A29687:356
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 Manasseh, he was a notorious sinner, he was a sinner of the greatest magnitude, his sins reached up to heaven, his soul was ripe for hell, he had sold himself to work all manner of wickedness, as you may see in 2 Chron. 33. in ⟨p. 178⟩vers. 3. He reared up Altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. vers. 4. He built Altars in the house of God. vers. 5. Yea for all the host of heaven did he build Altars in the Courts of the house of God. This was a horrid piece of impudence to provoke God to his very face, by equalizing his Altars to Gods Altar. vers. 6. And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. Here was inhumane superstition, and inhumane cruelty, to offer his own children in sacrifice to the Devil. Also he observed times, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards; he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. 1vers. 9. He made Judah and Jerusalem to err, by his example, and to do worse then the Heathens. The actions of Rulers, are most commonly rules for the peoples actions, and their example passeth as currant as their coin. The common people dare practise the very worst of wickedness that they see acted in a scarlet Robe; they are like tempered wax, easily receiving impressions from the seals of great mens vices; they make no bones on it to sin by prescription, and to damn themselves with authority. The heathen brings in a young man, who hearing of the adulteries and wickednesses of the gods, said, What, do they so, and shall I stick at it? so say most, when great ones are greatly wicked, Why, they do thus and thus, and why should we stick at it? The Egyptians esteemed it graceful and their duty, to halt on that leg on which their King limped; most men think it a grace to imitate the greatest authority in their most graceless actings: Which made the Poet say, Subjects and Kingdoms commonly do choose, The manners that their Princes daily use. Vers. 10. And the Lord spake unto Manasseh, but he would not hearken. He was settled in idolatry, and stopped his ears against all the counsel and admonitions of the Prophets that were sent to reclaim him. Now who would ever have thought that one so abominably wicked and wretched, ⟨p. 179⟩