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A01573
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The gallants burden A sermon preached at Paules Crosse, the twentie nine of March, being the fift Sunday in Lent. 1612. By Tho. Adams ...
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Adams, Thomas, fl. 1612-1653.
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1612
(1612)
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STC 117; ESTC S100383
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48,604
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74
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vnto Iudgement But You gaue them not therefore lie maledictj Goe ye cursed so Come yee blessed What because ye dealt iustly and gaue euery man his due no these vertues may be in morall men that want Fayth and Christianitie But You gaue them your owne bread Hungry and clad them Naked with your owne cloathes therefore Come ye blessed What vse you will make of this I know not what vse you should make I know If the Tree without good fruite shal be burned what shall become of the Tree that hath euill If Barrennesse be cast into the fire what doth Rapine and Robberie deserue If it be damnation enough to deny our owne Bread what is it to take away the onely Loafe Coate or Cottage of our poore brother Woe to the Backe that weares the Garment to the Bellies that deuowers the Food they neuer sweate for I meane that by force or fraud tooke them from the owners If Naball and Diues burne for not giuing their owne what shall become of Ahab and Iesabell for taking away the Vineyard of Naboth If the righteous be scarcely saued where shall the vngodly and the sinner appeare Now if after this Phisicke giuen I should aske many how they feele the Pulses of their Consciences beate I presume on this reply Notum loqâ—eris you but guild Gold and minister to vs such Phisicke as we haue taken before All this we know we doe not euermore ply your vnderstandinges with new thinges but lay old almost dead forgotten fresh to the Conscience I aske further how much of this haue you practised and still looke for an affirmatiue answere All this haue I kept from my youth Let vs reason discusse this matter a litle To Enquire is hearing or rather harkning to the word to Returne is repenting to Come is beleeuing or rather looking more toward perfection proceeding into the ripenesse of Fayth This latter is so necessarie that we can not come to God with his acceptance our comfort if wee leaue our Fayth behind vs without this impossible to please him to be rewarded of him This our Charter wherby we hold all our Priuiledges our Title in Capiâ—e to Earth and Heauen But Sub â—udice Lis est the great Iudge of Heauen shall one day censure it meane time giue me leaue to helpe thee peruse this euidence of thy Fayth whereon thou so presumest Christ dying made a Will sealed it with his owne Blood wherein he bequeathed a certaine Inheritaunce to his breathren the Conueyance is the Gospell this his Testament the executor of this Will is the Holy ghost our Tenure and Euidence is our Fayth Now thou layest title to Ierusalem for a childs part What 's thy title in Christes name and right what conueyance did Christ euer make thee of such a portion Yees he conueyed it to mee by Will What by a speciall name no but by a generall title to all beleeuers That I am one of these heires my euidence my Fayth Let God alone to try thy Fayth If thou commest to me for counsell sayth S. Iames thou must shew me another euidence Shew me thy faith by thy works If thy heart be corrupt thy hands filthy thy tongue false thy euidence is but counterfaite Christ giues not title of inheritaunce in Heauen to such as haue no holinesse on Earth Know ye not that the vnrighteous shall not inherite the kingdome of God Be not deceiued neither Fornicatoâ—s c. And there shall enter into it no vncleane thing nor any thing that worketh abhomination or lyes Perhappes thou wilt yet stand vpon it produce thy witnesses they are onely two thy Life thy Conscience they cannot speake with thee against their maker and thine Thy life speakes lowde and plaine Thy pride drunkennesse oppression cousenage lustes blasphemies manifest thou hast but a broken title and Paul pleads against thee from this cleere aduantage Protest to them yee beleeue in God that they be carefull to shew foorth good workes They that haue the euidence of faith must haue the witnes of workes It is a poore deed without witnesses Thy conscience speakes plaine too that thy faith is but a carnall perswasion bred of securitie a forged Euidence made by a false Scriuener the Diuell to deceiue thy owne eyes and the worldes not Gods Now where is thy claime stand vpon good assurance lest when that subtile winnower Satan comes to fift thee graine after graine thou prouest Chaffe we may come with this carnall perswasion little better then reprobate hope to the Temples to the Pulpittes to the Sacraments but if we come so to the tribunall of Christ woe vnto vs the too much trusting to a verball leane sicke starued faith deceiues many a Soule whiles we couet to be solifidians in opinion wee prooue nullifidians in practise no matter for wisedome in the Soule grace in the conscience honesty in the life if the profession of faith be in the tongue but the Poore may say as he in the Comedie Oculatae mihi sunt manus credunt quod vident My handes haue eyes and they beleeue what they see wee carry the formes and outsides of Christians and thinke God beholding to vs for gracing his materiall earthly Temples when in the Temples of our owne heartes wee sette vp the Idolls of our owne affections yet are these the Temples wherein he is best pleased to dwell But if we be come to God by faith he is also come to vs by grace The spirit of Christ is in vs if we be not Reprobates And if this spirit be in vs the body of sinne is dead At least hath his deathes-wound But alasse in how many of vs doth sinne liue dwell I would I might stay there nay euen raigne as if Christ had come to destroy the Diuell and not the workes of the Diuill to free vs from the damnation and not the dominion of sinne but he that tooke from sinne the power to condemne vs tooke also the power to raigne in our mortall Bodyes And the second is but a consequent of the first postscribed with that word of inference now then c. Thus Christ came not onely to binde the Diuell but to loose and dissolue his workes I haue read and obserued in the Historie of Scotland a certaine controuersie betwixt that Kingdome and Ireland for a little Iland that lay betweene them eyther claimes it as theit due and the strife growing hotte was falling from wordes to blowes but reason moderated both sides and they put it to the decision of a Frenchman who thus iudged it he caused lyning Serpents to be put into that Iland if they liued and thriued there he iudged it Scotlands if they pyned and dyed he gaue it for Ireland You can apply it easily If the venemous Serpents poysons and corruptions of our natures batten and thriue in vs wee are Satans if they languish and consume wee are Gods thus is the title ended for
their wayes the same ayre is drawn by men of as contrary dispositions as is the opposition of the two Poles that I may say of the liues of this Citie as one doth of Origen's writinges Vbi bene nemo melius vbi male nemo peius Those that are good are exceeding good and those that are euill are vnmeasurable euill nothing was euer so vnlike it selfe You are as contrary as fire to water but al the water of the one's deuotion will not quench the Fire of the others wickednesse This latter is so monstrously growne on vs with the times that it is all if the Idolatrie of Rome or the Atheisme of Turkey can goe beyond it They are rare heartes that care not more to seeme then to be Holy if perhaps they will either seeme or bee Rare handes that are free and cleane from either blood or filthinesse rare Tongues that doe not vie Oathes with Words making scoffes scornes flatteries vaine speaches the greater part of their tongues exercise that if their Words could be weighed their Prayers of a yeare are not so substantiall and ponderous as their Oathes of one day It were no wonder to see these abominations in Dumah Egipt Babilon to find them in England is matter of amasement It was an admirable and astonishing speach the Prophet him selfe thought by his aduertisement prefixed The virgin Israel hath done filthily If Harlots and Brothels be vnchast they doe not degenerate from their kind in so pure a Virgin no imagination would haue dream't it It is no newes to find the Deuill in Hell to haue him thrust into Paradise tempting and preuayling with our first Parents is horrible Let Rome and Turkey swell with the poysons of Sathan till they burst who wonders to finde the sputteringes of his venime in the Church is grieuous If we be accused for accusing of sinnes let the Physition be blamed for discouering Diseases in the sicke bodie we must speake Oh yet Si nostra sperem prece posse mouerâ— that wee could hope with any sayinges to moue you If the worst come I can but speed as others before me Be there no Vsurers that say to the Gold in secret You are my Confidence Populus me sibilat at mihi plaudo ipse dâ—mi the world hisseth at me but I hug applaud my owne soule fat my spirits in the sight of my Bags Is there neuer a Broker to comfort this sinne of death in the distresse of his Conscience with Vsury is no sinne many learned men are of this opinion But I aske him if his Conscience can be so satisfied would he not willingly giue one hundred pound bagge to be secured in this poynt Sure it is at the least not safe wading farre in a questionable Water if it could be safe to some yet how many haue been drowned in this Whirlepoole I confesse that flesh and blood puts the Bladders of Wealth and Promotion vnder their Arme-holes and the Deuill holdes them vp by the Chinne till they come to the deepest and then as the Priestes serued Iudas they bid them shift for them selues and wanting the helpe of Repentance of swimme downe they sinke In profundum inferni to the bottomlesse bottom of Hell These two are not vnfitly compared to two Milstones the Vsurer is the nether Stone that lyes still he sittes at home in his warme Furres and spendes his time in a deuillish Arithmeticke in numeration of houres dayes and moneys in substraction from others estates and multiplication of his owne till they haue diuided the earth to themselues and themselues to Hell The Broker runnes round like the vpper Mill-stone and betwixt both these the poore is grinded to powder Vsury you say is exploded among Saintes I would you would deale no worse with couetousnesse But alasse this is too generall a fault to giue any hope of amendment He that railed on Beelsebub pulled al Ekrom about his eares He that sleighted Melchom prouoked the Ammonites But he that condemnes Mammon speakes against all the world This is the delight the loue the solace of many the God of some Pouertie sicknesse age are all the Deuils they tremble at and Beliall Melchom Mammon Pleasures Honours Riches all the Gods they worshippe These three vsurping Kings like the three seditious Captaines in Ierusalem or those three Romane Tyrants Casar Crassus and Pompey haue shared the world amongst them and left God least who owes all Lactantius speakes of one Tullus Hostilius that put Feare Palenes into the number of Gods It is pittie that euer his Gods should goe from him it is not pittie but iustice that these Gods and the true God too should forsake such reprobates that idolatrize the honour to Creatures wherewith they should worship the Creator But alas how is Pharaobs Dreame verified among vs The leane Kine eate vp the fatte Gods leane blessinges riches and pleasures deuowre his fatte ones Grace and Religion How it dishonours God disparageth our selues and our creation to put Lead in a Cabinet of gold base desires in a faire and precious soule We neuer yet attained the toppe of Mount Syon He that stands on the Towre of Diuine meditation will iudge those Pigmeys which below he thought Giants but we desire not Heauen because we know it not we neuer looke beyond our Horizon we liue in our contented slauery of Egipt and neuer dreame of the freedome of Canaan Vbi amor ibi oculus where the loue is there is the eye This S. Augustine shortly and soundly reproues Si sursum os cur deorsum cor hath Nature giuen vs an vpright â—ace and a groueling heart this is a preposterous dissimilitude of the minde and countenaunce doe but compare as lifting vp thy soule with thy eyes heauen with earth and thou wilt change thy opinion Through want of these meditations these earthly vanities carry away our inchaunted hearts to neglect those better things of our eternall peace and by the testimony of our Sauiour It is hard for a rich man to get into Heauen The Prouerbe sayth There is no earthly Gate but an Asse laden with Gold can enter and this onely loding hinders our entring the gates of Glory A wealthy and great man serued vp to Gods table in his kingdome is as rare as Venison at our Boardes on earth there are sometimes such seruices not often Is this all no Vidi Ebriosorum sitim vomentium famem I haue seene Drunkennesse reeling from Tauerne to Tauerne and not seldome from thence to his Stewes It was the sinne nay the shame of Beggars it is now the glory the pride of Gallants They should daily be transformed to the image of God they come neerer and neerer to beasts let me say to Diuells For Saint Bernard sayth Ebrietas est manifestissimus Daemon Drunkennesse is a most manifest Diuell They that are possessed with Satan or with drunkennesse fall alike into the fire into the water they gnash alike alike they foame