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.’

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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.