Sermon 12: Upon Ephesians Chapter 2

11. Therefore remember that you which were formerly Gentiles in the flesh, being called uncircumcision, in respect of that which is called circumcision, made by hand in the flesh: 12. Were at that time without Christ, strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants that contain the promise, without hope, and without God in the world. 13. But now in Jesus Christ, you that were once far off, are made near by the blood of Christ.

Although the things that are preached to us generally concerning God's grace, ought to move us to magnify his name, and to acknowledge the benefits that we have received of him: yet notwithstanding if a thing be done privately to us, then ought we to be touched yet the more therewith. The same order keeps Saint Paul here. For we have seen this morning, how he made clean riddance of all that is in man, that there might be but only one groundwork of salvation, that is to say, the mere goodness of God. Now he applies the same particularly to the Ephesians, willing them to bethink themselves of their plight wherein God found them: as if after his speaking of all mankind, he should send every one of us to his own experience. And in very deed, that which is spoken here to the Ephesians, concerns us also, like as if a man having told us of the forlornness into which we have been cast by Adam's fall, should say: Consider also what you were, and after what sort you lived in all beastliness, before such time as God called you to the knowledge of himself. The thing then which we have to mark, is, that Saint Paul having showed how that all men from the greatest to the least, ought to confess that they have their salvation through God's only goodness, adds another particular declaration, wherein he shows the thing that every one of the faithful ought to know in himself. True it is that the thing which he has said for that time, would not agree in all points to our days: but yet shall Saint Paul's answer always have his course, and serve to good purpose. For although we have been baptized from our infancy, yet come we of such as formerly were cut off from God's Church. For the Jews were sholed out from all other nations of the world, as a people whom God had ordained to himself, we were then all Heathen, (I mean as in respect of our forefathers,) before the Gospel was preached to the world. But now again we see what confusion is come upon us, through the unthankfulness of such as were called to the truth of the Gospel, and how we have strayed away after such a sort, that we have been as good as cut off from God's Church again. For the baptism that we received in our childhood, stood us in none other stead, but to make us double guilty before God. For they that were plunged in the superstitions of popery, and in all the idolatries that are committed there, had as good as renounced their baptism, and were become renegades: and we cannot excuse ourselves to have been forsworn to God, seeing we were start away from his obedience. Therefore it is not for us to make any boasting, or to seek any excuse to cover our wretchedness withal: but rather to confess freely that we were as deadly enemies to God, and worthy to have been utterly given over of him, because he had reached us his hand to bring us back again to the way of salvation. So then, first we take this text as it lies, to apply it to the Ephesians, and afterward look to take profit of it ourselves. Now then let us see the contents and substance of these words, Bethink yourselves, and remember how you were formerly Gentiles.

First he puts a difference between the Jews, and those whom God had suffered to walk on still in their own darkness. For it was a special privilege that God gave to Abraham's offspring, when he adopted them, to say to them, you shall be my people whom I like of, as though you were of my own household. Those then which came not of Abraham's line, were as good as banished from God's kingdom and Church. And he adds, in the flesh. Not as he speaks in diverse other places, where he uses that word in reproach: but to show that God had showed by a visible fashion, how wretched their state was, and that they needed not any great deepness of wit to perceive it. For circumcision (says he) served as it were to rid men of their uncleanness. And furthermore that Sacrament was ordained of God, to show that all the seed of man is cursed, and that we cannot be rightly made holy and pure, but by the cutting off, and putting away of the things that we have by nature. To be short, just as nowadays we be taught by Baptism to renounce whatever we have by birth: so also was circumcision a token to show how all men were filthy and loathsome, till they had forsaken their own kind. Now then, Saint Paul's meaning is, that the said visible sign, showed well to all the heathen, that they were (as you would say) unworthy to approach to God, and that he vouchsafed not to receive them into the company of the faithful. For the Jews had not invented circumcision of their own brain: but (as I have said before) God had sholed them out from the rest of the world, and all was by reason of the privilege of his own mere grace and goodness.

Thereupon Saint Paul adds further, that they were at that time without Christ. And this serves to show yet better, that men are horribly scattered, and can do nothing but run astray, till God has knit them together in the body of his son, and adopted them to be his children. For we know that Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and that all righteousness dwells in him, and that he is our redemption and life. So long then as we have no acquaintance with him, we must needs be as poor blind men in the dark, we must needs be as good as dead, we must needs be naked of all holiness, righteousness, power, and all goodness. And forasmuch as our freedom depends upon him: we must needs be held under the tyranny of the devil and of sin, till he has ransomed us from them. For this cause therefore does Saint Paul send us here under the person of the Ephesians, to Jesus Christ, to the end, that they which are not partakers of God's son, should know that it were better for them to be drowned a hundred times, than to continue always in that state. And why? For since we can have neither life nor soul health nor righteousness, nor anything else that is allowable, but in Jesus Christ: it is all one as if he said, that we have nothing but utter naughtiness and destruction in ourselves.

He adds thereto, the commonwealth of Israel: showing thereby that all the promises which were made to the Jews, were grounded upon Jesus Christ. And therefore they that belong not to his body, are forthwith deprived of all God's promises, and cannot conceive any hope of life, but only by imagination, wherein they beguile themselves. And verily he adds, the instruments (or covenants and conveyances) of the promises: as if he should say, that God had not called the Jews as it were in hudder mudther, but had passed a solemn conveyance or evidence, which served to leave all the world in condemnation. Therefore forasmuch as God had advanced Abraham's lineage, it must needs be that the rest of the world was so much the more confounded, like as if some princes or some cities should make a league, all others that are not comprehended in it, are as good as deprived of the benefit that is contained in it. And when God declared that he took the Jews to be his flock, and that he would be their father and savior: he declared also that no part thereof could come to the Gentiles, whom he had after a sort forsaken, and to whom he had not vouchsafed to show the like mercy. Finally he says, that they had been without God, which is the full measure of all mischief. For what shall become of man, when his God has so shaken him off, as there is no access for him, nor no coming to him again? And that not only he is forsaken of his God, but also cannot but plunge himself deeper and deeper into the bottom of hell, and make war against God, as though he were at defiance with him, because he is stubborn and rebellious against all goodness? Thus you see, that the thing which Saint Paul sets forth here, to the intent that the Ephesians should profit themselves, by the things that he had said this morning concerning the only cause of our salvation: is that there is none other thing for us to trust to, but only God's mere grace.

But now let us come to ourselves. I have already declared briefly, that our fathers were in the same state that Saint Paul sets down here. And therefore we have no cause to brag of, as often as we think of what root and original we spring. For if the very Jews are at this day a record of God's wrath and horrible vengeance, which he lays upon them for their unbelief: is there not much more cause for to cast down their eyes, which are but as things born out of time? For the Jews are of the holy root that God had chosen, and we are but grafted into it in their stead. If God has not spared the natural branches, what will he do to us that have been brought in as it were against nature? Lo how Saint Paul exhorts us to lowliness, to the end we should learn to submit ourselves always to God's mere goodness, and frankly and freely confess that our welfare consists therein. Also I told you secondly, not only that our fathers were strangers to the hope of salvation, because they were not adopted as well as the Jews: but also that the horrible scattering which came upon the whole world, and which reigns in it still at this day, ought to beat down all pride and presumption, that God's grace may shine the brighter upon us. Now then (as I said) although we are baptized, and have the badge of God's goodness and free adoption: yet, notwithstanding we have been wretched idolaters, and were gone away from our Lord Jesus Christ, and the things that we had in greatest estimation, turned to our greater damnation, instead of being for our welfare. Therefore we have good cause here to bethink ourselves.

Furthermore, for as much as we are short-witted in magnifying God's grace, let us weigh well this word which Saint Paul uses here to bring us to remembrance of the things which we might forget. For when we are endowed with God's grace, and it has pleased him to give us some good desire to walk in his fear, and he has worked so in us by his holy Spirit, as men may perceive that there is some goodness in us: it may make us to forget by and by what we were before, by means of which God's grace is as good as buried. To the end therefore that our present plight hinder not our continual praising of God, and our esteeming of his goodness and grace as it deserves: let no length of time darken the benefits that we have received of God, but let us as it were enter into examination of them every day. And although God has changed our state at this day, so as we are no more the men that we were before: yet notwithstanding let us bear in mind, that before God had pity upon us, we were as hapless sheep that went astray, and as beasts that are utterly lost, and that without the same small beginning, we had been damned ten hundred thousand times earlier, had not God prevented us, and given us remedy for the cursed state in which we were. You see then, that the thing which we have to consider upon the said speech, by which Saint Paul puts the Ephesians in mind, what they were before, is, that although God had put away the thing that should have made them ashamed, and marked them beforehand with his holy Spirit, so as they were become as precious pearls: yet notwithstanding he will have them to bethink themselves, (like as in very deed it is, the fruits of repentance which the Scripture sets down,) that when God has reached us his hand, and brought us home again from our straying, we do not cease to think on our (former) sins, even in such a way as we may be sorry, abashed, and ashamed of them.

Whereas he says, that the Gentiles have good cause to hold down their heads, because they were once without assurance of God's goodness and love: by this we are put in mind, that we receive a singular benefit at God's hand, when we have the use of his Sacraments, which are as warranties, that he takes and avows us to be of his household and Church. True it is, that if we abuse them, we shall pay dearly for it: but yet whatever comes of it, when the Sacraments are put to the end for which they were ordained, it is certain, that they are as it were inestimable treasures, as I said before. For although we have God's promise that he takes us for his children, even from our coming out of our mother's womb: yet is there nothing but uncleanness in our flesh. Now then, have we baptism? There it is showed us that God washes and cleanses us from all our uncleanness, that he pulls us out of the confusion in which we were with our father Adam: and that he will have us clothed with Jesus Christ, to be partakers of all his goods, as though they were our own.

We see then what baptism imports, and consequently how much we ought to esteem this grace of God's coming to us in such a way, and of his showing of himself to be our father after so homely a manner. As much is to be said of the supper. For there it is shown us visibly, that Jesus Christ is the true food of our souls, that just as our bodies are sustained and nourished with the bread and wine, so we have our spiritual life of the very substance of God's son. Seeing then that our Lord Jesus does as it were from hand to hand show us, that he gives us his body and blood to be our spiritual meat and drink: is it not a thing much more worth than all things that are to be found in this world? And herein we see how malicious and froward most men are: for as touching the Lord's Supper, many come to it, which rush there like wretched beasts, not knowing why it was ordained. Some again make but a custom and ordinary use of it: and although they have been taught to what purpose it avails us: yet they do but wring their mouth at it, and all is one to them, when it is once past with them. And others defile it even willfully. And as touching baptism, we see how the world goes with it. For whereas we ought to think daily, and not only once a day, but every hour of the day, both upon baptism, and also upon the Lord's supper, to confirm ourselves the better in God's grace: so little does any man set his mind that way, that if baptism be ministered in the church, men make no account of it. Scarcely can one be found among a hundred, that can fitly tell and utter what that sign of our adoption betokens. And yet you see what disdain is matched with that ignorance. Must not God after his long suffering of us, and his patient waiting for us, be revenged of such dishonor, when his grace is so lightly esteemed among us? So much the more therefore does it stand us in hand, to mark well what Saint Paul tells us here, when he says, that the Gentiles being deprived of the sacraments which God gives to his children for a warrant of his goodness and love, are in miserable condition, to the end we may learn to make much of the privilege which he has given us, not to boast foolishly of it, as hypocrites do, who abuse God's name continually: but to make us to fare the better by a thing of so great price and value, and to make us know that we be no whit better than they which are as poor hunger-starved souls, against whom God shuts the gate still, and to whom he vouchsafes not to impart those pledges of his, wherein he shows and witnesses that he will be our father. You see the Turks have circumcision as well as the Jews, and yet is it nothing worth, because there is no more any promise of God going with it: and yet notwithstanding we come of Adam's race as well as they. Why do we have baptism, but because God intended to show himself the more pitiful towards us, and to utter the riches of his goodness? Again, the Papists will needs be called Christians, and have baptism as well as we. And yet in the meantime they be bereft of the holy Supper, indeed and they have the abominable Mass, wherein they renounce the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what cause is there why we should be so preferred before them, except that God would have us to be as mirrors of his infinite mercy? So much the more therefore behooves it us to walk in awe and wariness, and to set store by the things which God shows us to be of such worthiness and excellence, that we may fare the better by them. Therefore mark it for a special point, when Saint Paul speaks here of circumcision and uncircumcision. For although he says in other places, that circumcision is nothing, (however that was but because it was abolished, and the use thereof ceased, as of all other figures of the law:) yet notwithstanding, at such time as God ordained it, and so long as the Jews used it holily, it was a sure warrant to them of God's adoption, as if he had cleansed them from all the filthiness that is in Adam's race, and appropriated them to himself.

After he has said so, he adds, that they were without Christ, and without promises. Here he shows that the Sacraments take and borrow their force from God's word. For if there were no more but the bare signs, it were no matter of great importance. If Circumcision had been given to the Jews without any doctrine or instruction: to what purpose had it served? Surely they had been never the better for it. But when God says, I am the God which sanctifies you, you shall be my children, I will receive you, and therewith also take you for my heritage: and on the other side also I give myself to you, and will be your life: forasmuch as Circumcision had such promises, it was as an inestimable treasure to the Jews, because the foundation (that is, our Lord Jesus Christ) was laid sure, whereon the promises were settled, and as you would say, confirmed. That then is the cause why Saint Paul joins here the commonwealth of Israel, and the instruments of God's promises, and our Lord Jesus Christ all together. However, in speaking of the commonwealth of Israel, he shows, that God had chosen one certain lineage which he would have to be holy: and so was it to be concluded, that all the rest were unholy. In speaking of the instruments of the promises, he shows (as I have touched already) that we must not look upon Circumcision in itself, but we must direct it to the right end of it. It becomes us to know why God would have it used among the Jews: for otherwise it is but an ape's toy, as the number of fond devotions which the Gentiles had, whereby they hoped to have had holiness: but all of it was but abuse and trumpery, because they had no promise of God. Likewise they say nowadays in the papacy, that they have many Sacraments, and therewith as many murlimewes and gewgaws as can be: but all that God disallows, is but paltry trash. And why? For there is no word that sanctifies them. So then let us mark well, that to profit ourselves by the Sacraments, we must always be taught them by God's doctrine. And thereby we may judge, that many are cut off from the Church of God, who notwithstanding are nowadays thought to be highest in it. For in the meantime where is the instruction, which they should have to be partakers of the benefits that God offers them? They will allege their Baptism, and they will say, they receive the Lord's Supper. If a man asks them to what end: they understand nothing at all, and that is as an utter abolishing of the power of the Sacraments. So much the more therefore does it stand us in hand to come back to this point, namely to learn from the Gospel, to what end Baptism was ordained, what fruit it yields us, and which is the right and lawful use of it: and also to consider to what end the holy Supper avails us. For if we have not God's word: our Lord himself tells us, that the Sacraments which we receive, are as it were [reconstructed: debased], and there is nothing but falsehood in them. And like as if a man should set a Prince's seal to a letter that had nothing therein, or which had but imaginations and dreams contrived in it, it were an offense worthy of death: so also forasmuch as the Sacraments are as Seals to warrant God's promises to us, and to make them of authority among us: if we separate them from his word, it is certain, that we be falsifiers before God and his Angels. That therefore is one thing more which we have to mark upon this strain.

And we must mark also, that Jesus Christ is set down with the commonwealth of Israel, and with the Sacraments and promises, to show that it is he on whom all of us depend. For it is certain that God never comes to men without the mediator. For since he hates unrighteousness, and all men are cursed in Adam: it was requisite that our Lord Jesus Christ should step in, that we might have some entrance and access to God. And that is the cause why Saint Paul says also, that he is the yes and the Amen of all God's promises. For there shall never be any certainty of God's promises without Jesus Christ. And for the same cause also all things were dedicated in the Law with blood, yes, and even the book of the Law itself. When the covenant was read openly, and published solemnly to the people, the book was besprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice, to show that all the doctrine contained in the Law, and all the promises whereby God adopts those to be his children, whom he has admitted into his Church, must be confirmed by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, will we have the promises to be sure and infallible? Will we be assured of them, that we may freely call upon God, and fight against all temptations? We must resort always to Jesus Christ. It is much when God tells us with his own holy mouth, that he will reserve us for his own: but yet must we needs tremble continually at his majesty, till we have cast our eye upon our Lord Jesus Christ, and know that God likes well of us for his sake, so as our sins be buried, and shall never come to account. Thus you see how the promises, the Sacraments, and all that ever we have, must be ratified by Jesus Christ. To be short, (if I may make a human comparison, and speak grossly) he is the true sauce to make all things savory that belong to our salvation. For without him, we should continue evermore as men in a swoon, and (as I have said already) we could conceive no hope at all, nor have our minds so settled, as we might resort to God for refuge. Not without cause therefore does Saint Paul say, that such as have no Circumcision, nor other Sacraments whereby to be consecrated to God, nor any promises of salvation, are without Christ.

And now he adds a thing which may seem hard and strange at the first sight, when he says, that the Ephesians were without God. For it is certain that although they were wretched idolaters, yet they had a certain opinion that the world was not made of itself: for we know that all men have continually held some seed of religion, and even they which overshoot themselves so far, as to wipe out all knowledge of God, are first most ugly monsters, and secondly although they strive to thrust all knowledge of God under foot, yet must they needs have [reconstructed: heartbitings], that sting them in spite of their teeth, and they are driven to feel that they cannot escape the hand of God. However the case stand, we are naturally inclined to know that there is a God. And the heathen men have always had their devotions and divine services (as they termed them) to show that they worshipped some Godhead. How then does Saint Paul say here, that they were without God? We have to note, that it is not enough for men to confess that there is some certain Godhead, and to endeavor to discharge themselves of their duty by serving of a God: but they must also have a certain settled belief, that they wander not to and fro after the manner that is spoken of in the first chapter of Romans (Romans 1:21), where it is said, that such as devise strange shapes of God, do vanish away in their own foolish imaginations. Now it is certain, that all such as are not taught by God's word, by the law, by the Prophets, and by the Gospel, are out of the right way, and after a sort, at their wits' end, so as they are tossed to and fro like wavering reeds that yield to every wind, and thereupon make sundry shapes of God. For every man builds and forges crooked conceits in his own brain, and we know that man's wit is as a shop of idolatry and superstition, insomuch that if a man believe his own conceit, it is certain, that he shall forsake God, and forge some idol in his own brain. Lo, what we are. And it may right well be said, that we are without God, when we wander away after that fashion in our own imaginations, and in our false opinions. And that is the cause why Saint Paul says, that such as have had a mind to worship some unknown Gods, have worshipped nothing but idols and fantastical imaginations, and that God belongs not at all to them, and so consequently, that they were utterly forsaken of him, like as they were become renegades, and had renounced him before. So much the more then does it behoove us to travail and take pains to know which is the God whom we ought to worship. I have told you already, that it is not enough for a man to allege that he has a good intent, and that he meant to worship God: that will go for no payment: for God likes not of the liberty that men take to make themselves believe this or that. Since it is so, we must present ourselves before God with all wariness, that he may show us the way to come to him. For else we shall but go astray, and he that runs swiftest, shall be furthest off from him, yes, and in the end break his neck. Lo, in what case we are until God has reached us his hand, and set us in the right way, that we may not be as poor wandering beasts all the time of our life.

Again, forasmuch as he has given us a record of his majesty in the holy Scripture: it becomes us to hold ourselves close to it, and not to covet to know anything which is not shown us there. What must then be our lodestar to know God by? To suffer ourselves to be taught by his word, and to be so discreet, as to receive whatever is contained there, without gainsaying, and not to presume to add anything at all to it. And we ought so much the more to have that care, since we know how John avows, that he which has not the Son, has not the Father. Then like as I have told you, that because God reveals himself in this word, it behooves us to seek him there: so also forasmuch as our Lord Jesus Christ is his lively image, let us not enter into overly high speculations, to know what God is: but let us go to Jesus Christ, acknowledging that it is his office to bring us to God his Father, and that it is he by whom we must be guided, and so shall we be sure that we shall not be without God in this world. Now if they that take so much pains, and trot up and down to serve God, are condemned here to be without God, because they have not held the true rule, but have been beguiled in their superstitions: what shall become of the dogs and swine that have no awe at all of God, especially since they deprive themselves of all knowledge, and degenerate into beasts, after they have had some understanding of the truth, by having their ears beaten with the holy Scripture. Of which sort we see a great number nowadays, who to take the advantage of the time, and to make good cheer at their pleasure, could find in their hearts to quench, or to darken the light that God had caused to shine upon them, yes even to the utter defying of God's majesty, as though there were no more instruction at all. We see how this cursed seed is dispersed abroad at this day through all the whole world. But (as I said before) if the poor ignorant sort, which never had any certain way, but have been as blind wretches wandering here and there to seek God, and yet he has not showed himself to them, have no excuse at all, but are condemned at God's hand, because they had not a true root: what shall become of the unhappy wretches that despise God in that wise, and [illegible] against him, saying, we know no more what the true doctrine and religion mean. So much the more then ought we to humble ourselves, and to know that since God has revealed himself to us, now that he is joined to us with an inseparable bond, and has showed himself a Father to us, and has vouchsafed to make us members of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and made us one with him, with condition that whatever he has, belongs now to us: we ought to learn to magnify that grace, and to acknowledge what we have been, and what we should be still, if God had not showed himself merciful toward us.

Hereupon a man might demand what Saint Paul meant by the word "World": for it should seem that out of the world they were not without God. However, that was to aggravate the matter so much the more, by saying that the Ephesians had enjoyed the light of the sun, all the elements had served them, and they had received so many commodities of God's gift in all his creatures, and yet had not known him. For what else is the world but an open stage whereon God will have his majesty seen? Let us lift up our eyes: do not the sun, the moon, and the stars, lead us to him that gave them the virtues which we perceive in them? For behold, the sun is far off from us, and yet he gives us light. Again, he causes the earth to bring forth fruits, also we see the double course that he keeps: and although he wanders now on the one side, and now on the other, yet notwithstanding he keeps his compass continually, and never forgets how far he ought to go on the one side or on the other, as huge a mass as he is. If a ball or a bowl were to be held up, it would need some help: but behold, the sun has nothing to hold it up, but the secret power of God: and yet notwithstanding he is so huge and infinite a mass, as exceeds all the whole earth. Mount he up, or go he low, turn he, or return he, on the one side or on the other: yet keeps he his course still every day through the whole world, and every year also on the contrary part, and yet for all this he misses not in any of all those things. To be short, when we behold the skies, we ought to be ravished with desire to go to God. Again, when we behold the things that are nearer us, namely the variety of the good things that God bestows upon us: (we have cause to do the like.) Finally without going any further, let us but enter into ourselves. If a man look but upon one of his fingers, what workmanship and what goodness of God is there? We then are in the world where God utters such abundance of miracles, whereby it is his meaning, to be known and worshipped: and yet notwithstanding we play the beasts, and go on like blockheads without any understanding, not knowing the God that made us and fashioned us, even him that utters and shows himself in all his creatures both above and beneath. Is not this enough then to bereave them of all excuse, which play the beasts in their ignorance, living here but only to devour God's benefits, and in the meantime repair not to him, to do him honor, or to offer him their service? Then is it not without cause, that Saint Paul adds yet further this saying, that such as were so destitute of the knowledge of the Gospel, were without God in the world.

Now thereupon on the other side, he sets down the grace of God, which they had received, to the end, they should know that it was not of their own purchase, nor obtained by their own policy and ability, but that they ought to consider well how greatly they are bound to God, for raising them up to heaven from the deep dungeons of hell. If God had but lent us his hand to lift us up when we were fallen but to the ground, and so let us alone in our own state, we should be beholden to him for it. For when we are fallen, and somebody helps to lift us up again, we will thank him, and so ought we to do. Behold now, God has not only lifted us up from the ground, but also drawn us out of the gulf of hell. And his so doing, is not to make us creep here beneath upon the earth, or to make us to enjoy the benefits that he offers us here presently: but to advance us to the kingdom of heaven, as we have seen heretofore, how we are put in possession of it already by faith, and are set in the person of Jesus Christ in the glory that he has purchased for us, for he is entered into it in our behalf. Seeing it is so, have we not cause to magnify God's grace so much the more? So have you Saint Paul's meaning, in that he says, that now by Jesus Christ you are come near to God, even you (says he) which were far off before. Therefore at a word (forasmuch as the whole cannot be laid forth at this time) let us understand, that whereas men seem to have some worthiness in themselves, they cannot but stray away to their own destruction, so long as they are separated from God, because that by nature they are strangers to him, yes and quite cut off from him. Moreover let every one of us know for his own part, how we had forgotten God, and were quite turned away from him, till he called us again to him. When we know this, let us learn to magnify his grace for vouchsafing to reconcile us to himself, and to put away all the enmity that was between him and us, and to make us his children of his deadly enemies, assuring ourselves, that all this is done by means of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the intent we should out of that fountain draw all that belongs to our salvation. And furthermore let us consider also, what furtherance we have by the helps that God has given us to come to Jesus Christ by, and to confirm us in him, to the end we may have a resolute and sure doctrine. As for example, when the Gospel is daily preached to us, Jesus Christ is offered there to us, and he on his side calls us to him. To be short, he has his arms stretched out to embrace us. Let us understand that: and afterward let us add the Sacraments thereto, and seeing that Jesus Christ has not only commanded the open preaching of the Gospel, [reconstructed: but also] shows himself to be our Shepherd, and that he will have us to be his flock, but also confirms the same by Baptism, and by his last Supper: let us take good heed that we make not those signs unavailable through our own malice and unthankfulness: but let us (rather) consider to what end God has ordained them, and let us so use them, as we may grow more and more in faith, and be thereby inflamed with such zeal, as we may endeavor to give ourselves wholly to God, since it has pleased him also to give himself to us.

And now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God, with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him, not only to make every one of us to know the vices with which we are tainted, but also those which he has vouchsafed to cleanse us of, and specially that we may come to our original, and consider that even from our mothers' wombs we bring nothing but [reconstructed: sin], and that we cease not to increase the [illegible] and more, that when we know it, we may bless his holy name for the knowledge which he has given us, and be so provoked to repair to him, as we may hold the right way, without swerving from our Lord Jesus Christ, because that without him we must needs be banished from the kingdom of [reconstructed: God], and shut quite and clean out of it. So then, let us hold that way, and call upon this good God of ours incessantly, that he vouchsafe to make us feel by experience, that his calling of us to him, is not in vain: that we finding such fruit of our prayers, may be so much the more encouraged to flee to him for our refuge, and also to give him thanks for all the benefits which we receive at his hand. That it may please him to grant this grace, not only to us, but also to all people, etc.