A29687:757
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.
Thirdly, You have attained to but little holiness, witness §3your fears & faintings in a day of adversity. Though there be as many fear nots, as there be fears in Scripture,1 yet in a day of calamity, how easily and frequently do's your fears get above your faith? and what fainting fits do's then attend you? Pro. 24.10. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small, or as the Hebrew has it,2 thy strength is narrow or straitened. Look as bodily faintness discovers bodily weakness, so soul faintness discovers soul weakness; 'tis troubles that are the trials of a Christians strength; afflictions will try what sap and life we have within us. As the man is for holiness, so is his strength under trials; he that has no holiness, has no strength, and he that has but a little holiness, has but a little strength, but he that ⟨p. 472⟩has much holiness, has much strength, and accordingly will bare up bravely in a day of trial;3 his bow with Joseph's will then abide in strength. Though Noah in the building of his Ark met with many a sore trial, and many a sad affront, and many a broad jest, and many a bitter scoff; and though the people generally laughed at the good old man, thinking that he did not only dote, but dream, not of a dry summer, but of a wet winter (as we say) yet Noah being eminent in holiness, his bow abode in strength, and he held on building of the Ark, till he had finished the work that God had commanded. But O the sadness, the weakness, the faintness that attends most persons in the day of their adversity. Jer. 8.18, 21. When I would comfort my self against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Chap. 45.3. Thou didst say, woe is me now, for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighings, and I find no rest.