The Twentieth Sermon, which is the sixth upon the third Chapter - Galatians 3:15-18

The Twentieth Sermon,

which is the sixth upon the third Chapter.

15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men. Although it be but a man's Testament, [yet] if it be proved, no man breaks it, or puts [aught] to it.

16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and his seed. He says not, and to the seeds as speaking of many, but as of one, and in thy seed, which is Christ.

17 This is what I say, as touching the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ: the law which came four hundred and thirty years after, cannot impeach or abolish the promise.

18 For if the inheritance come by the law, then comes it not of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

It were great shame for us if God should bear no more sway with us than mortal creatures. For what comparison is there between his majesty and the state of men which are but a fading shadow? And yet notwithstanding it is an ordinary matter with men to prefer themselves before God: which is so ugly a thing, that if the Sun were matched with the darkness of hell, it were not so great a confusion, as to exalt men above him to whom all honor belongs. But however the case stands, it is a vice (as I said) which has evermore reigned and still reigns at this day too much in the world. For look what man speaks, it shall straightways be believed: and if folk be loath to do it of their own good will, yet must they be fain to hold them to it in all matters that are allowed by law.

Behold, God speaks, yes, and that right substantially, so as he overslips not anything that may give credit and assuredness to his word: and yet notwithstanding we be always in a mammering, or else we fall to flat reasoning against him. Must it not needs be then that we be out of our wits, when we diminish God's authority after that fashion, and yield more credit to creatures than to him that made both heaven and earth with his only word, and maintains all things by the same? That is the cause why Saint Paul in this text uses this preface: "I speak" (says he) "after the manner of men." For if he had said no more but this: "Covenants shall be kept here below without breaking or repealing, and therefore needs must God's promise be everlasting:" that had been true, but yet had he spoken too coldly of God's majesty, in ranking him so in array among earthly creatures. But whereas he says that he speaks after the manner of men: it is all one as if he had said that he uses not such manner of style and speech as might beseem to treat of the majesty of God. For both the Sun and Moon, ought to forgo their brightness when God's glory comes in presence. All of it must needs be darkened: what shall then become of those that are but as flies & frogs crawling upon the earth?

For make men never so much of their painted sheath, yet they are less than naught worth before God.

Now when we hear this, we should be the more restrained, that we use no replying, but with all reverence take in good worth the thing that is told us here: that is to wit, that if God have vouchsafed to give them full assuredness of their salvation, which receive the promise that is preached unto them: we must not take upon us to reason against him. For when a deed is passed among men, if it be entered of record, it shall be received and go for good evidence: and what then shall be done when God shall have opened his holy mouth to bear us record of his good will? Is there any solemnity among men that comes near to the glory of God, who will have us to stick to that which he has spoken and uttered? True it is (as I have touched already) that we ought to fight against the lewdness which is rooted in us, to yield credit unto God: for we are so bent to mistrustfulness that not one word of the things which God has uttered shall ever have settling in our hearts, except we have fought against the vice wherein we are so sore entangled.

So then, every of us when he comes to be taught in God's word, must examine what is in himself: and when he sees himself subject still to many distrusts and doubts, he must dislike of it, and pray God to touch all his senses in such wise to the quick, that he may rest wholly upon the thing which he hears [at his hand] according also as it is the office of the holy Ghost, to seal in our hearts the truth which is certain enough of itself, howbeit that it be not certain unto us, till it be assured to us from above. For if we were of our own moving inclined to believe God: the Holy Ghost should not need to work in that behalf.

But it is said that he is the very seal wherewith God marks us, and whereby he imprints and engraves in our hearts the things which else should never be received. Yea, and we must also mark well that Saint Paul sets down here two words, namely that no man diminishes or disannuls the thing that is authorized among men by lawful and orderly means, nor also adds anything to it. For although we are not always utter rebels, yet our wits still tickle us to make some additions and glosses to God's word, and we cannot abide to hold us to the simplicity that is contained there.

Then if we consider well what we be without self-soothing, every of us shall find two vices in us. The one is that when God has spoken unto us, we cannot thoroughly consent to say Amen unfailingly, or to accept his promises, or to be moved at his threatenings. Men will always use shifts, and we need not to seek far for example thereof: for (as I said) we have experience of it in ourselves. The other is that although we yield God his due honor in believing his word to be true and infallible, yet we will always be adding unto it, and that do we see too much in the Papacy. Whereof comes that confusion or mazework which we see to be in the serving of God, the great number and diversity of fashions, and the great store of abuses and falsehoods, but of that men have not yielded to the things which God shows them but have made additions and confused medleys of things that came of their own brain?

In what manner do the Papists endeavor themselves to serve God? Every man has his several devotion by himself, and therewithal an infinite number of gewgaws. Their saying is that the Church has commanded all: but whatever it be, it is all of man's inventing. And what a thing is that? Did not God sufficiently foresee what he would like of? He tells us that in the Law we have all perfection, and that he will not have us to hold any other rule. Again, he adds that he had rather have obedience than all the sacrifices in the world. His mind is to hold men in awe, that they should not presume to mingle anything of their own brain and imagination.

But what if God have said so? Yet will men bear him down that this and that were good, and they will needs add a hundred times more than he had ordained. Yea, and (which worse is) they hold scorn of that which he requires and exacts most straightly, and in the meantime magnify fond toys and pelting trash, which not only are of no value before him but also loathsome to him, because he disallows all things that men thrust upon him after that fashion to spite him with.

Now then, we see hereby how eager and presumptuous also men have always been in thrusting themselves forward to serve God after their own liking: however, that was but a perverting of all the holy scripture. For behold, whereas God tells us that the chief sacrifice which he demands of us is that we should resort unto him and offer up our requests after the manner which he has appointed to be the means for us to come familiarly and boldly unto him, that is to wit, by making our Lord Jesus Christ our advocate: Men will need to have us pray unto Saints deceased, and to make them our patrons and advocates to be a mean between God and us when we go about to seek his favor. As much is to be said of all the rest of their doctrine. God has commanded us to pray one for another: and they say we must pray for the wretched souls that are in Purgatory. And who has commanded all this? Men have surmised that so it should be, and according to their surmising, so it must be. Lo, what their rashness is.

God has ordained his sacraments for us to assure us of his promises by their means, and he will have them to be as seals of overmeasure, that our infirmity may be the better succored. We have Baptism, whereby God does us to wit that we be washed and cleansed from all our spots by the bloodshed of his only son, and that therewithal he accepts us as his members of his body, and brings us into his Church. Now, the Papists are not contented with this simplicity but will need to have spittle, and taper light, and other gewgaws that are irksome to think of. And whence come such additions, but of this devilish boldness, that when God had established all that was meet and convenient for the turn, and in such wise as nothing was to be misliked, men could not find in their hearts to take it in good worth, but (as I said before) were inflamed with such an over eagerness and outrage, as they must needs be adding, mingling, changing, interlacing, and turmoiling without end or measure.

So much the more, therefore, does it stand us upon to hold fast that which God shows us by Saint Paul: namely that for as much as God has authorized his word, it is not lawful for men to add anything to it, but that all our wisdom is to join with him and to receive without scanning whatever comes out of his mouth. And if this be verified of the promise that was made unto Abraham: much more reason is it that we nowadays should keep the same modesty, seeing we have much fuller instruction in the Gospel.

Truly the substance of the thing that is preached unto us nowadays differs not from that which Abraham heard of God's own mouth. But whatever it be, we have now a much more familiar manner of teaching, because our Lord Jesus Christ who is the day sun of righteousness, is manifested unto us. Seeing then that there is no hardness at all unto us, if we list to give ear: is it not an intolerable traitorousness if our lusts be still itching to add one thing or another? However we fare, let us learn to hold us to that which God has taught us. For we may not deal otherwise than with such modesty in that behalf, because if we swerve never so little aside from that rule, by and by we are in Satan's snares, ready to be carried one way or other to all confusion.

But let us be well advised: and seeing that Saint Paul says here, that the law could not any whit impeach the promise which was made before: what shall become of us in these days if we will needs have the inventions of men's foolish heads to impeach the pureness of the Gospel, so as it may not be perceived whether God or his creatures be more master? Thus you see what ought to hold us in awe, that we pass not our bounds, but that our faith be always wholly ruled and directed by the single word of God, and that we reject whatever is added by man.

And that is in effect the thing which we have to gather here. Now as touching that Saint Paul says, that the covenant was established of God toward Jesus Christ four hundred years before the Law. Herein we see the same thing which I touched this morning: namely that when God uttered himself to be a father, whether it were towards Abraham, or towards Noah, or towards any other, it was not but by the means of our Lord Jesus Christ. For there is as it were a deadly feud between God and man, in respect that they be corrupted by original sin, in so much that if God let us alone in our natural plight, surely all our thoughts are cursed, all our affections are crooked, froward, and full of stubbornness, and all our wits are bestained with vices, so that we have not one sound and uninfected place in us, from the crown of our head to the sole of our foot.

For as much as we are so contrary to God and to his will, it must indeed be that we are his enemies, for he cannot be unlike himself. Then if God is our enemy, we cannot come to him to hope for any favor or grace at his hand, except Jesus Christ be as a means to reconcile us again. Thus, you see that the fathers of all ages preached not unto God, but by the guiding of the mediator. And that is the cause why Saint Paul in this text says that the covenant was made to Jesus Christ.

Truly, Jesus Christ had no need of any of the promises that were made to the fathers of old time, and are continued still by God even unto this day towards us, but yet did he receive them as head of the Church. So we see that God had not an eye simply unto Abraham, nor to the worthiness that was in him, but that Abraham was a member of the Church, whereof Jesus Christ was always the head.

Also, when God chose David to be King and told him that his seat should endure as long as the sun and the moon in the sky, it was not for any worthiness that was in David's own person, but it was all done in respect of our Lord Jesus Christ. And likewise at this day, when God tells us that he will be favorable to us if we seek him, yea, and that he will have us come boldly unto him, it is not in any other respect than for that our Lord Jesus Christ has gathered us together to be of his body.

And this serves us to two purposes. The one is to bring us to humility. For if every one of us marks well what he is, we are God's enemies. By reason whereof the gate is shut against us, so we cannot hope for any favor at his hand, but rather feel and conceive him to be our judge, always ready to thunder down upon our heads and to overwhelm us.

Therefore, whereas it is said that the promises are made to us by the means of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must shrink down our heads and acknowledge that God's only begotten son is his only darling, and that the favor which we have is only in him, and for his sake. Let that serve for the one point.

The other is that the promises have so much the more certainty in that respect. For if such troubles as these do come in our minds so as we think with ourselves, what are you? Do you think that God vouchsafes to stoop down unto you? You are but a worm of the earth, dust, cinder, and rottenness. Moreover, you have a sea of vices in you, and therefore what a presumptuousness were it for you to think yourself to be one of God's children, till he comes to seek you?

If we are tempted after this manner to distrust, let us bethink us of that which is spoken to us in this text: that is to wit, that the promise was made on behalf of Jesus Christ. Although then that there be nothing in us but all wretchedness, yet it ought to suffice us that there is worthiness, power, and righteousness enough in the Son of God, and that he also is the person in whom we receive the promises.

Now remains for us to know by what means we come unto God: namely by the promised seed, which is but only one, as Saint Paul adds. For if men turn never so little from our Lord Jesus Christ, by and by they are cut off from the kingdom of heaven.

And if this was spoken to beat down the pride and false presumption that was among the fleshly children of Abraham, what is to be said to us, which are but afterbirths, born out of time in comparison of them, as Saint Paul terms us in the tenth to the Romans?

Wherefore, let us understand that all such as content not themselves with our Lord Jesus Christ do utterly renounce all hope of their salvation. For there are not two or three, but only one Mediator, says Saint Paul, like as it is not said that there is any more than one seed.

I have told you already that many come of Abraham's lineage, which yet notwithstanding were not heirs of the promise. Then if we come not to Jesus Christ to be gathered unto him, surely God disclaims us and tells us that we are none of his, and that he will have no acquaintance at all with us.

Therefore, although the world go astray to be tossed to and fro, according as we see how on the one side the Papists have infinite means to come unto God, and likewise on the other side the Turks and the Jews, all which have quite forsaken our Lord Jesus Christ, yet let us lean wholly unto him and assure ourselves that if we be once ingrafted into his body by faith and made one with him, the promises belong unto us.

Why so? For they were given unto him, not for his own commodity, as I have said already (for he had no need of them), but for our behoof that we might be made partakers of them.

Thus you see in effect how we ought to make our profit of this text. But we have to mark also concerning the antiquity which Saint Paul treats of here, that the doctrine of the Gospel is no new devised thing, nor a thing that had been unknown of before, but that God has continually ever since Abraham's time unto this day called us to be his adopted children and proved himself to be our father.

Truly, it was even before Abraham was born; nevertheless, it must suffice us that as then there was made so full discovery of it, as we know that God did then begin to publish the things that are contained in the Gospel at this day, and that the fathers had none other way whereby to come to salvation than the same that is showed us at this day.

And this is very needful for us. For many busybodies do now unskillfully imagine that the Gospel was never heard of before; yea, and there are of these scorners of God and heathenish fellows who, to embrace the authority of God and of his Gospel, say it came up within these sixteen hundred years and that it was never heard of in the world before.

What (say they)? Had God forsaken the world quite and clean? As who should say, we saw not with our eyes and might not feel with our fingers that God never varied, but that even at such time as it pleased him to adopt Abraham, then were we also included in him, and the gate of salvation was opened unto us, albeit that the accomplishment thereof came not till the full time was expired, as I have declared this morning, and shall declare more at length in time convenient.

Here you see why Saint Paul says that the preaching of the Gospel was a secret that had been kept hidden from the beginning of the world. But yet God had determined it beforehand and made sufficient promise of it, as we have seen. Here you see also why we are called Abraham's offspring.

For we belong not at all to him in respect of the flesh. But faith is a sufficient bond to knit us unto him. Furthermore, we see that our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the pledge of men's welfare, is now revealed unto us, to the end that we should have better assurance that we are his, and that he will hold us as the members of his body. And that is the cause why Christ said that Abraham saw his day and was glad of it. The Jews alleged the worthiness of the Patriarch: yea (says Christ) as though your father Abraham had not rested upon the things that were spoken to him concerning me. Therefore he saw my day, and it was the thing wherein he took all his comfort, in so much that he had no other hope of salvation than by the belief which he had in the doctrine preached to you at this day by the Gospel. That also is the very same thing that is spoken of John the Baptist by the Prophet Malachi, namely that he was sent to knit the hearts and minds of the fathers to the children. And this is not spoken only of the person of John the Baptist, but it belongs also to the doctrine of the Gospel.

You see then that the thing to which our Lord calls us is that although Abraham rotted in the earth so long ago, yet we may assure ourselves that there is no other promise for us to trust in, so we are knit unto him by faith, and do so agree together as we can call upon God with the same mind wherewith he was governed, according as in truth he had his mind fixed upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Now then for so much as we are united unto Abraham, let us tend to our Lord Jesus Christ, and let him be our aiming mark, and our sure anchor, till we are all assembled together and gathered up into the heavenly kingdom.

See what we have to consider when mention is made of the promise that was made before the law. Yes, and we ought to be greatly provoked to constancy when we perceive that our father Abraham always waited for our Lord Jesus Christ, although it was so long before he should be discovered to the world, and it was told him that his seed should be held prisoners in a strange land. After that God had told him that all the world should be blessed in his seed, he adds, and yet for all that, think not that this shall be performed within these two or three days, or a hundred years hence: for thou thyself must first die, thou thyself must first be conveyed hence into a strange country, where thy offspring shall be oppressed with all tyranny and cruelty. Assure yourself I will be revenged of it, but yet must thy seed smart in the meantime.

Abraham heard all this: Again after the law was given, there passed another two thousand years more ere our Lord Jesus Christ came. Now could Abraham never have trusted to that which was spoken to him if he had not been armed with heavenly power, for he himself could not enjoy the benefit that was offered him, neither should his children enjoy it that were to come. You see then that two thousand and four hundred years were then to pass, and yet notwithstanding Abraham repented not that he had forsaken his father's house, as the Apostle declares in the eleventh to the Hebrews, but held on his race still, albeit that God intended to try his patience to the utmost.

Of much more reason ought we nowadays to go on steadfastly whithersoever God calls us, and to hold up our heads till we come to the crown of glory, notwithstanding that as of now it is hidden from us, and that we must be fain to believe and hope for things that surmount all our capacity and which we cannot perceive. Thus you see how we ought to put this text in use. Now upon this Saint Paul concludes that if the inheritance comes by the law, it shall not come by faith. But God gave Abraham all things in respect of faith: and therefore it is to be concluded that the Law must needs cease when men go about to gain favor at God's hand, and the praise of our salvation must be yielded all wholly unto him.

Saint Paul in speaking here of inheritance means two things. The one is that whatever God has at any time promised us is of his own mere free goodness: for an inheritance is not wages or hire. True it is that a father in giving his children their heritage may well say, See how I take pains for you. Mark what shall come of it. You shall have my goods among you. But yet however the father deals with them, he has no other respect than to his own kinship. He labors and takes great pains to provide for such as are so allied unto him. Seeing then that heritages are things of free gift among men: we must not take eternal life as a deserved wages or hire at God's hand. For why, it is an heritage. Mark it for a sure ground, that here all worthiness of men is excluded.

For when a man makes his children his heirs, he passes not whether they have done any great work or not, or whether they be fair or foul, or whether they be one thing or another: but it is enough for him that they be his children, and that his mind is to provide for them. Another point is that Saint Paul in so saying, gives us an inkling that we are all of us utterly rejected of God, so as we cannot (no not even in this transitory life) enjoy anything at all, but by the only mere grace of God. True it is that the Sun shines as well upon the faithless as upon the faithful, and all men are nourished alike with the things that God gives and grants unto them: but yet however they fare, the unbelievers possess not anything by just title. They are but thieves, and must yield account of the benefits and goods which they have received of God, even to the last drop of water, because they were not sanctified, but defiled them as much as in them lay, because they had no faith, which (as says Saint Paul) is the thing whereby the benefits that God gives unto us are made clean.

That is the way for us to use them lawfully: but let faith be away, and there shall be nothing else but uncleanness. For why, if my hands be foul, and I handle the precious things in the world with them, they shall be defiled with the filthiness of my hands. Even so is it when we abuse God's benefits. The unbelief that is in us defiles all: and in the end, all creatures must cry out for vengeance upon us, because we abused them if we possessed them not with faith.

You see then that we cannot enjoy anything at all unless we are God's children. And for the same cause also, Saint Paul in the fourth to the Romans, thinks it not enough to set down the heavenly life and everlasting salvation: but also names the heritage of the world, and says that Abraham was made heir of the world, and that the same was not for that man alone, but for all men in general. Therefore, whereas God adopts us and tells us that he will be gracious unto us, it is to the end that while we live here beneath, we should be fed by his hand, and he in giving us food make us to taste beforehand of the love which he bears us, and of the care that he has over us. To be short, we may and ought also to behold God's fatherly goodness in all his creatures. Do we open our eyes and look upon the light of the Sun? Even there does God show himself a father towards us. When we eat and receive our sustenance, God reaches out his hand to show that we are already fed by him as his own children. To be short, in all things and by all means he makes us taste his fatherly love beforehand, to the intent we should be confirmed in the things that he shows us in the Gospel: that is to wit, that he has reserved a better heritage for us, as for his children whom he has adopted. Then must all creatures direct us heavenward. But surely we do the clean contrary: for we apply God's creatures to our own lusts, so as we behold down still by them here. To be short, look how many helps God has given us to draw us to him: so many lets have we to hold us back in the world. For we never pass to know how we should be reckoned for God's children, so we may live at our ease in this world: that is enough for us. But yet for all that, it stands us greatly on hand to perceive that God does already in this world show himself a father towards us, and intends to do us to wit what a care he has of us, to the end we should learn to refer ourselves wholly unto him, and there to rest.

You see then, that by this word Heritage or Inheritance, God shows, first, that whatever he offers us is of his own mere free bounteousness: and secondly, that we be so cursed, that we have no right to anything, no not even to a drop of water: except God make us his heirs, and that must be done all only for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake. And therefore we must once again call to remembrance how we have heretofore seen, that the promise was made to Jesus Christ. Then is not Abraham the stay and shoot anchor thereof. And for that cause also is our Lord Jesus named the heir of all things: and look what he has peculiar to himself, that does he communicate to us, as to the members of his body.

In that respect also does Saint Paul say, that the saying which is written in the seventh verse of the eighth Psalm, (which is, that he is made Lord of all things) ought to be applied first of all to his person. True it is that the said text is spoken of all men, according as we see how God has put all beasts of the earth in subjection to man, so as they be fain to die to give us sustenance, and to clothe us and keep us warm. Again, we see how the earth yields us fruits. Therefore the lordship of the world is given unto us, howbeit, that is but by the means of our Lord Jesus Christ. For (as I have touched already) if we be separated from him, we be forthwith so cut off from God's house, that the inheritance of them belongs no more unto us, than to the furthest strangers in the world. But now let us come to the chief point that is contained here. Saint Paul says, that this heritage comes not of the Law, but of Faith. Whereas he uses these two speeches, and couples them together: they be things flat contrary as I have told you heretofore. Not that the law is contrary to faith: but because to be justified before God, and to obtain favor and mercy at his hand, cannot come to pass by the Law. The Law was not given to that end, (as we shall see in the next Sermon) but to the clean contrary. So then, seeing that the heritage comes by faith: we must conclude that our works can do nothing, and that we must be fain to come to God utterly empty, as poor beggars to crave to be filled by him, because we have not one drop of goodness in ourselves. You see then whereat Saint Paul aims, when he says that the inheritance comes of faith and not of the law, according also as God gave it unto Abraham in respect of faith. And let us mark, that if we be not able to deserve any nourishment in this world: what shall we be able to do towards the possessing of the kingdom of heaven? When there is any talking of corruptible sustenance, it is nothing in comparison of the heavenly glory. For it is said that we shall be made partakers of the glory of our God, and that then we shall be all in all things. But as now we cannot deserve so much as one bit of bread: for the inheritance comes of faith: that is to say, all that ever God has promised men, is of his own mere free goodness.

And how can we then purchase the Realm of Paradise? What a pride it is for men to presume to come to it by their own strength? Must it not needs be that they are carried away with a terrible rage? Moreover, in saying that God gave all things to our father Abraham in respect of his faith, Saint Paul does yet better express and show that which I have told you already: namely that man is able to deserve nothing of himself, and that he must be fain to have all of free gift. He had said before, (as we have seen already) that the promises were made and uttered: but here he uses the word Giving. As if he should say, here is not a bargain between party & party, to say I will do this, and you shall do that: I will sell, and you shall buy: but God does freely give, and man does but only receive. Seeing then that we must come unto God to receive that which he offers us, and that we have not any other title to the things that we look for at his hand, than only by free gift: let us forget all the worthiness which we imagine to be in ourselves, and acknowledge that we be nothing.

And surely Saint Paul uses another manner of speech, which serves to express better the thing that is meant here: which is, that if the heritage came by the Law, the promise were disannulled, and so consequently faith. Therefore to be sure of the promise, the heritage must needs come by faith. And my alleging hereof, is because the thing that is spoken in this text, might seem darksome by reason of the shortness of it: namely that the heritage of salvation, yea and all the benefits that God bestows upon us in this world, must proceed of our faith: that is to say, without bringing anything at all of our own, but only by receiving all things of God's free gift. For why? Put the case that we should hope to receive according to our works, according to our own worthiness, and according to our deserts towards God: how might we be sure of the promises? Truly we should hang always in a mammering: for it would behoove us still to consider thus, very well, how have you discharged yourself? What have you done? And so should faith be utterly dashed. But faith ought to assure us fully of God's good will towards us: which thing it should not do, but we should hang still in doubt, and it should be but a bare opinion, and that opinion should be but an illusion of Satan. For all they which think to have anything by their own power, must needs be bewitched by the Devil. You see then how it is too gross a mockery, when we think to deserve aught at God's hand. But however we go to work, though our eyes be sealed up with hypocrisy, and we take ourselves to be wonderful fellows: yet can we not have any certainty in us without faith. For he that once done away, by and by the promises fall to the ground: we can have no assurance of them. Therefore we must conclude that the heritage comes by faith, to the end we may have no more pride in us: that is to wit, to the end we hope not any more that we can be able to do aught of ourselves, or that we have any free will to take or refuse the grace that is offered us. We must forget all the things which men are wont to challenge to themselves: all must be laid underfoot: we must come void of all power, empty, and hungry, and seek at God's hand the things that we want, and not doubt but that he has enough in himself to succor us with, and that he has also put into our Lord Jesus Christ all things that we can wish, and all that he knows to be for our behoof and profit. Thus you see how we may enjoy the heritage that has been promised us in all ages, and which God offers yet still at this day by the doctrine of the Gospel.

And now let us cast ourselves down before the Majesty of our good God with acknowledgement of our sins, praying him to make us perceive them more and more, that it may cause us to walk in such wise in his fear, as we may seek nothing but to dedicate ourselves wholly unto him, and that according as he sees us wrapped in feebleness and corruption, it may please him to cleanse us thereof by his holy spirit, and to bear with us to the end. That it may please him to grant this grace, not only to us, but also to all people and nations of the earth &c.