A01956:308
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.
But say they, The Virgin is a known Saint: she can and may by the right of a Mother command her Son 1Christ. Their whole Church sings, O felix puerpera, nostra p•ans scelera, inre matris impera. And Maria consolatio infirmorum, redemptio captivorum, liberatio damnatorum, salus universorum. They have given so much to the Mother, that they have left nothing for the Sonne. Ozorius the Jesuit saies, Caput gratiae Christus, Maria collū: Christ ⟨p. 152⟩[…] ⟨p. 153⟩[…] ⟨p. 154⟩is the Head of grace, but Mary is the Neck: no grace can come from the head, but it must pass through the neck. They invocate her their Advocate: but of Christs mediation the medium or better half is taken from him: as if he were still a child, in subjection to his Mother. But as he is Mariae filius, so he is Mariae Dominus: the Sonne and the Lord of his Mother. Therefore the first words that we read Christ ever spake to his Parents, were rough, and by way of reproof. According to Saint Luke, these were his first: bHow is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business? According to Saint John more sharply, cWoman, what have I to do with thee? Quanquàm locuta est jure matris, tamen duriter respondet. Where was then their Monstra te esse Matrem? Though at the command of his Mother he spake, yet he spake roughly. Whereas Gods kingdom consists of his Justice and Mercy; the Papists attribute the greatest part, which is his Mercy, to Mary: making her, as one noted, the Lady high Chancellor, & Christ as it were the Lord chief Justice. As we appeal from the Kings-Bench bar to the Chancery, so a Papist may appeal from the Tribunal of God to the Court of our Lady. So they make her Domina factotum: when one flatteringly wrote of Pope Adrian; Traiectum plantavit, Lovanium rigavit, Caesar autem incrementum dedit. Traiectum planted, Louvain watered, but the Pope gave the increase: one wittily underwrites; Deus interim nihil fecit; God did nothing the while. So if Mary be the comfort of the weak, the redeemer of captives, the deliverer of the damned, the salvation of all, the Advocate of the poor, the Patroness of the rich; then sure Christ hath nothing to do. No beloved; Abraham is ignorant of us, the blessed Virgin knows us not; but the Lord Jesus is our Redeemer.