A29709:148
A word in season to this present generation, or, A sober and serious discourse…
A word in season to this present generation, or, A sober and serious discourse about the favourable, signal and eminent presence of the Lord with his people in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers : with the resolution of several questions, concerning the divine presence, as also the reasons and improvements of this great and glorious truth ... / by Thomas Brooks ...A word in season to this present generation, or, A sober and serious discourse about the favorable, signal and eminent presence of the Lord with his people in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers : with the resolution of several questions, concerning the divine presence, as also the reasons and improvements of this great and glorious truth ... / by Thomas Brooks ...
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1675
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, The Crown of life signifies the reward of victory, a Crown is the honour of those that strive; Crowns were always the rewards of Conquerors. 1Revel. 2. 10. Be thou faithful to the death, and I will give thee a Crown of life. A Crown without cares, corrivals, envy, end; a Crown not of gold, silver, pearls, laurels, or such like fading, perishing, corruptible things, but a Crown of life, an everliving Crown, an everlasting Crown, a never-fading Crown. 'Tis an allusion to a custom that was amongst the Grecians, for such as got the mastery 2in their games of wrestling, or running, or the like, were crowned with a Garland in token of victory, 'tis not he that fights, but he that conquers, that carries the Crown: The Crown of life is for that man, and that man is for the Crown of life, who holds on conquering and to conquer, as Christ his head has done before him. The Heathens in their Olympics had their Cups, and Garments and Crowns that were the rewards of the Conquerors, yea if a horse did but run a race and won, he had a Cup or a Crown; and thereupon Theocritus ⟨p. 101⟩saith, See what poor things the world glories in, that brute beasts are taken with, their conquerors are crowned, and so are their horses: But what were all their cups, garments, and crowns of ivy and laurel? &c. to this crown of life, that is promised to the overcoming Christian; you must first be conquering Christians, before you shall be crowned Christians. Why do you require that in one place (saith one of the Ancients) which 3is due in another? why would you preposterously have the crown before you overcome? whilst we are in our warring state fighting against the world, the flesh, and the Devil, a crown does not become us. I have read, how that upon a triumph all the Emperor Severus his Soldiers, for the greater pomp, were to put on crowns of bays, but there was one Christian among them that wore it on his arm, and being asked the reason of it, he boldly answered (Non decet Christianum in hac vita coronary,) It becomes not a Christian to wear his crown in this life. That crown that is made out of the Tree of life, is a wreath of laurel that never withers, a crown that never fades, a crown that will sit fast on no head but the conquerors. But,