A29687:366
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.
It is very observable, that among Turks, Jews, Indians, Persians, and Papists, the strictest and holiest among them are most highly esteemed and honoured. Romanus the Martyr, who was born of noble parentage, entreated his persecutors that they would not favour him for his nobility; for it is not (said he) the blood of my ancestors, but my Christian faith that makes me noble. David thought it not so happy, nor so honourable a thing to be a King in his own house, as to be a door-keeper in Gods house. Solomon did prefer the title of Ecclesiastes, (that is, a soul reconciled to the Church) before the title of the King of Jerusalem: Holy Theodosius the Emperor preferred the title of membrum Ecclesiae, a member of the Church, before that of Caput imperii, the head of the Empire, professing that he had rather be a Saint and no King, then a King and no Saint. And holy Constantine rejoiced more in being the servant of Christ, then in being the Emperor of the world. And Luther had rather be (Christianus rusticus, then Ethnicus Alexander) a Christian clown then a Pagan Emperor. These holy men well knew that holiness was the top of all their honour and glory. Well sinners, remember this, that holiness is the high and ready way to the highest honour; and therefore as ever you would be truly honourable, labour to be truly holy. Great swelling titles are but as so many Rattles, or as so many Feathers in mens caps, without holiness; he that can be content to live without holiness, must be contented to see his honour entombed whilst he lives. Honour without holiness, is but a wind that will blow a man ⟨p. 185⟩the sooner to hell. Honour without holiness,1 is but magnum nihil, a great nothing, a glorious fancy. Many a man hath been the worse, but where lives that man that hath been ever the better for his worldly honour? A man swelled with honour (without holiness) is like a man in a Dropsy, whose bigness is his disease. Well, let Ambitionists and all others who hunt after the breath of popular applause, know, that that honour which attends holiness, is the truest honour, the highest honour, the greatest honour, the happiest honour, the surest honour, the purest honour, and the most lasting and abiding honour. Mollerus upon Psalm 73.20. concludes that wicked mens earthly honours and dignities are but as idle dreams, and their splendid braveries, but lucid fantasies.