A01956:1290
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. That the fruit of the Gospel is so far from allowing carnal peace, that it gives Dissension. It hath ever been the destiny of the Gospel to bring commotion, trouble, and wars; though no doctrine teacheth so much peace. Math. 10. I came not to 1s•nd peace, but a sword. Not that the Gospel of it self causeth wars; for it maketh peace between God and man, man and man, man and his inward soul: but it overturneth the tables of the money-changers, spoileth the Bank of usurers, will not let Herod keep his Herodias, bars Demetrius of his idolatrous shrines, pulls the cup from the mouth of the drunkard, denounceth confusion to the oppressor, unuizardeth painted hypocrisy, and discovers the ugly face of fraud to the world; therefore it hath enemies, even to the effusion of blood, and endeavoured extirpation of all that profess it. So that partly this proceeds from our own corruption; that cannot endure the light, because our deeds are evil; and partly from the malice of Satan, who by the growth of the Gospel looseth his Jurisdiction. For look how much ground Christianity gets, that bloody infernal Turk looseth. So that neither can the Devil so uncontrollably lead men to quiet damnation; neither can the evil heart be so securely evil. For the Gospel informs the understanding, the understanding tells the conscience, and the conscience will not spare to tell men their wickedness. Though Gods hand forbears to strike outwardly, the conscience smites inwardly; and the former unjust peace is broken by a new just war. Men shall by this means know hell ⟨p. 104⟩before they salute, it and discern themselves in that broad way that leads to damnation. Safe they may be, they cannot be secure. Thus the Gospel begets all manner of enemies, foreign, civill, domesticall. Foreign, the Devil who now makes apparent his horns, as if it were high time to bestir himself. He sees, he cannot lead souls to his black kingdom in a twine-thread, as he was wont without reluctancy: he must clap irons upon them, and bind them with his strongest tentations. Civill, the world which erst ticed us on, as a bait doth the fish, not knowing that there is a hook so near the jaws we took it for a kind and familiar friend; but now it is descried and described for a very adversary.