A29687:469
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.
he weeps and prevails with God for temporals, and why mayest not thou by weeping prevail with God for eternals; he weeps and prevails with God for some outward happiness, and why mayest not thou by weeping prevail with God for inward holiness? 'Tis an old observation, that the tears of repenting sinners, are the wine of Angels. Certainly God himself can smile to see a sinner grieve for his sins, and to see him grieve that he can grieve no more,1 for that he has sinned against a God so great, so gracious, so bountiful, so merciful, &c. though God be displeased with a sinners sins, yet he is very well pleased with a sinners tears, and therefore as he has a bag for the one, so he has a bottle for the other: It can't but be a pleasure to God to see a sinner drown his sins in a deluge of penitential tears; though tears of indignation, as was Esau's, and tears of dissimulation, as was Ishmaels, and tears of desperation, as was Judas's, be abominable to God, yet tears of godly compunction and contrition, are acceptable and delightful unto God. ⟨p. 301⟩A sinner never looks so sweetly, as when he weeps most penitentially, witness Mary Magdalen, Manasseh, and those murderers of Christ, Acts 2. A sinners face never shines so beautiful, as when 'tis bedewed with penitential tears; tears have a voice as well as blood, Psal. 6.8. And God has an eye as well upon a mans tears as upon his prayers. Penitent tears are divine Ambassadors, that never return from the throne of grace without answers of grace, Isa. 38.5. Peter said nothing, but went out and wept bitterly, and obtained mercy, Mat. 26. ult. Tears are a kind of silent prayers, that will at last prevail for mercy. Naaman the Syrian was cleansed of his leprosy by the waters of Jordan; 2penitential tears may do much towards the cleansing of thy leprous soul from sin; he that really grieves that he cannot grieve for sin, is grieved for sin; he that is truly sorry that he cannot be sorry for sin, is in a measure sorry for sin; he that truly desires to drown his sins in his tears, he has in Divine account, drowned his sins in his tears. The Maid in Scaliger swooned at the sight of a Lilly. O! how much more should you at the sight of your unholiness. Basil wept when he saw the Rose, because it brought to his mind the first sin from whence it had the prickles. O!