and we be in the time when he is come Therefore saith St. Augustine In Johan Tract 45. The Time is altered and changed but not the Faith For we have both one Faith in one Christ 1 Cor. 4 The same Holy Ghost also that we have had they saith St. Paul For as the Holy Ghost doth teach us to trust in God and to call upon him as our Father Eâ—ai 4â— So did he teach them to say as it is written Thou Lord art our Father and Redeemer and thy Name is without beginning and everlasting God gave them then Grace to be his Children as he doth us now But now by the coming of our Saviour Christ we have received more abundantly the Spirit of God in our Hearts whereby we may conceive a greater Faith and a surer Trust than many of them had But in effect they and we be all one We have the same Faith that they had in God and they the same that we have And St. Paul so much extolleth their Faith because we should not less but rather more give our selves wholly unto Christ both in Profession and Living now when Christ is come than the old Fathers did before his coming And by all the Declaration of St. Paul it is evident that the true lively and Christian Faith is no dead vain or unfruitful thing but a thing of perfect Virtue of wonderful Operation or Working and Strength bringing forth all good Motions and good Works All Holy Scripture agreeably beareth witness that a true lively Faith in Christ doth bring forth good VVorks And therefore every Man must examine and try himself diligently to know whether he have the same true lively Faith in his Heart unfeignedly or not which he shall know by the fruits thereof Many that professed the Faith of Christ were in this error that they thought they knew God and believed in him when in their Life they declared the contrary VVhich error St. John in his First Epistle confuting writeth in this wise 1 John 2. Hereby we are certified that we knew God if we observe his Commandments He that saith he knoweth God and observeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him And again he saith 1 John 3. Whosoever sinneth doth not see God nor know him let no man deceive you welbeloved children And moreover he saith Hereby we know that we be of the truth and so we shall persuade our hearts before him 1 John 3. For if our own hearts reprove us God is above our hearts and knoweth all things Welbeloved if our hearts reprove us not then have we confidence in God and shall have of him whatsoever we ask because we keep his Commandments and do those things that please him And yet further he saith Every man that believeth that Jesus is Christ is born of God and we know that whosoever is born of God doth not sin But he that is begotten of God purgeth himself and the Devil doth not touch him And finally he concludeth and sheweth the cause why he wrote this Epistle 1 John 5. saying For this cause have I thus written unto you that you may know that you have everlasting life which do believe in the Son of God And in his third Epistle he confirmeth the whole matter of Faith and VVorks in few words 3 John 1. saying He that doth well is of God and he that doth evil knoweth not God And as St. John saith That as the lively Knowledge and Faith of God bringeth forth good VVorks So saith he likewise of Hope and Charity That they cannot stand with evil living Of Hope he writeth thus 1 John 3. We know that when God shall appear we shall be like unto him for we shall see him even as he is And whosoever hath this hope in him doth purifie himself like as God is pure And of Charity he saith these words 1 John 2. 1 John 5. He that doth keep God's word and Commandment in him is truly the perfect love of God And again he saith This is the love of God that we should keep his Commandments And St. John wrote not this as a subtil saying devised of his own phantasie but as a most certain and necessary Truth taught unto him by Christ himself the Eternal and infallible Verity who in many places doth most clearly affirm That Faith Hope and Charity cannot consist or stand without Good and Godly VVorks 1 John 5. Of Faith he saith He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting Life But he that believeth not in the Son John 3. shall not see that life but the wrath of God remaineth upon him John 6. And the same he confirmeth with a double Oath saying Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth in me hath everlasting life Now forasmuch as he that believeth in Christ hath everlasting life it must needs consequently follow that he that hath this Faith must have also good Works and be studious to observe God's Commandments obediently For to them that have evil Works and lead their Life in Disobedience and Transgression or breaking of God's Commandments without Repentance pertaineth not everlasting Life Matth. 25. but everlasting Death as Christ himself saith They that do well shall go into life eternal but they that do evil shall go into everlasting Fire And again he saith Apoc. 21. I am the first Letter and the last the beginning and the ending To him that is athirst I will give of the well of the water of life freely He that hath the victory shall have all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son But they that be fearful mistrusting God and lacking Faith they that be cursed People and murtherers and fornicators and sorcerers and all lyars shall have their portion in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death And as Christ undoubtedly affirmeth that true faith bringeth forth good works So doth he say likewise of Charity Charity bringeth forth good Works John 14. Eccles. 1. Eccles. 15. Whosoever hath my Commandments and keepeth them that is he that loveth me And after he saith He that loveth me will keep my word and he that loveth me not keepeth not my words And as the Love of God is tryed by good Works so is the Fear of God also as the Wise man saith The dread of God putteth away sin And also he saith He that feareth God will do good Works The Third Part of the Sermon of Faith YOu have heard in the Second Part of this Sermon that no Man should think that he hath that lively Faith which Scripture commandeth when he liveth not obediently to God's Laws for all good Works spring out of that Faith And also it hath been declared unto you by examples that Faith maketh Men stedfast quiet and patient in all affliction Now as concerning the same matter you shall hear what followeth A Man
CERTAIN SERMONS OR HOMILIES Appointed to be Read in CHURCHES In the Time of Queen Elizabeth OF FAMOUS MEMORY And now Reprinted for the Use of Private Families In Two Parts LONDON Printed for George Wells at the Sun Abel Swall at the Unicorn in St. Paul's Church-yard and George Pawlett at the Bible in Chancery-Lane 1687. THE PREFACE As it was Published In the Year 1562. COnsidering how necessary it is that the Word of God which is the only food of the Soul and that most excellent Light that we must walk by in this our most dangerous Pilgrimage should at all convenient times be Preached unto the People that thereby they may both learn their Duty towards God their Prince and their Neighbours according to the Mind of the Holy Ghost expressed in the Scriptures And also to avoid the manifold Enormities which heretofore by false Doctrine have crept into the Church of God And how that all they which are appointed Ministers have not the Gift of Preaching sufficiently to instruct the People which is committed unto them whereof great inconveniences might rise and ignorance still be maintained if some honest Remedy be not speedily found and provided The Queens most Excellent Majesty tendering the Souls Health of Her Loving Subjects and the Quieting of their Consciences in the Chief and Principal Points of Christian Religion and willing also by the true setting forth and pure declaring of God's Word which is the principal Guide and Leader unto all Godliness and Virtue to expel and drive away as well corrupt vicious and ungodly Living as also Erroneous and poisoned Doctrines tending to Superstition and Idolatry Hath by the Advice of Her most Honourable Counsellors for her discharge in this behalf caused a Book of Homilies which heretofore was set forth by Her most Loving Brother a Prince of most worthy Memory Edward the Sixth to be Printed anew wherein are contained certain Wholsome and Godly Exhortations to move the People to Honour and Worship Almighty God and diligently to Serve Him every one according to their Degree State and Vocation All which Homilies Her Majesty Commandeth and straitly Chargeth all Parsons Vicars Curates and all others having Spiritual Cure every Sunday and Holiday in the Year at the ministring of the Holy Communion or if there be no Communion ministred that day yet after the Gospel and Creed in such order and place as is appointed in the Book of Common Prayers to Read and Declare to their Parishioners plainly and distinctly one of the said Homilies in such order as they stand in the Book except there be a Sermon according as is enjoyned in the Book of Her Highness Injunctions and then for that Cause only and for none other the Reading of the said Homily to be deferred unto the next Sunday or Holiday following And when the foresaid Book of Homilies is read over Her Majesties pleasure is that the same be repeated and read again in such like sort as was before prescribed Furthermore Her Highness Commandeth that notwithstanding this Order the said Ecclesiastical Persons shall read Her Majesties Injunctions at such times and in such order as in the Book thereof appointed And that the Lords Prayer The Articles of the Faith and the Ten Commandments be openly read unto the People as in the said Injunctions is specified that all Her People of what Degree or Condition soever they be may learn how to invocate and call upon the Name of God and know what Duty they owe both to God and Man So that they may Pray Believe and Work according to Knowledge while they shall live here and after this life be with him that with his Blood hath bought us all To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen AN ADMONITION TO ALL MINISTERS Ecclesiastical FOR that the Lord doth require of his Servant whom he hath set over his Houshold to shew both Faithfulness and Prudence in his Office it shall be necessary that Ye above all other do behave your Selves most faithfully and diligently in your so high a Function That is aptly plainly and distinctly to read the Sacred Scriptures diligently to instruct the Youth in their Catechism gravely and reverently to Minister his most Holy Sacraments prudently also to choose out such Homilies as be most meet for the time and for the more agreeable instruction of the People committed to your charge with such discretion that where the Homily may appear too long for one Reading to divide the fame to be read part in the Forenoon and part in the Afternoon And where it may so chance some one or other Chapter of the Old Testament to fall in order to be read upon the Sundays or Holidays which were better to be changed with some other of the New Testament of more edification it shall be well done to spend your time to consider well of such Chapters before-hand whereby your prudence and diligence in your Office may appear so that your People may have cause to Glorifie God for you and be the readier to embrace your Labours to your better commendation to the discharge of your Consciences and their own A TABLE OF THE SERMONS Contained in this present Volume I. A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading of Holy Scripture Pag. 1. II. Of the Misery of all Mankind Pag. 10 III. Of the Salvation of all Mankind Pag. 19 IV. Of the true and lively Faith Pag. 32 V. Of Good Works Pag. 46 VI. Of Christian Love and Charity Pag. 61 VII Against Swearing and Perjury Pag. 69 VIII Of the Declining from God Pag. 78 IX An Exhortation against the Fear of Death Pag. 89 X. An Exhortation to Obedience Pag. 105 XI Against Whoredom and Adultery Pag. 119 XII Against Strife and Contention Pag. 137 XIII Of the right Use of the Church Pag. 159. XIV Against peril of Idolatry Pag. 175 XV. For repairing and keeping clean the Church Pag. 282 XVI Of Good Works And First of Fasting Pag. 289 XVII Against Gluttony and Drunkenness Pag. 309 XVIII Against excess of Apparel Pag. 322 XIX An Homily of Prayer Pag. 334 XX. Of the Place and Time of Prayer Pag. 356 XXI Of Common-Prayer and Sacraments Pag. 370 XXII An Information of them which take offence at certain places of Holy Scripture Pag. 385 XXIII Of Alms-Deeds Pag. 402 XXIV Of the Nativity Pag. 421 XXV Of the Passion for Good-Friday Pag. 434 and 435 XXVI Of the Resurrection for Easter-day Pag. 455 XXVII Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament Pag. 467 XXVIII An Homily concerning the coming down of the Holy Ghost for Whitsunday Pag. 480 XXIX An Homily for Rogation-week Pag. 497 XXX Of the state of Matrimony Pag. 530 XXXI Against Idleness Pag. 540 XXXII Of Repentance and true Reconciliation unto God Pag. 556 XXXIII An Homily against Disobedience and wilful Rebellion Pag. 583 A Fruitful EXHORTATION TO THE Reading and Knowledge OF HOLY SCRIPTURE UNto a Christian Man there can be nothing either more necessary
a more perfect Service and Honouring of God and more pleasing to God than the keeping of God's Commandments Such hath been the corrupt inclination of Man ever Superstitiously given to make new Honouring of God on his own Head and then to have more Affection and Devotion to keep that than to search out God's Holy Commandments and to keep them And furthermore to take God's Commandments for Men's Commandments and Men's Commandments for God's Commandments yea and for the highest and most Perfect and Holiest of all God's Commandments And so was all confused that scant well learned Men and but a small number of them knew or at the least would know and durst affirm the Truth to separate or sever God's Commandments from the Commandments of Men. Whereupon did grow much Error Superstition Idolatry Vain-religion Overthwart-iudgment great Contention with all ungodly living An exhortation to the keeping of God's Commandments Wherefore as you have any Zeal to the right and pure Honouring of God as you have any regard to your own Souls and to the Life that is to come which is both without pain and without end apply yourselves chiefly above all things to read and hear God's Word mark diligently therein what his Will is you shall do and with all your endeavour apply your selves to follow the same A brief rehearsal of God's Commandments First you must have an assured Faith in God and give yourselves wholly unto him love him in prosperity and adversity and dread to offend him evermore Then for his sake love all Men Friends and Foes because they be his Creation and Image and redeemed by Christ as ye are Cast in your Minds how you may do good unto all Men unto your Powers and hurt no Man Obey all your Superiors and Governors serve your Masters faithfully and diligently as well in their absence as in their presence not for dread of punishment only but for Conscience sake knowing that you are bound so to do by God's Commandments Disobey not your Fathers and Mothers but Honour them Help them and Please them to your power Oppress not kill not beat not neither slander nor hate any Man But love all Men speak well of all Men help and succor every Man as you may yea even your Enemies that hate you that speak evil of you and that do hurt you Take no Man's Goods nor covet your neighbor's Goods wrongfully but content yourselves with that which ye get truly and also bestow your own Goods charitably as Need and Case requireth Flee all Idolatry Witchcraft and Perjury commit no manner of Adultery Fornication or other Unchastness in Will nor in Deed with any other Mans Wife Widow or Maid or otherwise And travelling continually during this life thus in keeping the Commandments of God wherein standeth the pure principal and right Honour of God and which wrought in Faith God hath ordained to be the right trade and pathway unto Heaven you shall not fail as Christ hath promised to come to that blessed and everlasting life where you shall live in Glory and Joy with God for ever To whom be Praise Honour and Empery for ever and ever Amen A SERMON Of Christian Love and Charity OF all things that be good to be taught unto Christian People there is nothing more necessary to be spoken of and daily called upon than Charity As well for that all manner of works of Righteousness be contained in it as also that the decay thereof is the ruin or fall of the World the banishment of Virtue and the cause of all Vice And forsomuch as almost every Man maketh and frameth to himself Charity after his own appetite and how detestable soever his life be both unto God and Man yet he persuadeth himself still that he hath Charity Therefore you shall hear now a true and plain description or setting forth of Charity not of Men's Imagination but of the very words and example of our Saviour Jesus Christ In which description or setting forth every Man as it were in a Glass may consider himself and see plainly without error whether he be in the true Charity or not Charity is to love God with all our Heart What Charity is The love of God all our Soul and all our Powers and strength With all our Heart that is to say That our Heart Mind and Study be set to believe his Word to trust in him and to Love him above all other things that we love best in Heaven or in Earth With all our Life That is to say that our chief joy and delight be set upon Him and His Honor and our whole Life given unto the Service of him above all things with him to live and dye and to forsake all other things rather than him For he that loveth his father or mother Matth. 10. son or daughter house or land more than me saith Christ is not worthy to have me With all our Power That is to say that with our Hands and Feet with our Eyes and Ears our Mouths and Tongues and with all our Parts and Powers both of Body and Soul we should be given to the keeping and fulfilling of his Commandments The love of thy neighbor This is the First and Principal Part of Charity but it is not the whole For Charity is also to love every Man Good and Evil Friend and Foe and whatsoever cause be given to the contrary yet nevertheless to bear good Will and Heart unto every Man to use ourselves well unto them as well in Words and Countenances as in all our outward Acts and Deeds For so Christ himself taught and so also he performed indeed Of the love of God he taught on this wife unto a Doctor of the Law that asked him which was the great and chief Commandment in the Law Love thy Lord God Matth. 22. said Christ with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind And of the love that we ought to have among ourselves each to other he teacheth us thus You have heard it taught in times past Matth. 5. Matth. 5. Thou shalt love thy friend and have thy foe But I tell you love your enemies speak well of them that defame and speak evil of you do well to them that hate you pray for them that vex and persecute you that you may be the children of your father that is in Heaven For he maketh his Sun to rise both upon the evil and good and sendeth rain to the just and unjust For if you love them that love you What reward shall you have Do not the Publicans likewise And if you speak well only of them that be your brethren and dearly beloved friends what great matter is that Do not the Heathen the same also These be the very words of our Saviour Christ himself touching the love of our neighbor And forasmuch as the Pharises with their most pestilent Traditions and false interpretations and glosses had corrupted and almost
unto God saved Agag the King and all the chief of their Cattel therewith to make Sacrifice unto God Wherewithal God being displeased highly said unto the Prophet Samuel I repent that ever I made Saul King for he hath forsaken me and not followed my Words and so he commanded Samuel to shew him and when Samuel asked wherefore contrary to God's Word he had saved the Cattel he excused the matter partly by fear saying he durst do no other for that the People would have it so partly for that they were goodly Beasts he thought God would be content seeing it was done of a good intent and devotion to honour God with the Sacrifice of them But Samuel reproving all such intents and devotions seem they never so much to God's Honour if they stand not with his Word whereby we may be assured of his pleasure said on this wise Would God have Sacrifices and Offerings Or rather that his Word should be obeyed To obey him is better than offerings and to listen to him is better than to offer the fat of Rams yea to repugn against his voice is as evil as the sin of soothsaying and not to agree to it is like abominable Idolatry And now forasmuch as thou hast cast away the word of the Lord he hath cast away thee that thou shouldest not be King By all these examples of Holy Scripture The turning of God from Man we may know that as we forsake God so shall he ever forsake us And what miserable state doth consequently and necessarily follow thereupon a Man may easily consider by the terrible threatnings of God And although he consider not all the said misery to the uttermost being so great that it passeth any Man's capacity in this life sufficiently to consider the same Yet he shall soon perceive so much thereof that if his Heart be not more than stony or harder than the Adamant he shall fear tremble and quake to call the same to his remembrance First the displeasure of God towards us is commonly expressed in the Scripture by these two things By shewing his fearful Countenance upon us and by turning his Face or hiding it from us By shewing his dreadful Countenance is signified his great wrath But by turning his Face or hiding thereof is many times more signified that is to say That he clearly forsaketh us and giveth us over The which significations be taken of the properties of Mens manners For Men towards them whom they favour commonly bear a good a chearful and a loving Countenance So that by the Face or Countenance of a Man it doth commonly appear what Will or Mind he beareth towards others So when God doth shew his dreadful Countenance towards us that is to say doth send dreadful plagues of Sword Famine or Pestilence upon us it appeareth that he is greatly wroth with us But when he withdraweth from us his Word the right Doctrine of Christ his Gracious assistance and aid which is ever joyned to his Word and leaveth us to our own Wit our own Will and Strength He declareth then that he beginneth to forsake us For whereas God hath shewed to all them that truly believe his Gospel his Face of Mercy in Jesus Christ which doth so lighten their Hearts that they if they behold it as they ought to do be transformed to his Image be made partakers of the Heavenly Light and of his Holy Spirit and be fashioned to him in all Goodness requisite to the Children of God So if they after do neglect the same if they be unthankful unto him if they order not their lives according to his Example and Doctrine and to the setting forth of his Glory he will take away from them his Kingdom his Holy Word whereby he should reign in them because they bring not forth the fruit thereof that he looketh for Nevertheless he is so merciful and of so long-sufferance that he doth not shew upon us that great wrath suddainly But when we begin to shrink from his Word not believing it or not expressing it in our livings First he doth send his Messengers the true Preachers of his Word to admonish and warn us of our Duty That as he for his part for the great love he bare unto us delivered his own Son to suffer death that we by his death might be delivered from death and be restored to the Life everlasting evermore to dwell with him and to be partakers and inheritors with him of his everlasting Glory and Kingdom of Heaven So again that we for our parts should walk in a Godly life as becometh his Children to do And if this will not serve but still we remain disobedient to his Word and Will not knowing him nor loving him nor fearing him nor putting our whole trust and confidence in him And on the other side to Neighbours behaving our selves uncharitably by Disdain Envy Malice or by committing Murder Robbery Adultery Gluttony Deceit Lying Swearing or other like detestable Works Heb. 3. and ungodly behaviour then he threatneth us by terrible Comminations swearing in great Anger Psal 15. that whosoever doth these Works shall never enter into his Rest 1 Cor. â—â— which is the Kingdom of Heaven The Second Part of the Sermon of Falling from God IN the former part of this Sermon ye have learned how many manner of ways Men fall from God Some by Idolatry some for lack of Faith some by neglecting of their Neighbours some by not hearing of God's Word some by the Pleasure they take in the Vanities of worldly things Ye have also learned in what misery that Man is which is gone from God And how that God yet of his infinite Goodness to call again Man from that his misery useth first gentle Admonitions by his Preachers after he layeth on terrible Threatnings Now if this gentle Monition and Threatning together do not serve then God will shew his terrible Countenance upon us he will pour intolerable Plagues upon our Heads and after he will take away from us all his Aid and Assistance wherewith before he did defend us from all such manner of Calamity As the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah agreeing with Christ's Parable Isaiah 5. doth teach us saying That God had made a goodly Vineyard for his beloved Children he hedged it he walled it round about he planted it with chosen Vines and made a Turret in the mid'st thereof Matth. 2â—â— and therein also a Vine-press And when he looked that it should bring forth good Grapes it brought forth wild Grapes And after it followeth Now shall I shew you saith God what I will do with my Vineyard I will pluck down the Hedges that it may perish I will break down the Walls that it may be troden under foot I will let it lye waste it shall not be cut it shall not be digged but Bryers and Thorns shall overgrow it and I shall command the Clouds that they shall no more rain upon it By these Threatnings we
Pleasure and Consolation But the unmerciful rich Man descended down into Hell and being in Torments he cried for Comfort complaining of the intolerable pain that he suffered in that flame of Fire but it was too late So unto this place bodily death sendeth all them that in this World have their Joy and Felicity all them that in this World be unfaithful unto God and uncharitable unto their Neighbours so dying without Repentance and hope of God's Mercy Wherefore it is no marvel that the worldly Man feareth death for he hath much more cause so to do than he himself doth consider Thus we see three Causes why worldly Men fear death One The First because they shall lose thereby their worldly Honors Riches Possessions and all their Hearts desires Another Second because of the painful diseases and bitter pangs which commonly Men suffer either before or at the time of death Third But the chief cause above all other is the dread of the miserable state of eternal damnation both of Body and Soul which they fear shall follow after their departing from the worldly Pleasures of this present Life For these Causes be all mortal Men which be given to the love of this World both in fear and state of death through Sin as the Holy Apostle saith so long as they live here in this World But Heb. 10. everlasting thanks be to Almighty God for ever there is never a one of all these Causes no nor yet them all together that can make a true Christian man afraid to die who is the very Member of Christ 1 Cor. 3. the Temple of the Holy Ghost the Son of God and the very Inheritor of the everlasting Kingdom of Heaven but plainly contrary he conceiveth great and many Causes undoubtedly grounded upon the infallible and everlasting truth of the Word of God which moveth him not only to put away the fear of bodily death but also for the manifold Benefits and singular Commodities which ensue unto every faithful Person by reason of the same to wish desire and long heartily for it For death shall be to him no death at all but a very deliverance from death from all Pains Cares and Sorrows Miseries and Wretchedness of this World and the very entry into Rest and a beginning of everlasting Joy a tasting of heavenly Pleasures so great that neither Tongue is able to express neither Eye to see nor Ear to hear them no nor any earthly Man's heart to conceive them So exceeding great Benefits they be which God our heavenly Father by his mere Mercy and for the Love of his Son Jesus Christ hath laid up in store and prepared for them that humbly submit themselves to God's Will and evermore unfeignedly love him from the bottom of their Hearts And we ought to believe that death being slain by Christ cannot keep any Man that stedfastly trusteth in Christ under his perpetual Tyranny and Subjection But that he shall rise from death again unto Glory at the last day appointed by Almighty God like as Christ our Head did rise again according to God's appointment the third day For St. Augustine saith The Head going before the Members trust to follow and come after And St. Paul saith If Christ be risen from the dead we shall rise also from the same And to comfort all Christian Persons herein Holy Scripture calleth this bodily death a sleep wherein Man's Senses be as it were taken from him for a season and yet when he awaketh he is more fresh than he was when he went to Bed So although we have our Souls separated from our Bodies for a season yet at the general Resurrection we shall be more fresh beautiful and perfect than we be now For now we be mortal then shall we be immortal Now infected with divers Infirmities then clearly void of all mortal Infirmities Now we be subject to all carnal desires then we shall be all Spiritual desiring nothing but God's Glory and things eternal Thus is this bodily death a door or entring unto Life and therefore not so much dreadful if it be rightly considered as it is comfortable not a mischief but a Remedy for all mischief no Enemy but a Friend not a cruel Tyrant but a gentle Guide leading us not to mortality but to immortality not to Sorrow and Pain but to Joy and Pleasure and that to endure for ever if it be thankfully taken and accepted as God's Messenger and patiently born of us for Christ's Love that suffered most painful death for our Love to redeem us from death eternal Accordingly hereunto St. Paul saith Col. 3. Our Life is hid with Christ in God But when our Life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in Glory Why then shall we fear to die considering the manifold and comfortable Promises of the Gospel and of Holy Scriptures 1 John 5. God the Father hath given us everlasting Life saith St. John 1 John 5. and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life And this I write saith St. John to you that believe in the Name of the Son of God that you may know that you have everlasting Life and that you do believe upon the Name of the Son of God And our Saviour Christ saith John 5. He that believeth in me hath Life everlasting and I will raise him from Death to Life at the last day St. Paul also saith 1 Cor. 1. That Christ is ordained and made of God our Righteousness or Holiness and Redemption to the intent that he which will glory should glory in the Lord. St. Paul did contemn and set little by all other things Phil. 3. esteeming them as Dung which before he had in very great price that he might be found in Christ to have everlasting Life true Holiness Righteousness and Redemption Finally St. Paul maketh a plain Argument on this wise Rom. 8. If our heavenly Father would not spare his own natural Son but did give him to death for us how can it it be but that with him he should give us all things Therefore if we have Christ then have we with him and by him all good things whatsoever we can in our Hearts wish or desire as Victory over Death Sin and Hell We have the Favour of God Peace with him Holiness Wisdom Justice Power Life and Redemption we have by him perpetual Health Wealth Joy and Bliss everlasting The Second Part of the Sermon against the Fear of Death IT hath been heretofore shewed you That there be three Causes wherefore Men do commonly fear Death First the sorrowful departing from Worldly Goods and Pleasures The Second the fear of the pangs and pains that come with Death The last and principal Cause is The horrible fear of extreme Misery and perpetual Damnation in time to come And yet none of these three Causes troubleth good Men because they stay
themselves by true Faith perfect Charity and sure Hope of the endless Joy and Bliss everlasting All those therefore have great cause to be full of Joy that be joyned to Christ with true Faith stedfast Hope and perfect Charity and not to fear death nor everlasting Damnation For Death cannot deprive them of Jesus Christ nor can any Sin condemn them that are grafted surely in him which is their only Joy Treasure and Life Let us repent of our Sins amend our Lives trust in his Mercy and Satisfaction and Death can neither take him from us nor us from him For then as St. Paul saith Whether we live or die we be the Lords own And again he saith Christ did die and rose again because he should be Lord both of the dead and quick Then if we be the Lords own when we be dead it must needs follow that such temporal death not only cannot harm us but also that it shall be much to our profit and joyn us unto God more perfectly And thereof the Christian Heart may surely be certified by the infallible or undeceivable Truth of Holy Scripture It is God saith St. Paul which hath prepared us unto immortality and the same is he which hath given us aâ— earnest of the Spirit Therefore let us he always of good Comfort for we know that so long as we be in tho Body 2 Gal. 5. we be as it were far from God in a strange Country subject to many perils walking without perfect Sight and Knowledge of Almighty God only seeing him by Faith in Holy Scriptures But we have a courage and desire rather to be at home with God and our Saviour Christ far from the Body where we may behold his Godhead as he is Face to Face to our everlasting Comfort These be St. Paul's words in effect whereby we may perceive that the Life in this World is resembled and likened to a Pilgrimage in a strange Country far from God and that Death delivering us from our Bodies doth send us strait home into our own Country and maketh us to dwell presently with God for ever in everlasting Rest and Quietness So that to die is no loss but profit and winning to all true Christian People What lost the Thief that died on the Cross with Christ by his Bodily death Yea how much did he gain by it Did not our Saviour say unto him Luke 16. This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise And Lazarus that pitiful Person that lay before the Rich Man's Gate pained with Sores and pined with Hunger did not death highly profit and promote him which by the ministry of Angels sent him unto Abraham's Bosom a place of Rest Joy and Heavenly Consolation Let us think none other good Christian People but Christ hath prepared and made ready before the same Joy and Felicity for us that he prepared for Lazarus and the Thief Wherefore let us stick unto his Salvation and Gracious Redemption and believe his Word Serve him from our Hearts Love and Obey him and whatsoever we have done heretofore contrary to his most Holy Will now let us Repent in time and hereafter study to Correct our Life and doubt not but we shall find him as merciful unto us as he was either to Lazarus or to the Thief whose examples are written in Holy Scripture for the comfoâ—t of them that be sinners and subject to sorrows miseries and calamities in this World that they should not despair in God's Mercy but ever trust thereby to have forgiveness of their Sins and Life everlasting as Lazarus and the Thief had Thus I trust every Christian Man perceiveth by the infallible or undeceivable Word of God that Bodily death cannot harm nor hinder them that truly believe in Christ but contrarily shall profit and promote the Christian Souls which being truly penitent for their offences depart hence in perfect Charity and in sure Trust that God is merciful to them forgiving their Sins for the Merits of Jesus Christ his only natural Son The Second Cause why some do fear death The Second Cause why some do fear death is sore sickness and grievous pains which partly come before death and partly accompany or come with death whensoever it cometh This fear is the fear of the frail flesh and a natural passion belonging unto the nature of a mortal Man But true Faith in God's promises and regard of the pains and pangs which Christ upon the Cross suffered for us miserable sinners with consideration of the Joy and everlasting Life to come in Heaven will mitigate those pains and moderate this fear that it shall never be able to overthrow the hearty desire and gladness that the Christian Soul hath to be separated from this corrupt Body that it may come to the Gracious Presence of our Saviour Jesus Christ If we believe stedfastly the Word of God we shall perceive that such bodily sickness pangs of death or whatsoever dolorous pangs we suffer either before or with death be nothing else in Christian Men but the rod of our Heavenly and Loving Father wherewith he mercifully correcteth us either to try and declare the Faith of his patient Children that they may be sound Laudable Glorious and Honourable in his Sight when Jesus Christ shall be openly shewed to be the Judge of all the World or else to chastise and amend in them whatsoever offendeth his Fatherly and Gracious Goodness lest they should perish everlastingly And this his correcting rod is common to all Men that be truly his Therefore let us cast away the burden of Sin that lieth too heavy on our necks and return unto God by true penance and amendment of our lives Let us with patience run this course that is appointed suffering for his sake that dyed for our Salvation all sorrows and pangs of death and death itself joyfully when God sendeth it to us having our Eyes fixed and set fast ever upon the Head and Captain of our Faith Jesus Christ Phil. 2. Who considering the Joy that he should come unto cared neither for the shame nor pain of death but willingly conforming and framing his Will to his Fathers Will most patiently suffered the most shameful and painful death of the Cross being innocent and harmless And now therefore he is exalted in Heaven and everlastingly sitteth on the right hand of the Throne of God the Father Let us call to our remembrance therefore the Life and Joyes of Heaven that are kept for all them that patiently do suffer here with Christ and consider that Christ suffered all his painful passion by sinners and for sinners And then we shall with Patience and the more easily suffer such sorrows and pains when they come Let us not set at light the chastising of the Lord nor grudge at him nor fall from him when of him we be corrected For the Lord loveth them whom he doth correct and beateth every one whom he taketh to be his Child What Child is
Lies Deceits Uncleanness Filthiness Dung Mischief and Abomination before the Lord. Wherefore Gods horrible wrath and our most dreadful danger cannot be avoided without the destruction and utter abolishing of all Images and Idols our of the Church and Temple of God which to accomplish God put in the minds of all Christian Princes And in the mean time let us take heed and be wise O ye beloved of the Lord and let us have no strange gods but one only God who made us when we were nothing the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ John 17. who redeemed us when we were lost and with his Holy Spirit doth sanctifie us For this is life everlasting to know him to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Let us honour and worship for Religions sake none but him and him let us worship and honour as he will himself and hath declared by his Word that he will be honoured and worshipped not in nor by Images or Idols which he hath most strictly forbidden neither in kneeling lighting of Candles burning of Incense offering up of Gifts unto Images and Idols to believe that we shall please him for all these be abomination before God But let us honour and worship God in Spirit and in Truth John 4. fearing and loving him above all things trusting in him only calling upon him and praying to him only praising and lauding of him only and all other in him and for him For such worshippers doth our Heavenly Father love who is a most pure Spirit and therefore will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth And such worshippers were Abraham Moses David Elias Peter Paul John and all other the Holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs and all true Saints of God who all as the true Friends of God were enemies and destroyers of Images and Idols as the Enemies of God and his true Religion Wherefore take heed and be wise O ye beloved of the Lord and that which others contrary to Gods Word bestow wickedly and to their damnation upon dead stocks and stones no Images but Enemies of God and his Saints that bestow ye as the faithful Servants of God according to Gods Word mercifully upon poor Men and Women Fatherless Children Widows sick Persons Strangers Prisoners and such others that be in any necessity that ye may at that great day of the Lord hear that most blessed and comfortable saying of our Saviour Christ Come ye blessed into the Kingdom of my Father prepared for you before the beginning of the World For I was hungry and ye gave me meat thirsty and ye gave me drink naked and ye clothed me harbourless and ye lodged me in Prison and ye visited me sick and ye comforted me For whatsoever ye have done for the poor and needy in my name and for my sake that have ye done for me To the which his Heavenly Kingdom God the Father of Mercies bring us for Jesus Christs sake our only Saviour Mediator and Advocate to whom with the Holy Ghost one immortal invisible and most glorious God be all Honour and Thanksgiving and Glory World without end Amen AN HOMILY FOR Repairing and keeping clean and comely adorning of Churches IT is a common custom used of all men when they intend to have their Friends or Neighbours to come to their Houses to eat or drink with them or to have any Solemn Assembly to treat and talk of any matter they will have their Houses which they keep in continual reparations to be clean and fine lest they should be counted sluttish or little to regard their Friends and Neighbours How much more then ought the House of God which we commonly call the Church to be sufficiently repaired in all places and to be honourably adorned and garnished and to be kept clean and sweet to the comfort of the People that shall resort thereunto It appeareth in the Holy Scripture how Gods House which was called his Holy Temple and was the Mother Church of all Jewry fell sometimes into decay and was oftentimes profaned and defiled through the negligence and ungodliness of such as had the charge thereof But when godly Kings and Governors were in place then Commandment was given forthwith that the Church and Temple of God should be repaired and the Devotion of the People to be gathered for the reparation of the same We read in the fourth Book of the Kings 4 Kings 12. how that King Joas being a godly Prince gave commandment to the Priests to convert certain Offerings of the People towards the reparation and amendment of Gods Temple Like commandment gave that most godly King Josias 4 Kings 22. concerning the reparation and re-edification of Gods Temple which in his time he found in sore decay It hath pleased Almighty God that these Histories touching the re-edifying and repairing of his Holy Temple should be written at large to the end we should be taught thereby First that God is well pleased that his People should have a convenient place to resort unto and to come together to praise and magnifie Gods Holy Name And secoâ—dâ—â— he is highly pleased with all those which diligenâ—ly and zealously go about to amend and restore such places as are appointed for the Congregation of Gods People to resort unto and wherein they humbly and joyntly render thanks to God for his benefits and with one heart and voice praise his Holy Name Thirdly God was sore displeased with his People because they builded decked and trimmed up their own Houses and suffered Gods House to be in ruine and decay to lye uncomely and fulsomly Wherefore God was sore grieved with them and plagued them as appeareth in the Prophet Aggeus Thus saith the Lord Agge 1. Is it time for you to dwell in your cieled Houses and the Lords House not regarded Ye have sowed much and gathered in but little your meat and your clothes have neither filled you nor made you warm and he that had his wages put it in a bottomless purse By these Plagues which God laid upon his People for neglecting of his Temple it may evidently appear that God will have his Temple his Church the place where his Congregation shall resort to magnifie him well edified well repaired and well maintained Some neither regarding godliness nor the place of godly exercise will say The Temple in the Old Law was commanded to be built and repaired by God himself because it had great Promises annexed unto it and because it was a figure a Sacrament or a signification of Christ and also of his Church To this may be easily answered First that our Churches are not destitute of Promises forasmuch as our Saviour Christ saith Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst among them A great number therefore coming to Church together in the name of Christ have there that is to say in the Church their God and Saviour Jesus Christ present among the
degree or state soever they be In which place he maketh mention by name of Kings and Rulers which are in Authority putting us thereby to acknowledge how greatly it concerneth the profit of the Common-wealth to pray diligently for the Higher Powers Neither is it without good cause that he doth so often in all his Epistles crave the Prayers of Gods People for himself Colos 4. Rom. 15. 2 Thess 3. For in so doing he declareth to the World how expedient and needful it is daily to call upon God for the Ministers of his Holy Word and Sacraments that they may have the door of utterance oppened unto them Ephes 6. that they may truly understand the Scriptures that they may effectually Preach the same unto the People and bring forth the true Fruits thereof to the Example of all other After this sort did the Congregation continually Pray for Peter at Jerusalem Acts 12. and for Paul among the Gentiles to the great increase and furtherance of Christs Gospel And if we following their good Example herein will study to do the like doubtless it cannot be expressed how greatly we shall both help our selves and also please God To discourse and run through all degrees of Persons it were too long Therefore ye shall briefly take this one conclusion for all Whomsoever we are bound by express Commandment to love for those also are we bound in Conscience to pray But we are bound by express Commandment to love all men as our selves therefore we are also bound to Pray for all men even as well as if it were for our selves notwithstanding we know them to be our extream and deadly Enemies For so doth our Saviour Christ plainly teach us in his Gospel saying Love your enemies Matt. 5. bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that persecute you that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven And as he taught his Disciples so did he practice himself in his life-time Luke 23. praying for his Enemies upon the Cross and desiring his Father to forgive them because they knew not what they did As did also that Holy and blessed Martyr Stephen Acts 7. when he was cruelly stoned to death of the stubborn and stiff-necked Jews to the example of all them that will truly and unfeignedly follow their Lord and Master Christ in this miserable and mortal life Now to entreat of that Question whether we ought to pray for them that are departed out of this World or no Wherein if we will cleave only unto the Word of God then must we needs grant that we have no Commandment so to do For the Scripture doth acknowledge but two places after this life The one proper to the Elect and Blessed of God the other to the Reprobate and Damned Souls as may be well gathered by the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich man Luke 16. Lib. 2. Evang. quaest 1. cap. 38. which place St. Augustine expounding saith in this wise That which Abraham speaketh unto the Rich man in Lukes Gospel namely that the Just cannot go into those places where the Wicked are tormented what other thing doth it signifie but only this that the just by reason of Gods Judgment which may not be revoked can shew no deed of Mercy in helping them which after this life are cast into Prison until they pay the uttermost farthing These words as they confound the Opinion of helping the dead by Prayer so they do clean confute and take away the vain Error of Purgatory which is grounded upon the saying of the Gospel Thou shalt not depart thence until thou hast paid the uttermost farthing Now doth St. Augustine say that those men which are cast into Prison after this life on that condition may in no wise be holpen though we would help them never so much And why Because the Sentence of God is unchangeable and cannot be revoked again Therefore let us not deceive our selves thinking that either we may help other or other may help us by their good and charitable Prayers in time to come For as the Preacher saith When the tree falleth whether it be toward the South Eccles 11. or toward the North in what place soever the tree falleth there it lieth meaning thereby that every mortal man dieth either in the state of Salvation or Damnation according as the words of the Evangelist John do also plainly import saying John 3. He that believeth on the Son of God hath eternal life But he that believeth not on the Son shall never see life but the wrath of God abideth upon him Where is then the third place which they call Purgatory or where shall our Prayers help and profit the dead Lib. 5. Hypogno Chrysost in Heb. 2. Homil. 5. in Cyprian contra Demetrianum St. Augustine doth only acknowledge two places after this life Heaven and Hell As for the third place he doth plainly deny that there is any such to be found in all Scripture Chrysostom likewise is of this mind that unless we wash away our sins in this present World we shall find no comfort afterward And St. Cyprian saith that after death Repentance and Sorrow of pain shall be without fruit Weeping also shall be in vain and Prayer shall be to no purpose Therefore he counselleth all men to make provision for themselves while they may because when they are once departed out of this life there is no place for Repentance nor yet for satisfaction Let these and such other places be sufficient to take away the gross Error of Purgatory out of our Heads neither let us dream any more that the Souls of the dead are any thing at all holpen by our Prayers But as the Scripture teacheth us let us think that the Soul of man passing out of the Body goeth straightways either to Heaven or else to Hell whereof the one needeth no Prayer the other is without Redemption The only Purgatory wherein we must trust to be saved is the death and blood of Christ which if we apprehend with a true and stedfast Faith it purgeth and cleanseth us from all our sins even as well as if he were now hanging upon the Cross The blood of Christ 1 John 1. Heb. 9. saith St. John hath cleansed us from all sin Thâ— blood of Christ saith St. Paul hath purged our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 10. Also in another place he saith We be sanctified and made holy by the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ done once for all Yea he addeth more bidem saying With the one oblation of his blessed Body and precious Blood he hath made perfect for ever and ever all them that are sanctified This then is that Purgatory wherein all Christian men put their whole trust and confidence nothing doubting but if they truly repent them of their sins and die in perfect Faith that then they
shall not be imputed to our condemnation He hath taken upon him the just reward of sin Rom. 6. which was death and by death hath overthrown death that we believing in him might live for ever and not die Ought not this to engender extream hatred of sin in us to consider that it did violently as it were pluck God out of Heaven to make him feel the horrors and pains of Death O that we would sometimes consider this in the midst of our pomps and pleasures it would bridle the outragiousness of the flesh it would abate and asswage our carnal affections it would restrain our fleshly appetites that we should not run at random as we commonly do To commit sin wilfully and desperately without fear of God is nothing else but to crucifie Christ anew as we are expresly taught in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 6. Which thing if it were deeply printed in all mens hearts then should not sin reign every where so much as it doth to the great grief and torment of Christ now sitting in Heaven Let us therefore remember and always bear in mind Christ crucified that thereby we may be inwardly moved both to abhor sin throughly and also with an earnest and zealous heart to love God For this is another fruit which the memorial of Christs death ought to work in us an earnest and unfeigned love towards God So God loved the World saith St. John that he gave his only begotten Son John 3. that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have life everlasting If God declared so great love towards us his silly Creatures how can we of right but love him again Was not this a sure Pledge of his Love to give us his own Son from Heaven He might have given us an Angel if he would or some other Creature and yet should his love have been far above our deserts Now he gave us not an Angel but his Son And what Son His only Son his natural Son his well-beloved Son even that Son whom he had made Lord and Ruler of all things Was not this a singular token of great love But to whom did he give him He gave him to the whole World that it to say to Adam and all that should come after him O Lord what had Adam or any other man deserved at Gods hands that he should give us his own Son We are all miserable Persons sinful Persons damnable Persons justly driven out of Paradise justly excluded from Heaven justly condemned to Hell-fire And yet see a wonderful token of Gods love he gave us his only begotten Son us I say that were his extream and deadly Enemies that we by vertue of his Blood shed upon the Cross might be clean purged from our sins and made righteous again in his sight Who can chuse but marvel to hear that God should shew such unspeakable love towards us that were his deadly Enemies Indeed O mortal man thou oughtest of right to marvel at it and to acknowledge therein Gods great goodness and mercy towards mankind which is so wonderful that no flesh be it never so worldly wise may well conceive it or express it For as St. Paul testifieth Rom. 5. God greatly commendeth and setteth out his love towards us in that he sent his Son Christ to die for us when we were yet sinners and open enemies of his Name If we had in any manner of wise deserved it at his hands then had it been no marvel at all but there was no desert on our part wherfore he should do it Therefore thou sinful Creature when thou hearest that God gave his Son to die for the sins of the World think not he did it for any desert or goodness that was in thee for thou wast then the Bond-slave of the Devil But fall down upon thy knees and cry with the Prophet David Psal 8. O Lord what is man that thou art so mindful of him or the son of man that thou so regardest him And seeing he hath so greatly loved thee endeavour thy self to love him again with all thy Heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength that therein thou maist appear not to be unworthy of his love I report me to thine own Conscience whether thou wouldest not think thy love ill bestowed upon him that could not find in his heart to love thee again If this be true as it is most true then think how greatly it behoveth thee in Duty to love God which hath so greatly loved thee that he hath not spared his own only Son from so cruel and shameful a death for thy sake And hitherto concerning the cause of Christs Death and Passion which as it was on our part most horrible and grievous sin so on the other side it was the free gift of God proceeding of his meer and tender love towards mankind without any merit or desert of our part The Lord for his mercies sake grant that we never forget this great benefit of our Salvation in Christ Jesu but that we always shew our selves thankful for it abhorring all kind of wickedness and sin and applying our minds wholly to the service of God and the diligent keeping of his Commandments Now it remaineth that I shew unto you how to apply Christs death and Passion to our comfort as a Medicine to our Wounds so that it may work the same effect in us wherefore it was given namely the health and salvation of our souls For as it profiteth a man nothing to have salve unless it be well applied to the part infected So the death of Christ shall stand us in no force unless we apply it to our selves in such sort as God hath appointed Almighty God commonly worketh by means and in this thing he hath also ordained a certain mean whereby we may take fruit and profit to our souls health What mean is that forsooth it is Faith Not an unconstant and wavering Faith but a sure stedfast grounded and unfeigned Faith God sent his Son into the World saith St. John John 3. To what end That whosoever believeth in him should not perish bâ—t have life everlasting Mark these words That whosoever believeth in him Here is the mean whereby we must apply the fruits of Christs death unto our deadly Wound Here is the mean whereby we must obtain eternal life namely Faith For as St. Paul teacheth in his Epistle to the Romans with the heart man believeth unto righteo sness Rom. 10. and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Paul being demanded of the Keeper of the Prison what he should do to be saved Acts 16. made this Answer Believe in the Lord Jesus so shalt thou and thine house both be saved After the Evangelist hâ—d described and set forth unto us at large the life and the death of the Lord Jesus in the end he concludeth with these words John 20. These things are written that we may believe Jesus
Christ to be the Son of God and through Faith obtain eternal life To conclude with the words of St Paul Rom. 10. which are these Christ is the end of the Law unto salvation for every one that doth believe By this then you may well perceive that the only mean and instrument of Salvation required of our parts is Faith that is to say a sure trust and confidence in the mercies of God whereby we perswade our selves that God both hath and will forgive our sins that he hath accepted us again into his favour that he hath released us from the bonds of damnation and received us again into the number of his elect People not for our merits or deserts but only and solely for the merits of Christs Death and Passion who became man for our sakes and humbled himself to sustain the reproach of the Cross that we thereby might be saved and made inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven This Faith is required at our hands And this if we keep stedfastly at our hearts there is no doubt but we shall obtain Salvation at Gods hands as did Abraham Isaac and Jacob of whom the Scripture saith Gen. 15. Rom. 7. that they believed and it was imputed unto them for righteousness Was it imputed unto them only and shall it not be imputed unto us also Yes if we have the same Faith as they had it shall be as truly imputed unto us for righteousness as it was unto them For it is one Faith that must save both us and them even a sure and stedfast Faith in Christ Jesus who as ye have heard came into the World for this end that whosoever believe in him should not perish John 3. but have life everlasting But here we must take heed that we do not halt with God through an unconstant and wavering Faith but that it be strong and stedfast to our lives end He that wavereth saith St. James is like a wave of the Sea James 1. neither let that man think that he shall obtain any thing at Gods hands Peter coming to Christ upon the Water Mat. 14. because he fainted in Faith was in danger of drowning So we if we begin to waver or doubt it is to be feared lest we shall sink as Peter did not into the Water but into the bottomless Pit of Hell-fire Therefore I say unto you that we must apprehend the Merits of Christs death and Passion by Faith and that with a strong and stedfast Faith nothing doubting but that Christ by his own Oblation and once offering of himself upon the Cross hath taken away our sins and hath restored us again into Gods favour so fully and perfectly that no other sacrifice for sin shall hereafter be requisite or needful in all the World Thus have you heard in few words the mean whereby we must apply the fruits and merits of Christs death unto us so that it may work the Salvation of our Souls namely a sure stedfast perfect and grounded Faith Numb 21. John 3. For as all they which beheld stedfastly the Brasen Serpent were healed and delivered at the very sight thereof from their corporal diseases and bodily stings even so all they which behold Christ crucified with a true and lively Faith shall undoubtedly be delivered from the grievous wounds of the Soul be they never so deadly or many in number Therefore dearly beloved if we chance at any time through frailty of the flesh to fall into sin as it cannot be chosen but we must needs fall often and if we feel the heavy burden thereof to press our souls tormenting us with the fear of Death Hell and Damnation let us then use that mean which God hath appointed in his Word to wit the mean of Faith which is the only instrument of Salvation now left unto us Let us stedfastly behold Christ crucified with the eyes of our heart Let us only trust to be saved by his Death and Passion and to have our sins clean washed away through his most precious Blood that in the end of the World when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead he may receive us into his Heavenly Kingdom and place us in the number of his Elect and chosen People there to be partakers of that immortal and everlasting life which he hath purchased unto us by vertue of his bloody Wounds To him therefore with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen AN HOMILY OF THE Resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ For Easter-Day IF ever at any time the greatness or excellency of any matter Spiritual or Temporal hath stirred up your minds to give diligent ear good Christian People and well-beloved in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I doubt not but that I shall have you now at this present season most diligent and ready Hearers of the matter which I have at this time to open unto you For I come to declare that great and most comfortable Article of our Christian Religion and Faith the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus So great surely is the matter of this Article and of so great weight and importance that it was thought worthy to keep our said Saviour still on Earth forty days after he was risen from death to life to the confirmation and establishment thereof in the hearts of his Disciples So that as Luke clearly testifieth in the first Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles he was conversant with his Disciples by the space of forty days continually together to the intent he would in his person being now glorified teach and instruct them which should be the teachers of other fully and in most absolute and perfect-wise the truth of this most Christian Article which is the ground and foundation of our whole Religion before he would ascend up to his Father into the Heavens there to receive the glory of his most triumphant Conquest and Victory Assuredly so highly comfortable is this Article to our Consciences that it is even the very Lock and Key of all our Christian Religion and Faith 1 Cor. 15. If it were not true saith the Holy Apostle Paul that Christ rose again then our Preaching were in vain your Faith which you have received were but void ye were yet in the danger of your sins If Christ be not risen again saith the Apostle then are they in very ill case and utterly perished that be entred their sleep in Christ then are we the most miserable of all men which have our hope fixed in Christ if he be yet under the power of death and as yet not restored to his bliss again But now he is risen again from death saith the Apostle Paul to be the first-fruits of them that be asleep to the intent to raise them to everlasting life again Yea if it were not true that Christ is risen again then were it neither true that he is ascended up to Heaven nor that he
or profitable The praise of Holy Scripture than the Knowledge of Holy Scripture forasmuch as in it is contained God's true Word setting forth his Glory and also Man's Duty The perfection of Holy Scripture The knowledge of Holy Scripture is necessary To whom the knowledge of Holy Scriture is sweet and pleasant Who be enemies to Holy Scripture And there is no Truth nor Doctrine necessary for our Justification and everlasting Salvation but that is or may be drawn out of that Fountain and Well of Truth Therefore as many as be desirous to enter into the Right and Perfect way unto God must apply their Minds to know Holy Scripture without the which they can neither sufficiently know God and his Will neither their Office and Duty And as Drink is pleasant to them that be Drie and Meat to them that be Hungry So is the Reading Hearing Searching and Studying of Holy Scripture to them that be desirous to know God or themselves and to do his Will And their Stomachs only do loath and abhor the Heavenly Knowledge and Food of God's Word that be so drowned in worldly Vanities that they neither favour God nor any Godliness For that is the cause why they desire such Vanities rather than the time knowledge of God As they that are sick of an Ague An apt Similitude declaring of whom the Scripture is abhorred An exhortation unto the diligent reading and searching of the holy Scripture Matth. 4. The Holy Scripture is a sufficient Doctrine for our Salvation What things we may learn in the Holy Scripture whatsoever they eat and drink though it be never so pleasant yet it is as bitter to them as Wormwood not for the bitterness of the Meat but for the corrupt and bitter humor that is in their own Tongue and Mouth Even so is the sweetness of God's Word bitter not of itself but only unto them that have their Minds corrupted with long custom of Sin and love of this World Therefore forsaking the corrupt judgment of fleshly Men which care not but for their Carkass Let us reverently hear and read Holy Scripture which is the Food of the Soul Let us diligently search for the Well of Life in the Books of the New and Old Testament and not run to the stinking Puddles of Mens Traditions devised by Mens Imagination for our Justification and Salvation For in Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do and what to eschew what to believe what to love and what to look for at God's hands at length In these Books we shall find the Father from whom the Son by whom and the Holy Ghost in whom all Things have their Being and Keeping up And these Three Persons to be but One God and One Substance In these Books we may learn to know ourselves how Vile and Miserable we be and also to know God how Good He is of Himself and how He maketh us and all Creatures partakers of His Goodness We may learn also in these Books to know God's Will and Pleasure as much as for this present time is convenient for us to know And as the great Clerk and godly Preacher St. John Chrysostom saith whatsoever is required to the Salvation of Man is fully contained in the Scripture of God He that is Ignorant may there learn and have Knowledge He that is Hard-hearted and an obstinate Sinner shall there find Everlasting Torments prepared of God's Justice to make him afraid and to mollifie or soften him He that is oppressed with Misery in this World shall there find Relief in the promises of Everlasting Life to his great Consolation and Comfort He that is wounded by the Devil unto death shall find there Medicine whereby he may be restored again unto Health If it shall require to teach any Truth or reprove any false Doctrine to rebuke any Vice to commend any Virtue to give good Counsel to Comfort or Exhort or to do any other thing requisite for our Salvation All those things saith St. Chrysostome we may learn plentifully of the Scripture There is saith Fulgentius abundantly enough Holy Scripture ministreth sufficient Doctrine for all Degrees and Ages Matth. 4. Luke 3. John 17. Psal 19. What commodities and Profits the knowledge of Holy Scripture bringeth both for Men to eat and Children to suck There is whatsoever is meet for all Ages and for all Degrees and sorts of Men. These Books therefore ought to be much in our Hands in our Eyes in our Ears in our Mouths but most of all in our Hearts For the Scripture of God is the Heavenly Meat of our Souls the Hearing and Keeping of it maketh us Blessed Sanctifieth us and maketh us Holy it turneth our Souls it is a light Lanthorn to our Feet it is a sure stedfast and everlasting instrument of Salvation it giveth Wisdom to the humble and lowly Hearts it Comforteth maketh Glad Cheereth and Cherisheth our Conscience It is a more excellent Jewel or Treasure than any Gold or precious Stone it is more sweet than Honey or Honey-comb it is called the best part which Mary did choose for it hath in it everlasting Comfort The Words of Holy Scripture be called Words of Everlasting Life For they be God's Instruments ordained for the same purpose They have power to turn through God's Promise and they be effectual through God's assistence Luke 10. John 6. and being received in a faithful Heart they have ever an Heavenly spiritual working in them They are lively quick and mighty in Operation and sharper than any two-edged Sword and enter through Heb. 4. even to the dividing asunder of the Soul and the Spirit of the Joints and the Marrow Christ calleth him a Wise Builder Matth. 7. that Buildeth upon his Word upon his sure and substantial Foundation By this Word of God we shall be judged For the Word that I speak saith Christ John 12. is it that shall judge in the last day He that keepeth the Word of Christ is promised the Love and Favour of God John 14. and that he shall be the Dwelling-place or Temple of the Blessed Trinity This Word whosoever is diligent to Read and in his Heart to Print that he readeth the great affection to the transitory things of this World shall be minished in him and the great desire of Heavenly things that be therein promised of God shall increase in him And there is nothing that so much strengthneth our Faith and Trust in God that so much keepeth up Innocency and Pureness of the Heart and also of outward Godly Life and Conversation as continual Reading and recording of God's Word For that thing which by continual use of Reading of Holy Scripture and diligent searching of the same is deeply Printed and Graven in the Heart at length turneth almost into Nature And moreover the Effect and Virtue of God's Word is to illuminate the Ignorant and to give more light unto them that faithfully and diligently
read it to comfort their Hearts and to encourage them to perform that which of God is commanded 1 Reg. 14. 2 Per. 20. 1 Cor. 15. 1 John 5. It teacheth Patience in all Adversity in Prosperity Humbleness What Honour is due unto GOD What Mercy and Charity to our Neighbour It giveth good Counsel in all doubtful things It sheweth of whom we shall look for Aid and help in all Perils and that God is the only giver of Victory in all Battels and Temptations of our Enemies Who profit most in reading Gods Word Bodily and Ghostly And in reading of God's Word he not always most profiteth that is most ready in turning of the Book or in saying of it without the Book but he that is most turned into it that is most inspired with the Holy Ghost most in his Heart and Life altered and changed into that thing which he readeth He that is daily less and less Proud less Wrathful less Covetous and less desirous of worldly and vain Pleasures He that daily forsaking his old vicious Life increaseth in Virtue more and more And to be short there is nothing that more maintaineth Godliness of the Mind and driveth away Ungodliness than doth the continual Reading or Hearing of God's Word Esa 5. Matth. 22. 1 Cor. 14. What discommodities the ignorance of God's Word bringeth if it be joyned with a Godly Mind and a good Affection to know and follow God's Will For without a single Eye pure Intent and good Mind nothing is allowed for good before God And on the other side nothing more darkeneth Christ and the Glory of God nor bringeth in more Blindness and all kinds of Vices than doth the ignorance of God's Word The Second part of the Sermon of the Knowledge of Holy Scripture IN the first part of this Sermon which exhorteth to the Knowledge of Holy Scripture was declared wherefore the knowledge of the same is necessary and profitable to all Men and that by the true Knowledge and Understanding of Scripture the most necessary points of our Duty towards God and our Neighbors are also known Now as concerning the same Matter you shall hear what followeth If we profess Christ Why be we not ashamed to be ignorant in his Doctrine Seeing that every Man is ashamed to be ignorant in that Learning which he professeth That Man is ashamed to be called a Philosopher which readeth not the Books of Philosophy and to be called a Lawyer an Astronomer God's Word excelleth all Sciences or Physisian that is ignorant in the Books of Law Astronomy and Physick How can any Man then say that he professeth Christ and his Religion if he will not apply himself as far forth as he can or may conveniently to read and hear and so to know the Books of Christ's Gospel and Doctrine Although other Sciences be good and to be learned yet no Man can deny but this is the chief and passeth all other incomparably What excuse shall we therefore make at the last day before Christ that delight to read or hear Mens Phantasies and Inventions more than his most Holy Gospel And will find no time to do that which chiefly above all things we should do and will rather read other things than that for the which we ought rather to leave reading of all other things Let us therefore apply ourselves as far forth as we can have time and leisure Vain excuses diswading from the knowledge of God's Word The First The Second Matth. 22. to know God's Word by diligent hearing and reading thereof as many as profess God and have Faith and Trust in Him But they that have no good affection to God's Word to colour this their fault alledge commonly two vain and feigned excuses Some go about to excuse them by their own frailness and fearfulness saying that they dare not read Holy Scripture lest through their ignorance they should fall into any error Others pretend that the difficulty to understand it and the hardness thereof is so great that it is meet to be read only of Clerks and learned Men. As touching the first Ignorance of God's Word is the cause of all Error as Christ himself affirmed to the Sadducees saying that they erred because they knew not the Scripture How should they then eschew Error that will be still ignorant And how should they come out of ignorance that will not read nor hear that thing which should give them knowledge He that now hath most Knowledge was at the first Ignorant yet he forbare not to read for fear he should fall into Error But he diligently read lest he should remain in Ignorance and through Ignorance in Error And if you will not know the Truth of God a thing most necessary for you lest you fall into Error by the same reason you may then lye still and never go lest if you go you fall into the Mire Nor eat any good Meat lest you take a Surfeit nor sow your Corn nor labour in your Occupation nor use your Merchandise for fear you lose your Seed your Labour your Stock and so by that reason it should be best for you to live idly and never to take in hand to do any manner of good thing lest peradventure some evil thing may chance thereof And if you be afraid to fall into Error by reading of Holy Scripture I shall shew you how you may read without danger of Error Read it humbly with a meek and lowly Heart How most commodiously and without all peril the Holy Scripture is to be read to the intent you may glorify God and not yourself with the knowledge of it And read it not without daily praying to God that he would direct your Reading to good effect And take upon you to expound it no further than you can plainly understand it For as St. Augustin saith the knowledge of Holy Scripture is a great large and a high place but the Door is very low so that the high and arrogant Man cannot run in but he must stoop low and humble himself that shall enter into it Presumption and Arrogancy are the Mother of all Error and Humility needeth to fear no Error For Humility will only search to know the Truth it will search and will bring together one place with another and where it cannot find out the meaning it will pray it will ask of others that know and will not presumptuously and rashly define any thing which it knoweth not Therefore the humble Man may search any Truth boldly in the Scripture without any danger of Error And if he be ignorant he ought the more to read and to search Holy Scripture to bring him out of Ignorance I say not nay but a Man may profit with only hearing but he may much more profit with both hearing and reading This have I said as touching the fear to read through ignorance of the Person Scripture in some places is easie and in some places hard to be
understood And concerning the hardness of Scripture he that is so weak that he is not able to brook strong Meat yet he may suck the sweet and tender Milk and defer the rest until he wax stronger and come to more knowledge For God receiveth the Learned and Unlearned and casteth away none but is indifferent unto all And the Scripture is full as well of low Valleys plain Ways and easie for every Man to use and to walk in As also of high Hills and Mountains which few Men can climb unto God leaveth no Man untaught that hath good Will to know his Word And whosoever giveth his Mind to Holy Scriptures with diligent Study and burning Desire it cannot be saith St. Chrysostome that he should be left without help For either God Almighty will send him some Godly Doctor to teach him as he did to instruct the Eunuch a Nobleman of Ethiope and Treasurer unto Queen Candace who having affecton to read the Scripture although he understood it not yet for the desire that he had unto God's Word God sent his Apostle Philip to declare unto him the true Sense of the Scripture that he read or else if we lack a learned Man to instruct and teach us yet God himself from above will give light unto our Minds and teach us those things which are necessary for us and wherein we be ignorant How the knowledge of the Scripture may be attained unto Matt. 7. A good rule for the understanding of Scripture And in another place St. Chrysostome saith that Man 's Human and Worldly Wisdom or Science is not needful to the understanding of Scripture but the revelation of the Holy Ghost who inspireth the true meaning unto them that with Humility and Diligence do search therefore He that asketh shall have and he that seeketh shall find and he that knocketh shall have the Door opened If we read once twice or thrice and understand not let us not cease so but still continue Reading Praying Asking of others and so by still knocking at the last the Door shall be opened as St. Augustin saith although many things in the Scripture be spoken in obscure mysteries yet there is nothing spoken under dark Mysteries in one place but the self-same thing in other places is spoken more familiarly and plainly to the capacity both of learned and unlearned No Man is excepted from the knowledge of God's Word And those things in the Scripture that be plain to understand and necessary for Salvation every Man's Duty is to Learn them to print them in Memory and effectually to Exercise them And as for the dark Mysteries to be contented to be ignorant in them until such time as it shall please God to open those things unto him In the mean season if he lack either aptness or opportunity God will not impute it to his folly But yet it behoveth not that such as be apt should set aside reading because some other be unapt to read Nevertheless for the hardness of such places the reading of the whole ought not to be set apart And briefly to conclude What persons would have Ignorance to continue as St. Augustine saith by the Scripture all Men be amended weak Men be strenthened and strong Men be comforted So that surely none be enemies to the reading of God's Word but such as either be so ignorant that they know not how wholsome a thing it is or else be so sick that they hate the most comfortable Medicine that should heal them Or so ungodly that they would wish the People still to continue in blindness and ignorance of God Thus we have briefly touched some part of the Commodities of God's Holy Word The Holy Scripture is one of God's chief Benefits which is one of God's chief and principal Benefits given and declared to Mankind here on Earth Let us thank God heartily for this his great and special Gift beneficial Favour and Fatherly Providence The right reading use and fruitful studying in Holy Scripture Psal 50. Let us be glad to receive this precious Gift of our Heavenly Father Let us Hear Read and Know these Holy Rules Injunctions and Statutes of our Christian Religion and upon that we have made profession to God at our Baptisme Let us with fear and reverence lay up in the chest of our Hearts these necessary and fruitful Lessons Let us night and day muse and have Meditation and Contemplation in them Let us ruminate and as it were chew the Cud that we have the sweet Juice spiritual Effect Marrow Honey Kernel Taste Comfort and Consolation of them Let us stay quiet and certify our Consciences with the most infallible Certainty Truth and perpetual assurance of them Let us pray to God the only Author of these Heavenly Studies that we may Speak Think Believe Live and Depart hence according to the wholesom Doctrine and Verities of them And by that means in this world we shall have God's Defence Favour and Grace with the unspeakable solace of peace and quietness of Conscience and after this miserable life we shall enjoy the endless Bliss and Glory of Heaven which he Grant us all that died for us all Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory both now and everlastingly A SERMON OF THE Misery of Mankind and of his condemnation to Death everlasting by his own Sin THe Holy Ghost in Writing the Holy Scripture is in nothing more diligent than to pull down Man's Vain-glory and Pride which of all Vices is most universally grafted in all Mankind even from the first infection of our first Father Adam And therefore we read in many places of Scripture many notable Lessons against this old rooted Vice to teach us the most commendable virtue of Humility how to know ourselves and to remember what we be of ourselves In the Book of Genesis â—â—n 3. Almighty God giveth us all a Title and Name in our great Grandfather Adam which ought to warn us all to consider what we be whereof we be from whence we came and whither we shall saying thus In the sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat thy Bread till thou be turned again into the ground for out of it wast thou taken inasmuch as thou art Dust into Dust shalt thou be turned again Here as it were in a Glass we may learn to know ourselves to be but Ground Earth and Ashes and that to Earth and Ashes we shall return Also the Holy Patriarch Abraham did well remember this Name and Title Dust Earth and Ashes appointed and assigned by God to all Mankind and therefore he calleth himself by that Name when he maketh his earnest Prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah And we read that Judith Esther Job Jud. 4. 9. Job 13. Jer. 6. and 25. Jeremy with other Holy Men and Women in the Old Testament did use Sackcloth and to cast Dust and Ashes upon their Heads when they bewailed their sinful
Three things must go together in our justification which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit In these foresaid places the Apostle toucheth specially three things which must go together in our justification Upon God's part his great Mercy and Grace upon Christ's part Justice that is the satisfaction of God's Justice or the price of our Redemption by the offering of his Body and shedding of his Blood with fulfilling of the Law perfectly and throughly and upon our part true and lively Faith in the Merits of Jesus Christ which yet is not ours but by God's working in us So that in our Justification there is not only God's Mercy and Grace but also his Justice which the Apostle calleth the Justice of God and it consisteth in paying our Ransom and fulfilling of the Law And so the Grace of God doth not shut out the Justice of God in our Justification but only shutteth out the Justice of Man that is to say the Justice of our Works as to be Merits of deserving our Justification And therefore St. Paul declareth here nothing upon the behalf of Man concerning his Justification but only a true and lively Faith which nevertheless is the Gift of God and not Man's only Work without God And yet that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the Fear of God to be joyned with Faith in every Man that is justified but it shutteth them out from the office of Justifying How it is to be understood that Faith justifieth without Works So that although they be all present together in him that is Justified yet they justifie not altogether Neither doth Faith shut out the Justice of our good Works necessarily to be done afterwards of Duty towards God for we are most bounden to serve God in doing good Deeds commanded by him in his Holy Scripture all the days of our Life But it excludeth them so that we may not do them to this intent to be made Just by doing of them For all the good Works that we can do be imperfect and therefore not able to deserve our Justification but our Justification doth come freely by the mere Mercy of God and of so great and free Mercy that whereas all the World was not able of themselves to pay any part towards their Ransom it pleased our Heavenly Father of his infinite Mercy without any our desert or deserving to prepare for us the most precious Jewels of Christ's Body and Blood whereby our Ransom might be fully paid the Law fulfilled and his Justice fully satisfied So that Christ is now the Righteousness of all them that truly do believe in him He for them paid their Ransom by his Death He for them fulfilled the Law in his Life So that now in him and by him every true Christian Man may be called A fulfiller of the Law Forasmuch as that which their Infirmity lacked Christ's Justice hath supplied The Second Part of the Sermon of Salvation YE have heard of whom all Men ought to seek their Justification and Righteousness and how also this Righteousness cometh unto Men by Christ's Death and Merits Ye heard also how that three things are required to the obtaining of our Righteousness that is God's Mercy Christ's Justice and a true and lively Faith out of the which Faith spring good Works Also before was declared at large That no Man can be justified by his own good Works that no Man fulfilleth the Law according to the strict rigor of the Law And St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians proveth the same saying thus Gal. 2. If there had been any Law given which could have justified verily Righteousness should have been by the Law And again he saith If righteousness be by the Law then Christ died in vain And again he saith Ephes 2. You that are justified by the Law are fallen away from Grace And furthermore he writeth to the Ephesians on this wise By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of yourselves for it is the gift of God and not of Works lest any Man should Glory And to be short the sum of all Paul's Disputation is this That if Justice come of Works then it cometh not of Grace and if it come of Grace then it cometh not of Works And to this end tend all the Prophets as St. Peter saith in the 10th of the Acts. Of Christ all the Prophets saith St. Peter Acts 10. do witness that through his Name all they that believe in him shall receive the remission of sins Faith only justifieth is the Doctrine of old Doctors And after this wise to be justified only by this true and lively Faith in Christ speak all the old and antient Authors both Greeks and Latins Of whom I will specially rehearse three Hilary Basil and Ambrose St. Hilary saith these Words plainly in the ninth Canon upon Matthew Faith only justifieth And St. Basil a Greek Author writeth thus This is a perfect and whole reioycing in God when a Man advanceth not himself for his own Righteousness but acknowledgeth himself to lack true Justice and Righteousness and to be justified by the only Faith in Christ And Paul saith he Philip. 3. doth glory in the contempt of his own Righteousness and that he looketh for the Righteousness of God by Faith These be the very words of St. Basil and St. Ambrose a Latin Author saith these words This is the Ordinance of God that they which believe in Christ should be saved without Works by Faith only freely receiving remission of their sins Consider diligently these words Without works by Faith only freely we receive remission of our sins What can be spoken more plainly than to say That freely without Works by Faith only we obtain remission of our sins These and other like Sentences that we be justified by Faith only freely and without Works we do read oft-times in the best and most antient Writers As beside Hilary Basil and St. Ambrose before rehearsed we read the same in Origen St. Chrysostom St. Cyprian St. Augustin Prosper Oecumenius Proclus Bernardus Anselm and many other Authors Greek and Latin Nevertheless this Sentence that we be justified by Faith only is not so meant of them that the said justifying Faith is alone in Man without true Repentance Hope Charity Dread and the Fear of God at any time and season Faith alone how it is to be understood Nor when they say that we should be justified freely do they mean that we should or might afterward be idle and that nothing should be required on our parts afterward Neither do they mean so to be justified without good Works that we should do no good Works at all like as shall be more expressed at large hereafter But this saying That we be justified by Faith only freely and without Works is spoken for to take away clearly all Merit of our Works as being unable to deserve our Justification at God's hands
Faith doth directly send us to Christ for remission of our Sins and that by Faith given us of God we embrace the Promise of God's Mercy and of the remission of our Sins which thing none other of our Virtues of Works properly doth therefore the Scripture useth to say That Faith without Works doth justifie And forasmuch as it is all one Sentence in effect to say Faith without Works and only Faith doth justifie us therefore the old ancient Fathers of the Church from time to time have uttered our Justification with this Speech Only Faith justifieth us meaning no other thing than St. Paul meant when he said Faith without Works justifieth us And because all this is brought to pass through the only Merits and Deservings of our Saviour Christ and not through our Merits or through the Merit of any Virtue that we have within us or of any Work that cometh from us Therefore in that respect of merit and deserving we forsake as it were altogether again Faith Works and all other Virtues For our own Imperfection is so great through the corruption of Original Sin that all is imperfect that is within us Faith Charity Hope Dread Thoughts Words and VVorks and therefore not apt to Merit and Deserve any part of our Justification for us And this form of Speaking use we in the humbling of ourselves to God and to give all the Glory to our Saviour Christ who is best worthy to have it Here you have heard the Office of God in our Justification and how we receive it of him freely by his Mercy without our deserts through true and lively Faith Now you shall hear the Office and Duty of a Christian Man unto God what we ought on our part to render unto God again for his great Mercy and Goodness They that preach Faith only justifieth do not teach carnal liberty or that we should do no good Works Our Office is not to pass the time of this present Life unfruitfully and idly after that we are Baptized or Justified not caring how few good VVorks we do to the Glory of God and Profit of our Neighbors Much less is it our Office after that we be once made Christ's Members to live contrary to the same making ourselves Members of the Devil walking after his enticements and after the suggestions of the VVorld and the Flesh whereby we know that we do serve the VVorld and the Devil and not God The Devils have Faith but not the true Faith For that Faith which bringeth forth without Repentance either evil VVorks or no good VVorks is not a right pure and lively Faith but a dead devilish counterfeit and feigned Faith as St. Paul and St. James call it For even the Devils know and Believe that Christ was Born of a Virgin that he Fasted forty Days and forty Nights without Meat and Drink that he wrought all kind of Miracles declaring Himself very God They Believe also that Christ for our sakes suffered a most painful Death to redeem us from everlasting Death and that he rose again from Death the Third Day They Believe that he ascended into Heaven and that he Sitteth on the Right Hand of the Father and at she last end of this VVorld shall come again and judge both the Quick and the Dead These Articles of our Faith the Devils Believe and so they Believe all things that be written in the New and Old Testament to be true And yet for all this Faith they be but Devils remaining still in their damnable estate lacking the very true Christian Faith What is the true and justifying Faith For the right and true Christian Faith is not only to believe that Holy Scripture and all the foresaid Articles of our Faith are true but also to have a sure Trust and Confidence in God's merciful Promises to be saved from everlasting Damnation by Christ Whereof doth follow a loving Heart to obey his Commandments And this true Christian Faith neither any Devil hath nor yet any Man which in the outward profession of his Mouth and in his outward receiving of the Sacraments in coming to the Church and in all other outward appearances seemeth to be a Christian Man and yet in his Living and Deeds sheweth the contrary They that continue in evil living have not true Faith For how can a Man have this true Faith sure Trust and Confidence in God that by the Merits of Christ his Sins be forgiven and he reconciled to the Favour of God and to be partaker of the Kingdom of Heaven by Christ when he liveth ungodlily and denieth Christ in his Deeds Surely no such ungodly Man can have this Faith and Trust in God For as they know Christ to be the only Saviour of the World so they know also that Wicked Men shall not enjoy the Kingdom of God They know that God hateth Unrighteousness Psal 25. that he will destroy all those that speak untruly that those which have done good Works which cannot be done without a lively Faith in Christ shall come forth into the Resurrection of Life and those that have done Evil shall come unto the Resurrection of Judgment Very well they know also that to them that be Contentious and to them that will not be Obedient unto the Truth but will obey Unrighteousness shall come Indignation Wrath and Affliction c. Therefore to conclude considering the infinite Benefits of God shewed and given unto us mercifully without our Deserts who hath not only Created us of Nothing and from a piece of vile Clay of his infinite Goodness hath exalted us as touching our Soul unto his own Similitude and Likeness But also whereas we were condemned to Hell and Death everlasting hath given his own natural Son being God Eternal Immortal and Equal unto Himself in Power and Glory to be incarnated and to take our mortal Nature upon him with the infirmities of the same and in the same nature to suffer most shameful and painful Death for our Offences to the intent to justifie us and to restore us to Life everlasting So making us also his dear Children Brethren unto his only Son our Saviour Christ and Inheritors for ever with him of his Eternal Kingdom of Heaven These great and merciful Benefits of God if they be well considered do neither minister unto us occasion to be idle and to live without doing any good Works neither yet stir us up by any means to do evil things But contrariwise if we be not desperate Persons and our Hearts harder than Stones they move us to render ourselves unto God wholly with all our VVills Hearts Might and Power to serve him in all good Deeds obeying his Commandments during our Lives to seek in all things his Glory and Honour not our sensual Pleasures and Vain-glory evermore dreading willingly to offend such a Merciful God and Loving Redeemer in VVord Thought or Deed. And the said Benefits of God deeply considered move us for his sake also
to be ever ready to give ourselves to our Neighbours and as much as lieth in us to study with all our endeavour to do good to every Man These be the fruits of true Faith to do good asmuch as lieth in us to every Man and above all things and in all things to advance the Glory of God of whom only we have our Sanctification Justification Salvation and Redemption To whom be ever Glory Praise and Honour VVorld without end Amen A Short DECLARATION OF THE True Lively and Christian Faith Faith THE First coming unto God good Christian People is through Faith whereby as it is declared in the last Sermon we be Justified before God And lest any Man should be deceived for lack of right Understanding thereof it is diligently to be noted that Faith is taken in the Scripture two manner of ways A dead Faith There is one Faith which in Scripture is called a Dead Faith which bringeth forth no good Works but is idle barren and unfruitful And this Faith by the Holy Apostle St. James is compared to the Faith of Devils James 2. which believe God to be True and Just and tremble for fear yet they do nothing well but all evil And such a manner of Faith have the wicked and naughty Christian People which confess God as St. Paul saith in their mouths Titus 6. but deny him in their deeds being abominable and without the right Faith and to all good works reproveable And this Faith is a Persuasion and Belief in Man's Heart whereby he knoweth that there is a God and agreeth unto all Truths of God's most Holy Word contained in the Holy Scripture So that it consisteth only in Believing in the Word of God that it is true And this is not properly called Faith But as he that readeth Caesar's Commentary believing the same to be true hath thereby a knowledge of Caesar's Life and notable Acts because he believeth the History of Caesar Yet it is not properly said that he believeth in Caesar of whom he looketh for no help nor benefit Even so he that Believeth that all that is spoken of God in the Bible is true and yet liveth so ungodly that he cannot look to enjoy the Promises and Benefits of God Although it may be said that such a Man hath a Faith and Belief to the Words of God yet it is not properly said that he believeth in God or hath such a Faith and Trust in God whereby he may surely look for Grace Mercy and everlasting Life at God's hand but rather for Indignation and Punishment according to the Merits of his wicked Life For as it is written in a Book Entituled to be of Didymus Alexandrinus Forasmuch as Faith without Works is dead it is not now Faith as a dead Man is not a Man This dead Faith therefore is not that sure and substantial Faith which saveth Sinners Another Faith there is in Scripture which is not as the aforesaid Faith idle unfruitful and dead A lively Faith but worketh by charity as St. Paul declareth Gal. 5. Which as the other vain Faith is called a dead Faith so may this be called a quick or lively Faith And this is not only the common belief of the Articles of our Faith but it is also a true Trust and Confidence of the Mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a stedfast hope of all good things to be received at God's hand And that although we through Infirmity or Temptation of our Ghostly enemy do fall from him by Sin yet if we return again unto him by true Repentance that he will forgive and forget our Offences for his Sons sake our Saviour Jesus Christ and will make us Inheritors with him of his everlasting Kingdom and that in the mean time untill that Kingdom come he will be our Protector and Defender in all perils and dangers whatsoever do chance And that though somtime he doth send us sharp adversity yet that evermore he will be a loving Father unto us correcting us for our Sin but not withdrawing his Mercy finally from us if we trust in him and commit our selves wholly unto him hang only upon him and call upon him ready to obey and serve him This is the true lively and unfeigned Christian Faith and is not in the Mouth and outward Profession only but it liveth and stirreth inwardly in the Heart And this Faith is not without Hope and Trust in God nor without the Love of God and of our Neighbors nor without the Fear of God nor without the Desire to hear God's Word and to follow the same in eschewing Evil and doing gladly all good Works Heb. 12. Thus Faith as St. Paul describeth it is the sure ground and foundation of the benefits which we ought to look for and trust to receive of God a Certificate and sure looking for them although they yet sensibly appear not unto us And after he saith He that cometh to God must believe both that he is and that he is a merciful rewarder of Well-doers And nothing commendeth good Men unto God so much as this assured Faith and Trust in him Of this Faith three things are specially to be noted Three things are to be noted of Faith First that this Faith doth not lye dead in the Heart but is lively and fruitful in bringing forth good Works Secondly that without it can no good Works be done that shall be acceptable and pleasant to God Thirdly what manner of good Works they be that this Faith doth bring forth Faith is full of good Works For the First That as the Light cannot be hid but will shew forth itself at one place or other So a true Faith cannot be kept secret but when occasion is offered it will break out and shew itself by good Works And as the living Body of a Man ever exerciseth such things as belong to a natural and living Body for nourishment and preservation of the same as it hath need opportunity and occasion Even so the Soul that hath a lively Faith in it will be doing alway some good Work which shall declare that it is living and will not be unoccupied Therefore when Men hear in the Scripture so high commendations of Faith that it maketh us to please God to live with God and to be the Children of God If then they fancy that they be set at liberty from doing all good Works and may live as they list they trifle with God and deceive themselves And it is a manifest token that they be far from having the true and lively Faith and also far from Knowledge what true Faith meaneth For the very sure and lively Christian Faith is not only to believe all things of God which are contained in Holy Scripture but also is an earnest Trust and Confidence in God that he doth regard us and that he is careful over us as the Father is over the Child whom he doth love and that
daily talk Why should I not Swear when I Swear truly To such Men it may be said that though they Swear truly yet in Swearing often unadvisedly for trifles without necessity and when they should not Swear they be not without fault but do take God's most Holy Name in vain Much more ungodly and unwise Men are they that abuse God's most Holy Name not only in buying and selling of small things daily in all places but also in eating drinking playing communing and reasoning As if none of these things might be done except in doing of them the most Holy Name of God be commonly used and abused vainly and unreverently talked of sworn by and forsworn to the breaking of God's Commandment and procurement of his Indignation The Second Part of the Sermon of Swearing YOu have been taught in the First Part of this Sermon against Swearing and Perjury what great danger it is to use the Name of God in vain And that all kind of Swearing is not unlawful neither against God's Commandment and that there be three things required in a lawful Oath First that it be made for the maintainance of the Truth Secondly that it be made with Judgment not rashly and unadvisedly Thirdly for the zeal and love of Justice Ye heard also what commodities come of lawful Oaths and what danger cometh of rash and unlawful Oaths Now as concerning the rest of the same matter you shall understand that as well they use the Name of God in vain that by an Oath make unlawful promises of good and honest things and perform them not As they which do promise evil and unlawful things and do perform the same Of such Men Lawful Oaths and Promises would be better regarded Josh 6. that regard not their Godly Promises bound by an Oath but wittingly and wilfully break them we do read in Holy Scripture two notable punishments First Joshua and the people of Israel made a League and faithful Promise of perpetual Amity and Friendship with the Gibeonites Notwithstanding afterwards in the days of wicked Saul many of these Gibeonites were murthered contrary to the said faithful Promise made Wherewith Almighty God was sore displeased that he sent an universal Hunger upon the whole Country which continued by the space of three years And God would not withdraw his punishment until the said Offence was revenged by the death of seven Sons 2 Kingâ—â— Chap. 25. or next kinsmen of King Saul And whereas Zâ—dechias King of Jerusalem had promised Fidelity to the King of Chaldea afterward when Zedechiaâ— contrary to his Oath and Allegiance did rebel against King Nebuchadonosor This Heathen King by God's permission and sufferance invading the Land of Jury and besieging the City of Jerusalem compelled the said King Zedechias to flee and in fleeing took him prisoner slew his Sons before his Face and put out both his Eies and binding him with chains led him prisoner miserably into Babylon Thus doth God shew plainly Unlawful Oaths and Promises are not to be kept how much he abhorreth breakers of honest Promises bound by an Oath made in his Name And of them that make wicked Promises by an Oath and will perform the same we have example in the Scriptures chiefly of Herod of the wicked Jews and of Jeptha Matth. 14. Herod promised by an Oath unto the Damsel which danced before him to give unto her whatsoever she should ask When she was instructed before of her wicked Mother to ask the Head of St. John Baptist Herod as he took a wicked Oath so he more wickedly performed the same and cruelly slew the most Holy Prophet Likewise did the malicious Jews make an Oath Acts 23. Judges 11. cursing themselves if they did either eat or drink until they had slain St. Paul And Jeptha when God had given to him victory of the Children of Ammon promised of a foolish Devotion unto God to offer for a Sacrifice unto him that Person which of his own House should first meet with him after his return home By force of which fond and unadvised Oath he did slay his own and only Daughter which came out of his House with Mirth and Joy to welcome him home Thus the Promise which he made most foolishly to God against God's everlasting Will and the Law of Nature most cruelly he performed so committing against God a double offence Therefore whosoever maketh any Promise binding himself thereunto by an Oath let him foresee that the thing which he promiseth be good and honest and not against the Commandment of God and that it be in his own power to perform it justly And such good Promises must all Men keep evermore assuredly But if a Man at any time shall either of Ignorance or of Malice Promise and Swear to do any thing which is either against the Law of Almighty God or not in his power to perform Let him take it for an unlawful and ungodly Oath Now somthing to speak of Perjury to the intent you should know how great and grievous an offence against God this wilful Perjury is I will shew you what it is to take an Oath before a Judge upon a Book Against Perjury First when they laying their hands upon the Gospel Book do Swear truly no enquire and to make a true presentment of things wherewith they be charged An Oath before a Judge and not to let from saying the Truth and doing truly for favour love dread or malice of any Person as God may help them and the Holy Contents of that Book They must consider that in that Book is contained God's everlasting Truth his most Holy and Eternal Word whereby we have forgiveness of our Sins and be made inheritors of Heaven to live for ever with God's Angels and Saints in Joy and Gladness In the Gospel Book is contained also God's terrible threats to obstinate sinners that will not amend their lives nor believe the Truth of God's Holy Word and the everlasting pain prepared in Hell for Idolaters Hypocrites for false and vain Swearers for perjured Men for False Witness-bearers for False Condemners of innocent and guiltless Men and for them which for favour hide the crimes of evil doers that they should not be punished So that whosoever wilfully forswear themselves upon Christ's Holy Evangely they utterly forsake God's Mercy Goodness and Truth the Merits of our Saviour Christ's Nativity Life Passion Death Resurrection and Ascension they refuse the forgiveness of Sins promised to all penitent Sinners the joyes of Heaven the company with Angels and Saints for ever All which Benefits and Comforts are promised unto true Christian Persons in the Gospel And they so being forsworn upon the Gospel do betake themselves to the Devils Service the Master of all Lies Falshood Deceit and Perjury provoking the great Indignation and Curse of God against them in this Life and the terrible Wrath and Judgment of our Saviour Christ at the great day of the last Judgment when he
that Heb. 12. saith St. Paul whom the Father loveth and doth not chastise If ye be without God's correction which all his welbeloved and true Children have then be you but Bastards smally regarded of God and not his true Children Therefore seeing that when we have on Earth our carnal Fathers to be our correctors we do fear them and reverently take their correction shall we not much more be in Subjection to God our Spiritual Father by whom we shall have everlasting Life and our Carnal Fathers somtimes correct us even as it pleaseth them without cause But this Father justly correcteth us either for our Sin to the intent we should amend or for our Commodity and Wealth to make us thereby partakers of his Holiness Furthermore all Correction which God sendeth us in this present time seemeth to have no Joy and Comfort but Sorrow and Pain yet it bringeth with it a tast of God's Mercy and Goodness towards them that be so corrected and a sure hope of God's everlasting Consolation in Heaven If then these Sorrows Diseases and Sicknesses and also Death itself be nothing else but our Heavenly Father's Rod whereby he certifieth us of his Love and gracious Favour whereby he tryeth and purifieth us whereby he giveth unto us Holiness and certifieth us that we be his Children and he our merciful Father Shall not we then with all humility as obedient and loving Children joyfully kiss our Heavenly Father's Rod and ever say in our Heart with our Saviour Jesus Christ Father if this Anguish and Sorrow which I feel and Death which I see approach may not pass but that thy will is that I must suffer them Thy Will be done The Third Part of the Sermon against the Fear of Death IN this Sermon against the fear of Death Two Causes were declared which commonly move worldly Men to be in much fear to die and yet the same do nothing trouble the faithful and good Livers when Death cometh but rather give them occasion greatly to rejoice considering that they shall be delivered from the sorrow and misery of this World and be brought to the great Joy and Felicity of the Life to come The Third Cause why Death is to be feared Now the Third and special Cause why Death indeed is to be feared is the miserable State of the worldly and ungodly People after their Death But this is no Cause at all why the godly and faithful People should fear Death but rather contrariwise their godly Conversation in this Life and Belief in Christ cleaving continually to his Mercies should make them to long sore after that Life that remaineth for them undoubtedly after this bodily Death Of this immortal State after this transitory Life where we shall live evermore in the Presence of God in Joy and Rest after Victory over all Sickness Sorrows Sin and Death There be many plain places of Holy Scripture which confirm the weak Conscience against the fear of all such Dolours Sicknesses Sin and bodily Death to asswage such trembling and ungodly fear and to encourage us with Comfort and hope of a blessed State after this Life Saint Paul wisheth unto the Ephesians Ephes 1. That God the Father of Glory would give unto them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that the Eyes of their Hearts might give Light to know him and to perceive how great things he had called them unto and how rich an Inheritance he hath prepared after this Life for them that pertain unto him Phil. 1. And St. Paul himself declareth the desire of his Heart which was to be dissolved and loosed from his Body and to be with Christ which as he said was much better for him although to them it was more necessary that he should live which he refused not for their sakes Even like as St. Martin said Good Lord if I be necessary for thy People to do good unto them I will refuse no Labour But else for mine own self I beseech thee to take my Soul Now the Holy Fathers of the Old Law and all faithful and righteous Men which departed before our Saviour Christ's Ascension into Heaven did by Death depart from Troubles unto Rest from the hands of their Enemies into the hands of God from Sorrows and Sicknesses unto joyful refreshing in Abraham's bosom a place of all Comfort and Consolation as the Scriptures do plainly by manifest words testifie Wisdom 3. The Book of Wisdom saith That the Righteous Mens Souls be in the hand of God and no torment shall touch them They seemed to the eyes of foolish Men to die and their death was counted miserable and their departing out of this World wretched but they be in Rest And another place saith Wisd 4. That the Righteous shall live for ever and their Reward is with the Lord and their Minds be with God who is above all Therefore they shall receive a Glorious Kingdom and a Beautiful Crown at the Lord's hand And in another place the same Book saith The Righteous though he be prevented with suddain Death nevertheless he shall be there where he shall be refreshed Of Abraham's Bosom Christ's words be so plain that a Christian Man needeth no more proof of it Now then if this were the state of the Holy Fathers and Righteous Men before the coming of our Saviour and before he was Glorified How much more then ought all we to have a stedfast Faith and a sure Hope of this blessed state and condition after our death Seeing that our Saviour now hath performed the whole Work of our Redemption and is Gloriously ascended into Heaven to prepare our dwelling places with him and said unto his Father Father John 17. I will that where I am my servants shall be with me And we know that whatsoever Christ Will his Father Wills the same wherefore it cannot be but if we be his Faithful Servants our Souls shall be with him after our departure out of this present life St. Stephen when he was stoned to death even in the midst of his torments what was his Mind most upon Acts 7. When he was full of the Holy Ghost saith Holy Scripture having his eyes lifted up into Heaven he saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God The which Truth after he had confessed boldly before the enemies of Christ they drew him out of the City and there they stoned him who cryed unto God saying Lord Jesu Christ take my Spirit And doth not our Saviour say plainly in St. John's Gospel Verily John 5. verily I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and cometh not into judgment but shall pass from death to life Shall we not then think that death to be precious by the which we pass unto life Therefore it is a true saying of the Prophet Psal 116. The death of the Holy and Righteous Men is precious in the
dalliance and but a touch of youth Not rebuked but winked at Not punished but laughed at Wherefore it is necessary at this present Exod. 20. to treat of the sin of Whoredom and Fornication declaring unto you the greatness of this Sin and how odious hateful and abominable it is and hath alway been reputed before God and all good Men and how grievously it hath been punished both by the Law of God and the Laws of divers Princes Again to shew you certain remedies whereby ye may through the Grace of God eschew this most detestable sin of Whoredom and Fornication and lead your lives in all Honesty and Cleanness and that ye may perceive that Fornication and Whoredome are in the sight of God most abominable Sins ye shall call to remembrance this Commandment of God Thou shalt not commit Adultery By the which word Adultery although it be properly understood of the unlawful commixtion or joining together of a married Man with any Woman beside his Wife or of a Wife with any Man beside her Husband Yet thereby is signified also all unlawful use of those Parts which be ordained for Generation And this one Commandment forbidding Adultery doth sufficiently paint and set out before our Eyes the greatness of this Sin of Whoredom and manifestly declareth how greatly it ought to be abhorred of all honest and faithful Persons And that none of us all shall think himself excepted from this Commandment whether he be old or young married or unmarried Man or Woman hear what God the Father saith by his most Excellent Prophet Moses Deut. 23. There shall be no Whore among the Daughters of Israel nor no Whoremonger among the Sons of Israel Here is Whoredom Fornication and all other uncleanness forbidden to all kinds of People all Degrees and all Ages without exception And that we shall not doubt but that this Precept or Commandment pertaineth to us indeed hear what Christ the perfect Teacher of all Truth saith in the Now Testament Ye have heard saith Christ that it was said to them of old time Matth. 5. Thou shalt not commit Adultery But I say unto you Whosoever seeth a Woman to have his Lust of her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart Here our Saviour Christ doth not only confirm and establish the Law against Adultery given in the Old Testament of God the Father by his Servant Mâ—ses and make it of full strength continually to remain among the Professors of his Name in the new Law But he also condemning the gross interpretation of the Scribes and Pharisees which taught that the foresaid Commandment only required to abstain from the outward Adultery and not from the filthy desires and impure Lusts teacheth us an exact and full perfection of Purity and Cleanness of Life both to keep our Bodies undefiled and our Hearts pure and free from all evil thoughts carnal desires and fleshly consents How can we then be free from this Commandment where so great charge is laid upon us May a Servant do what he will in any thing having Commandment of his Master to the contrary Is not Christ our Master Are not we his Servants How then may we neglect our Master's Will and Pleasure and follow our own Will and Phantasie John 15. Ye are my Friends saith Christ if you keep those things that I command you Now hath Christ our Master commanded us that we should forsake all uncleanness and filthiness both in Body and Spirit This therefore must we do if we look to please God Matth. 15. In the Gospel of S Matthew we read that the Scribes and Phaâ—isâ—es were grievously offended with Christ because his Disciples did not keep the traditions of the Forefathers for they washed not their Hands when they went to Dinner or Supper And among other things Christ answered and said Hear and understand Not that thing which entreth into the Mouth d fileth the Man but that which cometh out of the Mouth defileth the Man Matth. 15. For those things which proceed out of the Mouth come forth from the Heart and they defile the Man For out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders breaking of Wedlock Whoredoms Thefts false Witness B asphemies These are the things which d file a Man Here may we see that not only Murder Theft false Witness and Blasphemy defile Men but also evil Thoughts breaking of Wedlock Fornication and Whoredom Who is now of so little Wit that he will esteem Whoredom and Fornication to be things of small importance and of no weight before God Christ who is the Truth and cannot lye saith Mark 7. That evil Thoughts Titus 1 breaking of Wedlock Whoredom and Fornication defile a Man that is to say corrupt both the Body and Soul of Man and make them of the Temples of the Holy Ghost the filthy Dunghil or Dungeon of all unclean Spirits of the House of God the dwelling place of Satan John 8. Again the Gospel of St. John when the Woman taken in Adultery was brought unto Christ said not he unto her Rom. 6. Go thy way and sin no more Doth not he here call Whoredom Sin And what is the Reward of Sin 1 John 3. but everlasting Death If Whoredom be Sin then it is not lawful for us to commit it For St. John saith John 8. He that committeth Sin is of the Devil And our Saviour saith Every one that committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin If Whoredom had not been Sin surely St. John Baptist would never have rebuked King Herod for taking his Brother's Wife Mark 6. but he told him plainly That it was not lawful for him to take his Brother's Wife He winked not at the Whoredom of Herod although he were a King of Power but boldly reproved him for his wicked and abominable living although for the same he lost his Head But he would rather suffer death than see God so dishonored by the breaking of his Holy Precept and Commandment than to suffer Whoredom to be unrebuked even in a King If Whoredom had been but a Pastime a Dalliance and not to be passed of as many count it now a days truly John had been more than twice mad if he would have had the displeasure of a King if he would have been cast in Prison and lost his Head for a trifle But John new right well how filthy and stinking and abominable the Sin of Whoredom is in the sight of God therefore would he not leave it unrebuked no not in a King If Whoredom be not lawful in a King neither is it lawful in a Subject If Whoredom be not lawful in a publick or common Officer neither is it lawful in a private Person If it be not lawful neither in King nor Subject neither in common Officer nor private Person truly then it is lawful in no Man nor Woman of whatsoever Degree or Age they be Furthermore in the Acts of the Apostles we read
obtain that thing now of me which hereafter Time shall obtain of me If a Man be called an Adulterer Usurer Drunkard or by any other shameful Name let him consider earnestly whether he be so called truly or falsly if truly let him amend his fault that his Adversary may not after worthily charge him with such Offences If these things be laid against him falsly yet let him consider whether he hath given any occasion to be suspected of such things and so he may both cut off that suspicion whereof this slander did arise and in other things shall live more warily And thus using ourselves we may take no hurt but rather much good by the rebukes and slanders of our Enemy For the reproach of an Enemy may be to many men a quicker spur to the amendment of their life than the gentle monition of a Friend Philippus the King of Macedonia when he was evil spoken of by the chief Rulers of the City of Athens he did thank them heartily because by them he was made better both in his Words and Deeds For I study saith he both by my Sayings and Doings to prove them Lyars The Third Part of the Sermon against Contention YE heard in the last Lesson of the Sermon against Strife and Brawling how we may answer them which maintain their froward sayings in Contention and that will revenge with words such evil as other Men do them and finally how we may according to God's Will order ourselves and what to consider towards them when wâ— are provoked to Contention and Strife with railing Words Now to proceed in the same matter you shall know the right way how to disprove and overcome your Adversary and Enemy This is the best way to disprove a Man's Adversary so to live that all which shall know his Honesty may bear witness that he is slandered unworthily If the fault whereof he is slandered be such that for the defence of his Honesty he must needs make answer let him answer quietly and softly on this fashion That those faults be laid against him falsly For it is truth that the Wise Man saith A soft answer asswageth anger Prov. 15. and a hard and sharp answer dâ—th stir up rage and fury The sharp answer of Nabal provoked David to cruel Vengeance 1 King 25. but the gentle words of Abigail quenched the fire again that was all in a flame And a special remedy against malicious Tongues is to arm ourselves with patience meekness and silence lest with multiplying words with the Enemy we be made as evil as he But they An Objection Prov. 26. that cannot bear one evil word peradventure for their own excuse will alledge that which is written He that despiseth his gâ—od Name is cruel Also we read Answer a Fool according to his foolishness And our Lord Jesus Christ did hold his peace at certain evil sayings but to some he answered diligently He heard Men call him a Samaritan a Carpenters Son a Wine-Drinker and he held his peace But when he heard them say Thou hast the Devil within thee he answered to that earnestly Answer Truth it is indeed that there is a time when it is convenient to answer a Fool according to his foolishness lest he should seem in his own conceit to be wise And somtime it is not profitable to answer a Fool according to his foolishness lest the Wise Man be made like to the Fool. When our Infamy or the Reproach that is done unto us is joyned with the peril of many then it is necessary in answering to be quick and ready For we read that many holy Men of good Zeal have sharply and fiercely both spoken and answered Tyrants and evil Men which sharp words came not of Anger Rancor or Malice or desire of Vengeance but of a fervent desire to bring them to the true knowledge of God and from ungodly living by an earnest and sharp rebuke and chiding In this Zeal Saint John Baptist called the Pharisees Adders brood Matth. 3. Gal. 3. Titus 1. And Saint Paul called the Galatians Fools And the Men of Crete he called Lyars evil Beasts and sluggish Bellies And the false Apostles he called Dogs and crafty Workmen Phil. 3. And his Zeal is godly and to be allowed as it is plainly proved by the example of Christ who although he were the Fountain and Spring of all Meekness Gentleness and Softness Matth. 23. yet he called the obstinate Scribes and Pharisees Blind Guides Fools painted Graves Hypocrites Serpents Adders brood a corrupt and wicked Generation Also he rebuketh Peter eagerly saying Go behind me Satan Matth. 16. Likewise Saint Paul reproveth Elymas saying Acts 13. O thou full of all Craft and Guile Enemy to all Justice thou ceasest not to destroy the right ways of God And now lo the Hand of the Lord is upon thee and thou shalt be blind and not see for a time And Saint Peter reprehendeth Ananias very sharply saying Ananias Acts 5. how is it that Satan hath filled thy Heart that thou shouldst lye unto the Holy Ghost This Zeal hath been so servent in many good Men that it hath stirred them not only to speak bitter and eager words but also to do things which might seem to some to be cruel but indeed they be very just charitable and godly because they were not done of Ire Malice or contentious Mind but of a fervent Mind to the Glory of God and the correction of Sin executed by Men called to that Office For in this Zeal our Lord Jesus Christ did drive with a Whip the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple John 2. In this Zeal Moses brake the two Tables which he had received at Gods Hand Exod. 32. when he saw the Israelites dancing about the Calf and caused to be killed twenty four thousand of his own People Numb 25. But these Examples are not to be followed of every body but as Men be called to Office and set in Authority Prov. 20. In this Zeal Phineas the Son of Eleazer did thrust through with his Sword Zimri and Cosby whom he found together joyned in the act of Uncleanness Wherefore now to return again to contentious Words and specially in Matters of Religion and Gods Word which would be used with all Modesty Soberness and Chastity the words of Saint James ought to be well marked and born in memory where he saith That of Contention riseth all Evil. And the wise King Solomon saith Honour is due to a Man that keepeth himself from Contention and all that mingle themselves therewith be Fools And because this Vice is so much hurtful to the Society of a Commonwealth in all well-ordered Cities these common Brawlers and Scolders be punished with a notable kind of pain as to be set on the Cucking-stool Pillory or such like And they be unworthy to live in a Commonwealth the which do as much as lieth in them with Brawling and Scolding to disturb
we do not speedily and earnestly Repent us of this Wickedness Thus ye have heard dearly beloved out of Gods Word what Reverence is due to the Holy House of the Lord how all Godly Persons ought with diligence at times appointed thither to repair how they ought to behave themselves there with Reverence and Dread before the Lord what Plagues and Punishments as well Temporal as Eternal the Lord in his Holy Word threatneth as well to such as neglect to come to his Holy House as also to such who coming thither do unreverently by gesture or talk there behave themselves Wherefore if we desire to have seasonable Weather and thereby to enjoy the good Fruits of the Earth if we will avoid Drought and Barrenness Thirst and Hunger which are Plagues threatned unto such as make haste to go to their own Houses to Ale-Houses and Taverns and leave the House of the Lord empty and desolate if we abhor to be scourged not with Whips made of Cords out of the material Temple only as our Saviour Christ served the Desilers of the House of God in Jerusalem but also to be beaten and driven out of the Eternal Temple and House of the Lord which is his Heavenly Kingdom Ephes 3. with the Iron Rod of Everlasting Damnation and cast into utter Darkness where is Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth if we Fear Dread and abhor this I say as we have most just cause to do Then let us amend this our negligence and contempt in coming to the House of the Lord this our unreverent behaviour in the House of the Lord and resorting thither diligently together let us there with Reverent hearing of the Lords Holy Word calling on the Lords Holy Name giving of hearty Thanks unto the Lord for his manifold and inestimable benefits daily and hourly bestowed upon us celebrating also Reverently the Lords Holy Sacraments serve the Lord in his Holy House as becometh the Servants of the Lord in Holiness and Righteousness before him all the days of our Life and then we shall be assured after this Life to rest in his Holy Hill and to dwell in his Tabernacle there to Praise and Magnifie his Holy Name in the Congregation of his Saints in the Holy House of his Eternal Kingdom of Heaven which he hath purchased for us by the Death and Shedding of the precious Blood of his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one Immortal God be all Honour Glory Praise and Thanksgiving world without end Amen AN HOMILY AGAINST Peril of Idolatry and superfluous Decking of Churches The First Part. IN what points the true Ornaments of the Church or Temple of God do consist and stand hath been declared in the two last Homilies treating of the Right Use of the Temple or House of God and of the due Reverence that all true Christian People are bound to give unto the same The Sum whereof is that the Church or House of God is a place appointed by the Holy Scriptures where the lively Word of God ought to be Read Taught and Heard the Lords Holy Name called upon by publick Prayer hearty Thanks given to his Majesty for his infinite and unspeakable benefits bestowed upon us his Holy Sacraments duly and reverently ministred and that therefore all that be Godly indeed ought both with diligence at times appointed to repair together to the said Church and there with all Reverence to use and behave themselves before the Lord. And that the said Church thus godly used by the Servants of the Lord in the Lords true Service for the effectual presence of Gods Grace wherewith he doth by his holy Word and Promises endue his people there present and assembled to the attainment as well of Commodities worldly necessary for us as also of all heavenly Gifts and Life everlasting is called by the Word of God as it is indeed the Temple of the Lord and the House of God and that therefore the due Reverence thereof is stirred up in the Hearts of the Godly by the Consideration of these true Ornaments of the said House of God and not by any outward Ceremonies or costly and glorious decking of the said House or Temple of the Lord contrary to the which most manifest Doctrine of the Scriptures and contrary to the usage of the Primitive Chruch which was pure and uncorrupt and contrary to the Sentences and Judgments of the most antient learned and godly Doctors of the Church as hereafter shall appear the Corruption of these later days hath brought into the Church infinite multitudes of Images and the same with other parts of the Temple also have decked with Gold and Silver painted with Colours set them with Stone and Pearl clothed them with Silks and precious Vestures fancying untruly that to be the chief Decking and Adorning of the Temple or the House of God and that all People should be the more moved to the due Reverence of the same if all Corners thereof were glorious and glistering with Gold and precious Stones Whereas indeed they by the said Images and such Glorious decking of the Temple have nothing at all profited such as were Wise and Understanding But have thereby greatly hurt the Simple and Unwise occasioning them thereby to commit horrible Idolatry And the covetous Persons by the same occasion seeming to worship and peradventure worshipping indeed not only the Images but also the matter of them Gold and Silver as that Vice is of all others in the Scriptures peculiarly called Idolatry Ephes 5. Coloss 3. or worshipping of Images Against the which foul Abuses and great Enormities shall be alledged unto you First the Authority of Gods holy Word as well out of the Old Testament as of the New And secondly the Testimonies of the holy and ancient learned Fathers and Doctors out of their own Works and ancient Histories Ecclesiastical both that you may at once know their Judgments and withal understand what manner of Ornaments were in the Temples in the Primitive Church in those times which were most pure and sincere Thirdly the Reasons and Arguments made for the defence of Images or Idols and the outragious decking of Temples and Churches with Gold Silver Pearl and precious Stones shall be confuted and so this whole matter concluded But lest any should take occasion by the way of doubting by Words or Names it is thought good here to note first of all that although in common speech we use to call the likeness or similitudes of Men or other things Images and not Idols yet the Scriptures use the said two words Idols and Images indifferently for one thing alway They be words of divers Tongues and Sounds but one in Sense and Signification in the Scriptures The one is taken of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Idol and the other of the Latin word Imago an Image and so both used as English terms in the translating of Scriptures indifferently according as the Septuaginta
have in their Translation in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Saint Jerome in his Translation of the same places in Latin hath Simulachra in English Images And in the New Testament 1 John 5 that which Saint John calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saint Jerome likewise translateth Simulachrum as in all other like places of Scripture usually he doth so translate And Tertullian a most ancient Doctor and well learned in both the Tongues Greek and Latin interpreting this place of Saint John Beware of Idols that is to say Lib. de corona militis saith Tertullian of the Images themselves The Latin words which he useth be Effigies and Imago that is to say an Image And therefore it skilleth not whether in this process we use the one term or the other or both together seeing they both though not in common English Speech yet in Scripture signifie one thing And though some to blind Mens Eyes have heretofore craftily gone about to make them to be taken for words of divers Significations in Matters of Religion and have therefore usually named the likeness or similitude of a thing set up amongst the Heathen in their Temples or other places to be worshipped an Idol But the like similitude with us set up in the Church the place of Worshipping they call an Image as though these two words Idol and Image in Scripture did differ in property and sense which as is aforesaid differ only in Sound and Language and in meaning be indeed all one especially in the Scriptures and matters of Religion And our Images also have been and be and if they be publickly suffered in Churches and Temples ever will be also worshipped and so Idolatry committed to them as in the last part of this Homily shall at large be declared and proved Wherefore our Images in Temples and Churches be indeed none other but Idols as unto the which Idolatry hath been is and ever will be committed And first of all the Scriptures of the Old Testament condemning and abhorring as well all Idolatry or worshipping of Images as also the very Idols or Images themselves especially in Temples are so many and plentiful that it were almost an infinite Work and to be contained in no small Volume to record all the places concerning the same For when God had chosen to himself a peculiar and special People from amongst all other Nations that knew not God but worshipped Idols and false Gods he gave unto them certain Ordinances and Laws to be kept and observed of his said People But concerning none other matter did he give either more or more earnest and express Laws to his said People than those that concerned the true Worshipping of him and the avoiding and fleeing of Idols and Images and Idolatry For that both the said Idolatry is most repugnant to the right worshipping of him and his true Glory above all other Vices and that he knew the proneness and inclination of Mans corrupt Kind and Nature to that most odious and abominable Vice Of the which the Ordinances and Laws so given by the Lord to his People concerning this matter I will rehearse and alledge some that be most special for this purpose that you by them may judge of the rest In the fourth Chapter of the Book named Deuteronomy is a notable place Deut. 4. Numb 22. and most worthy with all diligence to be marked which beginneth thus And now Israel hear the Commandments and Judgments which I teach thee saith the Lord that thou doing them mayst liâ—e and enter and possess the Land which the Lord God of your Fathers will give you Ye shall put nothing to the word which I speak to you neither shall ye take any thing from it Keep ye the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command you And by and by after he repeateth the same Sentence three or four times before he come to the matter that he would specially warn them of as it were for a Preface to make them to take the better heed unto it Take heed to thy self saith he and to thy Soul with all carefulness lest thou forgettest the things which thine Eyes have seen and that they go not out of thine Heart all the days of thy Life thou shalt teach them to thy Children and Nephews or Posterity And shortly after The Lord spake unto you out of the middle of Fire but ye heard the Voice or sound of his Words but you did see no form or shape at all And by and by followeth Take heed therefore diligently unto your Souls you saw no manner of Image in the day in the which the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the Fire lest peradventure you being deceived should make to your selves any graven Image or likeness of Man or Woman or the likeness of any Beast which is upon the Earth or of the Birds that flie under Heaven or of any creeping thing that is moved on the Earth or of the Fishes that do continue in the Waters Lest peradventure thou lifting up thine Eyes to Heaven do see the Sun and the Moon and the Stars of Heaven and so thou being deceived by errour shouldst honour and worship them which the Lord thy God hath created to serve all Nations that be under Heaven And again Beware that thou forget not the Covenant of the Lord thy God which he made with thee and so make to thy self any carved Image of them which the Lord hath forbidden to be made For the Lord thy God is a consuming Fire and a jealous God If you have Children and Nephews and do tarry in the Land and being deceived do make to your selves any similitude doing evil before the Lord your God and provoke him to anger I do this day call upon Heaven and Earth to witness that ye shall quickly perish out of the Land which you shall possess you shall not dwell in it any long time but the Lord will destroy you and will scatter you amongst all Nations and ye shall remain but a very few amongst the Nations whither the Lord will lead you away and then shall you serve Gods which are made with Mans Hands of Wood and Stone which see not and hear not neither eat nor smell and so forth This is a notable Chapter and treateth almost altogether of this matter But because it is too long to write out the whole I have noted you certain principal points out of it First how earnestly and oft he calleth upon them to mark and to take heed and that upon the peril of their Souls to the charge which he giveth them Then how he forbiddeth by a solemn and long rehearsal of all things in Heaven in Earth and in the Water any Image or likeness of any thing at all to be made Thirdly what Penalty and horrible Destruction he solemnly with Invocation of Heaven and Earth for record denounceth and threatneth to them their Children and Posterity if they
that when the Contention began about Images how of Six Christian Emperors who were the chief Magistrates by Gods Law to be obeyed only one which was Theodosius who Reigned but one year held with Images All the other Emperors and all the Learned Men and Bishops of the East Church and that in assembled Councils condemned them besides the two Emperors before mentioned Valens and Theodosius the Second who were long before these times who strictly forbad that any Images should be made And universally after this time all the Emperors of Greece only Theodosius excepted destroyed continually all Images Now on the contrary part note ye that the Bishops of Rome being no ordinary Magistrates appointed of God out of their Diocess but Usurpers of Princes Authority contrary to Gods Word were the Maintainers of Images against Gods Word and Stirrers up of Sedition and Rebellion and Workers of continual Treason against their Sovereign Lords contrary to Gods Law and the Ordinances of all Human Laws being not only Enemies to God but also Rebels and Traytors against their Princes These be the first bringers in of Images openly into Churches These be the maintainers of them in the Churches and these be the means whereby they have maintained them To wit Conspiracy Treason and Rebellion against God and their Princes Now to proceed in the History most worthy to be known In the Nonage of Constantine the Sixth the Empress Irene his Mother in whose Hands the Regiment of the Empire remained was governed much by the advice of Theodore Bishop and Tharasius Patriarch of Constantinople who practised and held with the Bishop of Rome in maintaining of Images most earnestly By whose Counsel and intreaty the Empress first most wickedly digged up the Body of her Father in Law Constantine the Fifth and commanded it to be openly burned and the Ashes to be thrown into the Sea Which Example as the constant report goeth had like to have been put in practice with Princes Corses in our days had the Authority of the Holy Father continued but a little longer The cause why the Empress Irene thus used her Father in Law was for that he when he was alive had destroyed Images and had taken away the sumptuous Ornaments of Churches saying That Christ whose Temples they were allowed Poverty and not Pearls and precious Stones Afterward the said Irene at the persuasion of Adrian Bishop of Rome and Paul the Patriarch of Constantinople and his Successor Tharasius assembled a Council of the Bishops of Asia and Greece at the City Nicea where the Bishop of Rome's Legates being Presidents of the Council and ordering all things as they listed the Council which was assembled before under the Emperor Constantine the Fifth and had decreed that all Images should be destroyed was Condemned as an Heretical Council and Assembly And a Decree was made That Images should be put up in all the Churches of Greece and that Honour and Worship also should be given unto the said Images And so the Empress sparing no diligence in setting up of Images A Decree that Images should be Worshipped nor cost in decking them in all Churches made Constantinople within a short time altogether like Rome itself And now you may see that come to pass which Bishop Serenus feared and Gregory the First forbad in vain to wit that Images should in no wise be Worshipped For now not only the Simple and Unwise unto whom Images as the Scriptures teach be specially a snare but the Bishops and Learned Men also fall to Idolatry by occasion of Images yea and make Decrees and Laws for the maintenance of the same So hard is it and indeed impossible any long time to have Images publickly in Churches and Temples without Idolatry as by the space of little more than One Hundred years betwixt Gregory the First forbidding most strictly the Worshipping of Images and Gregory the Third Paul and Leo the Third Bishops of Rome with this Council Commanding and Decreeing that Images should be Worshipped most evidently appeareth Now when Constantine the young Emperor came to the Age of Twenty years he was daily in less and less estimation For such as were about his Mother persuaded her that it was Gods Determination that she should Reign alone and not her Son with her The Ambitious Woman believing the same deprived her Son of all Imperial Dignity and compelled all the Men of War with their Captains to Swear to her that they would not suffer her Son Constantine to Reign during her Life With which Indignity the young Prince being moved recovered the Regimen of the Empire unto himself by force and being brought up in true Religion in his Father's time seeing the Superstition of his Mother Irene and the Idolatry committed by Images cast down brake and burned all the Idols and Images that his Mother had set up But within a few years after Irene the Empress taken again into her Son's Favour after she had persuaded him to put out Nicephorus his Uncle's Eyes and to cut out the Tongues of his four other Uncles and to forsake his Wife and by such means to bring him into hatred with all his Subjects now further to declare that she was no Changeling but the same Woman that had before digged up and burned her Father-in-Law's Body and that she would be as natural a Mother as she had been a kind Daughter seeing the Images which she loved so well and had with so great cost set up daily destroyed by her own Son the Emperor by the help of certain good Companions deprived her Son of the Empire And first like a kind and loving Mother put out both his Eyes and laid him in Prison where after long and many Torments she at the last most cruelly slew him In this History joined to Eutropius it is written That the Sun was darkned by the space of xvij days most strangely and dreadfully and that all Men said that for the horribleness of that cruel and unnatural Fact of Irene and the putting out of the Emperor's Eyes the Sun had lost his light But indeed God would signifie by the darkness of the Sun into what darkness and blindness of Ignorance and Idolatry Christendom should fall by the occasion of Images The bright Sun of his eternal Truth and light of his Holy Word by the mists and black Clouds of Mens Traditions being blemished and darkned as by sundry most terrible Earthquakes that happened about the same time God signified that the quiet estate of true Religion should by such Idolatry be most horribly tossed and turmoiled And here may you see what a gracious and virtuous Lady this Irene was how loving a Neece to her Husband's Uncles how kind a Mother-in-Law to her Son's Wife how loving a Daughter to her Father-in-Law how natural a Mother to her own Son and what a stout and valiant Captain the Bishops of Rome had of her for the setting up and maintenance of their Idols or Images Surely they could
of them the Pox Saint Roche the Falling-evil Saint Cornelis the Tooth-Ach Saint Apollin c. Neither do Beasts nor Cattel lack their Gods with us for Saint Loy is the Horsleach and Saint Anthony the Swineheard c. Where is Gods Providence and due Honour in the mean season Who saith The Heavens be mine and the Earth is mine the whole World and all that in it is I do give Victory and I put to Flight Of me be all Counsels and Help c. Except I keep the City in vain doth he watch that keepeth it thou Lord shalt save both Men and Beasts But we have left him neither Heaven nor Earth nor Water nor Country nor City Peace nor War to Rule and Govern neither Men nor Beasts nor their Diseases to Cure that a godly Man mâ—ght justly for Zealous Indignation cry out O Heaven O Earth and Seas what Madness and Wickedness against God are Men fallen into What dishonour do the Creatures to their Creator and Maker And if we remember God somtimes yet because we doubt of his ability or will to help we joyn to him another Helper as if he were a Noun Adjective using these sayings such as learn God and Saint Nicholas be my speed Such as neese God help and Saint John To the Horse God and Saint Loy save thee Thus are we become like Horses and Mules which have no Understanding For is there not one God only who by his Power and Wisdom made all things and by his Providence governeth the same And by his Goodness maintaineth and saveth them Be not all things of him by him and through him Why dost thou turn from the Creator to the Creatures This is the manner of the Gentiles Idolaters But thou art a Christian and therefore by Christ alone hast access to God the Father and help of him only These things are not written to any reproach of the Saints themselves who were the true Servants of God and did give all honour to him taking none unto themselves and are blessed Souls with God but against our Foolishness and Wickedness making of the true Servants of God false Gods by attributing to them the Power and Honour which is Gods and due to him only And for that we have such Opinions of the power and ready help of Saints all our Legends Hymns Sequences and Masses did contain Stories Lauds and Praises of them and Prayers to them yea and Sermons also altogether of them and to their Praises Gods Word being clean laid aside And this we do altogether agreeable to the Saints as did the Gentiles Idolaters to their false Gods For these Opinions which Men have had of mortal Persons were they never so holy the old most godly and learned Christians have written against the feigned Gods of the Gentiles and Christian Princes have destroyed their Images who if they were now living would doubtless likewise both write against our false Opinions of Saints and also destroy their Images For it is evident that our Image-maintainers have the same Opinion of Saints which the Gentiles had of their false Gods and thereby are moved to make them Images as the Gentiles did If answer be made that they make Saints but Intercessors to God and means for such things as they would obtain of God That is even after the Gentiles Idolatrous usage to make them of Saints Gods Medioximi Dii called Dii Medioximi to be mean Intercessors and Helpers to God as though he did not hear or should be weary if he did all alone So did the Gentiles teach that there was one chief Power working by other as means and so they made all Gods subject to Fate or Destiny as Lucian in his Dialogues feigneth that Neptune made suit to Mercury that he might speak with Jupiter And therefore in this also it is most evident that our Image-maintainers be all one in Opinion with the Gentiles Idolaters Now remaineth the third part that their Rites and Ceremonies in honouring and worshipping of the Images or Saints be all one with the Rites which the Gentiles Idolaters used in honouring their Idols First what meaneth it that Christians after the example of the Gentiles Idolaters go on pilgrimage to visit Images where they have the like at home but that they have a greater Opinion of Holiness and Virtue in some Images than other some like as the Gentiles Idolaters had which is the readiest way to bring them to Idolatry by worshipping of them and directly against Gods Word who saith Seek me Amos 5. and ye shall live and do not seek Bethel enter not into Gilgal neither go to Beersheba And against such as had any Superstition in the Holiness of the place as though they should be heard for the places sake saying Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that at Jerusalem is the place where Men should worship our Saviour Christ pronounceth John 4. Beâ—ieve me the hour cometh when you shall worship the Father neither in this Mountain nor at Jerusalem but true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth But it is too well known that by such pilgrimage-going Lady Venus and her Son Cupid were rather worshipped wantonly in the Flesh than God the Father and our Saviour Christ his Son truly worshipped in the Spirit And it was very agreeable Rom. 1. as Saint Paul teacheth that they which fell to Idolatry which is Spiritual Fornication should also fall into Carnal Fornication and all Uncleanness by the just Judgments of God delivering them over to abominable Concupiscences What meaneth it that Christian Men after the use of the Gentiles Idolaters cap and kneel before Images which if they had any Sense and Gratitude would kneel before Men Carpenters Masons Plaisterers Founders and Goldsmiths their Makers and Framers by whose means they have attained this Honour which else should have been evil-favoured and rude Lumps of Clay or Plaister pieces of Timber Stone or Metal without Shape or Fashion and so without all Estimation and Honour as that Idol in the Pagan Poet confesseth saying Horatius I was once a vile Block but now I am become a God c. What a fond thing is it for Man Adorare who hath Life and Reason to bowe himself to a dead and insensible Image the Work of his own Hand Gen. 23. and 33. Is not this stooping and kneeling before them Adoration of them which is forbidden so earnestly by Gods Word Let such as so fall down before Images of Saints know and confess that they exhibit that Honour to dead Stocks and Stones 3 Reg. 1. Acts 10. and 14. Apoc. 19. which the Saints themselves Peter Paul and Barnabas would not to be given them being alive which the Angel of God forbiddeth to be given to him And if they say they exhibit such Honour not to the Image but to the Saint whom it representeth they are convicted of folly to believe that they please Saints with that
burning of Incense and Candles hanging up of Crutchets Chains Ships Arms Legs and whole Men and Women of Wax kneeling and holding up of hands is done to the Images appeareth by this that where no Images be or where they have been and be taken away they do no such things at all But all the places frequented when the Images were there now they be taken away be forsaken and left desert nay now they hate and abhor the place deadly which is an evident proof that that which they did before was done in respect of the Images Wherefore when we see Men and Women on heaps go on Pilgrimage to Images kneel before them hold up their hands before them set up Candles burn Incense before them offer up Gold and Silver unto them hang up Ships Crutchets Chains Men and Women of Wax before them attributing health and safeguard the gifts of God to them or the Saints whom they represent as they rather would have it who I say who can doubt but that our Image-maintainers agreeing in all idolatrous Opinions outward Rites and Ceremonies with the Gentiles Idolaters agree also with them in committing most abominable Idolatry And to increase this madness wicked men which have the keeping of such Images for their greater lucre and advantage after the example of the Gentiles Idolaters have reported and spread abroad as well by lying tales as written fables divers Miracles of Images As that such an Image miraculously was sent from Heaven even like the Palladium or Magna Diana Ephesiorum Such another was as miraculously found in the Earth as the Mans Head was in the Capitol or the Horse head in Capua Such an Image was brought by Angels Such an one came it self far from the East to the West as Dame Fortune fled to Rome Such an Image of our Lady was painted by St. Luke whom of a Physician they have made a Painter for that purpose Such an one an hundred yokes of Oxen could not move like Bona Dea whom the Ship could not carry or Jupiter Olympius which laught the Artificers to scorn that went about to remove him to Rome Some Images though they were hard and stony yet for tender heart and pity wept Some like Castor and Pollux helping their Friends in Battel sweat as Marble Pillars do in dampish weather Some speak more monstrously than ever did Balaam's Ass who had life and breath in him Such a Cripple came and saluted this Saint of Oak and by and by he was made whole and lo here hangeth his Crutch Such an one in a Tempest vowed to St. Christopher and scaped and behold here is his Ship of Wax Such an one by St. Leonard's help brake out of Prison and see where his Fetters hang. And infinite thousands more Miracles by like or more shameless lies were reported Thus do our Image-maintainers in earnest apply to their Images all such Miracles as the Gentiles have feigned of their Idols And if it were to be admitted that some miraculous acts were by illusion of the Devil done where Images be For it is evident that the most part were feigned lies and crafty juglings of men yet followeth it not therefore that such Images are either to be honoured or suffered to remain no more than Ezechias left the brasen Serpent undestroyed when it was worshipped although it were both set up by Gods Commandment and also approved by a great and true Miracle for as many as beheld it were by and by healed neither ought Miracles to perswade us to do contrary to Gods Word For the Scriptures have for a warning hereof foreshewed that the Kingdom of Antichrist shall be mighty in Miracles and Wonders to the strong illusion of all the Reprobate But in this they pass the folly and wickedness of the Gentiles that they honour and worship the Reliques and Bones of our Saints which prove that they be mortal men and dead and therefore no gods to be worshipped which the Gentiles would never confess of their gods for very shame But the Reliques we must kiss and offer unto specially on Relique-Sunday And while we Offer that we should not be weary or repent us of our cost the Musick and Minstrelsie goeth merrily all the Offertory time with praising and calling upon those Saints whose Reliques be then in presence Yea and the Water also wherein those Reliques have been dipped must with great reverence be reserved as very Holy and effectual Is this agreeable to St. Chrysostom Homilia de septem Macchabaeis who writeth thus of Reliques Do not regard the Ashes of the Saints bodies nor the Reliques of their flesh and bones consumed with time but open the eyes of thy Faith and behold them clothed with Heavenly vertue and the grace of the Holy Ghost and shining with the brightness of the Heavenly light But our Idolaters found too much vantage of Reliques and Relique-water to follow St. Chrysostom's counsel And because Reliques were so gainful few places there were but they had Reliques provided for them And for more plenty of Reliques some one Saint had many Heads one in one place and another in another place Some had six Arms and twenty six Fingers And where our Lord bare his Cross alone if all the pieces of the Reliques thereof were gathered together the greatest Ship in England would scarcely bear them and yet the greatest part of it they say doth yet remâ—â—n in the hands of the Infidels for the which they pray on their Beads bidding that they may get it also in their hands for such godly use and purpose And not only the Bones of the Saints but every thing appertaining to them was an Holy Relique In some place they offer a Sword in some the Scabbard in some a Shoe in some a Saddle that had been set upon some holy Horse in some the Coals wherewith St. Laurence was roasted in some places the Tail of the Ass which our Lord Jesus Christ sate on to be kissed and offered unto for a Relique For rather than they would lack a Relique they would offer you a Horse-bone instead of a Virgins Arm or the Tail of the Ass to be kissed and offered unto for Reliques O wicked impudent most shameless men the devisers of these things O silly foolish and dastardly Daws and more beastly than the Ass whose Tail they kissed that believe such things Now God be merciful to such miserable and silly Christians who by the fraud and falshood of those which should have taught them the way of truth and life have been made not only more wicked than the Gentiles Idolaters but also no wiser than Asses Horses and Mules which have no Understanding Of these things already rehearsed it is evident that our Image-maintainers have not only made Images and set them up in Temples as did the Gentiles Idolaters their Idols but also that they have had the same Idolatrous Opinions of the Saints to whom they have made Images which the Gentiles Idolaters had of their
I pray you when they have the same Books at home with them run on Pilgrimage to seek like Books at Rome Compostella or Jerusalem to be taught by them when they have the like to learn at home Do men reverence some Books and despise and set light by other of the same sort Do men kneel before their Books light Candles at Noon-time burn Incense offer up Gold and Silver and other Gifts to their Books Do men either feign or believe Miracles to be wrought by their Books I am sure that the New Testament of our Saviour Jesus Christ containing the Word of Life is a more lively express and true Image of our Saviour than all carved graven molten and painted Images in the World be and yet none of all these things be done to that Book or Scripture of the Gospel of our Saviour which be done to Images or Pictures the Books and Scriptures of Lay-men and Idiots as they call them Wherefore call them what they list it is most evident by their deeds that they make of them no other Books nor Scripture than such as teach most filthy and horrible Idolatry as the users of such Books daily prove by continual practising the same O Books and Scriptures in the which the devilish School-master Satan hath penned the lewd Lessons of wicked Idolatry for his dastardly Disciples and Scholars to behold read and learn to Gods most high dishonour and their most horrible Damnation Have not we been much bound think you to those which should have taught us the truth out of Gods Book and his Holy Scripture that they have shut up that Book and Scripture from us and none of us so bold as once to open it or read in it and instead thereof to spread us abroad these goodly carved and gilded Books and painted Scriptures to teach us such good and godly Lessons Have not they done well after they ceased to stand in Pulpits themselves and to teach the People committed to their instruction keeping silence of Gods Word and become dumb Dogs as the Prophet calleth them to set up in their stead on every pillar and corner of the Church such goodly Doctors as dumb but more wicked than themselves be We need not to complain of the lack of one dumb Parson having so many dumb devilish Vicars I mean these Idols and painted Puppets to teach in their stead Now in the mean season whilst the dumb and dead Idols stand thus decked and cloathed contrary to Gods Law and Commandment the poor Christian People the lively Images of God commended to us so tenderly by our Saviour Christ as most dear to him stand naked shivering for cold and their Teeth chattering in their heads and no man covereth them are pined with Hunger and Thirst and no man giveth them a penny to refresh them whereas pounds be ready at all times contrary to Gods will to deck and trim dead stocks and stones which neither feel Cold Hunger nor Thirst Clemens hath a notable sentence concerning this matter saying thus That Serpent the Devil doth by the mouth of certain men utter these words We for the honour of the invisible God do worship visible Images which doubtless is most false For if you will truly honour the Image of God you shall by doing well to man honour the true Image of God in him For the Image of God is in every man But the likeness of God is not in every one but in those only which have a godly Heart and pure Mind If you will therefore truly honour the Image of God we do declare to you the truth that ye do well to man who is made after the Image of God that you give honour and reverence to him and refresh the hungry with meat the thirsty with drink the naked with clothes the sick with attendance the stranger harbourless with lodging the Prisoners with necessaries and this shall be accounted as truly bestowed upon God And these things are so directly appertaining to Gods Honour that whosoever doth not this shall seem to have reproached and done villany to the Image of God For what honour of God is this to run to Images of stock and stone and to honour vain and dead figures of God and to despise man in whom is the true Image of God And by and by after he saith Vnderstand ye therefore that this is the suggestion of the Serpent Satan lurking within you which perswadeth you that you are godly when you honour insensible and dead Images and that you be not ungodly when you hurt or leave unsuccoured the lively and reasonable Creatures All these be the words of Clemens Note I pray you how this most ancient and learned Doctor within one hundred years of our Saviour Christs time most plainly teacheth that no service of God or Religion acceptable to him can be in honouring of dead Images but in succouring of the Poor the lively Images of God according to St. James who saith This is the pure and true Religion before God the Father to succour fatherless and motherless Children and Widows in their affliction and to keep himself undefiled from this World True Religion then and pleasing of God standeth not in making setting up painting gilding clothing and decking of dumb and dead Images which be but great Puppets and Babies for Old Fools in dotage and wicked Idolatry to dally and play with nor in kissing of them capping kneeling offering to them incensing of them setting up of Candles hanging up of Legs Arms or whole Bodies of Wax before them or praying and asking of them or of Saints things belonging only to God to give But all these things be vain and abominable and most damnable before God Wherefore all such do not only bestow their mony and labour in vain but with their pains and cost purchase to themselves Gods wrath and utter indignation and everlasting damnation both of Body and Soul For ye have heard it evidently proved in these Homilies against Idolatry by Gods Word the Doctors of the Church Ecclesiastical Histories Reason and Experience that Images have been and be Worshipped and so Idolatry committed to them by infinite multitudes to the great offence of Gods Majesty and the danger of infinite Souls and that Idolatry cannot possibly be separated from Images set up in Churches and Temples gilded and decked gloriously and that therefore our Images be indeed very Idols and so all the Prohibitions Laws Curses Threatnings of horrible Plagues as well temporal as eternal contained in the Holy Scripture concerning Idols and the Makers and Maintainers and Worshippers of them appertain also to our Images set up in Churches and Temples and to the Makers Maintainers and Worshippers of them And all those names of abomination which Gods Word in the Holy Scriptures giveth to the Idols of the Gentiles appertain to our Images being Idols like to them and having like Idolatry committed unto them And Gods own mouth in the Holy Scriptures calleth them Vanities
be so answered at the King's hand but still urging him more and more said It becometh a King to perform the least word he hath spoken yea if he should only beck with his Head No more saith the King than it behoveth one that cometh to a King to speak and ask those things which are rightful and honest Thus the King cast off this unreasonable and importunate suiter Now if so great consideration be to be had when we kneel before an Earthly King how much more ought to be had when we kneel before the Heavenly King who is only delighted with Justice and Equity neither will admit any vain foolish or unjust Petition Therefore it shall be good and profitable throughly to consider and determine with our selves what things we may lawfully ask of God without fear of repulse and also what kind of Persons we are bound to commend unto God in our daily Prayers Two things are chiefly to be respected in every good and godly mans Prayer His own necessity and the glory of Almighty God Necessity belongeth either outwardly to the Body or else inwardly to the Soul Which part of man because it is much more precious and excellent than the other therefore we ought first of all to crave such things as properly belong to the salvation thereof as the gift of Repentance the gift of Faith the gift of Charity and Good Works Remission and Forgiveness of Sins Patience in Adversity Lowliness in Prosperity Gal. 5. and such other like fruits of the Spirit as Hope Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Meekness and Temperance which things God requireth of all them that profess themselves to be his Children saying unto them in this wise Matt. 5. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven And in another place also he saith Matt. 6. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and then all other things shall be given unto you Wherein he putteth us in mind that our chief and greatest care ought to be for those things which pertain to the health and safeguard of the Soul Hebr. 13. because we have here as the Apostle saith no continuing City but we seek after another in the World to come Now when we have sufficiently prayed for things belonging to the Soul then may we lawfully and with safe Conscience Pray also for our bodily Necessities as Meat Drink Clothing Health of Body deliverance out of Prison good luck in our daily Affairs and so forth according as we shall have need Whereof Matt. 6. Luke 11. what better Example can we desire to have than of Christ himself who taught his Disciples and all other Christian men first to pray for Heavenly things and afterward for Earthly things as is to be seen in that Prayer which he left unto his Church commonly called the Lords Prayer In the third Book of Kings and third Chapter it is written That God appeared by night in a dream unto Solomon the King saying Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt and I will give it thee Solomon made his Humble Prayer and asked a wise and prudent Heart that might judge and understand what were good and what were ill what were godly and what were ungodly what were righteous and what were unrighteous in the sight of the Lord. It pleased God wondrously that he had asked this thing And God said unto him Because thou hast requested this word and hast not desired many days and long years upon the Earth neither abundance of Riches and Goods nor yet the life of thine Enemies which hate thee but hast desired Wisdom to sit in Judgment behold I have done unto thee according to thy words I have given thee a wise heart full of knowledge and understanding so that there was never any like thee before time neither shall be in time to come Moreover I have besides this given thee that which thou hast not required namely worldly wealth and riches Princely honour and glory so that thou shalt therein also pass all Kings that ever were Note this Example how Solomon being put to his choice to ask of God whatsoever he would requested not vain and transitory things but the high and Heavenly Treasures of Wisdom and that in so doing he obtaineth as it were in recompence both Riches and Honour Wherein is given us to understand that in our daily Prayers we should chiefly and principally ask those things which concern the Kingdom of God and the Salvation of our own Souls nothing doubting but all other things shall according to the promise of Christ be given unto us But here we must take heed that we forget not that other end whereof mention was made before namely the Glory of God Which unless we mind and set before our Eyes in making our Prayers we may not look to be heard or to receive any thing of the Lord. In the xx Chapter of Matthew the Mother of the two Sons of Zebedee came unto Jesus worshipping him and saying Grant that my two Sons may sit in thy Kingdom the one on thy right hand and the other at thy left hand In this Petition she did not respect the Glory of God but plainly declared the ambition and vain-glory of her own mind for which cause she was also most worthily repelled and rebuked at the Lords hand In like manner we read in the Acts of one Simon Magus Acts 8. a Sorcerer how that he perceiving that through laying on of the Apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given offered them money saying Give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay my hands he may receive the Holy Ghost In making this Request he sought not the Honour and Glory of God but his own private Gain and Lucre thinking to get great store of Money by this feat and therefore it was justly said unto him Thy money perish with thee because thou thinkest that the gift of God may be obtained with money By these and such other Examples we are taught whensoever we make our Prayers unto God chiefly to respect the Honour and Glory of his Name Whereof we have this general Precept in the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 10. Coloss 3. Mat. 26. Luke 22. Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do look that ye do it to the glory of God Which thing we shall best of all do if we follow the example of our Saviour Christ who praying that the bitter Cup of Death might pass from him would not therein have his own will fulfilled but referred the whole matter to the good will and pleasure of his Father And hitherto concerning those things that we may lawfully and boldly ask of God Now it followeth that we declare what kind of Persons we are bound in Conscience to pray for St. Paul writing to Timothy 1 Tim. â— exhorteth him to make Prayers and Supplications for all men exempting none of what
People have of late years been plucked down and over-run and left waste with grievous and intolerable Tyranny and Cruelty of the Enemy of our Lord Christ the Great Turk who hath so universally scourged the Christians that never the like was heard or read of Above thirty years past the Great Turk had over-run conquered and brought into his Dominion and Subjection twenty Christian Kingdoms turning away the People from the Faith of Christ poisoning them with the devilish Religion of wicked Mahomet and either destroying their Churches utterly or filthily abusing them with their wicked and detestable Errors And now this Great Turk this bitter and sharp Scourge of Gods Vengeance is even at hand in this part of Christendom in Europe at the Borders of Italy at the Borders of Germany greedily gaping to devour us to over-run our Country to destroy our Churches also unless we repent our sinful life and resort more diligently to the Church to honour God to learn his blessed Will and to fulfil the same The Jews in their time provoked justly the vengeance of God for that partly they abused his Holy Temple with the detestable Idolatry of the Heathen and superstitious Vanities of their own Inventions contrary to Gods Commandment partly they resorted unto it as Hypocrites spotted imbrued and foulely defiled with all kind of wickedness and sinful life partly many of them passed little upon the Holy Temple and cared not whether they came thither or no. And have not the Christians of late days and even in our days also in like manner provoked the displeasure and indignation of Almighty God partly because they have profaned and defiled their Churches with Heathenish and Jewish abuses with Images and Idols with numbers of Altars too too superstitiously and intolerably abused with gross abusing and filthy corrupting of the Lords Holy Supper the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood with an infinite number of toys and trifles of their own devices to make a goodly outward shew and to deface the plain simple and sincere Religion of Christ Jesus partly they resort to the Church like Hypocrites full of all iniquity and sinful life having a vain and dangerous fansie and perswasion that if they come to the Church besprinkle them with Holy Water hear a Mass and be blessed with the Chalice though they understand not one word of the whole Service nor feel one motion of Repentance in their Hearts all is well all is sure Fie upon such mocking and blaspheming of Gods Holy Ordinance Churches were made for another purpose that is to resort thither and to serve God truly there to learn his blessed Will there to call upon his mighty Name there to use the Holy Sacraments there to travel how to be in Charity with thy Neighbour there to have thy poor and needy Neighbour in remembrance from thence to depart better and more godly than thou camest thither Finally Gods vengeance hath been and is daily provoked because much wicked People pass nothing to resort to the Church either for that they are so sore blinded that they understand nothing of God and godliness and care not with devilish example to offend their Neighbours or else for that they see the Church altogether scoured of such gay gazing sights as their gross phantasie was greatly delighted with because they see the false Religion abandoned and the true restored which seemeth an unsavoury thing to their unsavoury taste as may appear by this that a Woman said to her Neighbour Alas Gossip what shall we do at Church since all the Saints are taken away since all the goodly Sights we were wont to have are gone since we cannot hear the like piping singing chaunting and playing upon the Organs that we could before But Dearly Beloved we ought greatly to rejoyce and give God thanks that our Churches are delivered out of all those things which displeased God so sore and filthily defiled his Holy House and his Place of Prayer for the which he hath justly destroyed many Nations according to the saying of St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. If any man defile the Temple of God God will him destroy And this ought we greatly to praise God for that such Superstitious and Idolatrous manners as were utterly naught and defaced Gods glory are utterly abolished as they most justly deserved and yet those things that either God was honoured with or his People edified are decently retained and in our Churches comely practised But now forasmuch 〈◊〉 ye perceive it is Gods determinate pleasure ye should resort unto your Churches upon the day of Holy Rest seeing ye hear what displeasure God conceiveth what Plagues he poureth upon his disobedient People seeing ye understand what Blessings of God are given what Heavenly Commodities come to such People as desirously and zealously use to resort unto their Churches seeing also ye are now friendly bidden and joyntly called beware that ye slack not your Duty take heed that you suffer nothing to let you hereafter to come to the Church at such times as you are ordinarily appointed and commanded Our Saviour Christ telleth in a Parable that a great Supper was prepared Guests were bidden many excused themselves and would not come I tell you saith Christ none of them that were called shall taste of my Supper This great Supper is the true Religion of Almighty God wherewith he will be worshipped in the due receiving of his Sacraments and sincere preaching and hearing of his Holy Word and practising the same by godly conversation This Feast is now prepared in Gods Banqueting-House the Church you are thereunto called and joyntly bidden if you refuse to come and make your excuses the same will be answered to you that was unto them Now come therefore Dearly Beloved without delay and chearfully enter into Gods Feasting-house and become partakers of the Benefits provided and prepared for you But see that ye come thither with your Holy-day Garment not like Hypocrites not of a custom and for manners sake not with lothsomness as though ye had rather not come than come if ye were at your liberty For God hateth and punisheth such counterfeit Hypocrites as appeareth by Christs former Parable My Friend saith God how camest thou in without a Wedding-garment And therefore commanded his servants to bind him hand and foot and to cast him into utter darkness where shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth To the intent that ye may avoid the like danger at Gods hand come to the Church on the Holy-day and come in your Holy-day Garment that is to say come with a chearful and a godly Mind come to seek Gods glory and to be thankful unto him come to be at one with thy Neighbour and to enter in Friendship and Charity with him Consider that all thy doings stink before the face of God if thou be not in Charity with thy Neighbour Come with an Heart sifted and cleansed from worldly and carnal affections and desires shake off all vain
in the Scripture Another would have a Medicine to all Diseases and Maladies of the Mind Can this be found or gotten otherwhere than out of Gods own Book his sacred Scriptures Christ taught so much when he said to the obstinate Jews Search the Scriptures John 5. for in them ye think to have eternal life If the Scriptures contain in them Everlasting Life it must needs follow that they have also present remedy against all that is an hindrance and let unto eternal life If we desire the knowledge of Heavenly Wisdom why had we rather learn the same of man than of God himself James 1. Mat. 28. who as St. James saith is the giver of wisdom Yea why will we not learn it at Christs own mouth who promising to be present with his Church till the Worlds end doth perform his promise in that he is not only with us by his grace and tender pity but also in this that he speaketh presently unto us in the Holy Scriptures to the great and endless comfort of all them that have any feeling of God at all in them Yea he speaketh now in the Scriptures more profitably to us than he did by word of mouth to the carnal Jews when he lived with them here upon Earth For they I mean the Jews could neither hear nor see those things which we may now both hear and see if we will bring with us those Ears and Eyes that Christ is heard and seen with that is diligence to hear and read his Holy Scriptures and true Faith to believe his most comfortable Promises If one could shew but the print of Christs Foot a great number I think would fall down and worship it But to the Holy Scriptures where we may see daily if we will I will not say the print of his Feet only but the whole shape and lively Image of him alas we give little reverence or none at all If any could let us see Christs Coat a sort of us would make hard shift except we might come nigh to gaze upon it yea and kiss it too And yet all the Clothes that ever he did wear can nothing so truly nor so lively express him unto us as do the Scriptures Christs Images made in Wood Stone or Metal some men for the love they bear to Christ do garnish and beautifie the same with Pearl Gold and Precious Stones And should we not good Brethren much rather embrace and reverence Gods Holy Books the sacred Bible which do represent Christ unto us more truly than can any Image The Image can but express the form or shape of his Body if it can do so much But the Scriptures do in such sort set forth Christ that we may see both God and man we may see him I say speaking unto us healing our Infirmities dying for our sins rising from death for our Justification And to be short we may in the Scriptures so perfectly see whole Christ with the Eye of Faith as we lacking Faith could not with these bodily Eyes see him though he stood now present here before us Let every Man Woman and Child therefore with all their Hearts thirst and desire Gods Holy Scriptures love them embrace them have their delight and pleasure in hearing and reading them so as at length we may be transformed and changed into them For the Holy Scriptures are Gods Treasure-House wherein are found all things needful for us to see to hear to learn and to believe necessary for the attaining of Eternal Life Thus much is spoken only to give you a taste of some of the Commodities which ye may take by hearing and reading the Holy Scriptures For as I said in the beginning no Tongue is able to declare and utter all And although it is more clear than the noon day that to be ignorant of the Scriptures is the cause of Error as Christ saith to the Sadduces Ye err not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. and that Error doth hold back and pluck men away from the knowledge of God And as St. Jerome saith Not to know the Scriptures is to be ignorant of Christ Yet this notwithstanding some there be that think it not meet for all sorts of men to read the Scriptures because they are as they think in sundry places stumbling-blocks to the unlearned First for that the phrase of the Scripture is sometime so simple gross and plain that it offendeth the fine and delicate Wits of some Courtiers Furthermore for that the Scripture also reporteth even of them that have their commendation to be the Children of God that they did divers acts whereof some are contrary to the Law of Nature some repugnant to the Law written and other some seem to fight manifestly against publick Honesty All which things say they are unto the simple an occasion of great offence and cause many to think evil of the Scriptures and to discredit their Authority Some are offended at the hearing and reading of the diversity of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Sacrifices and Oblations of the Law And some worldly witted men think it great decay to the quiet and prudent governing of their Common-weals to give ear to the simple and plain Rules and Precepts of our Saviour Christ in his Gospel as being offended that a man should be ready to turn his right Ear to him that struck him on the left and to him which would take away his Coat to offer him also his Cloak with such other sayings of perfection in Christs meaning For Carnal Reason being alway an Enemy to God and not perceiving the things of Gods Spirit doth abhor such Precepts which yet rightly understood infringeth no Judicial Policies nor Christian mens Governments And some there be which hearing the Scriptures to bid us to live without carefulness without study or fore-casting to deride the simplicities of them Therefore to remove and put away occasions of offence so much as may be I will answer orderly to these Objections First I shall rehearse some of those places that men are offended at for the simplicity and grosness of speech and will shew the meaning of them In the Book of Deuteronomy it is written That Almighty God made a Law if a man died without issue his brother or next kinsman should marry his Widow and the child that was first born between them should be called his child that was dead that the dead mans name might not be put out in Israel And if the Brother or next Kinsman would not marry the Widow then she before the Magistrates of the City should pull off his shoe and spit in his face saying So be it done to that man that will not build his brothers house Here Dearly beloved the pulling off his shoe and spitting in his face were Ceremonies to signifie unto all the People of that City that the Woman was not now in fault that Gods Law in that point was broken but the whole shame and blame thereof did now redound to
certainly certified of Gods Holy Will they both do most earnestly exhort us and in all their writings almost continually admonish us that we would remember the Poor and bestow our charitable Alms upon them St. Paul crieth unto us after this sort Comfort the feeble minded 1 Thess 5. lift up the weak and be charitable towards all men And again To do good to the poor Hebr. 13. and to distribute alms gladly see that thou do not forget for with such sacrifices God is pleased Esay 58. Esay the Prophet teacheth on this wise Deal thy bread to the hungry and bring the poor wandring home to thy house When thou seest the naked see thou clothe him and hide not thy face from thy poor neighbour neither despise thou thine own flesh And the Holy Father Toby giveth this counsel Tob. 4. Give alms saith he of thine own goods and turn never thy face from the poor eat thy bread with the hungry and cover the naked with thy clothes And the learned and godly Doctor Chrysostom giveth admonition Ad pop Aâ—tioch Hom. 35. Let merciful Alms be always with us as a Garment that is as mindful as we will be to put our garments upon us to cover our nakedness to defend us from the cold and to shew our selves comely So mindful let us be at all times and seasons that we give Alms to the Poor and shew our selves merciful towards them But what mean these often admonitions and earnest exhortations of the Prophets Apostles Fathers and holy Doctors Surely as they were faithful to God-ward and therefore discharged their Duty truly in telling us what was Gods Will so of a singular love to us-ward they laboured not only to inform us but also to perswade us that to give Alms and to succour the poor and needy was a very acceptable thing and an high Sacrifice to God wherein he greatly delighted and had a singular pleasure For so doth the Wise Man the Son of Syrach teach us saying Ecclus. 33. Whoso is merciful and giveth alms he offereth the right thank-offering And he addeth thereunto The right thank-offering maketh the Altar fat and a sweet smell it is before the Highest it is acceptable before God and shall never be forgotten And the truth of this Doctrine is verified by the examples of those holy and charitable Fathers of whom we read in the Scriptures that they were given to merciful compassion towards the Poor and charitable relieving of their necessities Such a one was Abraham in whom God had so great pleasure that he vouchsafed to come unto him in form of an Angel and to be entertained of him at his House Such was his kinsman Lot whom God so favoured for receiving his Messengers into his House which otherwise should have lien in the street that he saved him with his whole Family from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha Such were the Holy Fathers Job and Toby with many others who felt most sensible proofs of Gods special love towards them And as all these by their mercifulness and tender compassion which they shewed to the miserable afflicted Members of Christ in the relieving helping and succouring them with their Temporal Goods in this life obtained Gods favour and were dear acceptable and pleasant in his sight so now they themselves take pleasure in the fruition of God in the pleasant joys of Heaven and are also in Gods eternal Word set before us as perfect examples ever before our eyes both how we shall please God in this mortal life and also how we may come to live in joy with them in everlasting pleasure and felicity For most true is that saying which Augustine hath that the giving of Alms and relieving of the Poor is the right way to Heaven Via Coeli pauper est The Poor man saith he is the way to Heaven They used in times past to set in High-ways sides the Picture of Mercury pointing with his finger which was the right way to the Town And we use in cross-ways to set up a wooden or stone Cross to admonish the travelling man which way he must turn when he cometh thither to direct his Journey aright But Gods Word as St. Augustine saith hath set in the way to Heaven the Poor Man and his House so that whoso will go aright thither and not turn out of the way must go by the poor The poor man is that Mercury that shall set us the ready way and if we look well to this mark we shall not wander much out of the right path The manner of wise worldly men amongst us is that if they know a man of a meaner Estate than themselves to be in favour with the Prince or any other Noble-man whom they either fear or love such a one they will be glad to benefit and pleasure that when they have need they may become their Spokesman either to obtain a commodity or to escape a displeasure Now surely it ought to be a shame to us that worldly men for temporal things that last but for a season should be more wise and provident in procuring them than we in heavenly Our Saviour Christ testifieth of poor men that they are dear unto him and that he loveth them especially For he calleth them his little ones by a name of tender love he saith they be his brethren And St. James saith that God hath chosen them to be the Heirs of his Kingdom James â— Hath not God saith he chosen the poor of this World to himself to make them hereafter the rich heirs of that Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him And we know that the Prayer which they make for us shall be acceptable and regarded of God their complaint shall be heard also Thereof doth Jesus the Son of Syrach certainly assure us saying Ecclus. 4. If the poor complain of thee in the bitterness of his soul his prayer shall be heard even he that made him shall hear him Be courteous therefore unto the Poor We know also that he who acknowledgeth himself to be their Master and Patron and refuseth not to take them for his Servants is both able to pleasure and displeasure us and that we stand every hour in need of his help Why should we then be either negligent or unwilling to procure their friendship and favour by the which also we may be assured to get his favour that is both able and willing to do us all pleasures that are for our commodity and wealth Christ doth declare by this how much he accepteth our charitable affection toward the Poor in that he promiseth a reward unto them that give but a cup of cold water in his name to them that have need thereof and that reward is the Kingdom of Heaven No doubt is it therefore that God regardeth highly that which he rewardeth so liberally For he that promiseth a Princely recompence for a beggerly benevolence declareth that he is more delighted with
condemned unto death to take upon him the reward of our sins and to give his Body to be broken on the Cross for our offences He saith the Prophet Esay Esay 55. meaning Christ hath born our infirmities and hath carried our sorrows the chastisements of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we were made whole 2 Cor. 5. St. Paul likewise saith God made him a sacrifice for our sins which knew not sin that we should be made the righteousness of God by him And St. Peter most agreeably writing in this behalf saith Christ hath once died and suffered for our sins the just for the unjust c. To these might be added an infinite number of other places to the same effect but these few shall be sufficient for this time Now then as it was said in the beginning let us ponder and weigh the cause of his death that thereby we may be the more moved to glorifie him in our whole life Which if you will have comprehended briefly in one word it was nothing else on our part but only the transgression and sin of mankind When the Angel came to warn Joseph that he should not fear to take Mary to his Wife Did he not therefore will the Childs Name to be called Jesus because he should save his People from their sins When John the Baptist preached Christ and shewed him to the People with his finger Did he not plainly say unto them John 1. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the World When the Woman of Canaan besought Christ to help her Daughter which was possest with a Devil Mat. 15. Did he not openly confess that he was sent to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel by giving his life for their sins It was sin then O man even thy sin that caused Christ the only Son of God to be crucified in the flesh and to suffer the most vile and slanderous death of the Cross If thou hadst kept thy self upright if thou hadst observed the Commandments if thou hadst not presumed to transgress the will of God in thy first Father Adam then Christ Rom. 5. being in form of God needed not to have taken upon him the shape of a Servant being immortal in Heaven he needed not to become mortal on Earth being the true Bread of the Soul he needed not to hunger being the healthful Water of Life he needed not to thirst being life it self he needed not to have suffered death But to these and many other such extremities was he driven by thy sin which was so manifold and great that God could be only pleased in him and none other Canst thou think of this O sinful man and not tremble within thy self Canst thou hear it quietly without remorse of Conscience and sorrow of Heart Did Christ suffer his Passion for thee and wilt thou shew no compassion towards him While Christ was yeâ— hanging on the Cross and yielding up the Ghost the Scripture witnesseth that the veil of the Temple did rent in twain Mat. 27. and the Earth did quake that the stones clave asunder that the Graves did open and the dead bodies rise and shall the Heart of man be nothing moved to remember how grievously and cruelly he was handled of the Jews for our sins Shall man shew himself to be more hard hearted than stones to have less compassion than dead Bodies Call to mind O sinful Creature and set before thine eyes Christ crucified Think thou seest his Body stretched out in length upon the Cross his Head crowned with sharp Thorns and his Hands and his Feet pierced with Nails his Heart opened with a long Spear his Flesh rent and torn with Whips his Brows sweating Water and Blood Think thou hearest him now crying in an intolerable agony to his Father and saying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Couldst thou behold this woful sight or hear this mournful voice without Tears considering that he suffered all this not for any desert of his own but only for the grievousness of thy sins O that mankind should put the everlasting Son of God to such pains O that we should be the occasion of his death and the only cause of his condemnation May we not justly cry wo worth the time that ever we sinned O my Brethren let this Image of Christ crucified be always printed in our hearts let it stir us up to the hatred of sin and provoke our minds to the earnest love of Almighty God For why is not sin think you a grievous thing in his sight seeing for the transgressing of Gods Precept in eating of one Apple he condemned all the Wâ—â—ld to perpetual death and would not be pacified but only with the blood of his own Son True yea most true is that saying of David Psal 5. Thou O Lord hatest all them that work iniquity neither shall the wicked and evil man dwell with thee By the mouth of his holy Prophet Esay Esay 5. he cried mainly out against sinners and saith Wo be unto you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with cart-ropes Did he not give a plain token how greatly he hated and abhorred sin Gen. 7. when he drowned all the World save only eight Persons when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with Fire and Brimstone Gen. 19. 1 Kings 26. when in three days space he killed with Pestilence threescore and ten thousand for David's offence when he drowned Pharaoh and all his Host in the Red-Sea Exod. 14. Daniel 4. when he turned Nabuchodonosor the King into the form of a brute Beast creeping upon all four 2 Kings 27. Acts 1. when he suffered Achitophel and Judas to hang themselves upon the remorse of sin which was so terrible to their eyes A thousand such examples are to be found in Scripture if a man would stand to seek them out But what need we This one example which we have now in hand is of more force and ought more to move us than all the rest Christ being the Son of God and perfect God himself who never committed sin was compelled to come down from Heaven to give his Body to be bruised and broken on the Cross for our sins Was not this a manifest token of Gods great wrath and displeasure towards sin that he could be pacified by no other means but only by the sweet and precious Blood of his dear Son O sin sin that ever thou shouldest drive Christ to such extremity Wo worth the time that ever thou camest into the World But what booteth it now to bewail Sin is come and so come that it cannot be avoided There is no man living Prov. 24. no not the justest man on the Earth but he falleth seven times a day as Solomon saith And our Saviour Christ although he hath delivered us from sin yet not so that we shall be free from committing sin but so that it
sent down from Heaven unto us the Holy Ghost nor that he sitteth on the right hand of his Heavenly Father having the Rule of Heaven and Earth Psal 17. reigning as the Prophet saith from Sea to Sea nor that he should after this World be the Judge as well of the living as of the dead to give reward to the good and judgment to the evil That these Links therefore of our Faith should all hang together in stedfast establishment and confirmation it pleased our Saviour not straitway to withdraw himself from the bodily presence and sight of his Disciples but he chose out forty days wherein he would declare unto them by manifold and most strong arguments and tokens that he had conquered Death and that he was also truly risen again to life He began saith Luke at Moses and all the Prophets Luke 24. and expounded unto them the Prophesies that were written in all the Scriptures of him to the intent to confirm the truth of his Resurrection long before spoken of which he verified indeed as it is declared very apparently and manifestly by his oft appearance to sundry Persons at sundry times First Mat 28. he sent his Angels to the Sepulcher who did shew unto certain Women the empty Grave saying that the burial-linen remained therein And by these signs were these Women fully instructed that he was risen again and so did they testifie it openly After this Jesus himself appeared to Mary Magdalen John 20. and after that to certain other Women and strait afterward he appeared to Peter then to the two Disciples which were going to Emmaus 1 Cor. 15. He appeared to the Disciples also as they were gathered together for fear of the Jews the door shut Luke 24. John 21. At another time he was seen at the Sea of Tiberias of Peter and Thomas and of other Disciples when they were fishing He was seen of more than five hundred brethren in the Mount of Galilee where Jesus appointed them to be by his Angel when he said Behold he shall go before you into Galilee there shall ye see him as he hath said unto you After this he appeared unto James and last of all he was visibly seen of all the Apostles Acts 1. at such time as he was taken up into Heaven Thus at sundry times he shewed himself after he was risen again to confirm and stablish this Article And in these revelations sometime he shewed them his Hands his Feet and his Side and bad them touch him that they should not take him for a Ghost or a Spirit Sometime he also did eat with them but ever he was talking with them of the everlasting Kingdom of God to assure the truth of his Resurrection Luke 24. For then be opened their understanding that they might perceive the Scriptures and said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to risâ— from death the third day and that there should be preached openly in his name pardon and remission of sins to all the Nations of the World Ye see good Christian People how necessary this Article of our Faith is seeing it was proved of Christ himself by such evident reasons and tokens by so long time and space Now therefore as our Saviour was diligent for our comfort and instruction to declare it so let us be as ready in our belief to receive it to our comfort and instruction As he died not for himself no more did he rise again for himself â— Cor. 15. He was dead saith St. Paul for our sins and rose again for our justification O most comfortable word evermore to be born in remembrance He died saith he to put away sin he rose again to endow us with righteousness His death took away sin and malediction his death was the Ransom of them both his death destroyed death and overcame the Devil which had the power of death in his subjection his death destroyed Hell with all the damnation thereof Thus is Death swallowed up by Christs Victory thus is Hell spoiled for ever If any man doubt of this Victory let Christs glorious Resurrection declare him the thing If Death could not keep Christ under his dominion and power but that he rose again it is manifest that his power was overcome If Death be conquered then must it follow that sin wherefore death was appointed as the wages must be also destroyed If Death and Sin be vanished away then is the Devil's Tyranny vanished which had the power of Death and was the author and brewer of sin and the ruler of Hell If Christ had the victory of them all by the power of his death and openly proved it by his most victorious and valiant Resurrection as it was not possible for his great might to be subdued of them and it is true that Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification Why may not we that be his Members by true Faith rejoyce and boldly say with the Prophet Hosea and the Apostle Paul Where is thy Dart O Death Where is thy Victory O Hell Thanks be unto God say they which hath given us the Victory by our Lord Jesus Christ This mighty Conquest of his Resurrection was not only signified before by divers figures of the Old Testament as by Samson when he slew the Lion out of whose mouth came sweetness and honey and as David bare his figure when he delivered the Lamb out of the Lions mouth 1 Reg. 17. and when he overcame and slew the great Giant Goliath and as when Jonas was swallowed up in the Whales mouth Jonas 1. and cast up again on land alive but was also most clearly prophesied by the Prophets of the Old Testament and in the New also confirmed by the Apostles He hath spoiled saith St. Paul Rule and Power Col. 2. and all the Dominion of our spiritual enemies He hath made a shew of them openly and hath triumphed over them in his own person This is the mighty power of the Lord whom we believe on By his Death hath he wrought for us this Victory and by his Resurrection hath he purchased Everlasting Life and Righteousness for us It had not been enough to be delivered by his Death from sin except by his Resurrection we had been endowed with righteousness And it should not avail us to be delivered from death except he had risen again to open for us the Gates of Heaven to enter into life everlasting And therefore St. Peter thanketh God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for his abundant mercy 1 Pet. 1. because he hath begotten us saith he unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from death to enjoy an inheritance immortal that never shall perish which is laid up in Heaven for them that be kept by the power of God through Faith Thus hath his Resurrection wrought for us life and righteousness He passed through Death and
O thou that art desirous of this Table of Emissenus a godly Father Euseb Emiserem de Euchar. that when thou goest up to the reverend Communion to be satisfied with spiritual meats thou look up with Faith upon the Holy Body and Blood of thy God thou marvel with reverence thou touch it with the mind thou receive it with the hand of thy heart and thou take it fully with thy inward man Thus we see Beloved that resorting to this Table we must pluck up all the roots of infidelity all distrust in Gods promises that we make our selves living Members of Christs Body For the unbelievers and faithless cannot feed upon that precious Body whereas the faithful have their life their abiding in him their union and as it were their incorporation with him Wherefore let us prove and try our selves unfeigned without flattering our selves whether we be Plants of the fruitful Olive living branches of the true Vine Members indeed of Christs Mystical Body whether God hath purified our hearts by Faith to the sincere acknowledging of his Gospel and embracing of his mercies in Christ Jesus so that at this his Table we receive not only the outward Sacrament but the spiritual thing also not the Figure but the Truth not the shadow only but the body not to death but to life not to destruction but to salvation which God grant us to do through the merits of our Lord and Saviour To whom be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen The Second Part of the Homily of the Worthy Receiving and Reverent Esteeming of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ IN the Homily of late rehearsed unto you ye have heard good People why it pleased our Saviour our Christ to institute that heavenly memory of his Death and Passion and that every one of us ought to celebrate the same at his Table in our own Persons and not by other You have heard also with what estimation and knowledge of so high Mysteries we ought to resort thither You have heard with what constant Faith we should clothe and deck our selves that we might be fit and decent partakers of that Celestial Food Now followeth the third thing necessary in him that would not eat of this Bread nor drink of this Cup unworthily which is newness of life and godliness of conversation For newness of life as fruits of Faith are required in the partakers of this Table We may learn by eating of the Typical Lamb whereunto no man was admitted but he that was a Jew that was circumcised that was before sanctified Yea St. Paul testifieth 1 Cor. 10. that although the People were partakers of the Sacraments under Moses yet for that some of them were still Worshippers of Images Whoremongers Tempters of Christ Murmurers and coveting after evil things God overthrew those in the Wilderness and that for our example that is that we Christians should take heed we resort unto our Sacraments with holiness of life not trusting in the outward receiving of them and infected with corrupt and uncharitable manners For this sentence of God must always be justified I will have mercy and not sacrifice De Bapt. lib. 1. cap. 3. Wherefore saith Basil it behoveth him that cometh to the Body and Blood of Christ in commemoration of him that died and rose again not only to be pure from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit lest he eat and drink his own condemnation but also to shew out evidently a memory of him that died and rose again for us in this point that ye be mortified to Sin and the World to live now to God in Christ Jesu our Lord. So then we must shew outward testimony in following the signification of Christs death amongst the which this is not esteemed least to render thanks to Almighty God for all his benefits briefly comprised in the Death Passion and Resurrection of his dearly beloved Son The which thing because we ought chiefly at this Table to solemnize the godly Fathers named it Eucharistia that is Thanksgiving As if they should have said Now above all other times ye ought to laud and praise God Now may you behold the matter the cause the beginning and the end of all Thanksgiving Now if you slack ye shew your selves most unthankful and that no other benefit can ever stir you to thank God who so little regard here so many so wonderful and so profitable benefits Seeing then that the name and thing it self doth monish us of thanks Heb. 13. let us as St. Paul saith offer always to God the host or sacrifice of praise by Christ that is the fruit of the lips which confess his Name For as David singeth Psal 50. He that offereth to God thanks and praise honoureth him But how few be there of thankful Persons in comparison to the unthankful Luke 17. Lo ten Lepers in the Gospel were healed and but one only returned to give thanks for his Health Yea happy it were if among sorty Communicants we could see two unfeignedly give thanks So unkind we be so oblivious we be so proud Beggers we be that partly we care nor for our own commodity partly we know not our Duty to God and chiefly we will not confess all that we receive Yea and if we be forced by Gods power to do it yet we handle it so coldly so drily that our lips praise him but our hearts dispraise him our tongues bless him but our life curseth him our words worship him but our works dishonour him O let us therefore learn to give God here thanks aright and so to agnize his exceeding graces poured upon us that they being shut up in the Treasure-house of our Heart may in due time and season in our life and conversation appear to the glorifying of his Holy Name Furthermore for newness of Life it is to be noted that St. Paul writeth That we being many are one bread and one body For all be partakers of one bread Declaring thereby not only our Communion with Christ but that Unity also wherein they that eat at this Table should be knit together For by Dissension Vain-glony Ambition Strife Envying Contempt Hatred or Malice they should not be dissevered but so joyned by the bond of Love in one Mystical Body as the corns of that Bread in one Loaf In respect of which strait knot of Charity the true Christians in the Primitive Church called this Supper Love As if they should say none ought to sit down there that were out of love and charity who bare grudge and vengeance in his Heart who also did not profess hiâ— kind affection by some Charitable Relief for some part of the Congregation And this was their Practice O Heavenly Banquet then so used O Godly Guests who so esteemed this Feasts But O wretched Creatures that we be at these days who be without reconciliation of our Brethren whom we have offended without satisfying them whom we have caused to
Henry the Emperor with his Wife and young Child to stand at the Gates of the City in the rough Winter bare Footed and bare legged only cloathed in Linsey Wolsey eating nothing from Morning to Night and that for the space of three days Shall we say that he had Gods holy Spirit within him and not rather the Spirit of the Devil Such a Tyrant was Pope Hildebrand most worthy to be called a Firebrand if we shall term him as he hath best deserved Many other examples might here be alledged As of Pope Joan the Harlot that was delivered of a Child in the High-street going solemnly in Procession Of Pope Julius the II. that wilfully cast St. Peters Keys into the River Tiberis Of Pope Urban the VI. that caused five Cardinals to be put in Sacks and cruely drowned Of Pope Sergius the III. that persecuted the dead Body of Formosus his Predecessor when it had been buried eight years Of Pope John the XIV of that name who having his Enemy delivered into his hands caused him first to be stripped stark naked his Beard to be shaven and to be hanged up a whole day by the Hair then to be set upon an Ass with his face backward toward the Tail to be carried round about the City in despite to be miserably beaten with Rods last of all to be thrust out of his Country and to be banished for ever But to conclude and make an end ye shall briefly take this short Lesson wheresoever ye find the Spirit of Arrogance and Pride the Spirit of Envy Hatred Contention Cruelty Murder Extortion Witchcraft Necromancy c. Assure your selves that there is the Spirit of the Devil and not of God albeit they pretend outwardly to the World never so much Holiness For as the Gospel teacheth us The Spirit of Jesus is a good Spirit an holy Spirit a sweet Spirit a lowly Spirit a merciful Spirit full of Charity and Love full of Forgiveness and Pity not rendring evil for evil extremity for extremity but overcoming evil with good and remitting all offence oven from the heart According to which Rule if any Man live uprightly of him it may be safely pronounced that he hath the Holy Ghost within him If not then it is a plain token that he doth usurp the the name of the Holy Ghost in vain Therefore dearly beloved according to the good Counsel of St. John Believe not every Spirit 1 John 4. but first try them whether they be of God or no. Many shall come in my namâ— saith Christ Mat. 24. and shall transform themselves into Angels of Light deceiving if it be possible the very Elect. They shall come unto you in Sheeps Cloathing being inwardly cruel and ravening Wolves they shall have an outward shew of great Holiness and innocency of Life so that ye shall hardly or not at all discern them But the Rule that ye must follow is this To judge them by their Fruits Mat. 7. which if they be wicked and naught then it is unpossible that the Tree of whom they proceed should be good Such were all the Popes and Prelates of Rome for the most part as doth well appear in the Story of their Lives and therefore they are worthily accounted among the number of false Prophets and false Christs Luke 6. which deceived the World a long while The Lord of Heaven and Earth defend us from their Tyranny and Pride that they never enter into his Vineyard again to the disturbance of his silly poor Flock but that they may be utterly confounded and put to flight in all parts of the World and he of his great mercy so work in all Mens hearts by the mighty power of the Holy Ghost that the comfortable Gospel of his Son Christ may be truly preached truly received and truly followed in all places to the beating down of Sin Death the Pope the Devil and all the Kingdom of Antichrist that like scattered and dispersed Sheep being at length gathered into one fold we may in the end rest all together in the Bosom of Abraham Isaac and Jacob there to be partakers of Eternal and Everlasting Life through the merits and death of Jesus Christ our Saviour Amen AN HOMILY FOR THE Days of Rogation-Week That all good things come from God I Am purposed this day good devout Christian People to declare unto you the most deserved praise and commendation of Almighty God not only in the consideration of the marvellous Creation of this World or for conservation and governance thereof wherein his great Power and Wisdom might excellently appear to move us to honor and dread him but most especially in consideration of his liberal and large goodness which he daily bestoweth on us his reasonable Creatures for whose sake he made the whole Universal World with all the Commodities and Goods therein which his singular goodness well and diligently remembred on our part should move us as Duty is again with hearty affection to love him and with word and deed to praise him and serve him all the days of our Life And to this matter being so worthy to entreat of and so profitable for you to hear I trust I shall not need with much circumstance of Words to stir you to give your Attendance to hear what shall be said Only I would wish your affection inflamed in secret wise within your self to raise up some motion of Thanksgiving to the goodness of Almighty God in every such Point as shall be opened by my Declaration particularly unto you For else what shall it avail us to hear and know the great goodness of God towards us to know that whatsoever is good proceedeth from him as from the principal Fountain and the only Author or to know that whatsoever is sent from him must needs be good and wholsome If the hearing of such matter moveth us no further but to know it only what availeth it the wise Men of the World tâ— have knowledge of the Power and Divinity of God by the secret inspiration of him where they did not honor and glorifie him in their knowledge as God What praise was it to them by the consideration of the Creation of the World to behold his goodness and not to be thankful to him again for his Creatures What other thing deserved this blindness and forgetfulness of them at Gods hands but utter forsaking of him and so forsaking of God they could not but fall into extream Ignorance and Error And although they much esteemed themselves in their Wits and Knowledge and gloried in their Wisdom yet vanished they away blindly in their thoughts became Fools and perished in their folly There can be none other end of such as draw nigh to God by knowledge and yet depart from him in unthankfulness but utter destruction This Experience saw David in his Days for in his Psalm he saith Behold they which withdraw themselves from thee shall perish Psal 73. for thou hast destroyed them all
that are strayed from thee This Experience was perceived to be true of that holy Prophet Jeremy Jer. 15. O Lord saith he whatsoever they be that forsake thee shall be confounded they that depart from thee shall be written in the Earth and soon forgotten It profiteth not good People to hear the goodness of God declared unto us if our hearts be not enflamed thereby to honor and thank him It profited not the Jews which were Gods elect People to hear much of God seeing that he was not received in their hearts by Faith nor thanked for his benefits bestowed upon them their unthankfulness was the cause of their destruction Let us eschew the manner of these before rehearsed and follow rather the Example of that holy Apostle St. Paul who when in a deep Meditation he did behold the marvellous Proceedings of Almighty God and considered his infinite goodness in the ordering of his Creatures he burst out into this conclusion Surely saith he of him Rom. 11. by him and in him be all things And this once pronounced he stuck not still at this Point but forthwith thereupon joyned to these words To him be glory and praise for ever Amen Upon the ground of which words of St. Paul good Audience I purpose to build my Exhortation of this day unto you Wherein I shall do my endeavour First To prove unto you that all good things come down unto us from above from the Father of Light Secondly That Jesus Christ his Son and our Saviour is the mean by whom we receive his liberal goodness Thirdly That in the power and vertue of the Holy Ghost we be made meet and able to receive his gifts and graces Which things distinctly and advisedly considered in our minds must needs compel us in most low reverence after our bounden Duty always to render him thanks again in some testification of our good hearts for his deserts unto us And that the entreating of this matter in hand may be to the glory of Almighty God Let us in one Faith and Charity call upon the Father of Mercy from whom cometh every good gift and every perfect gift by the mediation of his well-beloved Son our Saviour that we may be assisted with the presence of his Holy Spirit and profitably on both parts to demean our selves in speaking and hearkning to the Salvation of our Souls In the beginning of my speaking unto you good Christian People suppose not that I do take upon me to declare unto you the excellent Power or the incomparable Wisdom of Almighty God as though I would have you believe that it might be expressed unto you by words Nay it may not be thought that that thing may be comprehended by Mans words that is incomprehensible And too much arrogancy it were for Dust and Ashes to think that he can worthily decâ—are his Maker It passeth far the dark understanding and wisdom of a Mortal Man to speak sufficiently of that divine Majesty which the Angels cannot understand We shall therefore lay apart to speak of the profound and unsearchable Nature of Almighty God rather acknowledging our weakness than rashly to attempt what is above all Mans capacity to compass It shall better suffice us in low Humility to reverence and dread his Majesty which we cannot comprize than by over-much curious searching to be over-charged with the Glory We shall rather turn our whole Contemplation to answer a while his goodness towards us wherein we shall be much more profitably occupied and more may we be bold to search To consider the great Power he is of can but make us dread and fear To consider his high Wisdom might utterly discomfort our Frailty to have any thing to do with him but in consideration of his inestimable goodness we take good heart again to trust well unto him By his goodness we be assured to take him for our refuge our hope and comfort our merciful Father in all the course of our Lives His Power and Wisdom compelleth us to take him for God Omnipotent Invisible having Rule in Heaven and Earth having all things in his subjection and will have none in Council with him nor any to ask the reason of his doing Dan. 11. For he may do what liketh him and none can resist him For he worketh all things in his secret Judgment to his own pleasure Prov. 16. yea even the wicked to damnation saith Solomon By the reason of his Nature he is called in Scripture consuming Fire he is called a terrible and fearful God Heb. 11. of this behalf therefore we have no familiarity no access unto him but his goodness again tempereth the rigor of his High Power and maketh us bold and putteth us in hope that he will be conversant with us and easie unto us It is his goodness that moveth him to say in Scripture It is my delight to be with the Children of Men. It is his goodness that moveth him to call us unto him to offer us his Friendship and Presence It is his goodness that patiently suffereth our straying from him and suffereth us long to win us to Repentance It is of his goodness that we be created reasonable Creatures where else he might have made us brute Beasts Prov. 8. It was his Mercy to have us born among the number of Christian People and thereby in a much more nighness to Salvation where we might have been born if his goodness had not been among the Paynims clean void from God and the hope of Everlasting Life And what other thing doth his loving and gentle Voice spoken in his word where he calleth us to his Presence and Friendship but declare his goodness only without regard of our worthiness And what other thing doth stir him to call us to him when we be strayed from him to suffer us patiently to win us to Repentance but only his singular goodness no whit of our deserving Let them all come together that be now glorified in Heaven and let us hear what answer they will make in these Points before rehearsed whether their first Creation was in Gods goodness or of themselves Forsooth David would make answer for them all and say Know ye for surety even the Lord is God he hath made us and not we our selves If they were asked again who should be thanked for their Regeneration for their Justification and for their Salvation Whether their deserts or Gods goodness only Although in this Point every one confess sufficiently the truth of this matter in his own Person yet let David answer by the mouth of them all at this time who cannot chuse but say Not to us O Lord not to us but to thy Name give all the thanks for thy loving mercy and for thy truths sake If we should ask again from whence came their glorious Works and Deeds which they wrought in their lives wherewith God was so highly pleased and worshipped by them Let some other witness be brought in to testifie
this matter that in the mouth of two or three may the truth be known Verily that holy Prophet Esay beareth record and saith Esay 26. O Lord it is thou of thy goodness that hast wrought all our works in us not we our selves And to uphold the truth of this matter against all Justiciaries and Hypocrites which rob Almighty God of his Honor and ascribe it to themselves St. Paul bringeth in his Belief 1 Cor. 3. Acts 17. We be not saith he sufficient of our selves as of our selves once to think any thing but all our ableness is of Gods goodness For he it is in whom we have all our Being our Living and Moving If ye will know furthermore where they had their Gifts and Sacrifices which they offered continually in their Lives to Almighty God they cannot but agree with David where he saith Of thy liberal hand O Lord we have received that we gave unto thee If this holy Company therefore confess so constantly that all the Goods and Graces wherewith they were indued in Soul came of the goodness of God only What more can be said to prove that all that is good cometh from Almighty God Is it meet to think that all spiritual goodness cometh from God above only and that other good things either of Nature or of Fortune as we call them cometh of any other cause Doth God of his goodness adorn the Soul with all the Powers thereof as it is and come the gifts of the Body wherewith it is endued from any other If he doth the more cannot he do the less To justifie a sinner to new create him from a wicked Person to a righteous Man is a greater Act saith St. Augustin than to make such a new Heaven and Earth as is already made We must needs agree that whatsoever good thing is in us of Grace of Nature or of Fortune is of God only as the only Author and Worker And yet it is not to be thought that God hath created all this whole Universal World as it is and thus once made hath given it up to be ruled and used after our own wits and device and so taketh no more charge thereof As we see the Shipwright after he hath brought his Ship to a perfect end then delivereth it to the Mariners and taketh no more care thereof nay God hath not so created the World that he is careless of it but he still preserveth it by his goodness he still stayeth it in his Creation for else without his special goodness it could not stand long in this condition And therefore St. Paul saith That he preserveth all things Heb. 2. Heb. 3. and beareth them up still in his Word lest they should fall without him to their nothing again whereof they were made If his especial goodness were not every where present every Creature should be out of order and no Creature should have his property wherein he was first created He is therefore invisible every where and in every Creature and filleth both Heaven and Earth with his Presence In the Fire to give Heat in the Water to give Moisture in the Earth to give Fruit in the Heart to give his Strength yea in our Bread and Drink is he to give us nourishment where without him the Bread and Drink cannot give sustenance nor the Herb health as the Wise Man plainly confesseth it saying Wisd 16. It is not the increase of Fruits that feedeth Men but it is thy word O Lord which preserveth them that trust in thee And Moses agreeth to the same when he saith Deut. 8. Mans life resteth not in Bread only but in every Word which proceedeth out of Gods mouth Wisd 17. It is neither the Herb nor the Plaister that giveth Health of themselves but thy Word O Lord saith the Wise Man which healeth all things It is not therefore the power of the Croatures which worketh their effects but the goodness of God which worketh in them In his Word truly do all things consist By that same Word that Heaven and Earth were made by the same are they upholden maintained 2 Pet. 3. and kept in order saith St. Peter and shall be till Almighty God shall withdraw his Power from them and speak their dissolution If it were not thus that the goodness of God were effectually in his Creatures to rule them how could it be that the Main Sea so raging and laboring to over-flow the Earth could be kept within its bounds and banks as it is That Holy Man Job evidently spied the goodness of God in this Point and confessed that if he had not a special goodness to the preservation of the Earth it could not but shortly be over-flowed of the Sea How could it be that the Elements so divers and contrary as they be among themselves should yet agree and abide together in a concord without destruction one of another to serve our use if it came not only of Gods goodness so to temper them How could the Fire not burn and consume all things if it were let loose to go whither it would and not staid in its sphere by the goodness of God measurably to heat these inferior Creaturs to their riping Consider the huge Substance of the Earth so heavy and great as it is How could it so stand stably in the space as it doth if Gods goodness reserved it not so for us to travel on It is thou Psal 10.3 O Lord saith David which hast founded the Earth in its stability and during thy Word it shall never reel or fall down Consider the great strong Beasts and Fishes far passing the strength of Man how fierce soever they be and strong yet by the goodness of God they prevail not against us but are under our subjection and serve our use Of whom came the invention thus to subdue them and make them fit for our Commodities Was it by Mans Brain nay rather this invention came by the goodness of God which inspired Mans understanding to have his purpose of every Creature Job 38. Who was it saith Job that put Will and Wisdom in Mans head but God only his goodness And as the same saith again I perceive that every Man hath a mind but it is the inspiration of the Almighty that giveth understanding It could not be verily good Christian People that Man of his own wit upholden should invent so many and divers devices in all Crafts and Sciences except the goodness of Almighty God had been present with Men and had stirred their wits and studies of purpose to know the natures and dispositions of all his Creatures to serve us sufficiently in our needs and necessities Yea not only to serve our necessities but to serve our pleasures and delight more than necessity requireth So liberal is Gods goodness to us to provoke us to thank him if any hearts we have The Wise Man in his Contemplation by himself could not but grant this thing to be true
wait to serve his Maker to be fierce against unjust Men to their Punishment For as the same Author saith He Armeth the Creatrue to revenge his Enemies and otherwhiles to the probation of our Faith stirreth he up such storms And therefore by what mean and instrument soever God takes from us his Gifts we must patiently take Gods Judgment in worth and acknowledge him to be the Taker and Giver Job 1. as Job saith The Lord gave and the Lord took when yet his Enemies drove his Cattle away and when the Devil slew his Children and afflicted his Body with grievous Sickness Such meekness was in that holy King and Prophet David when he was reviled of Shimei in the presence of all his Host he took it patiently and reviled not again but as confessing God to be the Author of his Innocency and good Name and offering it to be at his pleasure Let him alone saith he to one of his Servants that would have revenged such despite for God hath commanded him to curse David 2 Sam. 16. and peradventure God intendeth thereby to render me some good turn for this curse of him to day And though the Minister other whiles doth evil in his Act proceeding of Malice yet forasmuch as God turneth his evil act to a proof of our Patience we should rather submit our selves in Patience than to have indignation at Gods Rod which peradventure when he hath corrected us to our nurture he will cast it into the fire as it deserveth Let us in like manner truly acknowledge all our Gifts and Prerogatives to be so Gods Gifts that we shall be ready to resign them up at his Will and Pleasure again Let us throughout our whole Lives confess all good things to come from God of what Name or Nature soever they be not of these corruptible things only whereof I have now last spoken but much more of all Spiritual Graces behoveable for our Soul without whose Goodness no Man is called to Faith or staid therein as I shall hereafter in the next part of this Homily declare to you In the mean season forget not what hath already been spoken to you forget not to be conformable in your judgments to the truth of his Doctrin and forget not to practise the same in the whole state of your Life whereby ye shall obtain the blessing promised by our Saviour Christ Blessed are they which hear the Word of God and fulfil it in Life Which blessing he grant to us all who reigneth over all one God in Trinity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost To whom be all Honor and Glory for ever Amen The Third Part of the Homily for Rogation-Week I Promised to you to declare that all Spiritual Gifts and Graces come specially from God Let us consider the truth of this matter and hear what is testified first of the gift of Faith the first entry into a Christian Life without which no Man can please God For St. Paul confesseth it plainly to be Gods gift Ephes 2. 1 Pet. 1. saying Faith is the gift of God And again St. Peter saith It is of Gods power that ye be kept through Faith to Salvation It is of the goodness of God that we falter not in our hope unto him It is verily Gods work in us the Charity wherewith we love our Brethren If after our fall we Repent it is by him that we Repent which reacheth forth his Merciful Hand to raise us up If we have any Will to rise it is he that preventeth our Will and disposeth us thereto If after Contrition we feel our Consciences at peace with God through remission of our sin and so be reconciled again to his favor and hope to be his Children and Inheritors of Everlasting Life Who worketh these great Miracles in us Our Worthiness our Deservings and Endeavors our Wits and Vertue Nay verily St. Paul will not suffer Flesh and Clay to presume to such Arrogancy and therefore saith All is of God which hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ For God was in Christ when he reconciled the World unto himself God the Father of all Mercy wrought this high benefit unto us not by his own Person but by a mean by no less a mean than his only beloved Son whom he spared not from any pain and travail that might do us good For upon him he put our Sins and upon him he made our Ransom him he made the mean betwixt us and himself whose mediation was so acceptable to God the Father through his absolute and perfect Obedience that he took his Act for a full satisfaction of all our Disobedience and Rebellion whose Righteousness he took to weigh against our Sins whose Redemption he would have stand against our Damnation In this Point what have we to muse within our selves good Friends I think no less that that which St. Paul said in remembrance of this wonderful goodness of God Thanks be to Almighty God Rom. 7. Ephes 1. through Jesus Christ our Lord for it is he for whose sake we received this high gift of Grace For as by him being the Everlasting Wisdom he wrought all the World and that is contained therein So by him only and wholly would he have all things restored again in Heaven and Earth By this our Heavenly Mediator therefore do we know the Favor and Mercy of God the Father by him know we his Will and Pleasure towards us Matt. 3. For he is the brightness of his Fathers Glory and a very clear Image and Pattern of his Substance It is he whom the Father in Heaven delighteth to have for his well beloved Son whom he Authorized to be our Teacher whom he charged us to hear Ephes 1. saying Hear him It is he by whom the Father of Heaven doth bless us with all Spiritual and Heavenly gifts for whose sake and favor writeth St. John we have received Grace and Favor John 1. To this our Saviour and Mediator hath God the Father given the Power of Heaven and Earth and the whole Jurisdiction and Authority to destribute his Goods and Gifts committed to him for so writeth the Apostle Ephes 4.7 To every one of us is Grace given according to the measure of Christs giving And thereupon to execute his Authority committed after that he had brought Sin and the Devil to Captivity to be no more hurtful to his Members he ascended up to his Father again and from thence sent liberal Gifts to his welbeloved Servants and hath still the power to the Worlds end to distribute his Fathers Gifts continually in his Church to the establishment and comfort thereof And by him hath Almighty God decreed to dissolve the World to call all before him to judge both the Quick and the Dead and finally by him shall he Condemn the Wicked to Eternal Fire in Hell and give the Good Eternal Life and set them assuredly in presence with him in Heaven for evermore Thus
transitory Life and endue you with all manner of Benediction in the next World in the Kingdom of Heaven through the merits of our Lord and Saviour To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honor everlasting Amen AN HOMILY OF The State of Matrimony THe Word of Almighty God doth testifie and declare whence the Original Beginning of Matrimony cometh and why it is ordained It is instituted of God to the intent that Man and Woman should live lawfully in a perpetual Friendship to bring forth Fruit and to avoid Fornication by which Mean a good Conscience might be preserved on both Parties in bridling the corrupt inclinations of the Flesh within the limits of Honesty for God hath straitly forbidden all Whoredom and Uncleanness and hath from time to time taken grievous punishment of this inordinate Lust as all Stories and Ages have declared Furthermore It is also ordained that the Church of God and his Kingdom might by this kind of life be conserved and enlarged not only in that God giveth Children by his Blessing but also in that they be brought up by the Parents godly in the knowledge of Gods Word that thus the knowledge of God and true Religion might be delivered by Succession from one to another that finally many might enjoy that evâ—rlasting Immortality Wherefore for as much as Matrimony serveth us as well to avoid sin and offence as to encrease the Kingdom of God you as all other which enter the State must acknowledge this benefit of God with pure and thankful minds for that he hath so ruled your hearts that ye follow not the example of the wicked World who set their delight in filthiness of sin but both of you stand in the fear of God and abhor all filthiness for that is surely the singular gift of God where the common example of the World declareth how the Devil hath their hearts bound and entangled in divers snares so that they in their Wifeless State run into open abominations without any grudge of their Conscience Which sort of Men that live so desperately and filthy what damnation tarrieth for them St. Paul describeth it to them saying Neither Whoremongers 1 Cor. 6. neither Adulterers shall inherit the Kingdom of God This horrible Judgment of God ye be escaped through his mercy if so be that ye live inseparatly according to Gods Ordinance But yet I would not have you careless without watching for the Devil will assay to attempt all things to interrupt and hinder your Hearts and godly Purpose if ye will give him any entry For he will either labor to break this godly knot once begun betwixt you or else at the least he will labor to incumber it with divers griefs and displeasures And this is the principal craft to work dissension of Hearts of the one from the other that whereas now there is pleasant and sweet Love betwixt you he will in the stead thereof bring in most bittet and unpleasant discord and surely that same Adversary of ours doth as it were from above assault Mans nature and condition For this folly is ever from our tender Age grown up with us to have a desire to rule to think highly of our selves so that none thinketh it meet to give place to another That wicked Voice of stubborn Will and Self-love is more meet to break and to dissever the love of Heart than to preserve Concord Wherefore married Persons must apply their minds in most earnest wise to Concord and must crave continually of God the help of his Holy Spirit so to rule their Hearts and to knit their Minds together that they be not dissevered by any Division or Discord This necessity of Prayer must be oft in practice and using of married Persons that oft times the one should pray for the other lest hate and debate do arise betwixt them And because few do consider this thing but more few do perform it I say to pray diligently we see how wonderfully the Devil deludeth and scorneth this State how few Matrimonies there be without Chidings Brawlings Tauntings Repentings bitter Cursings and Fightings which things whosoever doth commit they do not consider that it is the instigation of the Ghostly Enemy who taketh great delight therein for else they would with all earnest endeavor strive against these mischiefs not only with Prayer but also with all possible diligence yea they would not give place to the provocation of Wrath which stirreth them either to such rough and sharp Words or Stripes which is surely compassed by the Devil whose temptation if it be followed must needs begin and weave the Web of all Miseries and Sorrows For this is most certainly true that of such beginnings must needs ensue the breach of true Concord in Heart whereby all Love must needs shortly be banished Then can it not be but a miserable thing to behold that yet they are of necessity compelled to live together which yet cannot be in quiet together And this is most customably every where to be seen But what is the cause thereof Forsooth because they will not consider the crafty Trains of the Devil and therefore give not themselves to pray to God that he would vouchsafe to repress his Power Moreover they do not consider how they promote the purpose of the Devil in that they follow the wrath of their hearts while they threat one another while they in their folly turn all upside down while they will never give over their right as they esteem it yea while many times they will not give over the wrong part indeed Learn thou therefore if thou desirest to be void of all these miseries if thou desirest to live peaceably and comfortably in Wedlock how to make thy earnest Prayer to God that he would govern both your Hearts by the Holy Spirit to restrain the Devils power whereby your Concord may remain perpetually But to this Prayer must be joyned a singular diligence whereof St. Peter giveth this precept saying You Husbands deal with your Wives according to knowledge giving honor to the Wife as unto the weaker Vessel and as unto them that are Heirs also of the grace of Life that your Prayers be not hindred This precept doth particularly pertain to the Husband for he ought to be the Leader and Author of Love in cherishing and increa ing Concord which then shall take place if he will use Moderation and not Tyranny and if he yield something to the Woman For the Woman is a weak Creature not indued with like strength and constancy of Mind therefore they be the sooner disquieted and they be the more prone to all weak affections and dispositions of Mind more than Men be and lighter they be and more vain in their Fantasies and Opinions These things must be considered of the Man that he be not too stiff so that he ought to wink at some things and must gently expound all things and to forbear Howbeit The common sort of Men do judge
Unto whom this our returning must be made By whose means it ought to be done that it may be effectual And last of all after what sort we ought to behave our selves in the same that it may be profitable unto us and attain unto the thing that we do seek by it Ye have also learned that as the Opinion of them that deny the benefit of Repentance unto those that after they be come to God and grafted in our Saviour Jesus Christ do through the frailness of their Flesh and the temptation of the Devil fall into some grievous and detestable sin is most pestilent and pernicious so we must beware that we do in no wise think that we are able of our own selves and of our own strength to return unto the Lord our God from whom we are gone away by our wickedness and sin Now it shall be declared unto you what be the true parts of Repentance and what things ought to move us to repent and to return unto the Lord our God with all speed Repentance as it is said before is a true rtturning unto God whereby Men forsaking utterly their Idolatry and wickedness do with a lively Faith embrace love and worship the true living God only and give themselves to all manner of good Works which by Gods Word they know to be acceptable unto him There be four parts of Repentance Now there be four parts of Repentance which being set together may be likened to an easie and short Ladder whereby we may climb from the bottomless Pit of perdition that we cast our selves into by our daily offences and grievous sins up into the Castle or Tower of eternal and endless Salvation The first is the Contrition of the Heart for we must be earnestly sorry for our sins and unfeignedly lament and bewail that we have by them so grievously offended our most bounteous and merciful God who so tenderly loved us that he gave his only begotten Son to die a most bitter death and to shed his dear Heart Blood for our Redemption and Deliverance And verily this inward sorrow and grief being conceived in the heart for the heinousness of sin if it be earnest and unfeigned is a Sacrifice to God as the holy Prophet David doth testifie saying Psalm 5. A Sacrifice to God is a troubled Spirit a contrite and broken Heart O Lord thou wilt not despise But that this may take place in us we must be diligent to read and hear the Scriptures and the Word of God which most lively do paint out before our eyes our natural uncleanness and the enormity of our sinful life 2 Sam. 12 For unless we have a thorow feeling of our sins how can it be that we should earnestly be sorry for them Before David did hear the Word of the Lord by the mouth of the Prophet Nathan what heaviness I pray you was in him for the Adultery and the Murder that he had committed So that it might be said right well that he slept in his own sin We read in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 4. that when the People had heard the Sermon of Peter they were compunct pricked in their hearts Which thing would never have been if they had not heard that wholesom Sermon of Peter They therefore that have no mind at all neither to read nor yet to hear Gods Word there is but small hope of them that they will as much as once set their Feet or take hold upon the first Staff or Step of this Ladder but rather will sink deeper and deeper into the bottomless Pit of perdition For if at any time through the remorse of their Conscience which accuseth them they feel any inward grief sorrow or heaviness for their sins for as much as they want the salve and comfort of Gods Word which they do despise it will be unto them rather a Mean to bring them to utter desperation than otherwise The second is an unfeigned Confession and acknowledging of our sins unto God whom by them we have so grievously offended that if he should deal with us according to his justice we do deserve a thousand Hells if there could be so many Yet if we will with a sorrowful and contrite Heart Ezek. 18. make an unfeigned Confession of them unto God he will freely and frankly forgive them and so put all our wickedness out of remembrance before the sight of his Majesty that they shall no more be thought upon Hereunto doth pertain the golden saying of the holy Prophet David where he saith on this manner Then I acknowledge my sin unto thee Psalm 51. neither did I hide mine iniquity I said I will confess against my self my wickedness unto the Lord thou forgavest the ungodliness of my sin These are also the words of John the Evangelist 1 John 1. If we confess our sins God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to make us clean from all our wickedness which ought to be understood of the Confession which is made unto God For these are St. Augustins words In Epist ad Julian comitem 30. That Confession which is made unto God is required by Gods Law whereof John the Apostle speaketh saying If we confess our sins God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to make us clean from all our wickedness For without this Confession sin is not forgiven This is then the chiefest and most principal Confession that in the Scriptures and Word of God we are bidden to make and without the which we shall never obtain pardon and forgiveness of our sins Indeed besides this there is another kind of Confession which is needful and necessary And of the same doth St. James speak after this manner saying Acknowledge your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be saved As if he should say Open that which grieveth you that a Remedy may be found And this is commanded both for him that complaineth and for him that heareth that the one should shew his Grief to the other The true meaning of it is that the Faithful ought to acknowledge their offences whereby some hatred rancour ground or malice having risen or grown among them one to another that a Brotherly reconciliation may be had without the which nothing that we do can be acceptable unto God Mat. 5. as our Saviour Jesus Christ doth witness himself saying When thou offerest thine Offering at the Altar if thou remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thine Offering and go and be reconciled and when thou art reconciled come and offer thine Offering It may also be thus taken that we ought to confess our weakness and infirmities one to another to the end that knowing each others frailness we may the more earnestly pray together unto Almighty God our Heavenly Father that he will vouchsafe to pardon us our infirmities for his Son Jesus Christs sake and not to
this manner Peter was sorry and wept De poenitentia distin I. cap. Petrus because he erred as a Man I do not find what he said I know that he wept I read of his Tears but not of his satisfaction But how chance that the one was received into favor again with God and the other cast away but because that the one did by a lively Faith in him whom he had denied take hold upon the mercy of God and the other wanted Faith whereby he did despair of the Goodness and Mercy of God It is evident and plain then that although we be never so earnestly sorry for our sins acknowledge and confess them yet all these things shall be but means to bring us to utter desparation except we do stedfastly believe that God our Heavenly Father will for his Son Jesus Christs sake Pardon and Forgive us our Offences and Trespasses and utterly put them out of remembrance in his sight Therefore as we said before they that teach Repentance without Christ and a lively Faith in the Mercy of God do only teach Cains or Judas Repentance The Fourth is an Amendment of Life or a new Life in bringing forth Fruits worthy of Repentance For they that do truly Repent must be clean altered and changed they must become new Creatures they must be no more the same that that they were before And therefore thus said John Baptist unto the Pharisees and Sadducees that came unto his Baptism O generation of Vipers Matt. 3. who hath forewarned you to flee from the anger to come bring forth therefore Fruits worthy of Repentance Whereby we do learn that if we will have the wrath of God to be pacified we must in no wise dissemble but turn unto him again with a true and found Repentance which may be known and declared by good Fruits as by most sure and infallible signs thereof They that do from the bottom of their Hearts acknowledge their Sins and are unfeignedly sorry for their Offences will cast off all Hypocrisie and put on true Humility and lowliness of Heart They will not only receive the Physician of the Soul but also with a most fervent desire long for him They will not only abstain from the Sins of their former Life and from all other filthy Vices but also flee eschew and abhor all the occasions of them And as they did before give themselves to uncleanness of Life so will they from henceforwards with all diligence give themselves to Innocency pureness of Life and true Godliness Ionas 3. We have the Ninevites for an example which at the Preaching of Jonas did not only proclaim a general Fast and that they should every one put on Sackcloth but they all did turn from their Evil Ways and from the Wickedness that was in their Hands But above all other the History of Zaccheus is most notable For being come unto our Saviour Jesus Christ Luke 19. he did say Behold Lord the half of my Goods I give to the Poor and if I have defrauded any Man or taken ought away by Extortion or Fraud I do restore him fourfold Here we see that after his Repentance he was no more the Man that he was before but was clean changed and altered It was so far off that he would continue and abide still in his unsatiable covetousness or take ought away fraudulently from any Man that rather he was most willing and ready to give away his own and to make satisfaction unto all them that he had done injury and wrong unto Here may we right well add the sinful Woman which when she came to our Saviour Jesus Christ Luke 7. did pour down such abundance of Tears out of those wanton Eyes of hers wherewith she had allured many unto folly that she did with them wash his Feet wiping them with the Hairs of her Head which she was wont most gloriously to set out making of them a Net for the Devil Hereby we do learn what is the satisfaction that God doth require of us which is that we cease from Evil Iohn 5. and do Good and if we have done any Man wrong to endeavor our selves to make him true amends to the utmost of our power following in this the example of Zaccheus and of this sinfull Woman and also that goodly Lesson that John Baptist Zacharias Son bid give unto them that came to ask Counsel of him This was commonly the Penance that Christ enjoyned sinners Go thy way and sin no more John 15. Which Penance we shall never be able to fulfil without the special grace of him that doth say Without me ye can do nothing It is therefore our parts if at least we be desirous of the health and salvation of our own selves most earnestly to pray unto our heavenly Father to assist us with his holy Spirit that we may be able to hearken unto the Voice of the true Shepherd and with due obedience to follow the same Let us hearken to the Voice of Almighty God when he calleth us to Repentance let us not harden our hearts as such Infidels do who abuse the time given them of God to repent and turn it to continue their pride and contempt against God and Man which know not how much they heap Gods wrath upon themselves for the hardness of their hearts which cannot repent at the day of Vengeance Where we have offended the Law of God let us repent us of our straying from so good a Lord. Let us confess our unworthiness before him but yet let us trust in Gods free mercy for Christs sake for the pardon of the same And from henceforth let us endeavor our selves to walk in a new Life as new born Babes whereby we may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven and thereby to bear in our Consciences a good testimony of our Faith so that at the last to obtain the fruition of everlasting life through the merits of our Saviour To whom be all praise and honor for ever Amen The Third Part of the Homily of Repentance IN the Homily last spoken unto you right well-beloved People in our Saviour Christ ye heard of the true parts and tokens of Repentance that is hearty contrition and sorrowfulness of our Hearts unfeigned confession in word of mouth for our unworthy living before God a stedfast Faith to the merits of our Saviour Christ for pardon and a purpose of our selves by Gods grace to renounce our former wicked life and a full Conversion to God in a new life to glorifie his Name and to live orderly and charitably to the comfort of our Neighbor in all righteousness and to live soberly and modestly to our selves by using abstinence and temperance in word and in deed in mortifying our earthly Members here upon Earth Now for a further perswasion to move you to those parts of Repentance I will declare unto you some causes which should the rather move you to Repentance The causes that should