Sermon 38: Upon Ephesians Chapter 5

18. And be not drunk with wine, in which is looseness: but be filled with the Spirit. 19. Speaking among you in Psalms, Praisings, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. 20. Giving thanks always to our God and Father for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 21. Being subject one to another in the fear of God.

We have seen this morning how God is offended when men abuse the benefits which he would have to be applied to such end as he shows by his word: and therefore that all excess and drunkenness ought to be shunned by the faithful, because they know that God shows himself a father toward them, by nourishing them in this world: however not as when they shall have come to the heavenly heritage, but by having at least some taste of his goodness: for they are continually confirmed in the hope which is given them by our Lord Jesus Christ. Now if instead of being drawn upward, men become so brutish, as to lose all reason and manhood: it is an utter perverting of the order of nature, it is as a defying of God for his own benefits. But yet when drunkenness draws a long tail after it, and men flush forth into all lewdness, so as they are past all shame, and yet their shamefulness may make people loathe and abhor it: the mischief is increased so much the more. And therefore, to the intent to keep us in sobriety and orderly conversation: Saint Paul says, we must keep ourselves from being so overcome and vanquished by wine.

And now on the contrary part he adds, that we must rather be filled with the Spirit. For they that burst themselves so with eating and drinking, and keep no measure, till they can no more, do well show that they have no feeling of the kingdom of God, nor ever tasted what the heavenly life is. This remedy therefore is right convenient to correct all the excesses and superfluities that reign among heathenish men, and such as never conceived any inkling of God's grace and spiritual benefits. Like as if a man that were empty, should devour and swallow up all without chewing, it were rather an overlaying of his stomach, than a taking of sustenance and repast: and therefore if another man saw that vice in him, he would restrain him: even so is it with all such as have inordinate lusts: it is a token that they are too empty. And of what? Of faith, of the fear of God, and of the joy which is in the Holy Spirit: and that they know not a whit of God's goodness and favor toward them, nor of the grace which he shows us in our Lord Jesus Christ. For had we once our bellies full of such victuals, surely we would not play the wolves in ravening, but we would keep measure. That then is the cause why Saint Paul says, that we must be filled with the Holy Spirit. As if he should say, that the despisers of God, and such as have no other religion but to live at ease here, and to have all their delights and pleasures, are excessively full, beyond all reason and measure. And that is a defiling of God's benefits, and a despising of the order of nature, as I said before. Now then if you are so sharp set to know what God is, and what it is to profit in his word: come your ways to devour it, as they do which have eaten no meat two days before: be not afraid of eating too much of that food, for it will never burst our souls. Therefore let us heartily cram ourselves with the gifts of God's Spirit, and with his spiritual benefits, by which he feeds us in the hope of the heavenly life: for in so doing we cannot do amiss: but we cannot give head to our lusts, in taking food for the body, but there will by and by follow some evil and offense. The matter which we have in effect to remember upon this strain, is, that all they which glut themselves after that fashion, and cannot satisfy themselves but by playing the beasts: show well that they have not so much as one drop of faith, nor of the fear of God, nor of religion in them — but that their belly overrules them, and that they are so subject to it, as to their peculiar and principal idol. Now seeing it is so, let us learn to long after the food of our souls. And inasmuch as it is liberally offered us from day to day, insomuch that it is God's whole desire that we should have all that suffices for our salvation: let us sharpen our appetites to take such repast, and then shall we be sure that our other meats shall not allure us to such gluttony, that we shall become as unsatiable gulfs, but we shall be contented with the having of that which is meet for us, and sufficient for our necessity, at least to our benefit.

Furthermore this similitude which Saint Paul uses, must not be thought strange, when he says, that we must drink our fill of God's Spirit. For we know that the Prophet Isaiah says, that God's Spirit is likened to water, and to milk, and to wine, by which we are invited to come to God, to take our repast, and to have whatever is needful for us. Come on (says he) and take at your pleasures both milk, wine, and water, without money, or money's worth. By this therefore God declares to us, that we shall have abundance of all spiritual benefits, and sufficient to content us to the full, if so be that we will but open our mouths (as it is said in the Psalm) and not be so prepossessed of our own inordinate lusts, as we cannot find in our hearts to seek the principal. That is the further meaning of the similitude that Saint Paul uses here.

Now since this doctrine is so ill put in use everywhere, we ought to think the better of it. If a man consider how great emptiness there is in them that profess Christianity: (he shall find that) they can scarcely say three words to yield confession of their faith, for had they any in their hearts, surely their mouths would utter it, according to this saying, that we believe with the heart to righteousness, and confess with the mouth to salvation (Romans 10:10). However, if we be desirous to be filled: we need not to be counselled to go seek the things that we need: we need but only to receive the food that is proffered us and set before us. Indeed, and this serves well to upbraid us with our lewdness, in that we vouchsafe not to go to God though he call us, nor to make account of that which he offers us. We will not forget to eat and to drink for refreshing of our bodies: and yet that will not content us either: for we could find in our hearts to cobble up (as you would say) the whole world. Yet notwithstanding even the soberest are willing to have their ordinary repast. The other sort do cram in meat and drink four or five times a day, and in the mean while the wretched souls of them are hungry still. Therefore we must bear in mind that the warning which Saint Paul gives us here, tells us, that to be sober and well ruled, and to use measurably the benefits that God bestows upon us: the soul must not be forgotten, but we must feed upon the spiritual gifts, to lead us to the heavenly life, and to maintain us in the hope thereof, until the full possession and fruition thereof be given us at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And hereupon Saint Paul adds, that we should talk together in songs and hymns, and also that the same should be done with the heart: because the tongue would but unhallow God's word, if the mind match not with the speech. Now whereas he says, that we must talk together in hymns, praisings, and songs: it is to correct all fond talk, to which we be too much given. For we see that all of us have as it were itching ears: there is none of us which is not well pleased to hear trifling bibble-babble: he that has received in on the one side, is ready to deliver out on the other side: and so the day passes away in things of nothing: or else our talk shall be wanton and loose, meet to infect good manners, and God shall be offended with it. You see then, that the thing to which men are too much inclined, is, that to please one another, they banish all talk that may edify, and speak of petty trifles to move laughter, as they say. Now Saint Paul perceiving this vice to be over common in the world, shows us here the remedy of it, that is to say, that we should talk one to another in songs and hymns, that is to say, that men might hear the praises of God at our mouths. And he pursues still the similitude that he had used heretofore. For drunkards are not contented to become beasts themselves: but they do also draw others. And riot has always this inconvenience with it, that men encourage one another to drinking, saying: come on, let us eat and drink, after the same manner that the Prophet Isaiah speaks of (Isaiah 2:13; Isaiah 56:12; Wisdom 2:6; 1 Corinthians 15:32). Inasmuch then as rioters, after they have well stuffed themselves, would that the same vice should range abroad everywhere: Saint Paul says on the contrary part, that when we have taken our repast of the gifts of God's spirit, the same must not serve for ourselves only, but also to give refreshment and food to others that have need. The true feasting therefore which we ought to make one to another to cheer ourselves well, is that he which has profited in God's word, endeavor to deal some part and portion of it to his neighbors, according to his own measure. Now he [reconstructed: names] here Songs, Psalms, and Hymns, which differ nothing at all one from another: and therefore I need not to busy myself in setting forth any curious distinction of them. For all comes to this end, that all our mirth should ever tend to the glorifying of God. And surely we should take pleasure enough in the minding of God's grace, if we were not withheld by our own maliciousness.

And it is a wonder to see how desirous every man is, that God should show himself liberal and loving towards him. We would fain enjoy his benefits, and yet in the mean while we put the remembrance of them underfoot, and labor (as much as in us is) even to bury them: and to our seeming, the time is lost that is spent in acknowledging how many ways we be bound to God: and yet notwithstanding it is the thing wherein we ought to occupy ourselves, it is the thing wherein our life ought to be chiefly employed. And truly if men were well advised, there is no mirth comparable to this, nor meet to be matched with it, namely with the acknowledging of how many ways God has witnessed his goodness and love towards us. For (as I said) it serves to further us in the hope of the heavenly life. And undoubtedly, none of the things that we receive at God's hand have any true savoriness, unless we come to put our trust in him, and can call upon his name, and flee to him for refuge, and yield him his due and deserved praise. And therefore let us mark well what is said here, namely that when we talk one with another we must always magnify God's name. True it is, that we cannot attain to such perfectness in this life, but that we must be fain to have much communication of the needs to which we are subject, and of the doings and dealings which we have one with another, and of diverse things beside. But yet for all that, the principal point must not therefore be let alone, and cast behind our backs: that is to say, we must not neglect to acknowledge the benefits whereby we be bound to God, and thereby be provoked to praise him, so as every one of us not only does his duty in secret, but also draws one another to it by mutual example. That therefore is the pith of the things which we have to remember in this [reconstructed: passage].

Now by the way Saint Paul does make us understand, that we must sing to God in spirit, to the intent we imagine not to discharge ourselves as a number of hypocrites do, which magnify God only with their tongue, having their hearts full of coldness still within. Here therefore he sets down two things which ought not to be put asunder. The one is, that we should sing to God, and the other is, that we should talk with our neighbors. The whole ground then of our matter is, that the benefits which God has bestowed upon us, should be commended, and that the remembrance of them should provoke us to love him and serve him, and to give ourselves wholly to him, to seek him, and to know that to cleave to him, is our full happiness. That is the ground of the matter that Saint Paul sets us down here. Now first of all we must (says he) sing to God: and that cannot be done but with the heart. For we know that God accepts not anything which is not agreeable to his own nature. Then if we will so sing as he may allow of it, and as he may accept our songs: we must go to it with a hearty affection. For if there be any counterfeiting in our doings, so as we make a great show before men, and in the meantime be niggardly in our hearts, and have no zeal at all, so as all is done but for fashions sake: surely we unhallow God's name in so doing. And even for the same did he say by his Prophet Isaiah, that such as came near him only with their lips, were far off from him in their hearts. Therefore let us mark well how it is said here, that to sing God's praises, the heart must go before, and (as you would say) make a thundering within. For it is the chief melody that can be, and therein we agree with the angels of heaven. For if the mouth speak alone, surely it is but flat mockery. And although men allow of us for it: yet does God refuse our paying of him with such coin, that is to say, with follies and things of nothing.

Notwithstanding, when we shall have been zealous in the praising of God, and he can well be our judge and witness, that we lay open our hearts before him: then must we also do our duty towards our neighbors, that every man may be encouraged and drawn forward by our example. And here we see first of all, how little account is made of God nowadays. For all the countenance that men make of singing his praises, is but a howling and yelling. It is one of the grossest abuses in papistry, that they think that God ought to hold himself well satisfied, when they have barked at their parchment, as they say. But in so doing the holy scripture is unhallowed, torn in pieces, indeed and utterly falsified. However the case stand, there is neither advisedness, wit, nor understanding in their doings: for it is enough with them that the throat has yelled it out aloud. Indeed and even among us too, it is certain that such as pretend to set forth God's praises, do commonly seek nothing but to glorify themselves by it, and keep back the principal in making a show to pay God some piece of their arrearages. Again, let us consider how cold and slender this exercise of talking one to another in songs, hymns, and praises of God, is among us. For hardly can one word be wrung out of us that may edify. Lewd talk can by no means be banished from us: all the world shall hear us sing unchaste and ribald songs: and such things cannot be plucked out of men's minds. But then ought this matter to be raised out of the holy scripture. However the case stand, if men pardon themselves, they shall answer for it before God, according to the sentence that Saint Paul pronounces here by the authority of God, and by the power of his holy spirit.

And by the way let us mark, that his touching of three words here together, which import all one thing, is not for nothing. It is to show that we shall have enough with which to entertain one another, if we acknowledge the various benefits that God has bestowed upon us, as becomes us. If variety delight men: let us consider how many ways God lays forth the treasures of his goodness toward us. Look how many there be of them, so many [illegible] are there, and if we had a hundred melodies to delight us in all the things that we occupy ourselves about, it were nothing in comparison of the inestimable diversity of benefits which we receive at God's hand. Saint Paul therefore has here corrected our unthankfulness, by adding these diverse words, to show that it must needs be that we be too dull, if we be not moved when our Lord stirs us up so many ways, seeing we cannot set our mind to anything, but his benefits must needs come in our sight.

For the same cause also he adds, Yielding always thanks. As if he said, that if we were well advised, the continual repeating of God's praises, and the harping upon them should never grieve us nor weary us. And why? Seeing that God continues his benefiting of us, is it not reason that there should be an answerableness on our part, to hold out in doing him honor for his good turns? Does any one day pass wherein we receive not at the least a hundred good turns at God's hand? Now is it fitting that we should think, that when we have thanked him twice or three times for the great number of benefits which we receive of him all our life long, we have leisure to occupy ourselves otherwise ever after? When our Lord renews and refreshes the remembrance of his goodness: were it not fitting that we should be moved by it? Therefore it behooves us always to mark well this saying, whereby Saint Paul declares, that we are far too unmindful of God, if we are not provoked to acknowledge his benefits from year to year, from month to month, from day to day, and from hour to hour, and to yield him the sacrifice that he requires of us, which is, that we should protest ourselves to be wholly at his will, to be beholden to him for all good things, and that it is impossible for us to perform the hundredth part of our duty, according as we hear how David says, 'What recompense shall I yield to the Lord for all the good that he has done me?' I will receive the cup of salvation, and call upon his name. And in the fortieth Psalm he says expressly, that the order which God keeps in governing us, is so wonderful a thing, as it passes the hairs of our heads in number, insomuch that we must needs be amazed at it. And therefore seeing we cannot come at the infinite goodness of God, though we endeavor to apply all our wits to that: at least let us aim toward it. And like as we see that God is never weary of showing himself liberal toward us, but flows continually as a fountain, indeed even by so many streams as are able to satisfy us in all things: let us also show continually without ceasing, how much we are bound [reconstructed: and] beholden to so good and kind-hearted a father.

And he adds yet further, that we must thank God for all things. By which he makes us to know, that men are too dull, in that they consider not how many ways God allures and spurs them, notwithstanding the slothfulness that is in them. As if he should say, my friends, considering how much we are bound to God, both in respect of our bodies, and in respect of our souls, can we comprehend it? No, it is not possible: for we have too small and narrow a wit. And when we have after a sort comprehended God's benefits, yet have we not tongue to express anything near how much we are bound to him. So then, whose fault is it that we are so cold, that as soon as we have spoken but one word, we think it is enough, and that we are discharged till another time, and return to it again as slowly as may be? Why comes such slackness? Even from our shutting of our eyes. Although God shows us by all means, that it becomes us to be occupied in blessing his holy name: yet will we not see it one whit. Again, as touching the body, we persuade ourselves that our goods come to us either by our own cunning, or by good fortune, or by favor of the world: as for God he is always let alone: and as for his goodness we think not on it. Now then, when we intend to do our duty in yielding God his due praise, which is the chief sacrifice that he requires (as I said before:) let us have regard to consider better what we are, and what our state is, and how we are subject to so many necessities, as God must be forced to help us in infinite ways. And when we have considered our wretchedness both in body and soul, and on the contrary part also considered how God provides for all, and suffers us not to have any poverty without relief at his hand: surely we shall have wherewith to continue the praising of his holy name without ceasing. And Saint Paul will have us, not only to thank God for the benefits which we feel apparently: but also although he afflicts us, and handles us diverse times otherwise than we would: yet will he have us to praise him still, after the example of Job, who (as we see) not only thanked God when he had his children at his table, and they made merry in feasting one another: but also when he was bereft of his offspring, and left desolate in his house: when all his goods were taken away, partly by robbers, and partly by lightning that fell from heaven: and when he was so miserable, as it seemed that lice should eat him up, he ceased not to say, The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. So then, Saint Paul shows us, that even in our sorrows, and when we receive chastisements that are rough and bitter to us, yet let us not grudge against God, but rather persevere in praising his name, as he exhorts us in another place, (where he says) that in praying to him we must always praise him. Although we have not the things that we crave, and that in our petitions we show ourselves to want this and that, and are pinched with grief and care: yet must thanksgiving be mingled still with our prayers. There are a great number that pray to God: but yet they do but provoke God's wrath, because they intermingle their grudgings and repining, gnashing their teeth at him. They will indeed say, My God, help me. But which is that God? If they could pluck him out of heaven, they would do it with all their heart, to the end he might have no more power over them. You see then that a number thinking to pray to God, do but provoke him to wrath, because their requests are full of pride, spitefulness, and defiance. And therefore Saint Paul tells us to the Philippians, that all our petitions and requests must be matched with thanksgiving, to show that we do patiently abide to be governed by the hand of God. Likewise in this text he says, that we must thank God for all things, not only when we are in prosperity, and all things fall out as we would wish, so as God gives us our heart's desire, and we live in delight and pleasure: that is not the only fit time and season to yield praise to God: but although he scourges us, yet must we acknowledge that he procures our salvation (and welfare) by that means. Let us see then, if we have not cause to bless God in all our adversities? Yes: for first, whatever befalls us, he bears with us: insomuch that if he should touch us but with one of his fingers in good earnest: we should be overwhelmed at the first blow. Seeing then, that we hold out, it is a token that he spares us: and have we not cause to thank him for it? Again, when he turns his chastisements to our benefit, for that he purges us by that means, to further us continually thereby to the kingdom of heaven, and to lift us up because we are too much tied to the world, to the end we should be gathered together, to come to the full perfection that is prepared for us in heaven: when we see all this, have we not cause to praise our God, notwithstanding that we are full of grief, care, fear, and doubts? Yes certainly, but that our own unthankfulness hinders it. So much the more ought we to mark well the thing that Saint Paul tells us here, namely that we have cause to praise God without end or ceasing. And if our mouth be stopped sometimes with grief, so as we seem to be barred from praising God, and we cannot apply ourselves freely to it: let us understand that God never shows himself so rough and rigorous towards us, but that he assuages the bitterness which is in our afflictions, to the intent to draw us to him, and that we might thank him, and glorify him for it. Forasmuch as we receive no grace but by the means of our Lord Jesus Christ, who does also turn the corrections to our welfare, which we should suffer as punishments for our sins: therefore it is said, that we should yield thanks to our God and father, namely by our Lord Jesus Christ. Now he sets down on the one side, God the Father: and afterward shows how God is our father in all respects: that is to say, by means of the mediator, through whom we are reconciled to him, and he has so put away all our sins, that whatever things we can endure in this world, are all furtherances of our salvation, as is said of them in the Epistle to the Romans. And here we have to mark first of all, that without faith we cannot praise God as we ought to do, insomuch that whatever praises we sing with our mouth, all is but feigning and hypocrisy, except we are thoroughly persuaded that God is our father. And mark here what is meant by faith. It is not as the Papists suppose it, namely to believe that there is a God in heaven, and in the meanwhile to know nothing of his will: but Saint Paul tells us, we must be thoroughly resolved, that God accepts us for his children, or else we shall never be able to praise him with a pure and free affection. And how may that be done, but by being grounded upon the free adoption, through which he takes us to him for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake? For is it by inheritance, or for any worthiness of ours, that God is our father, and we his children? Alas no: but clean contrariwise, we are called the children of wrath: and God must needs disclaim us, because there is nothing but sin and wickedness in us. Then until we come to our Lord Jesus Christ, it is certain that we cannot be sure of God's favor, nor that he will accept our [reconstructed: service]. And therefore Saint Paul having said, that we must yield thanks to God in and for all things, because he is our father: does justly add, that that is done by our Lord Jesus Christ. Then let us understand, that all they which are afraid of God's majesty, and cannot trust him, nor rest upon the promises of his favor, to call upon him as their father: can never praise him. Indeed they may well use some ceremonies, but all shall be but lying. Therefore whenever we will pray to God, and yield him praise and thanks, faith must lead the way. Mark that for one point.

However, (as I said before) it is impossible for us to be grounded in any certainty of faith to take God for our Father, until we know that we are made one in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that since we are members of his body, we are also partakers of the benefits that he has purchased, so as his death and passion are our righteousness, his holiness our cleansing from all our own defilements, and the sacrifice which he has offered does set us clear, and draw us out of the damnation where we were, and finally has set us free from the bondage of sin, and purchased us full righteousness. Since we have all these things in our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore ought we also to give thanks to God by his means. And that is the cause why the Papists cannot frame so much as one request, that God allows. Indeed and in very deed, they are as good as dumb. For though a man may hear Hymns and Canticles enough (as they term them) among them: yet cannot God be praised at their hands. For although they wind up all things with this saying, By our Lord Jesus Christ: yet do they not believe that God is merciful to them, nor are they worthy of it, because they disclaim our Lord Jesus Christ, and do so entangle him with patrons and advocates of their own forging, as a man cannot discern him from others, insomuch that they coop him up in a corner, or else set him behind in the rearward, while in the meantime there is hunting after the merits and intercessions of Saints, and that is their trust, that is the mother of their devilish presumption, namely that they can make amends (for their sins) and redeem themselves. But as for us, when it is told us that we must thank God in all things: it is to the end that we should always abase ourselves. And for that cause did I say, that faith opens us the way as well to pray to God, as also to give him thanks for the benefits that we have received at his hand.

Now hereupon Saint Paul adds, that we must be subject one to another in the fear of Christ, or in the fear of God, for any of both will fit the text well enough. In saying that we must be subject, he shows, that just as God will have his children to exercise themselves in his praises: so also he will not have them to be unprofitable here below, but to serve one another's turn. For inasmuch as we are not able to do God either good or harm: therefore is he contented that we do but praise his name. For though we employ all our ability: what is there in us with which to enrich God, or to advantage him? For he gives us all things, and needs nothing himself. Therefore is it an inestimable goodness, in that he quits us of all that we can owe him, so we declare ourselves to be so greatly beholden and bound to him, as we cannot discharge ourselves of it. Then if we come with all humility, and confess the bond in which we stand bound to God: it is the payment that he requires of us, and (for his own part) he seeks no more. But yet he will have us serviceable one to another, and not to seek our private profit in such a way, as to forget that we are knit together in one mutual bond of charity. That is the thing to which he intends to bring us now in this text. Now a man might think it strange at the first blush, that he should say, we ought to be subject one to another. For it seems not fitting that the father should be subject to his children, the husband to his wife, or the magistrate to the people whom he governs, yea, or that even they also who are equal in degree, should be subject one to another. But if we look well upon all things, we shall find that Saint Paul has not without cause put all Christians under this subjection. For why? The magistrates who are advanced in authority and glory above other men, are bound nevertheless to those whom they govern, for they are not ordained rulers for their own sakes, but for the commonwealth's sake. For God's ordaining of principalities, kingdoms, and states, was not to the end that some should have preeminence above others: but for that it is for our benefit to have some bridle to hold us in obedience under laws, and to have some power and authority over us, and to stand in fear and awe of magistrates, because we cannot do without such a remedy. Seeing then that God has set magistrates in such a state: it is certain that they are therefore subject to those whom they ought to serve in reigning over them. As much is to be said of fathers. It is true that the father ought to be honored of his children. Yet notwithstanding, forasmuch as it is an honorable title, it shall cost them right dearly, if they govern not their households discreetly. And in that government there is also subjection. Likewise is it between the husband and the wife. For is it not a subjection that the husband bears with the frailty of his wife, and has the discretion to forbear rigor towards her, holding her as his companion, and taking upon him a part of her burden both in sickness and in health? Is not that a subjection? Yes. Not without cause then does Saint Paul pronounce here generally, that all they who will prove themselves faithful, must be subject one to another, namely every man in his state and degree. Let them that are highly advanced consider well, that God's advancing of them, is to the end they should the more willingly submit themselves to bear the pains and cares that belong to their office: and let such as are inferiors understand, that they ought much rather to humble themselves, and to bear the yoke that is laid upon their neck. And let such as are equals and fellows, (unless they will needs be as wild beasts, and are loath to maintain any courtesy among them) consider nevertheless, that every man ought to bear with his neighbors. And is not this a subjection? We cannot live one with another without forbearing. Now surely all forbearing implies bondage, therefore must we be served for necessity's sake. According to which it is said in another place that we must owe nothing but that which charity binds us to. And herein we see what a stateliness it is, when any man shall say, what do I owe to you? It is true that men may well upbraid one another, that they owe them no duty: but they must step yet further. And that is the cause why Saint Paul sets down the fear of our Lord Jesus Christ, or of God. As if he should say, If we were here without a God, and that every man would get alone by himself: we might well hold scorn one of another, and say, I care not for you. Truly, yet were it a great and intolerable folly to say, I care not for you. For the richest man that can be devised, does notwithstanding stand in need of a hundred folks' helps, yea of all men's help. Then is it a great over-stateliness to thrust away our neighbors after that fashion, under color that they can neither benefit us nor hurt us. And it is apparent that we are too blind in so doing. But put the case we might say, I care not for you, I owe you nothing: yet must we come to God, who is our head. For when he put us into this world, he linked us together, and would have us to serve one another in charity; and we know there is no other bond of perfection but charity: and charity brings a bondness with it. So then, although I owe a man nothing as in respect of himself: yet do I owe him somewhat as in respect of God. And that is the thing to which Saint Paul brings us back. As if he should say, Consider with yourselves that you were not created and put into the world, but with the condition that you should serve every man his neighbors. Otherwise, if you shrink aside one from another: it is like cutting asunder the sinews of the body, to the intent it should fall in pieces, yea and that our Lord Jesus Christ who is our head, might have no more to do with us. They then that will needs play the wild beasts, and cannot find in their hearts to stoop to any bondness to their neighbors, must go live abroad in the wild woods, for they are not worthy to live among men. For we see how God has knit us together, and thereby separated us from the brute beasts, and yet notwithstanding bound us one to another. Now if we will needs shake off this yoke, is it not a plain betraying that we think not ourselves beholden for anything to our Lord Jesus Christ, and that we are loath to be ruled by his hand, or to submit ourselves to the order under which he has put us, and which he would have to be kept without breaking? So then, forasmuch as every one of us is so wedded to himself, that we cannot submit ourselves one to another: let us bear in mind that which Saint Paul has set down for us here. For it is the very relish that will make us find taste in this doctrine, that is to say, that if we fear God, and can find in our hearts to submit ourselves quietly to his will, it must not grieve us, nor must we think it irksome and strange, that every one of us should serve them whom he is bound to serve, and by that means so maintain his degree, as we may all link together under our head Jesus Christ, and attain to the heavenly glory 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 so feel them, as it may draw us to true repentance, and make us to profit in it from day to day, and to examine our miseries in such a way, as we may be moved to call upon our God for remedy, that he may cleanse us and defend us from them, until he has brought us to the perfection of righteousness, which we ought to labor for, and from which we are yet far off, and in the meanwhile he so bear with us, as we may not cease to have the privilege of calling upon him as his children, and also have reason to thank him through our Lord Jesus Christ, because he has by his Holy Spirit sealed the adoption in our hearts, whereby he holds us fast to him, and that we may so persevere in faith and hope, as we may ever persist in acknowledging the manifold benefits which he adds one upon another, and learn to receive them so at his hand, as they may be made holy to us, both by faith and thanksgiving. May it please him to grant this grace, not only to us, but also to all people and nations of the earth, etc.