who became poor to make us rich vile to make us precious subject to death to make us live for ever What greater love could we silly Creatures desire or wish to have at Gods hands Therefore Dearly Beloved let us not forget this exceeding love of our Lord and Saviour let us not shew our selves unmindful or unthankful toward him but let us love him fear him obey him and serve him Let us confess him with our Mouths praise him with our Tongues believe on him with our Hearts and glorifie him with our good Works Christ is the light let us receive the light Christ is the truth let us believe the truth Christ is the way let us follow the way And because he is our only Master our only Teacher our only Shepherd and chief Captain therefore let us become his Servants his Scholars his Sheep and his Souldiers As for Sin the Flesh the World and the Devil whose Servants and Bond-slaves we were before Christs coming let us utterly cast them off and defie them as the chief and only Enemies of our Soul And seeing we are once delivered from their cruel Tyranny by Christ let us never fall into their hands again lest we chance to be in a worse case than ever we were before Happy are they saith the Scripture that continue to the end Be faithful saith God until death and I will give thee a crown of life Again he saith in another place He that putteth his hand unto the Plough and looketh back is not meet for the Kingdom of God Therefore let us be strong stedfast and unmoveable abounding always in the works of the Lord. Let us receive Christ not for a time but for ever let us believe his Word not for a time but for ever let us become his Servants not for a time but for ever in consideration that he hath redeemed and saved us not for a time but for ever and will receive us into his Heavenly Kingdom there to reign with him not for a time but for ever To him therefore with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour Praise and Glory for ever and ever Amen AN HOMILY FOR Good-Friday concerning the Death and Passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ IT should not become us well-beloved in Christ being that People which he redeemed from the Devil from Sin and Death and from everlasting Damnation by Christ to suffer this time to pass forth without any meditation and remembrance of that excellent Work of our Redemption wrought as about this time through the great mercy and charity of our Saviour Jesus Christ for us wretched Sinners and his mortal Enemies For if a mortal mans deed done to the behoof of the Common-wealth be had in remembrance of us with thanks for the benefit and profit which we receive thereby how much more readily should we have in memory this excellent act and benefit of Christs death whereby he hath purchased for us the undoubted pardon and forgiveness of our sins whereby he made at one the Father of Heaven with us in such wise that he taketh us now for his loving Children and for the true inheritors with Christ his Natural Son of the Kingdom of Heaven And verily so much more doth Christs kindness appear unto us in that it pleased him to deliver himself of all his goodly Honour which he was equally in with his Father in Heaven and to come down into this vale of misery to be made mortal man and to be in the state of a most low Servant serving us for our wealth and profit us I say which were his sworn Enemies which had renounced his holy Law and Commandments and followed the lusts and sinful pleasures of our corrupt Nature And yet I say Coloss 2. did Christ put himself between Gods deserved wrath and our sin and rent that Obligation wherein we were in danger to God and paid our debt Our debt was a great deal too great for us to have paid And without payment God the Father could never be at one with us Neither was it possible to be loosed from this debt by our own ability It pleased him therefore to be the payer thereof and to discharge us quite Who can now consider the grievous debt of sin which could none otherwise be paid but by the death of an Innocent and will not hate sin in his heart If God hateth sin so much that he would allow neither man nor Angel for the Redemption thereof but only the death of his only and well-beloved Son who will not stand in fear thereof If we my Friends consider this that for our sins this most innocent Lamb was driven to death we shall have much more cause to bewail our selves that we were the cause of his death than to cry out of the malice and cruelty of the Jews which pursued him to his death We did the deeds wherefore he was thus stricken and wounded they were only the ministers of our wickedness It is meet then that we should step low down into our hearts and bewail our own wretchedness and sinful living Let us know for a certainty that if the most dearly beloved Son of God was thus punished and stricken for the sin which he had not done himself how much more ought we sore to be stricken for our daily and manifold sins which we commit against God if we earnestly repent us not and be not sorry for them No man can love sin which God hateth so much and be in his favour No man can say that he loveth Christ truly and have his great Enemy sin I mean the author of his death familiar and in friendship with him So much do we love God and Christ as we hate sin We ought therefore to take great heed that we be not favourers thereof lest we be found Enemies to God and Traytors to Christ For not only they which nailed Christ upon the Cross are his tormentors and crucifiers Heb. 6. But all they saith St. Paul crucifie again the Son of God as much as is in them who do commit vice and sin which brought him to his death Rom. 6. If the wages of sin be death and death everlasting surely it is no small danger to be in service thereof Rom. 8. Rom. 8. If we live after the flesh and after the sinful lusts thereof St Paul threatneth yea Almighty God in St. Paul threatneth that we shall surely die We can none otherwise live to God but by dying to sin If Christ be in us then is sin dead in us and if the Spirit of God be in us which raised Christ from death to life so shall the same Spirit raise us to the resurrection of everlasting life Rom. 1. But if sin rule and reign in us then is God which is the fountain of all Grace and Vertue departed from us then hath the Devil and his ungracious spirit rule and dominion in us And surely if in such miserable state we die we shall
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
daily talk Why should I not Swear when I Swear truly To such Men it may be said that though they Swear truly yet in Swearing often unadvisedly for trifles without necessity and when they should not Swear they be not without fault but do take God's most Holy Name in vain Much more ungodly and unwise Men are they that abuse God's most Holy Name not only in buying and selling of small things daily in all places but also in eating drinking playing communing and reasoning As if none of these things might be done except in doing of them the most Holy Name of God be commonly used and abused vainly and unreverently talked of sworn by and forsworn to the breaking of God's Commandment and procurement of his Indignation The Second Part of the Sermon of Swearing YOu have been taught in the First Part of this Sermon against Swearing and Perjury what great danger it is to use the Name of God in vain And that all kind of Swearing is not unlawful neither against God's Commandment and that there be three things required in a lawful Oath First that it be made for the maintainance of the Truth Secondly that it be made with Judgment not rashly and unadvisedly Thirdly for the zeal and love of Justice Ye heard also what commodities come of lawful Oaths and what danger cometh of rash and unlawful Oaths Now as concerning the rest of the same matter you shall understand that as well they use the Name of God in vain that by an Oath make unlawful promises of good and honest things and perform them not As they which do promise evil and unlawful things and do perform the same Of such Men Lawful Oaths and Promises would be better regarded Josh 6. that regard not their Godly Promises bound by an Oath but wittingly and wilfully break them we do read in Holy Scripture two notable punishments First Joshua and the people of Israel made a League and faithful Promise of perpetual Amity and Friendship with the Gibeonites Notwithstanding afterwards in the days of wicked Saul many of these Gibeonites were murthered contrary to the said faithful Promise made Wherewith Almighty God was sore displeased that he sent an universal Hunger upon the whole Country which continued by the space of three years And God would not withdraw his punishment until the said Offence was revenged by the death of seven Sons 2 Kingâ—â— Chap. 25. or next kinsmen of King Saul And whereas Zâ—dechias King of Jerusalem had promised Fidelity to the King of Chaldea afterward when Zedechiaâ— contrary to his Oath and Allegiance did rebel against King Nebuchadonosor This Heathen King by God's permission and sufferance invading the Land of Jury and besieging the City of Jerusalem compelled the said King Zedechias to flee and in fleeing took him prisoner slew his Sons before his Face and put out both his Eies and binding him with chains led him prisoner miserably into Babylon Thus doth God shew plainly Unlawful Oaths and Promises are not to be kept how much he abhorreth breakers of honest Promises bound by an Oath made in his Name And of them that make wicked Promises by an Oath and will perform the same we have example in the Scriptures chiefly of Herod of the wicked Jews and of Jeptha Matth. 14. Herod promised by an Oath unto the Damsel which danced before him to give unto her whatsoever she should ask When she was instructed before of her wicked Mother to ask the Head of St. John Baptist Herod as he took a wicked Oath so he more wickedly performed the same and cruelly slew the most Holy Prophet Likewise did the malicious Jews make an Oath Acts 23. Judges 11. cursing themselves if they did either eat or drink until they had slain St. Paul And Jeptha when God had given to him victory of the Children of Ammon promised of a foolish Devotion unto God to offer for a Sacrifice unto him that Person which of his own House should first meet with him after his return home By force of which fond and unadvised Oath he did slay his own and only Daughter which came out of his House with Mirth and Joy to welcome him home Thus the Promise which he made most foolishly to God against God's everlasting Will and the Law of Nature most cruelly he performed so committing against God a double offence Therefore whosoever maketh any Promise binding himself thereunto by an Oath let him foresee that the thing which he promiseth be good and honest and not against the Commandment of God and that it be in his own power to perform it justly And such good Promises must all Men keep evermore assuredly But if a Man at any time shall either of Ignorance or of Malice Promise and Swear to do any thing which is either against the Law of Almighty God or not in his power to perform Let him take it for an unlawful and ungodly Oath Now somthing to speak of Perjury to the intent you should know how great and grievous an offence against God this wilful Perjury is I will shew you what it is to take an Oath before a Judge upon a Book Against Perjury First when they laying their hands upon the Gospel Book do Swear truly no enquire and to make a true presentment of things wherewith they be charged An Oath before a Judge and not to let from saying the Truth and doing truly for favour love dread or malice of any Person as God may help them and the Holy Contents of that Book They must consider that in that Book is contained God's everlasting Truth his most Holy and Eternal Word whereby we have forgiveness of our Sins and be made inheritors of Heaven to live for ever with God's Angels and Saints in Joy and Gladness In the Gospel Book is contained also God's terrible threats to obstinate sinners that will not amend their lives nor believe the Truth of God's Holy Word and the everlasting pain prepared in Hell for Idolaters Hypocrites for false and vain Swearers for perjured Men for False Witness-bearers for False Condemners of innocent and guiltless Men and for them which for favour hide the crimes of evil doers that they should not be punished So that whosoever wilfully forswear themselves upon Christ's Holy Evangely they utterly forsake God's Mercy Goodness and Truth the Merits of our Saviour Christ's Nativity Life Passion Death Resurrection and Ascension they refuse the forgiveness of Sins promised to all penitent Sinners the joyes of Heaven the company with Angels and Saints for ever All which Benefits and Comforts are promised unto true Christian Persons in the Gospel And they so being forsworn upon the Gospel do betake themselves to the Devils Service the Master of all Lies Falshood Deceit and Perjury provoking the great Indignation and Curse of God against them in this Life and the terrible Wrath and Judgment of our Saviour Christ at the great day of the last Judgment when he
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
themselves by true Faith perfect Charity and sure Hope of the endless Joy and Bliss everlasting All those therefore have great cause to be full of Joy that be joyned to Christ with true Faith stedfast Hope and perfect Charity and not to fear death nor everlasting Damnation For Death cannot deprive them of Jesus Christ nor can any Sin condemn them that are grafted surely in him which is their only Joy Treasure and Life Let us repent of our Sins amend our Lives trust in his Mercy and Satisfaction and Death can neither take him from us nor us from him For then as St. Paul saith Whether we live or die we be the Lords own And again he saith Christ did die and rose again because he should be Lord both of the dead and quick Then if we be the Lords own when we be dead it must needs follow that such temporal death not only cannot harm us but also that it shall be much to our profit and joyn us unto God more perfectly And thereof the Christian Heart may surely be certified by the infallible or undeceivable Truth of Holy Scripture It is God saith St. Paul which hath prepared us unto immortality and the same is he which hath given us aâ— earnest of the Spirit Therefore let us he always of good Comfort for we know that so long as we be in tho Body 2 Gal. 5. we be as it were far from God in a strange Country subject to many perils walking without perfect Sight and Knowledge of Almighty God only seeing him by Faith in Holy Scriptures But we have a courage and desire rather to be at home with God and our Saviour Christ far from the Body where we may behold his Godhead as he is Face to Face to our everlasting Comfort These be St. Paul's words in effect whereby we may perceive that the Life in this World is resembled and likened to a Pilgrimage in a strange Country far from God and that Death delivering us from our Bodies doth send us strait home into our own Country and maketh us to dwell presently with God for ever in everlasting Rest and Quietness So that to die is no loss but profit and winning to all true Christian People What lost the Thief that died on the Cross with Christ by his Bodily death Yea how much did he gain by it Did not our Saviour say unto him Luke 16. This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise And Lazarus that pitiful Person that lay before the Rich Man's Gate pained with Sores and pined with Hunger did not death highly profit and promote him which by the ministry of Angels sent him unto Abraham's Bosom a place of Rest Joy and Heavenly Consolation Let us think none other good Christian People but Christ hath prepared and made ready before the same Joy and Felicity for us that he prepared for Lazarus and the Thief Wherefore let us stick unto his Salvation and Gracious Redemption and believe his Word Serve him from our Hearts Love and Obey him and whatsoever we have done heretofore contrary to his most Holy Will now let us Repent in time and hereafter study to Correct our Life and doubt not but we shall find him as merciful unto us as he was either to Lazarus or to the Thief whose examples are written in Holy Scripture for the comfoâ—t of them that be sinners and subject to sorrows miseries and calamities in this World that they should not despair in God's Mercy but ever trust thereby to have forgiveness of their Sins and Life everlasting as Lazarus and the Thief had Thus I trust every Christian Man perceiveth by the infallible or undeceivable Word of God that Bodily death cannot harm nor hinder them that truly believe in Christ but contrarily shall profit and promote the Christian Souls which being truly penitent for their offences depart hence in perfect Charity and in sure Trust that God is merciful to them forgiving their Sins for the Merits of Jesus Christ his only natural Son The Second Cause why some do fear death The Second Cause why some do fear death is sore sickness and grievous pains which partly come before death and partly accompany or come with death whensoever it cometh This fear is the fear of the frail flesh and a natural passion belonging unto the nature of a mortal Man But true Faith in God's promises and regard of the pains and pangs which Christ upon the Cross suffered for us miserable sinners with consideration of the Joy and everlasting Life to come in Heaven will mitigate those pains and moderate this fear that it shall never be able to overthrow the hearty desire and gladness that the Christian Soul hath to be separated from this corrupt Body that it may come to the Gracious Presence of our Saviour Jesus Christ If we believe stedfastly the Word of God we shall perceive that such bodily sickness pangs of death or whatsoever dolorous pangs we suffer either before or with death be nothing else in Christian Men but the rod of our Heavenly and Loving Father wherewith he mercifully correcteth us either to try and declare the Faith of his patient Children that they may be sound Laudable Glorious and Honourable in his Sight when Jesus Christ shall be openly shewed to be the Judge of all the World or else to chastise and amend in them whatsoever offendeth his Fatherly and Gracious Goodness lest they should perish everlastingly And this his correcting rod is common to all Men that be truly his Therefore let us cast away the burden of Sin that lieth too heavy on our necks and return unto God by true penance and amendment of our lives Let us with patience run this course that is appointed suffering for his sake that dyed for our Salvation all sorrows and pangs of death and death itself joyfully when God sendeth it to us having our Eyes fixed and set fast ever upon the Head and Captain of our Faith Jesus Christ Phil. 2. Who considering the Joy that he should come unto cared neither for the shame nor pain of death but willingly conforming and framing his Will to his Fathers Will most patiently suffered the most shameful and painful death of the Cross being innocent and harmless And now therefore he is exalted in Heaven and everlastingly sitteth on the right hand of the Throne of God the Father Let us call to our remembrance therefore the Life and Joyes of Heaven that are kept for all them that patiently do suffer here with Christ and consider that Christ suffered all his painful passion by sinners and for sinners And then we shall with Patience and the more easily suffer such sorrows and pains when they come Let us not set at light the chastising of the Lord nor grudge at him nor fall from him when of him we be corrected For the Lord loveth them whom he doth correct and beateth every one whom he taketh to be his Child What Child is
that Heb. 12. saith St. Paul whom the Father loveth and doth not chastise If ye be without God's correction which all his welbeloved and true Children have then be you but Bastards smally regarded of God and not his true Children Therefore seeing that when we have on Earth our carnal Fathers to be our correctors we do fear them and reverently take their correction shall we not much more be in Subjection to God our Spiritual Father by whom we shall have everlasting Life and our Carnal Fathers somtimes correct us even as it pleaseth them without cause But this Father justly correcteth us either for our Sin to the intent we should amend or for our Commodity and Wealth to make us thereby partakers of his Holiness Furthermore all Correction which God sendeth us in this present time seemeth to have no Joy and Comfort but Sorrow and Pain yet it bringeth with it a tast of God's Mercy and Goodness towards them that be so corrected and a sure hope of God's everlasting Consolation in Heaven If then these Sorrows Diseases and Sicknesses and also Death itself be nothing else but our Heavenly Father's Rod whereby he certifieth us of his Love and gracious Favour whereby he tryeth and purifieth us whereby he giveth unto us Holiness and certifieth us that we be his Children and he our merciful Father Shall not we then with all humility as obedient and loving Children joyfully kiss our Heavenly Father's Rod and ever say in our Heart with our Saviour Jesus Christ Father if this Anguish and Sorrow which I feel and Death which I see approach may not pass but that thy will is that I must suffer them Thy Will be done The Third Part of the Sermon against the Fear of Death IN this Sermon against the fear of Death Two Causes were declared which commonly move worldly Men to be in much fear to die and yet the same do nothing trouble the faithful and good Livers when Death cometh but rather give them occasion greatly to rejoice considering that they shall be delivered from the sorrow and misery of this World and be brought to the great Joy and Felicity of the Life to come The Third Cause why Death is to be feared Now the Third and special Cause why Death indeed is to be feared is the miserable State of the worldly and ungodly People after their Death But this is no Cause at all why the godly and faithful People should fear Death but rather contrariwise their godly Conversation in this Life and Belief in Christ cleaving continually to his Mercies should make them to long sore after that Life that remaineth for them undoubtedly after this bodily Death Of this immortal State after this transitory Life where we shall live evermore in the Presence of God in Joy and Rest after Victory over all Sickness Sorrows Sin and Death There be many plain places of Holy Scripture which confirm the weak Conscience against the fear of all such Dolours Sicknesses Sin and bodily Death to asswage such trembling and ungodly fear and to encourage us with Comfort and hope of a blessed State after this Life Saint Paul wisheth unto the Ephesians Ephes 1. That God the Father of Glory would give unto them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that the Eyes of their Hearts might give Light to know him and to perceive how great things he had called them unto and how rich an Inheritance he hath prepared after this Life for them that pertain unto him Phil. 1. And St. Paul himself declareth the desire of his Heart which was to be dissolved and loosed from his Body and to be with Christ which as he said was much better for him although to them it was more necessary that he should live which he refused not for their sakes Even like as St. Martin said Good Lord if I be necessary for thy People to do good unto them I will refuse no Labour But else for mine own self I beseech thee to take my Soul Now the Holy Fathers of the Old Law and all faithful and righteous Men which departed before our Saviour Christ's Ascension into Heaven did by Death depart from Troubles unto Rest from the hands of their Enemies into the hands of God from Sorrows and Sicknesses unto joyful refreshing in Abraham's bosom a place of all Comfort and Consolation as the Scriptures do plainly by manifest words testifie Wisdom 3. The Book of Wisdom saith That the Righteous Mens Souls be in the hand of God and no torment shall touch them They seemed to the eyes of foolish Men to die and their death was counted miserable and their departing out of this World wretched but they be in Rest And another place saith Wisd 4. That the Righteous shall live for ever and their Reward is with the Lord and their Minds be with God who is above all Therefore they shall receive a Glorious Kingdom and a Beautiful Crown at the Lord's hand And in another place the same Book saith The Righteous though he be prevented with suddain Death nevertheless he shall be there where he shall be refreshed Of Abraham's Bosom Christ's words be so plain that a Christian Man needeth no more proof of it Now then if this were the state of the Holy Fathers and Righteous Men before the coming of our Saviour and before he was Glorified How much more then ought all we to have a stedfast Faith and a sure Hope of this blessed state and condition after our death Seeing that our Saviour now hath performed the whole Work of our Redemption and is Gloriously ascended into Heaven to prepare our dwelling places with him and said unto his Father Father John 17. I will that where I am my servants shall be with me And we know that whatsoever Christ Will his Father Wills the same wherefore it cannot be but if we be his Faithful Servants our Souls shall be with him after our departure out of this present life St. Stephen when he was stoned to death even in the midst of his torments what was his Mind most upon Acts 7. When he was full of the Holy Ghost saith Holy Scripture having his eyes lifted up into Heaven he saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God The which Truth after he had confessed boldly before the enemies of Christ they drew him out of the City and there they stoned him who cryed unto God saying Lord Jesu Christ take my Spirit And doth not our Saviour say plainly in St. John's Gospel Verily John 5. verily I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and cometh not into judgment but shall pass from death to life Shall we not then think that death to be precious by the which we pass unto life Therefore it is a true saying of the Prophet Psal 116. The death of the Holy and Righteous Men is precious in the
reprove them with these testimonies of Gods Word and such other Whereunto I am most sure they shall never be able to answer For the necessity of our Salvation did require such a Mediator and Saviour as under one Person should be a partaker of both Natures It was requisite he should be Man it was also requisite he should be God For as the transgression came by man so was it meet the satisfaction should be made by man And because death according to St. Paul is the just stipend and reward of sin therefore to appease the wrath of God and to satisfie his Justice it was expedient that our Mediator should be such a one as might take upon him the sins of mankind and sustain the due punishment thereof namely Death Moreover he came in flesh and in the self-same flesh ascended into Heaven to declare and testifie unto us that all faithful People which stedfastly believe in him shall likewise come unto the same Mansion-place whereunto he being our chief Captain is gone before Last of all he became man that we thereby might receive the greater comfort as well in our Prayers as also in our Adversity considering with our selves that we have a Mediator that is true man as we are who also is touched with our Infirmities and was tempted even in like sort as we are For these and sundry other causes it was most needful he should come as he did in the flesh But because no creature in that he is only a creature hath or may have power to destroy death and give life to overcome Hell and purchase Heaven to remit Sins and give Righteousness therefore it was needful that our Messias whose proper Duty and Office that was should be not only full and perfect Man but also full and perfect God to the intent he might more fully and perfectly make satisfaction for mankind Mat. 3. God saith This is my wel-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased By which place we learn that Christ appeased and quenched the wrath of his Father not in that he was only the Son of Man But much more in that he was the Son of God Thus ye have heard declared out of the Scriptures that Jesus Christ was the true Messias and Saviour of the World that he was by Nature and Substance perfect God and perfect Man and for what cause it was expedient it should be so Now that we may be the more mindful and thankful unto God in this behalf let us briefly consider and call to mind the manifold and great benefits that we have received by the Nativity and Birth of this our Messias and Saviour Before Christ coming into the World all men universally in Adam were nothing else but a wicked and crooked Generation rotten and corrupt Trees stony Ground full of Brambles and Briers lost Sheep Prodigal Sons naughty unprofitable Servants unrighteous Stewards workers of Iniquity the brood of Adders blind Guides sitting in Darkness and in the shadow of Death to be short nothing else but Children of Perdition and inheritors of Hell-fire To this doth St. Paul bear witness in divers places of his Epistles and Christ also himself in sundry places of his Gospel But after he was once come down from Heaven and had taken our frail Nature upon him he made all them that would receive him truly and believe his word good Trees and good Ground fruitful and pleasant Branches Children of Light Citizens of Heaven Sheep of his Fold Members of his Body Heirs of his Kingdom his true Friends and Brethren sweet and lively Bread the elect and chosen People of God For as St. Peter saith in his first Epistle and second Chapter He bare our sins in his body upon the Cross he healed us and made us whole by his stripes and whereas before we were sheep going astray he by his coming brought us home again to the true Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls making us a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an Holy Nation a particular People of God in that he died for our Offences and rose for our Justification St. Paul to Timothy the third Chapter We were saith he in times past unwise disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in hatred envy maliciousness and so forth But after the loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared towards mankind not according to the Righteousness that we had done but according to his great Mercy he saved us by the Fountain of the new Birth and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he poured upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that we being once Justified by his grace should be Heirs of Eternal Life through hope and faith in his blood In these and such other places is set out before our Eyes as it were in a Glass Mat. 2. Mat. 5. John 18. Luke 4. John 8. Mat. 9. Mat. 11. John 12. Coloss 1. the abundant grace of God received in Christ Jesu which is so much the more wonderful because it came not of any desert of ours but of his meer and tender mercy even then when we were his extream Enemies But for the better understanding and consideration of this thing let us behold the end of his coming so shall we perceive what great commodity and profit his Nativity hath brought unto us miserable and sinful creatures Heb. 10. Rom. 3. The end of his coming was to save and deliver his People to fulfil the Law for us to bear witness unto the Truth to teach and preach the words of his Father to give light unto the World to call sinners to Repentance to refresh them that labour and be heavy laden to cast out the Prince of this World to reconcile us in the body of his flesh to dissolve the works of the Devil last of all to become a Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole World These were the chief ends wherefore Christ became man not for any profit that should come to himself thereby but only for our sakes that we might understand the Will of God be partakers of his Heavenly Light be delivered out of the Devils claws released from the burden of sin justified through faith in his blood and finally received up into everlasting glory there to reign with him for ever Was not this a great and singular love of Christ towards mankind that being the express and lively Image of God he would notwithstanding humble himself and take upon him the form of a Servant and that only to save and redeem us O how much are we bound to the goodness of God in this behalf how many thanks and praises do we owe unto him for this our Salvation wrought by his dear and only Son Christ who became a Pilgrim in Earth to make us Citizens in Heaven who became the Son of man to make us the Sons of God who became obedient to the Law to deliver us from the curse of the Law
not rise to life but fall down to death and damnation and that without end Chrisâ— haâ—h not redeemed from us sin that we should live an sin For Christ hath not so redeemed us from sin that we may safely return thereto again but he hath redeemed us that we should forsake the motions thereof and live to righteousness Yea we be therefore washed in our Baptism from the filthiness of sin that we should live afterward in the pureness of life In Baptism we promised to renounce the Devil and his suggestions we promised to be as obedient Children always following Gods will and pleasure Then if he be our Father indeed let us give him his due Honour If we be his Children let us shew him our Obedience like as Christ openly declared his obedience to his Father which as St. Paul writeth was obedient even to the very death Phil. 2. the death of the Cross And this he did for us all that believe in him For himself he was not punished for he was pure and undefiled of all manner of sin He was wounded saith Esay for our wickedness Esay 53. and stripped for our sins he suffered the penalty of them himself to deliver us from danger He bare saith Esay all our sores and infirmities upon his own back No pain did he refuse to suffer in his own body that he might deliver us from pain everlasting His pleasure it was thus to do for us we deserved it not Wherefore the more we see our selves bound unto him the more he ought to be thanked of us yea and the more hope may we take that we shall receive all other good things of his hand in that we have received the gift of his only Son through his liberality R m. 8. For if God saith St. Paul hath not spared his own Son from pain and punishment but delivered him for us all unto the death how should he not give us all other things with him If we want any thing John 1. either for body or soul we may lawfully and boldly approach to God as to our merciful Father to ask that we desire and we shall obtain it For such power is given to us to be the Children of God so many as believe in Christs Name Mat. 11. In his Name whatsoever we ask we shall have it granted us For so well pleased is the Father Almighty God with Christ his Son that for his sake he favoureth us and will deny us nothing So pleasant was this Sacrifice and Oblation of his Sons death which he so obediently and innocently suffered that we should take it for the only and full amends for all the sins of the World And such favour did he purchase by his death of his Heavenly Father for us that for the merit thereof if we be true Christians in deed and not in word only we be now fully in Gods grace again and clearly discharged from our sin No â—ongue surely is able to express the worthiness of this so precious a death For in this standeth the continual pardon of our daily offences in this resteth our justification in this we be allowed in this is purchased the everlasting health of all our souls Acts 4. Yea there is none other thing that can be named under Heaven to save our souls but this only work of Christs precious offering of his Body upon the Altar of the Cross Certes there can be no work of any mortal man be he never so holy that shall be coupled in merits with Christs most holy act For no doubt all our thoughts and deeds were of no value if they were nor allowed in the merits of Christs death All our righteousness is far unperfect if it be be compared with Christs righteousness For in his acts and deeds there was no spot of sin or of any unperfectness Our deeds be full of imperfection And for this cause they were the more able to be the true amends of our righteousness where our acts and deeds be full of imperfection and infirmities and therefore nothing worthy of themselves to stir God to any favour much less to challenge that glory that is due to Christs act and merit Psal 115. For not to us saith David not to us but to thy Name give the glory O Lord. Let us therefore good Friends with all reverence glorifie his Name let us magnifie and praise him for ever For he hath dealt with us according to his great mercy by himself hath he purchased our Redemption Heb. 1. He thought it not enough to spare himself and to send his Angel to do this deed but he would do it himself that he might do it the better and make it the more perfect Redemption He was nothing moved with the intolerable pains that he suffered in the whole course of his long Passion to repent him thus to do good to his Enemies but he opened his heart for us and bestowed himself wholly for the ransoming of us Let us therefore now open our hearts again to him and study in our lives to be thankful to such a Lord and evermore to be mindful of so great a benefit Acts 17. yea let us take up our Cross with Christ and follow him His Passion is not only the ransom and whole amends for our sin but it is also a most perfect example of all patience and sufferance For if it behoved Christ thus to suffer and to enter into the glory of his Father why should it not become us to bear patiently our small crosses of adversity and the troubles of this World For surely as saith St. Peter Christ therefore suffered 1 Pet. 2. 1 Tim. 2. Rom. 8. Mat. 5. Heb. 11. to leave us an example to follow his steps And if we suffer with him we shall be sure also to reign with him in Heaven Not that the sufferance of this transitory life should be worthy of that glory to come but gladly should we be contented to suffer to be like Christ in our life that so by our works we may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven And as it is painful and grievous to bear the Cross of Christ in the griefs and displeasures of this life so it bringeth forth the joyful fruit of Hope James 5. in all them that be exercised therewith Let us not so much behold the pain as the reward that shall follow that labour Nay let us rather endeavour our selves in our sufferance to endure innocently and guiltless as our Saviour Christ did For if we suffer for our deservings 1 Pet. 2. then hath not patience his perfect work in us but if undeservedly we suffer loss of goods and life if we suffer to be evil spoken of for the love of Christ this is thankful afore God for so did Christ suffer The patience of Christ He never did sin neither was any guile found in his mouth Yea when he was reviled with taunts he reviled not again
condemned unto death to take upon him the reward of our sins and to give his Body to be broken on the Cross for our offences He saith the Prophet Esay Esay 55. meaning Christ hath born our infirmities and hath carried our sorrows the chastisements of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we were made whole 2 Cor. 5. St. Paul likewise saith God made him a sacrifice for our sins which knew not sin that we should be made the righteousness of God by him And St. Peter most agreeably writing in this behalf saith Christ hath once died and suffered for our sins the just for the unjust c. To these might be added an infinite number of other places to the same effect but these few shall be sufficient for this time Now then as it was said in the beginning let us ponder and weigh the cause of his death that thereby we may be the more moved to glorifie him in our whole life Which if you will have comprehended briefly in one word it was nothing else on our part but only the transgression and sin of mankind When the Angel came to warn Joseph that he should not fear to take Mary to his Wife Did he not therefore will the Childs Name to be called Jesus because he should save his People from their sins When John the Baptist preached Christ and shewed him to the People with his finger Did he not plainly say unto them John 1. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the World When the Woman of Canaan besought Christ to help her Daughter which was possest with a Devil Mat. 15. Did he not openly confess that he was sent to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel by giving his life for their sins It was sin then O man even thy sin that caused Christ the only Son of God to be crucified in the flesh and to suffer the most vile and slanderous death of the Cross If thou hadst kept thy self upright if thou hadst observed the Commandments if thou hadst not presumed to transgress the will of God in thy first Father Adam then Christ Rom. 5. being in form of God needed not to have taken upon him the shape of a Servant being immortal in Heaven he needed not to become mortal on Earth being the true Bread of the Soul he needed not to hunger being the healthful Water of Life he needed not to thirst being life it self he needed not to have suffered death But to these and many other such extremities was he driven by thy sin which was so manifold and great that God could be only pleased in him and none other Canst thou think of this O sinful man and not tremble within thy self Canst thou hear it quietly without remorse of Conscience and sorrow of Heart Did Christ suffer his Passion for thee and wilt thou shew no compassion towards him While Christ was yeâ— hanging on the Cross and yielding up the Ghost the Scripture witnesseth that the veil of the Temple did rent in twain Mat. 27. and the Earth did quake that the stones clave asunder that the Graves did open and the dead bodies rise and shall the Heart of man be nothing moved to remember how grievously and cruelly he was handled of the Jews for our sins Shall man shew himself to be more hard hearted than stones to have less compassion than dead Bodies Call to mind O sinful Creature and set before thine eyes Christ crucified Think thou seest his Body stretched out in length upon the Cross his Head crowned with sharp Thorns and his Hands and his Feet pierced with Nails his Heart opened with a long Spear his Flesh rent and torn with Whips his Brows sweating Water and Blood Think thou hearest him now crying in an intolerable agony to his Father and saying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Couldst thou behold this woful sight or hear this mournful voice without Tears considering that he suffered all this not for any desert of his own but only for the grievousness of thy sins O that mankind should put the everlasting Son of God to such pains O that we should be the occasion of his death and the only cause of his condemnation May we not justly cry wo worth the time that ever we sinned O my Brethren let this Image of Christ crucified be always printed in our hearts let it stir us up to the hatred of sin and provoke our minds to the earnest love of Almighty God For why is not sin think you a grievous thing in his sight seeing for the transgressing of Gods Precept in eating of one Apple he condemned all the Wâ—â—ld to perpetual death and would not be pacified but only with the blood of his own Son True yea most true is that saying of David Psal 5. Thou O Lord hatest all them that work iniquity neither shall the wicked and evil man dwell with thee By the mouth of his holy Prophet Esay Esay 5. he cried mainly out against sinners and saith Wo be unto you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with cart-ropes Did he not give a plain token how greatly he hated and abhorred sin Gen. 7. when he drowned all the World save only eight Persons when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with Fire and Brimstone Gen. 19. 1 Kings 26. when in three days space he killed with Pestilence threescore and ten thousand for David's offence when he drowned Pharaoh and all his Host in the Red-Sea Exod. 14. Daniel 4. when he turned Nabuchodonosor the King into the form of a brute Beast creeping upon all four 2 Kings 27. Acts 1. when he suffered Achitophel and Judas to hang themselves upon the remorse of sin which was so terrible to their eyes A thousand such examples are to be found in Scripture if a man would stand to seek them out But what need we This one example which we have now in hand is of more force and ought more to move us than all the rest Christ being the Son of God and perfect God himself who never committed sin was compelled to come down from Heaven to give his Body to be bruised and broken on the Cross for our sins Was not this a manifest token of Gods great wrath and displeasure towards sin that he could be pacified by no other means but only by the sweet and precious Blood of his dear Son O sin sin that ever thou shouldest drive Christ to such extremity Wo worth the time that ever thou camest into the World But what booteth it now to bewail Sin is come and so come that it cannot be avoided There is no man living Prov. 24. no not the justest man on the Earth but he falleth seven times a day as Solomon saith And our Saviour Christ although he hath delivered us from sin yet not so that we shall be free from committing sin but so that it
Hell to the intent to put us in good hope that by his strength we shall do the same He paid the Ransom of sin that it should not be laid to our charge He destroyed the Devil and all his Tyranny and openly triumphed over him and took away from him all his Captives and hath raised and set them with himself among the Heavenly Citizens above Ephes 2. He died to destroy the rule of the Devil in us and he rose again to send down his Holy Spirit to rule in our hearts to endow us with perfect Righteousness Thus it is true that David sung Psal 84. Ephes 4. Captivam duxit captivitatem Luke 2. Veritas de terra orta est justitia de coelo prospexit The truth of Gods promise is in Earth to man declared or from the Earth is the everlasting Verity Gods Son risen to life and the true righteousness of the Holy Ghost looking out of Heaven and in most liberal largess dealt upon all the World Thus is glory and praise rebounded upwards to God above for his mercy and truth And thus is Peace come down from Heaven to men of good and faithful hearts Psal 48. Misericordia veritas obviaverunt sibi Thus is mercy and truth as David writeth together met thus is peace and righteousness embracing and kissing each other If thou doubtest of so great wealth and felicity that is wrought for thee O man call to thy mind that therefore hast thou received into thine own possession the everlasting Verity our Saviour Jesus Christ to confirm to thy Conscience the truth of all this matter Thou hast received him if in true faith and repentance of Heart thou hast received him If in purpose of amendment thou hast received him for an everlasting gage or pledge of thy Salvation Thou hast received his Body which was once broken and his Blood which was shed for the remission of thy sin Thou hast received his Body to have within thee the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost for to dwell with thee to endow thee with grace to strengthen thee against thine Enemies and to comfort thee with their presence Thou hast received his Body to endow thee with everlasting righteousness to assure thee of everlasting bliss Ephes 5. and life of thy Soul For with Christ by true Faith art thou quickned again saith St. Paul from death of sin to life of grace and in hope translated from corporal and everlasting death to the everlasting life and glory in Heaven where now thy conversation should be and thy heart and desire set Doubt not of the truth of this matter how great and high soever these things be It becometh God to do no small deeds how impossible soever they seem to thee Pray to God that thou mayest have Faith to perceive this great Mystery of Christs Resurrection that by Faith thou mayest certainly believe nothing to be impossible with God Luke 18. Only bring thou Faith to Christs Holy Word and Sacrament Let thy Repentance shew thy Faith let thy purpose of amendment and obedience of thy heart to Gods Law hereafter declare thy true belief Endeavour thy self to say with St. Paul Phil. 4. From henceforth our conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour even the Lord Jesus Christ which shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like his glorious body which he shall do by the same power whereby he rose from death and whereby he shall be able to subdue all things unto himself Thus good Christian People forasmuch as ye have heard these so great and excellent benefits of Christs mighty and glorious Resurrection as how that he hath ransomed Sin overcome the Devil Death and Hell and hath victoriously gotten the better hand of them all to make us free and safe from them and knowing that we be by this benefit of his Resurrection risen with him by our Faith unto life everlasting being in full surety of our hope that we shall have our bodies likewise raised again from death to have them glorified in immortality and joyned to his glorious body having in the mean while his holy Spirit within our hearts as a Seal and Pledge of our everlasting Inheritance By whose assistance we be replenished with all righteousness by whose power we shall be able to subdue all our evil affections rising against the pleasure of God These things I say well considered let us now in the rest of our life declare our Faith that we have in this most fruitful Article by framing our selves thereunto in rising daily from sin to righteousness and holiness of life For what shall it avail us saith St. Peter to be 2 Pet. 2. escaped and delivered from the filthiness of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ if we be entangled again therewith and be overcome again Certainly it had been better saith he never to have known the way of righteousness then after it is known and received to turn back again from the holy Commandment of God given unto us For so shall the Proverb have place in us where it is said The Dog is returned to his vomit again and the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire again What a shame were it for us being thus so clearly and freely washed from our sin to return to the filthiness thereof again What a folly were it thus endowed with righteousness to lose it again What madness were it to lose the Inheritance that we be now set in for the vile and transitory pleasure of sin And what an unkindness should it be where our Saviour Christ of his mercy is come to us to dwell with us as our Guest to drive him from us and to banish him violently out of our souls and instead of him in whom is all grace and vertue to receive the ungracious spirit of the Devil the founder of all naughtiness and mischief How can we find in our hearts to shew such extream unkindness to Christ which hath now so gently called us to mercy and offered himself unto us and he now entred within us Yea how dare we be so bold to renounce the presence of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost For where one is there is God all whole in Majesty together with all his power wisdom and goodness and fear not I say the danger and peril of so traiterous a defiance and departure Good Christian Brethren and Sisters advise your selves consider the dignity that ye be now set in let no Folly lose the thing that Grace hath so preciously offered and purchased let not wilfulness and blindness put out so great light that is now shewed unto you Ephes 6. Only take good hearts unto you and put upon you all the Armour of God that ye may stand against your Enemies which would again subdue you and bring you into their thraldom Remember ye be bought from your vain conversation
1 Pet. 1â— and that your freedom is purchased neither with gold nor silver but with the price of the precious blood of that innocent Lamb Jesus Christ which was ordained to the same purpose before the World was made But he was so declared in the latter time of grace for your sakes which by him have your Faith in God who hath raised him from death and hath given him glory that you should have your faith and hope towards God Therefore as you have hitherto followed the vain lusts of your minds and so displeased God to the danger of your souls So now like obedient Children thus purified by Faith 1 Pet. 1. give your selves to walk that way which God moveth you to that ye may receive the end of your Faith the Salvation of your Souls And as you have given your bodies to unrighteousness to sin after sin so now give your selves to righteousness to be sanctified therein If ye delight in this Article of our Faith that Christ is risen again from death to life then follow you the example of his Resurrection as St. Paul exhorteth us saying Rom. 6. As we be buried with Christ by our Baptism into death so let us daily die to sin mortifying and killing the evil desires and motions thereof And as Christ was raised up from death by the glory of the Father so let us rise to a new life and walk continually therein that we may likewise as natural children live a conversation to move men to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Matth. 5. If we then be risen with Christ by our faith to the hope of everlasting life let us rise also with Christ after his example to a new life and leave our old We shall then be truly risen if we seek for things that be heavenly if we have our affection on things that be above and not on things that be on the earth If ye desire to know what these earthly things be which ye should put off and what be the heavenly things above that ye should seek and ensue St. Paul in the Epistle to the Colossians declareth when he exhorteth us thus Mortifie your earthly members Col. 3. and old affection of sin as fornication uncleanness unnatural lust evil concupiscence and covetousness which is worshipping of Idols for the which things the wrath of God is wont to fall on the children of unbelief in which things once ye walked when ye lived in them But now put ye also away from you wrath fierceness maliciousness cursed speaking filthy speaking out of your mouths Lie not one to another that the old man with his works be put off and the new be put on These be the earthly things which St. Paul moved you to cast from you and to pluck your hearts from them For in following these ye declare your selves earthly and worldly These be the fruits of the earthly Adam These should you daily kill by good diligence in withstanding the desires of them that ye might rise to righteousness Let your affection from henceforth be set on heavenly things sue and search for mercy kindness meekness patience forbearing one another and forgiving one another If any man have a quarrel to another as Christ forgave you even so do ye If these and such other heavenly vertues ye ensue in the residue of your life ye shall shew plainly that ye be risen with Christ and that ye be the heavenly Children of your Father in Heaven from whom as from the giver James 1. cometh these graces and gifts Ye shall prove by this manner that your conversation is in Heaven where your hope is and not on Earth following the beastly appetites of the flesh Phil. 3. Ye must consider that ye be therefore cleansed and renewed that ye should from henceforth serve God in holiness and righteousness all the days of your lives that ye may reign with him in everlasting life If ye refuse so great grace whereto ye be called what other thing do ye Luke 1. than heap to you damnation more and more and so provoke God to cast his displeasure upon you and to revenge this mockage of his Holy Sacraments in so great abusing of them Apply your selves good Friends to live in Christ that Christ may still live in you whose favour and assistance if ye have then have ye everlasting life already within you then can nothing hurt you Whatsoever is hitherto done and committed John 5. Christ ye see hath offered you pardon and clearly received you to his favour again again in full surety whereof ye have him now inhabiting and dwelling within you Only shew your selves thankful in your lives Col. 3. determine with your selves to refuse and avoid all such things in your conversations as should offend his eyes of mercy Endeavour your selves that way to rise up again which way ye fell into the Well or Pit of sin If by your Tongue you have offended now thereby rise again and glorifie God therewith accustom it to land and praise the Name of God as ye have therewith dishonoured it And as ye have hurt the name of your Neighbour or otherwise hindred him so now intend to restore it to him again For without Restitution Restitution God accepteth not your Confession nor yet your Repentance It is not enough to forsake evil except you set your courage to do good By what occasion soever you have offended turn now the occasion to the honouring of God and profit of your Neighbour Psal 36. Truth it is that sin is strong and affections unruly Hard it is to subdue and resist our Nature so corrupt and leavened with the sour bitterness of the Poison which we received by the inheritance of our old Father Adam But yet take good courage saith our Saviour Christ Matth. 6. for I have overcome the World and all other Enemies for you Sin shall not have power over you for ye be now under grace saith St. Paul Rom. 6. Rom. 8. Though your power be weak yet Christ is risen again to strengthen you in your Battel his Holy Spirit shall help your Infirmities In trust of his mercy 1 Cor. 5. take you in hand to purge this old leaven of sin that corrupteth and soureth the sweetness of our life before God that ye may be as new and fresh dough void of all sour leaven of wickedness so shall ye shew your selves to be sweet bread to God that he may have his delight in you I say kill and offer you up the worldly and earthly affections of your bodies For Christ our Easter Lamb is offered up for us to slay the power of sin to deliver us from the danger thereof and to give us example to die to sin in our lives As the Jews did eat their Easter Lamb and keep their Feast in remembrance of their deliverance out of Egypt Even so let us keep our Easter Feast in the thankful remembrance of
understood And concerning the hardness of Scripture he that is so weak that he is not able to brook strong Meat yet he may suck the sweet and tender Milk and defer the rest until he wax stronger and come to more knowledge For God receiveth the Learned and Unlearned and casteth away none but is indifferent unto all And the Scripture is full as well of low Valleys plain Ways and easie for every Man to use and to walk in As also of high Hills and Mountains which few Men can climb unto God leaveth no Man untaught that hath good Will to know his Word And whosoever giveth his Mind to Holy Scriptures with diligent Study and burning Desire it cannot be saith St. Chrysostome that he should be left without help For either God Almighty will send him some Godly Doctor to teach him as he did to instruct the Eunuch a Nobleman of Ethiope and Treasurer unto Queen Candace who having affecton to read the Scripture although he understood it not yet for the desire that he had unto God's Word God sent his Apostle Philip to declare unto him the true Sense of the Scripture that he read or else if we lack a learned Man to instruct and teach us yet God himself from above will give light unto our Minds and teach us those things which are necessary for us and wherein we be ignorant How the knowledge of the Scripture may be attained unto Matt. 7. A good rule for the understanding of Scripture And in another place St. Chrysostome saith that Man 's Human and Worldly Wisdom or Science is not needful to the understanding of Scripture but the revelation of the Holy Ghost who inspireth the true meaning unto them that with Humility and Diligence do search therefore He that asketh shall have and he that seeketh shall find and he that knocketh shall have the Door opened If we read once twice or thrice and understand not let us not cease so but still continue Reading Praying Asking of others and so by still knocking at the last the Door shall be opened as St. Augustin saith although many things in the Scripture be spoken in obscure mysteries yet there is nothing spoken under dark Mysteries in one place but the self-same thing in other places is spoken more familiarly and plainly to the capacity both of learned and unlearned No Man is excepted from the knowledge of God's Word And those things in the Scripture that be plain to understand and necessary for Salvation every Man's Duty is to Learn them to print them in Memory and effectually to Exercise them And as for the dark Mysteries to be contented to be ignorant in them until such time as it shall please God to open those things unto him In the mean season if he lack either aptness or opportunity God will not impute it to his folly But yet it behoveth not that such as be apt should set aside reading because some other be unapt to read Nevertheless for the hardness of such places the reading of the whole ought not to be set apart And briefly to conclude What persons would have Ignorance to continue as St. Augustine saith by the Scripture all Men be amended weak Men be strenthened and strong Men be comforted So that surely none be enemies to the reading of God's Word but such as either be so ignorant that they know not how wholsome a thing it is or else be so sick that they hate the most comfortable Medicine that should heal them Or so ungodly that they would wish the People still to continue in blindness and ignorance of God Thus we have briefly touched some part of the Commodities of God's Holy Word The Holy Scripture is one of God's chief Benefits which is one of God's chief and principal Benefits given and declared to Mankind here on Earth Let us thank God heartily for this his great and special Gift beneficial Favour and Fatherly Providence The right reading use and fruitful studying in Holy Scripture Psal 50. Let us be glad to receive this precious Gift of our Heavenly Father Let us Hear Read and Know these Holy Rules Injunctions and Statutes of our Christian Religion and upon that we have made profession to God at our Baptisme Let us with fear and reverence lay up in the chest of our Hearts these necessary and fruitful Lessons Let us night and day muse and have Meditation and Contemplation in them Let us ruminate and as it were chew the Cud that we have the sweet Juice spiritual Effect Marrow Honey Kernel Taste Comfort and Consolation of them Let us stay quiet and certify our Consciences with the most infallible Certainty Truth and perpetual assurance of them Let us pray to God the only Author of these Heavenly Studies that we may Speak Think Believe Live and Depart hence according to the wholesom Doctrine and Verities of them And by that means in this world we shall have God's Defence Favour and Grace with the unspeakable solace of peace and quietness of Conscience and after this miserable life we shall enjoy the endless Bliss and Glory of Heaven which he Grant us all that died for us all Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory both now and everlastingly A SERMON OF THE Misery of Mankind and of his condemnation to Death everlasting by his own Sin THe Holy Ghost in Writing the Holy Scripture is in nothing more diligent than to pull down Man's Vain-glory and Pride which of all Vices is most universally grafted in all Mankind even from the first infection of our first Father Adam And therefore we read in many places of Scripture many notable Lessons against this old rooted Vice to teach us the most commendable virtue of Humility how to know ourselves and to remember what we be of ourselves In the Book of Genesis â—â—n 3. Almighty God giveth us all a Title and Name in our great Grandfather Adam which ought to warn us all to consider what we be whereof we be from whence we came and whither we shall saying thus In the sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat thy Bread till thou be turned again into the ground for out of it wast thou taken inasmuch as thou art Dust into Dust shalt thou be turned again Here as it were in a Glass we may learn to know ourselves to be but Ground Earth and Ashes and that to Earth and Ashes we shall return Also the Holy Patriarch Abraham did well remember this Name and Title Dust Earth and Ashes appointed and assigned by God to all Mankind and therefore he calleth himself by that Name when he maketh his earnest Prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah And we read that Judith Esther Job Jud. 4. 9. Job 13. Jer. 6. and 25. Jeremy with other Holy Men and Women in the Old Testament did use Sackcloth and to cast Dust and Ashes upon their Heads when they bewailed their sinful
shall justly judge both the quick and the dead according to their Works For whosoever forsaketh the Truth Though Perjury do escape here unspied and unpunished it shall not do so ever for love or displeasure of any Man or for lucre and profit to himself doth forsake Christ and with Judas betray him And although such perjured Mens falshood be now kept secret yet it shall be opened at the last day when the secrets of all Mens Hearts shall be manifest to all the World And then the Truth shall appear and accuse them and their own Conscience with all the blessed company of Heaven shall bear witness truly against them And Christ the Righteous Judge shall then justly condemn them to everlasting shame and death This sin of Perjury Almighty God by the Prophet Malachy doth threaten to punish sore saying unto the Jews Malac. 3â— I will come to you in judgment and I will be a swift witness and a sharp Judge upon Sorcerers Adulterers and Perjured persons Which thing to the Prophet Zachary God declareth in a vision wherein the Prophet saw a Book flying which was twenty Cubits long and ten Cubits broad God saying then unto him this is the curse that shall go forth upon the face of the Earth for Falshood false Swearing and Perjury And this Curse shall enter into the House of the false Man and into the House of the perjured Man and it shall remain in the midst of his House consume him and the timber and stones of his House Thus you see how much God doth hate Perjury and what punishment God hath prepared for false Swearers and perjured Persons Thus you have heard how and in what causes it is lawful for a Christian Man to Swear Ye have heard what properties and conditions a lawful Oath must have and also how such lawful Oaths are both Godly and necessary to be observed Ye have heard that it is not lawful to Swear vainly that is other ways than in such Causes and after such sort as is declared And finally ye have heard how damnable a thing it is either to forswear ourselves or to keep an unlawful and an unadvised Oath Wherefore let us earnestly call for Grace that all Vain-swearing and Perjury set apart we may only use such Oaths as be lawful and Godly and that we may truly without all fraud keep the same according to God's Will and Pleasure To whom with the Son and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Amen A SERMON How dangerous a thing it is to fall from God OF our going from God the Wise Man saith that Pride was the first beginning for by it Man's Heart was turned from God his Maker For Pride saith he Eccl. 10. is the Fountain of all Sin He that hath it shall be full of Cursings and at the end it shall overthrow him And as by Pride and Sin we go from God so shall God and all Goodness with him go from us And the Prophet Osee doth plainly affirm that they which go away still from God by vicious living and yet would go about to pacifie him otherwise by Sacrifice Osee 5. and entertain him thereby they labour in vain For notwithstanding all their Sacrifice yet he goeth still away from them Forsomuch saith the Prophet as they do not apply their Minds to return to God although they go about with whole Flocks and Herds to seek the Lord yet they shall not find him for he is gone away from them But as touching our turning to God or from God you shall understand that it may be done divers ways Somtimes directly by Idolatry as Israel and Judah then did Somtimes Men go from God by lack of Faith and mistrusting of God whereof Isaiah speaketh on this wise Wo to them that go down into Egypt to seek for help trusting in Horses and having confidence in the number of Chariots and puissance or power of Horsemen Isai 31. They have no confidence in the Holy God of Israel nor seek for the Lord. But what followeth The Lord shall let his hand fall upon them and down shall come both the helper and he that is holpen they shall be destroyed all together Somtimes Men go from God by the neglecting of his Commandments concerning their Neighbours which command them to express hearty Love towards every Man as Zachary said unto the People in God's behalf Give true judgment shew mercy and compassion every one to his brother imagine no deceit towards Widows Zach. 7. or children fatherless and motherless towards strangers or the poor let no man forge evil in his heart against his brother But these things they passed not of they turned their backs and went their way they stopped their Ears that they might not hear they hardned their Hearts as an Adamant stone that they might not listen to the Law and the words that the Lord had sent through his Holy Spirit by his ancient Prophets Wherefore the Lord shewed his great Indignation upon them It came to pass saith the Prophet even as I told them As they would not hear so when they cried they were not heard but were scattered into all Kingdoms which they never knew and their land was made desolate Jer. 7. And to be short all they that may not abide the Word of God but following the persuasions and stubbornness of their own Hearts go backward and not forward as it is said in Jeremy They go and turn away from God Insomuch that Origen saith He that with Mind with Study with Deeds with Thought and Care applieth Jer. 7. and giveth himself to God's Word and thinketh upon his Laws day and night giveth himself wholly to God and in his Precepts and Commandments is exercised This is he that is turned to God And on the other part he saith Whosoever is occupied with Fables and Tales when the Word of God is rehearsed he is turned from God Whosoever in time of reading God's Word is careful in his mind of Worldly business of Money or of Lucre he is turned from God Whosoever is intangled with the cares of Possessions filled with covetousness of Riches Whosoever studieth for the Glory and Honour of this World he is turned from God So that after his Mind whosoever hath not a special mind to that thing that is commanded or taught of God he that doth not listen unto it embrace and imprint it in his Heart to the intent that he may duly fashion his life thereafter he is plainly turned from God although he do other things of his own Devotion and Mind which to him seem better and more to God's Honour Which thing to be true we be taught and admonished in the Holy Scripture by the example of King Saul who being commanded of God by Samuel 1 Kings 15. that he should kill all the Amalekites and destroy them clearly with their Goods and Cattle Yet he being moved partly with pity and partly as he thought with devotion
dalliance and but a touch of youth Not rebuked but winked at Not punished but laughed at Wherefore it is necessary at this present Exod. 20. to treat of the sin of Whoredom and Fornication declaring unto you the greatness of this Sin and how odious hateful and abominable it is and hath alway been reputed before God and all good Men and how grievously it hath been punished both by the Law of God and the Laws of divers Princes Again to shew you certain remedies whereby ye may through the Grace of God eschew this most detestable sin of Whoredom and Fornication and lead your lives in all Honesty and Cleanness and that ye may perceive that Fornication and Whoredome are in the sight of God most abominable Sins ye shall call to remembrance this Commandment of God Thou shalt not commit Adultery By the which word Adultery although it be properly understood of the unlawful commixtion or joining together of a married Man with any Woman beside his Wife or of a Wife with any Man beside her Husband Yet thereby is signified also all unlawful use of those Parts which be ordained for Generation And this one Commandment forbidding Adultery doth sufficiently paint and set out before our Eyes the greatness of this Sin of Whoredom and manifestly declareth how greatly it ought to be abhorred of all honest and faithful Persons And that none of us all shall think himself excepted from this Commandment whether he be old or young married or unmarried Man or Woman hear what God the Father saith by his most Excellent Prophet Moses Deut. 23. There shall be no Whore among the Daughters of Israel nor no Whoremonger among the Sons of Israel Here is Whoredom Fornication and all other uncleanness forbidden to all kinds of People all Degrees and all Ages without exception And that we shall not doubt but that this Precept or Commandment pertaineth to us indeed hear what Christ the perfect Teacher of all Truth saith in the Now Testament Ye have heard saith Christ that it was said to them of old time Matth. 5. Thou shalt not commit Adultery But I say unto you Whosoever seeth a Woman to have his Lust of her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart Here our Saviour Christ doth not only confirm and establish the Law against Adultery given in the Old Testament of God the Father by his Servant Mâ—ses and make it of full strength continually to remain among the Professors of his Name in the new Law But he also condemning the gross interpretation of the Scribes and Pharisees which taught that the foresaid Commandment only required to abstain from the outward Adultery and not from the filthy desires and impure Lusts teacheth us an exact and full perfection of Purity and Cleanness of Life both to keep our Bodies undefiled and our Hearts pure and free from all evil thoughts carnal desires and fleshly consents How can we then be free from this Commandment where so great charge is laid upon us May a Servant do what he will in any thing having Commandment of his Master to the contrary Is not Christ our Master Are not we his Servants How then may we neglect our Master's Will and Pleasure and follow our own Will and Phantasie John 15. Ye are my Friends saith Christ if you keep those things that I command you Now hath Christ our Master commanded us that we should forsake all uncleanness and filthiness both in Body and Spirit This therefore must we do if we look to please God Matth. 15. In the Gospel of S Matthew we read that the Scribes and Phaâ—isâ—es were grievously offended with Christ because his Disciples did not keep the traditions of the Forefathers for they washed not their Hands when they went to Dinner or Supper And among other things Christ answered and said Hear and understand Not that thing which entreth into the Mouth d fileth the Man but that which cometh out of the Mouth defileth the Man Matth. 15. For those things which proceed out of the Mouth come forth from the Heart and they defile the Man For out of the Heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders breaking of Wedlock Whoredoms Thefts false Witness B asphemies These are the things which d file a Man Here may we see that not only Murder Theft false Witness and Blasphemy defile Men but also evil Thoughts breaking of Wedlock Fornication and Whoredom Who is now of so little Wit that he will esteem Whoredom and Fornication to be things of small importance and of no weight before God Christ who is the Truth and cannot lye saith Mark 7. That evil Thoughts Titus 1 breaking of Wedlock Whoredom and Fornication defile a Man that is to say corrupt both the Body and Soul of Man and make them of the Temples of the Holy Ghost the filthy Dunghil or Dungeon of all unclean Spirits of the House of God the dwelling place of Satan John 8. Again the Gospel of St. John when the Woman taken in Adultery was brought unto Christ said not he unto her Rom. 6. Go thy way and sin no more Doth not he here call Whoredom Sin And what is the Reward of Sin 1 John 3. but everlasting Death If Whoredom be Sin then it is not lawful for us to commit it For St. John saith John 8. He that committeth Sin is of the Devil And our Saviour saith Every one that committeth Sin is the Servant of Sin If Whoredom had not been Sin surely St. John Baptist would never have rebuked King Herod for taking his Brother's Wife Mark 6. but he told him plainly That it was not lawful for him to take his Brother's Wife He winked not at the Whoredom of Herod although he were a King of Power but boldly reproved him for his wicked and abominable living although for the same he lost his Head But he would rather suffer death than see God so dishonored by the breaking of his Holy Precept and Commandment than to suffer Whoredom to be unrebuked even in a King If Whoredom had been but a Pastime a Dalliance and not to be passed of as many count it now a days truly John had been more than twice mad if he would have had the displeasure of a King if he would have been cast in Prison and lost his Head for a trifle But John new right well how filthy and stinking and abominable the Sin of Whoredom is in the sight of God therefore would he not leave it unrebuked no not in a King If Whoredom be not lawful in a King neither is it lawful in a Subject If Whoredom be not lawful in a publick or common Officer neither is it lawful in a private Person If it be not lawful neither in King nor Subject neither in common Officer nor private Person truly then it is lawful in no Man nor Woman of whatsoever Degree or Age they be Furthermore in the Acts of the Apostles we read
degree or state soever they be In which place he maketh mention by name of Kings and Rulers which are in Authority putting us thereby to acknowledge how greatly it concerneth the profit of the Common-wealth to pray diligently for the Higher Powers Neither is it without good cause that he doth so often in all his Epistles crave the Prayers of Gods People for himself Colos 4. Rom. 15. 2 Thess 3. For in so doing he declareth to the World how expedient and needful it is daily to call upon God for the Ministers of his Holy Word and Sacraments that they may have the door of utterance oppened unto them Ephes 6. that they may truly understand the Scriptures that they may effectually Preach the same unto the People and bring forth the true Fruits thereof to the Example of all other After this sort did the Congregation continually Pray for Peter at Jerusalem Acts 12. and for Paul among the Gentiles to the great increase and furtherance of Christs Gospel And if we following their good Example herein will study to do the like doubtless it cannot be expressed how greatly we shall both help our selves and also please God To discourse and run through all degrees of Persons it were too long Therefore ye shall briefly take this one conclusion for all Whomsoever we are bound by express Commandment to love for those also are we bound in Conscience to pray But we are bound by express Commandment to love all men as our selves therefore we are also bound to Pray for all men even as well as if it were for our selves notwithstanding we know them to be our extream and deadly Enemies For so doth our Saviour Christ plainly teach us in his Gospel saying Love your enemies Matt. 5. bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you pray for them that persecute you that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven And as he taught his Disciples so did he practice himself in his life-time Luke 23. praying for his Enemies upon the Cross and desiring his Father to forgive them because they knew not what they did As did also that Holy and blessed Martyr Stephen Acts 7. when he was cruelly stoned to death of the stubborn and stiff-necked Jews to the example of all them that will truly and unfeignedly follow their Lord and Master Christ in this miserable and mortal life Now to entreat of that Question whether we ought to pray for them that are departed out of this World or no Wherein if we will cleave only unto the Word of God then must we needs grant that we have no Commandment so to do For the Scripture doth acknowledge but two places after this life The one proper to the Elect and Blessed of God the other to the Reprobate and Damned Souls as may be well gathered by the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich man Luke 16. Lib. 2. Evang. quaest 1. cap. 38. which place St. Augustine expounding saith in this wise That which Abraham speaketh unto the Rich man in Lukes Gospel namely that the Just cannot go into those places where the Wicked are tormented what other thing doth it signifie but only this that the just by reason of Gods Judgment which may not be revoked can shew no deed of Mercy in helping them which after this life are cast into Prison until they pay the uttermost farthing These words as they confound the Opinion of helping the dead by Prayer so they do clean confute and take away the vain Error of Purgatory which is grounded upon the saying of the Gospel Thou shalt not depart thence until thou hast paid the uttermost farthing Now doth St. Augustine say that those men which are cast into Prison after this life on that condition may in no wise be holpen though we would help them never so much And why Because the Sentence of God is unchangeable and cannot be revoked again Therefore let us not deceive our selves thinking that either we may help other or other may help us by their good and charitable Prayers in time to come For as the Preacher saith When the tree falleth whether it be toward the South Eccles 11. or toward the North in what place soever the tree falleth there it lieth meaning thereby that every mortal man dieth either in the state of Salvation or Damnation according as the words of the Evangelist John do also plainly import saying John 3. He that believeth on the Son of God hath eternal life But he that believeth not on the Son shall never see life but the wrath of God abideth upon him Where is then the third place which they call Purgatory or where shall our Prayers help and profit the dead Lib. 5. Hypogno Chrysost in Heb. 2. Homil. 5. in Cyprian contra Demetrianum St. Augustine doth only acknowledge two places after this life Heaven and Hell As for the third place he doth plainly deny that there is any such to be found in all Scripture Chrysostom likewise is of this mind that unless we wash away our sins in this present World we shall find no comfort afterward And St. Cyprian saith that after death Repentance and Sorrow of pain shall be without fruit Weeping also shall be in vain and Prayer shall be to no purpose Therefore he counselleth all men to make provision for themselves while they may because when they are once departed out of this life there is no place for Repentance nor yet for satisfaction Let these and such other places be sufficient to take away the gross Error of Purgatory out of our Heads neither let us dream any more that the Souls of the dead are any thing at all holpen by our Prayers But as the Scripture teacheth us let us think that the Soul of man passing out of the Body goeth straightways either to Heaven or else to Hell whereof the one needeth no Prayer the other is without Redemption The only Purgatory wherein we must trust to be saved is the death and blood of Christ which if we apprehend with a true and stedfast Faith it purgeth and cleanseth us from all our sins even as well as if he were now hanging upon the Cross The blood of Christ 1 John 1. Heb. 9. saith St. John hath cleansed us from all sin Thâ— blood of Christ saith St. Paul hath purged our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 10. Also in another place he saith We be sanctified and made holy by the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ done once for all Yea he addeth more bidem saying With the one oblation of his blessed Body and precious Blood he hath made perfect for ever and ever all them that are sanctified This then is that Purgatory wherein all Christian men put their whole trust and confidence nothing doubting but if they truly repent them of their sins and die in perfect Faith that then they
the giving than with the gift and that he as much esteemeth the doing of the thing as the fruit and commodity that cometh of it Whoso therefore hath hitherto neglected to give Alms let him know that God now requireth it of him and he that hath been liberal to the Poor let him know that his godly doings are accepted and thankfully taken at Gods hands which he will requite with double and treble For so saith the Wise man He which sheweth mercy to the poor doth lay his money in bank to the Lord for a large interest and gain the gain being chiefly the possession of the life everlasting through the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen The Second Part of the Sermon of Alms-deeds YE have heard before Dearly Beloved that to give Alms unto the Poor and to help them in time of necessity is so acceptable unto our Saviour Christ that he counteth that to be done to himself that we do for his sake unto them Ye have heard also how earnestly both the Apostles Prophets Holy Fathers and Doctors do exhort us unto the same And ye see how wel-beloved and dear unto God they were whom the Scriptures report unto us to have been good Alms-men Wherefore if either their good examples or the wholsom counsel of godly Fathers or the love of Christ whose especial favour we may be assured by this means to obtain may move us or do any thing at all with us let us provide us that from henceforth we shew unto God-ward this thankful service to be mindful and ready to help them that be poor and in misery Now will I this second time that I entreat of Alms-deeds shew unto you how profitable it is for us to exercise them and what fruit thereby shall arise unto us if we do them faithfully Our Saviour Christ in the Gospel teacheth us that it profiteth a man nothing to have in possession all the riches of the whole World and the wealth or glory thereof if in the mean season he lose his Soul or do that thing whereby it should become captive unto death sin and hell-fire By the which saying he not only instructeth us how much the souls health is to be preferred before worldly commodities but it also serveth to stir up our minds and to prick us forwards to seek diligently and learn by what means we may preserve and keep our souls ever in safety that is how we may recover our health if it be lost or impaired and how it may be defended and maintained if once we have it Yea he teacheth us also thereby to esteem that as a precious Medicine and an inestimable Jewel that hath such strength and vertue in it that can either procure or preserve so incomparable a treasure For if we greatly regard that Medicine or Salve that is able to heal sundry and grievous Diseases of the Body much more will we esteem that which hath like power over the Soul And because we might be better assured both to know and to have in readiness that so profitable a Remedy he as a most faithful and loving Teacher sheweth himself both what it is and where we may find it and how we may use and apply it For when both he and his Disciples were grievously accused of the Pharisees to have defiled their souls in breaking the constitutions of the Elders because they went to meat and washed not their hands before according to the custom of the Jews Christ answering their superstitious complaint teacheth them an especial remedy how to keep clean their souls notwithstanding the breach of such superstitious Orders Luke 11. Give Alms saith he and behold all things are clean unto you He teacheth them that to be merciful and charitable in helping the Poor is the means to keep the Soul pure and clean in the sight of God We are taught therefore by this that merciful Alms-dealing is profitable to purge the Soul from the infection and filthy spots of sin The same Lesson doth the Holy Ghost also teach in sundry places of the Scripture Tobit 4. saying Mercifulness and Alms-giving purgeth from all sins and delivereth from death and suffereth not the soul to come into darkness A great confidence may they have before the high God that shew mercy and compassion to them that are afflicted The wise Preacher the Son of Syrach confimeth the same Ecclus 5. when he saith That as water quencheth burning fire even so mercy and alms resisteth and reconcileth sins And sure it is that mercifulness quaileth the heat of sin so much that they shall not take hold upon man to hurt him or if ye have by any infirmity or weakness been touched and annoyed with them straightways shall mercifulness wipe and wash away as salves and remedies to heal their sores and grievous diseases And thereupon that Holy Father Cyprian taketh good occasion to exhort earnestly to the merciful works of giving Alms and helping the Poor and there he admonisheth to consider how wholsom and profitable it is to relieve the needy and help the afflicted by the which we may purge our sins and heal our wounded souls But yet some will say unto me If Alms-giving and our charitable works towards the Poor be able to wash away sins to reconcile us to God to deliver us from the peril of damnation and makes us the Sons and Heirs of Gods Kingdom then are Christs merits defaced and his blood shed in vain then are we justified by Works and by our Deeds may we merit Heaven then do we in vain believe that Christ died for to put away our sins and that he rose for our justification as St. Paul teacheth But ye shall understand Dearly Beloved that neither those places of the Scripture before alledged neither the Doctrine of the blessed Martyr Cyprian neither any other godly and learned man when they in extolling the dignity profit fruit and effect of vertuous and liberal Alms do say that it washeth away sins and bringeth us to the favour of God do mean that our work and charitable deed is the original cause of our acception before God or that for the digninity or worthiness thereof our sins may be washed away and we purged and cleansed of all the spots of our iniquity for that were indeed to deface Christ and to defraud him of his glory But they mean this and this is the understanding of those and such like sayings that God of his mercy and special favour towards them whom he hath appointed to everlasting salvation hath so offered his grace especially and they have so received it fruitfully that although by reason of their sinful living outwardly they seemed before to have been the Children of Wrath and Perdition yet now the Spirit of God mightily working in them unto obedience to Gods Will and Commandments they declare by their outward deeds and life in the shewing of
now he was accursed as before he was loved so now he was abhorred as before he was most beautiful and precious so now he was most vile and wretched in the sight of his Lord and Maker Instead of the Image of God he was now become the Image of the Devil instead of the Citizen of Heaven he was become the bond-slave of Hell having in himself no one part of his former purity and cleanness but being altogether spotted and defiled insomuch that now he seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin and thâ—râ—fore by the just judgment of God was condemned to everlasting death This so great and miserable a Plague if it had only rested on Adam who first offended it had been so much the easier and might the better have been born But it fell not only on him but also on his Posterity and Children for ever so that the whole brood of Adam's flesh should sustain the self-same fall and punishment which their forefather by his offence most justly had deserved St. Paul in the fifth Chapter to the Romans saith By the offence of only Adam the fault came upon all men to condemnation and by one mans disobedience many were made sinners By which words we are taught that as in Adam all men universally sinned so in Adam all men universally received the reward of sin that is to say became mortal and subject unto death having in themselves nothing but everlasting damnation both of Body and Soul They became as David saith corrupt and abominable they went all out of the way there was none that did good no not one O what a miserable and woful state was this that the sin of one man should destroy and condemn all men that nothing in all the World might be looked for but only pangs of death and pains of Hell Had it been any marvel if mankind had been utterly driven to desperation being thus fallen from life to death from salvation to destruction from Heaven to Hell But behold the great goodness and tender mercy of God in his behalf albeit mans wickedness and sinful behaviour was such that it deserved not in any part to be forgiven yet to the intent he might not be clean destitute of all hope and comfort in time to come he ordained a new Covenant and made a sure Promise thereof namely that he would send a Messias or Mediator into the World which should make intercession and put himself as a stay between both Parties to pacifie the wrath and indignation conceived against sin and to deliver man out of the miserable curse and cursed misery whereinto he was fallen headlong by disobeying the Will and Commandment of the only Lord and Maker This Covenant and Promise was first made unto Adam himself immediately after his Fall as we read in the third of Genesis where God said to the Serpent on this wise I will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed He shall break thine head and thou shalt bruise his heel Afterward the self-same Covenant was also more amply and plainly renewed unto Abraham where God promised him that in his seed all Nations and Families of the Earth should be blessed Again it was continued and confirmed unto Isaac in the same form of words Gen. 26. as it was before unto his Father And to the intent that mankind might not despair but always live in hope Almighty God never ceased to publish repeat confirm and continue the same by divers and sundry testimonies of his Prophets who for the better perswasion of the thing prophesied the time the place the manner and circumstance of his Birth the affliction of his Life the kind of his Death the glory of his Resurrection the receiving of his Kingdom the deliverance of his People with all other circumstances belonging thereunto Isaiah prophesied that he should be born of a Virgin and called Emanuel Micheas prophesied that he should be born in Bethlehem a place of Jury Ezekiel prophesied that he should come of the stock and linage of David Daniel prophesied that all Nations and Languages should serve him Zachary prophesied that he should come in poverty riding upon an Ass Malachy prophesied that he should send Elias before him which was John the Baptist Jeremy prophesied that he should be sold for Thirty Pieces of Silver c. And all this was done that the Promise and Covenant of God made unto Abraham and his Posterity concerning the Redemption of the World might be credited and fully believed Now as the Apostle Paul saith when the fulness of time was come that is the perfection and course of years appointed from the beginning thâ—n God according to his former Covenant and Promise sent a Messias otherwise called a Mediator unto the World not such a one as Moses was not such a one as Josua Saul or David was but such a one as should deliver mankind from the bitter curse of the Law and make perfect satisfaction by his death for the sins of all people namely he sent his dear and only Son Jesus Christ born as the Apostle saith of a Woman and made under the Law that he might redeem them that were in bondage of the Law and make them the Children of God by adoption Was not this a wonderful great love towards us that were his professed and open Enemies towards us that were by Nature the Children of Wrath and fire-brands of Hell-fire In this saith St. John appeared the great love of God that he sent his only begotten Son into the World to save us when we were his extream enemies Herein is love not that we loved him but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a reconciliation for our sins St. Paul also saith Christ Rom. 5. when we were yet of no strength died for us being ungodly Doubtless a man will scarce die for a righteous man Peradventure some one durst die for him of whom they have received good But God setteth out his love towards us in that he sent Christ to die for us when we were yet void of all goodness This and such other comparisons doth the Apostle use to amplifie and set forth the tender mercy and great goodness of God declarâ—d towards mankind in sending down a Saviour from Heaven even Christ the Lord. Which one benefit among all other is so great and wonderful that neither Tongue can well express it neither Heart think it much less give sufficient thanks to God for it But here is a great controversie between us and the Jews whether the saine Jesus which was born of the Virgin Mary be the true Messias and true Saviour of the World so long promised and prophesied of before They as they are and have been always proud and stiff-necked would never acknowledge him until this day but have looked and waited for another to come They have this fond imagination in their heads That the Messias shall come not as Christ did like a
shall not be imputed to our condemnation He hath taken upon him the just reward of sin Rom. 6. which was death and by death hath overthrown death that we believing in him might live for ever and not die Ought not this to engender extream hatred of sin in us to consider that it did violently as it were pluck God out of Heaven to make him feel the horrors and pains of Death O that we would sometimes consider this in the midst of our pomps and pleasures it would bridle the outragiousness of the flesh it would abate and asswage our carnal affections it would restrain our fleshly appetites that we should not run at random as we commonly do To commit sin wilfully and desperately without fear of God is nothing else but to crucifie Christ anew as we are expresly taught in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 6. Which thing if it were deeply printed in all mens hearts then should not sin reign every where so much as it doth to the great grief and torment of Christ now sitting in Heaven Let us therefore remember and always bear in mind Christ crucified that thereby we may be inwardly moved both to abhor sin throughly and also with an earnest and zealous heart to love God For this is another fruit which the memorial of Christs death ought to work in us an earnest and unfeigned love towards God So God loved the World saith St. John that he gave his only begotten Son John 3. that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have life everlasting If God declared so great love towards us his silly Creatures how can we of right but love him again Was not this a sure Pledge of his Love to give us his own Son from Heaven He might have given us an Angel if he would or some other Creature and yet should his love have been far above our deserts Now he gave us not an Angel but his Son And what Son His only Son his natural Son his well-beloved Son even that Son whom he had made Lord and Ruler of all things Was not this a singular token of great love But to whom did he give him He gave him to the whole World that it to say to Adam and all that should come after him O Lord what had Adam or any other man deserved at Gods hands that he should give us his own Son We are all miserable Persons sinful Persons damnable Persons justly driven out of Paradise justly excluded from Heaven justly condemned to Hell-fire And yet see a wonderful token of Gods love he gave us his only begotten Son us I say that were his extream and deadly Enemies that we by vertue of his Blood shed upon the Cross might be clean purged from our sins and made righteous again in his sight Who can chuse but marvel to hear that God should shew such unspeakable love towards us that were his deadly Enemies Indeed O mortal man thou oughtest of right to marvel at it and to acknowledge therein Gods great goodness and mercy towards mankind which is so wonderful that no flesh be it never so worldly wise may well conceive it or express it For as St. Paul testifieth Rom. 5. God greatly commendeth and setteth out his love towards us in that he sent his Son Christ to die for us when we were yet sinners and open enemies of his Name If we had in any manner of wise deserved it at his hands then had it been no marvel at all but there was no desert on our part wherfore he should do it Therefore thou sinful Creature when thou hearest that God gave his Son to die for the sins of the World think not he did it for any desert or goodness that was in thee for thou wast then the Bond-slave of the Devil But fall down upon thy knees and cry with the Prophet David Psal 8. O Lord what is man that thou art so mindful of him or the son of man that thou so regardest him And seeing he hath so greatly loved thee endeavour thy self to love him again with all thy Heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength that therein thou maist appear not to be unworthy of his love I report me to thine own Conscience whether thou wouldest not think thy love ill bestowed upon him that could not find in his heart to love thee again If this be true as it is most true then think how greatly it behoveth thee in Duty to love God which hath so greatly loved thee that he hath not spared his own only Son from so cruel and shameful a death for thy sake And hitherto concerning the cause of Christs Death and Passion which as it was on our part most horrible and grievous sin so on the other side it was the free gift of God proceeding of his meer and tender love towards mankind without any merit or desert of our part The Lord for his mercies sake grant that we never forget this great benefit of our Salvation in Christ Jesu but that we always shew our selves thankful for it abhorring all kind of wickedness and sin and applying our minds wholly to the service of God and the diligent keeping of his Commandments Now it remaineth that I shew unto you how to apply Christs death and Passion to our comfort as a Medicine to our Wounds so that it may work the same effect in us wherefore it was given namely the health and salvation of our souls For as it profiteth a man nothing to have salve unless it be well applied to the part infected So the death of Christ shall stand us in no force unless we apply it to our selves in such sort as God hath appointed Almighty God commonly worketh by means and in this thing he hath also ordained a certain mean whereby we may take fruit and profit to our souls health What mean is that forsooth it is Faith Not an unconstant and wavering Faith but a sure stedfast grounded and unfeigned Faith God sent his Son into the World saith St. John John 3. To what end That whosoever believeth in him should not perish bâ—t have life everlasting Mark these words That whosoever believeth in him Here is the mean whereby we must apply the fruits of Christs death unto our deadly Wound Here is the mean whereby we must obtain eternal life namely Faith For as St. Paul teacheth in his Epistle to the Romans with the heart man believeth unto righteo sness Rom. 10. and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Paul being demanded of the Keeper of the Prison what he should do to be saved Acts 16. made this Answer Believe in the Lord Jesus so shalt thou and thine house both be saved After the Evangelist hâ—d described and set forth unto us at large the life and the death of the Lord Jesus in the end he concludeth with these words John 20. These things are written that we may believe Jesus
Christ to be the Son of God and through Faith obtain eternal life To conclude with the words of St Paul Rom. 10. which are these Christ is the end of the Law unto salvation for every one that doth believe By this then you may well perceive that the only mean and instrument of Salvation required of our parts is Faith that is to say a sure trust and confidence in the mercies of God whereby we perswade our selves that God both hath and will forgive our sins that he hath accepted us again into his favour that he hath released us from the bonds of damnation and received us again into the number of his elect People not for our merits or deserts but only and solely for the merits of Christs Death and Passion who became man for our sakes and humbled himself to sustain the reproach of the Cross that we thereby might be saved and made inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven This Faith is required at our hands And this if we keep stedfastly at our hearts there is no doubt but we shall obtain Salvation at Gods hands as did Abraham Isaac and Jacob of whom the Scripture saith Gen. 15. Rom. 7. that they believed and it was imputed unto them for righteousness Was it imputed unto them only and shall it not be imputed unto us also Yes if we have the same Faith as they had it shall be as truly imputed unto us for righteousness as it was unto them For it is one Faith that must save both us and them even a sure and stedfast Faith in Christ Jesus who as ye have heard came into the World for this end that whosoever believe in him should not perish John 3. but have life everlasting But here we must take heed that we do not halt with God through an unconstant and wavering Faith but that it be strong and stedfast to our lives end He that wavereth saith St. James is like a wave of the Sea James 1. neither let that man think that he shall obtain any thing at Gods hands Peter coming to Christ upon the Water Mat. 14. because he fainted in Faith was in danger of drowning So we if we begin to waver or doubt it is to be feared lest we shall sink as Peter did not into the Water but into the bottomless Pit of Hell-fire Therefore I say unto you that we must apprehend the Merits of Christs death and Passion by Faith and that with a strong and stedfast Faith nothing doubting but that Christ by his own Oblation and once offering of himself upon the Cross hath taken away our sins and hath restored us again into Gods favour so fully and perfectly that no other sacrifice for sin shall hereafter be requisite or needful in all the World Thus have you heard in few words the mean whereby we must apply the fruits and merits of Christs death unto us so that it may work the Salvation of our Souls namely a sure stedfast perfect and grounded Faith Numb 21. John 3. For as all they which beheld stedfastly the Brasen Serpent were healed and delivered at the very sight thereof from their corporal diseases and bodily stings even so all they which behold Christ crucified with a true and lively Faith shall undoubtedly be delivered from the grievous wounds of the Soul be they never so deadly or many in number Therefore dearly beloved if we chance at any time through frailty of the flesh to fall into sin as it cannot be chosen but we must needs fall often and if we feel the heavy burden thereof to press our souls tormenting us with the fear of Death Hell and Damnation let us then use that mean which God hath appointed in his Word to wit the mean of Faith which is the only instrument of Salvation now left unto us Let us stedfastly behold Christ crucified with the eyes of our heart Let us only trust to be saved by his Death and Passion and to have our sins clean washed away through his most precious Blood that in the end of the World when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead he may receive us into his Heavenly Kingdom and place us in the number of his Elect and chosen People there to be partakers of that immortal and everlasting life which he hath purchased unto us by vertue of his bloody Wounds To him therefore with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen AN HOMILY OF THE Resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ For Easter-Day IF ever at any time the greatness or excellency of any matter Spiritual or Temporal hath stirred up your minds to give diligent ear good Christian People and well-beloved in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I doubt not but that I shall have you now at this present season most diligent and ready Hearers of the matter which I have at this time to open unto you For I come to declare that great and most comfortable Article of our Christian Religion and Faith the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus So great surely is the matter of this Article and of so great weight and importance that it was thought worthy to keep our said Saviour still on Earth forty days after he was risen from death to life to the confirmation and establishment thereof in the hearts of his Disciples So that as Luke clearly testifieth in the first Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles he was conversant with his Disciples by the space of forty days continually together to the intent he would in his person being now glorified teach and instruct them which should be the teachers of other fully and in most absolute and perfect-wise the truth of this most Christian Article which is the ground and foundation of our whole Religion before he would ascend up to his Father into the Heavens there to receive the glory of his most triumphant Conquest and Victory Assuredly so highly comfortable is this Article to our Consciences that it is even the very Lock and Key of all our Christian Religion and Faith 1 Cor. 15. If it were not true saith the Holy Apostle Paul that Christ rose again then our Preaching were in vain your Faith which you have received were but void ye were yet in the danger of your sins If Christ be not risen again saith the Apostle then are they in very ill case and utterly perished that be entred their sleep in Christ then are we the most miserable of all men which have our hope fixed in Christ if he be yet under the power of death and as yet not restored to his bliss again But now he is risen again from death saith the Apostle Paul to be the first-fruits of them that be asleep to the intent to raise them to everlasting life again Yea if it were not true that Christ is risen again then were it neither true that he is ascended up to Heaven nor that he
for chattering Jays but for Eagles who flie thither where the dead body lieth And if this advertisement of man cannot perswade us to resort to the Lords Table with understanding see the counsel of God in the like matter who charged his People to teach their Posterity not only the Rites and Ceremonies of the Passover but the cause and end thereof Whence we may learn that both more perfect knowledge is required at this time at our hands and that the ignorant cannot with fruit and profit exercise himself in the Lords Sacraments But to come nigher to the matter St. Paul blaming the Corinthians for the profaning of the Lords Supper concludeth that ignorance both of the thing it self and the signification thereof was the cause of their abuse for they came thither unreverently not discerning the Lords Body Ought not we then by the motion of the Wise man by the wisdom of God by the fearful example of the Corinthians to take advised heed that we thrust not our selves to this Table with rude and unreverent ignorance the smart whereof Christs Church hath rued and lamented these many days and years For what hath been the cause of the ruin of Gods Religion but the ignorance hereof What hath been the cause of this gross Idolatry but the ignorance hereof What hath been the cause of this mummish Massing but the ignorance hereof Yea what hath been and what is at this day the cause of this want of love and charity but the ignorance hereof Let us therefore so travel to understand the Lords Supper that we be no cause of the decay of Gods Worship of no Idolatry of no dumb Massing of no hate and malice so may we the boldier have access thither to our comfort Acts 1. Neither need we to think that such exact knowledge is required of every man Matth. 26. that he be able to discuss all high points in the Doctrine thereof But thus much we must be sure to hold that in the Supper of the Lord there is no vain Ceremony no bare sign no untrue figure of a thing absent 1 Cor. 11. But as the Scripture saith the Table of the Lord the Bread and Cup of the Lord the memory of Christ the Annunciation of his death yea the Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord in a marvellous incorporation which by the operation of the Holy Ghost the very bond of our conjunction with Christ is through faith wrought in the souls of the faithful whereby not only their souls live to eternal life but they surely trust to win their bodies a resurrection to immortality The true understanding of this fruition and union which is betwixt the Body and the Head betwixt the true Believers and Christ Iren. lib. 4. cap. 34. Igna. Epist ad Ephes Dionysius Origen Optat. Cyp. de caena Domini Atha de pec inspir sanct the ancient Catholick Fathers both perceiving themselves and commending to their People were not afraid to call this Supper some of them the Salve of Immortality and Sovereign Preservative against Death other a Deifical Communion other the sweet dainties of our Saviour the pledge of eternal health the defence of Faith the hope of the Resurrection other the food of Immortality the healthful Grace and the Conservatory to everlasting life All which sayings both of the Holy Scripture and godly men truly attributed to this celestial Banquet and Feast if we would often call to mind O how would they inflame our hearts to desire the participation of these Mysteries and oftentimes to covet after this bread continually to thirst for this food Not as especially regarding the terrene and earthly Creatures which remain but always holding fast and cleaving by Faith to the Rock whence we may suck the sweetness of everlasting Salvation And to be brief thus much more the Faithful see hear and know the favourable mercies of God sealed the satisfaction by Christ towards us confirmed and the remission of sin established Here they may feel wrought the tranquillity of Conscience the increase of Faith the strengthening of Hope the large spreading abroad of brotherly kindness with many other sundry graces of God The taste whereof they cannot attain unto who be drowned in the deep dirty lake of blindness and ignorance From the which O beloved wash your selves with the living Waters of Gods Word whence you may perceive and know both the spiritual food of this costly Supper and the happy trustings and effects that the same doth bring with it Now it followeth to have with this knowledge a sure and constant Faith not only that the death of Christ is available for the redemption of all the World for the remission of sins and reconciliation with God the Father but also that he hath made upon his Cross a full and sufficient Sacrifice for thee a perfect cleansing of thy sins so that thou acknowledgest no other Saviour Redeemer Mediator Advocate Intercessor but Christ only and that thou mayest say with the Apostle that he loved thee and gave himself for thee For this is to stick fast to Christs promise made in his Institution to make Christ thine own and to apply his merits unto thy self Herein thou needest no other mans help no other Sacrifice or Oblation no sacrificing Priest no Mass no means established by mans invention That Faith is a necessary instrument in all these holy Ceremonies we may thus assure our selves for that as St. Paul saith without Faith it is unpossible to please God Heb. 11. In Johan Hom. 6. When a great number of the Israelites were overthrown in the Wilderness Moses Aaron and Phineas did eat Manna and pleased God for that they understood saith St. Augustine the visible meat spiritually Spiritually they hungred it spiritually they tasted it that they might be spiritually satisfied And truly as the bodily meat cannot feed the outward man unless it be let into the stomach to be digested which is healthful and sound no more can the inward man be fed except his meat be received into his soul and heart De Caena Domini sound and whole in Faith Therefore saith Cyprian when we do these things we need not to whet our teeth but with sincere Faith we break and divide that whole bread It is well known that the meat we seek for in this Supper is spiritual food the nourishment of our soul a heavenly refection and not earthly and invisible meat and not bodily a ghostly substance and not carnal so that to think that without Faith we may enjoy the eating and drinking thereof or that that is the fruition of it is but to dream a gross carnal feeding basely objecting and binding our selves to the Elements and Creatures Whereas by the advice of the Council of Nicene Concilium Nicen. we ought to lift up our minds by Faith and leaving these inferiour and earthly things there seek it where the Sun of Righteousness ever shineth Take then this Lesson
but walketh continually seeking to devour us Let us resist him with our diligent Watching in Labor and in Well-doing For he that diligently exerciseth himself in honest Business is not easily catched in the Devils snare When Man through Idleness or for defalt of some honest Occupation or Trade to live upon is brought to Poverty and want of things necessary we see how easily such a Man is induced for his gain to Lie to Practice how he may deceive his Neighbor to forswear himself to bear false Witness and oftentimes to Steal and Murder or to use some other ungodly mean to live withal whereby not only his good Name honest Reputation and a good Conscience yea his Lise is utterly lost but also the great displeasure and wrath of God with divers and sundry grievous Plagues are procured Lo here the end of the Idle and Sluggish Bodies whose hands cannot away with honest Labor loss of Name Fame Reputation and Life here in this World and without the great Mercy of God the purchasing of Everlasting Destruction in the World to come Have not all Men then good cause to beware and take heed of Idleness seeing they that embrace and follow it have commonly of their pleasant Idleness sharp and soure displeasures Doubtless good and godly Men weighing the great and manifold harms that come by Idleness to a Common-weal have from time to time provided with all deligence that sharp and severe Laws might be made for the Correction and Amendment of this Evil. The Egyptians had a Law Herodotus that every Man should Weekly bring his Name to the chief Rulers of the Province and therewithal declare what trade of Life he used to the intent that Idleness might be worthily punished and diligent Labor duly rewarded The Athenians did chastise Sluggish and Sloathful People no less than they did Hainous and Grievous Offenders considering as the truth is that Idleness causeth much mischief The Areopagites called every Man to a strait accompt how he lived and if they found any Loyterers that did not profit the Common-weal by one means or other they were driven out and banished as unprofitable Members that did only hurt and corrupt the Body And in this Realm of England good and godly Laws have been divers times made that no Idle Vagabonds and Loytering Runnagates should be suffered to go from Town to Town from Place to Place without Punishment which neither serve God nor their Prince but devour the sweet Fruits of other Mens Labor being common Liars Drunkards Swearers Thieves Whoremasters and Murderers refusing all honest Labor and give themselves to nothing else but to invent and do mischief whereof they are more desirous and greedy than is any Lion of his prey To remember this inconvenience let all Parents and others which have the care and governance of Youth so bring them up either in good Learning Labor or some honest Occupation or Trade whereby they may be able in time to come not only to sustain themselves competently but also to relâ—eve and supply the necessity and want of others And St. Paul saith Let him that hath stolen Ephes 4. steal no more and he that hath deceived others or used unlawful ways to get his living leave off the same and Labor rather working with his Hands that thing which is good that he may have that which is necessary for himself and also be able to give unto others that stand in need of his help The Prophet David thinketh him happy that liveth upon his Labor saying Psal 128. When thou eatest the Labors of thine Hands hapyy art thou and well is thee This happyness or blessing consisteth in these and such like Points First Eccles 3. It is the gift of God as Solomon saith when one eateth and drinketh and receiveth good of his Labor Secondly When one liveth of his own Labor so it be honest and good he liveth of it with a good Conscience and an upright Conscience is a treasure inestimable Thirdly he Eateth his Bread not with brawling and chiding but with peace and quietness when he quietly Laboreth for the same according to St. Pauls admonition Fourthly He is no Mans Bondman for his meat sake nor needeth not for that to hang upon the good Will of other Men but so liveth of his own that he is able to give part to others And to conclude the Laboring Man and his Family whiles they are busily Occupied in their Labor be free from many Temptations and occasions of Sin which they that live in Idleness are subject unto And here ought Artificers and Laboring Men who be at Wages for their Work and Labor to consider their Conscience to God and their Duty to their Neighbor lest they abuse their time in Idleness so defrauding them which be at Charge both with great Wages and dear Commons They be worse than Idle Men indeed for that they seek to have Wages for their Loytering It is less danger to God to be Idle for no gain than by Idleness to win out of their Neighbors Purse Wages for that which is not deserved It is true that Almighty God is angry with such as do defraud the Hired Man of his Wages the cry of that injury ascendeth up to Gods ear for vengeance And as true it is that the hired Man who useth deceit in his Labor is a thief before God 1 Thess 4. Let no Man saith St. Paul to the Thessalonians subtilly beguile his Brother let him not defraud him of his business For the Lord is the revenger of such deceits Whereupon he that will have a good Conscience to God that Laboring Man I say which dependeth wholly upon Gods benediction ministring all things sufficient for his living let him use his time in a faithful Labor and when his Labor by Sickness or other misfortune doth cease yet let him think for that in his health he served God and his Neighbor truly he shall not want in time of necessity God upon respect of his fidelity in health will recompence his indigence to move the Hearts of good Men to relieve such decayed Men in Sickness Where otherwise whatsoever is gotten by idleness shall have no means to help in time of need Let the Laboring Man therefore eschew for his part this vice of Idleness and Deceit Eph. 4. remembring that St Paul exhorteth every Man to lay away all Deceit Dissimulation and Lying and to use truth and plainness to his Neighbour because saith he we be Members together in one Body under one head Christ our Saviour And here might be charged the Serving-men of this Realm who spend their time in much Idleness of life nothing regarding the opportunity of their time forgetting how Service is no Heritage how Age will creep upon them where Wisdom were they should expend their Idle time in some good Business whereby they might increase in knowledge and so the more worthy to be ready for every Mans service It is a great rebuke
to them that they study not either to Write fair to keep a Book of Account to study the Tongues and so to get wisdom and knowledge in such Books and Works as be now plentifully set out in Print of all manner of Languages Let young Men consider the precious value of their time and waste it not in Idleness in Jollity in Gaming in Bant queting in Ruffians company Youth is but Vanity and must be accounted for before God How merry and glad soever thou be in thy Youth O young Man saith the Preacher how glad soever thy Heart be in thy young days Eccles 11. how fast and freely soever thou follow the ways of thine own Heart and the lust of thine own Eye yet be thou sure that God shall bring thee into Judgment for all these things God of his mercy put it into the Hearts and Minds of all them that have the Sword of Punishment in their Hands or have Families under their Governance to Labor to redress this great enormity of all such as live Idly and unprofitably in the Common-weal to the great dishonor of God and the grievous Plague of his silly People To leave sin unpunished and to neglect the good bringing up of Youth is nothing else but to kindle the Lords wrath against us and to heap Plagues upon our own Heads As long as the Adulterous people were suffered to live Licentiously without Reformation so long did the Plague continue and increase in Israel Numb 25. as you may see in the Book of Numbers But when due correction was done upon them the Lords anger was strait way pacified and the Plauge ceased Let all Officers therefore look straitly to their charge Let all Masters of Housholds reform this abuse in their Families let them use the Authority that God hath given them let them not maintain Vagabonds and Idle persons but deliver the Realm and their Housholds from such noysom Loyterers that Idleness the Mother of all Mischief being clean taken away Almighty God may turn his dreaful Anger away from us and confirm the Covenant of Peace upon us for ever through the Merits of Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honor and Glory World without end Amen AN HOMILY OF Repentance and of true Reconciliation unto God THere is noting that the Holy Ghost doth so much Labor in all the Scriptures to beat into Mens Heads as Repentance amendment of Life and speedy returning unto the Lord God of Hosts And no marvel why for we do Daily and Hourly by our wickedness and stubborn Disobedience horribly fall away from God thereby purchasing unto our selves if he should deal with us according to his Justice Eternal Damnation The Doctrin of Repentance is most necessary So that no Doctrin is so necessary in the Church of God as is the Doctrin of Repentance and amendment of Life And verily the true Preachers of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven and of the glad and joyful tidings of Salvation have always in their Godly Sermons and Preachings unto the People joyned these two together I mean Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins even as our Saviour Jesus Christ did appoint himself saying So it behoved Christ to Suffer and to Rise again the Third Day and that Repentance and Forgiveness of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations And therefore the holy Apostle doth in the Acts speak after this manner I have witnessed both to the Jews and to the Gentiles the Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Did not John Baptist Zacharias Son begin his Ministry with the Doctrin of Repentance saying Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand The like Doctrin did our Saviour Jesus Christ preach himself and commanded his Apostles to preach the same I might here alledge very many places out of the Prophets in the which this most wholsom Doctrin of Repentance is very earnestly urged as most needful for all degrees and orders of Men but one shall be sufficient at this present time These are the words of Joel the Prophet therefore also now the Lord saith Joel 2. Return unto me with all your heart with Fasting Weeping and Mourning rent your hearts and not your cloaths and return unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great compassion and ready to pardon wickedness Whereby it is given us to understand A perpetual Rule which all must follow that we have here a perpetual Rule appointed unto us which ought to be observed and kept at all times and that there is none other way whereby the wrath of God may be pacified and his anger asswaged that the fierceness of his fury and the plagues of destruction which by his righteous Judgment he had determined to bring upon us may depart be removed and taken away Where he saith But now therefore saith the Lord return unto me It is not without great importance that the Prophet speaketh so for he had before set forth at large unto them the horrible Vengeance of God which no Man was able to abide and therefore he doth move them to Repentance to obtain Mercy as if he should say I will not have these things to be so taken as though there were no hope of grace left For although ye do by your sins deserve to be utterly destroyed and God by his righteous Judgments hath determined to bring no small destruction upon you yet know that ye are in a manner on the very edge of the Sword if ye will speedily return unto him he will most gently and most mercifully receive you into favor again Whereby we are admonished that Repentance is never too late so that it be true and earnest For sith that God in the Scriptures will be called our Father doubtless he doth follow the nature and property of gentle and merciful Fathers which seek nothing so much as the returning again and amendment of their Children as Christ doth abundantly teach in the Parable of the Prodigal Son Luke 15. Ezek. 18. Esay 1. 1 John 2. Doth not the Lord himself say by the Prophet I will not the death of the wicked but that he turn from his wicked ways and live And in another place If we confess our sins God is faithful righteous to forgive us our sins and to make us clean from all wickedness Which most comfortable Promises are confirmed by many Examples of the Scriptures when the Jews did willingly receive and imbrace the wholesom counsel of the Prophet Esay Esay 33. God by and by did reach his helping hand unto them and by his Angel did in one night slay the most worthy and valiant Soldiers of Sennacheribs Camp 2 Par. 53. Whereunto may King Manasses be added who after all manner of damnable wickedness returned unto the Lord and therefore was heard of him and restored again into his Kingdom
Unto whom this our returning must be made By whose means it ought to be done that it may be effectual And last of all after what sort we ought to behave our selves in the same that it may be profitable unto us and attain unto the thing that we do seek by it Ye have also learned that as the Opinion of them that deny the benefit of Repentance unto those that after they be come to God and grafted in our Saviour Jesus Christ do through the frailness of their Flesh and the temptation of the Devil fall into some grievous and detestable sin is most pestilent and pernicious so we must beware that we do in no wise think that we are able of our own selves and of our own strength to return unto the Lord our God from whom we are gone away by our wickedness and sin Now it shall be declared unto you what be the true parts of Repentance and what things ought to move us to repent and to return unto the Lord our God with all speed Repentance as it is said before is a true rtturning unto God whereby Men forsaking utterly their Idolatry and wickedness do with a lively Faith embrace love and worship the true living God only and give themselves to all manner of good Works which by Gods Word they know to be acceptable unto him There be four parts of Repentance Now there be four parts of Repentance which being set together may be likened to an easie and short Ladder whereby we may climb from the bottomless Pit of perdition that we cast our selves into by our daily offences and grievous sins up into the Castle or Tower of eternal and endless Salvation The first is the Contrition of the Heart for we must be earnestly sorry for our sins and unfeignedly lament and bewail that we have by them so grievously offended our most bounteous and merciful God who so tenderly loved us that he gave his only begotten Son to die a most bitter death and to shed his dear Heart Blood for our Redemption and Deliverance And verily this inward sorrow and grief being conceived in the heart for the heinousness of sin if it be earnest and unfeigned is a Sacrifice to God as the holy Prophet David doth testifie saying Psalm 5. A Sacrifice to God is a troubled Spirit a contrite and broken Heart O Lord thou wilt not despise But that this may take place in us we must be diligent to read and hear the Scriptures and the Word of God which most lively do paint out before our eyes our natural uncleanness and the enormity of our sinful life 2 Sam. 12 For unless we have a thorow feeling of our sins how can it be that we should earnestly be sorry for them Before David did hear the Word of the Lord by the mouth of the Prophet Nathan what heaviness I pray you was in him for the Adultery and the Murder that he had committed So that it might be said right well that he slept in his own sin We read in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 4. that when the People had heard the Sermon of Peter they were compunct pricked in their hearts Which thing would never have been if they had not heard that wholesom Sermon of Peter They therefore that have no mind at all neither to read nor yet to hear Gods Word there is but small hope of them that they will as much as once set their Feet or take hold upon the first Staff or Step of this Ladder but rather will sink deeper and deeper into the bottomless Pit of perdition For if at any time through the remorse of their Conscience which accuseth them they feel any inward grief sorrow or heaviness for their sins for as much as they want the salve and comfort of Gods Word which they do despise it will be unto them rather a Mean to bring them to utter desperation than otherwise The second is an unfeigned Confession and acknowledging of our sins unto God whom by them we have so grievously offended that if he should deal with us according to his justice we do deserve a thousand Hells if there could be so many Yet if we will with a sorrowful and contrite Heart Ezek. 18. make an unfeigned Confession of them unto God he will freely and frankly forgive them and so put all our wickedness out of remembrance before the sight of his Majesty that they shall no more be thought upon Hereunto doth pertain the golden saying of the holy Prophet David where he saith on this manner Then I acknowledge my sin unto thee Psalm 51. neither did I hide mine iniquity I said I will confess against my self my wickedness unto the Lord thou forgavest the ungodliness of my sin These are also the words of John the Evangelist 1 John 1. If we confess our sins God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to make us clean from all our wickedness which ought to be understood of the Confession which is made unto God For these are St. Augustins words In Epist ad Julian comitem 30. That Confession which is made unto God is required by Gods Law whereof John the Apostle speaketh saying If we confess our sins God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to make us clean from all our wickedness For without this Confession sin is not forgiven This is then the chiefest and most principal Confession that in the Scriptures and Word of God we are bidden to make and without the which we shall never obtain pardon and forgiveness of our sins Indeed besides this there is another kind of Confession which is needful and necessary And of the same doth St. James speak after this manner saying Acknowledge your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be saved As if he should say Open that which grieveth you that a Remedy may be found And this is commanded both for him that complaineth and for him that heareth that the one should shew his Grief to the other The true meaning of it is that the Faithful ought to acknowledge their offences whereby some hatred rancour ground or malice having risen or grown among them one to another that a Brotherly reconciliation may be had without the which nothing that we do can be acceptable unto God Mat. 5. as our Saviour Jesus Christ doth witness himself saying When thou offerest thine Offering at the Altar if thou remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thine Offering and go and be reconciled and when thou art reconciled come and offer thine Offering It may also be thus taken that we ought to confess our weakness and infirmities one to another to the end that knowing each others frailness we may the more earnestly pray together unto Almighty God our Heavenly Father that he will vouchsafe to pardon us our infirmities for his Son Jesus Christs sake and not to
impute them unto us when he shall render to every Man according to his Works Answer to the Adversaries which maintain Auricular Confession And whereas the Adversaries go about to wrest this place for to maintain their Auricular Confession withal they are greatly deceived themselves and do shamefully deceive others for if this Text ought to be understood of Auricular Confession then the Priests are as much bound to confess themselves unto the Lay-people as the Lay-people are bound to confess themselves to them And if to Pray is to Absolve then the Laity by this place hath as great Authority to Absolve the Priests as the Priests have to Absolve the Laity This did Johannes Scotus otherwise called Duns well perceive who upon this place writeth on this manner Johannes Scotus lib. 4. sen distinct 17 quaest 1. Neither doth it seem unto me that James did give this commandment or that he did set it forth as being received of Christ For first and foremost whence had he Authority to bind the whole Church sith that he was only Bishop of the Church of Jerusalem except thou wilt say that the same Church was at the beginning the Head Church and consequently that he was the Head Bishop which thing the See of Rome will never grant The understanding of it then is as in these words Confess your sins one to another A persuasion to Hum lity whereby he willeth us to confess our selves generally unto our Neighbors that we are sinners according to this saying If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us And where that they do alledge this saying of our Saviour Jesus Christ unto the Leper to prove Auricular Confession to stand on Gods Word Go thy way Mat. 8. and shew thy self unto the Priest Do they not see that the Leper was cleansed from his Leprosie before he was by Christ sent unto the Priest for to shew himself unto him By the same reason we must be cleansed from our Spiritual Leprosie I mean our sins must be forgiven us before that we come to Confession What need we then to tell forth our sins into the ear of the Priest sith that they be already taken away Therefore holy Ambrose in his second Sermon upon the hundred and nineteenth Psalm doth say full well Go shew thy self unto the Priest Who is the true Priest but he which is the Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech whoreby this holy Father doth understand that both the Priesthood the Law being changed we ought to acknowledge none other Priest for deliverance from our sins but our Saviour Jesus Christ who being Sovereign Bishop doth with the Sacrifice of his Body and Blood offered once for ever upon the Altar of the Cross most effectually cleanse the Spiritual Leprosie and wash away the Sins of those that with true confession of the same do flee unto him It is most evident and plain that this Auricular Confession hath not his warrant of Gods Word Nectarius Sozomen Eccles Hist lib. 7. cap. 16. lib. 10. confessionum cap. 3. else it had not been lawful for Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople upon a just occasion to have put it down For then any thing ordained of God is by the lewdness of Men abused the abuse ought to be taken away and the thing it self suffered to remain Moreover these are St. Augustins words What have I to do with Men that they should hear my Confession as though they were able to heal my Diseases A curious sorâ— of Men to know another Mans life and slothfully to correct and amend their own Why do they seek to hear of me what I am which will not hear of thee what they are And how can they tell when they hear by me of my self whether I tell the truth or not â—â—th no mortal Man knoweth what is in Man but the Spirit of Man which is in him Augustin would not have written thus if Auricular Confession had been used in his time Being therefore not led with the Conscience thereof let us with fear and trembling and with a true contrite Heart use that kind of Confession that God doth command in his Word and then doubtless as he is Faithful and Righteous he will forgive us our Sins and make us clean from all wickedness I do not say but that if any do find themselves troubled in Conscience they may repair to their Learned Curate or Pastor or to some other Godly Learned Man and shew the trouble and doubt of their Conscience to them that they may receive at their hand the comfortable Salve of Gods Word but it is against the true Christian liberty that any Man should be bound to the numbring of his Sins as it hath been used heretofore in the time of blindness and ignorance The Third prrt of Repentance is Faith whereby we do apprehend and take hold upon the promises of God touching the free Pardon and Forgiveness of our sins Which promises are Sealed up unto us with the Death and Blood-shedding of his Son Jesus Christ For what should avail and profit us to be sorry for our Sins to lament and bewail that we have offended our most Bounteous and Merciful Father or to confess and acknowledge our Offences and Trespasses though it be done never so earnestly unless we do stedfastly believe and be fully perswaded that God for his Son Jesus Christs sake will Forgive us all our Sins and put them out of Remembrance and from his sight Therefore they that teach Repentance without a lively Faith in our Saviour Jesus Christ do teach none other but Judas Repentance as all the School-men do The Repentance of the School-men Judas and his Repentance Matt. 27. which do only allow these Three Parts of Repentance the Contrition of the Heart the Confession of the Mouth and the Satisfaction of the Work But all these things we find in Judas Repentance which in outward appearance did far exceed and pass the Repentance of Peter For first and formost we read in the Gospel that Judas was so sorrowful and heavy yea that he was fillled with such anguish and vexation of mind for that which he had done that he could not abide to live any longer Did not he also before he Hanged himself make an open Confession of his fault when he said I have sinned betraying the Innocent Blood and verily this was a very bold Confession which might have brought him to great trouble For by it he did lay to the High Priest and Elders charge the shedding of Innocent Blood and that they were most Abominable Murderers He did also make a certain kind of satisfaction when he did cast their Mony unto them again No such things do we read of Peter although he had committed a very heinous sin and most grievous offence Peter and his Repentance in denying his of Master We find that he went out and wept bitterly whereof Ambrose speaketh on