A01956:8
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.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR HENRY MOVNTAGVE, the Lord Chief Justice of ENGLAND, my very good Lord.
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR HENRIE MOVNTAGVE, the Lord Chiefe Iustice of ENGLAND, my very good Lord.
Right Honourable, my allegiance to the Almighty King necessitates my endeavours to glorify his Great Name. My Profession hath imposed on me all ministerial services. My filial duty to our blessed Mother the Church, hath taught me to help forward her cause, both with tongue and pen. My thankfulness to your Lo. ties me to seek your honourable authorising of all these labours. They run to you first, as if they waited your manumission of them to the world. If books be our children, and the masculine issue of our brains; then it is fit that your Lo. who have the patronage of the father, should also vouchsafe a blessing to the children. Nor is this all: there is yet a weightier reason ⟨image 3⟩why they should refuge themselves under your Los. protection. The world is quickly offended, if it be told of the offences: men study courses, & practise them; and if the Clergy find fault, yea if we do not justify and make good what they magnify, & make common, they will be angry. It is the most thankless service to tell men of their misdeeds. Now a business so distasteful requires a worthy Patron: & whose Patronage should I desire but your Los. whose I am, and to whom I owe all duty & service? whose but your Los. who are in place to reform vice, and to encourage goodness: to make that practical and exemplary, which is here only theoretical and preceptory? God hath entrusted to your hands his Sword of Justice: draw it in his defence against the enemies of his Grace & Gospel. You sit at the common stern, and therefore are not so much your own as your Countries. Help us with your hands, we will help you with our prayers. The God of majesty & mercy, sanctify your heart, rectify your hand, justify your soul, and lastly crown your head with eternal glory.