A01956:796
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.
This day to some may be distinguished into twelve hours. The first gives us nativity; even in this hour there is sin; an original pravity, indisposition to good, proneness to evil. Secondly, Infancy; God now protects the cradle. Thirdly, Childhood; and now we learn to speak and to swear together; the sap of iniquity begins to put out. Fourthly, Tender age, wherein toys and gauds fill up our scene. Fifthly, Youth: this is a madding, a gadding time. Remember not the sins of this time, 1prays David: their remembrance is bitter, says Job. Sixthly, Our high noon. God that could not be heard before for the loud noise of vanity, now looks for audience, for obedience. Seventhly, This is full of cares & crosses; the dugs of the world taste bitter; it is full time that this hour should wean us. Eighthly, Brings us to a sense of mortality, we feel our blood decaying. Ninthly, Our bodies go crooked and stooping, to put us in mind that they are going to their original earth. Tenthly, We are even as dying: we do dye by degrees: our senses first fail us, our eyes are dim like old Isaacs, our ears deaf, our taste dull: our grinders are done, our stilts unable to support us. Eleventhly, We are a burden to our selves, to our friends: we long for death, if any hope of a better life hath possessed our hearts. The twelfth hour ⟨p. 332⟩it comes. Which of these hours pass over us without Gods mercies, without our voluntary unthankfulness; unless those first hours wherein our ignorance is uncapable of such observance? All thy day long have I stretched out my 2hands unto thee, saith God. If none of these hours reclaim us, our day is spent, and the night comes; that night wherein no man can work; actively to comfort, 3though passively he work for ever in torment. I know, that God cuts many one short of most of these hours, and often shuts up his day-light, before he comes to his noon. But howsoever man pass from Infancy to childhood, from childhood to youth, from youth to age: yet senectutem nemo excedit; none can be more then olde. Though tam senex nemo, quin putet see annum posse vivere; no man is so old, but still he thinks he may live another year. And therefore lightly the older, the more covetous; and Quò minus viae restat, eò plus viatici quritur: the less journey men have, the more provision they make.