A01956:799
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.
It were something yet, if thy children might enjoy these riches. But there is a man that hath no child; yet is there no end of his labour, neither is his eye satisfied with wealth. And he saith not, For whom do I travel, and bereave 1my soul of this good? The prodigal would be his own heir and Executor: but this covetous man bequeaths neither legacy to himself, nor to any known Inheritor. The other desires to see an end of all his substance: this man to see only the beginning. He hunts the world full cry, yet hath no purpose to overtake it: he lives behind his wealth, as the other lives beyond it. But suppose he▪ hath children, and then though he famish himself to feed them fat; though he be damned, yet if his son may be made a Gentleman, there is some satisfaction. But this Cuius erunt is a scattering word, and of great uncertainty. Whose shall they be? perhaps not thy children's. They say, Happy is that son, whose father goes to the Devil; but thou mayest go to the Devil, and yet not make thy son happy. For men make heritages, but God makes heirs. He will wash away the unholy seed, and cut off the generation of the wicked. Solomon had a thousand wives and concubines, and consequently many children; yet at last he wants one of his seed to sit upon the throne of David, or to bear rule in Judah: 2and S. Luke derives Christ from Nathan the younger brother. For thus saith God of C•oniah, whom he calls 3Coniah; cutting short at once his name, his life, his hope of posterity. Write this man childless. It often so falls out, that to a man exceeding wealthy, is denied a successor of his own loins. Let him have children, he is not sure ⟨p. 335⟩those children shall possess his riches. But those riches perish 4by evil travel: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. A scatterer succeeds a gatherer: avari heres dissipans: the father loved the world too well, and the son cares not for it. The sire was all for the rake, and the son is all for the pitchfork. So Whose shall these be? even his that will one day pity the poor. He will love the poor so well, that he will not rest till he be poor with them for company. This is the portion of the wicked,