Sermon 2: Upon Ephesians Chapter 1

3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly things in Christ: 4. According to his choosing of us in him before the foundation of the world, to the end we should be holy and unblamable before him in charity.

We have seen previously how Saint Paul exhorted us to praise and bless God, because he has blessed us, and that not after an earthly manner, but after a spiritual manner, to the end we should learn to hold ourselves contented with God's showing of his fatherly goodness and love toward us, in opening the gate of the kingdom of heaven to us by hope, insomuch that although we be subject to much misery in this world, yet it is good reason that we should content ourselves with God's choosing of us after that fashion, and with his calling of us to him, according as it is witnessed to us by the Gospel, that he is our Father, namely inasmuch as he has united us to our Lord Jesus Christ as members to their head. And now Saint Paul brings us to the original and wellspring, or rather to the principal cause that caused God to take us into his favor. For it is not enough that God has uttered the treasures of his goodness and mercy upon us, to draw us to the hope of the heavenly life by the Gospel: and yet is that very much. For had not Saint Paul added that which we see presently: it might have been [illegible] that God's grace is common to all men, and that he offers it to all without exception, and consequently that it is in every man's [illegible] to receive it through his own free will, by which means there should be some deserving in us. For if there were no [illegible] men, but that some receive God's grace and [illegible] what might be said, but that God has shown [illegible] to all mankind? But they that are partakers of the [illegible] Lord Jesus Christ, attain to it by faith. And so you see what might be deemed of it. But Saint Paul, to exclude all deserving [illegible] behalf, and to show that all comes of God's only free [illegible] goodness: says that he has blessed us according to his [illegible] of us beforehand. As if he should say, that to exalt God's [illegible] as becomes us, we must look upon the difference that is [illegible] between man and man. For the Gospel is preached to some, and [illegible] know not what it is, but are utterly shut out from it, as if [illegible] should make it to rain in one coast, and suffer another coast to [illegible] dry. Now if it be demanded why God pities the one part, [illegible] forsakes and gives over the other: there is no other answer [illegible] that it so pleases him. Upon the preaching of the Gospel in a [illegible], some shall be touched with lively faith in their hearts, and [illegible] go away again as they came without faring any whit the [illegible], or else they harden themselves against God, and betray the [illegible] that was hidden in them before, from which comes such [illegible]? Even of this, that God amends the one sort by his Holy [illegible], and leaves the other sort in their natural corruption. You see [illegible] that the thing wherein God's goodness shines forth most to [illegible] that by the preaching of the Gospel to us, we have as it were [illegible] that he pities us, loves us, calls us, and allures us to him. [illegible] when the doctrine that is preached to us, is received of us [illegible] effectually: that is yet a further and more special token [illegible] we perceive that God intends to be our Father, and has [illegible] us to be his children. Not without cause then does Saint Paul say [illegible] this strain, that we be blessed of God, even according to his [illegible] of us beforehand. For we of ourselves come not to him, we [illegible] ourselves seek him not: but the saying of the Prophet Isaiah must [illegible] be fulfilled in all: namely that God shows himself to such [illegible] sought him not: and that such as were far off do see him near at [illegible], and he says to them, here I am, here I am; although you [illegible] despised me, yet do I deign to come to you, because I have [illegible] care of your welfare. Thus we see what Saint Paul aimed at in this [illegible].

To be short, we have to note here that we shall never know [illegible] our salvation comes, till we have lifted up our minds to [illegible] God's everlasting purpose, by which he has chosen whom he thought [illegible]; and left the rest in their own confusion and fall. Now then [illegible] it is no marvel though some men think this doctrine to be strange and hard: for it agrees not at all with man's natural wit. If a man ask of the philosophers, they will always tell him that God loves such as are worthy of it, and that inasmuch as virtue pleases him, he does also mark out such as are given to it, to hold them for his people. You see then, that after our own imagination, we will judge that God puts no other difference between man and man, in loving some and in hating others, than each man's own worthiness and deserving. But by the way, let us remember also that in our own understanding there is nothing but vanity, and that we must not measure God by our measure, and that it is too excessive an overweening to bind God to the stake, so that he should not do anything but that which we could conceive, and which might seem right in our eyes. The matter therefore concerns here the reverencing of God's secrets which are incomprehensible to us, and unless we do so, we shall never taste the principles of faith. For we know that our wisdom ought always to begin at humility: and this humility is as much to say as that we must not fall to weighing of God's judgments in our own balance, nor take upon us to be judges and determiners of them, but that we must be sober, because of the weakness of our wit, and that inasmuch as we be gross and dull, we must magnify God, and say as we are taught by the holy Scripture, "Lord, your determinations are as a great deep, and no man is able to reckon them up to you." You see then that the cause why some men find this doctrine hard and irksome is that they are too much wedded to their own opinion, and cannot submit themselves to God's wisdom, to receive his sayings soberly and modestly. And truly we ought to take warning by that which Saint Paul says: namely that man of his own mother wit understands not God's secrets, but takes them to be stark foolishness. And why? For we are not of his counsel, but must have things revealed to us by his holy Spirit, or else we should never know them: and we must have them in such measure as he gives them to us. Saint Paul speaks there of the things that we know by experience: that is to say, that we are God's children, that he governs us by his holy Spirit, that he comforts us in our adversities, and that he strengthens us through patience. We should not conceive any of all these things, unless we were enlightened by his holy Ghost. How then shall we understand the thing that is much higher, namely that God chose us before the making of the world? Since the case stands so: let us learn to put away all that we conceive of our own [illegible], and to lay it under foot, and let us receive whatever God [illegible] us, discharging ourselves utterly of all self-conceit, and [illegible] ourselves that we cannot bring anything of our own side but [illegible] beastliness. Thus you see what we have to bear in mind. [illegible] in good sooth we see how Saint Paul exhorts us to come to the [illegible] point. Who are you, O man (says he) who stands in [illegible] with your God? After he had set down many replies which we [illegible] to make, he says, who are you, O man? By the word man he [illegible] to make us perceive our own frailty: for we are but worms of [illegible] earth and rottenness. Now then, what an impertinence is it to open [illegible] mouths to dispute with God? Is it not a perverting of the whole [illegible] of nature? Is it in our power to pluck the sun out of the [illegible], or to catch the moon between our teeth, as they say? Much less [illegible] it lawful for us to contend with God, and to allege reasons to [illegible] his judgments, which we cannot comprehend.

[illegible] are those who will grant this doctrine of Predestination to be [illegible], of which Saint Paul treats here: but yet they would it were so [illegible], as it might never be spoken of. Indeed, but they show themselves [illegible] to be but fools in controlling the holy Spirit, who spoke it by [illegible] Prophets and Apostles, indeed and even by the mouth of God's only [illegible]. For when our Lord Jesus intends to assure us of our [illegible]: he sends us to this everlasting election, and likewise when he [illegible] to magnify the gift of faith, the one in John 10, [reconstructed: and] the other in John 6. And therefore those kind of people come to [illegible] to put God to silence, and to wipe the things out of the holy [reconstructed: Scripture] which are shown there. For all the whole Scripture is [reconstructed: profitable]. Saint Paul spoke that of the Law and the Prophets. Therefore we may also conclude, that there is no superfluity in the Gospel, nor anything which serves not to good purpose, and whereby we may [illegible] be edified both in faith and in the fear of God. But this doctrine [illegible] is contained there, and the Holy Spirit speaks it loud and shrill. [illegible] Therefore they must needs be Manichaeans who intend to nip and [illegible] the Gospel. For whatever did not please them, they set it aside, [illegible] and forged a Gospel of diverse pieces, allowing nothing but that [illegible] which they themselves thought good of. Now if such manner of [illegible] have shown a devilish stubbornness against God, in separating [illegible] things which ought to go together in inseparable bond, then are they malicious and perverse also, who would nowadays have the doctrine of election kept in silence. For they would overrule God if it were possible, and stop his mouth as often as he utters anything that does not please them. Again, a man may evidently see their beastliness, in that Saint Paul had not a better proof whereby to magnify God's goodness, than this. Then if there were no other reason, yet were it better that the whole world should go to confusion, than that this doctrine should be suppressed with silence. For is it reasonable that God should set the infinite treasures of his mercies before our eyes, and yet that they should not be spoken of, but be thrust underfoot? But there are yet two reasons more, which show that this doctrine is most needful to be preached, and that we reap so great profit by it, as it had been much better that we had never been born, than to be ignorant of the thing that Saint Paul shows here. For there are two things at which we must chiefly aim, and to which it behooves us to apply all our wits and endeavors, and they are the very sum of all the things which God teaches us by the holy Scripture. The one is the magnifying of God as he deserves, and the other is the assuredness of our salvation, that we may call upon him as our Father with full liberty. If we have not these two things, woe to us, for there is neither faith nor religion in us. Well may we talk of God, but it shall be but a lie. As touching the first point, I have told you already that God's grace is not sufficiently known but by setting God's election as it were before our eyes. For put the case that God draws all men alike, and that such as intend to obtain salvation, must come of their own free will and self-moving: if it be so, then is it certain that we deserve to be received at God's hand, and that he should handle every man according to his worthiness. But wherein shall God's goodness be magnified? Even in this, that he prevents us by his own mere free good will, and loves us nevertheless without finding anything either in us or in our works why he should love us. If this be true, then must there needs be election, so that God must take the one sort because he thinks it good so to do, and leave the other. Thus you see it is a most assured point, that God's glory does not appear and shine forth as were requisite, except it be known that he sheds forth his goodness and love where it pleases him.

I said even now that the preaching of his word is a singular benefit to us. And that is the cause why it is said so often in the Law and [illegible], that God has not dealt so with any other nation, as he [illegible] the lineage of Abraham, in that he vouchsafed to choose and adopt [illegible] the law was a sure record. So then the children of [illegible] exhorted to praise God, because he had vouchsafed to give [illegible] law, and in the meantime had let the poor Gentiles [illegible] folk that pertained not to him at all. But it is yet a far [illegible] more special privilege, when he makes us to fare the better [illegible] word. For it is certain that our ears might be beaten [illegible] with the things that should be told us, and we be never the [illegible] for it, until God speak to us by his holy Spirit within us. Then [illegible] matter God shows a double grace. The one is when he [illegible] up men to preach the Gospel to us: for no man is meet and [illegible] to do it of himself. Needs therefore must they be of God's [illegible], which do call us to him, and offer us the hope of salvation. But yet for all that, let us mark well that we cannot believe, except [illegible] himself to us by his holy Spirit, and speak to our hearts [illegible] holy Ghost, as well as he has spoken to our ears by the [illegible] of man. And that is the cause why the Prophet Isaiah says, [illegible] believed our doctrine? or to whom is the arm of the Lord [illegible]? He shows that there is no faith in the world, till God have [illegible] in men's minds and hearts by the power of his holy [illegible]. And for the very same cause also does our Lord Jesus say, that [illegible] comes to him except he be drawn by the Father: but [illegible] has learned of my Father (says he) the same submits [illegible] me. To be short, we see manifestly that God shows [illegible] to us, when he vouchsafes to enlighten us by his holy [illegible] to the end we should be drawn to the faith of his Gospel. If the same were done commonly and indifferently to all men: yet [illegible] we have cause to magnify God. But now when we see that [illegible] are hardened, and others inconstant: and that some go their [illegible] without taking any profit by the things that they have heard, [illegible] others be altogether blockish: it is certain that the same [illegible] God's grace more apparent to us, according as Saint Luke [illegible], that at Saint Paul's preaching, as many believed as were [illegible] to salvation. Verily the number of people was great that [illegible] Saint Paul's Sermon: and out of all doubt he on his side had so [illegible] grace, as ought to have moved even the very stones. And yet [illegible], a great sort continued in their unbelief and stubbornness, and others believed. Now Saint Luke says plainly that the cause thereof was not for that the one sort were more forward folk than the other, or for that there was any inclination of virtue more in the one than in the other: but for that God had foreordained them to salvation. Therefore at one word, we see that all man's deserving must cease and be laid under foot, or else God shall not have his deserved praise. Indeed and we must understand, that faith comes not of ourselves: for if it did, then should there be some worthiness in our works. True it is, that by faith we confess that there is nothing but wretchedness in us, that we be damned and accursed, and that we bring not anything with us but only an acknowledgment of our sins. But yet should our faith serve for some desert, if we had it of our own breeding. We must therefore conclude, that it is impossible for men to believe, unless it be given them from above. And surely Saint Paul declares here a thing well worthy to be marked, when he says, blessed be God. And for what cause? Even for enriching us in such wise in Jesus Christ, that our life is happy and blessed. And afterward he adds, according to his choosing of us. Is not faith comprehended among the spiritual riches whereof Saint Paul makes mention? Yes, and (which is more) it is the chief of them. For it is by faith that we receive the holy Ghost, it is by faith that we become patient in our adversities, it is by faith that we become obedient to God, it is by faith that we be sanctified to his service. To be short, faith continues always chief of the spiritual benefits that God bestows upon us. Now let us remember well Saint Paul's order. He says that God has given us faith as well as any of all the rest, according to his choosing of us. We see then that faith depends upon God's election, or else we must make Saint Paul a liar. And so as touching the first point, you see that all such as cannot abide to have predestination plainly and openly spoken of, are deadly enemies of God's grace, and would deface it to the uttermost of their power. For (as I said before) the hiding thereof were the overthrowing of all religion.

The second point is the assuredness of our salvation. The Papists say we must doubt of it, and that we cannot come to God otherwise than with an opinion that he will receive us: but to assure ourselves of it, that we ought not to do, for that were too great a presumptuousness. But when we pray to God, we must call [reconstructed: him Father], at least if we be the scholars of our Lord Jesus Christ, [reconstructed: who] taught us so to do. Now, do we call him Father at [reconstructed: all]? Or are we sure of it in ourselves that he is our Father? If [reconstructed: not], there is nothing but hypocrisy in our prayers, and the first [reconstructed: word] we utter shall be a stark lie. The Papists therefore never [reconstructed: knew how] it is to pray to God, seeing they say that they ought not [reconstructed: to assure] themselves of their salvation. But (as we shall see in the [reconstructed: third] chapter specially) the scripture shows that if we will pray to [reconstructed: God] rightly, we must have belief in Jesus Christ, which gives us [reconstructed: access] and upon that trust we by and by conceive boldness. Then [reconstructed: let] the world go, we must not be in a wavering nor yet doubt, but [reconstructed: we must] be thoroughly resolved and persuaded in ourselves, that God [reconstructed: receives] us as his children. And how may that be but by embracing [reconstructed: him] through faith, as he offers it us in his Gospel, and by [reconstructed: assuring] ourselves also that we be grounded in his everlasting [reconstructed: election]. If our faith should depend upon ourselves: surely it would [reconstructed: fall] from us, and it might be shaken off, if it were not [reconstructed: sustained] from above. And although we be kept or preserved by faith as [reconstructed: says] Saint Peter: yet is it God that keeps or preserves us. Then if [reconstructed: faith] were not grounded upon God's eternal election, it is [reconstructed: certain] that Satan might pluck it from us every minute of an hour. [reconstructed: Though] we were today the most constant in the world, yet might we [reconstructed: fall] tomorrow. But our Lord Jesus shows us the remedy to [reconstructed: arm] us against all temptations, in that he says, you come not [reconstructed: to me] of yourselves, but the heavenly Father brings you to me. [reconstructed: And] as I have taken you into my keeping, be no more [reconstructed: afraid], for I acknowledge you for the inheritance of God my Father, [reconstructed: he] that has given me the charge of you and put you into my hand, [reconstructed: who is greater] than all. We see then, that besides the setting forth of [reconstructed: his] glory, our salvation also is warranted by God's eternal [reconstructed: election]: which ought to be sufficient cause to move us to consider [reconstructed: what] Saint Paul treats of in this place.

True it is (as I have touched already) that many men stumble at it [reconstructed: when] they hear that God has chosen whom he thought good, and [reconstructed: rejected] all the rest. For we see that the number of them that come to [reconstructed: God] is very small: and why then has he refused the rest? Truly as [reconstructed: if one] would say that God's will ought not to stand for a rule toward [reconstructed: us]. It behooves us to mark, first that God is not bound at all to any person. For had we once that advantage at his hand, that he were never so little beholden to us: then we might well go to law with him. But forasmuch as he on his side is nothing at all bound to us, but we altogether to him: let us see now what we shall win by our contending with him. For if we will needs constrain God to deal alike with all men, he should have less liberty than mortal creatures. If a man be rich, he may do what he pleases with his own goods: if he be liberal to some one, is it reason he should be sued at the law for it, and that every man should demand the like sum of him? Behold, a man of his good will advances one whom he loves: now if all poor folk should come and require him to do as much for them, as it were of bound duty, were it not a foolish thing? Truly a man may adopt the farthest stranger in the world to be his child and heir, and it is free for him so to do. Behold, God is liberal to all men: for he makes his sun to shine both upon good and bad. Only he reserves a certain part of men on whom to bestow the privilege of adopting them to his children. What shall we now gain by murmuring against him? If any man say, that then he should seem to be an accepter of persons: No, it is not so: for he chooses not the rich, and lets the poor go: he chooses not noble men and gentlemen, rather than men of no estimation and base degree. And therefore it cannot be said that there is any accepting of persons before God. For in choosing those that are unworthy, he has no respect but only to his own mere goodness: nor does he care whether one be more worth than another, but he takes whom he pleases. What would we more? Then is it good reason that we should hold ourselves contented with God's will, and bridle ourselves, and let him choose whom he pleases, because his will is the sovereign rule of equity and right. And so you see the mouths of all the world stopped. And although the wicked and the heathenish sort do grudge and repine at God, yes or blaspheme him for so doing: yet is he mighty enough to maintain his own righteousness and infinite wisdom: and when they have chattered their fill, yet must they be confounded in the end. For our part, we see what Saint Paul says here: for it is no dark doctrine when he says that God has blessed us. Truly inasmuch as he has enlightened us with the faith of the Gospel by his holy Spirit, and made us partakers of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: even thereby (says he) has he showed that he had chosen us [reconstructed: before the] making of the world. And therefore let us understand, that [reconstructed: to understand] God's grace rightly, we must (as I said before) come to [reconstructed: the first] and original cause, that is to say, to Election.

[illegible] we must pass further: for, to the intent the better to [illegible] respects and worthiness which men might pretend, [illegible] we are inclined to challenge always somewhat to our [illegible] and cannot abide to be brought to nothing: he says, before [illegible] of the world. So then, forasmuch as through such [illegible] we think ourselves to have that which we have not: it was [illegible] that Saint Paul should here beat down all such fantastical [illegible]. And for that cause he says we could put ourselves [illegible] when we were not yet born. No indeed, God chose us before the [illegible] taking of the world: and what could we then bring to him? In [illegible] the Papists have a subtle shift in this behalf: for they say that God chose such to salvation, as had not yet deserved it, but yet he [illegible] such as he foresaw should deserve it. Thus they confess [illegible] deserving at all went before election, either in order or in [illegible] but that God (as to whom all things are open) knew who [illegible] be worthy of it. After that manner do the Papists speak of it [illegible] they deny not God's election. And truly, to show that these [illegible] which nowadays cannot abide to have it spoken of, [illegible] devils incarnate, and maintain a more outrageous and [illegible] wickedness than the Papists do: we must note that the [illegible] God to have chosen and predestinated whom he thought [illegible] before the making of the world. They stand to that: [illegible] thing these devils deny, and would have God's majesty utterly [illegible], by overthrowing his ordinance after that manner. The [illegible] at least such of them as have walked uprightest, and I speak [illegible] of the very Monks and Friars which are called school divines) [illegible] yet further, that this election of God's is free, and that he chose [illegible] man for any other respect, than for that it pleased himself: but [illegible] and by after, they mingle and confuse all: for they say that when [illegible] chose whom he pleased, he did it to make them deserve it. And [illegible] do they ground all their merits, insomuch as they [illegible] that men may win the kingdom of heaven by their own [illegible]. They grant indeed that as touching election, it is a free gift: [illegible] always they return to their fantastical surmise, that God [illegible] who should do good. But how should he foresee that which could not be? For we know that all Adam's offspring is corrupted, and that we have not the skill to think one good thought of doing well, and much less therefore are able to do well indeed. Although God should wait for us a hundred thousand years, if we could continue so long in the world: yet is it certain that we should never come to him, nor do anything else than increase the mischief continually to our own condemnation. To be short, the longer that men live in the world, the deeper do they plunge themselves in their damnation. And therefore God could not foresee the thing, which was not in us, before he himself did put it into us. How then do we come to God? How do we obey him? How do we have a quiet mind that yields itself according to his faith? All these things come from him. And so it follows that he is bound to do all himself. Therefore let us consider, that in saying that God chose us before the creation of the world, Saint Paul presupposes the thing that is true: namely that God could not see anything in us, save the evil that was there: for there was not one drop of goodness for him to find. So then, seeing he has chosen us, you see it is a very manifest record of his free goodness. And for the same cause, in the ninth chapter of Romans where he speaks of the two twins Jacob and Esau, at such time as they were yet in their mother's womb, before they had done either good or evil, to the intent that all should come only of the caller, and not of the worker: it is said, that the elder should serve the younger (Romans 9:11). We see then how Saint Paul declares there more at large, the thing that he touches here briefly: that is to say, that whereas God chose us before the creation of the world, therein he shows sufficiently, that one man is not more worthy or excellent than another, that he had not respect to any deserving. Therefore seeing that the putting of difference between Jacob and Esau, was before they had done either good or evil: it came not of the works, but of the caller. Then must all praise be yielded to God, and nothing at all be reserved to man. And so you see yet once again what we have to mark here, when Saint Paul says that we were chosen before the making of the world.

He confirms the thing yet better in that he says that the same was done in Jesus Christ. If we had been chosen in ourselves, it might be said that God had found in us some secret virtue unknown to men. But seeing that he has chosen us (that is to say, [illegible] ourselves: what shall we reply to that? If I do a man [illegible] because I love him, and if the cause of my love be sought [illegible], it may be for that we are alike in conditions, or else for some [illegible]. But we must not imagine any likeness in God, and [illegible] us expressly here: for Saint Paul says that we were [illegible] Christ. Had God then an eye to us when he vouchsafed [illegible]? No: for then should he have utterly abhorred us. It is [illegible] in respect of our miseries he had pity and compassion upon [illegible] us: but that was because he had loved us already in our [illegible] Christ. Then must God needs have had his pattern [illegible] glass before him wherein to behold us, that is to say, he [illegible] have looked upon our Lord Jesus Christ, before he could [illegible] us and call us. And so, to be short, after Saint Paul has [illegible] we could not bring anything to God, but that he [illegible] of his own free goodness, in choosing us before the creation of [illegible] he adds yet a more certain proof: namely that he did [illegible] our Lord Jesus Christ, who is as it were the true book of [illegible] God's vouchsafing to choose us, that is to wit, his vouchsafing [illegible] it before all everlastingness, was as it were a registering of us [illegible] of record. And the holy Scripture calls God's election [illegible] of life. As I said before, Jesus Christ serves for a register: [illegible] in whom we are engraved, and in whom God acknowledges [illegible] children. Seeing then that God had an eye to us in the [illegible] of Jesus Christ: it follows that he finds not anything in [illegible] we might lay before him, to cause him to elect us. This [illegible] is the thing that we have to remember further.

[illegible] afterward, that it is to the end we should be pure [illegible] before God, namely in love. This word love [illegible] referred to God: as if it were said, that we shall find [illegible] reason why God vouchsafed to take us for his children, but [illegible] his own free love. Or else (as it is very likely) Saint Paul [illegible] what the true soundness and perfection of the faithful is: [illegible] to walk in all righteousness before God. We cannot lay [illegible] the whole as now, but it shall suffice to tell briefly to what [illegible] had an eye. For he shows here that although God's [illegible] free, and does beat down and put away all the worthiness, [illegible], and virtues of men: yet notwithstanding it serves not to [illegible] leave to do evil and to lead a disordered life, or to run at rovers, but rather to withdraw us from the evil wherein we were plunged. For naturally we can do nothing else but provoke God's wrath, wickedness will always reign in us, and we are held down under the bonds and tyranny of Satan. God therefore must be fain to work, and to change us: for all goodness comes of his election, says Saint Paul. You see then that the thing to which he meant to bring the faithful, was to make them know, that just as God chose them of his own free goodness: so he gives them not leave to yield themselves to naughtiness, but intends to keep and preserve them undefiled to himself. For God's choosing of us and his calling of us therewith to holiness, are things matched inseparably together: accordingly also as Saint Paul says in another text, that we are not called to uncleanness and filthiness, but to be dedicated to God in all godliness and holiness. Now forasmuch as we cannot lay forth the whole at this time, let us look to make our profit of this lesson. And seeing we are now about to prepare ourselves to the receiving of our Lord Jesus Christ's supper, which is a pledge to us as well of our election as of the hope of our salvation, and of all the spiritual benefits that come forth of this wellspring and fountain of God's free goodness: let us consider that there he utters his riches to us, not to the end that we should abuse them, but rather of purpose to be glorified for them at our hands, not only with our mouths, but also with our whole lives. And forasmuch as we hold all things of him: let us also learn to be his, and to give over ourselves to the obeying of him, that he may enjoy us quietly. And let us always shoot at this mark, namely to get a sure warrant that he takes and avows us for his children, by bearing his marks, and by showing in very deed that we are rightly governed by his Holy Spirit, in calling upon him as our Father. Thus you see in effect what we have to mark in this text till the rest may follow.

Now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him to make us feel them in such wise, as we may continually profit in his fear, and be strengthened more and more in the same: and in the meanwhile so to bear with our weakness, as we may always enjoy his grace, even till he has set us in possession of all things, at such time as he shall have done away our sins, and blotted them quite out for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake. And so let us all say, Almighty God, heavenly Father, etc.