Sermon 20: Upon Ephesians Chapter 3

14. For which thing I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: 15. (Of whom all kindred is named in heaven and in earth.) 16. That according to the riches of his glory, he grant you to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inward man. 17. And that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. 18. And that you may be rooted and grounded in love, to the intent you may comprehend with all the Saints, what the wideness, and the length, and the depth, and the height, 19. And know the lovingness of Christ, which passes all knowledge, that you may be filled with all fullness of God.

We have seen this morning by what entrance we must offer our prayers to God, if we intend to be heard at his hand, and to have full assurance that our prayers shall be well liked: namely that Jesus Christ be our guide and advocate, and make intercession for us, so as we speak not but as it were by his mouth. Now he has set it down for a rule in praying to God, that we must call him father. And how dare men be so bold or presumptuous, as to call God their father? Surely we can allege no right whereby to claim any such dignity. For not even the Angels have it, but by means of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then is it impossible for us to pray to God, as he commands us, and after the manner which he teaches us in his word except Jesus Christ be our advocate. For on whether side are the Angels akin to us? Shall the Virgin Mary be found to be our great Aunt or Grandmother? What are the Apostles? To be short, we must resort to our Lord Jesus Christ, to have his spiritual kindred, whereby God avows us for his adopted children. And when we once have that, we must no more doubt whether God will hear our prayers or not, seeing we come not to him upon a foolish rashness, by presuming upon our own natural reason or self-liking, but with obedience to his commandment. Again, we have his promise, which can never deceive us. On the contrary, all they that think to obtain favor at God's hand by any other means, do but run astray, and have shut themselves out of the door already. And therefore there is now no excuse, but that we must simply hold the way which the Gospel shows us, to come to God by, that is to say, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, without adding of any other creature, as we see done by the whole world. Indeed they that pester up a throng of patrons and advocates, (as they term them,) hope to be well welcome to God. But by what warrant? Who has promised them, that God will accept their devotion, and all that they offer to him? For it is not in us to appoint officers in heaven. In a Court of Justice of the world, it might well be a matter of course (as they term it,) and it might lie in the power of a Judge, to give leave to whom he wishes, to plead men's cases, to the intent there might be no confusion. But if we will make advocates at our own pleasure, and upon our own head (in heaven:) it is all one as if we would rob God of his authority and sovereignty. Indeed, and we must consider how Saint Paul says, that all our prayers and supplications, shall never be worth anything, but utterly unprofitable and vain, if they be not conformable to God's word, so as we take our rule from there. For how shall we call upon a God (says he) whom we do not know, haphazardly? And how shall we know after what manner we should pray, and what style and speech we should use? We must come to hearing, not of the things that men shall bring us of their own brain, but of the things that God commands us. So then, we must use this modesty and sobriety, and not speak at random when we pray to God, but simply obey his word. Indeed, and we know that prayer is the chief sacrifice that God requires. For whereas it is said, that we must worship the only one God: it is not only with ceremonies, as with kneeling down before him. Indeed that is requisite: for it is fitting that we should honor our God both with our body and with our mind, because they are both his. However, in worshipping him, we must truly acknowledge that we hold all good things of him: and that we do in praying to him. For we come there as poor souls utterly destitute of all things that are fitting for us, knowing that without him we are worse than miserable. It is said in the law, that in offering sacrifice to God, men must not do anything at all of their own head, but follow his ordinance, insomuch that it was forbidden them to take strange fire to use upon the altar: whereby it was meant in a figure, that men should utterly forbear all their own devotions, when they intend to offer anything to God. Likewise they were forbidden to offer sacrifice without salt, thereby to show that we ought to have a sure instruction, so as all the offerings which we offer up to God, be seasoned or powdered with his word: for without that, there will be neither taste nor savor in them. But seeing that we nowadays have the substance and truth of the figures of the Law: whenever we offer our prayers and supplications to God, or yield him praise and thanks, let us do all by our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Apostle to the Hebrews exhorts us. This serves to finish up the matter that was begun this morning.

And we must call to mind what Saint Paul told us this morning: namely, that in praying to God, we must not be given to our worldly affections, but seek that God may be glorified, and that the residue may be but as an appurtenance to it. That is the cause why he spoke purposely of the inward man. For if God should give us the bridle to ask whatever came in our head, or if we on our side should take such liberty: what a thing were it? If he should give us all our own asking, it would turn to our ruin and confusion. For we have our lusts further out of square, than little children or sick folks. And all of us generally do by experience find in ourselves, that we are fast settled here below, and would be eager to be held continually in this world: we hang our heads groveling downward, and cannot lift them up. So much the more therefore does it stand us in hand, to mark well the thing that Saint Paul shows us in this sentence: namely that we ought to pray God to renew us, and to strengthen us by his holy spirit, and to increase his gifts in us more and more, that in passing through this world, we may always aim at that mark, and be here but as wayfarers, to the end that our Lord may avow us for his children, and the heritage be kept for us, which he has promised us, and bought so dearly for us by the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now hereupon Saint Paul infers, that Jesus Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. Whereby he shows, that without Christ we shall never be made partakers of any one drop of God's grace. It is true, that God has the whole fullness of life, light, righteousness, and all goodness in himself. But where is the head wellspring? It is utterly hidden, and we shall never be able to come at it of ourselves. And if we think to do any good by our own inventions: it is but a deceiving of ourselves: we shall but dig pits continually, indeed even such pits as are full of holes, and have no springs of water in them. Behold, the thing that men gain by following their own inventions, is, that they make much trotting up and down, and are never any closer. But our Lord Jesus Christ is a fountain from which we may well draw our fill: indeed we need to make no long windlasses to come to him, because he offers himself, saying: All you that are athirst come to me and drink, for whoever drinks of the living water that I give him, shall have enough, both for himself, and also to make it flow [reconstructed: to] his neighbors. Now then, for as much as our Lord Jesus Christ does so [reconstructed: freely] and bountifully offer us the benefits which we receive of God his father: therefore Saint Paul says, that he must be willing to dwell in our hearts, that we may be reformed by God's spirit. And let us mark, that Jesus Christ has the full perfection of all goodness in him, not only in respect that he is the everlasting Son of God, but also even in his human nature which he took of us, and wherein he became our brother, has he also received all fullness, according to this saying of the Prophet Isaiah, that upon him shall rest the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of the fear of God, the spirit of righteousness, and the spirit of strength. And to what end? Is it for his own use? He had no need of it: but (as it is said in another text) it was to the end that he should distribute it to all his members, and we all of us from the most to the least draw of his fullness, not fearing that fountain can dry up. Seeing then that our Lord Jesus Christ does by the Gospel daily communicate and offer to us the things that we want, and are needful for our salvation: it is not for nothing that Saint Paul having shown that we can do nothing further than we are upheld by God's grace: adds, that God must be willing to dwell in our hearts.

Now upon these words, we have to gather first of all, that God thinking it not enough to remedy all our defaults and misdoings, and all our wants, has vouchsafed to give himself to us in the person of his only Son. If it were told us that we are restored to the former state from where our father Adam fell, that were very much, and in that we should have an excellent record of the goodness of our God: but he has not only given us both heaven and earth, that is to say, all things that are fitting for us both in respect of this fleeting life, and of the everlasting salvation of our souls: but also he has given himself to us. And how is that? Even by giving us our Lord Jesus Christ, as is said of him in the ninth chapter of the prophet Isaiah. And all the Scripture also leads us there, when it shows us how God gives himself to us, and how we possess him, and have full enjoyment of him. And upon this we must conclude with that which Saint Paul says, in the eighth chapter to the Romans, namely, that inasmuch as God's Son who has all excellence and dignity in him, is given to us — shall anything else be withheld from us? Seeing that God has granted himself so far forth to us, as to have his Son dwell in us — should we now doubt of the obtaining of the things which he knows to be for our profit and benefit? Do we think that they shall be denied us? You see then that the thing which we have to remember in the first place, is, that God has showed himself so bountiful toward us, that he has not thought it enough to put us in possession of all his goods, but has vouchsafed to become our portion and cup himself, as the Scripture says, which uses such comparisons, to show, that as a man seeks his ordinary repast, and is well satisfied when he has meat and drink, because he is refreshed by it: so must we resort to God, to have the true food: and we must hold ourselves contented with him, when he gives himself so to us. And with this let us ever bear in mind what I have said, namely, that we need not soar in the air, nor make any far fetches for the possessing of God, because he has knit himself to us in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in him we are made partakers both of him and all his benefits. And Saint Paul sets down the word faith, to show us how dear the doctrine of the Gospel ought to be to us. For it is not enough to have said, that Jesus Christ dwells in us, because we will always have our replies — and say — how may that be? For we cannot mount up so high. He is in the glory of heaven, and we are crawling here in the world, subject to miseries without number. Seeing then that there is so long a distance between him and us: how may he dwell in us? Now Saint Paul adds purposely, that the Gospel is of such power, as to unite us to God's Son, at least so we receive it by faith: for it is necessary for us to consider the contents and substance of the things that are preached to us, concerning the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not only said, that it was God's will to have him offered in sacrifice, to the intent we might be reconciled, and all our sins be wiped out, so as they might never come to account, and — to be short — that full amends might be made for all our sins by his death and passion, and that he was raised again for our justification, as Saint Paul says in the fifth chapter to the Romans: not only those things are said of Jesus Christ, but it is also said, that he is our head, as we have seen already, and that we live of his own substance, as a tree draws its sap from its root, and that as the head of a man sheds forth his power through all the body, so have we a secret union, and such a one as is wonderful and far above the order of nature, because although Jesus Christ is in heaven, yet he fails not to dwell in us. And truly if the Sun can so cheer us up by his beams without moving out of his place, insomuch as we see that every morning we are as it were refreshed and comforted by his rising, yes and even sick people feel some cheerfulness from him though they lie long in their beds: seeing that a creature which is not only transitory and corruptible, but also senseless and unmovable of itself, has notwithstanding such force and property given it of God, to rejoice and refresh us after that fashion: what shall our Lord Jesus Christ do, who is ordained to have the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in him, and to shed forth all the gracious gifts of God his Father upon us, to deal them to every one of us according to his measure, as is said of him in the fourteenth chapter of John? Then if we come to Christ with belief in him, that is to say, if we receive the promises of the Gospel: let us assure ourselves that he will dwell in us, even by the means of faith. But of this we shall treat more fully in the fifth chapter. Notwithstanding, this text could not have been understood, unless I had noted the thing that I have briefly touched even now: that is to wit, that Jesus Christ dwells in us by faith, and that our receiving of him as he offers himself with all his grace by the Gospel, is not only to look upon him aloof, or to have it told us, that he has offered himself in sacrifice for us once for all: but to the end he should dwell in us by the power of his Holy Spirit, and we be knit to him, and feel that he does truly execute the office of a head toward us, so as we are members of his body, and live of his proper substance. That then is the cause why Saint Paul added the word faith, when he said, that Jesus Christ ought to dwell in us.

Nevertheless we must not go about to pluck Jesus Christ out of his heavenly glory, to the intent to be the nearer to him, as the unbelievers do, who will needs dwell ever still beneath, and transfigure God after their own liking. And we see what is done in the popedome. For there is no God among them, but a sort of puppets which they call images and remembrances. And moreover, because they see well that those are but dead stocks and stones: they have made another God, whom they have shut up in a box, and to him they resort as to a living God. Indeed if they had the Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his institution, in stead of the abominable Mass which they have brought in on their own head, Jesus Christ would be present among them: however not as they imagine. For in the Supper we do truly receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be fed of him, and of his own substance, so as he performs the thing which he speaks by his word, namely, that he is our spiritual bread and drink, and has with which to satisfy us to the full. Indeed, but yet are the bread and the wine of the Supper, as pledges that our Lord Jesus gives himself to us, to the end we should seek him above after a spiritual fashion. So then, Saint Paul shows us, that if we will have Jesus Christ joined to us, we must not be given to our own beastliness, but our hearts and minds must be lifted up aloft to seek him above, as has been declared already. It is true, that he comes down to us by his word, and by the power of his holy Spirit: but that is to the end that we should mount up there to him.

However there is one thing more which we ought to mark well in Saint Paul's saying, that Christ must dwell in our hearts. For many men have him in their mouth, yes and also in their brain, as they understand him, and they think themselves well discharged, when they can babble of him: but in the mean while there is no lively root in them. Then is it not enough for us to have some roving knowledge of Christ, or to gaze at him in the air, as they say, and to be able to talk of him with full mouth: but he must have his seat in our hearts within, so as we be knit to him sincerely, and with a true affection. That is the means for us to be made partakers of God's Spirit.

And to be short, we may see here, that all such as imagine they will obtain anything at God's hand but by the means of our Lord Jesus Christ, do but range and wander in vain, and shall always find themselves empty: insomuch that when they think themselves to be well fed, it shall be but with wind, that is to say, with vain and trifling imaginations, as I told you this morning. They therefore which devise patrons of their own head, and surmise that God will favor them for it, and in the mean while let Jesus Christ alone: must understand, that they be so far off from obtaining their requests, that God does rather abhor them, insomuch that when they once swerve from the anchor-hold which is set forth for us in the Scripture, (that is to say, from having our Lord Jesus Christ for their guide) the Angels of heaven must needs forsake them, and the Saints also, to whom they vowed themselves, must needs deny them, yes and all of them must set themselves against them as adversary parties. For there is no means for us to be matched with the Angels, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs, till we have true concord with them. And how shall we have that? By faith: that is to say, according to the pure doctrine of the Gospel. Not that it is enough for us to have our ears beaten with it: but that we must receive the things that God promises us there, so as we abhor all that ever Satan can set before us, and have no other guide than only our Lord Jesus Christ, who has told us, that he is the light of the world, and that whoever walks in him, cannot stray. But by the way we must search and examine ourselves narrowly, that we take not a vain cloak under the name of Jesus Christ, as we see many do now a days, which profess themselves to be Gospellers. And even among ourselves, what a number are there which will show signs great enough, that they be willing to follow God's word? But they think to discharge themselves with petty trifles: and when they have once given ear to the doctrine and spoken a few good words: then, to their seeming, God is highly bound to them. But here it is shown us, that we have no acquaintance at all with him, until Jesus Christ dwell in our hearts. And that is the very means by which to be filled with his benefits, and to have his holy Spirit dwelling and reigning in us. For unless we fear God, and walk in his obedience, so as we behave ourselves according to his will, and all our wits and desires aim that way: it is a token that we live after the flesh, as Saint Paul says to the Galatians. Therefore we must show by our outward fruits, that we be truly joined to Jesus Christ, and that he has made us partakers of his holy Spirit.

Now upon this, Saint Paul adds further, that we must be rooted and grounded in charity. This word charity or love, may be taken as well for the love that God bears us, as for the mutual love which we ought to bear one toward another. But the very true and native sense of Saint Paul here, is, that he meant to have us knit together. For as he spoke previously of God's free love toward us, so now he shows how faith implies that we should have brotherly love one toward another. And the holy Scripture brings us always to that point: insomuch that when there is any speaking of the full perfection of good life: faith goes before, and then comes charity next to it. For the end that we must begin at, is the utter abasing of ourselves, to the end we may seek all our welfare at God's hand, and that our seeking of it there, may be, first to acknowledge that he gives us all things in the person of his only son: and secondly, to call upon him to settle our faith in him, to flee wholly for refuge to his mercy, and after as every man feels himself bound to him, (as all of us are exceedingly,) so to acknowledge by our thanksgiving, that he is our righteousness, our holiness, our victory, our joy, our glory, and our happiness, that we may perform the thing which is said in Jeremiah, whoever glories, let him glory in the Lord, because it is he that works righteousness, justice, and mercy. You see then that we must rest wholly upon our God, or else all the virtuousness which we seem to have before men, shall be but filth and dung. Now then, have we faith? Charity must be matched with it, and we must live evenly and uprightly one with another, and every one of us acknowledge thus, I was not created for myself, nor to seek my own private benefit and commodity, but for the benefit of my neighbors also. And therefore let us abstain from all guile, wrong, outrage, and malice, and endeavor to serve each other's turn, according to our ability. That is the perfection of good life.

Saint Paul having spoken already of faith, adds now, that we must also be grounded in charity: as if he should say, we must not have only some fit (or pang of love) as many men have: but there must be a steadfastness and even holding on in it all our life long. For a thing may give a great blaze, and yet quail soon after. Behold, a huge building may be overthrown with one blast of wind, if it be not set upon a sure foundation. Also a man may set up a great tree: but if the root be cut asunder, what will come of it? It must needs fall down out of hand, or else if it have some hold at the one end for a time, it must needs wither at the heat of the sun. Even so is it with us, when we have a great zeal which is not well rooted in our hearts: for it will be but as a mask or a gay show before men. That is the cause why Saint Paul exhorts us purposely to be grounded in charity, to the intent to correct the vice of loving, by starts or fits (as they say) which is too common a thing. Nevertheless, it were a folly to conclude therefore, that our salvation were grounded upon our good works. For here he treats not of the cause of our salvation, but only how we ought to rule our life. Again, we know there is but one only foundation of the Church, as Saint Paul says in the third chapter of the second Epistle to Corinthians, and as we have seen already in this selfsame Epistle, and specially as Jesus Christ himself declares in the sixteenth chapter of Saint Matthew. And which is that foundation? It is Jesus Christ, and no man can lay any other than that which the Prophets and Apostles have laid, and we must hold ourselves to it at this day, and even to the world's end. And yet may we not cease to be rooted in love by means of our Lord Jesus Christ. When men demand what is the cause of our salvation, by what means we be brought into his favor, and how we may come to him, and call upon him with full trust: (we must answer) it is, because our Lord Jesus Christ is given us, and it is he in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells. Now we be yet far off from such perfection: Howbeit, forasmuch as we be grounded upon our Lord Jesus Christ, we have a steadiness that continues all our life. So then let us mark, that Saint Paul exhorts us here to true steadfastness, to the intent we should never be weary of well doing, though we have never so many occasions to thrust us aside. For even such as are best minded (to see to) do nevertheless take offense at it, when men show themselves unkind toward them: and when they consider, that for their well doing men will requite them with all evil, they be sorely grieved at it, and become quite out of heart. And that is a cause why so few continue in the fear of God, and walk as they ought to do: for it seems to them, that they have lost their labor in doing well. Again, there follows this inconvenience also, that the wicked take occasion to rush out so much more into all manner of harmfulness: so that if a man live in simplicity, and bear the wrongs patiently that are done to him: all men will be doing with him, and every man would eat him up, as if he were a sheep among a hundred wolves. Such as are easily entreated to give of their goods to their neighbors, seem to be set out to the spoil, and every man will be catching all that ever he can from them. When men see such lewd dealings in the world, it makes every man to take out his own share, as men say. But contrariwise it is told us here, that if we be rooted and grounded in charity, although men thrust us aside, and discourage us by their unthankfulness: yet will we not cease to hold out in well doing, because we have a good and deep root.

And Saint Paul having spoken so of the good will that we ought to bear towards our neighbors, returns to his matter of faith. And surely the chief point for us, is to know that God avows us for his children, and that our sins are forgiven us, so as he takes us for righteous. If we have not that, how can we find any sweetness in serving and honoring of him? And how or with what courage can we pray to him? What praise can we offer to him? To be short, it concerns us to be certified of the infinite good that is done us by our Lord Jesus Christ, to the end we may be ravished in love with our God, and inflamed with a right zeal to obey him, and hold ourselves short under his awe, to honor him with all our thoughts, with all our affections, and with all our hearts. The cause then why Saint Paul continues this matter, is to print it in the minds of the faithful, where their salvation lies, and how they may be sure of it. And so much the more do we see what the wretchedness of the world is. For there is no other assurance, than the calling upon God on this groundwork, so as a man be lifted up by faith to offer himself into his presence. But on the contrary part, we see how men have gone to work. And indeed they have not been ashamed in the papacy, to say, that we ought to be always doubtful of our salvation, and that we cannot have a sure belief of it. And it is not the ignorant sort which say so: but all the doctors of their synagogues hold it for an article of their faith, that we ought to be always wavering and doubtful. And that is even as much as to cast men up at random to Satan. So much the more therefore it concerns us to bear well in mind the doctrine that is contained here, that is to say, that when we once know the love that God bears us in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in such a way as he has witnessed it to us by his death and passion, and does still daily warrant it by his Gospel: we have the perfect knowledge, and such as shall give us full happiness. And that is the cause why he says, to the end you may learn with all the Saints, what his height, and depth, and wideness, and thickness is: that you may know all this, says he. How now? Did Saint Paul mean to make us carpenters or masons, that he speaks here as of the height of a building? Does he intend to teach us the science of masonry, that he speaks thus of wideness? No: but he opens his own meaning by and by, saying: it is the love that has been shown us in Jesus Christ. Therefore when we once know how well God loves us, and how inestimable the mercy is, of which he has given us so good a pledge, in the person of his only son: we have all that can be, says he. Let us exert all our wits both upward and downward, let us climb above the clouds, let us pierce to the center of the earth, let us go down to the bottoms of the deeps, and let us rake over sea and land, yet shall there be nothing but vanity and falsehood. When we have ended all our windings, surely we may perhaps discourse like folk that are very subtle, and have learned the understanding of many things: but yet shall there be no substance in us. But when we once know that God is our Father in Jesus Christ, and how that comes to pass, and by what means we obtain so great a benefit: that is the thing (says he) to which we must hold ourselves. For it is the true measure of our faith, they are the bonds of it, and whoever desires to know more, does but go astray, as though he would willfully enter into a maze, out of which he could never wind himself again. Therefore let us hold ourselves contented with Jesus Christ as he is, and as he utters himself by his Gospel, and then shall we be filled full, says Saint Paul. With what filling? Even with the fullness of God, says he. As if he should say, wretched folk as we are, there is none of us but he covets knowledge, and it is a natural desire which burns in all men. Insomuch that we shall see many who consume all their goods, and spare neither their bodies nor their lives. And what to do? To get knowledge. We shall see others trot from place to place. And what to do? To get knowledge. All men then have that desire, some more, and some less, and there is not so ignorant a person, who would not gladly come to knowledge. Now then, seeing we are all inclined to it by nature: let us learn which is the true knowledge. Indeed there are sciences which are useful to pass through this world with, and requisite it is that men should have arts and trades, and also the liberal sciences, as they are termed. All these are good, if they be referred to their due ends. But yet notwithstanding we must come to the science of sciences: for that is it which will never fail. For when a man shall have trotted all the earth over, (about other sciences,) what profit will come of it? It will be but vanity, as I said before. Therefore let us not seek anything outside of Jesus Christ, but let us rest wholly there, and not swerve any whit at all from him.

And here we see first of all, the thing that I have touched already before: namely, that if we knew well what our Lord Jesus Christ is, we would easily give over all other things, according as it is said in Philippians 3, that Saint Paul counted all his former highly esteemed things as loss and dung, to the end he might hold himself to Jesus Christ, and that he went forward therein all the time of his life, indeed and did as it were hold his arms stretched out to catch it, as he himself protests (Philippians 3:8). You see then, that the thing which we have to mark here, is, that when we once know Jesus Christ, and the benefits that he brings us, namely that we may resort to God in his name with full trust: we shall no more have our minds so vexed with restlessness, but we shall stand fast and steady in pure simplicity of the Gospel. However, for the better understanding hereof, let us see how men speak of our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed they will call him the Son of God, and they will take him for their Redeemer: but in the mean while they will make a dole of his offices, and part them here and there as a prey. The holy Scripture calls him the only Priest, because it belongs only to him to reconcile us to God. And how many do nowadays take that upon them? Even as many Monks, Friars, Mass Priests, and Hypocrites as are in the world: for they sell their prayers, as though Jesus Christ had resigned his place to them. And under pretense thereof, they devour all the wealth of the world, and in the mean while Jesus Christ is thrust a great way off. Again, it is said, that by the one sacrifice which he offered once for all, he has gotten us grace and salvation, indeed even forever, so that his death and passion appeases God's wrath, because thereby we have full righteousness. But yet for all this, the Mass is brought in, as though the sacrifice that Jesus Christ offered in his own person, were but a bare figure, and that the thing which the Papists have invented, were the only means (as they say) to purchase favor at God's hand. For the whoremonger goes there to pay his ransom: so does the drunkard, the wicked swearer, the loose liver, the pillager and plunderer, the quarreler, the glutton, the eater up of his neighbor: all these resort to the Mass for their ransom, and bear themselves on hand, that God is well appeased.

And in the mean while what becomes of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Tush, that must be thrust under foot. Again, it is said, that Jesus Christ is our only Advocate, which makes intercession for us to God his Father. Yet notwithstanding, in the Papacy there are whole warrens and swarms of Patrons, which every man has forged of his own brain. And they are not content only with the Apostles and Martyrs: but they must also have their Saint Christopher, and their Saint Catherine, which are night ghosts that were never born in the world: but look whatever the devil did put in their heads, it was received. Again, it is said, that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. But what for that? Yet nevertheless every man takes upon him to make atonement with God by his own works. And thereupon sprang the groundwork of merits and of all the rest. Again, it is said that Jesus Christ is our lodestar, and the way whereby we must come to God his Father, and finally to everlasting salvation: and yet will they needs have whatever comes in their own imagination. O (say they) methinks this is good, and seeing I do it of a good intent, why should not God take it in good worth? Thus they make God a pretty fellow to stoop at their appointment, and as a Jack to creep under their sleeve at their pleasure. See how proud men are, when they once turn away from God's pure truth to their own foolish inventions, so as there is not so pure and sound a thing, which they corrupt not. What is then the cause that all things have been turned upside down in Popery? It is for that they knew not Jesus Christ for such a one as he is set forth in the Gospel, but only have made, I know not what, a dead and unavailing thing of him, and kept no more but the bare name and titles of him (1 Corinthians 1:30; John 14:6).

Then it is not enough for us to say we believe in Jesus Christ, and that we take him for our redeemer: but we must also know to what purpose he is sent to us by God his father, and what benefits he has brought us. When we once know all this: then shall we be filled with him. We shall not need to go bibbling here and there, nor to lap or lick up mud and stinking water one place or other, for want of meat and drink that is fit for us. Our Lord Jesus Christ has told us, that we shall find both meat and drink in him, so that we may thoroughly satisfy ourselves both with meat and drink that is good and wholesome for the nourishment of our souls. So much the more therefore it behooves us to go there: and when we read the Holy Scripture, let the mark that we look at, be always to know what the grace of God is which he has shown us in the person of his only Son: and when we once know it, we shall have profited very well in God's [reconstructed: school], and may well cast away all other things as filth and poison. Indeed [reconstructed: other] doctrines will have some savor at the first sight, for we see [reconstructed: that they] do always follow that which Saint Paul speaks in the second to the Colossians (Colossians 2:23), that is to say, that because their dreams and dotings have some show of wisdom, therefore they give themselves to them. But we must understand that there is no true food, but that which God gives us, and that it is his will to provide us all things which he knows to be needful for us. Will we then be filled without him? Do we think, that if we seek to the Virgin Mary, and call her the mother of grace (after the manner of the papists, who do commonly give her that title): we shall there find the things that we want? Surely it is all one as if we would go seek food, and snatch here a bit and there a bit by morsels and gobbets. But Jesus Christ says, Come to me, and you shall find all that you have need of: according to which, it is said (Colossians 2:3), that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are enclosed in him. Then if we once know the love that God his father has shown us in his person: we shall have the fullness of all wisdom, we shall no more need to trot here and there, we shall no more need to go up nor down, nor far, nor wide: for we shall have wholly whatever is good and requisite for our welfare. When we hear this, must it not needs be, that we are as good as bewitched, if we do not believe God, to rest wholly upon his sayings, without flinging abroad after that fashion, and without making so many windlasses to trouble and tire ourselves to no purpose? And that it is which is meant in the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 66:3), where he says, Go tread in your own ways: and when you have compassed and gone about both heaven and earth, what shall it profit you? Then if we are so blind as to stray out here and there, and cannot keep the way that is shown us, but will needs go dig pits at our own pleasure, and forsake the spring of living water, which God has set before our eyes: it is good reason that we should be both hungry and thirsty, and lie broiling in our own foolish lusts, to trot to and fro like women with child, who long to eat charcoal, and would rather drink the water of some puddle, than the water of a fair clear spring. If we fall to gadding in that manner after Satan, and are [reconstructed: eager] for his illusions and trickery, and cannot content ourselves with the good that our Lord sets before us: must it not needs be, that we are worse than bewitched, and that the devil has made us stark beasts? So then, let us understand first of all, that all things which men can bring us of their own behalf, are but trifles or rather illusions of Satan. And secondly, that when the [reconstructed: Scripture sets] Jesus Christ before us, it is not for nothing told us, that we must rest wholly upon him, and hold ourselves to him, when we have come there, because he has the fullness of all goodness in him, and therefore we need not be hauled to and fro, or take too great pains in seeking the things that are needful for us, nor finally to wander any more abroad, but to stick wholly to him, as to our perfect and sovereign blessedness.

Thirdly, we must consider in Jesus Christ, the infinite grace that is brought to us, and imparted to us by his means. And Saint Paul in saying here the love, sends us to the wellspring. For though we knew all God's secrets, and were privy to the rest of his will: what were it, till we were persuaded of the love that he bears us? For we see that when any man speaks of God to the unbelievers, it does so grieve them, that they know not where to turn, and it is but a matter of heaviness to them, because they conceive nothing but rigor in him. But when his grace and fatherly goodness is uttered to us, as he has shown it in our Lord Jesus Christ: then come we boldly to him, and we are no more afraid of his seat, but have familiar access to it: and therein he does us an inestimable good turn, such a one as surmounts all that ever we can wish in this world, according as Saint Paul sets it down here. And so you see what this saying, the love of God, imports. And he says purposely, in Jesus Christ, because that without him we could not be beloved of God. For let Jesus Christ be (as you would say) let alone, and let us put the case that we thought upon God, and that we did apply all our wits thereabouts, and therewith that we bethought ourselves of ourselves also: what were all this? We shall find such an incomprehensible majesty in God, as shall swallow us up like a deep gulf. Again, his justice is so perfect, as it will be much less possible for us to stand before it, than for snow to abide against the sun. Now when we come to ourselves, we must needs see a sea of all misery before us, that is to wit, that our senses are blind, that we are utterly unfurnished of all virtue, that we are given to all evil, that we are held down under the thralldom of sin, and that nothing in us (no not even of the most excellent things that we think ourselves to have) which is not loathsome before God. Therefore when we once know these two things, that is to wit, when we have once conceived a terror of God's majesty, and are drowned in despair at the sight of ourselves, then let us afterward go seek all the means that can be, and let us call the angels to help, and they will come never the nearer us for all that. Let us take the male saints and female saints, and by what title can they belong to us? In fact, we are rather separated from them. And again, will God who is the fountain of all purity receive us, us (I say) which are so wretched creatures? Think we that he will involve himself with our filth and uncleanness? No: but on the contrary he must needs abhor us. So then, it is not without cause that Saint Paul having spoken here expressly of God's love, to the intent we might know that he does justly hate us, so long as he beholds us in our own natural state: adds immediately, that the same love is grounded upon the bloodshed of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the end that all our spots should be scoured away thereby, and we be so cleansed, as we might not bring anything henceforth before God, which might displease him.

And by that means are we discharged and quit of all our debts, because he has yielded perfect obedience. Lo how our stubbornness is done away, and shall never come to account, because he offered himself in sacrifice for us. Lo how we are set free from all thralldom, because he has overcome both the devil and death, and sin, to our benefit. Lo how we at this day enjoy his victory, and make our triumph of it. And so we see briefly, how God has loved us in Jesus Christ. Again, when we know this, we must understand also, that we must not make long fetches any more, nor trouble ourselves in vain, in ascending upward by our fond speculations, or in going downward by our fantastical imaginations, and in the meantime let Jesus Christ alone, as though he were too far off from us. For he comes near us, indeed he dwells in us, he will have us knit to him, so as we should be his body, and lively members of his own substance. Since it is so, let us learn to hold ourselves in such a way to him, as nothing may turn us from him. And although we may be tempted by our own fancies, to shrink away from him: yet let us cut off all such occasion, and get the upper hand by faith. And when we have so done, let us understand, that God will still show himself a loving and kindhearted father toward us, and that Jesus Christ also will do the duty of a shepherd toward us, if we listen to his voice, and rest wholly upon him, not doubting but that he will preserve us, so as we shall be safe under his protection, as he himself protests, saying, that he will receive all that are given him of God his father, and so keep them when he has received them, as none of them shall perish, but he will raise him up again, at the last day (John 7:37).

Now let us cast ourselves down before the majesty of our good God, with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him to make us perceive them more and more, that our miseries may drive us to seek the good things that he offers us, even with true singleness of faith, and that we may not wander here and there, in our own fond speculations and gazes, but abide so settled upon his word, as it may be our only leaning stock, and take such root in our hearts, as it may not only make us to walk in all purity before him, and to seek his mercy in the person of his only son, but also make us to live uprightly, and impartially one with another, and that we may so profit therein, as we may abhor all the abuses of the world, assuring ourselves that seeing we have Jesus Christ for our guide, we cannot fail to come there, as he is ascended already in our behalf, that is to wit, to the everlasting heritage which he has purchased for us, according as it is his will, that we being made his fellow heirs, should in the end come to the same perfection into which he has gone before us. That it may please him to grant this grace, not only to us, but also to all people, etc.