The Eighth Sermon, which is the second upon the second Chapter - Galatians 2:3-5

The Eighth Sermon,

which is the second upon the second Chapter.

3 And Titus also who was with me, although he was a Greek, was not compelled to be circumcised.

4 Because of the false brethren that had secretly crept in, to spy out our liberty which we have in Jesus Christ, to the end to bring us into bondage.

5 To whom we yielded not in way of submission, even for an hour, so that the truth of the Gospel might continue in you.

We find well enough what an enemy of our welfare the Devil is, since he ceases not to labor by all means to stop the course of the Gospel. And therein we perceive also that God has set all our welfare, joy, and happiness in being taught by His word. For the Devil would not be so hasty to trouble that doctrine, unless he knew that the whole welfare of men lies therein. True it is that he labors sore and strains himself to deface God's glory, but these things go together. For God, of His gracious goodness, has appointed that to be the means to reign among us and to gather us unto Himself, and all our welfare is to cleave unto Him and to join with Him. Therefore, the Devil not only stirs up many enemies to make war against the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ but also labors to stir up much strife among ourselves and to make us enemies one to another, and that has been his practice at all times, as we see by example in the things that Saint Paul rehearses to us here. We know what alarms were given him everywhere, and what a number of battles and plunges he was put into because the Heathen and the unbelievers did (to the utmost of their power) withstand the preaching of God's word.

Yet, over and besides this, he shows how there were deceivers also, who wound themselves in slyly and entered in as it were by stealth. For the Greek word that he uses, imports so much, and it cannot well be expressed [by any one word] in our [French] tongue. His meaning then is that there were Cousin, which intermeddled themselves underminingly with the faithful, and yet all was no more but to cause the truth of the Gospel to be corrupted. And let us mark that those dogs pretended not to reject utterly the whole doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ but rather bore the name and title of Christianity. However, in the meantime, their intent was to have a half-paste Gospel, which should be neither fish nor fleshes (as they say) but a medley of their own device: like as at this day there are still too many such folk in the world, who would fain forge and build a kind of Religion after their fashion, taking a piece of the pure truth and mingling many lies and dreams with it. Lo how there have been Neuters even from Saint Paul's time hither. And now he says that he yielded not to them so much as one minute in way of subjection, to the end that the liberty of the Gospel might continue in its full force.

That is in effect the thing that is rehearsed here. And first of all, we have to arm ourselves against the household enemies, which labor to turmoil and trouble the doctrine of the Gospel in such wise, as it may become like a misshapen thing, and men may not discern any more of it. But let us not be abashed when it happens so, for it is no novelty at all. Wherefore let us understand that as it was God's will to try the constancy of the faithful in Saint Paul's time, so it is good reason that we also should be tried in these days, according as it is said that it is necessary that there should be sects and heresies, to the intent that they which have taken deep root might be known by continuing in their obedience to Godward and bear their mark that men may know them to have profited truly in the school of our Lord Jesus Christ, for that they have not suffered themselves to be misled or thrust out of the way. That, therefore, is the cause why our Lord does always suffer some troublers to sow darnell seed and to labor to turn the pure doctrine upside down. He could well let it if he thought good, but he gives Satan the bridle that our faith may be the better tried. Although we see occasions before our eyes, yet let us not swerve one way or another, but keep on still in the way that is showed us, assuring ourselves that we cannot do amiss in resting wholly upon God's word. Then if we stand to that, it is a good trial of our faith. Furthermore, let us fight against such dogs, knowing that they are deadly plagues and do much more harm than they that leap quite out of their sockets and show themselves manifestly to be despisers of the Gospel. Those then that are intermingled among us are the worse sort, and it stands us on hand to resist them manfully. For if we shrink from them in the battle, surely we shall have so much the greater confusion, and men shall not be able anymore to put a difference between white and black.

Thus you see how it behooves us to behave ourselves. And now let us mark what kind of men Saint Paul has noted here. He says that they were crept in as it were by stealth, to spy out the liberty which we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. The liberty that he speaks of here concerned ceremonies. For (as we have touched already, and shall more fully see again hereafter) God had ordained many figures under the Law, to hold the Fathers in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, till he were come and showed to the world. The sacrifices therefore with all their appendants and appurtenances, and the Sanctuary with all that was in it, served because our Lord Jesus Christ who is the truth and substance of those things had not yet showed himself. It was for the fathers to be led and guided under such shadows. And that is the cause why Saint Paul will use the similitude of young children that are under Tutors and governors. The ancient fathers therefore took profit by keeping the ceremonies of the Law, for thereby they were always confirmed in the things that were promised concerning the Redeemer. And for that cause also it is said, that the Sanctuary was made according to the Pattern that Moses had seen in the Mount.

Now, that Pattern was spiritual, that is to wit, it was our Lord Jesus Christ with his grace, which is uttered to us by his means nowadays in his Gospel. For inasmuch as our Lord Jesus Christ is come into the world, he has made an end of those shadows and figures. And therefore also the veil of the Temple rent asunder at his death, to show how it was God's will to have the faithful come more familiarly unto him. Saint Paul says now that we have liberty in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is because we are no more subject to the bondage that lasted in the time of the Law, according as he will hereafter take example of circumcision, and as he treats of it in another place also to the Colossians. We then are circumcised, not by the hand of man, but by the working of Jesus Christ in us through the power of his holy spirit. And instead of the circumcision that was ordained for the Jews, we have Baptism, which witnesses the same thing unto us: namely that we must become new creatures to dedicate ourselves wholly to the service of God. And so we see that the liberty or freedom which is purchased to us by our Lord Jesus Christ is that the ceremonies of the law are laid away, so we are no more subject nor bound unto them. Now at the first blush, a man would think this were no great thing. For what harm were it if we were first baptized, and by and by after circumcised? Or if we knew that our Lord Jesus Christ only is the whole perfection and accomplishment, and yet had the figures thereof still? First if men should keep still the ceremonies as in the time of the law: the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ should be diminished for it, according as it is said that the law was given by Moses, but truth and grace were uttered to us in our Lord Jesus Christ: for so it is said in the first chapter of Saint John.

Therefore he should be bereft of his honor if we should not have the liberty that he has brought us. And it behooves us to understand that our state is better and more excellent nowadays than was the state of the old fathers, because our Lord Jesus Christ is given unto us, and in him we have all that was figured at that time. So then, men do wrong to our Lord Jesus Christ, in keeping still the ceremonies of the Law. That is one point.

Again, for as much as he is named the Son of righteousness, we must not be led still as though there were but a spark of light: but we must fasten our eyes upon the doctrine wherein our Lord Jesus Christ is showed unto us, and wherein we may also behold him face to face, to come even unto God his father, as has been shown in the second to the Corinthians. Moreover, if the ceremonies of the Law be considered without our Lord Jesus Christ, that is to say, if they be separated from him: they bring as it were a binding with them, and a record of condemnation and death upon men. And thereupon does Saint Paul stand in the second to the Colossians, where he says that our Lord Jesus Christ has upon his Cross, torn asunder and blotted out the obligation or handwriting that was against us. For if the Sacrifices stood in force at this day, we should see there that we be all in danger of eternal death before God. And why so? The slaying of the poor beasts was not for that they themselves had deserved it, but to show unto men as it were in a lively picture, that they were all worthy to perish. Then if the same continued yet at this day, we should still stand bound under the same obligation of death. But we be discharged of it, by our Lord Jesus Christ.

And that was the triumph of his death, as Saint Paul says. Thirdly, the ancient fathers knew that although the Law was given to them, yet they obtained such favor of freedom at God's hand, that all their faults were forgiven them. But if men should nowadays be put to the necessity of keeping all the ceremonies: it would be an intolerable yoke, as it is said in the fifteenth of the Acts: For the case would not only concern ceremonies but also the drowning of us in despair. For is it possible for men to do the things which God commands all men to do without any exception or release? No. For the thing that God requires and demands, surpasses all our ability: and if we fail but in any one point; we should be overwhelmed under the burden.

Therefore for that cause, this liberty is of such importance, as we cannot be sure of our salvation, nor freely call upon God, except we know that we are no more held under the yoke and bondage of the Law. There is yet one point more which shall be laid out at length: which is, that such as would needs make the faithful subject to the keeping of ceremonies, had therewithal a wicked and untoward imagination, that men were justified and did purchase grace at God's hand by such means. And that was an utter abolishing of the force of the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now then, we see it was not causeless that Saint Paul strove so stoutly against the ceremonies of the law, to the end they should not be so brought in use again, that the faithful should be held in bondage under them. And we have need to be warned thereof: for in these days we have the like encounter against the Papists. True it is that the Papists have less color than had the deceivers of whom Saint Paul speaks. For although they were Satan's underlings and sought nothing but to pervert the truth of the Gospel, yet had they at least wise this color, that they brought not in their own dreams and traditions, but alleged the authority of God, how that the law ought to be kept, and that was a meetly apparent excuse.

But the Papists have no such foundation: For all their Ceremonies are forgeries of man's brain. It is true that they have mingled Jewishness with them, and made such a gallimaufry as a man cannot tell of whom they have borrowed most. But however the world goes, yet are the Ceremonies of men's setting up, which are at this day in the Popedom. Now when we strive to abolish them, they say we trouble the world for nothing. And then step in these Neuters, which would fain please both parties, and make a Bastard Gospel. Those fellows cast us in the teeth, that we are seditious, and that through our preciseness we set much trouble in the world. And for proof thereof (say they) is it meet that there should be such striving about Ceremonies, seeing they are things indifferent? Yea, forsooth: For if God would have the Ceremonies of the law (which yet notwithstanding came of him and by his express commandment) to come to an end in our Lord Jesus Christ: what shall we do when men will of their own foolish rashness set up others in their stead? Seeing that God would have his own abolished, why should men step forth thereupon, and bring in their own device, and make God believe that he was not well advised? See you not a cursed blasphemy? Now we know that the cause why God would have the Ceremonies of his law abolished in these days, was to the intent that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ should be the more lightsome and better known. For he is the day-sun of righteousness.

Therefore all those shadows must cease, and it is he in whom we have the body and substance of them, says Saint Paul. Seeing then that God had that respect and reason: the figures must pass and vanish away. But now what reason will the Papists bring, when as men perceive by eyesight, that all their Ceremonies are a burying of our Lord Jesus Christ, and yet that they bind men to the keeping of them under pain of deadly sin? And furthermore, when as in all their Ceremonies, they have a certain opinion, that Baptism is not enough for them, but that they must have holy water to christen or baptize men evening and morning: and finally, that when they have brought in all their pelting trash, and all their gewgaws, there must always be something in them to draw poor souls into bondage: is it to be borne with?

On the other side, we see there is so straight a yoke, as it is able to strangle the poor wretches. For the seely souls are bereft of the freedom that was purchased for them by the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see them how it is not without urgent cause, yea and extreme necessity, that we strive against the Popish tyranny about ceremonies, considering that our Lord Jesus Christ has not his deserved preeminence, so long as men busy their wits about those small trifles, and that moreover their wretched consciences are always in unquietness without end or ceasing: and finally, that on the other side the Papists think to deserve grace by the things which they term God's service, bearing themselves in hand, that that is the means whereby men should become righteous to obtain salvation.

So then we see that Saint Paul in his time was driven to sustain that strife. And forasmuch as our case is altogether like at this day, so as we cannot hold our peace except we will betray both God and man: we must fight stoutly against that hellish tyranny, and against those pelting trash, trumpery and illusions of Satan, whereby he would fain either quite deface the Gospel, or else so turmoil it as a man should not know which is the pure truth. This in effect is the thing that we have to bear in mind. And whereas Saint Paul says that he yielded not one jot to such men: it is to confirm us so much the better on the thing that I touched even now. Peace and friendship are an amiable thing among men. They are so indeed, and we ought to seek them to the uttermost of our power. But yet for all that, we must set such store by God's truth, that if all the world should be set on fire for the maintenance thereof, we should not stick at it. As much as we can possibly, let us purchase peace: and if the matter concern but our own persons or goods, let us endeavor to compound with our adversaries, let us bear with them, and let us labor to overcome them by our patience: Lo in what manner we ought to buy peace. But yet in the meantime let not God's truth be diminished, nor sustain any harm or prejudice.

For the peace that men seek among themselves shall evermore be accursed if God is not therewithal acknowledged and magnified as he ought to be, and his word also continues unimpeached, for that is the knot of our bond: and if we intend to have it acceptable to God, and the end of it to be good and for our welfare, surely God must knit us together. And he has given us his Son, who is called our peace, to the end we should all of us fall in order under him. Then if we mind to have good and holy peace, let us aim at this mark of yielding ourselves under the obedience of God's son, that he may be our head and we his body, like as there is but one Church.

But if any man goes about to withdraw us from our Lord Jesus Christ: let us rather bear all the hatred, outrages, and madness of the world, than to seek such agreement. And let us not be afraid of all the reproach that can be done unto us according as nowadays we shall be falsely slandered as stirrers up of many strifes. Yea verily, but what can we do with it? For it behooves us to abide still in the truth of the Gospel, or else woe be unto us. If the Papists will not agree with us, but be utterly willful in the stubbornness that is seen to be in them: we must be contented to be at defiance with men, seeing they purpose to turn us from the peace which we should have with God by the means of his Son, who not without cause bears that title as I told you before. Therefore when they cry out upon us, we must be fenced with this answer of Elijah which he made unto Ahab. Art not thou he (said Ahab) that troublest Israel? For the Prophet was accused (as we are nowadays) because he labored to bring the people back again to the pureness of the Law, and fought against the superstitions and idolatries that had been devised: [by reason whereof] the king thought verily that Elijah had been come to make trouble sedition, and uproars, according as the princes of this world could find in their hearts always to welter in their own filth, and pass not of the serving and honoring of God, but all is one to them [what come of it] so they may be maintained in their state. But the Prophet answered him, saying: [It is not I,] but it is thou and thy fathers house. For they that will not agree unto God, nor hold themselves to his service in such wise as he has appointed it in his word: they [say I] are the troublers of the world, and the parties that ought to be blamed for all the uproars, variances, and debates that happen.

For (as I have showed already) it is no reason that God should be robbed of his right when men seek to knit themselves together. Ye see then in effect what we have to think upon when Saint Paul says that he would not yield one minute as in way of subjection, to such as wound in themselves after that fashion under false colors, to make a bastard Gospel full of mingled mangles and corruptions: for God's truth is the thing that was to be known first of all. Furthermore let us not be afraid of the slander that is laid upon us [in telling us] that it is pride and presumption when we will not submit ourselves: like as nowadays the thing that the Papists allege against us, is that we seem to take upon us to be wiser than all the world, and that it is a great pride in us, that we cannot find in our hearts to submit ourselves to the common fashion. True it is that the title of obedience is amiable, like as I said even now of peace: but yet must God be obeyed first of all. For if we will openly spite God, and play mock holyday with him to the intent to submit ourselves unto men, and bow down our neck to bear their yoke, and in the meantime give no audience unto God: what shall become of it? Surely we cannot frame ourselves to the Papists in way of subjection or yielding to them; but God must be thrust out of doors, and his word as it were trodden underfoot, so as it shall have neither authority nor reverence among us. What is it that the Papists would have us to do? That we should leave God's word, and give over our Lord Jesus Christ, and yet in the meantime receive all that ever they have devised. They will not say in flat terms that God shall be spoiled of his honor, nor that Jesus Christ shall have no more authority among them, they will not speak so with open mouth, but yet it is so indeed. Like as these deceivers against whom Saint Paul strove, made fair protestations enough that they meant to be Christians, but yet for all that he was fain to come to the touchstone, and to examine all things thoroughly. Now would the Papists have their traditions received: and what manner of things are they? We see that our Lord Jesus Christ is as good as buried there, as I have showed already.

Again, there is nothing but corruption in them: the things that are contained under them are utter illusions of Satan, tending all to this end, that there may be no more any certainty, nor any man know whereunto to stick. Seeing it is so, it is not for us to make war against God, that men might be obeyed. And therefore let us have as it were a forehead of brass to resist them in that behalf. For the greatest manliness that can be, is to keep ourselves from swerving aside for men's sakes, what color or fair show soever be set upon the matter, and to despise every whit of it as dung and filth, when it stands upon reserving God's sovereignty unto him, and upon giving ear to our Lord Jesus Christ, to the end that he may be our head, and govern us, and all of us from the most to the least continue under his guiding, and do nothing else but simply give ear unto him, and receive the things that are for our maintenance in the faith of the Gospel. Ye see then what we have to remember here concerning Saint Paul. Surely if you seek a meek and meek-spirited man, Saint Paul was he, yes and he was even as a mirror of all courtesy and gentleness.

Again, if you desire a humble nature, what greater humility can there be found than was in Saint Paul, who abased himself beneath all men? Yet, notwithstanding, we see how he strove for the pure doctrine of the Gospel and did not hesitate to provoke the wrath of all men in the world against himself, to the extent that it was cast in his teeth that all the troubles which happened in the Church of Galatia and elsewhere came from him. I say he feared not the reproach with which men could charge him, that he was a rebel and had too much presumptuousness in him. Even so must we do in these days. Let us be peaceable as near as we can; let us relinquish our own rights; let us not strive for these worldly goods, honor, and reputation; let us bear all wrongs and outrages rather than be moved to any debate through our own fault. But in the meantime, let us fight for God's truth tooth and nail.

Again, if anybody despises us, such that one steps up maliciously against us, and another goes about to deface us, let us not make any quarrel at all for that. But if anyone tries to draw us from obeying our God, to make us stoop to the tyranny of men, let us hold our own in that case, let us withstand him stoutly to the uttermost, and let us defy all the loftiness of the world, so that our Lord Jesus Christ is not diminished, but may always reign over us, and we be subject unto him. Thus you see in effect how we ought to put this text into practice, and also how the necessity of the time ought to stir us thereto. For nowadays we are not only persecuted, so that we see the fires kindled to murder the poor servants of God, but also are accused and condemned as seditious persons by those slaves who are in wages with Antichrist, to overthrow the truth of the Gospel. Moreover, they say there is nothing but pride in us because we will not receive their traditions. Well then, do they slander us so furiously? Let us bear it patiently, and let them rail their fill (as Saint Paul says), so our quarrel is always to stand for our part in the pure truth of the Gospel, and to withstand the creatures that will not suffer Christ alone to reign, and all knees to bow before him, and all men to do him homage.

Now, concerning what Saint Paul speaks of the truth of the Gospel, it is a very notable saying, and it conveys a very profitable doctrine. For he might well have said simply, "to the end that the gospel might abide among you, I would not give place to them so much as one minute." But he speaks of the truth of the Gospel. Howbeit, not that there is one true and another false, but when he says that the Gospel should continue true, he speaks of it in respect of men. And why so? For although men make a fair show to be Christians, yet they always labor to have some medley, as we see many garish heads in this world who cannot abide that God alone should govern us, but every man would cast in his own collop or morsel, and thereof came the confusion that is at this day in the papacy. One would wonder how so many trifles, fool's baubles, and even gross abominations could be gathered together. But that has come to pass because men were not contented to obey God but would needs add this and that of their own fancy. So then, Saint Paul speaks here purposely of the truth of the Gospel, as he speaks of the simplicity of our Lord Jesus in the second letter to the Corinthians. And what is meant by the simplicity (or singleness) of our Lord Jesus Christ? It is matched against all the minglings that men make. For (as I have said already) they have a foolish fancy of setting forth things devised of their own brain. Now when men do so put to things of their own, it is but corruption and stark abomination. And that is the cause why Saint Paul says that we must hold still the singleness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, when under the color of handling the Gospel, men go about to make a patched and piecemeal religion (as a man might term it), it is no more a true religion, but there is much falsehood mingled with it. Then let us mark well that whereas Saint Paul uses such speech here, he (or rather the Holy Spirit by his mouth) warns us that it is not enough for us to bear the name of Christians and to make some fair show of cleaving to God's word and to the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ, but that we must stick to it thoroughly and take heed that we neither mingle nor foist in anything to it, but consider that just as a little leaven is able to sour a great deal of dough, so all will be marred as soon as we give any entrance to the things that men have devised of their own heads. In short, the means to keep the doctrine of the Gospel pure is that men add nothing to it, nor be so bold and licentious as to lay one thing or another upon it, but to content themselves with the things that our Lord Jesus Christ has shown us, so that we become his true disciples and do not dare to reply against him, but that all mouths may be shut, and no man lift up his nose to say, "This is my opinion, this I think to be good," but every one of us receives simply that which is taught us by our master, who has all dominion reigning over our souls. This is how we may have the truth of the Gospel. And it behooves us so much the more to practice this doctrine of Saint Paul's because we see that nowadays many men seek nothing but to mix one with another, so that they care not of what religion they be, so the same be most tolerable and easily received of the world.

True it is that among the Papists, many are so willful as they will never abide that a man should vary one point from them. For they see well that if there be ever so little a breach made, by and by all their tyranny decays and falls down to the ground. For what hold have they but by tyranny and violence, to tell us that we must neither will nor choose, but take it for good? Those therefore that are flatly on the pope's side would have men to hold throughout all the filthiness and abominations which they have had hitherto. But there are a sort of fantastical heads which would have a Reformation wherein the Pope, Mahomet, and Jesus Christ should be mingled together, so as men might no more discern which is which, for all is one to them so the world be agreed upon it. They bear no reverence at all unto God, and that is the cause why all things have been so turmoiled and confounded in our days, and the very foundation whereupon the Interim (as they term it) was grounded. For seeing that many men could not find in their hearts to consent to Papistry, they thought it good to have a reformation between both. And even at this day, a great sort incline still to the like reformation. It is true, they say, that there are abuses, and it were meet they should be mended. Yet their meaning is but to pluck away some leaf or little branch and to let the rest alone, that the root might grow still, that is to say, that the Gospel of God might be defaced with all manner of superstitions that reign in the Papacy. But what for that? Here the Holy Ghost condemns all such neuters and shows that their doings are but crafts of Satan, yea and mere illusions and mockeries to lead silly souls to destruction, and moreover also a defacing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And why? For we have not the Gospel at all except we have the pure truth, whereunto it may not be lawful for men to add anything, but all of us to hold ourselves to that which is shown us by our Master. You see then how that in these days we are enforced by the necessity of the time to put this doctrine in use.

Therefore, when God's enemies upbraid us that we will not agree with them, let us always allege for our excuse that our agreement is to be knit together in our Lord Jesus Christ and to be all obedient to his word and doctrine. If they allege that it is pride in us to reject the things commanded by such men who term themselves superiors, let us answer that we must first obey God, and that Jesus Christ must not be bereft of his right, and men set up in his place. If they ask why so? Were it not better to have some mean way, and that every man should show how he intends not to separate himself from the rest, than to strive after that fashion and to cause Christendom to be as it were scattered? Let us answer that the matter does not stand upon knowing who shall get the upper hand, or who shall be master over his fellows, but God's word must continue always unimpeached, or otherwise all the pretense of concord that men can make shall be but abomination before God. And why? For it were better that all things should go to havoc and confusion in the world than to abide that God's word (being so precious and holy a thing as it is) should in any wise be perverted; yea, it were better that heaven and earth should be confounded together than that that should be suffered.

So then let us consider well this doctrine, how it may serve our turn and do us good, not only to beat back all the assaults that shall be put to us by the enemies of God's truth, but also to frame us to all lowliness and modesty, so as our whole desire may be to be guided and governed by God's word and by the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, therewithal, let us be so stout-hearted as not to be turned away by men, neither for their credit and authority, nor for their threatenings, nor for all the pride and stateliness of the world, but that we may always stick steadfastly to our Lord Jesus Christ. And if anybody comes and lays any new thing before us, let us evermore have a good eye to the end whereunto they would lead us, and consider that like as Satan has many wiles and policies, so also have his underlings too. Therefore, let us on our side have the skill to look to ourselves in such wise as we may always know our Lord Jesus Christ and be guided thither, so as he may be our only mark and sure anchor, and we understand that he has all fullness of welfare in him, to the end that we should seek our wants in him, and all things be put away that might hinder us from coming unto him.

And now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him to make us feel them in such wise as we may crave forgiveness of them at his hand with true repentance, and profit after such sort more and more in his word, as it may make us to forsake ourselves and lean unto him and his power, that he may hold us up in our frailty till he has brought us to the perfection whereunto he calls us at this day. And so let us all say, Almighty God our heavenly father, etc.