Three things must go together in our justification which walk not after the flesh but after the spirit In these foresaid places the Apostle toucheth specially three things which must go together in our justification Upon God's part his great Mercy and Grace upon Christ's part Justice that is the satisfaction of God's Justice or the price of our Redemption by the offering of his Body and shedding of his Blood with fulfilling of the Law perfectly and throughly and upon our part true and lively Faith in the Merits of Jesus Christ which yet is not ours but by God's working in us So that in our Justification there is not only God's Mercy and Grace but also his Justice which the Apostle calleth the Justice of God and it consisteth in paying our Ransom and fulfilling of the Law And so the Grace of God doth not shut out the Justice of God in our Justification but only shutteth out the Justice of Man that is to say the Justice of our Works as to be Merits of deserving our Justification And therefore St. Paul declareth here nothing upon the behalf of Man concerning his Justification but only a true and lively Faith which nevertheless is the Gift of God and not Man's only Work without God And yet that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the Fear of God to be joyned with Faith in every Man that is justified but it shutteth them out from the office of Justifying How it is to be understood that Faith justifieth without Works So that although they be all present together in him that is Justified yet they justifie not altogether Neither doth Faith shut out the Justice of our good Works necessarily to be done afterwards of Duty towards God for we are most bounden to serve God in doing good Deeds commanded by him in his Holy Scripture all the days of our Life But it excludeth them so that we may not do them to this intent to be made Just by doing of them For all the good Works that we can do be imperfect and therefore not able to deserve our Justification but our Justification doth come freely by the mere Mercy of God and of so great and free Mercy that whereas all the World was not able of themselves to pay any part towards their Ransom it pleased our Heavenly Father of his infinite Mercy without any our desert or deserving to prepare for us the most precious Jewels of Christ's Body and Blood whereby our Ransom might be fully paid the Law fulfilled and his Justice fully satisfied So that Christ is now the Righteousness of all them that truly do believe in him He for them paid their Ransom by his Death He for them fulfilled the Law in his Life So that now in him and by him every true Christian Man may be called A fulfiller of the Law Forasmuch as that which their Infirmity lacked Christ's Justice hath supplied The Second Part of the Sermon of Salvation YE have heard of whom all Men ought to seek their Justification and Righteousness and how also this Righteousness cometh unto Men by Christ's Death and Merits Ye heard also how that three things are required to the obtaining of our Righteousness that is God's Mercy Christ's Justice and a true and lively Faith out of the which Faith spring good Works Also before was declared at large That no Man can be justified by his own good Works that no Man fulfilleth the Law according to the strict rigor of the Law And St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians proveth the same saying thus Gal. 2. If there had been any Law given which could have justified verily Righteousness should have been by the Law And again he saith If righteousness be by the Law then Christ died in vain And again he saith Ephes 2. You that are justified by the Law are fallen away from Grace And furthermore he writeth to the Ephesians on this wise By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of yourselves for it is the gift of God and not of Works lest any Man should Glory And to be short the sum of all Paul's Disputation is this That if Justice come of Works then it cometh not of Grace and if it come of Grace then it cometh not of Works And to this end tend all the Prophets as St. Peter saith in the 10th of the Acts. Of Christ all the Prophets saith St. Peter Acts 10. do witness that through his Name all they that believe in him shall receive the remission of sins Faith only justifieth is the Doctrine of old Doctors And after this wise to be justified only by this true and lively Faith in Christ speak all the old and antient Authors both Greeks and Latins Of whom I will specially rehearse three Hilary Basil and Ambrose St. Hilary saith these Words plainly in the ninth Canon upon Matthew Faith only justifieth And St. Basil a Greek Author writeth thus This is a perfect and whole reioycing in God when a Man advanceth not himself for his own Righteousness but acknowledgeth himself to lack true Justice and Righteousness and to be justified by the only Faith in Christ And Paul saith he Philip. 3. doth glory in the contempt of his own Righteousness and that he looketh for the Righteousness of God by Faith These be the very words of St. Basil and St. Ambrose a Latin Author saith these words This is the Ordinance of God that they which believe in Christ should be saved without Works by Faith only freely receiving remission of their sins Consider diligently these words Without works by Faith only freely we receive remission of our sins What can be spoken more plainly than to say That freely without Works by Faith only we obtain remission of our sins These and other like Sentences that we be justified by Faith only freely and without Works we do read oft-times in the best and most antient Writers As beside Hilary Basil and St. Ambrose before rehearsed we read the same in Origen St. Chrysostom St. Cyprian St. Augustin Prosper Oecumenius Proclus Bernardus Anselm and many other Authors Greek and Latin Nevertheless this Sentence that we be justified by Faith only is not so meant of them that the said justifying Faith is alone in Man without true Repentance Hope Charity Dread and the Fear of God at any time and season Faith alone how it is to be understood Nor when they say that we should be justified freely do they mean that we should or might afterward be idle and that nothing should be required on our parts afterward Neither do they mean so to be justified without good Works that we should do no good Works at all like as shall be more expressed at large hereafter But this saying That we be justified by Faith only freely and without Works is spoken for to take away clearly all Merit of our Works as being unable to deserve our Justification at God's hands
all from sin He is the Physician which healeth all our Diseases He is that Saviour which saveth People from all their sins To be short Matth. 1. he is that flowing and most plentious Fountain of whose fulness all we have received For in him alone are all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God hidden And in him and by him have we from God the Father all good things pertaining either to the Body or to the Soul O how much are we bound to this our Heavenly Father for his great Mercies which he hath so plenteously declared unto us in Christ Jesu our Lord and Saviour What Thanks worthy and sufficient can we give to him Let us all with one accord burst out with joyful voice ever Praising and Magnifying this Lord of Mercy for his tender Kindness shewed unto us in his dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Hitherto we have heard what we are of ourselves very sinful wretched and damnable Again we have heard how that of ourselves and by ourselves we are not able either to think a good Thought or work a good Deed so that we can find in ourselves no hope of Salvation but rather whatsoever maketh unto our Destruction Again we have heard the tender Kindness and great Mercy of God the Father towards us and how beneficial he is to us for Christ's sake without our Merits or Deserts even of his own mere Mercy and tender Goodness Now how these exceeding great Mercies of God set abroad in Christ Jesu for us be obtained and how we be delivered from the captivity of Sin Death and Hell shall more at large with God's help be declared in the next Sermon In the mean season yea and at all times let us learn to know ourselves our frailty and weakness without any boasting or cracking of our own good Deeds and Merits Let us also acknowledge the exceeding Mercy of God towards us and confess that as of ourselves cometh all Evil and Damnation so likewise of him cometh all Goodness and Salvation Osee 13. as God himself saith by the Prophet Osee O Israel thy destruction cometh of thyself but in me only is thy help and comfort If we thus Humbly submit ourselves in the sight of God we may be sure that in the time of his Visitation he will lift us up unto the Kingdom of his dearly beloved Son Christ Jesu our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen A SERMON OF THE Salvation of Mankind by only Christ our Saviour from Sin and Death everlasting BEcause all Men be Sinners and Offenders against God and Breakers of his Law and Commandments therefore can no Man by his own Acts Works and Deeds seem they never so good be justified and made righteous before God But every Man of necessity is constrained to seek for another Righteousness of Justification to be received at God's own hands that is to say the forgiveness of his Sins and Trespasses in such things as he hath offended And this Justification or Righteousness which we so receive of God's Mercy and Christ's Merits embraced by Faith is taken accepted and allowed of God for our perfect and full Justification For the more full understanding hereof it is our Parts and Duties ever to remember the great Mercy of God how that all the World being wrapped in Sin by breaking of the Law God sent his only Son our Saviour Christ into this World to fulfil the Law for us and by shedding of his most precious Blood to make a sacrifice and satisfaction or as it may be called amends to his Father for our sins to asswage his Wrath and Indignation conceived against us for the same The efficacy of Christ's Passion and Oblation Insomuch that Infants being Baptized and dying in their Infancy are by this Sacrifice washed from their Sins brought to God's Favour and made his Children and Inheritors of his Kingdom of Heaven And they which in Act or Deed do sin after their Baptism when they turn again to God unfeignedly they are likewise washed by this Sacrifice from their sins in such sort that there remaineth not any spot of Sin that shall be imputed to their Damnation This is that justification of Righteousness which St. Paul speaketh of when he saith No man is Justified by the works of the Law Gal. 2. but freely by faith in Jesus Christ And again he saith We believe in Jesus Christ that we be justified freely by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law because that no Man shall be justified by the works of the Law And although this justification be free unto us yet it cometh not so freely unto us that there is no ransom paid therefore at all But here may Man's Reason be astonished reasoning after this fashion Objection If a Ransom be paid for our Redemption then is it not given us freely For a Prisoner that payd his Ransom is not let go freely For if he go freely then he goeth without Ransom For what is it else to go freely than to be set at liberty without paying of Ransom Answer This Reason is satisfied by the great Wisdom of God in this mystery of our Redemption who hath so tempered his Justice and Mercy together that he would neither by his Justice condemn us unto the everlasting Captivity of the Devil and his Prison of Hell remediless for ever without Mercy nor by his Mercy deliver us clearly without Justice or Payment of a just Ransom but with his endless Mercy he joyned his most upright and equal Justice His great Mercy he shewed unto us in delivering us from our former Captivity without requiring of any Ransom to be paid or amends to be made upon our parts which thing by us had been impossible to be done And whereas it lay not in us to do that he provided a Ransom for us that was the most precious Body and Blood of his own most dear and best beloved Son Jesu Christ who besides this Ransom fulfilled the Law for us perfectly And so the Justice of God and his Mercy did embrace together and fulfilled the Mystery of our Redemption And of this Justice and Mercy of God knit together speaketh St. Paul in the third Chap. to the Romans Rom. 3. All have offended and have need of the Glory of God but are justified freely by Grace by Redemption which is in Jesu Christ whom God hath sent forth to us for a Reconciler and Peace-maker through Faith in his Blood to shew his righteousness And in the 10th Chapter Rom. 10. Rom. 8. Christ is the end of the Law unto righteousness to every man that believeth And in the 8th Chapter That which was impossible by the Law inasmuch as it was weak by the flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh by sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us
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
Acts 15. That when the Apostles and Elders with the whole Congregation were gathered together to pacifie the hearts of the faithful dwelling at Antioch which were disquieted through the false Doctrine of several Jewish Preachers they sent word to the Brethren That it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them to charge them with no more than with necessary things Among others they willed them to abstain from Idolatry and Fornication from which said they if you keep your selves ye shall do well Note here how these holy and blessed Fathers of Christ's Church would charge the Congregation with no more things than were necessary Mark also how among those things from the which they commanded the Brethren of Antioch to abstain Fornication and Whoredom are numbred It is therefore necessary by the determination and consent of the Holy Ghost and the Apostles and Elders with the whole Congregation that as from Idolatry and Superstition so likewise we must abstain from Fornication and Whoredom It is necessary unto Salvation to abstain from Idolatry So it is to abstain from Whoredom Is there any nigher way to lead unto damnation than to be an Idolater No even so neither is there any nearer way to damnation than to be a Fornicator and a Whoremonger Now where are those People which so lightly esteem breaking of Wedlock Whoredom Fornication and Adultery It is necessary saith the Holy Ghost the blessed Apostles the Elders with the whole Congregation of Christ it is necessary to Salvation say they to abstain from Whoredom If it be necessary unto Salvation then woe be to them which neglecting their Salvation give their Minds to so filthy and stinking a Sin to so wicked Vice and to such detestable abomination The Second Part of the Sermon against Adultery YOU have been taught in the First Part of this Sermon against Adultery how that Vice at this day reigneth most above all other Vices and what is meant by this word Adultery and how Holy Scripture dissuadeth or discounselleth from doing that filthy Sin and finally what corruption cometh to Man's Soul through the Sin of Adultery Now to proceed further let us hear what the blessed Apostle St. Paul saith to this matter writing to the Romans he hath these words Rom. 13. Let us cast away the Works of Darkness and put on the Armour of Light Let us walk honestly as it were in the day time not in eating and drinking neither in chambering and wantonness neither in strife and envying but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts of it Here the Holy Apostle exhorteth us to cast away the Works of Darkness which among other he calleth gluttonous eating drinking chambering and wantonness which are all Ministers unto that Vice and preparations to induce and bring in the filthy Sin of the Flesh He calleth them the Deeds and Works of Darkness not only because they are customably in Darkness John 3 Matth. 25. or in the night time for every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh he to the Light lest his Works should be reproved but that they lead the right way unto that utter Darkness where weeping and gnashing of Teeth shall be Rom. 8. And he saith in another place of the same Epistle They that are in the Flesh cannot please God We are Debtors not to the Flesh that we should live after the Flesh for if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die 1. Cor. 6. Again he saith Flee from Whoredom for every Sin that a Man committeth is without his Body But whosoever committeth Whoredom sinneth against his own Body Do ye not know That your Members are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you whom also ye have of God and ye are not your own For ye are dearly bought Glorifie God in your Bodies c. And a little before he saith Do ye not know That your Bodies are the Members of Christ Shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of a Whore God forbid Do ye not know That he which cleaveth to a Whore is made one Body with her There shall be two in one Flesh saith he but he that cleaveth to the Lord is one Spirit What godly Words doth the blessed Apostle St. Paul bring forth here to dissuade and discounsel us from Whoredom and Uncleanness Your Members saith he are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which whosoever doth defile Gâ—d will destroy him as saith St. Paul If we be the Temple of the Holy Ghost how unfitting then is it to drive that Holy Spirit from us through Whoredom and in his place to set the wicked Spirits of Uncleanness and Fornication and to be joined and do Service to them Ye are dearly bought saith he 1. Pet. 1. therefore glorifie God in your Bodies Christ that innocent Lamb of God hath bought us from the Servitude of the Devil not with corruptible Gold and Silver Esaiah 38. but with his most precious and dear heart blood To what intent That we should fall again into our old Uncleanness and abominable Living Luke 1. Nay verily But that we should serve him all the days of our Life in Holiness and Righteousness that we should glorifie him in our Bodies by purity and cleanness of Life He declareth also That our Bodies are the Members of Christ How unseemly a thing is it then to cease to be incorporate or imbodied and made one with Christ and through Whoredom to be enjoined and made all one with a Whore What greater dishonor or injury can we do to Christ than to take away from him the Members of his Body and to join them to Whores Devils and wicked Spirits And what more dishonor can we do to ourselves than through Uncleanness to lose so excellent a Dignity and Freedom and to become Bond-slaves and miserable Captives to the Spirits of Darkness Let us therefore consider First the Glory of Christ then our Estate our Dignity and Freedom wherein God hath set us by giving us his Holy Spirit and let us valiantly defend the same against Satan and all his crafty Assaults that Christ may be honored and that we lose not our Liberty or Freedom but still remain in one Spirit with him Eph. 5. Moreover in his Epistle to the Ephesians the blessed Apostle willeth us to be so pure and free from Adultery Fornication and all Uncleanness that we not once name them among us as it becometh Saints nor Filthiness nor foolish Talking nor Jesting which are not comely but rather giving of Thanks For this ye know saith he that no Whoremonger 1 Cor. 6. neither unclean Person or covetous Person which is an Idolater hath any Inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God And that we should remember to be holy pure and free from all Uncleanness the holy Apostle calleth us Saints because we are sanctified and made holy by the
of them the Pox Saint Roche the Falling-evil Saint Cornelis the Tooth-Ach Saint Apollin c. Neither do Beasts nor Cattel lack their Gods with us for Saint Loy is the Horsleach and Saint Anthony the Swineheard c. Where is Gods Providence and due Honour in the mean season Who saith The Heavens be mine and the Earth is mine the whole World and all that in it is I do give Victory and I put to Flight Of me be all Counsels and Help c. Except I keep the City in vain doth he watch that keepeth it thou Lord shalt save both Men and Beasts But we have left him neither Heaven nor Earth nor Water nor Country nor City Peace nor War to Rule and Govern neither Men nor Beasts nor their Diseases to Cure that a godly Man mâ—ght justly for Zealous Indignation cry out O Heaven O Earth and Seas what Madness and Wickedness against God are Men fallen into What dishonour do the Creatures to their Creator and Maker And if we remember God somtimes yet because we doubt of his ability or will to help we joyn to him another Helper as if he were a Noun Adjective using these sayings such as learn God and Saint Nicholas be my speed Such as neese God help and Saint John To the Horse God and Saint Loy save thee Thus are we become like Horses and Mules which have no Understanding For is there not one God only who by his Power and Wisdom made all things and by his Providence governeth the same And by his Goodness maintaineth and saveth them Be not all things of him by him and through him Why dost thou turn from the Creator to the Creatures This is the manner of the Gentiles Idolaters But thou art a Christian and therefore by Christ alone hast access to God the Father and help of him only These things are not written to any reproach of the Saints themselves who were the true Servants of God and did give all honour to him taking none unto themselves and are blessed Souls with God but against our Foolishness and Wickedness making of the true Servants of God false Gods by attributing to them the Power and Honour which is Gods and due to him only And for that we have such Opinions of the power and ready help of Saints all our Legends Hymns Sequences and Masses did contain Stories Lauds and Praises of them and Prayers to them yea and Sermons also altogether of them and to their Praises Gods Word being clean laid aside And this we do altogether agreeable to the Saints as did the Gentiles Idolaters to their false Gods For these Opinions which Men have had of mortal Persons were they never so holy the old most godly and learned Christians have written against the feigned Gods of the Gentiles and Christian Princes have destroyed their Images who if they were now living would doubtless likewise both write against our false Opinions of Saints and also destroy their Images For it is evident that our Image-maintainers have the same Opinion of Saints which the Gentiles had of their false Gods and thereby are moved to make them Images as the Gentiles did If answer be made that they make Saints but Intercessors to God and means for such things as they would obtain of God That is even after the Gentiles Idolatrous usage to make them of Saints Gods Medioximi Dii called Dii Medioximi to be mean Intercessors and Helpers to God as though he did not hear or should be weary if he did all alone So did the Gentiles teach that there was one chief Power working by other as means and so they made all Gods subject to Fate or Destiny as Lucian in his Dialogues feigneth that Neptune made suit to Mercury that he might speak with Jupiter And therefore in this also it is most evident that our Image-maintainers be all one in Opinion with the Gentiles Idolaters Now remaineth the third part that their Rites and Ceremonies in honouring and worshipping of the Images or Saints be all one with the Rites which the Gentiles Idolaters used in honouring their Idols First what meaneth it that Christians after the example of the Gentiles Idolaters go on pilgrimage to visit Images where they have the like at home but that they have a greater Opinion of Holiness and Virtue in some Images than other some like as the Gentiles Idolaters had which is the readiest way to bring them to Idolatry by worshipping of them and directly against Gods Word who saith Seek me Amos 5. and ye shall live and do not seek Bethel enter not into Gilgal neither go to Beersheba And against such as had any Superstition in the Holiness of the place as though they should be heard for the places sake saying Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that at Jerusalem is the place where Men should worship our Saviour Christ pronounceth John 4. Beâ—ieve me the hour cometh when you shall worship the Father neither in this Mountain nor at Jerusalem but true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth But it is too well known that by such pilgrimage-going Lady Venus and her Son Cupid were rather worshipped wantonly in the Flesh than God the Father and our Saviour Christ his Son truly worshipped in the Spirit And it was very agreeable Rom. 1. as Saint Paul teacheth that they which fell to Idolatry which is Spiritual Fornication should also fall into Carnal Fornication and all Uncleanness by the just Judgments of God delivering them over to abominable Concupiscences What meaneth it that Christian Men after the use of the Gentiles Idolaters cap and kneel before Images which if they had any Sense and Gratitude would kneel before Men Carpenters Masons Plaisterers Founders and Goldsmiths their Makers and Framers by whose means they have attained this Honour which else should have been evil-favoured and rude Lumps of Clay or Plaister pieces of Timber Stone or Metal without Shape or Fashion and so without all Estimation and Honour as that Idol in the Pagan Poet confesseth saying Horatius I was once a vile Block but now I am become a God c. What a fond thing is it for Man Adorare who hath Life and Reason to bowe himself to a dead and insensible Image the Work of his own Hand Gen. 23. and 33. Is not this stooping and kneeling before them Adoration of them which is forbidden so earnestly by Gods Word Let such as so fall down before Images of Saints know and confess that they exhibit that Honour to dead Stocks and Stones 3 Reg. 1. Acts 10. and 14. Apoc. 19. which the Saints themselves Peter Paul and Barnabas would not to be given them being alive which the Angel of God forbiddeth to be given to him And if they say they exhibit such Honour not to the Image but to the Saint whom it representeth they are convicted of folly to believe that they please Saints with that
love thy Neighbour as thy self to honour thy Father and Mother to honour the higher Powers to give to every man that which is his due and such like Other works there be which considered in themselves without further respect are of their own nature meerly indifferent that is neither good nor evil but take their denomination of the use or end whereunto they serve Which works having a good end are called good works and are so indeed but yet that cometh not of themselves but of the good end whereunto they are referred On the other side if the end that they serve unto be evil it cannot then otherwise be but that they must needs be evil also Of this sort of works is Fasting which of it self is a thing meerly indifferent but it is made better or worse by the end that it serveth unto For when it repecteth a good end it is a good work but the end being evil the work it self is also evil To Fast then with this perswasion of mind that our Fasting and our Good Works can make us perfect and just men and finally bring us to Heaven is a devilish perswasion and that Fast is so far off from pleasing of God that it refuseth his mercy and is altogether derogatory to the merits of Christs death and his precious blood-shedding This doth the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican teach Luke 18. Two men saith Christ went up together into the Temple to pray the one a Pharisee the other a Publican the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself I thank thee O God that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers and as this Publican is I fast twice in the week I give tithes of all that I possess The Publican stood afar off and would not lift up his eyes to Heaven but smote his breast and said God be merciful to me a sinner In the Person of this Pharisee our Saviour Christ setteth out to the eye and to the judgment of the World a perfect just and righteous man such a one as iâ— not spotted with those vices that men commonly are infected with Extortion Bribery polling and pilling their Neighbour robbers and spoilers of Common-weals crafty and subtil in chopping and changing using false Weights and detestable Perjury in their buying and selling Fornicators Adulterers and vicious Livers The Pharisee was no such man neither faulty in any such like notorious Crime But where other transgressed by leaving things undone which yet the Law required this man did more than was requisite by the Law For he fasted twice in the week and gave Tithes of all that he had What could the World then justly blame in this man yea what outward thing more could be desired to be in him to make him a more perfect and a more just man Truly nothing by mans judgment And yet our Saviour Christ preferreth the poor Publican without Fasting before him with his Fast The cause why he doth so is manifest For the Publican having no good works at all to trust unto yielded up himself unto God confessing his sins and hoped certainly to be saved by Gods free mercy only The Pharisee gloried and trusted so much to his works that he thought himself sure enough without mercy and that he should come to Heaven by his Fasting and other deeds To this end serveth that Parable For it is spoken to them that trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others Now because the Pharisee directeth his works to an evil end seeking by them justification which indeed is the proper work of God without our merits his Fasting twice in the week and all his other works though they were never so many and seemed to the World never so good and Holy yet in very deed before God they are altogether evil and abominable The mark also that the Hypocrites shoot at with their Fast is to appear Holy in the eye of the World and so to win commendation and praise of men But our Saviour Christ saith of them Mat. 6. they have their reward that is they have praise and commendation of Men but of God they have none at all For whatsoever tendeth to an evil end is it self by that evil end made evil also Again so long as we keep ungodliness in our hearts and suffer wicked thoughts to tarry there though we Fast as oft as did either St. Paul or John Baptist and keep it as strictly as did the Ninevites yet shall it be not only unprofitable to us but also a thing that greatly displeaseth Almighty God For he saith that his soul abhorreth and hateth such Fastings Isai 1. yea they are a burthen unto him and he is weary of bearing them And therefore he inveigheth most sharply against them saying by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah Behold when you fast Isai 58. your lust remaineth still for ye do no less violence to your debtors Lo ye fast to strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness Now ye shall not fast thus that you may make your voice to be heard above Think ye this fast pleaseth me that a man should chasten himself for a day Should that be called a fasting or a day that pleaseth the Lord Now dearly beloved seeing that Almighty God alloweth not our Fast for the works sake but chiefly respecteth our heart how it is affected and then esteemeth our Fast either good or evil by the end that it serveth for it is our part to rent our Hearts and not our Garments Joel 2. as we are advertised by the Prophet Joel that is our sorrow and mourning must be inward in heart and not in outward shew only yea it is requisite that first before all things we cleanse our hearts from sin and then direct our Fast to such an end as God will allow to be good There be three ends whereunto if our Fast be directed it is then a work profitable to us and accepted of God The first is to chastise the Flesh that it be not too wanton 1 Cor. 9. but tamed and brought in subjection to the Spirit This respect had St. Paul in his Fast when he said I chastise my body and bring it into subjection lest by any means it cometh to pass that when I have preached to others I my self be found a castaway Acts 13. The second that the Spirit may be more earnest and fervent to Prayer To this end fasted the Prophets and Teachers that were at Antioch before they sent forth Paul and Barnabas to preach the Gospel The same two Apostles fasted for the like purpose when they commended to God by their earnest Prayers the Congregations that were at Antioch Acts 14. Pisidia Iconium and Lystra as we read in the Acts of the Apostles The third that our Fast be a Testimony and Witness with us before God of our humble submission to his high Majesty when we confess and acknowledge our sins
poor Pilgrim and meek soul riding upon an Ass but like a valiant and mighty King in great Royalty and Honour Not as Christ did with a few Fishermen and men of small estimation in the World but with a great Army of strong men with a great train of Wise and Noble men as Knights Lords Earls Dukes Princes and so forth Neither do they think that their Messias shall slanderously suffer death as Christ did but that he shall stoutly conquer and manfully subdue all his Enemies and finally obtain such a Kingdom on Earth as never was seen from the beginning While they feign unto themselves after this sort a Messias of their own brain they deceive themselves and account Christ as an abject and scorn of the World Therefore Christ crucified as St. Paul saith is unto the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Gentiles foolishness because they think it an absurd thing and contrary to all reason that a Redeemer and Saviour of the whole World should be handled after such a sort as he was namely scorned reviled scourged condemned and last of all cruelly hanged This I say seemed in their eyes strange and most absurd and therefore neither they would at that time neither will they as yet acknowledge Christ to be their Messiâ—s and Saviour But we dearly beloved that hope and look to be saved must both stedfastly believe and also boldly confess that the same Jesus which was born of the Virgin Mary was the true Messias and Mediator between God and Man promised and prophesied of so long before For as the Apostle writeth With the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10. and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Again in the same place Whosoever believeth in him shall never be ashamed nor confounded Whereto also agreeth the testimony of St. John written in the fourth Chapter of his first general Epistle on this wise Whosoever confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God he dwelleth in God and God in him There is no doubt but in this point all Christian men are fully and perfectly perswaded Yet shall it not be a lost labour to instruct and furnish you with a few places concerning this matter that ye may be able to stop the blasphemous mouths of all them that most Jewishly or rather devilishly shall at any time go about to teach or maintain the contrary First ye have the witness and testimony of the Angel Gabriel declared as well to Zachary the High-Priest as also to the blessed Virgin Secondly ye have the witness and testimony of John the Baptist pointing unto Christ and saying Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World Thirdly ye have the witness and testimony of God the Father who thundred from Heaven and said This is my dearly beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him Fourthly ye have the witness and testimony of the Holy Ghost which came down from Heaven in manner of a Dove and lighted upon him in time of his Baptism To these might be added a great number more namely the witness and testimony of the Wise Men that came to Herod the witness and testimony of Simeon and Anna the witness and testimony of Andrew and Philip Nathaniel and Peter Nicodemus and Martha with divers other But it were too long to repeat all and a few places are sufficient in so plain a matter specially among them that are already perswaded Therefore if the privy Imps of Antichrist and crafty Instruments of the Devil shall attempt or go about to withdraw you from this true Messias and perswade you to look for another that is not yet come let them not in any case seduce you but confirm your selves with these and such other testimonies of Holy Scripture which are so sure and certain that all the Devils in Hell shall never be able to withstand them For as truly as God liveth so truly was Jesus Christ the true Messias and Saviour of the World even the same Jesus which as this day was born of the Virgin Mary without all help of man only by the power and operation of the Holy Ghost Concerning whose nature and substance because divers and sundry Heresies are risen in these our days through the motion and suggestion of Satan therefore it shall be needful and profitable for your instruction to speak a word or two also of this part We are evidently taught in the Scripture that our Lord and Saviour Christ consisteth of two several natures of his manhood being thereby perfect man and of his Godhead being thereby perfect God John 1. Rom. 8. It is written The Word that is to say the second Person in Trinity became flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh fulfilled those things which the Law could not Phil. 2. Christ being in form of God took on him the form of a servant and was made like unto man being found in shape as a man 1 Tim. 3. God was shewed in Flesh justified in Spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the World and received up in glory Also in another place There is one God and one Mediator between God and man even the Man Jesus Christ These be plain places for the proof and declaration of both Natures united and knit together in one Christ Let us diligently consider and weigh the works that he did whiles he lived on Earth and we shall thereby also perceive the self-same thing to be most true In that he did hunger and thirst eat and drink sleep and wake in that he preached his Gospel to the People in that he wept and sorrowed for Jerusalem in that he paid Tribute for himself and Peter in that he died and suffered death what other things did he else declare but only this that he was perfect man as we are For which cause he is called in Holy Scripture sometime the Son of David sometime the Son of Man sometime the Son of Mary sometime the Son of Joseph and so forth Now in that he forgave Sins in that he wrought Miracles in that he did cast out Devils in that he healed men with his only Word in that he knew the thoughts of mens Hearts in that he had the Seas at his Commandment in that he walked on the Water in that he rose from Death to Life in that he ascended into Heaven and so forth What other thing did he shew therein but only that he was perfect God coequal with the Father as touching his Deity Therefore he saith The Father and I are all one which is to be understood of his Godhead For as touching his Manhood he saith The Father is greater than I am Where are now those Marcionites that deny Christ to have been born in the flesh or to have been perfect man Where are now those Arians which deny Christ to have been perfect God of equal substance with the Father If there be any such we may easily
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
O thou that art desirous of this Table of Emissenus a godly Father Euseb Emiserem de Euchar. that when thou goest up to the reverend Communion to be satisfied with spiritual meats thou look up with Faith upon the Holy Body and Blood of thy God thou marvel with reverence thou touch it with the mind thou receive it with the hand of thy heart and thou take it fully with thy inward man Thus we see Beloved that resorting to this Table we must pluck up all the roots of infidelity all distrust in Gods promises that we make our selves living Members of Christs Body For the unbelievers and faithless cannot feed upon that precious Body whereas the faithful have their life their abiding in him their union and as it were their incorporation with him Wherefore let us prove and try our selves unfeigned without flattering our selves whether we be Plants of the fruitful Olive living branches of the true Vine Members indeed of Christs Mystical Body whether God hath purified our hearts by Faith to the sincere acknowledging of his Gospel and embracing of his mercies in Christ Jesus so that at this his Table we receive not only the outward Sacrament but the spiritual thing also not the Figure but the Truth not the shadow only but the body not to death but to life not to destruction but to salvation which God grant us to do through the merits of our Lord and Saviour To whom be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen The Second Part of the Homily of the Worthy Receiving and Reverent Esteeming of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ IN the Homily of late rehearsed unto you ye have heard good People why it pleased our Saviour our Christ to institute that heavenly memory of his Death and Passion and that every one of us ought to celebrate the same at his Table in our own Persons and not by other You have heard also with what estimation and knowledge of so high Mysteries we ought to resort thither You have heard with what constant Faith we should clothe and deck our selves that we might be fit and decent partakers of that Celestial Food Now followeth the third thing necessary in him that would not eat of this Bread nor drink of this Cup unworthily which is newness of life and godliness of conversation For newness of life as fruits of Faith are required in the partakers of this Table We may learn by eating of the Typical Lamb whereunto no man was admitted but he that was a Jew that was circumcised that was before sanctified Yea St. Paul testifieth 1 Cor. 10. that although the People were partakers of the Sacraments under Moses yet for that some of them were still Worshippers of Images Whoremongers Tempters of Christ Murmurers and coveting after evil things God overthrew those in the Wilderness and that for our example that is that we Christians should take heed we resort unto our Sacraments with holiness of life not trusting in the outward receiving of them and infected with corrupt and uncharitable manners For this sentence of God must always be justified I will have mercy and not sacrifice De Bapt. lib. 1. cap. 3. Wherefore saith Basil it behoveth him that cometh to the Body and Blood of Christ in commemoration of him that died and rose again not only to be pure from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit lest he eat and drink his own condemnation but also to shew out evidently a memory of him that died and rose again for us in this point that ye be mortified to Sin and the World to live now to God in Christ Jesu our Lord. So then we must shew outward testimony in following the signification of Christs death amongst the which this is not esteemed least to render thanks to Almighty God for all his benefits briefly comprised in the Death Passion and Resurrection of his dearly beloved Son The which thing because we ought chiefly at this Table to solemnize the godly Fathers named it Eucharistia that is Thanksgiving As if they should have said Now above all other times ye ought to laud and praise God Now may you behold the matter the cause the beginning and the end of all Thanksgiving Now if you slack ye shew your selves most unthankful and that no other benefit can ever stir you to thank God who so little regard here so many so wonderful and so profitable benefits Seeing then that the name and thing it self doth monish us of thanks Heb. 13. let us as St. Paul saith offer always to God the host or sacrifice of praise by Christ that is the fruit of the lips which confess his Name For as David singeth Psal 50. He that offereth to God thanks and praise honoureth him But how few be there of thankful Persons in comparison to the unthankful Luke 17. Lo ten Lepers in the Gospel were healed and but one only returned to give thanks for his Health Yea happy it were if among sorty Communicants we could see two unfeignedly give thanks So unkind we be so oblivious we be so proud Beggers we be that partly we care nor for our own commodity partly we know not our Duty to God and chiefly we will not confess all that we receive Yea and if we be forced by Gods power to do it yet we handle it so coldly so drily that our lips praise him but our hearts dispraise him our tongues bless him but our life curseth him our words worship him but our works dishonour him O let us therefore learn to give God here thanks aright and so to agnize his exceeding graces poured upon us that they being shut up in the Treasure-house of our Heart may in due time and season in our life and conversation appear to the glorifying of his Holy Name Furthermore for newness of Life it is to be noted that St. Paul writeth That we being many are one bread and one body For all be partakers of one bread Declaring thereby not only our Communion with Christ but that Unity also wherein they that eat at this Table should be knit together For by Dissension Vain-glony Ambition Strife Envying Contempt Hatred or Malice they should not be dissevered but so joyned by the bond of Love in one Mystical Body as the corns of that Bread in one Loaf In respect of which strait knot of Charity the true Christians in the Primitive Church called this Supper Love As if they should say none ought to sit down there that were out of love and charity who bare grudge and vengeance in his Heart who also did not profess hiâ— kind affection by some Charitable Relief for some part of the Congregation And this was their Practice O Heavenly Banquet then so used O Godly Guests who so esteemed this Feasts But O wretched Creatures that we be at these days who be without reconciliation of our Brethren whom we have offended without satisfying them whom we have caused to
nothing is impossible as may further also appear by the inward Regeneration and Sanctification of Mankind When Christ said to Nicodemus Unless a Man be born a-new of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God he was greatly amazed in his mind and began to reason with Christ demanding how a Man might be born which was old John 3. Can he enter saith he into his Mothers Womb again and so be born anew Behold a lively pattern of a fleshly and carnal Man He had little or no intelligence of the Holy Ghost and therefore he goeth bluntly to work and asketh how this thing were possible to be true whereas otherwise if he had known the great power of the Holy Ghost in this behalf that it is he which inwardly worketh the Regeneration and New Birth of Mankind he would never have marvelled at Christs words but would rather take occasion thereby to praise and glorifie God For as there are three several and sundry Persons in the Deity so have they three several and sundry Offices proper unto each of them The Father to Create the Son to Redeem the Holy Ghost to Sanctifie and Regenerate Whereof the last the more it is hid from our understanding the more it ought to move all Men to wonder at the secret and mighty working of Gods Holy Spirit which is within us For it is the Holy Ghost and no other thing that doth quicken the Minds of Men stirring up good and godly Motions in their Hearts which are agreeable to the Will and Commandment of God such as otherwise of their own crooked and perverse Nature they should never have John 5. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit As who should say Man of his own Nature is fleshly and carnal corrupt and naught sinful and disobedient to God without any spark of goodness in him without any vertuous or godly Motion only given to evil Thoughts and wicked Deeds As for the Works of the Spirit the Fruits of Faith charitable and godly Motions if he have any at all in him they proceed only of the Holy Ghost who is the only worker of our Sanctification and maketh us new Men in Christ Jesus Did not Gods holy Spirit miraculously work in the Child David when of a poor Shepherd he became a Princely Prophet 1 Sam. 17. Mat. 9. Did not Gods Holy Spirit miraculously work in Matthew sitting at the receit of Custom when of a proud Publican he became an humble and lowly Evangelist And who can choose but marvel to consider that Peter should become of a simple Fisher a chief and mighty Apostle Paul of a cruel and bloody Persecutor a faithful Disciple of Christ to teach the Gentiles Such is the power of the Holy Ghost to Regenerate Men and as it were to bring them forth anew so that they shall be nothing like the Men that they were before Neither doth he think it sufficient inwardly to work the Spiritual and New Birth of Man unless he do also dwell and abide in him 1 Cor. 3. Know ye not saith St. Paul that ye are the Temple of God and that his Spirit dwelleth in you Know ye not that your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is within you Again he saith You are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit For why Rom. 8. 1 John 2 the Spirit of God dwelleth in you To this agreeth the Doctrin of St. John writing on this wise The Anointing which ye have received he meaneth the Holy Ghost dwelleth in you And the Doctrin of Peter saith the same 1 Pet. 4. who hath these words The Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you O what comfort is this to the heart of a true Christian to think that the Holy Ghost dwelleth within him Rom. 5. If God be with us as the Apostle saith who can be against us O but how shall I know that the Holy Ghost is within me Some Man perchance will say forsooth As the Tree is known by his Fruit so is also the Holy Ghost The Fruits of the Holy Ghost according to the mind of St. Paul are these Love Joy Peace long Suffering Gentleness Goodness Gal. 5. Faithfulness Meekness Temperance c. Contrariwise the Deeds of the Flesh are these Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Wantonness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Debate Emulation Wrath Contention Sedition Heresie Envy Murder Drunkenness Gluttony and such like Here is now that Glass wherein thou must behold thy self and discern whether thou have the Holy Ghost within thee or the Spirit of the Flesh If thou see that thy Works be vertuous and good consonant to the prescript Rule of Gods Word favouring and tasting not of the Flesh but of the Spirit then assure thy self that thou art endued with the Holy Ghost otherwise in thinking well of thy self thou dost nothing else but deceive thy self The Holy Ghost doth always declare himself by his fruitful and gracious gifts namely by the word of Wisdom by the word of Knowledge which is the understanding of the Scriptures by Faith 1 Cor. 12. in doing of Miracles by healing them that are Diseased by Prophesie which is the Declaration of Gods Mysteries by discerning of Spirits diversities of Tongues interpretation of Tongues and so forth All which gifts as they proceed from one Spirit and are severally given to Man according to the measurable distribution of the Holy Ghost even so do they bring Men and not without good cause into a wonderful admiration of Gods divine Power Who will not marvel at that which is written in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 5. to hear their bold confession before the Council at Jerusalem And to consider that they went away with joy and gladness rejoycing that they were worthy to suffer Rebukes and Checks for the Name and Faith of Christ Jesus This was the mighty work of the Holy Ghost who because he giveth patience and joyfulness of heart in Temptation and Affliction hath therefore worthily obtained this name in Holy Scripture to be called a Comforter Who will not also marvel to read the learned and heavenly Sermons of Peter and the Disciples considering that they were never brought up in School of Learning but called even from their Nets to supply the Rooms of Apostles This was likewise the mighty work of the Holy Ghost John 14. who because he doth instruct the hearts of the simple in the true knowledge of God and his Word is most justly termed by this name and title to be the Spirit of Truth Lib. 11. cap. 3. Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History cap. 3. telleth a strange Story of a certain learned and subtil Philosopher who being an extream adversary to Christ and his Doctrin could by no kind of Learning be converted to the Faith but was able to withstand all the Arguments that could be brought against him with little or no labor At length there started up a poor
ye see how all is of God by his Son Christ our Lord and Saviour Remember I say once again your Duty of Thanks let them be never to want still injoyn your self to continue in Thanksgiving ye can offer to God no better Sacrifice For he saith himself Psal 50. It is the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanks that shall honor me Which thing was well perceived of that holy Prophet David when he so earnestly spake to himself thus Psal 103. O my Soul bless thou the Lord and all that is within me bless his holy Name I say once again O my Soul bless thou the Lord and never forget his manifold rewards God give us Grace good People to know these things and to feel them in our Hearts This knowledge and feeling is not in our selves by our selves it is not possible to come by it a great pity it were that we should lose so profitable knowledge Let us therefore meekly call upon that bountiful Spirit the Holy Ghost which proceedeth from our Father of Mercy and from our Mediator Christ that he would assist us and inspire us with his presence that in him we may be able to hear the goodness of God declared unto us to our Salvation For without his lively and secret inspiration can we not once so much as speak the Name of our Mediator as St. Paul plainly testifieth 1 Cor. 12 No Man can once Name our Lord Jesus Christ but in the Holy Ghost Much less should we be able to believe and know these great Mysteries that be opened to us by Christ St. Paul saith That no Man can know what is of God 1 Cor. 2. but the Spirit of God As for us saith he we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God for this purpose That in that holy Spirit we might know the things that be given us by Christ The Wise man saith that in the Power and Vertue of the Holy Ghost resteth all Wisdom and all Ability to know God and to please him For he waiteth thus We know that it is not in Mans power to guide his goings Wisd 9. No Man can know thy Pleasure except thou givest Wisdom and sendest thy holy Spirit from above Send him down therefore prayeth he to God from the holy Heavens and from the Throne of thy Majesty that he may be with me and labor with me that so I may know what is acceptable before thee Let us with so good Heart Pray as he did and we shall not fail but to have his assistance For he is soon seen of them that love him he will be found of them that seek him for very liberal and gentle is the Spirit of Wisdom In his power shall we have sufficient Abilty to know our Duty to God in him shall we be comforted and encouraged to walk in our Duty in him shall we be meet vessels to receive the Grace of Almighty God for it is he that purgeth and purifieth the mind by his secret working And he only is present every where by his invisible Power and containeth all things in his Dominion He lightneth the Heart to conceive worthy thoughts to Almighty God he sitteth in the Tongue of Man to stir him to speak his Honor no Language is hid from him for he hath the knowledge of all Speech he only Ministreth Spiritual strength to the powers of our Soul and Body To hold the way which God had prepared for us to walk rightly in our Journey we must acknowledge that it is in the power of his Spirit which helpeth our infirmity That we may boldly come in Prayer and call upon Almighty God as our Father it is by this holy Spirit which maketh intercession for us with continual Sighs Galat. 4. Rom. 8. If any Gift we have wherewith we may work to the Glory of God and profit of our Neighbor all is wrought by this own and self same Spirit which maketh his distributions peculiarly to every Man as he will 1 Cor. 12. If any Wisdom we have it is not of our selves we cannot glory therein as begun of our selves but we ought to glory in God from whom it came to us as the Prophet Jeremy writeth Jerem. 9. Let him that rejoyceth rejoyce in this that he understandeth and knoweth me for I am the Lord which sheweth Mercy Judgment and Righteousness in the Earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. This Wisdom cannot be attained but by the direction of the Spirit of God and therefore it is called Spiritual Wisdom And no where can we more certainly search for the knowledge of this Will of God by the which we must direct all our Works and Deeds but in the holy Scriptures for they be they that testifie of him John 5. saith our Saviour Christ It may be called Knowledg and Learning that is other where gotten without the Word but the Wise Man plainly testifieth Wisd 13. that they all be but Vain which have not in them the Wisdom of God We see to what Vanity the Old Philosophers came who were destitute of this Science gotten and searched for in his Word We see what Vanity the School Doctrin is mixed with for that in this Word they sought not the Will of God but rather the Will of Reason the Trade of Custom the Path of the Fathers the Practice of the Church Let us therefore Read and Revolve the holy Scripture both Day and Night Psal 1. Psal 119. For blessed is he that hath his whole meditation therein It is that which giveth light to our Feet to walk by It is that which giveth Wisdom to the simple and ignorant In it may we find Eternal Life In the holy Scriptures find we Christ in Christ find we God for he it is that is the express Image of the Father He that seeth Christ seeth the Father And contrariwise as St. Jerome saith the ignorance of the Scripture is the ignorance of Christ Not to know Christ Psal 19. Heb. 1. John 14. is to be in darkness in the midst of our Worldly and Carnal light of Reason and Philosophy To be without Christ is to be in foolishness For he is the only Wisdom of the Father in whom it pleased him that all fulness and perfection should dwell Coloss 2. With whom whosoever is endued in Heart by Faith and rooted fast in Charity hath laid a sure Foundation to build on whereby he may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth length and depth and to know the love of Christ This universal and absolute knowledge is that Wisdom which St. Paul wisheth these Ephesians to have as under Heaven the greatest treasure that can be obtained Ephes 3. For of this Wisdom the Wise Man writeth thus of his experience All good things came to me together with her and innumerable Riches through her hands And addeth more in that same place Sap. 7.
Luke 7.16 The same grace and favor did the sinful Woman Magdalen Zacheus the poor Thief and many others feel All which things ought to serve for our comfort against the temptations of our Consciences whereby the Devil goeth about to shake or rather to overthrow our Faith For every one of us ought to apply the same unto himself and say Yet now return unto the Lord neither let the remembrance of thy former life discourage thee yea the more wicked that it hath been the more fervent and earnest let thy Repentance or returning be and forthwith thou shalt feel the ears of the Lord wide open unto thy Prayers But let us more narrowly look upon the Commandment of the Lord touching this matter Turn unto me saith he by the holy Prophet Joel with all your hearts with Fasting Weeping and Mourning Rent your Hearts and not your Garments c. In which words he comprehendeth all manner of things that can be spoken of Repentance which is a returning again of the whole Man unto God from whom we be fallen away by sin But that the whole Discourse thereof may the better be born away we shall first consider in order four principal Points that is from what we must return to whom we must return by whom we may be able to convert and the manner how to turn to God First From whence we must turn From whence or from what things we must return Truly we must return from those things whereby we have been withdrawn pluckt and led away from God And these generally are our sins which as the holy Prophet Esay doth testifie do separate God and us and hide his Face that he will not hear us But under the name of sin not only those gross words and deeds which by the common judgment of Men are counted to be filthy and unlawful and so consequently abominable sins but also the filthy Lusts and inward Concupiscences of the Flesh which as St. Paul testifieth do resist the Will and Spirit of God Gal. 5. and therefore ought earnestly to be bridled and kept under We must repent of the false and erroneous Opinions that we have had of God and the wicked Superstition that doth breed of the same the unlawful worshipping and service of God and other like Ephes 5. All these things must they forsake that will truly turn unto the Lord and repent aright For sith that for such things the wrath of God cometh upon the Children of disobedience no end of punishment ought to be looked for as long as we continue in such things Therefore they be here condemned which will seem to be repentant Sinners and yet will not forsake their Idolatry and Superstition Secondly We must see unto whom we ought to return Unto whom we ought to return Revertimini usque ad me saith the Lord that is return as far as unto me We must then return unto the Lord yea we must return unto him alone For he alone is the Truth and the Fountain of all goodness but we must labor that we do return as far as unto him and that we do never cease nor rest till we have apprehended and taken hold upon him But this must be done by Faith for sith that God is a Spirit he can by no other means be apprehended and taken hold upon Wherefore first they do greatly err which do not turn unto God but unto the Creatures or unto the inventions of Men or unto their own Merits Secondly They that do begin to return unto the Lord By whom we must return unto God and do saint in the Midway before they come to the mark that is appointed unto them Thirdly Because we have of our own selves nothing to present us to God and do no less flee from him after our Fall than our first Parent Adam did who when he had sinned did seek to hide himself from the sight of God we have need of a Mediator for to bring and reconcile us unto him who for our sins is angry with us The same is Jesus Christ who being true and natural God equal and of one substance with the Father did at the time appointed take upon him our frail Nature in the blessed Virgins Womb and that of her undefiled Substance that so he might be a Mediator between God and us and pacifie his wrath Of him doth the Father himself speak from Heaven saying Mat. 3. This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased And he himself in his Gospel doth cry out and say John 14. I am the Way the Truth and the Life no Man cometh unto the Father but by me For he alone did with the Sacrifice of his Body and Blood John 1. 1 Pet. 1. Acts 5. make satisfaction unto the Justice of God for our sins The Apostles do testifie that he was exalted for to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel both which things he himself did command to be preached in his name Luke 24. Therefore they are greatly deceived that preach Repentance without Christ John 15. and teach the simple and ignorant that it consisteth only in the Works of Men. They may indeed speak many things of good Works and of amendment of Life and Manners but without Christ they be all vain and unprofitable They that think that they have done much of themselves towards Repentance are so much more the farther from God because they do seek those things in their own Works and Merits which ought only to be sought in our Saviour Jesus Christ and in the merits of his Death and Passion and Blood-shedding Fourthly This holy Prophet Joel doth lively express the manner of this our Returning or Repentance comprehending all the inward and outward things that may be here observed First He will havs us to return unto God with our whole heart The manner of our turning Esay 29. Mat. 15. whereby he doth remove and put away all Hypocrisie lest the same might justly be said unto us This People draweth near with their mouth and worship me with their lips but their heart is far off from me Secondly He requireth a sincere and pure love of godliness and of the true worshipping and service of God that is to say that forsaking all manner of things that are repugnant and contrary unto Gods Will we do give our hearts unto him and the whole strength of our Bodies and Souls according to that which is written in the Law Deut. 6. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength Here therefore nothing is lest unto us that we may give unto the World and unto the Lusts of the Flesh For sith that the heart is the Fountain of all our Works as many as do with their whole heart turn unto the Lord do live unto him only Halting on both sides Neither do they yet repent truly that halting on both sides do