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Spiritual Eye-Salve: Sermon Outline

10 Saturday Dec 2022

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SPIRITUAL EYE-SALVE
Thomas Adams
Ephesians 1:18
This grace that here Paul prays for his Ephesians is illumination. Wherein is described to us — I. an eye; II. an object [what the eye sees]. The eye is spiritual, the object celestial.
I. The eye is the most excellent organ of sense.

But it is certain, in God’s image be not in the understanding, the soul is in danger; if they chimed air, there is comfort of life gay, life of comfort. Hence it is that the God of this world dothso strive to blinded the minds of them that believe not
God hath set to bid us to defend the poor real eye from annoyances. So he had given the understanding faith and hope to shelter it.

A. The situation of the spiritual eye is the soul. God, framing man’s soul, planted in it two faculties: the superior, that is the understanding, which perceive it and judge it; the inferior, that is the will, which being informed of the other, accordingly follows are flies, chooseth or if refuseth.

Use 1: this teaches us to desire in the first place the enlightening of our eyes, and then after, the strengthening of our feet…. Keep it labors for feet before he has eyes, takes a preposterous course; for, up to, the lame is more likely to come to his journeys and then the blind…. Chrysostom says, knowledge of virtue must ever go before devotion; for no man can earnestly affect the good he knows not; and the evil whereof he is ignorant, he fears not.

Use 2: this reprehends a common fashion of many auditors. When the preacher begins to analyze this text, and to open the points of doctrine, to inform the understanding, they lend him very cold attention…. But alas! No eyes, no salvation.
B. I come from the situation to the qualification of the spiritual eye: enlightened…. Man’s mind is not only dark, darkness, Ephesians 5:8, till the Spirit of knowledge of light on him, lighten him…. When a natural man comes in the Temple, among the congregation of God’s saints, the soul is not delighted with their prayers, praises, songs, and service; he sees no comfort, no pleasure, no content in their actions. True, he does not, he cannot; for his understanding is not enlightened ….Wwhat a world of happiness does this man’s I not see! Whereupon we call a mere full and natural. The world links have esteemed and misnamed Christians Gods fools; but we know them the fools of the world.

There are two reasons why we must all day of God for ourselves, as Paul did for the Ephesians, this grace of illumination:
Reason one: Our spiritual blindness came upon us by God to just curse for our sins.

Reason two: This original defect is increased by actual transgressions…. But I rather think that, like the water man, but look one way and row another; for he must needs be strangely squinted eye that can at the same instant fashion one of his lights on the light of glory, and the other on the darkness of iniquity.
C. [Diseases of the eye]:
1. First the cataract, which is a thickness drawn over the eye, and bread of many causes: this especially, either from the rheum of vainglory, or the inflammation of malice…. This dark mind is the fault were saints and keeps his seminary, and since hatching a black root of the lusts.
The means took spell this disease is to take God’s law and to thy hand and heart, and through that glass to look to thyself…. This inspection is difficult. It is a hard, but a happy thing, to know oneself. Private sins are not easily spied out…. He that is partially indulgent to one sin is a friend to all. It is at pains well taken to study thyself. If thou wouldst be good, first know that thou art evil.

And as in some, the fuliginous vapors arising from the lower parts of the body blind the eyes; so in him the fumous evaporations of the flesh’s lusts have caused absolute blindness.

2. Secondly, there is another disease called pearl in the eye: a dangerous disease, and hereof are all worldlings sick; for earthly riches is such a great pearl in the eye, that they cannot see the pearl of the Gospel, which the wise merchant sold all he had to purchase…. We are easily inclined and declined from our supernal bliss, by a doting love of these transient delights…. The eye follows the heart with more diligence than a servant his master…. This pearl must be cut out of the worldling’s eye with a sharp knife of repentance otherwise he is never likely to see heaven.

D. There is also a double defect in this natural eye

1. First it perceives only natural and external things. A beast has one kind of eye, a natural man to a Christian three. The beast has an eye of sense; the natural man, a sense and reason; the Christian, of sense, of reason, and of faith. Each of these has its several objects, several intentions. The eye of sense regards only natural things; the eye of reason, only sensible and natural things; the eye of faith, spiritual, supernal, and supernatural things.

2. The second defect in the eye is an insolid levity; it is roving, like Dinah’s, and ravished abroad; but wants self-inspection. Nothing does sooner blind us in comparisons. He they would mount to a high opinion of his own worth, by comparing it to the base wickedness of another, is like one that observing a cripple’s lameness, wonders at himself that he is so swift.

E. Spiritual blindness

1. Spiritual blindness shall appear the more perilous, if we compare it with natural. The bodies I may be better spared than the souls; as to want the eye of Angels is far worse than to want the eyes of beasts. The want of corporeal site is often good, not evil: evil in the sense, and good in the consequence. He may the better intent heavenly things, that sees no earthly to draw him away. Many a man’s eyes has done him hurt [like David].

Besides, the bodily blind fields and knowledge is his want of sight; but the spiritually blind thinks that none have clearer eyes than himself. He that wants corporeal eyes blesses them that see; this man derides and despises them…. But the mind and soul is led by the world, which should be his servant, is his traitor; or, by the flesh, which should be as a wife, is his harlot; or by the devil, which is a dog indeed, a crafty curb, not leading, but misleading him.

2. The means to cure it:
i. A knowledge of God, procured
a. By his works.
b. by the Scriptures
c. But the scriptural knowledge (common to the wicked) is not sufficient; there must be a spiritual knowledge.
ii. A knowledge of ourselves, procured
a. Naturally, by looking into the Constitution and composition of our own persons.
b. Morally: by considering how frequently we have transgressed these virtues to which the very heathen gave a strict obedience.
c. Spiritual knowledge goes yet further: it searches the heart; and if that most inward chamber, or in any thereof, you can find an idle, it brings it forth.

II. The object to be seen: ‘the hope of his calling, and the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.’
The philosophers propound six necessary occurrences to her perfect seeing

A. Firmness or good disposition of the organ that sees. A rolling eye bolts nothing perfectly…. This object is so immense, that we cannot well look besides it.

B. The spectacle must be objected [made an object] to the sight:… nor can the understanding see into the super natural joys, lest the Lord objects [shows it] it to them.

C. That there be a proportional distance between the organ and the object: neither too near, nor too far off…. The best I upon earth looks but through a glass, a lattice, and obscuring impediment.
It is required that the objective matter be substantial…. but this object here proposed is no empty chimera, or imaginary, translucent, airy shadow, but substantial: “the hope of God’s calling, and a glorious inheritance;” which though natures goal I cannot reach, the fates by sees perfectly.

D. And the subject of this spectacle is by demonstration proved solid and substantial; because nothing but that can give this intellectual eye firm content and complacency. How go the affections of man and a rolling and ranging pace from one creature to another. Now that hard to set up on wealth…. say wealth was calm, thou art than for honor; they riches are a latter, whereby thou would client dignity [and so on from one desire to another – no man is content with anything in this world. Here is an irony: The man who cannot see God is still not content with anything but God.] Nothing but the Trinity of persons in that one Deity can fill the triangular concave of man’s own heart.

E. clearness of space between the organ and the object …. there must be removing all thick and impenetrable obstacles:
i. Some have whole mountains between their eyes and heaven; the mountains of vainglory hinder their sight.
ii. Others, to make sure prevention against their site of heaven, have rolled the whole earth between that and their eyes.
iii. Others yet have interjected such a skewer and peachy clouds between their site and his son of glory, but they cannot see. Whether of the errors, the dark and light of truth, or of affected ignorance, but blind to their own eyes; or a blasphemous atheism; they will see nothing what they do see…. Thus the devil deals with them,…. First he put out their eyes with their own iniquities, and then leaves them about to make himself sport.

F. lastly, the object must be stable and firm.

Conclusion: ….Contemn we, condemn we the foolish choice of worldlings, in regard of our portion, and the better part, never to be taken from us. Why should I mislike my gold, because he prefers his copper? The least dram of these joys shall outweigh all the pleasures of earth. And as one performance in hell shall make the reprobate forget all earthly vanities; so the least drop of this pleasure shall take from us the remembrance of our former miseries. We shall not think on our poverty in this world, when we possess those riches; but forget contemptible baseness, when God shall give us that glory of Saints… God give us to see these things now in grace, that we may hereafter see them in glory! Amen.

Thomas Adams, The Sinners Mourning Habit, Repentance

19 Tuesday Oct 2021

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Adams now comes to repentance. The purpose of this discussion of repentance was not give a definition of it but to persuade one to repent. 

He begins in an interesting manner for one who seeks to persuade:

Repentance hath much acquaintance in the world, and few friends; it is better known than practiced.

He says that it is “every man’s medicine, a universal antidote.” But, perhaps because of its efficacy, it strangely can be seen an as encouragement to sin, “They make bold to sin, as if they were sure to repent.” And, “There is no such inducement to sin as the presumption that of ready repentance, as if God had no special riches of his own, and every sinner might command them at his pleasure.”

We suck in sin, the poison of that old serpent, and presume to drive it out again with repentance; but how if this herb of grace be not found in our gardens….However for soever we have run out, we hope to make all reckonings even when repentance comes; but what if repentance never comes.

Repentance is not something we can demand or command. Adams uses the language of riches and wealth of a king, which had dispense as he wishes. 

Since Thomas Brooks makes the same point, we can consider:

“Device (6). By persuading the soul that the work of repentance is an easy work, and that therefore the soul need not make such a matter of sin. Why! Suppose you do sin, saith Satan, it is no such difficult thing to return, and confess, and be sorrowful, and beg pardon, and cry, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me;’ and if you do but this, God will cut the score,1 and pardon your sins, and save your souls, &c. By this device Satan draws many a soul to sin, and makes many millions of souls servants or rather slaves to sin, &c.”

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 1 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 31. In Precious Remedies Brooks gives this device and then a number of remedies to cure one of the falsehood. Taking the point that repentance is not something which can demand – it is a gift of grace, a treasure of God’s as Adams puts it:

“Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is seriously to consider, That to repent of sin is as great a work of grace as not to sin.1 By our sinful falls the powers of the soul are weakened, the strength of grace is decayed, our evidences for heaven are blotted, fears and doubts in the soul are raised (will God once more pardon this scarlet sin, and shew mercy to this wretched soul?), and corruptions in the heart are more advantaged and confirmed; and the conscience of a man after falls is the more enraged or the more benumbed. Now for a soul, notwithstanding all this, to repent of his falls, this shews that it is as great a work of grace to repent of sin as it is not to sin. Repentance is the vomit of the soul; and of all physic, none so difficult and hard as it is to vomit. The same means that tends to preserve the soul from sin, the same means works the soul to rise by repentance when it is fallen into sin.”

Another point made by Adams is that repentance is not merely a magic recitation of words, 

Nor yet must we think with this one short word, “I repent,” to answer for the multitue of our offenses; as if we, that had sinned in parcels should be forgiven in gross…No let us reckon up our sins ot God in confession, that our hearts may find a plenary absolution. Nor is it enough to recount them, but we must recant them. 

Brooks makes a similar point, “Some ignorant deluded souls vainly conceit that these five words, ‘Lord! have mercy upon me,’ are efficacious to send them to heaven; but as many are undone by buying a counterfeit jewel, so many are in hell by mistake of their repentance. Many rest in their repentance, though it be but the shadow of repentance, which caused one to say, ‘Repentance damneth more than sin.’”

Adams makes another point about repentance, 

Wheresoever repentance is, she doth not deliberate, tarries not to ask questions and examine circumstances, but bestirs her joints, calls her wits and sense together; summons her tongue to praying, her feet to walking, her hand to working, her eyes to weeping, her heart to groaning. There is no need to bid her go, for she runs to the word for direction, to her own heart for remorse and compunction, to God for grace and pardon; and wheresoever she findeth Christ, she layeth faster hold on him than the Shunamite did on the feet of Elisha.

Repentance does not tarry, because there is no other defense from judgment:

We know there is no other fortification against the judgments of God but repentance. His forces be invisible, invincible; not repelled with sword and target; neither portcullis nor fortress can keep them out; there is nothing in the world that can encounter them but repentance.

Why then do we not repent if it is of such good? We fail to see our own sin aright. We lack humility because we do not understand God correctly. We lack repentance, because we see ourselves in too favorable a light and we see God’s judgment as too unlikely:

If we could truly weigh our iniquities, we must needs find a necessity either of repenting or of perishing. Shall we make God ot frown upon us in heaven, arm all his creatures against us on earth? [Edwards makes a similar point in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.] shall we force his curses upon us and ours; take his rod and teach it to scourge us with all temporal plagues and not repent?

Shall we would our own consciences with sin, that they may wound us with eternal torments; make a hell in our bosoms here, and open the gates of that lower hell to devour us hereafter and not repent?

He then makes this interesting psychological point

If we could see the farewell of sin, we would abhor it, and ourselves for it.

There is a strange about sin where it makes itself welcome by distorting our true view of ourselves, of sin, and of God.

Thomas Adams, The Sinner’s Mourning Habit.2 (God will honor us)

15 Friday Oct 2021

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Adams then turns to the phrase in Job, “I abhor myself.” (The ESV has “despise.”) This is a turn in the verse and the sermon which might seem most unwise to us. Adams recognizes that

It is a deep degree of mortification for a man to abhor himself. To abhor others is easy, to deny others more easy, to despise others most easy. But it is hard to despise a man’s self, to deny himself harder, hardest to abhor himself. Every one is apt to think well of himself. Not only charity, a spiritual virtue, but also lust, a carnal vice, begins at home. There is no direct commandment in the Bible for a carnal man to love himself, because we are all so naturally prone to it.

This is considered madness and bad policy. A PhD psychologist writes (I am not going to link to the man, because I am not interested in causing conflict; rather I merely want to raise what is considered a truism), “We know it’s important to love ourselves. But what does it really mean to love and care for yourself?”

What then is meant by abhorring oneself? This is admittedly a strange idea. And in what way could Adams be advocating this is a spiritual good? He admits this is strange, “for a man to abhor himself, this is a wonder.”

But then he phrases the matter differently, and in a manner which may sound more comprehensible:

He that doth not admire himself is a man to be admired.

Adams begins to pick apart self-admiration,

It is against reason, indeed, that metals should make a difference of men; against religion that it should make a difference of Christian men. Yet commonly reputation is measured by the acre, and the altitude of countenance is taken by the pole of advancement. And as the servant values himself higher or lower according as his master esteems himself greater or less according as his master is, that, as his money or estate. 

The basis for the status is not in the man himself; it is in something outside of him. That is a curious thing: I am great because I have X.  But Adams takes the problem in a different direction: if we are going to be judged by our master, who then is that?

But the children of grace have learned another lesson—to think well of other men, and to abhor themselves. 

That seems odd, but it stems from the fact that we actually know ourselves:

And indeed, if we consider what master we have served, what wages we have deserved, we have just cause to abhor ourselves. What part of us hath not sinned, that it should not merit to be despised. Run all over this little Isle of Man [a human being] and find me one member that should not merit to be despised….Where is the innocency which desires not to stand only in the sight of mercy? There is our worst works wickedness, in our best weakness, error in all. What time, what place, are not witnesses against us?

Some of the language here has its basis in Romans 6:13, “Do not present your members [parts of your body] to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.” And, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience which leads to righteousness.” (6:16)

In addition, one might balk at the standard for everything being sin: surely it is not that bad. It is not the case that everyone is always as bad as they could be. But rather that nothing is perfect and perfection is the standard. If we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and to love our neighbor as ourselves; and to judge all actions against that standard, we see that we fail. 

The trouble is ontological, not just behavioral. The point is not that we don’t live up; it is even worse: we cannot live up to the standard.  “For by the works of the law no human being will justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” That everyone falls short is the point: it is that God may justify by grace as an act of mercy. 

When we look at ourselves, we have much to loath: we are our own worst enemies. Who would seek to justify the irrationality of humanity. Think of your life and be honest. Think of the causal unkindness; the selfishness and thoughtlessness; not mention worse acts of cruelty. 

Adams draws out the thought of the irrationality of sin. And then addresses another tact, “I do love God.”

That we love God far better than ourselves is soon said, but to prove it is not so easily done. He must deny himself, that will be Christ’s servant ….Many have denied hteir friends, many have denied their kindred, not a few have denied their brotehrs, some have denied their parents, but to deny themselves is a hard task. To deny their profits, to deny their lusts, to deny their reasons, to deny themselves? No, to do all this they utterly deny.

He then ends with this paradoxical promise which is at the heart of repentance and the Gospel:

Thus,

If we despise ourselves

            God will honor us

If we abhor ourselves,

            God will accept us

If we hate ourselves

            God will love us

If we condemn ourselves

            God will acquit us

If we punish ourselves

            God will spare us

Yea thus

If we seem lost to ourselves

            We shall be found on the Day of Jesus Christ.

Thomas Adams, The Sinner’s Mourning Habit.1 Contemplating God

13 Wednesday Oct 2021

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The verse for the sermon is Job 42:6, “Wherefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” It is a curious verse coming at the end of Job. Just Job having been afflicted ends up repenting.  

Adams begins with the observation of the effect of affliction

Affliction is a winged chariot, that mounts up the soul toward heaven; or do we ever so rightly understand God’s majesty as when are not able to stand under our own misery.

There are many ways which God can use to get one’s attention, but affliction is most effective

But among them all, none despatcheth the business surer or sooner than affliction; if that fail to bring a man home, nothing can do it….Do we complain of incessant blows? Alas! He doth but his office, he waits for our repentance. Let us give him the messenger his errand, and he will begone. Let him take the proud man in hand, he will humble him; he can make the drunkard sober, the lascivious chaste, the angry patient, the covetous charitable; fetch the unthrift son back again to his father, whom a full purse had put into an itch of traveling. (Luke 15:17)

Having established that affliction should leave us to repentance, Adams considers three “degrees of mortification” of sin: the sickness, the death, and the burial of sin. 

The humility of Job which brings about this repentance comes from a knowledge of God:

To study God is the way to make a humble man; and a humble man is in the way to come unto God.

(Again, this is consonant with Kierkegaard’s contention that one finds God in confession of sin: the wonder of being confronted with the eternal God brings about this humility, a knowledge of one’s sinfulness. This a sort of confession and humiliation which cannot be brought about by the skill of some preacher; it is a humility which flows from knowing God.)

Job’s humility flowed from two aspect of God’s nature: majesty and mercy. First majesty,

Of his majesty, which being so infinite, and beyond the comprehension of man, he considered by way or comparison, or relation to creatures [Since God’s majesty cannot be understood directly, God compares his strength to creatures which Job could know.]…Mathematicians wonder at the sun that, being so much bigger than the earth, doth not set it on fire and burn it to ashes; but here is the wonder that God being so infinitely great, and we so infinitely evil, we are not consumed.

And then mercy. If it were not for this mercy, we could not come to God. 

This meditation on his mercy, than which nothing more humbles a heart of flesh. 

We can understand a more powerful being withstanding us. But for one who has just cause against us, to show mercy in the midst of our knowledge of his power; that brings humility. 

It is a certain conclusion; no proud man knows God.

How humility makes this possible:

Humility is not only a virtue itself; but a vessel to contain other virtures: like embers, which keep the fire alive that is hidden under it. It emptieth itself by a modest estimation of its own worth, that Christ may fill it. It wrestleth with God, like Jacob, and wins by yielding; and the lower it stoops to the gound the more advantage it gets to obtain the blessing. All our pride, O Lord, is from the want of knowing thee.

This knowledge of God in turn brings about the repentance for and mortification of sin. 

At this point, it perhaps best to consider something which so often is missing in contemporary Christian life: the contemplation of God for his own sake. Americans (I cannot speak for others) want always to know what this information does; but is the practical application. 

Now application is a great thing. But one sort of application which is noticeably absent is the application of contemplation: Just steadily thinking one, mediating, considering the thought that God is ….

It is nature of persons, that we can know one another only through some attention. We may gain a very superficial knowledge of a word or a sight; but actual appreciation for another person requires time and attention. 

Perhaps our trouble with sin stems from too little knowledge of God. God is an abstraction; not personal. But a true knowledge of God would work humility and humility repentance. 

Here is a thought. God is Father. Even before creation (if it makes any sense to say “before” when it comes to God), God is Father. The creation is an overflow of the joy and love of the Father. Our redemption flows from the love of God for us. Our glorification flows from the headwaters of God’s love as Father. 

Sit alone with those thoughts. Consider that one truth and see what it brings about in you.

The Sinner’s Mourning Habit

07 Saturday Aug 2021

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This sermon by Thomas Adams was preached on March 29, 1625, just after the death of King James

The Sinner’s Mourning-Habit

(A habit here means an outfit, the way one dresses in mourning.)

The text given is Job 42:6, “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent and dust and ashes.” 

Adams begins with the implicit question, How does God speak to us, what does God do to gain our attention?

Affliction is a winged chariot, that mounts the soul toward heaven; nor do we ever rightly understand God’s majesty as when we are under our own misery….The Lord hath many messengers by which he solicits man….But among them all, none dispatcheth the business surer or sooner than affliction; if that fail of bring a man home, nothing can do it.

God had used affliction to gain the attention of Job and Job’s repentance here in “dust and ashes” is the end of that work. Where we may consider three degrees of mortification: the sickness, the death, and the burial of sin. 

To study God is the way to make a humble man; and a humble man is in the way to come unto God.

Adams comes to the first word of the text, “Wherefore.”  This establishes the basis upon which Job was humbled. Adams sees two elements here: (1) God’s majesty and (2) God’s mercy as the basis for Job’s humility.

As to majesty, “Mathematicians wonder at the sun, that, being so much bigger than the earth, it doth not set it on fire and burn it to ashes: but here is a wonder, that God being so infinitely great, and we so infinitely evil, we are not consumed.”

As to mercy: Meditating upon the mercy of God is the great means to humble us, “nothing more humbles a heart of flesh.”

It is a certain conclusion, no proud man knows God.

Humility is not only a virtue itself, but a vessel to contain other virtues: like embers, which keep the fire alive that is hidden under it. It empieth itself by a modest estimation of its own worth that Christ may fill it….All our pride, O Lord, is from want of knowing thee.

Next words, “I abhor myself. It is a deep degree of mortification for a man to abhor himself.”

He that doth not admire himself is a man to be admired.

He that doth not admire himself

Is a man to be admired

But the children of grace have learned another lesson – to think well of other men, and to abhor themselves. And indeed, if we consider what master we have served, and what wages deserved, we have just cause to abhor ourselves. What part of us hath not sinned that it should not merit to be despised?

He then asks this question, which raises a fascinating psychological question as to the nature of self-centeredness and more particularly the sin-centeredness of human beings. Perhaps this centering upon sin is truly what is at issue in narcissism rather than the bare “self.” Here is Adams’ observation on this point:

That we love God far better than ourselves is soon said; but to prove it is not so easily done. He must deny himself that will be Christ’s servant, Mark viii. 34. Many have denied their friends, may have denied their kindred, not a few have denied their brothers, some have denied their own parents; but to themselves, this is a hard task. To deny their profits, to deny their lusts, to deny their reasons, to deny themselves? No, do to all this they utterly deny.

But this denial of self and abhorrence of the sin which inhabits this is the heart of repentance.

Thus, if we deny ourselves, 

God will honor us.

If we abhor ourselves,

God will accept us.

If we hate ourselves, 

God will love us.

If we condemn ourselves, 

God will acquit us.

If we punish ourselves,

God will spare us. 

Yea, thus if we seem lost to ourselves,

We shall be found in the day of Jesus Christ.

Next, he comes to the words, “I repent.” Rather than explain the nature of repentance, Adams’ goal is to bring us to repentance. He begins by noting that for many the potential for repentance perversely becomes an encouragement to sin. But such thinking is faulty, repentance – true repentance – can never be a basis to encourage sin: “repentance is a fair gift of God.” 

Man’s heart is like a door with a spring-lock; pull the door after you, it locks of itself, but you cannot open it again without a key. Man’s heart naturally locks out grace; none but he that hath the key of the house of David, Rev. iii.7, can open the door and put it in. God hath made a promise to repentance, not of repentance; we may trust to that promise, but there is no trusting to ourselves.

We have no promise that God will grant us repentance, and without repentance there is no reconciliation with God. True repentance does not lie in magic words nor in our natural ability. True repentance is something given and granted by God. 

Nor yet must we think with this one short word, ‘I repent,’ to answer for the multitude of our offenses; as if we, that had sinned in parcels, should be forgiven in gross….Nor is it enough to recount them, but we must recant them….

If we could truly weigh our iniquities, we must needs find a necessity of either repenting or of perishing. 

Shall we make God frown upon us in heaven, 

Arm all his creatures against us on earth? 

Shall we force his curses upon us and ours;

Take his rod, and teach it to scourge us with all temporal plagues; 

And not repent?

Shall we wound our consciences with sin, 

That they may wound us with eternal torments;

Make a hell in our bosoms here, 

And open the gates of that lower hell to devour us hereafter, 

And not repent?

Do we give by sin Satan a right to us

A power over us

An advantange against us: 

And not labor to cross his mischiefs by repentance?

Do we cast brimstone into that infernal fire, 

As if it could not be hot enough, or we should fail of tortures expect we make ourselves our own tormentors?

And not rather seek to quench those flames without penitent tears?

How then will we put off sin? We cannot look to repentance as a remedy to sin if we look to it as an excuse for sin. We start with looking to the end of sin, “If we could see the farewell of sin, we would abhor it and ourselves for it.” Look at the consequence which will flow from the sin: what will happen? How will your conscience stand? 

Finally the phrase, “Dust and ashes.” 

This is a wonderful line, “I have but on stair more, down from both text and pulpit, and this a very low one, ‘Dust and ashes.’”

What keeps us from thinking of this end? 

How may doth the golden cup of honor make drunk, and drive from all sense of mortality. Riches and heart’s ease are such usual intoxications to the souls of men, that it is rare to find any of them so low as dust and ashes.

Dust as the remembrance of his original; ashes, as the representation of his end. Dust, that was his mother; ashes, that shall be the daughter of our bodies.

Dust the matter of our substance, the house of our souls, the original grains whereof we were made, the top of all our kindred. The glory of the strongest man, the beauty of the fairest woman, all is but dust. Dust, the only compounder of differences, the absolver of all distinctions. 

Who can say which was the client, which the lawyer; 

which the borrower, which the lender; 

which the captive, which the conqueror, 

when they all lie together in blended dust?

….

Dust, 

The sport of the wind,

The very slave of the besom [a broom].

This is the pit from whence we are digged, 

And this is the pit into which we shall be resolved.

As he writes later, we are made from dust and live in the empire of dust.

I conclude

I call you not to casting dust on your heads

Or sitting in ashes

But to that sorrow and compunction of souls

Whereof the other was but an external symbol or testimony.

Let us rend our hearts and spare our garments

Humble our souls without afflicting our bodies. Is. lviii.5. 

It is not the corpse wrapped in dust and ashes,

But a contrite heart, 

Which the Lord will not despise. Ps. li. 17.

Let us repent our sins 

And amend our lives;

So God will pardon us by the merits

Save us by the mercies,

And crown us with the glories of Jesus Christ.

Thomas Adams, Plain Dealing

03 Wednesday Feb 2021

Posted by in Preaching, Sanctification, Sanctifictation, Thomas Adams, Thomas Adams

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(A friend of the poet John Donne, and preacher in early 17th England. He had a remarkable way with a phrase. Even if one did not care for his theology, his words of words would win a hearing)

Thomas Adams

Plain Dealing 

The sermon concerns the interactions between Jacob and Esau. In this sermon Adams discusses that relationship and does a great deal to defend Jacob’s actions with his brother. 

All that can be said is this, Esau preferred his belly before his birthright; Jacob his birthright before his belly. The one sold spiritual things for temporal; the other with temporal bought spiritual. (23)

As Jacob’s deception, he notes, “Chrysostom thus mitigates it: that he did not deceive with a mind to hurt, but only with respect to the promise of God.” (24)

He does spend quite a bit time working through the possible understandings and moral measurements of Jacob’s deception. 

But what is most interesting are the observations he makes of the Christian life, using Jacob and Esau as an illustration. 

He moves into this sense by means of some help from Origen, who took the “mystical sense” of the story to be “two combatants to be within us.” (21)

But in men called and justified by the blood of Christ, yet in a militant state, there is a necessity of this combat. No strife, no Christian….Disturbance is a sign of sanctification; there is no grace where there is all peace. No sooner is the new man formed in us but suddenly begins this quarrel. The remaining corruption will fight with grace, and too often prevail against it. Indeed it hath lost the dominion, but not the opposition; the sovereignty, not the subtlety; it will dwell in us, though it cannot reign.  (21)

But God is often better with us than we would, and with his preventing grace stops the precipitation of erring nature. So sweet is the ordination of the divine providence, that we shall not do what we would, but what we ought; and by deceiving us us, turns our purposed evil into eventual good. (23)

The church esteems heaven her home, this world but a tent, a tent which we all must leave, build we as high as Babel, as strong as Babylon. When we have fortified, combined, feasted, death comes with a voider, and takes away all….He that hath seen heaven with the eye of faith, through the glass of Scripture, slips off his coat with Joseph, and springs away. They that live thrice our age, yet dwelt in tents as pilgrims that did not own this world. The shortness and weakness of our day strengthens our reasons to vilipend it. The world is the field, thy body the tent, heaven thy freehold. The world is full of troubles; winds of persecutions, storms of menaces, cold of uncharitableness, heat of malice, exhalations of prodigious terrors, will annoy thee. Love it not. (27)

When the heart is a good secretary, the tongue is a good pen; but when the heart is a hollow bell, the tongue is a loud and lewd clapper. (29)

Politic Hunting.1 (Thomas Adams)

13 Friday Nov 2020

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Thomas Adams is known as the Puritan Shakespeare. He was a friend of the great English poet and fellow clergyman, John Donne. His collected sermons are little known, and so I will endeavor to provide some brief summaries of such from time to time. 

Here is the first sermon from the first of three volumes, “Politic Hunting.” 

The text is 

Esau was a cunning hunter, and a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, welling in tents. Gen. 35:27

Adams’ general strategy is to take the two appellations of Esau: cunning hunter, and, man of the field, and think through the implications of such phrases. He will move beyond the biography of Esau and consider these matters more broadly.

As he moves into his subject, he begins with the observation that there is nothing wrong with hunting: 

Hunting in itself is a delight lawful and laudable, and may be well argued for from the disposition that God hath put into creatures.  He hath naturally included on kind of beasts to pursue  another for man’s profit and pleasure. He hath given the dog a secret instinct to follow the hare, the heart, the fox, the boar, as if he would direct man by the finger of nature to exercise those qualities which his divine wisdom created in them. 

What is best in Adams is often his turn of phrase. It is not always picturesque as it is with someone like Watson; but it is often sharp and clear: 

The world is a glass, wherein we may contemplate the eternal power and majesty of God.

This is an understanding which is not unique to Adams, but it is a concise statement of the proposition. 

Following a warning that we not turn lawful recreations into excessive habits, Adams turns to the concept of a “cunning hunter”. He takes to mean, “plain force is not enough, there must be an accession of fraud.” 

Adams then notes the distinction between hunting wild beasts and caring for domestic animals. “This observation teacheth us to do no violence to the beasts that serve us.” 

He then proceeds to consider five sorts of sinful traits which he sees exampled in Esau and shown in the world. The underlying event is Esau coming in from the field and selling his birthright for a pool of soup:

Artwork by Nicolas Tournier, ESAU SELLING HIS BIRTHRIGHT TO JACOB FOR A POTTAGE OF LENTILS, Made of oil on canvas

(Nicolas Tournier)

First, those of a ravenous, intemperate appetite (couldn’t Esau have just waited a few minutes to eat something other than Jacob’s stew at the cost of his birthright?). A sinful greed. 

Speaking of those with intemperate appetites:

That intemperance is not only a filthy, but a foolish sin. It is impossible that a ravenous throat should lie near a sober brain. 

They have digged their grave with their teeth.

Second: his wrong estimation of things: 

And what, O ye Esauites, worldings, are momentary delights compared to the eternal! What a mess of gruel to the supper of glory! The belly is pleased, the soul is lost. Never was any meat, except the forbidden fruit, so dearly bought as this broth of Jacob. A curse followed both their feedings. There is no temporal thing without trouble, though it be far more worthy than the lentil pottage. Hath a man good things? He fears to forgo them. And when he must, could either wish they had not been so good, for a longer possession of them. 

…Nothing then can make a man truly happy but eternity. Pleasures may last a while in this world; but they grow old with us, if they do not die before us. And the staff of old age is no pole of eternity. 

Third, discontentment: 

There are too many, that, in a sullen neglect, overlook all of God’s favors for the want of one their affections long after. 

Fourth: an obstinate adherence to his folly. 

It is wicked to sell heavenly things at a great rate of worldly; but it is most wretched to vilipend them. (Vilipend: to regard as worthless, despise)

Fifth, he was perfidious. 

And so the summary of Esau: 

In all these circumstances, it appeareth that though Esau was subtle to take beasts, he had no cunning to hunt out his own salvation.

The Immutable Mercy of Jesus Christ

18 Thursday Apr 2019

Posted by in Hebrews, Puritan, Thomas Adams, Uncategorized

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Thomas Adams sermon from the early 17th century.

The sermon is based upon the text, Hebrews 13:8, Jesus, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.

The most remarkable things about Adams’ sermons lies in the turn of phrase. The substance is excellent, the theology correct. But the real brilliance lies in way he uses words.

In the first section he considers, “The center is Jesus Christ” (to the all of eternity).

The blessed restorer of all, of more than all that Adam lost; for we have gotten more by his regenerating grace than we lost by Adam’s degenerating sin.

When speaking of the matter of the Scripture, Adams gives a description which would put Neo-orthodoxy (which Adams obviously could not know), on its head. There is no Christ above Scripture:

This Jesus Christ is the center this text; and not only 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, There is nothing contain in the word of God, but God the Word.

Adams has a long section in which he contrasts the unchangeable Jesus Christ with the fleeting, changing world, where even the greatest things will fail us.  In touching on mutability, he considers a topic which was deeply pondered in his age (and a topic which I rarely see considered outside the occasional sermon).

Consider this paragraph about wealth; I can’t imagine it being seriously considered in a business school. (Although as an attorney, I more than once see wealth flee where someone thought it secure):

Wealth is like a bird; it hopes all day form man to man, as that doth from tree to tree; and none can say where it will root or rest at night. It is a like a vagrant fellow, which because he big-boned and able to work, a man takes in a-doors and cherisheth; and perhaps for a while he take pains; but when he spies opportunity, the fugitive servant is gone, and takes away more with him than all service came to. The world  may seem to stand thee in some stead for a season, but at last it irrevocably runs day, 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 are left desperate.

Our Master, Christ, is constant. We are inconstant, irresolute — although we are told not to be double-minded men:

The double-minded man is a stranger in his own house: all his purposes are but guest, his heart is the inn. If they lodge there fore a night, it is all; they are gone in the morning. Many motions come crowding together upon him; and like a great press at a narrow door, whiles strive, none enter.

He then turns to the constancy of Christ in contrast to the variability of men. Here he finds a comfort in the perseverance of the saint — because it rests upon the act of God:

If God preordained a Savior for man, before he had either made man, or man marred himself,  — Paul says to Timothy, ‘He hath saved us according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” 2 Tim. 1.9 — then surely he meant that nothing should separate us from the eternal love in that Savior. Rom. viii. 39 Whom he chose before they were created, and when they were lost redeemed, he will not forsake being sanctified.

When he speaks of the continued power of death of Christ to save, he writes,

This is sure comfort to us; though he died almost 1629 years ago, his blood is not yet dry. His woulds are as fresh to do us good, as they were to those saints he 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 ourselves, therefore, he hath promised to send us the ‘Spirit of truth, who will dwell with us’ (John xiv. 17) and apply this to us forever.

And here is the plea for repentance:

Time may change thee, though it cannot change him. His is not (but thou art) subject to mutation. This I dare boldly say: he that repent 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, wherefore he cannot be sure, except he repent every day; for no man knows his last day….

Thou has lost yesterday negligently, thou losest to-day willfully; and therefore mayest lose forever inevitably. It is just with God to punish two-day’s neglect with the loss of the third. The hand of faith may be withered, the spring of repentance dried up, the eye of hope blinded, 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, thou are dead and judged, it will do thee small comfort that, ‘Jesus Christ is the same forever.’

And the conclusion:

Trust then, Christ with thy children; when thy friend shall fail, usury bear no date, oppression be condemned to hell, thyself rotten to the dust, the world itself turned and burned into cinders, still ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for-ever.’ Now then, as ‘grace and peace are from him which is and which was and this is to come;” so glory and honor be to him, which is, and which was, and this is to come; even to Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.’

Let the Word of Christ Dwell Richly (Colossians 3:16)

30 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by in Colossians, Puritan, Thomas Adams

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Do not give it a cold entertainment, as you would a stranger, and so take your leave of it; but esteem it as your best familiar and domestical friend: making it your chamber-fellow, study-fellow, bed-fellow. Let it have the best room and the best bed; the parlor of our conscience, the resting-place in our heart. Neglected things are without the door, less respected within, but near the door. …The more worthy things are not trusted to the safety of one door, but kept under many locks and keys….But this pearl of inestimable value, this jewel purer than gold of Ophir; lay it not up in the porter’s lodge, the outward ear, but in the cabinet and most inward closure of thy heart. Deut. Xi.18, ‘Therefore shall ye lay up these words in your heart and in your soul.’ Mary thought that place the fittest receptacle for such oracles. This is that physic which can only cure the sickness of ignorance ….where the ignorant may find what to learn, the weak nourishment, the guest a banquet, the wounded a remedy to cure him.

 

Thomas Adams, “England’s Sickness” (vol. 1, pp. 412-413).

Mystical Bedlam.4

16 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Ecclesiastes, Puritan, Thomas Adams

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The prior three entries summarizing and outlining this sermon by Thomas Adams may be found here:

https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/mystical-bedlam-3/

https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/mystical-bedlam-2/

https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/mystical-bedlam-1/

PART TWO: Madness

Prologue:  Having left his heart full of evil, we come to his madness. No marvel if, when the stomach is full of strong wines, the head grows drunken. The heart being so filled with that pernicious liquor, evil, becomes drunk with it. 269

Outline:

A tenant, madness

            What madness is

            Types of madmen

A tenement, the heart

A tenure, while they live

I) Madness

A) Adams begins with an extensive explanation of the difference between madness of a physical nature with a physical cause and a “spiritual madness”. To do this he works through the current anthropology. He discusses the differences between imagination, reason and memory; between frenzy and madness.  This discussion is interesting in its own right, but is not necessary to understand the discussion of the spiritual condition.

B)  The madness which I would minister to is thus caused: a defective knowledge; a faith not well formed, affections not well reformed. Ignorance, knowledge and refractory desires make a man mad.

1) “Ignorance:  Anoia {Greek: no mind} and anomia {Greek, no law} are inseparable companions. Wickedness is folly; and ignorance of celestial things is either madness, or the efficient cause, or rather deficient, hereupon madness ensueth. Psalms 14:1, All workers of iniquity have no knowledge.” 271

a) “Beyond exception, without question, the authority, patronage, and original fatherhood of spiritual madness is nescience of God.” 272

b) “The true object of divine knowledge is God; and the book wherein we learn him is his word. How shall they scape the rocks that sail without this compass?” 272

2) “Unfaithfulness is a sufficient cause of madness. Faith in the Christian man’s reason.” 272

a) “Now the privation of reason must needs follow the position of madness.” 272

b) If God speaks , how can that not be good enough for you? “Surely you are mad, haplessly made, hopelessly mad, unmeasurably out of your spiritual wits.” (273)

c) Shall the Lord threaten judgments? Woe to him that trembles not! Hell was not made for nothing. 273.

d) But we see those that are as ripe in lewdness draw long and peaceable breaths; neither is it the disposition of a singular power, but the contingency of natural causes that thus worketh. Take heed; it not the levity but the lenity of God, not the weakness of his arm, but the mercy of his patience that forbeareth thee. 273

e) Infidelity in God’s judgments is madness; unbelief of his mercies hath never been counted less. 273

f) Thou dost not lack faith because God doth not offer it, but because thou wilt not accept it.

g) If, then, distrust of God’s mercy be not madness; what is? …Is he not made that will give credit to the father of lies rather than to the God of truth. 274

3) Refractory and perverse affections made a man frantic. This is a speeding cause and fails not to distemper the soul whereof it hath gotten mastery. 275

a) How many run made of this cause, inordinate and furious lusts!~ If men could send their understandings, like spies, down into the well of their hearts, to see what obstructions of sin have stopped their veins, those springs that erst derived health and comfort to them, they should find that their mad affect have bad effects; and the evil disposedness of their souls arisesth from the want of composedness in their affections. 275

b) This is that which Solomon  calls the wickedness of folly, foolishness, and madness, Ecclesiastes 7:25, a continual deviation from the way of righteousness, a practical frenzy; a roving, wandering, vagrant, extravagant course, which knows not which way to fly, nor where to light except like a dormouse in a dunghill; an opinion without ground, a going without a path, a purpose to do it knows not what ….So madly do these frantics spend their time and strengths, by doing and undoing, tying hard knots and untying them ….275

c) Every willful sin is madness. 276

4) Types of madmen

a) The Epicure 276: what is the flesh which thou pamperest with such indulgence? As thou feedest beasts to feed on them, dost thou not fat thy flesh to fat the worms?  …Thou imaginest felicity consists in liberty, and liberty to be nothing else but a power to live as thou list. Alas, how mad thou art! Thou wilt not live as shouldst, thou canst not live as thou wouldst, thy life and death is a slavery to sin and hell. 277

b) The Proud: ….Admiration is a poison that swells them till they burst ….277….There is mortality in that flesh thou so deckest, and that skin which is so bepainted with artificial complexion shall lose the beauty and itself….278

c) The Lustful:  ….A father contemplating in his meditations how it came to pass that our forefathers in the infancy of the world had so many wives at once, answers himself, Whiles it was a custom, it was scarce a fault. We may so no less in our days. Lasciviousness is so wonted a companion for our gallants that in their sense it hath lost the name of being a sin. 278-9…Thou art made whiles incontinent. 279 I would mention the loss of his soul too; but that he cares not for; the other he would seem to love, then how mad is he to endanger them? …279

d) The Hypocrite plays the madman under covert and concealment. 279 ….He mourns for his sins as a hasty heir at the death of his father. 280.

e) The Avarious is a principle in this bedlam. ….covetousness …It is the great cannon of the devil, charged with chain-shot that hath killed charity in almost all hearts. A poison of three sad ingredients, whereof who hath not tasted?  Insatiability, rapacity and tenacity. 280

f) The Usurer would laugh to hear himself brought into the number of madmen. 281

g) The ambitious man must be also thrust into this bedlam, though his port be high, he thinks himself indivisible from the court. Whiles he minds the stars, with Thales, he forgets the ditch….282.

h) The drunkard: It is a voluntary madness, and makes a man so like a beast that whereas a beast hath no reason, he hath the use of no reason; and the power or faculty of reason suspended gives way to madness. 283

i) The idle man you will say is not made, for madmen can hardly be kept in, and he can hardly be got out. You need not bind him to a post of patience, the love of ease is strong fetters to him….He that lives by the sweat of other men’s brows and will not disquiet the temples of his head. 283

j) The swearer is ravingly mad; his own lips pronounce him; as if he would be revenged on his Maker for giving him a tongue. 283

k) The liar is in the same predicament as the swearer. ….Ps. v. 6, ‘Thou shalt destroy them that speak lies.’ This  is his madness. He kills at least three at once (himself, the one who hears, and the one of whom he lies). 284

l) The busbody will confess a madman; for he fisks up and down like a nettled horse, and will stand on no ground….He loves not to sleep in his own doors. 284

m) The flatterer is a madman….He displeaseth his conscience to please his concupiscence; and to curry a temporary favor he incurreth everlasting hatred. 284.

n) Ingratitude is madness. …He is not worthy of more favors that is not thankful for those he hath.

o) the angry man none will deny to be a madman. 285

p) The envious man is more closely, but more dangerously mad. 285. …He whets a knife to cut his own throat….Others strike him and like a strangely penitential monk, as if their blows were not sufficient, he strikes himself. Is not this a madman? …If you miss in in a stationer’s shop jeering at books, or at a sermon caviling at doctrines, or amongst his neighbor’s cattle grudging their full udders, or in  the shambles plotting massacres, yet thou shalt find him in bedlam. 285

q) The contentious man is as frantic as any….Look upon his eyes, they sparkle fire; mark his hands, they are ever sowing debate. 285 So he makes work for lawyers, work for cutlers, work for surgeons, workd the devil, work for his own destruction. To bedlam with him. 286

r) The impatient man is a madman. …Bear one affliction from God well and prevent a greater. 286

s) The vain-glorious man is a mere madman, …By seeking fame he loseth it, and rushs made upon it. Put him into bedlam. 286

t) False religion: 286….

5) Consider the nature of your tenant. 289

a) He is a usurper, intruding himself into God’s freehold, which, both by creation and re-creation he may challenge for his own inheritance…What a traitor is man to let into his landlord’s house his landlord’s enemy! 289

b) That he doth not pay rent of God’s house. God, rich in merices, lends, and, as it were, lets to farm divers possessions; as the graces of the Spirit, the virtues of the mind, gifts of the body, goods of the world, and for all these he requires no rent but thanksgiving: that we praise him heart, tongue and conversation. 289

c) That he doth suffer God’s tenement to decay; he doth ruinate where he dwells. For the outhouses of our body, madness doth strive to either to burn with lusts or drown them with drunkenness or starve them with covetousness. 289

d) That he doth employ the house to base uses. 289.

 

II) The Tenement, the heart: The heart is a mansion made for God, not for madness. God made it and reserved it to himself.

III) The Tenure, while they live.

A) Alas! What gain we by searching further into this evidence? The more we look into it, the worse we like it. While they live. Too long a time for so bad a tenant.

B) Who then can be saved?

1) Will God give the kingdom of heaven to madmen?

a) Fear not; all are not madmen that have madness a tenant in their hearts, but they have it for their landlord….sin may well dwell in your hearts, let it not reign there. It will be a household servant, it must not be a king…It is one thing to have madness, another thing for madness to have thee. 290

b) Though sin, the devil’s mad dog, hath bitten thee, and thou at first beginnest to run frantic, yet apply the plaster of the blood of Christ to thy sores. This shall draw out the venom and grace shall get the mastery of madness. Be of good comfort, thou shalt not die frantic. 290

c) Happy is he that learns to be sober by his own madness, and concludes from I have sinned! I will not sin! Madness may be in his heart, like a tenant; it shall never be like a tyrant…..291

PART THREE: The Period (the conclusion)

After that they go to the dead….If a man looks into what life itself is, he cannot but find, both by experience of the past and proof of the present age that he must die. As soon as we are born, we begin to draw to our end.

….If we must be sinful, we must die; if we be full of evil, and cherish madness in our hearts, we must to the dead. We have enough sins to bring us all to the grave. God grant they be not so violent and full of ominous precipitation that they portend our more sudden ruin! 292.

We live to die; let me a little invert it: Let us live to lie; live the life of grace, that we may live the life of glory. Then, though we go to the dead, we shall rise from the dead, and live with our God, out of th reach of death forever. Amen. 293