A29687:378
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.
The righteous is an everlasting foundation; the Hebrew Doctors sense it thus, The righteous are the foundation of the world, which would soon shatter and fall to ruin, but for their sakes. The whole world fares the better every day for the righteous sake. If it were not for this holy seed, the chaff of this world would soon be set on fire; if the number of the holy seed were but called and converted, God would quickly turn the whole world into flames and ashes; it is they that bear up the pillars of the earth. Psalm 75.3. I bare up the pillars of the earth; holy persons are the true Atlases both of Church and state; they are the pillars on whom all do rest, the props on whom all do lean; do but overturn these pillars, and all will fall about your ears, as the house did about the Philistines when Sampson shook it; let but Kingdoms and Common-wealths wrack these, and they shall quickly be ship-wrecked themselves. There is not a sinner in the world, but enjoys his estate, his relations, his outward accommodations, yea his very life, upon the account of the Saints, and therefore they must needs be bewitched, or fools, or mad men, that are still a lifting and a thrusting at these very pillars that bear them up. Look as Samsons strength did lie in his locks, so the strength and safety of the Nation lies in the holy seed, they are the Bulwarks and Ammunition of the Nation; the safety and felicity of the whole is bound up in them; it is not Armies, nor Navies, nor walled Cities, nor fortified Castles, nor golden Mines, nor grave Counsels, that will secure a Nation; if once the people of Gods holiness be cast by as broken pitchers:1 it is their piety and prayers that keeps off sweeping judgements from a Nation, and that brings down variety of mercies upon a Nation. Holy persons are the clouds that water the earth, as a common blessing; and they are the rising Sun that scatters all clouds and darkness. A holy man is ([Greek or Hebrew]) a public diffusive blessing in the place where he lives; look as one sinner destroys much good,2 so one Saint may save a Land, a Country. Jer. 5.1. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can ⟨p. 197⟩