The Fifth Sermon of Jacob and Esau - Genesis 25:29-34

29 Now as Jacob was seething Pottage: Esau came out of the field and was hungry.

30 Wherefore Esau said unto Jacob: "Suffer me to kneel forth of this Pottage so red, for I am weary." Therefore everyone called his name Edom.

31 But Jacob answered, "Sell me now thy birthright."

32 And Esau said: "Behold I hasten to death: and what avails this birthright unto me?"

33 To whom Jacob said: "Swear unto me this day." And he swore unto him. So he sold his birthright unto Jacob.

34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of Lentils and he did eat and drink and rose up, and went his way, and Esau contemned his birthright.

WE said yesterday that God approves and ratifies his election when he governs his children by his Holy Spirit, and that he makes them strive up to the heavenly life, giving them an affection to despise the world and to look up higher. Conversely, he reveals what man's nature is when he lets loose the bridle to those who are reprobates, so that they become like brute beasts, looking to nothing but this brittle and transitory life. We have the confirmation of this doctrine in the history which Moses recounts here: For on the one side, he sets Esau before us, who, returning out of the fields from hunting, was like a famished wolf: he desires nothing but to eat, and moreover is content to sell his birthright with another, and here he renounces his birthright so that he may have something to fill his belly. He then esteems the pottage so highly that his birthright was nothing unto him in comparison thereof. Now let us mark (as it has already been touched before, and as we shall see more fully) that this was not an earthly privilege, to wit, that he should have a double portion, and that he should be advanced in his father's house; but it was to be the chief of the Church of God, waiting until our Lord Jesus Christ should appear for the salvation of the world. Now, although this was a thing of such importance, yet Esau prefers his belly, and he cares for nothing so that he may have food. On the other side, Jacob, although he had made ready his dinner, or his supper (albeit it were his refection), and that he had an appetite to eat, yet he chose rather to abstain and deprive himself than to let slip the occasion of getting the birthright. We see then that Esau was but as a beastly man, who sought nothing but to be fed and nourished, yea, and to be well filled. Jacob is a weak man, subject to hunger and thirst; yet he bridles himself and looks up higher than to this world, and forgoes bodily meat to obtain a spiritual benefit, which was of more value than a hundred, yea, than ten thousand lives. Mark briefly what we have to learn from this history.

Now it is very true that a man might think at the first blush that this was but a childish toy. For what hurt was it in Esau, after he had labored and taken great pain, yea, to bring venison unto his father, if he were weary, if he were hungry and should demand to eat? It seems not that this should be imputed to him as a fault. And again, on the other side, some man might say, what cruelty was there in Jacob, seeing his brother in such want, not to succor him, at least with half of his repast? For he should not have waited for his brother's complaint and till he had cried from hunger, but rather ought frankly to have offered him of that which he had prepared for himself. For if he had seen but a stranger to be so needy, so weary, and so weak, he must yet have given him some refreshment and alms.

But behold his own brother, for they were born both in one belly: yet he leaves him in this case and vouchsafes not to give him one spoonful of his pottage. A man might say, therefore, that Jacob was too uncourteous. And again. Why should he compel him to sell his birthright? For he put here the knife as it were to his throat, and we know that bargains are always of no force when there shall be any violence offered: If men do anything by constraint, or if they promise anything by compulsion rashly, they are not bound to keep it. But see Esau, who was hungry, he could do no more, he was so far past himself that he knows not what his birthright means. So then, besides the cruelty of Jacob, there was too gross an oversight: and when he bargained, whatsoever came between, yet this ought not in any case to hold by any right or reason. Well, notwithstanding all this, this is not recited to reprove Jacob, as though he had committed any fault or offended either God or his brother: But contrariwise the Holy Ghost gives him here testimony, that he shows us the way how to search after heavenly things, and that first of all we must seek the kingdom of God and renounce our own desires, or else in such wise captivate and bring them under that they hinder us not from looking always to the principal.

And contrariwise, the example of Esau is set before us (as the Apostle shows) to the end, we should not be profane as he was: that is to say, that we should not be given to the earth: but that we should think that this which is promised us belongs to eternal life. So then, we must not judge of this history after our natural opinion: but we must weigh to what end and purpose it is here rehearsed, to the end we may the better make our profit of it.

Now I have already said in the first place, that God would as it were seal his election here, in the person of Jacob: and that he has showed also in the person of Esau, that he was of the number of those that were cast off from him. It is very certain that if Jacob had not been governed by the spirit of God, he had been altogether like his brother Esau. But we must see how the spirit of God was rather given unto him than unto Esau: We shall not find this diversity, but in the only free goodness of God. So then, let us know that Jacob was led with a holy affection, for as much as God had held him of the number and company of his children: as also St. Paul says: That we are the workmanship of God, created to good works, which he has prepared. He speaks not there of all men in general. It is true that God has created us all without difference: but there is a new creation in those whom God reforms and whom he purges from their wicked lusts, to the end that he may bring them to himself and conform them to his righteousness, so that they desire nothing more than to honor and serve him purely.

Mark therefore a second creation which God works in his children. So then, let us know that if God reaches out his hand unto us, to show us the way of salvation, if he gives us courage cheerfully to march forwards, and strengthens us also to continue therein, that then he shows that his election is not in vain and frivolous, but has its full effect and virtue. To conclude, when he abandons us, and that we are as strays throughout all our life, that we forget the salvation of our souls: let us know that herein he declares his curse upon us. And so let us learn to tremble, as often as we see men besotted in beastliness, so as they know not their own state and condition, neither to what end they were created, nor wherefore God has placed them in the world: when we see this, it behooves us (I say) to tremble and to pray unto God, that he will not suffer us so to be estranged from him: but that he will always hold us in, and keep us, and that he will imprint in our hearts such an assurance of the hope which he has given us, that we may bear therein the right mark of his election, as if men spread a little wax upon a seal, the form of the seal will remain perfect, but the wax has the shape and image thereof. So, when our Lord engraves his fear in our hearts by his holy spirit, and such an obedience towards him, as his children ought to perform unto him, this is as if he should set upon us the seal of his election, and as if he should truly testify that he has adopted us, and that he is a Father unto us: For as much as we have the earnest of his free adoption: that is to say, the Holy Ghost. But now let us come to that, which is here handled particularly. It is said:

That Esau being returned, he asked of his brother Jacob, that he would give him of that red Pottage, and of that meat: He says it, but this was as it were in contempt: and yet herein we see that he was not so delicate and fine-mouthed: but he could do no more, he was so weary, that he knew not what he did: and therefore he asks nothing but to be satisfied. And hereupon he says: Give unto me: as if he should say: It is all one unto me, whether I eat brown bread or white, so that I may fill my belly, admit it were but with Acorns, it is all one unto me. A man might here find some color to excuse Esau: and it seems that this might well have been pardoned him. But what? So much the more in this must we behold, that our desires how natural and lawful soever they be, are yet nevertheless to be repressed, when there is any question of the heavenly life: for then we must bring under every consideration, and rather lose life an hundred times, than go out of the path of salvation. It is not enough therefore that men abstain from those acts that are altogether dissolute and wicked, and whereof they may be ashamed, but yet whatever desire they shall have, yea permitted unto them of God, which is not altogether condemned, yet must they tame them, when there shall be any comparison with spiritual benefits. But hereof we shall yet treat more at large. In the meantime it behooves us to note this point, that Esau sought not after great dainties: he saw the Pottage, whereof mention is here made, and he asks nothing but to be satisfied therewith.

Now Jacob asks of him his birthright in payment. If he had asked it of him through ambition, and that it had not belonged unto him, undoubtedly it had been no bargain: on the other side, the malice which he had, could by no means have been excused: and farther this had been to commit an outrageous and thievish act, so to hold his brother's throat shut up, as to say: if thou wilt not forgo unto me, all that belongs to thee, I will not give thee one morsel to eat, rather thou shalt perish. And to what extremity would this grow?

But Jacob demands nothing of Esau, but that which was before given him. For he was taught that before the two children were born, now already this sentence was pronounced, that God had declared, that it must needs be that the elder must serve the younger. Jacob then, in respect of God possessed already through faith the birthright: It is true that that stood him in no stead in the judgment of the world: but the question is hereof the right title, that he knew that God had appointed him to be the firstborn, and had declared, that the birthright belonged unto him. So then, he robs not Esau of anything that was his, but he rather asks again that which was his own: as if he should have said, Because thou art first come out of the womb, thou despisest the sentence that God hath given, both concerning me and thyself: but yet that must stand which God hath decreed, it cannot be called back again. For myself, I always remain in this hope, that I shall obtain that which was promised unto me: but for thy part, this is to the end that thou shouldst understand that I set more store by the service of God than by mine own life: and therefore sell me thy birthright.

We see here briefly, that Jacob would not get the good of another by deceit or malice, neither enforce his brother to spoil himself of that blessing which belonged unto him, but he demands, that that which God had given him, might be approved and ratified amongst men. Lo then the sum of that which is spoken here. And therefore they, who will use so great rigor, to get the substance of another, and to enrich themselves with the loss of their neighbors, have not whereof to make them any buckler here: as we shall see very many, who will espy out occasions, that if a poor man, be in any extreme necessity, it must needs be that he be robbed. Lo then they will pray and violently grate upon him. For then they will bargain with him, when they see him in this case, and oh say they (who live upon spoils, as hawks do upon the prey) this man must pass through my hands. Lo then a poor man who shall have but one field or one meadow: if he be indebted or fail to find money to pay, if he come to some Usurer, he will say unto him, lo, there is no remedy I must needs sell you such a piece, oh I have no money (says he) at this time, and yet in the meantime he will keep his money in his purse, watching that occasion, which is as a robbery, for as much as he seeks the means to deceive his neighbor. This is commonly seen, that he that shall be pinched with any misery, he shall be eaten even to the bones, of such as only have the means to succor those that are in necessity.

But if such wicked wretches, (as I have said) will cloak their iniquity in the person of Jacob, it is too vain a thing. For Jacob sucked not another man's good unto himself, nor he sought not to enlarge himself to the end to lessen his brother: but he remained in the possession of that which God had given him. The birthright was his own already, indeed not according to the order of nature, but because it so pleased God. Inasmuch therefore as he deceived none, did wrong to no man, neither used any rigor or excess to draw another's good unto himself, we must not take any pattern and patronage from hence of those same thieveries and oppressions which commonly are exercised amongst men. And forasmuch as the question is here of a spiritual benefit that Jacob seeks not riches, he seeks not his commodities, nor any earthly honor, to advance himself above his brother: he forsakes all this, this is all one to him: but he would have that which God had promised him: that is, that though he be small in this world, though he be afflicted, tormented and injured, and that men do him many injuries, it is all one unto him, so that this inestimable treasure be reserved unto him: that is to say, that of his race shall come the salvation of the world, and that withal he is made of the company and fellowship of God's children.

Touching Esau his answer, we see already that which the Apostle says, and that which we have also alleged: that he was altogether a profane man. I haste to death, to what purpose (says he) shall my birthright serve me. In saying that he hastes to death, and that his birthright served him to no purpose: we see that he was altogether dull and blockish, and that it was all one to him, so that he might pass this present life.

And lo also what this word, Prophane importeth: for it is contrary to the word Holy. And what meaneth this word Holy? To be holy, is when we are separated and put apart to serve God: For all the world is full of filthiness and iniquity, as Saint Paul saith. And when we shall have our conversation here beneath after the common manner, this is to defile ourselves with all filthiness. But to the end we may be held for the children of God, it behooveth that we be separated even as Saint Paul speaketh thereof, in the first chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians. It behooveth that God gather us unto himself. For if we walk among thorns, that is but to scratch us every minute, if we go through dirt and clay, that is to beray us. It behooveth then that we be separated. But (as I have said) the word Prophane is contrary and opposite unto this. What then must we do? This is it, that a man take good heed to himself: yea, even to his body. For even as there are two parts in us, to wit, the body and the soul: so the spiritual life is, when we know whereunto God hath called us, and whereunto he daily biddeth us: to wit, that we should be heirs of the kingdom of heaven: See what it is to sanctify ourselves, as it is said Purify yourselves, yea all you that bear the Lord's vessels. And Saint Paul alleging this place saith: Having therefore such promises. That is, that God accounteth us for his servants and children: Let us take heed that we cleanse ourselves from all filthiness, as well of the body as the soul.

But behold Esau, who hath no care but for his belly, and that he showeth very well when he saith:

"Behold I haste to death, and what shall this birthright avail me?"

Yea, but it was for everlasting life, it was for a heavenly inheritance: he hath no regard to all this. So then we see, that he did eat as a Dog, or rather as a Hog that had his nose always in the swill trough, and sought for nothing but meat. Behold then the disposition of Esau, which is declared unto us in these words. And so the exhortation of the Apostle ought well to be practiced of us: when he saith, Let us not be profane men as Esau was: For see what is the cause that maketh us to forgo the hope of that salvation that God hath given us: when we are snared in our own sense, and in our carnal desires, it is certain, that we are quite out of taste with that which appertaineth to the salvation of our souls, that hath no savor with us: so that there is neither word of God, nor promise, nor anything, which we do not lightly esteem, when we are so profane.

Now then, let us take good heed, when we are provoked with some desire to think, "Go to, God hath not placed us in this world, to perish as asses and horses: he hath given us a soul, wherein he hath engraved his own image." So then, it behooves us always to labor and to aspire unto this heavenly immortality, and especially to enforce ourselves to fight against all our affections, and not to be so holden here below, that we strive not always to break and undo these cords that hinder us, that we cannot come directly unto God.

Mark then what we have here to learn. That we be not like unto Esau, saying: "I haste to death and whereunto shall my birthright serve me?" What? shall we do such dishonor unto the dignity and nobility, which God hath placed in us, forasmuch as he hath given us immortal souls: that we say we are not of this world, our place is above, and our right is above, and in the meantime, shall we rest and be entangled here? So then, though we should perish a hundred times, yet let us know that God hath reserved a better life for us, and that there is our sovereign good that we ought to esteem: and albeit that we want and have need of transitory benefits, which only serve to maintain us here beneath, yet let us bear it patiently, and let us always mark, if I die, not to say I perish, or I am utterly lost and cast away: For this is but a passage by death, to go from one life to another. We must therefore look up thither. And this is the sum of what we have to mark here.

But however it be, we see here how God hath laid open the beastliness of Esau, and hath showed that he was already forsaken of him, and was not governed by his holy spirit: as the wisest of the world, albeit it seems they pierce through the clouds, yet are they so dull and blockish, that they regard nothing but that which is present unto them, and thereto they wholly give themselves. We shall see therefore the wittiest and those whom men so greatly magnify, which look to nothing but to build their houses. Now I say not only to build goodly palaces: but also to get great revenues for their children, to advance themselves, and to become great states, to live at ease, to be feared and honored, and that all the world may be constrained as it were to pass through their hands: and in the meantime: as for God, they do not much remember him, and they are in such sort unthankful, that it were much better to be a hog or an ass, than to be like unto them. And why so? A hog has but his natural appetites: when his belly is full he will sleep, or he will wallow in dung: and he is well contented with it. But men, what desires have they? It is certain that there can be found no greater grief to torment them withal more cruelly than their own appetites. So then for this cause, they are in continual vexation and torment, inasmuch as they respect nothing but this life: and if they once die, why with them as it seems, all is dead. Likewise we see in all the reprobate, that they have not any taste of the Heavenly life. And therefore we must so much the more pray unto God, that he will open our eyes, to the end we may always see beyond these present things, and that we may keep ourselves therein, in such sort, that we be not holden here beneath.

But Jacob contenteth not himself that Esau hath simply sold him his birthright: but he will have an oath. Esau sweareth: this is all one to him: and herein we see how God threw him under his feet. For although hunger oppressed him so hardly that he was constrained to renounce his birthright, yet when he came to swear, and that the name of God was taken to witness, and protested that God should be his judge and punish him if he were forsworn and disobedient, and kept not his promise: when all this was done, and he not ignorant what his birthright was worth, it must needs be said that the devil had altogether blinded him. But hereby we are admonished that when we have once begun to start away and to turn our backs to God, it must needs be that so much the more we be indurate and hardened, to have no more understanding of God than brute beasts. And when we have after a sort renounced the inheritance of salvation, it shall come to pass that we shall renounce it a hundred and a thousand times, yea the devil will find a hundred means in one day to plunge us in the gulf of perdition, whereout we shall never be able to help ourselves.

Mark then what we have yet to observe upon this place: but by the way we have to consider Jacob's abstinence. Behold an example of true fast, and not as the Papists imagine. It is true, that fasts are commanded unto us in the holy scripture, for divers causes: For they serve to tame our carnal affections: and we must so cut off our drinking and our eating, that the temperance which God requires of us, may be as a continual fast, for the whole time of our life: but yet it is oftentimes required that we should lessen our portion. And why so? To the end we may be the better disposed to prayer. And again, when we are afflicted, there is no question then of banqueting and making great cheer: if God threatens us, and that he will show us some sign of his wrath (as he says by his Prophet:) I then call you to mourning and weeping: and if we loose the reins to our desires, it is as if we should bid him battle and despite him.

Mark then how fasting serves to humble us before God, and to make us as wretched malefactors acknowledging that we have offended him. Moreover, the fast whereof mention is made here, is that which causes a man to abstain, yea from eating and drinking, if the same hinder him from serving God, and which makes him rather to forsake his own life, than to be turned away from God's will. For (as we have already said) Jacob suffered as much as his brother Esau: It is very true: that he had not traversed and run so far that day in the fields and woods: he had tarried in the house after his accustomed manner: but albeit that he had made ready his dinner: he was an hungered and had an appetite to eat, but howsoever it was, he liked better to abstain, and to captivate himself, and to renounce his dinner, and as it were his own life, than to lose this occasion, which he had, that his birthright might be confirmed unto him.

So then, we have here to make comparison between Jacob and Esau, and to make our profit of the exhortation which we have alleged: that is to say, that we be not profane. But contrariwise it is said of Esau:

"That he did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way."

The speech here at the first sight is simple, but it carries much with it: For it was not enough that he had said that Esau, without any further thinking of the matter had emptied his dish and was gone: but Moses says that he did eat and drink, that he took his refection wholly at his ease, and that he was well filled, as though his birthright had been nothing unto him. And this is the conclusion which he sets down.

That he contemned his birthright. But before we come to this, it is said that he did eat, that he drank, and rose up, and went his way: wherein it is showed that Esau was abashed at nothing, but he was as a Dog, that did nothing but shake his ear, after he had eaten and drunk. Then he went his way and pleaded not the matter against his brother, as they which repent themselves, and are better advised, when they have done any unadvised act. They consider, "Alas what have I done? What shall become of me? How far have I overshot myself?" Esau thinks nothing of all this: but he leaves his brother after he was full: he rose up, and had no care of anything. Now therefore we have here to behold how the Devil, when he has taken possession of a man, makes him so senseless and blockish, that he has no feeling of sorrow in himself, no remorse nor scruple, although he see that he be as it were cut off and banished from the kingdom of God, yet he is no whit moved with it. But this which I have touched ere while is yet better expressed: that is, that always we fall from one evil to another: and when the Devil has gotten us into his snares, he so entangles us in them that we can never wind out.

But we must gather this general doctrine of this history, that is, that we always think upon that which is said by our Lord Jesus Christ: "That first of all we seek for the kingdom of God: and that the rest shall be cast unto us." Now when he speaks of the kingdom of God, this is not only to be understood of life everlasting, but this also is comprised in it. For the kingdom of God is, that God be glorified in us, that he be served and worshipped, that we be his people, as also he has mutually sanctified us: as he has spoken thereof by his Prophet Isaiah: "Sanctify the Lord of Hosts, and he will sanctify you, and will be your strength." When we shall therefore seek that God may be honored, and that we labor to dedicate ourselves to him, and to be, as it were living sacrifices: then shall all other things be given unto us: that is to say (as Saint Paul also has declared:) God will show himself a father as well of our bodies as of our souls. For he says unto Timothy, that if we walk in the fear of God, thinking more upon Heaven than upon the earth: "We have the promises (howsoever it be) of this present life, as well as of the life to come."

It is very true that the promises belonging unto this present life are accessories, that is, no other than that which follows and depends thereupon: but it is so much, that if we lean upon the bounty of God, and strive thither whether he has called us: that is to say, to the salvation which he has so dearly purchased for us, by our Lord Jesus Christ: God will not only become the father of our souls, but also of our bodies. We are thoroughly assured of this, and ought to be resolved in it. But now (howsoever it be) if we must be ready to renounce this present life, and all the commodities which are here. If we must renounce our own life, by a stronger reason we must renounce to live. Now we cannot live here without eating and drinking: but yet it behooves that we be ready to suffer hunger and thirst, rather than to be turned away from our calling: and not only this, but when the question shall be of death, we must offer our lives to God, doing him this homage, and always desiring rather a precious and blessed death before him, than all the lives that might be imagined in this world, which he shall accursed.

Behold then the rule that is given to all Christians, and whereby they are tried if they be the true children of God: and that is, when the world hinders them not to serve God, but they always march on forwards by that path which is showed them by the holy Scripture. When I say that the world lets them not: I understand not only those wicked lusts as drunkenness, whoredom, covetousness, and such like: but also those desires that are not utterly condemned: as eating and drinking when it shall be permitted us of God, and yet if eating and drinking shall hinder us from serving God, then we must so strive, that our desires may be tamed.

Now this may be better understood by the common experience we have. There is a man who may live in delights and pleasures, he has to eat to the full, yes, of all manner of dainties and delicacies, and exquisite meats: but he must hang his conscience (as they say) upon the rack, or rather be profaned with the wicked world. For there are a great many conditions offered to many, which are as the enticing baits of Satan. Thereupon they will think, "Oh if I were in such a place, I might gather a great deal of good, and afterwards I should be in great honor, all the world would crouch unto me: In the meantime I should have my table well furnished, I should have wherewith to nourish me to my desire: yes and in my old age, when I should have gathered together my livelihood and rents, I should be assured to live at my ease. But I cannot attain unto it." But what does this tend to? Even hitherto, that I cannot do this, without being in great danger, to bring myself to great wickedness, yes and without utterly estranging myself from God: However it be, I cannot serve God purely as he has commanded me. But if any man be tempted with this, it is certain that he is like unto Esau, if he makes choice of this condition, which shall be more agreeable to the world, and in the meantime shall forsake the means he has to serve God, and to live in the peace and tranquility of a good conscience. For he considers not: "I am a weak man, and have much ado to hold myself in the fear of GOD, although, I am every day exhorted unto it: yes, and though I do give myself wholly unto it, and enforce myself thereto: and what shall become of me when I shall have no word of God, that I shall not be exhorted to do my duty, and that I shall be entangled with many businesses and affairs of the world?" If a man thinks not of all this, and that he makes choice of a good table, that is to say, if he rather chooses an estate whereby he may enrich himself, it is certain that he shall be resembled unto Esau.

Contrariwise, when we shall think: "Go to, it is true that we shall be at our ease, if we will forsake God, or rather depart from him, and will decline, be it never so little from a good way. But what? The devil will by and by find new sleights to bring us wholly to wickedness, in such sort that we shall be as a desperate people." But let us prevent such a danger, and rather let us love hunger and thirst, yes and to feed straitly, and not to have any great pomp and great superfluity: Let us choose rather, I say, not to have so great an estate, and hold ourselves in sobriety, than to be rich and wealthy, and notwithstanding to forget ourselves, and to have all our joy here beneath. When we shall so behave ourselves herein: lo how we follow the example of our father Jacob. But as I have said already, the question is not only of forsaking our ease and commodity, but also, when need shall be, of our own life. For if so be, we must die to make confession of our faith, such as God requires of us, and to glorify the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and must pass that way: we must likewise also forsake our own life, and all that belongs unto it: and if we do it not, we show that we know not what it is to have tasted of spiritual blessings: but that we have lost all taste of them, forasmuch as the devil has made us drunken with his poisons, and has bewitched us and made us senseless and blockish.

We see here by the way how profitable this history is unto us. For besides that we have said already, that God has ratified his election, and has discovered that which was in Esau and Jacob: here our father Jacob reaches out his hand unto us, and shows us that all the pleasures of this world, ought to be nothing unto us, no not our very nourishment, when there shall be any question: to be as poor starved people, that we rather forsake to eat and drink, when all shall be made ready, yes specially, when the smell shall have provoked us, that we imagine to have the morsels already in our mouths, and to have swallowed them down, when we shall be come so far, nevertheless, that we enter into such a combat against ourselves, that we renounce our natural inclination, and specially that which is not utterly condemned amongst men, if it let us from coming unto God, if it hinder us, or entangle us here beneath in any corruptions. Behold what we ought to do.

And moreover that we take good heed on the other side, that we be not like unto Esau, and that we allege not this, and that as many say, "Oh we must live." We may well have our excuses before men: but when we shall come to render a reckoning before that great Judge, who has declared unto us, that he will have us to set such price upon the treasure of our salvation, that he has offered us in the Gospel, that we learn to withdraw ourselves from the world, and that all that is in it be nothing in comparison of it. But this thing is practised after sundry sorts and manners: For when a Christian man shall have plenty, if he be sober in eating and drinking, and do not so gorge himself, that he lose both his sense and memory, but be always disposed to praise GOD, to execute the charge whereunto he is called, and to employ himself to that which belongs to his estate and vocation, if a man be so temperate, he is like unto Jacob. For he forsaketh to eat and drink, not because he values not the benefits that God has put into his hand, but he forsaketh them, in bridling his desires, to the end not to exceed measure: and after he always lifteth up himself on high, regarding the service of GOD, and preferring it before any worldly thing.

Again, if it be necessary that he who was rich, should be poor: and that he had rather be poor, yea if it were but to eat roots, if need should be, rather than to be alienated from GOD: and that always he remain steadfast in it, saying, "forasmuch as I am an heir of the world I ought to be well contented: and now if I endure hunger or thirst, if I bear any necessities and miseries, I will pray unto God that he will give me patience." And this is the reason, why Saint Paul also says, that he had learned, in the school of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be hungry and to be full: that is to say, when he had enough, he left not to hold himself in: and when he had nothing he was patient in his necessity: he had recourse to God and chose rather to have many wants in respect of the world then to have wherewith to grow and enrich himself, and yet to be empty of heavenly benefits.

For it is certain that Esau had his soul buried in the pottage he saw there, he smelt them, and thereto he laid his snout. And wherefore?

Because he had no other consideration than of this present life. Lo, his soul which was buried therein. Now we may be compassed round about, with all the goods of this world: but it behooves that the smell does not so allure us, that we esteem not spiritual things far above them, and always to prefer them. Mark then briefly, how we ought to apply this doctrine unto our use.

And moreover, let us mark well that which is spoken here, that the wickedness of Esau was because he made no account of his birthright. And therefore, this is a sign that we contemn the graces of GOD, and as a man would say, cast them to the ground and tread them under our feet when we are so much addicted, either to this life, or to our desires: and when we can endure and bear nothing but will have all which is pleasant unto us after the flesh. When then we will in such sort hold our lusts, it is certain that we make light account of that heavenly inheritance. For how shall that be esteemed of us? It shall be esteemed of us (as I have said already) when the world shall be unto us but as an accessory, and all that is in it shall go as at the tail. But the gospel and the promises which are therein contained, whereby God testifies unto us, how he has adopted us, and likewise how he will have us to himself: this must mount up above them, and we must be ravished in them. And notwithstanding let us well advise ourselves. For if once the Devil gains this of us, that we become beastly in our pleasures, he will not put us in mind for naught, we shall seek after nothing but this transitory life, we shall do nothing but run up and down like poor beasts, and have no mark whereat to aim, as it fell out with Esau. I have said already that these words are not put in in vain. He did eat, he drank, he rose up and went his way. And what a company of such, and such like, do we see at this day? For they who have their delights after the manner of the world, will esteem us for beggarly mopes and they deride our simplicity: Well, well, say they: let them have their Gospel, and notwithstanding die for hunger, and let them be such as have not a rag to hang on their tail, and have nothing to champ between their teeth, or rather let them droop and hang their wings, and be so miserable as none can be more: and let them rejoice in their Gospel, as much as they will, but we in the meantime will have our swing in this world, we will have all our desires, and our table well garnished.

And above all these contemners of God, which are at this day advanced into states and dignities, it is well known how they flout us, and bleat out their tongue, if men speak unto them of the gospel and it seems to them that we are as mad men, which cannot discern between good and evil. And why so? For they eat and drink they rise up, and go their way: yea the world does so hold them, or rather Satan has in such sort possessed them, that Heaven is nothing unto them, and they altogether forget everlasting life. We see this, and yet it is to no purpose to pursue it: For our Lord has set before our eyes, that this is a horrible condemnation when we fall into such blockishness, to prefer this life, which is nothing but a shadow before that eternity, to which God has called us. For let us put the case, that we should live a hundred years after our death: and yet what is that? If we make comparison (as S. Paul says) with this world, it is but a minute and a figure which passeth away, and in sum, but a moment.

Now contrarywise of what weight ought our immortality to be with us, which is offered unto us in our Lord Jesus Christ, and whereof he hath so well certified us? And yet concerning this life, who is it that can promise us one day? For they who are well fed, they grow therein, and there cannot be a minute to uphold them: and specially intemperance chokes very many. And we see that men, the more they have wherewith to do well, they kill themselves. And yet in the meantime we cannot content ourselves, but (like poor beasts) we must seek for that which has no certainty: and in the turning of a hand all is lost. We seek nevertheless for this, and hereunto we are given, yea wholly addicted, insomuch that we discern not betwixt that which is permanent and that which flits away. For if we contemn that which is everlasting whither then go we? It is certain that the most wicked themselves will say that this is madness: but after they have said it, they show that they are strayed, and that they do not greatly pass for it.

And this is so common a vice that it behooves that the most perfect especially fight against it. And the Apostle not without cause handling this matter says: "Be not profane," to the end to make us watchful: and to make us think who we are, and that we should not be so brutish as to rest upon this present life. So then, let us go further, and that which is here given us, let us apply for our help, to make us run on the more swiftly: but if there be anything that hinders us, yea though it were our very eye (as our Lord Jesus Christ says) that our eye may rather be plucked out, and we rather desire to enter into the kingdom of Heaven blind, than having all our senses sound to go into everlasting destruction. So then to conclude, let us rather love hunger and thirst than to cram and stuff our bellies, and in the meantime not to regard everlasting life. For we must not be so snared in these corruptible and transitory things that we cannot always lift up our senses and affections on high, to the end, through hope to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

But now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God, in acknowledging our offenses, praying him that it will please him in such sort to make us to feel them, that it may serve to make us there to open them: and that we may learn in such sort to fight against all temptations, that if we must endure many poverties and miseries in this world (howsoever it be), that this do not turn us to wickedness and make us to decline from the right path: but that everyone may here resist both himself, as also all his desires, and all his passions: and that we may serve our God in such sort, that if it will please him to prove our patience in leaving us destitute of means and of the commodities of this world: that we may bear all with a quiet and peaceable courage, until we be received into this blessed inheritance, where we shall not lack anything whatsoever it be: but there we shall have the fullness of all joy and happiness. That not only etc.