A29687:319
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 yet have spared John Baptists head, because Johns head, Johns life, was more worth then all Herod's Kingdom. O Sirs! Shall Titus Sabinus his dog bring meat to the mouth of his dead master, and hold up his head in Tiber from sinking, because sometimes he gave him a crust of bread! And will not you highly love, honour, and esteem of those Pastors who feed your souls with the bread of life, yea with that bread that came down from heaven? Certainly the more any man is affected and taken with the holiness of the Word, the more highly they will honour and prize the holy and faithful dispensers of the Word: Holy men know that their place is honourable, their calling honourable, and their work honourable, and therefore they cannot but honour them. Holy men know that if they do not honour them, they dishonour him whose Ambassadors they are. Holy men know that Christ takes all the affronts that are put upon them,1 as put upon himself, and will accordingly revenge them, as you may see by comparing the Scriptures in the margin together. Ambassadors are inviolable by the Law of Nations. David never played any such harsh part, as he did to the Ammonites that despitefully used his Ambassadors that he sent unto them, when they shaved off one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, &c. I have read that Rome was destroyed to the ground for some abuses that were offered to an Ambassador that was sent unto it. And the Romans sacked the famous City of Corinth, and ⟨p. 154⟩razed it to the ground, for a little discourtesy that they offered to their Ambassadors. No wonder then if God deal so severely with those that slight his Ambassadors, who come with messages of grace and favour from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and whose great work is to make a firm, an everlasting peace between God and sinners souls, and that all differences between God and them may be for ever decided, and a free trade to heaven fully opened and maintained. As for such as slight, scorn and despise the holy and faithful dispensers of the word, I think they are as far from real holiness, as hell is from true happiness. And so doubtless are they that grumble at the expense of a penny for the maintenance of that divine Candle that wasteth it self to give light to them:2 that will rather die to save charges, then spend a little money to save their lives, yea, their souls.