Thomas Brooks, "The Crown and Glory of Christianity, or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662)"They delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil." Proverbs 2:14 Unsanctified people . . . take pleasure in unrighteousness, rejoice to do evil, make a sport of sin, delight to dishonor God, damn their own immortal souls. Holiness only debars men from the sinful joys, delights, and pleasures of life. What a mercy it is, to be taken off from that carnal mirth which ends in mourning--and from those vain delights which end in unspeakable torments--and from that foolish jollity which leads to everlasting misery! Ah, what folly and madness it is, for men to run the hazard of losing the kingdom of heaven, and the eternal pleasures which are at God's right hand--forthose short-lived pleasures which are like the early dew which soon passes away! Ah, who would endure an ocean of torture--for a drop of sensual pleasure?All sensual pleasures . . . defile the soul, debase the soul, debauch the soul, take off the heart from God, deaden the heart towards God. Sensual pleasures and delights cannot satisfy the soul of man; they are but frothy and flashy. They only wet the mouth--they never warm the heart. Sensual pleasures seem substantial in the pursuit--but are mere clouds in the enjoyment. There is nothing in carnal delights, but imagination and expectation. For they can neither fill the heart,nor satisfy the heart.O sirs, there is no real pleasure in sin! All the pleasures of sin are counterfeit pleasures; they are but the shapes and shadows of pleasure. They are the seeds of future grief; they are but a pledge laiddown for sorrow or ruin. Certainly if there were the least real delight in sin--hell could never be hell. Yes, then it would follow that hell would be the place of greatest pleasure--for doubtless hell is the place of greatest sin. Oh, don't deceive your own souls! There can be no real joy in sensual pleasures. What real delight or pleasure can there be in fooling and staggering in an ale-house or tavern; in swaggering and swearing; in dicing and carding; in dancing, partying, and whoring; in pursuing after lying vanities? Surely none! As for those seeming pleasures which attend the ways of sin--ah, how soon do they vanish and leave a sting behind them! Look! all the pleasures which manhood takes a person off from--are babyish and toyish pleasures; such as from delighting in a rattle, a doll, a feather, a hobby-horse, a wooden sword, etc. Just so, all the pleasures and delights which holiness takes a man off from--they are babyish and foolish; yes, they are vile, dangerous, and devilish!Holiness is only an exchange . . . of sinful delights--for those which are holy; of carnal delights--for those which are spiritual; of earthly delights--for those which are heavenly.He who delights in sensual pleasures shall find at last--that his greatest pleasures will become hisbitterest pains!
