Sermon 36: Upon Ephesians Chapter 5

Have nothing to do with the fruitless works of darkness, but rather rebuke them. For the things which they do in secret, it is a shame even to name them. But all things are laid open when they are rebuked by the light: for the light is it that lays all things open. Therefore he says, awake you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.

We have seen this morning, that although there are many things in the world to turn us away from the serving of God: yet must we not therefore swerve as though that might serve us for an excuse. For there have been stumbling blocks in the world at all times: but the remedy for them is this doctrine, that is to say, that God's children must stand upon their guard, that they corrupt not themselves by keeping company with the unbelievers, because God has separated them asunder. And it is not enough for us not to be drunkards, whoremongers, thieves, or murderers: but we must also shun all manner of evil wherever it be. Indeed we ought to begin always at ourselves: for hypocrites will always spy a mote in their neighbor's eye, and yet bear a great stone in their own, without feeling it. But if we will be right and sound judges, let every man examine himself, and begin there in condemning vices. Let us consider well whether we ourselves be faulty or no, that we may first and foremost make our own indictment before God, by hating the evil that is in ourselves. However we must also show therewith, that we love God better than the world, and not maintain ourselves in favor and friendship of the wicked, by [reconstructed: feeding] them in their faults, and by flattering them. And for that cause Saint Paul adds, that we must rather even rebuke the works which can bring nothing but utter cursedness. And this serves, not only to show the zeal which we have that God should be honored: but also to withdraw silly souls that are in the way to destruction, and to bring them back again into the way of salvation. Here are two causes which ought to move us to reprove evil. The one is, that it must irk us to see God offended, and men provoke his wrath by overthrowing the order that he has set. Seeing then that God is by that means despised, and his word trodden under foot: it ought to grieve us, according to the Psalm, where it is said, that we ought to receive to ourselves the reproaches that are offered to God. Also we ought of duty to have a care of those that are redeemed with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we see the souls go to damnation which did cost God so dear, and make no reckoning of it: it is a scorning of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And even for that cause also does Saint Paul tell us, that inasmuch as we are separated from evil, to the intent we should not be companions of such as despise God, nor in any wise be like them: we must to the uttermost of our power show, that we hate them, to the end that they being by that means ashamed of their lewdness, may be touched with repentance. If we have once profited so far: it shall be a great gain to have drawn back a wretched soul that was in the way to destruction. And after the same manner speaks Saint James of it, exhorting us to do it, saying: The thing that you shall gain by it, is, that you shall save a soul from losing. And although men are hardened in their sins: yet is it to great purpose for us to show the zeal that we have of honoring God, and that his word should not be so impeached, nor the order broken which he has set, without declaring that the same displeases us. For if a man will be known to be a good and faithful subject, he will not suffer any man to speak evil of his prince, without setting himself against him. (Likewise,) that child shall be taken for unkind and dishonest, which hears his father wrongfully blamed and defaced, and maintains not his honor or honesty.

Now, is not God our sovereign prince? Yes: and although we be but wretched worms of the earth, and vile carrions: yet does he do us the honor to adopt us for his children. Now then, if wicked and heathenish folk deface his majesty, and darken his righteousness, indeed and endeavor to pluck his dominion from him, and we dissemble at it: is it not too excessive and intolerable a lewdness? Therefore let us mark well what is told us here. For it concerns us so much the more to mark this text, because this vice has reigned in the world in all ages: namely that according as every man is more or less desirous to be flattered, so does he the easier bear with other men, not after the manner which we have seen heretofore, which is that we ought to have compassion of such as are weak, and to use patience towards them: but clean contrariwise, that is to say, that we be contented to feed the evil, and to enter continually into a willing confederacy together: and to the intent that other men should not sift us too narrowly in our vices, but let us alone to do what we like, we give every man leave to take like liberty to himself. And that is the cause why all things are out of order nowadays in the world. Again, we be loath to provoke any man's displeasure against us, insomuch that we had rather betray God, and to betray our neighbors both body and soul, than to use the liberty that God's Spirit commands us. We see a wretched man play the rascal: let him follow his own devices, (say we:) it makes no matter to us. And why? For we will not displease him. Again, we see others pervert all order of justice, and infect the whole people and country. And we pass it over easily without speaking against it. And why? O I will not bring myself in displeasure with a man of authority. Let some other body lead the dance, and I will willingly say, Amen to it. And if he were hanged on a gibbet a while, he had but his desert. But no God have mercy to me in the meantime. For why? I will not go put myself in any hazard (for the matter.) Thus are vices passed over nowadays. But yet will not God give over his right for all that. For the said sentence shall stand inviolable on his behalf, and according to the same shall we be condemned as full of treason, that is to say, we shall be held for companions of the wicked, if we play the blind and deaf (beasts) when we should restrain naughtiness by setting of ourselves against it, and (as much as in us lies) do suffer God's honor to be so abased, as all honesty is overthrown, and we say nothing to it. Therefore ought we to be the more attentive to this warning to rebuke evil, and (as I said before) by showing (to the uttermost of our power) that we dislike of it, and also by being diligent to stop it, if it lie in our power to do it. If every man employed himself after this sort, surely we should see another manner of soundness in the world. For what is the cause that God's name is so much blasphemed? It is for that the blasphemies are cloaked, and every man had rather to defile himself with other men's lewdness, than to purchase any disfavor or disliking, as they say. In like case is it with drunkenness, lechery, robbery, and all extortions and wanton doings that are committed. But had we the zeal that is commanded us here by Saint Paul: surely we should be much more courageous and stout in rebuking such as do amiss. On the other side also we show ourselves to have no love nor kindness among us, when we suffer good men to be trampled underfoot and misused, for we ought to reach them our hand. Again, men's souls go to destruction, and we remedy it not, though God has done us the grace, to place us in his stead, in that office of saving the things, that were in the way to be lost and damned.

Now Saint Paul having spoken so, adds to confirm the same doctrine, and to quicken up the slothfulness that is in us, that the cause why the unbelievers take liberty to do such evil, even as they be ashamed to speak of, is for that they can hide themselves (from men.) And why? For they have no fear of God: and therefore they take themselves to be well hidden. When a thief perceives no body near him, he rifles cupboards, he breaks open doors, he filches, and he catches and carries away. Very well, because he cannot yet be convicted before a judge, he bears himself on hand, that he is escaped quite and clean. If a robber or a murderer gets into some blind nook, he thinks himself well hidden, and if he finds a man astray, he pulls him to him, and strips him, and wounds him, indeed and cuts his throat too, if he cannot otherwise master him, and he thinks himself well escaped, because no man sees him. In like case is it with all other deeds: for we be more ashamed of men, than afraid of God. The Scripture cries out, that all our thoughts must come to account, and that not only our wicked deeds shall be punished, but also even the things that we thought to have been buried. For at the last day the books shall be laid open, that is to say, nothing shall be forgotten, except we have obtained this grace that is promised in the Psalm, namely that God forgives our sins. And that is not done without repentance. But they that are hardened to all evil, do but make a mock of it: so they be not put to shame for it before men, let God do what he will. For they be grown so brutish, that they cannot wake, to consider what it is to harden their hearts against the sovereign Majesty of God. Therefore when the unbelievers and despisers of God, get covert and lurking holes after that sort, there is so vile licentiousness among them, as a man would be ashamed to think what they do and say.

But Saint Paul adds, that when they are rebuked, the mischief is discovered, and their liberty cut off, because it is a bridle to them. Not only because they are blamed before men, but also because they feel themselves to have to do with the heavenly Judge, and that it is a dreadful thing to fall into his hands. To be short, Saint Paul meant to show to what purpose rebuking may serve, when we use it rightly and with good zeal of charity. Now I have told you already, that we must not use any hypocrisy, nor justify ourselves by condemning other men. But when every one of us has well examined his own life, and hates the vices to which we are subject, and wherein we are wrapped: let us endeavor to bring ourselves home to God, praying him to strengthen us so by the power of his Holy Spirit, as we may strive to frame ourselves according to his will and righteousness. And that done, let us not flatter such as do amiss, but let us tell them freely the thing that may do them good. The profit that will come thereof (says Saint Paul) is that God shall not be so grievously offended as we see he is: and moreover whereas men were past shame before, they may by that means be brought to some honesty, and whereas it seemed to them that they had leave to do all manner of evil: they shall repent themselves, and draw others to repentance with them. But much more ought this (that follows) to move us. For to say, that we should live in this world, and enjoy the infinite benefits that God bestowed upon us, and in the meantime suffer his authority to be defaced, even when it may seem that men would pluck him out of his seat by blaspheming his holy name: when men shall provoke him to anger, and we let all slip: must we not needs be arrant villains and traitors? If we were found at some man's cost, and one should rail upon him in his own house, or practice to murder him, or rob him of his goods, or defile his wife, or entice his child to naughtiness: and we in the meantime should sit cramming ourselves, and eat of his bread and drink of his wine, and (to be short) be fed and maintained at his charges, (and yet let all alone, and say nothing to it:) should we not deserve to be stoned, and to have all men spit in our faces? Yes certainly: for the vice of unthankfulness shall always be condemned, even among men. Now if we are so much bound to a mortal man, as to maintain his honor and honesty, when we are found of his free cost: what ought we to do for our God? Are we not in his house as long as we live in this world? Have we so much as one drop of water but only of his goodness and liberality? Behold, God has a fatherly care of us: and yet notwithstanding we suffer his name to be blasphemed, his majesty to be bereft and spoiled of all reverence, his word to be torn in pieces, all order (that he has commanded) to be broken, the Church (which is his wife) to be corrupted and misused, and his children to be enticed to naughtiness: and in the meantime we play mum budget. I would fain know of you, whether such silence does not sufficiently show, that we are not worthy to eat one bit of bread, nor to be counted in the number of earthworms, lice, bedbugs, and other of the vilest and filthiest things of the world? Therefore let us think well upon it, that we shall be found guilty of the despising of God's majesty, (as we see) because we rebuke not men's vices. That is a cause why the wicked and heathenish sort grow the bolder, and think the world to run on wheels on their side, and triumph in their despising of God after that fashion: it comes partly of our silence. And that is the thing which Saint Paul meant to show us here.

It follows moreover, that the wretched souls whom our Lord Jesus Christ has bought so dearly, that he spared not himself to have saved them, do perish, and are given into Satan's possession through our sufferance: and in the meantime we make no account at all of it. Now then, do we not therein reveal that we have not so much as one drop of charity in us? Yes: and that is the cause why I said, that (in so doing) we are traitors to God and to our neighbors. For when we have no better zeal toward God's name, nor better care of our neighbors' welfare, does not the world see every way that we are full of cruelty and unkindness? Of cruelty I mean toward men, in that we suffer them to perish, even knowing it, and looking upon it: and of unkindness toward God, because we yield him not such honor as he deserves, when we have not the courage to show, that at least we dislike that men should so derogate God's authority, and the reverence which they owe to him. Therefore whenever we are afraid to provoke men's displeasure, or to purchase their ill will, let us think upon the thing that is told us here: namely that we ought at least to fear the Lord, whose we are, and that seeing we are fed at his cost, we must not abide to see such lewdness committed against him, without showing (as much as is possible, and to the uttermost of our power and ability) that we do utterly abhor such things: I say, as far as we can: for sometimes our mouths shall be so shut, as we shall be able to do no more but sigh and lament at such utter disorder, when men become like devils that are let loose, in flinging out into furiousness against God, and they that bear the sword seek nothing but to make a confused medley, to the intent that all goodness may be forgotten. For then (as I said) we have no other remedy, but to be sorry for it, according as it is said of Lot, that it grieved his heart to be in Sodom. Therefore let us not forbear, but let every one of us provoke himself to grief and sorrow, when we see things so out of order, and let us give record of it, as far as it may do good.

Again, if there be any hope for us to win those that are so unruly: let us continually assay to draw them to repentance, yes, let us strain ourselves to it. For many men allege this proverb too lightly, that a man must not cast pearls among swine. And they convince themselves that men are swine, before they have tried what they are. Though they have been of light behavior, yes, or even loose and lawless, so as the devil has after a sort carried them away: yet must we labor to win them again, and have good hope of it, according to Saint Paul's saying, that Charity hopes well of all things. So then, until such time as men show themselves utterly willful in evil, and that their diseases appear to be utterly incurable, let us endeavor to be good physicians to them, by the advisements that God shall put into our mouth. And so you see what Saint Paul intended, in saying, that the unbelievers think themselves to be hidden, when they are not perceived nor rebuked, and that when they are let go at rovers, they are as it were in the dark, and thereupon conceive the more boldness to do wickedly.

But we are partly the cause of it, and we cannot wash our hands of it: for God sets us in his room in that behalf, and gives us his word, which has authority to condemn evil, and yet notwithstanding all is suppressed and thrust underfoot. Mark that for one point. But on the contrary part, when the wickedest men in the world are rebuked, then they perceive their shame, whereas before, they discerned not white from black. And why? For if a man is in the dark, he sees nothing at all, but staggers and stumbles: and though he is never so much besmirched, yet he perceives it not. Therefore when God's word is set before men, and we show offenders their faults with such liberty as is requisite: it is as much as if we showed them a glass, (and said to them,) See what you are, you are as foul and filthy as may be: are you not ashamed to see yourself? Go wash your muzzle. So then, warnings will always win thus much, however not alike with all men: for (as I said before) many are hardened, so as Satan possesses them, and God has given them up to such a willful stubborn mind, that they are past all shame. Nevertheless whenever any faithful man does his duty, it will always do good, and some profit will come of it, insomuch that they which were formerly as wild beasts, or as wild bullocks, will return, and a man shall see some honesty in them. Therefore let us win that point, if it be possible for us, or at least let us strain ourselves to win it. And so you see what we have to gather upon those words of Saint Paul.

Now as touching the word Rebuke: it signifies properly to discover the thing that was hidden. And he allots this office to preaching, according to which he taunts the vainglory that reigned in the church of Corinth, for their speaking with strange tongues to the intent to be commended, and that men might say of him, This man is a great scholar, this man can speak all languages: and yet in the meantime there was no edifying at all. Likewise in these days, in the papacy the organs are piping at one side, and there is chanting of four parts on the other side, and there is such store of gewgaws, that the simple people are ravished, but not at all edified. But Saint Paul says, that when we are come together in the name of God, we must endeavor to fare the better by it. And how may that be? It is (says he) when good men, and such as are already inured to fear and serve God, are edified by his word. And not only that, but also if an unbeliever comes in, which was formerly a mocker, and never had any remorse of conscience, and hears what is uttered in the name of God, (that is to say, that we cannot escape God's hand, but must needs come before the judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ, and how dearly Jesus Christ has paid for us, and what a treacherousness it is for us to make the sacrifice of his death and passion unavailable:) I say, when an unbeliever hears all this, and that we are exhorted to fear God, and stirred up to love him for the infinite grace which he utters towards us: Although he were formerly as a brute beast (says Saint Paul) yet shall he enter into himself and be rebuked (1 Corinthians 14:2; 1 Corinthians 14:24). For he uses there the same word which he uses here, the meaning of which is, that whereas his conscience was as good as dead before, and he in manner brutish: he was compelled to enter into examination of himself, and to be ashamed, so as he could not but give glory to God. Not that this befalls to all indiscriminately: but we see that a number of folk which were gone astray, and had forgotten God, and had no regard at all of their own soul's health, shall be so touched at one sermon, that they appear to be changed all their life after. Now look what is done in common assembly: the same ought every man to practice by himself. For we are not here to the intent that every man should profit himself only: but to the intent we should also teach one another with mutual instruction. After that manner must we rebuke offenders, to the end they may take no more liberty to mock God after that fashion, nor to shake off his yoke, and to wander into all wickedness. And that is in effect the thing that Saint Paul intended to show us here.

Now to confirm this doctrine the better, he adds yet one other reason: It is the light (says he) that lays all things open. Previously he told us, that when we are once enlightened by God's spirit and Gospel, we must be as lamps to give light into the world. For we have the word of life, which serves, not only to guide us, but also to draw them into the right way, which have gone astray. Going forward with this, he says, that it is the nature and property of light to discover. And therefore when we suffer naughtiness to nestle and to grow still deeper and deeper in [reconstructed: utter darkness], we show well that we are neither light, nor children of the light, that is to say, that we belong not at all neither to God, nor to Jesus Christ. To be short, Saint Paul means that we cannot give any proof of our Christianity nor of our faith, but by hating and abhorring of evil, as much as is possible, that it may not have its full course and sway. But now let us think upon ourselves again. For (as I said) there is none of us all which is not faulty in fearing men more than God, and in winking at others, to the end that they should wink at us, and not be inquisitive of our doings. Lo how we betray one another by our silence. But there is yet another vice that is worse and further [reconstructed: from the mark]: namely that [reconstructed: besides] our dissembling, we do also help to feed the evil. And so by that means whoredom has its full scope, because every man and woman plays the bawd. Whereas I say, every one, I mean, that most men and women nowadays do wink at all manner of lewdness and disorder, and stop their ears at the things which they might well hear, and every man seeks to conceal his fellow's lewdness, men of men's, and women of women's. They might remedy a great sort of enormities that are committed: but they will rather go and [reconstructed: array] their Gowns and Coats with other folk's dung and filthiness, than discover their vices. To be short, every body plays the bawd in effect, by concealing his neighbor's vice, to the end that the other should do as much for him. In like case is it with all other sins. Yet notwithstanding (as I said before) God has not spoken this in vain, but we shall one day feel the execution of the sentence which he speaks here by his Apostle, and then will it be too late to repent of that which we will not know now. But let such as fear God learn and remember how it is said here, that God's enlightening of us, is to the end that every one of us should examine himself, and not be as blind wretches, groping in the dark, which stumble on the one side, and run against things on the other, but that we should know the way of salvation: and moreover teach other men also, by discovering the evil that lay hidden, to the end that such as have turned their backs upon God, and were well [reconstructed: pleased] to have been in darkness still, may understand that they must be fain to come to the light, whatever come of it. The very way therefore for us to show in deed and in good earnest, that we belong to God, and are enlightened by his holy spirit and by his word, is to discover things which should else as it were lie lurking a long time, if we drew them not forth into the light. True it is that charity covers a multitude of sins (as says Solomon) (Proverbs 10:12) and that it behooves us to be patient, and to bear with many infirmities. For it is not fitting that we should defame one another, as diverse do, who in stead of warning those whom they see to offend, fall to sowing abroad of news, so as the streets and the market places are all full of them, indeed, and they do so enhance the matter, that of small scrapes they make deadly crimes (Ephesians 5:8) (1 Peter 4:8).

Therefore when Saint Paul bids us discover men, it is not meant that we should defame one another after that manner: but that the wretched man which had his eyes blindfolded by Satan, should be made to perceive his own misery and naughtiness, that he might be ashamed of it: and that the woman which had given over herself to all unchastity, might be made to recover some honesty, and to return again into the right way, by being put to shame in having her faults and vices laid before her. The manner then of discovering, is not to backbite one another, or to taunt and upbraid one another by this and that, and to play the hypocrites, who will strain at a gnat, and swallow up an Ox or a Sheep at a morsel (Matthew 23:24): that is to say, which will make conscience in very small and light matters, and not see a number of great enormities, which they suffer to pass hard by their noses, without being any whit offended at them. We must not do so: but when we see the mischief fed and increased by our unfaithfulness, let us provide for it, and let every man be compelled to think better upon himself and upon his vices, that he may amend them. This in effect is the carefulness which Saint Paul enjoins us here: and it is the very means to rid away the plagues that Satan would have maintained still by silence and dissimulation. Therefore whenever we perceive any imposture lying hid, let us beware that the matter settle not so long within, till the disease become incurable: but let us purge it out of hand, and let admonitions serve as it were for lancets, and letting of blood, and for such other means and helps to take away the rotten matter that might mar and infect the whole body. And so you see in effect how we ought to put this doctrine in use.

Now hereupon Saint Paul infers, that therefore our Lord Jesus Christ, in all the doctrine of the Gospel, speaks to them that are fallen asleep in their sins, and to such as are as good as dead, to the intent they should wake and rise up: and so shall we be enlightened by him. Now we have here to remember first of all, that Jesus Christ does then raise us from the dead, when he calls us to the faith, and brings us into the hope of salvation. And that is to the intent we should perceive our state the better. For we see how men flatter and glorify themselves. Although there be nothing in them but utter confusion: yet notwithstanding they will needs put out their horns like snails to vaunt themselves, as it were in despite of God and nature. Now the Scripture says we be dead. We may well have some resemblance of life, before we be converted to the faith of Jesus Christ: however, that life is but death before God. And that is the cause why it is said in Saint John, The hour is come that all they which hear the voice of the son of man, shall live though they be dead, and shall pass from death to life (John 5:25). Jesus Christ speaks not there of the visible death, nor of the resurrection which we hope for at the latter day. But he shows us how we have already a preparative of the second rising again, when God renews us, and gives us a spiritual life. For we can do nothing but evil, as has been declared previously. And Saint Paul also uses the same phrase of speech, namely that we be dead toward God. Following the same matter here, he shows us that the whole drift of the Gospel is, that we should rise from the dead. For as long as we be strangers to God, who is the wellspring of life: where are we but in such a dungeon, as it had been better for us never to have been born? But we must wake: for one part of our death is this blockishness wherein we be, according as I declared previously, that we be so corrupted beforehand even from our mother's womb, as we can find no savor in well doing, and that we be stark blinded in our wicked lusts, and the devil drives us and thrusts us forward in such a way, that as long as God gives us the bridle, we can do nothing but grub down to the bottom of hell, to sink ourselves the deeper in it. Now be we once come to that point, there is no more sorrow (as Saint Paul said before,) there is nothing but such stubbornness, as God is nothing with us, nor have we any more feeling or perception of our sins. That is the cause why he says here, that we must wake, because we be in a deadly sleep, until God stirs us up, and makes us perceive what we be, that we may abhor our sins and return to him. So then, the entrance of life and salvation, is, that God visits us with his grace, whereas we were as dead wretches, and had nothing in us but utter corruption. Mark that for one point.

Secondly let us mark, that besides the naughtiness which is in us, there is also so great a hardness and willfulness, as God must be obliged to wake us as it were by force, that we may have some feeling of our vices to dislike them. True it is that this is done chiefly when God calls us, and pulls us out of the confusion wherein we were. But yet must every Christian continue therein all the time of his life. For we shall never be so thoroughly awake, but that we shall have need of God's stirring up of us still: according as you shall see some folk so heavily asleep, that even when their clothes are on, and when they be up upon their feet, they go reeling still, and be as it were half in a slumber, until they stretch forth themselves and set their hands to some business, and they be so heavy and dull, that they still slumber even waking. Even so is it with us: for although our Lord Jesus Christ has done us the grace to draw us back from death, and to quicken us by his holy Spirit and by his word: yet shall we still feel ourselves slothful and sluggish, so as he must be obliged to wake us still. And therefore we have need to be exhorted every day, indeed and to have our ears beaten early and late, as though Jesus Christ cried out shrill and loud to us, what do you, you wretched souls? Where do you look? Though we heard such warnings without ceasing: yet should we not be so thoroughly awake as were needful. Now then we see what Saint Paul meant to declare in this strain: namely that look whatever we feel through God's goodness in ourselves, we should put the same in use toward our neighbors. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ has raised us from the dead, and he wakes us daily from the dead sleep through which we be so drowsy: and that is to the end that we should afterward wake up others that [reconstructed: are asleep], and endeavor to draw those to life, which are as poor dead men.

Furthermore whereas he says, And Jesus Christ will enlighten you: It is not meant that we can rise up and awake of our own power, and that our Lord Jesus Christ does afterward add his grace. He means nothing so. But the effect of his intent is, that we shall be enlightened by Jesus Christ. And after what manner? Not only as though we were but in some dark place (says Saint Paul) and had need of a candle as in the night time: For though a man see not very clear, yet if he have but some glimmering of light, whether it be of moon, or of stars, or of any thing else: he will have an aim to say, here is such a door or gate, and here is such a path or way: And a man's eyes are not utterly unprofitable when he goes by night, however dark it be:) But our Lord Jesus Christ enlightens us after a much more wondrous manner. For we be not only in the dark, but also stark blind. The remedy therefore which the son of God brings us by teaching us the doctrine of the Gospel, is that he gives us our sight again. For our eyes are picked out by the sin of our first father Adam, who would needs see too clear. Vaingloriousness did so carry him away, that he would needs discern between good and evil, more than was lawful for him. But in stead of having greater light, he became brutish, and we with him, insomuch that all of us continue blind. Now therefore we had need to have our eyes restored us again, and to have God's spirit to serve us in stead of eyes. Mark that for one point.

Again, in this world there is nothing but dull darkness, yes and that so thick, as we know not how to step one pace without stumbling, or without straying out of our way. Therefore it behooves us to be guided, and that our Lord Jesus Christ show us the way. This is it that Saint Paul declares to us here, and how our Lord Jesus enlightens us: namely, not only that we be dim-sighted, and that he helps us, and supplies the want that is in us: but also that we be stark blind, yes and dead, and finally even in the pit of hell, like as when a corpse is laid in the grave, men may well bring candles and torches to it, but it sees never the more for all that. So then our Lord Jesus imparts his light to us, not to make us see more clearly than we did before: but to give us our whole eyesight new again, because we be stark blind. Now then seeing that Jesus Christ speaks after this manner, and continues day by day in waking us, and in making us to see clearer and clearer: ought we not to follow his example, and to hold back our neighbors as much as we can, when we see them straying to their destruction? This is the pith of the things [illegible] showed us here.

Now seeing that our Lord Jesus sets [reconstructed: himself] forth for an example and pattern: needs must we be too barbarous and savage, if we be not touched with it. And how? The son of God has not only vouchsafed to do his office in enlightening us, and to show us the way of salvation, and to wake us from the deadly sleep with which we were overwhelmed: but also, when he has enlightened us, he will have us to serve as lamps for others to follow, that we may show them the way, so as he will have us (after a sort) to execute the one half of his office. Seeing then that the son of God has done us such honor: if we for all this, do thrust this light under foot, and neither do good to ourselves nor to other men with it: is it not too heinous a treachery? Again, if we imagine ourselves to be discharged of our duty, when every of us does for his own part refrains [reconstructed: from] doing evil, and in the mean time let others go to destruction, [reconstructed: so] as we have neither care nor willingness to remedy the matter, when we see the Devil haul them after him to everlasting death: must we not needs perceive therein that we do God great wrong and injury, in holding his light choked after that fashion, and in betraying our neighbors, by suppressing so the benefit which should serve to the everlasting salvation of their souls? You see then that we shall be always blameworthy both before God and man, unless we follow the thing that is showed us here by our Lord Jesus Christ, and bear this doctrine always in our hearts to put it in use: namely that they which call themselves Christians, and will be so taken, must therewith be as trumpeters to wake such as are asleep, and as guides to direct such as go astray, and to bring them into the right way, which were wandered out before. After that manner (say I) must we all deal, and continue in so doing, until we be come to the happy meeting, when our Lord Jesus Christ shall call us all to him, to put us in possession of the inheritance which he has purchased for us.

Now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God, with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him to make us perceive them more and more, and in any wise not to suffer us to fall asleep like wretched infidels, but that forasmuch as it is his will that our life should be as one continual day, wherein he gives us not the sun to enlighten us only for a time, so as night should afterward come upon us, but guides and governs us himself [reconstructed: both] night and day: we may take such profit thereby, as he suffer us not to return to darkness again, after he has so enlightened us, but keep us still waking, to go through in the holy calling to which he has called us, and to follow the way which he shows us, so as we may call others to us, to run all together to him, as he calls us, until we be fully come there. That it may please him to grant this grace, not only to us, but also to all people and nations of the earth.