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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

except there be sound repentance on his side and pardoning mercy on Gods Take another instance in that Prov. 23.20 21. The glutton and the drunkard were to be stoned to death Deut. 21.20 21. Basil calls drunkenness a self chosen devil When Aechines commended Philip King of Macedon for a jovial man that would drink freely Demosthenes being by told him that was a good quality in a Spunge but not in a Prince Be not among wine-bibbers amongst riotous eaters of flesh For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall cloath a man with raggs Many Dukes Earles Lords and Gentlemen of great estates have ●adly experienced the truth of this Scripture society and luxurious company hath brought many a man to extream poverty The full cup makes an empty purse and the fat dish makes a lean bagg he that fills thee wine with one hand and sets before thee dainty dishes with the other hand will be sure to pick thy pockets with both hands and this Caligula the Roman Emperor found by experience for his gluttony brought him to incredible poverty Diogenes hearing that the house of a certain prodigal was offered to sale said I knew that house was so accustomed to surfeting and drunkenness that ere long it would spue out the Master Excessive drinking is now so great in England that the Germans may fear the loss of their Charter There was a street in Rome called vicussobrius the sober street because there was never an Ale-house in it but this I think is hard to say of any street in London yea of any street in England It is an observation amongst the Marriners that as the Sea grows daily shallower shallower on the shoars of Holland and Zealand so the Channel of late waxeth deeper deeper on the Coasts of Kent and Essex Ah sirs what is more evident then this that as drunkenness ebbs in Holland so it flows in England O what a deal of ground has this sin got within this few months upon English hearts there was a time when drunkards were as rare in England as Wolves but now they are as common as Swine Ah what staggering reeling and shameful spewing is to be found both among the great ones the Priests and people of this Nation The Prophet Hosea Hos 7.5 complained in his time that the Princes upon their Kings day made him sick with bottles of wine This day of their King was either his birth day and so Pagnine rendreth it here Die natalis ejus or his Coronation day and so the Chalde paraphrast carrieth it or the day wherein their King Jeroboam set up his golden Calves at Dan and Bethel as some others conceive Now in this day of their King there was such carnal triumphing and such pampering of the flesh and such roaring carouzing Richard the third drowned his brother in a Butt of Sack and drinking of bottles of wine that the Princes drank themselves sick drowning their bodies and souls in bottles and Butts of wine Memorable is the Kings late Proclamation against all such debauched persons who pretending to drink His Health destroy their own by a shameful abusing of the precious creatures of God But if the Prophet Hosea were now alive in this Nation If one may credit relations many hav drunk themselves dead within this few months Ah what cause would he have to complain that both high and low men and women young and old have given themselves to this beastly sin that unmans a man and that besots the soul and that destroys the body and that proves a canker-Canker-worm to mens estates What are most Ale-houses but hell-houses but the Devils-houses in which the name of God is notoriously blasphemed Religion scorned the Saints derided the Sabbaths prophaned young ones impoysned and old ones hardned and many thousand families impoverished And why then should it be almost as easie a task to conquer the West Indies to overcome the Turke and to bring down the Pope as 't is to bring down such wretched Ale-houses as are the very Nurseries of all sin and the Synagogues of incarnate Devils and the very sinks of all misery poverty and beggary By these instances 't is most clear that 't is not holiness but wickedness that exposes men to the greatest poverty and misery But 1 Kings 17.10 17. Mr. Fox in his Act. and Mon. pag. 1874. edit ult Speaks of a poor woman who being threatned that she should have but a little bread one day and a little water on the next replyed If you take away my meat I hope God will take away my hunger and then 't will be all one as if I had meat Thirdly Consider That God can make a little with holiness go a great way A little with holiness shall serve the turn and then enough is as good as a feast God can make a handful of Meal in the Barrel and a little Oyl in the Cruse hold out a long while So Deut. 8.4 Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee neither did thy foot swell these fourty years Chap. 29.5 And I have led you fourty years in the wilderness your clothes are not waxen old upon you and thy Sh●o is not waxen old upon thy foot Their raiment in fourty years time was not the worse for wearing their garments were not worn out with wearing in all that time they were not grown old and so unfit to wear O no but they were as fresh and strong and fit for use at the last as they were when they first came into the wilderness and this was by a divine power that preserved them from decay God supplyed all the backs and bellies of the Israelites in such state as if every Israelite had been a Prince When God brings his people into a wilderness condition he will make their mercies last and hold out as long as their wilderness condition continues Some of the learned are of opinion that the garments and Shoos of children and young men grew up with their persons so that as their stature increased so their apparel and Shoos waxed larger and longer But I suppose that 't is not safe for us to imagine or multiply miracles without necessity and clear warrant from Scripture and therefore I shall rather fall in with those worthy men who thus judge viz. That when any began to out-grow their Apparel and Shoos they laid them aside and took others that were fit for their present stature and that those which they laid aside were as sound and fresh and fit for service as when they first began to use them and so those they put off were fit for others to put on that were of a less stature and thus God lengthned out their mercies in their wilderness condition So in that Prov. 15.16 17. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord Sheep can live upon bare Commons where fat Oxen would be quickly starved c. then great treasure and trouble therewith

Martyrs fol. 97. 98. the good Bishop frowned upon him and turned his face with indignation from him as disdaining to look upon a man that had denyed the faith upon this Vsthazares fell a weeping and went into his Chamber and put off his Courtly garments and then brake out into these like words Ah how shall I appear before that God that I have denyed with what face shall I behold that God of whom I have been ashamed when Simeon my old Familiar acquaintance will not endure to look upon me but disdains to bestow a civil salute upon me if he frown now O how will God behold me when I shall stand before his Tribunal-Seat And this Physick so wrought with him that he recovered his spiritual strength and went boldly and professed himself a Christian and dyed a glorious Martyr the application is easie Well Sirs remember this 't is infinitely better to suffer for God then to suffer from God 1 Pet. 3.17 For it is better Non poena sed causa facit martyrim 'T is not the punishment but the cause that makes the Martyr Acts and Monu fol. 835. if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well-doing then for evil-doing 'T is better to suffer for well-doing from men then to suffer for ill-doing from God Cyprian in his Sermon de lapsis makes mention of divers who forsaking the profession of their faith were given over by God to be possest by evil spirits and so died fearfully and miserably The Angrognians that yielded and complyed with the Papists that came against them were more sadly and cruelly handled by them then their neighbors that continued constant in the truth Under the fourth persecution there were some Christians who for fear of torments and death denied their faith and sacrificed to idols yet did not their bloody persecutors spare them and it was observed that being full of guilt they went to their deaths with dejected and ill-favoured countenances so that the very Gentiles took notice of it and reproached them as degenerous persons and worthy to suffer as evil doers West that was Chaplain to Bishop Ridley Acts and Mon. fol. 1570. refusing to dye in Christs cause with his Master said Mass against his conscience and soon after pined away with sorrow A Smith in King Edward the sixth's days called Richard Denson was a forward professor of Religion and by his Christian instructions the happy instrument of the conversion of a young man to the Faith afterwards in the reign of Queen Mary this young man was cast into prison for his Religion who remembring his old friend and spiritual father the Smith to whom he always carried a reverend respect for the good that he had received by him sent to know whether he was not imprisoned also and finding that he was not Fox Acts and Mon. fol. 873. desired to speak with him and when he came he asked his advise whether he thought it best for him to remain in prison and whether he would encourage him to burn at a Stake for his Religion To whom the Smith answered that his cause was good and that he might with comfort suffer for it But for my part said the Smith I cannot burn But shortly after he that could not burn for Religion by Gods just Judgement was burned for his Apostasie for his Shop and house being set on fire and he over-busie to save his goods was burnt in the flames They that will not burn for Christ when he calls them to it shall burn whether they will or no. O how much better had it been for this Smith to have burnt for Christ then that Christ should set his house on fire and burn him in the midst of it He that will not suffer for Christ shall be sure to suffer worse things from Christ then ever he could have suffered for Christ Ibid. 1382. and therefore Doctor Taylor the Martyr hit it If I shrink from Gods truth said he I am sure of another manner of death then Judge Hales had who being drawn for fear of death to do things against his conscience did afterwards drown himself In the Bohemian persecution The famous Poet. John Campan having forsaken his Religion said to his wife this day is salvation come to our house whereunto she answered this day a curse is brought into our house and so it proved for he ended his life in despair Those Apostates that left Galeacius to enjoy their sinful pleasures and delights c. were taken by the bloody inquisition and forced publikely to recant and abjure their Religion and when they had done it they became the subjects of misery and infamy and were equally odious to both parties Christ seems to say to all that refuse to suffer for him as King Rehoboam said to the Ten Tribes the order of the words being onely inverted My little finger shall be thicker then your persecutors loins and I will add to your yoke 1 King 12.10 15. and whereas they would have chastised you but with whips I will chastise you with Scorpions O my friends 't is ten thousand times worse to be given up to a proud heart a hard heart a worldly heart a formal heart an hypocritical heart a persecuting heart an impenitent heart or a desparing heart c. for this is to be whipt with Scorpions then 't is to be given up to prisons or Racks or Lyons or flames or banishment c. for this is onely to be chastised with whips yea with such whips that can onely reach our bodies but can never touch our immortal souls And therefore as you would not suffer such hard things from Christ O take heed of being unwilling to suffer any thing for Christs sake or the Gospels sake But Seventhly I answer That great are the advantages that will redown to you by all the troubles Luk. 21.13 afflictions and persecutions that shall befall you for righteousness sake for holiness sake Persecutions are the work-men that will fit you and square you for Gods buildings they are the rods that will beat off the dust and the Skullions that will scour off the rust from your souls they are the fire that will purge you from your dross and the water that will cleanse you from your filthiness Physitians you know apply Horse-leeches to their destempered Patients now the Horse-leech intends nothing but to satiate and fill himself with the blood of the sick patient but the Physitian has a more noble aim even the drawing away of that putrified and corrupt blood that endangers the life of his patient So though persecutors aim at nothing more then to draw out the heart-blood of Gods people that they may satiate and fill themselves with it yet God has other thoughts and other aims even the drawing away of that corrupt blood that pride that self-love that worldliness that carnalness and that luke-warmness that otherwise would endanger the life the health and welfare of their

as you would not have a hand in the damnation of sinners take heed of scandalous sins O! Sirs 1 Kings 11.9 as you would not provoke the great God as you would not crucifie afresh the Lord of glory and put him to an open shame as you would not set the Comforter a mourning that alone can comfort you as you would not raise a hell in your own consciences and as you would not darken the Churches Glory fly from scandalous sins as you would fly from hell it selfe I have read of holy Polycarp that religious Martyr and Bishop of Smyrna how that in the time of the fourth persecution under Marcus Antonius Verres when he was commanded to sweare but one Oath made this Answer Euseb Hist lib. 2. cap. 15. Fourscore and six years have I endeavoured to doo God service and all this while he never hurt me and how then shall I speak evill of so good a Lord and Master who hath thus long preserved me And being further urged to sweare by the Proconsul he answered I am a Christian and cannot doe it let Heathens and Infidels sweare if they will I cannot doe it were it to the saving of my life This holy man would rather sacrifice his life then fall into a scandalous sin O Christians pray and watch and watch and pray that you may never be left to staine your own honor or the honor of your profession by falling into scandalous sins Well friends remember this 't is not infirmities but enormities 't is not weaknesses but wickednesses that will cast the crowne from off your heads and that will strip you of all your glory and therefore as you would hold fast your crowne keep at an everlasting distance from scandalous sins c. But Secondly Declare and evidence the reality and power of holiness by your cordial thankfulness for so rare a Jewel Psal 103.1 2 3 4 5. or as the originall will bare bow the knee O my soul and for so great a mercy O Sirs one drop one spark of holiness is more worth then heaven and earth and how then can you but be thankful for it Wilt thou be thankful to that God that made thee a man and wilt thou not be thankful to the same God that made thee a Saint Wilt thou bless him that made thee a creature and wilt thou not bless the same God that has made thee a new creature Wilt thou praise him for the heavens that are but the workmanship of his hands Psal 8. and wilt thou not praise him for holiness Augustin writ his 49. Ep. to one called Deo gratias which is the workmanship of his heart Tell me O Christian is not holiness a soul-mercy and what mercies wilt thou be thankful for if not for soul-mercies Tell me O Christian is not holiness of all mercies the most necessary mercy the want of other mercies might have troubled thee I but the want of holiness would have damned thee and wilt thou not be thankful for holiness which is the one thing necessary Tell me O Christian is not holiness an incomparable mercy what 's thy health thy wealth thy wit to holiness darest thou mention thy birth thy breeding thy arts thy parts thy honor thy greatness or thy advancement in the world in that day wherein holiness is spoken of surely no and wilt thou not then be thankful for such an incomparable mercy as holiness is Tell me O Christian is not holiness a peculiar mercy a peculiar treasure that God intrusts but few men with 1 John 5.19 Don't the world lye in wickedness are not the multitude in all places strangers yea enemies to holiness and how then canst thou but be thankful for holiness Yea once more tell me O Christian is not holiness a mercy sweetning mercy is it not the beauty of holiness that puts a beauty upon all thy mercies is it not holiness that bespangles all thy comforts and contentments O how sower would all thy mercies tast and how pale and wan would all thy mercies look were it not for holiness 'T is the want of holiness that makes all a mans mercies look as ill-favoured as Pharaoh's leane kine Gen. 41.2 3 4. and 't is the fruition of holiness that makes all a mans mercies look as well-favour'd as Pharaoh's fat-kine 't is holiness that both puts a colour upon all our mercies and that gives a tast and a rellish to them All our mercies without holiness will be but as the waters of Marah Exod. 15.23 24 25. bitter 't is only holiness that is the Tree that will make every bitter sweet and every sweet more sweet and how then canst thou but be thankful for holiness O remember how far off thou wert from God Eph. 2.12 and Christ and the promise and heaven and happiness when thou wast without holiness in this world O remember what a child of wrath what a bond-slave to Satan what an enemy to God and what an apparent heire to hell thou wert when thou wert an opposer of holiness and a secret despiser of holiness and then be unthankful for holiness if thou canst O remember that now by holiness of a slave thou art made a Son and of an heire of wrath Rev. 8.16 17. thou art made an heire of heaven and in stead of being Satans bond-man thou art now made Christs free-man John 8.36 thy Iron-chains are now knockt off as sometimes Joseph's were and the Golden chaine of holiness is now put upon thee Gen. 41.14.42 and what do's all this call aloud for but thankfulness This saying is also fathered on Socrates c. Thales a Heathen gave thanks to God for three things 1. That he had made him a man and not a beast 2. That he had made him a man and not a woman 3. That he was borne a Greek and not a Barbarian And O then what cause of thankfulness hast thou for thy supernatural being and for all those noble principles of holiness that the Lord has stampt upon thy soul c Shall the husbandman be thankful for a plentiful Harvest and the Merchant for quick returnes and the Shop-keeper for a full Trade and the Marriner for a good voyage and wilt not thou be much more thankful for holiness Shall the beggar be thankful for a crust to feed him and shall the blind be thankful for a dogge to lead him and shall the naked be thankful for raggs to cover him Ingratum dixeris omnia dixeris and shall the Aged be thankful for a Staffe to support him and shall the diseased be thankful for a cordial to raise him and wilt not thou be thankful for holiness yea for that holiness that is bread to strengthen thee and a Guide to lead thee and rayment to cloath thee and a Staffe to support thee and a cordial to comfort thee O remember that ingratitude is a monster in nature a solecisme in manners and a paradox in