A29687:288
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.
So holy Samuel, in 1 Sam. 12.3, 4, 5. Behold here am I, witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed: whose Ox have I taken? or whose Ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? And I will restore it you. And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any mans hand. And he said unto them, the Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, he is witness. He makes a solemn protestation before the Lord, before his anointed, and before the people, that he had so lived in the exercise of justice and righteousness amongst them, that they could not accuse him of the least unrighteousness, they could not say, black was his eye, they could not say that he had lessened them to greaten himself, or that he had impoverished them to enrich himself, or that he had ruined them to raise himself; upon his appeal they unanimously declare his innocency and integrity. So holy Daniel, in Dan. 6.4, 5. Then the Presidents and Princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the Kingdom, but they could find no occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Then said these men, we shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God. Though envy be the father of cruelty and malice, the mother of murder and ambition, the plotter of others destruction; yet holy Daniel was so just and righteous, so innocent and prudent, so careful and faithful in the administration of his high office, that none of his envious, malicious, and ambitious enemies could (after their unity in a hellish & cruel conspiracy) charge him with the least spot of injustice or show of unrighteousness; they narrowly scanned all his administrations, and diligently weighed all his actions, and yet themselves being Judges, Daniel is found innocent: They could not so much as ⟨p. 131⟩charge him with a colourable fault.1 So Zechariah and Elizabeth, they walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless;