A01956:178
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. That we are dedicated to God. Exod. 13. 2. Numb. 3. 13. Sanctify to me all the first borne. eSo Hannah dedicated her first borne Samuel to the Lord. fMary brought Christ to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; as it is written in the Law; Every male that openeth the womb, shall be called holy to the Lord. To rob God of his tithes is sacrilege; but to take away from him our souls, this is the ⟨p. 78⟩highest sacrilege. In this we have a sequestration from common use, we are no longer as we were. They are mine, saith the Lord: not only by a common right, so all things are his. The earth is the Lords, and the fullness of it. nor only for a grateful acknowledgement, that the increase of all things comes from him. But as the Israelites were Gods by a special claim; because he preserved them in Egypt, when the first borne were slain. For whose redemption he accepted the first borne of their beasts: when he might have commanded all, lest this should seem grievous to them, he required but the first part. He only reserved what he preserved. So we were all by nature in as much danger of Gods wrath, as were the Israelites of the destroying Angel when the first borne of the Egyptians were smitten dead. But the Lord sprinkled the doors of our hearts with the blood of his holy Lamb Jesus. Hath the Lord spared us? then he challengeth us. To take from man his own is injurious, from God sacrilegious. gGlorify God in your body, and in your spirit. why? for they are Gods, ye are not your own, saith the Apostle. Thus he confessed himself not his own man: hThere stood by me this night the Angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve. We are Gods possession, the first borne which he hath redeemed by his own First-borne, Christ. This we acknowledge when we present our children to God in Baptism. Yet O strange and forgetful inconstancy! when we have given them to God in baptism, by a foolish indulgence we take them away again in education. A Prince abhors to have his eldest son marry with a harlot; this were to vilify and ignoble that royal blood. And shall God brook his First borne to be contracted with that ugly strumpet, Sin? This were to forfeit and make void the right of primogeniture.