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NICHOLS SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES.
PURITAN PERIOD.
ixi\i (^mtxnl 'Bxtha
By JOHN C. MILLER, D.D.,
LINCOLN college; HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER; RECTOR OF ST MARTIN'S, BIRMINOHAM.
THE
WORKS OF THOMAS ADAMS.
YOL. III.
TO WHICH IS APPENDED SERMONS AND TREATISES BY SAMUEL WARD,
WITH MEMOIE BY THE REV. J. 0. RYLE.
COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.
W. LINDSAY ALEXANDEK, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational Union, Edinburgh,
JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.
THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University, Edinburgh.
D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas' Episcopal Church, Edinburgh.
WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.
ANDREW TH:0MS0N, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby- terian Church, Edinburgh.
©cneral ©Jidor. EEV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., Edinburgh.
THE WORKS
rv\
THOMAS ADAMS:
TUE SUM UE HIS SERMONS, MEDITATIONS, AND OTHER DIVINE AND MORAL DISCOURSES. .
By JOSEPH ANGUS, D.D.,
PBINCIPAI. OF THE BAPTIST COLLEGE, REGENT'S PARK, LONDON.
VOL. III.
CONTAINING SERMONS FROM TEXTS IN
THE NEW TESTAMENT,
AND MEDITATIONS ON THE CREED.
EDINBURGH : JAMES NICHOL.
LONDON : JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN : W. KOBEliTSON. NEW YORK : C. SCPJBNER & CO.
IH.DCCC.LXII.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Adveetisement, ...... vii
Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Adams, . . . . ix
SERMONS. LVni. Semper Idem ; or, The Immut.4£le Mercy
OF Jesus Christ Heb. XIII. 8, . 1
LIX. The Taming OF the Tongue James III. 8, . 10
LX. The Soul's Refuge 1 Pet. lY. 19, . 28
LXI. The Spiritual Navigator bound for the
Holy Land Rev. IV. 6, . . 38
LXII. Presumption running into Despair Rev. VI. 16, . 63
LXIII. Heaven-Gate ; or. The Passage to Para- dise Rev. XXn. 14, 74
Meditations upon some part of the Creed, 85
LXIV. God's Anger Ps. LXXX. 4, . 265
LXV. Man's Comfort Ps. XCIV. 19, . 280
Index, by the General Editor, ..... 801
ADVERTISEMENT.
In issuing the last volume of Adams's Practical Works, the Pub- lisher takes leave to point out the special advantages which he believes characterise this edition.
Apart from the convenience of the octavo volume over the folio, and the adaptation of the speUing to modern usage, it has been the aim of the conductors to give to this edition, the following features : —
1. The numerous typographical errors in the original edition, which frequently destroy the sense, have been corrected.
2. The references to Scripture, &c., have been carefully verified.
3. Complete Indices are given, so as to afford perfect facility for reference. The Index of the original foho is well known to be almost worthless. As one main value of this series, when com- pleted, will consist in the different works being readily available for consultation, complete and carefully prepared Indices are re- garded as indispensable to confer on the editions a permanent value.
4. Two Sermons are added, the existence of which was known to a very few.
5. The Prefaces and Dedications prefixed to the different works, as originally printed, are reproduced.
6. A Memoir containing all the information obtainable regarding; Adams is supplied.
The Publisher desires to point to these particulars, as affording an earnest of what the other works will be when completed ; as an evidence of his desire to redeem his pledge, and a proof that, irrespective of the great difference in the price of the editions in this series, compared with the market value of the originals, they will be more complete and more valuable for all practical purposes.
Vm ADVERTISEMENT.
In appending Ward's Sermons to the last volume of Adams, he does not anticipate any objections on the part of his Subscribers. As a general rule, it is not desirable to mix up in the same volume, one author with another ; but, as the only alternative was to pro- duce Adams in three thin volumes, it appeared to him that this course was open to many more objections than adding, separately paged, another author, whose writings are in many respects remark- able, who lived at the same period, and whose mode of dealing with his subject is so much akin to that of Adams.
Where any irregularity in the delivery of the volumes, as pub- lished, takes place, or any change of residence occurs, the Publisher begs he may be made acquainted with the circumstance, that he may be enabled to arrange for the punctual supply of the volumes as they are issued.
Edinburgh, March 1862.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
Literature has on its roll many eminent authors, from Homer downwards, whose personal history is not known. The shadow of a great name rests upon their title-pages ; the men themselves, try as we may, we cannot see.
To this class Thomas Adams belongs. That he was, in 1612, a ' preacher of the gospel at Willington,' in Bedfordshire ; that, in 1614, he was at Wingrave, in Buckinghamshire, probably as vicar ; that, in 1618, he held the preachership at St Gregory's, under St Paul's Cathedral, and was ' observant chaplain' to Sir Henrie Mon- tague, the Lord Chief- Justice of England ; that, in 1630, he published a folio volume of his collected works, dedicating them 'to his parishioners of St Bennet's, Paul's Wharf,' to ' Wm. Earle of Pem- broke,' and ' Henrie Earle of Manchester,' the first a nobleman of Puritan tendencies, and the second the Montague just named, and the representative of a family known to favour liberty ; that, in 1633, he published a Commentary on the Second Epistle of the apostle Peter, dedicating it to ' Sir Henrie Marten, Kt., Judge of the Admiralty, and Deane of the Arches Court of Canterbury,' and promising in his Dedication * some maturer thoughts,' never des- tined apparently to see the light ; that, in 1653, he was passing 'a necessitous and decrepit old age' in Loudon, having been seques- tered, if Newcourt is to be trusted,* from his living ; and that he died before the ' Restoration,' we know ; gathering our information chiefly from his own writings.-f- That he was in request for visita- tion sermons ; that he was a frequent preacher at St Paul's Cross, in services soon to be abolished, and occasional preacher at White- hall ; that he was friend and ' homager ' of John Donne, prebendary of St Paul's, and an admirer of Jewell, and Latimer, and Fox, and * Repertorium, vol. i. 302, f See page xxix., &c.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
Joseph Hall ; that he loved and preached the great truths of the gospel ; that he was a man of extensive learning ; that he was a laborious pastor ; that his writings were quoted in the common- place books of the day,* and were apt to 'creep out' before they were published ; that there is much in them to justify the opinion of Southey, who deemed Adams scarcely inferior to Thomas Fuller in wit, and to Jeremy Taylor in fancy, we also know ; but again are we indebted for our information chiefly to his own works.i* His too is as yet the shadow of a name. The man we cannot see, nor have we found a witness that has seen him.
The singular silence of all the authorities who might have been expected to speak of Adams, compels us to gather up the fragments of information we have on the districts in which he laboured, and on the great men with whose names his own is associated. They give side-glimpses, at least, of his character and life. , Willington, where Adams is first heard of, is a rural parish, in the neighbourhood of Bedford. It lies on the road between Bedford and St Neots. Here Adams laboured from 1612 to 1614, at least ; and to the new lord of the manor, recently created a baronet — Sir Will. Gostwicke — and to Lady Jane Gostwicke, one of Adams' sermons is dedicated. Sir William came to the baronetcy in 1612, and died in 161 5. J
Adams is next found at Wingrave, whence he dates two of his sermons. In Lipscomb's History of Buckinghamshire, he is spoken of as vicar of Wingrave, from Dec. 2. 1614, when he was instituted, till he became incumbent of St Beunet Fink§ (Lipscomb says), when he resigned Wingrave in favour of the Rev. R. Hitchcock, S.T.B. Hitchcock was inducted May 4. ] 636. The vicarage seems to have been in the gift of the Egerton family ; and to Sir Thos. Egerton, Lord EUesmere, some of Adams' sermons are dedicated. ' St Bennet Fink, is no doubt a mistake for St Bennet's, Paul's Wharf The
* Spencer's Things Neio and Old. London, 1658.
•j- See A sermon preached at the triennial visitation of the R. R. Father in God, the Ld. -Bishop of London, in Christ Church, Actes xv. 36, London, 1625 ; and the Holy Choice, preached at the Chappell by Guildhall, at the solemnities of the election of the Lord Maior of London, Actes i. 24. Lond. 1625.
The Gallant's Burden, a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, Mar. 29. (fifth Sunday in Lent), 1612, by Thomas Adams. Published by authoritie. London, 1614.
The Temple, a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, Aug. 5. 1624, by Thos. Adams.
X Lyson's Magna Britannia ; sub voce Willington. From the preface of the White Devil, we learn that, in March 1614, he was still at Willington ; early in 1615, he was at Wingrave.
§ History, vol. iii.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XI
foi-mer was only a curacy, and was filled at this time, and till 1642, as Newcomb tells us, by a Mr Warefield.*
In each of these fields of labour, Adams must have had much leisure. Nor is it surprising to find him a frequent visitor in London ; first at St Paul's Cross, and then regularly, from 1618 to 1623, at least, as preacher at St Gregory's, an office he probably shared with some of the canons of St Paul's.
The church of St Gregory, where he was preacher, was one of the oldest in London. It dates from the seventh century ; and after an eventful history (in Adams' own age) hereafter to be noticed, was destroyed by the great fire. The parish was then united with that of St Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street ; and so it still remains. The building adjoined the Lollards Tower of the old Cathedral of St Paul's. It stood at the south-west corner, near the top of St Paul's Chain ; as St Bennet's stood at the bottom of the Chain, near the Thames. Its site is now occupied by the Clock Tower of the modern Cathedral. t The parish contained in Adams' time a popu- lation of three thousand, many of whom were ' woollen drapers,' and most ' of good quality.' J
The living was originally a rectory in the gift of the crown ; but in the eighteenth year of Richard II., A.D. 1446, the minor canons having obtained letters patent making them a body politic, the king appropriated this church to them for their better support.§ It was a poor living, as Adams found it, and was generally held with some other preferment. ||
In 1631-2, the church was repaired and beautified at 'the sole cost and proper charges' of the parishioners. The historians say that a sum of =£'2000 was spent on this work.^ Of the man whose labours in the parish make these facts interesting, they say nothing !
This beautifying of the church soon raised serious questions.
* Repertorium, i. 299.
f The building may be seen in Dugdale's south-west view of St Paul's ; or in Allen's History and Antiquities of London, Westminster, and Southwark, vol. i. p. 365. Lend. 1828. See also Malcolm's Londinium redivivum, vol. iv. p. 483.
J J ournals of House of Commons, 1641.
§ Dugdale says the rectory was given to the minor canons by Henry VI. (cap. 24). This is probably the accurate account. That given in the text is supported by most of the authorities. — See Dugdale's History of St Paul's, p. 18. London, 1818.
U Perhaps Adams hints at this fiact, when, in dedicating one of his books to Dr Donne, he speaks of the work as ' the poor fruit of that tree Avhich grows on your ground, and hath not from the world any other sustenance.' The Ban-en Fig Tree, preached at St Paul's Cross, Oct. 26. 1623.
f Stew's Survey, Lon. 1633 ; Maitland's History ; Seymour's Survey, 1734.
jdi MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
The dean and chapter deemed it more fitting that the commimion table should be removed to the upper end of the chancel, and ordered accordingly. The parishioners protested ; and the case was carried, on the special recommendation of Archbishop Laud, to the king in council. Laud had just succeeded* the Puritan Archbishop Abbot, and thought that the principle of this case was likely to decide many other cases ; ultimately the order of the dean and chapter was confirmed.
Pending this controversy, Sir Henry Martin, Adams' friend, and Dean of the Arches Court, spoke somewhat irreverently, as Laud thought ; treating the whole question as one of ' cupboards' only. The speech cost Sir Henry his place ; and years after, when Laud was tried for his life, the history of the communion table at St Gregory's formed one of the charges against him.-f* He pleaded that the order of the dean and chapter, not he, had placed the table there ; and that though in the council he had spoken in favour of the order, he had therein only used his undoubted liberty ; and, moreover, was but carrying out the injunction of Queen EUzabeth, who had directed that all communion tables should be placed where the altars formerly stood. | When charged with calling Sir Henry a 'stigmatical or schismatical Puritan,' he suggested that 'schismatical Puritan' was the likelier term.§ The description he seems to have deemed sufiiciently just not to need defence.
But the troubles of the church were not yet to end. Early in 1637, the Star Chamber directed, at Laud's instigation, that the church, so recently beautified, should be pulled down and rebuilt, at the expense of the parishioners, elsewhere. This change was intended for the improvement of the cathedral. The parish pro- tested that they could not meet the expense. || A further order was issued ; and the congregation were instructed to find seats, * moveable seats,' not pews, at Christ Church. This second order re- maining unexecuted, the Archbishop, or the Lord Treasurer himself, seems to have given directions in the matter, and a large portion of the church was removed.^
This also was remembered ; for, in 1641, there is the following entry in the Journal of the House of Commons : — ' Same day re- ported to the committee, that the church of St Gregory's was an ancient church. ' . . ' Four years since,' — rather seven, as it seems,
* Kushworth Collections, vol. ii. Year 1633.
t Prynne'8 Cant. Doom, p 88. % Wilkin's Cone, torn iv. p. 188.
§ Laud's History of his Troubles and Trials. Works iv. p. 225. Library of Anglo Cath. Theology. 11 Rushworth, vol. ii., a.d. 1637.
f See a full account in Nelson's Collection, vol ii. p. 729. Lond, 1683.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XIU
— '.£'1500 was spent in beautifying the church. Shortly after the Lord Treasurer and Lord Collington caused a great part of it to be pulled down, by command from the king and the council, as they pretend :' — no pretence, however ; for the order may be still seen in Rushworth. ' They (' the parishioners,' ' five of them,' Laud says) petitioned the Lords of the Council, but could have no redress. Voted by the Committee to be a great grievance, and to be added to the others which they meant to be addressed to the Lords. They were ordered by the House to send for Inigo Jones,* . . . and to find means of redress for the parishioners.'
Nor have the disasters of the parish yet ceased. In 1658, Dr John Hewit is preacher. He conspires prematurely for the Restoration of Charles II., and pays the penalty with his life. In 1666, the church was burnt and buried under the ruins of St Paul's.
During the later years of this period, 1630-1640, it is probable that Adams had little connection with St Gregory's. His friend Dr 3f Donne died in 1630. In 1633, the Puritan Archbishop Abbott followed him to his rest, and was succeeded by Laud, who had been Bishop of London from 1628. To the new archbishop, the doc- trines and strong anti-popish feelings of Adams must have been highly distasteful. Lectureships the Archbishop disliked. They only gratified, he thought, ' itching ears,' and tempted men to dis- cuss affairs of State. On these questions the dean and chapter seem to have sided on the whole with the archbishop. Nor was the building at St Gregory's in a favourable condition for preaching. Mr Inigo Jones had sawn through the pillars of the gallery, and had removed a large part of the roof. All through there is reason to believe that Adams' sympathies were with the parish.
At all events, he is from 1630 to 1636 rector of St Bennet's, and here he remains, it seems, till his death. When, or under what circumstances, this took place we are not told.
It is stated, indeed, by Newcourt, and repeated by Walker, that Adams of St Bennet's was sequestered in the days of the Common- wealth. But this statement is not in itself probable, nor does it rest on any satisfactory evidence. Let the following, as matters of fact, be noted. Adams' name appears in no official return of silenced ministers, while both Newcourt and Walker have unduly enlarged their lists.-f Out of the eight thousand whom Walker mentions as
* Malcolm's Londinium redivivum, iv. p. 493. Inigo Jones was the king's sur- veyor (Aitken's Court of James II., p. 403), and seems to be held personally responsible for all that was done. See Rushworth, under date of 19th July 1641.
f See White's Century of Scandalous Ministers.
XIV MEMOIK OF THOMAS ADAMS.
sequestered, Calamy states, that not more than seventeen hundred are undoubted. Further, it is well known, that many eminent and useful preachers in the city were left untouched by the Govern- ment, though they were unfriendly to the new constitution in Church and State. Dr Hall, Dr Wilde, Dv Harding, and many more, continued to preach in their churches without hindrance. To the Presbyterian Triers, Adams' doctrines must have commended him ; while those whom Cromwell appointed in 1653, ' the acknow- ledged flower of English Puritanism,' were instructed to act upon the principle of rejecting no good and competent minister, ' whether Presbyterian, Independent, Prelatist, or Baptist,' unless his avowed opinions were dangerous to the ruling powers. It deserves also to be noted, that among Adams' patrons were Manchester and Pembroke. To both he has dedicated sermons, and of both he speaks in terms of affectionate intimacy. Both were leading members of the Government, and both were more or less concerned in the very sequestrations of which Adams is said to have been the victim. Once more, the parish of St Bennet's, which was exceedingly small, was united, after the great fire, with that of St Peter's ; and as early as 1636, there is a return of the united income of the two parishes, a return that seems to imply that they were even then under one minister. At all events, the fact is recorded, that in that parish church ' many noblemen and gentlemen worshipped ' during the Commonwealth, ' the rector and churchwarden continuing to have the liturgy constantly used, and the sacraments properly adminis- tered.'* That Adams should have been sequestered, the popular preacher, the earnest devoted pastor, the sound Calvinist, the strenuous opponent of the Papacy, the personal friend of the family of Pembroke, who lived in the parish, and had his children baptized at the parish church is highly improbable. It is true, he did not be- lieve in Presbytery and Synod ; but neither did many others who were never molested. It is likely he vv^ished for the Restoration, but not more earnestly than Manchester and Pembroke, his patrons, nor sooner than moderate men of all parties. In short, if Adams were sequestered, it must have been for some fault of which his works give no trace, through strange forgetfulness on the part of his friends, or through gross injustice on the part of the Government. And yet, in 1653, he was passing, as he tells us, a 'necessitous and decrepit old age.' Nor is this surprising. His preachership at Sr Gregory's was in the gift of the minor canons, and was very scantily paid. In 1639, all cathedral property was declared forfeit, and was ordered to be appropriated to the increase of small livings,
* Malcolm ii. 472.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XV
or to other purposes. In 1G42 at latest, this order was carried out in the case of St Paul's. The rectories of St Bennet's and St Peter's were in the gift of the dean and chapter, and were largely depend- ent on cathedral funds. The two yielded at most dC128 a-year; and at the Restoration, it was reckoned that a hundred of this sum had disappeared. From 1G36, therefore, till the time of his death, Adams must have been supported, in part at least, by the bounty of his friends.
The distinction is perhaps practically of small moment. Whe- ther Adams were himself sequestered, or the income of his living transferred, on general grounds, to other purposes, or withheld by those who availed themselves of the troubles of the times ' to cheat the parson,' he was in any case equally deprived of his support. But it is some comfort to believe that he suffered through no per- sonal hostility, and on no personal grounds, but through the work- ing of a system which affected multitudes besides, and which is to be defended, not by proving the immorality or the deficiencies of the sufferers, but on general policy. The distinction is as just to Adams's opponents as to Adams himself.
A word or two on the friends to whom Adams has dedicated his sermons. The tendencies of Sir Henry Martin, Laud has indicated, and Clarendon notes incidentally, that he was counsel against the canons adopted by convocation, and not likely ' to oversee any ad- vantages' that could be urged on the side of his clients.* The very year in which *" r H. Martin was 'speaking irreverently' of the communion table, Adams was dedicating to him, with many expressions of esteem, his Commentary on St Peter. Sir Henry Montague, who was Adams' ' first patron,' had been Recorder of Lon- don, and was Lord Chief- Justice of England in 1618. His character has been sketched by Lord Chancellor Clarendon,t and at greater length, though less favourably, by Lord Campbell.]: He was held in esteem by all parties, as a man of high principle, and of fair ability. He presided at the final trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, and is said to have conducted that painful business with more pro- priety and good feeling than were usual in those times. He died before ' the conflict of great principles,' the Rebellion ; but his ten- dencies may be learned from the character of his son.
Edward Montague, as Lord Kimbolton, was the only member of the House of Peers whom Charles I. included in his indictment of the 'five members' of the House of Commons. In the civil wars he took an active part, as Earl of Manchester, on the side of the
* History, i. 317. t Eislory, i. % Lives o/the Clwf- Justices, i. 361.
m MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
Parliament, and was commander at Marston Moor ; but after the battle of Newbury he was suspected of favouring the king's inte- rest. He was a decided friend of the Restoration, and immediately after it was appointed chamberlain. During the Commonwealth he was at the head of the Commission of Sequestrators for the University of Cambridge, and appointed one of his chaplains, Ashe, a friend of Fuller's, one of the sequestrators.* He was through- out the protector of the Nonconformists, and is said to have been a special friend of Richard Baxter's.-f*
William, Earl of Pembroke, Clarendon tells us, ' was most uni- versally beloved and esteemed of any man of his age ; and having a great office in the court, he made the court itself better esteemed, and more reverenced in the country.';]: He was 'the Pembroke' of Ben. Jonson's well known epitaph, and was nephew of Sir Philip Sydney ; being himself also a poet. In 1616, he was elected Chan- cellor of the University of Oxford. He greatly offended the king by voting for the execution of the Earl of Strafford, and was after- wards intimately connected with the Duke of Northumberland, and other members of the liberal party. He died suddenly in 1630. His brother Philip, who succeeded to the title, was one of the lay members of the Westminster Assembly,§ and afterwards a friend of the Restoration. Both brothers resided in Baynard's Castle, and both were attendants at St Bennet's. There are entries in the parish records, between 1650 and 1655, of the * christening' of five of Philip's children. The Earl of Kent and the Viscount Rochfort, to whom others of Adams' volumes are dedicated, be- longed to the same party, and their names appear again and again, with those of Pembroke and Essex, in the records of the civil war. If men are known by their friends, it is not difficult to gather from these facts the leanings and temper of our author. No supporter could he be of the tyranny or of the Popish tendencies of the court ; but neither was he prepared for the Presbyterianism or the Inde- pendency, for the autocratic Protectorate, or the Republicanism that seemed to threaten on either hand. Like Baxter, he was sure of the gospel ; while as for parties, he found that in the end, as they grew and developed, he could side wholly with none.
Judging from the general tenor of Adams's writings, it is not easy at first to explain his retaining the living at Wingrave while he was lecturer at St Gregory's, and afterwards while he was rector at St Bennet's. Still less can we account for the apparent fact that
* Neal, iii. 96. t Baxter's Life, ii. p. 289. % History, 88.
§ Fuller's History, book xi., sec. 5. See also Collins's Memorials, ii. 359.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XVU
he was at once vicar of Wingrave, rector of St Bennct's in 1630, and, if we may trust the title-page of his Commentary on St Peter, rector of St Gregory's in 1633. Perhaps the true explanation is to be found, in part, in the fact that St Bennet's Church was really in St Gregory's Parish, and that when St Gregory's Church was given to the minor canons of St Paul's, St Gregory's Parish was often served by one pastor, who was called indiscriminately by the name of either of the churches. This supposition will appear the more probable when it is remembered that the sermon on the 'Happiness of the Church' is dedicated, in the original edition, to his parishioners of St Gregory's, and his collected works, to his parishioners of St Bennet's, in both cases in nearly the same xuords. This second dedication could have been no compliment, except in the supposition that the parishioners were the same. Still he was vicar of Wingrave and rector of St Gregory's, i.e., of St Bennct's. Is this consistent with his recorded sentiments ? * We have, every one,' says he, ' our own cures ; let us attend them. Let us not take and keep livings of a hundred or two hundred a year, and allow a poor curate (to supply the voluntary negligence of our non- residence) eight or (perhaps somewhat bountifully) ten pounds yearly, scarce enough to maintain his body, not a doit for his study. He spoke sharply (not untruly) that called this usury, and terrible usury. Others take but ten in the hundred ; these take a hundred for ten. What say you to those that undertake two, three, or four great cures, and physic them all by attorneys ? These physi- cians love not their patients, nor Christ himself* So he writes ; and yet he seems in the same context to meet what was probably his own case, — ' Not but that preaching to our own charge, may yield to a more weighty dispensation. When the vaunts of some heretical Goliah shall draw us forth to encounter him with weapons, against whom we cannot draw the sword of our tongues, when the greater business of God's church shall warrant our non-residence to an inferior, then, and upon these gi'ounds, we may be tolerated by another Physician to serve our cures (for so I find our charges, not without allusions to this metaphor, called) ; a physician, I say, that is a skilful divine, not an illiterate apothecary, an insufficient reader.'
The lawfulness of such an arrangement was certainly not lessened by its always ending in plethoric wealth. Adams' writings shew very clearly that the holder of two pieces of preferment might still be poor. ' The minister of the parish,' says he, ' shall hardly get from his patron the milk of the vicarage ; but if he looks for the fleece of * Physic from Heaven.
VOL III b
XVIU MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
the parsonage, lie shall have (after the proverb) Lanam Caprinam; a goat's fleece, — contempt and scorn.' * * Christ sends tis,' he says again, ' as lambs among wolves. If they cannot devour our flesh, they will pluck our fleeces ; leave us nothing but the tag-locks, poor vicarage-tithes : while themselves and their children are kept warm in our wool, the parsonage. Nay, and they would clip ofl" the tag-locks too, raven up the vicarages, if the law would but allow them a pair of shears. Every gentleman thinks the priest mean ; but the priest's means have made many a gentleman.' t And again, ' To cozen the ministers of their tithes in private, or to devour them in public, and to justify it when they have done ' — this is general — ' to laugh at the poor vicar that is glad to feed on crusts, and to spin out twenty marks a year into a thread as long as his life ; while the wolf inns a crop worth three hundred pounds per annum,' — this is very definite, what if it be personal ! — ' this is a prey somewhat answerable to the voracity of their throats. Let every man, of what profession soever, necessary or superfluous, be he a member or a scab of the commonwealth, live ; and the priest be poor, they care not.'
In those days there were upwards of 4000 non-resident livings out of 12,000, and upwards of 8000 held practically by lay impro- priators, ij; The first fact justifies Adams' denunciation of non- residence ; the second justifies the holdmg of two or more livings by one man. At Wingrave, it may be added, the chief revenues belonged to the lay rector — not Egerton ; so that, with both vicar- age and preachership, it is probable Adams had but a scanty support.
This much, though but little, on Adams' personal history.
It is hardly needful to add that the writer of these volumes is not Thomas Adam, the rector of Wintringham, in Lincolnshire, the author of ' Private Thoughts,' and of various expositions and sermons published posthumously. He died in 1784?.
Nor is he the Thomas Adams of Calamy's Nonconformist Me- morial. This Adams was the younger brother of Richard Adams, one of the editors of Chamock's works on ' Providence and on the Attributes,' and son of the rector of Worrall, in Cheshire. He was admitted Bachelor of Arts at Cambridge in 1644. Afterwards he Avent to Oxford and became a Fellow of Brazennose. In 1655, he left his fellowship, and was appointed to the rectory of St Mildred's, Bread Street, London.§ In 1662, he was removed for nonconformity
* The Sinner's Passing Bell. f The Wolf Worrying the Lambs.
X Ichahod, or Five Groans of the Cliurch. Camb., 1663. Quoted by Stanford.
g Wood's Athena: Oxon. Calamy's Nonconformist's Mem.
MEMOIB OF THOMAS ADAMS. XIX
and afterwards resided in the families of Sir S. Jones and the Countess Dowager of Clare. He died in 1C70.
Tlie Thomas Adams just named belonged to a family of clergy- men ; their names and history are given in Wood, but our author is not amongst them.
Lipscomb has dignified the writer of these volumes with the de- gree of M.A., and elsewhere he is styled B.D. and D.D., but there is no evidence that he really attained these dignities. His learning and ability are undoubted ; and he speaks as one who had been at a university, and who greatly valued a university education. But his name occurs in no college list, nor is he known to any of the historians of either Oxford or Cambridge.
These last results are of small positive value, but they are worth stating. They narrow the field of future inquiry, they correct some popular impressions, and they tell us in some degree who and what Adams was not.
The precise position of Adams in relation to the civil history, the ecclesiastical discussions, and the literature of his age, it is im- portant to settle. That position illustrates both his character and his writings.
In France, Henry the Fourth having recently displeased Eliza- beth, and belied his whole life by professing the Catholic faith though still a friend to Protestants, had gone, towards the close of the earlier half of James's reign, to his account, cut off prematurely by the dagger of an assassin. Holland had declared her independ- ence, and was now deciding against Arminius. In England, the Hampton Court Conference had disappointed the Puritan party, and had strengthened the High Church tendencies of King James ; the nobility and king had been providentially saved from the gun- powder-treason ; the new translation of the Bible had just been completed, and was now winning its way into general acceptance. Raleigh, the prince of merchant adventurers, was prosecuting his romantic career, and was soon to expiate his misfortunes by an un- just death on the scaffold. The Court of High Commission was strengthening its power, and preparing for the disastrous usurpa- tions of Strafford and Laud. A considerable portion of the clergy and laity of England were beginning to be weaned from the Estab- lished Church. Scotland had recently resisted the attempt to impose upon her Episcopal forms. Scandals, both ecclesiastical and civil, were extending on all sides ; good men were alienated from their old friends by ecclesiastical tyranny, and by childish petulance. A civil war seemed even now at hand. What Adams
,5EX MEMOIK OF THOMAS ADAMS.
thouglit of several of these events, we know. Of others, he has spoken never a word.
Ecclesiastically, matters stood thus. James had come to the throne at the beginning of the seventeenth century, with a strong preference for Calvinism, and with strong aversion to Popery. These feelings were gradually toned down, till, after the Synod of Dort, he became a friend of the Arminian party ; and the Papacy itself he began to treat with indulgence. In 1622, he published directions to his clergy, to the effect that ' no preacher under a bishop or a dean should presume to preach on the deep points of predestination or election,' ' that no preacher should use railing speeches against Papists or Puritans,' and ' that no parson, vicar, curate, or lecturer, should preach any sermon in the afternoon, but expound the Catechism, Creed, or Ten Commandments.' In this last direction, Adams and all probably agreed ; the two former must have been very distasteful to him and to many. They were specially aimed at that party in the Church who had hitherto dwelt, in their preaching, on the doctrines of grace, as they were called. This party included many eminent men ; and they were sustained by several, who themselves dwelt seldom on these doctrines, but still questioned the propriety of the king's directions. Archbishop Abbot and Dr Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury, were among their leaders. The very year in which Adams published his collected works. Bishop Davenant lost favour at Court, by preaching on pre- destination, and for the same offence, several clergymen were severely punished. The whole party were called Doctrinal Puri- tans, and Adams was undoubtedly among them.
Sometimes these Doctrinal Puritans were defined in other ways. Bancroft and Laud were both admirers of a ceremonial religion. They held opinions on rites and forms hardly consistent with the simplicity and spirituality of Protestantism. Sometimes it was the question of kneeling at the Lord's supper, and bowing at the em- blems ; sometimes of signing with the cross in baptism ; oftenest it was the question of whether the communion table was to be re- garded as an altar. But whatever the exact question, it had always the same issue. ' These forms,' it was said on the one side, ' are spiritual symbols, and they are essential. They represent great truths.' * Leave them indifferent,' it was said on the other, ' and we may observe them ; make them obligatory, because important, and they become at once substantially Popery, and we cannot adopt them.' ' Doctrinal Papists,' the advocates of them were called, and under that name they are the opposite of ' Doctrinal Puritans,' Dr Williams, the Bishop of Lincoln, had recently created
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXI
a great ferment, by publishing in favour of the Puritan views. Several clergymen were compelled by Laud to resign their livings, and some few were (to use King James's phrase) , * harried out of the land.' Thirty years later, they would have joined the Non- conformists of 1G62. They shared by anticipation in their noncon- formity, and they agreed in their doctrinal views.
Perhaps Adams' sympathies were less decidedly with Williams than with Davenant. Judging from his works, he would probably never have left the Church on a question of forms ; though ready to leave it if necessary, on a question of doctrine. Doctrinal Puri- tanism he loved ; the connection between certain rites and Doc- trinal Popery he did not clearly see. And if he feared it, he so prized unity, and dreaded division, that he preferred quietly to preach the truth and use his liberty, leaving to others the discus- sion and the settlement of such questions. There are passages in his writings, which imply that he deemed the Puritans (as they were called), right in every thing, except in their ' schismatic spirit.' ' They,' he tells us, ' are the unicorns that wound the Church. Their horn, the secret of their strength, is precious enough, if only it were out of the unicorn's head !'
Some were schismatical beyond question. But does not a large portion of the guilt of schism lie at the door of those who were bent on making obligatory and essential what are at any rate non-essentials, whether of practice or of faith? Such is Coleridge's decision — a de- cision he defends with loving sympathy for the men, and by un- doubted facts.
Adams's relation to the general literature of his age must also be settled.
In his youth he was the contemporary of the race that adorned the reign of Elizabeth, — Spenser, and Shakespeare, and Jonson, Bacon and Raleigh. Among the men of his own age were Bishops Hall, and Andrewes, Sibbes, the author of the 'Bruised Reed' and ' The Soul's Conflict,' Fuller the historian, and now in the church and now out of it, Hildersham, and Byfield, and Cartwright. Earle was busy "writing and publishing hisMicrocosmography,andOverbury had already issued his ' Characters.' A little before him flourished Arminius and Whitgiffc, Hooker and Reynolds ; and a little after him, Hammond and Baxter, Taylor and Barrow, Leighton and Howe. There is evidence that Adams had read the works of several of his contemporaries and predecessors ; and he has been compared with nearly all the writers we have named. His scholarship re- minds the reader of that 'great gulf of learning,' Bishop Andrewes. In sketching a character, he is not inferior to Overbury or Earle
vni MEMOIB OF THOMAS ADAMS.
In fearless denunciations of sin, in pungency and pathos, he is sometimes equal to Latimer or to Baxter. For fancy, we may, after Southey, compare him with Taylor ; for wit, with Fuller ; while in one sermon, at least — that on ' The Temple' — there is an occasional grandeur, that brings to memory the kindred treatise of Howe. Joseph Hall is probably the writer he most resembles. In richness of scriptural illustration, in fervour of feeling, in soundness of doctrine, he is certainly equal ; in learning, and power, and thought, he is superior.
In this last paragraph a high place is assigned to Adams for the literary qualities of his writings. Apart from the excellence of his thoughts, the language and the imagery in which he clothes them are very attractive. Herein he differs from many of the Puritan Divines, and on the scholar and student he has peculiar claims. Indeed, for ' curious felicity ' of expression he is almost alone among the evangelical authors of his agej*
A few specimens may be selected. Like all extracts, however, they do scanty justice to the beauty of the passages whence they are taken. They are gems, but their brilliance depends in part on the setting.
Turn, for a good specimen of his general style, to his description of the Suitors of the Soul, England's Sickness, vol. i. 401.
He gathers illustrations from all sources. From grammar learning : —
' There is a season to benefit, and a season to hurt, by our speech ; therefore it is preposterous in men to be consonants when they should be mutes, and mutes when they should be consonants. But a good life is never out of season.' — Heaven and Earth Reconciled.
'With God, adverbs shall have better thanks than nouns,' — i.e., Not what we do, but how we do it, is the grand question.
From the facts of common life, turned to ingenious uses : —
' We use the ocean of God's bounty as we do the Thames. It yields'us all manner of provision : clothes to cover us, fuel to warm us, food to nourish us, wine to cheer us, gold to enrich us ; and we, in recompense, soU it with our rubbish and filth. Such toward God is the impious ingrati- tude of this famous city. She may not unfitly be compared to certain pictures that represent to divers beholders, at divers stations, divers forms. Looking one way, you see a beautiful virgin ; another way, some deformed monster. View her peace : she is fairer than the daughters of men. View her pride : the children of the Amorites are beauteous to her. When we think of her prosperity, we wonder at her impiety ; when we think of her impiety, we wonder at her prosperity. 0 that her citizens would learn to
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ABAMS. XXlll
manage their liberal fortunes with humility and sobriety ! that when death shall disfranchise them here, they may be made free above, in the triumph- ant city, where glory hath neither measure nor end.' — The City of Peace.
From ripe scholarship, that knows how to glean in all fields, and how to defend the consecration of all to the service of the sanc- tuary : —
' Learning, as well as office, is requisite for a minister. An unlearned scribe, without his treasure of old and new, is unfit to interpret God's oracles. The priest's lips shall presei'vc knowledge, is no less a precept to the minister, than a promise to the people : we are unfit to be seers, if we cannot distinguish between Hagar and Sarah. A minister without learning is a mere c}-pher which fills up a place, and increascth the number, but signifies nothing. There have been some niggardly afi'ected to learning, calling it man's wisdom. If the moral says of a poet, or a philosopher, or, perhaps, some golden sentence of a father drop from us, it is straight called poisoned eloquence, as if all these were not the spoils of the gentiles, and mere handmaids unto divinity. They wrong us : we make not the pulpit a philosophy, logic, poetry-school ; but all these are so many stairs to the pulpit. Will you have it ? the fox dispraiseth the grapes he cannot reach. If they could beat do^vn learning, they might escape censm-e, for their own ignorance. For shame ! Let none that have borne a book dispraise learning. She hath enemies enough abroad. She should be justified of her own children. Let Barbaiy disgi-ace arts, not Athens.
With all this richness of fancy, there is a plainness and a direct- ness of speech, that often reminds the reader of honest Latimer : —
* Give, then, your physician leave to fit and apply his medicines, and do not you teach him to teach you. Leave your old adjurations to your too obsequious chaplains, if there be any such yet remaining. Speak unto us smooth things, p-ophecrj deceits. Threaten your priests no longer with such expulsions from these poor vineyards which you have erst robbed, because they bring you sour gi-apes, sharp wine of reproofs. Bar not the freedom of these tongues, by tying them to conditions : this you shall say, and this not say, on pain of my displeasure. You may preach against sins, but not meddle with the pope ; or you may inveigh against Rome and idolatry, so you touch not my Herodias ; or you may tax lust, so you let me alone with Naboth's vineyard. As if the gospel might be preached with your limitations ; and, forsaking the Holy Ghost, we must come to fetch direc- tions from your hps.'
Or, again : —
' If we equal Israel in God's blessings, we transcend them in our sins. The blood-red sea of war and slaughter, wherein other nations are drowned, is become dry to our feet of peace. The bread of heaven, that tnie manna satisfies our hunger, and our thirst is quenched with the waters of life. The better law of the gospel is given to us, and our saving health is not like
XXIV MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
a curious piece of array folded up, but is spread before our believing eyes ■v\-itbout any shadow cast over the beauty of it. We bave a better High Priest to make intercession for us in heaven, for whom he bath once sacri- ficed and satisfied upon earth, actu semel, virtute semioer, with one act, but with virtue everlasting. We want nothing that heaven can help us to, but that which we voluntarily will want, and without which we had better have wanted all the rest, thankfulness and obedience. We give God the worst of all tilings, that hath given us the best. We call out the bad sheep for his tithe, the sleepiest hours for his prayers, the chippings of our wealth for his poor, a corner of the heart for his ark, when Dagon sits uppermost in his temple. We give God measure for measure, but after an ill sort. For his blessings heapen, and shaken, and thrust together, iniquities pressed down and yet running over. He hath bowels of brass and a heart of iron, that cannot mourn at this our requital.'
Yet withal he is full of tenderness : —
* The sins of our times I would arraign, testif}^ against, condemn, have executed : the persons, I would have saved in the day of the Lord.' — The White Devil.
The sins he most earnestly rebukes are drunkenness,* litigious- ness, and the quirks of the law, ' engrossing,' swearing, and rapacity, while he never fails to note that unbehef and unthankfulness, — the sins of the heart, — are at once the source and the chief of them all.
Mark the force and the beauty of the following, culled at random from his pages : —
' He that preaches well in his pulpit but lives disorderly out of it, is like a young scribbler ; what he writes fair with his hand, his sleeve comes after and blots.'
' As Christ once, so his word often, is crucified between two thieves, the papist on the left hand and the schismatic on the right.'
' Every one can lesson us, that will not be lessoned by us. Not that we refuse knowledge from, any lips, since nothing can be spoken well but by God's Spirit, who sometimes reproves a Jonah by a mariner, Peter by a damsel, and Balaam by an ass.'
* The devil may be within, though he stand not at the door.'
* He swears away that little share of his own soul, which he had left.'
* Every good heart is in some measure scrupulous, and finds more safety in fear than in presumption. I had rather have a servant that will ask his direction twice, than one that runs of his own head without his errand.'
* Yet these men (Garnet, Faux, &c.) must be saints, and stand named
* See, for example, on drunkenness, The Divine Herbal, Works, ii. 443 ; ITie Black Saint, i. 48 : On litigiousness, 21ie City of Peace, ii. 322, &c. For a very impressive view of the evil of sin, see his remarks on the last state of a bad man worse than the first, in The Black Saint, ii. 65.
MEMOm OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXV
with red letters on the pope's calendar : red indeed ! So dyed with the martyi-ed blood of God's servants !'
' Only death restrains the wicked man from doing any fm-thor mischief. Perhaps, he may give away some pa}Tnents in his testament, but he parts with it, in his will against his will : and it is but a part, whereas Judas returned all, yet went to hell !'
' Let good fellows sit in a tavern from sun to sun, and they think the day very short, confessing (though insensible of their loss) that time is a light-heeled nmner. Bind them to the church for two hours, and you put an ache into their bones, the seats be too hard. Now time is a creeple, and many a wearj' look is cast up to the glass. It is a man's mind that renders any work troublesome or pleasant.'
'Fire and fagot is not God's law, but the pope's cannon shot.'
' They plead antiquity, as a homicide may derive his murder from Cain. They plead unity : so Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, combined against Christ. They plead vmiversaUty : yet of the ten lepers but one was thank- ful. Where many join in the truth, there is the church ; not for the many's sake, but for the truth's. The vulgar stream will bring no vessel to the land of peace.'
As a preacher and a divine, he has many excellencies, though they are not unmixed with grave faults, which belong, however, as much to his age as to himself.
In the subjects of his sermons, and generally in his choice of texts, he is remarkably felicitous. * The Way Home,' ' The City of Peace,' ' The Saints Meeting,' ' Majesty in Misery,' ' Semper Idem,' ' Heaven and Earth Reconciled,' ' The Mystical Bedlam,' ' The Sinner's Passing Bell,' ' The Fatal Banquet,' ' The Shot or Reckon- ing,' ' Presumption running into Despair :' each suggests a beauti- ful or striking thought, while the text is in every case itself a sermon. Have we rightly appreciated in the modern pulpit the importance of a good text ? Great thoughts ought to underlie our discourses. If the reader will study those of our Lord, as recorded in St John, or note his touching address at Nazareth, he will feel the force of this suggestion. It is one secret of Adams's power.
Nor is it to be overlooked that he deals largely in expositions of Scripture. He does not, indeed, busy himself to shew the connec- tion or to trace the undercurrent of thought that often runs through chapters and books of the Bible, but in verbal expositions he is rich and happy. Many texts will be found set in new lights, while they often reflect something of their own lustre and beauty on the thoughts amid which they stand. The beginning of his sermon on the * City of Peace,' and his sermons on ' England's Sickness,' are good illustrations.
XXVI MElIOrR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
Sometimes his comments are based on mistakes, and sometimes he pushes the interpretation of the letter of Scripture to an extreme ; but his expositions are often both accurate and striking ; and they well illustrate the principle, that it is the ministry of the wwd to which the preacher is called. That he did this under the convic- tion that ' men were not safe while they were ignorant of the Scrip- ture,' is clear from his own teaching.*
Herein we agree entirely in the estimate of a previous editor of some of his works. ' The author leads the reader at once to the Bible. He keeps him there. He analj^ses the words of the passage under consideration. He largely illustrates the historical circum- stances. He draws, by easy and natural inference, suitable lessons of a practical character. Analogies start up ; these are instantly dealt with. Fables, anecdotes, classical poetry, gems from the fathers and other old writers, are scattered over nearly every page. But the starting-point is evermore the language of holy Scripture. We confess that, apart from all other attractions, we have a grow- ing conviction of the incomparable superiority of this mode of teach- ing rehgion over every other. It has prevailed in every age of the Church in which Christianity has flourished.' f
His theology may be defined most briefly, though somewhat un- happily, as anti-popish, Calvinistic, and evangelical.
Hear, for example, how he speaks, in spite of the king's injunc- tions and Laud's tendencies : —
' Judas was a great statesman in the devil's commonwealtli, for he bore four main offices. Either he begged them shamefully, or he bought them bribinglv, or else Beelzebub saw desert in him, and gave him them gratis for his good parts. He was hypocrite, thief, traitor, and murderer. Yet the pope will vie offices with him, and win the game, too, for plurality. .... But let bim go. I hope he is known well enough; and every true man will bless bim self out of his way.' — TJie White Devil.
Again —
* The favour of God overshadows us, as the cherabim did the mercy-seat. I know that Rome frets at this ; and let the harlot rage her heart out. She thunders out curses; but (blessed be God) we were never more prosperous than when the pope most cursed us. Yea, 0 Lord, though they curse, do thou bless. Convert or confound them that have ill-will to Sion ; and still let us inherit thy peace, that thou mayest inherit our praise.' — Phi/sic from Heaven.
How keen is the following : —
' The Pope plucks us by the sleeve (as a tradesman that would fain have
* ' Physic from Heaven.'
■j- Introduction to Selections from Adams's Works, bv Dt Stowell, p. xxii.
MEMOIB OF THOMAS AD.VMS. IXVU
our money), and tells us that ho only hath the balm, and shews us his mass-book. If we suspect it there, he warrants the virtue from a general council. K it doth not yet smell well, he affirms (not without menacing damnation to our mistrust) that it is even in the closet of his own heart who cannot err. " Tut," says he, " as it grows in God's gai-den simply, it may poison you." As if it were dangerous to be meddled withal till he had played the apothecarj', and adulterated it with his own sophistications.' — Phi/sic from Heaven.
And yet his religion is not hatred of popery simply : —
• Do we justly blame them that worship the Beast of Rome, and yet find out a new idolatiy at home ? Shall we refuse to worship saints and angels, and yet give divine worship to ourselves ? This is a rivahj- that God will not stand.' — The Temple.
Nor is it at all hatred of popish forms : —
' One man,' says he, ' is crop-sick of ceremonies. He hath a toy in his head that the church's garment should not be embroidered, nor have more
lace or fringe than his own coat Rither than his children shall be
crossed in baptism, he will out of the ark into some fantastical wherry. Let him tarry, and hear what the law speaks in its law of peace : In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth an)jthinfl, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature; i. e., neither ceremony nor no ceremony, but the substantial: a new creature.' — The City of Peace.
His Calvinism may be judged from the following : —
' The first-horn, ichich are urittcn in heaven. — This is a description of the persons of whom the chmxh consists. The church itself is a number of men whom God hath set apart by an eternal decree, and in time sancti- fied to become real membere of it. They are written in heaven; there is their eternal election: and they are the,/j/s?-bom, i. e., new-bom; there is their sanctification. For the two parts of the description — their primo- geniture and registering in God's books — are but boiTowed speeches, whereby God would ratify the everlasting predestination and salvation of
his chiu-ch A man may have his name wi-itten in the chronicles,
yet lost; written in durable mai'ble, yet perish ; written on a monument equal to a colossus, yet be ignominious; written on the hospital gates, yet go to hell ; written on his own house, and yet another come to possess it. All these are but writings in the dust and upon the waters, where the characters perish as soon as they are made. They no more prove a man happy than the fool could prove Pontius Pilate a saint because his name was wTitteu in the creed. But they that are written in heaven are sure to in- herit it.' — The Happiness of the Church.
Again —
' The church may be sick, yet not die. Die it cannot ; for the blood of an Eternal King bought it, the power of an Eternal Spirit preserves it, and the mercy of an Eternal God shall crown it.' — En'jlamVs Sickness.
XXVIU MEMOIB OF THOMAS ADAMS.
And yet this view is so guarded by explanations and so blended with distinct announcements on the sufficiency of Christ's work and grace, that Adams is as fair a representative of Calvinistic doctrine as Calvin himself
' It was not one for one that Christ died, not one for many, but one for all, .... and this one must needs be of infinite price.' *
His commentary on the second of Peter abounds with felicitous expositions of difficult questions in relation to these doctrines.
For illustrations of the evangelical spirit of Adams, the reader must turn to his writings. When he treats of evangelical doctrine, he writes carefully and clearly. His remarks on the Fatherhood of God, on Christ's sacrifice for sin, on imputed righteousness, on faith and how it saves, on the inseparable union of pardon and holi- ness, though not suggested by any modern controversies, shew, by their sweep and far-reaching application, that they are great truths he is describing, and that he perceives the breadth and bearing of the truths he describes.!
It is not, however, in distinct statements of doctrine that his love of the gospel appears, so much as in the general tone of his writings. Herein he resembles Baxter rather than Owen. His gospel is all- pervading ; and his treatises are not lectures but sermons, — popular appeals to those whom he is seeking to reclaim and to save.
Generally he is rather clear and vigorous than emotional. Yet there are passages in which evangelical truth is steeped in feeling. His description of the state of the impenitent, and of the tears that ought to be wept over them, and elsewhere of ' the fulness that is in Jesus,' J it is impossible to read without deepest sympathy. They shew, like the account he has given in one of his dedications of the exhausting anxieties of a London pastorate, that the writer's heart was as warm as his head was clear. His gospel was an affec- tion as much as a creed. While he shunned not to 'declare the'whole counsel of God,' ' night and day he warned every man with tears,' ' that he might be pure from their blood.' And this is surely his highest praise. Herein he followed an apostle, and herein, with reverence be it s])oken, he followed his Lord.
♦ See on predestination tne cause of no man s ruin, ' Man's Seed-time and Harvest, ' vol. ii. 364-5: On original sin, and the wisdom of spending strength in correcting it, rather than in investigating its origin, ' Meditations upon the Creed,' Works, vol. iii.
f See ' England's Sickness,' i. p. 395-437 ; ' The Wolf Worrying the Lamb,' ii. p. 114 ; ' Faith's Encouragement,' ii. 203, &c. ; 'Bad Leaven,' ii. 342.
X See ' Meditations upon the Creed/ Works, iii., under the word Jesus.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XHX
It has already been intimated that most of the facts of Adams's life are gathered from his own writings, and especially from the prefaces and dedicatory epistles prefixed to his sermons, as they were first published. These prefaces we now proceed to give. With two exceptions, they are not inserted in the folio edition of his works, published by himself in 1G29. That edition is the basis of the text adopted in these volumes ; and as it contains the last touches of the author's own hand, it is entitled to that honour. But the prefaces are well worth preserving. They throw light upon the character of the writer. They are also rich in noble trutlis. All that can be obtained are here given, and the preface to the Com- mentary on 2d Peter is added, to complete the series.
His works may be best arranged in the order in which he wrote them, or where this is not known, in the order in whicli he published them. The ' Epistles Dedicatorie ' and the ' Addresses to the Reader' are taken from the 4to editions. The words in brackets give the alterations he made in the titles for the folio edition.
The Gallant's Burden : A Sermon, preached at Paul's Cross, the 29th of March, being the fifth Sundaj in Lent, 1612. By Thomas Adams.
PubUshed by authority.
London : Printed by W. W., for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1G14.
To the Honourable Sir William Gostwicke Baronet, and his worthy Lady, the Lady Jane Gostwicke. Honourable Sir, — I acknowledge freely, that the world is oppressed with the press, and the confluence of books hath bred a confusion of errors, of vices, so hard it is to distinguish betwixt profitable and vain writings ; and having called out the best, so easy it is with so much good meat to surfeit ; yet it is not, therefore, meat unnecessary. It is no sober inference, because both text and readers have been corrupted with false glosses, to reject all expositions, all applications ; both are fit, this latter most neces- sary, for our understanding is better than our conscience ; there is some light in our minds, httle warmth in our aflections. So against natm-e is it true in this, that the essential qualities of fire, Hght, and heat, are dinded ; and to say, whether ovu hght of knowledge be more, or our heat of devotion less, is beyond meed. Let this (considered) plead for me, that I (do but) rub this sorrowing knowledge m us, to bring it back to some life of obe- dience. If any feel theh thick eyes hence to receive any clearness, or their numbed aflections to gather (the least) spirit, let them at once give God the glory, and take to themselves the comfort. Sin hath got strength with age, and, agauast all natmal order, is more powerful, subtle, and fuller of active dexterity now in the dotage of it, than it was in the nonage. Both pulpit and press are weak enough to resist it. If, therefore, this small aiTOW of reproof can wound (but even) one of his limbs, it shall a httle euenate hia tyranny. Whatsoever this sermon is, it is wholly yours, and he that made it, whose patronage I could not be ambitious of, if I should only fix my
XXX MEMOIK OF THOMAS ADAMS.
eyes on my own deservings ; but in the affiance of your good natures, mature judgments, and kind constructions of my weak endeavours, I have presumed to make you the patron of my labours, who was freely the patron of myself. I know that God's word can countenance itself, and needs not the shelter of an human arm, not though it had as many Edomites to deride it, as it hath patrons to defend it ; but I find not only the best writ- ings of the best men, but even some of those holy books, inspired from heaven, bearing in their foreheads (as from the penmen) a dedication. I confess, it is not all for your protection, somewhat for your use ; and you are blessed in favouring that which shall be best able to favom' you. May I, therefore, entreat yom- honours to give it happy entertainment to your own hearts, favourable protection to the world's eyes ? so shall that and myself be (yet more) yours. The God of all power and mercy be as faith- ful a shadow of refreshing to your souls, as your kindness hath been free to my wants, who must ever remain.
Your honoui-s's, in all faithful observance,
Tho. Adams.
Sir William Gostwicke, to whom this volume is dedicated, was Lord of the Manor at Willington, the parish in which Adams was then labouring.
Heaven and Earth Reconciled [united] : A Sermon preached at St Paul's Church, in Bedford, October 3. 1612, at the visitation of the Right Wor. M. Elaner, Archdeacon of Bedford. By Thomas Adams, Minister of the Gospel at Willington.
2 Cor. V. 19.
London : Printed by W. W., for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1613.
To the Right Honourable Lord Heney, Earl of Kent, Lord of Hastings, Weisford, and Ruthyn.
Right Honourable, — I know not under whose wings I might better shelter an apology for the ministry, than under your honour's, who have ever lived a ready patron to defend us from the oppositions and wrongs of our adversaries ; making them no friends to yourself that are enemies to the gospel ; wherein you have procm-ed some (blessed) trouble to yourself, by frequent complaints ; deserved great love of your country, and secured your soul of an eternal recompence. Let it be your praise, happiness, comfort, that you have not only not lived in opposition to the truth, as our refractoiy papists ; nor in the lukewarm neutrality of this age, that conceives a mixed religion, compounded of Zion's and Babylon's ; nor thought it enough to coimtenance preachers, as some that would make God beholden to them for their looks ; but you have stood to, seconded, succoured, and (which is yet a higher testimony) relieved many a distressed servant of the Lord, not with Micha's wages, or pittances of charity, but with ample rewards, worthy your honour's bounty to give, and their necessity to receive. Let all these true and happy reasons plead for and (somewhat) justify my ambition, that have dared to look so high for patronage as your honour. Worthier pens have contented themselves with meaner protections. It is not the excellency of the work, but the noble-
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXXI
ness of 3-onr disposition, that cncouragcth me, who am thence prompted not to foar your acceptation. You that have been so general a shadow of re- freshing to ministers, take from me all cause to distrust your favour; specially in the countenancing of that written, which you have ever actually and really furthered. Proceed (most honoured lord) to aflcct the truth (yet) more zealously, by your help to support it, by your favour to protect it ; so shall you make blessed use of that honour God hath here invested you withal, and interest yourself to the honour of heaven ; and whiles nobility without religion dies in infamy, and is buried in the grave of oblivion, your noble zeal, or zealous nobleness, shall live here to your Maker's glorj' and the church's comfort, and hereafter leave behind it a never-decaying monument of honour, which, if the ingratitude of men should forget, shall never pass the hand of God vmrewarded with glory. This book salutes your honour with the new year ; may they both give you happy content ! The God of mercies multiply his favours and gi-aces on you, and make your cup to run over with his blessings ! Your honour's humbly devoted,
Tho. Adams.
The Earl of Kent was a member of the liberal party, and a man of very moderate ability, Clarendon says. Judging from Adams's epistle, he must have been a lover of the gospel, and of all good men.
The Devil's Banquet, Described in Six Sermons : — 1. The Banquet Propounded, Begun ; 2. The Second Service ; 3. The Breaking up of the Feast ; 4. The Shot or Reckoning ; 5. The Sinner's Passing Bell ; 6. Physic from Heaven. Published by Thomas Adajis, Preacher of God's Word at Willington, in Bedfordshii'e. [The Fatal Banquet.]
Amos vi. 7.
Ambros de Poenit. — Pascitur libido conviviis, nutritur deliciis, vino accen- ditur, ebrietate flammatur. Lust is fed with feasts, fatted with pleasures, fired with wine, made flaming with drunkenness.
London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for Ralph Mab, and are to be sold in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Greyhound. 1614.
To the very Worthy and Virtuous Gentleman, Sir George Fitz-Jeoffert, Knight, one of his Majesty's Jiistices of the Peace and Quorum in the County of Bedford; saving health.
Right Worshipful, — This sermon, though it be bom last, was not so conceived. But as it came to pass in Tamar's travail of her twins, though Zarah put forth his hand first, and had a scarlet thread tied to it, the dis- tinguishing mark of primogeniture, yet his brother Pharez was born before him, I intended this subject to a worthy audience, fastening my meditations on it ; but soon finding that I had grasped more sands than I could force through the glass in two hours, and loath to injure my proposed method, I let it sleep till fitter opportunity might awaken it. Now, behold, without the common plea of this writing age, the importmiato request of friends, I willingly adventure it to the light ; and since your favour to my weak (or rather no) deserts hath been ever full of real encouragcn^ents ; since your aiiection to hteratui-e (and the best of learning, the gospel) hath ever vouch-
XXXll MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
safed a friendly countenance to your neighbour-ministers, I could not make myself so liable to the censure of ingratitude as not to entreat your name for patronage, which, though it deserves better acknowledgment, and finds it from more worthy voices, yet I, that yield to all in learning, would yield to none in love and service to you. The cause in question requires a worthy defender, not for its own weakness, but for the multitude and strength of oppositions. Men brook worse to have their sins ransacked than their inveterate wounds and ulcers searched. Qui vinum venenum vocant, they that call drunkenness poisoning speak harsh to their ears that (qimsi deum colunt) embrace and worship it as a god. You are one of that surrogation into whose hands God hath trusted his sword of justice. Draw it in his defence against the enemies of his gi'ace and gospel. You sit at the common stern, and therefore are not so much your own as your country's. Our derided, rejected preaching appeals to your aids ; help us with your hands, we will help you with our prayers. With wisdom and courage rule the wild days you live in. Proceed (worthy sir), as you have conformed yourself, to reform others. Reach forth your hand to your confined limits ; overturn the table, spoil the banquet, chastise the guests at this riotous feast. You see how justly this poor, weak, coarse-woven labour desires the gloss of your patronage to be set on it. I cannot either distrust your ac- ceptance, knowing the generousness of your disposition, nor need I so much to entreat your private use (who are stored with better instructions) as your commending it to the world. If any good may hereby be encouraged, any evil weakened, my reward is full. The discourse is sexduple, whereof the first fr'uits are yours, whose myself am, that desfre still to continue Your worship's in my best services,
Tho. Adams.
Ad vel in Lectoeem.
Religious reader (for I think few of the profane rabble read any sermons), let me entreat thee for this, that (cum lectoris nomen /eras, ne llctoris offi- cium gerasj thou wouldst accept it, not except against it, and, being but a reader, not usurp the office of a censurer. The main intents of all preachers and the contents of all sermons aim to beat down sin and to convert sinners, which the most absolute and unerring Scriptui-es have shadowed imder divers metaphors, comparing them to beasts, to blots, to sicknesses, to sterilities, to pollutions, to leavenings, to whoredoms, to devils ; ia all which (and many other such figui'ative speeches) I think it lawful, nay, necessary for us, God's ministers, to explain the metaphor, and (stiU within bounds of the similitude) to shew the fit accordance and respondency of the thing meant to the thing mentioned. Indeed, to stretch the text against its own will is to martyr it, and to make every metaphor run upon four feet is often violahile sacris. But so long as we keep the analogy of faith and the sense of the present theme, it is a fault to find with us. Indeed, rhetorical flourishes without solid matter is like an Egyptian bond- woman in a qL'een's robes; or the courtier's chamber, which is often a rotten room, curiously hanged. God's word is full of dark speeches, dark, not in themselves, but to our thick-sighted understandings ; therefore, his propositions require expositions. Not that we should turn plain morals into allegories, but allegories into plain morals. The former was Origen's fault, of whom it is said (I speak not to uncover that father's nakedness, but to shew that all men may err, and therefore truth of love must not pre-
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXXIU
judice love of truth) that wherein ho should not allegorize, he did ; and wherein he should have allegorized, to his woe he did not. I have pre- sumed, not without wan-ant of the best expositors, to manifest thu manifold temptations of Satan under the harlot's inveigling her customers. 1. As wisdom, ver. 8, sends forth her maidens, her ministers, to invite guests to her feast of grace, so vice sends forth her temptations ; nay, she sits at the door herself, ver. 14, and courts the passengers. 2. K wisdom call the ignorant, ver. 4, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither; as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith, &c. Vice, which is the true foil)', is her zany, and takes the words out of her mouth, ver. IG, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither ; and as for, &c. 3. If wisdom promiseth bread and wine, ver. 5, ' Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled, sin will promise no less to her guests, ver. 17, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Here is, then, a plain oppo- sition of grace and sin, wisdom and folly, chastity and uncleanness, Christ and the devil. He is mistaken, then, that shall judge me mistaken in this allegory. I stand not so much on the sound as the sense ; not so much on the hteral as spiritual meaning. In the fonner I have instanced; insisted on the latter. It should be tedious to give account for every cu'cumstance. The learned and good man will judge favom-ably. To the rest, si quid tu rectius istis protiuus imperii, si non, his utere mecwn. I pass by the trinal objections against sennons in print, as the deadness of the letter, the multitude of books pressing to the press, &c. ; as if the eye could give no help to the soul ; as if the queasy stomach could not forbear surfeiting ; as if some men's sullenness and crying pish at sermons should be prejudicial to others' benefit; as if the prophets had not added hne to line as well as precept upon precept. I hear some idle drones humming out their dry derisions that we will be men in print, slighting the matter for the author's sake ; but because their invectives are as impotent as themselves are impudent, I will answer no further than hac culpas, sed tu non meliora facis. Or, to borrow words of the epigrammatist —
Cum tua non edas, carpis mea carmina Leli : Carpere vel noli nostra, vel ede tua.
Sloth sits and censures what th' industrious teach, Foxes dispraise the grapes they cannot reach.
One caveat, good reader, and then God speed thee. Let me entreat thee not to give my book the chopping censure, A word old enough, yet would have a comment. Do not open it at a venture, and, by reading the broken pieces of two or three lines, judge it. But read it through, and then I beg no pardon if thou dislikest it. Farewell.
Thine, Tho. Adams.
The Second SER%acE of the Devil's Banquet. By Thomas Adams, Preacher of God's word at Willington, in Bedfordshire.
Zech. V. 4.
Royard, Homil. i. in 1 Pet. iii. — Reddere bonum pro bono Humanum ; reddero malum pro malo, Belluinam ; reddere malum pro bono, Diaboli- cum ; reddere vero bonum pro malo, Diviuum.
(good for good\ ( man.
evil for evil • ., x /• beast.
•1 f , !-)s the pai-t of a- , .,
evil tor good ^ devil,
good for evil j ( saint.
VOL. Ill C
XXXIV MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, aud at Britain's Burse. 1614.
To the Honourable and Virtuous Lady, the Lady Jane Gostwicke Baronetess,
saving health. Madam, — I am bold to add one book more to your library, though it be but as a mite into your treasury. I that have found you so ever favourable to any work of mine, cannot but confidently hope your acceptance of this ; not for the worth of it, but because it bears your name (and my duty to it) in the forehead, and offers itself to the world through your patronage. Somewhat you shall find in it to hearten your love to virtue, much to in- crease your detestation to vice. For I have to my power endeavoured to unmask the latter, and to spoil it of the borrowed form, that sober eyes may see the true proportion of it, and their loathing be no longer withheld. I cannot doubt, therefore, that your approbation of the book will be frus- trated by the title. I am content to furnish out Satan's feast with many special dishes, and to discover the waters of iniquity which he hath broached to the world ; not to persuade their pleasure, but lest ignorance should sur- feit on them without mistrust, lest the perverted conscience should securely devour them without reprehension. Here you shall see, in a small abridg- ment, many actual breaches of God's sacred law, not without liableness to condign punishment. You heard it with attention spoken in your private church ; you gave it approval. I trust you will as well own it written. It is not less yom's, though it be made more public. I need not advise you to make your eye an help to your soul, as well as your ear. They that know you, know your apprehension quick, your judgment sound, and (that which graceth all the rest) your affections religiously devoted. Yet since it is no small part of our goodness to know that we may be better, I pre- sume to present this book and (with it) my own duty to your ladyship, the poor testimony of my present thankfulness, and pledge of my future service. The God of power and mercy continue his favours to you, who have stUl continued your favours to
Your honour's humbly devoted
Thomas Adams.
The Breaking up of the Devil's Banquet ; or, the Conclusion. By Thomas Adams, Preacher of God's word at WiUington, in Bedfordshire.
Rom. vi. 21.
Tertul. lib. ad Martyres. — Pax nostra, bellum contra Satanum. To be at war with the devil, is to be at peace with our own conscience.
London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, and at Britain's Burse. 1614.
To the Right Virtuous and Worthy Sisters, the Lady Anne Gostwicke and Mrs Diana Bowles, saving health. That I have clothed this sermon in the livery of your patronages, I might give many reasons to satisfy others. But this one to me is, instead of all, that you affect the gospel ; not with the sudden flashes of some over-hot dispositions, but with mature discretion and sound obedience. I could not, therefore, suffer any thought of mine own unworthiness to dissuade me from presenting this poor labour to your hands, who have so favourably accepted
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXXV
my weaker services, I owe you both a treble debt of love, of service, of thankfulness. The former, the more I pay, the more still I owe. The second, I will be ready to pay to the uttermost of my power, though short both of your deserts and my own desires. Of the last, I will strive to give full payment, and in that (if it be possible) to come out of your debts. Of all these, in this small volume, I have given you the earnest. As you would, therefore, do with an ill debtor, take it till more comes. It shall bo the more current, if you will set thereon the seals of your acceptance. It is the latter end of a feast ; yet it may perhaps afl'ord you some Chris- tian delicate, to content your well-aflected spirits. It shall let you see the last service of sin's banquet, the harsh and unpleasant closure of vanity, the madness of this doting age, the formal dislike and real love of many to this world, the evil works of some critical, others hypocritical, dispositions, the ending, conclusion, and beginning confusion of the devil's guests. The more perfectly you shall hate sin, the more constantly you shall hold your erst embraced \'irtues ; and so in happy time work out your owa salvations. God give a successful blessing to your Christian endeavours, which shall ever be faithfully prayed for by
Your worships' affectionately devoted
Thomas Adams.
The Shot ; oe, The Woful Price which the Wicked Pay for the Feast of Vanity. By Thomas Adams, Preacher of God's word at Willing- ton, in Bedfordshii'e.
Luke xvi. 25.
August, de CivitateDci, lib.xxii., cap. 3. — Prima mors animam dolentem pellit de corpore ; secunda mors animam nolentem tenet in coi-pore. The soul by the first death is unwillingly driven from the body ; the soul by the second death is unwillingly held in the body.
London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, and at Britain's Burse. 1614.
To the very Worthy Gentleman ]\Ir Francis Crawley, savw(j health. Sir, — There are four sorts of banquets, which I may thus distinguish : JfEtum, letiferum, helium, helluinum. The first is a joyful feast ; such was the breakfast of the world in the law, or the dinner in the gospel, or (yet the future more fully) the Lamb's supper of glory. This is a deHcate feast, yet not more than the next is deadly, the black banquet, which is prepared for the wicked in hell, which consists of two dishes, saith the school, pa:na damnl and pana sensus ; or, as the philosopher distinguisheth all misery into cojnam and inopiam ; cojna tribulationis, inopia consolationis. Or after some, of three : amissio cceli, privatio terra, positio inferni ; the missing of that they might have had, the privation of that they had, the position of that they have, and would not have, torment. Or, according to others, of four : merciless miser}', extremity, universality, eternity of anguish. Our Saviour abridgeth all into two, or rather one (for they are homogenea), weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is a bloody banquet, where (cross to the festival proverb, the more the merrier) the multitude of guests shall add to the horror of miseries ; so afflicting one another with their echoing and reciprocal groans, that it shall be no ease, socios habuisse dolons. This is a lamentable, but the third is a laudable feast. It is that the Christian
S2XV1 MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
maketh, either to man (wliich is a feast of charity) or to God (which is a feast of grace). Whereimto God hath promised to be a guest, and to sup with him. The last is a bestial banquet, wherein either man is the sym- posiast, and the devil the discumbent ; or Satan the feast-maker, and man the guest. Sin is the food in both. The diet is not varied, but the host and Satan feast the wicked, whiles they feed on his temptations to surfeit. The wicked feast Satan, whiles their accustomed sins nourish his power in their hearts. So St Hierome, Dtjemonum cibus ehrietas, luxuria, fornicatio et universa ritia ; Our iniquities are the very diet and dainties of the devils. With this last only have I meddled, endeavouring to declare it, to dissuade it, according to the dichotomized carriage of all om* sermons by explication, by apphcation. Sin is the white (or rather the black mark) my arrow flies at. I trust he that gave aim to my tongue, will also direct, level, and keep my pen from swerving. But since reproofs are as goads, and beasts wiU kick when they are touched to the quick, and he that speaks in thunder shall be answered with Ughtning ; by which consequence I may suspect storms, that have menaced storms ; therefore behold, it runs to you for shelter ; not to instruct your knowledge, who can give so exquisite counsel to others in the law, to yourself in the gospel, being quahfied, as that perfect rhetorician should be, vir bonus clicendi peritus ; but that through your name I might offer (and add) this poor mite into the treasury of the church, ascribing the patronage to yourself, the use to the world, the success to God. Accept this poor testimony of my gratitude, who have avowed myself, Your worship's, ia all faithful service,
Thomas Adams.
The Sinner's Passing Bell; or, A Compiaint from Heaven for Man's Sins. PubUshed by Thomas Adams, Preacher of God's word at Willing- ton, in Bedfordshire.
1 Cor. xi. 30.
August. Epist. 188. — Ipse sibi denegat curam, qui medico non pubhcat causam. He hath no care of his own cure that declareth not to the physi- cian his grief.
London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, and at Britain's Burse. 1614.
To the truly Noble Knight, Sir Anthony Saint John, saving health. Right Worshipful, — The sickness of this world is grovra so lethargical, that his recovery is almost despaired ; and therefore his physicians, finding, by infalUble sjTnptoms, that his consumption is not curable, leave him to the malignancy of his disease. For the eye of his faith is bhnd, the ear of his attention deaf, the foot of his obedience lame, the hand of his charity numbed, and shut up with a griping covetousness. All his vital parts, •whereby he should live to goodness, are in a swoon ; he lies bed-rid in his security, and hath little less than given up the (Holy) Ghost. It cannot be denied, but that he lies at the mercy of God. It is, therefore, too late to toll his passing bell, that hath no breath of obedience left m him. I might rather ring his knell. Yet because there are many in this world, many sick of the general disease of sin, whose recovery is not hopeless, though their present state be hapless, and some that, if they knew but themselves sick, would resort to the pool of Bethesda, the water of life, to be cured, I have.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. IXXVU
therefore, presumed to take them apart, and tell them impartially their own illness. O that to perform the cure were no more difficult than to describe the malady, or prescribe the remedy. I have endeavoured the latter ; the other to God, who can both kill and give life, who is yet pleased, by his word, to work our recoveiy, and to make me one (unworthy) instrument to administer his physic. Now, as the most accurate physicians, ancient or modem, though they delivered precepts in their faculty worthy of the world's acceptance and use, yet they set them forth under some noble patronage ; so I have presumed, under the countenance of your protection, to publish this (physical, or rather) metaphysical treatise ; for, as the sickness is spiritual, so the cure must be supernatural. Assuring myself, that if you shall use any observation here, and give it your good word of prohatum est, many others will be induced the more readily to embrace. My intent is to do good ; and if I had any better receipt, I would not, like some physicians, I know not whether more envious or covetous, with an excellent medicine, let it live and die with myself. God conserve your (either) health, and give yon, with a sound body, a sounder faith, whereby you may live in the life of grace here, of glory hereafter.
Your worship's humbly devoted
Thomas Adams.
The Sinner's Passtng Bell ; or. Physic from Heaven. The Second Sermon. Pubhshed by Thomas Adams, Preacher of God's word at Willing- ton, in Bedfordshire.
Hosea xiii. 9.
August. Serm. de Temp., 145. — Quid de te tu ipse tam male meruisti, ut inter bona tua nolis ahquod esse malum, nisi teipsum ? How didst thou, oh wicked man, deserve so ill of thyself, that among all thy goods, thou wouldst have nothing bad but thyself ?
London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, and at Britain's Burse. 1G14.
To the venj Worthy Gentleman Mr John Alletne, saving health. Sir, — I have endeavoured, in this short sermon, to prescribe to these sick times some spiritual physic. The gi'ound I have received from the direction of God ; the method I submit to the correction of man. In this I might err ; in the other I could not. The main and material objects I have levelled at are : 1. To beget in us a sense of the sins we have done, of the miseries whereby we are undone. 2. To rebuke our forgetfolness oi God's long since ordained remedy, the true intrinsic balm of his gospel ; in the saving use whereof we are (like some countries, blessed with the medi- cinal benefits of nature, yet), through nescience or negligence, defective to ourselves in the application. Inward diseases are as frequent as outward ; those by disquiet of mind, as these by disdiet of body. It was a rare age that had no spiritual plague ranging and raging in it. Ours hath manifold and manifest, vile and visible ; the world gi-owing at once old and decayed in nature, lusty and active in producing sins. Wickedness is an aged harlot, yet as pregnant and teeming as ever. It cannot be denied, but that otrr iniquities are so palpable, that it is as easy to prove them, as to reprove them. Were our bodies but half so diseased (and yet this year hath not favoured them) as our souls ai-e, a straugo and unheard of mortality would
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
ensue. Man is naturally very indulgent to himself, but misplaceth his bounty. He gives the body so much liberty, that it becomes licentious ; but his soul is so prisoned up in the bonds of corrupt affections, that she cries of him, as that troubled princess of her strict keeper. From such a jailer, good Lord, deliver me. The flesh is made a gentleman, the mind a beggar. Sick we are, yet consult not the oracles of heaven for our welfare, nor solicit the help of our great physician Christ. He is our Saviour, and bare our sicknesses, saith the prophet ; yea, took on him our infirmities. Infinnitates speciei, non individui: infirmities common to the nature of mankind, not particularly incident to every singular person. Those he took on himself, that he might know the better to succom* us in our weakness. As the queen sung of herself in the poet, Non ignara mall miseris succurrere disco. It is most perfectly true of om- Jesus, that he learned by his own sorrow to pity ours, though all his sufferance was for our sakes. But how should he help us, if we make not our moan to him ? How should we be restored, when God's saving physic is unsought, unbought, unapplied ? To convince our neglect, and persuade our better use of the gospel, tends this weak labour. To your protection it wilhngly flies, and would rest itself under your shadow. The God of peace give you the peace of God, which passeth all human understanding, and afford you many joys in this life to the end, and in the next his joy without end !
Yours in the services of love,
Tho. Adams.
The White Devil ; or, The Hypoceite Uncased. To this Foui-th Im- pression are newly added — 1. The Two Sons ; or The Dissolute conferred with the Hypocrite : 2. The Leaven : or, A Medicine for them both. By Thomas Adams.
London : Printed by Thomas Dawson, for William Arondell, and are to be sold in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Angel. 1615.
To the Very Worthy and Nohly-Dlsjjosed Gentleman Sir Thomas Cheeke, Knight. Eight Worshipful, — This sermon bears so strange a title in the fore- head, that I durst not (a while) study for a patronage to it, but intended to send it to the broad world, to shift for itself, as fearing it would not be owned ; for it taxeth many vices, specially the black evil, secret thie\'ing, and the white devil, the hypocrite, whence it taketh the denomination. Now, what ambitious courtier would grace such a stranger? What vicious greatness would entertain such a page ? what corrupted lawyer such a client ? what covetous gentleman such a tenant ? what usurious citizen such a chapman ? indeed, what guilty man such a book, as will tell him to his face, thou art the man? Yet because first, generally, the world would think I had brought forth a strange child, that I could get no godfather to it ; and especially, because you (rare in these apostate times) are known free from the aspersions of these speckled stains, the world bestowing on you that worthy (not undeserved) character of virtue ; so that with a clear and unclouded brow (the argument of an innocent soul) you Taa,j read these hues, I have been bold, at once, to offer this to your patronage, and myseK to your service. To this, your affection to divine knowledge, good profection iji it, and much time spent towards the perfection of it (a disposition worthy
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXXJX
your blood) have prompted mo with encouragement. It is not the first of this nature that I have published (perhaps the last), but if I had not judged it the best, I would not have been so ambitious as to present it to the view of so approved a judgment. Thus in affiance of your good accept- ance, I humbly leave you to him, that never leaveth his. Your worship's, in my best of services,
Thomas Adams.
To my most esteemed and singular land Friend Th. A., good, content, and
true happiness.
I never knew bosom wherein I reposed better trust, with better success, I have caused a new edition (with a new addition) of an old sermon. The White Devil hath begot the Two Sons. I hope it shall speed never the worse for the progeny. With you, I am sure, it will pass ; and with all those that can understand charitably. I have lighted on some masts, under whose sails I have sent my works to the world. If the traffic hath proved profitable to others, I am rejoiced in my own loss. I have certainty to find now (though not, what I never expected giving, or respected given, yet) at the least good words, kind looks, and a loving acceptance, which I have not often found. My words are few ; you know the latitude of my love, which ever was, is, and shall be,
Yours inseparably,
Thomas Adams.
To THE Reader.
Honest and understanding reader (if neither, hands off) I never saluted thy general name by a special epistle till now ; and now perhaps soon enough ; but if honesty be usher to thy understanding, and imderstanding tutor to thy honesty, as I cannot fear, so I need not doubt, or treat with thee for truce. Truce, of what ? of suspense, not of suspension ; it belongs to our betters. Suspend thy censure, do not suspend me by thy censure. I do not call thee aside to ask, with what applause this sermon passeth, but (it is all I would have and hear) with what benefit. I had rather convert one soul, than have an hundredth praise me ; whereof, if I were (so besotted to be) ambitious, by this I could not hope it ; for it pulls many tender and tendered sins out of their downy nests ; and who strikes vice, and is not stricken with calumnies ? I must rather think it hath passed from one press to another, to a worse, hazarding itself to be pressed to death with censures, which yet (though I lowly hope better) I cannot fear, since it speaks no more, nor other than justifiable truth. What hath been objected already, I must briefly answer. It is excepted that I am too merry m describing some vice. Indeed, such is their ridiculous nature, that their best convic- tion is derision ; yet I abominate any pleasantness here but Christian, and would provoke no smile but of disdain, wherein the gra^-ity of matter shall free my form of words from lightness. Others say, I am otherwhere too satirically bitter. It is partly confessed ; I am bitter enough to the sins, and therein (I think) better to the sinners, more charitable to the persons. Some wish I would have spared the church-thieves, because it is not yet generally granted that impropriations of t}'thes are appropriations of wrongs, but if there be a compotent maintenance to the minister, and not to him neither, except of worthy gifts (provided that they judge of his gifts and
xl MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
competency), it is enough ; well, if any such be grieved, let him allow his minister a sufficiency, under which he cannot live, without want to his family or disgrace to his profession (at least, so taken) and hereof certified, I will take counsel to draw the books, and put his name out of the catalogue of thieves. But it would be strange if any of these Zibas should yield to Mephibosheth a division of his own lands or goods ; when they do, I will say, David is come again to his kingdom, or rather the Son of David is come to judgment. Others would have enclosers put out, because (commonly) great men, but therefore the greater their sins, and deserving the greater taxation. Nay, some would persuade usury to step in, to traverse his indictment, and prove himself no thief, by the verdict of the country ; because stib judice Us est, it is not yet decided that usury is a sin. It is sub judice indeed, but the Judge hath already interposed his interlocutory, and will one day give his definitive sentence, that usury shall never dwell in his holy mountain. Others blunder in their verdict, that I have too violently baited the bag at the stake of reproach, and all because I want it. I will not return their cen- sure, that they are hence known to have it that speak against me, for speaking against it ; who yet, if they would light the candle of their speech at the fire of their understandings, would easily see and say, that it is not fulness of the bag, but the foulness of the bag-bearer, that I reprove. I could allow your purses fuller of wealthiness, so your minds were emptier of wicked- ness ; but the bag's effects, in our affects, usually load us, either with par- simony or prodigality, the Ughtest of which burdens, saith Saint Bernard, is able to sink a ship. Others affirm, that I have made the gate of heaven too narrow, and they hope to find it wider ; God and the Scriptures are more merciful. True it is, that heaven-gate is in itself wide enough, and the narrowness is in respect of the enterer ; and though thy sins cannot make that too little to receive thee, yet they make thee too gross and unfit to get into that : thus the straitness ariseth from the deficiency (not of their glory, but) of our grace. Lastly, some have the title sticking in their stomachs ; as if Christ himself had not called Judas a devil, and likened an hypocrite to a whited sepulchre ; as if Luther did not give Judas this very attribute, and other fathers of the church, from whom Luther derives it. Good Christian reader, leave cavils against it, and fall to caveats in it. Read it through ; if there be nothing in it to better thee, either the fault is in my hand, or in thy heart. Howsoever, give God the praise, let none of his glory cleave to us earthen instruments. If thou likest it, then (quo animo legis, ohservas, quo ohservas, servo) with the same affection thou readest it, remember it, and with the same thou rememberest, practise it. In hope of this, and prayer for this, I commend this book to thy conscience, and thy conscience to God. — Willington, March 27, 1614. Thine if thou be Christ's,
T. A.
Sir Thomas Cheke, to whom the volume is dedicated, was grand- son of Sir John Cheke, the well-known Greek professor at Cam- bridge, and one of the revivers of learning in England. Sir Thomas was knighted by James I. He resided near Romford, in Essex, and died in 1659. The address to the reader is one of the raciest of Adams's writings, affording a sample of his wit, severity, and tenderness, all combined.
MEMOni OF THOMAS ADAMS. xll
This volume and the corresponding one, ' The Black Devil,' have been quoted from John Vicars,* down to our own times.
The Sermons named on the title-page of the White Devil have each of them a separate title-page, but no separate Dedication.
The Two Sons ; or The Dissolute conferred with the Hypocrite.
Augustin. in Luc. x^iii. 14. — Videte fratres : magis Deo placuit humili- tas in malis, quam superbia in bonis factis.
London : Printed by Thomas Dawson, for William Arondell, and are to be sold in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Angel. 1615.
The title-page of the other contains only these words — ' The Leaven ; or, A Direction to Heaven.' Neither place, date, printer, nor publisher.
The Black Devil [Saint] ; or, The Apostate : Together with the Wolf Worrying the Lambs, and the Spiritual Navigator bound for the Holy Land : In Three Sermons. By Thomas Adams.
Jer. xiii. 23.
Bern., Sent. — Quid prosunt lecta et intellecta, nisi teipsum legas et in- telligas ?
London : Printed by WiUiam Jaggard. 1615.
To the Honourable Gentleman, Sir Charles Morrison, Knirjht, Baronet. Worthy Sir, — I have been bold, upon better acquaintance with your yu-tues than with youi'self, to send a short treatise to your view. I know whose judgment it must pass, yet am fearless, not in any arrogant stupidity of my own weakness, but in a confident presumption of your goodness ; a weighty habit, not parallel, but transcendent, to youi- greatness. Perhaps natui-e hath taught you that to be generous is to be virtuous ; but I am sure wisdom hath perfected natural disposition in you, and given you not only an excellent theorical discourse, but an actual reducing of those things into practice, which are better than you shall find here. Though you have happier contemplations of your own, yet accept these as the slender pre- sents of a poor man given to the rich. Weak I confess it; for how should the child be strong begot in the father's weakness ? It hath the more need of your protection, and knows the better to express itself and the author, ever ready, at your honourable command, to do you seiwice.
Tho. Adams.
To the Reader.
Reader, this book stands at the mercy of thy capacity for thy censure. Perhaps thou wilt judge it done for opposition's sake ; the Black Devil to the white ; perhaps for imitation, perhaps for afibctation. Thou mayest form causes enough in thy imagination to produce it, yet miss the right. It was to shew thyself and all other perusers the blackness of sin, and, among the
* ' One very wittily and most worthily distingiiishea these loose livers into Black Devils and White Devils ; and our blessed Saviour himself confirms the truth of this distinction.'— Cofe/nans St. Conclave Visited. [By J. \ icars, 1647.]
Xlii MEMOIR OP THOMAS ADAMS.
rest, of apostasy. Would you not behold impiety in the true colours ? You may forbear. If you would, look here and detest it. K you will take out a good lesson, and hate to do it, neither you nor I shall have cause to re- pent our labours. Once we must give account what we have heard, and seen, and done, when the pleasures of sin, like old surfeits, shall give a bitter reluctancy in the stomach of the conscience, and we are going to God's cold earth. Learn we now to prevent the doing of that which we shall one day be sorry to have done. There is no man hving but shall re- pent of his wickedness, either on earth or in hell. Read, and be instructed. If you find just faults here, I submit my weakness to your censure. In omnibus meis scriptis non modo pium lectoreni sed liherum correctionem desi- dero. But to those censurers, qui vet non intelligendo rej^rehendunt, vel re- prehendendo non intelligunt, I wish either a more sound understanding or more sober affection.
Criminor, ampJector : tihi sunt communia, lector. But as he that com- mendeth himself is not approved, but whom the Lord commendeth, so if the Lord approve I pass not for man's judgment. If you snib me for writing so frequently, and not confining myself to the pulpit, I answer (be- sides that I will not neglect this to do that).
Quo liceat libris, non licet ire mihi. My books may be admitted where I cannot come. If you say there are books too many, I answer, Restrain them to this quality; and abundans caidela non nocet. Farewell. Be satisfied, be blessed.
Tho. Adams.
WlNGRAVE, July 7.
LUCANTHROPY ; OR, ThE WoLF "WORRYING THE LaMBS. By ThOMAS AdAMS.
Mat. vii. 15.
Tertull.^ — Quasnam sunt istae pelles ovium, nisi nominis Christiani extrinsecus superficies ? Hie dolus est magnus : Lupus est qui creditur agmis.
London : Printed by William Jaggard. 1615.
To the truly worthy Gentleman, M. Henry Fortescue, Esquire, a favourer of virtue and good learning. Sir, — I have put up the wolf, though not hunted him, as judging myself too weak for that sporit- earnest. It is no desertless office to discover that subtle and insatiate beast ; to pull the sheep-skin of hypocrisy over his ears ; and to expose his forming malice and sanguinous cruelty to men's censure and detestation. Let those hands strike him that have darts of authority put into their quivers. Our land is no forest, literally or metaphorically understood ; but whether for church or commonwealth, profession or soil, an orchard of God's own planting : fruitful in goods and good works. Wolves we have none, but some mystical ones ; whose ferocity is yet hidden under the habits and cases of those lambs they have devoured. These I have set in view, or at least meant my best to do it. I have seldom pretended that commonpoise that (by their own report) sets so many mad pens like wheels a running, importunacy of friends. I have willingly published what I had hope would do good published. Only this I feared to keep from the press, lest it should steal thither another way. Being there, I could not with better confidence fasten upon a known patron
MKMOIE OF THOMAS ADASIS.
xliii
than yourself, who can hoth understand it and will read it ; not only the epistle, but the whole book. Though that fashion with many patrons, of pei-usiug more than their own titles, bo now as a suit of the old make, I know you spend some hours of all days in such good exercises ; abandon- ing those idle and excessive customs wherein too many will please them- selves, and none else.
It is an untin-ifty spending of time, and a soriy success will conclude it, when we are curious in plotting a method for our inferior delights, and leave our salvation unwrought up. We strive to settle our lands, to secure our monies, to confinn our estates ; but to conform our lives, or to make sure our election, is vilipended. And yet when all is done, brains have plotted, means have seconded, bonds and laws have established, nothing can be made sure, but only our salvation. But go you forward to adorn your eternal mind, and to plant your soul full of those flowers which give already a pleasant odour on earth, and shall one day be stuck like glories in heaven. So shall your mcmoiy be sweet in the mouths and hearts of future generations ; whiles the vicious, even alive, do not escape the satyr. Thus with true thankful love I behight you in my prayers, a happy pro- gress in grace, till you come to your standing-house in glory. Your worship's in very best seiTices,
Tho. Adams.
The Spibitual Navigator bound for the Holy Land. Preached at St Giles Without, Cripplegate, on Trinity Sunday last. 1615. By Thomas Adams.
Rev. XV. 2, 3.
London : Printed by WiUiam Jaggard. 1G15.
To the tndi/ Religious M. Crashaw, M. Milward, M. Davies, M. Heling, icith other uorthy Citizens, my very good Friends. Gentlemen, — Because you have just occasion in your callings to deal often with merchandise, I have been bold to call you a little from your temporal to a spiritual traffic, and have sent you a Christian Na\'igator, bound for the Holy Land, who, without question, will give you some relations of his travels, worthy two hours' perusing. You shall find a whole sea sailed through in a short time, and that a large sea, not a foot less than the world. You will say, the description lies in a little volume : why, you have seen the whole world narrowed up into a small map. They that have been said, after many years, at last to compass it, have not described all coasts and corners of it. Even theii* silence hath given succeeding generations hope to find out new lands ; and you know they have found them. You cannot expect more of two hoiirs' discoveiy, than of seven years'. I leave many things to be descried by others, yet dare promise this, that I have given you some necessary directions for your happiest voyage. Over this glassy sea you must sail, you are now sailing. Truth be your chart, and the Holy Ghost your pilot. Yom* course being well directed, you cannot possibly make a happier joiimey. The haven is before your eyes, where your Sa^•iour sits with the hand of mercy wafting you to him. You cannot be sea-sick, but he will comfort and restore you. If the tempest comes, call on him, with Peter, Lord, save us ! and he will rebuke the winds and the seas ; they shall not hurt you. Storm and tempest, winds and waters
Xliv MEMOIE OF THOMAS ADAMS.
obey his voice. What rocks, gulfs, swallows, and the danger (worse than that is called the terror of the exchange, the pirate : one plague which the devil hath added to the sea, more than nature gave it) of that great levia- than Satan, and other perils that may endanger you, are marked out ! Decline them so weU as you may, and consider what providence guides your course ; this sea is before God's throne. Keep you the Cape of Good Hope in your eye ; and whatever becomes of this weak vessel your body, make sure to save the passenger, your soul, in the day of the Lord Jesus. What is here directed you shall be faithfully prayed for, by him that un- feignedly desires your salvation, Tho, Adams.
The last of these sermons was preached in the parish church, Cripplegate. Milton's father now attended there, and Milton him- self may have heard the sermon, then a fair-haired, angel-faced boy of seven. Both father and son lie buried in the church.
England's Sickness comparatively confereed with Israel's : Di- vided into Two Sermons. By Thomas Adams.
Bern. — Possessio bona, mens sana in corpore sano. Non est in medico (semper), relevetur ut seger.
London : Imprinted by E. G., for John Budge and Ealph Mab. 1615.
To the Rirfht WorsJiipfid Sir John Claypoole, Knight, saving health. Worthy Sir, — I have venturously trafficked with my poor talent in pubUc, whiles I behold richer graces buried in silence : judging it better to husband a Uttle to the common good, than to hoard much wealth in a sullen niggardise. I censure none ; if all were writers, who should be readers ? if no idle pamphlets would present themselves to the general eye, and be entertained for defect of more sober matter. If the grain be good, it doth better in the market than in the gamer. All I can say for myself is, I desire to do good ; whereof if I fail, yet my endeavours leave not my conscience with- out some joyful content. To your patronage this flies, to whom the author is greatly bounden, and shall yet be indebted further for your acceptance. Your love to general learning, singular encouragement to students (opposed to the common disheartenings which poverty, contempt, ignorance assaults us with) ; your actual beneficence to many, especially to Katharine Hall in Cambridge, worthy of deathless memory ; lastly, your real kindness to myself, have prompted me to seal this book with the signet of your name, and send it to the world, which in humble submission I commend to your kind acceptation, and yourself with it, to the blessing of our gracious God. Your Worship's in all duty devoted,
Thomas Adams.
Mystical Bedlam ; or. The World of Madmen. By Thomas Adams.
2 Tim. iii. 9.
AuGUSTiN. de Trinit. Lib. 4, cap. 6. — Contra rationem nemo sobrius.
London: Printed by George Purslowe, for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop, in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1615.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. xlv
To the Bight Honourable Sir Thomas Egkrton, Knighl, Baron of FAlesmerCy Lord High Chancellor of England, one of His Majesty's Rigid lion. Privy Council, the true Pattern of virtue and Patron if good learning. Right Honourable, — It is a labour that hath neither recompcnco nor thanks, to tell them their madness that fain would think themselves sober. Having therefore presumed (not to trouble the peace, but) to disquiet the secuiity of our Israel, I dm'st not but aspu*e to some noble patronage, that might shield both myself and labours from the blows of all malevolent censurers. In which thought I was bold to centre myself in your honour ; as the individual point of my refuge, wherein I have been taught the way by more woiihy precedents ; your honourable name having stood as a communis terminus or sanctuary of protection to the labours and persons of many students. The imerring hand of God hath placed your lordship in the seat of justice and chair of honour- (especially if it be true what St Hiero- nymus says, that summaapud Deum nohiUtas, durum essevirtutibus), whereby you have power and opportunity to whet the edge of virtue with encom-age- ments, and to give vice the just retribution of deserved punishments. Happy influences have been derived from you, sitting as a star in the star- chamber : conscionable mitigations of the law's rigoui* in the Couii of Chancery. To punish where you see cause, is not more justice than mercy : justice against the offender, mercy to the commonwealth. Those punishments are no other than actual physic ministered to the inheritance, Uberty ; body to the bettering of the conscience, and saving of the soul in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. v. 5, marg.). Behold, my pen hath but written after the original copy of your honour's actions : desiiiug rather to learn by yom* doings how to say, than to teach you by my sapng how to do. I have spoken (God knows with what success) to these mad times, and he that would bind the frantic, though he loves him, angers him. The detector of men's much-loved sins need a protector that is both good and great. I am sure my election is happy, if it shall please your honour to cast the eye of acceptance on my weak labours. A young plant may thrive if the sun shall warm it \^'ith his beams. That Sun of righteousness, that hath saving health under his wings, shine for ever on your lordship ; who hath been so hberal a favourer to his church, and among the rest to his uuworthiest servant, and
Your honom-'s in aU duty and thankful observance bounden,
Tho. Adams.
Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Ellesmere, was the patron of the parish of Wiugrave, where Adams seems now to be living.
The Sacrifice of Thankfulness : A Sermon preached at Paul's Cross, the 3d of December, being the first Adventual Sunday. Anno 1G15. By Thomas Adams.
Bern., in Cant., Serm. 35. — Gratiarum cessat decursus, ubi recursus non fuerit.
Whereimto are annexed, five other of his Sermons preached in London and elsewhere ; never before printed. The Titles whereof follow in the next page.
London : Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Ivnight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616.
Xlvi MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
On the next page, the Titles of the Five Sermons are — 1. Christ, his Star; or, the Wise Man's Oblation, Matt. ii. 11 ; 2. Politic Hunting, Gen. xxv. 27 ; 3. Plain Dealing ; or a Precedent of Honesty, Gen. xxv. 27 ; 4. The Three Divine Sisters, 1 Cor. xiii. 13 ; 5. The Taming of the Tongue, James iii. 8. Three of these have separate titles.
To the Right Worshipful Sir Henry Montague, Knight, the King^s Majesty's Servant for the Law, and Recorder of the Honourable City of London.
Worthy Sir, — Where there is a diversity of helps leading to one inten- tion of good, the variety may well be tolerated. Who finds fault with a garden for the multitude of flowers? You shall perceive here different kinds, whereof (if some to some seem bitter) there is none unwholesome. It takes fire at the altar of God, and begins with the Christian's sacrifice, the flame whereof (by the operation of the blessed Spirit) may both en- lighten the understanding and warm the afiections of good men, and in others consumingly waste the dross and rust of sin, which must either be purged by the fire of grace here, or sent to the everlasting fire to be burned. The wise man's oblation seconds it : what is formerly commanded in pre- cept is here commended in practice. Politic hunters of the world are dis- covered, and plain dealing encouraged. One (almost forgotten) virtue, charity, is praised, and a busy vice is taxed. In all is intended lux scienticE, pax conscientia ; ]nscati mind, adificatio sertitia.
Your noble endeavours are observed by all eyes to be distinguished into this method : from your virtues there is a resultance of shining light to in- formation, from your ofiice to reformation of others. Go forward so still to manage your place in that honourable city ; and let the fij'e of correction eat out the rust of corruption. You may punish even whiles you pity. The good magistrate, like a good chirurgion, doth with a shaking hand search ulcers, more earnestly desirin^f von invenire quod quarit, quam inve- nire quod p)imiat. The God of mercy and salvation wrap up your soul in the bundle of life, and (when the lust of the earth shall to the dust of the earth) fix you in the blessed orb of glory.
Your worshipful's in all faithful observance,
Tho. Adams.
Of the Five Discourses published along with the Sacrifice of Tha.nkfulness, ' Christ the Star ' and ' Politic Hunting ' have no separate title-page, and are transposed in the Museum copy ; ' Politic Hunting' coming first, though ' Christ his Star' is first in the table of contents. The pagination vindicates the binder. The other three Sermons are paged separately, and have separate titles as follows : —
Plain Dealing ; or A Precedent of Honesty.
Ps. xxxvii. 37.
August, in Joh. Horn. ii. — Simplex eris, si te mundo non implicaveris, Bed explicaveris. Explicando enim te a mundo, simplex ; implicando, duplex eris,
London : Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616.
The Three Divine Sisters. John xxxiv. 34.
MEMOIK OF THOMAS ADAMS. xlvH
August. — Domus Dei fundatur credendo, spcrando crigitur, diligendo perficitur.
London : Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and arc to be sold at bis shop in Paul's Churchyard, at tbo sign of tho Holy Lamb. 1616.
The Taming of the Tongue. Matt. xii. 37.
Bern. — Lingua, quae facile volat, facile violat.
London : Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616.
Diseases of the Soul, [The Soul's Sickness] : A Discoui-se Divine, Moral, and Physical. By Thomas Adams.
Sen. — Desinit esse remedio locus, ubi qua3 fuemnt vitia, mores sunt.
London : Printed by George Purslowe, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, and at Britain's Burse. 1616.
To the Hohj, Judicious, and icorthihj Eminent in his Profession, Mr William Randolph, Doctor of Physic. Worthy Sir, — It will seem strange to those that better know my un- worthiness than j'our merits, that I should administer i)hysic to a physician. But my apology is just, convincing rather than of ignorance than myself of presumption. It is not a potion I send, but a prescript in paper, which tho foolish patient did eat up when he read in it written. Take this. Neither do I send it to direct you, but that you should rectify it. So the poor painter sent ApeUes a pictui'e, to mend it, not to commend it. That which tastes of philosophy in it is but so much of those axioms and rudiments, as I gathered in the university in a short time, and have had much opportunity to lose since. Somewhat is chimed out of experience, wherein I may say necessitas was in- genii largitor ; as Phny writes of the raven, who labouring of thirst, and spying a vessel with some little water in it, but so deep as she could not reach, filled the vessel with stones, till the hea^'ier matter sinking down- wards, raised up the lighter to her easy apprehension. My own ill health forced me to look into that poor cistern of knowledge, which I had ; and finding it almost diy,I essayed by some new contemplations, to raise it up to experience, which now, behold, nins over, and \vithout diminution to itself, is communicatively dispersed to others. Only do you use it, as I desire you should myself: if it be in health, conserve it; if foul, purge it. For my o^vn part, I am content that no happy meditation of mine should be ut Curia Martis Athenis ; or, like some precious mysteiy which a prac- titioner will get money by while he lives, but sutler none else to use when he is dead ; for he resolves it shall die with him. It is more moral than physical, and yet the gi-eater part theological : wherein I have most satis- fied my own conscience, in arguing at that punctual centre, and blessed scope, whither all endeavours should look — the straitening our warped afiections, and directing the soul to heaven. And in this passage (you must pardon me) I fear not to say, your memory at least, if not your understanding, may hereby be helped. My medicines are not very bitter, but nothing at all sweet to a sensual palate : learning from Salvian that Qua petulantium auribus placcnt, ayrotantium animis noii prumnt. For my soul, I prescribe to others that which I desire ever to take myself, such
Xlviii MEMOIR OF THOMAS AD.UIS.
saving recipes as God's Holy Writ hath directed me. For my body, though I would not have it lamed by my own neglect, that it might lean upon the staff of physic, having not so much health to spare as might allow some unthrifty expense of it on surfeits ; yet when it is sick, I desire no other physician than yomrself. Perhaps a great number of men are of my mind, and frequent are the knocks at your study-door ; but I am sure that all those desires are not inflamed with that light of knowledge which I have of your sufiiciency, through much private conference. Rudeness or prolixity do ill in an epistle, and worse when both together; and may perhaps please a man's self, and none else. I have done when I have (yet once again) challenged your promised Judicial of imnes ; which, if you make public, you shall have the like addition to my singular thanks. Till a good gale of opportunity waft myself over to your Sudbury, I have sent you this messenger of that love and service, shall ever be ready to attend you ; de- siring that, as it hath found the way to you, you would give it your pass to the world ; and (if it grow poor with contempt), your legacy of approbation. Wingrave in Buck., May ult.
Your worship's in all just references of love,
Thos. Adams.
To THE Eeader.
The title of this book requires some apology. There is a book lately conceived in Scotland, and born in England, which both promiseth in the frontispiece, and demonstrates in the model, the method and matter here proposed. Whereof I cannot speak, having onl;; cursorily perused some page or two of it, but not of the worthiness. Because that hath the priority of the time, and transcendency in quantity of mine, I have reason to fear that this will be thought but the spawn of that, or an epitome, or at best, that it is begot out of imitation. Herein I must seriously propose, and engage my credit to the truth thereof, that this was committed to the stationer's hands, perused, and allowed by authority ; yea, and with fall time to have been printed, and, perhaps, an impression sold, before that of Mr John Abernethy's came out. What dilemmas were in the bookseller's head, or what reasons for such slackness and reservation, are to me as mystical as his profession. Neither do I plead thus out of any affected singularity, as if I were too good to imitate so worthy a man ; but only to have punc- tually and plainly delivered the truth hereof, leaving it to thy censure, and us all to the grace of God. T. A.
The allusion in the epistle to the reader is to a work just then published by John Abernethy, minister at Jedburgh, and afterwards Bishop of Caithness. It is entitled, ' A Christian and Heavenly Treatise, containing Physic for the Soul.' An enlarged edition was pubhshed in 1622, and in the following year it was translated and published in Dutch. The volume is admirable in spirit, and may easily have excited the active mind of our author. The reader will note, however, the care with which Adams guards against the im- pression that he had taken his thoughts from Abernethy.
In the epistle to Dr Randolph, there is evidence that Adams was no stranger to bodily suffering. A similar allusion will be found in the atidress prefixed to the Happiness of the Church, (see p. H).
MEMOIR OF TUOMAS ADAMS. lllX
A Divine Herbal together with a Forest of Thorns. In Five Ser- mons : — 1. Tho Garden of Graces ; 2. The Praise of Fertility ; 8. The Contemplation of tho Herbs ; 4. The Forest of Thorns ; 5. The End of Thorns. By Thomas Adams.
Isa. Iv. 11.
August, do benedict. Jaco. et Esau. — Simul pluitDominus super segetcs, et super spinas ; sed segeti pluit ad horreum, spinis ad ignem : et tamen una est pluvia.
London : Printed by George Purslowe, for John Budge, and are to be sold at his shop, at the gi-eat south door of Paul's and at Britain's Burse. IGIG.
To the liifiht Honourable William, Earl of Pembroke, Ijord Chamberlain of his Majesty's Household, and one of his Majesty's most honourable Frirnj Council, and Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, the most noble Embracer and Encoiirafjer of goodness. Right Honourable, — I am bold to present to your honour a short con- templation of those herbs (cut in rough pieces), which grow really and plentifully in youi* own garden, and give so good noui'ishment to yom* \'irtues, delightful taste to the church, and odoriferous savour to all ; that, hke the vine in Jotham's pai'able, they cheer the heart of both God and man. Your honour, I know, cannot dislike that in sight, which you so preserve in sense, and (for a happy reward) doth and shall preserve you. You are zealously honoured of all those that know goodness, and have daily as many prayers as the earth saints. Into this number, I have ( hopefully presuming) thrust myself, as loth to be hindmost in that acknowledgment, which is so nobly deserved, and so joyfully rendered of all tongues, dedicating to your honour some public devotions, that can never forget you in my private. I will not think of adding one herb to your store : I only desire to remember your honour what hand planted them, what dew waters them, what influ- ence conserves, and enspheres a sweet provident air about them, and when gay weeds, that shoot up like Jonah's gourd in a night, shall Avither in an hour (for moriuntur quomodo oriuntur). Your herb of grace shall flourish and be praised, both ob eminentiam and permanentiam, and at last be trans- ported into that heavenly paradise, whence it receives the original root and being. Your honour will excuse me for coupling to a divine herbal, a forest of thorns, by a true observation in both material and mystical gai'dens, though a poet records it :
Terra salutiferas herbas, eademque nocentes Nutrit, et urticae proxima saepe rosa est.
Your honour will love the hght better, because the dark night follows so near it. That your sun may never set, your noble garden never wither ; that your honours may be still multiplied with our most royal and religious king on earth, and with the King of kings in heaven, is faithfully piayed for by
Your honour's humbly devoted
Tho. Adams.
The Soldiers's Honour : Wherein, by divers inferences and grada- tions it is evinced that tho profession is just, necessary, and honourable ; to be practised o^ some men, praised of all men. Together with a short
VOL. m. d
1 MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
admonition concerning munition to this honoured city. Preached to the ■worthy Company of Gentlemen that exercise in the Artillery Garden ; and now, on their second request, published to further use. By Thomas Adams.
Exodus XV. 8.
London : Printed by Adam Islip and Edward Blount, and are to be sold in Paul's Chui-chyard, at the sign of the Black Bear. 1617.
This dedication will be found in vol. i., p. 31, as Adams himself printed it in the folio edition.
The Happiness of the Chukch ; or, A Description of those Spiritual Prerogatives wherewith Christ hath endowed her : Considered in some Con- templations upon part of the 12th Chapter to the Hebrews. Together with certain other Meditations and Discourses upon other portions of Holy Scripture, the titles whereof immediately precede the book, being the sum of divers Sermons preached in S. Gregory's, London. By Thomas Adams, Preacher there.
2 Cor. xii. 15.
London: Printed by G. P., for John Grismand, and are to be sold at his shop, near unto the httle north door of Saint Paul's, at the sign of the Gun. 1618.
To the Bight Honourable Sir Henry Montague, the Lord Chief-Justice of Enr/Iand, my very good Lord. Eight 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 lordship ties me to seek your honom-able authorising of all these labours. They run to you first, as if they waited your manu- mission of them to the world. If books be our children, and the masculine issue of our brains, then it is fit that your lordship, 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 why they should refuge themselves under your lordship's protection. The world is quickly ofiended, if it be told of the offences. Men study courses, and practise them ; and if the clergy find fault, yea, if we do not justify and make good what they magnify, and make common, they will be angry. It is the most thankless service to teU men of their misdeeds. Now, a business so distasteful requires a worthy patron ; and whose patronage should I desire but your lordship's, whose I am, and to whom I owe all duty and sendee ? whose but your lordship's, who are in place to reform vice, and to encourage goodness ? to make that practical and exemplaiy, which is here only theorical and preceptory. God hath entrusted to your hands his sword of justice ; draw it in his defence against the enemies of his grace and gospel. You sit at the common stem, and, therefore, are not so much your own as your country's. Help us with your hands ; we will help you with our prayers. The Lord of majesty and mercy sanctify your heart, rectify your hand, justify your soul, and, lastly, crown your head with eternal glory !
Your lordship's observant chaplain, Tho. Adams.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. K
The volume is dedicated thus: — 'To the Worthy Citizens of Saint Gregory's Parish, sincere Lovers of the Gospel, present Hap- piness and everlasting Peace.' Then follows an address the same as is prefixed to the folio edition of his works, see vol. i., xvii. The following sentences, however, are inserted before ' I very well know,' and the Avhole is signed, ' Your unworthy preacher, Thomas Adams' : —
It is not unlinown to you, that an infirmity did put me to silence many weeks ; whilst my tongue was so suspended from preaching, my hand took opportunity of writing. To vindicate my Ufe from the least suspicion of idleness, or any such aspersions of uncharitable tongues, I have set forth this real witness, which shall give just confutation to such slanders. If it be now condemned, I am sure it is only for doing well.
This volume, ' The Happiness of the Church,' is a 4to of the ordinary size of that period. It is divided into two parts. The first, exclusive of title, dedication, epistle, and contents, extends to 443 pages. The second, which is nowhere called part second, and which has no separate title-page nor dedication, extends to 375 pages. The contents prefixed to first part are the contents of both parts. The following are the discourses included in the volume : —
Paut I.— The Happiness of the Church, Heb. xii. 22 ; The Rage of Oppression — The Victory of Patience, Ps. Ixvi. 12; God's House, Ps. Ixvi. I'd ; Man's Seed Time and Harvest, Gal. vi. 7 ; Heaven Gate, Rev. xxii. 14 ; The Spiritual Eye Salve, Eph. i. 18 ; The Cosmopolite, Luke xii. 20; The Bad Leaven, Gal. v. 9 ; Faith's Encouragement, Luke x\ii. 19.
Pakt U. — The Saint's Meeting, Eph. iv. 13; Presumption Running mto Despair, Rev. vi. 10 ; Majesty in Misery, Mat. xxvii. 51 ; The Fool and his Sport, Prov. xiv. 9 ; The Fu-e of Contention, Luke xii. 49 ; The Chris- tian's Walk — Love's Copy — A Crucifix, Eph. v. 2 ; The Good Pohtician dhectcd, Mat. x. 10 ; The Way Home, Mat. u. 12 ; Semper Idem, Heb. xiii. 8 ; God's Bounty, Prov. hi. 10 ; The Lost One Found, Luke xix. 10 ; A Generation of Serpents, Ps. Iviii. 4 ; Heaven made Sure, Ps. xxxv. 3 ; The Soul's Refuge, 1 Pet. iv. 19.
There is now an unwonted interval between the last-named of Adams's Avritings and the following. Whether sickness laid him aside, or whether he now began to prepare those Meditations on the Creed wliich King James was soon to direct all clergymen to indulge in on Sunday afternoons, is not known. The fact is un- doubted.
EiRENOPOLis : The City of Peace. By Thomas Adams. Bvo. Lon- don, 1622.
Dedication, see Vol. ii., p. 310.
lii MEMOIB OF THOMAS ADAMS.
The Baeeen Tree. A Sermon preacted at St Paul's Cross, October 26. 1623. By Thomas Adams.
London : Printed by Aug. Matbewes, for Jobn Grismand, and are to be sold at his shop, in Paul's Alley, at the sign of the Gun. 1623.
To the Reverend and learned Dr Donne, Dean of St Paul's, together with the Prebend Residentiaries of the same Church, my vei-y good patrons. Right Worshipful, — Not out of any opinion of tbis sermon's wortb, to wbicb I dare not invite your judicious eyes ; nor any ambition to merit of my patrons, wbom I read styled petty creators ; but in bumble acknow- ledgment of yom- favours, I present tbis small rent of tbankfulness, the poor fruit of tbat tree wbicb grows on your own ground, and batb not from tbe world any otber sustenance. Vouchsafe, I beseecb you, your patronage to tbe cbild, wbo bave made tbe father of it Your worship's devoted homager,
Tho. Adams.
To THE Reader.
I neither affect those rheumatic pens that are still dropping upon tbe press, nor those phlegmatic spirits tbat will scarce be conjm'ed into tbe orb of employment. But if modest forwardness be a fault, I cannot excuse myself. It pleased God Almighty to make a fearful comment on this his own text, the very same day it was preached by his unworthiest servant. The argument was but audible in the morning, before night it was visible. His holy pen had long since written it with ink, now bis band of justice expounded in tbe characters of blood. There, was only a conditional menace : so it shall be. Here a terrible remonstrance : so it is. Sure ! be did not mean it for a nine days' wonder. Their sudden departure out of the world, must not so suddenly depart b-om the memory of tho world. Woe to that soul that shall take so slight a notice of so extraordinary a judgment. We do not say, They perished ; charity forbid it. But this we say, It is a sign of God's favour, when he gives a man law. We pass no sentence upon them, yet let us take warning by them. Tbe remarkableness would not be neglected, for the time, tbe place, the persons, tbe number, tbe manner. Yet stiU we conclude not, this was for the transgression of the dead ; but this we are sure of, it is meant for the admonition of the living. Such is our blessed Saviour's conclusion upon a parallel instance : Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. There is no place safe enough for offenders ; but when tbe Lord is once up in arms, happy man that can make bis own peace ! Otherwise, in vain we hope to run from the plague while we carry the sin along with us. Yet will not our wilful and bewitched recusants, from these legible characters, spell God's plain meaning. No impression can be made in those hearts, that are ordained to perish. For their malicious, causeless, and unchristian censures of us, God forgive them ; our requital be only pity and prayers for them. Howsoever they give out (and I will not here examine) that their piety is more than ours : impudence itself cannot deny, but our charity is greater than theirs. Now the holy fear of God keep us in the ways of faith and obedi- ence, that tbe preparation of death may never prevent our preparation to die. And yet still, after our best endeavoui-, from sudden death, good Lord, debver us all. Amen. T. A.
MEMOm OF THOMAS ADAMS. llii
This sermon was preached on October 26. 1623, the morning of what is known as * The fatal Vespers at Blackfriars.' Out of three hundred persons present, ninety-five were killed, and many more seriously injured. Particulars may be seen in many histories of that age (see Fuller's Church Hist, bk. x., cent, xvii., and Court of James I., vol. ii, pp. 428-433). The charity with which Adams speaks of this awful visitation (see Works, voL ii., p. 185) is note- worthy.
The Temple : A Sermon preached at Paul's Cross, the 5th of August 1624. By Thomas Adams.
London : Printed by A. Mathewes, for John Gi'ismand, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Alley, at the sign of the Gun. 162-i.
To the Eight Honourable Sir Henry Carey, Lord Housdon,
Viscount Eochford.
My Lord, — Among the many absurdities which give us just cause to abhor the religion of the present Roman Chui'ch, this seemeth to me none of the least, that they have filled all the temples under the command of their politic hierarchy with idols, and changed the glory of the invisible God into the worship of visible images. They invocate the saints by them, yea, they dare not serve the Lord without them. As if God had repealed his unchangeable law ; and instead of condemning all worship by an image, would now receive no worship without an image. I have observed this one, among the other famous marks of that synagogue, that they strive to con- demn that which God hath justified, and to justify what he hath condemned. For the former, he hath precisely directed our justification only by faith in the merits of Christ ; this they vehemently dispute against. For the other, he hath (not without mention of his jealousy) forbidden all worship that hath the least tang of idolatry ; this they eagerly maintain. What large volumes have they written against the Second Commandment ! as if they were not content to expunge it out of their catechisms, unless they did also dogmatise, contradict it to the whole world. They first set the people upon a plain rebeUion, and then make show to fetch them ofl' .again with a neat distinction. Thus do they pump their \rits to legitimate that by a distinction which God hath pronounced a bastard by his definite sentence ; as if the papal decrees were that law whereby the world should be judged at the last day. But who will regard a house of magnificent structure, of honour- able and ancient memory, when the plague hath infected it, or thieves possess it ? and who, in their right senses, will join themselves to that temple, which after pretence of long standing, stately building, and of many such prerogatives and royalties, is found to be besmeared with super- stitions, and profaned with innumerable idols ? \\Tiy should we dehght to dwell there, where God hath refused to dwell with us.
I pubhsh this argument as no new thing to your lordship, but wherein your well-experienced knowledge is able to inform me. Only I have been bold, through your thrice honoured name, to transmit this small discourse to the world ; emboldened by the long proof I have had of your constant love- to the truth, and the gracious piety of your most noble mother, tho
liv MEMOIR OP THOMAS ADAMS.
best encouragement of my poor labours on earth. The best blessings of God be still multiplied upon her, yourself, your religious lady, and your honourable family, which is continually implored by
Your lordship's humble servant,
Thomas Adams.
The Holy Choice. A Sermon preached at the Chapel of Guildhall, at the solemnities of the election of the Lord Mayor of London. Acts i. 24. By Thomas Adams. London. 1625.
A Sermon at the Triennial Visitation of the R. R. Father in God, the Lord Bishop of London, in Christ Church. Acts xv. 36. By Thomas Adams. London. 1625.
The Bishop of London, at this time, was Dr Moiintaigne. He had succeeded Dr King in 1621, and was translated to Durham in 1627. His successors were Laud in 1628, and Dr Juxon in 1633. It is worth marking under whose episcopate Adams spent the latter years of his life.
Meditations upon some parts of the Creed. 1629. (Vol. iii. page 85.)
Appended to the folio edition of the works, and probably pub- lished then for the first time. These ' Meditations ' have all the vigour, and even more than the usual learning, of Adams, and they will well repay perusal.
As the sheets of the 'Meditations' and of Ward's Sermons were passing through the press, the Editor was struck with the sameness of thought, and even of expression, in several instances. The reader may compare for himself, and certainly the coincidence cannot be accidental. It is possible that Ward and Adams were personal friends, and compared thoughts, each contributing hia share ; though tbeir political and ecclesiastical tendencies were widely different. The more probable solution is, that the one must have read or heard the other. Ward's book was first published in 1622, and bears on the last page the name of GrisTnand, who was one of Adams's publishers. So far as is known, the Meditations were not published till seven years later, though probably written some time before their pubKcation, Adams, therefore, seems the copyist. Perhaps he read the small volume of Ward as it was pub- lished, and when he was preaching his own Meditations. Without much intentional wrong, he may have adopted illustrations which struck him as suited for the day, and then have put them in print unacknowledged, having meanwhile forgotten their origin. His
MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
Iv
general richness of thought, and tlie extensive writing he had now in liand — for his foho Commentary on Peter must have been begun some time before — make this explanation probable. It may be added that he has in a variety of instances, through what must have been a similar oversight, repeated himself, inserting in his Commen- tary, for example, what had already been published in his Sermons.*
A Commentary or Exposition upon the Divine Second Epistle General written by the blessed Apostle St Peter. By Thomas Adams. London : Printed by Ri. Badger, for Jacob Bloom. 1633.
To the Truly Noble and Worthily Honoured Sir Henry IVIarten, Knight,
Judye of His Majesty's High Court of the Admiralty, and Dean of the
Arches' Court of Canterbury.
Noble Sir, — The merchant that hath once put to sea and made a pros- perous voyage, is hardly withheld from a second adventure. It liatli been my forwardness, not without the instinct of om* heavenly Pilot, the most blessed Sphit of God, to make one adventure before, for he that publisheth his meditations may be well called an adventurer. God knows what return hath been made to his ovm glory ; if but httle (and I can hope no less, though I have ever prayed for more), yet that hath been to me no httle comfort. I am now put forth again, upon the same voyage, in hope of better success. For my commission I sue to you, who have no small power both in the deciding of civil diflerences, and in the disposing of naval affairs, and matters of such commerce, bemg known well worthy of that authority in both these ecclesiastical and civil courts of judicature, that you would be pleased to bless my spiritual traffic with your auspicious approbation. I dare not commend my owti merchandise ; yet if I had not conceived some- what better of it than of my foimer, I durst not have been so ambitious as to present it unto you, of whose clear understanding, deep judgment, and sincere integrity, all good men among us have so full and confessed an experience. Yet besides your own candid disposition, and many real encouragements to me your poor servant, this may a little qualify my bold- ness, and vindicate me from an over-daring presumption ; that my aim is your pati"onage, not your instruction — not to inform your wisdom, which were to hold a taper to the sun — but to gain your acceptation and fair allowance, that, under your honoui-ed name, it may find the more free entertainment wheresoever it arrives, which (I am humbly persuaded) your goodness will not deny. That noble favour of yours, shining upon these my weak endeavours, will encourage me to publish some maturer thoughts, which otherwise have resolved never to see the light. The sole glory of our most gracious God, the edification and comfort of his church, with the true felicity of yourself and yours, shall be always prayed for by
Your ever honoured virtue's humble and thankful servant,
Thomas Adams.
* A large number of thoughts, in Jenkyn's Exposition of Judo (London, 1652) have been taken from Adams's Commentary on the 2d Peter. The curious in such questions may .see them in A Vindication of the Conjorming Clergy, &c., in a letter to a friend. London, 1076.
Ivi MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS.
Thus far in these vokimes the text is reprinted from the folio volume published by Adams himself The two following sermons are reprinted from a small volume in the British Museum. They bear the name of Thos. Adams on the title ; and are clearly, from internal evidence, the production of the same man. They were published in 1653, the year in which Cromwell became Lord Pro- tector. The author was then passing ' a necessitous and decrepit old age ;' but his spirit is as bold and as unbroken as ever. We should be recreant to our principles as admirers of all conscientious servants of our Lord, if we withheld from Adams amid these dis- tresses the tribute of our sympathy and love.
God's Anger and Man's Comfort : Two Sermons Preached and Pub- lished by Thomas Adams.
London : Printed by Thomas Maxey for Samuel Mara, at the sign of the Swan in St Paul's Churchyard. 1653.
To the most honourable and charitable benefactors, whom God hath honoured for his almoners and sanctified to be his dispensers of the fruits of charity and mercy to me, in this my necessitous and decrepit old age, I humbly present this testimony of my thankfulness, with my incessant ap- precations to the Father of all mercies, to reward them for it in this hfe, and to crown their souls with everlasting joy and glory in the life to come, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Thomas Adams.
The Publisher is indebted to the Kev. A. B. Grosart of Kinross for bringing these sermons under his notice ; and to the same loving inquirer into all that Adams has done and taught, the writer of this brief memoir begs to express his obligations.
J. A.
SEMPER IDEM;
OB,
THE IMMUTABLE MEECY OF JESUS CHRIST.
'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.'' — Heb. XITE. 8.
By the name of Jehovah was God kno^vn to Israel, from the time of the first mission of Moses to them, and their manumission out of Egj'pt, and not befoi'e. For, saith God to Moses, ' I appeared unto Abraham, and unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty ; but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them,' Exod. vi. 3. This I am is an eternal word, comprehending three times : ' that was, that is, and is to come.'
Now, to testify the equality of the Son to the Father, the Scripture gives the same eternity to Jesus that it doth to Jehovah. He is called Alpha and Omega, jmmns et novissiuitis, ' the First and the Last : which is, which was, and which is to come,' Rev. i. ; and here, * the same j'csterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Therefore he was not only Christ us Dei, the anointed of God, but Christus Deus, God himself anointed ; seeing that eternity, which hath neither beginning nor ending, is only pecuhar and proper to God.
The words may be distinguished into a centre, a circumference, and a mediate line, refeiTing the one to the other. The immovable centre is Jesus Christ. The circumference, that nms round about him here, is eternity : ' Yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' The mediate line rcfemng them is, 6 a'jrog, the same : ' Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.'
I. The centre is Jesus Christ. Jesus was his proper name, Christ his appellative. Jesus a name of his natui'e, Christ of his office and dignity ; as divines speak.
Jesus, a name of all sweetness. Mel in ore, inelos in aure, juhihis in corde.^- A reconciler, a Redeemer, a Sa\'iour. When the conscience wrestles with law, sin, death, there is nothing but horror and despair without Jesus. He is ' the way, the truth, and the hfe ; ' ■without him, error, mcndacium, mors. Si scribas, von j)lacet, nisi lef/am ibi, Jesum, saith Bernard : If thou writcst to me, thy letter doth not please me, unless I read there Jesus. If thou conferrest, thy discourse is not sweet, without the name of Jesus. The
*" Bcr. in Can.
2 SEMPER IDEM, [SeRMON LVIII.
blessed restorer of all, of more than all that Adam lost ; for we have gotten more by his regenerating gi'ace than we lost by Adam's degenerating sin.
Christ is the name of his office ; being appointed and anointed of God a king, a priest, a prophet.
This Jesus Christ is our Savioui' : of whose names I forbear further dis- course, being unable, though I had the tongue of angels, to speak aught worthy taiito nomine, tanto numine. All that can be said is but a httle ; but I must say but a little in all. But of all names given to our Redeemer, still Jesus is the sweetest. Other, saith Bernard, are names of majesty; Jesus is a name of mercy. The Word of God, the Son of God, the Christ of God, are titles of glory; Jesus, a Saviour, is a title of grace, mercy, re- demption.
This Jesus Christ is the centre of this text ; and not only of this, but of the whole Scripture. The sum of divinity is the Scripture ; the sum of the Scripture is the gospel; the sum of the gospel is Jesus Christ; in a word, nihil continet verbum Domini, nisi verbum Dominum. There is nothing con- tained in the word of God, but God the word.
Nor is he the centre only of his word, but of our rest and peace. ' I de- termined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified,' 1 Cor. ii. 2. Thou hast made us for thee, 0 Christ; and our heart is unquiet till it rest in thee. It is natural to everything ajopetere centrum, to desire the centre. But ' our hfe is hid with Christ in God,' Col. iii. 3. We must needs amare, where we must animare. Our mind is where our pleasure is, our heart is where our treasure is, our love is where oui' life is ; but all these, our pleasure, treasure, life, are reposed in Jesus Christ. ' Thou art my portion, 0 Lord,' saith David. Take the world that please, let our portion be in Christ. ' We have left all,' saith Peter, 'and followed thee,' Matt. xix. 27; you have lost nothing by it, saith Christ, for you have gotten me. Nimis avarus est, cui non sufficit Christus. He is too covetous, whom Jesus Christ cannot satisfy. Let us seek this centre, saith Agustine : QiKBramus inveniendum, qu^ramus inventum. Ut inveniendus quaratur, paratus est : ut inventus quaratur, immensus est : * Let us seek him till we have found him ; and still seek him when we have found him. That seeking, we may find him, he is ready; that finding, we may seek him, he is infinite. You see the centre.
II. The referring line, proper to this centre, is Semper idem, ' The same.' There is no mutabiUty in Christ; ' no variableness, nor shadow of turning,' Jam. i. 17. All lower lights have their inconstancy; but in the ' Father of lights' there is no changeableness. The sun hath his shadow; the ' Sun of righteousness ' is without shadow, Mai. iv, 2 ; that tm-ns upon the dial, but Christ hath no tiu'ning. ' Whom he loves, he loves to the end,' John xui. 1. He loves us to the end; of his love there is no end. Tempus erit consummandi, nullum consumendi misericordiam. His mercy shall be per- fected in us, never ended. ' In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment ; but with everlasting kindness wiU I have mercy upon thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer,' Isa. liv. 8. His wrath is short, his goodness is everlasting. ' The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee,' ver. 10. The mountains are stable things, the hills stedfast; yet hills, mountains, yea the whole earth, shall totter on its foundations ; yea the veiy ' heavens shall pass away with a noise, and the elements shall melt with heat,' 2 Pet. iii.
* In Joan.
HeB. XTTT. 8.] SEMPER IDEM. 8
10 ; but the covenant of God shall not bo broken. ' I will betroth thee unto me for ever,' saith God, Hos. ii. 19. This marriage -bond shall never be cancelled; nor sin, nor death, nor hell, shall be able to divorce us. Six-and-tweuty times in one psalm that sweet singer chaunts it ; ' His mercy endureth for ever,' Ps. cxxxvi. ' Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.'
As this meditation distils into our believing hearts much comfort, so let it give us some instructions. Two things it readily teacheth us : a dissuasive caution, and a persuasive lesson.
1. It dissuades our confidence in worldly things, because they are incon- stant. How poor a space do they remain, Ta aura, ' the same.' To prove this, you have in Jud. i. 7, a jury of thi-eescoro and ten kings to take their oaths upon it. Ever}' one had his throne, yet there they lick up cnimbs under another king's table ; and shortly even this king, that made them all so miserable, is made himself most miserable. Solomon compares wealth to a wild fowl. ' Riches make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle toward heaven,' Prov. xxiii. 5. Not some tame house-bird, or a hawk that may be fetched down with a Im-e, or found again by her bells; but an eagle, that violently cuts the air, and is gone past recalling.
Wealth is hke a bird; it hops all day fi'om man to man, as that doth fi-om tree to tree ; and none can say where it will roost or rest at night. It is like a vagi'ant fellow, which because he is big-boned, and able to work, a man takes in a-doors, and cherisheth; and perhaps for a while he takes pains; but when he spies opportunity, the fugitive servant is gone, and takes away more with him than all his service came to. The world may seem to stand thee in some stead for a season, but at last it irrevocably runs away, and carries with it thy joys; thy goods, as Rachel stole Laban's idols ; thy peace and content of heart goes with it, and thou art left des- perate.
You see how quickly riches cease to be ' the same : ' and can any other earthly thing boast more stability ? Honom- must put off its robes when the play is done ; make it never so glorious a show on this world's stage, it hath but a short part to act. A gi-eat name of worldly glory is but like a peal iTing on the bells ; the common people ai-e the clappers ; the rope that moves them is popularity ; if you once let go yom- hold and leave pulUng, the clapper lies still, and farewell honour. Strength, though, like Jero- boam, it put forth the ami of oppression, shall soon fall do\vn withered, 1 Kings xiii. 4. Beauty is like an almanack : if it last a year it is well. Pleasure like hghtning: oritur, moritur ; sweet, but short; a flash and away.
All vanities are but butterflies, which wanton children greedily catch for* ; and sometimes they fly beside them, sometimes before them, sometimes behind them, sometimes close by them ; yea, thi-ough their fingers, and yet they miss them ; and when they have them, they are but buttei-flies ; they have painted wings, but are crude and squalid wonns. Such are the things of this world, vanities, butterflies. Vel scqnendo labimur, rel asscquendo ladi- mur. The world itself is not unlike an artichoke ; nine parts of it are unpro- fitable leaves, scarce the tithe is good : about it there is a little picking meat, nothing so wholesome as dainty : in the midst of it there is a core, which is enough to choke them that devour it.
0 then set not yom- hearts upon these things : calcaiida stmt, as Jerome observes on Acts iv. * They that sold their possessions, brought the prices, and laid them do^^^l at the Apostles' feet," Acts iv. 35. At their feet, not at
* Anselm, Medit.
4 SEIMPEK IDEM. [SeRMON L'VUJ..
their hearts ; they are fitter to be trodden under feet, than to he waited on with hearts. I conclude this with Augustine. Ecce turbat mimdus, etaviatur: quid si tranquillus esset ? Formosa quomodo hareres, qui sic amplecteris fadum? Flores ejus qiiam colligeres,qui sic a sjnnis non revocas maimm ? Quam confideres (Bterno, qui sic adhceres caduco ? Behold, the world is turbulent and full of vexation, yet it is loved ; how would it be embraced if it were calm and quiet ? If it were a beauteous damsel, how would they dote on it, that so kiss it being a deformed stigmatic ? How greedily would they gather the flowers, who would not forbear the thorns ? They that so adrnke it being transient and temporal, how would they be enamoured on it if it were eternal ? But ' the world passeth,' 1 John ii. 17, and God abideth. ' They shall perish, but thou remainest : they all shall wax old as doth a garment : and as a vestm-e shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed : but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail,' Heb. i. 11, 12. Therefore, 'trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God,' 1 Tim. vi. 17. And then, ' they that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion, which cannot be re- moved, but abideth for ever,' Psa. cxxv. 1. ' Jesus Christ, the same yes- terday, and to-day, and for ever.'
2. This persuades us to an imitation of Christ's constancy. Let the stableness of his mercy to us work a stableness of om* love to him. And howsoever, like the lower orbs, we have a natural motion of our own from good to evil, yet let us sufler the higher power to move us supernaturally from evil to good. There is in us indeed a reluctant flesh, * a law in our members warring against the law of om-mind,' Eom. vii. 23. So Augustine confesseth : Nee x>lcme nolebam, nee plane voleham. And, £"^70 eram qui voU- bam, ego qui nolebam.''' I neither fully granted, nor plainly denied ; and it was I myself that both would and would not. But our ripeness of Chris- tianity must overgi'ow fluctuant thoughts.
Lrresolution and unsteadiness is hatefol, and unlike to our master Christ, who is ever the same. ' A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,' James i. 8. The inconstant man is a stranger in his own house : all his purposes are but guests, his heart is the inn.' If they lodge there for a night, it is all ; they are gone in the morning. Many motions come crowd- ing together upon him ; and like a great press at a narrow door, whiles all strive, none enter. The epigrammatist wittily.
Omnia cum facias, miraris cur facias nil ? Posthume, rem solam qui facit, ille facit.f
He that will have an oar for every man's boat, shall have none left to row his own. They, saith Melancthon, that A\ill know aliquid in omnibus, shall indeed know nihil in toto. Their admiration or dotage of a thing is extreme for the time, but it is a wonder if it outlive the age of a wonder, which is allowed but nine days. They are angiy with time, and say the times are dead, because they produce no more innovations. Their inquiry of aU things is not qudm bonum, but qudm novum.. They are almost weaiy of the sun for continual shining. Continuance is a sufficient quarrel against the best things ; and the manna of heaven is loathed because it is common.
This is not to be always the same, but never the same ; and whiles they would be every thing, they are nothing : but like the wonn Pliny writes of, mulVqjoda, that hath many feet, yet is of slow pace. Awhile you shall have him in England, loving the simple truth ; anon in Rome, gi'ovelling before an image. Soon after he leaps to Amsterdam ; and yet must he still be *■ Confess, lib. viii. cap. 10. f Martial, Epig. lib. 3.
Keb. Xin. 8.] SEMPER IDEM. 5
turning, till there be nothing left but to turn Turk. To winter an opinion is too tedious ; he hath been many things. What ho will be, you shall scarce know till ho is nothing.
But the God of constancy would have his to be constant. Stcdfast in your faith to him. * Continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel,' Col. i. 23. Stedfast in yoiu' faithfulness to man, promising and not disappointing, Psalm xv. 4. Do not aliitd stantes, aliud sedentcs, lost yom* changing with God teach God to change with you. Nemo potest tihi Christ tan aiij'crre, 7iisi te illi an/eras.-'-- No man can tiu-n Christ from thee, unless thou turn thyself from Christ. For ' Jesus Chi'ist the same yesterday,' &c.
III. We now come to the circumference, wherein is a distinction of three times; past, present, future. Tcmjyora mutantur: the times change, the cii"cumfereuce wheels about, but the centre is ' the same for ever.'
We must resolve this triplicity into a triplicity. Christ is the same ac- cording to these thi'ee distinct terms, three distinct ways : — 1. Objective, in his word ; 2, subjective, in his power ; 3, effective, in his gi'acious operation.
1. Objectively. — Jesus Christ is the same'in his word ; and that (1) Yesterday in pre-ordination ; (2) To-day in incarnation ; (3) For ever in application.
(1.) Yesterday in pre-ordination. — So St Peter, in his sermon, tells the Jews, that ' he was delivered by the detei-minate counsel and foreknowledge of God,' Acts ii. 23. And in his epistle, that ' he was verily preordained before the foundation of the world,' 1 Pet. i. 20. He is called the 'Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,' Rev. xiii. 8. F rim prof nit, qitam fuit. His prophets did foretell him, the types did prefigm-e him, God him- self did promise him. Eatiis ordo Dei : the decree of God is constant.
Much comfort I must here leave to j'our meditation. If God preordained a Saviour for man, before he had either made man, or man maiTed himself, — as Paul to Timoth}-, ' He hath saved us according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Chi'ist Jesus before the world began,' 2 Tim. i. 9 ; — then surely he meant that nothing should separate us from his eter- nal love in that Saviom*, Rom. viii. 39. Quos elegit increatos, redemit per- ditos, non deserct redemptos. Whom he chose before they were created, and when they were lost redeemed, he will not forsake being sanctified.
(2.) To-day in incarnation. — ' When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman,' Gal. iv. 4. * The Word was made flesh,' John i. 14 ; which was, saith Emissenus,f Kon deposita, sed seposita majestate. Thus he became younger than his mother, that is as eternal as his Father. He was yesterday God before all worlds, he is now made man in the world. Sam/uinem, quern pro viatre obtulit, antea de sanpidne matris accepit.\ The blood that he shed for his mother, he had from his mother. The same Eusebius, on the ninth of Isaiah, acutely, ' Unto us a child is bom, unto us a son is given,' Isa. ix. 6. He was Datus ex Vivinitate, natus ex virfjine. Datus est qui erat ; natus est qui non erat. He was given of the Deity, born of the Virgin. He that was given, was before; he, as born, was not before. Donum dedit Deus aquale sibi : God gave a gift equal to himself.
So he is the same yesterday and to-day, objectively in his word. Idem qui velatus in vcteri, revelatus in novo. In illo pro'dictus, in isto pra'dicatus. Yesterday prefigured in the law, to-day the same manifested in the gospel.
(3.) For ever in operation. § — He doth continually by his Spirit apply to our consciences the virtue of his death and passion. * As many as receive
* Ambr. in Luc. lib. 5. J Eusob. Emiss. ubi supra,
t Horn. 2, de Nat. Christ. § AppUcatiou. — Ed.
6 SEMPEE IDEM. [SeKMON LVTU.
him, to them gives he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,' John i. 12. ' By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,' Heb. x. 14. This is sure comfort to us ; though he died almost 1629 years ago, his blood is not yet dry. His wounds are as fresh to do us good, as they were to those saints that beheld them bleeding on the cross. The virtue of his merits is not abated, though many hands of faith have taken large portions out of his treasury. The river of his grace, ' which makes glad the city of God,' runs over its banks, though infinite souls have drank hearty draughts, and satisfied their thirst. But because we cannot apprehend this for ourselves of om-selves, therefore he hath promised to send us the ' Spirit of truth, who will dwell with us,' John xiv. 17, and apply this to us for ever. Thus you have seen the first triplicity, how he is the same objectively in his word. Now he is
2. Subjectively, in his power the same ; and that (1) Yesterday, for he made the world ; (2) To-day, for he governs the world ; (3) For ever, for he shall judge the world.
(1.) Yesterday in the creation. * All things were made by him, and with- out him was not anything made that was made,' John i. 3. ' By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invi- sible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers ; all things were created by him, and for him,' Col. i. 16. All things, even the great and fair book of the world, of three so large leaves, ccelum, solum., salum ; heaven, earth, and sea. The prophet calls him ' the everlasting Father,' Isa. ix. 6; Daniel, the 'Ancient of days,'J)an. vii. 9. Solomon says, that ' the Lord possessed him in the beginning of his way, before his works of old,' Prov. viii. 22. So himself told the unbelieving Jews, * Be- fore Abraham was, I am,' John viii. 58.
We owe, then, ourselves to Chi'ist for our creation ; but how much more for our redemption ? Si totum me debeo pro me facto, quid addam jam pro me refecto ? In p)rimo opere me mihi dedit: in secundo se mihi deditJ^' If I owe him my whole self for making me, what have I left to pay him for re- deeming me ? In the first work, he gave myself to me ; in the second, he gave himself to me. By a double right, we owe him ourselves; we are worthy of a double punishment, if we give him not his own.
(2.) To-day in the governing. ' He upholdeth all things by the word of his power,' Heb. i. 3. He is jyater familias, and disposeth all things in this universe with gi'eater care and providence than any householder can manage the business of his private family. He leaves it not, as the car- penter having built the fi'ame of an house, to others to perfect it, but looks to it himself. His creation and providence are like the mother and the nurse, the one producetb, the other preserveth. His creation was a short providence ; his providence a perpetual creation. The one sets up the frame of the house, the other keeps it in reparation.
Neither is this a disparagement to the majesty of God, as the vain Epicures imagined, curare minima, to regard the least things, but rather an honour, curare iufinita, to regard all things. Neither doth this extend only to natural things, chained together by a regular order of succession, but even to casual and contingent things. Oftentimes, ciim aliud volumus, aliud agimus, the event crosseth our purpose ; which must content us, though it faU out otherwise than we purposed, because God purposed as it is fallen out. It is enough that the thing attain its owia end, though it miss ours ; that God's will be done, though ours be crossed. * Bern, de dilig. Deo.
HeB. XIII. 8.] SEMPER IDEM. 7
But let me say, Hath God care of fowls and flowers, and will he not care for you, his own image ? Matt. ^^. 2G-80. Yea, let me go further ; hath God care of the wicked ? Doth he pour down the happy influences of heaven on the ' unjust man's gi'omid ?' Matt. v. 45. And shall the faith- ful want his hlcssing '? Doth he provide for the sons of Belial, and shall his own children lack ? He may give meat and raiment to the rest, but his bounty to Benjamin shall exceed. If Moab, his wash-pot, taste of his benefits, then Judah, the signet on his finger, cannot be forgotten. The king governs all the subjects in his dominions, but his servants that wait in his court partake of his most princely favours. God heals the sores of the very wicked ; but if it be told him, * Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick,' (John xi. 3), it is enough, he shall be healed. The wicked may have out- ward blessings without inward, and that is Esau's pottage without his birth- right ; but the elect have inward blessings, though they want outward, and that is Jacob's inheritance without his pottage.
(3.) For ever : because he shall judge the world. * God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained,' Acts x^^i. 31. ' In the day that God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ,' Rom. ii. 16. Let the wicked flatter them- selves that all is but talk of any coming to judgment ; ?io» aliml videre patres, aliudve ncpotcs aspicient ; all is but ierricidamcnta ntitricuni, mere scare-babes. Scribarum penncc mendaces ; they have written lies, there is no such matter. But when they shall see that Lamb ' whom they have pierced' and scorned (Rev. i. 7), 'they shall ciy to the mountains and rocks. Fall upon us, and cover us,' Rev. vi. 16. Now they flatter them- selves with his death ; Mortuus est, he is dead and gone ; and ]\[ortuum CcEsarem quis metidt ? Who fears even a Caisar when he is dead ? But ' He that was dead, liveth ; behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen,' Rev. i. 18. ' Jesus Christ, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Qimsitor scclerum veniet, vindexque reorum.
Here is matter of infallible comfort to us : ' Lift up your heads, for your redemption di'aweth nigh,' Lulie xxi. 28. Here we are imprisoned, mar- tyred, tortured ; but when that great assize and general jail-deliveiy comes, mors non erit ultra, ' There shall be no more death nor sorrow, but all tears shall be wiped fi-om om- eyes,' Rev. xxi. 4. ' For it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels,' 2 Thess. i. 6, 7. We shall then find him the same; — the same Lamb that bought us shall give us a Venitc heati, ' Come, ye blessed, receive your kingdom.' ' Sm'ely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come. Lord Jesus,' Rev. xxii. 20.
3. Effectually in his grace and mercy. So he is the same, (1) Yesterday to our fathers; (2) To-day to ourselves; (3) For ever to our children.
(1.) Yesterday to our fathers. — All our fathers, whose souls are now in heaven, those ' spirits of just men made perfect,' Heb. xii. 23, were, as the next words intimate, saved * by Jesus, the INIediator of the new covenant, and by the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.' AVhether they lived under nature, or under the law, Christ was their expectation ; and they were justified credendo in venturum Christum, by beheving in the Messiah to come. So Luke ii. 25, Simeon is said to ' wait for the consolation of Israel.'
(2.) To-day to ourselves. — His mercy is everlasting; his truth endureth from generation to generation. The same gracious Saviour that he was
8 SEMPER IDEM. [SeEMON LVIII.
yesterday to our fathers, is he to-day to us, if we be to-day faithful to him. All catch at this comfoi-t, but in vain without the hand of faith. There is no deficiency in him ; but is there none in thee ? Whatsoever Chiist is, what art thou ? He forgave Maiy Magdalene many grievous sins ; so he will forgive thee, if thou canst shed Mary Magdalene's tears. He took the malefactor from the cross to Paradise ; thither he will receive thee if thou have the same faith. He was merciful to a denying apostle ; challenge thou the like mercy, if thou have the like repentance. If we will be like these, Christ, assuredly, will be ever like himself. When any man shall prove to be such a sinner, he will not fail to be such a Saviour.
To-day he is thine, if to-day thou wilt be his : thine to-morrow, if yet to-morrow thou wilt be his. But how if dark death prevent the morrow's light ? He was yesterday, so wert thou : he is to-day, so art thou : he is to-morrow, so perhaps mayest thou not be. Time may change thee, though it cannot change him. He is not (but thou art) subject to mutation. This I dare boldly say : he that repents but one day before he dies, shall find Christ the same in mercy and forgiveness. Wickedness itself is glad to hear this ; but let the sinner be faithful on his part, as God is merciful on his part : let him be sure that he repent one day before he dies, whereof he cannot be sm'e, except he repent eveiy day ; for no man knows his last day. Latet ultimus dies, ut observetur omnis dies. Therefore (saith Augustine) we know not our last day, that we might observe every day. ' To-day, therefore, hear his voice,' Psa. xcv. 7.
Thou hast lost yesterday negligently, thou losest to-day wilfully; and therefore mayest lose for ever inevitably. It is just with God to punish two days' neglect with the loss of the third. The hand of faith may be withered, the spring of repentance dried up, the eye of hope blind, the foot of charity lame. To-day, then, hear his voice, and make him thine. Yesterday is lost, to-day may be gotten ; but that once gone, and thou with it, when thou art dead and judged, it will do thee small comfort that ' Jesus Christ is the same for ever.'
(3.) For ever to our children. — He that was yesterday the God of Abraham, is to-day ours, and wiU be for ever our children's. As well now 'the light of the Gentiles,' as before 'the glory of Israel,' Luke ii. 32. I will be the God of thy seed, saith the Lord to Abraham. ' His mercy is on them that fear him, from generation to generation,' Luke i. 50.
Many persons are solicitously perplexed, how their children shaU do when they are dead ; yet they consider not how God provided for them when they were children. Is the ' Lord's arm shortened ? ' Did he take thee from thy mother's breasts; and 'when thy parents forsook thee,' (as the Psalmist saith), became thy Father ? And cannot this experienced mercy to thee, persuade thee that he will not forsake thine ? Is not ' Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever?' 'I have been young,' saith David, ' and am now old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken' — that is granted, nay — 'nor his seed begging bread,' Ps. xxxvii. 25.
Many distrustful fathers are so carking for their posterity, that while they live they stai-ve their bodies, and hazard their souls, to leave them rich. To such a father it is said justly : Dives es liaredi, j^miper inopsque tibi. Like an over-kind hen, he feeds his chickens, and famisheth himself. If usury, circumvention, oppression, extortion, can make them rich, they shall not be poor. Their folly is ridiculous ; they fear lest their children should be miserable, yet take the only com-se to make them miserable ; for
HeB. XIII. 8.] SEMPER IDEM. 9
they leave tlicm not so much heirs to their goods as to their evils. They do as certainly inherit their father's sins as their lands : ' God layeth up his iniquity for his children ; and his offspring shall want a morsel of hread,' Job xxi. 19.
On the contraiy, 'the good man is merciful, and lendclh; and his seed is blessed,' Ps. xxxvii. 26. That the worldling thinks shall make his posterity poor, God saith shall make the good man's rich. The precept gives a promise of mercy to obedience, not only confined to the obedient man's self, but extended to his seed, and that even to a thousand genera- tions, Exod. XX. 6. Trust, then, Christ with thy children ; when thy friends shall fail, usury bear no date, oppression be condemned to hell, thyself rotten to the dust, the world itself turned and bm-ned into cinders, still 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Now then, as ' grace and peace arc from him which is, and which was, and which is to come;' so glory and honour be to him, which is, and which was, and which is to come ; even to * Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,' Rev. i. 4.
THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE.
But the tongue can no man tame ; it is an imrmy evil, full of deadly 2wiso7i.' — James III. 8.
Heee is a single position, guarded with a double reason. The position is, ' No man can tame the tongue.' The reasons; 1. It is 'unruly.' 2. ' Full of deadly poison.' Here is busy dealing with a wild member ; a more difficult task, and intractable nature have met. Tongue is the subject (I mean in the discom-se), and can you ever think of subjecting it to modest reason, or taming it to religion ? Go lead a lion in a single hair, send up an eagle to the sky to peck out a star, coop up the thunder, and quench a flaming city with one widow's tears ; if thou couldst do these, yet nescit modo lingua domari. As the proposition is backed with two rea- sons ; so each reason hath a terrible second. The evil hath for its second un- ruliness ; the poisonfulness hath deadly. It is evil, yea, unraly evil ; it is poison, yea, deadly poison. The fort is so barricaded, that it is hard scaling it ; the refractory rebel so guarded with evil and poison, so warded with un- raly and deadly, as if it were with giants in an enchanted tower, as they fabulate, that no man can tame it. Yet let us examine the matter, and find a stratagem to subdue it.
I. In the Proposition we will observe, 1. The nature of the thing to be tamed. 2. The difficulty of accomplishing it.
1. The insubjectable subject is the tongue, which is (1), a member; and (2), an excellent, necessary, little, singular member.
(1.) It is a member. — He that made all made the tongue; he that craves all, must have the tongue. Qui creavit necessariam, postulat creatam. It is an instrument ; let it give music to him that made it. All creatures in their kind bless God, Ps. cxhdii. They that want tongues, as the heavens, sun, stars, meteors, orbs, elements, praise him with such obedient testi- monies as their insensible natures can aflford. They that have tongues, though they want reason, praise him with those natural organs. The bii'ds of the air sing, the beasts of the earth make a noise ; not so much as the hissing serpents, the very ' dragons in the deep,' but sound out his praise. Man, then, that hath a tongue, and a reason to guide it, and more, a reh- gion to direct his reason, should much much more bless him. Therefore, says the Psalmogi-apher, that for the well timing of his tongue is called the ' Sweet Singer of Israel,' ' I will praise the Lord with the best instrument I have,' which was his tongue.
James HI. 8.] the taming of the tongue. 11
Not that praise can add to God's glor}-, nor blasphemies detract from it. The blessing tongue cannot make him better, nor the cm-sing, worse. Nee melior si laudavcris, nee deterior si vituperavemJ- As the sun is neither bettered by birds singing, nor battered by dogs barking. He is so infinitely great, and constantly good, that his glory admits neither addition nor di- minution.
Yet we that cannot make his name greater, can make it seem greater ; and though wo cannot enlarge his gloiy, wo may enlarge the manifestation of his gloiy. This both in words praising and in works practising. We know it is impossible to make a new Christ, as the papists boast the al- mightiness of their priests ; yet our holy lives and happy lips (if I may so speak) may make a little Christ a great Christ. They that before little re- garded him, may thus be brought to esteem him gi'eatly ; giving him the honom* due to his name, and glorifying him, after om* example.
This is the tongue's office. Every member, without arrogating any merit, or boasting the beholdenness of the rest unto it, is to do that duty which is assigned to it. The eye is to see for all, the ear to hear for all, the hand to work for all, the feet to walk for all, the knees to bow for all, the tongue to praise God for all. This is the tongue's office, not unlike the town-clerk's, which, if it perform not well, the corporation is better without it. The tongue is man's clapper, and is given him that he may sound out the praise of his Maker. Infinite causes draw deservingly from man's lips, a devout acknowledgment of God's praise ; Quia Creator ad esse; Conservator in esse; Becreator in bene esse; Glorijicator in optima esse.
He gave us being that had none ; presented us in that being ; restored us, voluntarily fallen, unto a better being ; and will glorify us with the best at the day of the Lord Jesus. Then let the tongue know. Si non reddet Deo faciendo qim debet, reddet eipatiendo qua; debet.} If it will not pay God the debt it owes him in an active thankfulness, it shall pay him in a passive painfulness. Let the meditation hereof put our tongues into tune. ' A word fitly spoken, is like apples of gold in pictures of silver,' Prov. xxv. 11.
(2.) It is a member you hear ; we must take it with all its properties ; excellent, necessaiy, little, singular.
[1.] Excellent. Abstractively and simply understood, it is an exceeding excellent member, both quoad mojestatem, et quoad jucunditatem.
First ; For the majesty of it, it carries an imperious speech ; wherein it hath the pre-eminence of all mortal creatures. It was man's tongue to which the Lord gave licence to call all the living creatures, and to give them names, Gen. ii. 19. And it is a strong motive to induce and to beget in other terrene natures a reverence and admiration of man. Therefore it is observed, that God did punish the ingi-atitude of Balaam, when he gave away some of the dignity proper to man, which is use of speech, and im- parted it to the ass. Man alone speaks. I know that spirits can frame an aerial voice, as the devil when he spake in the serpent that fatal temptation, as in a trunk ; but man only hath the habitual faculty of speaking.
SccondJij; For the pleasantness of the tongue, the general consent of all gives it the truest vwlos, and restrains all musical organs from the worth and praise of it. * The pipe and the psaltery make sweet melody ; but a pleasant tongue is above them both,' Ecclus. xl. 21. No instruments are so ravishing, or prevail over man's heart with so powerful complacency, as the tongue and voice of man.
If the tongue be so excellent, how then doth this text censure it for so * Aug. in Ps. exxxiv. ■)■ August.
12 THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeEMON LIX.
evil ? I take the pliiloshplier's old and trite answer, Lingua nihil est vel bona melius, vel mala pejus : Than a good tongue, there is nothing better ; than an evil, nothing worse. Nihil habet medium , aut grande honum est, aut grande malum ;•'•= It hath no mean ; it is either exceedingly good or ex- cessively evil. It knows nothing but extremes ; and is or good, best of all ; or bad, worst of all. If it be good, it is a walking garden, that scatters in every place a sweet flower, an herb of gi'ace to the hearers. If it be evil, it is a wild bedlam, fall of goading and madding mischiefs. So the tongue is every man's best or worst moveable.
Hereupon that philosophical servant, when he was commanded to provide the best meat for his master's table, the worst for the family, bought and brought to either, neats' tongues. His moral was, that this was both the best and worst service, according to the goodness or badness of the tongue. A good tongue is a special dish for Grod's public service. Pars optima hominis, dignaqucB sit hostia:\ The best part of a man, and most worthy the honour of sacrifice. This only when it is well seasoned. Seasoned, I say, ' with salt,' as the apostle admonisheth ; not with fire, Col. iv. G. Let it not be so salt as fii-e (as that proverb speaks), which no man living hath tasted. There is ' a city of salt, 'mentioned Josh. xv. 62. Let no man be an inhabitant of this salt city. Yet better a salt tongue than an oily. Rather ' let the righteous reprove me,' than the precious balms of flatterers break my head, whilst they most sensibly soothe and supple it. We allow the tongue salt, not pepper ; let it be well seasoned, but not too hot. Thus a good tongue is God's dish, and he will accept it at his own table.
But an evil tongue is meat for the devil, according to the Italian proverb : The devil makes his Christmas pie of lewd tongues. It is his daintiest dish, and he makes much of it ; whether on earth, to serve his turn as an instru- ment of mischief, or in hell, to answer his fury in torments. Thus saith Solomon of the good tongue : ' The tongue of the just is as choice silver, and the lips of the righteous feed many,' Prov. x. 20, 21. But Saint James of the bad one : ' It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.'
[2.] It is necessary ; so necessary, that without a tongue I could not de- clare the necessity of it. It converseth with man, convejdng to others by this organ that experimental knowledge which must else live and die in himself. It imparts secrets, communicates joys, which would be less happy suppressed than they are expressed ; mirth without a partner is hilaris cum pondere feli- citas. But to disburden giiefs, and pour forth sorrows in the bosom of a friend, 0 necessary tongue ! How many hearts would have burst if thou hadst not given them vent ! How many souls fallen grovelling under their load, if thou hadst not called for some supportance ! How many a panting spiiit hath said, I will speak yet ere I die ; and by spealdng received com- fort ! Lastly, it speaks our devotions to heaven, and hath the honour to confer with God. It is that instrument which the Holy Ghost useth in us to cry, ' Abba, Father.' It is our spokesman ; and he that can hear the heart without a tongue, regardeth the devotions of the heart better, when they are sent up by a diligent messenger, a faithful tongue.
[3.] It is little. As man is a little world in the great, so is his tongue a great world in the little. It is a ' little member,' saith the apostle, ver. 5, yet it is a world ; yea, pravitatis universitas, ' a world of iniquity,' ver. 6. It is parvum, but pravum ; little in quantity, but great in iniquit3\ What it hath lost in the thickness, it hath gotten in the quickness ; and the defect of magnitude is recompensed in the agility. An arm may be longer, but the * Hieron. t Prudentiu3.
James III. 8.] the taming of the tongue. 13
tongiie is stronger ; and a leg hath more flesh than it hath, besides bones, which it hath not ; yet the tongue still nins quicker and faster : and if the wager lie for holding out, without doubt the tongue shall win it.
If it be a talking tongue, it is iniuidiis fjarnditaiis, a world of prating. If it be a wrangling tongue, it is 7nundus Utir/atioim, a world of babbling. If it be a learned tongue, it is, as Erasmus said of Bishop Tonstal, mundus eruditionis, a world of learning. If it be a petulant tongue, it is mundm scurrilitatis, a world of wantonness. If it be a poisonous tongue, it is 7nun- dus infectionis; saith our apostle, 'it defileth the whole body,' vcr. G. It is ' httle.'
So httle, that it will scarce give a kite her breakfast, yet it can discourse of the sun and stars, of orbs and elements, of angels and devils, of nature and arts ; and hath no straiter limits than the whole world to walk through. Homuncio est, rjiganteajactat: It is a 'httle member,' yet ' boasteth great things,' ver. 5.
Though it bo httle, yet if good, it is of gi-eat use. A little bit guidcth a great horse, ad cquitis libitum, to the rider's pleasure. A little helm nileth a^'eat vessel ; though the winds blow, and the floods oppose, yet the helm > steers the ship. Though little, yet if evil, it is of gi-eat mischief. ' A little leaven sours the whole lump,' 1 Cor. v. G. A little reinora dangers a great vessel. A little sickness distempereth the whole body. A little fire setteth a whole city on combustion. ' Behold how great a matter a httle fire kindleth,' ver. 6.
It is little in substance, yet great ad affectum, to provoke passion ; ad effectum, to produce action. A Seminary's tongue is able to set instraments on work to blow up a parliament. So God hath disposed it among the members, that it governs or misgoverns all ; and is either a good king, or a cruel tyrant. It either prevails to good, or peiTerts to e\il ; pm-ifieth or putrefieth the whole carcase, the whole conscience. It betrayeth the heart, when the heart would betray God ; and the Lord lets it double treason on itself, when it prevaricates with him.
It is a httle leak that drowneth a ship, a little breach that loseth an army, a little spring that pom's forth an ocean. Little ; j-et the lion is more troubled with the little wasp, than with the gi*eat elephant. And it is ob- servable, that the Egyptian sorcerers failed in ^ninimis, that appeared skilful and powerful in majoribus. Doth Moses turn the waters into blood ? ' The magicians did so with their enchantments,' Exod. \ai. 22. Doth Aaron stretch out his hand over the waters, and cover the land with frogs ? ' The magi- cians did so with their enchantments,' Exod. viii. 7. But when Aaron smote the dust of the land, and turned it into lice (ver. 17), the magicians could not effect the like ; nor in the ashes of the fmnaco turned into boils and blains, chap. ix. 10. In frogs and waters they held a semblance, not in the dust and ashes turned into lice and sores. Many have dealt better ^^^th the greater members of the body than with this little one. Defece}-unt in minimis:
Virtus non minima est, minimam compescere linguam. '
[4.] It is a singular member. God hath given man two ears ; one to hear instructions of human knowledge, the other to hearken to his divine precepts ; the former to conserve his body, the latter to save his soul. Two eyes, that with the one he might see to his own way, with the other pity and commiserate his distressed brethren. Two hands, that with the one he might work for his own h\-ing, with the other give and relievo his brother's wants. Two feet, one to walk on common days to his ordiuaiy labour.
14 THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeRMON LIX.
' Man goes forth in the morning to his labour, and continues till the even- ing,' Ps. civ. 23 : the other, on sacred days to visit and frequent the temple and the congregation of saints. But among all, he hath given him but one tongue ; which may instruct him to hear twice so much as he speaks ; to work and walk twice so much as he speaks. * I will praise thee, 0 Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made : marvellous are thy works ; and that my soul knoweth right well,' Ps. cxxxix. 14. Stay, and wonder at the wonderful wisdom of God !
First, To create so little a piece of flesh, and to put such vigour into it : to give it neither bones nor nerves, yet to make it stronger than aiTns and legs, and those most able and serviceable parts of the body. So that as Paul saith, ' On those members of the body, which we think less honour- able, we bestow more abundant honour : and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness,' 1 Cor. xii. 23. So on this little weak member hath the Lord conferred the greatest strength ; and as feeble as it is, we find it both more necessary and more honoui'able.
Secondly, Because it is so forcible, therefore hath the most wise God ordained that it shall be but little, that it shall be but one. That so the parvity and singularity may abate the vigour of it. If it were paired, as the arms, legs, hands, feet, it would be much more unruly. For he that cannot tame one tongue, how would he be troubled with twain ! But so hath the Ordinator provided, that things of the fiercest and firiest nature should be Uttle, that the malice of them might be somewhat restrained.
Thirdly, Because it is so unruly, the Lord hath hedged it in, as a man will not trust a wild horse in an open pasture, but prison him in a close pound. A double fence hath the Creator given to confine it, the lips and the teeth ; that through these mounds it might not break. And hence a threefold instruction for the use of the tongue is insinuated to us.
First; Let us not dare to pull up God's mounds; nor, hke wild beasts, break through the circular hmits wherein he hath cooped us. * Look that thou hedge thy possession about with thorns, and bind up thy silver and gold,' Ecclus. xxviii. 24. What, doth the wise man intend to give us some thrifty counsel, and spend his ink in the rule of good husbandly, which every worldling can teach himself? No. Yes; he exhorteth us to the best husbandly, how to guide and guard our tongues, and to thrive in the good use of speech. Therefore declares himself : ' Weigh thy words in a balance, and make a door and bar for thy mouth.' Let this be the posses- sion thou so hedgest in, and thy precious gold thou so bindest up. ' Be- ware thou slide not by it, lest thou fall before him that lieth in wait.' Commit not bm'glary, by breaking the doors, and pulhng down the bars of thy mouth.
Much more, when the Lord hath hung a lock on it, do not pick it with a false key. Rather pray with David, ' 0 Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise, ' Ps. li. 1 5. It is absurd in building, to make the porch bigger than the house ; it is as monstrous in nature, when a man's words are too many, too mighty. Every man mocks such a gaping boaster with Quidferet hie dignum tanto promissor hiatu? Saint Bernard gives us excellent counsel. Sint tua verba rara, contra muUilgquium ; vera, contra falsiloqicium ; j^onderosa, contra vaniloquium. Let thy words be few, true, weighty, that thou mayest not speak much, not falsely, not vainly. Re- member the bounds, and keep the no7i ultra.
Secondly ; Since God hath made the tongue one, have not thou ' a tongue and a tongue.' Some are double-tongued, as they are do^bl^-hearted.
i
James III. 8.] the tajiing of the tongue. 16
But God bath given one tongue, one heart, that they might be one indeed, as they are in number. It is made simple ; let it not be double. God hath made us men; we make ourselves monsters. Ho hath given us two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet. Of all these we will have, or at least use, but one. We have one eye to pry into others' faults, not another to see our own. We have one eai* to hear the plaintiff, not the other for the defendant. We have a foot swift to enter forbidden paths, not another to lead us to God's holy place. Wo have one hand to extort, and scrape, and wound, and not another to relieve, give alms, heal the wounded. But now whereas God hath given us but one tongue and one heart, and bidden us be content with their singularity, we will have two tongues, two hearts. Thus cross are we to God, to nature, to grace; monstrous men; monoculi, monojwdcs: bicordes,hilin{jnes: one-eyed, one-footed; double-tongued, double- hearted. The slanderer, the flatterer, the swearer, the tale-bearer, are mon- strous (I dare scarce add) men : as misshapen stigmatics as if they had two tongues and but one eye ; two heads and but one foot.
"Thirdly ; This con-sinceth them of preposterous folly, that put all their mahce into their tongue, as the sei-pent all her poison in her tail; and, as it were by a chemical power, attract all vigour thither, to the weakening and enervation of the other parts. Their hands have chirogram ; they cannot stretch them forth to the poor, nor give relief to the needy. Their feet podagram ; they cannot go to the chm-ch. Their eyes ophthabniam ; they cannot behold the miserable and pity-needing. Their ears surditatem ; they cannot hear the gospel preached. Oh how defective and sick all these members are! But their tongues ai'e in health; there is blithcness and volubility in them. If they see a distressed man, they can give him talkative comfort enough; ' Be wanned, be filled, be satisfied,' Jam. ii. 16. They can fill him with Scripture sentences, but they send him away with a hungry stomach ; whereas the good man's hand is as ready to give, as his tongue to speak. But the fool's lips babbleth foolishness ; volat irrevocabile verbum. Words run like Asahel; but good works, like the cripple, come lagging after.
2. We see the natm-e of the thing to be tamed, the tongue ; let us consider the difiiculty of this entei-prise. No man can do it. Which we shall best find, if we compare it (1.) with other members of the body; (2.) with other creatures of the world.
(1.) With other members of the body, which are various in theii* faculties and ofiices; none of them idle.
[1.] The eye sees far, and beholdeth the creatures in cccJo, solo, sola: in the heavens, sun, and stars ; on the earth, birds, beasts, plants, and minerals ; in the sea, fishes and serpents. That it is an unraly member, let our gi-andmother speak, whose roving eye lost us all. Let Dinah speak ; her wandering eye lost her virginity, caused the eft'usion of much blood. Let the Jews speak concerning the daughters of Midian ; what a fearful apostasy the eye procured! Yea, let Da\'id acknowledge, whose petulant eye robbed Uriah of his wife and life, the land of a good soldier, his own heart of much peace. Yet this eye, as unraly as it is, hath been tamed. Did not Job ' make a covenant with his eyes, that he would not look upon a maid?' Job xxxi. 1. The eye hath been tamed; 'but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unraly evil.'
[2.] The ear yet hears more than ever the eye saw; and by reason of its patulous admission, dei-ivcs that to the understanding whereof the sight
16 THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeEMON LIX.
never had a glance. It can listen to the whisperings of a Doeg, to the su- surrations of a devil, to the noise of a Siren, to the voice of a Delilah. The parasite through this window creeps into the great man's favour; he tunes his warbling notes to an enlarged ear. It is a wild member, an instrument that Satan delights to play upon. As unruly as it is, yet it hath been tamed. Mary sat at the feet of Christ, and heard him preach with glad attention. The ear hath been tamed; * but the tongue can no man tame,' &c.
[3.] The foot is an unhappy member, and carries a man to much wicked- ness. It is often swift to the shedding of blood ; and runneth away from Grod, Jonah's pace ; flying to Tarshish, when it is bound for Nineveh. There is ' a foot of pride,' Ps. xxxvi. 11, a saucy foot, that dares presump- tuously enter upon God's freehold. There is a foot of rebellion, that with an apostate mahce kicks at God. There is a dancing foot, that paceth the measures of circular wickedness. Yet, as unruly as this foot is, it hath been tamed. David got the victory over it. ' I considered my ways, and turned my foot unto thy testimonies,' Ps. cxix. 59. The foot hath been tamed; ' but the tongue can no man tame,' &c.
[4.] The hand rageth and rangeth with violence, to take the bread it never sweat for, to enclose fields, to depopulate towns, to lay waste whole countries. ' They covet fields, and houses, and vineyards, and take them, because their hand hath power,' Mic. ii. 2. There is a hand of extortion, as Ahab's was to Naboth ; the greedy landlord's to the poor tenant. There is a hand of fraud and of legerdemain, as the usurer's to the distressed borrower. There is a hand of bribery, as Judas, with his quantum dabitis, what will you give me to betray the Lord of life ? There is a hand rf lust, as Amnon's to an incestuous rape. There is a hand of murder, as Joab's to Abner, or Absalom's to Amnon. Oh, how unruly hath this member been! Yet it hath been tamed; not by washing it in Pilate's basin, but in David's holy water, innocence. ' I will wash my hands in innocency, and then, 0 Lord, will I compass thine altar.' Hereupon he is bold to say, ' Lord, look if there be any iniquity in my hands,' Ps. vii. 3. God did repudiate all the Jews' sacrifices, because their hands were ftdl of blood, Isa. i. 15. David's hands had been besmeared with the aspersions of lust and blood, but he had penitently bathed them in his own tears ; and because that could not get out the stains, he faithfully rinseth and cleanseth them in his Son's and Saviour's fountain, the all-meritorious blood of Christ. This made them look white, whiter than lilies in God's sight. ' Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness ; according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight,' Ps. xviii. 24.
Thus the eye, the ear, the foot, the hand, though wild and unruly enough, have been tamed ; ' but the tongue can no man tame ; it is an unruly evil,' &c.
(2.) With other creatures of the world, whether we find them in the earth, air, or water.
[1.] On the earth there is the man-hating tiger, yet man hath subdued him ; and (they write) a little boy hath led him in a string. There is the flock-devouring wolf, that stands at grinning defiance with the shepherd ; mad to have his prey, or lose himself; yet he hath been tamed. The roaring lion, whose voice is a terror to man, by man hath been subdued. Yea serpents, that have to their strength two shrewd additions, subtlety and malice ; that carry venom in their mouths, or a sting in their tails, or
JaJIES m. 8.] THE TAXIING OF THE TONGUE. 17
are all over poisonous ; tlio very basilisk, that kills witli his 03'cs (as they write) three furlongs off. Yea, all these savage, furious, malicious natures have been tamed ; ' but the tongue can no man tame ; it is an unruly evil,' &c.
[2.] In the sea there bo gi-eat wonders. ' They that go down to tho sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of tho Lord, and his wonders in the deep,' Ps. cvii. 23, 21. Yet those natural wonders have been tamed by our artificial wonders, ships. Even the levi- athan himself, ' out of whoso mouth go burning lamps and sparks of fire. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a boiling caldron,' Job xli. 19, 20. Sqiicima sqiimiia; coiijwuj'dnr : 'the flakes of his flesh are joined together; they are finn in themselves, and cannot be moved.' Yet we know that this huge creatui-e hath been tamed ; ' but the tongue can no man tame,' &c.
[3.] In the air, the birds fly high above our reach, yet we have gins to fetch them down. A lure stops the highest-soaring hawk ; nay, art makes one fowl catch another, for man's delight and benefit; incredible things, if they were not ordinaiy. Snares, lime-twigs, nets, tame them all ; even the peUcan in the desert, and the eagle amongst the cedars. Thus saith our apostle, verses 7, 8 : ' Eveiy kind' (not every one of eveiy kind, but every kind of nature of all), ' of beasts, of birds, of sei-pents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of the natm-e of man ; ' but the tongue can no man tame,' &c.
Thus far, then, St James's proposition passeth without opposition. ' The tongue can no man tame;' the tongue is too wild for any man's taming. It would be a foolish exception (and yet there are such profane tongues to speak it), that woman stands without this compass and latitude ; and to infer, that though no man can tame the tongue, yet a woman m.^y. It is most unworthy of answer. Woman, for the most part, hath tho glibbest tongue ; and if ever this impossibility preclude men, it shall nuich more annihilate the power of the weaker sex. ' She is loud,' saith Solomon, Prov. vii. 11 ; 'a foolish woman is ever clamorous,' ix. 13. She calls her tongiie her defensive weapon ; she means ofl'eusive : a fii-ebrand in a frantic hand doth less mischief. The proverb came not from nothing, when we say of a brawling man. He hath a woman's tongue in his head.
' The tongue can no man tame.' Let us listen to some weightier excep- tions. The prophets spake the oracles of life, and the apostles the words of salvation ; and many men's speech ministers gi-ace to the hearers. Yield it; yet this general rule will have no exceptions: 'no man can tame it:' man hath no stern-'- for this ship, no bridle for this colt. How then ? God tamed it. We by nature stammer as Moses, till God open a door of utterance. * I am of unclean lips,' saith the prophet, ' and dwell with a people of unclean lips,' Isa. vi. 5. God must lay a coal of his own altar upon our tongues, or they cannot be tamed.
And when they are tamed, yet they often have an unruly trick. Abraham lies ; Moses murmurs ; Elias, for fear of a queen and a quean, wisheth to die. Jonah frets for the gourd ; David cries in his heart,! * AH men are bars ;' which speech rebounded even on God himself, as if the Lord by Samuel had deceived him. Peter forswears his Master, his Saviour. If the tongues of the just have thus tripped, how should the profane go upright ? * The tongue can no man tame.'
The instruction hence riseth in full strength ; that God only can tame
♦ Qu. ' helm ?'— Ed. t Q"- ' taste ?' or ' heat ?'— Ed.
TOI.. Ill B
18 THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeRMON LIX.
man's tongue. Now the principal actions hereof are, first, to open the mouth, when it should not be shut ; secondly, to shut it, when it should not be open.
First, To open our lips when they should speak is the sole work of God. * 0 Lord, open thou my lips, and then my mouth shall be able to shew forth thy praise,' Ps. H. 15. God must open Avith his golden key of grace, or else our tongues will arrogate a hcentious passage. We had better hold our peace, and let our tongues he still, than set them a-running till God bids them go. God commands every sinner to confess his iniquities ; this charge, David knew, concerned himself; yet was David silent, and then his 'bones waxed old' with anguish, Ps. xxxii. 3. His adulteiy cried, his murder cried, his ingratitude cried for revenge ; but still David was mute ; and so long, ' day and night, the hand of the Lord was heavy upon him.' But at last God stopped the mouth of his clamorous adversaries, and gave him leave to speak. ' I acknowledged my sin vmto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.' It is Christ that must cast out this devil. The Lord is the best opener. He did open Lydia's heart, to conceive, Acts xvi. 14. He did open Elisha's seiTant's eyes to see, 2 Engs vi. 17. He did open the prophet's ears to hear, Isa. 1. 5. He did open Paul's mouth to speak, Col. iv. 3.
Secondhj, To shut our lips "when they should not speak, is only the Lord's work also. It is Christ that casts out the talking devil ; he shuts the wicket of our mouth against unsavouiy speeches. We may think it a high oiSce