A29687:163
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.
1Sixthly, Natural fools are all for the present; they cry out Spend and God will send; they only mind and care for the things of this life; As what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, and what they shall put on; they are all for their bodies, their bellies, their backs: they take no care, they make no provision for their immortal souls. A spruce Roman riding on a lean Jade, was asked by the Censor his reason: he answered, I look to my self, but my man to my horse. So fools look only to their bodies, let who list look to their souls. Such fools are all unsanctified persons: they look only after their bodies, and their outward concernments: they look not at the necessities, ⟨p. 41⟩miseries and wants of their souls; such were those in John 6.26, 27. who crossed the Seas and followed after Christ for loaves, but never looked after the meat which endureth to everlasting life. And such fools were those in Hos. 7.14. who howled upon their beds for corn and wine: let them have but provender, provant for their bodies, and they care not what becomes of their souls; and such were they in Phil. 3.19. whose God was their gut. And such were the Laodiceans in Rev. 3.14.— 19. who had well fed bodies, but starved souls: whose houses were full of goods, but their hearts empty and void of Christ and grace: who had thread-bare souls under all their purple Robes; who were rich in temporals, but very poor and beggarly in spirituals. And such a one was that rich fool in Luke 12. who only laid up for his body, for this life, but never took care for another life, for a better life; he makes many years provision for his body, and not a days provision for his soul; he talks of living many years when he had not a day, nor a night to live in this world: And being thus foolish in his reckoning, Christ brands him for a fool to all generations, Ver. 20, 21. Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee: then whose shall these things be which thou hast provided! So is he that heapeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. Every man in the world is a fool, that heaps up treasure to himself, that adds land to land, and house to house, and heap to heap, and bags to bags, and hundreds to hundreds,