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
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
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
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
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
Lord's sight Holy Simeon after that he had his Hearts desire in seeing our Saviour that he ever longed for in his life he embraced and took him in his Arms and said Now Lord Luke 2. let me depart in peace for mine eies have beholden that Saviour which thou hast prepared for all Nations It is truth therefore that the death of the Righteous is called Peace and the benefit of the Lord as the Church saith in the name of the Righteous departed out of this World My soul Psal 116. turn thee to thy Rest for the Lord both been good to thee and rewarded thee And we see by Holy Scripture and other ancient Histories of Martyrs that the Holy Faithful and Righteous ever since Christ's Ascension or going up in their death did not doubt but that they went to Christ in Spirit which is our Life Health Wealth and Salvation Apoc. 14. John in his Holy Revelation saw an hundred forty and four thousand Virgins and Innocents of whom he said These follow the Lamb Jesu Christ wheresoever he goeth And shortly after in the same place he saith I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write happy and blessed are the dead which die in the Lord From henceforth surely saith the Spirit they shall rest from their pains and labours for their works do follow them So that then they shall reap with joy and comfort that which they sowed with labours and pains They that sow in the Spirit of the Spirit shall reap everlasting Life Let us therefore never be weary of well-doing for when the time of Reaping or Reward cometh we shall reap without any Weariness everlasting Joy Therefore while we have time as St. Paul exhorteth us Gal 6. Matth. 6. let us do good to all Men and not lay up our Treasure in Earth where Rust and Moths corrupt it which Rust as St. James saith shall bear Witness against us at the great day condemn us and shall like most burning Fire torment our Flesh Let us beware therefore as we tender our own Wealth that we be not in the number of those miserable covetous and wretched Men James 5. which St. James biddeth mâ—arn and lament for their greedy gathering and ungâ—dly keeping of Goods Let us be wise in time and learn to follow the wise Example of the wicked Steward Let us so wisely order our Goods and Possessions committed unto us here by God for a season that we may truly hear and obey this Commandment of our Saviour Christ Luke 16. I say unto you saith he make you Friends of the wicked Mammon that they may receive you into everlasting Tabernacles or Dwellings Riches be called wicked because the World abuseth them unto all Wickedness which are otherwise the good gifts of God and the Instruments whereby God's Servants do truly serve him in using of the same He commanded them not to make them rich Friends to get high Dignities and worldly Promotions to give great gifts to rich Men that have no need thereof but to make them Friends of poor and miserable Men unto whom whatsoever they give Christ taketh it as given to himself And to these Friends Christ in the Gospel giveth so great Honor and Preeminence that he saith They shall receive them that do good unto them into everlasting Houses Not that Men shall be our Rewarders for our well-doing but that Christ will reward us and and take it to be done unto himself whatsoever is done to such Friends Thus making poor Wretches our Friends we make our Saviour Christ our Friend whose Members they are Whose misery as he taketh for his own misery so their Relief Succor and Help he taketh for his Succor Relief and Help and will as much thank us and reward us for our goodness shewed to them as if he himself had received like Benefit at our hands as he witnesseth in the Gospel saying Matth 25. Whatsoever ye have done to any of these simple Persons which do believe in me that have you done to myself Therefore let us diligently foresee that our Faith and Hope which we have conceived in Almighty God and in our Saviour Christ wax not faint and that the love which we bear in hand to bear to him wax not cold But let us study daily and diligently to shew ourselves to be the true Honorers and Lovers of God by keeping of his Commandments by doing of good Deeds unto our needy Neighbours relieving by all means that we can their Poverty with our Abundance and Plenty their Ignorance with our Wisdom and Learning and comfort their Weakness with our Strength and Authority calling all Men back from evil-doing by godly Counsel and good Example persevering still in well-doing so long as we live So shall we not need to fear Death for any of those three Causes afore-mentioned nor yet for any other Cause that can be imagined But contrarily considering the manifold Sicknesses Troubles and Sorrows of this present Life the dangers of this perillous Pilgrimage and the great encumbrance which our Spirit hath by this sinful Flesh and frail Body subject to Death Considering also the manifold Sorrows and dangerous Deceits of this World on every side the intolerable Pride Covetousness and Lechery in time of Prosperity the impatient murmuring of them that be worldly in time of Adversity which cease not to withdraw and pluck us from God our Saviour Christ from our Life Wealth or everlasting Joy and Salvation Considering also the innumerable Assaults of our Ghostly Enemy the Devil with all his fiery Darts of Ambition Pride Lechery Vain-glory Envy Malice Detraction or Backbiting with other his innumerable Deceits 1 Pet. 5. Engines and Snares whereby he goeth busily about to catch all Men under his dominion ever like a roaring Lion by all means searching whom he may devour The faithful Christian-Man which considereth all these Miseries Perils and Incommodities whereunto he is subject so long as he here liveth upon Earth and on the other part considereth that blessed and comfortable state of the Heavenly life to come and the sweet condition of them that depart in the Lord how they are delivered from the continual encumbrances of their mortal and sinful Body from all the Malice Crafts and Deceits of this World from all the assaults of their Ghostly Enemy the Devil to live in peace rest and endless quietness to live in the fellowship of innumerable Angels and with the congregation of perfect and just Men as Patriarchs Prophets Martyrs and Confessors and finally unto the Presence of Almighty God and our Saviour Jesus Christ He that doth consider all these things and believeth them assuredly as they are to be believed even from the bottom of his Heart being established in God in this true Faith having a quiet Conscience in Christ a firm Hope and assured Trust in God's Mercy through the Merits of Jesu Christ to obtain this Quietness Rest and everlasting Joy shall not only be without
the high Powers for the putting away of Whoredom and for the maintaining of Holy Matrimony or Wedlock and pure Conversation And the Authors of these Acts were no Christians but the Heathen Yet were they so enflamed with the love of Honesty and pureness of Life that for the maintenance and conservation or keeping up of that they made godly Statutes suffering neither Fornication or Adultery to reign in their Realms unpunished Christ said to the People The Ninevites shall rise at the Judgment with this Nation meaning the unfaithful Jews and shall condemn them For they repented at the Preaching of Jonas but behold saith he a Greater than Jonas is here Mat. 12. meaning himself and yet they repent not Shall not think you likewise the Locrensians Arabians Athenians with such other rise up in the Judgment and condemn us forasmuch as they ceased from their Whoredom at the Commandment of Man and we have the Law and manifest Precepts and Commandments of God and yet forsake we not our filthy Conversation Truly truly it shall be easier at the day of Judgment to these Heathens than to us except we repent and amend For though death of Body seemeth unto us a grievous Punishment in this World for Whoredom Yet is that pain nothing in comparison to the grievous Torments which Adulterers Fornicators and all unclean Persons shall suffer after this Life For all such shall be excluded and shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Col. 6. Galat. 5. Eph. 5. as Saint Paul saith Be not deceived for neither Whoremongers nor Worshippers of Images nor Adulterers nor effeminate Persons nor Sodomites nor Thieves nor covetous Persons nor Drunkards nor cursed Speakers nor Revilers shall inherit the Kingdom of God Apoc. 20. And Saint John in his Revelation saith That Whoremongers shall have their part with Murtherers Sorcerers Enchanters Lyars Idolaters and such other in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second death The Punishment of the Body although it be death hath an end But the Punishment of the Soul which Saint John calleth the second death is everlasting there shall be Fire and Brimstone there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth the Worm Mat. 13. Mark 9. that there shall gnaw the Conscience of the damned shall never dye O! whose Heart destilleth not even drops of Blood to hear and consider these things If we tremble and shake at the hearing and naming of these Pains Oh what shall they do that feel them that shall suffer them yea and ever shall suffer Worlds without end God have mercy upon us Who is now so drowned in Sin and past all Godliness that he will set more by filthy and stinking Pleasure which soon passeth away than by the loss of everlasting Glory Again who will so give himself to the Lusts of the Flesh that he feareth nothing at all the pain of Hell fire But let us hear how we may eschew the Sin of Whoredome and Adultery that we may walk in the Fear of God and be free from those most grievous and intolerable Torments which abide all unclean Persons Now to avoid Fornication Adultery Remedies whereby to avoid Fornication and Adultery and all Uncleanness let us provide that above all things we may keep our Hearts pure and clean from all evil Thoughts and carnal Lusts For if that be once infected and corrupt we fall headlong into all kind of Ungodliness This shall we easily do if when we feel inwardly that Satan our old Enemy tempteth us unto Whoredom we by no means consent to his crafty Suggestions but valiantly resist and withstand him by strong Faith in the Word of God Alledging against him always in our Heart this Commandment of God Scriptum est non moechaberis It is written Thou shalt not commit Whoredom It shall be good also for us ever to live in the Fear of God and to set before our Eyes the grievous Threatnings of God against all ungodly Sinners and to consider in our mind how filthy beastly and short that Pleasure is whereunto Satan continually stirreth and moveth us And again how the pain appointed for that Sin is intolerable and everlasting Moreover to use a temperance and sobriety in Eating and Drinking to eschew unclean Communication to avoid all filthy Company to flee Idleness to delight in reading the Holy Scriptures to watch in Godly Prayers and virtuous Meditation and at all times to exercise some Godly Travels shall help greatly to the eschewing of Whoredom And here are all degrees to be monished whether they be married or unmarried to love Chastity and Cleanness of Life For the married are bound by the Law of God so purely to love one another that neither of them seek any strange Love The Man must only cleave to his Wife and the Wife again only to her Husband They must so delight one in another's Company that none of them covet any other And as they are bound thus to live together in all Godliness and Honesty so likewise it is their Duty virtuously to bring up their Children and provide that they fall not into Satan's Snare nor into any Uncleanness but that they come pure and honest unto Holy Wedlock when time requireth So likewise ought all Masters and Rulers to provide that no Whoredom nor any point of Uncleanness be used among their Servants And again they that are single and feel in themselves that they cannot live without the Company of a Woman let them get Wives of their own and so live Godly together For it is better to marry than to burn 1 Cor. 7. And to avoid Fornication saith the Apoostle let every Man have his own Wife and every Woman her own Husband Finally all such as feel in themselves a sufficiency and ability through the working of God's Spirit to lead a sole and continent Life let them praise God for his Gift and seek all means possible to maintain the same as by reading of Holy Scriptures by Godly Meditations by continual Prayers and such other virtuous Exercises If we all on this wise will endeavour ourselves to eschew Fornication Adultery and all Uncleanness and lead our Lives in all Godliness and Honesty serving God with a pure and clean Heart and glorifying him in our Bodies by the leading an innocent and harmless Life we may be sure to be in the number of those of whom our Saviour Christ speaketh in the Gospel on this manner Blessed are the pure in Heart Matth. 5. for they shall see God to whom alone be all Glory Honour Rule and Power World without End Amen A SERMON AGAINST Contention and Brawling THIS day good Christian People shall be declared unto you the unprofitableness and shameful unhonesty of Contention Strife and Debate to the intent that when you shall see as it were in a Table painted before your Eyes the Evil-Favouredness and Deformity of this most detestable Vice your Stomachs may be moved to rise against it and
them and to delight or trust in them except we have in mind his examples in passion to follow them If we thus therefore consâ—â—er Christs death and will stick thereto with fast â—â—th for the merit and deserving thereof and wiâ—â—â—o frame our selves in such wise to bestow our selves and all that we have by Charity to the behoof of our Neighbour as Christ spent himself wholly for our profit then do we truly remember Christs death and being thus followers of Christs steps we shall be sure to follow him thither where he sitteth now with the Father and the Holy Ghost To whom be all Honour and Glory Amen THE SECOND HOMILY CONCERNING The Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ. THAT we may the better conceive the great mercy and goodness of our Saviour Christ in suffering death universally for all men it behoveth us to descend into the bottom of our Conscience and deeply to consider the first and principal cause wherefore he was compelled so to do When our great Grandfather Adam had broken Gods Commandment Gen. â— in eating the Apple forbidden him in Paradise at the motion and suggestion of his Wife he purchased thereby not only to himself but also to his Posterity for ever the just wrath and indignation of God who according to his former sentence pronounced at the giving of the Commandment condemned both him and all his to everlasting death both of Body and Soul For it was said unto him Gen. 2. Thou shalt eat freely of every Tree in the Garden but as touching the Tree of knowledge of good and ill thou shalt in no wise eat of it For in what hour soever thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Now as the Lord had spoken so it came to pass Adam took upon him to eat thereof and in so doing he died the death that is to say he became mortal he lost the favour of God he was cast out of Paradise he was no longer a Citizen of Heaven but a Fire-brand of Hell and a Bondslave to the Devil To this doth our Saviour bear witness in the Gospel Luke 15. calling us lost Sheep which have gone astray and wandred from the true Shepherd of our souls To this also doth St. Paul bear witness Rom. 5. saying That by the offence only of Adam death came upon all men to condemnation So that now neither he or any of his had any right or interest at all in the Kingdom of Heaven but were become plain Reprobates and Cast-aways being perpetually damned to the everlasting pains of Hell-fire In this so great misery and wretchedness if mankind could have recovered himself again and obtained forgiveness at Gods hands then had his case been somewhat tolerable because he might have attempted some way how to deliver himself from eternal death But there was no way left unto him he could do nothing that might pacifie Gods wrath he was altogether unprofitable in that behalf There was not one that did good no not one And how then could he work his own Salvation Should he go about to pacifie Gods heavy displeasure by offering up burnt-sacrifices Heb. 9. according as it was ordained in the old Law by offering up the blood of Oxen the blood of Calves the blood of Goats the blood of Lambs and so forth O these things were of no force nor strength to take away sins they could not put away the anger of God they could not cool the heat of his wrath nor yet bring mankind into favour again they were but only figures and shadows of things to come Heb. 10. and nothing else Read the Epistle to the Hebrews there shall you find this matter largely discussed there shall you learn in most plain words that the bloody Sacrifice of the old Law was unperfect and not able to deliver man from the state of damnation by any means so that mankind in trusting thereunto should trust to a broken staff and in the end deceive himself What should he then do Should he go about to serve and keep the Law of God divided into two Tables and so purchase to himself eternal life Indeed if Adam and his Posterity had been able to satisfie and fulfil the Law perfectly in loving God above all things and their Neighbour as themselves then should they have easily quenched the Lords wrath and escaped the terrible sentence of eternal death pronounced against them by the mouth of Almighty God For it is written Do thus and thou shalt live that is to say Luke 10. fulfil my Commandments keep thy self upright and perfect in them according to my Will then shalt thou live and not die Here is eternal life promised with this condition and so that they keep and observe the Law But such was the frailty of mankind after his Fall such was his weakness and imbecillity that he could not walk uprightly in Gods Commandments though he would never so fain but daily and hourly fell from his bounden duty offending the Lord his God divers ways to the great increase of his condemnation insomuch that the Prophet David crieth out on this wise All have gone astray Psal 5. all are become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one In this case what profit could he have by the Law None at all For as St. James saith James 2. He that shall observe the whole Law and yet faileth in one point is become guilty of all And in the Book of Deuteronomy it is written Deut. 27. Cursed be he saith God which abideth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them Behold the Law bringeth a curse with it and maketh it guilty not because it is of it self naught or unholy God forbid we should so think but because the frailty of our sinful flesh is such that we can never fulfil it according to the perfection that the Lord requireth Could Adam then think you hope or trust to be saved by the Law No he could not But the more he looked on the Law the more he saw his own damnation set before his eyes as it were in a clear glass So that now of himself he was most wretched and miserable destitute of all hope and never able to pacifie Gods heavy displeasure nor yet to escape the terrible judgment of God whereunto he and all his Posterity were fallen by disobeying the strait Commandment of the Lord their God But O the abundant riches of Gods great mercy Rom. 11. O the unspeakable goodness of his heavenly Wisdom When all hope of righteousness was past on our part when we had nothing in our selves whereby we might quench his burning wrath and work the salvation of our own Souls and rise out of the miserable estate wherein we lay Then even then did Christ the Son of God by the appointment of his Father come down from Heaven to be wounded for our sakes to be reputed with the wicked to be
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
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
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
Rebellion as you see both the first and the greatest and the very root of all other sins and the first and principal cause both of all worldly and bodily Miseries Sorrows Diseases Sicknesses and Deaths and which is infinitely worse than all these as is said the very cause of death and damnation eternal also After this breach of Obedience to God and Rebellion against His Majesty all mischiefs and miseries breaking in therewith and overflowing the World lest all things should come unto confusion and utter ruin God forthwith by Laws given unto Mankind Gen. 3. d. 17. Gen 3. c. 16. Job 34. d. 30. 36. a. 7. repaired again the rule and order of Obedience thus by Rebellion overthrown and besides the Obedience due unto his Majesty he not only ordained that in Families and Housholds The Wife should be obedient unto her Husband the Children unto their Parents the Servants unto their Masters but also when Mankind increased and spread it self more largely over the World he by his holy Word did constitute and ordain in Cities and Countries several and special Governors and Rulers unto whom the residue of his People should be obedient Eccl. 8. a 2. 10. c. 16.17 d. 20. Psal 18. g. 50. 20. b. 6. 21. a. 1. Prov. 8.115 As in reading of the Holy Scriptures we shall find in very many and almost infinite places as well of the Old Testament as of the New that Kings and Princes as well the evil as the good do Reign by Gods Ordinance and that Subjects are bounden to obey them that God doth give Princes Wisdom great Power and Authority that God defendeth them against their Enemies and destroyeth their Enemies horribly that the anger and displeasure of the Prince is as the roaring of a Lion and the very messenger of death and the Subject that provoketh him to displeasure sinneth against his own Soul with many other things concerning both the Authority of Princes and the Duty of Subjects But here let us rehearse two special places out of the New Testament which may stand instead of all other Rom. 13. The first out of St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans and the thirteenth Chapter where he writeth thus unto all Subjects Let every Soul be subject unto the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God and the Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation For Princes are not to be feared for good Works but for evil Wilt thou then be without fear of the Power Do well so shalt thou have praise of the same for he is the Minister of God for thy Wealth But if thou do evil fear for he beareth not the Sword for nought for he is the Minister of God to take vengeance upon him that doth evil Wherefore ye must be subject not because of Wrath only but also for Conscience sake for for this cause ye pay also tribute for they are Gods Ministers serving for the same purpose Give to every Man therefore his due tribute to whom tribute belongeth custom to whom custom is due fear to whom fear belongeth honor to whom ye owe honor Thus far are S. Pauls words The second place is in St. Peters Epistle and the second Chapter 1 Pet. 2. whose words are these Submit your selves unto all manner of Ordinances of Man for the Lords sake whether it be unto the King as unto the chief Head either unto Rulers as unto them that are sent of him for the punishment of evil doers but for the cherishing of them that do well For so is the Will of God that with well doing ye may stop the mouths of ignorant and foolish Men as free and not as having the liberty for a cloak of maliciousness but even as the Servants of God Honor all Men love Brotherly Fellowship fear God honor the King Servants obey your Masters with fear not only if they be good and courteous but also though they be froward Thus far out of St. Peter By these two places of the Holy Scriptures it is most evident that Kings Queens and other Princes for he speaketh of Authority and Power be it in Men or Women are ordained of God are to be obeyed and honored of their Subjects that such Subjects as are disobedient or rebellious against their Princes disobey God and procure their own damnation that the government of Princes is a great blessing of God given for the Common-wealth specially of the good and godly For the comfort and cherishing of whom God giveth and setteth up Princes and on the contrary part to the fear and for the punishment of the evil and wicked Finally That if Servants ought to obey their Masters not only being gentle but such as be froward as well and much more ought â—ubjects to be obedient not only to their good and courteous but also to their sharp and rigorous Princes It cometh therefore neither of chance and fortune as they term it nor of the ambition of mortal Men and Women climbing up of their own accord to dominion that there be Kings Queens Princes other Governors ovâ—r Men being their Subjects but all Kings Queens other Governors are specially appointed by the ordinance of God And as God himself being of an infinite Majesty Power and Wisdom ruleth and governeth all things in Heâ—ven and Earth Psal 80. b. 16 45. a. 6. c. 47. a. 2. Eccl. 17. c. as the Universal Monarch and only King and Emperor over all as being only able to take and bear the charge of all so hath he constituted ordained and set earthly Princes over particular Kingdoms and Dominions in Earth both for the avoiding of all confusion which else would be in the World if it should be without Governors and for the great quiet and benefit of earthly Men their Subjects and also that the Princes themselves in Authority Power Wisdom Providence and righteousness in government of People and Countries committed to their charge should resemble his heavenly Governance as the Majesty of heavenly things may by the baseness of earthly things be shadowed and resembled Mat. 18. c. 23. 22.12 Ps 10. b. 16 and 45. a. b. 47. a. 2. c. Mat. 22. b. 13. 25. c. 34. Psal 82. b. 6. And for that similitude that is between the heavenly Monarchy and earthly Kingdoms well governed our Saviour Christ in sundry Parables saith That the Kingdom of Heaven is resembled unto a Man a King and as the name of the King is very often attributed and given unto God in Holy Scriptures so doth God himself in the same Scriptures sometimes vouchsafe to communicate his Name with earthly Princes terming them Gods doubtless for that similitude of Government which they have or should have not unlike unto God their King unto the which similitude of heavenly Government the nearer and nearer that an
Heirs for ever for whom they might purchase Livings and Lands as natural Parents do take care and pains and to be at great costs and charges and universally instead of all Quietness Joy and Felicity which do follow blessed Peace and due Obedience to bring in all troubles sorrow disquietness of Minds and Bodies and all Mischief and Calamity to turn all good Order upside down to bring all good Laws in contempt and to tread them under feet to oppress all Vertue and Honesty and all vertuous and honest Persons and to set all Vice and Wickedness and all vicious and wicked Men at liberty to work their wicked Wills which were before bridled by wholsom Laws to weaken to overthrow and to consume the strength of the Realm their natural Country as well by the spending and wasting of the Mony and Treasure of the Prince and Realm as by murdering the People of the same Prov. 14. their own Country-men who should defend the honor of their Prince and liberty of their Country against the Invasion of Foreign Enemies And so finally To make their Country thus by their mischief weakned ready to be a prey and spoil to all outward Enemies that will invade it to the utter and perpetual captivity slavery and destruction of all their Country-men their Children their Friends their Kinsfolk left alive whom by their wicked Rebellion they procure to be delivered into the hands of the Foreign Enemies as much as in them doth lie In Foreign Wars our Country-men in obtaining the Victory win the praise of valiantness yea and though they were overcome and slain yet win they an honest commendation in this World and die in a good Conscience for serving God their Prince and their Country and be Children of eternal Salvation But the Rebels how desperate and strong soever they be yet win they shame here in fighting against God their Prince and Country and therefore justly do fall headlong into Hell if they die and live in shame and fearful Conscience though they escape But commonly they be rewarded with shameful Deaths their Hands and Carcasses set upon Poles and hanged in Chains eaten with Kites and Crows judged unworthy the honor of Burial and so their Souls if they repent not as commonly they do not the Devil hurrieth them into Hell in the midst of their mischief For which dreadful execution St. Paul sheweth the cause of Obedience Rom. 13. not only for fear of Death but also in Conscience to God-ward for fear of eternal damnation in the World to come Wherefore good People let us as the Children of Obedience fear the dreadful Execution of God and live in quiet Obedience to be the Children of everlasting Salvation For as Heaven is the place of good obedient Subjects and Hell the Prison and Dungeon of Rebels against God and their Prince so is that Realm happy where most obedience of Subjects doth appear being the very Figure of Heaven and contrariwise where most Rebellions and Rebels be there is the express similitude of Hell and the Rebels themselves are the very Figures of Fiends and Devils and their Captain the ungracious pattern of Lucifer and Satan the Prince of darkness of whose Rebellion as they be Followers so shall they of his damnation in Hell undoubtedly be partakers and as undoubtedly Children of Peace the inheriters of Heaven with God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost To whom be all Honor and Glory for ever and ever Amen Thus have you heard the First Part of this Homily Now good People Let us pray The PRAYER as in that time it was Published O Most mighty God the Lord of Hosts the Governor of all Creatures the only giver of all Victories who alone art able to strengthen the Weak against the Mighty and to vanquish infinite multitudes of thine Enemies with the Countenance of a few of thy Servants calling upon thy Name and trusting in thee Defend O Lord thy Servant and our Governor under thee our Sovereign Lord the KING and all thy People committed to his charge O Lord withstand the cruelty of all those which be Common Enemies as well to the truth of thy Eternal Word as to their own natural Prince and Country and manifestly to this Crown and Realm of England which thou hast of thy Divine Providence assigned in these our days to the government of thy Servant our Sovereign and gracious KING O most merciful Father if it be thy holy Will make soft and tender the stony Hearts of all those that exalt themselves against thy Truth and seek either to trouble the quiet of this Realm of England or to oppress the Crown of the same and convert them to the knowledge of thy Son the only Saviour of the World Jesus Christ that we and they may joyntly glorifie thy mercies Lighten we beseech thee their ignorant Hearts to embrace the Truth of thy Word or else so abate their cruelty O most mighty Lord that this our Christian Realm with others that confess thy holy GOSPEL may obtain by thy aid and strength surety from all Enemies without shedding of Christian Blood whereby all they which be oppressed with their Tyranny may be relieved and they which be in fear of their cruelty may be comforted and finally that all Christian Realms and especially this Realm of England may by thy Defence and Protection continue in the Truth of the Gospel and enjoy perfect Peace Quietness and Security And that we for these thy Mercies joyntly all together with one consonant Heart and Voice may thankfully render to thee all Laud and Praise that we knit in one godly Concord and Unity amongst our selves may continually magnifie thy glorious Name who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost art one Eternal Almighty and most merciful God To whom be all Laud and Praise World without end Amen The Fourth Part of the Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion FOr your further instruction good People to shew unto you how much Almighty God doth abhor Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion specially when Rebels advance themselves so high that they arm themselves with Weapon and stand in the Field to sight against God their Prince and their Country It shall not be out of the way to shew some Examples set out in Scriptures written for our eternal Erudition We may soon know good People how heinous an offence the treachery of Rebellion is if we call to remembrance the heavy wrath and dreadful indignation of Almighty God against Subjects as do only but inwardly grudge mutter and murmur against their Governors though their inward Treason so privily hatched in their Breasts come not to open Declaration of their doings as hard it is whom the Devil hath so far enticed against Gods Word to keep themselves there no he meaneth still to blow the Coal to kindle their Rebellious Hearts to flame into open Deeds if he be not with Grace speedily withstood Num. 11. a Num. 12.