wretches which have no feeling of God within us at all continually to fear not only that we may fall as they did but also be overcome and drowned in sin which they were not And so by considering their fall take the better occasion to acknowledge our own Infirmity and weakness and therefore more earnestly to call unto Almighty God with hearty Prayer incessantly for his grace to strengthen us and to defend us from all evil And though through Infirmity we chance at any time to fall yet we may by hearty Repentance and true Faith speedily rise again and not sleep and continue in sin as the wicked doth Thus good People should we understand such matters expressed in the Divine Scriptures that this Holy Table of Gods Word be not turned to us to be a snare a trap and a stumbling stone to take hurt by the abuse of our Understanding But let us esteem them in a reverent Humility that we may find our necessary Food therein to strengthen us to comfort us to instruct us as God of his great Mercy hath appointed them in all necessary works so that we may be perfect before him in the whole course of our life Which he grant who hath Redeemed us our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for evermore Amen The Second Part of the Information for them which take Offence at certain places of the Holy Scripture YE have heard good People in the Homily last read unto you the great Commodity of Holy Scriptures ye have heard how ignorant men void of godly Understanding seek Quarrels to discredit them Some of their Reasons have ye heard answered Now we will proceed and speak of such politick wise men which be offended for that Christs Precepts should seem to destroy all Order in Governance as they do alledge for example such as these be If any man strike thee on the right cheek Mat. 5â— turn the other unto him also If any man will contend to take thy coat from thee let him have cloak and all Let not thy lest hand know what thy right hand doth If thine eye thine hand Mat. 18. or thy foot offend thee pull out thine eye cut off thine hand or thy foot and cast it from thee Rom. 12. If thine enemy saith St. Paul be an hungred give him meat if he be thirsty give him drink so doing thou shalt heap hot burning coals upon his head These sentences good People unto a natural man seem meer absurdities contrary to all Reason 1 Cor. 2. For a natural man as St. Paul saith understandeth not the things that belong to God neither can he so long as old Adam dwelleth in him Christ therefore meaneth that he would have his faithful servants so far from vengeance and resisting wrong that he would rather have him ready to suffer another wrong than by resisting to break Charity and to be out of Patience He would have our good deeds so far from all carnal respects that he would not have our nighest Friends know of our well-doing to win vain-glory And though our Friends and Kinsfolks be as dear as our right Eyes and our right Hands yet if they would pâ—â—â— us from God we ought to renounce them and forsake them Thus if ye will be profitable Hearers and Readers of the Holy Scriptures ye must first deny your selves and keep under your Carnal Senses taken by the outward words and search the inward meaning Reason must give place to Gods Holy Spirit you must submit your Worldly Wisdom and Judgment unto his Divine Wisdom and Judgment Consider that the Scripture in what strange form soever it be pronounced is the Word of the living God Let that always come to your remembrance which is so oft repeated of the Prophet Esaias The mouth of the Lord saith he hath spoken it and Almighty and everlasting God who with his only word created Heaven and Earth hath decreed it the Lord of Hosts whose ways are in the Seas whose paths are in the deep Waters that Lord and God by whose word all things in Heaven and in Earth are created governed and preserved hath so provided it The God of gods and Lord of all lords yea God that is God alone incomprehensible almighty and everlasting he hath spoken it it is his Word It cannot therefore be but truth which proceedeth from the God of all Truth it cannot be but wisely and prudently commanded what Almighty God hath devised how vainly soever through want of grace we miserable wretches do imagine and judge of his most Holy Word The Prophet David describing an happy man Psal 1. saith Blessed is the man that hath not walked after the counsel of the ungodly nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornful There are three sorts of People whose Company the Prophet would have him to flee and avoid which shall be an happy man and partaker of Gods Blessing First he may not walk after the counsel of the ungodly Secondly he may not stand in the way of sinners Thirdly he must not sit in the seat of the scornful By these three sorts of People ungodly mâ—n sinners and scorners all Impiety is signified and fully expressed By the ungodly he understandeth those which have no regard of Almighty God being void of all Faith whose hearts and minds are so set upon the World that they study only how to accomplish their worldly practices their carnal imaginations their filthy lust and desire without any fear of God The second sort he calleth sinners not such as do fall through Ignorance or of frailness for then who should be found free What man ever lived upon Earth Christ only excepted but he hath sinned Prov. 24. The just man falleth seven times and riseth again Though the godly do fall yet they walk not on purposely in sin they stand not still to continue and tarry in sin they sit not down like careless men without all fear of Gods just punishment for sin but defying sin through Gods great grace and infinite mercy they rise again and fight against sin The Prophet then calleth them sinners whose hearts are clean turned from God and whose whole conversation of life is nothing but sin they delight so much in the same that they choose continually to abide and dwell in sin The third sort he calleth scorners that is a sort of men whose hearts are so stuffed with Malice that they are not contented to dwell in sin and to lead their lives in all kind of wickedness but also they do contemn and scorn in other all Godliness true Religion all Honesty and Vertue Of the two first sorts of men I will not say but they may take Repentance and be converted unto God Of the third sort I think I may without danger of Gods judgment pronounce that never any yet converted unto God by Repentance but continued still in their
my works For God the Revenger will revenge the wrong done by thee And say not I have sinned and what evil hath come unto me For the Almighty is a patient Rewarder but he will not leave thee unpunished Because thy sins are forgiven thee be not without fear to heap sin upon sin Say not neither The mercy of God is great he will forgive my manifold sins For mercy and wrath come from him and his indignation cometh upon unrepentant sinners As if ye should say Art thou strong and mighty Art thou lusty and young Hast thou the Wealth and Riches of the World Or when thou hast sinned hast thou received no punishment for it Let none of all these things make thee to be the slower to repent and to return with speed unto the Lord. For in the day of punishment and of his sudden vengeance they shall not be able to help thee And specially when thou art either by the Preaching of Gods Word or by some inward motion of his holy Spirit or else by some other means called unto Repentance neglect not the good occasion that is ministred unto thee lest when thou wouldst repent thou hast not the grace for to do it For to repent is a good gift of God which he will never grant unto them who living in carnal security do make a mock of his Threatnings or seek to rule his Spirit as they list as though his working and gifts were tied unto their will Fifthly The avoiding of the plagues of God and the utter destruction that by his righteous Judgment doth hang over the heads of them all that will in no wise return unto the Lord Jer. 24. I will saith the Lord give them for a terrible plague to all the Kingdoms of the Earth and for a Reproach and for a Proverb and for a Curse in all places where I shall cast them and will send the Sword of Famine and the Pestilence among them till they be consumed out of the Land And wherefore is this Because they hardned their hearts and would in no wise return from their evil ways nor yet forsake the wickedness that was in their own hands that the fierceness of the Lords fury might depart from them Rom. 8. But yet this is nothing in comparison of the intolerable and endless torments of Hell fire which they shall be fain to suffer who after their hardness of heart that cannot repent do heap unto themselves Wrath against the day of anger and of the declaration of the just Judgment of God Whereas if we will repent and be earnestly sorry for our sin and with a full purpose and amendment of Life flee unto the mercy of our God and taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in our Saviour Jesus Christ do bring forth Fruits worthy of Repentance he will not only pour his manifold Blessings upon us here in this World but also at the last after the painful Travels of this Life reward us with the inheritance of his Children which is the Kingdom of Heaven purchased unto us with the death of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all praise glory and honor World without end Amen AN HOMILY AGAINST Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion The First Part. AS God the Creator Lord of all things appointed his Angels and heavenly Creatures in all obedience to serve and to honor his Majesty so was it his will that Man his chief Creature upon the Earth should live under the obedience of his Creator and Lord and for that cause God as soon as he had created Man gave unto him a certain Precept and Law which he being yet in the State of innocency and remaining in Paradise should observe as a pledge and token of his due and bounden Obedience with denunciation of Death if he did transgress and break the said Law and Commandment And as God would have Man to be his obedient Subject so did he make all earthly Creatures subject unto Man who kept their due obedience unto Man so long as Man remained in his obedience unto God In the which obedience if Man had continued still there had been no Poverty no Diseases no Sickness no Death nor other miseries wherewith Mankind is now infinitely and most miserably afflicted and oppressed So here appeareth the Original Kingdom of God over Angels and Man and universally over all things and of Man over earthly Creatures which God hath made subject unto him and withal the felicity and blessed State which Angels Man and all Creatures had remained in had they continued in due obedience unto God their King For as long as in this first Kingdom the Subjects continued in due obedience to God their King so long did God embrace all his Subjects with his love favor and grace which to enjoy is perfectly Felicity whereby it is evident that Obedience is the principal Vertue of all Vertues and indeed the very root of all Vertues Mat. 4. b. 9. Mat. 25. d. 41. John 8. f. 44. 2 Pet. 2. a 4. Epist Jude a. 6. Apoc. 12. b. 7. Gen. 3. a. 1 Wisd 2. d. 24. Gen. 3. b. 8.9 c. c. 17. d. 23.24 and the cause of all Felicity But as all Felicity and Blessedness should have continued with the continuance of Obedience so with the breach of Obedience and breaking in of Rebellion all Vices and Miseries did withal break in and overwhelm the World The first Author of which Rebellion the Root of all Vices and Mother of all Mischiefs was Lucifer first Gods most excellent Creature and most bounden Subject who by Rebelling against the Majesty of God of the brightest and most glorious Angel is become the blackest and most foul Fiend and Devil and from the height of Heaven is fallen into the Pit and bottom of Hell Here you may see the first Author and Founder of Rebellion and the reward thereof here you may see the grand Captain and Father of Rebels who perswading the following of his Rebellion against God their Creator and Lord unto our first Parents Adam and Eve brought them in high displeasure with God wrought their exile and banishment out of Paradise a place of pleasure and goodness into this wretched earth and vale of misery procured unto them sorrows of their Minds Mischiefs Sickness Diseases death of their Bodies and which is far more horrible than all worldly and bodily Mischiefs Rom. 5. c. 12. c. d. 19. c. he had wrought thereby their eternal and everlasting death and damnation had not God by the obedience of his Son Jesus Christ repaired that which Man by Disobedience and Rebellion had destroyed and so of his mercy had pardoned and forgiven him of which all and singular the Premises the holy Scriptures do bear record in sundry places Thus do you sâ—e that neither Heaven nor Paradise could suffer any Rebellion in them neither be places for any Rebels to remain in Thus became
all from sin He is the Physician which healeth all our Diseases He is that Saviour which saveth People from all their sins To be short Matth. 1. he is that flowing and most plentious Fountain of whose fulness all we have received For in him alone are all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God hidden And in him and by him have we from God the Father all good things pertaining either to the Body or to the Soul O how much are we bound to this our Heavenly Father for his great Mercies which he hath so plenteously declared unto us in Christ Jesu our Lord and Saviour What Thanks worthy and sufficient can we give to him Let us all with one accord burst out with joyful voice ever Praising and Magnifying this Lord of Mercy for his tender Kindness shewed unto us in his dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Hitherto we have heard what we are of ourselves very sinful wretched and damnable Again we have heard how that of ourselves and by ourselves we are not able either to think a good Thought or work a good Deed so that we can find in ourselves no hope of Salvation but rather whatsoever maketh unto our Destruction Again we have heard the tender Kindness and great Mercy of God the Father towards us and how beneficial he is to us for Christ's sake without our Merits or Deserts even of his own mere Mercy and tender Goodness Now how these exceeding great Mercies of God set abroad in Christ Jesu for us be obtained and how we be delivered from the captivity of Sin Death and Hell shall more at large with God's help be declared in the next Sermon In the mean season yea and at all times let us learn to know ourselves our frailty and weakness without any boasting or cracking of our own good Deeds and Merits Let us also acknowledge the exceeding Mercy of God towards us and confess that as of ourselves cometh all Evil and Damnation so likewise of him cometh all Goodness and Salvation Osee 13. as God himself saith by the Prophet Osee O Israel thy destruction cometh of thyself but in me only is thy help and comfort If we thus Humbly submit ourselves in the sight of God we may be sure that in the time of his Visitation he will lift us up unto the Kingdom of his dearly beloved Son Christ Jesu our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen A SERMON OF THE Salvation of Mankind by only Christ our Saviour from Sin and Death everlasting BEcause all Men be Sinners and Offenders against God and Breakers of his Law and Commandments therefore can no Man by his own Acts Works and Deeds seem they never so good be justified and made righteous before God But every Man of necessity is constrained to seek for another Righteousness of Justification to be received at God's own hands that is to say the forgiveness of his Sins and Trespasses in such things as he hath offended And this Justification or Righteousness which we so receive of God's Mercy and Christ's Merits embraced by Faith is taken accepted and allowed of God for our perfect and full Justification For the more full understanding hereof it is our Parts and Duties ever to remember the great Mercy of God how that all the World being wrapped in Sin by breaking of the Law God sent his only Son our Saviour Christ into this World to fulfil the Law for us and by shedding of his most precious Blood to make a sacrifice and satisfaction or as it may be called amends to his Father for our sins to asswage his Wrath and Indignation conceived against us for the same The efficacy of Christ's Passion and Oblation Insomuch that Infants being Baptized and dying in their Infancy are by this Sacrifice washed from their Sins brought to God's Favour and made his Children and Inheritors of his Kingdom of Heaven And they which in Act or Deed do sin after their Baptism when they turn again to God unfeignedly they are likewise washed by this Sacrifice from their sins in such sort that there remaineth not any spot of Sin that shall be imputed to their Damnation This is that justification of Righteousness which St. Paul speaketh of when he saith No man is Justified by the works of the Law Gal. 2. but freely by faith in Jesus Christ And again he saith We believe in Jesus Christ that we be justified freely by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law because that no Man shall be justified by the works of the Law And although this justification be free unto us yet it cometh not so freely unto us that there is no ransom paid therefore at all But here may Man's Reason be astonished reasoning after this fashion Objection If a Ransom be paid for our Redemption then is it not given us freely For a Prisoner that payd his Ransom is not let go freely For if he go freely then he goeth without Ransom For what is it else to go freely than to be set at liberty without paying of Ransom Answer This Reason is satisfied by the great Wisdom of God in this mystery of our Redemption who hath so tempered his Justice and Mercy together that he would neither by his Justice condemn us unto the everlasting Captivity of the Devil and his Prison of Hell remediless for ever without Mercy nor by his Mercy deliver us clearly without Justice or Payment of a just Ransom but with his endless Mercy he joyned his most upright and equal Justice His great Mercy he shewed unto us in delivering us from our former Captivity without requiring of any Ransom to be paid or amends to be made upon our parts which thing by us had been impossible to be done And whereas it lay not in us to do that he provided a Ransom for us that was the most precious Body and Blood of his own most dear and best beloved Son Jesu Christ who besides this Ransom fulfilled the Law for us perfectly And so the Justice of God and his Mercy did embrace together and fulfilled the Mystery of our Redemption And of this Justice and Mercy of God knit together speaketh St. Paul in the third Chap. to the Romans Rom. 3. All have offended and have need of the Glory of God but are justified freely by Grace by Redemption which is in Jesu Christ whom God hath sent forth to us for a Reconciler and Peace-maker through Faith in his Blood to shew his righteousness And in the 10th Chapter Rom. 10. Rom. 8. Christ is the end of the Law unto righteousness to every man that believeth And in the 8th Chapter That which was impossible by the Law inasmuch as it was weak by the flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh by sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us
who became poor to make us rich vile to make us precious subject to death to make us live for ever What greater love could we silly Creatures desire or wish to have at Gods hands Therefore Dearly Beloved let us not forget this exceeding love of our Lord and Saviour let us not shew our selves unmindful or unthankful toward him but let us love him fear him obey him and serve him Let us confess him with our Mouths praise him with our Tongues believe on him with our Hearts and glorifie him with our good Works Christ is the light let us receive the light Christ is the truth let us believe the truth Christ is the way let us follow the way And because he is our only Master our only Teacher our only Shepherd and chief Captain therefore let us become his Servants his Scholars his Sheep and his Souldiers As for Sin the Flesh the World and the Devil whose Servants and Bond-slaves we were before Christs coming let us utterly cast them off and defie them as the chief and only Enemies of our Soul And seeing we are once delivered from their cruel Tyranny by Christ let us never fall into their hands again lest we chance to be in a worse case than ever we were before Happy are they saith the Scripture that continue to the end Be faithful saith God until death and I will give thee a crown of life Again he saith in another place He that putteth his hand unto the Plough and looketh back is not meet for the Kingdom of God Therefore let us be strong stedfast and unmoveable abounding always in the works of the Lord. Let us receive Christ not for a time but for ever let us believe his Word not for a time but for ever let us become his Servants not for a time but for ever in consideration that he hath redeemed and saved us not for a time but for ever and will receive us into his Heavenly Kingdom there to reign with him not for a time but for ever To him therefore with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour Praise and Glory for ever and ever Amen AN HOMILY FOR Good-Friday concerning the Death and Passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ IT should not become us well-beloved in Christ being that People which he redeemed from the Devil from Sin and Death and from everlasting Damnation by Christ to suffer this time to pass forth without any meditation and remembrance of that excellent Work of our Redemption wrought as about this time through the great mercy and charity of our Saviour Jesus Christ for us wretched Sinners and his mortal Enemies For if a mortal mans deed done to the behoof of the Common-wealth be had in remembrance of us with thanks for the benefit and profit which we receive thereby how much more readily should we have in memory this excellent act and benefit of Christs death whereby he hath purchased for us the undoubted pardon and forgiveness of our sins whereby he made at one the Father of Heaven with us in such wise that he taketh us now for his loving Children and for the true inheritors with Christ his Natural Son of the Kingdom of Heaven And verily so much more doth Christs kindness appear unto us in that it pleased him to deliver himself of all his goodly Honour which he was equally in with his Father in Heaven and to come down into this vale of misery to be made mortal man and to be in the state of a most low Servant serving us for our wealth and profit us I say which were his sworn Enemies which had renounced his holy Law and Commandments and followed the lusts and sinful pleasures of our corrupt Nature And yet I say Coloss 2. did Christ put himself between Gods deserved wrath and our sin and rent that Obligation wherein we were in danger to God and paid our debt Our debt was a great deal too great for us to have paid And without payment God the Father could never be at one with us Neither was it possible to be loosed from this debt by our own ability It pleased him therefore to be the payer thereof and to discharge us quite Who can now consider the grievous debt of sin which could none otherwise be paid but by the death of an Innocent and will not hate sin in his heart If God hateth sin so much that he would allow neither man nor Angel for the Redemption thereof but only the death of his only and well-beloved Son who will not stand in fear thereof If we my Friends consider this that for our sins this most innocent Lamb was driven to death we shall have much more cause to bewail our selves that we were the cause of his death than to cry out of the malice and cruelty of the Jews which pursued him to his death We did the deeds wherefore he was thus stricken and wounded they were only the ministers of our wickedness It is meet then that we should step low down into our hearts and bewail our own wretchedness and sinful living Let us know for a certainty that if the most dearly beloved Son of God was thus punished and stricken for the sin which he had not done himself how much more ought we sore to be stricken for our daily and manifold sins which we commit against God if we earnestly repent us not and be not sorry for them No man can love sin which God hateth so much and be in his favour No man can say that he loveth Christ truly and have his great Enemy sin I mean the author of his death familiar and in friendship with him So much do we love God and Christ as we hate sin We ought therefore to take great heed that we be not favourers thereof lest we be found Enemies to God and Traytors to Christ For not only they which nailed Christ upon the Cross are his tormentors and crucifiers Heb. 6. But all they saith St. Paul crucifie again the Son of God as much as is in them who do commit vice and sin which brought him to his death Rom. 6. If the wages of sin be death and death everlasting surely it is no small danger to be in service thereof Rom. 8. Rom. 8. If we live after the flesh and after the sinful lusts thereof St Paul threatneth yea Almighty God in St. Paul threatneth that we shall surely die We can none otherwise live to God but by dying to sin If Christ be in us then is sin dead in us and if the Spirit of God be in us which raised Christ from death to life so shall the same Spirit raise us to the resurrection of everlasting life Rom. 1. But if sin rule and reign in us then is God which is the fountain of all Grace and Vertue departed from us then hath the Devil and his ungracious spirit rule and dominion in us And surely if in such miserable state we die we shall
not rise to life but fall down to death and damnation and that without end Chrisâ— haâ—h not redeemed from us sin that we should live an sin For Christ hath not so redeemed us from sin that we may safely return thereto again but he hath redeemed us that we should forsake the motions thereof and live to righteousness Yea we be therefore washed in our Baptism from the filthiness of sin that we should live afterward in the pureness of life In Baptism we promised to renounce the Devil and his suggestions we promised to be as obedient Children always following Gods will and pleasure Then if he be our Father indeed let us give him his due Honour If we be his Children let us shew him our Obedience like as Christ openly declared his obedience to his Father which as St. Paul writeth was obedient even to the very death Phil. 2. the death of the Cross And this he did for us all that believe in him For himself he was not punished for he was pure and undefiled of all manner of sin He was wounded saith Esay for our wickedness Esay 53. and stripped for our sins he suffered the penalty of them himself to deliver us from danger He bare saith Esay all our sores and infirmities upon his own back No pain did he refuse to suffer in his own body that he might deliver us from pain everlasting His pleasure it was thus to do for us we deserved it not Wherefore the more we see our selves bound unto him the more he ought to be thanked of us yea and the more hope may we take that we shall receive all other good things of his hand in that we have received the gift of his only Son through his liberality R m. 8. For if God saith St. Paul hath not spared his own Son from pain and punishment but delivered him for us all unto the death how should he not give us all other things with him If we want any thing John 1. either for body or soul we may lawfully and boldly approach to God as to our merciful Father to ask that we desire and we shall obtain it For such power is given to us to be the Children of God so many as believe in Christs Name Mat. 11. In his Name whatsoever we ask we shall have it granted us For so well pleased is the Father Almighty God with Christ his Son that for his sake he favoureth us and will deny us nothing So pleasant was this Sacrifice and Oblation of his Sons death which he so obediently and innocently suffered that we should take it for the only and full amends for all the sins of the World And such favour did he purchase by his death of his Heavenly Father for us that for the merit thereof if we be true Christians in deed and not in word only we be now fully in Gods grace again and clearly discharged from our sin No â—ongue surely is able to express the worthiness of this so precious a death For in this standeth the continual pardon of our daily offences in this resteth our justification in this we be allowed in this is purchased the everlasting health of all our souls Acts 4. Yea there is none other thing that can be named under Heaven to save our souls but this only work of Christs precious offering of his Body upon the Altar of the Cross Certes there can be no work of any mortal man be he never so holy that shall be coupled in merits with Christs most holy act For no doubt all our thoughts and deeds were of no value if they were nor allowed in the merits of Christs death All our righteousness is far unperfect if it be be compared with Christs righteousness For in his acts and deeds there was no spot of sin or of any unperfectness Our deeds be full of imperfection And for this cause they were the more able to be the true amends of our righteousness where our acts and deeds be full of imperfection and infirmities and therefore nothing worthy of themselves to stir God to any favour much less to challenge that glory that is due to Christs act and merit Psal 115. For not to us saith David not to us but to thy Name give the glory O Lord. Let us therefore good Friends with all reverence glorifie his Name let us magnifie and praise him for ever For he hath dealt with us according to his great mercy by himself hath he purchased our Redemption Heb. 1. He thought it not enough to spare himself and to send his Angel to do this deed but he would do it himself that he might do it the better and make it the more perfect Redemption He was nothing moved with the intolerable pains that he suffered in the whole course of his long Passion to repent him thus to do good to his Enemies but he opened his heart for us and bestowed himself wholly for the ransoming of us Let us therefore now open our hearts again to him and study in our lives to be thankful to such a Lord and evermore to be mindful of so great a benefit Acts 17. yea let us take up our Cross with Christ and follow him His Passion is not only the ransom and whole amends for our sin but it is also a most perfect example of all patience and sufferance For if it behoved Christ thus to suffer and to enter into the glory of his Father why should it not become us to bear patiently our small crosses of adversity and the troubles of this World For surely as saith St. Peter Christ therefore suffered 1 Pet. 2. 1 Tim. 2. Rom. 8. Mat. 5. Heb. 11. to leave us an example to follow his steps And if we suffer with him we shall be sure also to reign with him in Heaven Not that the sufferance of this transitory life should be worthy of that glory to come but gladly should we be contented to suffer to be like Christ in our life that so by our works we may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven And as it is painful and grievous to bear the Cross of Christ in the griefs and displeasures of this life so it bringeth forth the joyful fruit of Hope James 5. in all them that be exercised therewith Let us not so much behold the pain as the reward that shall follow that labour Nay let us rather endeavour our selves in our sufferance to endure innocently and guiltless as our Saviour Christ did For if we suffer for our deservings 1 Pet. 2. then hath not patience his perfect work in us but if undeservedly we suffer loss of goods and life if we suffer to be evil spoken of for the love of Christ this is thankful afore God for so did Christ suffer The patience of Christ He never did sin neither was any guile found in his mouth Yea when he was reviled with taunts he reviled not again
When he was wrongfully dealt with he threatned not again nor revenged his quarrel but delivered his cause to him that judgeth rightly Perfect patience careth not what Perfect patience nor how much it suffereth nor of whom it suffereth whether of Friend or Foe but studieth to suffer innocently and without deserving Yea he in whom perfect Charity is careth so little to revenge Mat. 5. that he rather studieth to do good for evil to bless and say well of them that curse him to pray for them that pursue him according to the example of our Saviour Christ The meekness of Christ who is the most perfect example and pattern of all meekness and sufferance which hanging upon the Cross in most fervent anguish bleeding in every part of his blessed Body being set in the midst of his enemies and crucifiers and he notwithstanding the intolerable pains which they saw him in being of them mocked and scorned despitefully without all favour and compassion had yet towards them such compassion in heart that he prayed to his Father of Heaven for them Luke 15. and said O Father forgive them for they wot not what they do What patience was it also which he shewed when one of his own Apostles and Servants which was put in trust of him came to betray him unto his Enemies to the death He said nothing worse to him Mat. 15. but Friend wherefore at thou come Thus good People should we call to mind the great examples of Charity which Christ shewed in his Passion if we will fruitfully remember his Passion Such charity and love should we bear one to another if we will be the true Servants of Christ For if we love but them that love and say well by us Mat. 5. what great thing is it that we do saith Christ Do not the Paynims and open sinners so We must be more perfect in our Charity than thus even as our Father in Heaven is perfect which maketh the light of his Sun to rise upon the good and the bad and sendeth his rain upon the kind and unkind After this manner should we shew our Charity indifferently as well to one as to another as well to friend as foe like obedient Children after the example of our Father in Heaven For if Christ was obedient to his Father even to the death and that the most shameful death as the Jews esteemed it the death of the Cross why should we not be obedient to God in lower points of Charity and Patience Ecclus. 28. Mat. 28. Let us forgive then our Neighbours their small faults as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us our great It is not meet that we should crave forgiveness of our great offences at Gods hands and yet will not forgive the small trespasses of our Neighbours against us We do call for mercy in vain if we will not shew mercy to our Neighbours For if we will not put wrath and displeasure forth of our hearts to our Christian Brother no more will God forgive the displeasure and wrath that our sins have deserved before him For under this condition doth God forgive us if we forgive other It becometh not Christian men to be hard one to another nor yet to think their Neighbour unworthy to be forgiven For howsoever unworthy he is yet is Christ worthy to have thee do thus much for his sake he hath deserved it of thee that thou shouldest forgive thy Neighbour And God is also to be obeyed which commandeth us to forgive if we will have any part of the Pardon which our Saviour Christ purchased once of God the Father by shedding of his precious Blood Nothing becometh Christs Servants so much as mercy and compassion Let us then be favourable one to another James 5. and pray we one for another that we may be healed from all frailties of our life the less to offend one the other and that we may be of one mind Ephes 5. and one spirit agreeing together in brotherly love and concord even like the dear Children of God By these means shall we move God to be merciful unto our sins yea and we shall be hereby the more ready to receive our Saviour and Maker in his blessed Sacrament to our everlasting comfort and health of Soul Christ delighteth to enter and dwell in that Soul where Love and Charity ruleth and where Peace and Concord is seen For thus writeth St. John 1 John 4. 1 John 2. God is charity he that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him And by this saith he we shall know that we be of God if we love our brethren Yea and by this shall we know that we be delivered from death to life if we love one another 1 John 2. But he which hateth his brother saith the same Apostle abideth in death even in the danger of everlasâ—â—ng death and is moreover the child of damnation an◠〈◊〉 the Devil cursed of God and hated so long as 〈◊〉 so remaineth of God and all his heavenly company For as Peace and Charity make us the blessed Children of Almighty God so doth hatred and envy make us the cursed Children of the Devil Rom. 8. God give us all grace to follow Christs examples in Peace and in Charity in Patience and Sufferance that we now may have him our guest to enter and dwell within us so as we may be in full surety having such a pledge of our Salvation If we have him and his favour we may be sure we have the favour of God by his means For he sitteth on the right hand of God his Father as our Proctor and Attorney pleading and suing for us in all our needs and necessities Wherefore if we we want any gift of godly wisdom we may ask it of God for Christs sake and we shall have it Let us consider and examine our selves in what want we be concerning this virtue of Charity and Patience If we see that our hearts be nothing inclined thereunto in forgiving them that have offended against us then let us knowledge our want and wish to God to have it But if we want it and see in our selves no desire thereunto verily we be in a dangerous case before God and have need to make much earnest Prayer to God that we may have such an heart changed to the grafting in of a new For unless we forgive other we shall never be forgiven of God No not all the prayers and good works of other can pacifie God unto us unless we be at peace and at one with our Neighbour Nor all our deeds and good works can move God to forgive us our debts to him except we forgive to other He setteth more by Mercy than by Sacrifice Mercy moved our Saviour Christ to suffer for his Enemies it becometh us then to follow his example For it shall little avail us to have in meditation the fruits and price of his Passion to magnifie
ye see how all is of God by his Son Christ our Lord and Saviour Remember I say once again your Duty of Thanks let them be never to want still injoyn your self to continue in Thanksgiving ye can offer to God no better Sacrifice For he saith himself Psal 50. It is the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanks that shall honor me Which thing was well perceived of that holy Prophet David when he so earnestly spake to himself thus Psal 103. O my Soul bless thou the Lord and all that is within me bless his holy Name I say once again O my Soul bless thou the Lord and never forget his manifold rewards God give us Grace good People to know these things and to feel them in our Hearts This knowledge and feeling is not in our selves by our selves it is not possible to come by it a great pity it were that we should lose so profitable knowledge Let us therefore meekly call upon that bountiful Spirit the Holy Ghost which proceedeth from our Father of Mercy and from our Mediator Christ that he would assist us and inspire us with his presence that in him we may be able to hear the goodness of God declared unto us to our Salvation For without his lively and secret inspiration can we not once so much as speak the Name of our Mediator as St. Paul plainly testifieth 1 Cor. 12 No Man can once Name our Lord Jesus Christ but in the Holy Ghost Much less should we be able to believe and know these great Mysteries that be opened to us by Christ St. Paul saith That no Man can know what is of God 1 Cor. 2. but the Spirit of God As for us saith he we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God for this purpose That in that holy Spirit we might know the things that be given us by Christ The Wise man saith that in the Power and Vertue of the Holy Ghost resteth all Wisdom and all Ability to know God and to please him For he waiteth thus We know that it is not in Mans power to guide his goings Wisd 9. No Man can know thy Pleasure except thou givest Wisdom and sendest thy holy Spirit from above Send him down therefore prayeth he to God from the holy Heavens and from the Throne of thy Majesty that he may be with me and labor with me that so I may know what is acceptable before thee Let us with so good Heart Pray as he did and we shall not fail but to have his assistance For he is soon seen of them that love him he will be found of them that seek him for very liberal and gentle is the Spirit of Wisdom In his power shall we have sufficient Abilty to know our Duty to God in him shall we be comforted and encouraged to walk in our Duty in him shall we be meet vessels to receive the Grace of Almighty God for it is he that purgeth and purifieth the mind by his secret working And he only is present every where by his invisible Power and containeth all things in his Dominion He lightneth the Heart to conceive worthy thoughts to Almighty God he sitteth in the Tongue of Man to stir him to speak his Honor no Language is hid from him for he hath the knowledge of all Speech he only Ministreth Spiritual strength to the powers of our Soul and Body To hold the way which God had prepared for us to walk rightly in our Journey we must acknowledge that it is in the power of his Spirit which helpeth our infirmity That we may boldly come in Prayer and call upon Almighty God as our Father it is by this holy Spirit which maketh intercession for us with continual Sighs Galat. 4. Rom. 8. If any Gift we have wherewith we may work to the Glory of God and profit of our Neighbor all is wrought by this own and self same Spirit which maketh his distributions peculiarly to every Man as he will 1 Cor. 12. If any Wisdom we have it is not of our selves we cannot glory therein as begun of our selves but we ought to glory in God from whom it came to us as the Prophet Jeremy writeth Jerem. 9. Let him that rejoyceth rejoyce in this that he understandeth and knoweth me for I am the Lord which sheweth Mercy Judgment and Righteousness in the Earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. This Wisdom cannot be attained but by the direction of the Spirit of God and therefore it is called Spiritual Wisdom And no where can we more certainly search for the knowledge of this Will of God by the which we must direct all our Works and Deeds but in the holy Scriptures for they be they that testifie of him John 5. saith our Saviour Christ It may be called Knowledg and Learning that is other where gotten without the Word but the Wise Man plainly testifieth Wisd 13. that they all be but Vain which have not in them the Wisdom of God We see to what Vanity the Old Philosophers came who were destitute of this Science gotten and searched for in his Word We see what Vanity the School Doctrin is mixed with for that in this Word they sought not the Will of God but rather the Will of Reason the Trade of Custom the Path of the Fathers the Practice of the Church Let us therefore Read and Revolve the holy Scripture both Day and Night Psal 1. Psal 119. For blessed is he that hath his whole meditation therein It is that which giveth light to our Feet to walk by It is that which giveth Wisdom to the simple and ignorant In it may we find Eternal Life In the holy Scriptures find we Christ in Christ find we God for he it is that is the express Image of the Father He that seeth Christ seeth the Father And contrariwise as St. Jerome saith the ignorance of the Scripture is the ignorance of Christ Not to know Christ Psal 19. Heb. 1. John 14. is to be in darkness in the midst of our Worldly and Carnal light of Reason and Philosophy To be without Christ is to be in foolishness For he is the only Wisdom of the Father in whom it pleased him that all fulness and perfection should dwell Coloss 2. With whom whosoever is endued in Heart by Faith and rooted fast in Charity hath laid a sure Foundation to build on whereby he may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth length and depth and to know the love of Christ This universal and absolute knowledge is that Wisdom which St. Paul wisheth these Ephesians to have as under Heaven the greatest treasure that can be obtained Ephes 3. For of this Wisdom the Wise Man writeth thus of his experience All good things came to me together with her and innumerable Riches through her hands And addeth more in that same place Sap. 7.
living They called and cryed to God for Help and Mercy with such a ceremony of Sackcloth Dust and Ashes that thereby they might declare to the whole World what an humble and lowly estimation they had of themselves and how well they remembred their Name and Title aforesaid their vile corrupt frail Nature Dust Earth and Ashes Sapi. 7. The Book of Wisdom also willing to pull down our proud Stomachs moveth us diligently to remember our mortal and earthly Generation which we have all of him that was first Made and that all Men as well Kings as Subjects come into this world and go out of the same in like sort that is as of ourselves full miserable as we may daily see And Almighty God commanded his Prophet Esay to make a Proclamation and cry to the whole World and Esay asking What shall I cry The Lord answered Cry That all Flesh is Grass Esay 40. and that all the Glory thereof is but as the Flower of the Field when the Grass is withered the Flower falleth away when the Wind of the Lord bloweth upon it The People surely is Grass the which dryeth up and the Flower fadeth away And the Holy Man Job Job 14. having in himself great experience of the miserable and sinful estate of Man doth open the same to the World in these words Man saith he that is born of a Woman living but a short time is full of manifold Miseries he springeth up like a Flower and fadeth again vanisheth away as it were a shadow and never continueth in one state And dost thou judge it meet O Lord to open thine Eyes upon such a one and to bring him to judgment with thee Who can make him clean that is conceived of an unclean Seed and all Men of their evilness and natural proneness be so universally given to Sin that as the Scripture saith God repented that ever he made Man And by Sin his Indignation was so much provoked against the World that he drowned all the World with Noes Flood Gen. 7. except Noe himself and his little Houshold It is not without great cause that the Scripture of God doth so many times call all Men here in this world by this Word Earth O thou Earth Jer. 22. Earth Earth saith Jeremy hear the word of the Lord. This our right Name Calling and Title Earth Earth Earth pronounced by the Prophet sheweth what we be indeed by whatsoever other Style Title or Dignity Men do call us Thus he plainly named us who knoweth best both what we be and what we ought of right to be called And thus he setteth us forth speaking by his faithful Apostle St. Paul All Men Jews and Gentiles are under sin there is none righteous no not one There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God they are all gone out of the way they are all unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one Their throat is an open Sepulchre with their tongues they have used craft and deceit the poison of serpents is under their Lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and wretchedness are in their ways and the way of peace have they not known Rom. 11. Gal. 3. there is no fear of God before their eyes And in another place St. Paul writeth thus God hath wrapped all nations in unbelief that he might have mercy on all The Scripture shutteth up all under Sin Ephes 2. that the Promise by the Faith of Jesus Christ should be given unto them that believe St. Paul in many places painteth us out in our colours calling us the Children of the wrath of God when we be born saying also that we cannot think a good thought of ourselves much less can we say well or do well of ourselves And the Wise Man saith in the Book of Proverbs Prov. 24. The iust man falleth seven times a day The most tried and approved Man Job feared all his Works Luke 1. St. John the Baptist being Sanctified in his Mothers Womb and praised before he was Born being called an Angel and great before the Lord filled even from his Birth with the Holy Ghost the preparer of the way for our Saviour Christ and commended of our Saviour Christ to be more than a Prophet Matth. 3. and the greatest that ever was born of a Woman Yet he plainly granteth that he had need to be washed of Christ he worthily Extolleth and Glorifieth his Lord and Master Christ and Humbleth himself as unworthy to unbuckle his Shooes and giveth all Honour and Glory to God So doth S. Paul both oft and evidently confess himself what he was of himself ever giving as a most faithful Servant all Praise to his Master and Saviour So doth blessed St. John the Evangelist in the name of himself and of all other Holy Men be they never so just make this open Confession If we say we have no sin 1 Joh. 1. and 2. we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we acknowledge our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness If we say we have not sinned we make him a lyar and his word is not in us Wherefore the Wise Man in the Book called Ecclesiastes maketh this true and general Confession Eccles 7. There is not one just man upon the Earth that doth good and sinneth not And David is ashamed of his sin but not to confess his sin Psal 51. How oft how earnestly and lamentably doth he desire God's great Mercy for his great Offences and that God should not enter into judgment with him Psal 113. And again How well weigheth this Holy Man his sins which he confesseth that they be so many in number and so hid and hard to understand that it is in a manner impossible to know utter Psal 19. or number them Wherefore he having a true earnest and deep Contemplation and Consideration of his sins and yet not coming to the bottom of them he maketh Supplication to God to forgive him his privy secret hid sins The knowledge of which he cannot attain unto He weigheth rightly his Sins from the Original root and Spring-head perceiving Inclinations Provocations Stirrings Stingings Buds Branches Dregs Infections Tastes Feelings and Scents of them to continue in him still Wherefore he saith Mark and Behold I was conceived in sins He saith not Sin Psal 51. but in the plural number Sins forasmuch as out of one as a Fountain spring all the rest Mark 10. Luke 18. Our Saviour Christ saith There is none good but God And that we can do nothing that is good without him nor can any man come to the Father but by him He commandeth us also to say that We be unprofitable servants John 15. Luke 17. when we have done all that we can do He preferreth the penitent
Publican before the Proud Holy and Glorious Pharisee He calleth himself a Physician but not to them that be whole Luke 18. Matth. 9. but to them that be sick and have need of his Salve for their Sore He teacheth us in our Prayers to acknowledge ourselves Sinners and to ask Righteousness and deliverance from all Evils at our Heavenly Father's hand He declareth that the sins of our own Hearts do defile our ownselves He teacheth Matth. 12. that an evil Word or Thought deserveth Condemnation affirming that We shall give account for every idle word Matth. 15. He saith He came not to save but the sheep that were utterly lost and cast away Therefore few of the Proud Just Learned Wise Perfect and Holy Pharisees were saved by him because they justified themselves by their counterfeit Holiness before Men. Wherefore good People let us beware of such Hypocrisie Vain-glory and Justifying of ourselves The Second Part of the SERMON of the Misery of Man FOrasmuch as the true knowledge of ourselves is very necessary to come to the right knowledge of God ye have heard in the last Reading how Humbly all good Men always have thought of themselves and so to think and judge of themselves are taught of God their Creator by his Holy Word For of ourselves we be Crab-trees that can bring forth no Apples We be of ourselves of such Earth as can but bring forth Weeds Nettles Brambles Briers Cockle and Darnel Our Fruits be declared in the 5th Chapter to the Galatians Gal. 5. We have neither Faith Charity Hope Patience Chastity nor any thing else that good is but of God and therefore these Virtues be called there The fruits of the Holy Ghost and not the fruits of Man Let us therefore acknowledge ourselves before God as we be indeed miserable and wretched Sinners And let us earnestly Repent and Humble ourselves heartily and cry to God for Mercy Let us all Confess with Mouth and Heart that we be full of Imperfections Let us know our own Works of what imperfection they be and then we shall not stand foolishly and arrogantly in our own Conceits nor challenge any part of Justification by our Merits or Works For truly there be imperfections in our best Works We do not love God so much as we are bound to do with all our Heart Mind and Power We do not fear God so much as we ought to do We do not pray to God but with great and many imperfections We Give Forgive Believe Live and Hope imperfectly We Speak Think and Do impefectly We Fight against the Devil the World and the Flesh imperfectly Let us therefore not be ashamed to confess plainly our state of Imperfection Yea let us not be ashamed to confess Imperfection even in all our best Works Let none of us be ashamed to say with the Holy St. Peter Luke 5. Psal 106. I am a sinful man Let us say with the Holy Prophet David We have sinned with our fathers we have done amiss and dealt wickedly Let us all make open Confession with the Prodigal Son to our Father and say with him We have sinned against Heaven Luke 14. and before thee O Father we are not worthy to be called thy sons Let us all say with Holy Baruch Baruch 2. O Lord our God to us is worthily ascribed shame and confusion and to thee righteousness We have sinned we have done wickedly we have behaved ourselves ungodlily in all thy Righteousness Let us all say with the Holy Prophet Daniel Dan. 9. O Lord righteousness belongeth to thee unto us belongeth confusion We have sinned we have been naughty we have offended we have fled from thee we have gone back from all thy Precepts and Judgments So we learn of all good Men in Holy Scriptures to Humble our selves and to Exalt Extol Praise Magnifie and Glorifie God Thus we have heard how evil we be of ourselves how of ourselves and by ourselves we have no Goodness Help or Salvation but contrariwise Sin Damnation and Death everlasting Which if we deeply weigh and consider we shall the better understand the great Mercy of God and how our Salvation cometh only by Christ 2 Cor. 3. For in ourselves as of ourselves we find nothing whereby we may be delivered from this miserable Captivity into the which we are cast through the envy of the Devil by breaking of God's Commandment in our first Parent Adam Psal 50. Ephes 2. We are all become unclean but we all are not able to cleanse ourselves nor make one another of us clean We are by nature the children of God's wrath but we are notable to make ourselves the Children and Inheritors of God's Glory We are Sheep that run astray 1 Pet. 2. but we cannot of our own power come again to the Sheepfold so great is our Imperfection and Weakness In ourselves therefore may we not glory which of ourselves are nothing but sinful neither may we rejoyce in any Works that we do all which be so Imperfect and Impure that they are not able to stand before the Righteous Judgment Seat of God as the Holy Prophet David saith Psal 143. Enter not into judgment with thy Servant O Lord for no man that liveth shall be found righteous in thy sight To God therefore must we flee or else shall we never find Peace Rest and Quietness of Conscience in our Hearts For he is the father of mercies and God of all consolation He is the Lord with whom is plenteous redemption 2 Cor. 1. He is the God which of his own mercy saveth us Psal 130. and setteth out his Charity and exceeding Love towards us in that of his own voluntary Goodness when we were Perishing he Saved us and provided an everlasting Kingdom for us And all these Heavenly Treasures are given us not for our own Deserts Merits or good Deeds which of ourselves we have none but of his mere Mercy freely And for whose sake Truly for Jesus Christ's sake that pure and undefiled Lamb of God He is that dearly beloved Son for whose sake God is fully pacified satisfied and set at One with Man He is the Lamb of God John 1. which taketh away the sins of the World of whom only it may be truly spoken that he did all things well 1 Pet. 2. and in his mouth was found no craft nor subtilty None but he alone may say The Prince of the World came and in me he hath nothing And he alone may also say Which of you shall reprove me of any fault John 8. He is the high and everlasting Priest Heb. 7. which hath offered himself once for all upon the Altar of the Cross and with that one oblation hath made perfect for evermore them that are sanctified 1 John 2. He is the alone Mediator between God and Man which paid our ransom to God with his own blood and with that hath he cleansed us
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
he will be merciful unto us for his only Sons sake and that we have our Saviour Christ our perpetual Advocate and Priest in whose only Merits Oblation and Suffering we do trust that our Offences be continually washed and purged whensoever we repenting truly do return to him with our whole Heart stedfastly determining with ourselves through his Grace to obey and serve him in keeping his Commandments and never to turn back again to Sin Such is the true Faith that the Scripture doth so much commend the which when it seeth and considereth what God hath done for us is also moved through continual assistance of the Spirit of God to serve and please him to keep his Favour to fear his Displeasure to continue his Obedient Children shewing Thakfulness again by observing or keeping his Commandments and that freely for true Love chiefly and not for dread of Punishment or love of temporal Reward considering how clearly without deservings we have received his Mercy and Pardon freely This true Faith will shew forth itself and cannot long be idle For as it is written Abac 2 The Just man doth live by his Faith He never sleepeth nor is idle when he would wake and be well occupied And God by his Prophet Jeremy saith Jer. 17. That he is a happy and blessed man which hath Faith and confidence in God For he is like a Tree set by the water-side and spreadeth his roots abroad towards the moisture and feareth not heat when it cometh his leaf will be green and will not cease to bring forth his Fruit Even so Faithful men putting away all fear of Adversity will shew forth the fruit of their good Works as occasion is offered to do them The Second Part of the Sermon of Faith YE have heard in the First Part of this Sermon that there be two kinds of Faith a dead and an unfruitful Faith and a Faith lively that worketh by Charity The First to be unprofitable the Second necessary for the obtaining of our Salvation The which Faith hath Charity always joyned unto it and is fruitful and bringeth forth all good Works Now as concerning the same matter you shall hear what followeth Eccles 31. The VVise Man saith He that believeth in God will hearken unto his Commandments For if we do not shew ourselves faithful in our Conversation the Faith which we pretend to have is but a feigned Faith Because the true Christian Faith is manifestly shewed by good Living and not by VVords only as St. Augustin saith Good Living cannot be separated from true Faith which worketh by Love Libro de fide operibus cap. 2. Sermo de lege fide Heb. 11. Gen. 4. Gen. 6. Eccl. 44. Gen. 11. And St. Chrysostome saith Faith of itself is full of good VVorks As soon as a Man doth Believe he shall be garnished with them How plentiful this Faith is of good VVorks and how it maketh the work of one Man more acceptable to God than of another St. Paul teacheth at large in the Eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews saying That faith made the oblation of Abel better than the oblation of Cain This made Noah to build the Ark. This made Abraham to forsake his Country and all his Friends and go into a far Country there to dwell among Strangers So did also Isaac and Jacob depending or hanging only on the Help and Trust that they had in God And when they came to the Country which God promised them they would build no Cities Towns nor Houses but lived like Strangers in Tents that might every day be removed Their Trust was so much in God that they set but little by any worldly thing for that God had prepared better Dwelling-places for them in Heaven of his own Foundation and Building Gen. 22. Eccl. 13. This Faith made Abraham ready at God's Commandment to offer his own Son and Heir Isaac whom he loved so well and by whom he was promised to have innumerable issue among the which One should be Born in whom all Nations should be blessed trusting so much in God that though he were slain yet that God was able by his Omnipotent Power to raise him from Death and perform his Promise He mistrusted not the promise of God although unto his Reason every thing seemeth contrary He Believed verily that God would not forsake him in Dearth and Famine that was in the Country And in all other dangers that he was brought unto he trusted ever that God should be his God and his Protector and Defender whatsoever he saw to the contrary This Faith wrought so in the Heart of Moses that he refused to be taken for King Pharaoh Exod. 2. his Daughters Son and to have great inheritance in Egypt thinking it better with the people of God to have affliction and sorrow than with naughty Men in Sin to live pleasantly for a time By faith he cared not for the threatning of King Pharaoh For his Trust was so in God that he passed not of the Felicity of this VVorld but looked for the Reward to come in Heaven setting his Heart upon the invisible God as if he had seen him ever present before his Eyes By faith Exod. 14. the children of Israel passed through the red Sea By faith the walls of Jericho fell down without stroke and many other wonderful Miracles have been wrought In all good Men that heretofore have been Faith hath brought forth their good Works Dan. 6. and obtained the Promises of God Faith hath stopped the Lyons Mouths Faith hath quenched the force of fire Faith hath escaped the Swords edges Dan. 3. Faith hath given weak men strength victory in battel overthrown the armies of Infidels Heb. 11. raised the dead to life Faith hath made good Men to take adversity in good part some have been mocked and whipped bound and cast in prison some have lost all their Goods and lived in great Poverty some have wandred in Mountains Hills and Wildernesses some have been racked some slain some stoned some sawen some rent in pieces some beheaded some burnt without mercy and would not be delivered because they looked to rise again to a better state All these Fathers Martyrs and other Holy Men whom St. Paul spake of had their Faith surely fixed in God when all the World was against them They did not only know God to be the Lord Maker and Governor of all Men in the World But also they had a special Confidence and Trust that he was and would be their God their Comforter Aider Helper Maintainer and Defender This is the Christian Faith which these Holy Men had and we also ought to have And although they were not named Christian Men yet was it a Christian Faith that they had for they looked for all Benefits of God the Father through the Merits of his Son Jesu Christ as we now do This difference is between them and us that they looked when Christ should come
Superstition and Hypocrisie Their Hearts within being full of Malice Pride Covetousness and all Wickedness Against which Sects and their pretended Holiness Christ cried out more vehemently than he did against any other Persons saying and often rehearsing these words Mat h. â—â— Woe be to you Scribes and Pharises ye Hypocrites for you make clean the vessel without but within ye be full of ravine and filthiness Thou blind Pharisee and Hypocrite first make the inward part clean For notwithstanding all the goodly Traditions and outward shews of good Works devised of their own imagination whereby they appeared to the World most Religious and Holy of all Men yet Christ who saw their Hearts knew that they were inwardly in the sight of God most Unholy most Abominable and farthest from God of all Men. Therefore said he unto them Hypocrites the Prophet Isaiah spake full truly of you when he said This People honour me with their lips Matth. 15. Isaiah 19. but their Heart is far from me They worship me in vain that teach Doctrines and Commandments of men for you leave the Commandments of God to keep your own traditions And though Christ said they worship God in vain Man's Laws may be observed and kept but not as God's Laws that teach doctrines and commandments of Men yet he meant not thereby to overthrow all Mens Commandments for he himself was ever obedient to the Princes and their Laws made for good Order and Governance of the People But he reproved the Laws and Traditions made by the Scribes and Pharises which were not made only for good order of the People as the Civil Laws were but they were set up so high that they were made to be right and pure worshipping of God as they had been equal with God's Laws or above them For many of God's Laws could not be kept but were fain to give place unto them This arrogancy God detested that Man should so advance his Laws to make them equal with God's Laws wherein the true honouring and right worshipping of God standeth and to make his Laws for them to be left off God hath appointed his Laws whereby his pleasure is to be honoured His pleasure is also That all Mens Laws not being contrary unto his Laws shall be obeyed and kept as good and necessary for every Commonweal but not as things wherein principally his Honour resteth And all Civil and Man's Laws either be or should be made to bring Men the better to keep God's Laws that consequently or followingly God should be the better honoured by them Howbeit the Scribes and Pharises were not content that their Laws should be no higher esteemed than other positive and Civil Laws nor would they have them called by the name of other temporal Laws but called them Holy and Godly Traditions Holy Traditions were esteemed as God's Laws and would have them esteemed not only for a right and true worshipping of God as God's Laws be indeed but also for the most high honouring of God to the which the Commandments of God should give place And for this cause did Christ so vehemently speak against them saying Your Traditions which Men esteem so high Holiness of Man's device is commonly occasion that God is offended Matth. 12. be abomination before God For commonly of such Traditions followeth the transgression or breaking of God's Commandments and a more Devotion in keeping of such things and a greater Conscience in breaking of them than of the Commandments of God As the Scribes and Pharises so superstitiously and scrupulously kept the Sabbath that they were offended with Christ because he healed sick Men and with his Apostles because they being sore a hungry gathered the ears of Corn to eat upon that day and because his Disciples washed not their Hands so often as their Traditions required The Scribes and Pharisees quarrelled with Christ Matth. 15. saying Why do thy Disciples break the traditions of the Seigniours But Christ laid to their charge that they for to keep their own Traditions did teach Men to break the very Commandments of God For they taught the People such a Devotion that they offered their Goods into the Treasure-house of the Temple under the pretence of God's Honour leaving their Fathers and Mothers to whom they were chiefly bound unholpen and so they brake the Commandments of God to keep their own Traditions They esteemed more an Oath made by the Gold or Oblation in the Temple than an Oath made in the Name of God himself or of the Temple They were more studious to pay their Tithes of small things than to do the greater things commanded of God as Works of Mercy or to do Justice or to deal sincerely uprightly and faithfully with God and Man These saith Christ ought to be done Matth. 23. and the other not left undone And to be short they were of so blind Judgment that they stumbled at a straw and leaped over a block They would as it were nicely take a Fly out of their Cup and drink down a whole Camel And therefore Christ called them Blind guides warning his Disciples from time to time to eschew their Doctrine For although they seemed to the World to be most perfect Men both in Living and Teaching yet was their Life but Hypocrisie and their Doctrine but sower Leaven mingled with Superstition Idolatry and overthwart Judgment setting up the Traditions and Ordinances of Man instead of God's Commandments The Third Part of the Sermon of Good Works THat all Men might rightly judge of Good Works it hath been declared in the Second Part of this Sermon what kind of Good Works they be that God would have his People to walk in namely such as he hath commanded in his Holy Scripture and not such Works as Men have studied out of their own Brain of a blind Zeal and Devotion without the Word of God And by mistaking the nature of good Works Man hath most highly displeased God and hath gone from his Will and Commandments So that thus you have heard how much the World from the beginning until Christ's time was ever ready to fall from the Commandments of God and to seek other means to Honour and Serve him after a Devotion found out of their own Heads And how they did set up their own Traditions as high or above God's Commandments which hath hapned also in our times the more it is to be lamented no less than it did among the Jews and that by the corruption or at least by the negligence of them that chiefly ought to have preserved the Pure and Heavenly Doctrine left by Christ What Man having any Judgment or Learning joyned with a true Zeal unto God doth not see and lament to have entred into Christ's Religion such false Doctrine Superstition Idolatry Hypocrisie and other enormities and abuses so as by little and little through the sower Leaven thereof the sweet Bread of God's Holy Word hath been much hindred and laid apart
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
so not conceiving a right Faith thereof make those Promises larger than ever God did trusting that although they continue in their sinful and detestable Living never so long yet that God at the end of their Life will shew his Mercy upon them and that then they will return And both these two sorts of Men be in a damnable state and yet nevertheless God who willeth not the Death of the wicked Ezek. 18. and 33. hath shewed means whereby both the same if they take heed in season may escape The first Against desperation as they do dread God's rightful Justice in punishing Sinners whereby they should be dismayed and should despair indeed as touching any hope that may be in themselves so if they would constantly or stedfastly believe that God's Mercy is the Remedy appointed against such despair and distrust not only for them but generally for all that be sorry and truely repentant and will therewithal stick to God's Mercy they may be sure they shall obtain Mercy and enter into the Port or Haven of Safeguard into the which whosoever doth come be they beforetime never so wicked they shall be out of danger of everlasting damnation Ezek. 3. as God by Ezekiel saith What time soever a Sinner doth return and take earnest and true Repentance Against Presumption I will forget all his Wickedness The other as they be ready to believe God's Promises so they should be as ready to believe the Threatnings of God As well they should believe the Law as the Gospel As well that there is an Hell and everlasting Fire as that there is an Heaven and everlasting Joy As well they should believe Damnation to be threatned to the wicked and evil doers as Salvation to be promised to the faithful in Word and Works As well they should believe God to be true in the one as in the other And the Sinners that continue in their wicked living ought to think that the Promises of God's Mercy and the Gospel pertain not unto them being in that state but only the Law and those Scriptures which contain the Wrath and Indignation of God and his Threatnings which should certifie them that as they do over-boldly presume of God's Mercy and live dissolutely So doth God still more and more withdraw his Mercy from them and he is so provoked thereby to wrath at length that he destroyeth such Presumers many times suddenly 1 Thess 5. For of such St. Paul saith thus When they shall say it is Peace there is no danger then shall sudden destruction come upon them Let us beware therefore of such naughty boldness to Sin For God which hath promised his Mercy to them that be truly repentant although it be at the later end hath not promised to the presumptuous Sinner either that he shall have long Life or that he shall have true Repentance at the last end But for that purpose hath he made every Man's death uncertain that he should not put his hope in the end and in the mean season to God's high displeasure live ungodly Wherefore let us follow the Counsel of the wise Man let us make no tarrying to turn unto the Lord Let us not put off from day to day for suddenly shall his Wrath come and in time of Vengeance he will destroy the wicked Let us therefore turn betimes and when we turn let us pray to God Osee 14. as Osee teacheth saying Forgive all our Sins receive us graciously And if we turn to him with an humble and a very penitent Heart he will receive us to his Favour and Grace for his Holy Names sake for his Promise sake for his Truth and Mercies sake promised to all faithful Believers in Jesus Christ his only natural Son To whom the only Saviour of the World with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honor glory and power world without end Amen AN EXHORTATION Against the Fear of Death IT is not to be marvelled that worldly Men do fear to die For death depriveth them of all worldly Honors Riches and Possessions in the fruition whereof the worldly Man counteth himself happy so long as he may enjoy them at his own Pleasure and otherwise if he be dispossessed of the same without hope of recovery then he can no otherwise think of himself but that he is unhappy because he hath lost his worldly Joy and Pleasure Alas thinketh this carnal Man shall I now depart for ever from all my Honors all my Treasure from my Country Friends Riches Possessions and worldly Pleasures which are my Joy and Heart's delight Alas that ever that day should come when all these I must bid farewel at once and never enjoy any of them after Wherefore it is not without great cause spoken of the wise Man O Death Eccles 41. how bitter and sower is the remembrance of thee to a Man that liveth in Peace and Prosperity in his Substance to a Man living at ease leading his Life after his own Mind without trouble and is therewithal well pampered and fed There be other Men whom this World doth not so greatly laugh upon but rather vex and oppress with Poverty Sickness or some other Adversity yet they do fear death partly because the Flesh abhorreth naturally it 's own sorrowful dissolution which death doth threaten to them and partly by reason of Sicknesses and painful diseases which be most strong Pangs and Agonies in the Flesh and use commonly to come to sick Men before death or at the least accompany death whensoever it cometh Although these two Causes seem great and weighty to a worldly Man whereupon he is moved to fear death yet there is another Cause much greater than any of these afore rehearsed for which indeed he hath just cause to fear death and that is the state and condition whereunto at the last end death bringeth all them that have their Hearts fixed upon this World without Repentance and Amendment This state and condition is called the second death which unto all such shall ensue after this bodily death And this is that death which indeed ought to be dreaded and feared For it is an everlasting loss without remedy of the Grace and Favor of God and of everlasting Joy Pleasure and Felicity And it is not only the loss for ever of all these eternal Pleasures but also it is the condemnation both of Body and Soul without either appellation or hope of redemption unto everlasting pains in Hell Unto this state death sent the unmerciful and ungodly rich Man Luke 16. that Luke speaketh of in his Gospel who living in all Wealth and Pleasure in this World and cherishing himself daily with dainty Fare and gorgeous Apparel despised poor Lazarus that lay pitiful at his Gate miserably plagued and full of Sores and also grievously pined with Hunger Both these two were arrested by death which sent Lazarus the poor miserable Man by Angels anon unto Abraham's Bosom a place of Rest
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
fear of bodily Death Phil. 1. when it cometh but certainly as St. Paul did so shall he gladly according to God's Will and when it pleaseth God to call him out of this life greatly desire in his heart that he may be rid from all these occasions of evil and live ever to God's pleasure in perfect obedience of his Will with our Saviour Jesus Christ to whose Gracious Presence the Lord of his infinite Mercy and Grace bring us to reign with him in life everlasting To whom with our Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory in Worlds without end Amen AN EXHORTATION CONCERNING Good Order and Obedience to Rulers and Magistrates ALmighty God hath appointed and Created all things in Heaven Earth and Waters in a most excellent and perfect Order In Heaven he hath appointed distinct and several Orders and States of Archangels and Angels In Earth he hath assigned and appointed Kings Princes with other Governors under them in all good and necessary Order The Water above is kept and raineth down in due time and season The Sun Moon Stars Rainbow Thunder Lightning Clouds and all Birds of the Air do keep their order The Earth Trees Seeds Plants Herbs Corn Grass and all manner of Beasts keep themselves in order All the parts of the whole year as Winter Summer Months Nights and Days continue in their order All kinds of Fishes in the Sea Rivers and Waters with all Fountains Springs yea the Seas themselves keep their comly course and order And Man himself also hath all his Parts both within and without as Soul Heart Mind Memory Understanding Reason Speech with all and singular corporal Members of his Body in a profitable necessary and pleasant Order Every degree of People in their Vocation Calling and Office hath appointed to them their Duty and Order Some are in high degree some in low some Kings and Princes some Inferiours and Subjects Priests and Lay-men Masters and Servants Fathers and Children Husbands and Wiâ—es Rich and Poor and every one have need of other so that in all things is to be lauded and praised the goodly order of God without the which no House no City no Common-wealth can continue and endure or last For where there is no right order there reigneth all Abuse Carnal liberty Enormity Sin and Babylonical confusion Take away Kings Princes Rulers Magistrates Judges and such Estates of God's order no Man shall ride or go by the way unrobbed no Man shall sleep in his own House or Bed unkilled no Man shall keep his Wife Children and Possessions in quietness all things shall be common and there must needs follow all mischief and utter destruction both of Souls Bodies Goods and Common-wealths But blessed be God that we in this Realm of England feel not the horrible Calamities Miseries and Wretchedness which all they undoubtedly feel and suffer that lack this godly order And praised be God that we know the great excellent Benefit of God shewed towards us in this behalf God hath sent us his high gift our most dear Sovereign King JAMES with a godly wife and honorable Council with other Superiors and Inferiors in a beautiful order and godly Wherefore let us Subjects do our bounden Duties giving hearty thanks to God and praying for the preservation of this godly order Let us all obey even from the bottom of our Hearts all their godly Proceedings Laws Statutes Proclamations and Injunctions with all other godly orders Let us consider the Scriptures of the Holy Ghost which persuade and command us all obediently to be subject first and chiefly to the King's Majesty Supreme Governor over all and next to his honorable Council and to all other Noble Men Magistrates and Officers which by God's goodness be placed and ordered For Almighty God is the only Author and Provider for this fore-named State and Order as it is written of God in the Book of the Proverbs Prov. 8. Through me Kings do reign through me Counsellers make just Laws through me do Princes bear Rule and all Judges of the Earth execute Judgement I am loving to them that love me Here let us mark well and remember that the high Power and Authority of Kings with their making of Laws Judgements and Offices are the Ordinances not of Man but of God And therefore is this Word through me so many times repeated Here is also well to be considered and remembred that this good Order is appointed by God's Wisdom Favor and Love especially for them that love God and therefore he saith I love them that love me Wisd 6. Also in the Book of Wisdom we may evidently learn that a King's Power Authority and Strength is a great Benefit of God given of his great Mercy to the comfort of our great Misery For this we read there spoken to Kings Hear O ye Kings and understand learn ye that be Judges of the ends of the Earth give ear ye that Rule the Multitudes For the Power is given you of the Lord and the Strength from the Highest Let us learn also here by the Infallible and undeceivable Word of God That Kings and other Supreme and higher Officers are ordained of God who is most high And therefore they are here taught diligently to apply and give themselves to Knowledge and Wisdom necessary for the ordering of God's People to their governance committed or whom to govern they are charged of God And they be here also taught by Almighty God that they should acknowledge themselves to have all their Power and Strength not from Rome but immediately of God most High We read in the Book of Deuteronomy Deut. 33. that all Punishment pertaineth to God by this Sentence Vengeance is mine and I will reward But this Sentence we must understand to pertain also unto the Magistrates which do exercise God's room in Judgement and punishing by good and godly Laws here on Earth And the places of Scripture which seem to remove from among all Christian Men Judgement Punishment or Killing ought to be understood that no Man of his own private Authority may be Judge over others may punish or may kill But we must refer all Judgment to God to Kings and Rulers Judges under them which be God's Officers to execute Justice and by plain words of Scripture have their Authority and Use of the Sword Granted from God as we are taught by St. Paul that dear and chosen Apostle of our Saviour Christ whom we ought diligently to obey even as we would obey our Saviour Christ if he were present Thus St. Paul writeth to the Romans Let every Soul submit himself unto the authority of the higher Rom. 13. powers for there is no power but of God The powers that be be ordained of God Whosoever therefore withstandeth the Power withstandeth the Ordinance of God But they that resist or are against it shall receive to themselves damnation For Rulers are not fearful to them that do good but to them that do evil
suffer thee although he is daily offended by thee Forgive therefore a light Trespass to thy neighbour that Christ may forgive thee many thousands of Trespasses which art every day an offender For if thou forgive thy Brother being to thee a trespasser then hast thou a sure sign and token that God will forgive thee to whom all Men be debtors and trespassers How wouldst thou have God merciful to thee if thou wilt be cruel unto thy Brother Canst thou not find in thy heart to do that towards another that is thy fellow which God hath done to thee that art but his servant Ought not one sinner to forgive another seeing that Christ which was no sinner did pray to his Father for them that without mercy and despitefully put him to death 1 Pet. 2. Who when he was reviled he did not use reviling words again and when he suffered wrongfully he did not threaten but gave all vengeance to the judgment of his Father which judgeth rightfully And what crackest thou of thy Head if thou labour not to be in the Body Thou canst be no member of Christ if thou follow not the steps of Christ Isai 53. Luke 23. Acts 7. Who as the Prophet saith was led to death like a Lamb not opening his mouth to reviling but opening his Mouth to praying for them that crucified him saying Father forgive them for they cannot tell what they do The which example anon after Christ St. Stephen did follow and after St. Paul We be evil spoken of saith he and we speak well We suffer persecution and take it patiently Men curse us and we gently intreat 1 Cor. 4. Thus Saint Paul taught that he did and he did that he taught Bless you saith he them that persecute you bless you and curse not Is it a great thing to speak well to thine Adversary to whom Christ doth command thee to do well David when Shimes did call him all to naught did not chide again but said patiently Suffer him to speak evil if perchance the Lord will have Mercy on me Histories be full of Examples of Heathen Men that took very meekly both opprobrious and reproachful Words and injurious or wrongful Deeds And shall those Heathen excel in Patience us that profess Christ the Teacher and Example of all Patience Lysander when one did rage against him in reviling of him he was nothing moved but said Go to go to speak against me as much and as oft as thou wilt and leave out nothing if perchance by this means thou mayst discharge thee of those naughty things with the which it seemeth that thou art full laden Many Men speak evil of all Men because they can speak well of no Man After this sort this Wise Man avoideth from him the reproachful Words spoken unto him imputing and laying them to the Natural Sickness of his Adversary Pericles when a certain Scolder or railing Fellow did revile him he answered not a word again but went into a Gallery and after towards Night when he went home this Scolder followed him raging still more and more because he saw the other to set nothing by him And after that he came to his Gate being dark Night Pericles commanded one of his Servants to light a Torch and to bring the Scolder home to his own House He did not only with quietness suffer this Brawler patiently but also recompensed an evil Turn with a good Turn and that to his Enemy Is it not a shame for us that profess Christ to be worse than Heathen People in a thing chiefly pertaining to Christs Religion Shall Philosophy perswade them more than Gods Word shall perswade us Shall Natural Reason prevail more with them than Religion shall with us Shall Mans Wisdom lead them to those things whereunto the Heavenly Doctrine cannot lead us What blindness wilfulness or rather madness is this Pericles being provoked to anger with many villanous words answered not a word But we stirred but with one little word what foul work do we make How do we fume rage stamp and stare like Mad Men Many Men of every trifle will make a great matter and of a spark of a little word will kindle a great fire taking all things in the worst part But how much better is it Reasons to move Men from quarrel-picking and more like to the Example and Doctrine of Christ to make rather a greater fault in our Neighbour a small fault reasoning with ourselves after this sort He spake these words but it was in a sudden heat or the Drink spake them and not he or he spake them at the motion of some other or he spake them being ignorant of the truth he spake them not against me but against him whom he thought me to be But as touching evil speaking he that is ready to speak evil against other Men first let him examine himself whether he be faultless and clear of the fault which he findeth in another For it is a shame when he that blameth another for any fault is guilty himself either in the same fault or in a greater It is a shame for him that is blind to call another Man blind and it is more shame for him that is whole blind to call him blinkard that is but purblind For this is to see a straw in another Mans Eye when a Man hath a block in his own Eye Then let him consider that he that useth to speak evil shall commonly be evil spoken of again And he that speaketh what he will for his pleasure shall be compelled to hear what he would not to his displeasure Moreover let him remember that saying That we shall give an account for every idle Word Mat. 12. How much more then shall we make reckoning for our sharp bitter brawling and chiding Words which provoke our Brother to be angry and so to the breach of his Charity And as touching evil answering although we be never so much provoked by other Mens evil speaking yet we shall not follow their frowardness by evil answering if we consider that anger is a kind of madness and that he which is angry is as it were for the time in a phrensie Wherefore let him beware Reasons to move Men from froward answering lest in his fury he speak any thing whereof afterward he may have just cause to be sorry And he that will defend that anger is not fury but that he hath reason even when he is most angry then let him reason thus with himself when he is angry Now I am so moved and chafed that within a little while after I shall be otherwise minded wherefore then should I now speak any thing in mine anger which hereafter when I would fainest cannot be changed Wherefore shall I do any thing now being as it were out of my Wit for the which when I shall come to my self again I shall be very sad Why doth not Reason why doth not Godliness yea why doth not Christ
set forth and the Churches restored to their ancient and godly use render your hearty thanks to the goodness of Almighty God who hath in our days stirred up the hearts not only of his godly Preachers and Ministers but also of his faithful and most Christian Magistrates and Governors to bring such godly things to pass And forasmuch as your Churches are scoured and swept from the sinful and superstitious filthiness wherewith they were defiled and disfigured Do ye your parts good People to keep your Churches comely and clean suffer them not to be defiled with Rain and Weather with dung of Doves and Owls Stares and Choughs and other filthiness as it is foul and lamentable to behold in many places of this Country It is the House of Prayer not the House of talking of walking of brawling of minstrelsie of Hawks and Dogs Provoke not the displeasure and plagues of God for despising and abusing his Holy House as the wicked Jews did But have God in your heart be obedient to his blessed Will bind your selves every Man and Woman to your power toward the reparations and clean keeping of the Church to the intent that ye may be partakers of Gods manifold Blessings and that ye may be the better encouraged to resort to your Parish Church there to learn your Duty towards God and your Neighbour there to be present and partakers of Christs Holy Sacraments there to render thanks to your Heavenly Father for the manifold benefits which he daily poureth upon you there to pray together and to call upon Gods Holy Name which be blessed World without end Amen AN HOMILY OF Good Works And first of Fasting THE life which we live in this World good Christian People is of the free benefit of God lent us yet not to use it at our pleasure after our own fleshly will but to trade over the same in those Works which are beseeming them that are become new Creatures in Christ These works the Apostle calleth good works saying We are Gods workmanship Ephes 2. created in Christ Jesus to good works which God hath ordained that we should walk in them And yet his meaning is not by these words to induce us to have any affiance or to put any confidence in our works as by the merit and deserving of them to purchase to our selves and others remission of sin and so consequently everlasting life for that were meer Blasphemy against Gods mercy and great derogation to the blood-shedding of our Saviour Jesus Christ For it is of the free grace and mercy of God by the mediation of the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ without merit or deserving on our part that our sins are forgiven us that we are reconciled and brought again into his favour and are made Heirs of his Heavenly Kingdom Grace saith * Aug. de dâ—ver quaest ad Sâ—mpl lib. 1. Quaest 28. St. Augustine belonging to God who doth call us and then hath he good works whosoever receiveth grace Good works then bring not forth grace but are brought forth by grace The Wheel saith he turneth round not to the end that it may be made round but because it is first made round therefore it turneth round So no man doth good works to receive grace by his good works but because he hath first received grace therefore consequently he doth good works Aug. de fide operibus cap. 4. And in another place he saith Good works go not before in him which shall afterward be justified but good works do follow after when a man is first justified St. Paul therefore teacheth that we must do good works for divers respects First to shew our selves obedient Children unto our Heavenly Father who hath ordained them that we should walk in them Secondly for that they are good declarations and testimonies of our justification Thirdly that others seeing our good works may the rather by them be stirred up and excited to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Let us not therefore be slack to do good works seeing it is the will of God that we should walk in them assuring our selves that at the last day every man shall receive of God for his labour done in true Faith a greater reward than his works have deserved And because somewhat shall now be spoken of one particular good work whose commendation is both in the Law and in the Gospel Thus much is said in the beginning generally of all good works First to remove out of the way of the simple and unlearned this dangerous stumbling-block that any man should go about to purchase or buy Heaven with his works Secondly to take away so much as may be from envious minds and slanderous tongues all just occasion of slanderous speaking as though good works were rejected This good work which now shall be treated of is Fasting which is found in the Scriptures to be of two sorts The one outward pertaining to the Body the other inward in the Heart and Mind This outward Fast is an abstinence from meat drink and all natural food yea from all delicious pleasures and delectations worldly When this outward Fast pertaineth to one particular man or to a few and not the whole number of the People for causes which hereafter shall be declared then it is called a private Fast But when the whole multitude of Men Women and Children in a Township or City yea through a whole Country do fast it is called a publick Fast Such was that Fast which the whole multitude of the Children of Israel were commanded to keep the tenth day of the seventh month because Almighty God appointed that day to be a cleansing day a day of atonement a time of reconciliation a day wherein the People were cleansed from their sins The order and manner how it was done is written in the xvi and xxiii Lev. 16. and 23. Chapters of Leviticus That day the People did lament mourn weep and bewail their former sins And whosoever upon that day did not humble his Soul bewailing his sins as is said abstaining from all bodily food until the Evening that soul saith Almighty God should be destroyed from among his people We do not read that Moses ordained by order of Law any days of publick Fast throughout the whole year more than that one day The Jews notwithstanding had more times of common Fasting which the Prophet Zachary reciteth to be the fast of the fourth the fast of the fifth Zach. 8. the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth Month. But for that it appeareth not in the Law when they were instituted it is to be judged that those other times of Fasting more than the Fast of the seventh month were ordained among the Jews by the appointment of their Governors rather of Devotion than by an express Commandment given from God Upon the Ordinance of this general Fast good men took occasion to appoint to themselves private Fasts at such times as they did
them all other true Christian men to Pray always and never to faint or shrink Remember also the example of the Woman of Canaan Mat 15. how she was rejected of Christ and called Dog as one most unworthy of any benefit at his hands yet she gave not over but followed him still crying and calling upon him to be good and merciful unto her Daughter And at length by very importunity she obtained her request O let us learn by these examples to be earnest and fervent in Prayer assuring our selves that whatsoever we ask of God the Father in the Name of his Son Christ John 16. and according to his will he will undoubtedly grant it He is truth it self and as truly as he hath promised it so truly will he perform it God for his great mercies sake so work in our hearts by his Holy Spirit that we may always make our humble Prayers unto him as we ought to do and always obtain the thing which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen The Second Part of the Homily concerning PRAYER IN the First Part of this Sermon ye heard the great necessity and also the great force of devout and earnest Prayer declared and proved unto you both by divers weighty Testimonies and also by sundry good Examples of Holy Scripture Now shall you learn whom you ought to call upon and to whom you ought always to direct your Prayers We are evidently taught in Gods Holy Testament that Almighty God is the only Fountain and Well-spring of all Goodness and that whatsoever we have in this World we receive it only at his hands to this effect serveth the place of St. James James 1. Every good and perfect gift saith he cometh from above and proceedeth from the Father of Lights To this effect also serveth the Testimony of Paul in divers places of his Epistles witnessing that the Spirit of Wisdom the Spirit of Knowledge and Revelation yea every good and heavenly gift as Faith Hope Charity Grace and Peace cometh only and solely of God In consideration whereof he bursteth out into a sudden Passion and saith O man 1 Cor. 4. what thing hast thou which thou hast not received Therefore whensoever we need or lack any thing pertaining either to the Body or to the Soul it behoveth us to run only unto God who is the only giver of all good things Our Saviour Christ in the Gospel teaching his Disciples how they should Pray sendeth them to the Father in his Name saying Verily verily John 16. Matt. 6. Luke 11. I say unto you whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name he will give it unto you And in another place When ye Pray pray after this sort Our Father which art in Heaven c. And doth not God himself Psal 50. Acts 1. by the mouth of his Prophet David will and command us to call upon him The Apostle wisheth Grace and Peace to all them that call on the Name of the Lord and of his Son Jesus Christ Joel 2. as doth also the Prophet Joel saying And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved Thus then it is plain by the infallible word of Truth and Life that in all our necessities we must flee unto God direct our Prayers unto him call upon his Holy Name desire help at his hands and at none others whereof if we will yet have further reason mark that which followeth There are certain conditions most requisite to be found in every such a one as must be called upon which if they be not found in him unto whom we pray then doth our Prayer avail us nothing but is altogether in vain The first is this that he to whom we make our Prayers be able to help us The second is that he will help us The third is that he be such a one as may hear our Prayers The fourth is that he understand better than we our selves what we lack and how far we have need of help If these things be to be found in any other saving only God then may we lawfully call upon some other besides God But what man is so gross but he well understandeth that these things are only proper to him which is Omnipotent and knoweth all things even the very secrets of the Heart that is to say only and to God alone whereof it followeth that we must call neither upon Angel nor yet upon Saint but only and solely upon God Rom. 10. as St. Paul doth write How shall men call upon him in whom they have not believed So that Invocation or Prayer may not be made without Faith in him on whom they call but that we must first believe in him before we can make our Prayer unto him whereupon we must only and solely Pray unto God For to say that we should believe either in Angel or Saint or in any other living Creature were meer horrible Blasphemy against God and his Holy Word neither ought this Fancy to enter into the Heart of any Christian man because we are expresly taught in the Word of the Lord only to repose our Faith in the Blessed Trinity in whose only Name we are also Baptized according to the express Commandment of our Saviour Jesus Christ Mat. 28. in the last of St. Matthew But that the truth hereof may the better appear even to them that be most simple and unlearned let us consider what Prayer is De spi lit cap. 50. De summo bono cap. 8. lib. 3. St. Augustin calleth it a lifting up of the mind to God that is to say an humble and lowly pouring out of the Heart to God Isidorus saith that it is an affection of the Heart and not a labour of the Lips So that by these places true Prayer doth consist not so much in the outward sound and voice of words as in the inward groaning and crying of the Heart to God Now then is there any Angel any Virgin any Patriarch or Prophet among the dead that can understand or know the meaning of the Heart The Scripture saith Psal 7. Apoc. 2. Jer. 17. 2 Par. 6. It is God that searcheth the Heart and the Reins and that he only knoweth the Hearts of the children of men As for the Saints they have so little knowledge of the secrets of the Heart that many of the ancient Fathers greatly doubt whether they know any thing at all that is commonly done on Earth And albeit some think they do yet St. Augustin Lib. de cura pro mort agenda c. 13. De vera Râ—l cap. 22. Esay 63. Lib. 22. de civit Dei cap. 10. a Doctor of great Authority and also Antiquity hath this Opinion of them That they know no more what we do on Earth than we know what they do in Heaven For Proof whereof he
alledgeth the words of Esay the Prophet where it is said Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel knoweth us not His mind therefore is this not that we should put any Religion in worshipping of them or praying unto them but that we should honour them by following their vertuous and godly Life For as he witnesseth in another place the Martyrs and Holy Men in times past were wont after their death to be remembred and named of the Priest at Divine Service but never to be invocated or called upon And why so because the Priest saith he is Gods Priest and not theirs whereby he is bound to call upon God and not upon them John 5. Thus you see that the Authority both of the Scripture and also of Augustin doth not permit that we should pray unto them O that all men would studiously read and search the Scriptures then should they not be drowned in Ignorance but should easily perceive the Truth as well of this Point of Doctrine as of all the rest For there doth the Holy Ghost plainly teach us that Christ is our only Mediator and Intercessor with God and that we must not seek and run to another 1 John 2. If any man sinneth saith St. John we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins 1 Tim. 2. St. Paul also saith There is one God and one Mediator between God and man even the man Jesus Christ Whereunto agreeth the Testimony of our Saviour himself John 14. witnessing that no man cometh to the Father but only by him who is the Way John 10. the Truth the Life yea and the only Door whereby we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven because God is pleased in no other but in him For which cause also he crieth and calleth unto us that we should come unto him Matt. 11. saying Come unto me all ye that labour and be heavy laden and I shall refresh you Would Christ have us so necessarily come unto him and shall we most unthankfully leave him and run unto other This is even that which God so greatly complaineth of by his Prophet Jeremy saying My People have committed two great offences they have forsaken me the Fountain of the Waters of Life and have digged to themselves broken Pits that can hold no Water Is not that man think you unwise that will run for Water to a little Brook when he may as well go to the head-spring Even so may his Wisdom be justly suspected that will flee unto Saints in time of necessity when he may boldly and without fear declare his grief and direct his Prayer unto the Lord himself If God were strange or dangerous to be talked withal then might we justly draw back and seek to some other Psal 145. Judith 9. But the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him in Faith and Truth And the Prayer of the humble and meek hath always pleased him What if we be sinners shall we not therefore pray unto God or shall we despair to obtain any thing at his hands Why did Christ then teach us to ask forgiveness of our sins saying And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us Shall we think that the Saints are more merciful in hearing sinners than God David saith Psal 103. Ephes 2. that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy slow to anger and of great kindness St. Paul saith that he is rich in mercy toward all them that call upon him And he himself by the mouth of his Prophet Esay saith Esay 51. For a little while have I forsaken thee but with great compassion will I gather thee For a moment in mine anger I have hid my face from thee but with everlasting mercy I have had compassion upon thee Therefore the sins of any man ought not to withhold him from Praying unto the Lord his God But if he be truly penitent and stedfast in Faith let him assure himself that the Lord will be merciful unto him and hear his Prayers O but I dare not will some man say trouble God at all times with my Prayers We see that in Kings Houses and Courts of Princes men cannot be admitted unless they first use the help and means of some special Noble-man to come to the speech of the King and to obtain the thing that they would have To this reason doth St. Ambrose answer very well Ambros supper cap. 1 Rom. writing upon the first Chapter to the Romans Therefore saith he we use to go unto the King by Officers and Noble-men because the King is a Mortal man and knoweth not to whom he may commit the Government of the Common-wealth But to have God our Friend from whom nothing is hid we need not any helper that should further us with his good word but only a devout and godly mind And if it be so that we need one to intreat for us why may we not content our selves with that one Mediator Heb. 7. which is at the right hand of God the Father and there liveth for ever to make Intercession for us As the Blood of Christ did Redeem us on the Cross and cleanse us from our sins even so it is now able to save all them that come unto God by it For Christ sitting in Heaven hath an everlasting Priesthood and always prayeth to his Father for them that be Penitent obtaining by vertue of his Wounds which are evermore in the sight of God not only perfect remission of our sins but also all other necessaries that we lack in this World so that this only Mediator is sufficient in Heaven and needeth no others to help him Matt. 6. James 5. Coloss 4. 1 Tim. 2. Why then do we Pray one for another in this Life some man perchance will here demand Forsooth we are willed so to do by the express Commandment both of Christ and his Disciples to declare therein as well the Faith that we have in Christ towards God as also the mutual Charity that we bear one towards another in that we pity our Brothers case and make our Humble Petition to God for him But that we should Pray unto Saints neither have we any Commandment in all the Scripture nor yet Example which we may safely follow So that being done without Authority of Gods Word it lacketh the ground of Faith and therefore cannot be acceptable before God Hebr. 11. Rom. 14. Rom. 10. For whatsoever is not of Faith is sin And the Apostle saith that Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Yet thou wilt object further that the Saints in Heaven do pray for us and that their Prayer proceedeth of an earnest Charity that they have towards their Brethren on Earth Whereto it may be well answered First that no man knoweth whether they do Pray for us or no. And if any will go about to prove it by
the nature of Charity concluding that because they did pray for men on Earth therefore they do much more the same now in Heaven Then may it be said by the same reason that as oft as we do weep on Earth they do also weep in Heaven because while they lived in this World it is most certain and sure they did so And for that place which is written in the Apocalyps namely that the Angel did offer up the Prayers of the Saints upon the golden Altar it is properly to be understood of those Saints that are yet living on Earth and not of them that are dead otherwise what need were it that the Angel should offer up their Prayers being now in Heaven before the face of Almighty God But admit the Saints do Pray for us yet do we not know how whether specially for them which call upon them or else generally for all men wishing well to every man alike If they Pray specially for them which call upon them then it is like they hear our Prayers and also know our hearts desire Which thing to be false it is already proved both by the Scriptures and also by the Authority of Augustin Let us not therefore put our trust or confidence in the Saints or Martyrs that be dead Let us not call upon them nor desire help at their hands but let us always lift up our Hearts to God in the name of his dear Son Christ for whose sake as God hath promised to hear our Prayer so he will truly perform it Invocation is a thing proper unto God which if we attribute unto the Saints it soundeth to their reproach neither can they well bear it at our hands When Paul had healed a certain lame man Acts 14. which was impotent in his Feet at Lystra the People would have done Sacrifice unto him and Barnabas who rending their clothes refused it and exhorted them to worship the true God Likewise in the Revelation Apoc. 19. when St. John fell before the Angel's feet to worship him the Angel would not permit him to do it but commanded him that he should worship God Which Examples declare unto us that the Saints and Angels in Heaven will not have us to do any Honour unto them that is due and proper unto God He only is our Father he only is Omnipotent he only knoweth and understandeth all things he only can help us at all times and in all places he suffereth the Sun to shine upon the good and the bad he feedeth the young Ravens that cry unto him he saveth both Man and Beast he will not that any one hair of our Head shall perish but is always ready to help and preserve all them that put their trust in him according as he hath promised Isai 65. saying Before they call I will answer and whilst they speak I will hear Let us not therefore any thing mistrust his goodness let us not fear to come before the Throne of his Mercy let us not seek the aid and help of Saints but let us come boldly our selves nothing doubting but God for Christs sake in whom he is well pleased will hear us without a Spokes-man and accomplish our desire in all such things as shall be agreeable to his most Holy Will Chrysost 6 hom de profectu Evang. So saith Chrysostom an ancient Doctor of the Church and so must we stedfastly believe not because he saith it but much more because it is the Doctrine of our Saviour Christ himself who hath promised that if we Pray to the Father in his name we shall certainly be heard both to the relief of our Necessities and also to the Salvation of our Souls which he hath purchased unto us not with Gold or Silver but with his precious Blood shed once for all upon the Cross To him therefore with the Father and the Holy Ghost three Persons and one God be all Honour Praise and Glory for ever and ever Amen The Third Part of the Homily concerning PRAYER YE were taught in the other part of this Sermon unto whom ye ought to direct your Prayers in time of need and necessity that is to wit not unto Angels or Saints but unto the eternal and everliving God who because he is merciful is always ready to hear us when we call upon him in true and perfect Faith And because he is Omnipotent he can easily perform and bring to pass the thing that we request to have at his hands To doubt of his Power it were a plain point of Infidelity and clean against the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost which teacheth us that he is all in all And as touching his good will in this behalf we have express Testimonies in Scripture Psal 50. how that he will help us and also deliver us if we call upon him in time of trouble So that in both these respects we ought rather to call upon him than upon any other Neither ought any man therefore to doubt to come boldly unto God because he is a sinner For the Lord as the Prophet David saith is gracious and merciful yea Psal 107. 1 Tim. 1. his mercy and goodness endureth for ever He that sent his own Son into the World to save sinners will he not also hear sinners if with a true penitent Heart and a stedfast Faith they Pray unto him Yea 1 John 1. if we acknowledge our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness as we are plainly taught by the Examples of David Peter Mary Magdalen the Publican and divers others And whereas we must needs use the help of some Mediator and Intercessor let us content our selves with him that is the true and only Mediator of the New Testament namely the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ For as St. John saith If any man sin 1 John 2. we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is the Propitiation for our sins And St. Paul 1 Tim. 2. in his first Epistle to Timothy saith There is one God and one Mediator between God and man even the man Jesus Christ who gave himself a ransom for all men to be a testimony in due time Now after this Doctrine established you shall be instructed for what kind of things and what kind of persons ye ought to make your Prayers unto God It greatly behoveth all men when they Pray to consider well and diligently with themselves what they ask and require at Gods hands lest if they desire that thing which they ought not their Petitions be made void and of none effect There came on a time unto Agesilaus the King a certain importunate suiter who requested him in a matter earnestly saying Sir and it please your Grace you did once promise me Truth quoth the King if it be just that thou requirest then I promised thee otherwise I did only speak it and not promise it The man would not
thoughts which may hinder thee from Gods true Service The Bird when she will flie shaketh her Wings Shake and prepare thy self to flie higher than all the Birds in the Air that after thy Duty duly done in this earthly Temple and Church thou may'st flie up and be received into the glorious Temple of God in Heaven through Christ Jesus our Lord To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Glory and Honour Amen AN HOMILY Wherein is declared That Common-Prayer and Sacraments ought to be ministred in a Tongue that is understood of the Hearers AMong the manifold Exercises of Gods People dear Christians there is none more necessary for all estates and at all times than is publick Prayer and the due use of Sacraments For in the first we beg at Gods hands all such things as otherwise we cannot obtain And in the other he embraceth us and offereth himself to be embraced of us Knowing therefore that these two Exercises are so necessary for us let us not think it unmeet to consider first what Prayer is and what a Sacrament is and then how many sorts of Prayers there be and how many Sacraments so shall we the better understand how to use them aright August de Spiritu An ma. To know what they be St. Augustine teacheth us in his Book entituled Of the Spirit and the Soul he saith thus of Prayer Prayer is saith he the Devotion of the Mind that is to say the returning to God through a godly and humble affection which affection is a certain willing and sweet inclining of the Mind it self towards God And in the Second Book against the Adversary of the Law and the Prophets August lib. 2 contra Adversariâ—s Legis Proph. August ad Bonifacium he calleth Sacraments Holy signs And writing to Bonifacius of the Baptism of Infants he saith If Sacraments had not a certain similitude of those things whereof they be Sacraments they should be no Sacraments at all And of this similitude they do for the most part receive the self-same things they signifie By these words of St. Augustine it appeareth that he alloweth the common description of a Sacrament which is that it is a visible sign of an invisible Grace that is to say that setteth out to the Eyes and other outward Senses the inward working of Gods free Mercy and doth as it were seal in our hearts the promises of God And so was Circumcision a Sacrament which preached unto the outward senses the inward cutting away of the fore-skin of the Heart and sealed and made sure in the hearts of the Circumcised to promise of God touching the promised Seed that they looked for Now let us see how many sorts of Prayer and how many Sacraments there be In the Scriptures we read of three sorts of Prayer whereof two are private and the third is common The first is that which St. Paul speaketh of in his Epistle to Timothy saying 1 Tim. 1. I will that men pray in every place lifting up pure hands without wrath or striving And it is the devout lifting up of the mind to God without the uttering of the hearts grief or desire by open voice Of this Prayer we have example in the first Book of the Kings in Anna 1 Kings 1. the Mother of Samuel when in the heaviness of her Heart she prayed in the Temple desiring to be made fruitful She prayed in her heart saith the Text but there was no voice heard After this sort must all Christians pray not once in a week or once in a day only 1 Thess 3. but as St. Paul writeth to the Thessalonians without ceasing And as St. James writeth James 5. The continual Prayer of a just man is of much force The second sort of Prayer is spoken of in the Gospel of Matthew Matt. 6. where it is said When thou prayest enter into thy secret Closet and when thou hast shut the door to thee pray unto thy Father in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee Of this sort of Prayer there be sundry examples in the Scriptures but it shall suffice to rehearse one which is written in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 10. Cornelius a devout man a Captain of the Italian Army saith to Peter that being in his House in Prayer at the ninth hour there appeared to him one in a white Garment c. This man prayed unto God in secret and was rewarded openly These be the two private sorts of Prayer The one mental that is to say the devout lifting up of the mind to God And the other vocal that is to say the secret uttering of the griefs and desires of the Heart with words but yet in a secret Closet or some solitary place The third sort of Prayer is publick or common Of this Prayer speaketh our Saviour Christ Mat. 18. when he saith If two of you shall agree upon Earth upon any thing whatsoever ye shall ask my Father which is in Heaven shall do it for you for wheresoever two or three be gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Although God hath promised to hear us when we pray privately so it be done faithfully and devoutly for he saith Psal 50. Call upon me in the day of thy trouble and I will hear thee And Elias being but a mortal man James 5. saith St. James prayed and Heaven was shut three Years and six Months and again he prayâ—d and the Heaven gave rain Yet by the Histories of the Bible it appeareth that publick and common Prayer is most available before God and therefore is much to be lamented that it is no better esteemed among us which profess to be but one body in Christ When the City of Niniveh was threatned to be destroyed Jonas 3. within forty days the Prince and the People joyned themselves together in publick Prayer and Fasting and were preserved In the Prophet Joel God commanded a Fasting to be proclaimed Joel 2. and the People to be gathered together young and old man and woman and are taught to say with one voice Spare us O Lord spare thy People and let not thine Inheritance be brought to confusion When the Jews should have been destroyed all in one day through the malice of Haman Hester 4. at the Commandment of Hester they Fasted and Prayed and were preserved Judith 8. When Holophernes besieged Bethulia by the advice of Judith they Fasted and Prayed and were delivered Acts 12. When Peter was in Prison the Congregation joyned themselves together in Prayer and Peter was wonderfully delivered By these Histories it appeareth that common or publick Prayer is of great force to obtain mercy and deliverance at our Heavenly Fathers hand Therefore Brethren I beseech you even for the tender mercies of God let us no longer be negligent in this behalf but as the People willing to receive at Gods
that man which openly before the Magistrates refused to marry her And it was not a reproach to him alone but to all his Posterity also For they were called ever after The House of him whose shoe is pulled off Another place out of the Psalms Psal 75. I will break saith David the horns of the ungodly and the horns of the righteous shall be exalted By an Horn in the Scripture is understood Power Might Strength and sometime Rule and Government The Prophet then saying I will break the horns of the ungodly meaneth that all the Power Strength and Might of Gods Enemies shall not only be weakned and made feeble but shall at length also be clean broken and destroyed though for a time for the better tryal of his People God suffereth the Enemies to prevail and have the upper hand In the 132 Psalm it is said Psal 132. I will make David 's horn to flourish Here David's Horn signifieth his Kingdom Almighty God therefore by this manner of speaking promiseth to give David Victory over all his Enemies and to stablish him in his Kingdom spite of all his Enemies And in the threescore Psalm it is written Moab is my wash-pot Psal 60. and over Edom will I cast out my shoe c. In that place the Prophet sheweth how graciously God hath dealt with his People the Children of Israel giving them great Victories upon their Enemies on every side For the Moabites and Idumeans being two great Nations proud People stout and mighty God brought them under and made them Servants to the Israelites Servants I say to stoop down to pull off their shoes and wash their feet Then Moab is my wash-pot and over Edom will I cast out my shoe is as if he had said The Moabites and the Idumeans for all their stoutness against us in the Wilderness are now made our Subjects ouâ— Servants yea Underlings to pull off our shoes and wash our feet Now I pray you what uncomely manner of speech is this so used in common phrase among the Hebrews It is a shame that Christian men should be so light headed to toy as Ruffians do with such manner of speeches uttered in good grave signification by the Holy Ghost More reasonable it were for vain men to learn to reverence the form of Gods Words than to sport at them to their Damnation Some again are offended to hear that the godly Fathers had many Wives and Concubines although after the phrase of the Scripture a Concubine is an honest name for every Concubine is a Lawful Wife but every Wife is not a Concubine And that ye may the better understand this to be true ye shall note that it was permitted to the Fathers of the Old Testament to have at one time moe Wives than one for what purpose ye shall afterward hear Of which Wives some were Free-women born some were Bond-women and Servants She that was Free-born had a Prerogative above those that were Servants and Bond-women The Free-born Woman was by Marriage made the Ruler of the House under her Husband and is called the Mother of the Houshold the Mistress or the Dame of the House after our manner of speaking and had by her Marriage an Interest a Right and an Ownership of his Goods unto whom she was married Other Servants and Bond-women were given by the Owners of them as the manner was then I will not say always but for the most part unto their Daughters at the day of their Marriage to be Handmaidens unto them After such a sort did Pharaoh King of Egypt give unto Sarah Geâ— 29. Abraham's Wife Agar the Egyptian to be her Maid So did Laban give unto his Daughter Lea at the day of her Marriage Zilpha to be her Handmaid And to his other Daughter Rachel he gave another Bond-maid named Bilha And the Wives that were the owners of their Handmaidens gave them in Marriage to their Husbands upon divers occasions Sarah gave her Maid Agar in Marriage to Abraham Gen. 16. Lea gave in like manner her Maid Zilpha to her Husband Jacob. So did Rachel his other Wife give him Bilha her Maid Gen. 30. saying unto him Go in unto her and she shall bear upon my knees which is as if she had said Take her to Wife and the Children that she shall bear will I take upon my lap and make of them as if they were mine own These Hand-maidens or Bond-women although by Marriage they were made Wives yet they had not this Prerogative to Rule in the House but were still Underlings and in such subjection to their Masters and were never called Mothers of the Houshould Mistresses or Dames of the House but are called sometimes Wives sometimes Concubines The plurality of Wives was by a special Prerogative suffered to the Fathers of the Old Testament not for satisfying their carnal and fleshly Lusts but to have many Children because every one of them hoped and begged oft-times of God in their Prayers that that Blessed Seed which God promised should come into the World to break the Serpents Head might come and be born of this stock and kindred Now of those which take occasion of carnality and evil life by hearing and reading in Gods Book what God had suffered even in those men whose commendation is praised in the Scripture As that Noe 2 Pet. 2. Gen. 9. whom St. Peter calleth the eighth Preacher of Righteousness was so drunk with Wine that in his sleep he uncovered his own Privities Gen. 19. The just man Lot was in like manner drunken and in his drunkenness lay with his own Daughters contrary to the Law of Nature Abraham Gen. 17. whose Faith was so great that for the same he deserved to be called of Gods own mouth a Father of many Nations Rom. 4. the Father of all Believers besides with Sarah his Wife had also carnal company with Agar Sarah's Handmaid Gen. 29. The Patriarch Jacob had to his Wives two Sisters at one time The Prophet David and King Solomon his Son had many Wives and Concubines c. Which things we see plainly to be forbidden us by the Law of God and are now repugnant to all publick Honesty These and such like in Gods Book good People are not written that we should or may do the like following their examples or that we ought to think that God did allow every of these things in those men But we ought rather to believe and to judge that Noe in his drunkenness offended God highly Lot lying with his Daughters committed horrible Incest We ought then to learn by them this profitable Lesson that if so godly men as they were which otherwise felt inwardly Gods Holy Spirit inflaming their hearts with the fear and love of God could not by their own strength keep themselves from committing horrible sin but did so grievously fall that without Gods great Mercy they had perished everlastingly How much more ought we then miserable
the giving than with the gift and that he as much esteemeth the doing of the thing as the fruit and commodity that cometh of it Whoso therefore hath hitherto neglected to give Alms let him know that God now requireth it of him and he that hath been liberal to the Poor let him know that his godly doings are accepted and thankfully taken at Gods hands which he will requite with double and treble For so saith the Wise man He which sheweth mercy to the poor doth lay his money in bank to the Lord for a large interest and gain the gain being chiefly the possession of the life everlasting through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen The Second Part of the Sermon of Alms-deeds YE have heard before Dearly Beloved that to give Alms unto the Poor and to help them in time of necessity is so acceptable unto our Saviour Christ that he counteth that to be done to himself that we do for his sake unto them Ye have heard also how earnestly both the Apostles Prophets Holy Fathers and Doctors do exhort us unto the same And ye see how wel-beloved and dear unto God they were whom the Scriptures report unto us to have been good Alms-men Wherefore if either their good examples or the wholsom counsel of godly Fathers or the love of Christ whose especial favour we may be assured by this means to obtain may move us or do any thing at all with us let us provide us that from henceforth we shew unto God-ward this thankful service to be mindful and ready to help them that be poor and in misery Now will I this second time that I entreat of Alms-deeds shew unto you how profitable it is for us to exercise them and what fruit thereby shall arise unto us if we do them faithfully Our Saviour Christ in the Gospel teacheth us that it profiteth a man nothing to have in possession all the riches of the whole World and the wealth or glory thereof if in the mean season he lose his Soul or do that thing whereby it should become captive unto death sin and hell-fire By the which saying he not only instructeth us how much the souls health is to be preferred before worldly commodities but it also serveth to stir up our minds and to prick us forwards to seek diligently and learn by what means we may preserve and keep our souls ever in safety that is how we may recover our health if it be lost or impaired and how it may be defended and maintained if once we have it Yea he teacheth us also thereby to esteem that as a precious Medicine and an inestimable Jewel that hath such strength and vertue in it that can either procure or preserve so incomparable a treasure For if we greatly regard that Medicine or Salve that is able to heal sundry and grievous Diseases of the Body much more will we esteem that which hath like power over the Soul And because we might be better assured both to know and to have in readiness that so profitable a Remedy he as a most faithful and loving Teacher sheweth himself both what it is and where we may find it and how we may use and apply it For when both he and his Disciples were grievously accused of the Pharisees to have defiled their souls in breaking the constitutions of the Elders because they went to meat and washed not their hands before according to the custom of the Jews Christ answering their superstitious complaint teacheth them an especial remedy how to keep clean their souls notwithstanding the breach of such superstitious Orders Luke 11. Give Alms saith he and behold all things are clean unto you He teacheth them that to be merciful and charitable in helping the Poor is the means to keep the Soul pure and clean in the sight of God We are taught therefore by this that merciful Alms-dealing is profitable to purge the Soul from the infection and filthy spots of sin The same Lesson doth the Holy Ghost also teach in sundry places of the Scripture Tobit 4. saying Mercifulness and Alms-giving purgeth from all sins and delivereth from death and suffereth not the soul to come into darkness A great confidence may they have before the high God that shew mercy and compassion to them that are afflicted The wise Preacher the Son of Syrach confimeth the same Ecclus 5. when he saith That as water quencheth burning fire even so mercy and alms resisteth and reconcileth sins And sure it is that mercifulness quaileth the heat of sin so much that they shall not take hold upon man to hurt him or if ye have by any infirmity or weakness been touched and annoyed with them straightways shall mercifulness wipe and wash away as salves and remedies to heal their sores and grievous diseases And thereupon that Holy Father Cyprian taketh good occasion to exhort earnestly to the merciful works of giving Alms and helping the Poor and there he admonisheth to consider how wholsom and profitable it is to relieve the needy and help the afflicted by the which we may purge our sins and heal our wounded souls But yet some will say unto me If Alms-giving and our charitable works towards the Poor be able to wash away sins to reconcile us to God to deliver us from the peril of damnation and makes us the Sons and Heirs of Gods Kingdom then are Christs merits defaced and his blood shed in vain then are we justified by Works and by our Deeds may we merit Heaven then do we in vain believe that Christ died for to put away our sins and that he rose for our justification as St. Paul teacheth But ye shall understand Dearly Beloved that neither those places of the Scripture before alledged neither the Doctrine of the blessed Martyr Cyprian neither any other godly and learned man when they in extolling the dignity profit fruit and effect of vertuous and liberal Alms do say that it washeth away sins and bringeth us to the favour of God do mean that our work and charitable deed is the original cause of our acception before God or that for the digninity or worthiness thereof our sins may be washed away and we purged and cleansed of all the spots of our iniquity for that were indeed to deface Christ and to defraud him of his glory But they mean this and this is the understanding of those and such like sayings that God of his mercy and special favour towards them whom he hath appointed to everlasting salvation hath so offered his grace especially and they have so received it fruitfully that although by reason of their sinful living outwardly they seemed before to have been the Children of Wrath and Perdition yet now the Spirit of God mightily working in them unto obedience to Gods Will and Commandments they declare by their outward deeds and life in the shewing of
now he was accursed as before he was loved so now he was abhorred as before he was most beautiful and precious so now he was most vile and wretched in the sight of his Lord and Maker Instead of the Image of God he was now become the Image of the Devil instead of the Citizen of Heaven he was become the bond-slave of Hell having in himself no one part of his former purity and cleanness but being altogether spotted and defiled insomuch that now he seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin and thâ—râ—fore by the just judgment of God was condemned to everlasting death This so great and miserable a Plague if it had only rested on Adam who first offended it had been so much the easier and might the better have been born But it fell not only on him but also on his Posterity and Children for ever so that the whole brood of Adam's flesh should sustain the self-same fall and punishment which their forefather by his offence most justly had deserved St. Paul in the fifth Chapter to the Romans saith By the offence of only Adam the fault came upon all men to condemnation and by one mans disobedience many were made sinners By which words we are taught that as in Adam all men universally sinned so in Adam all men universally received the reward of sin that is to say became mortal and subject unto death having in themselves nothing but everlasting damnation both of Body and Soul They became as David saith corrupt and abominable they went all out of the way there was none that did good no not one O what a miserable and woful state was this that the sin of one man should destroy and condemn all men that nothing in all the World might be looked for but only pangs of death and pains of Hell Had it been any marvel if mankind had been utterly driven to desperation being thus fallen from life to death from salvation to destruction from Heaven to Hell But behold the great goodness and tender mercy of God in his behalf albeit mans wickedness and sinful behaviour was such that it deserved not in any part to be forgiven yet to the intent he might not be clean destitute of all hope and comfort in time to come he ordained a new Covenant and made a sure Promise thereof namely that he would send a Messias or Mediator into the World which should make intercession and put himself as a stay between both Parties to pacifie the wrath and indignation conceived against sin and to deliver man out of the miserable curse and cursed misery whereinto he was fallen headlong by disobeying the Will and Commandment of the only Lord and Maker This Covenant and Promise was first made unto Adam himself immediately after his Fall as we read in the third of Genesis where God said to the Serpent on this wise I will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed He shall break thine head and thou shalt bruise his heel Afterward the self-same Covenant was also more amply and plainly renewed unto Abraham where God promised him that in his seed all Nations and Families of the Earth should be blessed Again it was continued and confirmed unto Isaac in the same form of words Gen. 26. as it was before unto his Father And to the intent that mankind might not despair but always live in hope Almighty God never ceased to publish repeat confirm and continue the same by divers and sundry testimonies of his Prophets who for the better perswasion of the thing prophesied the time the place the manner and circumstance of his Birth the affliction of his Life the kind of his Death the glory of his Resurrection the receiving of his Kingdom the deliverance of his People with all other circumstances belonging thereunto Isaiah prophesied that he should be born of a Virgin and called Emanuel Micheas prophesied that he should be born in Bethlehem a place of Jury Ezekiel prophesied that he should come of the stock and linage of David Daniel prophesied that all Nations and Languages should serve him Zachary prophesied that he should come in poverty riding upon an Ass Malachy prophesied that he should send Elias before him which was John the Baptist Jeremy prophesied that he should be sold for Thirty Pieces of Silver c. And all this was done that the Promise and Covenant of God made unto Abraham and his Posterity concerning the Redemption of the World might be credited and fully believed Now as the Apostle Paul saith when the fulness of time was come that is the perfection and course of years appointed from the beginning thâ—n God according to his former Covenant and Promise sent a Messias otherwise called a Mediator unto the World not such a one as Moses was not such a one as Josua Saul or David was but such a one as should deliver mankind from the bitter curse of the Law and make perfect satisfaction by his death for the sins of all people namely he sent his dear and only Son Jesus Christ born as the Apostle saith of a Woman and made under the Law that he might redeem them that were in bondage of the Law and make them the Children of God by adoption Was not this a wonderful great love towards us that were his professed and open Enemies towards us that were by Nature the Children of Wrath and fire-brands of Hell-fire In this saith St. John appeared the great love of God that he sent his only begotten Son into the World to save us when we were his extream enemies Herein is love not that we loved him but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a reconciliation for our sins St. Paul also saith Christ Rom. 5. when we were yet of no strength died for us being ungodly Doubtless a man will scarce die for a righteous man Peradventure some one durst die for him of whom they have received good But God setteth out his love towards us in that he sent Christ to die for us when we were yet void of all goodness This and such other comparisons doth the Apostle use to amplifie and set forth the tender mercy and great goodness of God declarâ—d towards mankind in sending down a Saviour from Heaven even Christ the Lord. Which one benefit among all other is so great and wonderful that neither Tongue can well express it neither Heart think it much less give sufficient thanks to God for it But here is a great controversie between us and the Jews whether the saine Jesus which was born of the Virgin Mary be the true Messias and true Saviour of the World so long promised and prophesied of before They as they are and have been always proud and stiff-necked would never acknowledge him until this day but have looked and waited for another to come They have this fond imagination in their heads That the Messias shall come not as Christ did like a
reprove them with these testimonies of Gods Word and such other Whereunto I am most sure they shall never be able to answer For the necessity of our Salvation did require such a Mediator and Saviour as under one Person should be a partaker of both Natures It was requisite he should be Man it was also requisite he should be God For as the transgression came by man so was it meet the satisfaction should be made by man And because death according to St. Paul is the just stipend and reward of sin therefore to appease the wrath of God and to satisfie his Justice it was expedient that our Mediator should be such a one as might take upon him the sins of mankind and sustain the due punishment thereof namely Death Moreover he came in flesh and in the self-same flesh ascended into Heaven to declare and testifie unto us that all faithful People which stedfastly believe in him shall likewise come unto the same Mansion-place whereunto he being our chief Captain is gone before Last of all he became man that we thereby might receive the greater comfort as well in our Prayers as also in our Adversity considering with our selves that we have a Mediator that is true man as we are who also is touched with our Infirmities and was tempted even in like sort as we are For these and sundry other causes it was most needful he should come as he did in the flesh But because no creature in that he is only a creature hath or may have power to destroy death and give life to overcome Hell and purchase Heaven to remit Sins and give Righteousness therefore it was needful that our Messias whose proper Duty and Office that was should be not only full and perfect Man but also full and perfect God to the intent he might more fully and perfectly make satisfaction for mankind Mat. 3. God saith This is my wel-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased By which place we learn that Christ appeased and quenched the wrath of his Father not in that he was only the Son of Man But much more in that he was the Son of God Thus ye have heard declared out of the Scriptures that Jesus Christ was the true Messias and Saviour of the World that he was by Nature and Substance perfect God and perfect Man and for what cause it was expedient it should be so Now that we may be the more mindful and thankful unto God in this behalf let us briefly consider and call to mind the manifold and great benefits that we have received by the Nativity and Birth of this our Messias and Saviour Before Christ coming into the World all men universally in Adam were nothing else but a wicked and crooked Generation rotten and corrupt Trees stony Ground full of Brambles and Briers lost Sheep Prodigal Sons naughty unprofitable Servants unrighteous Stewards workers of Iniquity the brood of Adders blind Guides sitting in Darkness and in the shadow of Death to be short nothing else but Children of Perdition and inheritors of Hell-fire To this doth St. Paul bear witness in divers places of his Epistles and Christ also himself in sundry places of his Gospel But after he was once come down from Heaven and had taken our frail Nature upon him he made all them that would receive him truly and believe his word good Trees and good Ground fruitful and pleasant Branches Children of Light Citizens of Heaven Sheep of his Fold Members of his Body Heirs of his Kingdom his true Friends and Brethren sweet and lively Bread the elect and chosen People of God For as St. Peter saith in his first Epistle and second Chapter He bare our sins in his body upon the Cross he healed us and made us whole by his stripes and whereas before we were sheep going astray he by his coming brought us home again to the true Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls making us a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an Holy Nation a particular People of God in that he died for our Offences and rose for our Justification St. Paul to Timothy the third Chapter We were saith he in times past unwise disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in hatred envy maliciousness and so forth But after the loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared towards mankind not according to the Righteousness that we had done but according to his great Mercy he saved us by the Fountain of the new Birth and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he poured upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that we being once Justified by his grace should be Heirs of Eternal Life through hope and faith in his blood In these and such other places is set out before our Eyes as it were in a Glass Mat. 2. Mat. 5. John 18. Luke 4. John 8. Mat. 9. Mat. 11. John 12. Coloss 1. the abundant grace of God received in Christ Jesu which is so much the more wonderful because it came not of any desert of ours but of his meer and tender mercy even then when we were his extream Enemies But for the better understanding and consideration of this thing let us behold the end of his coming so shall we perceive what great commodity and profit his Nativity hath brought unto us miserable and sinful creatures Heb. 10. Rom. 3. The end of his coming was to save and deliver his People to fulfil the Law for us to bear witness unto the Truth to teach and preach the words of his Father to give light unto the World to call sinners to Repentance to refresh them that labour and be heavy laden to cast out the Prince of this World to reconcile us in the body of his flesh to dissolve the works of the Devil last of all to become a Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole World These were the chief ends wherefore Christ became man not for any profit that should come to himself thereby but only for our sakes that we might understand the Will of God be partakers of his Heavenly Light be delivered out of the Devils claws released from the burden of sin justified through faith in his blood and finally received up into everlasting glory there to reign with him for ever Was not this a great and singular love of Christ towards mankind that being the express and lively Image of God he would notwithstanding humble himself and take upon him the form of a Servant and that only to save and redeem us O how much are we bound to the goodness of God in this behalf how many thanks and praises do we owe unto him for this our Salvation wrought by his dear and only Son Christ who became a Pilgrim in Earth to make us Citizens in Heaven who became the Son of man to make us the Sons of God who became obedient to the Law to deliver us from the curse of the Law
them and to delight or trust in them except we have in mind his examples in passion to follow them If we thus therefore consâ—â—er Christs death and will stick thereto with fast â—â—th for the merit and deserving thereof and wiâ—â—â—o frame our selves in such wise to bestow our selves and all that we have by Charity to the behoof of our Neighbour as Christ spent himself wholly for our profit then do we truly remember Christs death and being thus followers of Christs steps we shall be sure to follow him thither where he sitteth now with the Father and the Holy Ghost To whom be all Honour and Glory Amen THE SECOND HOMILY CONCERNING The Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ. THAT we may the better conceive the great mercy and goodness of our Saviour Christ in suffering death universally for all men it behoveth us to descend into the bottom of our Conscience and deeply to consider the first and principal cause wherefore he was compelled so to do When our great Grandfather Adam had broken Gods Commandment Gen. â— in eating the Apple forbidden him in Paradise at the motion and suggestion of his Wife he purchased thereby not only to himself but also to his Posterity for ever the just wrath and indignation of God who according to his former sentence pronounced at the giving of the Commandment condemned both him and all his to everlasting death both of Body and Soul For it was said unto him Gen. 2. Thou shalt eat freely of every Tree in the Garden but as touching the Tree of knowledge of good and ill thou shalt in no wise eat of it For in what hour soever thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Now as the Lord had spoken so it came to pass Adam took upon him to eat thereof and in so doing he died the death that is to say he became mortal he lost the favour of God he was cast out of Paradise he was no longer a Citizen of Heaven but a Fire-brand of Hell and a Bondslave to the Devil To this doth our Saviour bear witness in the Gospel Luke 15. calling us lost Sheep which have gone astray and wandred from the true Shepherd of our souls To this also doth St. Paul bear witness Rom. 5. saying That by the offence only of Adam death came upon all men to condemnation So that now neither he or any of his had any right or interest at all in the Kingdom of Heaven but were become plain Reprobates and Cast-aways being perpetually damned to the everlasting pains of Hell-fire In this so great misery and wretchedness if mankind could have recovered himself again and obtained forgiveness at Gods hands then had his case been somewhat tolerable because he might have attempted some way how to deliver himself from eternal death But there was no way left unto him he could do nothing that might pacifie Gods wrath he was altogether unprofitable in that behalf There was not one that did good no not one And how then could he work his own Salvation Should he go about to pacifie Gods heavy displeasure by offering up burnt-sacrifices Heb. 9. according as it was ordained in the old Law by offering up the blood of Oxen the blood of Calves the blood of Goats the blood of Lambs and so forth O these things were of no force nor strength to take away sins they could not put away the anger of God they could not cool the heat of his wrath nor yet bring mankind into favour again they were but only figures and shadows of things to come Heb. 10. and nothing else Read the Epistle to the Hebrews there shall you find this matter largely discussed there shall you learn in most plain words that the bloody Sacrifice of the old Law was unperfect and not able to deliver man from the state of damnation by any means so that mankind in trusting thereunto should trust to a broken staff and in the end deceive himself What should he then do Should he go about to serve and keep the Law of God divided into two Tables and so purchase to himself eternal life Indeed if Adam and his Posterity had been able to satisfie and fulfil the Law perfectly in loving God above all things and their Neighbour as themselves then should they have easily quenched the Lords wrath and escaped the terrible sentence of eternal death pronounced against them by the mouth of Almighty God For it is written Do thus and thou shalt live that is to say Luke 10. fulfil my Commandments keep thy self upright and perfect in them according to my Will then shalt thou live and not die Here is eternal life promised with this condition and so that they keep and observe the Law But such was the frailty of mankind after his Fall such was his weakness and imbecillity that he could not walk uprightly in Gods Commandments though he would never so fain but daily and hourly fell from his bounden duty offending the Lord his God divers ways to the great increase of his condemnation insomuch that the Prophet David crieth out on this wise All have gone astray Psal 5. all are become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one In this case what profit could he have by the Law None at all For as St. James saith James 2. He that shall observe the whole Law and yet faileth in one point is become guilty of all And in the Book of Deuteronomy it is written Deut. 27. Cursed be he saith God which abideth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them Behold the Law bringeth a curse with it and maketh it guilty not because it is of it self naught or unholy God forbid we should so think but because the frailty of our sinful flesh is such that we can never fulfil it according to the perfection that the Lord requireth Could Adam then think you hope or trust to be saved by the Law No he could not But the more he looked on the Law the more he saw his own damnation set before his eyes as it were in a clear glass So that now of himself he was most wretched and miserable destitute of all hope and never able to pacifie Gods heavy displeasure nor yet to escape the terrible judgment of God whereunto he and all his Posterity were fallen by disobeying the strait Commandment of the Lord their God But O the abundant riches of Gods great mercy Rom. 11. O the unspeakable goodness of his heavenly Wisdom When all hope of righteousness was past on our part when we had nothing in our selves whereby we might quench his burning wrath and work the salvation of our own Souls and rise out of the miserable estate wherein we lay Then even then did Christ the Son of God by the appointment of his Father come down from Heaven to be wounded for our sakes to be reputed with the wicked to be
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
Christs benefits which he hath plentifully wrought for us by his Resurrection and passing to his Father whereby we are delivered from the captivity and thraldom of all our Enemies Let us in like manner pass over the affections of our old conversation that we may be delivered from the bondage thereof Exod. 7. and rise with Christ The Jews kept their Feast in abstaining from leavened bread by the space of seven days Let us Christian folk keep our Holy-day in spiritual manner that is in abstaining not from material leavened bread but from the old leaven of sin the leaven of maliciousness and wickedness Let us cast from us the leaven of corrupt Doctrine that will infect our Souls Let us keep our Feast the whole term of our life with eating the bread of pureness of godly life and truth of Christs Doctrine Thus shall we declare that Christs gifts and graces have their effect in us and that we have the right belief and knowledge of his holy Resurrection where truly if we apply our Faith to the vertue thereof in our life and conform us to the example and signification meant thereby we shall be sure to rise hereafter to everlasting glory by the goodness and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Glory Thanksgiving and Praise in infinita seculorum secula Amen AN HOMILY OF THE Worthy Receiving and reverend Esteeming of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ THE great love of our Saviour Christ towards mankind good Christian People doth not only appear in that dear-bought benefit of our Redemption and Salvation by his Death and Passion but also in that he so kindly provided that the same most merciful work might be had in continual remembrance to take some place in us and not be frustrate of his end and purpose For as tender Parents are not content to procure for their Children costly Possessions and Livelihood but take order that the same may be conserved and come to their use So our Lord and Saviour thought it not sufficient to purchase for us his Fathers favour again which is that deep Fountain of all goodness and eternal life but also invented the ways most wisely whereby they might redound to our commodity and profit Amongst the which means is the publick celebration of the memory of his precious Death at the Lords Table Which although it seem of small vertue to some yet being righly done by the Faithful it doth not only help their weakness who by their poisoned Nature readier to remember injuries than benefits but strengtheneth and comforteth their inward man with peace and gladness and maketh them thankful to their Redeemer with diligent care and godly conversation Exod. 12. And as of old time God decreed his wondrous benefits of the deliverance of his People to be kept in memory by the eating of the Passover with his Rites and Ceremonies So our loving Saviour hath ordained and established the remembrance of his great mercy expressed in his Passion in the institution of his Heavenly Supper Mat. 26. 1 Cor. 11. where every one of us must be Guests and not Gazers Eaters and not Lookers feeding our selves and not hiring others to feed for us that we may live by our own meat Luke 11. and not to perish for hunger whiles other devour all To this his Commandment forceth us 1 Cor. 6. Mat. 26. saying Do ye this drink ye all of this To this his Promise enticeth This is my Body which is given for you This is my Blood which is shed for you So then of necessity we must be our selves partakers of this Table and not beholders of other So we must address our selves to frequent the same in reverent and comely manner lest as Physick provided for the Body being misused more hurteth than profiteth so this comfortable Medicine of the Soul undecently received tendeth to our greater harm and sorrow 1 Cor. 11. And St. Paul saith He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh his own damnation Wherefore that it be not said to us as it was to the Guest of that great Supper Mat. 22. Friend how camest thou in not having the marriage-garment And that we may fruitfully use St. Paul's counsel Let a man prove himself 1 Cor. 11. and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup we must certainly know that three things be requisite in him which would seemly as becometh such high Mysteries resort to the Lords Table That is First a right and worthy estimation and understanding of this Mystery Secondly to come in a sure Faith And Thirdly to have newness or pureness of life to succeed the receiving of the same But before all other things this we must be sure of especially that this Supper be in such wise done and ministred as our Lord and Saviour did and commanded to be done as his holy Apostles used it and the good Fathers in the Primitive Church frequented it For as that worthy man St. Ambrose saith he is unworthy of the Lord that otherwise doth celebrate that Mystery than it was delivered by him Neither can he be devout that otherwise doth presume than it was given by the Author We must then take heed lest of the Memory it be made a Sacrifice lest of a Communion it be made a private eating lest of two parts we have but one lest applying it for the dead we lose the fruit that be alive Let us rather in these matters follow the advice of Cyprian in the like cases that is cleave fast to the first beginning hold fast the Lords tradition do that in the Lords commemoration which he himself did he himself commanded and his Apostles confirmed This caution or fore-sight if we use then may we see those things that be requisite in the worthy receiver whereof this was the first that we have a right understanding of the thing it self As concerning which thing this we may assuredly perswade our selves that the ignorant man can neither worthily esteem nor effectually use those marvellous graces and benefits offered and exhibited in that Supper but either will lightly regard them to no small offence or utterly condemn them to his utter destruction So that by his negligence he deserveth the Plagues of God to fall upon him and by contempt he deserveth everlasting Perdition To avoid then these harms use the advice of the Wise man Prov. 23. who willeth thee when thou sittest at an earthly Kings Table to take diligent heed what things are set before thee So now much more at the King of Kings Table thou must carefully search and know what dainties are provided for thy Soul whither thou art come not to feed thy senses and belly to corruption but thy inward man to immortality and life nor to consider the earthly creatures which thou seest but the heavenly graces which thy Faith beholdeth For this Table is not saith Chrysostom
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
but walketh continually seeking to devour us Let us resist him with our diligent Watching in Labor and in Well-doing For he that diligently exerciseth himself in honest Business is not easily catched in the Devils snare When Man through Idleness or for defalt of some honest Occupation or Trade to live upon is brought to Poverty and want of things necessary we see how easily such a Man is induced for his gain to Lie to Practice how he may deceive his Neighbor to forswear himself to bear false Witness and oftentimes to Steal and Murder or to use some other ungodly mean to live withal whereby not only his good Name honest Reputation and a good Conscience yea his Lise is utterly lost but also the great displeasure and wrath of God with divers and sundry grievous Plagues are procured Lo here the end of the Idle and Sluggish Bodies whose hands cannot away with honest Labor loss of Name Fame Reputation and Life here in this World and without the great Mercy of God the purchasing of Everlasting Destruction in the World to come Have not all Men then good cause to beware and take heed of Idleness seeing they that embrace and follow it have commonly of their pleasant Idleness sharp and soure displeasures Doubtless good and godly Men weighing the great and manifold harms that come by Idleness to a Common-weal have from time to time provided with all deligence that sharp and severe Laws might be made for the Correction and Amendment of this Evil. The Egyptians had a Law Herodotus that every Man should Weekly bring his Name to the chief Rulers of the Province and therewithal declare what trade of Life he used to the intent that Idleness might be worthily punished and diligent Labor duly rewarded The Athenians did chastise Sluggish and Sloathful People no less than they did Hainous and Grievous Offenders considering as the truth is that Idleness causeth much mischief The Areopagites called every Man to a strait accompt how he lived and if they found any Loyterers that did not profit the Common-weal by one means or other they were driven out and banished as unprofitable Members that did only hurt and corrupt the Body And in this Realm of England good and godly Laws have been divers times made that no Idle Vagabonds and Loytering Runnagates should be suffered to go from Town to Town from Place to Place without Punishment which neither serve God nor their Prince but devour the sweet Fruits of other Mens Labor being common Liars Drunkards Swearers Thieves Whoremasters and Murderers refusing all honest Labor and give themselves to nothing else but to invent and do mischief whereof they are more desirous and greedy than is any Lion of his prey To remember this inconvenience let all Parents and others which have the care and governance of Youth so bring them up either in good Learning Labor or some honest Occupation or Trade whereby they may be able in time to come not only to sustain themselves competently but also to relâ—eve and supply the necessity and want of others And St. Paul saith Let him that hath stolen Ephes 4. steal no more and he that hath deceived others or used unlawful ways to get his living leave off the same and Labor rather working with his Hands that thing which is good that he may have that which is necessary for himself and also be able to give unto others that stand in need of his help The Prophet David thinketh him happy that liveth upon his Labor saying Psal 128. When thou eatest the Labors of thine Hands hapyy art thou and well is thee This happyness or blessing consisteth in these and such like Points First Eccles 3. It is the gift of God as Solomon saith when one eateth and drinketh and receiveth good of his Labor Secondly When one liveth of his own Labor so it be honest and good he liveth of it with a good Conscience and an upright Conscience is a treasure inestimable Thirdly he Eateth his Bread not with brawling and chiding but with peace and quietness when he quietly Laboreth for the same according to St. Pauls admonition Fourthly He is no Mans Bondman for his meat sake nor needeth not for that to hang upon the good Will of other Men but so liveth of his own that he is able to give part to others And to conclude the Laboring Man and his Family whiles they are busily Occupied in their Labor be free from many Temptations and occasions of Sin which they that live in Idleness are subject unto And here ought Artificers and Laboring Men who be at Wages for their Work and Labor to consider their Conscience to God and their Duty to their Neighbor lest they abuse their time in Idleness so defrauding them which be at Charge both with great Wages and dear Commons They be worse than Idle Men indeed for that they seek to have Wages for their Loytering It is less danger to God to be Idle for no gain than by Idleness to win out of their Neighbors Purse Wages for that which is not deserved It is true that Almighty God is angry with such as do defraud the Hired Man of his Wages the cry of that injury ascendeth up to Gods ear for vengeance And as true it is that the hired Man who useth deceit in his Labor is a thief before God 1 Thess 4. Let no Man saith St. Paul to the Thessalonians subtilly beguile his Brother let him not defraud him of his business For the Lord is the revenger of such deceits Whereupon he that will have a good Conscience to God that Laboring Man I say which dependeth wholly upon Gods benediction ministring all things sufficient for his living let him use his time in a faithful Labor and when his Labor by Sickness or other misfortune doth cease yet let him think for that in his health he served God and his Neighbor truly he shall not want in time of necessity God upon respect of his fidelity in health will recompence his indigence to move the Hearts of good Men to relieve such decayed Men in Sickness Where otherwise whatsoever is gotten by idleness shall have no means to help in time of need Let the Laboring Man therefore eschew for his part this vice of Idleness and Deceit Eph. 4. remembring that St Paul exhorteth every Man to lay away all Deceit Dissimulation and Lying and to use truth and plainness to his Neighbour because saith he we be Members together in one Body under one head Christ our Saviour And here might be charged the Serving-men of this Realm who spend their time in much Idleness of life nothing regarding the opportunity of their time forgetting how Service is no Heritage how Age will creep upon them where Wisdom were they should expend their Idle time in some good Business whereby they might increase in knowledge and so the more worthy to be ready for every Mans service It is a great rebuke
to them that they study not either to Write fair to keep a Book of Account to study the Tongues and so to get wisdom and knowledge in such Books and Works as be now plentifully set out in Print of all manner of Languages Let young Men consider the precious value of their time and waste it not in Idleness in Jollity in Gaming in Bant queting in Ruffians company Youth is but Vanity and must be accounted for before God How merry and glad soever thou be in thy Youth O young Man saith the Preacher how glad soever thy Heart be in thy young days Eccles 11. how fast and freely soever thou follow the ways of thine own Heart and the lust of thine own Eye yet be thou sure that God shall bring thee into Judgment for all these things God of his mercy put it into the Hearts and Minds of all them that have the Sword of Punishment in their Hands or have Families under their Governance to Labor to redress this great enormity of all such as live Idly and unprofitably in the Common-weal to the great dishonor of God and the grievous Plague of his silly People To leave sin unpunished and to neglect the good bringing up of Youth is nothing else but to kindle the Lords wrath against us and to heap Plagues upon our own Heads As long as the Adulterous people were suffered to live Licentiously without Reformation so long did the Plague continue and increase in Israel Numb 25. as you may see in the Book of Numbers But when due correction was done upon them the Lords anger was strait way pacified and the Plauge ceased Let all Officers therefore look straitly to their charge Let all Masters of Housholds reform this abuse in their Families let them use the Authority that God hath given them let them not maintain Vagabonds and Idle persons but deliver the Realm and their Housholds from such noysom Loyterers that Idleness the Mother of all Mischief being clean taken away Almighty God may turn his dreaful Anger away from us and confirm the Covenant of Peace upon us for ever through the Merits of Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honor and Glory World without end Amen AN HOMILY OF Repentance and of true Reconciliation unto God THere is noting that the Holy Ghost doth so much Labor in all the Scriptures to beat into Mens Heads as Repentance amendment of Life and speedy returning unto the Lord God of Hosts And no marvel why for we do Daily and Hourly by our wickedness and stubborn Disobedience horribly fall away from God thereby purchasing unto our selves if he should deal with us according to his Justice Eternal Damnation The Doctrin of Repentance is most necessary So that no Doctrin is so necessary in the Church of God as is the Doctrin of Repentance and amendment of Life And verily the true Preachers of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven and of the glad and joyful tidings of Salvation have always in their Godly Sermons and Preachings unto the People joyned these two together I mean Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins even as our Saviour Jesus Christ did appoint himself saying So it behoved Christ to Suffer and to Rise again the Third Day and that Repentance and Forgiveness of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations And therefore the holy Apostle doth in the Acts speak after this manner I have witnessed both to the Jews and to the Gentiles the Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Did not John Baptist Zacharias Son begin his Ministry with the Doctrin of Repentance saying Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand The like Doctrin did our Saviour Jesus Christ preach himself and commanded his Apostles to preach the same I might here alledge very many places out of the Prophets in the which this most wholsom Doctrin of Repentance is very earnestly urged as most needful for all degrees and orders of Men but one shall be sufficient at this present time These are the words of Joel the Prophet therefore also now the Lord saith Joel 2. Return unto me with all your heart with Fasting Weeping and Mourning rent your hearts and not your cloaths and return unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great compassion and ready to pardon wickedness Whereby it is given us to understand A perpetual Rule which all must follow that we have here a perpetual Rule appointed unto us which ought to be observed and kept at all times and that there is none other way whereby the wrath of God may be pacified and his anger asswaged that the fierceness of his fury and the plagues of destruction which by his righteous Judgment he had determined to bring upon us may depart be removed and taken away Where he saith But now therefore saith the Lord return unto me It is not without great importance that the Prophet speaketh so for he had before set forth at large unto them the horrible Vengeance of God which no Man was able to abide and therefore he doth move them to Repentance to obtain Mercy as if he should say I will not have these things to be so taken as though there were no hope of grace left For although ye do by your sins deserve to be utterly destroyed and God by his righteous Judgments hath determined to bring no small destruction upon you yet know that ye are in a manner on the very edge of the Sword if ye will speedily return unto him he will most gently and most mercifully receive you into favor again Whereby we are admonished that Repentance is never too late so that it be true and earnest For sith that God in the Scriptures will be called our Father doubtless he doth follow the nature and property of gentle and merciful Fathers which seek nothing so much as the returning again and amendment of their Children as Christ doth abundantly teach in the Parable of the Prodigal Son Luke 15. Ezek. 18. Esay 1. 1 John 2. Doth not the Lord himself say by the Prophet I will not the death of the wicked but that he turn from his wicked ways and live And in another place If we confess our sins God is faithful righteous to forgive us our sins and to make us clean from all wickedness Which most comfortable Promises are confirmed by many Examples of the Scriptures when the Jews did willingly receive and imbrace the wholesom counsel of the Prophet Esay Esay 33. God by and by did reach his helping hand unto them and by his Angel did in one night slay the most worthy and valiant Soldiers of Sennacheribs Camp 2 Par. 53. Whereunto may King Manasses be added who after all manner of damnable wickedness returned unto the Lord and therefore was heard of him and restored again into his Kingdom
imaginations and turn again unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he is ready to forgive And in the Prophet Hosea the godly exhort one another after this manner Come and let us turn again unto the Lord Hos 6. for he hath smitten us and he will heal us he hath wounded us and he will bind us up again Note It is most evident and plain that these things ought to be understood of them that were with the Lord before and by their sins and wickednesses were gone away from him For we do not turn again unto him with whom we were never before but we come unto him Now unto all them that will return unfeignedly unto the Lord their God Eccles 7. 1 John 1. the favor and mercy of God unto forgiveness of sins is liberally offered whereby it followeth necessarily that although we do after we be once come to God and grafted in his Son Jesus Christ fall into great sins for there is no righteous Man upon the Earth that sinneth not and if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us yet if we rise again by Repentance and with a full purpose of amendment of Life do flee unto the mercy of God taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in his Son Jesu Christ there is an assured and infallible hope of pardon and remission of the same and that we shall be received again into the favor of our Heavenly Father It is written of David Acts 13. 2 Sam. 7. I have found a Man according to mine own heart or I have found David the Son of Jesse a Man according to mine own heart who will do all things that I will This is a great commendation of David It is also most certain that he did stedfastly believe the promise that was made him touching the Messias who should come of him touching the Flesh and that by the same Faith he was justified and grafted in our Saviour Jesu Christ to come and yet afterwards he fell horribly committing most detestable Adultery and damnable Murder and yet as soon as he cried Peccavi 2 Sam. 2. 2 Sam. 22. I have sinned unto the Lord his sin being forgiven he was received into favor again Now will we come unto Peter of whom no Man can doubt but that he was grafted in our Saviour Jesus Christ long before his denial Which thing may easily be proved by the answer which he did in his Name and in the Name of his Fellow Apostles make unto our Saviour Jesus Christ when he said unto them Will ye also go away John 6. Master saith he to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and know that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God Whereunto may be added the like Confession of Peter where Christ doth give us most infallible testimony Thou art blessed Simon the Son of Jonas for neither Flesh nor Blood hath revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven These words are sufficient to prove that Peter was already justifyed through this lively Faith in the only begotten Son of God whereof he made so notable and so solemn a confession But did not he afterwards most cowardly deny his Master although he had heard of him Mat. 26. Mat. 10. Whosoever denieth me before Men I will deny him before my Father Nevertheless as soon as with weeping eyes and with a sobing heart he did acknowledge his offence and with an earnest repentance did flee unto the mercy of God taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in him whom he had so shamefully denied his sin was forgiven him and for a Certificate and Assurance thereof the Room of his Apostleship was not denied unto him But now mark what doth follow After the same Holy Apostle had on Whitsunday Acts 2. with the rest of the Disciples received the gift of the Holy Ghost most abundantly he committed no small offence in Antiochia by bringing the Consciences of the Faithful into doubt by his Example Gal. 2. so that Paul was fain to rebuke him to his Face because that he walked not uprightly or went not the right way in the Gospel Shall we now say that after this grievous offence he was utterly excluded and shut out from the grace and mercy of God and that this his trespass whereby he was a stumbling Block unto many was unpardonable God defend we should say so But as these Examples are not brought in to the end that we should thereby take a boldness to sin presuming on the mercy and goodness of God but to the end that if through the frailness of our own Flesh and the temptation of the Devil we fall into like sins we should in no wise despair of the mercy and goodness of God What we must beware of Even so must we beware and take heed that we do in no wise think in our hearts imagine or believe that we are able to repent aright or to turn effectually unto the Lord by our own might and strength For this must be verified in all Men John 15. 2 Cor. 3. Phil. 2. Without me ye can do nothing Again Of our selves we are not able as much as to think a good thought And in another place It is God that worketh in us both the Will and the Deed. For this cause although Jeremy had said before Jer. 6. If thou return O Israel return unto me saith the Lord yet afterwards he saith Turn thou me O Lord and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God And therefore that holy Writer and ancient Father Ambrose doth plainly affirm That the turning of the heart unto God Ambros de Vocat Gent. lib. 8 cap. 9. is of God as the Lord himself doth testifie by his Prophet saying And I will give thee an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my People and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart These things being considered let us earnestly pray unto the living God our Heavenly Father that he will vouchsafe by his holy Spirit to work a true and unfeigned Repentance in us that after the painful labors and travels of this Life we may live eternally with his Son Jesus Christ to whom be all praise and glory for ever and ever Amen The Second Part of the Homily of Repentance HItherto have ye heard Well-beloved how needful and necessary the Doctrin of Repentance is and how earnestly it is throughout all the Scriptures of God urged and set forth both by the ancient Prophets by our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Apostles And that for as much as it is the conversion or turning again of the whole Man unto God from whom we go away by sin these four Points ought to be observed that is From whence or from what things we must return
earthly Prince doth come in his Regiment the greater Blessing of Gods mercy is he unto that Country and People over whom he Reigneth and the further and further that an earthly Prince doth swerve from the example of the heavenly Government the greater plague is he of Gods wrath and punishment by Gods justice unto that Country and People over whom God for their sins hath placed such a Prince and Governor For it is indeed evident both by the Scriptures and daily by experience that the maintainance of all Vertue and Godliness and consequently of the Wealth and Prosperity of a Kingdom and People doth stand and rest more in a wise and good Prince on the one part than in great multitudes of other Men being Subjects and on the contrary part the overthrow of all Vertue and Godliness and consequently the decay and utter ruin of a Realm and People doth grow and come more by an undiscreet and evil Governor than by many thousands of other Men being Subjects Eccles 10. d. 16. Prov. 16. 29. Eccles 10. Esa 32. a. Thus say the Scriptures Well is thee O thou Land saith the Preacher whose King is come of Nobles and whose Princes eat in due season for necessity and not for lust Again A Wise and Righteous King maketh his Realm and People wealthy And a Good Merciful and Gracious Prince is a shadow in Heat as a defence in Storms as Dew as sweet showers as fresh Water-springs in great droughts Again the Scriptures of undiscreet and evil Princes speak thus Eccles 10.16 Pro. 28. 29. Wo be to thee O thou band whose King is but a Child and whose Princes are early at their Banquets Again When the wicked do Reign then Men go to Ruin And again A foolish Prince destroyeth the People and a covetous King undoeth his Subjects Thus speak the Scriptures thus experince testifieth of good and evil Princes What shall Subjects do then shall they obey Valiant Stout Wise and Good Princes and Contemn Disobey and Rebel against Children being their Princes or against undiscreet and evil Governors God forbid For First What a perilous thing were it to commit unto the Subjects the Judgment which Prince is Wise and Godly and his Government good and which is otherwise as though the Foot must judge of the Head an enterprise very heinous and must needs breed Rebellion For who else be they that are most enclined to Rebellion but such haughty Spirits From whom springeth such foul ruin of Realms Is not Rebellion the greatest of all Mischiefs And who are most ready to the greatest of Mischiefs but the worst Men Rebels therefore the worst of all Subjects are most ready to Rebellion as being the worst of all Vices and farthest from the duty of a good Subject as on the contrary part the best Subjects are most firm and constant in obedience as in the special and peculiar vertue of good Subjects What an unworthy matter were it then to make the naughtiest Subjects and most inclined to Rebellion and all evil Judges over their Princes over their Government and over their Counsellors to determin which of them be good or tolerable and which be evil and so intolerable that they must needs be removed by Rebels being ever ready as the naughtiest Subjects soonest to Rebel against the best Princes specially if they be young in Age Women in Sex or gentle and courteous in Government as trusting by their wicked boldness easily to overthrow their weakness and gentleness or at the least so to fear the minds of such Princes that they may have impunity of their mischievous doings But whereas indeed a Rebel is worse than the worst Prince and Rebellion worse than the worst Government of the worst Prince that hitherto hath been both Rebels are unmeet Ministers and Rebellion an unfit and unwholsom Medicine to reform any small lacks in a Prince or to cure any little griefs in Government such lewd Remedies being far worse than any other maladies and disorders that can be in the Body of a Common-wealth But whatsoever the Prince be or his Government it is evident that for the most part those Princes whom some Subjects do think to be very godly and under whose Government they rejoyce to live some other Subjects do take the same to be evil and ungodly and do wish for a change If therefore all Subjects that mislike of their Prince should Rebel no Realm should ever be without Rebellion It were more meet that Rebels should hear the advice of wise Men and give place unto their Judgment and follow the example of obedient Subjects as reason is that they whose understanding is blinded with so evil an affection should give place to them that be of sound judgment and that the worst should give place to the better and so might Realms continue in long Obedience Peace and Quietness But what if the Prince be undiscreet and evil indeed and is also evident to all Mens eyes that he so is I ask again What if it be long of the wickedness of the Subjects that the Prince is undiscreet and evil Shall the Subjects both by their wickedness provoke God for their deserved punishment to give them an undiscreet or evil Prince and also rebel against him and withal against God who for the punishment of their sins did give them such a Prince Will you hear the Scriptures concerning this Point Job 34.10 Hos 13.6 God say the Holy Scriptures maketh a wicked Man to Reign for the sins of the People Again God giveth a Prince in his anger meaning an evil one and taketh away a Prince in his displeasure meaning especially when he taketh away a good Prince for the sins of the People as in our Memory he took away our good Josias King Edward in his young and good years for our wickedness And contrarily the Scriptures do teach 2 Par. 2.9 Prov. 16. That God giveth wisdom unto Princes and maketh a wise and good King to Reign over that People whom he loveth and who loveth him Again If the People obey God 1 Reg. 12. both they and their King shall prosper and be safe else both shall perish saith God by the mouth of Samuel Here you see that God placeth as well evil Princes as good and for what cause he doth both If we therefore will have a good Prince either to be given us or to continue now we have such a one let us by our obedience to God and to our Prince move God thereunto If we will have an evil Prince when God shall send such a one taken away and a good in his place let us take away our wickedness which provoketh God to place such a one over us and God will either displace him or of an evil Prince make him a good Prince so that we first will change our evil into good For will you hear the Scriptures Prov. 21. The heart of the Prince is in Gods hand which way soever it
that the People that will not see with their Eyes nor hear with their Ears to learn and to understand with their Hearts cannot be converted and saved And the wicked themselves being damned in Hell shall confess ignorance in Gods Word to have brought them thereunto saying We have erred from the way of the truth and the light of Righteousness hath not shined unto us and the Sun of understanding hath not risen unto us Mat. 7. John 3. we have wearied our selves in the way of wickedness and perdition and have walked cumberous and crooked ways but the way of the Lord have we not known Mat. 11. b. 15. 13. a. 9. f. 3. Luke 8. a. 8. Joh. 5. f. 39. Ps 1. Mat. 7. b. 7. Luk. 11.9 Luke 16. g. 30.31 Gal. 1. b. 8. Deut. 5.32 Deut. 17. c. 14.15 c. Rom. 13. 1 Pet. 2. Psal 118. Psal 18. 118. Eph. 5.14 1 Thes 5. a. 4.5 John 12.35.36 Jam 1. c. 17. 1 Tim. 6. d. 16. John 3. And as well our Saviour himself as his Apostle St. Paul doth teach that the ignorance of Gods Word cometh of the Devil is the cause of all error and misjudging as falleth out with ignorant Subjects who can rather espy a little mote in the eye of the Prince or a Counsellor than a great Beam in their own and universally it is the cause of all evil and finally of eternal damnation Gods Judgment being severe towards those who when the light of Christs Gospel is come into the World do delight more in darkness of ignorance than in the light of knowledge in Gods Word For all are commanded to read or hear to search and study the holy Scriptures and are promised understanding to be given them from God if they so do all are charged not to believe either any dead Man nor if an Angel should speak from Heaven much less if the Pope do speak from Rome against or contrary to the Word of God from the which we may not decline neither to the right hand nor to the left In Gods Word Princes must learn how to obey God and to govern Men in Gods Word Subjects must learn Obedience both to God and their Princes Old Men and young rich and poor all Men and Women all Estates Sexes and Ages are taught their several Duties in the Word of God For the Word of God is bright giving light unto all Mens Eyes the shining Lamp directing all Mens Paths and Steps Let us therefore awake from the sleep and darkness of Ignorance and open our Eyes that we may see the light let us rise from the works of darkness that we may escape eternal darkness the due reward thereof and let us walk in the light of Gods Word whiles we have light as becometh the Children of light so directing the steps of our Lives in that way which leadeth to light and life everlasting that we may finally obtain and enjoy the same which God the Father of Lights who dwelleth in light incomprehensible and inaccessible grant unto us through the light of the World our Saviour Jesus Christ Unto whom with the Holy Ghost one most glorious God be all Honor Praise and Thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen Thus have you heard the Sixth Part of this Homily Now good People Let us pray The PRAYER as in that time it was Published O Most mighty God the Lord of Hosts the Governor of all Creatures the only giver of all Victories who alone art able to strengthen the Weak against the Mighty and to vanquish infinite multitudes of thine Enemies with the Countenance of a few of thy Servants calling upon thy Name and trusting in thee Defend O Lord thy Servant and our Governor under thee our Sovereign Lord the KING and all thy People committed to his charge O Lord withstand the cruelty of all those which be common Enemies as well to the truth of thy eternal Word as to their own natural Prince and Country and manifestly to this Crown and Realm of ENGLAND which thou hast of thy Divine Providence assigned in these our days to the Government of thy Servant our Sovereign and gracious KING O most merciful Father if it be thy holy Will make soft and tender the stony hearts of all those that exalt themselves against thy Truth and seek either to trouble the quiet of this Realm of ENGLAND or to oppress the Crown of the same and convert them to the knowledge of thy Son the only Saviour of the World Jesus Christ that we and they may joyntly glorifie thy Mercies Lighten we beseech thee their ignorant hearts to embrace the truth of thy Word or else so abate their cruelty O most mighty Lord that this our Christian Realm with others that confess thy holy GOSPEL may obtain by thine aid and strength surety from all Enemies without shedding of Christian Blood whereby all they which be oppressed with their Tyranny may be relieved and they which be in fear of their cruelty may be comforted And finally that all Christian Realms and especially this Realm of ENGLAND may by thy Defence and Protection continue in the truth of the Gospel and enjoy perfect Peace Quietness and Security and that we for these thy Mercies joyntly all together with one consonant heart and voice may thankfully render to thee all laud and praise that we knit in one godly concord and unity amongst our selves may continually magnifie thy glorious Name who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost art one Eternal Almighty and most merciful GOD. To whom be all laud and praise World without end Amen A THANKSGIVING for the Suppression of the last Rebellion O Heavenly and most merciful Father the defender of those that put their trust in thee the sure fortress of all them that flee to thee for succor who of thy most just Judgments for our Disobedience and Rebellion against thy holy Word and for our sinful and wicked living nothing answering to our holy profession whereby we have given an occasion that thy holy Name hath been blasphemed amongst the ignorant hast of late both sore abashed the whole Realm and People of England with the terror and danger of Rebellion thereby to awake us out of our dead sleep of careless security and hast yet by the miseries following the same Rebellion more sharply punished part of our Country-men and Christian-brethren who have more nearly felt the same and most dreadfully hast scourged some of the seditious Persons with terrible Executions justly inflicted for their disobedience unto thee and to thy Servant their Sovereign to the example of us all and to the warning correction and amendment of thy Servants of thine accustomed goodness turning always the wickedness of evil Men to the proof of them that fear thee who in thy Judgments remembring thy Mercy hast by thy assistance given the Victory to thy Servant our Queen her true Nobility and faithful Subjects with so little or rather no effusion of Christian Blood as also might have justly ensued to the exceeding comfort of all sorrowful Christian hearts and that of thy fatherly pity and merciful goodness only and even for thine own names sake without any our desert at all Wherefore we render unto thee most humble and hearty thanks for these thy great mercies shewed unto us who had deserved sharper punishment most humbly beseeching thee to grant unto all us that confess thy holy Name and profess the true and perfect Religion of thy holy Gospel thy heavenly Grace to shew our selves in our living according to our profession that we truly knowing thee in thy blessed Word may obediently walk in thy holy Commadments and that we being warned by this thy Fatherly correction do provoke thy just wrath against us no more but may enjoy the continuance of thy great mercies towards us thy right hand as in this so in all other Invasions Rebellions and dangers continually saving and defending our Church our Realm our Queen and People of England that all our Posterities ensuing confessing thy holy Name professing thy holy Gospel and leading an holy Life may perpetually praise and magnifie thee with thy only Son Jesus Christ our Saviour and the Holy Ghost To whom be all laud praise glory and Empire for ever and ever Amen FINIS