A29687:369
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.
Zozomen reports, that the holy life of a poor captive Christian maid, made a King and all his family to embrace the Christian faith. I have read of Cicilia a poor virgin, who by her holy and gracious behaviour in her martyrdom, was the means of converting four hundred to Christ. Many a soul hath been won by the dumb Oratory of a holy life. Justin Martyr confesseth, that the constancy of Christians in their piety and sufferings, was the chiefest motive that converted him to Christianity. For I my self (saith he) was once a Platonist, and did gladly hear the Christians reviled: but when I saw they feared not death, nor any of those miseries which did most frighten all other men, I began to consider with my self, that it was impossible for such men to be lovers of pleasure more then lovers of piety; and that made me first think of turning Christian. 1There is nothing that hath that influence upon the judgements of men to persuade them, upon the consciences of men to awe them, upon the mouths of men to stop them, upon the hearts of men to convince them, and upon the lives of men to reform them, as holiness. What Plato once said of his moral virtue, viz. that if it could be seen with bodily eyes, it would be beloved of all, and draw all hearts to it self: That is most true of this Theological grace, holiness; holiness is so beautiful and so lovely a thing, that it renders men amiable and lovely in the very eyes of their enemies. Tilligny for his rare virtues,2 was rescued from death by his greatest enemies, at the massacre of Paris. Holiness makes a mans face to shine, as it did Moses his, and Stephens; nothing pleases the eye, nor wins the heart, like holiness: What is gold to godliness, gifts to grace, parts to piety? a spark, a ray, a beam of holiness, will certainly have an influence upon the spirits of men, either to restrain them, or change them, or allay them, or sweeten them, or win them, or one way or another to better them. Look as the unholy lives and conversations of many professors do occasion some to blaspheme God, others to belie God, others to ⟨p. 188⟩withstand God, and others to forsake God; Look as the looseness of many Christians doth work some to reproach Christ, others to deny Christ, others to refuse Christ, others to revile the good ways of Christ, and others to oppose and despise the faithful followers of Christ: