man would choose to live no better life nor keep a better house then his Father or Grandfather but wish their souls might be but as safe as theirs when men are once redeemed by the bloud of Christ and that is sprinkled upon their consciences then the bloud of Christ is warmer then the bloud of Ancestors though the Religion of our Fathers should be strong in the hearts of devout Catholicks as in Bilney or Latimer then alasse for our poor Fathers what is become of them they pity them and see plainly that unlesse the Lord led them a further way then the Religion of those that taught them they are gone everlastingly and then they wonder that God should ever choose such a dunghill thee and me that they see a broad difference between the Religion of their Ancestors and that which they see now but that is the efficacy of the bloud of Christ there is that efficacy in it that it washeth away all relations to Fathers to antiquity and universality he is crucified to them all God forbid saith the Apostle that I should glory save in the crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world Gal. 6. 14. So that though all the world runne after the Beast they will not the world looks at them as base unworthy creatures and so they look at the world And there is a third fundamentall Reason and that is taken from the power and presence of the Spirit of Gods grace in the hearts of his people We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1. 5. That is by the spirit of God and by the power of that spirit he keeps our faith and by faith keeps us in the way of his ordinances and in the way of sanctification to salvation Little children yee are of God and you have overcome these Antichrists why for greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world 1 John 4. 4. The power of God is in you they are of the world and the world is carryed away with them you are of God and you hear them not for greater is he thaâ— is in you then he that is in the world These are three fundamentall Reasons which are indeed the demonstrative cause of the impossibility of them to be finally carried to the worship of the Beast the election of God will not suffer it the unchangeblenesse thereof the faithfulnesse of Christ the efficacy of the blood of Christ and the power of the spirit and that which flowes from it is the experience of Gods love and the vertue of their faith in Christ Their faith is unchangeble not possible to be rooted out in Luke 22. 31 32. I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not It may be shaken but it shall not finally fail I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32. 40. and that is the proper act of faith Be not high minded but fear his mercy is sufficient for us trust steadfastly on the grace of Christ and though Peter seemed not to trust on the grace of Christ yet in his worst state he knew that all the courses of Satan were vanity and he durst not but in his heart believe that Christ was the Messiah so all the elect of God know the Beast is a Beast and the Catholick Roman Church is a Beast and the head of that Beast is a beastly head and they know that their Doctrine is sensuall and carnall and that they all shall go into perdition and withall their experience doth evidently convince them that were it not in a pang of temptation in which they are not able to abide by it yet by a renewall of the blood of the Lord Jesus sprinkled on their souls they are brought a fresh to see the work of Gods grace stirred up in them but otherwise their constant course is as in Rev. 14. you hear them coming as on a stage representing the Lambe in their carriage and conversation and follow the Lambe wheresoever he goes but for the Beast a stranger they will not follow but both their faith and experience yeild them a third cause and that is the spirit of God carying them an end My sheep hear my voyce and they follow me but they know not the voyce of strangers they see a difference between good and evill and therefore if they hear a man speak and doth not speak of salvation by him but of the world or of himselfe they will not follow him John 10. 45. Thus you see the Reason why none of them worship the Beast But on the other side all the rest of the world doe meaning where Antichrists power comes speaking of those times when there was great power given to him to speak great things and no man might say Sir why do you so in that time when he had power to be active forty two months when he had power to make Warre with the Saints and to overcome them and when all Nations worshipped him and did not shake off that Religion but in former times before reformation of Religion this was an universal practice they all Nations Kindreds and Tongues gave their power to the Beast and the reason of that was from Gods just judgement for their not receiving the truth in love therefore he gave them over to strong delusions to believe lyes Secondly from the efficacy of Satan in the power of deceitfull sophistry and doing wonders And thirdly by the plausiblenesse trumpery and bravery of that Religion so suitable to carnal reason that they were carried away thereto and it could not be but they should be carried away by the man of Sinne. The use first may then be thus much If all that dwell on Earth whose names are not written in the book of life do worship the Beast and none are excluded but those whose names are written in the Lambs booke of life then this will unavoidably follow that a Papist by his Religion cannot go beyond a Reprobate what he may and renounce his Religion is another matter as Bilney and Latimer sometimes did they were written in the Lambes booke of life but by his Religion take them that do believe as the Catholick Roman Church believes and believe no more but practice that which that Religion directs them to and goe no further and they continue and live and die in that then I must pronounce it from the Text they cannot go beyond a Reprobate the reason is evident from the Text for if none of them whose names are written in the Lambs booke of life doe worship the Beast and onely they do worship the Beast whose names are not written in the Lambs booke of life then if they be not written in the Lambs booke of life the Text is very strong clear in Rev. 20. 15. Whosoever was not found written in the Lambs Book of life was cast into the lake
but we were by nature children of wrath as well as others How came we to be restored and reconciled to the Father from whom we fell as much as we could by the bloud of the Lamb that hath reconciled us to God Secondly by his death he hath paid a price of purchase for union and possession of union with the Sonne So doth the holy Apostle teach us Ephes 2. 13. to 16. You that were sometimes farre off are made nigh by the blood of Christ For he is our peace who hath made both one Jewes and Gentiles both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us So that he hath made Jewes and Gentiles one houshold of God and hath built us upon Jesus Christ the cheif corner stone This is the second purchase which the Lord hath given his blood for the price of We had never been united to Christ nor by Christ been brought to the Father but by the bloud of his crosse his blood hath flain all enmity between God and us Thirdly by the same price he hath also purchased us the holy Spirit These are the three persons in Trinity a possession of Christ to be our head of the Father to be our God and King and our Father as his Father therefore he tels his Disciples in John 20. 17. saith he Touch me not for I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God As soon as he had by death overcome death now I go to my Father and your Father He hath purchased the possession of Gods fatherly love he hath also purchased union with himselfe and therefore he prayed that his passion might be available to this end that all that should beleive through the Apostles preaching should be one with them John 17 21 23. That they all might be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one So that this is the purchase which the Lord by his blood hath purchased reconciliation with the Father and union with the Sonne and also the inhabitation of the holy Ghost as 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. Know yee not that yee are the Temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you And as he tels us in Ephes 2. 18. Through him we have an accesse by one spirit unto the Father So that this is a purchase of unspeakable blessings which the Lord hath given his blood for It was not meet the blood of the Sonne of God should be spilt in vain it were abhomination to God therefore he gives it to avoyd the greatest evill that can befall us to cleanse us from sinne and Satan and to redeem us from the curse of God and to free us also from death and hell and the world and all the enemies of our souls He gave his blood for all this not to redeem us from crosses but from the curse in crosses and that is the part which drives us from God Matth. 25. 41. Depart from me yee cursed So farre as any affliction might separate us from God he hath redeemed us from it Now from thence as Christ hath given his blood for reconciliation with the Father and for union with the Sonne and for communion with the holy Ghost so he hath given his blood for the purchase of some blessings that flow from these For by communion with the spirit we have 1. First communion with Christ in his death mortifying sinne and communion with him in his resurrection raising us up to righteousnesse Whence the Apostle professeth that he desires to rejoyce in nothing but the crosse of Christ whereby the world is crucified to him and he unto the world Gal. 6. 14. And in Rom. 6. 6. Our old man is crucified with him that the body of death might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sinne So there is the power of the spirit of Christ applying his death killing and crucifying sinne and the world in us crushing the head of the Serpent and consequently all the power of the Beast of the Catholick Church of Rome and the head of that Beast which is the Pope He did therefore shed his blood that he might destroy all the power of the enemy That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare all the dayes of our life Luke 1. 74. This is the mighty power of the spirit applying the warme blood of Christ to our foules 2. The second fruit that flows from union with the blessed Trinity is ratification of the Covenant of Grace And Christ layd downe his bloud for that end to ratifie all the promises that a reconciled God hath made and that is God in a Covenant of Grace That he will write his law in our hearts that he will forgive our sinnes and remember our iniquities no more that we shall know him Jer. 31. 33 34. Christ gave his blood to ratifie this Covenant Heb. 9. 15 16 17. And as the Testament of a Testator stands not in force till the death of him that made it so the death of Christ ratifies this Covenant and as all the Covenants were confirmed by bloud so hath Christs blood done in a speciall manner And when he speaks of ratifying the Covenant he doth not onely speak of ratifying of it in word but cheifly in the hearts of Gods people and no price could have done that but the blood of the Sonne of God by which he hath ratified all the promises of God to the consciences of Gods people That when the heart and conscience of a sinner is overwhelmed with inward agony and fear of the wrath of God and the curse of the Law the fear of death and Hell now what shall satisfie a christian in this but the death of Christ and what shall ratifie it His death hath purchased reconciliation with the Father union with the Son and communion with the holy Ghost now he hath shed his spirit in our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father Gal. 3. 14. This spirit of God works faith in the hearts of Gods people whereby all these promises are confirmed they are all certainly made good because such is the value and virtue of the death of this innocent lamb of God they are now free from the terrour of death It was not possible the bloud of Buls and Goats should take away sinne therefore still they had new sacrifices for the conscience had lost the copy by which it pleaded reconciliation by the spirit of God now he applying the death of Christ to the soul doth fully pacifie the conscience and ratifie the Covenant to the soul that now all the promises of Grace belong to this or that servant of Christ and I pray mark it because it is as weighty as any point of Religion And of all the
fruits be in us they are lively pledges of the love of God in our hearts If these things be smothered and dâ—ubed and overwhelmed with many Temptations and worldly businesses distracting cares and temptations though it is true the children of God may be at many losses yet mark what I say the blood of Christ is a living Spring and a running Fountaine though it may be troubled yet it will runne cleare againe if it do not it is a signe it was not from the blood of Christ but from a delusion But if it were from the blood of Christ thou shalt finde hee will purifie and pacifie thy conscience for he will not loose the value and efficacy of that rich blood great is the power of it and he will not loose the vertue of it I know there may be many pangs to Temptations and Christians in this new world may meet with new Temptations and Christians are at a losse because passions breake in we have lost all our peace and comfort of our union and the power of it it may be so it is not unusuall but minde what I say truly if the blood of Christ have any efficacy in us or power upon us you will find that the fountaine of the blood of Christ is higher then any other fountain A fountaine that springs from a low place may be stopped but if it comes from a high place higher then the highest no creature here below can hinder it nor created thing below it can intercept the flowing of it The Lord will redeeme thee from the world and from these passions and lusts and from the Satanicall and malignant distempers and the Lords blood will restore thee to reconcilement with the Father and bring thee to union with the Son and the comfort of the Spirit and the sence of it And therefore know if he have left thee to live in such distempers and thou dost blesse thy selfe in them and canst not looke further and there is nothing in the blood of Christ that much takes up thy heart for redemption from evill or purchasing good it is much to be feared thou hast not yet tasted of the blood of Christ what there may be in heaven wee know not but no man on earth can give thee a comfortable signe of a good estate If a man blesse himselfe in these engagements and in these imbondagements to the enemies of his soule and thinks his captivity is his liberty hee doth not know what the Lord Jesus hath purchased there is little hope such a man hath redemption from the blood of Christ This is the condition of all the people of God in the greatest temptations unlesse it be in some extreame hurry of passion it is a captivity to him and a burden to him that he wants Christ Jesus and that is a good signe of a mans liberty purchased by Christ This Christ who hath reconciled others to God and done great things for them in a way of grece and hath also reconciled him to God and delivered him from death to see this captivity and to groane under it it is a signe this man hath had some other liberty in times past For otherwise there is no man naturally but he thinks this is his freedom to have his owne minde not crossed to have his full liberty in the world to have good bargains and not to be pinched in this and that and not for conscience to fly in his face it is a sign a man is yet a natural born captive But when a man feels his captivity and looks at it as his burden that he feeles not the favour of God and union with Christ and communion with the Spirit It is a signe God hath called him to liberty but he hath sold himself for a captive again now he cryes as the Apostle Rom. 7. 24. O miserable man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death There he is carryed captive I see another law in my members warring against the law of my minde and bringing me into captivity to the law of sinne which is in my memebers vers 23. Here is a sign of redeeming love by the blood of the Lamb. O the wofull captivity that naturall corruption is to a redeemed soule and the great liberty it is to a carnall heart that hee thinkes it a liberty to have his thoughts free and none to tell him But to a good conscience that hath been washed and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb the body of death is a wofull bondage to him This body of death it is not actuall transgressions but a powerfull body of carnall corruption that hangs about us that though we do not break out into actuall sinnes as other men do yet we see a body of death in us and this is our captivity So then if the Lord hath redemed a soul and purchased these comfortable blessings as brings us to the sence of our wofull condition by reason of the losse of this liberty all these are witnesses of the redeeming love of Christ Lastly it may be a use of consolation to every such soule thus farre even so farre as there is no bounds and limits to it it is a marvellous satisfaction to a soule in temptation nothing more then this I now speak of One would think it were a great misery to live in horrour of conscience continually and so it is but if a man be redeemed by the blood of this Lamb then it is not terrour of conscience that can separate thee from God for Christ himselfe was under terrour of conscience as much and more then thou art without sin that he sweat drops of blood and cries out and bemoans it in a holy manner Why will you say but will you have me set such things at my heele the desertions of God at my heele Is the favour of God to be set aâ— the heele it will not hinder your union with your head though you have lost the sense of it All that Christ suffered all his desertions it did not hinder his fellowship with the second person in Trinity neither will it hinder yours The Serpent bruiseth our heel makes us go heavily and lamely Psal 43. 2. Thou art the God of my strength why dost thou cast me off why goe I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy It makes us go heavily while God forsakes us as a man goes that is crushed by an enemy but yet it will not break his head And what great consolation is this it is not terrour of conscience that can separate a man from Christ Nay I may speake a greater thing then that it is not the power of your corruptions that can break your head though they will make you go more lamely and heavily yet pride and passions c. do not separate union It must therefore raise up the heart of a Christian above his temptations above corruptions above the world above all the enemies of his soule what can they
doctrines of Religion there is none sanctified so effectually and immediatly to beget faith in the soul as the preaching of the crosse of Christ All the doctrines of the Gospel are for the begetting of faith but they have no efficacy this way further then they are sprinkled with the blood of Christ other promises do confirme faith and they may also beget it but it is with reference to the crosse of Christ That which gives satisfaction to Gods justice that gives satisfaction to our consciences for conscience is convinced that if God deal in justice as he knows no reason but he should then he of all men is most miserable the burden of thâ—s lies heavy and is ready to plunge him to hell what will satisfie the conscience now nothing in the world except it see some reason why Gods justice should be satisfied and how shall that be done onely by the death of the lamb of God So that well doth the Apostle make the crosse of Christ the ratification of the Covenant for that cuts of all sinne and curse and the rigor of the Law hell and death and devill and damnation and all evil that can befall us in this or another world and doth satisfie the justice of God that it might remove all these and bears the whole burden of the desert of our sinnes purchaseth reconciliation with the Father union with the Sonne communion with the holy Ghost But what is all this to me will the soul say unlesse these be so given that faith be wrought in my heart to discerne all these and finde them The Lord doth indeed all these the spirit of God comes and so preacheth the Gospel and so applyes the Gospel as that in preaching these things he doth beget faith in the heart to believe that all these things are indeed belonging to such a soul and to every one whom he is pleased to accept to the benefit of the crosse of Christ and to fellowship therein and now indeed is the whole Covenant of Grace confirmed when by the death of Christ the virtue of it is applyed by the spirit to the soul Not that there is a reconcilement to God before faith and union with the Sonne and communion with the holy Ghost before faith It is before in Gods purpose and Christs purchase but when the spirit comes to apply this whose work it is to give accomplishment to the work of the other persons he applying this works saith and ratifies the Covenant and thereupon the heart is satisfied and the justice of God satisfied and the spirit at rest from unsupportable anguishes which did before plow up the tender heart of a christian that he lay sprawling as it were in his blood 3. A third benefit that flowes from the former in respect of the price paid and in regard of the virtue and efficacy of the price when it comes to be applyed you have not onely lawfull right unto the creatures to eat and drink c. but some right and title to them by the blood of Christ And he hath also paid a price for the possession of eternall glory Vntill the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory Ephes 1. 14. Untill doth argue that there is a purchase we do not yet receive and when shall that be received when both we our selves and the creatures shall be redeemed to the glorious liberty of the sons of God Then shall we receive the full benefit of the price which he hath paid whiles he suffered upon the Crosse Therefore wonder not that though Christ being a lamb yet he was slain that he being slain we might be redeemed and might enjoy the purchased possession redemption from all evill in every kinde from sorrow paine c. from the evil of them And his blood also was a price for a purchased possession of reconciliation with the Father of union with the Sonne of communion with the holy Ghost dominion over all sinne ratification of the Covenant to our soules and at length the possession of everlasting glory This was the reason why the lamb was slaine and had it not been for these divine and supernatural and blessed ends he would not have prostituted his life to such a bitter and shamefull death as the death of the Crosse was It was not meet the onely begotten Sonne of God should come down into the world to lead a miserable life and to dye an accursed death but for noble and glorious ends and you have the sum in these particulars For the use of it First it is a cause of just humiliation to us whose sins were so out of measure sinful as that there is no ransome to be given for them but such an invaluable price as the blood of the Sonne of God All the Gold of Ophir all that the world can give what is it to this invaluable blood of the Sonne of God Yet this was our case and estate that if we had had many worlds for our inheritance and given them all for the redemption of one soule it had not been sufficient This was our estate and this is the estate of all such as yet live in sinne to this day It is a desperate estate that cannot be repaired nor themselves rescued from by ransome but the blood of Christ If our sinnes had been of a lesse nature a lesse price might have made satisfaction And yet such is the pride of the hearts of the sonnes of men that because we live civil lives though yet natural we have good natures are so well bred do so many good offices that we think it is not so dreadful a matter nor that we are so dangerous for our estate as others If it go ill with us what will become of desperate roaring ruffines whatever becomes of them it is a frivolous matter to you or to such as are civil and hinder the free passage of the grace of God but if our natures be so good and our carriage so comely I pray you what need such an invaluable price be given If a small matter would have saved us from the world what need such an invaluable price be given to rescue us from it You will say I hope I am not so addicted to the world I would drive a bargaine home to the head and would not be cheated But is that all you know by your selves certainly there is more for if the Lord did not see that inveglement which the word hath of us and that close combination of us to it the Lord would not have thought it needful to send his onely Sonne to redeeme us from this present evill world Frugality is not a vice in any but a virtue and if there were no more but good husbandry surely there need not such a price to be paid to redeeme us from the world But certainly the Lord sees such power of worldlinesse and untemperance in us and such power of passions and lusts that no means would rescue us therefrom
live to our selves nor to the lusts of men but to the will of God 1 Pet. 4. 1 2 3. 2 Cor. 5. 15. So that this is that which the Lord now cals us to to wit to live now no longer to those things from which we were redeemed by an invaluable price We are redeemed from the bondage of sinne and Satan and from the world and not onely redeemed from these but purchased to life as a reconciled people to God to be as the friends of God Abraham was called the friend of God Though a man make no bones of breaking out against an enemy yet now being reconciled especially to him in whom we live or move and have our being it is for us to walke as those that are reconciled to God as those that are united to Christ as those that are sanctified by his Spirit as those that have the grace of Christ applyed to our soules as those that are dead to sinne and alive to righteousnesse It is for us to walk as those that look for a purchased possession to the glory of Gods grace when this life shall be no more If we be dead with Christ why are we not free from all that which is evil and free to all that is good Col. 2. 20. It is a staine and blemish to the blood of Christ to see a child of God live in any durty corruption to see a child of God a worldling to yeild to any temptation it is a staine to the blood of Christ To see a child of God set loose from the Father or the Sonne or the Spirit it is a staine to the blood of Christ for the blood of Christ is a purchase to redeem us from all evill and to purchase to us all good For a fifth use it may teach us to apply effectually the blood of Christ as we for our parts in our Ministery so you in your meditations and repititions there is the ground of your peace No conscience that hath been troubled with sence of sinne but there lies his grief the wrath of God that is upon his unbeleiving soule He is condemned the wrath of God abideth on him If you ransack it to the bottom there is it that crusheth the spirit all other will be cast off in case we be clear in this principle about the satisfaction of Gods justice provoked against us by our many and great transgressions what shall satisfie the soule now There is nothing in the world so fit to beget faith as the preaching of the cross of Christ If I be lift up from the earth I will draw all men unto me John 12. 32. If Christ be drawn up on the Crosse held forth for his drawing of people that are troubled about the wrath of God and the removing thereof and about satisfaction to God about all our iniquities this will draw soules unto him For how will you uphold any man to bear his burden of the apprehension of Gods wrath with any tolerable ease No way but by holding forth Christ the innocent Lamb of God crucified upon the crosse and his blood spilt as a price of satisfaction to Gods justice as a price of redemption from all evill and purchase of all good then saith the soule me-thinks there is some hope even for me For who shall hinder the power of the blood of Christ and who shall hinder the free passage of Gods grace if the Lord Jesus hath undertaken it and hold it forth especially to men that are sick and oppressed and cast downe and ready to perish for want of succour In such a case while this is held forth there is the blood of Christ held forth which was shed to purchase the spirit of grace as it is written in Gal. 3. 13 14. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a cuâ—se for us that we might receive the promise of the spirit The same blood of Christ that hath redeemed us from the curse and hath purchased the communion of the spirit he is wont in the preaching of the crosse of Christ to open Heaven to the soule to open the doors of the heart to beleive on this blood thus hâ—ld forth and so by this means you shall finde a support some satisfaction to all turmoils and agonies of consciende It is a wonder to see how this blood of Christ is mighty through God to make our peace while the spirit doth conveigh the efficacy thereof to the quieting and establishing the soule In fellowship with Christ and reconcilement with the Father that the soule sees Christ hath not dyed in vaine that he hath not heard the word in vaine nor waited upon Christ in vaine but sees there is life and peace and all in the blood of Christ And therefore wonder not now that the Apostles were so carefull in preaching the crosse of Christ ther 's the ground of all our reconciliation That satisfies the justice of God and that satisfies the soule the spirit applying it begets faith to receive it and there is they stay of the soul So this is the principall duty as for us to teach so for the people of God continually to attend unto to ponder upon this especially those whose hearts are at a losse about satisfaction of Gods wrath and pardon of their sinne It is that which in a speciall manner they stand in need to attend unto For a sixth use If any man shall aske how shall I know that all this belongs to me what it is for thee we cannot yet tell in case a man have had no impression upon his soule yet it may be to thee for ought thou canst tell because all the Elect are not yet called home but are to be called Therefore it is not the thing to say they have no hope in it because they are not yet washed by it for they may be before they dye But if for the present you would know whether you have part in it or no you see what the nature of it is where the blood of Christ comes where it is sprinkled you see what it doth it hath a redeeming power in it and a purchasing power It doth redeem thee from all evill from the power of sinne and Satan and of this world and of thine owne heart and withall from the wrath of God and the curse of the Law so that the Conscience is more pure and peaceable then before and both these go together But mind what I say further if this blood hath had this free passage in thine heart it hath purchased reconcilement with the Father union with the Sonne communion with the Spirit conformity to Christ and comforting thee in Christ Conforming thee to Christ in his death and comforthing thee in Christ and the fruits of his death the favour of God and the pardon of sinne and the blessed priviledges that his death hath purchased I say this is the efficacy of the blood of Christ where it is received in power If these
pleased God that Bilney you may read it in his Epistle to Bishop Tonstall that being troubled in conscience he had taken all the courses that their Religion enjoyned him had made confession to the Preists and they enjoyned him pennance and whipping of himselfe but for all these his wound bled as fresh as before till in the end he took an English Testament as it was translated by Erasmus not with any intent to finde any thing in it that might ease his trouble but because he was a perfect Latinist but reading that place in 1 Tim. 1. 15. these words did so affect him that immediately the Lord letting him see his love in Christ Jesus The Lord saith he let me see that I had taken a wrong course all this while I have sought for salvation where it was not to be had and prayed those to whom he spoke not to take it ill for it was not out of any neglect of them but out of his faithfulness having had experience that the course they prescribed that was not the way but it so farre prevailed as that he was marvellously esteemed but he was taken up by Latimer he made Bilney hear him Preach a most fearfull Sermon against Lutherans that were then better then he yet Bilney saw that he had zeal but not according to knowledge and he knew not how to come within him but he went to him in private and desired to speak with him and he must not say him nay then he up and tells him what a miserable wretch he had been how he had wounded his conscience how he had confest his sin to this and that Preist how unprofitable all those meanes were to him which they prescribed and there was no means in the world to finde peace till the Lord applyed that everlasting redemption in the bloud of Christ why saith Latimer he comes to seek for pardon from me to his soul and saith he I saw I stood in more need of being taught by him and therefore stiles him in his Sermon Saint Bilney that caught his soul and revealed that to him which he never heard of Therefore it is possible that Latimer and Bilney may be devout Catholicks for a time but now when this electing love of God puts forth it selfe in the fruits of it which is effectual calling now they are fully satisfied that all this devotion beleiving as the Church beleives they see they are so farre out of the way as faith is contrary to sence and reason So that those whom God reserved and chosen to life they are preserved from totall and finall adoration of the Beast they may for a time through ignorance worship the Beast as the best of Gods servants in those times did and many times have been most zealous for the Catholick cause and yet when the Lord hath called them effectually to his grace then not one that are written in the Lambs book of life doe worship him so that though they worship him before yet now they do not when they come to see their folly and have the love of God made known to them The Reason is first taken from the experimentall knowledg of every child of God effectually called from the evident experience that he hath of the vanity of the Roman Catholick Church and of the emptinesse of calling on any to look from Church power to heale or wound the conscience as of themselves further then they dispence the Ordinances of Christ and then it is not they but Christ in them and for them to look for salvation in the communion of that Church and in reconcilement to that Church They are so experimentally beaten off from that and possest of the contrary by their own experience that you need not take them from adoring the Beast for they see it is a Beast and they shall as wel utterly destroy their souls as worship the Beast and therfore the love of Christ constrains Bilney and he draws Latimer and Latimer draws others till they have propogated the truth of God to all ages But that though it be one reason yet it is the least Let me shew another reason why the elect of God after the electing love of God comes to be dispenced to them in outward execution For before it may come to passe they may worship the Beast but then they will not doe it finally but when the electing love of God is shed abroad in their hearts then they will not do it and the reason of that you cannot give a demonstrative reason but from this to prevent impossibility it is not possible that they should now there are three fundamentall reasons of the impossibility of it two properties there are in Gods electing love There is in Gods election first immutability as God himselfe is unchangeable Mal. 3. 6. so are his decrees unchangeable the foundation of God stands sure 2 Tim. 2. 19. and what he hath purposed he will bring to passe The counsell of the Lord is true for ever in Psal 33. 10 11. he disappoints all the decrees of men but his own counsels they take place for ever in every age therefore it is not possible that any of his should perish and perish they should if they should worship the Beast but it is not possible his unchangeable decree keepes them Again there is another property in his electing love which is the efficacy of it for Gods electing love doth choose us out of the world John 15. 19. And if he choose us out of the world the efficacy of that is that it delivers us from the evill world God electing us out of the world hath redeemed and delivered us from this present evill world Gal. 1. 4. Now if the electing love of God be of such efficacy that when he elects men of his grace he will in fulnesse of time deliver them from the world then they shall not run headlong to the worship of the Beast whom their hearts cannot close withall the Lord redeemes them from that vaine conversation received by tradition from their Fathers I though there be such efficacy in the bloud of Ancestors yet the electing love of God redeemes them from that But that will more appear in the second Reason And that is the faithfulnesse of Christ and the efficacy of of his redeeming bloud All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me and those that doe come unto mee I will by no means cast out John 6. 37. Of those that thou hast given me I have lost none but the sonne of perdition that but is not an exceptive but an adversative he that was never given was lost he did not bring him on to salvation For this is the will of the Father that sent me that of all that he hath given me I should loose nothing c. John 6. 37 38 39. That is his faithfulnesse and with his faithfulnesse there is such efficacy in his bloud that though the bloud of Ancestors run very warme that a