Part 2
Now let us fall down before the Majesty of our good God with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him to vouchsafe to make us to feel them, that he may draw us to repentance the better, and that we may always hope that if we be once renewed by him, we shall thoroughly perceive that it is he who rules us by his holy spirit, so as having that record imprinted in our hearts, we may boast without hypocrisy that we are not tied to this world although we be in it, and that we dwell in it but as pilgrims and strangers, because we have a
better dwelling place in heaven, where our heritage is thoroughly assured unto us by faith, although we possess it not presently. That it may please him to grant this grace, not only to us but also to all people and nations of the earth, etc.
The Second Sermon upon the First
Chapter.
3 Grace be unto you and peace from God the father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 Who gave himself for our sins, to deliver us from this evil world according to the will of God our father.
5 To whom be glory forevermore, Amen.
There is no person but desires their own welfare, and we are inclined thereto by nature. Nevertheless, we are very far misled in that regard and know not whence all welfare springs, much less the true cause of our happiness, namely that God loves us and that we are assured that He considers us His children. For without that, all the prosperity of the world is nothing; rather, it shall always turn to our harm because until such time as God receives us into His favor, we are all accursed, and the goods that we receive from His hand shall cost us dearly, for they do not belong to us until we are in the fellowship of His children. Therefore, we must above all things seek to be in the favor of our God and to be well assured in ourselves that He admits us to
be of His household and Church. And that is the cause why, after the Prophet has rebuked men's worldly desires, in that one would have abundance of wine, another abundance of corn, and every person has an eye to their own ease, it is said in the Psalm that nothing is better nor more to be desired than that God should show us the light of His countenance — that is to say, that we might take hold of His favor, not doubting that He will acknowledge us as His children, as I mentioned before.
And that also is the cause why, in the hundred and sixth Psalm, the Prophet craves above all things that God should be mindful of him with the favor that He bears towards His people. He knew well enough that he lacked many things, yet he overlooked all the rest because his heart carried and pulled him the other way, namely, to desire to be included in the number of God's chosen. Therefore, there is one kind of love which God bears towards all humanity, for He has created them after His own image, in which respect He makes the sun to shine upon all, nourishing them and caring for their life. But all this is nothing in comparison to the special goodness which He keeps in store for His chosen and for those that are of His flock. However, this is not due to any worthiness He finds in them but because it pleases Him to accept them as His own. And so you see why Saint Paul in all his Epistles brings us back to the grace of God and to the love which He bears towards the faithful, saying, "Grace and peace be unto you." Under the word "Peace," as I have said heretofore, he comprehends all prosperity, as if he should beseech God to provide us with all things which He knows to be expedient for us, to pour out His riches upon us, and to show Himself so bountiful towards us that we may have cause to magnify His goodness.
Yet notwithstanding, since all the goods of the world cannot but turn to our harm until we are in God's favor, Saint Paul maintains this
order of continually setting down God's grace or free favor before the benefits which He bestows upon us. Although then we must desire God to make us feel His goodness in all things which He knows to be meet for us, yet we must not forget the principal point, that is, that He should take us into His Church and assure us in our hearts that He bears us good will. When we once see that light, let it suffice us, as it is said in the Psalm, and let the same content us. But yet for all that, although God gives us leave to wish whatever is good for us, we must bridle ourselves in such a way that if He chooses to afflict us with many miseries, we nevertheless must make such account of His favor as to content ourselves with that alone, though all the rest be taken from us. I have told you already that even if we lived at our ease in all pleasures and delights, we would be unhappy until such time as we are fully assured in our consciences that God loves us and that we are in His favor.
You see then that we ought not to set our minds on any worldly goods except God's love goes before them. On the contrary, if God loves us and yet in the meanwhile chooses to test our patience by allowing us to linger in this world and by putting us under many afflictions, we must still make such account of His favor as to bear all things patiently, notwithstanding that they seem to be utterly against us. And it is all the more necessary for us to remember this lesson, seeing that we see people wandering after their own lusts. For most people have become so brutish that they desire nothing but to have the things that nature teaches them to like. They have no regard at all for God. One desires to eat, another to drink, and the third to have apparel; and these are desires that hover in the air. But the point at which we ought to begin is to know that God is the founder of all our welfare and that all the commodities which we have in this world and all the aids which we have to help us are benefits proceeding from His hand.
Then if we cannot direct our desires toward God, it is too perverse, yea and too beastly a thing, and yet for all that, the majority of the world is at that point. There are others who seem to take a better path and rule, but yet they also pervert all. They desire God to send them the things which He knows to be good and profitable for them, but in the meanwhile, they do not look to the fountain from which they should draw their first water, that is to say, to be reconciled to God. For all is one with them so long as God spares them and does not execute His rigor towards them. As for His love or hatred, they do not greatly care, as long as He deals with them according to the desires and appetites of their flesh. Now although such manner of people do seek unto God, yet do they set the cart before the horse. For they ought to set God's love in the first and chiefest place, and then to come down to the great number of benefits which He bestows upon us, and whereby He witnesses His goodness towards us.
Although then that many men do not hold themselves within the said measure, but make more unruly requests unto God than one person would do to another, so that one person craves riches, another honor, and none is contented with that which God sends, yet notwithstanding, even if men were well advised in their wishes and precise in desiring nothing but that which they have need of, yet if they forget God's favor, therein they show themselves not to have profited at all. Therefore, let us note how it is not without cause that Saint Paul has here set down two things jointly together: that is to wit, that God must first receive us into His favor so that we also may feel Him to be truly our father and accept us as His children, and then afterward He may cause us to prosper. Now, such manner of prosperity may (as I have said already) be well wished for, but in the meanwhile, the only goodness of God must be our solace. And when we are put to the suffering of many miseries in this world, so that things do not fall out as we would have them, yet we must be
contented with this, that God accepts us. And therewithal, he sets down the name of our Lord Jesus Christ because it is not possible that God should favor us but for His own Son's sake, in whom is His whole delight, according as it is said, as well in the sixteenth chapter of Saint Matthew as in the first to the Ephesians.
Then if we had nothing else to set before our eyes but the majesty of God, it would make us afraid, and we could not have any access unto Him because we are frail creatures, yes, and altogether sinful, creeping here upon the earth and deserving to be swallowed into the bottom of Hell. Therefore, it is very requisite that Christ should show Himself unto us, and that we should look upon Him, to taste what God's love is and to enjoy all the benefits which He bestows upon us. For they belong not to any other than to His only Son, who is the heir of all things, as the Apostle speaks of Him in the first chapter to the Hebrews. Seeing then that all the good turns which God does for us belong peculiarly to our Lord Jesus Christ, it behooves us to communicate with Him and to be made partakers of them by His means. Therefore, it is not without reason that Saint Paul says here, "from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ." Yes, and to the intent to give us the greater assurance that God will take us into His favor if we seek Him truly and unfainedly, though by the means of His only Son, he says that Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins.
Now it is certain that nothing puts us out of God's favor but our own sinfulness. For we see that His mercy extends even to the sparrows that fly in the air and to the brute beasts. For when God brings forth grass in the mountains and makes other fodder to grow for cattle, it is a token that He has a care of them. And truly, they are marks of His goodness, as it is said in the Psalms. How then should He not love those whom He has created after His own image and who approach much nearer to Him and to His nature, that is to say, men?
God, therefore, in respect of His creating us, receives and avows us for His own. But inasmuch as we are corrupted and our nature has become sinful, it causes God to hate us and to take us for His enemies, so that there is as it were a deadly feud between Him and us, until He has taken us again into His favor for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake. Therefore, to the end that we may not have any cause to doubt of God's love, Saint Paul here sets down before us the sacrifice whereby the remembrance of our transgressions is blotted out, so that God, having now forgotten all our wretchedness, beholds us as His own and as those on whom He has set His mark, and in short, as those whom He has created to be His children and heirs.
And hereby, we are warned that there is no other means to pacify our consciences and to make us able to call upon God in full liberty, but by applying to ourselves the sacrifice offered by our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein He has made full satisfaction for us, so that henceforth God receives us as His own children. And here first of all we see the force of the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that therein we find atonement between God and us, so that whereas we were erstwhile at odds with Him, and He must needs have, as you would say, abhorred us, now He vouchsafes to take us into His favor. And why? Because our Lord Jesus Christ has made amends for all our faults and misdeeds by the obedience which He yielded in His death and passion, inasmuch that the sacrifice which He offered was a full satisfaction for all our sins, and His bloodshed became likewise our cleansing, and has washed us clean from all the spots of our sins.
Thus you see how we may be sure that God receives us. And how may we have the boldness to call upon Him and to resort unto Him? Even by fixing our eyes upon the Sacrifice which our Lord Jesus Christ has offered. For if we have not that, it is certain that we shall always be
afraid when we think upon the majesty of God. For seeing we are wretched offenders, how should we not be afraid of our judge, who is armed to execute the vengeance that we deserve? Nevertheless, for as much as our Lord Jesus Christ has buried our faults, we may come unto God boldly and without any stop. However, it behooves us to mark therewithal that the sacrifice whereby our Lord Jesus Christ has reconciled us to God His father is so sufficient that it behooves us to lay up all our trust therein and not to seek any other means. According also as Saint Paul's intent here is to bring back the Galatians to the pure truth from which they had been led away and seduced—not that they had utterly renounced Jesus Christ, but that they had intermingled the ceremonies of the Law, thereby to obtain forgiveness of sins, as if there needed other helps thereto: according as in papistry it will well enough be granted that Jesus Christ is the redeemer of the world, but yet therewithal, every person seeks to compound with God and to make amends by themselves. Now the Galatians had already been imbued with the like error. For this cause Saint Paul shows them that sins are none otherwise wiped out than by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the intent that our faith may rest wholly there. Therefore, if we will be partakers of so great a benefit, we must give over all our vain hopes and all the illusions that the Devil puts in our mind when he turns us aside from our Lord Jesus Christ and from His only grace, by making us believe that we can come unto God if we bring some amends with us. To be short, until such time as we are sure that there is none other washing wherewith to scour out the spots of our iniquities but the blood which our Lord Jesus Christ has shed and wherewith we are rinsed through the Holy Ghost, it is certain that we can never come freely unto God, nor rest upon His favor and love, but shall ever be wandering in our own imaginations; and that shall be a due payment for our unbelief, in that we have not yielded our Lord Jesus Christ the honor that He deserved.
Thus you see in effect what we have to bear in mind here, where Saint Paul sets the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ before us, telling us that that is the thing wherein we shall find the amends of all our faults, so as they shall not be called any more to account before God. And he says purposely that Jesus Christ gave Himself to the end we should the more boldly take hold of His love. For we see here that when our Lord Jesus Christ did put forth Himself to make atonement between God and us, He spared not His own body and soul, insomuch that He endured extreme anguish in His soul, as He that was our substitute in the same, and bore the wrath of God on our behalf. And in His body also He endured all reproach and shame, and therewithal also the most horrible torments that could be devised. And all this, as I said before, shows right well that the love which He bore us was inestimable, since He forgot Himself after that sort for our sakes.
But yet notwithstanding, herewithal Saint Paul brings us always back to the will of God, to show that when our Lord Jesus Christ did in that wise perform all that belonged to our salvation, it was no hindrance but that God in the meanwhile uttered His mercy in the same, according as it is said in another text, that God so loved the world that He spared not His only Son but delivered Him to death for us. To the intent therefore that we should not think that the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to pacify God His father was after such a sort that He persuaded Him to alter His purpose (as men are inclined to such gross and earthly imaginations), Saint Paul (to show us that God was not reconciled unto us after the manner of men) tells us expressly that the cause why Jesus Christ was delivered for our sins was for that God had so ordained it. For if a man be angry with his child, some other man may step in to appease his wrath, and such a one shall supply the room of a third party. But the case stood not so with our Lord Jesus Christ when He offered Himself in Sacrifice to
do away with all our sins and to make a way unto God from whom we were shut out before. He came not as one that stepped in of His own head and as though God had not meddled with the matter. How then? God (as has been touched not long since) did both hate us and love us before the reconciliation [was made]. And why loved He us? Because we are His creatures. And again, although He saw we were so wretched and utterly forlorn and damned folk by reason of sin, yet notwithstanding He had pity upon us and would not have mankind to perish utterly. Thus you see how God loved us, notwithstanding that in the person of Adam we had fallen away from Him and utterly corrupted. Therewithal He did also hate us because He is the wellspring of all righteousness. Therefore, He abhorred the naughtiness that was in us, by reason whereof there needed an atonement to be made in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the sacrifice which He offered.
But yet must not that benefit be fathered upon any other than God. You see then how it was God's doing to send His only Son and to give Him over unto death for us. And why? To the end that all hatred between Him and us should be done away. This, in effect, is the thing that ought to be understood of Saint Paul's words when he says that Jesus Christ gave Himself to death for our sins, and yet notwithstanding that the same came not to pass without the will of God, who had determined the same beforehand in His own everlasting purpose. Here, first of all, we have to magnify the mercy that was shown us in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. For if God had proclaimed a pardon and told us that He would take us to mercy though we were unworthy of it, that had been very much, yea and it had been impossible for us to magnify such a gracious goodness as it deserves. But seeing He has lent us such a gage of His love as His own Son and gives Himself to us in His person, thereby showing Himself to be our father, it so far surpasses all that we have said that
if all our wits were employed to wondering at such a goodness, yet should we never come to the fullness thereof. Thus you see what we have to mark in the first place when Saint Paul speaks to us of God's will.
However, let us understand that even from the time that God had just cause to hate us and to abhor us, yes, and even from the time that we were His enemies (as the Scripture says), in very deed He never ceased to have some regard of us and to extend His pity so far forth as He would not have us to abide in our destruction; in so much that He has not thought it enough to declare the same by word of mouth but also has given us such a pledge as we see, that is to wit, that His own Son has answered for it. Now, seeing it is so that God has shown Himself so gracious and merciful before we were reconciled to Him, what will He do now when we have so sure a warrant, and that the Gospel also is preached unto us, to assure us that we are knit unto our Lord Jesus Christ by faith, as members of His body? Shall we now doubt of God's love towards us when we have so good a confirmation of it, as Saint Paul says in the fifth Chapter to the Romans? If so be that Jesus Christ (says he) came to put away all our sins at such times as there was yet deadly feud between God and us: ought not all doubting to be trodden underfoot, and we not be afraid in any wise to call upon our God, but assure ourselves of our own salvation, now when God has so confirmed it unto us, when He has admitted us into His favor, when He calls and allures us as gently as may be, and when He shows and certifies us that He does as it were hold open His arms to embrace us whenever we will come unto Him? Thus you see what we have to bear in mind in this strain.
Furthermore, let us mark also the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that seeing He has given Himself after that sort for our sins, He will
not suffer His death and passion to be unprofitable, nor the sacrifice which He has once offered to be void and of none effect, without bringing forth fruit in us. But as He has offered Himself once for all, so also will He be our continual Mediator and Advocate, to the end we may be partakers of the cleanness which He has purchased for us, that being rid of all our foulness we may appear clean before God, and speak unto Him with open mouth. Lo how we ought to gather together all the things that are shown us here for the establishing of our faith, and that we may freely resort unto our God, not as strangers to Him, but as His own children and familiar friends.
And herewithal let us learn also to shake off all the illusions and fancies of Satan, who seeks by all means to turn us away from our Lord Jesus Christ, or else to darken the grace which we should find in Him; and when he cannot abolish it utterly, he snarls us and puts new means into our heads whereby to purchase favor at God's hand.
But let us cut off all such things, and so fasten all our wits upon our Lord Jesus Christ, as He alone may suffice us, and we utterly dislike whatever shall come in our head to purchase grace and favor with, assuring ourselves that there is not any other thing that may cause God to receive us to mercy than the sacrifice whereby all righteousness and cleanness was purchased for us.
Furthermore, under these words of God's will, it behooves us to comprehend a free goodness, to exclude all that men are wont to make themselves believe of their own merits; for in that sense also are those words taken in the Holy Scripture, so that (as I have told you before) the thing which is termed here by the name of Will is termed elsewhere by the name of good pleasure. Saint Paul, therefore, not only shows that the wellspring of our Redemption and Salvation consists in the ordinance and everlasting purpose of God
the Father, but also intends to beat down all pride and presumption, by showing that we must yield the whole praise of our righteousness to the free favor of God, which had no regard at all of our deservings. For let us examine ourselves: and what shall God find in us but utter wretchedness? And that is the very cause why God vouchsafes His mercy upon us. So then let us assure ourselves, that henceforth we may freely lift up our eyes to heaven, and prefer our prayers and supplications unto God, because He has prevented us, according as it is said in Saint John, that He had not tarried till we loved Him (for that was impossible because we be wholly bent unto evil, and are utterly given over to it), but had loved us even though we were His enemies. And so you see that the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ was to the end to reconcile us to God His Father, as we have showed already. That, therefore, is in effect the thing that we have to bear in mind. Now Saint Paul adds immediately, that it was to deliver us from this wicked world. Here he shows why we are called to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ: and also why He has set so great store by us, as to redeem us as He has done; namely, to the end we should not abide in our filth and uncleanness but be withdrawn away from it by Him. In very deed that is not the cause of our salvation, but the end and mark whereat God looked in ordaining us to salvation. The thing, therefore, which it stands us on hand to have an eye to when our redemption is spoken of, is that we must begin at the free favor which God bore unto us, when He determined in His everlasting purpose that we should be brought back again unto Him by the means of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, that was the principal cause. Another cause thereof is Jesus Christ, in whom we find all that is requisite for our assurance. For there we see our sins blotted out, inasmuch as He is ordained to be our surety and has made such amends for us, as nothing can stop us from coming to God.
That is the second point which we have to remember here. Now the means whereby we are made partakers of our Lord Jesus Christ is our embracing of the promises of the Gospel by true faith. For the faithless have no profit at all by the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather are so much the more damnable, because they reject the means that God had ordained, and their unthankfulness shall be so much the more grievously punished, because they have trodden underfoot the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was the ransom for their souls. Therefore it stands us on hand to receive the promises of the Gospel by faith, if we desire that Jesus Christ should communicate Himself unto us, and that He should bring us to the possession and enjoyment of the benefits which He has purchased for us: so as they belong not to any other than such as are members of His body, and are grafted into Him, and receive Him by faith, according as it is said in the first Chapter of Saint John, that God accepts and avouches those for His children, which believe in His only Son.
Thus you see what we have to remember in the third place when we come to the scanning of our salvation. Now remains that God be glorified in us, as good reason is that He should be. And in that respect also, Saint Paul in the third to the Romans says that whereas God has given us the means in our Lord Jesus Christ to find favor at His hand by the forgiveness of our sins, and therewithal sent us the Gospel to put us in possession of the same benefit: His so doing is to the end that He only may appear to be righteous and be glorified therefore, so as we should yield Him all praise and acknowledge ourselves beholden to Him for all things. Nevertheless, the glorifying of God consists not only in our confessing with our mouth that He is the author of our salvation, and that the same comes of Him alone, and of His mere goodness and free grace, but also in becoming new men through His Holy Spirit, so as His image shines forth in us, and
we endeavor to give over ourselves wholly to His service. It is said that God has not called us to filthiness and uncleanness, but that His meaning is to make us holy to Himself. Now then seeing the case stands so: it is not for naught that Saint Paul adds here, that Jesus Christ has delivered us from this wicked world by offering Himself for us, and that He has wiped out the remembrance of our sins before God His Father, to the end we should not lie any longer plunged in our own filth and uncleanness, but be as it were separated from the world, to the intent to become the heritage of God, and to dispose our whole life to such obedience, as it may be seen that like as He has adopted us to be His children, so we also have loved and honored Him as our father.
And out of all doubt, when as it is said that we must be taken out of this wicked world, it is a benefit which we ought to be abashed at. For under the word World, is comprehended all that belongs to man in his own nature. The world of itself has in it neither vice nor corruption: but all the evilness of it comes of the sin that dwells in us. So then, whereas it is said that the world is wicked, according also as Saint John in his canonical Epistle says that all the world is steeped and plunged in naughtiness: that wickedness is neither in the Sun, nor in the Moon, nor in the earth, nor in the water, nor in any of all the things that are contained in them: but in that we be so perverted, that we have infected all things here below with our uncleanness: and that as long as men continue in themselves and in their own nature, they be but filthiness, so as they must of necessity displease God.
For surely there can be no agreement between righteousness and unrighteousness. But in us, there is nothing to be found but unrighteousness. Therefore we must either be withdrawn from ourselves, or else we shall never be able to come nigh unto God.
What shall then become of all the blind wretches, which bear themselves in hand that they be able to work wonders with their free will, their virtues, their wisdom, and I wot not what else? According as we see that men do always like well of themselves, and although they are convicted to have nothing but filthiness in them, and that they are so loathsome as it is pitiful to see it, and they themselves ought to be ashamed of it: yet they will still challenge somewhat to themselves, and always deceive themselves with their own fond imaginations. And yet notwithstanding when men have well tried themselves, all that they can find in them shall be condemned under the term of naughtiness or wickedness: insomuch that it is showed thereby that there is nothing but corruption in us, and that if we presume to press unto God as we are of ourselves, He must needs drive us a great way off.
Therefore mark this for a ground, that here all pride is beaten down, to the intent that men may learn to leave their boasting in anything, save in the free goodness of God, and be so abashed in considering their own shame, that they may condemn themselves with their own mouth, and not tarry till God give sentence against them, but become their own judges. This is it in effect which we have to mark. And now we see how it behooves us to walk warily and carefully; that we may be assured that the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ belong to us. For if we will needs give bridle to our lusts, it is certain that our Lord Jesus Christ will disclaim us. True it is that our Salvation rests always upon the only goodness of God, and that we must not intermeddle our own works when we intend to have the certainty of faith, but rather renounce ourselves. Nevertheless, however the case stands, our Lord Jesus Christ has not come to give us occasion to abuse the grace that He has purchased us, for that were a mocking of Him to His face. If we should go wallow again in our own filthiness after that He has washed us in His blood, were it
not a willful defiling of the thing that is most holy, yea and which makes all the whole world holy? Now forasmuch as we are all of us corrupted, and the whole world is subject to cursing, and all of us are condemned: there is not anything to sanctify us again, but only the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And how great and intolerable a treachery were it, if we as much (as in us lies) should fall to besmirching of ourselves again in our own filthiness? Then let us mark well, that to enjoy the fruit of the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must not take liberty to do evil, nor to live after our own appetites and lusts: but we must always come to the separation whereof Saint Paul speaks here, which is to be withdrawn from this wicked world, and not to break asunder the things that are knit together with so holy a band, nor to disannul the order of God. The faithful therefore must give themselves to all pureness of life, and consider that the redeeming of them by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the sacrifice of His death and passion, is upon condition that they should forsake themselves, according also as we hear how our Lord Jesus Christ tells us, that those which will be His disciples, must abase themselves and follow Him. What have we then to do, and what ought to be our travail all the time of our life? We must do our endeavor to withdraw ourselves from the defilements of this world, that we may cleave unto our God in pureness of life. True it is that this thing is not perfected in us until we be quite withdrawn from the world: but yet that is the mark that we must aim at, and whereunto it behooves us to draw more and more. Then like as the faithful resort continually to God's mercy, grounding themselves thereupon, and are not otherwise righteous than by the forgiveness of their sins: so also it behooves them to keep on to the end which Saint Paul sets down to us here, which is to be separated from the world. And those two things are well worthy to be marked. Some fantastical persons have imagined such a perfection, that when we be once regenerated in our Lord Jesus Christ, we have no more need of the forgiveness of
our sins. Insomuch that they say we keep the world still to their Apsie, when we preach that we cannot become righteous but by faith, nor come in God's favor but by His forgiving of our sins, and by His covering of them through His own goodness. But that is a devilish pride, and yet among Papists there is no more praise than that given unto God's goodness.
So then let us abhor such harebrains, and all their blasphemies, when they go about to bewitch us so far, as to make us believe that we have no more need to be pitied of God, nor to have our sins forgiven us. But let us trust unto it, that it stands us on hand to sigh and groan all our life long, and that there is none other hope to assure us of our salvation, but first to yield ourselves guilty, and then to be out of all doubt that the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ does continually wash us pure and clean. Mark that for one point. And therewithal let our endeavor always be to be separated from this wicked world. And how? Even by praying unto God to touch us first with His Holy Spirit, and afterward to increase His gifts in us, and to mortify the lusts of the flesh. And since we feel such a battle, so as we be fain to enforce ourselves, or else that we do but limp and halt in going unto God, insomuch that we make many a false step, and oftentimes happen to trip and stumble. Let us mourn continually seeing we fail at all essays. Thus you see how we may be delivered from this wicked world. Namely, not by being set utterly free from sin, like also when Saint Paul says that God has delivered us from our sins to the intent we should live perfectly, and undefiled before Him, it is not for that there can be found any such pureness in any man so long as he is in this world: for all our thoughts do continually rebel against God, yea and even the most righteous men of all shall evermore find themselves behindhand, and perceive that they do still drag their legs after them.
But yet however the world goes, we perceive on the other side, that our Lord Jesus Christ has already delivered us by faith out of the bondage of the Devil, and will maintain us against all assaults. If we fall to examination, and every man try what is in himself, we shall find that when on the one side there is any good desire in us, so as we seek to honor God, on the other side, our own nature leads us the contrary way, so as we would fain keep aloof from Him: insomuch that the faithful must needs feel both those two motions in themselves, namely that when on the one side (as Saint Peter cheers us) the Holy Ghost counsels us to give ourselves to all holiness of life, on the other side, we feel ourselves to be plucked back by many wicked affections, so as we cannot come near unto God as we fain would do. And that is the cause why Saint Paul in the 7th Chapter to the Romans sighs and confesses that he is unhappy, because he cannot do the good that he is desirous to do, nor utterly eschew the evil that he hates and abhors. Thus you see that the thing which we have to mark concerning the deliverance that is mentioned here, is that our Lord Jesus Christ has not so regenerated us already by His Holy Spirit, as to set us in full freedom to walk as we would wish, and to run so swiftly and with so cheerful a courage as were requisite. But His delivering of us is to make us hold on our way still towards our mark, that is to say, to make us yield ourselves wholly in obedience unto God, and to withdraw ourselves from our corruptions, and to forsake them more and more, until the time of full perfection be come, which is when our Lord God shall have thoroughly repaired His Image in us.
Now by the way, although the Galatians were partly slipped away, and had given ear to the busybodies that had disguised the Gospel, and made such a mingle-mangle of it, that Jesus Christ was as good as overwhelmed and buried: yet notwithstanding Saint Paul matches them still with the faithful, for whom the sacrifice was offered,
according also as he places them in the Church of God. He speaks not to the Renegades that had forsaken Jesus Christ. True it is, that he will soon show them their fault: but yet for all that, he does not intend to exclude them utterly from the hope of salvation. For there were no cause for him to write to them, if it were not to draw them back again, and to win them and to bring them again into the good way. Forasmuch then as Saint Paul labors to bring back the Galatians into the way of salvation (as need was:) therefore he admits them still to the inestimable benefit that is purchased for us by the Son of God, and reckons them still as separated from the world, knitting them to the fellowship of those whom God accepts and avows for His children. And that is, because there was yet some seed of the Gospel in them, and although they were snarled in some errors, yet they had not utterly forsaken God, nor gone quite away from the Gospel. For that consideration therefore, Saint Paul holds them back, and reckons them still in the number of the faithful. And so although we be not worthy of it, yet will God reckon us as of His household for His word's sake which is preached among us. No doubt but it shall be to our sorer damnation, if God calls us, and we answer Him not. But if we have any good desire to come unto Him, and yet have still many vices and infirmities in us: He accepts us as His own, for His word's sake. And we are called His Church, not for that we are worthy of that title, but because as the City of Jerusalem was called the holy City in respect of the promises, namely that the Gospel should come from thence, and that the Redeemer of the world should be manifested there: so by like reason we are called the faithful, and the children of God, and are mustered in the array of His Church, when the Gospel is preached among us, and men consent thereto, although it be not with such reverence and perfectness as were meet.
Nevertheless, however the case stands, Saint Paul's using of such mildness towards the Galatians, is not to flatter them in their vices,
nor to soothe them up with fond flattery after the manner of many men, whom we see desirous to be flattered after that sort: but we shall see anon how he rebukes them as sharply as may be, insomuch that he calls them witless. And how can these things agree together? It is for that on the one side, he intends to advance the grace of God, which had been opened in that Church: and that on the other side, he was fain to scour away the vices that were in it, as need was. We see then hereby, that when God has planted His Church in any place, it follows not by and by therefore, that all things are to be commended there, and that there is nothing but all godliness in it, as the Papists imagine, who under the name of the Church would fain cover all their abominations, yea even the most horrible and devilish abominations in the whole world. As how? The Church says they cannot err: she is the bride of Jesus Christ: she is the pillar of truth. Yea, but in the meantime look upon the Churches of Galatia. What says the Holy Ghost of them by the mouth of Saint Paul? Among them there were Renegades that had renounced the Gospel: there were as foul and outrageous heresies among them as could be. Then let us understand, that we must never be so tied to men, as not to condemn their faults when they come to the scanning: but that all things must be made subject to God's word, and everything be condemned that is not agreeable thereto, so as nothing may hinder God from having His authority continually, and from putting all things underfoot which agree not with His word, but that men do condemn them, and utterly abhor them. Furthermore, let us not cease to draw those continually unto God, which have any entrance already. And although we perceive them to be weak or stepped aside out of the way: yet let us always set forth God's grace, that it may grow and be strengthened more and more in them, until we be all gathered thither as we be daily called, that is to wit, to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let us fall down before the Majesty of our good God, with acknowledgment of our faults, praying Him to make us perceive them more and more, and that we may be so touched to the quick, as we may mistake of them, and so embrace His grace, as it may be more and more increased in us, and we be held up and sustained in our weakness by His hand, until He has brought us to the holy perfection of the heavenly kingdom, which is purchased for us by the means of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so let us all say, Almighty God our heavenly Father. &c.
The Third Sermon upon the First
Chapter.
6 I marvel that you are so suddenly carried away from Him who had called you through the grace of Christ, unto another Gospel.
7 Which is none other thing but that there are some who trouble you, and would overthrow the Gospel of Christ.
8 But if I myself or an angel from heaven tell you otherwise than I have told you: cursed be he.
We see here more openly the thing that I have touched already this morning: that is to wit, that Saint Paul spares not the Galatians, although he does not intend to shut them out of the gate of salvation. For inasmuch as his meaning is to bring them back to repentance, it is good reason that he should set the grace of God before them, as a thing common to them. But yet for all that, he flatters them not, but
rather rebukes them for their faults, and especially for the overgreat lightness that was in them in giving ear to deceivers, which came unto them to disguise the doctrine of the Gospel. And to make them perceive their own unthankfulness the better, he says that he wonders to see them carried away so soon and so easily from the heavenly calling, and how it comes to pass that they could be so quickly thrust out of the way, and continue yet still in their doing, seeing that they had already felt and tried God's grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. For inasmuch as he labored to bring them back again, he does not say at the first dash that they had turned away from the Gospel, but that they had been overcome by that temptation. And afterward he adds, that the same was nothing else but that those busybodies intended to overthrow the truth of God. For there is but one pure doctrine of the Gospel, like as there is but one Jesus Christ, upon whom the same is grounded, so as it is not in us to forge a new Gospel, but whenever anybody goes about to mingle anything with the pure seed which we have of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is nothing else but an overthrowing of God's building. This in effect is the thing which is contained in this first sentence of Saint Paul's. But here he might seem to be over sharp and rough in finding fault with the feebleness of the Galatians, seeing they never meant to forsake the gospel, nor yet Jesus Christ who had been preached among them.
Howbeit Saint Paul passes not for their opinion, but has respect to the matter in itself, which is, that as soon as men turn aside from God's truth, by and by they forsake Jesus Christ, and make themselves strangers to him.
Many men would think this strange, according as we see there are many that would fain mingle the light and darkness together. And especially the confusion that is in Popery is a very notable example
hereof: for there you shall hear men make wonderful protestations of holding still the Christian faith wherein they have been baptized.
But yet for all that, it is apparent that all is turned upside down: for all superstitions reign there: and besides that, there is too manifest Idolatry, yea and that as gross as ever was any among the heathen. By reason whereof all reverence of God is as good as quite abolished there, because every man makes himself a Saviour instead of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But now will the Papists lustily reply, that they be no backsliders, nor have forsaken Christ. Yea, but our Lord Jesus Christ is no Ghost, he cannot transform himself after the appetites of men. To be short, he cannot be separated from his Church.
Whenever the Papists utter this saying: they rob Jesus Christ of all authority. For (say they) if there were but one Mediator, what should become of the He-saints which are patrons, and of the She-saints which are our Advocates?
If any man speaks to them of the sacrifice whereby our Lord Jesus Christ has once purchased perfect righteousness for all the faithful: What (say they) and must not Mass be said every day, and Christ be offered up anew there, to appease God's wrath?
If a man tells them of the free forgiveness of sins: and what shall become (say they) of our own satisfactions, whereby we deserve to have pity at God's hand? Again, if a man says to them, that all our goodness comes of our regeneration through God's spirit, and that there is nothing but spotlessness and rebelliousness in us, till God have changed us: how so (answer they) and what shall then become of our own free will?
To be short, Jesus Christ shall be named often enough, and men will reserve unto him the title of Redeemer. But in the meantime his office shall be parted, and put to the spoil, and every man shall catch a portion of it to himself.
Besides this, they imagine that the Saints and Angels of heaven are as patrons to them, and finally they have infinite ways (to their own seeming) whereby to come unto God. But hereupon we may well conclude, that the holy Ghost does justly avow them to be backsliders, and to have given over Jesus Christ, and to have become strangers to him.
For they falsely abuse his name. Jesus Christ is not variable, according as we have seen how Saint Paul in the second to the Corinthians said, that we shall not find yea and nay in him, but that he will continue always at one stay.
To be short, whatsoever the Papists babble concerning Christianity, is altogether hypocrisy and leasing, and they do but falsify the name of God's son, and abuse it wickedly. For they make a mummer of it, or rather an Idol.
You see then why Saint Paul blames the Galatians for being so carried away. Now if a man demand the reason how: it was in that some would have made them to observe the ceremonies of the law as things necessary: and yet had God commanded them.
Yea verily, howbeit that was but with a temporal condition for the people of old time, so as they must of necessity have all ceased at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Forasmuch therefore as the Galatians mingled the old figures and shadows of the law, with the clear light of the Gospel: Saint Paul, being not able to suffer it, says
that they were turned aside from God, yea and utterly fallen away from him.
But there is yet a worse thing than that: namely that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was thereby disannulled, because men do always bear themselves in hand, that they deserve and earn righteousness before God, to be in his favor for their serving of him: and so when these deceivers had brought in the said error, that men ought to keep the old forsworn figures: it was all one as if they had thrust a meritorious service upon God [whether he would or no].
But our salvation must be of free gift, or else Jesus Christ is nothing worth. I term it salvation of free gift because it is given us simply of God, so as we bring not anything with us to the attainment thereof but only an eager desire to be filled with the thing that we want.
Therefore it stands us on hand to come as poor beggars unto God if we mind to be justified for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake. For if we imagine never so small a drop of deserving in ourselves, it stops us from coming to our Lord Jesus Christ.
And not without cause does an ancient Doctor say that we cannot receive the Salvation that is offered us in our Lord Jesus Christ, except we have first dispatched the minding of our own deserts, and acknowledged that there is nothing but utter wretchedness in ourselves.
Thus you see why Saint Paul had yet more just reason to say that the Galatians were carried away from Jesus Christ and from his father. But there was yet this clog more: namely that they were made to believe what other men listed, and thereby brought into subjection to a slavish bondage, to be robbed of the quietness of conscience which we ought to have in our Lord Jesus Christ.
For besides that we be reconciled by the sacrifice of his death and passion, we be also set free from the rigor of the law, under which we were held in bondage. As for example (according as we shall see more fully hereafter, for as now I do but overrun matters whereof we shall see a larger discourse afterward).
You know how it is said in the law, that whosoever performs not all that God commands to the uttermost point, shall be accursed. But it is impossible for us to attain to such perfection. Therefore it stood us upon to have freedom purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, that the Lord might not anymore hold us under his yoke, which was intolerable as it is said in the fifteenth of the Acts.
Now we see in effect why Saint Paul blames the Galatians for falling away like perjured persons towards God, and towards our Lord Jesus Christ, as having given him the slip, and forsaken the faith which they had plighted unto him.
And by this example, we are warned to hold us to the pure doctrine and simplicity of the Gospel, without wavering one way or other. For it is not enough to have the name and title of Christians, no nor yet to bear the mark of baptism: but we must continue steadfast in the doctrine of the Gospel.
For (as I have said heretofore) our Lord Jesus Christ cannot deny himself: and when we have dreamed this and that of him, yet must we be fain to know him for such a one as he is given us of God his father.
Now the Gospel shows wherefore he is come, what his office is, the benefits that we receive by him, and what his power is towards us. And therefore if we have not the pure and single doctrine, wherein our Lord Jesus Christ was manifested unto us: surely we have
nothing at all: and whenever we have once been instructed in it, we must hold it still to the last push.
For if we swerve never so little from it, there will be nothing but unfaithfulness in us. And in good sooth it stands us on hand to bethink us of the horrible fall whereunto we were tumbled with others when we were plunged in so many errors, trumperies, and illusions of Satan, that Jesus Christ was utterly unknown to us.
Seeing that God has now of his own infinite goodness plucked us out of such a bottomless gulf: let us settle ourselves to have a constant and fast faith, that we be no more shaken like reeds with every wind, but abide fast in the root of the Gospel, grounded upon the invincible power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And again, seeing that in him all God's promises are yea, and Amen, and have their truth in him, so as they be performed there: let our faith also abide steadfast there. This is it that we have to remember in this saying of Saint Paul.
Furthermore, to put the Galatians to the greater shame, he sets before them their calling by grace. These words, "from him that hath called you," may be referred as well to Jesus Christ as to God the Father: for there is no great difference in the matter.
But in the meantime we see in effect what Saint Paul meant to say. Therefore, he casteth the Galatians in the teeth with their lewdness, in that they had so much the less excuse of their shrinking aside after that sort, considering the goodness that God had showed upon them. For if God calls us, although it were to summon us to our confusion, yet ought we to obey him because we are his creatures. It becomes us to be subject to his authority, and however he disposes of us, it is always our duty to say, "Behold, Lord, I am at thy pleasure." So that
to use any shrinking away when God calls us is an utter perverting of all order.
Much more when God not only calls us unto him but also sets all the treasures of his goodness before us in our Lord Jesus Christ, and shows that he seeks nothing else but to make us his own by giving himself so willingly unto us, when God (I say) uses such bountifulness towards us as ought to ravish all our wits unto wondering: must we not needs be too lazy if we shrink back?
Moreover, if we fortune to wander to and fro after we be once come unto him, we shall have so much the less excuse, and feel the sorer and horribler condemnation, as I have touched already. Now then we see what is imported in this saying where Saint Paul makes mention of the grace that the Galatians had been called to.
And out of doubt we in these days are much more blameworthy than the fathers that lived under the law if we continue not in the pure doctrine of the Gospel, without turning aside from the things that are contained therein. For albeit that God called the Fathers to salvation under the law as well as us now: yet was not that calling with so open and abundant utterance of the riches of his mercy as we have it in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore let us look well about us, and seeing he has already made us to feel his grace: let the same stir us up and inflame us to be the bolder to have an invincible courage to continue in the same calling until we be come to the place whereunto God allures us.
So then, if we compare ourselves with the great number of misbelieving and ignorant souls, it is certain that our unthankfulness will be so much the greater as God's grace has showed itself larger and deeper unto us. We shall see many silly souls straying here and
there, and yet cease they not for all that to be subject to damnation. For he that has offended without law, shall perish without Law.
Now forasmuch as God has declared his will so friendly unto us, and that together with the use of discretion we have also the doctrine of his Gospel, which (as I have said heretofore) serves to show us that our damnation shall be more horrible if we labor not to dedicate ourselves wholly unto him, by means whereof our bond becomes so much the straighter: Saint Paul adds another circumstance, which is that it came to pass very hastily.
For certainly it was a horrible thing, that the Galatians having been taught by the holy Apostle's own mouth, should be so corrupted as long as he was alive. You see then how it was the more to their blame, that within three [or four] days after their receiving of the Gospel, they were fleeted away and had mingled many false opinions with the truth of God.
But although they had continued in the truth some good while after Paul's decease: yet does it not follow that their so doing might have been a sufficient discharge for them if they had fallen away afterward. For as the truth whereupon our faith rests is everlasting, although both heaven and earth do pass away: so must our faith hold out to the end, and not hang either upon the life or upon the death of any man, but have her anchorhold fastened in heaven.
Therefore, if we change [at any time,] whether it be today or tomorrow, we shall be the more to blame, and our unthankfulness shall be so much the more shameful. And truly, the thing that Saint Paul sets down here in the person of the Galatians is seen nowadays too much. For such as have gotten some smattering of the Gospel will be weary of it within two or three years if there comes no new change in the meantime.
For they have itching ears, and we see many fantastical persons become backsliders: and because the truth of the Gospel likes them not, they would always be fleeting, and have I know not what new stuff brought in, to feed them in their fond speculations. We see others grieved because they perceive that the Gospel advantages them not to the worldward: yea, and there are some that turn away because they see it is an occasion to make them to be persecuted, and to purchase them many enemies, or else they starve (as they think) while other men prosper and fare well.
Thus you see how Jesus Christ is forsaken of many, howbeit not from the Father to the son, but by reason that such as have showed him a fair countenance, are suddenly changed and fleeted away from him within two or three years, or at least within half a score years after. So much the more then ought we to mark well this doctrine, because it is spoken to us: and also to think upon the reproach which Jeremiah laid unto the Jews.
"Go your ways into far countries," says he, "run beyond sea, see what other people do: every man keeps him to his own Idols, and yet there is no Godhead in them: Satan beguiles them under color of devotion, and they be so settled in the same, as they cannot by any means be turned away from it. Now at least wise be you as constant as they, seeing that God has showed himself to you, and you know his will fully and certainly."
Let us beware that the like be not said to us nowadays: for we see the over earnestness of the Turks [in their Religion]. And although the Jews be no better than unclean dogs, yet are they stiff still in maintaining the authority of their Law. As for the Papists, they have nothing but dotages, so beastly as it is horrible to see: even children
are able to judge of them: and yet for all that, we see how they burn with furious zeal to maintain their treacheries.
But as for us, the Devil does no sooner hold up his finger, but by and by we gad after him: it should seem that every of us watches to spy if there come any new toy, and the least occasion in the world will by and by shake us and scare us out of our way: and thereof we see too many examples, even here without going any further.
So much the more therefore does it behoove us to mark the blame that is laid here by the mouth of Saint Paul, against the inconstancy of such as turn away from God, especially so soon after he had called them to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And thereupon Saint Paul says, that it is nothing else but that there be some among them which trouble them, and would overthrow the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here Saint Paul shows that whatsoever men bring besides the Gospel, is every whit of it but stark smoke, and that in the end it will be perceived that the Devil did cast gewgaws in their ways, to cozen silly fools that could not rest wholly upon God's truth.
"It is none other thing," says he, "but that some trouble you." Truly this word "Other" imports that it is nothing else or nothing at all. Nevertheless, Saint Paul declares that the Galatians may well pretend, that they which came from Jerusalem and from the country of Jewry, had told them that they ought not to separate the Law from the Gospel.
"No, no," says he, "there is no more but one Jesus Christ, neither is there any more than one doctrine that leads us unto him, and holds us in the faith, where through we obtain salvation by his means."
So then all such as intend to cleave unto the pure knowledge of the Gospel, and to continue in the same, must not seek any other perfection [than that]: as for them that go any further, they be troublers that overthrow and disorder all things.
And this saying is well worthy to be marked, to the end we may know that when our Lord has done us the grace to teach us in his school, we must no more have a wavering faith to reel to and fro, but a resolute judgment and determination to say, "This is the thing wherein we must live and die."
But you shall see many that will not speak openly against the doctrine of the Gospel, but will suffer the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be preached. If a man ask them what it is that they find fault with: "Nothing," say they. But let an Altar be never so soon set up, and puppets upon it, and by and by they run to it, they must needs go hear Mass and see all the rest of the Popish trash, they care not which way the world go, and when all those disorders are set before them, they think not that there is any difference at all.
But let us mark that such beastliness betrays that there is no faith in them. And why? For, the thing wherein we may show, yea and (as in respect of ourselves) feel, whether we be faithful, is to have such skill of the Gospel, as to conclude that it is God's infallible truth, and that it cannot lead us amiss if we follow it.
Contrariwise, the Papists have devised an Implicate faith (as they term it) and that is enough for them: and although the wretched souls wot not what they mean themselves, yet notwithstanding, behold (say they) I refer myself to our mother the holy Church, I believe as she believes. But such folk show openly, that they have no faith at all, nor know by what means to be saved.
Nevertheless, it is said that we obtain righteousness and salvation by faith, namely for that we embrace Christ as the party by whom all good things are imparted unto us. Then if our Lord Jesus Christ be unknown, it is no longer faith, but a gross Illusion of Satan, who hath bewitched the Popish doctors to speak after that sort: and thereby we see that they have no knowledge of God, but are utterly given over to a lewd mind.
Wherefore let us mark well, that whereas Saint Paul says here, that there is none other Gospel: it is to hold us still in such steadfastness, that after we have once learned what our Lord Jesus Christ is, we may continue in him, and utterly give over all things that are contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel.
Have we once such skill, it will serve us to fight against Satan and all the diversity of opinions that are at this day in the world, so as we shall not be shaken down what trouble soever happen, nor finally be turned aside from the certainty of our faith.
But if we waver after such a sort that we become like little children, who if one man offer them an apple at one side they run thither, and if another man offer some other pleasant thing at other side they run thither likewise, and leaving the first go to yield themselves to the second.
I say if we be so fickle-minded, it is a token that there is nothing but mere unbelief in us. Then let us assure ourselves, that there must be such a mutual agreement between our faith and the Gospel, that we must give ourselves wholly thereunto, and never be plucked from it, and our knowing of the things that are contained in it, must be to rest ourselves upon them, as I have said already heretofore.
Not that all men can be teachers alike (for it is very certain that the most part of those whom our Lord Jesus Christ has in his flock, comprehend not the tenth part of the understanding of the holy Scripture) but that however the world go, it behooves us all to be grounded in these points, namely that there is but one God the Father, of whom we have all things, and who has adopted us of his own mere mercy: That there is but one only Jesus Christ, by whose means we be made partakers of all good things: And that we be begotten new again by the Holy Ghost: