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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29687	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 ...	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.	1662 (1662)	Wing B4939; ESTC R36378	584,294	672

service of God and to detract from the excellency and glory of it The Kings and Princes of this world have most severely punisht such who by their base mixtures have imbased their coyne and there is a day a coming wherein the King of Kings will most severely punish all such who have imbased his worship and service by mixing their Romish traditions with his holy institutions Rev. 22.18 Rev. 22.18 For I testifie unto every man that heareth the words of the prophesie of this booke if any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this booke And no wonder for what horrible pride presumption stoutness and baseness of spirit is it in foolish man to be so bold with the great God as to dare to mix any thing of his own with his worship and service which according to divine institution is so perfect and compleat God will never bare it to see men lay their dirt upon his gold and to put their Raggs upon his Royal Robes Ah Christians Christians evidence your holiness by standing up for holy ordinances and pure worship in opposition to all mixtures whatsoever oh don 't you touch a poluted worship don't you plead and contend for a poluted worship but let Baal plead for Baal and though all the world should wander after the Beast yet don't you wander and though every fore-head should have the mark of the Beast upon it yet doe you abhor his mark and what ever else it be that do's but smell and savour of the Beast It is observable that in Kings and Princes Courts children fools and the rude Rabble are much taken with fine pictures and rich shews and glistering gaudy cloaths c. but such as are wise serious grave Statesmen they mind not they regard not such poor things they look upon those things as things that are much below the nobleness and the greatness of their spirits who have honorable objects and the great and weighty affaires of the State to busie themselves about so my Brethren though the children the fools and the Rabble of the world are much affected and taken with such polutions and mixtures as makes up a glorious pompious worship yet you that have a spirit of holiness and principles of holiness in you O how should you slight such things and pass by such things as things below you as things not worthy of you who have a holy God a holy Christ a holy Gospel and a holy worship to busie your thoughts your minds your heads and your hearts about But Fifthly Evidence the truth and reality of your holiness by bewailing and lamenting the loss of holiness Ah how is this crowne of holiness fallen from our heads Lam. 5.16 O the leanness of souls O the spiritual witherings and decayes in grace and holiness It s very uncomfortable to see the dayes grow shorter and to see friends grow behind-hand in the world that is to be found among many Christians this day Some complaine of the loss of Trade and others complaine of the loss of estate some complaine of the loss of c●edit and others complaine of the loss of friends but what are all these losses to the loss of holiness and yet how few be there that complaine of the loss of holiness holiness is fallen in our hearts in our families in our streets and in our Churches and yet how few are there to be found that laments the fall of holiness O Sirs will you lament such as are fallen from riches to poverty from honor into disgrace and from the highest pitch of prosperity to the lowest step of beggary and misery and will you not lament such who are fallen from the highest round to the lowest round in Jacobs Ladder O Sirs will you mourne over a decayed estate will you weep over decayed friends and will you sigh and sob over a decayed body and will you not much more lament and mourne over decayed souls c Ah how many have lost that love Rev. 2.4 5. that life that heat that zeale that readiness that forwardness and that resoluteness that once they had for God and godliness Some are fallen from their holiness by giving themselves elbow-roome to sin against the checks and lashes of conscience Psal 51. others are decayed in holiness by their secret resisting and smothering the gracious motions of the Spirit Acts 7.51 Some are fallen frpm holiness either by their neglect of precious means 1 Thes 5.20 or else by their heartless using of the meanes others are fallen from their holiness either by the allurements and enticements of a tempting world 2 Tim. 4.10 or else by the frownes and threatnings of a persecuting world Some are fallen from holiness by their non-exercise of grace and others are fallen from holiness by not discerning their first decayes in grace So that upon one account or another multitudes in these dayes are fallen from that holiness which was once their glory If you look into families there you shall finde Masters complaining that their servants are so careless foolish frothy light slight slothfull unfaithfull proud and lofty that they are not to be spoken to nor trusted and if you look againe into the same Families there you shall finde servants complaining that their Masters and Mistrisses are so exceeding froward pevish passionate worldly neglective of duties and careless of their souls that 't is even a hell to servants to live with them Now what speaks all these sad complaints but either a total want of holiness or else a very great decay of holiness And if you look among all other relations as husbands and wives parents and children Magistrates and people Ministers and Christians oh what sad divisions what fiery contentions and what feareful Jars are there to be found oh what slightings what revilings what under-valuings what heart-risings what heart-swellings and what heart-burnings are to be found amongst them and what doe all these things declare but that the Glory of God is departed from Israel and that holiness is fallen to a very low ebbe ah friends were there but more holiness among you there would be more union among you and more love among you and more sweetness and tenderness among you and more forbearance and patience among you Oh then you would never be snarling one at another nor biting one of another nor plotting one against another nor devouring one of another any more Again if you look among men whose parts are great whose gifts are high whose profession is glorious and whose expressions and notions are very seraphical ah what a little holiness will you finde O Sirs shall the men of this world vex and fret shall they weep and waile and shall their lamentation and mourning be like that of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo 2 Chron. 35.24 25. and that for the loss of a little wealth or for a punctilio of honor or a day of pleasure or

prepared his Table and made a feast of fat things for their souls in the Ministry of his word they can easily and readily passe over those sound solid and savoury truths that are prepared for their strength and nourishment and fall a pidling and picking upon some new coined phrases or some quaint expressions or some Seraphical notions And no wonder for they are not sound within they are under a great distemper As the Israelites would not be satisfied with wholsome diet but they must needs have Quails as picking meat Well they had them and whilest they were at their picking meat the wrath of God came upon them the Application is as easie as it is dreadfull But now a holy heart savours the word and relishes the word and is affected and taken with the word as it is a holy word a substantial word a pure word a clean word and as it begets holinesse and cherishes holinesse and increases holinesse and as it works towards the compleating and perfecting of holinesse Quest But how may a person know whether he loves the Word and is affected and taken with the Word as it is an holy Word or no Answ First by what hath been already said but because the question is weighty Psalm 119.6 128. Acts 24.16 Heb. 13.18 As the wise Philosopher delights in all Aristotle and the prudent Physitian in all Galen and the grave Orator in all Tullie and the understanding Lawyer in all Justinian so a holy man delights in all the Bible The Jewish Rabbines were wont to say That upon every letter of the Law there hangs mountains of profitable matter Gen. 12. and ●hap 22. I further answer in the second place He that loves the Word and that is affected and taken with the Word as it is a holy Word he loves the whole Word of God and he is affected and taken with one part of the Word as well as another every Law of God is a holy Law and every Statute is a holy Statute and every command is a holy command and every promise is a holy promise and every threatning is an holy threatning and every exhortation is a holy exhortation and therefore he that loves any part of the Word as a holy Word he cannot but love every part of the Word because every part of the Word is holy And indeed he loves no part of the Word as holy who loves not every part of the Word as such Every chapter in the book of God is a holy chapter and every verse is a holy verse and every line in that book is a holy line and every word in every line is a holy word he that loves a chapter as it is a holy chapter he loves every verse in that chapter as a holy verse and he that loves every verse as a holy verse he loves every line as a holy line and he that loves every line as a holy line he loves every word in every line as a holy word Upon easie commands he reads holiness and upon difficult commands he reads holiness upon comfortable commands he reads holiness and upon costly commands he reads holiness and upon dangerous commands he reads holiness and therefore he loves all and closes with all and endeavours a conformity to all A holy heart dares neither to dispute with that word nor make light of that word where he reads holiness engraven upon it to a holy heart there is no command of God unjust or unreasonable but now an unholy heart though it may for some worldly advantages court and cry up some parts of the word yet it is ready with Judas to betray and crucifie other parts of the word The whole Scripture is but one intire love-letter dispatcht from the Lord Christ to his beloved Spouse on earth and this letter is written all in golden letters and therefore a holy heart cannot but be taken and affected with every line in this letter in this love-letter there is so much to be read of the love of Christ the heart of Christ the kindness of Christ the grace of Christ and the glory of Christ that a holy heart cannot but be affected and taken with it The whole word of God is a field and Christ is the treasure that is hid in that field it is a ring of gold and Christ is the pearl in that ring and therefore a holy heart cannot but be taken with the whole Word of God Luther was wont to say that he would not take all the world for one leaf of the Bible And Rabbie Chija in the Jerusalem Talmud says that in his account all the world is not of equal value with one word out of the Law Thirdly A man that is affected and taken with the word as it is a holy word he is alwayes affected and taken with it he loves it and takes pleasure in it as well in adversity as in prosperity Psalm 119.59 Thy Statutes have been my songs I but where we in the house of my pilgrimage or pilgrimages The Saints have commonly lookt upon themselves as Pilgrims and Strangers in this world Gen. 47.9 39. Psal 12.19 Heb. 11.9 10 c. as the Hebrew hath it When David was in his banishments by reason of Saul Absolom and others now the Word of God was musick to him now it was matter of joy and rejoycing to him his whole life was the life of a Pilgrim and Stranger now as a Pilgrim he sojourns here and anon as a Stranger he sojourns there no man could take more pleasure joy and contentment in the rarest and choicest musick then David did in the Word of God and that not only when he was in his royal Palace but also when he was in the house of his Pilgrimage he that loves the Word and that delights in the Word for its holiness and purity Psal 119.67 69 70 72. he will love it and delight in it in health and sickness in strength and weakness in honour and disgrace in wealth and want in life and in death The holiness of the Word is a lasting holiness and so will every mans affections be towards it who affects it and is taken with it for its holiness and pureness Some there be that cry up the Word and that seem to be much affected delighted and ravished with the Word as Herod Ezekiels hearers Ezek. 33.30 31 32 33. Mar. 6 c. and the stony ground was whilest the Word is either a cheap Word to them or a profitable and pleasing Word to them or whilest it is courted and countenanced in the world or whilest it is the path to preferment or a key to enlargement c. But when the Word gets within them and discovers their own sinfulness and wretchedness to them when it shews them how Christless and gracel●ss and lifeless and helpless and hopeless they are when it discovers how far they are from heaven and how near they are to hell O! Ier. 44.15 29. then their hearts begin

to rise against it and to cry out Away with it it was never good dayes since we have had so much preaching and hearing Or when the Word comes to be scorned slighted disgraced opposed or persecuted oh then they turn their backs upon it and quickly grow weary of it As the Jussians in Strabo delighted themselves with the musick of an excellent Harper till they heard the market bell ring then they run all away save a deaf old man that could take but little delight in the Harpers ditties So let these men but hear the bell of lust or the bell of profit or the bell of pleasure or the bell of applause or the bell of honour or the bell of errour or the bell of superstition sound in their ears and presently they will run from the sweet musick of the Word to follow after any of these bells But now a man that loves the Word and that is affected and taken with the Word as it is a holy Word no bell can ring him from the Word no disgrace no affliction no opposition no persecution can take him off from affecting the Word and from taking pleasure in the Word The cause of his love is abiding and lasting and therefore his love cannot but be lasting and continuing Not but that a holy heart may sometimes be more affected and taken with the Word then at other times As first when a man enjoyes much communion with God in the Word Or 2. when God speaks much peace and comfort to the soul by the Word Or 3. when God assures a man more clearly and fully of the goodness and happiness of his condition by the Word Or 4. when God lets in very much quietness or quickness or sweetness or seriousness or spiritualness into a mans spirit by the Word Oh then a man may more then ordinarily be affected and taken with the Word But now though a holy Christian is not at all times in the same degree and measure taken with the Word yet take such a Christian when he is at worst and you shall find two things in him 1. You shall find in him a holy love to the Word And 2. you shall find in him a real love to holy Christians Fourthly He that loves the Word and that is affected and taken with the Word as it is a holy Word he is most affected and taken with those parts of the Word that do most incite to holiness that do most promote holiness and that do most provoke to holiness As 1 Pet. 1.15.16 But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy I shall give you light into these words when I come to open the holiness of God to you Ad similitudinem non aequalitatem Calv. So Mat. 5.48 Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect Our summum bonum in this world consists in our conformity to the heavenly pattern in all imitations it is best to chuse the most perfect pattern There is nothing more laudable and commendable then for a Christian to endeavour more and more to resemble his God in the highest perfections of righteousness and holiness So Ephes 5.15 16. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redeeming the time because the dayes are evil Christians must walk precisely curiously exactly accurately As the Carpenter works by line and rule so a Christian must walk by line and rule he must labour to get up to the very top of godliness he must go to the utmost of every command as the original word importeth So Phil. 2.15 That ye may be blameless and harmless or sincere the sons of God without rebuke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sine querela sine reprehensione in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom ye shine or shine ye as lights in the world Gods sons should be spotless sons as the Greek imports that is they should be without all such spots as are inconsistent with Sonship or Saintship And so in Col. 2.6 As ye have therefore received Jesus Christ the Lord so walk ye in him They had received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Law-giver they had received Christ as a ruling Christ as a reigning Christ and as a commanding Christ and now the great duty incumbent upon them is to walk at such a rate of holiness as may evidence that they have thus received Christ And so in 1 John 2.6 Iohn 13.15 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked Christians are to set all Christs moral actions before them as a pattern for their imitation in his life a Christian may behold the lively picture or lineaments of all vertues and accordingly he ought to order his conversation in this world To walk as Christ walked is to walk humbly holily justly righteously meekly lowly lovingly fruitfully faithfully Matth. 4. uprightly with an As of quality or similitude but no● with an As of equality for that is impossible for any Saint on earth to walk so purely so holily so blamelesly Mat. 5.44 45 46 47. so unspottedly so spiritually so heavenly as Christ walked that is with an as of equality To walk as Christ walked is to slight the world and contemn the world and make a footstool of the world and to live above the world and to triumph over the world as Christ did that is 1 Pet. 2.20 21 22 23. with an As of quality but not with an As of equality To walk as Christ walked is to love them that hate us to pray for them that persecute us to bless them that curse us and to do good to them that do evil to us but still with an As of similitude but not with an As of equality To walk as Christ walked is to be patient and silent and submissive and thankful under the vilest reproaches the heaviest afflictions and the greatest sufferings with an As of quality but not with an As of equality Now a holy heart that is taken with the holiness of the Word he is certainly taken most with those parts of the Word that do most call for holiness and that do most strongly press the soul to make a progress in holiness I have given you a taste of some of the most principal Scriptures that do incite most to holiness and I shall leave it to your own consciences to give in witness for you or against you according to what you find in your own spirits Certainly to a holy man there are no Prayers no Sermons no Discourses no Conferences no books nor no parts of Scripture to those that do most encourage and provoke to holiness But Fifthly and lastly He that loves the Word and that is affected and taken with the Word as it is a holy Word he highly prizes and values

nihil a great nothing and who then would spend an houres time to secure it neare and deare relations cannot for the delight of Ezekiels eyes is taken away with a stroake Ezek. 24.16 Job 1.10 and all Jobs children are snatcht away in a day all our nearest and dearest relations are like a Nose-gay which the oftner we smell to it the sooner it withers But now holiness may be made sure witness the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven Heb. 12.23 and witness the many thousands of Christians this day in the world who doe experience the principles of holiness in their hearts and who doe evidence the power of holiness in their lives O Sirs if the serious consideration of the preciousness and worth of your souls will not draw you out to study holiness to love holiness to prize holiness and to press after holiness what will O Sirs 't is only holiness that is the happiness of the soul the safety and security of the soul the prosperity and felicity of the soul and the lustre and glory of the soul and therefore why should you not labour as for life after this inestimable Jewel holiness O let the remembrance of the preciousness of your souls be an effectuall means to draw you to heare that you may be holy and to pray that you may be holy and to reade that you may be holy and to mourne that you may be holy and to sigh and groane after holiness as after that which is the souls only happiness O Sirs there is nothing below heaven so precious and noble as your souls and therefore doe not play the Courtier with your souls now the Courtier do's all things late he rises late and dines late and sups late and repents late O doe not poyson your precious souls by gross enormities O doe not starve your souls by the omission of religious duties O doe not murther and damne your souls by turning your backs upon holy Ordinances I have read of a Woman who when her house was on fire so minded the saving of her goods that she forgot her only childe and left it burning in the fire at last being minded of it she cryes out Oh my childe oh my poore childe but all too late all too late so there are many men now so mad upon the world and so bewitcht with the world that they never mind they never regard their poor souls till they come to fall under everlasting burnings and then they cry out O our souls O our poor souls O that we had been wise for our souls O that we had got holiness for our souls O that we had made sure worke for our souls but all too late all too late the Lord make you wise to prevent soul-burnings at last If he be rather a monster then a man that feasts his slave but starves his wife what shall we say of those that pamper their bodies but starve their souls and that have thred-bare souls under silke and sattin Cloaths and that please themselves with deformed souls under beautifull faces surely it had been good for these that they had never been born I have read of a Scythian Captain who having for a draught of water yeelded up the City cryed out Quid perdidi quid prodidi What have I lost what have I betrayed So all unholy persons will at last cry out we have betrayed our immortall souls we have lost a precious Father we have lost a deare Redeemer we have lost the company of glorious Angels we have lost the society of the spirits of just men made perfect and we have lost all the pleasures and joyes and delights that be at the right hand of the most High We have lost these we have lost all these and we have lost them for ever and ever surely there is no hell to this hell For a close of this direction remember this that as the soul is the life and excellency of the body so holiness is the life and excellency of the soul and as the body without the soul is dead so the soul without holiness is dead This my Son was dead and is alive if you get holiness into your souls your souls shall live for ever but if you die without holiness your souls shall die for ever and ever I have read that there was a time when the Romans did weare Jewels on their shooes oh that in these dayes most men did not doe worse oh that they did not trample under feete that matchless Jewel their precisouls But Seventhly If ever you would be holy then set in good earnest upon reading of the holy Scripture many a man has been made holy by reading of the holy Word Luther com in Gen. cap. 19. The Bible is the book of books 't is the onely book all other books in the world are but waste paper to it Augustin crys out away with our writings that room may be made for the book of God notwithstanding the greatness and multiplicity of the affairs of Princes yet they were diligently to read the word Deut. 17.19 And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them God looks that the greatest Princes on earth should make use of this Library Though David was a great Prince and had a multitude of weighty businesses upon his hand yet he was so much in reading meditating on the word that he made it his Counsellors the word was Davids Learned Counsel Psal 119.24 to which he reforted for counsel advice and comfort in all his necessities and miseries Alphonsus King of Arragon hath been highly extolled for reading the Scriptures fourteen times over with glosses and expositions notwithstanding his great publike employments And Alphonsus King of Naples read over the Bible forty times notwithstanding many great affairs were upon his hand Theodosius the Emperor and Constantine the Great were much taken up in reading of the Scriptures So Queen Elizabeth when she passed in triumph through the streets of London after her Coronation and had the Bible presented to her at the little Conduit in Cheap-side she received the same with both her hands and kissing it Speeds Hist laid it to her breasts saying That the same had ever been her chiefest delight and should be the rule whereby she meant to frame her Government And 't is very observable that the Eunuch was reading the Scripture when Philip was commanded Acts 8.26.40 by Commission from the Holy Ghost to joyn himself to his Chariot and to instruct him in the knowledge of Christ which proved his conversion and salvation And Junius was converted by the reading of that first of John In the beginning was the Word c. being amazed with the strange majesty of the stile Lib. 8. conf cap. 12. and the profound misteries therein contained And Augustine was