A29687:262
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.
and that holiness in his soul, like the waters in Ezekiel's sanctuary,1 may still be rising higher and higher. It was Beza's prayer, Lord, perfect what thou hast begun in me, that I may not suffer Shipwreck when I am almost at heaven. And as a man of holiness prayeth for more holiness, so a man of holiness believes for more holiness. Psalm 51.7. in your Translations you read the words prayer-wise, but in the Hebrew the words run in the future thus: Thou wilt purge me from sin with Hyssop, and I shall be clean; thou wilt wash me ⟨p. 109⟩and I shall be whiter then snow: In the sense of all his sinfulness and vileness he believes that God will give out greater measures of purity and sanctity to him: Thou wilt purge me, and I shall be clean: thou wilt wash me, and I shall be whiter then snow. So in Psal. 65.3. Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. Though for the present iniquity did prevail, yet he had faith enough to believe that God would purge him from his transgressions, and that he would mortify prevailing corruptions. And as a man of holiness believes for more holiness, so a man of holiness hopes for more holiness,2 1 John 3.2, 3, 4. In every ordinance he hopes for more holiness, and under every providence he hopes for more holiness, and under every mutation and change of his condition he hopes for more holiness. When he is in prosperity, he hopes that God will make him more zealous, thankful, cheerful, fruitful and useful; and when he is in Adversity, he hopes that God will inflame his love, and raise his faith, and increase his patience, and strengthen his submission, and quiet his heart in a gracious resignation of himself to God. I dare boldly say that that man was never truly holy who endeavours not to get up to the highest pitches of holiness: True holiness knows no restrictions,3 nor limitation. But now counterfeit holiness is either like Hezekiahs Sun which went backward: Or like Joshua's Sun which stood still: or like Ephraims morning cloud which soon passed away. No round but the highest round in Jacobs Ladder will satisfy a holy soul: True holiness make a man divinely covetous.