A29687:57
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
Dedication: To all the Lords, Knights, Ladies, Gentry, Ministers and Commons of England, (and the D…
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.
Several Authors in Print have proved this to my hand at large, and therefore I shall not enlarge upon it; only give me leave to say, that Gods holy things ought to be handled with fear and reverence, rather then with wit and dalliance: Spiritual niceness is the next degree to ⟨image 20⟩unfaithfulness.1 Ministers must not be like the drug that the Physicians say is hot in the mouth, and cold in the operation: hot in the Pulpit, but cold, carnal, and careless in their conversations. Those that stand before Princes, must be exact in their carriages. God appointed both the weights and measures of the sanctuary to be twice as large as those of the Common-wealth; to show that he expects much more of those that serve him there, then he doth of others. The souls of Priests, (I may say of Ministers) must be purer then the Sun-beams, saith golden-mouthed Chrysostom. Gay things in a Sermon are only for men to gaze upon and admire: What are high strains and flashes of wit, new minted words and phrases, but like gay weeds and blew-bottles to the good corn? Doctrine is but the drawing of the bow, application is the hitting of the mark: How many are wise in generals, but vain (en dia-l•gism is) in their practical inferences! A general Doctrine not applied, is as a sword without an edge, not in it self, but to others; or as a whole loaf set before children, that will do them no good. A garment fitted for all bodies, is fit for no body: and so that which is spoken to all, is taken as spoken to none. Aaron's bells were golden bells (Dulce sonantes) sounding pleasantly, and not as sounding brass or tinkling Cymbals, as many of the carnal Clergy of this Nation are this day. Many there be that account themselves the only Ministers of Jesus Christ, that are but like empty Orators, that have a flood of words, and but a drop of matter; of whom we may truly say, Multa loquuntur & nihil dicunt; they speak much, and yet say nothing, because they say nothing to the purpose. When the Lacedaemonian in Plutarch heard how sweetly the Nightingale sang: O, said he, that I had this Bird, surely it is a rare dish; but ⟨image 20⟩when he had taken it, and eat it, and found nothing but a little picking meat, he concluded with that proverbial saying, Voxes & praeterea nihil: Now I see that thou art a mere voice and nothing else.