A29687:252
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.
Yea they are apt in times of temptation, desertion, sore afflictions, and when they are under the sensible stirrings of strong corruptions, to conclude that they have no holiness, no grace, when indeed they have: witness Job, Chap. 13.24. And Ch. 19 9 witness David, Psalm 22.1, 2. witness Asaph, Psal. 77.2.11. witness Heman, Psalm 88.1.17. witness Jeremiah, Lam. 3.18. witness the whole Church, Isa. 49.15, 16. Ezek. 37.11, 12. And witness the Disciples, John 14.4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 20. compared. To know our selves to be holy is very desirable, ⟨p. 101⟩but woe were to many precious Christians if they might not be holy and yet not know it; if they might not have holiness in their hearts, when the appearance of holiness is hid from their eyes. Look as sparks and coals of fire are often hid under the ashes and we see them not; and as in Winter the sap and life is hid in the root of the tree, and we perceive it not; and as precious flowers are hid in their seeds, and we discern them not; so when it is Winter with a Christian, his holiness may be so hid and covered under fears, doubts, sins, &c. that he may not be able to see it, to discern it, or conclude that he hath it: As the air is sometimes clear, and sometimes cloudy, and the Sea sometimes ebbing and sometimes flowing; so the holiness of the Saints is sometimes so clouded, and at so low an ebb, that a Christian can hardly discern it, he can hardly say, Lo here is my holiness; the being of holiness in the soul is one thing; the seeing of holiness in the soul is another thing; the being of holiness is one thing; the feeling of holiness is another thing. A Christian may as safely conclude that there are no stars in the sky in a dark night, because he cannot see them; and that there is no treasure in the Mine, because he cannot discern it, nor come to the feeling of it, as he may conclude that he hath no holiness in his heart, because he cannot see it, he cannot feel it. As the treasures of this world,