A29687:431
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 such is the vanity of most men, who in the days of their youth, health and strength, who when their memories are strong, and their fancies quick, and their Reason ripe, &c. do sin away, and fool away, and trifle away the day of grace, the offers of mercy, the motions of the Spirit, and the entreaties of Christ; and when old age comes, when their wits are cracked, their souls distracted, their senses stupefied, their hearts astonied, their minds darkened, and their bodies diseased and distempered, O then they think to leap into heaven, with a Lord have mercy upon me in their mouths: and though they have lived like devils, yet they hope they shall die like Saints; and though they never took no care of Gods honour, yet they hope that God will take care of their souls; but when the thread of their lives is cut, the next news that ever you shall hear of these, is, that they are gone to hell.
And yet such is the vanity of most men, who in the dayes of their youth, health and strength, who when their memories are strong, and their fancies quick, and their Reason ripe, &c. do sin away, and fool away, and trifle away the day of grace, the offers of mercy, the motions of the Spirit, and the intreaties of Christ; and when old age comes, when their wits are crackt, their souls distracted, their senses stupified, their hearts astonied, their minds darkned, and their bodies diseased and distempered, O then they think to leap into heaven, with a Lord have mercy upon me in their mouthes: and though they have lived like devils, yet they hope they shall die like Saints; and though they never took no care of Gods honour, yet they hope that God will take care of their souls; but when the thred of their lives is cut, the next news that ever you shall hear of these, is, that they are gone to hell.
I have read of a young man, who being admonished of the evil of his way, and course, and being pressed to leave his wickedness, and to break off his sins by repentance, upon the consideration of Judgement, Eternity and Death a coming: he answered, what do you tell me of these things? I warrant you I will do well enough, for when death comes, I will speak but three words, and that will help all, & so he went on in his wickedness: but in the end coming to a Bridge on Horse-back to go over a deep water, the Horse stumbling, and he labouring to recover his Horse, could not, but at last he let go the Bridle, & gave up himself and his Horse to the waters, and was heard to say these three words, Devil take all: Here were three words with a witness. And ô that all that think to repent at last, with a