The Fifteenth Sermon, the Seventh on the Second Chapter - Ephesians 2:19-22
The Fifteenth Sermon, which is the Seventh upon the Second Chapter 19 Then you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints, and the household folk of God.
20 Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, whereof Jesus Christ himself is the head cornerstone.
21 In whom the whole building, being knit together, grows into a holy temple to the Lord:
22 In whom you also are built together for a dwelling place of God, in spirit.
We have seen here already how the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of St.
Paul, sets before us a looking glass in which to behold the infinite goodness of our God, in pulling us back from the dungeons of death, to make us his children and heirs of the heavenly life. For this cause, it is said that when we are received into the Church, it is as if we were made citizens, not of some earthly city, but even of heaven, to be companions with all the patriarchs and faithful servants of God, yea, and with all the angels of Paradise.
And because the Church is called not only God's city but also his house, therefore Paul adds that we are his household folk, thereby to enhance the grace and favour that God has shown towards us. For to be gathered into God's house, and to have him near unto us, and to have familiar access continually unto him, is much more for us than if we were but generally of some city of his.
We see then, that because men do never sufficiently esteem the spiritual good that we receive by our Lord Jesus Christ, St. Paul meant to show here how it is good reason that we should make more account of the adoption whereby God has so gathered us together by means of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may now be familiarly conversant with him by hope, than by all the whole world.
And he adds another similitude, which is, that we are built to be the temple of God. Sometimes the holy Scripture says that every faithful man is the temple of God, because he dwells in us by his Holy Spirit.
But when it is spoken universally of the whole Church, then we are as living stones, and the building is so bound and closed together, that every one of us serves to perfect it. Then one is not contrary to the other. For every faithful body alone is the temple of God, because he ought to be given to all holiness by the working of the Holy Ghost, and (as I said before) God abides in us. However, inasmuch as we ought not to be separated asunder, but rather to be knit together in unity by the bond of faith, it agrees very well also, that we should be named stones. Just as a building is made of many stones, each of which serves a purpose, so we should allow ourselves to be joined to our Lord Jesus Christ by belief in the Gospel, that God may dwell in us, and be there purely worshipped. And we should be fully assured, that whenever we call upon him, we shall always find him at hand to hear us, and that when we are gathered together in his name, we shall evermore have him among us.
That is the thing which St. Paul treats of here when he says, that those who had been heathen men, and cut off from all hope of salvation, were built up by the Gospel to be made a temple for God.
Now we see better than before how God will take us for his household: that is to wit, if we are taught purely by the doctrine of
the Gospel, that God avows us for his temples, that he is contented to be worshipped by us, and that he accepts our service in good worth.
Therefore, until such time as we have the doctrine of the Gospel to give us entrance to that excellent benefit which is utterly inestimable, we cannot be called neither citizens of heaven, nor children of God, nor belongers to his household.
And it is added, as well to make us perceive what reverence the Gospel deserves, as also to show us that we need not to make far journeys to seek it. For God offers us the prerogative of entering into his house, the door is set open for us, at leastwise if we receive the promises that he makes. We need not to go about heaven nor earth:
God tells us and assures us that he has adopted us, to the intent we should lean all wholly unto him. And so you see how we may be familiar with him, and he be joined unto us.
But withal he shows also where we should seek for his word. For faithless men are so spiteful that they seek all manner of tricks to shift themselves from God. And surely we see that many make as though they were willing to serve God, so it might be apparent to them that it is he who speaks: but withal they doubt whether the Law came from him or not, and whether the Gospel is his truth or not.
Look how men would shake off God's yoke to the uttermost of their power, by their shrinking aside, and by their loopholes and shifting.
They make protestations with full mouth, that their intent is to humble themselves under him, yet they know not, nor can they discern, which is his word. And why is that? Even because of their malice and unthankfulness.
St. Paul therefore, to bar all such trifling excuses, tells us that inasmuch as God has spoken by Moses and his Prophets, and finally by his Apostles, we ought to assure ourselves that all that is
contained in the Law, and in the Gospel, is the truth itself, and that we ought not to be afraid of being beguiled or deceived. We shall hear many replies, for every man imagines whatever comes into his fancy. But God authorized his word sufficiently when he published his Law. Again, he gave sufficient authority to his Prophets, and finally his Gospel was ratified and sealed with enough miracles.
Therefore it is not for us to say we know not whether it be God's word or not: For it is in our mouth, it is near at hand to us, insomuch that God has vouchsafed to feed us like little babes with it, by sending us mortal men to speak it to us face to face.
So then let us learn first of all, not to soar in the air when the receiving of God's word comes into question. Let us be contented that he has given us sufficient record of his will by his Prophets and Apostles, and so shall we yield him obedience, though it has pleased him to use such instruments of his Holy Spirit: for our faith cannot be without humility, and God takes a trial thereof, in making mortal men to be the means whereby he communicates himself unto us.
Take it therefore as a principle, that it must not grieve us though God appear not in visible shape, or though he sends us not his angels from heaven. For it ought to suffice us, that we know that the Prophets and Apostles are sufficient witnesses, chosen and ordained to bring us the message of salvation. By the way, Saint Paul shows that there is very good agreement between the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel. Indeed, we have seen heretofore that the use of the ceremonies is at an end: but yet for all that, the substance of them continues still.
When God caused the Gospel to be preached openly to the world, it was not because he was inconstant, nor because he intended to teach men after a new and strange fashion, with which the Law was not
acquainted: for the Law and the Prophets bore witness continually to our Lord Jesus Christ. And thereby also we are reminded to further ourselves by all the things that are contained in Moses and in the rest of the Prophets. For nowadays there are some fantastical folk, who think that for all doctrine, we ought to have no more but the New
Testament, and that all the rest is superfluous. It is true indeed that all perfection of wisdom is thoroughly contained in the Gospel: but yet it does not therefore follow that we ought not to be edified by the Law and the Prophets: for we see that the Apostles themselves confirmed their doctrine by their testimonies.
And here when St. Paul says that we must be built upon their foundation, he shows sufficiently, that whatever things our Lord bestowed unto them in old times, is profitable for us at this day, and we must practice it and put it to use. Likewise St. Peter says that they served not only for their own time but also for ours. True it is, that they gave some taste of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the good things that are imparted to us by his means: but yet it is we who have come to the fullness of the time; as says St. Paul in another place. And the same is also a verification of St. Peter's saying, that is to wit, that the doctrine of the Prophets points at us, and we have more full fruition and greater fruit of it, than they that heard it spoken. For we have so great a light in Jesus Christ, that the things which were then dark are now manifestly open and known unto us.
So then, let us study the Law and the Prophets, knowing well that they lead us to our Lord Jesus Christ. For he is the mark that is set before us, and whereat we aim at this day, accordingly as it is said, that Jesus Christ is the end of the Law, and also the pattern that Moses saw on the mountain. It is said that the Law and the Prophets bear witness of him, and even our Lord Jesus Christ himself upbraids the Jews, telling them that forasmuch as they boasted of the Law,
they were so much the more blameworthy and less to be excused before God, and their offense was so much the more heinous and unreasonable, because they rejected him, to whom the Law sends us, and to whom the Law would hold us back.
So then, hereupon we have to gather, that to profit well in the holy scripture, we must always resort to our Lord Jesus Christ, and cast our eyes upon him, without turning away at any time. You shall see a number of folk that martyr themselves exceedingly in reading the holy scriptures, they do nothing else but turn over the leaves of it: and yet at the end of half a score years, they are as well seen in it as if they had never read a line of it. And why? Because they do but roam up and down, and aim at no certain end, yea and even in worldly learning, you shall see a great sort that take pains enough, and yet all is to no purpose, because they keep neither order nor measure, nor do aught else but rake together on all sides. By means whereof they are ever new to seek, and can never bring anything to perfection, and although they have gathered together a number of sentences of all sorts, yet there is no hold at all in them.
Even so is it with them that labour in reading the holy scripture, and know not which is the point that they ought to rest upon: namely how it is our Lord Jesus Christ. For like as it is said that all our perfection is in the Gospel: so on the other side it is said, that our
Lord Jesus Christ is given to us to be the wisdom of God his father, as says St. Paul in the first to the Corinthians. And like as it is said of the Law, "This is the way, walk in it": so also it is said of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that he is the true way. Again, as it is said, "Lord, thy word is a lantern to guide my steps by": so our Lord Jesus Christ says, "I am the light of the world, he that walks in me, cannot go amiss."
We see then that all that is treated of in the holy scripture, is now verified of our Lord Jesus Christ, to show us how he is the only thing that we have to take hold of. And in very deed, it is not for nought that he is called the living image of God his Father. For although there be nothing but light in God: yet shall we never be able to come to that light, till our Lord Jesus Christ comes down to lift us up there, and give us entrance into the place that was shut fast against us before.
You see then that the thing which we have to gather upon those words of St. Paul, is, that the Prophets and Apostles were chosen and ordained to bring us to God, by means of our Lord Jesus Christ: who is his very image, and therefore the only thing whereon we must settle all our senses and minds, is to be edified in the holy scripture.
And on the contrary part also, let us conclude that all such as give themselves to vain curiosities, and will needs be wiser than God gives them leave to be, must abide still in confusion. Instead of going forward, they go more and more backward, whereof we see many examples, as I said before, and it stands us in hand to profit ourselves by them. For what is the cause of all the corruptions in the world? What is the cause of the great number of errors, of the great abundance of ungodliness, and of the great store of superstitions which reign everywhere, but for that men are ticklish in their own foolish lusts and fleshly likings, and can never be contented with the simplicity of Jesus Christ, as it is set down in the Gospel?
So much the more therefore ought we to bear well in mind the thing that is told us here: which is, that we must always set our Lord Jesus
Christ before our eyes, and in our sight, if we purpose to have an infallible resting stock in the holy scripture, and to further ourselves in it. And herewithal we see also, that we need not to seek here and
there for God's word: for we are sent to the Prophets and the Apostles, as if it were told us, that they are our rule within which we must keep ourselves, and that our faith has no leave to start out on the one side or on the other, but must be held bridled under the obedience of God's word, as it is contained in the holy scripture.
Now had this text been well understood, surely the wretched world should not be in such disorder as we see it is. For what is the cause that men have devised so many ways of salvation, but for that they have not known the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is shown us here? And in good sooth, let a man look upon all the inventions of the Papists, and he shall find that there is no end of their superstitiousness: and yet in the meantime, they have as good as forgotten Jesus Christ, or rather buried him in such a sort, as they have had no regard of him. And was it not a corrupting and falsifying of God's truth, when men knew not whereto it tended, nor to what end it was given, namely how it was given to keep us wholly to our
Lord Jesus Christ, that we might cleave to him, and find rest to our souls, as he himself says?
Again, on the other side, whereupon do the Papists ground themselves at this day? Even upon their Councils, upon their decrees, upon the things that men have invented of their own brain: and yet they would need to bear us on hand, that all perfection is to be had there. For as for the things that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have taught, they are but entrances, say they: yea and they are not ashamed to say, that those things are but as an ABC, and that Jesus
Christ forbore to speak of the things that were more high and excellent, so as the holy scripture is but as a Catechism for little children, and that to attain to the age of perfection, we must have holy Councils, wherein God reveals the mysteries that were unknown before.
Now seeing that the devil has so utterly bewitched and blinded them, that they have laboured to thrust God's word underfoot, to the end we should stray and wander here and there without any good direction: we have so much the more cause to bear in mind the thing that St. Paul tells us here, which is, that we must dislike whatsoever is added to the holy scripture, assuring ourselves that God has given such charge to his Prophets and Apostles, as he forgot not anything that was profitable or expedient for our salvation. If we desire to profit in his school, we must not put any morsels or pieces of our own, nor fall to borrowing of things here and there, that are contrary to that pure doctrine, but must utterly dislike all such dealing, yea and abhor all manner of patching, as leaven that sours, and mars the whole batch of dough, because God condemns whatsoever men take upon them to add unto the Law and the Gospel, from which we must not in any wise turn away. For it is not without cause said: "This is the way, walk in it." And whereas Jesus Christ says, he is the way, and the light of the world: it is to the end that we should abide in him, without swerving aside in any wise, either to the right hand or to the left.
Another thing which we have further to consider upon this text, where God's doctrine is spoken of, and the Prophets and Apostles are named the messengers of it, is this: that we, knowing what their office is, should not consent to be taught by such as God never made privy of his will, and whom he disavows, when they go about to add any one syllable to the things which he will have to be noted and held without gainsaying. True it is, that the Church cannot endure without the daily preaching of the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles in it: and that all they which are ordained to teach, are called masons, carpenters, and builders of God's house. Therefore, in that they be builders of the Church, they are all one with the Prophets and Apostles. Yet notwithstanding, it follows not therefore that they may
take what they list of the Law, or take liberty to preach their own inventions: but they must draw their matter out of the pure fountain that is offered us in the holy scripture, that we may be held continually to the simplicity of the Law and the Gospel, and not be tainted with any wandering opinions instead of the obedience of faith, which contents itself with the mean that God has set.
Again, whereas St. Paul says, that Jesus Christ is the foundation and the head cornerstone: it is not meant, that it is lawful to mingle anything with Jesus Christ, as though he should but make some one piece of the building, and the rest be supplied by others: but it serves to show that we must be built upon him, according as Saint Paul exhorts us in the third chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, where he says, that no man can lay any other foundation, than that which is laid already, that is to wit, than Jesus Christ. Hereby St.
Paul does us to understand, that men cannot set forth anything whereon to ground and settle their salvation: there is, says he, no other foundation but Jesus Christ.
Again, we know his dominion extends everywhere: and therefore all of us from the greatest to the least must yield unto him, and not forsake the great number of benefits which he offers us, and which we possess by his means.
But yet shall we never understand how Jesus Christ is our only foundation, except we know to what end he was sent, according to the previously mentioned text, where St. Paul says that he was given to us to be our wisdom. And not only that, but also he adds further, that he was given to be our righteousness, redemption, and holiness.
As if he should say, that Jesus Christ is our wisdom, whereto we must wholly hold ourselves, because we may see there, that he is the
wellspring of all welfare, and has in him whatsoever is requisite to our salvation.
Then if we once know to what end Jesus Christ was given, and the infinite benefits whereof he will make us partakers, we will forsake all other food: that is to say, all that ever man sets before us shall be to us but as vanity, yea and even as dung and filth, because we shall be fully satisfied with our Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, that we may conceive how he is the foundation of the Church, and that we ought to be settled upon him, let us mark that it is because God has revealed himself fully to us by his only son, and put all things into his hand which are requisite to our salvation, or worthy to be desired, to the end that we might draw of his fulness, as is said of him in the first chapter of St. John.
And this, in effect, is the manner how we ought to put this text to use, where it is said, that our Lord Jesus Christ is in such wise the chief stone, that he bears up all the whole building in the corner: and we know that the greatest weight of a building lies upon the corner.
But by the way, let us mark also, that St. Paul meant not to set Christ alone in a row by himself, and to couch other stones with him, that should have mastery and authority as well as he: but simply to show, that there is no more diversity between the Law and the Gospel, as touching the substance of them, but that our Lord Jesus Christ is the end of all, and that we are so joined and knit together by his means, that all of us are made the Temple of God, and belong by unity of faith to the spiritual building, wherein God intends to dwell. Yet notwithstanding, if our faith rests not wholly upon our Lord Jesus
Christ, it is certain, that we cannot be built upon this foundation.
For whereas the Papists invent patrons and advocates to get them favour at God's hand, and heap up a number of means to merit
withal: it is all one as if they made themselves strangers to Jesus Christ. Now whosoever turns away from him, and it be but a fingerbreadth, must needs fall into destruction. For it is the property of a foundation to bear up the whole building. Now if the building be too wide, and overhangs it, it must needs fall down. Even so goes it with us. If we are not built upon Jesus Christ, so as our faith be lined and levelled unto him, and we stick to him without adding of one thing or other: he must needs disavow us for any of his, and cast us quite away.
And in good faith, the Papists and their like do well betray their great unthankfulness, by their wandering here and there, and by their adding of new means at their own pleasure. This wrong and outrage which they do to our Lord Jesus Christ, deserves well that we should tumble them down and cut them quite off from God's Church.
Therefore if we intend to enjoy the benefit that St. Paul sets forth to us here, let us beware that our faith be so framed to the Law and the Gospel, as to reject whatsoever things man shall have invented, assuring ourselves that it is the next way to draw us to destruction, and that we cannot be grounded upon Jesus Christ to stand fast upon him forever, unless we admit all the things that are spoken and witnessed of him in the Law and the Gospel, without making it lawful for men to add anything at all to it.
You see then in effect, that the thing which we are warned of in these words of St. Paul, is, that we belong not to our Lord Jesus Christ, nor can be of God's Church, except it be by following the pure doctrine of the Law and the Gospel, and by forsaking (as you would say) all the filth and abomination that men have devised by their own dreams and dotages, however fair a colour of wisdom they may bear. For they will find store enough of fine peddlery, to make folk believe that their adding of so many gewgaws is not without cause. But however
they fare, if we covet to be joined and united to Jesus Christ, we must so abide in him, as to make no account of any other thing.
And with that, we see also that to be taken for God's children, we must give ourselves to true concord. For St. Paul sets down both these things here: and indeed, they are inseparable. Christians, being taught God's word purely, should with one heart and one mind receive the things that are so set forth unto them, and have brotherly concord among them, to speak as it were with one mouth, and to make one pure and simple confession.
Then, just as hitherto we have seen that we must be built upon God's pure word alone, so it is shown us here that we must not every one of us be bent to his own opinion, but frame ourselves to the unity of faith, accordingly as St. Paul speaks thereof in the third to the Philippians, saying: if you intend to be perfect, aim all at one mark, and be truly knit together in one. For we know how ambition tickles us continually, and every man would fain have something by himself, to set out his own estimation withal. The very cause of all the heresies that ever were, is this pride so deeply rooted in men's hearts, that whereas all of us ought to be learners, every one of us will needs be teachers.
And indeed, he that is to teach other folks, must not set forth anything of his own, but purely impart unto them the things that he has learned of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, because men are so froward, that they always covet to know more than is lawful for them: therefore they misbehave themselves, and every man would keep a school, to make a show of himself. But it is said here that instead of this dealing, we must be knit together, that we may speak all as it were with one mouth, and confess that we have but one God,
and one Father, by showing ourselves to have no more masters, but only Jesus Christ.
Nevertheless, it is true that such a concord would not be enough: but I have told you already, at what end we must begin: that is to wit, at the pure instruction which we receive from the Prophets and Apostles. The Papists brag too much of their agreement: and so may they do full well, for the devil possesses them in such wise, that they are wholly sotted in it. Indeed, there is jangling and jarring enough among them, and they snatch at one another like cur dogs, when they are in their own synagogues: but yet they stick together like burrs, in the maintenance of all ungodliness. We see their devilish madness and wilful stubbornness when they reason for the maintenance of their own lies against God's truth.
But St. Paul shows us after what manner we ought to agree: namely not in dreams and dotages, nor in the things that men have put forth of their own store: but in the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles.
Now seeing that the Papists have banished the holy scripture, and although they make a show of receiving it, do nevertheless deface it, yea and utterly falsify and corrupt it by their own inventions: thereby we see they are far from their reckoning, in that they vaunt themselves with open mouth to be God's Church: for seeing they have not the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles, they have no mark of the church at all. Although men were ready to receive all things that are in the holy scripture, even without gainsaying: yet if they fall to mingling their own fancies with it: Christianity is thereby already corrupted and confounded.
Now, they not only entangle God's truth with their own inventions, but also utterly overthrow it all: insomuch that God's service is utterly corrupted by them, poor souls are harried to and fro, and our
Lord Jesus Christ is robbed, so that they make but a fantastical conceit of him, and attribute his offices to this man and that man, as if it were dealing with some prey or booty. Forasmuch then as we see the Papists so malapertly and madly turn God's word upside down after that fashion: we may well conclude, that although they boast themselves never so much to be the Church, yet God disavows them, yea and utterly abhors them: and that if a man does not get out of that den of thieves, it is impossible for him to be joined to our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Thus you see that the thing which we have to bear in mind, is that to be joined to God by means of his only son, and to be companions with the angels of heaven, and brethren of the patriarchs, holy kings, and prophets, we must be banished out of the hellish synagogues that are in the papacy, where it is apparent that Antichrist reigns, and that Jesus Christ is utterly dispossessed of his right and sovereignty. And verily we see their cursed presumption, in that they have been so bold as to say that the See of Rome is the foundation of the Church. For they abuse these words of our Lord Jesus Christ in the sixteenth chapter of St. Matthew: "Thou art Peter, and upon this stone will I build my Church." Now seeing that Jesus Christ says, that Peter shall be built upon himself (that is to say, upon Jesus Christ): he means not to resign his office either to him or to any other body: but thereby it appears, that among the Papists there has not been any reverence of the holy scripture, nor any desire to be taught, but that all was one to them, so they might set up a tyranny to oppress the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to make clean riddance of it, if it were possible, and that they have made no conscience of manifest blasphemy, insomuch that even little children ought to have spit in their faces, considering the gross beastliness that is, and has been among them. And herein also it is to be seen, how the devil has reigned in full darkness, that God's word was buried, yea and utterly
defaced, and the wretched world quite and clean bereft of it for a time, notwithstanding that it was their ordinary food.
So then, let us abhor all those blasphemies, assuring ourselves that we cannot be grounded in but our Lord Jesus Christ, and that when we are once faithfully instructed in him, we need not to borrow elsewhere, because he has brought us whatsoever is requisite for our salvation. And it is not meet that we should do him so great dishonour, as to seek any supply one where or other: but that we should hold ourselves all wholly unto him. That therefore is the meaning of the things that St. Paul speaks here.
And thereafter he adds that it behoves us all to be built and to grow into a spiritual building, even to God, and in the spirit. First, where he says that we must be built, it is to stir us up so much the better to grow daily more and more in faith. He uses also the word "grow," and he means in effect two things. The one is that we must not think ourselves to be so perfect as need be, as some fantastical heads do, whom you shall see so puffed up with overweening that they imagine themselves to be wise enough and disdain to look upon God's word, or to give ear to it to be taught by it. But woe to such pride, for we cannot be disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ without knowing that it behoves us to be grounded in him and to profit in him all the time of our life. For God's word is of such height, breadth, and length, that if a man should forbear eating, drinking, and sleeping, and busy himself wholly about that, yet should he never know all. So then we ought to travail in it all our life long, knowing that God intends as now only to set us in the way, and that we must go forward by little and little, and be held continually in humbleness and modesty.
Again, St. Paul shows us that to be settled in our Lord Jesus Christ, and to be furthered in all the good things that are given us by him,
we must have his word, that we may be built upon it, and grow upon it more and more. To bring the same to pass, we must be teachable, and from day to day labor to seek new help to strengthen our faith withal, which shall never be perfect in this world, as we find sufficiently by experience. Thus you see what St. Paul meant by that which he says here, concerning our growing and going forward in the said building. Howbeit, "unto the Lord," says he, showing thereby that to have a goodly show, is not all that is required at our hands.
The chief point is that God likes well of us, and that we be wholly given unto him, so that he has place and room in us, and dwells in us as in his temple.
For the Papists will make a far greater show than we on the other side: they have great multitudes, wherewith they are puffed up to the uttermost. And thereupon they despise us because we are but a handful of men in comparison of them. "What," say they, "does not Christendom extend through all Europe, Greece, and Africa? And yet see how these rascals that have neither authority nor credit, nor anything else in them, will needs be counted the Church." You see then that the Papists shake us off with devilish pride and malapertness because they have on their side great pomp and all manner of riches, insomuch that if a man goes into their temples, he is ravished at them, as if he were in an earthly paradise. But all is not gold that glistens. And although their pomp is able to blear the eyes of poor ignorant souls, whom we see to be carried away indeed with such things, yet are they all no better but abomination before God.
So St. Paul shows us that we must not spite the Papists, though they are very many in number, and greatly multiplied: for they are but a head without a body, or rather but a bumbasted and counterfeit body. In short, that which the Papists term their Church is a very monster. For it has no head because Jesus Christ has not
preeminence over it, no nor any part or portion in it. To the end, therefore, that we might know how we should grow: it is said unto us that we must grow unto the Lord, and in Spirit, says St. Paul. Here he draws us back from all worldly superstitions, making us understand that they are but pelting trash, yea and very dung before God, who abhors them.
Therefore we must grow in spirit. And verily we see that the shadows of the Law passed immediately as soon as we had the accomplishment and substance of the body, that is to wit, our Lord
Jesus Christ. And now that he has come, we must not gaze any longer upon those figures. Since it is so, we ought much rather to give over the things that men bring in. However high and excellent they may be, let us cast them from us as filthiness, and hold ourselves content with this, that our Lord Jesus Christ will have us to build in him after a spiritual manner. And so you see how his doctrine ought to be sweet and amiable to us, yea and to ravish us wholly in love with it, so that we may give up the world with a free heart, and give ourselves to our Lord Jesus Christ. But on the other side also, let us beware, that the judgment which he threatens unto such as cast aside this stone, light not upon our heads, according to this saying, "Behold, I lay a precious stone in Sion." Seeing then that Jesus Christ is given to us to be our foundation, we have there a precious stone, whereupon if we are built, we may be sure of our salvation. And we need not be afraid that he is not strong enough to uphold us, so that he will never fail us. But if we fall to justling against that stone, it is certain that we shall not be able to stand against it, but we shall sink down underneath it, and in the end, it shall bruise us, and beat us all to pieces. Therefore let us take heed that our Lord Jesus Christ turns not into a stone to stumble at, after the manner of the world which nowadays malices him, insomuch that every man sets up his bristles proudly and rebelliously to come rushing against him: but let us
think on our ways well, and be meekly disposed to yield our service to him, that he may maintain us unto the end.
And although we see Jesus Christ to be rejected by the world, and it may seem strange to us that men should fight so against him, and that he should be as a target to shoot at, yet let us not cease to take him still for a precious stone, as Saint Peter counsels us in the second chapter of his first Epistle. You see then that when we hear these promises which Saint Paul tells us of, we ought on the one side to be drawn to our Lord Jesus Christ, to give ourselves wholly unto him, and to forget all the things that seem most excellent in the world. On the other side, let us beware that our ingratitude be not punished for disdaining to receive him as a precious stone, since God tells us that all our welfare lies in this, that we are his temple, and that he is called upon at our hands.
Therefore, let us profit from such a great and inestimable benefit, and let us still grow and increase therein more and more, until we come to the heavenly heritage, where we shall have full fruition of all the good things which he makes us to feel as yet but by faith.
And now, let us fall down before the majesty of our good God, with acknowledgment of our sins, praying him to vouchsafe to wipe out the remembrance of them, so they may not come to account before him: and that he may correct us, so we may cleave fully unto him, and he may bear with our infirmities, so we may not cease to resort unto him freely at all times, though we are not worthy of it. And so let us all say, Almighty God heavenly Father, etc.
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Lest Any Man Should Boast, by John Calvin, Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
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