Part 13
Furthermore, let every one of us examine himself well, and he shall find that that is not the match whereby we must obtain salvation: for there is none of us all but he may condemn himself by his own life, if he judges without flattering. But after that God has spoken after that fashion, He offers us remedy in the Gospel, and tells us that for as much as we are damned and cannot hope to attain any salvation by our works, He Himself offered it to us of His own free goodness because it pleased Him so to do. And for that cause, St. Paul answers, If the law had been given to justify, I could well enough grant that righteousness should be given us by it. But let us see whether God meant that or not. It is certain He meant it not. Then sends He us to God's purpose: as if He should say, that the hypocrites which are so puffed up with pride and overweening, that they think they be able to justify themselves and to win heaven, are ill expounders of God's law, yea, and falsifiers thereof. For men must always have an eye to the intent of the speaker. Now, God meant not to set men agog with any trust in their own wit and deservings, for we are too much given to that of our own nature. We see it has been a common error throughout the whole world in all ages. Therefore, we need no schooling to persuade us that we are able folk, and that we can bind God to us by our virtuous doings.
But contrariwise, God has given us His law, to the intent we should be wounded with it as with a sword, and the stripe be so deadly as we might be constrained to flee to Him for succor. Seeing then that God's will is to slay us by the Law, it is not given us to make us righteous. And therefore they that seek their life and welfare there, beguile themselves: and there is no reason why they should allege for themselves, "Yea? How so? God has promised me it." No, but they must consider to what end He says so. Now we see how St. Paul has discussed this question, that there is no contrariety between the Law and the Gospel, though God alters the manner of His speech at the first blush. Now he adds afterward, That the Scripture has shut up all under sin, that we might obtain the promise by the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. When he says that the scripture has shut up all under sin, he shows that men are too blockish to think that God meant to assign them a due wages or hire when He did set them down this condition. He that does these things shall live in them. Let them read the whole law, let them search the contents and substance of it, let them look well upon the whole Holy Scripture, and they shall find that it accuses and condemns all men from the most to the least, without any exception.
Now if we all be condemned, even by the law, what would we more? Must it not needs be that we be too much blinded with hypocrisy when we will needs bind God to us after this sort, notwithstanding that we be far wide from all righteousness, and He has told us that we cannot compass it in His sight, but that we must be utterly overwhelmed? St. Paul alleges not here any text to show that the Scripture has shut up all under sin, but takes it as utterly certain and which ought not to be doubted of any more among the faithful.
And for proof thereof, we see that even from the creation of the world, we all of us corrupted in Adam. His sin condemned not
himself only, but also all his whole offspring, and all of us are fallen in that fall of his. And thereupon it is said that all our thoughts are rebellings against God, and there is nothing but naughtiness in us. What then is man's wit? A warehouse of all wickedness. And seeing that God has avouched it to be so at a word, what shall we gain by challenging this or that to ourselves?
For all our starting holes shall but increase our misery, because in so doing we spite God and kindle His wrath so much the more. For what served all the sacrifices, but to show us to our faces, that all men are utterly accursed so long as they continue in them? And although there were no sacrifices at all, yet very experience shows it. Let every one of us enter into himself, let him consider what manner of one he is, and let him view himself in the perfection which the Holy Scripture requires at our hands, and he shall well find that there is no way for him but to embrace the promise of God's mercy which He makes unto us, when He says that our iniquities shall be wiped out, and that there is no way for us to come to Him but only by His love.
And does He not hereby still betray our sin? Especially seeing He sets down Jesus Christ for our righteousness? But if any man lists to have a larger and certainer discourse hereof, let him add that which St. Paul sets down in the third to the Romans, where he sets forth the thing largely which is touched here briefly: and then shall he see yet better how the Scripture has shut up all under sin.
For there St. Paul alleges the texts that serve to betray man's nature till God has drawn him back, changed him, and fashioned him anew. Like as when he says that God looked down here below, to see if He could find any soundness, and all were corrupted, yea, and festered in their naughtiness, and there was not so much as one that sought
after God. Now it is certain that there, there is no speaking of two or three, but generally of all men in whom God has not wrought to govern them by His Holy Spirit.
Therefore it is all one as if David did show us in a painted table what manner of ones we be by birth and heritage. Afterwards he adds that which is written in the fiftieth Psalm, and in all the residue, and finally alleges Isaiah also, to show that God was fain to serve His turn with His own arm, when He purposed to redeem men. What is it (says he) that men have done in that behalf? For they do but run forward, and cast themselves headlong into all cursedness and transgression. They do but wander: they love shifting, subtlety, falsehood, and lying: to be short, when God had looked that men should have helped to bring themselves to salvation, they were rather a hundred thousand times more in danger of perishing.
St. Paul therefore alleges all those things. Now let us flatter ourselves as much as we list: yet cannot the things be called back which God has pronounced upon us. And as often as we read the said texts, and hear St. Paul's expounding of them in the forealleged chapter: it is for us to cast down our heads, and to receive the shame which we deserve: namely to be bereft of all glory, and to seek at God's hand the things that we want.
And thus you see how the Scripture has shut up all under sin. In the eleventh chapter to the Romans he says that God has shut up all under sin, to the intent to have mercy on all. But there he sets yet one step higher. For he speaks not of the things that are told us in the law and the prophets, but of God's secret judgment, in that it was His will that all of us should be as good as drowned in destruction, to the intent that there should be no salvation but only by His goodness. Then if it be demanded why God has suffered men to fall into so
miserable plight: it is because He will have us beholden to His only mercy for all things.
Truly this will seem strange to many fantastical persons, which would fain restrain God to their measure, and are so rash that when God's determinations pass beyond their fleshly reason, by and by they condemn Him for spiteful and cruel. Yet for all that, St. Paul will have us to rest upon this saying, that God has shut up all under sin, that is to say, that He could well have created us much stedfaster and perfecter than He has done. He could have preserved us as He does His Angels. He could have given us such constancy in the person of Adam, that we should have entered into the heritage of heaven without dying. Yea, and He could have made that no more should have fallen in the person of Adam, but Adam alone. But He listed not so to do. If it be demanded why the mischief spread out further: is it not because God would have it so? Therefore we must in this case, as it were bridle and imprison ourselves, and receive the doctrine in such wise as St. Paul has uttered it: namely that God has put us all under sin, to the intent we should resort to Him for mercy.
But it is not enough that God has so determined it in His secret purpose: it was requisite also that the determination should be published and known. For until such time as men perceive themselves to be condemned: they will still be weltering in some vain self-trust, and boast of themselves, as we see too much.
The Scripture therefore must be fain to bring us to this understanding, that every one of us may condemn himself for a sinner, as it were with his own mouth, yea and that we do it unfeignedly. And why? Because it is by believing that we obtain the promise, that is to say the righteousness that is freely promised us. In the said text of the eleventh to the Romans which I alleged even now,
Saint Paul says, to the intent to show mercy upon all: but here he shows that it is not for all men to be partakers of it in general. For we know that the greatest number perisheth in their sins, because they refuse the remedy that is offered them in the Gospel.
And why then does Saint Paul speak of all? It is as much as if he should say, there is none other help for us but only God's looking upon us with pity, of His own mere goodness, that pardoning our offenses and receiving us into His favor, He take us for His children, to bring us to the heritage of the kingdom of heaven. We see then that Saint Paul did not without cause say that God will have mercy upon all: not that every man is comprehended under that word all, but to exclude and put away all self-righteousness of man.
Moreover, we see how the means is expressed here: namely that we must obtain the promise by faith, according as Saint John says that God so loved the world, that He spared not His only Son, to the end that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Will we then enter into the treasure that is showed to us here? Faith must be as a key to open us the door. For God calls us to it, but it is not enough for us to be called only: it behooves us to answer according to this saying, "you are my people," yea Lord, and thou art our God.
When he says, "you are my children," let us answer, Lord we come to thee as to our father. But surely we cannot answer so of our own proper motion: it must be given us of the Holy Ghost. However, the question is not here whether faith comes of men's selves or no. Saint Paul does no more but declare that to be quit before God, and to be drawn out of the dungeon of cursedness wherein we are all of us plunged, we must not bring anything of our own, as though we would go about to bind God, and that it were meet for us to imagine any
desert of our own: but come to crave his favor which is offered us freely without any duty toward usward, and settle our trust there, so as we hope not for any welfare otherwise than because God shows Himself merciful towards us.
I have declared already wherefore this serves. Surely men would always fain cloak themselves with some presumptuousness, as we see that Adam did: who though his own sin upbraided him, so as he was afraid of God's majesty, did nevertheless seek fig leaves to cover himself with all. At the same point are we. However, it is but a beguiling of ourselves to come before God, like whitelimed walls, and to think to be accepted at His hand: for He has an eye to the soundness of the heart, which is not to be found in any man. For so long as He lets us alone in our own kind, we be naught worth, how fair a show soever we make to the worldward.
Again, when He has reformed us, and given us a good desire to walk in His fear, which thing all the faithful must needs have: it does not follow therefore, that our affection is full and perfect: no, it comes far short of it. And yet, that which we have, we hold of His mere grace. So have we not anything to glory of or to rest upon however the world go: we cannot ground ourselves upon our own deservings.
True it is that the faithful must seek to give themselves wholly unto God: for we cannot be members of our Lord Jesus Christ, except we be sanctified by His Holy Spirit, as we shall see in time and place hereafter. And our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be divided nor cut in pieces as infinite as He is. Although our sins be forgiven us by His death and passion, and washed away and cleansed by His blood, and that the same washing be given us to fashion again the image of God His Father in us, so that we must be made new creatures in Him: yet notwithstanding howsoever we fare, it is not for us to press boldly
before God, as though we were worthy to be received, or as though we brought Him anything wherewith to bind Him.
For if we presume to allege one thing or another to Him, first and foremost all that we have comes of Him. Again, on the other side we are convicted of a hundred thousand faults, and when we go about any good work, we shall no sooner have done it, but it shall be infected with some spot or other, so that if it be tried rigorously, it shall always be subject to condemnation. Then must we needs keep our mouths shut: so that if we will have God favorable and merciful to us, we must bring nothing with us but only faith, no, but only faith. Nevertheless it is not meant that every man should take the bridle in his neck to do evil (as I have declared already heretofore:) it is not meant that we should be void of God's spirit, nor that we should welter in all wickedness: no, but here the case concerns only our trust whereupon we may ground ourselves to call GOD our father, that we may be sure of the eternal heritage.
If we go to our own works (as has been declared afore) there will be no certainty at all. For why, it is not a work or twain, or three that is required, but a perfect obedience, which was never yet found in any mortal creature. Truly if the Angels should come to account before God, they could not answer to that perfection of righteousness: and much less were it possible that we which are but worms, and which suck up sin as a fish does water, (as Job says) should be so sound that God should receive us for our worthiness. To be short, we must quit and clean give over the trust of our own works, and acknowledge that there is nothing but condemnation in us, if we mind to have the promise performed towards us. Thus you see in effect what Saint Paul meant to declare in this text.
And now he adds immediately, that before faith came, we were kept under the law, and as it were shut up till the faith was revealed. Here the words Law and Faith would be somewhat darksome, if they were not opened more at large. For sometimes when the scripture speaks of faith, it means all religion, and comprehends all the instructions that are given us in God's book. Sometimes it means the certainty of belief which we ought to have when we come to pray unto God, because we may not step to him at all adventure, but accept the grace that he offers us.
Then inasmuch as God's promises depend not upon our deserts, but is altogether freely and frankly given unto us, and we are made partakers by our Lord Jesus Christ: if we embrace the same, our so doing is called faith, and so has Saint Paul taken it hitherto, and likewise in his Epistle to the Romans, and in all other places where he discusses or treats how we may be justified before God, or how we may come in his favor, for they are both one thing, as I have said afore.
But in this text the word Faith has yet a more peculiar significance, which is, the revelation [or discovery] which we have by the Gospel. For it is very certain that the forefathers had the spirit of faith or belief, according as I have showed you already that Abraham was justified because he believed God, and that we also must be fashioned like to his example in that behalf, as whereby we be made his children to come to the kingdom of heaven. Then had faith its full strength at all times, and there never was any other means to set God and men at one: but yet was not the faith revealed in Abraham's time, because our Lord Jesus Christ who is the very pledge and substance thereof, was not yet come into the world.
Thus you see how we be justified freely at this day, and without any desert of our own. And why is that? For he that believes that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and is risen again for our justification: has all the whole. And as it is said in another place, our believing with our heart makes us righteous, and our confessing with our mouth makes us safe.
But now had Abraham had our Lord Jesus Christ discovered unto him as we have him at this day, (inasmuch that he is as good as crucified among us as Saint Paul has said heretofore:) his faith had been all one with ours. But it was yet after a sort covered, that is to say, although Abraham trusted in Jesus Christ, hoping for salvation at his hand, and although he utterly distrusted himself, knowing that there was virtue in him that might go for payment before God: yet was he held still under shadows, and was fain to look at Jesus Christ afar off. For he was not yet named the day sun of righteousness, as he is called in Malachi.
Now then we see what Saint Paul meant by saying that faith was not yet come: namely that the convenient time of the revealing of it to the world as it is nowadays by the Gospel, was not yet come, so that the fathers were shut up under the law. So therefore, here is some piece of difference, and some piece of likeness: inasmuch that if it be demanded what the state of the fathers were that lived under the law: it is to be answered, that partly it differed from ours, and partly was all one.
How were they both one? In this, that God had showed himself merciful to our father, howbeit for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake: and that Abraham, perceiving how it stood him on hand to put his whole trust in the mere grace of God, gave over himself, and so his believing was reckoned to him for righteousness, as we have seen
afore. In like case was it with all the Patriarchs and Prophets. So then their taking was all one with ours, in that they grounded themselves upon our Lord Jesus Christ, and boasted not of anything save only God's mercy, and had the promises of the inheritance of the heavenly life, as we have.
Yet there was also a diversity, because they were fain to have sacrifices, washings, and such other like things, till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when the law was given, so as there was a Priest that entered into the Sanctuary to be an intercessor, and the people stood aloof a great way off, and a veil or Curtain was drawn in the midst of the Tabernacle to make a darkening of things: you see they were things wherein the state of the fathers differed from ours. For during the absence of our Lord Jesus Christ, they had ceremonies & figures, whereas we have the very body & substance of them, as Saint Paul says to the Colossians. For God bids not us to offer any more Calves, Sheep, or Oxen to wipe out the spots of our sins. But he tells us that we must be sprinkled with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Ghost, and that in our Lord Jesus Christ we shall find all that is requisite for our salvation. You see then that as now faith reigns in full power: that is to say, whereas the fathers had but a little taste of it according to their measure: it is fully & openly revealed unto us.
And for this cause Saint Paul says, that the fathers were after a sort restrained or shut up: so that he likens the law to a bondage, and in very deed so was it, and he will hereafter show what manner of bondage it is. It is not meant that the fathers obtained not the everlasting life which we hope for, or that we shall not be crowned all together at the last day: but that God was fain for a time to wield them like little babes. And for that cause also does he use the
similitude of a schoolmaster, and will again set down a third similitude of Tutors & governors. However, forasmuch as this shall be handled in its due place, let it suffice us as now to understand, that whereas Saint Paul likens the law unto a bondage, it is to show far greater favor to us, than he did to the fathers that died before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he uses us now after a freer fashion. And the second similitude does yet better express that the Jews were as children, & we now are as men grown. For this word Schoolmaster betokens a master of children, he says then that the law executed the office of a Schoolmaster, to train up the childhood of the people in old time.
And hereupon it may be concluded, that the faithful who believed in Jesus Christ before he was manifested to the world, were God's children as well as we. And if they were children, then were they also heirs. Herein we see that we must not make them like brute beasts, as some fantastical heads do, which think that the Jews contented themselves with the possession of the plentiful land that was promised them, & cared for no more but to be well-nourished & fed there: for that is too cursed a blasphemy. But Jesus Christ serves not to fill men's bellies & to feed their paunches: he serves to bring us to the heavenly life.
It is said that Abraham saw his day: that then was the thing whereon he rested his conscience. And we see how David did always look up higher than the world: & Jacob at his death even though he was giving up the last gasp, and looked not to live any longer in the world, said he would trust in the salvation of God. The ancient fathers then were not little children after such a sort, that they were not marked with God's holy spirit, nor called by him to the inheritance of the endless life: but only in the measure of faith, which was the difference between them & us. And how was that? Even
because the law which they had was yet wrapped in figures & shadows: whereas now Jesus Christ leads us right forth to heaven. And whereas I said that they were inferior to us in the measure of faith: I mean not that Abraham, David, & other like had a weaker faith than we: for seek we never so narrowly through the whole world, it is not to be presumed that any one creature is to be found at this day, which has the hundredth part of the faith of Abraham or David.
And the excellence of their faith appears in this, that although they had not the promises so apparent as we have, but very darkly, yet notwithstanding they overcame all such temptations as would have overthrown us a hundred thousand times. If any of us were put to the enduring of the encounters of Abraham or David, what would become of us? For Abraham was a wayfarer all his life long in a strange country, where men grudged him water to drink, though he himself dug the wells. He was put to as many plunges as could be. Finally, God exercised him in so many encounters, that he seemed to be minded to throw him into the bottom of hell: and yet nevertheless his faith abides still unvanquished. As touching David, he was driven a long time from place to place. Being hunted out of the whole realm & having no succor to retire unto, but among the infidels and enemies of God, or else into dens and among wild beasts: he was moreover put to such reproach, that every man cursed him as the veriest villain and caitiff in the world: and yet for all that, he held out still, he called still upon God, and he never fell to any murmuring or blaspheming, but rather glorified God in those his extremities and distresses.
So then we see that their faith ought to make us all ashamed. And when every of us shall have looked well into his own conscience, we shall find that we scarcely have any little piece of the faith that they
had. But the greatness of their faith must not be measured here by the constancy and ableness that every of them had to trust in God. Whereby then? By the outward object of their faith. As for example: Although Isaiah was an excellent teacher, so that his like is not to be found in the world: yet the least preacher that sets forth the Gospel purely, shall be preferred before Isaiah, as is avouched by the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. And why is that? Because that although Isaiah was as an Angel, and spoke with such authority yea, and majesty, as were able to touch the hearts to the quick which are most fallen asleep in this world, inasmuch that even God himself seems to have opened his own holy mouth in him, and his words were not as the words of a mortal man: yet did he hold but the manner of teaching that was convenient for that time: that is to say he did set forth the land of Canaan as a pledge to those whom he taught, & keep them to the sacrifices, washings, figures, shadows, & all other like things, wherein he showed what the happiness of God's children is.
As for example, we see how he likens the church to a palace built of gold & silver and precious stones. You see then that his manner of dealing was fashioned unto the darkness of the law. But now our Lord Jesus Christ is set forth unto us, although a simple man preach the Gospel, which hath neither great eloquence nor authority: yet shall he as it were point at Jesus Christ with his finger, he shall show us how we be in the time of fullness, and therewithal he shall assure us that our sins are forgiven us in the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, inasmuch that God's wrath is pacified, and victory obtained for us over death. Thus you see that the diversity is in doctrine, and not in the quality of the faith as it is in every man's heart. For although Abraham had a wonderful faith, and such a one as we shall not find nowadays in the world: yet was it always hemmed in with the said Ceremonies and shadows. David was an
Angel and mirror of all perfection: and yet for all that, he was fain to be subject to the same order that the common people were, and to use all the Ceremonies that were then in use, and his looking at Jesus Christ was but a far off, because there was the said Curtain before him, which letted him that he could not behold his glory as it is showed us nowadays in the Gospel. And although we know not the hundredth part of the things that were disclosed to David and Abraham, to make them invincible against all temptations, and to make them fight so manfully that God might be glorified in them, and to make them bear out all brunts: yet had they not that which we have: that is to wit, they had not the pledge Jesus Christ delivered unto them, as we have, to the end we might call upon God his father, because we be members of his body, and he is our head, assuring ourselves that he and we are all one, with condition that his goods become ours, and that we have full enjoyment of them at this day. Thus you see that our faith is greater than Abraham's was, not in respect of our persons, nor yet in respect of any steadfastness and firmness that is in us: but in respect of the doctrine or teaching of it, which we term the object of faith, that is to say, the thing that is set before us from without.
And so you see why Saint Paul says that the fathers were held in ward as it were under a Schoolmaster, till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we for our part have cause to magnify God's goodness, according also as our Lord Jesus Christ exhorts us, saying: blessed are the eyes which see that which you see, and the ears which hear that which you hear. For many Kings and Prophets have desired the like, and have gone without it. Behold, Abraham was called God's friend. Behold, David is reported to have been found according to God's own heart: and yet for all that, he was fain to look aloof at the promises which are now as it were cast into our laps, and whereof we have our fill. They sought Jesus Christ then absent and hidden, and
they waited for him. But now that our Lord Jesus Christ has come down into the world and been conversant here, he has given us a sure warrant that all is performed as he himself declared at his death. What a lewdness then is it, if we nowadays be not much the more inflamed and quickened up to follow the promises of the Gospel, where God communicates himself so familiarly unto us? So then on the one side we have cause to yield unto God his deserved praise, for that he has vouchsafed to exalt us, I say us miserable creatures to so high dignity, as to prefer us before all the holy kings and Patriarchs that lived under the Law. However, herewithal let us take good heed, that this benefit and prerogative turn not to our double condemnation for our unthankfulness in not making account of so great a good turn so offered unto us.
Now although Abraham were still held under after the manner of a child (as I have said already:) yet forsook he both his kinsfolk and native Country, and went as a poor wayfarer into a strange land, where he was hunted and tossed from post to pillar in continual languishing. And if he had repented him, could he not have returned into his own Country again? Yes: but the Apostle in the eleventh to the Hebrews tells us, that he had such a trustfulness and so constant a faith, that he held out even to the last push: insomuch that he showed by effect, that his mind was wholly set upon the kingdom of heaven, and not entangled with this world: and yet notwithstanding, for all that both he and the rest of the holy fathers walked after that manner before us: yet tarry they still for us at this day, and received not the promises which are manifested to us in the Gospel. For while they lived they had but a small taste of that which is revealed to us nowadays, and which is laid open before us. Woe be to us therefore if we be not warned and inflamed to receive God's offer, when he utters the infinite riches of his goodness, to win us and to draw us in such wise from this world, as we may come to yield ourselves freely unto
him. Then if such gracious dealing move us not to come unto him, now that we be men grown, notwithstanding our rawness and infirmity, and to take the yoke which he lays upon us, and to suffer him to govern us under his obedience, yea and to take courage and stoutness to defy Satan, and the whole world, and all the allurements thereof: say if we overmaster not all these conflicts: surely we shall pay right dearly for the grace that is offered us in the Gospel. And therefore let every of us bestir himself, and take opportunity while God allures us, and while the time of salvation, and day of favor is present. And seeing we be so feeble that we do but drag our legs after us, let us pray God to strengthen us, and to redress our laziness and coldness. Also let every of us strain and enforce himself: and since we be so hemmed in with the snares that Satan has laid for us, let us walk so much the more in the fear of God, that we may overcome all Satan's lettes and wiles, and go forward in the way that God has set us in, and follow the fathers that are gone before us, which tarry still for our company, that we might be gathered up all together into the heavenly life, at the blessed coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let us fall down before the Majesty of our good God, with acknowledgement of our faults, praying him that we may so mislike of them, as we may not only be sorry and seek forgiveness of them, but also be renewed by true repentance, and go forward and be confirmed in it more and more, till we be clean rid of all vices, and be so fashioned like to his Image, as his glory may shine forth in us, even till we enter into the full possession of the inheritance that he has promised us. That it may please him to grant this grace, not only to us, but also to all people. &c.
The Twenty-Third Sermon,
which is the ninth upon the third
Chapter.
26 For all of you are God's children through the faith which is in Jesus Christ.
27 Surely as many of you as are baptized, have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: For you are all one in Jesus Christ.
29 Now if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
We have seen heretofore to what dignity we are advanced by the Gospel. For not only are we called to be of the fellowship and company of the holy fathers whom God honored so highly: but also our state is yet more worthy and noble, because we are delivered from the bondage of the Law, wherein they were held.
And for the better confirming of this doctrine, Saint Paul adds that we are all made the children of God by believing in our Lord Jesus Christ, according also as it is said in the first Chapter of Saint John's Gospel. For there this dignity is commended to us as it deserves: namely, that we have preeminence and prerogative to be counted God's children through faith, verily for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, who is his only and natural son. For that title belongs solely to him
by right, and is communicated to us only by grace, inasmuch as God has vouchsafed to adopt us for his sake.
So then Jesus Christ is the head of the Church: however, for his sake, God acknowledges and avows us for his children. And here we see that the word belief imports more than men commonly take it to do, according also as I have declared before. For they that are not exercised in the holy Scripture, think it strange that God should honor us so highly for believing, and (to their seeming) faith is not so great a virtue that it ought to obtain so great a benefit. But I have showed you heretofore that our believing in Jesus Christ is not as the crediting of some story when we hear it or read it, but a receiving and conceiving of him inwardly with full assuredness as he is offered to us by God his father.
Therefore when we embrace our Lord Jesus Christ, as the party that has made amends for our sins to reconcile us to God, so as we repose the whole trust of our welfare in him, not doubting but that he has brought us all that is for the inheriting of heaven: I say if we be once assured of that: it is no marvel though God acknowledges us as his children for our belief's sake. However, therewithal we must call to our remembrance, what we have discussed before: namely that this [benefit of God in acknowledging us to be his children] comes not of any desert of faith, neither must we weigh it here in the balance what manner of virtue it is: for we are made God's children by free adoption. If a man demands the cause: I answer, that the very wellspring and foundation is not to be sought elsewhere than in God's only goodness, inasmuch as it pleased him to pity us. Nevertheless, it is brought to pass by the means of faith (as I have said already,) because that being rid of all fond overweening, and acknowledging ourselves to be damned in our own nature, we flee for refuge to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus you see in effect what Saint Paul meant to say. And he goes on still with the matter, to the end we should know, that only faith ought to suffice us to the attaining of salvation, without seeking any other means one way or other to help us. What should we desire more than that God should acknowledge us for his children? Will we need to have an overplus added to so inestimable a benefit? You see then that our full felicity and perfect glory, is that we have leave to call upon God as our father, not doubting but that seeing he has received us into his favor, he will also handle us as his own children.
But how shall we come by that? Saint Paul says it is only faith that makes us partakers of that dignity. Then let us conclude, that the Law can nothing advantage us, or else it must needs be that we be wonderful covetous, yea and as good as out of our wits, to desire more than to be the children of God. The Angels are greatly honored in the holy Scripture, and yet the chief title that is given them, is that they are the children of God. Now seeing that we, we (I say) poor worms of the earth, in whom there is nothing but filthiness, no nor aught but corruption of sin, be matched with the Angels, insomuch that God opens us the kingdom of heaven, and intends to have us fellows with them, who are virtues and are near about him, seeing (I say) that we be made partakers of that glory: shall we be so presumptuous to seek I wot not what moreover? Truly it is not only faith that makes us to obtain that benefit.
Therefore, let us learn to renounce all other means that may be set before us: for when men offer us any other helps as though the faith that we have in him were not sufficient, it is but a turning of us away from our Lord Jesus Christ. That then is Saint Paul's meaning. But we shall never conceive the fruit that is contained in this text, except we always bear in mind, that by this word "faith" Saint Paul means to exclude all the desert and worthiness that men suppose or imagine
themselves able to bring with them unto God. When they will needs go through with the matter by their own power and virtues: It is all one as if they would cut off a piece of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he cannot be rent in pieces or divided. Therefore all the working of our salvation must come of him alone, and we must not skulk here and there, nor seek byways, but come right forth unto him by the straight way of faith.
Hereupon Saint Paul adds, that being baptized in Jesus Christ, we have put him on. And this is to take away a doubt that might be cast here, namely how it is possible that we should become the children of God, seeing that that dignity is peculiar to our Lord Jesus Christ. For whereas he is called the Son of God, the Apostle shows that that title cannot be verified of the very Angels of heaven. True it is, (as I have said heretofore) that they are named the children of God: however, that is not without an addition. So is it out of doubt, that there is not any creature to whom that dignity belongs. But now seeing that Jesus Christ is the only son of God, how does the same extend unto us? Saint Paul declares that it is by reason of the union that is between him and us, according as it is said in the 17th Chapter of Saint John.
Then if we were not one with our Lord Jesus Christ, surely we should have no acquaintance at all with God: for we are quite cut off from all hope of life by sin. Yea and we must needs be as deadly enemies unto him, and he unto us, till he has altered and renewed us. However the world goes, being separated from Jesus Christ, and considered in our own nature, we are unworthy to be called men, and therefore much less can we boast that God is our father. But here (as I said) Saint Paul intended to assoil that question, saying that by Baptism we are clothed with our Lord Jesus Christ.
And this similitude of clothing is very rife in the holy Scripture, and it betokens in effect, that Jesus Christ is our apparel or raiment, whereby all is covered and buried that might make us to be rejected at God's hand, and grace is purchased unto us, so as he does not any more sift us and search us in ourselves, but accepts us as if we came in the very person of his own Son. To be short, Saint Paul meant to show here the union that is between our Lord Jesus Christ and all the faithful, which are the members of his body.
And like as all the substance of a tree comes from the root, and all the powers and abilities of a natural body come from the head: even so is it between the son of God and us. For (as I have said already) we have not so much as one drop of the heavenly life, but of his inspiring or breathing into us. Therefore if we will come unto God, and be partakers of the holy Ghost, and of the gifts that belong to the endless life: let us be in Jesus Christ, and not think ourselves to be anything or aught worth of ourselves.
And for the same cause, our Lord Jesus Christ in the said text which I alleged out of the 17th of Saint John, setting out the true and perfect happiness of his, says: Father I pray thee that they may be made one with us. You see then that the way for us to get out of the dungeon of death wherein we were drowned, is to be united to our Lord Jesus Christ by the bond of faith. Now Saint Paul says, that that is done in Baptism.
Not that all they which are baptized are true members of Jesus Christ indeed: for we see the clean contrary, insomuch that there are some which unhallow and defile all the holiness of Baptism, and are guilty of high treason to God, because that whereas they profess to hold of Jesus Christ, they despise and spite him, and are as dung and filthiness to mar all things. Baptism then makes us not all Christians,
and again we know, that to be made the child of God, is too great a benefit to be fathered upon a corruptible Element. What is the water? To say that the water begets or regenerates us again, and that thereby we be delivered from death, and obtain the glory wherein God lifts us up to himself: as (say I) a perverting of all order.
But first of all let us mark here, that when Saint Paul speaks of Baptism, he presupposes that we receive the thing that is offered unto us in it. Many that are baptized do wipe away the grace of God: and notwithstanding that it be offered them, yet they make themselves unworthy of it through their unbelief, lewdness, and rebellion. Thus you see that the power of baptism is defeated in many men. But when there happens a mutual agreement and melody between God and us: then has baptism the effect whereof Saint Paul treats and discourses in this text.
And so the thing that makes us God's children and clothed us with Jesus Christ, is that God draws us out of the corruption wherein we were by nature, and will have Jesus Christ to be our head, and us ingrafted into him to be partakers of his goods. Therefore look when we receive that, then is all accomplished that is figured by baptism. If hypocrites brag of their baptism, Saint Paul shows them that it is but vanity and illusion, saying that the circumcision of the letter is nothing: that is to say, if we look no further but to the outward and visible Sacrament, it is all of no value. Even so is it with baptism: it shall stand them in no stead which with their mouths vaunt themselves to be Christians and great pillars of the Church, forasmuch as they defile the thing which God had dedicated to so excellent a use, as I have told you before. Then let us mark well that Saint Paul speaks this sentence, not to all without exception, which bear the sign and mark [of baptism] outwardly: but to such as fare the better by their baptism.
Again, Saint Paul means not that baptism, that is to say the water, has the power to change us in such a way that we should be clothed with our Lord Jesus Christ: for by that means God should be robbed of the praise that is due to himself alone. But he shows here the means whereby we are certified that we are the members of our Lord Jesus Christ's body. I have told you already, that we must not seek any other cause of it than God's mere goodness: for if we fetch windlasses one way or other, it is like as if a man were athirst, and would turn his back to the fountain [to seek water.] Therefore let us learn, that it is only God which knits us to our Lord Jesus Christ, of his own mere goodness, and that he does it by the secret power of his holy spirit, and yet notwithstanding ceases not to work by baptism as by an inferior instrument, according as we see how all light comes of him, in so much that there was light in the world, even before there was either Sun or Moon. And yet nevertheless God has established the Sun whereby we have light here below even unto this day. But yet does not the Sun serve to diminish the power that is in God alone.
Again, it is said that man lives not by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of God's mouth. And in good sooth the bread itself is a dead thing. Who gives it us? It is God that inspires life into us: for we live in him as Saint Paul says in the 17th of the Acts. And yet notwithstanding it is his will to do it by bread, and he applies it daily to our use, to the intent we should be fed with it. So then there is none inconvenience that we should be clothed with our Lord Jesus Christ by baptism, and yet notwithstanding that the same should proceed of God's mere grace, and that it should be done by the secret working of the holy Ghost, surmounting the whole order of nature, whereof baptism does certify us, because we are rude and earthly. God therefore is fain to draw by little and little by reason of our infirmity, to make us to conceive the things that otherwise are too
high for us. For where are our wings to fly with above the heavens? We have much ado to creep here beneath upon the earth, and therefore God is fain to come down to us, which thing he does by his Sacraments.
Thus are we clothed with our Lord Jesus Christ by baptism, according also as Saint Paul shows by another similitude in the sixth to the Romans. For he says that we are grafted into the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the end also to be made partakers of his resurrection and life. This similitude of grafting is as fit as the other of clothing. For take me the scion of a tree, and cut me of the head, or some bough of another tree, and graft me that little scion into it, that was taken from another, and you see they grow both into one, so as they become both one substance, and the root yields his sap to the little sprig that was taken from another tree. Even after the same manner are we grafted into our Lord Jesus Christ (says Saint Paul) and that is to the end that our old man should be crucified in him, and we be raised up again in newness of life.
But here we have first to mark, how gracious and bountiful God has and still does show himself towards us, in that it pleases him to unite us to his own son: for that surpasses all the benefits which we can conceive in our imagination. And therefore also does Saint Paul prove, that all things which God has, do belong unto us, and that we have the enjoying of them, when we once possess his Son. Seeing (says he) that God has not spared his own Son, how should he not give us all things with him. To be short, God could not have uttered the infinite treasures better, than by joining us after that manner to his only Son. It is more than if he had given us heaven and earth: For surely if we compare Jesus Christ with all the goods of the world, yea
and all the goods that are above the earthly world: he far surpasses them all. Mark that for one point.
Furthermore let us understand that God has so united us to our Lord Jesus Christ, as we must be fain to have all our life in him. And it serves to humble us the better, and to make us perceive how horrible a thing it is to be wrapped in the cursedness of Adam. For if the holy Scripture told us not that we must be united to our Lord Jesus Christ, before we can be in God's favour: we should not feel sufficiently the wretchedness wherein we be held by nature, neither should we hate our sins so much as we ought to do.
But now that it is told us how it is impossible, (yea though all the Angels should come to our aid, & that all the world should help forward the matter): and to be short, that although nothing wanted yet it were impossible for us to come near unto God, or that he should look upon us with a fatherly countenance, yea or that he should acknowledge us for his creatures, till we be clothed with our Lord Jesus Christ: This were enough to make us abhor ourselves. And needs must it be that we be worse than loathsome, seeing there is none other means to appease God's wrath towards us, and to set us again in his favor, than by his covering of our sins, & by his cleansing of us from all our filthiness & infection, by blotting out all our wickedness: & that the same must be done by clothing ourselves with Jesus Christ, according to the figure thereof which we see in Jacob, when God blessed him by the hand & means of his father.
True it is that Jacob was chosen as Jacob: but yet was he fain to be appareled as Esau. So was he himself as in respect of God's calling of him to the heritage or birthright: and he was another man in respect of his borrowing of his brother's clothing. Even so come we also as chosen of God and as having his promise, whereby he assures us that
he is ready to receive us to mercy: but yet must we first and foremost be clothed with our Lord Jesus Christ. For if we appear in our own likeness, God must needs hate and abhor us as we are worthy. That is the thing whereof we be warned. But in the meanwhile let us fare the better by the warrant that is given us in baptism, that we may be able to fight against all the temptations and distrusts which Satan sets before our eyes to shake our faith withal. If we be blockish so as we perceive not our own vices, but be as it were rotten in them, woe be to us. But if we be wakened, to bethink ourselves what it is to make account before God, so as it comes evening and morning to our remembrance, that he is the judge of the world and cannot give up his office: if we enter into ourselves to make examination of our sins: surely we must needs be afraid & as it were besides ourselves: & if we had no help to relieve us, we should needs be drowned in despair.
But let us have our recourse to our baptism, & assure ourselves that it is not for naught that God has called us to be partakers of the pureness of his only Son, & made us all one with him: & then shall his bloodshed have such effect to cleanse us from all our spots, as we may come before God with our heads upright: not with such loftiness as hypocrites have, which presume upon themselves: but upon trust of his inestimable goodness, inasmuch as he has told us that all things which belong to our Lord Jesus Christ are common to us. Again if we perceive ourselves to have committed so many offences that God's wrath is kindled against us: behold, Jesus Christ has offered a sacrifice, whereby we know that the atonement is made between God and us. Seeing then that God has so testified his love towards us: let us not mistrust but that he will prevent us whenever we seek him in true faith, that is to say, with such steadfastness as we doubt not that he meant to disappoint us when he pretended to be so liberal towards us. Thus you see that the way to make our baptism available to us, is to use it as a shield to beat back all the distrusts
that come upon us to stop us from praying unto God, and from having our whole recourse unto him, if we went not unto him, [saying thus in ourselves]: Surely it is true that I have such store of sins in me, as the number of them were able to make God to loathe me: but therefore I will not go to him in mine own person: I renounce myself and my own nature, as wherein there is nothing but shame and confusion: and I go to him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, yea and he goes before me, he gives me as it were his garment, he speaks for me, and in his name do I present myself as though I were very he, because it has pleased him to be so gracious to me as to make me all one with him. Thus you see that we must leave ourselves behind us when we come before God, and we must take upon us the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, yea we leave ourselves behind us. Not that we should not perceive our own misdoings and be rightly humbled and sorry for them: but yet notwithstanding take it for a full and resolute certainty, that God accepts us when we come unto him as in the person of his only Son.
But there are very few that think upon this. And in good sooth, although that all of us profess the Gospel, yet we shall find a number that know not the true use of baptism, nor whereunto it avails, nor to what end it was ordained. But such folk shall pay dearly for taking such a pledge at God's hand. He will show that it is too costly a thing to be abused, for as much as it is said to be the means whereby we be united to our Lord Jesus Christ, and ingrafted into his death and resurrection. Then whereas many have received baptism in their childhood, and have lived a forty or fifty years in the world without knowing to what end they were baptized: it were better for them that they had been born dead, and to have been sunken a hundred times into the earth, than to have unhallowed so holy a thing. And therefore let us bethink ourselves the better, and learn that although there be but a little water cast upon our heads, yet notwithstanding it
is not a vain figure: for God speaks in it as it were from heaven, and Jesus Christ is there present as a witness of the usage and operation of the sacrament, and especially his death and resurrection are warranted to us by it. Let us think well upon these things, and consider to what end we be baptized and what benefit it brings us: let it be well rooted in our hearts, and whenever any young children are baptized, let us bethink ourselves the better: For to what end is baptism solemnized in the company [or congregation] of the faithful? Truly to the end that the babe should be commended unto God. Again it is a certain enfranchising of him into the heavenly City, and therefore it must not be done in huddler-muddler: but it is so excellent a deed, as ought to be done after a more orderly and solemn fashion, than anything belonging to worldly policy. For therein we have a mirror of the benefit that was bestowed upon us before, to the intent we should joy in it to the end.
But we see that the unbelievers do, through their own unthankfulness, deprive themselves of this adoption of God's, and quite banish themselves from it. To the end then that we may be confirmed more and more, we must consider well, that when baptism is celebrated, it touches us very nearly, and God calls us to him, to show us in another body's person, that we ourselves are forlorn and damned by nature. However, forasmuch as he has knit us into the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are no more considered in our own kind, neither does God look what we are of ourselves, nor what we have deserved: but accepts us as if Jesus Christ were in us, as indeed we must not be separated from him. This in effect is what we have to consider upon this text.
Now, hereupon St. Paul concludes, that there is neither Greek nor Jew, bond nor free, male nor female, but that Jesus Christ is one in us all, and all we are one in him. And by this sentence St. Paul meant
to express yet better, that only faith ought to suffice us, and that we must exclude all other means: for else it were a derogation as well to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, as to the working of his holy spirit. If any man alleges that circumcision was always a record to the fathers, of the same thing that we have at this day in baptism: the doubt is assoiled in the second to the Colossians, where St. Paul says that in being baptized we be circumcised: [howbeit] not with man's hand, nor with visible circumcision: but that it ought to suffice us that God acknowledges us to be partakers of the spiritual circumcision, namely for so much as baptism is ordained to the same end nowadays. And let us mark, that circumcision served to put a difference between the Jews and the Gentiles. It was (as the Scripture terms it) a wall between them, to fence in the Jews as the people whom God had chosen.
But now the blessing is published everywhere, so as there is no more diversity. Now then baptism being in these days succeeded in the place of circumcision, supplieth the want of that old sign, which was a figure and shadow of things to come. And that should not need to have been, if our Lord Jesus Christ had not been away. But now that he is manifested unto us, we have baptism ordained in stead of it. Notwithstanding let us mark (as I have said already) that we can bring nothing of our own wherewith to purchase favor before God: all that we can do is but simply to confess our sin, which were enough to drown us in despair. Furthermore, we have faith, whereby we recover that which is requisite for our salvation. I say we recover it, by seeking it in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now then if we say, yea but we be weak and rude, we cannot mount so high as to the secrets of heaven: let us look upon the baptism that is given us, as though God reached out his hand to us. There he shows us to eyesight, after what manner he plucks us out of the curse wherein we were plunged, and covers us with our Lord Jesus Christ, to the end that all our misdeeds
should be buried by the perfection of his righteousness. For we know he yielded such obedience to God his father, that if we come grounded thereupon, we cannot but find favor at his hand. Thus you see how that on the one side God will have us to rest upon him and on our Lord Jesus Christ his son, to the end we should draw out of the fullness of that fountain, and yield the whole praise of our salvation to the working of his holy spirit: and on the other side gives us baptism as a help of our rudeness and infirmity. Seeing we have all this, what seek we any more? Is it not a willful robbing of God, if we will needs have other helps, and put to other opinions and fancies as they come in our heads? Whereunto serves all this? But such minglings are devilish corruptions.
Therefore St. Paul tells us, that we must be so united to our Lord Jesus Christ, as none of us must advance himself as though he were better worth than his fellows, but acknowledge ourselves beholden to God's mere grace for all things, and both great and small must endeavor the same together, and with one common consent confess, that in our Lord Jesus Christ they have all that is to be wished for, and therefore give over all the inventions and devices that can come in their own brains. Yet notwithstanding, St. Paul meant not to say that there is no diversity of degrees as in respect of worldly policy. For we know there are masters and servants, Magistrates and subjects: in a household there is the good man which is the head, and the good wife which ought to be subject. We know then that this order is inviolable, and our Lord Jesus Christ is not come into the world to make such confusion as to abolish that which was established by God his father. But when St. Paul says that there is neither master nor servant, man nor woman: he means that to be sure of their salvation, men must not set up their tails like peacocks, and stand gazing upon their own feathers: but look what worthiness so ever we wean to be in ourselves, we must wipe it away and cast it
under foot, and acknowledge all to be but hindrances that turn us aside from coming to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, when both great and small do acknowledge that they cannot bring aught of themselves, but must receive all things of God's only free goodness: Then is our Lord Jesus Christ himself alone is all in all in us: that is to say, we will not go about to add aught to the grace that he has purchased for us, and which he offers us daily by his Gospel to the end we should be partakers of it and enjoy it to our salvation. Thus you see in effect, that on the one side we must keep the civil orders of this world. Let such as are great men, and men of authority above others, know that God intends to be served by them in that state. As for example, let the Magistrates consider that they are so much the more bound to do their duty, seeing that God has done them the honor to advance them after that fashion above others. Again, they that are private persons and ought to obey the Magistrates, must look that they submit themselves, unless they purpose to strive with God and to make war against him. You see then that St. Paul holds us in sobriety and modesty, and under a bridle which was not devised by men, but dedicated of God to our use, because mankind could not continue without it. And truly we ought to honor and reverence the state of governance, as a thing ordained of the Lord. And yet for all that, when we come to the heavenly life, let us assure ourselves that all worldly things pass and vanish away, as the world and the fashion thereof passeth, says Saint Paul: but the kingdom of God endures forever.
Then as touching our being children unto God, and as touching our being his heirs, we come not to it by riches, nobleness, or dignity, or by any power or virtue of our own. How then? By God's mere grace and goodness. For the great ones must be fain to stoop and to humble themselves, and the little ones must need wonder at the sight
of God's so inestimable goodness, who has vouchsafed to lift them up after that sort above the heavens, whereas they are fearsomely counted worthy to dwell upon earth. Furthermore, let us have the skill to profit ourselves hereby. Truly the chief point is that we go forward and travel still to the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, and that our studies, thoughts, and desires be chiefly applied thereunto. But yet therewithal we must also in passing through this world, have regard of the degrees which our Lord has set to be kept. And when any are to be chosen to the state of government, to wield God's sword, and to sit in the seat of Justice: let every man bethink himself well, and pray to God for such as are to be chosen, that they may be found to be good and faithful Magistrates, and employ themselves to do their duty. And let us on our side walk peaceably in their obedience and subjection: let us feel there as it were the first fruits of the kingdom of heaven: and let us consider that our Lord Jesus Christ does by that sign show us beforehand that he has a care of us, and overlooks us, and watches over us, until we may feel it to the full when he shall have gathered us up to himself. And to the intent we may the more cheerfully and with the better courage bear the yoke which he has appointed: let us understand that it is acceptable to him, and a sacrifice which he likes well of, when we walk according to the order which he has established, and when we proceed to live, not only without doing any man wrong, or without offering any violence or deceit: but also do walk in all godliness and honesty, (as St. Paul says) that is to say, when we first fear and reverence God above all things, and labor to dedicate ourselves wholly unto him: and secondly live after such a sober manner, as we do well show that we are not given to the world, though we dwell in it: but that we take it as a strange country, through which we travel continually towards the heavenly rest, till we see the thing in very deed which is taught us here, that is to wit that we have not been knit unto our Lord Jesus Christ in vain.