forth in the forehead of a christian man then the signe of the Crosse Here we may note what high reward in heaven is reserved to a christian man when Christ hath given such an honour to the forme of the Crosse representing to us his passion for now the forme of the Crosse is so honoured amongst christian men that if a man worthy to dye should be crucified if should be thought amongst christian men that he should thereby rather be honoured then punished The Crosse is now every where amongst christian men erected and set up as an arch triumphall against the devill declaring unto us the victory and triumph that Christ upon the Crosse obtained against the devill in cancelling the bond of our sinne wherein we were bound to the devill and fastening it cancelled to his Crosse as Saint Paul saith in the second chapter to the Colossians It followeth in the Text. Therefore God hath exalted him and hath given to him a name that is above all names Here it is to be noted that God gave to Christ his exaltation as to man and not as to God For there was never no time before he was made man that he in the forme of God was not exalted nor no time that all things did not bow downe to him that be in heaven earth and hell And for that cause he saith therefore that is to say for his manhood and forme of a servant taken upon him and united to his godhead and for his obedience unto death of the Crosse For in the same forme of man in which he was crucified in the same he was exalted And a name was given to him above all names that he being in the forme of a servant rising from death of the flesh to life and ascending up into heaven should be called the onely begotten Sonne of God which name he as the Word and Sonne of God eternally begotten of God and equall to God had before Whereof the Angell sent to the blessed Virgin Mary before his birth prophecied saying in the first chapter of Luke That holy birth that shall bee borne of thee shall be called the Sonne of God This high exaltation of Christ given to him for his manhood and sufferance of death for mankinde is like to that that Christ himselfe spake in the last chapter of Matthew saying All power is given to me in heaven and in earth which he spake of his manhood and not of his godhead for by his godhead he had it before he was man It followeth in the Text That in the name of Iesu every knee shall bow down of all things that be in heaven or that be in earth or that be in hell That is to say of Angels of men and of devils For the Angels of heaven at his ascention glorified in him the nature of man bowed downe to him exalted above all Angels And men in earth doe glorifie him and doe kneele downe to him and adore him as their Redeemer and God and man The devils doe stoope downe to him for feare and one of them whom he expelled from a body possessed by him said to him I doe know that thou art the holy one of God And all the devils shall know his power when he shall sit in iudgement rewarding good men and punishing the evill And the bowing downe of every knee is meant the submission of all creatures to their maker not that either Angels or Devils have bodily knees but because we men that have bodies in our submission doe bow our knees And therefore submission of all creatures to their Maker is meant thereby His godhead once knit by his incarnation to his body and his soule never departed after from either of them both but still abode with them that is to say with his body in the sepulcher and with his soule descending into hell never departing from neither of them after his incarnation It followeth in the Text. And every tongue shall confesse and knowledge that Iesu Christ is our Lord to the glory of God his father That is to say to the high preferment thereof for the glory of the Father is to have such a Sonne Lord of all maker of all and God of all To whom all be subjects and doe obey to whom all creatures doe bow downe and whom all tongues doe exalt and glorifie The glory of God the Father is that the Sonne every where be glorified like as where God the Sonne is despised there God the Father is despised and blasphemy spoken against God the Sonne is spoken also against God the Father Like as amonst men dishonour done to the sonne soundeth to the dishonour of the father For betwixt God the Father and God the Sonne there is no difference but that that riseth and commeth by diversity of their persons And therefore the honour or dishonour of God the Son stretcheth to the honour or dishonour of God the Father Where the Sonne is perfect in all things it is the honour of the Father that so begat him of whom he had it And where he needeth nothing it is the honour of his Father of whom he hath all plenty And where he by his godhead is not inferiour to his Father it is the honour of his Father of whom he hath the same substance and the same essence and where he is wise it is the honour of the Father whose wisedome he is and where he is good it is the honour of the Father of whom he hath it And where he is Almighty it is the honour of the Father whose arme he is In all these things it is the high honour of God the Father that he eternally begat a Sonne of so much glory And it is a great demonstration that Christ the Sonne of God is God by nature because he humbled himselfe taking mans nature upon him For he knew that by his humility he could suffer no dammage in the highnesse of his godly nature for his godly nature could not be hid nor kept under nor oppressed by any humility His humility therefore is an evident argument of his naturall godhead And therefore if any man doe desire to be great in vertue let him humble himselfe for humility sheweth the greatnesse of vertue Let him follow Christ in humility and he shall gaine great things thereby He that is poore in vertue feareth to humble himselfe lest he should fall from his fained and dissembled height And he that is rich in vertue doth humble himselfe knowing that he hath in him vertue whereby he shall be exalted which vertue cannot be hid As a candle burning cannot be hid in a dark house nor a sweet smell hid in any corner but it will by the good savour thereof disclose where it is and allure men to take up the thing that so smelleth So we doe see in the Epistle of this day that Christ for his humility hath received exaltation as he himselfe saith in the Gospell in the 23. chapter of Mat. And for his
heavenly kingdome to his Apostles giving to them like commission and equall authority to preach and teach the same through all the world saying in the last chapter of Matthew after the words before declared that all power was given to him in heaven and in earth Goe ye forth and teach all nations baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost teaching them to keepe all those things which I have commanded you Christ also in the 30. chapter of Iohn said the evening after his resurrection when he appeared to his Disciples the dores being shut As my Father hath sent me I doe send you and after he had so said he breathed upon them saying Whose sinnes soever ye shall forgive be forgiven and whose sinnes ye shall retaine be retained And likewise had said to them all before his death in the 18. chapter of Matthew what things soever ye shall binde upon earth I shall be bound in heaven and what things soever ye shall lose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven which power hee gave to theâ— all equally alike as wâ— to all the residue as to Peter Which authority Christ declareth in the 20. chapter of Iuke to be high and to be regarded of all men and not to be contemned in any wife saying He that heareth you heareth me and he that heareth me heareth my Father of heaven that hath sent me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth my Father of heaven that hath sent mee At the day of iudgement Sodome and Gomorrah which heard not of Christ shall be in better case then such despisers shall be But here the Bishop of Rome steppeth in and saith Peter had authority given to him above all the residue of the Apostles for Christ said to him in the 10. chapter of Matthew Thou art Peter and upon this make I shall build my Church and I shall give thee the keyes of the kingdome of heaven and whatsoever thou shall binde upon earth shall be bound in the heavens this said Christ and Saint Peter is buried at Rome whose successor I â—…and ought to rule the Church as Peter did and to be Porter at heaven gates as Peter was And Christ said also to Peter after his resurrection Feede my sleepe which words he spake to him onely so that thereby he had authority over all that be of Christs flocke and I as â—is successour have the same and therefore who so will not obey me King or Prince I will curse him and deprive him his kingdome or seignorie for all power is given to me that Christ had and I am his Vicar generall as Peter was here in earth over all and none but I as Christ is in heaven This ambitious and pompous objection is made by him and his adherents and hath of late yeeres much troubled the world and made dissention debate and open warre in all parts of Christendome and nourished the same But if the Bishop of Rome would take those places after the right sense of them as both the Apostles themselves taught us and all the antient best learned and most holy interpreters doe expound them the world should be more at quietnesse then it is where now by wrong interpretation the Scripture is perverted and another Gospell in that poynt preached unto us than ever the Apostles preached so that though an Angell came from heaven and would tell us such new expositions of those places as is now made to turne the words which were spoken for spirituall authority of preaching the word of God and ministring of the Sacraments to a worldly authority wee ought to reject him as Saint Paul saith in the first chapter to the Galathians But to open the true sense of the Scripture in the places aforesaid it is to be observed that Christ in the said 16. chapter of Matthew asked his Disciples whom men did say that he was whereunto after answer given by them diversly some saying that he was Iohn Baptist some saying that he was Elias some saying that he was Ieremie or one of the Prophets Christ asked them whom doe yee say that I am whereunto Peter answered for them all for of all of them the question was asked as he was alwaies ready to make answer Thou art Christ the Sonne of God that liveth Iesus answered Blessed be thou Simon the sonne of Iona for flesh and bloud hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in heaven And I say to thee Thou art Peter and upon this rocke I shall build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it that is to say upon this rocke of thy confession of mee to be the Sonne of God I shall build my Church for this confession containeth the whole summary of our faith and salvation Which confession first was spoken by the mouth of Peter Who of all the twelve Apostles that Christ chose to send into the world to preach his word was the first that with his mouth uttered that confession and knowledging by which all christian men must be saved and without which no man can be saved as it is written in the 10. chapter to the Romans by Paul The word of saith that we doe preach is at hand in thy mouth and in thine heart for if thou confesse with thy mouth our Lord Iesus and with thy heart doe beleeve that God raised him from death to life thou shalt be saved Vpon this first confession of Peter and not upon the person of Peter the Church is builded As Chrysostome expoundeth that place in the 26. Sermon of the feast of Pentecost saying Not upon the person of Peter but upon the faith Christ hath builded his Church And what is the faith This thou art Christ the Sonne of God that liveth What is to say upon this rocke that is upon this confession of Peter And with this saying of Chrysostome all antient expositors treating that place doe agree For it we should expound that place that the Church is builded upon the person of Peter we should put another foundation of the Church than Christ which is directly against Saint Paul saying in the 3. chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians no man may put any other foundation but that which is put already which is Christ Iesu and therefore that exposition that the person of Peter should be the foundation of the Church should make of the Trinitie a quaternitie and put a fourth person besides the Trinitie to be the foundation of the Church And this first confession of Peter by faith that Christ is the Sonne of God is the preheminence and primacy that Peter had before the other spoken of in the tenth of Matthew wherein reciting the names of the twelve Apostles chosen by Christ it is written The first is Simon Peter For he first confessed that faith that all men must be saved by For who so doth agree with Peter in
devill and his disciples be against thee for God thy protectour is stronger then he and they and shall by his grace give him and them a fall And to shew unto thee that God is on thy side consider that it is written in the 6. chapter of the Proverbs that amongst many crimes there rehearsed that God hateth chiefly he doth detest those persons that sow discord among their brethren as all we christian men be brethren under our heavenly Father also it is written in the 8. chapter of Iohn that those that doe stirre men to murther be children of the divell which was from the beginning of mankinde a murtherer and brought Adam to sinne and thereby to death as the Iewes his children stirred the people to put Christ to death Saint Paul also in the last chapter to the Romans warneth them to beware of those that doe make dissention and debate among them against the doctrine that he had taught them and biddeth them eschue their company wherein the holy Ghost wrought in Paul for these many yeeres past little warre hath beene in these parts of Christendome but the Bishop of Rome eyther hath beene a stirrer of it or a nourisher of it and seldome any compounder of it unlesse it were for his ambition or profit Wherefore since as Saint Paul saith in the 14. chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians that God is not God of dissention but of peace who commandeth by his word peace alwaies to be kept wee are sure that all those that goe about to breake peace betweene Realmes and to bring them to warre are the children of the divell what holy names soever they pretend to cloake their pestilent malice withall which cloaking under hypocrisie a double divellishnesse and of Christ most detested because under his blessed name they doe play the divels part And therefore since Christ is on our side against them let us not feare them at all But putting our confidence in Almighty God and cleaving fast to the Kings Majestie our supreame head in earth next under Christ of this Church of England as faithfull Subjects by Gods law ought to doe though they goe about to stirre Gog and Magog and all the ravenours of the world against us We trust in God verily and doubt not but they shall have such a ruine and ouerthrow as is prophecied by Ezechiel in the 39. chapter against Gog and Magog going about to destroy the people of God whom the people of God shall so vanquish and overthrow on the mountaines of Israel that none of them shal escape but their carcasses there to lye to be devoured by Kites and Crowes and birds of the ayre And if they shall persist in their pestilent malice to make invasion into this Realme then let us wish that their great Captaine Gog I meane the Bishop of Rome may come with them to drinke with them of the same cup that he maliciously goeth about to prepare for us that the people of God might after surely live in peace And now that we have spoken of disobedience done to man against Gods law let us somewhat speake of disobedience daily done to God by us all against Gods law which our disobedience is so great that the tongue of man cannot expresse it for Christ saith in the 19. chapter of Matthew to him that asked what he should doe to come to everlasting life If thou wilt enter into everlasting life keepe the Commandements which he there rehearsed unto him when he asked which they were they be written in the 20. chapter of Exodus tenne in number And because I doubt not but ye know them for briefenesse of time I shall omit to rehearse them In the old law which expresseth rewards temporall for the capacitie of the grosse carnall people of Israel many worldly pleasures and rewards be promised to the keepers of those commandements and mervailous great troubles and paines be threatned to the breakers and transgressors of them All which be contained in the 28. chapter of Deuteronomie in so much that in the 8. chapter of that Booke the people of Israel is threatned by Almighty God to be expelled out of the land promised unto them if they should not keepe those Comandements and lawes by him given unto them The Prophet David saith also in the 88. Psalme If the children of David leave my lawes and keepe not my commandements I shall with a rod visite their iniquities and their sinnes with beatings But our Saviour Christ regarding the forgetfulnesse of mans memory lest he should not remember the whole number of tenne hath brought them all into two Commandements comprising in effect the whole tenne of the which two expressed in the 22. chapter of Matthew the first is Thou shalt love thy Lord God with all thy heart with all thy soule with all thy minde This is the first and greatest Commandement containing in it foure Commandements of the first table which be these Thou shalt have no other Gods in my sight Thou shalt grave no image of things that be in heaven above or in earth beneath or in the water under the earth nor with adoration worship them Thou shalt not take the name of God in vaine Thou shalt sanctifie thy Sabbath day No man will breake any of these foure Commandements that loveth God above all things The second Commandement given there by Christ is like unto the first that thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe which comprehendeth all the sixe Commandements of the second Table which be these Thou shalt honour thy father and thy mother Thou shalt not commit adultry Thou shalt not steale Thou shalt not beare false witnesse Thou shalt not lust to have thy neighbours house nor his wife nor his servant nor his maide nor any of his goods No man that loveth his neighbour as himselfe will offend him in any of these for since he loveth himselfe so well that he cannot be content that his neighbour shall offend him in any of these hee in loving his neighbour as himselfe will not offend his neighbour in any of these In these two Commandements saith Christ all the law and the Prophets be contained But for all this we thus plainely being taught by Christ doe fall headlong into all kindes of vices for where we ought to love God above all things we love the world and worldly things above God against the counsell of Saint Iohn in the 2. chapter of his first Epistle For we be so given to concupiscence of the flesh that whatsoever it Iusteth to have we minister it unto it to the concupiscence of our eyes that whatsoever we doe see that liketh us we will have it by one meanes or other Wee be so high also of minde and proud in heart that wee will mount above our degree suffering none to be above us which three faults doe comprehend all vices of the world so that we may say with the Prophet Osee in his 4. chapter There is no truth
there is no mercy or pitty there is no knowledge of God left upon the earth Backbiting lying murther theft adultery hath overflowne the world Perjury raigneth every where and great pitty it is to see how the precious name of Almighty God is taken in vaine in all places No oath should be given but three things concurrent as Ieremy the Prophet in his 4. chapter teacheth us that is to say in Iudgement when a man is called thither to shew the truth And for iustice there to be ministred to put away wrong doing And for truth that falshood may take no place there Else no oath should be given by Gods law but we should affirme our saying by yea yea and deny by nay nay as Christ taught us in the 5. of Matthew But now every thing that we affirme or deny must have an oath coupled with it when men doe buy or sell any thing more oathes be oftentimes interchanged betwixt them then pence that the thing is sold for In communication and all pastimes as many oathes as words be used In playing at any games there the tearing of Gods name and particular mention of all the wounds and paines that Christ suffered for us be contumeliously in vaine brought forth If a muster should be taken of swearers I thinke that some crooked pieces should be found not able to take the Kings wages that would sweare as great oaths and as many of them as the best and most able man on the field They think that great oathes doe make them to be of more estimation and therfore they sweare at every word but surely they be foulely deceived for oathes be ordained where neede is that truth shall not perish and that they may finish debates among men as Paul saith in the sixth chapter to the Hebrewes But he that at every word sweareth declareth plainely that no credence is to be given to any his words and therefore he joyneth to every word an oath as a surety of the truth therof acknowledging the lacke of truth to be in his words As if a man would offer a great substantiall surety when he would borrow a penny of his neighbour he plainely should make his neighbour thereby to thinke that he were of no credence that would for so small a matter offer so great a surety where no need is so to doe I feare me the great role of twenty cubits in length and ten cubits in breadth which the Prophet Zacharie saw flying in the ayre in the 5. chapter which as the Angell shewed to him did containe the great malediction of God against theeves and against swearors that should be judged by it doth flye now over our heads I pray God we may avoid the danger of it and abstaine hereafter so to take the name of God in vaine as is now commonly used We doe professe the faith of Christ and doe speake of the Gospell with our mouths and have the Booke oft in our hands but we learne it not as we should doe for the Gospell is given to us to know God thereby and to be a rule to live by but we much doe talke of it which is very well done and yet we nothing regard to amend our lives thereby and to live as it biddeth us but we doe use the Gospell as if it were a Booke of Problemes to dispute upon and care not to amend our living as it teacheth us which shall be to our great punishment For a servant that knoweth his Lords pleasure and not fulfilling it is more grievously to be punished than he that knoweth it not as Christ saith in the 12. chapter of Luke We much extoll faith as it is much worthy but workes and deedes many men care not for saying God regardeth them nothing for faith alone justifieth us and not our workes Here first of all it is to be observed that no deed nor worke that is done by man without faith can ever helpe him to heaven for like as a man that runneth out of the race where the course is set though he runne never so fast winneth no game so a man that doth good deeds morall without faith deserveth of God no reward for without faith it is impossible to please God as Saint Paul saith the 11. chapter to the Hebrewes But if he doe good deeds with faith then they be acceptable to God and he will reward him for them And Saint Paul teacheth us alwaies to be occupied in doing of good workes for albeit no man may be justified by his workes alone yet after he hath faith he must joyne good workes with it if he have any time thereto or else his faith is unprofitable unto him for the faith that by grace doth justifie is the faith that worketh by charitie as Saint Paul saith to the Galathians in the 5. chapter and not an idle faith which Saint Iames in his Epistle calleth a dead faith Saint Paul saith also in the second chapter to the Romans that the hearers of the law be not justified before God but the doers of the law And Saint Iames in his Epistle in the first chapter doth liken him that heareth the word of God and doth not there after unto a man that looketh in a glasse and after hee hath so done layeth it downe and forgetteth that he looked in it and thinketh of other matters And where they say that faith alone justifieth that is untrue and against Saint Iames in the 2. chapter of his Epistle saying that a man is not justified by his faith alone Also to justification of a sinner repentance of his evill life past is necessarily first required and must needs be joyned with faith before he be justified for else if hee repent not he remaineth still in sinne and so he is not yet justified and all the preaching of Christ and his Apostles beginneth at repentance and penance so that faith without that cannot helpe Wherefore it is never true that faith alone justifieth for grace of God must goe before faith and on our behalfe repentance and charity must bee joyned with faith And as faith is the gift of God so is penance and so is charity so is hope but the grace of God who granteth all goeth before all Truth it is that our good deeds done before faith doe not justifie for lacke of faith but joyned unto faith they doe helpe for comming after faith they helpe to make us more justified as it is written in the 21. of the Apocalyps Let him that is right wise be yet more justified And that Almighty God requireth of us good workes it appeareth in the 21. chapter of Matthew and the 11. of Marke where Christ comming to a Figge tree full of leaves having no fruit which he sought in it by his curse did make it seere so if we being the tree bring not forth fruit of good workes having time thereto neither the root of faith nor the leaves of words can alone helpe us Another parable in the 13.