O Lord, thou knowest I love thee, O let me live eternally to praise thee.
I have read a notable Story of one Theodorus, a Christian young man in Egypt, who when there was a great deal of feasting, mirth, and musick in his Fathers house, withdrew himself from all the company, and being got alone, he thus thought with with himself, ⟨p. 475⟩Here is content and delight enough for the flesh, I may have what I desire, but how long will this last? this will not hold out long; then falling down upon his knees before the Lord in secret, he said, O Lord my heart is open unto thee, I indeed know not what to ask, but only this Lord, let me not dye eternally; O Lord, thou knowest I love thee, O let me live eternally to praise thee.
If there be any way or means on earth to bring us upon our knees before God in secret, it is the serious and solemn thoughts of Eternity. O that the fear of Eternity might fall upon all your souls: O that you would all seriously consider that after a short time is expired, you must all enter upon an eternal estate. O consider that Eternity is an infinite, endless, bottomless gulf, which no line can fathom, no time can reach, no age can extend to, no tongue can express: it is a duration always present, a being always in being; its Unum perpetuum hodie, one perpetual ⟨p. 476⟩