A01956:866
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
THE BAD LEAVEN: OR, THE CONTAGION OF SIN.THE BAD LEAVEN: OR, THE CONTAGION OF SINNE.
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.
1. Leaven is not bread, but the corruption of that which maketh bread. Sin is not a created quality, but the corruption of a created quality. God made not sin: Who then? the devil begot it on mans lust: iThis I have found, that God made man upright: but they have sought out many inventions: Tricks enow to make themselves miserable. That which rottenness is in the Apple, sourness in the Wine, corruption in the flesh, such is sin in the Soul: Fetida qu•dam qualitas, a thing never good since it took being, only usurps the place of good, and occupies the seat where a happy and perfect quality stood. It is like a Jehoiakim that sits in the Throne of a Josiah: as that bad son of so good a father kgave the silver and the gold of the Temple to Pharaoh Necho: so this, gives the endowments of nature, of reason, of affection, to the black Prince of darkness. Or as the Pope pretends, that he sits in the chair of Peter▪ yet what that blessed Saint attributed to Christ; lWhy marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us? as if ⟨p. 371⟩we by our own power or holiness had made this man to walk. mBe it known to you, that by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, this man now stands whole before you. This the Pope attributes to relics and blocks: there is no disease, but he hath appointed some puppet to cure it. Prohpudor? quis, cui? Such is the practice of sin: the bounty of God ngives corn, and wine and oil, multiplies silver and gold; and even these, sin gives to Baal. It is depranatio boni, and deprivatio boni: one is active, the other passive: the latter a necessary consequent of the former. It depraves our power of obedience to God actually; it deprives us of Gods good grace and blessing passively. The one is inseparable to the other: For he that forfeits Bonum unde, shall lose Bonum inde. They that spoil that grace whence they might do good, shall lose that glory whence they expect good. The first breach of one Law took away all power to keep any: and by it we are disabled to all.