A01956:1070
The happiness of the church, or, A description of those spiritual prerogatives wherewith Christ…The happines of the church, or, A description of those spirituall prerogatiues vvherewith Christ…
The happiness of the church, or, A description of those spiritual prerogatives wherewith Christ hath endowed her considered in some contemplations upon part of the 12. chapter of the Hebrews : together with certain other meditations and discourses upon other portions of Holy Scriptures, the titles whereof immediately precede the book : being the sum of diverse sermons preached in S. Gregory's London / by Thomas Adams ...The happines of the church, or, A description of those spirituall prerogatiues vvherewith Christ hath endowed her considered in some contemplations vpon part of the 12. chapter of the Hebrewes : together with certain other meditations and discourses vpon other portions of Holy Scriptures, the titles wherof immediately precede the booke : being the summe of diuerse sermons preached in S. Gregories London / by Thomas Adams ...
London: printed by G.P. for John Grismand, 1619London: printed by G.P. for Iohn Grismand, 1619
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.
3. Full perfection is only reserved for heaven, and not granted till we meet in glory; then shall the Church be one perfect man. We may be now dmundi, saith Aug. clean, yet still mundandi, to be cleansed. Not so perfect, but still glad of mercy. Our purity is not in facto, but in fieri; inchoate; not finished though begun. All our righteousness consists in the not imputation of our sins. eBlessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Summa perfectio imperfectionis confessio. Our greatest cleanness is the free acknowledging our vileness. The other immunity shall be when there are no passions in men, no lusts capable of sin: now it is well if we live without scandal: without eruption, though not without corruption. Non sine culpa•ed sine querela. And so the commendation of fZechariah must be understood; which calleth him righteous, walking in all the commandments of the Lord, blameless. He lived blameless in the worlds eye, not in the Lords. gIf thou shouldest mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand? Especially when his eye of justice only shall look upon it. hVae etiam laudabili vitae hominum, si remota misericordia discutiatur. Woe to the most commendable life of man, if mercy be removed when it is examined. It is enough to prove Zechariah a sinner, in that he was a Priest. For it was imposed on the Priest first ito offer for his own sins, and then the sins of the people: which had been needless, if the Priest had not been guilty of sin, and liable to condemnation.
3. Full perfection is onely reserued for heauen, and not granted till we meete in glory; then shall the Church be one perfect man. We may be now dmundi, saith Aug. cleane, yet still mundandi, to be cleansed. Not so perfect, but still glad of mercie. Our puritie is not in facto, but in fieri; inchoate; not finished though begunne. All our righteousnes consists in the not imputation of our sinnes.