The Thirteenth Sermon, which is the seventh upon the second Chapter - Galatians 2:17-18

The Thirteenth Sermon,

which is the seventh upon the second Chapter.

17 But if we who seek to be justified by Christ are found to be sinners, is Christ therefore the minister of sin? No, not so.

18 For if I build up the things again which I had cast down, I make myself an offender.

We have seen already that to dismantle all the pride and self-trust which men place in their own works and merits, Paul cited that the Jews, who had great privilege above other men, could not, for all that, earn God's favor except by believing the Gospel. Yet, it was a good assumption that the Jews had some righteousness in themselves by which to earn God's favor, because the law was given to them with the promise that whoever performed those things would live by them. Therefore, one might have judged that the Jews, even in regard to themselves alone without Christ, could have been justified before God to some extent; otherwise, it would seem that the law was unnecessary. But when they come to our Lord Jesus Christ, there they perceive themselves to be wretched sinners, lost, and condemned. It should seem then that Jesus Christ brings sin, for before his coming, the Jews were considered God's children. They bore the badge of holiness in their bodies, and moreover, it was said to them that they were the holy and chosen people of their God. Now then, seeing they become fellow-like with wretched sinners, and there is nothing but cursedness to be found in them, so they are forced to flee for refuge to the mere grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, it seems that Jesus Christ brought sin into the world. Truly, so will men judge of him according to their own opinion, albeit foolishly.

For it behooves us to note that our Lord Jesus Christ does not bring sin but reveals sin. For although the Jews exercised themselves in keeping the law, yet that only served to prove to them more and more that God would never show them mercy except through the means of the Redeemer. No doubt that in living chastely and soberly, and moreover in obeying God, they had some appearance of righteousness, but that came wholly of grace, and we must not attribute that to men which belongs to God, for by that means, God would be deprived of his honor. Then if the Jews, being governed by God's spirit, had some willingness and desire to lead a holy life, it must not be accounted that God was indebted to them for it; contrarily, they are much more bound to God. But on the other side, we have to note (as we shall see more fully in due time and place) that there was never yet any man so perfect but there was always much to be blamed in him. Therefore, we have to conclude that the Jews could not be so well accepted by God, but that they needed his mercy, and their salvation must necessarily be wholly grounded upon the forgiveness of their sins. Also, regarding ceremonies, they believed that there was great holiness in them, which hypocrites have always used as their cloak. But however they fared, it is certain that the Jews were more damnable than all other men. And why? For (as Saint Paul says) without the law, sin does not upbraid men, to the extent that men fall asleep and flatter themselves in their vices when they do not have that Summoner to cite them before God's judgment seat.

Then, whereas the wretched Gentiles might have some defense and excuse, at least that they are not so guilty before God, the Jews, in offering their sacrifices, had it witnessed to their face that all of them were worthy of eternal death and so consequently doubly guilty in comparison to the Gentiles. And therefore, in the second letter to the Colossians, Saint Paul uses this similitude, that the Ceremonies of the law were as evidence to bind a man more tightly. Truly, just as although a debtor is not condemned by the order of law, nor has he bound himself before a notary, nor given assurance in writing under his hand and seal, yet he ceases not for all that to be bound [in conscience] to pay his debt; even so, although the Gentiles had not any authentic matter of record by which to be condemned, yet they ceased not to still be worthy of death. But as for the man who has passed bonds by the order of law and entered his debt in the common records, what shall he say more? There is no escape for him; he must answer [the debt] out of hand. Now, the Jews were in a similar plight. For their washing of themselves when they went into the Temple, and in their own houses, and everywhere else, was a confession that there was nothing but uncleanness in them. Again, when they killed the beasts and saw them slain before them, surely the same was as a vivid picture of their own death and cursed state. And yet could not the brute beasts nor the shedding of their blood clear them, nor likewise the water, which is a corruptible element and cannot reach the soul. So then, the washing which they used had been a foolish thing if it had not directed them to the spiritual washing which we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise in baptism in these days, if we think ourselves to be made clean by the water, what an abuse is it? All these things must serve to lead us to the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, I conclude that whereas the Jews were exercised in the law, the same was a greater evidence against them and bound them more closely to subjection to God's judgment and eternal death than the Gentiles were.

And so we see how Jesus Christ was not a bringer-in of sin but a discoverer of sin. For the Jews thought themselves well-shielded under the Ceremonies and made a shield of them to defend themselves from God's displeasure, considering all other nations unholy, under the opinion that there was nothing but uncleanness in all the world besides, and that all holiness was in themselves. See what their arrogance was. Yet when Jesus Christ came and put things in order, he showed them that they should be obliged to show other men by their own example that their salvation was to be sought elsewhere than in their own merits and that it behooved them to come to him with such humility as to confess that they brought nothing with them but utter cursedness. And by that means, our Lord Jesus Christ revealed the mischief that had been hidden before, just as diseased persons shall often not perceive the festering of some sore that will breed some deadly disease until the Surgeon finds it out, who cannot do his duty in curing it until he has searched the sore to the bottom which was unknown before. Even so, our Lord Jesus Christ was forced to reveal the wretchedness that was in the Jews so that they should return to him and confess that they had nothing in them worthy of God's favor, nor any other refuge than to his mere mercy. Thus, you see in effect what we have to consider for the solution of the question and doubt which Saint Paul puts forth here.

Likewise in these days, if a man speaks of the Gospel to such as think they serve God and hope to win heaven by their own deserts, they are grieved at it because that gate is shut against them by the presumption which they have conceived beforehand, saying: "What, I pray? Shall I have lost my time when I have been so devout all my life long?" As for the man who shall have heard a Mass or two, or mumbled up a sort of prayers, or gone on pilgrimage, or lashed out his money and substance (without sparing) upon pardons, indulgences, and such other things: if one tells him that we are all wretched and that there is nothing else for us to lean unto but the mere grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and that all that ever we are able to bring unto God is but filthy and loathly, he will storm and reply, "Is it possible that God should have no regard for so great pains as I take to serve him? Must not all of it pass into my account and be allowed to my salvation?" They would fain accuse God, yes, and we shall see many that will not stick to rail upon him with open mouth because they are loath to lose what they have done. Although the hypocrites perceive much lewdness in themselves, yet they would fain hide all under their cowls. For they break out in this manner: One says, "I have gone woolward"; another, "I have risen at midnight to serve God"; the third, "I have refrained from eating flesh"; and another, "I have been shut up in a Cloister as in a prison, and finally, I have been dead to the worldward, and shall all this be unprofitable to me, so as God will have no regard of it?" Such murmurings as these we shall hear daily. But let us see if they can make their case the better for all their replying. For when they have well examined what is in them, they shall find that all their doings are but as a painting to overlay things with, like a man who intends not to repair his house, leaves the holes unmended within, and does but daub them over on the outside so they are not seen, and afterward whitewashes them, so that finally, it is nothing else but a plastering or whitewashing, according also as our Lord Jesus Christ uses the same similitude against the hypocrites that did no more but blanch things. However, in the meantime, God regards not the outward appearance, as it is said in the first of Samuel, but searches men's hearts and the truth and lays open the things that were hidden before, according also as it is said in Jeremiah. Since it is so, then all such as allege or set forth their own devotions may perhaps have some fair show before men, but surely, before God, all is but lying. And as soon as God but blows upon their painting and starch, it shall scale off like the painting of harlots that take great pains to starch their faces, and yet the Sun does no sooner shine upon them, but a man shall see the filthy scales fall off, and their foulness is discovered to their shame. In like taking are all hypocrites when they will needs color things after that manner before God; their shameful lewdness must needs be brought to light.

Therefore, let us mark that our Lord Jesus Christ, in condemning the whole world by showing that none can be saved but by the free goodness of God his father, which he offers and imparts to us, brings not sin (for we have that already in us) but utters and betrays it so that we should be convicted of it, and all the pride wherewith we were made drunken before be laid down, and nothing remains in us but lowliness to confess unfeignedly that we are undone, and that there is no other shift for us but that God utter the infinite treasures of his mercy upon us. You see then that all mouths shall be stopped, and men must not beguile themselves anymore by surmising to find any righteousness in themselves.

Furthermore, Saint Paul uses here a double answer to show that it is nothing so. However, before he answers, he sets down a precise word, saying: "God forbid." As if he should say, it is a horrible blasphemy to intend to lay the blame of our sins upon our Lord Jesus Christ. For (says he) if I pull down the thing that I have built up, there shall be contrariety in me. And in speaking so, he brings us back to the common doctrine of the Gospel. For our preaching of the end whereunto God has sent his only son is to show that he has brought us righteousness and is come to put away sin, which holds us as it were under Tyranny, till we be delivered and set free from it by the grace which was purchased for us in the death and passion of the Son of God.

Now then, seeing it is so, we see that our Lord Jesus Christ is not the bringer in of sin, but is come to destroy sin (as Saint John says in his Canonical Epistle) and we also do see it to be so. For what else does the Gospel teach us but that we are full of all wickedness, and must be fain to be made clean by him who is made the Lamb without spot, and also that he has brought us the spirit of holiness? For as much then as men, so long as they are cut off from Christ, have nothing in them but cursedness, so as they are utterly rotten and steeped in their sins, and that Jesus Christ is the party that makes them pure and clean by the shedding of his blood to wash them withal and by bringing us the spirit [of regeneration] to renew us with, that we might give ourselves to the serving of God, have his Image repaired in us, and walk in truth and uprightness.

For as much as it is said so: we see that our Lord Jesus Christ is not the bringer in of sin. And why so? For let us consider what we are, and we shall find that there is a gulf of all manner of wickedness in every one of us, and in all mankind. But our Lord Jesus Christ comes to remedy it. You see then that the sin was in us before: but our Lord Jesus Christ is forced to uncover it. What harm does a Physician by letting blood? Behold, a wretched man has a disease that is not perceived: his blood is altogether corrupted, and yet it is not seen to be so as long as it lies within the veins. But let him once be let blood, it will appear that it was no blood, but filthy corrupt matter. Again, what filthiness voids out of a man's body when he is purged for some disease? Now shall the Physician be blamed for it, or the medicine that was given him? It is well known that the purgation serves to deliver the body that was half rotten before.

So then if our Lord Jesus Christ does by the light of his Gospel reveal the spiritual diseases that were in us, and the filthy uncleanness which is loathly before God and shameful before men, and does purge us quite and clean thereof: ought he to be charged with any blame or reproach for his labor? What an unthankfulness were that? Therefore, here is a sufficient answer to beat back the blasphemies and grudgings of the enemies of the Gospel, which burst for pride and cannot endure to be tamed.

Let them allege what they can to prove that they have some righteousness and holiness: and yet shall it always be found that there is nothing but uncleanness in them, which they wist not of, and yet it shows itself continually. Mark that for one point.

Secondly, Saint Paul adds a more large and easy declaration when he says that he is dead to the lawward by the law itself: and that he was crucified with Jesus Christ, to live unto God. Now when he says that he was dead to the lawward by the law: it is in way of mocking such as pretend to be justified by keeping of the law. For I have told you already how all his disputing and striving was against such kind of folk. They were but deceivers who went about to mingle Jesus Christ with the law of Moses, yea even to get righteousness. For it is certain that our Lord Jesus Christ is not contrary to the law, but rather his Gospel takes witness of the law, as it is showed in the first chapter to the Romans.

Nevertheless, when the matter concerns justification, that is to say, when men come to scrutinize, to know how and by what means God takes and accepts them as innocent, pure, and without spot, then must the law be separated from Jesus Christ. And why? For the law brings nothing in it but cursing: and Jesus Christ brings the remedy of it. Therefore, the enemies of the Gospel against whom Saint Paul now disputes would have mingled the law with it, and have made men believe that although they were justified by our Lord Jesus Christ, yet notwithstanding they should mingle the ceremonies with him as a part of their salvation, and that by means of them they should purchase grace and favor before God.

But Saint Paul cuts off all this gear, and says that there is none but only Jesus Christ [that can do that] and that men must seek none other helps in that case either one way or other, but simply content themselves with his grace, and not give the law any room in that behalf. For he says, as for me, I am not dead through the Gospel. As if he should say, will you make me believe that I can get God's favor by means of the law? Nay, I tell you contrariwise, that it is not the Gospel which has condemned me, it is not the Gospel that has showed me my filthiness, to make me ashamed of it, it is not the Gospel that has bereft me of all hope of salvation: but it is the Law, which has showed me that I am stark dead, that I am damnable before God, that I am undone and damned: This comes not from elsewhere than from the law. And would you have me to seek righteousness there? It is all one as if you would give me a poison to eat, to the end I should take nourishment of it. However (to say truth) that inconvenience is not to be blamed upon the Law, for it should redound to the dishonor of God, from the Law came.

But however the case stands, considering the corruption that is in us, the Law cannot but kill us, as we have seen in the second to the Corinthians, and as Saint Paul declares more fully in the seventh to the Romans. For he says, that when men believe themselves to have life: that is to say, when they believe themselves to be righteous, and to stand in the grace and favor of God: it is a sign that the law is dead to them, that is to say, that it hath not the power and strength to show them that which else it should do. For to what end was the law given? To set the rule of good life before our eyes, and that rule is called the righteousness which God allows.

Secondly, the law ought to be as a looking glass to us, wherein to behold our own deformities, blemishes, foulness, filthiness, and iniquities, so far out of all order, as we may be as it were swallowed up in despair at the sight of them. Now before we have the law, we see none of all these things: that is to say, we know not what manner of ones we be, nor what evil is in us. But when God sets his demands before us, and we perceive the same thoroughly: then are we at our wits' end, and utterly out of hope. The Law then is dead: that is to say, it is as it were thrust underfoot and as good as buried, so long as we think ourselves to be alive, and conceive any foolish imagination of being righteous, and of obtaining heaven by our own good works. But when the law lives: that is to say, when God gives it power to touch us, then are we dead, then is it as a sword to thrust us to the heart.

Therefore we must needs receive a deadly wound, so soon as we have perceived what the Law contains. After that manner speaks Saint Paul in the text which I have alleged. And now, following the same matter, he says that he is dead to the Law by the Law: as if he had said, "Come not hither to slander the Gospel, as though it were the cause of our damnation, or an entrance unto us to be cursed before God, to have the knowledge of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in us. No, no. But it is certain that the Law (when it does its office, and we read it in such wise as becomes us) does always kill us, and we lie as it were plunged in despair, till our Lord Jesus Christ have reached us his hand to lift us out of it. Thus then am I dead unto the law, that is to say, I can have no life, I can have no assurance of soul health, I can have no comfort, rest nor contentation, and to be short, there is nothing in the law whereby I may come unto God: but clean contrariwise, it shaketh me off, it thrusteth me back, it banisheth me from the kingdom of heaven, it cutteth me quite off from the hope of salvation, it maketh me a poor, cursed, and wretched creature, and to be short, it sendeth me to the bottom of hell. You see then what I have won by abiding in the law. And Saint Paul speaks of himself rather than of any other body, to the end that the things which he speaks may be the better received, as of a man of experience.

And it is after the same manner that he speaks in the fore-alleaged seventh Chapter to the Romans. For there he sets not forth this man or that man for an example, but says, "I myself was sometimes alive": that is to say, at such time as he was a Pharisee, and accounted a holy man, yea even for one of the excellentest in all Jewry, in so much that he was a mirror of all perfection, and as a little Angel: then (says he) I was alive, howbeit but by hypocrisy. For he made himself to believe wonders, and he was so puffed up with pride, that he held scorn of Jesus Christ. Lo in what blindness Saint Paul acknowledges himself to have been. And he adds anon after, that he wist not what was meant by, "Thou shalt not covet." It might be thought strange that a man which had not only been at school, but also been a great teacher of others, and thereto a very zealous man as he himself affirms, should be so dulled as not to know his own faults. But Saint Paul shows the reason of it. For (says he) I looked no further than to the outward honesty, that there might no fault be found in me before the world, nor any man know any evil by me. But when I understood what this saying, "Thou shalt not lust," meant, and perceived that God condemns all the affections, and thoughts of men: then I perceived that the worst was behind, as the common Proverb says: for it is the last commandment of the law, wherein God makes so lively, and deep a search as nothing can be excepted from it.

Whereas it is said in the law, "Thou shalt not have any strange gods: Thou shalt not make any image to worship it: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: Thou shalt keep holy the day of rest: Thou shalt honor thy father & mother: Thou shalt not kill: Thou shalt not commit adultery: Thou shalt not steal": All this is well (will we think), we must abstain from all whoredom, violence and extortion: we must abstain from deceit and robbery: we must live soberly. Here too, we must abstain from blasphemy, and we must honor God. All this will easily be granted. But there is a back look that we perceived not, which is, "Thou shalt not covet" or lust: that is a privy nipper. Truly it seems not to be very big or great: but yet for all that, it is such a stinger, as passes all the rest in biting. For by the end and winding up of his Law, God searches out all that ever is in man. He sets down that commandment, to try out the things that were hidden: and when he says, "thou shalt not covet," it is a piercing even into the marrow of men's bones. So then Saint Paul confesses that he knew not what sin meant, till he understood what was meant by the commandment that forbids men to covet or lust. And therefore in this text he charges not the Gospel, but the Law with it. Wherefore let us remember upon this text, that all they which deceive themselves by any opinion of their own merits, never tasted what the Law of God is, nor what it meaneth: I speak of the greatest doctors that are in most estimation, as (in good faith) it is to be seen in the Papadome. For even those that are taken to be the pillars of the Church, (notwithstanding that they profess Divinity) know not one word of God's law, to apply the same to his true and natural use. For they have nothing in them but hypocrisy, and they bear themselves in hand, that they shall please God with a rattle, as if he were a little babe. They do but toy with him, and yet you shall see them stand so much in their own conceits, as they cannot abide to be condemned. And if a man tell them that we must seek our salvation in Jesus Christ: yea, say they? and what shall become then of our free will? what should become of our own merits and satisfactions? To their seeming it were much better to pluck the sun out of the sky, yea and God out of his seat too, than to bereave man of that prerogative, or of the thing that he can bring of himself to compound with God and yet for all that, it is certain that there is nothing in them but stark filthiness. For men see that there is neither fear of God, nor uprightness, nor equity, nor aught else [that is good] in their life. They be so full of pride that they be ready to burst again, and they be full of envy, rancor, and all manner of looseness. And yet for all this, they will needs hold God bound unto them: but that is because they never knew the law.

So then, when our Lord teaches us and shows us how we ought to walk in this world, let us learn to lay the doctrine that he sets forth and our life together, and there we shall find the right perfection of the law, and that in ourselves there is nothing but horrible confusion: we shall see hell ready prepared for us. By that means it will be easy for us to give over all the deserving which we shall have fancied in ourselves, so as it shall be soon beaten down, and our mouths stopped, and we become like poor dead folk without any breath, because we shall perceive well enough that we cannot come unto God, but must needs thunder against us if we bring any foolish imagination of our own deservings. See how the law slays us. But when we have passed through such death, that is to say, when we be already rightly humbled and utterly dismayed: then here is a remedy, which Saint Paul sets down, saying: "I was crucified with Jesus Christ, even to live unto God." Now he shows here that our Lord Jesus Christ not only brings us remission of our sins, but also sanctifies and regenerates us by his holy spirit, in so much that whereas there was nothing but stubbornness in us before, now we be given to serve God, and to please him. And for the better understanding of that which Saint Paul tells us, let us mark that we receive two principal graces of our Lord Jesus Christ: The one is the forgiveness of our sins, whereby we are assured of our salvation, and have our consciences quieted, and whereupon it behooves us to be grounded, so as we call upon God as our father. Who gives us the boldness to lift up our heads to heaven, and to call God our father? Again, what makes us so bold as to glory that we be companions and brothers to the Angels? It is because our sins come not to account: for we must always have recourse to the washing of them away, which was done by the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see then that our righteousness is that God accepts us, albeit not in respect of our own worthiness, but in respect of the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby all our misdoings are wiped out. That is the first benefit which we have by our Lord Jesus Christ.

The second is, that whereas we be froward of our own nature, and all that the Papists term by the name of free will is but frenzy, and that however great account soever men make of themselves, all is but naughtiness, and we be full of vice and corruption: instead of being so, our Lord Jesus Christ gives us the grace to be sorry for our sins, and to labor to do good: for so long as we abide in our own nature, every of us soothes and flatters himself in his evil. But when we have once tasted the inestimable love of our God, and perceived what our Lord Jesus Christ is: then we be so touched by his holy spirit, that we condemn the evil, and desire to draw near unto God, and to frame ourselves to his holy will. We be sure of that once, and although we go halting, yet do we continually sigh to see our own imperfections and infirmities, and perceive full well how it is the spirit of God that moves us thereto, when our chief desire is to forsake the sinfulness that is in us, and comes of our flesh, so as we wish nothing else but that God should be glorified in all our life, and faithfully obeyed in all things. That is the second benefit which our Lord Jesus Christ brings us: and they be two things knit together by inseparable bond, so that like as the light of the sun cannot be separated from his heat: so these two graces (that is to wit our righteousness, and the remission of our sins) are inseparably matched with our renewal, which is done by the spirit of sanctification. Thus you see two graces inseparable: and like as when we say that the Sun is hot, it ceases not to shine also, and yet notwithstanding the light of the sun is not heat: so when we say that we be justified by the remission of our sins, it is not meant that our Lord Jesus Christ does thenceforth suffer himself to be mocked and despised, but that we have need to be thoroughly cleansed, so as we may learn to renounce the world, and ourselves, to the end to stick unto him with true obedience. However the world goes, the thing that Saint Paul speaks in this text, shall always be found true, namely that he was crucified with Jesus Christ, to live unto God. Then if any man accuse the Gospel that it gives liberty to do evil and to sin: we may always answer, how so? By the law we be always dead, for there we see our own cursedness which will leave us dismayed in despair. But in the Gospel, although we be crucified, that is to say, although there be a spice of death in the Gospel, yet is that death a quickening death, and the cause of life. For so long as men live to themselves, they be dead unto God: they be wretched carcasses full of rottenness. But when they die in themselves, they live unto God.

And for that cause Saint Paul in the twelfth to the Romans calls us living sacrifices, where he tells us that we must be transformed and utterly give over our own reason and our own will to yield God such service as is meet for him to have. He says, "Offer up yourselves as living sacrifices." So then, in the Law there must needs be a deadly death, a death that leaves us utterly overwhelmed and sunken even down into hell. But in the Gospel there is a quickening death. And why? For we are crucified with Jesus Christ, to live unto God, that is to say, our old man (as Saint Paul terms it in the sixth to the Romans) and that which we have of our own nature, is done away, albeit not at the first day, but by little and little. But however the case stands, we shall perceive that our Lord Jesus Christ mortifies all that was in us of our own, or of the world, so as we are not so greatly given to nestle here below, because we see it is a miserable state to live here, and our very care is to stick unto God. Thus, you see how we may be crucified with our Lord Jesus Christ.

But what is meant by that crucifying? Verily, it is a certain kind of death. However, that death brings us to life, which thing the death which the Law brings does not. Now then we see the very intent of Saint Paul, and the natural meaning of this text. Therefore, nowadays when the enemies of the truth blaspheme the Gospel, we have here an answer to stop their mouths. And if they hold on still, let them bark like dogs, but they shall not be able to bite, do what they can. See here what the Papists flush forth when we preach that men are justified through God's free goodness. "O," say they, "are they so? That were the next way to give every man the bridle to live after his own liking, and to cause that there might be no more remorse nor scruple of conscience, so as every man might have leave to do what he listed." That is the common blasphemy of the Papists.

Again, when we show them that they cannot bind us by their traditions, and that it is but a tyranny which they have usurped in robbing God of his right, and that the liberty was purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, to the end that we should not be tied to the things which men would lay upon us of law and necessity in matters concerning the spiritual government of our souls. "O," say they, "see what comes of it: their desire is nothing else but to wallow in all pleasure, and to lead a loose life." Surely, we may easily answer to all this. For the doctrine that we bring serves not to stir up men's lusts, nor to give them too great and lawless a liberty: but to the clean contrary.

However the case stands, it ought to suffice us that if we should abide in the quagmire of the Papists, surely there would be nothing but death for us. For were they not too fast asleep and utterly dulled, undoubtedly they should be tossed with such unquietness and heartbiting, as they should need to see that that is not the thing whereupon we must rest. But behold, they be so rotted in their ignorance, that they have not any feeling of God's justice at all. But as for our parts, for as much as we know we have such a freedom purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, and are sure of our salvation because God does freely forgive all our faults, and do feel already by the working of God's holy spirit, that he draws us to him, and are mortified to live unto him: Let us go forward with a cheerful heart.

And although there be never so many infirmities in our nature, yet notwithstanding let us not doubt but God accepts us, for all our imperfections. But the Papists cannot have so much as one good purpose to serve God, saving that they are utterly bewitched [to believe so] through vain self-trust. And why? For they ground themselves upon their own merits, and (to their seeming) that is the mean to purchase grace. But now what is it that they can do? Put the case that they brought a hundred times more with them than they have to bring, and that God governed them by his holy spirit, so as they had some manner of feeling of the Gospel, though it were but half a feeling: yet should they come far short of discharging their duty, yea or of the hundredth part of it towards God. But in the meantime, it is well known that all that ever they do is but pelting trash: and as for the law of God, it is not worth with them, and yet in the meantime they busy their heads about their own inventions.

However, let us still put the case that they endeavored to walk in the fear of God, and that they had learned aright to do the things that God commands them: yet for all that, they could not make their boast that they were come to the perfection of that righteousness which God requires of us. And when they had tormented themselves never so much, how should they be able to serve God with a cheerful courage, unless they knew themselves to be in his favor, notwithstanding that they be so blameworthy before him? But as for us, we on our side are able to serve God with a free heart, notwithstanding that our consciences find fault with us, and we know that there are many sins in us. And why? For we ground not ourselves upon our own merits, but upon God's mere mercy: and thereby we are taught, that God receives our works though there be much faultiness in them, and that we are in his favor although there be many vices and blemishes in us.

And that is the cause why he says by his prophet that he will accept the service which we do unto him, as a father accepts the service of his child. You see that a child is willing to obey his father: and when his father says to him, do this: his father takes his doing in good worth, though the child knows not what he does, yea and sometimes though he mar a thing, yet his father is contented to lose the thing when he sees that the child was willing and desirous to serve him. But if a man take a servant for wages, he will look to have him do his task. And why? For he looks for his wages: and a man will not abide to have him mar the work that is put into his hands: yea and if it be not well done, he will not be contented with it. Now our Lord speaking of the grace of the Gospel, says he will receive our services, as a father receives the obedience of his child, though all that ever he does be nothing worth: that is to say, he passes not a whit for the perfection that is in them, for he shall find none at all in them: but he bears with us of his goodness. He shows himself so kind and freehearted towards us, that whatever we do, he takes it in good part, although it be not worthy, nor do deserve it. You see then that the way for us to have a free courage to serve God, is to assure ourselves that he blesses all our works, because that whatever spotiness is in them, is cleansed away by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To be short, whereas God shows himself pitiful towards us, and uses inestimable mercy: let us understand that he does it not to the end that every of us should run a scatter-loping, and take the bridle in his teeth, and play the horse that is broken loose: no no, but contrariwise it is to the end, that the sword of God's word should strike us to the heart, and make such a search there, as we might be rightly humbled to crave pardon at God's hand. Not that we should have the heartbiting which the Papists have, which would pluck us back and hinder us from coming unto God, making us to say, wretched creature what dost thou? What canst thou tell whether God love thee or no? Let us have no such nips, but let us be fully resolved that God beholds us with pity, and takes our works in good worth: not for any desert or worthiness that he finds in them, but because we are joined to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now therefore we see what Saint Paul meant to say. Also we see how that doctrine served not for that time only: but that the same is as profitable and needful for us at this day, as ever it was [for any heretofore.] For inasmuch as God's enemies fight against the Gospel, and spew out their blasphemies: it stands us on hand to have wherewith to resist them: and not only them, but also Satan, who has at all times had the sleight to make us believe men, that they could live of themselves and by their own deservings: but that is but to lull us asleep in death.

And therefore let us assure ourselves, that it is better for us to die to the law, than to live to it: that is to say, let us assure ourselves, that if God should enter into account with us, we should be utterly undone and damned. And being so dismayed, let us suffer ourselves to be crucified with our Lord Jesus Christ: and since we know that he has reconciled us to God his father by the sacrifice which he offered, let us also suffer ourselves to be governed by his holy spirit, and to be renewed by him in such wise, as being dead in ourselves we may live truly unto God, giving over all overweening of our own righteousness, and fighting against all the lusts of our flesh, and withdrawing ourselves from the world.

And now let us cast ourselves 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 be to pluck us back from the filthiness wherein we be plunged, and to join us so unto our Lord Jesus Christ, as he may draw us to God his father, and make us come still nearer and nearer unto him, till we be fully joined unto him. And so let us all say, Almighty God heavenly father. &c.