A01956:1314
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.
1. By obscuring the light of the Gospel from mens ⟨p. 116⟩eyes; and heartening their affection to darkness. So that the children of the night have so doted upon Ignorance, that they hate and persecute all the means and messengers of illumination. Shine the Sun never so bright, the Papists will see by nothing but Candlelight. Therefore it may be, they are permitted tapers, torches, and candles, to content their carnal devotion; that they might not spiritually desire the Light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God. 1And if ever their caliginous minds spy the least glimmering of zeal, or feel a little turning from their former impieties; the shrine, picture, or Image of some Saint hath the glory of their conversion. A very block shall have the praise, rather then God. But we can hardly believe, they are converted from darkness to light, that fetch their illumination out of a stone. It is recorded, that at Amesbury, when Queen Eleanor the wife of King Henry, 3. Lay there; a man 2that feigned himself to have been long blind, came to her, and told her that he had now his sight restored again at the tomb of King Henry her deceased husband. The mother easily believed it; but her son Ed•rd the first knowing this man, that he had been ever a dissolute wretch and vile impostor, dissuaded her from giving faith to it: protesting that he knew so well the justice of his Father; that if he were living, he would sooner pull out both the dissemblers eyes, then restore sight to any one of them. So certainly those Saints, to the virtue of whose dead bones these hypocrites attribute the glory of their conversion and enlightening; would (if they were living) rather say these men had no eyes of grace at all, then that any light was given them out of their dead dusts, or painted resemblances. This is Satan's first project, to cast a thick cloud of invincible ignorance, between mens eyes and the clear Sun.
1. By obscuring the light of the Gospell from mens ⟨p. 116⟩eyes; and hartning their affection to darknes. So that the children of the night haue so doted vpon Ignorance, that they hate and persecute all the meanes and messengers of illumination. Shine the Sunne neuer so bright, the Papists will see by nothing but Candlelight. Therefore it may be, they are permitted tapers, torches, and candles, to content their carnall deuotion; that they might not spiritually desire the Light of the glorious Gospell of Iesus Christ, who is the image of God.