A29687:267
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, The heart of a holy man rises against secret sins, against such as lye furthest off from the eye of man, Psal. 119.113. I hate vain thoughts, but thy Law do I love. What more secret then vain thoughts! and yet against these the heart of a holy man rises. When Joseph was tempted to be secretly wicked with his Mistress, his heart rises against it; How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against the Lord! Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart. 1Heart sins lye most close and secret: And yet for these a holy man humbles himself. Job would not suffer his heart in an Idolatrous way secretly to kiss his hand.2 The heart of a holy man rises against wickedness in the dark, against folly in a corner,3 against sin a Closet. So Paul was much affected and afflicted with the operations of sin within ⟨p. 113⟩him, with the Law in his members rebelling against the Law of his mind. Paul after his conversion never fell into any scandalous sin: those sins that did most trouble him and distress him, were of his own house, yea, were in his own heart. A holy man knows that secret sins are sins, as well as those that are open.4 He knows that secret sins must be repented of as well as others: he knows that God takes notice of secret sins as well as of open. 2 Sam. 12.12. Thou didst it secretly: he knows that secret sins do often interpose between God and his soul.5 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee: our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. 6He knows that secret sins will quickly become public, except they are presently loathed and speedily mortified: He knows that secret sins, like secret diseases and secret wounds, do oftentimes prove most dangerous and pernicious; He knows that secret sins are the price of blood, as well as open sinnings. He knows that secret sins are a grief to the Spirit, as well as those that are manifest. He knows that sometimes God punishes secret sins with manifest Judgements, as you may see in that great instance of David,