A29687:307
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.
7. A holy heart looks upon other mens sins, as their bonds §7and chains, Acts 8.23. and this makes him mourn. When Marcellus the Roman General saw the multitude of captives that were taken in the City of Syracuse, the tears trickled down his cheeks. Ah how can tears but trickle down a Christians cheeks, when he sees multitudes fast bound with the cords of their iniquity trooping to hell! Who can look upon a sinner as a close prisoner to the Prince of darkness, and not bemoan him! Now if holy persons thus mourn for the wickedness of others:1 then certainly they are far from being holy, who take pleasure in the wickedness of others, who laugh and joy, who can make a sport, a pastime of other mens sins! These are rather monsters then men; there are none so nearly allied to Satan, as these; nor none resemble Satan to the life, so much as these: The devil always joys most when sinners sin most. Neither doubtless are they holy who tempt and entice others to be unholy: nor are they holy who only cry out of other mens sins, but never sigh for other mens sins; nor are they holy who insult over the iniquities of others, but never mourn for the iniquities of others; nor are they holy, who can rail, reproach, and revile others for their sins, but have neither skill, nor will to lament over others sins, and yet this age is full of such wretches. Certainly that mans holiness will be found to be of the right stamp at last, who can Evangelically mourn for other mens sins as well as his own. But,
7. A holy heart looks upon other mens sins, as their bonds §7and chains, Acts 8.23. and this makes him mourn. When Marcellus the Roman General saw the multitude of captives that were taken in the City of Syracuse, the tears trickled down his cheeks. Ah how can tears but trickle down a Christians cheeks, when he sees multitudes fast bound with the cords of their iniquity trooping to hell! Who can look upon a sinner as a close prisoner to the Prince of darknesse, and not bemoan him! Now if holy persons thus mourn for the wickednesse of others:1