devill and his disciples be against thee for God thy protectour is stronger then he and they and shall by his grace give him and them a fall And to shew unto thee that God is on thy side consider that it is written in the 6. chapter of the Proverbs that amongst many crimes there rehearsed that God hateth chiefly he doth detest those persons that sow discord among their brethren as all we christian men be brethren under our heavenly Father also it is written in the 8. chapter of Iohn that those that doe stirre men to murther be children of the divell which was from the beginning of mankinde a murtherer and brought Adam to sinne and thereby to death as the Iewes his children stirred the people to put Christ to death Saint Paul also in the last chapter to the Romans warneth them to beware of those that doe make dissention and debate among them against the doctrine that he had taught them and biddeth them eschue their company wherein the holy Ghost wrought in Paul for these many yeeres past little warre hath beene in these parts of Christendome but the Bishop of Rome eyther hath beene a stirrer of it or a nourisher of it and seldome any compounder of it unlesse it were for his ambition or profit Wherefore since as Saint Paul saith in the 14. chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians that God is not God of dissention but of peace who commandeth by his word peace alwaies to be kept wee are sure that all those that goe about to breake peace betweene Realmes and to bring them to warre are the children of the divell what holy names soever they pretend to cloake their pestilent malice withall which cloaking under hypocrisie a double divellishnesse and of Christ most detested because under his blessed name they doe play the divels part And therefore since Christ is on our side against them let us not feare them at all But putting our confidence in Almighty God and cleaving fast to the Kings Majestie our supreame head in earth next under Christ of this Church of England as faithfull Subjects by Gods law ought to doe though they goe about to stirre Gog and Magog and all the ravenours of the world against us We trust in God verily and doubt not but they shall have such a ruine and ouerthrow as is prophecied by Ezechiel in the 39. chapter against Gog and Magog going about to destroy the people of God whom the people of God shall so vanquish and overthrow on the mountaines of Israel that none of them shal escape but their carcasses there to lye to be devoured by Kites and Crowes and birds of the ayre And if they shall persist in their pestilent malice to make invasion into this Realme then let us wish that their great Captaine Gog I meane the Bishop of Rome may come with them to drinke with them of the same cup that he maliciously goeth about to prepare for us that the people of God might after surely live in peace And now that we have spoken of disobedience done to man against Gods law let us somewhat speake of disobedience daily done to God by us all against Gods law which our disobedience is so great that the tongue of man cannot expresse it for Christ saith in the 19. chapter of Matthew to him that asked what he should doe to come to everlasting life If thou wilt enter into everlasting life keepe the Commandements which he there rehearsed unto him when he asked which they were they be written in the 20. chapter of Exodus tenne in number And because I doubt not but ye know them for briefenesse of time I shall omit to rehearse them In the old law which expresseth rewards temporall for the capacitie of the grosse carnall people of Israel many worldly pleasures and rewards be promised to the keepers of those commandements and mervailous great troubles and paines be threatned to the breakers and transgressors of them All which be contained in the 28. chapter of Deuteronomie in so much that in the 8. chapter of that Booke the people of Israel is threatned by Almighty God to be expelled out of the land promised unto them if they should not keepe those Comandements and lawes by him given unto them The Prophet David saith also in the 88. Psalme If the children of David leave my lawes and keepe not my commandements I shall with a rod visite their iniquities and their sinnes with beatings But our Saviour Christ regarding the forgetfulnesse of mans memory lest he should not remember the whole number of tenne hath brought them all into two Commandements comprising in effect the whole tenne of the which two expressed in the 22. chapter of Matthew the first is Thou shalt love thy Lord God with all thy heart with all thy soule with all thy minde This is the first and greatest Commandement containing in it foure Commandements of the first table which be these Thou shalt have no other Gods in my sight Thou shalt grave no image of things that be in heaven above or in earth beneath or in the water under the earth nor with adoration worship them Thou shalt not take the name of God in vaine Thou shalt sanctifie thy Sabbath day No man will breake any of these foure Commandements that loveth God above all things The second Commandement given there by Christ is like unto the first that thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe which comprehendeth all the sixe Commandements of the second Table which be these Thou shalt honour thy father and thy mother Thou shalt not commit adultry Thou shalt not steale Thou shalt not beare false witnesse Thou shalt not lust to have thy neighbours house nor his wife nor his servant nor his maide nor any of his goods No man that loveth his neighbour as himselfe will offend him in any of these for since he loveth himselfe so well that he cannot be content that his neighbour shall offend him in any of these hee in loving his neighbour as himselfe will not offend his neighbour in any of these In these two Commandements saith Christ all the law and the Prophets be contained But for all this we thus plainely being taught by Christ doe fall headlong into all kindes of vices for where we ought to love God above all things we love the world and worldly things above God against the counsell of Saint Iohn in the 2. chapter of his first Epistle For we be so given to concupiscence of the flesh that whatsoever it Iusteth to have we minister it unto it to the concupiscence of our eyes that whatsoever we doe see that liketh us we will have it by one meanes or other Wee be so high also of minde and proud in heart that wee will mount above our degree suffering none to be above us which three faults doe comprehend all vices of the world so that we may say with the Prophet Osee in his 4. chapter There is no truth
some men that is to say to his Mother and to Ioseph whom men tooke to be his Father to whom he was subject as it is written in the second chapter of Luke And for the forme of a servant he said My Father is superiour unto me And for the forme of God which he never left he said in the tenth chapter of Iohn I and my Father are one thing that is to say one substance In forme of God he was superiour to himselfe and in forme of man he was inferiour to himselfe And therefore not without a cause the Scripture saith both the Sonne equall to the Father and the Father superiour to the Sonne the one for the forme of God the other for the forme of man without confounding the one nature into the other both natures of God and man being in one person In the forme of man which he tooke for us hee was borne and he suffered and hee arose from death to life and ascended into heaven By the first two that is to say by his birth and his passion he shewed to us our estate By the two last that is to say his resurrection and his ascention he shewed to us an example of our reward The two first all that be borne doe feele and the two last we shall attaine if we doe beleeve in him And as the Apostle saith Christ thought it no robbery to be equall with God so Saint Iohn in the beginning of his Gospell saith That the word which is the Sonne was God And as Paul saith here That he did abase himselfe to take upon him the forme of a servant so Saint Iohn saith The word of God is made flesh that is to say Man and hath dwelt amongst us God and man in one person For as the number of persons is not increased when the soule is knit to the body to make thereby one man so is not in Christ the number of persons increased when man is knit to the word of God to make one Christ It followeth in the Text He was made in similitude of men that is to say he tooke all our nature upon him albeit he was without sinne and he left no carnall procreation by generation carnall Nor that onely was in him that appeared in outward visage his manhood but godhead also was in him For he was not onely man but in his person godhead was knit with manhood And therefore he saith here that he was like to men but more was in him then is in men For we be made of soule and body he had both soule and body and godhead and therefore he saith here in similitude of men As Saint Paul saith in the eighth chapter to the Romans God sent his Sonne into the world in similitude of sinfull flesh not because hee lacked flesh but because the flesh that he tooke lacked sinne and yet was it like to our flesh which is subject to sinne like by nature but not like by wickednesse It followeth in the Text That in shape he was found as a man that is to say where hee was without bodily shape he tooke upon him the for me and shape of a man abiding still God as he was before but in figure that is to say in flesh he was made a man and clad with manhood as with a cloathing not that his godhead was changed thereby into manhood as the members of a man be not changed by putting on of a new garment And he saith that he was found in shape as a man because hee seemed outwardly but one of the common sort of men and yet he was more then so For he was God therewith and yet was he a very man in nature not in phantasie and imagination Saint Paul also in the second chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy calleth him a man saying There is one Mediator of God and man A man Christ Iesu And as he is in the forme of God perfect God so is he in the forme of man a perfect man It followeth in the Text Christ hath humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death Here wee may learne humilitie as Christ doth teach us in the 11. of Matthew saying Learne of me for I am meeke and humble in heart He was made for thee a man without sinne And thou sinfull man why wilt thou not come to him that calleth thee and saith Come to me all ye that doe travell and be overcharged and I shall refresh you Thou proud sinfull man why art thou so proud Christ became obedient for thy sake to be incarnate and to take part of the mortality of man He was obedient so farre that hee suffered First to be tempted of the devill He was obedient to suffer the mocking of the people of Iewes He was obedient to suffer to be bound robbed and spitted at to be stricken and to be scourged And yet he was further obedient to dye for thee thou sinfull man It was a great humility at his birth to lye in the manger with beasts for lacke of a Cradle It was a more humility to live thirty three yeeres amongst sinners he being without spot of sinne The most abundand humility was that he suffered upon the Crosse betwixt two murtherers It was a hard suffering that he suffered for wicked men it was more hard that he suffered of wicked men And the most hardest of all was that hee suffered with wicked men the same death that wicked men murtherers doe suffer It followeth in the Text. That he suffered the death of the Crosse which death was worst of all other kindes of death For those that were put to that death were first nailed upon the Crosse hands and feet drawne on length and stretched abroad hanged up in the ayre quicke naked and bleeding not because longer life should follow thereby but because the death it selfe was prolonged to make the paine the more lest the shortnesse therof should lesse have beene felt Hanging or drowning or striking off of the head be paines soone overpassing but the death of the Crosse long time doth indure In which they were wont to breake their legges to make them dye more painfully as we reade in the 19. chapter of Iohn This death of the Crosse was the worst death that the Iewes could imagine for him to dye but yet Christ did choose his death and intended to make it to be his signe and to make of it his badge that all men beleeving in him should in their foreheads make his signe of the Crosse as it was prophecied and figured before in the 9. chapter of Ezechiel and glory in the Crosse of Christ As Saint Paul in the last chapter to the Galathians saith God forbid that I should glory in any thing but in the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ by which the world is crucified to me and I to the world There was nothing before more intolerable to the flesh of man then death of the Crosse And there is now nothing more glorious set
of Luke proveth the same where a man having a Vineyard and in the same a Figge tree that bare no fruit bade cut it downe And at the request of his Gardiner suffered it yet longer to see if dung laid to the root would helpe it As oft Almighty God being the Lord of the Vineyard suffereth us being barren to have space to repent and bring forth fruit of good works For it is written in the third of Matthew that every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut downe and cast into the fire After as our deeds be so shall our judgement be as Christ saith in the 16 of Matthew the Sonne of man shal come in the glory of his Father with his Angels and shall reward every man after his workes Saint Paul in the 2. chapter to the Romans saith also likewise that God will reward every man after his deeds good or evill And in the 4. chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians he saith that every man shall receive his hire after as his labour is so that for good deeds done with faith he shall receive reward and for evill deeds done after faith or out of faith he shall receive punishment Therefore those that say that God ragardeth not our workes done with faith doe say against Christ and his doctrine given to us by him and by his Apostles for since our workes done with faith be the measure of our reward to be greater or smaller as they shall be found to be greater or smaller who so saith that God regardeth not them saith he regardeth not the measure of our reward and yet he saith it shall be measured after our deeds done with faith and so he saith against Christ Saint Paul saith also in the 2. chapter to the Ephesians that by faith which is the gift of God we be of new create in Christ and in good workes that we may walke forwards in them and since he hath created us in good workes to walke in them hee must needs regard them or else he cared not what hee created which is blasphemy and denyall of his high providence Now this holy weeke we be bidden and called to come to the great supper of our blessed Lord Christ Iesus and to eate of the heavenly meate and of the bread of life that came from heaven the blessed body of our Saviour Iesu Christ in the Sacrament of the altar unto which we may not goe in our filthy and spotted coate lest we comming thither not having the cleane garment of our soule that we received at our Baptisme be expelled out of the feast And therefore we must make cleane our garment before we be bold to goe thither But I feare me sore lest many shall make such worldly excuses as be written in a parable in the 14. chapter of Luke some saying they be new married and therefore they may not come Which doe signifie men given so to carnall pleasure of the body that they care not to come to heaven some saying they have bought five yoake of Oxen which doe signifie those that follow the sensualitie of their five senses and worldly businesse some saying that they have bought a Village which signifie those that purchase lands here in earth and care not by faith and good living to purchase heaven All which sort of men shall not taste of that supper as it is there written but God forbid that any of us should be of that sort and therefore let us every man prepare our selves and make cleane our spotted and filthy garment Let us purge and purifie the Tabernacle of our soule and make it a lodging worthy to receive Christ into our house and not to disdaine us for the filthinesse of our uncleane living But how may this be done and by what meanes surely surely by no meane but by penance and repentance and calling for mercy to Almighty God with a sorrowfull heart that we having received so innumerable benefits of God so little have regarded our obedience to his commandements proudly and unkindely despising him and more regarding our own wretched concupiscence pleasure in all worldly delights then God Let us follow the exhortation of Almighty God spoken to us by the mouth of Ioel in the 2. chapter saying Turne ye sinners againe to me by fasting by weeping by much lamenting your miserable estate and teare asunder your hearts and not your cloathes Almighty God will rather regard a sorrowfull and contrite heart to dwell in it then all the Temples that we can build for him as it is written in the last chap. of Esay Let us acknowledge confesse our own faults first before we be accused of them at iudgement Let us weepe for our ungracious life and sure it is God will regard our teares David saith in the 55. Psalme Almighty God I have shewed my life to thee and thou hast put my teares in thy sight We that have used our eyes all the yeere in regarding worldly pleasures so that through vehement joy sometimes the teares have burst out with much laughing now let us weepe as David teacheth us in the 118. Psalme saying to Almighty God The teares have burst out of my eyes because they have not regarded and kept thy law Let us follow the counsell of Saint Paul in the 6. chapter to the Romans saying to us As ye have given your members to serve to injustice to doe wrong so likewise give your members to serve justice to your sanctifying David saith also in the 6. Psalme I have travailed in my wayling I shall wash every night my bed with weeping teares And after that he saith God hath heard the voyce of my weeping for GOD doth regard teares comming forth out of a sorrowfull and contrite heart If thou say thou canst not weepe thou dost confesse thy folly for if thou lose by example any substance of worldly goods as if thy house be robbed thy ship laden with merchandise perished in the Sea thy wife that thou didst love departed thy sonne dead then thou canst weepe much more then enough and where thy soule is by sinne departed from Almighty God which departing from him is the very death of the soule and lyeth stinking in sinne not foure daies as the body of Lazarus did in his grave but much more then foure moneths ye thrice foure moneths canst thou not weepe Surely thou hast great cause to lament thy selfe For what exchange canst thou devise to make so deere to thee as thy soule is Wherefore let us with the sword of the Spirit which as Saint Paul saith is the word of God make a quicke sacrifice of our selves with a sorrowfull heart because wee have broken Gods commandements applying the sharpe word of God to our sinfull life that we may therewith kill our concupiscences and all fleshly and worldly lusts and so making of our sorrowfull heart a sacrifice to Almighty God obtaine his mercy thereby as he hath promised to us by David in the