A29686:414
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...
London : Printed and are to be sold by John Hancock ..., 1669
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Fifthly, Our love to the Saints is right, when we love them best, and most in whom the spiritual and supernatural causes of love are most sparkling and shining; where grace draws the affections, there the more grace we see, the more we shall love, Psal. 16.3. My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the Saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. 1There are Saints, and there are excellent Saints. The Hebrew word that is here rendered excellent, signifies magnificent ones, noble ones, glorious ones, wonderful ones. O Sirs! there are some Saints that are magnificent in grace, noble in grace, glorious in grace, wonderful in grace. Now this is certain, if grace be the true reason why we love any, then the more excellent, the more magnificent any are in grace,2 the more highly we shall prize them, and the more dearly we shall love them, and the more abundantly in our hearts we shall honour them. Look, as grace rises higher and higher in the same person, so we shall rise higher and higher in our love to the same person;3 Daniel was greatly beloved, and John was singularly beloved; and why? but because they were more eminently gracious than others were. Where there is most grace, there God is most honoured, and there Christ is most exalted, and there the Spirit is best pleased, and there Religion is most adorned, and there Satan is most dethroned, and there the world is most conquered, and there sin is most subdued, and there duties are most exactly performed; and therefore, there the gracious soul can't but love best and most. There are some that seem to love such and such godly men, whose judgments ⟨p. 197⟩are weak and light, little, and parts low, and grace small; who yet look with a squint eye, an envious eye upon every Sun that outshines their own, upon every ones graces and excellencies that are more sparkling than their own. Though pride and envy have received their deaths-wound at the souls first conversion, yet they are not quite slain in a believer; there is an aptness even in real Saints,