The Twenty-Sixth Sermon,which is the third upon the fourth Chapter - Galatians 4:8-11

which is the third upon the fourth Chapter.

8 At such time as you knew not God, you served them that by nature are no Gods.

9 But now that you know God or rather are known of God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and beggarly Ceremonies, whereunto you would fain be in bondage again as before.

10 You observe days and months, and times, and years.

11 I am afraid of you lest I have laboured in vain about you.

We have seen heretofore how that after the Galatians had been faithfully taught by S. Paul, who had taken much pain among them, they shrunk back again: not that they utterly renounced Jesus Christ and the Gospel: but that they had been too easy in suffering themselves to be deceived in following diverse opinions, as we see it is come to pass through the whole world. For the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and baptism as a mark of faith do indeed continue still: but yet for all that, we see that all things are marred with superstition and idolatry. So the Galatians pretended still to be of God's Church: and yet in the meantime they were wrapped in many follies, as especially in this, that they should partly purchase grace and soul health at God's hand by keeping the Ceremonies of the Law. But that was too great a defacing of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is impossible for him to be our Savior, unless we lay away all self-weaning, and put our whole trust in him.

We see then that the fault of the Galatians was that they were not so well grounded in the Gospel, as to be firm and steadfast, and to shake off all errors, but rather were misled through too light belief. In this respect Saint Paul says that they are worthy of double blame, because that whereas God had set them in a good way, and in a good forwardness, they veered aside through their own inconstancy. And he makes a comparison between their present state and their former state. For they had been poor Pagans that had never tasted of true religion. God visited them, and graciously drew them to him, and gave them the knowledge of his truth. Now forasmuch as upon this they mingled the illusions and trumperies of Satan with the pure truth of the Gospel: that was a fault too far out of square, and no more to be excused than their former. And that is the cause why Saint Paul says, "At such time as you knew not yet anything, it was no marvel though you served Idols, because you were blinded in your errors, and God had never disclosed himself to you, that you might have been able to discern the living God from all the forgeries of man's own brain. But now that you have been taught the Gospel, and obtained so great a benefit, not by your own travail, as though you had compassed it by your own wisdom, but by God's goodness who marked you out before you could seek him: and seeing he has so gathered you out to himself: what excuse have you to start away, and not to continue in the doctrine which you know to be certain and infallible?"

Moreover, look (says he), how ill choice you have made. For God had given himself to you, and you have forsaken him for pelting trifles. For the Ceremonies of the Law (being set alone by themselves from our Lord Jesus Christ) are but baggage. See how you make great account of things to no purpose, and in the meanwhile pass not at all for God. Hereupon as a man moved with great grief he concludes, that he is sore afraid that he has lost his labor, in that he has so long time strained himself to bring them to the pure knowledge of the Gospel. And therewithal he alleges a spice of the things which he had termed beggarly and unprofitable Ceremonies: namely that they kept the feasts contained in the Law, as though there had been some necessity in the matter, thinking to deserve and earn grace thereby before God. This is the sum of the matter that is treated of here. Now we have a good warning to gather of this text: which is, that if we hold not out in the faith of the Gospel after that God has once brought us unto it, although the poor Infidels might be excused, yet can we not escape horrible damnation, by reason of our unthankfulness in that we have profited no better in the school of our God. It is true that although the heathen had no knowledge, yet they shall not fail to be condemned, because there is naughtiness always to be found in men, for as much as they gave themselves over to their own superstition: but if we consider what they are in respect of us, surely whereas they might have a dozen excuses, we should not have so much as a piece of one. Therefore when we have once been enlightened with the truth of the Gospel, like as the benefit of God is singular, so also shall we pay dear for it if we make not account of it. And let us mark that this is not said to any one people alone: but that it behooveth us also at this day to apply to our use the things that S. Paul tells us, to the end that we become not so wretched as to give over the truth of the Gospel after we have once known it, but that it may be so printed and rooted in our hearts, as the devil may never shake us from it.

Thus you see what we have to remember, in that S. Paul does here set the lewdness of the Galatians before them, and blames them as utterly inexcusable, for their turning away in such a fashion from the pure truth, after they had once been enlightened with it. Now also herewithal we see whereof Idolatry proceeds, and what is the fountain thereof: namely, the want of knowledge of the living God. For we must needs have some feeling in ourselves, that there is a God whom we ought to worship, and who is worthy to be honored both of great and small, because we have our life of him. It cannot be so cleanly wiped out of our mind, but that there shall always be some spark of Religion in us. But yet in the meantime, every man wanes away in his own foolish conceits, because we understand not what God is, nor can come at him.

Truly if we were not corrupted, and our understanding blinded by sin, God would still draw us unto him. But for as much as God's image is defaced in us, there is nothing but darkness, and that so horrible, that when we should mount up aloft to seek God, we thrust down our muzzles to the ground like wretched brute beasts. Therefore until such time as God shows himself to us, it is impossible for us to have any true Religion, and we shall always be led with abuses and mere follies.

Hereby we know what the vanity of men is, how every man bears himself in hand that he has skill enough to govern himself. Yea, and we see how the very Idiots do brag of their wit: and as for those that have gotten any reputation among men, they are so puffed up with pride, as they cannot abide any correction, or to be told of their faults. But if men had any one drop of good wisdom, were it not meet that the first point which they begin at should be to know what God they ought to worship? That is the point wherein they fail, in so much that they seek Satan's leasings instead of the truth, and worship Idols instead of the living God, till God has called them to him.

We see then that to please God, and to yield him acceptable service, it is not for us to behave ourselves after our own fancy, but we must suffer ourselves to be guided and governed by his word and holy spirit. Moreover if we will follow the opinion of this man and that man, they are not a two or three that this text speaks of, but we see it is impossible to have any good rule, or to hold the right way, until God has taken the charge of us to draw us to him. So then, they that follow the steps of their forefathers, and make custom and antiquity the rule to frame themselves by, do show that they despise God. And why? For they willfully leave the fountain of living water, and go to seek puddles, as though they had no wit to discern between white and black.

Seeing then that S. Paul's meaning here, is to show us as it were in a lively image, that men cannot but go astray and deal untowardly, until God has brought them into the way of salvation: Let us renounce our own nature, and let all things which we know to come of man be thrust utterly under foot, and let us learn to hold us simply to God's pure truth. This (say I) is the thing that we have to remember upon the words of S. Paul, where he says, that those which knew not God had served such as were but Idols.

Moreover, let us not think ourselves to be wiser than the Galatians: but (as I have said already) let us understand that in this place the holy Ghost meant to beat down all pride, that men might not presume upon their own reason and skill to do what they like themselves, but rather know that there is nothing but brutishness in us, until God has enlightened us with his grace. Furthermore, whereas S. Paul says, that Idols are no Gods by nature, he means that we are very dull-headed, when we cannot repair to the maker of all things, who shows himself both above and beneath, to the end we should know him to worship and serve him. For we cannot look upon our hands and our feet, but we must openly see God's wonderful wisdom, power, and goodness: and when we behold the skies and the stars, we have there a sufficient record that there is a sovereign Lord who maintains them.

When we consider the changes of seasons, and see the snow, rain, wind, or heat: behold therein does God show himself. When the earth brings forth her fruits, or is as good as dead and withered: in all those things we continually know God, or at leastwise are convicted that he shows himself there. And if we will not perceive him now: we shall be driven to confess it at the latter day when the books shall be opened.

Now in the meantime, if we worship those which are not Gods by nature: it is all one as if we did wilfully shut our eyes against so many records and looking glasses, which God sets before us to bring us unto him. However the world goes, all the worshiping that men can devise is but a vain fancy, until they have been brought into the good way. For of their own natural wit they cannot but give themselves to all error and deceivableness.

He adds, "Now that you have known God, or rather have been known of him." Some translate it, "now that you have been instructed in the knowledge of God": but all comes to one. Nevertheless, in the first part (as I have touched already) he shows that such as have been trained in the pure truth, are guilty of perjury to Godward. And thereof they are inexcusable: for it is no ignorance anymore: it is not with them as though they never had tasted of the true religion: but it is a manifest falsehood, like as if some subjects, knowing well enough who is their Prince, should revolt from him, and break the allegiance which they had promised him, and confederate themselves with his deadly enemy.

Thus you see in what plight we be: namely, that all such as have known God's truth, cannot step aside after their own superstitions and errors, but they must become perjured and false forsworn traitors. For it is not causeless said that all Idols must fall down when God is to be glorified in his highness: and that all superstitions must vanish away when his majesty comes abroad.

Now if he vouchsafes to show himself to us, it is as much as if he did set up his chair of estate among us, of purpose to be so good and gracious to us, as to become our king. If we cannot find in our hearts to yield him any subjection, are we not false-hearted caitiffs towards him? If we allege for a reply, that our intent is not so: it is but hypocrisy. For we know that our Lord can abide no companion: in so much that he uses the word Jealousy, to show that he will so possess us, as we may belong unto him wholly and not in part.

Then if we will play on both sides, and row between two streams: there will be nothing but feigning and hypocrisy in us. But there ought to be a substantial soundness in us. And therefore S. Paul says not simply, if we be beguiled by Satan, and forsake the Gospel quite and clean: but, if we swerve from the simplicity of it.

As for example, the Galatians (as I have showed already) had not renounced Jesus Christ nor denied their baptism (for they professed to hold the Gospel still) but they had mingled it, and that marred all: a little Leaven sours a whole lump of dough. Even so when men will needs add I know not what of their own brain to God's truth, it mars all. For let a man put a little vinegar, or some other slabersauce into a cup of the best wine in the world, and he were better to drink sheer water. In like case is it when men will tinker the true Religion, as all they do which take upon them to invent I know not what of their own head.

Surely it were much better that they had never known any more at all, but grossly that there is a God: than to have been trained up in the good doctrine of the Gospel, and afterwards to falsify all, and to disfigure our Lord Jesus Christ after that sort. You see then how it is a thing that cannot be borne withal: and that is it which we have to mark in the first place.

Secondly, S. Paul shows that the calling of the Galatians to the Gospel, came not of their own proper motion, nor through their own furthering of the matter: but of God, who had sought them out when they were wandering and straying wretches. And this is not spoken for them alone: for we know how the Prophet Isaiah speaks after the same manner generally of all such as should be partakers of the salvation that is purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ, saying: "I was found of them that sought me not, and I showed myself to such as inquired not after me: and unto such as made none account of me, I said, Lo here I am, here I am."

See how God magnifies his grace, to the intent that men should not be so far overseen, as to think that they attain to faith by their own wisdom. No, says he, you are all of you in the way of destruction, and there is none of you that comes to me without I draw him, for pity of the wretchedness wherein you be plunged.

Therefore it is I that have discovered myself, and all this is of mine own mere gracious goodness, for you would never have sought me, yea there is none of you all but he withdrew himself further and further off from me. For we are not only as straying beasts, but also as wild and wood beasts: we are wholly given to rebellion till God have tamed us, and changed us that we might be sheep of his fold, that he may do the office of a shepherd towards us.

So then it is not for naught that Saint Paul corrects this speech of his when he says, "You have known God, or rather have been known of him." As if he should say, that when we come to the knowledge of the Gospel, we must not imagine ourselves to be better than other men, but that God prevented us, and that we should rather have perished a hundred times in our beastliness, than have come to any good amendment, if God had not utterly changed us.

Now then we see what free will is able to do, whereof ignorant wretches boast themselves to the defacing of God's grace. No doubt but all men will grant that they cannot be enlightened without God's working: but often afterward they restrain it again, saying that his working is but in part, and it seems to them that every man brings somewhat of his own. But all this gear is excluded here when he says that none but only God knows us, who also marks us out, to show himself unto us, and to make us come unto him.

Then let us generally understand, that it is not our own worthiness that has brought us to the obtaining of this benefit that the Gospel should be preached purely to us, and that every of us applies it to his own behoof: for if I think myself to have aught at all in me why I should be preferred before one man or other: it is a taking away of God's praise, and an usurping of it to myself: and that were an intolerable traitorousness.

And therefore we must come back to that which Saint Paul says in another text: "Who has made you to excel?" He speaks to such as commended themselves, believing that they had some virtue or excellence in them, as in very deed the Corinthians had such spiritual gifts as might be had in estimation among men. Saint Paul grants well enough that they had great graces, and worthy of estimation: but he asks them from whence all of them came, whether they were of their own getting, or whether they were able to take them of themselves? It is very certain that they were not.

Wherefore let us learn, that it is not enough for us to have God's word preached to us, except God work in us by his holy spirit, according as experience shows in that it is not given to all men. And moreover there was never yet any man that bethought himself to seek the good food, except it were offered him of God. Therefore away with all the fond imaginations of our own head, and let us put away all pride: let us not think ourselves wiser than other men, because we have known the Gospel: but let us yield this praise unto God, namely that at such time as we turned our backs upon him, and were as good as drowned a hundred thousand times in destruction, he cast his eye upon us, and drew us back to himself, to the end that when it is told us that we be justified by faith, and thereby obtain salvation: we should assure ourselves that the same comes of his pure grace, and that our faith is freely given us because we cannot purchase it: and let us confess with poor Hagar, that we have seen him that looked upon us before.

For there we have a mirror of all mankind. The said poor woman was in great heaviness, forsaken of all men, and wist not whither to go: but God pitied her and visited her, in the wilderness. Hereupon she confesses that God had looked upon her before she had thought upon him. So then let us be held in awe and humility, seeing that the wellspring and beginning of our welfare is that God knew us and marked us out at such time as we cared not for him, but besides our ignorance, did also despise him, and were so brutish, that every of us had sought his own ruin and destruction, if he of his own infinite goodness had not held us back.

Thus you see in effect what we have to mark. But now let us put the thing in practice that is told us here: which is that for as much as God has called us to the pure knowledge of his Gospel, we must continue steadfastly therein, according to the way which he sets before us, who (as we know) is the lively fountain of all welfare, as it is said in the second of Jeremiah.

Then if we go about to dig cisterns that can hold no water: is it not an utter refusing of the benefit that was put into our hands? When a man sees good meat ready for his repast, and knows that he may take good sustenance of it, and yet will go his way from the table, and seek dung and filth to feed on, is he not worthy to be poisoned? Even so it is with all such as are not contented with the pure doctrine of God's Law and Gospel. For behold, the fountain is before them, they may drink their fill of it, as it is said in Isaiah and Saint John, and yet they had rather to starve, or else to feed themselves with wind.

Now then should not such unthankfulness be punished double as Saint Paul says here? Is it possible that you should return again to the unprofitable and weak Ceremonies that can do you no good at all? Now at the first blush Saint Paul might seem too sharp and rough in speaking after that fashion of the Ceremonies of the Law. For in very truth, although the Ceremonies had been the first entrances or trainings, like as in training up of young children men are wont to set them first to their ABCs: yet notwithstanding our Lord Jesus Christ was figured in them: and there were promises in them to bring men to salvation. For the remission of sins is the chief good thing that we can wish for at God's hand, because that by that means we be reconciled unto him. He receives us as his children, and we may call upon him with free liberty. Men therefore are then in true and perfect felicity, when their sins are forgiven them. And hereof they had as it were a pledge in their sacrifices in old time.

When they washed themselves, it was a full assurance to them that God did cleanse them, and that their spots were no more laid to their charge, but rather that they were received as clean and utterly without blemish.

How then does Saint Paul term these things unprofitable ceremonies, which carried such instruction in them? Especially seeing it is said that the pattern of all the whole Sanctuary was showed to Moses, yea even from heaven. The law then served not to hold men in some play, as though God intended to busy them about petty trifles? Neither also did Saint Paul regard whereunto the ceremonies availed or served the fathers of old time: He does but only show that when our Lord Jesus Christ was once come, all those things were abolished. For (as he says in the second to the Colossians) we have no more the figures and shadows, because that nowadays we have the body and the substance.

Seeing it is so: if a man should set forth the ceremonies of the Law, he should separate them from our Lord Jesus Christ, and what should they be then? They would be of no force. For (as I said before) if a man separates them for our Lord Jesus Christ, surely they shall be but pelting trash. Therefore when men kept the ceremonies, so as they were applied to their lawful use: they were good exercises, and the old fathers misspent not their time, because they were confirmed by them in the hope of their salvation, and they were unto them a warrant of God's fatherly love towards them, and they led them to our Lord Jesus Christ the fountain of all welfare.

But if men busy themselves in keeping the ceremonies without knowing why or wherefore: surely it is but flat mockery. For the Heathen men did make sacrifice also, and some of them had no idols, thinking that they offered to God the maker of heaven and earth: and yet whereunto did all their sacrifices serve them, but to their condemnation? For they had overthrown God's order, because they aimed not at our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now then Saint Paul does not without cause say, that when the Ceremonies of the law tend not to the seeking of all our welfare in our Lord Jesus Christ, they are but beggarly Ceremonies, that is to say, corruptible things of this world, and consequently things of no force and unprofitable, because that Jesus Christ who is the quickener of all things, is not there. And this is yet so much the better to be marked, to the end we be not beguiled. It is said that in old time all men offered Sacrifice, and thought they worshipped God: and yet notwithstanding, that the service of all such as had not their belief settled in Jesus Christ, was rejected.

For the Apostle in the eleventh to the Hebrews saith, that the only thing that made Abel's Sacrifice acceptable, was faith. Now then forasmuch as the heathen men did in their sacrificing imagine God to be fleshly, and that they could make their atonement with him by such means, they busied themselves about outward things, and considered not that inasmuch as we be faulty, it standeth us on hand to have an excellenter ransom than we can bring any.

If we had a hundred worlds to give, they were not enough to redeem any one misdeed that we have done against God. Therefore the Sacrifice that should answer for all our sins must of necessity be heavenly. The heathen men considered not this: but stood poring upon the shadow of it, as the Turks and Jews do yet still at this day, who by their often washing of themselves both even and morn, and at noon, and by their other Ceremonies, confess themselves to be defiled, and to have need to be cleansed by some others, and yet do renounce our Lord Jesus Christ who is the very cleanness whereby we must be made clean, according also as in very deed it is he that has wiped away all our spots.

Seeing it is so then, all they that keep any Ceremonies in hope to get any favour at God's hand by them, do not only beguile and martyr themselves in vain without any profit: but also do certainly provoke God's wrath still more and more. Now we on our side are taught that our Lord Jesus Christ has shed his blood to wash our souls withal. Then if we seek any other cleansing or purgatory besides, surely it is an intolerable treachery.

And if Saint Paul spoke so of the Ceremonies of the law: what shall we say of all the toys and gewgaws that are nowadays in popery? For behold, the Papists ween to win much by taking of holy water, by babbling this and that, by keeping of holidays, by tiring themselves in gadding on some pilgrimage, by setting up a wax candle before some puppet, by chanting mass by note, and by saying of thus many or thus many times their beads over. I say they hope well to make atonement with God by such means. But it is certain that they plunge themselves the deeper in hell, and cast themselves further into Satan's snares by it, as though they had confederated themselves with him to their own destruction.

To be short, all the Ceremonies of popery are utter renouncings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the pure truth which he has purchased for us by his death and resurrection, and of the grace that is offered us at this day in the Gospel. For they may well bring what shroudingsheets they list, but they cannot disprove the holy Ghost, who has uttered the said sentence by the mouth of Saint Paul. Then do we see in effect what is showed us here.

Now as touching the particular which Saint Paul alleged here concerning days, moons, and years he means not the seasons of winter and summer, nor the discerning of one day from another, nor that men should not reckon years and moons: but he speaks of the feasts that were commanded in the Law, and which those deceivers would needs have to be kept still, even as of necessity. In which case there was a kind of binding and thralldom, and it was an abolishing of the freedom that was purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lo here the cause why Saint Paul uses such vehemence, howbeit that he did it also in respect of the foresaid falsehood: for it was requisite that our Lord Jesus Christ should have been known in all those figures, and that men should have aimed at that mark. But they that had beguiled the Galatians, had bound them to the clean contrary, seeing that by holding still the feast of Passover and other feasts, they intended to bring them back again to the old forworn figures, which ought to be abolished.

In old time when men kept Easter day under the law, it was to the end that the people being put in mind of their deliverance out of the thraldom of Egypt, should look for the great redemption that was promised them. And for that cause Saint Paul says that our Easter lamb (that is to wit, Jesus Christ) is offered up already. He shows that the thing which had been figured by the paschal lamb that was offered in the law, was now fulfilled in the person of our mediator. In like case was it with the feast of Tabernacles or Tents, whereby God did put the Jews in remembrance, that they had dwelled in the wilderness where there was neither house nor building, and yet had continued there a long time traveling too and fro. And that was also a warning to them that this life is but a wayfaring, where through we must pass in haste.

As much is to be said of the firstlings when men came to offer up their first fruits unto God. Again, when the Jews made solemn confession of their sins, it was a figure to lead them to Jesus Christ who was promised to them. But now that he is come, if we will needs keep still those things, what is it else than a toying? For we displace the principal and the substance, which is all one as if a man would feed himself with the colour of bread, wine, and meat, and not with the things themselves. And can a man receive any sustenance thereby?

So then, seeing that our Lord Jesus Christ is come, the figures of the law are not to be used anymore, and if men will needs keep them, they show themselves to have no knowledge of God, but that all is turned upside down. Therefore, it stands us so much the more on hand to mark well, that if we nowadays do swerve never so little from the pureness of the Gospel, we are straightway strayed from our Lord Jesus Christ. I grant we may well keep certain days of assembling, albeit not after the manner of the Jews. And why? We keep them not for ceremonies' sake. In the time of the law, it had been a deadly offense for a man to have lifted up but a mallet upon a piece of wood, or to have done any other business of his own. If a man had but set a pot or a kettle upon the fire on the Sabbath day, God commanded that he should be rooted out. Yet was it not meant by that rigour, that God delights in idleness: but it served for a figure, as if he had said, I have enjoined you my Sabbaths, to the end you should know that I am he who sanctifies you. We have the selfsame sanctification at this day, howbeit not with like figures as the fathers had it in old time: for that were to bury our Lord Jesus Christ. It were to hang up a veil again, to the intent to dazzle our eyes in such sort, as we should not see the light of the Gospel. Lo what we have to mark upon this observing of days whereof Saint Paul speaks here. But above all things let us mark that he intended to show us here, that inasmuch as we know the benefits which are imparted to us by our Lord Jesus Christ, we must stick to them and settle ourselves wholly thereupon: and that if we be fleeting to and fro, it is a shrinking away from our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have the fullness and perfection of all life, joy, welfare, and glory. Therefore, seeing that God comes to us after that fashion, yea and that even at such time as we were as wretched wandering beasts, he gathered us to himself, and showed himself to be our herdman, to the intent that we should become the sheep of his flock, and hearken to his voice, and discern it from all false doctrines, and from all the curious subtleties of men, that our Lord Jesus Christ might reign over us, hold us in awe, possess us wholly and we become his, not partly or with condition, but wholly and thoroughly: let us beware that we become not guilty of such unthankfulness when the Gospel is once preached unto us. Thus you see what we have to bear in mind to our behoof in this text, that we may not be accused at the latter day if God have called us to him, and we left and forsaken him, and falsified our promise whereas he was ready to have kept touch with us, not only for a day or twain, but also by continuing to be our father and savior forever both in life and death.

Now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him to make us feel them more and more, and that the same may cause us the better to acknowledge the graces that we have received of him, and that seeing we perceive that they have been imparted unto us undeservedly, it may make us to be the more desirous to taste of them, that thereupon we may day by day endeavor to rid ourselves of our lewd affections, and of all the vices wherein we should be plunged if he pitied us not and made us not to feel his grace, which it may please him to continue in such sort, as we may seek nothing but to come home fully unto him: and that in the meanwhile till we come to the full light, where we shall behold him face to face and be transfigured into his glory, he continue still to show us the way of salvation, and make us to walk therein throughout. That it may please him to grant this grace not only to us but also to all people and nations of the earth, bringing back all poor ignorant souls from the miserable bondage of errors and darkness, to the right way of salvation, for the doing whereof it may please him to raise up true and faithful ministers of his word that seek not their own profit and vainglory, but only to the advancement of his holy name. &c.