A29687:211
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.
First, That the number of those that shall be eternally happy, the number of those that shall attain to a blessed §1vision and glorious fruition of God in heaven are very few: for there are but a few that reach to this holiness without which there is no happiness, Rev. 3.4. Thou hast ⟨p. 68⟩a few names, 1even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. Among the many in Sardis there were but a few that had holy insides and pure outsides: Among the multitude that made a holy profession, there were but few that walked answerable to their holy calling: and therefore but a few that should walk with Christ in white. White in ancient times was the Habit of Nobles: to walk with Christ in white, is to partake with Christ in his glory, they and only they at last shall be clothed nobly, royally, gloriously, who maintain inward and outward purity. The holy seed is a little little flock, Luke 12.32. here are two Diminutives in the Greek [Greek or Hebrew] little little flock; to show the exceeding littleness of it. They were little in their own eyes, and little in their enemies eyes, and little in regard of that world of Wolves among whom they were preserved as a spark of fire in the midst of the wide Ocean. When the Syrians came up against Israel in the time of Ahab, it is said that the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of Kids, but the Syrians filled the country, 1 Kings 20.27. holy souls are but like two little flocks of kids; but the unholy fill the world: Gracious souls are like the three hundred men of Gideon: but graceless souls are as the Midianites that were like Grasshoppers for multitude, Judges 7.7.12. Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads unto life, and few there be that find it, Matth. 7.14. The way of holiness that leads to happiness, is a narrow way; there is but just room enough for a holy God and a holy soul to walk together. And few there be that find it; And no wonder: for there are but few that minds it, that loves it, that likes it, or that enquires after it. The whole world lies in wickedness,