to be ever ready to give ourselves to our Neighbours and as much as lieth in us to study with all our endeavour to do good to every Man These be the fruits of true Faith to do good asmuch as lieth in us to every Man and above all things and in all things to advance the Glory of God of whom only we have our Sanctification Justification Salvation and Redemption To whom be ever Glory Praise and Honour VVorld without end Amen A Short DECLARATION OF THE True Lively and Christian Faith Faith THE First coming unto God good Christian People is through Faith whereby as it is declared in the last Sermon we be Justified before God And lest any Man should be deceived for lack of right Understanding thereof it is diligently to be noted that Faith is taken in the Scripture two manner of ways A dead Faith There is one Faith which in Scripture is called a Dead Faith which bringeth forth no good Works but is idle barren and unfruitful And this Faith by the Holy Apostle St. James is compared to the Faith of Devils James 2. which believe God to be True and Just and tremble for fear yet they do nothing well but all evil And such a manner of Faith have the wicked and naughty Christian People which confess God as St. Paul saith in their mouths Titus 6. but deny him in their deeds being abominable and without the right Faith and to all good works reproveable And this Faith is a Persuasion and Belief in Man's Heart whereby he knoweth that there is a God and agreeth unto all Truths of God's most Holy Word contained in the Holy Scripture So that it consisteth only in Believing in the Word of God that it is true And this is not properly called Faith But as he that readeth Caesar's Commentary believing the same to be true hath thereby a knowledge of Caesar's Life and notable Acts because he believeth the History of Caesar Yet it is not properly said that he believeth in Caesar of whom he looketh for no help nor benefit Even so he that Believeth that all that is spoken of God in the Bible is true and yet liveth so ungodly that he cannot look to enjoy the Promises and Benefits of God Although it may be said that such a Man hath a Faith and Belief to the Words of God yet it is not properly said that he believeth in God or hath such a Faith and Trust in God whereby he may surely look for Grace Mercy and everlasting Life at God's hand but rather for Indignation and Punishment according to the Merits of his wicked Life For as it is written in a Book Entituled to be of Didymus Alexandrinus Forasmuch as Faith without Works is dead it is not now Faith as a dead Man is not a Man This dead Faith therefore is not that sure and substantial Faith which saveth Sinners Another Faith there is in Scripture which is not as the aforesaid Faith idle unfruitful and dead A lively Faith but worketh by charity as St. Paul declareth Gal. 5. Which as the other vain Faith is called a dead Faith so may this be called a quick or lively Faith And this is not only the common belief of the Articles of our Faith but it is also a true Trust and Confidence of the Mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a stedfast hope of all good things to be received at God's hand And that although we through Infirmity or Temptation of our Ghostly enemy do fall from him by Sin yet if we return again unto him by true Repentance that he will forgive and forget our Offences for his Sons sake our Saviour Jesus Christ and will make us Inheritors with him of his everlasting Kingdom and that in the mean time untill that Kingdom come he will be our Protector and Defender in all perils and dangers whatsoever do chance And that though somtime he doth send us sharp adversity yet that evermore he will be a loving Father unto us correcting us for our Sin but not withdrawing his Mercy finally from us if we trust in him and commit our selves wholly unto him hang only upon him and call upon him ready to obey and serve him This is the true lively and unfeigned Christian Faith and is not in the Mouth and outward Profession only but it liveth and stirreth inwardly in the Heart And this Faith is not without Hope and Trust in God nor without the Love of God and of our Neighbors nor without the Fear of God nor without the Desire to hear God's Word and to follow the same in eschewing Evil and doing gladly all good Works Heb. 12. Thus Faith as St. Paul describeth it is the sure ground and foundation of the benefits which we ought to look for and trust to receive of God a Certificate and sure looking for them although they yet sensibly appear not unto us And after he saith He that cometh to God must believe both that he is and that he is a merciful rewarder of Well-doers And nothing commendeth good Men unto God so much as this assured Faith and Trust in him Of this Faith three things are specially to be noted Three things are to be noted of Faith First that this Faith doth not lye dead in the Heart but is lively and fruitful in bringing forth good Works Secondly that without it can no good Works be done that shall be acceptable and pleasant to God Thirdly what manner of good Works they be that this Faith doth bring forth Faith is full of good Works For the First That as the Light cannot be hid but will shew forth itself at one place or other So a true Faith cannot be kept secret but when occasion is offered it will break out and shew itself by good Works And as the living Body of a Man ever exerciseth such things as belong to a natural and living Body for nourishment and preservation of the same as it hath need opportunity and occasion Even so the Soul that hath a lively Faith in it will be doing alway some good Work which shall declare that it is living and will not be unoccupied Therefore when Men hear in the Scripture so high commendations of Faith that it maketh us to please God to live with God and to be the Children of God If then they fancy that they be set at liberty from doing all good Works and may live as they list they trifle with God and deceive themselves And it is a manifest token that they be far from having the true and lively Faith and also far from Knowledge what true Faith meaneth For the very sure and lively Christian Faith is not only to believe all things of God which are contained in Holy Scripture but also is an earnest Trust and Confidence in God that he doth regard us and that he is careful over us as the Father is over the Child whom he doth love and that
contrary to this Commandment do make or worship any Images or Similitude which he so strictly hath forbidden And when they this notwithstanding partly by Inclination of Mans corrupt Nature most prone to Idolatry and partly occasioned by the Gentiles and Heathen People dwelling about them who were Idolaters did fall to the making and worshipping of Images God according to his Word brought upon them all those Plagues which he threatned them with as appeareth in the Books of the Kings and the Chronicles in sundry places at large And agreeable hereunto are many other notable places in the Old Testament Deuteronomy 27. Cursed be he that maketh a carved Image or a cast or molten Image which is abomination before the Lord the Work of the Artificers Hand and setteth it up in a secret corner and all the People shall say Amen Read the thirteeenth and fourteenth Chapters of the Book of Wisdom concerning Idols or Images how they be made set up called upon and offered unto and how he praiseth the Tree whereof the Gibbet is made as happy in comparison to the Tree that an Image or Idol is made of even by these very words Happy is the Tree where through Righteousness cometh meaning the Gibbet but cursed is the Idol that is made with hands yea both it and he that made it and so forth And by and by he sheweth how that the things which were the good Creatures of God before as Trees or Stones when they be once altered and fashioned into Images to be worshipped become abomination a temptation unto the Souls of Men and a snare for the feet of the unwise And why The seeking out of Images is the beginning of Whoredom saith he and the bringing up of them is the destruction of Life For they were not from the beginning neither shall they continue for ever The wealthy idleness of Men hath found them out upon Earth therefore shall they come shortly to an end And so forth to the end of the Chapter containing these Points How Idols or Images were first invented and offered unto how by an ungracious custom they were established how Tyrants compel Men to worship them how the ignorant and the common People are deceived by the cunning of the Workman and the beauty of the Image to do honour unto it and to err from the knowledg of God and of other great and many Mischiefs that come hy Images And for a conclusion he saith That the honouring of abominable Images is the cause the beginning and end of all evil and that the Worshippers of them be either mad or most wicked See and view the whole Chapter with diligence for it is worthy to be well considered specially that is written of the deceiving of the simple and unwise common People by Idols and Images and repeated twice or thrice Sap. 15. lest it should be forgotten And in the Chapter following be these words The painting of the Picture and carved Image with divers Colours enticeth the ignorant so that he honoreth and loveth the Picture of a dead Image that hath no Soul Nevertheless they that love such evil things they that trust in them they that make them they that favour them and they that honor them are all worthy of death and so forth Psal 115. In the Book of Psalms the Prophet curseth the Image-honorers in divers places Confounded be all they that worship carved Images and that delight or glory in them Psal 135. Like be they unto the Images that make them and all they that put their trust in them And in the Prophet Isaiah saith the Lord Isai 42. Even I am the Lord and this is my Name and my Glory will I give to none other neither mine Honor to graven Images And by and by Let them be confounded with shame that trust in Idols or Images or say to them you are our Gods And in the xl Chapter Isai 40. after he hath set forth the incomprehensible Majesty of God he asketh To whom then will ye make God like Or what similitude will ye set up unto him Shall the Carver make him a carved Image And shall the Goldsmith cover him with Gold and cast him into a form of Silver Plates And for the poor Man shall the Image-maker frame an Image of Timber that he may have somwhat to set up also And after this he cryeth out O Wretches heard ye never of this Hath it not been preached unto you since the beginning and so forth how by the Creation of the World and the greatness of the Work They might understand the Majesty of God the Creator and Maker of all to be greater than that it should be expressed or set forth in any Image or bodily Similitude And besides this Preaching even in the Law of God written with his own Finger as the Scripture speaketh and that in the first Table Exo. 20. and the beginning thereof is this Doctrine aforesaid against Images not briefly touched but at large set forth and preached and that with denunciation of destruction to the Contemners and Breakers of this Law and their Posterity after them And lest it should not yet be marked or not remembred the same is written and reported not in one but in sundry places of the Word of God that by oft hearing and reading of it we might once learn and remember it as you also hear daily read in the Church God spake these Words and said I am the Lord thy God Thou shalt have none other Gods but me Exo. 20. Levit. 26. Deut. 5. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above nor in the Earth beneath nor in the Water under the Earth thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God and visit the Sin of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me and shew Mercy unto thousands in them that love me and keep my Commandments All this notwithstanding neither could the notableness of the place being the very beginning of the very loving Lord's Law make us to mark it nor the plain declaration by recounting of all kind of similitudes cause us to understand it nor the oft repeating and reporting of it in divers and sundry Places the oft reading and hearing of it could cause us to remember it nor the dread of the horrible penalty to ourselves our Children and Posterity after us fright us from transgressing of it nor the greatness of the reward to us and our Children after us move us any thing to Obedience and the observing of this the Lord 's Great Law But as though it had been written in some corner and not at large expressed but briefly and obscurely touched as though no penalty to the Transgressors nor reward to the Obedient had been adjoined unto it like blind Men without all knowledg and understanding like
CERTAIN SERMONS OR HOMILIES Appointed to be Read in CHURCHES In the Time of Queen Elizabeth OF FAMOUS MEMORY And now Reprinted for the Use of Private Families In Two Parts LONDON Printed for George Wells at the Sun Abel Swall at the Unicorn in St. Paul's Church-yard and George Pawlett at the Bible in Chancery-Lane 1687. THE PREFACE As it was Published In the Year 1562. COnsidering how necessary it is that the Word of God which is the only food of the Soul and that most excellent Light that we must walk by in this our most dangerous Pilgrimage should at all convenient times be Preached unto the People that thereby they may both learn their Duty towards God their Prince and their Neighbours according to the Mind of the Holy Ghost expressed in the Scriptures And also to avoid the manifold Enormities which heretofore by false Doctrine have crept into the Church of God And how that all they which are appointed Ministers have not the Gift of Preaching sufficiently to instruct the People which is committed unto them whereof great inconveniences might rise and ignorance still be maintained if some honest Remedy be not speedily found and provided The Queens most Excellent Majesty tendering the Souls Health of Her Loving Subjects and the Quieting of their Consciences in the Chief and Principal Points of Christian Religion and willing also by the true setting forth and pure declaring of God's Word which is the principal Guide and Leader unto all Godliness and Virtue to expel and drive away as well corrupt vicious and ungodly Living as also Erroneous and poisoned Doctrines tending to Superstition and Idolatry Hath by the Advice of Her most Honourable Counsellors for her discharge in this behalf caused a Book of Homilies which heretofore was set forth by Her most Loving Brother a Prince of most worthy Memory Edward the Sixth to be Printed anew wherein are contained certain Wholsome and Godly Exhortations to move the People to Honour and Worship Almighty God and diligently to Serve Him every one according to their Degree State and Vocation All which Homilies Her Majesty Commandeth and straitly Chargeth all Parsons Vicars Curates and all others having Spiritual Cure every Sunday and Holiday in the Year at the ministring of the Holy Communion or if there be no Communion ministred that day yet after the Gospel and Creed in such order and place as is appointed in the Book of Common Prayers to Read and Declare to their Parishioners plainly and distinctly one of the said Homilies in such order as they stand in the Book except there be a Sermon according as is enjoyned in the Book of Her Highness Injunctions and then for that Cause only and for none other the Reading of the said Homily to be deferred unto the next Sunday or Holiday following And when the foresaid Book of Homilies is read over Her Majesties pleasure is that the same be repeated and read again in such like sort as was before prescribed Furthermore Her Highness Commandeth that notwithstanding this Order the said Ecclesiastical Persons shall read Her Majesties Injunctions at such times and in such order as in the Book thereof appointed And that the Lords Prayer The Articles of the Faith and the Ten Commandments be openly read unto the People as in the said Injunctions is specified that all Her People of what Degree or Condition soever they be may learn how to invocate and call upon the Name of God and know what Duty they owe both to God and Man So that they may Pray Believe and Work according to Knowledge while they shall live here and after this life be with him that with his Blood hath bought us all To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen AN ADMONITION TO ALL MINISTERS Ecclesiastical FOR that the Lord doth require of his Servant whom he hath set over his Houshold to shew both Faithfulness and Prudence in his Office it shall be necessary that Ye above all other do behave your Selves most faithfully and diligently in your so high a Function That is aptly plainly and distinctly to read the Sacred Scriptures diligently to instruct the Youth in their Catechism gravely and reverently to Minister his most Holy Sacraments prudently also to choose out such Homilies as be most meet for the time and for the more agreeable instruction of the People committed to your charge with such discretion that where the Homily may appear too long for one Reading to divide the fame to be read part in the Forenoon and part in the Afternoon And where it may so chance some one or other Chapter of the Old Testament to fall in order to be read upon the Sundays or Holidays which were better to be changed with some other of the New Testament of more edification it shall be well done to spend your time to consider well of such Chapters before-hand whereby your prudence and diligence in your Office may appear so that your People may have cause to Glorifie God for you and be the readier to embrace your Labours to your better commendation to the discharge of your Consciences and their own A TABLE OF THE SERMONS Contained in this present Volume I. A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading of Holy Scripture Pag. 1. II. Of the Misery of all Mankind Pag. 10 III. Of the Salvation of all Mankind Pag. 19 IV. Of the true and lively Faith Pag. 32 V. Of Good Works Pag. 46 VI. Of Christian Love and Charity Pag. 61 VII Against Swearing and Perjury Pag. 69 VIII Of the Declining from God Pag. 78 IX An Exhortation against the Fear of Death Pag. 89 X. An Exhortation to Obedience Pag. 105 XI Against Whoredom and Adultery Pag. 119 XII Against Strife and Contention Pag. 137 XIII Of the right Use of the Church Pag. 159. XIV Against peril of Idolatry Pag. 175 XV. For repairing and keeping clean the Church Pag. 282 XVI Of Good Works And First of Fasting Pag. 289 XVII Against Gluttony and Drunkenness Pag. 309 XVIII Against excess of Apparel Pag. 322 XIX An Homily of Prayer Pag. 334 XX. Of the Place and Time of Prayer Pag. 356 XXI Of Common-Prayer and Sacraments Pag. 370 XXII An Information of them which take offence at certain places of Holy Scripture Pag. 385 XXIII Of Alms-Deeds Pag. 402 XXIV Of the Nativity Pag. 421 XXV Of the Passion for Good-Friday Pag. 434 and 435 XXVI Of the Resurrection for Easter-day Pag. 455 XXVII Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament Pag. 467 XXVIII An Homily concerning the coming down of the Holy Ghost for Whitsunday Pag. 480 XXIX An Homily for Rogation-week Pag. 497 XXX Of the state of Matrimony Pag. 530 XXXI Against Idleness Pag. 540 XXXII Of Repentance and true Reconciliation unto God Pag. 556 XXXIII An Homily against Disobedience and wilful Rebellion Pag. 583 A Fruitful EXHORTATION TO THE Reading and Knowledge OF HOLY SCRIPTURE UNto a Christian Man there can be nothing either more necessary
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
convenient that the Scriptures of God and specially the Gospel of our Saviour Christ should be Read and Expounded unto us that be Christians in our Churches specially our Saviour Christ and his Apostles allowing this most godly and necessary usage and by their Examples confirming the same It is written in the Stories of the Gospel in divers places that Jesus went round about all Galilee Matth. 4. Mark 1. Luke 4. Matth. 13.20 Mark 6. Luke 13. Luke 4. teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom In which places is his great diligence in continual Preaching and Teaching of the People most evidently set forth In Luke ye read how Jesus according to his accustomed use came into the Temple and how the Book of Isaiah the Prophet was delivered him how he read a Text therein and made a Sermon upon the same Luke 19. And in the Nineteenth is expressed how he Taught daily in the Temple And it is thus written in the Eighth of John John 8. John 18. Jesus came again early in the Morning into the Temple and all the People came unto him and he sate down and Taught them And in the Eighteenth of John our Saviour testifieth before Pilate that he spake openly unto the World and that he always Taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple whither all the Jews resorted and that secretly he spake nothing Luke 21. And in Saint Luke Jesus Taught in the Temple and all the People came early in the Morning unto him that they might hear him in the Temple Here ye see as well the diligence of our Saviour in teaching the Word of God in the Temple daily and specially on the Sabbath-days as also the readiness of the People resorting all together and that early in the Morning into the Temple to hear him The same Example of diligence in preaching the Word of God in the Temple shall ye find in the Apostles and the People resorting unto them Acts the Fifth Where the Apostles although they had been whipped and scourged the day before and by the High Priest commanded that they should preach no more in the Name of Jesus yet the day following they entred early in the Morning into the Temple and did not cease to teach and declare Jesus Christ And in sundry other places of the Story of the Acts Acts 13.15.17 ye shall find like diligence both in the Apostles in Teaching and in the People in coming to the Temple to hear Gods Word And it is testified in the First of Luke that when Zachary the Holy Priest Luke 1. and Father to John Baptist did Sacrifice within the Temple all the People stood without a long time praying such was their zeal and fervency at that time And in the Second of Luke appeareth what great Journeys Men Luke 2. Women yea and Children took to come to the Temple on the Feast-day there to serve the Lord and specially the Example of Joseph the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother to our Saviour Jesus Christ and of our Saviour Christ himself being yet but a Child whose Examples are worthy for us to follow So that if we would compare our negligence in resorting to the House of the Lord there to serve him with the diligence of the Jews in coming daily very early somtimes by great Journeys to their Temple and when the multitude could not be received within the Temple the fervent zeal that they had was declared in standing long without and Praying We may justly in this Comparison condemn our slothfulness and negligence yea plain contempt in coming to the Lord's House standing so near unto us so seldom and scarcely at any time So far is it from a great many of us to come early in the Morning or give attendance without who disdain to come into the Temple And yet we abhor the very Name of the Jews when we hear it as of a most wicked and ungodly People But it is to be feared that in this point we be far worse than the Jews and that they shall rise at the day of Judgment to our Condemnation who in Comparison to them shew such slackness and contempt in resorting to the House of the Lord there to serve him according as we are of duty most bound And besides this most horrible dread of God's just Judgment in the great day we shall not in this Life escape his heavy Hand and Vengeance for this contempt of the House of the Lord and his due service in the same according as the Lord himself threatneth in the First Chapter of the Prophet Aggeus after this sort Agge 1. Because you have left my House desert and without Company saith the Lord and ye have made haste every Man to his own House for this cause are the Heavens stayed over you that they should give no Dew and the Earth is forbidden that it should bring forth her Fruit and I have called Drought upon the Earth and upon the Mountains and upon corn and upon wine and upon oil and upon all things that the earth bringeth forth and upon men and upon beasts and upon all things that mens hands labour for Behold if we be such worldlings that we care not for the Eternal Judgments of God which yet of all other are most dreadful and horrible we shall not escape the punishment of God in this World by drought and famine and the taking away of all worldly commodities which we as worldlings seem only to regard and care for Whereas on the contrary part if we would amend this fault or neglignce slothfulness and contempt of the House of the Lord and his due service there and with diligence resort thither together to serve the Lord with one accord and consent in all Holiness and Righteousness before him we have promises of benefits Matth. 18. both Heavenly and Worldly Wheresoever two or three be gathered in my Name saith our Saviour Christ there am I in the midst of them And what can be more blessed than to have our Saviour Christ among us Or what again can be more unhappy or mischievous than to drive our Saviour Christ from amongst us to leave a place for his and our most ancient and mortal Enemy the old Dragon and Serpent Satan the Devil in the midst of us In the Second of Luke it is written how that the mother of Christ and Joseph when they had long sought Christ whom they had lost and could find him no where Luke 2. that at the last they found him in the Temple sitting in the midst of the Doctors So if we lack Jesus Christ that is to say the Saviour of our Souls and Bodies we shall not find him in the Market-place or in the Guild-Hall much less in the Ale-house or Tavern amongst good Fellows as they call them so soon as we shall find him in the Temple the Lords House amongst the Teachers and Preachers of his Word where indeed he is to be
than one dumb Idol or Image standing by itself But from learning by painted Stories it came by little and little to Idolatry Which when godly Men as well Emperors and learned Bishops as others perceived they commanded that such Pictures Images or Idols should be used no more And I will for a Declaration thereof begin with the Decree of the ancient Christian Emperors Valens and Theodosius the second who reigned about four hundred years after our Saviour Christ's Ascension who forbad that any Images should be made or painted privately For certain it is that there were none in Temples publickly in their time These Emperors did write unto the Captain of the Army attending on the Emperors after this sort Valens and Theodosius Emperors unto the Captain of the Army Whereas we have a diligent care to maintain the Religion of God above in all things we will grant to no Man to set forth grave carve or paint the Image of our Saviour Christ in Colours Stone or any other matter but in what place soever it shall be found we command that it be taken away and that all such as shall attempt any thing contrary to our Decrees or Commandments herein shall be most sharply punished This Decree is written in the Books named Libri Augustales the Imperial Books gathered by Tribonianus Basilides Theophilus Dioscorus and Satira Men of great Authority and Learning at the Commandment of the Emperor Justinian and is alledged by Petrus Crinitus a notable learned Man in the Ninth Book and Ninth Chapter of his Work intituled De honesta Disciplina that is to say Of honest Learning Here you see what Christian Princes of most ancient times decreed against Images which then began to creep in amongst the Christians For it is certain that by the space of three hundred years and more after the death of our Saviour Christ and before these godly Emperors reigned there were no Images publickly in Churches or Temples How would the Idolaters glory if they had so much Antiquity and Authority for them as is here against them Now shortly after these days the Goths Vandals Huns and other barbarous and wicked Nations burst into Italy and all parts of the West Countries of Europe with huge and mighty Armies spoiled all places destroyed Cities and burned Libraries so that Learning and true Religion went to wrack and decayed incredibly And so the Bishops of those later days being of less Learning and in the midst of the Wars taking less heed also than did the Bishops afore by ignorance of Gods Word and negligence of Bishops and especially barbarous Princes not rightly instructed in true Religion bearing the Rule Images came into the Church of Christ in the said West parts where these barbarous People ruled not now in painted Cloth only but embossed in Stone Timber Metal and other like matter and were not only set up but began to be worshipped also And therefore Serenus Bishop of Massile the head Town of Gallia Narbonensis now called the Province a godly and learned Man who was about six hundred years after our Saviour Christ seeing the People by occasion of Images fall to most abominable Idolatry brake to pieces all the Images of Christ and Saints which were in that City and was therefore complained upon to Gregory the first of that Name Bishop of Rome who was the first learned Bishop that did allow the open having of Images in Churches that can be known by any Writing or History of Antiquity And upon this Gregory do all Image-worshippers at this day ground their Defence But as all things that be amiss have from a tolerable beginning grown worse and worse till they at the last became intolerable So did this matter of Images First Men used privately Stories painted in Tables Cloths and Walls Afterwards gross and embossed Images privately in their own Houses Then afterwards Pictures first and after them embossed Images began to creep into Churches learned and godly Men ever speaking against them Then by use it was openly maintained That they might be in Churches but yet forbidden that they should be worshipped Of which Opinion was Gregory as by the said Gregory's Epistle to the forenamed Serenus Bishop of Massile plainly appeareth Which Epistle is to be found in the Book of Epistles of Gregory or Register in the tenth part of the fourth Epistle where he hath these words That thou didst forbid Images to be worshipped we praise altogether but that thou didst break them we blame For it is one thing to worship the Picture and another thing by the Picture of the Story to learn what is to be worshipped For that which Scripture is to them that read the same doth Picture perform unto Idiots or the unlearned beholding and so forth And after a few words Therefore it should not have been broken which was set up not to be worshipped in Churches but only to instruct the Minds of the ignorant And a little after Thus thou shouldst have said If you will have Images in the Church for that instruction wherefore they were made in old time I do permit that they may be made and that you may have them and shew them that not the sight of the Story which is opened by the Picture but that worshipping which was inconveniently given to the Pictures did mislike you And if any would make Images not to forbid them but avoid by all means to worship any Image By these Sentences taken here and there out of Gregory's Epistle to Serenus for it were too long to rehearse the whole ye may understand whereunto the matter was now come six hundred years after Christ That the having of Images or Pictures in the Churches were then maintained in the West part of the World for they were not so forward yet in the East Church but the worshipping of them was utterly forbidden And you may withal note That seeing there is no ground for worshipping of Images in Gregory's Writing but a plain condemnation thereof that such as do worship Images do unjustly alledge Gregory for them And further if Images in the Church do not teach Men according to Gregory's Mind but rather blind them It followeth that Images should not be in the Church by his sentence who only would they should be placed there to the end that they might teach the ignorant Wherefore if it be declared that Images have been and be worshipped and also that they teach nothing but Errours and Lyes which shall by God's Grace hereafter be done I trust that then by Gregory's own Determination all Images and Image-worshippers shall be overthrown But in the mean season Gregory's Authority was so great in all the West-Church that by his Incouragement Men set up Images in all places But their Judgment was not so good to consider why he would have them set up but they fell all on heaps to manifest Idolatry by worshipping of them which Bishop Serenus not without just cause feared would come to pass Now if
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