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The Secret Key to Heaven: The Vital Importance of Private Prayer by Thomas Brooks
The Secret Key to Heaven: The Vital Importance of Private Prayer by Thomas Brooks
Product Description
The power of religion and godliness lives, thrives, or dies, as closet prayer lives, thrives, or dies.’ This was the deeply held conviction of Thomas Brooks, the author of The Secret Key to Heaven. As a pastor who knew his people well, he feared that many Christians do not understand the necessity, excellency, and usefulness of private prayer, and that many live ‘too great a neglect of this indispensable duty.’ Focusing on our Lord’s words about ‘closet-prayer’ in Matthew 6:6, Brooks gives us a masterful treatment of a vitally important aspect of Christian’s living. His aim is intensely practical, ‘to preserve and keep up the power of religion and godliness both in men’s houses, hearts, and lives.’
Table of Contents
Publisher’s Note | xi | |
Author’s Preface | xiii | |
PART ONE | ||
The Doctrine of the Text (Matt. 6:6) Stated and Proved | 1 | |
PART TWO | ||
Twenty Arguments for Private Prayer | ||
1: | The Most Eminent Saints Engaged in Private Prayer | 7 |
2: | Christ Engaged in Secret Prayer | 13 |
3: | Secret Prayer Distinguishes Sincerity from Hypocrisy | 18 |
4: | Secret Prayer Lets Us Unbosom Ourselves before God | 20 |
5: | Secret Duties Shall Have Open Rewards | 23 |
6: | God Most Manifests Himself in Secret | 24 |
7: | This Life Is the Only Time for Private Prayer | 31 |
8: | Private Prayer’s Prevailing Power | 31 |
9: | Private Prayer Is the Most Soul-Enriching of Duties | 44 |
10: | Secret Prayer and Secret Sins | 46 |
11: | Secret Prayer Delights Christ | 47 |
12: | Only Believers Share God’s Secrets | 48 |
13: | Private Prayer Is the Christian’s Refuge in Trouble | 58 |
14: | God Is Omnipresent | 61 |
15: | If We Neglect Private Prayer, God Will Not Hear Our Public Prayers | 64 |
16: | The Times Call for Private Prayer | 66 |
17: | Those Near to the Lord Should Engage in Secret Prayer | 68 |
18: | Special Marks of God’s Favour | 71 |
19: | Satan’s Enmity to Secret Prayer | 72 |
20: | The Lord’s Secret Ones Should Engage in Secret Prayer | 75 |
PART THREE | ||
The Use and Application of the Doctrine | ||
The Doctrine Condemns Five Ways in Which Private Prayer Is Neglected | 79 | |
The Doctrine Exhorts Us to Be Frequent and Constant in Private Prayer | 85 | |
PART FOUR | ||
Six Objections Stated and Answered | ||
1: | We Are Too Busy to Spare Time for Private Prayer | 87 |
2: | As Servants, We Have No Time That We Can Call Our Own | 104 |
3: | We Lack the Necessary Gifts and Abilities for Private Prayer | 127 |
4: | God Knows Our Desires and Needs Whether We Pray in Private or Not | 156 |
5: | We Lack a Convenient Place for Private Prayer | 159 |
6: | Our Weaknesses and Infirmities Hinder Us from Private Prayer | 161 |
PART FIVE | ||
Eleven Instructions concerning Private Prayer | ||
1: | Be Frequent in Private Prayer | 183 |
2: | Use the Best Times and Opportunities | 188 |
3: | Do Not Perform Closet Duties Merely to Still Your Conscience | 191 |
4: | Do Not Trust in Closet Duties | 193 |
5: | Put Your Heart into All Closet Duties | 197 |
6: | Be Fervent, Warm, and Importunate with God in All Closet Duties | 201 |
7: | Be Constant and Persevering in Closet Prayer | 208 |
8: | Thirst and Long after Communion with God in Private Prayer | 212 |
9: | Make the Glory of God Your Ultimate End | 233 |
10: | Always Pray in the Name of Christ Alone | 235 |
11: | Look for Answers to Your Closet Prayers | 239 |
PART SIX | ||
Means, Rules, and Directions for Faithful Private Prayer | ||
1: | Beware of an Idle, Slothful Spirit | 243 |
2: | Beware of Spending Precious Time on Small, Circumstantial Matters | 248 |
3: | Beware of Curious Questions | 249 |
4: | Beware of Engaging in Too Much Worldly Business | 254 |
5: | Beware of Secret Sins | 256 |
Closing Advice | ||
1: | Mourn over Neglect of Private Prayer | 273 |
2: | Cultivate the Habit of Closet Prayer | 274 |
3: | Keep a Diary of Closet Mercies | 274 |
4: | Do Not Let Public Duties and Ordinances Crowd Out Private Prayer | 277 |
5: | Love Christ with a More Inflamed Love | 278 |
6: | Be Thoroughly Resolved in the Strength of Christ to Persevere in Closet Prayer | 280 |
7: | Strive for a Greater Measure of the Spirit | 282 |
8: | Be Frequent in the Serious Consideration of Eternity | 284 |
About the Author
Little is known about Thomas Brooks as a man, other than can be ascertained from his many writings. Born, probably of well-to-do parents, in 1608, Brooks entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1625. He was licensed as a preacher of the gospel by 1640 at the latest. Before that date he seems to have spent a number of years at sea, probably as a chaplain with the fleet. After the Civil War, Brooks became minister at Thomas Apostle’s, London, and was sufficiently renowned to be chosen as preacher before the House of Commons on 26 December, 1648. Three or four years later he moved to St Margaret’s, Fish-street Hill, London, but encountered considerable opposition as he refused baptism and the Lord’s Supper to those clearly ‘unworthy’ of such privileges. The following years were filled with written as well as spoken ministry. In 1662 he fell victim to the notorious Act of Uniformity, but he appears to have remained in his parish and to have preached the Word as opportunity offered. Treatises continued to flow from his agile pen. In 1677 or 1678 he married for the second time, ‘she spring-young, he winter-old’. Two years later he went home to his Lord.