A29687:835
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.
First, there are diversities of degrees of Angels in Heaven; §1There are Cherubims and Seraphims, and there are Angels and Archangels; now the Cherubims and Seraphims, are a lower rank and order of Angels, and the Archangels, are a higher rank and order of Angels. And the Apostle speaks clearly of several ranks and orders of invisible creatures, in that Col. 1.16. here you have an enumeration of, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers, and so in that Eph. 1.21. Far above all Principalities, and Powers, and Might, and Dominion. These principalities and powers, are the blessed Angels that Minister before the Lord, and that are subordinate unto one another; and here they are reckoned up by ascending, power is above principality, and might above power, and dominion above might. To define those orders and degrees of Angels, with which God is environed, is a work too high and hard for me; and though the Papists, and several School-men are so bold as to define ⟨p. 558⟩their particular offices and orders,1 yet I dare not be wise above what is written; where the Scripture is silent, I love to be silent, and where the Scripture hath no tongue, there I desire to have no ears. There is an order in Hell, an order among the Devils, and therefore you read in* three Scriptures of the Prince of Devils; and so much also that expression imports, that you have in that Mat. 25.41. The Devil and his Angels, which intimates a Prince among those unclean and damned spirits. Now shall there be order in Hell, and confusion in Heaven: Shall there be order among the evil Angels, and shall there not much more be order among the good Angels? Certainly that God that is the God of order, and that hath made all things in order, and that to this day keeps all things in order here below, will never suffer the least disorder and confusion, to be among those Princes of glory, that stand continually before him. He that denies order in Heaven, denies Heaven to be Heaven; and he that grants order in Heaven, grants degrees of glory in Heaven. Though there is no difference between the Angels in natura Angelica, the Angelical nature being alike in all, yet in officio, in office there is a great deal of difference in the glory of the Angels; for God employs some of the Heavenly Host in more high, noble, and excellent services than others, and answerable thereunto shall their reward be.