Adams Quotes 09

(Again as found in A Puritan Golden Treasury)

Be thou a follower of God in grace, that thou mayest ascend to his glory. 237

It was well done of Paul to reprove Peter to his face, and it was well done of Peter to praise Paul in his absence. 242

Iniquity can plead antiquity. 261

RepentanceThere is no other fortification against the judgments of God but repentance. His forces be invisible, invincible; not repelled with sword and target; neither portcullis nor fortress can keep them out; there is nothing in the world that can encounter them but repentance. 237

RichesLet us not make the poor our friends by our alms, not our enemies by our scorns. We had better have the ears of God full of their prayers, than heaps of money in our own coffers with their curses. 251

ServiceGod has many servants but little service in the world. 258

SinMany being reproved, answer, Alas! You must bear with me in this my fault; as if every man were allowed his own fault. There is a private Sodom within us; we are loath to part with that. Men say of their sins as Jacob said of sons, "Go, all but Benjamin." Other vices we will not so much stick for, but, "Oh, that Ishmael might live!" There is still some worm in the root of the tree that will spoil the fruit. We extenuate it; is it not a little one? But a little hair makes a great blot in the paper. 264

Complaining

The frog and the murmurer, both of them are bred of the mud. 278

Sorrow

Sorrow commonly comes on horseback but goes away on foot. 284

 

SuicideNo man must let the tenant out of the tenement, till God the landlord call for it. 289

As we cannot live without a permittis, so we must not die without a dimittis. 289

 

Temptation

When Satan assaults any poor soul, he suffers nothing to appear to the eye but pleasure, profit, a sweet satisfaction of our desires, and an illusion of happiness. There is also wrath, and judgment, and torment, and sting of conscience belonging to it! These must be, but these shall not be seen. All the way is white snow that hides the pit. Green grass tempts us to walk; the serpent is unseen. If temptations, like praises, might be turned on both sides, the kingdom of darkness would not be so populous. If David could have foreseen the grief of his broken bones ere he fell upon Bathsheba, those aspersions of blood and lust had not befallen him. If Achan could have foreseen the stones about his ears before he filched those accursed things, he would never have fingered them. But as it is said of Adam and Eve after their fall, ‘Then their eyes were opened’; then, not before. Judas was blind till he had done the deed, then his eyes were opened, and he saw it in its true horror. 290

Truth

Such is the immutability of truth, the patrons of it make it not greater, the opposers make it not less; as the splendour of the sun is not enlarged by them that bless it, nor eclipsed by them that hate it. 299

WorldOutward things happen alike to good and bad. "There is one event to the clean and to the unclean". They are both travellers in the thoroughfare of this world, both lodge in one inn, both have the same provision: perhaps the wicked have the better cheer - but in the morning their ways part! 312

On Sin

This comment on Psalm 116:6 We have sinned with our fathers is quoted by Spurgeon in his Treasury of David
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" (Ac 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.

Aspects of Piety 13

Sin
I D E Thomas records some typical aphorisms from Adams on this subject. 'Heaven begins where sin ends. When gifts are in their eminency, sin may be in its prevalency. Sin is the strength of death and the death of strength. Iniquity can plead antiquity (Puritan Golden Treasury, pp 133, 116, 261).
Adams is clear on original sin, as is apparent from his sermon on Ps 58:4 A generation of serpents and his Meditations on the creed. (Works 1, p 71; Works 3, pp 194ff). In a sermon on Ga 5:9 he likens sin to leaven. As leaven is ‘not bread but the corruption that maketh bread’ so ‘sin is not a created quality, but the corruption of a created quality.’ Dough becomes leaven by adding salt so ‘The very same work that might be good and acceptable to God, by addition of our pravity becomes evil.’ As sour leaven makes bread tasty, ‘so by the ungodly’s most cursed sins God will advance his glory.’ As man cannot live on bread alone, much less on leaven so ‘No man can live for ever by his righteousness and good works, much less by his sins.’ ‘Lastly, sin and leaven are fitly compared for their sourness’ to God, angels, saints and the sinner himself.' (Works 2, pp 345-349)
In the second half of The fool and his sport Adams speaks about actual sin. He says some eight things to show that it must be taken very seriously. Sin is entirely contrary to goodness. It brings on judgements even in this life and where it does not that should make us alert to the fearful judgement ahead. Though little sense of guilt is present now, there will be a very great sense of it one day. Sin provokes God to anger. What a fearful thing to fall into his hands. Sin was punished even in heaven, when the angles that sinned were thrown down. It is so loathsome that God ‘could not save his own elect because of it, but by killing his own son.’ ‘Lastly, Sin shall be punished with death’ (Cf Works 1, pp 248-253)
In another place he compares sin with leprosy emphasising that sin is ubiquitous, soul infecting, hereditary, incurable, going on beyond death, shutting us out from fellowship with God and, unpurged by repentance, from heaven itself. (Cf Works 1, pp 442, 443)
We need to see that 'Every sin dishonours God and offers to stick ignominy upon that infinite majesty; therefore deserves an infinite penalty.' (Works 1, p 53)
The trouble is that we fall to temptation too easily. 'Satan doth diversify his drinks, to keep the wicked man’s appetite fresh and sharp. If he be weary of one sin, behold another, stands at his elbow.' (Works 1, p 170). ‘Temptation misleads the navigators with a pirate’s light’. Sin is like a bloody prince that having invited several great men to a great feast flattered them one by one an then chopped of their heads.
'She hath a siren’s voice, mermaid’s face, a Helen’s beauty, to tempt thee; but a leper’s touch, a serpent’s sting, a traitorous hand to wound thee. The best way to conquer sin is by Parthian war, to run away.'(Works 1, p 222).
What we need to see, therefore, is the harm that sin does. In the second part of The fatal banquet Adams goes to great lengths to show that ‘every sin robs some’. Some sins particularly harm God - atheism, heresy, sacrilege, faction and profaneness. Others particularly harm men - irreverence, murder, adultery, thievery, slander and flattery. Still others directly harm ourselves - pride, epicurism, idleness, envy, drunkenness, covetousness. All these should be incentives to turn from sin. (Works 1, pp 175-197).
This last section highlights Adams’ determination not to preach simply against sin in general terms but against particular sins. In another listing of sins he attacks epicurism, pride, lust, hypocrisy, avarice, usury, ambition, drunkenness, idleness, swearing, lying, busy bodying, flattery, ingratitude, anger, envy, contention, impatience, vainglory and papistry. (Works 1, pp 276-287). In A generation of serpents he attacks the ‘salamander’ of contentiousness, the ‘dart’ of anger, the ‘dipsas’ of drunkenness, the ‘crocodile’ of hypocrisy, the ‘cockatrice’ of prostitution, the ‘caterpillar’ of covetousness, the ‘asp’ of the Roman Catholic infiltrator, the ‘lizard’ or ‘tortoise’ of sloth, the ‘sea serpent’ of piracy, the ‘stellion’ of extortion and the ‘draco’ or devil himself. (Works 1, pp 77-80).

Besides these sins he also attacks failing to pay debts or keep promises, extortion, duelling and other sinful practice (See Works 1, pp 145, 146; 79; 183; 2, pp 321, 322, 556. Also eg suicide ‘No man must let the tenant out of the tenement, till God the landlord call for it.’ ‘As we cannot live without a permittis, so we must not die without a dimittis.’ Puritan Golden Treasury, p 289; making images of Christ, Works 2, p 291.)
Often he is very specific regarding the sins of certain callings. He rails against the tricks of shopkeepers who hide the truth, especially apothecaries who might cause their customers’ deaths. (Works 1, pp 146, 147). In one place he lists ‘many kinds of private thieves’. These are magistrates ruled by popularity, partiality or passion; lawyers who double deal or are dishonest in other ways; officers involved in bribery; tradesmen with false weights and measures, deficient goods and preying on men’s necessities; those who take advantage of the church to line their pockets; covetous landlords; engrossers who ‘hoard up commodities and by stopping their community raise the price’; enclosers who were still taking common land for themselves (a sin that had been preached against from at least the time of John Bradford, 1510?-1555); tap-house keepers and taverners who ‘chop away a good conscience for money’ and encourage drunkenness; flatterers who think of ways for the rich to make money; brokers and breakers by which he means unscrupulous pawnbrokers and bailiffs; usurers. (Works 1, pp 276-287). Adams often opposed this latter sin, little spoken against today. (Adams takes this even further when he speaks of characteristic sins of nations – Spanish pride, French lust, Italian poisoning, German drunkenness, English epicurism. Works 1, pp 368, 369.)
With all this negative content it must not be supposed that Adams fails to encourage virtue. In his A contemplation of the herbs mentioned above he advocates humility, patience, joy, charity, contentment, continence, meekness, frugality, peaceable love, pureness of heart, confidence in God’s promises, following Christ, casting care away and good resolution. (Works 2, pp 460-467). Among the gates to the City of peace are patience and beneficence. (Works 2, pp 316-319).