A29687:614
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.
Secondly, Persecutions do but raise, whet, and stir up a more earnest and vehement spirit of prayer among the persecuted Saints.1 Rev. 6.9, 10. And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the Altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, doest thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? The blood2 of the persecuted cries aloud for vengeance upon the persecutors. By the souls under the Altar, you are to understand the persons of the Saints which were martyred and lay slain upon the ground, like sacrifices at the foot of the Altar, under the Roman persecuting Emperors. There is no blood that cries so loud, and that makes so great a noise in heaven, as the blood of the Martyrs, as the blood of butchered persecuted Saints. Persecutors, like these Roman Emperors, in all ages have causelessly and cruelly destroyed the people of God; they delight in the blood of Saints, they love to wallow in the blood of Saints, they take pleasure in glutting themselves with the blood of Saints, they make no conscience of watering the earth, nor of colouring the Sea, nor of quenching the flames with the blood of the Saints, yea if it were possible they would willingly swim to heaven through their hearts-blood, whom Christ has purchased with his own most precious blood, (as all Historians know, and as you may all know if you would but search a little into Ecclesiastical Histories) and therefore 'tis no wonder if the blood of the Martyrs cry aloud for vengeance upon such desperate persecutors: The blood and prayers of persecuted Saints, will first or last bring down wrath and ruin upon their persecutors. Persecution puts an edge, yea a sharp edge upon the prayers of the Saints; Acts 12.5. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him: The Greek word ([Greek or Hebrew]) signifies earnest and stretched-out prayer. When Peter was in prison,3 sleeping between two Soldiers, and bound with two chains, and the keepers standing before the prison door; O how earnest! O how instant! O how fervent! O how