The Second Sermon upon the First Chapter - Galatians 1:3-5

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.