A29687:228
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.
Sixthly, If real holiness be the only way to happiness, if men must be holy on earth, or they shall never come to a fruition of God in heaven: Then this truth by way of conviction, looks sourly and sadly upon all hypocrites, who have only a seeming holiness, a feigned holiness, a counterfeit holiness. The Apostle speaks of a true holiness,1 Ephes. 4.24. (or holiness of truth, as the Greek reads it) in opposition to that feigned and counterfeit holiness, that is in the world: pretended holiness is most opposite to the holiness of God. Hypocritical holiness is the greatest unholiness;2 and as God hath, so certainly God will still suit the punishment to the sin. If it was death in Moses his Law, to counterfeit that Ceremonial and figurative ointment; what shall it then be to counterfeit the spirit of life and holiness? Dissembled sanctity is double iniquity: He that professeth religion without being religious, and godliness without being godly: he that makes counterfeit holiness a cloak to impiety, and a Mid-wife to iniquity; He that is a Cato without, and a Nero within; a Jacob without, and an Esau within: a David without, and a Saul within; a Peter without, and a Judas within: a Saint without, and a Satan within: an Angel without, and a devil within, is ripened for the worst ⟨p. 83⟩of torments, Matth. 24.5. And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Hypocrites are the freeholders of hell: all other sinners do but hold under them: none have so large a portion in hell as hypocrites have: No man at last will be found so miserable, as he that hath the name of a Saint upon him, but not the divine nature in him: that hath a profession of holiness upon him, but no principles of holiness in him: that hath a form of godliness, but not the power: that can cry up godliness, and court godliness, but in practise denies it: that is a Jew outwardly, but an Atheist, a Pagan, a devil inwardly. Who had a greater name for holiness, and who made a greater show of holiness, and who did more despise and insult over men for the want of holiness, then the Scribes and Pharisees? and who so miserable now as they?