A29687:146
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.
See the kingdom of God: that is, they cannot enter into it, they cannot enjoy it, they can have no child's part or portion in it, except they are new born, except they pass the pangs of the second birth. Let their education be never so sweet, their illumination never so great, their profession never so amiable, and their conversation never so unblameable; yet except they are new born, it had been good for them that they had never been born. And thus you see by plain Scriptures, that the Lord hath bolted the gates of glory against all unholy persons.
See the kingdom of God: that is, they cannot enter into it, they cannot enjoy it, they can have no childs part or portion in it, except they are new born, except they pass the pangs of the second birth. Let their education be never so sweet, their illumination never so great, their profession never so amiable, and their conversation never so unblameable; yet except they are new born, it had been good for them that they had never been born. And thus you see by plain Scriptures, that the Lord hath bolted the gates of glory against all unholy persons.
A second Argument to prove, that without holiness, there is no happiness, &c. is this; Without holiness men are strangers to God, and therefore without holiness they cannot be admitted to a co-habitation with God. God loves not to dwell with strangers, nor to associate himself with strangers; now such are all unholy persons, Ephes. 2.12. That at time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel, (or being far removed from the Citizenship of Israel) and strangers from the Covenants of ⟨p. 25⟩promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. Here are five withouts in the words, 1. They were without God the Author of hope. 2. They were without Christ the foundation of hope. 3. They were without the Church (which was contained in the Common-wealth of Israel) the place of hope. 4. They were without the Covenants of promise. (That is, they were without the precious promises which God in his Covenant had made, and oftentimes renewed with the Israelites, and therefore called Covenants in the plural number) the ground and reason of hope. And Lastly, they were without the grace of hope: they had no hope of communion with Christ, no hope of fellowship with the Saints; no hope of any interest in the promise; no hope of reconciliation to God here, nor no hope of a fruition of God hereafter. And thus you see what strangers they were to the Lord, and to the great concernments of their own souls. God of old would not have strangers come into his Sanctuary: And do you think then that he will ever admit such into heaven? Surely no.