there is no mercy or pitty there is no knowledge of God left upon the earth Backbiting lying murther theft adultery hath overflowne the world Perjury raigneth every where and great pitty it is to see how the precious name of Almighty God is taken in vaine in all places No oath should be given but three things concurrent as Ieremy the Prophet in his 4. chapter teacheth us that is to say in Iudgement when a man is called thither to shew the truth And for iustice there to be ministred to put away wrong doing And for truth that falshood may take no place there Else no oath should be given by Gods law but we should affirme our saying by yea yea and deny by nay nay as Christ taught us in the 5. of Matthew But now every thing that we affirme or deny must have an oath coupled with it when men doe buy or sell any thing more oathes be oftentimes interchanged betwixt them then pence that the thing is sold for In communication and all pastimes as many oathes as words be used In playing at any games there the tearing of Gods name and particular mention of all the wounds and paines that Christ suffered for us be contumeliously in vaine brought forth If a muster should be taken of swearers I thinke that some crooked pieces should be found not able to take the Kings wages that would sweare as great oaths and as many of them as the best and most able man on the field They think that great oathes doe make them to be of more estimation and therfore they sweare at every word but surely they be foulely deceived for oathes be ordained where neede is that truth shall not perish and that they may finish debates among men as Paul saith in the sixth chapter to the Hebrewes But he that at every word sweareth declareth plainely that no credence is to be given to any his words and therefore he joyneth to every word an oath as a surety of the truth therof acknowledging the lacke of truth to be in his words As if a man would offer a great substantiall surety when he would borrow a penny of his neighbour he plainely should make his neighbour thereby to thinke that he were of no credence that would for so small a matter offer so great a surety where no need is so to doe I feare me the great role of twenty cubits in length and ten cubits in breadth which the Prophet Zacharie saw flying in the ayre in the 5. chapter which as the Angell shewed to him did containe the great malediction of God against theeves and against swearors that should be judged by it doth flye now over our heads I pray God we may avoid the danger of it and abstaine hereafter so to take the name of God in vaine as is now commonly used We doe professe the faith of Christ and doe speake of the Gospell with our mouths and have the Booke oft in our hands but we learne it not as we should doe for the Gospell is given to us to know God thereby and to be a rule to live by but we much doe talke of it which is very well done and yet we nothing regard to amend our lives thereby and to live as it biddeth us but we doe use the Gospell as if it were a Booke of Problemes to dispute upon and care not to amend our living as it teacheth us which shall be to our great punishment For a servant that knoweth his Lords pleasure and not fulfilling it is more grievously to be punished than he that knoweth it not as Christ saith in the 12. chapter of Luke We much extoll faith as it is much worthy but workes and deedes many men care not for saying God regardeth them nothing for faith alone justifieth us and not our workes Here first of all it is to be observed that no deed nor worke that is done by man without faith can ever helpe him to heaven for like as a man that runneth out of the race where the course is set though he runne never so fast winneth no game so a man that doth good deeds morall without faith deserveth of God no reward for without faith it is impossible to please God as Saint Paul saith the 11. chapter to the Hebrewes But if he doe good deeds with faith then they be acceptable to God and he will reward him for them And Saint Paul teacheth us alwaies to be occupied in doing of good workes for albeit no man may be justified by his workes alone yet after he hath faith he must joyne good workes with it if he have any time thereto or else his faith is unprofitable unto him for the faith that by grace doth justifie is the faith that worketh by charitie as Saint Paul saith to the Galathians in the 5. chapter and not an idle faith which Saint Iames in his Epistle calleth a dead faith Saint Paul saith also in the second chapter to the Romans that the hearers of the law be not justified before God but the doers of the law And Saint Iames in his Epistle in the first chapter doth liken him that heareth the word of God and doth not there after unto a man that looketh in a glasse and after hee hath so done layeth it downe and forgetteth that he looked in it and thinketh of other matters And where they say that faith alone justifieth that is untrue and against Saint Iames in the 2. chapter of his Epistle saying that a man is not justified by his faith alone Also to justification of a sinner repentance of his evill life past is necessarily first required and must needs be joyned with faith before he be justified for else if hee repent not he remaineth still in sinne and so he is not yet justified and all the preaching of Christ and his Apostles beginneth at repentance and penance so that faith without that cannot helpe Wherefore it is never true that faith alone justifieth for grace of God must goe before faith and on our behalfe repentance and charity must bee joyned with faith And as faith is the gift of God so is penance and so is charity so is hope but the grace of God who granteth all goeth before all Truth it is that our good deeds done before faith doe not justifie for lacke of faith but joyned unto faith they doe helpe for comming after faith they helpe to make us more justified as it is written in the 21. of the Apocalyps Let him that is right wise be yet more justified And that Almighty God requireth of us good workes it appeareth in the 21. chapter of Matthew and the 11. of Marke where Christ comming to a Figge tree full of leaves having no fruit which he sought in it by his curse did make it seere so if we being the tree bring not forth fruit of good workes having time thereto neither the root of faith nor the leaves of words can alone helpe us Another parable in the 13.
of Luke proveth the same where a man having a Vineyard and in the same a Figge tree that bare no fruit bade cut it downe And at the request of his Gardiner suffered it yet longer to see if dung laid to the root would helpe it As oft Almighty God being the Lord of the Vineyard suffereth us being barren to have space to repent and bring forth fruit of good works For it is written in the third of Matthew that every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut downe and cast into the fire After as our deeds be so shall our judgement be as Christ saith in the 16 of Matthew the Sonne of man shal come in the glory of his Father with his Angels and shall reward every man after his workes Saint Paul in the 2. chapter to the Romans saith also likewise that God will reward every man after his deeds good or evill And in the 4. chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians he saith that every man shall receive his hire after as his labour is so that for good deeds done with faith he shall receive reward and for evill deeds done after faith or out of faith he shall receive punishment Therefore those that say that God ragardeth not our workes done with faith doe say against Christ and his doctrine given to us by him and by his Apostles for since our workes done with faith be the measure of our reward to be greater or smaller as they shall be found to be greater or smaller who so saith that God regardeth not them saith he regardeth not the measure of our reward and yet he saith it shall be measured after our deeds done with faith and so he saith against Christ Saint Paul saith also in the 2. chapter to the Ephesians that by faith which is the gift of God we be of new create in Christ and in good workes that we may walke forwards in them and since he hath created us in good workes to walke in them hee must needs regard them or else he cared not what hee created which is blasphemy and denyall of his high providence Now this holy weeke we be bidden and called to come to the great supper of our blessed Lord Christ Iesus and to eate of the heavenly meate and of the bread of life that came from heaven the blessed body of our Saviour Iesu Christ in the Sacrament of the altar unto which we may not goe in our filthy and spotted coate lest we comming thither not having the cleane garment of our soule that we received at our Baptisme be expelled out of the feast And therefore we must make cleane our garment before we be bold to goe thither But I feare me sore lest many shall make such worldly excuses as be written in a parable in the 14. chapter of Luke some saying they be new married and therefore they may not come Which doe signifie men given so to carnall pleasure of the body that they care not to come to heaven some saying they have bought five yoake of Oxen which doe signifie those that follow the sensualitie of their five senses and worldly businesse some saying that they have bought a Village which signifie those that purchase lands here in earth and care not by faith and good living to purchase heaven All which sort of men shall not taste of that supper as it is there written but God forbid that any of us should be of that sort and therefore let us every man prepare our selves and make cleane our spotted and filthy garment Let us purge and purifie the Tabernacle of our soule and make it a lodging worthy to receive Christ into our house and not to disdaine us for the filthinesse of our uncleane living But how may this be done and by what meanes surely surely by no meane but by penance and repentance and calling for mercy to Almighty God with a sorrowfull heart that we having received so innumerable benefits of God so little have regarded our obedience to his commandements proudly and unkindely despising him and more regarding our own wretched concupiscence pleasure in all worldly delights then God Let us follow the exhortation of Almighty God spoken to us by the mouth of Ioel in the 2. chapter saying Turne ye sinners againe to me by fasting by weeping by much lamenting your miserable estate and teare asunder your hearts and not your cloathes Almighty God will rather regard a sorrowfull and contrite heart to dwell in it then all the Temples that we can build for him as it is written in the last chap. of Esay Let us acknowledge confesse our own faults first before we be accused of them at iudgement Let us weepe for our ungracious life and sure it is God will regard our teares David saith in the 55. Psalme Almighty God I have shewed my life to thee and thou hast put my teares in thy sight We that have used our eyes all the yeere in regarding worldly pleasures so that through vehement joy sometimes the teares have burst out with much laughing now let us weepe as David teacheth us in the 118. Psalme saying to Almighty God The teares have burst out of my eyes because they have not regarded and kept thy law Let us follow the counsell of Saint Paul in the 6. chapter to the Romans saying to us As ye have given your members to serve to injustice to doe wrong so likewise give your members to serve justice to your sanctifying David saith also in the 6. Psalme I have travailed in my wayling I shall wash every night my bed with weeping teares And after that he saith God hath heard the voyce of my weeping for GOD doth regard teares comming forth out of a sorrowfull and contrite heart If thou say thou canst not weepe thou dost confesse thy folly for if thou lose by example any substance of worldly goods as if thy house be robbed thy ship laden with merchandise perished in the Sea thy wife that thou didst love departed thy sonne dead then thou canst weepe much more then enough and where thy soule is by sinne departed from Almighty God which departing from him is the very death of the soule and lyeth stinking in sinne not foure daies as the body of Lazarus did in his grave but much more then foure moneths ye thrice foure moneths canst thou not weepe Surely thou hast great cause to lament thy selfe For what exchange canst thou devise to make so deere to thee as thy soule is Wherefore let us with the sword of the Spirit which as Saint Paul saith is the word of God make a quicke sacrifice of our selves with a sorrowfull heart because wee have broken Gods commandements applying the sharpe word of God to our sinfull life that we may therewith kill our concupiscences and all fleshly and worldly lusts and so making of our sorrowfull heart a sacrifice to Almighty God obtaine his mercy thereby as he hath promised to us by David in the
fiftieth Psalme saying The sacrifice to God is a spirit troubled with sorrow and thou GOD wilt not despise a heart contrite and meekened Wee must bring forth fruits of our penance and repentance by the amendment of our sinfull lives as Saint Iohn Baptist said to the Iewes in the third of Matthew For God cannot be deluded with the faire words onely of a sinner saying I am a sinner and yet will not amend For God looketh whether those words come from the heart being contrite which if they did amendment of the evill life should insue and good workes should spring out where the evill did grow before which new spring of good workes is the fruit of penance We must also goe forward in the way of our Lord and not stand still for else wee cannot come to our journeys end David saith in the 118. Psalme The immaculate and unspotted men be blessed that doe goe forward in the way of our Lord. He that saith that he dwelleth in Christ must walke after Christ in his way which is his commandements as he himselfe did As Saint Iohn saith in the 2. chapter of his first Epistle and therefore wee may not stand still but goe on in doing good to our journeyes end as he did Saint Paul saith to the Galathians in the 6. chapter See that ye erre not God cannot be mocked such as a man doth sow such shall he reape he that soweth in the flesh shall reape thereof corruption and he that soweth of the spirit shall of the spirit reape life everlasting Let us not cease in good doing for wee shall reape it not failing when the time commeth Therefore whiles we have time let us doe good to all men and chiefely to the domestickes of our faith And as we should study to be rich in faith for Christ did choose such to bee of his flocke though they were poore in worldly goods As Saint Iames saith in the 2. chapter of his Epistle so must we study to be rich in good workes as Saint Paul saith in the 6. chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy where hee biddeth him teach the rich men of the world to be ready with their abundance of goods to helpe the poore and to make thereby a treasure in heaven and to study to be rich in good workes so for these two richesses the one the riches of faith the other the riches of good workes we should chiefly study Also Christ in the sixth of Matthew doth teach us three chiefe exercises which will conferre greatly to the amendement of our life that is to say fasting to tame thereby the inordinate lusts of the flesh Almesdeeds to refraine covetousnesse and to helpe to redeeme our sinnes therewith as Daniel saith in the fourth chapter And prayer to Almighty GOD thereby to abate our pride and outrequydance and arrogance that we not trusting of our selues but of his helpe may aske of him things necessary for us from time to time And that wee should oft pray Christ teacheth us by the parable of the Widow which by her importunitie and oft crying to the wicked Iudge that feared neither God nor man obtained at the last iustice of him as it is written in the â—8 chapter of Luke We reade also of Christ that hee sometime prayed all â—ight to God as it is written in the sixth chapter of Luke â—nd Saint Paul saith to the Colossians in the fourth chapâ—er give you to prayer being vigilant in it and to Timoâ—hy he writeth in the fifth chapter Shee that truely is a Widow let her give her selfe to prayer night and day And to the Thessalonians he writeth in the fift chapter of the first Epistle saying Pray without any day leaving off not that wee should doe nothing else but that wee should oft amongst other things that we doe pray to Almighty God laving him calling him to remembrance that hee may helpe us putting in all our deeds our confidence in him Which wee might easily doe briefely saying divers times on the day though it were but one Pater noster at one time so that Christ thereby should not bee farre from our remembrance nor wee should not by worldly pleasures or businesse stray abroad farre from him nor the devill should not so boldly approach us seeing us alwaies under the wing and protection of our heavenly Father And surely if wee could thus dispose our selves our affaires should prosper the more in this world and wee should also thereby please Almighty God and come to the glory everlasting Whereunto our Saviour Iesu Christ who hath redeemed us bring us all Quo vivit regnat cum deo patre in â—nitate sancti spiritus per omnia secula seculorum Amen FJNJS