A29687:554
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.
Object. First, We have no power to make our selves holy, we are as well able to make a world, to command the winds, and to raise the dead, as we are able to cleanse our own hearts, or change our own natures, or sanctify our own souls; and therefore to what purpose should we be so strongly pressed to do that which we have no power to do? Now to this objection I shall give these following answers.
Object. First, We have no power to make our selves holy, we are as well able to make a world, to command the winds, and to raise the dead, as we are able to cleanse our own hearts, or change our own natures, or sanctifie our own souls; and therefore to what purpose should we be so strongly prest to do that which we have no power to do? Now to this objection I shall give these following answers.
First, That thou hast no power to perform any supernatural §1act, as to believe or love God, or repent, or to change thine own heart, or to sanctify, or make thy self holy, must be granted; that by nature thou art dead in trespasses and sins, and hast lost all thy spiritual senses of seeing, hearing, tasting,1 and feeling, can't be denied; 'tis certain that thy nature is so corrupted that thou canst not think a good thought,2 nor speak a good word, nor do a good work; thou art not sick, but dead God-wards, and Christ-wards, and heaven-wards, and holiness-wards, &c. I have read of the Lioness, how that she brings forth her whelps dead, and so they remain, till after some time by her roaring aloud over them, they come to live; certainly all unholy hearts are spiritually dead, and till Christ the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah comes to roar over them, by uttering his voice in the Gospel, they cannot live, John 5.25. 'tis Christ only that can quicken the dead; 'twas never known since the creation of the world, that ever a dead man could make himself alive.