A29687:104
The crown & glory of Christianity, or, Holiness, the only way to happiness discovered…The crovvn & glory of Christianity, or, Holiness, the only way to happiness discovered…
The crown & glory of Christianity, or, Holiness, the only way to happiness discovered in LVIII sermons from Heb. 12. 14, where you have the necessity, excellency, rarity, beauty and glory of holiness set forth, with the resolution of many weighty questions and cases, also motives and means to perfect holiness : with many other things of very high and great importance to all the sons and daughters of men, that had rather be blessed then cursed, saved then damned / by Thomas Brooks ...The crovvn & glory of Christianity, or, Holiness, the only way to happiness discovered in LVIII sermons from Heb. 12. 14, where you have the necessity, excellency, rarity, beauty and glory of holiness set forth, with the resolution of many weighty questions and cases, also motives and means to perfect holiness : with many other things of very high and great importance to all the sons and daughters of men, that had rather be blessed then cursed, saved then damned / by Thomas Brooks ...
London: printed for H. Crips, 1662
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.
Without which no man; This expression is Exclusive, no man, be he rich or poor, high or low, honourable or base, young or old, Jew or Gentile, bond or free, under one form or another, &c.
Shall see the Lord. To see in the Hebrew phrase, is ordinarily used to enjoy, Psal. 4.6. Who will show us any good? The word in the Hebrew is from [Greek or Hebrew] to see, Who will make us to see any good! that is, to enjoy any good. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord: that is, without holiness no man shall ever come to a blessed, to a glorious fruition and enjoyment of the Lord.1 There was once a holy man who profest that the want of the enjoyment of God would be a far greater hell to him, then the feeling of any punishment: and yet this great hell, every one shall be sure to feel that lives and dyes without holiness. The Jews say of holy Moses, 2that he died ad osculum or is Dei, at the kisses of Gods mouth, and in divine embraces. When a man of holiness dies, he shall be sure to die in divine embraces, and live for ever in divine embraces. When Socrates was to die, he comforted himself with this, that he should go to a place where he should enjoy Homer and Musaeus, and other Worthies who lived before him. But ah, what an unspeakable comfort is this to a holy man when he comes to die, to consider that he is going to a place where he shall see the Lord, not as now through a glass darkly,3 but in all his heavenly bravery, and in all his divine Embroidery, and bespangled Glory! And let this suffice for the opening of the words.
Shall see the Lord. To see in the Hebrew phrase, is ordinarily used to enjoy, Psal. 4.6. Who will shew us any good? The word in the Hebrew is from 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 to see, Who will make us to see any good! that is, to enjoy any good. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord: that is, without holiness no man shall ever come to a blessed, to a glorious fruition and enjoyment of the Lord.