A01956:496
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.
2. Well, they are gone, and my discourse shall travel no further after them: but fall upon others nearer hand. There are some so far from Refusers, that they are rather Intruders. They will come into Gods house, but they will bring no burnt offerings with them: no preparation of heart to receive benefit in the Church. They come without their wedding garment, and shall one day hear that fearful and unanswerable question; Friends, how came you in hither?
2. Well, they are gone, and my discourse shall trauell no further after them: but fall vpon others neerer hand. There are some so farre from Refusers, that they are rather Intruders. They will come into Gods house, but they will bring no burnt offerings with them: no preparation of heart to receiue benefit in the Church. They come without their wedding garment, and shall one day heare that fearefull and vnanswerable question; Friends, how came you in hither?
These are the utterly profane, that come rather with a lame knowledge, then a blind zeal. For some of them, good clothes carry them to Church: and they had rather men should note the fashion of their habits, then God the habit of their hearts. They can better brook ten disorders in their lives, then one in their locks. Others are the secure semi-atheistical Cosmopolites; and these come too: and none take a truer measure of the Sermon: for their sleep begins with the prayer before it, and wakens just at the Psalm after it. These think, that God may be served well enough with looking on. And their utmost duty, but to bring their bodies a little further living, then they shall be brought dead: for then perhaps they shall come to the Church-yard, now they will bring them to Church. Devotion and they are almost strangers, and so much as they know of it, they dishonour by their acquaintance. Their burnt offerings are nothing else, but a number of eyes at utmost lift up to heaven; their heart ⟨p. 219⟩hath another centre. They bring as many sins with them every day to Church, as they have been all their lives in committing. Their hands are not washed from aspersions of lust and blood: their eyes are full of whoredom, their lips of slander, their affections of covetousness, their wits of cheating, their souls of impiety. If there were no Saints in the Church, how could they hope, the roof would not fall on their guilty heads! But I will leave them to the Lords reproof.