A29687:196
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.
A virtuous wife is a crown to her husband: she is the life of life: if thou art a man of holiness, thou must look more for a portion of grace in a wife,1 then for a portion of gold with a wife: thou must look more after righteousness then riches: more after piety then money: more after what inheritance she hath in heaven, then what possessions she hath on earth: more at what interest she hath in Christ, then at what interest she hath in creatures; more at her being new born, then at her being high born; more at her being good, then at all her worldly goods. If money makes the match, and she be good enough, that hath but goods enough, thou shalt be sure to have hell enough with such a wife. In thy choice to err but once is to be undone for ever, at least as to the comforts and contentments of thy life: once blest or curst must be for ever so: Men have not leave to choose or change often. By what hath been said, it is most evident that God would not have the holy seed to mingle or marry with the unholy. And do you think that a holy God will mingle and marry with such in heaven, that he would not have his people to mingle or marry with on earth? surely no. Or do you think that that God that would not in the Law have an Ox and an Ass plough together that he will be yoked to such wretches (may I say to such Asses) whose ungodliness hath debased them below the very Ox and Ass! Isa. 1.3. Surely no.
A vertuous wife is a crown to her husband: she is the life of life: if thou art a man of holinesse, thou must look more for a portion of grace in a wife,1 then for a portion of gold with a wife: thou must look more after righteousnesse then riches: more after piety then money: more after what inheritance she hath in heaven, then what possessions she hath on earth: more at what interest she hath in Christ, then at what interest she hath in creatures; more at her being new born, then at her be•ng high born; more at her being good, then at all her worldly goods. If money makes the match, and she be good enough, that hath but goods enough, thou shalt be sure to have hell enough with such a wife. In thy choice to err but once is to be undone for ever, at least as to the comforts and contentments of thy life: once blest or curst must be for ever so: Men have not leave to choose or change often. By what hath been said, it is most evident that God would not have the holy seed to mingle or marry with the unholy. And do you think that a holy God wil mingle and marry with such in heaven, that he would not have his people to mingle or marry with on earth? surely no. Or do you think that that God that would not in the Law have an Ox and an Asse plough together that he will be yoked to such wretches (may I say to such Asses) whose ungodliness hath debased them below the very Ox and Asse!