A29687:222
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.
Fourthly, If real holiness be the only way to happiness: §4if men must be holy on earth, or else they shall never see the face of God in heaven: Then this truth by way of conviction looks sourly and sadly upon all those who please and satisfy themselves with civility and common honesty: who are good negative Christians, who bless themselves that they are no swearers, nor drunkards,1 nor extortioners, nor adulterers, &c. they pay every man his own, they are just and righteous in their dealings; no man can say black is their eye; their carriage is civil, comely, harmless and blameless. They make a fair show in the flesh, Gal. 6.12. or as the Greek hath it, they set a good face on it. But as good a face as they do set on it, I must crave leave to tell them that civility is not sanctity; civility rested in, is but a beautiful abomination, a smooth way to hell and destruction. I may truly say of all civil men (who are destitute of that real holiness that leads to happiness) what Erasmus said of Seneca, If you look upon him as a heathen, then he seemeth to write as if he were a Christian; ⟨p. 78⟩but if you look upon him as a Christian, then he seemeth to write as a heathen. So if you look upon many civil moral mens lives, you will find them so full of ingenuity, equity, righteousness, sweetness and justice, that you will be ready to say, Sure these are holy men. But then do but observe how unacquainted they are with God, with Christ, with the Scripture, with the way and working of the spirit, with the filthiness of sin, with the depths and devices of Satan, with their own hearts, with the new birth, and with the great concernments of eternity, and you will judge them to be mere heathens, to be men void of all principles of grace and holiness; and to be mere strangers to union and communion with Christ, and to the more secret and inward operations and workings of the spirit of Christ, and to the most spiritual duties and services that are commanded by Christ. Civility is very often the nurse of impiety,2 the mother of flattery, and an enemy to real sanctity: a high conceit of civility keeps many a man from looking after inward and outward purity: moral honesty proves to many men a bond of iniquity. There are those who are so blinded with the fair shows of civility, that they can neither see the necessity, nor beauty of sanctity: