A29687:476
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 word is that immortal seed, by which holiness, which is not only a grace, but the conjunction of all graces, is formed in the soul, 1 Pet. 1.23. 'Tis the word that gives a spiritual Birth and Being to men, Gal. 4.19. The word enlightens the eye, Psal. 119.105. It softens the heart, Deut. 32.2. It purges the conscience, and it converts the soul, Psal. 19.7. It dethrones Satan, it casts down strong holds, 2 Cor. 10.4, 5. It quickens the dull, Psal. 119.50. and it raises the dead, Joh. 5.24, 25. Oh therefore hear it, and wait on it, and come to it, that you may be made holy by it; many come to hear the word to censure it, others to mock at it, others to enrich their ⟨p. 306⟩curious notions by it, and others come to catch the Minister at it; but do thou come to it that thou mayest be made holy by it, and doubtless first or last thou shalt obtain thy end; yea 'tis good for a man to come to the word, though his design in coming be bad; 'tis good for a man to sit under that great ordinance of the word, though he sits upon thorns, as it were, all the while he is there: They that come to see who hath got the newest fashions, may have their hearts fashioned into a conformity with the word. They came to catch, but were caught in that John 7.46. Austin coming to Ambrose to have his ears tickled, had his heart touched and turned. Come, saith old Father Latimer (in a Sermon before King Edward the Sixth) to the public meeting, 1though thou comest to sleep, it may be God may take thee napping. When thou comest, though it be but to taste the Ministers spirit, yet then God may take hold on thy spirit, and make it the day of his power upon thy soul; though thou comest with a heart full of prejudices against Christ, yet by the word thou mayest be brought to a love of Christ, to a liking of Christ, and to a choice of Christ, and to a blessed close and resignation of thy self to Christ. They that came to surprise Christ, were so taken with Christ, that being filled with admiration they could not but proclaim his divine Excellencies; Never man spake like this man. The word is the word of the Lord, let the hand be what it will that brings it. When gold is offered, men care not how noble or ignoble, how great or how base he is that offers it; so men should not look so much at the hand that brings the word, as at the word it self;