Publican before the Proud Holy and Glorious Pharisee He calleth himself a Physician but not to them that be whole Luke 18. Matth. 9. but to them that be sick and have need of his Salve for their Sore He teacheth us in our Prayers to acknowledge ourselves Sinners and to ask Righteousness and deliverance from all Evils at our Heavenly Father's hand He declareth that the sins of our own Hearts do defile our ownselves He teacheth Matth. 12. that an evil Word or Thought deserveth Condemnation affirming that We shall give account for every idle word Matth. 15. He saith He came not to save but the sheep that were utterly lost and cast away Therefore few of the Proud Just Learned Wise Perfect and Holy Pharisees were saved by him because they justified themselves by their counterfeit Holiness before Men. Wherefore good People let us beware of such Hypocrisie Vain-glory and Justifying of ourselves The Second Part of the SERMON of the Misery of Man FOrasmuch as the true knowledge of ourselves is very necessary to come to the right knowledge of God ye have heard in the last Reading how Humbly all good Men always have thought of themselves and so to think and judge of themselves are taught of God their Creator by his Holy Word For of ourselves we be Crab-trees that can bring forth no Apples We be of ourselves of such Earth as can but bring forth Weeds Nettles Brambles Briers Cockle and Darnel Our Fruits be declared in the 5th Chapter to the Galatians Gal. 5. We have neither Faith Charity Hope Patience Chastity nor any thing else that good is but of God and therefore these Virtues be called there The fruits of the Holy Ghost and not the fruits of Man Let us therefore acknowledge ourselves before God as we be indeed miserable and wretched Sinners And let us earnestly Repent and Humble ourselves heartily and cry to God for Mercy Let us all Confess with Mouth and Heart that we be full of Imperfections Let us know our own Works of what imperfection they be and then we shall not stand foolishly and arrogantly in our own Conceits nor challenge any part of Justification by our Merits or Works For truly there be imperfections in our best Works We do not love God so much as we are bound to do with all our Heart Mind and Power We do not fear God so much as we ought to do We do not pray to God but with great and many imperfections We Give Forgive Believe Live and Hope imperfectly We Speak Think and Do impefectly We Fight against the Devil the World and the Flesh imperfectly Let us therefore not be ashamed to confess plainly our state of Imperfection Yea let us not be ashamed to confess Imperfection even in all our best Works Let none of us be ashamed to say with the Holy St. Peter Luke 5. Psal 106. I am a sinful man Let us say with the Holy Prophet David We have sinned with our fathers we have done amiss and dealt wickedly Let us all make open Confession with the Prodigal Son to our Father and say with him We have sinned against Heaven Luke 14. and before thee O Father we are not worthy to be called thy sons Let us all say with Holy Baruch Baruch 2. O Lord our God to us is worthily ascribed shame and confusion and to thee righteousness We have sinned we have done wickedly we have behaved ourselves ungodlily in all thy Righteousness Let us all say with the Holy Prophet Daniel Dan. 9. O Lord righteousness belongeth to thee unto us belongeth confusion We have sinned we have been naughty we have offended we have fled from thee we have gone back from all thy Precepts and Judgments So we learn of all good Men in Holy Scriptures to Humble our selves and to Exalt Extol Praise Magnifie and Glorifie God Thus we have heard how evil we be of ourselves how of ourselves and by ourselves we have no Goodness Help or Salvation but contrariwise Sin Damnation and Death everlasting Which if we deeply weigh and consider we shall the better understand the great Mercy of God and how our Salvation cometh only by Christ 2 Cor. 3. For in ourselves as of ourselves we find nothing whereby we may be delivered from this miserable Captivity into the which we are cast through the envy of the Devil by breaking of God's Commandment in our first Parent Adam Psal 50. Ephes 2. We are all become unclean but we all are not able to cleanse ourselves nor make one another of us clean We are by nature the children of God's wrath but we are notable to make ourselves the Children and Inheritors of God's Glory We are Sheep that run astray 1 Pet. 2. but we cannot of our own power come again to the Sheepfold so great is our Imperfection and Weakness In ourselves therefore may we not glory which of ourselves are nothing but sinful neither may we rejoyce in any Works that we do all which be so Imperfect and Impure that they are not able to stand before the Righteous Judgment Seat of God as the Holy Prophet David saith Psal 143. Enter not into judgment with thy Servant O Lord for no man that liveth shall be found righteous in thy sight To God therefore must we flee or else shall we never find Peace Rest and Quietness of Conscience in our Hearts For he is the father of mercies and God of all consolation He is the Lord with whom is plenteous redemption 2 Cor. 1. He is the God which of his own mercy saveth us Psal 130. and setteth out his Charity and exceeding Love towards us in that of his own voluntary Goodness when we were Perishing he Saved us and provided an everlasting Kingdom for us And all these Heavenly Treasures are given us not for our own Deserts Merits or good Deeds which of ourselves we have none but of his mere Mercy freely And for whose sake Truly for Jesus Christ's sake that pure and undefiled Lamb of God He is that dearly beloved Son for whose sake God is fully pacified satisfied and set at One with Man He is the Lamb of God John 1. which taketh away the sins of the World of whom only it may be truly spoken that he did all things well 1 Pet. 2. and in his mouth was found no craft nor subtilty None but he alone may say The Prince of the World came and in me he hath nothing And he alone may also say Which of you shall reprove me of any fault John 8. He is the high and everlasting Priest Heb. 7. which hath offered himself once for all upon the Altar of the Cross and with that one oblation hath made perfect for evermore them that are sanctified 1 John 2. He is the alone Mediator between God and Man which paid our ransom to God with his own blood and with that hath he cleansed us
all from sin He is the Physician which healeth all our Diseases He is that Saviour which saveth People from all their sins To be short Matth. 1. he is that flowing and most plentious Fountain of whose fulness all we have received For in him alone are all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God hidden And in him and by him have we from God the Father all good things pertaining either to the Body or to the Soul O how much are we bound to this our Heavenly Father for his great Mercies which he hath so plenteously declared unto us in Christ Jesu our Lord and Saviour What Thanks worthy and sufficient can we give to him Let us all with one accord burst out with joyful voice ever Praising and Magnifying this Lord of Mercy for his tender Kindness shewed unto us in his dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Hitherto we have heard what we are of ourselves very sinful wretched and damnable Again we have heard how that of ourselves and by ourselves we are not able either to think a good Thought or work a good Deed so that we can find in ourselves no hope of Salvation but rather whatsoever maketh unto our Destruction Again we have heard the tender Kindness and great Mercy of God the Father towards us and how beneficial he is to us for Christ's sake without our Merits or Deserts even of his own mere Mercy and tender Goodness Now how these exceeding great Mercies of God set abroad in Christ Jesu for us be obtained and how we be delivered from the captivity of Sin Death and Hell shall more at large with God's help be declared in the next Sermon In the mean season yea and at all times let us learn to know ourselves our frailty and weakness without any boasting or cracking of our own good Deeds and Merits Let us also acknowledge the exceeding Mercy of God towards us and confess that as of ourselves cometh all Evil and Damnation so likewise of him cometh all Goodness and Salvation Osee 13. as God himself saith by the Prophet Osee O Israel thy destruction cometh of thyself but in me only is thy help and comfort If we thus Humbly submit ourselves in the sight of God we may be sure that in the time of his Visitation he will lift us up unto the Kingdom of his dearly beloved Son Christ Jesu our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen A SERMON OF THE Salvation of Mankind by only Christ our Saviour from Sin and Death everlasting BEcause all Men be Sinners and Offenders against God and Breakers of his Law and Commandments therefore can no Man by his own Acts Works and Deeds seem they never so good be justified and made righteous before God But every Man of necessity is constrained to seek for another Righteousness of Justification to be received at God's own hands that is to say the forgiveness of his Sins and Trespasses in such things as he hath offended And this Justification or Righteousness which we so receive of God's Mercy and Christ's Merits embraced by Faith is taken accepted and allowed of God for our perfect and full Justification For the more full understanding hereof it is our Parts and Duties ever to remember the great Mercy of God how that all the World being wrapped in Sin by breaking of the Law God sent his only Son our Saviour Christ into this World to fulfil the Law for us and by shedding of his most precious Blood to make a sacrifice and satisfaction or as it may be called amends to his Father for our sins to asswage his Wrath and Indignation conceived against us for the same The efficacy of Christ's Passion and Oblation Insomuch that Infants being Baptized and dying in their Infancy are by this Sacrifice washed from their Sins brought to God's Favour and made his Children and Inheritors of his Kingdom of Heaven And they which in Act or Deed do sin after their Baptism when they turn again to God unfeignedly they are likewise washed by this Sacrifice from their sins in such sort that there remaineth not any spot of Sin that shall be imputed to their Damnation This is that justification of Righteousness which St. Paul speaketh of when he saith No man is Justified by the works of the Law Gal. 2. but freely by faith in Jesus Christ And again he saith We believe in Jesus Christ that we be justified freely by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law because that no Man shall be justified by the works of the Law And although this justification be free unto us yet it cometh not so freely unto us that there is no ransom paid therefore at all But here may Man's Reason be astonished reasoning after this fashion Objection If a Ransom be paid for our Redemption then is it not given us freely For a Prisoner that payd his Ransom is not let go freely For if he go freely then he goeth without Ransom For what is it else to go freely than to be set at liberty without paying of Ransom Answer This Reason is satisfied by the great Wisdom of God in this mystery of our Redemption who hath so tempered his Justice and Mercy together that he would neither by his Justice condemn us unto the everlasting Captivity of the Devil and his Prison of Hell remediless for ever without Mercy nor by his Mercy deliver us clearly without Justice or Payment of a just Ransom but with his endless Mercy he joyned his most upright and equal Justice His great Mercy he shewed unto us in delivering us from our former Captivity without requiring of any Ransom to be paid or amends to be made upon our parts which thing by us had been impossible to be done And whereas it lay not in us to do that he provided a Ransom for us that was the most precious Body and Blood of his own most dear and best beloved Son Jesu Christ who besides this Ransom fulfilled the Law for us perfectly And so the Justice of God and his Mercy did embrace together and fulfilled the Mystery of our Redemption And of this Justice and Mercy of God knit together speaketh St. Paul in the third Chap. to the Romans Rom. 3. All have offended and have need of the Glory of God but are justified freely by Grace by Redemption which is in Jesu Christ whom God hath sent forth to us for a Reconciler and Peace-maker through Faith in his Blood to shew his righteousness And in the 10th Chapter Rom. 10. Rom. 8. Christ is the end of the Law unto righteousness to every man that believeth And in the 8th Chapter That which was impossible by the Law inasmuch as it was weak by the flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh by sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us
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
sent down from Heaven unto us the Holy Ghost nor that he sitteth on the right hand of his Heavenly Father having the Rule of Heaven and Earth Psal 17. reigning as the Prophet saith from Sea to Sea nor that he should after this World be the Judge as well of the living as of the dead to give reward to the good and judgment to the evil That these Links therefore of our Faith should all hang together in stedfast establishment and confirmation it pleased our Saviour not straitway to withdraw himself from the bodily presence and sight of his Disciples but he chose out forty days wherein he would declare unto them by manifold and most strong arguments and tokens that he had conquered Death and that he was also truly risen again to life He began saith Luke at Moses and all the Prophets Luke 24. and expounded unto them the Prophesies that were written in all the Scriptures of him to the intent to confirm the truth of his Resurrection long before spoken of which he verified indeed as it is declared very apparently and manifestly by his oft appearance to sundry Persons at sundry times First Mat 28. he sent his Angels to the Sepulcher who did shew unto certain Women the empty Grave saying that the burial-linen remained therein And by these signs were these Women fully instructed that he was risen again and so did they testifie it openly After this Jesus himself appeared to Mary Magdalen John 20. and after that to certain other Women and strait afterward he appeared to Peter then to the two Disciples which were going to Emmaus 1 Cor. 15. He appeared to the Disciples also as they were gathered together for fear of the Jews the door shut Luke 24. John 21. At another time he was seen at the Sea of Tiberias of Peter and Thomas and of other Disciples when they were fishing He was seen of more than five hundred brethren in the Mount of Galilee where Jesus appointed them to be by his Angel when he said Behold he shall go before you into Galilee there shall ye see him as he hath said unto you After this he appeared unto James and last of all he was visibly seen of all the Apostles Acts 1. at such time as he was taken up into Heaven Thus at sundry times he shewed himself after he was risen again to confirm and stablish this Article And in these revelations sometime he shewed them his Hands his Feet and his Side and bad them touch him that they should not take him for a Ghost or a Spirit Sometime he also did eat with them but ever he was talking with them of the everlasting Kingdom of God to assure the truth of his Resurrection Luke 24. For then be opened their understanding that they might perceive the Scriptures and said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to risâ— from death the third day and that there should be preached openly in his name pardon and remission of sins to all the Nations of the World Ye see good Christian People how necessary this Article of our Faith is seeing it was proved of Christ himself by such evident reasons and tokens by so long time and space Now therefore as our Saviour was diligent for our comfort and instruction to declare it so let us be as ready in our belief to receive it to our comfort and instruction As he died not for himself no more did he rise again for himself â— Cor. 15. He was dead saith St. Paul for our sins and rose again for our justification O most comfortable word evermore to be born in remembrance He died saith he to put away sin he rose again to endow us with righteousness His death took away sin and malediction his death was the Ransom of them both his death destroyed death and overcame the Devil which had the power of death in his subjection his death destroyed Hell with all the damnation thereof Thus is Death swallowed up by Christs Victory thus is Hell spoiled for ever If any man doubt of this Victory let Christs glorious Resurrection declare him the thing If Death could not keep Christ under his dominion and power but that he rose again it is manifest that his power was overcome If Death be conquered then must it follow that sin wherefore death was appointed as the wages must be also destroyed If Death and Sin be vanished away then is the Devil's Tyranny vanished which had the power of Death and was the author and brewer of sin and the ruler of Hell If Christ had the victory of them all by the power of his death and openly proved it by his most victorious and valiant Resurrection as it was not possible for his great might to be subdued of them and it is true that Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification Why may not we that be his Members by true Faith rejoyce and boldly say with the Prophet Hosea and the Apostle Paul Where is thy Dart O Death Where is thy Victory O Hell Thanks be unto God say they which hath given us the Victory by our Lord Jesus Christ This mighty Conquest of his Resurrection was not only signified before by divers figures of the Old Testament as by Samson when he slew the Lion out of whose mouth came sweetness and honey and as David bare his figure when he delivered the Lamb out of the Lions mouth 1 Reg. 17. and when he overcame and slew the great Giant Goliath and as when Jonas was swallowed up in the Whales mouth Jonas 1. and cast up again on land alive but was also most clearly prophesied by the Prophets of the Old Testament and in the New also confirmed by the Apostles He hath spoiled saith St. Paul Rule and Power Col. 2. and all the Dominion of our spiritual enemies He hath made a shew of them openly and hath triumphed over them in his own person This is the mighty power of the Lord whom we believe on By his Death hath he wrought for us this Victory and by his Resurrection hath he purchased Everlasting Life and Righteousness for us It had not been enough to be delivered by his Death from sin except by his Resurrection we had been endowed with righteousness And it should not avail us to be delivered from death except he had risen again to open for us the Gates of Heaven to enter into life everlasting And therefore St. Peter thanketh God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for his abundant mercy 1 Pet. 1. because he hath begotten us saith he unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from death to enjoy an inheritance immortal that never shall perish which is laid up in Heaven for them that be kept by the power of God through Faith Thus hath his Resurrection wrought for us life and righteousness He passed through Death and
move us to Repent Esay 31. Ezek. 33. Hos 14. First The Commandment of God who in so many places of the holy and sacred Scriptures doth bid us return unto him O ye Children of Israel saith he turn again from your infidelity wherein ye drowned your selves Again Turn you turn you from your evil ways For why will ye die O ye House of Israel And in another place thus doth he speak by his Prophet Hosea O Israel return unto the Lord thy God For thou hast taken a great fall by thine iniquity Take unto you these words with you when you turn unto the Lord and say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we offer the Calves of our Lips unto thee In all these places we have an express commandment given unto us of God for to return unto him Therefore we must take good heed unto our selves lest whereas we have already by our manifold sins and transgressions provoked and kindled the wrath of God against us we do by breaking this his Commandment double our offences and so heap still damnation upon our own heads by our daily offences and trespasses whereby we provoke the eyes of his Majesty we do well deserve if he should deal with us according to his justice to be put away for ever from the fruition of his Glory How much more then are we worthy of the endless torments of Hell if when we be so gently called again after our Rebellion and commanded to return we will in no wise hearken unto the voice of our heavenly Father but walk still after the stubbornness of our own hearts Secondly The most comfortable and sweet promise that the Lord our God did of his meer mercy and goodness joyn unto his Commandment for he doth not only say Return unto me O Israel Jer. 4. but also if thou wilt return and put away all thine abominations out of my sight thou shalt never be moved These words also have we in the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 18. At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sin from the bottom of his heart I will put all his wickedness out of my remembrance saith the Lord so that they shall be no more thought upon Thus are we sufficiently instructed that God will according to his promise freely pardon forgive and forget all our sins so that we shall never be cast in the teeth with them if obeying his Commadment and allured by his sweet Promises we will unfeignedly return unto him Thirdly The filthiness of sin which is such that as long as we do abide in it God cannot but detest and abhor us neither can there be any hope that we shall enter into the Heavenly Jerusalem except we be first made clean and purged from it But this will never be unless forsaking our former life we do with our whole heart return unto the Lord our God and with a full purpose of amendment of life flee unto his mercy taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ If we should suspect any uncleanness to be in us Similitude wherefore the earthly Prince should loath and abhor the sight of us what pains would we take to remove and put it away How much more ought we with all diligence and speed that may be to put away that unclean filthiness that doth separate and make a division betwixt us and our God Esay 59. and that hideth his Face from us that he will not hear us And verily herein doth appear how filthy a thing sin is sith than it can by no other means be washed away but by the Blood of the only begotten Son of God And shall we not from the bottom of our hearts detest and abhor and with all earnestness flee from it sith that it did cost the dear Heart-Blood of the only begotten Son of God our Saviour and Redeemer to purge us from it Plato doth in a certain place write that if Vertue could be seen with bodily Eyes all Men would wonderfully be inflamed and kindled with the love of it even so on the contrary if we might with our bodily Eyes behold the filthiness of sin and the uncleanness thereof we could in no wise abide it but as most present and deadly Poison hate and eschew it We have a common Experience of the same in them which when they have committed any heinous offence or some filthy and abominable sin if it once come to light or if they chance to have a through feeling of it they be so ashamed their own Conscience putting before their Eyes the filthiness of their Act that they dare look no Man in the Face much less that they should be able to stand in the sight of God Fourthly The uncertainty and brittleness of our own lives which is such that we cannot assure our selves that we shall live one hour or one half quarter of it Which by experience we do find daily to be true in them that being now merry and lusty and sometimes Feasting and Banqueting with their Friends do fall suddenly dead in the Streets and otherwhiles under the Board when they are at meat These daily Examples as they are most terrible and dreadful so ought they to move us to seek for to be at one with our heavenly Judge that we may with a good Conscience appear before him whensoever it shall please him for to call us whether it be suddenly or otherwise for we have no more Charter of our life than they have But as we are most certain that we shall die so are we most uncertain when we shall die For our life doth lie in the hand of God who will take it away when it pleaseth him And verily when the highest Summer of all Death the Lords Sumner Eccles 11. Contra Demetrianum Eccles 5. which is death shall come he will not be said nay but we must be forthwith be packing to be present before the Judgment seat of God as he doth find us according as it is written Whereas the Tree falleth whether it be toward the South or toward the North there it shall lie Whereunto agreeth the saying of the holy Martyr of God St. Cyprian saying As God doth find thee when he doth call so doth he judge thee Let us therefore follow the Counsel of the Wise Man where he saith Make no tarrying to turn unto the Lord and put not off from day to day For suddenly shall the wrath of the Lord break forth and in thy security shalt thou be destroyed and shalt perish in the time of Vengeance Which words I desire you to mark diligently because they do most lively put before our Eyes the fondness of many Men who abusing the long-suffering and goodness of God do never think on Repentance or amendment of Life Follow not saith he thine own mind and thy strength to walk in the ways of thy heart neither say thou Who will bring me under for
Three things must go together in our justification which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit In these foresaid places the Apostle toucheth specially three things which must go together in our justification Upon God's part his great Mercy and Grace upon Christ's part Justice that is the satisfaction of God's Justice or the price of our Redemption by the offering of his Body and shedding of his Blood with fulfilling of the Law perfectly and throughly and upon our part true and lively Faith in the Merits of Jesus Christ which yet is not ours but by God's working in us So that in our Justification there is not only God's Mercy and Grace but also his Justice which the Apostle calleth the Justice of God and it consisteth in paying our Ransom and fulfilling of the Law And so the Grace of God doth not shut out the Justice of God in our Justification but only shutteth out the Justice of Man that is to say the Justice of our Works as to be Merits of deserving our Justification And therefore St. Paul declareth here nothing upon the behalf of Man concerning his Justification but only a true and lively Faith which nevertheless is the Gift of God and not Man's only Work without God And yet that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the Fear of God to be joyned with Faith in every Man that is justified but it shutteth them out from the office of Justifying How it is to be understood that Faith justifieth without Works So that although they be all present together in him that is Justified yet they justifie not altogether Neither doth Faith shut out the Justice of our good Works necessarily to be done afterwards of Duty towards God for we are most bounden to serve God in doing good Deeds commanded by him in his Holy Scripture all the days of our Life But it excludeth them so that we may not do them to this intent to be made Just by doing of them For all the good Works that we can do be imperfect and therefore not able to deserve our Justification but our Justification doth come freely by the mere Mercy of God and of so great and free Mercy that whereas all the World was not able of themselves to pay any part towards their Ransom it pleased our Heavenly Father of his infinite Mercy without any our desert or deserving to prepare for us the most precious Jewels of Christ's Body and Blood whereby our Ransom might be fully paid the Law fulfilled and his Justice fully satisfied So that Christ is now the Righteousness of all them that truly do believe in him He for them paid their Ransom by his Death He for them fulfilled the Law in his Life So that now in him and by him every true Christian Man may be called A fulfiller of the Law Forasmuch as that which their Infirmity lacked Christ's Justice hath supplied The Second Part of the Sermon of Salvation YE have heard of whom all Men ought to seek their Justification and Righteousness and how also this Righteousness cometh unto Men by Christ's Death and Merits Ye heard also how that three things are required to the obtaining of our Righteousness that is God's Mercy Christ's Justice and a true and lively Faith out of the which Faith spring good Works Also before was declared at large That no Man can be justified by his own good Works that no Man fulfilleth the Law according to the strict rigor of the Law And St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians proveth the same saying thus Gal. 2. If there had been any Law given which could have justified verily Righteousness should have been by the Law And again he saith If righteousness be by the Law then Christ died in vain And again he saith Ephes 2. You that are justified by the Law are fallen away from Grace And furthermore he writeth to the Ephesians on this wise By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of yourselves for it is the gift of God and not of Works lest any Man should Glory And to be short the sum of all Paul's Disputation is this That if Justice come of Works then it cometh not of Grace and if it come of Grace then it cometh not of Works And to this end tend all the Prophets as St. Peter saith in the 10th of the Acts. Of Christ all the Prophets saith St. Peter Acts 10. do witness that through his Name all they that believe in him shall receive the remission of sins Faith only justifieth is the Doctrine of old Doctors And after this wise to be justified only by this true and lively Faith in Christ speak all the old and antient Authors both Greeks and Latins Of whom I will specially rehearse three Hilary Basil and Ambrose St. Hilary saith these Words plainly in the ninth Canon upon Matthew Faith only justifieth And St. Basil a Greek Author writeth thus This is a perfect and whole reioycing in God when a Man advanceth not himself for his own Righteousness but acknowledgeth himself to lack true Justice and Righteousness and to be justified by the only Faith in Christ And Paul saith he Philip. 3. doth glory in the contempt of his own Righteousness and that he looketh for the Righteousness of God by Faith These be the very words of St. Basil and St. Ambrose a Latin Author saith these words This is the Ordinance of God that they which believe in Christ should be saved without Works by Faith only freely receiving remission of their sins Consider diligently these words Without works by Faith only freely we receive remission of our sins What can be spoken more plainly than to say That freely without Works by Faith only we obtain remission of our sins These and other like Sentences that we be justified by Faith only freely and without Works we do read oft-times in the best and most antient Writers As beside Hilary Basil and St. Ambrose before rehearsed we read the same in Origen St. Chrysostom St. Cyprian St. Augustin Prosper Oecumenius Proclus Bernardus Anselm and many other Authors Greek and Latin Nevertheless this Sentence that we be justified by Faith only is not so meant of them that the said justifying Faith is alone in Man without true Repentance Hope Charity Dread and the Fear of God at any time and season Faith alone how it is to be understood Nor when they say that we should be justified freely do they mean that we should or might afterward be idle and that nothing should be required on our parts afterward Neither do they mean so to be justified without good Works that we should do no good Works at all like as shall be more expressed at large hereafter But this saying That we be justified by Faith only freely and without Works is spoken for to take away clearly all Merit of our Works as being unable to deserve our Justification at God's hands
and thereby most plainly to express the Weakness of Man and the Goodness of God the great infirmity of ourselves and the Might and Power of God the imperfection of our own Works and the most abundant Grace of our Saviour Christ and therefore wholly to ascribe the merit and deserving of our Justification unto Christ only and his most precious Blood shedding This Faith the Holy Scripture teacheth us The profit of the Doctrine of Faith only justifieth is the strong Rock and Foundation of Christian Religion this Doctrine all old and antient Authors of Christ's Church do approve this Doctrine advanceth and setteth forth the true Glory of Christ and beateth down the Vain-glory of Man this whosoever denieth is not to be accounted for a Christian Man nor for a setter forth of Christ's Glory but for an adversary to Christ and his Gospel and for a setter forth of Mens Vain-glory. What they be that impugn the Doctrine of Faith only justifieth And although this Doctrine be never so true as it is most true indeed that we be justified freely without all merit of our own good Works as St. Paul doth express it and freely by this lively and perfect Faith in Christ only as the ancient Authors use to speak it yet this true Doctrine must be also truly understood and most plainly declared lest carnal Men should take unjustly occasion thereby to live carnally after the Appetite and Will of the World the Flesh and the Devil A declaration of this Doctrine of Faith without Works justifieth And because no Man should err by mistaking of this Doctrine I shall plainly and shortly so declare the right understanding of the same that no Man shall justly think that he may thereby take any occasion of carnal liberty to follow the desires of the flesh or that thereby any kind of sin shall be committed or any ungodly living the more used First you shall understand that in our Justification by Christ it is not all one thing the Office of God unto Man and the Office of Man unto God Justification is not the Office of Man but of God for Man cannot make himself Righteous by his own Works neither in part nor in the whole for that were the greatest arrogancy and presumption of Man that Antichrist could set up against God to affirm that a Man might by his own Works take away and purge his own sins and so justifie himself But Justification is the Office of God only Justification is the Office of God only and is not a thing which we render unto him but which we receive of him Not which we give to him but which we take of him by his free Mercy and by the only Merits of his most dearly beloved Son our only Redeemer Saviour and Justifier Jesus Christ So that the true understanding of this Doctrine We be justified freely by Faith without Works or that we be justified by Faith in Christ only is not that this our own act to Believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is within us doth justifie us and deserve our Justification unto us for that were to count our selves to be justified by some Act or Virtue that is within ourselves but the true understanding and meaning thereof is that although we hear God's Word and believe it although we have Faith Hope Charity Repentance Dread and Fear of God within us and do never so many Works thereunto Yet we must renounce the merit of all our said Virtues of Faith Hope Charity and all other Virtues and good Deeds which we either have done shall do or can do as things that be far too weak and insufficient and imperfect to deserve remission of our Sins and our Justification and therefore we must trust only in God's Mercy and that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross to obtain thereby God's Grace and Remission as well of our original Sin in Baptism as of all actual Sin committed by us after our Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him again So that as St. John Baptist although he were never so Virtuous and Godly a Man yet in this matter of forgiving of Sin he did put the People from him and appointed them unto Christ saying thus unto them Behold yonder is the Lamb of God John 1. which taketh away the sins of the World Even so as Great and as Godly a Virtue as the lively Faith is yet it putteth us from itself and remitteth or appointeth us unto Christ for to have only by him remission of our Sins or Justification So that our Faith in Christ as it were saith unto us thus It is not I that taketh away your Sins but it is Christ only and to him only I send you for that purpose forsaking therein all your good Virtues Words Thoughts and Works and only putting your Trust in Christ The Third Part of the Sermon of Salvation IT hath been manifestly declared unto you that no Man can fulfil the Law of God and therefore by the Law all Men are condemned Whereupon it followeth necessarily that some other thing should be required for our Salvation than the Law And that is a true and a lively Faith in Christ bringing forth good Works and a Life according to God's Commandments And also you heard the ancient Authors Minds of this Saying Faith in Christ only justifieth Man so plainly declared that you see that the very true meaning of this Proposition or Saying We be justified by Faith in Christ only according to the meaning of the old ancient Authors is this VVe put our Faith in Christ that we be Justified by him only that we be Justified by God's free Mercy and the Merits of our Saviour Christ only and by no Virtue or good Works of our own that is in us or that we can be able to have or to do for to deserve the same Christ himself only being the cause meritorious thereof Here you perceive many words to be used to avoid contention in Words with them that delight to brawl about Words and also to shew the true meaning to avoid evil taking and misunderstanding and yet peradventure all will not serve with them that be contentious But Contenders will ever forge matters of Contention even when they have none occasion thereto Notwithstanding such be the less to be passed upon so that the rest may profit which will be more desirous to know the Truth than when it is plain enough to contend about it and with contentious and captious Cavillation to obscure and darken it Truth it is that our Works do not justifie us to speak properly of our Justification that is to say our Works do not merit or deserve remission of our Sins and make us of Unjust Just before God But God of his own Mercy through the only Merits and Deservings of his Son Jesus Christ doth justifie us Nevertheless because
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
Pleasure and Consolation But the unmerciful rich Man descended down into Hell and being in Torments he cried for Comfort complaining of the intolerable pain that he suffered in that flame of Fire but it was too late So unto this place bodily death sendeth all them that in this World have their Joy and Felicity all them that in this World be unfaithful unto God and uncharitable unto their Neighbours so dying without Repentance and hope of God's Mercy Wherefore it is no marvel that the worldly Man feareth death for he hath much more cause so to do than he himself doth consider Thus we see three Causes why worldly Men fear death One The First because they shall lose thereby their worldly Honors Riches Possessions and all their Hearts desires Another Second because of the painful diseases and bitter pangs which commonly Men suffer either before or at the time of death Third But the chief cause above all other is the dread of the miserable state of eternal damnation both of Body and Soul which they fear shall follow after their departing from the worldly Pleasures of this present Life For these Causes be all mortal Men which be given to the love of this World both in fear and state of death through Sin as the Holy Apostle saith so long as they live here in this World But Heb. 10. everlasting thanks be to Almighty God for ever there is never a one of all these Causes no nor yet them all together that can make a true Christian man afraid to die who is the very Member of Christ 1 Cor. 3. the Temple of the Holy Ghost the Son of God and the very Inheritor of the everlasting Kingdom of Heaven but plainly contrary he conceiveth great and many Causes undoubtedly grounded upon the infallible and everlasting truth of the Word of God which moveth him not only to put away the fear of bodily death but also for the manifold Benefits and singular Commodities which ensue unto every faithful Person by reason of the same to wish desire and long heartily for it For death shall be to him no death at all but a very deliverance from death from all Pains Cares and Sorrows Miseries and Wretchedness of this World and the very entry into Rest and a beginning of everlasting Joy a tasting of heavenly Pleasures so great that neither Tongue is able to express neither Eye to see nor Ear to hear them no nor any earthly Man's heart to conceive them So exceeding great Benefits they be which God our heavenly Father by his mere Mercy and for the Love of his Son Jesus Christ hath laid up in store and prepared for them that humbly submit themselves to God's Will and evermore unfeignedly love him from the bottom of their Hearts And we ought to believe that death being slain by Christ cannot keep any Man that stedfastly trusteth in Christ under his perpetual Tyranny and Subjection But that he shall rise from death again unto Glory at the last day appointed by Almighty God like as Christ our Head did rise again according to God's appointment the third day For St. Augustine saith The Head going before the Members trust to follow and come after And St. Paul saith If Christ be risen from the dead we shall rise also from the same And to comfort all Christian Persons herein Holy Scripture calleth this bodily death a sleep wherein Man's Senses be as it were taken from him for a season and yet when he awaketh he is more fresh than he was when he went to Bed So although we have our Souls separated from our Bodies for a season yet at the general Resurrection we shall be more fresh beautiful and perfect than we be now For now we be mortal then shall we be immortal Now infected with divers Infirmities then clearly void of all mortal Infirmities Now we be subject to all carnal desires then we shall be all Spiritual desiring nothing but God's Glory and things eternal Thus is this bodily death a door or entring unto Life and therefore not so much dreadful if it be rightly considered as it is comfortable not a mischief but a Remedy for all mischief no Enemy but a Friend not a cruel Tyrant but a gentle Guide leading us not to mortality but to immortality not to Sorrow and Pain but to Joy and Pleasure and that to endure for ever if it be thankfully taken and accepted as God's Messenger and patiently born of us for Christ's Love that suffered most painful death for our Love to redeem us from death eternal Accordingly hereunto St. Paul saith Col. 3. Our Life is hid with Christ in God But when our Life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in Glory Why then shall we fear to die considering the manifold and comfortable Promises of the Gospel and of Holy Scriptures 1 John 5. God the Father hath given us everlasting Life saith St. John 1 John 5. and this Life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life And this I write saith St. John to you that believe in the Name of the Son of God that you may know that you have everlasting Life and that you do believe upon the Name of the Son of God And our Saviour Christ saith John 5. He that believeth in me hath Life everlasting and I will raise him from Death to Life at the last day St. Paul also saith 1 Cor. 1. That Christ is ordained and made of God our Righteousness or Holiness and Redemption to the intent that he which will glory should glory in the Lord. St. Paul did contemn and set little by all other things Phil. 3. esteeming them as Dung which before he had in very great price that he might be found in Christ to have everlasting Life true Holiness Righteousness and Redemption Finally St. Paul maketh a plain Argument on this wise Rom. 8. If our heavenly Father would not spare his own natural Son but did give him to death for us how can it it be but that with him he should give us all things Therefore if we have Christ then have we with him and by him all good things whatsoever we can in our Hearts wish or desire as Victory over Death Sin and Hell We have the Favour of God Peace with him Holiness Wisdom Justice Power Life and Redemption we have by him perpetual Health Wealth Joy and Bliss everlasting The Second Part of the Sermon against the Fear of Death IT hath been heretofore shewed you That there be three Causes wherefore Men do commonly fear Death First the sorrowful departing from Worldly Goods and Pleasures The Second the fear of the pangs and pains that come with Death The last and principal Cause is The horrible fear of extreme Misery and perpetual Damnation in time to come And yet none of these three Causes troubleth good Men because they stay
suffer thee although he is daily offended by thee Forgive therefore a light Trespass to thy neighbour that Christ may forgive thee many thousands of Trespasses which art every day an offender For if thou forgive thy Brother being to thee a trespasser then hast thou a sure sign and token that God will forgive thee to whom all Men be debtors and trespassers How wouldst thou have God merciful to thee if thou wilt be cruel unto thy Brother Canst thou not find in thy heart to do that towards another that is thy fellow which God hath done to thee that art but his servant Ought not one sinner to forgive another seeing that Christ which was no sinner did pray to his Father for them that without mercy and despitefully put him to death 1 Pet. 2. Who when he was reviled he did not use reviling words again and when he suffered wrongfully he did not threaten but gave all vengeance to the judgment of his Father which judgeth rightfully And what crackest thou of thy Head if thou labour not to be in the Body Thou canst be no member of Christ if thou follow not the steps of Christ Isai 53. Luke 23. Acts 7. Who as the Prophet saith was led to death like a Lamb not opening his mouth to reviling but opening his Mouth to praying for them that crucified him saying Father forgive them for they cannot tell what they do The which example anon after Christ St. Stephen did follow and after St. Paul We be evil spoken of saith he and we speak well We suffer persecution and take it patiently Men curse us and we gently intreat 1 Cor. 4. Thus Saint Paul taught that he did and he did that he taught Bless you saith he them that persecute you bless you and curse not Is it a great thing to speak well to thine Adversary to whom Christ doth command thee to do well David when Shimes did call him all to naught did not chide again but said patiently Suffer him to speak evil if perchance the Lord will have Mercy on me Histories be full of Examples of Heathen Men that took very meekly both opprobrious and reproachful Words and injurious or wrongful Deeds And shall those Heathen excel in Patience us that profess Christ the Teacher and Example of all Patience Lysander when one did rage against him in reviling of him he was nothing moved but said Go to go to speak against me as much and as oft as thou wilt and leave out nothing if perchance by this means thou mayst discharge thee of those naughty things with the which it seemeth that thou art full laden Many Men speak evil of all Men because they can speak well of no Man After this sort this Wise Man avoideth from him the reproachful Words spoken unto him imputing and laying them to the Natural Sickness of his Adversary Pericles when a certain Scolder or railing Fellow did revile him he answered not a word again but went into a Gallery and after towards Night when he went home this Scolder followed him raging still more and more because he saw the other to set nothing by him And after that he came to his Gate being dark Night Pericles commanded one of his Servants to light a Torch and to bring the Scolder home to his own House He did not only with quietness suffer this Brawler patiently but also recompensed an evil Turn with a good Turn and that to his Enemy Is it not a shame for us that profess Christ to be worse than Heathen People in a thing chiefly pertaining to Christs Religion Shall Philosophy perswade them more than Gods Word shall perswade us Shall Natural Reason prevail more with them than Religion shall with us Shall Mans Wisdom lead them to those things whereunto the Heavenly Doctrine cannot lead us What blindness wilfulness or rather madness is this Pericles being provoked to anger with many villanous words answered not a word But we stirred but with one little word what foul work do we make How do we fume rage stamp and stare like Mad Men Many Men of every trifle will make a great matter and of a spark of a little word will kindle a great fire taking all things in the worst part But how much better is it Reasons to move Men from quarrel-picking and more like to the Example and Doctrine of Christ to make rather a greater fault in our Neighbour a small fault reasoning with ourselves after this sort He spake these words but it was in a sudden heat or the Drink spake them and not he or he spake them at the motion of some other or he spake them being ignorant of the truth he spake them not against me but against him whom he thought me to be But as touching evil speaking he that is ready to speak evil against other Men first let him examine himself whether he be faultless and clear of the fault which he findeth in another For it is a shame when he that blameth another for any fault is guilty himself either in the same fault or in a greater It is a shame for him that is blind to call another Man blind and it is more shame for him that is whole blind to call him blinkard that is but purblind For this is to see a straw in another Mans Eye when a Man hath a block in his own Eye Then let him consider that he that useth to speak evil shall commonly be evil spoken of again And he that speaketh what he will for his pleasure shall be compelled to hear what he would not to his displeasure Moreover let him remember that saying That we shall give an account for every idle Word Mat. 12. How much more then shall we make reckoning for our sharp bitter brawling and chiding Words which provoke our Brother to be angry and so to the breach of his Charity And as touching evil answering although we be never so much provoked by other Mens evil speaking yet we shall not follow their frowardness by evil answering if we consider that anger is a kind of madness and that he which is angry is as it were for the time in a phrensie Wherefore let him beware Reasons to move Men from froward answering lest in his fury he speak any thing whereof afterward he may have just cause to be sorry And he that will defend that anger is not fury but that he hath reason even when he is most angry then let him reason thus with himself when he is angry Now I am so moved and chafed that within a little while after I shall be otherwise minded wherefore then should I now speak any thing in mine anger which hereafter when I would fainest cannot be changed Wherefore shall I do any thing now being as it were out of my Wit for the which when I shall come to my self again I shall be very sad Why doth not Reason why doth not Godliness yea why doth not Christ
Lies Deceits Uncleanness Filthiness Dung Mischief and Abomination before the Lord. Wherefore Gods horrible wrath and our most dreadful danger cannot be avoided without the destruction and utter abolishing of all Images and Idols our of the Church and Temple of God which to accomplish God put in the minds of all Christian Princes And in the mean time let us take heed and be wise O ye beloved of the Lord and let us have no strange gods but one only God who made us when we were nothing the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ John 17. who redeemed us when we were lost and with his Holy Spirit doth sanctifie us For this is life everlasting to know him to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Let us honour and worship for Religions sake none but him and him let us worship and honour as he will himself and hath declared by his Word that he will be honoured and worshipped not in nor by Images or Idols which he hath most strictly forbidden neither in kneeling lighting of Candles burning of Incense offering up of Gifts unto Images and Idols to believe that we shall please him for all these be abomination before God But let us honour and worship God in Spirit and in Truth John 4. fearing and loving him above all things trusting in him only calling upon him and praying to him only praising and lauding of him only and all other in him and for him For such worshippers doth our Heavenly Father love who is a most pure Spirit and therefore will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth And such worshippers were Abraham Moses David Elias Peter Paul John and all other the Holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs and all true Saints of God who all as the true Friends of God were enemies and destroyers of Images and Idols as the Enemies of God and his true Religion Wherefore take heed and be wise O ye beloved of the Lord and that which others contrary to Gods Word bestow wickedly and to their damnation upon dead stocks and stones no Images but Enemies of God and his Saints that bestow ye as the faithful Servants of God according to Gods Word mercifully upon poor Men and Women Fatherless Children Widows sick Persons Strangers Prisoners and such others that be in any necessity that ye may at that great day of the Lord hear that most blessed and comfortable saying of our Saviour Christ Come ye blessed into the Kingdom of my Father prepared for you before the beginning of the World For I was hungry and ye gave me meat thirsty and ye gave me drink naked and ye clothed me harbourless and ye lodged me in Prison and ye visited me sick and ye comforted me For whatsoever ye have done for the poor and needy in my name and for my sake that have ye done for me To the which his Heavenly Kingdom God the Father of Mercies bring us for Jesus Christs sake our only Saviour Mediator and Advocate to whom with the Holy Ghost one immortal invisible and most glorious God be all Honour and Thanksgiving and Glory World without end Amen AN HOMILY FOR Repairing and keeping clean and comely adorning of Churches IT is a common custom used of all men when they intend to have their Friends or Neighbours to come to their Houses to eat or drink with them or to have any Solemn Assembly to treat and talk of any matter they will have their Houses which they keep in continual reparations to be clean and fine lest they should be counted sluttish or little to regard their Friends and Neighbours How much more then ought the House of God which we commonly call the Church to be sufficiently repaired in all places and to be honourably adorned and garnished and to be kept clean and sweet to the comfort of the People that shall resort thereunto It appeareth in the Holy Scripture how Gods House which was called his Holy Temple and was the Mother Church of all Jewry fell sometimes into decay and was oftentimes profaned and defiled through the negligence and ungodliness of such as had the charge thereof But when godly Kings and Governors were in place then Commandment was given forthwith that the Church and Temple of God should be repaired and the Devotion of the People to be gathered for the reparation of the same We read in the fourth Book of the Kings 4 Kings 12. how that King Joas being a godly Prince gave commandment to the Priests to convert certain Offerings of the People towards the reparation and amendment of Gods Temple Like commandment gave that most godly King Josias 4 Kings 22. concerning the reparation and re-edification of Gods Temple which in his time he found in sore decay It hath pleased Almighty God that these Histories touching the re-edifying and repairing of his Holy Temple should be written at large to the end we should be taught thereby First that God is well pleased that his People should have a convenient place to resort unto and to come together to praise and magnifie Gods Holy Name And secoâ—dâ—â— he is highly pleased with all those which diligenâ—ly and zealously go about to amend and restore such places as are appointed for the Congregation of Gods People to resort unto and wherein they humbly and joyntly render thanks to God for his benefits and with one heart and voice praise his Holy Name Thirdly God was sore displeased with his People because they builded decked and trimmed up their own Houses and suffered Gods House to be in ruine and decay to lye uncomely and fulsomly Wherefore God was sore grieved with them and plagued them as appeareth in the Prophet Aggeus Thus saith the Lord Agge 1. Is it time for you to dwell in your cieled Houses and the Lords House not regarded Ye have sowed much and gathered in but little your meat and your clothes have neither filled you nor made you warm and he that had his wages put it in a bottomless purse By these Plagues which God laid upon his People for neglecting of his Temple it may evidently appear that God will have his Temple his Church the place where his Congregation shall resort to magnifie him well edified well repaired and well maintained Some neither regarding godliness nor the place of godly exercise will say The Temple in the Old Law was commanded to be built and repaired by God himself because it had great Promises annexed unto it and because it was a figure a Sacrament or a signification of Christ and also of his Church To this may be easily answered First that our Churches are not destitute of Promises forasmuch as our Saviour Christ saith Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst among them A great number therefore coming to Church together in the name of Christ have there that is to say in the Church their God and Saviour Jesus Christ present among the
them all other true Christian men to Pray always and never to faint or shrink Remember also the example of the Woman of Canaan Mat 15. how she was rejected of Christ and called Dog as one most unworthy of any benefit at his hands yet she gave not over but followed him still crying and calling upon him to be good and merciful unto her Daughter And at length by very importunity she obtained her request O let us learn by these examples to be earnest and fervent in Prayer assuring our selves that whatsoever we ask of God the Father in the Name of his Son Christ John 16. and according to his will he will undoubtedly grant it He is truth it self and as truly as he hath promised it so truly will he perform it God for his great mercies sake so work in our hearts by his Holy Spirit that we may always make our humble Prayers unto him as we ought to do and always obtain the thing which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen The Second Part of the Homily concerning PRAYER IN the First Part of this Sermon ye heard the great necessity and also the great force of devout and earnest Prayer declared and proved unto you both by divers weighty Testimonies and also by sundry good Examples of Holy Scripture Now shall you learn whom you ought to call upon and to whom you ought always to direct your Prayers We are evidently taught in Gods Holy Testament that Almighty God is the only Fountain and Well-spring of all Goodness and that whatsoever we have in this World we receive it only at his hands to this effect serveth the place of St. James James 1. Every good and perfect gift saith he cometh from above and proceedeth from the Father of Lights To this effect also serveth the Testimony of Paul in divers places of his Epistles witnessing that the Spirit of Wisdom the Spirit of Knowledge and Revelation yea every good and heavenly gift as Faith Hope Charity Grace and Peace cometh only and solely of God In consideration whereof he bursteth out into a sudden Passion and saith O man 1 Cor. 4. what thing hast thou which thou hast not received Therefore whensoever we need or lack any thing pertaining either to the Body or to the Soul it behoveth us to run only unto God who is the only giver of all good things Our Saviour Christ in the Gospel teaching his Disciples how they should Pray sendeth them to the Father in his Name saying Verily verily John 16. Matt. 6. Luke 11. I say unto you whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name he will give it unto you And in another place When ye Pray pray after this sort Our Father which art in Heaven c. And doth not God himself Psal 50. Acts 1. by the mouth of his Prophet David will and command us to call upon him The Apostle wisheth Grace and Peace to all them that call on the Name of the Lord and of his Son Jesus Christ Joel 2. as doth also the Prophet Joel saying And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved Thus then it is plain by the infallible word of Truth and Life that in all our necessities we must flee unto God direct our Prayers unto him call upon his Holy Name desire help at his hands and at none others whereof if we will yet have further reason mark that which followeth There are certain conditions most requisite to be found in every such a one as must be called upon which if they be not found in him unto whom we pray then doth our Prayer avail us nothing but is altogether in vain The first is this that he to whom we make our Prayers be able to help us The second is that he will help us The third is that he be such a one as may hear our Prayers The fourth is that he understand better than we our selves what we lack and how far we have need of help If these things be to be found in any other saving only God then may we lawfully call upon some other besides God But what man is so gross but he well understandeth that these things are only proper to him which is Omnipotent and knoweth all things even the very secrets of the Heart that is to say only and to God alone whereof it followeth that we must call neither upon Angel nor yet upon Saint but only and solely upon God Rom. 10. as St. Paul doth write How shall men call upon him in whom they have not believed So that Invocation or Prayer may not be made without Faith in him on whom they call but that we must first believe in him before we can make our Prayer unto him whereupon we must only and solely Pray unto God For to say that we should believe either in Angel or Saint or in any other living Creature were meer horrible Blasphemy against God and his Holy Word neither ought this Fancy to enter into the Heart of any Christian man because we are expresly taught in the Word of the Lord only to repose our Faith in the Blessed Trinity in whose only Name we are also Baptized according to the express Commandment of our Saviour Jesus Christ Mat. 28. in the last of St. Matthew But that the truth hereof may the better appear even to them that be most simple and unlearned let us consider what Prayer is De spi lit cap. 50. De summo bono cap. 8. lib. 3. St. Augustin calleth it a lifting up of the mind to God that is to say an humble and lowly pouring out of the Heart to God Isidorus saith that it is an affection of the Heart and not a labour of the Lips So that by these places true Prayer doth consist not so much in the outward sound and voice of words as in the inward groaning and crying of the Heart to God Now then is there any Angel any Virgin any Patriarch or Prophet among the dead that can understand or know the meaning of the Heart The Scripture saith Psal 7. Apoc. 2. Jer. 17. 2 Par. 6. It is God that searcheth the Heart and the Reins and that he only knoweth the Hearts of the children of men As for the Saints they have so little knowledge of the secrets of the Heart that many of the ancient Fathers greatly doubt whether they know any thing at all that is commonly done on Earth And albeit some think they do yet St. Augustin Lib. de cura pro mort agenda c. 13. De vera Râ—l cap. 22. Esay 63. Lib. 22. de civit Dei cap. 10. a Doctor of great Authority and also Antiquity hath this Opinion of them That they know no more what we do on Earth than we know what they do in Heaven For Proof whereof he
thoughts which may hinder thee from Gods true Service The Bird when she will flie shaketh her Wings Shake and prepare thy self to flie higher than all the Birds in the Air that after thy Duty duly done in this earthly Temple and Church thou may'st flie up and be received into the glorious Temple of God in Heaven through Christ Jesus our Lord To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Glory and Honour Amen AN HOMILY Wherein is declared That Common-Prayer and Sacraments ought to be ministred in a Tongue that is understood of the Hearers AMong the manifold Exercises of Gods People dear Christians there is none more necessary for all estates and at all times than is publick Prayer and the due use of Sacraments For in the first we beg at Gods hands all such things as otherwise we cannot obtain And in the other he embraceth us and offereth himself to be embraced of us Knowing therefore that these two Exercises are so necessary for us let us not think it unmeet to consider first what Prayer is and what a Sacrament is and then how many sorts of Prayers there be and how many Sacraments so shall we the better understand how to use them aright August de Spiritu An ma. To know what they be St. Augustine teacheth us in his Book entituled Of the Spirit and the Soul he saith thus of Prayer Prayer is saith he the Devotion of the Mind that is to say the returning to God through a godly and humble affection which affection is a certain willing and sweet inclining of the Mind it self towards God And in the Second Book against the Adversary of the Law and the Prophets August lib. 2 contra Adversariâ—s Legis Proph. August ad Bonifacium he calleth Sacraments Holy signs And writing to Bonifacius of the Baptism of Infants he saith If Sacraments had not a certain similitude of those things whereof they be Sacraments they should be no Sacraments at all And of this similitude they do for the most part receive the self-same things they signifie By these words of St. Augustine it appeareth that he alloweth the common description of a Sacrament which is that it is a visible sign of an invisible Grace that is to say that setteth out to the Eyes and other outward Senses the inward working of Gods free Mercy and doth as it were seal in our hearts the promises of God And so was Circumcision a Sacrament which preached unto the outward senses the inward cutting away of the fore-skin of the Heart and sealed and made sure in the hearts of the Circumcised to promise of God touching the promised Seed that they looked for Now let us see how many sorts of Prayer and how many Sacraments there be In the Scriptures we read of three sorts of Prayer whereof two are private and the third is common The first is that which St. Paul speaketh of in his Epistle to Timothy saying 1 Tim. 1. I will that men pray in every place lifting up pure hands without wrath or striving And it is the devout lifting up of the mind to God without the uttering of the hearts grief or desire by open voice Of this Prayer we have example in the first Book of the Kings in Anna 1 Kings 1. the Mother of Samuel when in the heaviness of her Heart she prayed in the Temple desiring to be made fruitful She prayed in her heart saith the Text but there was no voice heard After this sort must all Christians pray not once in a week or once in a day only 1 Thess 3. but as St. Paul writeth to the Thessalonians without ceasing And as St. James writeth James 5. The continual Prayer of a just man is of much force The second sort of Prayer is spoken of in the Gospel of Matthew Matt. 6. where it is said When thou prayest enter into thy secret Closet and when thou hast shut the door to thee pray unto thy Father in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee Of this sort of Prayer there be sundry examples in the Scriptures but it shall suffice to rehearse one which is written in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 10. Cornelius a devout man a Captain of the Italian Army saith to Peter that being in his House in Prayer at the ninth hour there appeared to him one in a white Garment c. This man prayed unto God in secret and was rewarded openly These be the two private sorts of Prayer The one mental that is to say the devout lifting up of the mind to God And the other vocal that is to say the secret uttering of the griefs and desires of the Heart with words but yet in a secret Closet or some solitary place The third sort of Prayer is publick or common Of this Prayer speaketh our Saviour Christ Mat. 18. when he saith If two of you shall agree upon Earth upon any thing whatsoever ye shall ask my Father which is in Heaven shall do it for you for wheresoever two or three be gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Although God hath promised to hear us when we pray privately so it be done faithfully and devoutly for he saith Psal 50. Call upon me in the day of thy trouble and I will hear thee And Elias being but a mortal man James 5. saith St. James prayed and Heaven was shut three Years and six Months and again he prayâ—d and the Heaven gave rain Yet by the Histories of the Bible it appeareth that publick and common Prayer is most available before God and therefore is much to be lamented that it is no better esteemed among us which profess to be but one body in Christ When the City of Niniveh was threatned to be destroyed Jonas 3. within forty days the Prince and the People joyned themselves together in publick Prayer and Fasting and were preserved In the Prophet Joel God commanded a Fasting to be proclaimed Joel 2. and the People to be gathered together young and old man and woman and are taught to say with one voice Spare us O Lord spare thy People and let not thine Inheritance be brought to confusion When the Jews should have been destroyed all in one day through the malice of Haman Hester 4. at the Commandment of Hester they Fasted and Prayed and were preserved Judith 8. When Holophernes besieged Bethulia by the advice of Judith they Fasted and Prayed and were delivered Acts 12. When Peter was in Prison the Congregation joyned themselves together in Prayer and Peter was wonderfully delivered By these Histories it appeareth that common or publick Prayer is of great force to obtain mercy and deliverance at our Heavenly Fathers hand Therefore Brethren I beseech you even for the tender mercies of God let us no longer be negligent in this behalf but as the People willing to receive at Gods
When he was wrongfully dealt with he threatned not again nor revenged his quarrel but delivered his cause to him that judgeth rightly Perfect patience careth not what Perfect patience nor how much it suffereth nor of whom it suffereth whether of Friend or Foe but studieth to suffer innocently and without deserving Yea he in whom perfect Charity is careth so little to revenge Mat. 5. that he rather studieth to do good for evil to bless and say well of them that curse him to pray for them that pursue him according to the example of our Saviour Christ The meekness of Christ who is the most perfect example and pattern of all meekness and sufferance which hanging upon the Cross in most fervent anguish bleeding in every part of his blessed Body being set in the midst of his enemies and crucifiers and he notwithstanding the intolerable pains which they saw him in being of them mocked and scorned despitefully without all favour and compassion had yet towards them such compassion in heart that he prayed to his Father of Heaven for them Luke 15. and said O Father forgive them for they wot not what they do What patience was it also which he shewed when one of his own Apostles and Servants which was put in trust of him came to betray him unto his Enemies to the death He said nothing worse to him Mat. 15. but Friend wherefore at thou come Thus good People should we call to mind the great examples of Charity which Christ shewed in his Passion if we will fruitfully remember his Passion Such charity and love should we bear one to another if we will be the true Servants of Christ For if we love but them that love and say well by us Mat. 5. what great thing is it that we do saith Christ Do not the Paynims and open sinners so We must be more perfect in our Charity than thus even as our Father in Heaven is perfect which maketh the light of his Sun to rise upon the good and the bad and sendeth his rain upon the kind and unkind After this manner should we shew our Charity indifferently as well to one as to another as well to friend as foe like obedient Children after the example of our Father in Heaven For if Christ was obedient to his Father even to the death and that the most shameful death as the Jews esteemed it the death of the Cross why should we not be obedient to God in lower points of Charity and Patience Ecclus. 28. Mat. 28. Let us forgive then our Neighbours their small faults as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us our great It is not meet that we should crave forgiveness of our great offences at Gods hands and yet will not forgive the small trespasses of our Neighbours against us We do call for mercy in vain if we will not shew mercy to our Neighbours For if we will not put wrath and displeasure forth of our hearts to our Christian Brother no more will God forgive the displeasure and wrath that our sins have deserved before him For under this condition doth God forgive us if we forgive other It becometh not Christian men to be hard one to another nor yet to think their Neighbour unworthy to be forgiven For howsoever unworthy he is yet is Christ worthy to have thee do thus much for his sake he hath deserved it of thee that thou shouldest forgive thy Neighbour And God is also to be obeyed which commandeth us to forgive if we will have any part of the Pardon which our Saviour Christ purchased once of God the Father by shedding of his precious Blood Nothing becometh Christs Servants so much as mercy and compassion Let us then be favourable one to another James 5. and pray we one for another that we may be healed from all frailties of our life the less to offend one the other and that we may be of one mind Ephes 5. and one spirit agreeing together in brotherly love and concord even like the dear Children of God By these means shall we move God to be merciful unto our sins yea and we shall be hereby the more ready to receive our Saviour and Maker in his blessed Sacrament to our everlasting comfort and health of Soul Christ delighteth to enter and dwell in that Soul where Love and Charity ruleth and where Peace and Concord is seen For thus writeth St. John 1 John 4. 1 John 2. God is charity he that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him And by this saith he we shall know that we be of God if we love our brethren Yea and by this shall we know that we be delivered from death to life if we love one another 1 John 2. But he which hateth his brother saith the same Apostle abideth in death even in the danger of everlasâ—â—ng death and is moreover the child of damnation an◠〈◊〉 the Devil cursed of God and hated so long as 〈◊〉 so remaineth of God and all his heavenly company For as Peace and Charity make us the blessed Children of Almighty God so doth hatred and envy make us the cursed Children of the Devil Rom. 8. God give us all grace to follow Christs examples in Peace and in Charity in Patience and Sufferance that we now may have him our guest to enter and dwell within us so as we may be in full surety having such a pledge of our Salvation If we have him and his favour we may be sure we have the favour of God by his means For he sitteth on the right hand of God his Father as our Proctor and Attorney pleading and suing for us in all our needs and necessities Wherefore if we we want any gift of godly wisdom we may ask it of God for Christs sake and we shall have it Let us consider and examine our selves in what want we be concerning this virtue of Charity and Patience If we see that our hearts be nothing inclined thereunto in forgiving them that have offended against us then let us knowledge our want and wish to God to have it But if we want it and see in our selves no desire thereunto verily we be in a dangerous case before God and have need to make much earnest Prayer to God that we may have such an heart changed to the grafting in of a new For unless we forgive other we shall never be forgiven of God No not all the prayers and good works of other can pacifie God unto us unless we be at peace and at one with our Neighbour Nor all our deeds and good works can move God to forgive us our debts to him except we forgive to other He setteth more by Mercy than by Sacrifice Mercy moved our Saviour Christ to suffer for his Enemies it becometh us then to follow his example For it shall little avail us to have in meditation the fruits and price of his Passion to magnifie
them and to delight or trust in them except we have in mind his examples in passion to follow them If we thus therefore consâ—â—er Christs death and will stick thereto with fast â—â—th for the merit and deserving thereof and wiâ—â—â—o frame our selves in such wise to bestow our selves and all that we have by Charity to the behoof of our Neighbour as Christ spent himself wholly for our profit then do we truly remember Christs death and being thus followers of Christs steps we shall be sure to follow him thither where he sitteth now with the Father and the Holy Ghost To whom be all Honour and Glory Amen THE SECOND HOMILY CONCERNING The Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ. THAT we may the better conceive the great mercy and goodness of our Saviour Christ in suffering death universally for all men it behoveth us to descend into the bottom of our Conscience and deeply to consider the first and principal cause wherefore he was compelled so to do When our great Grandfather Adam had broken Gods Commandment Gen. â— in eating the Apple forbidden him in Paradise at the motion and suggestion of his Wife he purchased thereby not only to himself but also to his Posterity for ever the just wrath and indignation of God who according to his former sentence pronounced at the giving of the Commandment condemned both him and all his to everlasting death both of Body and Soul For it was said unto him Gen. 2. Thou shalt eat freely of every Tree in the Garden but as touching the Tree of knowledge of good and ill thou shalt in no wise eat of it For in what hour soever thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Now as the Lord had spoken so it came to pass Adam took upon him to eat thereof and in so doing he died the death that is to say he became mortal he lost the favour of God he was cast out of Paradise he was no longer a Citizen of Heaven but a Fire-brand of Hell and a Bondslave to the Devil To this doth our Saviour bear witness in the Gospel Luke 15. calling us lost Sheep which have gone astray and wandred from the true Shepherd of our souls To this also doth St. Paul bear witness Rom. 5. saying That by the offence only of Adam death came upon all men to condemnation So that now neither he or any of his had any right or interest at all in the Kingdom of Heaven but were become plain Reprobates and Cast-aways being perpetually damned to the everlasting pains of Hell-fire In this so great misery and wretchedness if mankind could have recovered himself again and obtained forgiveness at Gods hands then had his case been somewhat tolerable because he might have attempted some way how to deliver himself from eternal death But there was no way left unto him he could do nothing that might pacifie Gods wrath he was altogether unprofitable in that behalf There was not one that did good no not one And how then could he work his own Salvation Should he go about to pacifie Gods heavy displeasure by offering up burnt-sacrifices Heb. 9. according as it was ordained in the old Law by offering up the blood of Oxen the blood of Calves the blood of Goats the blood of Lambs and so forth O these things were of no force nor strength to take away sins they could not put away the anger of God they could not cool the heat of his wrath nor yet bring mankind into favour again they were but only figures and shadows of things to come Heb. 10. and nothing else Read the Epistle to the Hebrews there shall you find this matter largely discussed there shall you learn in most plain words that the bloody Sacrifice of the old Law was unperfect and not able to deliver man from the state of damnation by any means so that mankind in trusting thereunto should trust to a broken staff and in the end deceive himself What should he then do Should he go about to serve and keep the Law of God divided into two Tables and so purchase to himself eternal life Indeed if Adam and his Posterity had been able to satisfie and fulfil the Law perfectly in loving God above all things and their Neighbour as themselves then should they have easily quenched the Lords wrath and escaped the terrible sentence of eternal death pronounced against them by the mouth of Almighty God For it is written Do thus and thou shalt live that is to say Luke 10. fulfil my Commandments keep thy self upright and perfect in them according to my Will then shalt thou live and not die Here is eternal life promised with this condition and so that they keep and observe the Law But such was the frailty of mankind after his Fall such was his weakness and imbecillity that he could not walk uprightly in Gods Commandments though he would never so fain but daily and hourly fell from his bounden duty offending the Lord his God divers ways to the great increase of his condemnation insomuch that the Prophet David crieth out on this wise All have gone astray Psal 5. all are become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one In this case what profit could he have by the Law None at all For as St. James saith James 2. He that shall observe the whole Law and yet faileth in one point is become guilty of all And in the Book of Deuteronomy it is written Deut. 27. Cursed be he saith God which abideth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them Behold the Law bringeth a curse with it and maketh it guilty not because it is of it self naught or unholy God forbid we should so think but because the frailty of our sinful flesh is such that we can never fulfil it according to the perfection that the Lord requireth Could Adam then think you hope or trust to be saved by the Law No he could not But the more he looked on the Law the more he saw his own damnation set before his eyes as it were in a clear glass So that now of himself he was most wretched and miserable destitute of all hope and never able to pacifie Gods heavy displeasure nor yet to escape the terrible judgment of God whereunto he and all his Posterity were fallen by disobeying the strait Commandment of the Lord their God But O the abundant riches of Gods great mercy Rom. 11. O the unspeakable goodness of his heavenly Wisdom When all hope of righteousness was past on our part when we had nothing in our selves whereby we might quench his burning wrath and work the salvation of our own Souls and rise out of the miserable estate wherein we lay Then even then did Christ the Son of God by the appointment of his Father come down from Heaven to be wounded for our sakes to be reputed with the wicked to be
that are strayed from thee This Experience was perceived to be true of that holy Prophet Jeremy Jer. 15. O Lord saith he whatsoever they be that forsake thee shall be confounded they that depart from thee shall be written in the Earth and soon forgotten It profiteth not good People to hear the goodness of God declared unto us if our hearts be not enflamed thereby to honor and thank him It profited not the Jews which were Gods elect People to hear much of God seeing that he was not received in their hearts by Faith nor thanked for his benefits bestowed upon them their unthankfulness was the cause of their destruction Let us eschew the manner of these before rehearsed and follow rather the Example of that holy Apostle St. Paul who when in a deep Meditation he did behold the marvellous Proceedings of Almighty God and considered his infinite goodness in the ordering of his Creatures he burst out into this conclusion Surely saith he of him Rom. 11. by him and in him be all things And this once pronounced he stuck not still at this Point but forthwith thereupon joyned to these words To him be glory and praise for ever Amen Upon the ground of which words of St. Paul good Audience I purpose to build my Exhortation of this day unto you Wherein I shall do my endeavour First To prove unto you that all good things come down unto us from above from the Father of Light Secondly That Jesus Christ his Son and our Saviour is the mean by whom we receive his liberal goodness Thirdly That in the power and vertue of the Holy Ghost we be made meet and able to receive his gifts and graces Which things distinctly and advisedly considered in our minds must needs compel us in most low reverence after our bounden Duty always to render him thanks again in some testification of our good hearts for his deserts unto us And that the entreating of this matter in hand may be to the glory of Almighty God Let us in one Faith and Charity call upon the Father of Mercy from whom cometh every good gift and every perfect gift by the mediation of his well-beloved Son our Saviour that we may be assisted with the presence of his Holy Spirit and profitably on both parts to demean our selves in speaking and hearkning to the Salvation of our Souls In the beginning of my speaking unto you good Christian People suppose not that I do take upon me to declare unto you the excellent Power or the incomparable Wisdom of Almighty God as though I would have you believe that it might be expressed unto you by words Nay it may not be thought that that thing may be comprehended by Mans words that is incomprehensible And too much arrogancy it were for Dust and Ashes to think that he can worthily decâ—are his Maker It passeth far the dark understanding and wisdom of a Mortal Man to speak sufficiently of that divine Majesty which the Angels cannot understand We shall therefore lay apart to speak of the profound and unsearchable Nature of Almighty God rather acknowledging our weakness than rashly to attempt what is above all Mans capacity to compass It shall better suffice us in low Humility to reverence and dread his Majesty which we cannot comprize than by over-much curious searching to be over-charged with the Glory We shall rather turn our whole Contemplation to answer a while his goodness towards us wherein we shall be much more profitably occupied and more may we be bold to search To consider the great Power he is of can but make us dread and fear To consider his high Wisdom might utterly discomfort our Frailty to have any thing to do with him but in consideration of his inestimable goodness we take good heart again to trust well unto him By his goodness we be assured to take him for our refuge our hope and comfort our merciful Father in all the course of our Lives His Power and Wisdom compelleth us to take him for God Omnipotent Invisible having Rule in Heaven and Earth having all things in his subjection and will have none in Council with him nor any to ask the reason of his doing Dan. 11. For he may do what liketh him and none can resist him For he worketh all things in his secret Judgment to his own pleasure Prov. 16. yea even the wicked to damnation saith Solomon By the reason of his Nature he is called in Scripture consuming Fire he is called a terrible and fearful God Heb. 11. of this behalf therefore we have no familiarity no access unto him but his goodness again tempereth the rigor of his High Power and maketh us bold and putteth us in hope that he will be conversant with us and easie unto us It is his goodness that moveth him to say in Scripture It is my delight to be with the Children of Men. It is his goodness that moveth him to call us unto him to offer us his Friendship and Presence It is his goodness that patiently suffereth our straying from him and suffereth us long to win us to Repentance It is of his goodness that we be created reasonable Creatures where else he might have made us brute Beasts Prov. 8. It was his Mercy to have us born among the number of Christian People and thereby in a much more nighness to Salvation where we might have been born if his goodness had not been among the Paynims clean void from God and the hope of Everlasting Life And what other thing doth his loving and gentle Voice spoken in his word where he calleth us to his Presence and Friendship but declare his goodness only without regard of our worthiness And what other thing doth stir him to call us to him when we be strayed from him to suffer us patiently to win us to Repentance but only his singular goodness no whit of our deserving Let them all come together that be now glorified in Heaven and let us hear what answer they will make in these Points before rehearsed whether their first Creation was in Gods goodness or of themselves Forsooth David would make answer for them all and say Know ye for surety even the Lord is God he hath made us and not we our selves If they were asked again who should be thanked for their Regeneration for their Justification and for their Salvation Whether their deserts or Gods goodness only Although in this Point every one confess sufficiently the truth of this matter in his own Person yet let David answer by the mouth of them all at this time who cannot chuse but say Not to us O Lord not to us but to thy Name give all the thanks for thy loving mercy and for thy truths sake If we should ask again from whence came their glorious Works and Deeds which they wrought in their lives wherewith God was so highly pleased and worshipped by them Let some other witness be brought in to testifie
wait to serve his Maker to be fierce against unjust Men to their Punishment For as the same Author saith He Armeth the Creatrue to revenge his Enemies and otherwhiles to the probation of our Faith stirreth he up such storms And therefore by what mean and instrument soever God takes from us his Gifts we must patiently take Gods Judgment in worth and acknowledge him to be the Taker and Giver Job 1. as Job saith The Lord gave and the Lord took when yet his Enemies drove his Cattle away and when the Devil slew his Children and afflicted his Body with grievous Sickness Such meekness was in that holy King and Prophet David when he was reviled of Shimei in the presence of all his Host he took it patiently and reviled not again but as confessing God to be the Author of his Innocency and good Name and offering it to be at his pleasure Let him alone saith he to one of his Servants that would have revenged such despite for God hath commanded him to curse David 2 Sam. 16. and peradventure God intendeth thereby to render me some good turn for this curse of him to day And though the Minister other whiles doth evil in his Act proceeding of Malice yet forasmuch as God turneth his evil act to a proof of our Patience we should rather submit our selves in Patience than to have indignation at Gods Rod which peradventure when he hath corrected us to our nurture he will cast it into the fire as it deserveth Let us in like manner truly acknowledge all our Gifts and Prerogatives to be so Gods Gifts that we shall be ready to resign them up at his Will and Pleasure again Let us throughout our whole Lives confess all good things to come from God of what Name or Nature soever they be not of these corruptible things only whereof I have now last spoken but much more of all Spiritual Graces behoveable for our Soul without whose Goodness no Man is called to Faith or staid therein as I shall hereafter in the next part of this Homily declare to you In the mean season forget not what hath already been spoken to you forget not to be conformable in your judgments to the truth of his Doctrin and forget not to practise the same in the whole state of your Life whereby ye shall obtain the blessing promised by our Saviour Christ Blessed are they which hear the Word of God and fulfil it in Life Which blessing he grant to us all who reigneth over all one God in Trinity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost To whom be all Honor and Glory for ever Amen The Third Part of the Homily for Rogation-Week I Promised to you to declare that all Spiritual Gifts and Graces come specially from God Let us consider the truth of this matter and hear what is testified first of the gift of Faith the first entry into a Christian Life without which no Man can please God For St. Paul confesseth it plainly to be Gods gift Ephes 2. 1 Pet. 1. saying Faith is the gift of God And again St. Peter saith It is of Gods power that ye be kept through Faith to Salvation It is of the goodness of God that we falter not in our hope unto him It is verily Gods work in us the Charity wherewith we love our Brethren If after our fall we Repent it is by him that we Repent which reacheth forth his Merciful Hand to raise us up If we have any Will to rise it is he that preventeth our Will and disposeth us thereto If after Contrition we feel our Consciences at peace with God through remission of our sin and so be reconciled again to his favor and hope to be his Children and Inheritors of Everlasting Life Who worketh these great Miracles in us Our Worthiness our Deservings and Endeavors our Wits and Vertue Nay verily St. Paul will not suffer Flesh and Clay to presume to such Arrogancy and therefore saith All is of God which hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ For God was in Christ when he reconciled the World unto himself God the Father of all Mercy wrought this high benefit unto us not by his own Person but by a mean by no less a mean than his only beloved Son whom he spared not from any pain and travail that might do us good For upon him he put our Sins and upon him he made our Ransom him he made the mean betwixt us and himself whose mediation was so acceptable to God the Father through his absolute and perfect Obedience that he took his Act for a full satisfaction of all our Disobedience and Rebellion whose Righteousness he took to weigh against our Sins whose Redemption he would have stand against our Damnation In this Point what have we to muse within our selves good Friends I think no less that that which St. Paul said in remembrance of this wonderful goodness of God Thanks be to Almighty God Rom. 7. Ephes 1. through Jesus Christ our Lord for it is he for whose sake we received this high gift of Grace For as by him being the Everlasting Wisdom he wrought all the World and that is contained therein So by him only and wholly would he have all things restored again in Heaven and Earth By this our Heavenly Mediator therefore do we know the Favor and Mercy of God the Father by him know we his Will and Pleasure towards us Matt. 3. For he is the brightness of his Fathers Glory and a very clear Image and Pattern of his Substance It is he whom the Father in Heaven delighteth to have for his well beloved Son whom he Authorized to be our Teacher whom he charged us to hear Ephes 1. saying Hear him It is he by whom the Father of Heaven doth bless us with all Spiritual and Heavenly gifts for whose sake and favor writeth St. John we have received Grace and Favor John 1. To this our Saviour and Mediator hath God the Father given the Power of Heaven and Earth and the whole Jurisdiction and Authority to destribute his Goods and Gifts committed to him for so writeth the Apostle Ephes 4.7 To every one of us is Grace given according to the measure of Christs giving And thereupon to execute his Authority committed after that he had brought Sin and the Devil to Captivity to be no more hurtful to his Members he ascended up to his Father again and from thence sent liberal Gifts to his welbeloved Servants and hath still the power to the Worlds end to distribute his Fathers Gifts continually in his Church to the establishment and comfort thereof And by him hath Almighty God decreed to dissolve the World to call all before him to judge both the Quick and the Dead and finally by him shall he Condemn the Wicked to Eternal Fire in Hell and give the Good Eternal Life and set them assuredly in presence with him in Heaven for evermore Thus
ye see how all is of God by his Son Christ our Lord and Saviour Remember I say once again your Duty of Thanks let them be never to want still injoyn your self to continue in Thanksgiving ye can offer to God no better Sacrifice For he saith himself Psal 50. It is the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanks that shall honor me Which thing was well perceived of that holy Prophet David when he so earnestly spake to himself thus Psal 103. O my Soul bless thou the Lord and all that is within me bless his holy Name I say once again O my Soul bless thou the Lord and never forget his manifold rewards God give us Grace good People to know these things and to feel them in our Hearts This knowledge and feeling is not in our selves by our selves it is not possible to come by it a great pity it were that we should lose so profitable knowledge Let us therefore meekly call upon that bountiful Spirit the Holy Ghost which proceedeth from our Father of Mercy and from our Mediator Christ that he would assist us and inspire us with his presence that in him we may be able to hear the goodness of God declared unto us to our Salvation For without his lively and secret inspiration can we not once so much as speak the Name of our Mediator as St. Paul plainly testifieth 1 Cor. 12 No Man can once Name our Lord Jesus Christ but in the Holy Ghost Much less should we be able to believe and know these great Mysteries that be opened to us by Christ St. Paul saith That no Man can know what is of God 1 Cor. 2. but the Spirit of God As for us saith he we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God for this purpose That in that holy Spirit we might know the things that be given us by Christ The Wise man saith that in the Power and Vertue of the Holy Ghost resteth all Wisdom and all Ability to know God and to please him For he waiteth thus We know that it is not in Mans power to guide his goings Wisd 9. No Man can know thy Pleasure except thou givest Wisdom and sendest thy holy Spirit from above Send him down therefore prayeth he to God from the holy Heavens and from the Throne of thy Majesty that he may be with me and labor with me that so I may know what is acceptable before thee Let us with so good Heart Pray as he did and we shall not fail but to have his assistance For he is soon seen of them that love him he will be found of them that seek him for very liberal and gentle is the Spirit of Wisdom In his power shall we have sufficient Abilty to know our Duty to God in him shall we be comforted and encouraged to walk in our Duty in him shall we be meet vessels to receive the Grace of Almighty God for it is he that purgeth and purifieth the mind by his secret working And he only is present every where by his invisible Power and containeth all things in his Dominion He lightneth the Heart to conceive worthy thoughts to Almighty God he sitteth in the Tongue of Man to stir him to speak his Honor no Language is hid from him for he hath the knowledge of all Speech he only Ministreth Spiritual strength to the powers of our Soul and Body To hold the way which God had prepared for us to walk rightly in our Journey we must acknowledge that it is in the power of his Spirit which helpeth our infirmity That we may boldly come in Prayer and call upon Almighty God as our Father it is by this holy Spirit which maketh intercession for us with continual Sighs Galat. 4. Rom. 8. If any Gift we have wherewith we may work to the Glory of God and profit of our Neighbor all is wrought by this own and self same Spirit which maketh his distributions peculiarly to every Man as he will 1 Cor. 12. If any Wisdom we have it is not of our selves we cannot glory therein as begun of our selves but we ought to glory in God from whom it came to us as the Prophet Jeremy writeth Jerem. 9. Let him that rejoyceth rejoyce in this that he understandeth and knoweth me for I am the Lord which sheweth Mercy Judgment and Righteousness in the Earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. This Wisdom cannot be attained but by the direction of the Spirit of God and therefore it is called Spiritual Wisdom And no where can we more certainly search for the knowledge of this Will of God by the which we must direct all our Works and Deeds but in the holy Scriptures for they be they that testifie of him John 5. saith our Saviour Christ It may be called Knowledg and Learning that is other where gotten without the Word but the Wise Man plainly testifieth Wisd 13. that they all be but Vain which have not in them the Wisdom of God We see to what Vanity the Old Philosophers came who were destitute of this Science gotten and searched for in his Word We see what Vanity the School Doctrin is mixed with for that in this Word they sought not the Will of God but rather the Will of Reason the Trade of Custom the Path of the Fathers the Practice of the Church Let us therefore Read and Revolve the holy Scripture both Day and Night Psal 1. Psal 119. For blessed is he that hath his whole meditation therein It is that which giveth light to our Feet to walk by It is that which giveth Wisdom to the simple and ignorant In it may we find Eternal Life In the holy Scriptures find we Christ in Christ find we God for he it is that is the express Image of the Father He that seeth Christ seeth the Father And contrariwise as St. Jerome saith the ignorance of the Scripture is the ignorance of Christ Not to know Christ Psal 19. Heb. 1. John 14. is to be in darkness in the midst of our Worldly and Carnal light of Reason and Philosophy To be without Christ is to be in foolishness For he is the only Wisdom of the Father in whom it pleased him that all fulness and perfection should dwell Coloss 2. With whom whosoever is endued in Heart by Faith and rooted fast in Charity hath laid a sure Foundation to build on whereby he may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth length and depth and to know the love of Christ This universal and absolute knowledge is that Wisdom which St. Paul wisheth these Ephesians to have as under Heaven the greatest treasure that can be obtained Ephes 3. For of this Wisdom the Wise Man writeth thus of his experience All good things came to me together with her and innumerable Riches through her hands And addeth more in that same place Sap. 7.
imaginations and turn again unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he is ready to forgive And in the Prophet Hosea the godly exhort one another after this manner Come and let us turn again unto the Lord Hos 6. for he hath smitten us and he will heal us he hath wounded us and he will bind us up again Note It is most evident and plain that these things ought to be understood of them that were with the Lord before and by their sins and wickednesses were gone away from him For we do not turn again unto him with whom we were never before but we come unto him Now unto all them that will return unfeignedly unto the Lord their God Eccles 7. 1 John 1. the favor and mercy of God unto forgiveness of sins is liberally offered whereby it followeth necessarily that although we do after we be once come to God and grafted in his Son Jesus Christ fall into great sins for there is no righteous Man upon the Earth that sinneth not and if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us yet if we rise again by Repentance and with a full purpose of amendment of Life do flee unto the mercy of God taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in his Son Jesu Christ there is an assured and infallible hope of pardon and remission of the same and that we shall be received again into the favor of our Heavenly Father It is written of David Acts 13. 2 Sam. 7. I have found a Man according to mine own heart or I have found David the Son of Jesse a Man according to mine own heart who will do all things that I will This is a great commendation of David It is also most certain that he did stedfastly believe the promise that was made him touching the Messias who should come of him touching the Flesh and that by the same Faith he was justified and grafted in our Saviour Jesu Christ to come and yet afterwards he fell horribly committing most detestable Adultery and damnable Murder and yet as soon as he cried Peccavi 2 Sam. 2. 2 Sam. 22. I have sinned unto the Lord his sin being forgiven he was received into favor again Now will we come unto Peter of whom no Man can doubt but that he was grafted in our Saviour Jesus Christ long before his denial Which thing may easily be proved by the answer which he did in his Name and in the Name of his Fellow Apostles make unto our Saviour Jesus Christ when he said unto them Will ye also go away John 6. Master saith he to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and know that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God Whereunto may be added the like Confession of Peter where Christ doth give us most infallible testimony Thou art blessed Simon the Son of Jonas for neither Flesh nor Blood hath revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven These words are sufficient to prove that Peter was already justifyed through this lively Faith in the only begotten Son of God whereof he made so notable and so solemn a confession But did not he afterwards most cowardly deny his Master although he had heard of him Mat. 26. Mat. 10. Whosoever denieth me before Men I will deny him before my Father Nevertheless as soon as with weeping eyes and with a sobing heart he did acknowledge his offence and with an earnest repentance did flee unto the mercy of God taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in him whom he had so shamefully denied his sin was forgiven him and for a Certificate and Assurance thereof the Room of his Apostleship was not denied unto him But now mark what doth follow After the same Holy Apostle had on Whitsunday Acts 2. with the rest of the Disciples received the gift of the Holy Ghost most abundantly he committed no small offence in Antiochia by bringing the Consciences of the Faithful into doubt by his Example Gal. 2. so that Paul was fain to rebuke him to his Face because that he walked not uprightly or went not the right way in the Gospel Shall we now say that after this grievous offence he was utterly excluded and shut out from the grace and mercy of God and that this his trespass whereby he was a stumbling Block unto many was unpardonable God defend we should say so But as these Examples are not brought in to the end that we should thereby take a boldness to sin presuming on the mercy and goodness of God but to the end that if through the frailness of our own Flesh and the temptation of the Devil we fall into like sins we should in no wise despair of the mercy and goodness of God What we must beware of Even so must we beware and take heed that we do in no wise think in our hearts imagine or believe that we are able to repent aright or to turn effectually unto the Lord by our own might and strength For this must be verified in all Men John 15. 2 Cor. 3. Phil. 2. Without me ye can do nothing Again Of our selves we are not able as much as to think a good thought And in another place It is God that worketh in us both the Will and the Deed. For this cause although Jeremy had said before Jer. 6. If thou return O Israel return unto me saith the Lord yet afterwards he saith Turn thou me O Lord and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God And therefore that holy Writer and ancient Father Ambrose doth plainly affirm That the turning of the heart unto God Ambros de Vocat Gent. lib. 8 cap. 9. is of God as the Lord himself doth testifie by his Prophet saying And I will give thee an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my People and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole heart These things being considered let us earnestly pray unto the living God our Heavenly Father that he will vouchsafe by his holy Spirit to work a true and unfeigned Repentance in us that after the painful labors and travels of this Life we may live eternally with his Son Jesus Christ to whom be all praise and glory for ever and ever Amen The Second Part of the Homily of Repentance HItherto have ye heard Well-beloved how needful and necessary the Doctrin of Repentance is and how earnestly it is throughout all the Scriptures of God urged and set forth both by the ancient Prophets by our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Apostles And that for as much as it is the conversion or turning again of the whole Man unto God from whom we go away by sin these four Points ought to be observed that is From whence or from what things we must return
this manner Peter was sorry and wept De poenitentia distin I. cap. Petrus because he erred as a Man I do not find what he said I know that he wept I read of his Tears but not of his satisfaction But how chance that the one was received into favor again with God and the other cast away but because that the one did by a lively Faith in him whom he had denied take hold upon the mercy of God and the other wanted Faith whereby he did despair of the Goodness and Mercy of God It is evident and plain then that although we be never so earnestly sorry for our sins acknowledge and confess them yet all these things shall be but means to bring us to utter desparation except we do stedfastly believe that God our Heavenly Father will for his Son Jesus Christs sake Pardon and Forgive us our Offences and Trespasses and utterly put them out of remembrance in his sight Therefore as we said before they that teach Repentance without Christ and a lively Faith in the Mercy of God do only teach Cains or Judas Repentance The Fourth is an Amendment of Life or a new Life in bringing forth Fruits worthy of Repentance For they that do truly Repent must be clean altered and changed they must become new Creatures they must be no more the same that that they were before And therefore thus said John Baptist unto the Pharisees and Sadducees that came unto his Baptism O generation of Vipers Matt. 3. who hath forewarned you to flee from the anger to come bring forth therefore Fruits worthy of Repentance Whereby we do learn that if we will have the wrath of God to be pacified we must in no wise dissemble but turn unto him again with a true and found Repentance which may be known and declared by good Fruits as by most sure and infallible signs thereof They that do from the bottom of their Hearts acknowledge their Sins and are unfeignedly sorry for their Offences will cast off all Hypocrisie and put on true Humility and lowliness of Heart They will not only receive the Physician of the Soul but also with a most fervent desire long for him They will not only abstain from the Sins of their former Life and from all other filthy Vices but also flee eschew and abhor all the occasions of them And as they did before give themselves to uncleanness of Life so will they from henceforwards with all diligence give themselves to Innocency pureness of Life and true Godliness Ionas 3. We have the Ninevites for an example which at the Preaching of Jonas did not only proclaim a general Fast and that they should every one put on Sackcloth but they all did turn from their Evil Ways and from the Wickedness that was in their Hands But above all other the History of Zaccheus is most notable For being come unto our Saviour Jesus Christ Luke 19. he did say Behold Lord the half of my Goods I give to the Poor and if I have defrauded any Man or taken ought away by Extortion or Fraud I do restore him fourfold Here we see that after his Repentance he was no more the Man that he was before but was clean changed and altered It was so far off that he would continue and abide still in his unsatiable covetousness or take ought away fraudulently from any Man that rather he was most willing and ready to give away his own and to make satisfaction unto all them that he had done injury and wrong unto Here may we right well add the sinful Woman which when she came to our Saviour Jesus Christ Luke 7. did pour down such abundance of Tears out of those wanton Eyes of hers wherewith she had allured many unto folly that she did with them wash his Feet wiping them with the Hairs of her Head which she was wont most gloriously to set out making of them a Net for the Devil Hereby we do learn what is the satisfaction that God doth require of us which is that we cease from Evil Iohn 5. and do Good and if we have done any Man wrong to endeavor our selves to make him true amends to the utmost of our power following in this the example of Zaccheus and of this sinfull Woman and also that goodly Lesson that John Baptist Zacharias Son bid give unto them that came to ask Counsel of him This was commonly the Penance that Christ enjoyned sinners Go thy way and sin no more John 15. Which Penance we shall never be able to fulfil without the special grace of him that doth say Without me ye can do nothing It is therefore our parts if at least we be desirous of the health and salvation of our own selves most earnestly to pray unto our heavenly Father to assist us with his holy Spirit that we may be able to hearken unto the Voice of the true Shepherd and with due obedience to follow the same Let us hearken to the Voice of Almighty God when he calleth us to Repentance let us not harden our hearts as such Infidels do who abuse the time given them of God to repent and turn it to continue their pride and contempt against God and Man which know not how much they heap Gods wrath upon themselves for the hardness of their hearts which cannot repent at the day of Vengeance Where we have offended the Law of God let us repent us of our straying from so good a Lord. Let us confess our unworthiness before him but yet let us trust in Gods free mercy for Christs sake for the pardon of the same And from henceforth let us endeavor our selves to walk in a new Life as new born Babes whereby we may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven and thereby to bear in our Consciences a good testimony of our Faith so that at the last to obtain the fruition of everlasting life through the merits of our Saviour To whom be all praise and honor for ever Amen The Third Part of the Homily of Repentance IN the Homily last spoken unto you right well-beloved People in our Saviour Christ ye heard of the true parts and tokens of Repentance that is hearty contrition and sorrowfulness of our Hearts unfeigned confession in word of mouth for our unworthy living before God a stedfast Faith to the merits of our Saviour Christ for pardon and a purpose of our selves by Gods grace to renounce our former wicked life and a full Conversion to God in a new life to glorifie his Name and to live orderly and charitably to the comfort of our Neighbor in all righteousness and to live soberly and modestly to our selves by using abstinence and temperance in word and in deed in mortifying our earthly Members here upon Earth Now for a further perswasion to move you to those parts of Repentance I will declare unto you some causes which should the rather move you to Repentance The causes that should