Thomas Adams Puritan Shakespeare

2011-10-05T09:17:00.000Z

The complete works of Thomas Adams can now be accessed online from this Hekman Library page.

St Benet's Today

2011-10-05T08:59:00.001Z

This article appeared recently in The Times

The appointment of a new incumbent will breathe fresh life into the historic church of St Benet’s Paul’s Wharf.

The Rev Aneirin Glyn is relishing the prospect of revitalising St Benet Paul’s Wharf, the only Welsh church attached to the Church of England in London, when he is installed as priest in charge next month. He wants to make the Gospel known to all Welsh people in London, not just Welsh speakers (of which there are estimated to be as many as 50,000 in London), by teaching the Bible in a relevant and engaging way. He adds, with a smile: “For people who are learning Welsh in London, if there are ways to minister to them then we will look at doing that. I am also able to speak English.”

Demand to learn Welsh in London is certainly on the rise. There were 60 places available on the most recent course at the London Welsh Centre in King’s Cross; it was oversubscribed and the number of places on the next course has been expanded to 75.
“London has a large Welsh community and I would love St Benet’s to be the place where they can hear the great news about Jesus in the language in which they are comfortable,” says Glyn, 35, who comes from Cardiff and whose mother tongue is Welsh.

Glyn is married with three children and describes himself as “bilingual”. He was born in Cardiff to Welsh parents, both doctors; the family moved to Flintshire when he was 10 and he was educated “through the medium of Welsh” until 16. He was keen on rugby at school, playing in the second row (he is 6ft 3in) and supporting both Cardiff Blues and Llanelli Scarlets, his father’s team. At 18 he read mathematics at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, later gaining a D.Phil in pure mathematics at the same college. He then spent three years as an international student worker at St Ebbe’s in Oxford. A master’s degree in theology at Oak Hill College followed before he joined St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, as a curate in 2009. His role at St Benet Paul’s Wharf will be in addition to his position at St Helen’s, one of the biggest Evangelical Anglican churches in the City, where he helps to lead the well-attended Sunday afternoon service.

Glyn says that attending either of the two Sunday services at St Benet’s “is a great way to learn the language — it’s a great place to hear Welsh spoken and lived out”. Hymns are sung in Welsh, although worshippers can use a sheet with the words in English. The Church in Wales prayerbook is used (it has Welsh on the left-hand page and English on the right), and readings are in Welsh (but can be followed in an English Bible).

Glyn himself reads the Bible in English and in Welsh, using the English Standard Version and Y Beibl Cymraeg Newydd (The New Welsh Bible), and is equally happy in both. But he says: “I think for some people in London, Welsh is the language in which they think and speak. We want to meet people where they are. Some people ‘feel’ Welsh, so if that happens then we will gladly welcome them and share the Gospel in Welsh.”

He wants to breathe new life into the Grade I listed City church, which was founded in 1111 and rebuilt by Christopher Wren after the Great Fire. The church oozes history: it has been the church of the College of Arms since 1555; Shakespeare mentions it in Twelth Night (Act V, Scene I); Inigo Jones was buried there in 1652; Henry Fielding married his second wife there in 1747; and it became one of the City Guild Churches in 1954.

Services in Welsh have been held at St Benet’s — also known as the Metropolitan Welsh Church — since 1879, when Queen Victoria signed an Order in Council removing it from a list of churches to be demolished and granting its use to Welsh Anglicans for the conduct of services “according to the Rites of the Church of England” in perpetuity. Latterly, however, the church has had a rather chequered history. In 2008 it was closed briefly after the congregation had dwindled to only a handful of people. The Ven David Meara, the Archdeacon of London, who was appointed in 2009, draws a line under the episode and talks of a brighter future: “It is a new chapter in the life of St Benet’s. You can talk about a revival of ministry — it is quite clear that things have been in the doldrums.

“The church has been without a permanent priest in charge for a number of years and it has been the wish of the Bishop of London to appoint a priest not just fluent in the Welsh language but one who will help grow the church and reach out to the large Welsh-speaking community in London and beyond. The London Welsh Centre is obviously one potential source of partnership, although there are many others. I think for the first time, with a young and lively chap in Aneirin Glyn, who is a fluent Welsh speaker, there is a real chance St Benet’s will flourish.”

The central location of St Benet’s clearly makes possible a large “gathered community”, Meara believes. He adds: “The Bishop is keen for Aneirin and his team to take advantage of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook as a way of building a network within the Welsh-speaking London-based community and to host evenings where we can show Welsh films and hold Welsh social functions. Its website could be hugely developed to build up St Benet’s as a worshipping community and as a centre for Welsh life in London.”

St Benet’s already holds events such as the celebration of St Dwynen’s Day (essentially, a Welsh equivalent of St Valentine’s Day) in January. Glyn hopes to run more of such events and to tap into the heart of the Welsh community in London, which includes London Welsh RFC, London Welsh FC, London Welsh Cricket Club, London Welsh Chorale, London Welsh Male Voice Choir, Ysgol Gymraeg Lludain (a primary school based in Harlesden, North London), the networking forum Wales in London and even an independent Welsh dairy in Fulham, Morgan’s.

Glyn will take up his post at St Benet’s on October 2 in a service conducted by the Bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres. Members of the congregation could potentially include Huw Edwards, the BBC News presenter, who is a fluent Welsh speaker and writer (he is the author of a book on Llanelli chapels; 12 of its 33 chapters are in Welsh) and is the president of the London Welsh Trust, which runs the London Welsh Centre. “He said he had heard about my appointment and in passing said he might be interested in coming along,” Glyn says.

St Benet’s, as noted, is well connected. Earlier this week the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who was previously Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales and occasionally takes services at St Benet’s, dedicated a memorial at the church. Needless to say, the bulk of the service was conducted in Welsh.

www.stbenetwelshchurch.org.uk

Adams on the wise men

2010-06-29T08:41:00.004Z

The Bible is to us what the star was to the wise men; but if we spend all our time in gazing upon it, observing its motions, and admiring its splendour, without being led to Christ by it, the use of it will be lost on us.

Adams on sinful silence

2010-06-04T11:16:00.002Z

In the Three divine sisters Adams says this

This one office of love is almost forgotten in the world. Our eyes and ears are conscious of many horrid sins, whereof we make also our souls guilty by our silence. Like chameleons, we turn to the colour of our company. Oppressions, that draw blood of the commonwealth, move us not. Oaths, that totter the battlements of heaven, wake us not. Oh, where is our kindness! Whilst we do not reprove, we approve these iniquities. He is conscious of secret guiltiness that forbeareth to resist open iniquity. Thou sayest it is for love's sake thou sparest reprehension. Why, if thou love thy friend never so dearly, yet thou oughtest to love truth more dearly. Let not, then, the truth of love prejudice the love of truth.

Want of a nail

2009-09-03T09:29:00.003Z

This is a well known nursery rhyme

For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
for want of a shoe the horse was lost,
for want of a horse the knight was lost,
for want of a knight the battle was lost.
So it was a kingdom was lost – all for want of a nail.

The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes gives as the oldest version the words of Adams in his complete sermons of 1629

“The want of a nail loseth the shoe, the loss of a shoe troubles the horse, the horse endangereth the rider, the rider breaking his rank molests the company so far as to hazard the whole army.”

Garvie on Adams

2009-05-22T11:04:00.003Z

In his 1921 book Christian preaching A E Garvie has a place for Adams in his history. He puts him between Henry Smith and Thomas Goodwin and says

Even greater as a Puritan preacher than Henry Smith was Thomas Adams (died after 1630), "the Shakespeare of the Puritans."

"While Adams is not so sustained as Jeremy Taylor, nor so continuously sparkling as Thomas Fuller, he is surpassingly eloquent, and much more thought-laden than either."
While doctrine of the Calvinistic Evangelical type had a large place in his preaching, he did not overlook morals and manners. He insists on both learning and piety in the preacher, and warns him against seeking the applause of men. In a sermon on the Fatal Banquet he anticipates Bunyan in describing the vanity of human desires and efforts.

The following sentences explain why he was likened to Shakespeare:

"Oh, how goodly this building of man appears when it is clothed with beauty and honour ! A face full of majesty, the throne of comeliness, wherein the whiteness of the lily contends with the sanguine of the rose; an active hand, an erected countenance, an eye sparkling out lustre, a smooth complexion, arising from an excellent temperature and composition. Oh, what a workman was this, that could raise such a fabric out of the earth, and lay such orient colours upon dust!"

Aware of man's dignity, he is moved by the tragedy of man's sin and refusal of God's grace.

"Come then, beloved, to Jesus Christ; come betimes, the flesh calls, we come; vanity calls, we flock; the world calls, we fly: let Christ call early and late, He has yet to say, 'Ye will not come unto me that you might have life!"

Google books Update

2009-05-22T09:47:00.003Z

We notice that besides the Commentary on 2 Peter and another sermon collection a volume from the Works is also now available on Google books.

See here

Adams' Popularity

2008-12-19T11:51:00.004Z

In her thesis Moira P Baker comments on Adams's popularity. She observes that

In his popular compendium of contemporary eloquence, Things Old and New (1658), John Spencer includes more than sixty excerpts from the works of Adams. William London, in addition, lists Adams’ Workes and his Commentary upon the Second Epistle of St. Peter in Catalogue of the Most Vendible Books in England. To his contemporaries, then, Adams was a respected preacher and writer.

Spencer's work has as its full title Kaina kai palaia Things new and old, or, A store-house of similies, sentences, allegories, apophthegms, adagies, apologues, divine, morall, politicall, &c. : with their severall applications / collected and observed from the writings and sayings of the learned in all ages to this present by John Spencer.

Adams on Psalm 141:2 & 147:3

2008-12-04T11:20:00.004Z

141:2 As the evening sacrifice. This should be our daily service, as a lamb was offered up morning and evening for a sacrifice. But, alas! how dull and dead are our devotions! Like Pharaoh's chariots, they drive on heavily. Some, like Balaam's ass, scarce ever open their mouths twice.

147:13 He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates. Blessed is the city whose gates God barreth up with his power, and openeth again with his mercy. There is nothing can defend where his justice will strike; and there is nothing can offend where his goodness will preserve.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 139:14

2008-12-04T11:14:00.004Z

14 I will praise thee, etc. All God's works are admirable, man wonderfully wonderful. "Marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." What infers he on all this? Therefore "I will praise thee." If we will not praise him that made us, will he not repent that he made us? Oh that we knew what the saints do in heaven, and how the sweetness of that doth swallow up all earthly pleasures! They sing honour and glory to the Lord. Why? Because he hath created all things: Rev 4:11. When we behold an exquisite piece of work, we presently enquire after him that made it, purposely to commend his skill: and there is no greater disgrace to an artist, than having perfected a famous work, to find it neglected, no man minding it, or so much as casting an eye upon it. All the works of God are considerable, and man is bound to this contemplation. "When I consider the heavens", etc., I say, "What is man?." Ps 8:3,4. He admires the heavens, but his admiration reflects upon man. Quis homo? There is no workman but would have his instruments used, and used to that purpose for which they were made ... Man is set like a little world in the midst of the great, to glorify God; this is the scope and end of his creation.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 133:2, 135:6 & 137:8

2008-12-01T12:01:00.003Z

133:2 That ran down...that went down, etc Christ's grace is so diffusive of itself, that it conveys holiness to us, "running down from the head to the skirts", to all his members. He was not only anointed himself, but he is our anointer. Therefore it is called "the oil of gladness", because it rejoiceth our hearts, by giving us spiritual gladness, and peace of conscience.

135:6 In heaven and in the earth, etc. His power is infinite. He can do what he will do everywhere; all places are there named but purgatory; perhaps he can do nothing there, but leaves all that work for the Pope.

137:8 He that sows evil shall reap evil; he that soweth the evil of sin, shall reap the evil of punishment. So Eliphaz told Job that he had seen (Job 4:8), "they that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same." And that either in kind or quality, proportion or quantity. In kind, the very same that he did to others shall be done to him; or in proportion, a measure answerable to it. So he shall reap what he hath sown, in quality or in quantity; either in portion the same, or in proportion the like. The prophet cursing Edom and Babel saith thus, "O daughter of Zion, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us." The original is, "that recompenses to thee thy deed which thou didst to us." ... Thus is wickedness recompensed suo genere, in its own kind. So often the transgressor is against the transgressor, the thief robs the thief, proditoros proditor;as in Rome many unchristened emperors, and many christened popes, by blood and treason got the sovereignty, and by blood and treason lost it. Evil men drink of their own brewing, are scourged with their own rod, drowned in the pit which they digged for others, as Haman was hanged on his own gallows, Perillus tormented in his own engine!

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 128:3 & 130:4

2008-11-28T09:28:00.004Z

128:3 By the sides of thine house. Not on the roof, nor on the floor; the one is too high, she is no ruler; the other too low, she is no slave: but in the sides, an equal place between both.

130:4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. One would think that punishment should procure fear, and forgiveness love; but nemo majus diligit, quam qui maxime veretur offendere - no man more truly loves God than he that is most fearful to offend him. "Thy mercy reacheth to the heavens, and thy faithfulness to the clouds" - that is, above all sublimities. God is glorious in all his works, but most glorious in his works of mercy; and this may be one reason why St Paul calls the gospel of Christ a "glorious gospel": 1 Tim 1:11. Solomon tells us, "It is the glory of a man to pass by an offence." Herein is God most glorious, in that he passeth by all the offences of his children. Lord, who can know thee and not love thee, know thee and not fear thee? We fear thee for thy justice, and love thee for thy mercy; yea, fear thee for thy mercy, and love thee for thy justice; for thou art infinitely good in both.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 126:5

2008-10-13T20:42:00.002Z

5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy

They sow in faith

and God will bless that seed: it shall grow up to heaven, for it is sown in the side of Jesus Christ who is in heaven. "He that believeth on God", this is the seed; "shall have everlasting life" (Joh 5:24); this is the harvest. Qui credit quod non videt, videbit quod credit, —he that believes what he doth not see; this is the seed: shall one day see what he hath believed; this is the harvest.
They sow in obedience

this is also a blessed seed, that will not fail to prosper Wheresoever it is cast. "If ye keep my commandments"; this is the seed: "ye shall abide in my love" (Joh 15:10); this is the harvest. (Ro 6:22), "Ye are become servants to God, and have your fruit unto holiness"; this is the sowing: "and the end everlasting life"; this is the reaping. Obedientia in tetris, regnabit in coelis,—he that serves God on earth, and sows the seed of obedience, shall in heaven reap the harvest of a kingdom.
They sow in repentance

and this seed must needs grow up to blessedness ... Many saints have now reaped their crop in heaven, that sowed their seed in tears. David, Mary Magdalene, Peter: as if they had made good the proverb, "No coming to heaven with dry eyes." Thus nature and God differ in their proceedings. To have a good crop on earth, we desire a fair seedtime; but here a wet time of sowing shall bring the best harvest in the barn of heaven. "Blessed are they that mourn"; this is the seeding: "for they shall be comforted" (Mt 5:4); this is the harvest.
They sow in renouncing the world, and adherence to Christ

and they reap a great harvest. "Behold", saith Peter to Christ, "we have forsaken all, and followed thee" (Mt 19:27); this is the seeding. "What shall we have therefore?" What? "You shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Mt 19:28-29); all that you have lost shall be centupled to you: "and you shall inherit everlasting life"; this is the harvest. "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, and reap in mercy": Ho 10:12.
They sow in charity

He that sows this seed shall be sure of a plentiful crop. "Whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only"—a little refreshing—"in the name of a disciple; verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward": Mt 10:42. But if he that giveth a little shall be thus recompensed, then "he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully": 2 Cor 9:6. Therefore sparse abroad with a full hand, like a seeds man in a broad field, without fear. Doth any think he shall lose by his charity? No worldling, when he sows his seed, thinks he shall lose his seed; he hopes for increase at harvest. Do you dare trust the ground and not God? Sure God is a better paymaster than the earth: grace doth give a larger recompense than nature. Below thou mayest receive forty grains for one; but in heaven, (by the promise of Christ,)a hundred fold: a "measure heapen, and shaken, and thrust together, and yet running over." "Blessed is he that considereth the poor"; this is the seeding: "the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble" (Ps 41:1); this is the harvest.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 124:7 & 125:3, 4

2008-09-20T08:55:00.006Z

7 Our soul is escaped as a bird The snare of the fowler was the lime-twigs of this world; our soul was caught in them by the feathers, our affections: now, indeed, we are escaped; but the Lord delivered us.

3 The rod of the wicked It is, their rod, made for them; if God scourge his children a little with it, he doth but borrow it from the immediate and natural use for which it was ordained; their rod, their judgment. So it is called their cup: "This is the portion" and potion "of their cup." Ps 11:6 (from commentary on 2 Peter)

4 Lastly, they have the lot of heaven. Hell is the lot of the wicked: "Behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us": Isa 27:14. Therefore it is said of Judas, that he went "to his own place": Ac 1:25. "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup": Ps 11:6. But the lot of the righteous is faith, and the end of their faith the salvation of their souls. God gives them heaven, not for any foreseen worthiness in the receivers, for no worthiness of our own can make us our father's heirs; but for his own mercy and favour in Christ, preparing heaven for us, and us for heaven. So that upon his decree it is allotted to us; and unless heaven could lose God, we cannot lose heaven.
Here, then, consider how the lottery of Canaan may shadow out to us that blessed land of promise whereof the other was a type.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 119:4, 5, 51, 136, 162

2008-09-08T12:08:00.006Z

4-5 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently; this is God's imperative. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!; this should be our optative.

51 The proud have had me greatly in derision The saints of God have complained of this in all ages: David of his busy mockers; the abjects jeered him. Job was disdained of those children whose fathers he would have scorned to set with the dogs of his flock, Job 30:1. Joseph was nicknamed a dreamer, Paul a babbler, Christ himself a Samaritan, and with intent of disgrace a carpenter ... Michal was barren, yet she hath too many children, that scorn the habit and exercises of holiness. There cannot be a greater argument of a foul soul, than the deriding of religious services. Worldly hearts can see nothing in those actions, but folly and madness; piety hath no relish, but is distasteful to their palates.

136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law The vices of the religious are the shame of religion: the sight this hath made the stoutest champions of Christ melt into tears. David was one of those great worthies of the world, not matchable in his time yet he weeps. Did he tear in pieces a bear like a kid? Rescue a lamb will the death of a lion? Foil a mighty giant, that had dared the whole of God? Did he like a whirlwind, bear and beat down his enemies below him; and now, does he, like a child or a woman, fall weeping? Yes, he had heard the name of God blasphemed, seen his holy rites profaned, his statutes vilipended (treated with contempt), and violence offered to the pure chastity of that virgin, religion; this resolved that valiant heart into tears: "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes."

162 I rejoice at thy word "Euripides," saith the orator, "hath in his well composed tragedies more sentiments than sayings;" and Thucydides hath so stuffed every syllable of his history with substance, that the one runs parallel along with the other; Lysias's works are so well couched that you cannot take out the least word but you take away the whole sense with it; and Phocion had a special faculty of speaking much in a few words. The Cretians, in Plato's time (however degenerated in St Paul's), were more weighty than wordy; Timanthes was famous in this, that in his pictures more things were intended than deciphered; and of Homer it is said that none could ever peer him for poetry. Then how much more apt and apposite are these high praises to the book of God, rightly called the Bible or the book as if it were, as indeed it is, both for fitness of terms and fullness of truth, the only book to winch (as Luther saith) all the books in the world are but waste paper. It is called the word, by way of eminency, because it must be the butt and boundary of all our words; and the scripture, as the lord paramount above all other words or writings of men collected into volumes, there being, as the Rabbins say, a mountain of sense hanging upon every tittle of it, whence may be gathered flowers and phrases to polish our speeches with, even sound words, that have a healing property in them, far above all filed phrases of human elocution.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 116:16

2008-09-08T12:04:00.002Z

16 I am thy servant The saints have ever had a holy pride in being God's servants; there cannot be a greater honour than to serve such a Master as commands heaven, earth, and hell. Do not think thou dost honour God in serving him; but this is how God honours thee, in vouchsafing then to be his servant. David could not study to give himself a greater style than - "O Lord, or, truly I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid," and this he spake, not in the phrase of a human compliment, but in the humble confession of a believer. Yea, so doth the apostle commend this excellency, that he sets the title of servant before that of an apostle; first servant, then apostle. Great was his office in being an apostle, greater his blessing in being a servant of Jesus Christ; the one is an outward calling, the other an inward grace. There was an apostle condemned, never any servant of God.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 109:10-13, 16

2008-07-30T18:32:00.004Z

10-13 Many penurious fathers are so scraping for their children, that they ravish the poor children of God; but the hand of the Lord shall be against their young lions. Na 2:13. They join house to house and field to field but their children shall be "vagabonds and beg", "seeking their bread out of their desolate places." How many a covetous mole is now digging a house in the earth for his posterity, and never dreams of this sequel, that God should make those children beggars, for whose sake their fathers had made so many beggars! This is a quittance which the sire will not believe, but as sure as God is just the son shall feel. Now if he had but leave to come out of hell for an hour, and see this, how should he curse his folly! Sure, if possible, it would double the pain of his infernal torture. Be moderate, then, ye that so insatiately devour, as if you had an infinite capacity: you overload your stomachs, it is fit they should be disburdened in shameful spewing. How quickly doth a worldly minded man grow a defrauder, from a defrauder to a usurer, from a usurer to an oppressor, from an oppressor to an extortioner! If his eyes do but tell his heart of a booty, his heart will charge his hand, and he must have it, Mic 2:2. They do but see it, like it, and take it. Observe their due payment. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath: they got all by extortion, they shall lose all by extortion. They spoiled their neighbours, strangers shall spoil them. How often hath the poor widow and orphan cried, wept, groaned to them for mercy, and found none! They have taught God how to deal with themselves; let there be none to extend mercy to them. They have advanced houses for a memorial, and dedicated lands to their own names, Ps 49:11; all to get them a name; and even in this they shall be crossed: In the next generation their name shall be quite put out.

16 But persecuted the poor If any man will practice subtraction against the poor, God will use it against him, and take his name out of the book of life. If he be damned that gives not his own, what shall become of him that takes away another man's? (Augustine) If judgment without mercy shall be to him that shows no mercy (Jas 2:13) where shall subtraction and rapine appear?

Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let strangers spoil his labour, Ps 109:11: there is one subtraction, his estate.

Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out, Ps 109:13: there is another subtraction, his memory.

Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children, Ps 109:12: there is another subtraction, a denial of all pity to him and his.

Let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin, Ps 109:7: there is another subtraction, no audience from heaven.

Let another take his office; there is a subtraction of his place: let his days be few, Ps 109:8: there is a subtraction of his life.

Let him be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous, Ps 69:28; there is the last, the subtraction of his soul.

This is a fearful arithmetic: if the wicked add sins, God will add plagues. If they subtract from others their rights, God shall subtract from them his mercies.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 106:6,13,15

2008-07-23T11:30:00.003Z

6 We have sinned with our fathers. Let us look a little further back, to find the age of sin; even as far as the original, from whence comes all the copy of imitation. Be they never so new in act, they are old in example: "We have sinned with our fathers." God tells them they had rebelled of old; "As your fathers did, so do ye" (Acts 8:51). Antiquity is no infallible argument of goodness: though Tertullian says the first things were the best things; and the less they distanced from the beginning, the poorer they were; but he must be understood only of holy customs. For iniquity can plead antiquity: he that commits a new act of murder finds it old in the example of Cain; drunkenness may be fetched from Noah; contempt of parents from Ham; women's lightness from the daughters of Lot. There is no sin but hath white hairs upon it, and is exceeding old. But let us look further back yet, even to Adam; there is the age of sin. This is that St Paul calls the old man; it is almost as old as the root, but older than all the branches. Therefore our restitution by Christ to grace is called the new man.

13 They soon forgat his works They forgat, yea, "soon"; they made haste to forget, so the original is: "They made haste, they forgat." Like men that in sleep shake Death by the hand, but when they are awake they will not know him.

15 And he gave them their request, etc The throat's pleasure did shut up paradise, sold the birthright, beheaded the Baptist and it was the chief of the cooks, Nebuzaradan, that first set fire to the temple, and razed the city. These effects are,
1. Grossness; which takes away agility to any good work; which makes a man more like a tun upon two pottle pots. Caesar said he mistrusted not Antony and Dolabella for any practices, because they were fat; but Casca and Cassius, lean, hollow fellows, who did think too much. The other are the devil's crammed fowls, too fat to lay. Indeed, what need they travel far, whose felicity is at home; placing paradise in their throats, and heaven in their food?
2. Macilency (leanness) of grace; for as it puts fatness into their bodies, so leanness into their souls. God fatted the Israelites with quails, but withal sent leanness into their soul. The flesh is blown up, the spirit doth languish. They are worse than man eaters, for they are self eaters: they put a pleurisy into their bloods, and an apoplexy into their souls.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on conversion as a miracle

2008-07-23T10:51:00.004Z

"Yea, even still God works miracles, though we take no notice of them. That our hearts should be converted by preaching, this is a miracle. That our faith should believe above reason, this is a miracle. If he does not fetch water out of a rock, yet he fetcheth repentance out of sin, and makes the stony heart gush out tears; this is a greater miracle. If he does not turn water into wine, yet he turns our sorrow into joy; as great a miracle. If he does not feed five thousand bodies with a few loaves, yet he feeds five thousand souls with one sermon; as great a miracle."

"It is a great miracle to convert a wicked man, greater than rending of rocks. Moses' rod struck a rock thrice, and did it. Ministers have struck men's rocky hearts three hundred times, and cannot."

Adams on Psalm 105:17

2008-07-21T08:58:00.004Z

Joseph may be a fit type to us of our spiritual deliverance. Consider him sold into Egypt, not without the determinate counsel of God, who preordained this to good; "God did send me before you to preserve life," Gen 45:5. Here is the difference, the brethren sold Joseph, we sold ourselves. Consider us thus sold unto sin and death; God had a purpose to redeem us; there is election. Joseph was delivered out of prison, and we ransomed out of the house of bondage; there was redemption. Joseph's cause was made known, and himself acquitted; we could not be found innocent ourselves, but were acquitted in Christ; wherein consists our justification. Lastly, Joseph was clothed in glorious apparel, and adorned with golden chains, and made to ride in the second chariot of Egypt: so our last step is to be advanced to high honour, even the glory of the celestial court; "This honour have all the saints, " Ps 149:9.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 103:13, 14, 19

2008-07-18T17:56:00.005Z

13,14. The good father doth not turn off the child for being weak and sickly; but is so much the more indulgent as his necessity requires succour. If his stomach refuse meat, or cannot answer it with digestion, will he put him out of doors? No; when the Shunamite's son complains of his head, she lays him in her bosom. A mother is good to all the fruit of her womb, most kind to the sick infant: when it lies with its eyes fixed on her, not able to declare its grief, or to call for what it desires, this doubles her compassion: "So the Lord doth pity us, remembering our frame, considering that we are but dust"; that our soul works by a lame instrument; and therefore he requires not that of an elemental composition, which he doth of angelical spirits. The son is commanded to write out such a copy fairly; he doth his best, far short of the original; yet the father doth not chide, but encourage him. Or he gives him a bow and arrows, bids him shoot to such a mark; he draws his utmost strength, lets go cheerfully: the arrow drops far short, yet the son is praised, the father pleased. Temptation assaults us, lust buffets us, secular business diverts us, manifold is our weakness, but not beyond our Father's forgiveness: "He will spare us, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him," Mal 3:17.

19 His kingdom ruleth over all. His Lordship is universal.

First, over all time: other lords die, but he is eternal. Eternity is properly the duration of an uncreated Ens. It is improperly taken, either for things that have both beginning and end, as everlasting mountains; divers such phrases in Scripture; or for things that have a beginning but shall have no end; so are angels and men's souls eternal; so, eternal life, eternal fire. But God calls himself, "I AM," Ex 3:14: I am what I have been, I have been what I am, what I am and have been I shall be. This attribute is incommunicable: all other things had a non esse preceding their esse;and they have a mutation tending to nothing. "They that war against thee shall be as nothing," Isa 41:12: all come to nothing unless they be upheld by the manutency (maintenance)of God: but "Thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end," Ps 102:27. Thou turnest man to destruction, and again sayest, Return: "even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God," Ps 90:2; the sole umpire and measurer of beginning and ending.
Secondly, over all places, heaven, earth, hell, Ps 135:6. Kings are limited, and cannot do many things they desire: they cannot command the sun to stand still, nor the wind to blow which way they would: in the lofty air, in the depths of the sea no king reigns. They fondly flatter the pope with his long arms that they reach to purgatory; (but indeed both power and place are alike imaginary;) it is Christ alone that hath the keys of all places.
Thirdly, over all creatures; binding the influences of Pleiades, and loosing the bands of Orion, Job 38:31; commanding the fire against the nature of it, to descend, 2 Kings 1:12; creating and ruling the stars, Am 5:8; overruling the lions, Dan 6:22, sending the meteors, Ps 148:8, hedging in the sea, lapping it up like a child in swaddling-clothes, Job 38:8, dividing, diverting, filling it. In both fire and water, those two raging elements that have no mercy, he shows mercy; delivers us from both in both. He calls the fowls, and they come; the beasts, and they hear: the trees, and they spring to obey him. He hath a raven for Elijah, a gourd for Jonah, a dog for Lazarus. Makes the leviathan, the hugest living creature, preserve his prophet. That a terrible lion should be killed, as was by Samson; or not kill, as they forbore Daniel; or kill and not eat, as that prophet, 1 Kings 13:1-29: here was the Lord. Over metals; he makes iron to swim, stones to cleave asunder. Over the devils; they must obey him though unwillingly. But they continually rebel against him, and break his will? They do indeed against his complacency, not against his permission. There is then no time, not the hour of death; no place, not the sorest torment; no creature, not the devil; but the Lord can deliver us from them. Therefore at all times, in all places, and against all creatures, let us trust in him for deliverance.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 99:1 & 102:26

2008-07-16T10:09:00.005Z

99:1 Holy arm. The creation was the work of God's fingers: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers," Ps 8:3; redemption a work of his arm, "His holy arm hath gotten him the victory"; yea, it was a work of his heart, even that bled to death to accomplish it.

102: 26 They shall perish. The greater the corruption, the vaster the destruction. Some think that the fiery deluge shall ascend no higher than did the watery. It may be the earth shall be burned, that is the worst guest at the table, the common sewer of all other creatures, but shall the heavens pass away? It may be the airy heaven; but shall the starry heaven where God hath printed such figures of his glory? Yes, caelum, elementurn, terra, when ignis ubique ferox ruptis regnabit habenis. The former deluge is called the world's winter, the next the world's summer. The one was with a cold and moist element, the other shall be with an element hot and dry. But what then shall become of the saints? They shall be delivered out of all; walking like those three servants in the midst of that great furnace, the burning world, and not be scorched, because there is one among them to deliver them, "the Son of God," Dan 3:25, their Redeemer. But shall all quite perish? No, there is rather a mutation than an abolition of their substance. Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed, not abolished. The concupiscence shall pass, not the essence; the form, not the nature. In the altering of an old garment, we destroy it not, but trim it, refresh it, and make it seem new. They pass, they do not perish; the dross is purged, the metal stays. The corrupt quality shall be renewed, and all things restored to that original beauty wherein they were created. "The end of all things is at hand," 1 Pet 4:7: an end of us, an end of our days, an end of our ways, and end of our thoughts. If a man could say as Job's messenger, I alone am escaped, it were somewhat; or might find an ark with Noah. But there is no ark to defend them from that heat, but only the bosom of Jesus Christ.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Works of Adams available

2008-07-10T20:31:00.003Z

The works of Adams in three volumes are currently available from Reformation Heritage. See here.

Adams on Psalm 94:19

2008-07-07T20:45:00.004Z

19 Thy comforts Troubles may be of our own begetting; but true comforts come only from that infinite fountain, the God of consolation; for so he hath styled himself.

Because the malignant host is first entered into the ground of my text, consider with me:

1. The rebels, or mutineers, "thoughts."

2. The number of them, no less than a "multitude."

3. The captain whose colours they bear; a disquieted mind; "my thoughts."

4. The field where the battle is fought; in the heart; apud me, "within me."

In the other army we find,

1. Quanta, how puissant they are; comforts.

2. Quota, how many they are; indefinitely set down; abundant comfort.

3. Cujus, whose they are; the Lord's, he is their general; thy comforts.

4. Quid operantur, what they do; they delight the soul. In the nature of them being comforts, there is tranquillity; in the number of them, being many comforts, there is sufficiency; in the owner of them, being thy comforts, there is omnipotence; and in the effect of them, delighting the soul, there is security.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 91:11

2008-07-01T13:56:00.004Z

11 To keep thee in all thy ways How should those heavenly spirits bear that man in their arms, like nurses, upon earth living; or bear up his soul to heaven, like winged porters, when he dies, that refuseth the right way? They shall keep us in all our ways. Out of the way it is their charge to oppose us, as to preserve us in the way. Nor is this more a terror to the ungodly, than to the righteous a comfort. For if an angel would keep even a Balaam from sinning, how much more careful are all those glorious powers to prevent the miscarriages of God's children! From how many falls and bruises have they saved us! In how many inclinations to evil have they turned us, either by removing occasions, or by casting in secretly good motions! We sin too often, and should catch many more falls, if those holy guardians did not uphold us. Satan is ready to divert us, when we endeavour to do well; when to do ill, angels are as ready to prevent us. We are in Joshua the high priest's ease, with Satan on the one hand, on the other an angel, Zec 3:1: without this, our danger were greater than our defence, and we could neither stand nor rise.

... We have the safeguard of the empire; not only the protection of the King, from which the wicked as outlaws are secluded; but also the keeping of angels, to whom he hath given a charge over us, to keep us in all his ways. So nearly we participate of his Divine things, that we have his own guard royal to attend us.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 90:10

2008-06-30T18:46:00.003Z

10 Their strength is labour and sorrow Most commonly old age is a feeble estate; the very grasshopper is a burden to it. Ecc 12:5. Even the old man himself is a burden, to his wife, to his children, to himself. As Barzillai said to David, "I am this day fourscore years old: and can I discern between good and evil? Can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women?" 2 Sam 19:35. Old age, we say, is a good guest, and should be made welcome, but that he brings such a troop with him; blindness, aches, coughs, etc; these are troublesome, how should they be welcome? Their strength is labour and sorrow. If their very strength, which is their best, be labour and grief, what is their worst?

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 86:13 & 16

2008-06-28T08:17:00.004Z

13, 16 There is no stronger argument of God's infallible readiness to grant our requests, than the experience of his former concessions. So David reasons, "The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine", 1 Sam 17:37. This is the argument a priori, the voice of a strong faith, that persuades the conscience God will be gracious to him, because he hath been gracious. The prophet thus often comforted his soul: "Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress"; therefore, "have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer", Ps 4:1. So, Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell; therefore, O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me. Let the justiciaries deduce arguments from their own present merits, my soul from God's former mercies. Thou, O Lord, madest me good, restoredst me when I was evil; therefore have mercy upon me, miserable sinner, and give me thy salvation. Thus Paul grounded his assurance: because the Lord had stood with him, and delivered him out of the lion's mouth; therefore the Lord shall deliver me still, from every evil work, and preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. 2 Tim 4:17, 18.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

(For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; ... give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.)

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 84:11 & 85:8

2008-06-23T09:06:00.003Z

84:11 No good thing will he withhold, etc This is an immense fountain; the Lord fill all the buckets of our hearts at the spring, and give us capacious souls, as he hath a liberal hand.

85:8 I will hear, etc The eye as a mere organ of sense must give place to the ear. Therefore it is wittily observed, that our Saviour commanding the abscession of the offending hand, foot and eye, (Mr 9:43-47), yet never spake of the ear. If thy hand, thy foot or thine eye, cause thee to offend, deprive thyself of them; but part not with thine ear, for that is an organ to derive unto thy soul's salvation. As Christ says there, a man may enter into heaven, lamed in his feet, as Mephibosheth, blind in his sight, as Barzillai, maimed in his hand, as the dry handed man in the gospel; but if there be not an ear to hear of the way, there will be no foot to enter into heaven. If God be not first in the ear, he is neither sanctifiedly in the mouth, nor comfortably in the heart. The Jews had eyes to see Christ's miracles, but because they had no ears to hear his wisdom, therefore they had no feet to enter into his kingdom. The way into the house is by the door, not by the window: the eye is but the window of the heart, the ear is the door. Now Christ stands knocking at the door, not at the window. Re 3:20. And he will not come in at the window, but at the door. "He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep." Joh 10:2. He comes now in by his oracles, now by his miracles. "To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice" Joh 10:3. The way to open and let him in is by the door; to hear his voice. There was a man in the gospel blind and deaf; blind eyes is ill; but deaf ears, worse. It is bad to have the eyes seeled (Seel, to close up: a term in falconry), but worse to have the ears sealed up. Open your ears therefore to this heavenly voice. Bernard hath this description of a good ear: Which willingly hears what is taught, wisely understands what it heareth, and obediently practises what it understandeth. O give me such an ear, and I will hang on it jewels of gold, ornaments of praise.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 80:4

2008-06-19T10:54:00.004Z

4 Lord God of hosts All creatures are mustered, and trained, and put into garrison, or brought forth into the field, by his command. Which way can we look beside his armies? If upward into heaven, there is a band of soldiers, even a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, Lu 2:13. If to the lower heavens, there is a band of soldiers, Ge 2:1; it was universa militia caeli, to which those idolaters burnt incense. On the earth, not only men are marshalled to the service; so Israel was called the "host of the living God; "but even the brute creatures are ranged in arrays. So God did levy a band of flies against the Egyptians; and a band of frogs that marched into their bed chambers. He hath troops of locusts, Pr 30:27, and armies of caterpillars. Not only the chariots and horsemen of heaven to defend his prophet; but even the basest, the most indocible, and despicable creatures, wherewith to confound his enemies. If Goliath stalk forth to defy the God of Israel, he shall be confuted with a pebble. If Herod swells up to a god, God will set his vermin on him, and all the king's guard cannot save him from them. You have heard of rats that could not be beaten off till they had destroyed that covetous prelate; and of the fly that killed Pope Adrian. God hath more ways to punish than he hath creatures. "The Lord God of Hosts" is not properly a title of creation, but of Providence. All creatures have their existence from God as their Maker; but so have they also their order from him as their Governor. It refers not so much to their being as to their marshalling; not to their natural but militant estate; not only as creatures do they owe him for their making, but as they are soldiers for their managing. Their order is warlike, and they serve under the colours of the Almighty. So that here, God would be respected, not as a creator, but as a general. His anger, therefore, seems so much the more fearful, as it is presented to us under so great a title: "the Lord God of Hosts" is angry. They talk of Tamerlane that he could daunt his enemies with the very look of his countenance. Oh! then what terror dwells in the countenance of an offended God! The reprobates shall call to the rocks to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Re 6:16. If ira agni doth so affright them, how terrible is ira leonis, the wrath of the lion? It may justly trouble us all to hear that the Lord, "the Lord God of Hosts," is angry; in the sense whereof the prophet breaks forth here into this expostulation: "O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth?"

Angry against the prayer of thy people There may be infirmities enough in our very prayers to make them unacceptable. As if they be Exanimes, without life and soul; when the heart knows not what the tongue utters. Or Perfunctoriae, for God will have none of those prayers that come out of feigned lips. Or Tentativae, for they that will petere tentando, tempt God in prayer, shall go without. Or Fluctuantes, of a wild and wandering discourse, ranging up and down, which the Apostle calls "beating the air, "as huntsmen beat the bushes, and as Saul sought his father's asses. Such prayers will not stumble upon the kingdom of heaven. Or if they be Preproperae, run over in haste, as some use to chop up their prayers, and think long till they have done. But they that pray in such haste shall be heard at leisure. Or sine fiducia; the faithless man had as good hold his peace as pray; he may babble, but prays not; he prays ineffectually, and receives not. He may lift up his hands, but he does not lift up his heart. Only the prayer of the righteous availeth, and only the believer is righteous. But the formal devotion of a faithless man is not worth the crust of bread which he asks. Or sine humilitate, so the pharisee's prayer was not truly supplicatio, but superlatio. A presumptuous prayer profanes the name of God instead of adoring it. All, or any, of these defects may mar the success of our prayers.

As quoted in Spurgeon'sTreasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 73:18, 20; 77:10

2008-06-17T16:38:00.003Z

18, 20 Their banqueting house is very slippery, and the feast itself a mere dream.

10 I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High Not the moments, nor the hours, nor days of a few short afflictions, that his left hand hath dealt to me: but the years of his right hand; those long, large and boundless mercies wherewith he hath comforted me.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 71:18

2008-06-13T08:48:00.005Z

18 Forsake me not; until, etc Apostasy in old age is fearful. He that climbs almost to the top of a tower, then slipping back, hath the greater fall. The patient almost recovered, is more deadly sick by a relapse. There were stars struck from heaven by the dragon's tail (Re 12:4); they had better never have perched so high. The place where the Israelites fell into that great folly with the daughters of Moab, was in the plain, within the prospect of the Holy Land; they saw their inheritance and yet fell short of it. So wretched is it for old men to fall near to their very entry of heaven, as old Eli in his indulgence (1 Samuel 2); old Judah in his incest (Genesis 38); old David with Bathsheba; old Asa trusting in the physicians more than in God (2 Chr 16:12); and old Solomon built the high places. Some have walked like cherubs in the midst of the stones of fire, yet have been cast as profane out of God's mountain. Eze 28:14, 16. Thus the seaman passeth all the main, and suffers wreck in the haven. The corn often promises a plenteous harvest in the blade, and shrinks in the ear. You have seen trees loaden with blossoms, yet, in the season of expectation, no fruit. A comedy that holds well many scenes, and goes lamely off in the last act, finds no applause. Remember Lot's wife (Lu 17:32): think on that pillar of salt, that it may season thee.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 69:28

2008-06-12T15:51:00.003Z

28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, etc We come to the question, Whether to be written in heaven be an infallible assurance of salvation; or, whether any there registered may come to be blotted out? The truth is, that none written in heaven can ever be lost; yet they object against it this verse. Hence, they infer, that some names once there recorded are afterwards put out; but this opinion casteth a double aspersion on God himself. Either it makes him ignorant of future things, as if he foresaw not the end of elect and reprobate, and so were deceived in decreeing some to be saved that shall not be saved; or, that his decree is mutable, in excluding those upon their sins whom he hath formerly chosen. From both these weaknesses St Paul vindicates him (2 Tim 2:19): "The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his." First, "The Lord knows them that are his; "this were not true if God's prescience could be deluded. Then, his "foundation stands sure;" but that were no sure foundation, if those he hath decreed to be his should afterwards fall out not to be his. The very conclusion of truth is this impossibilis est deletio; they which are "written in heaven" can never come into hell. To clear this from the opposed doubt, among many, I will cull out three proper distinctions:
1. One may be said to be written in heaven simpliciter, and secundum quid. He that is simply written there, in quantum praedestinatus ad vitam, because elected to life, can never be blotted out. He that is written after a sort may, for he is written non secundum Dei praescientiam, sed secundum praesentem justitiam - not according to God's former decree, but according to his present righteousness. So they are said to be blotted out, not in respect of God's knowledge, for he knows they never were written there; but according to their present condition, apostatising from grace to sin. (Nicholas of Lyra)
2. Some are blotted out non secundum rei veritatem, sed hominum opinionem - not according to the truth of the thing but according to men's opinion. It is usual in the Scriptures to say a thing is done quando innotescat fieri, when it is declared to be done. Hypocrites have a simulation of outward sanctity, so that men in charity judge them to be written in heaven. But when those glistening stars appear to be only ignes fatui, foolish meteors, and fall from the firmament of the church, then we say they are blotted out. The written ex existentia, by a perfect being, are never lost; but ex apparentia, by a dissembled appearance, may. Some God so writes, in se ut simpliciter habituri vitam - that they have life simply in themselves, though not of themselves. Others he so writes, ut habeant non in se, sed in sua causa; from which falling they are said to be obliterated. (Thomas Aquinas)
3. Augustine says, we must not so take it, that God first writes and then dasheth out. For if a Pilate could say, Quod scripsi, scripsi - "What I have written, I have written," and it shall stand; shall God say, Quod scripsi expungam - What I have written, I will wipe out, and it shall not stand? They are written, then, secundum spem ipsorum, qui ibi se scriptos putabant - according to their own hope that presumed their names there; and are blotted out quando ipsis constet illos non ibi fuisse - when it is manifest to themselves that their names never had any such honour of inscription. This even that Psalm strengthens whence they fetch their opposition: Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. So that to be blotted out of that book, it is, indeed, never to be written there. To be wiped out in the end, is but a declaration that such were not written in the beginning.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 66:12, 13

2008-06-09T12:51:00.004Z

12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads The agents are men. Man is a sociable living creature and should converse with man in love and tranquillity. Man should be a supporter of man; is he become an overthrower? He should help and keep him up; doth he ride over him and tread him under foot? O apostasy, not only from religion, but even from humanity! Quid homini inimicissimum? Homo (Seneca.) The greatest danger that befalls man comes whence it should least come, from man himself. Caetera animantia, says Pliny, in suo genere, probe degunt, &c. Lions fight not with lions; serpents spend not their venom on serpents; but man is the main suborner of mischief to his own kind ...
1. They ride. What need they mount themselves upon beasts, that have feet malicious enough to trample on us? They have a "foot of pride" Ps 36:11, from which David prayed to be delivered; a presumptuous heel, which they dare lift up against God; and, therefore, a tyrannous toe, to spurn dejected men. They need not horses and mules, that can kick with the foot of a revengeful malice, Ps 32:9.
2. Over us. The way is broad enough wherein they travel, for it is the devil's road. They might well miss the poor, there is room enough besides; they need not ride over us. It were more brave for them to justle with champions that will not give them the way. We never contend for their path; they have it without our envy, not without our pity. Why should they ride over us?
3. Over our heads. Is it not contentment enough to their pride to ride, to their malice to ride over us, but must they delight in bloodiness to ride over our heads? Will not the breaking of our arms and legs, and such inferior limbs, satisfy their indignation? Is it not enough to rack our strength, to mock our innocence, to prey on our estates, but must they thirst after our bloods and lives? Quo tendit saeva libido? Whither will their madness run? But we must not tie ourselves to the letter. Here is a mystical or metamorphical gradation of their cruelty. Their riding is proud; their riding over us is malicious; and their riding over our heads is bloody oppression.

... The time was when the Bonners and butchers rode over the faces of God's saints, and madefied (Madefy, to moisten, to make wet) the earth with their bloods, every drop whereof begot a new believer.

... This verse is like that sea (Mt 8:24) so tempestuous at first, that the vessel was covered with waves; but Christ's rebuke quieted all, and there followed a great calm. Here are cruel Nimrods riding over innocent heads, as they would over fallow lands; and dangerous passages through fire and water; but the storm is soon ended, or rather the passengers are landed. Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. So that this strain of David's music, or psalmody, consists of two notes - one mournful, the other mirthful; the one a touch of distress, the other of redress: which directs our course to an observation of misery and of mercy; of grievous misery, of gracious mercy. There is desolation and consolation in one verse: a deep dejection, as laid under the feet of beasts; a happy deliverance, broughtest us out into a wealthy place. In both these strains God hath his stroke; he is a principal in this concert. He is brought in for an actor, and for an author; and actor in the persecution, and author in the deliverance. Thou causest, etc; Thou broughtest, etc. In the one he is a causing worker; in the other a sole working cause. In the one he is joined with company: in the other he works alone. He hath a finger in the former; his whole hand is in the latter. We must begin with misery before we come to mercy. If there were no trouble, we should not know the worth of a deliverance. The passion of the saints is given, by the hearty and ponderous description, for very grievous; yet it is written in the forehead of the text, "The Lord caused it." Thou causest men to ride, etc. Hereupon, some wicked libertine may offer to rub his filthiness upon God's purity, and to plead an authentic derivation of all his villainy against the saints from the Lord's warrant: He caused it. We answer, to the justification of truth itself, that God doth ordain and order every persecution that striketh his children, without any allowance to the instrument that gives the blow. God works in the same action with others, not after the same manner. In the affliction of Job were three agents - God, Satan and the Sabeans. The devil works on his body, the Sabeans on his goods; yet Job confessed a third party: "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away." Here oppressors trample on the godly, and God is said to cause it. He causeth affliction for trial (so Ps 66:10-11: Thou hast tried us, etc.); they work it for malice; neither can God be accused nor they excused.

... But thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place Every word is sweetly significant, and amplifies God's mercy to us. Four especially are remarkable:—
1. The deliverer

2. The deliverance

3. The delivered

4. Their felicity or blessed advancement.
So there is the deliverer, aliquid celsitudinis, Thou; in the delivery, certitudinis, broughtest out, in the delivered, solitudinis, us; in the happiness, plenitudinis, into a wealthy place. There is highness and lowness, sureness and fulness. The deliverer is great, the deliverance is certain, the distress grievous, the exaltation glorious. There is yet a first word, that like a key unlocks this golden gate of mercy, a veruntamen: BUT. This is vox respirationis, a gasp that fetcheth back again the very life of comfort. But thou broughtest, etc. We were fearfully endangered into the hands of our enemies; they rode and trod upon us, and drove us through hard perplexities. But thou, etc. If there had been a full point or period at our misery, if those gulfs of persecution had quite swallowed us, and all our light of comfort had been thus smothered and extinguished we might have cried, Periit spes nostra, yea, periit salus nostra - Our hope, our help is quite gone. He had mocked us that would have spoken, Be of good cheer. This same but is like a happy oar, that turns our vessel from the rocks of despair, and lands it at the haven of comfort.

13 You see all the parts of this song; the whole concert or harmony of all is praising God. You see quo loco, in his house; quo modo, with burnt offering; quo animo, paying our vows.

Burnt offerings For ourselves, be we sure that the best sacrifice we can give to God is obedience; not a dead beast but a living soul. The Lord takes not delight in the blood of brutish creatures. It is the mind, the life, the soul, the obedience, that he requires: 1Sa 15:22, "To obey is better than sacrifice." Let this be our burnt offering, our holocaust, a sanctified body and mind given up to the Lord, Ro 12:1-2. First, the heart: "My son, give me thy heart." Is not the heart enough? No, the hand also: Isa 1:16, Wash the hands from blood and pollution. Is not the hand enough? No, the foot also: "Remove thy foot from evil." Is not the foot enough? No, the lips also: "Guard the doors of thy mouth; " Ps 34:13, "Refrain thy tongue from evil." Is not thy tongue enough? No, the ear also: "Let him that hath ears to hear, hear." Is not the ear enough? No, the eye also: "Let thine eyes be towards the Lord." Is not all this sufficient? No, give body and spirit: 1Co 6:20, "Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." When the eyes abhor lustful objects, the ear slanders, the foot erring paths, the hands wrong and violence, the tongue flattery and blasphemy, the heart pride and hypocrisy; this is thy holocaust, thy whole burnt offering.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 58:4

2008-05-30T12:46:00.005Z

4 Poison There is such a thing as poison; but where to be found? Ubicunque fuerit, in homine quis quaereret? Wheresoever it is, in man who would look for it? God made man's body of the dust; he mingled no poison with it. He inspires his soul from heaven; he breathes no poison with it. He feeds him with bread; he conveys no poison with it. Unde venenum? Whence is the poison? Mt 13:27 "Didst not thou, O Lord, sow good seed in thy field?" Unde zizaniae — "From whence then hath it tares?" Whence? Hoc fecit inimicus — "The enemy hath done this." We may perceive the devil in it. That great serpent, the red dragon, hath poured into wicked hearts this poison. His own poison, malitiam, wickedness. Cum infundit peccatum, infundit venenum —"When he pours in sin he pours in poison." Sin is poison. Original depravity is called corruption; actual poison. The violence and virulence of this venomous quality comes not at first. Nemo fit repente pessimus — No man becomes worst at the first dash. We are born corrupt, we have made ourselves poisonous. There be three degrees, as it were so may ages, in sin. First — secret sin; an ulcer lying in the bones, but skinned over with hypocrisy. Secondly — open sin, bursting forth into manifest villany. The former is corruption, the second is eruption. Thirdly - frequented and confirmed sin, and that is rank poison, envenoming soul and body.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Google Books

2008-05-29T11:34:00.003Z

Books by Adams available on Google Books
Exposition of 2 Peter
Three Divine sisters etc

Adams on Psalm 50:15, 18, 21

2008-05-29T11:09:00.005Z

15 Call upon me in the day of trouble, etc The Lord hath promised his children supply of all good things, yet they must use the means of impetration; by prayer. He feed the young ravens when they call upon him. Ps 147:9. He feeds the young ravens, but first they call upon him. God withholds from them that ask not, lest he should give to them that desire not (Augustine). David was confident that by God's power he should spring over a wall; yet not without putting his own strength and agility to it. Those things we pray for, we must work for (Augustine). The carter in Isidore, when his cart was overthrown, would needs have his god Hercules come down from heaven, to help him up with it; but whilst he forbore to set his own shoulder to it, his cart lay still. Abraham was as rich as any of our aldermen, David as valiant as any of our gentlemen, Solomon as wise as any of our deepest naturians, Susanna as fair as any of our painted pieces. Yet none of them thought that their riches, valour, policy, beauty or excellent parts could save them; but they stirred the sparks of grace and bestirred themselves in pious work. And this is our means, if our meaning be to be saved.

18 Thou consentedst with him To give entertainment to them we know to be dissolute, is to communicate with their sins.

21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence Neither sleep nor slumber, nor connivance, nor neglect of anything can be incident to God. Because he doth not execute present judgment and visible destruction upon sinners, therefore blasphemy presumptuously infers - will God trouble himself about such petty matters? So they imagined of their imaginary Jupiter. Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Jovem. What a narrow and finite apprehension this is of God! He that causes and produces every action - shall he not be present at every action? What can we do without him, that cannot move but in him? He that taketh notice of sparrows and numbers the seeds which the very ploughman thrusts in the ground, can any action of man escape his knowledge, or slip from his contemplation? He may seem to wink at things but never shuts his eyes. He doth not always manifest a reprehensive knowledge, yet he always retains an apprehensive knowledge. Though David smote not Shimei cursing, yet he heard Shimei cursing. As judges often determine to hear, but do not hear to determine; so though God does not see to like, yet he likes to see.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treaury of David.

Adams on Psalm 49:17

2008-05-28T18:04:00.005Z

17 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away The form of money agrees well with the condition of it; it is stamped round, because it is so apt to run away. Could we be rich so long as we live, yet that were uncertain enough for life itself is but a dream, a shadow, but a dream of a shadow. (Augustine). Rich men are but like hailstones; they make a noise in the world, as the other rattle on the tiles of a house; down they fall, lie still, and melt away. So that if riches could stay by a man, yet he cannot stay by them. Spite of his teeth, he shall carry away nothing when he dies. Life and goods are both is a vessel, both cast away at once; yea, of the two, life hath the more likelihood of continuance. Let it fly never so fast away, riches have eagles' wings, and will outfly it. There be thieves in the highways that will take our moneys and spare our lives. In our penal laws there be not so many ways to forfeit our lives as our goods. Rich Job lived to see himself poor to a proverb. How many in this city reputed rich, yet have broken for thousands! There are innumerable ways to be poor; a fire, a thief, a false servant, suretyship, trusting of bad customers, an unfaithful factor, a pirate, an unskilful pilot hath brought rich men to poverty. One gale of wind is able to make merchants rich or beggars. Man's life is like the banks of a river, his temporal estate is the stream: time will moulder away the banks, but the stream stays not for that, it glides away continually. Life is the tree, riches are the fruit or rather the leaves; the leaves will fall, the fruit is plucked and yet the tree stands. Some write of the pine tree, that if the bark be pulled off, it lasts long; being on it rots. If the worldling's bark were stripped off, he might perhaps live the longer, there is great hope he would live the better.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 39:10 & 45:10

2008-05-19T18:20:00.004Z

39:10 Remove thy plague away from me thy plague and mine; thine by affliction, mine by passion; thine because thou didst send it, mine because I endure it; thine because it comes from thy justice, mine because it answers my injustice; remit what I have done, and remove what thou hast done. But whosoever laid it on, the Lord will take it off.

45:10 Forget If thou be on the mountain, have no love to look back to Sodom. If thou be in the ark, fly not back to the world, as the raven did. If thou be set on Canaan, forget the flesh pots of Egypt. If marching against Midian, forget stooping to the waters of Harod. Jud 7:1-25. If on the house top, forget that is below thee. Mk 13:15. If thy hand be put to the plough, forget that is behind thee. Lk 9:62. Themistocles desired rather to learn the art of forgetfulness than of memory. Philosophy is an art of remembering, divinity includes in it an art of forgetting. The first lesson that Socrates taught his scholars was, Remember; for he thought that knowledge was nothing else but a calling to remembrance of those things the mind knew ere it knew the body. But the first lesson that Christ teacheth his scholars is, Forget: Forget thine own people; "Repent" Mt 4:17; first, "eschew evil, "1 Pet 3:11.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 38:2

2008-05-08T10:16:00.004Z

2 Thy hand presseth me sore Not the hand of Egypt or Ashur; then it were hand for hand, a duel of some equality: hand to hand; here forces and stratagems might achieve a victory: but Thy hand. The weight of a man's blow is but weak, according to the force and pulse of his arm; as the princes of Midian answered Gideon, when he bade his son try the dint of his sword upon them; "Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength." Jud 8:21. But "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Heb 10:31. As Homer called the hands of Jupiter ceirez aeptoi, hands whose praise could not be sufficiently spoken; which some read ceires aaptoii, hands inaccessible, irresistible for strength: all the gods in heaven could not ward a blow of Jupiter's hand. This hand never strikes but for sin; and where sin is mighty his blow is heavy.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 37:25, 26, 37

2008-05-07T17:50:00.004Z

25-26 I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, and I never saw his seed begging their bread: Many persons are solicitously perplexed how their children shall 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 mothers 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 today, and for ever?" "I have been young," saith David, "and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken," that is granted, nay, "not his seed begging bread."
Many distrustful fathers are so carking for their posterity, that while they live they starve their bodies, and hazard their souls, to leave them rich. To such a father it is said justly, Dives es haeredi, pauper inopsque tibi. Like an over kind hen, he feeds his chickens, and famishes 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 course to make them miserable; for they leave them not so much heirs to their goods as to their evils. They do as certainly inherit their fathers' sins as their lands: "God layeth his iniquity for his children: and his offspring shall want a morsel of bread." Job 21:19
On the contrary, the good man is merciful and lendeth; and his seed is blessed. What 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 confined to the obedient man's self, but extended to his seed, and that even to a thousand generations, Ex 20:6. 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 burned into cinders, still "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever."

37 The end All wise men affect the conclusion to be best: to ride two or three miles of fair way, and to have a hundred deep and foul ones to pass afterward is uncomfortable; especially when the end is worse than the way. But let the beginning be troublesome, the progress somewhat more easy, and the journey's end happy, and there is fair amends. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. Mark him in the setting out, he hath many oppositions; mark him in the journey, he is full of tribulations; but mark in the conclusion, and the end of that man is peace.

Adams on Psalm 35:3, 16

2008-05-05T09:04:00.003Z

3 Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation

Observe, 1. That salvation may be made sure to a man. David would never pray for that which could not be. Nor would Peter charge us with a duty which stood not in possibility to be performed. 2 Pe 1:10. "Make your election sure." And to stop the bawling throats of all cavilling adversaries, Paul directly proves it: "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" 2 Cor 13:5. We may then know that Christ is in us. If Christ be in us, we are in Christ; if we be in Christ, we cannot be condemned, for Ro 8:1, "There is no damnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." But I leave this point that it may be sure, as granted; and come to ourselves, that we may make it sure. The Papists deny this, and teach the contrary, that salvation cannot be made sure; much good do it them, with their sorry and heartless doctrine! If they make that impossible to any which God hath made easy for many, "into their secret let not my soul come." Ge 49:6.

Observe, 2. That the best saints have desired to make their salvation sure. David that knew it, yet entreats to know it more. "I know thou favourest me" Ps 41:11; yet here, still, dic animae, "Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation." A man can never be too sure of his going to heaven.

Say unto my soul God may speak with his own voice; and thus he gave assurance to Abraham, "Fear not, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." Gen 15:
1. If God speak comfort, let hell roar horror.
2. He may speak by his works: actual mercies to us demonstrate that we are in his favour, and shall not be condemned. "By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me."
3. He may speak by his Son. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Mt 11:28.
4. He may speak by his Scripture; this is God's epistle to us, and his letters patent, wherein are granted to us all the privileges of salvation. A universal si quis; "Whosoever believes, and is baptised, shall be saved."
5. He may speak by his ministers, to whom he hath given "the ministry of reconciliation." 2 Cor 5:19.
6. He doth speak this by his Spirit: he "sendeth forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father."
Ga 4:6. By all these voices God says to his elect, I am your salvation. ...

My There is no vexation to the vexation of the soul; so no consolation to the consolation of the soul. .. .Let this teach us to make much of this My. Luther says there is great divinity in pronouns. The assurance that God will save some is a faith incident to devils. The very reprobates may believe that there is a book of election; but God never told them that their names were written there. The hungry beggar at the feast house gate smells good cheer, but the master doth not say, "This is provided for thee." It is small comfort to the harbourless wretch to pass through a goodly city, and see many glorious buildings, when he cannot say, Haec mea domus, I have a place here. The beauty of that excellent city Jerusalem, built with sapphires, emeralds, chrysolites, and such precious stones, the foundation and walls whereof are perfect gold Rev 21:1-27, affords a soul no comfort, unless he can say, Mea civitas, I have a mansion in it. The all sufficient merits of Christ do thee no good, unless, tua pars et portio, he be thy Saviour. Happy soul that can say with the psalmist, "O Lord, thou art my portion!" Let us all have oil in our lamps, lest if be then to buy, beg, or borrow, we be shut out of doors like the fools, not worthy of entrance. Pray, Lord, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. ... Who? What? To whom? When?

WHO? The Lord! To the Lord David prays. He hath made a good choice, for there is salvation in none other. "Thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help." Ho 13:9. The world fails, the flesh fails, the devil kills. Only the Lord saves.

WHAT? Salvation. A special good thing; every man's desire. I will give thee a lordship, saith God to Esau. I will give thee a kingdom, saith God to Saul. I will give thee an apostleship, saith God to Judas. But, I will be thy salvation, he says to David, and to none but saints.

TO WHOM? My salvation. Not others only, but "thine." A man and a Christian are two creatures. He may be a man that hath reason and outward blessings; he is only a Christian that hath faith, and part in the salvation of Christ. God is plentiful salvation, but it is not ordinary to find a cui - to whom. Much of heaven is lost for lack of a hand to apprehend it.

WHEN? In the present, "I am." Sum, non sufficit quod ero. It is comfort to Israel in captivity that God says, Ero tua redemptio, I will redeem thee; but the assurance that quiets the conscience is this, I am thy salvation. As God said to Abraham, "Fear not, I am with thee." Deferred hope faints the heart. Whatsoever God forbears to assure us of, oh, pray we him not to delay this, "Lord, say to our soul, I am thy salvation."

(Drawn from Adams' sermon Heaven made sure)

17 Satan no sooner spies our wanderings, but he presently runs with a complaint to God, filing bills against us in the star-chamber of heaven, where the matter would go hard with us, but for the Great Lord Chancellor of peace, our Advocate Jesus Christ. As God keeps all our tears in a bottle, and registereth the very groans of our holy passion in a book, so Satan keeps a record of our sins, and solicits justice against us. Were God like man, subject to passions, or insensible by the suggestions of the common berater, woe were us. But he will hear one son of truth before ten thousand fathers of lying. No matter what the plaintiff libelleth, when the judge acquitteth. We have forfeited our estates by treason, and the busy devil begs us; but there is one that steps in, and pleads a former grant, and that both by promise and purchase. ["Lord, rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions."] Lord Jesus, challenge thy own; let not Satan enter upon by force or fraud, what thou hast bought with thine own blood.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 34:14, 19

2008-05-01T21:26:00.003Z

14 Seek peace, and pursue it Yea, do well, and thou shalt not need to pursue it; peace will find thee without seeking. Augustine says, Fiat justitia, et habebis pacem - Live righteously, and live peaceably. Quietness shall find out righteousness wheresoever he lodgeth. But she abhorreth the house of evil. Peace will not dine where grace hath not first broken her fast. Let us embrace godliness, and "the peace of God, that passeth all understanding, shall preserve our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ." Php 4:7.

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, etc Be our troubles many in number, strange in nature, heavy in measure; yet God's mercies are more numerous, his wisdom more wondrous, his power more miraculous; he will deliver us out of all.

As quoted by Spurgeon in the Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 33:12

2008-04-28T09:03:00.003Z

12 Blessed - whom he hath chosen. A man may have his name set down in the chronicles, yet lost; wrought in durable marble, yet perish; set upon a monument equal to a Colossus, yet be ignominious; inscribed on the hospital gates, yet go to hell; written in the front of his own house, yet another come to possess it; all these are but writings in the dust, or upon the waters, where the characters perish so soon as they are made; they no more prove a man happy than the fool could prove Pontius Pilate because his name was written in the Creed. But the true comfort is this, when a man by assurance can conclude with his own soul that his name is written in those eternal leaves of heaven, in the book of God's election, which shall never be wrapped up in the cloudy sheets of darkness but remain legible to all eternity.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 32:9

2008-04-26T20:41:00.002Z

9. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, etc. How many run mad of this cause, inordinate and furious lusts! The prophet Jeremiah, Jer 2:24, compares Israel to "a swift dromedary, traversing her ways," and to "a wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure." Be ye not, said the psalmographer, "as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle." Men have understanding, not beasts; yet when the frenzy of lust overwhelms their senses, we may take up the word of the prophet and pour it on them: "Every man is a beast by his own knowledge." And therefore "man that is in honour and understandeth not, is like unto beasts that perish" Ps 49:20. Did not the bridle of God's overruling providence restrain their madness, they would cast off the saddle of reason, and kick nature itself in the face.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 27:4

2008-04-25T21:52:00.002Z

4. It was David's earnest prayer, One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. There are many that pray David's words, but not with David's heart. Unum petii, one thing have I desired, de praeterito, for the time past; et hoc requiram, this I will seek after, de futuro, for the time to come: I have required it long, and this suit I will urge till I have obtained it. What? To dwell in some of the houses of God all the days of my life, and to leave them to my children after me; not to serve him there with devotion, but to make the place mine own possession? These love the house of God too well; they love it to have and to hold; but because the conveyance is made by the lawyer, and not by the minister, their title will be found naught in the end; and if there be not a nisi prius to prevent them, yet at that great day of universal audit, the Judge of all the world shall condemn them. By this way, the nearer to the church, the further from God. The Lord's temple is ordained to gain us to him, not for us to gain it from him. If we love the Lord, we "will love the habitation of his house, and the place where his honour dwelleth;" that so by being humble frequenters of his temple below, we may be made noble saints of his house above, the glorious kingdom of Jesus Christ.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 26:4,10

2008-04-25T08:56:00.005Z

4 Dissemblers. The hypocrite has much angel without, more devil within. He fries in words, freezes in works; speaks by ells, doth good by inches. He is a stinking dunghill, covered over with snow; a loose hung mill that keeps great clacking, but grinds no grist; a lying hen that cackles when she hath not laid.

10 Bribes. They that see furthest into the law, and most clearly discern the cause of justice, if they suffer the dust of bribes to be thrown into their sight, their eyes will water and twinkle, and fall at last to blind connivance. It is a wretched thing when justice is made a hackney that may be backed for money, and put on with golden spurs, even to the desired journey's end of injury and iniquity. Far be from our souls this wickedness, that the ear which should be open to complaints should be stopped with the earwax of partiality. Alas! poor truth, that she must now be put to charges of a golden ear pick, or she cannot be heard!

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 22:16, 20

2008-04-24T08:08:00.004Z

16 They pierced my hands and my feet. That evangelical prophet testifies it, "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." Isaiah 49:16. Were we not engraven there when his hands were pierced for us? "They digged my hands and my feet." And they digged them so deep, that the very prints remained after his resurrection, and their fingers were thrust into them for evidence sake. Some have thought that those scars remain still in his glorious body, to be showed at his second appearing: "They shall see him whom they have pierced." That is improbable, but this is certain; there remains still an impression upon Christ's hands and his heart, the sealing and wearing of the elect there, as precious jewels.

21 Save me from the lion's mouth. Satan is called a lion, and that fitly; for he hath all the properties of the lion: as bold as a lion, as strong as a lion, as furious as a lion, as terrible as the roaring of a lion. Yea, worse: the lion wants subtlety and suspicion; herein the devil is beyond the lion. The lion will spare the prostrate, the devil spares none. The lion is full and forbears, the devil is full and devours. He seeks all; let not the simple say, He will take no notice of me; nor the subtle, He cannot overreach me; nor the noble say, He will not presume to meddle with me; nor the rich, He dares not contest with me; for he seeks to devour all. He is our common adversary, therefore let us cease all quarrels amongst ourselves, and fight with him.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 18:38-40 & 19:12

2008-04-23T16:31:00.005Z

18:38-40 I have wounded them, etc. Though passion possess our bodies, let "patience possess our souls." The law of our profession binds us to a warfare; patiendo vincimus, our troubles shall end, our victory is eternal. Hear David's triumph, "I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet. Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. Thou hast given me the necks of mine enemies," etc. They have wounds for their wounds; and the treaders down of the poor are trodden down by the poor. The Lord will subdue those to us that would have subdued us to themselves; and though for a short time they rode over our heads, yet now at last we shall everlastingly tread upon their necks. Lo, then, the reward of humble patience and confident hope!

19:12 Who can understand his errors? Who can tell how oft he offendeth? No man. The hairs of a man's head may be told, the stars appear in multitudes, yet some have undertaken to reckon them; but no arithmetic can number our sins. Before we can recount a thousand we shall commit ten thousand more; and so rather multiply by addition than divide by subtraction; there is no possibility of numeration. Like Hydra's head, while we are cutting off 20 by repentance, we find a hundred more grown up. It is just, then, that infinite sorrows shall follow infinite sins.

Cleanse thou me from secret faults Learn to see thy spots. Many have unknown sins, as a man may have a mole on his back and himself never know it. Lord, cleanse me from my secret faults. But have we not spots whereof we are not ignorant? In diseases sometimes nature is strong enough to put forth spots, and there she cries to us by these outward declarations that we are sick. Sometimes she cannot do it but by the force of cordials. Sometimes conscience of herself shows us our sins; sometimes she cannot but by medicines, arguments that convince us out of the holy word. Some can see, and will not, as Balaam; some would see, and cannot, as the eunuch; some neither will nor can, as Pharaoh; some both can and will, as David. ... We have many spots which God does not hear from us, because we see them not in ourselves. Who will acknowledge that error, whereof he does not know himself guilty? The sight of sins is a great happiness, for it causeth an ingenuous confession.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Adams on Psalm 15:5

2008-04-15T08:51:00.003Z

5 He that doeth these things shall never be moved. The holy soul is the love of God, the joy of angels; her eyes dare look upon the glorious Judge whom she knows to be her Saviour. Her heart is courageous; she dares stand the thunder; and when guilty minds creep into corners, she is confident in him that will defend her. She challengeth the whole world to accuse her of injustice, and fears not the subornation of false witnesses, because she knows the testimony of her own conscience. Her language is free and bold, without the guiltiness of broken stops. Her forehead is clear and smooth, as the brow of heaven. Her knees are ever bent to the throne of grace; her feet travelling toward Jerusalem; her hands weaving the web of righteousness. Good men bless her; good angels guard her; the Son of God doth kiss her; and when all the world shall be turned to a burning pile, she shall be brought safe to the mountain of joy, and set in a throne of blessedness for ever.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on wealth

2008-04-14T08:54:00.003Z

All our pieces of gold are but current to the grave; none of them will pass in the future world. Therefore as merchants when they travel make over their monies here, to receive them by bills of exchange in another country; let us do good with our goods while we live, that when we die, by a blessed bill of exchange, we may receive them again in the Kingdom of heaven (Luke 16:9). To part with what we cannot keep, that we may get that we cannot lose, is a good bargain. Wealth can do us no good, unless it help us toward heaven.

Quoted here

Adams on Psalm 14:1

2008-04-11T21:04:00.005Z

They are corrupt, they have done abominable works. Sin pleaseth the flesh. Omne simile nutrit simile. Corruption inherent is nourished by the accession of corrupt actions. Judas's covetousness is sweetened with unjust gain. Joab is heartened and hardened with blood. 1 Kings 2:5. Theft is fitted to and fatted in the thievish heart with obvious booties. Pride is fed with the officious compliments of observant grooms. Extortion battens in the usurer's affections by the trolling in of his moneys. Sacrilege thrives in the church-robber by the pleasing distinctions of those sycophant priests, and helped with their not laborious profit. Nature is led, is fed with sense. And when the citadel of the heart is once won, the turret of the understanding will not long hold out. As the suffumigations of the oppressed stomach surge up and cause the headache, or as the thick spumy mists, which vapour up from the dark and foggy earth, do often suffocate the brighter air, and to us more than eclipse the sun, the black and corrupt affections, which ascend out of the nether part of the soul, do no less darken and choke the understanding. Neither can the fire of grace be kept alive at God's altar (man's heart), when the clouds of lust shall rain down such showers of impiety on it. Perit omne judicium, cum res transit ad affectum. Farewell the perspicuity of judgment, when the matter is put to the partiality of affection.

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Popery has not won to itself so great wits as atheism; it is the superfluity of wit that makes atheists. These will not be beaten down with impertinent arguments; disordered hail-shot of Scriptures will never scare them; they must be convinced and beaten by their own weapons. "Hast thou appealed to Caesar? To Caesar thou shalt go." Have they appealed to reason? Let us bring reason to them, that we may bring them to reason. We need not fear the want of weapons in that armoury, but our own ignorance and want of skill to use them. There is enough even in philosophy to convince atheism, and make them confess, "We are foiled with our own weapons;" for with all their wit atheists are fools.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 12:2 & 13:5

2008-04-10T15:30:00.005Z

12:2 They speak with a double heart. The original is, "A heart and a heart:" one for the church, another for the change; one for Sundays, another for working-days; one for the king, another for the pope. A man without a heart is a wonder, but a man with two hearts is a monster. It is said of Judas, "There were many hearts in one man;" and we read of the saints, "There was one heart in many men." Acts 4:32. Dabo illis cor unum; a special blessing.

13:5 I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. Though passion possess our bodies, let "patience possess our souls." The law of our profession binds us to a warfare; patiendo vincimus, our troubles shall end, our victory is eternal. Here David's triumph (Psalm 18:38-40), "I have wounded them, that they were not able to rise; they are fallen under my feet. Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. Thou hast also given me the neck of mine enemies," etc. They have wounds for their wounds; and the treaders down of the poor are trodden down by the poor. The Lord will subdue those to us that would have subdued us to themselves; and though for a short time they rode over our heads, yet now at last we shall everlastingly tread upon their necks. Lo, then, the reward of humble patience and confident hope. Speramus et superamus. Deuteronomy 32:31. "Our God is not as their God, even our enemies being judges." Psalm 20:7 "Some put their trust in chariots, and some in horses." But no chariot hath strength to oppose, nor horse swiftness to escape, when God pursues. Verse 8 "They are brought down and fallen; we are risen and stand upright." Their trust hath deceived them; down they fall, and never to rise. Our God hath helped us; we are risen, not for a breathing space, but to stand upright for ever.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 10:5, 9, 10, 13

2008-04-09T22:25:00.006Z

5 The judgments of God are far above out of his sight. Out of his sight, as an eagle at her highest towering so lessens herself to view, that he sees not the talons, nor fears the grip. Thus man presumes till he hath sinned, and then despairs as fast afterwards. At first, "Tush, doth God see it?" At last, "Alas! will God forgive it?" But if a man will not know his sins, his sins will know him; the eyes which presumption shuts, commonly despair opens.

9 He doth catch the poor. The poor man is the beast they hunt, who must rise early, rest late, eat the bread of sorrow, sit with many a hungry meal, perhaps his children crying for food, while all the fruit of his pains is served into Nimrod's table. Complain of this while you will, yet, as the orator said of Verres, pecuniosus nescit damnari. Indeed, a money-man may not be damnified, but he may be damned. For this is a crying sin, and the wakened ears of the Lord will hear it, neither shall his provoked hands forbear it. Si tacuerint pauperes loquentur lapides. If the poor should hold their peace, the very stones would speak. The fines, rackings, enclosures, oppressions, vexations, will cry to God for vengeance. "The stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it." Habakkuk 2:11. You see the beasts they hunt. Not foxes, not wolves, nor boars, bulls, nor tigers. It is a certain observation, no beast hunts its own kind to devour it. Now, if these should prosecute wolves, foxes, &c., they should then hunt their own kind; for they are these themselves, or rather worse than these, because here homo homini lupus. But though they are men they hunt, and by nature of the same kind, they are not so by quality, for they are lambs they persecute. In them there is blood, and flesh, and fleece to be had; and therefore on these do they gorge themselves. In them there is weak armour of defence against their cruelties; therefore over these they may domineer. I will speak it boldly: there is not a mighty Nimrod in this land that dares hunt his equal; but over his inferior lamb he insults like a young Nero. Let him be graced by high ones, and he must not be saluted under twelve score off. In the country he proves a termagant; his very scowl is a prodigy, and breeds an earthquake. He would be a Caesar, and tax all. It is well if he prove not a cannibal! Only Macro salutes Sejanus so long as he is in Tiberius's favour; cast him from that pinnacle, and the dog is ready to devour him.

He draweth him into his net. "They hunt with a net." Micah 7:2. They have their politic gins to catch men; gaudy wares and dark shops (and would you have them love the light that live by darkness, as many shopkeepers?) draw and tole customers in, where the crafty leeches can soon feel their pulses: if they must buy they shall pay for their necessity. And though they plead, We compel none to buy our ware, caveat emptor; yet with fine voluble phrases, damnable protestations, they will cast a mist of error before an eye of simple truth, and with cunning devices hunt them in. So some among us have feathered their nests, not by open violence, but politic circumvention. They have sought the golden fleece, not by Jason's merit, but by Medea's subtlety, by Medea's sorcery. If I should intend to discover these hunter's plots, and to deal punctually with them, I should afford you more matter than you would afford me time. But I limit myself and answer all their plans with Augustine. Their tricks may hold in jure fori, but not in jure poli - in the common-pleas of earth, not before the king's bench in heaven.

10 If you take a wolf in a lambskin, hang him up; for he is the worst of the generation.

13 He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. As when the desperate pirate, ransacking and rifling a bottom was told by the master, that though no law could touch him for the present, he should answer it at the day of judgment, replied, "If I may stay so long ere I come to it, I will take thee and thy vessel too." A conceit wherewith too many land-thieves and oppressors flatter themselves in their hearts, though they dare not utter it with their lips.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 6:6 & 7:14,15

2008-04-09T22:16:00.005Z

6:6 I water my couch with my tears. Let us water our bed every night with our tears. Do not only blow upon it with intermissive blasts, for then like fire, it will resurge and flame the more. Sin is like a stinking candle newly put out, it is soon lighted again. It may receive a wound, but like a dog it will easily lick itself whole; a little forbearance multiplies it like Hydra's heads. Therefore, whatsoever aspersion the sin of the day has brought upon us, let the tears of the night wash away.

7: 14, 15 They have digged a pit for us - and that low, unto hell - and are fallen into it themselves.
"No juster law can be devised or made, Than that sin's agents fall by their own trade."
The order of hell proceeds with the same degrees; though it give a greater portion, yet still a just proportion, of torment. These wretched guests were too busy with the waters of sin; behold, now they are in the depth of a pit, "where no water is." Dives, that wasted so many tuns of wine, cannot now procure water, not a pot of water, not a handful of water, not a drop of water, to cool his tongue. Desideravit guttam, qui non dedit micam. (Augustine Hom. 7) A just recompense! He would not give a crumb; he shall not have a drop. Bread hath no smaller fragment than a crumb, water no less fraction than a drop. As he denied the least comfort to Lazarus living, so Lazarus shall not bring him the least comfort dead. Thus the pain for sin answers the pleasure of sin. . . . Thus damnable sins shall have semblable punishments; and as Augustine of the tongue, so we may say of any member. . . . If it will not serve God in action, it shall serve him in passion.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 2:4

2008-04-07T09:04:00.002Z

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.

They scoff at us, God laughs at them. Laugh? This seems a hard word at the first view: are the injuries of his saints, the cruelties of their enemies, the derision, the persecution of all that are round about us, no more but matter of laughter? Severe Cato thought that laughter did not become the gravity of Roman consuls; that it is a diminution of states, as another told princes, and it is attributed to the Majesty of heaven? According to our capacities, the prophet describes God, as ourselves would be in a merry disposition, deriding vain attempts. He laughs, but it is in scorn; he scorns, but it is with vengeance. Pharaoh imagined that by drowning the Israelite males, he had found a way to root their name from the earth; but when at the same time, his own daughter, in his own court gave princely education to Moses, their deliverer, did not God Laugh?Short is the joy of the wicked. Is Dagon put up to his place again? God's smile shall take off his head and his hands, and leave him neither wit to guide nor power to subsist. ... We may not judge of God's works until the fifth act: the case, deplorable and desperate in outward appearance, may with one smile from heaven find a blessed issue. He permitted his temple to be sacked and rifled, the holy vessels to be profaned and caroused in; but did not God's smile make Belshazzar to tremble at the handwriting on the wall? Oh, what are his frowns, if his smiles be so terrible!

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on Psalm 1:1

2008-04-07T09:01:00.003Z

The scornful.

Peccator cum in profundum venerit contemnet - when a wicked man comes to the depth and worst of sin, he despiseth. Then the Hebrew will despise Moses (Exodus 2:14), "Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?" Then Ahab will quarrel with Micaiah (1 Kings 22:18), because he doth not prophesy good unto him. Every child in Bethel will mock Elisha (2 Kings 2:23), and be bold to call him "bald pate." Here is an original drop of venom swollen to a main ocean of poison: as one drop of some serpents' poison, lighting on the hand, gets into the veins and so spreads itself over all the body till it hath stifled the vital spirits. God shall "laugh you to scorn," (Psalm 2:4), for laughing him to scorn; and at last despise you that have despised him in us. That which a man spits against heaven, shall fall back on his own face. Your indignities done to your spiritual physicians shall sleep in the dust with your ashes, but stand up against your souls in judgment. 1614.

As quoted in Spurgeon's Treasury of David.

Adams on John 3:16

2008-03-01T17:08:00.004Z

This extract was found here and is from Adams' Exposition upon the Second Epistle General of St. Peter (London, 1633, revised by James Sherman, reprinted: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 179.

Take the sum of this application. We have heard much of God’s Son, and of his dearness to the Father. Now join with it another text; “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,” John iii. 16. Here meditate, wonder, and weigh the sentence; who, what, how, to what end. Who Loved? God; that made us his friends by creation; whose enemies we made ourselves by prevarication. What did he love? The world; a bad world , a mad world, a blind world, a bloody world; that hated him and all his, John xv. 19. It was no wonder that he should love the angels, for they serve him; or the very reasonless creatures, for they obey him; but that he should love the rebellious and hateful world, this is boundless mercy! How did he love it? So that he gave his only begotten Son. If, like Gideon, he had had threescore and ten sons, Judg. viii. 30, it had been much to part with one of them; but his only Son! Jacob rent his clothes, and went mourning in sackcloth many days, for losing one son of twelve, Gen. xxxvii. 34. Even a harlot pitied the fruit of her womb, and her bowels yearned upon her son; “O lord, give her the living child, and in nowise slay it,” 1 Kings iii. 28: but God gave the only Son his love. To what end? That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life! Where observe two things; the felicity that is gotten, and the facility to get it. The felicity consists of two things; deliverance, and an inheritance. He shall not perish; there is the deliverance. He shall have everlasting life; there is the inheritance. For the facility; it is not to keep the law, but only to believe. Lord, what is man, that thou shouldst so regard him? Ps viii. 4. Yea, that to regard him, thou didst not regard thyself? It is reported of a great soldier, that the very jingling of his spur was a terror to his enemies. So the very sound of this text makes all the devils in hell roar, all the foes of man’s salvation to quake. This is the Christian’s armoury, that tower of David, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men,” Cant. iv. 4. If thy conscience be assaulted with guiltiness of thy sins, remember first that this Christ his only Son. If Satan now object, Yes, but he gave him only for the holy and just; answer, Nay, he so loved the world; mundum immundum: mundum, therefore mundanum: he gave him not for the righteous, but for sinners. I am of that number, therefore I have my part in that favour. Paul says, “Put on the whole amour of God,” Eph. vi. 1; and, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” Rom. xiii. 14. In the one place, all those pieces of armour is but the Lord Jesus taken asunder; in the other, the whole armour is but the Lord Jesus put together. “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,” Ps ii. 12. To make peace with the Father, kiss the Son. “Let him kiss me,” was the church’s prayer, Cant. i. 2: let us kiss him, that be our endeavour. Indeed, the Son must first kiss us by his mercy before we can kiss him by our piety Lord grant us these mutual kisses interchangeable embraces now, that we may come to the plenary wedding supper hereafter; when the choir of heaven, even the voices of angels, shall sing epithalamiums, nuptial songs at the bridal of the spouse to the Lamb.

Mitchell on Adams 05

2008-01-25T16:17:00.000Z

This is the last section from W Fraser Mitchell.

A careful consideration of such of his sermons as are dated unfortunately demolishes Professor Croll’s contention that Adams began in imitation of Latimer and the medieval preachers, as did Jewel and Lever before him, but that he gradually shook himself free from the fascination of their gay ornaments and rhetorical schemata. Taken, so far as is possible, in chronological order, Adams’ work reveals no sign of such development, but all through his life he continued to employ the favourite schemata of preachers in all ages from the time of Cyprian onwards - particularly paramoion - with greater or less elaborateness in proportion as he was striving after rhetorical effects. It is true that Adams seems to us to achieve his happiest effects when he leaves the schemata alone and takes flight on the gauzy wings which were afterwards to bear Jeremy Taylor into the blue of heaven in pursuit of his lark (see note), or reminds us, reminiscently it is true, but with something of Fuller’s wit, of our natural swarthiness and the repeated tanning of our sins. (Englands Sicknesse, ed cit, p 306). But this is only to acknowledge that we prefer Taylor’s poetical fancy or Fuller’s wit to Lyly’s parallelism, and consequently are more ready to appreciate Adams where he most resembles the later writers. The men of his own day no doubt thought otherwise, and were ready to applaud his balanced clauses, where adjective corresponded to adjective, noun to noun, and a similarity of ending or resemblance in sound was sedulously cultivated. Professor Croll’s assertion that such figures — the last faint echo of classical rhetorical training enjoyed a florescence in England among the celebrated of the older preachers at the opening of the seventeenth century is amply justified; but that florescence enjoyed a sudden metamorphosis under the influence of Bacon and Donne in the actual sermons of Adams seems hardly tenable. Adams is rather to be regarded as a fellow-worker with these greater writers, breaking down the tyranny of the schematic patterns in the interests of a less pointed, more sonorous style. As early as 1614 we find him able to dispense with the wearisome second half of his antitheses, and close like Bacon with a statement, giving a quiet ending without the customary reverberation. Space alone precludes quotation of some of the longer and more matured passages which obviously what attracted Southey’s admiration; yet the fact remains that in sermons of a late date the older, cruder use of the schemata recurs, which is to be explained neither as a reversion on the part of Adams, nor, as with Williams' ‘Six Sermons,’ preached in the 1640s, in terms of Dryden’s gibe about stylistic abuses finding benefit of clergy, but simply points to the extraordinary experimentation that was then taking place among English writers — an experimentation in which the pulpit, as represented by Adams and men of his type, took a prominent part. The preacher, like the poet, is both moulded by his age and exerts an influence upon it, and the sermons of Adams present us with the case of a man catering at times for popular vogue, but who in his published work was undoubtedly preparing the way among his readers for other and less jejune stylistic effects.

Note

‘The Fatall Banket,’ ed cit, p 220: the passage opening: "As inafaire Summers morning when the Larke bath called up the Sunne, and the Sunne the Husbandman: when the earth bath opened her Shop of perfumes, and a pleasant wind fannes coolenesse through the ayre; when every creature is reioyced at the heart; On a suddaine, &c" is one of the finest in the whole range of Adams’ writings.

Spurgeon quoting Adams

2008-01-24T12:08:00.001Z

In his Lectures to My Students Spurgeon has a chapter of Anecdotes from the pulpit (Chapter 25). Here is his section on Adams:

Thomas Adams the Conforming Puritan whose sermons are full of rugged force and profound meaning, never hesitated to insert a story when be felt that it would enforce his teaching. His starting-point is ever some Biblical sentence or scriptural history; and this he works out with much much elaboration bringing to it all the treasures of his mind. As Stowe says, ‘Fables, anecdotes, classical poetry, gems from the fathers and other old writers are scattered over almost every page”. His anecdotes are usually rough-and-ready ones, and might be compared to those of Latimer, only they are not so genial; their humour is generally grim and caustic. The following may serve as fair specimens:

THE HUSBAND AND HIS WITTY WIFE
The husband told his wife that he had one ill quality, he was given to be angry without cause. She replied, she would keep him from that fault, for she would give him cause enough. It is the folly of some that they will be offended without cause, to whom the world promises that they shall have cause enough. “In the world ye shall have tribulation.”

THE SERVANT AND THE SERMON
It is ordinary with many to commend the lecture to others’ ears, but few commend it to their own hearts. It is morally true what the Christian Tell-truth relates: A servant coming from church, praiseth the sermon to his master. He asks him what was the text. Nay, quoth the servant, it was begun before I came in. What then was his conclusion? He answered, I came out before it was done. But what said he in the midst? Indeed I was asleep in the midst. Many crowd to get into the church, but make no room for the sermon to get into them.

THE PICTURE OF A HORSE
One charged a painter to draw him equum volitantem, a trotting or prancing horse; and he (mistaking the word) drew him equum volutantem, a wallowing or tumbling horse, with his heels upward. Being brought homc, and the bespeaker blaming his error; I would have him prancing and you have made him tumbling. If that be all, quoth the painter, it is but turning the picture wrong side uppermost, and you have your desire. Thus in their quodlibetical discounts they can but turn the lineaments, and the matter is as they would have it. I speak not this to disgrace all their learning, but their fruitless, needless disputes and arguments, who find themselves a tongue, where the Scripture allows them none.

THE PIRATE
As when the desperate pirate, ransacking and rifling a bottom, was told by the master that though no law could touch him for the present he should answer it at the day of judgement; replied, Nay, if I may stay so long ere I come to it, I will take thee and thy vessel too. A conceit wherewith too many land-thieves, oppressors, flatter themselves in their hearts, though they dare not utter it with their lips.

Mitchell on Adams 04

2008-01-16T10:38:00.000Z

Mitchell on Adams 03

2008-01-04T14:07:00.000Z

See pp 218ff of W Fraser Mitchell on English Pulpit Oratory

The Epicure

“I would faine speake (not only of him, but) with him. Can you tend it, Belly-god? The first question of my Catechism shall be, What is your name? Epicure. Epicure? What’s that? speake not so philosophically; but tell vs in plaine dealing what are you? A louer of pleasure, more than of God. One that makes much of my selfe; borne to hue, and lining to take mine ease. ... I beleeue that delicacies, junkets, quotidian feasts, suckets and marmulads are very delectable. I beleeue that sweet wine and strong drinkes; the best blood of the grape, or sweate of the come is fittest for the belly. I beleeue that midnight reuels, perfumed chambers, soft beds, close curtaines, and a Dalilah in mine armes, are very comfortable. I beleeue that glistring silkes, and sparkling Iewels, a purse full of golden charmes, a house neatly decked, Gardens, Orchards, Fish ponds, Parkes, Warrens, and whatsouer may yeeld pleasurable stuffing to the corpse, is a very heauen upon earth. I beleeue that to sleepe till dinner, and play till supper, and quaffe till midnight, and to daily till morning; except there be some intermission to toss some paynted papers, or to whine about squared bones ... this is the most absolute and perfect end of man’s life... (The 'Workes’ 1630, pp 498-9).

The Epicure dismissed (after a decidedly fine passage on the insecurity of all human tenures), the Proud is led in. First the proud man and then the proud woman is passed in review, and once more the passage is brought to an end by a reflection on human folly in the face of death. Here,as is also the case with Smith, we find the Puritan preacher joining hands with the Elizabethan pamphleteer in a highly-coloured portrayal of sin consumed by a loathsome and vividly realised mortality. Adams’ words might come straight from ‘Christs Tears Ouer Ierusalem’ and Nashe might be the writer:

“There is mortality in the flesh, thou so deckest: and that skin which is so bepainted with artificial complexion, shall lose the beauty and it selfe. Detrahetur novissimum velamentum cutis. You that sayle betwixt heauen and earth in your foure-sail'd vessels, as if the ground were not good enough to be pavements to the soles of your feet: know that the earth shall shall one day set her foote on your neckes, and the slime of it shall defile your sulphured beauties: dust shall fill up the wrinckled furrowes, which age makes, and paint supplies. Your bodies were not made of the substance whereof the Angels; nor of the nature of the starres, nor of the matter, wherof the fire, ayre, water, and inferiour creatures. Remember your Tribe, and your fathers poore house, and the pit whereout you were hewen: Hannibal is at the gates, death stands at your dores: be not proud, be not madde: you must die.” (The 'Workes’ 1630, p 500).

Sufficient has been quoted to show that Adams’ characters shared the tendency of all English characters to be “wits descant on any plaine song,” which is precisely Overbury’s definition of this kind of writing. In 1616 Adams again produced a gallery of characters, this time following a traditional framework for such sermons, and choosing a succession of diseases paralleled by moral distempers. Each form of illness is dealt with under ‘Cause,’ ‘Signes and Symptoms,’ and ‘Curation,’ and as many ‘witty’ parallels as possible are drawn between the physical and the spiritual complaint. This series, entitled The Soules Sicknesse: A Discovrse Divine, Morall, and Physicall, closely resembled in plan ‘A Christian Heavenly Treatise, containing Physic for the Soul,’ published just then by John Abernethy, minister at Jedburgh (and afterwards Bishop of Caithness), that Adams was at pains in his Epistle to the Reader to protest that his production had been “committed to the stationers hands, passed and allowed by authority; yea ... and, perhaps, an impression sold, before that of Mr John Abernethy’s came out.” This time nineteen characters appeared - some of them the same types treated afresh - and a considerable advance is perceptible in the power of ‘witty’ delineation. Of the vain-glorious man, whose condition is compared to ‘windinesse in the stomacke’ (disease 16), we are told

“... When he rides his masters great horse out of ken, he vaunts of him as his owne, and brags how much he cost him. He feeds vpon others curtesie, others meat: and (whether more?) either fats him. At his Inne he cals for chickens at spring, and such things as cannot be had whereat angry, he sups according to his purse with a red Herring. Farre enough from knowledge, he talkes of his castle, (which is either in the ayre or inchanted). .... In his hail, you shall see an old rusty sword hung vp, which he sweares killed Glendower in the hands of his Grandsire. He fathers vpon himselfe some villanies because they are in fashion; and so vilifies his credit to aduance it. ... He is indeed admirations creature, and a circumstantiall Mountebank.” (The 'Workes’ 1630, pp 470, 471).

The other characters are drawn with equal liveliness, and it is evident that the preacher, whatever the ostensible object of his portraits, has been carried away by his own device and become the character-writer. Perhaps Adams became conscious of this, or, what is more likely, he had exhausted the range of characters which he felt equal to presenting. ...

Prayer

2008-01-04T09:58:00.001Z

This quotation from Adams is found in Spurgeon's Treasury of David where he deals with Psalm 80:4 ("O Lord God of Hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?" ).

There may be infirmities enough in our very prayers to make them unacceptable. As if they be Exanimes, without life and soul; when the heart knows not what the tongue utters.

Or Perfunctoriae, for God will have none of those prayers that come out of feigned lips.

Or Tentativae, for they that will petere tentando, tempt God in prayer, shall go without.

Or Fluctuantes, of a wild and wandering discourse, ranging up and down, which the Apostle calls "beating the air, "as huntsmen beat the bushes, and as Saul sought his father's asses. Such prayers will not stumble upon the kingdom of heaven.

Or if they be Preproperae, run over in haste, as some use to chop up their prayers, and think long till they have done. But they that pray in such haste shall be heard at leisure.

Or sine fiducia; the faithless man had as good hold his peace as pray; he may babble, but prays not; he prays ineffectually, and receives not. He may lift up his hands, but he does not lift up his heart. Only the prayer of the righteous availeth, and only the believer is righteous. But the formal devotion of a faithless man is not worth the crust of bread which he asks.

Or sine humilitate, so the Pharisee's prayer was not truly supplicatio, but superlatio. A presumptuous prayer profanes the name of God instead of adoring it. All, or any, of these defects may mar the success of our prayers.

Mitchell on Adams 02

2007-09-26T14:00:00.000Z

This is the next section from W Fraser Mitchell

In 1615 Adams preached, on Trinity Sunday, at St Giles Without Cripplegate, and later published his sermon with the title The Spirituall Navigator Bound for the Holy Land. Milton’s father was at this period resident in St. Giles parish, and it is therefore possible that the future poet, then seven years of age, may have been present and heard Adams preach. The sermon was from a text from the Apocalypse - Before the throne was a sea of glass like unto crystal (Rev. 4:6). After treating of the various allegorical significances of “the glassy and crystal-like sea,” as expounded by Ambrose, Augustine, Brightman (a contemporary Puritan d 1607), Emmanuel Sa (celebrated Jesuit commentator), Bullinger, and others - the authorities quoted provide a good specimen of the catholicity of Adams’ reading ‘- the preacher proceeded, as Donne in his sermon at The Hague’ four years later, to enumerate the various ways in which the world resembled a sea. Some of the parallels are extremely well drawn, and the whole sermon is not unworthy of comparison with that of Donne, who must have been familiar with it, and may have avoided borrowing or repetition of ideas by a careful reading of the earlier discourse. After the parallels had been exhausted, Adams concluded with a description of the varied activities and innumerable follies of mankind which God, seated on His throne, beholds reflected in the mirror of the glassy sea, and so introduced his first company of characters.
“There runne honour and pride aeqvis ceruicibus. There walkes fraud cheeke by iowle with a Trades-man. There stalkes pride, with the face of a Souldier, but habit of a Courtier; striuing to adde to her owne stature fetherd on the crowne, cork’d at the heeles, light all ouer: stretching her legges, and spreading her wings like the Ostrich, with ostentation of great flight: but nil penna, sed usus; not an inch higher or better. There slugs Idlenesse: both hands are in the bosome, while one foote should be in the stirrop.
“Here halts Opinion lame not with the shortnesse, but length of his legges: one foote too long, that marres the verse. There runnes Policie, and moues more with an Engine, then many men can doe with their hands:
“There slides by the meagre ghost of malice. ... There flye a crew of Oathes, like a flight of dismall Ravens, croking the Plague to the House, where the Swearer is …”
The Heavenly camera obscura continues, presenting still fresh types of human folly, until the Divine Spectator is obviously forgotten, and the original intention of showing men their deformities and so disgusting them with their sins. Each fresh sinner is introduced out of pure love for witty description. The moral descriptio has become the character.
The publication, in the year previous (1614) to The Spirituall Navigator, of the collection of characters which came from the pen of Overbury and his friends had given fresh impetus to what was obviously a current fashion, and probably Adams’ characters as depicted in his sermon were received with applause, or he may have discovered his gift for this kind of description. Certain it is, that before the close of the year he issued a complete set of characters in the manner of Hall and Overbury, under the title of Mysticall Bedlam: Or The World of Mad-Men, dedicated to no less a person than Sir Thomas Egerton, Baron Ellesmere. After a kind of preliminary discourse based upon a piece of restrained wit drawn from grammar and logic, and reminiscent of Donne, with the remark, “Stultorum plena sunt omnia,” Adams proceeds to introduce his madmen or characters, presenting one and another before us that they may make us sport, just as the keepers of Bedlam in his day were accustomed to lead in their charges to provide amusement for visitors. The Epicure is chosen to “leade the ring, as the foote man of this mad Morisco,” and accordingly, in the printed version is introduced, as is each character in turn, under a separate heading.

Works by Thomas Adams

2007-09-24T23:37:00.000Z

Adams produced around 20 works in his life time. Here is a list of their publication. The Works contain some 66 different pieces.

1. The Gallants Burden 1612 (And 1614, 1616)
2. Heaven and earth reconcil'd 1613
3. The White Devil or The hypocrite uncased 1613 (Twice and 1614, 1615)
4. The Devils Banquet 1614 (Twice)
5. The Black Devil or the apostate (with the wolf worrying the lamb and the spiritual navigator bound for the Holy Land) 1615
6. Englands sickness 1615
7. Mystical bedlam or the vvorld of mad-men 1615
8. A divine herbal together with a forest of thorns 1616
9. Diseases of the soul 1616
10. The sacrifice of thankfulnesse 1616
11. The soldiers honour 1617
12. The happiness of the Church 1618 (And 1619)
13. The White Devil with The Two Sons and The Leaven 1621
14. Eirenopolis: the city of peace 1622
15. The Barren Tree 1623
16. The Temple 1624
17. Three Sermons 1625
18. Five Sermons (The previous 3 plus The Barren Tree and The Temple)
19. The Works 1630
20. Commentary on 2 Peter 1633
21. God's Anger, Man's Comfort 1653

Other Theses

2007-09-24T23:03:00.000Z

Other theses discovered through Proquest are:

1. FLANAGAN, Vincent Cabell
A Survey of the Life and Works of Thomas Adams
(Diss. University of Pennsylvania, 1954)

2. HARRALSON, David Mills
The Sermons of Thomas Adams
(Diss. Kent State University, 1969)

3. HEDGES, James Laurence
Thomas Adams and the Ministry of Moderation

(Diss. University of California, Riverside, 1974)

4. PRIOR, Francis Xavier (1926-2006)
Animal Analogy in the Writings of Thomas Adams
(Diss. St John's University (New York), 1969)

5. WILT, Lloyd Paul
An Edition of the Characters of Thomas Adams
(Diss. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1973)

Also note

PASSARELLA, Lee Joseph
Testimony of God: The Works of Robert Harris, 1654, A Selection and Study

(Diss. University of Pennsylvania, 1986)
We mention this study of Puritan and Westminster Divine Robert Harris (1581-1658). This study looks at 15 of his sermons and sermon series. Besides a detailed commentary and complete textual notes, the edition is prefaced with a history of the English Puritan sermon, as well as a biography and a study of style and important themes in his works. The sermons are compared with those of Thomas Adams and others - concluding that, like Adams, Harris is a transitional figure in seventeenth-century prose, one who mediates between an earlier, more florid style and the plain style, in its ascendancy during Harris's creative life.

Thesis 02 Ernst

2007-09-24T22:54:00.000Z

Another thesis found through Proquest is this one

ERNST, Charles Albert Scheuringer

Contextualizing the character: Generic studies of text and canon, rhetoric, style and quantitative analysis in the seventeenth century English prose character.
(Diss. University of Pennsylvania, 1988)
Abstract: The intent of the study is to contextualize the seventeenth-century English prose character as a significant object of critical inquiry through the textual, generic, canonical, rhetorical, and stylistic traditions informing it. Moreover, the first quantitative analysis of the character's structure and (prospectively) of its style aims at a generic "modeling" of the character by the enumerative inventories of descriptive statistics. Chapter One places character studies within contemporary theory and criticism.
Chapter Two considers the economy of texts in publishing records of character books by Joseph Hall, the Overburians, John Stephens, Nicholas Breton, John Earle and Richard Brathwait, and provides an updated survey of scholarship on the character.
Chapter Three clarifies, against the background of type charactery, the "universe" of characters forming the canon of the "charactering" genre by surveying texts from 319 BC (the Theophrastan sketches) to 1710-12, a terminus ad quem accommodating later criticism of the character's style.
Chapter Four shows how type charactery was preserved through rhetorical instruction from classical antiquity to the Renaissance in treatments of epideictic oratory, decorum and figures of characterization and description, culminating in the eventual transmission of character-writing into the English grammar school curriculum by the hitherto unacknowledged influence of Joshua Poole's English Parnassus (1657), along with Ralph Johnson's frequently cited Scholar's Guide (1665).
Chapter Five inscribes the character within the linguistic history and stylistic development of Renaissance England by establishing the "charactering" style as a variant of Baroque prose and, more parochially, of English Senecanism, with attention to the latter's stylistic relation to Euphuism and to the hybrid style of Thomas Adams' characters.
Chapter Six provides the first quantitative study of the character's structure by systematically analyzing six complete textual populations (by Hall, the Overburians, Stephens, Breton, Earle and Brathwait) to obtain a census of numerical data establishing a normative range of values for selected structural components.
Chapter Seven considers the character as a quantitative model of English Senecanism by theorizing the basis for a stylo-statistical profile of character-writing from a numerical census of syntactic variables in complete populations.
Chapter Eight summarizes all findings.

Thesis 01 Baker

2007-09-24T22:40:00.000Z

At least 8 academic theses have been written on Thomas Adams in the last 40 or 50 years. These are written chiefly within the discipline of an English Literature approach rather than anythuing more strictly theological. I have gleaned this information from ProQuest. The first of theses is

BAKER, Moira Phyllis

The Homileic Satires of Thomas Adams

(Diss. University of Notre Dame, 1982)

Abstract: The present study offers a reading of the sermons of Thomas Adams in the light of the theological, homiletic, and literary traditions familiar to him. The purpose of such a reading is to discern Adams' distinctive homiletic mode and to demonstrate how his characteristic manner enables him to work upon the mind and affections of his auditors in order to initiate in them the process of conversion. In so doing, the work advances the thesis that the most characteristic mode in Adams' sermons is satirical as he seeks to rebuke sin and initiate the process of conversion in his auditors. In arguing this thesis, the study attempts to demonstrate how Adams uses satiric structure, the satiric prose character," satiric imagery, and the range of tones available to the satirist in order to advance his auditors along the successive stages of the morphology of conversion as defined by Puritan theologians. The thesis is based on the assumption that the Puritan theology of conversion provided preachers with a psychic model which presents the movement and renewal of the psychological faculties necessary for conversion. The study then proceeds to demonstrate how Adams uses the structure, technique, and style of satire in order to enact, through the experience of the sermon, the process of conversion in the faculties of his auditors.
Chapter 1 provides biographical and bibliographical information on Adams and isolates his central concern with conversion.
Chapter 2 studies the structure of Adams' sermons in light of both the homiletic structures advanced by contemporary ecclesiastical rhetoricians and the structure present in much classical and Renaissance verse satire.
Chapter 3 analyzes Adams' use of the satiric "character," and demonstrates his development of a homiletic "character" which contributes to his preaching of conversion.
Chapter 4 focuses upon Adams' use of satiric imagery.
Chapter 5 demonstrates how Adams uses the curt and loose Senecan styles in order to support his preaching of conversion; the chapter then dwells upon the range of tones found in Adams. The study ends with a discussion of the prophetic voice in Adams as he assimilates satire into prophecy.

Publications 19

2007-09-24T22:06:00.000Z

Title: God's anger; and, Man's comfort two sermons preached and published by Tho. Adams.

Imprint: London: Printed by Tho. Maxey for Samuel Man at the signe of the Swan in Paul's Church-yard, 1653.

Date: 1653

No. pages: [4], 88 p.

Notes: Annotation on one copy: "Aprill 20".

Copy from: Union Theological Seminary (New York, N. Y.) Library. Also one in British Library. The sermons are prefaced by the poignant page reproduced here (Click for larger image). The texts are Ps 80:4 and Ps 94:19.

Publications 18

2007-09-24T17:40:00.000Z

Title: A commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written by the blessed apostle St. Peter. By Thomas Adams

Imprint: London: Printed by Richard Badger [and Felix Kyngston] for Iacob Bloome, MDCXXXIII. [1633]

Date: 1633

No. pages: [8], 764, [2], 801-1634, [28] p.

Notes: The second "volume" has separate title page with imprint "London, imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Iacob Bloome, 1633"; pagination recommences at 801 and register at 4A1.; Includes index.; The first leaf and the last leaf are blank.; Running title reads: An exposition upon the second epistle generall of S. Peter.

Copy from: British Library

The commentary has a three page dedication 'To the truly noble and worthily honoured Sir Henry Marten, Knight, Judge of His Majesty's High Court of the Admiralty and Dean of the Arches Court, Canterbury'. This would be Henry Marten (1562-1641).

This large commentary was reprinted in the 19th Century and is currently back in print.

Publications 17

2007-09-24T17:32:00.000Z

Title: The workes of Tho: Adams Being the summe of his sermons, meditations, and other diuine and morall discourses. Collected and published in one intire volume. VVith additions of some new, and emendations of the old. The titles whereof are placed in the beginning of the booke: and a table of the principall points, in the end.

Imprint: London: Printed by Tho. Harper [and Augustine Mathewes] for Iohn Grismand, and are to be sold at his shop in Iuie Lane, at the signe of the Gunne, 1629[-1630]

Date: 1630

No. pages: [12], 514, 529-920, [2], 921-1068, [2], 1069-1240, [12] p.

Notes: "Mathewes pr[inted]. quires Aaa-Ooooo"; "Fiue sermons preached vpon sundrie especial occasions", and "The souldiers honour" have separate dated title pages with Augustine Mathewes's name in the imprint; "Eirenopolis: the citie of peace" has separate dated title page with imprint "London, printed by Augustine Mathevves for Iohn Grismand, 1630"; pagination and register are continuous.; Includes index.; "Eirenopolis" identified as a previouosly published work.

Copy from: Folger Shakespeare Library. Also in Cambridge University Library

These collected works are the basis for the current three volume Tanski Publication, based itself on the 19th Century edition. They are prefaced by dedications to Pembroke, Manchester and the parishioners of St Benet's as well as an epistle to the candid and ingenious reader.

The Works includes Meditations on some part of the creed at the end. The main principles of Christian religion which follows the Westminster Confession is clealry the work of the later ejected minister of the same name.

Publications 16

2007-09-24T16:26:00.000Z

Title: Three sermons preached 1. In Whitehall, March 29. being the first Tuesday after the departure of King Iames into blessednesse. 2. In Christs Church, at the trienniall visitation of the right Reuerend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of London. 3. In the chappell by Guildhall, at the solemne election of the Right Honourable the Lord Maior of London. By Tho: Adams.

Imprint: London: Printed by Aug. Matthewes, and Iohn Norton, 1625.

Date: 1625

No. pages: [4], 79, [1] p.

Notes: "A sermon preached at the trienniall visitation of the Right Reuerend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of London, in Christ-Church" and "The holy choice" each have separate dated title page, the former on E2v; pagination and register are continuous.; "The holy choice" identified as also elsewhere.

Copy from: Folger Shakespeare Library

The works are preceded by a two page dedication 'To the right honourable and truly noble Lord, William, Earl Pembroke' (William Herbert). The texts are Job 42:6; Acts 15:36 and Acts 1:24. In 1625 the Mayor of London was Allan Cotton and the Bishop of London was George Monteigne.

These three sermons appeared the following year along with two earlier ones in a collection of 'Five sermons'.

Henry Carey

2007-09-24T16:15:00.000Z

Henry Car(e)y, first Baron Hunsdon (1526-1596) was an English nobleman and the son of Sir William Carey, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and Esquire of the Body to King Henry VIII, and Mary Boleyn.
Lady Mary Carey was mistress to Henry from around 1520. Popular legend states that Henry was an illegitimate child of the king. Some 10 years after the child was born, John Hales, vicar of Isleworth, remarked that he had met a 'young Master Carey,' whom some monks believed to be the king's bastard. The idea that Carey was Henry's secret son has spawned several Tudor legends, even becoming a central part of modern fiction. However, there is firm contemporary evidence that Henry Carey was not born until 1526 - by which time the affair is believed to have ended.
Carey's father died suddenly in 1528, when Henry was only two. Some say his mother was deemed unable to raise him due to her impulsive nature and financial troubles. Consequently, he came under the guardianship of his maternal aunt Anne Boleyn, engaged to Henry at the time. The child still had active contact with his mother, who remained on good terms with her sister, until her secret elopement with a soldier, William Stafford (later Lord of Chebsey) in 1535.
Anne acted as her nephew's patron and provided him with a top-quality education in a prestigious Cistercian Monastery. He was also known to be tutored at some point by French poet Nicholas Bourbon, whose life had been saved from the French Inquisition after Anne's intervention. Many historians speculate that Henry's mother, Mary, wasn't financially unstable or a bad mother, but that her sister Anne adopted Henry in order to make herself more appealing to the king. Henry's royal aunt was beheaded in 1536 on charges of treason, incest, adultery and witchcraft. His mother died 1543 on her estate in Essex. In 1545 Henry himself married Ann Morgan (d 1607), daughter of Sir Thomas Morgan, of Arkestone, Herefordshire, and Anne Whitney. They had nine sons.
He served twice as an MP, representing Buckingham 1547-1552, 1554/55. He was knighted 1558 and made Baron by his first cousin Elizabeth I 1559. His sister, Catherine, was one of Elizabeth's favourite ladies-in-waiting and the Queen was very generous to her Boleyn relatives.
His Baronial estate consisted of the manors of Hunsdon and Eastwick, Hertfordshire and possessions in Kent. He was also granted an annual pension of £400. In 1560 he was appointed Master of the Queen's Hawks. In 1561 he also became a Knight of the Garter.
He seems to have gained some favour with his cousin as she appointed him Captain of the Gentleman Pensioners 1564; a position making him effectively her personal bodyguard. He seems to have served four years. In 1568 he was appointed Governor of Berwick-on-Tweed and Lord Warden of the Eastern March.
The year 1569 was the beginning of the Northern Rebellion, a major uprising was instigated by Thomas Howard (Duke of Norfolk), Charles Neville (Earl of Westmorland) and Thomas Percy (Earl of Northumberland). The rebellion was expecting the support of Pope Pius V. Henry was appointed Lieutenant General of forces loyal to the Queen. His February victory over Sir Leonard Dacre was instrumental in crushing the rebellion. A number of the rebels crossed the borders to Scotland but were there targeted by the forces of the Scottish Regent. The victorious Henry was appointed Warden of the East Marches and represented the Queen in signing a treaty with the Regent 1571. In 1574 he became Keeper of Somerset House, the property of the Queen before ascending the throne. He was then named privy Counsellor 1577.
During the 1580s Hunsdon's role at court grew steadily. In 1581 he was made Captain General of the forces responsible for the safety of English borders. He was appointed Lord Chamberlain of the household, 1585, a position he held until his death. This did not prevent Elizabeth from appointing him Lord Chamberlain Lieutenant, Principal Captain and Governor of the army for the defence and surety of our own Royal Person in 1588 at Tilbury.
Henry was a blunt, plain-spoken man with little tact, which often worked to his disadvantage at Court. However, his character and reputation as a successful military leader gained him the respect - and often the affection - of the soldiers who served under him. He also served as Chief Justice in Eyre, south of the Trent from 1589. He was Joint Commissioner of the Office Earl Marshal and High Steward of Ipswich and Doncaster. He served as Chief Justice of the Royal Forces between from 1591. In 1592 he was appointed High Steward of Oxford for life.
He died at Somerset house and was buried at Westminster Abbey. On his deathbed his cousin Elizabeth I offered to create him Earl of Wiltshire; however, he refused. Two sons succeeded him,. George and then John.

Publications 15

2007-09-24T15:40:00.000Z

Title: The temple A sermon preached at Pauls Crosse the fifth of August. 1624. By Tho. Adams.

Imprint: London: Printed by A. Mathewes for Iohn Grismand, and are to bee sold at his shop in Pauls Alley at the signe of the Gunne, 1624.

Date: 1624

No. pages: [4], 68 p.

Notes: Also issued as part of: Five sermons preached upon sundry especiall occasions: London, 1626.

Copy from: Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery

The work is preceded by a two page dedication 'To the right honorable Sir Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, Viscount Rochford'. Henry Carey lived 1526–1596. He was a courtier and administrator. The text is 2 Cor 6:16.

John Donne

2007-09-20T19:02:00.000Z

John Donne (1572-1631) is remembered as a Jacobean poet and preacher, representative of the metaphysical poets of the period. His works, notable for their realistic and sensual style, include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and immediacy of metaphor, compared with that of his contemporaries.
Donne came from a loyal Romanist family, and so experienced persecution until his copnverison to Anglicanism. Despite his great education and poetic talents, he lived in poverty several years, relying heavily on wealthy friends. In 1615 he became an Anglican priest and in 1621 Dean of St Paul's. Some scholars believe his literary works reflect these trends, with love poetry adn satires from his youth, and religious sermons from his later years. Other scholars, such as Helen Gardner, question the validity of dating when most of his poems were published posthumously (1633). The exception to these is his Anniversaries (published 1612) and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1623). His sermons are also dated, sometimes quite specifically, by year and date.
He was born in London, the third of six children. His father, of Welsh descent, was a warden of the ironmonger's Company in the City of Lpondon adn a repsected Romanist who avoided unwelcome government attention, out of fear of being persecuted. John Donne Sr. died in 1576, leaving his wife, Elizabeth Heywood, the responsibility of raising their children. She was also from a noted Catholic family and was daughter to John Heywood, the playwright; sister of Jasper, translator and Jesuit; a great-niece of Thomas More. Despite obvious dangers, Donne was educated by Jesuits. Donne's mother remarried to a wealthy widower, shortly after her first husband's death. In 1577 his sister Elizabeth died, followed by two more sisters, Mary and Katherine, in 1581. Before he was 10 then he had experienced the deaths of four immediate family members.
he went on to study at Hart Hall (Hertford College), Oxford, when 11. After three years at Oxford he went to Cambridge, where he studied another three years. He was unable to obtain a degree from either institution because he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy. In 1591, he was accepted as a student at Thaives Inn. In 1592 he went on to Lincoln's Inn. His brother Henry was also a university student prior to his arrest (1591) for harbouring a priest. Henry died in prison of bubonic plague, leading John to begin questioning his Catholic faith.
During and after his education, he spent much of his considerable inheritance on women, literature, pastimes and travel. Although there is no record detailing precisely where he travelled, it is known that he visited the Continent and later fought with the Earl of Essex adn Raleigh at Cadiz (1596) and in the Azores (1597). He witnessed the loss of the Spanish flagship and her crew. According to Izaak Walton's biography (1640) he spent time in Italy then Spain learning their languages and culture.
By the age of 25 he was well prepared for the diplomatic career he appeared to be seeking. He was appointed chief secretary to Egerton, and was established at the latter's London home, near Whitehall. During the next four years he fell in love with Egerton's 17 (or younger) year old niece, Anne More, and they were secretly married (1601) against the wishes of both Egerton and her father, George More, Lieutenant of the Tower. This ruined his career and earned him a short stay in the Fleet. Walton tells us that when he wrote to his wife to tell her about losing his post, he wrote after his name: John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done. It was not until 1609 that Donne was reconciled with his father-in-law and received his wife's dowry.
Following his release, Donne had to accept a retired country life in Pyrford, Surrey. Over the next few years he scraped a meagre living as a lawyer, depending on his wife’s cousin Sir Francis Wolly to house him and his family. Since Anne had a baby almost every year, this was a very generous gesture.
Though he practiced law and worked as an assistant pamphleteer to Thomas Morton, he was in a state of constant financial insecurity, with a growing family to provide for. Before her death, Anne bore him 11 children (including still births). The nine living were named Constance, John, George, Francis, Lucy (after Donne's patroness Lucy, Countess of Bedford, her godmother), Bridget, Mary, Nicholas and Margaret. Francis and Mary died before they were 10. In a state of despair, Donne noted that the death of a child would mean one less mouth to feed, but he could not afford the burial expenses. During this time Donne wrote, but did not publish, Biathanatos, his daring defence of suicide.
Because love-poetry was very fashionable at that time, there are different opinions about whether the passionate love poems Donne wrote are addressed to his wife Anne, but it seems likely. She spent most of her married life either pregnant or nursing, so they evidently had a strong physical relationship. In 1617 she died five days after giving birth to a still-born baby, their eleventh child in 16 years. Donne mourned her deeply and never remarried. This was quite unusual for the time, especially as he had a large family to bring up.
He became MP for Brackley, 1602. He struggled to provide for his family, relying heavily upon rich friends. The fashion for coterie poetry of the period gave him a means to seek patronage and many of his poems were written for wealthy friends or patrons, especially Sir Robert Drury, who came to be Donne's chief patron 1610. It was for Sir Robert that Donne wrote the two Anniversaries, An Anatomy of the World (1611) and Of the Progress of the Soul (1612). While historians are not certain as to the precise reasons for which Donne left Romanism he was certainly in communication with King James and in 1610 and 1611 he wrote two anti-Catholic polemics: Pseudo-Martyr and Ignatius his Conclave. Although James was pleased with Donne's work, he refused to reinstate him at court and instead urged him to take holy orders. Although at first reluctant due to feeling unworthy of a clerical career, he finally acceded and was ordained into the Anglican Church in 1615.
He soon became a Royal Chaplain, Reader of Divinty at Lincoln's Inn (1616) and received a DD from Cambridge (1618). Later that year he became the chaplain for the Viscount of Doncaster, who was on an embassy to the princs of Germany. He did not return until 1620. In 1621 he was made Dean of St Paul's, a leading (and well-paid) position, one he held until his death. During his period as Dean his daughter Lucy died, aged 18. In 1624 he became vicar of St Dunstan's in the West and (1625) a Royal Chaplain to Charles. He earned a reputation as an impressive, eloquent preacher and 160 of his sermons have survived, including the famous Death’s Duel sermon delivered at the Palace of Whitehall before Charles (1631). He died in 1631 having never published a poem in his lifetime but having left a body of work that fiercely engaged with the emotional and intellectual conflicts of his age. He is buried in St Paul's, where a memorial statue of him was erected (carved from a drawing of him in his shroud), with a Latin epigraph probably composed by himself.

Publications 14

2007-09-20T18:16:00.000Z

Title: The barren tree a sermon preached at Pauls crosse October 26. 1623 by Tho. Adams.
Imprint: London: Printed by Aug. Matheuues for Iohn Grismand, and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Alley, at the signe of the Gunne, 1623.
Date: 1623
Pages: [6], 56 p.
Notes: Signatures: A4(-A1) B-H4. Reissued as pt. 2 of Five Sermons in 1526.

Copy from: Union Theological Seminary Library (New York, N.Y.) and Cambridge University Library

The work is preceded by a short dedication 'To the reverend and learned Doctor Donne, Dean of St Paul's, together with the Prebend-residentiaires of the same church, my very good patrons' also two pages 'To the reader'. John Donne (1572-1631) is known to as one of the greatest of the metaphysical poets.

The text is Luke 13:7.

Godly Fear

2007-09-20T07:43:00.000Z

I found this extract from Adams over on Puritanism Today here. It is taken from Day by day with the English Puritans (p 266) edited by Randall Pederson. See here.

“We must not only love our good God; we must fear our great Lord. It is objected to this, that “perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18). It is answered that fear brings in perfect love, as the needle draws the thread. And it is not possible that true love should be without good fear; that is, a filial reverence. For slavish fear, be it as far from your hearts, as it shall be from my discourse. Now this fear is a most due and proper affection, and (I may say) the fittest of all to be towards God. Indeed God requires our love. But we must think that then God stoops low, and bows down to be loved by us. For there is such an infinite inequality between God and us, that without his sweet descending to us, there could be no fitness of this affection. But if we look up to that infinite glory of our great Lord, and we look down on the vileness of ourselves, sinful dust, and we will say that by reason of the disproportion between us, there is nothing so suitable to give so high a God, as fear.”

Publications 13

2007-09-19T09:51:00.000Z

Title: Eirenopolis: the citie of peace Surueyed and commended to all Christians. By Tho. Adams.

Imprint: London: Printed by Aug. Matthewes for Iohn Grismand, and are to bee sold at his shop in Pauls Alley at the signe of the Gunne, 1622.

Date: 1622

No. pages: [6], 184 p.

Notes: Running title reads: The citie of peace.

Copy from: Bodleian Library

The brief introduction is to all who love peace and truth.

St Benet Sherehog

2007-09-19T09:37:00.001Z

From 1619 Adams was responsible not only for St Benet, Paul's Wharf but also another small church, St Benet Sherehog, a medieval church built before 1111. It was situated at 1 Poultry in Cordwainer Ward (Bucklesbury EC4) in the then wool-dealing district of the City of London (a shere hog is a castrated ram after first-shearing). It was one of the 86 churches destroyed in the Great Fire and was not rebuilt. The parish was united to St Stephen Walbrook in 1670 but continued to be represented by its own churchwarden. Some of parish records survive and have been collated. Known as the “Lost Church of St Benet” it was excavated 1994-1996 before the current office block was erected.

St Gregory's

2007-09-19T09:16:00.000Z

From 1618-1623 Adams was preacher or lecturer at St Gregory's, known as St Gregory By [St] Paul's. It was situated near St Paul's EC4. First mentioned in 1010 it stood at the south-west corner of the cathedral. Repaired and beautified 1631-2, it was partly demolished by Inigo Jones in 1641 to make way for new portico but restored by him by order of the House of Lords. It was destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt.

(The parish was united with St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street in 1670, St Martin Ludgate in 1890 and St Sepulchre Holborn in 1954). See here.

Henry Montagu

2007-09-18T16:36:00.000Z

Henry Montagu, (c 1564–1642) was the first earl of Manchester, a judge and government official, born in Boughton, Northamptonshire, and third surviving son of Sir Edward Montagu (c.1532–1602) . His grandfather Sir Edward Montagu was chief justice of king's bench and a governor to Edward VI. Henry was intended for the law, and after matriculating at Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1583 entered the Middle Temple in 1585. He was called to the bar in 1592, and was elected autumn reader at the Middle Temple, 1606.
He was elected recorder of London and knighted (1603). His relations with the new king were usually sound, though James received ‘less satisfaction than wee expected’ from the firmly Calvinist Montagu's response to an urgent request to tighten regulation in London against recusants (1605). In 1616 was made Chief Justice of the King’s Bench (following Coke) in which office it fell to him to pass sentence on Sir Walter Raleigh (1618). He was appointed Lord High Treasurer (1620), being raised to the peerage as Baron Montagu of Kimbolton, Huntigdonshire, and Viscount Mandeville. He became President of the COuncil (1621), in which office he was continued by Charles I, who created him first Earl of Manchester (1626). In 1628 he became Lord Privy Seal and in 1635 a commissioner of the treasury. Although from the beginning of his public life (1601), when he first entered parliament, Manchester had inclined to the popular side in politics, be managed to retain to the end the favour of the king. He was a judge of the Star Chamber, and one of the most trusted councillors of Charles I. His loyalty, ability and honesty were warmly praised by Clarendon. In conjunction with Coventry, the lord keeper, he pronounced an opinion in favour of the legality of ship-money (1634). At heart Manchester was always an administrator, more concerned with dispensing justice, enforcing statute law and quickening the machinery of government than with the play of court politics. In his unspectacular way, he became a pillar of the privy council. Remarkably, between 1620 and 1641 he attended four in every five of its routine meetings as well as others concerned with policy, served on the bench in Star Chamber and attended its standing committees for trade and plantations and, briefly, for Ireland (1623-5).
Like other councillors of firmly protestant inclinations he welcomed the final collapse in 1634 of any prospect of a Spanish subsidy for Charles's growing English fleet, and helped Coventry and Coke in managing the preliminaries to levying ship money each year during the remainder of the personal rule. Always a moderate, he had little time for factious activity. Unlike Coventry and Laud he did not encourage the use of the forest courts to harass Lord Treasurer Portland (1634) and had earlier viewed the revival of the forest laws as being entirely in the interests of law and order, whereas his country brother Edward sensed a money-making exercise. His son Wat's conversion to Rome (1635) hit him hard, particularly when he realised that before Wat's letter reached him several copies were not only in circulation but, to his embarrassment, already in use as Catholic propaganda. Even so, he was determined to receive the news in silence, hurt as he was that Wat had failed to consult. Seven months later he felt impelled to respond 'lest those of your new profession should think, as some of them say, that a new lapsarian was more able by a few day's discipline to oppose our religion than an old father and a long professor was able to defend it'. He set out in detail the fundamentals of his protestant faith, grounded in Christ and renouncing ‘all men alike as inventors of our religion’, among them Luther, to whom Wat had particularly objected, and maintaining ‘only the apostolical doctrine of the ancient primitive and catholic Church’. He would not abandon Wat, but wanted him to return to the Church of England of his own accord. Before the end of 1636, however, he had become so depressed that the Countess of Leicester reported him ‘drunke everie Meall’. One of his rare absences from the council table was in 1637 when, in the king's presence, Laud bluntly attacked Catholic influence at court, evident in the recent wave of conversions among courtiers around the queen and exemplified by the pernicious influence of, among others, Wat Montagu.
He was married three times. First (1601) to Catherine, daughter of Sir William Spencer of Yarnton, Oxfordshire (d 1612). They had four sons (Edward, Walter, James and Henry) adn two daughters. He married (c 1613) next Anne, daughter of William Wincot of Langham, Suffolk, widow of Sir Leonard Haliday, Lord Mayor of London 1605–6. She died childless (c 1618) his nthrid wife (1620) was Margaret (d 1653), daughter of John Crouch, Corneybury in Layston, Hertfordshire, widow of Allen Elvine, a London bookseller and John Hare, clerk of the court of wards. They had two sons (George and Sidney) and at least one daughter.
He was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward, Viscount Mandeville. He had spent heavily in establishing his station in life, without entirely realising the promise of earlier years, and died a man of respectable, rather than abundant, means. After disposing of his landed estate in Huntingdonshire and London among his older children, he was able to provide almost £5K pa for his widow and younger sons, with gifts of £2K to each of his two granddaughters. He fretted that it was not more. As his will shows, he never forgot what he regarded as his underprivileged beginnings as a younger brother, and seemed determined his children should not do so either. As late as 1616 his nose had reportedly been set ‘somewhat awrie’ by news that eldest brother, Edward, had at last got a male heir; and, in Clarendon's opinion, he came to care too much about advancing his fortune ‘by all ways which offered themselves’. Nevertheless, with ‘a faire portion of God's blessing’ on his labours, and ‘never gain[ing] anything by corruption, cavillation or oppression’, Montagu had prospered sufficiently by 1642 to show those of his posterity who cared to heed his words what might be achieved by conscientious service to king and country.

Publications 12

2007-09-18T14:03:00.000Z

Title: The happines of the Church. Or, a description of those spirituall prerogatiues vvherewith Christ hath endowed her Considered in some contemplations upon part of the 12. chapter to the Hebrewes. Together with certain other meditations and discourses ... Being the summe of diuerse sermons preached in S. Gregories London: by Thomas Adams, preacher there. 2 Cor 12:15 I will gladly, etc.
Imprint: London: Printed by G. P[urslowe] for Iohn Grismand, and are to be sold at his shop neere vnto the little north dore of Saint Pauls, at the signe of the Gun, 1618.
Date: 1618
Pages: [10], 326, 329-443, [3], 35, 35-51, 51-237, 239-375 p.
Notes: Gathering M wrongly imposed. Another state has imprint date 1619 and gathering M correctly imposed (though itself with some errors in paging). "The saints meeting, or progresse to glory" begins with new pagination.
Copy from: Cambridge University Library
The work was preceded by a two page dedication, again 'To the right honorable Sir Henrie Mountague, the Lord Chief Justice of England' and a three page dedication 'To the worthy citizens of Saint Gregory's Parish, sincere lovers of the gospel' and a contents page listing some 26 sermons with texts.

Publications 11

2007-09-15T20:58:00.000Z

Title: The souldiers honour Wherein by diuers inferences and gradations it is euinced, that the profession is iust, necessarie, and honourable: to be practised of some men, praised of all men. Together with a short admonition concerning munition, to this honour'd citie. Preached to the worthy companie of gentlemen, that exercise in the artillerie garden: and now on their second request, published to further vse. By Tho. Adams. Ex 15:3 The Lord is a man of war. Imprint: London: Printed by Adam Islip and Edward Blount, and are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the blacke Beare, 1617.
Date: 1617
Pages: [12], 33, [1] p.
Notes: With an initial blank.

Copy from: Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery

The work is preceded by a seven page introduction dedicated to 'To the well deserving Captain Edward Panton, the captains and truly generous gentlemen, citizens of London, of the society of arms practicing in the artillery garden.' Panton was the first captain of the Honourable Artillery Company given a royal charter in 1537 but going back as far as 1296. Based on the Old Artillery Ground in Spitalfields until 1538-1658, it then moved to a place just south of Bunhill Fields. Still in existence today it is the British Army's oldest regiment.

Publications 10

2007-09-14T10:44:00.000Z

Title: The sacrifice of thankefulnesse A sermon preached at Pauls Crosse, the third of December, being the first Aduentuall Sunday, anno 1615. By Tho. Adams. Latin quote from Bernard on Canticles (Song of Solomon). Whereunto are annexed fiue other of his sermons preached in London, and else-where; neuer before printed.

Imprint: London: Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard, at the signe of the Holy Lambe, 1616.

Date: 1616
No. pages: [4], 94, 93-103, [1]; [2], 25, [1]; [2], 45, [1] p.

Notes: "Politicke hunting, or, a discouerie of the cunning Esauites of our times" and "Christ his starre: or, the wise-mens oblation" have caption titles; "Plaine-dealing, or, a precedent of honestie" and "The three diuine sisters" each have separate dated title page and begin new pagination and register; "The taming of the tongue" has separate dated title page but pagination and register are continuous.

Copy from: Cambridge University Library

The work is preceded by a brief dedication 'to the right worshipful, Sir Henry Mountague Knight, the King's majesty's serjeant for the law and recorder of the honourable City of London'. Montagu lived c1563-1642 and was the first Earl of Manchester. The first sermon is on Psalm 118:27. Despite the illustration from early in the book, the sermon on Gen 25:27 comes before that on Mt 2:11.

Publications 09

2007-09-13T11:19:00.000Z

Title: Diseases of the soule a discourse diuine, morall, and physicall. By Tho. Adams. Quote from Seneca.
Imprint: London: Printed by George Purslowe for Iohn Budge, and are to be sold at the great south-dore of Paules, and at Brittaines Bursse, 1616.
Date: 1616
No. pages: [8], 74 p.
Copy from: Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery
The work is preceded by a two page dedication (appropriately) 'to the truly judicious, and worthily eminent in his profession, Mr William Randolph, Doctor of physic. There is a also a one page epistle 'to the reader'. Some 19 diseases are identified in the work.

Publications 08

2007-09-12T11:46:00.000Z

Title: A divine herball together with a forrest of thornes In five sermons By Tho. Adams. Isa 55:11 My word, etc and a quote from Augustine on the blessing of Isaac and Jacob.
Imprint: London: Printed by George Purslowe, for Iohn Budge, and are to be solde at his shop, at the great south-dore of Pauls, and at Brittaines Burse, 1616.
Date: 1616
No. pages: [8], 157, [3] p.
Notes: The first leaf and last leaf are blank; "A divine herball, or, the prayse of fertility. The second sermon"; "The garden or, a contemplation of the herbes. The third sermon"; "The forrest of thornes. The fourth sermon"; "The end of thornes. The fift sermon" each has separately dated title page; pagination and register are continuous.
Copy from: Emmanuel College (University of Cambridge) Library
The work is preceded by a two page dedication 'to the right honorable, William Earl of Pembroke, Lord Chamberlain of his majesty's household and one of his majesty's most honorable privy council and knight of the most noble order of the garter' plus five brief poetic encomiums by WB, RS, W[illiam] R[andolph] (Dr of Physic), I Stokes and Cecinit The Parny. Pembroke is William Herbert who lived 1580-1630. He founded Pembroke College and was a patron of Shakespeare.

Thomas Egerton 02

2007-09-12T11:13:00.000Z

Continued

Politics etc
Even during Elizabeth's reign, he was as much statesman as judge - a confidential adviser on domestic and foreign policy, close to the Cecils but with an independence the Queen valued, and one employed on diplomatic negotiations. He was one of few privy councillors (from 96) to witness the scene (1598), when Essex insulted the queen and she boxed his ears.
Under James he became still more valued and - though willing to raise questions - increasingly aligned himself with James's absolutist conceptions of monarchy. In addressing the judges (04) he declared that ‘the king's majesty, as it were inheritable and descended from God, hath absolute monarchical power annexed inseparably to his crown and diadem, not by common law nor statute law, but more anciently than either of them’. His views on the constitution were expounded at length in his celebrated judgment in Calvin's Case (08) determining that persons born in Scotland after James's accession were not aliens in England. The four hour speech was published 1609. He did not regard the king as being above the law and recognised the importance of a balance of power, but his increasingly elevated position in the state placed an ever growing distance between his political thinking and that of his old profession, and he seemed unable or unwilling to understand concerns shared by many lawyer MPs and judges, at what they saw as growing absolutism.
He was at odds with the judiciary on several occasions (from 04) when they opposed the king's project of a legal union between England and Scotland. He fell out with them over the use of writs of prohibition, mandamus and certiorari, which he thought were being issued too lightly and without proper supervision. Prohibitions, in particular, were depriving the ecclesiastical courts of their tithe jurisdiction, and (09) the judges were hauled before the privy council to explain themselves. Worst of all, king's bench was assuming a power of judicial review over governmental activities. Ellesmere was angry that Coke and others had taken to reviewing the activities of municipal corporations, provincial councils and even the high commission, ‘as if the King's Bench had a superintendency over the government itself’. However, the principal clash came over his claim to be able to reopen cases which had proceeded to judgment at common law, long held to be illegal (in 98 the judges in the exchequer chamber confirmed this latter position). He resumed the practice of issuing decrees after judgment under the justification that his jurisdiction was concerned not with the judgment but with the conscience of the parties. In 1615 Coke released on habeas corpus a number of prisoners committed by him in such cases.
One of the parties released, a rogue called Glanville, embarked on the foolhardy course of trying to secure an indictment upon the Statute of Praemunire not only against his opponent but also against Ellesmere himself. He made a strong complaint to James and had the matter referred to the privy council and king's counsel (particularly Bacon), with a view to disgracing Coke. In this connection he compiled (doubtless with Bacon's help) A Breviate or Direction for the King's Learned Counsel, defending his disputed jurisdiction. In 1616 the King, primed by Ellesmere and Bacon, pronounced in favour of chancery. Coke (a nuisance to the government in several respects) was thrice called before privy council, suspended and ordered to revise some supposed defects in his reports as set out in writing by Ellesmere. Timothy Tourneur, a young barrister, saw these proceedings as symbolic of a new form of tyranny for which Ellesmere was largely to blame.
Coke perceived the threat to the rule of law even earlier. Since around 09 he had been noting ‘dangerous and absurd opinions affirmed before the king’ by Ellesmere. By 1616 he had 18. Coke said Ellesmere had told James he could decide cases in person without consulting the judges, a matter on which Coke had engaged in a famous altercation with the king. Coke was especially exercised over the new practice - engineered by Bacon and Ellesmere - of summoning judges before the privy council to answer for decisions, which were openly reproved by the law officers. The result drove a wedge between the king and his judges. When Ellesmere was asked to stand with the judges on these occasions, ‘his continual answer was that he would not lie in the gap for any man’. These were serious accusations, but Coke was out of favour so was ignored. Later (16) to the profession's horror, he was peremptorily dismissed from office. Ellesmere dragged himself from his sickbed to swear in a successor, and delivered an ungracious speech warning him not to imitate his predecessor, listing his faults in detail. The Stuart form of government was set on a disastrous course.

Last years, 1610–1617
His last years were rendered miserable by affairs of state, his wife and illness (gout and the stone and perhaps dementia). He was fond of fresh air, moderate country living and a healthy diet, and many believed him apt to feign illness to escape duties. He petitioned the king several times to be allowed to resign, though it was widely thought that he clung to office unaware of his growing incompetence. Having begun life in circumstances then considered ignoble, he was always covetous of rewards and dignities, and finally set his heart on an earldom.
Late in 1616, already in failing health, he was made Viscount Brackley (‘Break-Law’ some mispronounced it ). Early in 1617 he was allowed to retire, temporarily, with the promise of an earldom. In March 1617 he surrendered the great seal and died at York House, his London home, shortly after. He was buried at Dodleston, Cheshire, his principal seat since the 80s.
In 1610 he had prepared some ‘notes and remembrances’ for peace between his wife and son and (15) made his last will, ‘finding no true comfort nor contentment in this miserable life, but feeling the mighty hand of God in many grievous afflictions both in body and in mind’. His ‘loving wife’, who was left her jointure and paraphernalia but nothing else, contested the will unsuccessfully. Most of the considerable fortune (est £12K pa) went, after provision for his daughters, to his only surviving son. Sir John gained the viscountcy and soon after the earldom promised his father.
Panegyrics written in his lifetime (eg Jonson) can hardly be considered objective. It was widely agreed that he was deeply learned in the law and wise in judgement, eloquent in speech and with a pleasing voice. He liked to coin a nice phrase but did not waste words. According to an admirer ‘the grave chancellor Ellesmere, affecting matter rather than affectation of words, tied the same to laconical brevity’. Many of his aphorisms have been preserved, in addition to set speeches. On the other hand, in his later years virtues were offset by defects. John Chamberlain wrote, on hearing of his death, that he ‘left but an indifferent name, being accounted too sour, severe, and implacable, an enemy to parliaments and the common law, only to maintain his own greatness and the exorbitant jurisdiction of his court of Chancery’. Judge Richard Hutton wrote similarly in his diary of 'a man of great and profound judgment, an eloquent speaker, and yet in his later times he became more choleric and opposed the jurisdiction of the common law and enlarged the jurisdiction of the Chancery, and in many things he derogated from the common law and the judges.' Tourneur, while praising his judgement and voice, said he was the bane of the law; yet not for any hate he bare it, but for the love he bare to his own honour to greaten himself by the fall of others.
Nor were his judicial endeavours appreciated as highly as in Elizabeth's reign. Overwork and decrepitude combined to leave an enormous backlog of undecided cases. The office of Lord Chancellor was undoubtedly too much for one man but he had abandoned earlier attempts to improve chancery, and in furthering James's absolutist tendencies for his own aggrandisement had apparently forfeited his profession's general esteem.
(Based on ODNB)

Thomas Egerton 01

2007-09-11T08:20:00.000Z

Thomas Egerton, first Viscount Brackley (1540–1617), Lord Chancellor, illegitimate son of Sir Richard Egerton, landowner, of Ridley, Cheshire, and servant girl Alice Sparke Sir Richard Egerton's grandson (he claimed descent from Robert Fitzhugh, Baron of Malpas in William I's time. One of several illegitimate siblings, he was raised up in the household of Thomas Ravenscroft (d c 1553), Bretton, Flint.

Early career, 1556–1581

He entered Brasenose, Oxford (1556) and Lincoln's Inn (1560)where he was caught up in a notorious Catholic circle. He escaped censure from Star Chamber (69) by producing a certificate of conformity (others were imprisoned) but his call to the bar was postponed (until 72). It was a time of intense study. By 76 he was sufficiently established to marry his stepfather's youngest, Elizabeth (d 1588), mother of Sir John, first Earl Bridgwater (1579-1549) and Sir Thomas (1574–1599). In 79 he became a bencher of his inn and (82) delivered the Lent reading. A good practice was established with patronage from several prominent people.

Solicitor-general and attorney-general, 1581–1596

Private practice continued but was increasingly submerged by public duties. In 81 he was appointed solicitor-general, at Elizabeth I's insistence it seems. In 82 he was elected recorder of Lichfield. In 84 and 86 he was MP for Cheshire then Reading (89). As a law officer of the crown in the 80s he necessarily laid aside youthful sympathy for Catholicism and became heavily involved in prosecuting recusants and Jesuits (Vaux, Campion, Percy [Northumberland], Mary, Queen of Scots and the Babington conspirators, Howard [Arundel], Perrot).

He became in course of time a Calvinist, implacably imposed to ‘the devilish doctrine of Rome’. However (88ff) he called for a distinction between the simple led by error - pity not punishment - and others dangerous, wilful and seditious. Many thought him ‘an arrant hypocrite and deep dissembler’ though his ability and judgement were widely recognised. He became a particular friend in the 90s to young Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

Already by 92 he was seen as a possible Lord Keeper but was first Attorney-general. In 94, already the most important member of the Queen's council in the Welsh marches (from 86), he was made Chamberlain of Chester, knighted and made Master of the rolls. He began with typical zeal, immediately seeking to restore certain prerogatives (eg recovering possession of the Rolls Chapel, obtaining annulment of earlier reversionary grants of offices in his gift). He was less successful fighting off other interferences with his patronage (eg he failed to bring public records at the Tower of London under his control). His efforts were largely self-interested but as head of the chancery administration was concerned at growing court interference with his department for reasons of financial gain.

Lord keeper, 1596–1617

In 1596, he became Lord Keeper, (again Elizabeth's personal choice) being allowed to retain the rolls until the Queen chose a successor - which she never did. Not fully welcomed by the Cecils, there was no serious competitor and general reaction was favourable. The unprecedented conjunction of offices did little for dispatch of business but put him in a unique position to reform chancery. He took opportunity to improve procedure and efficiency. It is generally supposed that his best work was in the 90s, though he was too conservative and too touchy about his own sources of income for very radical reform.

In 1597 he married second wife Elizabeth (d 1600), daughter of Sir William and Margaret More of Loseley, Surrey, widow of Sir John Wolley and Richard Polsted. She died 1603, shortly after the death of his eldest son (wounded serving in Ireland with Essex). He suffered the further blow of a personal betrayal by the earl, whom he had befriended in his troubles. His third wife was Alice Spencer (1559-1637), daughter of Sir John and Katherine Spencer, Althorp, Northampton, widow of Stanley, Earl of Derby. The marriage brought further wealth but no happiness. A prominent court lady and cultured patron of literature, the beautiful, wealthy dowager countess seemed a good match (she had extensive property secured by chancery decree) but was haughty, profligate, greedy, ill-tempered. He writes of ‘tempests and storms’ in this marriage wearing him down (1610).

On James I's accession, he was briefly reappointed Lord Keeper and made Baron Ellesmere (with a large estate), but relinquished the rolls. That same year he was made Lord Chancellor. He presided over chancery and Star Chamber another 14 years and conducted a number of state trials, (eg Raleigh, gunpowder plotters, Carr [Somerset]). In his judicial roles he did not always maintain proper independence. Coke said he ‘told the king that he as chancellor was keeper of the king's conscience and therefore whatsoever the king directed in any case he would decree accordingly’. His manner of dispensing justice in ordinary cases, though, at least earlier on, impressed the profession. During his time the first specialist reports of chancery cases were preserved, also the first extensive Star Chamber reports.

He encouraged favourites at the bar, especially Bacon who worked with him on matters of state and eventually succeeded him. He could be very sharp with lesser practitioners who exceeded their duty and once promised to ‘abolish and extirpate all solicitors ... caterpillars of the common weal’. He was even sharper with criminal defendants, being fond of telling them that punishments ought to be heavier than the law permitted.

To be continued (based on ONDB)

Publications 07

2007-09-11T07:58:00.000Z

Title: Mystical bedlam, or the vvorld of mad-men. By Tho: Adams 2 Tim 3:9 Their madness shall be manifest, etc. and a quote from Augustine on the Trinity

Imprint: London: Printed by George Purslowe for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shoppe in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the Holy Lambe, 1615.

Date: 1615

No. pages: [6], 82 p.

Notes: Sermons; Running title reads: Mysticall bedlam, the world of mad-men.

Copy from: Cambridge University Library

The two sermons are on Ecclesiastes 9:3 and are preceded by a four page dedication 'To the right honourable Sir Thomas Egerton, Knight, Baron of Ellesmere, Lord High Chancellor of England, one of his majesty's right hon privy council, the true pattern of virtue and patron of good learning.' Egerton lived 1540-1617.

Publications 06

2007-09-10T11:48:00.000Z

Title: Englands sicknes, comparatively conferred with Israels Diuided into two sermons, by Tho: Adams.
Imprint: London: Imprinted by E: G[riffin]: for Iohn Budge, and Ralph Mab, 1615.
Date: 1615
No. pages: [4], 101, [1] p.
Notes: Quires F and I exist in two different settings, identified by the position of the signature-mark on the first leaf of the gathering. Quire F: signature-mark (1) under "God" or (2) under "please". Quire I: signature-mark (1) under the "d" or (2) under the "m"s of "commendeth".
Copy from: Cambridge University Library

The text is Jer 8:22. The work is divided into two lectures preceded by a two page dedication "to the right worshipfull Sir Iohn Cleypoole Knight". This appears to be John Claypole of Northborough, Northamptonshire, married to Mary Angell and the father (1625) of Lord John Claypole who married Cromwell's daughter Elizabeth.

Publications 05

2007-09-08T18:10:00.000Z

Title: The blacke devil or the apostate Together with the wolfe worrying the lambes. And the spiritual navigator, bound for the Holy Land. In three sermons. By Thomas Adams.

Jer 13:23 Can the Black-moore change his skin? etc and a quotation from Bernard's sentences.

Imprint: [London]: Printed by William Iaggard, 1615.

Date: 1615
No. pages: [8], 78, [2]; [4], 34, [2]; [4], 58, [2] p.
Notes: "Lycanthropy, or the vvolfe vvorrying the lambes" and "The spirituall nauigator bound for the Holy Land" each has separatley dated title page, pagination and register.; Initial leaf contains large signature-mark "A" with ornaments.; The last leaf is blank.

Copy from: British Library

The work is preceded by a two page dedication 'to the honourable gentleman, Sir Charles Morrison, knight Baronet' and a two page epistle to the reader. Morrison lived 1587-1628 and married Mary Hicks (daughter of Baptist Hicks) in 1606.

Publications 04

2007-09-07T09:24:00.000Z

Title: The deuills banket described in foure sermons [brace], 1. The banket propounded, begunne, 2. The second seruice, 3. The breaking vp of the feast, 4. The shot or reckoning, [and] The sinners passing-bell, together with Phisicke from heauen / published by Thomas Adams

Imprint: London: Printed by Thomas Snodham for Ralph Mab, and are to be sold in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Grayhound, 1614.

Amos 6:7 and 8:10 Therefore, etc

There is also a Latin quotation fom Ambrose on penitence.

Date: 1614

No. pages: [8], 348 p.

Notes: Each sermon, except the first, has special t.p.; Part V has imprint: London: Printed by Thomas Snodham of Iohn Budge, 1614.; Marginal notes.; Includes six sermons published elsewhere; Signatures: A-2V4 2X3.; Signature Bb3 mislabeled Bb5.; Numerous errors in paging.

Copy from: Harvard University Library

The sermons are preceded by a three page dedication 'To the verie worthie and vertuous gentleman Sir George Fitz-Jeoffrey Knight, one of Majesties Justices of the Peace and Quo vam in the Countie of Bedford' and a three page epistle to the reader headed 'Ad vel in Lectorem'.

That same year another edition appeared
Title: The Diuells banket Described in sixe sermons. ... Published by Thomas Adams ...
Imprint: London: Printed by Thomas Snodham for Iohn Budge [or Ralph Mab], and are to be sold in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Grayhound, 1614.
Date: 1614
No. pages: [8], 341, [3] p.
Notes: The last leaf is blank.; Sermons [2] "The second seruice of the Deuils banket", [3] "The breaking vp of the Deuils banket. Or the conclusion", [4] "The shot: or the wofull price vvhich the wicked pay for the feast of vanitie", [5] "The sinners passing-bell. Or a complaint from heauen for mans sinnes", and [6] "The sinners passing-bell. Or phisicke from heauen" have separately dated title pages; pagination and register are continuous.; Sermons 5 and 6 may have been issued together separately.; The general title page and those of all the sermons except 5 may have either John Budge or Ralph Mab in the imprint; sermon 5 has only been noted with Budge's name.; Sermon 5 identified as existing elsewhere.
Copy from: Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery (also at Sion College).

Publications 03

2007-09-06T08:55:00.000Z

Title: The white deuil, or The hypocrite vncased in a sermon preached at Pauls Crosse, March 7. 1612. By Thomas Adams minister of the gospell at Willington, in Bedfordshire.

John 6:70 Have I not chosen you twelve, etc.

Imprint: London: Printed by Melchisedech Bradvvood for Ralph Mab, and are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard, at the sig ne [sic] of the Angel, 1613.

Also a version printed by Thomas Snodham.

Date: 1613

No. pages: [8], 61, [1] p.

Notes: Running title reads: The white deuill. On second edition some print faded; several pages stained.

Copy from: Emmanuel College (University of Cambridge) Library. Also one at Union Theological Seminary (New York, NY) Library.

The sermon is preceded by a two page dedication to Sir Thomas Cheeke (an MP?) and a three and a half page epistle to the reader. The sermon is on John 12:6.

Easily Adams's most popular work it was presumably reprinted more than once and then an expanded edition appeared in 1615 -

Title: The vvhite deuill or The hypocrite vncased to this fourth impression are newly added, 1 The two sonnes or The dissolute conferred vvith the hyprocrite. 2 The leauen, or A medicine for them both. By Tho. Adams.
Imprint: London : Printed by Thomas Dawson, for VVilliam Arondell, and are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard, at the signe of the Angell, 1615.
Date: 1615
No. pages: [10], 121, [1] p.
Notes: "The tvvo sonnes or the dissolute conferred vvith the hypocrite" has separate dated title page, and "The leauen or a direction to heauen" has a divisional title, but pagination and register are continuous.

Copy from: Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery

This expanded edition also appeared in 1621 [Imprint: London: Printed [by Thomas Snodham] for Richard Higginbotham, and are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard, at the signe of the Angell, 1621. No. pages: [10], 62+ p. Notes: The first leaf is blank.; "The leaven, or a medicine for them both" was published in the fourth impression as "The leaven or a direction to heaven". (Lacking all after p. 62). Copy from: Sion College Library]

W F Mitchell 01

2007-09-05T16:09:00.000Z

This extract is from W Fraser Mitchell's English Pulpit Oratory From Andrewes to Tillotson published by SPCK in 1932. See pp 214-216

Adams’ sermons are particularly rich in topical allusion and, … he drew upon contemporary deposit of strange and curious learning secured at one and the same time an edifying moral rhetorical effect. One feature of his work, however, calls for special remark - his great familiarity with the Classics and his almost instinctive habit of quoting from them. Not after his first college-addresses as a young don do we find allusion to the Classics in Andrewes (see pic), and even in case of the Puritan archbishop Abbot, whose ‘Exposition upon the Prophet Jonah’’ contains numerous quotations from the Classics, it must be remembered that such quotations occur in university discourses. With Adams, on other hand, preaching at times, it is true, before distinguished patrons but, for the most part, to a City auditory, classic allusions are constant, and classical quotations so numerous that it is difficult to open his works at random without lighting on some reference to the stories of Aesop or the Metamorphoses, or finding a quotation from Juvenal, Horace, Martial, or, most frequently of all, Seneca. This feature of his work links him up closely with Joseph Hall, and together they point forward to what was to be a distinguishing characteristic of Tillotson. Adams’ habit, however, translating his quotations, when they are in verse, in doggerel couplets - a device familiar to readers of Florio’s Montaigne and other translations of the period - was unique and is proof of the early date of his work.
Another feature of Adams’ sermons, in this case connect with their publication, which is of more than passing interest, is the strange and arresting titles under which they appeared. Burton’s well-known gibe about men rushing to print with sermons to which they gave titles likely to attract public attention, although principally directed against those who sought to impress by pointing to distinguished auditories before whom they had preached, might equally well have been directed against those who endeavoured to give to their printed discourses the advantages enjoyed at the present day by the novel but then confined to the pamphlet and the play; and, in an age of alluring sermon titles Adams’, it may certainly be claimed, secured a high place. Two of his titles, moreover, The Sovles Sicknesse and Mysticall Bedlam, serve not only as striking advertisements for printed sermons, but also usher in collections of characters written round a leading idea. We are not surprised, therefore, for this and other reasons, to learn from one of Adams’ prefaces, that by contemporaries he was considered a trifle fanciful, and given to allegories and rhetorical flourishes; but in point of fact such sermons are merely specimens of the "figure sermons" beloved of Spanish preachers, some of whom, according to Claude, even laid down rules for preaching in this manner. Robinson, Claude’s editor, in a note, further informs, us that so great a preacher as Cardinal Borromeo, in his Oration to the clergy of Milan, delivered at the opening of his sixth Provincial Council, indulged in a composition of this kind, in which various sins are depicted in turn by their resemblance to physical diseases, very much in the manner of Adams’ earlier discourse. From Robinson’s note we further learn that this fashion of strange titles and series of religious contemplations paralleled by descriptions drawn from some variegated sphere in life flourished considerably in England in the 40 years which ended about 1590. Adams' productions, therefore, represent a survival rather than an innovation.
Note Some of his more outstanding titles may be mentioned in passing. His first recorded sermon was The Gallants Burden, followed soon after by The Devills Banket, a series of six sermons, each with a separate title: 1. The Banket Propounded, Begun 2. The Second Service 3.The Breaking up of the Feast 4. The Shot 5. The Sinners Passing-Bell 6. Physicke from Heauen. Others are Politicke Hunting, The Three Divine Sisters, The White Devil (Or the Hypocrite Vncased: In a Sermon Preached at Paules Crosse, March ... 1612, the same year as the publication of Webster’s play; probably this represents a topical hit), The Cosmopolite and The Spirituall Navigator.

Henry Grey

2007-09-05T07:11:00.000Z

Henry Grey (c 1583-1639) was the 8th Earl of Kent from 1623. From 1621 to 1623, he held the title jointly with his father Charles Grey, 7th Earl of Kent. In 1623 he also became the 11th Lord Grey of Ruthin [established 1325]. He was the only son of Charles and of Susan Cotton. He was married to Elizabeth Talbot in 1601. There were apparently no children. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire, 1621-1627 (jointly with Thomas Wentworth from 1625) and 1629-1639 (again with Wentworth). Grey died childless and his primary title as Earl of Kent was inherited by his closest male-line relative, a second cousin of his father called Anthony (both were great-grandsons of George Grey, the 2nd Earl).

Publications 02

2007-09-05T06:29:00.000Z

Title: Heauen and earth reconcil'd A sermon preached at Saint Paules church in Bedford, October. 3. 1612. At the visitation of the right Wor. M. Eland, Archdeacon of Bedford. By Tho. Adams, Minister of the Gospell at Willington. 1 Cor 5:19 For God was in Christ, etc.

Imprint: London: Printed by W. W[hite] for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the holy Lambe, 1613.

Date: 1613

No. pages: [2], 23 leaves

Copy from: Cambridge University Library

On the first two pages there is a dedication to the Right honorable Lord Henry, Earl of Kent, Lord of Hasting, Weisford and Ruthyn. This is Henry Grey (1583-1639). The sermon is on Daniel 12:3.

George Eland had become Archdeacon of Bedford in 1600. He was also Chancellor of Lincoln (from 1606). He died in 1631.

William Gostwick

2007-09-04T13:33:00.000Z

Adams first book was dedicated to his patrons, Lord and Lady Gostwick, in 1612. Monuments to the Gostwick family can be found in the church at Willington, Bedfordshire, St Lawrence's, where Adams served 1612-1614. The earliest is a brass to Robert Gostwick esq. 1315. There is also a 13th century stone coffin lid.
Sir William Gostwick (1565-1615) was the son of John and Elizabeth Gostwick. Sir John once entertained Henry VIII at his seat in Willington. William married Jane (d c 1615), daughter of Henry Owen of Wotton, Beds, before 1588. They had as many as 11 children, including Ann and (from 1607 Sir) Edward (1588-1630 2nd Bt). William held the office of Sheriff of Bedfordshire 1595, 1596. He was created first Baronet Gostwick of Willington in 1611. A black letter Bible from this same year can be found in the church. Sir William died intestate and was buried in the Willington church. The tomb for him and his family has been described as “a fine canopied altar-tomb of marble, with recumbent effigy”.

Publications 01

2007-09-04T12:00:00.000Z

The first title Adams' ever had published was as follows

Title: The gallants burden A sermon preached at Paules Crosse, the twentie nine of March, being the fift Sunday in Lent. 1612 By Tho. Adams, preacher of Gods Word at Willington in Bedfordshire.

Imprint: London : Printed by W. W[hite] for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shoppe in Pauls church-yard at the signe of the Holy Lambe, 1612.

Date: 1612

No. pages: [2], 34 leaves

Copy from: Cambridge University Library

The sermon is preceded by a two page dedication "to the honorable Sir William Gostwicke, baronet, and his worthy Lady, the Lady Jane Gostwicke". The Gostwicks were Lord and Lady of the Manor in Willington where Adams pastored. Gostwick lived 1565-1615. The sermon is on Isaiah 21:11, 12.

Further editions appeared in 1614 [Imprint: London: Printed by T[homas] S[nodham] for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paules church-yard at the signe of the Holy Lambe, 1614. No. pages: [4], 67, [1] p. Copy from: Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery] and 1616 [same imprint as the original, same pages as 1614. Copy from: Union Theological Seminary (New York, N. Y.) Library]

2 Peter Reviews

2007-08-20T14:34:00.000Z

Here are two reviews from the 1860s of

AN EXPOSITION UPON THE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF ST PETER by the Rev THOMAS ADAMS, Rector of St Gregory's, London, AD 1633. Revised and corrected by JAMES SHERMAN, Minister of Surrey Chapel, Edinburgh: James Nichol 1862

1. From The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle 1862 (see p 682)

The works of Thomas Adams are now completed in three volumes. They are of singular excellence. Dr Angus, in his interesting memoir of Adams - who must be distinguished from Thomas Adams of Wintringham, a man who came into the world a century after his namesake -speaks of him as equal sometimes to Latimer or Baxter for pungency, and to be compared with Taylor for fancy, and Fuller for wit; and in one sermon, "The Temple", to Howe for grandeur. Southey leads the way in this eulogium.

We cannot follow either critic to this length of praise, but assuredly Adams was a wonderful man; and his style, for beauty and rhythm, far exceeds that of most of the Puritans. We wish emphatically to say - what is often said as mere commonplace - that we count these volumes a very valuable contribution to our revived Puritan literature. We hope that Adams' works will not be placed on the minister's or student's shelf to remain there unopened. Sibbes' works, in two volumes, have also appeared. He is better known than Adams, but we do not like him so well. Still, his writings are worthy of his fame, and this edition is enriched by a memoir of singular merit for its painstaking care and liveliness of composition.

2. From The United Presbyterian Magazine 1863 (see p 129)
CONSIDERED strictly as an exposition, this work cannot be rated high; nevertheless, it is a work of great value, and deserving of a place in every considerable theological library. The reader will find in Adams a rich variety of intellectual refreshment, and of spiritual instruction. Though not a Nonconformist, he was a Puritan; though a Churchman in the days of Laud, he was a Calvinist; though not an ecclesiastical dignitary, or distinguished by university honours, he abounded in deep and varied learning. Adams very much resembled Bishop Hall, of whom he was by some years the senior. In both we have not only the same learning somewhat ostentatiously displayed, but the same fondness for antithesis and quaint conceits; the same richness of scriptural illustration; the same pungency and pathos in appealing to the heart and affections; the same fervour and soundness of doctrine. Inferior to Barrow and to Jeremy Taylor in many respects, he may yet be fitly compared to the former in the thoroughness which exhausts his subjects, and to the latter in the poetic splendour of his imagery. One of the attractions of Adams is his curious and admirable portraitures of the manners of his times. He is remarkable, too, for his power and skill in the detection of motives and characters; and for the mingled wit and scorn with which he denounces fashionable vices and errors. Yet, along with burning rebukes, we have sweet and gentle comfortings. Doubtless the modern reader will find in some parts of the writings of this racy old divine something like tediousness; but, at the same time, he will acknowledge that he is always original, fresh, hearty, honest, full of matter, and plentiful in ornament. Hisquaintness will be often a relief from the monotony of modern writing, and his ingenuity cannot fail to delight. The commentaries of the Puritans (of which this is the first) are furnished by Mr Nicliol at as cheap a rate as the series of Puritan Divines. He is enabled to confer this boon on the theological world in consequence of the gênerons gift of the stereotype plates made by the late Mr Sherman, by whom they were originally issued at a much higher figure. We hope the encouragement given by the public will ensure the completion of the plan.

Adams' Style Again

2007-08-20T14:32:00.000Z

This is again by Mulder

His sermons for the most part follow a scheme inherited from classical and medieval rhetoric: a logical ordering of the ideas explicit in the text arranged by the nicest ingenuities of balance and antithesis. Occasionally he frees himself from this rigid, traditional framework to follow the method, more popular by his time, which clarified the text, raised the doctrine, followed it with the reasons or proofs, and concluded with the uses — evidence that he was a transitional figure working in both old and new ordering, sometimes logical, sometimes purely verbal. Scholastic and Euphuist join talents.

A crucifix

2007-08-20T12:42:00.000Z

Adams' sermon on Christ's passion A crucifix is available here at Chapel Library.