A29687:275
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.
Fifthly, and lastly, (take many things in one) A holy heart knows that the least sin cost Christ his dearest blood: without shedding of blood there was no remission, no remission of great sins,1 nor no remission of little sins. He knows that the blood of Christ is as requisite to cleanse the soul from the least sin, as it is to cleanse it from the greatest, 1 John 1.7. And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all our sins. It is not the casting of a little holy water upon us: it is not the Papists Purgatories,2 nor their whippings, nor St. Francis his kissing or licking of our sores, nor a Bishops blessing, nor a few knocks on the breast, nor a few tears dropping from our eyes, that can cleanse us from the least sin. No, it is only the blood of Christ that cleanseth us from all our sins; there is not the least spot in a Christians heart that can be washed out, but in the blood of the Lamb. When ⟨p. 119⟩Satan appeared and presented to a dying man in a long Parchment Role his Idle words, his false words, his angry words, his wanton words, and his more wicked words and deeds: The dying man answered, All this is true Satan, but yet there is one thing more for thee to set down under all my sins, and that is this, The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all our sins. Whereupon the devil vanished, as being vanquished. Certainly, there is not a vain thought, nor an Idle word, nor an angry word, not a wanton word that can be pardoned or cleansed but by the blood of Jesus Christ. The remembrance of which cannot but stir up a holy indignation in a gracious soul against the least corruption. When Julius Caesar the Emperor was murdered, Antonius brought forth his bloody Coat, and showed it to the people, which stirred up in them such an indignation against the murderers, that they cried out, Slay the murderers, and went and burnt their houses, and all that was in them. So when a holy heart looks upon his sins, yea his little sins, as those that have murdered the Prince of glory, ah what an indignation doth it raise in the soul against them! A holy heart knows that there is not the least sin, but doth in a measure estrange the soul from God; as little clouds do somewhat interpose between the Sun and us; so little sins do somewhat interpose between God and our souls: and as sometimes a little matter, a mistake or lending an ear;