Part 15
But God has no need of none of all this, we need not to cry out aloud when we would be heard at his hand: for he knows the secret thoughts of our hearts. Thus you see in effect what we have to mark.
And herein we see how great sway the Devil bears in Popery, so that there is neither prayer nor faith. To their seeming there is neither devotion nor holiness, except men babble in an unknown language, and mumble it up without knowing what they say.
And although the Priests, Monks, and Hypocrites say they understand Latin: men know well enough what their understanding
is. Besides this, they make even a rule of their jangling without knowing what they say, and it is enough with them to have a final intent (for so do they term it:) so they have that final intent before they babble their Domine labia, to say we go to pray and to serve God, although their mind be upon their kitchen, or upon things much worse, and much more shameful: they bear themselves in hand, that all their prayers and supplications are acceptable to God.
The poor people have their eyes bleared at it: for they are made to believe that it is not lawful for them to pray in a common language, and therefore they shun that as a bogy. We see then that the Devil has besotted these wretches, yea and utterly bewitched them, seeing they are so loath to receive the food of life, that instead of good bread and wholesome meat, they receive poison and burst with it.
But for our own part we see the rule that is given us here and which we ought to keep: which is, that when we pray unto God we must not step to it unadvisedly without bethinking of us what we should demand, or without knowing how we should behave ourselves towards him.
And when we call him our father, let us consider well that it is not for any worthiness of our own persons, nor for any desert or work of our own: but because he has united us to our Lord Jesus Christ, and gathers us altogether in him, and because we are his body, and God accepts us to favor in his person.
And for that cause also does Saint Paul add, that if we be children, we be heirs also. As if he should say, that we enjoy our inheritance even now: not that we are entered into the possession of it, to be partakers of the glory that is promised us, but as in respect of the fathers of old time, which were shut out into the body of the Temple, and had a veil or Curtain drawn before them, with other figures and shadows.
Now, we are not like them in that case: but we repair unto God in such wise as we are frank and free. And so is the adoption otherwise in our hearts nowadays, than it was in theirs in the time of the Law. For we are heirs after such a sort, that yet notwithstanding we are also as pilgrims in this world, and (as says Saint Paul in the second to the Corinthians) must be fain to be absent from God, till he have rid us of this mortal body, and have taken us out of this earthly pilgrimage and transitory life.
However the case stands, we must magnify God's grace: and seeing he has adopted us to be his children, let us understand that therein lies all our happiness and joy. Therefore let us glory in that, yes even so far forth as to rejoice in the midst of the troubles and adversities which we have to suffer.
Let us not cease to have an inward joy continually in us, in as much as God calls us, and has told us that all the adversities which we endure, shall be turned to our welfare and salvation, so we hold on to the mark that is set before us, that is to wit, so we go on still forward to our Lord Jesus Christ, and forsake all other things.
Now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God, with acknowledgment of our sins, praying him to make us so to feel them, as it may humble us before him, and yet we not be discouraged but that seeing he vouchsafes to accept well of us, & has also bound himself to us of his own good will to hear our requests when we come to him with assured trust in him: it may please him to grant us the grace to overcome all distresses and lets, and all debates and controversies that Satan can put in our hearts, so as we by experience feel the availability of this promise, that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be safe. And so let us all say, Almighty God heavenly father. &c.
The Twenty-Sixth Sermon,
which is the third upon the fourth
Chapter.
8 At such time as you knew not God, you served them that by nature are no Gods.
9 But now that you know God or rather are known of God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and beggarly Ceremonies, whereunto you would fain be in bondage again as before.
10 You observe days and months, and times, and years.
11 I am afraid of you lest I have laboured in vain about you.
We have seen heretofore how that after the Galatians had been faithfully taught by S. Paul, who had taken much pain among them, they shrunk back again: not that they utterly renounced Jesus Christ and the Gospel: but that they had been too easy in suffering themselves to be deceived in following diverse opinions, as we see it is come to pass through the whole world. For the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and baptism as a mark of faith do indeed continue still: but yet for all that, we see that all things are marred with superstition and idolatry. So the Galatians pretended still to be of God's Church: and yet in the meantime they were wrapped in many follies, as
especially in this, that they should partly purchase grace and soul health at God's hand by keeping the Ceremonies of the Law. But that was too great a defacing of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is impossible for him to be our Savior, unless we lay away all self-weaning, and put our whole trust in him.
We see then that the fault of the Galatians was that they were not so well grounded in the Gospel, as to be firm and steadfast, and to shake off all errors, but rather were misled through too light belief. In this respect Saint Paul says that they are worthy of double blame, because that whereas God had set them in a good way, and in a good forwardness, they veered aside through their own inconstancy. And he makes a comparison between their present state and their former state. For they had been poor Pagans that had never tasted of true religion. God visited them, and graciously drew them to him, and gave them the knowledge of his truth. Now forasmuch as upon this they mingled the illusions and trumperies of Satan with the pure truth of the Gospel: that was a fault too far out of square, and no more to be excused than their former. And that is the cause why Saint Paul says, "At such time as you knew not yet anything, it was no marvel though you served Idols, because you were blinded in your errors, and God had never disclosed himself to you, that you might have been able to discern the living God from all the forgeries of man's own brain. But now that you have been taught the Gospel, and obtained so great a benefit, not by your own travail, as though you had compassed it by your own wisdom, but by God's goodness who marked you out before you could seek him: and seeing he has so gathered you out to himself: what excuse have you to start away, and not to continue in the doctrine which you know to be certain and infallible?"
Moreover, look (says he), how ill choice you have made. For God had given himself to you, and you have forsaken him for pelting trifles. For the Ceremonies of the Law (being set alone by themselves from our Lord Jesus Christ) are but baggage. See how you make great account of things to no purpose, and in the meanwhile pass not at all for God. Hereupon as a man moved with great grief he concludes, that he is sore afraid that he has lost his labor, in that he has so long time strained himself to bring them to the pure knowledge of the Gospel. And therewithal he alleges a spice of the things which he had termed beggarly and unprofitable Ceremonies: namely that they kept the feasts contained in the Law, as though there had been some necessity in the matter, thinking to deserve and earn grace thereby before God. This is the sum of the matter that is treated of here. Now we have a good warning to gather of this text: which is, that if we hold not out in the faith of the Gospel after that God has once brought us unto it, although the poor Infidels might be excused, yet can we not escape horrible damnation, by reason of our unthankfulness in that we have profited no better in the school of our God. It is true that although the heathen had no knowledge, yet they shall not fail to be condemned, because there is naughtiness always to be found in men, for as much as they gave themselves over to their own superstition: but if we consider what they are in respect of us, surely whereas they might have a dozen excuses, we should not have so much as a piece of one. Therefore when we have once been enlightened with the truth of the Gospel, like as the benefit of God is singular, so also shall we pay dear for it if we make not account of it. And let us mark that this is not said to any one people alone: but that it behooveth us also at this day to apply to our use the things that S. Paul tells us, to the end that we become not so wretched as to give over the truth of the Gospel after we have once known it, but that it may be so printed and rooted in our hearts, as the devil may never shake us from it.
Thus you see what we have to remember, in that S. Paul does here set the lewdness of the Galatians before them, and blames them as utterly inexcusable, for their turning away in such a fashion from the pure truth, after they had once been enlightened with it. Now also herewithal we see whereof Idolatry proceeds, and what is the fountain thereof: namely, the want of knowledge of the living God. For we must needs have some feeling in ourselves, that there is a God whom we ought to worship, and who is worthy to be honored both of great and small, because we have our life of him. It cannot be so cleanly wiped out of our mind, but that there shall always be some spark of Religion in us. But yet in the meantime, every man wanes away in his own foolish conceits, because we understand not what God is, nor can come at him.
Truly if we were not corrupted, and our understanding blinded by sin, God would still draw us unto him. But for as much as God's image is defaced in us, there is nothing but darkness, and that so horrible, that when we should mount up aloft to seek God, we thrust down our muzzles to the ground like wretched brute beasts. Therefore until such time as God shows himself to us, it is impossible for us to have any true Religion, and we shall always be led with abuses and mere follies.
Hereby we know what the vanity of men is, how every man bears himself in hand that he has skill enough to govern himself. Yea, and we see how the very Idiots do brag of their wit: and as for those that have gotten any reputation among men, they are so puffed up with pride, as they cannot abide any correction, or to be told of their faults. But if men had any one drop of good wisdom, were it not meet that the first point which they begin at should be to know what God they ought to worship? That is the point wherein they fail, in so much that they seek Satan's leasings instead of the truth, and
worship Idols instead of the living God, till God has called them to him.
We see then that to please God, and to yield him acceptable service, it is not for us to behave ourselves after our own fancy, but we must suffer ourselves to be guided and governed by his word and holy spirit. Moreover if we will follow the opinion of this man and that man, they are not a two or three that this text speaks of, but we see it is impossible to have any good rule, or to hold the right way, until God has taken the charge of us to draw us to him. So then, they that follow the steps of their forefathers, and make custom and antiquity the rule to frame themselves by, do show that they despise God. And why? For they willfully leave the fountain of living water, and go to seek puddles, as though they had no wit to discern between white and black.
Seeing then that S. Paul's meaning here, is to show us as it were in a lively image, that men cannot but go astray and deal untowardly, until God has brought them into the way of salvation: Let us renounce our own nature, and let all things which we know to come of man be thrust utterly under foot, and let us learn to hold us simply to God's pure truth. This (say I) is the thing that we have to remember upon the words of S. Paul, where he says, that those which knew not God had served such as were but Idols.
Moreover, let us not think ourselves to be wiser than the Galatians: but (as I have said already) let us understand that in this place the holy Ghost meant to beat down all pride, that men might not presume upon their own reason and skill to do what they like themselves, but rather know that there is nothing but brutishness in us, until God has enlightened us with his grace. Furthermore, whereas S. Paul says, that Idols are no Gods by nature, he means that
we are very dull-headed, when we cannot repair to the maker of all things, who shows himself both above and beneath, to the end we should know him to worship and serve him. For we cannot look upon our hands and our feet, but we must openly see God's wonderful wisdom, power, and goodness: and when we behold the skies and the stars, we have there a sufficient record that there is a sovereign Lord who maintains them.
When we consider the changes of seasons, and see the snow, rain, wind, or heat: behold therein does God show himself. When the earth brings forth her fruits, or is as good as dead and withered: in all those things we continually know God, or at leastwise are convicted that he shows himself there. And if we will not perceive him now: we shall be driven to confess it at the latter day when the books shall be opened.
Now in the meantime, if we worship those which are not Gods by nature: it is all one as if we did wilfully shut our eyes against so many records and looking glasses, which God sets before us to bring us unto him. However the world goes, all the worshiping that men can devise is but a vain fancy, until they have been brought into the good way. For of their own natural wit they cannot but give themselves to all error and deceivableness.
He adds, "Now that you have known God, or rather have been known of him." Some translate it, "now that you have been instructed in the knowledge of God": but all comes to one. Nevertheless, in the first part (as I have touched already) he shows that such as have been trained in the pure truth, are guilty of perjury to Godward. And thereof they are inexcusable: for it is no ignorance anymore: it is not with them as though they never had tasted of the true religion: but it is a manifest falsehood, like as if some subjects, knowing well enough
who is their Prince, should revolt from him, and break the allegiance which they had promised him, and confederate themselves with his deadly enemy.
Thus you see in what plight we be: namely, that all such as have known God's truth, cannot step aside after their own superstitions and errors, but they must become perjured and false forsworn traitors. For it is not causeless said that all Idols must fall down when God is to be glorified in his highness: and that all superstitions must vanish away when his majesty comes abroad.
Now if he vouchsafes to show himself to us, it is as much as if he did set up his chair of estate among us, of purpose to be so good and gracious to us, as to become our king. If we cannot find in our hearts to yield him any subjection, are we not false-hearted caitiffs towards him? If we allege for a reply, that our intent is not so: it is but hypocrisy. For we know that our Lord can abide no companion: in so much that he uses the word Jealousy, to show that he will so possess us, as we may belong unto him wholly and not in part.
Then if we will play on both sides, and row between two streams: there will be nothing but feigning and hypocrisy in us. But there ought to be a substantial soundness in us. And therefore S. Paul says not simply, if we be beguiled by Satan, and forsake the Gospel quite and clean: but, if we swerve from the simplicity of it.
As for example, the Galatians (as I have showed already) had not renounced Jesus Christ nor denied their baptism (for they professed to hold the Gospel still) but they had mingled it, and that marred all: a little Leaven sours a whole lump of dough. Even so when men will needs add I know not what of their own brain to God's truth, it mars all. For let a man put a little vinegar, or some other slabersauce into a cup of the best wine in the world, and he were better to drink sheer
water. In like case is it when men will tinker the true Religion, as all they do which take upon them to invent I know not what of their own head.
Surely it were much better that they had never known any more at all, but grossly that there is a God: than to have been trained up in the good doctrine of the Gospel, and afterwards to falsify all, and to disfigure our Lord Jesus Christ after that sort. You see then how it is a thing that cannot be borne withal: and that is it which we have to mark in the first place.
Secondly, S. Paul shows that the calling of the Galatians to the Gospel, came not of their own proper motion, nor through their own furthering of the matter: but of God, who had sought them out when they were wandering and straying wretches. And this is not spoken for them alone: for we know how the Prophet Isaiah speaks after the same manner generally of all such as should be partakers of the salvation that is purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, saying: "I was found of them that sought me not, and I showed myself to such as inquired not after me: and unto such as made none account of me, I said, Lo here I am, here I am."
See how God magnifies his grace, to the intent that men should not be so far overseen, as to think that they attain to faith by their own wisdom. No, says he, you are all of you in the way of destruction, and there is none of you that comes to me without I draw him, for pity of the wretchedness wherein you be plunged.
Therefore it is I that have discovered myself, and all this is of mine own mere gracious goodness, for you would never have sought me, yea there is none of you all but he withdrew himself further and further off from me. For we are not only as straying beasts, but also as wild and wood beasts: we are wholly given to rebellion till God
have tamed us, and changed us that we might be sheep of his fold, that he may do the office of a shepherd towards us.
So then it is not for naught that Saint Paul corrects this speech of his when he says, "You have known God, or rather have been known of him." As if he should say, that when we come to the knowledge of the Gospel, we must not imagine ourselves to be better than other men, but that God prevented us, and that we should rather have perished a hundred times in our beastliness, than have come to any good amendment, if God had not utterly changed us.
Now then we see what free will is able to do, whereof ignorant wretches boast themselves to the defacing of God's grace. No doubt but all men will grant that they cannot be enlightened without God's working: but often afterward they restrain it again, saying that his working is but in part, and it seems to them that every man brings somewhat of his own. But all this gear is excluded here when he says that none but only God knows us, who also marks us out, to show himself unto us, and to make us come unto him.
Then let us generally understand, that it is not our own worthiness that has brought us to the obtaining of this benefit that the Gospel should be preached purely to us, and that every of us applies it to his own behoof: for if I think myself to have aught at all in me why I should be preferred before one man or other: it is a taking away of God's praise, and an usurping of it to myself: and that were an intolerable traitorousness.
And therefore we must come back to that which Saint Paul says in another text: "Who has made you to excel?" He speaks to such as commended themselves, believing that they had some virtue or excellence in them, as in very deed the Corinthians had such spiritual gifts as might be had in estimation among men. Saint Paul grants
well enough that they had great graces, and worthy of estimation: but he asks them from whence all of them came, whether they were of their own getting, or whether they were able to take them of themselves? It is very certain that they were not.
Wherefore let us learn, that it is not enough for us to have God's word preached to us, except God work in us by his holy spirit, according as experience shows in that it is not given to all men. And moreover there was never yet any man that bethought himself to seek the good food, except it were offered him of God. Therefore away with all the fond imaginations of our own head, and let us put away all pride: let us not think ourselves wiser than other men, because we have known the Gospel: but let us yield this praise unto God, namely that at such time as we turned our backs upon him, and were as good as drowned a hundred thousand times in destruction, he cast his eye upon us, and drew us back to himself, to the end that when it is told us that we be justified by faith, and thereby obtain salvation: we should assure ourselves that the same comes of his pure grace, and that our faith is freely given us because we cannot purchase it: and let us confess with poor Hagar, that we have seen him that looked upon us before.
For there we have a mirror of all mankind. The said poor woman was in great heaviness, forsaken of all men, and wist not whither to go: but God pitied her and visited her, in the wilderness. Hereupon she confesses that God had looked upon her before she had thought upon him. So then let us be held in awe and humility, seeing that the wellspring and beginning of our welfare is that God knew us and marked us out at such time as we cared not for him, but besides our ignorance, did also despise him, and were so brutish, that every of us had sought his own ruin and destruction, if he of his own infinite goodness had not held us back.
Thus you see in effect what we have to mark. But now let us put the thing in practice that is told us here: which is that for as much as God has called us to the pure knowledge of his Gospel, we must continue steadfastly therein, according to the way which he sets before us, who (as we know) is the lively fountain of all welfare, as it is said in the second of Jeremiah.
Then if we go about to dig cisterns that can hold no water: is it not an utter refusing of the benefit that was put into our hands? When a man sees good meat ready for his repast, and knows that he may take good sustenance of it, and yet will go his way from the table, and seek dung and filth to feed on, is he not worthy to be poisoned? Even so it is with all such as are not contented with the pure doctrine of God's Law and Gospel. For behold, the fountain is before them, they may drink their fill of it, as it is said in Isaiah and Saint John, and yet they had rather to starve, or else to feed themselves with wind.
Now then should not such unthankfulness be punished double as Saint Paul says here? Is it possible that you should return again to the unprofitable and weak Ceremonies that can do you no good at all? Now at the first blush Saint Paul might seem too sharp and rough in speaking after that fashion of the Ceremonies of the Law. For in very truth, although the Ceremonies had been the first entrances or trainings, like as in training up of young children men are wont to set them first to their ABCs: yet notwithstanding our Lord Jesus Christ was figured in them: and there were promises in them to bring men to salvation. For the remission of sins is the chief good thing that we can wish for at God's hand, because that by that means we be reconciled unto him. He receives us as his children, and we may call upon him with free liberty. Men therefore are then in true and perfect felicity, when their sins are forgiven them. And hereof they had as it were a pledge in their sacrifices in old time.
When they washed themselves, it was a full assurance to them that God did cleanse them, and that their spots were no more laid to their charge, but rather that they were received as clean and utterly without blemish.
How then does Saint Paul term these things unprofitable ceremonies, which carried such instruction in them? Especially seeing it is said that the pattern of all the whole Sanctuary was showed to Moses, yea even from heaven. The law then served not to hold men in some play, as though God intended to busy them about petty trifles? Neither also did Saint Paul regard whereunto the ceremonies availed or served the fathers of old time: He does but only show that when our Lord Jesus Christ was once come, all those things were abolished. For (as he says in the second to the Colossians) we have no more the figures and shadows, because that nowadays we have the body and the substance.
Seeing it is so: if a man should set forth the ceremonies of the Law, he should separate them from our Lord Jesus Christ, and what should they be then? They would be of no force. For (as I said before) if a man separates them for our Lord Jesus Christ, surely they shall be but pelting trash. Therefore when men kept the ceremonies, so as they were applied to their lawful use: they were good exercises, and the old fathers misspent not their time, because they were confirmed by them in the hope of their salvation, and they were unto them a warrant of God's fatherly love towards them, and they led them to our Lord Jesus Christ the fountain of all welfare.
But if men busy themselves in keeping the ceremonies without knowing why or wherefore: surely it is but flat mockery. For the Heathen men did make sacrifice also, and some of them had no idols, thinking that they offered to God the maker of heaven and earth: and
yet whereunto did all their sacrifices serve them, but to their condemnation? For they had overthrown God's order, because they aimed not at our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now then Saint Paul does not without cause say, that when the Ceremonies of the law tend not to the seeking of all our welfare in our Lord Jesus Christ, they are but beggarly Ceremonies, that is to say, corruptible things of this world, and consequently things of no force and unprofitable, because that Jesus Christ who is the quickener of all things, is not there. And this is yet so much the better to be marked, to the end we be not beguiled. It is said that in old time all men offered Sacrifice, and thought they worshipped God: and yet notwithstanding, that the service of all such as had not their belief settled in Jesus Christ, was rejected.
For the Apostle in the eleventh to the Hebrews saith, that the only thing that made Abel's Sacrifice acceptable, was faith. Now then forasmuch as the heathen men did in their sacrificing imagine God to be fleshly, and that they could make their atonement with him by such means, they busied themselves about outward things, and considered not that inasmuch as we be faulty, it standeth us on hand to have an excellenter ransom than we can bring any.
If we had a hundred worlds to give, they were not enough to redeem any one misdeed that we have done against God. Therefore the Sacrifice that should answer for all our sins must of necessity be heavenly. The heathen men considered not this: but stood poring upon the shadow of it, as the Turks and Jews do yet still at this day, who by their often washing of themselves both even and morn, and at noon, and by their other Ceremonies, confess themselves to be defiled, and to have need to be cleansed by some others, and yet do renounce our Lord Jesus Christ who is the very cleanness whereby
we must be made clean, according also as in very deed it is he that has wiped away all our spots.
Seeing it is so then, all they that keep any Ceremonies in hope to get any favour at God's hand by them, do not only beguile and martyr themselves in vain without any profit: but also do certainly provoke God's wrath still more and more. Now we on our side are taught that our Lord Jesus Christ has shed his blood to wash our souls withal. Then if we seek any other cleansing or purgatory besides, surely it is an intolerable treachery.
And if Saint Paul spoke so of the Ceremonies of the law: what shall we say of all the toys and gewgaws that are nowadays in popery? For behold, the Papists ween to win much by taking of holy water, by babbling this and that, by keeping of holidays, by tiring themselves in gadding on some pilgrimage, by setting up a wax candle before some puppet, by chanting mass by note, and by saying of thus many or thus many times their beads over. I say they hope well to make atonement with God by such means. But it is certain that they plunge themselves the deeper in hell, and cast themselves further into Satan's snares by it, as though they had confederated themselves with him to their own destruction.
To be short, all the Ceremonies of popery are utter renouncings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the pure truth which he has purchased for us by his death and resurrection, and of the grace that is offered us at this day in the Gospel. For they may well bring what shroudingsheets they list, but they cannot disprove the holy Ghost, who has uttered the said sentence by the mouth of Saint Paul. Then do we see in effect what is showed us here.
Now as touching the particular which Saint Paul alleged here concerning days, moons, and years he means not the seasons of
winter and summer, nor the discerning of one day from another, nor that men should not reckon years and moons: but he speaks of the feasts that were commanded in the Law, and which those deceivers would needs have to be kept still, even as of necessity. In which case there was a kind of binding and thralldom, and it was an abolishing of the freedom that was purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lo here the cause why Saint Paul uses such vehemence, howbeit that he did it also in respect of the foresaid falsehood: for it was requisite that our Lord Jesus Christ should have been known in all those figures, and that men should have aimed at that mark. But they that had beguiled the Galatians, had bound them to the clean contrary, seeing that by holding still the feast of Passover and other feasts, they intended to bring them back again to the old forworn figures, which ought to be abolished.
In old time when men kept Easter day under the law, it was to the end that the people being put in mind of their deliverance out of the thraldom of Egypt, should look for the great redemption that was promised them. And for that cause Saint Paul says that our Easter lamb (that is to wit, Jesus Christ) is offered up already. He shows that the thing which had been figured by the paschal lamb that was offered in the law, was now fulfilled in the person of our mediator. In like case was it with the feast of Tabernacles or Tents, whereby God did put the Jews in remembrance, that they had dwelled in the wilderness where there was neither house nor building, and yet had continued there a long time traveling too and fro. And that was also a warning to them that this life is but a wayfaring, where through we must pass in haste.
As much is to be said of the firstlings when men came to offer up their first fruits unto God. Again, when the Jews made solemn
confession of their sins, it was a figure to lead them to Jesus Christ who was promised to them. But now that he is come, if we will needs keep still those things, what is it else than a toying? For we displace the principal and the substance, which is all one as if a man would feed himself with the colour of bread, wine, and meat, and not with the things themselves. And can a man receive any sustenance thereby?
So then, seeing that our Lord Jesus Christ is come, the figures of the law are not to be used anymore, and if men will needs keep them, they show themselves to have no knowledge of God, but that all is turned upside down. Therefore, it stands us so much the more on hand to mark well, that if we nowadays do swerve never so little from the pureness of the Gospel, we are straightway strayed from our Lord Jesus Christ. I grant we may well keep certain days of assembling, albeit not after the manner of the Jews. And why? We keep them not for ceremonies' sake. In the time of the law, it had been a deadly offense for a man to have lifted up but a mallet upon a piece of wood, or to have done any other business of his own. If a man had but set a pot or a kettle upon the fire on the Sabbath day, God commanded that he should be rooted out. Yet was it not meant by that rigour, that God delights in idleness: but it served for a figure, as if he had said, I have enjoined you my Sabbaths, to the end you should know that I am he who sanctifies you. We have the selfsame sanctification at this day, howbeit not with like figures as the fathers had it in old time: for that were to bury our Lord Jesus Christ. It were to hang up a veil again, to the intent to dazzle our eyes in such sort, as we should not see the light of the Gospel. Lo what we have to mark upon this observing of days whereof Saint Paul speaks here. But above all things let us mark that he intended to show us here, that inasmuch as we know the benefits which are imparted to us by our Lord Jesus Christ, we must stick to them and settle ourselves wholly thereupon:
and that if we be fleeting to and fro, it is a shrinking away from our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have the fullness and perfection of all life, joy, welfare, and glory. Therefore, seeing that God comes to us after that fashion, yea and that even at such time as we were as wretched wandering beasts, he gathered us to himself, and showed himself to be our herdman, to the intent that we should become the sheep of his flock, and hearken to his voice, and discern it from all false doctrines, and from all the curious subtleties of men, that our Lord Jesus Christ might reign over us, hold us in awe, possess us wholly and we become his, not partly or with condition, but wholly and thoroughly: let us beware that we become not guilty of such unthankfulness when the Gospel is once preached unto us. Thus you see what we have to bear in mind to our behoof in this text, that we may not be accused at the latter day if God have called us to him, and we left and forsaken him, and falsified our promise whereas he was ready to have kept touch with us, not only for a day or twain, but also by continuing to be our father and savior forever both in life and death.
Now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him to make us feel them more and more, and that the same may cause us the better to acknowledge the graces that we have received of him, and that seeing we perceive that they have been imparted unto us undeservedly, it may make us to be the more desirous to taste of them, that thereupon we may day by day endeavor to rid ourselves of our lewd affections, and of all the vices wherein we should be plunged if he pitied us not and made us not to feel his grace, which it may please him to continue in such sort, as we may seek nothing but to come home fully unto him: and that in the meanwhile till we come to the full light, where we shall behold him face to face and be transfigured into his glory, he continue still to show us the way of salvation, and
make us to walk therein throughout. That it may please him to grant this grace not only to us but also to all people and nations of the earth, bringing back all poor ignorant souls from the miserable bondage of errors and darkness, to the right way of salvation, for the doing whereof it may please him to raise up true and faithful ministers of his word that seek not their own profit and vainglory, but only to the advancement of his holy name. &c.
The Twenty-Seventh Sermon,
which is the fourth upon the fourth
Chapter.
11 I am afraid of you, lest I have spent my labor in vain upon you.
12 Brethren, I beseech you, be ye as I am, for I am as you are. You have not hurt me at all.
13 You know how I have erst preached unto you through infirmity of the flesh,
14 And you neither despised nor held scorn of the trial of me such as it was in my flesh; but received me as an Angel of God, yea as Jesus Christ.
I have declared heretofore, that although Saint Paul at the first blush bring not any reason that seemeth to be of great weight or importance: yet notwithstanding it is not for naught that he doubteth least his labour be lost, and all the fruit of his travail among the Galatians be perished, seeing they observed the holy days and other Ceremonies of the law. For we must not look upon the day itself, or upon the kind of meat, or upon such other like things: but we must consider to what end men forbear the eating of any kind of meat, or why they keep certain days, and so of other Ceremonies. Now I have told you that by that means the light of the Gospel is after a sort damned, or rather utterly quenched. For the end why all those things were ordained in old time, was that the fathers might be fed and maintained in the hope of the redeemer, who was not yet come among them. But now that our Lord Jesus Christ is come into the world, and hath finished and performed all that was requisite for man's salvation, it were an utter derogation to the full perfectness that is in him, if men should still busy themselves with figures. It were all one as if a man should draw a curtain before him that he might not be known as he is.
Furthermore, there goes a binding with it: and when a thing is commanded under pain of deadly sin, men's consciences are made subject to such tyranny, that God forgoeth his authority and dominion over us, for he will not have us to make conscience of anything that is not commanded by him. And truly the thing wherein he will be discerned from his creatures, is that he have all sovereignty in ruling our life: that the thing which he commandeth be accepted as good and needful without gainsaying: that the things which he forbiddeth, be omitted, and that men make no reckoning nor conscience of them. But in observing the Ceremonies and in thinking to deserve at God's hand for so doing, there is yet a further matter: namely that we renounce or give over the thing that is purchased for
us by the death and passion of the son of God our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath discharged us of all debts due unto God his father. Not to give us liberty to do evil, but to the end we should flee unto him alone when we have done amiss. If we find ourselves to have transgressed God's law, and that our own conscience upbraids us: there is none other remedy for us but to put ourselves into the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may be quit before God, and washed from all our spots by the merit of his death and passion, and by the shedding of his blood.
To be short, Saint Paul shows here, that men run astray when they seek means of salvation anywhere else than in Jesus Christ, inasmuch that they become forlorn and utterly past recovery. Now then seeing that God has set us forth but only one way of salvation: they that turn aside from that, do cast themselves wilfully into destruction, and Satan reigns over them for their unthankfulness sake in despising the inestimable benefit that God offered them. What a bountifulness is it that God calls and allures us to his favour and love, notwithstanding that we be his deadly foes? Again seeing he appointeth not the Angels to be our mediators, but vouchsafeth to join himself unto us in the person of his only son: if we be so miserable that that will not suffice us, but we will needs of a devilish covetousness seek other means: is it not a shaking off of our Lord Jesus Christ? Then let us learn, that to profit well in the Gospel, we must forsake all that is contrary to the trust which we ought to have in our Lord Jesus Christ: and stick wholly to his righteousness, to seek all perfection in him. Let that serve for one point.
Also therewithal let us look well to ourselves: for sometimes we shall think we commit but some small and light fault in swerving aside: but in the end we shall wonder how God hath given us head, so as we
shall be utterly strayed from him. And that is the cause why so few hold out to the end. For men do easily bear with themselves, under the aforesaid pretense, bearing themselves in hand that it is nothing, and so every man gives himself liberty. But God punishes such recklessness, and gives us over to it, so as Satan carries us away. Wherefore let us walk in fear and wariness, and when God hath once given us the grace to taste of his Gospel, let us endeavor to be confirmed in it day by day: let us beware in any wise that we step not aside from it, and let every of us be watchful in that behalf, lest we make a deadly fall when we think we do but trip: finally, let us keep the way that our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us. It is true that though we swerve aside, yet he will pity us, as we see by experience. For he must be fain to raise us up again, not three or four times in our whole life: but a hundred times every day. For we are fickle and never leave reeling to and fro. Nevertheless let us not tempt him, nor so harden ourselves that the Devil leads us away or draws us one way or other: but let us labor to make the seed of life available in us, seeing that God will have us to yield forth fruit to his honor in all our thoughts, words, and deeds. Let us beware that we endeavor ourselves hereto. Now hereupon Saint Paul adds, that he would fain have the Galatians fashion themselves like unto him, because that he on his side labors to apply himself unto them. It should seem that this saying differs far from that which we heard even now: for it was as a stroke of some tempest or thunderclap when he said, "I am afraid lest I have lost my labor upon you: I will let you alone like folk past amendment." It grieved him to see that the doctrine which he had preached was so ill received, and now he uses a gentle and friendly manner of speech. To bring them back again unto him, he calls them brethren, and afterwards protests that he desires to join with them, and to frame himself to them as much as is possible for him, seeking nothing but that they should yield the like unto him.
And herein we see what measurableness they ought to keep which have the charge to preach God's word: that is to wit, they must not foade men's faults by flattery, but rebuke them sharply, to the intent that such as are beguiled by Satan's illusions, may be wakened and as it were scared at God's judgments. For when men are given to any evil, they lie weltering in it still, unless they be plucked out of it as it were by force. Yea and it grieves and spites them if they be wrung by the ear too hard, or if they be made to scratch where it did not itch, as the common proverb says. The more then that men bear with themselves, the less are their faults to be spared, for else it were a betraying of them. That is the cause why Saint Paul used so great vehemency, in saying that he was sore afraid, lest he had lost his labor, and there leaves the Galatians as it were in despair. But yet for all this, he intends to cheer them up again, that they may come to repentance. And so he seasons his sharpness with sweetness, and shows that the gate is still open for them, if they will submit themselves unto God.
Thus you see two things that are requisite when we will have our exhortations to be profitable. The first is, that there be a liveliness in us to prick forth such as have done amiss, that they may be thoroughly touched with the knowledge of their sins, and mourn and be sorry for them before God: for if they have not that soreness, they will never yield to follow God. True it is, that to outward sight men may well alter their lewd dispositions: but however they pretend, they shall still be full of stubbornness and malice, till they be ashamed of themselves and feel what they have deserved. So then the true preparative to repentance, is to be pricked so narrowly as we may feel the evil that is in us, and condemn ourselves for it: yea and that we be full of anguish, finding no rest till God have received us to mercy. But yet must we not lie still in such perplexity: for that would make us to shun God's presence, and to go about to estrange
ourselves from him forever, insomuch that we would fain have him plucked out of his seat, that he might no more be our judge, if we were not well persuaded that he will be pitiful to us, and that we shall not be disappointed of our expectation in seeking of him: according as it is said in the Psalm, that there must be mercy in God to draw men unto him, or else they will never be brought to stand in awe of him. For as for all the fear of the unbelievers, it is but a terror that dismays them, making them to gnash their teeth against God, and to fret and chafe and play the madmen. And such enforced fear has no reverence at all in it. But when we have once tasted the goodness of our God, and see how all his seeking is to be at one with us, and to have us come unto him without feigning, yea and that his touching of our hearts is to the intent we should conceive sure confidence, and thereupon offer ourselves to his Majesty, assuring ourselves that we ought not to be afraid of it, seeing it is the thing whereunto he calls us: I say, when we be thus assured, namely that our sins are wiped out: then may we be bold to press unto our God, and that is the order which Saint Paul keeps here, and which it behooves us to keep in all our rebukings. In that place then he did beat down the Galatians, because they exalted themselves, and did as it were set up their bristles against God, through their lustiness. And now he reaches them his hand, and lifts them up again, and tells them that after they have once felt and perceived their faults, they must not yet for all that think themselves utterly shut out from God, and from all hope of salvation.
But this cannot be done except we have a carefulness to draw sinners to salvation. For many men will be vehement enough, and they shall have just cause so to do: but yet in the meanwhile their rigorousness will be so excessive, as it shall shut up men's hearts, and make them take such stomach against the bitterness that is used towards them, that they shall cast themselves utterly out of order, yea and conceive
a hatred against God and his word. However, those who are so oversharpened will say they have just cause. Yes, but yet for all that, they who rebuke sin in the name of God, must always have a care and desire to bring those to salvation, who were in the highway to destruction. When they be so minded, no doubt but they will labor to win such as were out of the right way, and to make them perceive that they seek their welfare, and that although their rebukings be grievous, yet they fail not to be for their behoof. Nevertheless, on the other side, let such as are handled so sharply understand that they have need of such medicines: for what shall they win by rankling against God? But yet we see many who can well enough make countenance to be great Protestants, and to burn in zeal of the Gospel, which yet notwithstanding will not abide to be touched. So long as they are borne with, they will confess whatsoever will have them and all that is spoken to them, yea and more too. You would think that the Gospel was made even for their turn: but if a man find fault with them, then they begin to play the wood beasts. And what gain they by it, saving that first they betray their hypocrisy before men, and secondly set themselves in battle against God.
Now it is certain that in fighting against such an adversary, they shall not be the stronger party. Therefore let us suffer ourselves to be rebuked sharply when need shall require. And if we wist not of the evil that was in us, we ought to mistrust ourselves so much the more, and not seek starting holes to defend ourselves with, but rather enter into examination of ourselves, and every of us become his own judge, that by means thereof we may not enter into account with our God, nor he be compelled to cite us to hear the sentence of damnation.
Thus you see how we ought to receive the chastisements that are put to us, and that we must not be too much grieved at them, because they prepare and dispose us to humility, but let us in the meanwhile
wait for the coming of the sweet that follows afterward. For the thing that keeps many men from receiving the warnings that are given them, is that they be fully resolved of the matter beforehand: so that if a man speak a word to them that mislikes them, they stop their ears at it, or else their hearts are so hardened and dulled, as they cannot by any means afterward conceive what is put to them for their welfare and profit. A man may talk to them of God's mercy, and protest to them well enough: and a man may well enough (as you would say) show them with his finger that his seeking is nothing else but to bring them to salvation, but they be utterly deaf: and that is because they be fully bent of themselves to reject God's word.
Therefore let us be patient and modest, when men step to us upon the sudden, to assail us roughly by showing us our faults: let us be quiet at it, and tarry till he have spoken the last word. And so let us interlace and knit these two things together: that is to wit, the rigor which we must take hold of that we may have a true and lively feeling of our sins, to be sorry for them, and to ask God forgiveness, and to be abashed in ourselves: and then let us assure ourselves that God will always be merciful to us: and when we have so indicted ourselves, let us also hope to be acquitted at his hand, and that the more he condemns us by his word, the more he intends to bear us up, to the end he be not enforced to come against us with armed hand, and with his sword in his fist. Thus you see in effect what we have to remember in this text, where we see Saint Paul on the one side so sharp and vehement, and by and by afterward to call the Galatians his brethren, and to pray them that there may be good conformity between him and them, and one accord and tunable consent among them.
Now as touching that he says, "I beseech you be like unto me, for I also do apply myself unto you": as we have seen already, it is not to
soothe them in their vices, nor to cloak their filthiness, nor to use any flattering of them: but to try all the ways to the wood to win them unto God, according as we shall see hereafter how he will use the similitude of a woman with child, which longs to see her child born into the world, and although she endures pain, yet will not wreak herself upon her babe by strangling it, but be more char of it than of her own life. Saint Paul will use the said similitude. So then he means not here to strike sail (as they say) to please such as had need to be rebuked: but rather advanced himself as far as he could to win them, according also as he will say, that he has prattled with them as a Nurse doth with her child: and that might well be done without hardening men in their sins. Not that they should be too much borne with: for when a Nurse stoops to teach her young child to go, whom she holds by the hand, her intent is not to make him to tumble, nor to teach him to halt, nor to make him such a Cockney: that he should not be able to go when he comes to man's age: but contrariwise, when she intends to stay the child's arm, she will take him by the hand, or by some other part of him.
So then we see after what manner we must fashion ourselves to such as are weak. It is not to harden them in their naughtiness, but rather to amend them: nevertheless we must go by measure, having always an eye to our own ability. And truly it is not for naught that Saint Paul in another text exhorts the stronger sort, and the forwarder sort, to apply themselves to such as are yet raw and weak.
For if a man had never so great and excellent virtues, that he were as an Angel: yet surely if he be so rigorous that he will have every man to be as perfect as himself, all his virtues will be but smoke. Why so? For the meekness and gentleness which God commandeth us, serve to give as it were a taste and savor to all virtues. And the better that a man knows himself, the more will he bethink himself of the vices that
are in him, which have need to be borne with, and therefore that he must also bear with others. Again he will consider to what end God has advanced him, namely to show other men the way, and finally he will bear with himself least of all men. And hereby may a man have a good inkling to discern whether the admonitions proceed of pure love, or whether they proceed of too much sternness. For if in rebuking other men, a man takes not heed to himself, and flatters not himself, nor casts forth his choler to find fault with this man or that man's vice, but in the meanwhile is utterly stained himself, and would fain be plunged in it over head and ears: it is certain that all is but hypocrisy. But when a man reins himself short, and desires not to be more borne with than his neighbors: if therewithal he be rigorous, it is to be acknowledged that he has the zeal of God, and of his holy spirit in him, and that he procures the welfare of all men.
Thus you see in effect why Saint Paul says here, that he intended to fashion himself to the Galatians. Now he adds further, that they had not hurt or offended him in any thing, meaning thereby that he undertook not any private quarrel against them. For the very things that mar all when doctrine and Admonitions come to be put forth, are that either we be of opinion that the party which speaks is not worthy to be heard, or that we bear some hatred or grudge towards him in our hearts. For it is impossible that we should take anything in good part at his hand, when we shall have conceived any such opinion or fancy of him. I see a man that speaks as an Angel: now if I surmise that he hates me, and seeks to bite me, or that he goes about to discover my shame, surely I shall not take any profit by hearing of him. But this cannot excuse us: for it is a lewd fault: and although it were true that a man hated us, and that he rebuked us upon malice and spite: yet ought we to learn to be conformable. The very Heathen men could well enough say, that our foes did us sometimes more good than our friends. For why, they that love one another will wink
at many things, and overpass all without thinking amiss. But their enemies keep watch to take advantage of them whom they mislike, and when they spy any fault, they miss not to blaze it abroad, as says Solomon: yea and sometimes when they would fain fall out with a man, they gird at him under pretense of giving him warning. Nevertheless when our enemies do so, surely God gives us a means to bring us back again: for the Devil may now and then serve the turn of a Physician towards us, according as we have seen how Saint Paul says that he was buffeted by the same Messenger, that is to wit, of Satan, which thing was done to beat down all pride in him.
Therefore when our enemies come to sift us after that fashion, and seek nothing else but to find faults with us: God doth by that means waken us, because we were asleep before in our own flatteries: and if we were wise and well advised, surely our enemies should oftentimes do us more good than our friends, as I said before, and as the Heathen men knew well enough. And it is a great shame for us, that the blind wretches which were plunged in darkness, should see more clearly than we that have the light of salvation, and that we should not know the thing which those silly deceived souls perceived. And yet notwithstanding it is as (you would say) a piece of our nature, and men make an ordinary rule of it, that if they have once taken any lewd conceit that a man hates them, they be so eager and forepossessed with it, that they cannot abide to receive any correction at his hand. For this consideration Saint Paul protests here, that in reproving the Galatians, he deals not with any case or quarrel of his own. "We (says he) have been friends heretofore: I might perchance be despised too the worldward, my coming unto you was not with any great pomp, I was no painted fellow: but I brought you the pure doctrine of the Gospel.
And although I was a man without any great gain, so as I was not accounted of to the worldward: yet notwithstanding, you received me as an Angel of God, yea even as Jesus Christ himself: and whereof comes now this alteration? I hold on still in doing my duty: and why then are you so alienated from me? See if you can allege any other thing, than that you hate God's truth and cannot abide it. And what a shame is it that you should so hate God's truth, that you should disdain it in my person because I am the Minister of it? Now then we have to gather upon this Text, first that such as have the charge to teach and to carry abroad the doctrine of the Gospel, must above all things eschew quarrels and contentions, (at leastwise if they intend to have their preaching to prevail and be profitable) I say quarrels and contentions for their own peculiar matters. And so you see how we must abstain from all quarrels, lest the gate be shut against us, and we be disbarred of all liberty of rebuking men when need shall require, that we may protest with Saint Paul that we deal not with them for any desire of revenge, enmity, or evil will, but only for desire of their welfare, let us be sure of that, to the intent it may open us a gap, and give us a way to all manner of rebukings. Mark that for one point.
Again, let us also be well advised, that if our vices be touched, we cast not a block in the way by conceiving and surmising this false opinion in our heads, that it is done out of hatred: for that is the policy of Satan. Although men be inclined to think that other men do bite them and nip them out of hatred: yet let us not think that they do it of their own mere motion, but by the Devil's means, who snarls them after that fashion. If we be rebuked when we have done amiss, whence soever the same comes, surely it is a message sent of God, because he will not have us to perish, but would have us to return unto the right way, notwithstanding that the party which finds fault with us does it not of a good and pure affection, but seeks only to
spite us, or to wreak his teen upon us: for yet does God nevertheless reach us his hand, to the end we should not perish. But behold, Satan on the contrary part stops us from receiving of the medicine, and puts us in the head, that the rebuking of our faults comes not of good will, but that there is a pad in the straw, so as we be either too much sifted, or too sore bitten, or else that there is some other secret grudge lurking unseen. All these imaginations does Satan mingle with men's admonitions, to the intent we should be out of love with them, and refuse them, and by that means rebel against God. Wherefore let us bear well in mind what is said here, to the end that when we be warned of our faults, we may consider, that God, to the intent he would not be our judge himself, appoints as it were attorneys & solicitors in his name, to come and charge us with our offences. When a mortal man rebukes me for my misdoings, it is God's will he should do so, and he has appointed him in his place. And to what end? That we should not come before his Majesty to yield an account of them; for it were better for us to be drowned a hundred thousand times. God then does pity us, when he sends us mortal men to be our judges, yea even to be our judges to put us to some shame, and thereby to stir us up afterward to return again into the right way.
Therefore whenever God is so merciful unto us: let us profit ourselves by such grace, and beware that we embitter not ourselves with opinions that come incontinently in our heads, as that the party hates us, that he seeks us, that there is some heartburning, that there is some enmity, and that there is I wot not what. Let all this gear be trodden under foot, and let us accept their warnings if they be true. To be short, if any man blames us, we cannot do better, than to consider what our own conscience tells us of it. Mark this for a special point, that we must not look what the person is that speaks, nor pass whether there be any grudge or enmity in him: but only
what our own conscience judges of the matter and then must we needs conclude, I am rightly reproved. It is a marvelous thing, that they which do so chafe and storm and grind their teeth when they are rebuked, should nevertheless condemn themselves continually whether they would or no, if they entered into their own consciences, and yet had much rather to play the mad bedlams against God, and to spite him by all means possible, than to humble themselves in acknowledging their offences. You see then that the way which we have to keep when we are found fault with, is to hearken unto such as may make us to enter into account, and specially to have an eye to that which is in us. And where shall we find that? Even written and ingraven in our consciences. And although we perceive it not thoroughly: yet let us mistrust ourselves, for no man is a competent judge in his own case as they say. True it is that God does already make us judges in part: but yet must we rather receive the condemnation which we perceive not, than carp against it before we have well and thoroughly weighed whether we be faulty or no. But there are a number that are well apaid to shut up, or rather to seal up their eyes, that they might not see their own shame: when a man comes to provoke them to amendment, they fall to skirmishing at the first push, with, did they overshoot themselves so? And then all is dispatched, they will hear no further of the matter, let a hundred things be proved against them, and all is nothing with them. They do but wring their mouth awry at it. For they would always clear themselves, and although they be a laughing stock even to little children, they pass not for it, but glory still of the hardening of themselves in their own lewdness and filthiness. Therefore let us keep ourselves from falling into such willful stubbornness: and in judging unfeignedly of our vices according to truth, let us also be lowly-minded to humble ourselves and to beat down all pride in us, to the end that nothing may let us from acknowledging freely that we